Tropical lips in fall?

Knock, knock. Let’s acknowledge the fact that I’ve been a terrible blogger —- “real life” got in the way of posting, but I’ve got a few things to share with you, so expect some posts with reviews and swatches in the next couple of days!

First things first, I need to let you know that I’m a bit of a lip product junkie. If I’m in a buying mood and in CVS or Target, I will probably pick up one (or seven) lip glosses or lipsticks. Usually, I end up getting variations of the same color family, lightish pink or peach. So, I have tons and tons of lip products that are all essentially the same.

This is just from randomly cleaning out my purse one day. I have probably 3x as many at home.

So, when I happened to be perusing the cosmetics aisles at Target last week, I most certainly did not need to buy any lip products. I resisted the urge to load up my cart but did snag one, which has quickly become my favorite fall lip color.

It’s Rimmel London Stay Glossy Long Lasting Lipgloss in the shade Treasure Island. It cost around $4 at Target. When you think “fall lip color,” you probably imagine deep, berry shades, but I like the unexpected tropical vibe this gives. It really brightens up my face, especially if I’m going lighter on the eyes and cheeks.

I haven’t really used many Rimmel products before, but this gloss has me itching to grab some more. The texture of it is perfect — it’s opaque and sticks to my lips without being super gooey. It doesn’t slide off and wears really well (although I’m not so sure about their claim of 6-hours of coverage).

Excuse the poor quality of this iPhone photo, but check out the applicator:

It’s not a brush exactly, more of a wand that dips in the center and flairs out at the end. The shape is really nice for hugging my lips and evenly applying the product.

(Don’t you love the steering wheel swatch? Don’t worry, I wasn’t in drive when I took this.) Such a pretty shade with the right amount of sparkle. Even though it might not be an expected color for fall, I think it’s perfect for the season and brightening up when you might otherwise be choosing deeper shades for the rest of your makeup.

CVS haul – some deals!

I made a CVS trip recently (OK, this particular trip was a couple of weeks ago, but I still wanted to share my haul, since the deals were so good!) and got a few things from the last of the 50-75% off beauty clearance. Several times a year, CVS will run a 50-75% off certain beauty products that are either being discontinued or released with new packaging, and if you use coupons (including some coupons from the CVS Extra Care coupon machine in the store!), you can find some really awesome deals.

I got the last Coty Airspun powder that was marked 75% off. These are a staple in the beauty department of CVS, but they were clearanced during the most recent sale, and I thought about getting one each time I was in the store and finally did. I got this powder for about $1.75! A steal of a deal since it’s a tried-and-true favorite among makeup buffs, and it’s a fairly large size.

I also snagged this Rimmel Colour Rush Quad Eyeshadow in Smoky Noir, marked down to 75% off (can’t remember the final price, but it was in the $1-$2 range). Most of my eyeshadows are in neutral brown shades, but I’ve recently been loving a darker, black smoky eye and wanted to get some shadows that would help me create that type of look. It was fate that I found this quad for such a low price! The pigmentation isn’t bad at all, and it comes with a variety of blacks/grays that I can use for allover the lid, in the crease, and to darken the outer corners. Just wish that the pans themselves were larger so I got more product!

Even when CVS isn’t running its 50-75% off clearance sale, you can find some great deals in the store. These next two purchases from the same shopping trip are good examples of how you can find sort of spontaneous deals right in the store.

CVS is really great about marking down products and labeling them on the shelf with “don’t miss at this price” stickers! Sometimes, there’s a 25% markdown, but if you’re lucky, you can snag a great product, like this Burt’s Bees Radiance Healthy Glow Kit on clearance, sort of randomly! I found this kit for 75% off (not part of the great beauty clearance!), and paid around $3-$5 for it! That’s an amazing deal, since Burt’s Bees is a really great line of products that are all-natural and healthy for your skin, but usually a tad pricy. I love love love the Radiance line, since it does all of the great things that the main Burt’s Bees products do, but they add this touch of sparkle and glow to your skin. So gorgeous.

The other thing you need to make sure you do every single time you go into CVS is to visit the Extra Care Rewards Center, usually at the front of the store and often right next to the health/beauty/cosmetics section — easy, since you’re probably already there! You scan your CVS Extra Care card (and if you don’t have one, you need to get one! They’re free.) and the machine prints coupons for you right there in the store. I usually scan my card twice to make sure I’m getting all the coupons for the day. On this trip, I got an awesome deal — $8 off any Physicians Formula product!

I purchased this PF EyeBrightener in the shade Natural Eyelight, normally priced at $8.29, which means with my CSV coupon, it was just $0.29! This is a fantastic product, by the way…a great way to add a subtle shimmery highlight to your inner corner and brow area. Check out the swatch:

I love CVS, so if I need to visit a drugstore for health or beauty products, that’s usually where you’ll find me! On top of all the deals, if you have your CVS Extra Care card swiped every time you check out, you earn a percentage of your purchase back for quarterly ExtraBucks, which are like money to spend on anything in the store!

 

 

5 minute eye look (featuring drugstore & high end products)

Sorry for the sporadic posts this week. I’ve been cuh-razy busy at work! But, I wanted to give a quick overview of a 5 minute (or less) eye look I’ve been going to just about every morning this week because it’s easy, fast and flattering.

As you can see, it’s pretty much my signature eye look…brightening and defining but not too dark or smoky. Call it boring (even though it’s not!) but it’s something that is appropriate for work that takes almost no time to pull together.

I start off with a double dose of eye primer. First, e.l.f. Mineral Eye Shadow Primer.

For $3 (either at the e.l.f. website or Target, if your store carries the line), this is hands down one of my favorite primers. It works just like Urban Decay Primer Potion and helps my eye makeup to stay put all day.

Once my lids are primed, I like to even out my skin tone with an eye base. I make sure to use light layers of both primer and base so it’s not too heavy. For this look, I go to MAC‘s Paint Pot in Painterly.

Next, I reach for my Wet n Wild Color Icon palette in Vanity.

You get 6 shadows in this palette — 3 matte and 3 shimmer (each finish comes with a light color, a medium brown/gold and a deeper brown). I start by highlighting the inner corners of my eyes with the lightest matte shade (sort of a peachy skin tone color) using an e.l.f. Defining Eye Brush, which is a small eye brush with slanted bristles, perfect for placing shadow in a really specific area.

Next, I use the lightest shimmery shade, more of a white than a peach, to pack on my lids, using an e.l.f. Eye Shadow Brush — just your average flat shader brush.

After that, I use the e.l.f. Blending Brush to sweep the medium matte brown across my crease, to add a bit of definition and depth.

Then, I grab my flat shader brush again and take the shimmery gold (the medium shade) and sweep on the center of my lid, blending to the outer corner. I keep the inner part of my lid really light. Then, I grab a clean e.l.f. Defining Eye Brush and take the dark, deep brown and form an outer v on the outer corners of my lids. I blend it all out with the Blending Brush to make sure there are no harsh lines.

To finish, I line my bottom waterline with Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal eye pencil in pure white and add Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner in Bold Brown to my upper and lower lash line. Then, I curl my lashes and top it all off with CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion on my lashes!

I’d definitely recommend this as a quick work or school look. If you need an eye look in a hurry but don’t want to look like you sped through it, this is going to be great for you! And, I’m giving away one of the Wet n Wild palettes and Prestige liners in my August giveaway, so check that out and enter!

FTC: Even though I’m mentioning a lot of e.l.f. products, I purchased them all myself and was not provided any of the products mentioned by any company…I use them because they’re inexpensive and good quality!

Wake up…with makeup!

You know the drill. You meant to go to bed at a decent hour, but for whatever reason (couldn’t stop watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on cable, lost track of time watching beauty gurus on YouTube, trying to cram every morsel of information about biochemistry into your brain before that major exam), you ended up getting no sleep whatsoever.

And it’s called “beauty rest” for a reason. You just look better when you’re well-rested. Your skin has time to replenish itself, the bags under your eyes are minimal or nonexistent, etc. But, we all have those mornings when we wake up, look into the mirror and see this:

But, don’t worry — you don’t have to leave the house looking like you need a few more minutes with the alarm clock. Here’s what I’ve found works best for me to wake up my face…with makeup!

Concealer
I have a naturally ruddy complexion, so I use concealer most days. But, I go heavy when I’ve had too little sleep because my face is more red than usual if I’m tired. Concealer also helps to disguise darkness and bags under the eyes, and you might also try putting some on your lids if you’ve got discoloration there. I always use concealer under my foundation instead of on top; I just find that it gives me a more even coverage. Here are some concealers I’ve used and that have worked for me:

• Milani Secret Cover Concealer Cream (this is a very smooth, creamy concealer that comes in a pot. You can apply with a brush, but I think it’s easier to dab a bit on my fingers and blend in where I need coverage)
• Lancome Effarcernes Waterproof Protective Undereye Concealer (I’m currently using this for undereye coverage. Because it’s waterproof, I find that it stays put throughout the day and keeps my undereye area looking bright and even.)
• Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer Palette (Hands down, my favorite concealer! This palette comes with three creamy concealers — a lighter peach, a darker peach and a greenish corrector — and a translucent setting powder. There are so many options with this palette for whatever type of concealing you need to do, whether it’s covering a blemish, canceling out redness, concealing undereye bags. It’s awesome.)

Bright Eyes
Even if you love a dark, smokey eye, if you’re trying to look awake, you should steer clear of the darker eyeshadows and liners, at least in the inner corner and half of your lid near the inner corner. Smoking out a bit on the outer v of the eyelid is cool, but the darker the color is toward your tearduct, the smaller and more closed your eye will appear, emphasizing your tired look. Try these eye-opening tricks:

• White eyeliner! Lining your waterline (the inner rim of your bottom lashline) with a pure white eyeliner will work wonders in eliminating “tired eyes.” If you haven’t slept well, chances are, your waterline is red, but the white eyeliner will open up your eyes and make your whole face look refreshed. I use Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Pure White.
• Highlight! Don’t forget to highlight the heck out of your browbone, above your cheekbones, and even your undereye area. You’ll want to use a product like Benefit High Beam for your browbone and cheekbone highlighting, but for your undereye highlighting, try to avoid shimmer. Instead, use something like the YSL Touche Eclat (or the Milani HD Advanced Concealer, a drugstore dupe for the YSL). These are both clickable pen-like brightening concealers that you can blend under your eye after you’ve put on your foundation and before you’ve applied setting powder, to give your face a really nice pop of brightness.)
• Shimmery shadows! Like I said above, even if you’re a fan of darker, more matte shadows, try dabbing a light, shimmery shade on your inner corners and across your lids to brighten your eyes. MAC Phloof! and Brule are great for this, and so are NYX Ultimatum, the lightest shade in the CoverGirl Shimmering Sands trio, and Flirter and Flutter from Lorac (those last two are in the Social Beautyfly Palette). But, across the board — in all price points — you can find a shimmery, light shadow like the ones I’ve mentioned. I use in inner corners and all over the lid, and darken in the crease and outer v with slighty darker colors to achieve this bright-eyed look:

So, pour yourself a cup of coffee, try these simple concealing and brightening tricks, and let me know if it looks like you got another half hour of zzz’s!

7/16/2010 – Outfit of the Day!

Happy Friday! For those of us who work a 40-hour week Monday through Friday, there’s nothing like the start of a weekend.

So, to celebrate the awesomeness that is Friday, here’s my first ever Outfit of the Day. I love these types of blog posts and YouTube videos, so I hope my fashion interests you.

This is actually my Outfit of the Evening…during the day, I wore exactly this, but I had on a shirt with the name of my employer, which I didn’t want to post, and didn’t want to wear when I went out after work, so only the top is different from the day look! We’re probably just going to go out to dinner, so I’m keeping it casual!

My shirt was an awesome find from our trip to Austin, TX, last week. We ate breakfast one day at Magnolia Cafe (which you MUST do if you go to Austin; everyone eats here!), and stopped by Prima Dora, a shop next door to Magnolia that had shirts for the restaurant for sale! I found this super cute, thin tee that’s black and has adorable pink flamingos on it! I thought it was apt since the meal I got at Magnolia was called The Flamingo.

The jeans are a gray wash from Banana Republic Outlet (we went to the massive outlet mall in San Marcos, TX, on our vacation last week…it was a sensory overload!), and the shoes are the brand nicole, purchased at ROSS a month or so ago.

Ruffles are really on trend right now, and I love how the leg of the jean hits my foot so that the little ruffles on the shoes just poke out a bit. So girly and pretty!

I got the headband at Target — they have a TON of really cute ones in stock right now, very sweet and stylish. This is second-day hair, so when I got ready this morning, it wasn’t giving me much volume, so I just stuck the headband on it, and bam — looks like I put a ton of effort to style, and I didn’t!

As for jewelry, I went simple on the earrings, since I’ve got the jeweled headband up top, too. These are probably my favorite earrings of all-time. They’re from Forever21, and they came in one of those sets of 3 pairs of earrings for $3ish. Just cute little white flowers, and I get a ton of compliments on them.

I also threw on this rosary bracelet that I got from a local vendor at a craft show a few months ago. (I lost her business card, though, so I can’t find her name. I don’t think she had a website or anything.) I think pink and gray work really well together.

And a quick face of the day, list-style!

Products used:

• Laura Gellar Spackle Tinted Under Makeup Primer (fantastic primer, gives you a nice base of color under foundation)
• Lancome Effacernes Waterproof Concealer (I dot this under my eyes and blend in before foundation)
• Milani Cosmetics Secret Cover Concealer Cream (I use this to cover up any redness, blemishes, discoloration, etc.)
• Physicians Formula Healthy Wear  SPF 50 Tinted Moisturizer in Fair to Light (Yes, the $0.74 score from my Target haul yesterday! Tested it out today, and I liked it. Very silky to apply, blended well, but I was left with a super dewy, almost oily finish — and I have dry skin! So, just set it with a powder, and it was fine.)
• MAC Just a Pinch Gel Blush – limited edition (Got this at the CCO in San Marcos outlet mall. I use it over foundation but under my finishing powder, then follow up after powder with a light wash of powder blush.)
• e.l.f. High Definition Powder (love this to set my foundation and cream products! It really softens the face and is not at all cake-y.)
• Almay bronzer in Sunkissed (I apply this with a light hand to my cheekbones, forehead and under my chin, just so I’m not so pasty white!)
• NARS blush in Orgasm (This truly is the perfect color, pinky-peach and makes you look so alive!)
• Laura Gellar Baked Body Frosting in Sugar Glow (this is the prettiest highlight! Goes above my cheekbones, on my browbone and in my cupid’s bow.)
• e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer (a total dupe for Urban Decay Primer Potion!)
• MAC Painterly Paint Pot (after the primer, this gives my lids a really even base to start applying shadow)
• MAC Phloof! (I use this eyeshadow all over the lid and in the inner corners, to open up my eyes and add some shine)
• Lancome Color Design Eyeshadow in Moccachino (I use my crease brush to softly blend this into the crease, adding some definition without making my lids too dark. Plus, it’s a matte, so it helps to balance out the shimmer of Phloof!)
• Smashbox Etch eyeshadow (Is this no longer sold in the Smashbox line? I got mine in a set through HauteLook so I’m not sure. Anyway, I tap a bit of this into my outer corners and blend to the middle of the lids.)
• Christian Siriano for Victoria’s Secret eyeshadow in Royalty (This was limited edition, and I bought at the VS outlet in San Marcos. It’s a gorgeous chocolate brown shade, and I use it to deepen the outer V.)
• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eyeliner in Pure White (I line my waterline with this to open up my eyes and make me look wide awake!)
• Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner in Bold Brown (I line my upper and lower lash lines with this for definition.)
• Urban Decay Skyscraper Multi-Benefit Mascara (After curling my lashes, I apply this to my upper lashes. I have a mini-tube of this, and I love the control I have with the brush!)
• Upper Canada Naturally Lip Butter in Sweet Vanilla Fig (Holy gosh, I got this at a Buc-ees convenience store on the road during our vacation last week, and I LOVE it! Most conditioning lip butter ever, and I have super dry lips!)
• MAC Viva Glam Gaga lipstick (such a Barbie pink!)
• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Lilac Pastelle (softens up the Gaga and gives me a baby pink pout)

Gosh, that looks like a lot in a bulleted list, doesn’t it? But remember, I’m doing a full face of makeup, and I’m not blessed enough to have such good skin that I can leave stuff out.

So that’s what I’m wearing tonight. Hope you like it! What did you wear today?