My Face Products (foundations, concealers, powders, hilighters)

Here is all my foundations, concealers and powders. I actually rotate what I use, so everything does get some love. I wish I could say the same about my other makeup! Ha!

Mineral Foundations:

Aubrey Nicole in Medium Light Natural (Full Coverage)

Femme Couture Mineral Effects in Champagne

Wet N Wild Ultimate Foundation in Stage Light (This from when WnW first released their mineral foundation a few summers ago)

Traditional Foundations:

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy: Your Skin Foundation in Nude Beige (PERFECT MATCH)

Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in Nude

Maybelline Mineral Power Liquid Foundation in Nude

Concealer:

MAC Studio Finish in NC20

The BodyShop Concealer Pencil in 03

NYX Concealer in a Jar in Light, Yellow and Green

Sephora Concealer Palette w/ green, lavender and flesh toned colors.

Pressed Powders:

Femme Couture Flawless Touch Pressed Powder in Light

Maybelline Dream Matte Powder in 4-5 Creamy

Maybelline Mineral Power Finishing Veil Powder in Light

Sephora Compact Foundation in D20 Warm Nude

Physician’s Formula Powder Palette Multi-Colored Corrector in Green

Loose Powder:

NYC Smooth Skin Translucent Powder

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy Truly Translucent Powder in Light / Medium

Aromaleigh Ultra – Resolution Finish Powder in Clear

Hilighters:

Femme Couture Flawless Touch Brightening Corrective Pen

Femme Couture Mineral Effects Illuminator

L”Oreal Glam Bronze in Illuminator

MAC Pearlizer Sheer Pigment in Good As Gold

Physician’s Formula Virtual Face Powder in Translucent Pearl

Jane Shimmering Blush in Wisteria

Revlon Bare It All Lustrious Powder in Peachy Tease, Buff Love, Goldi-Looks, and Pink A Boo

Wet n Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow

Wet n Wild Silk Finish Blush in All Over Shimmer

Dupes: MAC Oh Baby vs Milani LipMixer in Lip Mingle

I took these pictures a few months ago, and my camera wouldn’t allow me to download these into my laptop until last night. I personally can’t remember which lipgloss is which, but since they are absolutely identical – it doesn’t really matter.

If my camera and my laptop continue to work well together, then I should be able to post more swatches in the future.

Various Hauls

This is basically a composite collection of hauls from this past week.

Target:

Milani:

Glimmer Stripes in Pink Glimmer

Milani Nailpolish in Raspberry Fusion

Studio Tools Dual Finish Brush – A better than dupe of the 188

Rimmel Underground Nailpolish:

Hard Edged

Night Life

Walgreens:

Wet N Wild:

Mega Glo Powder in Strike-A-Pose-Rose, Spotlight Peach, Catwalk Pink, and Starlight Bronze

Speed Glosses: Untamed, Manic, Frantic, and Fired – Up

Silk Finish Blush / Bronzzer:

Pearlescent Pink

Acapulco Glow

EcoTools:

Retractable Kabuki

MAC:

Rubenesque Paint Pot

Circa Plum

I think I bought too much crap! LOL. If you want a review of anything let me know please

Amazing Eyeshadow Combo & MAC Rose Romance Dupe

Primer: UDPP

Lid: Ben Nye Grande Lumiere Pressed Shadow in Iced Gold (White Gold)

Crease / Outer V: NYX Loose Pigment in Mocha Pearl (Taupe)

Contour (Over NYX): L’Oreal Wear Infinite in Golden Olive: (Golden Green)

Eyeliner: HiP Cream Liner in Brown

I truly wish I could take a picture of this – it is absolutely amazing, and I’m completely in love with this look. I think this will become my go to everyday green and gold look. It’s soft enough to wear during the day, especially using brown eyeliner instead of black. This makes my brown eyes shine, and even gives them a hint of green.

I used a peachy blush – Wet N Wild Mega Glo powder in Spotlight Peach and a lipglass from the new MAC Rose Romance Collection in Steal My Heart, which is being returned.

I am returning Steal My Heart, because it looks like a meduim bright pink in the bottle, and then when it is on the lips or swatched, it adds very little color to the lips. I also recently purchased some of Wet N Wild’s new Speed Glosses and the color Untamed is a more pigmented version of Steal My Heart. They look different in the bottles, but when they are on the skin and lips, Wet N Wild wins in the pigmentation arena. It’s also less sticky and thinner than the lipglass as well.

So skip Steal My Heart and grab Untamed instead. Infact Walgreens has Wet N Wild on sale right now, BOGO Free.

High End / Low End Comparables: Eyeshadows

This is somewhat of a continuation of my previous post on products that I’ve loved that I haven’t found a comparable lower priced item to. This post is all about the products that have a cult following, that actually HAVE lower end comparables, that I have personally used and loved. I haven’t used all of the higher end products, but I have tested them on several occasions that I feel I have a good idea of how well they work for me, anyway.

Eyeshadows – This is a biggie. I am torn on this one, because I’m in love with MAC’s Mineralized Eyeshadows, but I feel that there are many eyeshadows out there that are just as good, or even better than MAC and other Higher End shadows for a lower price:

• Ben Nye Eyeshadows – These range from about $6-10, and are available from costume shops, and speciality online stores.  These are almost twice as big as MAC and Urban Decay shadows, and are pigmented like no one’s business. I use my Ben Nye shadows more than my more expensive ones.
• Wet N Wild Ultimate Expressions Palettes. These palettes have 8 huge colors, and are extremely pigmented. I own 6 of these palettes, both permanent and limited edition. The eyeshadows are soft and extremely blendable. These palettes have mostly neutral colors that are wonderful!
• NYX Shadows – NYX has many different types of shadows, and the vast majority of them are wonderful, they are pigmented, and dirt cheap. The price of these range from $1-6, depending on what you pick up. I’ve tried them all, and I have loved almost all of them.
• L’Oreal HiP Eyeshadows Duos – These are simply some of the best drugstore eyeshadows that you will easily find in the drugstore. Each duo has two cordinating colors that are simply amazing, and some can be considered as dupes to higher end colors. These often go on sale BOGO Free, so it’s well worth your time to pick some up. You can easily get four huge, pigmented colors for the same price as one MAC shadow during a BOGO Free sale.
• L’Oreal Wear Infinite Singles – I recently tried my first eyeshadow from L’Oreal – apart from the HiP line, and I was flabbergasted when I used it. It is extremely soft and pigmented, and it blended like dream on my skin. I am looking forward to trying more in the future. I haven’t tried the quads though. So those maybe different.
• Milani – Milani makes some amazing eyeshadows. The ones that are very comparable to MAC and other brands were their little regular singles. These were amazing smooth and more pigmented than you can imagine. Unfortunatley Milani decided to get rid of these, but they are still available in some places. I’ve seen them in select Walgreens. These cost around $3-4 and were totally worth the money. Another good choice from Milani are the quads, they for about $6-7 and have four huge colors with tons of pigment and are really soft. These are available everywhere.
• TKB Trading Pigments – These are pure pigments of color, that you buy from TKB Trading for $1.50 per sample. Samples are a full table spoon of pigment – this is about the same amount of product that you get in a full sized MAC jar filled. These are definitely worth your time to check out for cheap, but not cheap quality pigments.

So far, these are the shadows I’ve used that are comparable to higher end products. These may not be as smooth as higher end shadows, or they may be slightly more sheer, but the money that you save is worth it. I feel that the price difference and more than decent quality makes these shadows the better choice than the higher end ones.

Imcomparables….

I’m all about using products that are just as good or even BETTER than the more expensive higher end products. I just love the feeling of knowing I can make a product that is only $6 look like it’s $30+. However, sometimes there is just no comparision when it comes to certain products, and I’ll happy shell out the $20 or so for the product in question.

Fortunately for me, this is a rare occurance, and I don’t feel quilty at all when I splurge on the more expensive products. Especially when I can get them as some sort of discount.

Urban Decay’s Primer Potion – This product has been talked about forever and a day now in the beauty world, and there is a good reason why. I have already reviewed this item a long time ago, when I first started this blog, and my love for it has not diminished yet. I have yet to find an eye primer that works as well for me as this one. There are some drugstore items that people have used as eye primers, and some of them have worked, others not so much. I personally have used L’Oreal HiP Paints, HiP Color Rich Cream Crayon, and Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy Fast Fix Eyeshadow Base, and all of these products, except for one, have wrecked havoc on my eyeshadows. I haven’t tried L’Oreal Decrease, but I don’t have very high hopes for it. I haven’t tried any of the higher end eye primers, because I’m happy with UDPP and the point of this post is focused on products that have the drugstore price point.

MAC Paint Pots – Here is another item that has no lower priced comparable. There are cream eyeshadows available in drustore form, but none in a pot with the color range and long wearing ability as the Paint Pots. There are of course creaseless pot cream eyeshadows available from more expensive brands. However all of those are more expensive than the Paint Pots, which clock in at $16.50. These work amazingly well on my hard to please eye lids. This is one of the few products that do not crease on me. The only somewhat comparable item to the paint pots are the Indelible Creme Eye Shadows, that are available from MadMinerals.Org for $8.99. I have yet to try these because I am waiting for a good sale from Mad Minerals to happen. These cream shadows are not available from physical stores unforunately.

As of right now, these are the only two products that I haven’t found a worthy adversary in a lower price point. This is just my opinion and I’m sure everyone feels differently about these products. Many people love the Too Faced Shadow Insurance , a recent contender to the UDPP. I haven’t tried this product, because I’m happy with what I have now. However, this doesn’t stop me from finding something cheaper that works .

Lollipop Loving Lipstick by MAC

This lipstick is actually my first Lipstick purchase from MAC. Before, I normally stuck to pigments and lipglasses. I usually only spend a lot of money ($10+) on one product, only if that product is very original.

And Lollipop Loving definitely falls into the original category. It’s a coral lipstick with gold and GREEN undertones  to it. A coral lipstick with Green? Believe it, because it is a GORGEOUS lip color that gives a natural pop of color to the lips. The green aspects give the color a stunning twist in certain types of light. I wasn’t able to get a good photograph of this color myself, but you can easily find GREAT pictures of this color on Makeup Alley and on assorted beauty blogs.

Needless to say, I fell in love with this color, and I am seriously saddened to know that this one of the dreaded Limited Edition colors, that seriously needs to become perm. So I had been debating on whether or not to buy a back up of this color while it is still available.

But… I got an idea… one of those crazy ones that might just work. LOL. As you guys know I recently did an order with TKB Trading and bought a ton of pigments from them (27) and I began wondering if there was a way for me to dupe the Lollipop Loving color, or even make a better version of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love LL a lot, but the one thing I feel that it could be improved on is the pigment in the lipstick. It’s very sheer, and I don’t want to waste precious lipstick  building up the color.

So I was playing around with some of the lip safe pigments that I got from them, and I think I came up with a more intense version of Lollipop Loving on my hand. I layered three different pigments on my hand and then swatched LL next to it, and they were pretty close, only my mixture was more pigmented. I am planning on doing an other order from TKB Trading hopefully soon, and I’ll grab a sample or two of their lipstick base to see if I have managed to make a of this color or not.

I’ll definitely keep you guys updated!!

Milani vs MAC: Battle of the 3 toned lipglosses

As most if not all of you know that MAC’s upcoming collection Sugarsweet has a new lipglass in it, called Tricolor Lipglass. These glossess have three different colors in the jar, and you mix all three colors together when you pull the wand out of the jar.

The main problem I have come across with these glosses, is that they basically have no pigment. These glosses are priced at $17.50, and they have no pigmentation. Needless to say, I am seriously disappointed right now in MAC, if these are truly as sheer as I am led to believe.

Tricolor Lipglass (17.50):

On the other side of the cosmetic spectrum is Milani’s new Lip Mixer three color lipgloss. Unlike the MAC lipglasses, I have heard nothing but good things from these glosses. Infact I even purchased four of the six glosses available during the Milani BOGO 50% off sale that CVS had last week. I got all four for $20. These are the same concept as the MAC Tricolor lipglasses, except these have more pigment, and are $6.99 compared to $17.50.  So if you want a cheaper version of the Tricolor lipglass, or if you are disappointed in the quality of them, then check these out.

Tease: MAC 226 DUPES

Hey everyone, I just thought I’d post this little teaser for all of you…. I have found not one but TWO dupes for the super popular and super sold out MAC brush, the 226 blending brush.

***I DO NOT HAVE THE 226, BUT I HAVE SHOWN BOTH OF THESE BRUSHES TO A FRIEND WHO IS A MAC ARTIST AND SHE SAYS THEY ARE EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY CLOSE***

Just to tease you guys a little bit more…. Both of the brushes I have in my collection are each under $5!! And one very easily found in a certain store…. The other one is strictly online…

From what I can tell you right now, I am very glad that I purchased both brushes, because one is slightly smaller and firmer than the other, but both have that pointed end that made the 226 so damn popular.

So if you want to know what brushes I am talking about… keep reading the blog, and you will soon know of which brushes you NEED in your collection!

Collective Hauls for this week… so far

Since I’m planning on hauling off and on for this week, I decided to break up my hauls into two posts, instead of making one mega post. I’ve been taking advantage of coupons and sales this week, which makes this a very frugal shopping week. All of these items came Ebay, Swapping, Back 2 Mac, Target and so forth.

Here is my haul for this week:

Target – They put their L’Oreal HIP eyeshadow duos on sale for $3.99 and I had a bunch of $3 off coupons, so I indulged in quite a few duos:

Wicked

Rascal

Dynamic

Sassy

Shady

Saucy

Charisma

I also picked a couple of new brushes from Sonia Kushak that I LOVE!

Pointed Blending Brush (MAC 226 dupe)

Large Crease Brush

After Target I hit up the MAC Store to turn in some empties and pick up a new lipglass. I got two mineralized eyeshadows for my B2M empties and one lipglass:

Earthy / Riches

Illusionary / Burning Ambition

Viva Glam VI Lipglass.

Pink Clash – I got this in a swap. I adore this color.

Walgreens – I had heard some good things about the Jordana Pretty Shine lipglosses, so I grabbed a couple when I ran in there a couple of days ago:

Divine

Babe

CVS – I stopped in here because I had some Physician’s Formula coupons that were about to expire along with a couple of other coupons that were expiring as well. So here is what I picked up:

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Eyeshadow Duo in Blue Eyes Organic

Physician’s Formula Palette Powder Corrector in Green

N.Y.C. Metro Quartet in South Street Seaport

Ebay – I love and hate this site. I love the awesome deals, but I hate them as well. LOL. Well, ever since the Stila Mandarin Collection came out a couple of years ago, I had been majoring lemming the Cool Eyeshadow trio, but I wasn’t to purchase it before it went bye bye. Well I found it on ebay for $16 with free shipping. So now that little beauty is now in my collection.

Lastly I ordered some of Coastal Scents E-Z Pressing Medium from Beauty of the Earth. I refuse to purchase anything from Coastal Scents again, but I wanted that product, so I got it from Beauty of the Earth instead. I can’t wait to try it!