Product Probe: Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencils

On a recent trip to Sephora to pick up some ‘wish list’ items, I happened to notice these little beauties and was a little curious to see what all the YouTube hype was about. Recently, it seems like everyone has been in love with the agave lip mask; for some reason the lip mask just didn't pique my interest, but these lip pencils caught my attention. If you are not familiar with the Bite brand, it is a brand of all natural beauty products. At first, when you hear all natural you may assume that the products aren't that great, but these lips pencils are bomb.com. Not only are they vibrant and pigments, but they come in several versatile shades from bold to nude. They are a ‘matte’ formula, but go on smooth without drying your lips or causing any type of patchiness or peeling, not to mention the slim packaging makes storing these a breeze. I prefer these to the drugstore lip balms and creams, which are super drying and are transparent on darker skin tones. I highly recommend trying these if you’re in the market for a new lip product or just want to branch out from your current favorite. 

What's your favorite lippie?

Product Probe: Revlon Colorstay Liquid Foundation

Revlon Colorstay has been on the market for quite some time. Not only is this foundation affordable, but it is easily available and can be found at any drugstore. This product is actually the first foundation that I’ve ever used and is considered a ‘Holy Grail’ product for me.

Pros:

Not only does it wear well for my oily skin, but it also has a matte finish, which I love. There product line offers a great selection of shades, and comes in a different formula for beauty lovers with dry/normal skin.

Cons:

This is not a lightweight foundation. It’s actually quite thick, but provides medium to full coverage. Also this foundation is not sold with a pump, which makes it very difficult to get out of the bottle. In order to avoid this drawback, I found it best to pour the foundation into an airless foundation pump that I found on Amazon (pic below).

What’s your favorite foundation?

Brand Review: Morphe Brushes (and eyeshadows too!)

While it is nice to have a collection of M.A.C eye shadows or the latest Urban Decay palette, often times there is a need to ‘ball on a budget’. If I had unlimited funds, I wouldn’t worry about spending $50 on the Urban Decay Naked 3 or Lorac Pro palette, but since I have to work for a living, there are alternatives for the budget conscious. Besides, being beat and beautiful doesn’t have to be expensive.

Morphe Brushes 35 color glam palette    $19.95

Morphe Brushes 35 color warm palette    $19.95

The Morphe Brush Company is located out of California and offers high quality makeup brushes and eye shadows at affordable prices. Shadows or brushes can be purchased individually or in sets. Individual eye shadow pans are $2 each for quality pigmentation. This option allows you to purchase only the colors that you will use. Check them out at www.morphebrushes.com.

                                              What is your favorite budget friendly eye shadow?

Spring Cleaning: Makeup Expiration Dates

Spring is in the air and for me that means lots of spring cleaning. Earlier this week as I began to store my makeup, I also took the opportunity to do a bit of organizing. I separated all of my new unopened products, frequently used products, and ‘for special occasions’ products into piles and begin to systematically organize them.  This process also allowed me to go through my collection and decide which products needed to be tossed.

As you may (or may not) know, makeup expires. This is a sore spot for me, I HATE throwing away a half used product, but in order to prevent bacteria and breakouts, it is a necessary evil. With some products it is easy to determine that it has expired (i.e. it smells bad or has begun to separate), but for other products expiration is more difficult to determine. Luckily, there is a great site that allows you to enter the brand and batch code and will tell you if a product is no longer safe for use. Check Cosmetic  is simple to use and makes it easier to decide what to toss and what to keep.  Sadly, my M.A.C. MSF is no longer good, but a trip to the M.A.C. counter will allow me to pick up some pigments that I’ve been scoping out.

What was the last expired product you threw away? 

Storing in Small Spaces

After failing miserably at my recently posted 'No Buy' challenge, I've decided that it's time to take another look at my makeup collection. With me recently discovering my love for makeup (within the last 2 years or so), I consider my collection quite small; however with that being said, I have just enough to fill about 3 or 4 good size makeup bags. I do have a small makeup vanity (shown below), but with a recent move, it lays unloved in a storage unit, waiting to be moved again.

All of this is being said to say, I recently decided that I need a better way of storing my everyday makeup. With bathroom storage being limited, I was using a makeup bag to hold my daily product, but I was neglecting items that were not visible or in arm's length. My morning makeup routine time is limited to 30 minutes or so during the week as I hurry to get myself ready for work and the little ones ready for school. My quick fix solution is this affordable, space friendly makeup organizer (shown below). This allows me to see all my products and takes up only a little counter space.

Rucci Cosmetic Organizer 

How do you store your most used products?

SEPHORA Sale (March 30- April 11, 2014)

Hi Beauties!

Just wanted to drop in and leave the information for the current Sephora Sale.

SEPHORA 15% OFF SALE: Click to shop the sale HERE:  www.sephora.com

Enter code   "ROUGETICKET " March 30- April 11, 2014 (for VIB Rouge members)

Enter code   "VIBTICKET"        April 3-11                           (for VIB members)

Product Probe: Tarte Clean Slate Poreless 12-Hour Perfecting Primer

Tarte Clean Slate Primer

I am a faithful, YouTube subscriber. Daily I check my feed patiently awaiting the next 'rave' beauty product that promises to deliver 'never-seen-before' results. This is how I ended up making a trip to Ulta to purchase the Tarte Clean Slate Poreless 12-Hour Perfecting Primer. I honestly had  really high hopes for this primer. I have oily skin and need all the help I can get to make my makeup last through an 8-hour workday. Unfortunately, this primer does nothing for me. It has a silicone feel, which I don't mind. After applying all over the skin, it did not live up to its claim to blur or reduce the appearance of pores. At first, I thought that it was my foundation, so I switched. I have tried this product with Revlon ColorStay foundation, the Makeup Forever Mat Velvet foundation, and MAC's StudioFix Fluid. I even went as far as to pat this into my pores in hopes that a different method of application would help. Unfortunately,  this product is just an epic fail, but no worries I am still on the hunt for a long-lasting pore blurring primer.

FYI...I think this product would be great for dry to normal skin as it has anti-aging ingredients that tend to moisturize. 

What are your thoughts on this product? What's your favorite primer?

For the love of.......

For the past few years, I've been obsessed with my love and passion for all things makeup. This artistic hobby has come out of seemingly nowhere. I was never a 'girly girl' or someone who considered herself extremely fashionable, but for some reason I absolutely cannot resist playing in blushes, bronzers, and shadows. At the core of it all, I really love how makeup can transform someone and be used in such an artistic way. This can be a subtle change to an overpowering one that can easily be displayed. Really, the first thing most people notice is the face, so what can be better than transforming it into something great or even better, something completely unexpected?

How did you discover your love for makeup?