Review: ELF Studio Blush, Lip Stain, and Essential Super Glossy Lip Shine

Hey all!  Remember the ELF shipment I got the other day?  I ordered 2 Studio blushes in Pink Passion and Fuchsia Fusion.  I didn't get around to reviewing the Fuchsia Fusion so I thought I'd do it today.

I'll also do a brief review on some little extras I picked up at Target:

1. Studio Lip Stain in Birthday Suit

2. Studio Contour Brush

3. Essentials Zit Zapper

So, the Fuchsia Fusion blush isn't really fuchsia at all.  It's a glamorous shade of mauve with little flecks of champagne-colored shimmer which looks really pretty in the compact.  Upon application, however, I didn't see much shimmer on my cheeks.  It's ok, though.  I still got a pretty, flattering flush from it.

The Studio contour brush, however, exceeded my expectations.  It has to be the absolute best shadow brush I've ever used.  I've always had trouble with crease shading because of my asian bone structure. (I have very shallow sockets)  However, I was able to effortlessly create a tidy crease line with shadow using this brush.  Amazing!  I was so happy I ran out to the living room to show my husband, who also thinks it's pretty neat. :)  This is what I did, using the ELF Studio Endless Eyes palette, btw:

Not bad for one of my first few tries, right?

Next up is the Studio Lip Stain in Birthday Suit.  Not sure how anyone got around to naming it that.  I can't imagine anyone's birthday suit being that color unless they happen to be a My Little Pony.  Lol.  Anyway, there's the matte stain on one end of the wand and clear gloss on the other end.  To apply, I began by prepping my lip with nude liner:

I applied the stain over the liner, then brushed the gloss over the stain.  It was really difficult to get an even coat!

I've mostly had hits with ELF products, but this was definitely a miss for me.  Maybe my hands just weren't steady enough, but the stain formula was very thin and watery, making the color uneven and sloppy looking on my lips.  The gloss coat didn't help much.

Yikes!  I love a good pop of color, but I just don't think this color was for me. :(  But it's okay because I had the Essentials Super Glossy Lip Shine in Pink Kiss on me.

In case you're wondering, my nails are Revlon's Scented polish collection in Cotton Candy.

Ah!  Now that's much better!

It's the perfect shade of princess pink.  Not too sticky, plenty of shine, pleasant grape jelly scent, and built-in sunscreen.  All for a whole dollar.  I've got to get these in every color!

Overall look:

I've gotta say, I'm really pleased with the way everything turned out! (minus the lip stain)  I especially can't wait to practice more shading techniques with the contour brush.  Will post tutorial soon!

Hugs,

Cat

p.s. Zit Zapper worked great!  I was starting to get a zit on the side of my nose the other day (so annoying!) so I dabbed a little on before going to bed.  As you can see, no zit in sight!  I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but I plan on keeping this stuff on hand for emergencies.

I Love: Fresh Flowers!

When I was little, I never understood why my mother felt the need to peruse the floral section at the grocery store.  I didn't get how having a fresh flower arrangement in the home made her so happy.  Ah, how times have changed.  I started noticing florals more after my wedding.  I guess looking at thousands of photos of incredible centerpieces during the planning process will do that to you.  Soon enough, I started looking at EVERY bouquet at the supermarket as a potential arrangement.

Then, a few months ago, peonies were in season and my local Trader Joe's was selling bunches and bunches of them for next to nothing.  I finally caved into the obsession and ever since, my husband has been buying me bouquets every Sunday so we can have a beautiful arrangement of fresh flowers to last us the week.  I just thought I'd share a few of my favorites:

Aren't Hydrangeas the loveliest?  These are sitting in my kitchen as we speak.

A sweet, peachy rose blossom from my mother-in-law's garden.

Peonies, more roses from MIL's garden, a colorful assorted medley.

Elegant Callas.

Fresh flowers just bring me cheer when I look at them.  Happy Labor Day! :D

Minty Fresh: Soft green makeup with ELF's Mint Matte Shadow

*WARNING* This is a really long post!

Hello!  Sorry I've been missing.  I'm currently fighting an icky cold, so haven't been up for posting for the past couple days.  Boo hoo!  It really bites to have a cold while the sun is out during Labor Day weekend. :(

But anyways, I got my 2nd ELF haul in from the Studio sale. (more of a mini-haul since I split it with my sister)  Therefore, I'll be doing a tutorial on how to achieve this eyeshadow look as well as additional tutorials on cheeks and lips, including reviews.

So here are the items that I received from this order:

1. Studio Complete Coverage Concealer palette in Light
2. Studio Blush in Pink Passion and Fuchsia Fusion
3. Studio Matte Eyeshadow in Mint

Let's create the look!  I start with a clean, moisturized face:

I love my little towel headband! I got it from Japantown for, like, $1 and it effectively keeps hair out of my face while I'm doing washing my face or doing makeup.

I'm going to begin by saying that I seldom purchase concealer for the purpose of concealing.  I tend to use it as a highlighter, therefore, while the matching colors for my complexion are probably in the Medium palette, I got the Light palette to use mainly as a face brightener.

So, using the 2nd shade in the concealer palette, I dot and blend in my entire under-eye area with the help of a concealer brush.

This brightens the under-eye area, leaving your face looking fresh and less tired. (especially useful when I have to get up very early for work or school)  To keep the look natural, I'm going to apply tinted moisturizer over my entire face, being sure to carefully pat and blend it with the brightening concealer in my under-eye area.  We don't want to look like a ghoul!  Then finish by lightly buffing translucent powder over the entire face.  (I'm going to skip images for these steps because we had already gone over them in a previous post)

A lot of the time, I get a little sloppy filling my brows in with powder so I need a little help cleaning up my brow line.  I do so using the 3rd shade in the concealer palette with a concealer brush:

The result should look something like this:

In this case, it may be best to use a concealer that matches your skin more closely.  I'm not going to worry about it, though, because I'm going be layering a primer over it anyway which will serve as a brow arch highlighter as well.

Now we're going to start on our shadow.  I begin with primed eyelids:

I'm going to sprinkle a little of the Mint matte shadow into the container cap and apply it with a shadow brush to my entire upper lid:

I LOVE this color!

To add a little more flare, I line my upper and lower lid lines with blue pencil liner and then smudge teal eyeshadow over the blue liner:

Next, I line the outer corners of my top and bottom lid lines with black pencil liner then layer black shadow for a little extra softness:

To ramp up the drama, I draw a wing along my upper lid line and accent the outer corner of my bottom lid line with black liquid eyeliner:

Curl lashes and add mascara to complete the look:

Next, we move on to blush.  I'm going to try the blush in Pink Passion, applying it with the ELF Studio Complexion brush.  Why not a blush brush?  I like the way a larger brush applies blush evenly and softly for a diffuse, blended look.

This blush is AMAZING!  It's about 2 shades brighter in real life than in this photo and is very pigmented, applies evenly, and is long-lasting with no touchups necessary.  I just tap a little on my brush and apply by blending in a circular motion.  A little goes a long way.

Fresh pink flush, not at all garish or clown-y.

To complete my face, I'm going to finish with a subdued fuchsia lip.  I know "subdued" and "fuchsia" are seldom used in the same sentence, but we CAN achieve this look with a technique I often use.  I start by lining and filling in my lip with nude pencil lipliner:

Then, using the ELF Studio Lip Liner & Blending Brush in Fuchsia, I'm going to add a little fuchsia liner to the center of my top and bottom lip, making sure to soften the color with the attached blending brush:

Layer ELF Studio Glitter Gloss in Fuchsia Fireworks over my entire lip and I'm done.

See, it's definitely fuchsia, just not full-on fuchsia.  This technique makes the color more soft and sheer.

Overall look:

Overall look after 13 hours and a late dinner and drinks with my husband at our local gastropub:

Not bad with no touchups!  Lol, you can tell by my eyes that I had one too many Long Islands. (I only had one, btw, I'm a featherweight)  Haha!

In general, I think the teal may have been overkill for the eyes.  I should have kept the look simple with just the black eyeliner, as not to distract from the gorgeous, soft-mint color.  Oh well, next time!  Hope y'all found this post useful.  Sorry so long!

Freshlook One Day Colors in Green

I have nearly 20/20 vision so my optometrist told me that corrective lenses are optional for me.  Well, I think that glasses are a fine fashion accessory and that colored contacts can be an excellent cosmetic enhancement, like lipstick or some other similar product.

My eyes are very sensitive, however, so it's hard for me to wear contact lenses for any extended period of time.  I've tried before in the past and couldn't get past an hour before my eyes would get red and dry.  So I decided to try daily disposable colored contacts, which are thinner than the two-week or monthly lenses, therefore more likely to feel comfortable.

Whoa!  Right eye looks surprised, lol.  Maybelline Eye Studio Color Explosion in Forest Fury, btw.

Well, they're definitely more comfortable, but I can still feel them.  Also, I wish the colors were a little more bold.  My husband couldn't tell when I was wearing them until I pointed them out.  When I used to wear Freshlook Colorblends, I really loved the Turquoise shade because it really popped.  Problem was, I couldn't wear them for very long before they got uncomfortable.  The daily disposables only come in grey, green, blue, and hazel...all of which are more on the subtle side.  Oh well, maybe someday...

Amethyst Ablaze: Maybelline Eye Studio Color Explosion

I don't wear purple often.  I think purple is such a pretty color, but I've yet to find a purple that works for me.  Being primarily of southeast asian descent, I have a medium-tan complexion with very yellow undertones which tend to clash with purples.  Therefore, when I came across Maybelline's Eye Studio Color Explosion palette in Amethyst Ablaze, I fell in love with the vibrant colors, but was skeptical of whether or not they would work for me.  Luckily, my sister wears purple beautifully and purchased the palette, which I borrowed for my little experiment.  I was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome. :)

Amethyst Ablaze comes with 4 shades of purple: a really pale lavender highlight shade, a pinkish purple, a bluish purple, and a deep true purple with the addition of a 5th shadow, which is the "luminizing" topcoat, a super-shimmery, sheer silver shade.

As usual, I start with a primed eye:

I begin by applying a layer of the pinkish purple shade all over my upper eyelid:

Next, I sweep some of the pale lavender shade on my brow bone, highlighting the arch of my brow:

Then I apply the deepest purple shade to the outer corner of my upper eyelid, softly blending towards the center:

I line my bottom lid line with blue pencil liner.  I wish I had a dark purple eyeliner pencil for this part, but I guess blue would do.

I layer the bluish purple shade over the blue eyeliner:

Next, I apply black eyeliner pencil to the outer corners of my upper and lower lid lines:

Then I layer some black shadow over the black eyeliner, blending and smudging as I do so for added drama:

Though we're supposed to layer the luminizing topcoat over our entire eye, I use it very sparingly to increase the highlight under my brow arch.  It's super-over-the-top sparkly.  An allover coat would be overkill, IMO, and would distract from the meticulous blending and shading we've been working on.

I add a winged line with black liquid liner to my top lid line and accent the outer corner of my bottom lid line:

Curl lashes, add mascara and I'm done:

This is actually the first purple eyeshadow look that I've been very pleased with.  I'm thrilled that I've finally found one that works for me!  Wheeeeeeeeee!  Happy first of September!

Hugs,

Cat