Epic, Epic Haul.

Well, I'd like to say that I do this all the time, but unfortunately, I don't. I usually just buy a couple things at a time, but due to a lack of posting, and a surplus of money (Thanks, student loan check!), I have managed to accumulate a whole lot of stuff in a relatively short period of time. Here's the rundown of all the stuff I've gotten recently.

1. Urban Decay Book of Shadows vol. 4
2. Tarte for True Blood Glamour Me Cheekstain
3. Smashbox The Look Book Kit
4. Too Faced Beauty Insurance Set
5. Too Faced Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue
6. Stila Deluxe Lip Glaze Trio in Warm
7. Sally Girl Baked Eyeshadows in 120, 127, 128
8. Benefit They're Real mascara
9. Hard Candy Visibly Wet lip pencil in Jezebel
10. Elf Hypershine lipgloss in berry cherry
11. Kat Von D True Romance Palette in Metal Orchestra
12. Ulta nail lacquer in Smoke Screen
13. Butter London Nail Polish in Chimney Sweep
14. Butter London Nail polish in Henley Regatta
15. Ulta Nail Lacquer in Concrete

Nail of the week

Please ignore the excess polish, I took the picture before I cleaned it off. This polish is one of the Butter London polishes in Chimney Sweep. I got it during Ulta's 21 days of beauty sale yesterday as part of a buy one, get one free. I'd been a bit apprehensive to buy these before, admittedly because of their price. At $14 each, I was a bit uncomfortable. Mind you, when I was a teenager, and my mom bought all my makeup, I wore Lancome polishes almost exclusively, because when it wasn't my money, I had no problem blowing her money on high end expensive nail polish. Then, I moved out, and after she quit bankrolling my cosmetics addiction, I had to buy my own. Suddenly, Wet'N'Wild's $1 polishes didn't look too bad on my nails. But regardless, at $14 for two, I felt much more comfortable with the Butter London polishes. The review is forthcoming, but for the moment, I'm having a bit of a love affair with this color. 

Things to come....

Admittedly, sometimes, real life gets in the way of my blogging. Over the last month or so, Life has really gotten in the way. I won't bore you with all the details, but there are a LOT of posts that will be making their way here, as soon as I can find the time. (And when I say find the time, I actually mean pry myself away from my Nook and my girl Lori Whitwam's super fabulous book Make or Break). One day soon, that will happen. Remember, just because real life bitch-slapped me rather abruptly out of SUPER-FABULOUS-HAPPY-MAKEUP-LAND doesn't mean I wasn't stocking up on all kinds of lovely goodies for my wearing, and your reading pleasure. Because I was definitely still collecting. So, I leave you tonight with a photo of what is to come. Soon, very soon.

Hey!

Check out Makeup Zombie's epic giveaway... there are just a couple hours left!
 http://www.makeupzombie.net/2011/08/epic-800-follower-giveawayfinally.html

Product Review- Hard Candy World Balmination Tinted Lip balms

Starfish and Miss Independent

I've been having a bit of a moment with tinted lip balms. Most of the time, I wear crazy elaborate eye makeup, so to balance it out, I wear nude or soft pink lipstick. Or, I go the complete opposite end of the spectrum and wear really bright or really dark lipstick. Recently, I've been going for the tinted balms, because it gives a nice pop of color without being overwhelming.

After Kaye Eh suggested I try these, I decided to go for it. Here's my initial thoughts:
1. These lip balms are packaged really attractively. They're cute, and they're not too bulky.
2. They smell amazing. Think lemon creme pie, but more delicious. It took everything in me not to just take a bite out of the stick. No kidding.

Then I tested them.

First of all- the balms aren't really pigmented. At all. In fact, they're pretty much clear.
The packaging, while attractive, is atrocious. First of all, you can't twist it down. It is almost touching the top of the cap. This is incredibly problematic for me, because I will definitely nick the stick on the cap, or have some other unfortunate event in relation to this balm. Not especially thrilling.
Here's some swatches:

Miss Independent

Starfish

 

 

Top- Miss Independent. Bottom- Starfish

Overall, if you're looking for a lip balm, I suppose this isn't the worst one you could ever get. It smells and tastes delicious, it's moisturizing, but it is not tinted on me, and my lips aren't really pigmented. Because of that, if you're going for the tinting aspect, there are infinitely better tinted balms you could get  for a couple dollars more.(Covergirl Natureluxe or Say Yes To Carrots, for example)
So overall, I'd say save your money, and get a better product, because these aren't that great.

Looking for a different opinion? Check out Syn's review here.

Product Review: Hard Candy So Baked Bronzer- Tropics

Ever wanted to be the shiniest person alive? Want a fake tan so bold that you make the cast of Jersey Shore look like they've been hiding in a basement for years? This is the product for you then! My god, this bronzer is the shimmeriest product I've ever seen, let alone for your face. Who would wear this as a face product? Who would do this? Tell me!

Behold the shimmery glory!

Now, in all seriousness, I can't actually imagine what this would look like on ones face in any conventional sense. Maybe if you were really dark skinned, but even then, I think the shimmer would be too much.

That being said, this product isn't entirely worthless... It does make a really nice, heavily pigmented gold eyeshadow! So while it utterly fails as a bronzer, It isn't a bad eyeshadow.

Product Review: Maybelline The Falsies- Flared Mascara

If you read my review of the waterproof version of this mascara, you're probably thinking I'm positively insane for spending my money on the regular formula of this particular mascara. Maybe I am, but this made its way into my collection regardless.

For the record, I'm glad it did. When I bought the waterproof version, it was so horrifyingly terrible that I was actually a bit upset that I'd even bought it, and that Maybelline was marketing this product, and that people were saying it was even remotely okay. Then I bought the regular formula. Now, I'm not going to say that it completely changed my mind, but it is definitely an improvement. The mascara doesn't add heaps of volume, it doesn't lengthen your lashes remarkably, but the one thing it does well is that you can shape your lashes, and they stay in place. So if you want your lashes to be shaped a certain way, you can use this to your advantage. That being said, I use it with a primer, and another mascara over it to get the full look that I want, but it does do that one thing well enough to almost make it worthwhile.

So I will still not give this product a great review, but if you can get it on sale, and want to sculpt your lashes instead of wearing false ones, I guess you could probably find some merit in this.