August Favorites 2011

Wow! It's already September! I'm actually really happy to be entering into fall. It's my favorite season. It's been so hot this month that wearing makeup has been difficult. These are all products I've relied on a ton this month.

1. Redken 07 Iron Silk Ultra Straightening Spray
This is HG for me! I've used this for a few years now and always love the results. After I finish drying my hair, I lightly spray this over my hair and then straighten. My hair feels soft, and looks incredibly smooth and shiny. It also makes my hair last longer between washes.

2. Naked Palette
I've loved this since I got it! It's got such a nice range of shades and you could get a wide variety of daytime or nighttime looks from it. My favorite combination lately has been Toasted on the lid, Darkhorse in the crease and Sin for highlight.

L to R: Toasted, Darkhorse, Sin

3. ELF Studio Cream Eyeshadow in Dawn

This is such a great cream shadow. It's smooth and pigmented. I like to use it as a wash of color all over my lid on days when putting on eyeshadow seems like way too much work. Just use your fingers, it picks up better and the heat helps it spread out and go on smoothly.

Dawn



4. Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer

This concealer is so nice and moisturizing. I like the applicator because I can dot it right where I want it before blending. It blends in well but covers everything. I like to use this on red areas around my chin and nose as well as on undereye circles.

5. NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Crystal Soda

I love NYX glosses. They're shiny and the glitter isn't chunky. The color of Crystal Soda is light and neutral and goes with any look. I have been keeping this in my purse because it didn't matter if I left whatever lipgloss or lipstick I had started out with at home, this went nicely with everything.

Pregnancy Update: 32 weeks, 3 days. We have started our birthing classes. I enjoy them, he doesn't. It's nice to have an idea of what to expect when baby finally arrives. And I seriously need to keep up with the iron pills, I've been way more fatigued lately. Everyone who doesn't know me tells I can't possibly be due in October. Here's the thing. I'm short. He doesn't have much room to go up, so he goes out. Yes, he's normal size. One woman had the nerve to joke that I'll be giving birth to a toddler. Yeah, that was nice.

I'd love to see other people's August favorites, so if you have them in a video or a blog, feel free to post them. Or even just leave me a comment with a list of your favorites. I'm still on a no buy but it's fun to live vicariously!

Love, Jessica

ELF Haul-August 2011

I ordered this stuff last week (August 16) when they were having a FB friends sale. I'm honestly a little surprised that sale was so small. They made such a big deal about how great it would be but honestly, I could have saved as much any other day. Anyways, I scaled back my order and got some things I've been itching to try for some time!

I ordered the Studio 11pc Brush Set, Studio Eyebrow Kit, a Studio Cream Blush, a Studio Powder Blush, some Essentials brushes and a couple more Studio brushes that weren't included in the kit.

L to R: Complexion Brush, Fan Brush, Concealer Brush, Small Smudge Brush, Angled Foundation Brush, Powder Brush, Small Precision Brush, Small Angled Brush, Blush Brush, Eyeshadow "C" Brush, Contour Brush

The Studio 11 pc Brush Kit: I do own a Sigma kit which I love dearly. But I wanted to test some new eye brushes before I splurged on more Sigmas. So I thought a good way to do that would be with the studio kit. The case is GREAT! I love my Sigma brush roll but this is waaaaay more convenient.

Angled Contour Brush and Stipple Brush: More brushes to compare to Sigma. The Angled Contour brush is surprisingly flat on top. The Stipple is not nearly as dense as my Sigma duo fiber brush. I will have to try both before I make any judgements on them

L to R: Defining Eye Brush, Eyelash and Brow Wand, Blending Eye Brush, Brow Comb and Brush, Eyeliner Brush, Eye Crease Brush, Smudge Brush

Essentials Eye Brushes: I do enjoy the eye brushes I have from the Essentials line so I figured I would try them all. They were only $1 each after all. The smudge brush would not stop rolling around for the picture so yeah, that the side view. It looks like a shorter version of the basic eyeshadow brush. Really excited to try these!

Eyebrow Kit in Medium: I've been trying to be better about good brow grooming. But my brows are kind of sparse so I do feel the need to fill them in. My brows are dark and my hair is light so I've been struggling to find a good color to fill them in that looks natural. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Studio Blush in Tickled Pink: I'm sorry to say it but the swatch of this was exactly what I was hoping Candid Coral would be, only slightly more pink. In general I love any of the blushes from ELF so I'm hopeful for this.

Studio Cream Blush in Tease: This is definitely more of a mousse texture than a cream but that's ok! It's a little bit darker than the picture but it goes on pretty sheer. Definitely something you could build up the color on if you wanted too! I'm excited to try the stipple brush with this!

So that was my last order for a while. I'm still working on a project pan and really should try to stay on that. But no promises. This isn't a makeup project pan after all.

Pregnancy Update: 31 weeks, 2 days. Well after a few days of feeling REALLY bad, I'm starting to feel relatively normal again. And I'm not going to complain about normal pregnancy issues again. I'd rather have a lot of kicking than none at all. And I'd certainly prefer no more major heartburn. Hopefully I'll feel this comfortable for a while. Because I know it could be a lot worse!

If you want to see any indepth reviews or some swatch pictures, just leave me a comment!

Love, Jessica

ELF Haul

So last week ELF (eyeslipsface.com) had a little 52% off studio sale for their facebook friends! I have a whole list of ELF stuff I want but I tried to restrain myself because an Ulta is opening about 20 minutes away in just 2 weeks (which is super awesome because the nearest Ulta until now is a good hour away depending on traffic). My sister and I will be right there for the grand opening so I'll definitely have some pictures for that. But for now I've got my ELF haul and some first impressions for you.

I got the Studio HD powder, 2 Studio powder brushes, Essentials lippies in Fearless, Flirtatious, and Sociable, Studio blush in Candid Coral, Studio cream eyeshadow in Dawn, Essentials travel mirror and Essentials eyelash curler.

Studio High Definition Powder: This just wanted to photograph all dusty looking. Yeah, it definitently isn't all dusty looking on the OUTSIDE. This was a great setting powder. I felt like it just made everything look perfected and smooth. My face felt incredibly smooth and didn't look cakey. The inside of the package got DUSTY super quickly. But other than that, totally worth it!

Studio Powder Brushes: I already own one of these and love it for powder. It makes my powder look less cakey around my chin and nose than my Sigma F30 can. I heard some good things about using it for foundation and blush...yeahhhhh. I feel like I used twice the amount of product and it only looked like medium coverage. As for blush I couldn't tell you but that's the fault of the blush not the brush.

L to R: Sociable, Flirtatious, Fearless

Essentials Lippies: So I already owned one of these lippies in the color Classy and wanted to try some other colors. Pigmentation is awesome but staying power is only mediocre. Fearless is RED. I still haven't figured out how to red without looking like Bozo so I'm hoping this will be a good starting point. I wore flirtatious today and it was kind of bright but very pretty!

Studio Cream Eyeshadow in Dawn: This is a very nice pigmented cream shadow. I wore it today with UDPP and my WnW Color Icon palette and it looked very nice as a base. I'll need to wear it again to know staying power.

Studio Blush in Candid Coral: I got so many recommendations on this color and I had such high hopes. As you can see from the swatch its a super light golden color. It seems so close to my skin color that I felt like I put on a ton of it. I tried it with one of my new studio powder brushes but I switched to my Sigma F40 and still couldn't tell. It gave a kind of golden glow but not what I was hoping for. I'll try again tomorrow.

Studio Lip Lock Pencil: This is supposed to keep your lipstick in place and I have to say it did a good job! It's kind of a waxy stick and the directions say just outline your lips with it. That's what I did and my lipstick did not bleed off of my lips at all today.

Essentials Eyelash Curler: I didn't have an eyelash curler and I heard this was a good one. I wish it was a teeny bit smaller because I had a hard time getting the outer lashes.
Travel Mirror: I needed a purse mirror but I'll probably order another one because I have such a hard time doing my eyes in my vanity mirror because I have to lean over the top of the vanity to get close to the mirror.

So that's what I got. These are just first impressions but if you want a full review on anything let me know and I'll try to get you one within a week or two. If you've got some ELF recommendations or even Ulta recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Love, Jessica