Too Faced Sweet Tea | The Perfect Bronzer for Summer

One of the newest editions to my bronzer collection is the Too Faced Sweet Tea Brozner. After seeing a few reviews from friends, I knew I had to have it. I've mentioned this already in a few past posts, so it's no secret that I like it. Actually, I love it.

This retails for $30. It's part of the 'sweethearts' collection from Too Faced, so not only does it come in adorable heart shaped packaging, but you get two beautiful baked bronzers, and who doesn't want a bronzer called 'Sweet Tea'? I'm completely obsessed with the name of this, and that played a part in me wanting this bronzer (makeup addict problems?). 

Here's photos with the flash off (left) and on (right), and some swatches. The first swatch is of the darker side, and then the lighter side in the middle, and then them mixed together on the right.

This has a very subtle glow, but when it's blending out on the face it doesn't look shimmery, which is nice. You can use the lighter side for a very light highlighter, but I like my highlights to be seen from space so I prefer to just use this as a bronzer. It gives your face a very nice sun kissed look, which is perfect for summer time.   

I think this works very well for both bronzing up your face and contouring. To bronze, I've used just the dark side, and I've mixed the lighter and the dark together and it looks nice either way. To contour I prefer the darker shade.

This bronzer is nicely pigmented, and blends out really nice. I think it's on the warmer side, but doesn't pull orange on my skin. 

Like I said before, I really love this bronzer for many reasons. It's definitely one that I recommend if you were thinking about picking it up. I think this bronzer is perfect for those who aren't super into contouring but like to give their face some color, and for those who like to contour since its versatile and can be used both ways! 

Have you tried the Too Faced Sweet Tea Bronzer? What bronzer is your favorite? 

Currently Testing #2

Hello! Happy Monday!

Back in April I did a blog post called 'Currently Testing' where I showed some new products that I was trying out, so you guys could see which reviews to expect in the future on my blog! I wanted to do another one, because I am testing out some new things! I think I had more to share in April, but I still wanted to do this post because a few of the items in this post are ones that I'm pretty excited about. 

-Shea Moisture Problem Skin Toner. My target was out of my favorite Burts Bees acne solution toner and I was super bummed. I was desperate so I decided to give this one from Shea Moisture a try. It's for 'clear and balaced, blenished, oily skin' and it also has tea tree in it, which I've had good luck with. I'm undecided how I feel about this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. 

-Origins By All Greens Foaming Deep Cleansing mask. I got this as a free delux sample from one of Sephora's mobile offers. So far, I really like this. 

-Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion. I found this in the travel section on the beauty isle in target, and bought this for when I went out of town over Memorial Day weekend. I normally wouldn't share something like this, but I think I've found my new favorite hand lotion!

-Strobe Cosmetics Eyeshadows. I shared a few pictures of these and an eye look I did using one of them on my Instagram and snapchat. You'll see more on these later in a review! This company was one I never heard of until I saw swatched on Trendmood's Instagram and my brain went into total impulse buy mode. I regret nothing. 

Too Faced Sweet Tea Bronzer. After seeing Tanya and Kim's review for this, I had to have it. I've been testing it out for bronzing and contouring, which is exciting because it's been a while since I've bought a new bronzer. So far I really like this (spoiler alert!) and I will have a full review on it very soon!

What products are you currently testing?

Beauty Haul | Recent Purchases

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend. 

I usually film my haul videos, but I'm doing this one is a post today because it's just a few things I've picked up over the past two weeks or so. Some of them are repurchases or I've already shared them on Instagram, so I figured I didn't need to film this. Aka, I might just be lazy. 

Too Faced Sweet Tea Bronzer. After seeing Tanya and Kim's review for this, I knew I had to have it. This is part of their sweetheart collection so it comes in a cute little heart packaging. This just came to my house today so I can't wait to try it. 

Kat Von D Lock it Tattoo Foundation. I ran out of mine and my skin is having break out issues again, I wanted my favorite full coverage foundation. 

I used my Sephora points to get a sample of the Dr Brandt PoresDermabrasion scrub. I already have a sample of this, but I'm really liking Dr Brandt scrubs so I figured I'd get another since it was offered for 100 pts.

Sephora had some promotions online, and some skin care items were included, so I chose the Origins By All Greens foaming deep cleansing mask. I haven't tried much from Origins but this sounded interesting to me. It's a decent size too for a sample. I'll be trying this soon!

Anastasia Glow Kit. I shared this in my post on Friday and a lot of you wanted a review for it. I'll have the review up next week! This is amazing though!

Elf Blush and Contour duo. I had one of these years ago and didn't care much for it. I picked up a new one in different shade than I had, mainly because I was curious to see if the formula is different now that they've improved their quality! 

UD Naked Skin Foundation. Another one of my favorite foundations that I've been meaning to repurchase. 

Maybelline Lipstick in Nude Thrill. I saw a display of these, and I wasn't sure if they were a new collection! I haven't seen these blue packaging on maybelline lipsticks before. I chose a nude shade, because well, that's mostly all I wear. 

Me! Bath Pomegranate Bath Bombs. I found these at target. I was curious as to how they compared to Lush bath bombs since you get 6 of them for $10. 

Shea Moisture peace rose oil complex face moisturizer for sensitive skin. Since I've liked a lot of the Shea Moisture products I've tried and I'm into natural/organic skin care I've been wanting to try some of their skin care products. I needed a new moisturizer, and since my skin is sensitive and I love things with rose in them, I chose this one. 

I'll definitely be doing reviews for a lot of these products, but if there's anything you guys specifically want a review on then let me know! 

High End Palettes | Worth the Money

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend. I first wanted to thank you all for your kind comments and enjoying on my last post, Creating Balance! I was actually kind of nervous to post it because I know some people have strong opinions on fitness, healthy eating, or just a healthy lifestyle in general. I'm so glad you guys liked that post, shared some of your stories with me, and felt the same as I did! That means a lot to me and makes me want to keep doing posts like that!

So for today's post I'm going to share the high end palettes that I own that I personally think are worth the money/hype. I posted a video not long ago on my favorite drugstore products and wanted to do a highend one too, but I thought I would break up these ones into categories and share which ones I love and think are worth buying. I might do some posts on high end makeup that I think is not worth the money or hype as well, if you guys would like me to!

Also please keep in mind through these posts that these are just my opinions and personal favorite. I understand not everyone loves the same makeup/palettes! But I do hope this helps if anyone was thinking of buying these!

Urban Decay Naked Palette (original)

This was the first highend palette that I bought, so I will always love it. Out of all of the naked palettes I own, this will always be my favorite and if I had to recommend one out of all of them, this would be it. 

All of them are great of course, and both the naked basics palettes are worth checking out too. 

Lorac Pro Palette (original)

This is the only Lorac pro palette I have and its amazing quality. I love how this palette has just as much shimmers as it does matte shades because not many palettes offer that. The pro 2 never appealed to me as much but I have considered purchasing it since I love this one so much. I do want the pro to go and one of the pro all matte palettes (I can't remember the name!). 

Too Faced Semi Sweet Chocoalte Bar Palette 

This is another one of my most used and all time favorites. I don't have the original Chocoalte bar or the Bon Bon one to compare it to, but those ones are gorgeous as well. I love the semi sweet palette because the colors are so warmed toned and warm toned shadows are my favorite. The quality of these is just as amazing as UD and Lorac. 

Tartelette Palettes 

I know I just purchased the in bloom, and oh gosh is it beautiful, but I couldn't mention just the original because I love them both. I haven't been too impressed with Tarte's other shadow palettes, but something about these is amazing. I'm not going to say much more because I kind of want to do a video comparing the two palettes. 

Sauce Box Creme de la Creme Palette 

I very rarely hear anyone talk about Sauce Box so I wanted to mention this palette because he quality of these shadows is so freaking amazing. I don't know why I don't hear anyone talk about these more! They have a verity of palettes, and I definitely want more, but the one I have is the Creme de la Cream palette. It's a great neutral palette, and the size of the shadow are huge. I've had this for 3-4 years and have barely put a dent into any of them. The pigmentation is great and they are super buttery just like UD or Lorac shadows. This is actually the palette I used on my wedding day when I did my makeup! 

So these are the palettes that I've chosen out of my collection that I think are most worth the money. I cannot recommend any of them enough! 

What are your favorite highend palettes? Which makeup category would you like to see next for high end ones worth the money or hype? 

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!

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??

Beauty Swap with Becky from Star-Violet!

Hello beautiful people! I'm super excited about this post today because my friend Becky  from Star-Violet and I did a beauty swap! This was super fun because we decided to trade some products that we didn't use much or want anymore. 

This was my first beauty swap so I was so happy to get my package in the mail! It really made my day since it came to me on a week that I was super sick and feeling so blah! I was in such awe at all the products she sent me and at her generosity. Thank you so much again Becky, and everyone go check out her blog too! She's an amazing makeup artist! 

I had to laugh because she wrote and note on the inside of the box that said 'excuse the condition of this box' because she reused it and I did the same with the box I sent her LOL! I scribbled with a sharpie over all the logos from where the box came so we had the same idea haha!

I totally forgot to include this in the picture above! But it's an Urban Decay Nail polish and look at the skull on the top!! I'm obsessed. It's such a pretty dark purple shade! I usually only wear dark nail polish so this is perfect. 

Next is the Too Faced a la mode palette, which you saw from my previous post on a spring makeup look. This is seriously so  gorgeous and I was shocked when I saw this in the box!

Next is the UD Shattered Face palette. This is cool because it has shadows and blushes in it! 

This is a blush by Illamasqua. It's such a pretty color and have been wearing it everyday! I haven't tried anything by this brand before so I was excited about this one. 

Next is the UD chill makeup setting spray. I've tried the other sprays from UD but not this one so I can't wait to test it out. Next to it is Mac velvet teddy which I have wanted for forever. I couldn't get good lighting so it looks kind of peachy color here lol!

Last is a bunch of UD eye pencils, which are amazing. Look how pretty the top dark teal color is!

Once again, thank you Becky for all these amazing goodies! I totally want to send you another box of stuff because you sent me so much!!

Thank you all for reading!!

Spring Eye Look | Too Faced à la mode palette

Hello!! 

Last week my awesome friend Becky sent me a package in the mail of a ton of makeup goodies (post coming soon!!) and in the package was the Too Faced à la mode palette. I was so excited because it's such a gorgeous palette and the colors in it are so fun for spring/summer!

 I'm starting to play around with color more and break out of my neutral shell so I'm going to share an eye look I created with this palette! 

I used the 2nd color on the top row called Cannes in my crease and blended it up to my brow bone. I used the 2nd color in the 2nd row called Jardin on the inner half of my lid, and the color underneath it on the bottom row called Monaco on the outter half of my lid and a little in the crease. I used the last color on the booth called De La Mer along my lower lash line. 

I'm so in love with the palette and can't believe how gorgeous it is! I knew right away I wanted to use the hot pink color and use it to make some spring and summer eye looks!

I hope you guys enjoyed this makeup look and thanks for reading!!

Too Faced Semi Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette

Hi :)

If you all follow me on Instagram then you might have noticed some pictures I posted of the Too Faced Semi Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette!

I definitely did not need another eyeshadow palette, let alone another neutral one, but when I saw this I couldn't help myself. So thanks to the Sephora gift card that hubby got me from xmas, I could justify getting it a little more than if i was to buy it myself (excuse the excuses). 

I never picked up the original Chocolate Bar palette from too faced, because for some reason it just didn't appeal to me. I didn't care for the packaging or the colors, etc. but this new one has a lot warmer toned colors and I just thought it was gorgeous. Plus it smells like Chocoalte, what else is better than that??

This can be found at Sephora, Ulta, and TooFaced.com. It retails for $49. 

Here's the packaging and photos of the palette with the flash on/off. My silly self forgot to take a picture of the packaging while closed but I'm sure you have all seen this before so it's okay. Ha ha. 

You get a nice mixture of matte and shimmer shades. I love how many matte colors are in this palette, they make for such good blending and transition colors. You also get two highlight shades, and that gorgeous teal color that I've been dying to play with.  The packaging is a metal case that has a magnetic closure. 

Here's swatches for the top, middle, and bottom row. They don't look super pigmented when swatched but they go on the eyes much better!

Here's a look I did with the palette using 3 or 4 different shades. 

I've tried out different colors and shades but for some reason all my looks end up looking super similar. So my plan to post a few looks in this post has sort of failed haha! 

My overall thoughts 

-I am completely obsessed with this palette. It's all I've been using and every time I walk by it, I have to open it and smell the chocolatey heaven ness. 

-The colors are beautiful and great for everyday. 

-I love how the names of the colors are printed under the shadow, and they have chocolatey names.

-They are a little bit harder to blend out than some shadows I have (ex. Urban decay naked palettes), but if you have a good brush and patience then it will work. 

-It does have some fall out, which is kind of annoying but that's really the only bad thing I have to say about this. 

-I really recommend this one if you were thinking about getting it!

Here's one last picture of the look I did! And I will have some more looks with this posted very soon! 

Have you guys picked up this palette, or the original chocolate bar palette? Which one do you prefer? Leave your thoughts on them in the comments! 

Top 14 of 2014! Makeup Favorites

Hello beautiful people!

 I didn't do a monthly favorites post for December because I wanted to do a post that included my favorites for the entire year. I picked some of the things that I purchased in 2014 that were my favorites and that I used the most. This post is going up a little bit later than I wanted it to, and thats mainly because I used my new camera I got for Christmas to take the photos, and I'm super lazy when it comes to actually blogging from my computer (I'm so lazy that I take the photos and blog from my phone >.<). Also, I know that pretty much every blogger and youtuber has done posts and videos on this already, so sorry if you are tired of seeing the 'best of beauty' posts lol!

Top 14 of 2014

My two favorite foundations that I purchased this year are the Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation, and the Covergirl Ready set Gorgeous Foundation. I love both of these a lot, and I really recommend checking out both of them if you are in need of a new foundation! The Covergirl one is definitely my most used one out of all the foundations that I own. 

Two of my other favorites this year came from Hourglass. The Ambient Lighting Palette and the Ambient Lighting Blush in Mood Exposure are two of my most used makeup items. I use the palette everyday and the blush is one of my favorites that I own. Silly me forgot to take a picture of them other than the packaging. Lol fail. 

The next two come from Nars. You all know I'm a huge fan of their cheek products! The first one is the Nars Laguna Bronzer. This is my all time favorite bronzer. I just purchased the full size a month or so ago because I used up the one I had that came with the blush duo. The next item is the Nars Almeria blush. I'm so obsessed with this blush its not even funny. It's such a unique color and I can't get enough of it.

These are my four favorite palettes I purchased this year. The first one is the UD Naked2 Basics palette. It's a great neutral palette for everyday wear. I used this one almost everyday and it's great if you are a fan of the Naked eyeshadow line like I am. 

Next is the Makeup Forever Artist shadows. These are the ones that you choose which colors go into your empty palette. These are super nice and really great quality!

The Too Faced Cat Eyes palette was another favorite of mine this year. The colors in it are gorgeous and I'm seriously in love with the Cheetah print packaging. 

Last for eyeshadows is the Maybelline The Nudes Palette. This is by far the best drugstore eyeshadow that I own. I love this palette so much and its another one I used on an everyday basis!

My two favorite and most used lipsticks are Mac Faux (left) and Mac Viva Glam 2 (right). They look similar here but Faux is more pink toned, and Viva Glam 2 is more brown/nude.

My favorite scent was Gucci Guilty. This stuff smells like heaven! If you haven't smelled this before, please go do so! It's amazing!

The last for my favorites this year is my set of Sigma Brushes. I believe I bought these last March. It was a set of 7 brushes on promotion for Jaclyn Hill on YouTube. I'm very sorry these are gross and dirty, but I use these everyday and they are amazing. I did have my F80 fall apart on me and Sigma was kind enough to send me a new one! 

This concluded my favorite post for 2014!! Thank you all for reading!

What are some of your favorites for 2014? Let me know in the comments!

Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette- Review + Swatches!

Hi :) 

Today I'm going to be reviewing the Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette. I think things palette is pretty new, and was released with two other palettes (rock n roll and country palettes) all of which are gorgeous. I was more drawn to the Cat Eyes palette because let's face it, I am a crazy cat lady. 

I debated on this palette for a while because I have two other Too Faced palettes that I rarely use and was not super impressed with, but after hearing such great things about the chocolate bar palette, I thought maybe their newer palettes were better quality and maybe reformulated? I don't know, if anyone does let me know!! 

This palette retails for $36, and you can purchase this palette from Too Faced's website here.

The packing is amazing. I love the cheetah print! The case is a tin that has a magnetic closure. I love this better than their old palette, which were in a cardboard case. This is also less bulky than the old ones. 

I seriously just can't get over how gorgeous this palette is. And the names of the shadows are all cat related! More on the names later when I show swatches. 

Top row in the palette. From left to right- •Purr- a lightly frosted champagne color. This looks a lot brighter/white in the picture than it does in person. Silly camera flash. 

•Tiger's Eye- a satin bronze color (and my favorite in the palette!). 

•Leopard- a deeper bronze color with small flecks of glitter/shimmer.

Second row in palette. From left to right-

•Meow- a neutral matte skin tonedcolor. This looks a lot brighter in the picture as well. 

•Pussy Cat- a bright fuchsia color with slight shimmer. One of the shades that made me want this palette so much!

•Jungle Love- a deep plum color with flecks of glitter. 

Last row in the palette. From left to right-

•Kitten- a frosted light pink color. 

•Kitty Glitter- a frosted light blueish silver. 

•Panther- dark matte black. 

The cool thing about this palette is that all the end colors (leopard, jungle love, and Panther) can be used as a wet/dry shadow or liner. 

My thoughts on this palette

-I am absolutely in love with this palette. I feel like I haven't really loved a palette that I have bought in a while. There's been a lot that I have liked and thought were great, but this one is amazing and it is just so stunning I can't get over it. 

-The pigmentation is reall great on these too, and they blend really well. 

-I have been using the top row with the neutral colors almost everyday since I got it. They make for a beautiful everyday eye look. 

-The purples in the second row is what really had me drawn to this palette. I don't own anything like those two shades. I do however think that the fuchsia color needs a really good base to make or stand out like to does in the palette.

-I acutually have not tried out the colors in the bottom row yet sadly. I do like black shadows, but I don't use blue that often. 

-I totally think the wet/dry shadows work really well with a wet brush. It makes them pop and I think they would make for great liners as well!

-This was totally worth the money and I know it's going to be a long time favorite of mine! Plus, the cat names are amazing too! 

I will have a seperate post up soon wit some eye looks I created with this! 

Have you tried the Cat Eyes palette before? If so leave your thoughts!

May Ipsy Bag 2014

It's Ipsy bag time! 

This months theme was 'Fresh Picks'. I think this was geared towards spring and getting ready for summer and warmer weather. 

So what did I get? 

I actually like the bag this month. I just wish it didn't say ipsy all over it. I love the leaves and earthy colors/details. 

This is the Pacifica mineral eyeshadow duo. This looks almost exactly like the Stila All Over Shimmer Duo, which I already own. I didn't include swatches, but the pigmentation for the bronze shade is great, but the pink side is a little light and chalky. I will probably use this for a highlight rather than an eyeshadow. I was excited about this because I haven't got anything like this before in an ipsy bag!

The next is a mini delux sample of the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil bronzer. I own the full size of the milk chocolate one, but I always wondered if I would like the original one better! I'm excited to try this out with out buying the full size. 

This is the Eva NYC Therapy Session Hair Mask. I don't really use hair masks (even though I really should). I hope I try this one out though! 

This is sunscreen by the brand Hang Ten. It's called Classic Sport SPF 50. This is a nice travel size sunscreen that I can take with me easily. I usually hate sunscreens but this one doesn't smell too strong of SPF and it's not greasy at all. It actually has a slight coconut/tropical scent to it. 

This is the Avene Thermal Spring Water Spray. I don't really understand what this is exactly. The description says it's a pure spring water mist that benefits sensitive skin by reducing redness, itchiness, and inflammation. I have never used anything like this before and I'm somewhat skeptical. 

Overall this bag was decent because of the bronzer and shadow duo! 

What did you get in your ipsy bag tis month? Let me know in the comments!