Hourglass Ambient Powder: Holy Grail?

I wanted to give the Ambient Lighting powders a try since I have dry skin, and I'm trying to embrace the more dewy and glowy look with my makeup to give myself some life. I'm fully in love with the way the Reserve Your Cabana bronzer makes my skin look when dusted all over as the Ambient powders should be, so will it be replaced or will it hold it's own against the higher end product?

And the answers is! It holds its own. I'm excited to be using the Ambient powder (I have dim light, by the way), but I don't feel like it's a necessity in my collection. It gives a nice radiance, but the Wet and Wild one does a little more and has a slightly yellow tone that I prefer to the pinker tone of the Dim Light. Maybe next I will try the more yellow toned Ambient powder.

The Ambient powder is very finely milled which sits much less noticeably on the skin, but I don't so much find that the Wet and Wild powder sits all that noticeably either, they're very smooth and buttery and blend well into the skin. It doesn't affect the color of foundation applied under it when put on, but gives a slight luminous look to the skin when the light hits it right.

I do like this powder, but with such an affordable product at the drug store that is so close to it, I'm not sure it's worth the price for a full size powder. Maybe if I get the palette it will be more worth it to me with a range of shades to play with. It's definitely made it to the top shelf with the Wet and Wild bronzer, and I use them both interchangeably.

Stay Flawless and Beautiful Girls!

BNB

Better Than Sex or Mega Effects?

The review you've all been waiting for is here. The verdict is in!

I can't say I hate the Better Than Sex mascara, but I have a lot of problems with it when I look at it and its packaging in comparison to my ride or die drugstore mascara.

My Mega Effects mascara from  Avon completely blows my mind. It gives me the best volume, length and curl I have ever seen for a drugstore mascara that's only 10 bucks. The wand was terrifying looking at first, but after a few cautious applications I am completely in love, and it is absolutely effortless. The handle bends so that you can apply it from whatever angle makes it easiest for you, and the wand it three dimensional with longer rows of bristles faded to shorter ones towards the ends. The formula is very liquid-y which I think helps it to apply smoothly and avoid clumping. The black part of the tube where all the product is is pliable so the product gets low you can get the most of the it out by squeezing it. I have a little bit of trouble with transfer while the product is wet, but once it sets it is almost impossible to remove without an oil based remover which is awesome. When waiting for the product to dry I usually just hold something under my eye to help keep transfer from getting on my face, but it's easily removable.

The amount of times I have stabbed myself in the eye with the wacky bristles on this wand is far too high. It's not a day with this mascara until I've poked my eye out at least once while using it. I've got a lot of problems with this mascara, but the formula is not one of them. It's the perfect consistency, and lasts all day, but I did have some issues with transfer over the course of the day where it smudged on my lower lashline. The bristles on the brush aren't nearly as straight as they are in the picture, and the curve is so minute in the wand that it's hardly noticeable and does little good to help with application. I know people rave about this mascara, so please don't hate me, but this is not one of my favorite formulas, and for the price of a full size I can't see myself being willing to shell out the dough to get another tube.

Stay Beautiful and enjoy the summer heat!

BNB

Happy Birthday To Me! - From Sephora

I picked up my birthday gift not too long ago and I am overly excited about it. It's quickly become a favorite. I had a choice between a Marc Jacobs mini makeup set (lipstick and eyeliner) or a deluxe sample set of Fresh skincare product. Even though I'm in the market for some new skincare, I'm always a little hesitant to try things without doing thorough research on what's in the products because my skin is so sensitive to so many ingredients in skincare products. With that being said I went for the Marc Jacobs set which came with a mini Le Marc Lip Creme in 216 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and a mini Highliner Gel Crayon in Blacquer.

Let me tell you... This is a wonderful birthday gift to get when you're someone who has trouble splurging on yourself. This lipstick is so long wearing, creamy, and opaque. It's a fun pink that's a few shades brighter than my natural lip color. It's easy to apply, and let's be honest, the mini size of it is absolutely adorable. Even for a deluxe sample size it will still last a long time!

The eyeliner stayed in place all day on the waterline without smudging or ending up in my eyelash roots giving me raccoon eyes, but it's just a mini matte black eyeliner. While I can't justify spending money on this expensive of an eyeliner, you can bet that I will be using this one up without complaining. It's opaque and creamy, and probably well worth the price for it's quality, but I can't do it.

Thanks Sephora for a lovely birthday gift on my first month back in Sephora stores!

Stay Beautiful!

BNB

Opal Has Arrived!

That's right ladies! My opal travel sizes have arrived.

I've already cracked them open and given them a test, and I have to say, I'm as impresses as I expected to be and maybe more. With a neutral skintone I can get away with going either warm or cool without any problem.

For summer I was excited to try out Opal because it gives a nice golden shine to the face which is very nice to give the suntanned effect to the face without having the skin damage of tanning. I'm absolutely in love with the powdered opal, the soft and almost creamy consistancy, the beautiful finely milled shimmer, the perfect pigmentation, and the gorgeous golden color. I loved the swatches of the liquid opal, but unfortunately I think the doe foot applicator takes away from the full intensity that you get with the pump bottle of the full size because I have to really pack it on to get any pigmentation out of it, but it's definitely enough to get me hooked and require the purchase of the full size. I look forward to trying some of the other shades as well, though I haven't decided which ones exactly yet. I've looked at Moonstone and was very tempted to purchase that one as well, and I think that may be the next one I try. I thought about Champagne Pop, and as much as I want to get the Jacklyn Hill and Becca collaboration palette it's just not an option for me, so I won't be able to try the limited edition shade from that unfortunately, but that's okay I guess...

What should I try next?

Stay Beautiful Ladies!
BNB

Exciting Products to Come!

I have a lot of great stuff in the works for the next few months. I've got some things in the mail, as well as a few things I want to try out in hopes of working with my seemingly picky skin.

In the mail I have the mini size of the Hourglass dim light ambient lighting powder so I can try it out, by looks it appears my wet n wild bronzer in reserve your Cabana might be a dupe. We will see!

Also in the mail is the Becca travel set of the Opal powder and liquid formulas. I thought it might be worth a try since I seen to have a lot drier skin than I used to. I went into Sephora and got color matched because I couldn't decide between opal and moonstone. The opal set is going out of stock and the moonstone liquid travel size is new, so I wanted to be sure I was getting something I would like. With my skin I could have chosen either so I started with Opal.

In the works otherwise is purchasing the milani liquid metallics lipsticks before they go out of stock permanently. My goal is to pick up the nude and the brown shades. I'm in love with the liquid lipstick formula because I work in a hot warehouse and I need something that stands up to drinking and sweating.

And also soon I will be getting matched for a foundation because unfortunately for me my skin isn't very agreeable with drugstore foundations because they are generally either yellow or pink based and both of those tend to be off on my skin. So I am looking for a more neutral toned color or a way of making my foundation a better match instead of just going with what I can find that's close enough.

Take care in the sun and heat, and Stay Beautiful!
BNB

I'm Not On The Bandwagon

Lately everyone on YouTube has been all over the Better Than Sex bandwagon. And I agree that it's a good mascara, I can't knock it for anything except the price compared to the mascara I prefer over it. I can't jump on the bandwagon when my ten dollar mascara from Avon gives me falsie quality lashes from one coat where I have to apply multiple coats of Too Faced's and it still doesn't give me the same volume and length I get from my Avon Mega Effects. I wear mascara every day, and I hardly reach for Better than Sex because of my Avon mascara. I have to make an effort to use all of my mascaras instead of the Avon one. I've never had a mascara do this great, and it's hardly ever talked about (if at all) how amazing this product is compared to some of its more expensive competitors. And the best part about Avon is that often time their mascaras are on sale for Buy One, Get One for $1, so just like me you can stock up during the sales and have back ups waiting for the first one to wear out. I'll be posting a full review on both of these mascaras in the next few days to give you a better idea of what I find to be the best and worst about the products separately.

Stay beautiful

BNB

Hautelook by Nordstrom (and Lorac Review)

I was introduced to Hautelook about a month ago, and when I was shopping around I came across some Lorac products on sale. I decided, after much indecisive flip-flopping, to purchase the Rockin' Red Hot limited edition mini lip gloss collection. which comes with 8 different shades varying from nude to pink to red and even one light purple. It did take a while for me to receive my order from Hautelook once it was placed, but since I was in no hurry it wasn't so bad.

Shade names are:
Amp (Nude)
Electric (Pink Nude)
Groupie (Baby Pink)
Tour (Petal Pink)
Backstage (Fuchsia)
Solo (Magenta)
Encore (Red Coral)
Rock (Sheer Purple)

Overall I wasn't impressed with the glosses, they were a lot more sheer than I expected, and the color practically disappears on the lips once applied. Some of them have a bit too much glitter in them for my taste, and it wasn't all that finely milled either. The packaging of the product is extremely cute, but I still wish that the colors were more opaque and pigmented. I'll keep trying them and see if my opinion changes, but thus far the colors I have tried have not made me all that excited.

Stay Beautiful
BNB

Low Tide on the Arbonne Ocean

This is one of those products that I tried so hard to love, but I just couldn't. I tried it for months, on and off, hoping that maybe this time I would fall in love with it. I was kind of shocked, because I do love Arbonne so much when I am given products from one of my friends who is a representative, but I just couldn't get into this one. The Aromassentials Awaken Sea Salt Scrub just kind of fell flat for me. It cleanses amazingly, and I love the idea of using salt instead of the sand-like grit that a lot of scrubs use. But I couldn't get past the fact that the soap itself in the product leaves my skin feeling like it's coated in an oily film when I wash it off. I already have some struggles with oily skin and acne, and using this scrub makes me worry it will only make my acne issues worse. I thought maybe I hadn't washed all of the soap off and that's what caused it to feel slick and filmy on my face, so the next time I gave it a try I spent more time rinsing and rubbing it off. But the oily feeling persisted. I love how it makes my skin feel so clean, but it's not worth the risk of breakouts for me to keep using it. I'm sorry to say I will not be repurchasing this product.

I love so many things about Arbonne, but this product is sadly not one of them, not for lack of trying.

The Body Shop Sample Review

Back when I bought my haul from Ulta, one of the product samples they sent me was from The Body Shop. I was really excited to try this sample, since I hardly buy luxury beauty products regardless of the fantastic reviews I hear about them. I was sent The Body Shop's Tea Tree Flawless BB Cream. Sadly, this one disappointed me... I wanted so badly to fall in love with it, but I just couldn't.
And here's why!

I had several really big compliments to give this product:

• The formula was gorgeously light and pigmented.
• The company doesn't use tons of chemicals in their products.
• The products are not tested on animals.

However, I had two huge problems with this product when I tried it:

• The smell of this product was extremely overpowering (and it didn't go away after it set on my skin) Even though the company doesn't use harsh chemicals in their products the smell was extremely chemical-like.
• It seemed very fluid, and kind of streaked down my face when I applied it and I had to keep buffing it in until it was set on my skin.