April 2015 Favorites!

Hello, everyone!

One of my favorite videos to watch on YouTube and one of my favorite blog posts to read are "favorites", so I'm excited that I finally get to share my own! Of course, since I knew I was planning on writing this, my mind totally spaced and couldn't think of anything. At all. I've been writing down favorites on my hot pink post it in my planner all week so that I wouldn't forget anything! Here are the things I used a ton this month and really loved!

I picked up the It Cosmetics CC+ Radiance Ombre Blush with a 20% off coupon at Ulta this month, and I LOVE this blush. You can get three different colors with it, or swirl it all together for a beautiful flush. It only comes in one color, Je Nais Se Quoi. Next up, is my Maskcara Hac Pack (check out my review here) that I used for foundation, highlight, contour, and blush a ton this month. It really makes getting ready in the morning faster! I purchased the Dermablend Loose Setting Powder during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty Steals, and this stuff is amazing. I have dry skin, so it's really not necessary for me to use powder to control oil, but I do like to use it to calm down some of my dewier foundations and BB creams. The Dermablend comes in three shades, but I have mine in "colorless". I'm very pale, and even though it says it's colorless, I still think it makes me just a tad bit lighter. It does a great job of giving an airbrushed finish, mattifying without looking flat, and not emphasizing pores or any fine lines you may have. Then there are the Makeup Geek Foiled Shadows. Oh my word, these shadows are PERFECT. I'm not going to go into too much detail because, unless you live under a rock, you already know all about these, and because I want to do a review on them once I get my next order in. Pictured above are In the Spotlight, Whimsical, Starry-eyed, and Jester. I may never wear any other shadows on my lids again! I also have to include my Makeup Geek blush in Spellbound. Yes, I have three blushes in my favorites. I'm a slight blush whore. Lol. The only other eye shadow I'm including is Mac's Satin Taupe. I used this almost every day on my lid when I was in a hurry and had minimum time to get ready, and it always turned out beautiful and looking like I had spent more time than I did. Mac's Soft Ochre paint pot is an every day, holy grail item for me. I use it to prime my eyes for shadow 99% of the time. The soft yellow color and the opacity of it conceals any redness and veins on my lids and leaves a wonderful blank canvas to apply shadow to. Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfector, pressed, in Moonstone has been my go-to highlighter since I purchased it a few months ago. It's beautiful on pale skin and not for the faint of heart! My dry skin has absolutely LOVED the Too Faced Hangover RX Primer for the past few months, especially under the Hac Pack. Lip products were the hardest to narrow down, since they're the easiest to change out. For the first half of the month I was slightly obsessed with liquid lipsticks (as most people have been lately), and my two favorites were Lime Crime's Cashmere and LA Splash's Charmed. I am aware of all of the Lime Crime controversy, but since I paid for it, I'm going to use it. I don't know if I would purchase from them again, but I'm going to use what I already have. The LA Splash lipstick is more comfortable to wear than the Lime Crime one and a little more universal to wear. Last for this month is my Gerard Cosmetics lipstick in Buttercup. This lipstick is the perfect pinky-nude for my skin and absolutely perfect. I ordered it when they were running one of the amazing deals they had in March, and loved it so much I actually ordered a backup. I can't remember the last time I actually went through an entire lipstick, but I wanted to make sure I didn't run out of this one!

So there we have it! My April favorites. What were your favorites this month? Anything you didn't like? Let me know! Thanks for visiting and please subscribe!






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*All items mentioned were purchased by me and all opinions are my own.

Maskcara IIID Foundation Review

Hello again!

Today I wanted to review something that I don't generally hear a lot of buzz about, the IIID Foundation by Maskcara. If you're a follower of Cara over at Maskcara, you may also know this as the "HAC Pack". The one I'm reviewing today is the Second Generation HAC Pack; the first one was released around December 2013. I owned the first version, and obviously the second, as well! Cara's first release consisted of a compact with one cream highlight and one cream contour shade, three blush colors (Shortcake, Princess Peach, and Jem), and one illuminator in Pearl. Her new release involves an empty, magnetic compact that you can customize with up to four different refills of your choice, and she created her own brush to coordinate. There are two cream contour foundation shades to choose from : Walnut and Stone, three blushes: Dahlia, Pink Grapefruit, and Ruby, one illuminator in Pearl, and one contour crème in Shadow. I no longer have the original IIID compact, but I do have the blush in Shortcake and the Pearl illuminator from the first release. Here is a look at how the blushes and illuminator were originally packaged:

You can see that they look similar to lipgloss containers, complete with doe foot applicators. The new version looks like this:

 As you can see, and as I mentioned above, everything comes in a refill pan now, and everything is a cream. I didn't purchase the Maskcara brush since it looks very similar to the It Cosmetics brush I already owned shown in my picture. The It brush is actually the same one she recommended to use with the first release. I use the It brush to place the product on my face and then my trusty Beauty Blender to blend it all in. Here is a comparison of the original HAC Pack (left) in "Light" and the new version in "Walnut" and "Linen" (right).

The old version was not as creamy nor as pigmented as the new version, which is very noticeable with the contour shade. A lot of people had issues with running out of the original contour color twice as fast as the highlight color. I hit pan on my contour shade a lot quicker than the highlight shade with the first release. With this new release, both shades are wonderfully pigmented, and I've actually made more of a dent in my highlight shade! The highlight color in the old version was slightly lighter in color, which actually worked better for my coloring. But have no fear, my pale skinned friends! Cara has assured me that a lighter color is coming our way! I personally cannot wait! As long as I don't apply too much of the Linen shade, it works just fine for me though. Too much, and it actually darkens my complexion, which then doesn't match my neck. Not a pretty look...The revamped IIID Foundation is creamier and sinks in to the skin a lot better. For reference, I have dry skin and you need to be extremely moisturized before applying this product, as it does cling to dry patches. I apply my moisturizer and then the Too Faced Hangover RX primer or the It Cosmetics Feel the Moment primer, and then the IIID Foundation. Using the Smashbox Primer Water doesn't hurt, either.  ;)

(Pink Grapfruit, Linen, Walnut, and Shadow)

 

 

Pink Grapefruit is the lighter, peachier blush out of the three (similar to Princess Peach), while Dahlia is a bright pink (similar to Shortcake) and Ruby is the deepest of the three (similar to Jem). Shadow is a very gray, ashy toned contour color, perfect for "detail contouring". It is very pigmented as you can see, and almost looks like I have mud on my arm. Lol. This does blend out beautifully, even on my ghostly skin, and creates a naturally looking shadow or contour on the face. The consistency of it (mine, at least) feels different than the other products in the pan. The other three are solid creams, while Shadow feels like there is a layer of water or oil on top until I rub my finger over it a few times. It feels thinner, more watery in consistency. It does not interfere with the performance of the product though. Since these are cream products, I highly recommend setting them with a powder when you're done applying them to lock everything into place. I would consider coverage to be light-medium, but you could apply it lightly over your regular foundation if you wanted to. On good skin days, I can wear just this and it works beautifully. On other days, I need to use concealer for dark circles and pesky blemishes that show up. I do think this is a wonderful product, and a great idea in comparison to a traditional foundation that leaves your face one dimensional.

 

You can purchase a customized palette (the magnetized palette and four refills of your choice) for $42, or you can purchase everything separately which would run you $15 for the compact alone, and $9 for each refill. The IIID Foundation Brush is $32. Maskcara also has very inexpensive shipping, and free shipping over $50. This link will take you directly to her store, http://www.maskcaracosmetics.com/, and there is also a "Color Finder" on the website to help you chose what's best for you! Personally, I tagged Maskcara on Instagram, used the "spotmyshade" tag, and Cara chose for me! What are your thoughts on this product? Have you tried it? Do you want to try it? If you have, what did you like or dislike? Let me know! Thanks for reading!

 

 

All items mentioned were purchased by me and all opinions are my own.

Sephora Spring VIB Sale 2015

What better way to start a beauty blog, than with a haul post, right?! I always enjoy reading what everyone else hauls, and I can't be the only one. For those of you who missed it, VIB Rouge and VIBs at Sephora received 15% off during the Spring sale, and BIs received 10% off. As a VIB, I took advantage of my 15% off! My mom only received the 10%, so I shared mine with her.  :)

Here's a peek:

This was technically six different orders (online and in-store) because I get free two day Flash Shipping, and you could use the 15% off discount as many times as you wanted during the promotional days! I decided to pick up a few things that I've heard great things about, but things I didn't necessarily want to pay full price for. I only owned one Dior item before this sale (the ever popular Dior Crème de Rose Lip Balm), but I picked up two more and used points for a third. I decided on the Dior Addict Lip Maximizer High Volume Lip Plumper in Sheer Pink, the Rosy Glow Healthy Glow Awakening Blush in Petal (it only comes in one color), and used a 100 point perk to get the Diorshow Maximizer Lash Plumping Serum.

 

A LOT of the smaller things in the picture are samples, and I tried to grab things that I already knew I liked (Elizabeth and James Black Nirvana), or things that i thought I would like (Viktor and Rolf Spicebomb and Nest White Sandalwood), but a few things apparently ran out and Sephora replaced them with different samples (like the Clinique three pack and Queen of Hungary mist). I must have been on a lip and fragrance kick when shopping because I did get quite a few cologne samples (I don't really care for the citrusy, fruity scents of women's perfumes), and quite a few lip products. The Kaplan MD Perfect Pout Lip Mask + Lip Balm Duo, Tony Moly Bbo Bbo Lip Balm in Blueberry, Marc Jacobs Le Marc Lip Crème in Georgie Girl, and of course the Dior Lip Addict mentioned above all came home with me. Georgie Girl has to be one of the prettiest pink lipsticks that I own, and that is saying a lot! Soap & Glory products are being phased out of Sephora (they're going drugstore), so all of those items are on clearance. What better time to try something from them! There isn't a huge selection left, but I did get the Hand Food hand cream to try out. After hearing MakeupbyTiffanyD and Kathleenlights (I think) rave about the L'Occitane Cleansing and Softening Shower Gel with Almond Oil, I decided to pick up the small size to try it out since I was in need of a new shower gel anyways. Thanks to Emily Noel at Beauty Broadcast, I wanted to try the Estee Lauder Little Black Primer because I am a huge fan of lash primers. My current favorite is the Lancôme Cils Booster XL (but the Dior one I mentioned above may be taking it's place!), but I'm almost out of that one, and the fact that the Estee Lauder one is tinted black intrigues me. I needed a new Beauty Blender and picked up the black "Pro" one to replace my beloved pink one. I've tried a few dupes, including the Real Techniques one, and none are exactly the same. A lot of people love the Shiseido Facial Cotton, so I grabbed it to use with my Bioderma and eye makeup remover. Last but not least, I used some more points to get the Boscia Tsubaki Cleansing Oil-Gel, the Philosophy No Reason to Hide Multi-Imperfection Transforming Serum, and the Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Vitamin C Collagen Booster (not pictured-I left it in my bathroom!).

 

And, that's it! Let me know what you want a review on!

 

What did you get from the sale? Anything you regret getting? Anything you regret not getting? Let me know below!

Why Start a Blog...An Intro

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by! If you're not interested in why I wanted to start this blog, feel free to go ahead and skip this post.  ;)

I have always been interested in makeup, as far back as I can remember. Five years ago, I really started "collecting" and becoming more knowledgeable with higher-end brands. I love to talk about makeup, even with complete strangers, and am forever giving advice, but let's face it: I don't know anyone in my day-to-day life that actually cares about makeup products as much as I do. My husband just shakes his head with each Sephora box that shows up on the doorstep, and my mom will talk it with me, but I'm sure she gets bored with the conversation long before I ever would. So if you are a makeup enthusiast, collector, hoarder, "junkie", or even just a casual dabbler, I hope you'll stick around with me and enjoy the ride!!