Mario Badescu Drying Mask

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21kazvOg0kL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

This product recieves a lot of attention on the internet so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. I purchased this product after hearing rave reviews from my favorite youtuber Lorraine from TheCurrentCustom.

Despite having used this product many times I still can not come to a conclusion as to how I feel about it, the only thing I know for sure is that it STINKS! It honestly smells like really strong sulfur and the smell doesn’t leave my skin until after I have showered. On the bottle it does state that it is formulated with sulfur but to be completely truthful the smell is overwelming and almost hard to handle.

Sometimes this mask leaves my skin clear and beautiful and other times I will wake up with a huge zit the next day. My only guess is that this is one of those masks that works by pulling all your impurities to the surface, so if you are impuritiy free you will stay that way or if you have a lurker waiting deep, down, below you will wake up with that lovely present in the morning.

Either way my mind is not totally made up. I will continue to use this product until it is is finished but whether or not I would repurchase it is still up in the air.

Current Longings (Cosmetics and Fashion)

frankiethemakeupartist.blogspot.com/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1220653/Make-masterclass-Cheek-chic.html

The MAC 109 brush plus Blunt blush, this combination has been on my Christmas list, valentines list, birthday list, etc for about a year now and I still don’t own them. I was hoping to receive these as a gift because MAC brushes are quite pricey, and if I purchased this blush on its own I would get no use out of it until I owned the brush as well.  The 109 brush has a small, rounded, dense head; perfect for contouring cheek bones. And Blunt is a dark matte brown blush. These two combined screams super model cheek bones! But alas, since my family doesn’t support my cosmetic addiction I will have to save my money to purchase these on my own.

http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/daily-photo/mac-art-supplies-greaspaint-sticks/

Greasepaint sticks! So far I own the original black one with purple shimmer that came out in the Style Black collection and Dirty from the newest greasepaint stick collection. These sticks are the only eyeliners that will stay on my waterline all day, literly if I don’t wash my face well enough before I go to bed I will wake up and still have perfectly waterlined eyes. They are also perfect for smudging on the eyelid for a sexy smokey look. These are the only eye-shadow/liner products that I can use without a primer. I really want to add Zinc Zone, Below Ground, Slick Black and Greengrease to my collection.

http://www.freepeople.com

http://www.freepeople.com

http://www.freepeople.com

I have recently just discovered Free People online. I swear all the clothes shown on the website are much cuter and cheaper than the ones in Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, etc. Right now I am currently longing for:

• Beaded Beach Applique in the color sand
• Two Toned Metal Band Watch in the color golden
• Capetown Skirt in the color natural combo
• Serengeti Tunic in the color ivory
• Leather & Chain Waist Belt in the color rustic brown
• Floral Scrunch Skirt in the color poppy combo
• Whiplash Mini in the color blue
• Solid Poison Ivy Tunic in the color raspberry

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com

The clothes on Urban Outfitters have been pretty disappointing lately but they have came out with some awesome new jewelry, I am really looking forward to getting some of their mulitiple finger rings, and ring to wrist bracelets.

• Triple Finger Rings
• Ring-To-Wrist V Bracelet
• Post and Chain to Cuff Earring
• Kimichi Blue Ruffle Vest in the color Ivory

http://store.americanapparel.net/rsatd300.html?cid=139

I am obsessed with anything from American Apparel. Currently Im longing for:

• 3-D Flower Mesh Jumper in the color white
• See-Thru Loose Crop Tank in the color See Thru Black White
• Leaf Flower Lace Loose Tank
• El Salvador Lace Tee in the color black
• Nylon Tricot Scoop Back Tank Pencil Dress in the color deep magenta

http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/gp/product/B002WDZGMU/sr=1-2/qid=1275536734/ref=sr_1_2/181-1833014-0773915?ie=UTF8&n=164982011&bcBrand=core

Benefit’s Confessions of a Concealaholic kit contains; “that gal”, erase paste, boi-ing (01,02), lemon aid and eye bright. I already own boi-ing concealor in the shade 02 and I love it, 01 would be very useful to use under my eye brows to give them a more lifted, awake look, rather than using a shimmery highlighter. I have heard great reviews about “that gal” primer and lemon aid. My mother already owns eye bright and I have borrowed it from her a couple of times, when placed along the lower lash line it really opens up my eyes and counter acts any red sleepyness. The only item in the kit that I am not too sure about is the erase paste. Some people love this product but I have never been able to make it look right when I tested it in the store. Overall 4/5 isn’t bad and as always it comes in the super cute benefit packaging with a mirror!

May Favorites

These are the products I have used repetitively all through out the month of May.

This month I have really been into orangey golden/ brown eyeshadow looks. So far my favorite combination has been Benefit’s FYI primer, MAC’s Bronze cream color base, NARS Taj Mahal, and a foreign eye shadow in the color Brun Cannelle. I always start off with my FYI primer, this primer works so well I have never felt the need to try out Urban Decay Primer Potion or Two Faced Shadow Insurance. Next I apply Bronze cream color base all over my eye lid and up to my crease. Cream color base’s aren’t really meant to be used as eye shadow but I do love the way this looks on my eye lids, despite its tendency to crease extremely quickly. Next I lightly pat Taj Mahal all over the bronze CCB. Lastly I place the Brun Cannelle eye shadow in my crease, and apply heavy black eye liner.

MAC Blot Powder and Studio Fix concealer are two of my constant staples. MAC Blot Powder keeps my face shine free all day and Studio Fix concealer doesn’t budge until I wash it off. These are two must haves especially during the hot summer months.

I have really been loving my MAC 130 brush and my MAC creme bronzer in the shade Weekend from my “To the Beach” haul. The 130 brush is perfect for exactly buffing in the bronzer to the point where it looks almost airbrushed. Weekend looks really nice on my NC42 skin tone, it is a deep orangey/red toned brown which despite sounding odd, looks really natural on me. I do not recommend this for paler, cooler toned gals. The lighter creme bronzer in the shade Beach Bronze would suit those skin tones much better.

Next I have been really loving my MAC Solar Riche bronzer released during the Style Warriors collection. When I first purchased this I would barely use it, I thought the packaging was quite weird and I hated the fact that it had shimmer. Recently I have unearthed it from the back of my cheek product drawer and realized the shimmer barely shows up on my skin and I love the deep orange toned bronze it leaves on my cheeks. In my opinion Solar Riche is a powder version of the new Weekend creme bronzer.

Lastly MAC’S Peachstock surpassed Creme D’nude as my favorite nude lipstick. This lipstick is much more beige, pink toned so it looks much better on my darker skin tone. I can even wear this lipstick alone, sans gloss, that is a big step for a nude lipstick for me. I also love the fact that this product was released in the super cute Liberty of London packaging.

Shout Out’s

Hello! I just wanted to take some time to do a quick shout out to some of my favorite bloggers and you-tubers that I have not mentioned before. I watch their youtube videos/read their blogs every single day and really trust their opinions.

Amynicolaox has the best youtube videos as well as an incredible blog. I am always envious of her haul videos and I love that she has tan skin, like me, and really appreciates bright blushes and coral toned lips. Her happy voice and big smile cheer me up every time I watch one of her videos. She is also very good at updating her blog, with reviews as well as fantastic tutorials. I am jealous of her ability to pull off every version of a smokey eye, weather its night time or the middle of the day.

I have always loved the simplicity of DRBrooklyn730 youtube video tutorials. She reminds me of my self, a girl that doesn’t like to wear make-up during the day, but at night isn’t scared to go all out. After she did her “Earthly Grey Eyes Tutorial” I made a beeline to my nearest MAC counter to purchase all the products she used.

Michele1218 always does the cutest make-up tutorials and has an eye-shadow and blush collection I would die for. I love that she isn’t scared to go beyond her comfort zone with her make-up and she also writes an awesome blog.

TheBubbleGumPrincess has to be one of the sweetest girls on youtube. I love her constant bright pink lipstick and cheerful smile. She does really cute, bright tutorials and now has a little boy. Congratulations!

xXAllieCosmeticsxX is by far the youngest out of the bunch but you would never know that just by watching her videos. She seems extremely mature for her age and does very through reviews.

There are been many bloggers/you-tubers that I used to love to watch that have sadly fallen in too far with the paid tutorials and endorsements. All of these girls have stayed true to honest reviews weather they received the products for free or not and I applaud them for that!

My MAC “To the Beach” Haul

Sadly this collection came out in the last half of the month, and as a college student that is when my bank account is always at its lowest. I chose my top coveted items and tried to spend my money sparingly. I chose a creme bronzer in the color Weekend, lustre drops in the color Pink Rebel, and the 130 short duo fibre brush.

I have to say before I went into the store I was not expecting to come out with any of these products! At the time I purchased these no reviews had come out yet so I really didn’t know what to except. I assumed the creme bronzers would be greasy and look horrible on my oily skin. And I thought I would surely buy the tan lustre drops, not the pink one. All the lipsticks seemed very sheer and poorly pigmented, and the blushes, especially Get-Away Bronze, were much too shimmery for my taste.

Weekend creme bronzer: I was so surprised when I swatched both of the creme bronzers, they were not greasy at all and had an almost gel like texture. I purchased Weekend because it was the darkest and least shimmery out of the two. Having a lot of shimmer on my face is a huge pet peeve of mine. If I am wearing a shimmery blush and get sweaty or oily at all through out the day the shimmer just makes it look a thousand time worst. I think shimmer can be used very sparingly on the face but looks best when worn only on the eyes. Weekend is a red toned brown and is really fun to apply with my new 130 brush.

130 short duo fibre brush: I love my 187 brush for applying foundation and I have always wanted a smaller, similar one to apply cheek products. The hairs on the 188 seem way to flimsy and long so I was really happy they decided to release the 130. The 130 has very short bristles that are much more dense and it is a flat top. This makes it much easier to apply exact cheek product. This brush would also be very good for foundation, because it is so small it would really help getting the areas around your nose and under your eyes.

Pink Rebel lustre drops: To my surprise when I swatched both of the lustre drops next to each other this one appeared more golden/bronze toned. These lustre drops give an amazing tan sheen to your skin. I think the problem with the Sun Rush lustre drops is that they used more of a silvery glitter in it. It appears much too cool on my skin and makes me look paler, despite the fact that it looks bronze in its bottle. This is the first true highlighter product I have ever purchased and I am really excited to play around with it more.

How to Buy Make-up Online

There are certain things you should never purchase online, for example, shoes. Make-up should never be one of those things. I go through every one of these steps every time I buy make-up, weather it is online or in the store.

Lets say I “need” a new lipstick, Im thinking a bright red, the first color that comes to my mind is Russian Red by MAC. I will first start by going online to maccosmetics.com and reading the description of the online swatch.

Then, since everyone knows MAC’s online swatches are horrible I will type Russian Red swatches on to google. I swear Temptalia.com has a swatch for every single MAC cosmetic ever created as well as every other piece of make-up sold in the department store. It is good to find a few different swatch photos since the product will look different swatched on a pale persons hand as compared to a darker persons hand, as well as if the photographer used the flash or not.

After getting a better idea of what the product looks like I ask, does the lipstick have good staying power? Or if its a foundation, will this break me out? Or melt off my face and turn orange by the end of the day? To answer these questions I turn to one of my favorite websites. Makeupalley.com. Makeupalley hold reviews for every obscure beauty item, such as salt, or olive oil, to the most common items in the beauty industry, such as NARS orgasm blush. I love how you can sort the reviews by skin tone or skin type. It makes sorting through hundreds of reviews much easier. Since I discovered makeupalley I have not made one beauty purchase with out its help. I don’t always follow its advice, there are many product thats I love that have received bad reviews but this website has saved me from making many stupid purchases. This website is also great for discovering new make-up. The entire website can be sorted as most popular or newest products/reviews. Or you can sort by brand, then narrow it down by eye-shadow, lipstick, highlighters etc. Its fun to find new products that look ugly in the pan but then receive great reviews, as they say don’t judge a book by its cover.

Next its fun to check out youtube.com. For example I would type MAC Russian Red into the search bar then every tutorial/review on that lipstick would pop up. I like checking out the tutorials to see how other people wore the lipstick. This is also especially helpful with eye-shadows, many eye-shadows look boring on their own but then once blended with a few other colors look amazing. Many times I get into a beauty rut and watching people pair unexpected eye-shadows together always helps me.

Another fun website to check out is specktra.net. People post pictures of their most recent hauls. This website is pretty pointless but the hugeness of these hauls always amazes and it makes me feel better to see people that spend more money on make-up than I do! It is also helpful to see how many of the products shown are repeat products that multiple people hauled, which I am then interested in.

I hope all these websites help out next time you are looking for a new product or stuck in a beauty rut!

Overview: Blush

The Shimmery

From Left, NARS-Taj Mahal, Sunbasque, Gleeful, Benefit-Dallas, Hot Planet, Chic Couple

NARS-Taj Mahal: Taj Mahal is an extremely pigmented bright, golden orange blush. I think this blush would look best applied with a MAC 188 brush, which sadly I do not own yet. When applied correctly it looks really nice but usually I only use this blush as an eye shadow.

Sunbasque: Sunbasque is the first MAC blush I ever purchased. It gives my cheeks a really sunny, rosy glow.

Gleeful: I love the bright pigmentation of this mineralized blush. It is a perfect deep pink that suits really nicely with grey smokey eye shadow.

Benefit-Dallas: Dallas achieves the look it set out to accomplish but that look isn’t too exciting. It is supposed to give a dusty rose, bronzy glow. I really like Dallas but I do not think its pigmented enough to use as a blush alone.

Hot Planet: Hot Planet was released in the Grand Duos collection along side Light Over Dark which I mentioned in my bronzer overview. Hot Planet is one of my favorite blushes I own. It looks purple toned in the pan but once applied gives my cheeks a bright orange/pink glow. This blush is too shimmery for the day time but is awesome for night time.

Chic Couple: Chic Couple is a bright shimmery pink. I love to layer Chic Couple over Fleur Power when I want to add a same shade highlight.

The Mattes

From Left, Fever, Fleur Power, Notable, Ginerly, Coppertone, Maybelline-True Peach, Bare Minerals-Golden Gate

Fever: Fever is my newest blush purchase, it is very unique to my collection and has incredible pigmentation. I can’t wait to experiment more with this color.

Fleur Power: I love Fleur Power. It is a perfect bright pink. It instantly wakes up the face and looks lovely pair on top of every other blush in my collection.

Notable: I have to admit after I purchased Notable I quickly forgot about it. I assumed it had poor pigmentation until I swatched it for this blog, I realized I was mistaken and must give Notable another try!

Ginerly: Ginerly is my go to blush. My favorite cheek look is to apply Ginerly where one would normally apply their contour shade and then place Fleur Power on the apples.

Copperplate: Copperplate reminds me of Ginerly’s darker, more orange sister. I wear Copperplate alone on days when I am wearing minimal makeup.

Maybelline-True Peach: True Peach reminds me of a cheap, chalky dupe of Fleur Power.

Bare Minerals- Golden Gate: Golden Gate is a basic, beginners blush. It looks nice on all skin tones and is so sheer that it is almost impossible to apply too much.