Drugstore Haul and Mini Reviews

I picked up a bunch of products in the last few months from Milani than I had been eyeing and gave them all a try.
I picked up 3 blushes, 3 single eye shadows, 2 liquid lipsticks, 2 lip oils, a lipstick and an eye shadow palette. The gold packaging feels very elegant and expensive and I love to have these products around on display. Some of the packaging I find to be bulky (like the blushes) but regardless they are wonderful.

The first blush is from the rose blushes line and is in Romantic Rose (01) and although it has a slightly weird and chemical scent it is a gorgeous color and very difficult to over apply as it had a lighter pigmentation and a buildable formula. The cool toned mauve color is perfect and very unique at the drug store.The next two blushes are from the baked blush line in the shades Red Vino (09) and Bella Rosa (11). Red Vino is a red blush with gold shimmer and Bella Rosa is a vivid bright pink matte. This formula is by far my favorite baked blush formula. Unlike most baked products these are still soft and extremely pigmented. Red Vino does require an extremely light hand on fair skin, but the color is gorgeous even when applied lightly, just be careful of overdoing it. Bella Rosa also requires a bit of a light hand, though less so than the other color. but both colors last a long time on the skin and apply evenly and easily.
The single eye shadows I haven't played with too much, but they're from the Bella Eyes collection of gel powder shadows. I picked up specifically shimmers and metallics because they seemed like things I would use the most. First up is Bella Rouge, a metallic red; then Bella Gold, a metallic yellow gold; and finally Bella Chiffon, a metallic creamy white. The formula is very interesting and is said to be simlar to the colour pop shadows, so before springing for those I decided I would test the Milani formula first in case I didn't like it. It's definitely applied best with the fingertips in my opinion, but a brush may work well for some colors. All of the colors are very pigmented and blendable with each other and other shadows. I find I like them best as an accent on the center of the lid or in the inner corner of the eyes to bring dimension. I plan to pick up Dolci the 31st shade in the line which is a beautiful rose with a gold metallic shimmer in an order online in which I will hopefully pick up some of the new metallic liquid lipsticks.
The Amore Matte Liquid Lipsticks I have a love-hate relationship with. I own Loved (12) and Obsession (18). Loved is a medium nude brown color, which I love, and obsession is a red-toned purple. Both colors definitely dry completely matte, however they may dry too matte. After a drink of water I can feel the lipstick suck the leftover moisture out of my lips. The formula is quite patchy when I apply it, but I find it to be less noticeable in the nude color than in the deeper purple shade. Before it dries it looks fine and then when it dries it becomes streaky and patchy. the mousse-y formula is wonderful and soft to apply without dragging, but stains outside the lipline if it finds its way there so be warned. The scent is to die for; it smells like vanilla cake icing.
The lip oils are definitely one of my favorite products. I use them before applying lip products to help moisturize, and then again after I take off my makeup to replenish moisture and repair any damage or irritation from longwear products. I have moisturizing coconut (01) and repairing rose (05). Each oil is supposed to do different things, and while I haven't seen these do different things from each other I still think they are a great product to help hydrate and care for your lips.
I also picked up the Milani Color Statement Lipstick in 38 Double Espresso. This deep brown with gold shimmer is the perfect 90's lip color in my opinion. It is glossy and moisturizing but does not find its way outside the lipline or fade quickly after application. It is not long wearing, but doesn't require constant touchups either.The scent of this product is also delicious, but is more of a fruit candy scent.
Finally, the palette I chose was the Everyday Eyes palette in Earthy Elements (05) which consists of 6 shades of warm tones. 2 shades are matte (a burnt orange and a warm fawn brown) and 4 are shimmers (a deep reddish brown, a peach champagne, a warm dark brown, and a cream). All the colors are pigmented and soft. They kick up a little bit of powder when used with a brush, but not extremely much. I wish one of the darker shades was matte instead of shimmer because the palette feels slightly off balance without it. This palette is one of my go to's for when I need warm colors, but I do have to pull other colors in due to the lack of mattes. The brush in this palette is not cheap and useless like most palettes in the drugstore. It's one of the few brushes I have actually have kept and frequently use during makeup application.

Quite the pile pf products!
Always enjoy your beauty and whatever products you choose to use.

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