December 2013 Favorites! (And 1 Complete Waste of Money)

To wrap up the 2013 holiday season, here are my favorite products from this past month.  I do plan to do a blog post (but not a video) sharing my 2013 beauty favorites next week, but for now I just wanted to share the products I have been loving recently :)

Please share yours, too!

Products Mentioned:

Soap & Glory A Great Kisser Peppermint Lip Balm ($10)

I've talked this one to death.  You guys know I love it!!

Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer in Milk Chocolate ($30)

I finally broke down and put away my NARS Laguna Bronzer, and broke this baby out.  This is my favorite winter bronzer.  It's matte, the perfect shade, and it smells heavenly!

Naked Palette (the original!) ($52)

I've been giving this one a LOT of love lately!  It's just such an awesome range of colors...you cannot go wrong.

Avon 8 In 1 Neutral Palette ($7 on Amazon, but it's an add-on item, so it only ships when you spend $35+)

I found this little gem stashed away in my collection, and I've been loving it this month!  It is a little hard to find, since Avon does not sell it anymore, but if you can get your hands on it, it's really worth trying.  The colors are all shimmery, but the payoff is great and there is a good range of lights, mid-tone browns, and darks in the palette.  It's also really travel friendly, since it is a nice small compact with a mirror.

Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen in 03 Blackened Brown ($9)

This was my replacement for Mac's Penultimate liner that I really didn't like.  It's a felt-tip pen style liner and I love it.  The color is pretty dark, but is still noticeably brown.  It's very very easy to use, too.

Jordana Fabuliner in Black (normally $6, but it's only $2.99 here!)

Basically the same as the Revlon pen liner, but in black, and way cheaper!

Anastasia Clear Brow Gel ($22)

I finally caved and bought this, and I'm so glad I did!  It does leave your brows a little crispy, but they don't look flaky or stiff.  It keeps each hair in place all day.

Trim Eyelash Curler ($3.49 on Drugstore.com, but I snagged mine in-store at Target for $1.99!)

WHAT AN AMAZING FIND!!!!!  OMG!  I only paid $2 for mine in Target, and it is the best $2 I have spent in a long time.  This little beauty makes my lashes look SO much curlier (they're naturally curly) and longer.  It works SO WELL, especially for the price.  I cannot rave enough about it.

China Glaze Poinsettia ($5 with free shipping on Amazon)

This is by far my favorite holiday red.  It's a perfect true red without any warm/cool undertones.  It's a cross between a jelly and a creme in my mind, an I love it!

Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop ($19)

I just HAD to grab this with my Sephora VIB $20 coupon earlier this month.  I've wanted this gorgeous pink glitter forever and it's finally mine.  :)  I have to admit, I expected the staying power to be a bit better, but the color is so fabulous I don't even care if I only get 24 hours out of a mani!

Diamoncel for Sephora #20 Coarse Foot File ($38)

I know this is stupid expensive for a foot file, but my feet need it, big time.  I am really super hard on them, and I have awful calluses, so I need something really heavy duty to help them out.  I wanted a metal file after having a professional pedicurist use one on me, and this was the 2nd item I grabbed with my VIB coupon.  If you have terrible calluses, it may be worth a shot.  It really smooths my feet down better than anything else I've tried.

Stridex Soft Touch Pads Maximum Strength (2% Salicylic Acid) ($8 for 180 pads at WalMart, but I got mine in-store...90 pads for about $4)

I wanted to grab these after hearing Josh Collier rave about them, and hoped they would help my clogged pores and redness.  I don't have acne, but I do have oily skin and a lot of discoloration.  I've only used them for about 2 weeks so far, but I definitely have noticed that my T-zone (where I use them nightly) is a lot smoother.  I'll update as I use them more, but for now they really seem great.

And the waste of money item is the Sonia Kashuk Brush Cleaner ($7).  The reviews on Target's website are a lie!!  It's just terrible...it really didn't clean my brushes well at all.  I tried it both as a spot cleaner (which just left a funky residue on my brushes) and as a soap-alternative.  I would not recommend purchasing this whatsoever!  Just go with Mac's Brush Cleaner instead, it's way better!

I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's!

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.

The Perfect Palette Tag

I LOVE a good eyeshadow palette.  Who doesn't?  They're usually a great value and can help make deciding what to do with your makeup a breeze.  Plus obviously they're awesome to travel with. 

Rather than just share with you my favorite palettes, I thought I would do a tag that's been going around YouTube lately...the Perfect Palette Tag!  Amarixe recently did this video...that's where I first saw it.  If you haven't checked out her channel, definitely do!

Without further ado...

1.  Best Packaging.  Gotta go with one of the Naked Palettes for this.  They're compact, have nice big mirrors, and they each have a spot for either a brush or an eyeliner. 

Wet N Wild Comfort Zone

2.  Best Color Payoff.  I'm going to choose the Wet N Wild 8 Pan Palette in Comfort Zone for this!  For $5, how could you go wrong.  This is surprisingly pigmented.  (I mean at this point it's no great shock that Wet N Wild makes awesome shadows, but when these all came out, I think everyone was skeptical of their quality.)  Comfort Zone has great neutral browns and greens and every shade has great payoff.

3.  Most Versatile.  Naked 1.  It's easily my favorite palette.  You can do everything from just a wash of a simple neutral shimmer (Virgin or Sin), to something a tad bit more amped up with a nice crease color, to something really dramatic using the darker shades.  You can even stamp on some eyeliner if you use the darker colors.  You can't beat this one!

Too Faced Natural Eye

4.  Best for Travel.  Too Faced Natural Eye Palette.  Another awesomely neutral palette.  I love a few of the shades in here, especially Push Up.  I wouldn't hesitate to travel with this because you have everything from matte neutrals and soft shimmery browns to a glittery peach and a nice dark color, too.  Plus, it's small and compact (which is why it beat out Naked 1!)

Mac Evil Eye...notice my attempt to save it!

5.  Biggest Regret.  Easy peasy for me.  I wasted my money on the Mac Evil Eye quad back when it came out.  I don't think I've ever used it because the colors are just terrible.  No payoff whatsoever.  I even tried crushing them up and reforming them, but it made no difference.  It's such a crap palette.  That purchase taught me to do my research before buying anything!!

6.  Best Color Names.  This was a toughie, but I have to choose the Too Faced Naked Eye Palette.  I tend not to use this all that often, as the shades are all very soft and natural (I like some drama, what can I say!) but the names are super cute!  The shades include Stiletto, Unmentionables, and Birthday Suit.  (If I owned their Boudoir Eyes Palette, I think I'd have to pick that!)

Image Source: Sephora.com

7.  Least Used.  Too Faced Return of Sexy Palette.  I had such high hopes for this because when I swatched it in store, it seemed fabulous.  The colors seemed rich and velvety and I thought they would blend like a dream.  I did my homework and read up on it, and found that most reviews said it was fine if you were willing to work with it.  I would agree with that...it's a great palette if you have plenty of time to really work with the colors.  Most are really shimmery and create a lot of fallout.  You MUST use a good primer (even a glitter glue, dare I say for some!) and most need to be sprayed with Fix+ or another spray to get decent payoff.  It's a fun palette, but it takes me 3 times as long to use it, so I don't choose it often.

8.  Most Used, Most Loved, Desert Island.  Definitely Naked 1.  The colors are wonderfully neutral and it includes one of my favorite blending colors...Naked.  The looks you can do with Naked 1 are endless.

Hope you enjoyed!  Please share with me your favorite palettes!

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.

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.