Big Fat Haul :)

Hello everybody,

I have been on vacation from blogging in the past two months. I've been enjoying the hot weather and spending time with my family. Of course I've also been enjoying the new collections that came out during summer and I am so looking forward to the new fall collections, specially the Dior Fall collection. Have you seen it? It is all about blue! I can't wait to get my hands on those eye shadows and the blue nail polish. Anyway, today I am back with a big haul. These are the items I collected in the past two months. I hope you enjoy.


I picked up these two Jumbo Liners from Sephora. They are very comparable to the Urban Decay ones. They are very creamy, very pigmented and the best part is they are very water proof.

I also got this Smashbox blush/highlighter duo. A really nice product, specially the blush, it's such an universal color. It reminds me a lot of NARS Madly.

I went to MAC to check out the new Semi Precious Collection. I have to admit that the quality of the items were really good, but I honestly have many dupes for the majority of the shadows and blushes. I just picked up Golden Gaze eye shadow and only because I missed out on Gilt by Association from the Style Black Collection and they are very similar.

Swatches from L-R: MAC Mineralize Eye Shadow in Golden Gaze, Sephora Jumbo Liner in #5 Beige and #9 Kaki, Smashbox Blush/Soflights Duo in Under/Cover

I am still on the fence about this palette. It is the Bobbi Brown Bronze Palette. I really wanted to love it but it's just not working for me. The shades look wonderfull in the pan, but when I apply them on my lids, they are not as metallic and shimmery as I imagined. My total disappointment is the gold shadow in the upper right corner. I loooove gold shadows with glitter but this one leaves glitter all over my fave. For $60 I expected this palette to be luxurious but it is far from that in my opinion.

I picked up several Chanel products. This is my first Rouge Allure Laque and so far I am very impressed with it. I love how long wearing it is without being drying at all. I also love how bright this fuchsia pink is, but if you rub it in your lips very well it can be subtle, almost like a stain. LOVE IT!

I also picked up two Chanel Illusion D'ombre from the new fall collection. I am <3ing these!!! The formula is brilliant. The texture feels like gel and mouse at the same time. The pigmentation in phenomenal, the finish is very metallic and they stay on all day, no primer needed. I just wish they had a bigger color selection. These are a dream!

I am so glad the next product actually works for me because I started to loose my faith on Bobbi Brown products. I've tried her concealer, glosses, foundations and they didn't work for me either. I just think her line in general never worked for me. Does anybody else have the same problem? Is it just me?  I am glad at last I found a product from her line that I actually love.

Swatches from L-R: Chanel Rouge Allure Laque in #78 Phoenix, Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Cabo Coral, Chanel Illusion D'ombre in #83 Illusoire and #84 Epatant.

And last but not least, I purchased a YSL Pure Chromatics Palette in #19. If couldn't tell already, I am in a shimmer kick and I can't have enough of it. They are just so fun and pretty. This palette is great. I will add swatches of these shadows soon. You can wear them wet or dry and they are gorgeous.

That is all for now. I will see you very soon.

<3

Ruth

Favorites: May 2011

Hello everyone! I'm sharing with you my monthly favorites for the month of May. Some of the products in the list are from my recent Sephora haul, and some others are rediscovered products that I have been reaching for almost everyday. Here they are:

For foundation I have been loving Guerlain Parure Extreme  in shade #3. This foundation is definitely full coverage but it feels really light on my skin. The consistency of it is very liquidy and very easy to work with. I had many formal events this month and I love wearing this for these special occasions when I don't want to do touch ups throughout the night. These foundation is long lasting and I don't even need to set it with powder. LOVE IT.

For blush I have been reaching two products (or three) that really complement each other. One of them is MAC Cremeblend Blush in Something Special and on top of that I have been wearing MAC Mineralized Blush in Happy Together. I love how these products look together and I have to admit, I never wore creme blush before, but I am pleasantly surprised with the result. I also like how layering cream blush and powder blush look and lasts.

For eye shadows I have been reaching out for a long time favorite, my Dior Holiday Collection Palette. I purchased it maybe two years ago as a Christmas present to myself and unfortunately it was limited edition. I love how shimmery and buttery these shadows are. Dior shadows are known for their shimmer and distinctive feel on your lids.
The other palette that I have been loving is the NARS Cap Ferrat. I have been using it by itself or in conjunction with the Dior one. I used the gold and brown shades from the Dior palette on my lid and I used the middle blue shade of the NARS palette in my lower lash line. Just gorgeous!

                                                                             

Another item from my last haul is the Smashbox Double Ended Eyeliner. One end is a highlighter and the other one is a matte ivory shade for your inner rim. They have been working very well for me, I like the fact that the inner rim color is not a bright white color, it's very subtle vet yet noticeable.

And last but not least, the lip combo that I've been wearing lately is NARS Honolulu Honey Lipstick and NARS Chihuahua Lip gloss. These two make the perfect nude for my skin tone, it is more of a peachy nude. Honolulu Honey can be worn by itself but I can't help it, I'm a gloss girl.

From L-R: Honolulu Honey L/S, Chihuahua L/G and the third shade is a combination of both.

That's all I have for you this month. I hope you are having a wonderful summer!!
See you next time

xoxo

Ruth

My Top Drugstore Beauty Products

I wanted to share with you my favorite products from the drugstore. I have always loved Revlon and L'oreal products but lately I discovered other brands that I really like and I think you may like them too. Here are the products I'm talking about:


Revlon Lip Products-  I especially love the Color Burst Lipstick and the Super Lustrous Lip Gloss, but in general Revlon Lip Products are great. The lipsticks lasts as long as the MAC ones, and the lip glosses are not sticky at all. These are some of the ones I wear the most:

From L-R: Color Burst in Peach, Revlon Lipstick in Sassy Mauve, Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Fashion's Night Pout, Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Nude and Coral Reef  

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation - This foundation is a great find because it can be compared to high end foundations but with drugstore price. What I love the most about it is the dewy, natural finish that it gives me. I wear this in Natural Beige (60) and I purchased it at Walmart for $11

Rimmel Lash Accelarator Mascara - I have included this mascara in recent favorites because I really enjoy how it separates and lengthens my lashes. I don't think it makes my lashes grow as it claims, but it definitely keeps them in great condition.

Revlon Nail Polishes - These are another great find at the drugstore. They have a great selection of colors and all kinds of finishes. The stying power is average (around 4 days) but if you wear a good top coat it can last as long as an OPI or Essie polish.

From Left to Right: Top Speed line in Espresso and Sheer Pearl, next to them Revlon Nail Polish in  Moss (part of a trio of mini nail polishes) Black with Envy and the last one is in Cherries in the Snow.

L'oreal HIP cream eyeliner - Thess liners are beautiful. I bought them in a BOGO sale so I end up paying less than $15 for both of them. The colors are beautiful and they do not move. I apply them with a MAC #209 brush and they slide on very easily. They also work great as bases for your eyeshadow.

L'oreal HIP Cream Eye Liners in Eggplant and Midnight Blue

Wet N Wild Eyeshadow Palettes - another products that are worth to check out at the drugstore are these palettes. I can't get over the pigmentation of these shadows at such an affordable price. They are just amazing and the 8 pan ones are so nice to travel with. If you haven't picked these up yet I highly recommend you to do it.

Prestige Liquid Eye Liners - These liquid eye liners remind me so much of the MAC SuperSlick Liners. The colors are really pigmented and they stay put all day long. Some of the colors are shimmery which I love, but they also have matte ones. I think they are really great for the price, definitely a great buy!

What are your favorite drugstore products? I'd love to know.

<3

Ruth

Birthday Haul! Sephora & MAC Surf, Baby

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing with you a Haul. Most of the items I got were in my wish list for a while and since it was my birthday this month, I had the perfect excuse to pick these items up. My first stop was at Sephora. I purchased NARS Cap Ferrat trio, this is part of their summer collection and I'm loving it! This trio is beautiful, the three colors are very wearable yet bright and pigmented.The other item I got was the Smashbox Double Ended Eye Beam. I was looking for a light eye pencil for my waterline and I've tried the Stila, MAC and other brands but they were too obvious on me. I wanted something to brighten my eyes without making me look like an alien. This one works for me, and the neat thing about it is that I also have a brow highlighter all in one.
I also got two freebies at Sephora, they gave me as a gift for my birthday the Philosophy Happy Birthday, Beautiful shower gel and a 500 points VIB Too Faced Palette. I have another post with swatches of these shades if you are interested, they are just amazing.

I attended the Pre Launch Party of MAC's summer collection Surf, Baby yesterday. It was very crowded so I didn't stay long but it was definitely a great party. I purchased 3 items from the collection: Strange Potion Lipglass, Surf the Ocean Crushed Metallic Pigment and My Paradise Cheek Powder. I haven't played much with them yet but they look great. I can't wait to wear them, specially the pigments, when I swatched them they looked like liquid metal, very shimmery and pigmented.
I picked up other MAC products besides the ones from the new collection. I purchased another Cleansing Oil because I just run out of mine and I adore this makeup remover. I got my first Cremeblend Blush in Something Special and two Sheen Supreme Lipsticks in Ultra Darling and Gotta Dash!

 

The last item I got was from my hair salon. I recently got a haircut and when I was leaving I've noticed that they sell Shu Uemura Products. I've heard so much about Essence Absolue Nourishing Protective Oil that I decided to pick it up. They only had the travel sizes so I got two of them. I am going to make a separate review on this product. It is a beautiful hair serum that deserves to be mentioned.

 That is all for now. I hope you are having a great summer. Stay cool!

xoxo,

Ruth

Nail of the Day

Today I'm wearing on my nails "Topless & Barefoot" by ESSIE. This shade is gorgeous, but you need three coats of it to get a smooth, opaque color! This very pretty pinkish nude is a pain in the you know what to apply, but it is worth the time because it looks very sophisticated and you can wear it with any outfit. What do you think?
<3

Ruth

VIB 500 Points Freebie!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to stop by really quick and let you all know that Sephora is having this amazing 500 Points Freebie Palette. The Palette is by Too Faced and it includes 2 eyeshadows from each of their bestselling kits (2 shadows from the Natural Eye, 2 from the Smoky Eye, 2 from the Naked eye and 2 from the Romantic Eye) and a mini Shadow Insurance Primer. The pigmentation of the shadows is really great and the other good thing is that it includes shimmery and matte shades. I got this palette at Sephora last week. Call your local Sephora and ask them if they have it. Here are pictures and swatches.

Favorites: April 2011

Hello beauties! I am doing my April Favorites today. I am going to start with my favorite foundation of the moment (I have a feeling it will be a favorite for a long time)
Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua - I have a full review on this product, but to make it short I can tell you I LOVE THIS. To apply this foundation I use a brush that is also a favorite.
Borghese Round Foundation Brush #104 - This brush is part of a set that is sold at Costco. I've heard of this set on Youtube. A lovely girl called Faith did a video on it and I knew I had to try it. She always recommends products that I end up loving, so I decided to pay a visit to my local Costco and give it a try. Let me just tell you that the whole set is great, but this foundation brush is AMAZING. It has a fine point so you can reach spots like the inner corners of your eyes, around your nose, etc. It is dense enough to blend the foundation very well and it gives me natural finish. This brush + Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua= FLAWLESS.
I am adding the link to Faith's video in case you want more info about it. She has the most lovely personality and is a total sweetheart.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FaithersK#p/u/6/l6PKQPBEPcc

NARS Blush in Madly- I have been wearing either really colorful eyes or bright lips so my go-to blush had to be a neutral. Madly is perfect to balance a brighter look. It's really pretty and natural, nothing that will interfere with the rest of my makeup.
DiorSkin Poudre Shimmer in Amber Diamond - I love this highlighter, it has just the right amount of shimmer. What I like the most is that I can use just one of the shades depending on the color of blush I am wearing, or mix them all together and get a warmer more dimensional color. Love it!

For eyeshadows I've been enjoying my MUFE Aqua Cream #2 and #18. I actully found two MAC eyeshadows that work really well over them. I love pairing MAC Smoke and Diamonds with the #2; and MAC Mineralize eyeshadow in Devil-May-Care with the #18.

From Left to Right: MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Devil-May-Care, MUFE #18, MUFE #2, MAC Smoke and Diamonds

For lips I have been loving MAC Lipglass in Lychee Luxe. It is a gorgeous coral with gold shimmer. I haven't heard much of this color on youtube and I don't know why. I think this is the perfect coral for the summer and it will suit most skintones.
Another gloss I have been wearing a lot is MAC Sweet Strawberry. This was part of the Hello Kitty Collection and unfortunately it was limited edition.

The last lip product is a lipstick. L'ancome L'absolu Nu in Cream Lace is a very moisturizing lipstick that almost feels like a lip treatment. It looks very glossy and it feels great on the lips. The color is a pink based nude with a little bit of shimmer. It goes with everything.

I hope you liked my April favorites. I am celebrating my birthday on May and I am planing to get a few items that are part of my loooong wish list, so expect a haul to come soon.

xoxo,

Ruth

Tarte Pure Maracuja Oil

After doing a lot of research on this product, I decided to purchase the Tarte Pure Maracuja Oil (maracuja is the Portuguese word for passion fruit.) This item is exclusively available on QVC.com and it costs $46 for a bottle of 1.7 Fl oz or 50 ml. Because of all the great reviews and positive feedback on the results of this oil, my expectations are really high. I am taking a before picture of my skin and I will have a formal review and a detailed description of how the Maracuja Oil worked for me. Stay tuned!!!

Here are pictures of the product. I added one with my Blackberry next to it so you can have a better idea of the size of the bottle.

Until next time!

Ruth

Current Obsession: Comfort Zone Eyeshadow Palette

Hi everyone! I have been loving the Wet N Wild Comfort Zone Eyeshadow Palette lately. I wore this shadows for the last two weeks and that is a huge compliment because I usually don't like to wear the same look over and over again. What I love the most about this palette is that I can create different looks with these 8 colors. I don't know if you can tell, but the majority of the colors are exact dupes for MAC eye shadows. The light champagne color is a dupe for Nylon, the dark burgundy is a dupe for Beauty Marked, the duo-chrome dark green is an exact duplicate for Club, and the one that I can't get over is the one that looks exactly like Dalliance!!!! (part of the mega metal eye shadows)
I purchased this palette at Walgreens and I paid $4.99 for it. I can't say enough great things about this palette. I'm just loving it.

Review: Shashbox Set

I don't own many Smashbox products so I did't know much about the quality of their products. I purchased the Smashbox Style Files Set at Sephora and the price was $59. My first impression was WOW, what a great combination of items and colors. The eyeshadows are really pretty, as well as the glosses and blushes. I also like the fact that eyeshadows, eyeliners, lips and cheeks had their own separate box so of you only wanted to use the shadows, you didn't need to take the whole package. After over a month of using these products, I can give you a better description of the quality of every item. Let me start with the shadows. Six out of the eight shadows have a decent pay off. I have to admit they are very soft and butery, but not necesarily super pigmented. They are more in the sheer side. I do love the color selection, specially the purples. The grey shadow is comparable to Coperplate by MAC and the light beige looks like Vanilla, also by MAC. The only two shadows that have poor pigmentation or a lot of glitter fall out are the peachy shade and the frosty lilac one. Overall, I am happy with them.

The cream eyeliners are ok. I found myself using them more as a base for my eyeshadows than wearing them as actual liners. The silver and the dark purple are my favorites. They do crease, so I had to use a primer underneath them. The pencil eyeliners were much better. They are very creamy, I would compare them to the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners.

The best part of this set are the lips and cheek products. The coral blush is a dream! I haven't found anything like it so far. I love the color, the texture and how easy it blends into my skin. It is matte, it lasts longer than any other powder blush I have and what you see in the pan is what you get on your cheeks. It is simply perfection. The shimmery blush is also very pretty. I would compare it to Madly by NARS but more shimmery. Again, same quality than the peachy blush. The lipglosses are also beautiful. What I love the most about them is that they are not sticky at all. They feel very smooth on the lips and they are moisturizing. One thing I did't like about the set is that all the items don't have names. I don't even think they make this shades individually, which is so sad because the blush could easily be a best seller!  I think the set could have been better if the shadows were more pigmented, but that is just personal preference. They do work well for daytime looks. In general, I like this set. I think it's a nice way to try a little bit of everything in the Smashbox line. You also get a little book with different looks you can achieve with these products, so it's a nice way to introduce Smashbox products in my collection.

Final Score: B+