August Favorites & September Beauty Goals
Behold! A list of my August favorites. Frankly, it has been a great month for beauty discoveries, aka consumerism. But yanno, at least I liked what I bought!
All posts tagged: lists
5 Things Friday: Five Things I Wish I Knew
I thought this would be fun to kind of look back into this hole of doom (i.e. makeup obsession) and think of five things I wish I knew before I took the plunge. Research is your best friend. Trawling the WWW in the dead of the night and reading reviews without taking much in is not research. Take note of colors that work well on you—don’t be happy with “it swatches well” as a criteria. Think of what you, as a person, would like to wear on a daily basis and then take it from there. Hype fades away. Refrain from letting yourself being swept away by the newest fad or product. Sometimes, you’ll run into a few gems—ahem, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder—but hyped products are usually things you can live without. Be smart and level-headed about your purchases and consumption. Don’t always just base your opinions on a collection. I know, I know. This is your favorite thing about makeup—when the collections make sense and look whole and well thought-out. The problem is that …
July Favorites & August Beauty Goals
Hey everyone, it’s time for my Beauty Favorites this July! I made a point to pay attention and actually take note of the things I’ve been loving this month (at least for half of it), and these are the items that came to mind. — NARS Sheer Glow (Punjab): I bought a primer with a high SPF so I could keep using this (I hadn’t been since it is SPF-less) and I reminded of why I loved it so much. — MAC Paint Pot (Groundwork): This is probably the eye base/primer that I reached for the most in July, switching out Painterly, since it looked really pale and ashy against my summer tan~ — shu uemura Eyeshadow (ME medium brown 885): One of my top 5 eyeshadow singles, this is a great all over the lid color if you truly can’t be bothered. — Urban Decay Primer Potion: A rediscovery as I’ve been using paint pots and using up my NARS eye primer (yech). This stuff is amaaaazing, my absolute favorite eye primer. — Le …
June Monthly Favorites & July Beauty Goals
Aside from my Beauty Dare (20 Days of Lipstick), June was a pretty lazy makeup month, partly because I was more antisocial than usual. Here are a few of the beauty bits I enjoyed a lot the past month, though. I kept switching it up in the eye makeup department, but a quad that I went back to a lot is THREE’s Star Guitar. I also practically used a MAC Paint Pot called Groundwork on my lids as a primer when I became too dark to use Painterly. I’m still loving my NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. I have the shade Ginger and was convinced that I maybe should have gotten Custard instead but that turned out to be too light for me. For my quick face base, I was using the Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Anti-Aging Pressed Powder in Shade 2 a lot last month, though towards the end, I began using my liquid foundations and bases more. My go-to cheek has definitely been the Illamasqua Cream Blusher in Dixie. I used to …
5 Things Friday: Sheer Lipstick
In this edition of 5 Things Friday—which I bumped off to make room for some reviews last week—I have my five favorite sheer lipstick formulas, plus a bonus “almost made it in” one! I love sheer lipsticks; they are my first lipstick love. They deposit just the right amount of pigment for some fun and prettiness on your lips, but do without the traditional lipstick feel that deters a lot of people from using lipstick in the first place. They are also super low maintenance, which is always a plus. 1. Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge in RS-01 This is a Japanese drugstore brand that I’m so happy I found on my trip to Osaka last year. This is such a great balmy texture with a sweet berry color, too. As is typical of Japanese lipsticks, this has quite a bit of super fine shimmer in it that translates into a high-shine jelly finish. 2. Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy I think this is my third Chanel lipstick, but the first encounter of their Rouge …
Beauty Goals and Resolutions for 2014
Hey everyone! I hope you’re all having a great year. 🙂 I have been pondering on creating a beauty resolutions list for a while now, but didn’t want to post anything on the 1st, just for the sake of posting on the first day of the year, so I took some time and wrote down some of the things I want to achieve this year, at least in the spectrum of beauty. I’ve made similar lists and goals for my reading, which you can read here, and for life in general, which you can find here. Similarly, I have a goal for beauty and makeup, since it comprised a big chunk of my life (and finances) last year. I went on a fairly long no buy (and proceeded to break it, lol) from May to December, but it still wasn’t enough. I think you really have to personally come to a point where you realize that enough is enough. Until that happens, no-buys won’t work out. In any case, here is what I came up …
Softly Special: My Top Five Favorite Eye Palettes
I know I did Lipstick Week not too long ago, but the truthiest truth out there is that I’m an eyeshadow lady. I fricken love the stuff. I think that’s really where it all went downhill. I can remember the first eye product I purchased that changed everything and how I looked at eye makeup (i.e. bareMinerals’ READY 2.0 in The Scenic Route). And then I was doomed to a life of swatching. I don’t know if I want to make a whole week’s worth of celebration out of this, because eye swatches are much, much harder to do than lipstick swatches, but I’ll begin by outing my favorite eye palettes for all of you. What I basically look for in eyeshadow palettes is versatility, which I feel like entails a good variety of tone, texture, and shade. With that little checklist in mind, I looked at my palette collection and picked out a few favorites. Here goes nothing! Honorable Mention: Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs in Turandot (Review) This was the first high-end palette I …
Softly Sometimes 