Review: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Standout

Hello everyone! Today I'm bringing you a review on a newer product that came out from Revlon, the Matte Balm in the color Standout. Now I did a haul where I purchased two of the Lacquer Balms, but this one is quite a new purchase that I've loved since I first swiped it on my lips!

I was grocery shopping and when I got to the makeup aisle, here these were on the end! Since I had purchased the lacquer balms and liked them, I thought maybe I should try a matte one, even though they're not my favorite. The packaging is just like any other twist up chubby lip pencil, but I hate how it's "sealed". It just has this tiny little sticker on it, so anyone could really get their grubby hands on it and mess it up easily. Luckily, this one looked like it hadn't been touched, so I went for it.

I was always terrified of reds. I'm just so pale and finding a good red shade has been beyond hard for me. Standout here, is quite amazing! It definitely isn't orange based (which I find looks terrible on me) but it doesn't look blue based, so I'm guessing this is a neutral base. For me and my pale skin, this red is absolutely perfect! I wore it to work and got compliments out the wazoo on how good it looked. I've never had that happen to me when wearing any kind of lip product. 

Now the lighting in my bathroom makes this color look more orange but it looks more like the swatch above. I truly can't be more happy with this color! I have to say, it is a bit drying, but that's expected from a matte product. I just apply a lip balm before applying this to help combat the dryness. Wear time isn't terrible. I probably got about 3 to 4 hours of wear with this and that's with me drinking a ton of water while at work too. This goes on very smooth and isn't patchy at all, which was very impressive.

My lighting is terrible! Gosh this picture truly doesn't do this color justice. Other reviews I've seen with lip swatches show that it's definitely more red than this, so I'm sorry my lighting sucks! Anyways, I may have to pick up some more colors because this one is so impressive! They are expensive at $8.99 each but I'm sure there will be some kind of sale where it's BOGO 1/2 off or something. This product gets two thumbs way up from me!

Have you tried any of the matte balms yet?

January 2014 Ipsy Bag

So I'm a little miffed that my bag was super late this month, but I finally got it yesterday! I was so worried that it maybe got delivered to a different house or something, so I did email them and they assured me that it was in transit. I was hoping to get it earlier because I'm impatient and I always look to see what I'm getting before the bag actually arrives. Let's just say that I'm really pleased with what I got!

The theme this month was called "19 Reasons" because they partnered with 19 different brands. I find that pretty amazing! It's cool that these bags are way more personalized than before, and I definitely loved my bag this month! The bag itself is pretty cute. If you're artsy at all, you can bedazzle this or get creative in some sort of way. The only bummer was that it has a funky smell, and I'm not sure how to describe it. Anyways, cute bag, but lets get on to what's inside!

First up, we have the Skiin Soothing and Smoothing Eye Cream. I'm pretty obsessed with eye creams in general, so I'm stoked to have gotten this! I've never heard of the brand before but apparently it's supposed to help with fine lines and wrinkles along with dark circles and puffiness. If this helps with my dark circles, I'll be thrilled! They've been horrendous lately.

Next up we have the Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Tri-Wheat Leave In Conditioner. If I'm not mistaken, I may have gotten one of these in an Ipsy bag before, but I could be wrong. I know I've gotten quite a few of the Sexy Hair products. Never tried this before, but my hair has been horrible too lately. The nasty cold weather has definitely taken its toll on my hair and skin. Excited to try this!

Then we have the Malin+Goetz Mojito Lip Balm. Now Ipsy is telling me I have dry lips, eh? It's true, it's true, my lips have been so chapped that not much has worked for me. This stuff smells nice so I'm curious to see if helps out my poor lips.

The fourth product we have is the Faith Aromatherapy Tahitian Monoi Anti-Aging Sugar Scrub. I had no idea if this scrub was for your face or body, but I went on their website and it looks like it's a body scrub. I love a good body scrub, and sugar scrubs are typically my favorite. 

The last product I received is the Elizabeth Mott Smooth Shadow Pencil in the color Penny. I'm excited for this because I love coppery bronze shades. It's not the most pigmented color, but I may just use it as a base for powder shadows. 

That's everything I got! Like I said, I'm so so so happy with this month's bag. If I could have a bag with mostly skincare goodies like this, I'd be thrilled. I love makeup as much as the next beauty lover, but I probably have enough to last me for a decade. 

For only $10 a month, plus shipping for some, this is an amazing bag! Sign up here if you're interested! This is the best subscription service I've ever been a part of!

My Urban Decay Palette Collection

Hey guys! I thought today would be a good day to show you all the awesome palettes I have from Urban Decay! It's snowing like a mofo outside right now, so I'm not leaving my house for a while! I should also say that I'm not bragging with this post or anything, I'm just a major fan of Urban Decay. They're probably my favorite brand for eyeshadows, and I'm proud of how my collection has grown over the years. Let me show you what I have!

First, we'll start off with the coveted Naked Palettes. I have all three and they're all wonderful! I think my favorite is the second one followed closely by the third. I do like the first, but they're much warmer colors so they're hard to suit my fair skin.

Next up we have the Vice and Vice 2 Palettes. My dad got me the first one last year around this time and I purchased the second one as soon as it was available. Love both and created a bunch of looks that I posted on here!

These next two go way back! I don't even remember when I got them. We have the Get Baked Palette and the Sustainable Shadow Box Palette. If I remember correctly, the Sustainable Shadow Box was my very first palette from Urban Decay. I haven't used it in so long though, but I do occasionally pull out the Get Baked Palette.

This one is the Book of Shadows Vol. IV. I love this palette! It came with a Primer Potion, mascara and eyeliner and I just love it! There are great shadows for neutral looks or you can go a bit dramatic. 

This is the 15th Anniversary Palette. I still love this palette a ton and pull it out once in a while. I actually used this palette on Halloween at work because we were allowed to dress up. I went to work as an 80s style bunny. I wore these bright pink leggings with a band t-shirt and bunny ears and bright eyeshadow. It was a fun look!

Top left is the Dangerous Palette. I think I only used this once, but looking at it again makes me want to use it more! Next to that palette is the Ammo Palette in the old packaging. This is a newer palette to my collection as I purchased it on clearance from Sephora. I haven't used this yet either but the colors are great! Then there's my beloved Naked Basics Palette! I use this palette with almost every look I do, whether it just be for a crease color or highlight. 

These two palettes are both Feminine Palettes. The top one is the older one and the bottom one is newer with different colors. The bottom one also came with one of their lip glosses.

Finally we have the Anarchy Face Case, The newest edition to my collection. This is a great little palette! I love the lip product that comes in it as well and have worn it quite a few times since I purchased this.

Well, those are all my Urban Decay palettes! I did reviews on some so check those out, but if you want a review and swatches on something else, let me know! What is your favorite UD palette?

Birthday/Christmas Money Haul! Sephora & Ulta

Hey guys! So today's post is going to be a haul! I know I said I was on a spending ban, but with my birthday and Christmas being in the same month, I had saved the money I was given to buy some makeup goodies! Lets see what I got.

Starting off with Sephora, they were having an online sale of their clearance items after Christmas of 20% off so I decided to purchase two items! The first is this Urban Decay Anarchy Face Case.

This is a pretty neat palette. When you open up the top portion, you get 5 different eyeshadows that are called Redemption, Fray, Vaporize, Provocateur, and Revolt. I love these colors like every other UD eyeshadow but my two favorites are Fray (second one in) and Vaporize (third one in). For my skintone, Fray is perfect for the crease and blending out any harsh edges. Vaporize is just such a stunning metallic gray-ish taupe color that I actually get alot of use out of. You also get a decent size of their 24/7 liner in Perversion, which is personally my favorite black eyeliner.

When you open up the second layer, you have two blushes called Fetish and Quickie. *Cough* Anyways, aside from their raunchy names, they're beautiful colors. Fetish is a mauve-pink and Quickie is obviously a bright pink. The highlighter, called Craze, isn't my favorite. I'm not the biggest fan of yellow-toned anything, so I'm not sure if I'll get much use out of it. 

I'm obsessed with the Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Scandal! I put this on and was amazed at how pigmented and beautiful it was. It's described as a bright metallic raspberry shimmer, and that's just spot on. I love how this looks with my fair skin, and with a very neutral eye, it's perfect! I'm thinking of doing a review on this sometime.

The last product I picked up from Sephora is the Lorac Mint Edition Palette. It also came with an exclusive Couture Shine Liquid Lipstick in the color Retro which is a nude-pink shade that's supposed to flatter all skintones. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks a bit light for me, but smells amazing, like cocoa powder!

Inside, you get 8 eyeshadows, 4 matte and 4 shimmer, along with a blush and highlighter. The highlighter in this palette is more my style because it's more of a pinky tone. The blush is a peachy-pink and I love blushes that color. 

I won't go into too much detail since I think I want to review this, but the matte eyeshadows didn't really impress me. I bought this for the mint shade, but that wasn't up to par with Lorac's other matte shadows, aka the Pro Palette. The shimmer shades are actually very nice! The taupe shade in the upper right hand corner is a beautiful lid or transition color depending on the look you're doing!

Now onto Ulta! I've been wanting to add to my Real Techniques brush collection because they're great quality but they're pretty affordable. When I was in the store, they were sold out of literally every Real Techniques brush except for two or three, so it was slim pickins. I did want to get the Setting Brush so I was glad they had it! I wanted this primarily for setting my under eye concealer. 

I then picked up the much talked about Mario Badescu Drying Lotion. My skin has been crazy lately. It's super oily and broken out one day, then the next day it dries out and I can't control that either. With all my breakouts, my usual zit gel I was using wasn't working as well, so I decided it was time to try this bad boy since I've heard amazing things. Again, I want to do a review on this, but I will say, this product is really nice!

I then picked up the newer Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balms. They did have a few of the matte balms, but they were all tampered with. My biggest gripe with these is that they're only sealed with a tiny little sticker. I think that's just nasty, but I did find two that I wanted to try (and didn't seem tampered with!). The first one is called Enticing, which is a beautiful red shade. I put this on right away after I bought it, and I actually got compliments! This is a rare red that somehow works for my pale skin. The second color I bought is called Coquette which is a bright pink shade. I know it looks bad in the picture, so I apologize!

Last few products! I decided it was time for me to buy some Prestige mascara. I picked up the popular My Blackest Lashes, but then I also wanted to try My Biggest Lashes. I have yet to open these but I'm pretty darn excited I own these now!

The last products I picked up are these Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Paints in the colors Chestnut Taupe, Manganese Purple, and Rich Russet. I'm pretty sure these are new products because they were on a different display away from the other Rimmel products. These babies are flipping awesome! You gotta work fast with these because they dry quickly, but I put some on my lids with the applicator, then take a stiffer blending brush to buff away harsh lines. These literally dry down like paint, but they make an awesome shadow base! I haven't worn these by themselves yet, but I have a feeling they'll last throughout the day.

That's everything! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and let me know if you've hauled any new products lately! :)

Review & Swatches: Urban Decay Naked3 Palette

 Hey everyone! Today I'm finally bringing you my review on the much talked about Naked3 Palette. I was one of the lucky people who was able to order it the day it came out on the Urban Decay website, so I've had lots of time to test it out. Lets get into my review!

 The packaging is pretty much the same as the Naked2 Palette but the lid to this has a ripple effect and it's a bit more rosy colored, which is the color theme to this palette. You get 12 all new shades, which is great because who doesn't love new Urban Decay Shadows?! Anyways, the 12 shades are all supposed to have a rosy tint to them and there is a decent color range in this palette. It comes with a double-ended brush, which I honestly don't use, but TiffanyD on YouTube suggested to use this brush for concealer, so I may try that! The box this palette came in also had an Eyeshadow Primer Potion sampler with the 4 different primers they have. I thought that was really nice because it says you can get a week out of just one of the primers, so that added alot of value to this palette. This costs a whopping $52 and is available on the Urban Decay website, Sephora and Ulta.

 Sorry the quality of this picture sucks, but the first six shades shown here are, Strange, Dust, Burnout, Limit, Buzz and Trick.

 This is a little bit better of a picture. These shades are, Nooner, Liar, Factory, Mugshot, Darkside and Blackheart. Onto some swatches!

 These are some of the saddest swatches. I'm sorry my skin is so pale, but at the very top you can see Strange. Strange is considered a pale neutral pink matte-satin. I love this shade as a highlight because it's got a tiny hint of shimmer and it's basically the color of my skin.

The next color, Dust, is kind of a disappointment. Every other review I've read or seen online has said the same thing. Dust is described as a pale metallic pink shimmer with iridescent micro-glitter. This is a disappointment because it's so darn chunky and creates a whole lotta fallout! It's a pretty hard color to work with but it is a pretty shade. I may have to spray my brush with setting spray before I use this. 

The third shade is called Burnout and is described as a light pinky-peach satin. I actually really like this color even though it's hardly noticeable on my skin. It feels nice and creamy and is easy to work with on the eye.

 The very top shade is called Limit. It's described as a light dusty rose matte. I am freaking obsessed with this color! For me, it's a great transition color and gives me just a bit of definition in my crease when I need it. This may actually be my favorite shade in this whole palette.

The next color is called Buzz. Buzz is described as a metallic rose shimmer with silver micro-glitter. Even though this has glitter in it, there was no fallout for me. I love using this shade with Limit in my crease and then Strange as a highlight. That's been one of my go-to looks from this palette.

The bottom shade shown is called Trick. It's described as a light metallic pinky-copper shimmer with tonal microsparkle. Call me stupid, but I have no idea what tonal micro-sparkle is, but I don't care. This is a beautiful color as well, but I do get a bit of fallout if I'm not careful.

The next shade is Nooner, my second favorite color in the palette! Nooner is described as a medium pinky-brown matte. This is another great crease color, but I use it for more darker looks. This color kinda reminds me a bit of Tease from Naked2.

Next up we have Liar, which is described as a medium metallic mauve shimmer. This is another gorgeous lid color that is smooth and buttery and looks great with Nooner.

Then we have Factory, which is described as a pinky-brown satin. This also looks great with Nooner. It looks very similar to Liar in the picture but in person, Liar looks more taupe-y. 

 Last three colors! Up top we have Mugshot, which is described as a metallic taupe shimmer with a slight pink shift. This color is absolutely stunning in person, and I use it quite a bit.

The next color is Factory. Factory is described as a pinky-brown satin. I'm in love with this color too. Again, it's very creamy and very easy to work with. I get absolutely no fallout with this color either. 

The last color is called Blackheart. It's described as a smoky black matte with rosy red microsparkle. This color is so unique to me. I swear it changes colors depending on how it hits the light. I can kinda see some of the red sparkle in the picture, but in person it's much more obvious. I'm surprised I like this color as much as I do.

Those are all the wonderful colors! I have to say, I prefer the darker half of the palette than the first aside from Limit, but they're all great. Like I said, the only real dud of the palette is dust, but it can be workable if you just wet the brush you use. 

Now you might be asking, which Naked palette is better? I do own all three, and it is really hard to pick. I haven't owned this long enough to say that this one is my favorite, but it's up there. The first one is my least favorite. I prefer the second one over the first because it's more cool. I'd say it's a tie between this one and the second one as my favorites. 

What do you think of this palette?

December 2013 Empties!

Hey everyone! Today I'm going to show you everything I used up in December. Now if you remember my empties post for November, I said I wanted to use up a total of 20 products in those two months. Well, in November I used up 13 products, which wasn't too shabby. But in December I used up 14 products! I'm so excited that I made and exceeded my goal! 27 products in two months combined is pretty freakin' awesome for me, so lets see what I used up last month!

My husband was the main one using this Rusk Sensories Brilliance Grapefruit & Honey Color Protect Shampoo, but I helped use it too! He doesn't have color treated hair, but my mom had given us a bunch of these shampoos to use, and he's not picky so he took it. I do have color treated hair, but I don't care much for this. I feel like I have to use a ton for it to lather nicely but it does smell really, really good!

I finally used up the Suave Keratin Infusion Smoothing Conditioner that I was using since probably last Summer. For some reason it takes me forever to go through conditioners, but this one in particular took so long! I'm not sure what it is, but you don't need much of this to make your hair feel soft and healthy. I loved this stuff and will probably repurchase once I use up everything else I have, and don't come across something I like better!

I used up the Philosophy Shower Gel in the scent Sugar Plum Frost. This is one scent by Philosophy that I kinda didn't like, which is a shocker. I'm obsessed with these shower gels/shampoos/bubble bath combos. I don't ever use them as shampoo or bubble bath, but they're the best shower gels ever! I just didn't care for this scent but it did the job cleaning my skin!

I finished up (mostly) a Philosophy Body Lotion in the scent Cinnamon Buns. Now I say mostly because the packaging sucks at being able to get every drop out to use. I had to take the pump out inside and smack it on my hands to get anything out at the end and eventually I just gave up. I do however love, love, love how this smells! It really does smell like fresh made cinnamon buns and I loved using this after my shower. 

I then used up a tiny little body butter by the brand On10 in the Sweet Chocolate scent. I honestly can't remember when I got this, but I think my mom got it for me for Christmas a few years ago. I know that seems like a long time, but I made sure to do a sniff test and look at it and it wasn't separated at all, so it was fine! I probably got about 10 to 12 uses out of this even though it seems like a small pot. I didn't need to use alot of this to get the hydration I needed. 

I also used up a Natural Factors Vitamin D3 softgel. I take extra D3 because I hate the sun and feel like a vampire, plus I tend to deal with some depression. I keep reading that you get D3 from the sun and it can help with depression, but I honestly don't know if it's true or not. I still take it for the supposed health benefits anyways!

Man do I go through these Aloe Calming Toners from The Body Shop! I've mentioned these about a million and one times, so I won't ramble on about how awesome this toner is. Seriously, try it out! 

I used up a moisturizer that I was using in the morning from Clean Scene called Begging for Balance. This moisturizer was alright but I won't go out of my way to find it and buy it again. It did its job at moisturizing my skin and keeping it a little less shiny than normal, but it didn't do any kind of miracle for my skin.

I also used up my Neutrogena Clear Face Break-Out Free Liquid-Lotion Sunscreen SPF 55. Phew, that's a long name! I actually liked this stuff! I kept hearing so many people saying they hated it and it broke them out. Not for me! I think this actually helped my skin and kept it matte for a pretty long time. I don't know if this beats out my favorite sunscreen, the Neutrogena Dry Touch Sunblock, but this comes very close! Depending on pricing, I'll buy this again!

I finally used up the lip balm I was using for daytime use, and it was the On10 Lip Balm in the scent Lemon Lime. I like these lip balms because they have sunscreen in them and they smell really good! I still have so many lip balms from this brand to use up, so I don't need to purchase any for a long while!

I used up quite a few mascaras. If you remember me mentioning about the stye I had, I got a bit paranoid and got rid of the mascaras I had used during the couple days prior to my eye getting bad. The Maybelline Illegal Length Mascara is fantastic! This gives my favorite mascara, the bareMinerals Flawless Definition, a run for its money! I constantly got compliments when I wore this mascara and was even asked a few times what falsies I was wearing. *Confession* I've never worn falsies in my life!

I was also using the Sephora Lash Plumper Mascara and to me, it was actually pretty good. Once my stye came out in full force, I got rid of this and found another one in my stash, but the wand was so smushed and clumped, so I had to toss it as well :(

The Too Faced LashGasm Mascara is a surprise to me with how much I liked it! It gave me natural looking lashes that had good length and surprising volume. I like how I was able to get to all my baby lashes in the corners and overall, this was just a good mascara that I was sad to toss because of my eye. I may actually purchase the full size once I run out of mascaras! 

That's everything! Sorry this is a long post, but I was so excited to finish up all this stuff! I'm hoping this month is good with empties too. I'm doing a spending ban currently, but I do have some birthday/Christmas money to use up still so that doesn't count! I do have a little bit of a haul using some of that money coming up so stay tuned! Also, I got my hands on the much talked about Naked3 Palette the day it came out, so a review should be coming up very soon on it!

What did you use up in December? Are you doing a spending ban as part of new years resolutions?

2013 Beauty Favorites!

Hi everyone! Instead of doing a monthly favorites for December, I'm doing my favorites for the whole last year. Now, there's no real rhyme or reason behind my favorites. I just picked what products I used the most throughout the year. There's a bit of skincare, makeup and tools!

  Starting off with skincare, if you read my blog on a regular basis, you know how obsessed I am with The Body Shop Aloe Calming Toner. This is one product that is always in my skincare routine no matter what. I go through it faster in the Winter time because I use it morning and night, but in the Summer I only use it at night. This is a Holy Grail product, and anything I try that's similar doesn't compare.

I've been loving the Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Gel for a long time. I started out using the lotion version of this, but I felt it was getting a bit heavy for my skin so I switched to this gel version. My skin loves this! I only use this at night after toning, and when I wake up in the morning, my skin looks and feels so soft. It keeps my pores looking cleaner and overall, this is just such a great product if you have oily, blemish prone skin with stubborn blackheads.

Next up we have some palettes. The Lorac Pro Palette is one palette that I constantly reach for. When I'm not sure what to do with my eye makeup, I pull this out and come up with something. With the range of matte and shimmer shadows you have, there are numerous looks you can create. I used this palette on my wedding day and had some amazing compliments because of it. I will never regret buying this!

The Urban Decay Naked Basics palette is a palette that I wasn't sure of at first. I kept reading different reviews on it, and at first I wasn't going to get it. I saw it in store and fell in love! I can't say how many times I've used eyeshadows, then pulled this out to add a highlight or a crease color because I didn't like anything else. I use this palette almost everyday with my eye looks. 

Time for some face products! I'm typically not a foundation girl. I'll pretty much just use some concealer under my eyes, powder up, then go. I like no fuss or anything. When I do feel like wearing a bit more makeup, I go for the Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3 in 1 Foundation in the color 805 Ivory. This foundation is incredible! If you have oily or dry skin, you can use this. I always set with powder because I'm super oily, but if you're dry, you can put this on and go. It gives good coverage and keeps my skin looking flawless for quite a while.

My favorite concealer of all time is the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser for Dark Circles Treatment Concealer in the color Fair. This concealer is a Godsend for my horrible dark circles. I don't sleep well, plus it's hereditary so I have constant dark circles. This stuff covers them up well, and if I set with powder, I'm good for the day.

When I set any foundation, concealer, etc. I like using a setting spray and my favorite one has been the Skindinavia Bridal Makeup Finish Setting Spray. Ever since I bought this for my wedding day, I was hooked. It made my makeup last for hours and even at the end of the day, my makeup still looked nice. I'll probably repurchase this once I run out of the other setting sprays I have. Love, love, love this stuff!

*Honorable mention* I really just forgot to picture this, but the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in the Transparent color is also something I use pretty religiously. I love how it makes my skin stay more matte than normal and it never looks cakey on. I love using it to set my under eye concealer most. 

The Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion really needs no explanation as to why it's a favorite of the year. I used this every single time I used eyeshadow in 2013. I do have other eyeshadow primers to use, so this tube will be put aside for a while. Until I find something better, this will continue to be my Holy Grail eyeshadow primer!

Maybelline's The Rocket Volum' Express Mascara in the Blackest Black color is fantastic! You've all heard me rave about the bareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara, but this comes so close to being better. I have another of the bareMinerals mascara, so I'm curious to use it again and see what I think about that versus this one!

A new edition to my beauty arsenal is the Beauty Blender! I got the black one because it came in a double pack that was a better deal than buying just one. I never knew foundation could look so amazing before using this! Using this along with that Covergirl foundation is near perfection. I love how you can cover larger areas of that face with the sides of this, then get into the corners of the eyes or nose with the tip. This little miracle sponge is so worth the splurge in my opinion.

Next up in the tool department is the Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush. This. Brush. Is. Amazeballs! Seriously, I love this brush for applying and blending out concealer under the eyes, or when I put on cream eyeshadows to blend out the harsh lines. I'm usually messy with cream shadows, so I need something to help blend everything out. This brush is also one of the softest brushes I own, so that's a big plus!

My last favorite for the year is the Sigma E35 Tapered Blending Brush. I use this brush pretty much everyday when putting eyeshadow in my crease. It's the perfect size and applies just enough color. It's also another really soft brush so it's nice to work with.

Those are my favorites for the last year! What were some of your favorites?