[ ♡ ] 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

[ ♡ ] Daily Routine

Xti did a routine makeup post at her blog: http://beatificcaptures.blogspot.com/ and I decided cool, I'll do a response post! My routine is a lot longer than hers unfortunately because I wear more make up but here goes: 1.) Wash face with Origins Checks and Balance Cleanser 2.) Pat face down with towel then tone with Origins Purifying Toner 3.) Moisturize and Protect with Neutregena Visibily Even Moisturizer with age defying helioplex and spf 30! ***bonus step (just started doing again): use Murad eye cream in spf15 4.) Use either Vasceline lipblam or eos lipbalm in Honeydew 5.) Prime face with Smashbox Photofinish face primer 6.) Use a lighter concealer under my eyes to brighten them up 7.) Put on Foundation (Revlon Photoready in 007) 8.) Conceal spots with Mac concealer in NC30 9.) Put on blush on the apples of my cheeks 10.) Define my cheekbones a bit with bronzer under the blush 11.) Use BareEssentuals Mineral Veil to set all my makeup 12.) Prime my eyelid with Smashbox or NYX primer 13.) use an angle brush to fill in my eyebrows using a brown shadow 14.) highlight my lid all over with a vanilla or light color 15.) use a color on the lid 16.) color on the crease 17.) color on the outer corner 18.) eyeliner on top and bottom if desired 19.) do hair for 30 mins 20.) curl eye lashes with Shu Uemura curler and put on mascara (I do this after hair because I don't want my curler to touch my liner when its still fresh) 21.) line lips with nude liner on the outside 22.) and finally liptstick! wheww, that was long. Maybe I'll do a post with actual pictures one day!

[ ♡ ] 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!

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I'm a little behind on posting but these are purchases from Mac and Sephora at the Mall of America from Friday. First off, Sephora: I got the Smashbox Photo finish Primer, smashbox lid primer and smashbox pore primer. They're pretty good so far. The photo Primer is definitely helping because my face doesn't get as oily during the day now. I just don't like that it no longer comes in the square pump packaging because I just like the pump better for dispersing the product. The lid primer is nice but I use a primer everyday so I can't reallly say it's any worse or better than other primers. I will do a swatch comparison in another post using my three lid primers. I will however say that I don't use Urban Decay because I don't like the shape of the bottle. Next, from Mac: Mac Concealer in NC30. It works pretty well and matches me almost perfectly so I'm not complaining. I have mentioned before that I try to stay away from Mac because I don't like that so many people are crazy over it but I do like to try some of their products. I just refuse to be a Mac fangirl, that's all :) ♡ PaNhia

[ ♡ ] Favorites - Lipsticks 10/14/10

I've recently just started to be more into lipstick and lip colors so I'm still in my hype for lipcolors and decided I would use lipsticks as my starting platform for a series of posts I'll be dubbing favorites. A little background of why I just started collecting colors so late in the makeup game: in Highschool I used a lip product that totally dried my lips out and made them feel entirely foreign. Whatever I did, nothing worked to get rid of the weird way my lips were behaving. Finally a doctor told me that it's an allergic reaction to a lip product I was using. At that time I only used three products including balms, colors, glosses. I didn't know which brand it was that made me allergic so I banned them all from my lip cosmetics. They were covergirl, revlon, and maybellene. To this day, I still haven't used a cg, maybellene or revlon lip product. Anyways that experience of course instilled a certain fear in me for trying lip products although I've now found medication to control the reaction. So just this year I started trying lipsticks again because I didn't want to live on vaseline forever and so far its been good, no reaction but again, I haven't tried the three brands again. Anyways thats why I just started collecting. Below are my favorites right now that I just love, in order: 1.) Mac Creamsheen lipstick in crosswires. It's a brighter coral pink that is just so pretty! 2.) Mac Creamsheen lipstick in Ravishing. This is the perfect light orangey,nudey, coral for dark eyes. 3.) Sephora Rouge in R13. This is my go to hot pink lipcolor on a night out. Its hot pink without being over the top and it has no blue or purples in it so its not like a fushia. 4.) Sephora Rouge in R14. You can't tell looking at it but it has blue hues in it that make it kind of a light barbie pink with a purplish tint. 5.) Nyx lipstick in Tea rose. It's a beautiful muted rose that is good for everyday looks. 6.) The Faceshop in PK102. It's a sheer lipstick with a good buildup ability and its a nice everyday pink as well. Well, those are my current favs. I will of course update with new favorites when I find them as I continue on my lipcolor discovering adventure! ♥ PaNhia

[ ♡ ] What's in my makeup bag

I've always wanted to do this post but as I've never had a running blog before, I didn't. I carry a small cosmetic bag with me everywhere I go with my basics in it. These are more like touch up items and emergency items. Because of this bag, I sometimes buy doubles when I find really good products or doubles just in case my on hand or my travel product is used up and I can't get to the store. and the lovely contents inside: 1.) Missha palette from Korea. This was from my trip last summer to Seoul. I actually bought it in a subway station Missha (awesome!) It's a build your own palette and as you can see, I don't have a great array of colors because the eyeshadow selection in korea is very limited given they don't wear much eyeshadow, which is why they knew we were foreigners lol 2.) Maybellene Falsies mascara, this has fast become my favorite drugstore mascara 3.) Loreal felt tip liner, the only liquid liner I approve of! 4.) concealer, the name has rubbed off 5.) Sephora flashy liner waterproof in deep black. I bought this because my friend PH told me how awesome it was but it doesnt work for me because it spears so no I just use it on my waterline in conjuction with a liquid liner 6.) Tresemme mini hair spray, lol, sometimes your hair just needs a little extra poof 7.) sephora mirror (free if you buy a gift card, big and sturdy) 8.) hair band 9.) shu uemura lash curler, love! 10.) Victoria's secret beauty rush glossy shinestick in melon out, its very transparent but moisturizing 11.) two tweezers, I don't know why 12.) two bobby pins 13.) etude sharpner from Korea, just too cute to pass up 14.) elf foundation brush, I use it for concealer 15.) Sonia Kashuk blender brush, came with a set 16.) Sonia Kashuk angle brush 17.) clean&Clear oil wipes, these are the best! Do not settle for rice paper type ones because they don't really get rid of oil. These are the blue kinds that are kind of filmy and they get transparent as oil builds up on them so you can actually see how much oil your face produces! 18.) teasing comb from Sallys, refer to #6 lol And there you have it! My on the go essentials.