Estee Lauder Lipstick in Orange Poppy

I've been trying to venture into brighter lipsticks, but so far, it has been a total failure. i haven't ventured out much and stayed within the pink family. I know my limitations when it comes to color and since I have darker colored lips, I just tend to wear lipstick that look like my natural color or a few shades deviating from it. For some reason I just picked up this shade called Orange Poppy from Estee Lauder, for about $20 and I love it.

BAM! The color can be ultra bright or you can tone it down by just applying it in a dabbing motion or blotting. It is a fun bright orange-ish coral lipstick that instantly brightens up my complexion. It is so smooth and moisturizing and lasts fairly well. It has an odd smell and taste but it fades after a bit.

It looks a bit red from the swatch, but it has no hint of red, and it is naturally a bit glossy, so no lipgloss required. Not going to lie to you and tell you that it looks good on anyone because my sister has a shade darker complexion, me being nc20 and her being nc25, with light pink lips and this looked horrible on her. It was too loud and made her look a bit over the top and not in a good way. I'm sure that there is a drugstore dupe somewhere and I'm going to eagerly be searching for it. When I do find it, I'll probably shout it from the rooftops, so make sure you climb your roofs once in a while to see if you can hear my squeal of joy.

Since I'm having a horrible time with my skin, I have no swatches on my lips. There just happens to be a huge underneath the skin pimple residing on my chin.

PS. Since the heat has been brutal here in the east coast, make sure to drink a lot of water and put on your SPF especially for your lips.

Dior's Capture Totale UV Protect SPF 35

I don't have a big variety of high end products because I decided that I don't really need it in my twenties and will start splurging when I really do need it later in life. My sister doesn't believe in that philosophy and she just wants what's good for her now. So I love raiding through her stuff and trying out new things. One product is Dior's Capture Totale UV Protect SPF 35. I can't review this properly because I've used it only a handful of times but I am totally lemming this beauty.

My usual sunblock is the Missha waterproof sunblock but like all the ones I've tried, it's thick, a bit greasy and makes my skin feel a bit heavy. But this product was light and felt like I had nothing on my skin. While it had a pearly sheen, but when applied, the sheen went away and it just looked great. My face wasn't five shades lighter as well. The only two caveats I would think are the price and the fact that it doesn't specify UVA an UVB protection. Other than that, I as seriously considering buying this and saying that it's an investment for my future skincare.

Rimmel's Santa Rose...and a personal rant

Before you start reading this massive non related rant, just decide whether to skip a paragraph or two down or sit there and laugh about my predicament. Have you decided? Ok, just to let you know, I can never say no to almost anyone especially if they are family. I don't like children but have gotten stuck with watching my three cousins ages ranging from 8 to 2 many a times because of this trait. I also hate camping because last time we went, we got stuck on a campground with no available water or electricity and the bathroom was a good hike away. Now, I'm a city girl but that was a minor inconvenience to the circumstances of this trip. I had to go with the previously mentioned children, two people who had pink eye, and a relative I despise.

Now you might say tough titties and suck it up, but no. I ended up getting food poisoning and puking up my guts in a public campground toilet and being the youngest responsible adult there also made me an official babysitter. My sister ended up contracting pink eye, and the rest of the week ended up with me doing everything I can to avoid the infection. Just the memories bring out the rage but guess what it is happening again. This fourth of July, I have to go camping again with the same people with minor subtle differences. This time I will be minus the one relative I hate replaced by two relatives I mildly dislike and I will no longer be the youngest responsible adult there. Being wusses must run in the family because none of us has the balls to tell our relatives that we don't want to go. UNSPEAKABLE RAGE!!

The Rimmel blushes were bought a year apart with the smaller one of .14g first then the .15g later. Both are shimmery soft and sheer and are named Santa Rose.

Now when I bought the bigger one, then realized that I had the same shade at home, I was not happy. I swore that i didn't have a color like this, but I guess i was wrong... not really. Now my camera and lighting skills may throw you off, but these blushes look similar but when swatched, they look a bit different.

You may be able to see a bit of a difference, but not really noticeable until you have it in front of you.

The swatch on the left is from the bigger one while the left is from the smaller one. The bigger seems to be a lighter peachy shade while the other one tended to run a bit darker a bit redder. I confirmed my thoughts with my former pink-eyed sister and she agreed with me. I don't know if the color changed within a year, or maybe the blush was reformulated, but something definitely changed. Overall, this blush is subtle and sheer, so it's nice for a natural look and I would purchase it again.

Back from Maine

So I've returned from the binge lobster vacation so I'm trying to slowly slide myself into blogging again. I already have a beauty post I'd like to do but haven't got the energy for it. I've mentioned before that I wanted to get healthier and lose some weight in the process, but so far it has been unsuccessful. That's why I decided to join a gym. However, things aren't looking so good. The first day was fine, but yesterday I took a kickboxing class and I woke up in the middle of the night to a bloody nose. Now I can't solely blame the extra exercise since I haven't been sleeping well lately but waking up with the taste of blood in my mouth was highly unsettling. Now i'm sore all over and my gym buddies insist on going not only three but FOUR times a week. Psychos.

My gym is located near Martha's bakery and a ton of food joints so I have to exercise some self control as well. I was totally craving a crepe after class but got shut down. Instead we went for sushi which left we content and full but still craving crepes, even the day after. NYC has been extra hot and my bear of a body isn't handling it well, so I'm extra lethargic and won't really be popping out the posts. Next post is about an oddity of a blush from Rimmel.

Fail

Still not really doing much with this blog but just wanted to show a failing moment. I found a click pen powder foundation and this was a disaster. When I clicked the end, powder ended up shooting out of the brush and went all over the chair, floor, my neon green and adorably pink headphone and my white pants. RAWR NOT COOL.

BORED

Honestly I was going to do a review of the TKB Trading Palettes but for some reason my draft and all of my pictures were deleted from blogger. To make a quick review, it's made out of sturdy cardboard, the inside magnet is strong enough to delicately hold mac shadows but nothing else. It's a bit bigger than a mac quad but the magnet just isn't sturdy enough for a repurchase value of around $5. TADA!

I guess I've been uninspired to write much and need to take a quick break like I've done in the past. I'm going to Maine for a vacation during the memorial day weekend. I do not want to go but apparently its a family thing. Rawr! Lobster day and night till my ginourmous appetite is sated. Surprisingly lobster isn't cheaper there. It tastes better, but isn't cheaper.

Maybe when I come back I'll have better things to write about so don't go expecting anything from this blog for a little while.

Loreal Eyeshadow Quad in Desert Sunrise

The weather has been on its best behavior lately but along with it comes ALLERGY SEASON dun dun dun. For the last few days, it feels as if the area around my nose has been on fire. I've actually sneezed so hard and so much that I've woken up with stomach pains from contracting my muscles when I sneeze. At least I'm still young and have control over my bladder. I shudder to think what will happen when I hit senior citizen status. I've been scratching and rubbing my eyes as well, so I look like a strung out addict with bloodshot eyes, wobbling around the street rubbing my nose and eyes while holding my stomach, trying to shove nasal sprays up my nose. I'm thinking about investing in a Neti Pot.

The review for day will be on Loreal's Eyeshadow Quad in Desert Sunrise. It's around $7 at all drugstores but I managed to get this on for $2 with the Rite Aid reward points. Sweet deal because I am not a big fan of this and would be pissed if I paid the full price. I don't have much good experiences with drugstore eye shadows, especially with the Maybelline Smokes collection. So I'm not surprised with this quad as well.

All of the colors are extremly wearable, shimmery (#4 being the only exception), soft and easily blended. But I just could not get this to show up vibrantly on the lid. I got this to show up by rubbing the shadows on my finger then pressing it firmly onto my hand. With a brush, none of these showed up quite as nicely with or without a primer.

However, the fact that they don't show up vibrantly became a good point for me. I tend to go a bit heavy with my shadows and expect the color in the pan to show up exactly on my eyelids. Since these don't do so, these make perfect subtle work appropriate eye shadows. It was damn near impossible to go full throttle on my eyes, and I ended up with a soft brown look with minimal blending.

It also came with pretty good instructions on the back, so if you're starting out in makeup, then this would be a good template.
One strange thins I've noticed is that other reviews show this quad in a brown packaging while mine is in black. So maybe the formula changed with the packaging because everyone was raving about the pigmentation.