MAC In The Groove + Masssssive Haul

Okay, so I may have gone a little.. overboard.. with the make-up shopping this past week. But I had the sudden urge to get myself some bright lipsticks, now that it's summer. And that sudden urge happened to fall on the same week mac's massive collection came out.. so that's how I wound up where I am right now. Broke... but with so many pretty colors!

All Styled Up (Cremesheen)
This is from In the Groove. I chose this over "I Like It Like That" because that one seemed way too purple and I thought this was more bubblegum-pink.. but I was wrong. The two lipsticks are soo similar, I have no idea why they came out together. "All Styled Up" is more pink, but the purple is definitely there. I don't really like shades like this on my skin, the only thing they work well with for me is dark smokey eyes.. and even then, I'd much rather go with a different lip color.

Speed Dial (Cremesheen)
This is a well known permanent color, kind of a brighter version of "All Styled Up". "Speed Dial" is medium blue-pink with some golden shimmer in there. I really like this color.. it's the barbie pink I've been looking for. With this lipstick I find that I need to apply several layers to get full color-payoff, but that doesn't mean it isn't a pigmented lipstick.

Vegas Volt (Amplified Creme)
I've been lemming a bright orange lipstick, and that's what I went in for. This is what I came out with, instead ("Morange", you're next on my list). It's a bright coral, which I think pulls more pink than orange. I personally like that.. I think pinky-coral is way more flattering than orange-y coral. This is a great color for summer, and can be layered to achieve different levels of color.

Looooooove love love love love this lip gloss. I bought it to go with Vegas Volt, but I think it'll be gorgeous with just about any shade of lipstick. It can tone down oranges, add a hint of peachy coral to your pinks, and it goes hand in hand with coral shades.

Harmony is wayyyy lighter than this, I swatched it heavily to show it's undertones. It's just a muddy brown color that works amazingly well for contouring for a large bracket of skin tones.
Blushbaby is a brown-ish pink that's totally matte. It works well with neutral looks, or if you have loud eye make-up or lips and need to a subtle cheek color.
Peaches is pretty self-explanitory, a matte, true peach color. I think it looks really good on both light and tan skin tones. It doesn't look ridiculously peachy on the cheeks, it blends out into a believable, natural color.
Pink Swoon is a gorgeous cool pink, made famous by Kim K. It's extremely pretty, my new favorite pink blush. It looks more sophisticated than other warmer pinks that can make you look too young.

By Candlelight Mineralize Skinfinish
Famous MSF that I missed out on when it came out with Warm & Cozy. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it a million times, but here it is on my skin tone for reference. The texture it amazing, and it seems to adapt to whatever your blush color is when using it as a cheekbone highlighter.

Lilicent Blushcreme
I know this is a popular one, and I've checked it out in the store a few times, but it never seemed as pretty when I'd swatch it. I'm happy I finally got it though. When actually applied to the cheeks, it becomes a really pretty peachy pink. I like using this on it's own with a Cream Color Base to highlight, or more commonly, under a powder blush.

Bust out those bright lippies, though, seriously! Summer is the most fun season in that you can get away with pretty much anything when it comes to bright colors, so take advantage of it.

Have a good weekend :)

Natural, Affordable Skin Care!

Sometimes I feel like I'm throwing away my money when I purchase high end cleansers and toners. I'm still young, so it just doesn't seem like the high price tag is justifiable for the benefits I'm getting out of products that stay on my skin for such a short period of time. My thought process is that as long as I'm getting every last trace of make-up off and cleansing my skin with something gentle, I'm taking good care of my skin. Although I'm not as strict about make-up, when it comes to skin care, I make sure to keep it as natural as possible. Luckily, there are way more natural products in drugstores now than there was even 5 years ago. I love that you can find organic skin care lines at your local drugstore, in the same price range as it's chemist brand neighbors down the aisle.

I want to share my favorite natural drugstore products. I use 2 of these daily, and the other 2 weekly, and they all do a great job of taking care of my skin.



Yes To Cucumbers Calming Cucumber Facial Cleansing Gel: Of the three versions of Yes To products (the other two are carrots and tomatoes), the cucumber line is created for sensitive skin. This cleanser definitely doesn't make my face red in spots like some others do. It is very gentle, yet still does a good job of cleansing my skin. I don't use this alone to get off my make-up, though. As with any cleanser, I use something before-hand. If you have dry skin, don't be put off by the word "gel". My skin in combo, and when I use this cleanser in the morning, it doesn't make my dry spots feel tight in any way. This contains organic cucumbers, green tea, dead sea minerals, aloe vera, olive oil, broccoli, and other ingredients you won't find in most drugstore skin care. This doesn't contain parabens, petroleum, or nasty SLS. The last thing I have to say is that the cleanser smells divine. The scent reminds me of one I'd smell in a spa. It always puts me in a good, calm mood. The whole time I've been writing this paragraph I've been flipping the cap open to take whiffs.

Alba Sea Algae Enzyme Facial Scrub: Another great smelling product. If anything, at least smell these next time you're at the drugstore. Hahah, no, I really don't like when people go on about how great a product is because of it's smell. But if something works well, a good smell can make a huge impact because it makes the experience of using the product a pleasurable one. Anyways, I use this about every other day. The exfoliating factor in this is corn cob meal, which make up the actual grainy beads. Sea algae enzymes and aloe vera, according to the brand, rid your skin of impurities, revealing a cleaner complexion and increasing circulation. I usually use this in the shower, after the steam has opened up my pores a bit. It's important not to be to rough, or this will make your skin break out in angry red spots. The exfoliating beads are doing the work for you, you don't need the extra force of your hands. After I use this, my complexion definitely looks brighter, and my skin feels smoother. My flaky spots are gone. Unless you need something a little more heavy-duty, I think this could be anyone's favorite exfoliator. It does an amazing job.

Boots Botanics Conditioning Clay Face Mask: My skin has become more and more prone to clogged pores this past year. This was actually the first mask I've ever bought and used regularly. Before this, I used the occasional home-made concoction for dry skin, but nothing meant to pull anything out. This clay mask contains Burdock, which has been used for centuries as a blood-cleanser. On the less gory side of things, it also does a good job of ridding your skin of toxins and impurities. After using this, my pores are visibly reduced in size. My skin looks and feels deeply cleansed. There may be fancier products with fancier ingredients on the market.. but like I said, I'm still young and as long as I'm keeping my face clean, I'm happy and my skin is happy.

Alba Green Tea SPF 30+ Sunscreen: I bought this because I wanted to start being religious about keep the back of my hands and chest area protected from the sun (those are the tell tale spots when it comes to a woman's age!). The packaging is very practical, no pumps, just a flip-top cap so you don't end up with the product all over your purse. What I was pleasantly surprised by was how well it fares as a facial moisturizer. This sunscreen has it all, natural broad-spectrum SPF, with some good-for-your-skin ingredients packed in there. Not to mention it's water resistant. It does go on a bit greasy, but I promise you it dries really nicely. My skin absorbs this well, and I'm able to apply make-up over it just as I would be with any other moisturizer under. It has a spf of at least 30, which is great because for many moisturizers with spf, the typical number is 15. And even then, I'm worried about that number being reduced by the fact that the product is in fact a moisturizer, and not a sunscreen. I wouldn't replace my facial moisturizer with this, but for the summer months this is definitely what I'm using daily. And don't slap me, but this smells extremely good.

Prices vary from store to store, but the Y2C Cleansing Gel typically retails for about $10. Alba Facial Scrub also goes for $10 in most stores. The Boots Clay Mask retails for $8.99 at Target. Alba Green Tea Sunscreen averages around $12.

St.Tropez Self-Tan Bronzing Lotion

So I was in the market for a new self-tanner to use specifically on the face. The 'Sublime Bronze' one from Loreal works great on my body. But when it comes to the face, drugstore tanners either turn me orange or break me out. Usually both. So I thought I'd seek something nicer. After spending a solid 30 minutes at Sephora's self-tanner display, it came down to choosing between a gradual tanner and what I ended up buying, St. Tropez's vaguely named 'Bronzing Lotion'. I went with this one because it was the only tanner in the whole lot whose directions implied that it was to be used on the face.

What It Is: St.Tropez (pronounced tro-PAY, ladies) Self-Tan Bronzing Lotion is a tanning lotion that claims to help users achieve a deep, believable tan that lasts longer than with most tanners. This is because it utilizes the ingredient 'Erythrulose', which works like a slower-developing version of DHA. So basically, after the DHA's effects begin to fade, Erythrulose got yo back.

Application: The first thing you notice is the color of the lotion.. a ugly shade of green. This tint is vital though, because it counteracts any orange. I applied to a freshly exfoliated face, using my fingers. It blended easily, and immediately I saw a bronze effect. It faded quickly, but only because the actual color was beginning to develop.

Smell: This product smells amazing. Seriously, no DHA smell at all. Like many, the company has some fancy odor-blocking technology. St. Tropez has it down pat, though. I can't describe the scent at all, only that it smells exotic and tropical to me.

Initial Results: The morning after I first used this tanner, I was extremely pleased with how my face looked. There was a healthy dose of color, but not as deep as some tanners have taken me. The color was nice and even, and I didn't see any spots or blemishes on the face. My skin felt really smooth, too.

Further Results: I wanted to be darker, so I used this for about 3 days after the first time. As far as color, it's strange because it seems like the results sort of plateaued around the 3rd application. Color is buildable, so I don't know why that happened. It still gave me a nice tint though. I also noticed that it seemed to be clogging my pores up a bit, but I think this was partially my fault for not exfoliating enough, trying to keep the color on my face. In the after picture below, I look substantially darker, but the natural light might have exaggerated my color a little.

After picture was taken 3 weeks after inital application. I applied the lotion 3 consecutive nights each week.

My final thoughts on this product are that it does a amazing job at what it's made for, so I'm only slightly dissapointed I couldn't get the results I wanted in terms of color. What I love is what it's brought my skintone to. Before, I had neutral undertones on my face, my coloring didn't pull more in either the warm or the cool direction. That's always made it difficult for me to find complimentary colors for my skintone when it comes to make-up. Now I have a light-medium olive complexion, and I think it's sexayyy. I love how my old eyeshadows and lippies look fresh with my new color. I'm so happy I found this product and will continue to re-buy it unless I find something better.

This retails for $30 for 4 oz, the bottle I got. There's also a 8 oz bottle for $40, so you're saving a lot of money there. Not the cheapest tanner on the market, but since I'm only using it on the face this bottle will last me a while.
The ingredients, taken from the box, are: Water, Dihydroxyacetone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Apricot Kernel Oil, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Sorbitan Stearate, Dimethicone, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Matricaria Flower Extract, Ceteareth-20, Sclerotium Gum, Butylene Glycol, Potassium Sorbate, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Bisulfite, Fragrance, Benzyl Salicylate, Cinnamal, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citronellol, Coumarin, Eugenol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal, Isoeugenol, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Linalool, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Citric Acid, Caramel, Yellow 6 (CI 15985), Red 40 (CI 16035), Blue 1 (CI 42090).

Summer Hair Care

SUMMERS HERE! Well.. almost. But it definitely feels like it.
We're adamant about protecting our skin, and slather on the sunscreen (we do, right ladies!?). So what do you do to protect your hair? Give it a rest from all the heat tools and products? Most of us, when we decide to give our hair a break, think that's all it takes to start repairing the hair. Actually, that state of mind can do way more harm than good. The serums and hairsprays, and all other products we gunk up our hair with during the year do dry out our locks and cause build-up.. but they can also protect our hair! Many hair products have some spf factor in it, protecting our hair from one of it's worst enemies.. the sun. Also, we tend to be more mindful of our hair-care regimen during the year, clarifying and deep-conditioning. Our summer low-maintenance hairstyles allow us to fall behind on our keep-up.. who honestly wants to sit inside, sweating profusely, a shower cap and warm, damp towel plastered to her head?! So this is how, at the end of August, many of us find ourselves with a head full of dehydrated, damaged, frizzy hair.

Fortunately, giving your hair a break (which does work miracles!), is easy to do right as long as you keep a few things in mind. Even if you don't decide to go the au natural route, keep my 3 basic (but necessary) rules in mind this summer:

Protect Your Hair From The Sun (and wind.. and salt water.. and humidity...)
Direct exposure from the sun is extremely damaging to the hair. Imagine blasting your hair with the highest heat setting on your blow dryer for about 5 hours.. that's the equivalent of what you're doing when you're at the beach with nothing protecting that hair! There are so many easy things to do to protect your hair, that will save you tons of stress later.
One of the most obvious is busting out the hats. This is the quickest fix. Next, I highly suggest investing in a product specifically designed to protect hair from the sun. Whether it be a leave-in conditioner, serum, whatever. Trust me, there are hundreds out there, and they're especially easier to find during summer. Use it any time you'll be out for anything other than a quick trip. When I'm going somewhere I'll be swimming, I find the easiest thing to do is whip up a mixture of water, sunscreen, and a little bit of leave-in conditioner. If I'm laying out for a while before I swim, I keep my hair under a hat. But as soon as I'm out of the water, I douse my hair in the mixture. This works wonders.. not only is my hair protected from the sun, but I don't have to deal with the post-swim uni-dreadlock. After you comb it through (bring a wide tooth comb with you any time you go swimming), it gives hair a gorgeous wet, sleek, perfume ad look.
Also, a great quick tip I want to add.. one I remember reading somewhere. To protect your hair from chlorine and salt water, wet your hair with some some water, whether it be from a bottle or water fountain, before getting into the pool or ocean. This prevents either elements from penetrating your hair to a point where it can damage it.

Condition Like Crazy!
Summer is when we should be the most concerned about conditioning our hair.. not when we should be all laissez-faire about it. As a rule of thumb, avoid products with alcohol in them. These will dry your hair our way further than the elements already will naturally. It would be beneficial to cut down the number of times a week you shampoo. Your scalp will produce more oils in the hot months, and your natural oils are the best conditioner for the hair. In any case, make sure you without fail deep condition once a week. If you have anything other than oily hair, you could bump it up to two or three times a week. You can deep condition with anything. A store-bought deep conditioner (let me know if you need help picking one out for your hair type, I've tried them all), olive oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil, bananas.. chances are you know what works best for you. One awesome thing about the sun is that it's like a natural heat-cap! Oil treatments are useless on the hair without some kind of heat to allow the oil to penetrate, so douse your hair in any kind of oil, sit out in the sun, and enjoy your hot oil treatment!

Trim Your Hair Regularly
Split, ragged ends are extremely common at the end of summer. If you're taking good care of your hair with the aforementioned rules, they shouldn't be that bad. But inevitably, they're going to be there, so get rid of them before they get too high up. Don't think of summer as your break from trims, or you're going to need to cut off a lot of length at the end of the season.

My 3 rules seem pretty obvious, but it's surprising how many people throw any hair-care sense out the window during the summer months. Just like it's so much easier to gain weight than it is to lose it (ugh), it's way easier to rack up hair damage than it is to undo it. So do yourself a favor and keep that hair healthy this summer!

Have a safe and happy summer :)

MUFE HD Invisible Cover Foundation

Maybe 3 foundation posts in a row is overkill.. but then again, maybe it's not. There are thousands of reviews for Make Up For Ever's famous "high definition" make up.. you could definitely say it has a cult following. Thing's never seem to work out for me quite the same as they do for most, though.. so I wasn't surprised that this didn't blow me out of the water. Here's my story of how it worked out for me:

What It Is: Sephora's site describes this as being an oil-free foundation, with medium to full coverage. Marketed (sort-of) as a camera-friendly foundation, it's supposed to give your skin that "soft focus" effect, and prevent you from looking all funky on screen and in pictures. It boasts a few fancy ingredients.. relipidium, to boost moisture content; fucogel (can't science come up with some prettier names?), forms a barrier between your skin and the nasties floating around in the air; and finally, sericite..this, and I quote straight off the website, "enables rays of light to spread more widely across the face". Sounds pretty impressive. Speeding rays of light, beaming across your face, further and wider than any rays of light have sped across it before!
Application: Anyways, I used a classic foundation brush with this, like I do with everything. No stipplers or buffers or sponge eggs. I like the coverage and finish a plain old foundation brush gives me. The consistency was extremely runny, but it blended easily. I needed about 2 full pumps for the whole face.
Feel: The foundation felt extremely light and pleasant on the face. It also felt nice and moisturizing.
Look: The shade I got, 120 (medium-light with yellow undertones), seemed okay at first. But in retrospect, 123 would have probably been better as the shade description is an exact description of my skin tone: light with olive undertones. I definitely noticed that "soft focus" effect it promised. The problem was, the areas that had that looked great, but the areas that didn't look bad in comparison. The upper lip, between the eyebrows, and the nose area all looked kind of weird and drab compared to the rest of my lit-from-within face. The coverage was medium, nothing more. It didn't cover everything, but I'll give it credit for how much it brightened up the under-eye area. What I didn't like was that this did not work well when layered. It quickly turned a orange shade and looked really chalky.
Staying Power: This would probably fall under the "Look" category, but it's such an important point I didn't want anyone to overlook it. This foundation will make you shiiiine! Upon initial application, the finish is pretty close to perfect. But after about 2 hours, my face begins to shine in a way that no powder can cover up. It's the weirdest thing. As far as longevity, the coverage does last throughout the day. The shine factor is just too much for me though.

Final Thoughts: It didn't work out for me the way it did for tons of other people. It looks amazing on camera, but not so much in real life. It's funny because maybe the whole HD thing is what's wrong with it in the first place.. is it just me or does a pixelating foundation sound better than a high definition foundation? I need those flaws blurred out!

Ingredients, taken from Sephora's website: Aqua, Cyclopentasiloxane, Neopentyl Glycol Diethylhexanoate, Mica, talc, PEG-10 Dimenthicone, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Phenyl, Trimethicone, Sodium Chloride, Lauroyl Lysine, Dimenthicone Crosspolymer, Glyceryl Caprylate, Methylpropanediol, Butylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Sodium Myristoyl Glutamate, Cyclohexacyloxane, Methylisothiazolinone, Sorbitan Sesquileate, Silver Oxide, Propylene, Carbonate, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Fagus Sylvatica Extract, Hydrolyzed Yeast Protein, [+/- CI 77891 )titanium Dioxide), CI 77491 (Iron Oxides), CI 77499 (Iron Oxides).

NP Set Pasarella Powder Foundation

I've never liked powder foundation.. I feel naked with it on. It doesn't cover anything I need covered, and on top of that it never lasts for me. But there are those days when I can't stand the thought of painting on thick liquid foundation. Those would be the hot, sticky days that make up a lot of the year where I live. Now that summer has rolled around, powder foundation has become my new best friend! I recently picked up NP Set's "Pasarella Powder Foundation" from target. Here's what I thought...



What It Is: A compact powder foundation that claims to be unlike other powder foundation's in terms of it's moisturizing abilities. Contains Shea Butter and Pomegranate Extract, which seems to be this line's signature ingredient.
Application: After applying primer, I used the sponge the foundation came with to apply an initial layer on the cheeks, chin, and forehead.. basically where I want the heaviest coverage. Then, using a kabuki or mac 109, I get some powder on the brush and go over the rest of the face, blending everything out as I go.
Look: This gave me medium-ish coverage, heavier than most powder foundations, but still not what I'm used to. It didn't give look chalky in any way.. which is great because that's the reason I stay away from powder foundation in the first place.
Feel: Even though it didn't look powdery, it definitely made my face feel dry. This might not be the case with oilier-skinned wearers, though. I always finish my make-up routine with Fix+ anyway, so I wasn't bothered too much by how it felt.
Staying Power: This foundation's longevity is pretty impressive, it lasted a solid 3 or 4 hours for me (this is powder foundation we're talking about!). What I didn't like was that anytime I rubbed my face with any kind of fabric or cloth, the foundation would transfer right onto it.



Final Thoughts: The results I got from this foundation were definitely beyond what I expected. I love using this on lazy or hot days when I just don't feel like doing the whole enchilada when it comes to my make-up. For it's price, though, I would definitely not buy it again. It didn't do that much better than my previously reviewed Neutrogena powder foundation. My hard-earned dollars would better be invested in quality liquid foundations, and saved when it comes to the powder type...

This retails for $30 at your local Target. You can also find it at http://www.npsetcosmetics.com/.
The ingredients are: Talc, Corn Starch, Ethylhexyl, Methoxycinnamate, Triisostearin, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Dimethicone, Zinc Oxide, Myristyl, Trisiloxane, Soybean Glycerides, Zinc Stearate, Chlorphenesin, Potassium, Sorbate, Polyperfluoroethoxymethoxydifluroethy, Peg Phosphate, Shea Butter, Dimethiconol, Tetrasodium Edta, Morus Alba Root Extract, Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin, Silica, Corn Oil, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, BHT, Ascorbyl Palmitate MAY CONTAIN: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines

Almay Clear Complexion Makeup

So I bought Almay's Clear Complexion liquid foundation about a month ago, and have been using it regularly. At first I was ecstatic about it, amazed that the best foundation I'd ever used I had found at the drugstore. Since then, how I've felt about it has changed. At first, it gave me the smoothest looking skin any foundation had ever given me. The color match was perfect, and although I doubt it has enough salicylic acid in it to actually combat pimples, it was definitely wasn't breaking me out. My review will be for the results I'm getting with this now.



What It Is: A liquid foundation that is made with natural ingredients like meadowsweet (purifies skin), chamomile, and aloe (both skin calming ingredients). It also contains salicylic acid. I got it in the shade "Naked".
Application: I applied this with a regular foundation brush. The consistency is thick, so a little goes a long way.
Look: This foundation gives great coverage. Right after application, my skin looks pretty flawless. The problem for me is that it doesn't always last. Though not all the time, it usually changes it's color on me throughout the course of the day. It also makes me look a bit on the greasy side after 4 or 5 hours.
Feel: This felt very light on the face, and didn't make me feel like my pores were clogging up under it.
Staying Power: The coverage does last me until the end of my (7 or 8 hour) day. Unfortunately, it does make me look oily, and sometime's a little pink..

Final Thoughts: I'm dissapointed that this didn't work out for me in the end. But I guess that's what I get for celebrating too early. I still reach for this on day's I won't be out for a long time. But with it's inconsistent results, I just can't depend on it to last me throughout my typical day.