Tag: eye makeup

Milani Everyday Eyes Powder Eyeshadow Collection: Palette Collection Review Series

littlebeautyloves7 Comments

I am easily drawn to new palettes all the time. Every year I buy about 3-4 new ones from both the beauty stores and drugstores. When I picked this one up it was Autmn of last year and I was definately feeling the orange and warm vibes. I use this palette quite often and wanted to share my thoughts.

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (3)

What It Is
Six richly pigmented shades and a step-by-step guide for professional-looking results (milanicosmetics.com)

Price
$12.99 CAD (0.21 oz/6 g). This breaks down to $2.17/gram which I think is reasonable for the drugstore.

Packaging
I really enjoy the packaging of this palette because it’s sturdy and compact. The palette itself is maybe 3×4.

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (6)Although I do like palettes with mirrors I like that this one is clear so that you can see the colours within. If you owned multiple colours of this palette you’d be able to easily distinguish them. I like that the back of this has a useful guide as well.

This came with a double-sided brush. One side is a blender type brush and the other side is a shader brush.

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (5)It’s not the worst brush that I’ve received in a palette and I’ve used it a few times with the palette and I think it works well.

Colour
There are eight different palettes in this range so you can find one that suits your personal style. I gravitated towards this palette called Earthy Elements for the beautiful tones and the gorgeous orange shade.

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (4)I’ve been able to come up with light everyday looks as well as sultry evening looks with this palette. I experience a bit of fallout so whenever I wear this palette I do my foundation afterwards. One shade this palette is missing for me is a light matte cream shade, something I could put all over my lid, but luckily I keep a few of those in single shadows.

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (7)

Application & Wear
The shadows are powdery but that makes them really easy to blend. The shades are fairly pigmented. I have no problems with building up the intensity of an eye look. The Speciality (5.) and Base (1.) do need a bit more work for them to appear on my lid but they can be built up.

For the look below I put 1.Base all over the lid and 3.Lid in lightly in the crease and a bit deeper in the outer V. I also put it on my lower lid. To deepen the crease I put a little bit of 4.Crease and finished off the look with 6.Liner on my outer lash line. Lastly, I applied some Benefit They’re Real Tinted Lash Primer mascara.

Whenever I’ve worn this I have used an eyeshadow primer or have put concealer as a base. I think it helps the colours pop. One thing I find with these eyeshadows is that even with a primer they are not long lasting. After about 5-6 hours of wear, it starts to break down and the colour fades away.

The Breakdown

Pros

  • Affordable price
  • Compact
  • Nice warm colours

Cons

  • Not as long lasting as I would like
  • Needs a light cream shades

Milani_EarthyElementsPalette_Review_LBL (2)

My Thoughts
For the price, this palette is pretty good. I love the looks I can create and find that it has good pigmentation. If you’re not willing to pay a high price tag for something at a beauty or department store than this is a great option from the drugstore.

Have you tried any products or palettes from Milani? What’s your favourite drugstore brand make up?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Tarte Tartelette In Bloom: Palette Collection Review Series

littlebeautyloves25 Comments

I spent quite a bit of time researching palettes before I picked this up back in October. Tarte’s Tartelette In Bloom has some of the best recommendations and reviews on Sephora, YouTube and other Beauty Blogs that I figured I could not go wrong purchasing this. It’s even recommended over the original Tartelette palette (I don’t own that so I can’t confirm).

I ordered mine off the Tarte website and got 20% off my order. After using this palette so many times I can see why this is at the top of many makeup lovers lists.

What It Is
9 mattes and 3 luster finishes. This palette is infused with Tarte’s signature Amazonian clay formula, all in a chic, portable palette with a beautiful floral design. (Sephora.ca)Tartelette In Bloom_LBL (3)Price
Regular Price is $60.00 CAD, I paid $48.00 CAD (0.636 oz total weight)

Packaging/Scent
I absolutely love the packaging of this palette. It’s about 4×5″ which makes it perfect for travel and storing with the rest of my makeup. This is a sturdy plastic in reflective gold with a flower petal design on the lid. I think this is one of my favourite looking packages. This palette also has a vanilla scent. It’s nothing like the Too Faced palettes which can be strong, this is much more subtle.
Tartelette In Bloom_LBL (2)Colours
The layout of this palette makes it easy to put together an eyelook. Each row can be broken down into a quad. The first shade can be used under the brow bone and inner corner as highlight. The second can be used in the crease. The third shade over the lid, and the forth to deepen the outer corner.

This is a beautiful neutral and warm palette, with reddish and brown shades. The colours are very everday wearable mattes, with pops of shimmers. Unlike my other palettes I wear every single shade over and over. My only issue with this palette are the colours activist and smokeshow which are too close to being the same shade. Rocker is my favourite shade and I absolutely love rebel. I love the way these colours are layed out because I literally will pick a light, medium and dark shade and put it on my lid, each colour works so well with the next. I think this is one of the best thought-out palettes I own.
Tartelette In Bloom_LBL (4)Application, Wear & Longevity
The pigmentation on this palette is so good! I actually don’t need to lay down a base for these to pop and to last which is quite amazing. I don’t know what it is about Amazonian clay, but it really packs a punch here. The palette is not powdery but I do experience quite a bit of fallout, so I ensure that I put these on before I move onto foundation.

My Eyelook
I used mostly the middle row to create this look. I put flower child all over my lid with charmer on the brow bone. I then worked smarty pants into the outer half of my crease. I put firecraker (look at that shimmer!) all over my lid and used activist to darken the over V of my eyelids. I ran a little bit rebel on my lower lid. I love the look and love how the layout of the palette made this easy to put together. Tartelette In Bloom_LBL (5)Breakdown

Pros

  • Easy to put together eyelooks
  • Amazing luster shades
  • Fantastic Pigmentation
  • Adorable Packaging

Cons

  • Some Fallout
  • Activist and Smokeshow are the same colour on me

My Thoughts
I recommend this palette to anyone who is starting off using makeup or just wants a solid palette with easy to do looks. It has everything I want in a palette, perfect pigmentation, warm and neutral tones, great shades to wear together and alone, and is easy to travel with.

Do you have the Tartelette In Bloom Palette? What do you think of it?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Unboxing: Topbox, July 2015

littlebeautyloves5 Comments

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Price: $12.00 CAD plus tax (free shipping), Number of items: 4-5

Hurray for beauty boxes, it really makes the month exciting, although the summer ones are bitter-sweet because it means that July is closer to ending…Summer is going by too fast!

Topbox is a Canadian monthly box that introduces customers to make-up, skin care, hair care and other neat things. Every month, subscribers are also given the opportunity to choose a Prive box in which a particular brand is showcased exclusively. If you want to learn more about Topbox or to Subscribe click here

I opted for a regular box this month

What I Received

1. Benefit Cosmetics They’re Real Push Up Liner in Beyond Brown

I love Benefit!! I wasn’t, however, the biggest fan of this liner when it first came out. I do like this brown, but I wish if we were getting the coloured liners that I got one of the fun ones, like purple. After doing a swatch, it was the hardest to remove, which is good when wearing it, but you really need to get the They’re Real Makeup Remover (luckily I have some). Full Size Price $27.00 (1.4g), Sample Size $6.94 (0.36g)

2. Shu Uemura Essence Absolute Nourishing Protective Oil

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I’m impressed with these beauty brand samples in my box! I love hair oils, I am always excited to receive more of them. Dry hair, meet your match! haha! AND! This smells amazing! I can’t put my finger on what it is but it is so luxurious and sweet! Full Size Price $69.00 (150mL), Sample Price $13.80 (30 mL)

3. So Susan Rose Quartet Lip & Cheek Stain

These colours are super pigmented, I was honestly not expecting them to be so vibrant! I love when products surprise me! The pots are a bit small so I’m not sure how I’d use this for me cheeks, but for lips it’s perfect. The samples came with a small lip brush so it’s awesome for traveling with (which I’ll be doing soon!) This product claims to give 12hrs of wear with no creasing, drying or smudging, I hope they’re right! Full Size Price $12.00 (4g), this is a full size product. 

4. OFRA Cosmetics OFRA Universal Eyebrow Pencil

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I’ve used the OFRA lip liners before and was really happy with them, so I’m excited to try the eyebrow pencil. This is a “one-colour-for-all” brow pencil, you use it lightly if you have blonde brows and harder strokes for dark brows. It came on really nice and creamy on my hand so I’m sure it’ll look good on my brows. I’ve been needing a brow pencil, so I will put this to good use. This also came with a how-to guide that I will be following. Full Size Price $13.00 (1.13g) this is another full size product. 

My Thoughts

I am super happy with everything in this bag (well not so much the liner, but I’ll give it another shot). The total value of my samples is $45.74.

What do you think? Do you subscribe to Topbox?

First Impressions: Sephora Collection Craig & Karl Felt Eyeliner Set

littlebeautyloves3 Comments

Main Photo_Sephora Eyeliners

It’s really hard for me to say no to a good set of felt tip eyeliners, especially when cute packaging is involved.

Yesterday I was shopping and chatting with the lovely Cat from mylipaddiction.com at Sephora when I remembered I needed new eyeliners. This set caught my eye and after swatching the colours in the store I decided to pick it up.

First I’m inserting Cat and my little haul 😉Sephora Haul Cat & Dal

We got a few fun and much needed things. Cat picked up a beautiful Sephora Gloss and the Nars Concealer in Vanilla. I also grabbed the same concealer, the Sephora Eyeliner Set and a Sephora Rouge Cream Lipstick.

I really wanted to add a few colours to my makeup look, and because I’m into neutral eyes, I thought colourful eyeliners would be a nice way change it up.

What I think:

Packaging: The tin is totally cute and colourful, designed by two artists Craig & Karl based in London and New York. I can reuse it to store all my eyeliners. I really like that the eyeliners themselves have their own designs which helps distinguish them.

Swatches and EyelinersApplication:These liners are thin! I love that you can really get a precise line with them.

Colour:Two of the colours looked more dark brown which is disappointing because I thought one of the colours would be black. Regardless, what I really got this for was the coloured liners. The blue is a beautiful cobalt colour, leaning towards teal. The green is a deep jade which I am completely in love with, it was the first colour I wore out of this collection. Lastly, the white is a very soft white but the pigmentation is amazing. Cat suggested wearing it on top of a black liner for a black/white wing and I may try that.

Longevity: I wore the green and brown liner all day today and looking at it now it’s still as strong as when I first wore it. It dries immediately after application and there is no flaking or bleeding (the colours did bleed a bit when swatched on my hand, but not on my eyes). The liners are not waterproof, but the swatches on my hand got wet and they mostly stayed put, a good sign I think.

eye application

My Thoughts

I’m really happy I picked this up. I think the colours are great and are easy to wear everyday.

Have you tried this set? What do you think of Sephora’s Eyeliners?

Drug Store vs. Beauty Store: Liquid Eyeliner

littlebeautyloves5 Comments

IMG_0018I wanted to begin comparing Beauty and Drug Store makeup products to determine if, price and brand name aside, they both delivered the same thing.

I’ll first review my favourite makeup, liquid liner. I wear brown liquid liner during the day so I will be comparing Stila’s stay all day waterproof liquid eye liner to Maybelline’s line stiletto. Below are my thoughs:

Price:

Stila costs $26.00 CAD and Maybelline is $10.00 CAD.

Applicator:IMG_0019

These two have the same felt tip applicator, although Maybelline’s applicator is a bit larger and rounded while Stila has a sharp tip. If you want a really precise line or a thinner wing you’ll get that easily with Stila. If you wear your eye liner a bit thicker Maybelline will do the trick. Maybelline’s tube is a bit thicker too, like holding a marker compared to the pen-like size of Stila’s applicator. Both are easy to grip which is important when keeping a steady hand.

Look and Feel:

The colour is exactly the same, I almost forgot which was which after I put them on. Maybelline is a bit more watery when you first apply it and can bleed if you’re not careful. Stila gives just the right amount of colour so you don’t need to be very careful. Both have great pigmentation.

Dry Time:IMG_0020

Stila by far knocks this one out of the park. Stila took only 1 minute to dry on my hand while it took about 10 minutes for Maybelline. Once they dried, however, no amount of rubbing could remove either of them from my hand.

Removal:

Liquid liners come off very easily in comparison to pencil or gel liners with the use of makeup remover. I was a bit dissappointed Stila though. For a waterproof liquid liner, it came off quite easily with only a little bit of water. Maybelline made no such claim so I wasn’t suprised when it came off with water. This is the annoying part of any liquid eyeliner really, if it starts raining, or you start sweating or worse, crying, they are going to come off completely. That’s why I never wear them in my waterline.

Verdict:

I choose Stila. When creating a look with liquid liner, it’s just nicer to have a bit more control over the thickness of the line and I like not having to wait so long for the product to dry. I am impressed with Maybelline though, the price and wear is great. If liquid liner is not something you wear all the time like I do, this works amazingly for those times when you want to add it.

So what do you think? What Drug Store Liner have you tried? Is there a Beauty Store Liner you like?

For those who aren’t very confident putting on liquid liner, I feel your pain. I really sucked at application before I started wearing it everyday. You need to be very patient and practice (I used to apply it over the weekends when I had nothing else to do.) A way that I started getting comfortable is I began by just applying it against my eyelashes. Putting a line right against my eyelashes was 1; easy to do and 2; made my lashes look fuller. When I got comfortable doing that, I started slowly adding a second thin line on top of that from the middle of my eye outward. Then another line on top of that, again from the middle of my eye outward. This is any easy way to get a simple winged looked by building on what I had mastered before.

First Impressions Review: Younique Moodstruck 3D Mascara

littlebeautyloves2 Comments

image 5Over the weekend my friend hosted a Younique party. This is my first time being introducted to this natural mineral makeup line. I know that the products are sold in Canada via a Younique Presenter who will host a product party or I believe you can buy items online via their website. I purchased the Younique Moodstruck 3D Mascara and below are my thoughts after trying it for the first time. I wore this all day to work, and by the time I got home it was 12 hours later that I took it off.

The mascara comes in a really cute carrying case and within it you find two tubes; one is the Younique Moodstruck Transplanting Gel, and the other is the Younique Moodstruck Natural Fibres, also included is directions on how to apply the products.image 4

Application is in three parts, first the gel to make your lashes sticky to the fibres, next the natural fibres, and then end it off with the gel again to seal the fibres into place. Note, the gel is a nice black and looks good on its own if you wanna go for a more minimal look. Also, for an even fuller look, you can continue you build with the fibres and gel. I only did one full application.

My thoughts:

Pros

  • Very light feel
  • My eyelashes looked longer and fuller
  • It’s not clumpy! This is big for me because I used to own a few eye primers that would clump, badly!

Cons

  • It can be a bit messy, so be sure to seal the fibres and use a power brush to remove any excess that fall on  your cheeks. I also noticed a bit of fallout during the day, maybe 5 hours in, but I easily wiped it away
  • Time consuming (or at least until I get the hang of it)
  • Price, $35 CAD is a bit on the pricier side of mascaras

So the question is will I get this again? Likely! I like the idea of using something that is more natural on my lashes and I do like that I can wear the gel on its own without the fibres. I also liked how it lasted longer than other mascaras I’ve tried without making my eyelashes feel itchy. Lastly, I got compliments on how nice it looked (you know it’s good when people actually notice that you’ve done something different on your face!)

I’m still new to this Younique brand, has anyone else tried it?