My Makeup Collection

This blog was started to share my makeup collection, but has turned into much more. I am not a makeup artist or have any training. I consider myself still a makeup novice but love learning new things and sharing my passion. Any tips are welcome and thanks for checking out my blog! IG: kelsmymakeupcollection

[mymakeupcollection]

Lip of the Day, Day 2

I am back for my second day of my personal little project for my (sorta) daily lip reviews.  Today’s lip review will be on Colourpop’s Lippie Stix and Lippie Liner in the color Lumiere.

The lipstick costs $5 and the liner costs $5 as well.  Colourpop’s pricing is fantastic, especially for the usually great quality.

The lipstick comes with a slanted tip as pictured. Also as pictured, you can see I am a big fan of this lip liner and have used up the initial sharpened tip.

I had zero other makeup on this day. It’s finals week for me so I have not really left the house, so I don’t typically wear makeup when I am just sitting at home. So I put this lipstick on while I went about my day at home so I could put it to the test for you guys!

So as I stated above, I LOVE the Colourpop lip liner formula.  I’ve worn this particular color several times paired with many different lip products and I’ve even worn it once all by itself because the color is unique and pretty and the liner has a really nice complete matte finish that lasts decently long and fades off in nice still wearable way.

(Here I am this summer wearing only the Lumiere lip pencil)

So you’ve heard about the liner, let’s get onto the lipstick. I’m going to be honest and tell you that I’ve stopped wearing any lipsticks that are not liquid lipsticks. I am a low maintenance person and I HATE being out and about with lip products on constantly worrying “did I just mess up my lips?” “is my lipstick fading off?” “Oh shit I got lipstick all over the rim of my glass and now I drank from it and got lipstick residue all over my mouth and face” etc. Liquid lipsticks are easy, dry down to a transfer-proof state, and last all night with little to no maintenance. I don’t mind the dry feeling and I can deal with all the downsides of liquid lipstick. So now that my rant about that is over, let’s get on with the review. This lipstick applies pretty smoothly, with some minor tugging because of the matte finish. The finish isn’t COMPLETELY matte however, you can pick up a bit of shine. It is a very comfortable formula, sometimes I even forgot I had it on. The color is beautiful, a pink mauve that seems it would be flattering on everyone. It definitely is not transfer-proof and will wear off on your cup rim.

After about two hours of wear time, the lipstick began the fading process.   This is a low quality picture but you can see especially in the inner corners the product was fading off.  It still appeared opaque and didn’t quite need reapplied yet. This is without any eating and drinking.

This is directly after I ate my dinner, which was not a messy one by any means. Basically it was only down to the lip liner holding on for dear life. So definitely bring the lipstick along for a touch up if you plan on eating while wearing it.

So I reapplied just the lipstick on top of what was left. It reapplied smoothly and with ease.

The picture quality from here on out is terrible, not like it’s ever been great. Here is two hours after the second application. Once again, this is about the time it starts to fade. I could see my natural lip color starting to peak through. So in terms of being long lasting, this isn’t like amazing, especially compared to liquid lipsticks, but it isn’t awful. As much as I dislike traditional lipstick formulas now, I could deal with this one.

This is the last picture that I remembered to take at the end of the night. This is about four hours after the second application, and as you can see almost all the way worn off without the help of food. It also left my lips feeling very dry. They actually felt dry about two hours in, but nothing too noticeable. But at the end, they were VERY dry, and this is coming from someone who who prefers liquid lipsticks, so I am no stranger to dryness.

Overall, this was not a terrible lipstick experience, especially for a product that only costs $5. I would actually consider wearing this product again even if it’s not my preferred lip product type. The color is awesome and the formula is comfortable. That’s all I have on this, so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!  

[mymakeupcollection]

Lip of the Day Intro and Day 1

I’ve been wanting to do a project like this for awhile now, I am just now getting around to do it. I was inspired after I reorganized my collection. My idea is to wear a different lip product (my dream is daily, but realistically probably not) every so often and do a complete wear test and review. Now I know I’m not the only one to think of doing this and it’s not some mind blowing project but I feel it will really help me put good reviews out there and will be fun for me to go out of my comfort zone and wear things in my collection that I have yet to touch. I have a vast collection of lip products, liquid lipsticks, regular lipsticks, lipglosses, things of all finishes. So my plan is to wear one each day and see how it applies and how long it lasts without reapplying. My posts won’t really focus on the rest of the makeup on my face (unless someone wants more details on a particular look) it will be ALL about the lips. This is basically going to be way fun for me to try everything I own out, and fun for you guys to get in depth reviews of products you may be thinking about purchasing. So enough of my babbling, here is my LOTD (Lip of the Day) first post!

My LOTD Day 1 product is The Balm’s Meet Matt(e) Hughes long-lasting liquid lipstick in the color Adoring.

(don’t mind my hideous nails)These cost $17 from The Balm’s website. These can also be found at Kohl’s. The applicator is the standard doe foot applicator. These are scented with mint, it’s soooooo yummy, like thin mints or something. I even noticed being able to smell it awhile after application on my lips.

I apologize my pictures aren’t like perfect professional quality. This was sort of last minute because I didn’t know I was leaving the house that day so I literally applied my lipstick on in the car. Also... I’m not perfect or professional. Anyway, initial application was easy enough. The product applied smoothly and opaque. Since I was in a car I did struggle making my lips look not terrible but that’s my fault, not the product. The color is beautiful, a perfect deep red. The Balm describes it as Merlot. It looked great on my pale skin and I got several compliments even though I only went to grocery stores. This product dries matte but doesn’t totally dry out the lips. It feels comfortable,  but since the product is less dry, that means it’s less transfer-proof. If I kiss my hand, you can definitely see lip marks on it, but not as bad as a traditional lipstick.

This photo was taken about an hour and a half~two hours after initial application. You can see it started to bleed slightly. This would easily be fixed by wearing a lip liner underneath, but like I said, this was a rushed application. Other than the lipline bleeding just a bit, the color was still going strong. No fading or crumbling off.

This photo was taken about 4 hours after the initial application. As you can see the product has started wearing off the very inner portion of my lips. A little bit of fading has also occurred. This would be about the point I would reapply if I wasn’t testing out this product. Since the formula isn’t completely dry, it doesn’t become crumbly, so another application of product on top would go just fine.

This photo is about 6 hours after the first application. As you can see, it’s a complete mess at this point. Obviously in real life I wouldn’t let it look like this but this is for testing purposes. It has completely started bleeding out and fading all around. The product does fade nicer than other liquid lip products that I have tried. It did start to become a little dry feeling but not in ways other products do, it was never like, flaking off.

Overall, I really like this product. The scent is probably the best one I’ve smelled in liquid lipstick formulas. If you like your products to be COMPLETELY matte and transfer-proof, this wouldn’t TOTALLY upset you, but it doesn’t 100% meet those standards either. It is a very comfortable formula and easily touched up. This particular color is really beautiful on me so I appreciate that as well. Once again, I realize the pictures aren’t great quality but you are still able to see the things I am talking about. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Look out for more Lip of the Day posts coming up in the future. Let me know if you have any other tips or ideas!

[mymakeupcollection]

Christmas & Birthday Haul

So, I know this is pretty late to post a Christmas haul but, whatever I am going to anyway. I wanted to get this out so I can announce and post my next little “project” I am going to try and do on here. My birthday is in November, so it is close enough to Christmas that I typically just make a “birthday/christmas” list for my family, and of course the majority of that list is makeup since I have some sort of a makeup hoarding addiction. So I’m just going to share with you the makeup related items that I got and since it’s been some time since I got them, I am able to give a little mini review for each because at this point I have used most of the items at least once. Let’s get started.

This bad boy was a birthday gift to myself, with some help from giftcards that I received. Once I saw this collaboration was happening, I stalked instagram until I found out the release date, saw swatches, etc. I HAD to have it because I personally LOVE Gwen Stefani and No Doubt. I actually went as Gwen from the 90′s to a Halloween party this year. Anyway, if you don’t already know, this is the Urban Decay X Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette.

As you can see, the packaging and the product itself is just beautiful. I will be honest that even if I didn’t like the colors or quality I would have still bought this for the novelty of it, but fortunately for me, I LOVE THE QUALITY AND COLORS!!

It is a mostly neutral palette with a couple pops of color. I heard a lot of people were disappointed that this palette didn’t have more vibrant colors because that’s what they associate with Gwen Stefani, but if you actually look at her makeup throughout the years, her eyes are pretty much always neutral with more of a bright lip. I think this palette fits perfectly to Gwen and I love the shadow names. I’ve used this palette several times now and even if it wasn’t a Gwen product, I would still love it. The shades just work so nice for my skin tone and are perfect for pulling together a neutral look very easily. They blend beautifully, I like the shadow finish variety, overall I just love this thing.

The next product I will talk about is this Lorac Pro Contour Palette. It comes with the brush that is pictured. I have yet to use the brush because I have a personal favorite that I’ve been using, but out of the brushes you typically get for free with palettes, this one feels really nice and I can see how useful it could be.

The packaging is typically to the other Lorac Pro packaging. The problem with that is it shows all dirt and smudges and fingerprints and powder residue. I personally don’t really care about that, but if you are picky about your palettes looking pristine, this would be a hard one to maintain.

It comes with three highlighter shades and three contour shades. I love how it offers a light, medium, and deep contour. I also like how simple the names are so people who may be beginners with contouring don’t have to figure out if “Fawn” or “Cocoa” are the shades they should be using on themselves. I have yet to use this on myself but I have used it doing another person’s makeup and I used medium blended out and deep right in the very crevice of her cheekbone. They blended nicely and looked natural on the skin.

The next product we see here is the Lorac Mega Pro 2. I unfortunately didn’t get my hands on the first Mega Pro so when they released this I was initially excited. Then I saw the colors and didn’t feel like I needed them, but after seeing some videos of it in action I was once again excited.

This palette is huge with a big huge mirror. It’s that same Lorac Pro packaging that I was describing before. I do appreciate how thin and light this palette is, since it is so large.

The reason I wasn’t excited for the colors in this palette is because the lighter shades are like, all the same. But! Once I looked at how unique some of these shadows are and how well they go together really got me going again. I have yet to use this palette but I have a look in mind involving “Forest” and “Olivine.”

Over the holidays, Colourpop launched these little mini sets of liquid lipsticks. I got the one that was all new releases, I think it was called Kitty. It comes with five mini tubes called Bianca, Times Square, Glitter, Be Merry, and Last Dance.

From left to right: Times Square, Bianca, Last Dance, Be Merry, and Glitter. These do not appear to be sold in full size or individually. I think the small tubes are cute and nice to throw in a purse. They are the typical Colourpop liquid lipstick formula, dries very matte. The colors aren’t anything totally unique or extraordinary but they are all very pretty and wearable.

I got this for my birthday and it was what I REALLY wanted. I could not WAIT to receive it from my friend Jen. I love Becca highlighters and the idea of having several in a palette PLUS blushes had me through the roof with excitement. This is the Becca Afterglow palette.

It comes with five different shades of blush or highlighters. The packaging is beautiful, even the box it came in was beautiful. Once again, if seeing fingerprints upsets you, this packaging would drive you nuts. I personally love how shiny it is. I also love how compact this palette is. You don’t need to use much of any of the products so the small pan sizes seems perfect to me.

The products inside are Moonstone, Rose Gold, and Topaz as the highlighters and Wild Honey and Flowerchild as the blushes. I didn’t already own any of these separately so this palette was really really worth it for me. I was excited to try Moonstone since I am a pale person. However, since I am so pale, Topaz is way too dark for me to use on my own skin as a highlight. I think it could make a nice eyeshadow on me or it is nice to have around if I do makeup on someone with a darker skin tone. Both blushes are beautiful and I love the soft luminescence they have.

I got two Kat Von D liquid lipsticks in the shades Exorcism and Vampira. After purchasing them both online, I see that they are very similar colors.

To be honest, I don’t really remember which swatch is which. According to Sephora’s website, Exorcism is a ripe blackberry color and Vampira is a deep reddish burgundy. I would say that they are close enough that you wouldn’t need to buy both.

I also got liquid lipsticks from The Balm. These are from the Meet Matt(e) Hughes line. I have never tried The Balm’s liquid lipsticks until I received these. The shades I got are called Adoring and Loyal.

Loyal is the brighter red shade and Adoring is the deep red. These smell AMAZING like thin mints or something. These are the type of formula that feels more moisturizing on the lips than that super matte dry feeling. But with that comfort comes the lack of being totally transfer-proof.

I got two of the Urban Decay Moondust shadows in the colors Ether and Zodiac. I had the old Moondust formulas once and I wasn’t crazy about it. But these new ones are AMAZING. They are SO SPARKLY and just beautiful and unique and easy to use for the pop of glitter.

This one is Zodiac. It’s like a black based green that is so shimmery and beautiful. I got this shade for my birthday so I was able to wear it around Christmas time for a little twist on green festive eyeshadow.

The lighting and picture quality is terrible but you get the gist.

This one is Ether. This one is like a black based light purple. It is very unique and it’s unlike anything I had owned at the time. I love how glittery these moondust shadows are.

Last but not least are these babies. I got myself these for Christmas from the Faerie Whispers collection from MAC. I HAD to try the foiled eyeshadows and this blush just looked so pretty and the perfect natural blush on my skin tone.

This eyeshadow is named Magic In Your Eyes. On the site Mac says this can be used wet or dry so I have it here swatched both ways. When dry it is a very light purple with lots of shimmer. When wet it becomes darker to a deeper purple. I think compared to other “foiled” type eyeshadows this is underwhelming but as just a standard shimmer finish, it is beautiful.

This blush is named Cheek Pollen. It just compliments my skin tone so nicely and it has the slightest bit of a glow to it. It is a perfect natural blush shade.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, wraps up my birthday and Christmas haul and mini reviews! I realize now that this is a huge post so thank you if you stuck around and read the entire thing. I get a little rambley I think, but I just love talking about makeup! That’s the whole point of this blog for me! Be on the look out for my next post, I’m starting a little personal challenge/review series. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

[mymakeupcollection]

I see your blog and its very very great!! So cute! :D Your s tutorials its a very nice, I love your Vlog. Ah!, Your video its fantastic, I saw your video and I liked it , hopefully you can do more

Thank you! At this time I don’t think I will be doing anymore videos, I am way too awkward and inexperienced with editing software. Maybe in the future!

[mymakeupcollection]

My “Holy Grail” Products: EYES

So I wanted to test out my new camera and get a feel of using it and getting used to it, but I wanted it to be a slightly easy and basic post so if I messed up it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. So I decided to show you guys my absolute favorite products, ones I use almost every time I do my makeup, some I use EVERY time I do my makeup. I took these pictures very late at night so the lighting is not ideal but it was a good experience learning how to use my camera. Without further ado, here are my HOLY GRAIL eye products.

I’m not doing these in any certain order, just whatever I happened to pick up and take a picture of first. This here is the Stila Stay All Day waterproof liquid eye liner in Black. I’ve been using this solidly for over a year now, I use it EVERY time I do my makeup. Well I guess not every time but every time I use liquid eyeliner, I’m using this. It’s $22 at Sephora but I feel it is worth it because my last tube lasted me from November 2014 until last month (October 2015).

My favorite thing about this product is the applicator tip. It is a felt marker-like tip which makes it VERY easy to apply. When I do my friend’s makeup, eyeliner is 100% my greatest weakness but this makes it (borderline) doable. I love how thin it is so you can create the smallest line you want, or build it up for more.

*BUT!!!!!* I just bought a new tube because my old one was beginning to be difficult to use from drying out and I think the formula is different?? Or maybe I prefer the formula when it starts to dry up?? As you can see in the swatches, the first one is definitely feathering, that is the new tube. The second line is the old tube, looking perfect and black as usual. Maybe I just need to shake it up more or use it more to get it to the formula I know and love. If it’s a different formula though I will be lost. Anyway, the formula I’m used to is very budge-proof. It goes on very dark black and dries to be very smudge and water resistant. I’ve NEVER had trouble with this product bleeding or smudging or transferring. Overall, between the formula and the applicator, I am absolutely in love with this product and recommend it to anyone who kind of struggles with eyeliner application.

This here is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in the color Soft Brown. This is generally a very popular brow product, and for good reason! I, myself, like a more natural brow. I just like to lightly fill in my own natural shape. I don’t add that fade at the beginning or anything of the sort. For the brows I want, this is the perfect product. This is $21 from Sephora, but once again I find it to be worth it. I’ve been using this steadily for probably almost a year now, I believe I got it for Christmas last year, and it’s not even close to being gone.

It is double-sided as you can see from the picture. One end is a brow pencil, the other a spoolie thing to comb the product through. I like how thin the pencil is so you can be precise as you’d like. I like to fill the brow in and go through with the spoolie and rub it all through so it looks as natural as possible. I like that the pencil side is a twist up mechanical pencil so its always thin and doesn’t need a sharpener.

Here I showed it swatched more intense and dark as well as lighter. The color is a perfect match for me. The formula lasts long, I have no problems with my brow color fading or smudging. I just find this the easiest and quickest way to do brows that I personally like. I used to use a powder in the past and looking back it was WAY too harsh.

If you’ve followed me since day one, you’d know this mascara is my ride or die mascara. I’ve tried to stray from it many times and always end up coming back. Nothing seems to compare. This is the Maybelline Illegal Length mascara and I get it in the waterproof formula. It costs around $5-$8 in my area, which cannot be beat, especially for how much other drugstore mascaras can be.

This tube is pretty used up so it may not be the best representation of the product but here is what the wand looks like. I love the size of it, I can use it on my upper and lower lash lines with no problems. I love the brush shape and style. I love the more dry type of formula, I personally hate wet formulas. I love how long lasting this product is, sometimes I even have a hard time getting this to come off at the end of the night. I love how it looks under false lashes, or even by itself.

This here is the Duo Brush-On Adhesive with Vitamins. I found this at Ulta and it costs about $6.50. I used to use the old fashioned Duo glue that came in the squeeze tube. I saw this one day and was intrigued by the brush applicator. It definitely makes applying glue SO much more easier. You no longer have to worry about squeezing too much out of the tube and making a big mess. I’m not sure what the vitamins do, I haven’t noticed any improvements in my eyelashes or anything, but the glue as a glue works wonderfully.

This tube is pretty well used, but here is what the brush applicator looks like. The glue itself is like iridescent, it’s actually kind of pretty, then it dries clear. It performs as well as the squeeze tube of the glue, perhaps even better in my opinion. It looks almost blue as you apply it so its very easy to see where you have put the product and to see when it is starting to dry. It’s also very handy if you already have the eyelash on and notice its lifting a bit on the corners, you can just shove the little brush up there and stick it back on.

Here’s my tried and true eyeshaow primer. I’m sure if you are into makeup at all you’ve heard of this primer. It’s Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in the original formula. It comes in a squeeze tube and comes out a nude color. Although it might not be a squeeze tube anymore, they change their primer potion packaging quite a bit it seems. It costs $20 from Sephora and my tubes last me a long time, a little goes a long way.

Here is what the squeeze tube format looks like. It’s pretty basic. As you can see from the product left on the cap, it’s a basic nude color that dries on the lid pretty much invisible. They do make other finishes that are shimmery and colored but I feel those are pretty limiting so I stay with the basic. I did a test post on this product a LONG time ago, but it definitely makes your eyeshadow crease-proof. I’ve never ever had a problem with shadows creasing when using this.

These are 100% my favorite false eyelashes. These are the Eyelure Texture No. 117. They cost around $5 and they are perfect. I don’t know if I picked up the wrong thing or they changed the packaging but I don’t get the pre-glued, I always glue them myself. Even these I have used glued myself, I didn’t actually notice it said pre-glued until now. Anyway, these eyelashes are so natural yet glam. I wear them for light day looks, I wear them out at night in super glam looks. They are so fluffy and perfect and I ALWAYS get compliments on them. I’ve stopped buying any other type because none match up to these. The band is so thin and light, you barely notice you are wearing lashes. I like these more than ANY of my $20 and up mink lashes. They are literally just perfect and for $5?? Come ooooon.

Last but not least is my most used eyeshadow. This is Peach Smoothie from the brand Makeup Geek. The pan alone costs $6 which I store in a Z Palette. This shadow is PERFECT for blending out the crease. No matter what look I’m going for I almost always use this first as a base in the crease. It blends beautifully and is the perfect transition tone for me.

It was VERY HARD for me to get a good swatch picture, this isn’t even a good swatch picture, it’s just the best of the worst. You can see it’s aaaaalmost my skin tone but is a warm peach. I just use it for everything and figured it should be included in my holy grail eye products. I have a LOT of eyeshadow, so me using something almost every time is a big deal. It’s also very afforadable compared to other eyeshadow pans out there that perform similarly.

There you have it, my most used, holy grail, favorite eye products. I plan on doing more holy grail posts pertaining to other parts of the face soon. Bare with my mediocre photos, I’m still learning. Let me know if there is anything specific you’d like to see from me in the future! I do hope to have an actual tutorial coming up within the week. I have midterms so getting these posts out haven’t been easy. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

[mymakeupcollection]

My Collection Storage Update

I’m not actually sure if this is an update? I don’t remember if I ever posted what my makeup storage has looked like in the past. Anyway, I thought a good way to start off my return to this blog would be a pretty quick and brief post to show how I store my hoard of makeup. Now, things are a little cramped because I went from an entire room for beauty storage to just a little corner of a room when we moved back to Pennsylvania. But I figured this can show you other ladies or gents who also have a makeup hoarding problem in a small space how I do it ;). Also, everything needs cleaned so it looks a little gross but I wanted to get this post done today and was NOT in the cleaning mood. For the same reason that I wanted it done today, I just used my cell phone to take pictures so they aren’t like amazing quality but whatever, I used to use a webcam so it’s only up from here! Let’s do this sheeeit:

Here is the frontal view of my little beauty area. As you can see, very cluttered and a little messy, but we will ignore that. I got this white vanity as a present for Christmas last year and I love it a lot. I keep my more used lipsticks on top in little acrylic lipstick holders found at like TJ Maxx and places like that. I have an old utensil turn table thingy that I keep my brushes in. I have the vanity facing a window for natural lighting, but I also have a very bright exposed light bulb on the wall for when it is dark outside.

This is the side view of my area. Those drawer storage containers definitely come in handy. As you can see, it’s a lot of stacking shit on top of each other. I never said I was the most organized hoarder okay?? The clear drawers and the black drawers store things beauty related other than makeup such as hair products and styling tools. I also have an acrylic nail polish shelf to store that aspect of my beauty addiction.

Here’s a closer look of what sits on top of the vanity. *Disclaimer: yes I own Lime Crime products. I know people can get very heated about it, but I have not purchased from them since the whole credit card fraud incident because I was personally affected by that. However, I think the packaging is very cute so it gets a spot on the top of the vanity. Back to the scheduled blogging*

I think I am going to redo what goes into the lipstick holders though because I rarely use the lipstick tubes in the back holder and my liquid lipsticks do not fit very nicely as you can probably see. The Colourpop tubes just do not like to stand upright. I also keep my setting sprays there for easy access.

Off to the side of the vanity I have these mini drawer units. On top I have this pretty mirror platter thing but I didn’t really know what to do with it so I just stuck my topcoats on it because they wouldn’t fit in the nail polish shelf. In the bottom drawer I have my basically unused lip products that I still cling onto. I have an idea for a lip product challenge though to get myself to wear everything in the collection. But that’s for another post. Anyway, the middle drawer is random eye products that is not eyeshadow, like primers, eyeliners, mascaras, etc. The top drawer is single eyeshadows, pigments, cream shadows, etc.

In the drawer on the other side of the mirror I have mostly non-makeup related products. On top I have a little organizer with my perfumes, in the bottom drawer I have nail polishes that didn’t make it in the shelf, in the middle I have loose pigments from China that I don’t use on my face, and in the top drawer I have nail art tools and decorations.

In the center drawer of the vanity I keep my most used eyeshadow palettes. They get shuffled around inside as I use them.

On the left side set of drawers I keep eye and face products. In the top drawer I store my most used eye products like my favorite mascaras, eyeliners, and primer. In the bottom drawer I keep my face products I use the most other than foundation and powders. So this drawer is like concealers, contour products, highlighters, face primers, etc.

On the right side I have lip products and cheek products. In the top drawer I keep my moderately used lipsticks and all of my lip liners. In the bottom drawer I keep all of my blushes.

On to the pink shelf to the side of the vanity. The bottom drawer is boring, just filled with makeup bags. The center drawer is foundations and powders. I also throw my random samples I get in there. The top drawer is eyeshadow palettes that I either don’t use too often or just didn’t fit right in the “most used” eyeshadow drawer.

On top of my plastic shelves I have this little decorative box filled with my eyelashes. I recently downsized my eyelash collection hence why it’s the only thing neatly organized.

And that, my friends, is everything. Now that you have a basic idea of what I’m working with these days we can get the makeup posts rolling. :D

Once again, I apologize for the camera quality and for how dirty and unorganized everything is. Thanks for reading!

[mymakeupcollection]

Hi, I’m Back

It’s been awhile, tumblr. I think I haven’t logged on to this blog since...... I don’t even know, it’s been at least two years. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was the worst blog runner EVER. A lot has happened since my last life update post. If you don’t care about my personal life, that’s okay, there will be makeup related posts coming soon. For those of you who do care, I’ll fill you in a bit! Thank you to the anonymous person who asked how I was doing, that is really sweet. :)

Anyway, we did move from Hawaii to Virginia. I had a beautiful beauty room in Virginia, I got a nice new camera for Christmas that year and had planned on fully committing to this blog. However, I did not know the amount of misery I would feel living there. I went from living in the happiest place surrounded by friends and sunshine and comfort and had a job and human interaction and I was HAPPY, to living in literally the most miserable place I’ve ever been. I didn’t leave the house, I didn’t make any friends, I wasn’t interested in getting a job there, I hated my neighborhood, the people in general were just awful. Long story short, I was MISERABLE. I drove the 7 hours home to Pennsylvania any chance I could. My husband deployed or was gone more than ever. I was alone A LOT. I was mentally in a bad place and my passions all took the back burner. Then I ended up starting online schooling so that took up a lot of my time. During my first semester in school my husband was deploying for a long long time so I decided I wanted to move home. It was very difficult to do a self move while you are trying to focus on school but I pulled it off and moved home to PA. That was about a year ago. Since then, I have been living in PA, my husband’s contract with the military was up so he moved home, too. I’ve been focusing on school and being with my family for the first time in years, just generally trying to enjoy my life. Recently, I have been thinking more and more about starting up this blog again. I was hesitant because I figured I had lost all of my followers, no one would be interested anymore, there was nothing I could write about that hasn’t already been said, etc. But with some encouragement from a friend, I decided why not! I have a TON of makeup and with my current life situation I only do my makeup once a week (WTF) and I’ve been wanting a reason to do my makeup and wanting a place to share my passion. So.... here I am! My collection has grown beyond belief, I seriously have a problem. You will get to see her soon :) I have planned a few reviews and product comparison posts. Maybe soon I will get to do a tutorial. I have a new camera that I haven’t used yet so bare with me. Thank you to all of you who have stuck around all this time! I couldn’t believe when I logged in I still had my followers. Thank you for taking the time to read this if you did, thanks for caring about my well-being. I love all of you even if we are all just strangers :D.Hopefully you will be seeing a lot of me soon.

P.S. I am still very much in school so I still might suck at this, but we will see

[mymakeupcollection]

hi i was just wondering how you were doing/how your husband was doing. hope you're both safe and doing well!

Hello! We are both alive and well. I will be writing an update post soon!

[mymakeupcollection]

Where can I buy jane 09 sahara bronzing powder

I bought it off of Hautelook years ago, I am not sure if it is sold in stores or not. Sorry I couldn’t be more help!

[mymakeupcollection]

I've been looking through your blog and I noticed you kinda look like Anna from Frozen! You're really pretty! c:

Thank you! I never heard that one before!

[mymakeupcollection]

i wish you a lot of luck!!

Thank you so much I am going to need it

[mymakeupcollection]

Life Update Post

Hi everyone!! As usual, I haven't been on this blog in awhile. I know I am the most inconsistent blogger ever and I'm sorry. I just thought I'd fill you guys in on what has been going on lately and *hopefully* when everything settles I will be blogging more regularly. 

Some of you might know I am currently living in Hawaii with my husband. (which is a HUGE reason I haven't blogged basically all summer because it is HOT and we don't have air conditioning!!!). He is in the military and we are now in the process of moving to the next duty station. In the next coming few weeks we will be packing all of our things up and moving across the country to Virginia. We will be making a pit stop in Pennsylvania, where we are originally from, and staying there for the holidays. 

Hopefully after the holiday season, and after we get settled into the new house in Virginia, I will be able to blog more steadily. I honestly do love doing this blog but when I'm sweating all day long I really don't want to wear makeup. My hopes are when I am in Virginia the weather will be much cooler (except summer obviously) and I hope our new house has AIR CONDITIONING!!! 

So basically, I hope to be on here more around January. If you read this whole thing, thank you very much you are AWESOME!! I love you guys and hope to be on here more soon!

[mymakeupcollection]

So I made a tutorial for this look but it was on my new laptop so the webcam is quite different and I don't really like how the webcam makes it look but I really like the end result of the tutorial so I am conflicted. 

[mymakeupcollection]

What's In My Z-Palette

A lot of people have been jumping on the Z-Palette boat and I am one of them!! I originally bought one so I could buy eyeshadow pans without packaging to save some money. I never really intended to do the whole depotting thing and I still haven't done that. I started with the large just plain black one but it got a little crowded so I bought a second large one to use as a face palette and my original as an eye palette. In this post I am just going to show you what I have in each. I have a few different brands, it's not all just MAC or Coastal Scents. Neither of my palettes are full but I am going to share what is in them currently. Let's get started!

Like I mentioned above, these are both size large. One is all eyeshadows and one is face products. I got the black one off of the actual z-palette website for $20. I got the "Dark Raspberry Demask" one from makeupgeek for $17.99. 

So far in my face palette I have 4 blushes and one highlighter. The blushes are from the brand La Femme and I purchased them from makeupmania for like under 3 bucks. I had never tried this brand before or ordered from that website but I am impressed with both. The highlighter powder is from MAC. 

The swatches from left to right are as follows:

La Femme Blush on Rouge in Rose, La Femme Blush on Rouge in Coral, La Femme Blush on Rouge in Peach, La Femme Blush on Rouge in Golden Rose, and MAC Shaping Powder in Emphasize. 

The blushes are all beautifully pigmented and all of them are matte finish except for Golden Rose which has a bit of golden (duh) shimmer. The downside to ordering the blush from that website is that the color swatches are very small so you aren't entirely sure what you are ordering. However I am very happy with that I chose and I may order more in the future. There is a huge selection of colors available. The MAC powder is a white highlight color with a bit of pearl finish to it. I like it since I am so pale it actually highlights instead of just blending in.

Next up is my eyeshadow palette pans. I have pans from 4 different brands in here and I will show you swatches of each of them. Top row is Coastal Scents, middle row is Makeup Geek, bottom row is MAC, and big lone ranger is a Stila pan. 

Swatches from left to right, all from Coastal Scents:

Sundance, Kodiak, Steel Grey, and Green Steel.

These are all only $1.95 a piece. They all have pretty shimmery finishes and I have yet to try a matte from Coastal Scents. I am impressed with how pigmented they are and how easily they apply. I just recently ordered 4 more of these pans from Coastal scents so there should be an update on my z-palettes in the future. 

Swatches from left to right, all from Makeup Geek:

Peach Smoothie, Moondust, Appletini, and Goddess. 

These sell for $5.99 a piece. Peach Smoothie has a matte finish and the rest have a shimmer or satin finish. Mattes can be difficult to use sometimes but this one is so soft and nice and applies very easily and opaque. All of these eyeshadows apply really nicely and I wish I could purchase more but Makeup Geek is currently having some packaging issues. They offer some really unique and pretty shades that I want to try. 

Swatches from left to right:

MAC Soft Brown, MAC Paradisco, MAC Beautiful Iris, Stila Mimosa. 

The MAC shadow pans run for $10 a piece and I got the Stila pan from Hautelook for $6 but if you can't wait for Stila to return to Hautelook, then it is sold online for $18. The Stila Mimosa pan has a strange finish, it applies mostly matte but it has glitter flecks in it. Beautiful Iris is a very pretty eyeshadow, it is very iridescent. Soft Brown is matte and applies very nicely. Paradisco is a frost finish from MAC.

There you have it! I am very happy with the palettes I have started and I can't wait until they are full and beautiful. I love the Z-Palette because you can create your own palette with any color or brand you want all in one place. It also can help save space if you take the time to depot all of your packaged eyeshadows. I've never depotted anything and as of right now, I don't plan on it. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!!!!  

[mymakeupcollection]

I liked your summer cream makeup tutorial! You are so beautiful!

Thank you so much!! <3

[mymakeupcollection]

UPDATES

Hello!! I just want to fill you guys in on some recent happenings that may lead to me coming back to the blog a little more frequent than I have been lately. First off, MY HUSBAND IS HOOOOOOME :D He was gone on a ship for awhile but he is back and we went on a resort trip and it was fabulous!! He starts back to regular work next week so blah. Also, I QUIT MY JOB WOOOOOO!!! I hated my job and it took up all my time for little pay and it just wasn't worth it anymore. We are moving off the island in a couple months and have family visiting basically every month so I just wanted some free time. SO hopefully when my husband goes back to work I will get around to more regular posting. Thank you to all of you who continue to stick around and support this blog even though I'm like the worst blog keeper ever. 

[mymakeupcollection]

Summer Look Using (mostly) Cream Products

HI everyone! I know it's been awhile but here I am! I did this look to go to a luau when my brother came to visit me. I knew it would be hot and I'd be outside for quite awhile. I wanted to do a bronzy and glowy summer look but make it a little more heat resistant. I used mostly cream products but I did go in with some powder products to help set some things. Let's get started!

On my skin I didn't want to use anything heavy or thick. All I've been doing on my skin lately is applying a tinted moisturizer and that's it. I use theBalm's Balm Shelter Tinted Moisturizer SPF 18 in Light. It has spf in it so it is perfect for summer.

I concealed my undereye area and any other blemishes with Benefit's Boiing concealer in 01. I blended it out with the Beauty Blender so it was nice and light and not super thick or full coverage.

I don't have a cream bronzer but I do have several sample packets of foundations way too dark for my skin. So instead of throwing those away, I sometimes use them as a cream bronzer substitute. Since I am so fair skinned, most foundation samples I receive can be used this way. In this case, this is the Becca Radiant Skin Satin Finish Foundation in Medium. I used the color Tan from the little sample set. I took a standard foundation brush and applied the product in the general area I wanted it in.

Then I took the Beauty Blender and blended it out. It looks a little harsh right now but once there is blush and some other makeup on my face it blends right in and just gives my face some color. 

I primed my eyes with Urban Decay's Primer Potion in Original. 

I applied an Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencil in Sin on my inner corners and under the brow bone and blended it out. 

Then I took my L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Eternal Sunshine and applied it all over my lids. 

Then I took ELF's Eyeliner & Shadow Stick in Basic/Brown and applied it to the outer half of my lids and blended it slightly into the crease. I used the shadow stick side. You may want to go back and forth with this color and the Eternal Sunshine where they meet to have a seamless blend. 

I took another Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencil in Juju and lightly placed it into the crease and on the very outer portion of my lids. I blended it out.

I did throw on some MAC Wedge eyeshadow just to help set everything so it would be a little more long lasting. 

I also set the gold with a gold eyeshadow. I used Iron Maid-In from theBalm's Balm Jovi palette.

I applied a gel liner. I used Maybelline Eyestudio in Blackest Black.

I filled in my brows with ELF's Eyebrow Kit in Dark. If you are unfamiliar with this product, it has a tinted gel on one side and a setting powder on the other. 

I ran some black eyeshadow under my eye because I just like to. You can use an eyeliner pencil or whatever you have but I like the smoked out look of eyeshadow. I used the black from the Nude Tude palette.

I curled my lashes and applied a waterproof mascara. I used Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes. 

On my cheeks I used NYX Stick Blush in Orchid. I applied it using a small stippling brush instead of just slabbing it all over my face as a stick. 

To highlight my cheeks I used Urban Decay's Cream Highlight in Moonshine.I just lightly dabbed it onto my face. 

I set everything with Urban Decay's Chill setting spray. 

On my lips I used Revlon Just Bitten in Desire for a nice soft pink lip.

The look is complete! It is very summery and should last through the heat. I was happy with how it lasted through the luau, I wish I would've taken a picture at the end of the night. I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!