5 Lipsticks for Fall | Collab with Reflection of Sanity

Hello! Happy Wednesday!

I'm really excited about today's post because I'm doing a collab with my good friend Shireen from Reflection of Sanity ! I was thrilled when we decided to do a collab together, and if you don't follow her blog, go check her out! You guys will love her- she has awesome content, is super sweet and genuine, and every one of her posts leaves me smiling and laughing out loud! I'm so happy to have met her through blogging!

For our collab, we decided to show 5 lipsticks for Fall and how to wear them. We included a makeup look with each lipstick we chose, which I thought was super fun and different from all of the past 'fall favorites' posts I've done where I just showed the products! 

Lipstick #1

First up we have Mac Twig. This might be my all time favorite lipstick for Fall. I also have a dupe for this that I'll include later in the post. 

For this I just used my Morphe 9N blush palette and Nars Kalahari Duo for a natural eye and cheek look. 

Lipstick # 2

Next is Mac Whirl, which is a pretty matte brownish shade. 

I used Tarte Exposed for my cheeks and the BH cosmetics Shaaanxo palette. 

Look #3

For this look I used Nyx Liquid Suede in Soft Spoken. This has been one of my go to lip colors recently. 

I used my Morphe 35O and Morphe 9N palette for this, and created a neutral look. 

Look # 4

I used Maybelline Rum Riche for this look. It's a good red for everyday wear, and it's not super red so if red isn't in your comfort zone, then it's perfect. 

I used the Kat Von D shade and light eye palette and Nars Almeria blush. The Kat Von D palette has been one of my favorites recently!

Look #5

For this last look I used Nars Shrinagar, which is a pretty pretty plum shade. 

I used my Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette, which has totally been neglected and I remember how much I loved it. I paired it with Nars Sin blush. 

And here is swatches of all the lipsticks. 

And I've realized that Maybelline Touch of Spice is a good dupe for Mac Twig, if you like the shade but don't want to fork over the money for Mac! 

What are your favorite Fall lipsticks? Don't forget to checkout Shireen's post as well to see what lipsticks and makeup looks she is sharing!

Extra bits-

-I know I didn't upload Monday or Tuesday like I usually do, I had a mirgrains Sunday and Monday night so I didn't want to prepare any posts. I'll be blogging the rest of the week to makeup for it! 

Nars Kalahari Eyeshadow Duo

Hello! Today I'm sharing my review for the Nars eyeshadow Duo in Kalahari. I've wanted one of these shadows duos from Nars ever since I got into makeup a few years ago. Their blushes are my absolute favorite, but their shadows have quite the high price tag- which is why I never picked one up. Getting 20% off at the VIB sale made me justify the price a little more! 

These run for $35 for two shadows. Which is $17-18 a shadow, which is right in between Mac and Urban Decay shadows (single shadows), which isn't too bad but when your using to buying a whole palette of tons of colors for $40-50, $35 for only two is usually a big no no for me. 

Ok price rant aside- let's talk about the beautiful shades in this Kalahari Duo. These are both gorgoues bronze/taupe shades that make for a quick two shade eye look- which is really why I wanted one of these. Sometimes in the morning I don't want to be bothered with a whole palette so I like grabbing this and quickly blending the darker shade in my crease, and using the lighter one on my lid. 

My over all thoughts 

-This was in my November favorites, so I obviously do love this, but I do have some issues with it too. 

-I'll talk about the good first. It's has two gorgoues shades that make for a quick eye look like I said before. They both have shimmer in them, but it's nothing over the top. The colors blend really nice, and the pigmentation is decent. I've also always loved the sleek-ness of Nars packaging. It's always been one of my favorite things about this makeup brand. 

-It's not as buttery as Urban Decay or Lorac Shadows, but the pigmentation is better than some shadows that I've used. I'm going to compare the pigment to Mac shadows, but that is just my opinion. 

-My issue with this duo is the fall out on it is pretty bad. I know it happens, even with the best of shadows, but you all know how annoying that can be. It's  manageable, and I still love the shadows but I just think for how expensive this is there shouldn't be much fall out. 

-I do love this like I said before, but I don't think I would purchase another one of these. 

Have you tried any of the Nars duos? Leave your thoughts on them in the comments!

Extras-

I've decided to try to do my 'it's the little things posts' twice a month instead of every Friday instead! I get stressed out if I can't find something good to share and I don't like to half ass posts like that!

-two weeks ago it snowed 10 inches, and now it's 50 degrees and sunny. It will be in the 60s on Sunday! Definitely doesn't feel like Christmas or December lol!!

November Favorites Video

Hello! Here I am late on my monthly favorites again! I finally had time to film this video and at least it's still the beginning of December when it's going up. Except in my intro I called it my December favorites on accident. Oops! I was hoping to get this up earlier in the day, but good god does it take long to process the video and upload it to youtube! It took over an hour for each LOL!

Anyways- here's a quick preview of some of my makeup favorites.

I mention some more skin care products in my video along with my favorite candles, elephant pants, and some of my favorite books I read last month! 

I hope you guys enjoy watching!

Sephora VIB Sale + Lush Haul

Hello! I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving for tomorrow!

Today I'm sharing what I purchased during the Sephora VIB sale, and some goodies I picked up from Lush while I was at the mall!

I really wanted to film a video for this, but I'm having issues with my memory card. Every time I try to delete the files from my Mac, it tells me that it's unable to delete them. I also went to get a new memory card from target yesterday, but my dumbass got distracted by all the targetness that target has, and forgot. 

Anyways- I just decided to do a blog post because otherwise I'd have to wait till next week to film. I still will film a haul of any of you want to see the products in action, so let me know. 

Long intro/rant aside, let's get into the haul!

Sephora 

First thing I picked up was the Stila Holiday gift set. This was a totally impulse buy, and I don't usually gravitate towards Stila products. But I think this set is nice since it comes with a lot. It has a shadow palette with 5 shades, a blush bronzer and highlight trio which you all know I'm a sucker for, a lip gloss, and an eye liner. 

I picked up the Becca highlighter in Moonstone, which I already did a review on. 

The last thing I picked up was this Nars shadow duo in Kalahari. 

With my points I chose a delux size of the Philosophy Miracle worker night cream. I didn't get much from Sephora because I was trying not to go crazy like I did last year. I didn't need much, but I knew I wanted a Nars duo and the Becca highlight. 

Lush 

I picked up two bath bombs, both I haven't tried before. Yog Nog is on the Left, and Yoga bomb on the right. I had to get the yoga one because well, it's call yoga bomb. 

Next I wanted to get another of the Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask. The last thing is the Celestial Face Moisturizer. I tried a sample of this a long time ago and I've been wanting the full size for a while. My skin has been super unhappy lately so I decided to splurge and get this! 

I will definitely be doing a review for the Stila set, the Nars duo, the Lush Moisturizer, and I'll probably share both bath bombs either on here or my Instagram! I also have a makeup tutorial using the Stila set that I need to edit! 

Did you pick up anything from the Sephora Sale? Let me know in the comments!!

Nars Matte Velvet & Satin Lip Pencils

One more post before I leave on vacation for a week! I said on Thursday it was probably going to be my last post but i found some down time today at work to write this. 

If you're a member with Sephoras reward/points program then you know they give out the birthday gifts each year, and this yeas was two delux sizes of Nars lip crayons. I was way excited about this because I only own one lip stick from Nars. At the beginning of the year (when I wait impatiently for June so I can have my gift ha) I didn't think I would care for the colors but now that I'm more daring with my lip colors I was more than thrilled to get these. And you all know Nars is one of my top favorite brands so more the better to try these out!

For delux sizes you get quite a bit of product in these. They don't twist up, and I haven't tried to sharpen them yet. Someone let me know if they are sharpable if you've used these before! I knew I'd like the more mauve shade but I'm not a huge red lip person. But I still wanted to have a good quality lipstick that's red just incase I even wanted to wear it!

Here's swatched with (bottom) and without (top) a flash. 

Rikugien is from the Satin formula and is a pretty pink/mauve color. Like the formula says 'satin', this definitely has a beautiful shine to it. 

Cruella is one of the most gorgeous reds I've seen. Its blue tone and It's definitely matte, but is very comfortable to wear. 

Here is a picture of me wearing Cruella. I surprisingly really liked this on me! Like I said before I don't do red lips very often (way out of my comfort zone!) but I did like this and wore it all day. Even in public which was bold for me. It lasted so long on my lips, a good 6 or more hours with eating and drinking in between! I didn't necessarily time this but it's a good estimate. 

Here is me wearing Rikugien. This is a good 'my lips but better' color. The formula is super creamy and feels really moisturizing. This one unfortunately didn't last as long as Cruella, which was expected. 

Overall I'm super pleased with both of these! I wore both of them over top of Nyx lipliner in nude. I'm sure Cruella can be worn alone but I put the liner on out of habit. I tried Rikugien without the liner and didn't care for the color as much as I did with the liner underneath.  I would like to pick up more of these in the future!

Have you tried any of Nars lip pencils before? Which ones are your favorite?

5 on Friday | Top 5 Bronzers

Is it Friday already?? This week flew by! I didn't have many posts planned out for this week but I did have plans for show my top 5 Bronzers today! Hopefully next week I'll have more posts and videos to share!

It took me a while to find what Bronzers work for my skin tone. Lots of trial and errors! Hopefully these Bronzers can be good recommendations for you all if you are looking for a new one to try!

Nars Laguna

You all know I'm a huge Nars fan and Laguna is my all time favorite. You can tell it's well loved. It looks slightly shimmery in the swatch but when it's applied to the face there is no shimmer. This works well for my skin tone to contour and warm up my face a little. It's warm toned so it's great for summer time. 

Nars Paloma

This one is from one of the Nars bronzer and highlight duos that come in 3 different shades. I have the medium shade and it's more cool toned than Laguna. I like this one more in the summer if I wear some self tanner because it has a slight reddish undertone on my skin. 

Benefit Hoola

 This one is definitely a cult favorite that seems to look good on most skin tones. This is not only good for contouring but for bronzing up your face without it looking muddy.

Too Faced Chocolate Soleil 

I have both the regular (left, top swatch) and the milk chocolate (right, bottom swatch). The regular one is a mini size and I prefer it to the milk chocolate one. The milk chocolate looks too Orange on me. Just like the name says, these smell like chocolate!

The Balm Bahama Mama

This one is probably the darkest out of the bunch, and it's also crazy pigmented so you have to be careful with it. For some reason this doesnt swatch well, but it applies to the face nicely. This is another one I like to use in the summer when I have self tanner on, but I've used it a few time recently and I forgot how much I love it!

What are your favorite Bronzers?? Let me know in the comments! Also what would you like to see next week for 5 on Friday??

Splurge vs Steal

Hi :)

For today's post I'm going to talk about splurging vs steals, or highend vs drugstore stuff. There are tons of great drugstore products out there (aka the steals) but I also find that somethings in the drugstore just don't work for me, or I can't find things that compare to the quality of high end products. Now of course these are just my personal opinions on these splurge vs steal products, and I'm going to go through different categories of makeup and tell you what I think! Also let me know if you have a 'steal' that's worth sharing if I picked a 'splurge' for the category!

Primers- Splurge

For me primers are a splurge for both face and eyes. I have tried a verity of drugstore ones (especially for the face) and none have worked. My skin is sensitive and a lot of primers make my breakout so I'm sticking to the Benefit Porefessional. But most importantly, find what works for your skin weather it be drugstore or highend! As for eyes, nothing beats my Mac painterly paint pot. 

Foundation- Both

I like a wide verifty of both highend and drugstore foundations! These are just two of my favorites. I use the Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous Foundstion almost everyday. It's probably my most used foundation I own and I've gone through probably 5-6 of them. For highend Makeup Forever Mat Velvet+ has been a favorite of mine recently (and for years!) and again, just like primers, find what works for your skin!

Concealer- Splurge

Concealer is another splurge for me. I haven't found anything that compares to my Mac Pro Longwear Concealer. I so want to try a new Maybelline concealer that's new though!

Setting Powders- Steal

The Rimmel Stay Matte Powder is seriously the best I've used. And it's under $5, wooo!!

Bronzer- Splurge 

Bronzers are another splurge for me. With my pale skin, a lot of Bronzers look very orange on me and that seems to be what I find with drugstore ones. I'm not saying there aren't good ones, but for my skin I can't find one. These are two of my favorite high end Bronzers. You can see my Nars Laguna is very loved, and the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil is another great one.

Blush- Both

OK I'm a serious blush hoarder. It's a problem. I usually splurge on blushes because I don't find many from the drugstore that I love, but I do love physicians formula blushes (last 3 on bottom row) and Milani baked blushes (first on bottom) are great too. For high end my favorite ones are from Nars and Benefit, but I also love Hourglass and Mac too!

Eye Shadows- Splurge

Along with blushes, I tend to hoard palettes. It's an even bigger problem LOL. I do love some drugstore palettes (Maybelline Nudes, etc) but I don't think the quality of them compares to ones from Urban Decay, Too Faced, or Lorac. These shadows are just amazing. But I will say that Makeup Geek has amazing shadows for a very cheap price! 

Eyeliners- Steal

I very rarely purchase expensive liners. I just go throught them too fast and I find these ones from Loreal work just as great as high end ones. The Loreal Lineur intense liquid pencil (not shown) and the Silkissime liners are very good duped for the Urban Decay liners!

Mascara- Steal 

I actually have yet to find a highend mascara that I love but I'm itching to try the new Benefit Roller Lash! I have a hard time paying for something expensive when I run out of them fast like liners. Anyways- these mascaras are some of my favorite from the drugstore and they are better than any highend ones I've tried. 

Lipsticks- Both

You all know I'm a huge fan of Mac lipsticks, but I own a lot of drugstore ones too! I've really been loving the Maybelline Lipsticks recently. Mac will always be my favorite, and I love my  Nars lipsrick too but Maybelline has really impressed me!

So what do you guys think? What do you Splurge vs Steal on?? Let me know in the comments! And let me know if you would like to see more posts like this in the future! 

•Extra stuff. Some upcoming posts to look forward to! 

-I'm going to do a makeup brush favorites post! I haven't done one before so look forward to seeing what brushes I use everyday. 

-April life post is coming up soon. I also *might* film a April beauty favorites video! No promises though he he he..

-A new post series coming up on my blog. Friday 5's. What is that all about?? Wait and see ;)

Spring Makeup Essentials

Happy first day of spring! Winter is officially over and I'm sure I'm not that only one who is glad about that!

Today I'm going to share some of my makeup items that remind me of spring time! When I think of spring, I think of bright and pastel colors, flowers, pink, yellows, lilac, etc. 

For eyeshadows I picked the Maybelline Brights Palette because of all the bright colors. It reminds me of spring time! I haven't had a chance to play with this one too much, but look out for some spring makeup looks from me using this soon! I also included the little pixi eyshadow duo that came in my ipsy bag. The packaging is so cute and the mint green color of it is so springy too!

Sticking with the eyes category, here's two eye pencils that are good colors for spring. The first one is the Jordana liquid eyeliner pencil in the color Aqua Stone. This color of beautiful and so fun to wear on the lower lash line. Next is a Hello Kitty Shadow stick from Sephora in the color Cream Puff. I love the lilac color for spring and this makes a great eyeshadow base for purples. Plus it's hello kitty. I love hello kitty. 

Next is a Tarte lipstick in the shade Plummy Rose. I mainly picked this because of the packaging lol! It's flower detail is so pretty, and this is a good lipstick shade that you can wear year around. 

Last I'm going to talk about cheek products.

The top left is a Milani Rose Powder Blush in the color Flora Passion. How perfect is this blush for spring? It's flower detailing is so pretty and Milani blushes are one of my favorites from the drugstore. 

Next to it (top right) is the Nars Blush in New Order. This blush is so gorgeous, it's a light purple shade and this post wouldn't be complete unless I included a Nars blush because they are my favorite. You can see I hit pan on this so it's well loved. You wouldn't think a purple sparkly blush would look good but I promise it's not as scary as it looks!

The first on the bottom is the Stila Shimmer Duo in Kitten. I picked this for my spring highlight because it's so pretty and subtle if your not ready for that intense glow that we usually go for in the summer time. The pink side in my favorite and this can be used for an eyeshadow duo as well!

Last on the bottom right is the Physicans Formula Argan Wear Blush in Natural. I've already talked and raved about this so much on my blog, but I had to include in because it's a perfect spring color!

What are your Spring Makeup Essentials? Let me know in the comments!!

Also I'm going to have a new post series starting this Sunday so be excited!!