Summer Shimmer

I typically prefer matte/satin finishes, but lately I have been noticing that a lot of the products I've been using contain quite a bit of shimmer - and I don't hate it. In the summer time I tend to wear less makeup so I think it's easier to wear a shimmery eyeshadow or blush without being overwhelming. It brings a lightness to my makeup and adds to the dewy glow effect. The only thing is that my t-zone gets pretty oily, so sometimes adding shimmer to my face can be a little distracting. I bought an Origins mattifier to help myself out and hopefully I can do a review of that soon. 

After Lisa Eldridge, 25FLondon, and many others talked about these colour mousse eyeshadows by Rimmel, I was intrigued. I am down for any cream eyeshadow that comes in a pot, and luckily a good friend of mine was in England at the time and was able to get me one of the colors, Get Fresh. Feeling panicked that I only got one and did not have easy access to the range, I quickly ordered two more off ebay, Glitz and Sassy, and even went further to get the mousse bronzer in medium glow. 

These are really good for the price. The formula is more like a cool gel than a mousse, and it dries almost instantly and does not budge once it is set, so you have to blend these babies out quick. The eyeshadows go on a lot more sheer on the eyes (although you can build them up) and are super shimmery, but I do like the effect that they give. I really like using a flat shader/concealer type brush to put these on because using my fingers is just too messy. 

The bronzer has some shimmer in it too although it is hardly noticeable on the cheek. The color is a terracotta brown that I'm afraid could go orange on some people, but works for me. It's nice because you can put a thin layer on for a subtle tan - cream bronzers look so natural!

A few other cheek products I have been using

ELF warm bronzer, NARS Deep Throat, Wet N' Wild Pearlescent Pink

The ELF bronzer is very peachy toned. On some darker skin tones it barely shows up, but for me it works well as a blush/light bronzer. It gives lots of sheen and is one of those great products that you will never feel guilty using. 

NARS Deep Throat is my first and only NARS blush, although not my last, and it definitely lives up to the hype that follows it. It is slightly peachy pink, shimmery, and amazingly pigmented. I love this and will probably never run out. 

The Wet N' Wild blush looks sort of like a dupe for Deep Throat, but is rosier and contains much chunkier glitter, which is probably barely noticeable on the cheeks. It is also extremely pigmented and is among the many good products from Wet N' Wild. 

I love all these, but the one thing I will never do is shimmery lip products. I can't stand them! 

~Vida

Antiqued Gold

I often go through periods where I become enamored with a certain color, and nearly everything that I buy in one (or several) shopping trips somehow contains that color. This past weekend after a shopping trip with my friend and fellow blogger Stefany, it was apparent that I am having a serious love affair with anything in the style of antiqued gold. We stopped at Newport Centre Mall and Hell's Kitchen flea market where I picked up a few trinkets that happened to follow the same color pattern. 

My obsession manifests itself mostly in the jewelry that I got. Exhibit A - these two sets of bracelets that I bought at Charlotte Russe

Charlotte Russe is not a store that I normally shop at, but I'm glad I went in because I found these two sets of bracelets for a total of eight bucks =).

I love the antiqued gold charms on the wooden bead bracelet (even though there is a butterfly one on the other side that is waiting to be ripped off) and the detailing on the gold bangles which is mixed in with pretty coral colored bangles. 

The phone necklace is from Forever21, and I think it is just adorable. My boyfriend thinks it's ridiculous, but wearing a telephone around my neck is something that I am justifying while I'm still young =X. The Paris inspired necklace I bought a few weeks ago from Urban Outfitters and is a cute everyday necklace. 

I have been obsessed with these rings ever since I got them from the Hell's Kitchen flea market. They are moderately chunky and have all satisfied the antiqued gold criteria. The skull ring is my favorite! 

Also from the flea market are this set of candlesticks, which I would probably not have even noticed if it were not for cupcakes and cashmere's post. 

I'm so excited to decorate my apartment with these, and I foresee a candlestick obsession in my future. I especially love these because of the rounded plate on the bottom, which would be great for holding jewelry and little trinkets. 

Even my makeup has taken on bronze/dirty gold tones and I have been really loving MACs taupographic shadestick and tempting eyeshadow, separately and layered together. Both have cool brown undertones with a golden shimmer running through them. 

Taupographic goes on very subtle and light and is easy to apply, no brushes necessary. Tempting is one of my favorite browns that I've been wearing all over the lid on its own. 

It seems that I should expand my horizons, but at the moment I am loving the style that this shade gives. 

I hope you enjoyed reading

~Vida

Lip Balms: One Hit One Miss

I have mentioned before that I have an obsession with lip balms. I don't have as big of a collection as some of you may, but I do love to find good lip balms that will cure me of the dry, chapped lips that I often get. So far I have found one that I really like, the Blistex medicated lip ointment, but after using it for a while it doesn't seem to be working as well as it did when I first came across it. When a deal on Hautelook came around that gave me a $40 gift certificate for the price of $20 at beautybar.com, I decided to splurge on some new lip balms. The first one that I got is the Peter Thomas Roth Pink Bombshell Lipbalm. 

I should have known from the name that this was going to be a waste of my money. But, I wanted to see what an expensive lip balm would be like, and the pink balm inside a little glass pot appealed to me because it reminded me of the much raved about By Terry lip balm. I was choosing between this one and the Philosophy Kiss Me Tonight, and now I wonder whether I had chosen wrongly. This lip balm is interesting, but nothing special and certainly not worth the money. It has a very hard waxy texture, which makes it hard to get the product onto your lips. If you look closely it has little shimmer particles that are hardly noticeable on the lips but do create a nice sheen-y effect. It smells sickly sweet and gives a slight minty feeling. It is nice as a primer for lipstick, but I find that I cannot take it seriously as a lip moisturizer/treatment. 

The next one I bought, which I was much mored excited for was the Ole Henriksen African Red Tea Exfoliating Lip Salvation. 

There were a lot of great reviews for this one, and it kind of balanced out my disappointment with the other one. This has a much more workable texture and feels like it has little grains in it that contribute to its exfoliating effect. It has a lot of natural ingredients and I like it because it is exfoliating, but you don't need to tissue it off or anything - you can leave it on and eventually it will wear off and sink into your lips. It does leave a raspberry tint on your lips, which I usually hate, but for some reason I actually like this one. Plus, I use it mostly when I am at home so I don't mind the initial gritty feeling or the stain on my lips. My lips have been a lot smoother and I've been going for a few days without chapped, flaky lips! I really like this product and I would definitely repurchase even though it is on the expensive side for a lip treatment. 

What are your favorite lip balms that you think I should try? 

~Vida

Wednesday Sights

I spent my day in Brooklyn, on one of the many trips that I have been on in the past few weeks to look for the perfect new apartment. I will be moving to the city sometime over the summer, which is exciting, but also nerve racking. It was a beautiful day in Brooklyn - the perfect day for apartment hunting, ice cream cones, and pictures.

Here's a few shots from today

Outfit: Romper - H&M; Jacket - Forever21; Bag - Zara; Bracelet - H&M; Watch - Lucien Piccard

Boldly Bare

I love buying eyeshadow, swatching eyeshadow, and playing with eyeshadow, but I don't always love wearing it, especially when the weather is warmer and more humid. Sometimes when I wear eyeshadow, I don't get to wear my brighter blushes or lipsticks because I don't want to seem too done up.

That is why recently I have been loving the look of just mascara on my eyes. I used to be the girl who rarely walked out of the house without eyeliner on. Now that I have become completely obsessed with makeup and am experimenting a lot more, I am surprisingly a lot more comfortable with wearing less makeup. That might not make any sense, but it is just something I feel and cannot really explain. 

Wearing just mascara gives you a completely different look - a very young, fresh look that to me embodies springtime. It also gives me a lot more room to wear my fun colored makeup like the YSL Rouge Volupte in No 30., and simplifies my routine significantly. 

For the look I layered L'oreal Telescopic to lengthen and Voluminous to thicken and volumize. I contoured with Hoola bronzer, and used YSL No 30 on my lips. 

I also tried a sample of Channel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation today and I loved it. I can't wait to get the full size of it and perhaps do a review!

Thank you guys for reading, let me know what you think!

~Vida

Second Chances: Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner Pen

There are some things in my makeup collection that I fell in love with immediately and have been loving ever since, some that I hated as soon as they touched my face, and then there are others that I tried on, shrugged, and put aside rarely picking them up again afterwards. 

These are the products that I have casted off because they weren't particularly special to me or they just didn't meet my expectations. They are by no means bad products, and I hate to have things going to waste in my collection, so I decided to go through them, try them out again, and see whether I really hate the product and should give it away or if I could start using it more regularly. 

One of the products on the list is the Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner Pen in navy. 

Anything that is readily available only in the UK is highly covetable to me, hence why I jumped on this when I saw it online at Urban Outfitters. However, the first few times I used it, I found that it was hard to get a pigmented line on my eyes and it took me forever to put on, even though it swatched beautifully on my hand.

When I tried it again today, it also came out amazingly when I swatched it, but I still found that it was a little hard to put on - maybe I just suck at felt tip liners? Nevertheless, this dries to a completely ink-like, no-smudge state and the color is such a pretty navy blue.  

I would much rather use a gel eyeliner or a pencil, as I can wack those on a lot faster. With this I have to work with it for a while to get a good line, and I almost never get it straight. It is also not pigmented enough for me to do just a thin line of it. I will use it until it runs dry, but I won't be repurchasing. 

I have a lot of products that fall in this "B-list" category, so I hope I can go through them all and maybe rediscover something that I really like. 

Do you have this eyeliner? What do you think about it?

~Vida

Revlon Stormy Pink

Revlon makes the best drugstore lipsticks in my opinion. They have a wide variety of shades that are on par with current trends, the formulations are nice, and the packaging is sleek and has a nice weight to it. They are also the only drugstore brand I have found that carries a large selection of matte shades. 

This is one of their Super Lustrous lipsticks in stormy pink and when I first saw this shockingly magenta color I immediately thought of Candy Yum-Yum from MAC. I have recently been really drawn to these bright pink/magenta lip colors and I'm glad I got to try out this one first before I shelled out the money for a high end lipstick. 

The lipstick goes on surprisingly sheer, has a texture similar to a lip balm, and is super buildable. At first I was a little disappointed that it didn't come out as strong and creamy as I had expected, but then I realized that the formula is what made this matte lipstick not so matte (drying, flaw accentuating, flat). I am strangely mesmerized by it because of its stunning color - it is definitely a "weekend" lipstick. 

Next to get on my magenta lip list? MAC Chatterbox, Impassioned, and MUFE Aqua Cream #7 fuschia.

~Vida

A Few Products I'm Loving & Giveaway Winner

The past month has brought more rainy days than I would have liked and as a result I haven't been as creative with my makeup. Nonetheless there are a few products that I have been reaching for quite a lot recently. 

1. L'oreal Voluminous - this is so far my favorite mascara. This is my second tube and I'm almost through with it too. It is really as amazing as everybody says it is, it's easy to apply and is just what I want for full, fluttery lashes. 

2,3, and 4. Inglot Cream Blush # 88, Inglot Face Blush #24, and Royal & Langnickel Stippling Brush - these three in combination make the perfect go to cheek for everyday. The cream blush is a cream to powder finish and is nice on its own, but I like to put the lighter peachy powder blush over it to brighten it up and make it last longer. I love the stippling brush for applying these blushes because it blends them in well and gives a really light finish. 

La Roche Posay Ultra Light Sunscreen Fluid - I try to wear SPF everyday especially now that it is warmer and I spend more time outdoors. I have always hated the sticky feeling left on your skin by sunscreen, the reason why I would never have put it on my face a few years ago unless I was going to the beach. I'm so glad I found this sunscreen because it is not greasy at all and sinks in to your skin almost immediately. It is pretty pricey for a sunscreen, but in comparison to the other excessively high priced products that I buy, this one serves a much greater purpose.

Burt's Bees Radiance Body Lotion - I first heard about this through one of juicytuesday's videos where she raved about it. While at the drugstore one day, I saw it, got excited, and bought it. It is a really runny, gel consistency but it really does look very pretty on the skin. In general it gives a glowy sheen, but I have found in some lights it can look a bit glittery. It is great for going out and it smells amazing!

L'oreal EverStrong Sulfate-Free Bodify Shampoo & Conditioner - this shampoo and conditioner really gives my hair some body and makes it feel thick and less prone to oiliness. It does say it is sulfate-free, which is not the reason I bought it because I can't really be sure that it is any better than the other shampoos/conditioners that are out on the market. All I know is that it is nice to use and works well.

And finally, the winner of my 100 followers giveaway is Pepper!
Funny story - I dropped the lipstick while photographing it for the giveaway picture. Not to worry, I'll pick a new one up this weekend, and you can expect an e-mail soon so I can ship all the stuff to you by next week.
Thank you to all who participated, hope you enjoy my blog =)

~Vida

Maxi Fever

Maxi dresses are everywhere right now, and I can't say that I am opposed. 

I am 5'3" and I never thought I would be able to pull of the maxi dress look, but after seeing how good they look on so many other people, I was itching to give it a try. After a trip to the mall with my intentions set on buying a maxi dress, I walked away with two from H&M. Right now, I am really drawn to the solid colored ones because they are easy to wear, but I can see myself falling in love with a pretty patterned one too. 

Yesterday I decided to take my maxi dress out for a spin, and here is how I wore it.

Outfit: Maxi dress - H&M; Cropped top - H&M; Belt - AE; Necklace - Forever21; Turquoise beaded bracelets - Forever21; Bangles - topshop

It was the perfect day to wear this dress. Maxi dresses feel so nice and flowy, your legs will thank you for it. 

In short, I think I am in love with wearing them, pairing them with different things, and seeing what comes out. I will definitely go back for more!

~Vida