What's in my makeup bag? 04/2012

I am one of those people that will walk around with a 1,000 lb handbag.  And most of that is my makeup bag, sadly.  I forget to clean it out and it just piles up!

Yummy makeup bag insides :)

Way too many lip products!  In order are:

• L'Oreal Color Riche Balm in Nourishing Nude
• Mustela Hydra Stick (used for lips and cheeks)
• Dior Lip Glow and Lip Maximizer
• Rosebud Salve
• Benefit's Benetint Balm

Everyday essentials

Items used daily:

• EcoTools baby kabuki
• NYX lipliner in 828 Ever
• LORAC Front of the line Pro liquid liner
• Makeup for Ever Smoky Lash mascara
• A colorscience sample pot (filled with Coty Airspun powder)
• Estee Lauder Double Matte compact in Medium 3
• Rohto V Ice eye drops
• Stila Kohl Kajal in Onyx
• Stila Convertible Color in Orchid #8 (I think, this is not sold stand alone, I got it in a kit)
• Urban Decay De Slick in a Tube sample size

Am well aware I probably do not need this much.  But then again, you never know when you need to look drop dead gorgeous when you are on the go!!! :)

See ya later xoxo

Ulta Haul - 3/25/2012

How is everyone doing on this calm Sunday night?

We had a quirky weather weekend here in the land of Michigan.  Rain, sun, cold, heat, you name it, it was here. It was also a busy weekend for Mr. R and I as we went shopping, cleaned the apartment, hung out with friends, ran errands.

Saturday brought about a small window of me time and that equaled to a haul at Ulta.  They are having their 21 days of Beauty.  To learn more about it, GO HERE.

Here is the damage... :)

Haulage - Ulta 3.24.12

They had a ton of big name kits on sale!  I decided to go with LORAC's Lashes, Luster, Liner kit ($29 usd) and Cargo's Fresh Face Complexion kit in Medium ($32 usd) This was on sale for $10 off!  [i will be making more in depth posts about these kits]

For skincare, I picked up Exuviance's SkinRise Bionic Tonic pads.  These are a part of my routine and cannot do without them.  From H2O, they had a b1g1 for their products, and I picked up the Oasis mist.  Just a normal mineral spritz I like to use in the summer or to remove any powdery look.

To end with the makeup, Urban Decay's Last Call shadow made it into my basket!  Along with lip liners and a soft matte lip cream from NYX, a LORAC Behind the Scenes primer that was $10 usd this weekend!!!!!  Benefit's Benetint balm was on my wish list...sorry for adding the Fresh Sugar lip treatment, that was from a Sephora haul two weeks ago that I had cast aside.

For the Urban Decay purchase, I received a deluxe De Slick facial spray.

As stated above, I will do individual posts about all the products shown.

What did you guys and gals haul this weekend?

Sonia Kashuk Brown Eyed Girl Palette

Thank you Target for bringing us the Sonia Kashuk line!!!

If you aren't familiar with her line, please head to your local Target or HERE  to view the products online.

The line ranges from cosmetics, to brushes, bags, etc.  It is all really wonderful stuff and great quality too!

For you today, I have her Brown Eyed Girl Quad:

Sonia Kashuk Brown Eyed Girl palette

Back of palette

This quad contains 4 equal sized pans of glittery color.  You can purchase these for $12.99 USD.  I own 3 of these creamy, glittery palettes.  I must advise, if you dislike glitter, read another post, purchase some other palette.  This is definitely not for the faint of heart!  The colors in it are a champagne, greyed brown, a browny copper, and a forest green.  Now, I know that I said that it is glittery, and it is, but that does not mean it is a fall out, dusty mess.  The consistency of these shadows is almost cream like.  I would hope that you would not confuse that with the NYX style glitter creams, which do not offer anything but a few chunks of glitter within a semi greasy base.  But that is just my opinion.

Open palette

With the consistency of these shadows being "creamy", it is quite nice to use them with your fingers.  They are easy to swipe and place on the eye.  Over a base they are heaven!  I do use brushes with these too, but I find that I like a really tightly packed, small brush for this.  I would not recommend anything fluffy for this.  Though the glitter seems to be suspended in a "base", there is still fall out if you fluff out this color at all.  I control it by patting on color with a dense brush, and fuzzing it out with my finger.  The shadow is pretty easy to move around, which is great.

Swatched  - No base/primer-Natural lighting

These swatches here are just one swipe of the shadows.  I did not use a primer before swatching these.  Now, the glitter in most of these is slightly colored of that of the base shadow, but you really get the sparkle from the silver glitter contained as well.  I love these shadows over colored bases mostly.  Black bases garner the most drama here.

Close up swatches

These shadows really do catch light very well.  At night, they can give the eye a glass like sheen, or like if the lid was covered in gloss.  I hope the glitter does not scare those who do not like it away.  The wear of these is long lasting and comfortable. And once again, they provide such a glowy eye that I cannot imagine everyone not trying them at least once.  For the price point, value, wear...its got my vote!

What Sonia Kashuk products are you guys loving at the moment?

My Favorite Nudes - Smashbox Lipgloss in Smitten

I present to you one of my favorite nude glosses, Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss in Smitten!

SB Lip Enhancing Gloss in Smitten

These glosses can be found at places like Ulta, Sephora, online, etc.  It retails for $18.00 USD.  The formulation of this gloss is non-sticky and does have a slight sweet scent, but not over the top.  The packaging is a basic screw top with a doe foot applicator.

The gloss in Smitten was part of a two piece kit Ulta did that contained a face and body highlighter in the color Allure.  I believe when I purchased this, it was only $12.00...TOTAL STEAL!  You cannot find this gloss in the actual range now, but the closest dupe would be Debut or Pixel.  This gloss is completely nude, no shimmer whatsoever.

lt - Blended / rt - Swipe

4-5 hours is the length of wear I get with this gloss.  This color in particular could be built up, but I love its sheer color, as it tends to really improve the color of ones lips.  This is definitely what I would call MY LIPS BUT BETTER!

The Lip Enhancing gloss line has a ton of colors, ranging from shimmery/glittery to no shimmer.  Bright and bold colors to a ton of nudes.  I do wish they would expand the line to include all of the colors made available in special kits.  I have had this gloss for about a year now, no changes in formula or wear.  I hope that I may find another one!

What are your favorite Smashbox lip gloss colors???

I am back / Allegan County Fair September 2011

Hello guys and gals!  I have been gone for a while.  It has been a mix of being sick, unmotivated, sad, sick...yeah, that list can go on and on.  Right now, I should be packing for a trip back home (though unfortunately, no stop to the Michigan City CCO :( ) but I decided to change things up a bit and let you know about the fair I went to the other day.

In Allegan, Michigan, roughly half and hour or so from Kalamazoo, during a week in September, the Allegan County Fair is held.  This is my second year going.  Typical fair, you have your 4-H stuff, animals, veggies, crafts and knick knacks.  Let us not forget about the rides, food, and vendors selling everything from velvet paintings to airbrushed license plates.

Me and my boyfriend went on dollar days, which was a sweet deal!  Dollar parking, dollar per person, and regardless of ride, dollar per ride.  That worked out perfectly, as we rode the Tilt-A-Whirl!  OMG! I have not been on a ride in over 8 years!  That was an experience!

The Allegan County Fairgrounds are "protected" by this giant statue which I love... :)

The ride fairway was small and had rides that seemed like only small children could get on.  There were a few that were fitting for adults.  Going around dusk lets all the lights of the rides shine in the nighttime sky, which is a huge plus if you are going to photograph any of them...

And now onto the animals!  I grew up in an urban setting, so being up to animals this close is always a trip.  Most always, anytime we saw animals, they were in zoos.  Ha!  You have to get used to walking from room to room and get the smells to not bother you, but it was so much fun...

Maybe I am a little bit of a country girl after all... ;)