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.

Lorac POREfectly waow.

My Ulta order contained some lovely samples.

 

I have very graciously posed them next to a pillow, to distract from my disgusting floor. 

 

The hair product is kind of lost on me. My ability to do my hair ends past a crappy braid or a sloppy pony tail. Something with curl and blow drying? Heck no. If I use the Matrix stuff, maybe Hell will freeze over - and I'm not talking about Hell, Michigan.

Next is the Lorac POREfection. This I was pleased as punch to get. The foil packet, when sealed with a paperclip has so far yielded enough for three applications and may allow for one or two more if I'm extra lucky.

So it's a gel, and rubbing it into my face it almost had a powdery feel. Incredibly fine powder. It left my face nice and smooth. With special attention to my chin, I dabbled that crap on top of my moisturizer with SPF 913. (false)

A big problem I had with my garnier BB cream was that it left my skin greasy. I could not use moisturizer with that or with my foundation. Sacrifice had to be made. With the POREfection, I was able to use moisturizer and foundation. And concealer.

Another problem I have had was just in concealer. My chin breaks out at a hairpin trigger. Hormonal changes during lovely weeks every month. Stress. Garnier BB cream. From my Tzone I am prone to some breakouts. Breakouts for me beget a bad habit. I impulsively pick at the breakouts, knowing full well that wound infections could happen with skin flora in the wound. That I'm exacerbating it. Scarring. That always ends in a crushing "Balls, I have this huge frigging zit here. It's the size of the world."

Self conscious, I dab concealer on in the manner you are supposed to. I blend it out and it's fine for about ten minutes. Ten minutes may be a little low, but whenever I look to the mirror later on there lays a crusty layer of dried skin and exposed red. Good. Now it looks like it's pussing or something.

With the Lorac primer, the concealer stayed all day. Additionally, no crusties. wow.
So let's see here results.

 

 

 

See? Very faint blemishes and smooth skin.

My foundation in this picture was the Almay, which looks nice but does register orange. My blush is my Ulta cheek tint, which I am really loving right now.

The last sample I was given was that lovely little perfume sample. Price wise, it's about $0.05. My gosh it smelled so good, like a fresh peeled orange. The smell was brief though, and I'm not sure I could sense it throughout the whole day. The smell was very fancy and made me feel clean. Maybe I would buy it, if the price were right.