Black Friday Haul!: Mini Reviews & Swatches

If you haven't seen my black friday haul video, watch it now!:



And now the products featured...

First mini review: e.l.f. Powder Brush&Complexion Brush

Both of these brushes are so soft. e.l.f. really outdid themselves with making these only $3! They're made out of synthetic hair, which is amazing because of how soft they are. I use the complexion brush for bronzer and the powder brush for my e.l.f. HD powder. They work really well, definitely happy I picked these up.

Second review: e.l.f. Small Angled Brush

To be honest, I haven't really gotten to try it out yet. I WAS hoping it'd be a little thinner, but what can you do? For again only $3 I can't go wrong. I was planning on someday using this for my e.l.f. black Cream Eyeliner. Although not as thin as I would've liked, it is stiff enough.

Third review: Revlon Colorstay 16 Hour Eyeshadow Quad in 520 - Brazen

With a good base, these colors are much more pigmented. You get a midtoned yellow, and that DEFINITELY needs a good base. Same with the lighter bronze-y color. I have used this quad, and I really like it so far; especially good for an everyday eye look.

Fourth review: pixi Eye Bright Kit #2 - medium

Shades from left to right: darker tone concealer, shimmery highlighter, lighter tone concealer, salmon-y pink concealer.
I REALLY  love this quad. It's an under-eye concealer quad from the brand pixi. I recently discovered this brand from another beauty guru (emilynoel83; love her!), and so far I'm very impressed. Not a drug-store brand, but still not considered too high end. I would really suggest getting this if you are olive/tanned skinned like me, and have really bad under-eye circles.

Fifth review: Maybelline Color Tattoos

Shades: Too Cool & Tough as Taupe.
I saw a lot of these on youtube and thought I would try out a couple. Too Cool is a shimmery white; gorgeous. Tough as Taupe is, you guessed it, a nice taupe color. FYI, these swatches aren't budging off of my hand no matter how hard I rub! It's amazing. These are GREAT crease-proof bases, but for a person with super oily eyelids like me, it doesn't last through gym even with UDPP underneath (they last through the whole day withOUT gym!) Still would totally recommend these.

Sixth review: e.l.f. Studio Single Eyeshadow - Saddle

(Ignore Color Tattoo swatches to the left)
I saw this at Dollar Tree and had to try it since it was only $1 instead of the usual $3. Very impressed! High pigmentation, silky smooth texture, and a beautiful finish. I will surely be trying out more of these in the future.

Seventh review: e.l.f. Essentials Brightening Eye Color - Teal Dream

These are really nice colors. But the pigmentation on the blue and "mint green" aren't that great. Using UDPP I was able to bring out their true colors. Also, since everyone's computer monitor is different, that "mint green" that I saw on the website wasn't very minty when I swatched it. Nonetheless, I would recommend picking up some of these quads, because for $.25 an eyeshadow, you can't go wrong.

Eight review: e.l.f. Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder - Sunkissed

 I loooove it! Has the perfect amount of pigmentation, and has a nice natural "sunkissed" glow effect on the skin. It was hard for me to swatch though, because it does blend nicely into the skin.

Ninth review: e.l.f. 2 in 1 Conditioning Gloss

 

I also saw this at Dollar Tree and it really does look beautiful doesn't it? It adds a slight tint of gold to the lips with a nice touch of soft glitter. Really nice gloss for the holidays. These used to be made, like I stated in the video, with the color of the gloss in an inner tube, and the clear conditioning gloss in the outer tube. Naturally, that was too difficult for the majority of people to use, so they just turned it into one product. It surprisingly really does keep my lips nice and soft in the cold winter months!

Tenth (and final) review: e.l.f. Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara

One of my new favorite products from e.l.f.! The first wand shown is the eyebrow side; the second the eyelash side. They both have the same product in the tube, just two slightly different wands. Almost everyone I know to use this, including myself, use both sides for setting the eyebrows. It works wonderfully and it doesn't flake or wear off during the day (even through gym!)

e.l.f. Essential Brushes Haul&Review!

As you may have seen in my most recent video, I reviewed a few of the e.l.f. Essentials line brushes. If you haven't seen that video, check it out here!:



Here are what the brushes look like:

From left to right: Bronzing Brush, Powder Brush, Smudge Brush, Blending Eye Brush, Eye Crease Brush, Eye Defining Brush, Eye Shadow Brush, Eyeliner Brush (which I forgot to include in the video), and the Eyelash&Brow Wand. As you can see that's all 9 brushes. Now for individual reviews:

1) Bronzing Brush: This brush is just your everyday angled blush brush. It's multi-purpose, and can obviously also be used for bronzer and contour. Very soft! As you can see, it has beautiful red-toned bristles. Their Essentials line face brushes are the only brushes they have with these red bristles, which is weird but I'm not complaining. Like I said in my video, I don't have bronzer (yet) or contour, so personally I just use this for my e.l.f. Studio blushes. It works great! Applies just the right amount of color smoothly and evenly. Definitely recommend this one!

2) Powder Brush: e.l.f. decided to call this their Powder Brush, but THIS is what I would call a small blush brush. I don't know why I got both the Bronzing Brush and this one because I would use them for the same purpose, but I did. I use this for blending out my blush color if I applied too much. Again very soft, good job e.l.f.! Again, with the gorgeous red bristles. I would also recommend this brush as well, especially if you don't want an angled brush like the Bronzing Brush.

3) Smudge Brush: This brush is a shorter version of the Eye Shadow Brush I showed in my video. I don't really find myself reaching for this that much. AGAIN, another very soft brush from e.l.f.! All of e.l.f.'s Essential eye brushes have the oh-beloved brown bristles. I have only seen a few bristles shed from this brush. I only reach for this when applying highlighter, and most of the time not even then. I would recommend this, but only if you're actually going to use it.

4) Blending Eye Brush: AMAZING. Haha, another great brush. Still soft, soft, soft. The teensiest bit of shedding, but great quality for the price. This blends colors so well, it's insane. It blends them together, or blends out your crease color, whatever you wish to blend lovebugs! It's not as fluffy as some blending brushes which I know can be a turn off for people (it was a turn off for me at first), but I would still recommend it. 

5) Eye Crease Brush: Do I need to say it again? Soft as can be! Great for applying color into the crease (obviously, Skylar), and blending it out to create a nice smooth look. I think this can also be used as a pencil brush, and is really good for applying inner-corner highlight. I think I've noticed the slightest bit more shedding than the previous brushes, but still nothing major.

6) Defining Eye Brush: You guessed it! It's SOFT. This brush is an angled eye shadow brush. Perfect for applying your highlight for a more sharpened/defined look, or I personally use it for applying color into the outer-V and blending it in with my lid color for a great smokey eye. I would say no shedding with this one so far!

7) Eye Shadow Brush: This brush is like gift from the affordable-makeup gods! Absolutely, positively, my most favorite brush from e.l.f. so far! Again, very soft, little to no shedding, and is so perfect for packing on color onto the lid, applying highlight, or even just adding a subtle wash of color over the whole eye. If you were to get anything from e.l.f. GET THIS!

8) Flat Eyeliner Brush: This brush is very soft (I'm noticing a pattern here, haha). Mine is dirty in this photo, because I use it daily. You'll probably notice that I don't use this for eyeliner, but instead for filling in my brows with a matte brown eyeshadow. It really works great for that because it's not too stiff, but it's still relatively thin. I think that it's perfect for creating a natural looking brow look. I personally wouldn't use this for eyeliner because it's not an angled brush.

9) Eyelash&Brow Wand: I didn't include this 'brush' in my review really because it's just like your classic mascara spully (however you spell that, my goodness), just without the mascara. Works great for combing out the brows. 

Overall, I would definitely recommend these brushes. Each of them is only $1! And for the quality of each one, you really canNOT go wrong. I reach for most of these brushes everyday. My most used brushes, though, would be the Bronzing Brush, Eye Shadow Brush, Blending Eye Brush, Eyeliner Brush, and the Eyelash&Brow Wand. Probably my least used brushes would be the Smudge Brush, Powder Brush, and Eye Crease Brush, but in no means do I regret my purchase of these brushes. When it comes to shedding, I've experienced a minimal amount. Another important factor is that these brush don't FEEL cheap. They just feel like a nice, high quality brush; not too heavy, not too light. Also for the price, softest brushes I've ever felt! Could you tell? Of course, if your more into higher-end brushes, you MIGHT find a brush that is softer than any of these, which is always possible. But for me, these brushes are so inexpensive and great quality, why would I NEED anything else?

e.l.f. 100-piece Palette Tutorial #1!

Watch my latest video!:



More photos of the look:

My camera seems to be pretty bad when it comes to picking up color.. I'm really hoping to get a better one for Christmas! But I still thought this was a really nice look, and I hope maybe you decide to try it too!

Get Ready With ME! - Products and Photos

Hey guys so this is the list of products from my lastest video:




Products used:
 -ELF Eyelash & Brow wand
 -Sephora Smoothing & Brightening Concealer
 -Urban Decay Primer Potion
 -Wet n Wild coloricon - Comfort Zone
 -ELF Essential Eyeshadow Brush
 -ELF Essential Flat Eyeliner Brush
 -Coastal Scents 88 Matte Palette
 -Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara
 -ELF Studio Blush - Blushing Rose
 -ELF Essential Lipstick - Charming
 -My hair brush!
 -my finger... haha.

Photos:

Sorry, I don't have the best profile.. Thanks for watching!

Animal Testing

So, I was watching a youtube video a while back, and I remember a woman saying that Covergirl tests on animals. I had never really given animal testing a thought to be honest, and I didn't think it could be that bad, so at the time, I didn't think anything of using my new CG foundation. Then just recently, a youtuber I am subscribed to did a review on a CG mascara, and I remembered the woman from the other video. So I decided to check it out, and I didn't realize how many well known companies test on animals! Companies like MAC, L'Oreal, Covergirl, Bobbi Brown, Huggies even!, Johnson & Johnson,  Kleenex, Smashbox, Garnier, Dove, Sally Hansen, and so many more. The full list I read is here. 

Now, I don't know if all of that is completely true, but if so, that's a lot! And there are so many easier and MUCH more accurate alternatives to animal testing, I don't know why these companies still practice these techniques. One thing I had read on another website, was an example on what they do to the animals:

"In the Draize test, caustic substances are placed in the eyes of conscious rabbits to evaluate damage to sensitive eye tissues. This is extremely painful for the rabbits, who often scream when the substances are applied and sometimes break their necks or backs trying to escape the restraints." -(I found this article here.)

I almost cried! And rabbits aren't even the only animals being tested on either. I think this is horrible, and it really leaves me conflicted because my new favorite mascara is the Maybelline Falsies, which I found to be another big contender in the testing.

Originally, I had thought animal testing to be almost like painting my dogs fingernails when I was little. I guess I was dreaming! The bottom line on this, is that I will now be taking a stand against animal testing, and will try my best to look out for more cruelty-free products that are alternatives to my CG foundation and my Maybelline mascara. I love those products, but I love my furry friends even more! What do you guys think?

E.L.F. HAUL! Swatches

These are swatches from my lastest youtube video! Check it out here.

As you can see Drama is the most pigmented, I had quite a bit of trouble with the brown color from Day 2 Night and almost all colors in Brownstone. Overall, I really do like these and if you possibly apply them wet, and have a good base then I'm sure they will show up beautifully.