January 2014 Ipsy Bag - 19 Reasons

It's still January here so I'm technically not late :P  This month's Ipsy bag seems to be centered around skincare instead of cosmetics.  As you can tell from the picture below, the bag they included has pictures of skincare products (lotions, moisturizers, sunscreen?).  I received 5 products in my bag and I have mixed feelings about some of them.

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy January Subscription Box

Sorry for the SUPER late post!  I received my i+t January subscription awhile ago, but I was still backed up on other indie reviews to play with it.  I really enjoyed reading the letter that came with the order this time, it was cute, funny, and told us how she was inspired by the colors from the Naked 3.  That got me even more excited because I love the colors in that palette!

Aside from 3 completely new colors, she also included a sample from Victorian Disco Cosmetics, a blush from Dark Heart Designs, and a perfume sample from Black Violet.

Weekend FOTD

I went to IKEA with my friends last weekend and decided to do a full-face makeup.  My skin's always been pretty nice so I didn't feel the need to use foundation.  However, I have bought a bottle of foundation from ELF to try out just in case I ever need to use it for special occasions.

These pictures are taken in daylight; the card I'm holding up is for white balance.

Face: 

ELF Acne Fighting Foundation (Buff)

ELF Tone Correcting Concealer (Light Beige)

ELF Clarifying Pressed Powder (Apricot Beige)

NYC Bronzer (Sunny)

ELF Blush & Bronzer Duo (Turks & Caicos)

Shiro Doge for highlighter

Eyes:

ELF 144 Eyeshadow Palette (Neutral) for brows

ELF Eyelid Primer

Wet n Wild eyeshadow (Brulee)

MSB (Fern) on lid

MSB (Navy) in crease

MSB (Wintergreen) inner corner

MSB (Black Orchid) for tightline and lower lashline

ELF Liquid Eyeliner (Black)

Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara (Black)

Lips:

Jordana Easy Liner for Lips (Baby Berry)

Wet n Wild MegaLast lipstick (In the Flesh)

ELF Shimmer Lip Gloss (Believe)

I was so not used to having that much makeup on my face.  It felt very caked on and uncomfortable; I could NOT wait to get home and shower.  I do admit how nice my skin looked though, but it definitely was not a good trade-off.  

Overall, the ELF foundation had a very nice texture, it applied and blended very well.  The pressed powder also mattified my skin very well, but in hindsight, I should have used the translucent pressed powder instead.  I'll try to do more EOTD/FOTDs in the future since my blog is being riddled with reviews haha.  Until next time!

- Jolie ♥

Denver Broncos inspired EOTD

Whoever keeps up with American football knows that Denver Broncos prevailed and are heading to the Superbowl in a week!  I was super excited because I've been watching them the whole season and this is the first time I've actually invested my time into a team.  I'm a huge fan of Peyton Manning, so I've been urging him on during every game.

I did this look after their last win of the season which propelled them into the Superbowl.  This is considered a pretty subtle look (I've seen some crazy bright ones from fans!) because I wore this to work.

Daylight

Daylight

Flash

Flash

I used Notoriously Morbid's 'Snow White Queen' as an inner corner highlight and 'Tempest' all over the lid for an orange.  I then used Madison Street Beauty's 'Electric Periwinkle' in the outer V for blue.  Electric Periwinkle was such an intense color that I had to blend it out a lot, but I was pretty satisfied with my overall look.  I finished it up with a $1 liquid eyeliner from ELF and Jordana's $3 Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara.

I totally forgot to wear something orange or blue that day, but I was already sporting the love on my face :P  I can't wait for next week; OMAHA!

- Jolie ♥

Hello Waffle Cosmetics - Lip Balm Swatches and Review

So if you guys didn't already know, I frequent a subreddit called Indiemakeupandmore.  I discover a lot of great stores on that site and meet a bunch of nice people.  A week or two ago, a user posted that she was opening a new shop on etsy called Hello Waffle Cosmetics.  She only had tinted lip balms listed on her site at the time and had a bunch of great swatch pictures.  

After looking at the swatches, I knew I really wanted to try the balms.  I'm a lip product junkie and the swatches looked amazing and pigmented on her lips (plus she's so cute ^^).  Since the company is located in Canada, flat rate shipping was $5.  

I decided to get two full-sized tubes in Maraschino and Vamp for $5 each.  I got full-sized tubes rather than clamshell samples because I find the texture changes if I apply it straight to lips.  The owner, Christine, kindly gave me a 40% blogger discount so that was really nice.  My order shipped the next day or two and I received it by the weekend.

You guys.  I love her.  If you haven't noticed in the picture above, it shows three balms instead of two.  She gave me a free full-sized lip balm!  That was so insanely generous and nice of her, seriously guys, a free sample is already nice but this was FULL-SIZED.  Ergh.  Okay, onto the swatches.

Jordana Twist & Shine Moisturizing Balm Stains - Review and Swatches

Hi everyone!  I finally collected all of Jordana's Twist & Shine Moisturizing Balm Stains.  My local Walgreens had all but ONE color and I wanted to review the whole set.  The balm stains are Jordana's take on the popular jumbo lip pencil trend.  It retails for $3/each and are supposed to be moisturizing and staining.  There are 8 colors in this line and they are all moisturizing and feel great on the lips.  They are numbered from #1-8 and I've swatched them in chronological order instead of by shade.

Glamour Doll Eyes - First Impression and Swatches

This is my first time ordering from Glamour Doll Eyes; I believe they were having a Black Friday sale and I heard many good things about this indie company.  I perused their site and finally decided on ten sample jars.  My order came promptly and included a bunch of business cards and two samples.  One of the things that really impressed me was a card stating that if you purchased a sample and decided to buy a full-size jar, they will refund you the money from the sample.  That's the first time I've seen an indie company offer that and I thought it was really nice.

Each jar comes individually shrink-wrapped.

My ten jars and two free samples

Shiro Cosmetics Black Friday Haul - Swatches and Review

So.. I cheated a bit; this is actually two orders in one.  I figured it'd be a lot better if I just post them together since I made them within a week of each other.  Shiro Cosmetics was having a 15% off for Black Friday; it's not much but I jumped at the chance to order more pretties.  A week after I made my order, I was reading an old review on Shiro and discovered a secret/still-working link to Everything Is Bears.  Obviously, I jumped on that too (and hoped Caitlin wouldn't kill me for ordering something that was probably not meant to be ordered >_<); in that order, I also bought some other samples and Longcat.

This time I believe I asked her to just draw a funny/cute picture of a Pokemon because I couldn't think of anything.

Geek Chic Black Friday Haul - Review and Swatches

This haul has been a long time coming!  Geek Chic Cosmetics is one of my favorite indie brands thus far and were having a Black Friday sale.  They also announced a Lord of the Rings eyeshadow collection, so I decided to grab some of those too.  I decided to try some of their solid scents and Joysticks (lipsticks) as well.  This was the Black Friday order that I was most excited to receive because I absolutely love their eyeshadow formula.  It took a bit longer than usual, but I believe they sent out mass emails apologizing and informing us about the delay.

This cute lil Santa emoticon was on the invoice :)

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy Petit Lucky Pack

I have a very short review today of my first Innocent + Twisted Alchemy haul.  I decided to go for a Petit Lucky Pack, which is a random sampler pack, I only requested to not receive any frosty or light shades.  Her package came to me with this cute card and a handwritten invoice (she has cute handwriting hehe).  

I believe the Lucky Pack comes with four clamshell samples that are packed full, and I bought two more samples on my own.

Oslo Cosmetics - Black Friday Haul

I've procrastinated on this review for such a long time that I almost feel compelled to apologize to the owner :x  It's been awhile since I've ordered from Oslo Cosmetics because I own so many of their shadows already and I wanted to wait for the limited edition Black Friday shade.

The limited edition shade released is called Soleil, and I got my butt right onto the shop once I saw that it was up for sale!  Normally I buy Blogger Packs, which is $10 for 4 full-sized shadows, however, she's (temporarily?) taken it down so I opted for mini jars.  They're more expensive per gram than getting the Blogger Pack, but it was okay since I had a 40% discount code (for being a model/promoter).  I wanted to just buy everything else they offered that I didn't have already.

Disclaimer - Everything is purchased with my own money and the review consists of my honest opinions.

Innocent+Twisted Alchemy December Subscription

Hello everyone!  Innocent+Twisted Alchemy is an indie company that I've heard a lot of rave reviews about but never tried myself.  What held me back was the amount of sparkle that is prevalent in almost all her shadows.  I'm not a huge sparkle person as I prefer shimmer, so I never made an order.  However, I heard that they were doing a monthly subscription box which includes samples from other indie companies also.  I thought that was a really interesting concept and decided to subscribe.

The Petit Subscription comes with three samples from I+T and samples from others.  I also wanted to get some beautiful artwork from the owner, Linda.

Look at this beautiful stamp!

The subscription comes with a detailed list of all the companies and their ingredients.  Also, since it was December, I got a cute Christmas card!

Notoriously Morbid Black Friday Haul - Swatches and Review

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you guys spent it with family and loved ones, I know I did :)

I'm continuing on my Black Friday haul reviews that have been pouring in for the past two weeks or so.  Notoriously Morbid had an amazing Flash Sale for 60% off I believe.  I only got samples, which retails for $1.25, so 60% off is dirt cheap.  I decided to get mostly neutral colors because I've gotten most of the jewel-tones she had.  

One thing I noticed immediately was some labels were printed on nice plasticky paper that was more transparent but easier to peel.  I like these better because I tend to rip the paper ones very easily.  

My order also came in a pretty blue tissue paper with multicolored glitter, and a handwritten note as usual.

This may not seem like much, but it's such a nice gesture to take an extra few seconds to write a longer message for every person.  She often makes references to my old orders sometimes and I like the fact that she remembers (I feel so special!).