CoverGirl Ready, Set, Gorgeous Collection Review

I found this new collection at Walgreens and it features Katy Perry as the spokesperson! I was so excited because I think she is gorgeous. The new collection includes a liquid foundation, a concealer, and a powder foundation. Something I really liked about this collection is the shade numbering. It makes it simple to find out what concealer and powder to use. For instance, in the liquid foundation, I am shade 105. The concealer and powder foundation have a range (105-110) that is geared for the people in those shades, and so forth for all the other shades available.

Ready, Set, Gorgeous Oil Free Foundation

This liquid foundation (1 oz, $8.99) is marketed as an oil free foundation that won't clog pores, is suitable for sensitive skin, lasts all day, evens skin tone, and reduces shine all day. I bought it in the shade 105 Classic Ivory, which I believe is the fairest shade available. There is no SPF, which might throw some people off, but to me it doesn't really matter since I wear an SPF underneath.

The foundation gives a light to medium coverage and sets to a matte/natural finish. It covers up majority of the redness on my nose and some acne scars, but does not cover all raised pimples. At about hour 6, some shine decided to creep through, but at hour 8, my face became oily all over and the foundation began to slide off my face. This foundation is pretty long-wearing, especially with my combo/oily skin.

Rating: 5/5. I would definitely repurchase.

Ready Set Gorgeous Concealer

The concealer (0.37 fl. oz) is a basic concealer that is oil free. It has a thin consistency and light coverage. I purchased it in the shade Fair. Since I don't have serious dark circles, the concealer covers them up decently. However, pimples are concealed ok. 

 I find that this concealer would be good for young teens that just want to conceal under eye circles (if they have any) and cover up minor redness. I will not be using it for blemishes though, only for dark circles.

Rating: 3.5/5. I would not repurchase.

Ready Set Gorgeous Powder Foundation

Finally, the powder foundation (0.37 oz) is marketed as oil free and offers shine control. The packaging comes with a sponge and also includes a mirror, which is great for touch ups throughout the day. I found that the consistency of the powder was on the rough side. It wasn't entirely rough, but wasn't finely milled either; definitely somewhere in between. As far as coverage, it had minimal coverage, for me at least. It did even out my skin tone more then just the foundation and concealer alone. The shine control aspect was well thought out. I do contribute my oil-free looking face to this product, since it did prolong the wear of the products.

Rating: 3/5. I would not repurchase, only because I prefer a different powder to set with.

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The Nail Challenge with HaiJoJoFace

My friend and I love doing nail art, and we thought it would be fun to get together and do a video of our "challenge". Now, I looked up different nail art challenges and never found anything that I would call "challenging" (red nails was one of the challenges, I mean come on, really? Thats not challenging!) So I put together a bunch of nail art designs that I thought were challenging as well as some simpler ones. If you want to see our video, check it out below!

Here is the list we compiled:

My nails are on the right, and my friend, Joanna from HaiJoJoFace, are on the left.

Galaxy

"Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh

Sunset

Flowers

Music Notes

Disney-Inspired

Tribal

Miami Heat Logo

Marble

Unfortunately, these came out really messy. I don't know what went wrong, but they got ruined =(

Stripes

This challenge was a lot of fun to do and I encourage you to check it out!

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Red Carpet Manicure | Red Carpet Reddy

I finally purchased my own at home LED gel kit. The Red Carpet Manicure Pro 45 Train Case is the one I chose, and within it, came the Red Carpet Manicure Red Carpet Reddy. On its own, the polish  retails for $9.99 and can be found at Ulta, ulta.com, and redcarpetmanicure.com.

Red Carpet Reddy is a gorgeous cherry red creme color. It leans more towards blue red, which I find to be my "perfect" red. The first coat was somewhat sheer, the second coat still wasn't fully opaque, so I added a third coat. Finally, I topped it off with the Red Carpet Ready Brilliance Seal and Shine Top Coat. As you can tell, there is so much shine! That is one thing I love about gel polish.

So far I have had it on for a week and have not experienced any chipping whatsoever. However, I do want to take the polish off as I can't stand having red on my nails for too long! I would much prefer a pink or a dark color, so I will experiment then.

Since this is my first at home gel mani, it was a little messy as I was not use to the formula and the process. But I think that after a few more times, I will get the hang of it and have a perfect manicure.

Update: I've had this manicure for two weeks now and they have still held up! I've been in the pool, used my hands quite often, and all I see is nail growth and thats about it. They could probably stay on for much longer, but I don't want to see nail growth on top of my nails! I definitely think these gel polishes are high quality.

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Fixing Crushed Makeup

 I've been meaning to do this post for the past few months, but FINALLY got around to doing it! I received this beautiful Makeup Academy Undress Your Skin shimmer highlighter in a beauty swap from the UK with Becki from Beekle. Unfortunately, this gorgeous highlighter came crushed from the voyage from UK to USA. But I thought, "No fear! I can fix this up in a jiffy!" 

 What You Need:

- Rubbing Alcohol (70% or higher)

- Something to crush up the powder

- Paper towels/newspaper to cover working area

Step 1: After covering your work area with either paper towels or newspaper, crush up the cracked powder into small little pieces.

Step 2: After crushing it into fine pieces, pour the rubbing alcohol until the powder is saturated in it. Make sure there is enough to mix around into a paste.

Step 3: Let it set until it is completely dry. It may take one or two days, depending on the percentage of alcohol present.

The end result may not look as pretty as the original, but you don't have to waste your product any more when it cracks or breaks! It works perfectly well and does not affect its performance.

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OPI Russian Navy Gel Nails

Last week was my birthday and I went to a local salon to get my nails done. I enjoy getting gel polish nails because they last longer and are your actual nails.

For my birthday, I wanted to do navy nails with a rose accent nail. I decided on OPI Russian Navy, which I find gorgeous. Its a lovely navy color that looks like a creme, but in the sun, you can see gorgeous red and blue sparkles (look in the picture above). The sparkles give it such a pretty and unique aspect about it.

For my ring fingers, the nail art technician painted these lovely roses! I am in love haha. So far, it has been a week and a half that I've had my nails and they are still looking great!

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Happy Mother's Day | Mom's Makeup Edition

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you are all enjoying your day with your mothers. 

I did my mom's makeup for this special day. She asked me to do her makeup and I decided to experiment a little bit with her. She doesn't wear liquid eyeliner, so I used that to see how it looked. Above is how it turned out!

What I Used:

- Estee Lauder Equalizer 2C1 Linen 06

- Clinique Blended Face Powder

- Clinique Blush in New Clover

- ELF Eyelid Primer

- Tarte beMATTEnificent eyeshadow palette

- Stila Stay All Day Liquid Eyeliner

- Urban Decay 24/7 in Demolition

- Estee Lauder Sumptuous mascara

- Estee Lauder lipstick (came in a Gift with Purchase so doesn't have the shade marked)

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Spring Rose | NYX Face Awards Entry 2014

I just recently heard about the NYX Face Awards but am pretty excited to share that I will be entering it this year!

Here is the description from the website:

The FACE Fine Artistry of Cosmetic Elites Awards is looking for The National Beauty Vlogger of the Year on Youtube™. Out of 30 eligible entrants, 6 finalists will be flown to Los Angeles during the week of August 16, 2014, to compete in the FACE Awards Contest on August 11, 2014, where a panel of judges will select the grand prize winner, who will win US$25,000 cash and other prizes. Five Finalists will be awarded US$1000 worth of NYX cosmetics. - See more at: http://nyxfaceawards.com/rules-and-regulations#sthash.rBQi6XrQ.dpuf.

So even though I probably don't have a shot at continuing in the contest, I thought it would be something fun to do! 

I created a "Spring Rose" look that incorporates pink and a lovely gold/taupy color into the eye look, something I rarely do, yet find so beautiful.

Part of continuing onto the next round in the competition is to "like" my video, which will count as a vote. So if you can, please take the time to watch the video and vote for me! I would be very appreciative <3

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Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream

Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream is a skin perfecting tinted moisturizer and an all-in-one solution with 6 skin-perfecting benefits: 

• Refreshes skin instantly
• Brightens for a radiant glow
• Evens tone with a splash of sheer color
• Hydrates for 24 hours
• Smoothes for softer feeling skin
• Protects against UV damage with SPF 15
• Infused with essence of honeysuckle and white tea 

Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream comes with 2.5 fl oz (75 mL) and ranges from $10-15 depending where you purchase it.

I was very excited to try this BB Cream out, but I should have read the label more carefully. You see, I was expecting this "BB Cream" to do everything it mentioned it would, but it fell terribly short. Sure, it refreshes skin, hydrates my skin, and protects against UV damage, but it definitely didn't even out my skin tone. I know a tinted moisturizer doesn't really even out the skin, but you also shouldn't call it a BB Cream, as that is one of the things that BB Creams are suppose to do. 

I bought it several months ago, and am so glad that I finally used it up. I don't recommend this if you have uneven skin tones. If your face is even and without any blemishes, this stuff is great.

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Nars Laguna

I may be a few years late on reviewing Nars Laguna, but initially, I didn't like it. It wasn't until this past month that I actually started enjoying it. This is shocking as Laguna is a cult favorite and a hype amongst the beauty community. I think mainly the reason I did not like it to start off was because I wasn't very keen on contouring. That has since changed within the last few months.

If you are unaware of what Nars Laguna is, it is a medium brown bronzing powder with a little bit of shimmer in it. It is sold at Sephora for $38 which is VERY expensive for a bronzer with only 0.28 oz of product. I have the deluxe size version of the powder that I received in a Sephora Favorites value set some bit ago.

You can just see how beautiful this bronzer is. One thing I like is that it isn't orange toned at all, it is very earthy. However, if you look at the picture below, there are some shimmers in it. The good part is that it doesn't fully translate onto the skin, so you won't be seeing shimmers. The bad part is that I don't think it is necessary to include it, it should have been a matte bronzer from the get-go.

I  believe what initially threw me off about this bronzer was the application mode. I was using it as an actual bronzer which made me look a bit muddy. But, after finding the right contour brush and using the powder as a contour, it really does look natural.

 I'm still on the fence if I will repurchase this when I run out of my "deluxe size". It is just too expensive for a bronzer that has some shimmer in it; kind of defeats the ideal purpose for contouring. On the flip side, it is a beautiful bronzer and think it looks lovely on. 

Have you tried Nars Laguna? What are your thoughts?

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