Lumikki Cosmetics - Swatches and Review

Hi everyone!  I have a mini-review of Lumikki Cosmetics for you today.  They're an indie shop that I've been interested in a very long time.  One of their best sellers, Dragon Scale, caught my eye and I really wanted to try it out.  They recently reopened their Etsy shop along with a standalone shop and had good reviews so I figured I'd make a small purchase and try them out.  The website is a bit annoying to navigate and there are no color descriptions for most shadows so you have to just guess from the pictures.

Their samples are a bit more expensive than I'm used to at $2.50 per jar.  However, they're supposed to have 1/2tsp in each jar so it's not a bad deal.  I decided to order Dragon Scale and something from their beautiful Galaxy Collection, Supernova.  My order shipping in two days and I received it by the end of the week.

There were two free samples included with my order and the jars had a good amount of product so I was impressed.

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.