Rimmel London ScandalEyes Retro Glam Mascara Review

I received a tube of the Retro Glam mascara in my Influenster Rose Voxbox complimentary for testing purposes. I am always excited to try new mascaras, but I was hesitant about this one, because I wasn't a fan of the previous scandaleyes mascara I tried. But I was pleasantly surprised with this one!

I really like this mascara a lot. The packaging is cute. It's this super cute retro style black and white tube. The wand of this mascara is nice and large, without being too large, so I find that it gets in and coats my lasehes well without getting mascara all over my face.

 The formula is a dry formula, which I usually don't like, but this gives my lashes good coverage and adds a lot of volume. It's not a super lengthening mascara, in my opinion, but adding multiple coats of the product does help the length some. It's a really black formula which I like, and it doesn't clump, or flake off. I found that the product lasted all day and didn't weigh my lashes down, which I find sometimes with wetter formulas.  I recommend that you curl your lashes, and then apply two coats of this mascara for best results. I found that the formula really helped hole the curl of my lashes, which was an extra bonus that I Wasn't expecting! This mascara really lasts. I wore it yesterday with a cream shadow and some pencil liner and after 10 hours of wear the rest of my eye makeup was smudged off, but my mascara still looked great!

This product is hitting shelves this month, so I highly recommend that you check it out if you're looking to try out a new drugstore brand mascara.

November Favorites

This month I decided to go aheaxd and film a video on my monthly favorites! But, I know not everyone enjoys watching videos so I figured I would write up a quick blog post to accompany the video. I didn't take photos of the products, which I realize now I should have done. But I did show each item in the video, so hopefully that's ok! So before I get started, here's the video!!



My first favorite is the Revlon Colorstay whipped creme foundation in 220 Nude. I really enjoy this foundation. It glides on smoothly, and has a beautiful finish. it is medium to full coverage, and very pretty on the skin. I have never used the original Revlon colorstay so I can't say how it compares to that one, but I really love this version and highly recommend it!

Next up are the sephora brand prisma chrome eyeshadows in moon bean and flash dance. I really like these eyeshadows! They come in a cute little square compact packaging, and the product itself is a really cool raised design. Moon beam is a super pretty light shade that I find is perfect for a brow bone highlight, or all over the lid. Flash dance is a beautiful deep orange color that I normally wouldn't have purchased but that I am loving as an outer corner color. These eyeshadows are incredibly pigmented and last all day with the proper eyeshadow base!

Next is the Elf little black beauty book, and I have the everyday festive eye edition. It's a beautiful compact little palette that fits right in my bag easily. It's about the size of my hand. It comes with a large variety of neutral as well as colorful eyeshadows. It's got a ton of variety, and most of the shades have good pigmentation. It's a very versatile little palette, and it only costs 5 dollars! This would make a great holiday gift.
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Next is the L'oreal Voluminous million lashes mascara. I believe the shade I have is carbon black, but I'm not one hundred percent sure because I don't see the color name anywhere on the actual tube. Regardless, this mascara is amazing. It separates and lengthens my lashes without clumping. It does not flake, or transfer and it lasts all day. I really enjoy this mascara, and I highly recommend it!

I have a couple of lip products to share with you today as well. First is the Elf jumbo lip gloss stick in the color in the nude. It's a beautiful creamy nude color. It's perfect for my skin tone in my opinion. And even though it's technically a gloss, I don't find this one to be super glossy, so I like to wear it with a gloss on top, and the one that I especially like with this particular shade is the urban decay lip junkie lip gloss in Midnight cowboy. This is a beautiful nude gloss with lots of shimmer in it. It's beautiful, and it has a minty smell and a cooling sensation on the lips. LOVE! Another of my favorite lip products for the month of november is the Elf mineral lipstick in nicely nude. I really like all of the mineral lipsticks from this brand that I have tried, but nicely nude is my favorite of them all so far. Even though it's called nicely nude, it's not a nude color in my opinion. It's more of a true pink. It looks great on my skin tone, lasts for quite a while and have a beatiful sheen to it! you should check it out!

Next up is a couple of blushes. I have the Elf baked blushes in peachy cheeky and passion pink. Like their names suggest passion pink is a pink shade and peachy cheeky is a peachy-pink blush. Both are beautiful on the skin and they last quite a while. I wouldn't say all day, but I have gotten about 8 hours of wear out of each of them. And at 3 dollars each they are a steal!

The l'oreal dream lumi concealer/corrector in fair. I use this concealer to brighten my under eye area, and it's beautiful. It makes me instantly look more alive and awake, and it lasts and does not crease or move. I like it a lot!

Next up I have just a couple of fragrances. First is the bodycology body mist in peppermint twist. This little body mist I picked up in the stocking stuffer section of walmart and it just screams holiday to me. It's a beautiful peppermint scent. The scent doesn't last long, but since it's a cute little purse size, I can take it with me and re-apply whenever I want. The other schent I have been loving this month is the taylor swift wonderstruck perfume. I am horrible at describing scents, but it is described on the website as an awe-inspiring blend, filled with freesia, raspberry, vanilla, honeysuckle, and sandalwood. It smells so good. It's a great everyday fragrance in my opinion And the bottle is super cute!

My last favorite is a high-end product that I splurged on earlier in the month and it's the Mac paint pot in painterly. It's a skin toned cream product that I like to use as an eyeshadow base. It's great because it disguises the veins in my eyelids and makes for a great neutral base for any eyeshadow look. If I knew of a good drugstore dupe for this product I would have purchased it, but I have been looking for a product like this for ages, and I have simply not found a less expensive alternative. So I broke down and paid the 18 dollars to have this in my makeup collection, and while I cringe that I paid that much, I really am glad that I purchased this product. I really love it, and I find myself reaching for it everyday!

So that's it for my favorites this month. There were quite a few of them! I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Be sure to check out the video I posted as well, and if you like watching beauty related videos, go ahead and subscribe to my youtube channel, because there are lots more videos where this one came form! Thanks guys! I hope you all have an amazing December!

Makeup collection and storage

So I made a video going over my makeup collection. Its shaky and I ramble incessantly and it cuts off at the end. So I decided not to upload it instead just took a bunch of pictures. I might get the chance to film the collection video again sometime in the future but for now I'll just share with you the photos.Once again, these photos were taken with my phone so they aren't the greatest quality, but you can get the the basic idea!

First on top of my vanity is a little basket where I keep all of my hair products, my deodorant and other everyday products that I reach for a lot. Next to the basket I keep two cups which contain my face brushes and eye brushes.

All of those things are on the left side of my vanity. On the right side I just have a box of tissues, a little lettter organizer that I picked up at Walmart that contains a few of my eyeshadow palettes. I also have a little plastic martini glass which is really cute and that holds all of my EOS lip balms. I also have a little glass jar that contains a bunch of my jewelry.

All right now we can move on to my actual makeup collection. I use to store it all in little plastic Sterilite drawers but it wasn't the most sturdy or attractive way to store makeup. So I was on the mission to find something better. what I finally came up with was a Helmer unit from Ikea. It's a short metal cabinet with 6 drawers in it and it's perfect for storing my makeup. I picked up 2 of them as well as the plastic drawer organizers for around 100 dollars total so it was really great deal.

The first drawer contains all of my face products. In the very top little space I keep all of my powders. I don't have many of those. In the next section on the left I keep all of my foundations. I have foundations from ELF,  rimmel and Revlon as well as NYC. I also have a tinted moisturizer from elf. Next to that and another little section I keep all of my face primers and moisturizers as well as my ELF mist and spray. In front of those sections on the left I keep all of my concealers. I have concealers from ELF, hard candy, urban decay as well as L'Oreal. Next to those I just have a couple of compact mirrors and a zapper from ELF.

My next drawer contains all of my cheek products. So the very back segment is open and waiting for me to purchase more products. Haha not that I need anymore but it's nice to know that I have a little extra room if I did decide I want to buy more. The left handed segment is full of all of my powder blushes. I've got mostly elf brushes but I also have blushes from LA Colors and hard candy.  in the segment next to that I have all my bronzers. Again mostly from ELF but I also have 1 from NYC. The segment in front of that on the left contains all of my cream blushes. Again these are mostly ELF. I have a studio cream blush as well as there HD blushes from ELF. I also have a blush stick from wet n wild. The last little segment of this drawer has my high lighting products so I have hey cream highlighter from urban decay. I have a bunch of the all over color sticks from elf. I also have an ELF studio blush in gotta glow which I use for highlighting.

 

The next drawer contains all of my lip products. It's one of my favorite drawers! I just love the way it looks. haha. Anyway, I have this drawer organizer turned in a different direction than the other ones, because it works better for me this way. So in the top section of this drawer, on the left, I have my lip balms. Of course, not all my lip balms. You already saw my EOS lip balms on top of the vanity.  On the top right I have my ELF lip stains. In front of those, on the left I have all of my squeeze tube type lip glosses. I have lip glosses from Elf, Forever 21 and Urban Decay. In the right hand section I have other types of lip gloss like those in stick form, and those in  tube with a doe foot applicator. Most of the glosses in this section come from ELF, but I have some other brands mixed in there as well. The very bottom section houses all of my lip sticks and maybelline baby lips lip balms. I like that these drawers are deep enough that I can stall of my lipsticks up. It makes finding the lipstick that I want much easier. Plus it looks so nice that way! I store most of my lipsticks upside down so I can easily read the labels. I have lipsticks from Revlon, Urban Decay, Maybelline, NYC as well as ELF lipsticks from the mineral line, and the essential line.

 

The next drawer contains all of my eyeshadow bases, mascaras and eyeliners. This is another one of my favorite drawers!  The very back section houses all of my eyeliners. I have many pencil liners as well as liquid liners and gel eyeliners.  of my eyeliners come from ELF or urban Decay but I also have some from NYC, LA colors and Bonnebell. The next section, on the left contains all of my eyelid primers. So I have primers from Elf, Urban Decay and one from too faced. This section also contains my eyeshadow pencils from Urban Decay and my jumbo eyeshadow sticks from Elf. The section on the right all of my mascaras. I have mascaras from Maybelline, Cover Girl, smashbox, L'Oreal, ELF and NYC. I also have my Elf eyebrow kit in this section as well as one of my lash curlers and my tweezers. The next section up, on the left holds all of my cream eye shadows. I believe every single one of them is from ELF. And then the right hand section holds all of my maybelline color tattoos and my one Mac paint pot in painterly.

 

The next drawer holds smaller eyeshadow palettes. Single eyeshadow, eyeshadow duos, trios and some quads. The back section on the left just holds my eyeliner sharpeners. Not really sure why they are in this drawer and not my drawer. Must have just been the drawer I had space in. The section on the right has my false lashes, lash glue and the like. The section on the left, in front of those has some random eyeshadow singles, duos and quads. I have a bunch from Elf, but I also have some from wet n wild, urban decay and NYC. Next to that is all of my Elf brightening eye color quads, as well as some duos from elf, and the Elf studio single shadows that I own. In the front section I just have a couple of Urban Decay Palettes, and a couple sephora eyeshadow singles. 

 

The last drawer in helmer unit houses the rest of my palettes. I have a couple of the Elf holiday "books". I have the Elf villainous villainous villains palettes, my BH cosmetics 120 colors palette and some other palettes in there. 

 

So that pretty much wraps up my makeup collection. I do have another helmer unit that contains things like makeup remiover, hair tools and my nail polish but I will go over that helmer in a separate post. Probably, when I do that, I will also post an in-depth nail polish collection as well. 

 

Another Haul (Part one!)

I did even more shopping. I have an addiction. I can't help it! So here I bring you yet another haul! And believe it or not, there will be a part two of this haul because I am waiting on a couple of online orders. After that, I am (hopefully) done shopping for quite a while. Well, let's be honest black Friday (and Cyber Monday) are coming up, so I will probably be done shopping after that. Yeah, that sounds about right.:)

Anyway, for this haul I went to Walmart (again), Walgreens and Bath and Body Works. So let's just jump right into what I got so this isn't incredibly long!

The first place I went was Walgreens. My husband, Eric and I were having dinner at Red Lobster the other day and there was a walgreens right up the road so I decided to go in there because I knew Sinful colors nail polishes were on sale for 99 cents each. Well, I took advantage of that sale and bought a few polishes. And then I bought a bunch more, just cause. I ended up walking out of there with a whopping 14 nail polishes. I think my addiction to nail polish is getting out of hand! haha, but I did get some great deals!

 

 

From the Sinful Colors color brand, I got three nail polishes in Folly ( a raspberry pink color), Easy Going (A super pale baby pink) and Unicorn (a pale yellow). I picked up two Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes that were not on sale, but which I am totally in love with. Pacific Blue is a beautiful creamy blue color, and Strobe Light in a glitter polish with lots of pink and multicolored glitters. Lastly, for nail polish,  I picked up a set of 8 polishes from Wet n Wild. I also picked up a Sally Hansen Insta-dry top coat, because I left my other top coat at my cousin's house and haven't remembered to get it back from her!

 This awesome set came with 4 Megalast polishes and 4 of their fastdry polishes. The 4 Megalast polishes that came in the set were I Red a good book (a red color), I need a refresh-mint (a gorgeous mint green), On a trip(a light purple) and Wet Cement (a taupe-y grey color). The four fast dry polishes are FuchsiaRama ( a fuchsia purple shade, The wonder yellows (a deep yellow), Sage in the City (a pretty green and 9.0.2.1.Orange (an orange with lots of shimmer). The set of 8 polishes cost me $9.99! and the bag it came in doubles as a huge makeup bag!

The only other thing I picked up walgreens were the last two of the Maybelline baby lips that I needed. Now own them all! I got the two colorless balms in Quenched and Peppermint.

Next up, I have my purchases from Walmart. I went in there to kill some time while my husband went to a sporting goods store. I ended up buying a ton of stuff.

The first thing I picked up is a Revlon perfect heat 1 1/2 inch barrel curling iron. I have like 3 flat irons, but I didn't have a single curling iron. I picked this one because it has a nice large barrel and it was incredibly inexpensive at around 15 dollars. I also picked up a new hair brush. I just grabbed a random conair paddle brush. I picked up a couple of fragrances. I got a bodycology fragrance mist in exotic cherry blossom.  I also got the Taylor Swift Wonder struck perfume. I chose just to get the 1 oz bottle rather than spring for a larger bottle. I paid 30 dollars for the 1 oz bottle. it smells so good and the bottle is beautiful! I also purchased another white watch because the last one I owned broke.

In the cosmetics section I purchased the Revlon colorstay whipped Creme Foundation in nude, The Maybelline color tattoo in too cool (a nice white shade) and the L'oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara in Carbon black. I also bought some equate brand eye makeup remover, some cotton rounds and some cotton balls.

Lastly I went to Bath and Body Works, and purchased some more frangrances, because apparently the ones I bought at walmart just weren't enough. lol.

 These particular scents were half off, so I got two for the price of one. I got Dreamy Vanilla woods and honey Autumn apple. Both are amazingly yummy fall scents.And while I was there, my two boys decided they wanted hand sanitizer, and since the pocketbacs are always 5 for $5, I decided to pick up 5. We got midnight pomegranate, japanese cherry blossom,  Winter Spice and Vanilla (my personal favorite of the 5), fresh picked strawberry (my older son's choice) and fresh picked pear (my youngest son's choice) We also got three of the pocketbac holders, one for each of us! haha.

So that's it for this haul! As I said, I do have some online orders that I am waiting for to come in, so there will be yet another haul coming soon! But after that I promise there will be no more hauls for a while! I hope you all are having an amazing weekend, and i will talk to you all soon!

Covergirl lash blast review

I picked up the covergirl lash blast volume mascara with one of my recent hauls. I forgot to take pictures of it with the rest of the products I bought, because as soon as I got this home, I immediately opened it and tried it out. And I love it. This mascara is so good. It applies nice and even on my lashes. It does not clump. It's waterproof and does not budge until I am ready to take it off at night. It coats my lashes flawlessly and really holds the curl when I use an eyelash curler. I got this mascara in blackbrown. I prefer not to wear straight black mascara on a daily basis. I think it';s too harsh. The color of this mascara is the perfect everyday color. I really can't think of anything bad to say about this. The brush is a rubber brush with shorter bristles, and I didn't think that I would like it. But it's easy to control and puts just enough mascara on without leaving clumps behind. The formula of the mascara itself is not too wet or too dry. It's all in all a really great mascara, and probably one of my all time favorites. I am interested in trying out other covergirl mascaras in the future!

Outfit and Face of the day

Shirt: Op from walmart
jeans- target
shoes: fashion bug
bag: target


products used:
Rimmel fix and perfect pro face primer
Rimmel lasting finish foundation in 100 Ivory
NYC smooth skin liquid concealer in 786 Light
NYC Smooth Skin pressed Face powder in 701A Translucent
NYC Smooth Skin Bronzing Face Powder in 720A Sunny (all over)
elf contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder- Bronzed (contour)
Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blush in Hot flash
ELF Eyelid primer
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as taupe (all over lid and up into the crease)
ELF shimmer eyeliner pencil in black
Maybelline Falsies Mascara in Black Drama
Revlon Lip butter in strawberry shortcake

Face of the day

Products worn
NYC skin matching foundation in light
Cover Girl fresh complexion pocket powder foundation in medium light
NYC Liquid Concealer in Light
NYC smooth skin bronzing face powder in sunny
Blush from the E.L.F. beauty on the go Night on the Town palette
ELF essential eyelid primer
eyeshadows from the E.L.F. beauty on the go Day on the beach palette
ELF shimmer eyeliner pencil in Boldly Bronzed (lower lash line)
ELF cream eye liner in black (upper lash line)
Maybelline Falsies mascara (upper lashes)
NYC Instant Lash mascara in black (lower lashes)
EOS lip balm in lemon drop
Revlon colorburst lip butter in raspberry pie
ELF Minty Lip Gloss in Nashville

Top 11 Products of 2011 plus some extras

I was going to do my december favorites, but then I realized I didn't really have any favorites. For the month of December, I just continued to use all of my favorites from previous months. So I decided to do a grand finale. Favorites that I used A lot throughout the year last year. So here we go!

#1. Favorite Lipstick- The lipstick that I wore the most in 2011 was Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in the color totally toffee.It's a great pinky nude shade that goes well with absolutely every look. The perfect My lips but better color, and I wore it a ton! Around 6 dollars

#2. Favorite Lip Gloss- By far the lip gloss that I reached for most often in 2011 is NYC Liquid Lip Shine in Dusty Rose. It's a nice stand alone shade, because it's very opaque, but it also looks great layered over a lipstick. It's a great dusty pink shade with gold shimmer, and looks great with my complexion, in my opinion. Around 2 dollars

#3. Favorite Lip Balm- Hands down my favorite lip balm for 2011 is the EOS lip balm in Lemon Drop. I have raved about these plenty on the blog, so I won't go into detail other than to say that these are awesome, and I plan to invest in many more flavors in 2012. Around 3 dollars.

#4. Favorite Face Powder- My favorite face powder of 2011, and the best face powder I have used to date in the NYC smooth skin pressed face powder in translucent. It does not break me out at all, and it sets my make up and lasts a long time. It's a great powder at only around 3 dollars!

#5. Favorite Bronzer- Again, I have to give this one to NYC. I love the NYC smooth skin bronzing face powder in sunny. It's a great Matte bronzer. It's light enough that I can use it all over my face, but build-able enough that I can use it for contouring. And the price ia right around 3 dollars. Can't beat that!

#6. Favorite Blush- the blush that I liked the most in 2011 is the blush from the E.L.F. Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder. The bronzer in this duo is too dark and muddy for me, except in the summer when I already have a tan, but the blush is gorgeous. It's got some shimmer, which I am not always crazy about in the colder months, but I like a lot in the summer. It's a light pinky peach shade with gold shimmer and accents tanned skin beautifully. $3

#7. Favorite Eyeshadow Primer- Hands down the best eyeshadow primer I will ever use is the E.L.F. Essential eyelid primer. This stuff is amazing. So creamy and makes my shadow last all day. I use it every single day and it's one of my most valued products! Best part? It only costs #1!!

#8. Favorite Mascara- The mascara that I used and enjoyed the most last year is the
NYC Instant Lash Mascara in black. I didn't experiment much with mascaras last year, but this is the ones I used the most so it gets the spotlight. It's great for darkening your lashes and does give some length. Plus, it's only a dollar!

#9. Favorite eye liner- My favorite eye liner of 2011 is the E.L.F. studio cream eyeliner in black. Easy to apply, super dark, great lasting power! $3.

#10. Favorite Eyeshadow palette- this will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever read my blog. I talk about this palette all the time. It's the BH cosmetics 120 color palette. It has 120 different shades of eyeshadow with tons of different finishes. If you can't find something you like in this palette, than you have a serious problem! $25.

#11. Favorite nail Polish- I expanded my nail polish collection a TON last year. I won't go into my favorite nail polish color- how could I ever choose? But my favorite brand of nail polish is NYC. I love the formula. I love the color selection. and I love the price!! $1-$3.

Bonus!!

Favorite shampoo and conditioner- L'oreal Eversleek shampoo and conditioner
Favorite Body wash- Softsoap body butter coconut scrub
Favorite Fragrance- bodycology brown sugar Vanilla

My Make Up Collection: Eye Products

I had someone tell me they were interested in seeing my make up collection, so I thought that I would share it with you. I don't think I have a ton of products, but i've been accumulating make up for a while now, and it's all products I truly believe in, and they are all very affordable. I think this post could help anyone looking to start getting into make up, or maybe just inspire someone to try out a product they have never tried before. That's why I am doing this. I am breaking these posts up, because otherwise the posts would be VERY LONG. SO I am starting out with all of my eye products!

I am going to start out my eye products. I probably have more eye products than anything. I love shadows and liners, and I think that having a variety of different colors and finishes can really help change up your look, and is great for experimenting!



Starting with the primers and mascaras I have (top left row of the picture)

l'oreal decrease- this is a great drugstore eyelid primer. It's not the best I have ever used, but it does the job and will run you around 6 dollars.
ELF essential eyelid primer- THIS is my favorite eyelid primer of all time. It applies nice and smooth, makes my eyeshadow last all day long, and it only costs a dollar!

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in brown The first mascara I ever used, and still one of my favorites. I love the formula and the simple brush. This mascara runs somewhere in the 5-6 dollar range.

Elf lengthening and volumizing mascara in black This one costs a dollar and is great for darkening and separating your lashes.

NYC Lengthening Mascara in black I am not sure if they make this mascara anymore. I've had this one for a while (Health Note: You should replace your mascara every 3 months. I don't, but I really really should! Don't be like me!!)

NYC Instant Lash mascara in black One of my fave mascaras. Great for lengthening lashes, and only cost me a dollar!

Moving on to my eye liners (next row, still at the top of the photo)

Elf Wet Gloss Lash and Brow clear mascara. I just picked up this product, and haven't used it long enough to do a review on it, but it only costs a dollar, so what do you have to lose?

NYC liquid Eyeliner in black This is not my favorite liquid eyeliner. It takes a while to dry. But, it's easy to apply and very affordable, so I definitely don't regret purchasing it! I don't use Liquid liner often, so it was a good deal for me.

NYC Brow/Eye Liner Pencil This doesn't have a color name but it's just a charcoal gray color. I never use this one. It doesn't apply well. It's not soft. I probably should just throw it away, but I am a hoarder (lol) and I figure I can alwaus use it in an eyeliner emergency, if I run out!

NYC Eyeliner Duet in mockingbird This is a double ended eye liner pencil. One side is black and one side is white. This one is nice and smooth and glides on fairly easy. The white is great for defining your eyes and making you look awake, while the black is great for defining!

Bonne Bell eye style precise liner in basic black This liner is great. It's the twist up kind so there's no sharpening necessary, and it's a great basic black, soft liner. I wish the color was just a bit darker, but what can ya do?


Elf Studio Cream Eyeliner in black This I just purchased recently, but it very quickly became my favorite eye liner. It is jet black, and very easy to use. I just use an angled brush to apply it and it goes on so smooth and flawlessly. This one costs 3 dollars, and I plan on going back and picking up more colors- maybe even all of them. This stuff if so good!

Ok, now moving on to the eye shadows.

BH Cosmetics 120 colors palette I have talked about this a ton here on my blog, so I won't go into detail, but as you all know, I LOVE this palette.

moving on to the next row in the picture starting at the top and moving down

Cover Girl Eye enhancers eyeshadow quad in Ice Princess This is a great little quad. I love the purples for bringing out the green in my eyes. The shadows are pigmented and soft. With the exception of the darkest shade in the palette which is a tad chalky, but nothing I can't work with!

Wet 'n Wild eyeshdaow palette in Greed Back when I first started using makeup wet n wild was cheap and useless. But they have reformulated and now wet n wild have some of the best eye shadows I have ever used. This palette is nice and has some neutral shades and some darker shades for a great smoky eye. I think it's very versatile.

(next row)

NYC City Duet eyeshadow in Tribecca Toast This is a nice little duo. Again with the purple shades, which are my favorite to wear other than my every day neutral eye. These shadows have some shimmer and are nice and soft. Not bad at all for just under 3 dollars.

Elf brightening eye color in Drama The name says i all. This quad is all about the drama. The colors make for the perfect smoky eye for a night out. And the shadows are great quality. This hot little quad will cost you a dollar. Well worth it!

Elf Brightening eye color in Day 2 Night I am currently obsessed with this quad. The colors are great for a day look, or a night look (hence the quad's name!) The colors are pigmented and have some really gorgeous shimmer. Snag this up for just a dollar!

in the next row I have:

Elf Duo eye shadow creams I just did swatches and a review on these so I won't go into detail, but I have the following duos: Blueberry, Mocha Swirl, Olive, Butter Pecan, Berry mix, and Black Licorice. These are good buys at just a dollar a piece!

So there you have my eye make up. Be sure to watch out for the other segments including my lip products, faec products, brushes and tools!

Face of the Day: perfect for the holidays

I wanted to share my face of the day with you all. I think this look would be great for the holidays! I focused on the eyes with a lot of holiday greens, and went subtle with the rest of the look. If you want a tutorial on this look, just leave me a comment and i'd be happy to duplicate it.

Products used:
NYC Skin Matching foundation in the shade 686 Light
Jane be pure Mineral Sheer powder
NYC smooth skin liquid concealer in the shade 786 Light
L'oreal Decrease eye primer
Coastal Scents eyeshadow in the color Key Lime (lid color)
BH cosmetics eyeshadow in a deep olive shimmery green (from the 120 colorspalette) (outer corner, and along lower lashline)
BH cosmetics eyeshadow in a shimmery black (lightly along the crease)
BH cosmetics eyeshadow in a champagne color (inner corner and brow highlight)
N.Y.C. Liquid eyeliner in Jet Black (upper lashline)
Bonnebell eyestyle precise liner in basic black (water line)
elf lengthening and volumizing mascara in black (upper and lower lashes)
elf contouring blush and bronzing powder (blush on the apples of my cheeks, and light contouring using the bronzer)
Neutrogena moistureshine gloss in Plum

Battle of the Brands: Mascara

I was originally planning on doing a review and comparison of all my different mascaras, because it was requested, but I was having a really hard time comparing them all, because they each have different price points, they each are meant to do different things, and quite frankly, it was getting tedious trying to take different pictures for each one. So instead, I decided to shorten it up and just compare two of my mascaras. They are both the same price, and have similar qualities so it's much easier to compare. So, here it is, I bring you the battle of the brands: mascara edition.E.L.F. lengthening and volumizing mascara vs. NYC Instant Lash Mascara ELF lengthening and volumizing mascara above left, NYC instant Lash Mascara above right
I curled my lashes before applying them, and used two coats each!


Each of these mascara's cost me $1. I purchased the E.L.F. mascara at Target, and the NYC mascara at walmart. Let me give you a quick overview of each.

ELF

the Elf mascara, contains 0.24 oz of product. It features a long handle with a relatively short mascara wand. I find that this offers me a lot of control. I tend to prefer a shorter mascara wand, personally, though I know a lot of people don't like them. The bristles are nice, average size, average shape. Nothing spectacular. I find with this product that I do get a bit of length, but definitely not the volume that it advertises. Over all I really like this mascara. For a dollar, I can't really complain. It doesn't clump, and it doesn't leave my lashes feeling crunchy, which makes it easy to re-apply. On the downside, you have to reapply often- this one doesn't last as long as I would like. I can usually get 3-4 hours of wear before reapplying.

NYC

The NYC Mascara contains 0.23 oz of product. The wand on this mascara is longer than the elf wand, and the bristles on this brush are shorter. I like the shorter bristles because I can easily put mascara on my bottom lashes as well as my top lashes. The formula of the mascara itself is pretty decent. I find that it really separates my lashes great (when it's not clumping, which this one does do a bit), and gives me some volume, which is nice! This mascara gives my lashes a bit of a spidery look, which I actually like, so that's not a problem. If you aren't into spidery lashes, steer clear of this one. This one does leave my lashes feeling a little crunchy, which I don't love, however, it lasts all day. No reapplying necessary, and it doesn't flake either, which is great!!

Overall, I think that both of these mascaras are great, especially for their $1 price tag. Which ones the winner? Well, it really depends on what you want out of a mascara. If you want lengthening mascara that won't clump or flake, go with the ELF. If you want separation, a little bit of volume and a mascara wand that is easy to use for both top and bottom lashes go for NYC. or, do what I did. Snag them both. After all, for a dollar you can't really go wrong.



Bottom Line: If you are looking for your holy grail mascara, you wopn't find it with either of these. But if you just want to darken your lashes, define them and make them stand out, both of these mascaras are great!

What are your favorite mascaras? Have you tried either of these mascaras? What are your thoughts?