SEPHORA COLLECTION Mini Bag Makeup Palette swatches and review

So when I bought my Saint palette, I wanted to get the 3-day shipping, so I needed 14 more dollars. I found this item with decent reviews for $15 and thought I would get it a shot.

When it arrived, I didn't realize it would be so small (We're talking 3' by 3'). But that quickly became one of my favorite parts about it. It's just so small and cute! It's completely perfect for a purse or for travelling. Not to mention the colors are great!

See? Aren't the eyeshadows pretty? Pretty neutrals, but you can still do a great night look with it.

I am in love with this blush. One look at it on my face made me fall in love. It quite pigmented as you can see from the swatch, but using a little and blending it out, it goes very light! Yes, I notice it sort of hard to see it blended out. My point is it's easy to go dark or light with it.

Last is the lippies. I'd say they are average for a set lippy. I love the darkest color, but the other are nice as well! I'd say the two lightest don't really do anything as far as color goes for the lips though. I'm not complaining since they feel nice.

See how perfect this is for on the go? Although there are many things you can get out there for $15, this one was worth it to me. I'd say go for it if you have the money! You may be pleasantly surprised!

Kat Von D's Saint Palette swatch and review

I really do love Kat Von D's palettes. The packaging is cute, the colors are gorgeous, and the quality is pretty decent. Of course it was only a matter of time before I got another palette from her. This time, I decided on Saint.

Look at the packaging! It's so pretty! I love the flowers on it. This one is like Mi Vida Loca in which case it's on a spring hinge, which is great for travel and easy to open. It also comes with an eyeliner, in black (Which I forgot to capture. Sorry!) I'm already in love. Now onto the colors:

Heavens: A Lovely pearlized cream color. What an appropriate name!
Enjoy the Silence: A Beautiful pearlized champagne color.
<3: This color is really interesting because it's actually a pale-pink matte with glittery in it.
Downtown: I wanna say a pearlized orangy-pink color.

Sunny: A pearlized golden orange.
Pray For Me: This is my favorite colors. A pearlized taupe!
Bookworm: This one isn't shimmery like the others, but it does have some glitter in it. It's almost like a mix between <3 and the pearls.
Carvaggio: Matte Brown. I hear this one is an amazing color or eyeliner! (:

I swear every palette of hers I have a favorite colors I'm just drawn to. In her Mi Vida Loca palette, it was Mad Max and Dublin (The blue and green); in her Beethoven palette, it was Leather and Sinner (The medium purple and the brown). In this one, it took me all of two seconds to fall in love with Pray For Me and Enjoy The Silence.

Out of all her palettes I have, this one is the highest quality. Mixed with the fact these colors are seriously gorgeous, I would highly recommend this palette.

e.l.f. Studio Endless Eyes Pro Mini Eyeshadow Palette in Warm Swatches and Review

So, I'm sort of in love with this palette.

As the palette queen, I crave many palettes. After reading a review on this one, I decided that I wanted to try it out. And for $5 (To be fair, I got it for $2.50), it couldn't hurt. Added in with the fact I ordered the cool palette and it wasn't half bad, I talked myself into buying it.

Look at these swatches! I'm impressed. The colors are super pretty and go one quite well. It's not the super best formula, but it works well. I don't stuggle to put it on! Some of them are chalky, and some don't have the amazingly best pigment, but that's ok. You have a lot of colors to work with! Just to note: Even though many of the light colors seem like they aren't pigmented, they are some of the best in the palette; they are just light! :D

I want to hug this palette. Completetly worth the money I spent on it. If you like neutrals I would highly suggest to try this palette out!

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter Swatches and Review

I'm going to keep this review short because there are plenty of reviews for this product out there. If you're at all involved in make up, you've probably heard the raves about this product. I kept hearing about how amazing these were, how beautiful the colors are, and how lovely they felt on the lips. I was interested in stepping more into lip products, so I decided to buy some to try them out. I loved them, so I ended up with 8.

THE COLORS! These were obviously done with the flash. The colors in order are: Lollipop, Sweet Tart, Pink Truffle, Peach Parfait, Berry Smoothie, Raspberry Pie, Sugar Plum, and Red Velvet. Also the same for below which are done in slightly yellow/orange lighting.:

I love this product. It's buttery smooth and beautifully pigmented. You can easily wear a little or layer on for more color. The only downside is that they don't last forever, but I wasn't looking for a product that would. Honestly, I think anyone looking for a lip product should give these a try.

e.l.f. Essential Lipstick swatches and review.

So in this review, I only am swatching two colors. I actually ordered 4, but I immediately got rid of two of them because the product was awful. I expected nothing amazing, but these were bad. They felt wrong and too plasticky. I checked the reviews on Makeup Alley and there were so many praises. I can't see why. I was going to order them again, but I really wasn't impressed with the product anyway. So, for this review I have the colors Classy and Seductive.

Classy (the bright pink one), is a little less barbie pink than in the picture and has a bit more purple to it. It's quite pretty.
Seductive is less pink in person as well and a slightly darker too, but really nice.
I originally took picture of both flashed and not-flashed, but the not-flashed colors didn't look good. In the flashed it looks more like they do in person, but pinkier in the picture.

As far as my review goes, these two are decent. They are smooth, though I still feel like they have that slight cheap plasticy feel you get with some cheap lipstick. They also have a slight flowery smell to them. I'm not the biggest fan of them, but they're not bad. I would personally not repurchase, but that's just me. There are plenty of other that would. The product is only a dollar, so it's not really a bad risk to take.

e.l.f. Tinted Moisturizer SPF 15 in Ivory Swatch and Review

As an e.l.f. fan, I like trying out pretty much everything that could at least benefit me in some way. I wanted to try one of their foundations/tinted moisturizers, but they all seemed too orange. Then, I stumbled upon this product. It seemed like it would work for my skin. I bought it in Ivory to test it out. I mean, it's only a dollar.

It came in a tiny bottle. I mean really small. Look at it! But, I didn't expect too much for the price.

On my arm, it looks orange. Which is actually fitting since it smells like oranges. When you blend it in, it's not orange. In fact, it seems it's not even there! I can't even notice a tint. >.> How disappointing. If you have perfect skin and are looking for a subtle something (or a nothing...), this will be great for you! If your skin isn't perfect like many of us, pass. Not worth it.

Jordana Easyshine Glossy Lip Color Swatches and Review

So when I ordered one of these off of Cherry Culture, I didn't know I was going to absolutely adore it. So a week later I ended up buying six more colors. And here they are:

Colors are: Grape-Tini, Berry Colada, Sugar Cookie, Mango Delight, 

Raspberry, Watermelon Juice, and Sweet Strawberry.

So things I would like to say about these:
1) They smell like their name. So keep that in mind! Don't like the smell of grapes? Don't get the grape-tini.
2) They are not long lasting. Typical for a lip-balm gloss, but still.
3) They are moisturizing and very smooth on the lips!
4) They actually have a good tint to them. If you want them dark, you can get them pretty dark.
5) Packaging kind of sucks. The lip colors doesn't go all the way down, so it's easy to hit the product.
6) It's really soft. So don't have too much sticking up when you go to put it on and don't let it melt!

Even though this product has some faults, I still love it! And it's only around $1.99 so it's worth it just to grab one and try it out!

Julep Maven Review

I had been eyeing this program for a bit. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it. $20 dollars seemed like a bit for me to just be spending all on nail polish stuff I wasn't sure I'd like. Then, I stumbled across the penny offer. If you use the coupon PENNY, you get your first box for a penny. Not bad, right? Worth it to me.

When I stumbled across the penny offer, I also came across a review as well. I found out you can switch your maven box to one of the other maven boxes for the month. What does that mean? Hate the box your getting, get a different one! That pleased me to hear. I also found out that you can opt out of a months box. Ok, yeah, sold!

So I got my first box and was super excited to try things out. Things I noticed: The colors were beautiful. The formulas were not very viscous. They dried on my nails very fast. They didn't chip any more than other polishes I've use. The bottles don't have a lot of nail polish in them. Overall, I liked them. Would I want to pay the full $14 retail? No way. Do I love getting them cheap in this box? Yes.

First box was the Classic With a Twist starter set pictured above. It contained The Best Pedi Creme Ever! ($22), Toe Separaters, Two Polishes ($14 each). It was worth 50 dollars! Sweet.

Second box was the It Girl Box that cost me $19.99. BUT, I did two adds on (you can do two a month) for $4.99 each. So my total was $29.97. In this box I got 4 different polishes. 3 polishes made up the original box ($14 each), and then there was an extra polish to celebrate the 4th of July (another $14)! I also got a voucher in this box for a free polish that is currently on it's way to my house (another $14)! My two adds on I got were a lip gloss ($18) and a pink polish to match ($14)! So the retail value of this box was $88. Nice!

So, for someone who is into polish like me, I get a great colors selection for a great price and it's just a fun idea. I'll be continuing this subscription for a while for sure.

June 2012 Birchbox Review

When I decided to sneak a peak at my June Birchbox, I was super excited. I was very excited for the products in it and couldn't wait for it to arrive! It looked like it would be my best box so far.

When it finally arrived, I opened it immediately and started playing with all the items. Didn't take long for me to form opinions on these products. I'm not going to use my pictures for these since there are many out there. And because I am feeling lazy.

John Varvatos Star U.S.A: This came in your typical vial for perfume/cologne. It was around three to four inches long. Not sure how much it's worth. Full retail price for 1.7oz is $55.
This was an added extra in my box to advertise for the new Men's Birchbox. I was totally fine with getting this because I knew I could pass it along to my boyfriend or stepdad. Which is exactly what I did. It had a similar smell to whatever my stepdad uses so I tossed it at him. I like the smell, but this product wasn't meant for me, so yeah. Haha. It's actually out of stock on Birchbox. People really must have liked it!

Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream: I hadn't heard of this brand before so I was excited to try it out. It came in a 0.1oz size. It retails for $16 for 1.25oz. So this sample size is pretty small if you want to use it on your skins to heal dryness. If you just use it for lips, it's a good sample size. The product isn't one I care to use. I have no need for it (I have a billion lip products). Also the smell is very strong. I'm not sure what causes it but I know I have smelled something exactly like it before. Either way, it's an "meh" product for me. Others may love it.

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner: This eyeliner is fab. I was very excited to see this because I had heard good things about eyeko and I also love black eyeliner! Plus it's a fullsize product that retails for $15! Sweet. I tried the product out right away. It came out dark black the first try, went on smoothly, and didn't smudge. Even when I washed my hands a few times since, it's still on. So for many people, they will LOVE this eyeliner to pieces. For me, it's ok. It's something I will only use while swimming or what not. I don't need that staying power. And I just got the Marbella one in my Glambag that works perfectly for me. So this product was only ok for me, but I completely recommend it for anyone else.

theBalm cosmetics Stainiac: When I saw everyone was getting this, I was stoked! I love theBalm's products I have (Hot Mama, Bahama Mama, and two of the Shady Lady palettes), so it was great to see one of their products. Not to mention, it's fulled size and retails for $17! I'm still debating whether or not that is worth it. The product is a gel product that doesn't have a lot of pigment. It doesn't reall show up on my lips, and I feel like I can't see it much on my face. I am going to play around with it more to see what I can do.

BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandages by Cynthia Rowley Bundle: I was thrilled to see these! I get cut a lot at work and need band aids so this was great. They are just printed bandages. This retails for $11 on Birchbox, but I saw them at my work, Target, for the same price as other bandaids.

Melvita Floral Water: I'm actually not sure what the point of this product is. I think it's for hydration for your face. Actually, I am pretty sure that's what it's for. I got a .95 fl. oz. bottle of this. The full-sized product retails for $22 for 6.76 fl. oz. I probably would have liked this product and actually used it if it wasn't for the smell. It smells strongly of roses. Not my cup of tea at all. I would have preferred lavender. I wish I could comment on the quality of the product, but I was not interested in smelling like that. I'll probably give away this item in my make up swap.

So overall, it was an ok box for me. While the products were great, I won't get too much use out of them.

e.l.f. Mineral Infused Mascara review

I am currently on the hunt for a super cheap, super amazing mascara because I can. Right now, Lash Blash is a godsend for me, but if I can find cheaper, hells yeah! So naturally I turned to e.l.f. to see what I could try. Both on the e.l.f. website and makeupalley.com gave great reviews for this mascara. I knew I had to try it.

I was actually disappointed. I am probably one of the few that is. I have decently long lashes, and plenty of them, but they are thin and blonde. So what do I need a mascara to do? Darken them and volumize! This barely did the first for me. It didn't seem to want to hold onto my blonde ends. Sad face. I tried to layer it to give it more oomf, but it didn't work. I know people say this gives a natural look, but it barely makes a difference before and after for me. I'll probably use this as a base mascara and toss it in a month. I won't be rebuying.

SKIN79 Super+ Beblesh Balm BB Cream VIP Gold Swatch and Review

I am forever on the lookout for awesome foundation products. Anyone with less than perfect skin probably does the same. Unfortunately, I am very pale. Not ghostly pale, but still too pale for most foundations to have my color. And to top it off, I need neutral foundations. Although I have cooler under(or is it over?)tones, pink foundations don't look good, and neither do yellow ones. So it's a battle to say the least. I have a foundation I use, but I wanted to try something more. That's when I heard about BB Creams and that's when I discovered this BB cream.

So I initially spent about 2 months staring at BB cream products before finally buying one. I had heard about greying and clogged pores, so I was slightly hesistant. When I got a sample of the Skin79 Gold, I knew I had to buy it. I am so happy I did.

This is a swatch of it out of the bottle on my arm. I know it looks dark now, but when I blend it in, I can't tell it's there! Even though I am pale, this stuff is perfect for my skinetone. I have had no greying or anything. And the smell is subtle and actually nice. It's honestly been great for my skin. And the packaging is soooooo cute. I am converted. If you are a pale person like me, you really should check this product out!

Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm Swatches and Review

So I found these on clearance at my work, so I thought I'd give them a shot. Plus, the giant packaging is eye catching! Unfortunately, the actual product is in the same tube and any other chapstick. Aww. ):

Tiger Lily, Rose, Honeysuckle

As you can see, these colors are super light. Rose is the only one that really gives a tint. The other two are barely noticeable. ): Am not pleased about that. As far as the texture goes, it's your typical balm. It also has a subtle flowery smell. I like it. For the retail price of $6.99, it's too steep for a tinted lip balm that doesn't even tint.