[Swatches] L’oreal Paris Wear Infinite Studio Secrets Eye Shadow

I saw these on sale at CVS the other day so I picked up two, they retail for $5.99. I have been meaning to try more eye shadow so I decided to pick two colors, although the color section that my local CVS was not great. There was only four colors left which was a bit depressing.

This is what the eye shadow looks like. The color on the left is seashell coquillage and the color on the right is lush raven.

Here is what they look like, my seashell coquillage was a bit cracked since it was the only one left on the shelf, however lush raven was fully intact.

This is the swatch of the colors. The colors are pretty pigmented and lush raven had a bit of glitter in it but it was mostly matte and seashell coquillage had specks of glitter in it. I was very surprised with how dark lush raven was and I can totally see myself wearing seashell coquillage in the future.

The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award recognizes up-and-coming bloggers with 500 followers or less. I always love looking at others’ nominations because it introduces me to some amazing blogs and lets me get to know some bloggers better. So I hope you enjoy getting to know some of the lovely ladies listed below.

The Rules:

1. Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you.
2. You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to the nominee before you.
3. You must pick 10 bloggers to be nominated who also have 500 subscribers or less.
4. You must create 10 questions for your nominees.

I was nominated by GretaLinBeauty! I absolutely love her writing and her beauty reviews as well.

Name one of your holy grail beauty drugstore products.

My holy grail beauty drugstore products has to be my Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner in Blackest Black. I literally wear this every single day.

Name one of your holy grail high-end products.

I barely have any high-end products but out of the few that I have, I love my Mac Liquid Last Liner. Although the reviews for this product are not good, I like how dark this liquid eyeliner is and I love how it does not smudge throughout the day. Although one downside is that it is a bit hard to remove.

If you can only wear one makeup product on your face, what is it?

It was def. have to be my Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner. Even when I do not wear any makeup I always have to wear eyeliner and I love my Revlon liquid liner.

Red lip or nude lip?

Sadly, I have yet to find the perfect nude lipstick, so I would have to say Red lipstick. I find that red lipstick suits my skin tone better and I love how it dresses up an outfit with a pop of color on the lips.

What is your favorite summer clothing item?

Def. skater skirts. I find that skater skirts are flattering on everybody and it is so easy to dress them up and down. I can also easily match them with a lot of the items in my closet.

What is your favorite perfume?

I don’t usually wear perfume but I do love the Victoria Secret’s scent Jasmine Honeysuckle.

Makeup product that you use the most?

Once again, I have to say Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner. This is literally my holy grail of all products since I do wear this product everyday.

Matte skin or dewy skin?

I like matte skin, especially since my skin is naturally oily.

Full coverage foundation or light coverage?

This depends on the season; during the summer I prefer light coverage since it is too hot to have too much product on my face. However, during the winter I do like full coverage.

Matte eyelids or shimmery?

I prefer matte eyelids, I don’t think that I am confident enough to go for shimmery haha.

Since I only recently joined the blogger community, I am not sure if they have been nominated before but these are a couple of blogs that I love to read and if you guys have the opportunity, def check them out!!

http://blondebeauty13.wordpress.com/

http://aworkofartifice.wordpress.com/

http://ohhhoney.wordpress.com/

http://bdellbeautyblog.com/

http://sechysdiary.com/

http://acasualbeauty.wordpress.com/

http://beautybysarahmarie.wordpress.com/

http://softly.nothingspaces.com/

http://thatmakeupish.com/

http://erinlouisehunt.com/

Here are my 10 questions!!

1. Piercing or tattoo?
2. Which makeup product do you wear everyday?
3. What is your favorite book?
4. What is your favorite foundation?
5. Do you prefer drugstore or high end products?
6. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
7. What is your favorite makeup brand?
8. What is your skincare routine?
9. What is your makeup routine?
10. What is your favorite song?

Once again huge thank you to GretaLinBeauty for the nomination!! 

[Swatches] e.l.f. Essential Brightening Eye Color

The e.l.f Essetial Brightening Eye Color eye shadows retail for only $1. I found mine at target and I was attracted to it because of it’s affordable price and the color range. The color I picked up is Silver Linning #2003. I decided to do swatches of this eyeshadow, since I do find that I enjoy using this especially because it is so cheap!

This is what the eye shadow looks like.

This is the swatch of the colors. The colors are pretty pigmented especially from an eyeshadow that was only $1. I did find that the pink was on the light side, however all the other colors were very pigmented even when I put it on my eyes. I am generally happy with this purchase and I would buy more of this eyeshadow in the future, since they have a wide range of color and it is just super affordable.

[Review]Revlon Ultimate Suede Lipstick

I picked up these lipsticks from Revlon. I absolutely love the packaging and how the packaging is so different in comparison to other lipstick packaging. I picked up the color finale and preview. They cost around $9.99 at most drugstores which is a bit pricey for a drugstore lipstick. I picked the lipstick up in the color Preview.

On the left is what the packaging looks like and on the right is a picture of the swatches. The right swatch is only one stroke and the left swatch is when I went over the color a couple of time. It seems that the color is pretty pigmented on the first stroke however I realize that was not true when I put the color on my lips. I had to put on a couple of layers before I obtained the desirable color.

On the left is my lips with nothing but lip balm. On the right is my lips with the color on. The lipstick did not go on as smooth as I expected however it felt smooth on my lips.

The picture on the left is right when I  put on the lipstick. The picture on the right is when I wore the lipstick for six hours (I did eat and drink normally in those six hours). I HATED the way that the color faded away, they stuck together in clumps as you can see in the picture and it began to look patchy. Also at this point my lips began to look super dry and I could not stand how this lipstick looked on my lips so I just wiped it off.

Pros:

• Very nice packaging, can see the color through the packaging
• Very good color selection
• The lipsticks were true to color

Cons:

• A bit sheer for a lipstick (it is necessary to apply more than one layer to get an opaque color)
• A bit on the pricey side for drugstore lipstick ($9.99)
• The color looks very clumpy on dry lips (for me I need to wear lip balm underneath)
• After I wore it for a long time, it became clumpy looking

Overall,  I would not repurchase this product again. Even though the lipstick did last longer than some of my other lipsticks, for the price it was not worth it. I have found better lipsticks that applies better and provides a better color payoff at a cheaper price than these.

[Review]Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Eyeliner

Liquid eyeliners are my holy grail of all makeup products. The moment I started wearing liquid eyeliner I knew that I was never going to go back to pencil eyeliners. However, I decided to finally try out gel eyeliners. I have been putting this off for a while since I thought that gel eyeliners were hard to put on. I picked up the Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Eyeliner in the color carbon. I actually wanted to buy black however I accidentally picked up the wrong one. I did apply the eyeliner with the brush that was provided.

That was what the product looks like and the swatches on my hand, the product is very pigmented (the thinner line was done with just one stroke). The brush itself was pretty soft and easy to control.

Water Test

 

This product was not mentioned to be waterproof, however I wanted to see how the eyeliner smudges. The first picture is when I ran my hand under sink water and the second picture is when I smudged it when it was wet.

The first picture is when I first applied the eyeliner. The color looks similar to black to me which I really like since I love my black eyeliner. The second picture is when I wore the eyeliner for seven hours, the color payoff is still the same however I did see a bit of smudging at the corner of my eye. (It was a very humid day when I wore this eyeliner out.)

Pros:

• Very creamy and easy to put on
• Easy to remove-I removed with simply water and face wash no makeup remover was necessary
• Moderately affordable (CVS sold this for $10.99)
• The color is bold and it does not fade (I did realize that if I took a lot of product the color was very dark)
• The brush that it comes with is easy to use

Cons:

• I did see a bit of smudging on the corner of my eye

Overall, I am generally happy with my purchase and I would repurchase this product but in a different color. I love my black eyeliner and I think that I would use this eyeliner a lot more if the color was black.

[Event]Boston University iChasetheCure 5K

I normally  do not write about sporting events, and I will have a new beauty review post on Wednesday. However, I wanted to spread word of an event that a student organization which I am apart of at Boston University is hosting. iChasetheCure is hosting their annual 5k to raise awareness and money for pediatric brain cancer.

This event is being held at the BU Sailing Pavilion, Esplande on April 19th, 2014. More information can be found on the Facebook event, iChasetheCure 5K Run Event. If anybody is in the Boston Area and is a runner, feel free to check out our event and I do hope that you guys come and participate in our event! There will be prizes for the fastest runners and if there are any Boston Bruins fans reading, one of the raffle items is a hockey puck SIGNED by player, Chris Kelly. All the money raised from this event is being donated to the PLGA Foundation in order to raise money for more research to be done for pediatric brain cancer. A lot of money is being spend on research for cancer, however only a small amount of that money is being spent on research for pediatric cancer.

If anyone is interested in joining our event, our registration page is, iChasetheCure 5k Registration or if you cannot make it to our event but would still like to donate that can be done here, iChasetheCure Donation. Even if you guys do not want to participate or donate, even spreading the word around about our event will help our cause a lot!

If anyone is joining our event, I would be forever grateful if you mention my name, Joann Li, when they ask who referred you to this event (our club wants us to at least find two people for this event). I do hope that this event does interest some runners and I hope to see you guys at the event!

[Review] Benefit-They’re Real!

I do not wear mascara that often, however I do like to have a good one lying around for the days that I do use them. I actually got this mascara from the birthday set from Sephora. I actually wanted to try out this sample size, before I go and buy the whole bottle, because this mascara is on the pricey side.

Since I have the sample size, the bottle is small, the bristles are very spread out from each other. I generally think that they were able to cover every single lash.

Here are my lashes right after I curled them. My lashes are on the short side and they are stick straight if I do not curl them.

Here are my lashes with mascara on them. As you can tell they are longer than before and they stand out more. I love this mascara for lengthening since they lengthened my lashes quite a bit. I also like how it defined my lashes and the brush made it very easy to comb through each lash. It did stay on the whole day and did not smduge on me, I did not do a water-test though so I am not sure if this mascara is waterproof. However, I wish that it did give more volume.

Pros:

• Lengthens my lash
• Defined and separated lashes
• Long lasting and did not smudge on me
• Did not have a strong mascara smell

Cons:

• Did not see a difference in the volume
• A bit on the pricey side (Sephora sells this product for $23)

Overall, I thought that it was a good mascara and it did its job. However, I would not repurchase (or purchase in my case) this product because it is on the pricey side and I did not think that it was very special in comparison to come drugstore mascara that I have tired for a cheaper price. I think that many of my drugstore mascaras does the exact same job as this mascara for a more affordable price.