April Favorites

Sigh.  Spring in the Portland Metro area is so, so much different from most of the rest of the country.  Of course, it has a reputation as being rainier than most year-round, but the spring months really seem to confirm that reputation more than others (well, except maybe November and December).  Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it's raining.  All the time, every day.  And I'm over it.

Good thing there's makeup to help me forget my rainy-day blues!

Still on a quest to find good lighting in my house...

This month's roundup includes several newer products (that post-shopping high, I guess), as well as a few rediscovered old favorites.

Is it monthly-favorites cheating if you really love a product but probably wouldn't spend the money on it again?  That's a little bit how I feel about the Too Faced Better than Sex mascara.  Packaging: adorable.  Formula: great.  Performance: fine.  This does give a good amount of volume and doesn't flake on me like I've heard other people complain about, but it clumps so easily that it's almost (almost!) more trouble than it's worth.  I think what I really ought to do is invest in some disposable spoolies and use them to comb through after I apply.  I do find that a second coat after the first is about 2/3 dry is helpful, however.

Never mind the curlers.  Saturday afternoon, you know.

I am absolutely a BeautyBlender convert.  When I picked one up at the Sephora VIB sale, it was purely an impulse buy (near the register!), but I think I still had a pretty good gut feeling that it would be worth the investment.  

Even more so than foundation application, I am crazy in love with my BeautyBlender for blending in my concealer.  I have slightly puffy under-eyes with one very, very annoying fine line running through each one, and I have never had a concealer not crease on me just a little bit, until I started using the pointed end of this little pink beauty.

I purchased the kabuki brush on a bit of a whim back in January.  I had just started my great bronzer experiment (that is, I had just purchased my first bronzer and had no idea what the hell I was doing) and I was hoping to find an affordable kabuki brush that would help me to blend things out (I was very, very concerned with blending.  No weird muddy face for me!).  I found this Eco-Tools retractable kabuki brush at Rite Aid one afternoon, and I've been steadily using it since.  Not only is it wonderful for blending out not only bronzer but also the occasional over-zealous blush application, but the fact that it's retractable makes it ideal for traveling.

Simply put, this blush is gorgeous.  It's got just a hint of pink to it, but for the most part is subtly nude and delightful.  It's great for those little-to-no-makeup days that I tend toward in the spring and summer.

Swatched!

I have a weird relationship with lip products; I rarely stray from the my-lips-but-better standard, and even then, I usually end up sticking just with lip balm because it's less maintenance.  This gloss, however, may have changed me.  I picked up Vanilla Cream Pie on a whim during a trip to Fred Meyer a few weeks ago and I couldn't believe how long it had taken me to jump on the butter gloss train.  I happened upon the NYX display at Target last weekend (when did that happen, by the way?) and couldn't resist getting a second shade in Apple Strudel.  This one is a bit more sheer than I had hoped for, but I'm still loving it as a natural lip option.

L: Vanilla Cream Pie; R: Apple Strudel

I ordered some skin-care items from Sephora a couple months back, and my Honey app found a coupon code for this little gem when I was finalizing my order.  The sample came in a good-sized bottle that was supposed to only last two weeks, but it was still kicking around 3 weeks in.  Even in such a short time, I feel like I can really see a difference in the tone of my skin.  It's not as though I was covered in wrinkles, but I feel like my face is smoother and a bit more toned since I started using this serum.  It might be time to cave and start investing in my skin care instead of just spending money on it.

What products did you love this month?

Makeup Mess of the Day

I don't normally bother with a full face of makeup on my days off, especially not when we're about to head out on a 5-hour car ride, but I pinned a Naked 3 look this morning that I was anxious to try out, so I wound up just going for it.

Foundation: Cover Girl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1

Concealer: Maybelline Instant Age Rewind

Powder: Rimmel Stay Matte

Bronzer: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil

Brows: Billion Dollar Brow Universal Brow Pencil

Cheeks: Benefit Rockateur

Eyes: Milani Shadow Stick in Champagne Toast, Urban Decay Named 3 palette, Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Demolition, Rimmel Scandal Eyes in Nude

Lashes: L'Oreal Lash Out Butterfly

Lips: Butter London Tinted Lip Balm in Teddy Boy

Selfie time!

Ulta Haul

Never let it be said that I don't know how to kick off spring break with a bang:  I spent the morning getting my oil changed, drove forever and a day to the records office to get copies of our marriage license, then capped the afternoon off at the DMV.

It's a party up in here.

In between all those errands, though, I made sure to also recognize an opportunity to treat myself with a little trip to Ulta.  Before we got married, my apartment was around the corner from this particular store, but it's so far out of the way from where our house is now that I rarely ever make the trip (which I'm sure my husband appreciates...), but since I was in the neighborhood this morning, I couldn't resist.

A few necessities, a few fun new products and one new-to-me product. 

I knew that I definitely wanted a new bronzer; I've only recently gotten into the bronzer game and started off with the palest, subtlest color I could find (and it smells like coconuts!), but I'm starting to feel a little bit brave and wanting to try a deeper color, and so I wound up spending about 15 minutes wandering back and forth between various compacts in the high-end half of the store, swatching, debating, and swatching some more.

I finally decided to go with the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil bronzer; it's a deeper color than I've ever ventured to wear before, but seems easy to blend out and (bonus!), is made with real cocoa so it smells of chocolate.  I've seen girls on YouTube talking about this for years, and I'm excited to give it a shot for myself.

Never mind the goosebumps.

I admit that I have a bit of a mascara problem; I have, by my count, 4 tubes open at the moment?  Maybe 5?  I really didn't intend to buy a new mascara until I used up one of the current ones, but I was lured in by, you guessed it, YouTube reviews of the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara.

The packaging is super pretty, too.

It's supposed to do wonders for your lashes, so I picked this one up on the condition that I'm not allowed to even open the tube to look at the brush until I'm ready to use it (yeah, right; we'll see how that goes).

Cheeky...

Quick break from the pretties to mention the necessities: spring is coming!  And along with spring comes capris!  And maxi dresses!  And maxi skirts!  And the need to shave my legs!

Pretty colors!

I've been on the hunt for a good powder compact that I can throw in my purse for a while now; I love the Rimmel Stay Matte, but the packaging is so flimsy that it would be a disaster to carry in my bag.  I wanted something with a little bit of coverage, but most importantly I was looking for a compact with a mirror and a sponge so that I wouldn't need to also carry a brush with me.  To be completely honest, my cheapness was the thing holding me back.  Even the drugstore powders can run up to $13!  Something in me clicked today, however, and I grabbed the L'Oreal True Match Powder.  I touched up with it before heading out for my second round of errands, and so far I like this product!

The last product I picked up was the one that I wavered on perhaps the most this morning at Ulta; I had seen Samantha Schuerman include this lip product in her weekly favorites yesterday, and while it was gorgeous when I swatched it on the back of my hand, it was probably the least necessary item I bought and I wasn't sure how much use I would actually get out of it.  In the end, however, I decided to just go for it (treat yo'self, right?).

It's the Butter London LIPPY Tinted Lip Balm in Teddy Boy.  I'm not really a lipstick girl (too high maintenance), but what tipped the scales for me was the texture; it does feel much more like a moisturizing balm than a lipstick.  The color is gorgeous, too; a nice, natural mauve-y color that puts a little color on the lips but doesn't scream "I have lipstick on!!".

It's chilly in my house; my hand is not normally this purple.

I love a good haul, don't you?