Small Collective Drugstore Haul

This just a few things I picked up here and there at the drugstore over the last week or two. Just thought I'd share it with you guys because I'm very happy with my purchases and these are things that have made their way into my everyday routine.

Products Shown: Boots No. 7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation in #20 Blonde, Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Silky Beige, NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny, Wet N' Wild Mega Eyes Black Cream Liner, Wet N' Wild Vanity Palette, and Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara.

A couple of these items were repurchases, but I'd thought I'd add them in here because they have quickly become some of my holy grail products. Those include Boots No. 7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation, Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder, and Wet N' Wild Mega Eyes Cream Liner. 

I'll probably be repurchasing these three products forever and I'm so glad I discovered them!

NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny: I got this because I hear so many people rave about this, especially MakeupByLeinaBaaaby on YouTube. Since everyone seemed to love it and I needed a new bronzer that was matte, I picked this one up. This looks very natural on the skin (the color is a very natural light brown and is matte), but it's not as pigmented and dark as I would like this to be. I use this for contouring and I tend to like my contour shade to be darker, but luckily it is very build-able so I have been using this everyday and it works for now! 

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder: I've talked about this powder before in previous posts. I use to use nothing but MAC powders. I never had a particular favorite, I would just rotate between my MSF natural, Studio Fix Powder, and the Careblend powder. Unfortunately, I go through powders so quickly that spending 25$ a month repurchasing a new powder was getting a little ridiculous. I see no different between this and Studio Fix Powder besides maybe a little less coverage and for 4$: goodbye MAC, Hello Rimmel!

Boots No. 7 Intelligent Balance Mouse Foundation: I already have a review for this foundation, click here to see! This is my holy grail foundation. It's perfect. It feels like you're applying air to your face, it's almost full coverage, feels natural and light, blends like a dream, lasts all day, and looks amazing on my skin. I never was a fan of liquid foundation. For some reason, I hated the way my face would feel wet with it on and my redness would always show through. I probably just never found the right one, but this foundation is just perfect in every way to me. 

(Side note- I can tell not many people have tried this foundation out! I barely hear about it and every time I've gone to buy it, all of the boxes are covered in dust so you can tell they're never touched!)

Wet N' Wild Vanity Palette: I'm most excited for this purchase. I remember not being able to find it anywhere when it first came out. I gave up on it eventually but then I finally saw this lil guy, last one in the Wet N' Wild section and I had to get it. Can't wait to play with this :) 

I've also heard that all of these shades are comparable to certain MAC shadows. They are:

(from left to right)

Top row: Brule, Nylon

Middle Row: Cork, Goldmine

Bottom row: Embark, Bronze

Wet N' Wild Mega Eyes Cream Liner: This is the most amazing gel eyeliner I've ever used. Extremely black, long lasting, creamy, doesn't transfer, and it's only 4$. Only downsides are that the packaging is absolutely horrible and causes the product to dry out quicker and this was so hard to find. I used this eyeliner over and over until one day I just couldn't find it anymore and I found out that it was discontinued. That was over a year ago and I recently saw a YouTube video of someone who had just purchased it so I tried to find it again at my local Walgreens. They didn't have it, but thank god, CVS did!

Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara: I've been loving this mascara lately and it was even in my November Favorites. Not much to say about it, except it gives a great curl, length, and a little bit of volume. Click HERE to see PolarBerry's review on this mascara, which is the reason I was tempted to get this mascara. (The Before & After photos sold me!)

(Wet N' Wild Cream Eyeliner, Rimmel Sunny Bronzer)

Wet N' Wild Vanity Palette (sorry, my swatches are kind of out of order)

Thanks for reading! 

xoxo.

Winged Eyeliner and Fuchsia Lips

When applying everyday makeup, a good rule of thumb to follow is just to play up one part of your face: your eyes, cheeks, or lips. That means going dramatic in just one area, but keeping it subtle in the other areas to provide a good balance and avoid looking clown-ish. In this case, I'm using a bright lipstick. By keeping the eyes neutral with winged eyeliner, the look is focused on the lips and the rest of the face doesn't overpower them. 

This is normally what I wear on my eyes on a school day, but instead of just showing you a boring old FOTD, I thought I'd spice it up :)!

(Warning: pic heavy!)

FACE: 

Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer

Physician's Formula Green Concealer

Boots7 Intelligent Boosting Mousse Foundation

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Silky Beige

Lumiere Cosmetics in Light Medium Beige (to set undereye concealer)

ELF Blush/Bronze Duo (bronze side to contour)

MAC Refined Golden (to blend out contour)

NYX Pinky Blush

MAC Soft and Gentle MSF

(let me know if you guys like me posting what I use on my entire face or just cheeks)

EYES:

MAC Painterly Paint Pot

Inglot Matte 318 (lid)

MAC Wedge (crease)

Inglot Pearl 402 (crease over Wedge)

Physician's Formula Glam Eyes Gel Liner

ELF Liquid Liner (over gel liner to intensify)

Avon Black Eyeliner

Sephora Triple Action Mascara

Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara

LIPS:

MAC Girl About Town l/s

NYX Doll Pink Round l/g

What's your favorite bright lip combination? Let me know in the comments below :)

REVIEW: Boots7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation

Recently I've been wanting to try a new foundation. Before I was switching back and forth between Revlon Colorstay and Revlon Photo Ready. Honestly though, I was getting sick of liquid foundation. For some reason, I just cannot stand the way it feels when I apply it to my skin. It just makes my face feels wet, so I always have to make sure I soak it all up with powder. 

And then, like a calling from God (I swear I heard angels sing..), came CityandMakeup's video on her 'Favorite Products of All Time' and she mentioned this foundation. See video here!

I bought it literally the next day :)

KEEP READING FOR MY REVIEW AND SWATCH

The packaging is very classy looking, something you'd expect only high end foundations to be held in. It's pretty heavy and bulky, which I don't mind at all. It's not made of cheap materials either, the packaging is made of thick glass. The lid screws off and as you can see in the photo below, the area you get the product out of is much smaller than the diameter of the jar. But Boots7 realized this and added in a plastic spatula, so you can just scrap the sides when you've used up all you can in the middle. My little spatula would have been pictured here, but when I bought this originally, there were finger marks in it :(  So I had to exchange it and the new one, must have been stolen from :( #jipped...

The texture is like butter. I was amazed! I applied this with my ELF Powder Brush (the flat top one) by dotting it on my face and then blending it and it literally felt like I was just taking a clean brush and rubbing it on my face. But at the same time, my skin imperfections were disappearing before my eyes. It's so blendable and soft and doesn't clump into little mousse balls like some mousse foundations do. This foundation sets to a powder finish. I'm someone who has to always set my foundation with powder and I didn't even need to with this, which amazes me.

It is very lightweight; I barely feel like I have anything on my face when wearing this.

It also has not broke me out and I have very sensitive skin.

I'd say the coverage is medium to full and definitely buildable. It covers my acne scars better than my Revlon Colorstay. This stays on ALL day, longer than liquid foundation ever lasted on me, and didn't oxidize. I probably touched up once a day while wearing this but more out of habit than the actual need to, which is saying a lot considering I have oily skin. With that being said, for those of you with dry skin, unless you make sure to moisturize well, this foundation would not be good for you. It WILL emphasized dry spots.

This foundation has a good color range. They also have a strong yellow undertone, which is SO hard for me to find in a foundation and is exactly what I need. The shade I got is #20 Blonde. For reference, I am an NC25.

PROS:

• Smooth-as-butter texture
• Easy to blend
• Med-Full coverage
• Great for oily skin
• Sets to a powder finish
• Lightweight
• Yellow undertone
• Great color range

CONS:

• Emphasizes dry spots
• Package design might bother some (if you don't like the whole spatula idea)
• Kinda pricey for a drugstore foundation

This foundation retails for $13-14 dollars and Boots7 products can be found at Target or boots.com

In CityandMakeup's video linked above, she mentioned something about this foundation being discontinued, but my Target had a full stock of these so maybe that only applies to Canada, since that is where she lives.