Beauty Review: e.l.f. Essential Liquid Eyeliner

Sparkle in a bottle

This review is inspired by my recent purchase and use of e.l.f.'s Essential Liquid Eyeliner in Copper. However, I should point out that I have been using this same eyeliner in black for quite some time. Pretty much anytime I do a winged liner look, I use this eyeliner. It goes on nice and smooth, and lasts all day without fading or smudging. At only $1, it is a crazy awesome price for a good quality product.

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, I bought this liner in Copper. Yesterday I went ahead and tried it out for the first time. I was going to put it all over my lid for a more dramatic look, but since all I was doing was work, I decided to be more subtle. I applied it right over the smudgy slate eyeshadow I'd already put along my lash line. It made for a nice flash of sparkle every time I blinked.

Nice bit of copper flash along my lash line.

Overall, I am very happy with this liner. The staying power it had in black holds true in copper. I was lazy last night and didn't remove my eye make-up. Now, around 36 hours from when I applied it, it is still holding steady on my lash line. The only complaint I have is that it took much longer to dry than the black version. In black, it dries quite quickly. In the copper, however, it was probably almost a minute before I was able to open my eyes fully without worrying that i was going to end up with glitter under my brows.

I could not manage to take a picture that captured the liner very well (or that flattered me), so this is what you get. In person, though, it was more apparent and sparkled more. I have to say, I want to go and buy this eyeliner in every single color now.

Beauty Review: e.l.f. Studio Matte Lip Color

Today I decided to be bold and try out my new e.l.f. Matte Lip Color in Rich Red. I'd originally planned on also trying out my new glitter liner, but the red lip was such a statement that I decided to save the glitter for another day. I was pleased to find that the lipstick was fairly red when applied, despite the swatch I'd done on my hand looking more pinky.

Start the day off with a statement.

Not only was I happy with the color, but it was also nice on my lips. It's matte, so it wasn't quite like wearing a standard lipstick, but it didn't dry out my lips either. It also did a good job of not moving once it was on my lips, so long as I wasn't eating or drinking. And even then, if I was just sipping on my tea, there wasn't much that transferred to my mug. I managed to keep up with it until between shows when I ate dinner. At that point, I decided to give in to the inevitable and let it wear off a bit. I just dabbed some Rosebud Salve on top of whatever was left and called it a day. By the end of the night, it was actually a nice pink of leftover stain.

Two shows done!

The color in the second picture didn't come out great, but I promise my lips are a much brighter pink than they are naturally. I think it is definitely a home run in the red lip department and I won't hesitate to wear it again, especially for a special occasion where there's not much eating or drinking.

Beauty + Tea Haul

Isn't he so cute?

Yesterday, before rehearsal I ran to Target because there were a few things I needed, one of which I could only get at Target. Well, I ended up with none of the things on my list. Instead, I got a bunch of other fun things (including some stuff for Mum, but I'm not going to talk about that!) including this adorable fox dish. It's really tiny, and though they marketed it as a candy dish, I'm going to use him as a tea bag rest.

Well, to say I got nothing on my list is a bit of an exaggeration. I needed some more make-up wipes and I had wanted to try a specific brand that Target supposedly carries. I looked everywhere and couldn't find them, so I ended up getting some store brand apricot exfoliating ones that I'm actually pretty excited to try.

Hello gorgeous!

The other things I got were all e.l.f. products, because I'm incapable of walking into a Target without buying at least one thing from them- it's all so inexpensive! I got a new eye lash curler (though I can't find it online for some reason), because I've had mine forever and the pad is super gross. The best part is, e.l.f. sells replacement pads, so when this one gets all goopy, I can just replace the pad. I also picked up some individual lashes to put in the outer corners of my eyes next time I do something special. I think it will really make my eyes pop even more, especially paired with a winged liner. Furthering my lip collection (despite the fact they're the thing I tend to forget about most in the morning), I got this Matte Lip Color in Rich Red. It looks like a big pencil, but goes on pretty much like a lipstick. I swatched it on my hand and, sadly, it's more pinky than the packaging makes it look but I'm going to try it out tomorrow see how it wears.

Get ready for some sparkle!

The other e.l.f. product I got was an impulse based on a high end product that just came out. Both Kandee Johnson and another blog have been talking about Urban Decay's Heavy Metal Glitter Liner. Kandee even used it in one of her more recent tutorials. Not having the money to shell out for UD stuff, though, I resigned myself to glitterless lids. But then I saw that e.l.f. has a gold sparkly version of their liquid liner that I use in black all the time. At only $1, you can bet that baby ended up in my basket. I'm probably going to try this out tomorrow as well.

Pile of delicious, delicious tea.

As if all this goodness from Target wasn't enough, I got my order of tea from Adagio today. I cannot say enough good things about them. The tea is reasonably priced, it's delicious, they have an amazing selection, and the shipping is inexpensive and quick. I ordered tea on Tuesday after business hours and got it today. That's a three day turn around. Amazing. And look how much stuff I got! I have 3oz each of pumpkin spice and coconut, the first which I'm super excited to try and the latter which I know is delicious because I got a sample of it with my last order. Then I got two 0.8oz samples through various promotions, one is decaf tropics and the other is thai chai. I wanted to try both of these, but didn't want to buy a whole bunch in case I didn't like them. And as if that wasn't enough, they also threw in a one tea bag of English breakfast, which I am delighted to get a chance to try. I also ordered another set of three tins as I needed somewhere to put all this tea since I haven't quite polished off all the tea from last time. I figure having a couple extra tins (for now) isn't a bad thing either. As I find my favorite teas, I'll probably get to the point where I have six different ones at a time.

I did some additional shopping today, too, though overall it wasn't as exciting as yesterday's. I did get a deal on my Neutrogina Naturals Night Cream and I found some really fun, feathery false lashes for Halloween. I also picked up some more fabric for the piggy boys and got the things to make this awesome tote. Whether or not I actually get around to making it is another story.

In other news, I cut my hair and re-dyed it. But that's a post for another day. :)

Goodbye!

New Nightstand: Dumpster Find #2

Several years ago I rescued a very sad piece of Ikea-like furniture from the dumpster at Yale during move-out. It became my nightstand for my senior year and ever since them. It has always been quite wobbly and one of the shelves was put in upside-down. I'd been thinking recently that it might be time for me to be an adult and actually purchase a real nightstand when, on Wednesday, someone left a nice, black side table by the dumpster. I scooped it up and brought it inside. It was a little dusty and well loved, but it was in sturdy condition and is SO much nicer than my old one.

Pluto and the coconut pet say hi. :)

On my nightstand is my lamp that Mum and Sir bought me freshman year (it's seen better days), my glasses case, a fan from my wedding, tissues, and a tiny candle from Bath and Body Works in a no-longer-available coconuty scent. In addition, there are my three nighttime beauty essentials: Queen Helene Cocoa Butter, Warm Vanilla Body Cream, Carmex Lip Balm. I always use the lip balm and one of the lotions before I go to bed every night. I'm using underneath to store all my DIY supplies- empty jars, cardboard tubs, coconut oil, and the like. It may not look like much, but I'm ridiculously excited about it.

Product Love: L'Oreal Infallible 24 HR Eye Shadow

This morning when I got up I decided to wear one of my favorite green shirts and pair it with a green, slightly smokey eye. In addition to one of my Clinique eye pallets, I also used the L'Oreal Infallible 24 HR Eye Shadow in Golden Emerald as my main, darker green color. When applying it (with my e.l.f. crease brush) I ended up packing on more than I'd originally intended, so I blended it out lightly over my entire lid and up to the brow bone. It turned out to be a happy accident because, a) it looked gorgeous and b) it really does have incredible staying power! Despite all the steps I take, by the end of the day, I almost always have a bit of eye shadow collected in the crease of my lid. This L'Oreal shadow did a really great job at staying where I put it. I also LOVE how pigmented it is. Just a little bit results in a nice color pay off.

I also wanted to gush about a few things I got yesterday. Mike had to go to work really early and he dropped me off at a T station so I could wander around Boston a little while before I had to go to work. I ended up mostly around Newbury St., which was quiet delightful. First, I got breakfast at Pavement (LOVE them), then I swung by Lush to get a solid conditioner to go with the solid shampoo I've been using. The sales girl recommended the Jungle Conditioner, which I bought. I'll report back after I get to use it. I also swung by an American Eagle and picked out a pair of jeans. My only pair of blue jeans died a few months ago during Marvelous Wonderettes, and I haven't really had a chance to go out and buy any since then. I ended up buying their Straight Jean in the worn dark wash. I wore them today and am super happy with them. It is very nice to have a good pair of jeans again.

When life hands you lemons, make a face scrub!

A very long time ago when I first started watching Kandee Johnson's YouTube videos, I saw her "Lemon Doctor" video. I didn't really act on it, but thought it was a cool idea. Recently, she did a blog post of tips and tricks that included her lemon face scrub. I decided to give it a go. There are three great things about this lemony scrub:

1) You don't have to make it ahead of time and it takes all of five seconds to put together each night.

2) It is delightfully scrubby and all the acids in the lemon juice are excellent for cleaning your face and helping to prevent nastiness like blackheads and acne.

3) All the ingredients are readily available in your kitchen.

Borrowed from:
penelopesfolly.blogspot.com

So what exactly am I talking about? A quick and easy lemon face scrub. All you do is pour a bit of lemon juice on a cotton round and pour a little sugar over that. Then just scrub it all over your face!

I use this in a couple different ways. Some nights, I will use my Burt's Bees Citrus Facial Scrub and then before I rinse it off, I will soak a cotton ball in lemon juice and use that to scrub it around some more. When I use it this way, I skip the sugar since I already have a scrub on my face and just add the goodness of the acids in the lemon juice into the mix. I then rinse my face, tone, and moisturize as usual.

Other nights, when I don't really have the energy to wash my face properly, I'll just wipe my make-up off with a cleansing wipe and then do the lemon sugar scrubby afterwards for some deeper cleaning. Then I rinse it all off and moisturize.

I don't use this every night, because lemon juice every night might be too much, but it is a nice little boost to use every so often. And hey, it costs no extra money to add this into my beauty routine, so why not?

Mini-haul and hello!

There's this thing called the Young Company Summer Festival at Stoneham Theatre. There are six shows total and three run in rep during two consecutive weekends. If one were to Production Manage this festival, one wouldn't have enough time to get a good night's sleep, much less write blog posts. Okay, so maybe during the last weekend once the shows were up I may have read more than eight books while I was sitting backstage and could have easily written some blog posts, but at that point, my brain cells were barely working. And so I am forced once again to apologize for my long absence. As a quick note to my last post, I have been using the Squeaky Green shampoo Maggie gave me and I LOVE IT. I have not used any other shampoo since I got it.

I don't actually have anything all that exciting lined up for this post. Just a mini haul from today. First thing I got was a Color Whisper by Color Sensational Lipstick from Maybelline in 40 Orange Attitude, which has really cool packaging, in my opinion. I had a coupon from my Glamour magazine which is why I went ahead and splurged. There were a ton of really fun colors, both in the Color Whisper shades but also in the regular Color Sensational lipsticks, but I ended up going with this one because it is a nice, wearable coral color when on my lips. I've really been digging coral lately, especially on the lips, and rather than get a red that I probably wouldn't wear much, I decided to get this color which I might actually wear more frequently. It makes my whole look more polished, without screaming that I'm wearing lipstick.

The other beauty product I got today I didn't spend a dime on. One of the things I did today was clean out/organize the lost and found from the Young Company shows. Amidst all the shoes and water bottles was a brand new Neutrogena Healthy Skin Pressed Powder. It is missing it's applicator, but who cares? That's more than three times what I normally spend on pressed powder and it's in my shade. I figured it was more than worth it to scoop it up, take it home, and try it out. The night cream I've been using for more than a year is Neutrogena and I really like it, so much so that when I have to get more soon, I'll definitely be getting another Neutrogena product.

And finally, I'll leave you with my smiling face from today! My hair came out really well and I wanted to document a rare, good hair day. Only bad thing about this is that my unintentional "ombre" is really starting to show. I actually HAVE the dye to fix my hair, but haven't gotten around to dying it yet. I was gonna bite the bullet and do it, but I really want to get a hair cut. If I get my hair cut first, then I actually have enough henna to do my roots and then do all my hair to hopefully help even out the color in my hair. I took this picture before I bought my new lipstick, so I'm wearing my Clinique Chubby Stick in 04 Mega Melon.