Review: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm In Mischievous

I was at the drug store a little while ago for a few other things and happened to walk by a display for the Revlon Colorburst Matte and Lacquer Balms. I knew I had to try one after hearing all of the hype about them. I decided to go with a matte one because I prefer matte lips. The colour I chose is Mischievous, a bright orange. I was trying to decide between this and the dark purple colour. I have no idea what made me choose this one when the purple would have been much better for the season, but here we are.

The packaging is the fat twist up pencil type that has become so popular recently. I really like this kind of packaging, I think it makes it very easy to apply. This feels much sturdier than the Hard Candy lip product that I have in very similar packaging. I would describe the colour Mischievous as a Salmon. It is quite orange with a slight pinky tinge to it. If you have ever seen uncooked, wild salmon, this is what it reminds me of.

When applied to the lips it has a slight cooling effect. It does smell a bit minty but I honestly can't smell it at all when I put it on. As for the formula, I really like it. It is very pigmented and truly matte without feeling drying on my lips. This colour goes on a bit patchy and makes rough patches on my lips stand out a bit more though. I have watched and read a few reviews since buying this though, and it seems like I picked the only colour that has this problem. Why didn't I go with the purple?!?

Aside from that little problem, I do really like this product. It is pretty long wearing and once it dries it doesn't seem to transfer very much. I'm not saying it doesn't transfer at all, and it certainly won't last through a meal unscathed, but it did pretty well. Here is a quick swatch of it on my lips:

So there it is! What do you think? I am definitely planning on adding more to my collection, starting with that purple! Have you tried any of the Revlon Colorburst Matte Balms? What did you think?

BH Cosmetics Black Friday Sale

I won't be doing any crazy shopping today. I'm actually just heading out to work, but I wanted to let you know about one huge sale that I thought you crazy shopping makeup lovers would like to hear about. The BH Cosmetics Black Friday sale is going on now and it is huge. Their products will be up to 70% off! This is off of products that are already very reasonably priced. Some of their 120 palettes are on sale for about $11 right now, so go check it out here. US residents also get free shipping on orders over$50! I use BH Cosmetics products almost daily and love their huge eyeshadow palettes. Don't miss this great sale!!!

Quick Look: First Holiday Look

I don't normally get into the Christmas and holiday season this early, but here in the blog universe it seems like Christmas could be tomorrow. I couldn't help but hop on board, so here is my first Christmas look! (I'm sorry if those of you celebrating Thanksgiving today think I'm crazy for posting this today, but that happened weeks ago here!)

Please excuse the messy hair! This eye look was done with a combination of MAC's Stroke of Midnight Eyes in Smoky palette and MAC's Humid eyeshadow. I was trying to decide what to to with the Stroke of Midnight palette. It has that gorgeous gold with green undertones in it called Gaelic Gold and I noticed that it would go perfectly with Humid which is a dark green that has gold shimmer.

I basically used Gaelic Gold all over the lid and Humid in the crease. I deepened the crease with the dark brown in the Stroke of Midnight palette and used the frosty white from the same palette in the inner corner. I'm loving this inner corner highlight! It is called Chillproof from MAC. I blended out the green at the top with pale green and beige from my BH Cosmetics 88 Matte palette. I used humid on the bottom lid as well and then lined my waterline with a forest green eyeliner. I didn't line the top lash, just put on mascara.

On my cheeks I have MAC's Mineralize Blush in Talk of The Town. The lipstick I used is Rimmel's Lasting Finish Lipstick in Jet Set Red. I am now wishing I had used a darker shade of red. Something more cranberry would have been better.

Well, that's it for my first holiday look. I hope you liked it. Have you been getting into the holiday season already?

Review: MAC Divine Night Mineralize Blush In Talk of The Town

If you recall, I recently went to a MAC event where the sucked me into buying some products I didn't need. You can read about that misadventure here. Regardless of that, the two products that I got were actually pretty great. I got the Stroke of Midnight Eyes palette in Smoky and the Mineralize Blush in Talk of The Town. The blush is what I will be reviewing today.

The MAC Mineralize Blush in Talk of The Town is a frosty, cool toned, pale pink blush. On the website it is described as a "warm brown base with yellow bronze". I would call this more cool toned than warm, but the bronzy finish does help to warm it up. This is part of their Divine Nights collection and is limited edition. This is what it looks like in the pan with and without flash:

The actual colour in this is pretty sheer. It is a very light pink. This is a swatch on my hand with and without flash:

Once applied to the cheeks it gives a really nice pearly glow. The colour is very sheer. If i apply a couple of layer to my entire cheek it makes a light pink wash with a pearly shimmer to it. I much prefer this as a highlight over top of other blushes, though. Here is what it looks like on my bare cheeks:

As you can see the colour isn't very strong. I think this colour is best as a highlight for most people unless they are very pale. It actually has a slight bronzing effect on me. Here is a close up of my cheek:

So, overall I like this blush quite a bit. The pearly finish it gives to my cheeks makes me look radiant. My only complaint is that the finish can also make any large pores stand out a bit more than usual. For me, this isn't a huge deal though. I think this will be perfect for holiday parties this season!

Have you tried any makeup from the Divine Nights collection? What did you think?

The Hair Chronicles: No Shampoo Is Finally Working!

Well it has been about 5 weeks now and my hair finally looks alright! If you read my blog, then you will remember that last week I was starting to wonder if no poo would ever be worth it. Well everybody, I think it was!

Look at those shiny, locks!

This is my hair a few days after washing with baking soda. It is still perfect and soft and mostly grease free. I don't think I am completely out of the woods yet, but things are starting to look up!

If you have any questions about how I take care of my hair now, feel free to ask. Once I think my hair has reached perfection I will probably do a full write up of my new weekly hair routine for keeping it clean.

Review/Swatches: Impulse Cosmetics Get Lippy Palette And Macabre Moon Eyeshadow

Well I did it again. I loved the things I tried from Impulse Cosmetics so much that I just had to get some more! This time I ordered a Get Lippy Palette and an eyeshadow in Macabre Moon. Macabre moon is a gorgeous deep blue with a gold duochrome that costs $4.32. The Get Lippy Palette is a 5 pan palette of their opaque matte lipsticks that costs $24.71. You get to choose whatever colours you want out of what is available at the time. I picked 3 colours and asked the seller to surprise me with 2 colours of her choosing. I did ask for one of the colours she picked to be a shade of purple and for the other to be something bright and unusual.

I didn't do an unboxing this time because I found these in my mailbox while I was on my way out the door to work and just couldn't help but open it up on my break before I got home! So, unfortunately all of my pictures are going to be of opened and already used products. They came packaged almost the exact same way the first one did. If you want to read about the shipping from Impulse Cosmetics you can read my first review here. The actual packaging on the eyeshadow is a plain jar with a sifter. The Get Lippy palette comes in a clear plastic palette that flips open. It actually feels quite sturdy. The palette includes a lip brush that is of surprisingly good quality. I have used it a few times and prefer it to my BH Cosmetics lip brush.

Now on to the products. I will start with the eyeshadow Macabre Moon. This is an amazing royal blue shade with a gold duochrome. I think this might be my favourite duochrome colour that I own!

It is very pigmented and blendable and the colour combination is so bold and unusual. Now, once applied to the eyes, the duochrome effect seemed a little less intense than it did on my hand, but it is still gorgeous. Here is what it looks like on the eyes with BH Cosmetics eye and lip primer underneath as a base:

Isn't it so pretty? The picture here doesn't even do it justice. You can hardly see the beautiful gold sheen in it. This is the second eyeshadow by Impulse Cosmetics that I have tried and I would definitely recommend that you try them. Especially at that great price!

The Get Lippy palette is my favourite of all the things I have from Impulse Cosmetics now. This is kind of cheating because it is really just 5 different little lipsticks. Here is what it looks like:

The colours from left to right are Circus, Clinch, Manic, Gamble and Maui Wowie. The three colours I picked were Circus, Clinch and Manic. Gamble and Maui Wowie were picked out by the owner of the company. The lipsticks are all incredibly creamy and long-wearing. I will admit there are 2 shades in here that don't really suit me very well. I still love them, they just don't go very well with my skin tone. You will see which shades they are once you see the lip swatches.

Here they are! Each swatch is over bare lips. I put a bit of chapstick on each time but made sure to wipe off all the excess so my lips were dry.

The first colour is Circus, an awesome minty teal. This is one of the ones I picked out and I think it is my favourite in this palette. This picture doesn't really do it justice. This one is very creamy and opaque. It looks a little less green on the lips than it does in the palette, but I think if I used a primer that blocked out the colour of my lips first it would be perfect.

This awesome blue colour is Clinch. I think this shade is pretty darn close to Oh No She Didn't by Lime Crime. I haven't personally tried that one yet, but just from looking at pictures online, I would say this is a good dupe. This is the creamiest and most pigmented out of all the colours in this palette. I also wore this one to work for an 8 hour shift yesterday and found that it did not feather at all. It did wear off a bit after a few hours and I definitely needed to touch up after lunch, but I was really impressed with it!

Can you see what's wrong with this picture? This is Manic, a light orange colour. I call this orange creamsicle colour since that is what it reminds me of. I really loved this colour in pictures, and it looks gorgeous in the pan, but it makes my lips just disappear. Apparently I am the colour of orange creamsicles, huh??? Regardless, I think this colour would look great on any really pale people as well as anyone with really dark skin. Those of us in between may just want to skip this shade, though.

This pinky purple colour is Gamble. This is one of the colours that was a surprise. All I said was anything purple and she picked this! I am really glad she picked this because it wasn't one that I would have picked out for myself. The picture on their website looked a bit more pink than purple and I have plenty of pink shades, so I would have skipped right over it. This shade seems slightly less pigmented than the rest, but since it isn't a completely contrasting colour from my lips it doesn't need to be. If you are looking for more wearable shades from this company then this is a great one that still stands out.

This is the second colour that was picked out for me, Maui Wowie. This is an awesome, bright chartreuse. I abso-freaking-lutely love this colour, but it doesn't look very good on me... I think this colour would look really amazing on anyone with very dark skin. I am so sad that it doesn't work for me. I will probably try to make this work somehow so that I can wear it anyways. I don't really know how yet, but I'll try. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments!

So that is everything I got this time! I love it all, even the two shades that don't work for me. I'm sure I'll find uses for them as well. These lipsticks are all very creamy, pigmented and longwearing. I still think my favourite shade by Impulse Cosmetics is Smoking Gun, which you can see me wearing here. That is the most flattering shade I think I have ever worn, but all my new shades are amazing as well. I also really like Macabre Moon! If you haven't checked out Impulse Cosmetics yet, go do it!

What do you think? Which shade is your favourite on me? Which is your least favourite? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel Cream For Dry Skin

The other day I ran out of my Body Shop Tea Tree Oil moisturizer. I have been using that one for years, but recently found that it wasn't moisturizing enough. I think as I get older my skin is getting drier. It also doesn't really need the acne fighting benefits of tea tree oil anymore. I was going to go back to the body shop and see if they had anything else I might like to replace it with, but when I went it was insanely packed and it is a very tiny store, so I went to the drug store instead. I finally decided on this stuff because it was one of the only things that didn't say anti-wrinkle on it. I don't normally like buying those kinds of products since I'm not wrinkly yet. None of them say wrinkle prevention on them, so I don't see the point.

I got this on sale for about 11 bucks, but it is normally a few dollars more. For the price you get 50 grams of product. There were two versions of this: a normal one and the one for dry skin. I decided to get the dry skin one since dry patches have been a problem for me lately. It comes in a glass jar with a white screw on lid. The actual cream is a weird baby pink gel. It smells mildly fruity and not at all artificial to me. I think it is mostly like grapes. I have had a few other Garnier face products and I think they all smell basically the same. The smell does hang around for a little while, but I really don't mind it.

As far as whether or not this stuff works, I think it is great! When you first rub it into the skin it turns sort of watery but it soaks in fairly quick. It leaves my skin feeling very soft and smooth. When I go to bed I put a thicker layer of it on my face and when I wake up my face even seems a bit more plump!

Overall I am very impressed with this moisturizer. It does a great job, especially for the price. I might even repurchase this when I run out if it continues to work this well for me. Have you tried any Garnier skin products? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!

Sick Day... I Need My Tea! What To Keep In Mind When Buying Tea.

Today's post isn't really going to be beauty related at all, but I think it's fairly important. The past few days I have been a bit under the weather. Nothing major, but today I didn't go in to work either. The weather recently turned freezing and a lot of people are getting sick, so I thought I'd share with you my favourite way to get through a cold or flu, and also bring to light something I found out recently about it.

So tea is what I am talking about of course. The title sort of gave it away... I love tea. I think I get it from my mom. She drinks tea morning, noon and night whether it is the dead of winter or the heat of summer. I won't say I'm that addicted to it, but I still love it, especially when I am sick. There is nothing like a hot cup of tea when you have chills.

Unfortunately I read something recently that made me worry a lot. In fact, it even made me throw out a lot of my teas! Apparently, there was a study done into many popular American tea brands that showed that a lot of them contain high levels of pesticides. Higher levels than the US federal limit allows! If you want to read the article here it is. It does a much better job of explaining it than I possibly could. It also contains a lovely chart showing what exactly they found in some teas. The article also talks about GMOs, which I am against only for the socio-economic problems they cause, not health problems. I honestly haven't seen enough research into the health detriments of GMOs yet, but they are definitely not good overall because of the big corporations running them.

I'll get back on topic before I go on a ridiculous rant about GMOs. The article also mentions that a lot of these teas come with artificial flavours or colours. One of the most disturbing things it mentioned (besides the pesticides) is that a lot of tea bags now are not very good, either for you or the environment! Some teas now come in mesh-like bags made of plastics that are not meant to be put in very hot water, among other things. For more information I definitely suggest you go read the article. It does talk mainly about American brands, but a lot of those same brands are found here in Canada and I'm sure many other places in the world. This also doesn't mean that only the teas in this list have them. I would be more wary of any tea I buy in any country in the future. I decided to put together a short list of things I like to keep in mind now when picking out tea.

1. Buy organic teas whenever possible: "Organic" foods are still a bit of a grey area. There aren't a ton of regulations yet on what organic means, so often things can say organic and still contain certain levels of chemicals you don't want in them. Organic regulations also vary a lot from place to place. Regardless of this, buying organic is often still a better choice for many things. At least there will be considerably fewer harmful things in your tea if it is in some way certified as organic.

2. Buy loose-leaf tea: This way you don't have to worry over whether or not your tea bag is killing you and every furry little woodland creature around you too. An added bonus: Making loose leaf tea always seems like a fancier endeavour (to me anyways). I have a couple of adorable tea infusers and I love seeing them sitting in my mug steeping. Doesn't it just look better this way?:

3. Buy locally whenever possible: I think this rule should be for most things in life too. Whenever you can, you should buy locally. It keeps the money in your community and it helps save the environment by using less gas - Awesome! Buying locally also gives you the added bonus of having a much easier time connecting with the person actually growing the products. This means if you have any concerns about what is in your tea, you are often able to ask them personally what is in it. I also find that a lot of smaller more local growers and makers of things naturally do their best to keep pesticides and whatnot out of their plants anyways.

The tea I'm drinking tonight is kind of locally bought from a guy in Quebec with an awesome tea company called Cha Yi. I do live in Ontario, but the drive across to Quebec is only about 20 minutes long. Now, the tea wasn't actually grown locally. I believe they travel to other countries and hand pick which teas to bring back with them. This tea is called Chai Cha Yi and it is a really nice strong spicy chai tea. I love chai, especially when it is cold out, and this is one of the best chais I have tried. I made it in a giant beer mug because I wanted a lot and didn't want to have to make it twice. It's a lazy day. I of course topped my tea off with a bit of milk and sugar and now it is all ready to go!

Well, that's it for my tea post! I hope it didn't freak any of you tea drinkers out too much. Let me know what you think about this in the comments. I'm going to go enjoy my awesome chai tea now!

Quick Look/Tutorial: Mostly Neutrals For Fall

I think I finally managed to do a really good neutral look! If you have been reading my blog, you may know I have been on the hunt for a good neutral palette. I still haven't found a big palette that I love yet, but I have been doing my best to play with more nudes and neutrals anyways. This is what I came up with today, and I really love it. I think it is great for fall.

To do this look I did use my new MAC Stroke of Midnight Eyes in Smoky. I used a few colours from that and a few from my BH Cosmetics 88 matte palette. I started by priming my eyes with my Impulse Cosmetics Glam Glue. I have actually really started to like this as an eyeshadow base! It does a great job of making things stick and it won't crease if you use a small enough amount.

I began with a medium pinky beige all over the lid from the BH 88 palette and I topped that with Retrospeck from the MAC palette. This is a nice shimmery taupe colour and I used it over a matte shade because I didn't want that much shimmer tonight. I put Well Put Together, a nice dark brown from the MAC palette, in my crease and blended it out quite a bit with a fluffy brush. I took a pointed crease brush and used a dark cranberry red from the BH palette to darken the crease further, and then put a dark burgundy purple in the outer corner and a bit into the crease. I then blended everything out further with a fluffy brush. I used Well Put Together again on the outer 2/3 of my bottom lid and highlighted my inner corners with Chillproof from the MAC palette. This has quickly become my new favourite highlight for my eyes this season. It is so pearly and eye-catching that I think it is perfect for the holidays. I used the same pink-beige that I started with to highlight my browbone and blend all the edges out a bit more. To finish I lined my waterline with a white eyeliner and put on mascara.

For foundation I used my new Maybelline Fit Me Shine Free Foundation Stick. On my cheeks I put the most neutral matte pink from the glamorous blush palette all over my cheeks and contoured a little bit with the bronzy shade. I then topped my cheeks off with a little bit of the MAC Mineralize Blush in Talk Of The Town, which gave them a really nice pearly glow that the camera didn't pick up very well. On my lips I used a Maybelline Moisture Whip lipstick in Real Raisin. I just dabbed a bit of that on with a finger to make it look sort of like a stain. I also filled my eyebrows in just a little bit with an angled eyeliner brush and some dark brown eyeshadow from the 88 matte palette.

Also, my hair is down for once and doesn't look absolutely terrible! I mean, it doesn't look great... I brushed it right before I took pictures and it somehow made it a bit frizzy and weird. I'm thinking of dyeing it soon too. Not all of it mind you. I tend to pick a few strands and make them crazy colours. You can see remnants of the last time I did that in my bangs there. If anyone has any colours you want to see sticking out of my head soon, let me know in the comments!

Well, that's it for the look! There were lots of pictures this time. I really like how it turned out and for once I actually looked good in most of the pictures I took. I hope you like it!

Review: Maybelline Fit Me Shine Free Foundation Stick

I got this foundation a couple of days ago at the drug store. I have been hearing a lot about this lately and it was on sale for about $8.50 so I grabbed one up! I think the original price was around 11 or 12 bucks. This foundation claims to have an anti-shine core and to dry to a matte finish. If you look at the top of it, you can see a lighter circle of product in the middle that is the anti-shine powder core. The colour I got was #120 Classic Ivory. I believe that was the third lightest shade that they had.

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about this product. A lot of people absolutely loved it and said it was the perfect matte foundation. Many other people said it was too greasy and even more complained that it made their dry patches stand out more and look flaky. Keep that in mind while reading this review. There is a very good chance it won't work the same on your skin as it did on mine.

I tested this foundation out by swatching it on the inside of my arm. I have a scar there (I burned my arm taking rolls out of an oven in class one day.) and I wanted to see if it would be covered adequately. I think this will be my new test for foundations. Here is what my arm looks like bare:

The scar isn't that noticeable, but you can see its a long teardrop shape in the middle there if you look hard enough. I was surprised at how well this foundation covered it and also how it blended so well into my skin! Here is my arm after applying the Maybelline Fit Me Shine Free Foundation:

You can definitely still see the scar, but that is mostly the texture now. It did get rid of the discolouration though, which is the point of it anyways. I'm really pleased with the colour I picked. At first I was worried it would be a bit too pink toned, but it wasn't once I blended it out.

This stuff glides on really smoothly and is easy to blend out. The coverage is medium, which I like, and it feels very light on the skin. The only issue I have with it is that it is definitely not a matte finish. It isn't super dewy either, but my face still has a sheen to it. I'm not exactly complaining about that part though. Completely matte finishes can often make skin look dry or cakey. I was actually a bit worried about this foundation, since I had heard from other people it makes dry patches flaky, but I didn't find that. As far as wear time goes, this foundation managed to last a good 8 hours through work. I did of course set it with a powder.

Overall, I am really impressed with this foundation. Even though it isn't a completely matte finish, I do find it less dewy than other foundations. I also really like how smooth and easy to work with it is. For the price, I would definitely recommend this foundation. I think that the Maybelline Fit Me Shine Free Foundation lived up to the hype!

The Hair Chronicles: 4 Weeks Without Shampoo

My hair is not perfect yet.... Why??? This is going to be a very quick post, again with no real pictures. I didn't really see the point in any pictures because you can go to any recent post and see a picture of my greasy bun. I'm starting to get really sick of buns!

I will admit it is getting better, and softer somehow, but I still have greasy patches. I have washed with baking soda about once every week, and for one or two blissful days my hair is beautiful, for the most part. I can wear it down without fear of being seen in public! after that it starts to get some grease patches in it.

If this goes on much longer I may have to break down and shampoo my hair..... I will go as long as I can, but this is harder than I thought it would be!

What do you think? Should I keep trying?

MAC Stroke of Midnight Collection Event Sadness

Today I attended an event for the release of MAC's new holiday collection called Stroke of Midnight. While I had a lot of fun at the event, and enjoy the products I picked up immensely, I didn't exactly have the best experience. I should start off by saying that no, I have never been to a MAC event before, or even had my makeup done at any makeup counter either. So on with the story.

Basically, this all started a few weeks ago, when my best friend and I went to the opening of the first H&M in our city. If you were one of the first 500 people through the door, you got a fabulous tote bag filled with some fun goodies, so of course, we showed up a few hours early and waited in line to be one of those people. While waiting, some MAC employees started walking around with a big signup sheet. They made their way over to us and asked us if we would like to attend a fun MAC event in a few weeks and come get a fun makeover. We said of course wrote our names on the list and that was that.

After that I pretty much forgot about it until a few days ago when I had a message on my phone from a MAC employee saying that I had an appointment for a fun makeover at noon on Friday. My friend got the same message, it said nothing else besides when and where to be. I won't lie, at this point, I still had no idea this was for a new product line or anything.

This morning I met up with my friend and we headed down to the mall and looked around the MAC counter while waiting our turns. When we first got there and people started talking to us about the event they said everyone was getting fun makeovers to showcase their new makeup collection, so we sat down and had our makeup done.

Now, it wasn't the actual makeover I had a problem with. This was the first time I've ever really let anyone else do my makeup before and I really like it actually. She did a great job on my eyes, I love the products she picked for my cheeks, and while the lips look like she had a bit of difficulty drawing them on I do love the colour she picked. I will say a few things about the makeover though, the blush on my cheeks didn't look very well blended afterwards. I was sort of a harsh line of blush. My lips were not drawn on very well. I had a bit of a crazy looking clown mouth in a few spots. I wiped that off the second I finished taking a picture of myself. Finally, they didn't do my foundation because I showed up already wearing that and they said it looked great already, but after she finished my eyes she had to wipe fallout under my eyes away. This meant that she had to reapply some undereye concealer. This was fine but she never set it with anything! I do like the colours she picked and what she did with my eyes though. Here is what I looked like with the makeup on:

The problem I have is, once we were all finished they asked us which products we would like to buy. Now of course I wanted them all, but wasn't really prepared to spend that much money today. I was hoping to try them out for the day on my face and come back later to pick what I liked. My friend didn't want anything since she doesn't wear makeup often. When we told them this, they informed us that the price of our makeovers was that we had to spend $50 in MAC products! WHAT? When had this been mentioned? We were both pretty pissed.

We both ended up sucking it up and buying something, but neither one of us left there happy, even though we looked gorgeous. My friend ended up buying the palette they used on her eyes, since she figured that she might actually use it occasionally. That palette was the Stroke of Midnight Eyes in Warm.

I ended up buying the palette they used on my eyes as well, which was the Stroke of Midnight Eyes in Smoky. I also bought the Mineralize Blush in Talk of The Town. This has an amazing gold colour with green undertones to it called Gaelic Gold. It is a very nice cool toned pink that is very frosty. I'm not used to so much shine on my face, but I like it. I will have a full review of these products up soon.

So overall, I liked the makeover and the products I was forced to get, but I am very disappointed that they didn't tell me at any point beforehand that it was going to cost me that much money! I feel even worse for my friend who not only didn't really like what she bought, but wasn't a huge fan of her makeover either. She looked great, but he isn't used to so much makeup on her face. The girl also put bronzer on her face and she is a very pale redhead. It didn't exactly work out perfectly. If I had been told about the price upfront, I probably still would have signed up and just have been better prepared when I showed up.

Am I just being ridiculous? Is this sort of thing supposed to be common knowledge? What do you think?

My Makeup Lust List

I thought this would be a fun post with Christmas coming up! It is just a list of all my favourite makeup and holiday sets this season that I wish I could have. I don't really expect to get much of this for Christmas, but it's still fun to look at.

1. Hourglass Ambient Light Powders:
These are absolutely the coolest products I have seen in a while. They claim to be a "universal finishing powder that features state-of-the-art technology to recreate the most exquisitely flattering types of light". Basically, if you really like how your skin looks under a certain type of light, for example diffused light, you can get their diffused light powder and it will help to make your skin look like that.

I know I'm a bit late on this bandwagon. Recently Hourglass released a limited edition palette that had 3 of the ambient light shades in it, but they seem to be sold out now. I have yet to try these out, but am hoping to find them in my local Sephora when I go tomorrow and swatch them. I have seen a few reviews and tutorials with these products and they look absolutely gorgeous! One of these will definitely be going on my Christmas list, but each powder retails for $52 Canadian, so I doubt this is one I would pick up for myself unless I really felt like splurging. I would really like the Ethereal Light for a highlighter, or the Luminous Light for a brighter more golden highlight.

2. Sugarpill Cosmetics Pressed Eyeshadow Palettes:
I can't believe I have been obsessed with makeup for so long yet I still haven't managed to get my hands on any Sugarpill products!!! What is wrong with me? I have been following the company since it started up and I keep telling myself I will buy something from them, but the shipping cost turns me off every time. I can't remember exactly how much it costs to ship to Canada, but it is about half the price of the things you are buying unless you buy a ton of stuff. Shipping on orders over $100 are free to any country though.

I mostly want the Burning Heart palette, but the others look really nice as well. Maybe some day I will feel like dropping $100 and I will get all of them with free shipping?

3. Sephora + Pantone Universe The Color of The Year Collection:
This year Pantone chose an emerald green shade as the colour of the year. I love emerald green ant to top it off, my birth stone is emerald too! This collection has been out for a while now, and it has gone one sale for 50% off at $41! This collection has 7 products in it all with the Pantone Colour of the Year Emerald in them! I am actually really hoping someone does get me this one for Christmas, it has made it onto a physical Christmas list and not just the fantasy list in my head.

4. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs AlieNEON Makeup Palette:
This palette was just released a few days ago in time for the holiday season and I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!! Remember that AlieNEON Supercharged Dust Stacker that I did a mini review of a little while ago? Well this is like the matte version of that in an extremely awesome palette form. The palette has 10 awesome UV reactive matte shades plus a black and a white. The palette packaging is also really cool with a lid that flips up to reveal 6 shades and a drawer that pulls out to reveal 6 more. The whole thing is covered in an awesome design too and I would just love to have it sitting somewhere to stare at! This crazy, awesome, neon palette is $45 American, so slightly more for us Canadians.

5. Lime Crime Velvetines:
I love Lime Crime! I honestly don't own any of their newer products, but I own some of their Magic Dusts. The ones from years ago before she changed her business a lot and released entire new collections. I have been following Doe Deere since she was an adorable eBay seller who made her own clothing. I want all of her new makeup, but most of all the Velvetines. They are lips stains that dry to a matte and velvety finish and they looks so pretty in every picture I have seen! They are $16.99 each and there are 3 shades to pick from.

6. Sephora Favorites Draw The Line Gift Set:
This is basically a big ole' pile of eyeliners to try out for $36. I really want this, so I can finally find the perfect liquid eyeliner! I'm hoping at least one of the ones in this will work for me.

7. Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette:
I thought I would end this list with a product to look forward to. I know this hasn't been released yet, but the second it comes out I need it. A little while ago I asked you guy what the best neutral palette would be for me and since then, I have been looking at things and being extremely indecisive. I have seen a few reviews and sneak peeks of this beauty though, and I think this is the neutral palette for me. It is full of nude colours with pink undertones, which I think are flattering on almost everyone. I don't exactly know how much this is going to sell for, since it hasn't been released yet, but I think I read somewhere that it would be $52.

Well, that's it for my wish list! I'm sorry there are no pictures, but I don't own any of them to take pictures of. I'm also really not sure what images I can legally take from where. I see tons of other bloggers use images that look like they are taken straight from a company's website, but I'm not entirely sure if they are allowed to do that. If any of you can help, or know of any articles that explain it well, please let me know in the comments!

What's on your lust list this holiday season?

Cousin's 4th Birthday And The Cake I Made!

I won't do this very often, but this is a non-makeup related post. I doubt I have mentioned this before, but makeup is not my first passion. I love all things food. I took a culinary program last year at college and am hoping to take a baking course soon as well. My ultimate goal is to open my own dessert place with a bar, where people can go for after dinner food and drinks. Anyways, that's enough about my personal life, on to the fun cake!

Today was my cousin's son's 4th birthday. She has two adorable kids who I babysit quite often. I love those little guys, they are so much fun! Every year for each of their birthdays my dad and I get together and bake them a fun cake! This year my little cousin wanted a Ratatouille themed cake.

We decided we wanted a cake that looked like a plate pied high with pasta that had the main character, Remy the rat, sitting on top. This is what we came up with:

The cake is a golden cake baked in a bundt pan for a domed shape. We then shaved some off the top to stuff in the hole. A crumb coat of orange flavoured buttercream went on next.

The pasta is yellow fondant that we ran through a pasta maker and the sauce is buttercream mixed with strawberry jam and red, orange and brown food colouring. The character and spoon sticking out of the left side I molded out of fondant and the meatballs are chocolate ganache truffles rolled in crushed chocolate cheerios.

This was a lot of fun to make. I don't often bake things where I get to mold stuff or go to crazy on the decorating. That's it for the cake! Sorry there were no makeup pictures. I might occasionally throw in something I have made if it looks particularly delicious in the future.

What do you think? Would you be alright with occasionally seeing food related posts?

Quick Look: Seafoam And Inky Waters

This is a very quick look done with what looks like seafoam green on the lids to me. I used the BH Cosmetics 88 matte palette in a dark tel on the lids. I used a matte black to define the crease and add an outer v shape. I used the bright blue from my Lunatick Labs AlieNEON stacker over the black and to blend it out and put the lightest beige in the 88 matte palette on the browbone and inner corner.

If I look tired, it's because I am. This picture was taken pretty late at night.

Once again, I finished the look off with Impulse Cosmetic Smoking Gun lipstick. I just can't get enough of it!

That's it, hope you liked it!

Crazy About Lipstick Tag

This tag is filled with a bunch of questions about lip products! I got this tag idea from a wonderful blogger Mary from Tutorials, Hauls, Reviews, N'at. You can check out her blog here. She does a lot of great reviews and always seems to get really great swatch photos, so head on over there too!

1. How many lipsticks do you have in your collection?
22

2. How old were you when you started using lipstick?
I can't be certain, but I was about 15.

3. What's a lipstick you can't live without?
MAC Viva Glam Cyndi. It is like my lips but better, I love it so much!

4. Show a lipstick you use to stand out.
Lancome Color Fever in Rock Icon Fuchsia. It is such a vibrant hot pink and it has the most incredible blue undertone/shine to it.

5. What was the last lipstick you bought?
Well, I just ordered a lipstick palette from Impulse cosmetics last night. I haven't received it yet, but technically that's it.

6. What lipstick do you regret buying?
NYX Narcissus lipstick. It looked like a perefect baby pink when I got it, and it is, but it looks ridiculous on me. It is too pale a pink, with my yellowy undertone.

7. What is your favourite lipstick at this moment?
Well, that has to be Impulse Cosmetics Smoking Gun lipstick. I have never worn blue lips before and this dark, wearable navy blue is a good jumping off point.

8. Your most expensive and inexpensive lipstick:
Lancome Color Fever in Rock Icon Fuchsia and I'm not sure what the cheapest one was, probably one of my Revlon lipsticks.

9. Show a lipstick that you love.
L'Oreal Colour Riche in British Red. I have been using this red for years and I still love it.

10. Do you like, love, or are you addicted to lipsticks?
It is a love that is quickly turning to obsession.

11. What lipstick reminds you of someone special?
Lancome Le Rouge Absolu in Peche reminds me of my grandmother, who was very important to me. She loved Lancome products and her bathroom was filled with lovely smelling creams and cosmetics and most of all lipsticks. Peach was her favourite shade, and when she passed away, I bought this because it reminded me so much of her. I don't think she ever went a day without putting on some lipstick.

12. What was your first lipstick?
I can't remember the exact name of it, but it was a Maybelline Moisture Whip in some sort of dusty rose colour.

13. What is your favourite brand of lipstick?
That's a tough one. Right now I would have to say it is a 3-way tie. Impulse Cosmetics for the crazy shade range, MAC for the quality and feel, and NYX for their accessibility.

14. What is your favourite finish?
Matte, or sometimes satin

15. How many lip products (everything) do you currently have in your handbag?
4: MAC's Cyber and Impulse Cosmetics Psychedelic, to create a ombre lip. A chapstick pot, and a Hard Candy Lip Lacquer in Rated R.

16. How do you store your lipsticks?
They all live in a large makeup bag that is for lipsticks only. I am working on finding better makeup storage soon.

17. What lip products are you currently lusting after?
OCC Lips Tars for sure.

Well that was it! I had a lot of fun doing this post. I got to go through all my lipsticks, which I haven't done in a while. Thank you to Mary for the wonderful idea!

I tag everyone reading this post! It was fun, so you should try it! If you do, let me know in the comments. A shout out about where you got the idea wouldn't hurt either! :)

Review: NYX Felt Tip Liner In Jet Black

A little while ago, the drug store near my house was having a sale on NYX products. If you bought one product the second one was 50% off. I normally love NYX so I grabbed a couple of things I really needed. I got the Doll Eye waterproof mascara and the felt tip liner in jet black. This is the product I will be reviewing today.

This liquid liner sells for about $10 for 0.02 oz of product. This is a tiny amount of product to me. My Hard Candy Walk The Line liner has 0.112 oz. Here is what it looks like:

This liner comes in a very convenient pen style, which is why I bought it. I have tried a few other felt tip liners before and, for the most part, liked them, so I thought this one would be similar. I was wrong. For starters, the felt tip is very fat, making it difficult to get a very thin line. If you do manage to get a thin line, it tends to not be very opaque. The tip is also very hard and feels sort of scratchy on my skin.

At first I thought that this liner might have one redeeming quality because I thought it was going to be super long lasting. Here is a picture of my hand with many doodles all over it:


The doodles on the right are from the day before. They survived sleeping with my hand under a pillow and showering the next morning and work all day. They do look super faded, but the fact that they are still there at all was impressive to me. The lines on the right are brand new, to give you an idea of what this stuff can do.

This staying power seems pretty impressive right? Unfortunately, when eyelid oils get involved, it can hardly last 8 hours of work and dinner.... I used this to do some winged eyeliner today and got home to find one wing almost completely gone.

This stuff is just plain disappointing all around. Not only is it a tiny amount of product, it is scratchy and has horrible staying power. I would absolutely not repurchase this!

Have you tried a NYX felt tip liner before? Did you find it as terrible as I did?

Quick Look: More Blue Lips And A Small Warning

I can't stop playing with strange lipstick shades now! Tonight I was playing around with some makeup and made a new lipcolour. Tonight I used Impulse Cosmetics lipstick in Smoking Gun and layered a NYX lipstick in Narcissus over top of it to make a brighter kind of purply blue.

This post is also going to be a warning about a horribly useless product! Do not buy NYX Jumbo pencil in Slate!!! This stuff is horrible. As you will see in the next few pictures, it creases like crazy!


Can you see those creases? These pictures were taken immediately after I applied my makeup. This whole thing took about 20 minutes to do and I think after about 10 minutes it was creasing! And no, I did not use too much product. I used the bare minimum and blended it out to a light grey shade before applying oil slick all over the lids. I also used primer underneath! This stuff is just terrible, don't bother with it.

I absolutely love oil slick though. It kind of really does look a bit like an oil slick that that rainbow glitter in it! And the lips! These were so fun to do! I love the colour. It is sort of like a dark periwinkle blue.

My lips look slightly more purple in real life, but still mostly blue.

I hope you like the look!

Have you ever tried NYX Jumbo Pencil in Slate? Did it work for you?

Quick Look: Mint and Purple

I just wanted to quickly post the look I wore to dinner tonight. I went for sushi with my parents and it was delicious! I had tons of salmon and white tuna. I love Japanese food. I really wanted to try out the other lipstick I got from Impulse Cosmetics today. This one is called Psychedelic. If you want to see my unboxing/review of this company you can read it here.

On my eyes I used a minty colour from my Sigma Creme de Couture palette in Almond Pear. I used a greyish brown in the crease and a beige in the inner corner and browbone.

I kept the eyes pretty simple by not adding anything to the bottom lashline at all. On my lips is the fabulous shade Psychedelic by Impulse cosmetics. I honestly don't like this one as much as Smoking Gun. This one has a much creamier formula, which is nice, but it doesn't seem to be a bit patchier. I still love it and the colour is such an amazing shade of purple, but Smoking Gun is the best shade I have ever worn!

I put a very light dusting of a purply pink blush on my cheeks and that was it! I hope you like it!