NYX Blushes - these literally made me blush!!

In my quest to find makeup products in convenient locations, rather than always having to go to a department store, I'm finding that there are some fairly decent products out there.

I purchased two of NYX's blushes:  Terra Cotta and Desert Rose.

The Terra Cotta blush has a bit of a shimmer to it while the Desert Rose is definitely more of a matte finish.  Be forewarned:  both blushes are quite pigmented and go on fairly dark, so go light with the hand.  Both blushes are very creamy and almost feel like a cream blush and are both very easy to blend.  Terra Cotta is a shimmer and so it leaves a bit of a sheen on the cheek, but not sparkly.  

While I didn't purchase some of the more bronze shades like Cocoa or Taupe, I would think either of these would make nice contour shades as well.  One of the things I am finding with the NYX products is that they offer a large number of shades.  These blushes come in 25 shades - a color for everyone!


What I didn't like:  the blushes seemed to have a lot of fall out around the outer edges of the containers and I noticed some fallout on my counter after applying.  I tried using a more expensive brush and found that there was less fall out while using my nicer brushes rather than my synthetic ones, so here is a tip!


Product Details:
$5.99 .2oz/6.4g

25 shades: 
PB01 Mocha, PB02 Dusty Rose, PB03 Angel, B04 Silky Rose, PB05 Pinky, PB06 Peach, PB07 Natural, PBO8 cinnamon, PB9 Raisin, PB10 Sand, PB11 Taupe, PB12 Terra Cotta, PB13 Mauve, PB14 Spice, PB15 Stone, PB16 Chocolate Mouse, PB17 Desert Rose, PB18 Cocoa, PB19 Nutmeg, PB20 Cafe, PB21 Copper, PB22 Pecan, PB23 Espresso, PB24 Red, PB25 Pinched

Left:  PB 12 Terra Cotta, Right:  PB 17 Desert Rose

 PB 17 Desert Rose

PB12 Terra Cotta

Left:  PB17 Desert Rose, Right:  PB12 Terra Cotta

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipstick would work better as a Concealer...or a Base...

Despite the fact that Mac's Viva Glam Gaga 2 looks like concealer on my lips, I could imagine it would look nice on someone with fair skin. Mac's Viva Glam Gaga 2 is actually my favorite formula from Mac, the amplified cream formula! It's extremely pigmented and creamy. Some claim that is drying on the lips over time, but I haven never had a big problem with this on a personal level. I had to rate this lipstick high, because even though it needed some mixing to work on my lips, it is a nice lipstick overall. I would recommend it to anyone with fair skin or anyone who really likes a nude lip.

Also, the Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 line includes a lip glass, which I did not purchase. It's also $14.50 and would compliment this lipstick really nicely. It's also a warm beige and has super fine shimmer. If you are interested in the lip gloss or lipstick, check out www.maccosmetics.com!

About Viva Glam Lipstick Line:
The Viva Glam line of lipsticks was developed by Mac to give back. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the Viva Glam line of lipsticks goes toward the Mac AIDS fund. This means when you buy this lipstick, concealer-like or not, your money is going toward a great cause!

How to Make Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipstick Wearable:
To make Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 wearable on my lips, I first applied the Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipstick, then I applied Mac Half Red lip liner on the edge of my lips and blended the lip liner into my lips. Finally, I applied Mac Wonder Woman lip glass on my finger and gently smudged it into my lips to add some red to the lips (which when blended comes off pink). So, if you are my skin or darker (NC20) and you are hell bent on wearing this lipstick, then you could try my little trick for making it look more wearable. I hope these tips are helpful! Enjoy!

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 Promotional Picture

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 with Flash

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2

Close up of Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2

Mac Viva Glam Gaga 2 with Mac Half Red Lip Liner and Mac Wonder Woman Lip Glass

Pretty Cheeks - Loving Tarte's 12-Hour Amazonian Clay Long-Wear Blush in Blissful!

Wow. When I saw these at Sephora, I'll admit...I was skeptical. I love Tarte's lip stains and cheek stains, but their eye shadows haven't convinced me yet that they know how to make amazing powder products. I was so wrong to ever doubt them!

Like most Tarte Products, the Tarte 12-Hour Amazonian Clay Long-Wear Blushes are awesome for your skin. They are made from natural clay, which claims to have 12-hour lasting power. My experience wasn't 12-hour lasting power, but more around six-to-seven hours of wear. (which I think is pretty good considering it's the middle of winter where I am and scarves and hats are requires and frequently rubbing up against my cheeks when it comes to bundling.) I'd imagine in the winter or even spring, this blush would hold up really nicely on the skin!

Tarte also claims that their new blushes work great for oily skin because the clay in the product reduces the amount of oil buildup on the skin. I don't have oily skin, so I can't really comment on this. I would be interested if any of our readers with oily skin noticed a difference!

It's also important to note that Tarte's products are paraben free, sulfate free, contain no synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, phtalates, GMOs or Triclosan. (Yeah, you'd probably need a dermatologist to tell you what all that stuff is! But it can't be good stuff!) On the topic of skin, this blush also includes ingredients that help your skin like, Vitamin A, C, and E! Wooo! I love when products are kind to my sensitive skin! (And by the way, no problems for me and I do have sensitive skin prone to allergic reactions!)

Overall, I really love this blush. It hasn't replaced my love for Nars Blushes, but it has made me consider picking up a few more of these Tarte ones. I love products that are nice to my skin and help it, not hurt it. There is something extremely rewarding about being kind to my skin. Let me know if you have any other questions! Again, I highly recommend this blush!

Tarte's 12-Hour Long-Wear Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful

Tarte's 12-Hour Long-Wear Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful

Tarte's 12-Hour Long-Wear Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful

Tarte's 12-Hour Long-Wear Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful - With Flash

Tarte's 12-Hour Long-Wear Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful - On Cheeks with Flash

Rimmel - Eyefull - Eye Glistener/CrayonScintillant - Sticky!!!

I must tell you all, I was pretty excited when I saw these eye glistener crayons in the store and extremely disappointed when I used them.  They are so fun and exciting looking in the packaging and the colors look bright and cheery.  Unfortunately, they are not really true to their packaging.  The blue is a little bit more true to it's packaging than the green.  The colors go on very thin and washed out looking.  The go on very oily and sticky and that's pretty much how they stay.  They would be a good base coat for a powder shadow if they didn't stay sticky.  I left these on for quite a while to see if they would eventually dry but had no luck.  I would not wear this product simply because it felt terrible on.

No recommendations here!

Product Details:

Net wt.  .14oz/4g

Shades:  500 Stand Out, 400 Talk To Me

Top:  500 Stand Out, Bottom:  400 Talk To Me

Left:  400 Talk To Me, Right:  500 Stand Out

Wet 'n Wild Coloricon Shadows - Not a Fan!!!

This is my FIRST purchase of a Wet n Wild Product!

I purchased two eye shadow palettes:  248 Lust Desir and 247 Pride Orgueil.  Overall, I liked the variety of colors in the palette and I liked that some had a bit more shimmer to them than others; 3 are matte and 3 are effects shadows. I  have commented before that I prefer palettes that offer more than just one finish, like shimmers only, so this was a plus. The shadows felt nice and creamy to the touch and were definitely true to packaging.  In fact, I would say they were dead on.  The shades were also very easy to blend. 

However, I experienced quite a bit of fall out or just overall sloppiness when trying to apply.  The powders were a bit "fly away" for my liking.  I found that when applying they tended to want to drift beyond the area of application.  For example, when applying in the crease of my eye, they tended to want to float outside of the outer corners of my eyes making the application fairly sloppy.  Once I cleaned up the fall out, the colors were nice, but I just tend to expect more from my shadows.  I realize these are not high dollar shadows, but this is the type of shadow that all beginners will start with and it makes it hard to learn to apply make up properly when the application is messy.  I think there are better shadows out there for not much more money.  

Product Details:

Net wt.  .25oz/7.0g

Price:  $4.99

2 brushes included

Available Shades:  

246 Greed - pinks/grays, 247 Pride - greens/blues, 248 Lust - purple/gray, and 249 Vanity - browns/golds

Pride 247

Greed 246

Benefit's Erase Paste - I could leave it!

Benefit's Erase Paste is a brightening camouflage for eyes and face. I purchased it in No. 2 Medium for my skin tone and here are my thoughts.

The product is creamy and easy to blend.  Product is designed to be a concealer that also brights and camaflouges. It includes a spatula for getting the proudct out of the pot.

The Medium shade is quite a salmon color, which excited me because I thought it would really cover dark circles well. However, it's not all it's hyped up to be. While it is very creamy and goes on smoothly when applying, over the course of the day, it settles in creases. A little product goes a long way but I have found that over the course of the day, you need to re-apply and re-smooth the product because it does settle in fine lines and requires a second application. Not a real fan! I want to reduce the focus on my dark circles not draw attention to them by having my make up cake up.

Review: NYX Eye Shadows

These were my first NYX products and I must say, they will probably not be my last!!!  I love the fact that I can purchase these at the grocery store, Target and Ulta.  This gives me lots of flexibility.

The particular store I purchased these from didn't have a wide selection of all the shades NXY offers given that they offer 162 shades!!!.  I purchased 4 different shades, dark navy (frosty), Fahrenheit (frosty/shimmer), purple (frosty) and eucalyptus (frosty) all of which had very nice pigmentation.  I found that there wasn't much difference between the frosty and frosty/shimmer other than the fact that the frosty/shimmer had very fine sparkles in it.  The colors go on very much as they appear in the packaging.  They have an extremely creamy feel to them and if I didn't know better I would swear these were cream shadows that blend like shadows.  They blend very nicely and I found myself wearing multiple shades together.  Eucalyptus was a great shade to blend with any of the shades I purchased.


My ONLY concern at this point:  I dropped one of the shadows from about 2 feet high and the shadow completely broke away from the container and eventually just crumbled.  I don't typically have this issue with something like a MAC shadow.  This is not to say it couldn't happen, but I have dropped several of my MAC shadows and have have not had this happen.  However, makeup isn't made to be dropped, so this is definitely "my bad," however, it's left me wondering how durable it will be as I use it in my everyday life.  I love my make up, but I don't have time to pamper it either!  :)  Not a show stopper by any means, but something that I will be watching.


Product Details:
162 shades (see website for all shades):  http://www.nyxcosmetics.com


Finishes Available:
Shimmer:  sparkly eye shadow with soft, glittery effect
Sheer:  hint of opalescent color
Glitter:  glitter for bold sparks
Frosty:  shimmery shadow without the glittery effect
Metallic - bold colors with intense shimmer
Net wt.  .09oz/2.7g

ES 124A Dark Navy, ES 112 Fahrenheit (orange), ES 32 Purple, ES 135 Eucalyptus

ES 32 Purple

ES 135 Eucalyptus

ES 124A Dark Navy

ES 112 Fahrenheit

Left to Right:  ES112 Fahrenheit, ES135 Eucalyptus, ES 32 Purple, ES124A Dark Navy

Neutrogena MoistureShine Lipstick - Digging these for the Price!!!

As I have mentioned before, I've been spending a great deal of time researching the various make up brands/products found at my local grocery store and target.

I recently purchased two Neutrogena lipsticks and I gotta tell you...I'm liking them!

I purchased a more neutral color, Playful Plum, no. 310 and Pomegranate, no. 430.  I chose these two particular colors because as you all know, I love color and well, I couldn't pass up the Pomegranate - because it's RED!!!  :)   Also, it's just nice having a more neutral color in my lip stick color palette :).  However, if you don't care for either of these colors, not to worry, because these lipsticks come in 17 colors!!!

I found each of the colors to be quite pigmented, but also extremely moist on the lips which is an extra added plus!!!  I often times wonder why lipstick manufacturers don't always get this.  Lipstick MUST fell good on PERIOD!  :)

Playful Plum is definitely a more neutral color but it does have a nice plum tint and the Pomegranate is a very nice red shade.  The thing I do like about Pomegranate is that while it's a true red, it's not a stark overwhelming red which makes it nice for those who like darker or more color but perhaps have lighter skin tones and might have more difficulty wearing true red lipsticks.

Product Details:

$8.49

SPF 20

Made with Brazilian Palm butter.

Product claims to keep moisturizer up to 8 hours (I didn't really test this, but I will say, these do make your lips feel very moist and very nice)

Product claims that it boosts lip moisture by 400% (not real sure how to measure this :))

17 Shades available:  Angel Blush, Think Pink, Tickled Pink, Tickled Pink, Sheer Luck, Caramel Kill, Nude blush, Rum Raisin, Pinch of Cinn, Playful Plum, Plum Paradise, Berry Burst, cherry Twist, Poppy red, Pomegranate, Electric Currant, Coral Dream and Peach -A-Boo.

Left to Right: 310 Playful Plum, 430 Pomegranate

Left to Right:  310 Playful Plum, 430 Pomegranate

Top:  310 Playful Plum, Bottom: 43- Pomegranate

Left to Right:  310 Playful Plum, 430 Pomegranate

Sonia Kashuk Lip Crayons Score Well!

These lip pencils are a what I would consider a cross between a lipstick and a lip gloss.  They have a bit more color than your typical lip glosses, but not quite as much deep pigmentation as what you would get from a lipstick.  They go on very creamy and feel really good on when initially applied.  They do tend to dry out a bit as you wear them.  This could just be that my lips have been fairly dry lately, but I did notice the dryness after wearing a while.  They go on with good color and are easy to apply.  The pencils allow you to have a little more control over the definition of your lips since they are pencil vs. lipstick or gloss.

Product Details:

7 Matte Colors Available:  Berry Nude 06, Mulberry Nude 08, Pinky Nude 09, Rosey Nude, Blossomy Nude 04 and Nudey Nude 05.  The shiny finish comes in two colors:  Pale Pink and Luscious Pink.

cost:  $7.99 

Left:  Velvety shine Lip Crayon, Luscious Pink 12, Right:  Velvety Matte Lip Crayon, Blossomy Nude 04

Left:  Velvety Shine Lip Crayon, Luscious Pink 12, Right:  Velvety Matte Lip Crayon, Blossomy Nude 04