As promised, today I'm doing a review of one of my absolute favorite products of all time, e.l.f.'s Studio Blush in the shade Gotta Glow. I didn't used to think there was much point to highlighters/luminizers until one day when I was reading Mindy's blog and I realized how awesome and glowy her cheeks always look in her FOTD's. So I decided to go ahead and order Gotta Glow- for only $3, it wouldn't be a big letdown if I didn't like it.
Well, not only did I like it, but I LOVE it and I use it every day. It is one of the only items I have ever hit pan on, and I will rebuy it as soon as I run out. I don't use it as on all-over face powder, because it is so golden, and because I work at Arby's (it's my last week!) my face gets gross and shiny really fast, so I don't want to make it look even shinier. I don't think I would recommend it as more than just a cheek highlighter, but if you can make it look awesome on your entire face, go for it!
Sorry about the red blotch and the cat scratch on my hand! If you click to see the picture in full size, you can see the gold shimmer. My camera wasn't picking up on it very well on my hand swatch for some reason.
On the cheek photos I applied it heavily, using three swipes. I wanted to make sure it would show up well in the pictures, but I think the flash made it show up a little TOO well, haha. It is not a huge obvious golden streak, and my blush is not that obvious! But you get a good idea.
For $3, this is a Holy Grail item for me. I really don't like most liquid luminizers because I feel like they make your pores look huge, so the fact that this is a powder is perfect for me. e.l.f. can be really hit and miss with their line, but this is a freakin' bullseye. It is also a dupe for NARS Albatross (Charlotte from Lipglossiping did a comparison post here.)
And I wanted to show you guys the amazing shirt I was wearing when I was doing swatches!
Hi everyone! I know I don't have the MAC swatches I promised you yet, ooops ;) But I've been super busy as I'm moving in less than 2 weeks. For the same reason, I'll probably be updating pretty sporadically for the next month or so until I'm all settled in. I will, however, be photo-documenting my moving-out experience, so you can all look at the pictures and pretend to enjoy them! Speaking of photos, check out Lady Gaga's upcoming products for Polaroid. This stuff blows my mind. It seems so advanced and futuristic to me :P
What I used:
Concrete Minerals Electric Eye Primer
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Heather, by Elohi Cosmetics (lid)
Fawn, by Elohi Cosmetics (crease)
Eat Me, Drink Me, by Hi Fi (highlight)
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in Underground (waterline)
MAC eye kohl in I Get No Kick (below waterline)
mark After Glo blush
elf Gotta Glo blush
Sephora Collection Lip Attitude-Star lipstick in Delirious Rose 04
Lancome juicy tube in Paris Bubbly
My eyebrow is going rogue, to use unfortunate Palinesque phrasing.
I actually hit pan on the elf Gotta Glow blush as I did this look, so I'm going to do a review of it soon since I love it so much. I also would like to get the MAC swatches done before I leave, and a little review with swatches of the big NYX glitter cream palette I got a while ago. I hope everyone had a relaxing post-holiday week. Enjoy the weekend!
I'm sure that most of you own at least a few e.l.f. products. If you're a mega-cheapie like me, you may own quite a few. To me, e.l.f. is a very hit or miss brand, which is ok since most of the products are only $1-$5, so if the item isn't great, it's not like I'm out a lot of cash. I picked up the Beauty Book Eye Brights Edition for $5 from Target, and The Beauty Encyclopedia Sparkle Eye Edition for $5 from the e.l.f. website.
Let me tell you an interesting story about the e.l.f. cs first (you can skip this if you want, it doesn't relate to the product review). I actually ordered the Sparkle Eye set a couple weeks ago when there was that 60% coupon for the e.l.f. website, along with a bunch of other stuff. It arrived with most of the shadows totally cracked and spread all over everything. I emailed the company, and they said they would send me a new one. I got a confirmation email saying my package had been sent and everything. Then a couple days later, I got another email saying they were refunding the money because the set was out of stock. Does this make sense to you? Me neither. I never did get the set, so why they said they had shipped it is beyond me.
Anyway. I got the Sparkle Eye set in the mail today and was excited to open it up. But something seemed eerily familiar...
DUN DUN DUN! *lightning crash* Two different books. Same damn set of eyeshadows! *werewolf howl* The only difference is that the Eye Brights set has a mirror, and the Sparkle Eye set has 2 cream shadows. Thankfully it was only $5, so it's not like I'm out much here. But it was still annoying to finally get the product I was excited about only to discover I already have it! I'm going to give it to a friend who will hopefully like it.
Here are the swatches for the palette(s), row by row. The top half is on dry skin, the bottom half is over pixie epoxy.
As you can see, the pigments are pure garbage without an adhesive base. I used pixie epoxy instead of a primer because I didn't know how much a primer could even do to fix these. Without the PE, the first three colors are basically nonexistent. The fourth is a beautiful, beautiful taupe.
Still terribly pigmented and chalky. I could not get an even coat on the dry skin for anything. I like the nice forest green, and the blue has pretty good shimmer in it (like Barry M's Aqua Gold).
That first silvery shade was so stiff and hard (heehee) I felt like I was rubbing the brush on cardboard. Seriously. Even over the PE, it barely shows up. The purple and wine shade are both GORGEOUS. The silver & the black both have glitter you can't see in the picture.
This leaves me confused on my opinion of the palette! There are some really nice colors in there, but you absolutely have to use them over a super sticky base to get any color out of them. For only $5, and the few really nice colors it has in it, I wouldn't say I recommend it, but I'm not condemning it either. I will say I probably wouldn't buy any other beauty books after this. e.l.f. has some really stand-out products, but these beauty books certainly aren't contenders for that category. While the PE makes the colors gorgeous, I don't think they should have to have that much help to show up. Could this review be more wishy-washy? I don't think I've ever felt this way about a product before, lol.
Do you have these or any other e.l.f. books? What do you think?
I feel lame for not posting since Monday, but as I said in my last post, work is kinda killing me here. It's my day off though, so after I post this I'm going to go back to sleep, SLEEP IN, and then watch movies all day :)
I did this look a few days ago, and it's one of my favorites I've ever done, so I'm bummed the pictures didn't turn out a little bit better.
What I used:
Concrete Minerals primer
Pixie Epoxy
Frostbite, by High Voltage (inner lid)
Land Serene, by Hi Fi (outer lid)
Sun N Clouds, by Stardust (crease)
Mornings of Gold, by Hi Fi (highlight)
Collection 2000 Glam Crystals liner in Pow! 10
Jemma Kidd liner in Style Icon (waterline)
Barry M metallic liquid liner in gold (below waterline)
Maybelline Falsies mascara, then L'Oreal Extra Collagen mascara
e.l.f. all over color stick in Pink Lemonade (blush)
Boots no 17 lip glaze in Remember Me (thanks Lillian!)
Today since I was already using 2 Sleek products, I just decided to use a lot of nice products I have from the UK thanks to Rachel and Lillian :)
What I used:
Concrete Minerals primer
Sleek Circus palette (matte pink and lavender shades, white to highlight)
Sleek Kajal liner in Odyssey
Max Factor 2000 Calorie mascara
Rimmel liner in black
The lavender did not want to show up in the pictures, my whole lid looks pink when really it has a lot of lavender. This reminds me of the MAC Azalea Blossom blush.
I have a question for you guys, would you like or dislike a post of lots of non makeup related personal stuff? I would show you pictures of my 10,000 pets, songs I've been listening to lately, stuff like that. Tell me yay or nay in the comments! Hopefully I'll post again later today, I have some awesome colors to swatch from you. From where? It's a surprise :)
ETA: Has anyone shopped with All Cosmetics Wholesale? They have a lot of lovely things at great prices, but I'd like to be assured it's legitimate.
Remember how a while ago I said drugstore makeup has been really boring and disappoing to me lately? There's some things out now that I actually want! Unfortunately, I've been checking Walmart, Target, Meijer, Walgreens, and CVS for some of these items, but haven't found any of them so far!
Here's what I'm lemming:
The palettes from the Maybelline Salsa Sun collection (images from A Blonde Obsession)
I've also been searching high and low for the Revlon Scents of Summer polishes, but I can't find them anywhere! The thought of a scented polish does not sound appealing to me, but I really would love the colors Beach and Ocean Breeze. Body and Soul has some swatches here.
I think this elf blush/highlighter thingy in shade Gotta Glow (as seen on Unnecessary Drama) looks really nice. And you know it's cheap, since it's elf.
I also saw a swatch of a taupe CoverGirl shadow, but now I cant find the blog or remember the shadow name! The "Taupes You Can't Have" posts by Pink Sith have made me love taupe shadows, so I'm on the lookout for cheap taupes I CAN have. I'm looking on the CG website right now, and I'm going to assume it's the one called Tapestry Taupe. Drugstores can't give me my brights, but maybe I can find some nice neutrals.
Have you found any of these babies anywhere yet? I think Rite Aid is where everyone's getting them, but we don't have one here. Any drugstore items you're currently craving?
And some exciting news, a Sephora is opening up where I live! It should be completed about 2 months before I move away, so hopefully I'll have enough time to stock up on everything before I leave ;]
5. e.l.f. Candy Shop Lip Gloss in Mocha Maniac
I got this in a set of 3 sliding gloss tins at Big Lots for $2.50 a couple weeks ago.
I really hate coffee smells but for some reason I love this.
4. mark juice gems in Honeydew Melon
It smells EXACTLY like honeydew melon, I swear. I love melon scented glosses, and this is the strongest and most true of all the ones I have.
3.Any e.l.f. tube glosses from Target
They all have a really sweet, candy scent to them. This may not appeal to everyone, but I love it.
2. Jelly Pong Pong lib sorbet in Blood Orange
I really don't like anything orange scented, but I guess blood orange smells a lot different than a typical orange (I've never tried one). I'm sitting here sniffing this one over and over right now, it smells so good.
1. Evil Shades lip gloss in Lethal Kiss
I don't even know what words to use to describe this because it is so darn amazing and unique :) If you ever get just one thing from Evil Shades, it has to be this amazingly delicious gloss.
What glosses do you think smell delicious?
Yesterday I had to get some new stuff! I finally opened a Sally Card too! Here's a couple pictures of my mini haul. I'll get started on my hair dye rant later...
The Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion was something my mom got me. :) She was in Chicago the other day and I BEGGED her to stop at Sephora and get it for me. I was so happy she actually did! She made me laugh when she got back, talking about the brands- "Have you ever heard of NARS?" No mom, I only live and breathe makeup... haha.
Anyhow! At Target I picked up a set of 3 elf lip glosses for $3. I REALLY like the colors, and they have a really sweet, almost candy-like smell to them which I like. Some people would probably not like the smell, but it's good for me. I also got whatever that straightening stuff is on the left just because it was 50 cents... worth trying out for that cheap. I also got Nina Ultra Pro polish in "Purple X-ing". Here's a link to a picture, I haven't tried it yet. The other polish is Orly's Iron Butterfly, and here is a picture of that. I realized how much people's blogs influence me, I wouldn't have grabbed either of those colors if I hadn't seen them in blogs.
I thought the bottle of the UDPP was really pretty, so I decided to do a look based off of that.
What I used:
Pixies, by Hi-Fi Cosmetics (inner lid)
Reasonable Insanity, by The She Space (outer lid)
Shroud, by Detrivore (inner lid corners)
londondungeon, by Aromaleigh (eyeliner)
Revlon eyeliner in Very Violet (waterline)
Jemma Kidd eyeliner in Fashionista (below waterline)
Voluminous by L'Oreal mascara
Lancome Juicy Tubes lip gloss in Spring Fling
I painted my nails when I got home, using "For Audrey" by China Glaze. Unfortunately, it is a plain matte, and I suck at doing my nails, so you could see every little uneven spot on my nails. I ended up taking it off. I need glitter to hide my bad nail painting!
Now on to my RANT... I wanted to dye my tips a bright purple. This purple, called Not So Shy Violet, by Beyond the Zone.
They should have just called it Not So Violet. True, I didn't use bleach first, but I've gotten bright red in my hair before, and it showed up just fine without bleach. The bottle was so blue, I should have known the color wouldn't turn out right. My tips are not violet, not even a blue-violet, but a blue-gray so dark it looks black in most lighting. NOT the bright purple I was hoping for... T_T What a waste of money. But since my hair is so much longer than I normally keep it, I'm just going to have my friend cut my hair for me in a couple days so there's no dye left.
I can't wait for my paycheck this Thursday so I can get more stuff to review! Also, here is the link to a blog you might want to check out. Since there are 8 nights of Hanukkah, there are 8 nights of beauty contests with awesome prizes! Hope everyone had a great weekend and is getting pumped for Christmas!
Sorry about the red blotch and the cat scratch on my hand! If you click to see the picture in full size, you can see the gold shimmer. My camera wasn't picking up on it very well on my hand swatch for some reason.
On the cheek photos I applied it heavily, using three swipes. I wanted to make sure it would show up well in the pictures, but I think the flash made it show up a little TOO well, haha. It is not a huge obvious golden streak, and my blush is not that obvious! But you get a good idea.
For $3, this is a Holy Grail item for me. I really don't like most liquid luminizers because I feel like they make your pores look huge, so the fact that this is a powder is perfect for me. e.l.f. can be really hit and miss with their line, but this is a freakin' bullseye. It is also a dupe for NARS Albatross (Charlotte from Lipglossiping did a comparison post here.)
And I wanted to show you guys the amazing shirt I was wearing when I was doing swatches!
