Summer 2011 Favorites

Summer Favorites 2011

This summer flew by so quick, like most summers L and living in LA the weather can sometimes be really hot. So as far as makeup for me it’s about products that feel light and give that bronzy, glowy look that I love so much. I have picked out my favorite summer beauty products for this year that I used and abused. Hope you enjoy

Garnier Anti Dark Circle Eye roller, Bare Mineral Original Foundation(medium tan), Sephora Concealer palette, Monistat Chaffing Gel (as face primer)

Face:

The Garnier Anti-Dark Circle Eye Roller was at first not my favorite product in the world. I was expecting a miracle product that would completely remove my dark circles and like most concealers and Dark Circle “removers” it didn’t exactly remove them L But I decided to give it another try and use it sort of like an eye brightener and I must say I loved it! When I don’t want to do my full face make-up, I just put the Garnier Anti-Dark circle eye-roller with a little powder and head out the door.

Bare Minerals Original foundation in the color Medium Tan I love this foundation, I have been using it for an entire year and I must say its wonderful. It gives me great coverage but doesn’t make me look cakey. It also gives me a natural, glowy look without making me look oily. And it did not break me out, like a lot of foundations do. I just love it.

Sephora Concealer Palette While on a window shopping trip to Sephora with my wonderful friend, I discovered this concealer palette in the sale rack for $10!!! Originally it was $20 and since I am always on the look out for a holy-grail concealer I decided to get it. And I must say that I LOVE it! I already hit pan on one concealer :'( but I still use it every day. I have never before used a green concealer and I really enjoyed this one because it does seem to cancel out my redness. This pink concealer I use for under-eye dark circles and it works great as well. The only 2 complains is one Sephora no longer makes this product anymore BOOOO! And two I hit pan really quick :(

Monistat Chaffing Powder Gel (Face Primer) Before you start thinking "why is she talking about her favorite chaffing gel??" I must clarify that I use this product as a face primer, and I also thought that this was weird and random, but a few years back I found out that many girls use this as a face primer. I discovered that it has the same texture as face primers. I started using it again for summer since it gets hot and I like my makeup to stay on my face. This product honestly does work well for me as a face primer and what I love most is that it's cheap! It makes my face feel so smooth and my makeup does seem to last longer when I use it.

MAC MSF in Cheeky Bronze, elf Contouring blush & bronzing Powder, MAC Msf  in Soft and Gentle, and Milani  baked blush in Luminoso

Cheeks: 

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Cheeky Bronze. This is the perfect summer blush/bronze, on lazy days I would only put concealer and swipe a little of this color on my cheeks and it would give me a shimmery sun-kissed look.

elf Contouring blush & Bronzing Powder. I have used the Nars Laguna/Orgasm duo but I finally used it all up right before summer. I wanted to find a dupe for it that was more in my price range. After some research (Google) I found this blush/bronzer duo from elf. I couldn't believe that it cost $3!!!! I LOVE it! I don't think the blush is a dupe for Nars Orgasm but the bronzer is a good dupe for Nars Laguna Bronzer. I love this product so much I went back that week and got 2 more. As you can see in my picture I have used and abused the elf product.

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle This product has been on my favorites since the day I bought it more than 3 years ago (same one) I use this mainly has a highlight in the inner corner of my eyes, below my eyebrows and on my cheekbones. On lazy summer days when I didn't want to use eye shadows I would use this all over my lid and it looks so natural and pretty.

Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso 05. As I mentioned before I ran out of my NARS Laguna/Orgasm duo and was in search for dupes. On one of my weekly (or daily) trips to my local Walgreen's, I found this blush. Before I bought it I did some Googling and found that some people thought it was a dupe to NARS orgasm. I'm not sure if its an exact dupe but this is such a wonderful blush! Honestly has become one of my all time everyday products! Its a peachy, pink and looks so gorgeous on. Perfect color for my skin tone.

Urban Decay Naked Palette, elf Eyelid Primer, Maybelline One by One Mascara in  Blakest Balck

Eyes:

Urban Decay Naked Palette. I got it! After multiple trips to Sephora's and Ulta's I got my hands on it and I must say that it is everything and more! LOL Its just a wonderful palette and since I got this I hardly ever use any my MAC or other eye shadows. It has become my go to palette. The colors that I use the most are (in no particular order) Virgin, Sin, Naked, Buck, Darkhorse and Toasted.

Maybelline One by One Volum' Express Mascara in Blackest Black. I got this mascara because my favorite YouTube guru Tiffany D recommended it and I wanted to try it. It gives me volume and makes my eye lashes remain curled and look longer.

elf Eyelid Primer. I used to love my Urban Decay Primer Potion but again I ran out and didn't want to pay twenty something dollars for an eye primer. On a random trip to Target I saw this and decided to try it because it was only $1!!! I think that it is a wonderful eye primer that works just as good or better than the Urban Decay Primer Potion. Plus its ONE FREAKING DOLLAR! You can't beat that. It does help my eye shadows stay on all day

Revlon Lipgloss in Coral Reef and MAC lipglass in Oyster Girl

Lips:

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Coral Reef. I did a previous post about these Revlon Lipglosses, they are great! This color was the perfect summer color. Its a little bright for me but on nights when I went out somewhere special with my boyfriend I liked wearing it with a neutral eye. 

MAC Lipglass in Oyster Girl. This was the very first MAC product I ever bought. I love this light pink color. Its one of those everyday go to products that I use. 

Orly nail polish in Rage and OPI in Teenage Dream

Nails:

Orly Nail polish in Rage. I found out about this color because of another blog polishandpearls.com Miss Jen Fabulous, another YouTube guru, did a blogpost about it. And I fell in love with the color. Its a rose gold color that I thought would go perfectly with my MK rose gold watch. Great color.

OPI Nail polish Teenage Dream. Everyone talked and raved about this color so much that I ran to my local beauty supply store to get it. It is from the Katy Perry collection she did for OPI. And I must say it is a teenage dream. Its such a pretty glittery pink color, that I love to use as my accent nail.

Those were my favorite summer makeup products for 2011. I also realized that this month is my year anniversary for this blog :) Thank you for reading and please leave comments and continue to support this little blog!

xoxo J

Review: Too Faced 'Natural Eye' pallete

I have been using the Too Faced Natural Eye palette for about a month now. This is my very first eye palette that I have ever purchased. I went into Sephora just to "look" (that's what I told my BF lol). I really went in to see if I could find the very popular Naked Eye Pallet by Urban Decay, but like every other Sephora store they were "SOLD OUT" :( As I was leaving a little box caught my eye....

The colors were so gorgeous and I swatched them and instantly fell in love with how the colors glided on my hand and how beautiful the colors were. My BF was outside anxiously waiting so I just decided to not get it

:(

A week later I was watching some Youtube videos and Blair Fowler or otherwise known as juicystar07 did a video and talked about buying the exact same palette! She raved about it and said how much she loved it, so I knew I NEEDED to get it.

I had a little $$$ saved up and I decided to just get it. It was a little bit of a splurge it cost $35. I thought about it and didn't think it was really that much, it has 8 eyeshadows so to me I felt like in the end it was worth it.

It comes with 3 different looks: Day, Classic, and Fashion

It also comes with 3 little cards that show you how to wear each look and a little brush ( I did not like the brush) The colors are just so gorgeous.

Day look:
The highlight: Heaven a white no shimmer color.
The base color: Velvet Revolver this color is a light brown, no shimmer, matte color.
And the crease color: Sexpresso a very pretty dark brown matte color.
I don't use this look a lot but the color I probably use the most is Sexpresso

Next is Classic( my favorite look)
The highlight: Silk teddy, this is the most beautiful color I can say its my favorite of this palette. Its sorta pink and reminds me of another favorite eyeshadow All that Glitters by MAC. It shiny but no shimmer and very velvety.
The base color: Push-Up is my second favorite color and its a bronze, brown, velvety, color. I sometimes use this as a crease.
Crease color: Erotica is a dark almost grayish dark brown color, this does have a little bit a shimmer and it wasn't my favorite color because its a little hard to blend in.
This look is so simple and pretty to wear as an every day look for work or school.

The last look Fashion:
Highlight: Nude Beach is a whiteish and pink highlight that I first thought was gonna be my favorite one but when I swatched it there was a lot of shimmer on it it was all over my hand, and when you put it on it goes everywhere and the color does not stay that well unless you put alot which causes you to have fallout of glitter :/ I have to say this is the only color I really don't use at all and dislike.
Base: Honey Pot this color is a gold, bronzey color, it so pretty and also glides on no shimmer but shiny and a great base color.
Crease: Cocoa Puff this is a true dark rich brown with tiny bits of shimmer. I love this crease color, this shimmer is very minimal
This is my second favorite look, I use it more at nights when I go out because its a darker natural look. The only color I dont use is Nude Beach but I use Silk teddy instead.

I own a several eye shadows but since I purchased this palette I use this more than any other eye shadow combos that I usually, I mix up the colors, the looks, I make up my own looks, I use highlights as base colors, base colors as crease colors, and crease colors as bases. It  is just a very useful palette and extremely versatile. I have said before that I love Natural looks and if you are the same or just need an everyday neutral, natural eye palette go out and buy this one. Its worth it!

Best Neutral Eyeshadow!

I love makeup! I have to admit I am not a professional makeup artist. I just have a huge love for makeup. I am also a very simple girl who just wants to take 5 minutes in the morning to put my makeup on but still look good :)

I used to always feel a bit intimidated every time I went by a MAC cosmetics store or beauty counter. So many colors, and textures and different types of eyeshadows and blushes and lipsticks and lipglosses and foundations and on and on and on....

That's how beauty blogs helped me. I read them and they helped me better understand everything makeup.

The very first MAC eyeshadow that I ever purchased was 'All that Glitters'

Description: "Beige w/gold pearl (Veluxe Pearl)

It is such a wonderful color. You can wear it as a base color or a highlight. I wear it mainly as a base but whenever I use it as a highlight, I put it below my eyebrow and inside my tear ducts. This eyeshadow just glides on easily onto my eyelids and it just looks great. It was my gateway eyeshadow into MAC and the rest of their makeup. I always have this eyeshadow in my makeup collection and always will. :)

So if you are looking for a nice, beautiful neutral eyeshadow go out and get 'All that glitters'!