e.l.f. Studio Ultimate Kabuki Brush

I was perusing instagram one day when I saw that this amazing looking brush was available from e.l.f. I immediately went to their website (eyeslipsface.com) to buy it. You guys know what a sucker I am for Elf products. When I saw the price on this baby, my mouth dropped. $10! Ten dollars is not a lot of money for a good quality makeup brush by any means, But it's a lot for an elf brush. Elf's prices are usually dirt cheap, so 10 bucks just seems like a lot. But, I went ahead and ordered it because I am a sucker for Elf products. When it arrived in the mail I was surprised to see how big it is. The head of the brush is very fluffy and incredibly soft and flexible which I thought might make it difficult to use. That has not been the case however. I use this for applying and blending out bronzer, blush, powder, etc. I find it realy versatile. What I do is turn it and use the corner of the brush, which is rounded and quite nice to apply the product, and ten use the flat edge to blend the product out. It's big fluffy head makes blending over large areas a snap. I love to use it to blend bronzer down my neck and chest and around my forehead and because it's no big it takes no time at all. It's luxuriously soft and blends powder products beautifully. If you are leery about picking up this brush because of it's higher price point, I urge you to give it a try. It has quickly become one of my favorite elf brushes, and now that I have it I wouldn't want to be without it!

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!!

September Favorites and 1 un-favorite

Check out the Video below to see my favorite beauty products from the month of September, and also 1 "un-favorite" and be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't done so already! www.youtube.com/Jwhackers

Brushes 101

Hi guys! I got a request on the budget beauty facebook fan page the other day to do an in-depth guide to brushes. I thought it was a great idea. It can be intimidating when you are first starting out with brushes knowing what brush should be used with what products, etc. The awesome girl that requested that I do this blog post has the 11 piece brush set from the elf studio line, and since I own that and love it as well, I figured I would go over each of those brushes, as well as some of the other brushes that I use on a daily basis.

First I will go over the Elf studio eleven piece brush set. This is a set available at eyeslipsface.com It includes 11 brushes, as well as a waterproof carrying case and can be purchased for 30 dollars.

Elf Blush Brush

The first brush that I am going to talk about it the Elf blush brush. This is a synthetic hair brush with a unique shape. It has a quite small brush head, making it good for precise application of blush, bronzer or highlighter. I do use this brush for blush sometimes, but my favorite thing to use this brush for is actually applying highlighter to my cheek bones. It's the perfect size for that, and since it's synthetic it can be used for powder or cream highlighting products.

Elf Powder Brush

This brush is quite possibly the most "famous" brush from Elf. It's a flat top synthetic brush that is very dense, which makes it perfect for applying a lot of different products. Many people use this brush to stipple on foundation. I, personally, do not use it for that very often (though I have). My favorite way to use this brush is exactly what it says on the handle. For powder. It's great for applying the perfect amount of powder to the face to set my foundation. It really buffs the powder into the skin leaving a beautiful finish.

Elf Angled Foundation Brush

I am going to be honest, I have never actually used this brush. I am sure it's a lovely brush, but I don't use this type of brush for foundation. I prefer a stipple type brush for liquid foundation over this paint brush style. Still, if you enjoy this sort of application for your foundation this is a good one for it. It's quite soft while still being stiff enough to work with. It has a nice angle that would be good for getting around the nose and cheek bones and the like. I can't really think of any other good use for this brush, which is the reason I have never used it.

Elf Complexion Brush

This is a great multi-purpose brush. You can use it to apply pretty much any powder product to your face, whether it be powder, blush or bronzer. I personally tend to use this for blush. I think it's the perfect size shape and density for that purpose. It's an incredibly soft brush, and dense enough that you can control exactly where the product goes. I really love this brush!

Elf Concealer brush

This little brush is a great concealer brush. It's large enough that it can be used under the eye without taking ages to blend the concealer in, but it's small enough for spot concealing. I like the shape of this brush as well as the size and use it for concealing all over the face!

Elf Fan brush

This is another brush that I don't get much use out of. When
I do use it, though, I tend to use it for a couple of different things. I have used this brush for highlighting my cheekbones in a pinch and it works nicely for that. But most often, I use it to wipe away fall out from powder eyeshadows and glitter. It's nice for sweeping that sort of thing away before applying foundation and powder.

Elf Eyeshadow "C" Brush

 Moving on to the eye brushes in this set, we have the elf eyeshadow "c" brush. It's indeed a "c" shaped brush, more commonly known as a shader brush. This is a nice, dense soft brush that I use for packing color on to my eyelids. It can be used in a pinch for blending as well.

Elf contour Brush

The next brush in the set is the Elf contour brush. This is a nice dome shaped brush that is great for working with contouring shades for the eye. It fits nicely in the crease of the eye and works well for adding depth and dimension to the eye. This is also a very nice eye blending brush, due to it's soft fluffy nature.

Elf small angled brush

This is one of my favorite brushes from the eleven piece brush set. Again, like all the other brushes in this set, it's synthetic and soft. The angle on this brush makes it perfect for filling in my eyebrows. It's also a great brush for cream or gel eyeliner, because the angle makes it easy to use on the lash line.

Elf small Smudge brush

This brush has a small brush head on it that I often use for smudging eyeliner or eyeshadow along the bottom lash line. It's also pretty good at smudging eyeliner for a smokey look. In a pinch, I have even used this brush to fill in my eyebrows. because it's so small, and has a bit of a domed tip, it's a very functional little brush.

Elf small precision Brush

This brush is very similar, in my opinion, to the small smudge brush. honestly, I don't see why you need both. They are both tiny little brushes. The only difference is this ones ends in a bit more of a point. I use this brush for all of the same things that I use the other one. I have also used this brush for applying a highlight to the inner corner of my eye, and ecen as a lip brush before. It's another versatile little brush.



So that does it for the elf eleven piece brush set. It's a great little set, but in my opinion, there are a few other brushes that you need to really complete the set. Some of them I have found from Elf, and a few others are from coastal scents. So I will go over a few more that I have purchased, love and use on a regular basis.

Elf stipple Brush

I bought this brush in the hope that it would work for powder blushes. It really doesn't, in my opinion. It's not dense enough for that. I also find that this brush is too floppy to apply liquid foundation with. honestly, I don't really use this brush for much. I wanted to include it because I know a lot of people do find that this brush works for those uses. Just because it doesn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Elf kabuki face brush

I love this brush. It's the perect size shape and density for applying powder, as well as blending out face products. Whenever I have applied my bronzer, I always go back in with this brush to blend out the edges and make it look natural and pretty!

Coastal Scents Powder Buffer Brush

 

 

Most of the brushes that I own and love are from Elf but I also have a nice collection of brushes from coastal Scents. I use them all occassionally, but this is the brush that I use every single day for foundation. It's nice and dense, and makes application of cream and liquid foundations easy peasy. The shape is perfect for getting in around my nose and mouth. The synthetic bristles make it perfect for not picking up and absorbing too much product. This is what I wanted the elf stipple brush to be. Love it!

Coastal Scents Angled Blush Brush

This is another coastal scents brush that I use on the regular. This is also the only natural hair brush that I use on a consistent basis. I believe this particular brush is goat hair. It's amazingly soft. It's dense, without being too dense, if that makes sense. I use this brush most often for contouring my cheekbones with bronzer. The angle makes it perfect for that. I love this brush and highly recommend it!

Elf professional powder Brush

So we're back to elf brushes now, but this and the rest of the brushes I am going to be talking about are from Elf's essential line. Each of these brushes cost 1 dollar and a lot of them are amazing. This is the elf professinal powder brush. It's a small brush. The name makes you think it's going to be a large powder brush, but the head of this brush is actually quite small. I use this brush for powdering under my eyes. I find that it's the perfect size for that, and since I use a lot of concealer under my eyes, I like to make sure that it is nicely set with a loose or pressed powder. This brush is ideal for that. This brush can also be used for contouring the face in a pinch!

Elf professional eyeshadow brush

This is another cult favorite in the beauty community. This little brush only costs a dollar and it rivals so many higher end brushes. It's just a flat shader brush. It's got shirt-ish bristles, and it's perfect for packing color onto the eyelids. It's easily one of my favorite brushes, and I own multiples of it, since it's just a dollar! Love this brush and highly recommend it!

Elf professional defining Eye Brush

I find this brush to be incredibly useful. It has a bit of an angle to it, which makes it nice for applying a brow bone highlight. I also use this for applying an inner corner highlight. It can also be used for creasework.

Elf professional crease brush

This tiny little brush head makes it perfect for applying color precisely into the crease. It's a super precise pencil style brush. You can place color exactly where you want it without having to worry about it going everywhere, due to the density and size of this brush.

Elf professional blending eye brush

This little beauty of a brush is a nice blending brush for the eye area. It's great for going back where you placed the eyeshadow with the crease brush and blending it out nicely. I wish that Elf made a fluffier version of this brush as well for even more blending options, but this one works well, and it's dense so it's easy to keep the eyeshadow exactly where you want it while you are blending.

Elf professional Brow Comb and Brush

I use this brush, along with the elf brow brush (which is just your basic spoolie) for grooming my eyebrows, as well as removing clumps from my eyelashes. It's a great basic brush that everyone needs in their collection in my opinion. And it's a great value at just a dollar.




So there you have it. There is a quick overview of all the brushes that I use on a regular basis, as well as what I use them for. I hope that you found this post helpful! Leave me a comment down below letting me know how you liked this. Do you use your brushes in different ways then I do? Let me know that as well! I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Thanks, as always, for reading!

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. 

 

September Favorites and a fail!

I tried multiple times to film a video on my monthly favorites, and it just wasn't happening. The lighting was bad. My four year old kept interrupting, etc. So I am bringing you my September favorites the old fashioned way. You all don't mind, right?

Before I get started I want to say that I am still loving all of my monthy favorites from last month. So if you haven't checked out my August favorites, be sure to do so! I used all of those products over the course of September, too. So, the products I talk to you about today are really in addition to those.

 First, I will talk to you all about my favorite face products for the month of September. I have quite a few new products to rave about!

I have talked about the Elf mineral infused face primer before in my monthly favorites, but I wanted to talk about it again because it really is an amazing product. It's a silky clear gel that you apply before putting on your foundation. I love it because it makes my foundation glide on easily. It helps to even out my skin and it really helps to make my foundation last. I can't say enough good things about this product. The only thing that I don't like about this product is that the pump gets clogged. My pump quit working about a month after I had the product, so now I am forced to open the bottle to get the product out, which is not the most sanitary thing in the world. But, I am willing to overlook that because the product is so good. It's one of Elf's most expensive products. This will cost you $6.00 full price. But that's still an amazing price for this product, and there are always half off coupon codes for Eyeslipsface.com.

Next up is the Elf tone correcting concealer. You all just saw this in my most recent Elf haul. I didn't purchase this until the second half of the month, but I am putting it in here because I have used this concealer everyday since I bought it. It's a great concealer. I like to use it under my eyes. It blends so easily and smoothly, so it is not necessary for me to pull and tug at that sensitive area to get the concealer to get it blended. The color is the perfect shade for my skin tone. I got mine in light beige. I also love the smell of this product. It's got Elf's sugar orange smell to it, and I really enjoy that scent. I know it seems funny to talk about how good a concealer smells, but there ya go. haha. The best part about this product is the price. Just a dollar!

Another product that I got in my most recent Elf haul that I have been loving in the Elf maximum coverage concealer. I really like this concealer for spots and blemishes. It reminds me a lot of the Hard Candy glamoflauge concealer, except that I like this one better because it blends easier and doesn't cake up like the Hard Candy one can do. This concealer is new to Elf and it's one of the best face products I have used by the company. I highly recommend it! It's available from their studio line and cost just 3 dollars.

Lastly, I want to talk about the foundation that I have been loving this month. I also featured this in my last haul. Apparently I made good choices during my last shopping trip. This is the NYC smooth skin liquid makeup. I purchased the shade barely beige, which I worried would be too dark for me, but it's the perfect color for my skin. I talked about this foundation in my "i'm sick" makeup video and also featured it in my getting ready with me video. I love this foundation. It's very easy to blend, gives medium coverage and really lasts on me, especially when used in conjunction with the elf mineral infused face primer. I have heard this foundation compared to the infamous Revlon Color Sta. I haven't used that one, and I don't think I will ever need to buy it, because this is a quarter of the price (I got mine on sale for less than 2 dollars!) and works fantastic for me. My only negative is that this foundation does not come with a pump, and is very difficult to get out of the bottle. Other than that I give this foundation 5 stars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, let's talk about my favorite eye products of the month. I have recently been reaching a lot for my Urban Decay Rollergirl palette. This is an eyeshadow palette that contains four eyeshadows. 3 neutrals and one bright pink. I have been reaching for this because it's got great neutrals that I use practically everyday and it's small enough to just throw in my bag for touch ups. This palette contains Urban Decay eyeshadows in Woodstock, Verve, suspect and darkhorse. Most days this month I have been using suspect all over my lid, verve as a brow bone and inner corner highlight, and darkhorse in my crease. It makes for a super simple, but super pretty look.

And I want to give some love to the Elf essential line of brushes. The face brushes from that line are crap. The studio face brushes are far superior. But, the essential eye brushes are amazing! I feel like I haven't talked about them enough on this blog. I really like the eye brushes and I use them practically everyday. They are all very soft brushes that do not shed. I love that I can get all the eye brushes I need from Elf and still spend less than what it would cost to buy just one eye brush from coastal scents or sigma. I highly reccomend that you try out all the the essential line of eye brushes from Elf!

 

I have been loving trying out lots of different lipsticks this month. I've got three favorites to share with you today.

First is the NYC Ultra moist lipwear in violet shine. I got this lipstick at the same time I picked up the NYC foundation I talked about above. All of the NYC products were 40 percent off, so I got this lipstick for just 59 cents! And what a steal that was because I have been getting a ton of wear out of this lipstick. Like the name implies it is a very moisturizing lipstick. The color is a purpl-y pink, with a nice shine. This lipstick does not have any taste and has a bit of that plastic cheap makeup smell, but it doesn't linger. I am not crazy about the packaging. The bullet does not go all the way down, so when you put the lid on you risk nicking the lipstick (which I have done a couple of times) but overall I really adore this lip color!

Another lipstick I have worn a lot this month is the Elf lipstick in Voo Doo. This is one of their essential lipsticks that costs just a dollar and this is one of my all time favorite lipsticks. It's a brick red shade with some brown in it so it makes it very wearable for me. I love this color and always break it out in the early days of fall, because I find it to be the perfect transition color to take me from summer into fall and winter.

The last lipstick is another one I got in my most recent Elf haul and it's the mineral lipstick in Party Pink. This lipstick will cost you 5 dollars, and it's worth every penny. This lipstick glides on so smooth and is incredibly moisturizing. The packaging for this lipstick is a a nice black square tube. It's really nice packaging, and holds up a lot better than their essential lipsticks. the color is a beautiful mid toned pink, that I think would be flattering on every skin tone. The color doesn't exactly scream Fall to me, but I still have been wearing it a ton because it's just a great quality lipstick. I really want to try more of the mineral line of lipsticks from Elf.

One random non beauty favorite that I want to talk about is a candle. I recently picked up a fall scented candle from walmart and I have been burning it like crazy since I purchased it. It's the Better Homes and Gardens limited edition Candle in Spiced Pumpkin Pie. I LOVE the smell of this. It's the epitome of fall in a candle if you ask me. I thought I would include it just in case anyone wanted to pick it up before it's no longer available for purchase! Plus, I like to throw in non-beauty related favorites sometimes just to mix it up a bit!

That's it for my favorites for the month of September, but I do want to tell you all about a product that did not work for me. It's the Elf eyebrow treat and tame. I picked this up in my last Elf haul because, as you all know if you have been reading my blog for a while, I really hate my eyebrows. They are sparse and light and wiry and I have a really hard time getting them to look right. I am lazy about filling them in, too, which makes it worse. So I thought that this product would be great for me. It's a brown gel that comes in a tube and is applied with a mascara type wand. It also has a clear gel on the other end that is supposed to help treat your eyebrows and help to grow them in. I thought that part would be perfect for my sparse brows!

Well, the tame side, the side with the brown gel, is just a mess to apply. The wand makes it impossible to apply the product neatly. It goes all over the place. And the gel smells terrible. It's got this burnt plastic smell that I cannot tolerate. The color of the gel is nice, and matches my eyebrows okay (I bought it in the shade dark) but, even that doesn't save this product because the gel flakes off after just a couple of hours of wear.  It also seems like this product has some false fibers in it, which I find incredibly weird, and they don't work anyway. This part of the product was a complete bust for me.

I don't know if the treat side works. I have only been using it a couple of weeks, and have not noticed any difference at all. I will continue to use the treat side of the product, and let you all know if I see any results. Maybe I will, and that will save this product from being a complete waste of money. WE shall see.

Okay, that's it for this month! I hope you all had an amazing September and have an equally amazing October! Thanks for stopping by!!

August Favorites

September is upon us. School will be starting for my son next week. Summer is definitely on its way out. But the temperatures here are still hot hot hot and I am going to enjoy them as long as they stick around. unfortunately, August cannot stick around and so I am here with my monthly favorites. I have quite a few this month. I've got the normal beauty favorites this month, but I also have some non beauty related favorites too! So let's get right into it!

My first favorite is a foundation brush. This is a coastal scents brush that came in a big 22 piece brush set. I think this is just a synthetic hair powder buffer brush, but I love it for foundation. I have dry skin, so generally applying foundation with a damp sponge works best for me, but there ie something about the combination of this brush, and my Rimmel Lasting finish foundation that works amazingly well together. This brush works well with my favorite Elf tinted moisturizer as well. I love it!


Next is the Elf waterproof eyeliner pen in Black. I love the look of liquid eyeliner, but I still haven't mastered the perfect technique for applying it. That's why I love this eyeliner pen. It's the great look of liquid liner, but much easier to apply. This pen has a nice felt tip applicator that allows me to glide the liner on easily. It's easy to handle, easy to apply, and the liner itself does not budge. I have been especially loving the black this month, but I own the one in the color coffee too and I like that one a lot as well!



Next I have a blush. I pulled this one out of my collection and used it quite a bit towards the end of this month, and I really like it. It's the hard candy fox in a box blush in hot flash. first. can I just take a minute to talk about how stinking cute this packaging is. It's obviously modelled after the benefit boxed blushes, but I think I like this packaging even more than the benefit ones. I like that the lid stays attached and closes magnetically. And I love the design on the front. As for the blush itself, it's four different shades that you can either wear alone or all blended together. I personally like swirling them together and then applying the color lightly to my cheeks. It's a gorgeous pink that gives me a lovely flush, and I have a feeling I am going to be wearing this a ton this coming fall!



Next up I have the Elf Golden Bronzer. They call this a bronzer, but it's actually a highlight. I cannot imagine this being a bronzer on ANY skin tone. It's a sheer gorgeous wash of light that I love to apply yo my cheekbones, the bridge of my nose my cupid's bow or anywhere else I just want to pop. I tried swatching this and just could not capture how beautiful this looks on the skin. I highly recommend you go out right now and get this! You won't regret it!

My favorite nail polish combination this month is definitely what I have on my nails right now. It's the most recent manicure I shared as a nail of the day. It's Sally Hansen Ivy league with a layer of Wet n wild hallucinate on top. I love the way it looks!


Another thing that I am loving is this neon green shirt that I got from target last month. I love the way it looks. It's so comfortable. And the color is so cute! You can see me in it here in this photo of me with Denise Donovan from Team Starkid!!



My last favorite is the trip that I took this month to Chicago! This was definitely my favorite thing about August. I went to Chicago to attend Leakycon! I had an amazing time. I got to meet a lot of other really cool harry potter fans I got to see Starkid perform A very potter senior year, which was totally awesome. It was a trip I will always remember!



So that's it for August. I hope you all had a great month!!

What's in my travel makeup bag

I mentioned in one of my last blog posts that I am going away to Chicago for 5 days this month. In fact, I leave a week from today. I thought you might be interested to see what makeup I am taking with me. It's not a lot. I tried to really keep things to a minimum and not over pack. It's a road trip, so I didn't have to worry about the restrictions of flying and liquids and all that, so bare that in mind.



This is the makeup case I am taking, as well as my make up brush holder. The train case came from walmart probably close to 10 years ago. The makeup brush holder is what my 11 piece brush set from Elf came in.



Here's what everything looks like all packed in!



Here are the face products I am bringing. My equate Healthy face lotion SPF 15 for everyday moisturizing. My Urban Decay 24/7 concealer pencil in CIA, which is my favorite concealer for under eye. My Elf mineral infused face primer, which is my favorite primer at the moment. My Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 hour foundation in ivory, for when I want a more full coverage, and for evening wear. And for my everyday looks, I've brought along my Elf tinted moisturizer SPF 20 in nude.



Continuing on with face products. I didn't want to bring a ton of different bronzing powders and blushes, so I kept it simple. I've brought along the Elf contouring blush and bronzing Powder Duo. And that's actually the only blush I brought. It's perfect for day or night in my opinion, and has a lovely shimmer. The bronzer in this duo is a little dark for my liking, but when used with a light hand can make for a nice contour shade. I also am bringing the Elf Golden bronzer, which is perfect for all over bronzing and is just gorgeous when blended into the skin. I'm also bringing my NYC smooth skin pressed powder in translucent to set all of my make up. And for my highlight, I've got the Urban Decay cream highlighter in Moonshine.



And here are the eye products I am bringing with me. For eyeshadow, I really wanted to bring my naked palette, but the naked 2 palette is honestly just as pretty and much more travel friendly in my opinion. It's just sturdier packaging and closes better. It's got a large variety of colors which will make it easy to create neutral day looks as well as beautiful dramatic night looks. It's all I need in the way of eye shadows! I am also bringing 2 of the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencils in Whiskey and Perversion. The brown color will be nice for day looks, and the black, of course will pump up the drama for night looks. I also brought along a black and a brown mascara. The brown mascara I chose to bring is the Covergirl Lash blast mascara. I adore this mascara. It's by far my favorite mascara I own, and I love that it is waterproof. The black mascara I chose to bring is the Maybelline Great Lash mascara in black. I chose this one because it is the only black mascara that I have that is waterproof, and I like waterproof mascaras for holding curl and of course, in case of tears, or rain or whatever. To prime my lids for all of those eye products I brought a mini Urban Decay Primer potion. I love my Elf one but this one is so small it seemed silly not to bring it- it's the perfect size for traveling! Then for my brows, I am bringing the Elf brightening eyeliner in coffee to fill them in, and the Elf wet gloss lash and brow clear mascara to keep them in place!



For lip products I wanted options, but I didn't want to go crazy and bring 20 different lip sticks. So I went with just a few in various shades. First I have the maybelline baby lips lip balm in Grape Vine. I thought this was be pretty for just an everyday lip for when we are out and about shopping or doing whatever it is we decide to do while we are there! I've got the EOS lip balm in Lemon Drop, which you all know is my all time favorite lip balm because it smells great and has SPF. I use this to prep my lips for lipstick. I am bringing the Elf lipstick in classy, which is a beautiful everyday pink color. I'm also bringing the Elf lipstick in voo doo which is a nice berry red shade that will be nice for evenings out whether it be going out to dinner, or to the charity ball that I am attending as part of the convention I am going to. Lastly, is the Revlon colorburst lip butter in creme brulee which is my favorite nude lipstick right now. To pair with the lipsticks, I just packed 2 lip glosses. The first is the Elf lucius liquid lipstick in Caramel Candy, which is my favorite nude gloss, and sadly almost gone so I will have to get a new one soon (luckily it's only a dollar!). The second gloss is the Urban Decay lip junkie lip gloss in naked which is just a pinky toned sheer gloss that smells minty and feels really good on the lips, and matches with just about any lipstick you layer underneath it.



In the top of my make up case is a little zippered area, where I have put my tools. I'm just bringing a pencil sharpener for both fat and smaller pencils, so that I can sharpen my concealer pencil as well as my eyeliner pencils. Also, I am bringing my Revlon eyelash curler. I also will be taking a pair of tweezers, but I haven't found them yet to pack.



Now I will share with you the brushes I am taking with me. First are the face brushes. I have my Elf powder brush, which is flat topped and lovely for either liquid foundations or powder. I use it for both, but in this instance I am bringing it to use with my setting powder. Next is a coastal scents duo fiber brush with a large round head that I like to use for my foundation. The third brush is the Elf complexion brush which I like to use to apply my blush. Another brush I am bringing is the Elf powder brush which is a little brush that I use to powder under my eyes to set my concealer. The last face brush is a coastal scents angled brush which is what I use to apply my bronzer and/or highlight.



And lastly, I will share with you the eye brushes I am taking with me. First, I have the Elf
eye crease brush from their essential line. This brush has a tiny little head that is perfect for applying crease color precisely. I also use this brush for applying shadow to my lower lash line. Next to that is the Elf blending eye brush also from their essential line. This is the brush I use for blending out my crease color. Next to that is the Elf studio small angled brush. I love this brush for applying eyeshadow to my upper lash line. As well as for filling in my brows with brow powder. Next is a little smudge sponge from coastal scents that I use to smudge out my eyeliner for smoky looks. Next to that is the Elf essential eyeshadow brush, which is just a flat shader brush that I use to pat pack eyeshadow on to my lids. Next is another flat shader brush, this one from coastal scents. This one is bigger and fluffier so I use it for applying color less densely or for blending or highlight colors for my brow bone. Next to that is yet another flat shader brush. This one os the Elf studio eyeshadow "c" brush. Same concept as the others. I like to have a few of these so I can use one for darker colors and one for lighter colors. Just makes it so I don't have to wash my brush between colors. And lastly is the elf essential eyelash and brow wand, which I use to brush out my eyebrows before filling them in.

So that's that. all of the makeup, tools and brushes I am taking with me. I think it should be more than enough for the 5 days I will be gone! If you have any questions or suggestions on travel makeup, leave me a comment below, and be on the lookout for a few other travel themed posts in the next week, including how I pack my suitcase, what toiletries I am bringing with me, and of course, outfits or the day when I get back from chicago!