Can't Live Without Beauty Products!

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I’ve been using make-up for over 10 years now (!!!) and it’s grown to be quite the obsession! While I still don’t consider myself a make-up expert, I love dabbling in new things and exploring new products! I feel like every time I try a new product, I improve my make-up routine and my make-up skills get even better. While I still have a ton to learn, here are some old and new products that I've truly grown to love! 

Make-Up Blending Sponges

This is a newer purchase for me and already I am not sure how I survived without it! Make-up blending sponges are so so great for making any liquid foundation or BB cream look incredibly natural on the skin. I've tried multiple make-up blending sponges, including the classic Beauty Blender, but my favorite has to be the Real Techniques complexion sponge! Both the Beauty Blender and Real Techniques sponge do a wonderful job of blending in liquid make-up, however, I find the Real Techniques sponge to be much more durable than the Beauty Blender. I somehow managed to scratch my Beauty Blender while washing it out just a week or so after purchasing it which was a huge disappointment. Plus, the Real Techniques sponge is a quarter of the price of a Beauty Blender so you get more bang for your buck!

Flat Top Brushes

I love using brushes in my make-up routine but I am the worst when it comes to using brushes for the "right" function! I think that flat top brushes are supposed to be used for powder application (???) but I've always felt that my flat top brushes are awesome for both applying product and blending out harsh lines. My two favorites are my Elf Powder Brush and the flat top brushes in this Emax Design Brush Kit (I swear Amazon has everything) When I travel, it's awesome to be able to bring one brush that can apply bronzer/blush and blend it out at the same time. Although I might not be using these brushes for their labeled purposes, they are an awesome multi-purpose tool in my make-up kit! 

Loreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner

I have mono-lidded eyes and every mono-lidded girl's best friend is a great liquid eyeliner! I have been using Loreal's Lineur Intense liquid eyeliner ever since I jumped on the liquid eyeliner bandwagon and it has yet to let me down! I've tried many liquid eyeliners since then but none of them have become a part of my routine as much as this one has. A lot of liquid eyeliners nowadays are felt or pen tip eyeliners and I love that this one comes with the option of a brush tip. I always add a wing to my eyeliner and it's easiest for me to use a brush to do so! On top of that, this liquid eyeliner is easy to remove and melts off with just a little bit of water. While this might be an issue if I get caught in the rain or decide to go swimming with eyeliner on, for most daysm it's actually a huge relief because I don't have to spend hours rubbing the life out of my eyes just to get my liquid eyeliner off! 

Maybelline FitMe Liquid Foundation

This liquid foundation has also been a relatively recent discovery for me. I love this Maybelline FitMe Foundation because it provides a ton of coverage but doesn't look excessively greasy on the skin. I have combination skin so at times, liquid foundation can look very heavy on my skin, especially the T-zone. This foundation is awesome for my skin type because it doesn't appear too slick on the skin and dries almost completely matte so that it doesn't look like I have sheen of oil across my face! 

Gel Nail Kits

I love my gel nail kit so much! It has completely change the way I do my nails and makes them look about 100 times better than they did before I got this gel manicure set. I have a Kiss set that I bought via Groupon (It looks like it's no longer available but similar one by Red Carpet: Here) and it was probably the best thing I've ever done for my nails! Before I got this set, I had gotten gel manicures in salons but always thought it seemed like an easy process that I could do at home without spending the money to get it done professionally. While it was a pretty large initial investment, (About $70-$100) it has more than paid for itself with the number of times I've used this kit. While the gel manicures don't last as long as they might if you got them done in a salon, they still last much longer than normal nail polish and and do not chip as quickly!

Colour Pop Lippie Stix

I've raved about Colour Pop multiple times on this blog but I still can't get enough of them. I absolutely love lip products and have tried a million different types of lipsticks and lip balms but I have never loved any one product as much as I love Colour Pop Lippie Stix. Not only is the staying power awesome on these, they also smells fantastic, go on the lips incredibly smoothly, and are pretty affordable at just five dollars each. Colour Pop has a ton of different shades to choose from and while I already have a nice little stash of these, I keep adding more shades to my ever-growing Colour Pop Lippie Stix wish list.

I'm constantly buying and trying new make-up so I'm sure there will constantly be new products I'm adding to my "can't live without pile"! Hopefully that means I'll be kicking some other products out as well so I don't become an excessive make-up hoarder :P 

What are your can't live without products? I'd love to hear from you!

Colour Pop Lip Haul & Review!

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Yay Colour Pop! I am so excited to be sharing this post because I am absolutely in love with Colour Pop’s lip products! Kudos to my beautiful friend Raina for introducing me to these products - she gifted me Colour Pop’s Squad kit for Christmas & my lip game hasn’t been the same since! The original kit I received came with two lippie stix and their matching lipliners (Shades: Behr Hug and Jonesing - named after Beth Behr and Rashida Jones). 

Jonesing

Behr Hug

I love the consistency and long wear of all the products but truly fell in love with the Jonesing shade. Given that I love Rashida Jones and share a similar skin tone, this is probably no surprise! After wearing it nearly every day for a week, I was incredibly impressed by how beautiful the color was and how it all just stayed put! I haven’t been this impressed with a makeup product in a long time so of course, I immediately started scouring the internet for what shades to get next! While both of the original shades I had were creme formulas, I prefer matte formulas since I’m always dabbing at shinier formulas to tone them down anyway! After looking at about a million photos & blog posts (love me some beauty bloggers - they’re so helpful!), I finally decided on the 4 shades below:

Lumiere: This shade wins the award for most surprising! I didn’t think I’d love this shade as much as I did because I tend to prefer strong, dark shades, but Lumiere is such a beautiful nude-y pink color.

Grunge: I went gutsy on this one - I’ve never tried a dark brown shade on the lips before!

LBB: I already own quite a bit of purple lipstick but wanted to give this shade a try because it’s closer to a dark reddish purple than any of the other shades I currently own. It did not disappoint! I love that it’s a bright purple but still keeps it classy with behind-the-scenes red tones. 

Bichette: This is a gorgeous rich classic red. Reds with blue undertones tend to go much better with my skin than reds with orange undertones and Bichette is a perfect cool bright red. This is the only shade where I did not get the matching lipliner since I felt that it was a close enough match to Jonesing that I could use the same lipliner.

I’m so so so happy with all of these! They have amazing staying power and the color on all of them is very pigmented and absolutely gorgeous! If you’re thinking about purchasing some Colour Pop products and you’re not sure what colors to get, I would highly recommend checking out the posts of bloggers who have a similar skin tone to your own (that’s what I did!) and if there is a color that you think looks good on them, more than likely it will look good on you as well!

I’ve already started making a lippie stix wish list in preparation for my next Colour Pop purchase! :) Are you as obsessed with Colour Pop lip products as I am?! I’d love to hear from you! 

Thanks for reading ♥

Ipsy Glam Bag: April 2016

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Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription that gives subscribers 4-5 sample and full size products for $10 a month. All of the beauty samples also come in a handy little makeup bag. I love that all of Ipsy's products come in these adorable bags because they are insanely useful for holding just about anything!

Nth Degree: Moroccan Argan Oil & Keratin Hair Serum

My hair has been super frizzy lately (maybe because I permed it and now I use my hairdryer every day - oops!) so I'm definitely starting to appreciate hair serums that help to keep that frizz away! Unfortunately, subscription boxes have been giving me so many products that I'm having a really hard time keeping up! I already use quite a few different moroccan oil type products so I'm excited to give this a try as well. 

Lab2: Just Blending In Brush

News flash: I’m trying to branch out and actually incorporate eyeshadow into my makeup routine - eek! I get so much eyeshadow from subscription boxes that I figured I might as well try to use them for something! I have monolids, which means I do not have a crease, and have definitely struggled with how to use eyeshadow to enhance my eyes. YouTube tutorials have been a huge help but it’s still a work in progress since half the time I end up looking like I just got punched. I currently do not own an eyeshadow blending brush so this brush actually came at the absolute perfect time! 

Starlooks: Eye Pencil in Jet

I'm trying to stay open towards testing out different types of eyeliner, however, I have a very established eyeliner routine that I'm not looking to change anytime soon. Most of the time, any eyeliner I receive from subscription boxes becomes a waste so I really try to indicate this in my profile so that I get less of these products. Unfortunately, I'm still receiving a lot of eyeliner, which I'm not too happy about :( 

Nudestix: Lip & Cheek Pencil in Mystic

Buxom Cosmetics: Liquid Lipstick in Centerfold

Definitely excited that I received two lip products in this month’s bag because I love experimenting with new lip colors! Both of this month’s lip colors were nude - which was a perfect fit for what I needed since I’ve been looking to add more nude lip colors to my collection! Both of these shades are extremely close to my actual lip color so they’ll be perfect for low key lip days. I’m a happy camper :) 

I am actually super happy with my ipsy for this month! Minus the eyeliner, it actually feels like a good fit for my needs (I love getting lip products & makeup tools), I’m hoping that this kind of luck continues and that ipsy’s algorithm for figuring out individual preferences continues to improve. Overall, I’m happy with this month’s products and glad I’m back with ipsy. What were your thoughts on this month’s ipsy products? 

Thanks for reading! ♥