Get Ready With Me! An Average Morning...

Today I'm sharing what I do on an average morning for makeup.  This 10-minute look is pretty typical for me.  Hope you enjoy!

Products Used:  (ps, sorry it's so Mac heavy!  didn't mean that...)
Clarins Bright+ Brightening Hydrating Lotion ($62) (given to me as a gift by my sister)
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden ($20)
Mac Paint Pot in Nubile (limited edition)
Mac Eyeshadows in All That Glitters and Moleskin (limited edition) ($15)
Sigma E55 Eye Shading Brush  ($12)
Mac 224 Tapered Blending Brush ($32)
Makeup Geek Eyeshadow in Taupe Notch ($6)
Mac 217 Blending Brush ($24)
Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack ($16)
Sigma E05 Eye Liner Brush ($12)
Mac Haute & Naughty Too Black Lash Mascara ($21)
Beauty Blender ($20)
Loreal True Match Lumi Foundation ($13)
Mac Mineralize Concealer ($20)
Anastasia Brow Wiz ($21)
Soleil Tan de Chanel Bronzing Makeup Base ($48)
NARS Blush in Sin ($29)
Sigma F40 Large Angled Contour Brush ($19)
The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer ($24)
Sigma F05 Small Contour Brush ($18)
Soap & Glory A Great Kisser Lip Balm in Peppermint ($10)

As always, everything in this post is my honest personal opinion.  No affiliate links were used.  I have not accepted any consideration for sharing these items with you.  Unless indicated otherwise, all products were purchased by me with my own money.

Face of the Day: Red Lips!

I decided to rock some nice red lips today!  I'm getting SO excited for the holidays with my little one here this year, I couldn't resist being a little festive with my makeup today!

Products Used:

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden layered with Mac Paint Pot in Soft Ochre.  (Not pictured.  Individually, each of these crease on me, but layered they don't.)

Mac Eyeshadow in All that Glitters. (Placed on the lid)

Makeup Geek Eyeshadows in Creme Brulee and Frappe.  (Blended into the crease.  These shadows are AWESOME.)

Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack.  (As of right now, this is my HG eyeliner.)

Mac Haute & Naughty Too Black Lash.  (I have been liking this a lot more than I originally thought I would!  I layer using the volume wand first and then the length wand.)

Loreal True Match Magic Lumi Foundation.  (Very similar to one of my favorites, Neutrogena Healthy Skin, but this is a better winter shade for me.)

Mac Mineralize Concealer.  (My shade is NW20.  I love this because it doesn't settle in my fine lines.)

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light.  (This is barely yellow and helps hide any redness and blurs pores.  It's SO good!)

Anastasia Brow Wiz.  (I use Caramel to lightly define my brows and fill in bare spots.)
 

Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer in Milk Chocolate/Light/Medium (Great for my skin tone in winter...not too dark and not too orange.  Plus it smells SO good!)

Mac Blush in Melba  (Perfect go-to peachy pink color that will be flattering on most skin tones.)

Dior Amber Diamond (Used as a cheek highlighter.  Beyond amazing!!!  Worth every penny!)

Bite Beauty Lipstick in VIB Rouge Red :)  (This came in the little package Sephora gave me when I made VIB Rouge!  It's just a very flattering bright red.)

Hope you enjoyed :)

As always, everything in this post is my honest personal opinion.  No affiliate links were used.  I have not accepted any consideration for sharing these items with you.  Unless indicated otherwise, all products were purchased by me with my own money.

Ulta Haul!

As promised, here are the items I picked up during Ulta's 20% off sale!  I actually didn't go too crazy at Ulta, as I am trying to save most of my purchasing for Sephora's VIB sale (details here) to try to make VIB Rouge by year-end :)

The one item I skipped was the Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Styling Heat Protect Spray ($23).  I do use this regularly when I curl my hair with a curling iron, and I love it, but I have a few other heat sprays that I need to use up, so I couldn't justify the purchase right now.  (Plus, I didn't realize that Sephora sells this, too, so I would rather get it there anyway!)

More details on what I grabbed below!




Mally Beauty Volumizing Mascara ($20)
As I mentioned in my wish list post, I saw this on QVC one night and have been dying to try it.  I'm a total sucker for a new mascara, so this was my must-have item.  I can't wait to give it a shot!

Loreal Voluminous Full Definition Mascara ($7.99)
When I placed my order, Loreal products were B1G1 50% off, so I decided to grab this.  Tiffany D claims it's the closest drugstore mascara to the Armani Eyes to Kill Mascara, which I haven't splurged on (cough*yet*cough), so I just had to add it to my cart.

Prestige My Biggest Lashes Mascara ($6.99)
Yes, another mascara!  Like I said, I'm a total sucker!  I loved Prestige My Blackest Lashes, but I prefer lengthening formulas, so I figured I'd try this one out next time around.

OPI All I Want for Christmas (is OPI) ($9)
So as I mentioned in my video, when I took this out of the box, I realized it looked an awful lot like OPI's I Got the Blues for Red and other shades just like it that I already own.  The swatches I had seen online made this polish look warmer toned than the polishes I already have, which is why I grabbed it.  However...as promised in my haul video...here it is swatched with other shades:

I can't even make this up.  These 4 polishes are identical.  Like, not even similar...identical.  Oops.  (Click for a larger image, but L-R, it's OPI All I Want for Christmas (is OPI), OPI I Got the Blues for Red, China Glaze Adventure Red-y, and Sephora Formula X Ignite).  So yeah, All I Want for Christmas is getting returned!

Essie Toggle to the Top ($8)
The swatch of this in Polishaholic's post on the Essie winter collection made this shade look incredible, so I grabbed it.  I don't have any sparkly or glittery holiday reds in my collection, either, so now I do :)

Jane Cosmetics Water Resistant Eye Liner in Black ($6, but on sale for $4 right now!)
After filming my haul video, I gave this liner a run for its money.  It actually did stay on my waterline ALL DAY.  I think I may have actually found my Holy Grail liner for my waterline.  This stayed better than anything else I've ever tried by far.  It's super black, transfers so easily, and hello...it's $6!  I have to give a huge thanks to Tati/Glam Life Guru for mentioning this one!!

Loreal Colour Riche Caresse Aqua Lacquer Lip Stain in Endless Red ($9.99)  This was the other half of my B1G1 Loreal purchase.  I grabbed it on a total whim, since I don't wear bold lips that often.  However, I've been really feeling red for the holidays this year.  This is also supposed to be a drugstore version of the YSL Glossy Stains, which I've been dying to try.  For 1/3 the price of the Glossy Stains, though, I figured I should start small and try this one instead.  Happy to report that I LOVE the red color, and it lasted me about 3 or 4 hours before I had to reapply.  I purposely brushed my teeth with it on (it was still perfect afterward) and drank a latte.  It was a little worn off after the latte, but I went another 2-ish hours without needing to reapply.  I'm a big fan!  (As promised in the video, here is a great post comparing the YSL and the Loreal stains!)

That's it!  Please let me know what you picked up during the sale in the comments!  I'd love to hear what you're going to try out :)

As always, everything in this post is my honest personal opinion.  No affiliate links were used.  I have not accepted any consideration for sharing these items with you.  Unless indicated otherwise, all products were purchased by me with my own money.

October Favorites!

Happy end of October!!  Such a cliche - but I seriously cannot believe how fast this month went.  September and October flew by for me.  I blame it on being so excited to share Halloween and the upcoming holidays with my favorite little girl :)  (My little one is going to be 8 months old this week.  How did that happen??)

The end of October also marks a first for me...my first YouTube video to share with my readers!  I love watching monthly favorites videos, so I figured now would be a great time to take the plunge and film one.  Besides, it's way better to see a product than to just read about it.

And onto the beauty products I've given a lot of love this month!





Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation ($12.99 at Ulta)
Love this for the great natural glow it gives your skin.  I have oily skin, but this still does great things for me.

Makeup Forever Mat Velvet+ Foundation ($36 at Sephora)
This really does stay matte on me most of the day, plus the color match (I am shade 30) is spot on.  It gives a good medium coverage but can be built up.

Beauty Blender ($19.95 at Sephora)
A ridiculously expensive makeup sponge, but I've found nothing that beats it.  When you use it damp, it applies any foundation flawlessly and keeps it looking so natural.  I've been using mine basically every day this month.

Mac Prolongwear Paint Pot in Soft Ochre ($20 on Mac's website, but I found mine at a CCO!)
This is more yellow than the cult-classic shade Painterly.  It's the same shade as Urban Decay's Primer Potion in Eden, which really works well with my skin tone.  This works very well to block out redness and even out my lids.  Paint pots do crease on me, so I layer them over Primer Potion.

Nars Bronzer in Laguna ($36 at Sephora)
I've had my Laguna bronzer for-ev-er.  It's time for it to go, and I've been working on it for months now.  I LOVE the shade, but it's a bit dark for me in the winter, and I just have so many other bronzers I want to use.  I've been using this literally every day to try to use it up!

Burberry Blush in Russett ($42 at Nordstrom)
I absolutely love this color for fall - it is the perfect peachy brown.  It's actually the same exact shade as Mac's blush in Gingerly ($21), which I learned personally when I purchased Gingerly and compared them.  I have to say - Burberry's texture and blendability win by a mile, but the price is a little hard to stomach.  (In full disclosure, I received this as a gift...I did not purchase it myself.)

Mac 222 Brush (~$20, found at a CCO)
I love this brush because it is more dense and compact than a 217.  It deposits color more precisely in my crease, and I've been using it with a 224 to build up color and define my eyes more.  Mac no longer sells the 222, but Sigma's E35 brush ($14) is basically a dupe.  The brush that comes with the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette is also very similar.

Loreal Lineur Intense Liquid Liner in Carbon Black ($7.94 at WalMart)
No liquid liner will ever replace my beloved Fluidline, but I have been reaching for this one quite a bit this month!  It is by far the easiest liquid liner to apply (I use the felt tip version, not the brush version) because the tip is just firm enough to give you a nice, straight line.  Plus, it's ultra black so you don't need to keep going over it.

NYX Setting Spray in Matte Finish ($8 at Nordstrom)
I forgot to include this in my video, but I have been absolutely loving this spray.  It's the first setting spray I've used that actually does keep my makeup in place all day, let alone keep my face from getting shiny after a few hours.  One thing I didn't expect that I was so happy to see was that this spray really keeps my eye makeup from budging.  I typically get a lot of black smudging under my eyes from mascara, but this keeps them looking perfectly clean all day.  

Formula X Polish in Ignite ($10.50 at Sephora)
Holy cow - I never expected to love a nail polish as much as this!!  I will do a full post reviewing these polishes when I grab a few more with my VIB sale coupon, but for now, suffice to say that these are AMAZING.  They wear much longer and better than typical polishes, and you absolutely don't need to topcoat them.  They're just as shiny with Seche Vite as they are without it.  These things are going to be a new addiction for me, I can feel it!!!

What are your favorites this month?  Let me know what I'm missing out on!

 

As always, everything in this post is my honest personal opinion.  No affiliate links were used.  I have not accepted any consideration for sharing these items with you.  Unless indicated otherwise, all products were purchased by me with my own money.

I Have A Black Eyeliner Problem

For some odd reason, I decided to count how many black eyeliners I have in my collection.  18.  I have freakin EIGHTEEN black eyeliners.  A little much, no?  12 pencils, 5 liquids, and 1 gel.  Who needs this much black eyeliner?!  If my husband reads this, you'll see me on the next episode of Hoarders.

In an attempt to justify my ridiculousness, I figured I may as well swatch them and hope they're at least a little different.  

Here are my 12 black pencils.

And my 5 liquids and 1 gel.

My ultimate conclusion - I definitely don't need this many black liners.  However, even though many of them do swatch identical similarly, the textures and wear times do vary greatly.  Here are my top picks and the biggest misses from my collection.

Best Black Eyeliners

1.  Mac's Fluidline in Blacktrack ($16).  This gel liner is pretty much Holy Grail for me.  Definitely my go-to daily liner, even though it does smudge a little, and it irritates my contact lenses when I use it on my waterline.  I love the deep color and the crisp line I can get with it.

2.  Loreal Lineur Intense Carbon Black ($8.99).  The felt tip makes this liquid liner basically foolproof.  Great black color and doesn't smudge at all, even on my oily lids.  Comparable to Makeup Forever's Aqua Liner ($23) in my mind, but I like the price point or Loreal's liner much better!

Worst Black Eyeliners

1.  Mac's Penultimate Liner ($19.50).  I should just toss this, I never use it.  It's barely black, has a dry formula, and doesn't transfer easily to the lid.  Maybe mine is a dud??

2.  Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner ($18).  I love how black this is, but omg it gets everywhere.  Waterproof my ass!  It's super smudgey, which can be a great thing, but not when it claims to be waterproof and it smears all over your face when you don't want it to.  Maybe it's my oily lids, but I wouldn't purchase this liner.  (Mine came with a palette...I didn't purchase it separately.)

What black eyeliners do you love or hate?  Are there any I am missing that can justify adding to my collection?  Help me feed my addiction :)

As always, everything in this post is my honest personal opinion.  No affiliate links were used.  I have not accepted any consideration for sharing these items with you.  Unless indicated otherwise, all products were purchased by me with my own money.