March Favorites

Happy April everyone!

I know a lot of people bring out their colorful shades of lipsticks, nail polishes, eye-shadows etc. as we get further away from winter and closer to summer. I have no idea what happened in my case, but lately I've been keeping it pretty neutral. Regardless, I present you my top products for the month of March!

Too Faced Natural Eye Palette

This palette is my favorite palette ever, hands down. Sounds cliche but I seriously love each and every color in this palette and I use every single one quite a bit! My favorite combo has to be, Heaven all over lid, Velvet Revolver on crease and Erotica to add some depth to crease. Love love love it!

Essie Nail polish in Topless & Barefoot

I lost count of how many times I removed and reapplied Topless & Barefoot the entire month!

Coastal Scents Destiny Precision Angled Liner Brush

I used to swear by the Sonia Kashuk version of this brush until I discovered it last month! O M G, perfect winged out line every time! If you have shaky hands or just cannot get your eyeliner to look perfect give this brush a try! I bought it on Coastal Scent's website for $2.19. Best 2 bucks I have spent in a while! I will definitely buy more of them in near future as I am a total procrastinator when it comes to brush cleaning oops!

 Milani Baked Blush in Rose D'oro

This blush adds just the perfect amount of coral to my cheeks and is stunning! I haven't been able to find the other shades but as soon as I do, they will be mine! For a drugstore brand, this blush has amazing color pay off and pigmentation!

Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick in Delish

Drugstore lipsticks continue to amaze me! Covergirl did an absolutely fantastic job with these lipsticks! They come in 40 something shades, have a creamy consistency and apply like a dream! So far these lip perfection lipsticks have to be my favorite from the drugstore (after my Revlon Soft Nude of course!)

Agadir Argan Oil Hair Treatment

Where has this oil been all my life?? I love what this argan oil does to my hair. I apply it on my hair while it's still damp after shower. When I wake up the next morning, I have soft, smooth, shiny and totally touchable hair! I wanna touch my hair all the time :D

Are any of my favorites your favorites as well? If not, what are yours?

Going through my sister's make-up bag! // Lipsticks

As some of you may know, my sister is in town visiting me :D Because we're both make-up addicts I just had to go through the make-up she brought here tee-hee! (She goes through my stuff daily so it's only fair!) I thought it'd be fun to share her products on my blog so here we are!

My sister and I have different tastes when it comes to make-up! Especially when it comes to lipsticks, I am all about the light pinks, corals and nudes where as she is in love with reds and other interesting colors (she gave me the side eye when I called these colors interesting lol) like maroon and magenta! I think she just has the perfect skin color to work these colors, she is NC20 with olive undertones for reference. I really admire her capability to beautifully wear these shades whether it's day or nighttime, she's my lipstick idol! :)

I think she has a little lipstick problem! :) Oh and she also just back 2 MAC-ed for Girl About Town which needless to say looks amazing on her! I, on the other hand, cannot imagine myself wearing colors like Girl About Town or any of these reds even in my dreams.

L-R: Chanel #19 Gabrielle, MAC Craving, MAC Viva Glam Cyndi, L'oreal Plum Brulee

 Gabrielle is absolutely stunning on her, it's her favorite red lipstick ever! I could see myself wearing Viva Glam Cyndi, only if applied with a light hand of course! The other two are also pretty but just not me.

L-R: MAC Angel, MAC Blankety, MAC Hue, MAC Perennial High Style, MAC Oyster Girl

 Now the above photo has my name all over it! :D I'm happy to see colors that I love and can relate to, such as MAC's Angel (my fave MAC pink ever!) and Blankety! I also love Perennial High Style and totally regret getting the ugly beautiful English Accents instead.

 
Top L-R: Chanel Gabrielle, MAC Craving, MAC Viva Glam Cyndi, L'oreal Plum Brulee

Bottom L-R: MAC Angel, MAC Hue, MAC Blankety, Perennial High Style, Oyster Girl

She has many more lipsticks in her collection, but this is all she brought on her trip. Another color I love that she has is MAC's Costa Chic, which will hopefully be added to my collection soon! By the way, have you guys noticed how the top of her lipsticks are flat? Mine are so pointy that I'm afraid they'll break, I need to get some application tips from her! Does anyone else have flat top lipsticks?

What do you think about her lip products? Anyone else share my fear of wearing reds, maroons and all those colors?

Spring Nail Polish Picks!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't been able to update my blog as often as I'd like as my sister just flew in from Turkey few days ago. We've been busy catching up and having sisterly fun! :D Thanks for bearing with my lack of productivity, I do have more posts coming up though. ;)

 Although the recent temperatures in Chicago (think mid 30s on a good day!) do not seem like spring is upon us, technically it is! I am ready to slap on some pastels and pretty, feminine colors in general on my nails! Here are my picks for spring :) I just got these color wheels from Sally's thinking the colors would be easier to photograph and just to have neater swatches, I like the outcome!

L-R

Essie Topless & Barefoot

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Essie Lapis of Luxury

Essie Splash of Grenadine

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

China Glaze Light As Air

OPI Mod About You

Essie Van D'Go

Revlon Temptress

China Glaze Peachykeen

Revlon Tropical Temptation

As you can see I'm obsessed with pinks and purples once spring time rolls around but of course I like to mix it up, how long can one wear pink nail polish?! I would have just loved to add a pastel yellow to my collection as I love yellow! But..I seriously hate the way pastel yellow looks on my hands, I tried it.

If you could add some nail polish colors to this color wheel, what would you add? 

I always love nail polish recommendations! :)

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start! ♥

Grooming My Eyebrows

Happy Monday everyone!

Few of people e-mailed me asking about how I groom my eyebrows so here I am! They are not perfect by any means, but I like their shape and the way they look with the rest of my face :) (Believe me, I was one of those 13 year-olds who plucked the crap out of her brows, so I've come a looooong way! :))

Tools I use...

I have...

• an eyebrow comb (doesn't have to be an expensive one, mine is from Ulta)
• pair of scissors
• eyebrow razor/trimmer
• tweezers (mine is from Revlon, I had it for years, they're the best I've ever owned) 
• Anastasia Brow Duality highlighter pencil and Anastasia Brow Gel (these are optional, I do use the brow gel everyday)
• flat (brow) brush
• MAC Print eyeshadow which I use to fill in my brows (of course that's because my brows are black, you should choose a shade based on your hair color)

I use the trimmer because I feel that for the brows to look fresh and clean, the area surrounding the brows should be free of hair or have minimal fuzz. My upper eyebrow area can be sensitive if I do use tweezers there. I find these trimmers to do the job without any pain or irritation. These trimmers do a fantastic job in my opinion! They are called "Tinkle" I bought them from Amazon but I'm sure you can find them at dollar/discount stores. Alternatively you can use...

I found these at my local market and they are by Ardell which is way more widely available in markets, drugstores etc. This pack had the razor (on left, to trim down the eyebrow - alternative to scissors) and 3 trimmers ( to remove fuzz/above or below brows, I'm just showing one of them) I believe it was around $4.

1. Start with bushy, desperately needing to be plucked eyebrows.

2. With the brow comb, comb the hairs on the inner part of your face upwards and trim with scissors. (I forgot to take a photo of scissors scene oops!)

3. Clean up the upper eyebrow area with trimmer, working your way down towards the eyebrow.

4. It should look something like this.

5. Using tweezers, pluck away any unwanted hair below brows.

6. Pick up your fill color with your flat brush, I'm using Print by MAC.

7. Fill in the sparse areas that need help, making sure you fill in lightly on inner part and increasing intensity as you're moving towards the end of the brows.

8. Filled in eyebrow.

9. Coat/brush brows with clear brow gel working your way out towards to end of brows.

10. Apply highlighter right below your brows and blend.

11. Highlighted brows.

12. Finished.

I hope this post was helpful for those of you who asked me about my brows! If you have any more questions, let me know! :))

Hope you all have a lovely week! ♥

Shu Uemura Painting Liner in Black

This is a loooong over-due post about my now favorite gel liner. I purchased this "painting liner" back in December and just now getting around to sharing my experience with you all. I had always heard/read great things about Shu Uemura's Painting Liners. When my Wet n Wild gel liner started to turn into a hard little ball and was just unusable, I knew I had to start looking for another gel liner. I love gel liners because of their consistency and find them so easy to work with, unless of course they dry up like the Wet n Wild one.

Shu Uemura's painting liners come nestled in a little white box like this. And the gel liner comes in a glass jar which I think is a nice and classy touch. Cosmetics in glass containers/jars have always got an A from me because I always think of glass to be sanitary :)

This gel liner is a true black, like pitch black. Pigmentation is a jaw dropper as you can see on my swatch. Its perfectly creamy consistency is very easy to work with (and I am not expert in lining, believe me!) I would say it takes about 20-30 seconds to fully dry. For me that's plenty of time to perfect my eyeliner. I don't only use my painting liner on my upper lid but also in the water line. When I first watched a short segment about this product in part of a video on Youtube, I was sort of weirded out by the idea of putting something in gel-form in your waterline. When I tried it myself, I was really amazed. I was skeptical that it may burn or sting but nope it's very waterline-friendly.

I am beyond impressed with its staying power on my waterline. Honestly I thought "ahh people are overreacting", I was wrong because it really does last for hours without having to touch up. I am also very happy to report that there is no smudging or collection of product in inner or outer corners. that is always a plus in my book! Since buying it in December, I use it almost daily and by looking at the little pot you can see it will last me a very long time! I love "a little goes a long way" type of products! Yay! :)

I use these two brushes for application. The white, bent one is by Sonia Kashuk (purchased at Target for $5.99) and it's perfect for getting more of a precise line. I love that it's bent so it gives you more control and helps you achieve a cleaner line. The other one is by EcoTools (available at Walgreens as part of 5 piece brush set for $10.99). I use this brush when I want to have a thicker eyeliner and it also helps me a lot with doing a flick at the end.

Verdict? I will definitely repurchase this gel liner. I am so impressed with the quality of this product and the fact that it's made to really last. It is on the pricier side at $22 for .098oz (2.8gr) but it is everything I look for in an eyeliner period. So for me it's worth every penny. It's HG material, hands down. I would also love to try it in different colors as I love me some color on my lower lash line!

What do you think about gel liners? Have you tried Shu Uemura's Painting Liner?

Too Much Hype

Today's post may be a bit controversial as I will be talking smack about over-hyped products based on my experiences with them. Of course as always, they may work for you and you may think they are the next best thing after sliced bread. I, however, was quite let down by all of these products you will read about below.

MAC Fix +

A lot of people swear by Fix+ and being surrounded by all this hype about it I just had to see it for myself. Honestly I don't see or feel any difference in the way my face looks, feels or the amount of time my foundation lasts whether I use Fix+ or not. It is very refreshing when you first spray it and has a very fresh scent but that's all there is to it. I am sorry to say this was such a waste of money and in stead I could have invested in an eye-shadow or lipstick.

L'oreal Lineur Intense

Another purchase that was made because of all the hype about it and it coincided with me needing a liquid eyeliner at the time. Back then I was usually only using pencil eyeliners. But then I started seeing Lineur Intense popping up all over the place. So I tried it and actually found it to be doing a decent job, for a while. Shortly after I realized the eyeliner just wasn't staying put and it would migrate from the inner corner of my eyes to where my pupil begins. It would also end up in the outer corner of my eyes which just looks bad. No matter how much I shook it up before application, I would need to dip the applicator a few times before getting a decent amount of product.

MAC Myth Lipstick

Myth, without a doubt, is one of the most popular shades of MAC lipsticks. It was my first MAC lipstick ever and I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. It definitely does not suit my skin tone, at all. It's not a lipstick that a lot of people can pull off. Its concealer-like texture, look and feel are not flattering at all. I don't have much to say about it other than, at times I did think about just scraping it out to back to MAC it but it can be used as a lip eraser under another lipstick.

Urban Decay 24/7 Pencils

Urban Decay makes these 24/7 pencils in a variety of shades and that is great! Their lasting power on the other hand is not. Again just like Lineur Intense, they migrate from where I originally apply. They also end up under my lower lash-line and occasionally they will end up on my crease regardless of primer potion/base application.

CHI 44 Iron Guard

I really wanted this product to work because I do use heat on my hair quite a lot. In fact it's very highly unlikely that you will see me with my naturally curly hair, ever. I have given this protectant countless chances and it manages to leave my hair looking grossly greasy after I am finished with styling it. My hair is not oily by any means. I just have normal hair. It also makes straightening my hair much harder than it would be if I were to use Tresemme Heat Tamer or nothing at all. After blow drying with this product in my hair then going onto straightening with a flat iron, my hair seems to get stuck in the flat iron. Pulling the flat iron down feels like someone is pulling my hair. And once I manage to go all the way down with the flat iron my hair looks greasy and fried. My hair also feels super dry so forget about silky smooth hair! I will just stick to my Tresemme Heat Tamer which does a fantastic job!

Maybelline One by One Volum' Express Mascara

I don't see what everyone sees in this mascara, at all. Especially when there are much much better alternatives that truly deserve all the hype they get. What is it? Darkening (obviously) given the fact that it's a black substance. I could apply black marker on my lashes and that would also make my lashes darker. It is separating hence the name One by One. What is it not? Volumizing, curling or lengthening. I don't know about you guys but when I think of mascara, I think dramatic, sexy, flirty, fluttery lashes. Not spider legs. No thanks.

Source

 Here is the model shot Maybelline uses for their One by One mascara...I have read/seen numerous blog posts and watched many videos about this mascara and not once have I seen lashes that looked like the model's while wearing this mascara. Of course most of us know better than to fall for the ads but I just think it's ridicilous that they use the above picture to market their product that doesn't even come close to producing results like this.

I would love the know which products were a letdown for you as well. Do tell! :) 

Wishing everyone a beautiful weekend! ♥

Lucky!

Today I felt super festive so in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I did a green look! This was the perfect opportunity to put my Wet n Wild I Dream of Greenie trio to use :) The two darker greens are on the brighter side and while I do occasionally wear bright colors out, I don't get to use this trio that much!

Products

Face

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

MAC MSF Natural

Milani Baked Blush in Rose D'oro

MAC Studio Finish Concealer

elf Under-eye Highlighter and Concealer Duo

Eyes

UDPP
Urban Decay cream eyeshadow in Go Army

Wet n Wild I Dream of Greenie Trio

UD 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero on upper lashline, waterline

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk on waterline, innercorners

MUFE Smoky Lash mascara

Lips

Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick in Delish

I wish everyone a great day and if you are celebrating St. Patty's Day have fun and enjoy your green beer! ♥

Milani Baked Blush Rose D'oro

Not too long ago Milani has brought their new baked collection to life. Rose D'oro is only one of the 9 baked blushes. For some reason, no matter which Walgreens, CVS or Target I go to I am only able to find 5 of the colors. However, they are all available on Milani's website. My favorite one of the ones I could see in person was Rose D'oro. Why? Well...because I am a coral addict.

 The blushes come in this gold packaging with a clear top that way you can actually see what the color looks like. I would say the color can easily be predicted just by looking at the packaging, I think it's pretty accurate. There are two parts to the packaging; top part obviously has the blush and lifting the top reveals another compartment with a little round mirror that has the brush in it. I think the mirror is a nice touch! I personally carry whatever blush I am wearing that way along with me throughout the day because you never know when you may need a touch-up :D I don't really use the brush but again it's convenient to have it there, not taking any extra space in my make-up bag, in case I do need to touch up my blush.

Rose D'oro is a subtly shimmery coral with gold veins on it. This blush is insanely pigmented and can easily be built up. I personally like to wear it more intense because I want the color to show thoroughly. When swatched, you can see the flecks tiny gold glitter in the blush but once applied it leaves a non-overwhelming sheen on your face.

 Here are some of my other blushes in similar shades which I thought would be comparable to Rose D'oro

L-R: Rose D'oro, Coralista, Dainty, Stereo Rose

With Flash

As a result of this comparison, MAC MSF in Stereo Rose is the closest to it of the 3 which is not even that close. Benefit Coralista is lighter and has more pink in it. MAC Mineralize blush in Dainty has just a hint of coral, much less shimmer and is also much lighter than both Rose D'oro and Coralista. Stereo Rose has more of a satiny finish and is also lighter than Rose D'oro. When all four are compared side by side, I feel like Rose D'oro is actually more of a orange/light copper shade. 

I really think that this was a great purchase, at this point Rose D'oro holds the "my favorite drugstore blush" title. I don't think I ever purchased a drugstore blush that feels comparable to a higher end blush. This much pigmentation from a blush that retails for $7.99 (which will most likely go on sale or bogo at one point) is amazing! I love that there are a total of 9 shades in their baked blush collection which means there is a color for everyone! I hope I will be able to find all of the colors somewhere soon.

What do you think of Milani's baked blushes? Have you bought any of the colors?

Topless & Barefoot

....is one of the six colors in Essie's newest collection "A French Affair". Honestly at first, I thought..."yet another neutral/nude nail polish!". But when I compared to my other Essie neutral polishes, I realized it's quite unique!

L-R: Baby's Breath, Prima Ballerina, Topless & Barefoot, Naked Truth

My first experience with Topless & Barefoot was a total disappointment. By habit, I do not apply nail polish to my bare nails, meaning I apply base coat first. So I applied my base coat, then went for the color. It was so streaky, it hurt my eyes. I immediately declared it the worst polish I ever owned. The formula is quite runny too in my opinion. It almost feels like they may have left out the thickening agent (whatever it is, I am no chemist I don't know lol) and so it ended up a little runnier than it should have. If the first coat didn't apply so streaky, I would have definitely said you can achieve decent opacity with only one coat. However, as I haven't been able to have anything but streaks in the first coat so I suggest others to apply two coats like I do.

2 coats + Top coat

Couple days ago, I decided to give it another go, this time without any base coat. Leaving out the base coat worked like a charm! I mean charm as in, first coat was still bit of a disaster and second coat made everything okay. I absolutely adore the color, it's not a typical nude/beige and has a hint of baby pink to it. Perhaps I wouldn't be receiving so many compliments from random people about my nails if it were just a regular nude he he It's perfect for the spring season and even in summer when you wanna keep it lady-like :) ! I will just have to bear with the messy application for the sake of this gorgeous shade. I am a sucker for nudes! What can I do?

Did those of you that picked up Topless & Barefoot experience the same streaky application?

What do you think about this color?

Top 15 MAC Eye Shadows

Without a doubt, MAC makes my favorite eyeshadows. I have quite a few of them and can't say I have ever been let down by a single one. I won't go in detail of why I love their eye-shadows so much but two words to sum up my overall thoughts about them would be ; Pigmentation & Selection. Believe me it was so hard to pick only 15 because I love all of them in one way or another. But here are the ones that are my all-time favorites, I mean the ones I will actually eventually run out of and will re-purchase when the time comes. 

I tried to keep this selection as realistic as possible. I do love color when it comes to eye-shadows and I absolutely adore colors like Shimmermoss and Deep Truth but I just don't wear them as much as the colors you see here. So it's only fair to leave them out of this picture and keep it limited to the ones I frequent the most.

Top L-R: Digit, Shale, Nocturnelle, Print, Club

Middle L-R: Motif, Paradisco, Texture, Sable, Satin Taupe

Bottom L-R: Grain, Femme Fi, Omega, Woodwinked, Patina

L-R:

Digit Satin - Soft violet with subtle pearl

Shale Satin - Mauve-plum with subtle shimmer

Nocturnelle Frost - Pinked up chrome purple

Print Satin - Muted grey with shimmer

Club - Satin - Red-brown with green pearl

L-R:

Motif Frost - Gold-peach with pink pearl

Paradisco Frost - Bright pinky-coral with pearl

Texture Velvet - Peachy-brown with shimmer

Sable Velvet - Gold-plum with bronze pearl

Satin Taupe Frost - Taupe with silver shimmer

L-R:

Grain Satin - Golden-beige with icy shimmer

Femme Fi (LE) Velvet Pearl - Frosty golden cream

Omega Matte - Soft muted taupe-beige

Woodwinked Veluxe Pearl - Warm antique gold

Patina Frost - Taupe brown with golden pearl

*Color descriptions are taken from MAC

What are your absolute must-have/favorite MAC eye shadows?

MAC Wonder Woman Mineralize Skin Finish - Golden Lariat

Lately MAC collections are just not cutting it for me. I am just not interested in the boring colors or colors that are almost dupes of what I already own. Wonder Woman was no exception. Then last week while on MAC's website, Golden Lariat caught my eye. I don't think I even looked for swatches of the 2 MSFs in this collection before. One search for the swatch of Golden Lariat and I was instantly in love.

I love MSFs because they are a multi-purpose product and are very versatile. As long as MAC makes these, I will always have them in my collection.

I adore the packaging! It is Wonder Woman, so these colors/packaging should have been expected! I love the over all comic book-feel to the packaging. From the glossy reds, blues, golds to the little white stars in the boxes, it all screams Wonder Woman. 

The compact as you can see is huge, it entirely covers my palm! Check it out compared to a regular size MSF - here I have the lovely Stereo Rose from In the Groove. WW MSFs are twice as big as the regular sized ones weighing at .70 oz. Regulars are .35 oz. And no they don't cost twice as much only $35, $7 more than a regular MSF.

What I particularly love about Golden Lariat is that it consists of 3 different shades; 2 shimmer and 1 matte. When I look at this compact, I immediately think of a bronzed summer look, anyone feel the same?

Pigmentation is never an issue with any of the MAC products (at least in my experience) and this is no exception. I have swatched the 3 colors individually because I strongly believe you can use them individually. I have been experimenting with Golden Lariat quite a bit and have found that they all work great alone as well as blended altogether. I personally like to use the middle and matte shade for contouring since I am sporting a pretty light complexion these days. The bottom shade makes for a great shimmery peach blush and gold can be used as highlight. Even when used seperately, they give you a perfect overall  glow.

There is one thing I am bummed about. Where is the mirror? I understand there are no mirrors in regular MSF compacts as their lid is clear. But for the product in question, they could have easily inserted one under the cap! Boo! You may ask, "why do you need a mirror in this compact since I am sure you will not be taking it along when going out"....I totally would! :D

Here I am wearing all the colors as I described above..

 

I love my huge Golden Lariat, what do you guys think? Have you purchased anything from the Wonder Women collection?