Palette Play September 2014

I'm sticking with one brand again for this month's palette play. This month I'm playing around with Tarte! Two of the palettes are new to my stash. Woot!

These two palettes are the Exotic Eyes (new) and Ten palettes. I got Exotic Eyes from Tarte's site. It originally launched on QVC but I had missed out on getting it there. I've had the Ten palette for a good while now. Can't remember where I got it from.

These two palettes are from a QVC auto delivery and they don't have fun palette names. They are both called the tarte Amazonian Clay 16-Pc Eyeshadow Palette. The one on the left should look familiar. This was one of the palettes that started off palette play back in December. The one of the right is new. Both palettes are available for purchase on QVC. I've see the on the right on Sephora's site.

I have no idea in what order I'm going to use these. Labor Day weekend is kind of throwing me off. I'm also going to play around with the four smolderEyes pencils that came with the two larger palettes (Golden Black, Brown, Fig and Gunmetal).

See you again in October!

August 2014 Favorites

I hope that everyone had a fantabulous August! Football is in the air and Fall is on the horizon!! Woohoo! Let' get into some favorites!

Eyes

I got the elf Flawless Concealer Brush back in March from their website. It's supposedly a dupe for the Sephora brush. When I first used it, I did not like it at all and it was about to be a meh product of the month. The more I used it, the more I grew to like it. I use it with Bare Minerals Stroke of Light. It blends it out very nicely. I plan on getting another one.

Another brush I've been loving is the Real Techniques Base Eyeshadow brush. This was an early favorite when I started purchasing Real Techniques brushes. However, I hadn't really used it in a while. This a great brush for applying color and blending. It is the perfect brush to use for a one eyeshadow look which is what I used it a lot for this month. I wish it was available on it's own but it's in the Starter Kit.

When I got back from St. Louis last month, I went to Ulta to use my $10 off Ulta birthday coupon and my coworker got me a gift card for my birthday. I had decided a while back to use the birthday coupon on a palette. But then the palettes I was eyeing weren't speaking to me anymore. So the day I went to Ulta, I walked and walked and walked around. I picked up stuff. I swatched stuff. I wasn't really moved by anything and I had "free" money to use! WTH! Then I remembered Mally's Shadow Stick in Saddle Shimmer. She had posted a get ready with my video on her YouTube channel and she used it in her look. So I did pick that up along with a couple of other items. This is a pretty bronze shade. It reminds me of the Maybelline Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze. It has been my go to shadow stick lately. It paired nicely with Mally's In the Buff 2 palette and Bare Minerals The Epiphany Ready 2.0.  I have been on a shadow stick kick lately. They are super quick and easy. You can wear them on their own or use them along with powder eyeshadows. I honestly haven't touched my Maybelline Color Tattoos in a while. I think I'll try to incorporate them in my remaining palette plays.

Continuing with Mally, I have been LOVING her palettes!! Like I tweeted her and gushed over them. I said I could probably get rid of my other eyeshadows and use just her palettes. Yea I know, crazy right?? They are so easy to use. Her various brown eyeshadows are bomb.com. I even did a warm look with her I Love Color palette that I really liked. The In the Buff 2 palette is an awesome neutral palette. I'm patiently waiting to get my hands on the original In the Buff palette. But then I'm like do I really need it of course. That's a whole different discussion. Or rather a continuation of various discussions that I've already posted about. Job well done Mally on these palettes!!

I picked up the Black Radiance Perfecting Eye Shadow Primer during a CVS run. I was excited when I found it. Especially since I love the face primer so much. I was like oh this going to be good! When I first used it, I loved the way it applied and instantly got tacky. But as the day progressed, I did get creasing. I was like ugh! I kept playing around with it and it wasn't performing. I was going to post about it as a meh product. But I was like no. I left it alone for a while. Picked it back up recently. What I have been doing with this and the other two eye primers I have is apply it after I apply my face primer. Then I do my face makeup, brows and then do my eyes. This has helped tremendously! I guess I wasn't allowing enough time to set before applying my eye makeup. So needlessly to say that I am tickled pink that this is working for me and that I have found an eye primer at the drugstore. Wooooot! I may try Milani's again and see if it works for me using this "method".

Lips

I picked up 2 of the Revlon Lacquer Balms from Walgreens when they had a buy one, get one 50% off promo going on. I picked up Coy and Whimsical. These are awesome! Coy is a good everyday brown nude shade for my skin tone and Whimsical is in my comfort zone when wearing a pink lip with a hint of purple in it. I was wearing MAC's Daddy's Little Girl the day I bought these. For giggles I applied Whimsical on top on Daddy's Little Girl. Amazeballs! I looked at the other shades and swatches online. Not sure if I'll get any additional shades. I only have one of the matte ones in the purple one that I really enjoy. I want to pick up Sultry.

I got the You're The Balm lip balm in my Ipsy bag for August. I was meh about it at first since I'm not a fan of potted lip products. It's also grape scented and I was worried how it would mix while eating and drinking. At first I put it on at night. Didn't like it for a night time balm. I prefer something a little thicker. However it make a great daytime lip balm for applying various lip products. It moisturizes the lips but didn't interfere with whatever lipstick or lip gloss I wore for that day.

Face

Two Queen Helene masques I have been love the last couple of months are the Mint Julep Masque and Grape Seed Extract Peel Off Masque. The Mint Julep masque is an old time favorite. I like this one when my skin is out of whack due to breakouts. The Grape Seed masque was new to me and I really enjoy it. After using it my skin appears smoother and firmer. Especially my neck! I was like say what now! You can't beat the price of $3.99. You may find them cheaper. I have picked this up from Ulta.

Another skin care product I have been enjoying is Garnier's Nourishing Cleansing Oil. I picked it up on a whim from CVS. I had read/heard some good reviews on it. Prior to this I've used Josie Maran's Argan Cleansing Oil and I've used coconut oil. I have enjoyed using this to remove my makeup prior to washing my face. Lately I have be really anal about removing most if not all of my makeup before I wash my face. Makeup remover wipes are cool and I'll probably still use them since I have like 3 packs on hand now. I feel that Garnier's Cleansing Oil gets the job done better than your traditional makeup remover wipe. From the reviews I've seen, this is thicker than other cleansing oils. The consistency of it doesn't bother me.

I'm not even going to show you a picture of the Boscia Green Tea Blotting Linens I have. It is straight up busted from being in my makeup bag lol! I got a sample pack of 25 from a Sephora perk that included a bunch of Boscia items. These are a nice size. Most blotting sheets I feel are so small that I have to use like 3 or 4 of them to get oil off this face. They don't disturb my makeup and they do feel nice. Afterwards I may go in with Mally's Face Defender. Usually I just used Mally Defender without blotting because that's one use of the product. But I feel funny using whatever sponge in the product to my shiny face. I would definite purchase these on their own.

I took the two IT Vitality Cheek Flushes in Magical in Mauve and Matte Sweet Apple with me when I went to St. Louis last month and I continued playing around with them in August. They are pigmented, blend nicely on to the skin and last all day. There are two other blushes shades in this line that I want to pick up.

Another blush I pulled out and enjoyed this month was Black Radiance Toasted Almond. This is a good everyday, goes with anything blush. I kind of don't want to put it away but I do need to rotate and play with my other blushes *sigh*. The struggle lol!

Nails

I loved all the blue nail colors I played around with this month. Here we have Let's Here It For The Boy and I Know What Boys Like from Deborah Lippmann along with Test My Teal from Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.

Body

Noting to report. *shrugs*

Random Stuff

I got the It's a 10 with Keratin from Ulta as a gift with purchase. It's also came with a $5 off coupon good until the end of the year. So I was like I need to go ahead and try this to see if I like it. When I go to the hairdresser she uses the original version on me. I did ask her about the Keratin version and she said it was good. So I felt comfortable using it. I used it in place of my Chi Keratin Mist. I sprayed it on my wet hair and noticed instantly how easy it was to detangle my hair. One side of my hair always gets tangled not matter what I do. Not this time using this product. Then I added some Chi Silk Infusion and blow dried my hair. Instantly I noticed a difference. There was an instant shine to my hair and it was easier to blow dry. I couldn't stop touching my hair once it was dry and after I flat ironed my hair. I will definitely use the coupon I received. I will continue to use this until it's gone then use up the rest of the Chi Keratin Mist. This stuff is amazeballs I can't wait to go see my hairdresser and let her know how much I've enjoyed this product.

I picked up Cascadian Farm Organic Multi Grain Squares cereal during an early grocery store run from Safeway. It's reminds me of Chex. I got it randomly when the sale box of Raisin Bran I was looking for was out. I had it with almond milk. It got soggy quickly. It was good but I didn't care for it as much. I had a few squares dry and was like hmmmmm. This would make a good snack. So I went back to Safeway and got another box since it was on sale and have been eating it as snack in the afternoon or still for breakfast dry with a banana and some yogurt.

I went to the Ubiquitous Hair and Health Trade Show in DC. My friend found out about it. I hadn't heard of it before and wasn't expecting much. It was really nice and I ended up having a good time. Of course I picked up some goodies *shifty eyes* from Milani, Ambi and various hair products that I'm sure you'll see in a post or 2 :) I'm loving some of the items already. If this comes to your area, check it out! You can score some good deals and preview new products from the various vendors. They also had some performances and sessions as well. Chante Moore, Chrisette Michelle were there along with some other ladies. It was just a really nice atmosphere, everything was organized and everyone was super nice. You how it can be when you get a bunch of women together. I'm just saying *insert side eye*.

Purging my stash has actually been a favorite this month. Crystalis007 posted a picture on Instagram of items she pulled from her stash for an upcoming blog sale. It got me thinking. I was sitting on my bed when I got home that evening staring at my cart. I was like yep, let's do this! I got rid of a lot of lip products. Some were trashed and the rest I pulled to give away. I did look through other items and did pull some additional stuff. I honestly probably can part with more. So we shall see what happens between now and the end of the year.

Surprise Products of the Month

I've had Wild n' Wild's Purty Persimmon for a while now but have never worn it. It is a vibrant orange color. Now remember my rant last month about orange and peach lippies right? Well I threw it on early one morning getting ready for work and I love it! It's a bright orange but it a deeper bright orange. If that makes sense. More like an orange based red. So I was happy that this worked out for me. It reminds me of MAC's Mangrove from the Proenza Schouler collection that my friend told me about. But Mangrove is is little deeper. If you want to delve into this lip color then check Purty Persimmon out. You can't beat the price of $2!

Meh Products of the Month

I remember reading a so so review on Deborah Lippmann's Let's Go Crazy. But of course I got try stuff for myself. It applied nicely and it's pretty on. I threw this on right before I went to Nashville. It chipped something crazy! I was like what! Usually I get decent wear out of a glitter polish. I was going to try to wear it again this month to see if it was a fluke but didn't get a chance to. I will play with it again though. So disappointing.

On to September!!

The Morning Struggle

The last few weeks it has been a STRUGGLE to get out of bed in the morning. I hit snooze several times. Some mornings I have been bold or accidentally turned my alarm OFF and drift back to sleep. Luckily I have not overslept. Then when I do get moving, I take my sweet time getting dressed and such. Sitting on my bed acting like I don't have a job to get to lol. I think part of it is that my body knows Summer is coming to an end and Fall with cooler temperatures is on the way. The other part is related to my job. It has been a struggle to be productive at work too but that's a whole different discussion.

Upside with the kids still being out of school in my area, traffic has been tolerably and I do get to work on time. After Labor Day though this will not be the case and I need to get up at my "normal" time to accommodate the traffic.

Such is life in the big city LOL!

Here's another meme from Instagram that makes me chuckle.

I finally have a new charger for my laptop. So I'm back in business! Woot!

Polish Play August 2014

This month I'm only going to play around with a few polishes. Well not as many as the last few months lol.

Once I heard that Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue had been reformulated along with the rest of the line, I went bonkers! I was hot to trot. I was like how can you change THE best blue nail polish??!!!! I rarely go on the hunt for items anymore but I went a hunting for this! I lucked up and found it at a CVS that I pass everyday during my commute to and from work but I have never stopped in there to check it out. The day I was hunting something said stop. I'm glad I did. This one had 3 polishes in the display and you best believe I got all 3! HMPH! I did give one of these to my coworker who couldn't find it while she had been out and about. So I now have 2 back ups lol. So I'll be keeping the bottle I have already open in rotation with the polishes I play around with :D While I grabbed Pacific Blue from my stash, I also grabbed Test My Teal from Sally Hansen. I hadn't used it in a while and it's another pretty one.

I was to Sephora inside JcPenny to get my birthday gift and they had quite a few Formula X polishes on sale. I picked up this blue glitter polish in TNT. I thought it would be good one to pair with the various blue nail polishes I have.

I have 2 Rimmel nail polishes in Pulsating and I Lilac You that were gifted to me. I've never played around with Rimmel nail polishes before.

I had decided earlier that I want to play around with some duo sets of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes that I scooped up on sale from HSN but never got around to using. I also grabbed two additional glitter polishes of hers.

Here we have Almost Paradise, Footloose, I Know What Boys Like, Happy Birthday, Let's Hear it For The Boy and Dancing in the Sheets. The two glitter polishes are Let's Go Crazy and Candy Shop.

I've already used Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue and Formula X's TNT. I likey this combo!

July 2014 Favorites

Lawd July has been a month! I have been out of town every weekend this month except the the last weekend out of the month. Phew! I'm still tired. Let's get into some favorites!

Eyes

Well in my palette post for July, I told y'all that I had NO CLUE on what I was going to use other than the Urban Decay Smoke palette for some weekend trips. I pulled out the Laura Mercier Artist Palette for my work trip that St. Louis. This is the first one that came out in 2012. I forgot how much I enjoyed this palette. It's an all in one palette where you don't need any additional shadows. You have highlight shades, blending shades, darker shades that you can use as eyeliner or to smoke out a look along with good everyday shades.

When it comes to neutral eyeshadows, warmer neutrals like gold and bronze kind of intimidate me. Sometimes I feel like they don't look "right" on me. If I do a warm shade on my lid, then I typically use a cooler toned shade to balance it out. My beauty pusha did a warm toned look on her channel with some warmer shades and I was like hmmmm. I took two Jane Cosmetics eyeshadows with me to St. Louis. The shades Sunset and Earth are warmer toned neutrals. I used them together and a little bit of Rich Coffee from the Laura Mercier Artist palette. But the look over all was warm toned. I really liked this look.

I almost forgot to mention Lancome's Bi-Facil. It's their double-action eye makeup remover. I've always wanted to try this but it's a pricey product. I got this in a Today's Special from HSN back in April or May. It's one that  you shake. This stuff is awesome. One pass and your eye makeup is pretty much gone. It also does not irritate my eyes. How can you have an eye makeup remover that's irritating? I mean really! I've really enjoyed this product and would purchase it outside of getting it in a set. I want to try Neutrogena's eye makeup remover. It's the one at the drugstore that I've heard the most good reviews about. I may get Lancome's again during Sephora's VIB sale in November.

Lips

Orange and peach are colors that I love on my cheeks but I don't always care for them on my lips. How some people fear red, is how I fear orange and peach. One morning I had originally grabbed Miliani's Mai Tai lip gloss to wear. I know I had worn it previously and had originally liked it. I got it back in March when I got Raspberry Rush (mentioned Raspberry Rush in June's favorite. Mai Tai is pictured). Anyway, I threw it on and I was like oh no. I left it on while I finished getting ready thinking maybe I would warm up to it. Then I was like no ma'am! I took it off and grabbed a peachy gloss. Said no to that. Then I remember I had a Chanel Glossimer in #337 Calypso. This gloss is the perfect orange gloss for me. It gives a hint of orange but it's not full on color. I forgot how much I liked it. It's comfortable to wear and the shimmer in the gloss isn't too much. I believe this was limited edition which is a bummer. So I will keep this gloss in easy reach for the rest of the summer. This is the only Glossimer I own. May peruse the Chanel counter and check out some of their other brighter shades since I like how Calypso wears. Next on my "purge list" are lippies. So I will definitely go through the orange and peach lippies along with other bright lippies I have with a critical eye. Me and brights don't always get along. It has to be the "right" shade for my comfort level or I just won't wear it. There are certain brands that make brights "wearable" like Bobbi Brown. So from now on I'm sticking with those for future purchases.

I made my first trip to the CCO in July. I picked up 2 MAC lipsticks in Del Rio (muted plum-brown) and Viva Glam III (muted brownish-plum). I've paired both lipsticks with the Bare Minerals Gloss in Wow Factor (rose). Both for me are good everyday shades for my skin tone.

Face

My drugstore skincare kick continues. I picked up the Olay Foaming Face Wash for Combination/Oily Skin from Ulta when it was on sale. It's inexpensive anyway but it doesn't hurt to save a little more on a product. It reminds me of Bare Minerals Foaming Face Wash. It doesn't really foam. At least I don't think it does like other foam cleansers I've used. It's a really nice cream cleanser that I used at night when I first got it. On my various trips this month, it was the only cleanser I took with me and used it morning and night. I have really really enjoyed using this cleanser. I poked around on Ulta and Amazon reading reviews on it and people really like this cleanser. Several reviews were from people who have used the product for years. I'm still loving the Biore Pore Unclogging Scrub in the morning. Once I use it up (just bought another tube), I may stick with Olay. We shall see. I did get another small bottle of philosophy's Purity the last week of the month for giggles. I'm enjoying using it but not enough to get a full sized bottle.

I also picked up Clean and Clear's Persa gel-10. I went back and looked at the last skincare routine video that Nicole Guerriero posted on her channel. I knew she had mentioned an acne spot treatment product that she liked. I picked it up from Ulta. I tell you I'm in Ulta like once a week. Sad I know. Anywho back to the product. This is a really nice acne spot treatment. It's not overly drying which I like and it smooths into the skin nicely. It gets the job done without being too harsh. I will definitely keep this in my skincare arsenal.

I picked up The Refreshing Remover Cleansing Towelettes by Garnier after hearing some rave reviews on YouTube. At first I did not like them. I thought the clothes were kind of dry. As I got into the pack, my feelings changed. They are very nice. Not sure if I would repurchase them again since I have other favorites. But if they went on sale or if I had to buy them again, I wouldn't mind using them.

Nails

I was in CVS and picked up some more Milani nails polishes that were on sale.Two glitter nail polishes that I picked up and got some serious use were Sugar Burst and Sugar Coated.

One of my favorite manis for the month was using Funky Fingers Highlighter and Milani's Sugar Coated. This was nice and bright that got noticed  by others lol!

Body

Nothing to report. Used various items that I enjoyed using but nothing that I really want to talk about *shrugs*

Random Stuff

I got new phone in June. My Droid RAZR Maxx was getting very sluggish and it needed to be replaced before it met the wall. I was waiting to see what in the hell Apple was going to do in terms of the iPhone 6. But I got tired of waiting and I honestly did not want to pay a bunch of money for a new phone. I ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy S4 for $1 from Best Buy. Yep $1 plus tax with the renewal of my contract. I researched between the S4 and the S5 and there weren't a whole lot of differences between the two. I also looked at the Galaxy Note. I've been enjoying the S4. Especially since my laptop is out of commission at the moment. I tell you chargers for electronics are worthless! When I get home in the evening, the last thing I want to do is sit at a desktop after being on the computer all day at work. I've watched YouTube videos, edited blog posts, placed online orders and everything on my S4. I love the screen size which I know people like to clown on Droid about. Nifty little thing.

Back in May, I picked up the GILI Leather Roma 2 Tote from QVC. I was leery in getting this due to some quality control issues with the bag. But my play auntie Lisa Robertson reassured everyone, saying that the issues with the previous version of the bag had been addressed. The GILI line on QVC, is her line that is inspired by pieces she owns or would like to own. This bag was inspired by a bag that she owns by Gucci. When I originally saw this bag in the Cream Snake, it spoke to me and I did order it before it aired as the TSV. *insert sigh* The day it aired, I ended up watching the last presentation of the day with Lisa. She got on her pedestal about the Natural Ostrich. Now y'all already know I loves me a tan bag and I was tempted when I first saw it but went with the Cream Snake. Let's just say that I ended up ordering the Natural Ostrich before the presentation was over. That damn Lisa can sell anyone anything! So yes I ended up ordering two bags.  When they came I was excited. When I got the boxes open and saw them both, I wasn't all that impressed with the Cream Snake. I said ok well let me carry it around and see if my feelings change. I carried it and still wasn't impressed. Long story short it went back. I gave the Natural Ostrich a whirl and was leery only because I was dissatisfied with the Cream Snake. That didn't last long and I love it! I have carried this joker and put it through it paces. I took it with me on my work trip to St. Louis, took on my weekend trips and used it as my daily bag for over a month. It's a great bag and I'm glad I kept it. I just switched out of it but I could seriously keep carrying it. Job well done aunt Lisa lol!!! I saw a sneak peek of some more of her bags coming for Fall. Trouble!!!!

Word searches were a favorite this month. During our last work meeting back in April, my coworker had a word search book. I said I would get one for our July meeting. I forgot how much I enjoyed this. I am truly my grandmother's child lol. Great way to clear your mind and de-stress.

Surprise Products of the Month

Wasn't surprised by anything this month. *shrugs again*

Meh Products of the Month

In June/July polish play, I mentioned that I had ordered two sets of Julie G nail polishes from Groupon. I was super excited to try these polishes based on folks saying that these are some of the best polishes at the drugstore. Well er ra ummmm.... The shades I got are really pretty, don't get me wrong. But I feel like they are just ok. After using them I'm not itching to run to Ride Aide to pick up more. Forsome of them, applying the first coat would have me going what the hell?!  By the second coat things would start to look better. A couple I did go in for a third coat. They were just too much work for me. So I'm kind of disappointed. But oh well.

I picked up the CVS Oil Free Acne Cleansing Towelettes on a whim. They are comparable to the Neutrogena Grapefruit ones. These are just ok. They're not very moist. When I used them to remove my eye makeup, they made my eyes water. I can't really say if they helped with my breakouts. They do a good job removing my face makeup. But I don't plan on repurchasing these when I use them up.

Not bad this month. I'm already thinking about how I want to do these posts for next year. Feel free to give me some suggestions. ☺

Here's a picture of part of  The Arch from the hotel we stayed at. I thought it was going to super hot but the weather was absolutely gorgeous the week we were in St. Louis.

On to August and another trip! Jeez! Headed to Nashville!

Palette Play August 2014

I still can't believe I had that big of a brain fart on what palettes to play around with last month!

We won't have this problem again going forward! I think I have mapped out what I want to play around with between now and the end of the year. We'll see if my thought process holds....HA!

For August I want to revisit my Mally palettes! I've played around with these before but wanted to revisit them again. No harm in that. Let's take a look at them!

Here we have In the Buff Vol. 2, I Love Color, Celebration and Loving Life. I'm going to use them in the order I got them. Some of these are still available for purchase on QVC's website if you're interested.

Aren't they all pretty?!!? I still want to get her original In the Buff palette. I'll more than likely scoop that by the end of the year. Let the fun begin!