April Favorites | Beauty + Lifestyle

Hey! Happy Hump Day!

Remember last week when I said I was going to post every Wednesday and Friday? And then I didn't post on Friday? Opps. Hubby's birthday was Thursday so I was super busy all day and didn't have time to sit down and write a blog post. I was going to do a Friday Favorites post, but since today I'm sharing my favorites from April, I'm just going to include some lifestyle favorites in this post that I was going to share on Friday. 

MAKEUP

I've been into my Lorac Pro Palette lately. I forgot how much I love this palette, and it's super great for everyday looks as well as something a little more dramatic!

I've been using the Stila Stay All Day Bronzer almost every day for the past month or so. I will admit that I gave this a not so good review when I first bought it. I've since changed my mind about it, and think its great for bronzing up my face. I don't like it for contouring, which is why I originally didn't care for it. I also love how big the pan is!

For foundation I've been using the Sonya Kashuk Soft Focus Matte Foundation a ton. This is the newest edition to my foundation collection, and I bought this as an attempted to replace my favorite drugstore foundation with a Cruelty Free one. I do like this, but I'm not going to go into much details because I have a review for it coming soon!

The lipsticks I've been using the most are the Nyx Liquid Suede in Soft Spoken and Maybelline Nude Lust with Nyx Lipliner is Natural. Both are great everyday shades, with the Maybelline one being more on the neutral side.

HAIR AND SKIN CARE

I've been loving this Pura D'or Organic Argan Oil* to help with super dry ends on my hair. This was sent to me awhile ago from Pure D'or along with some shampoo and conditioner that I didn't care for, and never gave this oil much of a try until recently. It's a light oil so it doesn't feel too heavy on my hair.

I recently started using the Burt's Bees Natural Acne Solution Toner again and I forgot how amazing this stuff is. It clears up my skin so fast if I have any problems!

LIFESTYLE 

I've been enjoying these Satwa Sandalwood Incense lately, and they smell super amazing. 

I bought this little piece of Rainbow Fluorite at a crystal shop a few weekends ago and I'm absolutely obsessed with it. 

On Netflix I recently watched 13 Reasons Why and overall really loved how the show turned out. I read the book years ago, and I hope they make a season 2. 

Right now I'm currently watching The Magicians on Netflix and its super good. I'm almost done with the series, and I'm also hoping for a season 2 of this show as well! This one was also made off of a book too, and I'm thinking about picking them up to read. 

I definitely recommend watching both of these shows if you haven't already!

So this concludes my favorites for April! What have you been loving and into lately? Share your favorites with me in the comments!

Check out my Etsy Shop if you haven't already! Also, I have a giveaway up on my shop Instagram right now and I'd love for you all to enter! 

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! 

5 Cheaper Alternatives to Your Favorite High End Makeup

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Today I'm sharing 5 cheaper alternatives to high end makeup. These products I'm about to show are ones I've used for a long time and I think are just as great of quality as high end ones. A few of them I've replaced some high end makeup with that I use to buy all the time, and since I've discovered these ones, I haven't repurchased the high end version! 

L'Oreal Infallablie Pro Spray & Set. This is my favorite setting spray. I used to buy the UD All Nigter spray until I found this one. A lot of drugstore brands have setting sprays now, I've tried the new Maybelline one and I'm not a fan. I did a blog post over a year ago comparing this L'Oreal one to the UD one, where I got technical and compared prices to fl oz, and showed that this one works just as well as UD, but you are getting the most for your money. You can read it here. 

Nyx Micro Brow. This is exactly like the Anastasia Brow Wiz. It's half the price, and if you can get Nyx buy one get one half off at Ulta, then you can get 2 for $15. I have another blog post comparing the two product here. 

Wet n Wild Color Icon Blush I have mine in the shade Rose Champagne. I want a few more of these, and I'm super impressed with the quality of these blushes for how affordable they are. They are just as great as a lot of my high end blushes (and better than some!) and I reach for this one more. 

Elf Contour Palette. This little gem is only $6. I don't actually have any high end contour palettes, but I do have a ton of high end bronzers and I still prefer this elf palette for contouring. Plus is comes with a bronzer, contour, banana shade, and a highlight! 

Maybelline Lipsticks. These are my favorite drugstore lipsticks. I have a ton from different lines, but the creamy mattes are my favorite. You all know I love Mac lipsticks, but these are just as good! 

I definitely plan on doing more posts like this in the future because I love finding affordable options to high end makeup! 

What are your favorite affordable makeup products? 

5 on Friday | Top Favorite Lipliners

Hello!! This post was suppose to go up earlier today but I've been busy busy busy at work! At least it's still early (ish) in the day and it's not going up at night time!

Today I'm sharing my top 5 favorite lipliners. Lip liners are still new to me, and I just started using them a few months ago. Now I can't go without them! Most of these im showing are nudes, because that's all I wear on my lips lol! I would also love to know some of your favorites, or ones you could recommend to me!

The first one is Absolutely It by Mac. I bought this when I still had a fear of lipliners. It looks excellent paired with Mac Twig lipstick, which is why I purchased it!

Next is Nyx Narural. This is a good brown nude and I like to pair it with Mac Hug me, and Maybelline Nude Lust. 

Next is Nyx Nude. This one is more pink toned than Natural, and I perfer this one over Natural. It looks awesome with Maybelline Nude Lust (fav lip combo!), and also with Mac Viva Glam 2 and Faux. These lipliners are the retractable ones, and they are nice but I find them to be very soft and break off on me easily. 

This next one is a sharpable pencil that is Nyx Pale Pink. I like to pair this one with Mac Creme Cup, Snob, and Pure Zen. 

Last one is Urban Decay Naked. I actually got the delux size of this free with a purchase on their website. I didn't use it for so long until I got into lipliners and now I can't believe I didn't use it. This one is a good darker nude, but not as dark as Absolutely It. I love this one paired with Mac Hug Me. 

So this is my top favorite lip liners!! Now tell me in the comments what your favorite ones are! I need some more in my life!!

And next week I will be sharing my top 5 Bronzers!!

Nyx Butter Glosses: Collection, Review, and Swatches!

Hello everyone! A few months so I got sucked into the hype of the Nyx Butter Glosses. I was never really a huge fan of lip glosses other than a few occasional ones, until I tried these. 

I always heard such great things about them so I finally decided to try them out and I'm glad I did because these are all staples in my makeup collection now. 

From left to right- Tiramasu, Madaline, Angel Food Cake, Creme Brûlée, Eclair. 

All of the shades I have are nude/mauve/pinkish colors. I wear these kind of colors on an everyday basis, so naturally these were the colors I was drawn to and picked up.

First picture is taken with a flash, right picture is without. 

It is true that a lot of Nyx Butter Glosses are super similar in color. A few of these that I have I can't tell the difference in them once I get them on my lips.  These are super pigmented right when swatched and applied, but they sheer out a lot after they are blended in. 

Here is the swatched blended in a little bit. You can see that they become a lot more sheer. 

This doesn't really bother me about them, though. I don't mind that they become more sheer when applied to my lips because they still give that nice hint of color and glossy look that's great for everyday. These are also really great to wear overtop of lipsticks as well! The formula is smooth and I think they are a tiny bit sticky sometimes, but nothing bad! 

I do really love these glosses and if I could choose my favorites and most used it would be Tiramasu and Madaline! 

What are your favorite Nyx Buttee Glosses? Let me know in the comments! 

Makeup Haul #15- Self Tanners, Drugstore Makeup, and too much Lipstick

Hello! Yes I realize that I just did a haul post not too long ago, but I'm guilty of being bad again. I'm seriously going to try not to buy any more makeup for the rest of this month! 

Let's start off with things from the Drugstore 

From Ulta I picked up the Nyx Invincible fullest coverage foundation. I have never tired any Nyx foundations before so I thought I would give this one a go (Review coming soon!) The second item is the new The Nudes Palette by Maybelline. I was so so so excited about this! I first heard about it a while ago and I've been searching for it! I found this one at Target! Also, a review on this soon! 

The next items are ones from Walgreens. I picked up two products from Jordana, which is a brand that I've heard about but never tried before. The first one is an eyeshadow stick and the second is a super gorgeous turquoise liner. The next item is a single eyeshadow from wet n wild. Unfortunately I ripped off the label so I don't know what color this is in. 

I picked up quite a few lip products. The first is a Nyx Butter Lipstick in the color Pops Explosif, and next to it is a Nyx Butter Gloss in the color Madeleine. These two pair really well together! The next is a Jordana lip crayon in the color Nude Chic. This is pretty sheer but it does give a nice light berry color, and it smells amazing! The last one is one of the new Crystal Baby Lips. These don't have a name on them, but this is also a sheer wash of color that has shimmer in it. 

High End And Self Tanners

 First I picked up the Lorac Self TANalizer gradual tan and body bronzer. After using a delux size of this, I knew I wanted to splurge and pick up the full size. 

Sorry this picture is crappy but this is the Victoria Secrets Self Tan tinted lotion. This is one that I've heard really get things about and it was on sale for $10! 

Next is two lipsticks. One from Tarte, and one from Bite Beauty. I've always wants to try the bite Besuty lipsticks and this one is a two sided lipstick that was at Sephora for $12. It was in the section where all the delux sizes are by the checkout. Pretty good deal! And obviously these Tarte Lipsticks have super cute packaging! 

The first swatch is of the Tarte lipstick in the color Plummy Rose. The next two are from the Bite Beauty lipstick. The first swatch is in thr color Lychee and the second and darker one is Musk. 

So I realized that basically all of these lipsticks I got are like the same color/shade. LOL fail. But it's ok because that's that color I like to wear the most! 

This concludes my haul post! I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading! 

Makeup Haul #12- Small Drugstore Haul

Happy Monday everyone!

I did some shopping over the weekend at a few different places so I thought I would share the makeup items I picked up!

I got these things from Walmart, Target, and Meijers. 

I was super excited when I went into Meijers and found a display of Nyx products! I have never seen them anywhere but Ulta before. They didn't have a lot, but I have been wanting to try the butter glosses, so I picked one up in the shade tiramisu. 

The mascara is the new Revlon Bold Laquer by Grow Luscious. 

I picked up two Covergirl Foundations. The first one is the True Blend, and I have tried this out and this might be a shade too dark for me. I can't decide yet. 

The second one is the new Ready Set Gorgeous Fresh Complexion. I heard someone on YouTube talk about this and I instantly wanted to try it out. I found mine at Meijers but I have heard it's a walgreens also. At Meijers the display only offered like 4-5 shades. I'm not sure if that's all the make or if it was just the store. I got the lightest shade and it matches my skin really well. 

The next is the Aveeno Positivly Ageless lifting and firming eye cream. I am almost out of the eye cream I'm using, and I have been really loving Aveeno lately so I thought I would try out this eye cream!

That's all for my drugstore haul from over the weekend! I will more than likely be doing a review for all of the products! 

Have you picked up any new drugstore products lately? Share them with me in the comments! 

Beauty Hall #4- Ulta!

Hello!! I have another beauty and makeup haul today to share! An Ulta just recently opened up not too far from where I live, which is super exciting for me especially since I had a 20% coupon! I went to check it out over the weekend and ended up buying some makeup and other things.

That candle totally isn't beauty related but there were randomly some Yankee Candles at Ulta.

The first thing I picked up were some makeup remover wipes. In my last two hauls, I mentioned I was looking for a new makeup remover wipe. I still have not found one that I love yet. I normally use the Neutrogena ones on the right in this picture. I was planning on just picking these up for now, but then I saw these Neutrogena Deep Clean ones. I love the Neutrogena Deep Clean Face Scrub, so I hope I like these as well! If not, then at least I have the other ones as a back up!

The next product I picked up is the Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil bronzer. This is something that I've had my eye on for a while now. Since I have really pale skin, I opted for the Milk Chocolate instead of the original Chocolate Soleil bronzer. When I swatched this, it looked really light but I think it will be perfect for my skin tone. I also picked up the new Benefit Rockateur blush. I love Benefits blushes, and this one is really pretty. It's a soft nude/pink color with a little bit of shimmer. It looks alot shimmery in the box than it does on your skin. 

I really wanted a deep purple/plum eyeliner for fall, so I picked up this Nyx retractable liner in the color deep purple. I have not tried any Nyx liners before but the color is really beautiful. 

Here are some swatches of the Bronzer (top) which looks super light in this picture. The Blush in the middle, and the Nyx liner on bottom.

The candle I got is in the sent called Autumn Wreath. It smells soooo good, kind of like cinnamon and different fall spices. I love love love fall candles so I was super excited to pick this up. 

This is all for this haul post, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!!

Makeup for Wearing Glasses

Hey Everyone! Today's post is going to be on Makeup for wearing glasses. When I wear my glasses, I usually opt for a more neutral and lighter eye look. I think a more natural eye look looks better and more appropriate than brighter, bold, and dark colors. Since you can't really see much makeup behind your glasses, save the fun or bright colors for your cheeks and lips!! 

What I used:

For this look I used the Urban Decay Naked palette. This is one of my all time favorite eyeshadow palettes. To prime my eyes I used the Too-faced shadow insurance and Nyx jumbo pencil in cashmere as my eyeshadow base.

I used Half Baked all over my lid. I used Buck in my crease and blended it out with Smog. I used both Buck and Smog on my lower lash line. I didn't want to draw too much attention to my under eye area since the glasses magnify my eyes, so I did not use an eyeliner on my waterline like I usually do. For my top eyeliner I used L'Oreal carbon black lineur intense liquid eyeliner. For my mascara I used Revlon Lash Potion. I chose this mascara because this one doesn't make my lashes as long as some of my other mascaras do so it's perfect for wearing my glasses. 

I hope you all enjoyed this post and thank you for reading!!