July Favorites/Where have I been??

Hi friends! Long time no blog! Seriously, I am so so sorry for being gone for so long (over a month?). I don’t really have a good excuse for where I have been. For about a week in July I was away on vacation, and then when I came back I was feeling very unmotivated and uninspired to write blog posts. I was also working a lot and overall busier than usual. Every time I got home I was just feeling tired and not feeling like doing much of anything. It was just a giant slump for me. On top of that, I wasn’t even playing with makeup as much as usual because I didn’t have the time for it(sad face!). Any who, that’s my rather weak explanation of where I’ve been. I’m finally feeling ready to start writing again! I have missed WP so much! Oh, to add to my blogging woes my WP app on my iPhone has been acting up-it keeps crashing when I try to read blogs. The WP app is my favorite way to read blogs and comment, so I’ve been missing out on reading everyone’s posts (depressing!). I contacted their support several times and finally someone told me that it is a bug they are hoping to resolve next week. I really hope it gets fixed soon because I love reading blogs on my phone (much easier/faster than on my laptop).

Ok, my rant is done. I have really missed you all! Again, I’m sorry for my disappearance act. I’m feeling really bad about it and am also very worried about how often I’ll be able to blog once I start school in a couple weeks. Ahh!

Alright, for real Iet’s move on to makeup! Keep reading for my (very) belated July Favorites.

It wouldn’t be a monthly favorites post without a favorite foundation combo! Seriously, every month it seems I find a new foundation to mix with my L’oreal True Match Lumi foundation.

Favorite foundation combo: L’oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation mixed with L’oreal True Match Lumi. I yet again picked a shade too dark for me in the Pro-Matte line, so mixing it with the too-light Lumi has given me a perfect match. It also tones down the matte-ness of the Pro-Matte foundation, which makes it easier to blend and slightly more natural looking. Love the two together!

Favorite eyeshadow palette-Lorac Unzipped Palette: I hadn’t picked up this palette in a long time and I’m glad I did, it is so pretty! I love the shine/frost of some of the shades, they are very vibrant. My two favorite shades have been Unattainable (shimmery copper) and Unreal (shimmery rosy champagne). The shadows in this palette are a little drier in texture but the color payoff is great. I was really using this palette non-stop the past month. I also love how easily the shades pair together, it makes doing a beautiful eye look very simple.

Favorite Lip Color-Colourpop Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick in “Drive In”: I have been using this shade non-stop lately, it is so stunning! It is a bright purple/fuchsia shade. These liquid lipsticks dry down very matte and there is no worrying about the color transferring off. It is also very easy to apply because the perfect amount of product comes onto the doe foot when you take it out of the tube (unlike the Stila liquid lipsticks, way too much product comes off!). I currently have three other shades of this and ordered three more (ordered more before they announced the new shades, dangit! #makeupaddictproblems).

Swatches

L to R: Colourpop Drive In, Lorac Unattainable, Lorac Unreal

As you can see, there wasn’t too much going on in terms of makeup for me during July. But, the products I did mention I love a lot. That’s all for today my lovely peeps. I think I’ll maybe do a little post on my vacation in case you are curious about it. I think it will be fun to write about 🙂

Until next time!

-Sandy ❤

June Favorites

It’s time again for the end of month round up! Keep reading to find out what got the most love in June!

Makeup Products

Foundation combo: Physician’s Formula Youthful Wear Serum & L’oreal True Match Lumi I keep finding new foundations to mix with the Physician’s Formula one, which is too dark for me on its own. Mixed with the L’oreal Lumi, it gives a nice and glowy satin finish.

Wet n’ Wild Blush & Glow Trio in Sunset Junction This has been such a great little trio! I especially love the blush and highlight. The blush color is a very natural warm light pink, and the highlight is a super shimmery pinky champagne color. I’m not sure if these palettes are still around or not but if you stumble upon them, definitely try them!

L’oreal Infallible Setting Spray I’ve been loving using this to dampen my beauty blender to blend out my concealer and for setting my makeup.

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer I just love how creamy and brightening this is for under my eyes.

MAC Lipsticks Men Love Mystery and Whirl MAC added some new matte lipsticks to their permanent collection, and of course I couldn’t help but buy a couple. Men Love Mystery is a lovely purple shade, and Whirl is a deep mauvey brown shade.

NYX HD Blush in Taupe This is seriously the best thing I have used so far for contouring. It’s the perfect cool toned shade for me.

Swatches

L to R Men Love Mystery, Whirl, Wet n’ Wild Sunset Junction

TV Favorite

photocred netflixlife.com

You guys, I have been super obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy lately. I have binge watched almost the entire series over the past couple months. Christina is life! The personal drama is great but I especially love all the medical cases.

That’s all for the month of June! What were your favorites from June?

Thank you so much for reading! 🙂

xo Sandy

Ulta Haul

Woo Hoo Ulta has NYX, Neutrogena, L’oreal, and Physician’s Formula on sale for 40% off through Saturday July 4. Of course I couldn’t resist and picked up some NYX and L’oreal goodies 🙂

What I Got

NYX Prismatic eyeshadows in Golden Peach and Fireball– A really lovely peachy shade and a red based copper shade. Can’t wait to use Fireball, it’s stunning!

NYX Ultra Pearl Loose Shadow in Orange– A pretty orangey copper shade.

NYX Butter Glosses in Tiramisu and Angel Food Cake-These are both very natural looking shades, with Angel Food Cake being the deeper, mauvey sister of Tiramisu. I know a lot of people love the Tiramisu shade.

NYX Intense Butter Gloss in Toasted Marshmallow– A purple berry shade, super pretty!

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Cannes– A MLBB shade. I regret not getting more of these SMLCs already! This shade really popped out to me, it is very wearable.

NYX Dark Circle Concealer in Medium– I actually already own this concealer in the shade Light and find it doesn’t have as much orange pigment to cancel out my dark circles, so I thought I would try out the Medium shade.

NYX Big & Loud Lash Primer– I’m always curious to try out lash primers in the hopes that it will help me achieve long fluttery lashes. A quick Google search for reviews showed that this isn’t very highly rated, but hopefully it works out for me.

L’oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation 103 Natural Buff– I’ve been curious about this foundation for awhile since many people seem to love it and I’ve got combo/oily skin. I’m really hoping the shade is ok, I tend to always be wrong when picking haha.

L’oreal Miss Manga Rock mascara– I saw Kathleen Lights use this in a GRWM video recently and thought it looked really great on her, so I got it. It will be added to my small pile of unopened mascaras to try out lol.

Swatches

Top Row L to R: Angel Food Cake, Tiramisu, Cannes, Toasted Marshmallow Bottom Row L to R: Fireball, Golden Peach, Orange

That’s it my dears! Did you take advantage of the Ulta sale this week? If not there’s still time! Have you tried any of these products before? If not, what would you most like to see a review on?

Thank you so much for reading! Love you all!

xo Sandy

Review: NYX Micro Brow Pencil

Hello beauties! Today I’m sharing with you my thoughts on the NYX Micro Brow Pencil. There are 8 shades to select from, and it seems like there is a good color selection. I picked the shade Ash Brown, which seems to be a pretty good match for my brows. I’ve read that this is a dupe for the Anastasia Brow Wiz, and I can definitely see the resemblance in terms of packaging. This is my first retractable brow pencil, but I’ve tried pretty much everything else in terms of brow products (regular pencils, pomade, powder, gel). I thought it would be convenient to have something I don’t have to sharpen, plus it has a great spoolie on one end.

NYX Website

• What it is: A micro mechanical brow pencil that shapes, defines and fills in sparse brows for a natural look.

• What it does: Create a more defined brow by filling in areas that may be sparse or over-tweezed.

• Why we love it: The super-skinny tip draws ultra fine lines, allowing you to create the look of natural brow hairs.

• How to use: Use short strokes to define the brow and fill in any sparse areas then soften edges using the spoolie end.

 Swatches

Ash Brown swatch

Shade: Ash Brown. This is a fairly neutral medium brown shade.

Packaging: One end contains the brow pencil and the other contains the spoolie. Both are protected by their own caps.

Texture: This has a somewhat dry texture.

Pigmentation: I feel that you have to press somewhat firmly to get the most pigment, otherwise a light touch gives off soft color. I think this is nice because you can customize how natural or bold you want your eyebrows to look.

Application: Since the pencil tip is so small, you can get very precise with this pencil. The one thing about this is that it takes me much longer to fill in my brows with this compared to my other brow products. I also feel like I need to twist it up for more product often, since the tip is so tiny.

Wear: This wears really well throughout the day with minimal fading or migrating. I think the drier texture helps with its staying power.

Overall Thoughts: I think this is a solid brow product, although I’m still working on my speed while filling my brows in with this. I like how its easy to get a natural or heavy eyebrow look using this.

Have you tried the NYX Micro Brow pencil? What’s your favorite brow product to use? I’m fond of the Maybelline Brow Precise pencil and Anastasia Dipbrow.

As always, thanks for reading! 🙂

xo Sandy

Summer Walmart Beauty Box

Hi my lovelies! Today I’m sharing with you the latest Walmart Beauty Box for summer. If you’re not familiar with the Walmart beauty box, it is a quarterly box of beauty related samples that is free with $5 shipping. There are sometimes full-sized items in the boxes too. This is the fourth box I’ve received so far. Keep reading to find out what I got!

What I Got

St Ives Green Tea Scrub 

Clear Complete Care Anti-Dandruff shampoo

Dove Go Fresh Revitalize body wash

NYC Liquid Lipshine (Fashion Ave Fuchsia, full size)

Nivea Moisturizing Cream

Neutrogena Cool Dry Sport Sunscreen Lotion (spf 70)

You & I One Direction fragrance sample

Jergens Natural Glow moisurizer

Ecotools, Real Techniques, Essential Tools $2 coupons

Overall Thoughts

So there was one full sized item in this season’s box and the rest are sample sizes. I have tried the NYC Liquid Lipshines before and think they are pretty good glosses with good pigmentation, so I’m pleased to get a new shade but I also wish it was something I’ve never tried before. The St Ives Green Tea scrub is also something I’ve tried before and liked, so I’ll definitely use this up. I think the only reason I didn’t repurchase it is because I thought it was pricy for the amount of product you get. The Dove bodywash is a repeat item, I also got it in my Spring box. Not cool! I’m not particularly excited by the perfume sample, the Jergens foil packets, or the Nivea moisturizing cream. I’m a fan of Clear shampoos but I also have a few other shampoo samples of theirs to use up as well. The sunscreen sample will come in handy when I travel in a few weeks, so that’s nice. Overall, I’m not excited by this season’s box at all. It’s probably the most bleh box of theirs I have received so far. I’m not saying that all the products are bad or I won’t use them, but I’m just not impressed.

Are you subscribed to the Walmart beauty box? Did you get the same stuff as I did?

As always thank you so much for reading! 🙂

xo Sandy

Lizzielovesbeauty Giveaway Time!

Check out lizzielovesbeauty’s giveaway! 🙂

This Week’s Makeup Win & Makeup Fail

Hi everyone! I hope everyone’s week is going well. I thought I would do a nice, casual post today just to catch up with you all. This week I have a high point and a low point related to my makeup collection that I thought would be fun to share with you.

Makeup Win  I won a giveaway! Shout out to Stacey of The Bambi Eyes for having this giveaway! I won two Colourpop eyeshadows, and these are the first Colourpop products I’ve ever gotten. Woohoo! 🙂 I received the shades Play (matte) and Desert (Satin). They are beautiful, I can’t wait to play with them!

Makeup Fail Ok, so I should have see this one coming. I kept my Tartelette palette in a spot where I kept knocking it over on accident-I think it fell a few times and each time it was fine. Until it wasn’t. I finally decided to move it to a safer spot, and the next time I grabbed it to use, black eyeshadow poured out. I guess the last time it fell did it in. The worst part was the way I opened it at an angle let most of the powder fall down to the floor, otherwise I would have been able to rescue more of it. Womp womp 😦 I pressed what I could back together with rubbing alcohol. Honestly I rarely reach for black eyeshadows and I have plenty of matte black shadows in other palettes, but it’s still sad. My poor little Tartelette! Ok I’ll stop being dramatic haha.

That’s it for today, I hope you enjoyed my makeup win and fail 🙂 What has been your biggest makeup tragedy? Broken shadows? Melted lipsticks? Broken foundation bottle? I would love to know!

xo Sandy

Review: Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask

Hi everyone! Ugh it’s Monday again! Today I have a quick review on the Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask, which I received a sample of in this month’s Birchbox.

Bliss Website 

This oxygen rejuvenating mask was engineered to mimic the effects of our spa’s famous triple oxygen treatment facial in minutes, this miracle worker instantly delivers a shot of oxygen, a powerhouse form of vitamin C, time-released antioxidants, and a moisture fix to spiff up your complexion when it’s looking and feeling lackluster.

• Instantly brightens, detoxifies and refreshes skin for a youthful, glowing complexion with skin brightening technology

• It’s like a breath of fresh air for your face

Scent: This has a citrus-y scent, it’s really quite pleasant!

Consistency: This is a light orange gel with some faint shimmer.

Mask straight from the tube

Mask after blending

Mask applied to my face

Application: The directions are to massage onto damp skin until a froth forms, and to wait 5 minutes before rinsing off. I did just that. It began to foam up as soon as I started to rub it onto my skin. The consistency of the foam sort of reminded me of shaving cream, haha! I let it sit on my skin for 5 minutes, and as it sat on my skin the foam started to pop (or deflate? Not sure how do describe it), which made my skin feel tingly. Eventually all the foam absorbed into my skin, making it feel tight.

Results: Like I just mentioned, the mask made my skin feel tighter. It also looked brighter after using it. It did not break my skin out.

Overall Thoughts: I enjoyed using this mask and I will continue to use up my sample. The full size is $54 though, ouch! So I don’t think I would pick up the full size after using up the sample, it’s just way out of my price range.

Have you tried this mask before? What were your thoughts?

Thank you for reading! 🙂

xo Sandy

Sigma Brush Dupes? BS-MALL Premium Synthetic Kabuki Makeup Brush Set

Source: amazon.com

Hi my loves! I bought this 10 piece brush set off Amazon a few months ago, so I thought I would go ahead and share my thoughts on it! It was only around $10-11 when I bought it then, but now it’s only around $7! Do the brushes remind you of anything or look familiar…?

Source: sigmabeauty.com

That’s right, they look just like the Sigma Kabuki brush set! I’ve seen a few dupes of the Sigma Kabuki brush set from different brands and even from generic brands on Amazon. I figured for around $10, it wouldn’t hurt to try the BS-MALL Synthetic Kabuki Brush Set. Especially since that Sigma set retails for $162!

Source: amazon.com

The picture above gives a nice description of what each brush is for. I’ve been using some of the concealer brushes for blending out eyeshadows, and they have been working quite nicely for that. My favorite brush has to be the Flat Angled brush (#4)- its perfect for blending out foundation given its angled shape, and its also one of the best brushes I have for applying powder foundation since its quite dense. All of the face brushes are fairly dense, with the exception of the angled brush (#2), which makes sense given its suggested use for blush/bronzer. All of the small brushes are fairly fluffy and not dense, except for the small tapered brush (#6), which is pretty dense.

All of the brushes are very soft, and I only experienced some minor shedding when I first got them and washed them. I’ve washed them several times since then and have not noticed any shedding. The brush handles are a bit on the cheap side, and I’ve noticed that one of them is not glued together properly as its somewhat loose. I don’t mind too much since its easily fixable with glue.

Sigma F80 vs BS-MALL Flat Foundation Brush
Now, in terms of comparing these brushes to the Sigma ones, I only have one brush to compare to the ones in this set. I have the Sigma F80 flat top kabuki brush. Its counterpart in the BS-MALL brush set is definitely less dense compared to the Sigma one. The density of the SIgma brush helps give fuller coverage compared to the BS-MALL one, but they both do about the same in terms of blending.

Overall 

I think this brush set is a great deal! They are all very soft, don’t shed, and are so affordable! Sure, the brush handles are a bit cheap but otherwise they are good. Have you tried this brush set?

June Birchbox

Hi my dears! A couple weeks ago there was a code for a $1 Birchbox, so I figured I’d go ahead and sign up! I’ve signed up for Birchbox once before but cancelled after the one box. I’ve tried to stay away from monthly beauty product subscriptions since I do a good job of buying my own beauty/makeup, and I know half the time I won’t even use the samples. But since it was such a good deal, I decided to sign up again to try Birchbox. Keep reading to find out what I got and whether I’ll continue the subscription!

Products

Marcelle BB Cream Golden Glow This can be used as alone or as a base apparently. It’s a bit dark when it comes out but it blends away into my skin fine. It’s not very pigmented as far as I can tell, and I can detect a little bit of fine shimmer when its blended in. I can definitely see this giving off a glow.

Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo Such a cute little dry shampoo! I love using dry shampoo so I’ll definitely use this up. It smells pretty good and it’s got a powerful spray.Marcelle Waterproof Eyeliner This is a lovely turquoise blue shade, perfect for summer! I’m intrigued by the waterproof claim.      Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask The directions on this say to apply to damp skin, wait 5 minutes until a froth forms, and then rinse off. I can’t say I’ve ever tried a face mask like this before so I’m definitely curious to see how it works. 

COOLA SPF 50 Sport-Mango Now that it’s summer you can never have enough sunscreen! This moisturizer smells yummy too, so I’m looking forward to using it. I like that it has such a high SPF.

Emi Jay Hair Tie A cute little extra hair tie. We’ll see how well this works in my hair, it doesn’t feel like it will stretch enough to wrap around twice.

Swatches

Marcelle BB Cresm Golden Glow (blended out)

Marcelle Eyeliner (Blue Lagoon)

Overall Thoughts

I feel like I’m pretty satisfied with the contents of the box-I think I’ll get use out of everything that was in there. However, I won’t be continuing the subscription, simply because I don’t want to accumulate more samples every month. Also, if I were to subscribe to any monthly subscription, it would most likely be Ipsy.

What beauty boxes are you subscribed to, and are you satisfied with them?

Thank you so much for reading! 🙂

xo Sandy