My Must Haves Palette by Essence

Disclaimer: I purchased these.

Hey, long time no see! I'm still playing with lots of makeup and skincare and today wanted to share my impressions of the Essence My Must Haves singles, which retail for a whopping $1.99 each at Ulta.  I picked up a bronzer, two blushes, and an eye shadow to go into the 4-pan palette ($3.49). I've been playing with these for over a month now, let's see if they are any good!

First of all, the palette arrived without any packaging and was scratched on top :-(  Not good, Ulta, especially considering the claims against you about reselling products that have been returned. Fortunately, each single comes securely packaged in it's own container and was in good condition, so no complaints there.  They are not magnetized but do fit nicely into the palette, which is a rather flimsy plastic.

The bronzer shade also works as an eyeshadow, and I've been using it as a crease shade as well.  It's best suited for fair complexions and I've reached for it quite a lot in the last month.  There are 3 blushes on Ulta's site and I purchased Rosy Glow and Coral Dream. 

Rosy Glow is the more pigmented of the two, but I like them both and find that they can be built up in color without getting cakey.  The single eye shadow I chose is Brownie Licious, which is a dark brown matte that applies smoothly and can also be built up in color. 

None of these are groundbreaking, but I do like them and would take them with me when traveling for a nice one and done natural look. I hate taking expensive makeup with me when traveling, as I've been known to lose items, plus things get broken. At this price point I wouldn't be heart broken and I do like them!

Away We Glow Illuminating Powder in Crushed Rose by NYX

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

I picked up the NYX Away We Glow Illuminating Powder ($10) in Crushed Rose back in August, and I've got to admit feeling a little ambivalent about it. On the one hand, it's so pretty to look at and I love that each of the shades is large enough that you can use them individually if desired.

When all four colors are swirled together, the result in the swatch is a peachy pink shimmer that is right up my alley, and the highlighter shade on it's own is quite lovely. So why am I feeling ambivalent?  They just do not really register on my face and lack that skin enhancing quality that I look for.

I'm not really sure why they are calling this an "illuminating powder" and marketing it as a highlighter as opposed to a blush (it's in the highlighter section on the nyx web site).  Three of the powders are matte and definitely look more blush like than anything to me.

So I dunno. It's not a bad product and I really want to like it more than I do. I tried it again today to see if my initial impressions were off, and applying a generous amount of all four colors swirled together gave a shimmery light golden wash on my checks, so maybe it truly is a highlighter.  That will teach me to read the marketing lingo a bit more closely next time. You can see an unblended dab of the highlight on the tip of my nose :-/

In other news, Hurricane Nate left me with lots of sticks to pick up in my backyard, but no loss of power or damage to anything, for which I'm grateful. Hopefully that will be the last of the hurricanes for this year!

Skip the Brush in Warm Bronze, Pink Flamingo Creme, and Sunset Gold Shimmer by Julep

Disclaimer:  I purchased these.

Yesterday I showed you my June Julep Maven box, and today I've got some looks created using the items I received. Let's start with the Warm Bronze Skip the Brush ($24) blush, which according to Julep is:

A one stick wonder made for luminous, dewy cheeks, but versatile on eyes and lips, too. This soft-focus powder has ultrafine color pearls that go on creamy then set to a long-lasting powder finish. Easy to apply, easy to blend (no brush needed!), easy to keep in your clutch for on-the-go beauty touch-ups.

What it does:
• Ultrafine pearls provide a dewy, luminous glow
• Soft focus formula gives a silky texture and ultra-smooth application
• Crème-to-powder easily blends, then sets to powder and stays put
• Four universal shades can blush, bronze, sculpt, or highlight

I found Warm Bronze easy to work with, and even though the color looks scarily intense when first applied directly to skin, it buffs out nicely with a brush or Beauty Blender.  The cream does indeed transform to a non-tacky satin finish and I did not have issues with it unsettling my foundation.  There are tiny gold flecks in the formula that are visible up close to the naked eye, although they are extremely subtle and do not look like obvious glitter on the skin.

I used this is all the usual places you would apply bronzer to on your face and though it did a pretty good job of warming my complexion with looking super obvious.  Yes, it leans fairly strong on the orange side of the color spectrum and I was concerned about looking to oompa loompa, but it seems to work well with my complexion.

Wear time on my oily skin is about 7 hours in my hot and humid climate, although I find topping it with a powder bronzer helps extend wear another hour or too. Nothing holds up too long in Mobile's brutal summer weather.  Nothing.

The It's Balm Lip Crayon in Flamingo Pink Creme ($20) is my least favorite of the 3 items in June's box, but only because the color is too cool toned with blue undertones to work well with my skin tone.  However, I've been topping it with Le Metier de Beaute's Burnished lipstick, which turns it to a gorgeous NARS Orgasm kind of color.  So pretty.  But first, here is Flamingo Pink on it's own:

It just doesn't suit me.  But topped with Burnished and a bit of By Terry's Baume de Rose balm, I like:

+

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The Sunset Gold Shimmer When Pencil Met Gel eye pencil is a shade that is both unique to my collection and works with my blue eyes (orange + blue = pop), so I'm happy to have this.

The finish is slightly more textured due to the shimmer factor and it does take a few passes and blending well to avoid patchiness, but nothing too laborious.

I skipped the July maven selections as nothing really stood out to me, but that just gives me more time to continuing playing with these before something new distracts my attention!

My Parisian Pastels: All-Over Illuminating Powder Cubes by Lancôme

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

Lancôme's My Parisian Pastels ($59) is one of my favorite of the spring releases that I've picked up.  A surprise hit, actually, as these were not really on my radar prior to purchasing.  After using them daily for over a month now, I'm sufficiently impressed.

The pretty tin contains 9 shimmer cubes that can be used as eyeshadow, blush, or highlighter wherever you decide to place it.  Spring has seen the release of so many pretty highlighters that I'm a bit overwhelmed, but I'm really enjoying these because of their versatility.

Each cube is housed in their own little plastic cube, complete with individual tops (not shown). While you can swirl your brush across all of them, I've been lifting out my cube of choice to use the individual colors. Even though the cubes are smaller than the size of an average blush, I've not found it hard to pick up color with a brush and make them work as blush toppers and highlighters.

My favorite way to where these are as eye shadow toppers, however, as the softly colored shimmers compliment so many different looks.  The soft gold #2 and nude with pink shift #8 have seen the most use from me, since I've been favoring more nude/neutral eye looks for spring. I've labeled the pics where I remember which shimmer cube I was using. For most of these looks, I used cream eyeshadows as a base with the shimmer cubes on top.

Shimmer Cube #9

Shimmer Cube #8

Shimmer Cube #8

Shimmer Cube #2

Shimmer Cube #2

Quite happy with these, and glad I took the plunge! While $59 is on the higher side, I can see myself using these a lot, so no complaints here.

Gwen Stefani Blush Palette by Urban Decay

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

Gah, but I love me some blush palettes. I also like Urban Decay's Afterglow blush formula, and 6 of them for $45? So, when Urban Decay released the Gwen Stefani blush palette, I reached for my wallet immediately. Not so much because I'm a Gwen or No Doubt fan (I was more of a Seattle Grunge fan), but because "blushes!". After using the palette for 3 weeks, here are my impressions.

First, a little background on the palette:  it was developed by Gwen for Gwen, as they reflect the shades she wished she had in her collection.  The color selections therefore represent what someone who is very fair would gravitate towards.  There is a mixture of cool and warm tones, although warm dominates IMO.  All of this works for me, so far so good.

The packaging, also designed by Gwen, is NICE. Substantial and with a nice heft to it, I like the white/gold graphic pattern. 

The pans are a nice size and the formula itself is easy to work with.  These do kick up a fair amount of dust but they apply smoothly.  Taking into account these were developed with the fair complected in mind, I wouldn't call them under pigmented -  but they are light in color.  This has it's pluses and minuses, but for my skin tone it's mostly pluses. 

 The darkest shade Easy is actually the one I will use the least, as it's darker than I usually go when it comes to blush colors.  It's lovely though, and with a light hand it's definitely workable.Cherry is a cool-toned bubblegum pink and was a surprise like for me, as it has a nice glowing quality that is not over the top.

Lo-Fi is a matte tan that can be used as a bronzer and/or contouring shade for the fair complected. It's warm toned without leaning too orange, and it works well to warm up my winter pasty skin without looking obvious - I like it.  Angel's champagne beige shimmer is a lovely highlighting shade that gives a soft glow.  Love.

The other two blushes (Hush, OC) work better as highlighters IMO, as they do not give enough color to work well as blushes on me.  That's okay, because they are really pretty and I'm in a major highlighter phase right now.  I especially like using OC over a cream blush, as it's peach/pink duotone shift works well over so many of the colors that I gravitate towards.  Hush's high shimmer means I have to use it sparingly in order to not emphasis pores, hence regulating it to highlighter status.

If I had to rank them on preference and how much I will use them, it would probably go this way:  OC, Lo-Fi, Angel, Cherry, Hush, Easy.  Bottom line, it's a really good palette if the colors work for your complexion, and for mine they do!

Here I'm wearing OC over a peachy pink cream blush, Lo-Fi as a bronzer, and Angel as a highlighter. Perfect spring colors, and Mobile is having an early spring - it will be approaching 70 degrees several days this week.