Spring Lip Options From The Drugstore!

Hello again!
Sorry I've been M.I.A. School has become really busy but I have had a few posts lined up for the blog for over a month now so I thought I'd get to them. This post was originally about 3 lip products my sister bought me back in December but they are great colors for spring so this post is perfectly timed ;)

 Here are the three beauties! All available at any drugstores/Ulta that carries Revlon and Maybelline.

 First up is Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balm in Tease- a shiny orange lip crayon with no glitter or shimmer. If the Matte Balms are too drying for you or you're looking for a more wearable orange during the spring/summer then this is for you!

Next we have a Revlon Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie- this is easier to find in store than online, though I think my sister got it from Amazon. Anyway, this is a very smooth raspberry balm/lipstick. It's quite pigmented and gives a gorgeous color to lips. It's similar to the color "Berry Smoothie" except Berry Smoothie is much more sheer. This is the most pigmented of all the Lip Butters from the swatches I've seen.

 Lastly is Maybelline Baby Lips Electro Lip Balm in Berry Bomb- Not sure if they sell these in stores anymore but you can still find it online. This is the most sheer balm of the three I got. I know lavender lips are in this year but I feel like lavender really isn't my color. However, this color works. It's lavender-esque without looking weird on me because it's so sheer.

Here they are swatched on my hand:

(artificial light)

(natural light)

(with flash)

 And here they are swatched on my lips (ignore the face demons):

(Berry Bomb)

(Raspberry Pie)

(Tease)

So there you have it! Three very comfortable, affordable, and pretty lip colors for the warmer weather!

XO

Alyssa

Current Obsession: The Body Shop

I've been kind of obsessed with body and skincare products the past couple of months and one of my favorite (new to me) discoveries is The Body Shop! Everything they sell literally smells amazing. Here's my little collection of products:

 I got the Glazed Apple tin for Christmas and it came with a mini body butter, shimmer lotion, shower gel, body polish, and shower lily (aka loofah). I think it was around $18. The Glazed Apple scent is exclusive for Christmas so you can't find it anymore but I highly recommend it for next Christmas if you like apples. And the tin it came in is super cute. I got the Strawberry Body Butter from a friend. It smells very fresh. The body butters are amazing for dry skin, and my legs tend to get really dry and itchy in the winter so I've gotten a lot of use out of these.

 After Christmas, their website has this massive 75% off sale to get rid of the Christmas items. I got the mini Mango Body Butter and Lip Butter set, the Frosted Cranberry Shimmer lotion, and the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash. The face wash was rated very highly and is a best seller of theirs. I get blemishes so I decided to try it out. I know some people don't like the scent but I love it and feel like it wakes up my skin. It also tingles which makes me feel like it's working deep into my skin. The mango scent of the lip and body butter may be my favorite. It came in this little polar bear shaped cardboard holder since it was a Christmas gift. But the scent is permanent for the entire year. The lip butter feels so nice and literally tastes like a Mahalo Mango smoothie from Robeks. I will definitely repurchase this. I love the Frosted Cranberry scent and this full size lotion was on sale. I'm not so crazy about the shimmer- it spreads evenly but the palms of my hands end up covered in shimmer after rubbing it everywhere else. The scent is why I keep using it.

Lastly, I bought two masks from Ulta recently: the Tea Tree Face Mask and Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask. The Seaweed one I'm waiting to use in the summer, when my skin is very oily, because I've heard it can dry out the skin. Each packet says it contains one mask but I was able to get three uses out of the Tea Tree one because I have a small face and I put the most on my problem areas with the most zits. I think it works really well and makes my skin feel so refreshed. Here's a hot picture of me wearing the mask:

You can find The Body Shop in Ulta, on Amazon, on their website, or their store if you have one near you. I highly recommend their body butters and face wash.

XO Alyssa

My First Colourpop Eyeshadows!!!!

For Christmas I asked for one thing: Colourpop Cosmetics. One of my friends delivered and got me this cute Christmas set. I think the colors were limited edition so they didn't sell them separately. But they may be back later, I know they just released the black one as a single shadow as part of their new matte shade collection. 

The set she got me is called Nix the Nice and has 4 full sized eye shadow colors: Glitterati, Hot Totty, La La, and Roulette. Here's some info from the back of the box on each of the colors: 

Super cute packaging!

Here are the 4 colors:

Extra shot just to show the shimmer in these two:

The colors are super creamy. They are powder but they are so smooth and buttery they feel like cream shadows. They are extremely pigmented and are best applied using your finger to get full opacity.

From L-R: Roulette, Hot Totty, Glitterati, La La

First I have Glitterati: a gorgeous white metallic with gold shimmer. I think this looks great as a highlight or layered over the black.

Next is La La: a copper "ultrametallic" which is probably the smoothest out of the four.

Next I have Hot Totty: a pink-red pressed pigment with some pink sparkle in it. In different light this shows more red or more pink.

Last is Roulette: This is Colourpop's first matte black and is the only one available out of this set. It is truly matte and can be built up.

This is the look I did for New Years...I honestly don't even remember the other makeup I used because the star of the show were my Colourpop eyes.

Dat side-eye

I did a sandwich look with black on both inner and outer edges of the lid and put Glitterati just on the center of my lid over the black. I used a matte cream shade to blend out the black. I used scotch tape to prevent a mess from happening and to keep a precise line. I LOVED it! I will definitely be purchasing more of their eyeshadows (and hopefully snag a few lippies too) in the near future. Each is just $5! That's less than a Maybelline Color Tattoo at the drugstore.

XO Alyssa

Review: Wet N Wild Fuchsia with Blue Pearl Lipstick

Hello there everyone! I have another lipstick review for you, this one cost me $1.29 at CVS!!! It's Wet N Wild's Fuchsia with Blue Pearl lipstick. The color is exactly what the name says it is. I've seen it on Pinterest before as a dupe for various limited edition Mac lipsticks. The closest dupe was in Mac's Barbie Collection, I believe. I don't have any pink Mac lipsticks to show you guys a comparison but I can tell you what I think of this lipstick on its own.

The Packaging: Pretty basic, plastic, not very appealing. The lipstick itself doesn't go all the way down in the tube so it will most likely get messy. For $1.29, I really didn't expect too much out of packaging.

Texture and Pigmentation: This is superrrrrr creamy! And the pigmentation is amazing for a cheap lipstick. Because of the creaminess the longevity obviously won't be too great, but it's not bad. It has no scent and doesn't feel heavy on the lips but does feel a little slippery.

I honestly love how this looks on me and the "blue pearl" can only be seen in certain lights in the tube and on my hand but not really on the lips. The blue undertone, however, makes this easy to wear with blue. It also makes my teeth look bright. I had to reapply it a few times the night I wore it but, overall, I was very happy with the color payoff and consistency. I recommend this to anyone looking for a cheap, good fuchsia.

XO Alyssa

Christmas Gift Review: Jane Cosmetics Water Resistant Liquid Eyeliner in Golden Black

I had an amazon wishlist chock full of make-up and beauty items at budget friendly prices all set up for Christmas. My lovely mother and sister decided to buy me a bunch of things from that list that I will be reviewing or giving my first impressions on throughout the month. One item I was super excited about was the Jane Cosmetics Water Resistant Liquid Eyeliner in Golden Black ($8). I saw CoffeeBreakWithDani on YouTube review this months ago and have scrounged my Ulta for it but, every time I went, the Golden Black ones were opened and used. So, I finally received it for Christmas and immediately wore it for party looks. The brush is a super fine tip and, honestly, one of the easiest liquid eyeliner brushes I have ever used. Because it's so thin it goes right up against your lash line and I was able to create basically perfect wings with them. And the COLOR. It's black but with a crazy amount of gold shimmer that catches the light beautifully. Once it dries it stays in place until I take off my makeup with makeup remover. It may be the best liquid eyeliner I have ever tried.

 For my Christmas Day look I did the thinest, most subtle flick I could with the eyeliner and it looked beautiful up close and from far away. You can see the shimmer in the sunlight and in the regular room lighting.

 For the rest of my makeup I used my Loreal True Match Foundation in W2 and W3 with my Rimmel Stay Matte face powder, my That's Heart Palette for the shadow (I mixed the aqua and black-brown), highlighter, and the blush, and used my new Revlon Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie on my lips (review coming soon). Mascara was my Makeupforever Smoky Extravagant sample.

 See how perfectly it flicks out?!?!

 For this look I wanted the shimmer and wing to stand out more. It was so easy and perfect, I was shocked. Face and mascara are the same, eyeshadow is just a mix of beige and highlighter. Lips are Wet N Wild Pink with Blue Pearl lipstick (review coming soon).

I think I may buy some other colors of this liquid eyeliner next time I go to Ulta. I love Jane's pencil eyeliners as well, I always use them on my waterline and tightline and I prefer it over the more expensive Urban Decay's 24/7 pencil. Jane Cosmetics may not be a popular brand, but it should be. 

XO Alyssa

First Lush Mini Haul!

I normally don't go shopping on December 26th but this year I'm really glad I did. My sister and I both had $10 gift cards to Lush and they happened to be having a buy-one-get-one-free sale!!!! I've been trying to turn my family onto Lush ever since I saw my first youtube video about their products. Finally, I have convinced them of it's amazingness and I got the gift card for Christmas.

My sister and I each chose an item around $7.50 so we could combine what was left over on our cards for a joint item. Lo and behold we were both able to get another thing free! They really wanted to get rid of any holiday items. My sister and I both chose bath things because our mom has a big bathtub that is never used. We wanted to give the bath some love. Here's what I got:

 The Golden Wonder Bath Bomb: from their Christmas 2014 collection and my sister picked this one up as well. I used it today and loved it. It smelled so nice and relaxing and fizzed up beautifully. There were gold stars, gold glitter, turquoise, blue, and pink swirling around my bath. The color settled to a teal blue with the glitter still swirling around. The glitter rinsed right off the tub when I was done but I did notice some lingered on my skin. It gave me a nice shimmer. I absolutely loved it. Here are some pictures of the bath:

 The Wizard Hat Bubble Bar: So derpy, so cute. This is a Halloween bubble bar they came out with this year. I originally was going to get Candy Mountain but that smelled too sickeningly sweet so I chose this guy instead. My sister bought the Penguin Bubble Bar and her bath was so bubbly and nice today so I'm excited to use this one. The bubble bars also can be used multiple times. This one has about 2 uses.

The Ickle Baby Bot Bath Bomb: My sister and I are splitting this one in half. It's meant for kids to use before bed because of the soothing chamomile scent but I'm sure it will make for a relaxing adult bath as well.

Lush is honestly so amazing I wish I had spare cash to buy more of their products, but alas, a struggling grad student needs to save her pennies ;)

XO Alyssa