April 2013 Ipsy Bag

I Bought This

Sorry for not posting all this week!  My dog started to act unlike herself on Saturday, so we took her to the vet and I've been nursing her back to health.  It took a few days, but she's back to her old self now! :)

So today I have my April Ipsy bag!  It's been a while since I posted one of these...I should really try to be more consistent with my Ipsy bag posts considering they come every month, haha.

This bag's theme was Pretty in Pink.  It came in a white bag with a hot pink zipper.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of the bag.  I just know it's going to get filthy if I use it, so I'm probably going to end up not using it at all.  I think they should gone with a pink bag, since the theme is Pretty in Pink!

So this bag came with a long awaited product!  I always see requests for this product whenever I stop by the Ipsy Facebook page.  And that product is...

...BLUSH!  Personally, I didn't mind either way that there wasn't any blush yet.  However, I really didn't want to get another eyeliner, so I'm glad there wasn't one in this bag.  I feel like a lot of the previous bags had eyeliner, and you can only use so many at one time.  I don't like having a lot because eyeliner dries up.  Eyeshadow, on the other hand, lasts longer, so I don't mind getting one or two in each bag.

Anyway, this bag came with 4 items: Sation nail polish in Love at First Byte, Mica Beauty shimmer powder in Earth, Big Sexy Hair Powder Play, and the long awaited blush by Bombshell Cosmetics (in Sweet Cheeks).  Not all bags were the same this month, as some people got an eyeshadow duo by Two Cosmetics instead of the Mica Beauty one and some received Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Renewal instead of the Powder Play.  I kind of wanted to try the Soy Renewal, but I don't mind getting Powder Play. I can always use more volume in my hair!  Also, the nail polish and blush came in two different colors.  The other nail polish color was in Of Corset I'll Call You and the other blush was in Beach Please.

At first glance, the blush I got in Sweet Cheeks looked like it would be a nice, wearable almost matte pink, with maybe a slight sheen or shimmer.

But when swatched, it's a different story:

It has quite a strong sheen, making it come off as shiny when swatched.  It's actually quite a bit more shiny than what the picture is showing.  But it is a nice shade of pink, so I will still give it a try on my cheeks and see how it looks.  Hopefully it will look alright and be usable as a nice blush. :)

The Mica Beauty shimmer powder in Earth seemed like it might make a good all over lid color, but then I swatched it:

As you can see, the color is barely darker than my skin.  It's also quite sparkly, so I probably won't be wearing this all over the lid now.  I think this would be good to pop on the middle of the lid though, for a bit of dimension.  This was swatched without primer, so maybe it will be more wearable with primer.

All in all, a pretty good bag.  I'm looking forward to trying the products.  I already had the polish that came in my bag, as well as the other polish, because I bought the Sation Miss Antoinette collection a few weeks ago.  It's in my "to swatch" pile, and I'm hoping to get it up within the next week or two since it is a Spring collection!  Keep an eye out for that! ;)

FAVES: November 2011

HAPPY DECEMBER!  One of my favorite months~

Class was cancelled today because the city declared a citywide state of emergency due to damages caused by the high winds last night.  It's crazy!  So many trees were blown over, as well as street and traffic lights.  And many electrical wires were snapped due to trees falling on them, so many are out of power.  I've been watching the news all day, and they said there haven't been winds this strong in a LONG time.  But it's not over yet!  The weatherman says the high wind advisory won't be over until tomorrow...His advice?  Try to stay inside and avoid driving if you can, as the roads are quite hazardous with the trees and debris littering it.

So heeding his advice, I decided to stay in and work on my blog instead. :)  And here I am with my first favorites post ever!  I actually have quite a few this month!  Let me just say that I am probably an advertising exec's dream come true.  I'm highly susceptible to advertising and pretty packaging, as can be seen in my ever growing stash of makeup and nail polish, lol.  So let's get to it...

I have 5 lippies that I've been loving this month:

ELF Mineral Lipstick in Nicely Nude, Revlon Lip Butters in Creme Brulee and Lollipop,
and Maybelline Baby Lips in Grape Vine and Pink Punch.

I've had this ELF lipstick for a while now, but haven't really used it until now.  It's a great nude pink color.  I find it to be a bit sheer, but buildable.  It doesn't seem drying to me, but it's not exactly moisturizing either.  I haven't tested the wear of it, because I drink quite a lot of water, so my lip product is always being wiped away at random times.  BUT, I really love the color of it, so I've been wearing it quite a bit this month.

These Revlon Lip Butters are new and part of the permanent line, thank goodness!  I got these on sale at Rite Aid when Revlon was 40% off plus you got $2 +UP rewards.  I used the +UP rewards to help buy the second lip butter, so my total for both of these came out to less than one at the regular price, hehe.  I love great deals like that!  The display at Rite Aid was already half empty when I bought my first one, and there were only slim pickings when I got the second one.  Only like 4 colors left by that time.  And all the displays I've seen since (at Rite Aid, CVS, and Target) have been empty.  So I'm really glad they're permanent because I really want to try other colors!

Just like everyone else, I love these!  I was so excited to hear about them from Nouveau Cheap, and was on the lookout ever since G's post.  I'm glad I got my hands on a couple!  The first one being Creme Brulee, which is a nude color, and the second being Lollipop, which is a bright fuchsia color.  Both are quite pigmented, though Lollipop is more pigmented than Creme Brulee.  One time I wore Lollipop, my friends were surprised that it was a lip butter...they thought I was wearing lipstick. ^^;  They are creamy and go on like, well, butter.  It looks like they have shimmer, but when worn, the shimmer does not transfer.  They have a creme finish and are also quite long lasting, especially the fuchsia as it stains a bit...And the packaging is pretty!  I really like the packaging of Colorburst lip products, and this is no exception!

And the last two lippies are from Maybelline's Baby Lips collection.  I first heard about these from HollyAnnAeree and decided to check them out.  They looked cute and I liked the idea of tinted lip balm.  These were the first tinted lip balms I got, before the Revlon Lip Butters.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if these are permanent.  I tried tweeting Maybelline, but they never responded to my tweet.  All the displays I've seen since getting mine have been empty and I haven't seen any new displays/restocking.  I really wanted to try the peach one and the cherry one!  Oh well!  At least I have these, and they are great!  Very moisturizing.  But these are not really pigmented; they just leave a tint, though I find that Pink Punch does have more color payoff.  These are also scented!  I actually really like both scents from the ones I have.  Pink Punch smells like fruit punch to me and Grape Vine smells like grape, of course.

The final items are two eyeshadow palettes and a blush I've really been loving (all from Wet 'N' Wild!):

color icon blush in mellow wine, 6-pan palette in lust, 6-pan palette in vanity

vanity

lust

These Wet N Wild 6-pan palettes in Vanity and Lust are my top two palettes.  I'm sad that they are discontinuing them!  Gotta stock up on backups while I can!  I have been loving Vanity ever since I got it, earlier this year.  It is my go-to palette for a neutral everyday eye.  Lust is a palette I only recently fell in love with.  I use it to switch up my everyday eye look every once in a while.  Also, it's great for creating a not-so-typical smoky eye!  They have great color payoff, and don't crease on me at all.

mellow wine

And another Wet N Wild product I'm loving is this Color Icon blush in Mellow Wine.  This picture is not exactly true to color, as the blush is a bit darker than this.  I have a very round face, so I kind of look for darker blushes, rather than light pinks, that I can use for a double purpose: both blush and contour.  This one works really well for that!

So those are my faves for this month~ What are yours?

HAUL: IMATS LA 2011

FINALLY! Right? Yeah, I'm a bit late with my IMATS post, but better late than never...

This was my second time going to IMATS, and it was just as fun as the first.  It was also still overwhelming.  There's just so many people and products to look at, how can it not be?  But from our first time last year, we learned how to deal with the craziness of IMATS: have a plan.  Know which brands you want to buy from and hit up those booths first.  After that's done, then you can take the time to look around and see what you might have missed.  This gives you a good chance to get the items you want before they sell out.

I have more tips for how to make the most of IMATS, but that'll be for another post (maybe closer to IMATS next year).  This is a haul post, so on to the haul! :)

all my goodies!

3 nyx megashine lip glosses. love these!

colors: smokey look, natural, dolly pink

2 black label lipsticks, to try them out

colors: diva and berry

4 single eyeshadows, though I definitely wanted more

colors: golden sky (blue-ish one), dark grey, taupe, dark brown

2 blushes

colors: natural and taupe, which I got for contouring

1 eyeliner & 3 lip liners

colors: eyeliner in satin blue & lip liners in nude pink, plum, and burgundy

2 lipsticks from lime crime ($9 each)

colors: centrifuchsia (fuchsia)& coquette (nude)

my favorite packaging out of all the things I got!

sadly, this does not show the true real life color. my camera wasn't cooperating
the fuchsia one is brighter in person, and the nude one is lighter.

I'll try to capture the true color when I do swatches.

nyx jumbo pencils: 1 lip pencil & 2 eye pencils

colors: honey nectar (lip), iced mocha (eye), cottage cheese (eye)

3 pairs of lashes from miss adoro. 

They were 12 for $20, so I split with the girls I went with.

eve pearl salmon concealer in medium. ($21)
heard lots of good things about this concealer, so had to try it!

hehe, I already used it, before taking pictures of it.
I use it for my undereye circles, but it covers blemishes too.

So that's my haul!  I forgot the prices of the NYX stuff.  Let me know if you want to know the prices, and I'll see if I can find my receipt.  I didn't take pictures of the brushes individually, because they're mostly eyeshadow brushes.  Plus, I haven't taken them out of their plastics, lol.  But let me know if you want to see them, and I'll take pictures. :)

Did you go to IMATS? I'd love to see other hauls!

P.S. swatches will be in a separate post. ;]