Review & Swatches: NYX Stay Matte Not Flat Powder Foundation in #2 Nude and #5 Soft Beige

When Ulta had their 40% off Nyx (and other brands) sale, I picked up their Stay Matte but Not Flat Powder Foundation. I originally got it in color #5 Soft Beige (Light-medium skin tone with beige undertones), but it was a bit dark and a tiny bit too warm for me. I went back and instead of returning it, I picked up a second shade in #2 Nude (Light skin with golden undertones). I was super impressed with the product that I kept the darker color to contour my face and even warm up my greyer contour shades. The product contains 0.26 oz / 7.5 grams and the price is around $10 depending on where you buy it from.

Hao Are You? #6 // And I'm Back!

What have you been up to?

I took 2 weeks off to just relax, but I ended up writing some reviews and posts so that I could start publishing them soon! I have some skincare and makeup reviews and I also have a lot of orders coming in soon! Some are from Asian Brands that I've been wanting to try out, but I also bought some makeup from a newly launched Indie Company called Life's Entropy. I found out about them on Reddit and they had a blogger pack, sale, and interesting products and so I decided to make an order. 

Btw, doesn't all the food above look so good?! The top left is from Confetti Italian Ice Cream in Costa Mesa and it's so good. The store is super cute and has an old fashion ice cream store feeling, but they sell frozen custard and italian ice. I got the Sour Bites Worms flavor but without the custard. Their small is so much that I can never finish it. The top right is some homemade spring rolls my roommates and I made. The sauce in the POM bottle is a fish sauce / lemon / sugar / garlic sauce that my mom made. It's great for spring rolls, but also with other Vietnamese dishes. The bottom left is from Berkeley Dog in Irvine. It's probably my favorite hot dog place, but it can be a bit pricey. The flavors they have are very interesting though. My favorite was lemon pepper chicken, but they stopped selling that one. The bottom right is from Veggie Grill in Irvine and it's Thai Chicken Salad. My friend gave me some of her sweet potato fries and they were amazing. 

What are you looking forward to?

I'm finally finishing up my first session of summer school and I'll have a few days off before I start the second session. My boyfriend is coming to visit and we're planning on going to Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego while he's here. We have some friends we want to visit and it'll also be our 3rd anniversary on the 5th of August. I'm super excited about next month in general but also nervous. I'm moving soon and I still need to prepare a lot of things before I move. 

How have you been while I was gone? What did I miss?

I tried to keep up with as many beauty blogs as I could, but I always miss some. Feel free to leave comments below!

Short Hiatus! // Taking a Break Off For Midterms, Work, and Life

I usually have at least one or two queued blog posts and I've been pretty good at posting 2-3 times a week for the past few months, but I'm going to need to take a short break. I've been really busy lately and I don't want to sacrifice the quality of the things I do. I'll be taking at least a week off, but it might be 2-3 weeks. 

In the meantime, you can take a look at my tumblr to see what I'm up to and what I'm interested in. 

I'm sorry for suddenly taking this break and I'll be back soon!

Shopping the Stash! #3

I didn't notice when I picked out these products, but there's a pinky theme going on. I recently got some new products, but to try to curb my need for even more, I went through my stash. This time, I have 5 products to talk about. 

I will be going clock wise and then the center product!

The first product I will be talking about is Maybelline's Expert Wear Single Eyeshadow in Pink Wink. It's the only new product and I got it about a week ago when I was out with my friend. I'll be writing a review that'll be up next week, but I've only worn it once or twice. I like it, but I want to wear it in conjunction with other things too to see if they'll play well with each other. It's a pink eyeshadow with gold shimmer / glitter. It's duochrome, but the shimmer / glitter is a bit chunkier than what I'm used to. 

My boyfriend got me a Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed about two years ago. I've hit pan, but I'm still not decided on this. I thought it was supposed to be super soft and pigmented, but it wasn't. I think there was some weird thin layer on top that didn't really allow me to get pigment. Now that I've gone past that layer, it's more pigmented but it's still kind of hard. It is a really nice and flattering rosey brown blush though. 

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze was also a disappointing product to me. I thought it would be warmer, but it's more like a shimmery taupey brown color. It's not as creamy as my other cream shadows either. It instantly makes any color on top shimmery and metallic though. Same thing with exposed - I love the color and how it looks, but not the formulation because it's harder to work with. 

One of my good friends gave me the Kiko Glow Touch Lips & Cheek (Lipgloss and Blush) in Icy Watermelon and I didn't use it for awhile because I'm still iffy with cream blushes. The color in the pan is a beautiful reddy pink without any sparkle or shimmer. The color is pretty true on the cheeks, but becomes a more milky and very very slightly cooler pink on the lips. For some reason, pinks look kind of weird on me but I actually love how this looks on my lips. I can't have dry or flaky lips while wearing this though since it'll cling onto those areas. It's not shiny because I like to rub it into my lips to make it last longer. It's not drying but it's not moisturizing either and so I still like to have lip balm underneath. 

As I've mentioned, I'm not a lip gloss person but I do have lip glosses. Another one of my friends got a deluxe sample size of Bare Mineral's Marvelous Moxie Lip Gloss in Rebel and it's one of the few I would wear. I have a review of it here, but it's a mauvey pink lip gloss. It pairs wonderfully with the Kiko product. Both colors look very different when swatched, but they look pretty similar on my lips. Wearing the gloss on top helps with any dryness Icy Watermelon gives me and makes my lips look a bit fuller. 

Pink Wink / Exposed / Bad to the Bronze / Icy Watermelon / Rebel 

What are some products you started to use again?

Review & Swatches: Givenchy Ombre Couture Cream Eyeshadow in #3 Rose Dentelle

Givenchy Ombre Couture Cream Eyeshadow in Rose Dentelle is described as an "old pink" that is supposed to be creamy, waterproof, and long-lasting for 16 hours. It has a cream to powder formula with a soft texture. Instead of old pink, I would say that it's a nude rose color and it is completely matte. There is 4 grams / .14 ounces of product and retails for $23.00

In my Makeup Lust List, I said that I've been wanting this and I finally got it! It was the last one in stock at the Sephora I went to and I knew it had to be mine. The Sales Associate that I spoke to told me that these cream shadows are popular in the store because the range is matte except for the "satin top coat."

Review & Swatches: Urban Decay Perversion Mascara

Urban Decay is releasing their new mascara called Perversion on July 13th and I was able to get a free deluxe sample from them. They boast that this mascara will give #BiggerBlackerBadderLashes (the hashtag that Urban Decay came up with) with one stroke. The formula includes nourishing ingredients with triple-black pigments to create voluminous and defined lashes. The full sized product will contain 12 ml / 0.4 fl oz. for $22.

Review & Swatches: L'oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Waterproof Mascara in Blackest Black

L'oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Waterproof Mascara in Blackest Black is the newest mascara by L'oreal. It's supposed to give "The Manga Look" - amplified lashes for the wide eye-look. Think fluttery and thick lashes like manga characters. L'oreal boasts that this product will be clump, flake, and smudge free with 12x the volume from the 360 degrees flexor brush.

Hao Are You? #5 // Weekend Getaway

What have you been up to?

I missed my Monday post this week, but I ran out of queued posts and I went to San Diego this weekend to visit my sister. My sister and I try to hang out at the beginning of my school quarter so that I don't have to worry about being too busy. I was in my first accident (really small fender bender), but I got really scared because of it. I think my sister knew that I was really stressed out from that and starting work this week and so she planned a spontaneous weekend for me. It was really fun and just what I needed. It was kind of too much excitement for one weekend for me though because I usually stay in my room doing nothing. 

What are you looking forward to?

My paycheck! I'm half joking about that, but mostly serious. Even though it's just a part time job, I want to be more financially independent. I've had small jobs here and there, but they're better than nothing. I'm becoming so busy, but it's still fun to me. 

Summer school at my school involves 2 summer sessions that are about 6 weeks each. At the end of the first session, my long-distance boyfriend is coming to visit me and I'm so excited for that! 

By the way -  I'll be posting up reviews L'oreal's Miss Manga Waterproof Mascara, Urban Decay's Perversion Mascara, and Givenchy's Ombre Couture Cream Shadow in Rose Dentelle soon! I'm currently writing them up and finishing some swatch photos and so come back soon to see those!

How have you been?