New Beauty Goodies

Ciao Bellas!


So, I've gotten some new stuff recently, some were gifts from my husband for Mothers Day and others were gifts to myself, oh and some I bought with a gift card from my darling sister! So, onto the goodies and my thoughts on some of the products!

Where do I start???? Well, I bought a bunch of cheap eyelashes from Ebay, I got two sets, each were 10 pairs for a dollar, yes folks, I said ONE DOLLAR! Holla for a dolla yo!! Anyway, I haven't used any yet so I can't comment on how easy they are to use but I've touched and felt and they feel fine, especially for that price! With shipping and everything each set came to under $7 which is a steal. I figure they're going to be good to practice with or even to cut in half and use as outer corner lashes.


I also got a Tarte Tinted Moisturizer which is an awesome oil free tinted moisturizer with SPF 20, its great to use during the summer when you want a lighter coverage and just evens out skin tone and looks beautifully! As do all of Tarte products, this is made with lots of great all natural ingredients including chamomile extract, ginko biloba extract, vitamins A, C and E, just to name a few! it contains no parabens, phalates, fragrance or mineral oil! A must have as we go into the summer season! This sells for $36 and I got mine in the color Agent 12. You can purchase this at Sephora or at Tartecosmetics.com.


Also from Tarte, I bought my first Amazonian Clay Blusher in the color tipsy, below is my pathetic attempt at a swatch, hopefully you can see some of the detail, the color is the most gorgeous coral, has no shimmer and looks great over the tinted moisturizer. This is a 12 hour blush and I found that it totally lives up to that claim! I wore mine for about 10-12 hours and saw no signs of fading or disappearing! Tarte claims that Amazonian Clay is intuitive and therefore will adjust to any skin type, dry, oily, normal or combination. I have very dry skin and it worked quite well for me. . This blush can very easily be popped out and placed into any palette. It sells for $25.

From Benefit, I purchased the Beauty Box set (Sephora exclusive), this was a deal that I could NOT pass up. For $48 you get four full size products and a travel sized mascara. Here is the scoop on this deal:

- 0.16 oz full size Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in R.S.V.P (sparkling champagne). This product lives up to its name and really will not crease, its a beautiful neutral color and great for daytime at the beach and can be vamped up for nighttime by adding a nice black cat eyeliner look!
- 0.14 oz deluxe travel size A Little Bit Badgal Lash Mascara in Black
- 0.34 oz full size Some Kind-A Gorgeous in Medium (sheer natural beige). This is a very sheer cream to powder foundation. With this set you don't have the option to choose another color, medium is what you see and what you get! It worked fine for my complexion though I don't recommend this product for anyone with bad skin or someone looking for full coverage.
- 0.42 oz full size Dallas box blush (rosy bronze). An absolutely gorgeous blush, can also be used as a contour color for those gals with fair skin.
- 0.4 oz full size Girl Meets Pearl (pearly golden pink). Everyone needs this in their life, add it to the tops of your cheekbones for a beautiful glow! 

Also from Benefit but not included in this beauty box was Brow Zings, a brow in a box all inclusive product! You get a wax and coordinating powder color, a mini tweezer and two mini brushes. This comes in Light, Medium and Dark, I got mine in dark and the color is quite deep so it goes nicely with my naturally black hair.   The wax is the first step and tames the hairs nicely while adding alight wash of color, then you go in with the powder and this really deepens the color. This sells for $30 and you can find this anywhere Benefit is sold, Sephora, Macys, benefitcosmetics, to name a few.

I also got some new NYX goodies! I tried their new product, Soft Matte Lip Cream. I got mine in the color Addis Ababa and its a great product!! It goes on very smooth and creamy and dries to a matte finish, a very interesting product and I will be getting some more! For those MAC fanatics out there, you will be familiar with one of their latest collections- Quite Cute, well they had a lipstick called Candy Yum Yum, a bright, neon  pink, totally 80's, totally ME!! Well, its sold out everywhere and of course true to MAC was limited edition so you cannot get it,  waa waa :(  I read on makeupbyleelee's blog that Addis Ababa is an exact dupe for Candy Yum Yum!! I also got a few new jumbo eye pencils, below are swatches of the colors, from right to left they are:

1. Yellow

2. Lavender

3. Pure Gold

4. Baby Blue

5. Orange

6. Oyster

7. Gold

These sell for $3.50 each and can be purchased at Ulta beauty, nyxcosmetics.com or cherryculture.com. 

Here is my best attempt at a swatch of Addis Ababa

Another product I got from Sephora was an Illamasqua blush in the color Tweak which is a reddish pink color, its highly pigmented so a little goes a LONG way! This is a great product and I cant wait to try other stuff from Illamasqua! This particular color gives you a very natural flush, makes you look like you just met Ralph Macchio and you're totally blushing! These sell for $24 and can be purchased at Sephora.com (not found in all Sephora stores), Illamasqua.com (a UK company).

The final product I got was obtained using 500 points out of my Sephora beauty bank, its a nice sized eye shadow palette from Too Faced, colors are smooth and nicely pigmented. Below is a picture:

I hope that you enjoy my little haul and if you have any questions let me know!

xoxo,

Michele

IMATS NY Experience

Ciao beauties!


So Saturday I attended my first IMATS (International Makeup Artist Trade Show) show and let me tell you it was an awesome experience. We bought our tickets well in advance online so they were $30 each, the biggest advantage for having pre purchased was that both days ended up being sold out several weeks before the show, so thank God I did that!


The doors opened at 8:30AM and we arrived around 8:45 and took our place in line which was long but not horrible. We waited a total of around a half hour I'd say. When we got inside there were more lines but they went quickly. The first setup when you first went into the actual show were special fx props that were beyond amazing, there was a head of the character Phil Leotardo from The Sopranos then there was a super realistic half body of Jake Gyllenhal sleeping which I didn't get a pic of, stupid me! 

When you went upstairs there were all the vendors booths and the first booth I spotted was OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) this name just about sums me up! LOL Anyhow, the OCC booth was hopping and I spotted Lauren aka Queen of Blending, she was super nice and took a pic with me, her makeup was right on point! I picked up two lip tars because I've been dying to try them forever, they were well worth the wait, I wish I bought more!! I picked up Hush which is a beautiful nude pink color and Grandma which is a gorgeous coral, the texture of them is like nothing else around, they go on almost like a cream and they are super duper pigmented, you need the tiniest amount, less than a pinhead amount. They're not sticky at all either. Well worth the $13 they charge, I paid $10 each at the show.

There was a huge Inglot booth with the longest line which never seemed to go down so we didn't even get onto it at all. I will check out Inglot next time I'm in the city.


I knew JulieG713 was going to be at the Jessie's Girl booth so that was my next spot, Julie was so nice and really pretty in person. My sister picked up 5 loose shadows in varying colors, those were 5 for $20, not a  bad deal. Jessie's Girl cosmetics can be found at Rite Aid. They're a good product for the money.

I was in search of a really high quality face/powder brush so I headed straight for Hokuhodo and sure enough the brush was the most amazing quality I'd ever laid my hands on, unfortunately, the price was reflective of this. There was no show discount being offered so I passed on these. If you can afford $80 for a blush brush then definitely check out their website! So, my search continued for a high quality face brush... then... my fabulous sister found the London Brush Company booth and wow, beautiful beautiful brushes! I picked up their #13 which is a blush/all over face brush and OMG its softer than a baby's bottom! The brushes are all made by hand and the one I got was squirrel hair. There are now a bunch of tailless squirrels running around the UK. :(

There were so many great vendors there, Stila for one, and they were offering 25% for everyone and 40% for MUA's. Eve Pearl, Naked Cosmetics, Mehron, Yaby and many more. Here is a picture of an AMAZING makeup application, this was at the Mehron table. I love love love the work this woman did.

My niece Jaime got her glitter on from a company called Lit Cosmetics. They make a really nice range of eye safe glitter made with all natural ingredients and prides itself in being water based, alcohol free , paraben free, and Propylene Glycol free. Their color choices are endless! I got a small bottle of their mixing medium to try. Below is a shot of Jaime getting her glitter on.

Here is everything I bought, I couldn't go as crazy as I wanted to but I got some good stuff nonetheless.

So, overall, I absolutely loved the experience, I spoke to the owner of the show when I was there and he said they'll definitely return to NY next year but at a bigger venue, thank God because this one was too small! Next year I'm definitely taking alot more money and my video camera!

Let me know if you have any questions about IMATS or what I bought. :~)

Ciao for now!
xoxo
Michele

April First

Hello beauties!

Today is April Fools day but I have some serious beauty deals for you!

Firstly, Tarte is offering 30% off for today only, Tarte has some amazing products from their highly pigmented and blendable eye shadows to their nutrient rich cheek stains which are just beautiful on the skin! I also really love their mascara which they call lights, camera, lashes! They claim that it will improve your lashes by 424%, now I cannot speak to the validity of that percentage but they certainly made a huge difference in my lashes! I have not yet tried their lip stains but I hear they're the best. One other product I've tried and recommend is their emphasEYES inner rim liner, this is great for lining your waterline and stays put! You can skip their eyelash curler, I have it and don't recommend it! Use the code APRILFOOL to get the 30%, remember, today only!

Stila is offering free shipping as well as a free deluxe size sample of their kajal eye liner! If you don't already own Kitten eye shadow from Stila, hurry and get it. It's the most gorgeous champagne/beige shimmery eye shadow and is just gorgeous on the lid with a dark brown in the outer V and crease! I recommend getting their "it girl" palette, its only $14 right now ($54 value) and it has Kitten in it for you to try. Code for free shipping and eye liner sample is SPRING.

Nothing too major over at Sephora this week but they are giving 5 free samples instead of the usual 3 and as always shipping for over $50 is free.

This upcoming week for drugstore beauty deals- Walgreens is offering buy one get one 50% off for Revlon, Maybelline and Loreal. The drugstore has really stepped up its game with regards to their makeup, the products offer great quality, and improved offering of colors/textures and of course are inexpensive. Right now I'm loving the Loreal Rouge Infallible lipstick, it stayed on my lips for six hours through drinking coffee and eating! It has a creamy texture and is not very sticky for a long lasting lipstick and has a glossy finish. I have it in the color Refined Ruby, its a gorgeous bright red, it makes me look JUST like Gwen Stefani! Ok, I look nothing like her but still, the lipstick is awesome.

Speaking of Loreal, I've been doing product testing for them for a long time now, its fun and you get a goody bag of beauty products after each visit, with three stamps on your card you get access to the Loreal company store, I'll write about it when I go! cant wait for that!

Well I'm off to try a Haife Wehbe look, she's one of the most gorgeous women in the world and always has super dramatic, hot hot hot makeup! I'll photograph it and put it on facebook, it helps me see how I can improve!

Ciao for now beauties!

xoxo
Michele

My first entry

Hello to anyone who  might be viewing this,

My name is Michele and I'm a total makeup/beauty product junkie!! I'm in my 30's, a mom to the most amazing little boy in the world, a wife and a leukemia survivor! I survived this horrible disease in 2010 thanks to my sister who donated her bone marrow to me!

As for my makeup obsession, my collection is comprised mainly of MAC but I also have lots of other brands like Urban Decay, MakeupForever, you name it, I've probably tried it or much to my husband's chagrin- bought it!

I love reading about other beautiful ladies' obsession with makeup as well, there are so many great beauty bloggers out there, I hope to learn from!

I have lots of exciting things coming up this year and I'm just so grateful to God to even be here to experience all this beautiful life has to offer! Here are some highlights:

April 9- My first IMATS (International Makeup Artistry Trade Show), I'm so so so excited to be attending and plan to do a serious haul when I get there, so keep an eye out for pics and swatches!

May 28- VACATION!! this is my remission celebration cruise, it will be awesome, I plan on taking video footage and posting on Youtube! I'm psyched bec my sister and brother are coming as well as my niece and cousin, it will be great!

July- I plan on attending Encore's O2B2 beauty class! They're finally in NYC for this tour and I cant wiat! I'll be learning basics like color theory as well as air brush application! The loot bag I will be getting is MAJOR! I'll also be receiving my own air brush gun and compressor.

So those are just a few things I've got on my agenda!

If you'd like any products reviewed, just ask!

xoxo
Michele