Make Me Blush | Collection Part 1: Drugstore

So I've done my lipstick collection and that was over 5 parts sorted by their colours, now I'm doing my blush collection. I was actually going to do my nail polish collection first but that one will probably take the longest so I might leave that one till last. Not that I plan on doing it on absolutely every type of product you can have, I want to do the ones that I seem to collect haha such as lipstick, blush, nail polish, perfume & maybe eyeliners, but we'll see as I go along.

I have decided to break this up into 2 parts, Drugstore & High End. I definitely have a lot more drugstore blushes as obviously they are cheaper so I don't feel as bad to have multiple colours by the same brands. It would be way to hard to go by colour, and I was going to go by brand but since I only have a few of some brands & more of the others I thought it would be easier to group like this.
Some of the swatch pictures have been enhanced the tiniest bit with contrast as my camera washed out the colour, and the top pictures are natural light & the bottom are with flash.

Milani & Jordana

 L-R: Fantasico Mauve {satin}, Coralina {shimmer}, Dolce Pink {shimmer}, Luminoso {shimmery/satin}.

Jordana blushes can also be purchased from Cherry Culture & Beauty Joint and they have the hugest range. I am really happy with my colour selection although Redwood is the least used as it is easy to go overboard and look tooo flushed. They are so pigmented & are only $2.50!!!

 L-R: Redwood {matte}, A Touch Of Pink {matte}, Coral Sandy Beach {shimmer}.

 E.L.F

E.L.F can be bought from Beauty Joint & IKatehouse (only some products). I much prefer their studio line from their $1 one (more $ when bought in Aus, big surprise there!). I do not use their powder blushes too frequently but they're pigmented for $4 (note the similarities in packaging to NARS) but love the HD Blush as a base or on it's own. The shimmering facial whips' are ok but a bit too shimmery for my tastes, especially Golden Peach which I thought was going to be more of a highlighter colour but I find it too bronzy to wear as a blush or highlighter. For $1 who cares I'm sure friends or family wouldn't mind it!

L-R: Pink Passion {glitter}, Peachykeen {matte}, Headliner {liquid, matte}, Pink Lemonade, Golden Peach {disco-ball-like shimmer}

Nyx
Nyx is the first brand I started collecting when I was getting into makeup because I found a really good seller on Ebay who sells them in "bulk" so I could get multiple colours for a really good price. Has any body depotted their Nyx blushes or eyeshadows, I haven't depotted anything before and want to know if it's easy with these!

The cream blushes look nasty so sorry about that!

Their powder blushes can bit a hit or miss but I find these ones quite pigmented, especially with Pinky & Spice so you may want to have a lighter hand especially with such a bright pink! Angel would be a perfect summery colour & Peach is a misleading name as it pulls more baby pink than peach. They are $6 on Cherry Culture but if you want to get a few definitely look at the eBay seller I linked above.

 L-R: Angel {shimmer},Peach {satin}, Pinky {satin}, Spice {satin}

 Nyx's Rouge Cream blushes ($6 on Cherry Culture) are perfect as a base for other blushes but they go not last well on their own, but you can just apply translucent powder if you are happy with their colour. I used to use Natural & Glow with a stippling brush which made the product in the pan look horrible but now I prefer my fingers. I need to use Hot Pink & Orange more!! Except you need an extremely light hand! I also love the Stick blushes as bases but same goes as the cream blushes.

L-R: Natural, Glow, Hot Pink, Orange {all creme}, Orchid & Tulip {stick}

Bourjois & Assorted 

 I've found that after a few uses with the Bourjois blushes they can become dry & pigmented, so I have to scrape the top of occasionally as it develops a film on top. I had stopped using my older ones for a while because of this & found when I had gotten rid of that film they were pigmented again! They also have a lovely rose smell. The scrapping doesn't bother me as they will last forever!
I apologize that Bourjois may not be available to you but there are plenty of substitutions out there!
The Essence mousse blush from their Ballerina Backstage collection was LE & it's not something I reach for too often as it is quite matte so it would be good for oily skin, but if I do wear it I pair it with MAC's Pink Swoon.
I've posted about the L.A Girl Blushes before & don't have anything new to say, I think I will be finding a new home for them as I have similar colours already and they are nothing too special.

 L-R: Bourjois 16 Rose Coup De Foudre {Shimmer}, 34 Rose D'or {shimmer}, 54 Rose Frisson {satin}, Essence Prima Ballerina {mousse}, LA Girl Just Pinched {matte}, LA Girl Nectar {satin}

 I'm not sure if you can get this Revlon blush from I believe their A Floral Affair collection ( probably discontinued years ago) but I had found this in a dump bin & it was one of the first blushes I had so as you can see I don't use it enough.

This Fyrinnae blush is a loose powder and because it is such an extremely bright red colour it is so hard to use without applying waay too much! I dip my brush in it a little bit and tap off the excess & also onto my hand and it is still sometimes too bright, so for this reason I haven't given it enough love for the couple of years that I've had it, but don't want to throw it out!

L-R: Revlon Hushed blush in A Floral Affair (Peach side, pink, & highlighter side all swatched separately, and then together although I would only use the highlighter separately) {Shimmer}, Fyriannae Powder blush in Intrigue (Not on their website anymore, Sorry!!!) {matte}

Alrighty so that ended up being a bit more of a review then anticipated, but that's never a bad thing, right? Sorry that there is way to much to read but I appreciate if you just look at the swatches too :)

So I have waay too many blushes that are similar & I clearly don't really need any more but it's going to be hard to downsize. I can't pick any fave blushes but my fave formulas would have to be with the Milani Baked blushes and the Nyx powder, cream & stick blushes.

I will be posting my High end blush collection soon so stay tuned!

Whats your favourite drugstore brand for blushes?

xx

Cherry Culture, Sleek & i Kate House // Hauls & Swatches // Milani, La Splash, E.L.F & More

In a way you could kind of say these were my hauls for the month of March, although some were ordered in Feb & I am waiting on a couple more. As you may remember I have ordered from Cherry Culture a couple of times before but this was the first for ordering through the actual Sleek website and also from iKatehouse.com which is a recently discovered website.

 Cherry Culture
So from the lovely CC.... although I have ordered from them fairly recently, there were a few more items I wanted to try out, and a few more colours I wanted to get of products I already owned.

Milani Baked Blushes

Milani Baked Blushes in Coralina & Dolce Pink

 I already have a couple of these in Fantasico Mauve & Luminoso  & love them so I thought that I may as well buy two more, as they were going for $6.99.... (original price $7.99, only saving a dollar lol) I knew I wanted Dolce Pink because of Coco's swatch & I have heard Coralina was nice, and although the "swatch" of it on the website looked nice, it looks prettier IRL & way more corally.

Top to bottom: Dolce Pink, Coralina.

 As mentioned Coralina is a warm, coral tone with a satin finish but Dolce Pink is a cooler pink with a satin/ shimmer finish which can also look a bit frosty. I will post about these properly among my other Milani Baked Blushes.

La Splash Glitter Splash

Purple Passion & Pineapple Coral

I have done a review on these glitters recently here so my opinion hasn't changed, but as these were also marked down from $5.99 to $4.49 I thought I would buy a couple more from different colour families. I have updated that post with these swatches so please click on the link above to view them if you wish.

 La Splash Diamond Dust Shimmer

 Yet another sale item for $7.50 down from $8.99, I haven't tried the Diamond Dust Shimmers  before but they looked gorgeous. Although it looks like glitter in the jar they are certainly more like pigments, but the shimmer is lost quite easily. To prevent that, after patting it on with a brush I dab a bit of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and go back in with the colour to bring the shimmer back.

Snowflake is a weirdly pretty colour because it looks completely white in the jar but once I took the plastic off the sifter it came through with a purple reflect. The swatches are done with no base.

La Splash Metallic Cream Shadow

 Something I have been wanting for a while was a gold base for gold eyeshadows, so I thought I would give this a go for $6.50. It is not very pigmented so I do wish I just bought the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bold Gold instead. I haven't used it as a base yet so I don't know about creasing so we shall see.

 Nyx Eyebrow Cake Powder

I haven't used an eyebrow kit for a little while since running out of my E.L.F eyebrow kit & using eyeshadows from the Sleek Storm palette, and I bought this in the colour Dark Brown/ Brown. I wont go into much detail as I will probably do a review on it soon, but when I first used it I wasn't too impressed, but now I know how to use it properly so I'm liking it more.

Sleek Haul
For the first time I ordered off the Sleek website.  It took just over 2 weeks to get here from the UK which is pretty good for being on the other side of the world.

The pout paints are $6.49 each, and I definitely want to get more! I will do a review/swatches in a separate post.
Pout Paints from Left to Right- Cloud 9, Peek-a-bloo, Pinkini, Peachy Keen.

Ink Pot in Dominatrix

 I've been needing a new gel eyeliner for ages and so far I am happy with this one. The brush as always is pretty pointless. I will post a review once I've used this a bit more.

Sleek Eye Dusts

L-R Vintage, Jet Set.

These pigments are very chunky, which means you cannot escape fall out unless you are holding a tissue underneath your eye. Both beautiful colours & highly pigmented, non the less.

Swatched over NYX White Base

L-R, Sleek Jet Set, Sugarpill Darling.

You can see how much more finely milled Darling is, so while the eye dusts are cheaper at $3.99 compared to $12 I think I'd prefer to spend a little bit more. Unless you want all the colours, then $4 is reasonable enough to get them all!

Ikatehouse.com
This website sells products like E.L.F, La Girl, La Colours, a huge arrangement of eyelashes & much more at a very affordable rate. I heard about this site mainly for the E.L.F products but they don't have much of a range of their studio products.

 Random assortment of eyelashes, LA Girl blush, E.L.F Studio Cream Eyeshadow, E.L.F Shimmering Facial Whip

I envy by Kiss in Juicy Volume 03, Carie Eyelashes (no name), Almine Professional eyelashes 4150

I haven't heard about any of these brands before, so I chose them purely on looks. I love the fullness and the flared look of I Envy by Kiss, the Carie eyelashes reminded me of Ardell Whispies & Red Cherry #43, and as you can see I've used the Almine ones which are extremely natural and add extra thickness without too much length.

LA Girl Illuminating Blush

L-R Nectar, Just Pinched

I found it very hard to find swatches online of these 2 colours, I am not overly impressed with either and I have found that I already have similar colours (another post!) but for the price of $2.99 there's no loss, I will probably just give them away. I wouldn't exactly call them illuminating either, as they are both matte.

L-R: E.L.Cream e/s in dawn, Shimmering Facial Whip in Golden Peach & Pink Lemonade

Dawn is a gorgeous taupe colour... it works perfectly with Urban Decay's Sidecar. The formula feels more like a mousse than a cream. I've heard a bit about the E.L.F Shimmering Facial Whips, although I wasn't expecting Golden Peach to be so bronze. I think it is too much with my skin tone as a highlight unless I was to tan a lot & Pink Lemonade is just a really pretty light pink, both would look nice on the apples of the cheeks.

L-R, Dawn, Bronze, Pink Lemonade

Blended out

 That concludes my latest drugstore hauls over the month of March! I wish I could post these hauls pretty much on arrival but I have so many other posts in line that these usually get pushed to later, so when I do post them please note I have probably been using the products for a couple of weeks!
I also have a couple of other smaller hauls which I will be posting soon.

Have you ordered from any of these websites before?

Thanks for reading! I tried to keep it a bit more compact than originally planned with more pictures & swatches but it got too much so I thought I would save them for separate posts. So I hope this isn't too long already!
xx

E.L.F Lip Primer & Plumper// Review & Roadtest

There are many different beauty products out on nowadays that are made for marketing reasons as they are gimmicky, for trends such as mood activated nail polishes & lipsticks or to help makeup application easier like roller foundations & one-sweep eyeshadows. Not sure where I am going with that as this is not exactly a gimmick, The E.L.F Lip Primer & Plumper serves as a purpose to help prolong the wear of your lipstick & to make your lips look fuller, although there are other things out there & techniques that you could easily use instead. I purchased this simply because I was curious as to whether it would help my lipsticks last longer or not, and how effective the lip plumper is.

Primer
The primer in this is opaque in the colour 'natural' with a concealer stick-like formula that helps to create a blank canvas, although it can mix with the lipstick colour to change it.
It has a very distinctive smell & when I first opened it, it reminded me of being on the farm & of sheep, which I thought would be lanolin in the product which it strangely doesn't have. So I warn you, it is an extremely strong smell but goes away with lipstick application.
Personally I think regular concealer does the same job, or you could even use your eye primer such as MAC Painterly or Essence's I <3 Stage eye primer which both blanket out imperfections on the eyes so it would help even out the lips.

Plumper
I think I prefer plumping lip glosses as opposed to a stick like this, as you can use a lip brush to apply it from the wand without worrying about tarnishing the product & transferring the lip colour back into it. With a stick formula you can't exactly apply with a brush to get the same result. So when you do apply straight from the stick, your lip colour gets all over the tip which you have to wipe after each use, wasting further product & just being annoying. The glossy look also helps in making the lip look plumper.
As opposed to the primer, the plumper is clear & smells strongly of cinnamon which only clasts for a little bit. You also feel a slight sting like with any plumper, which is just it doing it's job, but I find it only feels strong within a few seconds of applying,

How to Use
I didn't get any after pictures, this was mainly to see how the product looked when first applied & to show the different steps.

 Step 1; apply primer over the lips. Lip balm applied & blotted before anything probably would have been a good idea, you can see how dry it makes my lips. Also you don't want too much otherwise it will mix into the lip colour & dull it down.

 Step 2; work it into the lines of the lips using your fingers for even coverage. Make sure to smooth it into the corners of your mouth to avoid that white line, like what I had here.

 Step 3; Apply your lipstick colour as you normally would. You can use lip liner over the top of the primer if you'd prefer. I used a fairly moisturizing lipstick so that replaces what the primer took away.

 Step 4; Apply plumper over the top if you wish. I just applied it to the middle. It's hard to tell if it's made a difference, but the lip colour looks slightly lighter. Could also be lighting issues.

Ingot Lipstick in 253

Roadtest 1

I tested this with Revlon's Colorburst lipstick in Fuchsia, which is one of the least wearing (is that how you put it? haha) lipstick that I own. This is how long it would last normally, so the primer didn't add much to the longevity of the lip colour, and I didn't have anything to eat during this time so I'd expect a colour to last a lot longer than this. I almost always never have any lipstick on after a good meal! And you may note my lips are chapped before, but as the lipstick has worn off they look 100x worse. Eek!

Revlon Colorburst lipstick in Fuchsia

Roadtest Test 2
Firstly please ignore the blatant over-lip lining. This was to see how well my lipstick help up after eating.

 This was taken after a very light meal... one piece of toast to be exact, so I was making sure I was eating carefully. You can see a slight wear right between the upper & bottom lip which is always going to happen. I also had a drink & had no lipstick transfer to the glass. (That's a pretty big deal!)

And after a heavier lunch, as you can see it did not last well!! This was about 4 hours after the original photo so you can see in the top picture how it looked right before eating & then afterwards. So gross!

Kate by Rimmel in 09

Roadtest 3- The Plumper
I am so sorry the before is out of focus, I hope it doesn't affect the look of the outcome.

I actually think that I can see the tiniest bit of plumping, but not enough to make it noticeable. I suppose on somebody with thinner lips you may be able to see more of a result. It mainly adds a bit of gloss, which you can apply regular gloss to the center to get the same results.
As I wasn't wearing any lipstick I wasn't worried about the stick so I could press it firmly, and once again I felt the light stinging sensation for a few minutes but it wasn't uncomfortable for long.

Final Verdict- I think the E.L.F Lip primer & plumper definitely is not a necessity in your collection & it can be substituted for applying concealer first to blank out the lips, and a different plumping gloss on top. I do however like the idea of it in a 2-in-1 product that can be used on the go.
Of course, I don't think anything you do for your lipstick will protect it from wearing off during eating & drinking, but this should help most lipsticks last a good 4-5 hours or more during the day if you make sure not to touch them.

If you still want to try this, I bought mine from Beauty Joint for $3.99, & check out more reviews here.

Thanks for reading! Have you tried this product or thought about purchasing, and has it helped you or do you agree on the points I stated?
xx