August Favorites!

Time to dust off the 'ol blog! And what better way to do that than by gathering up my favorite beauty products from this past month? I found myself reaching for some really awesome goodies in the month of August, a few of them are all time favorites that I've been using for quite some time now.
 In no particular order, let's get into these bad boys!

-Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette
My favorite color in particular is the middle highlight shade, Incandescent Light. It's so beautiful, it adds such a youthful glow to the skin without being over the top. A little bit goes a long way, you just need to hit the high points of the face.

-L'oreal Infallible Shadows in Bronzed Taupe, Amber Rush, and Iced Latte
Stunning shades, amazing textures, great staying power, you need these in your life. Period.

-Nyx blush in Taupe
Perfect contour shade for fair to medium skin tones.

-Tarte Park Avenue Princess bronzer
I use this to put some warmth in my fair skin. Lovely bronzer.

-Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light
This is an amazing setting powder. I bought this quite a few months back and it quickly replace my previous favorite Rimmel Stay Matte powder.

-theBalm blush in Fratboy
This shade is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Stunning peachy pink shade with a satin finish.

-Benefit blush in Bella Bamba
This color is actually a similar shade to the Fratboy blush expect this one is slightly more pink with a golden shimmer shot through it. It gives the cheeks such a healthy look, no need to apply a highlighter with this. Plus it smells so good!

-L'oreal True Match foundation
Lovely medium coverage foundation, blends effortlessly, semi dewy finish. I've been loving the look it's been giving me and I can tell it's going to be my go-to foundation in the upcoming fall and winter.

-Maybelline Dream Lumi concealer
This is my fourth tube of this stuff, needless to say, it's pretty darn great.

-MAC Studio Finish concealer
An oldie but a goodie. I love to use this for pinpoint concealing blemishes.

-Anastasia clear brow gel
This is some serious brow gel, talk about hairspray for the eyebrows! This stuff does not go anywhere in the Texas heat.

-L'oreal Lash Out Butterfly mascara
I finally found a new mascara that I actually like! I still love the Covergirl Clump Crusher, but this one is great when I want a long, fluttery lash look.

-Clinique Bottom Lash mascara
I finally repurchased this and remembered why I loved it. The tubing formula is a God-send for those of us who have an issue with mascara smudging on the bottom lashline.

-Nyx Butter Gloss in Peaches and Cream
Adorable color, creamy formula, and smells super yummy! Great gloss!

-Maybelline Color Whisper in Cherry on Top
The name says it all, I love a nice pop of cherry on the lips. This one is nice though because it's very wearable, not a crazy in your face color at all.

-Jersey Shore Sun Mongongo lip balm
Holy moly, this lip balm works wonders! I got this in my August Ipsy glambag and it is a total winner! It actually improves the texture of my lips rather than just moisturize them and it smells delicious!

-Dr. Brandt Pores No More primer
Also from my glambag, this is my new favorite primer. It really does reduce the appearance of my ginormous pores and it keeps my makeup lasting longer than most of my other primers.

-Layla Cosmetics Ceramic Effects nail polish in CE74 Pop Pink
Perfect pink summer color with a purple duo chrome. SO pretty! I have it on my toes for the second time this month!

I loved getting all of my favorite products together from this past month! I can't wait to see what my new favorites are going to be going into the new seasons!
Chelsea

Covergirl 305 Eternal Oceans Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss review+swatches and pictures!

I've been wanting to try the nail polish from Covergirl for a while now so I decided to finally pick one up! I got this color, 305 Eternal Oceans, as part of my beauty haul that I posted a couple weeks ago.

As you can see it's a gorgeous purple with a blue undertone to it. Marissa was telling me that she thinks it's a close dupe to OPI's Tomorrow Never Dies from the James Bond Skyfall collection released for winter of 2012. I have yet to do a swatch comparison but just by looking at the two next to each other they do look very similar.

Covergirl claims that you can go without a base or top coat while using this polish because they added a chip-resistant topcoat to the formula. I did, however, use a base and top coat with this nail polish when I wore it just out of pure habit. So I took a photo comparison, on the left swatch I used my Revlon Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and on the right swatch I used the nail polish on its own. 

natural lighting:

natural lighting with flash:

Surprisingly there's not much difference between the two swatches except for the right side being a little uneven which is pretty common when forgoing a top coat. 

The formula itself is very nice! It's thick but not goopy at all, time will tell if that changes but as of now it doesn't disappoint. It reaches full opacity in two coats which is heavenly! Dry time is alright. If you have to run out the door after doing your nails, I would definitely suggest using Seche Vite or Out the Door top coat to ensure you don't ruin your fresh mani with smudges.

I have no complaints about the packaging, I actually like it a lot. Sturdy but not clunky. It has a removable top which reminds me of Butter London polishes but still very different.

The brush is just your average looking nail polish brush really. It works great for me though!

My overall opinion of this nail polish is that it gave me a very good first impression! I'll definitely be getting more as soon as I can get my hands on them! And you should too! ;-)

Hugs,

Chelsea

Drugstore Haul/review!!!

Yesterday Marissa and I hit up our local Walgreens and CVS and did what we do best, find good deals on makeup! I went knowing what I wanted to check out all the new summer products that some of my favorite makeup brands are still coming out with. We went to Walgreens first and right away I found the new Maybelline Baby Lips Electric lip balms! I was so excited because I've been seeing them all over Instagram, so I snatched one up right away! I paid $3.99 for mine. 

I got the color Pink Shock because it seemed most suitable for my skin tone. The picture below shows two different swatches. The one on top is just one pass over on my hand and the bottom one shows how built up you can get the color.

The color looks so nice on the lips, you can wear it more sheer or build it up for more intensity. The BEST thing about this certain color is that it smells EXACTLY like a blue raspberry Jolly Rancher! If it tasted like it smelled, I'd probably just eat the whole tube! Haha!

Overall, I don't really have anything negative to say about this product because I just adore the Maybelline Baby Lips line! They all feel really nice on the lips, they're easy to apply and they all smell delicious! The only thing I would suggest before wearing them is to give your lips a nice scrub with some homemade sugar scrub or a little bit of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream with a q-tip. If you have any dead skin on your lips the color may accentuate it.

After I put that in my basket, I looked up and saw Wet n' Wild's new limited edition trios for the summer! I got so excited because it is EXTREMELY rare for me to find WW limited edition products! I only have one limited edition palette and I didn't even find that one, Marissa did. So I grabbed two of the trios.

This first one is called "I'm Seeing Triples!"

As you can see they're pretty bright colors which is so great because it's not often you find colors like this at the drugstore! This trio has a lime green, a cobalt blue, and a berry shade. I didn't notice in the store that the bottom berry color was put in upside down but there's nothing I can do about that now haha. The picture below has some swatches.

These swatches were done with no primer or base underneath because I wanted to show their true color. I haven't worn them yet but my first impression was that the shadows, like most Wet n' Wild shadows, were super soft and buttery not chalky in the least bit! Now keep in mind that "chalky" and "powdery" are two different words. Because the shadows are so soft, when you dip your brush or finger in the pan the product loosens which results in some powdery-ness. So to avoid shadow fall down, just give your brush a good tap before applying it on your eyes.

The second trio I got is called "Hard Being the It Girl"

 This palette has a pink, another blue, and a creamy color with a slight yellow undertone to it.

I can see myself reaching for this palette more often than the first because I love wearing pink on my eyes and that cream shade is a perfect all over lid color or browbone highlight for my fair skin tone. The blue in this trio is more of a royal blue in comparison to the cobalt blue in the first palette.

My overall opinion about these palettes is that you would definitely want to use a primer on your lids and most likely a base too just to bring out the intensity of each shade. But they truly are a wonderful bang for your buck considering each palette is only $2.99! Helloooo good deal!!

The last thing I got at Walgreens was one of the new Rimmel Stay Glossy 3D glosses. I was excited about these too because I just love Rimmel! The colors had been picked over so I just got one.

This is in the color "Back Row Smooch", how cute is that name? Here's a close up of the shimmer.

It's a light pink gloss with a really pretty subtle blue shimmer to it. In the swatch below you can see that it's not extremely pigmented but that shimmer does still show through.

When I applied it on my lips it basically looked like my lip color with shimmer on it. Overall, I probably won't wear this certain color on its own but definitely on top of a lipstick to give it some dimension.

At CVS I got some great deals! Covergirl was having a deal if you bought $12 or more you got 4 extrabucks back so I got a full size and a mini Outlast Stay Brilliant nail polish. The full size color is in Eternal Oceans and the mini one I got as a gift. I'm going to do a separate blogpost on the nailpolish soon! The full size was $5.99 and the mini was $3.79 which was a total of $9.78 so to qualify for the extrabucks I got one more item which was the Covergirl Eye Enhancers trio in Shimmering Sands.

I've heard SO many great things about this palette, I thought it was about time I got it! I did some finger swatches to show off the gorgeous shimmer these shadows have. 

The picture still doesn't do them justice! They are so pretty! You can't go wrong with neutrals! I used the darkest color and that bright highlight shade today along with another product I'll go over in a second. I find this palette perfect for everyday use. You can put that middle taupe color all over your lid and the darker bronze color in your crease for a really pretty but effortless look and you're out the door! I also love the lightest shade for an inner corner highlight it just brightens your whole look! That palette was $5.79 so that put me at $15.57 which qualified me for the extrabucks! So I picked up the Maybelline Fit Me foundation, which I've been so desperate to get my hands on. I'm going to do a separate review on that. And I got one of the new Color Tattoo Pure Pigments in the color Downton Brown. 

Guys. THIS COLOR. It is BEAUTIFUL! I wore it today on top of my Bad to the Bronze cream shadow with the Covergirl trio and I love the look it gave my eyes! So bronzed and summery! Plus it made my blue eyes pop!

If only the picture did this justice! I suggest applying this product with a flat stiff brush or with your fingertips. I did the latter and I loved the outcome! The foundation was $7.99 and the Color Tattoo was $6.99. I used the four extrabucks I got with my Covergirl transaction plus I had a $5 off coupon so I only paid $6.47 for the two Maybelline products! Gotta love saving money!

I hope y'all enjoyed my drugstore haul/review! Let us know what other products from the drugstore you want to see us review!

Chelsea