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.

The Most Useful Product Ever (probably)

Who wants to waste all of their money?? Anyone?? No? You sure?
There is a magical super product is called Rose Salve that can save you from wasting money. It's a multitasking moisture provider that will be your new best friend if you don't want to spend a ton of money.

Basically, it's a lip balm/cuticle balm/intensive moisturizer. I use it nightly as a lip balm, and it's the perfect night balm. It last all night but isn't apparent or sticky when I wake up in the morning. It does last all night, though. I've also used it on dry patches on my face, particularly around my eyes (you know how much damage can be caused by makeup and makeup remover). It works like a charm, and is nonirritating. I do not recommend this as a full face and/or body moisturizer, though. This is kind of odd, but if you get a small cut (e.g. paper cut, small razor nick, paper-cuts, etc.), you can use it to help stop the bleeding and shorten the healing time. It won't work on large gashes, but I speak from experience when I say it really helps to minimize blood loss.

The smell is light. It's definitely not overwhelming, and its slightly rosy. There are no unpleasant notes, like some other moisturizers may have. It lacks a taste, which, personally, is fine with me, as taste was not the reason for which I bought it. If you buy your lip balms for taste, then this probably isn't for you. It's pink in the tin, but applies clear.

The texture is very smooth and lightweight. Rose salve feels great on your lips. 

Moisturization from this product is impressive. If used daily, one will have flake-free, non-cracked lips. You don't need a lot for a light moisturization. Therefore, the 22 gram tin will last you forever. 

I've had one tub of this for far over a year, and I'm still not done with it. And I use a TON at night on my lips because they dry out so quickly. It easily comes out of the little container with your finger, and you can use your fingers to easily and precisely apply the product.

My current tub of rose salve.

The packaging is adorable. The cover looks so vintage and has words running along the rim describing the places of recommended use (lips, face, elbows, cuticles, knees). It's fairly easy to open (if you don't already have moisturizer on your hands).
If I were to rate it, I'd give it a 10/10. You can get it at any Bath & Body Works store for the low price of $5.50.
As this post is getting rather long, I feel it is best to end it now. Thanks for reading!

February Favorites

Hi, everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in forever! I feel bad...I was on vacation, and then I was swamped with work I had to do :/
So today I thought I'd do some February Favorites. I know I'm a couple days late, so I guess I can do February and Early March favorites? I know it doesn't work like that, but whatever.
EYES
NYX Slide On, Glide On, Definitely A Turn On, Waterproof, Extreme Shine Eyeliner.

This eyeliner is perfection. At only eight dollars, there is nothing better. The pigmentation is incredible. I got the color Jet Black, and I think I might like it better than the Urban Decay 24/7 liner (I think I have that in the shade "zero"). When it comes to me, I like a strong black liner that will last in my waterline. Let me tell you, nothing, and I mean nothing, lasts in my waterline. This almost does. If I do two layers (as in, put on one "coat", let it dry, and then put on another), the staying power greatly increases and I can last all day without retouching. It's very smooth and creamy, which, though it's a must for many, is not all that common these days. I really love this and highly recommend it.





The Naked Palette by Urban Decay

This palette is perfection. I knew it from the second I saw it. It's so useful, I could live the rest of my life off of that palette and look gorgeous every day (gee, aren't I modest, haha ;) ). The colors are fantastic, and the palette is very transportable. It's already been on vacation with me and has survived that trip. My favorite color from that palette is Toasted, as it is the best color for everyday and is a great lid color for more dramatic looks. It's definitely worth the money (12 shades for $50 seems like a lot, but even drugstore eyeshadows cost more).

Tarte's Lights, Camera, Lashes

I believe I have mentioned this mascara before, and for good reason. This is an amazing mascara. I actually just ran out and am planning on buying the full sized (I heard it's on sale at Ulta soon...don't buy it out, please, I need some more). I don't know how I lived without it, as I am having quite a difficult time living without it. The volume it gives is unsurpassed. And it gives great definition. My lashes are naturally long, so I don't really need too much length, but it does give a little. I give this mascara 4.9 stars, which is quite an honor for a mascara to get from me.

Lips

 e.o.s. smooth sphere is sweet mint
It's e.o.s. How could you not love it? The packaging is great, the smell is great, it's very moisturizing, it tastes good. I could go on for hours, but you all would hate me. As you can tell, I've made a dent.

Maybelline Color Whisper in Pink Possibilities

 Color Whispers are super popular all across the Internet beauty community, and I wanted to put my input into the pool of ravings. I like this product very much. Very very much. As spring is coming, I got a bright pink color. On your lips, it doesn't show up so pink, but it's fairly bright. What I like most about it is that even after it's off, it leaves a slight stain on your lips. Some people might not like that, but I think that it's nice so that even if you forgot to pack the lipstick to reapply, you still have some color on your lips. It's very glossy, so you won't need a lip gloss. My only warning to you is that you shouldn't apply too much. I made that mistake and within seconds I had a disgusting hot pink ring around my mouth.

Rose Salve (C.O. Bigelow)

 Now, this stuff, this is the stuff to get. This is so versatile, and at $5.50, you can't pass up such a great offer. I use this on everything. It's my nighttime lip balm, it's the lip balm I use if my lips are flaky, I'll put it on my face if there's any dry patches, occasionally I'll use it on my nails, and I'll even put it on cuts to enhance the healing and stop the bleeding. It truly is one of those miracle products. I highly recommend it. It also lasts forever. I've had mine for over a year and I've used about 70% of it. I was actually planning on buying another next week, just in case I happen to run out. This is one of those essential products that every person should have.


Face
NYX Blush in Bourgeois Pig
This is  a gorgeous pink blush that I think would look great on all skin tones. It's cheap, it's blendable, and it's easy to apply.










Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer

This is probably my holy grail concealer. It blend flawlessly. I can use it under my eyes and to cover up and blemishes or hyperpigmentation I may be battling. Enough said.


That's all for my February favorites! Thank you so much for reading! Let me know in the comments what your favorites are!

New Cupcake Chapstick!!!

Hey, everybody!! I am super excited right now! I just got the brand new limited edition cupcake edition Chapsticks!! These are super hard to find across the country and are going for big money on the Internet. I was pretty close to buying a Chapstick for $20, which is pretty ridiculous. So, while at Walmart today, I found the cupcake collection (is it a collection if there's only two?) and they were only 98₵! If you were there, you would have seen me freak out in public. But, anyways, enough rambling.

So, there are two flavors, Cake Batter and Velvet Cupcake.

The packaging is great if you're going to be giving one of these as a gift. Unfortunately for everyone, I'm not so generous...

Both chapsticks have a cute little cupcake on the cap. How could you cap that? ;) 

As you can tell from the pictures, the cake batter is a translucent white and velvet cupcake appears reddish pink. When applied to the lips, the velvet cupcake loses that tint and just looks like a regular lip balm. But the question is, does it feel like a regular lip balm?

Wait for it....

No! It's so luxuriously smooth on your lips. I've tried a lot of lip balms. A lot. And these are currently in my top five. This is hour 4 of having them. So that's saying something. The staying power is alright. This certainly isn't your overnight lip balm if you have flaked, cracked, bleeding lips. If you have well hydrated lips, it'll probably be fine for overnight. However, I'd recommend them more as a day balm. I think that, because of the smoothness they create, they would be great if you through lipstick or gloss over either. If you don't, you might be a bit tempted to lick it all off ;).

It doesn't feel really thin, but it's not too thick either. This morning, I had decently dry lips, but I feel that so far it's already started working to help with that. I'll update you guys soon to let you know how they work out for me over a longer period of time (this is kind of like  a first impressions blog), but, thus far, I'm impressed. 

As for appearance, they go on nicely and aren't too shiny. They're nothing like a lip gloss and add no color to your lips. They make your lips look hydrated. If you're a guy and want to wear them, go for it. It's nothing like those tinted baby lips lip balms (which I am yet to try but I've heard lots of good things about them and have seen them on numerous people...let me know in the comments if I should purchase one).

Overall, I'd give them a 4.9 out of 5 (just because nothing's perfect, but these are close to it).

Thank you for reading!