30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 11 "Colorblock Effect"

Day 11 "Colorblock Tango" - J Cats/Kat Von D/Covergirl/Cailyn

J Cat Wonder Lip Paint "Red Potion": $4.99

Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm "Acid Pink": $19.00

Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick "A-Go-Go": $21.00

Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick "Divine Divine": $10.47

I did an ombre lip the other day, so today I thought I would do a colorblock lip. I've always wanted to try one and I thought this would be really fun. The Covergirl lipstick is a deeper purple in the tube, but once on the lips it softens to a purplish-pink. The Kat Von D orange lipstick has sadly dried out after less than a year of ownership, so I'm going to turn it into an orange lip gloss by crushing it and mixing it with vaseline. This was my first time using the J Cat color and I am in LOVE. The lip paint from J Cat is awesome. I love Cailyn's tinted lip balm, but I don't go for this one as often as I do my other color, even though I feel super confident in this acid pink color.

30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 7 "Lined & Lippy"

Day 7 "Lined & Lippy" - J Cat Beauty "Red Rose"

J Cat The Big Lip Pencil "Red Rose": $3.99

I've done mini - small flicks before, but nothing quite so intense as this. I wanted to try a bold, graphic liner with a bold red lip. I used a glittery eyeliner over my basic black liquid eyeliner to give it a bit more dimension. Because the liner is so intense I definitely should've used false eyelashes for this look, I just don't own any yet. I haven't used this lip pencil in a long time, though I'm not sure why. It's so creamy and long-lasting. It wears just like a lipstick! In the picture with my face the color looks orange-ish I believe due to the lighting in that room unfortunately since it tends to be yellow vs. white, but it is a more true red vs. the orange hue it looks in the first picture. This is my favorite red lip pencil out of the few I own and I thought this would be a fun red for the look.

30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 4 "Sunset in Paradise"

Day 4 "Sunset in Paradise" - Too Faced "Nude Beach"

 

 

Too Faced "Nude Beach": $22.00

I've never done a colorful ombre eye look before, so I thought I'd go for a really interesting eye look today to challenge myself and do a pretty, soft nude lip to balance it. I love this Too Faced lip color, and it's one I haven't used very much. I'm noticing I love and own nudes but I don't use them as often as my pinks. I love Too Faced cosmetics, and their lipsticks are so comfortable on the lips. They're intensely pigmented and go on very smoothly. The look I was going for on the eyes was more of a sunset-type hombre with gold, orange, fuchsia and a slight dark purple in the crease.

30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 3 "Double Liner Happiness"

Day 3 "Double Liner Happiness" - Lorac "Nude Scene"

Lorac "Nude Scene": $10.00

I love this color like whoa, but I realized when I was looking through my collection that this nude is one I haven't worn very much. The eyeliners I used today are Lorac as well, and I just thought it would be really fun to try something a little more unusual for my eye look. My eye look is a cobalt blue liner on the outter half of my eyes, and a gold eyeliner on the inner half, both on top and on bottom. The lipstick, even though I haven't worn it that much, is actually one of my favorites. It goes on so perfectly and is such a great nude for my skin tone.

30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 1 "Barbie Girl"

If anyone has read some of my previous lip product posts, then you've read/seen that I am slightly obsessed with lip products. Okay, not slightly, REALLY obsessed. However, I find myself gravitating towards certain colors again and again. Along from my lips, my eyeshadow situation is very similar to my lip situation. I love bold, fun colors, but guess what happens on a day-to-day basis....I gravitate towards very similar colors and looks. The problem is that it's easy for me to fall into a rut with my makeup, and so I decided to challenge myself for the next 30 days to put together interesting lip & eye looks every single day to push myself to get better and more creative.

Day 1: "Barbie Girl" - Covergirl Lipstick "Siren"

 Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick Siren 415: $5.00

I bought this color a couple months ago and I haven't worn it yet. For this challenge I wanted to hit the ground running and go bold right out of the gate with something I haven't played with yet. This pink is awesome for the summer and I felt instantly more confident the second I put it on. It has pretty little gold flecks in it and is very pigmented. I felt really Barbie in this shade, so I decided to go with the theme and attempt a modern-day wearable Barbie look. Barbie is super girly with her eyes and lips, but the rest of her look is always pretty simple so I filled in my eyebrows just a little and kept it simple everywhere else, aside from the eyes and lips of course.

June 2015 Favorites

Hey lovelies! It's been a while since I've done a favorites video, and I have a random list of favorites all with the links below. I hope you enjoy!

Favorites

Oxi Clean Maxi Force Gel Stick: $3.44

Estee Lauder Tea Biscuit & Amethyst Eyeshadow Duo - No longer available

Heritage Store Rosewater & Glycerin Spray: $4.39

Bobbi Brown BB Cream SPF 35: $44.00

Z Palette: $20.00

Crystal Body Deodorant Stick: $5.99

Lipstick Queen "Frog Prince": $25.00

Calvin Klein "Kiss It" Lipstick: $16.00

Coochy Rashfree Shave Creme: $5.00

Andalou Naturals Full Volume Lavender & Biotin Shampoo: $9.95

Naked Skin Beauty Balm Broad Spectrum SPF 20: $34.00

N4 Super Comb Prep & Protect Spray: $32.00

Sephora Rouge Cream Lipstick: $12.50

The Polish Prerogative

As someone who strives every day to come closer to becoming a tiny house owner/lifestyle enthusiast, I'm constantly fighting an inner battle due to my love of options. From my shoes to my jewelry to my clothes, I love having lots and lots of options despite the fact that I know I don't need them. 

Naturally it should come as no surprise that that same love of choices extends to my nail polish collection. When I first moved in to my room over a month ago, I had close to 70 nail polishes. The funny thing is, is that it didn't look or feel like that much. One night I was organizing my bathroom and on a whim I counted my collection. My jaw hit the floor. I immediately started grabbing the ones I used the least in the last year and promptly placed them to the side to give away to my roommate and coworkers. 

Within the last 5 weeks I have whittled down my collection to just 21 polishes, including my base and top coats. To some people this is still a lot, and to others this may be very small.

Out of these 21 beauties, I have selected my top 6 favorite ones:

Zoya "Odette": $9.00

I've been in love with Zoya for years. I've done a post on them before, and mentioned them countless times in other posts. They're the original "4-free" nail polish, and their polishes chip the least. This polish is that perfect neutral. At first glance this doesn't look like a neutral, but it goes with EVERYTHING.

OPI "Midnight in Moscow"

Every time I wear this I get compliments everywhere I go. This color is one of the prettiest colors I've ever owned, and every angle in the sun makes it look different.

Julep "Zelda": $14.00

One of my biggest frustrations with Julep is that I have found most of their colors chip very easily. However, the 6 colors I own, 5 of them being shimmer, don't chip easily, dry quickly, and stay on the nails for a very long time. That's why they're still in my collection (obviously), and Zelda always feels fun and glamorous.

LVX "Viridian": $16.00

I discovered this brand by accident in New Orleans last year, and I've been over the moon since. They're 5-free, cruelty-free and vegan, and their polishes last FOREVER on the nails. I also receive a lot of compliments whenever I wear this color, and usually after a week I only have one teensy chip. For me that's a miracle considering how hard I am on my hands. 

Formula X "Neon Top Coat": $10.50

This top coat is the coolest because not only does it help my polishes last way longer than they normally would, it gives the most interesting holographic sheen to every color. 

Sephora by OPI "It's Real 18k Gold Top Coat": $30.00

This bad boy is unfortunately no longer available. 3 Christmases ago I felt like being fancy, Iggy Azalea-style and ordering myself a top coat with flecks of 18k gold in it. It adds the prettiest appearance to any polish I put it over, and I always get compliments whenever I wear it. If they ever decide to bring it back, I'm buying two.

Happy Mother's Day

This goes out to all the mothers out there, those who have kids that walk on two legs, four legs, have scales, or wings. Being a mother means so many different things, and every single one is as equally important and deserving of recognition as the other <.3

Aesthetica Contour Kit Review

One night over a month ago I was browsing Groupon (as usual) and came across the Aesthetica Cosmetics Contour Kit for $19.99. Being someone who has only ever highlighted with cream products and never contoured period, I instantly got curious for an entire kit being sold at that price. Aesthetica Cosmetics is cruelty-free, and this product is vegan and formulated without talc or parabens, so that got me even more interested. It normally retails for $60 on their website, so Groupon's price is an exceptionally great deal. Even with my discount at Sephora, I knew I wouldn't be able to get a price this good on a big-brand product, so I decided to try this one out. You can buy the kit by itself for $19.99 or the kit with a contour brush for $24.99. I chose the kit with the contour brush.

Aesthetica Cosmetics Contour Kit: $19.99

The 6 products that come in the kit are pressed powder, and you get; highlighters, bronzers and contour. Contouring has always been around in the makeup industry, but it seems lately every company big and small has been putting out their version of the "best contour and highlight" products. Having only ever used cream highlighting products before, I wanted to try this out just to see the difference between the two types of products. I was not disappointed.

I don't use bronzer, ever, so for me the 2 shades of bronzer in the kit were immediately put in my eyeshadow palette for future use. The thing I like about this kit so much is that there are little slots next to each pan so you can pop them out and put them into a Z palette if you're traveling. The kit itself is actually really small and can easily fit into an average size purse. It was also surprisingly light and the packaging felt sturdy. It had a nice big mirror on the inside and it came with instructions on how to highlight and contour for different face types, which I found very helpful.

The brush that came with it is awesome. It was very easy to contour with and great to clean. Brush and packaging aside, I really love the product: the powder felt high-quality and blended beautifully. It didn't go on patchy at all. In the middle of the upper row there's a yellow-er shade that I used under my eyes to set my under-eye concealer, and then next to it are highlighters. The one to the left is a non-sparkly highlighter, and the one to the right is a sparkly one. I tried all three in the upper row and I'm officially hooked.

On the bottom row, the one in the middle is the contour. The ones to the left and right are the bronzers (due to the warmer undertones), but the contour is perfect. I thought it worked beautifully with my skin tone. I think this kit is meant for light - medium skin tones due to the shades of highlighters and contour.

I heard through the grapevine that this kit was a knock-off of the Anastasia Beverly Hills palette, and so I pulled up some pictures for comparison:

To the left is Aesthetica, and to the right is Anastasia. They are pretty much identical, however, Anastasia's kit retails for $40, whereas Aesthetica's is on Groupon for $20 right now. My recommendation? I've never tried the Anastasia kit, but this is a great-quality product and it's at half of the price of the big brand. If you're looking for an affordable contour kit that's great quality, I would go with the Aesthetica kit <.3