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? 

Drugstore Favorites

Hi :)

I've been meaning to do an updated drugstore favorites. I didn't want to do a top five or ten like I have in the past, so today I'm sharing all of my favorites from the drugstore. It's hard to narrow down favorites and these are all things that I love just as much as my high end makeup so I wanted to include everything.  This video is pretty long, so I'm sorry about that! 

Here's some of the products, but I share a ton more in the video!

I hope you enjoy watching, and props of you actually watched the whole thing lol!!

What are some of your drugstore favorites? 

Maybelline Master Contour Palette

Hi :)

I was super excited to get my hands on one of the Maybelline Master Contour palettes. I saw them a while ago on Instagram, but then wasn't going to pick one up but then decided to when I saw them in the drugstore. I'm indecisive, I know. But I'm so glad I did pick one up because (spoiler alert) this thing is freaking amazing. And this coming from someone who is rarely impressed by drugstore bronzers and blushes. 

I think this is about $12.99, which is the price I'm seeing when I google this online. I can't remember how much I paid for it at Walgreens. 

The Maybelline Master Contour palettes come with a bronzer, blush, and highlight. They come in two different shade ranges- light to medium and medium to deep. The one I picked up is for medium to deep skin tones. The reason I chose that one is because this one is warm toned and warmed toned bronzers tend to work better for my skin than the cool toned ashy ones. The one for light to medium also has a cooler toned blush.

The palette also comes with a little brush. At first I was going to toss this because it's obviously not big enough for the bronzer or blush. I tried it for highlighting and it worked out pretty well for that!

My Thoughts

-I already mentioned that I really like this palette. The bronzer and blush are both nice shades, and the highlight is gorgoues. 

-The blush and bronzer both blend out nicely. The color pay off is nice and the blush isn't overly pigmented so you don't end up with crazy clown cheeks. 

-The bronzer is a tiny bit orange, but since it blends out so well it's manageable. 

-The blush reminds me a lot of Nars deep throat, which is slightly more peach toned that Nars Orgasm blush. 

-The highlight gives a beautiful glow without being too shimmery. 

The blush and highlight in the light to medium palette were very pretty as well, and it makes me want to pick up that one too since I really like this palette. I'd be curious to try the bronzer in that one, even though I have better luck with warm toned bronzers. 

Have you tried out this Maybelline Master Contour Palette yet? If so, leave your thoughts on it in the comments! 

Drugstore Makeup Haul

I'm going crazy over all of the new makeup that's out at the drugstore! I'm super excited because I feel like it's been quite a while since the drugstore came out with some new goodies, and a ton at once!

I tried not to go too crazy at Wallgreens, but I did pick up a few items to share in a haul. There is definitely more I want to pick up later, which I'll talk about at the end of this post. 

From Maybelline I picked up the Master Fix Setting Spray. I'm always curious to see how drugstore setting spray compare to highend ones. I love the Loreal one so I wanted to see if this one was any good. I also picked up the Maybelline Master Contour Palette. I've been looking for this for a while, and then I wasn't going to get it because Rimmel came out with one too that o wanted instead. I couldn't find the Rimmel one so I decided why the heck not on the Maybelline one. I'm a sucker for face palettes anyways. 

These Covergirl Trunaked palettes are ones that I've been trying to get my hands on for a while. I chose the 'goldens' palette, but all three of them are gorgeous. It says 'shades like a leading $50 eyeshadow palette'. Those are some big claims, Covergirl!

Last are two things from Wet n Wild. I'm pretty sure their Color icon blushes just got new packaging, but I picked up the shade Rose Champagne. I also picked up a Velvet Matte Lip Crayon in the shade Hickory Smoked. I haven't tried any wet n wild lip products before so I was excited about this, until I opened it up and the color looks nothing like the color on the packaging does. I was kind of disappointed in that, and I dont really like the shade it is. I'm going to play around with different lip liners and see if I can make it work. 

You guys can expect reviews for all of these products, except maybe the wet n wild lip stick! I've already uses a few these that I picked up so I'll probably have reviews up next week some time!!

There is still tons of things I want to pick up fron all of these new drugstore goodies. Wet n wild has new shadow palettes out too, which I almost got but I'll wait till next time. Milani also has new palettes that look gorgeous but I can't find Milani in my town so I'll have to wait for those! Loreal has new single shadows that look gorgoues, and they also have contour/highlight palettes. As I mentioned before, I really want to find the Rimmel bronzer, blush, and highlight palettes because they look gorgoues. And Revlon has a new compact foundation that looks interesting but it's a little expensive. 

Have you picked up any thing new from the drugstore lately? 

Maybelline Dream Velvet Soft-Matte Hydrating Foundation Review

Hello!!! Have you guys seen all of the new stuff out at the drugstores right now?? I'm going crazy with wanting to buy everything. There's so many new goodies out, including this new foundation I'm about to review! 

I get pretty excited when I see new foundations out at the drugstore. I want to try them all! I saw this new Maybelline Dream Velvet Soft Matte Hydrating Foundation at Target and I've been trying it out for a few weeks and I'm ready to share my thoughts!

I sware when I bought this at Target it was $8.99 but now looking online, it seems to be $10.99 everywhere. I like how the packaging is a squeeze tube, but it's hard to see what color it is since the bottle isn't clear and drugstore usually don't have testers.  The shade I picked was okay, but maybe a tiny bit too dark for me. This was the second lightest shade and I'm always afraid the lightest will be too light. 

This foundation is getting a lot of excitement because it's suppose to be both matte and hydrating which I don't think is offered in a lot of foundations. For someone with oily skin but gets a little dry during winter time, this foundation sounds like a dream right?

About this foundation 

From Maybelline's website

Maybelline’s first hydrating matte foundation for 100% velvet-smooth perfection. Unique gel-whipped formula
Ideal for normal to combination skin, medium coverage.

Why You'll Love It

This refreshing gel-whipped foundation leaves complexion perfected and smooth with a velvety, soft-matte finish while skin stays hydrated for 12 hours.

For Best Results

Apply Maybelline Dream Velvet™ Foundation using Maybelline Dream Blender.

I personally haven't tried it with the Maybelline dream blender that the description is recommends to use it with. It didn't look appealing to me but I did however try it with my beauty blender. I found the best way for me to apply this is using my Sigma F80 flat top kabuki, and applying two coats. 

The formula is thick. It blends out okay. I definitely do not agree with their 12 hour claims. I don't find this foundation long lasting at all- even with a primer, setting powder, and setting spray. The coverage is medium like it claims, but I didn't find it covered much redness or blemishes on my skin. I've found that most of the 'dream' line from Maybelline foundations have broke my skin out in the past, but I've heard that removed the ingredient that was in there for this foundation. I did have some breakouts on my face while using this so I'm not sure if this was that cause. 

Bottom line, this is just can okay foundation for me. I wouldn't repurchase it, and I'm not sure how much I'll reach for it. I'm pretty sure I paid $8.99 for it like I said, but I don't think it's worth the $10.99 that in finding it online for. 

Have you tried out this new Maybelline Dream Velvet Foundation? If so, let me know your thoughts on it in the comments!

Birthday Haul + Video

Hello! I hope you all had a great fourth of july weekend!

I wanted to say thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday last week and a special thank you to my good friend Pilar who sent me a birthday card in the mail! It really made my day when I received the card in the mail, it was so kind and thoughtful of her to send me one and remember that it was my birthday!

So today I have a birthday haul to share and I also filmed a video for this too! These are all the goodies I got or bought for my birthday and I was super excited because I have not been shopping like this in forever!

I didn't show these in the video because I had filmed it beforehand, but my awesome best friend Hannah got me these candles from an etsy shop that's inspired my books. The first one is butterbeer and the second one is called hobbiton. I am freaking obsessed. They smell so amazing and these candles are the way to a book lovers heart. 

My husbands mom got me a gift card for bath and body works and I was super excited because I have been wanting summer candles since spring time and I haven't been able to get any. It was their semi annual sale so I got some hand soaps too. The soaps are boring so if you want to see what ones then are, then they are named off in my video. For candles I got (left to right) Costal Sun, Mango Dragon Fruit, Honolulu Sun, and Guava Colada. 

Hubby got me a Polaroid camera. I was way excited about this, I've been wanting one for forever. 

Here's the goodies I picked up from Sephora and Mac. I got the Makeup Forever Mat Velvet+ foundation, Stila stay all day bronzer, Mac Pro Longwear Concealer, the sephora birthday gift which is two Nars lip crayons, Mac lip liner in Morning Coffee and Tarte Park ave Princess Lip Stick. I also got two Nyx Micro Brow Pencils but I forgot to include them. 

From the drugstore I picked up a new Loreal Lineur Intense Liquid Liner and Loreal Miss Manga Mascara. I also got the new Maybelline Better Skin foundation and concealer which I will have a review for very soon!

That's all for my haul, and I hope you enjoy the video! If I seem a little off in there it's because I was way tired. Iliterally woke up, did my makeup and started filming lol!

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!!

FOTD | All Drugstore

Hello! Today I'm going to share a FOTD post using all drugstore products. This was such easy and affordable so it's something everyone can do! 

For my face 

Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeoues Foundation and Concealor, Rimmel Stay Matte powder, Milani baked blush in Dolce Pink, Elf blush/bronzer duo from the Snow White collection, Physicaisn Formula Shimmer Strip in Warm Nude. 

On my lips I have Nude Lust from Maybelline the buffs collection. 

For my eyes 

For my eye base I used Maybelline Color Tattoo in Audacious Asphalt and Maybelline The Smokes Palette for my eyeshadow. For my liners I use Loreal Lineur Intense Carbon Black and Silkissime pencil liner. For mascara I usd Maybelline Lash Sensational. 

I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading! 

What are your favorite drugstore products to wear everyday?