Ipsy June 2014 Unboxing & Review!

Sorry I'm a little late with this post! I got my bag right before I left town and have had so many Tomoson reviews to do, I honestly didn't really have time to do anything else! Today I'm bringing you my June Ipsy bag! WHICH by the way, is AWESOME and for the first time in a WHILE I love every single thing in it!

For those of you who aren't subscribed to Ipsy already, here's a little info about it. For only $10 a month, you get a cute little bag packed full of makeup/skincare/haircare goodies valued usually up to $100. It's a killer deal and sometimes you even get full size products! I've found SO many different items and brands that I would have never tried myself through Ipsy. I've been subscribed a little over a year now and I LOVE IT!
If you'd like to find out more, or even subscribe yourself CLICK HERE! I'll post another link at the end of the review!

This month's theme was Pretty in Paradise. I really love what I received, especially because I just got back from the beach and all of the items came in really handy for me. Especially the beach waves spray, which is my favorite thing ever.
I apologize in advance that I didn't take photos of my bag when I received it. I'm going to try to pull together the best pics that I can!

Here's a picture of the bag this month! Isn't it so cute!?! I love it. Spoilers after this:

Ipsy March 2014 "Destination Beauty" Unboxing!

I'm a little late posting this as I've had my Ipsy bag for a week or so now, but I'm not TOTALLY thrilled with it, nor am I thrilled with Ipsy right now after the whole PopBeauty lipgloss disaster last month. They still haven't emailed me back about my defective gloss, and I emailed them over 2 weeks ago. So take that as you will.

For those of you who don't already know, Ipsy, formerly myGlam, is a subscription service I usually love created by Michelle Phan, the YouTube makeup guru. For for low low price of $10 a month, they send you a cute little bag filled with 4-5 deluxe sample to full size beauty products from makeup to nail polish to skincare. I usually REALLY love my bag every month, and have been subscribed for almost a year now. :) If you're interested in learning more about Ipsy, seeing my past bags that I haven't posted on here, or want an honest opinion about it, don't hesitate to ask in the comments below! And if you love the looks of this bag, feel free to subscribe using my referral link HERE!

The theme for this month was "Destination Beauty". It's a pretty cute theme considering March is usually the time for Spring Break and travelling. Here is a look!

This month I received:

Nyx  Love in Rio eyeshadow palette

Pixi Primer

Chella Blue eyeliner pen

Bare Minerals Moxie Lipstick

Like I said, this definitely isn't the most awesome bag I've ever received, but I do really like the Bare Minerals Lipstick! Here's some swatches of the lippie and the eyeliner!

The eyeliner is super bright blue, and while I haven't used it on my eyes yet, it stayed on my hand for awhile! :)

This is a swatch of the Nyx "Love in Rio" palette. I really like these colors and they seem very pigmented and smooth on my hand.

Well, that's really all I have for you about March Ipsy! Stay tuned for my March Starlook's Starbox review!

Xx Ashley C.

Nyx HD Photogenic Concealer & Matte Lipstick Double Review!!

As promised, today I am reviewing the green concealer and pink lipstick I got in my epic haul at Ulta last week. I am absolutely, positively in love with both of these items and in my opinion there is no turning back now.  I love this lipstick more than words & the concealer is fabulous too.

Up first I will review Nyx's HD Photogenic Concealer in the color green. Until this point I'd never tried the magic that is green concealer,  but I'd been really interested in it. Why the heck would anyone want to use green concealer you ask?  Well green is on the opposite side of the color wheel as red, therefore it neutralizes any redness/acne on your face.

 Here's what it looks like compared to my skin.  Kind of a weird minty green color. 

Here's a fancy picture of what it looks like when you dot it on and then rub it in. You kind of resemble the incredible hulk. lol :)

You dab a little bit of this on any of your ugly red zits or other yucky red spots on your face, apply regular foundation over top,  and voila! Redness be gone!  It really does work too!  I've been super acne prone lately for some reason after a good month of having awesome clear skin so I got this just in time. You can barely even tell any of my hideous bad skin is under there with this concealer on. It's awesome! I highly,  highly recommend this product and honestly,  for only $4.99 you really can't beat it.  Especially when Ulta has Nyx for buy one get one half off!

Here's a pic of my face upclose, after all my makeup was complete. As you can see, there is visible green concealer and also no red spots or acne!

Next, lets talk about this gorgeous matte lipstick. This is also by Nyx, and I bought this in the shade Summer Breeze! This is my first pink matte lipstick and I'm super glad I got it instead of the regular kind that I originally had in my hand.

Here is a pic with no flash of Nyx's Summer Breeze. It's super pink and very pretty! :)

& Here is another pic with flash to give you a better idea of what it looks like in real life!

I've used matte red before and really liked it, so I figured why not give this a whirl. Maybe I'm biased because of my pink lippie habit, but the color is absolutely gorgeous and it lasts all day long with only a couple of touch ups along the way from eating, drinking, and smoking. It's also a really great color for ombre lips, which I tried today. If I had to describe this color, it's like a hot hot baby pink color, but since it's matte it really stands out. I'm in Love!  If you're into matte lippies, definitely grab some of these! I plan on buying more of these as soon as possible. They only cost $5.99 which is way cheaper than high end lipsticks and still cheaper than most drugstore lipsticks BUT it drastically out performs them both!

And here's a picture of all of my makeup from the day I made this tutorial! I also used my CK One Mascara that I got from the Ulta haul for my birthday gift... BTW it is WONDERFUL!

I hope you guys enjoyed this review! I have tons more coming this weekend!! Check out the Facebook page for sneak peek posts that I put up earlier!! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Xx Ashley C.

Awesome Pre-Birthday Ulta Haul!

So it's that time of year. Valentine's Day, My birthday, Tax Time, Bonus at work time, School refund time... So I've been waiting and waiting ever so patiently (NOT) to go to Ulta and hunt for deals (Mostly on Nailpolish). I went on Sunday, and to my dismay, they closed at 6. I was super sad and went to Old Navy to buy flip flops and camis in my despair.

I went back tonight though! And in my opinion I got a PRETTY AWESOME HAUL! I don't have very many actual photos and no swatches yet, as I plan to swatch everything individually, but here is what I got!

Ulta was running a special on Nyx for Buy 1 get 1 half off, and I love Nyx so I HAD to get something from this deal! I picked up Nyx Matte Lipstick in Summer Breeze for $5.99 & Nyx HD Photogenic Concealer in Green for $4.99 (Half off, so $2.50!). I've been dying to try out some Green concealer for a long time to see how well it hides blemishes, so I'm pretty excited to try this out tomorrow! Definitely will post a review for you guys to let you know how it holds up! The lipstick I got is SUPER pretty. As you know I LOVE pink lippies & matte lipstick is pretty great too.

You can't really tell how green the concealer is because the flash totally washed this out, but it's like a mint color. :) Isn't the lipstick great!?

The next deal I got was their 2 for $12 China Glaze deal! I normally wouldn't even spend this much for a China Glaze but they had two colors that I really really liked, and one that I have been in search of for a long time. I can't wait to swatch these! I picked up:

China Glaze - It's a Trap-eze! (from the Cirque Du Soleil: World's Away Collection; White w/ lots of glitter)

China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy (from the Party Poolside Collection; Coral Neon)

The next item I HAD to have is Push and Shove from the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. It was $9 but it came with a mini basecoat too which is fine by me. This color supposedly only lasts like 24 hours but it is a Silver Ultra Chrome Mirror Polish. Like crazy chrome. I've heard mixed reviews, but it's too shiny not to have in my life. I can't wait to swatch it! :D

Next is the lovely Zoyas I added to my collection this evening. I decided the other day, that I don't have nearly enough Zoya in my life, and I saw some girls in my swap group talking about some being on clearance at Ulta. I had to dig deep in random bins of nail polish to find these babies, but it was totally worth it.

First up is Zoya - Blaze. The website describes Blaze as a full coverage, cool-toned mulberry red w/ micro fine diamond holo glitter. It's beautiful in the bottle, and I don't even really like red. Dug this out of the clearance pile for $4.99! Can't wait to swatch it! 

I also managed to find Zoya - Payton buried deep for $3.99! It's kind of similar to Blaze, but its described as full coverage, galactic cranberry with holo glitter. Definitely a deeper red!

My nails have been breaking and peeling up a storm lately, so I also grabbed a bottle of Butter London's Horsepower to try out. I definitely paid full price for this, $19, so I hope it's worth it. I've been using some Orly Nail Strengthener, but it just isn't really working out for me. So fingers crossed! Anyone tried this?

Last, but certainly not least, I redeemed my FREE birthday gift. CK One Mascara, valued at $18. I have no idea if this stuff is any good or not. I had no idea this was even a makeup line until I got the coupon for this, but I will definitely let you know how it works out!! It's weird because it comes with two different brush heads, I guess depending how how you want your lashes? I don't really know honestly I haven't used it yet... I just glanced at the bottle. But you can't beat free!!!

All in all, I am really pleased with this Ulta Haul. It's been quite a while since I've been able to buy anything cool for myself in such bulk. Overall I paid about $58 for all of this which isn't too bad considering I saved $27!

I also signed up for the Starlook's Starbox today, as well as a 3 month subscription to the Pretty & Polished Beauty Box! Which is really awesome and is selling out FAST! You get all kinds of stuff with their new sub, including TWO polishes that are ONLY going to be released in that month's box! How awesome is that?!

Anyone gotten anything great in a haul lately?! I'd love to hear about it! 

Goodnight everyone!

Xx Ashley C.

Nyx Dreamcatcher Palette Review!

I went to Ulta the other day to return some lipgloss and spotted these BEAUTIFUL new eyeshadow palettes by Nyx! They're called Dream Catcher palettes and are filled with 10 gorgeous baked eyeshadows. I purchased the one in the shade "Golden Horizons" and so far I really like it, so I figured I would share. The best part about baked eyeshadow is that you can use it wet or dry. I prefer to use it wet to really bring out the pigment in it. :)
I'm pretty new to Nyx eyeshadow. Aside from the one I received a few months back from Ipsy, this is really all I own. It has it's pros and cons from what I can see. Pros would be, they're fairly cheap ($14.99 but Ulta always has coupons, I paid about $12), tons of colors, and seem to have long lasting power with no visible creasing. Cons would be some of the colors in this palette I want to love, but they go on kind of weird. Who's ready for some swatches!!!!?

Here it is when I first purchased it. It's a really nice little neutral palette. There is only one gold color, so I don't really know why it's called "Golden Horizons" but whatever. The color in the top left and the one directly next to the white on the bottom row are my favorites.

Here's the best picture I could get with my phone tonight of all the colors. This is dry, applied with a brush. The first color that I love so much is really shimmery, and reminds me of Urban Decay's Midnight Cowboy Rides Again. Lots of glitter. A little fallout. Just like it.

Here is a photo of both dry (on the top) and wet (bottom) application. I prefer this eyeshadow wet, as it is MUCH more pigmented. The color that I was talking about earlier that is a little weird is the 2nd color, the purple one. When you first apply it... it's kind of clumpy like and you have to reallllly work it in, but then it turns into a really nice purple color. I also really like the gold/bronze color and the one right next to the white.

Here is a really crummy picture of what it looks like on. The colors are very easily blended. I used the pink shade, the brown shimmery one, the shimmer dark grey, and the light shimmery one for highlight.

FYI Starlooks Kohl eyeliner is the worst. Someone remind me not to use it when I'm going to be taking blog photos.

& here's all my makeup just so you guys don't think I'm a total hot mess.

Happy New Year everyone!

Is there anything you'd like to see on the blog this year?

Xx Ashley C.