bh Cosmetics: Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow. + Wild & Radiant Baked Bronzing Palette

Its a rainy Saturday in these parts.  I am a total pluviophile and was thrilled to wake up to the sound of it.  I have caught yet another cold, and the nasal drip has made my throat super sore.  Its hard to talk.  I would be happy to remain silent and sit in the dark, scrolling instagram on my phone and listening to the rain all the live long day, but, alas, as a mother of three, it was not to be.

But after a breakfast of my new specialty, eggs in a basket ( my secret is that I leave the eggs runny so you can sop them up with the bread,) and typical Saturday errand running,  I decided to have a Treat Yo Self moment and go to Ulta.  Surprisingly, I haven't been in kind of awhile.  One of the best parts of being a mom to a teenager is that I can ask him to watch his brother and sister while I run an errand.  So not only did I go to Ulta, I went to Ulta by myself.  Magical.

I knew exactly what I was going for: The bh Cosmetics/ Carli Babel Eyeshadow and Highlight Palette.  Check out that golden goodness!  Because if the question is, "can Halley own too many gold metallic eyeshadows?"  The answer, of course, is "NEVER!!"

I have never worn bh before, but they have been around for a minute.  I just hadn't had a chance to get to them yet.  I told think Ulta always carried them, and so, because thats my mothership, I always found something else to buy instead.  bh Cosmetics is my favorite kind of brand, because its a budget brand disguised as a luxury brand, which is really hard to do.  We have all seen budget that is budget, luxury that is luxury, the worst kind, which is luxury that ought to be budget, and then the rarest jewel of all, a product that looks and feels high end, but you don't have to go broke behind it.  bh Cosmetics is just such a brand.

Alas, the Carli Bybel Palette was sold out.  It is a super, super popular palette, and so, though I was bummed, I was not surprised.  But then I thought of my friend Melina, and how were were discussing my love of metallic shadows last week and she said that I needed to try bh's Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow Palette.  As my luck would have it, there was exactly one more in the store!!  And because Ulta is have a buy one get on 40% off on bh Cosmetics right now, I decided to pick up a Wild & Radiant Baked Bronzing Palette as well.  I've been watching a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race of late, and there is nothing like some fabulous Drag Queens to renew my inspiration to highlight to the gods!

So, the Galaxy Palette has 18- yes, EIGHTEEN- colors!   For a $16 palette that means you are paying less than a dollar per color.  And though this is a baked palette, which means the colors are meant to be worn wet, there is enough pigment to wear them dry as well, so really, is almost like 36 colors.  When I got home I could not wait to swatch all of these beauties!  As you can see in the photos, I was very sad to discover when I got home that my "sun" color was broken.  Its nothing a little mineral oil and a re-press can't cure, but I was sad because it is the most beautiful rose gold color.

Not only is it a gorgeous color, its like butter.  All of these shadows are so soft and pillowy.  There isn't any dryness or chalkiness. I thought it would be a fun change of pace to swatch the colors on someone other than myself.  I am soooo pale, and so every review on here is what colors look like on a pale white girl.  But where was I to find a model?  Did I mention I have a teenager in the house? Who is pretty much always trying to butter me up for something or another, whether its money or permission to go somewhere. Did I mention said teenager also has the most insanely gorgeous golden skin?  Yep, he has that too.

Now, keep in mind that these swatches are all dry.  The line on the top starts with "sun" at his wrist and "meteor" at his elbow.  On his lower arm, "comet" is at his wrist and "pluto" is at his elbow.  All of the colors are in order.  I did want to do a few wet swatches, just to show the difference in pigment, so here are "sun" and "pluto."

                                     Dry on the bottom, wet on top.  That's what she said.  

So, I'm pretty sure I am just going to wear this palette over and over, every day forever.  There are so many gorgeous metallic shades.  Someone was asking for advice on a matte palette the other day and literally I was like, "........" because: Metallics.  

Similarly, the Wild Bronzing Palette does not disappoint.  I had to try the shades out as soon as I got into my car.  

I cannot stand how pigmented they are.  I haven't even prepared emotionally to swatch them wet because I don't think I could handle it.  Look at my pinkie.  My son said that they looked like they were all the same color, to which I respond, "Au Contraire, baby who was told wrong."

The swatches on my fingers, his hand, and in the palette are all in the same order.  The shades don't have names that I can see, but the top left is a deep bronze, the top right is more of a rose gold, the bottom left is a pale gold, and the bottom right is a true, bright gold with maybe a tiny hint of pink.  All the swatches on his hand are dry too.  I'm barely into the stage where I can apply eyeshadow wet. Though I've improved since this nonsense happened, its still pretty unwieldy.  I'm not cool enough to apply bronzer wet yet.  You have to be way better at this than I currently am.  Also, I'm scared of how much pigment there would be, because look how much pigment there is dry.

Moral of the story: get thee some bh Cosmetics.  I literally could not be more impressed with the quality or pigment.  Its one of those brands like Colourpop where I have no idea why it is so inexpensive.  We don't ask questions though.  We just love the makeup.

Stream of consciousness

I love writing.

If life was a thing where we all followed our bliss and did exactly what we wanted, I'd be a writer.  I'd write the next great novel.  Or maybe an advice book.  A series of advice books.  I'm really good at giving advice to people who aren't me.  I could talk about dating and marriage and divorce and re-marriage.  Pregnancy and childbirth and raising kids.  Mixed kids.  Politics.  Sociology.  Gender in America.  History.  I have a degree in American history, I'm proud to say.  I got it on accident.  I changed majors roughly once a month until I selected communications as my major.  All the jocks were doing it, and if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. Except, as it turns out, I wasn't good enough for It.  In my junior year I was not accepted into the Communications School.

In the spirit of magnanimity though, if you go to college long enough, and amass enough credits, they have to let you graduate.  While I was taking up time taking classes, because as my parents always told me, "it doesn't matter what your degree is in, just that you have a degree," I took a lot of history classes for fun.  Enough that as my advisor reviewed my credits in an attempt to decide what to do with me she said, "well, you could be a history major." Done.

My last semester of college I had to present a thesis of sorts.  I wrote about "war wives," women married to deployed soldiers, and what their lives looked like throughout recent history.  They say write what you know, and at that point I was a war wife, so I wrote what I knew.  I worked pretty hard.  I got a 76%.  That seemed about right.

By the end of college, I was pretty done with college.  The thing that I am supposed to be doing tends to get in the way of the life I'm trying to lead.  Now, its working, and back then it was going to school.  I recognize the privilege in these past few sentences, believe me.  I'm just being honest.  By the end of college I had a baby, and I was preparing to move across the country to Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs in a few months.  I just wanted to focus on that.  I've always been pretty good at figuring out what the minimum amount of effort I can put into something is. As it turns out, you don't have to have super good grades to graduate from college, you just have to pass.  If you get good grades, you get a gold seal on your diploma.  If you decide to go back to school later and get a masters, you get more choices of schools if you were good at it the first time.  The school that I matriculated from the first time around laughed heartily when I suggested returning for grad school.  The school that did take me (there was only one) accepted me on academic probation.  I had to get a 4.0, which I did.  Sometimes the minimum amount of effort is actually quite a bit of effort.

I regret getting a masters degree.  There is no real use for it in my profession.  The initials are fun to write after my name sometimes.  MAOA.  Master of Arts, Organizational Administration.  Its fun to trot out at parties when the moment calls for it. Its fun when I fill in my kids' school forms and it asks for the highest level of education completed.  I feel smart and like my life is figured out.  Otherwise though, its useless.  And I will be paying student loans forever.  So thats fun.

Anyway, back to being a writer.  I'd write about existing in this world as a fat person.  I have a lot of experience in that arena.  I think I could be a unique voice.  So many kids are bullied and teased, but I wasn't really.  Not a lot.  A little bit.  I feel heartbroken for the kids who endure it daily.  I wouldn't have been strong enough.  I have every single incident committed to memory which is both a nod to my incredible long term memory (its really incredible) and the few number of times it happened.

Mostly though, for me, its sort of an "it is what it is" kind of thing.  Its just a fact about me.  I have blue eyes.  My husband's name is Joe.  I'm 5'6.  I live in Kansas.  I'm fat.  Its just a series of facts.  I feel like I have a lot to say to women on the concept of self esteem.  I see so many women settling.  It half breaks my heart and half irritates the hell out of me.  I never said I was perfect, or selfless.  Its something I'm working on.

Personality traits.  Im a badass in my own mind but a people pleaser in real life.  Im working on not apologizing when I enter a room, "sorry to bother you, but..." and not framing statements in the form of questions.  Men never do that.  Their statements are statements.  Their questions are statements.  And they don't apologize.  So why should I? I'm half good Christian, and half petty bitch.  I'm nosey as hell.  I'm really good at holding grudges but also really good at forgiveness.  If I love you, really love you, I forgive quickly, otherwise I will hold a grudge forever.  Over petty stuff.  I have a list, and when you are on it, you are dead to me forever.  A lot of times its over nothing.  Stores that gave bad customer service, random people who give me side eye.  One of Lucas' little friends made a slick comment about Joe on Instagram, so now there is a 7th grader on my list, and he and his whole family are going to stay there forever.  I'm going to be giving his mother so much side-eye at graduation, because clearly she should have done a better job raising her son.

Joe and I had a stupid fight this morning.  Thats the only thing we ever fight about, is stupid stuff.  We never have real fights.  Joe doesn't apologize, but I can tell when he feels bad about what he said because I get a lot of I love you texts, with exclamation points.  Thank yous for the myriad of things that I do.  Its sweet, and vastly preferable to bickering about nothing.  We honestly don't even do that a lot.  I was in my Pollyanna this morning actually, thinking about how much I love him and what a great guy he is, which was pretty much a guarantee that we would come to a point in the day where we were snipping via text.  Thats basically how the devil works in a nutshell.

My husband works really hard to take care of our family, and, not to toot my own horn, I make the rest of his life pretty easy.  I'm a monster of my own making, really.  I'm just used to doing things myself, so I don't always reach out and ask for help like I should.  Before him,  I was married to my ex-husband, which was basically like having another, incredibly self destructive child, and then I was a single mom for four years. Sometimes the lack of autonomy is hard, for he and I both.  We both took care of ourselves for a long time.  Marriage is no joke, y'all.  And we have a really fucking good one.  Its one of the few things in my life that I can honestly say that I have not half assed.  Its not one of the things where I have done my deciphering as to how to exert minimum effort.  Marriages don't survive on minimum effort, but on maximum effort day in and day out.  I take being his wife very, very seriously.  In some ways even more seriously than being a mother.  One day these babies will be grown and gone, and it will just be he and I.  I don't want to look across the dinner table and see a stranger.  I want to look across and still be looking at my best friend.  My battle buddy.  We're creating this life together, and the older I get, I realize there are no second chances, and that we only get one shot at this.

Which seems like the perfect segueway into why I should throw caution to the wind and be a writer.  Except that isn't what I'm saying, or how this works.  We made a deal, he and I.  To be partners and co-managers of this family.  That requires capital.  We decided to send our five year old to private school in the fall.  This decision tugs at me because I believe so deeply in public schools.  The oldest has gone to, and will continue to go to public school.  For my middle child though, it isn't the right option, for a myriad of reasons.  He can't go to the school his brother went to, and because the boundaries are being re-drawn and transfers aren't being accepted right now, we wouldn't learn what school in our district he could go to until late summer.  And there is not guarantee that in a few years his sister could go to the same school.  The planner, the type A in me, can't live like that.  He has some learning differences as well, and will do better in a small school environment.  And so we signed on the dotted line.  And sort of like when we bought the house, I feel like we signed our life away.  We just signed up for two decades, essentially, of private school tuition, between the boy and girl children.  And much like buying the house, I feel confident that it is the right thing to do.  And it is also scary as shit.  And it also means that for now, my writing is here.  Because when I had a family, they became my dream.  My commitment, above any and everything is my family.  My husband and our children. Fuck with that and I know a list you can go on...

I drive past Asher's soon-to-be school on my way to work sometimes.  Just to get used to the drive.  To see how long it takes to get from the school to my office.  Not long at all, as it turns out.  Next year is going to be crazy. Drop the girl child at daycare, the big one at middle school, the middle one at elementary school.  Try to be at work by 8.  I tell myself that I can put  things off until life slows down a little bit, but it occurs to me, that day isn't coming.  For, like, 25ish years.  Adderol.  God bless that stuff.  My favorite part about taking medication for my adult diagnosed ADHD is that about 30 minutes after I take it, for a good hour, I feel really super calm.  All the anxiety that has me twisted into a knot, just goes away.  I can't figure out why this is, since Adderol is a stimulant, but I don't ask questions.  God bless that stuff.

Our basement flooded tonight.  Im not even sure that flooded is the right word, because I don't think it was a flood, per se.  It was water coming up from a drain in the basement. A lot of water.  I got home around 6 and all was normal, and around 7 I went downstairs to switch the laundry, and when I opened the basement door, my shoe floated by.  It would be hilarious if it wasn't totally overwhelming.  I have no idea what is causing it.  We're lucky, in the almost 6 years we have lived here, we've never had a major house issue before.  Well, we burned down most of the deck with an accidental grill fire, but that wasn't actually that bad.  We didn't even make a claim for it.  The deck is getting replaced in a few months anyway. I joked with the contractor that we should get a discount for doing our own demo.  Life in the suburbs.  I have no idea if this water coming up through the basement drain is going to be covered or not.  Because I'm not always awesome at adulating, I haven't read my homeowner policy.  I don't even know where it is.  We put some Dran-o down the drain, because thats what you do when you have water standing over a drain, right? It means there is a clog somewhere?  Hell, I don't know.  It seems a logical course of action.  We called the insurance company and the lady told me that the adjuster would call us in one to two business days.  It seemed funny to hear her say that while my outside shoes floated on a river of basement drain water, like the irony of the situation was just crazy to me.  A little too ironic, and yeah I really do think...

I drew little red X's on the floor to mark the edge of the water.  It seems, from the way its pooling, that our basement isn't totally level, which I'd be mad about, except its helping the water not cover the whole basement, so thats, good I guess.  One problem at a time.

Its 9:34 ( I started writing this about an hour ago) and I haven't tied it into beauty at all.  This is a makeup blog, after all.  Nothing is coming to mind and I am trying not to force anything.  I'm just writing what I feel tonight.

I wore some different rings to work today.  Poor Joe has bought me more engagement type rings in our short time together than probably a man who has only been married for 6 years should have to.  I will say, for the record though, that he's gone through a few different wedding rings, so we're even.

This is my first engagement ring with the wedding band I still wear.  And my wedding shoes, so double the treat there.  I picked it out, because I'd always figured, growing up in the 90's, that I wanted a princess cut engagement ring.  My taste changed though, and I gained a good amount of weight after Asher was born and it really didn't fit very well.  I have it in a box, and one of these days I will re-size it or something.  

After I had Asher, Joe gave me a new ring with an Asscher cut solitaire- see what we did there?  And a sapphire micro pave eternity band- Lucas' birth stone.  After Halo was born, we added another band for her that sort of looks like my mom's wedding ring.  Except I have once again gained weight and sometimes wearing that many bands gives me sausage fingers.  Thats really the only thing I don't like about being fat, my hands.  I have stubby fingers and dimples like a newborn, so thats pretty rough.

When I was pregnant with Halo, my hands swelled like crazy and Joe got me a bigger ring with a Halo- see again what we did there? We love a good jewelry pun.  I wore it today for the first time in forever.  Its too big so it slips to the side, which I have always thought looks really chic on other people, like their big fat diamond is just far too big to stay on their dainty little hand.  Thats not really how it looks on me, but its what I tell myself in my mind.

Its the same wedding ring in all of them though, and I feel like that is the important part.

When I was driving today I saw a pink and white plaid van driving down the highway in front of me with these pictures of french poodles in the windows.  I don't know if it was a dog grooming van or just something super girly.  It reminded me of Bette Middler's character in "Oliver and Company."  It will not surprise you to learn that I identified strongly with that character as a child.  That and Shelley Long in "Troop Beverly Hills." God, I love that movie.

And finally, here is my piece of beauty advice.  See my nails in the above pictures?  They are Impress Nails which if you know me in real life, or follow me on Instagram, you know that I am obsessed with them, and its all I wear.  You can buy them at Wal-Mart, Target, or most major drug stores.  I don't personally shop at drug stores if I can help it.  The prices are way jacked up.  For instance, my beloved nails at a Wal-Mart or a Target will run you $5.99.  At CVS, its $8.99. Who knows why? Also, I had a bad experience at CVS once and they are dead to me now anyway.  I don't care how Mrs. Moneybags you are, spending $3 when you don't have to is just silly.  And Target is the mothership of the American Housewife anyway, so just get them there.

I was at Target this weekend and I tried on the most beautiful dress.  It had braided yellow straps and a sweetheart neckline, and it was an asymmetrical shift dress with pockets.   Like this  but mostly white with some yellow and gray. And a more structured fabric. Gorgeous.  One size too small.  I decided to go home and find out if I could go a size up on the website- you know I love it if I am willing to pay shipping- but I cannot find it anywhere.  It is nowhere on the website. Or the inter web for that matter.  Makes me sad, because its such an amazing dress.  There aren't enough yellow dresses.  Enough yellow anything really, but dresses especially.  Target would be dead to me too for this offense, but I still have to buy my nails somewhere...

Benefit Hoola Bronzer and Watts Up Highlight

If you follow me on Instagram, one of my last posts was about the gels they put in the lights in my office and how it makes any pictures I take look like the lenses of the camera have been wiped down in gold toned vaseline.  Its pretty funny.  It also made good use of the highlight I had on that day which was Yellow Diamond Illuminator from Ulta.

I love a good highlight.  As I mentioned previously, I'm turning into a magpie more and more as I age, so anything shiny is drawing my attention.  I'm a fan of strobing, which is where you add highlight with no blush or contour underneath, just for maximum shine.  My goal is that when I turn to the side, you will be blinded by my cheekbones.

The makeup gods smiled on me that very same day, and I was gifted with a bronzer and highlight set from Benefit.  Lucky me!  The bronzer I was given, Hoola, is the best selling bronzer in this country right now, so I was definitely excited to try it!  The highlighter I was given is travel size, but you can buy the full size version of Watts Up here.

First, lets talk about the bronzer.  The idea, I'm sure is to make it feel sort of Hawaiian or Tahitian, and the packaging definitely works to that end with the cute little wooden handled brush.  Also, can I just say, that this is the softest brush I have ever felt in my life!  I wish it were angled, which would make it easier to apply the product correctly, and in fact, I may abandon use of the brush all together, but it is really cute and very soft, so there's that.  I may give it to my daughter for her play makeup collection.

The product is totally matte, which I prefer.  Sometimes bronzer has some sparkle to it, but I kind of feel like that defeats the purpose.  There's no makeup police so if you prefer a sparkly bronzer, I say light it up, but this one isn't the one.  

Contour and bronzer are always kind of hard for me because I am so, so pale.  Its hard for the color to not look really stark and muddy against my skin, and I am not totally sure that this is quite the right color for me.  I have to blend it a LOT.  Benefit also makes Hoola Lite for people like me that have not been given the benefit of melanin, and I think that the Lite color would actually be a better one.  i may have to retire this color until we are into summer and I have a bit more warmth to my skin.  

Having said that, the powder does feel very light and blendable, and if you were darker than me (which should include basically everyone) this would be a great color.

As for the highlighter, I have never used a cream before so that was a new experience compared to a powder highlighter.  It feels and looks like lipstick, but doesn't feel sticky on the skin.  Its sold as a cream to powder and I agree completely with that description.  I don't like cream blushes because they feel sticky on my face, but this doesn't feel that way at all.  It also blends nicely and gives quite a bit of shine.

Here I am with the right side of my face wearing the bronzer and highlighter, and the left side without any.  I worked the bronzer up onto my forehead and into my hairline.  I have really large forehead (and a big head in general) so the bronzer across the top of the forehead makes it look smaller.  

Here is just the right side:

Hello Sunshine!  The highlighter is BRIGHT which is just the way I like it!!

I would not give either of these products though, high marks for staying power.  Here I am getting home from work at the end of the day:

Do I look either bronzed or highlighted to you? Nope, me neither.  And trust me when I say that I left the house with a good amount of both on.  In fairness, I did not put on any finishing spray yesterday, but I don't know how much that would have helped really.  Both of these products would probably require a mid-day reapply, which is a little bit disappointing since they are into the prestige price point.  Its not something that would stop me from using either one, just something that I wish had a little bit more staying power for the money.  

I would recommend heading to your local Ulta and giving them a try before you commit to buying them, especially the Hoola.  Its the best selling bronzer for a reason, Im sure,  but I'd still tell you to try before you buy, and if your skin color is the in shade range of "ghost" to "toilet paper" like mine it, I would encourage you to steer toward the Hoola Lite.