On Wednesday this week, I went out for drinks with one of my best friends from law school. I had gone to Ulta the day before, so I figured I would test out all of my new purchases at the same time, keep track of my thoughts, and let you know all the details all at once.
1. Tarte Rainforest After Dark palette ($38): I went into Ulta with an idea in my head: check out the new Lorac Pro 2 palette, and if I didn't like it, randomly pick a palette I had never seen talked about before. Well, I realized that the Lorac Pro 2 palette would end up sitting lonely in my makeup collection forever because I usually gravitate towards warm colors, so I went with this palette. It has six great quality eyeshadows, a beautiful blush & highlighter, and their classic Park Avenue Princess bronzer. The highlighter makes it look like your skin is glowing from the inside out. Ob-sessed. Obsessed! I'm super glad I made this purchase. It will be great for traveling, because everything you need is all in one palette!
2. Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade in Taupe ($18) + Anastasia #12 Brush ($18): I had been using the Pomade in Blonde with a MAC 266 brush. However, the Blonde color was a bit too light, and my 266 had seen better days (it was fraying at the front and had lost a lot of it's stiffness). The Taupe color is the perfect shade for me, and the brush is amazing. I'm glad I made the switch, even if it did cost me $36!
3. Maybelline Illegal Length Mascara ($8): So far, so good with this one. In my last post, I mentioned that I love layering mascaras, so I wanted to add one to my routine that would help lengthen. This does a pretty damn good job at lengthening (which, duh, it's called Illegal Length).
4. Maybelline Dream Wonder Fluid Foundation ($10): Okay, I guess this is a "Second Impression." I bought this a few weeks back, applied it once with my fingers, and hated it. HATED it. Once I watched some YouTube reviews on the product, I tried it again: this time, with (a) a Sigma F80 flat top kabuki brush, (b) the Napoleon Perdis Autopilot Primer (all over) & Benefit Porefessional primer (around/on my nose), and (c) the matching Maybelline Dream Wonder Powder. Holy crap, y'all. When you use this with a good primer and the corresponding powder, it is flawless. As in, "I woke up like dis" Beyonce-style flawless. I've worn it every day since Wednesday, so I'd say my feelings are pretty clear.
5. NYX Matte Finish Makeup Setting Spray ($8): This is good, not great. The Urban Decay De-Slick setting spray is the bomb-dot-com, but for $8, this ain't bad. It ain't bad at all. If you're making your first foray into setting sprays, maybe try this one first to see if it's your cup o' tea before spending $40 on a high end one.
If you'd like to see a haul of all the goodies I bought at Ulta last week, or a tutorial on how to get the look, just leave a comment down below!
Do you have any suggestions for growing out eyebrows/eyebrow maintenance?
ReplyDeleteMy eyebrows were a straight up disaster until just a couple months ago (they're still not great, but man, I've come a long way). It took me about a year to get them to stop looking like commas and more like eyebrows.
DeleteThe first thing I recommend is to pick a shape you want, and start filling them in with that shape. This means you'll have to overdraw them a bit, but trust me, it works. I used to fill them in the way I wanted them to look, then pluck any stray hairs that weren't included in the shape I drew. You can start out by filling them in just a bit and then fill them in thicker as the months go by. The Anastasia Brow Wiz has a teeny-tiny tip, so you can draw a thin outline, and then you can use a powder to fill them in for a more natural look (ELF has a good brow powder/wax at Target for $3).
Another tip is to try not to pluck any part of your brows, stray hair or not, for as long as you can stand to go. I used to pluck/wax every week or so. Now I just pluck any really obvious strays about once a month. I read somewhere that plucking, even if they're the hairs you really don't want, can cause other hairs in the area to have problems growing. (Not sure if that's scientifically proven, but it seemed to be the case for me).
Hope this helps!!
Also, Jaclyn Hill on YouTube has a great tutorial for filling in brows, and she gives tons and tons of tips and tricks for growing them out/getting the shape you want.
DeleteLove your hair color in this pic!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Al!!! The color is called "I-haven't-gotten-my-hair-done-in-two-months." :)
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ReplyDeleteSo helpful! Thanks. I read a lot of "tips" online, but they made it seem absolutely impossible. I actually just bought a bunch of ELF products online, but I definitely must get the Anastasia Brow Wiz! I'll stay away from tweezing as long as possible, but I'm starting out with an attempt at growing the hair in rows. We will see how that goes! Thanks again! I'm loving your blog and learning a lot.
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