Small Hey, Sailor Summer Haul

Sorry I've been AWOL recently, my internet was just being extremely spazzy and I have finals next week, so I'm trying to be studious and make some study guides. Anyway, I went and bought a couple items from the new MAC collection. Sail la Vie was out of stock, unfortunately, but I'm planning to order it online when I can. I'll be reviewing both of these items once finals are over, so sometime after the 9th. Sorry to be so inactive and everything.

May MyGlam Bag Review!

This is my May Glam Bag! I got it today, and was super excited! I wish MyGlam would make their packaging recyclable like Birchbox does, though, the bubble wrap just seems so wasteful! Anyway, I'm still so-so about this month's box. Keep reading to see why!

The wasteful plastic packaging

MyGlam finally stopped including all the random coupons in their packages, which to me mostly seemed like advertisements for different companies. I personally found them annoying and they pretty much all went into the recycling. I'm not really into this month's bag pattern, which is the kisses. I really wish they would either vary the size of the bags or stop including them, they're simply too small for me to use (I bring a lot of makeup with me when I travel).

Here's the contents of the box. I'll now go over what I think of each individual item.

Miss Beauty Nail Bling:
I personally don't like the peel-off stick-on nails, just because I find them quite annoying to apply and not very long lasting. I'd rather use traditional nail polish to paint my nails, thank you very much. Nevertheless, it would have been a nice inclusion if not for the pattern, which is absolutely not my style in any way. I ended up giving these to my younger sister. Nice thought, but the pattern is just tacky in my opinion.

 Philosophy Love Sweet Love Fragrance "Spray":
"Spray" is in quotes, because this frankly isn't a spray. It's a perfume vial with a cap. But anyway, this was nice. I don't really love getting perfume samples, since I'm VERY picky about my perfume and to this day still only have one perfume that I've liked enough to purchase and wear daily. But this one surprisingly smells quite good. I thought this was a really nice inclusion.

myGlam Concealer & Defining Eyeliner Brushes:

I'm pretty neutral on these. I've been using the angled eyeliner brush they sent last time for my eyeliner, since my MAC 208 went and hid in a corner or something, since I can't find it. I already have a concealer brush I like from EcoTools, but I guess I could rotate them. These are apparently the last brushes, so hopefully these will soon be replaced by a makeup product. These definitely weren't my favorite.

Studio Gear Complete Color Lipstick in Warm & Cozy:
My absolute favorite product of the bunch. However, I was hoping for a pink shade, since I wear a lot of pink lipstick. But I ended up with this shade, which is brown-burgundy. I took one look at the tube and mentally winced. I swatched it (I have a swatch a couple pictures down) and still felt sad. So I tried applying it sheerly to my lips, and it is actually really, really pretty! Nothing I would wear during the day, but definitely for a more refined look going out. Worn sheerly, it's so pretty! I'm so glad they sent me this color - the point of these sample bags is to try new products, after all. It feels really moisturizing when I apply, I absolutely love this!

This month's bag was a solid one. Still not up to par with their December and January bags, but much better than their March bag, which was just plain terrible. I think this one is a tiny bit better than their May bag. I haven't heard a ton of customer service complaints recently, and I myself haven't had any issues. Hopefully they're doing a better job of sorting those out now. If MyGlam continues to better their service incrementally, as they are doing now, I will definitely stay a subscriber!

NOTD and Review ft. Butter London Trout Pout & Knackered!

I finally bought some Butter London polishes! I used my $25 for $50 coupon to DermStore and bought these, along with a concealer and a blush which I might end up reviewing later. Anyway, I had Trout Pout on all my fingers, but really wanted to try out Knackered, so I layered Knacked over Trout Pout but didn't really like the outcome, so I took all the nail polish on my ring finger off and just put Knackered on that finger as an accent.

Trout Pout is a salmony coral color that pulls a little bit peach and sometimes looks almost neon pink. It's so, so, so perfect for spring and summer! I love it! And Knackered is a blue-grey-purple-green duchrome with subtle iridescent glitter. It took me 4 coats to layer it to the opacity shown in the last 3 photos, but the layers dry extremely fast and there's no cuticle drag. Trout Pout was opaque in 2 coats, although it did have some cuticle drag and didn't dry very quickly. They're both fantastic nail polishes, and I'm hoping to try some more Butter London polishes soon, although the price bites ($14 a bottle, bleh)! The first photo doesn't show enough of the pink tones in this nail polish, and the other ones don't show enough of the peachy/salmon tones. Apparently I just can't win in terms of polish photos today.

On a happier side note, I went to my debate tournament today and my partner and I went undefeated in policy debate. The tournament was loads of fun! Winning is always fun, of course, but it was also fun because I hadn't been to a tournament in a couple months. This is my last one for this year, and it was a really good one to close out on. Sorry for the non-beauty related ramble, but I was just really excited about this and wanted to share with you guys. Anyway, on to what you came here for: the pictures!

Trout Pout alone on all 5 fingers

Trout Pout alone on all 5 fingers

Knackered layered over Trout Pout

Knackered as accent

Knackered as accent

Knackered as accent

May Birchbox Opening and Review!

I was a previous Birchbox subscriber who then went to MyGlam instead. However, this month's box was Gossip Girl themed. I used to love that show, and Blake Lively and Leighton Meester (a couple of the female stars on the show) always have the most fabulous makeup and clothes, both on set and off. So I decided to re-subscribe for this month's box. Read on to find out if I was glad I subscribed again or not!

First off, the shipping was SO fast, mine shipped out on May 8 from New York and on May 10, it arrived at my doorstep in the Bay Area. Um, incredible shipping time much? Anyway, I was super happy with that aspect of the service, since before my boxes took up to 2 weeks to get to my house. Here's the contents of the box together:

I'll individually review the box contents, then do a summary at the end.

Algenist Compete Eye Renewal Balm:

Sorry, the BB cream was kind of photobombing this picture since the pot of eye cream just rolled off the table otherwise. Anyway, this was a nice inclusion, but I don't really use eye cream regularly. I'll use this up, since it probably can't hurt, but this isn't a product I was really excited to receive.

Color Club Nail Polish in Disco Nap:

This is a nice, very basic gold color. Definitely metallic. I have more gold nail polish than any other color, though, so that was just bad luck in terms of getting another gold nail polish. However, I'll definitely give this one a try. I love nail polish, and I don't buy that much of it, so it was really nice to receive this.

Dr. Jart + Waterfuse BB Cream:

YAYYY! This is my favorite product of the bunch. I've been dying to try a BB Cream since about a year ago, but all the Asian ones scared me, since many of them supposedly have skin whitening properties. Skin whitening? No thanks! I'm pale as it is, I don't need to be any paler! Since then, a lot of BB Creams or BB Cream type products have appeared in American markets, but none of them have received glowing reviews as yet. This will be my first experience with a BB Cream, I'm so so so excited to give this a try!

Ojon Volume Advance Volumizing Shampoo:

I have colored hair, so I pretty much only use products for color treated hair. I'll probably give this to a friend or something, not quite sure what I'll do with it. I also don't have fine, limp, or flat hair, so this is just not really a product I'm going to use.

Birchbox Notecards:

Um, yay, notecards? I personally don't love the Birchbox extras that they include, but I thought this one was quite funny. Since Gossip Girl on the show always signs off with, "you know you love me. xoxo, gossip girl." This was a cute extra to include, I may use this for a thank you note or something. Not the worst extra (not like the paper coasters a couple months ago, I hated those).

Overall, this was a really solid box. I really liked the BB Cream and the nail polish, the eye cream was solid although I didn't really like the shampoo. Still, I got 2 products that I will definitely at least try out, and I think I definitely got a solid value for my money. I really enjoyed this month's box. I'm still going to unsubscribe since I can't really afford to have 2 beauty subscription boxes going and MyGlam seems to be getting better. However, Birchbox has always been a solid bet in terms of beauty subscription boxes, and I think it will continue to be in the future. If you decide you want to join after my post because the hundreds of other blog posts have somehow failed to convince you Birchbox is a good service and my post did, here's a referral link (I get points from it if you join, which I can use in their store as credit). Happy Thursday everyone!

Purrrple Eyeshadow: Review and Swatch of Make Up Forever Eyeshadow in 92 and possible Dupe!

Everyone I know loves this eyeshadow. They talk about how it's fabulously pigmented, and a perfect wearable bright. I love purples, so I decided to pick this one up. And spoiler alert: I don't like it at all. Keep reading to find out why, but here's a couple pictures to start you off. I had so much trouble getting the color to show up properly with this eyeshadow, I probably spent like 10 minutes messing with my white balance settings.

I have to say, the packaging on this product is lovely. It's super classy, and I love that you can see the color of the eyeshadow so that if I happened to have multiple eyeshadows from MUFE (Make Up Forever), I wouldn't need to open every single one to find the one I wanted. The lid snaps shut with a magnet, and I doubt it would open on accident. I love black packaging, because it doesn't get dirty. This product has black plastic packaging.

Ignore the pink swatch at the top of my arm, haha. Anyway, the color is a bright red based purple. It's not a blue based purple in any way. It's extremely pigmented and smooth, and super blendable, especially for it being a matte eyeshadow. Currently, a lot of companies tend to produce chalky, powdery matte eyeshadows that make blending near to impossible. However, MUFE's eyeshadow is fantastic to apply and blend, and the texture is lovely, although I thought it was a tiny bit dry.

At this point, you're probably wondering why I don't like it. And the reason is that this color absolutely does NOT work for me. It makes me look extremely tired, like I haven't slept in days. This is due to the fact that it's a red based purple. Red based browns don't have this effect, but for some reason red based purples do. And so this just did not work for me, in any way. For reference, I think I'm about an NC35, and I have yellow undertones. So this eyeshadow might work for you, the color just wasn't doing it for me. I ended up returning this eyeshadow to Sephora.

And then, I was using some of my Inglot eyeshadows and I noticed an odd similarity between the MUFE one and an Inglot eyeshadow I had. Unfortunately I didn't have the MUFE one at this time, but I made a trek from Sephora to Macy's, where we have an Inglot counter so I could swatch them side by side. I didn't get a picture, but I can tell you now that they are pretty much dupes. Here's the Inglot eyeshadow:

(image from inglotusa.com)

This eyeshadow is Inglot 114R. The darkest shade is a pretty much spot on dupe for the MUFE Eyeshadow in 92. It's also matte. The MUFE shade is $19, the Inglot shade is $7. The Inglot one has fabulous quality as well. You get less product, but still. I'd recommend this as a dupe to anyone!

Overall, the formula and packaging of MUFE 92 were fabulous but the color just didn't work for me. Finding high quality mattes is always lovely, since most mattes seem to be a bit hit and miss. Finding a dupe was nice, although I wish I could have swatched them side by side.

Rating: 4/5

FOTD May 6: Falsies!

I got these in my MyGlam bag, and since I'm planning on just doing homework and an internship application today, I figured I might as well try them out. They're VERY dramatic, and I don't regularly wear falsies, so this was quite different for me. These aren't uncomfortable, but I can definitely tell I have them on. I can see them, they cut off a bit of my line of vision, which is quite annoying. Anyway, here's my FOTD!

Eyes
-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Urban Decay Foxy (Naked 2 palette) all over lid as base
-Inglot 423 Pearl allover lid
-Inglot 405 Pearl inner 1/2 of lid
-Urban Decay Rockstar pigment in crease
-Stila Kitten in inner corner
-Urban Decay Bootycall (Naked 2 palette) as browbone highlight
-Azade Emerald Stone on lower lashline
-YBF Brow Pencil in Universal Taupe
-Al-Belle Natural Lash in Blue Extreme

Face
-Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Foundation
-Milani Luminoso
-theBalm Sexy Mama Pressed Powder

Lips
-Inglot 145 Lipstick

Luminous Cheeks For All: Review of Milani Baked Blush in 5 Luminoso & Swatch Comparison

Everybody loves this blush, so I decided to get it when I was at Target. It's always out of stock at my local CVS, sadly. This is the peachiest toned blush I own, and I really like it! I think the color works really well on my skintone (light-medium with yellow undertones).

First off, the packaging. It's plastic and pretty cheapy, nothing special. I like that the gold shiny part doesn't keep fingerprints, any fingerprints fade quickly. It also doesn't attract dust, since it's plastic. It doesn't feel like it would crack super easily, which is nice. When you flip the blush part of the compact up, it reveals a brush and a mirror underneath.

The brush is pretty much useless, it's scratchy and would probably be phenomenally awful to use. It's headed for the trash. However, the mirror is a really nice touch - when I travel, having a mirror in each individual piece of makeup is quite nice, it makes it a lot easier to apply it when I don't have to open another product for a mirror or carry a separate mirror.

Top swatch, one layer of Luminoso. Bottom swatch, two layers of Luminoso

I'm not going to lie, this blush definitely has shimmer in it. It gives a really nice glowy highlight to the cheek, without nasty fallout or anything. It's not over the top at all. The color is a peach color with a bit of pink in it and a subtle gold highlight. It's a lot peachier than theBalm Hot Mama blush, which I did a review on here. The color of Milani Luminoso is gorgeous, it flatters my skintone well. It's medium pigmented - I swipe my blush brush (haha, tongue twister, say blush brush five times fast) twice to pick up the amount of color that I want. It can also be applied super sheerly if you need to. The texture of this blush is sooo smooth, not gritty at all. Here's a comparison of Hot Mama and Luminoso:

theBalm Hot Mama on top, Milani Luminoso on bottom

As you can see, Luminosos is much more of a true peach blush with hints of pink whereas Hot Mama has a lot more pink in it with some peach tones, although they both have golden shimmer.

The staying power of this blush is FANTASTICNESS. It stays from around 7:30am in the morning to 5 or 6pm in the evening when I take it off. It keeps my face looking alive and glowy all day long! Almost all blushes fade completely by the end of the day on me (theBalm Hot Mama is the only one that stays all day). So in terms of staying power, this blush is love, love love!

Overall, this is a really great blush! I do wish they could have used the money they put towards the brush towards maybe making the packaging a bit more sturdy and less cheapy looking. However, this blush is fantastic in all other aspects -  gorgeous color, lovely formula, and phenomenal staying power!

Rating: 5/5