Ulta Buys :)

I was at Ulta yesterday, which is a beauty/salon store for those that didn't know, and i picked up a few needed things.  I wanna wait a few days before I do a full review on all of these products, just so I can test them out and give you guys my honest opinion on them.  So I picked up two NYX cosmetics jumbo eye pencils ($3.99-one in milk and the other in slate which is a dupe for MAC's Sharkskin), NYC cosmetics Smooth Skin Bronzing Face Powder in Sunny ($2.99), Redken Satinwear 02, and some refills of products I already had.  I was super excited for the NYX pencils though, I've heard so much about them and I'm just really excited to try them out and do a few looks with them.  The Satinwear is a blow out lotion, and its used to prep your hair before you blow dry it, it works amazing plus it smells great :)  The NYC matte bronzer is another product I was excited to try because a) its being discontinued! :( b)its matte, most bronzers are shimmery this one gives you the perfect amount of all over color or just enough for some natural contouring of the cheeks and nose.  I will definitely let you know how that one goes, but its only $3 and you cant go wrong with that price, so its worth trying out for sure.  The NYX pencils were buy one get one free, which is the promotion Ulta is running on all NYX products this week, so if your looking to try out any of there stuff, now would be a great time to do so.  Initial reaction to the pencils are that they are super creamy and make a wonderful color base! They can really amp up a color and deepen it for more dimension, but I'll do a separate review on those soon, so look out for that :)  Here are just some pictures of the bronzer&pencils and some swatches of the colors, milk is a matte white & slate is almost metallic navy blue.

fun reads,

bella

ps: classic beauty

(This is just my opinion, I am not trying to endorse any products here.)

super easy natural eye makeup remover! and review for wet n' wild mega eyes creme eye liner (MAC dupe)

hello lovely readers, i know its been a few days and I've just been busy with school and work and valentines day<3 haha but yeah so im back! And i've got a few amazing tips and tricks for you all.  I was watching the flawless Michelle Phan on You Tube (heres the link to her channel) and she made this video about a natural eye makeup remover so ofcourse i was intrigued, i love my high end stuff but im a sucker for organic.  Her tip was to use EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL not the regular kind ladies, EVOO, as Rachel Ray would say.  But she was right, I tried it out on the product I'm going to review next but seriously it works! It works better than my makeup remover actually lol so I'm super pleased with it.  Yay for natural fixes! But anyways after the gym, I stopped by Rite Aid yesterday, and let me tell you they have Jesse's Girl Cosmetics there! I never knew that, but i had seen it in a few of my fave guru's videos so I was pleased to find it in my local drugstore.   But anyways they were having a 40% off sale on Wet N' Wild Cosmetics, which as you all know, I'm all for using cheap alternatives if they are of good (or better) quality than their high end counterparts.  I picked up the Wet N' Wild Mega Eyes Creme Eye Liner in black for $2.80 (with tax), what a great price!  So i went home took it out of the packaging (its cruelty free btw, no animal testing), and immediately tried it out.  And boy was I impressed with this stuff, now I've used MAC's Fluidline in Blacktrack before i and i have to say that this is MUCH better.  I hate to say that but its true.  It's also way better than L'Oreal HiP Color Truth Cream Eyeliner in black, which retails for like $12 or something like that, the one i bought was dry, hard, and the brush was horrible.  But this eyeliner I'm in LOVE with.  It's very creamy, dries opaque and to a true matte finish, plus the brush actually works.  I prefer to use my own brushes but this one is not bad at all.  This liner stays put too, seriously it will not come off unless you use eye make up remover or the extra virgin olive oil I mentioned previously, but anyways Wet N' Wild creme eyeliner gets two thumbs up from me, I think I'll be using it today :)  (Thats just my opinion, I am not trying to endorse any products here!) 

lol obviously i love it so far, hence the usage :)

and heres what the liner looks like after 6 hours of work:

pretty amazing stuff :)

fun reads,

bella

ps: kim's vegas magazine look, its old i know but beautiful none the less.

Coastal Scents: 88 matte palette, brush, and mica pigment review!

I am so excited about this post! Im not going to go into detail about everything in this one, just general first impressions, I'm going to have to try out the product for a little bit before my detailed review. But let me just start off my saying, kudos coastal scents! You guys are amazing! I feel like such a dork but I just got my package yesterday, it was quick (i think it took 3 days to come after I ordered it, and you could track your shipment on fedEx if you had any inquiries as to where it was). But yes I was so pumped to see this stuff, after seeing it as the staple for almost every YouTube makeup guru, i just had to try it.  I know some people may already know about this stuff and it's just kind of annoying to hear it again but for those that don't, I think it's important that they know what they are missing out on or what to know about. I ordered fourteen items, I know, it's a lot. And Im super pleased with how everything was packaged so lovely, and wrapped to perfection, and so well taken care of on it's journey from FL.   Okay so let's start:
1. Coastal Scents 88 Matte Eye Shadow Palette: (retails for $18.95 i got it for $15 during a promotion last week) a makeup artists dream, i'd suppose.  Now this is a really great palette, and you get so much product for the money!  It comes with 88 eyeshadows (a little smaller than dime sized) ranging from pale highlight colors to darker colors for more intense looks.  I had heard a lot about the pigmentation of these shadows and i have to say I'm impressed. I've used a lot of eyeshadow in my day and the only thing that really compares to these are MAC and urban decay shadows.  They have a matte or satin finish, and some of them contain the tiniest bit of shimmer which is really lovely.  I just can't get over the color selection, I think I'm gonna have to do a valentines day look with these for sure :) But yes highly recommend them. So i took a few pictures, and swatched a couple of shadows (without an eyeshadow base, imagine how pigmented they'd look with one on.)

ignore my grubby little fingerprints

im not the biggest fan of the cheesy logo but i don't mind it when the product is so great

CS 88 with the plastic cover on

aren't they gorgeous! 

ignoring my camera's weird shading of my skin tone lol

the green shade is the sixth one down in the third row

the red is ninth row seventh one down

the black is the last one down there in the corner of the last row

the purple is the last one down in the sixth row

the white is the first one in the first row

and the blue is fifth row seventh down

2. Pink Kabuki Brush ($4.99) was just my inner child wanting to have a pink brush but surprisingly i love it. It is super soft and turns out that it is real animal hair that was just dyed pink, making it an actual worthy purchase, it is super soft, and did not shed ONE hair after being washed, seriously.  The side is a teeny bit tapered and i dont know if that was just my brush or how they all are but i like that little effect.  It is perfect for putting on loose powders and even blush, which i used it for yesterday.  The overall look was very pretty, another winner for coastal scents.  Just one little thing though, the brush handle is a bit small, its not unbearably so but its just a little bit on the small size for the handle. 

Pink Kabuki-freshly washed. :)

3+4. Italian Badger Round Crease Brush ($2.89) and the Synthetic Shadow Brush ($2.95)  I am truly impressed with the quality of these CS brushes.  They are so good!  A lot of them are on par with the MAC brushes, and honestly for the price, whats not to love! So i picked up the crease brush because of the italian badger hairs and it is great!  The bristles are compact and dense, and it is very very soft.  I used this one for a look on a friend yesterday and it was awesome at getting the right amount of color into the crease. The synthetic shadow brush is good for a variety of reasons. It is versatile, because it is synthetic this brush can be used with products of different textures, it would be perfect for liquids like concealer application and wet eyeshadow.  Its also great used with regular or cream shadows, it did a really good job packing on the color and just a very smooth application.  I think these brushes are so great and such high quality, they don't look as cheap as they are either.  The wood paneled finish on the Italian Badger line is elegant and the Synthetic Shadow Brush definitely looks professional and polished.  If your looking for some high quality MAC dupes, try a few of these out.

 

close up- on the left the Synthetic Shadow Brush and next to it the Italian Badger Round Crease Brush

sans flash

with flash! (side note: i'm still wearing OPI's domestic goddess nail polish and it has JUST started to chip and i didn't use any base or top coat so it definitely would go a long with that on as well, OPI=good stuff)

all three brushes:

5+6. CS Mica Pigments (Sample Size[tsp]: $1.00) and 10 Gram Jars ($0.59) I really wanted to try out the MAC pigments but haven't had a chance to stop by the store yet, so i thought these would be a good alternative, and so far i think i did the right thing.  These pigments are so super concentrated and the color selection is phenomenal.  I chose five colors and got the sample sizes for a dollar each (steal!) and trust me it's a lot of product, your not gonna run out of it anytime soon.  I also got the jars just to store them in a way that was easier for me to use, and I have to say I really like these jars too, they're just easy and simple.  One side note for the pigments: be careful and read the description.  Make sure the colors you pick up are approved for eye use! Thats important! You don't want to damage or injure your eyes in anyway so just read before you buy.  CS is really good about writing all this information down on the descriptions.  So anyways these are so SUPER pigmented. I bought them because I got the matte shadow palette and on the days i want a bit more oomph and sparkle, I could just dust on a pigment color.  I think it was a pretty good idea.  You will need a base for these most of the time and they apply beautifully! I didn't do swatches yet but I will do a more indepth review later on when i've used them a bit more.  But overall impression: LOVE.  I got them in 24 Karat Gold, Antique Silver, Metallic Pearl Honey, Sparkle Blue, and Ultimate Shimmer.  Coastal Scents also sent a free sample of a Flamingo Pink Pigment Glitter which i have yet to try but will let you guys know how it goes.

I'm loving the colors, and the jars came in very handy!

a little side note though: the 10 gram jars wont hold all the product for some of them, I still have the little packets they came in which still have a little powder left in them but its all good. :)

That was my intial impression on all the CS stuff i got, I'll try to do a more detailed one soon! (i'm not endorsing these products or being sponsored by coastalscents.com this is just my opinion/images property of their respective owners.)

fun reads,

bella

ps: Jonathan Rhys Meyers - sexy.