Properly Made Up

Hi everybody!!!  I haven’t been posting to this blog like I should, but I still have been hauling like crazy (of course) in while MIA so here goes a bit of a collective haul.  I collected these items over a period of about three weeks, I believe.

OK so I visit Costco about once every two weeks to pick up organic brown rice, organic spring mix salad, fresh shrimp cocktail, bottled water and to check out the beauty and skincare aisle.

So I’m on the skin care and beauty aisle and I run into Bliss.  I had never tried any products from Bliss before so this was a good opportunity for me to.  The package came with two products and they are called, “tried+blue body lotion pour le corps (a moisture milk with marine botanicals) and tried+blue bubbling body wash (with moisture-binding marine active)“.  And this is what the packaging says on it.  These products smell soooo so good!  I use these when I need some comfort and want to feel all cuddly.

These products do not do anything so don’t buy them if you want to exfoliate or scrub because you read on the packaging that they contain ingredients from the sea.  These products are simply “comfort and soothing” products.   The shower gel makes my skin very soft and makes me feel really clean.  The lotion is light and it really does moisturizes my body superbly.  I have used these before I go to bed so when I jump into bed…I feel soooo nice and I smell so good!  I paid $12.99 for both.

I also picked up the makeup removing wipes made by the Costco brand, Kirkland.  These wipes OK, but I find that I don’t use them a lot.  They remove most of my makeup, but I have to use two sheets in order to get all of the makeup off the surface of my face.  It’s not good with removing eye makeup and I wear a lot of eye makeup so that could just be all my fault, I don’t know.  I paid $14.99 for a four pack of 15 (I think) wipes.  Sorry about the blurred pic…not sure what happened.

Next, my wonderful husband bought me these from Costco…

It’s almost Christmas time so Costco has all of their gift items out and of course, they are selling high end fragrances.  They had D&G, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Juicy Couture and more.  My husband got me Princess by Vera Wang (which I love love love) in a 3.4 oz. bottle and on another visit to Costco, he got me Luscious Pink by Mariah Carey (which I love now that I own it) 3.3 oz.  Both fragrances for the sizes I have go for $72.00 approximately elsewhere.  I think they can be bought cheaper on Beauty.com, but their prices are not as low as Costco.

I’ve never owned any of these perfumes before, but I love Princess.  Every time I go to a counter that has it I spray myself all over with it.  I really wanted M by Mariah Carey because I love that one too, but they didn’t have it so I picked out Luscious Pink not knowing what it smelled like.  I now love Luscious Pink.  It smells so sexy.  I love love.  The only thing I don’t like about Luscious Pink is that it fades away kind of quick for a perfume.  I spray on my Princess and it lasts all day long and I can still smell it myself, but that’s not the case with Luscious Pink.  I am not one to spray loads of product on, but I have to do that with Luscious Pink if I want to keep the smell going throughout the day.  Also, there is no label on the Luscious Pink bottle at all - what is that about?  I wish the whole container was in glass, but it’s not.  The bottle is in glass, but the top (butterfly) is plastic.  :(  Take a look. Both fragrances cost him $45.99.

Moving on…I picked up a few nail polishes from Walgreens. I have a love for Sinful Colors nail polish over both OPI and China Glaze AND Zoya.  I don’t know, but I LOVE the colors and I love the staying power AND I love the price.  Each bottle, including the base and top coats all cost $1.99 each.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

So right now, I’m on Sinful Colors.  I picked up (from left to right) the base coat (love), Vacation Time (a creamy, opaque light coral color), Let’s Meet (a yellow cab color with flects of gold sheen) and not pictured Purple Diamond (a light lavender violet color with flects of silver sheen - very pretty) and Gorgeous (a royal turquoise metallic color - swatched below.

Last, but not least…I went on a visit to Ulta on Black Friday.  And although I didn’t get any Black Friday deals, I had to have these items.  I picked up Urban Decay’s Deluxe Eyeshadow Box ($36.00), Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide On Eyeliner Mini Pencils ($34.00) and Stila’s Kajal Eyeliner in Topaz ($18.00 and worth every penny!).

On my visit to the CCO last Saturday, I wore Urban Decay’s Honey eyeshadow on my lower lash line with Urban Decay’s Eldorado 24/7 eyeliner on my water line and I had gotten so many compliments and questions as to what it was.  Nice!!!  Love!!!  So I am loving my Deluxe Eyeshadow box.  All of the shadows are shimmery, but not overly shimmery and are easy to work with.  The colors are highly pigmented as well.  I really do enjoy this product and it makes me happy!  This box came with a mini bottle of Primer Potion as well.  To me, it works just like Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

PENCILS PENCILS PENCILS!!!  The mini 24/7 glide on pencils are short, but you get eight (8) different colors so IT IS WORTH IT TO BUY if you have never tried out the 24/7 pencils or if you don’t want to pay full price for just one full size. I didn’t want to pay for full size Urban Decay pencils so I got these.  I am in love with my MAC kohl pencils and Stile Kajals…anyway.  This was a great deal. The only thing I don’t like about these pencils is that they wipe away or dissolve easily/quickly.  I will have to definitely set these liners each time I use them.  I can usually get away with not setting MAC kohl and Stila Kajal liners most of the time.

I’ve only so far wore Eldorado (a 24kt gold color) and Corrupt (a dark brown color with gold glitter).  From left to right in the image below, here are the pencil names…Zero (a matte black color), Oil Slick (a very dark gray black color with silver glitter), Corrupt (a dark brown color with gold glitter), Eldorado (a 24kt gold color), Graffiti (a Christmas green color with silver glitter), Binge (a matte navy blue color), Ransom (a dark matte purple color), Rockstar (a very dark burgandy brown color) and Stash (a metallic dark brown color).

Stila!!! I am so in love with Stila Kajal pencils!  I fell in love with them way back when I got my first Kajal pencil in Onyx a while back when Sephora was celebrating their 10th Anniversay and it came in a Stila kit that contained a mascara, convertible color and a decorative can.  Now, I’m very much in love with the Topaz pencil.  Some time ago, I wanted to make my eyes look larger because I have chinky eyes and white eyeliner was not working out for me.  I am an NC45/50 so I was looking kind of crazy wearing white eyeliner.  Then months later I saw Michele1218 (my favorite Youtube guru) had hauled one of these pencils in October or November (I can’t remember) and she said that Topaz looks good with day looks and it looks great on skin of color so I was sold right away.  I love this pencil. It is a cream peachy color so it goes well with neutral looks perfectly.  I wore it only once and I got so many compliments on this one too.  Amazing!  I will be using this pencil A LOT.

And as for this mess below…I will explain that major CCO and small NYX haul later, but for now take a look at my new goodies!!!!

And of course I couldn’t pass these up because I am in need of back up brushes because I don’t wash (which I should) my brushes everyday so they are necessary for me.  I was going to buy those Sigma brushes because “they” compare them to MAC brushes, but nobody can beat the price tag of $19.99 for these brushes.  So I have kicked the Sigma idea to the curb.  Wait, scratch that.  I will go to Sigma for thier travel brushes though because I’ve heard great things about those and I do need a good travel brush set which I still don’t have…keep reading.

Let me start off by telling everybody how VERY SOFTthese brushes are.  I couldn’t stop brushing my powder brush all over my face because it’s so soft.  It’s softer than the MAC 134 (which I still don’t have, but LOVE to DEATH).  The handles are thick and durable.  They are covered by what seems to be a thin layer of rubber.  And the feral is shiney metal of course.  The length of the brushes are comparable to their MAC counterparts which is a plus for me.  I hate short brushes!

This set comes with eight (8) full size makeup brushes and a full size brush roll which can hold all of the full size brushes that comes in this set.  The brush roll is not made of leather, but of a durable material that has a diamond sewn in pattern, the feel is soft and it doesn’t look cheap at all. All of the brushes are dense, even down to the liner brushes and the travel size brushes.

Here are the brushes from left to right…powder brush (my favorite), bronzer brush (I only use this for blush application so far), angled contour brush, (I am only able to contour down the sides of my nose with this brush because it’s very flat and narrow), an eyeshadow brush, blending brush, liner brush, smudge brush and a dual angled liner / lash brush.  All of the brushes are made of synthetic fibers - cruelty free…big plus in my book.  The brushes are white at the top and black going down to the feral.  My powder brush has been used  in my MAC minieralized skinfinish natural as you can see in the picture.

The set also comes with an eyelash curler (which I was in really bad need of - tired of my dollar lash curler already) which features a plastic replacement when the old one goes bad and a travel brush set.

The travel brush set comes with a mini powder brush (which I have been using to blot with - really nice), a mini blending brush, a mini eyehsadow brush and a mini liner brush.  The mini brush roll is made of the same material as the larger brush roll that comes with the set which is padded and durable, not letter but it doesn’t feel or look cheap.

What I don’t like about this travel set is that it only comes with four brushes which means this mini set is meant for daily use vs. travel like going on vaction for a few days.  You couldn’t apply all of your makeup with the brushes in your travel kit.  Just an FYI…

My overall opinion of these brushes are very good brushes, very very soft, does their jobs and for the price of $19.99, you can’t beat it.  I’ve been using them for over three weeks now and I’m really impressed.  I am able to apply all of my makeup with this brush set except for my foundation which is a liquid.  The bronzer brush, which could resemble  the MAC 187, doesn’t work the same way.  I couldn’t even see applying mineral foundation with it and that’s what this brush was made for.  It’s just too small in diameter to work the foundation in - just my opinion.  My best friend ran out to get her set after taking a look and feel of my powder brush.  Love!

I’m so happy I was able to get these brush handles in black.  I saw a set, I think from 2008, where the handles were clear - not good for me all.  If they were any other color besides black I probably wouldn’t have bought them.  I’m just picky like that.  I am still collecting MAC brushes because I love them so, but in the interim, I will be trying out other kinds of brushes to find those that suit my needs.

That’s all for now!!!

This little review will be a comparison review between my MAC 226 brush (small tapered blending brush) and my new Sonia Kashuk Large Crease brush.

Ok now for my review…

I just wanted to say that when I first tried out my MAC 226 brush (which I got back when the Color Craft Collection came out) right away I didn’t really like it because the hairs had no real density to it and I found that I had to keep going into color over and over and building to get the crease I wanted.  Building up color is fine, but I tend to go very deep with my crease colors so building kind of gets on my nerves.   The 226 reminds me of the 224, but just cut into a different shape.  I bought 226 because I needed a better crease brush than the Essence of Beauty brush that I have.  With all of the rave reviews about the 226, I went for it.   I really don’t like my Essence of Beauty crease brush at all (it’s totally useless to me to use in the crease), but it is good for lining under the lower lash line nicely.

When I used my new Sonia Kashuk large crease brush for the first time I really liked right away because the brush is fat / dense and of course the head of the brush is larger and thicker than my 226.  This brush fits perfectly inside my crease, perfectly.  When I go into color and put it into my crease right away I see the color and I only have to go back in maybe a couple of more times and all done.  Sweet!

These two brushes are similar, but are very different.  One is bigger than the other when it comes to the density of the hairs, of course.  The bigger the brush, the more control you have over it and I think that is with any brush though.  The 226 is longer than the Kashuk brush, but the Kashuk brush has a thicker handle.  Also, the 226 weighs a little more than the Kashuk brush and I can tell that just from holding both…one is made out of plastic (Kashuk) and the other from wood (226).  The feral on the Kashuk brush is the same width from top to bottom and my 226 feral width is wider from the bottom and becomes thinner as it goes to the top.

Both brushes are great to use in the crease and outer v.   Both are great blending brushes as well.  If you have a harsh line to get rid of then these brushes work well and for me, even better than the 224.  I find that lining does not work well for me when I try to use these brushes for that purpose, but I’ve read on other blogs that it is good for that.  I beg to differ because both brushes are not stiff enough for me to get a precise line of any size.

The 226 brush cost me $24.50 and my Kashuk brush cost me $5.99.  The MAC 226 is a high end brush and the Kashuk is a drugstore brush.  And one is more affordable than the other.

I will say that I love my 226 brush because I’m a MAC addict, but I think everyone should also own Kashuk brushes (the white ones) as back up brushes.  I’m not really found of non-black color brushes, but whatever works the best I’ll use.  When I can’t get to cleaning my brushes when I need to I go to my Kashuk brushes, first, without thinking twice.  The Sonia Kashuk Large Crease brush is a great brush and I have been using it a lot more…well, I haven’t used my 226 since I got my Kashuk large crease brush.  Eeeek!  Yes, I enjoy using this brush a lot and I will continue to do so until oblivion.

That’s it for my review.