Spring Favorites 2016

Hello. Yes I've been gone a long time. Sorry. I moved. Back in March I moved from College Station back to San Antonio. I spent two months living with my sister and her family before finally getting back in my own house. I'm now pretty much settled in and have time to myself again to blog and read and spend time with my cats. So here I am!

During these last three months I have bought kinda a lot of makeup...I don't want to add the total because it's scary, but these are my favorite purchases of Spring that I have been using and abusing.

Here we have pretty much a whole face worth of stuff and that wasn't even intentional, I just grabbed the items I've been using the most and loving the most.  I have two Urban Decay products which is weird for me because I'm not normally the biggest UD fan, but I'd heard too many good things about the UD Naked Concealer. I actually bought this twice, the first time the shade was just slightly too dark but works great on my sister and the second time I got the perfect shade for me. This stuff is beautiful and I goes beautifully on top of my color corrector under my eyes. My under-eye concealer always used to crease but this stuff does not crease, it's fabulous. I highly recommend.  Then I also have the UD Gwen Stefani palette that I'll talk more about later.

Next up I have a Wet 'n Wild eyeshadow primer which I am loving! I used the Wet 'n Wild Fergie primer a few years ago loved that one too and since then had been using the Milani, but when that one ran out I jumped to try this one after hearing rave reviews. This primer is fantastic, it makes my shadows look great and has just enough tackiness to help your shadows stay all day.  Above that I have an IT Cosmetics Ulta Exclusive Concealer brush. I don't usually use a brush for concealer but saw people using this brush for highlighter and it's perfect for that! The highlight brush I had been using was way too big, but this is perfect, super soft and fluffy. I also have another IT Cosmetics product the Superhero Mascara that I had also heard great things about. This is definitely one of those mascaras that gets better with age. It started out super wet and underwhelming, but after about 2 weeks it started to dry out and now it's a fave. It's great at voluming and lengthening. I'm not sure it'll replace my Benefit Roller Lash, but I really love it.

Then the two palettes. I bought both of these are birthday gifts for myself back in March. First up the UD Gwen Stefani palette. I was so tempted to get this when it first came out but didn't hear a lot of reviews on it. No one seemed to be talking about it and the people who were said it was just a good neutral palette with a couple of pops. But I got it with my Ulta Birthday Giftcard and discount so I got it for less than full price. This is a gorgeous palette! The texture of the shadows is beautiful. In the pan they kick up a lot of dust but on the eye I have not had a problem with fallout. I feel like the colors (besides the blue and black) are all very usable and create pretty looks. One complaint I heard was that you always get the same look with this palette, and that's fine with me, because I like neutral looks and only rarely branch out so this is great. Love love love.

And now my favorite favorite! My Benefit Cheekathon palette! This thing is fabulous and I hate that my phone takes such horrible pictures, but it's fabulous. This palette has all the traditional/classic Benefit box blushes/bronzer in one place. I missed out on the Christmas palette like this two years ago and always hated that, so I'm so glad I snagged this one up. I have used this almost daily since I got it. Dallas and Rockateur are my most used blushes. Dallas is a gorgeous dusty rose that looks good daily. Rockateur is a pink rose with some gold sheen in it. Another natural but glowy blush that is great when you don't want to wear a highlighter. Dandelion is a pretty pale pink, but more of a fall/winter shade for me so I haven't used it much. And Coralista is a blush I may never use...I just can't pull off coral.  Hoola Bronzer is just as good as you've always heard it was. I use it daily as my light contour/bronzer. I love this palette and it was totally worth the price. I've heard the formula may be different on some of these colors than the original box blushes, but since I don't have those I don't know the difference.  

So those are my favorites. Sorry it's been so long since I blogged, but hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things now that I'm more settled. 

Top 5 Blushes

Howdy! I've been away so long! Sorry! Busy semester. I got a job, got into law school and will now be moving home soon. I'll write all about packing on my other blog, but I'll check in here on my makeup packing and moving. But first...blush!

I have a lot of blush, I really don't know how it happened. Last year I only had 14 blushes...that number has almost doubled now... in fact all of these have been acquired since then except one. So here's what they are and why I love them. Counterclockwise from the Hourglass palette.

1. Hourglass Mood Exposure the most expensive blush I own and it's not even a full size, but in a palette. This bottom left corner color doesn't look like anything special in the pan, but when you put it on it is the most perfect plum-y mauve. The color is so gorgeous with a hint of glow, not shimmer and I'm in love. I wore this color for over a month straight after I got this palette because it is so gorgeous. It's a sophisticated natural color that looks great. I think it's a great winter color and love it when wearing all black or grey. It lasts forever and is so silky smooth to the touch. I will buy the full size of this if I ever work through this one- all $38 of it. This palette was $80 and is a great sampler of Hourglass stuff.
2. Milani Tea Rose I had the hardest time picking which of Milani's rose blushes I wanted last year when these came out, but decided to go with this one because it seemed the most universal. It's a bright rose color and a great pink when the season's are transitioning Winter to Spring or Summer to Fall. I just love it. I feel like it's a comforting color like jeans, it's a good casual color but looks super nice when dressed up. It has a great texture and great lasting power, it looks so natural on and if I needed more blush I would buy more of this formula.
3. Tarte Fearless One of the 12 Hour Amazonian Clay Blushes, it's photographing much brighter and online it looks much mellower, but it's a beautiful bright pink flush but not too bright. It's a great everyday Spring and Summer Pink. I first fell in love with this blush as a sample. Tarte blushes are super pigmented and this will probably last me forever, but I love it and until it gets hard pan I will use and abuse it. Tarte blushes are $28 and well worth it. In the summer it's a no-brainer blush, I highly recommend.
4. Tarte Savored another 12 Hour Amazonian Clay Blush, but unfortunately it was a part of a limited edition holiday collection from  QVC. I wrote about it here. Tarte blushes never photograph correctly, but this is my go to Fall/Winter blush. It's a burgundy deep color with some gold shimmer, but not too much. It was my first experience with Tarte blushes and you can see my Amazonian woman is mostly used up in the center. It's sadly getting a little hard pan on it after a year and a few months, but that's okay it was a great deal in a set.
5. theBalm Cabana Boy a beautiful deep dusty rose color. Another one I break out in the fall months. Such a gorgeous color with very very slight shimmer. I got this for $10 on HauteLook and while I love it I probably wouldn't have bought it full price at $21. It's a favorite because I don't have anything else like it. 

So these are my perfect go to blushes when I need to look polished and perfect, I love them. I am a very seasonal person I only use certain items during certain times of the year. True with clothing, music and makeup. Eye shadows I mix pretty much year round, but blushes not at all. I love my pinks and in the Spring and Summer, but in the Fall and Winter I want something deeper and cozier. Milani is my only favorite drugstore blush because it performs so well. If you didn't tell me it was drugstore I'd never know. These are my favorite blushes I hope you try some of them out!

Beauty Trash #3

Ooops I got behind on posts, I took these pics in December. My Sephora Beauty Trash bag was totally overflowing-

So a lot of usual characters that I wont spend too much time on, but I did go through so makeup and random things too.  So this is about 5 months worth of trash, I have my usual face/skincare stuff, hair dye stuff, makeup stuff, and randoms.

So if we start with the usual characters I used up 6 makeup removing wipes. My usual Neutrogena that are my favorite 2 of those, 3 different types of Up & Up formulas they're fine for removing makeup swatches or when I use my fingers to application or back of my hand as a palette, and then some Simple Miscellar wipes. I love the Simple Miscellar water, also pictured here, so much I thought maybe the wipes would be good too. They were fine and kept me from running out of my bottle version as fast, but probably wont purchase again unless there's a sale. I'm constantly trying new makeup wipes so nothing new there and I'll probably repurchase a variation of these again.  The Simple Miscellar Water I'm on my last back up right now, so I'll probably repurchase again soon.

I have two empty packages of Up & Up cotton rounds, one in exfoliating and one regular and they're both fine. I don't like the exfoliating one as much I feel like it falls apart too easily, but it's great for nail polish removal. I've already repurchased both of these.  Then I have my holy grail moisturizer that Cetaphil cream love I have 3 back ups right now.  Then the odd man out in this group is my Deodorant- I use Secret Outlast and it's scent is just the fresh clean one- nothing special I've been using it for years. The only thing I don't like about it is if I'm not careful I get white deodorant marks on my clothes- I wear too many dark colors.

I dyed my hair A LOT these last 5 months. Still trying to get it back to its normal color from the bleach blonde Tyler episode of 2014. I only saved one of the hair dye tubes because the others were messy and gross, but I love this brand One 'n Only Argan Oil Hair Color it's very reasonably priced at Sally's and I've bought it at least 6 times since after I went blonde. It's very gentle and that's probably why I had to dye my hair so much because it did wash out very easily the first 4 applications. I've used the 20 and 10 Developers and hopefully I wont need to again but I think 10 is the way to go for me. I was using the 5 level at first and it would not take, it washed out so much that my hair kept ending up red, so I slowly moved up to 4 and then this last time did a 3 and it's finally stuck. I did expect it to wash out a little more but I'm fine with it and don't think I'll have to dye it again.  I also went through many packets of hair color remover wipes for my face because I'm a mess when I dye my hair. I used the Colortrak Wipe Off Color only a buck and they did the trick, they're not as wet as some but they worked fine.

For makeup I feel like I went trough small things but two I'm very proud of.  I finished a bronzer. NYC Bronzer in Sunny and after almost 2 years- I think it was about 20 months I made my way through that thing. I'm kinda sad it's gone because I feel like it's a great contour shade for me, but it has freed me up to try more. Also it's super cheap if I do feel the need to purchase it again. Then I also went through a Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser in medium. It took me three tries to get my shade right but I miss this guy. I didn't use it every day because it was too drying but on the weekends I used it for a quick fix. I have other concealers I'm working through right now so I don't need it but I'll probably repurchase eventually.

Then I have three mascaras- 2 I love and 1 I hate. Maybelline's Lash Sensational  people said this was a drugstore dupe for Benefit's Roller Lash...they LIED. I hated this stuff it was too wet and never curled my lashes, I waited to it to dry and still hated it. Not for me. Urban Decay Perversion however is for me I loved it. This is the Mascara to use if you want the false lash look without the false lashes, I had this guy for over a year- tempting fate- because it would never dry out! Eventually it did and the big bushy bristles started sticking together but this guy it totally worth the $22 price. Then a sample size of Benefit's They're Real- love this mascara have already repurchased and will continue to do so. The sample size is the perfect size for me, I find it just as easy to use as the full size. This is one of my holy grail mascaras and I love it.

Then the last product is a huge dud. It's a Wet 'n Wild Coverall Concealer stick that smells like crayons and is so greasy and dry at the same time. I bought this for covering tattoos and it failed at that job. I probably had this thing for two years and I just finally gave up trying to use it, I hated it and have found much better ways to cover up tattoos that does not include this fail of a concealer.

For the last group I have some random things. My beloved hair clip! I have super super thick hair and usually go through hair clips like they're going out of style, but this monster is rubberized and I have 3 others at home because I was terrified it would break. Well luckily this guy is a work horse and I got a good year out of it before it broke. This is the Scunci No-Slip Grip Hair Claw usually about $6-8 depending where you buy it. Great clip for big hair and I cannot be without it.

Then I have a Norwegian Hand Cream I heard on YouTube was great for super dry hands. This did nothing for me. I can't complain too much it was under $5 but this was greasy and then disappeared without adding moisture to my hands, I was so disappointed. I'm still searching for the perfect hand cream.

And finally I have a sample of Lancome's Bi-Facil eye makeup remover.  I miss this stuff. Full size is priced over $20 and I just can't justify it, but anytime I get a sample of this I use it. This removes eye makeup so wonderfully and completely with no tugging or anything. I love it. If you just talk to the people in the Lancome section at Ulta they almost always offer you a free sample of something I recommend taking them up on it and getting the Bi-Facil. It's amazing.

So that's my trash! I miss a lot of these products. I'll try not to wait so long next time.