Colourpop Goodies (I Should've Posted this in February. . .)

Hi there! Yes, I'm still alive on this 'ere blogosphere! At this point, I think it's pretty obvious that my sliiight obsession with Colourpop isn't going anywhere, at least not anytime soon...

Most of these products were from their Valentine's Day collection (plus their Flexitarian Supershock Highlight, which I purchased in the same order along with the V-Day collection) - as far as the limited edition Valentine's collection, a beautiful mini 6-pan palette of lovely cool toned eyeshadows, and three new shades from their lineup of Supernova Liquid Shadows. So since I bought these products back in February, I think I've had more than enough time to test them out, and I have a better idea of which ones I would recommend! So yesterday when I looked back on the Colourpop online shop for the first time in eons, I realized that, lo and behold, most of these products were still available to purchase on their site! So, naturally, here we are with a blog post and swatches! 😄

Supernova Liquid Shadows

L-R: From the Valley, Prelude, Over Again

     Ahh, my very first foray into the Colourpop Supernova line...so, all in all, I do quite enjoy the look these give once applied, but getting to that place of application is rather tricky. I find that putting the applicator directly onto my eyelids makes for a rather streaky application, and entirely too much applies when I use the applicator to apply them to my lids. Whenever I transfer the liquid shadow straight from the applicator to eyelid, they would dry down, and would instantly add a bunch of crepey texture to my eyelid, and the color would flake off entirely within the next hour. If I tried to blend in any way before they set, so much product was applied, that they would just look even more streaky, so blending afterwards was a no-go, when I used that method. 

     The way I opt to apply these is by simply dispersing some product onto my fingertip from the applicator and applying and blending them out in that way, so I have more control over how much product goes onto my eyelid, y'knows? In fact, that's the only way I've found to apply these so they look nice throughout wear and don't flake off. Beautiful duochromes in this lineup, but I always have to layer them over a colored eyeshadow cream or powder for them to really give that desired wow effect, as they are a bit sheer and much of that huzzah! factor is lost when they're applied to a bare primed lid. So the formula could definitely be tweaked a bit with these...

Colourpop Pretty Much Pigment Palette, $12

Swatches L-R: Ya Bish, It Me, NVM, OTP, Neither Do I, Cool It

     This little pocket-friendly number has a pretty lovely array of some beautiful berry pinks and purple tones, mixed with a couple cooler toned neutrals and a nice dose of a bronze shimmer. However, I find that the pink and bronze shimmers in this palette are a tad bit crumbly, and are quite flaky and dry, and take a little more work than I expected them to, as they need to be packed onto the lid to show up (which, I must say, is quite uncharacteristic and very unusual of Colourpop's quality as far as their pressed shadows go - maybe my palette was a fluke with those two shades, but I was left pretty disappointed, nonetheless), and although the mattes in the palette blend out fantastically and near flawlessly, I find that the only matte that is unique to my Colourpop collection is the matte taupe in this palette in 'NVM'. The other two mattes, 'Neither Do I' and 'Cool It,' are near identical to the mattes in my Fem Rosa palette, so this palette is just a bit repetitive for my needs.

I would wager that if you don't own the Fem Rosa palette, this might be a nice addition if you like the tones. However, if you own that palette already (or have similar tones) then this palette may be a bit superfluous for you, as it was for me.

Penny for your thoughts? I'd love to hear them! Sound off in the comments and tell me: As far as Colourpop palettes, what different color stories/combinations would you like to see released in their pocket sized palettes?

Packing Makeup for Long-Term Traveling! Which Products Made the FINAL CUT?

     Salutations, and happy and beautiful Sunday to you all! I have finally gotten to the "settling down" stages of my Chicago move, I wanted to make a roundup post of all the pretties widdled out of my self-perpetuating sea of beauty products to fit into my carryon bag. These products were ultimately selected to come with me to my initial hurrah of my trip, before I could go back to my home city to get the rest of my stuff. I managed to get through two months using just these products! 😁😌 The only casualty of my trip was, indeed, the Sleek eye palette that I was raving about in the video. I hadn't even had it that long...ah well.

                                 

                         View from Merchant Mart! Chicago, IL

Maple Holistics Sweet Almond Oil Skincare Review | A Cruelty-Free, All Natural Brand!

It's true - once you experience the immensely soothing skincare benefits of almond oil, you never go back. This small almond oil obsession of mine is getting to be a bit real. . . 

Disclaimer: This product was kindly sent to me by Maple Holistics for testing and reviewing purposes.

Rimmel 'Midnight' Stay Matte Liquid Lipstick | Reviewed & Swatched!

Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Lip Color in 'Midnight'

Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Lipstick in 'Midnight,' swatched

Hiya everyone!  Obviously we are fast approaching the conclusion of August, and this has been a month of much lip color experimentation for me, and now that the leaves are about to change, the mild change in temperature is indicative that those crisp days are on the horizon, bringing with them the annual bearings that associate themselves with seemingly almost every blogger's favorite season. 😃 Many like myself, have an insatiable interest for deep, vampy colors, regardless of season or Sun's relative position to Earth in any given time of day. If the mood strikes, I wear whatever I please, so I figured I would test out a deep plum color that was introduced in this insanely affordable new liquid lipstick formula that Rimmel launched not too terribly long ago: behold, their Stay Matte Liquid Lipstick in 'Midnight'.

🔍 Read onto the review 🔍 to see if I would recommend the Rimmel Stay Matte formula to anyone, or if it's a hard pass! You be the judge! 

2 Beloved (and Underrated!) Beauty Items that were No Small Feat to Finish | Empties

     Salve! Sorry, I'm a beginner at Latin, and know very few other greetings. 😅 So, sometimes beauty items cross our paths that we immediately develop an undying love for, and we either deliberately savor these items with the full intent of not using them up more quickly than products we just merely have a liking for, and sometimes these beloved products themselves have characteristics that actually make them rather difficult to finish up, even though we do love using them. The items displayed above are two items that exemplify the latter reasoning for me: one, an Oscar de la Renta eau de parfum, the other a salmon-toned correcting concealer from the wonderful Korean brand, Skinfood.

Karrueche X Colourpop Fem Rosa 'She' Eyeshadow Palette | Simply Swatches! + First Impressions!

Ciao, erryone! Well, guess this is my first actual Colourpop post! I'm a bit late to the Colourpop party, I know, but in all seriousness, can we just discuss this $16 limited edition Colourpop She Palette for a minute - the newly released Fem Rosa lineup of products are quite the hot ticket items from our beloved crazy-affordable, high quality colourful brand, Colourpop - and for good reason! This will be a pretty succinct post with the main focus being on swatches, as I haven't had the chance to play with more than 4-5 of these shades on my eyes - hardly enough experience with this to do a review. Hence, why I usually do not like featuring (or even purchasing) limited edition products. Once they're gone, they're quite gone. 

I do have a first impressions video of this palette up on my channel! You can check it out here. 

Glossy Summer Lip Combo: Iridescent Watermelon!

'Tis a beautiful day, and you all know why! 😊 Happy Mother's Day! 

Today's blog post will be featuring a bright (yet sheer!) summer lip combo that I've been wearing quite a lot of lately! It's an interesting combo of a punchy creamy watermelon with a flash of peach and violet iridescence! Revlon Lip Butters....oh, how I miss ye.

4 Underrated Eyeshadow Palettes I Wish Weren't Discontinued. . .

     Happy Saturday, everyone!  I must say, talking about discontinued products never seemed to be a popular topic of discussion for me or other bloggers to really focus on much, and while there were originally plans to curate this into a small video series akin to being something like Products I Love & Wish Were Brought Back, alas, here we are in a blog post. 😃 

'What the Heck?' Product Regret: NYX Gotcha Covered Concealer | Review

NYX Gotcha Covered Full Coverage Waterproof Concealer in 'Ivory'

Hello lovelies!  Welcome to my third post in my blog's 'What the Heck?' Product Regret series! That's weird, isn't it...to say 'Welcome to my blog post!' Strange, hmph... Ideally, I wouldn't have to do any of these, but since I occasionally make impulse buys at the drugstore just like most everyone else, there are some products that don't pass my usual 'You don't need it. You've read nothing about it, so just walk away' mental filter. I won't say who, but there was a YouTube beauty gal I had watched for quite a while who has a similar skin type to me (dry skin) and last year I saw a review where she said this concealer had worked nicely for her, so I went out and promptly bought it. And I've had this tube for 7 months now, so at long last - here we are! A review! 😄 

NYX Gotcha Covered Full Coverage Waterproof Concealer in 'Ivory'

Spring Forward: A Small Haul + Some First Impressions!

     Spring is now officially upon us, it seems! Rain is aplenty, but those cloudy days haven't been overriding the days with sunshine, thankfully! Over the course of the past couple of months, yours truly has been scavenging Ulta drugstore sections and various other places for some spring beauty pick-me-ups (or, ahem, I guess cheap thrills is more like it). Bright vivid eyeliners, a poppy red lipstick (or two!), along with some neutral matte lipsticks, and some nice sweet-smelling balmy lip treats are the results of my attempt to change my makeup game a bit this season with some colors that may (or may not!) veer a little outside of my comfort zone! I've had the chance to try some of these items out as well, so you bet that some of these will include first impressions! Let's begin!

Makeup Revolution New-Trals vs Neutrals Palette | Look No. 1: Warm & Glowy Pink

wearing Makeup Revolution New-Trals vs Neutrals Eyeshadow Palette

     It's almost Friday! Every now and then we discover a makeup product that sends us into the horizon with wings, jumping up and down for joy and exclaiming to everyone, 'I've found it! It's here! The perfect tones to forever grace my crepey eyelids!' 

     Well, we may not do that in real life....but we certainly do tell everyone we can when cruising about online, yes? 😀 This palette became an addition to my collection last Christmas, and I'm ashamed to admit that I used it a mere two times, and then, for no reason other than the fact that I just wasn't wearing much makeup during that time, the palette sat in the back of my makeup drawer, untouched for a month or so. Roll in February, whence I dug it out and fell in love all over again.

Makeup Revolution New-Trals vs Neutrals Eyeshadow Palette

Queen Of My Heart | Limited Edition Wet 'n' Wild Mega Glo Highlighters!

Wet 'n' Wild Mega Glo Highlighting Powders in 'Lilac to Reality' and 'The Sweetest Bling'

     Hello there!  A couple nights ago, whilst teetering precariously in the makeup aisle on the edge of a possible limited edition impulse purchase, trying to decide between what to get (and what not to get - story of a makeup enthusiast's life, right?), I found myself, once again, standing and gawking at the new Wet 'n' Wild line-up of kitschy adorable heart-shaped products for their limited edition Queen Of My Heart Collection. Upon gawking, I remembered what I had said in one of my last videos on my channel: how I had been rather intrigued by these cute little powder highlights! Well, originally it was just the lilac highlighter that peaked my interest, but upon second glance at the pink one, I had an inkling that both were coming home with me!

Wet 'n' Wild Mega Glo Highlighting Powders
Left: 'Lilac to Reality' | Right: 'The Sweetest Bling'

Reviews and Comparison | Flower Beauty Ultimate Eye Color & L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow

Flower Beauty Endless Wear Ultimate Eye Color in 'Sheer Sands,' L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in 'Blinged & Brilliant'

Hello there! Most of us are somewhat familiar with that cream/powder hybrid eyeshadow formula that has been pretty popular, right? Lancome did the introductions with this hybrid formula, then L'Oreal jumped on, and now brands like ColourPop (which, what's wrong with me? I still have not tried these yet!) and Flower Beauty have their own versions of the formula, ranging from a more cushion-y and creamy base setting to a powder finish, to some brands having a more powder-based pigment formula at the onset, with just a wee bit more move-ability that still makes it feel somewhat creamy.

In today's post, I will be reviewing and comparing two similarly toned peachy neutral eyeshadows from two drugstore formulas with similar price points: the Flower Beauty Ultimate Eye Color in 'Sheer Sands,' and the L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in 'Blinged & Brilliant.' Let's begin! 

Drugstore 1st Impression and Swatches | Hard Candy Top Ten Satin Eyeshadow Palette in 'Rich & Famous'

      Hello everyone, and happy Monday! So, would anyone like to see a stunned makeup enthusiast's first impression on an insanely cheap palette? Because that's what I'll be doing in regards to this Hard Candy Top Ten Satin Eyeshadow Palette in 'Rich & Famous.' Ahem, now people, this is a $6 palette...just let that sink in, and let those swatches further down do the math for you. 😉 I know, I know, it's mathematically impossible to do that, but - I digress!

The Crème Shop Makeup Blending Beauty Sponge Review | They Look Delicious! But Do They Work?

     Everyone feast your eyes on these recent finds from Marshall's! I found these blending sponge sets a couple weeks ago, was intrigued, and....well, you know the rest. Since then, I've had time to put them to the test! These beauty blending sponges from The Crème Shop  (an LA based brand that I've never heard of before, and according to their website, they're indeed cruelty free!) are inspired and shaped similarly to those delicious sweets that you'll find gracing the shelves of almost any French patisserie!

New Brush Sets + Tools From Real Techniques!

Real Techniques is certainly setting off a buzz this spring! They have made plenty of room in their line and have rolled out a hefty total of six new brush kits, and they have you completely covered! From base makeup, to eyes, to brows, to contouring and blushing, this brand is rocking it this year! I have been seeing these sets pop up in my local Ulta and Target, and managed to snap some phone pics of the sets! I am not being sponsored in any way, and neither Nic or Sam have a clue who I am. I'm just here to tell you about exciting new releases! So, here they are! 

Real Techniques Flawless Base Set, $19.99 (link)

'What The Heck?' Product Regret: e.l.f. Aqua Beauty Radiant Gel Lip Stain in 'Rouge Radiance' | A Review

e.l.f. Aqua Beauty Radiant Gel Lip Stain in 'Rouge Radiance,' $4

Good day to you all! Does it feel like summer yet, to anyone out there? I wanted to post a quick review on what I initially hoped would be a seemingly perfect, inexpensive summer lip product from e.l.f., as I have twenty or so minutes to kill before I have to gear up to drive back to my city.

So, e.l.f. has an Aqua Beauty range of products that they released last spring, and this collection is said to be limited edition. However, upon looking at the site, I'm seeing that all of the products are still available, and much of the line is just now starting to pop up in Target stores.

e.l.f. has an absolute crapload of shades available in their Aqua Beauty Radiant Gel Lip Stain range on their site, with a whopping six total shades to choose from. However, I've only been able to track down three of those shades in any physical location I've been to. The only one that I ended up taking home with me, and the same one I featured in a recent haul, is in the color Rouge Radiance. Read on in this review if you are thinking of picking one of these up, and want to see whether or not it might be something you'll like! As you can see from the title, this product was a bit of a regret for me, ultimately because of ingredient sensitivity, though that doesn't mean you won't like it! 

Bare Lips, no product

Two layers of e.l.f. Radiant Gel Lip Stain in 'Rouge Radiance' | Left shows initial application, right shows product after it sets

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!

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