Sunday, January 24, 2016

Looks To Love | Soft and Simple Contouring for Valentine's Day Tutorial


This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MNYLookstoLove #CollectiveBias

Contouring. You either hate it, love it, think it's a miracle-worker or maybe a little bit of all three. I'm a huge fan of contouring but understand it's a slippery slope. So what is contouring? Contouring is playing with light and shadows to minimize or emphasize your favorite (or not so favorite) features. To contour is to add shadow (think under your cheekbones to make them pop or down your nose to make it appear slimmer) while highlight is adding emphasis and light to it.

I think I find contouring so much fun because one minute you can go hardcore and just completely change your face shape or you can do a much softer look and really just make your favorite features pop. Where else can you get results that you can wash off and change around? The power of makeup, people.


Contouring can be extremely intimidating at first but I'm here to show you a simple, natural-looking contoured look that with a bright pink or red lip is perfect for a quick Valentine's Day look and get this - it's using all Maybelline products that you can find at your local Walmart. Saving money and looking gorgeous!? Total win/win!
Can you tell they were VERY popular?

So let's get started!

  • So after applying my favorite moisturizer and primer, we're going to be using the new Maybelline Dream Velvet Foundation (shade: Ivory) as the foundation in this look. Guys, I have never been so excited to try a foundation out in my entire life. This baby was sold out everywhere which naturally added to my absolute need to find it. The hype did not disappoint! The foundation is a fun consistency of a gel/whipped feel that applies nice and smoothly. It leaves a natural (medium coverage!) matte finish.

  • I first dotted the foundation all over my face and then went in a damp Maybelline Dream Blender (WHAT WHAT!?) and blended the rest in. Let's go back. MAYBELLINE CAME OUT WITH A BLENDER. All the yes in the world! I really love the shape and I'll tell you why. It allows you to get into all the curves of your face. Around your nose, up near your eyes without actually touching your eyeball. It's love! The blender itself is great and blends the foundation very nicely without pushing it around and leaving weird streaks on your face. I'm impressed.
  • (Not pictured) I quickly went in with some concealer under my eyes and then set it with a transparent setting powder.
  • Onto the contouring! First, from the Maybelline Contour Palette (in Light), I took the contour shade and drew two lines right under my cheekbones. You can find the hollows of your cheeks by sucking your lips in, making a fishy face. I also contoured down my nose, my forehead and under my chin. Taking a fluffy brush, blend all of them in. With your cheekbones, make sure to blend upward onto your cheek. PS. I didn't expect this palette to be as pigmented as it is. High-five, Maybelline!
  • Next, we're moving onto highlighting. Again, the highlight in this palette is SO on point! Taking a brush, I like to highlight right on top of my cheekbones, my cupid's bow and right above my eyebrows.
  • Lastly, let's talk blush! I highly recommend using blush with contouring. With all the shadows and light, it can sometimes look a little flat. Adding blush to your look, brings in warmth. This blush in the Maybelline Contour Palette is super flattering! Taking a fluffy blush brush, I popped this right onto the apples of my cheeks.
  • Finish with a bright red or pink lipstick if you're feeling in the Valentine's Day spirit and you're good to go!
What are your plans for Valentine's Day? Have you ever tried contouring before?

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MNYLookstoLove #CollectiveBias
Thursday, January 14, 2016

ColourPop Week | Soft Focus


Hi love muffins! Happy New Year! Sheesh. Two weeks in and just now I'm wishing it to y'all? We've been fighting this nasty cold over here and it just won't kick. UGH. 

Onto the post, right? So today I'll be sharing with you a look I put together from some ColourPop Christmas presents I received. I'm thinking of doing a ColourPop week where it's just a whole week of ColourPop goodies and looks. Let me know what you think!

  • FACE: CoverFx Custom Cover Drops mixed with Rouge Bunny Rouge Seas of Illumination applied with a damp Beauty Blender. 
  • CHEEKS: ColourPop Under The Sheets, Aphrodisiac and Stole The Show
  • EYES: ColourPop Hanky Panky on the lid, Acorn in the inner corner, Cop A Feel on the lower lid and outer v + Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara
  • LIPS: ColourPop Kapow
  • BROWS: It Cosmetics Build-A-Brow in Dark Brown
Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Benefit They're Real! Tinted Lash Primer | Review + Swatches


Happy New Year, love muffins! So with my last order to Sephora, I received a sample of the new Benefit They're Real! Tinted Lash Primer and couldn't wait to try it out! I'm a huge, huge fan of Benefit's They're Real! Mascara so I was excited to try the primer and see how it matches up to others.
So this primer comes in the shade mink brown only (for now) for a super gorgeous natural tint to your lashes. It can be worn by itself to define and tint your lashes or under your favorite mascara for a huge boost on your lash length and separation. The consistency of this primer is very light and gel-like. It conditions the lashes with Provitamin B5. It also boasts that it leaves your lashes so soft that you can apply mascara up to six hours later. 

The Custom ExtraFlex brush is specially formulated to separate lashes and evenly apply the primer.


Before / After

How gorgeous and wispy are they!? So natural. This is exactly what I look for in a mascara - nonetheless a primer. I actually prefer this without a coat of mascara over it. I did try this with a mascara over it (Jordana Extreme Mascara) and it came out a little clumpy. I just wasn't a fan but this primer by itself, man, it's amaze. Super even application with the wand and dried fairly fast. I didn't experience any "raccoon" eyes or flaking through the day. Thumbs up! 

PS. I know this might sound weird but even though I really like this primer, I do have to note that this is a sample size and I have found that sometimes samples vs. the full size are completely different. Weird, right? Bottom line: I like this enough to try the full size but am aware they may be completely different formulas. I have no clue why that happens but have noticed it before, so just a little warning :)

Benefit | Buy ($24)
Tuesday, January 05, 2016

tarte Tarteist Lip Paints | Swatches + Review


Hey y'all! I hope you all had an safe and amazing holiday. We spent ours pretty much traveling the whole day but it was lots of fun. Today I have a review of one of my Christmas presents - some of the tarte Tarteist Lip Paints


The Tarteist Lip Paints are supposed to be an ultra-pigmented, matte liquid lipstick. The consistency is supposed to be velvety with a slanted, soft applicator to paint onto your lips precisely.

  • Namaste - a pinky nude. First off, how cute is this name? The consistency was very light and creamy - reminiscent of the NYX Matte Cream Lipsticks - except this never dried or set. Very pigmented and I was able to re-apply and layer without it getting crumbly.
  • TBT - a dusty mauve. Probably my favorite of the bunch! Again, super light and creamy consistency but very pigmented. Went on very smoothly and didn't gather in the lip lines.
  • Lovespell - a bright fuchsia. Consistency was slightly less creamier than Namaste and TBT but more than Hangry. Very pigmented, went on smoothly, didn't gather in my lip lines. 
  • Hangry - a berry. UGH. This is where it started to get messy :( Hangry was SO, so patchy. I couldn't make this work for the life of me. No matter what I did, it just grabbed on anything it could (lip lines, etc.) and kept applying uneven. The consistency was a bit more liquid-y than the others and also transferred onto my teeth. Like, made my teeth pink kind of transfer. Total mess.
  • Frenemy - a burgundy with brown undertones. Frenemy was a bit easier to work with. Slightly patchy but evened out with a few layers. Consistency was creamier than Hangry but looser than the lighter colors. Pigmented and lasted about five hours.
  • Manbun - a dark berry. Manbun was a little difficult to work with like Frenemy. Patchy and slipped into every line on my lips. Creamier consistency than Frenemy though. Didn't apply very even either and no matter how many times I tried to even it out, it just slipped and slid around.
Overall: I honestly don't know if I like these. There. I said it. I love tarte so much but the consistency is all over the place. The lighter colors (Namaste, TBT) were the best to work with - very creamy and smooth, super pigmented and application was even. Hangry and Manbun were the worst to work with - they moved all over the place and applied super patchy.

I think I was expecting a lip paint that you could apply, correct your mistakes and then have it set and not budge or move. Granted, Too Faced never promised that so that was more user-error than anything but I'm still kind of disappointed. They just don't do it for me. 

I do, however, like the fluffy, creamy consistency of the better two (Namaste and TBT) but again, not all the lip paints had that same consistency and I still wish that they would set. They consistency is very reminiscent of the NYX Matte Creams (minus them finishing matte). I also wanted to note that the applicator? Total pain in the butt. I really didn't like the way it applied the product onto my lips. It had a very slight slant to it that made it hard to line and fill in my lips with. I definitely prefer a doe-foot applicator over this one.

the latest on the 'gram.