LORAC OBSESSED

I think I'm in love...again. 

And I'm not talking men...partly because I'm very single and partly because I love other things way too much to even have THE TIME, goddamnit! I'm talking LORAC Cosmetics. In particular, the Pro Palettes.

I truly can't get enough of the LORAC Pro Palettes because they're damn perfect. If you follow my blog or my Instagram - you know I'm a huge fan of the LORAC Pro Palette 2 (I've yet to try #1) and kind of use it everyday, everywhere. (true story, I used it for all-over robot halloween face makeup once) 

So when I went into ULTA a few weeks ago and saw the LORAC Pro Palette 3 , I knew I wanted it. I had originally gone in to look for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette because I tried it out thanks to my bb Taylor and it's freaking gorgeous, but of course, they were sold out. So when I saw that the sleek little Pro 3 had some similar shades, I thought I'd spend money I didn't have on it! Yay being a college graduate!!!

It's just like the previous two palettes - same size and shape, which I love. The thinness is really nice because there's nothing worse than a clunky palette (I'm talking to you Naked 3). The inside is even better than the outside. 

You get a huge mirror - which is never really a selling point for me due to the fact that I literally can't do my makeup unless I have a big mirror - but it's actually really handy in this one. In addition, it comes with a mini LORAC eye primer.

It has 16 shadows - 8 shimmer and 8 matte - all in the warm-toned fam. 

I've swatched all the shimmer shades and they're pretty phenomenal. The softest and lightest of the eight are Light Gold and Almond Pearl - but they show up better on an eyelid than my gross, pale arm anyway. (even better with a primer)

  

My favorite of this set is 'Light Pewter' for a shimmer shade and the matte 'Cool Taupe'. It's great for a crease color bc we all know you need to check the crease before you do anything else. 

I'm loving the shimmer shadows of 'Amethyst' and 'Rose Bronze' in this set and CANNOT GET ENOUGH of 'Terracotta'. SHIZ that is a nice freaking shadow. 

And as you can see below, the darker shimmer shades swatch a lot better on my arm. (Also check the toenails in this pic, real professional)

I've had it for a few weeks now and the colors wear incredibly. They're long-lasting, pigmented, and gorgeous (as expected) and I really love it. Coincidentally, it has replaced my Pro Palette 2 as my everyday palette. That's okay, Pro 2, I'll always come back to you <3

Do you have a Lorac product you love?

xo Emily

Getting Glossy With It / Simple Spring Makeup Using GLOSSIER

Hey guys! If you follow my instagram (which you should), you know I've been loving the brand Glossier. The brand began on IntoTheGloss.com, one of the most successful and beloved beauty blogs (which includes me) and from that, Glossier was born. It's a line of incredible skincare and makeup products and it's incredible. Today's post features Glossier to create a really sweet and simple makeup look!

From the packaging to the product, Glossier is a marvel. I haven't been this impressed in a brand in awhile. 

I purchased the Stretch Concealer and the Boy Brow, the latter of which took me months to even purchase due to its popularity (and I can see why). I decided to craft a simple, spring makeup look using these two products in action. 

 The Stretch Concealer ($18)is so lightweight and buildable, and looks incredible on the skin. I love how elastic and easily movable the concealer is, it makes it easy to leave a great finish on your skin. Plus, you're really never going to run out of it.

The other product I brought was the Boy Brow in brown. ($16) This is one of my favorite brow products, ever, because of how easy and quick it is. There's nothing better than just throwing on brow gel and getting out of the house and this is the perfect gel to do that. It's perfectly pigmented, natural, and affordable!

So for the makeup look below, I'm using those two products, along with three others to create a simple spring makeup look. It's easy and quick and so pretty and fresh for the season!

To create this look, I started by applying the Stretch Concealer to my blemishes and under my eyes, slowly building the product up until everything was covered. To set that, I used Rimmel's Stay Matte. Next up, I filled in my brows using the Boy Brow, brushing through them and fully defining them. 

To make my lashes stand out with my defined brows, I used generous coats of the L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara to really lengthen them. 

Finally, to create that simple and sweet spring look, I used the YSL Rouge Volupte Shine in 'Coral Ingenious'.   

I really love how this look turned out and I loved using my new Glossier products to create something so cute and sweet!

What new brands have you been loving?

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

Friday Favorites: New In Beauty Products

Hey guys! Hope you had a fantastic Christmas filled with love and happiness! I thought I'd share a few new products that I've gotten in the past week, including Christmas! 

1. L'Oreal Telescopic Liquid Liner {I recently picked this up and I've been testing it out. It's pretty nice so far, but a bit difficult to make super precise lines; I think it's the size of the felt tip that's doing this. I'll do a more in-depth review soon}

2. E.L.F. Waterproof Shadow Liner Stick {I got this my last week in New York before coming home for break and I love this. There are so many different shades of this and it works amazing as a primer for your shadow, it makes everything brighter and more beautiful}

3. Buxom Lash Mascara {I got this as a gift in a pack of mini-sized beauty items and I'm straight up obsessed with it. It's such a fantastic product and really separates and lengthens your lashes like no other product}

4. Marc Jacobs Daisy Perfume {Not really a new 'find', but I got it as a gift this year and it's been one of my favorite scents for a few years now! It's nice to finally have a big bottle and not the little rollerball that runs out quickly}

5. E.L.F. Studio Flawless Concealer Brush {Another new e.l.f. brush I picked up and this one is fantastic. It's a great shape to really blend in concealer and I also love using this to set my under-eye area post-concealer because the size of the brush pits perfectly there. Really affordable and a great product}

♡

Do you have any new Beauty products you've been loving or trying out?

xo Emily

New In: Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Gel

Hey guys! I've got a new product to talk about today. I recently picked up the Maybelline EyeStudio Brow Drama in Soft Brown, which is one of the first tinted brow gels for the drugstore. I really was excited to try this out because I wanted a more affordable alternative to the Benefit Gimme Brow, which is over $20. 

 

This runs for about $8 at the drugstore and comes in three shades; blonde, soft brown, and deep brown. It looks like a mascara wand and the soft brown shade actually fits my brow color pretty well. I like how easy it is to use, all you have to do is follow your natural brow arch with the wand, and it just fills in your brows with extra color and fibers. 

It's a good product if you're on the go and don't want to have to shape and maintain your brows too much. It's fast and easy, and in a rush, it'll get the job done and make your brows look fuller and will keep them in place all day. 

{A closeup of the gel in action}

{My left eyebrow without the product, my right brow with the product}

What I don't like is that it doesn't completely fill in my brows the way I wanted to and definitely isn't as effective as Benefit's Gimme Brow. It will fill in some of the gaps but still leaves some parts sparse. Also, if you put too much product on your brows, it'll leave them feeling stiff and cakey, which I really don't like in any sort of brow product. 

Overall, I think it's great in a pinch and I have been using it every so often since I got it. It's a great alternative to the more expensive brow gels, but it does have some flaws.

♡

xo Emily

New In: Too Faced Everything Nice Holiday Palette

I've got a new product to talk about today and it's one that I've been eyeing ever since it was announced as a special holiday palette. It's the Too Faced 'Everything Nice (that's what pretty girls are made of)' Palette and it's gorgeous. It's from their Christmas Collection and retails for $56, with a value of $450. I must say, the price is right. 

The palette comes with 20 eyeshadows, one bronzer, two blushes, and one illuminating powder as well as three mini brushes, a mini mascara, and a makeup bag. 

I'm going to talk about each product included in the palette along with swatches and photos of everything. Keep reading if you want to learn more about this palette.

New In: Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Hey guys! I thought I'd share with you a product review of a new concealer I've started to use.

The Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer, from a brand based in the UK, isn't available in the U.S. but I went on Ebay to purchase it! I've heard so incredibly much about this product from various UK bloggers and beauty gurus, so I really wanted to see what the hype was about.

It comes in the standard concealer tube - and applies easily. It's very creamy and applies onto the skin nice and smoothly. It reminds me of NARS creamy concealer and Maybelline's FitMe concealers, which are two of my favorites.

I absolutely love this concealer. It definitely lives up to the hype. It covers any and all dark under-eye circles as well as blemishes and redness. I really love this and wish they sold it in the United States, to be honest! (It's also really affordable - only 4 pounds in the UK and about $6 here!)

As you can see above, the concealer works perfect to cancel out redness and blue-tones under your eyes. It also lasts you a very long time. I tried this out with both a setting powder on it and without, and it does stay a bit longer with the setting powder, but it's definitely long-wearing and keeps the coverage up! It's a wonderful transformation!

♡

xo Emily

Naked Basics 2: The Obsession Continues

As the title of this blog post might indicate, today I'll be sharing the Naked Basics 2 palette with you! It costs the same as the original Naked Basics, $29, and came out in late August. I picked it up a few days after it came out but haven't made a post just yet because I was transitioning into my Junior Year of college and wanted to test out all the shades!

But finally, I'm settled in and am just as head over heels for this palette as I was the original Naked Basics. 

First off, the packaging is almost identical to the original palette, except it's  got a big ole '2' and a slightly lighter color to the words on the outside of the palette. 

Inside the palette has 6 eyeshadows, five of which are completely new shades. Unlike the original palette, all the shadows are matte and run more taupe/nude and really complement a cooler skin tone. The transition from shade to shade in this palette is a lot more subtle, which each shade really complementing each other and building intensity from a pale nude matte to a deep, smoky brown matte shade. 

First off is 'Skimp' a very nude, matte shade with only the slightest bit of shimmer. Next is 'Stark' which is a nude pink matte. 'Frisk' is a warm-toned gray matte. 

'Cover' is a reddish/brown toned matte. 'Primal' is a brown matte, which is much lighter than the brown matte in the original Naked Basics and finally 'Undone' is a deep, smoky brown/gray matte shade. 

Here are the two palettes side by side. 

As you can see, the new palette is a lot more muted and taupe-y and all the shades transition really naturally. I don't think I could live with the original Naked Basics palette because some of the shades are absolutely essential for everyones makeup collections. 

Overall, I really have been loving these shades. It's the perfect palette for if you have an everyday, very neutral look and you have cooler-toned skin. They are definitely are and could be staple shades in my makeup collection!

♡

I also did a makeup look to really test out the shades. It came out similar to looks I do with the original Naked Basics palette, but that's expected as they are similar. 

I used 'Stark' all over the lid as a base and then used a big, fluffy brush and 'Frisk' to define the crease. Once it was completely blended, I went back in with the same fluffy brush and used 'Cover' to define it even more. I blended that (a lot of blending) and then went in again but with 'Primal' and blended that to deepen the crease even more. Lastly, I used a bit of the darkest shade, 'Undone' to really finish defining the crease. After that was blended in smoothly, I patted 'Skimp' over the front of my lid to give it a bit more brightness. 

Above is the look before I went in with eyeliner and mascara. Below is the finished face! I love how neutral and taupe it turned out!

I really love this palette and especially how it looks with my skin tone. I recommend this completely. It's a definite everyday makeup product!

♡

xo Emily