Physicians Formula Super BB All in 1 Cheek & Lip Balm: Review

Outer Packaging of Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Cheek and Lip Beauty Balm, Berry Pink

At the low price of $6.99 I just couldn't help myself but to pick up one of these cute little ball-shaped balms. Physicians Formula has branded this as a Super BB All in 1 Cheek & Lip Balm. 

You can use the Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Cheek and Lip Beauty Balm  for a sheer wash of color on your lips as well as by tapping your fingers on to the product and working it onto your face as a cream blush.

Inside of the Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Cheek and Lip Beauty Balm, Berry Pink  

The packaging of this product is sleek, luxurious and mimics that of an EOS or Revo Lip Balm. The scent consists of a pleasant sweetness that fades almost immediately after application.

On the cheeks, the finish of this product was neither matte nor dewy, the most accurate classification would be a satin finish. After it has dried on the skin (approximately 1 min after application) it takes on a powdery consistency.

The product looks very highly pigmented in the container but sheers out quite significantly once applied to the skin (this can be a good thing if you're trying to layer your blush on and don't want a difficult application).

Swatches of Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Cheek and Lip Beauty Balm, Berry Pink

On the lips, this is a comfortable lip balm but has a slight chalkiness to its texture (or powderiness as previously mentioned) which means that it is lacking a moisturizing sensation. The staying power is as expected with lip balms, but since it is more matte than moisturizing, it will last longer than a regular lip balm. I was happy to get 3 hours of wear on my lips.

On my cheeks, the product wore for most of the day (approx. 8 hours) but faded throughout the day, but it did look very natural. It was a "my cheeks but better" look, for sure.

My opinion is that this is a good, solid product from Physicians Formula, and the price is right for what you get. I would only really use this over other blushes if I was in a pinch of looking for a multi-tasker to throw into my purse - simply because nothing can convince me to choose cream over powder blushes (personal preference).

Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot Box O' Blushes

Benefit Cosmetics Cheeky Sweet Spot Box O' Blushes

For the Holiday 2014 season, for the very first time Benefit has put together multiple best-selling powders in a set. The Benefit Cosmetics Cheeky Sweet Spot Box O' Blushes contains 5 blushes, 1 bronzer, a highlighter (Watt's Up) and a small brush. This is one of the most wow-worthy gifts you could receive this year, I think it's a collection of powders that flatters all ages and skin tones!

The tin packaging is re-usable and absolutely beautiful! Benefit always does an amazing job on their packaging but I think even though this box can be construed as being bulky, you can always depot the blushes and keep little trinkets like jewelry or nail polish inside the keepsake Christmas box!

I have always wanted to try some of their boxed blushes but I could never decide on a color so now I'm so happy to have the opportunity to try 6 of them for just $36! A full sized blush is 7-8g, whereas each of these blushes are as follows:

Dandelion: 4g

Sugarbomb: 6g

CORALista: 5g

Bella Bamba: 5g

Hoola (bronzer): 5g

Rockateur: 5g

Watt's Up! (highlighter): 1.5g

For a closer look at the Watt's Up! Highlighter, I took a swatch, you can see it's just a sheer brightness that can be applied as a blush topper or on the tops of your cheekbones/brow bones to reflect light for a beautiful glow. I don't love the blush provided, but this is a freebie as it's not even included in the Product Details, so no complaints here about it.

I have read on other blogs that the Coralista and Bella Bamba from this set are not identical to their permanent boxed blushes of the same name, again I can't complain because I don't own those and this is my first foray into Benefit's blushes. Supposedly these are much lighter shades in the Box o' Blushes, but again I can't complain because I am fair skinned so I usually have to be very careful with very brightly colored blushes (or else I look like Bozo the Clown).

Dandelion is a blue-based light pink shade. 

Bella Bamba is a shimmery watermelon color.

Sugarbomb consists of 4 complimenting, shimmer shades of peach, soft plum, pink and rose for radiance.

Hoola is a soft matte bronzer.

Coralista is a warm coral-pink shade.

Rockateur is a rose gold color.

The Benefit Cosmetics Cheeky Sweet Spot Box O' Blushes comes with a Tips & Tricks booklet which can teach you where to apply each boxed powder/blush as well as the Watt's Up! highlighter. This is a nice addition to those who are overwhelmed by the variety of choices in this gift set!

I'm really impressed with this set and it's the only blush set I'm picking up this year for the holiday season, if you can snag it on sale before it sells out, you should definitely jump on it (I picked it up during the 20% off VIB Sephora sale)! This set is impressive looking and great value for your money, I'm very satisfied with all of these shades for my complexion! 

I'd love to hear what you all think of this set if you've picked it up or if you're thinking about it in the comments below! :)

Essence How To Make Your Face WOW Make-Up Box

Hello from Canada! I'm visiting my family for awhile and have found some goodies at a local Shoppers Drug Mart. I'm very impressed with their Essence collection as I have a hard time finding the products in the US sometimes (although Ulta carries them, the displays are usually ravaged and picked through). To my surprise, everything was in pristine condition and I was able to grab a couple of items!

Essence - How To Make Your Face Wow Make-Up Box

The first product I want to review for you is the How to Make Your face WOW Make-Up Box, which contains 4 face products: a bronzer, a highlighter and 2 blushes (one peach and one pink). This make-up box retails for $9.99 and I find it to be a drugstore version of the Benefit Cosmetics Cheeky Sweet Spot Box O' Blushes or the Tarte Pin Up Girl Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush Palette released for the Holiday 2014 season. I love what a great deal this set is, you're receiving 4 generously-sized face products, each priced at $2.50.

Essence - How To Make Your Face Wow Make-Up Box

With the exception of the pink blush featured in this make-up box, all other face products are shimmery - most of the shimmer is an overspray but there is still a noticeable amount when the products are swatched. I am very pleased with the texture and overall smoothness of application of these Essence products. I admit that I knew I would love these blushes before I purchased them because I'm a huge fan of the Essence Silky Touch Blush singles. The pink color is extremely pigmented and can be a little scary in the pan, but I promise that if it is applied gently and with a light hand, it has a nice, naturally flushed look on the face.

I took some close-up swatches in natural lighting without any primer or foundation underneath so you can get a sense of just how pigmented and smooth these colors are. There isn't any noticeable chalkiness or chunkiness to the products. I like the attention to detail and all of the kits offered in this line really remind me of the much more expensive Benefit boxed sets. Most of all, I think this is a wonderful set because of its travel-ability - you can easily carry this small set and have a good variety of products to complete your entire on the go.

What are your favorite products from Essence and do you have any product recommendations for me from this brand? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Product Review & Swatches: Too Faced Everything Nice Palette for Sephora Holiday 2014

The Sephora-exclusive Too Faced Everything Nice (That's What Pretty Girls Are Made Of) Set retails for $56 and is currently available for purchase here. There has been so much hype and speculation over this palette and I spoke about it really briefly in a previous post. UPS just delivered mine so I've put together this review ASAP. Basically, this set is a variation of the Too Faced Few of My Favorite Things Set from last Holiday 2013.

This year the bag is... not as spectacular as last years. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a bright fuchsia color that doesn't particularly appeal to me and secondly, it has chunky glitter particles adhered to its backside. I'm not sure why Too Faced went this route over, say, a clear window panel, but the glitter catches onto other fabrics and flies off everywhere. The back of the bag does not have a smooth texture, it is rough due to the large pieces of glitter. The cutest part is the zipper which has a round ornament on it, but it does add even more bulkiness to an already large bag.

The next issue I have with the bag is that it was not designed to fit the Everything Nice palette! Deceptively, they come in the box together, next to one another, but the box is much thicker than the bag and the zipper of the bag does not open the whole say, so you could never fit the palette inside. I suppose it's meant as a "bonus" for us to keep other makeup inside.

The inside of the Everything Nice Set is a charming little number. It consists of 20 fairly large (basically full sized) eyeshadows, 2 blushes, a bronzer, a highlighter, a deluxe mascara (Better Than Sex) and a 3-piece mini brush set. You're receiving a great variety of color in multiple textures, including shimmer, matte, satin and glitter. I think some basic math will tell you that this set is worth the price - I can see them selling for double or triple on eBay once stock runs out at Sephora.

For me, deluxe sized mascaras are cute for travel, so I'm happy to have received the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara. I like the conventional yet slightly bulkier mascara wand, I find that it gives me extra volume and carries a good amount of product so I won't have to re-dip during application.

The synthetic brush trio has cute handles, which have glitter suspended inside a layer of resin (which is what I would have preferred the makeup bag to be) so the glitter is really only aesthetic but won't scratch or fly off. The largest brush might be useful for contouring under your cheekbones, there is a decently sized eyeshadow brush and a liner brush (can also be used as an eyebrow brush). You're getting a nice variety of brushes and they are held securely in the set by a plastic strap so they won't fall out every time you open the palette.

Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014
Sweet Pink, Papa Don't Preach, Chocolate Soleil, Inner Light & Synthetic Brush Trio

Swatches of Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014

As you can see, these colors all swatch well and are of the quality I always expect from Too Faced's products. All of the face products are smooth and buttery, easy to apply and blend.

• Sweet Pink is a light blue-toned pink with golden finely milled glitter.
• Papa Don't Preach is a shimmery bronze peach color which was exceptionally smooth
• Chocolate Soleil, their cult classic, smells like chocolate and is a warm mid-toned bronzer.
• Inner Light, a re-promote from the Be Bright palette, is a pale golden highlight with fine gold glitter 

Eyeshadows in Too Faced - Everything Nice Set for Sephora Holiday 2014

A quick overview of the shadows will reveal matte, satin, shimmer, metallic, glitter and duochrome shades. This set contains a wide variety to please every taste. Some shades are even multiple finishes, such as metallic shimmers and they are interesting and unique.

Swatches of Row 1 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Turtle Dove - pale highlight white matte, will not achieve fully opaque color
• Dream On - neutral nude matte
• After Hours - metallic dark gold, super pigmented and buttery
• Fawned of You - light caramel-toned brown matte, very highly pigmented and smooth
• Knockout - appears dark brown in pan but secondary swatch reveals medium brown matte

Swatches of Row 2 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Paper Roses - pale baby pink shimmer
• Kindness is Free - pearlescent pink shimmer satin
• Mauvelous - lilac silver shimmer (re-promote from Too Faced Be Bright Holiday 2013)
• Be You - warm taupe matte, well pigmented
• Secret Lovers - dark chocolate brown shimmer, very pigmented and smooth

Swatches of Row 3 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Heaven - light nude matte, fairly weak pigmentation
• Shiny Happy - metallic green-toned gold shimmer
• Honey Pot - metallic yellow gold, very smooth and highly pigmented
• Don't Settle - antique gold metallic shimmer
• Girly - green burnt orange/brown duochrome - the most unique color in the palette, I love this one; re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)

Swatches of Row 4 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Totally Fetch - bright fuchsia pink satin, re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)
• Live It Up - purple shimmer with sparse blue, less intense than Totally Fetch and Too Glam
• Too Glam - satin metallic emerald green with fine shimmer, extremely pigmented
• Head Over Heels - dark navy blue with cobalt blue glitter densely packed inside
• Chocolate Moon - dark brown with sparse gold glitter - this color may be an attempt at black, but the opacity just isn't there, so I would say that it comes off much more like a dark brown

I really like this palette, of course there are some misses (Head Over Heels, Chocolate Moon, Heaven) but for the most part, this palette is absolutely fantastic. You will be able to create a wide variety of looks, and even the worst of the palette is still definitely usable, you just have to layer and work with the product. Overall, the consistency of all of the powders is very good, the extra bonuses of the set are a cute addition, and it would make a beautiful holiday gift for any makeup fan. The packaging is cute and sturdy, even though it is made of a condensed and covered cardboard. 

If you are considering purchasing this set, I recommend doing so early, because last year's equivalent sold out in a few weeks and I suspect this will do the same due to its high quality and great value.

Product Review & Swatches: Too Faced La Belle Carousel - New Release for Holiday 2014

This is going to be an extremely picture-heavy post, so I apologize in advance but I am extremely excited about receiving the Too Faced "La Belle Carousel" after ordering it from Macys.com. The outer packaging is absolutely stunning, I love the artistic ornamental garlands surrounding the box and the scalloped golden edges of the packaging... plus it's a french carousel! What an adorable theme!

The inside looks just like a Christmas ornament, you could even hang it! The miniature palettes are held together pretty tightly by the glittery pink end-caps (these are made of a heavy duty cardboard).

Once the top is removed, inside you will find a look-book  with 4 looks: Sweet Soiree, La Belle, La Vie en Rose, and La Bonne Nuit. I always love it when companies include look-books, specifically when I'm feeling rather uninspired, I just take a peek and voila, a new look to try out!

When you pull out the individual components you will find that you have 5 miniature palettes and 1 Better Than Sex mascara (deluxe sized sample). The whole set retails for $49 but has an expected value of $282, so you're getting quite a deal!

A closer look at the opened palettes reveals 2 blush/bronzer palettes and 3 eyeshadow palettes (with 4 shadows in each - so you're getting 12 eyeshadows altogether). Let's take a closer look at the specifics of each palette.

The blush and bronzer palettes consist of Who's Your Poppy, Luminous Peach, Chocolate Soleil and Sun Bunny Dark. Who's Your Poppy is a rose red with glitter particles and Luminous Peach is a satin mid-toned orange. Chocolate Soleil is cocoa scented cool-leaning mid-tone bronzer and Sun Bunny Dark (the dark strip from the Sun Bunny bronzer) is a metallic orange-brown which reflects a lot of light.

Some of the shades in this range are re-promotes. Yule Log is a re-promote from last year's "Joy to the Girls" holiday palette and I find that they have the exact same consistency and performance. Sugar Plum Fairy also appears to be a re-promote of Sugar Plum from that same palette, it may be half a shade darker but they both suffer from pretty serious pilling in the pan due to the amount and size of glitter. Christmas Tree could be a shade close to Evergreen from the "A Few of my Favorite Things" Holiday 2013 palette, but I do not own that palette so I can't confirm it. Haute Chocolate is a re-promote from the Chocolate Bar palette as well, I don't see any difference between the two shades.

All of the shades performed well, though I want to make note that Frost is essentially an "overshadow" color that provides just some sparkle and glitter, but will not really provide much of a color on its own. I like that they included Tufted Suede in the palette (it's hard to see in my swatches since it is very close to my the color of my tanned skin). Santa's Boots was the only color I found to be chalky and rather hard to blend, also the black was not very pigmented and didn't travel easily when swatching. Some standout shades that I think are an absolute success in this palette are: Tin Soldier, Christmas Tree, Boxes & Bows, Angel Hair, Haute Chocolate (this one was my absolute favorite) and Yule Log.

I absolutely love this set and I think it would make a wonderful gift for any makeup lover! What a wonderful set, full of some new shades and a couple of re-promotes of successful holiday shades from last year. The eyeshadows feature a range of colors from highlighting colors to transition shades, darker crease shades and even pops of color. I love the size of the blushes and bronzers, you're getting a decent amount of product and all of the colors are very wearable on almost any skin-tone.

Is this set on your wishlist for the holidays?

 

IPSY February 2014 Unboxing & Review - Valentine's Day Box!

I hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's Day with their hubby! The IPSY Glam Bag arrived and I wanted to share the contents of mine. I think IPSY really stepped up their game this month compared to January and I'm absolutely thrilled with what came inside my bag - it suited me perfectly.

If you're interested in signing up for IPSY, click here.

Eyetini - Eye Cordial Cream Shadow Tint and Base - retail value $18, full size - Can I just say wow? I'm way more impressed with Tini Beauty's cream shadow than I am with their nail polishes (which I found to be just average). The Ambrosia shadow stains and lasts and lasts all day - I wish I had all of the colors now (especially Violette which is supposedly an IPSY exclusive - I might hunt this down on eBay soon!). The shadow goes on creamy smooth (way creamier than the Maybelline Color Tattoos) and isn't patchy at all, drying to a complete powdery finish. I also didn't notice any creasing. This color is very pigmented so you can use it on its own or as a base for other similar colored shadows. I have already repurchased this item in Violette from eBay!

Zoya Nail Polish .5 fl oz, Shade: Dot - retail value $9, full size - IPSY first introduced me to Zoya and I've probably received 2 other nail polishes from the brand sinze and I absolutely LOVE them. They are naturally formulated and don't tend to chip on my nails - I would have preferred the color Odette (purple) but I received Dot (ballerina pink).

City Color - Be Matte Blush in Fresh Melon - retail value $2.99, full size - This blush is phenomenal! For the extremely low price point I was thrilled! It is very finely milled and it's a very generous size, this is definitely going to last me a long time (especially since I have so many other blushes in my current rotation). I'm going to look in local drugstores for this brand now!

POP Beauty - Plump Pout - Peony Petal - retail value $16.00, deluxe sample size value: $7.53 - love the color of this gloss in Peony Petal, this is definitely the color I was hoping for! It smells like a burnt rubber but it should smell like vanilla cupcake and glides smoothly onto my hand - I wasn't able to try it on my lips because of the scent. I received replacements from IPSY and POP Beauty - the full size of this product is made in the USA and smells like vanilla cupcakes and has a pleasant plumping sensation, the mini replacement I received from IPSY is made in Taiwan and still has a strong chemical/burnt rubber/gasoline smell

IPKN Moist & Firm Beauty Balm Cream #02 (Light) - retail value $35.00, deluxe sample size value: $1.35 - I like this item, it has a nice consistency to it, unfortunately the color is a little dark, this may be my fault though because I probably should have written in my beauty quiz that I'm "fair" (I'm changing that immediately!)

Total value of my IPSY February Bag: $38.87

This bag only cost me $10 and since I liked everything in my bag, I effectively quadrupled the value of my money and received a cute curved pink bag to boot!

To sign up, click here.