This is probably the first year that I’ve seen holiday collections and sets out this early and I’m excited to be able to share my first holiday gift guide/review with you today! I’ve teamed up with Ulta Beauty to give you a look at four affordable gift sets from Benefit. There are a lot more options to choose from online and in store and the best two things are 1) they are all under $60 and 2) the packaging is fun and festive so there’s no extra work required to wrap it up. The four I’m featuring today include:
Up first is the Cable Car Cuties Set which has three minis of the Rockateur Rose Gold Blush, Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel in Shade 3, POREfessional Face Primer. This is an Ulta exclusive and is great for an affordable stocking stuffer set or for holiday gift exchanges. All three items are easy to wear and can be a fun way to test things out. This was my first time testing out Rockateur and it’s one of the prettiest soft rose blushes I’ve tried – truly natural and doesn’t darken on the skin.
Up next includes the Beauty and the Bay Set which has 4 full-size items and one mini. This one is on the left with the High Brow Highlight & Lift Pencil, They’re Real! Mascara in Jet Black, Hoola Matte Bronzer, High Beam Liquid Face Highlighter Mini. Hoola is one of the most under-rated matte bronzers (in my opinion).
GALifornia Love Set has a full-size Roller Lash Super Curling and Lifting Mascara in Black, full-size Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel in Shade 3 and a mini GALifornia Sunny Golden Pink Blush. It’s been a while since I tried Benefit blushes and have to say I’m really impressed with the finish and quality, especially for the price. GALifornia smells like candy peaches (in a good way). Whenever I ask for mascara recs a lot of you mention the Roller Lash and I finally tried it – pretty impressed that it had no smudging and was truly a deep rich black color. No clumping either!
Beauty and the Bay Set swatches, I swatched Hoola with a very heavy hand, on the face I promise it doesn’t look this dark. If you’re ultra fair definitely checkout their Hoola-Lite, I’ve tried that one too and it’s the best light colored non-grey non-orangey powder bronzer I’ve tried.
Last but not least is the Great BROWnanza Blockbuster Set which is a great value for the price. If you’re brow novice and don’t know what formula works best for you this is a great way to try all the different formulas. It’s priced at $59 but the retail value is $151. Note there are two shade options in 3 and 5. I picked up the 5 for darker hair.
Long-time readers know I’m a super minimalist when it comes to brows – I have thick dark hair but my brows are lighter in color so I struggle with whether I should match color to my brows, or my hair or somewhere in between. I’m still learning and do think brow application gets better with practice. I tried all the brow items in the set and my top two picks are the Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel (it’s so easy to use!) and the Brow Zings set because it comes with a usable travel applicator and the cutest mini tweezers. The Ka-Brow! gives me the most coverage and fills in the best, the Brow Pencil is easiest to use for precise feathering layering. The spoolie is a really good one and I don’t know why I didn’t find it sooner.
Here’s a quick look at the Benefit Hoola and the Brow Zings Shade 5. On the left photo you’ll see half my face is before with just my base (powder, concealer and foundation) and the other side has a more polished look with the Brow Zings and Hoola on the cheeks. On the lips is MAC Lipglass in N-U-D-E over Lip Pencil in Boldly Bare.
Lots of cute options to pick from! Do you have any Benefit favorites? You can find all these sets now online and in stores at Ulta.
Thanks to Ulta for partnering to sponsor this post!
By Terry launched several new products for fall including a new powder called Compact-Expert Dual Powder ($46 each for 5g/0.17 oz, made in Italy) and concealers called Stylo-Expert Click Sticks ($34 each for 1 g/0.035 oz, made in Korea). I saw the new items last month in person while I was in Santa Barbara and found a Space NK store near my hotel and picked up a few of the powders, when I got home I decided I needed all the colors so ordered the rest online from Nordstrom. I also ordered three of the concealers as I wasn’t sure what color I would be, in store swatching seemed to have shades that were either too light or dark but I decided to give it a go.
The Compact-Expert Dual Powders are also called All-Over Perfection matte and glow powders. The box says these powders are made with Intensive Mimetic Camouflage technology which is supposed be “self-adapting” light-focus pigments. I’m not really sure I understand fully what that means or if this really means anything significant but I do find these have a lightweight soft blendable texture that give the skin a beautiful natural glow and tint of color. Each compact has two shades, a center that is shimmery and an outer ring that is more satiny/matte. I don’t know that I would use these all over the face as the size of the product makes it pretty hard to dip a powder or brush blush into just one color. Also most of these don’t strike me as setting powder colors. I do like these as highlighters or blushes, even on the eyes though. They are like a softer slightly more matte version of the Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic Powder Blushes. Lasting power is quite good – they stay put all day long on me. There is no detectable scent and have a smooth flawless finish.
The lighter shades are all really pretty light in color. Pigment is sheer to medium but buildable. The only color that resembles my skintone is 4 Beige Nude, the others look similar on me but a lot of times lighter colors can do that. If you are on the fair or light end of the skintone spectrum I think you’ll be thrilled to find a few options light enough for you!
Shades 5 through 8 show up better on my skintone as blush or bronzer. I love every single color. If I had to skip any, I think Choco Vanilla can pull a little bit too warm on my skintone.
5 Amber Light, 6 Choco Vanilla, 7 Sun Desire and 8 Mocha Fizz
Next up are the By Terry Stylo-Expert Click Stick concealers which I think rival Cle de Peau (at least the original formula, I haven’t tried the new one). The By Terry ones have a smoother finish that glide on the skin easier. I’ve loved Cle de Peau for years but the biggest complaint I’ve heard from readers is that the formula is too opaque and dry and can tug on the skin, especially under the eyes. The By Terry has rich opaque coverage but blends out to medium coverage – it’s not as full coverage as the Cle de Peau ones but still has impressive coverage I was able to build. Swatching can be a little deceiving as they are really opaque when you swatch them and they look pale, but they will look more forgiving on the skin if you don’t have an exact match. In store I thought the shades would be too light or dark. If I were to find my exact match it would be in between 8 and 10 (there’s a pretty big gap there). 8 is the closest but pulls a little olive – for my concealers I tend to want a little bit more warmth as an exact match can be a bit sallow-looking on my olive skin.
I tried 4.5 and 5 as well. Oddly enough all three work for me under the eyes – the color you pick really depends on what kind of coverage, undertone or effect you need. You can definitely use these to brighten or highlight or contour. They are creamy enough that you can layer on top of your foundation and it won’t look cakey. These wore well on my skin under the eyes and didn’t crease, budge or cake – you do need to set with powder and if you have dry patches I recommend you make sure you prime or moisturize the skin well first.
The biggest downside I’d say is the price for the amount of product you get. The By Terry Stylo-Expert Click Stick runs $34 for 1 g while the Cle de Peau is $70 for 5 g. A quick look at price per oz on other concealers show that the By Terry one is indeed on the high side and while I do understand the quality, packaging and design is all there I do think they should give us more product in the tube.
One last look and overall thoughts: I am really impressed with the powders – they are smooth and have a natural glow on the skin. I could have skipped #1, 2 (these are too light) and 6 (too warm) but really all the colors are wearable and I know I’ll wear each shade on a regular basis. This isn’t something I feel I can say about entire collections but in this case I can. The concealers are really good in terms of wear, quality and finish. my feelings on these are the same about those Hourglass Confession Lipsticks – the price is really just too much given the mount of product that they give you. If you can find a shade that works for you I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, but I can’t help but feel like it’s kinda a rip-off price per gram.
I bought all the shades myself but received three powders as press samples which I’m going to give away! One person will win #4, #5 and #7. All you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter, be sure to enter via the Rafflecopter widget below – it’s open internationally but you must be 18 years or older to enter. Giveaway ends 10/14/2017 and I’ll select ONE winner within 48 hours after it ends and contact them via e-mail.
Have you tried these? What did you think? If not which shade do you have your eye on? Note there is a Space NK/Nordstrom GWP going on now online only if you have these on your wishlist. I believe Space NK will have a gift in a week or so as well.
This year has has been one of the most interesting and challenging years of my life with our move from California to Florida back in February. This month marks the seven month time period of us living on the East Coast, but with evacuating for a few days, travel, and work trips here and there we’ve really been in Tampa Bay for six. So many have asked for a Tampa Bay travel guide plus thoughts on moving from coast to coast. I know most of you come to this blog for beauty-related reviews and insights so it makes me happy to find a lot of you are interested in other parts of my life as well.
We moved from San Diego to Tampa Bay in February of this year. Both Andrew and I had lived in San Diego most of our lives and were ready for a change. We didn’t know exactly where we wanted to live, but we knew it would be somewhere sunny. The timing happened to coincide with the fact that Andrew’s parents found their dream house in Apollo Beach, Florida and decided to buy it for retirement in a year or two. They asked us if we’d consider moving and renting from them so they wouldn’t have to find strangers to rent it and we agreed. We packed up everything we owned from the modern loft we rented into a 16-foot Penske moving truck with our three fur kids and drove across country to Florida in 5 days.
Our plan was to rent their home for a year while we explored Florida to decide where to settle down. We explored things all over the place fell in love with pretty much everything. Each area has it’s own unique charm! Unfortunately things don’t always go according to plan. Long story very short, Andrew’s parents told us they were going to move/retire earlier than they expected. They changed their move date twice and by mid-July we learned they would be in Apollo Beach by August. We had to find a new place in a matter of a couple weeks. To say I had a freak out about the thought of not having a place to live would be an understatement. With pets finding a place to rent or buy isn’t an easy process and for sure isn’t something you can do quickly. Andrew, being the glass half full kind of person that he is, calmed me down and said we should look on the bright side, take advantage of not being tied down, travel month-to-month in a few vacation rentals and do some real exploring to get a sense of the different areas in Florida.
In less than 5 days we packed, found a storage unit, moved most of our belongings there and found a vacation rental that would take 3 pets. We signed up with a parcel delivery service for our mail and packages. We each packed a suitcase and a few bankers moving boxes to bring essentials with us. Finding a monthly vacation rental was easy, but finding one that would take 3 pets with a fenced yard was a bit of a challenge. We looked at Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO and it took hours of searching. As this post is being published, we are now on Month 3 of living the nomadic life in three different areas of Tampa Bay and it’s been quite an adventure. Stressful for sure, but still we’ve managed to have a lot of fun, explore like tourists and also live like locals. We’ve learned a lot.
Now that I’ve shared my story, here are some thoughts on each place we’ve lived, a list of my top places to see and where to eat in Tampa Bay. We still have a long list of places we want to visit! Florida is such a huge place we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Where we’ve lived:
When people ask me what it’s like to live in Florida, my answer is that it really depends on where you are. Florida is a really big state, we’ve only really explored Tampa Bay which is enormous. The only thing consistent across Tampa Bay is that the weather is warm, it can be hot and humid and it rains frequently. We loved that the weather is so warm you can swim in the ocean without freezing! In the three cities we’ve lived we’ve found so much wildlife – each area has different kinds of animals that gravitate towards those areas. Some that scare me to death like snakes, geckos and lizards and some that are cute like pelicans, cranes, squirrels and dolphins.
Apollo Beach is a city south and east of Tampa. Much of the area was developed to be a waterfront community so there are a lot of man-made canals which is unlike anything I had ever seen before. My in-law’s house is located in one of the gated communities along the water where every house has a boat dock in their backyard. Manatees, dolphins, fish, birds and all kinds of wildlife surface which is really amazing. Andrew and I loved everything about our neighborhood and the house had a lot of charm: two stories, four bedrooms, huge backyard and a pool. The only downside was it was far from everything we were interested in seeing, doing or eating – most places are at least 35 minutes away to an hour drive.
St. Pete Beach is one of the best beach towns I’ve visited. If you’re looking for a great vacation spot this is such a cute area with lots of fun coffee shops, restaurants, cute hotels, beaches with cabana rentals and more. We rented a cute beach house in August, also with a pool and fenced back yard. It was the first time we had used VRBO and we had a great experience. It’s easy to navigate, search, filter (a key for us pet owners) and book. We were a bit worried it would also be too far from Tampa and it is, however there is so much to explore in the area. Treasure Island is a lot fun (they have an amazing salt water taffy store there and I don’t even like taffy, but the ones there are amazing!), Pass-A-Grille has beautiful beaches to relax, and St. Petersburg is only 30 minutes away.
Saint Petersburg was our third Florida destination to live. This area was my favorite for food. In the month we lived in St. Pete Beach we found ourselves constantly driving the 20-30 minutes to Saint Petersburg for coffee, lunch and dinner so we decided to live there for a month. This was our second experience VRBO where we rented a charming cottage.
Places to visit:
We’re still exploring Florida and I’ll most likely create a separate page that I’ll update as we see more. In Florida I think the most frequently suggested place to visit is Orlando because of Disney World and all the other theme parks. I had been to Disneyland in California many times growing up and actually liked that one better. Our favorite places that we visited:
Clearwater Beach has the best soft white sand out of all the beaches I’ve visited. It’s a great place to stop by for a day visit. Sunsets are just so beautiful! Where we stayed in Clearwater in this post here.
St. Pete Beach is one of the most fun areas to live and explore. We stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Zamora in December which we would definitely go to again. After we moved the first time we spent a day renting beach chairs and umbrellas at The DonCesar Hotel and had an amazing time. It’s on our list to stay at for stay-cations, the property is beautiful!
Fort de Soto Park is a unique park and beach area that’s quite spread out so it’s not as dense with people as some other beaches. There is a lot to explore, you can bike, walk, or swim. There is a historic fort there as well.
Pass-A-Grille is part of St. Pete Beach past The Don Cesar hotel – it’s lined with beaches all the way to the Gulf. It’s really beautiful here. We took several day trips here when we lived at the beach to just sit and relax. You definitely need to bring some beach chairs and umbrellas with you.
Weeki Wachee Springs State Park is a little over an hour north. It has two main parts, one is Buccaneer Bay which has a mini theme park feel with water slides, mermaid show, restaurants (it closes starting October, check site for when they reopen) and the other part is the kayaking along the Weeki Wachee River which is open 365 days a year (they will shut down if there are thunder/lightening storms). It took us 4 hours to kayak 5 miles and it was the best thing we’ve done in Florida.
Anna Maria is south close to Sarasota, visiting these beaches on a clear day makes you feel like you’ve found paradise. The water is clear and the brightest blue I’ve ever seen. Something definitely worth seeing.
Hyde Park Village in Tampa is a cute shopping and restaurant area. They have Sprinkles, Sur la Table, Bartaco, Anthropologie and a cute Blue Mercury store!
Bayshore Boulevard is a long continuous sidewalk along Tampa Bay, it was unique and interesting for us because the view of the water and houses in the area is just amazing! The entire sidewalk is 4.5 miles long. We watched the fourth of July fireworks from here.
Top places to eat:
Through a process of trial and error we’ve found some really amazing food in Tampa.
Bodega – best most unique Cuban sandwiches I’ve tried, since eating here I’ve put at least a dozen other places to the test and NOTHING compares.
Bartaco – love this place for the ambiance, food, service, they have several locations in a few states like Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia – definitely check it out!
Edison Food Lab – wins for most unique menu, their menu changes every once in a while which makes it interesting.
Casita Taqueria – in Florida there really isn’t quite anything as good as the Mexican food I’ve grown accustomed to in San Diego, this place is pretty darn good though. I live for their queso!
Ted Peter’s Famous Smokehouse – they have amazing fresh fish and I’m not really a fish eating person (the only sushi I do is California Roll and I know that’s not real sushi), it’s definitely a unique spot with a very relaxed atmosphere, note that they take cash only.
Fresh Kitchen – this is a Tampa/Southern version of Chipotle, they have bowls you can mix and match to create your own combination. One of the healthier food options in town.
Better Byrd – if you like chicken sandwiches or donuts (I love both), this is a way better version of Chick-Fil-A.
Datz – another place filled with amazing food options, warning though if you are a healthy eater and don’t eat here, everything on the menu is pretty hefty, but it’s unique and I think worth trying at least once.
The Hyppo is probably the best dessert place I’ve tried. They have gourmet ice pops that come in the most unique flavors, aren’t overly sweet, and have amazing fruit blends. I think I could live off these alone. They have several locations – this place is a must visit.
Sweet Brewnette is a cute coffee shop in St Pete Beach (Madiera Beach to be exact) they have really good coffee.
Kahwa Coffee has multiple locations in Tampa and Saint Petersburg, in my top 5 coffee places of all time.
La Casa del Pane is a cute Italian Bakery with good patries, foccacia, bread, coffee and desserts.
Oxford Exchange is a cute restaurant, coffee bar, tea bar and gift shop kind of place. It stocks Aesop and Cire Trudon as well!
I’ve mapped out everything here in case you want to use it as a reference!
I hope you enjoyed this roundup! If you’ve moved cross country before I’d love to hear about it. It’s taken some time for me to adjust but we love the water, beaches, warm weather, food, people. It’s been a wonderful place to explore and my first time living in the South. The only stressful thing has been the constant moving and right now we aren’t sure how much longer we will be doing this. Part of us is ready to pick a place and settle down, other parts of us really love the exploring! We had hoped to be in New York or Miami the month of October but the pet situation has made things a bit tricky. If you travel frequently any tips or tricks on how to get used to it? We’ve moved four times this year and we get better and more efficient each time. I tried to keep this as high level as possible – there’s so much I could write about our experiences! If you have any questions about anything on VRBOs/Airbnb, traveling with pets or want to see more or anything else let me know in the comments!
Tom Ford launched 50 shades of girls lip colors with the Boys and Girls Lipsticks ($36 each) this year with two formulas, Lip Color Sheer and Ultra-Rich Lip Color. I stopped by my local Nordstrom the week they launched and picked out a handful to purchase. I’ve been a huge fan of Tom Ford lipsticks from the very start and each year I look forward to seeing their new mini clutch-sized launches. They did Lips and Boys for two years and this year they added a Lips and Girls which I think is super fun. After covering my hand with swatches I ended up with twelve of the Lips and Girls Sheers and five of the Lips and Girls Ultra-Rich formula. A few thoughts on each formula and then swatches + descriptions below.
The Girls Lip Color Sheers are just as the name implies, “sheer.” They are ultra smooth, hydrating and have a gorgeous sheen. Most of the colors I saw had some degree of shimmer for the sheer finish, although I did notice a few non-shimmers. They are sheer though. Many of the colors I picked out ended up looking very similar once on my lips. I should have picked some of the deeper or brighter colors for more variety. All the colors I tried were smooth in coverage except Carine and Lena, both of which were a bit streaky on my lips. To me these have a similar vibe to that of the Chanel Rouge Coco Shines and YSL Volupte Shine Oil in Stick, just with a little less slip, not quite as balmy, and with a tiny bit more pigment. Lasting power isn’t going to be exceptional since they are sheer and glossy so reapplication is going to be necessary. I don’t mind since they feel so comfortable on the lips.
The Girls Ultra-Rich Lip Colors have more pigment with a soft glossy finish. I absolutely love this formula and wish the entire line of Lips and Girls had been like this. I have and love the full size Revolve Around Me and the Lips and Girls are just as good in terms of pigment, coverage and comfort. They hug the lips nicely and the colors are gorgeous. On my pigmented lips some of the shades I picked also look similar, the difference will be more noticeable if you have lighter colored lips. I’ll note the difference in undertone below.
Colors are split into three sets below, two sets of the sheers and one set of the ultra-rich. Up first are:
Carine is a light shimmery beige nude
Edita is a neutral nude beige shimmer
Nina is a soft peachy shimmer
Beatrice is a light baby pink with iridescent blue shimmers
Julianne is a medium pink beige shimmer
Alicia is a light neutral-cool pink shimmer
All lip swatches on bare lips, foundation shade worn on the skin is the Tom Ford Waterproof Foundation/Concealer in Natural. I feel like a broken record about this one but it’s really one of the best ones I’ve used in a long time and has still held up really well in the Florida heat/humidity. In case you still have not seen the review, it’s posted here with swatches of Bisque, Natural and Sable alongside MAC Studio Fix Fluid swatches for reference. For those who want to know my MAC shade, I fluctuate between NC25 and NC37 in the liquid because I tan easily. Right now I’m the equivalent of NC37. I don’t know what shade I am in the powder, many years ago I used to use C3 and C4 but I developed a severe allergic reaction to the powder and have been scared to re-try it since.
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Second set includes:
Carolyn is a shimmery neutral pink brown with silver shimmer
Ellie is a cool mauve shimmer
Lara is a light mauve brown shimmer
Fabiola is a creamy mauve brown pink
Lena is a pale aqua colored shimmer
Isamaya is a sheer violet
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Third set is with the Ultra-Rich:
Katherine is a soft beige pink, it’s similar to my fav Bradley but Katherine has a bit more pink
Marisa is a pretty medium pink
Zoe is a peachy pink cream
Isla is a coral peach
Valentina is a plum mauve
Bradley added below to the arm swatch set below, review + swatch of that color in this post here.
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Overall thoughts is I love the formula, it’s truly top notch. The Lip Color Sheers are as the name implies “sheer” and while I knew that was what I should expect, I feel like I could have skipped more than 3/4 of the colors I bought because they look so similar once they are on the lips. Out of the 12 sheers I bought 4 of them broke at the base which is heartbreaking so I’m going to hopefully exchange those at Nordstrom. This has never happened to me before with any Tom Ford Lipstick (and I’ve tried all of the formulas) and based on the fact that most of mine are still ok, I think it could have just been duds. For those suspecting it might have been heat that melted or softened them at the base – I make sure everything is back at air-conditioned room temperature before swatching. I love the Ultra-Rich formula – it is one of the best formulas I’ve tried. I love the smooth glossy finish and the colors are really quite pretty.
Out of all the colors I bought, my top 5 picks: Nina, Ellie, Katherine, Zoe and Valentina. Although Katherine is a pretty good dupe for Bradley so they are most likely too similar to justify owning both (if you don’t want dupes).
There are some new shades of Lips and Boys but I decided to skip them this round which is a good thing because there are tons of new shades in the Lip Color and Lip Color Matte formula which I’m dying to see in person.
You can find the Tom Ford Boys and Girls at all counters now, the girls shades are available individually for $36 each, in a 50 piece set for $1,980 and also in a trio set at Neiman Marcus for $108. I bought mine from Nordstrom. Also available at Neiman Marcus, Sephora, Saks Fifth Avenue, Beautylish and Tom Ford Beauty. They are limited-edition.
Have you checked these out yet? What did you think?
Happy Monday everyone! I’ve been a bit MIA as we are moving and we had a few last minute changes in our plans for this month. Thanks to everyone who has sent their kind thoughts and wishes – we are all well and good in Florida and thankfully there was no damage to the area we lived and the neighborhood my in-laws house is ok as well. We are in a transition phase but I hope to have the Tom Ford Lips and Girls review, new post on By Terry launches and the full living in Florida recap this week. A lot of you messaged me asking if I was planning on reviewing the Diptyque City Exclusives – I was able to order four of the cities, but many of them sold out the day they launched online (I’m missing Shanghai and New York). I’ll try to review the ones I do have soon though. A few things have popped up on my beauty radar:
Mansur Gavriel has been on my radar for a long time, I’ve been waiting to go to NY to see the new colors and all the sizes at their pop-up store in person, but my trips keep getting postponed! I’m 5’3″ so I love that they have minis and mini-mini sizes, I’ve been so tempted to just order one online from Net-A-Porter but have decided to wait and see them in person – if you have any of their bags let me know your thoughts!
Tom Ford launched new shades of Lip Color and Lip Color Matte, had I known these were coming I would have skipped some of the Lips and Girls Lip Sheers and opted to purchase these instead, I haven’t seen the colors in person yet though
Chanel La Creme Main is one of the most interesting packages I’ve seen for a hand cream, I received a sample of this but I’m living out of a suitcase this week so review will happen in the next week or so, I’m anxious to see how it performs!
Byredo Velvet Haze is one of the latest from Byredo, I sampled a mini from the September Barneys Beauty Bag Event and love the warm fall vibe it has, it’s still hot as heck here in Florida but we are hoping to do some travel in the next couple of months and it’s definitely on my wishlist
Atelier Cologne Bois Blonds has been my go-to the past month, I bought a mini size while I was in San Francisco and wish I had just bought the larger size, it’s the perfect summer to fall transition fragrance and I need to buy another one soon
By Terry Compact Expert Dual Powders are some of the prettiest face powders I’ve ever tried, they’re designed to mattify, highlight and set all over – but since these have colors that look like both blush, highlight or bronzer I don’t see how they’ll really work as a setting powder, I purchased all the shades and will review soon – they look lovely on the cheeks or as a soft contour/highlight
Bobbi Brown launches her beautiful Beauty Cases each year, this year’s color is a pretty red, she also has a bigger Deluxe Beauty Trunk available but I haven’t seen any inside photos of this year’s version
Laura Mercier Matte Caviar Stick Eye Colors are among the best soft matte cream shadows I’ve tried, I’ve only tried a couple shades so far in Au Naturel, Caramel and Blossom which are pretty darn good, I have a few others I haven’t gotten to yet but if you’re one who prefers minis some holiday sets have just launched including this 4-piece Mod to Modern Holiday Caviar Stick Set (also available at Sephora)
Barneys New York Blow Out in a Box looks like a killer gift set, it has four full-size items from Oribe, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, Rodin and Sachajuan at a value price, this For the Jet Set Box is an even better buy (for the value)
What’s been on your radar lately? I feel like we just started seeing fall beauty collections and this weekend I’ve already started seeing holiday sets out!
There are three new limited-edition launches from Hourglass for lips and cheeks. Two new palettes have arrived with new formulas/finishes from the Ambient Lighting line and there are new shades of the Confession Ultra-Slim Lipsticks exclusive to a set. I have all three that I’ve been playing with for the past week:
Ambient® Lighting Edit Volume 3 ($80) has six different powders for face, bronzer, highlight and blush in Diffused Light, Hypnotic Strobe Light, Dim Light, Luminous Bronze Light, Surreal Halo, Pure Effect Blush
Up first is the Ambient Lighting Edit Volume 3 which has a mix of existing and new shades. The colors included: Diffused Light (soft pale yellow satin powder), Hypnotic Strobe Light (pale champagne shimmer), Dim Light (soft pink satiny powder), Luminous Bronze Light (light bronze), Surreal Halo (mauve rose shimmer), Pure Effect Blush (light but bright pink).
The entire feel and vibe of this is on the light to medium side for color. Pigment is soft to medium with a naturally glowy feel. I thought the colors would be too light for my tan complexion but they all show up on my skin – Diffused Light and Dim Light of course have a sheer effect, almost like a finishing or softening powder. The bronzer does seem quite a bit lighter in color than the individual ones I own. Each powder is unique so I do understand there could be variation because the one I have in the palette has more highlighter vs bronzer, still the effect is noticeably lighter.
Finish is smooth and doesn’t emphasize pores. Lasting power is quite good – it stayed put on my face and cheeks from morning to late evening. All this being said if you already own a lot of Hourglass products individually you may find there are very close dupes. As mentioned in a few recent posts I’m in between places and most of my items are in storage so I don’t have access to products for comparisons. Off the top of my head I do feel this palette is very similar to existing shades although the Pure Effect Blush is one of the prettiest pinks I’ve ever swatched.
Last but not least is the Hourglass Ultra Slim Confession Refillable Lipstick Set. It has three new shades of lipstick that are exclusive to the set. There is one gold bullet exterior and two refills inside. The pigment is opaque with full coverage and smooth. Formula is just as good as the individual shades all reviewed and swatched here.
My favorite shades are still from the individual lineup but all three of these are wearable for pretty much any occasion, day or night. I’m giving away the three new launches featured in this post to two lucky readers, enter through the widget below. Here’s how this will work:
Giveaway open internationally, but you must be 18 years or older
Giveaway will run from 9/28/2017 through 10/12/2017 11:45 PM EST
Two winners will be selected at random through the widget below
The MAC x Nicki Minaj collection just launched which includes an entire collection of nude lipsticks and glosses. It’s literally a nude lip lover’s dream come true. There are two special edition nudes that were created by Nicki Minaj that come in gorgeous pink packaging along with eighteen other lipsticks and six lipglasses (some repromotes, some are new). I’m one of the biggest fans for nude lips but since I have olive skin and a naturally pigmented lip undertone finding one that works is super tricky. I’ve found over the years the trick with a lot of nude lip shades is that layering with pencils and gloss is key. Luckily brands have expanded their range of neutrals so I’ve actually found quite a few that don’t require extra work.
I bought the entire MAC x Nicki Minaj collection online since MAC select members had early access. The same day my order arrived a beautiful press package arrived so I ended up with two of everything. I’m passing along the duplicates I ordered to a few friends and my niece, but stay tuned I’ll be doing a giveaway on another post later this week. Many of these shades are on the lighter side and a lot look very similar on me (like super pale concealer). Also because I have a pigmented lip my natural lip shows through on many of the swatches which looks like it could be a dark lipliner but I assure you it’s not. It’s just my natural lip tone showing through.
What I have reviewed and swatched for this collection:
Lipsticks in: Gossamer Wing, 2N, Bare Bling, Creme d’Nude, The Right Note, Derriere, Japanese Maple, Stripped, A Girl’s Got Needs, Easy Babe, Age Sex Location, Among the Fireflies, Playing Koi, Bosom Friend, Pretty Please, Baby’s All Right, Patisserie, Mmmmmmm
Up first are the MACxNicki Minaj Lipstick colors in The Pink Print and Nicki’s Nude. Both have an amazing smooth opaque formula that covers the lip in one swipe. The Pink Print is a pale opaque pink peach however it’s on the soft side and the lipstick broke in the tube. To continue using it I’m most likely going to have to put it into a pot. A quick look at other reviews shows that I’m not the only one with the issue of breakage. Just something to keep in mind when applying – apply if very gently. Nicki’s Nude is a deeper baby peach. This one isn’t quite as soft for me but still smooth and soft.
Next are the MAC x Nicki Minaj nude lipsticks which I’ve split into two groups (based on order they were displayed in the box). Shown below include:
Gossamer Wing a pale soft shimmer pale beige
2N light cream colored nude
Bare Bling light beige tan cream
Creme d’Nude peachy cream nude
The Right Note light-medium tan
Derriere muted medium brown
Japanese Maple pink peach sheer
Stripped medium tan nude
A Girl’s Got Needs medium tan brown
The Pink Print and Nicki’s Nude added in the swatch below
Foundation worn is Tom Ford Waterproof Foundation in Natural (my MAC Studio Fix Fluid equivalent is NC35/37, these shades are also swatched here). As mentioned above all the lip swatches are on bare lips. There may be a visible dark ring around the edges as that is my natural lip showing through. All lip swatches done on bare lips.
I didn’t swatch any of the lip liners repromoted with this collection but in case you’re looking for a nude. I swatched quite a few side by side from various brands in my Neutral Lip Pencil post here.
Bottom line, even though many of these colors are hard for me to wear alone, I still think this launch is a nude lip lover’s dream. If you search for swatches of these online you’ll see many of the colors that look like concealer on me look quite different on those with lighter skin or lip tones. Playing Koi for example actually looks more true to tube on some while on me it’s just a washed out mess.
My favorites include: The Right Note, Japanese Maple, Stripped, A Girl’s Got Needs, Age/Sex/Location, Among the Fireflies, Patisserie and MMMMMM. I think Patisserie is the most natural looking neutral on my complexion and I think it would most likely be one of the more universal shades in the bunch. For the lipglasses nothing would have stopped me from buying Under the Sheets and NUDE however I do think they are similar to existing shades.
What’s your favorite nude lip right now? I know everyone has a different definition of nude so I’d be interested to hear what yours is!
You can find the MAC x Nicki Minaj collection out now, I usually buy mine at MAC and Nordstrom.
MAC x Nicki Minaj collection provided by MAC for review. Items also purchased by me.
