September 2015 Favorites

October means that Fall has begun! The leaves are falling already here in Minnesota. This year has been going by so fast, its crazy! This month I had a few favorites: some new and some old.

Too Faced Stardust Palette

I thought that I could skip this palette craze until I saw the swatches! This palette has some crazy pigmented shadows! This palette is by Too Faced which is one of my favorite makeup companies. They recently paired with the popular makeup artist on Instagram named Vegas Nay. I honestly did not know who she was until they came out with this palette.  This palette is an Ulta exclusive and sold in-stores and online. Since this palette is Limited Edition I am not sure how long it will be available (or if it still is). The third row is my least favorite because the first 2 shades in that row are too much alike and are also lacking pigmentation. My favorites shades include: Showgirl, Jackpot, Millennial, and Golden Nugget. Another shade that could be a little more pigmented is #selfie. This palette allows me to make a gorgeous bronzy look perfect for Fall which keeps me reaching for this palette.

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

When this mascara first came out I decided to give it a try and got the full sized version. I hated it! Since then I have gotten samples of mini versions of that mascara. This makes me wonder if I had a faulty mascara when I originally tried it, because it was so messy and just horrible. You can see that original review here. I got a recent sample with the Too Faced Star Dust set that was described above. I actually really like this mascara. Do they put something different in their mini mascaras? It makes my lashes the blackest of blacks. It is super easy to remove which is very important to me. It does not last all day on my lashes which is a con, but I have never really had good luck with mascaras lasting all day (I want to be able to get it off at night). So was my first experience with this mascara faulty or is the full sized formula different?

Too Faced Kabuki Brush

I swear I use more than Too Faced, but I loved quite a few of their products this month apparently. I got this Kabuki brush a few months ago and this month I have been loving it. It is a retractable kabuki brush so it is perfect for traveling. It feels amazing because of how soft it is. The brush is cruelty free which is a big pro for me. I use it both as a powder brush and a blush brush. All I need to do is tap this brush in my blush and it places the perfect amount of blush on my cheeks. I really want to try their brush set, but it is way too expensive.

bareMinerals Well Rested

Dark circles have always been a battle for me and I think that it will always be a battle. Sometimes I laugh when people who make beauty videos on YouTube comment about how terrible their dark circles are. Yeah…you have none to hardly anything…that is what I am thinking while watching beauty videos. I use 3 products to cover my dark circles and sometimes I can still see them. The first product I use is by Becca and it is the under eye brightening corrector. I then add the Urban Decay Naked weightless complete coverage concealer. Then I add this Well Rested product on top. I feel like this product has helped hide my panda eyes quite a bit. It is very smooth powder and is very blend-able. It is very easy to apply as well. I am so glad that I got this sample and will plan to buy the full sized product once I run out of it.

It Cosmetics CC+ Radiance Ombre Blush in Sugar Plum

I got this blush at my most recent Ulta haul awhile back. This blush has a beautiful ombre effect that caught my eye while at Ulta. It starts out as a light highlight shade and goes into a deep plum shade. When I swatched this blush, it was love at first sight. This blush is absolutely gorgeous! Wearing this blush gives the skin a gorgeous glow. I mix the colors together and apply it on the apples of the cheeks, but you can also wear them separately too. What I love about this blush is that it gives the look of a highlight too, but without wearing the highlight. It is pigmented, smooth, blend-able, and easy to apply.

Swatches starting from the lightest shade and going to the darkest, the last shade is them all mixed together.

That concludes this months monthly favorites! Let me know what you loved this month! Have you tried any of these products?!?! What are you looking forward to in October? Any plans for Halloween?

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara Review

Too Faced recently came out with a new mascara called, “Better Than Sex.” Well, first off I think that it’s promising a lot by the name and also on the packaging it states, “1,944% more volume.” I don’t know about you, but I feel like that is insanely unrealistic. How can a mascara give lashes 1,944% more volume? In my opinion, that is impossible for any mascara. Some other claims that this mascara states is, “100% saw dramatic volume,” “100% saw longer lashes,” and “90% saw a dramatic look with one coat.” I wonder where they got their consumers to complete this study,  because I feel like 100% is both unrealistic. Most people use a second coat for any mascara so the 90% claim doesn’t bother me at all.

First off I will add that I bought the full sized mascara at Ulta. It was $23 dollars.  I felt that this mascara should be amazing because of the hefty price tag and the claims that this mascara stated on its packaging. I didn’t feel so bad because most high end mascaras run around that price. Also they gave me a sample of the same mascara when I checked out which was a nice little extra.

So I decided to use my full sized mascara first and put the sample away for later use.

I had a good first impression when I first held the mascara. It was the heaviest mascara tubes that I have ever held. It did feel like it was very high quality and I did like the light pink packaging.

My first thoughts when I opened it and pulled out the wand: this is the most disgusting looking mascara I’ve ever seen.

A reason why I really wanted to try this mascara apart from the good reviews I read, was the hourglass shape of the brush. I wanted something that gave me volume and could curl my lashes. I was just intrigued with the hourglass shape of the brush, it was something different.

Well onto why I thought this mascara was disgusting. When I took the wand out of the tube, I couldn’t even see the brush. The mascara was so caked around the brush, and I mean caked. There was not even seeing a single bristle of the brush.  I did not get a picture, although I wish I had taken one to show whoever is reading this post on how caked on the mascara was. It was also not smooth either, it was more clumpy. I tried getting some of it off the brush by putting it back in the tube and sliding it against the sides. That didn’t work too well and just ended up causing a mess on the top and sides of the tube. I ended up wasting a bunch of mascara by rubbing the brush in a kleenex. But, finally I could see the brush and try the mascara for the first time.

A problem was the next time I wanted to use it. I did take the wand out and put it back in a few times just to test it out. Sometimes were worse then others.

The formula is a really wet consistency, so if you like your dryer mascara I wouldn’t recommend this formula.

This mascara did smudge and get all over my under eyes which made me hate this mascara even more than I already did.

After that first incident I tried it again and it was caked on the brush (no surprise there) and I tried getting it off and it got all over the side.  When I closed the tube, the mascara oozed out of the sides. Then my whiteish cream dog ran into the mascara tube and was now sporting a black dalmatian spot. At that time I had it with that mascara and decided I needed to return it and that is just what I did. They had no problem returning it, but didn’t say anything about other people having problems with this mascara either.

I don’t remember reading reviews on this happening to other people, so maybe I got a faulty one.

So I decided to try my sample of mascara and so far I really like it! I pull out of wand and the brush is clean, full of the right amount of mascara and ready to go.  It’s not messy and I’m not wasting any product!

What I liked about this mascara?

• very dark black
• It does curl my lashes
• It does give them volume, but not 1,944% more volume
• I do like the brush, easy to use
• One coat does the job

What could be better?

• The full sized mascara packaging so brush isn’t completely caked with mascara!

I am wondering if anybody has tried this mascara and what did you think of it?

Xoxo

Brittany

The Beauty Deputy

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