I live in South Florida, where it is Summer for more than 3/4 of the year, so while other beauty bloggers are preparing for Fall, I am still enjoying Summer! I love using oranges and corals on the eye since it is a bit unexpected and it looks so fresh. It can be intimidating to back away from a totally neutral palette and use a color that really packs a punch, but I think the way that I used a matte orange in my crease is a lot more workable than you may think. I paired the eye look with very dewy skin and a coral lip to really make it feel like summer!
Beauty for Beginner’s.
If you are just starting out with make up then here are some recommendations for you!
A new foundation that I am obsessed with, Nearly Naked by Revlon, I use the color Shell. It is a lighter coverage foundation, and I love the finish of it. This is the first foundation that I don’t actually have to set with powder.
To get your lips perfectly prepped for any lip color of your choice, use a lip balm daily! This EOS Lip Balm in Sweet Mint should have your pouts lipstick ready in no time.
This Wet N’ Wild eye palette in Comfort Zone is an awesome starter kit! It has some beautifully pigmented and smooth colors to work with.
The Wet N’ Wild Eyeliner Felt Pen is a great starter for liquid eyeliner. I have seen plenty of Beauty Gurus that swear by this pen, and that’s because it is very pigmented, black and easy to use.
I love those Jumbo Lip Pencils by Revlon! They are so great for a sheer, bu buildable color. The reason why I put the picture of the Clinique one is because it was the original and they are apparently even more moisturizing then the Revlon ones. Either brand will make a great addition to your starter kit. I suggest getting one natural color, one pink color and one red color for a wide variety.
This Essie polish in Mint Candy Apple is a gorgeous mint color! If you cannot find this area, Revlon and Sally Hansen also make mint nail polishes. Trust me, put this polish on your nails and you will get a sea of compliments!
These Happy Booster blushes by Physician’s Formula are so great and pigmented. They have a nice glow to them because here are pearly hearts in this blush as well. If you need a cheaper alternative, Wet N’ Wild makes some amaze-balls blushes.
A nice standard mascara to add to your kit will be L’Oreal’s Telescopic Mascara in Carbon Black. It will make your lashes look luscious, long and dark!
Hopefully you all enjoyed this list! Comment below if you think I am missing anything!
Today’s FOTD
Today I used Revlon’s Nearly Naked foundation, with a Wet N Wild bronzer, Stereo Rose MSF and a Tarte matte jumbo lip pencil in Child. For my eyes I used the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
An Ode to Purple
Purple has been one of my favorite colors since I was an itty bitty, little girl. I have a crazy amount of lip products that are purple toned and since it is my favorite color for the spring, I figured I would do a post about it! If I notice that I have a lot of eye products as well, then there will be a part two to this post. Also, yes, I know my nails are chipped, so please don’t mention it.
Starting from the first column is NYX Power, Revlon Sultry Sable, Essence Dramatize, Lime Crime Airborn Unicorn, Revlon Berry Haute, MAC Mattene in Seductive Intent, Warpaint Beauty in Grimace, Revlon in Lilac Pastelle, NYX Bloom, NYX Fuschia.
The first lipstick is Lime Crime’s Airborne Unicorn. This is a very blue toned, milky purple. It is a few shades darker than what I would consider lavender to be. It is a very opaque formula and lasts on the lips for around 4-5 hours without the need to reapply, after that time though, it does appear a bit patchy. It has a silky matte finish, meaning that although it has no shimmer, it isn’t very drying for the lips and is not completely without a slight shine factor. My only issue with this lipstick is that it can have a funky smell, but thtat tends to not bother me too much to use it.
Berry Haute is a Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick, and it was my first ever purple lipstick. It honestly depends on the lighting on how purple it is. In some lights, it is more pinky toned and in others it is unmistakeably a true purple. It is a nice, creamy texture
MAC Cosmetic’s Mattene Lipstick in Seductive Intent is a beautiful magenta toned violet. I do not even know what to say about this color, it is my favorite color right now. I love the texture of Mattenes and wish that they were introduced into the permanenet line, because oh boy are they good! A Mattene texture basically is a non-drying matte texture. I had bought this color after kicking myself for a year for not buying Heroine from MAC’s Reel Sexy collection. This color is the closest I will ever be to reaching Heroine and I am okay with that because I am in love.
The next purple product is a lip gloss. I randomly picked up this gloss from Hot Topic during a random walk in and I always forget that I have this gloss! It is from the brand Warpaint Beauty in Grimace. As you can see, it is a fairly pigmented gloss! This color would be gorgeous if it were paitred with Seductive Intent. I need to start actually using this.
Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Lilac Pastelle is a gorgeous milky lavender lip gloss and ohhh my gosh, this is incredible! I love the texture of these lipglosses, they almost feel like cream lipsticks with how thick they are. This goes on evenly and beautiful.
NYX Lipliner Pencil in Bloom
NYM Lipliner Pencil in Fuschisa is different from Bloom by a hair. It is more magenta and that Is about the only difference.
NYX Lipstick in Power is a beautiful milky lavender lipstick. This is paired wonderfully with the Revlon Lipgloss for a lavender nude lip. This lipstick feels great, smells great and looks great.
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Sultry Sable is a plum shade of lipstick that does not have any red tones like these sort of colors tend to. This is dark, intense and not for the weak hearted! To make this color a little easier to wear, you can mix it with a red lipstick or put on a red lipgloss on top.
Essence’s Lip gloss in Dramatize is a semi-sheer berry lip gloss that is perfect for giving lipsticks a more vampy look. When paired with a dark lipstick, it is intensely beautiful and with a red lipstick, it becomes a vampy retro lip.
50 Shades of Red
Please don’t tease me over the cheesy name of this post, it was too tempting! Today I decided to swatch a few of my favorite red shades, leading into dark berry shades, especially since red lips are a holiday must have! Please excuse my frizzy, hot mess of hair! These pictures were taken after working an 8 hour shift, and were a very spur of the moment thing.
Elf’s lipgloss in Poinsettia Red is a beautiful sheer wash of color on the lips, adding just a bit of life to a plain lip look. It has gorgeous golden toned flecks of micro glitter to add a beautiful sheen. I believe this was just $1.
This first look was the Cover Girl 215 Passion lipliner, which was actually a very opaque color on me, and I could easily wear it alone. Heads up if you’re looking for an affordable matte lip color! This will double as a lip liner and a lip color.
This lip pencil by Lord and Berry in the color 20100 is a nice and smooth application. The color is almost a tomato red and it is definitely the nicest and most moist of all of the lip colors. Pencils can be a slightly less precise application, but with a nice and steady hand and a little concealer, you should be red lip ready!
Russian Red by MAC is such a classic red! It’s so perfect, I love it, even though it can be drying on my lips. With matte lipsticks it is important to keep your lips hydrated and exfoliated, otherwise there will be an unevenness and a flakiness to your lips that will age you.
This lipstick is a color that I don’t often reach for, although I really should. It is a very nice, long lasting color that has a pretty sheen to it. I really feel that for drugstore products, that Maybelline is often overlooked when they have some spectacular products!
This lipliner by NYX in Plum is not as even of a lipliner as the Cover Girl one is. I would not wear this one alone, because although it is a very opaque color, it isn’t as even or smooth in texture as Cover Girl.
Wet N Wild has such a huge fan base, and deservedly so, the pigment in their lipsticks are incredible! The color is Dark Wine and it is great! I like it paired with my Plum lipliner by NYX. What a smooth application!
Revlon is another drugstore favorite of mine. I often purchase their lip products, as they normally have a wide color variety with great quality. This is a beautiful, dark and rich color. I don’t often wear this as it is so dramatic, but it really is gorgeous.
Starting from the left: Red Revolution by Maybelline, Sultry Sable by Revlon, Dark Wine by Wet N Wild, Russian Red by MAC, 20100 by Lord and Berry, Plum by NYX, Passion by Cover Girl and Poinsettia Red by ELF.
December Makeup Challenge Day 8
Today was actually my first day participating in the December Challenge, with the monochromatic makeup look.
December Makeup Challenge
Day 7 of the makeup challenge, Dark Lips! I used NYX lipliner in Cabaret and Wet N Wild lipstick in Dark Wine.
What I Want For Christmas!
Decmber Makeup Challenge!
I have always wanted to participate in one of these challenges, so I’m excited to have found this! I will be starting this one on the 6th day though since I just found it today.
MAC’s Whisper of Gilt MSF Vs. Essence’s Bella’s Secret Shimmer Powder
MAC’s Whisper of Gilt is a beautiful metallic gold face powder. It was a limited edition Mineralized Skin Finish by MAC and it was also a re-promote from a previous collection. When it comes to highlighters, I am very careful on which products I use because I do have a darker skin tone, so some silver toned highlighters can look very unnatural and silly on me, which is the opposite of what I want. When I use a gold highlighter, I feel like I have a gorgeous J.Lo glow that I love! Now the problem is finding a gold highlighter that is affordable and actually pretty. Well, soon after I picked up the last Whisper of Gilt from my local MAC counter (how lucky, right?!) I popped into Ulta and noticed that Essence had their new Twilight: Breaking Dawn collection. Most of the products didn’t interest me, until I saw this gold shimmery powder that was very yellow toned. I knew right then that I just HAD to buy it. Now, I am not saying that this is a dupe for Whisper of Gilt, but rather, an alternative for that gorgeous gold highlight. Below I have some swatches pictured and if you are interested in this Essence Shimmer Powder, then I suggest running out to your nearest Ulta to pick this baby up! Note: In the second swatch picture, I did add a primer as they are both subtle highlights that wouldn’t show up in the picture. Whisper of Gilt is on the left and Bella’s Secret is on the right.
Without primer.
It is swatched twice on my hand, the pair on the left are without primer and the pair on the right with primer.
I use both pretty interchangeably, Essence’s is less subtle than MAC’s if you really want people to see your highlight. Essence’s is also limited edition, so run to your Ulta’s!
a teaspoon of blush 