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Mini Reviews: A Handful of New Drugstore Products I’ve Been Trying

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015 byte of beautyLeave a comment

I’ve been trying out a lot of new drugstore products lately and wanted to share a few of them and what my thoughts are. Drugstore makeup quality has been improving so much in the past couple years, and now more than ever there are amazing, affordable drugstore products. My favorite place to get drugstore makeup is Meijer, which is a big box retailer similar to Target or Wal-Mart, but I think they are exclusive to the Midwest. Target also has a stellar selection, including exclusive brands like Sonia Kashuk and Boots No. 7, and Walgreen’s also rocks and has sales ALL THE TIME. Walgreen’s also has the widest selection of Wet n Wild that I’ve found, and you guys know how much I love Wet n Wild.

Below are five affordable products I’ve been trying the last couple weeks. Suprisingly, I like them all, so check out the reviews to see if they might work for you!

1. Wet n Wild Tame & Define Clear Brow+Lash Gel – $2

I’ve been needing to pick up a new brow gel, since the one I had been using was pretty old and getting a little gross (don’t judge me, you know you have makeup guilty secrets too). This is marketed as a clear mascara AND brow gel, but I only use it to set my brows. The wand is pretty big and it picks up a bit more product than I’d like, but the formula isn’t too goopy or hardening. It didn’t change my life, but it didn’t suck either, and for $2 you really can’t complain.

2. City Color Contour Kit – $8

I got this on Amazon, not from the drugstore, but it’s so affordable that I had to lump it into this post. I had my eye on this for maybe six months before I finally decided to buy it. This kit is perfect for fair skin tones. The palette has three pans: a contour shade, a bronzer shade, and a highlight shade. All three pans are very large and very pigmented. The contour shade is cool toned, which is perfect and hard to find in cheaper contour palettes. The bronzer shade is light and warm, and the highlighter has a very nice pearly sheen. All three blend like a dream. I really like this and recommend it if you have a fair to light skin tone!

3. Maybelline Baby Lips Lipgloss – $4

I have a mixed opinion of the Baby Lips collection of products. I think the lip balms are garbage. The primer, on the other hand, I love (it reminds me a lot of the Smashbox primer), so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the lip gloss, but I actually really do. I got the shade Taupe With Me, which is a neutral nude. This particular shade isn’t super pigmented, but I’m not mad about it because the formula is A W E S O M E! The texture is more like a lip butter than a lip gloss and is SO comfortable to wear. I will definitely be getting more shades, especially the more pigmented ones, and highly recommend the formula even for people who don’t usually like glosses.

4. Maybelline Fit Me Dewy + Smooth Foundation – $6

I have been hearing a lot of great things about the Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless foundation, but I have dry skin, especially on my forehead, so I knew that the matte formula just wouldn’t work for me. I saw they had a dewy option for dry skin, and picked it up because it was cheap and I figured, hey why not? This foundation has medium coverage, but is buildable, and has a dewy finish as the name suggests and does look very smooth. I always powder my face to set it, and with setting the foundation lasts me all day. The longest wear time I had was 9 hours, and it still looked pretty great, with a little bit of separation in the corners of my eyes and around my nose, which is totally understandable. I am loving this foundation and will repurchase once I finish this one. The only con is that there is no pump, so you have to pour it out on your hand or onto your sponge or brush. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.

5. Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge – $7 (or get a 2 pack for $10!)

I am probably the last person to jump on the Miracle Complexion Sponge bandwagon, but I finally bought one and it is just as good as it was supposed to be. First, it’s so affordable, especially compared to the Beauty Blender that sells for $20 for ONE sponge. Mama ain’t got that kind of money, so I will stick with cheaper alternatives, and the Real Techniques sponge is the best affordable makeup sponge I’ve found. It is super pointed on the end for precise concealer blending, the side is big enough to easily blend my foundation, and the flat edge is great for concealer around the eyes and nose, as well as for use with a powder to set the under eye area. I have been using it for almost two weeks, and I noticed a few micro tears on the flat side, but nothing that inhibits its job, so I am pretty satisfied, and for the price, I will definitely be buying more!

What drugstore makeup have you been loving lately?

Best of the Brand: Wet n Wild Top 3 Favorites

September 21, 2015September 22, 2015 byte of beautyLeave a comment

Wet n Wild is DIRT cheap and can be found at pretty much every drug store and big box retailer here in the U.S. It is a cosmetic brand with a pretty wide range for the price, including face products, eye products, nail products, as well as beauty tools and brushes. It has a lot of great offerings, but I do have my personal favorites, and I want to share those with you!

Walking on Eggshells Eye Shadow Trio $3

This is a cult-classic, but it is popular for a reason. It features two shimmer and one satin shade: a shimmering ivory shade, a satin mid-tone brown, and a stunning light pink shimmer. The shimmery pink is a very close dupe to Stila’s famous Kitten. I don’t own Kitten myself, but I found a bomb comparison on the blog Beautiful (Un)Necessities (below). The trio are also supposed to be dupes for a few MAC shades. The ivory WnW for MAC’s Shroom, the brown for MAC’s Cork, and the pink for MAC’s Naked Lunch, so if you’ve been wanting any of those, try out Walking on Eggshells first!

kitten dupe indirect light — (left) Kitten and (right) WnW shade

2. Hollywood Boulevard Shimmer Palette – $6

This swirled, baked highlighter is so pretty that I wish I had bought it sooner. It’s a marble of gold, bronze, and pink pigment, but when swatched is just a lovely non-brassy gold that looks amazing on my NC15 skin, but it would also look really great on darker skin. It may get a bit ashy on very dark skin, but would also be a lovely shadow and inner corner highlight! I use this with a small fan brush, and put it on the top of my cheekbones, tip of my nose, and a bit on my forehead if I’m feeling extra glam. It’s also a high quality dupe for several high end highlighters, including the new Anastasia Beverly Hills highlighter in So Hollywood and Laura Geller’s cult favorite Gilded Honey, although I think Hollywood Blvd. is a bit lighter and less warm that Gilded Honey. I bought Hollywood Blvd. specifically because of the below swatch from my FAVORITE Instagram account, Dupe That, and in it you can see the comparisons between several brands!

3. Reserve Your Cabana Bronzer – $4

Don’t let the name fool you, this isn’t a bronzer AT ALL. This is a very light, illuminating powder that is absolutely incredible and a must have for your makeup collection. Use all over for an illuminating finishing powder, as this is very similar to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Dim Light (see swatches below from Emily Loke). It can also be used as a super subtle highlight on the high points of the face. Finally, on lighter skin tones, it is great for brightening the under eye and setting under eye concealer. Another huge plus about this product is that the pan is HUGE, as big as my palm if not bigger. So it lasts F O R E V E R!

reserve_your_cabana_vs_hourglass

Let me know any great Wet n Wild products you’ve tried and I’ll test them out too!

Nailed It: The Trendiest Shades for Fall 2015

September 21, 2015September 22, 2015 byte of beautyLeave a comment

Wednesday marks the official first day of fall, and what better way to celebrate the equinox than by making your nail game stronger than the earth’s gravitational fields? Fall is all about deep, vampy shades for both lips and nails, and this year’s trends are no different. Oxbloods and deep berries are back in style once again, but TAUPE has made an appearance as the newest, trendiest color for nails, and I am obsessed.

Taupe is a stellar color, but doesn’t get the attention it deserves. For those with dirty blond to medium brown hair, a taupe colored pencil or cream works amazing as a brow color. (I recommend Maybelline’s Tough as Taupe Color Tattoo cream eye shadow and a firm, thin brow brush!) Taupe shades work wonderful for eye looks, especially for lighter skin tones, and those who want a cooler and yet neutral look. Seriously, I love taupe… So taupe on the nails is a trend I can get behind fully. OPI taupe-less beach

My favorite taupe nail color has got to be OPI’s Taupe-less Beach (above). Aside from the punny name, it is a lovely color that is pretty much the perfect taupe in my opinion. So pretty and cool toned… I’m in love! For a drug store alternative, I found Sinful Colors Rebel (below) from their Sinful Shine line. Sinful Colors is dirt cheap, around $2 when it’s not on sale, and with a good base and top coat easily performs just as good as the higher priced brands! And it can be found at Walgreen’s, Walmart, and I’m sure other drug store or big box retailers.

Sinful colors rebel

As you can see from the pictures, Rebel is a bit lighter, but they are pretty similar. Thanks to Gargoyle Polish for the stellar swatch of Rebel!

Aside from taupe, which I think I’ve waxed poetic about enough for today, deep reds and oxbloods are stunning and totally on trend. My newest favorite deep red is Ignite by Formula X (below, on left), available online and at Sephora. I got a sample in my Ipsy this month, and I have had it on my nails ever since. It is such a lovely, deep deep red, and would suit so many people!

A drug store option for a deep oxblood in Revlon’s Nail Enamel in Vixen (below). Revlon polish is around $5, but right now it is on sale at Ulta for buy one, get one half off, so definitely hit that up if you’ve been wanting to buy a couple polishes and save some moolah!

If you’ve found some beautiful nail colors for fall, let me know in the comments below.