Review & Swatches: Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Bond Girl

I went crazy during BeautyLish's Gift Card Event and got a Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Bond Girl. I've been constantly looking at it for weeks after seeing so many bloggers talking about it. I would put it into my cart and remove it over and over again until I decided to just bit the bullet! Bond Girl is described as a "chic natural berry," but it looks like a MLBB pinky mauve with a hint of red lipstick on me. The Matte Revolution Lipsticks contain 3.5 g / 0.12 ounces of product and retails for $32.

Review & Swatches: Blackbird Cosmetics Pressed Luxury Eyeshadows in Fire Pledge, Ruca, Beau, and Atlas

Blackbird Cosmetics is an indie company based in the US that mostly deals with matte shadows. They're also one of the few indie brands that sell pressed products. I personally struggle with loose products since I drop everything. The colors I bought are Fire Pledge (vibrant burnt orange), Ruca (blackened red), Beau (reddened dark brown), and Atlas (dark, slightly blackened chocolate brown). All of them are described as having a "matte but glowy finish" and are vegan and cruelty free. Each shadow retails for $8 and contain 2 grams of product.

This post is actually from two separate orders (and I have another order on the way from Black Friday!) but I couldn't figure out lighting. Fire Pledge kept showing up as a bright orange and I think I finally got the colors pretty close to reality now! I usually take pictures before using my products, but I had to redo all of my pictures for these to make the colors more accurate. Please excuse the slightly messy appearance!

Review: Maple Holistics Vitamin C Anti Aging C Facial Serum

I received the Maple Holistics Vitamin C Anti-Aging Serum* the same time I got the shampoo + conditioner set (review here), but kept putting off the review on the serum. Now that I've completely finished the whole bottle, I think it's about time I sit down and write out my thoughts! (Sorry for lagging!)

As a refresher, Maple Holistics is a USA based brand that is natural that aims to improve hygiene, health, and daily living. The Vitamin C Facial Serum claims to help improve the skin as well as protecting it. This product retails for $11.77 and contains 1.0 fluid ounces.

Review & Swatches: Burberry Light Glow Natural Blush in No. 07 Earthy Blush

A few weeks ago, I bought the Burberry Mini Beauty Box that contained deluxe sample sizes of a few of their bestsellers. In this review, I'll only be reviewing the Light Glow Natural Blush in No. 7 Earthy because it was the product that I instantly fell in love with. Earthy is a matte medium light neutral brown powder product that a lot of people contour with. It can also be used as a blush depending on the skin tone. The full sized product retails for $42.00 and contains 0.24 ounces of product. 

The differences that I see from the full sized to what I have is that the blush has a blush brush while mine as a sponge tip applicator. The box also included a pretty decent brush that I use all the time for contouring now. 

Review & Swatches: Innisfree No-Sebum Mineral Pact

The Innisfree No-Sebum Mineral Pact is a pressed version of their cult favorite product - No-Sebum Mineral Powder. It's a white translucent powder that's supposed to control the amount of sebum (or oil) on your face to keep you looking "soft and fresh" all day. This compact contains 8.5 grams of product and retails for $12 on their official website, but you can find it for less on some eBay stores. 

Review & Swatches: Hard Candy So Baked Sculpting Trio in 3 x A Lady

I've briefly talked about this product in a haul and favorites and now it's finally about time I sit down and write out a full review! The Hard Candy So Baked Sculpting Trio in 3x A Lady contains three shades to help shape your face and add some color. There's a slightly golden champagne highlight, a rosey pink satin blush, and a light brown matte contour/bronzer shade. This trio contains 2.3 ounces of product and retails for $9.00.

Hao Are You? #12 // Sick of Being Sick

Doing another update!

I haven't done one since before I cut my hair and that was right after I graduated around June. There's been a lot... but also nothing happening to me because I'm super boring. I really wanted to cut my hair when I dyed it back to brown, but my mom wanted my hair to be long for my graduation pictures. Once that ceremony was done, I chopped everything off and then cut it again like 3 months after. I'm trying not to cut my hair again until march of next year, but the dye has faded so much out of my ends that I rather chop that off again than dye it over with more brown dye. 

When my hair is straight, it's about 2 inches past my shoulders and so it flips out all weirdly. I feel like my shorter hair looks the best when it's curled and so I like to just quickly curl it using a 1.5" curling iron in the mornings. It only takes 10ish minutes and I never leave the iron on too long.

During this time, my boyfriend and I also celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We did celebrate it a month or two late since there were so many things happening at the same time though. Because of so many transitioning moments like moving, graduating, and starting work full time, we had to push back some celebrations. We ended up getting an amazing dinner from Flemmings to celebrate everything at once!

& I definitely need to show some other amazing food I got recently!

The first three you can read about on my Instagram (click the banner at the top of the page!), but the fourth picture is when my boyfriend and I made bacon covered chicken stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese. It's one of the tastiest things we've made and we were so proud of it! I'm trying to cook more and I'm also trying to teach my boyfriend how to cook and this recipe was perfect for both of us.

During September, my family came to visit me and we ended up going to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I've already went there before with my boyfriend, but it was still a good experience to go again! Also, this seal was my soul animal. Just look at its face!

I also can't remember if these are manta rays or sting rays, but I will just call them sea pancakes.... I think they look so hilarious from below too. The area the aquarium is located at is also super cute! There were so many surrounding shops and restaurants and I really recommend stopping by there if you were to ever go through Long Beach.

By the way, my subtitle for this post is because I got super sick recently. I'm not sure if it's a cold or flu, but I just feel terrible and lame. This post is going up a couple of days after I'm actually writing it though since I have some other makeup posts I want to put up first, but there may be a slight lag because I wasn't able to take full face pictures lately. Daylight savings has messed up my lighting even more and my sick face is definitely not going up on my blog D: 

What have you been up to lately? How do you stay healthy during winter because I'm apparently very weak?

October 2015 Favorites!

I've been pretty low key during October and didn't experiment or play with my makeup as usual. Besides stuff I have been (accidentally) constantly mentioning in my other favorites, I tried out some indie matte shadows and a fancy schmancy contouring powder from Burberry. It is a mini size from a set though and so I'm not actually thaaat fancy schmancy. I also used 2 easy to slap on and reliable products a lot too!

I'll be going left to right!

Burberry Light Glow Natural Blush in No. 07 Earthy Blush (Deluxed sample size)

I was originally so confused by this product because the mini says "Contouring Powder Face & Eyes" but I couldn't find a contouring powder compact in Burberry's line. Turns out, it's part of their Blush Line. Looking at it in the pan, I thought it would also be too light and slightly orange for my skin. To my very very happy surprise, it did up working perfectly for my skin tone. I would say that it's on the same level of "darkness" as Benefit's Hoola, but leans more of a cooler beige instead of yellow. It blends into the skin so well and the "light glow" due to its formula takes away any traces of powder. 

Becca Pressed Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal (Deluxed sample size)

My skin has been looking a bit dull lately. It hasn't been that cold in Southern California but it has dropped 20 degrees to be around 70 degrees F now. The change made my skin feel drier and now using highlighter makes me glow more instead of just looking greasy. Opal is a really great champagne highlighter, but I can also use it on my eyes for a gorgeous shimmer. For the face, I use a really fluffy brush but on my eyes, I really pack it on using a dense flat brush. 

Makeup Forever Artist Eyeshadow in Celestial Brown (review here)

Fall/Autumn is a great time for dark warm brown shades (honestly great for me all year round though). I usually gravitate towards golden bronze shades, but this one is more copper / reddy. I also like to use this shade with the next two matte shadows to play with textures. MUFE Artist Shadows feel so smooth and are super pigmented. You definitely can't go wrong with any of their shades!

Blackbird Cosmetics Pressed Luxury Eyeshadow in Fire Pledge and Ruca 

I cannot for the life of me get a realistic picture of Fire Pledge. All of my pictures make it look like a super bright orange, but it's definitely darker and leans more of a muted burnt orange shade. Blackbird Cosmetic's website shows a very accurate swatch though! After not loving the Wet n Wild Desert Festival Palette (review here), I remembered that Blackbird Cosmetics also had a dark orangey matte shadow. I'm still not ready to commit to paying $25 for NARS Persia, but I'm so glad I didn't! Fire Pledge and Ruca are great matte shadows. Ruca is a dark red/burgundy shade with some brown to it that helps make it more wearable. It's a surprisingly easy reddy shade to wear, but I prefer to use it with other shimmery shades like Celestial Brown to avoid making my eyes look too tired. Blackbird Cosmetics is also one of the few indie makeup shops that have pressed shadows and that's definitely a plus for me!

What are your October Favorites? Have you tried any of these products before?

Review & Swatches: Clinique All About Shadow Super Shimmer in Black Honey

Honestly, I didn't use Clinique makeup for the longest time since I associated it too much with my mom's generation. Ever since they started to revamp their image with their Colour Pop Blushes, I've been hooked! My latest purchase from Clinique is their All About Shadow in Black Honey with a Super Shimmer finish. The shade Black Honey is very iconic to their brand and they even expanded that color into almost all of their products. This eyeshadow contains .07 ounces / 2.2 grams of product and retails for $16.