Favorite Eye Shadow Combos!

It's the last day of summer for me. My students started trickling back to town last ween but their first day of class is tomorrow. So that means summer dress is over, no more jeans in the middle of the week, no more flip flops, and for me- no more lazy makeup.  So I have a couple of Go-To eye looks I do throughout the academic year. I've been spoiled over the summer with my 10 minute makeup look, my usual routine takes about 1/2 an hour with the majority of time spent on my eyes.

So the palettes I use for my eye looks and will reference throughout this post are as follows:

1. Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette
2. Tarte Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Palette
3. Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

All of these links are for ULTA- so no affiliate links.

Neutral Matte
I would say the look I do the most and will continue to do the most this semester will be close to my Tartelette Redux look. An all Matte neutral bown-ish natural look. I can accomplish this look with both my Chocolate Bar and Tartelette palettes.

Chocolate Bar Palette (Left - Right)
White Chocolate, Strawberry Bon Bon, Salted Caramel, Milk Chocolate, Semi-Sweet, & Dark Chocolate

1. I'll start every look with eye primer- I'm working through Milani Eyeshadow Primer right now.
2. Then I cover the entire lid with a base powder either White Chocolate or Free Spirit. This makes blending out all the colors easier and doesn't seem to effect lasting time.
3. Next comes a pale pink all over my lid below the crease- I use either Strawberry Bon Bon or Caregiver. If these shadows get muddied during the blending process I'll come back to them at the end.
4. Then I start deepening the crease starting with a light medium brown or camel color like Salted Caramel or Force of Nature.
5. Then another crease color a little darker still- Milk Chocolate or Wanderer.
6. Blend Blend Blend!
7. Then the next shade darker brown goes just in the outer V and blended with a very light hand into #4&5. I used Semi-Sweet or Dreamer here and make the outer corner the darkest of all and blend it just so slightly into the V.
8. Blend Blend Blend! you don't ever want to see where the color changes so I blend till it's a perfect gradient.
9. If my pale pink has gotten a little lost then I'll brighten it up with it again, I don't always have to do that though.
10. Finally I use either the darkest brown color to line my lower lashes lightly and the outer corner of my top lashes- Dark Chocolate or Multi-Tasker.
11. If I want real liner I use my dark brown gel liner, but I've been liking the no-liner look lately.

Tartelette (Left - Right)
Free Spirit, Caregiver, Force of Nature, Wanderer, Dreamer, & Multi-Tasker

I feel like this is the most universal eye look I do. It goes with everything and always looks classic. If I want to make it more dramatic I can add Dark Chocolate or Multi-Tasker as a second outer V color. If I want my eyes to really pop I can use gel liner around the whole eye. I can even skip the outer V colors all together and just have a very no-make-up-make-up eye look. So I love this one, it still takes me 20 minutes to complete because blending takes time, but I feel like I've gotten as fast as I can with this.

Burgundy and Gold
I don't know when I fell in love with gold shadow on my eyes but I know it was sometime after purchasing the Rainforest palette and seeing Kristin Gehm rave about it. But I started playing with the golds in this palette and my chocolate bar palette and somehow stumbled upon burgundy being a good pair with those. So this is another look that I loved all last fall and have already broken out a couple times this past week. Gold is fun! So these looks can be done with the Chocolate Bar or Rainforest palette.

Rainforest After Dark (Left - Right)
Bare to Explore, Tangled Up In You, Up To No Gold, Plum Away With Me, Don't Turn A-Brown

1. Primer
2. All over lid base color- the Rainforest palette is missing a good nude base color so I either pull it from my Chocolate bar or just use my setting powder here as a base. White Chocolate still works here and whatever color I use goes all over the lid because the base is all the same color for this look.
3. Next I move to the crease with Milk Chocolate and Semi Sweet or Bare to Explore and Tangled Up In You. The chocolate bar look gets darker quicker and the Rainforest stays a little lighter.
4. Then I take GOLD all over the lid below the crease. I do it after the crease base colors in this look because gold gets everywhere if you blend over it too much. I use Creme Brule or Up to no Gold. They're both gorgeous- I feel like the Chocolate Bar Gold is smoother but the Tarte's sticks a little better to the eye. I usually do two layers of each to get that really metallic look.
5. Next up a burgundy or maroon color. In the Chocolate Bar you have two options depending on how dark you want to go Amaretto or Cherry Cordial. For Rainforest I go with Plum Away With Me. These colors start at the outer corner and come in for the outer 3rd and then blend lightly in the crease above the gold.
6. Then if I need more depth I'll add Dark Chocolate or Don't Turn A-Brown and add to just the very outside of the eye.
7. I use my dark brown gel liner with this look and usually take some gold and medium brown on the lower lash line.

Chocolate Bar Palette (Left-Right)
Milk Chocolate, Semi-Sweet, Creme Brule, Amaretto, Cherry Cordial, Dark Chocolate

This is a great look for fall! I just love the gold, if you were this look with Green and have blue or green eyes it's amazing! I also love to wear this when I'm wearing brown or orangey- you know fall colors. It's a great look that works for all the eye colors. Brown eyes look gorgeous with gold. This look takes me a little longer even though there are fewer steps because Gold can smell fear. You have to go slowly with gold or it'll end up all over your face.

So I think these shadows make great fall looks. Even within just the shadows I shared you can do a variation of things and each can be very appropriate work day or school day looks as well as evening looks. I frequently will just darken things up after work and have a perfectly good evening look.  Here in Texas fall is still a few months off, but hopefully we're at least done with the 100+ degree days so fall eye makeup here I come!

In case you want to know what blushes I would use with these looks- definitely plummier, deeper rose colors and with hints of gold. So I'll break out my NARS Orgasm again, my Cabana Boy from the Balm and my deepest Tarte blush in Savored. Less pinks more plums!

Makeup Madness! Part 6! Concealers

It's Makeup Madness Time again! This time it's all about concealers! I only have a few to get rid of but have some I really love. Now I'll be the first person to admit like all my makeup adventures, concealer is still something I'm working on. I have not perfected my concealer game but it's getting better.  I wrote briefly about concealers once upon a time here.

So what do I use concealer for? Well I have terrible sleep problems and so I constantly have big blue bags under my eyes that need to be covered up.  And while acne isn't something I struggle with I do suffer from the occasional face planet that needs to be covered up. One of the biggest concealer tips I ever learned, a little late I might add just two years ago, was that you do not use the same concealer all over your face. There's a reason they make concealer specifically for under your eyes and specifically for covering blemishes.

Up first we have stick concealers or concealers with wands. I feel like stick concealers are the style of concealer handed to ever pubescent teenage girl when they get their first breakout. These concealers are usually a little dry or waxy, but provide fuller coverage.  I cannot use these, they're too drying for my face so I pretty much steer clear, however they do make excellent tattoo cover ups.  I use the ELF and Wet 'N Wild for one of the many layers of concealer I use when I have to cover up my tattoos for shows. Then the creamier concealers with either a wand or the ball thing the Maybelline has are much more hydrating and easy to use.  These concealers are hit or miss some are too shear (ELF HD) and some don't blend in well with the rest of your foundation (Age Rewind).  But I feel like these styles of concealers are definitely the easiest to learn how to use when first starting out with concealer.  So here's what I have (not int he order pictured)

• ELF Studio Concealer stick in beige. This $3 concealer is great. Excellent coverage, perfect shade match to me and a non-waxy stick formula. I can use this on my face and before I knew any better use to slather this under my eyes- but I don't recommend that because it'll dry your under eyes out like no ones business. If I was recommending a drugstore concealer for someone just starting out I'd recommend this easily- love it. This was also the first ELF product I ever tried after a theatre friend's recommendation.
• ELF HD Lifting Concealer  in light. Another $3 ELF product that is not great. This stuff sucks. It is so sheer. It applies with a doe foot applicator and is just awful. It also smells too face make-up-y which I hate. I have no use for this concealer and have no idea why I've kept it. In the trash it goes. 
• Wet n Wild Coverall in 804. A $2 concealer! Ummm this is not good either. The shade match is fine and the texture I'm sure would work for really oily people, but my Sahara desert skin cannot handle this, it's so waxy and you can just feel it sucking all the moisture out of your skin. This is another excellent tattoo cover up and literally the only reason I bought this thing too. I'm going to hold onto it just for that reason, also it's only about a year old so if I do another show I'll pull it out. 
• NYX Wonder Pencil in light. I didn't really know where to stick this $4 pencil, I think I might have also included him in my eyeliner madness, but that's because that's how I usually use this guy.  NYX advertises it as a "wonder" because it's supposed to do lots of things- conceal, line your lips and be an eye brightener.  It doesn't really do any of these things too terribly well.  It's too light for it to be a concealer for me, but the formula is too hard. I hate using it in my inner rim of my eyes because it's stabby. I have to warm it up first, and I don't use it to reverse line my lips but if I had the right color I may. I don't think it's anything special but I'll hold onto it and see if I can figure out a use for it.
• Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser in medium. I have a love hate relationship with this product. It's $9 and after 3 tries I finally got my color right, but...I don't know. I've almost used up this tube and while I like it and use it I wont be repurchasing it right away.  It's a creamy concealer, non-drying and made specifically for your under eyes, but I don't find it plays well with the rest of my makeup.  On days I'm just using concealer it's fine, but if I try to blend it in with different foundations for a seamless appearance it just doesn't work. So I'm just torn. I think it's a good concealer it does conceal but after using a full tube of it I'm not in love with it enough to spend $10 on it again.
• Benefit Fake Up in 02 medium. Oh my $24 concealer I love you. I sometimes forget about you in the back of my drawer and whenever I pull you our I remember how much I love you! This is a stick concealer unlike any other I had tried when I got it- it's a super creamy stick concealer surrounded by vitamin E and moisturizer gel. So it's hydrating! OMG I love it. I use this bad boy under my eyes and they feel so hydrated and are lightly concealed. This is not a full coverage concealer it's very light coverage but feels heavy (in a good way) but can build up to medium coverage. To me it just feels so good under my eyes and is perfect for weekends when I don't feel like wearing a full face of makeup. This was my first high end concealer purchase and after it I realized what my problem had been. Don't buy cheap concealer- they're just not worth it. Because I use this so infrequently I've had it over a year and will probably finish it up before Thanksgiving. I love it. I may not purchase it again right away but I definitely will again before next Summer because it's delightful. 

Up next I have potted concealers. Or panned concealers. These come in two types- at least that I've found- waxy and creamy.  There are some other variations in there but I think both really have their place and I've found a use for them that I didn't expect. So lets just jump into what I have.

• Benefit Boi-ing in 02 medium.  This $12 duo is 1/2 Boing concealer and 1/2 eye bright brightener.  Since I already knew I loved my first Benefit concealer I thought this duo was a great way to try others and it is. While I don't have much use for the eye brightener I may just not know how to use it, but the Boing concealer is a very interesting full coverage concealer. This stuff is thick, not hydrating but not waxy. I sometimes would use this on top of my Fake Up for a little more coverage and it works fine for that. I don't reach for this much anymore. I've hit pan on the concealer and will probably use it up but I've found other stuff I like better. This stuff isn't bad I just don't really need it in my stash. I think the Boing concealer texture and consistency would work on oilier skins better than dry.
• Benefit Erase Paste in 02 medium.  There's a theme here with Benefit. Their products are good. This $26 pot of salmon colored gold is amazing. I bought this after seeing several videos by EmilyNoel83 using it in tutorials or highlighting it in concealer videos. 2nd important concealer lesson I learned- if you have dark blue/purple circles under your eyes, you should use a salmon or orangey colored concealer to hide them. Something about being on different sides of the color spectrum makes them hide each other. This concealer has a creamy almost gel like texture it's very slippery and smooth. I don't think it's adding hydration to my face but it feels very moisturizing.  This stuff is made for the under eyes and since it's in that salmon color does a great job. During the school year when I'm super pale I use this under another concealer, but in the summer when I get a little pigment in my skin I can wear this by itself. I think it does a great job, if you set it it doesn't crease.  The only thing that is weird about this concealer for me is every review and the instructions online all say to use a little bit of this and that it'll go a long way...not the case for me I have to put a layer of this on my skin. I use the back of the spatula they give you to get it out of the pot and I cover the back of the spatula once for each eye. So I don't know. But I love it, I only use it under my eyes and I imagine this pot will last 2 years unless it goes bad first. I love it and as of right now I'd repurchase it- we'll see how I feel in another year.
• Pixi Correction Concentrate in brightening peach. This is a semi-drugstore option for Benefit's erase paste. This is $12 at target and YouTube told me it's a dupe for my Erase Paste.  I actually bought this first before I tried Erase Paste and loved it. It's creamy it's a salmony-peach color and it doesn't dry out my under eyes.  For me after a while I found the color wasn't as pigmented as I'd like and while my dark circles normally pop back out a few hours after concealer I feel like this almost made them look grey half way through the day. I like it though and find it a great option if you don't want to spend $26 on a concealer which I agree hurts. I'm holding onto it because it's another one of those concealers I'll break out on the weekend when I don't want to use my really expensive stuff. I imagine this stuff will last a little less than 2 years because it's slightly smaller than my erase paste.
• theBalm timeBalm Concealer in light/medium. This is an $18 concealer that I got for $10 on Hautelook (referral link). I heard about this from JenLuvsReviews and Tati on YouTube. Jen uses this as her under eye concealer and Tati uses it as an eye base/primer. I'd been wanting to try it so when I saw it come up on Hautlook I decided to try it. Well it's not good for my undereyes and then it creased on my eye lids.  This is a fairly dry and very lightly waxy concealer. Sigh. It's a perfect color match which was awesome and it lasts forever but I just found I couldn't use it under my eyes or on them.  Then one day- I decided to be adventurous and use it as a redness corrector around my nose- the one area on my face that is dry as hell but not as dry as say my cheeks and eyes.  So I took a concealer brush and lightly spread it over the area- instantly my redness vanished! It's a miracle! So that's how I'll use this guy up. I probably wont repurchase him because I know there are better redness correctors out there but it'll do for now.

And lastly we have tubed concealers! So now that I have more experience with tubed concealers I expect them to be full coverage and really hydrating. However that is not always what you find.

• Flirt! Glamouflage Healer/Concealer in who knows. I've had this concealer well past the recommended 36 months. I'm pretty sure I've had this for about 7 years. I'll be getting rid of it. This was a gift from a friend back when I was having acne issues, this concealer was really thick and has salicylic acid in it. I used a lot of it because the tube feels pretty hollow. I don't know if you can get it anymore- a quick Googling shows it on Ebay, but it was good then I wouldn't purchase it now because I don't need that type of coverage.
• Maybelline FaceStudio Master Conceal om 20 light. This $9 is also going in the trash. I do not like this. I got this because it was on sale when I got a Face Studio primer that I love. However this concealer does nothing. It is so wet and watery and would be great if I wasn't to go full on highlight the under eye area but that's not my style. I couldn't get this to work and I didn't like the formula enough to try a different color. It's sad because I hate to waste money on crappy products I can't find some way to use, but life is too short to use bad concealer. 
• It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Anti-Aging Concealer in neutral medium and tan. This is a $24 concealer. And I have two of them. I'm actually surprised it's a little cheaper than my Benefit because I definitely thought it was more expensive. I have however never purchased these concealers at full price. I've bought both of them with $9 of Ulta rewards so $15 is much easier to deal with considering I need two of these.  This is a great concealer, a VERY thick, creamy concealer. This stuff will cover up anything and it's moisturizing. I always do but people will less dry skin would not need an eye cream before using this. Also this stuff stays moist throughout the day! If you don't set this stuff well it'll stay tacky all day long. I love this stuff. I bought the neutral medium last fall and fell in love with it, it covers amazingly and really disguises those dark circles and blends in with other foundations beautifully.  But a few months ago I noticed it was a little too light, it was starting to highlight more than conceal so I saved up my rewards and bought the next shade up tan.  Right now I can use tan by itself and it's great but I imagine if I blend it with neutral in the fall I can probably get a little better shade match. Even though I love these concealers and out of all of mine if you told me I could only keep one I'd pick one of these, I do still find in the afternoon my bags start to peak back out. I don't know if I just have really resistant dark circles or what, but I do sometimes double layer this with my Pixi or my Erase Paste for extra concealing power. But I love that this formula like all of ITs stuff has good for your skin properties. I do feel like it helps tighten my under eye area and keep my fine lines a little less line-y. I hope I don't have to purchase either of these again anytime soon, but I will unless I find something better, but right now this is the best.

I wanted to throw in at the end quickly my concealer brushes. I use an old flat Bare Escentuals brush when I used my Time Balm as redness corrector.  Then I go back and forth between my ELF concealer brush and an Eco Tools one. The ELF is fluffier and is good for blending and the Eco Tools is a little more structured and good for placement and tapping in concealer. I am definitely a conceal with your fingers kinda gal and use my ring finger most of all, but sometimes I'll use a brush and when I do these guys are what I use.

 So that's my concealer stash! I got rid of three and I'm happy with that. I use all of the ones I have so I think it's fine to have options. If there's something better out there let me know! I would love to be able to conceal my under eye circles better, but based on the research I've done I'm doing what I should be it's just not perfect.

Previous Makeup Maddnesses include Blush, Bronzers & Highlighters, Eye Liners, Lippies and Mascara!

*The HauteLook link is a referral link and the only one in this post. All other links link to Ulta, Drugstore or the brands site. I also link to a couple of my favorite YouTubers if they're who I saw the product with first! 

Beauty Trash #2!

I feel like I just did one of these! But I guess it has been 3 months... my last Beauty Trash was my first. But I've got more. I store my beauty trash in a medium size Sephora bag and when it gets full it's time to talk trash! Here's what I've got this time-

Some repeats from last time, my tried and true and some stuff I wont be trying again. I went through 5 makeup wipes bags! What? How? And only one cotton rounds? I wont spend too much time on stuff I've already talked about. 

Now I have a whole post on moisturizers so I don't need to go into too much detail except that I'm super impressed I got through an entire thing of my Vaseline Intensive Care, I only use this stuff in the summer because it's not strong enough any other time, so I'm about half way through another one too.  I've talked about the Simple Miscellar water a lot, still love it. I still just use it after my makeup wipes to get anything else off my face and eyes. It feels like you're putting nothing extra on your skin.  Next up we have something I hate and will not be purchasing...L'Oreal Miracle Blur? Ewww. It was a pretty big sample and I didn't finish it. It balled up on my face and reacted horribly with my day cream. This stuff was gross. I went through a Sephora sample of my favorite perfume of the summer Armani Si, I hope to one day own a full size but it's so expensive. Next to that I have an Ulta sample of Lancome Effacernes concealer in Light Bisque. This stuff is lovely and very hard to describe. It's very thing but has great coverage, doesn't dry out my under eyes but dries down to a powder finish. I didn't think it was anything special so I wont be purchasing it but it was nice to play with.  Then I went through a full NYX Dewy Finish Setting Spray this stuff is just fine. I got a second one during one of Ulta's buy one get one NYX deal, but it's not the end all be all. If I get it on sale I'd buy again but I've yet to find my setting spray holy grail.

Lypsyl! Y'all Lypsyl. This stuff is fabulous. I talked about it a little bit in my last post and I just love this stuff. I dug the remaining goods out of this tube I loved it so much. I have a tube about half way done at work in the mint flavor and another honey one at home I'm working on. I love these things and will continue to purchase, use and abuse.  I also went through my car chapstick! I always keep one or two chapsticks near me at all times. In my car I probably have like 3 of these rolling around and the original Cherry flavor is my favorite. I have a few in the cake batter flavor left and one in the blue tube...is that mint? I'll finish those up but they're always a good standby, you're in the checkout line with dry lips and you just pick them up. This next up I was so sad to finish. My NYX Micro Brow WAH! I loved this thing! I have mine in Taupe and it's just beautiful, so much more natural than any other brow product I use. I already have a back up but I'm working through an inferior brow pencil that I've had for longer than I had this one- I don't use it a lot because it's not as good! I love this NYX pencil and will go back to it as soon as I'm done with my other one. Then finally I had a blush sample from Tarte in Fearless. Gorgeous color! These Tarte blush samples last a while because they're so pigmented you need so little of them. Has anyone ever in the history of the world gone through a full Tarte blush? I don't know how you ever could! I bought this, it took me forever to track it down they never had it at my Ulta, but I found it, I love it and it's just the perfect light pink that goes great with everything.

On to the other half of my trash! Up top we have my Olay Day Cream that I talked about in my moisturizer post as well and it was such a chose to get through this. I just didn't like it. I feel like it really didn't do much. Once I started wearing more foundations and less BB creams there just wasn't enough moisture in this bad boy. So nope, I went back to my Olay Beauty Fluid and life is lovely.  This tube of Cetaphil was my last one I went through before summer and it's fabulous I love it and I have more. I went through 3 Neutrogena make-up remover wipes (talked about those in the last empties) and 1 bag of HEB cotton rounds.  Then I have two makeup wipes I was just trying out.  The ELF I had used before and hated, they weren't wet enough and the product was kinda stingy.  So I tried them again the new packaging helps keep them moist  but they're still stingy, so I use them for daily brush cleaning and wiping off swatches.  The other makeup wipes I had I heard great things about they're the Trader Joe's Miscellar wipes and they were fine, but suffered ELF's earlier fate that they just weren't wet enough. I will probably get the ELF again to use for clean up and swatches but I wont get the Trader Joe's ones. 

So that's my trash! It's fun to see what I actually use and go through. I feel so much more justified knowing I'm not wasting my money and am actually finding ways to use things up even when they're not my favorite. None of the links above are affiliate links- I'm not fancy enough for that- they're just links either to other blog posts or somewhere you can buy this stuff like Drugstore.com, Ulta or Sephora.  Let's see if I can make it till October to do my next empties! 

My favorite lip products!

Let's revisit lip stuff! So I wrote a few months back about all my lipsticks...here. For someone who doesn't wear a lot of lipstick I had a whole heck of a lot of lipstick, but the post was already so long going through them all that I had a friend ask me to go into more detail about my fave lip products- Okay! (she's also the friend who requested my Matte eye look walk through). So here I'll walk us through my lip prep, my favorite drugstore lipsticks and my favorite/only high end lipsticks.

Lip prep is really important. I am a chapstick/lip balm junkie. I hate when my lips get dry but one of the millions of things I've learned in the last year and a half watching beauty gurus is that your lips have to be prepped and primed just like your face to get the results you want.  So here we have two lip balms, a primer and an exfoliator. The ELF Lip Exfoliator is $1 and you could make it at home, but its cheap and comes in a lipstick format so it's just easy. It's little sugar grains surrounded by a waxy balm. Rub this on your lips whenever you start to get chapped and top immediately with your most hydrating lip balm. Whenever you exfoliate anything on your body always follow it up with a good moisturizer you just lost a layer of skin and a layer of moisturizer so tim to replenish.  After I exfoliate I need something kinda thick and that will really get the moisture back in my lips quickly- the Smith's Rosebud Salve is perfect for this. It's like $6 or $8 at Sephora and lasts forever...I've never known someone to go through one of the tubes or the tub...I'm gonna try. It's basically a lip mask it's so thick, but it's amazing and it comes in a tube now so you don't have to dig into the little tub or worry about it getting stuck.  I still have two tubs that I also use, but I love my tube! Leave this one overnight preferably or at least 1/2 an hour before applying anything on over it. My favorite chapstick right now is the Lypsyl I've already gone through a full one and am half way through the ones I have at home and work. I keep one at the office too- I told you I don't like my lips to feel dry.  I put Lypsyl on the moment I wake up and usually by the time I'm done with my makeup it's set enough on my lips that I can apply my lipstick right on over it without wiping any off.  This stuff has beeswax in it and it's amazing maybe $4 at Wallgreens and lasts me probably about 3 months.  Then the little pencil I have is Milani's Anti-Feathering primer maybe $4 too and I only use this when wearing red lipstick.  I'm not a big lip liner girl but with red lipstick it's really important and this acts as a primer/anti-feathering/liner so when I need it I use it.

Next up I have my favorite drugstore lipsticks! I'm a huge fan of chubby pencil lipsticks, they're easy to use and precise and Revelon's Colorburst Matte Balms are amazing they're $9ish each but you can always get them on sale at Ulta. I have shades 250 Standout which is a great brick red that works really well with my undertones and 225 Sultry thats a great everyday nude color.  These last super well and fade somewhat gracefully, when they start to fade I usually rub some lip balm over them and extend the life a little longer but these last through water drinking but not through eating. This is not a moisturizing lip product so chapstick before is definitely needed. Then I have a NYX High Voltage $6 in 05 Flutter Kiss. I really love this formula, very long wearing and very moisturizing. I think I'll love this more nudey brown in the fall, but I love the formula and while it does transfer a little bit to wears beautifully. Another nudey brown I love is Wet 'n Wild's Bebot Love $2 and amazing. Creamy, creamy formula very moisturizing but it doesn't stay on well. I maybe get 3 hours wear time if I put it on after I drink my coffee.  Another color that will be great in the fall.  Then the last drugstore lipsticks I just love everything about are the Kate Moss Rimmel lipsticks in Matte and Satin. I have numbers 08 a beautiful natural everyday color and 104 a gorgeous everyday light pink.  These are $5 and again you can get them on sale all the time at Ulta. But these have everything going for them.  They last forever, they don't transfer and they don't dry my lips out.  The Black tubed Satin in 08 is definitely the more hydrating one than the Matte but they are both very comfortable and smell delightful. I lost of my first 08 at work and had to buy another I enjoy it so much.

For high end lipstick I only have a two brands I think, but I only like my NARS Velvet Matte and Satin Lip Pencils.  These puppies are $26 each...I got my first two in my Sephora Birthday Gift in a bright red and a shimmery nude, I love the shimmery nude but the red was too blue for me.  So I bought these two guys (on different trips) The colors are not this similar in real life, but the first one I bought is a very dark nude- Sephora calls it a Warm Coral Red it's name is Walkyrie and it's going to be gorgeous in the fall. I love it and anytime I wear it I automatically feel fancier. I got this at the end of spring and always thought it was too dark but when I tried it on in the store I just fell in love with it so a few months later I went back and got a better everyday color Bettina, a pink mauve, is literally the color of my lips. My lips have a lot of pigment in them already and this just evens out the skin tone a little better and I can wear it and not worry about it wearing off unevenly because it's my lip color. Now the formula on these is kinda dry, it's not drying but I always need a lip balm under them usually my Lypsyl and I usually reapply balm a few hours after wear.  These have a great wearing time I usually get to lunch very easily and after lunch just a quick touch up is all I need.  I can drink water and coffee easily without them wearing off.  It does hurt my heart that they're so expensive but they're worth it- as I've found with most NARS products...

So the other day I was going through my back up stash and found my favorite lipsticks every in the history of life that I thought I had lost when I wrote my makeup madness lipstick post...

Very Sexy. Yes you are. My beautiful Victoria's Secret lipsticks from 100 years ago before they were discontinued.  I have two reds. One a brick red that closely resembles my Revlon red called Don't Stop and a sparkly fire engine red called On Fire- there is glitter involved. I love these lipsticks so much, I know they're expired but I can't throw them away they still smell good! And they're sooooo pretty. So they're bonus lipsticks just for fun since you can't buy them anymore.

So that in a nutshell is my lipstick post. I am not a big lipstick person but I try, I enjoy the look but I always end up with lipstick just on the edges of my lip so I feel like I have to check up on them a lot when I wear them.  But these are the lipsticks I reach for the most out of my vast collection and if I were to repurchase any of them again it's probably be the NARS and the Revlon, I do want to get a few more shades of the NYX, but I'm on a makeup No Buy for a while because I DO NOT NEED MORE MAKEUP. I have plenty for now and I want to save up some $$$ for the holiday palettes that will come out in the fall- I love those. So for right now I'm good. 

If you have any suggestions or questions you want answered about my life with makeup let me know! I love getting asked questions it's easier than me coming up with ideas all on my own!