What's In My Makeup Bag? #2

Hi ladies! So this past weekend the boyfriend and I went back to his for the weekend to visit with his parents. That and he also needed his dad's help to fix his laptop. Anyways, here's what I brought back with me!

Eyes:

Sleek Storm Palette: This is the ONLY eyeshadow I've been using this month. It's one of the four products in my 4 For The Month challenge, and I've certainly stuck to it! I mostly make use of the top row, but I'll talk more about it at the end of the month. Anyways, I love the neutral colors in this palette and it's excellent for very simple, everyday eye looks.

Urban Decay Primer Potion: Last time I traveled, I didn't bother bringing an eye primer, and I regretted it! So this time I brought along the very travel friendly version of UDPP. It's the primer I've been using the majority of this month and I've fallen back in love with it. Good thing, since I have the professional size of it to get through!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero: The only pencil I use for my waterline. Stays all day, it's amazing, that's all I have to say.

Maybelline The Falsies Mascara: I definitely prefer this one over the One By One mascara that I picked up along with this one. This one just does an amazing job of lengthening my lashes. I've never used something that made them look so long. But at the same time, it's not clumpy and my lashes don't look spidery. I can see why everyone raved about this one.

MUA Mascara in Shade 1: I just use this to brush and set my brows.

3 brushes: One's from e.l.f and the other 2 are from the Studio Tools line sold in Target. They're cheap, but I find they work well for simple eye looks.

Lips:

NADA! I know, how terrible have I been with the lips lately. I had my Summer Fruits EOS lip balm though!

Face:

L'oreal Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base: Probably the first and last primer I'll ever use. It does such a good job of smoothing out my skin and making my makeup last that I don't see a point in searching for anything else!

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Opal: I'm still not quite ready to review this yet, because I'm still in the process of finding what sets it best and whether it's best used as an all over foundation or a concealer and blah blah blah. But at the moment, I'm using it as an all over foundation and I apply it with my fingers. The color matches me pretty well and it does an excellent job of covering, BUT, I feel like it's almost equal to the coverage I got when I mixed Neutrogena Healthy Skin and Revlon Photo Ready. But then again maybe I'm just not using enough, we'll see!

Garnier Tinted Eye Roll On in Light: I love this for my undereye circles. It just blends in so well and covers amazingly.

Bare Minerals Mineral Veil: I didn't want to use the Bare Minerals foundation to set my foundation, since the Vichy foundation is supposed to be so full coverage. But I found that this just didn't keep me oil free long enough, so I tried setting the Vichy with my Bare Minerals foundation and it worked out much better, but this did well enough at the time.

e.l.f Complexion Brush: Used this to apply the Mineral Veil. It's nice, doesn't put too much product on your face or make you look powdery.

What do you make sure to bring along in your makeup bag when you travel?

February Favorites

Hi ladies! Today I've got a post on the products I've been loving in February. I can't believe it's March! We all know what that means....soon we'll be getting lovely and warm weather! Hopefully anyways. Spring/Summer are always so gorgeous in London. I love going to the parks and just enjoying the weather and I can't wait to do that again this year.

Eyes:

Nothing too fancy this month, which I feel was my motto for the majority of this month with all my makeup. I did very neutral eyes and often didn't bother with a crease color.

L'oreal Telescopic Mascara: I like mascaras with thinner/smaller brushes (like this one) because of my small eyes because it makes application easier. While the brush is a bit flimsy, which I feel leads to some minor clumping, it's fine when you wiggle it about.

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese: I've been using this in my inner corner to make my eyes pop. I've used it once or twice as a base, but I do prefer using my MAC Bare Study paint pot instead when going for a neutral look.

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Eldorado: When I felt like adding some fun to my eye look, I'd line part of my lower lash line with this pencil, in place of a white pencil like the one above.

MAC Satin Taupe: Such a lovely color for all over the lid, and then I work it up into the crease for a really simple look.

MAC Bare Study Paint Pot: I've been using this just about every time I've worn eye makeup. I always put it on over a primer though, just to be safe. I find it adds a bit more of a pop of color to any shadow I put over it, whether it be Satin Taupe or Sin from the Naked Palette.

Lips:

Once again, I've kept it very simple this month with the lips.

MAC Viva Glam Gaga Lipglass: I really haven't been wearing much on my lips this month, because anytime I've gone out I've been going out with the idea of stopping to grab a coffee and I haaaate when I get lipstick all over my coffee cup, haha. So instead, when I have worn color, I've just worn this lipglass because it's such a gorgeous color and it's easy enough to wipe off before I sip.

Nivea Milk & Honey Lipbalm: Been using this pretty much daily. The scent has grown on me. I'd still love for it to smell like Lush's Honey I Washed The Kids though...:D

Face:

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup in Buff and Revlon Photo Ready in Vanilla: For the majority of the month, I've been mixing these two foundations and feel it gives me such good coverage. The only con being it can feel a bit heavy, so on days when I don't feel like slapping on so much makeup, I'll only wear the Photo Ready.

Body:

It's Raining Men Shower Gel: MMMMMM is all I need to say, really. Smells amazing and leaves the skin feeling soft. The scent lingers on your skin once you leave the shower as well, which I love in a shower gel.

The Body Shop Love Etc Perfume: I've been favoring this over my DKNY perfume. I can't help it, it just smells sooooo nice. I really do need to get the full size at some point...

What were some of your favorites this month?

*I have a nail polish in the first photo, but then I realized it was one I actually used in January, not February, so I didn't end up including it in the rest of the post. Thanks to my lovely sister for pointing that out!

Urban Decay Christmas Haul

Hi ladies! Here's the Urban Decay products I received for Christmas:

Urban Decay 24/7 Jackpot:

The pack comes with 9 mini eyeliners (Eldorado, Whiskey, Stash, Mildew, Electric, Ransom, Binge, Rockstar, Gunmetal) and a full size of Zero.

Aren't they adorable? They all fit into the palm of my hand! Which shows how tiny they are, but it's a great way of trying them all out and if there's any you really like you can go out and buy the full size! I also love how you get a full size version of Zero because that's my favorite black waterliner and I was running out of the sample I had:

Swatches:

From left to right:Eldorado, Whiskey, Stash, Mildew, Electric, Ransom, Binge, Rockstar, Gunmetal. And the bottom swatch is of Zero.

Urban Decay Primer Potion Professional Size:

Yayyy! I only had a verrry tiny sample of this primer so I'm glad I now have the FULL FULL size, hehe.

On the left (no primer), on the right (with primer):

As you can see, they both have just about the same amount of intensity, but that's because I was using Urban Decay products which are quite pigmented anyways.

And that's what the products looked like after I smudged them with a tissue. It's easy to see the ones primed hold up better!

Urban Decay Ammo Palette:

I love my Naked palette so much that I've been wanting to try more shadows from them so I'm so excited about this palette!

Sin and Smog are both in the Naked palette, but seeing as sin is one of my favorite colors from the palette, I have no problem having a backup of it! This palette has such a range of colors that I can see it being great as a travel palette, especially since it's so small and compact.

Swatches:

How pretty are they!? Hehe.

Well that's it for my Urban Decay haul! Anyone else have any of these products? Thoughts?

Christmas Party Look

Hi girlies! I decided to do a Christmas look the other night for you guys. I think it's a great look for a Christmas party. To me, a Christmas party look should be frosty and shimmery! It's not amazing because I did it at the end of the day so my concealer/foundation was wearing off, and I wiped off my eye makeup from that day then never reapplied eye primer, BUT ANYWAYS, this is just an idea of some products that I think are good for a Christmas Party look:

Eyes:

On the lid, I used Urban Decay's Sin. Then for a pop of color I used Sleek's Good Girl Palette by using Lollipop in the inner lid. I then used Lychee as a highlight/brow bone color. Obviously, if I had used primer the look would of been a bit more intense. I also just used your basic black eyeliner on the waterline and a mascara to make the eyes really pop. You can obviously use whatever you like, but I deffo think shimmery is the way to go!

Face:

Again, SHIMMER! Lol. I used Prestige's bronzer all over my face, because it's very light and just adds a nice shimmer to the whole face. I then used E.l.f's Gotta Glow as a highlight, just over the apples of my cheeks. In terms of blush, I think of rosy cheek when it comes to winter time! So I used my Body Shop Autumn Leaves blusher.

Lips:

What kind of inspired this look was the 17 lipgloss in Star Girl that I picked up earlier in the week. It's so frosty and shimmery and perfect for a Christmas party look. I layered it over Revlon's Matte Lipstick in Pink Pout.

That's it! Hope you guys like it. I have some other Christmas posts coming up (can you tell I'm in the holiday spirit!?) where I show my favorite Christmas eyeshadows. Now I'm off to do another chapter of my dissertation. Waaaah. Lol.

Urban Decay Naked Palette vs 17 Eye Trio in Metallic Toffee

So today I bought a few 17 items from Boots, because they were on offer for 3 for 2 and I figured that justified it enough, even if it doesn't really, tehe! But I decided instead of just doing the hauls I normally do, I'd do separate reviews OR in this case, a comparison to other products.

One of the items I picked up was the 17 Eye Shadow Trio in Metallic Toffee. They also had a nude one that looked really pretty, but they didn't have any left. =( Anyways, the colors reminded me a bit of the Urban Decay Naked Palette, so I figured I'd see if I could find any dupes!

17 Eye Trio in Metallic Toffee

Swatches of the trio (clockwise, starting from the left color, if that makes sense, lol):

Here are the comparisons I found for the white color:

While I can't exactly say they're dupes, the white color (gosh I wish they had names) and Sin are very similar. Although Sin is more of a champagne color, I've found that once it's on the eye, it seems pretty white. Not sure why I swatched Virgin, it's not the same at all!

The comparisons I found of the gold color:

My initial thoughts were that the gold color from the trio and Half Baked would be dupes, but from the looks of it, not quite. I'd have to say that Half Baked is more of an intense gold than the 17 trio one is. And it's obviously not a dupe of Toasted, but is similar I suppose? Just much lighter.

The comparisons I found for the brown color:

Not a dupe in sight here! It's no where near as dark of a brown as Smog, it isn't as light as Sidecar, BUT, is definitely comparable to Toasted, don't you think?

Now while I haven't found any dupes -sad face-, this is definitely a far cheaper alternative to the Naked palette (but let's face it, not as lovely! haha). The shadows are pigmented and creamy and I'm overall pleased with them.

Has anyone tried this trio? Thoughts?

It's herrrrre! (Urban Decay Naked Palette)

It caaaaame! Along with my lovely new coffee machine, which I've been wanting forever. Instant Coffee just doesn't do it, especially when you spend 2 months back home with your parents and have freshly brewed expensive coffee waiting for you each morning, lol. So I caved and finally bought one! But I digress. My Naked palette came and I've spent this afternoon playing with it. SO here it is:

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I'm very pleased with the palette, as I knew I would be. I'm normally one for a colorful eye, but I've been wanting to play around with neutral looks, ever since the Naked palette, really. The eyeshadows are soft and smooth and very easily blended. I lovee the eyeliners as well and Zero is now my new go to black liner for my waterline!

I'm also so excited about the mini UDPP, since it's the original one and I've been wanting it, since, as I mentioned in previous posts, I'm not really feeling the Eden UDPP anymore.

Anyways, here are two looks I tried out with the palette, also using the Primer Potion and Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara in Black.

Toasted on the lid.

Half Baked on the inner lid/corner.

Smog on the crease.

Virgin under the brow.

Darkhorse as a liner.

Whiskey eyeliner on the waterline.

Sin on the lid.

Gunmetal on the outer lid/crease.

Naked under the brow.

Creep as a liner.

Hustle on the inner crease.

Zero eyeliner on the waterline.

Another shot of the two looks:

So!? Who else loves the Naked palette? Who plans on buying it?