Packing Makeup

Holy Moly... 
Ever try to narrow down the makeup products you might feel like using for the next three months? I was going through my makeup collection and deciding which products I might want to take along...it soon ended looking like this:

Yikes! This reminds me a bit of that Victoria's Secret commercial a few years back for the fashion show where the clothing suitcase is TEEEENY tiny, and the makeup trunk was insanely huge? Yep I had a minor flashback of that one. I know for sure I CAN'T take all of that makeup because I actually need to fit a decent amount of clothes, and now airlines are a lot more strict about weight and size of suitcases and carry ons (no thank you 50 dollar fees).  Needless to say...even Guam has makeup stores so if I realize I need something, I can easily pick it up from a Sephora, Inglot or drugstore.

So this was round two, three,  four and five (yep took that many rounds for my real bare basics) of pairing things down.  Still you can tell I was really wanting to take a LOT of eyeshadow...when in reality I'll be lucky to just finish one or two shadows the next few months.  This is still probably going to be picked through because I'm not 100% sure on some products but it's safe to say that I've got some great eye looks, great combos, etc available.

It took forever to finally narrow down my choices!

The bag I chose is a part of a 3 bag set that I got as a birthday gift a few years back.  I'm using the middle sized bag which compared to my computer is still a decent size. 

So let's really see what I plan to take on my trip:

Lips:
I am taking a good variety of products, but colors that I know I will use. 
I always need a few lip balms because my lips get painfully chapped. 

Products from L-R in top image: Fresh Sugar Rose (x2), Buxom Lip Gloss in Sandy,
NYC Applelicious Lip Balm in Applelicious Pink, NYC Lipstick in Violet Shine, ELF Studio Matte
Lip Color in Coral, Buxom Lip Stick in Two-Timer, Anastasia Lip Gloss in Bellini, Rimmel Kiss Off!
Lip Gloss in First Time, Love & Beauty Lip stick in coral/pink

Face:

When it came to face I knew I needed products that were small, and that would not shatter, 
that is why I went with the blush and bronzer.  I also don't switch those as often so it's really
not a big deal to just use these two. 

L-R: Laura Geller Spackle Primer in Bronze, Smashbox Photo Finish Primer,
Wet n Wild Coverall Foundation in Fair, NYC Smoother Mineral Finishing Powder in Natural,
Rimmel London Blush in Pink Sorbet, ELF Under Eye Concealer in Fair, Benefit Hoola Brozer

                          

Eyes: This is my favorite category!

I had a really hard time trying to figure out which products I would love, 

and which would be less fussy.  While I'm boring when it comes to colors,

there is just something about the packaging and the product itself that makes the application 

so much nicer.  I chose products that I knew would not fail me (even though some are already 

running low).  

L-R: ELF Exact Lash Mascara, ELF Waterproof Eyeliner in Midnight, Jordana Fabuliner in Brown, LA Colors Trio
 in Nude, MAC Mineralized Single in Aurora, Physicians Formula Trio in Baked Sands,
NYC Quad in Best of Broadway, NYX Eyeshadow Base in Skintone, Rimmel London Single in Royal
Linen, ELF Cream Liner in Coffee, Benefit Badgal Lash. 

                                    

Now I know this is a good amount of stuff I plan to bring, but I also wanted to have certain extras if I finish a product, it gets lost or stolen or smashes.  If you want to have a review on any product let me know! 

xoxo,
Emi

Project Pan: March 2013

Hey All!
   I hope everyone is having a great entrance into Spring! Over here it's been a bit slow to start, a few last minute snow falls but overall I really can't complain.  Today I wanted to bring an update of my products that I'm working on using up currently, let me know if you would like to see these continue!

 

I obviously have added in a product, and made a big dent in others.  Starting from the top left:

 

The Color Workshop 15 Pan Palette: This palette is still going strong, although I have finished another pan of it, bringing my total to 3 pans out of the 15.  I hope to have this finished out by the year, but at my rate, it feels like it'll take two years. 

 

L.A. Colors Pressed Powder: This has seen a pretty drastic improvement from even last month.  I hope to say adios to this product by next month.  It still hasn't grown on me, and I'll be happy to have it gone soon enough. 

 

Wet'N' Wild Nutty Eyeshadow: I've been slowly working my way through this shadow, but sadly in transport, it started to crack so I need to be more careful with this.  I hope to have it done before I go to study abroad for 9 weeks because I'd hate to deal with the mess. 

 

ELF Studio Blush in Berry Merry: I did not expect at all this blush to develop such a dent in it.  I don't think it'll be finished this year because it looks best during the winter/fall/early spring months.  So once we hit the warmer weather, I think I'll switch this out for a peachy or pink blush again.  But I will pull it back out in September.  This is a really pretty berry toned blush, and totally under hyped.

 

Jordana Easyliner in Eggplant: I haven't really used this as much as I thought I would.  This shade especially gets smudgy and created raccoon eyes so easily, and while I experienced this with the brown shade, it wasn't as bad.  I will probably focus on getting this out of my collection even faster now. 

 

Overall there is progress, but I'm itching to have anther makeup product finished! What about you? Have you been finishing makeup?

xoxo,

Emi

Project Pan Update

Hey all!
   Ever wonder how long it really takes to make a dent in makeup? I've been tracking via photos each month how much of a product I end up using, which had led to some interesting findings, and something I'd like to continue doing for the rest of the year.

So the first month I started taking photos was November where I went back to my makeup drawer and really went through what I wanted to use up.  The top left photo is the Wet'n'Wild ColorIcon single eye shadow in Nutty.  I was expecting this shade to be more taupe toned, but instead comes out more grey-silver.  It's still very pretty, just not 100% what I had hoped it to be.  The next product, on the top right is what I have been using as a setting powder, the LA Colors Pressed Powder in Nude.  It's not my favorite and does get cakey looking if you use too much, but it'll do.  This is just one of those products I want out.   Finally the bottom image is from a Color Workshop 15 pan "Little Black Book" palette.  It is all shimmery shades, and a neutrals set.  Not all are the same texture, but again they do the job.

November: I've only been using these colors this month for my makeup looks, and they turn out rather pretty.  I used a different moisturizer during this month, and it left my face so shiny, so I'd keep powdering my face.

December: The dent in the Nutty eye shadow is definitely getting bigger. The eyeshadow from Color Workshop does take a while to get through too.  It took two months to get through en entire small plan of shadow (highlight and blending) and hit pan on the next one.  The face powder had another month of heavy use, still not a favorite, it really makes me miss my last face powder, the ELF Complexion Perfection powder.

January: This month has really seen a good amount of usage and I even threw in another product that I've been working through but just never thought to take a photo of it.  The Wet'N' Wild shadow is getting along slowly, but it does have a nice sized dent too it.  The face powder still hasn't grown on me, and I don't think it will.  The Color Workshop palette saw little change, but now there are 2 empty pans.  I plan on using this until its 100% empty--so I have a while to go on it.   The newest addition (which is something I've been using for about half a year) is my Jordana Easyliner in Lavish Brown.  It's a creamy liner, with a nice amount of color/ pigment...it's just not long wearing at all and smudges easily.

Shall I continue with this series? Does this help anyone who is interested in planning out a "project pan" project?  

xoxo,
Emi

Walgreens Haul

Hi All!

  

So I was wandering through the aisles of Walgreens trying to find products that caught my eye. I had bought most of the sale products and most of anything that did catch my eye, I realized I had about 4 similar products. So instead of buying I figured I would pass this time and save my money for the holidays. Speaking of holidays, Walgreens started to put out the holiday “gift packs” and I got interested. I remember Color Workshop products were rather nice a few yars ago, but those other super SUPER low unknown brands got me thinking. I couldn’t help but look through what was available and pick them up to see how well they actually worked.  My total purchase was 6 bucks even! Not bad for testing out some products! Let me know if you want me to do a full review on any products !

All Products with packaging

Products open

Wet N Wild Coloricon Singles in Envy and Nutty: As most of us know, there has been a large clearance of these singles and since I did not have any yet, I went for it and picked up two colors I figured I would love.  At 1.09 per shadow and bogo50% I got a deal! 

With Flash

Profusion Brightening Eyes (brown palette) : I saw this product in the back and did not recognize it. This palette goes for 99 cents and is like Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips or the Milani Strips.  All have shimmer and at least for me, all are colors I would wear (PF had colors I almost never wear). Just from a first impression, there seems to be a few nice colors and would be a practical item to take if you want neutrals.  You can darken up the look or make it lighter. 

Without Flash

The Color Workshop Beauty Book in Sun Goddess: Obviously this is a “knockoff” version of the ELF Beauty Book, but at $2.99 it seemed a worthwhile try.  It comes with 10 eyeshadows, an eye highlight, a liner, and a spongetip double sided applicator. Oh yes, and a decent size mirror. One thing I realized right off the bat, when you open this “book” you can’t use the products, you need to open a box portion to use the shadows. My gut reaction is to cut away the plastic cover sheet to make it more usable as a “book” because the “palette” is a thin plastic that you have no way of traveling with.

I have yet to test these products, but as I do, I will give some more information about them and a few reviews.Have you picked up any of these products?  I hope you all are doing well and are staying healthy.

Xoxo

Ema

November Favorites :)

Hi All!

  Wow it is so nice to finally have the time to write over here! November is sure the calm before the storm of December and boy do professors love to dump HUGE projects at the end of November. I think that is my one big hate about November. I've been assigned several projects that amount between 50-150 pages of typed work (yay double major and minor!) ANYWAYS, I also finally managed to work out how to take my own photos for my blog and this is the first post I will not have googled an image. I'm still working out kinks and such since my room has really weird lighting, but it is a start! I do have a bunch of skincare products I've used this month but I wouldn't claim any as real loves than what I have mentioned. Although reviews will be on the way! So here are my faves! 

The tops of my products (Poor St. Ive's is on the last leg!)

A view of the various products uncapped.

Night Prowl Wet N Wild. LOVE IT!

Carmex: Oh my gosh, I really don’t know why I did not get this product earlier. I picked this up last minute because I had such chapped lips, and I figured “oh medicated” and got it. As you can tell I’m about halfway through my container of it. I plan on repurchasing this as soon as I run out of it. It kept my lips so hydrated and the medication left a lil minty tingle on my lips.

ELF Cream Eye Liner: I bought this a while back, (bout a year ago).  I went through a big eye pencil phase, but recently I went back to using the cream liner on my water line. I use a small brush, not presision brush to get a smudgy, smokey look. It’s not too harsh like black, but it is deep enough to still give attention to my eyes. 

Love & Beauty Black Mascara: This is a product from Forever 21 for about 2 bucks.  I LOVE this mascara, it has fibers that grab and coat every lash. I don’t see any clumping and is lightweight. Best of all, my lashes become SO long that when I compare them with a regular pair of false eyelashes, they end up being the same length!

NYX Eyeshadow Base in Skintone: My original Holy Grail eyeshadow primer was reformulated and now I dislike it, so I had turned to NYX to try out their products. I like my primer to be a little more opaque because I do have purple veins in my eyelids and want to cover them nicely. This was my first NYX purchase and boy do I love it. The price is 6 bucks and I’ve been using it for over a month and still barely made a dent in it.  Hello new favorite primer!

Noxema: I’ve heard some bad rep about this product recently which made me a little sad, but then I realized different skintypes will be causing so many effects. I personally love this product, it leaves my face clean feeling with no film. I’ve had the same bottle of it for over a year and still is going strong although I AM on the last inch or so of it.

ELF Eyeshadow Duo in Mocha Swirl: Another product I have had in my collection for a while but had not used for a long time. The lighter shade is a beautiful champagne color and the dark brown is a nice rich brown. Both have shimmer, but are buttery in consistency. 

Wet N Wild Lipstick in 502A: I wish these lipsticks had names on the packaging and not just at the store on the swatches. But this is one color I have reached for almost everyday. It is a pink tone, with gold, silver and pink shimmer in it. It is not chunky shimmer but enough to look like you have a gloss. It’s not drying and just gives my face a more pulled together look. 

Wet N Wild Night Prowl: At first glance this nail polish is a black, but when you look closely there is purple shimmer throughout the polish! It is a great polish to go with a dark nail, but not full on black. It does need a good topcoat since it does leave a little bumpy texture. The way it goes on is like a jelly polish and two coats gives you a full opaque nail. I used this at one point for a black tip French Manicure and it looked SO cool. It does not chip away either, I actually tried to and ended up pulling off all the polish in one go (granted it DAMAGED my poor nails) but it was a little pain to remove (all that shimmer) But I still love it. I would repaint my nails several times in a row with this color (rare for me!)

St. Ives Apricot Scrub for Sensative Skin: I have used this product so much that I might be finishing it up in December! I like that it is a little more chunky because I just get the overall sense that my skin is really being exfoliated. I would love to repurchase but I have an Olay scrub that is waiting in the wings to be tested and reviewed! But no matter what else I purchase, this product always sneaks back into my routine. (hmmm little elves perhaps)

So that is all for my November favorites, and I hope this next month will be good to us all! Feel free to leave a comment below or if you would like to have a review on a product, I am always open to that! 

As always, hugs and health,

Ema

Benefit Dandelion vs Wet N Wild Pearlescent Pink

Hello Fellow Readers!
   So today I went to Walgreens where I came across the Wet N Wild Blush In Pearlescent Pink. In the container it looked very similar to my favorite blush Benefit dandelion. I have tried to use many other blushes, and just haven't found one that I feel is just as easy to use as Dandelion, until I saw this color. I could only wonder if there is really a blush I could love as much as my (I suppose I could say coveted) boxed blush. So for those who want to get the Benefit Blush, but cringe at the price tag of it....could Wet N Wild have come up with a product that is comparable to Benefit? Let's do a quick rundown!


Benefit Boxed Blush in Dandelion:
- 10g of product
- comes with a brush
- light pink powder with gold shimmer. Rather sheer and can be used for highlight powder on cheeks. "foolproof".
- $28 

Wet N Wild In Pearlescent Pink
- 4g of product
- comes with a brush
- pink toned powder with gold shimmer. This product has a little more pigmentation that Dandelion, but very easily blendable.
- $2.99


Final Words: I really like the Wet n Wild blush and with this price, I can get 9 blushes for the benefit blush. The Wet N Wild is very blendable and easy to use. It has a little more pigmentation than benefit, but once applied to the cheeks, it's basically a dupe for Dandelion. 


Hope this helps you ladies!
xoxo
Ema

ELF Cream Liner Vs. WetnWild Liner

Hey everyone!

So I am a HUGE fan of cream eyeliners. I remember falling in love with AVON Cream Liner, but sadly it disappeared (funny how that happens) and I went without for a while. Drugstores didn't carry it and by the time I came around to AVON again, it was no longer in stock :(. It wasn't until I came to the beauty community on youtube and came across emilynoel83 who got me interested in the ELF brand. (if you don't know her, she's the sweetest and most honest guru out there that I have come across. I have bought several products because of her reviews and have LOVED) I don't have a Target in my area, nor for the next 15 miles, so I had never heard of this brand. So during Christmastime I went ahead and ordered from them, and bought myself a cream eyeliner in coffee. (review on this below) I was recently in my Harmon's Discount Beauty Store, when I saw that WetnWild came out with a cream eyeliner! I had heard that their formulas improved greatly, and was excited especially since it was a lovely eggplant shade.

So now the review.

ELF Cream Eyeliner in Coffee

This product is a great amount of payoff. It's nice and thick, and very manageable, even for a person like me who can't use liquid liner for her life. This product comes from the studio line, so it is $3 for a 4.7gram container and a brush. It's nice packaging except a little bulky. I have been using it daily since January and still have so much of this product left. It comes basically full to the top and the bottom half is clear so you can have an idea of how much you really have left. Overall an AMAZING find and deal. They come in several shades like deep blue, purple, copper, gunmetal, ivory, coffee, black and I believe one or two other colors. It has great staying power and washes off easily. My only suggestion for any cream liner, don't use on the waterline!

WetnWild Cream Liner in Eggplant

I saw this product and was thrilled, because the hype from the beauty community was how awesome WNW had become and how they reformulated so much. I guess they didn't redo anything with this product. I believe this is a newer product because I hadn't seen it around. It cost me $3.99 and also came with a small brush, but was only 3.8 grams. It's similar to ELF with a clear bottom, but its got a very weird aspect of packaging. The purple comes up to the full top, looking like the eyeliner had melted, been tossed around, and then re-hardened. It was purple all the way up to the top, and when i tried to scratch it off of the sides, it wouldn't come off at all. The payoff of color is also poor, its a liquidy consistency and when smudged in, almost disappears. My product also has a strange sent to it that's not particularly pleasant.

Overview:

In the end I will be repurchasing the ELF cream liner. I feel like I got much more of a payoff, nicer product, and spent a tiny bit less for it. With tax at my Harmon's I could have still bought an extra $1 ELF product instead of an off-smelling eye product. Skip the Wet N Wild cream liner and wait until they work out the kinks in this product.

Happy Shopping!

Ema

I Tried To Love You...But It's Just Not Working Out

Augh, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had to deal with products that they saw from the same brand they have enjoyed from the past or just heard raived about by friends and makeup gurus, only to purchase and find out that it's NOTHING like you were hoping it to be. So you try to accept that maybe it's just you, and that you need to work with it because of course makeup doesn't work the exact same way each time. But then you come to that point when you hide the products in the back of your drawer hoping to just forget about it. Weeks turn into months, and you finally reach that point where you have to face the facts.
This product didn't and point blank won't work. You wasted money on what you thought would be amazing.

Hey, trust me your not alone!!We have all been there, and I'm sure you (my awesome reader) are sitting here nodding thinking of those particular products, be then nice and on sale...or on the more bitter side...expensive and what was counted as a splurge. (ouch, my sympathies)

Let face it, I'm a college girl and buying high brand makeup is a major luxury that is reserved for holiday or birthday wishes (or if I could finally win a youtube giveaway! *wishful thinking*).
So this post (okay yeah you are probably okay girl this is rambling BUT I'm getting to my point) is about a few of my own products that I got that I was really kinda sad about and my reasons why (also a few prices if I remember them) Enjoy and let me know how they worked for you!


1. Wet N Wild Idol Eyes (in Pixie and Graphite)
Ooooooh I remember this purchase. It was one of my first buys into makeup. It was cheap and I thought I was so cool, even though I had NO idea what I was looking for or going to do with it. I don't even know if they make these anymore! But it's a creme eyeshadow put into a thick pencil (think of NYX jumbo pencils for a more popular reference). It's a great idea,but where they went wrong: you try to smudge it in, and the product disappears. Seriously, like vanishing act. I sit there and try to figure out what to do with this because I'm reluctant to toss it yet. I figure I can use Pixie which is a golden beige color as a highlight, but it is not even creamy enough to hold powder shadows! On the site it says "long wearing and easy blending" Yeah... bout that. Maybe it's the newer formula, but mine didn't wear longer than the 30 seconds before I tried to blend.
Cost: $1.99 - yeah, it's cheap. But I'd rather have spent it on something else.

2. donna MICHELLE Makeup Foundation (Light 1)

Okay I'll preface this with, my local dollar store sells a lot of makeup, sometimes more wellkno

wn items and other times "no brand". My friend and I were in the dollar store when I mentioned I needed some foundation but didn't want to spend a large amount. My friend said that I HAD to try this one out, and for a buck I thought "Okay, if she is raving about it,

it must be gr

eat." Wrong. It comes out looking like regular foundation, but once I put it on my skin, it disappeared. Not like it covered or cleared up any blotchy spaces but just *poof* gone. No color. Nada. I guess that's what I get for buying this, but I am still trying to figure out how it worked so well for my friend. (scratch head moment). I suppose I can just use it mixed with my moisturizer and my loose powder foundation?

Cost: $1.00 - I know I know, one buck I'm gonna complain? Yes a little.

3. Freeman Feeling Beautiful Facial Peel-Off Mask, Cucumber

So I'm really sad about this product. I had seen a youtube guru praise this thing an

d I was just SO ready and excited to go out and purchase this product. It's like a clear gel (reminds me of Elmer's clear/light b

lue glue) that you put all over your face and it's claiming to "clarify and renew skin". I don't really know, but I just don't see it doing anything for me at all. I bought two of these at a CVS BOGO half off sale. I really do wish I could go back and return them, cause I use them and peel them off, and my skin doesn't feel any different. I tested it once to see if it would pick up on foundation powder, and it barely picked up any of the product. I have oily skin, and I feel like it left my face with an off texture. I also noticed breakouts (but I'm still narrowing down cause I started to use a few different products) which is not something I would expect from a "clarifying" product.

Cost: $4.99 regularly priced - Could've bought a Clean and Clear product instead.

4. N.Y.C. Mod Quad (in Peace-ful Pastels)

I love N.Y.C. and owned the Far-Out Fawns Quad which was actually pretty decent for the price I got that one at. But this one...Oh this one. It starts out with nice colors that I can imagine would be adorable to use on V-Day makeup look, or even for a more subtle smoky look. Where it goes wrong, there is almost no pigment. I use primer for my eyelids, and then put on the product. I packed it on, and then I started to blend. Bad Idea. It smudged all together in such a way that I looked like I had a black eye. (I can navigate myself around different colors/ trios of eye shadows rather well, fyi haha) Then this "cream liner" was totally dried out. I chipped it out with a box cutter cause it had NO use. The colors were really chalky, and I was really sad w

ith that quality :(.

Cost: $3.99

5. L.A. Colors 6 Color Metallic Eyeshadow (in Eye Candy)

Another one of those "I love the line but this product is a MISS". Maybe it's just me, but I bought this lil palette so I could add some fun colors that I don't normally see into my look. It's a discontinued product, and has been for a very lo

ng time. When I run my fingertip over the color you get this bright

metal color, but once put on the eyelid, it was really sheer! And once I blended a little bit, the color got very muddied, and all ended up looking the same...shimmer. Instead of being called "eye candy" it's more of a "pastel easter basket" palette.

Cost: $1 - $3 this maybe the one product I will end up tossing completely :(

Well these are my misses as of right now. I will continue to review my times with more products. Let me know how your experiences have been, or if you have any requests for similar products! :)

xoxo Ema

P.S. For some reason my blog didn't want to let me upload the last two photos but I will get onto that really soon!