What happens when you use cheap products?

 Beauty Tip, Black Opal, Black Opal Foundation Stick, brushes, Clinique, Cover Girl Queen Collection, Crown Brush, eye shadow, Eyeliner, FOTD, Lips, lipstick, M.A.C., MAC, Makeupchat, My favorites, playing with colors, product review, Queen Collection  1 Response »
Jan 202013
 

 I’m always experimenting with inexpensive products to see what alternatives I can recommend to my readers and clients.  I recently purchased four eyeshadows and two more foundation sticks from Black Opal.Black Opal Purchase Now if you’ve been following me or if you’ve ever had a conversation about makeup with me you already know how much I adore Black Opal Foundation Sticks.  They’re an absolute staple for my personal use as well as my professional kit.  HOWEVER, I was not pleased at all with their Oil Blocking Powder. Click here on my thoughts.  It was a risk when I decided to try these new eyeshadows.Black Opal EyeshadowsHere’s the look I created with these colors. Even though they’re pretty bold, I wanted a softer effect.  Now, it’s very important for me to point out that I did NOT use a primer or base before applying the Black Opal eyeshadows.  I wanted to see exactly how pigmented they were. I have to say I was very pleased with the results.  I didn’t have to build up the color a whole lot either.  Quite impressive for $5.LOTD 1-19-13 Close eye picI decided to try them out with some other inexpensive products such as Elf, NYX, and Cover Girl Queen Collection to complete my look. Below is everything I used.  Even my brushes were inexpensive.  They’re a combo of Coastal Scents and Crown Brush. :-) LOTD 1-19-13 makeupNow granted I did still incorporate some MAC, Clinique and NARS but overall my look was pretty cheap. LOTD 1-19-13 Looking to leftLOTD 1-19-13 Looking StraightSo to answer the question “What Happens when you use inexpensive products?” My answer after using these would be that you get great results.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to achieve a pretty makeup look.  This look validates my belief that technique and quality trump prices. ;-p
Do you only use expensive products or do you venture out and try drugstore brands?

What’s in My Personal Make Up Bag

 Black Opal Foundation Stick, Blotting Sheets, blushes, Compact powder, Cover Girl Queen Collection, Crown Brush, Ebony Bronze, Everyday look inexpensive products, FOTD, Loreal voluminous Million Lashes, M.A.C., make-up, make-up brushes, make-up storage, My favorites, Nars, Nars Exhibit A, Nars Taj Mahal, oil control products, Prep and Prime Powder, Revlon, Shadestick, spooly, Vanilla Pigment  1 Response »
Aug 092012
 

I was inspired to do this post by my fellow make up artist Jessica Marie.  She tagged me on Instagram.  I figured I had too much to say to just do it there so I decided to make a post about it.

I have to admit that I go through phases with my make up so things do change but I also have staples that I never take out.  My actual makeup bags change as well depending on what purse I’m carrying at the time. LOL! :-)

So what is all of this stuff?  I’ll explain below.

2 Nars Blushes: Exhibit A for cheeks and Albatross for my cheek highlight

Yes, there are 3 face powders in my everyday makeup bag. LOL! They all serve different purposes though.

MAC Prep and Prime Skin helps to keep my makeup on longer, reduces oiliness and the appearance of my pores.  I use this powder before and after  I apply my makeup.

Cover Girl Queen Collection Matte Powder in Golden as my overall face powder. I preferred the previous formula over this new one because it provided more coverage but it’s still a nice powder and I prefer the finish on my oily skin more than MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural.

Cover Girl Queen Collection Bronzer in Ebony Bronze is what I use to contour my face.

Black Opal Foundation Stick in Heavenly Honey I can’t tell you enough how much I love these foundation sticks.  Normally I use two this one, and Truly Topaz, which is my skin tone.  However, the cap on my Truly Topaz doesn’t stay on well so I took it out of my bag. I use Heavenly Honey as a highlighting concealer. (under my brows and under my eyes to my cheeks).

Lancome Oscillating Mascara Primer: The absolute BEST primer I’ve ever used…also the most expensive. :-(  It makes ANY mascara work well.

Loreal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara my favorite drug store mascara

NYX Blotting Sheets because I really believe I’m the oiliest person on Earth. I use these about 2-3x daily.  On a good note, they work really well and I can go back to being matte with just two sheets. :-)

MAC Shadestick in Gentle Lentil R.I.P. to the shadesticks. They’ve been discontinued and it’s such a pity.  They were the most convenient way for me to do my eyes. :-(

3 Eyeliners

MAC Pearlglide in Designer Purple (one of my all time favorite eyeliners). I sometimes use this all over my lid because it’a a beautiful glittery purple.  Other times I’ll use it under my bottom lash line for a pop of color or to make a smokey eye.

NYX Black Eye Pencil just depends on the day.  I don’t wear eyeliner in my waterline all of the time, sometimes I’ll want to so it’s in there.  Every now and then I’ll use it to line the top of my lash line.

Elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen I use this to line the top of my lash line when I want to use a liquid black.

Naked Pigment Sample My all-time favorite brow highlight.  I usually keep a Vanilla Pigment Sample in my bag as well but I ran out.  I’ll sometimes use Vanilla as my brow highlight or transition color above my crease.  More often I use it as my cheek highlight.  I have NARS Albatross in my bag now because I ran out of Vanilla.

Clinique Pencil Sharpener

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Balm Stain  I alternate between this orange one and the pink one. These surprised me because they have a good amount of pigment to be a stain.  I’ll do a full review in a later post.

Elf Lipstain in First Date.  Going to have to get another one soon. These Elf lipstains are nice because they don’t dry out or crumble on your lips like a lot of other stains I’ve tried.

2 Lipsticks

MAC Ruby Woo my favorite red lipstick

MAC Vegas Volt a great coral color.

2 Lipliners 

MAC Beet which is a pinkish red. I love this color I blend it various colors from nudes, corals, oranges, pinks, and reds. Sometimes I wear it alone or I’ll just dab some gloss in the middle of my lips.

Cabernet Sorry I don’t have a brand name.  It came with my makeup kit I received when I took Ebony Mac’s makeup class last summer.  It looks very similar to MAC Burgundy Lip Pencil or Clinique’s Bon Bon.

MAC Lipglass in Wonder Woman (limited edition that I regret not buying 2 of) It’s a gorgeous red with shimmer.

My brushes

Smashbox face and body brush that I’m no longer happy with because of the extensive shedding. :-( For the 1st yr I had it, it was my favorite face brush. Prime example of how an expensive brush doesn’t always mean it’s a better brush. I still have my CVS Essence of Beauty brushes from 2003 and they work fine.

Crown Brush Angle Brush I use this for contouring my face.  I love the fact that it’s pink.  I got it from Hautelook during one of the Crown Brush sales.

 Sonia Kashuk Pointed Foundation Brush used to blend concealer under my eyes

Coastal Scents Pink Flat Shader Brush primarily used to carve out my brow with concealer or apply naked as my brow highlight.  I also use it to apply lid colors.

 

Product Battles: Crown Brushes Pt. 5-C412 Deluxe Pointed Crease vs. M.A.C. #224

 Crown Brush, Expensive brushes, Inexpensive Products, M.A.C., Product Battles  5 Responses »
Aug 112011
 

This is the 5th and final part of my Crown Brushes review.  The last brush I will focus on is the C412 Pointed Crease.  I’ll show you how it compares to the M.A.C. #224.

Here are the two next to each other.

The pictures show the Crown brush on the left and the M.A.C. brush on the right.  There are a few differences.  The Crown Brush’s handle is shorter and the hair is is tapered and pointed more than the #224 brush.  The C412 is a bit more dense than the #224 so it picks up more color.  It also gets in the crease a little better. Ha! Who would’ve thought right?  They both feel the same as far as texture.  They’re soft but sturdy enough to work in the crease, unlike some brushes that are too flimsy to get the job done.  The #224′s handle feels smoother as if it’s from a really nice piece of wood.  The C-412′s handle feels almost like plastic.  It’s not uncomfortable by any means, you can just tell it’s from a…cheaper quality (for lack of better words).

Now after looking at how similar the Crown Brush C433 and C412 are to the M.A.C. brushes #217 & #224, you can understand why I was so disappointed that they weren’t available on Hautelook.com.  I may just have to break down and purchase them from crownbrush.com.

Product Battles: Crown Brushes Pt. 4-C433 Pro Blending Fluff vs. M.A.C. #217

 brushes, coastal scents, Crown Brush, Hautelook  4 Responses »
Aug 102011
 

I mentioned in part 1 of this series that I wished Hautelook.com would’ve had the dupes for the M.A.C. #224 and #217 available.  I wanted to do separate posts so that I didn’t overwhelm you all to talk about them.

The Crown Brush C433 Pro Blending Fluff (whew long name) on the left is the brush the post will focus on.

Here are the two brushes next to each other.  You can see why I was so disappointed that Hautelook.com didn’t have these brushes.  It’s very hard to tell the difference between the two…well besides the logos. Ha ha!  As far as how they function, I honestly don’t notice a difference.  This is the absolute best dupe for a M.A.C. brush that I’ve found to date.  The next time I see them available, I’m buying 3.  I purchased this Crown Brush in March of this year.  At the time, I wasn’t sure how it was compare so I only bought one.  I totally regret that now.

Coastal Scents has a brush that looks similar on the website, but it’s always sold out, so I don’t know how it compares.   The Coastal Pro Blending Fluff Brush retails for $3.95 on their website.
 Have any of you tried the Coastal Scents brush?

Product Battles: Crown Brushes Pt. 3-Deluxe Duo Fiber Crease brush

 Crown Brush, Hautelook, Inexpensive Products  2 Responses »
Aug 102011
 

This is part 3 of my Crown Brushes review from Hautleook.com.  This post is focusing on the Deluxe Duo Fiber Crease brush.  I already had one of these from my last purchase from Hautelook.com.  I decided to go ahead and get another one since it was so inexpensive.  I really think that was an impulse by.  I didn’t need another one.  I had never used the first one.  I just love duo fiber brushes and wanted to get it.  Well, now I have two of them.

This is the picture from Crownbrush.com. It’s regularly $12.38 (random price ha ha) on this website.  It’s currently 60% off which brings it to $4.95.  Hautelook.com had it on sale for $4.  I don’t know how long the 60% off sale if going on but that’s not a bad deal at all.
C429 - Deluxe Duo Crease
Here’s a picture of the brushes I purchased.  The actual brush is on the left.  It’s definitely an eye brush. You can see how much smaller it is than the two face brushes next to it.   It’s really soft and doesn’t pick up a lot of color.  I guess you could compare it to a M.A.C. #224 but thinner and not as sturdy.

So what would you use this brush for?

I went ahead and played with it a bit.  I used it to buff in my under eye concealer and to blend all my colors at the end of my eye look.   I don’t see it being that useful in the crease even though it’s marketed as a crease brush.  It would take you a very long time to build color.  I see this brush as one of those that you want just to complete your collection.  It’s definitely not a must have.

Crownbrush.com has a Duo Fiber Kabuki brush on sale right now for $14.95.  I’m so tempted to get it.  I’ve never seen one of these before.  Hmmm, decisions decisions…

Product Battles: Crown Brushes Pt. 2-Round Angle Blender Brush vs. Elf Angled Contour Brush

 brushes, Crown Brush, Elf, Hautelook, Inexpensive Products  4 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

This segment will focus on the Crown Brush Round Angle Blender Brush and Elf’s Angled Contour Brush.

The Elf brush on the left and the Crown Brush brush on the right
When I ordered this brush, I really didn’t know what to expect.  I couldn’t tell from the pictures on Hautelook.com if this was a big or small brush.  I just took a chance. Ha ha!  I honestly didn’t know if it was for the face or eye, I could only see that it had an angle.  From the description saying “rounded”, I was really expecting something different.  When I opened the package and saw the brush, my first thought was “Oh! This is like my Elf brush.”.  Indeed it is very similar but there are some key differences.  See below
Crown brush on the left and the Elf brush on the right
The Crown brush is smaller than my Elf brush.  The brush is shorter and the bristles are more narrow.  The Crown brush however is softer and a little more dense.  I purchased two of these just in case I really liked it.  I didn’t want to miss out on getting another one.  There wasn’t a price difference.  Both were $3, however you can get the Elf Angled Contour brush even cheaper with the different specials on the www.eyeslipsface.com website. Also if you sign up for the newsletter, you can get discounts.   It seems like Elf sends out a different deal each day.  

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