Countdown to Gorgeous: Days 7 and 8 with FOTD

Disclaimer: I purchased these. All links are to previous reviews.

Yep, I'm behind.Work kicked into high gear with projects needing to be completed before the long Christmas break. I'm coming up for air today, before round two of "this needs to be done now" starts.

Day 7 of the bareMineral's Countdown to Gorgeous advent calendar is the lovely golden vanilla glimmer gloss in Crowd Pleaser. It's sheer but full of gold shimmer, which makes it a perfect lipstick topper for this time of year (or really, all year round). I like the formula of these glosses and find that I can get a good 3-4 hours of comfortable wear from them. Here I'm wearing Crowd Pleaser over the peachy Toujours Heureux lipstick by Paul & Joe Beauty. Honestly, the gloss helped the lipstick look better.

Day 8 brought me the only skincare item in this advent calendar - the Skinlongevity Vital Power Infusion Serum. This milky serum claims to diminish the look of fine lines, wrinkles, and uneven skin tone while helping to protect against future signs of aging.

There are some interesting ingredients in the mix (below, copied from Ulta), and the recommended two pumps covers my face and neck.

• Long Life Herb: Legendary herb shown to help defend against signs of aging. Specially cultivated from the vitamin- and mineral-rich herb grown on Okinawa, known as "the island of long life".
• California Poppy: A bright and brilliant flower native to California known for its resilience and ability to thrive in harsh conditions.
• Lempuyang ginger: A root traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicines and Indonesian Jamu herbal medicine.
• Skinmimetic Technology: Inspired by the properties of youthful skin, bareMinerals combined Long Life Herb, California Poppy and Lempuyang ginger extracts to create bareMinerals SkinMimetic Technology - a leading edge complex is designed to help protect your skin against visible signs of aging and damage, to promote your most radiantly youthful appearance.

I like the feel/consistency of this serum and find that it sinks in almost immediately. It does not interfere with subsequent makeup application, nor did I notice it causing my skin to get any more oily than normal. I'm guessing I can get about 2 weeks of 1x daily use, which is not enough to see changes, but my initial impression is positive. A full size (1.7 oz) will set you back $48, but I did see some sample sets on Ulta that contain the serum if you want to try it out without committing to a full size.

Now for the makeup used in this FOTD:

I'm still enjoying the It Cosmetics CC+ Cream, although I'll be seeing the end of my sample in another few days. I mixed it with my Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess liquid luminizer, which I'm starting to make a dent in it.

Blush is the bareMinerals Natural Passion cream blush topped with Estee Lauder's Peach Passion, which I depotted from one of my Color Portfolio palettes and put into a Z palette. That's Canadian beauty youtuber Allana Davison on the TV.

On my eyes I'm wearing Maybelline's Gold Shimmer 24/7 Color Tattoo as a base, with Allspice from day 6 on the middle to outer edges of my eye and Urban Decay's Vanilla on the inner portion.

I like how this turned out and ended up wearing the same shadows for several days in a row. So you may see it again.

I'm sneezing my head off today, which I'm hoping is just from allergies triggered by today's 80 degree weather. I'm popping Zicam like Pez candy, so no colds, please!