Belletto Studio Airbrush Ultimate - Skin Secrets Starter Kit

I'm going to start out with a disclaimer: I got this system HEAVILY discounted it normally retails for $430 (not including tax/shipping) and I got it for $129 using Leesha's discount code (xsparkage). However, this code will continue to be active for approximately 1 more month, so if you're interested in purchasing an airbrush system you will probably never find one this cheap. There is another system that is cheaper, I think $99, that this discount also applies to (links at the bottom). I would encourage everybody to spring for the more expensive one. Here's why:

1. The more expensive one has a dial operated flow control rather than just simple presets. This gives you more control over air flow and application.

Clean Moisturized Skin

2. The more expensive one has a life time warranty, instead of a (I think) 2 year manufacturer warranty. So if your compressor breaks at 2 years and 1 day you'll have to buy a completely new one. Eff that.

Even with the discount this is a huge non-essential purchase. But. But, but but... dear god am I glad I bought it. Holy crap how did I ever live my life without airbrush foundation? Seriously.

 I can't stand wearing heavy foundation, but I really like the way my skin looks with medium-full coverage as long as it's applied well and doesn't look cakey. I've never been able to handle actually wearing medium/full coverage on anything except special occasions, cause it feels like I'm wea
ring a mask. So in my day to day routine I almost always use tinted moisturizer or thin out foundation with additional moisturizer or a primer. For those of you who hate wearing foundation because of the weight or the feel of it, do yourself a huge favor and switch to airbrush.

Airbrush foundation is incredibly light. It really is the equivalent of a fine mist of water. It literally feels like I am not wearing foundation at all. My skin also has a tendency to be red and blotchy (thanks a lot Ireland), and this pretty completely neutralizes it. I don't have to wear any concealer except under my eyes. I can use all my regular moisturizer and primer if I want. The biggest downside to my mind is that I lose spf coverage, so just make sure you're moisturizer has SPF or you apply sunscreen (and let it dry completely) prior to airbrushing.

I was a little intimidated but I practiced a couple of times with just water to get the feel of it. I'm still having a hard time with making blush and contouring look even. But each time I do it it looks better, so I feel confident that will improve. I'm also still getting used to doing it on other people, but I'm getting better with that too.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty: what's in the kit?

A lot of stuff. You specifiy your complexion shade (Light, Medium, Tan, Dark) and they give you 4 foundations within that shade range. If one isn't an exact match you can mix them till you find yours. I'm just straight up Creme de La. You also get a blush and luster drops (highlight).

I also want to mention that Belletto Studio's customer service was FANFUCKINGTASTIC. I accidentally ordered the cheaper kit, without realizing that it's not a dialed compressor and doesn't have the lifetime warranty. I immediately contacted their customer service, They unfortunately didn't get my message till after the order had already been processed, but they were still incredibly helpful, they just had me refuse shipping (YAY for no return shipping costs) and as soon as they received it refunded me!

For Questions ask me or watch Leesha's Air Brush FAQ

Ultimate - Skin Secrets Start Kit (Mine)
HD - Skin Secrets Start Kit (Cheap one: http://www.bellettostudio.com/shop/Belletto%20Airbrush%20Sets/HD-Compressor%20Kits/Skin-Secrets-Starter-Kit

Very Late May Birch Box Review

Wow, look at me being super behind. My life is always pretty hectic and now that summer is here things get kicked into an especially high gear. I was looking at my calendar the other day and I have two free weekends between now and the middle of September. BANANAS.

I am expecting now that my hiking blog is caught up again, that I'll be able to focus a bit more on my makeup blog. I've got something that I'm particularly excited for coming up. In particular I just ordered my first air brush system so that's exciting! And there's the July MUG competition so fun stuff!

Anyway onto the very late review (I'll get June's up by the end of this week).

Amika Nourishing Mask $40/500mL
Very creamy and my hair definitely liked it. Nice scent. Overall a very good product. It's really hard for me to judge these because I haven't had a hair cut in so long, any good product just sort of masks damage at this point. I really need to get that taken care of.

Coola Moisturizer $32
I took this moisturizer with me backpacking recently and loved it. It has a really fresh, cool, cucumber scent. It is also really light weight, non greasy and seemed to last on my skin, despite my activity level, really well. The size of the sample bottle and the SPF 30 also made it pretty much ideal for what I was doing.

Sumitra Pencils $11
Super smooth, creamy pencil. I got the one in black and have been using it quite a bit, I used it to hash out the details on this look, and have been really pleased with it’s lasting power. Even though it’s creamy it doesn’t melt down your face like a lot of soft pencils do. There’s a lot of variety in the colors and I’ll probably end up investing in a few more of these.

Runa Guayusa Tea $7
Tasty! I especially like the ginger citrus tea. Excellent flavors, and I love that it's organic and full of antioxidants. I’ve been dieting and herbal tea in the evening is an awesome way for me to deal with my overactive sweet tooth. This stuff is full of caffeine though so if you’re particularly sensitive don’t drink too close to bedtime.

Marvis Mint Toothpaste in Classic Mint $10.50
I also took this backpacking (I couldn’t find my normal toiletries bag), really bright minty flavor. Very foamy, which was sort of weird for me since normally when I backpack I use all natural toothpaste, which isn’t formulated with sulfates (the ingredient that makes shit foamy). Still I think that it’s a nice toothpaste. I straight up love the retro, apothecary packaging. That being said I don’t think I’ll ever be spending $10.50 on toothpaste in spite of the positives with this one.

April Birchbox Review

I might actually do a Birchbox review the same month it comes to me! Hurray!

Overall I really liked this box!

Glossy Kiss Pencil in Starlet by Mirenesse. (4.2/5)
This was my favorite product out of this month's box. It's got a really nice texture, and even though I don't usually wear orange-red lip colors (it's more orange in real life than in the picture) I think this is pretty darn fabulous. They also claim you could use it as a cheek stain, which I'm a little on the fence about. It's not very waxy so I suppose you could, but I feel like it would be hard to deal with such a vibrant color, maybe if I was more tan it would be okay.

Protect and Detangle by Beauty Protector 8 oz - $21.95 (4/5)
I really liked this product a lot, it's a leave in conditioner, with heat and sun protectant. It smelled nice and didn't leave any kind of residue on my hair or weight it down. I also think this would be a great thing to take on extended backpacking trips, where I need to carry as few products as possible, but will still want to wash my hair. I could use it after shampoo so I don't have to rinse my hair twice and it will help protect my hair from sun damage.

Huile Divine by Caudalie (4/5)
I love this brand, everything I try from them is so nice. Everything they make has not parbens, ethanol, sulfates, and is not tested on animals.This oil in particular has a really great smell, feels great on my skin and doesn't like any greasy residue. Now if only they would lower their prices just a tad...

Supergoop Advanced Anti-Aging Eye Cream (3.8/5)
Anti aging eye creams are sort of tricky for me to review since I don't have wrinkles, my biggest concerns are always dark circles. Regardless of whether or not this product would get rid of wrinkles, it'll certainly prevent them. In addition to it's anti-wrinkle ingredients it's got a Broad Spectrum SPF 37 Sunscreen. I just wish it didn't smell like sunscreen. Luckily I don't breathe through my eyes. Yet.

Hail Merry Macaroons 3.5 oz - $5 (1/5)
If you like chocolate covered sawdust, buy these. They get one point just for having chocolate.

One nice bonus is that they also gave a little card to mail in for a free one year subscription of Women's Health. So that almost makes up for the macaroons.

Sugarpill Heart Breaker Palette Review

Review of Sugarpill Addicted to Pretty Palette in Heart Breaker (5/5)

I love the hell out of this palette. Although there’s not too many Sugarpill products that I’m not totally obsessed with, other than Birthday Girl which sucks. But this is definitely my favorite of all the products I’ve tried. As will all the pressed shadows the colors are vibrant, silk smooth and easy to blend. In order from left to right:

I took a picture of all the colors swatched and then my camera lost it? Wtf. I saw it get saved. No idea what happened there. Sorry about that I'll do some looks with these colors very soon anyway.

Velocity

This is absolutely my favorite shadow of the set. It’s like a matte pressed version of Sugarpill’s Loose Shadow Royal Sugar. I love it. Blue’s are notoriously tricky to work with but Velocity is like velvet. I did a really fun matte blue look, similar to the one done by Leesha (at xsparkage) with this and it turned out really nice. The wear on this color in particular was great. I wore it for a good 13 hours without any creasing, flaking or bleeding and it didn’t stain my eyelids! AWESOME. 

Acidberry

Chartreuse is my favorite color of all time and it is incredibly difficult to find an eyeshadow in chartreuse that blends well and applies evenly. They tend to be kind of chalky and difficult to work with. Not so with 

Acidberry. It’s gorgeous applies easily and is great for doing some spring time looks with. I'm particularly planning a cut crease look with it and Acidberry since they're Seahawk/Sounders colors and my favorite color combination.

Mochi

In terms of colors this sort of reminds me of a washed out Aquadisiac (MAC). It’s probably my least favorite shade out of the whole collection, in the pan. Once I swatched it I changed my mind, it looks really pretty, has if not the best texture of the four then close to it, and I think it has a lot of potential for some very varied looks.

2AM

Purples are always a good thing for me. I have very dark green eyes that sometimes look dark grey. Purples bring out the greens and complement the gray so my eyes never look washed out or dull when I wear a purple eyeshadow. This color is a really nice plum and I’m really excited to play with it more!

March Birchbox Review

I'm going to start doing product reviews a little differently, each product (if there are more than one per review will get an overall score in parentheses next to the product name just so you get an idea about how I would rate it personally.

Also my hope is to get back to updating this Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think I've got a pretty good schedule established for my hiking blog so now I just need to get back into the swing of things with this blog.

Whish Shave Cream, 150ml - $20 (3.5/5)
I don't usually use shave cream cause I'm always running late. Also, if you exfoliate fairly frequently, have a good razor and a moisturizing body wash, you don't really need shaving cream. That being said, this shaving cream is incredibly moisturizing, and has a really nice texture. Even though I have very sensitive skin and my razor is at the end of it's life, I had NO skin irritation at all. The smell is sort of "meh" to me. It smells like fake blueberry smell, which isn't awful but it's not great to me either. I was hoping for a more fresh, clean scent rather than something that smells really sweet and too heavily perfumed.


Oscar Blandi Hair Lift Mousse, 6.3 oz - $23 (5/5)
Oh man. I love, love, love this mousse. It leaves my hair with some really nice volume, it isn't heavy or crusty. It doesn't make my hair look dull, which I find is a big problem with a lot of volumizing products. The scent isn't super overwhelming, it's smells kind of woody and spicy to me, not like hot spicy like aromatic spicy. It's a little pricey but I might splurge.


Madewell for Birchbox Floral Nail Emery Board - $5
Not really sure what to say about this. It's an emery board. It's pretty. Works fine. 'Nuff said.

MAKE Face Primer $30
If you are looking for a mattefying primer I would NOT go with this face primer. It's a pretty okay primer overall although I didn't notice a huge difference in length of wear I do think it helped with applying my foundation evenly and evening my skin tone. The texture was nice, it didn't dry out my skin at all which is a good thing since I have a tendency towards dry patches on my cheek bones. It's SPF 30, which is always a good thing. It's on the pricey side, and honestly I'm starting to lean towards using BB/CC creams mixed with moisturizer as a primer rather than using something like this. Still if you want an un-tinted primer this is a nice option.

MAKE eye shadow in Great Lakes $18
Nice satin finished eye shadow in a medium grey. Very wearable, I could see doing a really pretty smokey grey eye with this. It applies evenly but I can really speak to length of wear since I just swatched it. It's also hypoallergenic, doesn't have any oils, parabens or fragrances (do most eye shadows have fragrances??). It does include vitamins C and E to help protect the skin around your eyes. Overall a very decent eye shadow, except for the price. If I'm going to be buying eye shadow I'll go with Inglot, MAC, Sugarpill etc. All of which are cheaper, and have a better selection.

Product Focus: Olay Pro-X Cleansing System

For the most part my skin is pretty good. I don't have a lot of breakouts, I have something between dry/normal and combination skin. My biggest issue with my skin is the size of my pores, especially on my nose. It's been a constant bother to me, though I am fairly sure it's one of those things that I'm the only one who really notices it. As a result I was thinking for a long time about purchasing the Clarisonic Mia, but I just could not deal with the price point. Not just the unit itself which retails for $119 at Sephora, but also the cost of replacement brush heads which are $25 a pop. I have been wanting an airbrush system for my makeup and I can only rationalize one of those as my big makeup/beauty purchase. So I started shopping around and found the Olay Pro-X cleansing System.

I got this through ULTA for $29.99 and the replacement brushes (which I have not yet purchased) are $9.99. So I figured what the hell, I'll give it a try and if it's crap I can always reconsider the Mia down the road. Overall I am pretty happy with the Olay brush. It works well, and I've noticed a difference in the size of my pores as well as the texture and clarity of my skin as a whole. It's waterproof so I can take it in the shower (Mia is as well). It also has two speeds, which is nice although there is not a VERY significant difference between the two, you can still notice it. It also comes with a sample of the Olay Regenerist face wash, which was a nice little bonus. 

There are a few downsides... The Mia is chargeable and the Olay brush is battery powered, so make sure you have rechargeable batteries. The Mia also has a variety of different types of brush heads, whereas there is only one type with Olay and it is slightly abrasive. I have fairly sensitive skin and it does not seem to irritate my skin at all, but for somebody with even more sensitive skin it might be a little on the rough side.  

Bottom Line: Price per performance I would absolutely recommend the Olay brush to anybody who does not have very sensitive skin. Also if you tend to have dry skin, make sure you use something that has some extra moisturizing properties cause I could definitely see how this could dry out your skin further.

Product Review: The Balm Squad by Jack Black

Anybody who has met me in person knows that I struggle with my lips. They're quite large and tend to dry and chap really easily, it gets especially bad in the winter. I drink at least 72 oz of water a day, so I know it's not just a question of dehydration. The worst thing is that when they are chapped I CANNOT leave them alone. I literally lick and pick at my lips till they bleed. I don't know why I can't just leave them be. So I did some looking around, bloggers who I trust, reviews etc. and one product kept coming up and that's the Jack Black Lip Balm.

Quite awhile ago Leesha of xsparkage posted a review of these lip balms, this was the first time that I'd heard of them and she had bought a four pack through Sephora. Since then I've been keeping my eye on them, wrestling with spending $25 on lip balm, and waiting for sales. Then a few weeks ago I was looking around on Birchbox Men, because I was curious about the service and possibly purchasing a box for a grooming oriented male friend of mine. Anyway, point is that I saw that they had The Balm Squad Lip Quad for $25, coincidentally I also had $20 worth of birchbox points saved up! Alright now it was just going to be $5 + shipping. I finally pulled the trigger and I'm super happy I did.

Lowdown on the Product Itself: The consistency of the product reminds me of when I used Carmex back in high school, which I was super addicted to, but I had to give up since it uses petroleum jelly which dries lips and only repairs in the short term. This doesn't include that ingredient, but feels similar which is great. I've only been using it a short while, but I can already notice a difference. My lips also seem to stay soft for quite a while. I also really like the fact that it's plastic with a screw cap, not like a twist tube, because I have a really bad habit of sticking my lip balm in my pockets and then washing it, which is always The scents are really nice, not overpowering. They don't have a flavor, but for me that's a good thing since it keeps me from licking my lips!

Benefits to the Collection: Buying the 4 pack is awesome, because if you're like me you lose lip balm ALL the time. Now I get to keep one at my work desk, in my  purse, where I do my makeup and one for back up. The four pack I bought comes with the following: Grapefruit and Ginger, Shea Butter and Honey, Mint, Acai Berry and Vanilla. The grapefruit and ginger is totally my favorite and the acai with vanilla is my least favorite. Not to say that it's not nice but just not a favorite. It also means if I'm out and about and still lose my lip balm I don't lose my favorite, since it's at my desk. Lastly I'm a sucker for flashy packaging and I really liked the design and how shiny the box was!

Late Post: January Birchbox

Right around the time I went on my year long hiatus from this blog I cancelled my birchbox. We were tight financially and I couldn't rationalize continuing to receive them, also around that time the quality of the birchboxes was a little questionable. You can see my previous rant about the quality, including the incredibly questionable product known as Lashcards here.

However about two months ago I sort of said what the hell, they were fun and I could use a monthly surprise, even if some of the items are ridiculous. I can honestly say I haven't had a bad box since. January was no exception.

From left to right:

1. Hot Mama Blush and Shadow All-in-One by theBalm Cosmetics $20
I really really like product, I already have the Mary Loumanizer,which I love. Both are really smooth and velvety in texture and buildable so you can have a subtle wash of color + highlight or you can use it as a full fledged blush, or a shadow if you want to keep building. It's got wonderful pigment it's a sort of peachy rose color with gold shimmer. The sparkly is really small so you look dewy rather than glittery. I didn't swatch it this time but I may include swatches in a later post. Awesome product, will definitely get used a lot. The size of the sample is also really great.

2. Ojon Rare Blend Total Hair Therapy $35/1.5 fluid oz (approximately 44.4 mL)
So I am in dire need of a hair cut. It's been months and months, the only reason I'm able to go on at all is that I use hair oil 2x weekly. I've been using Nuxe Dry Oil (which is my favorite) and sometimes Amika Obliphica oil treatment and it's kept my hair healthy and shiny. I plan on getting it cut in the next couple weeks. The point is I can't tell you too much about how well this will repair you hair, because I've been working like mad just to keep mine tolerable. What I can tell you is that it'll make it very shiny and that it has a lovely citrus scent. However, if you're in the market for a dry oil. I would steer you towards NUXE Huile Prodigieuse® / Multi-Usage Dry Oil ($45/100mL). Since it has more uses (skin and hair) and is cheaper and smells amazing.

3. Lashem Measurable Difference Lash Gel Serum $69.99/3.5 mL
I don't know that I've been using this consistently enough to really notice a difference, plus my lashes are quite long anyway, I do think they've been a bit fuller. The brush does make it easy to apply and even though I have very sensitive eyes it doesn't seem to irritate them or make the skin around them itch at all. Which is more than I can say for some eyeliners I've used. It's quite expensive, but it would probably last quite a while since you basically use a drop per eye.

4. Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentrè (24-Hour Miracle Cream) $28/75 mL

Dear God this moisturizer is AMAZING. It is similar in texture and consistency to my Oil of Olay Daily Moisturizer. It also has a similar smell, it's a little different but similar. The major difference is that this cream is significantly more moisturizing. I applied a little to a dry patch on my arm which had been irritating me, and poof. Gone. It's a little pricey, but if I decide to upgrade my moisturizer one notch I think this might be it. 

Not pictured: Skinny Chic by Harvey Prince ($28 for 8.8 oz)

I gave this to my bestie because the smell is more to her taste than mine. I love Harvey Prince and his crazy concoctions. His Eau Flirt Pumpkin Lavender perfume was AMAZING and Yogini is a pretty wonderful scent as well. This just wasn't it... Cucumber mint is just not a good scent for me. It sounds like salad, I want it in my belly not on my skin.

Kat Von D Part 2

Kat Von D True Romance Eye Shadow Palette - True Love

So I'm a sucker for nifty packaging and I really like the way the eyeshadow palette was packaged. It was in a little box with tattoo flash art on it, then when you open it it's wrapped in sparkly tissue paper. The compact itself is pretty cute also. The other really nice thing is that it has a very decent mirror. Always a good thing!

I swatched these over the two primers that came with the set, A. is over Sin and row B is over Smokey I also swatched it over bare skin, row C. As you can see these shadows absolutely ABSOLUTELY need a base. They go on incredibly sheer without a primer.

I really like the quality of all of the eye shadows except the metallic gold one Benji (Number 7). It’s almost like it can’t make up its mind whether it’s a cream or powder eye shadow. It’s really difficult to work with unless it warms up. So I will be applying this mostly with my finger, which makes it difficult to get an even application. Sigh.

That being said, I thought the rest of the shadows were awesome. All of them are really pretty and easy to blend.

 Missy (1) – White with purple-y duo chrome SUPER SHIMMER! The purple shows up more over the darker primer.

Babe (2)– Violet kinda blue duo chrome, also very shimmery

Skiba (3) – Lavender with gold sparkle. Not awe-inspiring, but a very decent colored shadow.

Cholita (4) – Dark Plummy Burgundy shimmery and very pretty. So I think, looking at these photos I need to use this more. It's GORGEOUS.

Lucifer (5) – Matte black with a hint of sparkle. I like this black a lot. It's got great pigmentation (way better than the pictures give it credit for.

Rebekah (6) – Chocolate Brown with a hint of Sparkle. I honestly don't have a single bad thing to say about this shadow. I have used it more than any of the others. Good all around shadow. The picture makes it look kind of reddish but it's perfectly chocolate brown.

Peanut (8)– Creamy gold color with gold shimmer. I've used this shadow quite a bit, the only thing I don't like about it is that it has a lot of fallout. Other than that I really like the texture of this shadow, it goes on almost creamy but it's a powder. In the picture it looks kind of silvery over the dark primer, I haven't done this aside from the swatches, so I'm curious to see if that is true outside of these pictures.

Kat Von D Get the Look Kit Part 1

I’m going to do this in two posts: The first post will include the eyeliner pencil, primer, lipstick as well as the samples I got from Sephora, the second will be the eyeshadow palette.

I am overall really happy with the Get the Look kit. I would certainly recommend it to anybody else, especially people who are looking for a decent starter kit for their makeup collection. The reason I bought this, since I certainly don’t need an introduction to my makeup collection, is I found myself in need of primer and an eye pencil, as well as wanting a more shimmery eyeshadow palette that would be good for smokey eyes. For the price ($54) it really couldn’t be beat. I’d be likely to spend almost that much on just one primer and a palette. Unfortunately I think Sephora is no longer carrying the kit, so you might have to purchase these products individually.

On to the review! Swatches Under the cut!

High Voltage Eye Primer (Skin and Smoky)

The consistency of the primer is pretty thick. A veeeery little goes a long way. It’s quite sticky and holds the shadow quite well, it’s a little heavier than UDPP, but it doesn’t bother me since I used to use the MAC paint pots as primer and they are quite heavy. Think of these as a blend between the two. The smokey primer is pretty awesome I have to admit. I’m kind of shocked that nobody else does this. In a endless parade of champagne and shimmery primers how come nobody thought to make one that perfectly complements a look that gets done SO much. Weird, right? Take a look at the second post for how AMAZING it is at making the shadows look SUPER VIVID.

Painted Love Lipstick in Celebutard (Light Pinky Nude) –


For the most part I like Kat Von D’s Lipstick, Celebutard is unfortunately the exception. It’s really creamy, but since it’s so light it means that every single flaw shows up. Which is a bummer when you have fish lips like me, everything is super noticeable because they’re so big. I even tried to put a gloss over it and still not so good. I need to try it out with a primer and then do a re-review :P.

Also pictured is Urban Decay Lip Gloss in Midnight Cowboy. It's a really pretty sparkly nude gloss. It's a little sticky when layered over some lipsticks, but isn't too bad on it's own.


Autograph Eyepencil in Maybe Black Metal Love – 

This is a very good pencil, creamy and fairly long lasting. It comes with a smudging tip on one end and a sharpener on the other (which is AWESOME). The sharpener works quite well so far, which is usually my major complaint against attached sharpeners. I've used this a couple times for smokey looks and it works really well. I don't really bother with the smudger. I would not suggest using this on the waterline since it does have glitter in it which could potentially irritate your eyes.

Guerlain Abeille Royale Youth Serum - This serum is really lovely. It smells so good and leaves my skin feeling really silky and smooth. As much as I would love love LOVE to purchase the full size of this, since I've already gone through the sample.It is way WAY too expensive for me: $140 for 1 oz at Sephora just to put that into perspective for you, an ounce of gold is about 6 times that. When I'm older, have hit the lotto and am really in need of a really spectacular anti-aging serum I might revisit this as a possibility. For now I'll just grab a sample from Sephora every chance I can.

Tocca Eau de Parfum in Stella ($19-$68 at Sephora) - I never really know what to say about perfume. What I can say is this: This would not normally be a smell that I would look at based on its description (I actually got this on accident, I wanted the Tom Ford Black Orchid). It's slightly sweet smelling with notes of bitter orange, blood orange, watery accord, white freesia, wild diamond orchids, spicy lily, sheer musk and sandalwood. Now I normally gravitate towards floral perfumes, citrus notes tend to turn on my skin and smell a little bug-sprayish. This really smells good, in the bottle and on my skin.

I actually haven't used the Tan Towel yet, I'm saving it for a special occasion when I want my legs to look tan. It's winter, so it's probably going to be a while...

Product Review: Blinc Eyeliner

“There’s nothing wrong with having a good cry or a spontaneous swim, but you need the right products to avoid total makeup meltdown. This eyeliner is unlike all others —instead of painting on a line, it actually forms a water-resistant layer that won’t smudge or run. (Really! We tested it.) If you have sensitive eyes, wear contact lenses or just need your liner to last you through the day (and night), this is your new go-to.”

I’m sort of on the fence about this eyeliner. I had a bunch of birch box points so I got it for $4 instead of $24 and I think if I had paid that much I would be more disappointed. As it stands it was $4 and it won’t be the end of my life, I’ll just keep shopping around for a liquid eyeliner I really like.

Today I might have been having a bad makeup day. It happens to the best of us. But Blinc certainly didn’t help ease my frustration. I have always had a really hard time getting eyeliner to stay in the inner corner of my upper lid, and today it was an absolute disaster. The formula is really wet and takes some extra time to dry, today my eyes watered, the liner got in my eyes, smeared everywhere, irritated my eyes more which made them water more… you see where this is going? At one point I turned my hairdryer on my face in an attempt to get the liner to dry before it smeared all over the place. Not too much luck with that strategy. Eventually I gave up and lined my inner corner with pencil liner and set it with black shadow. I still missed my bus to work.

That being said there are some definite positives to this product. It really does last all day, and the brush is really small which makes application relatively easy, even if you want to do a small line, which can be tricky with other applicators. It has some serious staying power, and is very black, both excellent. The only negative that I have experienced so far, aside from this morning’s melt down, is that if you get it in your eyelashes it’s difficult to apply your mascara in that spot without it clumping really badly.

Bzzz Campaign

I got an invite to a Bzzz campaign a few weeks ago for Covergirl's NatureLuxe collection. I've tried Covergirl foundation in the past, like waaaay past, and was never really pleased with it, but I thought I'd give it a try. It's free so why not?

I got the box in the mail and have been using it for about a week now. The color I got was too dark for me, they didn't have my shade available as a free sample. So it was too dark, until I spent a little over a week in Texas and Arkansas and got a little color to my face. Now this is going to be my summer foundation. The consistency is a little grainy when you first apply it to the skin, which was off putting. But then I just blended it out and it looks really nice. I can't truly say anything about it's weight because I always mix my foundation with my moisturizer so that it applies and blends more completely and evenly. But it did feel more like a tinted moisturizer as opposed to foundation mixed with moisturizer. Make sense?

To me however, the real star of this collection is the tinted lip balm. OH MY GOODNESS! I've had tons of problems with my lips in the past. They're kind of huge, and have a tendency to get ridiculously chapped the minute I stop drinking enough water and/or stop applying chapstick. I also have a problem with tinted lip balm because typically it stays on for a bit and then leaves my lips really dry afterwards OR it's more like a lipstick and not just a tint. This stuff is exactly what I've always wanted and never received from a tinted lip balm. A hint of color + moisture and repair. My lips feel awesome. I didn't even like the shade I got and I've still been wearing it like mad. I'm getting all the lip balms, and I will probably get the lighter foundation come winter time.

Bottom Line:
Foundation-4 Stars
Lip Balm- 5 stars

Droool.

Oh my god. My house smells so good right now. I'm making Carrot Soup with Ginger and Lemonand Apple Dumplings. So the whole place smells like ginger, lemon, sugar and cinnamon. I ate breakfast kind of late, but didn't have lunch till just now. I don't think I've scarfed a sandwich down that fast in a long time.

Anyway! Day before yesterday I got a package from Sephora in the mail. It had the Kat Von D Lipstick sampler set. Oh my god. Looks like a book with mini lipsticks in it. LOVE. Soooo swatch time!!

1. Celebutard (pinky nude)

2. Cathedral (dark nude)

3. Lolita (coral nude)

4. Underage Red (light-ish red w/ blue tones)

5. Hellbent (On the darker side of red red)

6. Rosary (Dark red with plum tones)

Dude. I love these lipsticks. They are super creamy and awesomely pigmented. I hosted trivia for 2.5 hours. That's a lot of talking and only reapplied Hellbent once. With NO PRIMER! The only one it doesn't have that I want is the Adora one that's red with Gold flecks. I'm going to wear Celebutard with an orange-y gloss for Halloween. Celebutard, Hellbent and Rosary are my faves, I would love underage red a lot more if I wasn't a warm-toned kid. Blue toned lipsticks are a little tough for me to wear, not impossible, just difficult. In any event I highly recommend these lipsticks. Check 'em out.