AFK Cosmetics Crazy Random Happenstance Collection Swatches

I'm really happy to be showing you swatches of AFK Cosmetics new 'Crazy Random Happenstance' collection!  It's inspired by the short but brilliant movie, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and stars some of my favorite people.  It actually includes a blush and a highlight; I didn't realize it at the time so I swatched everything as eyeshadows, oops!  Anyway, this is a great collection for me because every time I looked at the shadows, I would say, "Heheheh, my penis" and Thomas would look at me weirdly.  If you watch the movie, you'll get it :x  I recently rewatched it just to catch up on all the references because I first watched it years ago.

Alright, enough of my rambling; let's get on with swatches!

Pictures taken under daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

104th Trainees Squad

104th Trainees Squad:  rust with gold sparkles.  This is one of my free samples and inspired by the rust colored jackets the trainees wear in Attack on Titan.  I'm a fan of the series so this collection is a hit with me!

AFK Cosmetics Custom Balm Swatches and Review!

SO.  This review has been a long time coming!  I made this order a long time ago, and due to the nature of creating custom colors, it took even longer to get to me.  I made a relatively small order for AFK Cosmetics' CotM balm, mini mascara, and custom Chanel Dragon balm.  I don't think I'll ever give up trying to dupe the Dragon gloss mainly because I don't actually know how it looks like in person so the surprise and anticipation will always keep me wanting...  Anyway!  I noticed my order was taking awhile and messaged the owner, Dena, on FB for updates.  She apologized and started sending me updates and swatches on my balm right away.  I was super picky and probably caused a LOT of trouble for her, but I really liked the resulting swatch!

My order arrived soon after and included two samples of her newest collection - Three Laws of Robotics.  

Pictures taken under daylight bulb and swatched over Notoriously Morbid Shadow Bind (top/left half) and ELF Essential Shadow (bottom/right half)

First Law

First Law:  shimmery silver

Ipsy December 2014 - Thinking of You

Happy New Year, everyone!  I know I'm slightly late with bringing you the Ipsy bag for December, but better late than never?!  The theme for December was 'Thinking of You' and I was quite pleased with what I received.

Heat Defense

Sexy Hair Heat Defense:  I haven't tried this yet, but I've been wanting a heat treatment since I want to start curling my hair more often.

Ipsy August 2014 - Beauty Schooled

It's time for another Ipsy review!  The theme for the month of August is "Beauty Schooled", and I suppose the products are supposed to give you a "no-makeup makeup" look that's suitable for school.  All the products I got in this bag were either colorless, or very lightly colored.  The bag was also very cute, it's round and looks like an adorable pencil case.  I think I enjoyed this month's bag a little more than last month's.  I received five products and at least two were full-sized.

Pictures were taken under daylight bulb and swatches were done over bare skin (click to enlarge)

Cute pencil case styled bag

Dry Shampoo

Dry Shampoo:  This is a dry shampoo from Klorane.  I do enjoy getting dry shampoo because I feel like it's something that I might actually use.  I tried it once (half-heartedly because my hair wasn't that dirty) and I don't feel like it did anything.  Admittedly, I don't have much experience with dry shampoo as I find most don't work and baby powder works a lot better.  I look forward to giving this more tries since I don't wash my hair every day.

Ipsy June 2014 - Pretty in Paradise

So it's almost officially summer and it's warming up a lot in NYC!  I'm so excited because we've had such a long winter and a very long period of rain.  Anywho, I got my June Ipsy bag last week and I really like it!  If you remember last month, I didn't like my bag at all.  Those sentiments were apparently shared with a good amount of Ipsy subscribers (seriously, water in a can?).  They definitely made up for that blah bag this month.  I found myself liking most of the products :)

The theme is Pretty in Paradise and we got this gorgeous Rebecca Minkoff designed bag!

Pictures are taken in daylight (click to enlarge)

Beach Spray

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray:  This is the second beach spray I've gotten from Ipsy.  The first one was from last summer's bag and I believe it was from the company Sexy Hair.  It did not work out for me, but I'm excited to try this one!

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 ♥

FOTD with Oslo Cosmetics

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  I hope you're all warm and comfy with your families :)  I've decided to post up some FOTDs/EOTDs separate from actual reviews.  I've been stuck in a makeup rut for awhile and wanted to delve into some colors again.

Face:

NYC Sunny Bronzer

Oslo Cosmetics 'Sextens' blush

Eyes:

ELF 144 Neutral Eyeshadow Palette - Matte gray shadow on eyebrows

Oslo 'Carinae' on inner corner

Oslo 'Tremor' on lid

Oslo 'Asterism' on crease

ELF 3-in-1 Mascara

Lips:

Oslo 'Odetta' lip slick

I love Oslo eyeshadows and I'm really happy to have other products to try out too.  The lip slicks are staining which is great if you don't want to keep reapplying throughout the day.  The eyeshadows stay on for 12+ hours because of the binder that's added.  If you haven't tried Oslo Cosmetics yet, then I strongly recommend their eyeshadows.  Thanks for reading and enjoy the holidays :)

- Jolie ♥

September Ipsy Bag - Classic Beauty

Okay, the Ipsy's September bag has got to be my favorite by far.  September is my favorite month not only because it's my birth month, but also because it's the start of fall.  Fall is my favorite season out of the year because of its transitional weather, not too hot and not too cold.

Anywho, the theme for September's Ipsy bag was Classic Beauty.  The bag is beautiful blue with intricate black designs and I have contemplated on using it as an actual clutch on various occasions.  Following the classic beauty theme, they have included products that would be perfect for a smoky eye.

August Ipsy Bag - Glamour Academy

For the month of August, Ipsy's theme was Glamour Academy.  They send out four to five products inside a purple bag with an Ipsy coat of arms stamped in gold.

I know it looks like I only received four products, but I had actually gotten five.  I got the NYX cream blush, Pixi Beauty mascara, Noya lip balm, Mica Beauty eyeshadow in Bronze, and Michael Todd's Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub.  However, I had really wanted to try Urban Decay's lipsticks so I traded another Ipsy subscriber for it.

Smoky Eye with E.L.F Products

Hello all!  Since I've been getting so many new makeup recently, I decided to start playing with eyeshadow.  I used to stay away from them because I never got to experiment and feared I would look like I got punched in the face if I tried.  My only makeup look used to consist of a cat-eye and black liner on the water line; it was pretty basic.


Here is my version of a smoky eye:

The amazing thing is that, not only did I achieve this look with ONE quad, but that quad was also only one dollar!

Products used:

Brows: ELF Studio Eyebrow Kit - Dark ($3)

Eyes: ELF Brightening Eye Color - Drama ($1)

         ELF Liquid Eyeliner - Black ($1)

        ELF Studio Waterproof Eyeliner Crayon - Black ($3)
       ELF Studio 3-in-1 Mascara ($3)

Lips: ELF Super Glossy Lip Shine - Goddess ($1)

I got a bit lazy, so I didn't put on any face makeup.  I would normally use Elf's All Over Cover Stick to conceal my dark circles or blemishes, but overall my whole makeup routine was less than $15.

I mainly only used two colors on my lids, Drama comes with 4 colors (white, charcoal gray, black, silver).  

I dusted the charcoal gray all over my lids and then used a tiny bit of black on the outer V to deepen the color and intensify the look.  Then I just finished with a slight winged liquid liner on the top lash line and black crayon liner on my waterline.

The mascara I used here is the 3-in-1 mascara, which many people seem to love, but I don't particularly like it.  It tends to clump up on me, sticks my lashes together, and weighs them down.  I just bought a few new mascaras so I will have updates on those.

Here is my whole look:

There you go, you finally get to see my face!

Again, excuse my blemishes as I only concentrated on the eyes.  The smoky eye shows up blue on camera because of the flash, but I assure you it actually comes out darker than it seems.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment!  Let me know if you like me posting up makeup looks; thanks guys!

- Jolie ♥

More E.L.F. Hauls

I know, I know.  I definitely have an elf addiction as I've done a few haul posts already within the month, but who can blame a girl when they ALWAYS have promotions and their prices are so cheap?  Anyway, instead of writing two short pointless posts, I'm just going to combine two of my elf hauls in one.

This is only going to show the products I've bought, individual reviews will definitely comes soon.

Top: Hypershine Lip Gloss in 'Flirt' (Free Gift, retails $1/ea)

False Eyelash in 'Dramatic' (top): retails $1/ea

False Eyelash in 'Natural' (bottom): retails $1/ea (One looks shorter because I trimmed it)

Studio High-Definition Powder in 'Sheer' ($6/ea)

3 Luscious Liquid Lipsticks in 'Brownie Points', 'Cherry Tart', 'Ruby Slipper' ($1/ea)

Super Glossy Lip Shine in 'Strawberry' ($1/ea)

Studio Lip Exfoliator ($3/ea)

2 Shimmer Lip Glosses in 'Love' (top) and 'Hope' (bottom): $2/ea

Studio Lip Lock Pencil ($3/ea)

Studio Precision Liquid Eyeliner ($3/ea)

Zit Zapper ($1/ea)

2 Shimmer Eyeliner Pencils in 'Grassy Green' (top) and 'Boldly Bronzed' (bottom): $1/ea

I'm sorry for it being so unorganized; I had only put them together for the picture, but hopefully the descriptions make it easier...

Now for the second haul:

 From Left to Right: Studio Mascara & Shadow Shield ($3/ea),

2 Zit Zappers ($1/ea), 2 Feather Proof Moisturizing Lip Liners & Sharpeners in 'Bitter' and 'Mauve Luxe' ($1/ea)

Studio Mascara Primer ($3/ea), (Free Gift) Brightening Eye Color in 'Nouveau Neutrals' ($1/ea)

6 Essential Lipsticks in 'Sociable', 'Seductive', 'Charming', 'Posh', 'Gypsy', 'Fearless', 'Fantasy' ($1/ea)

More in depth reviews to come!

- Jolie ♥