Kendo - Kat Von D Beauty
Showing posts with label cc cream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cc cream. Show all posts

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Atlanta Weekend Makeup!

Hey, Everyone!

Earlier this month, I wrote about my Birthday Haul; this post is slightly a continuation of that! The weekend of my birthday, my husband and I went to Atlanta as a gift from my in-laws. I had packed some makeup, but knew I would be birthday shopping right before leaving for the trip, so my makeup for the weekend was a mixture of new items and things I had already packed. I used a lot of different makeup items for those three days. I realize this. ;) 


If you read my birthday haul, you'll be able to spot what the new items are in this picture. The only actual foundation I used Friday and Saturday was the new Too Faced Born This Way Foundation, which I have in "Sand". It matched my self tan perfectly. On Sunday, since we were traveling home, I opted to use the It Cosmetics CC+ Cream in "Medium". I have the travel size since I needed a darker shade than the "Fair" and "Light" I already owned. I used one actual powder, the It Cosmetics Celebration Foundation Illumination in "Medium", and one setting powder, It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed. I took two bronzers, the It Cosmetics Ombre Bronzer and a mini size of the Nars Laguna. I alternated two blushes, Mac "Warm Soul" and Kat Von D "Wish", and used only one highlighter, which was Gerard Cosmetics "Audrey". I didn't pack any eyeshadows, knowing there were two palettes that I wanted to pick up, so I alternated the Tarte "Tartelette" palette and the Lorac "Pro Palette 2". I used the Kat Von D Tattoo liner in "Trooper" on Friday night and the KVD Ink Liner in "Baudelaire" on Saturday, along with the Stila Smudge Stick Liner in "Stingray". The only eyebrow products I took were my ELF Instant Brow Lift pencils in "Taupe" and "Medium Brown" and my Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel. I only used one concealer, and that was the Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer in "Light Neutral". Because, yeah, it's the best concealer ever. For lips, I went between the Sephora Retractable lip pencil in "Mauve" topped with the Lorac Alter Ego lipgloss in "Supermodel" and the Alter Ego lipgloss in "Goddess". My primers of choice were the Urban Decay Primer Potion in "Enigma" and the Cover FX Illuminating primer.  For moisturizers, I used the Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation, Josie Maran Argan Oil Light, and the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment. For sprays, I used the Maria Badescu Facial Spray, Smashbox Primer Water, and the Urban Decay All Nighter Spray. I didn't buy any new makeup tools, so I took along my trusty Beauty Blender Pro, some Morphe, It Cosmetics, Sigma, Sonia Kaschuk, Bdellium Tools, Smashbox, and Mac brushes, as well as my Tarte eyelash curler. I also took my travel size Nars Ita Brush, but forgot to include it in the picture! Last, were my two hairsprays. I took the Kenra hairspray for maximum hold and the Living Proof Humidity Shield hairspray since I knew it was going to be hot. It wasn't as humid as Tennessee, though!  

Like I said, I know that is a lot of makeup for one weekend, but I'm okay with that. ;) With four kids, I don't usually have as much time as I'd like to spend doing my makeup, so with a weekend away, I took advantage and took my time to play! 






Thank you for stopping by and reading! I'd love it if you'd subscribe! :)


*None of the links above are affiliates.
*All items mentioned were purchased by me and all opinions are my own. 

Sunday, August 2, 2015

My Birthday Haul!

Hi, everyone!

My birthday was on Friday 7/31, and I decided to treat myself and do what I love most; makeup shopping! My husband and I were going away for the weekend, so I had a limited amount of time in which to go by Ulta and Sephora. I actually made a list of the things I wanted to pick up most (yes, I'm a list maker), and managed to get most of what I wanted! While I was packing for our trip, I purposely didn't pack the type of  makeup I would be buying. For example, I knew I needed a new color of my UD Naked Skin concealer; therefore, I didn't pack a concealer.

Let's start with what I picked up from Ulta! I had a 20% off prestige coupon (I LOVE when these come around!), and wanted to take full advantage! Last year, I bought myself the Lorac Pro palette for my birthday, and this year I grabbed the Lorac Pro 2! I'm usually not a fan of cool toned shadows, but I've been drawn to them a lot these last few months, and I actually didn't own but two or three of them! I certainly didn't have any cool toned palettes! Another thing on my list was the Too Faced Twice the Sex mascara duo. For the price of a full size mascara, you get one full size and one deluxe sample. Then, thanks to the beautiful @coffeebreakwithdani, I knew I needed to pick up the new Stila Lash Stunner Extreme Lash Primer. I am a huge fan of lash primers, and she made this one sound amazing. A few days before, while browsing the "new" sections of Ulta and Sephora, I saw a new hairspray by Living Proof called "Humidity Shield" and thought that sounded wonderful for my curly hair. While at Ulta, I spotted the travel size and scooped it up! I had forgotten to pack an eye makeup remover, so I needed to grab one while I was shopping. I usually use the Kroger brand of the Neutrogena one because it's inexpensive and it works. Since I was in Ulta, I went ahead and grabbed the actual Neutrogena one, and it works fine. It does the job. I've been loving the Rimmel foundation that I mentioned in my July Favorites, but I also forgot to pack my moisturizer with sunscreen, so I picked up the travel size It Cosmetics CC+ Cream in Medium. That covered my sunscreen, moisturizer, and the need to match my self tanner. If you read my post about the Lorac Alter Ego Lip Set, you know how much I love those lip glosses. I picked up a new color while at Ulta; a pretty peach called Super Model. One thing that was not on my list was a new foundation, However, the new Too Faced Born this Way foundation sucked me in and "Sand" found it's way into my bag. If you purchased anything from Too Faced, you got a sample pack of three different shades of the Born this Way foundation, which is what you see in the bottom of the picture above. A last minute impulse purchase was the Mario Badescu Facial Spray. It was on an end cap of travel things for $5, and I had heard @emilynoel talking about it, so I grabbed it. I love all things rose scented, and this smells wonderful. The last thing from Ulta was my birthday gift! Platinum members get two gifts for their birthday; a $10 off coupon and the makeup item all other members get. July birthdays got a deluxe sample of the Urban Decay Perversion mascara. I've tried this one a few times, and I'm not a huge fan, but maybe it will work better over the Stila lash primer!

There were two things on my list that were out of stock at Ulta, so next stop was Sephora! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I needed a new shade of the Urban Decay Naked Skin concealer. The one I had was Fair Neutral, which is too light with my tan. Ulta was out of the shade Light Neutral, so I purchased it from Sephora. The other thing that was on my list and sold out at Ulta was the Tartelette palette. @makeupbymaci, who is the queen of photographing her eye looks, was telling me how much she loves this palette, and she uses it in so many of her looks, I had to have it! The Kat Von D Ink Liner Trio was the other thing on my list. I already have and love the shade "Trooper", and this trio comes with that one, a navy, and a brown. I used the navy Saturday night and loved it! Sephora is great about offering samples, and the sweet girl who helped me gave me a sample of the First Aid Beauty Triple Remedy eye cream and the Ultra Repair Cream Intense Hydration moisturizer. As I was walking by the clearance table, I spotted the Kat Von D blush in "Wish" (no longer available on-line) and two bronzers on sale for $11.99 each. The bronzers looked similar to ones I already own, but "Wish" had been on my wish list for a long time, so I was happy to get it more than half off! A few weeks ago, I noticed that the Sephora automatic, waterproof lip liners were on the sale page on-line for $7, but all of the colors were sold out. My Sephora in JCP had them on the clearance table for $5.99! I've mentioned "Petal" in a post before, and I love it. They only had one left, which I bought, and then I bought two each of "Mauve" and "Naked". The last thing I picked up was the Josie Maran Argan Oil Light. I've used the regular version before, and loved it for my dry skin, but I thought the light version might be better for summer time. And then this happened...

Yep. Hello, Rouge!

Thank you for stopping by and reading! 


*None of the links above are affiliates.

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

Saturday, May 30, 2015

It Cosmetics-A Review

Hello, Everyone!

I've been wanting to write this post for almost two weeks, but I was waiting for one more piece to come in. It finally arrived Tuesday, so I decided to do an all It Cosmetics look earlier this week!

 The picture above shows what I used today, not all of what's in my It collection. :)


 
First, I'm going to go through what I used for this look, and then I will give you my thoughts on each product.
 
The only things I didn't have in my collection to complete this look were a lip liner, eyeliner, and mascara. Everything else was It Cosmetics! I prepped my skin with the Feel the Moment Anti-Aging Ultra Hydrating Sensory Awakening Primer Serum before applying my Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+ in a mixture of Fair and Light with my Heavenly Luxe Dual Airbrush Foundation/Concealer Brush. I then applied the Bye Bye Under Eye Anti-Aging Concealer in Neutral Medium under my eyes and on a few of my hyperpigmentation spots. I set everything except under my eyes with the new pressed version of Bye Bye Pores in Translucent using the Heavenly Luxe Wand Ball Powder Brush. I used the CC+ Brightening Finishing Powder in the CC+ Radiance Palette to set my under eyes. To warm up my face, and to add some dimension, I applied the matte side of my CC + Radiance Ombre Bronzer in Warm Radiance around my hair line, jawline, in the hollows of my cheeks, and down my neck with the Airbrush Essential Bronzer Brush #114. I used the shimmery side of the bronzer as my highlight after applying the CC+ Radiance Ombre Blush in Je Nais Se Quoi. I used the French Boutique Heavenly Luxe Blush Brush to apply the blush to my cheeks.  It Cosmetics released a limited edition eye palette called Naturally Pretty Celebration around the holidays, which is what I used on my eyes. I only have one It eye brush, which is the Airbrush Blending Crease Brush #105. I used that brush in conjunction with other eye brushes that I own to apply the shadows.  Last, I used the Brow Power Universal Eyebrow Pencil Mini to fill in my eyebrows and applied the Vitality Lip Blush Hydrating Gloss Stain in Sweet Rose to my lips! Whew!






 Now for my thoughts. If you aren't familiar with It Cosmetics, it was founded by Jamie Kern and she works with dermatologists and plastic surgeons on all of her products to ensure wonderful results. Not only will your makeup look good, but so will your skin! You can read more about that here. The Feel the Moment Primer Serum is clear (the bottle has a pink tint) and mine came with a pump and a dropper. It is a thick product that feels very silky to the touch and has a very botanical smell to it. It's not a bad smell, it's just different. Here's what it looks like pumped out, slightly rubbed in, and then completely rubbed in.


 
It does dry down to a slightly less dewy finish, but it is wonderfully hydrating for my dry skin and makes makeup application smooth. My mom has oiler skin than I do, and she likes this product, too. I've been using the CC+ Cream for over a year, and I do enjoy it. Light only works for me by itself in the summer when I have some color in my skin. Fair is a pretty great match the rest of the time, and I'm currently mixing it with Light. I feel like this gives me a dewy finish, and I have to set it with a powder. Some people don't think it's dewy at all. Even though I have dry skin, I'm very particular about dewy products and want to be able to control the amount of luminosity on my face. I love that it has such a high spf in it, and that it does have a good amount of coverage. If I'm in a hurry, I can use this as my moisturizer, primer, and foundation all in one and not feel dry during the day. However, this does not last all day on me, but it doesn't claim to. By the end of the day, my face looks extra dewy, and I can see more of my skin as opposed to the CC cream. The full size comes with a pump (which is awesome), even though it's a squeeze tube. The smaller, travel size version is a standard squeeze tube.
Left: CC+ Cream in Fair Right: CC+ Cream in Light
 
For the Bye Bye Under Eye, well, this stuff is amazing. I have dark under eye circles and this covers extremely well. I have the colors Light and Neutral Medium. It Cosmetics says that the majority of skin tones will use the Neutral Medium shade (something like 80%), which I originally thought was crazy. I'm usually the lightest shade in everything, so I picked up Light first. This is a bright color. I can actually highlight with this one. Neutral Medium matches my skin tone very well, and I've seen it work for people with skin darker than mine as well. The concealer shades are lighter than the CC+ Cream shades are. For example, the CC Cream shade in Light is too dark for me, where the concealer in Light is too light. This is a very emollient concealer, and does crease if not set immediately. It is also rather thick, so I suggest putting a very small amount on the back of your hand and warming it up with your finger before applying it to your under eye area. The full size and travel size are both squeeze tubes.
Left: Light    Right: Neutral Medium
 
I just got the Bye Bye Pores Pressed a few days ago, and I've never tried the loose version so I can't compare the two, so I cant give a complete review on it yet. However, I have used it for a few days, and I do like it. It helps to blur out my pores and makes my skin look filtered. It has a nice consistency and doesn't kick up a bunch of powder when you dip your brush into it. The packaging on this, just like all of the other It Cosmetics packaging in black, has that rubber feel to it like Nars products. Personally, I love that packaging, but it does hold onto smudges and makeup very easily. You can see in one of my pictures that the outside has a smudges of powder on it, and I hadn't even used the product at that point. The inside does flip up to hold an included flat sponge, which would make this travel friendly.


I love the little "it" on the mirror.
 
The CC+ Radiance Palette is a great palette, and another travel friendly item, since it's three products in one. The color correcting powder has different colors mixed into it to help even out the tone of your skin, and hide imperfections. It makes a great under eye setting powder; it really helps to brighten up the darkness. I didn't use the blush or the bronzer for this look, but both of those are wonderful as well, and very pigmented. This palette only comes in this color selection, and that is because it serves a multitude of skin colors.
It's a little difficult to see the setting powder on my pale girl skin. ;)
 
Now, on to what has to be my absolute favorite item from this brand. The CC+ Radiance Ombre Bronzer. Oh. My. Word. I don't normally do bronzers because almost everything looks orange on my skin because I'm very pale with cool undertones. I own plenty of other bronzers, but none of them have ever "wowed" me. This one though...I'm tempted to hoard more in case they ever become discontinued. It's a smooth powder with no dust kick up, and the matte side is a cooler toned bronzer which thrills me! You can use just the highlight side, just the matte side, or mix it all together. I've been very careful using this because I don't want to mix it all up and loose my matte side. I've used it every single day since I got it, and it is just so beautiful. I don't have a regular highlighter from It Cosmetics, so I used just the shimmery side in this look, and I don't think I need a stand alone highlighter now! I could literally just open the compact and stare at it all day. This, too, only comes in one color which is the Warm Radiance.
L to R: Matte bronzer, shimmery bronzer, matte and shimmery side combined.
I was curious if the bronzer in the Radiance Palette was the same as the matte side of the Ombre bronzer, and as you can see above, the Ombre one is slightly cooler and slightly darker. They will probably look almost identical on the face though.
 
The CC+ Radiance Ombre blush comes in one color (I'm sensing a theme here), Je Nais Se Quoi, and it's beautiful, as well. Just like the bronzer, it has a gradient from shimmery to matte in three different pinks. This one, I do tend to just swirl it all together and apply to my cheeks. It gives a beautiful flush to the cheeks, and I love it. It's just as smooth and non-powdery as the other products I've mentioned.
 The blush on the left is the It Cosmetics Vitality Cheek Stain in Pretty in Peony, which I was comparing to the Ombre blush. Swatches left to right are as follows: Pretty in Peony, bottom of the Ombre, middle, top, and the last swatch is all of the colors in the Ombre blush swirled together.
 
I didn't swatch the Naturally Pretty Celebration palette because 1) it was limited edition and is no longer available and 2) the colors didn't swatch well on my arm. The lighter colors didn't show up on me at all. Don't let that concern you though! They didn't swatch well, but they are pigmented when I apply them to my eyes! It Cosmetics does have a permanent Naturally Pretty Palette, but I don't have that one. As I said, it is an all matte palette, with the exception of the Transforming Ombre Radiance Ribbon, which goes from a light to darker shimmering gold. The shadows, like all of the other powder products, are extremely smooth (almost buttery) and blend like a dream. The only issue I find with them is that if you over blend, you can muddy the colors together and it's not as pretty. It's very easy to over blend since they are so smooth! How many times can I say smooth in this post?! Lol.
 
I've had the Brow Power for a while, and I usually reach for other pencils over this one. It's supposed to be a universal color, but if I'm not careful, it can lean too warm on my skin and look a little red. The intensity of the color all depends on how much pressure you apply it with. The tip is an odd shape, but is too big to get a clean, sharp line to really sculpt the brows. If you've seen my brow post, you know that I don't have a lot of brow to work with, and basically recreate mine. When I pulled this back out to do this look, I did find that I liked it a little more this time around. If I use a smaller tipped pencil (like the NYX Micro Brow or the Anastasia Brow Wiz) to outline, I can use this one to fill the brows in. They do have a few other pencils (one is a "skinny" pencil), but I've only tried this one. It Cosmetics did come out with the Build-A-Brow Waterproof 5-In-1 Micro-Fiber Crème Stain earlier this year, I believe, and I am really interested in trying that! I have the ABH dipbrow, but I've heard the It one is better!
I used varying degrees of pressure to show the different intensities you can achieve. 
 
The last cosmetic I applied was the Gloss Stain in Sweet Rose! In the tube and swatched, it looks like a neutral, mauvey color, but a little while after I put it on my lips, it turns into a bright color! It has a very comfortable formula, and I don't notice any stickiness. I'm more of a lipstick girl, instead of lipgloss, but I can comfortably wear this. It doesn't have an offensive smell or taste, but if you lick your lips or get any of it on your tongue, it has an oily feel to it that I do not care for. It's not enough to make me not wear it, but I am careful about getting it in my mouth.
 
I own six brushes by It Cosmetics: three from the regular line and three from the It Brushes for Ulta collection. If you have never tried a brush from them, you have no idea what you're missing. I suggest you run to your nearest Ulta to at least feel the bristles. I guarantee you'll walk out with at least one. The regular line of brushes are expensive, and I suggest if you're interested in getting some It cosmetics and brushes, that you purchase them from QVC. They usually have flex pay and bundle the brushes with a cosmetic item. All three of my black handled brushes were acquired that way. The It Brushes for Ulta, are just as soft and great quality, but less expensive. I love these brushes! I wish I had one of every brush they've created. They are that good, in my opinion. Here are my six:
The brush in the middle of the second picture is the Airbrush OMG! Foundation Brush #106 from the It Brushes for Ulta collection. It isn't mentioned above because I didn't use it in this look, but it's still a great brush.
 
All in all, I absolutely love this brand and can't wait to explore more items from them. This post is in NO WAY sponsored, as It Cosmetics has absolutely no idea who I am. :) I just love this brand and wanted to talk about it. It has taken me two days to write this post because I wanted to be thorough and I had that much to say about it!! Have you tried It Cosmetics? What did you think? What else should I try?!
 
Thanks for reading, and please subscribe! :)
 
 
 
 
*None of the links above are affiliates.
*All products were purchased by me and all opinions are my own.