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.

Rosehip Seed Oil

About a week ago, my sweet and gorgeous friend, Erin, messaged me and said that she had found the be-all-end-all of skin care, and that I needed to try it immediately.  She said that it made an immediate, as in, overnight, difference in the texture of her skin, and that I had to get some immediately, because I would love it.

I took this with a grain of salt because Erin has gorgeous skin anyway, because she drinks water and has black girl magic, but I'm also always up to give a new skin product a try.  I quick google search of the picture Erin sent me told me that said magic potion could be purchased from my beautiful Ulta.  Except Ulta is sold out and backordered forever.  Clearly, it was not meant to be.

It didn't stop me from falling down a rabbit hole of inter web information on the benefits of Rosehip oil, and there are many.  Behold, but a few:

This helpful visual aide came from a longer article that you can find here that can extoll its virtues for you far better than I ever could.  Still, here are some of the highlights:

So not only does it protect you from the signs of aging, treat dark spots, treat eczema and acne scars, but it actually boosts your immune system.  I also think it has made my hair shinier, but I have no scientific proof of that.  

As the fates would have it, the very day that Erin had been telling me about her new love of Rosehip oil, my mom asked me if I wanted to have lunch.  And we got on the topic of skin care and she told me about a new product she was using and that she loved what it was doing to her skin.  Guess what it was??

So that was a sign from the universe, clearly.  Two women I love, 30 year age difference, different skin types, and of different levels of melanin blessing both in love with the same product.  Since Ulta had failed me (weak sauce, Ulta) I had to find a place where I could buy this skin crack post haste!  Who was my unlikely rescuer?  Vitamin Shoppe.  Seriously.  You can buy organic, cold pressed Rosehip Seed Oil at Vitamin Shoppe for $8.19.  For those of you playing along at home, you might recall that the Ulta product is $36.  So this is less than a third of the price and its bigger!  You get 25mL of the Ulta version and 30mL of the Vitamin Shoppe brand!

Like everything else, there is a give and take.  While I am sure the Julep brand from Ulta smells amazing, the brand I got... does not.  It doesn't smell bad, per se, just sort of not great.  Some people compare it to the smell of fish oil.  It does have sort of a vitamin smell to it, if that makes any sense.  They didn't go the extra mile for fragrance on this one.  It comes out of the bottle sort of a champagne color, though it rubs in clear.  It will leave your skin pretty shiny at first, because its thick and it is VERY moisturizing.  If you have dry skin anywhere on your body, this stuff is going to handle that for you, probably in the first use.  I seriously could not stop touching my skin after I put it on, because it just felt so moisturized.  It kind of always does now.  Once a day is really all you need, and about four drops should cover your whole face.

This time change has me not sure if I am coming or going.  I haaaaate Daylight Saving Time, much like the Electoral College, there is not use for it in 2017, and this morning was ROUGH.  We went to bed super late, because we aren't used to the time change, and then had to be up super early.  It was not any fun at all.

So the picture on the left is me fresh out of the shower, and with the oil on my face.  See how I am kind of shiny?  I like to put it on while I'm still sort of damp faced so it can really seep in there.  The picture on the right is me from this morning, trying to emulate the picture from the night before.  Because it was ass early, and because I feel like I have been seeing so many positive changes in my skin, I did something I basically never do.  I didn't put makeup on.  

Okay, so thats a lie.  I have makeup on, but not a lot.  My eyebrows are filled in, I have mascara on, and lip stick.  But thats it.  Okay a little eyeshadow too.  Seriously though, thats it.  I didn't hate it.  I'm not saying Im going to do it every day, but I didn't hate it.  I do feel like its making my skin more even, and helping with the acne scars on my chin (the acne fairy seems to be a giver that keeps on giving.)  Its not perfect, and it probably won't ever be, aging being a part of life and a privilege denied many and all,  but its really a lot better than it was, and seriously so moisturized, I'm about to start putting it on my legs, which are also super dry.

Really, the only downside here is the smell, but it only lasts for a minute, and if you can power through, I am telling you, you won't be sorry.  I'm sure there is other stuff you need at Vitamin Shoppe anyway, so pick some of this up too, while you're in there!

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!