Review: NYX HD Photogenic Concealer in Porcelain

I Bought This

I FINALLY GOT PORCELAIN. You may, or may not, have any idea how popular this shade of concealer is.

It's sold out just about every single day. I don't know if it's because it's bought up for highlighting or it's being used for concealing. But jeez, someone, leave some tubes behind!

Review: Rimmel London ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Eyeliner in Nude

I Bought This

I have no idea what to say about this eyeliner. It's a nice eyeliner. I really don't buy a lot of drugstore eyeliners, since I'm quite picky about formulas and colors.

Plus I have a lot of eyeliner already...

Review: NYX HD Photogenic Concealer in Beige

I Bought This

Someone might be reading this and thinking "Did you buy the wrong concealer?! Return it!" I didn't buy the wrong concealer, I promise! Okay, maybe I did... Kind of.

I bought it for contouring, not concealing! But I do wish NYX had a more middle of the road, not heavily red/orange-y and not overly yellow medium shade.

Sample Review: L'Oreal Total Repair 5 (Shampoo, Conditioner & Damage Erasing Balm)

Yep, a sample review. Not because I received a sample to review, but because Ze Boyfriend had sample packets of the shampoo, conditioner and damage repairing balm lying around. My hair wasn't feeling so great after I tried a yogurt mask on it.

Moral of the story: don't use Greek yogurt on your hair in an attempt to do a moisturizing yogurt hair mask.

Review: NYX Glitter Mania Loose Cosmetic Glitter Hot Gold & Pink (Discountinued)

Glitter.

Glitter, glitter, glitter. I love glitter. I don't know how any of you feel about glitter, but I love it. I'm pretty okay with glitter eyeshadows, never like the amount of fall out I can get when I don't use the appropriate primer/primer-type products. I don't use plain loose cosmetic glitters often, but I use them for special occasion-type looks.

Pink (GP04) & Hot Gold (GP08)

It's kind of hard to find plain cosmetic glitter in stores that can be used in the eye area and NYX had them. I don't think they're available any more sadly! They were discontinued... It won't stop me from reviewing though.

Review: The Brush Guard Variety Pack

I got brush guards! This is amazing! Wonderful!

You might have no idea what a brush guard is!

Review: NYX HD Studio Photogenic "Stay Matte But Not Flat" Powder Foundation

I am running out of HD powder! My beloved MAKEUP FOREVER HD Microfinish Powder!
GAH, THE WORLD IS ENDING!

Review: NYX Gel Liner & Smudger in Samantha

Gel liner has been the latest and greatest thing to come about recently, as well as potted cream eyeshadows, such as MAC's infamous Paint Pots, Maybelline's Color Tattoos that make some nice Paint Pot dupes and Estée Lauder's recent "Paint Pot" dupes as well. NYX has joined the band with their gel liner AND smudger combo (admittedly, people have been smudging gel liner and using it as a base long before but hey, these colors are pretty nifty). Yay for crazy colors!

Quick review: NYX Glam Liner Aqua Luxe Liquid Liners

I headed to Ulta today because I need more powder but don't want to buy more MAKEUP FOREVER HD powder because: 1) The one I bought in 2011 is a .35 oz jar, 2) They now only have a .3 oz jar for $35, 3) There are cheaper alternatives.

Wait, what? .3 oz of silica powder over .35? Really, MUFE? Really?

Review: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Amsterdam, Monte Carlo & Tokyo

It takes a certain person to like and wear mattes. I don't really care much for matte, because of the drying factor and my lips tend to be dry without them. I only have one matte lipstick that I like but its quite drying. Matte looks great and really reminds me of the vintage 1950's look: barely-there shades of eyeshadow, cat wing eyeliner and sexy red lips. Its the perfect minimal look! Rather than using drying matte lipsticks, I bought NYX's Soft Matte Lip Creams. These won Temptalia's Editor Choice Award for 2012, so you know these have to be great.

L to R: SMLC01 Amsterdam, SMLC03 Tokyo, SMLC10 Monte Carlo

Review: Formula 10.0.6 Pores Be Pure Skin-Clarifying Clay Mask

I already reviewed the Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque (read here) previously, in hopes of clearing my pores and getting the nastiness of my nose. This particular mask has had some great reviews, it's been said to work more at clearing pores. People have also said it can leave the face red after washing it off, due to the fruits in the formula. It's pretty much a "Don't use directly before a big event! You might still be red faced!" You should be able to get away with using it the night before your event. My face didn't become red after using this, only a bit splotchy when I used a wash cloth to remove the product but immediately the redness went away.

Why is this so cool in my world?

Review: NYX Extra Creamy Round Lipstick in 513 Electra

Confession. When I originally started using makeup, I seriously hated lipstick. Just hated the stuff. I only wanted pigmented glosses. I don't specifically remember what changed my mind, I think it was the nude lip trend. I went out and got Viva Glam Gaga II lipstick from MAC, and really loved it. Later something possessed me to find my perfect red lipstick. Well, my perfect reds are blue-based reds and I picked up NYX's Extra Creamy Round Lipstick in Electra.

The tip of the bullet was already worn down when I got it, but it definitely hadn't been used.

Review: real Techniques Powder Brush

Why, packaging, do you not have much info?

I have four three (WTF?) powder brushes to be honest. One is the tokidoki Kabuki brush, one is a mini of bareMineral's Full Coverage Kabuki brush, and the real Technique's Powder Brush. You might be wondering why I have all these brushes. Well, the tokidoki one I bought because 1) I love tokidoki. I love tokidoki so much, I wanted the collaborated phone, 2) it is insanely soft and pretty! It does work for applying powder, don't worry. One complaint I do have is that the handle is square, so its a tiny bit of a pain to hold. The bareMineral's brush came in a sample I got from Sephora and I positively hate it. It is so incredibly scratchy! I also hated the foundation that came with it. It made me orange! The Mineral Veil was okay, didn't do it what it said it would: absorb oil. Now the last brush, the real Techniques brush is a godsend to me.

These really easily slide out of the box even though the brush head is snug in the box.

These brushes come in a sort of long, rectangular box with the tops rounded slightly. The top just pulls off and your brush can be slid out. Easy! The packaging is also pretty simple, doesn't say a lot about the brush on the front. A little more on the back, with a blurb from Sam(antha Chapman).

Pretty useless blurbs

As for the brush itself, let me tell you why I bought this one. I had a very generically labeled "face powder brush" I had had since I started using makeup. It was cheap and it was the only one I could find that was nice scratchy and fluffy. It was turned a little gray from the mineral makeup I used to use and I never actually thought to wash it. When I stopped using mineral makeup (God, how that stuff dried out my skin but I also didn't know about facial moisturizer or exfoliating) and switched to liquid, I decided to wash my brush. Black dye ran out of it as well as the brush sucking up water and soap. It was disgusting. Well, sometime later when I was washing it again on a separate occasion, the wood handle came away from the ferrule. Not cool. We re-glued it and all was fine until this past January. It happened again and I was annoyed more so now, because I thought I would try using conditioner on the brush to soften the bristles. Waste of my time! I went to Ulta's website and went hunting for a decently priced brush that wasn't going to be scratchy. I liked the size of the real Techniques' brush and happily bought it after feeling the one on display.

Stands up on its own! Great for when you might be using your brush, keeps your bristles clean.

I should tell you now that real Techniques has a few brushes that will supposedly work for powder. The Powder Brush, the Kabuki Brush and the Setting Brush and they even suggest using the Stippling Brush for powder. I didn't see the kabuki in person but it's got angular bristles and is apparently "2-in-1." It can be opened and used flat. Neat, but I don't want/need it. The Setting brush's head is also small. Very small and it resembles their Blush Brush. I personally associate stippling brushes more with liquid foundation, cream foundation and cream blush. I just can't imagine a stippling brush being really effective for powder application! I picked the Powder Brush because its fluffy, flexible yet dense and applies powder like a dream.

real Techniques logoing

Nice and fluffy! You can tell I've used mine recently.

These brushes are made with Taklon fibers, so they're just oh-so-touchably soft. I could spend hours petting my brush (pretty sad, huh?). Sadly I can't get it to fit in my makeup bag so I pop it back in the packaging to protect it while I travel. This brush picks up powder nicely and disperses it evenly, as well as being so gentle on the face. It washes well, super light and can be stood up on its own. Yay for a new, nice brush!

The only other words on the brush hand are "Powder Brush," no numbers to remember. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it.

If you're in the market for a new brush and don't or can't spend a fortune on something like Crown, Sigma or even MAC, check out these real Techniques brushes. The Powder Brush is $9.99 from Ulta and I used one of their "$3.50 off $10" coupons, dropping the price to $6.50 before tax. Woohoo! Most will run you about $7.99 to $9.99 before tax, which is a sweet price for how delightful they are to use. The travel sets are more costly for 3 to 4 brushes, at about $17.99. Not too bad if you have a daughter or someone else just getting into makeup and needs some decent starter brushes, as the sets come in a case that can be stood up on its own. Since I already have a foundation brush I'm happy with and a powder brush, I won't be picking one up.

(Heads up, the person behind these brushes is Samantha Chapman, one of the Pixiwoo girls on YouTube. I don't watch Pixiwoo since I am utterly unimpressed by their looks. The links to "About Us" and "About Sam" on the real Techniques' site don't work. Dead links!)

SPOOKEHDOOM

Review: NYX Nude Matte Eyeshadow in Birthday Suit

Ah, NYX. I love NYX. They're cheap. They have stunning quality. I have found products I love, since there are so many! Today, however, is focusing on one. There aren't many reviews or swatches for the Nude Matte Eyeshadows and I really wanted to know whether or not I was getting a good product before I went searching for it at my local Ulta. I finally (FINALLY!) found a review and swatches from VampyVarnish, who I love. Her blog's name and the fact she's just a bag of awesome. You can read her review here: VampyVarnish

Review: Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque

Some people do masks. Some people don't. Some people use the popular Japanese and Korean 'sheet masks', while others use clay masks. I think I can say a lot of us don't use any masks. I'm very guilty of this. I don't want to find and buy sheet masks (I'm very impatient on waiting for things to ship!), and the Asian grocery store only stocks Missha masks. Would love some by My Beauty Diary but alas, they shan't be mine. Instead I will use clay masks! This particular mask is said to reduce pore size, rinse away blackheads and dries out pimples.