GIVEAWAY WINNER!!

My big giveaway finally has a winner! It is.....*drumroll*

Michaela Tacker!


Congratulations, and I've emailed you! Please respond, because if you don't answer within 48 hours I'll have to choose a new winner. I said all my cliche and mushy stuff in my "last day to enter" post, so I won't bore you guys with that now. Again, congratulations Michaela and thanks to everyone who participated!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

MAC Bare Study vs. Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in 13 Warm Beige Swatches & Comparison

When I swapped for my MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study (my first Paint Pot), I owned MUFE Aqua Cream in #13 at the time, and the first time I used it I noticed a startling similarity between the two. So when I got around to it, I figured I would do a swatch comparison. I finally did,  It turns out, they're really not that similar. Sorry for all the flipping back and forth of the two products, the pictures just turned out that way....=/

MUFE Aqua Cream in 13 on the left, MAC Bare Study Paint Pot on the right

MUFE Aqua Cream in 13 on the left, MAC Bare Study Paint Pot on the right

MAC Bare Study Paint Pot on the left, MUFE Aqua Cream in 13 on the right

Basically, the MUFE Aqua Cream is a lot warmer than the MAC Paint Pot - more bronzey-gold tones in it, whereas the MAC Paint Pot has more white-gold tones. It does figure, since the MUFE is called WARM Beige, haha. However, they're both fantastic products. I prefer the formula of the MUFE Aqua Cream a bit more since it's waterproof and doesn't crease nearly as fast on me. I have to use a primer under Paint Pots, or else they crease ridiculously by the end of the day, and noticeably after about 4 hours of wear (without primer). The MUFE Aqua Creams crease after maybe 6 hours, without a primer. However, the Aqua Cream isn't as blendable as the Paint Pot, and I prefer to use the Paint Pot as a base. They're both equally well pigmented and they're both great products, hope that was a helpful comparison!

Last Day for Giveaway!

Haha, my title rhymes. It wasn't actually that funny. But still. Anyway, this is the last day to enter my giveaway!

Here's the picture of the prizes. Enter, this is your last chance, after tomorrow I will pick a winner!
I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of people who participated in this giveaway, thank you all so much for your participation.
And a huge, huge thank you to everyone who follows my blog. When I started this blog, I didn't really believe people would read it. I was so overjoyed when I hit 10. It means so much to me that people actually read this little blog of mine, full of my ramblings and thoughts. I especially appreciate those of you who take the time to comment - it's an amazing feeling to know that people care enough about what I write to share their thoughts on it. To all of my followers, I love each and every one of you and thanks again for following my blog!

The New Lippie in Town: Review of Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain in 15 Rose Vinyl

I've been lemming this for a while, and finally picked it up during the VIB sale at Sephora. It's a lip gloss/lipstick/lipstain hybrid, relatively new. I got it in the color 15 Rose Vinyl, which is a cooler toned watermelon pink. Anyway, on to the review and some pictures!

Can I just say, I luuuuurve the packaging here. This is my first YSL purchase, and I was expecting a lot in terms of packaging. This definitely delivered! It looks luxurious, and feels luxurious to hold. The gold cap and the black main compartment complement each other, and I love that you can see what color it is through the small rectangle, which means you can also see how much is left. You don't have to check the bottom every time to see what color is in the mysterious black compartment. Love the outer packaging! 

Here's what the applicator looks like: 

The applicator has a wide-ish flat, slanted tip. THIS. IS. FABULOUS. The person who came up with this must be a genius, because this applicator makes applying this product so ridiculously easy. It fits the shape of my lips perfectly. I don't think I can even emphasize how much I love this applicator, because it pretty much can't fit in a blog post.

Okay, on to the rest of the review. The color is very pigmented. It's a cool-toned blueish based pink watermelon color. The arm swatch below is more accurate than the lip swatch above, my camera was being funky when I did the lip swatch.

The staying power is really good, about 6 hours! Which is fantastic on me, since lip products tend to fade pretty quickly on me compared to the average person. However, there is a pretty ugly lipline left after a meal unless you eat carefully. The staying power of the glossiness is about 3 or 4 hours, which is absolutely fantastic for a gloss. Most lipsticks barely last that long on me, and glosses are known for fading a lot faster. Once the glossiness fades, there's still a lovely stain left that fades fairly evenly throughout the day, although I sometimes do have a faint lipline at the end of the day.

Rating: 5/5

The packaging and formula of this product are fantastic, and the applicator is just absolutely GENIUS! Love this product!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

My HG Gel Liner: Review and Swatch of Inglot Gel Liner in 74, Plus Dupe!

I already had this in 90, which is the brown colors. I love these liners, and I figured I'd review this one here for you guys.

The color is a dark purple eggplant with plum tones. This eyeliner is totally waterproof and smudgeproof. Once you put it on, it stays on. I do sometimes have trouble getting all of it off, but it's honestly worth it for such great staying power. The texture is super smooth, and it glides on. Super easy to apply.

I really like purple eyeliner, because I think it makes my brown eyes pop a bit more. Brown eyes, in my opinion, are the hardest to make stand out in comparison to hazel, blue, green, or other eye colors. So I really quite like purple eyeliners. This eyeliner is very pigmented, which I love. But I was putting this into my drawer after swatching, and I noticed a possible dupe! My Physicians' Fomula Gel Eyeliner Trio for Brown Eyes!

Physicians' Formula on the left, Inglot on the right

I was thinking the middle color might be a dupe. Here's how the two pots look side by side.

In the pot, the Physicians' Formula looks like it has less plum tones and is a brighter purple. Here's how they look swatched next to each other.

(Inglot on the left, Physicians' Formula on the right)

As you can see, they swatch to be pretty simiilar! The Physicians' Formula one does have less plum undertones and is a little brighter of a color. It's also less pigmented and doesn't apply as smoothly. However, in the end these two are pretty close! The Physicians' Formula one does transfer a bit to my upper eyelids after a day of wear and isn't waterproof, though. I prefer the Inglot one, but they're both solid purchases. The Inglot liner is $12, and the Physicians' Formula liner is $10.95 but comes with a black and a brown as well. You get 2g of product per pot for Physicians Formula, and 5.5g in the pot for the Inglot liner. Sorry I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you here. But in the end, it breaks down to $1.825/g for the Physicians Formula Liner if you count the other two colors as well, and $2.18/g for the Inglot liner. I personally prefer the Inglot liner, and the price difference in the end isn't so huge. Hope this was helpful!

Did you like seeing the price breakdown with all the numbers, or would you rather hear overall product opinions when I talk about dupes?

A State of Cheek Nirvana: Review of Benefit Hervana Blush

Many of you may have heard of this blush from Benefit which launched fairly recently, in the last couple of months. I picked this up from Sephora. Anyway, this blush had been getting pretty good reviews in the blogosphere, and I've become slightly blush crazy recently. I know I said I was done buying blush after I purchased and loved theBalm's Hot Mama Blush, but I didn't stick to that very well. Anyway, here's initial pictures!

The brush was decent. Reasonably soft, but I doubt I'll really be using this as I have no need for it, I like my MAC 129.

The texture of this blush is fairly soft, and it's decently pigmented. However, it's definitely on the lighter side. You can see shimmer in the pan, but the blush reads as totally matte on my cheeks. Staying power isn't fantastic, about 6 hours before it starts to fade on me. It's a light pink with hints of peachiness and orchid to it, which I really like. Here's a swatch, although I had to put about 2 layers on to get it to show up.

It applies really smoothly to my cheeks, and wakes up my face really well. Overall,  a pretty nice blush. However, the price tag of $28 is pretty high, and I'm not sure this particular color is worth it. The packaging and product are cute, sure, but the blush isn't out of this world. It's a nice blush for a comparatively high pricetag. I like this blush, but I don't love it.

Rating: 4.5/5

Do you guys like having lots of pictures like in this post, or less pictures like I usually have? Would love to hear feedback on this, let me know in the comments. :)
Remember to enter my giveaway!

CARGO Cosmetics on Hautelook Tuesday!

Just thought I'd let you guys know! I'm thinking of picking up maybe a blush, but I'm still undecided. Are you considering hitting up the CARGO sale tomorrow?

My First Bright Lipstick: Viva Glam Nicki Review and Swatches

Okay, first of all I have to apologize for the long absence. First of all, I recently found out how to schedule posts on Blogger. I know, I'm a bad blogger and very non-tech savvy. But I saw people talking about how they scheduled posts and the brilliant thought occurred to me that I could do that too (I thought maybe they had more advanced blogging platforms, but no). I was actually on a trip to the Grand Canyon and the national parks in that area with my family, let me know if you guys want to see pictures. Anyway, I'm sorry for being AWOL and I'm back with a review!

This was my first purchase of a really bright lipstick, unless you count red lipstick. So I was quite excited. I've been wearing this on weekends, since it's obviously a bit loud for school. Anyway, someone tell me if I'm wrong but this looks VERY similar to Watch Me Simmer and Force of Love, at least in swatches I've seen. But I do have to say that I am in LOVE with this lipstick! I like Nicki Minaj, and her makeup is always super bright and creative. And the money for Viva Glam goes to a great cause - 100% of the money goes towards helping stop AIDS, which is just really, really fabulous.

As always with MAC's lipsticks, the packaging is gorgeous and simple, there's little chance of the lid coming off in your purse.

The inside of the tube has Nicki's signature on it, like all celebrity Viva Glam lipsticks. And the color of this lipstick is just so, so bright! This was an overcast day, so the true boldness of this color doesn't show as much as I'd like it to. I prefer the bullet type lipsticks to the ones where the lipstick takes up the entire casing, since with the latter type sometimes they don't twist down very well.

The formula of this is pretty nice, but my one issue is that it is so dry! I always have to apply lip balm before I apply this, or else it tugs on my lips. :( And after about 10 minutes this settles into the fine lines of my lips, but I can just correct that with a Q-tip and it's fine after. Because this color is just so gorgeous that it's absolutely worth it.

Ignore the purple eyeliner swatch above this, I didn't notice that when I took the picture. I was doing a bit of a swatchfest that day. The color is a yellow based bright neon pink with maybe a tiny tiny hint of coral in there. This lipstick is extremely long wearing, I get around 5 hours of wear from it with a meal in the middle. It does fade a bit unevenly at the end, leaving a nasty lipline so I have to wipe it off or retouch at that point. It's a satin finish, which I like.

Overall, the formula of this lipstick is a bit dry but the packaging is nice, and the gorgeous color honestly makes it completely worth it. A bonus is that the money goes to a fantastic cause. This is a lipstick that I would absolutely recommend. My giveaway ends in exactly two weeks, don't forget to enter! A big thanks to all who have participated so far. Spring break ends today, back to school tomorrow for me. Happy Sunday night!

How to Get Inglot Eye Shadow Pans Out of Their Palettes

I have chipped pretty much every single one of my Inglot eyeshadow's trying to pry them out of their palettes. Inglot eyeshadows are notorious for being hard to move around. I used some sort of nail tool previously, until I finally found a solution. Before, I would often take over 5 minutes to get an eyeshadow out of its place, often chipping bits out of it on accident during the process. Anyway, my problems are all over now. It now takes me mere seconds to get my eyeshadow out of its palette. Here's how.

This is what you'll need.

Some magnets (I actually got these in the Google Retail store, but any very strong magnet will do. If you use a small magnet, put the lid in between the magnet and the eyeshadow so that the magnet doesn't touch the eyeshadow)

An Inglot Palette (mine's a bit worn, haha)

Then, you simply place the magnets on top of whichever shadow you want to take out of the palette, like so.

Then you simply lift the magnets up, and the shadow should come up with them!

And voila! You have your eyeshadow safely out of your Inglot palette!

Hopefully this was helpful. Happy Thursday everyone (spring break starts Friday, whoo)!

And don't forget to enter my giveaway!