My Black Friday Haul!

I had my Black Friday haul out on the kitchen table, admiring my handiwork, and I snapped a quick pic so I could share it with everybody!

Mario Badescu Skin Care kit - $10 at Ulta, and came with deluxe size samples of the Enzyme Cleansing Gel, Glycolic Acid Toner, Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater, Peptide Renewal Serum, Seaweed Night Cream, and a packette of the Ceramide Eye Gel. I'm not terribly well versed with Mario Badescu skin care - but for $10, this seems like a stellar way to introduce myself to the line.

And then I went a little NYX crazy, and bought;

Matte lipstick in Alabama. This looks like a lovely, brown toned red. People talk about how everyone needs either an orangey red, or a blue toned one. I find I do better with the brown tones, myself. My skin isn't particularly warm or cool (I say I'm more neutral), so that's probably why.

I also got the Soft Matte Lip Creams, in Milan and San Paulo. San Paulo looks like a medium/deep pink, with Milan very similar, but coming in a few notches lighter. I've never tried either color, but I have tried the soft matte lip cream before. They go on with a doe foot applicator, like a lipgloss would, but dry to a nice stain. If that dry feeling isn't your thing, keep a lip balm handy. The bonus, of course, to the stain, is that they last longer!

Also, I got the Jumbo Eye Pencil in Sparkle Nude. By the by, if you like the jumbo eye pencils, CVS has a lot of them for 50% off right now, which made this little find a whole $2.50!

I stepped a little out of my zone on this one, but got the pressed Illuminator powder, in Enigmatic. Now, a pressed illuminator isn't the part of it that's unusual for me, but Enigmatic is a nice, girly pink tone, which is the unusual part. Typically, when I'm in the market for illuminators, I go for something more in a gold tone. We'll see how well I like this one! If you're wondering why one might need an illuminator powder, it's the "highlight" portion of the "highlight and contour". :)

And lastly, the "Stay Matte But Not Flat" foundation, in Nude. I've been a dyed in the wool BB cream girl for a while, so this will be unusual. But I'm going to my husbands company Christmas party next weekend, and wanted more of a polished look than BB cream might give.

I also got a Too Faced "Beauty Experts Darlings" kit. For $20, this kit included deluxe sized samples of the Chocolate Soleil matte bronzer, La Creme lip cream in Naked Dolly, Better Than Sex mascara, and Shadow Insurance eye shadow primer. I'm not sure which one I'm the most excited to try! The Chocolate Soleil is dark enough that it makes me nervous, but it smells delicious, so it's a toss up. I bought it for the mascara, but who knows?

And lastly - you know it, you love it, you've probably got some in your own bathroom, TIGI Dumb Blonde shampoo and conditioner. It was a deal I couldn't refuse. Normally $18 a piece, on sale for $7?! Yes please!

Look for my reviews, and with any luck, my much happier hair, coming up soon!

Later lovelies!

Revisiting an old friend...

I've done this "revisit an old friend" thing before, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the color more than I did the first time. Alas, today, that is not to be the case.

Today, we're revisiting Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure nail polish in Mermaid's Tale. We chatted about this one way back in the spring (view my first post about it, here.)

Some things didn't change - it's still just as visually interesting to me, and I'm still just as smitten with it. Navy, with small bits of navy glitter, as well as larger pieces of green. It's visually very interesting. I stared at it a long time before I finally bought it.

This time, I swatched the color with a base coat, where I hadn't before. I used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in "White On" as my base coat, and 2 coats of Mermaid's Tale.

See? It's kind of neat. The problem? The problem is now as it was then - this stuff chips. Easy. I painted this at 10:00 this morning. It's now 10:00 PM, and I've already had to patch three different chips. And the most stressful thing I did all day was decide what sort of pie I wanted! Never cooked a thing!

So I want to love this, and I want to tell you guys it's good, and great and wonderful, but truth? It chips too easy. Last time, I got chips from picking my son up from school, I give it another chance, and I get chips from eating pie! No thanks!

So my verdict on this one is a solid SKIP IT. I've given it two chances now. It's way more fun to look at than it is to try to wear. Thanks anyway, Sally Hansen.

Just call me - bummed in Michigan. ;)

Later, my lovelies!

My First Time with a Beauty Blender!

Let's do this!

I've seen beauty blenders. I've seen plenty of people extolling their virtue, and how they were THE thing that everyone needed in their makeup bag, and never really bought in to their hype. Then, figuring I had to get in on the scoop (like any self-respecting beauty blogger should...), I went out and bought myself one.

And here's the little guy now! The contour you see in the middle is, I assume, designed to make it easier to hold, and the slightly pointed end is designed to make it easier to get in and around your nose, and eyes.

When you get a beauty blender, the first thing you do is get it wet. Squeeze it in your hand under water, similar to how you'd do with a kitchen sponge, if you were going to clean off your counters. Now this step is important, because without it, the blender will simply begin to absorb the makeup, without much of it getting to your face. And it getting to your face is kind of the whole point, right?

And much like a kitchen sponge, once wet, those buggers grow!

Now at this point, you'll effectively use this like a makeup "stamp". Dot some foundation on your face, like so:

(If we're being technical, that's actually Garnier BB cream, original formula in Light. At any rate...)

Rather than just rubbing the blender over your face, as you would with a traditional style, old school sponge, you'll actually...well, stamp it. Put it down in a location with color, pick it up, put it down in a different location with no color, where you want there to be color. See, I debated making this a video, because this is strange to describe. Maybe one day I'll get to it. 

At any rate, here's a quick collage of the blender in action.

Stamping in action. Pick it up. Put it down. Repeat until you're covered.

Speaking of covered, the people that extoll the virtues of the beauty blender are always quick to go to the coverage that it gives. And I'm not ready to get that excited on it yet. It's pretty good - I got the same amount of coverage that I typically get, on a little less than half the product, and I came out of it with clean fingers. So, I'm in the "Good, not great." camp so far. Which will probably change as I get more experienced.

Post "beauty blender" coverage photo;

I was a little embarrassed when I realized I hadn't smiled in a single photo. :) Pretty good coverage, maybe even a little better than I typically get. And I'm wearing a BB cream too, which they aren't exactly known for their spectacular coverage to begin with. You guys saw my original pictures, you know what I was working to cover up, too. :)

So I'm still in the "good not great" camp, but I'm getting there. I think I'd like to try it with a full fledged foundation. If looking at my pictures has convinced you, and you've decided you need a beauty blender in your life, you can find them pretty much anywhere you can buy makeup, and at all different price points. Mine cost $5 at Meijer, and I know Sephora carries them as well (although I'm confident not for $5!) According to the instructions on mine, cleaning is as easy as mild soap and water!

See you soon, gorgeous!

Black Friday!

Just wanted to do a quick check in with you guys! If you're not shopping on Black Friday, you should probably plan on it, just for the beauty goodies!

Ulta is going bananas on Black Friday. Or, what is rapidly becoming Black Thursday, because they'll have most of these deals live on Thanksgiving Day. Pretty excited for a lot of that stuff, honest. :)

But if drug stores are your jam, CVS will have all NYX lip products on sale for $3.88, and with each purchase, you get a $3 coupon to use on your next purchase of anything at CVS. They don't carry every lip color NYX has, I've compared their displays to being a little more like "NYX's Greatest Hits", but since you're basically paying 88 cents per lipstick, we can deal with them not having everything. :D My husband pointed out that the $3 coupon thing was really only a good deal if you planned to go back to CVS at some point, but like...who doesn't? Everybody goes back to CVS!

Right now at Ulta, virtually their entire drug store side is Buy One, Get One 50% off. Which seems to apply to clearance prices as well. Which prompted me to wonder of Revlon is getting rid of their ShadowLinks shadows. Does anyone know? I tweeted to ask, so far no word. Wal-Greens just put a bunch on clearance, now Ulta has a different bunch on clearance as well. For their price point, they're good shadows, I think. I've been scooping up all the on sale colors.

And for my most absurd find of the week, Ulta has One Direction makeup kits. Not a typo, not a joke. They don't even have them on their website so I can take a pic (but Macy's did; here's one, another, and a third!) Now, like I said, I think this is kind of absurd. But it's probably worth pointing out that I'm not in their target market, and I don't have a daughter I need to be shopping for. If I were personally in their target audience, or had a daughter who was, I'd probably think that that was the most exciting thing I'd seen in a while.

Ooh, one more - lots of places are thinning out their selection of Maybelline Baby Lips too. So if you're a aficionado, scoop up your favorites, they're on the move!

Just got a beauty blender, and I'm a little intimidated by it. So look for updates on that real soon. :)

Until then, my lovelies!

Wet N Wild Wednesday!

Today, I reviewed a 5 pan eyeshadow set from Wet N Wild, called "The Naked Truth". I also forgot to take a picture of it in good light, and wanted to do it justice, so I'll have to add that tomorrow.

As the name would suggest, this is a neutral palate, with colors ranging from a shimmery nude, on to a copper shade with flecks of gold glitter, that was just kind of fun to look at. Like is typical for Wet N Wild, each shade is has the suggest application site embossed in it. I did it on their application tips. I don't get intimidated by much, but the contrast between the nude, and the copper, seemed a bit tough to get through.

I shouldn't have worried! These colors went on well, blended together easily, and looked terrific. I'm now...seven hours post application, and you can see the colors beginning to fade a little, but the look is still clean, and well put together.

Wet N Wild is one of those brands that when they hit the mark, they nail it, and they really hit the mark on this one. For the price point, this is as nicely put together a palate as you'll probably find.

The one thing that never fails to irk me about Wet N Wild though? The chips to my mani that I take opening up a new polish! Three safety seals is a bit much, right? I mean, for real. Three?

The chips to my mani aside, I recommend this shadow, very enthusiastically. For their price point, it's nicely pigmented, and a well curated selection of colors put together. Two thumbs up!

The pictures. This is over the Fergie "Take On The Day" primer. Kat Von D liquid liner. As for the things that look like wings - I'm working on perfecting my wing technique. It's not great (this one was a little bit of an uneven line), but I'm getting there. :D

Right? That's a solid group of colors, for their price range. Do recommend! Will update again with the picture of the shadow, when I can get it in good lighting.

Later, lovelies!

Alright, long time no chat!

Thanks to a case of the writers block, and then a case of the forgetfulness (hey, it happens), it's been a while since we all talked, but I'm back, baby!

I own weird quantities of Almay eyeshadow. Almay doesn't put out coupons a lot, but when they do, they don't play around. And as a result, I own a lot of Almay eyeshadow. I've spoken about some of them, here. And here. And I'm back for another round!

This time, we're on pressed powder shadows. The Almay I-Color kits come in three speeds - Bold Nude, Shimmer, and Smokey. As it happens, I don't own any of the Bold Nude sets, but I do have some of the other two to show off. Because I believe, as I've pointed out before, the Almay theory of matching eyeshadow to your eye color is just a neat advertising gimmick and not much more, I actually own a wide variety of color choices.

The colors in question:

Top Left is the Shimmer-I kit, for blue eyes. Silver, a very highly pigmented navy, and light pink. This navy is by far the most pigmented of the three, and is no small trick to blend in! Almay, as you'll notice, lays out the color in a possible suggested wear pattern, if you're not terribly adept at smokey eyes.

Top Right is the Smokey-I kit for brown eyes. A bronze, a purple and gold color. This trio would probably be the one I'd be the most likely to buy in the group, just based on the colors. If I were shopping on impulse. Which I do from time to time. :D
Bottom Left is the Shimmer-I kit for hazel eyes. I like this kit a lot, because I've never seen anything like that green. Green, black and a gold toned white, and this one is VI. VID. Don't wear this if you don't want to stand out!

Bottom Right is the Smokey-I for green eyes. I like this one quite a bit too. Plum, a taupe color, and a lighter pink. This is probably the one of the group that gets me the most compliments when I wear it out.

Speaking of which, I also took pictures of me, in these eyeshadows. Each is applied over the Fergie for Wet N Wild's "Take On The Day" Primer.

Blue eyed kt. Silver across the lid, navy in the V, pink across the brow bone.

Brown eyed kit. I used the purple across the lid, bronze in the crease, and white on the browbone. See what I mean here - if I were to just go grab some Almay eyeshadows, ignoring their blue eyed/green eyed/whatevers, this is the group I'd be the most likely to purchase.

Green eyed kit. I wore this Friday night. I used green across the lid, and black in the crease. Man, I was having a great makeup day, probably the best smokey eye I'd done in some time. Then it dawned on me that a forrest green and black smokey eye was probably a smidge intense for a hockey game (we had seats in my husband's company box seats for the hockey game that night...), and I should probably dial it down. So in a stroke of genius, I took my "smudge brush", loaded it up with the golden white that comes included in the kit, and patted it over the top of much of the green. Dialed down the intensity, and made me look like a blending genius at the same time. :D Probably still far to intense for a hockey game, but whatever. Own it, girl! LOL!

This is the hazel eye kit, and this is the one I get the most compliments on. The taupe across the lid, plum in the crease, and little bit of the pink patted over the top, and along the brow bone. As a sidebar, I'm wearing ELF liquid eyeliner pencil in this one, and I think I love it. The line isn't quite as thick as I'd like, but that's probably my issue. If you can use a sharpie, you can use it. I recommend it - especially for only $1!

So with my other mass Almay reviews, I could kind of narrow it down to my "Keepers", but here...I got nothin'. These are high quality shadows, especially for the price point. Nice color payoff, richly pigmented (in the case of the navy in the blue eyed kit, almost annoyingly so...), long lasting. Great value for the price - which is between $4 and $8 USD depending on where you shop, and whether or not you find on sale.

I recommend all of them - buy according to your eye color if you like. Buy according to whatever colors strike your fancy (I kind of did...), but buy early, and buy often. :D

In a couple of these, it looks like I might have some filter action going on, but to the best of my knowledge, I do not.

See you soon, lovelies!

Like Almay? Me too! I talk about it all the time!