My current everyday face

I’m pretty boring when it comes to my everyday face and I don’t switch it up too often unless I get something new and try it out or I run out of the stuff I use. I really like everything I’m wearing on a daily basis. There’s not a primer pictured here because I still haven’t found a primer that I like enough to use in my daily routine. Right now, I’m just using up the stuff I have and I’m trying to get rid of it. There’s also no eyeshadow pictured here because I don’t wear eyeshadow on a daily basis. I wear it sometimes when I have extra time in the morning but there’s not a certain palette I go for each time.

To start out, my holy grail foundation is Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation. I wear shade 1C1 Cool Bone. I’ve worn so many foundations before and none of them have ever compared to this one. The staying power is amazing, the coverage is great, it makes me skin look flawless. This stuff is basically waterproof. I do Zumba with it on, Ive been in a pool with it on, it doesn’t come off until I want it to come off. It’s a perfect match to my skin and it feels comfortable all day. It’s a demi-matte finish and doesn’t dry my skin out. Which is definitely a plus because I have dry skin. I’ll replenish this when I run out. I always have a problem with my makeup separating on my nose. This is the only foundation that doesn’t separate on my nose. I’m stuck with this one for a while.

I use the Bare Minerals Mineral Veil Finishing Powder to set my makeup (if I set it). Sometimes, I don’t set it because I’m going for less of a matte look and I want my skin to look more dewy. It’s comfortable on my skin and doesn’t dry my skin out. It’s super smooth and feels nice when it’s applied and keeps my makeup lasting even longer than it does by itself. The packaging that it’s in is the holiday limited edition packaging.

I really like the NARS Bronzer in shade Paloma. This was gifted to me and I love it. It’s the perfect shade for me and blends out really nicely. It has a matte highlighter next to it but I’ve never used it so I’m not sure how that performs. I use the bronzer to contour my face. I don’t use bronzer all over because I like to embrace my paleness.

For my highlighter, I use one of two products. I either use the Benefit Dandelion Twinkle or Too Faced Candlelight Glow in shade Rosy Glow.

I like to use the Benefit Dandelion Twinkle when I want something more natural and subtle. It’s good for a day when I wear less makeup and still want a little bit of a glow. It looks super pretty under the brow as a highlighter, too.

I use the Too Faced Candlelight Glow when I want a blinding highlight and a more lit from within look. I use this one when I do more dramatic makeup. I definitely pick this one when I do a shadow look. The rosy tone is what I really liked about it. I love pink tones in my makeup.

Both are really pretty and are awesome quality.

Next is blush. I’ve been using 2 different blushes. They’re both pretty similar shades. I use the City Color Be Matte Blush in shade BlackBerry and the Benefit Rockateur. They’re both a mauve shade. The City Color one is matte and is more pigmented so I have to be pretty light handed with it. I don’t like a lot of blush so I use very little product with this one. I use the Benefit blush when I want something more buildable. It also has a little shimmer to it.

For concealed, I use the Benefit Boiing in shade 1. I only use this to conceal my brows and carve them out after I fill them in. It’s a super comfortable full coverage concealer that’s a bit lighter than my skin so it helped to highlight on the brow bone. I haven’t used it on my under eyes but I’m sure it would work well under the eyes. I don’t typically conceal under my eyes.

I recently switched my brow product to the Precisely My Brow Pencil in shade 5. I switched because it’s a super smooth texture and it’s really easy to work with. I’m able to make it a natural or a bold brow depending on the look I’m going for. So far this is my favorite brow product that I’ve used.

For lash primer I’m using Lancôme Cils Booster XL. I use this under my mascara to help the mascara stay on longer without flaking and to condition & strengthen my lashes. I even use this as a lash mask at night while I’m sleeping to help promote growth. It has keratin in it so it prevents the lashes falling out. Since I’ve started using this, a second row of lashes has started growing above my normal lash line. It also boosts my mascara, so my lashes look even better than they do with the mascara.

For mascara I choose Lancôme Définicils. It’s a lengthening mascara which is what I typically go for. I love the way this mascara makes my eyelashes look. They get so much longer. The one I use isn’t waterproof, but it’s pretty water resistant so there’s no issues with it sweating off. I’m using the small size of both lash products because I got them for gratis a while ago. Now I’ve gotten the full size of both for gratis so I’m trying to use these up then I will start on the full size ones.

These are all the products that I have on my face on a normal day. I love them all and I highly recommend them to pretty much everyone.

Let’s talk about IT cosmetics.

For anyone that’s seen IT Cosmetics on tv or demonstrated, you might think it’s like the greatest thing in the world. However. I’m going to have to disagree with you. There’s really not many products they offer that I like. In my opinion it’s junky and overhyped.

To start, the advertisements and segments on shows such as HSN or QVC are misleading. It looks seamless but trust me it’s not. I’ve worked with IT Cosmetics for a few years now and for a quick sec I got sucked in. To get results like you see on tv you need products. A lot of products. Like every one in the line. Don’t get me wrong, I use a lot of products on my face. Don’t try and tell me that this CC cream is the solution to all my problems. It’s really not.

The shade range is pretty pathetic, let’s be real. They recently added on extra shade which I guess is a step in the right direction. I’m still less than impressed. I’m not interested in a brand that doesn’t include everyone. This is 2018 let’s get it together.

Now, this is my biggest point and it’s really been bothering me. IT Cosmetics is a cruelty free brand. So they say. I’m calling their bluff because they use snail secretion in some of their products! Hello, there’s no way this brand is cruelty free when they use an animal product in their stuff! It’s just not possibly. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘well maybe the snails are taken care of and it’s harvested naturally and someone with nothing better to do is walking behind these free range snails slowly but surely collecting the snail secretion’ WRONG SIS. A multi million dollar company produces SO MANY products a day that there is no way that would be possible. Maybe if you’re making one single product for yourself with your pet snails but not with a huge company like this. If you know anything about how snail secretion is harvested, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. If not, you’re in for a real treat. The snails are kept in large quantities in pretty nasty conditions. Someone has the luxury job of going and filling buckets up with snails. Someone else with an even more luxurious job gets to rip, literally rip, the snail out of its shell and scrape the secretion out of the shell. Then the snail along with its shell goes straight to the garbage. It’s not cruelty free. It’s not ethical.

Aside from being wrong, the snail secretion literally has no benefit to the skin. At all. It’s proven. And it’s gross. I do not want to but any kind of secretion on my face. It’s the second ingredient listed next to water. That’s a good percentage of the product.

I have more to say about this brand but it’s late and I have to work early. Keep an eye out for a part two of this IT Cosmetics plus some Bare Minerals shade and probably others.

Bargain finds

I’ve been shopping a lot at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s lately. I mean a lot. Like once a day I’m at one of the stores. It’s paid off because I find something every time I go. People say that the stuff is fake, I don’t think that’s the case. Working in cosmetics, we have to RTV stuff. As soon as we send things back to vendors, they show up in stores like TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. It’s all real. At least in my experience. Recently, there’s been a lot of Anastasia Beverly Hills, Lorac and Kat Von D. There’s plenty of stuff I’ve left behind too sadly. In the past week I’ve seen Bare Minerals, Clinique, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Too Faced, Stila and so much more. It’s a good situation. It’s hard to dig through sometimes. Rude people touch things and try them on and you really don’t know if they’re put it on their lips or face or whatever and I’m just all around uncomfortable paying for stuff people I don’t know have touched. If I really want something and it’s been touched sometimes I’ll bite the bullet and sanitize it when I get home, but sometimes it’s a product that can’t really be sanitized like lip gloss or mascara. I’ve left a lot of lip products with wand applicators behind because people can’t be polite and not touch something. It’s a bummer for everyone because I want something new and unused and the store ends up losing out on a lot of money because people destroy the makeup. If you’re reading this, please don’t touch makeup that isn’t labeled as a tester.

Here’s some of my picks from the past week.

The Kat von D Studded Kiss Lipstick I’m in shade Vampira. It’s a deep deep reddish purple. It’s very pretty. I have a couple of lipsticks from her collection and I really like the formula. Long lasting a super comfortable. At $7.99 this was a good find. They had a few other colors but I left them behind.

Lorac’s I love Brunch palette was something that I’ve wanted since it launched. It detailed for $44 and that included a double ended brush and a shadow primer. The palette is super pretty and pastel. I found t once before for $20 and passed it up. This time I found it for $14.99 and I was sold. 2 colors were touched and I was mad about it but I weighed it back and forth and decided it was worth it.

The blush in the black box is the Lorac Baked Blush in shade Velvet Rope. It’s a satin finish and looks so pretty. It was $4.99 and absolutely worth it. I haven’t put it on yet but I have swatched it on my arm and it’s beautiful. Super pigmented. I don’t usually go for baked makeup because I’ve never liked it before but I’m very pleased with this one. The payoff is awesome. It might actually be my new favorite.

The other blush in the white packaging is the Lorac Color Source Blush in shade Luma. I talked about this in one of my other blog posts but I included it because I got it for $4.99 at TJ Maxx and that was the purpose of this post. Since the other blog post I have swatched it and it is very pretty. Just as I was hoping, it is sort of sparkly and will make a good highlighter rather than a blush. Which I’m totally cool with.

I got the Wet n Wild Cheek Brush from Five Below for $0.99. It seems to be nice and soft and will serve its purpose for using it with blush. I find that I can go cheap with my cheek brushes and that’s about the only brush type I’ll buy cheap.

The last products I got are the Clinique Chubby Plump & Shine Lipgloss. I got them in the shades Va Va Va Violet and ‘normous Nude. These are being discontinued so they are half off at any Clinique location. I work at Ulta and I get 25% off all products. So on top of these being half off I got an extra 25% off making them $6 and change. They’re pretty glosses. The violet has some sparkle on it and the nude is a solid nude, no sparkle. They look really pretty in the swatches I did and I’m excited to try them.

Benefit Gratis!

So when you work for a cosmetic company you get gratis. Which is great. It’s free makeup/skincare/fragrance. When I left Benefit I got one more gratis letter worth $300. To be honest, I don’t love Benefit products, but there are some things I like to use and my mom uses some of their stuff too. So of course I ordered. Now, there are stipulations. Pretty much anything you want you can’t have. All the new stuff all the low stock stuff, it’s out of the question. I would have loved some Gimme Brow or some new Gold Rush blush buuuuuuut we get what we get and don’t throw a fit because it’s freeeeeee. But in all honesty, I’m super grateful for her giving me the letter, she didn’t have to and that was awesome of her.

I had to wait about a month to order because there’s a time frame where it has to be done. I thought long and hard about what I was going to get but when I sat down to order I had no idea what to get. My mom had her list out though so I started there. She got a Total Moisture moisturizer, an It’s Potent eye cream, a Dandelion Twinkle highlighter and a Pink Thrills Double the Lip lipstick.

This is what I ended up getting.

I started with Brow Zings in shade 5. I’ve never actually owned this product or used this on myself. I used it on plenty of clients and I loved using it on them so I waited patiently for my letter to come around and I snagged this. One side is powder and one side is wax. You dip the brush in the wax then in the powder and apply to the brow. I still haven’t used it but I’m looking forward to it. It also comes with a little brush, but I won’t use it because I already have a brow brush that I like.

Next came Precisely My Brow in shade 5. I’ve used this in store before and didn’t really like it but I was also at work and was rushing to get it on. Plus it was a tester so it was probably old. I really wanted to have this for myself and I’m so glad I ordered it. It’s such a creamy, smooth consistency. It goes on so nicely and as the name suggests, it’s super precise. It has a spoolie on one end and the product on the other. I work for Lancôme now, but I think I’m gonna stick with this Precisely pencil because it does what I want.

I use brow pencils on days that I don’t want to spend a lot of time on my brows. I mostly use them on days I want to wear my glasses. When I wear my glasses my brows are halfway hidden by the frames so I don’t like to spend a lot of time on them. Pencils are quick and easy for me whereas my Foolproof powder is for days where my brows are out of hiding. But I feel like I can wear this product for either one. I like it a lot.

I got myself a Double the Lip in shade Juicy Berry. I would use these every once in a while in store and liked them but never thought it get one for myself. They’re kind of an off product and not popular with any crowd. It’s a lipstick with a liner all in one. It’s in a tear drop shape and the liner shade it at the point of the product and that goes on be outside of your lips. It’s actually really nice. This particular shade is super pretty and is flattering on pretty much anyone. I wore it to work the other day and it stayed in place all day. Literally all day. Didn’t dry out my lips, didn’t feather, didn’t flake. It was on there. I’d put it as a semi matte finish. Definitely comfortable and would definitely buy again if I empty it.

I also got a Boing Industrial Strength Concealer in Shade 1. Once this came in the mail I was kind of mad at myself that I got this because I have 3 of them already. Yeah I use them pretty much everyday, but it’s going to take forever to just get through one let alone 4. I use this stuff to spot conceal on my face before applying foundation to even out my skin tone and help everything appear seamless and flawless. I also use it to clean up and carve out my brows. I have no used it under my eyes, but I don’t really conceal under the eyes so I don’t bother. I’m sure it would be great for under the eyes though.

Benetint is something I’m not even sure I’ll use but I bought it because it’s in a limited edition container with a rose cap. I thought it would be super cute on my vanity. It’s a lip and cheek tint. I probably would mostly use it as the lip tint on days I don’t want to do a heavier lip product.

They’re Real Red On is something I’ve never seen and never tried. It’s not available in boutiques that I’ve been in. I’ve only seen it online. It’s cute and comes with a little lip brush which I think is super convenient. It’s a matte red lipstick not in stick form.

Last but not least is the Angled Brow Brush with Spoolie. I have one of these already that’s still in awesome condition but I LOVE IT. It’s my favorite brow brush I’ve encountered. The brows stays firm and dense. It makes it super easy to apply the product. Doesn’t make a mess. Overall 10/10 would recommend. It’s only $20 and it’s amazing. I haven’t had one bristle fall out and it’s going strong.

That’s all I have to share about gratis. I’ll try out the rest of my new products and probably review them. I’m looking forward to the next time I get some gratis!

New stuff to try

Most of these things I’ve had sitting around my vanity for a while now and it’s time I open them up and play with them. I’m a hoarder 🤷🏻‍♀️

Benefit – They’re Real Big Sexy Eye Kit

I’ve used this product on my clients before, but not on myself. I got it for gratis and threw it in a drawer. I’m gonna test it out and see how it is. It comes with a strange applicator that I probably won’t use, I’ll stick to brushes. In the world of Benefit, this is technically 3 individual shadows, they’re each sold as a double. But to me, this is 6 shadows and I’ll use it like that. They’re all shimmers.

Becca – Apres Ski Glow Collection Eye Lights Palette

I got this for Christmas and I haven’t worn it yet. It was on my list, and I love it from what I’ve seen and touched. Again, they’re all shimmers. The packaging is beautiful and I really can’t wait to try it on my eyes.

They’re all super pretty shades and the pan size looks hefty. I’ve never used Becca shadows before so I’m really looking forward to using them.

Hard Candy – Glamouflage Foundation

I fell into the hype with this one. It’s all over the beauty pages (at least it used to be like 8 months ago when I bought this). I haven’t used it one time. Haven’t even swatched it. It probably isn’t even my shade. But we will see. It’s supposed to be super full coverage and last all day. I’m skeptical because it was only $6, but this could be what we’ve all been waiting for.

Lorac – I Love Brunch Color Source Blush

I picked this guy up at TJ Maxx a couple nights ago for $5. I thought ‘well shit for $5 it’s mine’. It’s honestly not a shade I would pick up for myself (like ever) but for $5 I couldn’t leave it behind. I found it in the food section. So it was destiny. It’s in the shade Luma. It says it’s a satin finish. Just looking at the shade it looks a bit shimmery. That’s fine. I’m hoping it’s enough to be a highlighter because it looks more like something I would wear as a highlighter.

Wunderbrow

Another one of those hype products. I’m always ready to try a new brow product. I worked for Benefit for a hot second, so brows are my second language. It’s supposed to last a couple days. If I can get away with only having to do my brows every other day I am SET. Just looking at it, it’s super thin and liquidy. The wand looks like a lip gloss brush. It won’t work on the brows so I’ll just have to dip my angled brush into the product. No biggie.

That’s all I have for this one. I have many many other things I need to try out for the first time so there’s more to come. I hope that my papaya was enjoyable.

what I’m trashing

I’m ditching this stuff. Some of it has hung around a while, some I’ve used up. Either way, it’s gotta go. ⌛️

Tarte Ready, Set, Radiant spray. Setting spray? It’s labeled as a ‘skin mist’ okay helpful. Says to shake well. Has a decent smell. I hate it. I felt like it made my makeup disappear quickly. I used it once. It’s being purged.

Philosophy Instant Miracle Worker. ‘Line erasing blur stick’ i really wanted to try this a while back and I ended up getting it for gratis at work. Really glad I didn’t pay for it because it sucks. I guess I was under the impression that it was a primer but it made my makeup cakey. Not for me. I used it a couple times but it’s too old to keep any longer.

Essence Lash Princess. I bought this thinking it was a dupe of Better Than Sex mascara from Too Faced. NOT THE CASE. Everyone is recommending this up and down, left and right. I fell into the hype. I’m glad it was cheap because it was awful. It was wet and clumpy and al around a bad purchase. Used it once, straight to the trash.

Beauty For Real Blush + Glow. I don’t hate this. The colors are actually really pretty. I’m just not a fan of cream blush & highlighter. It’s a nice product, just not for me. I think I got this in some beauty subscription. I’m gonna give it to my mom.

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara. I used this all up. I was pleased with the mascara then I found something I liked better. I liked the way it made my lashes look, but it flaked onto my face. I finally realized it’s not supposed to do that. I emptied this guy but I won’t purchase again.