BE bareCrystals Collection

One of my lovely Christmas gifts from my mother was the bareCrystals collection from BE. Now, as I've said before I'm not a huge fan of BE foundation and a lot of their other products. However I do love the eyeshadows and the mineral veil. I love this collection, and I figured I'd share my thoughts with you guys who might be a little weary of BE as am I. So Here we go!

Everything come in a gorgeous, and very sturdy red box with beautiful chandeliers on the front. I love this box. You can take out the plastic inserts that hold the makeup and you have a great lil box to store whatever you want in it. The top lifts up and creates a stand up mirror, and there is a roomy drawer that pulls out at the bottom. I have decided to use my box to store my BE eyeshadow samples, and it's great!

Now for the contents:

Feather Light Mineral Veil- This is great. I love the regular mineral veil, but this one is silkier and has a hint of light reflecting particles that gives your makeup a subtle ethereal look. Not enough to be shimmery, but just enough to give you a lil extra somethin. I love love love it!!

Rock Crystal Eyecolor- "light butter yellow velvet" A very pretty color, great on it's own for an understated look, or gorgeous with the other eye color included in this set.

Gilded Quartz Eyecolor- "gilded khaki glimpse"- This one is kind of a high shine deep gold with a hint of a greenish tint. Very very pretty with a huge color payoff.

Smoky Quartz Liner Shadow- "smoky dark chocolate" I love this liner, and since I have dark hair I typically stick with black liner for most looks, but this one is just dark enough. I really like it.

Rose Quartz Blush- "canyon rose" ok so I love this color, but I have to admit I haven't used it as a blush yet...but I've used it as an eyecolor and it's fab. I'm sure it makes a great blush too, haha.

Raquel Buxom Big & Healthy FullColor Lip Polish- "chocolaty rose" I usually don't do a lot of brownish lip colors, but I really like this one. It's sheer enough, and has enough rose tint to be very natural and flattering. I could see this on girls with any skin tone. I've played with it a lot over some of my favorite lipsticks and it's awesome, very versatile!!

3 brushes- I wasn't excited about these at first cause I wasn't a huge fan of BE brushes, but these all work great and sooo soft. The have very pretty clear handles as well!

Eye Defining Brush- A bigger shadow brush, good for the crease, very soft

Eyeliner Brush- Very fine, and sturdy, looks to be a good eyeliner brush. We'll see how it withstands a little wear. I don't think it will split and fray but only time will tell!!

Soft Focus Face Brush- This one is my favorite, it's so damn soft. I love using it for my mineral veils, and I bet it would be great for your blushes that might be a little too highly pigmented for a softer application.

That's it!! Definately check out this kit HERE. I'll try and get up some swatches of the colors in the next couple of days!!!

This kit gets 4 out of 5 potato heads!!

Back from the Holidays

Ahhhhh, so I'm finally back from my holiday vacationing. Big news: I'm one of the winners from the contest that I featured in my last post before I left. Woooooooo! I'm so excited, she said my package should get here within 2 weeks and I can't wait to share my goodies with you guys. In the meantime I'm working on some swatches and some other fun stuff for the blog. Hopefully I'll get around to posting some of the swatches tomorrow. If not I'll have something else for ya. I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday, and I'd love for you to share with me your favorite parts of the Holiday for you. Your favorite tradition, favorite dish, favorite present, whatever it is. I'd love to know what was your favorite part of the season this year. OR if you have a New Year's Resolution I'd love to hear that too. Ciao till tomorrow!

CybeleSays contest. Enter! You've got nothing to lose!

The CybeleSays weblog is having one of the coolest contests I've seen so far!! (I've yet to win one of these contests, lol) They're cleaning out their beauty closet and giving it away!! Now I've got your attention!! They will pick 7 winners (randomly) and each prize is to be worth at least $50. To see all about the contest and to enter click HERE!!

Peace

Cartoon inspired Beauty

Mac's Disney Tint Toon TLC's to this day are 4 of my favorite products I own, and I would have never gotten them if it hadn't been for that packaging. Why does Mac have to tease us with LE's? I shoulda bought 3 of each!! High end to low end, beauty retailers are using our favorite cartoon characters on the packaging to lure us in. And it works! Check these out, awwwww!

In the Spirit of the holidays we'll start off our lil list with these adorable lip balms featuring the characters of the beloved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! The one featured there is Clarice's Berry Bubble Gum because she was always my favorite!!! But you can also get Bumble's Blueberry Blast, Hermey's Peppermint Twist, or Rudolph's Rockin Rasberry!! The whole set is only $12 and you can grab em HERE

Ok so there aren't many things in life that I want on my vanity more then this entire collection from Paul & Joe. It has some of my favorite Disney Characters, and it just doesn't get any cuter!!

The products:

-Face color balls in Fantastic Orange featuring Bambi, or Classical Pink featuring Flower (giddy)

-Milky lip treatment featuring the fabulous Marie from Aristocats!!!

-Protective hand cream featuring....oh my god....Lady from Lady and the Tramp, AKA my favorite Disney character EVER.

*drool* I WANT IT!!!!!!!!

Get this HERE....feel free to buy for me too.

Well might as well get this one out of the way, the much anticipated Mac for Hello Kitty collection, making it's way into our makeup bags this Febuary. The collection is split up into two sub-collections called:

"Hello Kitty Colour Collection" which is said to include 6 lipsticks, 6 lipglasses, 2 TLCs (yay), 2 eyeshadow palettes (4 shadows each), 2 pigments, 2 reflects glitter, 4 glitter liners, 2 beauty powders, 3 polishes, a mascara, lashes

And "Hello Kitty Kouture" including 2 dazzleglasses and 3 sheer mystery powders.

The collection also includes: 2 makeup bags, a Hello Kitty Doll, a small mirror, 3 brushes, keychain, bracelet, a tote bag, and a vanity set....yay...I'm gonna be broke. NEXT.

Pucker up those cupid's bow lips with Betty Boop lipstick! It comes in 3 shades, and an awesome case. It's only 5 bucks, hell I'd but it just for the packaging. How can you not love Betty Boop? She taught me how to flirt!! Get yours HERE.

Next up Too Faced So Smurfy Illumination color correcting Face Powder, $26, featuring the one and only Smurfette!! And on the right, Mood Swing Emotionally Activated Lip Gloss, $18.50. This one claims to change different shades of pink depending on your "mood" or body heat level. The collection also inclues the So Smurfy Eyeshadow quad and Smurfy eyed liquid eyeliner.

Check em all out HERE

On10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs lip balm set, $38. I want this so bad. The reviews on it are really good, but honestly I could care less, I want it for the gosh darn cuteness. There are 9 tins and the flavors are:

Ruby Red Grapefruit

Evil Apple

Blue Berries

Unscented

White Vanilla

Peach Blush

Coconut Mango

Cheery Cherry

Grumpy Grape

Get it HERE

Also from on10, Disney Wild Ideas! set, $28. 3 moisturizing lip balms in a fantastic lil Disney clutch. The flavors are: Mickey Mint, Minnie Mango, and Wild Cherry. They have a few other Disney products as well that you can check out. Get it HERE.

I love this manicure set featuring everybody's favorite beagle Snoopy!! And Charlie Brown of course. It includes nail clippers, cuticle clippers, cuticle scissors, cuticle trimmer, ear cleaner, cuticle knife pusher, and a laser nail file. It's only $18.76 and you can pick it up HERE.

Last but not least, these great little lipgloss tins featuring the characters we all know from the 80's, Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears!! Each set includes 4 flavors:

Strawberry Shortcake: Lemon Meringue, Strawberry, Blueberry Muffin, Rasberry Tart.

Care Bears: Pink Lemonade, Vanilla Ice Cream, Clover Mint, Blueberry.

Here

That's all folks!

Fantastic MUA Swap Haul!!

Over on MUA I decided to grab some BE samples from miss Maxine (Max B). I decided on 24 shades cause I'm a maniac, and then began to eagerly await my package as always. It came very quickly, and I must say Max is so sweet, if you ever think about swapping with her don't hesitate. When I tore into that package I couldn't have been happier, this was an amazing swap.

First of all, I apologize for uber-crappy pictures. Haven't had any sunlight all week, and that's where I normally take my pictures.

Ok, everything came packaged in this ADORABLE "Lela Rose for Beauty.com" makeup bag, which I will deffinately be using! Which also came with a cute lil clear mini zip pouch inside.




Here are the actual samples. Theres *32* there, and I only requested 24, which alone is extremely generous of her already!! The pictures are bad, you can click on them for larger versions. I PROMISE I will do good swatches of all of these when the sun comes out.






NEXT: All my extras!!! Wow!! I always appreciate extras, but these are some of the best I've ever gotten. I can use all of em!



1. Narciso Rodriguez for her sample vial spray. This smells awesome!!
2. This is the little extra pouch that matches the bag with my extra eyeshadows in it.
3. Sephora mirror
4. Adorable little ruler with some of my favorite cute characters on it!
5. Mary Kay powder perfect cheek color in Wild Rose, very pretty!!
6. L.A.M.B. perfume sample spray vial. I LOVE Gwen's fragrances.
7. Mario Badescu Hyaluronic eye cream
8. Mark cool burst lipcolor sample in Busted
9. Full size sealed BE eyeshadow glimpse in Playful
10. Lacoste lotion sample. This one was kinda creepy cause I have a ton of perfume, but I had actually wore my lacoste perfume today, and realized how much I loved it and wanted to go buy the lotion!!

Forgot to put this one in the picture cause I had it on my phone, but I also got this ADORABLE lil tinkerbell like cell phone charm. This is a sucky picture, but it's a cute lil silver fairy with blue wings and hearts with blue gems on them. So cute!




Tried to get a better picture of the MK blush and the BE glimpse, but it sucks. The eyeshadow was sealed, but I removed the plastic seal to see the color of course.



Tried to take a better pic of the mirror, bleh I hate my camera. The mirror is great, very clear and large, definately going in my purse, hehe!! (see my beloved makeuptalk in the background!!)



So thank you Maxine for rocking my world!! MUAH!!

One more thing, I have a very love/hate relationship with BE products, but I must say these shadows are amazing. I'm gonna order full sizes of several. The color payoff is awesome and the shades are some of the most beautiful I've seen. And I have.....a LOT of eyeshadow.

That's all for today, hopefully we'll get some sun tomorrow so I can do some swatches. Stay tuned!!

PEACE

I'm back, Loreal HIP comparisons

Ok so I know I've been gone. The past few weeks have been chaotic and I just haven't been available. But I really am back now. I really should have taken swatches before making this post, but they really aren't needed I don't guess. Today I'll just be discussing a few comparisons of the Loreal HIP products to other brands, mostly MAC.

First I'll be looking at the cream/gel eyeliner pots.

Loreal HIP approx $11-$12 USD



MAC fluidline $15 USD



And Coastal Scents $6.95 USD



Ok so all 3 of them are nearly identical. I have 2 each of the products from Mac and Hip. Blacktrack and Dip Down from Mac, Black and Eggplant from Hip. I now have 3 from Coastal Scents, True Black, Turquoise, and 24k, and I plan on ordering more soon. The consistency, pigmentation, and staying power of these 3 liners are all pretty much exactly the same. I would say that the HIP liner is maybe not as smooth as the other two. I'm sure that has to do with it being a supposed "cream" rather then a gel like the other two. And unlike the other 2 the HIP seems to form a bit of a hard surface after you've used it a bit, and you kind of have to dig under it to get to the good stuff. In all honestly I liked the Coastal Scents the best, it's the cheapest and every bit as good as the Mac. I doubt I will ever purchase another Mac fluideline again unless they decide to come out with some nice new colors. Don't get me wrong, fluidlines are great, but Coastal Scents are just as good if not better and come in gorgeous colors. (you can buy them HERE)


Now for HIP cream shadow paint $11-$12 USD, vs MAC paint $16.50 USD


These 2 were also pretty much the same. I only have one Hip paint, Lofty, and I have a couple from Mac. We'll just use Bare Canvas as an example since it's the closest I have to Lofty. They both dry to the same finish, and have rock hard staying power. However neither one of them compare, in my opinion, to the performance of a Mac paint pot. The paint pot delivers the same qualities as above, but for me gives the eyeshadow you apply on top of it much more vibrancy. Spend the extra few bucks and get a paint pot.


And also HIP pigments $11-$12 USD vs MAC pigments $19.50 USD


I have several Hip pigments, and a whole slew of of Mac pigments and have found that the color and intensity of the Hip pigment. I personally like the consistency of the Mac better, it's just a bit smoother and seems to have better staying power. Also I have found that these Hip pigments are pretty much carbon copies of the Mac pigment shades on the right.

Exciting- Pink Opal
Fiery- Fuchsia
Tenacious- Tan
Valiant- Cornflower
Intrepid- Blue Brown
Rebel- Golden Olive


Now what I want to know from YOU, is what you think about the Hip "jelly balms". They look so yummy on the shelves, but I've yet to fork over the money for one. I've heard it's a great Tendertones dupe. Convince me!!!

Cult Beauty Products

Ok so I haven't blogged in several days. I apologize, I've been on my deathbed with the flu or something and just haven't had the energy to do it. I've also been having some other issues. I'm being audited for my unemployment benefits, I lost my phone and had to order a new one (expensive), blah blah blah. Anywho no one wants to hear me whine. Today's post is a simple one. Figured I'd share my thoughts on some of todays biggest cult beauty products, for those of you who may have not heard of them.

Smith's Rosebud Salve

This pretty unisex balm has been a multitasking staple since 1895. Not only is it amazing on the lips, but works beautifully on any rough spot on the body like the elbows. It's FANTASTIC as a cuticle balm as well. The smell is delightful, like baby powder and roses and gives your lips a natural healthy sheen. It's only $6 You can find it at many retailers in your area, i usually pick mine up at my local Books-a-million bookstore! To purchase it at Sephora.com click HERE.

The website below also offers a variety 4-pack for just under $19.95. Includes the original rosebud salve, rosebud strawberry lip balm, mentholated salve, and minted rose lip balm. They're all great!!



Pick this up HERE


Urban Decay's Primer Potion

Every eyeshadow diva's best friend, and winner of the best of sephora award, this stuff boasts smoother, more vibrant, longer lasting, crease-proof eyeshadow. It works! If you like to really play with your eyeshadow, use more than one shade at a time, or have a problem with oily lids or fading creasing eyeshadow then definately give this stuff a try. It's also great for getting a better color payoff from cheaper shadows. You can grab it HERE for $16

Benefit Benetint

Created in 1977 for an exotic dancer who wanted a product to give their nipples a little more color, and would also last through the performance, this rosey stain has been a favorite ever since. It's more widely used now as a cheek or lip stain, and gives the best healthy flushed look. It's pretty easy to work it, a little product goes a long way, and you won't need any touch-ups throughout the day. It typically comes in a nail polish like container, but you can also get the benefit pocket pal which is a want with benetint on one side and a clear gloss on the other. Something I currently love is the new benetint balm which has the same sheer color as benetint but doesn't stain the lips. It looks absolutely perfect over the actual stain. They're also now greated posietint which is the same idea, but created for when you need a lighter pinker flush.



Get benetint HERE for $28 or check out the other line of benetint products.


Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment

This stuff is lux to the max. I've never met a product that pampers my lips like this one. It both exfoliates and conditions with oils, antioxidants, and real sugar! It smells lemony fresh, and also contains spf 15. The price tag is a little scary at $22.50 for a lip balm. But trust me it's no ordinary lip balm. You can order it HERE.


Essie nail polish "ballet slippers"

Really is the perfect pretty bare pink! Nothing more can be said. Essie polish is wonderful, great color, doesn't chip, all the goods. Peep it for $8 HERE


OPI nail lacquer in "I'm not really a waitress"

I'm not a red gal, but if you are then this is the perfect deep shimmery red. It works well on anyone, I just don't like reddish nail polish period. But this is one that I could wear if I wanted to.

HERE


Dior Diorshow mascara

Another winner of the best of sephora award, this is one pretty cool mascara. Now it's not like the only mascara I'll ever use omigod it's so amazing but I keep it in regular rotation with my other mascaras. There is also diorshow waterproof, and diorshow unlimited, and blackout, but I haven't tried those so I can't speak for them. You can get Diorshow for $24 HERE



Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler and mini eyelash curler

Okay so this one I haven't tried, but it has so many followers it's gotta be good. I'd say if nothing else check out the sweet lil mini eyelash curler for getting those hard to reach lil lashes. My lashes aren't over-lacking in length or curl, so I just don't personally feel the need to spend $17-$19 on an eyelash curler when mine workds fine. But it's not a bad price for something that's you're gonna have for a long time, so I'd say check it out (HERE) if your lashes need a little more oomph.



Mac Pigments


Last but certainly not least it the covetable Mac pigment, the most versatile product yet. The highly concentrated pigments can be used as beautiful blendable eyeshadows, mixed with clear nail polish, used as facial highlighters, blush, mixed with clear gloss or balm for the lips. There are many possibilities. A jar costs $19.50 and will probably last you the rest of your life. I only have a few full size jars, and I have a huge supply of sample jars, and I've yet to use up even a whole sample, so I suggest buying samples before you buy a full jar. There are several ways to get samples, if you're interested let me know.

To buy a full jar, click HERE




Well that's all I got in me for today girls and boys, ta ta for now.