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

Swatches: ELF Mineral Eyeshadows

I am really liking the pigmentation of most of these eyeshadows. There are some duds in this group, but the vast majority of them are really awesome. These are definitely comparable to BE eyeshadows, only these are $3 a piece.

I tried as hard as possible to get the clearest swatch pictures. These are very true to life,  but as with most swatches photos, you need to see these in person to get the full effect of these.

I was surprised that most of these shadows are very neutral and work appropriate.

All swatched dry on my inner wrist with no base. NC20 skin

Caffeinated

Celebrity

Confident

Earthy

Girly

Mysterious

Natural

Partier

Royal

Sassy

Socialite

Temptress

Trendy

Wild

Mega ELF Mineral Haul

Here is my ELF Mineral haul that I made at the end of June. I took pics of everything, I didn’t take individual product pics, but I can if you guys want me too.

I used the 5for5mineral code that gave me 50% off all mineral products. I filled my cart with $80 worth mineral product, which gave me Free Shipping and then used the code, which took 50% off. So my entire order came to be $40 with free shipping for everything.

I picked up 22 items all together.

Eyeshadows:
Natural
Caffeinated
Girly
Partier
Royal
Trendy
Celebrity
Socialite
Earthy
Wild
Temptress
Mysterious
Confident
Sassy

Lipsticks: Left to Right
Ripe Rose
Cool Coral (Coy Coral on the site)
Nicely Nude
Natural Nymph

Blushes:
Rose
Coral
Plum

ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer:

Mineral Primer compared to the full sized lipstick:

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.

You Need This: Mad Minerals’ Drama Queen

Name: Drama Queen

Product: 5/5

Price: Varies

Available:  Mad Minerals

This color is a MUST HAVE in my humble opinion. Drama Queen is a lavender / gold duocrome that is spectacular. It’s a very light color, and in certain lights it looks like a pure gold shimmer on the skin. In fact, it’s hard to call this color a duochrome, because when you look at it dead on, it is a perfect mixture of purple and gold. I have nothing like this color in my collection. It is truly one of those unique colors.

The only color that even comes near this color is Prism by Paula Dorf, but there are literally nothing alike. Does that make sense? Prism is a light lavender with gold shimmer, but Drama Queen is like Prism on Steroids. I think this color would work well on all skin tones. It’s a cool color – but the gold shimmer would make this work on warm tones as well. You can work this color during the day and at night. It is pigmented enough, so that you do not have to use this color wet to get awesome pay off.

Review: Aromaleigh Ultra Resolution Finishing Powder

I purchased this product when it first came out, because it was toted as being a dupe of the Makeup Hi Def finishing powder that recently came out. The purpose of this product is to smooth out the skin to make pores look smaller and to give the face an airbrushed look. This is why I bought it, I wanted to try the MUFE version of this powder, but my local Sephora didn’t have any samples of it, and I didn’t want to shell out $30 for this product. So I bought the Aromaleigh version which was about $10.

I personally really like this product I use it all the time as my setting powder, especially when I use my liquid foundation. This keeps my makeup from melting and it keeps the oil at bay for most of the day. I apply this with different brushes, I use my Sonia Kushak and Flirt! skunk brushes and my EcoTools Powder brush. My brush of choice is based on what I grab at the time of application. The only problem that I have this powder is if you apply too much of it, it leaves a whitish tint on your face. However this can be a good thing if you want to lighten your foundation.

Product: 5/5

Pricee: $10-13

Available: Aromaleigh Cosmetics

Review: Alice Cosmetics Foundation

Name:Alice Cosmetics Foundation

Product: 3/5

Price: $17.00 or $22.00

Available: AliceCosemtics.Com

Would I Purchase Again epends

** NOTICE: WHEN IT COMES TO FOUNDATIONS WHAT WORKS AND DOES NOT WORK ON MY SKIN, DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE PRODUCT IS NOT A GOOD PRODUCT. I HAVE VERY PICKY SKIN AND THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION.**

I received this foundation in my group of samples to try and review. I got two shades, Light #2 and Medium #2 which are the two lightest shades that are offered for people with a neutral tone. The Light #2 was too light for my skin and the color of Medium #2 was a little off as well. But when I added a little bit of the Light to the Medium, the color matched my skin pretty well.

The wear of the foundation was decent – it was gone by the end of the day, which is normal for me because I tend to sweat everything off during the day because the humidity in North East Florida is crazy. The coverage of the foundation was sheer, but it was buildable into light/ medium coverage. This would be good for people who want light coverage. Since I have been having skin problems lately, I had to use a pretty heavy duty concealer under this foundation. The foundation did however blend into the concealer quite well, so it wasn’t obvious that I had a cream concealer on underneath. After I apply my foundation, blush and eye makeup, I always use a setting / finishing powder, and even then I still need to blot, and I still had this problem with this foundation – but I expected that.

Final Thoughts: This is a good foundation, in my opinion, it’s just not for me especially during the summer months. The problems I had with this foundation are the same I’ve had with several other mineral foundations. I’ve had tried many, many foundations over the past year, and only two out of all of those have really worked for my skin, and that was Aubrey Nicole and Mad Minerals. The reason these work on my skin is that they go onto my skin very creamily, so they tend to hold better onto my skin. The Alice Cosmetics foundation went onto my skin easily enough, there was just a little bit of chalkiness that I was able to buff away. So I think that if you are looking for a new mineral foundation to try, then I would recommend you give this foundation a try. Because, like I said several times, just because it didn’t work like a dream for me, doesn’t mean that it won’t be what you are looking for.

Alice Cosmetics

Review: Alice Comsmetics – Sage

Name: Sage

Product: 4/5

Price: $2.50 for 1/8 sample in sifter jar / $7.5 for a Full Size in sifter jar

Available: Alice Cosmetics

This is the first of the eyeshadow samples that I received from Alice and it is a pretty interesting color. It is a medium light green with gray undertones and a very slight gold shimmer. The eyeshadow is decently pigmented. I swatched the eyeshadow dry on my hand and the color came out pretty true to what you see in the jar. When I applied it wet with my Eco Tools eyeshadow brush the color came out stronger version of the dry swatch, only that the gold glitter became a slight gold sheen on top of the green. I think this color, when applied dry would make a good work / office color that would look amazing with neutral looks, to give the typical work look a pop of unique color. You can even use it wet and still have a decent work color, maybe use it as a liner with a sealer. The shadow itself is very finely milled, it is not chalky at all. It applied smoothly with no problems.

I’m not sure how long this shadow would last on the lid, during the regular day, because I use UDPP as my base, so basically everything stays for a long time. However I can tell you that I tried to wipe off my dry swatch with my finger and it is still mostly there on my hand, so I believe on drier lids, this eyeshadow would last a good time before wearing off. I do recommend that you use a base with this eyeshadow to make sure it stays.

Final Thoughts: I think this is definitely a color that would work well on almost all skin colors. I like the idea of being able to use this color in both the office and out. This is definitely NOT the typical olive green / army green color with gold shimmer. This is gray green with gold shimmer, and it’s definitely a nice addition to all my other greens. I’m a huge fan of green, and this one can stand on it’s own two feet.

Alice Cosmetics: Sage

Sally Beauty Supply

If you have a been to a Sally Beauty Supply store in recent months, you would see that they have really upped their game when it comes to their cosmetics section. I used to think that Sally’s just sold knock off name brand hair care for cheap salons that wouldn’t spend the cash on the real stuff. While Sally’s still carries knock off versions of Pureology, Biolage, and other top salon brands, they are also beginning to carry name brands as well.

Femme Couture at Sally’s

Sally’s has recently introduced the mineral makeup brand called Femme Couture, which is exclusive to Sally’s and it is a full sized makeup brand, including the trendy gel eye liner. I personally have not purchased any thing from this brand yet, but so far I’ve heard good things. The brand itself is extremely reasonable in price, the full sized foundations, both loose and pressed go for $12.99 retail and $11.99 for Sally card members. That is the highest priced item, so you can test a wide variety of items from this brand without breaking the bank. Plus, Sally’s will let you return your products if you do not like them. So there is no loss if you do not like these products.

Sally’s has also re hauled their nail care options by bringing in Seche Vite, Nail Life, Poshe and most importantly and most impressively, China Glaze. I for one was SHOCKED when Sally’s introduced China Glaze into their stores earlier this summer, because I always saw China Glaze in the OPI and Essie price point and quality, to see it being sold in Sally’s at a lower price point was either extremely smart on China Glaze’s part or really stupid, only time will tell if they will be successful there. The reason I feel this way is that normally higher end nail polish brands such as OPI, Essie and China Glaze go for $8-9 retail in the stores and salons. China Glaze is $5.99 retail and $3.25 for Sally card holders. Not all of the China Glaze colors are available, but there is 80 different options, which would be sufficient for most people.

China Glaze at Sally’s

So the next time you guys head into Sally’s check out their new offerings, you won’t be disappointed.

As a Bonus, Sally’s has some coupons for China Glaze, buy 2 get 1 free, these expire on 9/30 so you have plenty of time to use them. They also have a Femme Couture coupon, you get the makeup remover for free when you purchase any of the makeup. This one also expires at the end of the month.

You can get them here

Enjoy!

Tropical Storm / Hurricane Fay & Alice Cosmetics

Hey gals and guys, I won’t be posting much for the next couple of days because I just so happen to live in Jacksonville FL, and well take a look:

So if  I’m not posting, then you will know why. If you are not familiar with looking at one of these maps, the solid red symbol means hurricane and the one with that is not solid is a tropical storm. So as you can see, I will be getting some hurricane wind and rain the next couple of days. So sit tight for a couple of days.

Anyway the lovely lady Patti from Alice Cosmetics was kind enough to send me a few samples for me to try out. When she asked me to do this, I felt really honored to be chosen for this. I feel that you have ” really made it” as a beauty blogger when makeup companies seek out your opinion on different products, so be prepared for reviews for Alice Cosmetics in the near future.

I swear you guys, I will have to break out a piece of paper and a pen and literally write down everything I want to post on and stick to it!!! Maybe I’ll start writing reviews during the hurricane. You can never go wrong with a pen and paper.

Especially if you are listening to Bat out of Hell I, II, and III