Ulta Summer

Every so often, I oogle at those high value sets that wear a lower price tag.
For $28, I could have picked up Ulta's Summer Glam Beauty Essentials. It's a beautifully packaged seven piece look kit.

Basically you get enough items to throw together a lovely summer look. This little beaute did not in fact set me back $28, but an incredibly reasonable $19. Geeze, I do not even have to be in Ulta to get stuff like this. My friend sends me tempting pictures of little deals they have and bam. Look what we both buy.

Contents of this kit are enough to cover your face, eyes, lips and even your nails.
 I can cover this in a semi-logical order starting with your bases on the face.

Benefit The POREfessional.  (.1 fl. oz.)
To be honest, it's a really small sample. 0.1 oz is not generous by any stretch of the imagination, but it's really fine. In my possession is an identical sample, plus and additional larger sample of the product. It's use is somewhat lost on me at this juncture, as I have not quite mastered the use of a pore concealing primer. We can call it safe that this was the least exiting member of the new family that moved into my bathroom.

 Anastasia Lash Genius. (0.11 oz.)
On first glance, it appeared I was saddled with two mascaras. For a pretty diverse package, that redundancy seemed very silly. Instead though, I guess this is a waterproofing top coat. This is handy and I guarantee I will use it, but at the moment I am using Bare Minerals Locked and Coated. As much as I love my Perversion mascara, it does tend to smudge a bit at the end of the day unless I have a top coat. Great item, I just have no use for it at the moment.


Butter London Nail Lacquer in Snog. (0.2 oz)
Alright, this one I am flipping excited for! Using Essie and O.P.I., I can see that there is some value to using more than just the free Sinful Colors and Wet n Wild. Generally less coats, somewhat quicker dry time (thanks to a better formula), and a nicer, longer lasting finish. Butter London is a brand I have wanted to try, but have not wanted to spend $15 on. The color on this one is a lovely hot pink, which is fantastic because my arsenal lacks one of those. In fact, this was a color I long sought out after my friends sister in law painted our fingernails in a tent, during an annual Cedar Point excursion. For reals this shade was the only color to break the monotony of my black nail polish (monotony is not used in a negative context EVER in regards to black lacquer.) The proof of the making is still in the works, as I have yet to repaint my nails. They still look fine. Pending further review.

ETA. Gorgeous color, and one coat is definitely passable and opaque enough. I would buy from this brand for sure! (if it were on steep discount.)

Laura Geller Beauty Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow in Rose Gold Goddess. (0.26 fl. oz)
I do not have a swatch up yet, but of course I squeezed a little coriander sized blop on my finger and worked it onto the back of my hand. Oh my gosh what a gorgeous foiled finish. This is of course a liquid eyeshadow that is in a girly neutral. Used by itself it would be lovely, but I imagine it shines the best as somewhat of a base. Though if you are sweating in the summer, you likely could get away with treating this as a wash and wearing it by itself. Pending further review.

ETA. Beautiful color, does provide a pleasant temperature effect and can be worn by itself with blending. I love this and will use it when I am lazy, or in a full look. 

Stila Lip Glaze in Strawberry Lemonade. (0.05 fl. oz.)
Would it be crazy of me to make a claim that this smells exactly like strawberry lemonade? Non? Okay because it does. Lip Glaze instead of lip gloss, this feels much thicker to me. The color is very sheer, but just enough to give a pop. In brighter lighting it resembles it's namesake with a passion. Ultimately, I would say this is comfortable to wear. It's not sticky per se, but it's slightly tacky. Applicators such as Stila's Lip Glaze are definitely something - I don't know what kind of something, but they are. This is an item I have been dying to swatch in Ulta, and I finally did last week. It's interesting that there is a squeezie brush apparatus. I do like it, but I am not sure if the thickness of the product really spreads gives coverage perfectly with a brush. There was a hanging worry that I was just brushing away the color I applied. At the end of the day, the whole unit reminded me of a set of crayons I had once. Push up crayons that clicked exactly the same way these do.

Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes Waterproof Mascara. (0.16 fl. oz.)
Good old mascara. I have nothing exactly to say, since I have well over a years worth supply of mascara. One thing I am thankful of, is that this is not in the normal Tarte mascara container I see. You know that one where it's like the faux snakeskin pouch looking thing? It looks terrible to me. The packaging on this is sleek, and purple and gold is very regal. I look forward to trying this next century.

Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer. (0.14 oz.)
This I was very thrilled with. Most of my bronzers happen to be shimmery, with exception of the Too Faced bronzer inside the Candy Bar palette. That one is just too light though to use for any real contouring. If I am not mistaken, Too Face has a counterpart to Chocolate Soleil which is a Milk Chocolate version and it is much lighter. Seeing this one, I am pretty thrilled that it's the darker. Correct me if I am wrong, as I am new to a lot of these descriptors, but this bronzer leans more neutral to cool as opposed to a warm sunny orange. That coupled with it's matte texture allowed me the ability to work my zygomatic bones into well sculpted, glowing, awesome hunks of face. The shimmery look is great for me to work into my blusher, but for the contouring I would prefer not to have shimmer framing my face.
How close is this to Benefit's Hoola? One may be a little warmer, but I have to compare.
OH! And finally on this product, you certainly gotta love the uber chocolate aroma wafting through the air while buffing this into your face. 

Overall, the products I loved the most from this box were the Bronzer, Polish, Eyeshadow and then the Lip Glaze. At just under $3 for each product, I would chalk this up as a win.

Acquisitions

Rightly so, I would like to congratulate myself for producing as many entries as I did this month. It would seem that I am getting the hang of this endeavor. Beauty Blogging mo'fruggah.

My friend and I zipped on over to Ulta this past Friday and boy. We were like chicks in a makeup store.

Crickets? Yeah.

Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Angelic Nude

This feels absolutely amazing! It's more amazing than I could have guessed. Starting with it's scent, it reminds me of something that I cannot put my finger on. Sweet, and comparable to to Bare Minerals Marv. Moxie in Get Ready. Vanilla mint, which gives a cooling feeling to lips.

On the lips it's very slippery, but packs intense pigment. Some of the colors had sheer pigment from what I read on reviews, but this one hits the mark. Beautiful color and beautiful moisture.

Not without flaws, if you even think about eating this will disappear. Drinking will eliminate color. Crumbs will act like rocks, stuck in the lipstick and you will wipe it off. Even without external forces, this gave my lips roughly two hours of wear time. Although, I love the feel and smell enough to where I don't even mind reapplying.

Final notes: Tarte packages everything perfect (except for the mascara that looks like it's in a tacky faux leather handbag), these lipsticks are no exception. They are perfect.

Bare Minerals Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow in The Happy Place

Originally, I did state I wanted a 2.0. I swatched it and realized it was not what I really was looking for. Back to the drawing boards! The Happy Place bridged the gap between my ventricles.
The color descriptors off Bare Mineral's website are as follows [muted apricot/rose gold/smoky taupe/eggplant]. The other one I considered was The Designer Label, which contained an apricot, olive, nude and a dark brown. As per usual, I have amazing luck with the pigments on this palette. All of the colors are versatile and can nearly complete a look.

My only con is that it lacks a browbone highlight shade, but I would not trade either color for something that I can easily use another portable palette for.  Love this!! I will have a hard time not packing it with me in my makeup bag every day.

Urban Decay De-Slick Double Shot Travel Size Makeup Setting Spray 

My friend and I split the pack, each taking one. This will happily live in my purse until it runs out. After a spritz of this, my face feels nice and refreshed. Also It really seems to lock in even more than just setting powder alone. Today I used my Tints & Sass tint, and I could see all day where I was dissatisfied with my blending on one cheek. That blunder ended up a wonderful testing tool. I am quite sure I will repurchase one of their sprays later on, and maybe it will be the full sized cooling one. For trial purposes and budgets, this one was a much better option. 

Lorac Pocket PRO Palette (x2)

Yup. I bought two of these. One of them went into my basket, after hearing so much about this brand. After using it once, I knew that I needed to own one of the full sizes. The second one was purchased just Wednesday as part of a gift for my sister's birthday. Truthfully, I should have bought four of these and save them for Christmas for my three sisters and my mom.

In a pinch today, I forgot my eyebrow materials and I used the dark matte shade Espresso. A bit darker than the normal taupe I've been using, but it looked really nice I think. My eldest sister even gave me compliments on my whole look today. Credit could go to the brows.

AND THERE IS LIKE NO FALLOUT WOW.

Lorac Pro Palette

Now this big mother. Prior to this, I was considering Naked of some sort, but for $12 less before the sale, I can get more colors (in smaller pans mind you), of supposedly higher quality. I will take that. Ultimately I decided on this one based on this review from one of my favorite bloggers. While I do own many nuetrals, and across my UD palettes I can makeup half of Naked and Naked 2, Lorac PRO had a lot to offer me. One being those flipping shimmer shades like Garnet. My arm appreciated the swatches. This palette has a good range of darker colors, highlights and midtones.

Maybe it's a con, maybe it's not but I have two of the shades already in my Pocket Pro that was less than a week old before getting this one. Duped shades sometimes stink, but the idea that I can carry the Pocket Pro in my pocket and achieve an abbrievated look with that same high quality shadow... well it's just great.

Unfortunately, I have not used this yet. I almost don't want to until I work on more of my current product. This will likely last three weeks tops.




My recent acquisitions did set me back from my allocated spending funds, but I am so satisfied with every item.

Grabby Hands

No matter how hard I try, I always seem to use my alloted spending money on frigging cosmetics. Mere six months ago, I was using old mascara and eyeshadow without primer. My liner always traveled to where I would have a darker set of eye bags than I really do. Breakouts would have to be suffered through, with pock marks in their wake. Then came this revolution. This revelation.

My first Prestige product came in the form of a lipstick, via Ipsy. Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie smelled so good and rolled on my lips so smooth, that I was hooked instantly. Then came the Urban Decay eyeliner and the Urban Decay palettes. The Ulta. Oh my gosh how fun this world of makeup is!

That being said, I use a lot of Bare Minerals products in my every day, but I have a lot of drugstore level brands. With the prospect of 20% off everything at Ulta, my brain sort of melts. What could I get that will stretch the dollar more. Without just grabbing everything, I made a list. It's somewhat my limitations, as these are products I have been curious about and would not break the bank. Would I buy all this in one shot? Nope, but this will serve as reference.

Bare Minerals Ready 2.0 Eyeshadow in Guilty Pleasures $20

My experience with the 2.0's has been favorable. Beautiful pigments, and really great portability. Peach colors have been trending or something, so naturally I want peach eyeshadow too. Swatches of this one look gorgeous and this would make a great addition to my charcoal/silver duo and my neutral.

Lipstick Queen  in Hello Sailor $25

I swatched this on my hand and was not impressed for about thirty seconds. It feels so amazing on my hand that I want it on my lips now. Apparently it layers to a very light sapphire to turn your lips a slight berry. Also, it should make a good tint to any shade.

Urban Decay Chill Makeup Setting Spray $30

Having heard nothing but rave reviews on UD's setting sprays, I of course would love one. Price tag on the travel sprays seem much nicer, but honestly anything with chill or cooling is instant wantable for me. Liiiike this next thing!

Bliss Micro Magic $48

This is mostly on the list as a taunt. Ulta send this with their samples, and oh my goodness... I cannot describe how much I gushed every time I used my foil packet. Carefully I paperclipped the packet and managed to squeak out 7 uses. And immediately I wanted more. It exfoliated so perfectly, leaving me smooth faced. Additionally the aloe coooooled so nicely and felt relaxing. Love! That frigging price tag though..ew.

Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Angelic Nude $16

Much nicer price on this, as compared to everything else. Any lip product with Butter in the name, I want it. If NYX had good lip butter, then Tarte's must be amazing. Swatches I have seen of this product are so appealing, and it's unique to my collection of mauves and nudes.

Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner $24

I did play with the tester in Ulta. Twice. It left me disappointing the second time, because I think it was empty. Truly this seems like a terrible product to price ratio, but it seems so easy. I enjoyed the successful swatch I got.

And those are my wants. Now if only I was actually sent this mythical 20% off coupon, ha. So if I had to choose two? It would be a tossup between the lip products and the eye products. So that's four.

Ipsy July Glam Room Unboxing - Sensationally Sunkissed

  eta. this bastage finally got here on the 21st. I repeat, the 21st of July. Little over a week past the normal arrival. Baaaah. anticipation killed, when the rest of my friends already received theirs last week.

Well fine feathered folk, it's Ipsy time again. They call this bag Sensationally Sunkissed, and by golly I actually got a product that fits in with the theme. This bag looks very promising (even if I keep seeing the bag itself referred to as pink ravioli, lol). This one ended up being the highest value bag I have received to date. 

My current qualm is that it took it's sweet time getting here. Last month I was opening my bag on the 12th, and I have been getting them before the 15th, and usually the 13th. On the 15th I finally received my shipping code a week later than normal, and it just scanned electronically at it's first port? 

The social media complaints were more filled than usual with impatience, what with the glam rooms opening a day later than they have been for the past few months. This is all outside of the usual "I just placed my order yesterday and I am still on the waitlist and do not have my bag. I am so upset. I like rockstar colors and I keep getting neutrals, even though there are not any items that fit that current taste in the current selection. Ipsy pay attention to me."

Do people not read fine print? Maybe I am an ingenue, but it took inside of a half hour of reading reviews and the actual waitlist/sign up text on Ipsy's website to deduce the entire system they work under. Yet all these folk on the facebook, instagram, and website (which has all the information they need) asking all these stupid questions. When I say stupid, it's because the information is put out there when they sign up, which they obviously have signed up. 

That's mean Rebecca, please stop the tirade. 

As another side note, and potential tirade... I hate summer culture. I hate beaches (partial lie. I mostly just hate the people at beaches and v. vulnificus). I hate the idea that I am losing the fruits of my hard studying, so I can keep in my head people's chatter about their fun supah sexy summer. I hate the thought of literally sitting around and doing nothing but texting all day because you're bored.

How the feck can anyone be bored?

It's all convoluted shit to me. 

I do not comprehend any of it. 

My upbringing was take your kid to work day, every day. My glorious summers were spent with my amazing Dad, learning about flowers and produce, teaching me to follow my passion. Picking vegetables and immersing myself in the intoxicating, flavorful world of heirloom tomatoes. It was about dressing appropriately so my shoulders would not blister from the 90-100˚ƒ work days in a greenhouse or a field, due the sun. My concerts were the sounds of sandhill cranes and the sounds of people thanking me for their beans - save for the occasional, actual concert. Family vacations were traveling to a lesser known, often less expensive park and then following up with a zoo and a cave. We trekked through the Badlands of South Dakota. Wall Drug. Yellowstone and Custers National Parks. Smoky Mountains. Wisconsin Dells. The Ohio Floriculture Short course convention.

Bitter, maybe, but I would not trade this upbringing for a thousand typical summer vacations.

Shucks I am good at trailing off into rants. I can be pretty crass.

Here's bag time, thank you for suffering my rant. And apologies if I truly do not understand. 

I tried to step up my game with the phone camera. My awesome stage of a Adipocere poster from Anatomy, and some cool halloween paper. Plus a nice lamp shining against the backdrop. I can deal with this.

Bare Minerals

5-in-1 BB Advanced Performance Cream Eyeshadow Broad Spec. SPF 15 in Divine Wine

Purchase the full size here for $18

.03 oz /.10 oz. 

1ml /2.9 ml

$6.21 /18

I am so excited about this! In anticipation, I swatched Divine Wine on my hand in Ulta and admired it the whole rest of the night.  

Now that I have this I am practically screaming about holding it in my hands, and in the color I wanted badly, which I believe this is the darkest of shades. This dries with a nice stay put finish and then magically shimmer appears, so it can totally be worn by itself. 

It has a flappy doe foot, which I believe is stiffer in the actual full size. The full size price point is a bit high, but honestly I would buy it after testing it for a full day on the lids.

Clear Clinic Labs

Vanished Clear Spot Treatment

Purchase the full size here for $35

2 ml /7.5 ml

$9.33 /35

While I currently use my Murad Step 2 sample I received from an Ulta sample kit, I am thrilled with this one. It's not exciting, but I break out horribly during my time of the month. Instead of picking the crap out of my pimples that grace my forehead and chin, I could always just treat it with something like this. Worth a try for sure.  

Small doe foot style applicator, but I cannot test it yet. My face is fairly clear. I had a forehead pimple that cleared up with my Murad stuff. While I cannot tell of it's efficacy, my friend claimed it worked great for her sister. We will see in weeks to come. No doubt in my mind that I will have another breakout. 

Elizabeth Mott

Tints and Sass in Cherry 

Purchase the full size here for $22.99

.35 oz full size

$22.99

Reminding me of Benetint, for a decent fraction of the price I am thrilled about this. My current itsy bitsy Benetint is half gone, so awesome! This is the just about the same size as Benefit's tints, though with a different applicator 

It smells like cherries, and I like cherries. Even fake ones. Blended out it's definitely a cherry color. Yay cherries. 

Glopped on the left, blended on the right.

My big test was compared to Benetint, and it's certainly more opaque. Benetint sheers out a lot quicker, whereas this tint packs a bigger punch. More restraint must be used. Another difference is that it's a cooler color - forgive redundancies - cool cherry. This even is more effective on the lips, if not for it's sticky gel feel. I will be honest, this seems better than the Benetint formula.

It's something, but I doubt I would wear it alone.

The two red marks on the left belong to benetint, the other two belong to Sassy.

Pop Beauty

Sunkissed Bronzer

Purchase the full size here for $10

.25 oz full size

$10

Ai, I definitely own a few bronzers. Ulta minerals pressed powder. Bare Minerals Faux Tan color all over loose pigment. Too Faced Chocolate, and the little pot in the Candy Bar. I even have a Cover Girl cream bronzer. Of that listing, one is loose and darker. One is cream, for when I figure out how to use it. The remaining were all pressed powders and dangit here's another! I am thrilled by most of what I get from Ipsy though, so let's give this a try. 

HOT DANG. In hand this product is just beautiful. Very soft feel to the powder. It is incredibly shimmery though, and really it's bronze. A rosy bronze one hundred percent. I am not totally certain, but this might be too dark for me to wear on my face. It needs testing but...

I have no reservations against using this on my eyes. This is the exact rose gold bronze color I had from the Body Shop about a decade ago, and I do not even care if it's a bronzer. This bugger is going on my eyes. Or my face. We will update with a look soon. 

Pur~Lisse

Pur Protect Essential Daily Moisturizer SPF 30 

Purchase the full size here for $55

.05 oz /1.7 oz

15 ml /50ml

$16.50 /55

Based on Ipsy's normal formula, during the second preview I would have gotten either this or a tanning oil. I dodged a .50 cal bullet and received a 6 oz sirloin steak on this one (cooked medium rare.). Not only do I love my current Pur~Lisse moisturizer from May's Ipsy, but I am almost out of it. Certainly the SPF rating can be appreciated by me when my Ulta Minerals foundation does not have a rating for sun exposure. Every other foundation I use has that extra benefit, but I am thrilled to know that I at least have that covered.

My sister and I already have a trade arranged for my Pacifica eyeshadow from May for her Pur~Lisse moisturizer. She actually enjoyed her eyeshadow from May. She is few.

As for the product itself, in my hands this is rather similar to the Pur~Moist. It smells a touch more sunscreeny. It feels much the same, which I really enjoy. Almost a cooling feel? Maybe it's just how moist my face now feels. Love it, but would NEVER shell out the cash for it. At least Ipsy seems to love giving these buggers away. Here's to another two month supply.

that hideous bag.

And onto the bag itself. Finally I have acquired an Ipsy bag that smells disgusting. It's a chemical smell, exactly as others have described. Opening my hot envelope, fresh from the mail box the smell just burst out of the bag like hello.

The bag is hideous. I hate it so very much, and I am betting that is because I hate scalloped edges as an accent on shorts and other whathaveyous. Scalloped edges seem fitted to scrapbooking projects, but not in fashion. That is said by a girl who ritually wears her dad's Wyoming T-Shirts with deer, and antelopes on them. 

But I will still use this horrible bag for something. Maybe nail polish.

Total bag value

$65.03/$10

I have been forgetting to include this, but if you feel like this is something you would love to have delivered to your mailbox please feel free to use my referral link here. It's $10 monthly, and in my experience you receive a value far higher.

More dumb things people say

I know I've mentioned it before, but sometimes I store things people say. Mostly tidbits from my nephew, but every now and then something stupid pops up. 

Girl on Facebook feed posts a crappy video - mostly a butt shot - of friends wiggling to an XBox Kinect dancing game. Fine and well. 

She captions with 

"Who knew getting an xbox could be so entertaining."

Not something along the lines of "wow, we sure are having fun; watching this dancing game is almost as much fun as playing; I am thrilled I purchased an xbox! New levels of entertainment have opened up to me!"

But some dumb who would have guessed these old things were actually fun. 

Who knew. 

Well Skipper, I would have never guessed an entertainment box would be entertaining. I thought dropping four big ones on a gaming system would be droll. Phew, I am relieved. 

Fricking seriously. Entertainment system being a surprise that it's fun? Are you moronic to be surprised when it's cold outside during freezing temperatures? Come on..

This strikes me in the same vein as those "awkward moment when" posts that have mostly lost the first two words. 

Dumb Person: "...when your brother sneezes and has to grab a tissue. When you forget the words to a song in the car. When your back itches and you have to itch it. "

Some of them are not awkward at all. They are just vaguely relatable, or they are just outbursts for attention. Much of Facebook statuses are. Realizing that no one particularly cares about the readers digest of that days itinerary, has drastically reduced usage of my Facebook. Within a year I went from weekly statuses, to monthly, and now it's been months. 

Facebook is a great tool. It's also greatly abused and idiotic. 

This is a whole rant that I have seen covered by more eloquent folk than myself. This I will leave be for now. 

Ending with something I think we all can appreciate. 

Mint Chocolate Chip Mani

Firstly, let's have an irritation... My ipsy bag is taking it's sweet time. My friend already got hers and likely my sister did as well near the top of the week. Past trends brought the bag to me between the 12th and the 15th. It is likely the bag was lost for a week, as my tracking only now showed movement. Fearfully, I hope they do not send something different than the glam room. I have see a few complaints of that, as with numerous people shouting the same thing I am on tardiness. 

Enough of that. 

Let's talk about mint nail polish. Ulta's current sale had me snag their nail lacquer color in Mint Condition as well as their base coat. 

Previously I have used Wet n' Wild's base coat and found that it makes my polish peel off in a matter of two days. Or one, depends on whether it's drugstore or something like OPI or Essie. The latter give me an extra day. 

Painting nails is a huge frustration. My attempts at nail art take upwards of a half hour to dry, and leave me incapacitated. For that to literally fall off is disheartening. 

Monday I got my varnish on, using base coat from ulta and it's Friday. I've had two days off. I've furiously weeded in a greenhouse. I've cleaned geraniums. I even clipped my nails (had to buy a new clipper, as mine has been missing a good two weeks to long) These actions should have left my nails tarnished. 

So far so good. 

Let me discuss this particular manicure. 

Wet n Wild Black Creme polish in a thin single coat. Not opaque, but doable. Ulta's Mint Condition in a thin coat on the ring finger. Sheer, but also passable. Then Sally Hansen Copa-banana sequin over the thumb and ring. That stuff. 

It appears decent on this hand, but after four hours it's tacky texture managed to finally slide off with my black nail polish on the right hand. 

Another sister (than the previously mentioned) gave an exclamation over the Ulta mint in my purse. Guess what I bought at Ulta for an upcoming birthday. 

I am a PinchMe member. I've received one Sinful Colors polish from them in Anenome. It's beautiful hot coral, but it requires patience and layering. As with the color I bought on my own, Unicorn. It's a pale yellow that requires more patience and three layers. 

PinchMe was mentioned because yesterday I received a box with the Skinnygirl "nutrition" bar I had available to sample late last month. But a random other Sinful Colors polish was in there. That I knew nothing about. 

The shade is Open Seas and I kid not, it is a one hundo percent match for Ulta's Mint Condition. 

I threw that on top of middle and index fingers and just laughed. I already bought my sister that color and myself that color and wow. 

It's beautiful at least, if you can be patient for it to dry. 

Face of the Other Day.

Saturday I had some decent lighting photos. The express purpose of this blog is to track how my makeup performs for me. It's handy to know which products worked for which looks. 

I am at my parents house. They left me a plate of lovely food so I could hang out with them and my nephew when they got home. 

Trying out the Ulta Minerals loose foundation. This particular day was just over 100 in the greenhouse, so my foundation strangely itched on my forehead. Once we hit a cool part it stopped. But it got warm and I had a slight sweat - scratchy again. Never experienced that with Bare Minerals, but the Ulta dupe does have amazing coverage and the next two days I did not have any problems. The shade is Medium 01, but really I could switch to one of the fair shades. While they are $5, I definitely want to snag another. Maybe Fair 05. 

Another new product was the Too Faced Candy Bar my friend picked up for me at Nordstrum Rack near DC. The blush is amazing, but the bronzer is incredibly light. It is barely noticeable, but perhaps over lighter foundation. 

This palette also has gorgeous, creamy, matte browns. Their placement is weird, but I used all three shades of neutral brown. 

One thing I love about this palette is that it is literally everything. You can do basic contouring and your eyes in some great colors. It's beautifully pigmented, and I really only found one shade with less vigor. If this leaves my purse, I will be surprised. 

Longevity was an issue though  the blush faded throughout the day, and the eyeshadow did lighten a little. It's nothing a quick once touch up after work couldn't solve. Also, why the flick is that blush pot so small?!?  

Brows were the usual IT Cosmetics Brow Power in Universal Taupe. Love this bugger. 

I paired both liquid UD Perversion liner and the lovely mascara for another attempt of a wing. It's getting better. And likely, my pictures are not showing it but I have NYX Chunky Dunk hydrating lippie in Orange Splash. It's totally sheer, but a gorgeous poppy. Also, I found it in Ulta's clearance for $0.97! Can't beat it!

Thanks Mom!!

FOTD.

Going to try one of these blog types. 

My face of the day was literally touching up yesterday's makeup. Hygiene bros. hygiene. 

I've been chilling with Dallas. We vacuumed Nightshade's recent shedding (baby's first birthday tomorrow. Finally blowing his coat for the first time.) We even trimmed his hairy toes. The front ones only had tiny trims heretofore, but the hind paws were untouched and grinchy. 

Cropping these pictures made my heart hurt. Obviously, I could use more practice on grooming this scruffly pup, but it's a start. 

So I touched up the makeup for fun.  

For the blush I used Ulta's dupe of those Tarte cheek stain things in the shade tickled. Two swipes each cheek appears too much. That was followed with bronzing also with Ulta's minerals bronzers. This product is one of my faves, as it's warm enough and light enough. 

For my eyes I threw on a few contour shades using my Coastal Scents Revealed 2 palette, but I did not stop there. Last Call from UD's Ammo pallete filled the rest of the lid. Oil slick went under the bottom lash line. 

Be a Bomshell mascara layered on heavily. It's an okay mascara, because for me it refuses to clump. Maybe it's better for an au naturale day (like I ever have those). Then a nice uneven wing with Chella's indigo liner. Finally the lips were Ulta's American Girl lip crayon, which reminds me of UD's Naked hi gloss lip crayon (sans the high gloss). Layered overtop was Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Spark Plug. 

It was an easy few minutes look.

Certainly though, I miss borrowing my sisters camera. Back to bad lifting phone shots. 

Perv

Urban Decay Perversion and I got my hands on a sample before it was even out. Midway through June Urban Decay had an offer to get a sample size of their new mascara, promising to kick the ass of any mascara you already own (no? Not their exact words, but probably what the fine folk at UD felt) 

I needed to get through my UD curling mascara. <--- was the first non drugstore mascara I have ever used. And I hated it. 

It was a clumpy, tacky, goop that rallied my individual lashes together to form four super lashes. The brush shape is nice. The formula just refused to dry on my lashes. 

Previously I have used almost exclusively Maybelliene. Falsies Flared had been great. A lot of greats in the Volum series. But the mascara is often 6-7 dollah. I never bought two at a time to bank on the sporadic BOGO 50% off. 

Now if I am getting mascara in deluxe sample sizes from all these brands like Urban Decay, Bare Minerals, and Benefit for free/next-to-it, well dangit! I never have to buy it again. 

I digress,

Urban Decays offer started around 4AM my time. I happened to be in the market truck around 5, bright eyed. I saw they ran out of samples around 11am. Thank you work for that great timing. 

I put off opening it, and was going to after trying some others in my cache. But I could not stand it. Is it worth the hype?

Perversion on left, nothing on right. 

Same story. Perversion and then nothing. 

You tell me. 

For good measure, the above picture was a Maybelliene mascara. Good, but not as good as the previous pictures. 

Things I love:

Quick drying, but not overly quick. 

Makes my lashes long. 

Lends enough clump to give personality and volume, without being goopy. 

Triple pigments of black are hot. 

The brush is big and fluffy. Actually fluffy. 

This mascara is hot. 

Hott with two 't's. 

If I ever run out of my billions of mascara, I am buying this mother and I suggest you do too. 

Disclaimer: I received this product as a sample from Urban Decay. I did not pay for this, but golly I would have. 

Used Samples.

OAgain, I have been lacking. Aside from starting my hoard of Bare Minerals products, I have not spent too much time testing new makeups for June. 

One attempt I have made is to use up my small cache of foil samples. One of them was Smashbox CC cream. Well. I took not pictures, but I can say with certainty I hated it. Despite my best attempts to blend with both my sponge and fingers the cream was orange marbling to my face. I like marble cake as much as the next bloke. I don't like to be Marble Cake Face. Perhaps Light/Medium was a poor color match, but it looks awful. 

Additionally my face felt greasy all day and even with setting powder the cream broke down rather quickly. I will be thrilled to never use it again. 

Another sample I had was a recent one from an Ulta order. It was a Cotz tinted sunscreen with SPF40 and toted the all natural label (you know what else is all natural? Cyanide..) 

Let me cover texture. It was a congealed mousse. It gracelessly glooped on  my face like dry slime. Chunky and slimy, it failed to even spread over my whole face. This also looked like pure góvno on my face. Ew. 

While those were colossal flops I did find something amazing in samples. 

Bliss MicroMagic. 

Its $48 for a full sized. 

Frig. 

It would be so worth it. 

Aloe, pumice, and happiness all into one invigorating scrub that makes toothpaste elves frolic. And mint colored unicorns. 

I will be on the hunt for dupes.