December Empties

The end of December (and the end of the year) has completely snuck up on me with the craziness of finals and the holidays.  I haven't even had much time to browse around my favorite blogs...yet somehow I've managed to do some serious online shopping.  While another fashion post is in the midst, today I bring to you a satisfying post to write.  

Empties.  I always love writing and reading these because it's a fantastic way to show what products I have liked to actually completely finish using, as well as proof that I am actually using the products I own!  With as much makeup as all us beauty junkies have, using up products is a testament to a good stash rotation ;)

Since I took these photos about a week ago, I had a batch of products that were *almost* done, but I added them in anyway because I didn't want to hold on to them for much longer.

Missing from this picture: another bottle of my Clinique Acne Solutions Toner!  I use this stuff up every few months.

For my skincare and body products, I am actually surprised I managed to use up to bottles of body lotion within 4 months of my previous empties post.  I love the Pacifica body butters, and will definitely be purchasing them again in the future!  I also finally used up the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil, that I wish I still had since it  is still the most effective product for taking off all my makeup with one step.  I'm lazy to order online, especially since more beauty brands are coming out with cleansing oils, but I may be tempted to order this again if I don't find an adequate replacement!  The Suave Everlasting Sunshine Body Wash was pretty good if nothing too special for me.  I loved the fresh floral smell of this the most, but it didn't linger or moisturize my skin to well.  Lastly, I am so so so happy I finished the tiny sample of the Kenzo Flower Perfume.  I know some people love this, but I could not stomach this smell at all.  It's a powdery floral scent, but it is WAY too powdery for me to the point that it was nauseating.  I barely even used this before it actually spilled in one of my bags....making my entire bag smell like this.  Not. Good. :(

I finished up a good amount of makeup products, and as you'll see below, there will be even more in just a few weeks! (days at this point..)  I have 3 lip balms to cross off the list, starting with the Revive side of the Blistex lipbalm duo.  I did not like this nearly as much as the Restore side (which I used up awhile back) since I did not feel that it was nearly as moisturizing, but it isn't the worst balm I've ever tried.  I also used up the Jack Black Grapefruit SPF25 lip balm.  I completely fell into the hype of this and understood why everyone is singing its praises.  I absolutely love this, and will be buying this again when I go through some of my other balms!  And finally, after losing it and then refinding it again this year, I was finally able to finish the Neutrogena Naturals Lip balm.  I don't hear many people talking about this balm, but actually found that it was insanely moisturizing for me.  I used it more at night since it doesn't have SPF, so I will also be buying this in addition to the Jack Black lip balms.

The two little samples on the right side are the now discontinued Smashbox Tinted Moisturizer and the Tarte Recreate Silicone Free Primer.  The tinted moisturizer wasn't anything too life-changing..it was sheer and light, but didn't have any effects that I noticed.  Similarly, while the Tarte primer kept my makeup kept my makeup lasting a littttle bit longer, I didn't find that it did much to help my pores.  I'm glad these are finally out of the way, though!

 The makeup products I finished this time around were a long time coming.  I definitely enjoyed the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer, which seemed never-ending (in a good way!).  It was great for concealing my dark circles, and even acted double duty to help conceal my blemishes.  Again, I have some other concealers to go through, but I will consider buying this in the future.  The Covergirl Lash Exact Waterproof mascara is a good everyay, defining mascara, but I personally like a little bit of drama to my lashes.  It was good for days that I just needed to throw on mascara since it never clumped, but I still prefer my Maybelline Falsies.  Next, I finished up a mini size of the Stila All-Over Luminizer in Kitten.  It was great for traveling and adding a beautiful glow to my skin, since I prefer liquid highlighters to powder highlighters.  I bought this in a trio with the Bronze and Rose Gold shade awhile back, and look forward to using those as well!  In a valiant effort to use up my eyeliners, I finally (finally!) used up the L'oreal Extra Intense Liquid Eye Pencil in Black.  Now, this was never-ending.  It was a great eyeliner in terms of its intensity and creaminess, but it just seemed like I had this forever. I actually prefer the Milani Liquid Eyeliner Pencil since it is even darker than the L'oreal version.  Lastly, I am just about done with the Milani Radiant Bronzer. I'm not even sure if they sell this anymore, but this was a great bronzer for its matte, but not flat finish and a bronzey glow that warmed up my face well.


Finally, here are some products that are just about finished, but aren't quite there yet.  I imagine that by the end of the month (yikes...4 days!), they will be done.

Starting from the left, I have the Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Warm Golden..which I have had for an embarrassingly long time.  Let's just say that although I love this foundation to death, I'm glad I'm finally finishing this bottle.  Next, the Clinique Take the Day Off Balm has lasted me just about a year, doing its faithful duty of shedding off all my makeup at the end of the day.  Although the Shu Uemura oil was more effective, the fact that the Clinique one was a balm made it much more convenient for all the traveling I did this past year. Since its also easier to acquire, I'm more likely to repurchase this. Now I have a lipstick (?!?!) and even a blush (?!?!...cream, but still).  The Maybelline Moisture Extreme Nude Blush lipstick has been long discontinued, and I was so devastated that I stopped using it for about a year.  Now that I think I have enough dupes (not exact, but close..), I had the heart to pull this out again.  I'm just about near the end of it, and although I'm sad to see it go, I'm glad to clear out this lipstick and use my newer ones.  And the unicorn of all makeup empties.  How often do I use up blushes?  Never.  But since I use pretty much the same cream blush everyday under my powder blushes, they go a lot quicker.  This Topshop Cream Blush in Nutmeg was the perfect everyday soft pink cream blush.  It was pigmented, glided on well, and lasted for a decently long time.  I know this shade doesn't exist anymore, but I will be checking out their other shades whenever I get the chance!

I'm certainly happy with the amount of makeup products I finished, but hopefully I will have even more next time to clear out some of my older products!

Shop Your Stash: August Edition and some FOTD

With a new month comes a whole new round of the Shop Your Stash project with new rediscovered products to try!  As I've mentioned before, I like doing this to really go through items in my collection I might have not used in awhile and to find new ways to use them.  After two months of doing this, I can say that it's going well and I'm definitely finding new products in my collection that I've forgotten about.

For those new to my blog, the Shop Your Stash project has a couple guidelines:

• I pick 20 - 25 face, eye, and lip products that I want to use more often in the month

• I have to use each product at least two times in the month

Without further ado, here are this month's selections!

Keep reading to see more details and swatches of all of the products!

More new pretties to love....

Does is always seem like when your life gets busy, everything happens at once, and nothing seems to be evenly spread out?  That's what happened recently - for the better part of this summer I've been feeling like nothing much has been happening, and recently, I've been so busy I haven't even been able to properly sit down and relax until today.

This haul is long overdue as I bought some of these things over a month ago, but..better late than never, right?

I was a bad girl and went shopping. again. As much as I tell myself that I don't need more makeup, I always fall for just one more lipstick..or eyeliner.  Since my lipstick collection is now pretty complete, I went into Sephora to fill any holes I had in my eyeliner collection..and walked out with this:

I've wanted to try the Stila eyeliners since they came out, and I just had to have this set.  I have never seen the Kat von D eyeliner, but once I swatched it, I was in complete love.  I've never really been interested in eyeliner, but something about that day just had me thinking I need more eyeliners.  No, I really don't.


Read on to see some swatches and more products I couldn't resist!

Another collection of FOTD's

I seem to be failing at putting up my faces of the day, but here they are from the past week!

Click for the products used and tons more looks!

The Shop Your Stash Project: July

I have to say, I'm really liking my Shop Your Stash Project idea.  It's encouraging me to not only use products that I either haven't used in awhile or products that haven't been used much at all, but it's also pushing me to be more experimental and creative with my makeup rather than just blindly reaching or the Naked palette or my other neutral shadows.

As a refresher, here's what the whole "Shop Your Stash Project" is all about:

• I pick 20 - 25 face, eye, and lip products that I want to use more often in the month
• I have to use each product at least two times in the month

That's it.  Pretty simple.  If you want to see  the products I chose for June, check it out here!  There were some products that made it into my everyday rotation and that I absolutely LOVE (holler at the ELF Giddy Gold Highlighter and the Vincent Longo Lip and Cheek Gel Stain), and there were products that I really had make an effort to integrate into my routine, such as the Alverde Liquid Eyeliner, and MAC Orange Tempura lipgloss.  But all in all, I was happy about the "new" things I had to use from day to day.

This month, I have a whole new bunch of products to use, 22 items, to be exact.

Here they are in all their glory:

Keep reading to see exactly what these products are and swatches!

Product Favorites: June

I promise that eventually, I'll get these up on time and at the end of the actual month, but for now, my busy little life (aka applying for jobs) is pushing back the monthly posts that I want to do!

But, the monthly favorites are finally here, and although there aren't many products this month, these products were really loved this month.

Keep reading to find out why I liked these products so much! 

Empties Post #2

Do you ever have those days when nothing seems to go right?  You wake up and everything just feels wrong, your plans don't go right, you don't get things done when you want to, and everything seems to go wrong at the same time?  

I think I can safely say that I had the worst start to the week ever.  I moved back to DC all excited to start looking for jobs and doing my own thing, until I left my wallet on a bus.  THANK GOD I found it, but it was the most stressful two hours of waiting for the bus to come back to the same stop. Can you believe that there is no way for the people working at the metro center to communicate with the bus drivers, meaning I had to hope for the best that someone turned in my wallet.  Needless to say, I have a little more hope for humanity when my wallet was indeed, turned in with all my cards and cash intact!

On top of that, my phone somehow completely died yesterday.  Although I had planned to get a new phone soon anyway, I had wanted to keep this phone intact for when I went back abroad since it's unlocked.

This all contributed to my inability to get things done (i.e. my online classes and much needed grocery shopping) and messing up some serious plans.  This morning, I woke up determined to start getting into a normal routine and get things done.  I'm happy to say I got a new phone (and resisted against the iPhone again and got the new Samsung Galaxy S4), got my groceries, and got some job applications....with a little bit of retail therapy to get over the stress of the past few days (but that's for another post!).  

The past couple months I've been working on finishing more products - I have a good amount to show, but I'm near the end of many products right now so my next post will be much more exciting!

 Keep reading to see what I thought of these products and if I would buy them again!

The 'Shop Your Stash' Project

So, last week I started something new. Although I've been going through my stash and rediscovering new things the past month, I wanted to find a way to use them all on a consistent basis.  This isn't a new concept - taking out a few products that haven't been used very much or in a long time, but it isn't something I've tried in awhile.

Here's what I'm trying to do: I took out 21 products for the month of June and my goal is to use each product at least twice, just so I can get some use out of it and be creative about the way I use it.  I've had this going for about two weeks now and I'm really pleased with how its going.  I certainly am enjoying products that I either haven't used in a long time or haven't used much at all.
I have a total of 5 face products, 7 eye products, and 9 lip products to use before June is over.  Some of these will undoubtedly end up in my June favorites, while others may just be average products - we'll see which ones make the cut!

To see what products I'm using, as well as tons of swatches, keep reading!

It's Bright Lip Season....

Actually, who am I kidding...every season is bright lip season, but I don't always wear bright lips during the day.  I try to reserve it for nights out, but yesterday seemed like the perfect day to bust out my bright pink lipstick.

I also wore Covergirl's Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation on its own yesterday, hoping to check out its wear and full coverage on me.  I would say that was a fail since I ended up being outside for an hour, stomping around a park with one of my friends, but I am pleased with what I see so far.

It has a nice almost gel-type consistency, and it spreads out to a nice medium coverage.  I needed concealer to cover up some of my darkest spots, but it covered everything else up perfectly.  My shade is in 857 Golden Tan, and it matched pretty well, but it seemed just a smidge too pink.  It's not enough to really notice unless I don't blend it in well enough.  I would say that this also photographs pretty well, even in flash:

Read on to see more photos, as well as my most recent read:

Feeling Coral

I have a full blown obsession with the Estee Lauder Pure Color Blush in Naughty.  It is the perfect bright red coral that with the right stippling brush (Sonia Kashuk Highlighting brush anyone?), gives me the perfect flush.  I'm actually not sure I've loved a blush more, except for MAC's Fleur Power when I first got it a few years ago.  It still remains as one of my favorites, with its shiny new sister from Estee Lauder.

Paired with MAC's Refined Mineralized Skin Finish, it is a coral-bronze glowy heaven.

Read on to see swatches and how I wore this!

And the hauling monster returns....

Stepped into a Rite-Aid for the first time this year, and I couldn't resist picking up a few things. 

L-R clockwise: Maybelline Vivids Lipstick in Electric Fuchsia, Covergirl 3 in 1 Outlast Foundation, Covergirl Lash Exact WP mascara, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Icy Mint.

Covergirl Foundation, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Icy Mint, Maybelline Electric Fuchsia

I've never been a huge Covergirl fan, but I've heard so many good things about the new Outlast Stay Fabuous 3 in 1 Foundation.  I picked it up today, and was pleasantly surprised by its light and watery texture.  I haven't worn it yet, but a quick swatch on my hand reminds me of MAC Face and Body.  The shade in 857 Golden Tan is a perfect match - such a perfect match on my hand that you can't even see it blended it in under the pumped out swatch.

I was also excited to see the new Maybelline ColorSensational Vivids collection, and had to resist getting all the shades.  I picked up Electric Fuchsia to begin with and the initial swatch is gorgeous.  I don't any shades like this so it'll be interesting to see how it looks on my face.

The Maybelline Color Tattoo in Icy Mint was a total impulse buy as I saw this all by itself and was drawn by its icy blue-mint color.  This will be a perfect base for some summer looks!

Last of all, I picked up the Covergirl Lash Exact mascara because I know my Max Factor one will dry up soon.  This is a tried and true waterproof mascara - it will not budge.  It provides some perfect volumized and lengthened lashes!

Although this was an unplanned haul, at least I know they were things I've wanted for awhile!  I'm sure I'll be back with more soon. Oops, there goes my bank account...