What's My Everyday Face Makeup?

Hey, everyone! Today, I'm going to tell you guys all about the face makeup I wear on a daily basis, as the title suggests.
Face:
Foundation-Revlon Colorstay
I have loved Revlon Colorstay for ages. I finally got one in my current skin tone (which is called "buff" in the colorstay line), as the one I had was from last summer and was pretty dark. I find that it is best applied with your fingers, which saves you from cleaning a brush!

Concealer-Hard Candy Glamoflague
This concealer has a skin-like finish, covers fairly well, and is easily blended with a brush or your fingers. I tend to use the ecotools complexion blending brush with it.

Blush-Ulta Infatuation
This blush has a slight shimmer, and is fairly sheer, which allows for natural yet buildable application. I definitely recommend it.

Powder-bareMinerals Ready Touch Up Veil in Translucent
This is a nice powder that sets my foundation and concealer (even undereye concealer) without creasing or get cakey. It is a bit pricy at $22, so if you want a more affordable version, get the elf essential pressed powder, which I also love!

Bronzer-NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny
It applies smoothly, blends easily, and warms up my face. This helps my foundation look more natural, which is awesome!

This seems like a lot just for one face routine. I tend to not use everything on this list every day. For example, I might skip foundation, blush, and/or bronzer. Everyone's skin is different, and mine is temperamental so I have to cover up things all of the time, varying the routine.

Products Not Worth The Hype

Have you ever seen a products not worth the hype video on YouTube? This post will be just like that, only in blog formation.
To start us off, let's get to the product that has me really upset at the moment:
Seche Vite
Ugh! This top coat is supposed to be the gold standard for top coats in the nail polish world, but it's absolutely disgusting. I actually just applied it, hoping for a nice shine. Instead, I got bubbles, horrible application, a disgusting smell, and it's probably not going to dry for ages. It actually made my nail polish (Tutu Cute from Ulta) look worse! It legitimately looks like I sat on my nails after applying twelve coats of nail polish. I am absolutely disgusted. And, now, I need a new topcoat! I can't seem to find a good topcoat--leave any suggestions in the comments, please!

Baby Lips
For months, the entire guru community was buzzing about baby lips. I finally got one about a month ago, for my birthday. I got the flavor of Pink Punch. The packaging is adorable, the color is cute for summer, and the faint scent is really good, though I wish it could be stronger. All of this is great, but, once it's on your lips, it's a different story. It settles into lines, the color either a) fades off too quickly, or b) goes into a ring around my mouth, and the worst of all, it doesn't moisturize my lips like I thought it would. It doesn't dry them out, though. I'm not saying I hate baby lips--maybe the shade I got was just a bad shade. If you do one very thin layer, you get a very sheer, pink, pretty color and it doesn't settle into the lines too much. However, it was not what I was expecting and I was a bit disappointed.

Simple Makeup Cleansing Wipes
I'm constantly on the lookout for some great makeup wipes. After hearing missglamorazzi rave about these, I picked them up. They do take off makeup fairly well, but they smell pretty awful. That would be acceptable if that was to not irritate sensitive skin, but I didn't find them very sensitive skin friendly. Looks like I'm trying some new wipes...

Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals in Barely Branded
This is the prettiest color of eyeshadow. It's a light champagne that's so nice and creamy. However, the amount of creaminess doesn't fair well on oily skin. It settles in my crease, and if I don't put powder eyeshadow over it and eyelid primer under it, gets all over my eye. Not pretty. With primer under it and eyeshadow over it, it acts as a nice base, allowing for your shadows to have greater pigmentation. I feel that the other, normal color tattoos are better and are more dry, so less smudging!

I hope this is helpful! Thank you for reading!

Best Low Priced Makeup

Hey, everyone! Today I'm going to be sharing some of the best low-price makeup! Everything on this list will be under $10 a piece, so you can buy something no matter what your budget is!
Hardy Candy Glamoflauge Heavy Duty Concealer $6
This concealer covers very well, blends easily, and comes in five (from what I can tell) colors. It was very popular among the gurus for a good reason! You can use this on blemishes, dark circles, scarring, you name it! It's not matte, but I guess I'll survive.

NYC Smooth Skin Bronzing Face Powder $3
It applies fairly evenly, and is of the perfect pigmentation! It doesn't look to harsh on my pale skin, but can easily be built up to a darker color. The best part? It's matte! Lots of people compare it to the Benefit Hoola Bronzer. I personally haven't tried the benefit bronzer, but if I'm saving over twenty dollars, I don't really care if the NYC one isn't as good.

e.l.f. Clarifying Pressed Powder $1
This powder instantly absorbs a large amount of oils in the skin to help mattify. It provides a bit of sheer coverage but looks fairly natural. At one dollar, you can't get much better.

e.l.f. Eyelid Primer $1
To start off, this primer is better than the Urban Decay Primer Potion. I find that the e.l.f. primer doesn't crease as easily and the colors tend to got less "muddy". I like this primer very much and probably will continue that for a while.

Ulta Eyeshadow $1-7
These are such nice eyeshadows. My personal favorite is called Lustre. They look wonderful over the e.l.f. eyelid primer. These eyeshadows are often on some kind of sale, whether it's a large percentage off or a buy one get one type of deal, etc. You manage to make all kinds of looks pretty cheaply.

Thanks for reading! What are your favorite May makeup items? Let me known in the comments!

May Favorites

Hey, everyone! It's almost June! I can't wait for summer. May has seemed to go on forever, hasn't it? I thought I'd show you some of the stuff I've used this month.

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Blonde

This stuff fills in my blonde eyebrows naturally, comes with two different shades and a wax, two little brushes, and was wicked cheap. I'm very impressed.

Maybelline Gel Eyeliner in Brown

This is a nice brown eyeliner that goes on and lasts. It can be used on the waterline or to do a nice wing. It's more natural looking than black, so it can be worn everyday. It comes with a brush, which I don't particularly recommend, but it's tolerable. I prefer to use the elf angled eyeliner brush, which I got for $3. 

bareMinerals Ready Touch Up Veil in Translucent

This is the stuff I use to set my makeup. I use a lot because I have oily skin, and it doesn't cake up very much on me. It helps to mattify my skin for a couple hours.

NYX Slide On Eyeliner in Jet Black

This is my favorite eyeliner for my waterline. It lasts all day, and does not smudge. In my opinion, it's better than the Urban Decay pencil liner! I am in love with this pencil. It's a definite repurchase.

Urban Decay Naked Palette and Naked Basics Palette

These palettes can easily create infinite eyeshadow looks. The shadows blend easily, stay put (with a primer), and look professional. You can make the most natural looking eyeshadow look, or a dramatic smoky eye.

NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny

If you watch beauty gurus on YouTube, you probably know that this bronzer is the overall preferred inexpensive bronzer. The pigmentation is perfect, it blends nicely, and is easily buildable. I have fair skin, and it still looks natural on me. The best part is that it's matte!

C.O. Bigelow Rose Salve

This is my essential lip balm. One little tin lasts forever, and each tin is $5.50 at Bath & Body Works. I recommend this to all of my friends.

Now, for the best part--mascara!!

Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

This mascara provides incredible definition. I am officially in love with the definition. It also gives volume, length, curl, and conditioning properties. You can go really natural looking with one coat, or, with a few thick coats, you get insanely thick lashes without spider lashes or clumps. 

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes!

If I could have one makeup item, this would be it. It provides definition, volume, length, curl, and it's not filled with chemicals that cause cancer. My lashes look insane with this. I was blessed with naturally long lashes. However, they are blonde at the tips. This mascara stays on so it looks like I have insane black lashes. I get so many compliments on my lashes whenever I wear this mascara, it's insane. I know you've probably read me raving about this mascara a million times, but it's that good. I recommend this to everyone!

I hope you enjoyed this May favorites post! Feel free to leave what your May favorites were in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Favorite Mascaras

If you haven't yet came to this conclusion, I will tell you that my eyelashes are my favorite feature. I am obsessed with making them as black as possible, as they have blonde tips. I'm also a volume and length and curl and extreme definition kind of girl. That's a lot to ask for, I know, so I'm fairly picky in my mascaras.
These are my favorites:
Tarte's Lights, Camera, Lashes   $19
This mascara really packs on the volume. There is minimal clumpiness, which I prefer. After just a couple coats, your lashes look insane. I got dozens of compliments in one day when I wore this mascara, and tons of people asked me if I was wearing false lashes. Because of this mascara, I don't need falsies.
Urban Decay's Lush Lash Mascara  $20
This is the perfect mascara for anyone who wants a moderate amount of volume and curl, with extreme definition. With one coat, it's very natural and very black. However, you can easily build it up while keeping the definition. (CAUTION: If you don't want people to be wondering where you got your "false" lashes, do not build up at all on this mascara. ;) ) This is nice layered with the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara, or by itself. It's supposed to have conditioning qualities, but I haven't worn it enough days in a row to tell.
Maybelline Great Lash Original Mascara $4.44
As the other two products were a little bit pricier, I decided to include a lower price mascara. This is for the people who love definition, hate clumps, and want a variety of shades available. It's very natural and available in 6 shades (actually 10, if you count the four limited edition shades from last year, which you probably can still get your hands on). This was actually my first mascara, and it's definitely great for beginners. It's widely available and I definitely recommend it.

Thank you so much for reading!

What's your favorite mascara? Let me know in the comments!

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation

Hi, everyone!! Today I'll be reviewing the Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation that is still fairly new. I purchased it a couple months ago, and I still frequently use it.

Longevity: I'm going to do something a little different today. I'll call it my "foundation timeline". Let me know if you like it in the comments!

Pre-Foundation

As you can see, my face without foundation has acne, hyperpigmentation, and redness. I personally hate that fact, so I like a medium to full coverage foundation.
If you think my skin looks dewey here, it only gets more oily throughout the day, which causes the foundation to slide and look greasy, so I'm usually looking for a slightly mattifying foundation.

6 AM

The foundation covers the blemishes and discoloration decently. I did have to build it up, but I didn't use a concealer to get the full effect of the coverage of the foundation.

11 AM

After about five hours of no touch ups, the coverage is still decent. You can start to see some of the redness start to peek through. Though you cannot see it in this photo, my nose had started to fade at this point, leaving some blotchiness, but nothing serious.

9 PM

At this point, my acne is poking its way through about 12 layers (no, not really, it was only around seven...I hate oily skin) of foundation dabbed on to it, and the redness is prominent. Because it was dark out, I had to compromise with a yellow tinted lightbulb to ensure image quality. The yellow dulled out a good deal of the irritated coloring. The oil made its way back--I forgot to mention, I was also wearing the BareMinerals pressed powder in translucent--but, I had just exercised and such.




To apply this foundation I use my fingers. I used the shade Ivory, the lightest of the line. I love the way the color matches my skin. Also, it has SPF 20.

I'd rate it 7/10. It could have greater staying power and mattification properties, but otherwise it's pretty good.

Naked Basics! The Palette

Hey, everyone! Sorry for the recent lack of posts. It's been CRAZY with school and trips and all of the (mostly) other cool stuff I do. I promise I'll do at least five posts in May.
Today I'm going to review the (semi) new Urban Decay Naked Basics palette! I've had it for about a month now, and I've used it for about 25 of those 30 days, which is an outrageous percentage.

Pigmentation: 5/5
You can't really tell this

from the swatches, but on your eyes, the pigmentation is great. It's not Sharpie opaque or anything, but it's not cheap-nail polish sheer, either.

Packaging: 4/5
To be perfectly honest, the packaging was awesome. If you feel it, you can tell that the external casing feels similar to an e.o.s. lip balm's exterior. It was a lot more difficult to open than the Naked Palette (which I felt opened to easily) or the Naked 2 palette (which I felt was just the right closing strength). One time, while attempting to open it, my knuckles slid and dented two of the shadows. That's the only reason I took off a point for packaging. The front is clearly labeled Naked Basics Urban Decay, and it has no chance of coming off like on the Naked Palette. The inside top cover is entirely a mirror, a feature that can come in handle when you're on the run. Every shadow is clearly labeled with it's name, which I really like.

Longevity: 3.5/5
Let's be honest right now: eyeshadows crease. Primer or not, they are bound to crease at some point, unless you have really dry eyelids (and, if you do, I envy you). These eyeshadows are no exception. In fifty degree weather and eighty degree weather, these are going to crease. They "liquify" in the heat after about six hours, perhaps longer, and all of the colors on your lid mix together. However, they are better than any cheap drugstore brand and should definitely not be eliminated because of the longevity.

Application: 4.5/5
These eyeshadows go on so smoothly and blend so nicely it's practically a dream. It'll take a bit of blending to get any good look, but once you do, you'll never go back to the eyeshadow you used before. The only problem I ever had was several of the shades have a bit of minimal fallout. Nothing to be majorly concerned about, but if you plan on only wearing the black shade, and a lot of it, bring a makeup wipe. The colors can be mixed together to create other colors and look seamless.

Overall Rating: 17/20
Good job, Urban Decay! I was very impressed with the shades in this palette, and the fact that the brand seemed to listen to the numerous requests for more matte shades in palettes. I definitely recommend my readers to buy it.