My Collection: Blush

Time for another My Collection post, this one is all my blushes!
Alright. So I was going to do a post on "rock concert" type of makeup and fashion based on what I wore to the music video shoot (the thing I did yesterday that I was excited about) but I ended up having so much to do the day before and when I came home yesterday I just passed out exhausted so I didn't get time. It will go up eventually but I've got a different post today and I better get started because it might be kind of long.

Blush is something that a lot of people tend to overlook or at least leave out of an essentials list, but it was one of the first makeup items I started to wear. That flush of color is the perfect thing to give your complexion life as well as a good healthy look about it. I usually wear blush every day.

I started using Benefit blushes and they last forEVER which is why I have so many of them still.
Benetint:
This is the first one I ever got. It is a cheek and lip tint/stain, but I rarely ever use it on my lips since it tends to dry them out. It has a rosy scent to it and is a classic Benefit product. I used to use it everyday but it's been out of rotation to me for awhile just to make way for other products not because I don't like it.

Posietint:
I like this one even better, it is creamier and lighter. They call it a "petal pink" color which is perfect. With the tints I usually put a stripe of it along my cheekbone and then quickly blend it all out with my fingers before it dries.

Dallas (Benefit Boxed Powder):
I think I got this at the same time I got Benetint and I have to admit, it was so long ago that I didn't know what to do with it. On the box it says "an outdoor glow for an indoor gal face powder" so I though you were supposed to put it all over your face to give you a kind of ruddy been-outside-all-day look. It just made my face look dirty and I eventually realized this so then I used it as a blush like I was supposed to. I haven't used it in so long, I had to dig it out of the back of my makeup collection. Maybe I will start using it again. It is a darker kind of bronzy color.

Thrrrob (Benefit Boxed Powder):
I love this blush. It is the perfect flushed pink color with just a touch of shimmer and a rosy scent. It can be brushed on with a light hand or layer more heavily for a more intense look without looking overdone. The packaging is adorable too. The color in the pic is a little off, its a bit deeper of a pink than it looks.

Maybelline Expert Wear Blush in Sweet Cinnamon:
This is a great drug store blush. It is a perfect color not too deep, not too bright pink, very subtle but looks nice. I like this for an everyday kind of look. Again the color is a bit off (sorry!) but it ends up looking brighter in the pic than it really is this time.

Lorac Baked Matte Satin Blush in Velvet Rope:
I loooove this blush, I have been using it almost every day lately. It is so soft and satiny, it is also a great color for summer since it complements a tan (or bronzer) very well.

Coastal Scents 10 Color Blush Palette:
So this is just about perfect. Get this and you will never need to buy another blush again. Many different companies sell this same palette too. There is a purple color which sounds weird but looks great, two reddish orange colors, two pinks, two tans for contouring, two coral type colors and a horribly bright pink which I have never used or found a use for yet.

So that's it! Stay tuned for more beauty posts as well as more My Collections.

Super Quick Update

So I've been lagging on my posts a little, but tomorrow I should have a whole post up and also talk a little about something kinda exciting that I get to do this weekend as well as pics of my new hair since I went to get it cut and colored today! So I hope that I will be able to get a post out to you guys really soon!

Mini Post- Lips and Nails

This is just gonna be a quick mini post about a couple things. First, I tried a few of the Sephora lip set glosses. First I tried the Tarte stain and gloss. Wow, the stain is really dark. I've never worn such dark lips before, I think I liked it but I have to have a extremely subtle eye or it will just be too much. The gloss over it is nice, it has a kind of minty tingle to it. The gloss is also nice on it's own, it is just a light berry tint. Here's a pic of both of them together.

Lol I look creepy. Anyway, I also tried the Lancome Juicy Tube. It is very very light, almost no color, just a hint. It is very shiny though and kind of sticky, I put too much and had to wipe some off because of the stickiness. There was no smell or flavor, I was surprised and a little disappointed, I thought being called Juicy it would have a nice fruity scent or something. You know, smelling it again in the tube it does have a little bit of a rose like smell. Hm.

Second thing. Check out my nails.

Bad pic again, but the color is a light sparkly blue, Sephora by OPI Fancy Shmancy except for my ring finger is same brand but a dark sparkly blue called Club Scene Queen. I got this idea from Blair Fowler (JuicyStar07), she did the same basic colors but not exact. Also, under the light blue I tried using a white, (OPI Alpine Snow) to make the color show up better without needing 400 coats but I ended up having to use 2 coats of white and then 2 of the blue so I don't know if it helped or not. I love the way it looks with that one nail different it's so unique looking!
Here is a random picture of my dog.

Bye for now guys!!

Sephora: Give Me Some Lip

Hi everyone, I just got a Sephora boxed set in the mail today and I thought I would show you guys. I have been wanting this FOREVER and I finally got to order it and it came in today. There is a reason I got it. So I don't know what sucks more, the fact that I have a Friday class next semester or the fact that it requires me to get up early in the morning. So I thought that I would try to cut down my getting ready time by taking a shower the night before and minimizing my makeup by just using a single color from my Naked Palette or something like that. Since I'll be doing such a subtle eye, I can get away with a more dramatic lip, which doesn't take any more effort than slathering it on quickly. So I thought I'd experiment with some lip colors by getting this. Here's what the box looks like.

And the inside:

So the box comes with seven different lip products. Included are:
Buxom Big and Healthy Lip Stick in Amsterdam. It looks kind of like a crayon and it is a pretty dusty rose type of color.
Urban Decay Lip Junkie Lip Gloss in Wallflower. This is a darker sort of purplish color that I'm very interested in trying because I love Urban Decay but have never tried any of their lip products.
Lancome Juicy Tubes in Moulin Rose. I've been wanting to try one of these for awhile. My mom gets Lancome stuff and it is really high end so I was pleased that the box included one. It looks like a nice bright pink.
Tarte Rise and Shine Stain/Gloss Duo in Mauve. I've only tried one lip stain before and dried my lips out really bad so it's nice to have the gloss to put over it. From what it looks like this is a dark berry color. The gloss is sparkly.
Josie Maran Argan Natural Volume Lip Gloss in Precious. This tube is bigger than some of the others and it is a bright and pretty pink.
Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss in Pout. This is a very light pink and the tube is also bigger like the Josie Maran one.
Sephora Collection Nano Lips in Candid Candy. This one is a light pink lip liner.

So I have never tried any of these products before. I have been wanting to try lip products from almost all of these companies for awhile especially the Urban Decay, the Lancome the Smashbox and the Josie Maran ones. So I couldn't help myself and tried out a couple things as soon as I got the box. I first applied the lip liner. I have never ever used a lip liner before but I know that you should line your lips and then lightly fill them in with the liner so that you don't get a ring around your mouth if the gloss wears off. Then I applied the Smashbox gloss over it which seemed to match perfectly. The light pink over my pigmented lips made it this light lavender color that looked pretty awesome. I really liked both products, the Smashbox one doesn't really have a scent which I found a little odd. There was a tiny bit of an unpleasant scent and then it went away.
 The tubes are pretty small, but they are just supposed to be mini sizes to try.

Something pretty cool about Sephora is that they always give you free samples of stuff when you order from them so I got to pick three.

I picked a perfume, Daisy by Marc Jacobs (Eau So Fresh). It is a very floral scent which I'm not usually too crazy about but I do like this one. The sample bottle comes with a spray top so that's cool. I also picked a Laura Mercier Flawless Skin Face Polish and a per-fekt Cheek Perfection Gel which sounds interesting. They were also having a special sample deal so I put in the code and got this.

Three Clinique samples of a cleanser, exfoliater and moisturizer. I've tried the moisturizer before and loved it but am new to the others. That's a lot of stuff for one order. I also got a coupon for a really great deal on Bare Minerals products which I have had my eye on to try next. Be on the lookout for a review on the rest of the products soon!

Also, the yellow nail polish started getting tiny chips, I could have fixed them but really wanted to try the pink. Here it is:

Bad picture I know sorry. I love the color, its so bright and cheerful and it makes my hands look a little tanner for some reason. The quality of the polish however was horrible. I don't know why there was such a difference between the yellow and this one but it was extremely streaky. Even after the second coat there were still little spaces that took like a million coats to fill and it was slightly lumpy, and yes I did shake the bottle first. It was so hard to smooth it out. It looks great, and the color is exactly what I wanted, it was just hard to put on.
Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you soon!

First Date Look (Casual Pool/Beach)

First, I wanna say that I am really pleased with this nail polish so far. I've only had a couple tiny chips that are barely noticeable and for me this is a really long time to go with no chips. It pretty much cancels out the negatives of a streaky first coat and the thin brush!

Second, this is going to be my first date-look post!

Casual Pool/Beach Date Look
This one can seem a little tricky. You don't want to wear makeup that will melt in the sun or drip down your face if you get splashed, but you may want to wear at least something to help boost your confidence. If you are going full-on swimming, diving under waves, swimming underwater etc. you are just going to have to make-do with sunblock and toss a gloss in your bag for when you get out. Wear your cutest swimsuit, your biggest sunglasses, pile your hair on top of your head and rock it. However, if you are thinking more along the lines of relaxing in the pool, or getting your feet wet during a romantic walk down the beach the worst you'll have to worry about is a little splashing. That we can take care of.

I have been absolutely loving Benefit's You Rebel Lite.

It looks really light on my skin in the picture, but it goes on really sheer, and it is the perfect amount of coverage in the summer. I do cover my under eye circles with my MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer (NW20) before I put the You Rebel on. They also have a darker version so make sure you get the right shade. The only problem is that it can look a tad oily, so if you have oily skin maybe go for the Urban Decay one. I usually take a dry fluffy brush and just swirl it around on my skin and that takes away the shine. The best thing about this is that it has SPF 15 in it so you don't even have to worry about putting sunblock on your face and it is nice and cool and moisturizing.

Next I put some eyeshadow primer on, super important so your eyeshadow will stay put. For eyeshadow color I absolutely love the color Shag from my Urban Decay palette. If you don't have the palette I really recommend it, but it can be pricey so you can also just get the single color shadow if you want. It is a really pretty bronze-ish shade that is very subtle, but still noticeable and shimmers in the sun. Also, there are quite a few colors in the Coastal Scents palette that are good dupes.

Seriously look how pretty that swatch is! It doesn't look very pretty to me in the palette but once it is on, it's a different story.

The next part is up to you. If mascara is important, get a good waterproof one. I don't own any, because I've heard they are hard to take off and you know how I am with that. If you want eyeliner, try to find a waterproof one of those and stick to your top lash line only, applying under your eye is a recipe for disaster. Personally I would skip the mascara and depending on where I was going, I might apply a little bit of a brown liner to the top.

Next add a little bronzer if you feel like it, but you don't need to. The last thing to do is to slather your lips with chapstick with an SPF in it. I would throw this into my beach bag for when I get out of the water:

Or something similar. Wow that turned out really pinkish in the pic. It is actually completely ORANGE. It's called Cover Girl Wetslicks Fruit Spritzers in Tangerine Splash. I got it to go with my Halloween costume which was orange and pink and I ended up really liking the color for summer, it actually works well and smells great. If they don't have this in stores any more go with a coral, something bright and fun since the rest of your look is so subtle. Or, if you are into stains go with one of those, since they can't melt off!
And that's it! Super easy right? If you try it let me know, I've worn this look myself a few times. And good luck on your date or whatever you plan on doing, (this is also great for any pool or beach adventure). Talk to you all soon!
PS: More Date Looks coming soon.

Quick Summer Nail Polish Post

Hi guys! I just picked up two new nail polishes that scream "summer" to me. I really wanted a good, bright yellow and all the yellows at Target were gross and my Ulta didn't have the OPI yellow so I picked up one from China Glaze. (It's called Happy Go Lucky).

I was disappointed at how thin the brush was, I am a huge fan of the gigantic OPI brush. It also went on really streaky so I needed a second coat. Pluses were that it dried really fast, smoothed out well on the second coat and it is a really pretty color! It seems sturdy, but I don't know yet about chipping since I only did it yesterday. No chips so far. I also wanted a ridiculously bright pink so I got this one called Shocking Pink.

Woo, it is glowing in the picture just like in real life. Yesssss. Anyone else out there get any new nail polishes for summer?

My Collection: Mascara

Hey guys! So there's something I started on my you tube channel (I don't do you tube videos anymore if you are wondering, I just feel much more comfortable writing and can't think of what to say on camera), but I started something called My Collection. Instead of doing a video showing all of my makeup I own, I thought I would break it down by like mascara or blush or whatever so I could talk about them instead of just showing them. The only one I actually did was a mascara one so I decided to do it over in blog form so here it is.

Mascara is kind of weird for me, because I never EVER used to wear it. It was the least important makeup item for me and I didn't like the way it felt sticky on my eyes and I thought it would irritate my contact lenses but basically I had just never really tried a good one I think. Also, my eyelashes are pretty long and dark anyway, so I thought I didn't really need it. So one day I did this eye makeup look that was pretty but it made my bottom lashes look non-existent. So I used a little bit of my mom's mascara (she let me) which now that I think about it, sharing mascara seems like something you aren't supposed to do... Anyway, long story short (kind of) I started getting my own mascara and really liking it.

This is the first one I tried:

L'oreal Telescopic Explosion. It has the weird little ball applicator and it takes a tiny bit of getting used to, but once you do it is super easy to use and I really like this one a lot. You use it on little sections at a time and it really separates your lashes that way, it doesn't clump easily and it lengthens by a lot. When it is time to take it off, it washes off easily which is a big deal for me. I hate taking mascara off, especially when you have to pull on them to get it off and it seems like you are ripping your lashes out just to get your damn mascara off. It just takes a long time, but this one comes off easily.

Next is Coastal Scents Rich Volume:

I got this when I ordered my Warm Palette and Blush Palette. I had been wanting both for awhile and then when I saw that they were cheaper together as a set, I ordered the set and this happened to be included. It went on really lightly and I liked it because it didn't make my lashes stiff, it kept them soft and was a good subtle look. I'm kind of embarrassed that I still have it though, because it is old and dried up and I am actually going to throw it away right now. It wasn't my favorite because it was a little bit clumpy after awhile and dried out quickly.

Benefit Bad Gal Lash:

I'm doing these in order of how I got them, I'm pretty sure I remember but maybe not haha. Anyway, I had been wanting to try this Benefit mascara for ever. I was actually more interested in the blue, but I just couldn't make myself pay like what $19 for a mascara when there are plenty of good cheaper ones. So I got the mini one for $9 which still seems a little high for a baby tube, but better than the full one. The little one is great, it is lasting a long time and I never finish a full tube of mascara before it gets too old anyway. This is a favorite along with the Telescopic. It is very dark and volumizing, it makes my lashes look so full and pretty and it comes off easily when I try to remove it. The only downside is it can clump a little if you aren't careful but it's not too bad.It has a really great full fluffy brush too.

Too Faced Lash Injection:

 Yes I have two tubes of this. I got the mini one for free with another Too Faced purchase and then the big tube came with the Classics collection. I haven't opened the big one until I finish the little one. So this is one of those mascaras that have the tubes. It creates little tubes around your lashes so they can actually extend farther out than your lashes actually go. Then they just come off with water. I find that when I take it off, it actually won't come off with makeup remover. I just wet my fingers and then gently tug the tubes and they come off, it is slightly annoying that it takes longer but you don't have to tug hard. The brush is really soft and puts just enough of the mascara on, I bet if you put two or three coats they would get super long and be really awesome!

L'oreal Voluminous Naturale:

I got this one when I went to Ulta to get a new tube of NYX Dolleye Volume. I really liked that mascara, but they were all out so I decided to look for another volume type mascara because the others I owned were more lengthening. The brush on this one has the short little bristles and its kind of weird. I love and hate this mascara at the same time. It would be a favorite because of the way it makes my lashes look, full and dramatic, but it is soo hard to get off! I literally have to scrape it off with my fingernails and that's not really cool you know? I do use it for special occasions or if I just can't help it because I like it so much.

LORAC Special Effects:

I talk about this mascara in my LORAC box review but I'll say a few things about it in case you didn't read that. This mascara has two ends as you can see, side 1 has a white primer, and side 2 has the actual mascara. So I apply side one and can actually see the white on my lashes. I wait a few minutes for it to dry and apply side two over it. It is insane. It makes your lashes so dark and visible and thick because of the primer and also it seems to cluster your lashes together to make a few big lashes instead of feathering and separating them all out. I can't even separated them with my eyelash comb. I think that if you are going to be on camera or taking pictures or something this would be good, or maybe for some other special occasion when you would want enormous lashes but otherwise it is too extreme for me on a daily basis. For some reason, I just can't remember if this one comes off easily or not.

I don't wear mascara every day, only if I am going somewhere. I think the reason I wear it is because eye makeup kind of overpowers lashes so in order to make them really visible again, I put on some mascara. Also, I always always curl my lashes before I put it on so they can be up and out of my way, and not feel like the mascara is weighing down my lashes and getting in my eye.

Look for more "My Collection" blogs in the future!