I think its my calling to be an all knowing beauty expert. Whenever I go into the drugstore or Sephora or even department stores, I always look around and think.. hmm what can I blog about next. I always want to try the next best thing. One of the things that I feel I am always on the search for is mascara, concealer and foundation. I feel you can never stick to just one. Everytime I go to +Sephora I always ask them about concealers. I feel like this is one thing that I haven't really found that I can totally live without. I have oily skin but under my eyes is very dry and tends to crease in an instant. I've tried everything under the sun and I just want something that works. Recently I've been hooked on Armani's Maestro Eraser Concealer and I really felt that it was hydrating and I really do love it. I feel that the sheen in it brightens the area and I really like the feel of it on my skin. I went to +Sephora in Herald Square last week and asked about the Tarte Maracuja creaseless concealer and the lady that helped me was completely in love with it. She was saying how she also had oily skin and that her skin was the same as mine and she said that the Maestro one didn't cover as much and that the Tarte one was way better since it was full coverage.
This concealer is said to be full coverage and it won't crease, flake or have you needing to reapply. It has +tarte's signature maracuja oil in it which helped improve your skin's texture, tone and moisture while having a brightening dewy luminous finish. Since it has the maracuja oil, you will see that it also has all the benefits that you will find in the regular maracuja oil and the actual concealer will help mask any discoloration, imperfections such as acne, blemishes, redness, scars, hyperpigmentation and even dark circles. Its very easy to apply. Even though its full coverage, you will notice that its really easy to blend and it dries to a flawless finish.
I asked for a sample and took it home to try it. The next morning I put on my foundation and then the concealer. I used a concealer brush since that's what she recommended. I liked how it went on at first and yes I did feel that it did cover better than the Maestro one. The true test for me is throughout the day. I was thinking that this stuff will probably crease within seconds. I went throughout the entire day and nothing. I didn't feel it crease at all. We are in summer so if anything it was going to crease instantly during the summer months but it stayed put. At the end of the day, I didn't feel that my concealer had disappeared or anything or that I needed more coverage throughout the day.
This concealer retails for $24 which is way cheaper than the Maestro Eraser concealer. This concealer also comes in 7 different shades ranging from fair to dark. The shade I chose for myself is medium but there are a range of different shades that you can choose from. All in all, I definitely recommend this product along with this brand. I don't think there has been a product from this brand that I haven't fell in love with. Its definitely something you should pick up.
Have you tried this concealer? What do you think? Leave comments below and let me know your thoughts.
LIPSTICK REVIEW!!! These are probably my most favorite reviews other than skincare. Its because I am just in love with lipstick. I am fearless because at the end of the day, its just lipstick. there is no need to think "is this color too much?" why not wear the bold lip-- who cares! It does help the fact that I live in New York City and I always feel like here you can do no wrong with anything whether its clothes or makeup. You can't look crazy here in New York. I guess I am more daring here than I am in Puerto Rico just because here in NY its a different style but rest assured whenever I go to Puerto Rico, I wear my bold lipsticks and OWN IT! A lot of my friends especially +Madeline Mulero think its great that I have the guts to pull off MAC Heroine or LimeCrime Pink Velvet. I have to say, I just wear them, thats it. I don't really think about it. Now you can't really go all crazy and have a smokey eye and a bold lip if you are just going to work. I balance it out with just mascara and maybe a liner and thats it. My eyes are usually downplayed so that my lips can pop.
I went to the drugstore and I wanted to see what Lipsticks I can for a recent trip I took to Puerto Rico and when I look for lipsticks, I want something on the matted finish and if it has any shine I would go for the satin finish but other than that, I am not a fan of gloss. I think they look kind of messy on your lips. When I think good drugstore lipsticks, I go straight to Loreal or +Revlon. I've been eyeing the Revlon Color Burst Matte balm lip crayons and I decided to take the plunge. I went for the color UnApologetic. This color is a great vibrant coral, raspberry pink color. It is gorgeous! It goes on smooth and immediately you feel that it has like a chapstick minty feeling which is nice. Nothing tingly like if it were to plump your lips but a regular chapstick feeling. The color is vibrant which I like. I am excited to wear it when I am in Puerto Rico and have a tan. This color is probably a little bit of a dupe for +NARS Satin Crayon in Lohdi but the Revlon is more vibrant and not as muted.
This retails from around $7-9 depending on where you get it. I recommend maybe waiting until you can get it on sale but either way I think these lipsticks are worth it. I will definitely go back and get more. You can get these in most drugstores and other stores like Walmart or Target.
Have you tried this lipstick? Comment below and let me know which ones you love?
One thing I've been doing lately has been taking care of my eyebrows. If you've noticed lately in magazines and blogs thick eyebrows are all the rave and are very trendy lately. Naturally I have thick eyebrows so I never really thought I needed to fill them in or ever do anything with them. After seeing all these YouTube videos, I started to look into doing more for my eyebrows. I first started using products that I had already then I figured I'd move into something easier. In the beginning I only had a powder and wax and it was just a task to do my eyebrows and more and more as +Anastasia Beverly Hills brand became more popular, they came out with a pencil. I already spoke about the brow pencil by Trish McEvoy that I had gotten a while back and I was completely in love with that brand. The Anastasia BH Brow Wiz is almost exactly the same. I personally like the Brow Wiz better for a couple of reasons.
One reason why I think the Brow Wiz is better because the spoolie on the one end is better. The bristles grab onto your eyebrows better. The Trish McEvoy's bristles weren't as stiff so it didnt really brush through your eyebrows as well. It's important to brush your eyebrows before you do fill them in so that you know what you are filling in and make sure that the finished product is perfect.
I completely recommend the +Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz liner for anyone and everyone. There are a 9 different colors and so there will definitely be a color for you. I usually would go for Medium Ash which is now called Medium Brown but since I colored my hair red, I decided to go for the Auburn and its a perfect match. My eyebrows are perfect and they are really easy to do. I just fill in and then finish off with a clear brow gel. Nothing too crazy just great groomed eyebrow that finishes off your whole look. This retails for $21 and you can find them in +Sephora or +ULTA Beauty.
Do you use anything for your eyebrows? What do you use? Leave me comments below, I would love to know your routine!
Every so often I decide to write about hair care. The reason why I don't write about it so much is because my hair is just there. I have really long hair and I have it cut in layers. I've had my hair this way for years. I basically don't really do much to my hair because I think it looks good the way it is and I don't want to mess with it. For when I feel like I need to change things up I usually go for a new color. Lately, I've been dying my hair with Henna Dye from Lush in Caca Rouge which is the red color that they have. I've been loving it. But if you read my post you would know that the application is very time consuming. In the winter, this is great since you usually stay inside but now that its summer I started realizing that my hair started to look really dry on the ends. I had recently gotten my haircut so I knew it wasn't that but didn't matter what I did, my hair was just gross looking. I decided that I needed to dye my hair again and I went to the +LUSH Cosmetics in Herald Square is now permanently closed. I was appalled and honestly didn't have time to go to the one in Union Square but my hair needed to get colored so I went to the good ole drugstore!
I look around and first started to look at what was on sale and I settled on the Loreal Excellence Creme Rich Richesse in Dark Mahogany Red. This color is a true brown red color. I've used this brand before and I knew that I would like this. It usually conditions my hair really well too. I only bought 2 boxes even though my hair is really long but I've learned how to be able to cover my whole head with just 2 boxes. When dying your hair at home you want to remember a couple of things. You want to make sure that you use either chap stick or vaseline on the border of your hairline because you want to make sure that the color does not stain your skin. Also I first recommend to cover your roots and then work your way down to the roots. Its also good to make sure that you have a comb so that you can comb the color down to your ends. Once you've colored your hair wrap your hair in a bun and you can either leave open or cover it with a shower cap or something. You wait the appropriate amount of time and then you wash it out.
When washing it out, just make sure to rinse your hair until the water is clear. This will take a long time because there is a lot of product in there and my hair is really long. Once I got the product all out, I went on and blow dried it. The end color was gorgeous. It is like a cranberry brownish red. It's definitely red, you will notice in the run right away that your hair is red but not Little Mermaid type red. It's gorgeous. This hair color retails for about $8.99 but I got it on sale for $5.99 and personally I love this brand. I'd definitely repurchase.
Do you dye your hair at home? Let me know what products you use. Leave comments below!
Once and a while I love to give home remedy type beauty tips. There are so many natural remedies out there that its hard to not use them. I've noticed that a lot of these types of remedies are usually 'old wives tales' but actually they work. My dad told me about how to use Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to whiten my teeth and I also use it to whiten my nails. I wrote about it in one of my past posts. I also believe that your skin reacts to the food you eat so if you have acne prone skin, I recommend taking a deeper look at what type of foods you eat and anything bad for you also probably isn't good for your skin. I recommend swapping things out and also make sure you are keeping up on your water intake. If you do this and still have bad acne, go to the doctor.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, I used to go to the beach every weekend for like 5 months straight. Sometimes during the first few months going back to the beach after the long break of 'winter months' I would get sunburned if I went overboard and didn't really protect my skin which I never did when I was younger. There were times that I had horrible sunburns but one time I had gotten the worse one was one time I laid out and I guess the sun was REALLY bad that day and I ended up with blisters on my arm. Forget about the pain, once you put aloe on it the pain went away. I was more worried about days after when it cleared that I was going to get scars. This would have sucked since it was on my arm in plain view any time I wear short sleeves. My dad told me to put Tea Trea Oil on it every night. At first, I really didn't think anything was happening but by the end of 2 weeks the scar that could have formed was gone. I then went all crazy. I put it on a scar that I had on my knee and it helped minimize the marks as well. I was in love with this magic oil.
I started reading up on other possible uses for this magic oil and I saw that you can put a few drops of this into your shampoo and conditioner to clarify your hair of any build up. A lot of people don't think that their hair has build up maybe because they don't color their hair or that they don't use a lot of product in their hair but that isn't the only thing that causes build up. You can get build up with hard water. It is always good to wash your hair once a month or depending on how many times you wash your hair you can do it either once a week or twice a week or even once a month. As long as you are doing it frequently you should be good.
Those are what I use Tea Tree Oil for but you can also use it for cuts, burns, skin infections and other things like that. Before you use it, just google some stuff and see if its okay to use. But all in all its like coconut oil, you can basically use it for everything. Let me know if you use this for anything specific?
If you've been reading my blog you know I love to take care of my skin. I like to do face masks on a weekly maybe even twice or three times a week. I always like to try different masks so that I can keep my skin guessing. Since I was in high school when I use any type of skincare product for too long it stops working. In my search for trying to sample any and every facial mask out there, I discovered GlamGlow a while back. Back then when I started using this mask, the only mask they had was the YouthMud. I read a lot of reviews about this and a lot of people either loved it or hated it. People complained that it was too harsh and it burned their face off. I also read reviews that was the complete opposite which was that they loved it. It extracted the blackheads immediately and that they would never go a day without it.
I was skeptical at first but I figured that I'd buy it from somewhere where I can return it just in case if my skin broke out or in the words of other people that my face burns off. I read more into what the product actually does and I saw that this mask would leave your skin noticeably radiant and glowing. It works with your own natural collagen which it uses to gently resurface your skin by exfoliating your skin. By resurfacing your dead skin cells this makes your skin look smoother, brighter and softer. This mud mask also makes your skin look tighter and while refining and tightening your pores it will make your skin appear more youthful while absorbing impurities.
When I first got this mask I was surprised how much I got considering it was not cheap. The "big" pot retails for $69 which is a hell of a lot of money for a mask. I figured, let me try it out and see what the fuss is all about. I put it on my face and yes its a mud mask so I was expecting the ease of clay mask. Nope, this has green tea leaves which makes it hard to apply and its a bit messy. Once you get it on, you feel it working right away. It does tingle and yes the first time I did have to fan my face because it was a bit much but nothing I couldn't completely handle. I left it on for about 30 minutes and once it was dried, I washed it off. I poured water on my face and scrubbed my face ask much as my skin allowed and then just washed the rest of it off. It was really exfoliating. I love this mask but not sure if I would repurchase just because of the expensive price tag. Luckily, +Sephora usually has it as a 100 point perk and I grab it there when its available.
Do you have any beauty products that you wish weren't so damn expensive? Comment below!
A couple of weeks back I went on a Dr. Brandt spending spree because I began with a few products, loved them and decided that I needed to try more. I originally fell in love with the Collagen Booster face serum and raved about it a couple of weeks back. I go on and off with using this since I have so many different other night creams that I need to use but every time I use this one it does wonders for my face. I wake up with a different face I feel. My face is radiant and its just amazing. I was so fond of this face serum that I decided to buy the dark circles under eye cream. This eye cream is said to brighten and diminish the look of tired, puffy and hollow eyes. It has Lumisphere microencapsulated pigments that instantly give you brighter and more luminous looking eyes. The serum is pigmented so it does give you minimal coverage and it will eventually fade your dark circles while breaking down fatty deposits that actually cause bags. Collagen in this eye cream also helps plump the skin which if you notice its very thin and feels different than the rest of your skin. This is why you need to take care of your eyes more because its very sensitive.
I used this cream for about a month straight without using anything else. I have couple of things I want to say. One thing is that when you look at the description of this product it is suppose to diminish tired looking eyes which makes you think this should be put on in the morning under makeup. That is a bold face lie! You cannot use this under makeup because it has sort of a sticky glue-ish consistency. I know its weird that I have to describe it like that but is kind if clumps up the same way glue would if you either rub it in your skin too much or don't rub it in enough to where it creates sort of like a layer under your eyes. It has a metal rollerball applicator which is awesome because it massages your under eyes and the coolness helps debuff your bags but the actual serum is crap. Since I can only use it at night time I realize that it doesn't work as good as other under eye creams that I have. I was really disappointed with this product because it wasn't cheap. This retails for $55 and I would never recommend this product at all.
Do you have products that you are 100% sure that they are just crap? Comment below I always want to hear about products that are a must stay away from!!
