Another Post About Makeup

Y'all 😅

I chose the wrong time in my life to become obsessed with makeup. Not because it is not a great time for me to get better at doing my makeup, because it definitely was time, but because I am trying to save money for the sociology conference trip and research trip that I am going on in a few months. When watching makeup videos on YouTube became super popular like three or four years ago I was not into makeup. I had a routine and I did the exact same thing every day and that was all that I felt like I needed to know. My sisters A and T were really into watching videos and trying out makeup strategies and they were getting really good at doing their makeup, which in turn made them know a lot more about makeup than me and always tell me how terrible my makeup looked. I was usually pretty flippant about it and was just like I don't even care, it's just makeup. However, it started to get to me and I was always checking with them to make sure I wasn't going out looking like a crazy, hot mess. I was still using my same everyday products but I wasn't as afraid to try out new products. I honestly don't even know what triggered this recent obsession though. Last year (I don't remember what month it was) I got a VoxBox from Influenster with samples of e.l.f. products and I actually think all of them were full sized products. For those of you who don't know what Influenster is I need to post about that in itself soon because it is wonderful and you can get free stuff and seriously who doesn't want free stuff? Anyway! The e.l.f. VoxBox came with a primer, a matte lipstick, a highlighter and bronzer duo, a lip exfoliator, and a foaming face wash mask thing. I had never owned/used a face primer or highlighter and I was so excited to test them out and learn how to use them! That was probably the initial spark for my recent makeup obsession. Then for some reason I started watching YouTube videos of makeup tutorials and just girls talking about their favorite makeup products and I just got hit with the makeup bug. I already talked about this a little bit, but for Christmas my stepmom always uses that as a time for us to stock up on our makeup things from Sephora. This year I got another Tattoo Liner from Kat Von D because mine dried out and I also got the Sephora Favorites Give Me Lip & Liner with a ton of new lip products. I was in serious need of new lip products because being me and not really caring about makeup that much, I didn't find out until earlier last year that makeup has expiration dates and that you can get sick from the bacteria that grows on makeup and I had to throw out TWENTY SOMETHING of my lipsticks. The new lip products made me want to wear beautiful makeup every day and so then I started watching even more YouTube videos. As I watched more videos I realized that I was in desperate need of a new eye shadow palette because I had been using the same two for FOREVER. I started doing some research about what kind I should get. I ended up with the Modern Renaissance palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills and I am FLOORED by how much I love it. It is so pigmented and so blendable (look at me using makeup terms 😊) and it is just incredible! I have been practicing a ton with it and trying out different looks with it every day since I have had it. Today I even did a cut crease look which seems like one of those Instagram pro looks and I was pleasantly surprised by how well I did! This back story was definitely not the point of this blog post, I wanted to tell you about the new products I have purchased since my last makeup post, which I know wasn't that long ago but I have gotten some amazing new things and that inspired my post because I need to be stopped from purchasing new makeup products lol. I also want to talk about some skin care products that I have gotten recently because I have been trying to take better care of my skin. I haven't ever really had a skin routine and so now I've created one and my skin is doing wonderful! 

Starting with my skin care items, about a month ago I got a blackhead exfoliating scrub from St. Ives. I have struggled with my blackheads and pores for years. I have tried so many products and nothing has really worked for me. I have really deep pores and blackheads that I haven't been able to get rid of. However, this blackhead scrub is awesome! My favorite thing is that it is a green tea scrub so it smells awesome! I have dry to normal skin and so I can only use the scrub 2 or 3 times a week or it dries my skin out pretty bad. I also got some new pore strips from Biore and I am super surprised that they work. The regular pore strips from Biore don't work for me at all. I really do not like them at all. But! The Biore charcoal pore strips are amazing for me! They really removed a ton of junk from my pores and are a new blessing in my life. Like I said earlier, I have tried a bazillion and one face washes and nothing has worked out incredibly well for me, until now! I got the Neutrogena Deep Clean facial cleanser for normal to oily skin and let me just tell you. This face wash is impeccable. I have to be more careful with using this too much because it is for normal to oily skin and can dry my face out if I use it every day. It seriously cleans my face so well and it leaves my face feeling so smooth to the touch. To combat the dryness that I tend to get from washing my face, I got a moisturizer from St. Ives. The lotion I used to use for my face was just incredibly sticky and I didn't like how it left my skin feeling, but this moisturizer is awesome. It feels really thick to the touch but it smooths out really well. It has collagen in it but I can't really tell if it's making my skin lift or smooth out fine lines but it definitely makes my dryness go away. I also picked up some under-eye pads on a spontaneous buy at TJ Maxx. They definitely are not what I thought they were but I really liked the results that I got from the one pair I have tried. I thought they were going to be gel pads, but they are more cotton-y with retinol serum in them. You just leave them under your eyes for fifteen minutes and it will relieve your under-eye bags and reduce creases. 

Now for the new makeup products! Some of this stuff I am in love with and a couple things I am slightly disappointed by. The first things I got were two new foundations. I used to be VERY afraid to try new foundations and I have definitely had some awful foundation mishaps with too dark of a shade or bad coverage. I have been branching out though and I have found several different foundations that I'm comfortable with. As most of you know, my biggest makeup obsession is Kat Von D and my favorite full coverage foundation is the Lockit Tattoo Foundation by her. Since it is kind of pricey though, I don't use it very often, it is pretty much my special occasion foundation and right now the shade that I have is much too dark for me. The same goes for my every day foundation that I have, it has gotten too dark for me at the moment and so I decided that since I needed to buy a lighter shade, why not buy a new kind? I took the suggestions of some of my new favorite beauty YouTubers, Bella Fiori, KathleenLights, and Tati, and I got the L'Oreal Infallible Pro Matte foundation in the shade 102 Shell Biege and Rimmel Lasting Finish foundation in the shade 100 Ivory. To be honest, I am pretty disappointed with the Pro Matte foundation. I heard so many people raving about it and I was incredibly excited to try it out because of the matte finish. I tried it out on a day that I went to lunch with one of my friends and I was mortified to see how it turned out. As I was about to leave the house, I noticed that it looked pretty streaky and if you can tell that your foundation is streaky in my bathroom with the lights that we have in there, you know it's bad. So I was running late anyway and I just had to go with it, but it was even more terrifying outside in the natural light. There was such a harsh line under my chin and so many streaks my my jaw line and below cheekbones. I was really disappointed and as soon as I got home I took it off and tried it again, just to make sure I hadn't done something wrong. I think part of the reason it went on so patchily was because my blending sponge got too dry and it is also a medium coverage foundation, where I like a full coverage foundation. It looked a little better after I fixed it, but I need to keep playing with it before I give up on it. On the other hand, the Rimmel Lasting Finish foundation is BEAUTIFUL! I have been wearing it everyday and I am in love. I honestly like it better than my Rimmel Match Perfection foundation I was wearing every day when my skin was darker. This is a full coverage foundation and it it truly does cover everything well and it stays in place once it gets where you want it to be. Another added bonus of it is that it smells incredible, just like the Match Perfection one. The only small thing that I don't like about this is that it does crease in my under eye, but that definitely isn't too much of a problem for me. 

The next makeup product I got that I am not really in love with is the Rimmel Match Perfection concealer in the shade 230 Fair/Light. I was really wanting a concealer for my under eyes to help hide my bags and to cover my under eye creases. The brush applicator on it does nothing for me, which isn't that big of a problem but I feel like it does waste a lot of product. I have been squeezing some on my hand and using a brush to apply the concealer. Sadly, it did not work under my eyes. It still creased and left weird marks after a very short time. But! I did find a good use for it! I have been waning to try a cut crease look since I got my Modern Renaissance palette. Some videos that I have watched on how to do a cut crease have suggested to put your crease shadows on and then use a concealer to cover the lid and then pat on the lid shade on top of it. This concealer is awesome for the lid! The only problem with that I have experienced is that if I don't wait long enough for it to dry it does transfer up onto the other part of my crease and kind of messes up the crease makeup, so I will have to be careful about that! 

The next thing that I am really loving is the Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer. I did not love my e.l.f. primer very much because I feel like it made my face feel oily. When I apply my makeup, I want it to last all day long and this Hard Candy primer truly does the job. A little goes a long way with this stuff and honestly I was a little skeptical because I feel like Hard Candy used to be a brand that was not well-renowned. I had been hearing some really great things about some Hard Candy products though and I did some research on it and a lot of sources said that this is one of the best drugstore primers out there. They were right! It doesn't make my face look oily and my makeup goes on so well on top of it! PSA though with this product: you HAVE to shake up the bottle because some liquid stuff will come out if you don't!

The reason that I bought this next product was also for trying cut crease eye shadow looks, but that is not what I have been using it for at all. This is the e.l.f. Eye Shadow Primer in the shade Sheer. The only other eye shadow primer I have ever used is the Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. After I used up my last potion I just stopped using eye shadow primer and I was using my foundation on my lids, but the e.l.f. primer was $2!!!! I couldn't pass up on that! It is too sheer to use for doing a cut crease so I have just been this as a eye primer and it works really well! It prevents my eye shadow looks from creasing and it is just awesome! 

Next to last, I got a new blush brush from ecotools. I'm pretty sure that the blush brush I used to use was from a kit on Amazon and I used it for YEARS! The problem with it is that it sheds pretty bad, so I threw it out. The new brush I got is the ecotools Precision Blush brush. It's pretty thick and has a boxy shape. I'm still playing with how best to use it. I could also use it for contour or bronzer but I don't really contour or bronze so I haven't played with that yet. 

And last but not least, I got Rimmel Scandaleyes Retro Glam mascara. My go-to, ride or die mascara is Maybelline The Colossal Volume Express, but I have been using it for a while and it was time to get a new mascara so this is the one I chose. I saw a ton of great reviews for this mascara. I'm such a drugstore mascara girl. I have only ever had one or two mascaras that were from Sephora and I just prefer the cheaper drugstore options. This mascara is a perfect black and makes my eyelashes humongous! The only thing I don't like about this mascara is how big the wand is. I have definitely jabbed myself in the eye a couple times, no big deal. When I get used to the wand it will be just plain amazing. I really like how thin the formula feels on my eyes. I don't feel like they are clumpy or heavy which is the best! 

Well there you have it guys! I told you that I am getting obsessed and this is so dangerous for me, but now that I am aware of all of these great products out there in the makeup world and skincare world I want EVERYTHING 😢 If anyone wants to donate to my makeup obsession fund, please feel free I will love you so much 💚💚💚 I hope you can find product inspiration from this post and let me know if you have tried any of these products and what you think of them! ~Em