Morphe!!

I think between this, instagram, and Facebook, I have talked about my love of Morphe a million times.  In case it hasn't been totally clear leading up to now, let me say it again, I LOVE MORPHE.  Its a budget brand masquerading as a luxury brand, and I do mean that as a compliment.  I would hold the quality of Morphe against many more expensive palettes, and I would hold their brush quality in line with anyones.  In fact, if someone told me that I could only use one brand of brushes for the rest of my life, I would choose Morphe.

Last fall, right before life went totally haywire, I got the Morphe 35F, aka the Fall Into Frost Palette.  I was, and continue to be, completely obsessed with gold metallic shadow and this palette has tones of warm toned metallic shadow in lots of gold and rose gold shades.  Its stunning.  It runs $22.99 but for that price, you get 35 colors, which works out to about 66 cents per color.  Each of them are really rich and pigmented and I think I have worn each of the colors in that palette a hundred times.

I had been wanting to get another palette but, much to my sadness, the only brick and mortar Morphe store is in California.  I really hate internet shopping, because I absolutely loathe paying shipping, but its the only way to order Morphe products.  The next time I am actually in California, I am going to take an empty suitcase and load up!

I have been searching for a palette with a lot of bright colors.  Especially heading into springtime, I am seeing so many bright and fun colors on YouTube and Instagram, and I really wanted to be able to re-create those same looks on myself.  Nothing I had or could find here was really cutting it.  When I saw that Morphe had the 35B Palette I knew exactly what to ask the hubby to get me for Valentine's Day! I didn't want to go overboard, as our wedding anniversary is at the beginning of February, and we'd already kind of done it up for that, and at $19.99, the 35B palette felt like a great price point.  It also has 35 deeply pigmented, bright colors, including both a shimmer and matte version of my favorite color- yellow!!

One thing I will say for Morphe is that their shipping is incredibly fast, and my product usually arrives within 3-4 days. I had to take a picture of my new baby, fresh out of her box:

Isn't it gorgeous?? It runs the full spectrum of colors and has both glitter and matte shades.  That hot pink in the middle row, second from the bottom was calling my name!  Here are both palettes together:

As you can see, the Fall Into Frost Palette has been well loved, but here we are, almost six months later, with almost daily use, and there is still a ton of product left.  I'm not near the bottom with any of the colors.  After trying the new palette out, I can say they both have the same yummy, buttery formula.  I don't find the colors to be chalky at all and I feel like like they blend really easily.  Here are some swatches of my favorites from each palette, with the 35F on top and the 35B on the bottom.

I mean, seriously, would you look at that pigment?!? And that is just from one swipe! All of the colors are very buildable and if I sat here all day and typed, I don't think I could say all the good things about these palettes.  

Another thing I love about these palettes is how sturdy the cases are.  I know I have mentioned it before, but my two year old daughter LOVES makeup and loves getting in to mine.  I have lost some really good makeup to her quick little hands.  So much in fact that my husband got me a new makeup case for our anniversary that reminds me a little bit of Ft. Knox. 

This thing was specifically purchased with keeping the baby out of it in mind, and so far, as long as we don't leave it on her level for too long, its gone well.  She did figure out how to let the latches down and open, but, fortunately, it also came with a set of keys so I can lock it.  She's a crafty one, my girl.

The one palette I never had to worry about though, was the Morphe one.  It is in a tough plastic case that clicks closed. It reminds me of a very thin laptop.  Once the closures click, try as she might, she can't get it open.  Honestly, sometime I have a little trouble getting it open, but at least I know its safe from little hands.

If you could only own one palette, honestly, compared to literally everything else out there, I'd tell you to get one of these.  That's how much I love them.  They have so many different color varieties, I would tell you to find the one you like and be happy with it forever.  35 colors for roughly $20 is an amazing deal.  And its not like some of them are crappy, or they aren't that pigmented.  These are quality colors.  I really don't think I can name another palette, even some of the more expensive ones, that are better in pigment than this.  And even if I ever did, I'd still probably buy Morphe, just because you get such a great color selection.  

Honestly, you cannot go wrong with any of their products.  The brushes are second to none, and in my opinion, so are the palettes.  I did try out the hot pink shadow, with some of the orange, red, and yellow.  Believe it or not, I have kind of a light hand, so I applied the colors really lightly. I am excited to put on even more color next time, and to try out all the other colors on the palette.  

24 Karat Magic In The Air!! AKA "Moist Light Muscle Essence Dope."

I can't remember if I have talked on here about this before, or just Instagram, but I have been reading a lot about the benefit of gold flakes and gold serum on skin.  For most people, when they think of Gold Serum, their first thought is going to be Farsali Rose Gold Elixir.  I'm sure its the standard bearer for a reason, but, by the same token, 30mL is going to run you about $60.

Before I dive into that too deeply, I need to touch on a message that I got on Instagram the other day from a reader who felt that by talking about "budget beauty" I was disparaging the wealthy and acting like, "having money is a crime."  Let's let Jesus take the wheel on this one for a second.  Though I honestly never expected to be saying something like this, here goes:  I do not think being wealthy is a crime.  I do not think it makes you a lesser person.  If you have $60 in your pocket, and you feel like face serum is the appropriate use of that money, then God bless. I don't pay your bills.  I don't write about budget beauty because I think having money is bad, I write about it, because I feel like lots of people think it takes big bucks to enjoy makeup and engage in a little self care and neither is the case.

Having gotten that out of the way, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Spending $60 on something like this would make me break out in the terror sweats, so, thanks to the interwebs, I was able to locate a less expensive option that I am pretty excited about!

 This is Aqua Beauty 24K Gold Skin Care, and you can purchase it for $6.99 here.  The short version of what is going to become a longer story is that after using it this week, I am in love with it.  But more on that shortly.  Another thing that I pride myself in on this blog is that the products I share are cruelty free.  I think cruelty free beauty is really important.  I think testing cosmetics is about the worst reason for animal torture that I can think of and I am firmly and totally against it.

Now, I can tell you that China is really bad when it comes to animal testing.  They require it in all cities except Hong Kong.  Just because something is coming out of Hong Kong doesn't mean its cruelty free, but its the only place in China where it could possibly be true.  Additionally, if a company sells in China, they have to comply with animal testing laws, so its something to pay attention to. Many commonly known drugstore and department store brands are not cruelty free (L'Oreal, Lancome, Elizabeth Arden, Clinique to name a few) and even some luxury brands like MAC still test on animals.  That one has always bugged me, because MAC has always been on the front lines in giving to humanitarian causes.  Anyway, I searched and searched and searched, and could not find anything on this brand one way or the other.  It falls into a category of obscure eastern skin care products that are totally amazing, but might be made of radioactive chemicals, I don't really know.  This product does come out of Hong Kong, so its possible, but, in the spirit of full transparency, I am not 100% sure.  Donald Trump has me fucked up, ya'll.  My rage is turned up to 11 at all times, and it has almost become a third full time job for me (after being a mom, which is 24/7, and the office job that gives me a W2 once a year) to stay bothering my representatives.  I contact them online, and call their offices, and write letters on a near daily basis.  Some people smoke to escape stress, I slather my face in possibly but possibly not cruelty free face serum.  Its not right, but its where I am in my life right now.

Speaking of getting lost in the translation, I'm guessing the designer of this packaging took six semesters of English in college.  Because I took six of Spanish, and this is about as good as my Spanish skills are.  Hats off to those of you in the world who are fluent in more than one language.  You all are rock stars. The guy who wrote the packaging blurb for this and I are not among your distinguished ranks.  Behold:

Let me point of my favorite parts.  The top right that says, "Moist Light Muscle Essence Dope." Also, about half way down the description, also on the right it says, "to repair skin, dry, rough, dumb wrinkles."  I laughed out loud when I read "dumb wrinkles."  Read the whole thing though, its a treat.

I have to say, for a product that cost $7, I had to wonder if it fell off the back of a truck somewhere because the packaging is really luxe.  The bottle is glass, and so is the dropper.  It is really heavy, and is also 30mL like the Farsali.  Its definitely a product that is going to look beautiful sitting on a vanity.  It has sort of a vintage look to it with the gold lid, and it is just a really pretty product.

As I understand it, the point of the product is to moisturize and boost collagen.  I started out wearing it at night.  After I take the paint of my face, and cleanse,  I always try to put some kind of serum or heavy moisturizer on my face.  This one is kind of interesting because it looks watery, and when I squirted the dropper in my hand it still felt sort of watery, but as I rubbed it in, it got very sticky/tacky.  It definitely has a thickness to it that  I was not expecting.

It stayed tacky until it was dry, and I could still feel it there, but my face felt very, very smooth and soft.  It felt like a very heavy moisturizer, but not in an overbearing way.  I tend to have really oily skin in the winter, but this didn't feel greasy.

I loved it so much, that I have also been putting it on in the mornings as primer.  The reviews I have read on line say you can mix a few drops in directly with your liquid foundation, but I haven't tried that yet.  My favorite part of this product though, besides the moisture (when you put it on at night, you can still feel it in the morning) is that it gives me this really warm golden glow.  I'm guessing that its the tiny gold flakes that cause that, but whatever works right?

There are no filters on this picture.  This is just my crappy cell phone camera taking a picture at my desk at work. Hello, sunshine!

I absolutely think its worth the money.  It does take about three weeks to receive from the time you place your order (I ordered three more the other day, one of which I plan to give away on Instagram, so stay tuned for that) but its worth the wait, I think.  Maybe it helps with collagen, I don't know about that yet, but if you are looking for a fantastic winter moisturizer that gives you a beautiful glow and is most likely not radioactive (I kid, I kid) then I strongly recommend giving this one a try!

Get Thee A Silicone Blender!

Probably the biggest thing I hate about foundation and similar skin products is how quickly the product goes.  That shit ain't cheap!  A good foundation is going to set you back a few bucks ( unless Jeffree Star is to be believed and Wet 'n Wild Photo Focus Foundation really is all he says it is) and before you know it, its been all used up.

Foundations have more surface area to cover than any other makeup product that we use, but I still get sad when the little pump on the bottle starts to cough and you know your days are numbered.  Laura Geller is still my go-to foundation and we had such a moment earlier this week.  My foundation is on life support, and I have far too long a list of makeup that I want to buy in the next two weeks to be dropping 40+ on foundation.  Whats a girl to do?

I have been hearing for the longest about silicone blenders, but I hadn't tried one yet.  They're not a readily available in stores as I'd like (as far as I know, Ulta doesn't carry any) but supposedly, they're super great to use because unlike brushes or traditional sponge beauty blenders, they don't absorb makeup.  It makes sense, when you think about pressing a beauty blender against your skin, its a sponge, and when you apply pressure, you are going to absorb as much into the sponge as you do onto your skin.  I'm sure that's a huge waste of product.  I actually abandoned my beauty blenders because of that reason, and because no matter what I did, I never felt like they were getting clean enough.

I was pretty annoyed by the prices I was finding online, because I'm cheap, and I really didn't want to pay the prices I was seeing, which were often on the wrong side of $10.  Amazon to the rescue though.  If you do a little digging, you can find them for just a few dollars.  Lucky me, I did, and it came today!

Its a firm silicone pad, it isn't gelatinous like a breast implant, which I am sure is anyone's first thought when they hear silicone.  Its a good size, and has enough give to it, that I can work it into corners around my eyes and nose.

I decided to try out the same amount of product with a buffing brush, blender sponge, and the silicone blender to see how all three stack up.  I tried to find a darker shade of makeup to show how far the product got be more apparent.  Unfortunately, for a Lighty McGee like me, that still isn't too dark.  I ended up using Glo-Minerals Concealer in the shade beige, because concealer is sticker and tackier than foundation and thus harder to blend.  Also, its the darkest color I have.

I decided to put the product on my wrist, because I was hoping the difference between my makeup and tattoo would make the range of color more apparent.  So, here is my wrist:

I did the brush first.  Typically, in the mornings I put five dots of foundation on my brush and dab it over my whole face before going back and blending it in over my primer.  They are pretty good sized dots, but it covers my whole face.  Not to get ahead of myself in the story, but I also tried this experiment with one small dot of my foundation and each of the mediums and the result was the same.  It was just too hard to see the makeup once it was blended in, hence my search for something darker.  

So, anyway, the brush.

The brush actually gave pretty good coverage.  Morphe is AMAZING for all things brushes, and they are basically my favorite.  I would never say anything against a Morphe brush.  I like them better than even the really expensive brushes, and they are typically the first I would reach for.  I didn't think the coverage got very far (you can see it stop pretty much below the stars) but I thought the brush did a great job of blending well and not looking streaky.

This one was the blending sponge.  Womp womp.  I actually had to dig around in my makeup cases to even find one, because I haven't used them in so long.  I feel like they were a huge trend last summer, and so I tried them, but I feel like they are hard to use, and it gets super tiring to dab dab dab across my whole damn face.  I know lots of people just use them for concealer or contour cream, and if you use them and love them, power to you.  Keep on keeping' on, honey.  Its not for me. You can see here though that the color isn't even across the whole tattoo on either side up by the roman numerals.  And the sponge got the same amount of product, if not a little more, than the other two did.

I saved the silicone for last and OMGoodness, life!!

I don't know if you can really see in the picture, but there is product all the way down by where the picture cut off. It was also way easier to blend, again, because product wasn't getting caught up in brush fibers or sponges.  There was no where for the product to go except down into my skin, so I'm getting way more coverage area with way less product.  And it slid on so easily.  I was absolutely blown away.

Wanna see the best part?

This was after I had used it six times.  Three with my foundation, and then three more with the concealer.  I ran it under the sink, wiped it with a towel, and boom.  Brand new again.  It doesn't have schmutz in it, it doesn't smell funny, its not trapping old makeup and grossness.  While very mild soap and water should be fine to clean something like this, I'd imagine every that you'd also want to clean it sometimes with a cleaner that is meant for silicone, just to keep it germ free.  I'd suggest a toy cleaner like this.

Happy blending lovelies!  I seriously am kicking myself that I didn't buy one of these way sooner.  I definitely suggest treating yourself.  You'll be glad you did!