Liquid Metal Eyes

For my birthday I stopped at Ulta and bought myself two of the Catrice Liquid Metal eyeshadows because I absolutely love having super shimmery colors for the lid and the swatches were to die for. I bought 80 Making Mauves and 100 What Do You Sea?.

They're very a very soft and buttery texture. They have great pigmentation. The price doesn't break the bank. And they have a super shimmery finish as well. Or at least one of them does. Number 80 is a beautiful muted purple that has a truly stunning metallic quality to it, however the other one seems to have more of a slight glitter to it moreso than the shimmer. I'm not a huge fan of the quilting and ridges that are in the powder, but the product itself is very good. I hope to pick up the other neutral shades soon, but I think I may end up passing on the green-blue shade (What Do You Sea?) because I don't know how much use it will get from me, but I will keep it for a while and see.

I wore these for an entire work day and they stayed put despite the conditions I work under. I had no trouble applying them with either a brush or my fingers, though I prefer a dense eye brush when I use them. These are some of the smoothest eyeshadows I have seen at the drugstore, and I love the metallic finish. I often use the Mauve one to highlight my inner corner and give it a pop of color (when I'm not using Pink Champagne from ABH, that is). For the price, these shadows can't be beaten, and their similarity to the Bella Eyes line from Milani is spot on in my opinion. I love both lines, however Milani has far more colors.

Stay beautiful Ladies!

BNB

Loreal Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer: Love it or Lose it?

I purchased this when it first came out, in hopes to make my Fit Me Matte and Poreless look less matte since I found out the matte line of that foundation was not for me. On the bottle, they list multiple ways to use the product including mixing it with foundation or wearing it under the foundation as a primer, but they also suggested using it as a liquid highlight. I went ahead and tried it all three ways over the past few months to get a definitive opinion on each method with it, and I've got to say... It's more of a flop than a fave.

I still have a ton of product left despite using it over 20 times, which would be great if I actually wanted to continue using it. It's a little expensive too, which makes me feel like I have to use it up so I'm not wasting my money. I had high hopes for this product being similar to things like the Backlight Primer and Becca's Pearl, but sadly it was not so.

I tried it first as a primer underneath my foundation, and while it gives a luminosity to the skin it's roughly equivalent to wearing a white frosty highlight all over and it completely washes out my skintone. It attracts far too much light to my whole face, and it feels a lot like I appear greasy. It has alright weartime, but I don't feel like it works great as a primer because it doesn't seem to make my foundation last any longer than it does without a primer. The micro-shimmmer is just too much, it feels like a spotlight on my face rather than a healthy glow, and I'm not about looking like the tin man...

I then went for the next suggestion on the bottle, which was to mix it in with the foundation before application for a "soft light illusion". After one pump, it completely disappeared into the foundation and left behind no glow. I added another pump and it still disappeared, and then another disappeared... It successfully lightened the color and coverage of the foundation, which it doesn't claim to do, but I saw no results with adding a glow to my skin.

The texture is very watery, almost too much so for me to want to use it as a highlight, but I went ahead and tried it anyway. I hoped I had found my preferred way of using this product, but unfortunately it was rather underwhelming. Despite applying several layers on top of one another, there was hardly any payoff, even now looking at the swatch on my hand it looks almost invisible despite two applications. It starts out looking wonderful and then seemingly melts into the skin and disappears.

I'm not at all happy with this product, but I will probably continue mixing it with my foundation or using it to help highlight in hopes of using it up one pump at a time. Not at all worth a repurchase or the money I spent on it in the first place.

Stay safe in the sun and enjoy the summer air!

As always, 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

The Creative Contour

Walking through the drugstore recently I saw a few things I thought would be useful additions to my makeup routine. But among these was a brush labeled "Contour Brush"on the ELF display, and I was curious. It is a small domed brush, stiff but not overly so. I snatched it up and brought it home. After reading the package I discovered that it was for your eyes, though I had bought it thinking it would be the perfect size for contouring and highlighting my nose.

While it works great for it's intended use of contouring your eyes for a natural look, it is also wonderful for contour and highlight on the nose area and applies the color and blends it beautifully into the skin. I ended up also using it to apply my highlight under my eyebrows as well as on my Cupid's bow because of it's small size and ease of blending. It may also work in place of using the edge of my flat contour brush to get the sharp cheek contour I like.

I'm absolutely in love with this brush after playing with it a few times, I love every ELF I have ever purchased and strongly recommend them to anyone who needs affordable and reliable brushes for makeup. I now own two Small Stipple Brushes, the Eyeliner Brush, the Contour Brush, and their Pointed Foundation Brush (which I'll be posting about another day, but am totally in love with as well) and I plan to buy many more of their brushes to add to my collection because of the affordability and the quality of their brushes.