Product Review: Philosophy Primer On a Clear Day

Packaging: 5 out of 5
Price: 5 out 5
Product Itself: 5 out 5!

I first saw this on Sephora.com, and the only thing that really made me buy it at first was the price, $15! Can't beat that for a really good makeup primer!

I loved the packaging, it's in a tiny tube perfect for travel! And I love the simplicity of the package.

I tested it out this morning when I was getting ready for work and it smells nice AND it seriously went on so smoothly, just like putting on moisturizer. The best part? My mineral foundation went on so evenly and smoothly, no patches, no un-even colored areas, nothing! And it left my skin baby smooth and my foundation lasted over 8 hours looking the same as when I applied it!

So you gals on a budget and can't afford $30+ for a primer, definitely try this one out!

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Get a MERMAID LOOK for Halloween!

Youtube's AMY B, has an awesome video tutorial for an awesome mermaid look just in time for Halloween, check it out!

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Product Review (CherryCulture.com)- NYX Concealer Jar

Here is my insider's pick for NYX Concealer Jar!

I am such a sucker when it comes to buying concealer because I am willing to try any concealer to cover up my dark circles and any other blemishes that occasionally pop up. I have bought tons of concealer from drugstores to even high-end brands, and have had mixed results in the sense that some were okay and did the job, but none that really outlasted in terms of performance and giving me a fresh-awakened look to last all day—until now.

I tried the NYX Concealer in a Jar and let me tell you how amazing this miracle in a bottle is! First of all, the packaging. It is so cute! It's a tiny round jar, but don't let the size fool you! It has A LOT of concealer in side to last you a very long time, and what I love is how tiny it is to even keep in your purse for any touch ups. Second, it's very creamy and glides on easily. I use a concealer brush, scrape some of the concealer in the jar, and DAB it from the inner corner of my eye to the outer to cover up my dark circles, and then DAB with my finger or a wedge-sponge to blend together. You don't want to wipe the concealer from side to side because that just takes off some of the concealer and you will end up using more giving you a cakey look, and instead whatever you are trying to conceal is much more noticeable and prominent. You just want to use a little bit and dab it across, a little goes a long way with this concealer!

I have tried concealers that were TOO water-based and ended up sliding off under my eyes, making me look even more tired, worst of all, when you are trying to conceal a red pimple and it fades off so that everything shows! I even had concealers that were super thick that once I put my foundation over it, you can see that it settled in the lines and was very cakey. I also hated those concealers that claim to be waterproof and last all day, but wouldn't even make it to lunch time! But with this NYX Concealer jar that is NEVER a problem and what I truly enjoyed was that it lasted all day with me. I was also hunting for a concealer that gave me the same look as the moment I put it on, 'till the time I came home after a long day at work; and this definitely does it. For you gals on a budget looking for a good dupe of MAC Cosmetics Studio Fix Concealer.

Here is a pic of Sugabum from ABB (Asianbeautyblog), who took a pic of the concealer and compared it to a higher-end (and way more expensive)concealer, Makeup Forever, just proves that drugstore brands can be just as good, if not better, than expensive brands!

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PREVIEW: MAC Holiday Collections, Curiousitease and Finery

Here is a preview of the sub sets of MAC's never-ending holiday collection featuring Curiousitease and Finery...stop drooling ladies! ;)




CURIOUSITEASE

5 cool and 5 warm lipglass and lustreglass (separate)
5 cool and 5 warm pigments and glitter (separate)
5 plushglass
5 soft sparkle pencils


Warm Pigment Set: Lily White, Dazzleray, Copper Sparkle and Sunpepper Pigments; and Reflects Gold Glitter.

Cool Pigment Set:Helium, Softwash Grey, Naval Blue and Forest Green Pigments; and Reflects Blue Glitter.

FINERY



Each set is made out of a color theme:

3 PLUM LIPS
3 CORAL LIPS
3 TAN LIPS
3 PINK LIPS

VIVAGLAM PALETTE

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Reader Question- MAC Holiday Eye Palettes

Q: Hi Vanessa,
I think i like the cool and smokey eye palettes the most too. Anyhow, do you think after you get them on Thursday you can do a tutorial on the eyeshadows. Maybe something showing how you could use the colors together or anything so I can convince myself to buy them. THANKS! we love you~
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A: Hi Kiki love! haha you are so funny, I love you gals too (all the readers that take the time to read this)! I honestly love hearing from all of you when I am at work, you gals have such awesome personalities and it's such a pleasure to read all your emails. :)

Yes of course I will do a tutorial featuring the new MAC holiday eye palettes, I will do my best to try to do them ASAP! I know how much it helps to have looks and swatches before you commit to buying something, so i'll whip one up!

*Also, I now have Violet pigment available for sampling! For all you ladies who have bought stuff from me, please do a look and take pics! I would love to post it here on the site! Stay gorgeous y'all!

Love,

Nessa

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MAC Holiday Heirloom Brush Sets and Royal Assets Palettes!

* Yes it's the metallic set, not smokey as first noted, I caught that!

warm eyes: (w/ gold handle 213SE)
sunday best (F)
star violet (VP)(permanent)
retrospeck (L)(permanent)
club (S)(permanent)
showstopper (M)
nobility (S)

cool eyes: (w/ silver handle 213SE)
shadowy lady (M)(permanent)
silverwear (F)
modern heir (F)
queen's jewel (VP)
medallion (F)
trophy pink (F)

smokey eyes: (w/ silver handle 213SE)
rondelle (F)
courtly rose (M)
knight (VP)
maid of honour (S)
palatial (S)
majestic (L)

metallic eyes: (w/ gold handle 213SE)
honey lust (L)(permanent)
silver fog (F)
stately black (L)
velvet lady (V)
creme royale (VP)
manor (F)

THE BRUSH SETS:

The eye brush set




Face Brush Set:






[Basic Brush Set picture coming soon!]

The Eye Palettes:

Cool Eyes (the one I bought):


Metallic Eyes




Warm Eyes:

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Craft Brushes and Product Review of Silk Naturals

Some of you gals may not know this, but artist/craft brushes are just as good as actual makeup brushes (not the hard stiff ones), but American Painter and Loew-Cornell are both awesome brands for craft brushes. I bought a couple 2 years ago and used them to apply my eye makeup after noticing they were similar to some of my actual makeup brushes! And right now, Michael's Craft Store is having 30% OFF on ALL their Loew-Cornell Brushes! So check them out! I went today and got a really cute pair of brushes that have a CLEAR handle with silver glitter "floating" inside! How cool is that! I nabbed an angled taklon brush which I might use for either applying my pigments foiled (wet), or regular eyeshadows, and the other is a tiny eyeliner brush to perfect winging out eyeliners. Then I dropped by CVS to get travel stuff for my upcoming trip and ended up picking up an angled contour brush as well!





Now for my product review, SILK NATURALS CUSTOMIZABLE MINERAL FOUNDATION:

Packaging: 5 out of 5 stars!
Shipping Time: 5 out of 5 stars!
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars!

I actually like Silk Naturals a lot, it's just a matter of me learning how to be a mineral foundation chef and finding the right amount of ingredients to make the dish WOW! First of all, I LOVE the ability to customize MY foundation to MY OWN skin tone, I can adjust it as I please, making it lighter or darker if I wanted to; and that is definitely a power that's nice to have because who knows your skin better than YOU DO! I put 8 scoops of the white powder and ONE, let me re-iterate, ONE SCOOP of Ebony, and that baby gave me a tan look! Not in a bad way, I actually like how it gave me a little color and made me look human in pictures rather than Casper the friendly ghost's long lost cousin....but you just have to be super careful because ebony is darrrrrrkkkk! So if you put even the slightest bit TOO much, you are gonna have dark foundation! You also have to perfect the application by buffing it evenly in circular motions, as if you concentrate too much on one spot, it will start to look patchy.

Here is the white powder first:


Then the EBONY, see how dark it came out??!! But it's not that dark on your skin, thank God!


The result (and yes I finally showed/did my hair! I love when it curls at the bottom):

(sorry for the cheesy smile)

But it actually did a good job of matching my neck eh??? I am quite happy with it, meaning Miss Vanessa might be ordering the full-sized one! ;)

Thanks again to Christiana for the heads up, she is my girl when it comes to mineral makeup!

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Daily Roundup, Vanessa's Beauty Picks!

****NOW OFFERING MAC "VIOLET" PIGMENT SAMPLES!!!****

MACCosmetics.com is offering FREE SHIPPING! No promo code needed!

madminerals.org is offering 20% off everything on the site!

ULTA.COM has Bare Mineral Veils on sale 2 for $30! And 20% of any one item!



Tarte Cosmetics has a really cool all-in-one palette just in time for the holidays! ($52, Sephora)

This jaw-dropping, must-have Tarte palette is stacked with exclusive shades of eyeshadows, lip glosses, lip sheers, brushes and for the first time ever, our best-selling cheek stains in a pan form.

Palette includes:
-16 brand-new eyeshadows
-16 brand-new lipglosses
-4 gel eyeliners
-4 cheek stains
-3 24/7 lip sheers
-Eyelid primer
-Luminizer
-Eyeshadow & eyelining brushes



I love POP Cosmetics! Their packaging alone makes me wanna buy their entire line! I definitely want to try out their conceal and correct mineral powder cake. ($25, Sephora)



Conceal and Correct Pressed Mineral Powder Cake
What it is:
Five concealing and corrective mineral powders in an all-in-one cake.

What else you need to know:
Even out your skin tone and prime your skin with this pressed mineral powder cake. For an all-over color correcting effect, blend all of the colors together with a sponge and buff into face.

Shades include: peach (minimizes darkness), yellow powder (minimizes redness), translucent (works well as an eye cake primer), nude (neutral concealer), and tan (neutral contour).

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New goodies, silknaturals.com, and Laura Geller Lip and Eye Primer for SALE!

First thing is first, I have another item I am selling, it's a BRAND NEW Laura Geller's Lip and Eye Spackle(Primer)! This is a fabulous DUO and is a definite MUST-HAVE in your purse. These neutralize the color of your lips and eyes accordingly so that lipsticks and eyeshadows are much more vibrant. It also primes these areas to make it smoother for application. This retails at Sephora for $21! And starting bid is $6.50 so bid now ladies and get it while its hot! CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR MAKEUP ADDICTING HANDS ON THIS BABY!




I received my Silknaturals.com order on Friday so I have yet to actually make my own foundation, thought it sounds each with the instructions they include. I plan on doing it soon; so of course I will let you ladies know my review on it, but so far I love how fast they shipped, it looks very promising! It even came in a cute PINK satchel! :)





I also found a BRONZER at the mall (one of those tiny Asian shops), that reminded me of MAC's MSF (mineralized skin finish) in Global Glow. Guess how much! Come on GUESS!!! Ok, ok, it was $2.99! I know right, what a deal! I LOVE it and the smiling sun that stares at me is just SUPER cute!




And got me a cute, travel-sized angled contour brush:


I also bought me some boots at DSW (well the BF did but I picked it out! haha), they were $80 each pair, but I needed some winter stuff and I love the black ones, they look so chic and classy, and ultra comfy!





Whatdya gals think?

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Reader Questions and Testimonials

Q: Hey Nessa!!

I just received the MAC pigment samples in the mail today. I was so excited I tried them all today doing different eye looks. Absolutely love the pigments! THANKS so so much!!

I also bought me some NYX eyeshadows and pearl pigments as well online and it came today as well (don't have a store closeby that sells NYX). And can't wait to try them too!! The colors look just as good if not better than MAC brand at way less of a cost!!

BTW, where do you buy your jars to put samples in?? The NYX pearl pigments come in these itty bitty bottles. I would rather stick them in something that my makeup brush can fit into. Can you buy these things at beauty supply stores? Or online?? Curious to know. Also when I do plan on buying the full MAC pigment bottles I'd rather take some out and separate them rather than keep opening up the huge jar and risk letting everything spill!

Joy
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A: Thank you! I am so glad you received the pigments and enjoyed them as well. Do a look and share with all of us! I bought my sample jars on eBay, but you can also find them on mineral makeup sites if you don't need that many (as the ones on eBay sell them by the bulk). I also like to use stacks that you screw on top of one another that you can get at craft stores such as Michael's. Also check out my storage idea for pigments, by CLICKING HERE.

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Q: I have an eye liner crisis! I used to use a twist up eyeliner, and my problem was that the color was brown, and it wouldn't show up very well, and then it would give a dark circle below my eye when i wouldn't even put the eyeliner there. I would but the eyeliner basically on the little rim on the bottom of my eye, very close to my eyeball. I have recently switched to a black pencil, but sometimes it shows up way too thick. I have tried all the different brands...what do I do?? Also, what do you think of the loreal HIP series? are there any good tips for using it?
Thank you for puting up a website like yours. It is a great resource!
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A: If black eyeliner is too dark for you, try using shades lighter than that such as "slate" or "onyx (I use Covergirl gel eye pencils which work great) so it's not so dramatic as a black eyeliner. Also if you want to stick to brown, I HIGHLY suggest using Indelible Gel Eyeliner in "Chocolate Mousse", these eyeliners last ALL day, with no smudging whatsoever, especially since it sounds you usually line the top and not the bottoms, then these are perfect! Application is used with a "push brush", which a flat head eyeliner brush. If you still want to stick to pencils, give Revlon's Colorstay Eyeliners a try, I use them and they last all day as well, no flaking or smudging.

I don't really like the L'Oreal HIP series personally, I bought their duo eyeshdows and didn't like them very much, the colors just weren't for me, I did however purchase their HIP pigments and they are lovely, a decent dupe for the MAC Pigments for you gals on a budget, but I really love the NYX Pearl Mania loose pigments, those are gorgeous!

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