Beauty Matchup: Face Wipes

Hello Lovelies,

I hope you are all well. I have been loving face wipes recently and trying out a few different brands. My favorites are the Olay Daily Facials Express face wipes - they are the softest and are the most effective at removing makeup and cleansing the skin.

My next favorites are the Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes - they are great wipes but they are not as soft as the Olay wipes. However, I end up repurchasing the Simple wipes most of the time because they come in larger packs so I don't need to repurchase them as frequently and they do the job well.

Simple also makes Exfoliating Facial Wipes - I definitely would not use these to take off your makeup but rather as a gentle exfoliator after you have removed your makeup. These are too rough to use near your eye area so they are not the best for just generally removing makeup but they work well to gently exfoliate your skin.

Before Simple products were sold in the US, I used the Neutrogena Makeup Remover wipes. These are  great for removing your makeup but they leave an oily film on your skin so you have to cleanse it with another product afterwards. I usually use a face wash or cleanser after I use a face wipe anyways so for me this wasn't a major problem but if you only want to use one product for both I would recommend one of the other wipes. Also, the Neutrogena wipes are not particularly soft and can sometimes leave the skin feeling irritated and red. Depending on how sensitive your eye area is, these might leave a stinging sensation so if you have really sensitive skin I would steer clear of these.

Last but not least, are the MAC face wipes. The only good thing about these in my opinion is that they are sold in bulk. I prefer to use these to spot clean my makeup brushes or to remove swatches. These break me out so I really don't like them and they also have a funny odor in my opinion. Also, they are harsh on the skin and usually make my skin sting after I use them. I am still trying to finish up the first and only pack I bought but since I don't use them on my face I really have no use for them.

Overall, I always go back to either the Olay or the Simple cleansing face wipes because they are the softest and work really well at removing my makeup. The only time I have ever had a problem with either of them is if I have put on a lot of waterproof mascara and then you need to rub a bit to get all of it off.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if there are any other face wipes out there that you have enjoyed.

xoxo

Shoe Love: Havaianas Flip-Flops

Hello Lovelies!

 I hope you are all well. I have been in a bit of a rut makeup-wise lately so I thought I would talk about shoes today. I have been loving wedges lately but at the end of the day I just want to give my feet a break. I have been throwing a pair of Havaianas in my bag and taking them with me. I have three pairs - pink, grey, and a light blush color. They are available in pretty much every color more or less.

For relatively cheap plastic flip-flops, these are really comfortable. They also wear really well - they don't get dirty easily and you can wash them off really easily if you need to. I got mine at Lord & Taylor but I think you can get them at other department stores. These are great with jeans and a casual tee-shirt or with a nice sundress/maxidress.

These are also great for going to the beach or the pool since they are waterproof and sand brushes off really easily once they dry.

Let me know if any of you pick a pair up.

xoxo

OPI Gel French Manicure

Hello Lovelies!!!

I hope you are all well. I have a black tie event tonight and I decided to get an OPI gel French manicure and I am so glad I did. My manicurist used bubble bath for the base, alpine snow for the tips, and passion on top. I absolutely love the way it came out. I have gotten gel manicures and shellac manicures in the past but I usually get solid colors. I wanted something classic tonight, hence the French. I will definitely be getting this again in the future.

xoxo

Product Rant: Bobbi Brown Face Palette

Hello Lovelies!!


I hope you are all well. I am going to an event later this week and I am using this teeny tiny clutch that I really can't fit anything in other than maybe my cell phone and some cash but I want to bring some makeup with me for touchups. I found this empty face palette online at Bobbi Brown and went in to pick it up at my local counter. It is a 6-welled empty palette that comes with a little spatula to use to depot products. I only used cream products but I guess if you wanted to you could crush up a powder product and reset it in the palette with rubbing alcohol but you have to be careful because it might change the texture and/or the pigmentation. Anyways, back to the palette - in addition to the 6-wells, it has a large mirror on top, which is great for touchups.

To put the cream products into the palette, you use the cosmetic spatula (not pictured - but included when you buy it) to scoop the product out of the container and into the palette. The products I put in are MAC Studio Fix concealer in NW20 and NC15, MAC Cream Color Base in Shell, MAC Cremeblend Blush in Ladyblush, and Revlon Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake. I haven't decided which lipstick I am wearing so I am leaving the last well empty until I decide. There are white labels on the back of the palette where you can write the name of each product.

In terms of actually putting the products in the palette, it is a pain in the butt. No matter how careful you are, it is really hard not to get some of the product in between wells (on the black cross sections) so afterwords you have to go over it with a q-tip or tissue to wipe off the products. Also, you have to be really careful not to put too much product in each well or else it gets all over the mirror when you close the palette. Additionally, the product you depotted from (i.e. my actual concealer and blush pots) look really mangled from where you scooped out the product but if you don't really care then that won't be an issue for you. It is definitely easier to put products that are originally in a tube in here (i.e. the lipstick or stick concealers) because you can just cut off a chunk off the top of the product without really mangling the remaining product, unlike things in pots.

Overall, I am happy that I got this palette because it is great to throw in your bag and have two concealers, a blush, a highlighter, and two lip colors (or whatever else you want to put in it) all in one palette. One think you might want to keep in mind is that the palette snaps shut but it doesn't really seal tightly so I would not put a product like a MAC Paint Pot or a Benefit Creaseless Cream shadow or any type of gel eyeliner in this because I think it would dry out rather quickly and you would be left with a mess. Also, unless you are just refilling one of the wells with the same product, I don't think you can really refill it with a new product.

One last thing I will mention is that I think this is a bit over priced because it is $15 and it is very very small. I would not want it be any bigger but I would like the price to be smaller, if that makes sense. This has become such a rambly blog post but I have so much to say about this. I haven't really decided if I would repurchase this to fill with different products, especially since other than concealers and lipsticks I really don't have that many cream products that would work in this without drying out. More oil based cream products definitely work better in this since they are less likely to dry out.

I hope this was helpful and let me know if any of you have this and if you do what products you have in it.

xoxo

Beauty Matchup: Pot Concealers

Hello Lovelies!!

I hope you are all well. I have decided to try out a new series called Beauty Matchups. In each Beauty Matchup I will review a couple products that are essentially the same/similar product but from different brands. I am not 100% sure about the name so that might change in the future. Let me know if you have any suggestions about the name in the comments below.



As you probably guessed based on the title, I am going to be reviewing pot concealers. I have the MAC Studio Finish Concealer, the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer and Corrector, and finally the Laura Mercier Undercover Pot.

To start off with is probably the most popular of the three, MAC Studio Finish. I have it in the shades NC15 and NW20. I use the NW20 under my eyes to help cancel out the redness and the NC15 for blemishes and what not. I really like the formula of this because it is creamy, but not too creamy if that makes sense. This is one of those products that really warms up in your hands, making it so much easier to blend. I usually apply this with a 217 brush and then blend it in with my fingers to really get it to melt into the skin. Out of the three, I think this is probably my favorite. One container of it really lasts forever, which is always a bonus.

Next up are the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer and Corrector. I have the creamy concealer in Porcelain and the corrector in Light Bisque. This two are by far the creamiest concealers/correctors that I have ever used. They blend in really well and the melt into the skin like nothing else. BUT they crease like a mother. Within twenty minutes of putting these on they crease so badly. I have tried setting them with different powders and applying less and less product in order to keep them from creasing but nothing works. You definitely have to apply these with your fingers because they are too creamy for a brush. As such, you can really control the amount of product that you apply. However, since they crease so badly it does not really matter how amazing they are if you cannot wear them without them creasing. I know this is a favorite for so many people and I had such high hopes for them but I have to say that I am definitely sticking with my MAC studio finish concealers.

Before I get ahead of myself, I want to finish up with the Laura Mercier Undercover Pot in 2. This is probably the best value of the three because it contains two different concealers as well as a translucent setting powder in the bottom compartment. It also has a mirror which is always a nice touch. However, I find it to be relatively difficult to work with. The concealer on the right, the darker, more pink toned concealer, is great for under eye circles. It is much creamier than the other concealer, which has a harder, almost dry texture, and is meant for blemishes. I am not really going to get into the setting powder other than to say that in terms of loose setting powders, it is my favorite but most of the time I prefer pressed powders. Anyways, back to the concealers - I really like the under eye, pink toned concealer since it works really well for me as long as I set it with a powder. In terms of the lighter concealer that is meant for blemishes, I find it to be relatively hard to work with because it is so dry. You really have to work to warm it up to blend into the skin. I am really unwilling to spend the time because it is so difficult to work with. The only time I really use this is if I am out of my MAC Studio Finish.

Overall, I have to say that the MAC Studio Finish is definitely my favorite of the three. I am debating picking up the Benefit Erase Paste to try out but because of the limited shade range, I am a little hesitant. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are about any of these concealers or if you have any tricks for things that I could try.

One last thing I want to add is that price wise, the MAC Studio Finish is definitely the best value since it is the cheapest of the three and you get the most product.

I hope this was helpful for those of you looking into picking up a new pot concealer. Also, let me know in the comments what you think about this series and expect more later this week.

xoxo

Product Rant: Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Hello Lovelies!!

I hope you are all well. I wanted to do something a little different today so I decided to do a product rant. Let me know in the comments if you like this idea or if I should just do normal reviews.

Anyways, here goes. I purchased this awhile back and I wish that I returned it right when I got it. I have been using Urban Decay Primer Potion for awhile but I ran out and wanted to try something new so I picked up the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. I had received a sample of of the Candlelight Shadow Insurance, which is the same thing but is a light champaign color with a ton of shimmer. I enjoyed that so I decided to pick up the original.

Big mistake!!! When I originally picked up a tube of this, I had initially thought the tube I had gotten was spoiled/defective so I exchanged it for a new tube, only to be disappointed again. I kept the second tube to play around to see if I could get it to work, with no avail. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I really hate this product because it feels really greasy on my eyelids. As I said, I returned my original tube because I thought it had gone bad because primers are supposed to keep your lids from being oily, not make them oily. The UDPP has a dry, almost matte feel when you apply it and feels like the perfect base for eyeshadows. The Shadow Insurance feels slippery and greasy and makes my eyeshadow crease. They only way I have been able to make it work at all is by applying a MAC Paint Pot or Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow over it. It has a nude color that blends out to be pretty much clear, similar to the UDPP so in that sense it works well under most shadows.

I had high hopes for this product but I will definitely not be repurchasing it and as is I am debating just chucking it and going back to my tried and true UDPP.

Have you had similar problems with this? Let me know what you all think.

xoxo

Teenie Tinie Haul - MAC

Hello Lovelies!

I hope you are all well. I stopped in MAC the other day because I needed to pick up another Teddy eye kohl because my current one was starting to dwindle. I am going to put the stub of my original one in my makeup bag so I have it for touchups during the day. I love the bronze-brown color for a lazy eye look if I am not doing much that day. 

However, while I was there I stopped to look at the new Hey, Sailor! collection and I ended up picking up the bronzing powder in Soft Sand. It has a slight shimmer and is a light caramel color. 

I have to admit that I was slightly (totally) drawn in by the packaging. I love the navy and white stripes, especially how they are overlapping. I am a total junky for cute packaging so that was not surprising. However, it has been a completely wearable bronzer thus far so I should get a lot of use out of it.

The color reminds me a little bit of Benefit Hoola bronzer, although this is slightly more orange and has a slight shimmer. This one isn't glittery but has more of a slight sheen. Since I am so pale, I have to use a very light hand but once I have a bit of a tan I think this will be an even better color for me.

One thing I absolutely love about the bronzer is that it has a mirror in it. I hate that most of the MAC powder compacts (Mineralize Skin Finish Natural I'm looking at you) do not have mirrors in the tops. I usually sway towards other powders that have mirrors because on days when I have to do my makeup on the go I hate having to bring an extra mirror. 

This haul turned into a mini review. Regardless, I hope this was useful.

xoxo

Favorite Nude Lipstick: YSL Nude Beige

Hello Lovelies!!

I hope you are all well. 

While I was M.I.A. I discovered my new favorite nude lipstick, YSL Rouge Volupté in 1 Nude Beige. This is definitely a pinker nude than some other nude lipsticks that I have tried but I really love this lipstick because it does not wash me out when I wear it. I have worn it with MAC lip gloss in Underage and that helps make it appear a little less pink if you are looking for a more traditional nude.  

This is one of the most expensive lipsticks that I have bought and I have to admit that I was partially drawn in by the packaging. It feels heavier in your hand than most lipsticks and it is absolutely gorgeous. That being said, I will definitely be repurchasing this when I run out. This is one of those lipsticks that you can touch up without having to worry about it smudging or feathering throughout the day.

In terms of dupes, the color is similar to MAC's lipstick in Hue, although this is a little bit darker and creamier in consistency. Also, it is slightly lighter and less pink than MAC's lipstick in Angel. There a lot of colors that are similar but not exact dues for this but those two are great if you are looking for something that is still somewhat high end but is less expensive than the YSL one.

I hope you found this review helpful.

xoxo

Love Hate Relationship - Maybelline the Colossal Volum' Express Review

Hello Lovelies!!


I hope you are all well. I just wanted to do a quick review of the Maybelline - the Colossal Volum' Express Mascara. I have a love hate relationship with this mascara after using it for a few days. I absolutely love the effect this gives to your lashes - they look long and voluminous. I had the color Classic Black and it really is a great black mascara.

However, after a few days of using it I started to notice that my eyes were relatively irritated and would burn every time I did my makeup in the mornings. The only product that I had changed was this mascara so I stopped using it and switched back to my HG Clinique High Impact mascara. After a few days my eyes went back to normal and I haven't been having any problems since. My eyes are usually not that sensitive but I must have had an allergic reaction to something in the mascara.

Overall, this is a great mascara, if it doesn't irritate your eyes. It doesn't flake and the only big drawback I had with it was the smell, which can be relatively strong until it dries on your lashes. It is worth trying since the effect it gives your lashes is absolutely gorgeous but be careful in case it does irritate your eyes.

Hope this is helpful!!

xoxo

Review: St. Tropez Everyday Gradual Tan Mousse

Hello Lovelies!!

I hope you all are well. I wanted to do a quick review of a fake tanning product that I have been loving. It has finally warmed up and I have been breaking out my shorts and skirts, which is when I realized exactly how pasty I was. I have used other gradual tanners in the past but this is by far my favorite. The tanner is a white mousse when you first pump it but it darkens on your skin, leaving you a lovely glow. Now I know you're probably thinking that I resemble an Oompa-Loompa but wait! All of the St. Tropez tanners are brown based, instead of orange based as some other tanners are. I have used it four times this week, in the mornings after I get out of the shower and moisturize, and I have really noticed a decent (fake) tan appearing. Also, many fake tanners have a toxic/artificial scent but all of the St. Tropez tanners have a light, almost fruity scent. The only downside is that it does tend to linger on your skin and if you sweat at all you will be able to smell it throughout the course of the day. That being said, if you wear a perfume over it, you won't have a problem with the scent.

Some things you might want to keep in mind if you decide to pick this up - make sure you exfoliate and moisturize really well or else you could end up with patchy sections; make sure you cover the tops of you feet and hands; and don't forget your neck! Through trial and error, I have figured out that the tanner works best if you if you give it about 5 to 10 minutes to really dry after you apply it. However, if you dont have the time you can get dressed earlier since you don't have to worry about the tanner transferring onto your clothing due to it's white color when applied. Overall, I have really been enjoying this self-tanner. Let me know in the comments if you decide to try it out or what your favorite self-tanners are.

xoxo

Haul: Sigma Make Me Classy Travel Edition Brush Set

Hello Lovelies!!

I have a quick haul today that I thought that I would share with you all. I am going to Chicago next week and I decided that since I am not checking any luggage, I wanted to get a travel brush set so that it would fit in my carry-on luggage more easily. I have purchased brush sets from Sigma in the past and I have found that for the most the brushes are very comparable to MAC brushes, although occasionally they do not last as long as MAC brushes depending on how frequently you use them. I reviewed all of their travel sets and decided that the Make Me Classy Travel Edition set was my best bet. I have a few other travel sized brushes that I am going to throw in for when I travel next week but this set contains all of the essential brushes for doing a full makeup look. The set contains seven brushes; the E30 pencil brush, the E40 tapered blending brush, the E55 eye shading brush, the E65 small angle brush, the F30 large powder brush, the F40 large angled contour brush, and the F60 foundation brush. The kit has a nice array of eye and face brushes that can be supplemented with a few additional eye brushes to create a very nice travel set. Additionally, Sigma was kind enough to send me an additional travel size E25 blending brush free with my order. I absolutely love the E25, which is very similar to a MAC 217; I use it for my concealer as well as for blending out my crease everyday. The E25 is a wonderful addition to this kit and will definitely be coming with me to Chicago. If any of you are interested in purchasing any brushes from Sigma, here is a 10% off code for March: MARCH2012.

I hope this haul was helpful!!

xoxo

Review: Clinique High Impact Mascara

Hello Lovelies!!

Clinique High Impact Mascara is my holy grail mascara for everyday wear, I don't know how many tubes of this I have gone through over the years. It is very volumizing and lengthening, although it is not the most thickening mascara. I never have a problem with this being clumpy and with two coats my lashes look long and voluminous.

The only downfall is that it can start to flake slightly depending on how long you wear it for, but generally is fine for about 8-10 hours without flaking. Also, this is one of those mascaras that that is very wet the first few times it is used and has a much more manageable consistency once it has dried out slightly after a week or so.

Overall, this is really great for a more natural, everyday look while still making your lashes look long and gorgeous.

xoxo