October Favorites!

 First lets start with the best fall candle EVER. Plus look at that cute little squirrel. Go smell it and enjoy.

I'm still really enjoying this Nyx powder since I repurchased it. It's just a great powder with a great finish. It's a tad luminous which really let's this this live up to its name. I use my eco tools kabuki and just press into the powder so I don't kick up a ton of product.

 I use this soap to clean my makeup brushes and it works great. I also have a second bar I use with my spa sonic brush for cleansing when I don't use my philosophy purity.

 This is a product I use when I style my curly hair. It gives it some nice texture and helps everything curl nicely without frizzing up. 

This little gem here is only $3.00. I am a firm believer in using a brush in whatever way it works for you. I use this for blending out my crease or for setting under eye concealer even though it says it's for concealer. I have a couple of them and they have lasted with no shedding. I really recommend these! 

I bought these on a whim on my last Ulta trip and I have to say I really really like them. The packaging is genius to me. Why don't more company's package their loose pigments like this? If you need more you just close it and kind of shake it around a bit. I find when I open it I have plenty of product in the top and it doesn't get all over the place. I use these by packing them on with a flat eco tools eye shadow brush on top of e.l.f glitter glue and it looks great with no fall out. I see more of these coming to my collection. 

I still use this stuff every day. I might be mentioning this a little too frequently, but seriously I need to express my love for this product. It's $7.00 and it's just magical. I use it to moisturize on top of moisturizer or by itself when I'm lazy. I use it mostly for taking away any powdery look after I'm done with my makeup. I can't get enough and this is a holy grail product now.

My second Urban Decay blush and she is a beauty! I have been wearing this blush non-stop. I feel like it is an absolutely perfect color for fall and winter.  

I have been tapping this on over a light grey eye shadow and it really looks beautiful. It has been one of my favorite go to looks lately. The pink reflects make this shadow so pretty! This shade is part of the metamorphosis kit from Colourpop.  

I really enjoy Milani lip glosses. They are nice and moisturizing, just sticky enough to last without feeling goopy, and best of all they are inexpensive. This shade mauve fetish is my newest addition. Even though it has golden shimmer in it it's not gritty at all and they aren't overly obvious on the lips.  

Now I know this isn't exactly revolutionary, but I've been using one of these little masks as a pick me up in the morning. I keep it in my freezer and I love how it feels on my eye area. I paid $1.00 for this at the Dollar Tree and considering it's reusable I'd say that it has been worth every penny. 

I swatched this in Ulta and really liked it. I've been using this pretty regularly. I haven't used the blush yet, but all of the shadows can make for a nice matte or pop of shimmer eye look. I think its a really nice little every day palette. 

The shade and light eye palette is awesome. I bought it awhile back, but I never opened it until this month. Shameful I know. If you want an all matte palette that delivers on blending and pigmentation this is the ticket. The shade Lazarus (top middle shade) is the light greyish color I've been using with the colourpop eyeshadow mentioned above.

Last but not least is this little treasure. I keep this in my pocket at work. The shade is grapefruit. These balms are great. They give a nice hint of color and they feel moisturizing. They aren't greasy feeling at all. 

Thanks for reading lovely Mermaids!

Lorac Mega Pro 2 Swatches

The Lorac Mega Pro 2 is still currently available at Ulta. I have not used this yet since I waited to try it until I took pictures. I will say that some of the shades had a dryer texture to them such as purple, forest, black ivy, and blue quartz. The others were very smooth and soft. Maybe even too soft, which is a complaint some people have about Lorac pro shadows in general. I personally like the formula and know that the other pro palettes work well for me. If you gently pick up the color and tap the excess off of your brush you should be good to go. These are not the type of shadows that you dig your brush into because then you will indeed have a powdery mess. I also wanted to mention that the amount of light shades in this palette can seem discouraging, but in person they all have enough variation to me to make it worth it. The swatches I did and all the ones I looked at prior to purchasing this still do not do this palette justice. If you are on the fence I recommend going to check it out inside Ulta because I really like it even more in person. 

Thanks for looking lovely Mermaids! 

Hard Candy Natural Eyes Palette Review

Over all my review is a good one. This kit from Hard Candy can be found at Walmart. It is still relatively new and many people have pointed out that the packaging is very similar to the style of Too Faced palettes. It is even shown on the back that each row can be divided up into day, evening, or drama just like the Too Faced palettes say you can use each row for a look. I only purchased this one, but there are a few others.  The packaging is a metal tin with a hinge and a magnetic closure. It feels sturdy and I personally don't like to travel with high end make up so a kit like this is ideal. I like the shadows. They blend nicely and lasted throughout the day. They aren't dry and I enjoyed using them. You could go straight across and use each row as an individual trio. The second row might be hard to use on it's own since the first and second colors are pretty similar. The palette over all though has a nice mixture of mattes (4) and shimmer (5). For me personally the darkest brown is enough to darken the outer V or use to smudge on the lower lash line, but others might be disappointed to see a lack of a black shade included in this palette. The eye primer worked well, but keep in mind I have dry skin so oily lids tend not to be a problem for me. It's a tinted primer and will help to cover some eyelid discoloration. The eyeliner smudged out of my waterline and formed that lovely smudgy look on my inner and outer corners... I would recommend keeping it to the upper lash line to avoid disaster. The sponge tip applicator is a perfectly usable tool and to be honest I'm happy to get that versus what could have turned out to be a scratchy little brush. The mirror is not the greatest size compared to how much room the look card takes up, but is usable. The card includes a diagram of the name of each color and a paint by numbers type of diagram for a day, drama, and evening look.  All in all this kit is a nice little bundle for only $8.00 and for the price I think its worth checking out.  

September Favorites!

It's still humid here at the beach, but as "fall" hits I start getting back to my usual makeup self even if it still feels like summer.

 

I have one hair item and it's the new Loreal sleek it frizz vanisher cream. I like using this when I wear my hair curly or straight. It does help to de-frizz my hair, but doesn't prevent my hair from curling back up when it's straightened. If you get too much in your hair it does weigh it down as with most products so be careful. A little goes a long way.

Next I have some brushes to mention. My trusty airbrush buffing foundation brush is still my go to foundation brush. I've decided the next sale at Ulta I'm getting a back up so I always have a clean one.

The second brush is the E8 by Morphe. It's the detailed contour and I've been using this to contour my cheeks with the NYX blush in taupe. I'm still getting the hang of contouring and it's not something I'm totally comfortable with doing. I like this brush because it gives me a nice diffused contour as opposed to what looks like a stripe on my face.

The next item is a repurchase from a few years ago that I really liked then and still enjoy now. The NYX stay matte but not flat powder foundation in the shade Nude. It's really just a great powder. I use it to set my foundation and it does exactly what the name says. It's a creamy powder and it doesn't feel dry and crumbly at all.

For foundation I'm still stuck on the Loreal infallible pro-matte in the shade 102 shell beige. It's just magical and I haven't really enjoyed anything else this much in awhile.

Since I bought it I've been obsessed with the Urban Decay afterglow blush in bittersweet. Purple blush is absolutely my favorite color to wear. I just find that it looks really flattering on me. This takes barely a tap of my brush to get the amount of color payoff I want and it lasts all day. Don't let a bright color scare you!

For eye shadow in September I really have been loving my Lorac unzipped and the unzipped gold palettes. They are great quality and have beautiful shades. I've honestly never made a look with these that I didn't enjoy.

My next favorite is the Maybelline lash sensational mascara. I've been using it all summer and it's just my top mascara of the moment. It gives me the length I want without turning into a clump fest because it's like using a little comb. The best!

The last favorite is Stila kitten eye shadow. It's a cult classic for a reason. THE most beautiful champagne eye shadow ever.