September Favorites and a fail!

I tried multiple times to film a video on my monthly favorites, and it just wasn't happening. The lighting was bad. My four year old kept interrupting, etc. So I am bringing you my September favorites the old fashioned way. You all don't mind, right?

Before I get started I want to say that I am still loving all of my monthy favorites from last month. So if you haven't checked out my August favorites, be sure to do so! I used all of those products over the course of September, too. So, the products I talk to you about today are really in addition to those.

 First, I will talk to you all about my favorite face products for the month of September. I have quite a few new products to rave about!

I have talked about the Elf mineral infused face primer before in my monthly favorites, but I wanted to talk about it again because it really is an amazing product. It's a silky clear gel that you apply before putting on your foundation. I love it because it makes my foundation glide on easily. It helps to even out my skin and it really helps to make my foundation last. I can't say enough good things about this product. The only thing that I don't like about this product is that the pump gets clogged. My pump quit working about a month after I had the product, so now I am forced to open the bottle to get the product out, which is not the most sanitary thing in the world. But, I am willing to overlook that because the product is so good. It's one of Elf's most expensive products. This will cost you $6.00 full price. But that's still an amazing price for this product, and there are always half off coupon codes for Eyeslipsface.com.

Next up is the Elf tone correcting concealer. You all just saw this in my most recent Elf haul. I didn't purchase this until the second half of the month, but I am putting it in here because I have used this concealer everyday since I bought it. It's a great concealer. I like to use it under my eyes. It blends so easily and smoothly, so it is not necessary for me to pull and tug at that sensitive area to get the concealer to get it blended. The color is the perfect shade for my skin tone. I got mine in light beige. I also love the smell of this product. It's got Elf's sugar orange smell to it, and I really enjoy that scent. I know it seems funny to talk about how good a concealer smells, but there ya go. haha. The best part about this product is the price. Just a dollar!

Another product that I got in my most recent Elf haul that I have been loving in the Elf maximum coverage concealer. I really like this concealer for spots and blemishes. It reminds me a lot of the Hard Candy glamoflauge concealer, except that I like this one better because it blends easier and doesn't cake up like the Hard Candy one can do. This concealer is new to Elf and it's one of the best face products I have used by the company. I highly recommend it! It's available from their studio line and cost just 3 dollars.

Lastly, I want to talk about the foundation that I have been loving this month. I also featured this in my last haul. Apparently I made good choices during my last shopping trip. This is the NYC smooth skin liquid makeup. I purchased the shade barely beige, which I worried would be too dark for me, but it's the perfect color for my skin. I talked about this foundation in my "i'm sick" makeup video and also featured it in my getting ready with me video. I love this foundation. It's very easy to blend, gives medium coverage and really lasts on me, especially when used in conjunction with the elf mineral infused face primer. I have heard this foundation compared to the infamous Revlon Color Sta. I haven't used that one, and I don't think I will ever need to buy it, because this is a quarter of the price (I got mine on sale for less than 2 dollars!) and works fantastic for me. My only negative is that this foundation does not come with a pump, and is very difficult to get out of the bottle. Other than that I give this foundation 5 stars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, let's talk about my favorite eye products of the month. I have recently been reaching a lot for my Urban Decay Rollergirl palette. This is an eyeshadow palette that contains four eyeshadows. 3 neutrals and one bright pink. I have been reaching for this because it's got great neutrals that I use practically everyday and it's small enough to just throw in my bag for touch ups. This palette contains Urban Decay eyeshadows in Woodstock, Verve, suspect and darkhorse. Most days this month I have been using suspect all over my lid, verve as a brow bone and inner corner highlight, and darkhorse in my crease. It makes for a super simple, but super pretty look.

And I want to give some love to the Elf essential line of brushes. The face brushes from that line are crap. The studio face brushes are far superior. But, the essential eye brushes are amazing! I feel like I haven't talked about them enough on this blog. I really like the eye brushes and I use them practically everyday. They are all very soft brushes that do not shed. I love that I can get all the eye brushes I need from Elf and still spend less than what it would cost to buy just one eye brush from coastal scents or sigma. I highly reccomend that you try out all the the essential line of eye brushes from Elf!

 

I have been loving trying out lots of different lipsticks this month. I've got three favorites to share with you today.

First is the NYC Ultra moist lipwear in violet shine. I got this lipstick at the same time I picked up the NYC foundation I talked about above. All of the NYC products were 40 percent off, so I got this lipstick for just 59 cents! And what a steal that was because I have been getting a ton of wear out of this lipstick. Like the name implies it is a very moisturizing lipstick. The color is a purpl-y pink, with a nice shine. This lipstick does not have any taste and has a bit of that plastic cheap makeup smell, but it doesn't linger. I am not crazy about the packaging. The bullet does not go all the way down, so when you put the lid on you risk nicking the lipstick (which I have done a couple of times) but overall I really adore this lip color!

Another lipstick I have worn a lot this month is the Elf lipstick in Voo Doo. This is one of their essential lipsticks that costs just a dollar and this is one of my all time favorite lipsticks. It's a brick red shade with some brown in it so it makes it very wearable for me. I love this color and always break it out in the early days of fall, because I find it to be the perfect transition color to take me from summer into fall and winter.

The last lipstick is another one I got in my most recent Elf haul and it's the mineral lipstick in Party Pink. This lipstick will cost you 5 dollars, and it's worth every penny. This lipstick glides on so smooth and is incredibly moisturizing. The packaging for this lipstick is a a nice black square tube. It's really nice packaging, and holds up a lot better than their essential lipsticks. the color is a beautiful mid toned pink, that I think would be flattering on every skin tone. The color doesn't exactly scream Fall to me, but I still have been wearing it a ton because it's just a great quality lipstick. I really want to try more of the mineral line of lipsticks from Elf.

One random non beauty favorite that I want to talk about is a candle. I recently picked up a fall scented candle from walmart and I have been burning it like crazy since I purchased it. It's the Better Homes and Gardens limited edition Candle in Spiced Pumpkin Pie. I LOVE the smell of this. It's the epitome of fall in a candle if you ask me. I thought I would include it just in case anyone wanted to pick it up before it's no longer available for purchase! Plus, I like to throw in non-beauty related favorites sometimes just to mix it up a bit!

That's it for my favorites for the month of September, but I do want to tell you all about a product that did not work for me. It's the Elf eyebrow treat and tame. I picked this up in my last Elf haul because, as you all know if you have been reading my blog for a while, I really hate my eyebrows. They are sparse and light and wiry and I have a really hard time getting them to look right. I am lazy about filling them in, too, which makes it worse. So I thought that this product would be great for me. It's a brown gel that comes in a tube and is applied with a mascara type wand. It also has a clear gel on the other end that is supposed to help treat your eyebrows and help to grow them in. I thought that part would be perfect for my sparse brows!

Well, the tame side, the side with the brown gel, is just a mess to apply. The wand makes it impossible to apply the product neatly. It goes all over the place. And the gel smells terrible. It's got this burnt plastic smell that I cannot tolerate. The color of the gel is nice, and matches my eyebrows okay (I bought it in the shade dark) but, even that doesn't save this product because the gel flakes off after just a couple of hours of wear.  It also seems like this product has some false fibers in it, which I find incredibly weird, and they don't work anyway. This part of the product was a complete bust for me.

I don't know if the treat side works. I have only been using it a couple of weeks, and have not noticed any difference at all. I will continue to use the treat side of the product, and let you all know if I see any results. Maybe I will, and that will save this product from being a complete waste of money. WE shall see.

Okay, that's it for this month! I hope you all had an amazing September and have an equally amazing October! Thanks for stopping by!!

E.L.F. Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow review and swatches

I have quite a few reviews coming up on the blog soon. I asked on the Budget Beauty Facebook page which review you would like to see first, and someone said the review for pressed mineral eyeshadow. So here ya go!

Not too long ago, Elf was having a deal on their website. If you purchased 20 dollars worth of products, you could use a coupon code and get 20 dollars worth of products from their mineral line for free. I did not have any experience with Elf's mineral line of products (except for a couple of brushes that I have received in myster bags, or as free gifts) so I jumped at the chance. I was most intrigued by their newest product in the mineral line, the pressed mineral eyeshadows. I have always heard great things about their mineral eyeshadows, but had never jumped on the bandwagon because I am really not a fan of loose shadows. They are messy, and I tend to have a hard time working with them. So, when they released the pressed ones, I was eager to try them, and this deal seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I purchased 5 of the 10. I got Disco DJ, a light silvery grey. Lunch Break, a mid toned brown with a satin finish. Out all Night, a dark gunmetal grey. What's your name?, a taupe-y purple color. And lastly, Wine tour another taupe-y purple-y color with lots of Gold shimmer.

I was really excited to get these. The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was how small these seemed. The packaging is about as big around as a 50 cent piece, and not very tall at all. I don't know why, but I was expecting it to be bigger. So, I checked their website and they say there is actually 3 G worth of product, so that's a lot for a single eyeshadow, in my opinion. I guess it's just because the packaging isn't super bulky, so my eyes were deceived.

Speaking of packaging, these eyeshadows are packaged very nicely. It's a simple, round case, that is black, with a clear window so you can see the product inside. It's nice and sturdy, again, without being bulky. I like it!

Disco DJ, Lunch Break, Out all Night, What's your name? Wine Tour

Now let's get on to the actual products. I was so excited when I swatched these. They swatched beautifully. Quite pigmented, and really soft and easy to work with, with minimal fall out.

top: Disco DJ, Lunch Break, Out all Night bottom: What's your name?, Wine Tour (with Flash)

The same as above, no flash

But, when I started working with these eyeshadows, putting my brushes into them and applying them to my eye, I have to say, I was disappointed. Despite the promising swatches, these colors did not come off bright and pigmented on the eye. Instead, they came off quite sheer and needed to be built up a LOT to get them to show up on my eyes, even with a primer. Now, I can deal with that I am sued to having to work a little bit with products, especially when they are so inexpensive. But, then I started blending. They blended easily, don't get me wrong. They are quite soft. But these blended away to nothing. Whenever I tried to blend these eyeshadows they disappeared, causing me to have to add more and more product. And then, after all the trouble putting them on, and making them look nice, they faded away after just a few hours of wear. They didn't crease, or transfer. They just faded away. And when I tried to apply them wet. I am not sure if this is the type of product you can apply wet or not, but I figured It was worth a shot. That was a disaster. They applied patchy and uneven wet, and the water that I used to wet my brush changed the texture of the eyeshadow in the pan a bit too.

Like I said, I have no experience with mineral eyeshadows. Maybe the natural ingredients and dyes make them less pigmented and not as long lasting as a rule, and I am just expecting too much from these eyeshadows. I don't know. I love the colors. Especially "Wine Tour" and "Lunch Break", but these just aren't worth the trouble with application and the fading for me. I am glad I didn't pay for them. I know, they only cost #3.00. But, there are so many other great products from Elf with that same price point, and even less, that it seems a shame to spend even 3 dollars on a product that just doesn't work.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend these products. They are okay. And if mineral makeup is important to you, and you don't mind working a little harder to apply your makeup, then I would say go ahead and give these a try. Maybe you will have better luck than I did. But, otherwise, stick with some of the other eyeshadows from Elf! Maybe try the loose mineral eyeshadows. Like I said, I haven't tried those, but I have heard great things about them!