What's in my bag?!

Hey everyone! I know i've neglected this blog a bit lately, and that time has got to change!

I'm really hoping to pick up my tutorials and such again for you! But i also want to use this venue to chat to you about some other makeup and beauty related things, current product trends, upcoming trends, product reviews, etc maybe without videoing everything. Videoing is easy... editting, not so much! haha! And with a full work schedule and 2 little guys at home, the editting part gets put to last and well, then there is nothing going up on the blog!

So here's something new... every month or so (i'm going to try to shoot for the first of the month! haha) i'm going to do a little bloggie post about "what's in my bag!" This is going to just be what my current top picks are... the stuff i use daily, etc. Hopefully this gives some insight to what some rockin' products are and helps you plan what you might like to try out next!

So.... What's in my bag?!

Let's start with my basic skincare routine.... my skin is super dry and even worse in the winter months, but i still have some combo oily areas.... joy.

I wash my very sensitive dry skin with Aveeno Ultra Calming Creme Cleanser....

As you can read on the package... it has no fragrance which is good for those with skin sensitivies... it also has feverfew which is fabulous for those with roseacea problems (thankfully, not a problem that i have) and it's a cream base which is good for those with very very dry skin. They also make a foaming cleanser that i havent tried, i don't do the suds.

Next at night i use pure Evening Primrose oil. I'm old school. If it worked for grandma then it can work for me! My grandma is 95 and looks 15-20 years younger than her age. I trust her. haha! But seriously, if you have skin as dry as mine and is sensitive, a lot of the moisturizers you might be using may actually make your skin more dry believe it or not. There are some pure oils that are fabulous for your skin, and are natural oils so they wont blog your pores. :)

Another skincare line i use a lot is Aloette.... Its a fabulous skincare line. Their enzyme peel is AMAZING! Its super gentle so it doesnt irriate my skin at all (which is hard not to) and just gets rid of all the flaking dead skin cells on top. I often use this on clients before i apply their makeup to get the smoothest possible start. You only need to use this once a week or so. THe price seems high, but i promise this stuff lasts forever!

And one more skincare product that i just have to mention is my new love for a moisturizer! I mean this stuff boots my others (except for my evening primrose oil for the super dry days!) to the curb! It's by RareMinerals (a branch of the Bare Escentuals company)

It's a super lush feeling lotion that is paraben free (major bonus!) but does not feel even the slightest bit oily to me. I had no flakey skin issues for the entire day the first day i tried it! Love this stuff! I definitely recommend it!

Ok, so thats that for the skincare routine! Now let's move on to my current everyday makeup routine. Now remember, my daily wear is not extensive! I'm a mom! Just an everyday mom who does a lot of other stuff, so i dont have a lot of time to spend dolling myself up for the day especially if my biggest plans are to hit Target. I barely even get dolled up for a makeup job anymore! haha! I keep it basic and save all the fun stuff for everyone else! hahaha!

Ok, so here is my current makeup choices....keep in mind the weather plays a major factor in what i choose for makeup. I do plan on doing a special video tutorial on dry skin makeup application. :)

Foundation... i love the new Stila One Step Foundation.

Bugger is it doesnt come in a tone of colors so finding your shade might be tricker. But the new release of the larger size bottle provides 8 different colors... which i havent tried all of yet, but my guess is it'll be easier to match than i might think. :)

Next is cheek color and in dry months i usually always opt for a cream color. My current favs are the Nars Multiple in Malibu and the Stila Convertable cheek color in

There are other cream blushes out there of course, but these are my 2 favs and in my 2 fav colors. :)

My favorite eyeshadows remain the velux or satin mac shadows. I dont even use them on a daily basis (a litte cream blush on the brow bone is fast and very fresh looking, check out my 3 minute makeup video - that i need to reshoot... haha) for more info on that!

But my favorites in these shadows are

Rice Paper, Arena and the Notoriety Quad (skipping the 1st color, i dont like the lustre finish)

My favorite mascara is by sheer cover because it doesn cake on and removes easily without a black runny mess down your face, though from what i've read and heard from others, the closest rival is the new tubes mascara by Loreal. I just havent tried it yet.

And last but not least, my favoritest lipgloss.... i fear i'm going to have to pick a new fav soon because mine is almost out and the color is no longer available! But the lipgloss is sheer and not sticky, truly beautiful! It's by Bloom Cosmetics and my favorite color is Dolce. :)

So thats it for this edition of Whats in my Bag! :)

Tune in next time... hehe.

What a weekend! and a Stila review

WHat a weekend i had!  On saturday I did hair and makeup for a pretty good sized bridal party.... the Bride, 6 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, a mama and a grandma.  And this was Makeup AND Hair!  Needless to say i was pretty pooped by the end of the evening!  haha.

I will show all the hair pictures probably tomorrow, but i wanted to do a quick review of a new makeup palette (well, it's new for me).

The Stila Smokey Eyes palette...  First let me say that it talks to you! Really it does.  You push a button on the inside and it says "Thank you for purchasing the Stila Smokey Eye Palette".  It then goes on to give you step by step instructions, which i didnt actually listen to.  So i suppose I should have done that to give a full review, huh?  Well, it also gives a drawn out diagram that i do agree with, so I'm gonna guess that the wording review i'd agree with as well.  haha.  The talk button will also tell you which of stila's brushes they recommend you to use.

The "base" (lightest color in the palette in the top left hand corner) is pretty darn shimmery.  Dont get me wrong, it's LOVELY, just very shimmery.  It does not look shimmer in the stila photo... trust me, it IS!  You have to be a little careful of fall out.  (Fall out is those little flecks of shadow you get on your cheeks or elsewhere on your face from the makeup brush, most common with dark shadows or ones with a high glitter content).  Its nothing major, but definitely something you'd want to be aware of.  If you are just doing makeup on yourself, you'd probably be fine, but if applying on someone else who will have their photo taken (or you plan on having your own photo taken) be aware that as with all glitter flecks, they can catch the light in a photo leaving the photo with a white dot on the skin.  

The 2nd color or your "lid" color (top right hand of the quad) is a gorgeous shimmery grey brown.  This color could hold it's own when you you want a much less dramatic look (so no smokey eye) but still a gorgeous color.

The Crease color (bottom left corner of quad) is a more matte version of Espresso but is also more of a warm grey that brown like espresso.  Its a great color.   In my opinion, adding in this color much more matte than the shimmer of the previous 2 colors really proves that Stila knows how to make a smokey eye!  If you use a shimmery dark color as your crease or contour color, you are just going to end up with too much shimmer.  It will look ULTRA glam and maybe a weeeee bit um... drag queen.  If you are using a dark shimmery color, you should stick no non shimmery all over colors.  :)

And last but not least in the palette is your liner color.  I used a Stila Smudge Pot in black to get the definition of eyeliner and then smudged over it with this liner color.  You could also wet your brush or use a liner sealer (my favorite is by La Femme) to turn this into more of a cream base liner.

Here is a photo of one of the bridesmaids that I used this palette of shadows on...

We wanted to keep her look glam, but not TOO much.  She was just a bridesmaid afterall and the bride did not want to be too done up either.  I used a sheer foundation to start (Lola Oil Free Foundation in sand mixed with a little bit of wheat since she is fairly tanned).  This allowed her freckles to show thru a bit without being very predominate.  I used a MAC blush in Canteloupe with a little but of MAC's blunt for contour.

For her eyes, as mentioned previously i used the Stila Original Smokey Eye palette.  The nice thing about this palette is by varying the intensity of the shadows provided, you can either create a very dramatic look, or a more subtle yet still glam as I did here.  Her wet line was lined a little bit with the smudgepot in black using a liner brush.  And the lid color smudged only slightly under the bottom lash line.  Should you want this look a little more dramatic and edgy, the lower lid could have been more heavily lined and use the liner or crease color under the bottom lashes as well.

Thanks for stopping by to read up on my Stila Product review!

Product Review

Quick Product Review today...

Pixi Natural Mineral Palette




Target is now carrying the Pixi Beauty line of makeup! They are making colors and palettes exclusively for target as well. WHats the bonus here? Well, I had never tried Pixi Beauty, but it's a higher end than typical "drugstore" brands and it's being carried at a drugstore. Which means items get clearanced as barcodes change, you can use giftcards that you wouldn't be able to use at other makeup places and um, you can tag things onto your weekly shop bill and hubby's might not catch on (thank goodness mine doesnt read this blog!).

But there is still a downside. Most makeup stores (like Sephora, Ulta, etc) have testers sitting out. Sometimes you'll see testers at a place like Target, but not like at a makeup retailer. Plus you dont have anyone who works there to ask. Trust me, the employees at target dont know the makeup specifics.

I was on the bonus side because I found this little kit sitting on an endcap, being clearanced most likely because of a new color coming out, or possibly a changing barcode. It was the only of it's kind (probably was hidden in the back during the normal markdowns) and i scored it for only 6.25. It was originally 25.00. I figured it was worth testing out.

Here is my review...

The shadows are heavily pigmented which is fantastic! Definitely what you miss when you buy are cheaper "drugstore" variety (they arent all bad, i'm just saying they dont often have the staying power). I applied the shadows which came in a beautiful shimmery champagne, a peachy bronze, a richer cocoa bronze and a shimmery soft black with gold flecks in the morning and it lasted the entire day. So a big woot woot for the shadows! I was impressed.
The next layer of the compact was blushes. One is a cream blush that seemed too dark for my skin tone, so i admit i havent tried it yet. I will amend this review when i do. The bronze tone seems harsh in the box as well. As long as you buff it on in a quick motion and dont add too many layers, this looked very nice on my NC30 skin. Not muddy and not too shimmery which is definitely what i feared by looking in the compact.
The final layer were 2 lipgloss pots. I'm truly not a fan of lipgloss in palettes because they just get messy to me. But since these have their own layer and wont gunk up the blushes or eyeshadows... there may be hope. Like many glosses, these were pretty going on, didnt last all day, but not a lot of glosses do. So they were fine, but they wouldnt be the reason i would purchase this product.

SO - all in all - would it be worth the 25 bucks? maybe, if you didnt have these eyeshadow colors (they are gorgeous, but "common". Its an easy think to go in your makeup kit if you arent a makeup artist, perhaps a pain in the rear if you are. The chunk box wont fit in with any of my palettes so it will remain in my bathroom drawer for when i do my own makeup. if you happen to find it on sale or clearance though, i'd say snatch it up! :)