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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Get NAKED!!!

So I have been wanting the Urban Decay NAKED and NAKED  2 palette for sometime now. Since I asked for them for Xmas, I have not bought them myself. However, since I could not resist the lure of such great makeup, I caved and bought the NAKED Basics yesterday at my local Ulta and I LOVE IT!!!! I am positive I will use this palette everyday. It has 6 great matte shades (ok, a bit of a lie Venus has a bit of shimmer to it) that work on all skin tones and all ages. I love the fact that this palette is matte since a lot of older women can use this palette without looking silly/calling attention to their wrinkles. It's the mommy/daughter palette. I walked into Ulta to check the palette out initially because I was scared that the lighter shades would not work well on tan/olive and darker skin tones. Some light colors can look chalky against a dark background. However, I was excited to realize this was not the case with this palette. Luckily, there was also a consultant on hand from Urban Decay, to help me figure out how to blend the lighter colors so they look good on darker skin. The colors are highly pigmented which I am a fan of especially because I have darker skin. The case feels like rubber to me, but it seems very durable and the palette is very travel-friendly. I could easily fit it in a clutch for a holiday party or my jeans pocket since it is the same size as an iPhone or Blackberry.


Description of colors
Venus-pale skin tone color with a bit of shimmer. It looks practically the same as Foxy except it has shimmer.

Foxy-pale skintone like Venus without the shimmer (matte). It also looks less pink.

W.O.S-Pale skin tone shade, matte, more pink undertones than the two previous colors

Naked 2-Pale brown/taupe-y matte

Faint- light milk chocolate matte

Crave-dark brown matte, almost black. It's like looking into a cup of coffee without cream.

Here is my personal look that I wear using my Naked Basics Palette via a step by step guide:

1) For darker skinned girls apply WOS across the lid and follow up towards the brow bone. For lighter skinned girls use Foxy.

2) Take Naked 2 and apply it all over the lid.

3) Take Faint and blend it into the crease and the outer edge of the lid. You can also add a bit under the lower lashes if you are feeling adventurous.

4) Repeat the above step with Crave for a really well defined eye.

5) Add a dab of Venus to the middle of the top lid and into the inner rim of your eye to brighten it up a bit. Again if you are feeling adventurous, you can add some below you eyelashes starting from the point of the arch and out towards your ear. This will give you a luminous glow and highlight your face.

Enjoy! If my step-by-step guide is unclear feel free to comment! (or if you have anything else you'd like to know about.

XOXO, Haylee :)

PS Check out our Current Giveaways page for our latest giveaways!

Post Holiday/New Year's Giveaway

So Anna recently went to the Stila warehouse sale where she got some awesome stuff for herself, me and several people on her Xmas list including....YOU!!!! That's right guys we have a new giveaway that will end Jan 31st. Enjoy!

The giveaway includes Stila's "Under the Mistletoe" palette with 3 of their holiday lip glazes (Left to right): Jingle, Joy, and Holly. The palette is an $85 value and Stila lip glazes sell for $22 each, so the entire package is valued at over $120!



a Rafflecopter giveaway


XOXO,
Haylee :)
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Beauty Bar/Sample Society November 2012 Box

I am very excited to say that today I got my very first BeautyBar.com Sample Society Box! Yay!

A little bit about Beauty Bar, Sample Society, and the box:
As a subscriber, you pay $15 a month to get a year subscription to Allure magazine and a box delivered to your door featuring 5 sample size high end beauty products.

What I got in my box:
A coupon code
Mini Allure magazine with beauty tips
Diptyque eau de toilette in Volutes (0.06 fl oz/2ml valued at $3.11)
L'Occitane en Provence Dry Skin Hand Cream in Shea Butter (0.3 oz/10 ml valued at $1.62)
Dermalogica's Precleanse (1 oz/30 ml valued at $6.86)
Mini (and I mean MINI) lipstick in Satin Pink #29 by Diego Dalla Palma
Bamboo Smooth Kendi Oil Dry Oil Mist by Alterna(1 fl oz/30 ml valued at $5.71)
Total Value (without lipstick): $17.30
What I paid: $15.00----not a super great bargain in this box compared to Julep or some other boxes but they have some nice products and I got a bit more than what I paid for.

Reviews:

Mini Allure magazine-I was really excited about this and it was one of the selling points in the box for me. I like guides and tips on how to use my products and this definitely came through with what it had promised. The only problem I have with this is that the first page talks about the new trend of crimson lips whereas the actual box did not send users a crimson/deep red lipstick sample. The colors found in the boxes were a standard red, orange-pink, and a pale-ish pink. I can understand why Sample Society did this, however; most women might not like the "on trend" lip color especially in deep almost-black red.


Diptyque eau de toilette in Volutes-I LOVE this scent. The name is French and apparently means the smoke from a cigarette. I know that makes the scent sound horrible, but it is meant to evoke images of women on Titanic era ocean liners, elegantly dressed and smoking. The only drawback is that the regular size of this perfume retails at a whooping $120. Actually, make that two drawbacks. I was a bit disappointed that Sample Society would chose to send me a perfume sample that I could jsut as easily pick up at the perfume counter of my local department store. I actually got TWO free samples of this perfume from my local Nordstrom's counter when I asked to smell the perfume.


L'occitane en Provence Hand Cream-This hand cream is apparently a brand bestseller; according to the company, one is sold every 5 seconds somewhere around the world. I was not super thrilled with recieving this product since I could have gotten it for free right now with the company's Facebook promotion. I will not be buying any products from this company right now, however, due to their customer service. I never got my coupon for the Facebook promo even though I applied TWICE. They never responded to me about this problem the first time I asked customer service about it. The second time, they said they ran out of coupons and that I should walk into my local store and just request a sample free of charge. I did walk into my local boutique and--as expected--I did not get a free sample because they did not believe that customer service had told me to just walk into the store and ask for one. Because of this fiasco with L'occitane, I was acutally happy to recieve a sample of the cream in my Sample Society box since I went to a lot of trouble to try the product. I will tell you more about the actual cream itself when I try it out.


Dermalogica Precleanse-Haven't tried the product yet, but I have heard wonderful things about it from other girls and I cannot wait to try it.


Diego Dalla Palma Lipstick in #29 Pink Satin- I am not thrilled at all about the size of this sample. It is only 1.5 inches tall. I do love the color and the consistency of the product. If you want to see what the color looks like on me, you can do so on my Youtube review of this box. The lipstick is very smooth and brings out the natural color of my lips. It stayed on during my ENTIRE dinner and since then has lasted 2 hours and counting. I will be buying more of these. The drawback is that the full product is $34.

Kendi Oil by Alterna-Great sample size of 1 oz. I love spraying this in my hair when my scalp/hair get really dry in the winter months. It helps add and lock in some extra moisture that I would not otherwise have and really keeps my hair from drying out and my scalp from itching/irritating due to large amounts of styling.

XOXO,
Haylee :)
Tuesday, December 4, 2012

I'm on Youtube!!!

Subscribe to my new vlog on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_yqAP8A65mMERazplQbcHQ?feature=mhee

This gives you an extra entry into my Holiday Giveaway!!!!

PS If this link doesn't work, please let me know so I can fix it :)

XOXO,
Haylee :)

Influenster's College VoxBox

Hey guys! So today I am really excited to announce a post for Influenster's College VoxBox. I got my box before leaving for Thanksgiving to visit my family so I am sorry this post is a little late. Influenster is a company that pairs up people that are passionate about certain hobbies with companies that sell particular items so that the company's products can be reviewed. I was invited to join this company by my follower Lauren so a big THANK YOU to her :). As a member of Influenster, you are never promised a box or product to review but participation and doing surveys on the website enhance your possible selection as a reviewer. I know Lauren got the Beauty Box to review a while back from them and now I am getting their College Box. I would love to have you guys subscribe as well so if you are interested, I have 5 invites to share. Just leave me a commment down below if you want to be invited and I can give you the info. On to the box...

PRODUCTS IN MY BOX:
Impress Press-On Manicure
NYC New York Color ShowTime Glitter Eyeliner Pencil
Necco Tropical Wafers
Pentel EnerGel-X Campaign pen
Energy Sheets

REVIEWS:

Impress Press-On Manicure-When I saw these were included in my box I was super excited. I was going to actually buy some for my trip to Vegas so that I would have nice nails for a few nights. These nails are $5.99 for solid colors and $7.99 for prints. I love these as an alternative to getting my nails done at a salon. They make my nails look nice for a fraction of the salon price. In my box I recieved Space Cadet which was an ok print in my opinion. I think everyone else that saw them thought they were cooler than I did. I just thought it looked kind of like cow spots so I was not to thrilled with the pattern. They do have other nice patterns which I have shared below and I have purchased the french manicure before. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of me wearing them since I took the nails off and just now remembered that I needed to snap a picture of them. :( Broadway, the company that makes the nails, says they have a longevity of about a week. Mine lasted 5 days before I decided to take them off (the long nails hinder my ability to work in a lab), but I have had mine last up to a week and a half before. I did notice that the design on the tips tends to wear down after 2 days or so. They did last a whole weekend in Vegas (including clubbing) so they are very durable.



Eyeliner Pencil-I was kind of apprehensive about this product when I first recieved it since it seems like the type of product that could be really amazing or really bad. I do recommend NYC Color as a brand. I have been using their nail polish as a kid and I used their makeup back in middle school and high school. Recently I haven't bought anything from the company, but this eyeliner pencil might change that. The liner I recieved was in black but they do come in other colors (a blue and a brown, I believe). Unfortunately, they are only selling the black one at the Target near my house. The liner is long lasting and non-smudging. I wore it all night while clubbing in Vegas. It might be a little too long wearing, however, since I had problems getting rid of the glitter specks with a facial wipe that night while getting ready for bed. I still had sparkles around my eyes when I woke up in the morning.


Pentel pen- I got this pen in the color purple. At first I was a little upset by the way the pen wrote. It was a bit hard to use it while writing on my desk at home. The ink did not form a solid line. However, as I kept using it, the ink started flowing smoothly and the pen writes like a dream. In fact, I am thinking about sticking to ONLY this pen--it is that good. I normally use the PILOT G-2 07 pen which is another gel pen. As a lefty, it is important for me to find nice pens that won't smear when my hand passes over the ink. This Pentel pen does not smear. In addtion, the gel consistency is nicer than that of the Pilot pens. I really don't know how to characterize this difference other than it is "nicer." It just improves the writing experience. This pen is definitely one I will keep using in the future.
 
Tropical Wafers- I have never seen products from this brand at any store I have been to. If anyone knows where to find them, please let me know. The wafers are addicting. I tried the banana flavored one and the green one, and I can't stop eating them. I am saving the rest for when I need a little pick-me-up during the work day.


Energy Sheets- I haven't tried the energy sheets yet. I will try just one for the sake of review, but other than that I plan on passing them along to a friend who is ok using them. I tend to not use energy boosts since I consider them unnatural and unsafe. I like my caffeine to come from coffee or tea. Maybe I am just old fashioned.


Have a wonderful day guys and don't forget to enter my Holiday Giveaway(you can find it under current giveaways). Which of these products would you try/have you tried?

XOXO, Haylee :)