Beauty on a Budget: The Drugstore Eyeshadow Palette You NEED

Hello Beautiful Ones!

With Thanksgiving now under my belt, I have officially embraced all things Christmas! (Happy early Holidays to you all!). The Holiday season has me thinking gifts, but also budgeting. It's the dreaded elephant in the room. You want to get a great gift for your special someone (or yourself!) without breaking the bank. Well I have an awesome drugstore eyeshadow pallette for all of the beauty junkies on your list (or yourself!): The Makeup Revolution Iconic 2 Redemption Eyeshadow Palette.

I had never heard of Makeup Revolution until I ran across a display of their palettes during a recent trip to ULTA. It turns out Makeup Revolution is a British Makeup brand based out of London. They have several gorgeous looking palettes available in ULTA, but the thing that really caught my attention was the price tags. The Icon 2 Redemption palette is $7 (yes, you read that right!). I went for this one because it was full of neutrals that I was drawn to, and everybody knows I'm a sucker for a good neutral eyeshadow palette. The pans are very narrow, but pretty long giving you a decent amount of shadow in each one. The packaging is very sleek and thin, it reminds me a lot of the Maybelline eyeshadow palettes released in recent years. Adding a mirror would have made it the ultimate traveling eyeshadow palette, but I guess you can't have everything with a $7 price point!

So far everything has been fabulous, but how is the quality you're asking? Well, as it turns out that's pretty darn fabulous too! I've been wearing this one regularly for a couple of weeks now and there's very little that I dislike about it. Aside from a few of the lighter shades, they all have a decent color payoff. As I said this is a neutral palette, mostly suitable for the day time. But you could still ramp it up for night if you wanted too. I always use an eyeshadow primer, but the lasting power here is really good! I can put it on in the morning and it's still holding strong by the time I'm taking my makeup off at the end of the day (work tested!). I will say that this palette leans more towards shimmer finishes than mattes, so if shimmer shadow is not your thing this might not be the one for you. But none of these are overly glittery, and could easily be worn for work or class.

Bottom line? This palette is AWESOME and the $7 price tag is even better! Let me know if there are any other Makeup Revolution products you think I should try.

XO- Brittney

Read More

Two New Makeup Sets from Maybelline: Lip Gloss Palette + Brow Drama Pro Palette

Hello Beautiful Ones!

It's officially that magical time of the year when all of the beauty brands start releasing their holiday palettes and sets! *screams internally* And the drugstore has some pretty great looking offerings this year (double yay for affordability!). There are two in particular from Maybelline that I just had to get my hands on, so here we are! Today I'm reviewing the Maybelline Lip Gloss Palette and the Brow Drama Pro Palette.

Maybelline Lip Gloss Palette

As soon as I found out this baby existed I started scouring my local drugstores for it, and (as always) Target did not disappoint me. I did however find it on a separate holiday display and not with all of the Maybelline stuff, in case you're also looking. I've enjoyed some of Maybelline's other palette offerings recently, particularly the Blushed Nudes Eyeshadow Palette, and I like the idea of a lip gloss palette. You get a variety of color options all in one handy palette. The first thing I noticed was that in the pan all of the colors look extremely pigmented, but as you start swatching you see that they very much are glosses. Some have more color payoff than others.

The deep red looking color on the right looked the most intimidating to me in the pan, but as soon as I got it on my lips it quickly become my absolute favorite! Just goes to show you that you can't judge a gloss by it's pan color (giggle). What I love about this palette is that all of the shades are extremely wearable. My least favorite is probably the pale pink on the far left side, I just didn't get much color payoff at all. The lasting power is pretty decent, and normal for any gloss. The palette comes with a lip brush, but I didn't find much use for it. I just found it too stiff to do much good. I prefer to apply these with my finger. Since they're glosses you can get away with that! They feel really nice on the lips, not too sticky or too shiny. And the best part? You can get this for $9.99 at the drugstore!

Maybelline Brow Drama Pro Palette

I'm a big fan of the Maybelline Brow Drama brow gel, so I was excited to try this. The palette offers the gel to sculpt, a powder to fill in, and a highlight for the brow bone.

This palette come is 4 shades, I went with Deep Brown because I felt that the Soft Brown had too many red tones in it for me. The set comes with a dual ended brush for the gel, powder, and highlight, and a spooly brush for shaping and softening the look. I do really like both the double ended brush and the spooly. Although they are small, they are useful. The double ended brush is angled on both sides to make it easy to follow the arch of your brow. The lasting power is great, I can put this on in the morning and not have to worry about my eyebrows migrating downwards during the day (yikes!). The only thing I don't love is the highlight, I just didn't find it useful. It was virtually undetectable on my fair skin, but with that being said I really liked this palette. It takes a little longer to apply than my usual brow pencil, but the results are really great! You can get this beauty at drugstores for $10.99.

Is there anything better than getting a great makeup palette at an affordable price? Very little! Maybelline hit it out of the park this holiday season! Let me know if you've tried either of these (or if they're on your wishlist).

XO- Brittney

Read More

Tony Moly Egg Pore Blackhead Steam Balm

Hello Beautiful Ones!

The alternate title for this post is "I'm a sucker for cute packaging." This is a beauty product that wasn't even on my radar, I just happened to run across this little egg shaped beauty during a trip to Sephora and I knew I needed to try it. Honestly I had already made my mind up about getting it before I even knew what it did exactly. So today, I'm reviewing the Tony Moly Egg Pore Blackhead Steam Balm.

Tony Moly is a Korean beauty brand. I've tried one other Tony Moly product before: the I'm Real Rice Face Mask For Clear Skin (review here). I really enjoyed that one, so I was excited to try this. According to the box (which is completely adorable by the way), this product "removes sebum and dead skin cells that clog pores." In case you're like me and you have no idea what sebum is, I googled it and it's an oily secretion (gross right? No wonder they chose the word sebum). And Sephora calls it a "self-heating balm that acts as a steamer to open up your pores. I've never really had too many blackheads, although I do occasionally get them around my upper lip. With that being said, I was really excited to see how this balm might help my oily, acne prone skin, and large pores. 

When you pop open this cute little egg you can see that the balm is a clear gel with very tiny orange beads in it. The other thing I noticed from the sample in the store (besides the packaging of course) was the amazing smell. Seriously, it's so good! It has a very bright citrus-y smell, although it is fairly strong so if scented beauty products aren't your thing then this might not be the one for you. 

According to the box directions you "apply an appropriate amount onto areas with blackheads"(don't ask me what an appropriate amount is) and rub it into your skin for 3-5 minutes, then wash off with warm water. I decided to apply it to my nose and cheeks. As soon as you start rubbing it into your skin it turns from a clear gel to white with a creamy consistency. I found that massaging this into my skin along with the lovely smell was really relaxing! You can feel the small beads, but it doesn't feel too abrasive when you're rubbing it in. I didn't however really notice it heat up too much, but it was still a pleasant experience. 

The first thing I noticed when I washed it off was that my skin was very pink. I would suggest using this at night or at a time when you're not planning to go out right away, it didn't last too long though. The other thing I noticed was that my skin felt soft and a lot less oily. I think this really would do wonders on blackheads because it really cleans out your pores. As far as the size of my pores I haven't seen any major changes but they do look slightly smaller. 

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with this product, but I have to say that I really like it. You can get it for $18 at Sephora, although I just checked the website and they are currently sold out so you might want to snag it if you see it in store. 

So as it turns out that this product is pretty great both inside and out!

XO- Brittney

Read More