Shadows and Liner!

Hey everyone!

This will be a small, quick post as i just wanted to give a mention of 3 products I picked up, but I am also extremely busy with last minute paper writing and other boring priorities. However, I decided a break was in order to post this :)

So, I did a little shopping last week and found some really pretty eyeshadow shades and an absolutely stunning eyeliner, Yay!
I have been avoiding buying the L'oreal Infallible eyeshadows for a long time, yet I'm not sure why I refused to try them despite the good reviews I've seen. The powder consistency just seemed like it would be a loose mess and end up all over my face instead of on my eyelid - which after trying them, actually can happen depending on how you apply them.

I picked up the colors Forever Pink and Sahara Treasure.

They both contain a lot of shimmer which I was concerned about at first, but these actually end up looking fantastic on the eyes! The powder is a lot more loose than I am accustomed to, so I had to play around and figure out which brush works best with these shadows. Do not use a fluffy crease brush for these, it makes a mess and the pigment ends up under your eyes. Instead use a very dense, short shadow brush or even your finger (yes, that actually works for these) and apply these by pressing the color down onto the lid instead of swiping your brush over it. Trying these wet also makes them a little easier to work with so that they don't flake off.
Overall, I like these shadows- theres a few more colors I may try, but for now I'm going to keep using these to test their staying power and versatility for everyday wear.

On to the eyeliner. Oh My Goodness, this liner from Urban Decay's 24/7 line is the most amazing color I have ever seen. Pictures and swatches do not do it justice - it is truly a product you must try.
Sabbath.

This is a deep deep royal blue shade that is like nothing I have ever seen before. It is neutral enough that I replace my black liner with this very often, and it looks amazing with brown eyes (blue shadows/liners on brown eyes always make the eye pop).
Urban Decay eyeliners are pricy (in the $20 range), but they are not disappointing. They slide on smoothly, give you a little time to smudge if you want to, and then set so well that no amount of rubbing will budge them (makeup remover obviously does the trick). Although I love the entire line of the 24/7 pencils, there are drugstore brands that offer the same benefits for much less; therefore, I usually only buy an Urban Decay one when the color is something I cant find elsewhere. Seriously, this color is definitely a favorite of mine at the moment.

Swatches

L'oreal Infallible eyeshadows: Sahara Treasure & Forever Pink
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner: Sabbath

Thats going to be it for this little post today. As the end of June is tomorrow I will be doing my best to post a June favourites in the next few days and that will definitely be longer.

Feedback is always welcome!

Thanks for reading! Love!

-J

Benefit They're Real!

Hey guys!!

First, it's an absolutely beautiful day out today. I'm sitting at our little bistro set on the apartment balcony, in a dress and loving it. Finally summer is starting to arrive here! Anyway, I was so excited to be blogging outside that I had to share that; on to the makeup!

So, I'm probably going to post a few things over the next few days as I've got some things in mind that I want to share with you all! I might do a daily skincare routine of the products I use and when; you'll definitely see a June favorites in about a week, and there was a recent Shoppers Drug Mart trip that I'll probably talk about soon as well.
For now, I'm going to do a very quick post about a product we all already know and probably love - but I have actually just tried it for the first time this month.
Benefit's They're Real! mascara.

As you can see, the brush has rubber bristles and then has this weird little end that just seems strange, but trust me, is very useful. I will admit - it took some work getting me to like this mascara (I'm sure someone is screaming at me for saying that right now). The first few times I used it, I found that the consistency was just too wet, or there was just too much product on the brush, and it was pretty much fusing my lashes all together and making them look ridiculous. I didn't give up though, and I'm glad I didn't. After playing with it for about a week, I somehow mastered how to apply it to get optimal results. Maybe it dried out a little, or less has been coming out on the brush, or maybe I just discovered the right application process. Either way, if you guys give this a try and don't like it at first - keep playing around with it; I promise it gets easier.

I know, I know, I'm super late jumping on this bandwagon. Honestly, I just couldn't justify paying $29 + tax for mascara when my drugstore brands, that I love, work just fine for me. However, a friend of mine gave this to me as a birthday gift a few weeks ago, and now I am in serious trouble because I dont think I can revert back to anything else. I will forever be purchasing this mascara (maybe; forever is a long time in makeup world).

I'll pretty much show you guys a before and after. I promise, I am not wearing fake lashes. I pretty much think a picture says a thousand words here for sure. (My goodness my eyebrows need tending! embarrassment!)

Before:

As you can tell - my natural lashes aren't amazing. Although, I do feel that this picture is doing an injustice to what I thought they really looked like without mascara. Regardless, I have a lot of dark, short lashes; they also aren't very sparse (yay).

After:

I want to add again that I do not have fake lashes on. Not only that, but I also did not curl my lashes at all in this picture. This is actually the mascara on its own with no other help. I applied 2 coats to my upper lashes, and one coat to the bottom.

Obviously, I fell in love with this stuff. It isn't waterproof - which made me apprehensive because I find mascara usually smudges on me if it isn't a waterproof formula, but this one doesn't smudge or flake at all throughout the day. Benefit has truly mastered mascara.

Again, I know I'm super late falling for this product - but I guess I'm just another one of those ladies who just didn't think $29 for a mascara was going to be worth it. Clearly, I was wrong.

Let me know what you guys want me to write about! I'll definitely pick up some products if you want to see a review, recommendation, or tutorial!

Thanks for Reading! Love!

-J

Mini Drugstore Haul!

Hey guys!

Ok, so in this mini drugstore haul, I purchased 6 NYX singles shadows, and 2 NYX trio shadows. I also picked up one of the Milani statement lipsticks everyone has been raving about.
I also just want to quickly apologize for the crazy delay in posts. I was in the process of packing, moving, and unpacking for the last few weeks. Moving, mixed with interviews, exams, and my weekend-long Birthday celebrations have made for quite a hectic few weeks!

The reason for all the eyeshadows is because Lawtons Drugstore had a crazy sale on some of their NYX stuff; the singles eyeshadows were on sale for $1.74, plus they were buy 2 get 1 free. The NYX trio shadows were on sale for about $3 as well. There were other things besides eyeshadows on sale, but the selection was slim. Also, all Milani products were 20% off so run out and get some! I highly recommend the baked blushes and liquify eyeliners, but I already have some of those so I decided to grab a lipstick instead; I'll probably go back to another Lawtons before these sales are over and stock up on some more things if the selection is better.

I have only tried out a few of the eyeshadows and the lipstick twice, so this wont be much of a review of products. However, NYX in general offers good quality shadows and we all know these Milani lipsticks are supposed to be amazing so I expect there to be a rave review of all products in the next few weeks.

NYX Singles

 Here are the 6 shadows I picked up. In order from top left to right and bottom left to right here are the names. Golden Amber, Asphalt, Ballerina Dream, (color name ripped off this one when I opened the packaging - oops), Red Bean Pie, and Eggplant.

Here are the swatches for each in the same order as listed above as well. Some of these colors are shimmery and some are a satin finish; none that I bought were matte.
I found the 2 shimmer colors (Golden Amber and Ballerina Dream) to have small amounts of glitter in them. They also seemed to swatch a bit chalky  but maybe if applied wet these could work a little easier and hopefully not flake off. The rest of the colors went on a little smoother and left a great color payoff. I used two of these on my birthday (Golden Amber and the nameless one) to go out and they had amazing staying power. I loved the color effect they gave me with a black liquid liner on top of them.

NYX Trios

These 2 trio palettes caught my eye because I love  a good blue for brown eyes, and the second palette just seemed great for summer. The top trio gave the individual names for the colors (left to right), Baby Blue, Pacific, and Navy. The bottom Trio just gave a name for the whole palette, Hippie-Chic.

When I swatched these, they were a little hit or miss again. For the blue palette, Baby Blue and Pacific gave great color; Navy actually needed more product to give that deep color and seemed a little more chalky. Again, hopefully a wet application will fix this.
Hippie-Chic had the exact same problem. The first 2 colors gave awesome saturation (which might be hard to believe because of the light color of the first swatch), but the lilac color on the right needed more product and also seemed chalky.
I'll definitely have to give these a try. Sometimes playing around with them can help you figure out a good way to make them work.


Milani Statement Lipstick

 Lastly, I also picked up a Milani Color Statement lipstick in Fruit Punch. It smells Delicious! It actually smells exactly like fruit punch and makes me want to eat it. haha.

As I expected, the color came out amazing. I have used it twice now and so far I love it. It comes out that exact color on my lips, smells great, and is very creamy. It isn't a long wearing lipstick, not that I think it claims to be?, so I do find myself reapplying it if I eat or drink. That is a small price to pay for such a gorgeous color however and I will definitely be picking up more!












Ok! So that is all I have for you today; I will be posting another blog soon as I received some makeup gifts for my birthday that I would love to tell you guys all about! :)
Sorry again for the late post - sometimes life just gets in the way!

If you guys want to see tutorials on anything or some pics of how I'm using these products just let me know!!

Thanks for reading. Love!

-A