St. Patrick's Day Manicure

I thought I would share with you my st. patrick's day manicure! I am Irish and proud so of course I had to do some green nails! I didn't do any fancy nail art or anything, mostly because my stamping attempt failed. But I was still quite pleased with the end result!

On my index, middle and pinkie fingers I used the China Glaze Magnetic polish in con-fused. I am not a big fan of the magnetic polish trend, but the magnetic polishes can still be used, just without using the magnet. It's a beautiful green shade that I think is perfect for St. Patrick's Day! On my ring finger and thumb I used Julep nail polish in Adrianna, which is a gorgeous light pistachio green shade that I absolutely love. And on top of that I used the Hard Candy nail polish in Emerald's Eve, which is a great glitter topper. It's got small pieces of emerald green glitter and larger gold glitters. It made the perfect glitter topper!

Overall I really love the finished look, and I was very pleased with all of the polishes I used! I highly recommend them all! Did you do anything special with your nails for St. Patrick's day? I would love to hear about it, so leave me a comment and let me know!

Wet n Wild Candy-licious and Hard Candy Pink Taffy

Hey guys! It's been a while since I shared a nail of the day post, and since I did a pink mani for the first time in ages I thought I would go ahead and share it with you!

natural lught

With Flash

No Flash

I started out with two coats of The Wet n Wild Megalast Polish in Candy-licious. It's a beautifu mid-toned candy colored pink. It's a cream formula that glides on effortessly with the Manicurve Pro brush that I love so much! This is a fantastic color for spring and summer, and I figured, why not wear it in winter too? It's been so cold and dreary here, I just wanted a nice pop of color! Then to add a little bit more fun. I painted one coat of Hard Candy's pink taffy on top of candy-icious on my ring finger and thumb on each hand. This is a super fun polish. It looks just like taffy to me. This can be worn on it's own, but it takes about 3 coats to be completely opaque, so I decided just to wear it as a topper today, and I love the way it looks with candy-icious. Overall I really love this mani!

Wet N Wild Megalast in Candy-licious can be purchased for $1.99 or less anywhere that wet n wild products are sold. (I picked up mine at wal-mart for about $1.75)
Hard Candy Pink Taffy can be purchased exclusively at Wal-mart for $4.00

Makeup MVPs 2013: Cheeks

I am so excited to be sharing with you all of my top favorite cheek products from 2013. These are all the blushes, bronzers and highlighters that I loved the most throughout the year. These are tried and true favorites. The ones I always go back to. My MVPs. And I gotta tell you, I had a really hard time reining myself in and keeping a limit to how many products I shared with you all. I LOVE blush, and there are so many amazing blushes out there, especially from the drugstore. But I kept myself calm and shared just 4 blushes, 3 highlighters and 2 bronzers, as well as the tools that I use most often to apply them, so here we go!

Blush: Like I said, it was all I could do to narrow down my favorite blushes from 2013. I love these brands in general for blush but I also included my favorite colors from the line. I highly recommend all of these.

I love the Hard Candy Fox in a Box blushes so much! I heard that these were going to be discontinued but I continue to see them at my local walmart, so apparently they have not been. I love the packaging on these. They remind me a lot of the Benefit Box powders but for a fraction of the price. My favorite one is the one in hot flash. It's four colors, a pale baby pink, a neutral light brown, a brighter pink and a bright fuchsia. Each of these colors can be used on their own but I love to swirl them together to get a nice fuchsia color. It's highly pigmented and a little goes a long way, but it's a gorgeous flush of color especially in the winter. It gives you that just came in from the cold look. Love it!

The wet n Wild Color Icon Blushes are amazing. They are super affordable and highly pigmented. They are soft without being incredibly powdery and they blend beautifully. I love the one in Heather Silk. It's a deeper berry color that is beautiful on my pale skin.  It's got no shimmer, so it's very natural. I can't say enough good things about this blush.

The Elf studio blushes are probably my all time favorite blushes from the drugstore, because there's a wide variety of shades and at just 3 bucks a pop, you can buy them all without feeling incredibly guilty. I have 5 or 6 shades now, and they are all pigmented and pretty. They can be a little powdery but nothing you can't work with. One of my favorites is the blush in Candid Coral. It's a really natural summer-y shade that I think is wearable on just about every skintone! Love it!

Lastly, I really fell in love with the tarte 12 hour amazonian clay blushes this year. These babies are pricey, I'm not gonna lie. At around 25 bucks a pop they can really break the bank, but I've managed to always buy mine on sale, so that I pay half that price. These blushes are so beautiful, apply silky smooth, are incredibly pigmented and really last all day! If you can afford to pick one up I highly recommend that you do because they really are amazing. I love the one in exposed the most. It's a beautiful nude blush that I never would have purchased if it wasn't for recommendations on youtube but I just adore the flush it gives my skin. It's completely matte, but not flat. You just have to try it!

Highlighters- I tend to really like more natural looking highlighters on me. I use a lot of highlighting concealers and things, but when I really want an added bit of highlight to my skin, I pull out my powder highlights and I have found a few that I absolutely love and always find myself coming back to. These are my MVPs.

I love the physicians formula happy booster blush in natural. This is technically a blush, but it's got a gorgeous sheen and not a ton of color so I tend to apply it over top of my blushes for a natural glow that I just love. It's so beautiful. It's not powdery or cakey. It just adds a nice sheen to my skin that is really beautiful.

The Elf Baked Blush in pinktastic is another one that is marketed as a blush but it's really just a beautiful highlight shade for me. It's a light shimmery pink that is gorgeous swept on top of the cheek bones and down the nose. It catches the light beautifully without being a total shimmer bomb. I can't recommend this one enough.

Another one from Elf that I love is actually marketed as a bronzer, and it's the Elf Studio Golden Bronzer. This is just a quad of light, sheer colors that when swept together makes a beautiful natural highlight that I have seen compared to the Dior Amber Diamond Highlight that is so popular with youtube beauty gurus. It's just a beautiful more golden toned highlight that looks amazing.

And now moving on to bronzers. I am a pale girl. I like to describe my skin tone as one shade up from marshmallow pale. So bronzers are necessary but ones that are too dark look positively muddy and gross on me, so I need a really natural matte bronzer, and these two fit the bull perfectly.

The first one is the NYC smoothskin bronzing face powder in sunny. I have used this for years and I absolutely love it. It's a very natural light brown shade that is completely matte. It's light enough to use as an all over bronzing color but I can also use it just for contouring by adding just a bit more. It's a super affordable option and it's perfect for super pale girls like me, but can be used for medium skin tones too, in my opinion.

The other one that is a great shade for my pale skin is the Elf Baked Bronzer in St. Lucia. It's a light bronze color with the tiniest bit of sheen that makes it look super natural on me. I really like this bronzer beause it's easy to apply and super easy to blend so it doesn't look like I have bronzer on at all. It's very natural and another super affordable option that I wouldn't ever want to be be without.

So those are all of my favorite cheek products. Now let's talk a little bit about my favorite tools to apply said products. My favorite blush brush is the Sigma f50 duo fiber brush. I find that this picks up just enough product. Not too much and not too little. It's also really good for applying cream blush. It's soft without being so soft that product applies everywhere. It's just a really nice brush. I haven't found my perfect brush for applying bronzer yet. I tend to just go for a fluffier brush when I am applying it all over my face, and a more concentrated brush when I am contouring. But since I don't have an absolute favorite, I decided not to list one here. I do have a favorite brush for highlighting though. It's the Elf small stipple brush. This thing is amazing. It's small brush head makes it the perfect brush for applying highlighter to the tops of the cheek bones and down my nose. It's soft without being too soft and this little brush also does double duty in that it's great for applying both powder and cream products. I highly recommend it.

So there ya have it! Those are my MVPs for my cheeks! I hope that you found this helpful! And I hope you will check back soon for the next installment of my MVP products for 2013, when I share with you my favorite products for eyes! Can't wait!!

Simple Nail Art: Jelly Sandwich Mani!

I have been wanting to try doing a jelly sandwich on my nails for ages! If you aren't familiar, a jelly sandwich is just a glitter polish sandwiched between layers of a sheer or Jelly polish. The combinations are endless and you can come up with some really cool looking manicures! I've wanted to do it for a while, but have always struggled with which polishes would look right together. Finally, I decided just to go for it. And I like my results a lot!

Isn't it pretty? It didn't turn out like I imagined it, but it's still quite nice for my first jelly sandwich! Here's what I did.

I started out with a base coat (I used Revlon quick dry base coat if you are interested) and then I applied two thin coats of the nailtini polish in Frappe, which is a really super sheer nude I got in an ipsy glam bag a while back.  (ignore the red in the photo below, I had some staining from a previous mani)

When that was completely dry, it was time for some glitter. I chose to use Hard Candy's Emerald's Eve. This is the newest polish in my collection and it is absolutely stunning! It's a clear base with chunky gold glitter as well as smaller pieces of green glitter. It's supposed to be a dupe for Deborah Lippman's shake your money maker. It's so pretty! I applied one coat of this polish. This polish could easily be built up and worn on it's own!

This photo really doesn't do it justice. The glitter was so pretty I almost stopped there and just rocked the mani as is. But, I really wanted to try out the jelly sandwich thing, so when the glitter polish was dry I added one more thin layer of Nailtini's frappe on top, and then when that was all dry I added my top coat (Sally Hansen insta-dri anti-chip top coat) And that gave me my finished result!

Overall I am pretty pleased with the finished look! What do you think? Do you like the whole Jelly Sandwich trend? What's your favorite combination of polishes to make the perfect Jelly Sandwich Mani? I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment down below or else use my contact card below to get in touch! <3

April Polish Picks!

It's time again to share with you the nail polishes I wore for the month! I really enjoy these posts. I am totally obsessed with nail polish, in case you haven't noticed, so I love sharing with you all the polishes I chose to wear each month! So let's just go right ahead and get started.

I started out the month wearing a really cool color combination. A Coral color and a blue color, and I really enjoyed the way this color combo looked. What I did was painted my middle finger and thumb on each hand with the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear nail polish in the color in Blue me away. It's a bright blue cream finish polish that I just love. And then on my pointer finger, ring finger and pinkie I went with one of my all time favorite nail polishes, Elf's Coral Dream. Then, to sort of tie the whole look together I did a random little dotted pattern on my ring finger over the coral with the bright blue. It was a fun little mani! Coral and bright blue are some of my favorite colors, and I liked the color combination a ton! I wasn't crazy about the random design I did, but I still liked this manicure a lot.

After I was through with the coral and blue look, I went for something quite a bit more understated. I painted all of my nails with another one of my all time favorite nail polishes, Wet n Wild Megalast in the color I need a refresh-mint. It's just a gorgeous, tiffany box blue color. Very light and pretty. I love the megalast polishes a lot, because they are super easy to apply. I love the formula and I especially love the brush. Then, to add a bit more interest, I did a subtle glitter accent nail on my ring finger and thumb. I just applied one thin coat of Revlon's whimsical which is a sheer milky blue base with large, sparse chunks of pink and blue glitter. It was a very pretty combo!

Next, I went with yet another of the Wet n Wild Megalast polishes. This time I chose the super subtle, demure 2% milk. It's a sheer milky cream colored polish. It took about 3 coast to be opaque. I actually wore this polish alone for a day, and just got bored with how plain jane it was (in case you can't tell I like fun accents!) so I went ahead and did some free hand tips using the New York Color nail polish in the color High Line Green. It's one of NYC's quick dry polishes that I love in a bright green color that is perfect for spring. I didn't use any tape or special tools to do the tips so they are a little messily done, but I liked the overall look!

Right around the time I was ready to take that polish off, I received in the mail my very first Julep Maven box. If you aren't familiar with Julep, it's a monthly subscription nail polish service, for 20 dollars a month! I got my introductory box, and was anxious to try out the formula, so I went with one of the polishes from the box, Eileen which is a bright white, cream finish polish. Then, on top, I added a China Glaze polish in Whirled away, which is a clear base with large chunks of black and white hexagonal glitter as well as black bar glitter. I loved the way this looked. So whimsical and funky and fun! And, added bonus, it fit right in with the black and white trend! This was a pain the butt to apply. Whirled away is not my favorite glitter polish ever. You have to place the glitters exactly where you want them, you can't just brush them on. But I find that to be the case with a lot of polishes with large chunks of glitter, so it wasn't too much of a bother. The overall finished look was worth it! It was even worth the pain it was to remove (Thank God for the foil method of polish removal!)

Next, I went for another glitter-centric manicure. Apparently I am a glutton for nail polish removal punishment. But this was another one of those that made the removal process so worth it. I started out with a Sally hansen Xtreme WEar polish in the color Lacey Lilac. It's one of my all time favorite Xtreme WEar polishes at the moment. It's just a nice, pretty lilac color. Then I added the glitter! I went with REvlon's nail polish in the color Girly which is a pinky-puple sheer base with a ton of large pieces of indigo, fuchsia and purple glitter as well as smaller lilac and pink glitters. I loved the way this looked. It was definitely a very girly mani! It reminded me, for some reason, of a gumdrop! Not entirely sure why. But I really lovesd this manicure. I love REvlon's glitter polishes and this one might just be my favorite!

After that, I was ready to take a bit of a break from all the glitter and crazy color combinations. And luckily, right around that time, my Ipsy bag for the month of April was delivered and one of the products inside was a nail polish so I decided to give it a try. It's the Sation nail lacquer in the color Love at First Byte. It's a very sheer formula peachy color. I did three coats of this on my nails and it was still pretty sheer. That's just the nature of the polish. I actually liked it a lot, I thought it was a nice change from some of the crazier things I had been wearing so far this month. I really liked the formula of this polish a lot.

At the same time that I did that sheer, pretty mani, I went ahead and did my pedi for the month. I only paint my toe nails about once or twice a month. This time, I chose a Julep polish that I also received in my introductory box. It's a bright coral shade in the color Sasha. You can't really tell in the photo below, but this color made me look so tan! I could hardly believe it! My feet almost looked dirty at first they looked so tan! So this is a polish I will most definitely be wearing around the pool in the summer time! I liked the formula, okay, it was a bit thick, so not the easiest to work with. As I am using more and more Julep polishes I am finding that no two polishes is exactly alike as far as application goes. But I am having fun trying them out!

A couple days after I did the sation manicure, I received my second Julep box in the mail, which was the sea salt mystery box. One of the polishes inside was so pretty that I immediately took off what I was wearing and applied it. The color is Julep's Maria and it is a gorgeous rose gold metallic polish with a really high shine. I put this on, and I swear it looked like liquid metal. Almost like I had coated my nails in pink tin foil. I LOVED it. This is another one that was a bit thick and harder to work with than I would like, but it was just absolutely stunning. I felt like it went really well with my skin tone and matched everything in my wardrobe. I think this is definitely my favorite of the Julep's I have tried so far.

And the very last manicure that I want to share with you today is another super fun glitter one. I always come back to this type of mani I guess! This time, I chose one of the newest polishes in my collection. It's from Hard Candy and it's the color  Gummy Green. It's a milky mint green base with tons, and I mean tons of silver and black glitter. This seriously was like mint chocolate chip ice cream for the nails. And mint chocolate chip is my favorite. I LOVED this polish so much. Well, the look of it anyway. Not crazy about the application. It was pretty thick, but then again, with the huge amount of glitter in it, I guess it's to be expected.

And that's it for my polish picks for the month of April! I am so ready for lots more fun mani's and pedis in the month of May and you can bet I will be back to share them with you! Hope you guys enjoyed this and I will see ya later!

Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blushes

Today I wanted to do a quick review of the Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blushes. Hard Candy is discontinuing a ton of their products. If you go and like my facebook fan page, I have listed on there all of the products that are going to be discontinued. The Fox in a Box blushes are one of those products. I really love them. I have 3 out of the 5 that they have, and I thought you might like to hear my review and see swatches so that if you are interested you can run out and get them before they are gone for good! I have the blushes in the colors "Smooth Talker", "Spicy & Sweet" and "Hot Flash". I have had hot flash the longest. I just recently picked up the other two.

All three of the Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blushes that I own are quads. There are four shades of blush that you can use on their own, or you can swirl them together. I choose to swirl them together, because it's a bit difficult to get a blush brush in there and just pick up one of the shades, since the squares of color are a bit on the small side.

But before I get into the colors, let's talk about the packaging. All of the Fox in a Box blushes come in a cute little box. They remind me a lot of the Benefit Boxed Powders. Each of the boxes is the same, except for the fact that the colors of the boxes correspond with the colors of the blushes. Each blush contains 5.7 grams of product and comes with a little brush that you can use to apply the blush of you want. (I don't use the brush)

Now let's talk about the actual shades. "Smooth Talker" is, as I said, a quad of colors. There is a light peachy color, a light pink, a deeper pink and a light purple. The shades are all pretty sheer. Blended together Smooth Talker in a sheer peachy pink color. On my fair skin it is barely visible, and this is the least pigmented blush of the three that I own. It's got a bit of shimmer to it that doesn't translate well to the skin. This blush is good for fair tones or to be used as a highlight, but as it's not highly pigmented, I would skip this one for use as blush if you are medium to dark skinned.  But it does make a lovely highlight shade. I have seen this blush compared to Benefit's Sugar Bomb. I have no idea how it compares, since I don't own benefit's blush. But if you are looking for a dupe for that blush from benefit, you might want to check out Hard Candy's Smooth Talker.

"Spicy & Sweet" is a gorgeous blush. The colors in this quad are three different shades of pink- a light pink, a medium pink and a deeper pink, as well as a nude-y brown color. Swirled together, this blush makes a lovely pink shade that is the perfect flush of color on y fair skin. This blush is pretty pigmented, and blends very easily. It is a powdery blush. In fact, all three of these blushes are powdery. But I think the quality is good, and the lasting power is decent. Overall, Spicy and Sweet is a great blush that I think would be nice on any skin tone!

"Hot Flash" is a hot blush! The four blocks of color are light pink, a nude-y tan color, medium pink and bright hot pink. Swirled together, this blush is hot pink and it's gorgeous on my fair skin when used with a light hand. This one is really easy to over-do on my fair skin, though. The hot pink is deeply pigmented, and a little of this blush goes a long way. I think that this blush would be stunning on darker skin tones as well. I think this one might just be my favorite, since it's a bold statement on me.

As I said, all three blushes are powdery, but it's nothing I can't work with, especially considering the pigmentation on two of the three blushes, and the super adorably packaging. The brush that comes with the blushes is cute, but scratchy so it's not super for applying the blush. Still, it would work in a pinch if you don't have a blush brush already. It's size makes it a bit easier to pick up each separate color, too, if that is the look you are going for, rather than blending them all together the way that I like to wear them.

So overall, I do recommend these blushes. I like them a lot. If you want to get your hands on them run, don't walk to your local Walmart, where Hard Candy products are available exclusively. These will be off the shelf sometime in February, and they won't be back! Each blush costs just 6 dollars, and besides the three that I showed you today, there are two others. The other two are duos rather than quads like these, and I am hoping to add those to my collection as well, if I can get my hands on them before they are gone! 

L to R: Smooth Talker, Spicy & Sweet, Hot Flash

Do you own any of Hard Candy's products? Are there any on your wish list? Like I said, be sure to check out my Facebook page where you can see the full list of products that are going to be discontinued! And be on the lookout for new products from the Hard Candy line of cosmetics coming soon!

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. 

 

Blush 101 and my blush collection

I know a lot of women that avoid wearing blush at all costs. Whether it's because they fear it will not look natural, or they are just unsure how to apply it. It's a shame because the perfect blush can really bring out the structure of your face and finish off a look, especially when paired with a bronzer and/or highlight (which I will cover in a separate post)

As I said, the right blush can really bring a look together. It's one of my favorite types of makeup to purchase and use. So which blush will work best for you? Read more to find out!

Before I get started I should tell you that there are no hard and fast makeup rules. While there are certain shades or types of blush I may suggest you steer clear of, nothing says you can't rock them anyway. Wear whatever you feel most comfortable in. If you want to rock a bright pink blush with silver shimmer in in the daytime at the beach, then by all means, do so. I am simply stating some tips and opinions that are my own.

Choosing a blush is a two-fold process. First you need to decide on the type of blush, and then you need to decide on the color. Here's a quick guide on choosing the right formula...

If you have dry skin: Cream blushes are more hydrating and tend to be very flattering on dry skin.

Oily/combination skin: Powder blushes work best as they do not add to the oiliness of your skin, nor do they slide off of oily skin.

Normal Skin: you can wear any type of blush!

As far as finishes go, matte blushes work well on all skin types and ages. Shimmer can work as well, but you have to be careful. Super shimmery blush can make pores look larger than they are. Also, shimmer/glitter generally should be avoided in excess during the day time, in my opinion. At least on the face.

As far as color for a natural look, the general rule is to go for a color that is similar to your face after a work out or your pinched cheeks. That is the shade that will look most natural on you. Generally the darker your skin color, the brighter the blush you choose. But, really as long as you are confident you can rock just about any blush out there! Use your best instincts, and try lots of things. You may be surprised at what looks best on you. You may think that a gold-toned blush wouldn't work for you but find that when used with a light hand, it's a lovely shade for your skin tone. Take risks! Get samples of blushes to try if you are concerned about spending money on a blush that will not flatter you. But most of all, just have fun!

Now I will share with you the blushes in my makeup collection. As I said above, the most natural blush color is the shade that matches your pinched cheeks. But as you can see I have many different shades and finishes. I don't stick to that rule.



1. Elf contouring blush and Bronzing Powder. The blush in this duo is called blushed. It's a lovely peachy pink blush with gold shimmer. As you can see I have hit pan on this blush. I use it all the time.

2. Aziza II- my mom actually gave me this blush duo. I have no idea where she got it. It's a duo of pink blushes. One being a darker pink, and one being a lighter pink.

3. L.A. Colors blush in Peach Rose- This is another peachy pink blush with gold shimmer, but it's a couple of shades darker than the Elf blushed. This is another that I think looks really natural and I use often.

4. L.A. Colors blush in Toast- This is a deep brown toned pink and is completely matte. It looks beautiful on, especially in the summer time when I have a bit more color.

5. Elf peachy keen blush- this blush is a straight up peach color with a nice sheen. It's another really natural barely there blush.

6. Elf pink passion blush- this blush is bright pink. Very bright. It can be intimidating to use. But when used with a light hand it gives the prettiest pink flush to the cheeks.



7. Elf cream blush in flirt- this is a lovely cream blush that has a sort of whipped spongey texture. It blends beautifully on the skin and is a nice bright pink.

8. Hard Candy fox in a box blush in Hot flash- This boxed blush has four different colors that you can use alone or swirl together. The shades inside are a very light pink, a neutral, a mid-toned pink and a bright fuchsia. This blush is beautiful but must be used with a light hand on my fair skin otherwise I look a little like a clown.

9. Wet 'n Wild twist up blush stick in 721- this is a stick blush that is a little hard to blend but lovely after you work with it. It is sort of a blue based pink color.

10. Elf all over color stick in Persimmon- I love these elf all over color sticks. They are so creamy, so pretty and so cheap. Persimmon has sort of a iridescent type sheen to it. I know that's not accurate but I can't think how else to describe it. It's a really pretty baby pink color that is pretty as a blush or a highlight shade.

11. Elf all over color stick in pink lemonade- this one is a really dark mauve-y pink that when blended out gives a beautiful flush of color.

12. Elf all over color stick in lilac petal- This one is very similar in color to persimmon only it has a bit or a purple cast to it. a very subtle purple cast. I only see purple when comparing it to persimmon.

13. Elf all over color stick in Golden peach- this one is just what the name implies a golden peach color.

14. Blush from the Elf Flawless face collection- this one a medium toned pink with a bit of shimmer.




15. deep wine colored blush from the elf beauty on the go palette in night on the town- this is the darkest blush I own. It's a beautiful deep wine color and i love it blended away to almost nothing.

16. Baby pink colored blush from the Elf beauty on the go palette in day on the beach- this is a super subtle baby pink matte blush

17. Gold colored blush from the elf beauty on the go palette in Tuscany retreat- this is a gold blush that leans more toward a highlight on my skin. It's very pretty and works well on tanned skin.

Well, that's all for my blush collection. I hope you found this post helpful. Be sure to leave any questions or comments below. Thanks for reading!

Concealer 101 and my concealer collection

When I first started using makeup, I was totally flabbergasted by concealer. Foundation I understood, but what was this concealer all about? Wasn't foundation enough? Which concealer shades were best for my skin? Which concealers were best for which area of the face? It was only recently that I started investing in concealers and using them, because the whole concealer concept was just lost on me. I thought, since I always had such trouble knowing and understanding the art of concealing, some of you might also be confused. So I thought a quick explanation on concealers would be helpful. While I am at it, I will share with you my little collection on concealers as well as how I use them!

Foundation is used to even out your skin tone. I hear people all the time say that they need a full coverage foundation. No, you don't! You should not be expecting your foundation to cover blemishes and scars and dark circles! That's what concealer is for. There are a few different types of concealers, and each one is designed to do something different. Though you can use concealer in whatever fashion you see fit, here are a couple of tips.

Solid concealers- Stick concealers generally come in stick form. They tend to come in a tube like a lipstick, or else a pencil form. These are generally used to cover blemishes and scars, but are not usually great for around the eyes because they are generally not easily blended and can appear cakey when placed around the eye area.

Liquid concealers- these are generally in a squeeze tube, or in a tube with a doe foot applicator. Liquid concealer is often used to cover larger areas, such as under eye circles, or freckles. Liquid concealers tend to be good for dry skin.

Creamy Concealers- these are the most user friendly in my opinion. They tend to come in a tub type packaging or palette form. They are very creamy and easy to blend. These concealers tend to be good to under eye circles as well as blemishes, though if they are too creamy, they may settle into fine lines around the eye, so I suggest using some sort of face primer first!

Note, this is just how I use concealers. You may find that different concealers are good for different things. not all concealers are created equal. These are just some quick rules, but there are always exceptions. Just because a concealer comes in a stick form does not mean you cannot use it under the eyes, simply because I send they tend not to work well there. Use trial and error! Decide what works best for you! There are no hard and fast rules for makeup. Do what works best for you and your routine!

now, I thought I would share with you my concealer collection. I have collected a fair few. Some I use more often than others, but I thought I would share them with you, as well as my preffered way to use them.


1. Elf Flawless Face Beauty book- this little book comes with 4 shimmer creams, 4 shades of concealer, 1 bronzer and 1 blush. The concealers are all various light shades. They are creamy, but not the easiest to blend. I tend to use these on dark spots on my face. Sun spots, or acne scars. The shades of these concealers match my skin fairly well, and have a bit of a yellow tone to them, so they cover the darkness of sun spots and discoloration nicely.

2. Urban Decay 24/7 concealer pencil in CIA. This is a pencil style concealer, but the concealer itself is so easy to blend and so creamy. This might be my favorite concealer. I like to use this concealer on the inner corners of my eyes, as well as for under eye circles. This is a couple of shades lighter than my skin so it brightens up the under eye area beautifully. It can settle into the fine lines around my eyes, but I find when I use it in conjunction with a face/eye primer, it works perfectly.

3 Elf all over color stick in Ivory. This is a nice soft concealer that I like to use to blend over blemishes to cover them up. It's very soft and easily blend-able, and covers spots nicely.

4. Hard Candy glamoflauge heavy duty concealer and pencil- this is the ultimate cover everything concealer. It comes in a liquid form, and is great for covering up spots, scars and blemishes. This concealer also comes with a pencil which is perfect for covering up tattoos and scars. I usually start with the pencil and fill in anything I want to erase, and then go over it with the liquid concealer. It's great for erasing just about anything you want to cover up.

5. NYC cover stick in light- this is the hardest of all of my concealers to blend. It's got a harder consistency. It's good for scarring, and discoloration, but it does take some work to get it to blend into the skin. because of that reason, I don't use this concealer often.

6.NYC liquid concealer in light- this concealer is really liquidy. It's good for covering up large areas. I use this sometimes to cover up my sun spots, and freckles, when I am going for a really full coverage look. It's also good for under the eyes when used with a good primer. It's another concealer that is a bit lighter so it really brightens up that area.

well, that's about all for today. What is your favorite concealer?