$20 Makeup Challenge (TAG)!!

Click HERE to watch the video! ^__^




All Jordana products are $1.25 each, regardless of the item (at Savemart Stores only)


jordanacosmetics.com




Wet n Wild products can be found at all drugstores.


Crown Brush tools can be purchased online at crownbrush.us or at IMATS






RULES:


1. Prices are before sales tax (Tax doesn't count)
2. ALL items used will be counted (brushes, sponges, etc)
3. Total must amount to $20 or less
4. Be creative and have fun!


I tag Makeup by Imera and Ashley Romanian Butterfly!


Products Used:


Face:
-Jordana Creamy Liquid Foundation in Toast
-Jordana Forever Flawless Pressed Powder in Creamy Sand


Cheeks:
-Wet n Wild Megalast Lipstick in 906D (as cream blush base)
-Jordana Blush in Terra Cotta


Eyes:
-Jordana Eyeshadow in Heart of Gold and Brunette
-Wet n Wild Cream Eyeliner in Black
-Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara


Brows:
-Jordana shadow again in Brunette


Lips:
-Wet n Wild Lipstick in 906D


Tools:
Crown Brush (Sale tab)
-Pro Brow Spoolie
-1/4 Angle Liner
-Mini Blush

LA Splash Cosmetics

Recently I was contacted by a company called LA Splash Cosmetics; they have provided all these products for me to review. The thoughts and opinions on these products are still my own.

The Package I received

Products Available at: LA Splash Cosmetics (online) or Duane Reade stores

Diamond Sparkle Gloss

Electric Shock

-Diamond Dust Sparkle Gloss 
Shade: Electric Shock
Price: $6.99
This gloss was extremely bright. It looked more like children's play makeup or something a drag queen would wear. The shade was not something I see myself or any other adult wearing. As far as the formula goes, it is really nice. This isn't overly sticky or runny, it just has the perfect consistency. The glitter is not obnoxious and it comes off easily with a makeup wipe. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this more in another shade.

Twilight Glitter Liner

Swatches of the gloss, liner, and shadow base

-Twilight Collection Glitter Liner
Shade: Onyx
Price: $6.99
This eye liner was a dud in my opinion. I didn't like the formula, the color, or the glitter. It was runny, smeary, and the glitter was too reflective; it made my lash line look like it was missing liner in some places because the light reflecting from the glitter. 

Shadow Base in Nude

-Enlightened Creamy Shadow Base
Shade: Nude
Price: $6.99
I liked this eye shadow base, it was creamy and smooth, it applied easily and helped shadows stick. The color was a bit off; the container read Nude but it was more of a bronze shade. This was very similar to the Maybelline eye tattoos, only the eye tattoos are a bit more shimmery. 

Shadow Duo in Egyptian Queen

Shadow Duo in Beach Babe

-Glamour Intense Pigment Eye Shadow Duo
Shades: Egyptian Queen (purple and gold) and Beach Babe (teal and pink)
Price: $5.99
These eye shadow duos were very nice. The formula is good, not chalky. The colors are beautiful. The only downside, is these wear off easily. They lasted and looked much, much better with a base underneath. However, I feel these are over priced. The shadows feel and wear exactly like Jordana shadows, only Jordana products are about $1.50 and last fine on their own, without a base. 




****Overall thoughts****: In my opinion this company has products extremely similar to Jordana Cosmetics, but I feel Jordana is cheaper and better quality.

Sephora's Allure Beauty Editor's Palette

Click to enlarge

This is the second item on my Sephora haul and its another "Traveler's" palette (A palette for on the go!). I had a lot of questions as to why I bought two traveler palettes.
Here's why: The Colorista palette allowed me to pick any shades I wanted for the smaller palette. But sometimes, I took so much time trying to pick and choose colors that it defyed thepurpose of even buying the palette at all; to spend less time at home finicking over my makeup at home! So, I bought the Allure Beauty Editor's Palette by Sephora because it includes 5 already assembled mini palettes in one! When I am really in a hurry, I jsut pick one and go!

Here are the details:

Available at: Sephora

Price: I purchased mine for $54; last I heard it was only $17! :D

Details: 5 mini makeup palettes set into one large container/case. Each palette offers a different look. All the palettes contain 6 shadows, 1 blush, and 1 lip gloss. The palettes pop out of the case and can be put in the mini-compact for on-the-go use.

Compact for mini-palettes.
The hole is to pop the palette out.
Includes a nice mirror and peep-pocket for lip gloss to show through.
Click to enlarge

Packaging: Large shiney, plastic case. Has the Sephora logo on the front. Windows allow you to peek through to the palettes.


Removing from the encasing and inserting into mini compact
Click to enlarge

Pros: These shadows are so beautiful, they have great color payoff and I am very satisfied with them. There is a nice mix of matte and shimmer shades. The blushes are gorgeous and have amazing pigmentation; all the blushes are matte (yay!). The large case/container that this comes in is sturdy. The palettes pop out easily, but not too easily (they will not be falling out every few minutes). I like that I don't need a stylus/pick to remove the palettes like in the Colorista palette. The colors apply with minimal effort, just tap your brush into them and you have enough product! The lip glosses--Oh my goodness, I love them! They have the look and feel of a gloss but the color of a rich lipstick! And they last a good while. The blush and shadows last me a full work/school day with a primer or some sort.


"Beauty 101"
Neutral glam for those just beginning
Soft taupes and warm cheeks
Click to enlarge



"Sparkles Fly"
Sultry evening look
Berry red gloss and a warm sunkissed cheek
Click to enlarge

Cons: The shadows are the slightest bit too soft. One of the shadows is matte black and I accidently dropped it on the floor in my bedroom; it chipped a little and left tons of fall out on my white carpet! (anyone know how to get that out?). So handle these carefully. Other than that, I have no complaints about this palette! Except that I bought it when it was still full price LOL!

"Color Theory"
Pop of color!
Nude gloss and blush to tone down the bright eyes
Click to enlarge



"All Fun No Sun"
Bronze with a pop of purple!
Rosey pink gloss and a warm blush
Click to enlarge

Would I buy this again / Recommend to a friend: YES! Absolutely; I am rarely so completely satisfied with a product but this one has earned its high marks! It makes for a great gift and looks pretty sitting attop a vanity :)

"Where There's Smoke"
Smokey evening look
Mauve cheek and a classic red lip
Click to enlarge

Did you ladies love this palette? Do you like the idea of a "on-the-go" palette? Or do you already have something like this? Let me know in the comments below!

Sephora Colorista Palette

Has this ever happened to you?: You have three or so favorite shades but they're in a larger palette. When you're in a hurry, you try to just bring the entire thing with you but end up with a broken palette or crushed makeup! There is a fix! Sephora has recently come out with two "traveler palettes". The idea is a small removable palette within a larger one holding all of the shades! PERFECT!

The flash blackened the mirror in a photo. Half of the lid is see-through.
Click to enlarge

Here's the skinny!:

Available at: Sephora

Price: (temporarily?) Discontinued, was available for $30

Details: 40 eyeshadows, 15 Lip colors, 3 Cheek and 3 Bronzer shades, 5 Cream liners, 1 Removable palette and 1 stylus/pick to remove makeup pans. The lip, shadow, and liner pans are all dime sized. The blush and bronzers are about 2'' X 3''.


Blush and Bronzer Swatched
Click to enlarge

Pros: Great for travel, small yet sturdy, Nice large mirror on bigger palette, Large variety of shades for the beginner or all makeup lovers. The colors are bright and vibrant. The blushes and bronzers have great color payoff. Lip colors have good pigmentation and are not overly sticky.

Removable inner Palette
Click to enlarge

Cons: Stylus/Pick tends to fall out of place quite often and chip shadows. Cream liners are not very pigmented ; they take multiple applications to show up effectively. Lip colors tend to melt quickly/easily. Most shades are shimmer/not very many matte shades (only 5). Bronzers have a slight amount of shimmer to them.

Eyeshadows. These were too shimmery, they picked up too much of the flash; Still beautiful shadows!
Click to enlarge

Recommendations: Store this flat or remove the little pick to keep it from crashing into your makeup pans; about three of my lip shades have been smeared by this little guy, and two of my blushes have been chipped from it as well. Definitely use a primer for these shadows. They are not horrible in pigmentation, but will last longer with a primer. The lip glosses in this palette are very fragile. I do not recommend taking them with you in the smaller palette because they melt in even minimal heat very easily, and they tend to get full of loose shadow fallout.

Lip Color and Cream Liner swatches.
Click to enlarge

I really enjoy this palette. I took it with me when I went on vacation this summer. It was perfect in size and held some of my favorite shades. Keep an eye out this Christmas for it to come back on sale!

Laura Geller's Air Whipped LipWear Duo

This is the last product of my LG haul and it is an extremely creamy and rich lip product. This is applies like a gloss and looks like a lipstick! It has a soft velvety suede feel on the lips. It is silky and satiny, rich in color and smells so yummy!
These beauties retail for $26.00 Exclusively at QVC and QVC.com; this means that, unlike the eyeliner and shadow in my other reviews, these lip duos can only be purchased on QVC.
The packaging reminds me of bullets for some reason. It has a tipical wand applicator, but that is about the only tipical qualitiy of this product.
 The shades I have swatched are Mocha Mousse (left) and Pink mousse (right). They also come in Magenta Mousse (lively pink) and Innocent Mousse ( a subtle pink nuance). The Mocha Mousse is a rich nude pink, and the Pink Mousse is a bright pop of pink. These names are spot on when describing these lip glosses, they are creamy and have a mousse like texture; Laura explains it as dollop of whipped cream. They are alot like hybrids and are the best of both a lip gloss and lipstick. 
These are great for blurring fine lines and wrinkles on the lips because they don't feather at all. It isn't sticky like other glosses and one application lasts for at least a whole hour before it needs any kind of touch ups!
These are so rich that you are garunteed to only need one swipe.
The lip duos are made with Shea butter so it won't dry out your pucker. It is also formulated with Marine-derived Collagen filling spheres and a peptide complex to boost circulation in the lips and boost collagen, so it is slightly plumping. Another thing I love about these is that you can wear one color alone, or mix the two for a whole new color. They wear so nicely, and even after wearing off, they still look like a lipstain. These are sure to last, and deliver a full  and sexy bright pout!
Stay beautiful!

E.L.F Luscious Liquid Lipstick and Mineral Mousturizing Lip Tint

I ordered some lip products from ELF and I will start by saying that these are actually really good products.

The first I want to talk about is their Mineral Mousturizing Lip Tints. These are intensely creamy and have a great color tint to them. They do include SPF 8, although I'm sure it will not make much of a difference with out it. When I first placed my order I got the color Cherry because it was the only one they had, but now I really want to get all of their 7 new colors. These are $3 each and are great products.

The other product I ordered is their Luscious Liquid Lipsticks. I heard these were great from another Guru friend and I ordered 3. From left to right the shades are Brownie Points, Caramel Candy, and Maple Sugar. These are a dollar each and have a great formulation. They are not overly sticky or shimmery. These add just the right amount of color. They work great for sheer color or to add shine over a lipstick. When I first opened them I spent about a minute cranking the applicator until the product came through. This is one of those annoying crank applicators that do take forever! They have doe foot felt applicators which I am not a huge fan of, but they are all minty flavored so that makes up for it; as you all know, I love mint beauty products! Brownie Points is a red toned brown, Caramel Candy is a sheer nude color, and Maple Sugar is a sheer pinky toned nude color. I love all of these and plan on ordering all 12 shades soon! I definitely recommend picking these up; they make great gifts for favor bags, stocking stuffers, or just as finishers for your collection. Happy Blogging and God Bless!

E.L.F Liquid Eyeliner & Water Proof Eyeliner Pen

Hey everyone! I have tons of new reviews coming soon and I would have posted them sooner, but it is the summer months and it is around this time that I get extrememly busy! So without any further delay lets dive right in!
Today I have for you all the two eyeliners I ordered from ELF cosmetics. These are both only a dollar so I figured why not give them a try.
The liquid eyeliner comes in 6 colors, plus 3 new shimmer colors. The packaging is very simmilar to Revlon's Color Stay Liquid Eyeliner; it comes in an inkwell with a long handle for easy glide application.
The eyeliner pen is "waterproof" and comes in 5 colors, along with 2 new fall colors. I recommend storing the pen upside down in a brush holder otherwise the liner won't come out as fluid.
Both of these have very fine tips but the fibers are always coming loose and staying on my eyelids. These are actually terrible liners in my opinion. They are not waterproof and smudge amazingly easily. They do not stay black, in fact these eyeliners actually end up picking up the pigment in my shadows (may be a good thing for some of you?). These are not long wearing and the formula is extremely  runny. It reminds me of the kindergarten days when the water color paints looked like water with paint instead of paint with some water in it. Bottom line, I will not be buying these again. Stick with the drugstore brands and you're garuanteed quality product.

EOS Lip Balm Smooth Sphere

When summer time comes around my makeup routine changes. California's summers get hot enough to cook an egg on the pavement! So instead of using lipsticks which do nothing to moisturize my lips in the heat, I use lip balms or chapsticks to keep my kisser from drying out. My favorite this year are from EOS or Evolution of Smooth. These can be found at your local Walmart or Target for around $3 or $4. I love the shape of these! They come a little egg shaped with a thumb imprint. You twist them open, but instead of digging your fingers into the balm, these are inverted and a ball of balm protrudes from the bottom half of the sphere! This makes it easy to apply: just pucker up and rub the little ball of balm on your pout, twist the cap back on and your done! These are made packed with shea butter, jojoba oil, and vitamin E. These are 100% all natural and 95% organic. They are gluten free, paraben free, petroleum free, and phthalate free. They come in five flavors. I only bought three: Honeysuckle Honeydew, Summer Fruit, and Lemon Drop. I was not able to find flavors Medicated Tangerine or Sweet Mint. These work so well. I had severely chapped lips and using these for two days cleared it all up! I definitely reccomend these balms. The company also sells hand lotion, body lotion, shave cream, and lip balms in Smooth Stick form. I hope you get a chance to try out their products! Happy blogging and God bless!

Flirt! High Wattage Intense and Creamy Lip Color

I had a poll going on a while back asking readers which is their favorite brand of lipstick; the winner was Revlon. I have never tried their lipsticks but I think now I will :) Anyway, because I was asking all of you about your favorite brand I thought I would share mine! My favorite lipstick at the moment is Flirt! Cosmetics High Wattage Intense and Creamy Lip Color. I bought this in December of last year while doing some Christmas shopping and I have yet to declare a new favorite lipstick. This is the best I’ve tried and the name is true to the product. This lipstick is available at Kohl’s for $12 and there are 30 different shades; however, they have a brand new 31 shade out for a limited time only and it is gorgeous (Golden Confetti). I’ve wanted to get it but it’s sold out right now. The shade I got is Entice and it is a rich dark wine pink. This really is “high wattage” because the color is super intense. If you’re not looking for a bright pop of color then this isn’t for you. This lipstick is amazingly pigmented and lasts for a few hours which is great. One thing I love about this lipstick is that it wears away nicely too. I hate when a lipstick looks good at first, but when it wears off it just looks dry and flakey. This lipstick does not have that problem. It is super creamy and applies very silkily. When it wears out it keeps the creaminess but just wanes down in color and shine; the end result looks like a lip stain so it doesn’t look bad, even when it’s fading! I love this lipstick and plan on getting new shades in August. I've added a photo at the bottom of this post of me wearing High Wattage Lip Color in ENTICE. Happy blogging and God bless!

Drugstore Favorites!

I had some emails about the posts I've done recently. Some readers shared with me that the products in my recent posts are a little too pricey and that is completely understandable. Even for me, it is hard to fork up some cash while also paying for books, tuition, ect. So I'm going to take a break from the high end products and concentrate on products we can all afford. I'm sorry if anyone was offended.
Ok so I currently only have two drugstore favorites this month. I've been trying to limit myself lately on what I buy so this month I've only bought two things..so far :)

The first is Maybelline's Fit Me! foundation. This can be found at any drugstore but I bought mine at Target for $6.49 (wow steal!). My shade is #220 and I like this foundation because it is really light, not oily, and doesnt slide off after I've set it with powder. This is supposed to be an all natural line so there are no oils or waxes or anything like that in it. I really like that it is breathable, it looks natural but it covers up flaws. The finish is very matte so that is a plus. The only thing I didn't like was that its just in a glass container so it kind of pours out. I prefer a squeezable tube or pump. Other than that I really love it.

The next thing I bought was Revlon's Just Bitten lipstain+balm and this is available at target for $7.04, so its a really great price for the quality of the product. This is better than any other lipstain I've tried. I even like it better than Bobbi Browns lip and cheek fluid stain! The applicator is like a felt tip marker but it never dries out. The color is very pigmented and lasts a really long time. The balm is not retractable so that brought it down a star for me. Be very careful when capping the balm because many girls have just broken it off. I bought mine in the "Forbidden" shade. But I highly reccomend it!
Thats it for drugstore faves, as always happy blogging and god bless!