My January Haul!

This week, through various online swaps, gifts, and a few Ulta/Sephora stops, I've put together some of my favorites.

All of the magical products in one! 

I got the Lorac Pro Palette through a swap on Reddit, and love it! As someone who owns all of the Naked palettes, and numerous nude eyeshadow pots(obsessed? Nah..), I knew I had to have the Lorac Pro Palette somehow. At $42 this is a bit pricey for the average person, and with my husband and I moving next week, I knew there was no way to buy it. I went on Reddit, and requested it, and a lovely person was willing to swap their unused palette!

I am feeling absolutely no regret about getting the Lorac Pro Palette. It is radically different from the Naked Palette Series, and I use it very differently. All of the colors on the top are matte, all of the colors on the bottom are shimmery. 

This is Sephora's Moonshadow Baked Palette "In The Tropics". At $26, after swatching at Sephora, I promptly put this in my Sephora Bag, and bought it. Normally I don't like Sephora brand shadows, but these are particularly pigmented, and well worth the buy. They do have a hard time blending with or without primer, but it isn't impossible. The woman at Sephora told me that this is a limited edition spring line palette, so if you're interested, you may want to jump on it while you can! 

I went to Ulta this month with the intention of buying a sponge cleaner for my Beauty Blender knock off, and walked out with the Anastasia's Dip Brow in Blonde instead. I had been wanting a way to make my brows appear lighter at whim without dyeing them, and this did the trick! I only wanted a little bit lighter of a shade, which is what it gave me. Having very thick brows, it was difficult(not impossible) to blend into the hair, but using it on clients with thinner brows is a breeze.

Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation With SPF 15 and Japonesque's 150 Degree Foundation brush! I found the brush at Ulta on sale for $4.99(originally $34.99), and how can you turn down something so cheap? Answer: You can't. Coming from using sponges, it was difficult to start using a brush, but I liked it! I really like using it on clients instead of a sponge as it makes for a more even application. 

Today I went into Sephora to return a few products that I wasn't a fan of, and wound up with store credit! I've been wanting to try a new foundation, swatched this, and fell in love! At $38,  it's very soft on your skin, goes on evenly, and moved effortlessly. The packaging is stunning with a real bamboo lid. Unfortunately, the box I grabbed was mismarked, and I ended up with Fair Sand instead of Ivory. I will again be making a trip to Sephora tomorrow; fingers crossed that I don't walk out with anything but foundation!

Through swaps and Sephora hauls, I acquired four different Lip Tars from OCC. From left to right, I have Strumpet, Lydia, Femme, and Hush. For whatever reason, in the swap photo Strumpet and Lydia are mixed up, but everything else is in the correct place. 

I really adore lip tars. They take a bit of effort to apply, but they're highly pigmented wonderfulness that stays on all day long. At $18 a piece, you would think they're a bit pricey, but you need but only a drop to get the look you want! Be sure to use either an anti-feathering pencil, lip liner, or both when using a lip tar so as to prevent feathering(I forgot one day when I was running late for work...Looked in the mirror an hour after getting there and had massive feathering-not cute). 

Keep a close eye on my page over the next few days as I will be doing a giveaway very soon! Make sure you're subscribed to me as that is part of the giveaway!

Purple Eye with the new Tarte Mattenificent Palette

My FOTD today is featuring the beautiful Tarte Mattenificent Eye Palette! You may notice that the cover photo features with and without lipstick. I actually really liked it both ways, so I decided I would go ahead and show you lovely people both!

Starting with the beautiful Kat Von D Lock It Foundation and Concealer in the first picture. I used the Too Faced Primed and Poreless Primer, and I think I am going to begin to move towards the Maybelline Baby Face primer. Personally, I get a better result for much cheaper. 

In the second picture, I'm showing off my lovely light contour. I used the Coastal Scents bronzer.

Look at this beautiful palette! It is made of some sort of metal, and is very sturdy. I carried this in my incredibly messy purse, and nothing happened to any of the shadows! No fallout in the palette or my face. The shadows are made of Amazonian Clay and are very soft. It doesn't feel like you're wearing anything! It is a very soft palette, and I had no difficulty applying the colors. The only thing I didn't like was the blush. The blush is a very soft color, and I would've liked it more if they had made it a little bit brighter. 

For my lid, I used Sand Out From The Crowd. For the crease, I used Rose To The Occasion and for the outer corner, I used Two Plums Up. I added Two Plums Up under my eyes to give it a smokier eye. The colors blend beautifully without a primer, but they had a hard time when I used it with my UD Primer.

I used Urban Decay's Tornado eyeliner on both the bottom and top lids. 

I really liked this without lipstick as well as with, so here it is without! 

I used Shiro Cosmetics Nyan Cat Lipstick. It feels like a lip balm, and has a very long color wear. Definitely recommend it!

The next post will be a review on the Anastasia Dip Brow in Blonde! 

Be sure to check out the side bar and see my top Must Have Items. 

MAC's Hautecore Lipstick

So, I got the Mac Hautecore Lipstick through Reddit/r/makeupexchange after it had already sold out, and I'm glad that I did! Let's get on with the tutorial, and then I'll give you the run down.

Bonus picture of my adorable husband! Today, instead of my Too Faced Primer which has been lack luster as of late, I tried out the infamous Maybelline Baby Face. I have to say, for a price tag of $6 compared to $30, I think it wins over! Very soft, and it took a lot of my natural oiliness away(thank goodness!). I used E.L.F.'s tone correcting powder, and my brand new EcoTools face brush(that I love. Completely beats the Becca Brush, in my opinion)-much softer than it's competition. You can buy it at Ulta for $13(the Becca Brush is $50). 

A typical beginning to a smokey eye-Darkhorse by Urban Decay. 

I used Blackheart by Urban Decay. Also, I forgot to add my Illuminator. Orgasm by Nars.

Too Faced's Anti-Feathering Lip Pencil-A must. I'm in love. And the amazing, wonderful Hautecore Lipstick by Mac. I wish I had gotten it before it had sold out, because I would've bought five. It is so perfect! I've heard a lot of reviews saying that it was drying and it makes your lips peel. I didn't experience that at all! A lot of people said that it came on very sheer, and again, I didn't experience that. It certainly wasn't moisturizing by any means, but after wearing it for 6 hours, I didn't have any such problems!

I loved it! If you can find it anywhere, I would buy it ASAP.

My FOTD!

I'm not feeling to great today, and I think this nasty flu may have finally caught up to me, but that won't stop me from posting my FOTD!

Today, I was going for I kind of retro Audrey Hepburn look. I used the new NYX Matte lipstick in "Shocking Pink, Rose Intense". Also, as you may have noticed, I dyed my hair recently! I am in love with this new color. I used Revlon Color Intense Dye.

Hopefully later this week I will have a more entertaining/informative post, but for now, I go to my bed, and cuddle up with my also sick husband, and a bottle of Theraflu.

Review of Japonesque 180 Degree Contour Brush

Here is a link to the brush in question!  Now, let's begin. At first, I was very skeptical about purchasing this brush, but after seeing it on sale for $8, I figured why not. At regular retail price, this brush will go for $32 at your nearest Ulta. A select few of the brushes are on sale for a deep discount, so if you are a Japonesque fan girl/guy, I would head on out! They are already out of stock at my Ulta. 

 I started this look out with my normal foundation using a Beauty Blender Sponge(which you can now find the link to on the side bar!), and my trusty Kat Von D foundation! This is of course partnered with my Too Faced Primed and Poreless Primer(also located on the side bar).

 Immediately getting to the new brush. I put on E.L.F.'s translucent powder and began. Using Coastal Scent's blush palette, I started contouring. I found the brush very interesting. It makes it easier to contour, but I feel like if you already know how to contour your cheekbones, this brush is kind of a pointless buy. If you have a harder time contouring, this may work for you! I found that the brush picked up a lot of powder which required me to tap it off every time I would reload, so to speak.

 My traditional Naked 3 eyes.

Using NYX's Matte Lipstick in "Perfect Red Rouge Parfait", I really enjoyed this look. I used the Too Faced Anti-Feathering Lip Pencil. Another must have. 

To sum it up, I think that if you have a difficult time contouring, this is a great brush! I really liked using it on my clients, and found it very easy to use. The brush is not nearly as soft as you would expect a $32 brush to be, and I feel like you could get a better quality one at Sedona Lace. If money isn't an issue, I would highly recommend the Becca brush, or it's knock off(which I prefer over the Becca Brush), The Eco Tools Face and Body Sculpting Brush. It's much softer than the Becca Brush, and at 5 times cheaper, how can you mess up?

Be sure to check out the side bar and see my top Must Have Items. 

Cat Eye With A Purple Lip

As always, start out with your primer, foundation and then concealer. I prefer to use a Beauty Blender Sponge over a brush, but that's just my personal preference. If you choose to use a brush, I would recommend E.L.F.'s Studio Foundation Brush.

             Adding blush. I'm going to go ahead and go with Josie Maran's coconut gelee once again.

I'm going to begin lightly filling in my brows. A lot of people don't like dark brows with light hair, but  I really like it and like to think of it as a staple of mine. I'm using Urban Decay's eyeliner in Roach. 

Now for Primer! I really like Urban Decay's Sin Primer. It leaves a very natural dewy look, and I will actually use it on days where I'm doing a no makeup-makeup.

I'm using my Naked 3 palette. For the base, I'll be using Buzz which is a nice, shimmery rosey pink. 

 For the shading, I'll be using Blackheart. If you take your blending brush, you can use the corner of  the brush to create a nice creasing. Remember to now set your face with your UD Oil Control makeup spray. I have a very oily face naturally, so this has been a life saver for me!

Now to begin my cat eye! I start with the liner on my lid in a thin line and then blend into that. I used my UD liner in Perversion.

Make sure to add mascara! I used Too Faced's Better Than Sex. I find that it really adds a lot of volume while still separating your lashes.

Now for Lipstick! I used Revlon's Vivid Colors line.

 Time to use my Makeup Remover Pen on my brows, lips and undereyes to get any stray makeup.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to comment, and to Pin any of my images, just scroll your mouse over your image of choice!

A review of NYX Matte Lipstick

I chose to go ahead and do my first review today of a product that I'm extremely pleased with. I went to Ulta today to do a little mini haul which I will post more about later this week, but I picked up quite a few NYX products, one of which NYX's matte lipstick in Perfect Red Rouge Parfait. 

Let me go ahead and preface by saying that I am very picky when it comes to my matte lipsticks. Matte to me means feathery, flaky lips. But, I am pleased to say that that wasn't the case this time! I can say nothing wrong about this purchase! The only thing that upset me was that they didn't have more shades! 

This lipstick was very easy to put on. It feels moist on your lips-almost like a balm, but it goes on very matte(the shine in the picture is due to my computer's crappy camera, not the product). I put on the lipstick this morning before work, and came home this evening to perfect lips! No need to reapply. That, my friends, is music to my ears. The picture on the right is of me this morning at 8:45, and both of the pictures on the left are from this evening at 5:15. That is at least 8 and a half hours of wear.

For $5.99, I would say this is a product that I will be going to get the rest of the collection for.