January Favorites

The transition into the new year was such a crazy time! Sadly, I didn’t get to post near as often as I wanted.  Work, school, and the holidays completely took over my life. I won't even spend time talking about how fast January went by. As far as beauty products, I had a really hard time finding new things that worked for me. A huge reason for this is my finicky skin. My beloved Laura Mercier Foundation Powder even started accentuating my dry skin. I tried at least three new foundations. One in particular I thought I loved (will mention later in the post), and about a week later dry patches around my mouth and nose appeared. So frustrating! The rest of my face gets oily, but the skin around my nose and mouth is very difficult to keep from getting dry and flaky. Anyone else have this problem? Despite my foundation woes, I still managed to find a few products that are new staples in my every day makeup bag.

 

 

 

1. Nars Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Via Veneto $24- I have Christina to thank for this one. Best. Eyeliner. Ever. I have had issues with eyeliner smearing at the outer corner of my eyes for as long as I can remember. Nars completely solved that problem. This twist-up eyeliner is the longest lasting pencil I have ever used…I highly recommend this one if you have a problem with straying eyeliner. One thing to note however (Christina you were right about this!): the staying power is so amazing that it’s not very easy to smudge or smoke out. I don’t normally smudge my eyeliner for my everyday makeup, so this wasn’t a problem for me. I will be using this as long as it’s around!

 

2. Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer (I wear the shade Vanilla) $29- I am extremely picky when it comes to concealers. The formula is light, but it provides great coverage. I use this for under eye circles as well as any spots I may have. Never looks cakey. Great all around concealer.

 

3. Nars Blush in Deep Throat $30- Continuing the Nars trend, Nars Blush in Deep Throat is a new staple for me. My senior year of high school, I purchased the legendary shade Orgasm and used it until I couldn’t scrape any more color out of the pan. I’m not sure why I didn’t repurchase or try another shade from the line, because these blushes may be the best out there. Deep Throat is a light pinky peach shade (swatch below) with a little shimmer. This is the perfect natural shade for my skin tone. I'm not quite as adventurous with blushes and tend to stick to more natural pinks, peaches, and corals. You know how you always read that you’re supposed to pick a shade of blush that looks like you just finished exercising? Well this is it. The color makes me look so awake, fresh, and healthy.

 

4. Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Translucent $4- This really isn’t a new item to me, but I have discovered a new way to use this powder. After several failed attempts at finding a foundation that doesn't exaggerate my dry skin, I quit wearing foundation altogether. For several days, I either didn’t wear any foundation or concealer, or just wore a little concealer under my eyes, and dusted this powder over my whole face. It does an awesome job at keeping my oily T-zone under control, but doesn't dry out my skin. Even though the color is translucent, somehow it still made my skin look a little more even. I also use this powder to set any liquid foundation I use. At only $4, you really can’t beat this deal.

 

5. Milani Shadow Eyez 12 HR Wear Eyeshadow in Champagne Toast $6- After hearing Missglamorazzi talk about this shadow pencil, I was itching to try it myself. She was right about this one! The shade looks like it sounds…a light pink champagne. It is super easy to swipe across the lid, blend it out a little and either wear alone or with another shade in the crease. And it WILL NOT budge! The twelve hour part is serious.

 

Nars Deep Throat on the left, Miliani Champagne Toast on the right. Champagne toast looks way more bronze in the picture than it does in person! I could not get the color to show up accurately on camera.

Honorable Mention- Jouer Matte Moisture Tint $38- I was absolutely crazy about this stuff for about five days. Sadly, after about a week, I started noticing flaky skin around my nose and mouth. I tried different moisturizers, and to my disappointment, nothing helped, and I had to return it. However, if you have normal to oily skin, I highly suggest giving this a try. It has a mousse-like texture, but it covers like a light to medium foundation. I couldn’t believe how much this tinted moisturizer covered. You can wear with a little concealer, but I doubt you’ll need it!

 

Have you discovered any new favorites? Do you have any foundation suggestions for my difficult skin? I’d love to hear any suggestions!

The $20 Makeup Challenge: collab with In the Pursuit of Novelty

I am so excited for my first collab with Christina from In the Pursuit of Novelty. We bonded over our love of makeup, and she has inspired me to try new looks ever since!

For this challenge, you must come up with a complete look for less than $20, brushes and all! I'm not going to lie...I really struggled with this!! My strategy was to pick one feature to focus on. I debated between a bold lip or a smokey eye, and as I've mentioned before, eyes are my favorite to play up! Naturally, I went with the smokey eye look. I couponed like crazy to get under the limit. I managed to get away with a total of $19.64.

I came away with four products: Covergirl + Olay Concealer Balm, Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in #17, L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Excess Mascara, and Maybelline Eye Studio Master Smokey Longwearing Shadow-Pencil in Smoking Charcoal.

I used the concealer to cover under eye circles and to cover up redness. This actually worked really well under the eyes, but it got a little too dewy on the rest of my face.

 

Next, I started on the eyes. I had wanted to try this Maybelline pencil for a long time. I'm not sure I love it, but it is a super easy way to get smokey eyes really fast! It was a little difficult to blend if you didn't do it quickly. I started with drawing a line across the top lid and smudging it out to the crease with my fingers. Then I drew a V on the outer corner to add a little more depth and shading. After blending this out, I drew another thick line across the top lash line and blended this upward with the smudger on the other end of the pencil. To finish up, I drew a thin line across the bottom lashes and blended this out with the smudger. The mascara was by far my favorite products of the bunch. The formula was awesome, and the brush made it easy to get clump free lashes. Fast, easy, simple.

 



I used the same product for lips and cheeks. This is an awesome tip! When my blush has faded by afternoon, I've used lipstick to dot on my cheeks and blend in for a little more color.

And that's it! Just four products to get a whole look! Hope you enjoyed it, and don't for get to check out Christina's look on her blog!