I get a lot of emails concerning ARTISTRY/ARTISTRY Essentials Cosmetics especially, their foundations. I'm a huge fan of their foundations & it's the only foundations I'll use on my clients (not unless they want me to use their brand of foundations which happens sometimes). ARTISTRY/ARTISTRY Essentials offers 6 different types of foundations that range from powder, mineral, tinted moisturiser, aging/dry skin, minimal coverage, & my favorite, oil-control. Absolute Oil-Control foundation helps reduce shine & minimizes the appearance of pores and other imperfection. It's also enriched with Vitamin E & acerola cherry compand as well as SPF 15. This foundation is light weight & gives a nice matte finish which I really love. It's last throughout the day & doesn't rub off as easily as some foundations. I like to set it with either NYC Translucent Powder, MAC MSF's, or using ARTISTRY Essentials Mineral Foundations with a powder brush. ARTISTRY Absolute Oil-Control Foundations comes in 17 different shades & retails for $24. It's a small price to pay for foundation that keeps oil & shine at bay.

As you all know, Target now is carrying some ELF Cosmetics items. They have special makeup gift sets that range from $3-10 & also selling the standard $1 items. What really has caught my attention are the brushes. I now have 3 of the special edition brushes (eyeshadow, face, & bronzing brushes) & currently, my favorite is the Bronzing Brush. Softer & more sleek looking than the regular white handled brushes, the bronzing brush (blush brush) does a great job when applying my ARTISTRY Essentials Mineral Foundation in Dark as a bronzer to contour & MAC MSF in Medium Dark/Natural & Shimmer (shimmer side) to highlight. I'm going to buy a few more to stock up for my kits as well as the other brushes because the quality of these black handled are outstanding for only being $1.

Yes, you guessed it...I could NOT stay away from hauling this week! I need to do the Project 10, but I'm a make-up artist & it's essential for me to purchase makeup...right? ;)
I went to Target again this week to buy more items from the ELF line. I went to another Target in my area in hopes to find the Total Face Brush. I did & bought 5 of them (I sold them out). I could look & tell that the brush was better than the white handled face brushes. Once I got home, I tested them out &  I was right. These brushes are much more softer than the standard ones. They are less dense than the regular ones, but still do a great job for all over powder. I also like to use them for applying blush. I would even use the special edition brush on my clients unlike the regular brush. If you are in Target, I would say to stock up on the Total Face Brush AND the Eyeshadow Brush! Next, I'll buy the bronzing brush (I think that's the other one?).

At Ulta this week, they had a special going on for Too Faced Cosmetics. They had a special mini kit that included a mini sized Too Faced Shadow Insurance & Lash Injection Pinpoint Mascara stashed away in the cutest metallic pink mini bag. I love anything miniature so, I couldn't pass this deal up! In fact, I bought two. I wanted to give my sister one of the mascaras & give one primer to my mom. I'm a fan of Urban Decay Primer Potion & L'oreal De-Crease, but always wanted to try Too Faced primer. I tried it a few times at the store before & I wasn't honestly impressed. It's hard to tell how good a primer is just judging from applying it on the back of your hand so, I thought this mini kit would be perfect to get so I can test it out without commiting to the full size primer. I'll do another post with what I think about Too Faced Shadow Insurance next week. While I was at Ulta, I also picked up another mini CHI 44 Iron Guard Spray & picked up some Ulta Brand makeup from their 5 for $5 sale. I bought 4 glitter eyeliners & 1 mini lipgloss tin. The eyeliners are okay quality, I like to use them on my lower lashline. They don't go on very smoothly, but I don't mind using them. The lip glosses in the tin feel a bit grainy, but I like the color pay off.

Next, I went to Sally's for a new nail color & a new pair of lashes for myself. I bought Orly Prince Charming nail polish (reminds me of a OPI color that I had to return at Ulta a few weeks ago because it was old..the entire stock of that particular was old!) & Ardell #107 lashes. I LOVE Prince Charming! It's grey-brownish color with no shimmer (which I love).

I might do a post of the other makeup I purchased over the weekend. I found some frugal makeup finds in some unlike places. You'll be surprised!

This is the first time that I ever purchased anything from Bourjois. I tried to look for reviews on this brand, but I couldn't find much. So, I made this purchase on a limb.
The Ulta that I go to really doesn't have a big variety of Bourjouis eyeshadows. I decided to buy Violet Absolu. No big surprise, I had to get it because it's purple! When I tested it in the store, it really didn't have the best color payoff. The color came off more on the sheer side. Since, it's a Wet/Dry eyeshadow, I thought the color payoff would be better if I used a damp brush. So, I came home & tried it out. The color payoff was still minimal. I decided to play around with some purple cream eyeshadows & use them as a color base to make the color of the eyeshadow really pop. It worked pretty good. I did a look with the eyeshadow + color base (using an eyeshadow primer underneath of course) a few days later. I noticed by the end of the day, the eyeshadow had slightly faded away..even after using an eyeshadow primer AND a color base! Never had that happened before. With all that being said, I will not be purchasing Bourjois wet/dry eyeshadows again. For $14, it was a total waste. The color reminds me of Artistry's Royalty eyeshadow which is only $7. Cheaper AND better in quality! Sometimes, high end doesn't always mean high end quality.

I've been TRYING to cut back on my hauls, but ever since the grand opening of Ulta to the town next to me makes it so difficult! I'm trying to limit myself to going to Ulta to once a week instead of 2-3 visits per week. So far, so good! While I was at Ulta this week, I bought Urban Decay Surreal Skin Creamy Concealer in Hallucination & NYX Single Eyeshadow in Hot Orange. The only brands of concealer I've used are ARTISTRY, Stila, Cover Girl, & Hard Candy (review on this soon!) so, I'm relucent to trying new concealers. My favorite is ARTISTRY because it's the only concealer that is truly creamy so, when I saw Urban Decay's Surreal Skin 'Creamy' Concealer, I had to buy it & put it to the test. I've been using it for a couple days now. I like it, but it's more liquid-y in consistency than it is 'creamy'. It reminds me of my Stila concealer, but I like Urban Decay's better. One thing I really don't like is the fact that Urban Decay does not offer concealers for medium-darker skintones. I use lighter shade to highlight my eyes & the bridge of my nose, but they don't offer a shade that matches my skintone for blemishes or other imperfections. Other than that, it's a pretty good concealer. Is it worth $16? I would have to say no! Maybe, $8-10, but $16.

While I was at Sally's, I picked up 2 pairs of lashes & a nail polish. I haven't been buying many pairs of lashes for myself lately. Instead, I've buying lashes to stock up in my kits for my clients. I finally decided to pick some lashes for myself since I was getting tired of wearing my Ardell #120 Demi's. So, I picked up a pair of Ardell Wispies & Demi Wispies. I LOVE Wispies lashes! I only got one pair because that was the only one left! So, I got a pair of the Demi Wispies. They kind of remind me of the #120 Demi's, but just a tad bit bigger/longer. After I was done taking a picture of the lashes I was going to buy, I noticed how badly I needed to do my nails! So, I decided to pick up a nail polish by China Glaze. The color is VII. It's a dark non-shimmer purple color, it's gorgeous!

I've always been a fan of Too Faced Cosmetics. They have good quality products & have the cutest packaging. So, when I saw the Glamour To Go 2 Pocket Palette at Ulta one day, I just had to have it! It's small in size, but don't let that fool you. It comes stocked with 8 eyeshadows, 4 lipglosses, & 1 blush. The eyeshadow colors in this palette are more for everyday-neutral colors which I was looking for just incase I needed extra shadows for a wedding that I was doing the following week. The eyeshadows are pigmented & I love how this palette has a nice mix of lid/crease/highlight colors. The lipglosses are pigmented as well & aren't too sticky. As for the blush, well..I'm not to fond of the blush. The color is too pale for my skintone, but would look great on lighter skinned clients.

The only complaint I have about this palette is the packaging. It's cute, but slightly flimsy. You can easily open the bottom of palette & it can come right off. Overall, I think it's a great palette! It was only $19.50 at Ulta which is a steal for all you get in this pint sized palette.

I'm not normally a dark or heavily pigmented lip color person, but for some reason this season I've been all about them! My current favorite is Artistry Essentials Lip Shine in Vivacious. It's a berry/red wine color with no shimmer. It goes on sheer (it's not really too sheer, still has great color pay off after one swipe), but you can build up the color which I love (picture on the right). It's a great color for both light & darker skinned women. I love to use this lip shine with simple eyes (winged black eyeliner + Ardell #117 lashes) & rosy cheeks.

Urban Decay once again out does themselves with the packaging! The artwork is done by an LA artist Kime Buzzelli. The shadow box comes with 6 eyeshadows, 24/7 Zero eyeliner, & a mini primer potion (it's so cute!).Two of the eyeshadows are exclusive to the palette (Painkiller & Snatch). This palette has a nice range of colors. It has the more neutral colors (Snatch, Somg, Toasted, Mildew) & a couple of bright colors to transition to a colorful look (Painkiller & Flash). The eyeshadows go on like butter & so pigmented. The only eyeshadow that I'm disappointmented in is 'Snatch'. It has chunks of glitter which I'm not a fan of. Besides that eyeshadow, I'm behind pleased with this palette. It retails for $30 which I think is an incredible price for all that you get.

Before I go into the product review,
I just want to apologize for the lack of updates! I've been extremely busy with meetings & an increase of clients, it makes updating reguarly nearly impossible. Luckily, I can update via phone! I'm also having issues with my camera so, must of all the pictures I post will be via camera phone. Bear with me!

Now, on to the review!

Let me start off by saying this trio is gorgeous & perfect for the fall/winter. It comes with a gold (it reminds me of Artistry Polished Eyeshadow), rust, & a bronze color. They are very pigmented & work great with NYX French Fries & Gold Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils as a color base to really make the colors pop. These colors look great on any skintone especially, for us women of color! This trio can vary in prices, but I bought this at Ulta for $7.99. Not bad considering the quality of these eyeshadows.

As you all know, Ardell is one of my favorite false eyelash brands ever! Lately, I've been venturing off & in search of other false eyelash brands that are worthy enough to use on my clients & myself. I have 3 non-Ardell brands that I'm going to do reviews on. Can one of these brands possible be as good as Ardell?

Red Cherry

I've heard quite a few good reviews on this brand. I bought quite a few pairs of the #47 a few months ago to use on my clients. I have yet to use these on any of my clients. The lashes seems flimsy & cheap. You have to be EXTRA gentle when taking the lashes out the container because you can easily bend the lashband. The #47 seem a bit hard to put on as well. The lashband doesn't have a good curve so, this is why I find it more difficult to put on. The other thing I don't like about these lashes are the fact I can't use the same pair over & over for a week. These lashes only last me a couple days. I would not order these again. Now, if I saw them at a store & they weren't the #47, I might buy them. Overall, I wasn't happy with this brand.

Grade: F

I-Envy by Kiss

I was at this beauty supply store looking for some Ardell lashes for a shoot I was doing the next day. I saw the Ardell display, but out of the corner of my eye I saw this small display of lashes on the counter. I walked over & the packaging was what really sold me first. They had a small, but nice variety so, I picked up 3 pairs. They looked like they were good quality so, I used them on my model the next day without testing out a pair on myself. Kiss lashes remind me of Ardell's! They were great quality, easy to apply, & looked wonderful on the model's eyes. I wish I had bought more especially, in the style that I used on the model. I can't wait to try to buy more from this brand as well as using a pair on myself.

Grade: A

ELF Dramatic Lash Kit

I was skeptical when I saw that ELF had false eyelashes for only $1...how can something SO cheap be good? I tried them out one day & surprisingly, I liked them! I like them better than the Red Cherry lashes I bought. They were easy to apply & seemed pretty good in quality. I thought maybe they would make my eyes itchy, but they didn't. My only compliant is that the lashes don't look too dramatic on my eyes. I wish the were a little thicker to give that va-va-voom effect. Other than that, I quite pleased with ELF's lashes.

Grade: B+