Review: NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection

Hello Lovelies! You know how there are some products that as soon as you buy it you just KNOW you're going to love it?? Then there's other products you're not totally sure about when you buy, but you grow to love them? This product is kinda somewhere in between... when I saw it sitting in Ulta in all its glory, I honestly thought it was going to be my new favorite product! But after nearly a month of use, I'm almost ready to store it away (or re-gift it? lol)

The product I'm talking about is NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection. Let's be honest, who *doesn't* love a smokey eye?? And this palette gives you options!

Classic? Purple? Bronze? Natural? The options are limitless with this grouping of shadows! Mix and match! Create your own looks! Who wouldn't love that?? But wait! There's more!

Don't stop your look with JUST THE EYES! Complete it! Use the bronzer, blush, and highlighter to contour your face! And there's a hidden eye liner and sponge applicator! This can all be found by sliding the shadows to the side. But wait! THERE'S MORE!!

Pull out the bottom drawer and you get lipsticks, lip glosses, concealers, and OMG GLITTER!

It should be obvious to anyone now why I thought this was such a genius product, right? Your whole face is in this one handy container! Multiple looks! Change day to night! Oh! The possibilities!! And NYX is really amazing company. Great products, great prices ($24.99 when I bought it.) Who wouldn't want all those products for such a cheap price??

*sigh* I am not in love. I realllllly wanted to be. And there are parts of this collection I really do enjoy. Here are my thoughts:

The shadows are okay. I do love all the colors and the combination, but I don't feel like they are very blendable. Wherever my brush lands on my lid is kinda where that shadow is going. They're just not as soft/velvety as I would have liked. But the color combinations are great! And I do like the versatility of doing purple, classic, bronze, natural, etc.

The light bronzer I actually kind of like! I think the formula is pretty good and it's not too dark for my Snow White-like skin! The darker bronzer will probably never work for me. lol. I like the bottom light pink blush--it proves a nice flush, healthy glow that compliments my cool skin tone. The highlighter is eh, ok. It's almost just like putting baby powder on my face it's sooo white. (it doesn't look white when applied). But I also can't really tell when it's applied...

I haven't used the lip products or concealers yet. I [tried to] use some of the glitter shadows (and we ALL know how much I heart glitter!) but they were more trouble than they were worth:(  Kinda flaked off and just made a mess. Maybe I'm not applying it correctly...

So bottom line? It's an okay palette, and I probably will use parts of it in the future, but given the opportunity, I would not buy it again. And I don't really recommend it to anyone else. I would've rather spent the $25 on something else that I would use more frequently.

Have you tried this box of makeup? What did you think? What's your favorite makeup product right now?

Prestige Cosmetics--First Impressions

Hi Lovelies! Are you familar with Prestige Cosmetics? I wasn't either, thought surprised since they're such an affordable makeup company! They offer a number of fabulous eye, lip, and face product among others. I'd say they rank around Hard Candy and Wet 'n Wild when it comes to cost.

The lovely Carly at Tilson PR was sweet enough to send me a number of samples to try and review! So today I want to go over very quickly what I got and some first impressions I have on the products and the company as a whole. Then in the next couple weeks, I'll share with you my full review on each of the products. So! Let's get started!

Starting from the top left and going around clockwise:
Eyeshadow Duo in Passionfruit ($4.50): Wet or dry formula, no creasing, long wear. I used this a couple time this past week after receiving and I must say it has some of the smoothest application I've ever seen! Not only is it smooth, it's also super blendable. The two shades just compliment each other and since it's purple, it helps my brown eyes pop!;) I've only been wearing it dry so far, but I plan to try a wet application too and see how that works:)

Wonderful Lip Plumping Gloss in Deluxe ($5.95): Bee-stung pout, shiny, refreshing tingle. This is actually one of the products I requested specifically from Carly. First off, I am addicted to lip gloss (this is no secret;) Secondly, I have somewhat thin lips so I am always ready to try a plumping gloss! I've used it for a few days as well, and it's actually pretty powerful stuff! It's a very sticky lip gloss (which I know some people don't like) but because of that, it lasts for a longer time than what I was expecting. Even the "refreshing tingle" lasts! But more on this after I use it more.

Vinylwear Extreme Lipgloss in Intense Blossom ($5.95): Maximum shine, color intense, long lasting. I was honestly a little nervous by this one because the color in the tube is so bright I was afraid it was going to look too bright on my face. I used it for the first time yesterday and it actually blended in really well to my natural lip color! It comes out as a lot softer pink than it looks in the tube and gives a definitely shiny look to my lips. I was studying the packaging, and I don't understand why the applicator part is so long and the product part is so short, lol.

My Biggest Lashes Mascara in Brown-Black ($6.50): Full plush brush, intense color, one coat application. This is another one of the products I requested since we all know what a mascara whore I am and that I'm always looking for a new volumizing type mascara. This definitely has a plush brush which makes application super easy. It also doesn't make my eyelashes crunchy or clumpy, so so far I'm a fan. We'll have to see how I feel after using it a little longer.

Liquid Glitter Eyeliner in Starlit Black and Super Nova ($5.50): Shimmering "micro-glitter," fine line precision, effortless stroke. I had requested the Starlit Black and was surprised when I received Super Nova as well as I've never ever in my whole entire life used a green eyeliner! lol. I've used Starlit Black several times and am very pleased with the quality. Liquid eyeliner is not something I use a lot (because I'm not very good at it haha, I often smear it all over my lid or blink before it's dry.. drama-rama haha). Anyway, I tried Super Nova for the first time yesterday and oh! I absolutely adored it! It's a soft, sparkly lighter green that just puts a little pop on my eye! I can't wait to use both of these more!

So overall, I'm very excited with everything I received and can't wait to continue testing them all! I'm very impressed with Prestige Cosmetics as a whole. The prices are so affordable and the quality doesn't feel "cheap" at all. They don't do animal testing! Which I know is a huge selling point to many of you! They also have a line of mineral makeup, which I am excited to try as well.

Supposedly they are sold at Walmart, Walgreens, Ulta, Rite Aid, etc. Sadly, I haven't been able to find their products at my local Walgreens or Walmart, but I am going to keep looking at other stores too! If not, their website is super easy to navigate and easy to order through there. And right now they are offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more!!:)

Has anyone else tried Prestige Cosmetics? What are your thoughts?? Where do you buy them?

Flashback Friday: Pink and Blue Eyes

Happy Friday!!! There was more sunshine this week, and it was harder to be stuck inside at work:( But! I'm looking forward to the weekend and hoping for some more beach days! Yay!!

When I was younger, I was very impressionable when it came to reading magazines. If Cosmo told me that boys liked girls who wore gorilla suits and pink mohawks, it's quite possible I would've done that. (thankfully, I never read an article that said that;) What I did read, however, was that blue eyeliner made brown eyes pop!

Now, for most of my life, I was convinced my eyes were the color of muddy puddles. You know what a muddy puddle looks like right? Just a dingy brown.. maybe some scum or mold floating around in it... ew. Gross. And that's how I felt about my eyes. They were brown.. but not a pretty chocolate brown. Not some deep color boys would get lost in, lol. There were flecks of green/hazel in them too. And sometimes a yellowish tint... I'm getting sad just thinking about how disgusted I used to be with them (update, I have since grown to accept and enjoy the unique color that is my eyes;) Anyway, if Cosmo said blue would make them pop, I was going to make my eyes pop!

From then on out, it was the same beauty routine on my eyes all the time. Day in and day out. Bonne Bell Eye Style Shadow Box in Girlie Pink (shocking, right? Some things never change... lol) and Wet 'n Wild eyeliner in Deep Blue (or Navy Blue, I can't remember the exact one I was using then. But the eyeliner that was pretty much 99 cents at CVS lol). I rarely used mascara.

I was still all about wearing eyeshadow the "right" way. I would use the lightest pink on my brown bone, the medium pink at the bottom over the lid, the dark pink in the crease for contouring, and the silvery color on the inner corner of my eye. This was my eye routine for my junior and senior year of college... and probably part of my post college life, too...

So... why do I bring this up now...? Maybe it's regression, but.... I'm doing it again. Haha.

Now, I've definitely matured it some! (I'm now using purples instead of pinks; and have upgraded to Maybelline's Define-A-Line eye liner in Navy Blue) But some wisdom from Cosmo is ever enduring, and I really do think that the blue makes my eyes pop!

How about you? Do you ever go back to beauty trends you used in the past? What are your thoughts on colored eye liners?

Review: NYX Crimson Amulet Collection

Hi Lovelies! Before I jump in to today's post, I wanted to draw your attention to my fabulous new blog layout! LOL. I know I'd been saying that when I got my 100 followers, I felt like I was a *real* blog now and wanted to make it feel... better. Hahaha, I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but I knew I was just looking for something *more*... whatever that *more* was... I went through 100s of pages of blog templates.. and layouts... I looked at blog designers portfolios... I just couldn't see paying someone to do the work for me that I should be able to figure out on my own, ya know? (nothing against people who do do that; believe me, I was *very*close to having someone do it for me). But, my dad taught me years ago that you appreciate things more that you do yourself... and so... I fought on. Anyway! I think the finished product (for now) really captures my personality and what I wanted when I thought of the words "glitter" "gloss" and "glaze" nearly eight months ago!

So! Onto today's topic! I picked up The Crimson Amulet Collection bout a month or so ago from Ulta. This palette was based on the new Johnny Depp movie--Dark Shadows. I was really excited about getting this! It has twenty-four eye shadows, four lip colors, five blushes, one highlighter, one shadow base, and one liquid liner. OMG there is so much in this little box!!!

I'm going to be completely honest with you--I have not used any of the blushes, the liner, or the shadow base. (sorry!) But I don't want to wait any longer before at least starting the review! It's a limited edition collection, and if I wait much longer to review it, you won't be able to buy it! hahahah

So, I've also been putting off the review, because when I first started using it, I really wasn't that impressed. I don't like the lip colors at all... the consistency is just awkward for me... I think I was hoping they'd be more creamy.. more gloss like? And they're just very stiff... while there is some color variation, they aren't lip colors I'd really use a whole lot.

The eye shadows are good texture--typical NYX shadows. It's got a lot of neutrals with some pops of color--both matte and shimmery--I did like that part. The colors are all very blendable, and I'm pretty sure the possibilities are pretty endless.

I'm going to give it a positive review though because I have gotten more compliments on eye looks I've made from this collection than from anything else in a while. Every time I use the blues and purples together people are always asking "Close your eyes! Let me see!" or "What color is that on your eyes?" It's a huge hit!:)

However, here is the best part, ladies and gentlemen! You get all of this for $25!! I'm totally serious!! What a bargain!! So, while I don't really like the lip colors, the eye shadows make up for it, and I love how it's like a little book you can carry. You can throw it in your purse and pretty much use it to touch up or change your look throughout the day... perhaps change your daytime look to a date night or girls night out look!:)

Have you tried this collection? Do you have any favorite products that come in a package deal like this? Have you seen the Dark Shadows movie??

One more haul--ULTA!

Okay! One more big shopping trip to share with you all! Then it's time to use all this amazing stuff and tell you how fabulous (or not;) it all is!! (you are all guaranteed reviews for AT LEAST the next month! hahahah:)

Tonight I went to Ulta, and as soon as I walked in they had their whole display of Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 Palettes. Now, for anyone who has been following my blog for any length of time, you know I'm definitely all about the more inexpensive makeup brands. A lot of my makeup is e.l.f., Wet 'n Wild, Hard Candy, etc. I figure if I'm gonna buy a lot, I don't want to go broke.

But.

There it was.

In all its splendor.

And everyone has said such great things about it...

And now I own it.

So, not wanting to let all you lovelies down, I knew I needed to *invest* in some other products to rate, review, and compare. And around the store I went. I picked up:

Illuminating primer!

Which one will make my lashes fuller?

These both have the little round applicator

 Then this product caught my eye! I have never seen, heard, or have any knowledge of it, but it looks amazing! (if it works)

Spray foundation?! Airbrush-"like"?

Now, I had also purchased a small $10 NYX palette that had similar colors to the Naked 2 (I wanted to compare). But after leaving the store I realized the palette *in* the box (Jazz Night) was NOT the one advertised *on* the box (Champagne and Caviar). So, when I went to return it, I somehow ended up buying this in its place:

 

So yes, now I will be reviewing both of them. My first ever real "expensive" eyeshadow. I'm excited and kinda nervous!:) 

And that's about all the shopping I should be doing for a while! Many, many reviews and comparisons to come!!

TGIF!

Wow, this has been one of the longest weeks in a while! Even though it's Friday, all day it felt like Thursday--kind of like the week that would never end! Work has been busy and has taken a lot out of me. I laid down for a little nap after work and ended up sleeping for almost three hours! 


I'm very excited about the weekend though! (aside from catching up on some much needed sleep). I'm going to tea with some of my best girl friends tomorrow! Not just regular tea, but actual formal sit down tea with little sandwiches and sweets, etc. SUPER excited!! I hope it's not a letdown:)


In beauty news, there are a few things on my "to buy" list. I've seen several reviews on YouTube now regarding Wet 'n Wild's holiday baked eye palettes! I *love* baked eye shadow--wear them wet or dry! The ones I have in my current rotation are from Hard Candy (surprise, surprise)--their Kal-eye-descope Baked Eye Shadow Duos

Apparently the Wet 'n Wild ones are only at Walgreens and only certain Walgreens. A lot of girls have had to try several stores to find them, and even then some of the stores that were selling it were sold out already. So I'm gonna look around this weekend and see if I can find them:) I think they've got some special holiday nail polishes out as well that I'd like to try.

The other product I'm going to pick up is thanks to Karen at Beauty and Makeup Blog! e.l.f.  has nail polish remover pads for $1!! (sidenote, how wonderful is, like, almost EVERYTHING from e.l.f.) She says they work great on non-glitter polishes. So I'm going to pick some up and see how I like them. Then I'll let you know!