My 2013 Beauty Favorites!

Hey guys! Happy Monday evening!! I hope that your Monday was awesome!

Today I have a post that I worked on over the weekend, I know its late, but better late than never, its my 2013 Beauty Favorites!!

This is the first time that I have done this type of post, normally this would be a Free For All Beauty Friday thing but by then it would way too late to do this post. Last year and I believe the year before that I did my top nail polish posts, you can find them here and here.

As much as I love nail polish I do love all things beauty as well, I taught myself how to put make up on and how to use different eye shadows, and liquid liner all by watching tons of YouTube videos. My make up stash however is not nearly as big as my polish stash but its getting to the point I need more storage for make up.

Anyway to start off this post I am going to start with foundation!

My favorite foundation of 2013 is Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Foundation. 

Now this isn't a new foundation out on the market but its new to me in as I have never tried it before. I have used the concealer which I don't care for but this foundation is nice. I'm a liquid foundation girl, I love the coverage I can get by building it up or just buying a decent covering foundation.

I only got this foundation towards the end of the year but from the first time I tried it which was the day I bought it I knew it would be a favorite for me.

For a thin formula foundation it really covers a lot of my imperfections, especially my dark circles under my eyes! That is when I know a foundation is a keeper in my book. It also doesn't cake up under my eyes like my other liquid foundations and BB Creams that I have tried.

What I like most about this foundation is the applicator, usually a sponge tip applicator to me isn't the most sanitary thing, but since I am the only one using it it doesn't bother me so much. The sponge on this foundation is very soft so when I use it under my eyes I know I'm not inflicting any damage to my already 26 year old bags.

My next beauty favorite of 2013 is: Cover Girl and Olay Simply Ageless Concealer. 

I purchased this concealer back during the spring time just before I went to Florida. I had always looked at this when I saw it in the drugstores but the price tag kind of made me turn away and tell myself that I don't need it. I happened to get this concealer on clearance for half off when I bought it. I don't believe that they make this anymore, it has been replaced by a concealer/serum CC cream?

In the pot its a mix of the concealer and the Olay Regenerest. I would show you the inside of it but I have hit pan on it and its just doesn't look pretty. During the summer this was my go-to concealer, it covered up my under eye well. It is a fairly decent coverage concealer, when I was on vacation sometimes this was all I put on with some setting powder since it was so hot outside and it worked well.

I don't know if it did anything for under my eye like helping my few fine lines I have. I know, fine lines at 26? Yes I have them and I hate them.  Darn insomnia.

I found myself being drawn to buying a lot of blusher this year. I think I used to only own one which is NY Color Downtown Wine I believe. ( I could be so wrong on the name). I then went to having by the end of this year five all together. Out of those five the one that I reached for the most was Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso. 

I bought this blush after I heard Ingrid (Miss Glamorazzi on YouTube) talk about it all the time. I honestly thought I would never find it because sadly my local CVS is the only place to carry Milani products and they never keep anything in stock and never get anything new. Finally one day while wandering through the beauty department I just happened to look and found the last one left. This blush is beautiful! Its a rosy goldish tone that  just adds this glow to your cheeks that warms up the complexion. It is a shimmery blush but its not the in-you-face shimmery.

This favorite was featured in my July favorites over the summer and I have now realized I have a love affair with this brand. I'm talking about the Lorac Pro Palette.

I cannot get enough of Lorac Cosmetics. Since featuring this in my July Favorites post, I have used it everyday since and worn the heck out of it. I love that you get eight matte shades and eight shimmery shades, you have endless combinations. Right before Thanksgiving my dad and I took a trip to our local Kohls. The first thing that I noticed was there revamped beauty bars. They now carry Lorac, and The Balm, plus a few other high end brands. I was so excited that I wasn't going to have to wait to go to Sephora, or order online. That is when I also purchased my second Lorac product. Its called The Sweet Temptations Eye Shadow Kit. I will be doing a swatch and review post of that soon!

Next up we have some lip favorites.

Revlon came out with some pretty cool lip products this fall that I fell head over heels for. They were the new Color Burst Matte Balms and Lacquer Balms. I purchased three of the Lacquer Balms and two of the Matte Balms.

The three lacquer balms I bought are called: Demur (#105) , Flirtatious (#125), and Vivacious (#120).

This Lacquer Balms are kind of the same as the Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains but there not really a stain. However the more pigmented the color, you do get a slight stain on your lips as it starts to wear off.

This fall I found myself drawn to buying brightly colored lip products and pinks and berries were most certainly on the list. Demure (middle) is a light nude-pink, which I love but it has visible bits of glitter in it and it does transfer to the lips and once the initial product wears away you are left with some glittery lips. That is the only downside of the product I have. The other two Vivacious and Flirtatious I could see shimmer but no chunks of glitter.

For the Matte Balms these are my favorites by far! I also was searching for a perfect red lip product this fall. I have never really worn red lipstick before because I always thought it made me look like a clown. So I bought shade #240 Stunning, it is a orange toned red, and I have to say I was very afraid of it. It wasn't perfect. I like how it looked on me but  I think I will try it out more in the warmer months. Then I saw a YouTuber ( I can't remember who) wearing shade # 250 Standout. I knew when I saw that shade that's the red I had in mind for myself. It was dark and velvety and just amazing.

As you can see my DSLR hates reds but you can still tell the difference. Stunning is the top shade and Standout is on the bottom. Any how when I put Standout on, I fell in love with it and have worn it almost every day I have to go to work. My job was the first place I wore this red out in public. I figure if I want to get over my fear that was first step. I knew my female co-workers would give me honest opinions, were cool like that!

One of my last favorites that I got in 2013 were two Real Techniques Brushes! I found them at Kohls! I got the Expert Face Brush ( orange handle)  and Stippling Brush ( pink handle). For those of you that don't know they were created by Samantha Chapman of the Pixwoo sisters on YouTube!

I have seen such a difference in how my foundation blends with the Expert Face Brush, it literally makes your foundation look airbrushed. It blends it out evenly and the bristles of the brush are super soft against your skin. The Stippling Brush I have been using to apply blusher thats why the bristles are pink. I love how it just fits nicely over my cheek bones to add the perfect amount of color.

I believe you can also get these brushes online or at Ulta, I hear even some Wal-Marts have them now too.

So thats it for my beauty favorites of 2013! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did even if everything kind of found there way to me from the summer on!

Whats your favorite things of 2013?? It can be anything! Comment below!! 

Until next time!
<3 Nicole

Free For All Beauty Friday: July Favorites!

Hello!!!

So amongst the 45 Days Of Untried Challenge I have felt a need to start to get some beauty post out there.

In continuing with Free For All Beauty Fridays, today I have my July Favorites to share! I did a favorites post back in May, but skipped June because my favorites really didn't change so much.

July's Favorites are a mix of make up and some skin and body care products! Lets get started!

These favorites are in no particular order by the way!

My first favorite to show you is an eye shadow palette that I am so freaking happy I invested in. While I was watching my favorite YouTube video's Emily Eddington from EmilyNoel83 uploaded a video of high end beauty products worth trying and out of all the high end palettes out their she chose the Lorac Pro Palette.

As for me in desperate need to place a Sephora Order I decided on purchasing the palette. I have always wanted the Urban Decay Naked Palettes but I am so glad I didn't get them.

Please excuse the dirty outside of the palette, the packaging attracts dirt like crazy!

You get 16 beautiful eye shadows, eight are matte and the other eight are shimmery! You get a lot of neutral shades but some fun shades like the Garnet and deep purple shades on the bottom row.

You also get a small eye shadow primer with this palette too, so for the cost which is $42, (which to me  is a lot) you do get your money's worth. I have used this palette EVERYDAY since I got it. With that said its worth a try if you want to start a high end makeup collection, or even just invest in a few key pieces.

My next favorite is more eye shadow products, beside the Lorac Palette I have become obsessed with the Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo Cream Eye Shadows. I only used to own two and they were the normal pink and skin toned shades, I believe they came from the metallic collection that Maybelline put out.

The three that I have picked for my favorites for July are pretty awesome although one is L.E. but I hope that they would put something like it in the core line.

I have found these cream shadows to be so versatile, I can definitely wear them alone or place a powder shadow on top to change it up or increase the intensity.

My two absolute favorites that I picked are Pomegranate Punk and Lavish Lavender.

This beautiful macro photo is of Pomegranate Punk, it is a gorgeous cranberry shade that goes on the eyes a little darker than in the photo. I feel its going to be one of the main colors I wear this fall when back at school.

Next is Lavish Lavender. This shade was a limited edition shade, it was released as a summer collection but I believe it hit store in the spring time. It was part of a collection that had a few duo-chrome color tattoos but none of those stood out to me.

I got this on clearance believe it or not, it was originally $8 bucks and I scored it for $3.99! I would check your local Rite Aid clearance bins to see if you can snag anything left from the collection.

Something I became slightly concerned about back in July was my skin, I noticed it was looking haggard and just overall not good. We all know nowadays that protecting and taking care of our skin is something that we should be on top of, there is nothing wrong with being preventative. I think in my case I just got lazy!

Anyway when I started making myself take care of my skin again I noticed I was out of my nighttime moisturizer. So I was going to repurchase my Simple Skin Care Vital Vitamin Night Cream, which was my go-to for a long time but I couldn't find it anywhere so I was on the hunt for a new brand.

While staring awkwardly at the skin care isle in my local Wal-Mart, I found the brand CeraVe.

I had heard about this brand but not too much. I began to read the packaging and then notice this night cream had an ingredient I was looking for; Hyaluronic Acid. Now your probably thinking, that won't acid be bad for your face? Its not what you think, its a humectant that helps the moisture in your skin and the moisturizer you just put on to keep you as hydrated as possible. I started using it right away and with in the first week I notice a big improvement in my skin.

So I went out and bought the AM version of the moisturizer as well to keep everything together so to speak.


Keeping with skin care for a little bit I have finally found a cleanser that I an use day and night and NOT dry out my skin! Every single cleanser I have tried, whether it says it won't dry out your skin or not always leaves my face tight and feeling like I have to slather on mountians of moisturizer.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser came into my life the same day that I got my new moisturizer. This cleanser is highly fragrant so if you don't like that then this may not be for you. To me it smells like strong baby powder.

I have also noticed that besides improving my skin this cleanser has helped any acne on my face. As of this post I had a small pimple on my chin and I washed with this last night and this morning and the pimple is gone! So I am most definitely in love with this!

My last skin care favorite is a body butter. When I ordered from Sephora I also got a Soap & Glory product. I got The Butter Yourself Body Butter. It smells amazing and five different types of fruit in it. I have used it every night since getting it in the mail. It keeps my skin soft and the fragrance last forever on the skin! I love using it right after I take a shower.

For $20 bucks you get 10 ounces, which doesn't sound like a lot but you do not need a ton of this to slather yourself up with.

I love Soap & Glory products I have used two shower gels from them and just keep falling in love with every other product I try. The first shower gel I had called Clean On Me lasted me a whole year!


Transitioning back into make up for the rest of this post, I have some amazing lip products to show you and a foundation!

So first up the foundation. Maybelline recently introduce a new gel stick foundation into their Fit Me line. When I first saw this at CVS I was intrigued mainly because I had never tried a stick foundation before. I purchased it at CVS for almost 9 bucks but because I had $3 in extra bucks I got it for $6 which is what I saw they sell it for in Walmart anyway.

It also clams to be shine free but using this in the summer I am never shine free, so I will have to update this when the weather cools down for the fall to see if that claim is true. For the price point you do not get a ton of product, you get just under half an ounce of product.

The one you see in photos is my back up that is brand new, the one that I have been using is almost all gone, I've had hit for a little over a month and its almost gone, that makes me sad. I guess that what you get when you use it every day!

With that said though I really like the way this foundation makes my skin look, it doesn't make it flawless but it evens out my redness and dries to a powder feeling. I think that is due to the anti-shine core that also has powder in  it.

I know it looks dark in the photo but I assure you its not that dark in real life.

Last but certainly not least in this favorites post is the lip products I have been loving!

First up are the Rimmel London Show Off Lip Lacquers, if you know about these already then you know the U.K. had them first as Apocalips and they were such a hit that we over here in the states practically demanded they be brought over for us. Rimmel made it happen for us, keeping the same packaging and all but changing the name slightly and adding on additional colors. I hunted my Walgreen's for weeks when these were first sighted in the states.

Today I bring you my two favorites Aurora and Apocalyptic.

In the photo above Aurora is the lip lacquer on the bottom and Apocalyptic is on the top. I know they look the same in color but Aurora is more orange toned and Apocalyptic is more of a hot fuchsia color.

This is what the applicator looks like, just a doe foot one that has a tiny well in it to help control the product, because a little does go a long way with this and you can apply too much and look like a clown. These feel nice on the lips and are not drying. They don't last too long on the lips if you eat or drink anything so if wearing this out to dinner be prepared to reapply.

The last and final favorite that I have is two lipsticks also from Rimmel. These are from their Moisture Renew line, this line isn't new but they have added I believe six new colors.

I got two over the course of July, a lovely nude and what I think is the lipstick version of the Show Off Lip Lacquer Apocalyptic.

The lovely nude color  I have is called Lets Get Naked. I love the name on that one it just so saucy!

The bright berry fuchsia one is called As You Want Victoria

I love the way these feel on my lips they are very moisturizing but the bright color of As You Want Victoria you have to watch because if you accidentally  wipe your mouth with out realizing it you might look like a clown.


So that is it for my July Favorites, I hope you enjoyed and maybe you will find something that you like and will give it a try!