Friday Favorites Praises and BooHoos - end of January edition

Wet n Wild Bronzer in Ticket to Brazil

Friday Favorites in Beauty.

Foundation. 

I have been waffling back and forth between a lot of different foundations lately. I tried a sample of the CK One Foundation and OMG, that is great. My sample was in the shade Sand which is a bit too dark for me but it really worked on my skin tone for some reason. The foundation is a bit on the expensive side, I mean, since it is Calvin Klein. It runs about $30. Other foundations I have been working with this week are the Dream Mousse from Maybelline in shade #2 Classic Ivory, TruBlend by Covergirl in L2 which I think might also be Creamy Ivory or Classic Ivory not sure which. But the TruBlend has a tendency to turn a bit orange due to oxidation. I am keeping my eye on this one. I may not keep using it if I turn into an orange pop.

And somehow I actually managed to finish a Fit Me Stick foundation that I am just loving for its ease of use.  I picked up a new one of those that I had in my back up drawer in the shade 115. I might try a tad darker shade just to see if it fits my complection better but I can't complain about this product. It is so easy. Just scribble it all over your face and blend with a brush. Easy peasy. I also have the Fit Me in the liquid foundation. I just have too many foundations open right now.

BH Cosmetics Blush in Iris

Bronzer. 

My go-to bronzer has been the Wet N Wild Ticket To Brazil. I initially thought this would be too dark for me but it is turning out to be such a dream for warming up my face. Love it.

Blushes. 

I picked up some of the Master Highlight Blushes that Maybelline has out right now in the shades Mauve, Nude and Coral. Love them all. Also been using my Milani Lumonioso quite a bit. And last night I pulled out my BH Cosmetics blush in Iris and was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it is. It has a dark and light shade and it really gives you a nice flush.

Dream Catcher Palette - Dusk Til Dawn — NYX Cosmetics

Revlon Cream Eyeshadow - Not Just Nudes

Eyeshadows. 

I have been loving my Revlon cream eyeshadow quads every day this week. Not Just Nudes is awesome. Recommend it highly. You can use it alone or as a base to keep those eyeshadows really sticking to your lid. I even picked up two more quads last weekend so now I have 4 quads of these lovely cream shades. Can you say obsessed? Also as an eyelid primer I use the Wet N Wild Take On The Day Eyeshadow Primer. It is just as good as those high-end brand but cheaper.

I have posted my tweets from the last week showing which eyeshadows I've used. I had bought both Naked and Naked 2 palettes at the end of December and didn't find myself reaching for the Naked palette. Today, Friday, I thought I'd pull it out to see what all the fuss was about. I had really been grooving with the Naked 2 surprised that I really liked the cool tones. But the warm tones of the original Naked palette really surprised me this morning. I did a bit of a brown eye look with Toasted, Buck and Smog.

NYX has been on my eyes quite a bit this week. I bought a slew of things by them from Ulta.com. We don't have that great a selection of NYX at my Goody's and I knew for certain that they wouldn't have any of the new awesome stuff I had been seeing online. I picked up some more of the Love in Paris 9-pans that were all in neutral shades and a Love in Rio that had a great orange and green in it. The Dream Catcher palette in the shades Dusk Till Dawn was quite pigmented and lovely for my Thursday look. I also picked up the Adorable palette that I can't wait to try. The jumbo chubby stick in Cashmere has been also used as a cream base this week when I wasn't using the Revlon cream base.

Pulled out the Balm's Nude-Tude palette on Monday and this is just an awesome palette. There are some haters out there of this loveliness but people like what they like. I did a nice pink look that could rival any look the Naked 3 could come up with.

Nailpolish. On my nails all week has been Ladylike by Essie with an accent nail in L'Oreal Eiffel For You. These barely there shades just fit my attitude this week. Love them both. 

So, those are my favorites. Love to hear what you are loving. Let me know. 

Stay beautiful!

Eyeshadows of the Last Week

This week in eyeshadow has been mostly a homage to my new palettes by Coastal Scents (www.coastalscents.com). It's an online cosmetics company that has really reasonably priced makeup in numerous different palettes or you can purchase what they call Hot Pots, individual eyeshadows, for $2 and create your own palette. I picked a lot of neutrals, green, champagne and berry tones for my Hot Pots. Plus I have two other smaller Hot Pot palettes (Winterberry and Fall Festival) that I am looking forward to breaking into soon. Lots of color selection with these and just plain awesomesauce. Their Revealed palette, which is what I used for my Friday look, is a dupe (duplicate) for the Naked and Naked2 palettes by Urban Decay Cosmetics). Neutral shades galore in that one. Plus a lot of matte shades that make buffing out and defining the crease a real easy job.

The shipping was cray-cray but in a good way. Everything was bundled so tight in foam and bubble wrap that nuthin was gonna break those shadows. :) I also purchased two crease brushes that I am totally loving too. Just one fab company.

On Wednesday I was giving love to some of my Revlon ColorStay quads. They were both new for me (I have a lot of these quads. I have a makeup eyeshadow crush with my Revlon quads) in the colors Addictive and Harmonious. Addictive is a real neutral keeper. A must have for any collection. Put this in your makeup bag and you will be set for a week away. But the Harmonious has two bright shades, an orange and green, that I was just dying to try. Wednesday was all about the orange shade.

Tuesday I pulled out my BH Cosmetics (www.bhcosmetics.com) Galaxy Chic palette. This is a palette of baked eyeshadows that you can use either wet or dry. I went for a pink look and some brownish Mars color on the outer edge. This palette doesn't have matte shades so I pulled out my Lorac Pro Palette to use that lovely Mauve shade that went so well with the pink lid color. I have a BH Cosmetics 88 Palette that is filled with neutral shades that I really need to dig into more. Plus, my Malibu and San Francisco palettes are tres fab too!

Monday I was in NYX country using my Love in Paris 9pan in the neutral / orange-ish range. It is called Let Them Eat Cake, and this is probably my favorite 9pan of the 5 that I have from this line. I used a cream eyeshadow (Not Just Nudes) by Revlon to give my lid a way to grab the color from my L'Oreal Infallible eyeshdaow pressed pigment in the color Eternal Sunshine. I am in LOVE with the Infallible eyeshadows. Someday I might have them all but for now, I think I have 6. I have two little palettes of the Revlon cream shadows and I think I definitely need to check out more of these things. I just love, love, love them!

This was the week in eyeshadows for me. As for my lips, I went mostly with the nude lip. I look a bit odd wearing too bright a color. Maybe someday I will grow into it.

I used to put my Eyeshadow of the Day on my Facebook page but people in my RL kept asking me if I was sponsored by Revlon or whatever company I was talking about that day. So, I moved my posts to Twitter. You can see my Twitter feed from the last week at the right. Plus, I got a couple of cool shoutouts from cosmetics companies. It is always neat when big companies like that acknowledge the little guy.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. Stay beautiful and let me know what eyeshadows you are loving and wearing.

You can follow me on Facebook by going to www.facebook.com/tonispywriter/ or follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tonispywriter

Friday Favorites & Praises and a Boo Hoo too

Hello all my lovely beauties!

This is my Friday Favorites in Beauty. I have been loving quite a few things this week. Below is a list of all that I have in the main photo. Plus the inset photo is two palettes from Coastal Scents. One is the Mirage Palette and the other is a set of 28 Hot Pots that I selected myself.

• Coastal Scents Revealed palette (dupes for the Urban Decay's Naked & Naked 2 palettes)

• Coastal Scents Go Palette Beijing

• Maybelline Shine Sensational gloss in Berry Daze

• Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser

• L'Oreal Liquid Lipstck in Nude Ballet

• Milani lipstick in Nude Creme

• L'Oreal Color Riche lipstick in Fairest Nude

• Milani Blush in Luminoso

• Wet n Wild ColorIcon Bronzer in Ticket to Brazil

• Airspun Loose Face Powder Original Formula in Translucent

• Revlon Shadow Links in Bone, Charcoal, Gunmetal, Sand, Candy, Copper, Melon, Khaki, Moss, Blush, Taupe, Chocolate, Cocoa, Java

Coastal Scents Mirage palette, left,
and 28 individual Hot Pots, right.
Shades all selected by me.

All my Coastal Scents goodies are way better than I expected. I kept hearing mostly smack on YouTube channels but I have found that these products are quite literally amazing. And the color selection is so wonderful. Check out their stuff at www.coastalscents.com

I picked up a Maybelline Shine Sensational at a dollar store. It is quite a good shade, Berry Daze, and I am using that over one of my nude lipsticks. It doesn't matter which nude, they all just make a fantastic combo. Love it. I also picked up the much spoken about Baby Skin Pore Eraser. I had tried the equivalent in the L'Oreal Miracle Blur but this one did not break out my skin. Yay! Totally happy that I have found a pore filler that actually does what it says and yet doesn't hurt my baby skin. Not to mention, it is a drugstore brand that is tres inexpensive. Thank you, Maybelline!

I have quite a few favorite lipsticks, lip glosses this week and they are mentioned above. The brands Milani & L'Oreal just do the nude lipstick right. I had tried a few of the NYX lipsticks in the black packaging with the color strip on the bottom and found that of the few shades my Goodies had, the two I thought were just pink cream lipsticks were in fact so frosty I about got a chill. So disappointed in them both.I think the colors were Honeysuckle and Strawberry Milk. But I did find a nude that really worked for me and didn't frost me out of the building. Not too impressed NYX.

Since I discovered the Milani baked blushes, I have been totally obsessed with the shade Luminoso. It is just the greatest subtle peach shade that looks good on every skin tone. I do have two others besides this but they are not as obsession worthy. But the baked blushes by Milani are all worthy of your blush collection. Pick them up, pronto!

A few weeks back I was scouring my Walgreens and came across a bronzer by Wet n Wild. I thought it might be a bit too dark for me but discovered that it just gave me the loveliest of glows. Definitely quickly becoming my go-to bronzer. Right now I am using Rimmel's bronzer in Sunlight.

When CVS started having their year end 75% off clearout, I was suddenly hearing about a loose powder called Airspun. It is a translucent powder that I had never seen at any of the stores I frequented. But a few weeks back I ran across this product in my local Walgreens hidden back by the makeup brushes. I grabbed it and decided that i wanted to try this much hyped about product and I am glad I did. It does have a bit of a grandma smell but it is totally the greatest at setting your foundation. Totally worth all the hype this year!

My last item on my favorites list this week is my collection of Revlon ShadowLinks. These are boo-hooed by many of the beauty bloggers and YouTubers but I think these people are so used to high end makeup that they expect all the drugstore brands to perform the same.  But I am totally LOVING these shades. I have 14 ShadowLinks and I am impressed with them all. Today I am sporting an orange/cranberry smokey eye using Melon, Copper, Bone and two shades from my Go Palette Beijing by Coastal Scents. I am just loving how these perform. I don't know what all these other people are talking about. My shades are ones that I just adore.

I have to give a mini shoutout to the new taupe shade in the single eyeshadow collection of Maybelline. It's called Tastefully Taupe. And it is just a wonderful addition to my collection. Thank you, again, Maybelline.

Well, that is all for the shoutouts this week. I would love to hear all that you are loving makeup wize this week. Let me know. Email me at tonispywriter@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/tonispywriter

L'Oreal's Nude Line of Nail Polishes

Hey all,

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about some FAB nail polishes that are out now. They are from a new line that L'Oreal has that comprises a lot of nude shades. Some matte, some metallic. But all are awesome and worth your time.

I bought the Charmed, I'm Sure metallic nude twice so it must be a keeper!

Here are the nudes I have purchased. Check out the line for yourself.

L'Oreal's Nude Line of Nail Polishes in my collection

Eva's Nude, Julianne's Nude, Liya's Nude, Charmed, I'm Sure & Eiffel For You

I recommend them highly. A must have in any nail art collection.

Random Praises and Boo Hoos

Hello all!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. It's been freaking cold here lately. But, that is no excuse, just a reflection of my world lately.

The first thing I want to talk about is Miracle Blur which is a skin smoother or primer. This did not work for me. It's not because it is bad, it broke me out big time. I mean like in one day I got some pimples that really hurt and that doesn't happen very often to me. So I assume that this product clogged my pores. 

If you don't have a sensitivity to this, it will work awesomely for you. Currently, I am testing out the Maybelline Baby Skin. I am crossing my fingers for this one. I would love to have something that will make the pores on my nose appear smaller.

I have been loving the L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows in Bronzed Taupe, Glistening Garnet and Amber Rush. These are SO pigmented and just dang awesome! You have to try them out. I recommend them highly. Use your finger to apply to your lid and it is all good!

I have been loving the Taupe color lately. I don't know why. It is my obsession. So I have been using the Lorac Pro Palette. The Pewter color is awesome-sauce!

I have been loving the Too Faced Natural palette, especially the shade "Classic" which is a shimmery nude/beige color. So wonderful. I am obsessed. Also the Stila Not So Nude palette has this great color which isn't marketed as a shadow but some sort of highlighter but I use it on the lid and it is also GREAT. It is called Kitten.

I got a new bronzer by Wet n Wild in the color Ticket to Brazil, This is really great for contouring those cheek hollows and putting that warm tone to your temples and cheeks.

A lot of YouTube beauty gurus really have bad mouthed the Revlon ShadowLinks. And I have no idea why. I mean, it is not as pigmented as Wet n Wild or Lorac shadows but sometimes those insanely pigmented shadows are very hard to work with. I am used to building color up and this is easily buildable. I am in love with many, many shades. I have 14 of them broken down into 5 palettes, that is how obsessed with them I am.

Keeping with the Revlon theme, I am totally in love with so many of their eyeshadow quads, ColorStay 16 Hour Eye Shadow. They have so many options in this line that you don't need to buy any other shadow ever, but me being the OCD beauty makeup buyer, I have to have more stuff, but this line is definitely one to check out.

If you love higher end makeup, try going to your local Kohl's. They have a some of the great lines that I totally love: The Balm, Cargo, & Lorac. Definitely something you might want to check out and add these wonderful items to your collection. Each line has a lot to choose from. It is worth the trip, for sure.

That's all for now. I hope this finds you well and raring to go for 2014. Have a wonderful day and STAY BEAUTIFUL! Remember, you deserve all good things!

Best in Beauty 2013

Favorite Nail Polishes of 2013

Sally Hansen

290- Commander in Chic

270-Raisin The Bar

280-Plum's The Word

Wet n Wild

201C-Wet Cement

Essie

Mink Muffs

Merino Cool

Penny Talk

Revlon

310-Vintage Rose

090-Captivate

You probably see a bit of a theme in my color selection. Muted tones of brown, copper, plum and raisin. I did indulge in SaGreena the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Violet Slayer by Wet n Wild over Halloween. But mute was the word this year.

Favorite Eyeshadows of 2013

Galaxy Chic palette
by BH Cosmetics

I didn't really start getting excited by makeup again until Sept 2013 after not having worn makeup since college. 

All of my favorites except one are from the drugstore. I didn't really get my high-end palettes until the latter part of December so I didn't think it was fair to include them. 

My favorite eyeshadow quad by far was the Maybelline Chai Latte. It has this lovely dark copper color that is so inviting. Plus I have been digging my Galaxy Chic palette by BH Cosmetics. 

But mostly the year has been ruled by the CoverGirl quads. Urban Basics, Country Woods, Pure Romance, Sheerly Nudes and Cafe au lait. 

The runners up are both great and I recommend all eyeshadows I've mentioned. Revlon Decadent and L'Oreal Good Luck Charm

#covergirl #maybelline #revlon #loreal #bhcosmetics #galaxychic

Other favorites in beauty 2013

Foundation: Rimmel Match Perfection and Maybelline Fit Me stick foundation

Concealer: Rimmel Hide the Blemish concealer in ivory

Bronzer - Rimmel Natural Bronzer in Sunlight

Blush - Milani Luminoso 

Powder - Rimmel Stay Matte in Translucent and Neutrogena Mineral Sheers in Classic Ivory

Lipstick - Bebot Love and Fergie Daily by Wet n Wild and 26-Nude Creme by Milani