Product Review: NYX Haul

Ulta had a 40% off sale on all NYX cosmetics last week and I indulged in getting some of the products I had been eyeing. If you've seen my previous review, you'll know that I really enjoyed the NYX Hot Singles. I have heard other bloggers and vloggers rave about the HD concealer and the Baked Blush, the color lip balm and roll on shimmer actually arrived in my Total Beauty Favorites Sampler Box (use code 2FER to get 2 boxes for the price of one)

I purchased 2 eyeshadow hot singles in the colors Money Maker and Dare. The pigmentation of these is on par with the other colors I have reviewed in the past. They are similar to MAC eyeshadows in terms of color, wear and staying power. I also got the NYX Baked Blush, which appears in the pan to be quite shimmery, in the color Wanderlust. To my surprise, this was very lightly pigmented and is probably better used as a highlight or cheek topper rather than a blush - or you can use it as a blush for a bronze-y more blended look. The shimmer really doesn't show up as much as I thought it would, but that isn't necessarily a negative.

Here are my swatches of the products.

I received the NYX Color Lip Balm in the color Merci and the NYX roll on Shimmer in Taupe from my Total Beauty Collection box. I was pleasantly surprised with the lip balm! It has a sweet taste to it, takes only 1 swipe for a sheer wash of color and can easily be built up into a bold, vibrant color on your lips. This is a great item for on-the-go application where you don't want to worry too much about getting perfect edges, it's very forgiving.  The shimmer in Taupe is very pigmented and has extremely good color payoff, but is very prone to glitter fall-out, so I don't know if I could use this all over my lid, as I would probably fear the glitter falling into my eye. If you're going to use this on your eyes, I highly recommend using a setting product or some cosmetic glitter glue. 

The NYX HD Concealer in Fair was my "gut instinct" purchase, because from all of the swatches I saw online, this looked like it had good opacity and would be a great brightening concealer. My gut was right, it is! You can tell by my swatches, it even retains the majority of its opacity when blended out. I think the color is a good match for me and it does act brightening because it doesn't have as yellow of undertones as my skin, so it makes certain areas appear slightly more highlighted. This concealer has good staying power but I did set it with my Tarte Maracuja powder, as with all under-eye correctors.

Hope you found this catch-all review helpful!

Product Swatches and Review: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream

I picked up a pack of 3 soft matte lip creams about a year ago because I saw that there was a 3-pack on sale at a local Urban Outfitters. I didn't even know anything about them at the time and my expectations were very low. I used and loved my original three so much (Tokyo, Antwerp and Addis Ababa) that just last week I decided to pick up two more (Milan and Sao Paulo). 

 I wanted to take swatches of my mini-collection to give you guys an idea of the pigmentation of these (swatches were all done with one swipe) - these are highly bold, pigmented, long wearing and last well for me even through eating and drinking. I get a solid 6 hours of wear time from these before they start to disappear off my lips. They are not the most moisturizing product and can even leave your lips a bit dry but this is not a problem if you apply a tiny bit of vaseline or chapstick first.

Tokyo: Bubblegum pink

Milan: Mid-tone blue-toned pink

Antwerp: Mid tone yellow-toned pink

San Paulo: Plummy pink

Addis Ababa: Bright fuchsia

Antwerp is the most unique color of the bunch, I don't have a color like this in my lip product collection. The middle three, MIlan, Antwerp and San Paulo are my favorites. Let me know what you think about this collection and if you have any other recommendations for me to pick up!

First Impressions: NYX Hot Single Eyeshadows

Today I received my order from the NYX website (this is the first time I've ever ordered anything from them) and I was so surprised at the great deals and variety they had! I didn't even know NYX made SO many products, even Ricky's near me don't carry nearly the entire line. I read many reviews and recommendations for the new Hot Single Eyeshadows. I also found great discount codes online and they stacked with the memorial sale, so I managed to purchase quite a lot of things and get free shipping, a bonus free product, and a great price! 

I was eager to do a quick first impressions of these since I haven't had time to actually use them (though I'm sure I'll do some Eyes of the Day posts with these). 

As you can tell, the eyeshadows look very pigmented in their cute packaging, complete with bow-clasp. They are such a delight in their packaging that I don't even want to depot them (I had originally purchased them with this intention)

The swatches of these shades are absolutely beautiful. All of these colors were only swatched once. 

• They all have a satin finish except for Tweed which is a medium to deep matte brown (perfect crease or definition color). 
• Club Crawl is a duochrome taupe shade with golden reflects. 
• Flustered is a deep reddish copper, again another shade I would think is great crease shade paired with something lighter or darker on the lid. 
• Sex Kitten is a duochrome pink-based champagne with gold reflects (amazing for an all-over lid color or inner corner highlight). 
• Harlequin is a vivid violet fuchsia that is delightful for a very feminine look. 
• Dank is a yellow-leaning medium green which reminds me a lot of a shade in between MAC's Swimming and Lucky Green. 

I posted photos of the NYX website color previews and most colors looked darker in the pictured pot than what I received. I found that the truest to color were Flustered (copper) and Dank (green), Tweed (brown) appears lighter and Sex Kitten (champagne), Harlequin (purple) and Club Crawl (taupe) appear darker in the pot.

Hautelook Pucker Up! Review - Lip Beauty Bag Blowout

In honor of the price reduction on Hautelook for this Lip Beauty Bag from $24 each to $10 each, I'm going to upload my swatches and give you a detailed review of each product and what I think about it. I did an announcement post when it came out and you can check that out here.

The bag itself is rather uneventful but is nicely enough constructed that you can travel with it and it will hold up. I don't much care for the lipstick case because it feels cheap, like something you would find in a dollar store and the one wipe is fine for on the go.

Here are my swatches of the lip products inside the bag:

Mostly everything is red or red-leaning. You can definitely tell that the Mirenesse Glossy Kiss and the Lord & Berry Lipstick are very close in color, they are more true reds which lean slightly orange. The Lorac Lip Lustre is a true red with red glitter and the Mirenesse Lip Bomb is a deeper red. The NYX Lip Liner I received is a fuchsia-based red. The Laura Geller Lipstick is unique, I really like this color, it's very much a frosty finish (I would really only apply this in the middle of my lips to give a subtle highlight)

I have always wanted to try the Mirenesse Lip Bombs and the bonus is that you also get a Mirenesse Glossy Kiss in this set (a crayon lipstick that is twistable). The color payoff on these is absolutely phenomenal, you will never have to apply layers of these, 1 layer is full opacity! The Lip Bombs are more of a liquid lipstick than a gloss.

The quality of the Lorac lipgloss is good, the color can be semi-sheer so I have to apply about 2 layers to get the desired effect - the glitter particles do show up. The Italian Marbled lipstick, specifically in the color I received of Sugared Maple, can give a little bit of a dead-lipped appearance so I reserve usage for highlighting purposes - but otherwise it has a nice creamy consistency. It is also very frosty.

The Lord & Berry lipstick crayon is probably the item I'm most bummed about in this set. I find that the formula moves around on my lips too much, causing it to feather past my lip line throughout the day, it's for that reason that I probably wouldn't recommend these, since I doubt most people apply anti-feathering lip liners (this was still an issue for me when using regular lip liner). I was very pleasantly surprised with the NYX retractable lip liner pencil - this is a very smooth, creamy formual and it glides on without tugging. It's a very full color and makes my lipsticks last all day.

The brush is something I find a little large for a lip liner and a little hard to control in the area since it has rather long, bendy bristles. However, I have been using it to apply my inner corner highlight eyeshadow and it does do a great job at that!

Let me know what you think of this bag, did you purchase it? Are you going to? Why or why not?

IPSY Unboxing - March 2014

It's that time of the month again! It's IPSY unbagging time! The theme for this month was "Destination Beauty" and I can't say I was disappointed with the items! Watch my video unboxing below:

My bag contained:
1. bareMinerals - Marvelous Moxie lipstick - Get Ready - small deluxe sample - value $7.50
2. Chella - Eyeliner pen - Indigo blue - full size - value $24.00
3. Pixi - Flawless beauty primer - value $9.00
4. NYX - Love in Rio eyeshadow trio - Moonlit skinny dip - full size - value $6.00

I paid $10 for this bag with shipping included in that price and the total value of my bag was $46.50

To join IPSY - http://www.ipsy.com/r/1lfc
To join BIRCHBOX - https://www.birchbox.com/invite/jmzfg

To join Glossybox - http://www.glossybox.com/subscribe

Allure Beauty Box Winter 2013 Unboxing

I was so thrilled to receive my Allure Beauty Box for Winter 2013 (this is a quarterly box so they only ship out 4 times a year, one for every season)!! This is my first one and this is somewhat of a tricky service but it's definitely worth it to try to get one of these boxes! For a minuscule $50, you get $327 worth of products!

Here's how it works: you make an account and sign in to http://allureaccess.com/. They will post a message when the next box is expecting roughly a month before the box becomes available. Then you have approximately 20 minutes to get your box before they sell out at the time announced! Happy hunting, everyone!

Watch  my unboxing video here!

Products Received

Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm - Value $6
Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion - Value $7
e.l.f. Contouring Bronzer and Blush - Value $3
Julep Nail Polish in Missy and Anissa – Value $28
Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream - Value  $14
Loreal Paris Extraordinare by Colour Riche Liquid Lip Color in Coral Encore – Value $7
Neutrogena Pore Refining Daily Cleanser - Value $7.49
Neutrogena Healthy Skin Primer - Value $13
Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadow Stick in Stay Golden- Value $8.49
Not Your Mother’s Knotty To Nice Conditioning Detangler - Value $6
NYX Love in Paris Eye Shadow Palette - Value $10
One n’ Only Brazilian Tech Keratin De-Frizz Wand - Value $15
Red Carpet Youth Cream - Value $15
Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Liner in Black – Value $6
Rusk Deep Shine Color Care Lock In Treatment – Value $14
Rusk Deep Shine Color Care Invisible Dry Shampoo – Value $19
Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Dry And Go Drops - Value $5
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat - Value $5
Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Makeup - Value $13
Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat Polish in Fuzz Sea – Value $5 (replaced a Sation nail lacquer that was supposed to be in the box but could not make it)
Sally Hansen Triple Shine Polish - Value $5
Smile Sciences Teeth Whitening Pen - Value $78
Ultra Repair Cream Intense Therapy - Value $28
Zoya Pixie Dust Nail Polish in Tomoko – Value $9

Z Palette: to buy or not to buy?

I wrote last week that I had ordered my very first Z palette to house all of my old depotted eyeshadows from various brands that don't fit into a regular-sized palette (which usually holds 16mm eyeshadows). So I decided to embark on this little journey to make my own customized palette of random blushes and eyeshadows that I had laying around. When you are finished, your collection will look like this (but less beat-up than mine because some of my products are really used up and abused):

What you'll need for this project:

• depotted eyeshadows/blushes (if you don't know how to do this, check back to my depotting entry where I tell you how to)
• labels
• adhesive magnets (from an art store or department store)
• scissors
• Z palette or any magnetic palette that's empty and fits any size pans
• rubbing alcohol
• scrubbing sponge

Firstly, you will want to dab a scrubbing sponge into rubbing alcohol and make sure you take the excess glue off of the back of your depotted eyeshadow pan. This will make the whole process a lot less messy and keep your palette looking clean. Take your depotted eyeshadows/blushes and cut a label to write the name of the product, the company that made it and the color for your reference. Unstick the adhesive peel from the magnet and place it on the back of your eyeshadow so that you have reference if you run out of a certain color you love and need to go back and get some more. If you really don't care what the color or product is then just skip this step.

Tools you will need

Then you can cut out a magnet that measures the size of your pan, so place the pan on top of the adhesive magnet and stick it on. Cut around the pan with your scissors or an exacto knife so that you have a perfectly sized magnet. This magnet goes on top of the label to make sure your eyeshadow is securely in the pan. Some pans are magnetized and do not need to have magnets placed on their backs. It is easy to remove the magnetic adhesive strip by hand so if you need name-reference, you can simply do that and re-apply it. If you choose to put your label on the outermost side and sandwich the magnet between the label and the pan, you may not have as good of a grip and your shadows may move.

You can make a separate little paper sheet insert that you can stick to the window of the palette that acts as a guide to your colors. I chose not to do this because I don't use these colors extremely often and will certainly not re-purchase these brands when I can get my hands on MAC and Urban Decay shadows. I have NYX, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Trish McEvoy, and Clinique products in my Z palette. Most of my stuff is from random gifts with purchases and drug-store buys when I was first starting out with makeup.

My first Z palette!

The last step is simply organizing your pans and popping them in the Z palette however you'd like! I like the concept of the Z palette because you can see everything you have inside, but the problem is that I thought they would be bigger. It turns out the Z palette PRO ($28) and the Z palette regular ($20) palettes only differ by half an inch in width and a very minuscule amount in depth. The depth is important to me so I opted for the PRO palette because I'm putting blushes and mineralized shadows in my next one. But if you're only going to put small eyeshadows, I suggest going for the regular one, as it is $8 cheaper. You can purchase them on Amazon, which is what I did and they arrive in approximately 3 business days. I like the fact that I can now stack all of my eyeshadows and blushes with my other palettes rather than investing in tons of those little Rubbermaid drawers to put them in. When you put things away like this, you risk not seeing all your products for long periods of time and purchasing items even though you already have some at home (but you don't remember because you haven't seen them in awhile). I don't like rifling through my single eyeshadows for a particular color I'm looking for, so this is going to make my morning makeup routine a lot simpler. I suggest buying these if you're a big fan of makeup and have an enormous collection like I do. I'm thrilled with the way I can see all of my colors so I know what to reach for! I give them a 9/10, only because I want more and I think they can be even bigger to fit larger products!