March 2015 / Beauty Favorites

Let's talk makeup.

1) LORAC Pro Palette

This beautiful palette was gifted to me by a close friend (Link to her blog, inactive at the moment but hopefully will come back.) for my 19th birthday this past week. I've been eyeing this palette for over a good year but never really got around to purchasing it. Whenever I would stumble upon an Ulta or Sephora, I always would do a couple swatches of the Urban Decay Naked I Palette, then do some swatches of this Lorac Palette. Right away, there's a huge difference in textures and color pay off between these two brands. Don't get me wrong, I love the Naked Palettes and the quality of Urban Decay shadows, but Lorac really stole me on this one. The texture of these shadows are ridiculously buttery, and the color pay off is so pigmented and intense. Another thing I love about this palette is that it offers a good amount of warm tone colors, as well as cool tone colors. With the packaging, I really appreciate the sleekness of the design and how incredibly thin the palette is. Also there's a decently large mirror attached. Here are some swatches of the four colors I've been loving the most in this palette. I'm excited to test out the palette more and kind of break out of this comfort zone I have with shadows and experiment.

Thanks Birdy ♥

2) REVLON Colorstay Moisture Stain (030 Milan Moment)

New favorite lip stain! I never favored lip sticks or lip glosses but instead always faced towards  stains when it came to lip wear due to it's long wear and lightweight feel. There's an on going statement about stains in the beauty world that they can be terribly drying, but this product really changed that stereotype for me. This feels light weight and a bit watery so that moisturizing feeling remains even if this product doesn't really budge from your lips. This color is a really cute natural coral/orange color, which I've been pretty into lately. Great for everyday wear and best worn (IMO) if after application, to dab your lips on a piece of tissue paper to insure longer wear.

3) ELF Clear Brow & Lash Mascara

This product is one of the best bargains I've ever received since the start of wearing and purchasing makeup and have always remained a favorite in my makeup bag. I use this to set my eyebrows after filling them in order to lock them down for the whole entire day. I have a hard time understanding why people purchase $15 clear brow gels when they can spend $2 on this amazing product. Elf, don't stop what you're doing, you're great.

4) MAC Fix +

I'm one of those people who haven't dabbled too much in the MAC world and never found a reason to purchase their full coverage foundations or their $16 single eyeshadows, but one thing I have always gone back to purchase is the MAC Fix + Spray. This spray is actual magic. After I finish my foundation/bb cream, concealer, powder, and bronzer, my face can sometimes look a bit cakey, dry, and lifeless. Whenever I'm in that situation, I give my face a couple spritz of this Fix + and my makeup automatically becomes one with my skin. The difference is clearly visible, the dryness melts away, I'm left looking naturally glowy (not oily or too dewey) and my face doesn't look as masked or caked over. This also helps with keeping my makeup on my face for longer hours throughout the day, and if my face makeup rubs away, it does more gracefully when I use this product.