NOTD - Essie Blanc & Sephora Party Animal

 

Hello loves!

Oh, white nail polish you are the most unforgiving of colors when it comes to rushed application. 

Using Essie's Blanc as a base I wanted to try out my Sephora glitter polish in the shade "Party Animal." Tis the season for festive glitter right?

As you can see in the photo (only a couple hours later) the accent nail is already smudged. You guys already know how I feel about Essie polishes so I won't go into much detail about that.

Party Animal has various chunks of glitter suspended throughout it and when applying the glitter is so sporadically spread out on the nail that even with multiple coats I found it extremely difficult to get an even finish. There's a reason I prefer solid colors as I find them easier to work with and less of a pain to remove.

Do you prefer glitter or solid colors?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

 

*Megaphone Mascara?

 

Hello loves!

I was sent a new and innovative mascara to review courtesy of Influenster & Almay. 

I've always been aware of Almay as a drugstore brand but until this point, had never tried any of their products. I had no idea what to expect in terms of quality. Almay isn't a highly talked about brand.

When I opened the package, I was really intrigued by the megaphone brush as I don't think I've ever seen another mascara with a brush like this.

Mascara is one of my favorite makeup products and I have tried a million at this point so I was excited to give this a shot. Unfortunately the excitement didn't last long. The marketing for this is too true, what I mean by that is that on the package itself it says "One Coat MEGA VOLUME". It does create voluminous lashes but you truly cannot apply more than one coat on the lashes without it looking like a clumped disaster. The formula is wet and a ton of product comes out on the brush so you have to be incredibly careful and make sure that you wipe of all the excess product or you'll have goopy eye lashes with mascara smeared all over your lid. For my first venture with Almay as a brand I'm disappointed. I had high hopes but the brand itself has never jumped out at me and this really didn't wow like I wanted it to. 

Have you tried Almay, any recommendations?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer

Good morning loves. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Who doesn't love having multi purpose products around? They're great for traveling as they really help to cut down your bag clutter.

The Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer is just that, a concealer that not only covers but illuminates leaving a highlighted finish on the skin.

I've never tried a concealer with this packaging and this will be the last one I do try. When you first try to use it you need to twist it about ten times to no avail and then a giant glob of product squeezes out. It's a complete waste as there is no way I'm able to use that much on my face at one time without looking like a makeup mess leading to huge amounts of wasted product.

This is a medium coverage finish and I found when I tried to build it up it creased quite quickly nor was it opaque enough to cover my pesky under eye circles.

I wouldn't advise using this as an under eye concealer unless you have mild dark circles and are looking more to just highlight the under eye instead of coverage.

For the rest of the face though this is a great concealer that does help brighten the complexion. 

Even though I have mixed feelings about it I'm going to keep using it as it works well on the rest of my face and blends out easily.

Do you prefer a matte concealer or a highlighting concealer?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

MAC Chili

Hello loves.

Does anyone else own a lipstick they have a serious love/hate relationship with?

 I do and that lipstick for me is MAC's Chili {matte}. It's a stunning deep brick red. I've talked about it briefly in my MAC lipstick collection post. The color is perfect for Fall but the downfall is that being a brick red it has yellow/brown undertones. If like me, you don't possess a pearly white smile it can cause your teeth to look worse than they actually are. Even though it looks great on when I have my mouth closed I must say while wearing it throughout my day I feel extremely self conscious about how it makes my teeth and overall smile appear. Albeit a beautiful color, brick reds aren't for me. No one wants to walk around all day scared to smile at people for fear of their yellow teeth, makeup is supposed to build confidence not tear it down. I wish I had those perfect pearly teeth but unfortunately that's not the case and there are so many blue toned reds that are just as gorgeous but give the appearance of a whiter smile. 

What lipstick do you have a love/hate relationship with?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

e.l.f mineral infused primer

Hello loves!

E.l.f is a great affordable brand with amazing products! Searching for these hits however can be a daunting task.

I've yet to find a primer that really wows me and I'm starting to wonder if I ever will. For me I've never used a primer that has actually seemed to do anything it promises. Even though I'm beginning to doubt that primers are even necessary, I'm still trying them in hopes that one day I will find one that creates that flawless base for makeup application.

The elf mineral infused primer comes in a variety of different formulas. I picked up the clear one  as I wasn't really looking for anything in regards to special skin concerns.It's a silicone based primer so when applying it it feels very greasy on the skin but dries down quickly. 

I absolutely hate saying this but I didn't notice any difference in the way my base applied or how long my makeup lasted. Overall I feel like this did nothing. I feel like I was just adding another layer of product on my skin that I didn't need. 

Elf, you are a great brand but I was so disappointed in this primer. Especially after reading rave reviews about it.

What primer would you recommend?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

A/W - Top 5 Lipsticks

 

Hello loves!

I adore fall and winter. The season where dark vampy lips are always an acceptable choice.

Of course looking at the above photos it's obvious I'm all about my reds opposed to the ever popular berry shades. 

These are my most worn lipsticks this time of year although it doesn't really look like it, I promise you they are. I just own a ridiculous amount of lip products.

Three of them happen to be from the Rimmel Kate Moss range of lipsticks, two of which are in the matte formula. 

 

{left to right: Kate Moss Shade 10, Kate Moss Matte 107, Kate Moss Matte 111, MAC Russian Red, Lancome Red Stiletto}

Kate Moss Shade 10 -  A perfect red. While not completely matte I wouldn't say it's creamy either. I'd call this more of a semi matte finish. I've been wearing this one quite a lot in the past couple of weeks. The great thing about the Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks is how extremely affordable they are, retailing at about $6.99 CAD.

107 - If you haven't seen this particular color splashed across various beauty blogs, where have you been? Of course once I saw Zoella in this I had to have it, I adore her! 107 is a stunning dark berry color that is perfect for the fall. 

111 - Okay, I know this looks almost identical to shade 10 but this formula is matte and quite honestly I really don't need both but I love them both and will continue to use each of them.

MAC Russian Red - I've talked about this particular lipstick more than enough on my blog. I love it, it's by far one of my favorites in my collection.

Lancome Red Stiletto - This is the creamiest one in the bunch and again is just that perfect holiday red. I'll be honest and say this is the bottom of my top 5 mostly because I prefer a matte finish.

What's your favorite color to sport during Fall and Winter?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

MAC MSF

 

Oh hello loves!

MAC, the brand that seems to have taken a back seat over the years. I remember everyone was all about the MAC products and there were people who would verbally attack you god forbid you said anything poor about them.

I do think that now there are so many other amazing brands out there pumping out wonderfully innovative products at cheaper or similar price points as MAC which is why I believe  they're not as popular as they once were.

For me, I still adore the MAC lipsticks and their MSF natural powder in Light Plus. Anyone with dry skin knows that powders can be a scary game. 

This is the only powder I've tried thus far that doesn't cake or cling to those pesky dry patches. I use it as a setting powder just lightly dusted over my foundation and no matter what foundation I'm using at the time I've never had any issues. The best part it doesn't dry my skin out at all which is something I've never found in any other powder.

I'm still open to trying other powders but for now I must say MAC you have truly wowed me with this.

What do you use to set your foundation?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin