'Fantastic Five' Series: Top 5 Lip Balms/Treatments

     Hello, good day, bonjour!  This post is all about my top lip balm picks, and I know a bit of time has passed for this follow-up post since the first post I wrote for my first blog series, 'Fantastic Five'. In this series, I will be showcasing my top 5 products in any category. Well, here's post #2 in the series! Lip balm isn't exactly a superfluous makeup product like other types of products, so, naturally, I'm always trying new ones, therefore it was difficult for me to choose only five.

Clearance Finds, Baby!

     Good day to you all!  Well, I must say, it is a rare occasion that I get suckered into clearance beauty buys, with me being the healthily cautious person that I am. Just being real here, because in so many cases, those products are just sitting there on the shelf with molested safety seals and peeled plastic labels with a clearance sticker barely hanging off the side, yet holding on for dear life in the mere hope that someone may come along...and, I just can't...in most instances.

     However, I know for a fact that none of my local Targets have carried NYX until just recently, probably within the last few months. So, when I saw an entire display right in front of the pharmacy, of exclusively  NYX Butter Glosses, and  that half of the shades were already on clearance (only a dollar and some change off of the regular $4.99 price, down to $3.87 each or something close to that, but I digress), let me tell you, I couldn't snatch them up fast enough, because I realized at that very fateful moment that I didn't have a single red or bright violet gloss in my existing collection.

     It's been a long time that I've been meaning to try Sephora's Formula X nail polishes, and when I stopped in my local Sephora and saw that some of the Xplosive Top Coats and Electrics were in the sale section, I may have squeaked a little. Those are further down in the post. 

NYX Butter Glosses

(L-R): Devil's Food Cake, Raspberry Tart, Red Velvet

E.L.F. Smudge Pots: A Review

        Hello all!  It's been a minute since I've been on here. The only culprit of that is my career change, and I unfortunately had to put my first passion (which is the blog you are reading right now) on the back-burner for just a couple weeks. Well, now that I'm all settled in at the new workplace, I would like to announce that updates on here are hopefully now on the regular!

       Alright, now that housekeeping is out of the way, I wanted to share my thoughts (or an in-depth review, rather) on these muy fabuloso products from e.l.f. If you aren't familiar with these spectacularly splendid Smudge Pots, allow me to introduce you. They are a somewhat new product to the e.l.f. Essentials line, and are at a perfect price point at only $2 a piece (I just checked, and they have raised the price on these to $3, which is a bit of a rip-off since it is their Essentials  line, which is their bulk of exclusively $1-$2 products, and these are not in their Studio or Mineral  line, so...coupon codes and sales, darlings! They're your best friends! *wink wink*), and....get ready for it...these little suckers give their MAC counterpart a run for their money.

       e.l.f. was definitely on their A-game  with these. I've been a long-time user of MAC Paint Pots, too, and I wanted to wait a bit to do a review on these anyway, because I wanted to test to see if they are as long lasting in their containers as they are when on the eyes. It's a tough test for some products to pass. And I'm glad to say that I have not been singing any blues of these drying out in their jars to a crispy mess like the Maybelline Color Tattoos.

New Product Alert: LORAC Pro Palette 2!!

       Hello lovelies!  Yes, I know! Isn't this awesome?! I was up late last night browsing Google+ (which is something I rarely do) and was ecstatic to see a sneak peek from LORAC on their new Pro Palette 2! The cooler-toned companion to the coveted and highly loved LORAC Pro Palette is scheduled to be launched on June 15 on ulta.com. These colors are right up my ally! All I have to say is move over Naked 2! I still love ya, but this LORAC baby is something I can already see crafting an even greater multitude of looks. Carol Shaw incorporated some color into this (and from the looks of it, I think I spot a deep navy, an eggplant purple, and an olive green?), and, as with anything she does with her brand, this looks like it's going to be a knockout hit!

      I will definitely try to get my hands on this! Will you be picking this up? Or do you think you'll be passing on it? Let me know in the comments! I think I would need to actually see the palette in-store to hold and swatch (I rarely buy things as expensive as palettes sight unseen; I always try to wait until they're released in stores so I can test them out).