Cute Blog Award!

This is the second blog award I've been awarded, and I'm quite excited about this one too! This is the Cute Blog award, passed to me by the wonderful Latoya from Beauty Obsessed. The icon for this award is adorable, props to whoever drew it originally!

Anyway, for this award I have to answer some questions, then pass the award on to a couple more bloggers. Here we go!

1. What is your go-to makeup brand? Well, I love trying new makeup brands, but I would probably say Inglot or theBalm - they both have fantastic high quality products at prices that don't make my wallet cry. Someday I dream of owning all of theBalm's products and all of Inglot's eyeshadows...I very highly doubt it will happen. Well, a girl can dream, right?

2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011? Probably feather extensions. I loved those, they were so much fun! I actually made a bit of a small business applying them for friends and family. It was nice while it lasted, but businesses based on trends don't really do so well after the trend goes out of style. But then again, I wasn't expecting it to last so it was alright.

3. What is your favorite dessert? Hmm, probably brownies. Or chocolate.

4. Favorite color? Purple!

5. Middle name? Fei. It means something in Chinese, but I'm not sure which meaning it is. It's not the "Fei" that means to fly, it's some other meaning. My grandmother knows what it means, but I just keep forgetting to ask her.

6. What is the last song you listened to? I've had One Direction's album Up All Night on repeat since it came out, so something by them, I think it was More Than This. I am kind of in love with One Direction, just in case you didn't know. :P

7. Cats or Dogs? Dogs! I have a dog named Cosmo :)

8. Something you didn’t know about me: I played piano for four years before quitting. In the end, I just wasn't really into it. This led to me not practicing and lessons being unproductive and a waste of money, hence my quitting. I didn't touch the piano for months after (I know, bad!) and now all I can play by heart is Heart & Soul. Well, you win some, you lose some. Piano was one of my losses. xP


There we go, now you know a bit more about me! I'll now pass the award on to a couple of other fantastic bloggers I follow!


Cosmetic Passion

Through Chelsea's Eyes

Gorgeousskin

Beauty by Arielle

Simply Sarah

Small Town Fabulous

MAC Hey, Sailor Collection

I generally don't post press releases, but this time I had to. This collection has the most goooorgeous packaging ever. I love stripes, and this entire collection has striped packaging. So I will 100% be picking up at least one item, if not more, from this collection, which launches in June (can't wait!). Anyway, here's a picture of the promo picture and the collection:

(image from allurabeauty.com)

(image from allurabeauty.com)

Will you be picking anything up from this collection?

Disneyland Makeup Bag!

I recently went on a trip to Disneyland. I tried to pack minimal makeup, and it relatively worked, I suppose. I expected to get soaking wet, so I didn't bring any powder eyeshadow (a first for me!). Here's a picture of what I brought and a breakdown of the products (in random order):

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer: My favorite primer. I have the professional size, since I don't plan on purchasing another brand of primer and the value is quite good.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in San Paulo: Stays a pretty long time if you apply it in the morning - pretty low fuss and can be built up to a bright color.

Inglot Cream Concealer in 21: Accidentally brought this along with my Rain Cosmetics concealer...whoops. But this is a good concealer, it's just the Rain Cosmetics one is waterproof.

Silk Naturals Kisser Slicker in Gold Blush: Lipgloss in a stick, moisturizing, and smells amazing. It doesn't get much cooler than that. Good to carry with me, since I can apply it without a mirror and it's like a chapstick, but not.

theBalm BalmShelter Tinted Moisturizer: Decent coverage, and has SPF in it. Fantastic! Did a review on this here.

theBalm Sexy Mama Powder: I used this to set my tinted moisturizer. Yay! I also did a review on this, which you can find here!

Benefit Posie Tint: I used this as a cheek stain, because if I get wet a cheek stain isn't going to rub off immediately as a powder blush might.

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain in Passion: Lipstains are my favorite for any type of activity involving water. They don't smudge off. I really like the Revlon one, it does a pretty decent job of not leaving a nasty lipline when it fades, and I like that it comes with a lip balm on the other end.

Make Up Forever Aqua Cream in 13 Warm Beige: This is waterproof, and can double as a highlighter. This takes about 20 seconds to apply and then I'm done. Great for trips!

Clinique Volumizing Waterproof Mascara: Got this a while ago. Waterproof mascaras are annoying to remove, so I only use them when necessary, as in this case. It's a decent mascara, and it doesn't smudge during the day.

Rain Cosmetics Undercover Concealer: Waterproof full coverage concealer. Awesome. Did a review on this here.

Inglot Gel Eyeliner in 90: Dark brown gel liner. This is my HG gel liner - it's totally waterproof and so creamy!

Anyway, that was what I brought on my trip to Disneyland! I recently packed for another trip, and I'll post what was in my bag for that trip probably sometime next week. Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been quite busy. Sorry I don't have an Easter themed post for you all, but happy Easter!

Spring Trends!

Just thought I'd do a post on color/makeup trends for Spring 2012.
Tangerine is pretty much THE color to be wearing (eyes, lips, clothes, whatever). Sephora and Pantone just collaborated to release a collection featuring Tangerine Tango. Here's some pictures of tangerine items:

(image from Sephora.com)

(image from manolobig.com)

I personally think tangerine is a nice trend, fun to wear on the lips or cheeks but not so easy to wear on they eyes as eyeshadow or eyeliner.

Another trend for spring 2012 is pastels, here's some examples.

(image from design-seeds.com)

(image from makeupandbeautyblog.com)

I love, love, love the pastel trend on nails, although I think it can be hard to wear on the eyes. 

And the last trend that I've noticed is dewy skin, which has been in for quite a while and is still definitely on trend. I love this trend, it means I get to use my highlighter. :)

(from makeupforlife.net)

Personally, there are two spring makeup lines whose ads I am absolutely in love with - Clarins and Burberry. These makeup looks are drop-dead gorgeous. :)

Clarins Spring 2012

(image from musingsofamuse.com)

Burberry Makeup Spring 2012

(image from make-up.becomegorgeous.com)

That was my take on what spring trends are in terms of makeup, hope you enjoyed! I'm thinking of doing a top 5 product picks for spring type thing, I think that would be fun! Happy Wednesday everyone!

Another Blog Hop!

I love these blog hops, they are a fantastic way to find new blogs to read and gain new followers! Can't say enough good things about these, haha.

A Venture into Tinted Moisturizers: Review of theBalm BalmShelter Tinted Moisturizer

I've never tried a tinted moisturizer before, this one was my first. And I really like theBalm's products, as some of you who have been reading my blog for a while may know. Everything I've tried from them, I've loved. And that is definitely saying something. So I figured if I was going to try a tinted moisturizer, it should be from a brand whose products  I consistently find work well for me. I got this off Hautelook during their theBalm sale.

I ordered the shade light/medium, since that's generally an awesome match for me in terms of foundation and face products. Here's some initial pictures:

Definitely a generous amount of product! The Laura Mercier TM (Tinted Moisturizer) only comes with 1.5oz, whereas this one comes with 2.15oz! And the Laura Mercier one is $42, so it's $28 an ounce for the Laura Mercier one, but theBalm's version is $25, so it's only $11.11 an ounce! More product for much cheaper, which I quite like!

The opening was covered by foil, which is nice. It ensures that no product got lost in transit. I got a bit confused at first, when product wasn't coming out, until the brilliant idea occurred to me that they might have blocked off the opening. -.-

When I did manage to open the product, I squeezed some onto my finger and my first thought was "Nice, I ordered the right color!" Light/medium products are generally a great color match for me since they tend to have yellow undertones, which I have. Good thing I got my shade match, since Hautelook doesn't accept returns. :P

Arm swatch

Blended out

As you can see, it's an awesome shade match! You can barely tell I'm wearing anything.

Anyway, it blends fabulously. It's a really light, and doesn't feel pore-clogging or heavy when I apply it, which I expected since it's a TM. It blends easily, and has decent coverage. I would say this has light coverage - it doesn't make any blemishes I might have as unnoticeable as a foundation, but the coverage is buildable and this can be built for some pretty decent coverage. Its' coverage is not as much as my Revlon Colorstay foundation (obviously), but pretty nice, especially for it not having a heavy texture at all. In fact, the texture is very light and smooth.

I apply this with my fingers, personally. I'm lazy and hate washing my brushes, so I just wash my hands before I apply this. My face stays fairly matte throughout the day as long as I apply powder on top, although this is not normally an issue for me, so I can't speak for how this would fare on oilier skin types.

I don't break out easily, but I'm still happy to say this has not broken me out (I was a bit worried since some  people on MakeupAlley, a great resource by the way, reported this broke them out quite badly). So that's good news. It doesn't leave my skin looking totally matte until I set it with powder - it has a bit of a glow to it.

Rating: 5/5

Overall, this was a great start to my journey into tinted moisturizers - enough so that I won't be searching for a new one until this one runs out. And based off the generous amount of product I received, I don't think I'll be running out any time soon!

Oh, also. I'm going to do a giveaway once I get to 50 followers, I'm plotting what the prize will be. :) So keep a lookout for that!

What's your favorite tinted moisturizer? Do you prefer tinted moisturizers or foundation?

A Pretty Sweet Lippie: Review of Revlon Lip Butter in Sweet Tart

Upfront, I'll admit it. The amount of hype over the Revlon Lip Butters has been ridiculous. It's like people had never seen a chapstick-lipstick hybrid before. And I am 100% sure this is not the case. It's just that there's never been a decent drugstore version of one to the point where it receives a lot of hype. In that respect, this was groundbreaking! So, I bought into the hype and bought a Revlon Lip Butter. I mean, you can't have that many people raving about a product unless it's at least halfway decent. So, let's end this block of text. On to the pictures!

The color I picked up was in Sweet Tart. It's a light pink color, not too complex. It leans a tiny bit towards fuchsia but is definitely a lightish medium pink.

It's fairly pigmented, but not as pigmented as Lollipop (the other Lip Butter I have but I was too lazy to photograph). However, in comparison to a normal lipstick, it is still sheer. 

Light application (color is a bit off due to bright sunlight, the arm swatch is more accurate)

I think it leans a tad cool, but both warm and cool skintoned gals could pull this off.  This would be a great slap-on-and-go shade in the morning. As for its moisturizing properties, they're okay. It definitely doesn't dry out my lips. It wears comfortably, and glides on really smoothly. My lips don't feel as hydrated as they would if I used Chapstick or Aquaphor, but it's not uncomfortable. I like the packaging, it's cute and doesn't make me terrified to lose it, like more expensive products do. It snaps shut securely, and I like that you can see the color through the top - it makes picking a color in store much easier, since you can't swatch items in drugstores. So it's nice to be able to see the color before going ahead and purchasing the item.

Now, there's one issue that I have with the Revlon Lip Butters. Their wear time. I don't spend any time at all during the day touching up my makeup, and I have no desire to. I do my makeup in the morning, and I take it off at night. I don't reapply anything at all during the day. So I like my lip products to last all day long, or at least up to lunch. That's why lip stains are so appealing to me. Anyway, basically this doesn't last. It lasts 2 hours maximum on my lips, and that's an issue for me. That's why these won't get as much use as they could. Of course, the longer the wear time, generally the more drying the lip product is. So it's really a tradeoff, and in this case Revlon chose to make the product more moisturizing than longwearing.

Rating: 4/5

I really like the color and the formula, except for the non-longwearing factor. For me, that's really important in a lip product because of my makeup habits. Otherwise, this is a fantastic lippie at a great drugstore price!

The Portrayal of Women in Advertisements

We watched a film in school today and last week called Miss Representation (I love the title, it's really clever) about the portrayal of women in media and in general and the issues that come with it. And this is an issue that I believe should be getting more attention. When makeup and clothing companies put advertisements out, they don't put the advertisements out without a whole load of retouching. And all this retouching and skin airbrushing leads to a beauty ideal that people in real life can honestly never emulate. Models in, for example, a Revlon ad (just picked a random company) are going to have ridiculously perfect skin, lifted cheekbones, and flawless eye makeup. And in real life, that's just not something that people can achieve. Having a perfect model sells the product, because it obviously sends the message of, "buy this product to look like this" that women across the world buy into.

Yet seeing these ads creates this ideal of beauty that people simply can't live up to. It can make you feel inadequate, like you need to be different than you are to be perfect. And this can hit your self esteem really, really hard. Because you can't be perfect - nobody can. Look around the room next time you're in a group of people. Even the most glamorous person in the room isn't going to look like an advertisement. So the ad companies create unrealistic ideals of beauty that women (and men, but I'm focusing this post on women) yearn for. And this is an issue. It makes women and girls feel inadequate that they don't look like girls and models in magazines. And this is upsetting, since nobody looks like them - even the models themselves. The published version of those models is not majorly different from the model in real life, but it is different. And that difference impacts girls worldwide.

If we didn't see airbrushed photos of women, we would accept regular people as the norm. And if we didn't see the modified bodies of models in magazines, we would do the same. Striving for the perfect body and perfect skin is seriously hard hitting in terms of girls' self esteem. This can lead to feelings of worthlessness or eating disorders - all because of our society's obsession with beauty and outward appearances. Of course, appearances are the first thing you notice about someone. But being beautiful is very often associated with being happy. People should be judged based on their personality, not their looks.  But that isn't reality. The ad companies see that beauty is equated with happiness, so they reel you in with promises of beauty. And consumers buy it, and the cycle of unrealistic expectations begins to rub off on the rest of the world.The portrayal of women in advertisements and media is something that needs to get attention, so that people realize what a profound effect it has on women and men. When men see these unrealistic portrayals of women, they expect women to be the same in real life. And it's straight up impossible.

Next time you see an ad with a celebrity who has flawless skin, remember that it isn't that way in real life. And if you see an ad with a model whose waist is about an inch around, remember it was a different size before it got modified by someone at their computer. And last of all, remember that no matter what the media or advertisements say, you are beautiful.

Neutral Eyes, Bright Lips FOTD!

There's been a lot of talk about neutrals and brights paired together for spring, so I thought I'd do a FOTD mimicking that. Bobbi Brown's new collection is called Neons & Nudes, and I was inspired by this photo.

(image from http://makeupforlife.net/)

I love the combination of bright lips and neutral eyes, so I decided to pair fairly neutral eyes with bright coral lipstick. Tangerine is a really trendy color for spring, and orange and tangerine are kind of like cousins. So I'm being semi-trendy, I suppose. And there's also the fact that I don't own any other bright lipsticks (although the new Nicki Minaj for MAC lipstick looks extremely tempting). Anyway, here's the look (sorry for the awful lighting, it's been raining for about a week now and there's pretty much no sun).

Products

Eyes:

-L'oreal Infallible 24 Hour Eyeshadow in 555 Perpetual Purple (allover lid)

-Lorac TantalEYES Eyeshadow palette (bottom right brownish maroon color, in crease)

-Urban Decay Bootycall (inner corner)

-Fairydrops Scandal Queen Mascara

Face:
Rain Cosmetics Undercover Concealer
Pur Minerals 4 in 1 in Blush Medium
theBalm Sexy Mama Powder
theBalm Hot Mama Blush

Lips:
Revlon Lipstick in Coralberry

Blog Hop!

I'm participating in another blog hop, this time hosted by Kristen from Meet Me on the Brightside! I encourage you all to hop on and check it out! :) Post your links up too. Blog hops are a great way to gain new followers and discover fantastic new blogs to read!

Nuts for this Eyeshadow: Review of Wet N Wild Eyeshadow in 252B Nutty

Everyone talks about this eyeshadow, and so I decided to purchase it. This won't be a long review, since the good reviews of this eyeshadow are numerous and easy to find. I got it on clearance for 75% off, hopefully Wet N Wild isn't going to discontinue this shade, because I really like it.

It's a very soft formula, the shadow isn't hard to the touch. It's very easy to pick up eyeshadow onto your brush. The eyeshadow is also extremely pigmented, especially for a drugstore eyeshadow. It applies really smoothly, and I've experienced no creasing problems during the day as long as I prime my eyes before I apply it.

Depending on the angle you look at it, this eyeshadow is either a medium taupe brown or an antiqued gold brown taupe. Mostly it looks like a medium taupe brown, though. It's a warmer shade, but cool toned girls could probably still pull this one off. It's a great shade to use as an allover lid shade to throw on and head out. An easy look is to put this all over your lid and then work a grey or some sort of darker color into your crease. It doesn't have any actual glitter particles, just shimmer.

Rating: 5/5

Altogether, this is a great eyeshadow that is amazing value for the price. Wet N Wild is one of the cheaper cosmetic brands, yet somehow they still manage to maintain incredible quality. It kind of makes you wonder why high end brands like Chanel and Dior charge so much for their products - I guess it really comes down to consistency and ingredients. Wet N Wild can be very hit or miss, whereas Chanel and Dior consistently produce extremely high quality items, with top notch ingredients. Anyway, my tangent about product pricing ends here. Have a nice day, everyone!

Wednesday Wants March 14, 2012

For those who missed my last post, my Wednesday Wants post is just a post where I simply list the items that I'm currently obsessed with. Here's this week's post!

Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick 

(image from http://www.vampyvarnish.com/)

Chantecaille Coral Reefs Palette

(image from http://www.outblush.com/)

Sunday Riley Blush in Intimate

(image from http://www.barneys.com/)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

EOTD March 13, Turquoise and a bit of Purple for Spring!

One Direction's album was released today. :) I bought the deluxe version. I'm a bit obsessed. Anyway, I wanted to play with some bright colors when I got home from school, so I decided to do a turquoise EOTD. There's purple in the crease, but you can't really see it. I usually wear neutrals - maybe I should wear brights more often? Anyway, enjoy! 

Products
-MAC Bare Study Paint Pot
-Urban Decay Flipside (allover lid)
-Urban Decay Flash (in crease)
-Urban Decay Kiddie Pool (inner corner - unusual, but I thought I'd try it. I thought it looked alright, what did you think? Should I stick to a traditional peachy or white shimmery color there instead?)
-Tarina Tarantina Hyperliner in Kanzashi (top lashline)
-Azade Emerald Stone (outer corner)
-BH Cosmetics 120 Palette 1st edition, some sort of shimmery turquoise color (on lower lashline)
-Fairydrops Scandal Queen Mascara

Blog Hop!

Hey guys, I joined the blog hop going on at Blog Love Therapy! You guys should check it out, it's great! It's an awesome way to gain some new followers and find some great new blogs to read!

March MyGlam Bag!

I'm never sure whether to call this a MyGlam bag or my Glam bag. I'll go with my Glam bag for now. Anyway, I received my Glam bag today - mine shipped out on Friday and arrived today. They ship from somewhere in California, and I'm in the Bay Area. Since Sunday no mail goes anywhere, 2 days to get to me was a decent shipping time. Especially compared to Birchbox, which would often take 2 weeks since it shipped from the East Coast. Anyway, I was really hoping for more makeup products this month - I personally don't want to get skincare samples, and in their first two boxes it looked like MyGlam was going to be a mostly makeup service. However, spoiler here - this month they have not lived up to that expectation. Here's some pictures to start you off:

The contents of my bag are as follows:

Pur-lisse Pur Protect SPF 30 Essential Daily Moisturizer - I'm not interested in skincare. I'm happy with my current moisturizer. This won't get used. 

Murad Eye Lift Perfector - Same thing. This isn't going to get used.

DermStore $25 Giftcard - This is actually a spend $50, get $25 off type thing. Misleading, but I may use this in the end.

Murad Absolute Bronzing Boost SPF 15 - Eh, this is almost a makeup product. I prefer powder bronzer, though, and this will likely not get used either. I was hoping for the full size Pur-lisse Lip Nourisher thing, but nope.

Keracolor Color Enhancing Leave-in Treatment - I might use this and see if I like it. Hair products are okay in my book.

myGlam Classic Crease Brush & Case - This smells like gasoline, and it stank up the entire package. I'm serious. I stuck the case in my drawer of perfume samples (it smells like amazingness in there) and after the brush dries from its' washing, I will stick that in there too. The brush is pretty soft, and this will probably get used, although it's a bit big for my eyes. It's nice and fluffy, although it did shed in the first 5 seconds I held it, and a couple more hairs when I washed it:

Makeup bag - this has a cute flower pattern, and is made out of canvas. It feels pretty sturdy, although it's a big small, like the last one.

Overall, this bag was disappointing. My favorite item out of the bunch was the crease brush, and it smelled like gasoline. The fact that a stinky brush was my favorite item out of everything in this month's bag says something about it - I flat out didn't like it. I would really, really, really like to see more makeup in these bags, not skincare. I'll stay subscribed, but one more month like this and I'll have some serious doubts. Happy Monday, everyone!