Haircut, Meg's Makeup and Vacation post

First off, new haircut :D

Secondly, wooo I'm off for London tomorrow. Brb in three weeks.

Lastly I just wanted to talk about my Meg's Makeup package that came today. I think that because I was so spoiled in my first Meg's Makeup package (blog post about it here!) I had high expectations for this one. I will admit that when I opened it up I thought "That's it?" I definitely know I should be grateful for ANYTHING I get from the lovely people at Meg's Makeup but I can't help but feel a little deflated when compared to my first Meg's Makeup package.

I did read that they've been rushing to get packages out because I noticed that most people usually get a little thank you note with their packages but I didn't get one this time around. Not a big deal for me at all but a detail I noticed.

Once I get back from London I'll test out the ELF kit but I'm kind of just not really a fan of these sort of sets.

My Thoughts on the NYX Sale

I imagine that you're going to be reading through tons of opinion posts on the sale but I just thought that I'd contribute mine.

It honestly was nothing short of a disaster. I spent ages on the site and while I was able to get items in the cart I was unable to enter my credit card for payment.

Am I disappointed? Hell yeah I am. As much as they're trying make up for the sale by offering a coupon code for 50% off it's not even close to the advertised sale. This was just like the Sleek MakeUP sale that ended up in disaster and missing orders and charged cards with no order etc etc.

I honestly do think that they should extend the sale to allow for us to be able to purchase the items at advertised price. I couldn't help but think about how Zappos when it comes to prices and honoring them. Last year, they had a pricing error that made nearly everything $49.95 on the site.

6 hours later they had a lot of approximately $1.6 MILLION dollars.

Guess what they did.

They ate the loss. They said that they would honor the purchases and asked their customers NOT to cancel their orders. You can read about it here. That's a true sign of good customer service and NYX should take a note of it. I imagine their "loss" from the sale would have been that much or more.

I'm rather astonished how violent some of the people are on facebook. At the end of it it's easy to forget that there are people behind the scenes working and that being rude will get you nowhere.

That being said I don't agree that this was a PR attempt by NYX. It doesn't make any sense to advertise for a sale with no plans to deliver if it means that you'll piss off your fan base.

Here's hoping that they'll honor their commitments and make it so we're able to take part in the sale that they advertised.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream Swatches, Review, and Impressions

First off if you've been thinking about getting these lip creams you must go to Ulta as soon as you can. Currently, there's a Buy 2 get 1 free deal on NYX cosmetics. I then found this coupon (Good until the 21st!) for $5 off a $10 purchase.

At my Ulta, the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams are $5.99 each. I got three in London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Without the deal or coupon I would have paid $19.50 with tax. At the end of it I paid $7.59 with tax which is a pretty sweet deal. I feel like an extreme couponer.

For some reason the amount of product is not listed on the packaging but I emailed NYX and there's 6 ml of product.

These have a doefoot applicator. I found that the two nude shades had a tendency to look slightly streaky because of the applicator but you can smooth out the streaky lines. Be sure to moisturize before you wear them though because they can accentuate flakiness and these aren't particularly moisturizing.

From left to right, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and London.


Lip cream is a good way to describe the texture of them. They smell a little sweet to me, kind of a baked good sweet. It has some slip as you apply it but once they dry down (about five minutes) it looked gorgeously satin-matte without that uncomfortable matte feel. Seriously, they did a great job calling it a soft matte because it did feel really soft and comfortable on my lips.

Here they are swatched on my arm. From left to right, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and London.

As always, bare lips for reference.

Stockholm. This is my favorite pinky coral "Your Lips But Better" color. A gorgeous nude that I would wear the hell out of.

Amsterdam. I think I love this because it makes my lips look HUGE. I will say that this one took more effort to look polished because of how bright the color is and the doefoot applicator.

London. This is my "If I have a Smoky Eye and Need to Look Goood" lip color. It is a nude that looks fabulous on. I found that this was most prone to looking a little streaky. London is a little more of a browny nude than Stockholm which is more of a pinky nude.

Have you tried the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams?

P!nk Inspired Look as copied from Pixiwoo

I saw this tutorial and I knew that I had to replicate it if only because I happened to have one of the pigments that she used in the look. I chose not to do the dark crease because I thought it would be a little too much for my eyes.






Face:

Rock and Republic Blush in Bedroom

Tarte Provocateur Amazonian Clay Shimmering Powder in Champagne

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer

NYX Sahara all over the eye

Sugarpill Goldilux on the inner eyelid

MAC Coco on the outer half eyelid

ELF Eyebrow Treat and Tame in Dark

Lips:

Nothing because I got lazy :X

ELF Quick Face

I just did this quick while watching Dancing with the Stars. I wanted to give some of my recent ELF products a run to test the quality. Is anyone else addicted to Dancing with the Stars like my family is?

I'm so happy

because this is the last week of school for me. Finals are next week and then leaving on the 20th for London!! I spend a week in London with my brother, a week in Paris and finally a week back in London.

Blogging will probably be slow between then because I don't know how Internet will work out in Paris but I should have internet in London which is excellent because I need it.

Oy, I hate this ELF Lip Stain. The gloss keeps leaking when I lay it down and it's so annoying. For three bucks I shouldn't be too surprised but still.

Face:

Blush half of the Contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder

Eyes:

ELF Cream Eyeliner in Black

Eyebrow Treat & Tame in Dark

Lips:

Lip Stain in Heartbreaker (the stain side only, no gloss)

Real Techniques Panoramic Brush Case Dupe

I've been searching for a brush holder for some time now. I've been keeping all of my brushes in a cup and it was always very cluttery. I greatly admired the Pixiwoo Real Techniques Panoramic case that came with some of their brush sets because it seemed not only cute but rather innovative.

After research, it turns out that the Panoramic case is nothing more than an artist's brush easel!

There are other brush easels in smaller sizes than this, I personally got a huge one. If you google "brush easel" you can find much smaller ones. My intent is to show that there are alternatives to the Real Techniques Panoramic case and I think this is pretty spot-on!

This is the brush easel that I got off of Amazon and it's by Prestige. I paid $14.73. Many other places sell it online but with Amazon Prime (I love you Amazon Student status :D) it was cheaper to get it from Amazon.

This holds 48 pencils or brushes and it's got elastic pockets to slide them in and to keep them secure. I haven't had any issues with it wobbling or anything like that. The velcro strap keeps it shut if I do want to travel with it.

Here's a better photo!

As you can see, you fold the case in half and pull on the drawstring cord to adjust the angle.

The brush easel is huge, 15' by 17 3/4'. I can fit the NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils into the pockets and they're about 1/2' wide. The pockets are a little snug but if you lose the cap of a pencil in the pockets they're easy to squish out. You can't fit any face brushes because the handle is usually too thick.

It folds down but the size it folds down to depends on whether you put brushes or pencils on both layers. If you only fill the bottom layer and they don't extend past the middle fold, then you can get fold down to 8' x 9'. If you store brushes or pencils on both layers then it folds down to 7' by 17 3/4's.

I got this to not only organize my brushes but to keep them in sight. I tended to forget about the brushes I had because I could never see each of them individually when they were in the cup. I imagine this won't be handy for a professional makeup artists because of its size. Brush rolls would be so much more convenient.

Personally, I absolutely love the case. I like being able to see every brush and it fits on the little drawer set next to my desk. I can organize the brushes based on the type and I can also organize my pencils.

Comparison:

I don't own anything by Real Techniques so it's a little difficult to compare the two. As far as I can tell, RT has an elastic band to hold the brushes as opposed to the elastic pocket that this specific brush easel has. Other styles of brush easels have the elastic band and can hold face brushes like this style.

How do you store your brushes?

Ecotools Brush Collection

My new obsession seems to be with brushes and since I had an Amazon gift card I decided to round out my Ecotools collection with the Eye Brush set. This is the third set of Ecotools brushes that I own and I'm starting to wonder if this is a bit much.




I just got it today but I'm rather eager to try them out. What I probably like the most about the Ecotools sets is the fact that I can fit all of them into one brush roll. It's kind of awesome how many brushes fit.



From left to right, the Eye brush set, the Minerals brush set, and the 6 piece brush set. On days that I wear makeup I like to do it at school so carrying the brushes like this is extremely handy.
*Edit* Oops forgot to add in a picture of my retractable kabuki but pretend it's there!