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Showing posts with label Makeup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Makeup. Show all posts

Fresh Sugar lip treatments are one of those products I see all the time in Sephora but never pay much attention to. I've heard plenty of rave reviews, but for some reason these never excited me. Probably because of the cost, $22.50 for ONE lip balm? No thank you, lol. 

So instead of getting one full-sized Lip Treatment, I opted for this limited edition holiday set of a Fresh Sugar Ruby mini and a Fresh Lip Treatment mini. And when I say mini, I mean tiny! But, despite their small size, true to everything I'd heard about these before hand, THEY SMELL AMAZING! They also feel really great on my lips. But the smell...sweet and fresh at the same time. I almost wish I could eat, or at least bottle the scent and wear it as a perfume!

Sugar Ruby is a semi-sheer raspberry shade. Its the kind of build-able color that will be flattering on a wide range of skin tones. However it does have a metallic sheen to it if its applied to heavily. When I caught a glimpse of myself after applying it liberally in my car, I immediately wiped most of it off.

Overall, Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments are not a must have. They're very nice and provide good moisture on my lips, even when out in the winter chill. But for the price, I won't be repurchasing these once I run out.

You can find Fresh products at Sephora!

p.s. Sephora is currently offering a 3 piece mini set from Fresh as a VIB perk. Use the code VIBFRESH when you spend $35 or more online to claim your free set! I'm not sure when this deal expires.

After the disappointment of the Sephora 24k Gold Mine Brush set I was looking for something to fill my gold makeup brush void, lol. Lo and behold, one of my favorite drugstore brands Sonia Kashuk came to the rescue! 
The "All That Jazz" Holiday 2014 set caught my eye while I was wandering the aisles of my local Target. There are actually a few other pieces in this Holiday Collection, including the smaller 4-piece "Golden Age" brush set and the visually stunning "Deco Starlet" eyeshadow palette (I may go back and get this).

 Sonia Kashuk put a lot of great detailing into the "All that Jazz" brush set, while making sure the brushes were still practical to use. The black and gold design on the handles is just awesome and the textured gold ferrules completely won me over. At $34 for 10 brushes, this set is also a steal. It's currently sold out on Target.com, but most of the stores in my area still have plenty of sets on the shelves. 

From left to right: Powder Brush, Flat-Top Blusher, Angled Duo-Fiber Face brush and Foundation brush.

Foundation brush, Eyeshadow brush, Blending brush, Crease brush, Angled Duo-Fiber Eye brush and Precision Eye brush.

Eyeshadow brush, Blending brush, Crease brush, Angled Duo-Fiber Eye brush, Precision Eye brush and Lash/Brow Groomer.
The quality of this set is on par with other Sonia Kashuk brushes. However, I do feel like the 15th Anniversary brush set released earlier this year is slightly better quality than this set overall. 
With this set, I feel like the eye shadow brushes are the weakest link. They work better for blending rather than packing on color. Also after I washed a few of them, the hairs looked a little frayed and I had to reshape the brush heads while they dried. The two smaller, pointed eye brushes didn't have this issue. 

The angled duo fibre eye brush also held up being washed just fine, but to be honest, I'm still figuring out this brush. I guess its for blending in the crease/under the brow bone, but for me it just feels awkward. It is however, very soft and picks up only a small amount of product so no worries about being heavy-handed while using this brush. 

The face brushes fared much better. My overall favorite is the angled duo-fiber face brush. Its super soft and does a great job both applying and blending powder products ( I haven't tried it with liquid foundation yet). The foundation brush is standard, nothing special. The flat top face brush and large powder brush are both very soft and perform great. 

The bottoms of each brush are imprinted with the "SK" logo. 


Overall, If you can find a set of these at your local Target then don't hesitate to buy them! Not only are they gorgeous to look at, they perform well. For the price they'll make a great gift for some one or even yourself!


Get this palette!! Seriously.
 I probably own about 10 Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes and with the exception of Naked2, this is hands down my favorite. The texture of these shadows is buttery (think Lorac Pro) and the pigmentation is really, really good. There's a decent mix of matte and shimmers and all perform equally as well on me. Also a huge bonus: it comes with a deluxe sized Primer Potion AND full sized Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Perversion (it was in my purse when I took these pics). I don't know about you, but I can always use another black eyeliner, especially one as pigmented and creamy as Perversion. 
The palette includes a mirror and comes in fabric zippered case, which I thought was unique. The word "Smoked" is embossed (?) on the fabric so it has a cool black on black effect. 

But here's the best part. This palette is currently on sale for $20! Put in perspective, one full sized liner from Urban Decay is $20 and you're getting that included with this palette! Last time I checked this was "temporarily" sold out on both Ulta and Sephora's websites, but 2 of my local Ulta's had this palette in stock.  

From left to right: Barlust, Rockstar, Evidence, Loaded, Asphalt, Kinky, Freestyle, Mushroom, Backdoor and Blackout. 
Overall, don't miss out on this palette. Even at full price ($49) I'd still recommend getting it. At the sale price, its a no brainer. Its got a great mix of everyday practical colors as well as some fun colors.
Essentially these are just a more sophisticated version of a glitter eyeshadow. But the formula Urban Decay uses feels silky to the touch and makes these a joy to use. The glitter itself is more finely milled and the effect is sparkly, but not disco ball level. At $20 each, they're not a necessity (I waited for a sale before purchasing) but they are a nice addition to a standard eyeshadow collection.

Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadows in Stargazer and Space Cowboy.

Although I only purchased 2 of these, I did swatch the entire collection (forgot to take pics, boo!) and they all swatch more like the color "Space Cowboy." Meaning they're more on the sheer side, but can be layered over themselves or another eyeshadow to intensify the color. "Stargazer" was the only color that looked more opaque on its own to me.

Overall, these are not a must have. They're fun, but not super practical for everyday use. Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadows can be found at Ulta, Sephora and most department stores.
The moment I saw this brush set on Sephora.com, I knew I had to have it! Almost everything about it was unique and unlike any other brush sets that I already own. I loved how there were no separate ferrules on these brushes and instead the handle was one solid peace of beautiful gold metal (or so I thought...)
I also loved the shape of the brush heads. It seemed like Sephora put real consideration into this set and didn't just reuse some of the brush heads from their existing collections.

I was completely sold. But given the $85 price tag I waited until my local Sephora got a few sets in stock so I could view them in person before spending my hard earned cash. At the store however the display set was locked away behind clear plastic and I wasn't able to touch these beauties in person. Still determined to get them, I used an online coupon and anxiously waited for these to arrive in the mail. 

Now imagine my disappointment when I removed the brushes from the display stand they were packaged in and saw this... 
Noooooo! Hideous black rubber bottoms on each brush. Why Sephora?? I wanted a truly luxe and unique set of makeup brushes.  With the black rubbery bottoms, this set actually reminds me of the much cheaper (and a whole lot less luxe) Real Techniques brushes available at most drugstores. 

Back of the box with descriptions of each brush. 
Complexion Perfecter and Natural Flush Blush brushes
Precision Corrector and All Over Shadow brushes
Domed Crease and Soft Focus Liner brushes
This set comes with 6 brushes, each with their description imprinted on the handles. It also includes the stand to display them in. Although the synthetic brush heads are very full and soft, I just don't love this set anymore (its silly, I know). I also wasn't wowed by the performance of these brushes. They're slightly better than okay. I honestly feel like they're like an overpriced version of Sonia Kashuk brushes and I'll probably be returning them to Sephora soon. 



Congratulations "NoraGrahe"!!! You've won the Mac Holiday Glitter and Pigment boxed set!! Please respond within 48 hours with your mailing address so I can get it sent out to you as soon as possible. 

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!!
For the last few months I've been looking for reasonably priced, clear acrylic storage for my makeup. I've checked brands like Muji (not big enough) InterDesign (overpriced and the acrylic is brittle/easily cracked) as well as random Ebay and Amazon brands. I'd planned to get a multi drawer "cube" unit from Ebay, but I wanted to keep looking for a better deal... 

Cosmetics Organizer #1 Side View.
Measurements: length/height/depth 13.25x9.5x8.5

Cosmetics Organizer #1 Front View. Drawer Closed.
Measurements: length/height/depth 13.25x9.5x8.5
Cosmetics Organizer #1 Empty in original cardboard packaging which almost completely hides the large bottom drawer.
 Measurements: length/height/depth 13.25x9.5x8.5
Cosmetics Organizer #1 Empty with drawer closed
Measurements: length/height/depth 13.25x9.5x8.5

Instead, a recent trip to my local HomeGoods resulted in these acrylic makeup organizers from the brand StoreHouse. I'd actually seen these before and walked past them on numerous occasions but wrote them off as being poorly designed and not worth the money. What changed this time? Seeing the little red "clearance" sticker, lol (I guess most people couldn't figure these out either and so they sat on the store's shelves for months). 

It turns out these are actually very well designed. But in my defense, since they're clear plastic and StoreHouse invested little to no money in decent packaging it was nearly impossible to tell just how useful these would be. There are no directions, measurements, pictures...nothing to give you a visual of how these actually work or look once they're filled up with makeup. 

For example, the drawers don't have any knobs/pulls/handles so when the entire unit was sealed up in clear plastic it was very hard to differentiate between a drawer, a lidded compartment or just plain open space. I must've stood in the isle for a good 30 minutes poking at the packaging trying to see what was what. Also, many of the drawers have multiple compartments, but open as one complete unit so even after I figured out how one drawer could be opened, I was still at a loss as to how the others worked. 

All that aside, once I had a general understanding of how these could actually suit my makeup needs, 2 units came home with me. Best decision ever.  Once these were out of the packaging and I began filling them with my makeup, I was completely in love!

Both the units I purchased hold a lot of makeup, the pictures don't even do them justice at all. Some of the drawers are deep enough to hold large eyeshadow palette and bottles of foundation standing upright (none of the units I saw on Ebay could do this). I purchased two different style of organizers and took my own measurements for the purpose of this review. The first is the larger of the two and measures 13.25 inches long, by 9.5 inches tall by 8.5 inches deep. It has a large 3-compartment drawer at the bottom and is tapered at the top with 3 shelves on the front and 2 large/deep compartments in the back.

The second unit measures 15.25 inches long, by 6.75 inches tall and 6.75 inches deep. It has  2 smaller 2-compartment drawers on the left and one large/deep 2-compartment drawer on the right. The top is separated by a 2-compartment space with a lid and a large, but shallow open space on the right.



Cosmetics Organizer #2 with all drawers open. Measurements: Length/Height/Depth 15.25x6.75x6.75

Cosmetics Organizer #2 Front view. Measurements: Length/Height/Depth 15.25x6.75x6.75

Overall, these were almost exactly what I needed to house most of my makeup. The acrylic feels thick and sturdy, so I'm not worried about them getting cracked or chipped easily. All of the drawers and lids open and close smoothly even when full of makeup. I plan on returning to HomeGoods soon to look for another unit! The original price tag on these was $49.99 but the large one was on clearance for $35 while the smaller organizer was $29.



I'm not sure why my skin is 3 different tones in each of these pics. They were all taken in succession standing in the same spot in front of a window... Oh well, I guess thats what happens when you use a cell phone instead of a real camera, lol. 


Beauty Breakdown:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance all over the lid up to brow. 
All Too Faced eyeshadows, 
Icon all over lid
Hopeless Romantic blended into crease
7 Year Itch on inner corner
Pink Diamond on brow bone

Physician's Formula 2in1 Lash Boosting eyeliner

Ardell #120 false lashes

Tarte Amazonian Clay gel liner on brows applied with an Anastasia Beverly Hills #7 angled liner brush

From left to right: Museum Bronze, Naked, Black, Copper Sparkle and Gold. 



Mac Holiday 2013 Boxed Pigment and Glitter set with 2 pigments and 3 glitters. 

Colors included in this set are:
Museum Bronze (Pigment)
Black (Glitter)
Copper Sparkle (Pigment)
Gold (Glitter)
Naked ( Pigment)


HOW TO ENTER:
Follow BeautyandtheBrownGirl.blogspot.com (Worth 5 entries)
Follow BeautyandtheBrownGirl on Instagram (Worth 4 entries)
Regram the BeautyandtheBrownGirl Giveaway pic with the tag #makeupgiveaway (Worth 3 entries)
Follow @TheBrownGirl on Twitter (Worth 4 entries)
Re-tweet the giveaway (Worth 2 entries)
Follow Beauty and the Brown Girl on Pinterest @BrownGlamBeauty (Worth 2 entries)



I WILL ship the prize internationally. Giveaway ends on Nov 15th 2014! The winner be chosen at random and announced on my blog (beautyandthebrowngirl.blogspot.com) and Instagram (beautyandthebrowngirl). The winner will have 48 hours to respond and claim their prize, otherwise a new winner will be selected. 

Good luck everyone!
Beauty Breakdown: 
"Custom" all over the lid
"Blush" on the inner corner and also on waterline
"Fresh" under the brow bone
"Noir" used as smokey black liner
Physician's Formula 2in1 Lash Boost Liner in Black
Tarte Lights, Camera, Flashes mascara
Sephora "The Mink" false lashes

These Sephora brand "The Mink" lashes were very hard to use. As you can see one started peeling off on my inner lid. The lashes have thick, stiff bands which make them difficult to apply and keep on even for a short amount of time. 

Not sure how I feel about these lipsticks. I love the other Mattes I have from Mac like Riri Woo Flat Out Fabulous and Smoked Purple, but these aren't as great to me. 

I don't mind the dry texture of the matte lipsticks and I do love how long lasting they are. But something about these particular ones is not working for me, lol. 

Mac Damn Glamorous Matte Lipstick

Mac Fashion Revival Matte Lipstick
These have amazing pigmentation, a great smooth texture and apply very evenly. They feel lightweight on my lips and "adhere" well so they're long lasting as long as I'm not eating and drinking constantly.
Too Faced Melted Berry

Too Faced Melted Fig

Too Faced Melted Fuchsia 

Too Faced Melted Violet
I knew they'd be bright, but I was still shocked at how vibrant some of them were, especially Melted Fuchsia.

The one thing I really don't like is the applicator. Its a sponge tip and tends to look gross after only one use. Plus it makes these Melted lipsticks virtually un-shareable as there's no way to clean the applicator after each use.

The dreadful sponge-tip applicator in all its messy, germ filled glory!

Secret Brightening Powder applies semi opaque 

It blends in quickly and transparently leaving no white "cast" or residue behind
I've seen this little gem raved about by bloggers, makeup artists and youtubers but I could never find the shade #2 in stores to try it out for myself. The Secret Brightening Powder comes in 2 colors, #1 is a white powder ideal for fair skinned beauties and #2 has a yellow tint ideal for darker skinned beauties.

In any case I happened upon it at my local Laura Mercier counter and finally got to see what all the hype was about.

Secret Brightening Powder lives up to the "secret" part of its name. It brightens the skin in the most natural, undetectable way. Think of it as the anti-Banana Powder (which I also have and love)

SBP is nearly impossible to cake on. I've tried multiple layers and my skin maintained a smooth cake-free appearance.

I was also worried about this looking ashy, but that hasn't been the case at all. I've used it alone and over concealer with great results both ways. Of course on bare skin it won't completely cover dark circles on its own.

Overall this powder is perfect for daytime, work appropriate makeup. It will subtly brighten under eyes and make you look refreshed and more awake without the obvious reverse raccoon eyes heavier highlighting powders tend to create.