Beauty wish list!

Being someone obsessed with makeup/beauty products... there's always something I want.  And I'm sure all of you can relate!  ;) Companies are constantly putting out new products and collections that make us want more and more, which is just as much of a problem for my wallet as it is for my bathroom storage.  I need to go through all the makeup I have (although my collection is minuscule compared to many of your's!) and probably do some form of P10P, but there are too many cool items I want to do that..
Problem aside, it's OK to look and drool, right?  Or, go into Sephora, swatch around, and then leave?  I do that too sometimes. ;)
Here are a few things I've been really wanting lately (as in have been seriously considering buying).  Obviously not including all the indie brands I want to purchase from (that would have to be its own post I think!) Feel free to share your wish lists in the comments, too!

1. Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector: My job is a "cosmetics floater" in a department store, so I "float" to different counters (or fragrance) when they need extra help.  I've been at the Clinique counter for the last few weeks, and I've learned so much about the brand- I'm loving most of it. I've heard awesome things about the Dark Spot Correcter; it's supposed to visibly improve your skin up to 53% after using for 12 weeks.  I only have a few pimple scars here and there, but they're annoying enough that I'd like them gone for good.  The only thing that is holding me back is the price tag. -_-

2. Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Balm in Super Strawberry: I've been using one of these almost every day at work, and they are perfect if you hate the feel of lipstick but still want a tint of color.  They are pigmented, smooth, and not sticky- the color also lightly stains your lips for a good 3-4 hours.  I love Super Strawberry on my fair skin and will probably buy it soon! :)

(Not pictured) Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey: I totally thought of this after creating the image, so sorry about that!  But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I love Black Honey.  I first tried it at Sephora a few months ago and felt "meh" about it, but then when I started working at Clinique I fell in love.  It's sheerer coverage but it's dark color gives your lips a lovely flush of berry.  

3. Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil: I need to just repurchase this already.  I tried out the ELF Mineral Booster in Sheer as a replacement (review still to come), and I like it, but it doesn't give me the same "glow" that the Mineral Veil does.  There's just something I love about this one.

4. Tarte The Eraser Concealer in Fair: Everywhere I looked online was sold out of the shade Fair, so I might end up picking this up at my Sephora inside JCPenney sometime soon!  I love the coverage it gives, and I'm obsessed with these click-pen style concealers.  I'd love to use this under my eyes on dark circles, but it's great coverage would work over acne scars, too (I'm guessing!).

5. OPI Pirates of the Caribbean nail polish collection: I don't need all the colors, but I just love them as a whole- especially Stranger Tides.  I've been trying to find the Sinful Colors collection that is similar to this, but I haven't had any luck lately (and no where around me sells this collection in stores!).  Such pretty pastels. :)

6. Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh perfume: It wasn't until I worked in the fragrance department this summer that I started to like Daisy.  And then I decided I loved both Daisy and the Eau So Fresh version!  Funny, because I used to really dislike it.  Now I love the sweet floral scent.

Darling Girl Cosmetics order and swatches!

I've been eagerly awaiting my first order from Darling Girl Cosmetics for awhile now, and when I received it yesterday in the mail I couldn't wait to try everything out!  This was my first experience with an indie makeup company, and I am hooked to say the least.
I placed my order during Susan's first sale, which was over Memorial Day weekend and it was Buy 2 Get 1 free.  It was also my first time using Paypal, so I really didn't know what was going on, haha.  It turns out my order got lost (as I can imagine how crazy busy she was with all the orders), but Susan was more than courteous despite the mix up- she included a few extra samples and a Liquid Kisses lip gloss which was so sweet!  I wasn't expecting that as I didn't even really know how the whole ordering process worked through Paypal and Ecrater (the website her store is hosted through).  I also got my package two days after she emailed me about the mix up.  Consider me impressed!
Anyway, onto what I ordered :)

Look at how cute the packaging is!  She wrapped my petit eyeshadow/blushes in the green tissue paper, my blogger sample pack in a little box, and my free samples+Liquid Kiss in the zebra packet.  She also includes a card along with it.  So nice!

Samples (eyeshadows unless otherwise noted), Top L-R: Belle, Sugar Minuet, Cider, Scarecrow

Bottom L-R: Dulce de Leche, Candied Apple (Kiss Me tinted lip balm), My Little Pony, Masquerade

Petits, Top L-R: Hollywood, Cydonia, Snuggle

Bottom L-R: Paradise Pink blush & Yes, Virginia! blush

Fuchsia Flush Liquid Kisses lip gloss

Liquid Kisses gloss in Fuchsia Flush

Samples (all eyeshadows):

L-R: Belle, Sugar Minuet, Cider, My Little Pony, Scarecrow, Masquerade, Dulce de Leche

Petits (eyeshadow unless otherwise noted):

L-R: Cydonia, Hollywood, Snuggle, Yes, Virginia (blush), Paradise Pink (blush)

Kiss Me tinted lip balm in Candied Apple

The sample baggies come with 1/8 of a teaspoon ($.60 each), and the petit sizes are mini jars with 1/4 teaspoon ($2.00).  Full sizes come in jars with 3/4 teaspoon ($4.00), although I didn't purchase any this time- I will in the future! :)  I do think the pricing per quantity is very affordable, though.  I also like that everything comes in different sizes so if I'm not sure about something, I can get either a sample or a petit jar to try it out.  And the full sizes are still a great deal so I don't feel bad buying everything in that size!

This is my first time doing swatches for a mineral makeup company, so I'm pretty sure my swatching  didn't do the eyeshadows justice (they were all done using a damp brush).  Since I will be purchasing from DCG in the future, I plan on trying the Stay the Day eye primer to help make them more vibrant.  I got so many compliments today when wearing them (see the quick EOTD at the end of this post), and each eyeshadow has so much dimension that I couldn't capture in pictures.  I love how pretty and soft the colors are, though, and how great their lasting quality is.  My eyeshadow looked just as fabulous tonight as it did at 8am this morning when I applied it.  They all have beautiful shimmer.

I love the blushes I tried- Yes, Virginia! is a gorgeous violet pink, and Paradise Pink is a light peachy pink that I will be purchasing as a full size.  The two I got are not quite matte, but have a slight sheen that gives a nice finish- easy to wear and my personal favorite.  They also lasted me all day, which was a pleasant surprise!  I wore Yes, Virginia today with My Little Pony eyeshadow and the Fuchsia Flush gloss for a pretty, girly look.

For lip products, I got to try one of the Kiss Me tinted lip balms in Candied Apple, and the Fuchsia Flush Liquid Kisses gloss.  The tinted lip balm is just that- a slight tint, but glides on just like a moisturizing balm.  The Liquid Kisses gloss leaves a subtle amount of color that is nonsticky and smooth.  These don't last too long on me, but I love the shine they give off (check out my lip swatch!).

Quick EOTD using Snuggle, Cydonia, and Masquerade eyeshadows

Overall, I'm more than pleased with my order and think that Darling Girl Cosmetics is a great little company.  I can't wait to make another purchase in the future!

Until then, what are your favorites from DCG if you've tried them?  I'd love to know!  Or if you haven't yet, what are some of your favorite indie makeup brands?  I think I'm hooked. :)

ELF part two: miscellaneous (eyes, face)

I love ordering from ELF.  Usually there are one or two things I'm not thrilled with, but for the most part I like everything and it's just exciting to see what's new.
ELF has a bunch of new products and colors lately!  I tried out one of the new Studio Radiance Enhancers in the shade Sunrise, the $1 Smudge brush, Studio blush in Twinkle Pink, and then two of the new-ish cream eyeshadows, Dawn and Bronzed.  I'm planning on another order as soon as ELF restocks some items, but I hope this post helps those of you who have been curious about a few of these! :)

ELF Studio Radiance Enhancer in Sunrise

I really don't need more highlighters, but I love click pen applicators (for some reason!) so I wanted to try this out.  Sunrise is the second shade of the new Radiance Enhancers.  I thought from the online pictures that this would be lighter and more gold, but it's a rather deep rose-gold shade.  On my skin it leans bronze, as you can see in my swatch.  Blended out it's very sheer and leaves a subtle glow- perfect for anyone who likes a little highlight but nothing over the top.  I'm not sure I'll get much use out of this just because of the shade, but it'll make a nice base for blush.

ELF Smudge brush

I've been wanting a brush in this style for awhile now; it appeared to be perfect for applying color to the lower lash line.  As it turns out, it is!  There are a few comments on the product page online that the bristles aren't dense enough, but I've had no problem.  A few have shed on me already, but for $1 I'm not complaining.  It makes applying color close to the lash line really easy.

ELF Studio blush in Twinkle Pink

Twinkle Pink is one of two new shades of the Studio blushes (Giddy Gold being the other).  The shade is really gorgeous, and is a slightly pinker version of the blush side of the Studio Contouring Blush/Bronzing Powder.  I'll compare these in another post- they look quite similar in the pan, but swatched you can see their differences.  Anyway, Twinkle Pink is pretty powdery and glittery but it's a gorgeous color.  I have so many of these peachy-pink shades that I think I've hit my limit, haha.

Left: Dawn, Right: Bronzed

ELF Studio cream eyeshadows in Bronzed and Dawn

First of all, the packaging with these cream eyeshadows is just as bulky as everyone says it is.  In terms of product, however, I just love these.  They don't crease and make for great bases for eyeshadow.  Bronzed is a bit smoother and more pigmented than Dawn, but they both blend easily and are overall great quality.  I hope ELF comes out with more shades, because I'd love to try more!

I also purchased the small size of the Mineral Booster, which I'll review in a separate post once I've tested it a little longer.  I was hoping for it to be a good dupe for my loved Mineral Veil, so we'll see how it goes!  

If you guys haven't entered yet, there's one week left to take part in my giveaway.  Thanks for your continued support that has allowed me to do this! :) xox

My ELF order arrived! Part one: lip products

I had been wanting to order from ELF for the longest time, but for a number of reasons didn't get around to it until last week!  At first I was waiting for new products to come in, and then when they did come in the other products I wanted were out of stock (and ELF takes forever to restock things it seems).  A few weeks ago Total Beauty featured a daily deal (which I posted about) that was $10 for a $25 voucher to ELF.  I purchased it right away, and that kind of gave me the push I needed to finally place my order.
So, exactly a week after ordering, my package arrived.  Yay! :)

I apologize in advance for 1) the lighting of the first few pictures, and 2) that I didn't take pictures of a few of the products before using them.  I wasn't able to open my package until late last night, and I couldn't get very good lighting for pictures.  And there was no way I was waiting until today to try out the products... haha.  So I'm sorry for that!

Everything together!  I will be breaking it down into individual posts, so today will be lip products.  I'll go into detail about the rest of the things I got in a separate post. :)

Essentials lipstick in Nostalgic, Mineral Moisturizing Lip Tint SPF8 in Rose, Mineral lipstick in Natural Nymph

Essentials lipstick in Nostalgic

I've never tried any of the $1 lipsticks before, but as soon as ELF put up the new colors, I knew I had to try this one out.  I noticed my package had been opened (the lipstick was untouched, but the plastic packaging was ripped open) which was weird, but the product hadn't been opened anyway.  My initial reaction is so-so.  The bullet sticks up a little farther than the top of the tube, so I nicked the lipstick right away.  The reviews on the website are right- this lipstick is really fragile.  The color reminds me of my Revlon ColorBurst lipstick in Fashion's Night Pout, but maybe a tad peachier.  

Mineral lipstick in Natural Nymph

Having heard so many good things about the mineral lipsticks, I knew I needed to try one!  Natural Nymph has been on my wishlist for a pretty long time.  It's definitely a 'concealer lips' color, and makes for a great nude lip base although it's a little patchy on me.  The mineral lipsticks feel so much better quality than the $1, from the packaging to the product itself.  I'll definitely try out more of these in the future- I have a feeling the deeper shades would apply better.

Mineral Moisturizing lip tint in Rose

This was one of the products I was waiting for to make my order, and unfortunately by the time I actually placed my order, most of the colors I wanted had gone out of stock.  I love this, though, especially being someone who doesn't really like lipstick.  It's pigmented (as you can see in my lip swatch), and gives my lips a lovely rose-y berry color.  I can't wait for these to come back in stock, because I'll definitely order more!

Mineral lip tint in Rose, Mineral lipstick in Natural Nymph, Essentials lipstick in Nostalgic

Stay tuned for the rest of my order, where I'll cover the new Studio Radiance Enhancer, blush, and cream eyeshadows, along with the new smudge brush (I'll be reviewing the Mineral Booster in its own separate post).  

Thanks guys! :)

Do eyelashes come in size XL with Lancome Cils Booster XL?

Confession time!  My mom buys Lancome.  And Clinique, and other various department store makeup brands that I don't typically use.  Me being a curious person, sometimes I go into her bathroom and try her stuff out (I'm glad she doesn't read my blog regularly!  Although I'm pretty sure she wouldn't care too much, thankfully, lol!).  She was telling me awhile back how she bought Lancome's mascara primer and thought it was so-so; she was conned into buying it by the makeup artist working there but she thought she'd give it a try anyway.  I had to try it.  I love Lancome Definicils mascara (my mom's mascara of choice, which she gave me once when she thought she didn't like it, haha) so I was really hopefuly of the Cils Booster XL.  And hey, anything that has "XL" in the name makes me take a second look!
So how does it perform?

Lancome describes the Cils Booster XL as the following:

Give your lashes an XL boost. With just one sweep, this innovative mascara base glides on and evenly coats and smoothes your lashes to maximize the results of your favorite Lancôme mascara. The magic behind this mascara base is the conditioning formula—featuring micro-fibers and Vitamin E - to add extra length and thickness to your lashes for added visible performance to your mascara.

There's vitamins, micro-fibers, and magic in this mascara primer.  Sounds pretty amazing to me, haha.  But basically, it's supposed to lengthen and thicken your lashes with mascara on top.

The bristles on the wand are straight across, but the brush itself it large- I'd say about double in size comparing it to Lancome Definicils (which is a thin, straight brush).  The formula is white as you can ee from the pictures, and it makes your eyelashes white upon application.  This obviously goes away when you apply mascara!  

The micro-fibers in the formula help coat every lash, which is one of my favorite things about the formula.  I hate when mascaras feel like hey don't "catch" every lash, if that makes sense.  This grips onto your lashes and makes them look really long and thick.

You don't have to wait for it to dry to put on mascara, so I do one eye at a time- primer, then mascara right after (I tried letting it sit a few seconds originally, but it made my mascara clumpy.  Then I consulted a Lancome girl who told me to just apply mascara consecutively).  

You can see my pictures for a step-by-step:

1. is my eyelashes without primer or mascara

2. is one coat of Lancome Cils Booster XL

3. is one coat of Maybelline Volum' Express The Colossal mascara

4. is two coats of the same mascara

Now, comparing picture #4 to picture #1, my eyelashes without any product to using Cils Booster and mascara, it looks like it makes a huge difference.  And it does.  But I'm not really convinced it's worth the $22.00 price tag for an extra step in addition to mascara.

Here is a picture comparing my eyelashes with the Cils Booster & Maybelline The Colossal mascara (same mascara I used in the above comparison pictures), to my eyelashes wearing just the Maybelline The Colossal mascara without primer:

Left, same picture from above, 1 coat Cils Booster+2 coats mascara; Right, 2 coats Maybelline mascara

I know the angle is different so it might be a little hard to tell, but I don't see a huge difference in terms of length or thickness.  At least not enough to make it worth adding an extra step to your makeup routine.

For one more comparison, here is a picture with another mascara, L'Oreal Double Extend Illuminator; two coats:

This picture compared to the ones I showed with Cils Booster XL makes me think that it really doesn't do a whole lot.  The first time I tried Cils Booster I was convinced it was the best thing ever!  And then I used it a few more times, and started to see a very insignificant difference.

I should mention that I was blessed with decent lashes (well, at least after I use mascara, lol!), so I can't say how this will work for those of you with shorter, sparser eyelashes.  My mom has shorter lashes and she said she doesn't notice a huge difference, but she still likes to use it anyway (so that could mean she sees a little added length and definition).  I'm going to continue using this here and there to see if I experience any change, because I'm still not 100% convinced that it's a bad product.

Overall (finally!  This post seems like it's lasted forever!), I can't fully recommend this unless you like eyelash primers and find they typically work well for you.  In that case, I think it might work better for you than it did me.  I don't personally think it's worth $22.00, as I didn't experience much thickening and lengthening.  I would much rather spend an extra few dollars and just buy a good Lancome mascara! 

Thanks for reading, guys!  And happy father's day! :)

EOTD: Smokey, summery green & gold

Hey guys!  This is an EOTD from a couple weeks ago, actually- I can't believe it slipped my memory for this long!  I cropped and put the photos together right away, meant to post them, and then had a million other ideas for posts and this one got sent to the back burner.  Anyway, I really loved this combination of olive green and gold (as easy as it is!), so I still wanted to get it up here. :)

Products used:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

-Victoria's Secret eyeshadow in Beloved (all over lid and lower lash line)

-Maybelline Eye Studio Marbleized eyeshadow in Khaki Craze, the gold marbled side (in crease and lower lash line)

-Wet n Wild ColorIcon palette in Vanity, matte cream and shimmery cream shades (as inner corner/brow bone highlight)

-ELF Essentials liquid eyeliner in Black 

-Victoria's Secret eyeliner in Dark Brown (outer half of lower lash line)

-Maybelline Volum' Express The Colossal mascara in Black

I accidentally plucked the outer ends of my eyebrows a little too much the other night, so I'm seriously wishing they looked like they do in these pictures again!  Haha.  That was my fault, as I should have known better than to mess around with eyebrows.  Usually they look best when I leave them be and don't pluck them too much.

Anyway, thanks for reading this quick post.  Hope you guys have a great weekend! :)

(And I hit 600 followers last night, yay!  Thank you so much everyone!  My boyfriend was my 600th, but I have you all to thank for your continued kindness and support.  You make blogging worth it. :)

Revlon ColorBurst lip gloss in Peony

After trying two shades of these Revlon ColorBurst lip glosses (Hot Pink and Bordeaux), I knew I needed to get another one.  Hot Pink was a sample I received in the Target Beauty Bag a few months ago, but Bordeaux is one I own in full-size.  I love everything about these, from the texture to the color payoff.  My first pick for my next one was the shade Pink Ice, but Target was sold out of it today when I checked.
I decided to go with my second choice, Peony!  It's a lovely shade of peachy pink with gold shimmer (it almost reminds me of Nars Orgasm but in lip gloss form).

With flash to show the gorgeous sparkles!

The applicator is like a doe-foot spatula, which I actually really love.  It deposits the gloss more evenly than regular doe-foots in my opinion.  And like the other two I tried, Peony is smooth and non-sticky.  Love!  There's nothing worse than getting your hair caught in your lip gloss because it's too sticky.... but my lips don't feel so goopy with these.  I believe every color has a significant amount of shimmer, so you  gals that aren't fond of shimmer should probably pass.  I personally love the extra "oomph" the shimmer gives to the gloss. :)  One last thing, if you're sensitive to smell, these smell kind of like vanilla cupcakes upon application. I don't mind it, but it depends on your preferences!  

Also, my giveaway ends in about two weeks!  If you haven't entered, click here to do so.  Thanks everyone!  (Side note, for my next giveaway I won't make the running time so long!  I'm sorry about that.  Over a month is really too much time!)

Take care everyone <3 

Good things come in little packages with Montagne Jeunesse masks!

Recently, I've been really wanting a new mask- the thicker kind, clay, mud, exfoliating, whatever! that really sticks to your skin.  I use an old (and discontinued) cream mask from Clinique about once a week, and I do love it, but I just wanted something new and different.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money for one at Sephora or a department store, but I also didn't want to buy one online.  So my next thought was trying the ever-affordable Montagne Jeunesse masks that I always see at the drugstore!  I don't know why I never tried them before but a few days ago I decided to finally pick up a few.

Clean-up mud mask, Fruit smoothie mask, Skin polisher mask

Clean-Up Mud mask (which I already used- I forgot to take a picture beforehand, haha), Fruit Smoothie mask, Skin Polisher mask

The thing that ended up really appealing to me about these is their size.  With skin care products, a lot of things I try are hit or miss, and I was afraid I would try a mask and it would break me out.  With these, I can try one and if it breaks me out, I'm not out however much money and left with an entire tube of wasted product.

Last night I tried the "Clean-Up Mud" mask (which you can see from the picture above that I forgot to take pictures before I used it haha, sorry!).  I was pleasantly surprised that 1) it didn't break me out, and 2) it actually contained enough product to get about two more uses out of.  I depotted the rest of it into an old Mario Badescu sample jar:

So that was an extra bonus!  I thought these would be strictly one use only.  

This "Clean-Up Mud" mask contains aloe vera, willow, rosemary, and witch hazel that are supposed to target problem areas like blemishes.  

It's a thick clay and has an off-white, almost grey tinge.  It reminds me a lot of how my Mario Badescu Flower & Tonic mask applied and felt- it goes on creamy and smooth, but dries down in minutes.  You have to do a bit of massaging to get the product off, but afterwards my skin felt really smooth and refreshed.  I left this on for about 10 minutes (the packaging says 10-15) and rinsed with warm water.  

I didn't expect my skin to look any better after using it, but I actually did think it looked clearer and more refreshed!

The next night I tried out the Fruit Smoothie mask- I know, you're only supposed to use these once a week but I had heard good things about this one and I was excited to use it! :)  This one contains crushed raspberries and mangoes and smells amazing!  It's also a thick cream that dries down to clay once it hardens, pretty much exactly how the Clean-Up mud mask was.  

I've yet to try the Skin Polisher mask (I'm making myself be patient and wait a week, haha) but I can't wait to see how it works.  That one is supposed to contain exfoliants that you scrub onto your face and then let sit.  Interesting!

Have you guys tried any of these Montagne Jeunesse masks, or any others that you like?  

NOTD: Sparkly and "bling-y"?

Yesterday I originally had my nails painted with a duochrome teal polish (Icing nail polish in Peacock), with OPI Silver Shatter layered on my ring finger.  I actually really liked it but late last night I was bored and wanted something just... sparkly.  So around 1am, I took off the teal and gave myself this ultra bling-y manicure that is really unlike me, haha. 

I used an older limited edition Wed n Wild Craze nail polish in Shield, which is one of my most very favorite nail polishes.  I have a hard time wearing golds, but this is more of a cool bronze gold that has the right amount of shimmer and fine glitter (side note, I love love these kinds of shades underneath a black shatter!  So pretty!).  I so wish this was bigger than 0.34oz!  Or that it was part of the permanent WnW collection and not LE. >:(  Anyway, I topped it with the super glittery Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Disco Ball.  If you're looking for a clear nail polish packed with tons of regular glitter, def. get this! :)

Wet n Wild Shield, Sally Hansen Disco Ball

See the glitter?  I love it!

It was kind of hard to capture the blingyness (not a real word, ha) without the flash washing it out- unfortunately we're having the ugliest weather today with lots of rain and thunder!  But I hope you can still get an idea of how it looks!  This would definitely be better suited for a night out, but I don't really care. ;)

What's on your nails?