Small Lil' Ulta Haul and Reviews

So before my coupon expired, I bought three things.

1.) The Morphe 505 Tapered Blending Brush. Yes, I actually bought something from Morphe. The brush has their rebranded logo on it and cost $6.00 (without applying coupon). It has a nice weight and length to it. As I was looking through their brush selection,  I realized that I don't actually own any tapered blending brushes. All my blending brushes are fluffy and fan outwards slightly.

Upon using the brush, I was blown away. Why wasn't I using tapered brushes before? I have a lot more control of the product, and a much easier and smoother blend. Below is a look I did today, using the Subculture Palette, and I believe Clionadh's Toasted:

I was really impressed with this brush and plan on buying more from Morphe in the future. 

2.) Mac Mini Strobe Cream in Pink Pearls, $12.  I used this today and like the results. I think this will be a product I use more in the winter, because I do get very sweaty and oily in the summer. It smells very similar to the original Fix Plus. I have it swatched here on my hand, but have also applied it to be face, but I have not gotten long term use out of it yet. I remember Dustin Hunter mentioned that you get more of a value if you buy the mini compared to the full size.

All I know is that as it is getting cold outside, I am really into cream and liquid products. I am also afraid I am being turned into a Mac person, which I find hilarious because the only other brands I have this weird collector mentality about tend to be drugstore and indie. But on my radar for a possible next thing to try from Mac is one of their loose powders, like Silver Dusk or Gold. 

3.) Makeup Revolution Concealer. Yes, the one that is supposed to dupe Shape Tape. I have and will never use Shape Tape, so I can't comment on that. I have been wearing this concealer for three days in a row now. The color I selected is C1, the fairest one with neutral undertones. I like the fact that it is more neutral because most of my concealers have skewed a little pink, but this one seems to cover up more the redness around my eyes.  It wears nicely and works well with powder. It is thinner than the Colourpop concealer, but blends well. I would recommend it.

Here is a swatch. I am also wearing the concealer in the picture of my eye above.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the products I picked up today, and look forward to using them more!

Thanks for reading :) 

Beauty Bookmarks #5: A Brave New Year?

Welcome back to my channel!

Hehe....

Okay, so this blog post was recently inspired by the small collection of releases I bookmarked, today actually. Also as of today I am on a no-buy of eyeshadow, blush, and highlighter, so that will probably affect my responses to some of these products.

Let's start with the most "exciting"announcement: the Naked Reloaded palette. I got the image from Trendmood, which was also posted from another, private, account.

First thoughts: It's like a mash-up of the Naked Three, the Naked 2, and ABH Sultry. And maybe the Huda New Nudes palette.

Second thought: In general, the organization and spectrum of the Naked palettes confuse me. There's a reason people find them repetitive- they have a glut of the same colors and tones.

But how does it compare to its predecessor, color scheme wise?

Less repetitive than the first one, but definitely in the same family of a lot of palettes that have released this year. To me, if a line is "iconic" it would be ahead of the trends, but Urban Decay is......decaying? It's an easy pass.

Now onto stuff I am genuinely interested in!

Pictured above is a brand new duo from Natasha Denona. I am obsessed with pink highlighters. Unfortunately, the pink is not the only color in this duo. There is also this light golden shimmer. There have been a couple of pink-toned things from ND that I have been tempted by. However, I do have Lilac Geode from Becca, and some pink-toned drugstore highlighters. So I know I don't need to buy this. But I think this is a line ND should keep expanding.

Next, a new collection from Wet 'n Wild that does not yet have the best photos for me to share. However, it appears to be a gym-related/work-out related line, with mattefying (sp?) products. Now, elf did this about a year ago with their Active Line. Tarte also had a gym-related hygiene line. I think the concept of a gym/working out makeup is very silly, to be honest. I like the idea of long-wearing makeup, but to expect consumers to care about their appearance when working on their fitness is a bit much. And if the argument that it is makeup ideal for after working out, after one has taken a shower, than what is the point anymore?

I don't know. I know Wet 'n Wild has been doing a lot of fantasy, mystical, collections lately. This one seems a little cheesy. But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to pick up at least one thing.

Speaking of drugstore products, we have a release from Milani:

In addition to powders, they will be selling liquid highlighters. Now, the rectangle pan product that seems to contain bronzer, blush, and highlighter, is not necessarily new for the brand. They've had something like that in circle compacts, but I think those were less shimmery.

As for the bronzers, though I am still working on a PF Butter Bronzer, I will definitely be interested in swatches of these. Lately, Milani has been killing their powder products. I just wish they'd update the formula on Coral Cove, so it wasn't so powdery....

Next, I have a palette that just released, but I have not yet seen any bigger channels or blogs review this. It is the Berries & Cream palette by Dominique Cosmetics:

I love the composition of this palette. I can't wait to see what people do with it. But because I have the Good Sport palette from CP, as well as the Zodiac Palette from BH Cosmetics, I really feel like I don't need this one.

Lastly one is I am just confused about. At the end of September it was announced that Nikkietutorials and Maybelline released a shade, 250, of their Master Chrome highlighter. It is supposed to look like this:

Now, I personally was excited by this highlighter because I thought it would work well on my skin tone. But when I went in store to Ulta I could not find it. And reviews on this seem sparse. And is there a reason the product does not actually have a name? Maybelline, in my humble opinion, is making a huge mistake by making this an Ulta exclusive. And now I don't want to buy it anymore. *shrug*

So that's it! Thoughts on any of these?

Clionadh Cosmetics Maize and Toasted: Review and Swatches

Hello hello! I purchased four Clionadh Cosmetics matte shadows over the Black Friday weekend, and three weeks later they were finally in my possession! I am going to discuss two today, as they were part of the same collection, and the other two in a different post.

First is Maize, a bright true matte yellow. The powder was very soft, and I found this showed up really well on my skin, but also quite easy to build and blend. The only thing I dislike about this shadow is the amount of kick-up it produced, even as I used a light hand.  I know blending blushes tend to kick up a lot of powder, but since this shadow is best as one in the crease, I don't know what other brushes to use instead.

I used Maize quite a bit since then, with some warm-toned lewks.

Also part of the Harvest Collection is Toasted, a warm midtoned matte brown. This one is very rich in color, but not as easy to blend for me as Maize. It is a little bit of a superfluous shade in my collection, but I like how much more red-toned it is than the other warm midtoned browns I have.

The swatches below are all the shadows I used in one of my looks. From top to bottom, we have Clionadh Toasted, Looxi's Pumpkin Spice Life, Vanessa's Vanity Tangy Dijon, and Clionadh Maize.

I also want to issue warning for the lewks below that were really just me messing around. Unfortunately the first one looks like I lost a fight with fire:

Maize looks great here, though, and blended really well with Coastal Scent's Baked Clay and ABH Red Ochre. 

The next look I liked a bit better. I used Maize in the same way. I tried to do a halo eye. The BH Cosmsetics Take Me Back to Brazil Chartreuse and Looxi Green Apple is blended in, and ABH Primavera in the center. 

So that's it! I know Clionadh is really well known for its shimmers, but I tend to be more picky with shimmers than mattes, because I feel like I have less ways to use them compared to mattes. And I have way too many highlighters. Overall I like what I purchased, and I did not mind the price point, and I think the colors are unique. Not entirely 100% on the formula, though.

Thanks for reading!

Lipstick Queen Frog Prince Blush Review

There are so many ways I want to start this review. One option is amazement at how TJ Maxx can be such a cool source of makeup- albeit makeup that is "off season." Though I've come away with a few duds, there are some staples in my collection that come from there.

Another thing I want to say is how much I love fairy tale-themed makeup. Mostly because I love Fairy Tales, in all their forms. One of my earliest experiences learning about the Frog Prince was the Shelley Duvall The Fairy Tale Theatre episode with Robin Williams. We watched it in elementary school and I remember being scandalized at the half-naked Robin Williams prince after he transformed.

My favorite Fairy Tale Theatre episode, by the way (and I have not yet seen them all) is the Princess and the Pea with Liza Minelli. That one speaks to me.

Moving on, I've always been quite put off by Lipstick Queen because the high price tag, and because one can commonly find their products at discount stores, like TJ Maxx. It seems to me they need to find a way to make their products $5-$10 cheaper, in my humble opinion, if they want to gain more traction and attention.

That being said, I love this blush.

I have combination skin, and both powder and cream formulas have disappeared on me by the end of a (long) work day. But Frog Prince didn't.

Frog Prince is quite the loyal, hardworking blush and I can easily see myself using up the entire pan. One thing I will say is that it applies best with a synthetic blush brush. What made this blush hard to swatch was because it stuck to my finger tips and would not transfer to my hand very well.

Normally I absolutely loath swatches on finger tips (not real swatches), but in this case that is the truest representation of what the product looks like, without showing you my glorious face.

Onto the pictures!

Though the pink looks rather faint on my hand, it's because transferring from my finger to my skin was difficult. Best application is with a brush- it blends out on the skin easily, and builds up nicely. The finished product is natural and incredibly long lasting.

This is a charming blush and I highly recommend it if you find it at TJ Maxx or any other discount store.

Thanks for reading!
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Post Autumn Royale: EoTD

Hi everyone! Today I have a review of the products that I wore on my face today. I have pictures from the beginning of the day an hour or so after initial application, as well as at the end of the day, after about six or seven hours. 

Right off the bat, I was dealing with a swollen and runny eye, so I was a little afraid of doing anything too elaborate. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Normally, when my eyes are giving me issues I stick to a simple matte look, but I wasn't in the mood for mattes today. As I was doing my makeup, I was watching a video with Nisipisa, who was doing a really pretty pink-toned look, with shimmer. 

So I was inspired. I used two palettes: The Norvina Palette and the Good Sport Palette. These complement each other nicely because Norvina skews a little more cold and GS much warmer, so even though you'll see I was using mostly warm neutrals and golds, there was something a bit elaborate or decadent (in my humble opinion) about the eyelook. 

So, what did I do?  After priming my eyes, I set my brow  and crease with the shade Base from the Norvina palette, and then I used the shade trooper from The Good Sport pallete. Trooper is a lovely golden yellow matte that makes a perfect transition shade.  It blends very easily. After setting down Trooper, I blended in Eccentric from the Norvina palette. Eccentric is a yellow-toned caramel matte brown. I also set that down on my lid and blended it into the crease. 

Then, I took the shade Wild Out from The Good Sport palette, which is a lovely toasted golden shimmer, and put that on the inner part of my lid. On the center of my lid, I blended in Dazzling, a red-toned brown shimmer, to deepen the shimmer on my lid.  I took the shade Passion from the Norvina palette, a  red toned dark shade, and blended that carefully on the outer corner. Finally, I took the shade Licious from the GS palette, which is a very vibrant golden-yellow shimmer, and popped that on the inner corner. 

Though I was concerned about my eyes today, they held up pretty well, and I ended up really liking the look. I think I liked it so much because of how I paired the inner corner shimmer with the transition shade. I think I'm going to try to do this a lot where I match those colors. It made the look cohesive and fun. 

The only other notable product I used today is the blush, a new purchase from T.J. Maxx, the Lipstick Queen blush Frog Price, which I purchased for $6.00. I knew it was a creme blush that was green in the pan, but on my face it created a natural rosy flush that lasted the entire day. I never had a blush do that before, so I am quite impressed with it and can easily see how I will use that entire product up. 

So that is it for today- thanks so much for reading!