[ ♡ ] Recent Purchases – ELF & MAC

I’ve bought a few things in the last week that I just wanted to share. First off are two holiday palletes from ELF that I got from Target for $5 a piece. I got the Neutral pallete And the smokey pallete (the one that Choua went to 3 Targets to find) This is how they look inside: The colors come on pretty well for a cheap drugstore pallete and they’re very pretty especially the neutral one. I’ve used them twice now and I’d say their pigmentation is in between covergirl and Maybellene, Maybellene being the less pigmented of the two. For five bucks they were a deal! I also got some things from MAC on my trip to Uptown yesterday. I got a blotting powder in Medium dark and a blush in coygirl. The blotting powder is mostly translucent and I just got it to set my makeup and blot during the day because I was getting tired of setting with my loose mineral veil which looks nice but is a pain to deal with. If this one doesn’t work out for me, I’ll go to Sephora to look for another one, my only requirement is that it’s pressed and not loose. This one was $22. The blush is this cute sheer muavey one called Coygirl and it’s pretty cute so far. I just needed a purplish sheer blush and the ones I was looking at was already in the $13 range so I figure jumping to $18 is no big deal for the MAC one. I know I know, I’m buying more MAC lately but I promise, Sephora products are still my preferred buy. When I was at the MAC store the SA also gave me a glimpse of the new brush sets being released this week! I originally thought I wanted the eye set but I only really want two brushes from there so I might get a face set instead next week! It was really cool, she led me behind their counters to a secret stash behind the walls, I felt like I was on a mission! Of course I know that its there to show customers who want to pre-order but it still felt like a special treat to go check it out before it’s release! Anyways she told me something that made me cringe when she rung me up. She said she could tell we were coming in the store as we crossed the street because you can tell a MAC girl apart and in my head I was like, “oh no…I can’t be one of those…” lol! So I promise myself now that I will focus my buying and trying energies on Sephora and other brands and not MAC lol! Anyways I also bought two pairs of Red Cherry lashes from Heartbreaker. Well that’s all for now but you know I’m only a few days away from my next makeup purchase! ♡ PaNhia

[ ♡ ] Eye Primer Testing - Loreal, NYX, Smashbox

So I did an earlier post about my new Sephora purchases and included was a Smashbox Photofinish Eyelid Primer. This is the fourth lid primer I've tried and after using it a few days I can finally give a solid review. I've decided to compare it to the other three primers I already have and did a swatch to see which one yields the richest color. My lighting is not wonderful but here are the results! As you can see, the NYX primer does the best job yielding the most intense color payout. I used a taupe color from a Maybellene quad to do this because I wanted to see what happens to lighter colors and shadows that aren't that pigmented to begin with. If I had done a color from UD, well, you wouldn't see that much difference. You can also see that the loreal decrease actually makes the shadow lighter than the shadow on its own. The Smashbox comes in a close second but still loses to NYX. Happy Priming!

[ ♡ ] Skin Care – Origins Cleanser & Toner

As far as makeup goes, I like to try new products and I’m always searching for something better. For a while I was on the hunt for the darkest black eyeshadow. I tried several before I found a winner. I tried Sonia Kashuk in storm, MAC in Carbon and a few others and finally settled on Urban Decay’s P---. Last year I was on the hunt for a perfect drugstore mascara to replace my Makeup Professionals Smokey Lash and have now settled on Maybellene Falsies and Loreal’s Volumnous Mascaras. For skincare, however, I’m more wary because I don’t want to mess up my skin’s equilibrium. I’ve only ever used Neutregna cleansers and products. By the way my skin type is oily combination. Earlier I used this Acne scrub in the orange tube and it was nice but it became a little too strong for my skin for the twice daily cleansing. so I switched to the more liquidy foamy formula of the same line in grapefruit and I ilked it a lot. Here is my empty bottle: It kept my skin mostly clear but in July I ran out and decided to try something different and got the Biore Ice cleanser and for a little over a month, it broke me out like crazy! My sister uses whatever I use and it broke her out too! I finally tossed it and went back to my Neutregena one and then Just last week I ran out again and decided to try the Origins Zero cleanser & Toner set that I saw in a magazine and actually I took a picture of it on my phone to remind me lol But after talking to the sales people, I decided to buy this balancing cleanser & purifying toner line instead. The sales lady told me the cleanser would leave me literately squeaky clean and surprisingly it does! I got both for $45 total Here are some pictures of the cleanser: Pros: • Nice creamy texture • Leaves your face squeaky clean • Its organic • So far its not breaking me out Cons: • The price is around $20 a piece • The toner smells strong • There is alcohol in the toner though its stripped • it left my hands chapped and peeling like what happens if you glue your fingers together or the after affects of a sunburn…look below for the picture of it: ♡ PaNhia