Eyes of the Day & Product Review: Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips All-in-1

Similar to the Nude Wear Glowing Blush compact, this new Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips All-in-1 compact (in Warm Nude) is buttery, well-pigmented and I experienced absolutely no fall-out or powdery texture. I think this is the best product I have tried out of the whole Shimmer Strips like (and I own quite a few of their eyeshadow palettes). I think the pigmentation is much better on this compact though, so I whole-heartedly give this compact a 5/5 rating!

I swatched the entire palette on my arm, without any primer, no flash and just natural lighting, check out the awesome pigmentation - these were all one swipe and no extra build-up!

I think this is a great product for someone who likes golds and nudes, obviously you're not getting much color variation, it's only gold, bronze, copper, some shades are slightly taupey. That being said, you get a very seamless look regardless of how you combine these eyeshadows. You can achieve very wearable, everyday looks with this, or glammed up party looks - I would vary it up by either using a little bit more of the darker colors or applying more or less eyeliner can do the trick.

Here's how I achieved the look with a quick guide so you can follow along on your very own palette! Be sure to take advantage of the 40% off sale going on right now at Rite Aid to pick yours up!

Let me know what you think about this product!

Product Review: Physicians Formula Nude Wear - Nude Glow Blush (Rose)

Promotional Photo of Nude Wear Compact

As promised, I have a review for you on the Nude Wear blush by Physicians Formula that I picked up from the Rite Aid sale yesterday. Upon first glance there was a pink over-spray on the writing which I thought would equate into having a more shimmery blush. However, this spray went away after the first swatch and there is absolutely no shimmer left on my blush now. 

This blush gives a sheer, satin finish but it is definitely build-able, specifically the lower 2 quadrants. This is like a lighter mix of NARS Orgasm and MAC's Dollymix blushes when worn. The textures are buttery and smooth and not powdery at all, I haven't noticed any fall-out or flaking on the compact itself. I picked up the "Rose" compact, but there is a "Natural" (more coral-leaning) and there is a set of Powder compacts in this same line (available in Light and Medium) which look more like bronzers than all-over-face powders. 

Here are my swatches of the "Rose" Nude Wear without any primer or base:

When mixing all of the shades together, you can achieve a lighter rose blush similar to a faded version of MAC's Angelika blush (giving you that more of a coral-leaning-rose effect rather than a pure cooler-toned pink). This is warm-toned blush for those who want a natural look, it's not going to make you look like you have tons of blush on your cheeks, even if you go a little heavy when picking it up with your brush.

Conveniently this compact opens up at the back and comes with a brush and mirror as with many of Physicians Formula's products. I would give this product a solid 4/5 for wearability, pigmentation and overall conception. I highly recommend picking it up, specifically if you can get it on sale, it's a great quality drugstore blush.

Product Review: L'Oreal The One Sweep Eyeshadow

I'm sure most of you have seen this product around and have wondered if the gimmick really works. It sounds so simple. You take the applicator sponge, sweep it across the 3 color gradient provided and then sweep it on to your eye. You do this twice and you should achieve a flawless eyeshadow look. This sounds like it is particularly useful for makeup novices who are unsure of which color to place where, or for those of us who are a little bit timid when trying to create a smokey eye look.

I found this on sale at my local CVS and decided to give it a go and give my wonderful readers an honest opinion of this product!

The product itself looks like it could be used with a regular brush as well so if the applicator didn't work out, I figured I could still use this as regular eyeshadow. There's a wide array of colors but I chose 908 Smokey for All Eyes because it's out-of-the-box from what I normally wear and I wanted to try it out.

The quality of the shadows is good, they are smooth and blendable, I'm actually quite impressed by them, just as I was by the Revlon Colorstay Quads. Drugstore eyeshadows have vastly improved in recent years and they are almost just as good as the higher end brands.

First, I tried this product with nothing else added and no blending to show you what it looked like and then I worked with it to achieve more of a look that I am comfortable with.

L'Oreal The One Sweep Eyeshadow

All things considered, this product performed well, I really didn't feel like I had to apply more than one sweep to achieve the desired amount of color. I didn't particularly like the delineation between shades since you can see clearly where each color ends and the other one begins, but this was an easy fix with a shadow blender brush. 

Is this a product you must purchase? No, this is something that is more for those who are in a rush or those who don't like to change up their look as much, there's a neutral brown combination which I think suits all skin tones and occasions. 

I give this product a solid 3.75/5 - the color payoff is really good and the colors blend together very smoothly, the applicator works but you do have to go and blend it out to make it a little bit more of a wearable look (specifically with a stark color combination such as the Smokey look I chose).

Product Review: Anastasia Beverly Hills Lavish Palette

Woohoo, I'm so excited that I finally got this palette after eyeing it for half a year! It went on sale, as I mentioned in a previous post about offers from cosmetic companies. I was so happy to be able to pick this up for just $24 (shipping was free). I've seen bloggers and vloggers rave about this palette so I needed to see what all the hype was about.

Here's a closer look at the shadows (picture taken in natural light):

I'm happy with the range of colors, this is definitely a gem-toned palette.... I love the inclusion of pink, green, various light shades and even a black (albeit sparkly), plus there's definitely a good range of transition shades.

Here are my swatches:

Cream: Light peach beige, matte finish (very close to my skintone so you can barely see it) but it had great color payoff

Antique: Grayish taupe, frosted finish, great pigmentation and color payoff

Rum Cake: Copper brown with orange undertone, frost finish, best color payoff in the palette

Moss: Olive green with golden flecks, frosted finish, decent color payoff

Truffle: Reddish brown, pearl finish, so-so color payoff but good pigmentation

Ballet:  Peachy pink with silver sparkles (on the larger side), sheerest of the palette with fairly poor color payoff because it is the second most powdery

Orange Soda: Light orange, matte finish, most powdery shade with the poorest color payoff even though it has good pigmentation - it tends to blend away 

Sienna: Coppery reddish brown, matte finish, decent color payoff

Pink Sapphire: Pinkish coppery  brown, frosted metallic finish, good pigmentation (disappointing, however, because it is a lot less pink than I had hoped)

Black Diamond: Medium to dark brown with copper and gold microglitter, texture is a little dry and it tends to skip so it's more difficult to blend out, but it has good color payoff

I'll have to do a look to let you guys know how I feel about the shadows overall, but from the looks of it you can get very nice brown, copper, or orange-based looks with this palette.... I definitely think it's a great little beginner palette since the colors are very smooth and buttery and none of the pigmentation is too intense (a la Urban Decay Electric Palette) so you won't mess up your look by accidentally applying too much.

I think the value was very good, it came to about $2.40 per eyeshadow (0.031 oz each) compared to a MAC eyeshadow which costs $10 per pan (at 0.05 oz each) - so you're getting shadows for about 2.6X cheaper per quantity. I do have to say that I was hoping the shade Pink Sapphire was going to be more of a saturated pink rather than copper leaning, but it's still very wearable and one of my favorite colors in the palette.

Product Review & Look: Chella Eyeliner Pen in Indigo Blue

Today's look was inspired by the Chella Eyeliner Pen in Indigo Blue, which I received in March's IPSY Glam Bag! Initially, I received a sample that was dried out and I contacted Chella's customer support, they were *extremely* helpful and immediately sent me a replacement (I didn't even ask for one). I was so thrilled when it came in the mail 2 days later (wow, so fast, right?!). It's a beautiful, sponge-tip applicator eyeliner pen in a vibrant and very wearable blue shade. Best of all, the color glides on like a dream, it's water-resistant, smudge proof, quick drying, paraben and NANO-free! This is definitely my new go-to colored eyeliner: I much prefer the pen-tip application over a brush, I think you have much more control.You can just lay it down flush against your eyelashes and drag it along, letting the pen applicator do the work for you of creating a straight line.

This look started out as a simple way to showcase the eyeliner, but I just couldn't stop myself, it was so beautiful, I wanted to accentuate it with contrasting and complementary colors (so maybe this turned out a little bit Arabian Nights-esque, is anyone else's favorite Disney princess Jasmine?).

• Urban Decay's Sin all over the moving part of the eyelid 
• Urban Decay's Zephyr as the browbone highlight 
• (these colors were taken from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV - the original, not the redux). Feel free to use any similar shades, I know there are many dupes in the Wet 'n Wild Color Icon trios.  

• MAC's Brown Script in the crease applied in a sweeping motion, making sure to blend it out 
• Urban Decay's Freelove on top of that to warm up the crease and transition into browbone color 

• Chella Eyeliner Pen in Indigo Blue to line the eyes
• Annabella pigment in Solar mixed with water to line uppermost part of the Chella eyeliner
• Line outer 2/3rd's of bottom lash line with Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Rehab (bronze-brown)\
• Line inner 1/3rd of bottom lash line with Pixi Catching Shadows Crayon in Beaming Reflection (golden nude)
• Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara in Black applied to upper lashes - I would avoid the lower lashes as this will take away from the drama of the upper lash line with your beautiful blue eyeliner!

 I hope you guys like the look and please let me know if any of you have tried something similar before!

PS. I don't know what I like better, the Chella Eyeliner Pen in Indigo Blue or Chella's customer support! They're definitely both awesome and you should give their products a try.

E.L.F. Mineral Lipstick Swatches & Review

This review and swatches have been a long time coming, just because I wanted to make sure each of these lipsticks was consistent with what I've come to expect from the line-up. I first purchased one and then got my hands on 3 more. After putting them through the ringer and wearing these lipsticks quite a lot, I wanted to do a review. 

I would never recommend a product I don't personally love. And I've got to say, I *love* these lipsticks. They feel moisturizing and hydrating on the lips, the color is not too intense, in that it does not overwhelm the natural color of my lips. You can build them up to look as intense as in the tube, but you can also achieve a sheer wash of color with a light application. 

The shades I have purchased seem to have microglitter in them, this gives a beautiful sheen to the lips and isn't chunky or even really noticeable to the naked eye. With 16 shades with choose from, the mineral lipsticks only cost $5 each and I usually purchase mine during one of E.L.F.'s many 50% off sales. 

• Nicely Nude is a peach-toned nude lipstick with golden flecks of microglitter, I think it's extremely wearable and can easily be pulled off in any season, any time of the day. 
• Cool Coral reminds me of spring, it's a coral with fewer flecks of golden microglitter that blend in beautifully to the shade - I think this is a wonderful daytime spring/summer shade. 
• Barely Bitten is a "your lips but better" shade that gives just a nice flush of bright redness to your lips, almost like when you're out in the cold - again, I think this is a universal color. 
• Rich Raspberry is for red lipstick lovers, it's a deeper shade of red which borders on a berry, I love this for nights out and rock it readily throughout all seasons. 

And of course, I decided to show you what these shades look like on my lips (which are fairly light red pigmented). 

My personal favorites are Barely Bitten and Rich Raspberry as I think they suit a fair skin tone so well. I'm not a huge fan of nudes because I feel that they wash me out, but seeing as this one has some pink to it, it's one I can more easily get away with than a cooler-toned shade. 

Next time I place an order, I'll definitely be picking up some more of these tried, tested and true favorites.

Product Review: Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre Set

I recently purchased the Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre set from the Rockin' Red Hot Collection (this came out for the holidays). I got it for $16 on Hautelook, which I thought was definitely a steal compared to the $28 it retailed for originally. These are sort of a strange formula which originally looks like 2 layers, one is a bunch of dense glitter that settles to the bottom of the glass container and the top is a more clear tinted liquid. Before usage, these should be shaken well to mix the glitter and the medium.

The color choice gives a nice variety of looks which can be achieved, but the one thing I believe they all have in common is that they shine in the evening, which I think is the ideal time to pop these on top of your muted daytime look to achieve a glittery party look! This product feels luxurious and high end and is not associated by a particularly high price tag - considering I only paid $4 per each of these, they definitely feel worth it! I love rocking glitter (even during daytime) and these can be used on your eyes, face, and anywhere else on your body you want to sparkle!

Here's a look I spruced up with a little bit of the Amethyst sparkle! It gives a nice subtle finely milled glitter which easily applies with a brush (or your finger) and you can make it more or less dramatic depending on how much of the product you layer on.

Look created with Wet n Wild palette "Flirting at the After Party", Lorac 3D liquid luster in Amethyst, Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara, Jesse's Girl liquid eyeliner, Rimmel Scandaleyes waterproof kohl in Nude, Starlooks Gem Pencil in Topaz, and Milani Liquif'Eye metallic eye liner pencil in Black 

Without further ado, here are some swatches:

Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre Set - Indoor Light

 You can create a look with less or more sparkle, depending on how you concentrate the formula on your eyes, it will dry and completely set - this is much more mess-free than applying a medium and then glitter on top with a brush. These definitely take the guesswork out of which medium you should use and which glitter is eye-friendly. I do not recommend using these on your waterline, however, as no glitter is ever safe to use that close to your eye (it can be quite painful and even scratch your cornea if it goes inside your eye).

Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre Set - Flash

 As you can tell, with flash photography, these look absolutely metallic and stunning. The diamond shade veers a little pink even though it is meant to be colorless.

Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre Set - Day Light

Product Review: Real Techniques Makeup Brushes

The brand Real Techniques is a project by popular UK YouTube vloggers/beauty gurus and makeup artists Sam and Nic Chapman. I've been a long time subscriber and fan of their channel. I have also owned two of their brushes (the Expert Face Brush and the 2-in-1 Kabuki Brush) for a few months and have found myself reaching for them on a daily basis.



Now don't imagine that these are my first brushes, I can assure you they're not even close. I have approximately 75 brushes in my collection (well, before I bought the Real Techniques sets) and they range from drugstore brands like EcoTools, ELF, Kirkland, Sonia Kashuk, and then move up to more expensive brands like Sephora, Lancome, Stila, Urban Decay, Nicka K, and MAC.

The Real Techniques sets retail for $17.99 in my local Ulta and drugstores. You can get them for cheaper online and I'll have the links below.

The first set I got is the real Techniques Travel Essentials Set which includes 3 brushes: an essential foundation brush, a domed shadow brush, and a multi task brush. From this set, I realized that:

eyeshadow brushes are purple 
face brushes are gold
multi-use brushes are pink

This color coding is extremely intelligent and useful when you're looking for a particular brush to put your makeup on in a vast collection! I really like this added organizational bonus. The bristles feel very soft to the touch - I would use the multi tasking pink brush for blush or bronzer for contouring, it's not quite as big as I would like for an all-over face powder, however so I'll stick to using my MAC 150 for that.

Top: Expert Face Brush, Bottom: Buffing Brush

I'm sure you can use the essential foundation brush for applying your liquid foundation, however, I actually prefer the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for that application due to its buffing capability, it has shorter bristles and is very dense compared to the buffing brush from their Core Collection.









The real Techniques Core Collection Set consists of 4 face brushes: a contour brush, a pointed foundation brush, a detailer brush, and the buffing brush. The contour brush can be used for cream products and bronzers, the pointed foundation brush is great for putting foundation around your nose and under your eyes, and the detailer brush is amazing for applying concealer to specific areas. The buffing brush is as straight-forward as it sounds and lets you buff out your foundation, your powder, or your blush/contour - these brushes are always a workhorse in my collection. The pointed foundation brush is much smaller than essential foundation brush from the previous set. So you're really not getting any duplicates by buying all the sets.




The final set I have recently gotten is the real Techniques Starter Set. This set contains: a deluxe crease brush, base shadow brush, accent brush, fine liner brush, and brow brush. The names of these brushes are quite self-explanatory, you pack on your base eyeshadow color with the base shadow brush, pop the crease color on with the deluxe crease brush and use the accent brush for your inner corner highlight. You can use the liner brush to put your liquid or gel eyeliner and fill in your brows with the brow brush.

I really believe that if you get all of these brush sets, you would have a fabulous and inexpensive start to a really nice collection. The only addition I would make to the set would be to get the ELF large and small duo-fiber stipple brushes to supplement.




I also have to give an honorable mention and 5 stars to the 2-in-1 Kabuki Brush by Real Techniques because it is absolutely fabulous.  You might be wondering, why is it 2-in-1? Well, it is an angled kabuki brush (great for brush and bronzer) that opens up and turns into a fan brush, perfect for contouring! It snaps back into place very easily because it has a strong magnet. I'm a huge fan, it's perfect for traveling, and I use it *all the time*.

2-in-1 Kabuki Brush

If you're looking for affordable, synthetic, professional quality brushes that don't shed, are color-coded and come in perfect travel sized, convertible stand pouches, then these are for you! The bristles are super soft and flexible and they are so easy to clean!

Product Review: Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeshadow

I'm super excited that I can bring you a review of these products. I've been a long fan of the Physician's Formula line as they are more focused on hypoallergenic, good-for-you products with an organic twist. I happened to be perusing through the makeup section of Ross Dress for Less the other day and I found a mind-blowing deal. It was definitely not a fluke and they had many of these kits laying around, but the originally $10/each Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Eyeshadow sets were selling for $7.99 for a 3-pack!!! I know! It was a $23 savings!

Since I had been itching to try these anyways, I immediately scooped up the set that seemed the most colorful and fun to me. Now, I'm not going to lie, they're billed as Eyeshadow and Liner 2-in-1, but since absolutely any eyeshadow can be used wet as a more intense color or as an eyeliner, I'll only be reviewing them for their eyeshadow properties. You can, certainly, use these wet for a more intense color (as you can with any other eyeshadow you may own from any other brand). 

Each 9-color Shimmer Strips pack comes with an applicator with an angled liner sponge. As with every other brush that "comes with" drugstore eyeshadows, although they are better than most eyeshadow applicators, these are not particularly adept at lining eyes or eyeshadow placement and you'll want to use your own set instead.

Now, I don't have blue eyes, but they didn't have anymore of the "brown eye" sets and even if they did, I probably still would have chosen the blue. Regardless, you don't *have* to wear the colors they suggest, depending on how you wear them, any shade can look great on all eye pigmentations. This set looked the most varied and fun!

Enhance Blue Eyes - Smokey Collection

The first kit is a Blue Eyes set from the Smokey Eyes Collection and the swatches came out decently.

I did notice and you can tell by the swatch, the dark grays (the one in the middle and the one on the bottom) look almost identical, and the second-to-last color was only about half a shade lighter).

I think this set could have used some more variety. I do appreciate the inclusion of a slightly purple navy as the third color down.

This one was definitely a splurge at the original $10 price tag, but for the $2.66 I paid for it, I was more than pleased. The size of these is small and they are lightweight so you can easily travel with them. For an on-the-go set, these colors are creamy (the darker ones tend to be a little more chalky) and very easy to work with and blend.

Enhance Blue Eyes - Eye Candy Collection

Now, I know what you're thinking, this set looks extremely repetitive in terms of shades (blues, blues and more blues). However, the colors are more varied than they appear.

The first trio of blues are more green-hued and I definitely appreciate the inclusion of these in the set. However, I definitely bought this for the cherry red color. Which is superbly pigmented and swatches exactly the same way it looks in the palette. I'm excited to use it and I'm very grateful that they included one of the larger sized rectangles full of that color!

You get a lot of product in these palettes and truth be told, the color payoff is very good, I really only had to run my finger through the color once or twice and get those very vibrant swatches. Unlike the previous set, this darker colors in this set were not chalky but very smooth, the quality was very high, on par with much more expensive companies like Urban Decay and Mac Cosmetics.

Fashionista En Vogue

This palette is my favorite of the trio. Mostly this is because of my love for purple eyeshadow, but also because there is a brow/highlighter color that is very wearable as the first shade in this palette. There is also no recommendation as to which eye color these shades are for, so they must be for any eyes.

Let me also state the obvious and that the golden neon green is another reason why I was drawn into this set set like a moth to a flame. I actually wore this as my eyelid color yesterday and it had extremely long lasting power (I even used it without a primer) and only came off when I scrubbed and washed it.

Each of the colors in this set is unique and there isn't shade overlap as with the previous 2 sets. Out of the three, I think this set is the only one I would actually pay the full asking price of $10 for. The colors are highly pigmented and there is a good variety of looks you can achieve, from light to dark. You can put together a sweet look or a smokey look with this palette, I think the possibilities are endless.

In conclusion, I would definitely look out for these if they're on sale at your local drugstore or at a discount store (such as Ross, TJ Maxx or Marshall's). I think rhe colors really have to be a good mix to pay the full asking price, but for the insanely awesome price of $2.66 each, I would easily pick up the whole collection of these. I think they're easy to work with, great for travel, a good variety of shades, and my only real problem with them is that you do have to pay attention when you're rubbing your brush or finger in the colors because it's easy to accidentally pick up more than just one shade. For this reason, I suggest using a medium sized eyeshadow brush for application, and maybe a thin blending brush for some of the smaller rectangles of color. I have seen rave reviews about the "Nude" colored set of shimmer strips and I'll link it below.

All in all, I give this product a very respectable 7.9/10 for the drugstore!

Product Spotlight: Wet N' Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio

These are an oldie but goldie. I know these shadows have been around for years but with the addition of new colors, formula improvements and such a low price-point (from $2.99-$3.49 in most drug or department stores) I feel that these deserve a detailed look. YouTube beauty gurus are constantly raving about how amazing these are and I just had to go out and purchase Walking on Eggshells and Silent Era Film as they looked to me like the most wearable neutrals. Silent Era Film is not in the regular collection, it's part of their new "Be a Runway Beauty" collection, so not every store may have this particular one.



I was pleasantly surprised to find that these colors swatch just as beautifully as they look in the pans! However, they don't have testers in the store (at least not at the Walgreens I picked them up from) so I had to just take the $3.49 risk that all would be as promised.

Exhibit A: Walking on Eggshells

This was by far the most wearable color combination, I think it works great for all skin tones, especially fair ones and I was very pleasantly surprised when I swatched these on my hand, as they really did appear exactly as the pressed color looks in the pan! I have seen this particular color combination reviewed many times so I didn't take any pictures of what it looks like on my eyes. I really like that the colors have stamped into them where they should be placed, this is a wonderful beginner's basic set. The colors are ever so slightly shimmery but I do not think that they settle into creases, especially with a nice base applied first. These are, however, very subtle colors, so if you do choose to apply them over top of your skin without an eyeshadow primer or base, you may notice that they will fade quite easily (all but the crease color which is the intensely pigmented brown). This was a great purchase, I can see why it is a staple for many in their daily makeup routine, it's probably going to become one for me as well.

Exhibit B: Silent Era Film

This color combination was more daring and the crease color really drew me in, especially because it did remind me of 1920's flapper style makeup. Immediately when I saw this in the store, I thought of luxurious fringes, The Great Gatsby and a flapper bob, so I just had to buy it. The light pink browbone is a wonderful illuminator and wakes up your eyes, the intense peach/coral is a pop of wow, and the deep gray is a wonderful anchor. If I saw these colors on their own, I would put the gray in the crease, the light pink on the inner corner of my eye and browbone highlight and the coral on the main part of my lid. I like that the way this was ordered forced me to think out of my comfort zone of placing the darkest color on the crease.

Here's what the suggested look turned out like:

I was extremely happy with the results, it was much more wearable than I had originally anticipated and I look forward to trying these colors in various placements.

In conclusion, I highly encourage everyone to purchase these Color Icon trios, they're magnificent! Even if you have higher end products, this is a great alternative and may let you hold onto your more expensive shadows for special occasions!