Recent Drugstore Acquisitions + Urban Decay Swap!

     I'll start with the swap, then I'll go on to the rest of my purchases. With my friend, a couple weeks ago I swapped out my Urban Decay Vice 2 palette that I had never used, for the gorgeous Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette. I needed some bright hues in my life, and thought this would fit the bill. I had wanted to purchase the Electric Palette for such a long time, that I just felt like trying the first Urban Decay selection of rainbow hues that my eyes passed over, because well, they can do no wrong, right? Well, I still can't say how sure I feel about the Full Spectrum just yet, as I've only used about a third of the shades in the palette on my eyes thus far. I was, upon first impression, a bit disappointed with the performance of some colors moreso than others. It's still on Sephora's site on sale for $35, if you want to check it out.

Now, getting more experimentation with e.l.f. products. I had really wanted to try their Illuminating Palette after seeing how the formula blended into the skin, not to mention my enthusiasm after seeing the complete absence of glitter or sparkle particles in any of the powders! I had also heard great things about a couple of their newly launched lip products, and decided to try out their Poreless Face Primer as well! I have more from other brands as well! Just take a look at these beauties!

Raspberry Macaron Eye Makeup Tutorial | Using Cut-Crease Technique!

      Hello everyone! Is everyone having a good week? Ahh, what wonders a malfunctioning camera lens holds, when it's supposedly broken, then the next day it's working perfectly fine, as if a lens error message had never come up.... Am I the only one with such a peculiarly functioning camera? Alas, well, I now have a working camera, and couldn't be happier that I was able to take photos of this look I was talking about! I was able to tweak this berry-pink toned cut crease eye makeup that I wore in my last video on my channel, and decided to make a list of the steps I took to achieve it! I have a couple of variations of this look: 

Variation 1

Variation 2

A Day in the Tropics: Sunset Eye Makeup feat. Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette!

     Happy Friday! Yesterday I received the Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette in a swap I did with my friend Anna. I wanted to do a look that wasn't restricted to just the eye area, and knew I wanted to do something with yellow. I saw a photo in one of those old makeup creative magazines that, to my knowledge, is no longer in publication, and it's a magazine called FACEON. It had a brightly pigmented coral eyeshadow brought down from the lower lashline blended all the way down to the cheekbone in a soft-focus too-high blush placement, which I love in editorial looks! I simply adjusted and tweaked the construction of the look to suit my eye shape.

I'll attempt as best I can to piece this into a step-by-step pictorial, but a couple of these shadows were just frustrating to work with, so, out of impatience, I just skipped ahead to the final look after only taking photos of the first couple steps.

90's Style | Minimal Feature-Enhancing Matte Makeup Look featuring New Products!

     Hi friends! Bringing it back to the 90's! Today's post involves the insanely basic makeup look I wore to a more insane jazz concert I went to on Sunday (Psycho Acoustic Orchestra, check them out if you like jazz!), and I used a lot of newly acquired beauty products!

Nude Lip Review & Swatches: NYX Lingerie Matte Liquid Lipstick in 'Exotic'

NYX Lip Lingerie Liquid Lipstick in 'Exotic'

     Hello, hiya, bonjour! How is everyone's week going so far? About a month ago, I wrote a review on another one of these Lingerie Liquid Lipsticks from NYX, where I expressed my disliking of the formula, color, pretty much everything. I was not impressed.

Well, I had mentioned in the review that the other shade I owned from the Lingerie collection performed better for me, and this beautiful mahogany, oddly named 'Exotic,' (eh? not really what I would name a color like this) happens to be that shade I was talking about. You'll be able to understand from the lip swatches, so ya might wanna take a look!

Both of these closeup lip swatches show what the product looks like with a 2-coat application

More Product Empties! What Would I Repurchase?

     Happy Sunday! When looking back through my archives and seeing that I hadn't done an empties post since November, I have since accumulated a bit more of a selection of items I had recently finished up, and to avoid clutter and those hoarder tendencies, I generally always want to throw things away as soon as I finish them. That's why my future empties posts will more than likely never feature a bunch of stuff that's been laying around for ages. Some of these things I find worth repurchasing, and some of them are repurchases themselves. So, let's get on with it so I can finally throw this stuff out! 😀

ZIT HAPPENS: How To Conceal Blemishes & Textured Skin | Makeup Application Problems

Seeing Spots?

     

     Happy Saturday to you all! I decided on a how-to session today, since acne, after all, is the bane of everyone's existence. So, I have certain ways of tackling and dealing with those annoying periodic cases of hormonal breakouts, as well as remnants of those occasional cystic bumps from hell. Please know that I am not a skincare expert, but I can not suggest enough, that if you have an ongoing problem with acne or breakouts, you would benefit very well from, at the very least, owning just one skincare product with a glycolic renewal complex or a product with glycolic acid as the #1 active ingredient. From what I've learned, there's no AHA or vitamin that is used in long-term skincare and acne treatment that's a marketing fad. None. Unlike other ingredients I've found that are just fillers and serve absolutely no purpose or lasting benefit to the skin whatsoever.

     Glycolic acid is the most common of the AHA 'cules (Alpha Hydroxy Acids), and its key purpose is to remove those dead skin cells and to exfoliate. Skin comes first and should be first priority if you have problematic skin, and makeup should always come second. So before you take the plunge on that $30 temporary-fix concealer, might I suggest that you try to find out what your skin is missing? I really don't intend to sound preachy or anything, but we only get one shot with our skin, and I made the mistake of not taking care of mine, and learned better a couple years ago. Just a few words I wanted to pass on to everyone out there, especially those of you who are around the same age as me. Keeping it real, as I always do, and it's only because I love you all enough to keep it snazzy!

     Back to the subject at hand! I wanted to show you step by step how you can diminish those pesky peculiar pimple POS's and uneven skin surface. The first task at hand is tackling the issue with well-exfoliated, well-treated and moisturized skin, and the makeup products and method I use to create a long lasting barrier of coverage will naturally follow afterwards. When I have a breakout, makeup sometimes can slide right off me, rendering reapplication necessary, as I always apply a very light, barely there dusting of finishing powder and can go kinda moisturizer-happy beforehand; I apply much less powder than most people I know, so my method may seem out of order to some of you, but it's one that works, nonetheless! 

All photos in this post were taken indoors in front of a window in natural sunlight and no artificial lighting. None were taken with flash.

My Wet 'n' Wild Mega Last Lipsticks | Speedy Swatchfest, Try-On & Overview!

     Throughout my years of acquiring these highly affordable and beautifully long lasting Wet 'n' Wild Mega Last Lipsticks, I've actually used up a couple shades I've owned, I've pitched some in the bin, and some, well, I have even repurchased a time or two, for different reasons! These are some of the lowest-priced lipsticks on the market today, at a solid $2 a bullet. There may be a small deviation from that price depending on where you purchase, that company's rewards/points systems, BOGO's, and such may have an effect. I've learned to overlook the less-than-functional packaging and staining some of the shades seem to produce, and just enjoy them for what they offer: a satin finish, affordability, the fact that they are indeed cruelty free, and the overall ease of application. The highly saturated pigment is uniform across the board for these, so that doesn't hurt, either! 

#1 Life-Changing Read of 2016 | Eleanor Roosevelt Bio: The Defining Years by Blanche Wiesen Cook

     *First, let me make it quite clear that I have every intention of reviewing this six-year-spanning bio much more comprehensively on Goodreads, and that review will be in the near future. So until then, please excuse this compulsive overview of some quick points as to why this was unequivocally the best novel I read in 2016!

     Before I purchased this for three dollars at HPB, I couldn't locate the first volume with which to start off my extension of knowledge and understanding of the inspiring First Lady's legacy after watching the PBS special, and immediately developing a deep admiration for the wonderful historical character that is Eleanor Roosevelt. So I thought to myself that since Cook is a highly praised historian, it would do me well to just dive into reading the second volume, perhaps to go to the first one at a later time.

My Picks from the After-Christmas BH Cosmetics Sale + First Impressions!

     Ah, we have approached a new year! I have decided to do a small change of background in my photos, and am just testing it out for the time being. Let me know how you like it! Anyway, reverting to the topic of this post: remember that sale I was telling you all about in my last post? Well, let me just say that I try my absolute best to not order from mass-produced private label cosmetic companies anymore, such as Coastal Scents, Morphe Brushes, so on and so forth. I'm slowly starting to become more conscious of the ingredients I put on my skin, and neither of those aforementioned brands have claimed cruelty free status, and they do have some pretty questionable ingredients, to say the least. 

     Although I find myself overall disappointed to find, upon receiving my order, that BH Cosmetics still has parabens and talc (just rechecked my palette sleeves, and they are actually paraben-free! Sorry for the mixup, I was doing research on two different brands in the same day) in their color products, they are indeed cruelty-free, Leaping Bunny certified (this is according to the Leaping Bunny website, the products' packaging are sans the bunny logo, hopefully that changes!), and....some of their brushes are even vegan! And they certainly seem to be rocking to the beat of their own drum in regards to that. Whether or not I'll order from them again, at least in regard to color cosmetics, is to be determined. I just assumed wrongfully that since they were cruelty-free, none of those ingredients would be present. Ah well, logical fallacy on my part. And just a matter of being misinformed on consumer products and regulations.

So, enough blabbing! Here's what I bought from the sale! 

Foil Eyes 28 Color Eyeshadow Palette, $12
Modern Mattes 28 Color Eyeshadow Palette, $10

Sculpt & Blend 10 Piece Brush Set (Version 2), $20