March Favorites

Time for my monthly favorites!

I've only got five this month, as I didn't end up trying too many new products, but these five are few in quantity but full in quality. Enjoy!

 


1. L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation: This is definitely no surprise, as I've already reviewed it and sung my praises, but I'm mentioning it again because it's just that good!

2. Milani Eyeshadows: I mentioned these in my first impression face post, but I can definitively say that these are a great product, and I can't wait to explore more shades. (My review in short = they're long-lasting, have great pigment, and are totally affordable)

3. H&M Sweatshorts: Oh my goodness, I absolutely love these. I popped into an H&M just browsing and ended up trying these on and was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I have pretty big legs and so it's hard to find comfy and cute shorts sometimes, but these look really flattering and fit me nicely. I also love how casual they are - I feel comfortable wearing them to bed or even out running errands. They were only $13 and I ended up getting both a gray and a black pair! 

4. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn: Wow, I loved this book! If you liked Gone Girl, which was written by the same woman, then you'll love this. It's the same tone - a mystery/thriller novel - but it explores new and exciting themes. I won't give anything away but I will tell you that it's full of twists and turns and you won't be able to put it down!

5. The Following: In the same vein as Gillian Flynn's books, The Following is a mystery/thriller show that revolves around a serial killer and (you guessed it!) his followers. I'm a bit late in watching it since it's already on its third season, but I caught up very quickly. It's so exciting and a bit scary, but I really enjoyed that about it. I will warn you, if you're squeamish about blood and violence, I would skip this show....and the material is very dark, as it's about killers, so just be aware. If you want to watch it, the first two season are on Netflix - I recommend it.


♡

I cannot believe it's the end of March. In just one month, I'll be finishing my Junior year of college and beginning my last summer of (somewhat) freedom. I can't believe how fast time flies! 

xo Emily

Spring Wishlist

Here are few things I'm craving for Spring! I can't wait til it's warm enough to pull out the flowy dresses!

xo Emily

First Impression Face

I've gotten quite a few new products in the past few weeks and haven't really taken the time to try everything out and really inspect how much I like it - so I decided to just do it all at once! As the title might suggest, my #fotd is basically made up of new products. I'll tell you a bit about the product and how I like (or dislike) it!

Milani Gel Powder Eyeshadow in 'Bella Gold'  I've been really loving this shadow so far. The pigmentation is magnificent and it's a nice, reliable gold. I had heard so many great things about these single shadows and I really like them. They only go for about $3 which is fantastic as well!

Maybelline Master Prime Primer in 'Blur + Smooth' - I really do not like this product. It cost me over $7 and was not worth it. Maybelline's primers don't really seem to do much for me. I tried the 'Blur + Smooth' to see if it would be a good dupe for Benefit's Porefessional but it's absolutely not. I would skip buying this and if you're in the mood for a drugstore dupe of that benefit primer - go for Maybelline's Baby Skin Pore Eraser instead. 

It Cosmetics 'Airbrush Blending Crease' Makeup Brush - I adore this brush. I haven't stopped using since I got it. It blends product beautifully and fits into your crease nicely. The brush is super soft, which is so important with makeup brushes for your eyes. You can only buy this at Ulta or Ulta online and it costs $14 which I was happy to pay - it's a great brush. 

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - I've bought this product before but I thought I'd mention it again because it's just fantastic. There are actually 32 different colors that it comes in and I love using this to line my upper and lower lash lines, waterlines, and as an eyeshadow or highlighter. They cost $4.50 and they're amazing.

NYX Matte Bronzer - Another NYX product I picked up and unfortunately, it just doesn't hold up as a quality product, unlike the jumbo eye pencil. This product does not blend easy in the skin and somehow leaves me looking worse than I do without a bit of bronzer on my face. I don't recommend it and the price ($9) makes me cringe now that I know I don't like it. An even better matte bronzer from the drugstore is NYC's Sunny Bronzer which is only $3 and works perfectly on any skin type (plus it's easy to blend).

L'Oreal Pro-Matte Infallible Foundation in 'Classic Ivory' - I won't say much at all about this since I did an in depth review of it a few days ago. You can read that here. Basically - this is a fantastic product and I'm obsessed!

Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Pencil in 'Eastend Snob' - UGH. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. I'm sorry for the dramatics but Rimmel does such a killer job on their lip pencils. I already have one other shade in this collection and I'm so glad I added this shade to the collection. It's the perfect pink that is a great 'Your Lips But Better' color. It's pink and pretty and I cannot stop wearing it. (It's matte but I added a clear gloss over it in this picture!)

Hope you enjoyed my first impressions and mini-reviews of these products! Have you ever used these? How did you like them?

♡

xo Emily

New In: L'Oréal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation

Hello everyone! Today I've got a post about a new product that I've been loving. 

The new foundation that I've been using and trying out is the L'Oréal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation. It's a Demi-Matte finish foundation that is advertised as lasting 24 Hours, being oil free and air light. It's medium coverage and feels great to the touch. It runs for about 10-15 dollars, depending on what store you buy it from.

The consistency is really nice. It's creamy and glides on the skin with ease, blending in seamlessly with the skin.

 Applying the foundation is easy. The first way I applied it was a foundation brush from Real Techniques, which seemed to work well. It was a quick application which was nice. I also applied it using my fingers, which seemed to give a more natural application, despite it leaving your skin looking matte. The last way I applied it was using a sponge, which was also a nice, natural application.

 Here's the product on my skin in both indoor lighting and natural, outdoor lighting. I think the color match is pretty great (my shade is 'Classic Ivory' and the line has a great variety of shades), which is nice because sometimes I have a lot of trouble finding a good match to my skin.

 

I only used about two squeezes from the tube, as it covers your skin with minimal product. It's definitely a medium coverage, and I found it covering blemishes easily. 

Here's the finished look with the rest of my makeup on and I really like how it looks. It's also very long-wearing and does leave your skin matte, but without looking unnatural and odd.

The one complaint I have so far with it is that using flash on camera, it leaves me looking a bit pale and white. That may not be the foundations fault, as my camera flash is a bit intense and it looks amazing in natural light, but keep that in mind. 

Will you try this foundation or have you already? Do you like it?

♡

xo Emily

Spring Nail Polish Picks

For Spring I'm loving (as most would assume) pastel shades that are soft and sweet. That means light pinks, blues, and purples with a few bright colors in the form of hot pink, mint, and periwinkle!

Here are my picks (from left)

Essie 'Picked Perfect' - Caramel brown with red and violet undertones

Zoya 'Dot' - Pink, petal cream 

L'Oreal 'Pink Me Up' - Hot, bright pink

OPI 'That's Hula-Rious' - Pastel mint green

Jenna Hipp 'Throwing Shade' - Soft and creamy light lavender 

Zoya 'Blu' - Pale baby blue, dreamy and delicate

Essie 'Blossom Dandy' - Mint cream hydrangea green/blue

♡

xo Emily

No Makeup Brush Makeup

As much as one might dislike doing it, it's completely necessary to clean your makeup brushes on the regular. Allowing product buildup on the brushes is not only unhygenic and bad for your body, but the actual makeup doesn't apply as well with a dirty brush.

So, when it comes time to clean my makeup brushes and then I realize I have to do said makeup, it puts me in a bind. I've become so used to the easiness and quickness that comes with applying makeup with a brush, so going without it is a bit annoying.

Today, I'll show you a makeup look I did without brushes and give you a few tips on the best way to apply certain products. This post will be a help to anyone who dislikes brushes, doesn't have too many, or doesn't have any at all!

First off, make sure your hands are nice and clean, washed with soap and warm water. Because we'll be touching our face so much, it's important to start with clean hands.

If you so choose, apply your primer with your fingers and hands to start (this is how many normally apply primer anyway). For foundation, take dime-sized amounts onto your three middle fingers and begin to apply it onto your skin using your hands. Buff the product into your skin in a circular motion, using your fingers to get the hard to reach places on your face. 

I don't usually apply foundation with my fingers, but it really does help to get the product completely integrated into your skin. Next up is concealer, which I applied using my ring finger (this is the most gentle finger, and will help when you apply under-eye concealer) across my face and onto blemishes and dark circles. 

Another option for applying concealer and foundation is using a disposable makeup sponge that you can buy at any drugstore.

The next step in my makeup is powder, bronzer, and blush - the hardest products to apply (other than eyeshadow) without a brush. To solve this problem, I used cotton balls. Using the cotton balls, I applied my pressed powder on my t-zone and then applied both bronzer and blush. (I think it turned out looking pretty acceptable!)

After using my eyebrow pen to fill in my brows (thank goodness for that), I primed my eyelids for eyeshadow. Even though I didn't have a brush, I wanted to use eyeshadow. I started out using a eyeshadow stick, which solved the problem of applying a base coat of eyeshadow; that way, I could just use the pen to put it across my entire lid. 

To get more color, I used my ring finger and patted a shimmery silver across my lid. I attempted to pat a darker shadow into the crease, but without a brush, that's difficult.

I finished off the eyes with eyeliner and mascara and I think, despite being without a brush, it looks nice!

My final step was a bit of lipstick and I was ready to go. (Revlon Lip Butter in 'Candy Apple')

It was definitely a challenge applying my makeup without brushes, but it saved me time and still turned out looking nice!

♡

xo Emily

Bright and Gold

Today's makeup was all about keeping it bright and gold. 

I wanted my eye makeup to be shimmery and pretty, with gold accents. I wanted to go for a look that was not only glamorous and pretty, but wearable. Another huge component of this look was that I tried to make my eyes look as open and bright as possible. 

To do this, I used a few shadows from my Too Faced Everything Nice palette. To make my crease this gorgeous grey tint, I used a combination of 'Too Glam', 'Totally Fetch', and 'Don't Settle'. I started off with 'Totally Fetch', which is a bright pink shadow. I used just a bit of it as a base for the next two crease colors. Then, I placed the other shadows on my crease brush and blended them in until I had the definition I liked. 

After the crease was done, it was time to do my lid. For this, I started out by placing 'Shiny Happy' all over my lid. This shadow is a light, shimmery gold color and looks so lovely in the sunlight. I then used 'Honey Pot' on my lash line and across the rest of my lid to add a bit more gold into the look. 

To really get that bright eye look I have, I used 'Snow' from my Lorac Pro Palette to line my lower lash line and then used NYX's Wonder Pencil in 'Light' to line my lower waterline. This technique makes your eyes look brighter, bigger, and more awake. 

The final touch was mascara and lipliner (I used MAC's 'Whirl' Lip Liner) and voila. 

I really love how this looks. It's got just the right amount of glam, but it's appropriate for your day to day makeup.

♡

xo Emily

February Favorites

Happy March! I cannot believe we're already here. I've got spring break coming up at the end of NEXT WEEK and then just a short month until my junior year of college is finished. It's truly insane how fast time flies. It's also March 5th and I've got a snow day! New York is crazy.

Today I'm doing my February favorites - just a few things I've been loving in the month of love. 

1. Lorac Pro Palette 2 {I've been featuring this a lot and wearing it everyday for the past month and a half since I've gotten it. It's a great range of shadows that range from shimmery to matte and it's great to just pop in your bag to take with you}
2. Zara T-Shirts {I think Zara does some of the absolute best clothing for an affordable price and I truly adore their t-shirts. They're so soft and comfortable. I recently picked up two of their striped t-shirts, which are my go-to shirts as of late}
3. Dior Iconic Overcurl Mascara {You've probably seen this on my blog in the past two months so it's a bit obvious it's one of my favorites. I got a gift card from my lovely best friend over Christmas and I thought I'd go for it and buy a fancy luxurious mascara. It's a great product}
4. Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Pencil {Rimmel makes a fantastic lip pencil. The formula is really one of a kind. They're creamy, long-lasting, and affordable. I've been loving 'Addiction', a berry/deep pink shade}
5. New York Fashion Week {NYFW Fall 2015 did not disappoint.  I was lucky enough to go to a few shows because of my job and I really enjoyed the whole experience. I'm not expert on fashion but taking it all in was just wonderful. These three looks (from left: Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera) were some of my favorites from their prospective collections}

♡

xo Emily