April 2015 Ipsy Review

After months (literally) of waiting, I finally got off the Ipsy waitlist, and my first bag came in the mail today! I swear I squealed when the postman handed me the bright pink bubble mailer, and I wasn't even out the door of the post office before I had it torn open and the bag unzipped!

Once I tore the bag open, the first thing to fall out was a little card that said the theme for this month was "beautifully bohemian." The makeup bag itself is a lovely hemp and raffia woven number, great for spring and summer. I love all the different colors, and I can definitely see using this bag again!

Inside the bag I got a blush, an eyeshadow, a teenytiny lipgloss, a perfume rollerball, and a facial serum. 

When I was looking at the samples I was getting in my bag online, I know that I was honestly less than elated with what I was receiving, but as I played with what I was getting it grew on me more and more. 

The blush is from a brand I've never heard of--Hikari, but it is a beautiful blush! I received the color Tango, and it's a gorgeous matte coral-pink shade. It's also very soft and wonderfully pigmented. I am going to have to use a very light hand or a stippling brush to make this work on my pale complexion, but I think it will be extra gorgeous once I get a tan!

The only product I had heard about before getting this bag was the eyeshadow. It's a pan from The Balm Nude Dude Volume 2 palette. I ended up with Flirty, which looks like a bog-standard bronze in the pan, but really comes alive when swatched! It isn't bronze at all, it's a gorgeous purple-y shade with a champagne shimmer. Although I had my heart set on UD Naked 3 as my next big palette purchase, this Balm eyeshadow is so lovely that it might have swayed me into looking at one of their palettes for my next purchase. 

The last color cosmetic I ended up with was a lip gloss by a brand called Starlooks. I got the shade Cuddle, a pinky nude. It's honestly quite boring, and the packaging is so small that I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. Yes, it works, but it's also like a dozen other pinky nude lipglosses I have in my collection. I will say that it does smell nice--like caramel. But I wouldn't repurchase this and I honestly don't know if I'll even bother with using it. 

(L-R: Blush, Eyeshadow, Lipgloss)

The perfume was what I was most disappointed about when looking at my preview bag online, but I have to say that it really exceeded my expectations! It's a rather generous rollerball by the brand Aromachology in the scent Sophisticated and Sensual Floral. I'm terrible at figuring out notes, but their website says that the notes are White Lily, Tuberose, and Grapefruit. This is a very classic and grown-up fragrance, with a very graceful feel. This could easily be either an every day fragrance or a special occasion fragrance. It's really lovely, honestly.

The last thing I got was the Hey Honey Good Morning Honey Silk Facial Serum. It's nice and moisturizing without being heavy. It has a nice, light fragrance, and does smell slightly of honey. It does what it says, and I might repurchase, but I also might not. It's good, but it's not spectacular, if that makes any sense. 

Overall, I was really quite pleased with this bag! The lipgloss and serum were both meh, but I genuinely love the other three products I received! Definitely worth the $10 I paid for my monthly subscription. If y'all want your own subscription, feel free to sign up with my referral link. Admittedly, I do get Ipsy points if you use this link, but no money. 

Thanks for reading! 

xoxo, Kenzie

Disclaimer: I paid for my Ipsy subscription entirely with my own money, and all opinions written on this blog are my own.

Glitter Gradient Nail Tutorial

Okay, I'll admit it--I'm a complete and total magpie. If something comes in glitter, I will always buy the sparkly version. Which is exactly why these nails are right up my alley! They're a little bit more demure than some sparkly nails I've worn, a little more grown up. They're also great for the holidays--I think a red and gold variant would be marvelous. Anyway, read on to see how I did it! The current version I have on my nails is a base of Essie Marshmallow with Sinful Colors Gilded as the glitter.

So, you'll need to start off with a solid colored base--this one is Essie Devil's Advocate, a deep purple. The dark base photographs against the glitter better, and actually looks quite striking, I think.

Now you're going to need a little puddle of glitter nail polish, I'm using a Sinful Colors polish in Gilded, both here and above. It's a really fine gold shimmer with small pink glitter mixed in, and I absolutely love it! You can use whatever polish you would like, however. I used a nail art brush, although you could use the regular brush if it was wiped pretty clean. Now, brush a very thin layer of the glitter onto the nail, starting about 1/4 of the way down from the top. 

Moving down another quarter of the nail, brush on another thin layer of glitter, building up the gradient. 

Keep moving down in smallish increments, and brushing on thin layers of glitter. The thin layers are what make the gradient! If you start glopping on thick layers of polish from the get-go, you lose the slow fade from base color to glitter, which is what makes this look, in my opinion. 

Once you've done as many layers as you would like, you get something that looks like this! Add a layer of topcoat and you're ready to go!

I can't wait to see y'all rocking your sparkly nails!
XOXO, Kenzie

My Favorite Red Lippies

Since the holidays are just around the corner (yay!!), I figured that now would be a perfect time to introduce y'all to my red lipstick collection. And yes, I did say collection. Red lipstick is, to me, one of those things that has to be carefully acquired. And if it doesn't suit you, it has no place in your collection. All of these lipsticks are ones that stood the test of time, are flattering on me, and are great lipsticks to try if you want to try something new!

This is a group swatch of all the lipsticks I'll be talking about in this blog post. I have quite a variety of different finishes and price points, but I'll go over each of those with the individual pictures!

This is the Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Red Dahlia. This is great if you're just dipping your toes in the water of red lipstick! It's also a great every day option, and I wouldn't look out of place wearing this to class on the average Tuesday. This lip balm is easily available just about everywhere that Burt's Bees is sold, so you shouldn't have any trouble tracking it down! Since it is a drugstore product, prices aren't locked down, but will probably range between about $6 and $10, depending on where you're shopping.

The next one is Wet n Wild MegaLast Lipcolor in Stoplight Red--that's one heck of a mouthful! This lipstick is the classic red lip, slightly bluish, glossy, and wears like iron on me! It's also unbelievably cheap, at $2 full price! This one is obviously dressier than the tinted lip balm, but I think it could be worn just about any time if you have the confidence to pull it off!

This is the Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate lipstick in 12. And no, it doesn't have a name, although a couple of the newer ones do, just....not this one. This is yet another drugstore lipstick, but this one is a little bit different from the previous ones. This is a distinctly orangey shade of red, and to me it is much more summery than some of the other shades in this post. I think it would also be really flattering on quite a range of skin tones, although the only way to really know if a lipstick suits you is to try! Since this is drugstore, prices do range, but around here they're usually between about $4-$7, depending on where you're shopping. 

Here we have another tinted balm type product--the Revlon ColorBurst Balm Stain in Romantic. I love these balm stains so much! They add a great amount of both color and moisture, and once they set, the color is there for a good while! And they're more demure than a full-on lipstick, so I can get away with wearing them more informally. The price range is around $7-$11, which is a great value for such an amazing product!

This is my only high-end lipstick that's in this post. And it was pretty pricey at $17.50, but I love it so much! The only problem with this one is that it's going to be pretty hard for most of y'all to find--it's the MAC Lipstick in Frank-N-Furter, part of their Rocky Horror collection. I absolutely love his lipstick. It's more of a deep raspberry than a true red, but it is so perfect! It wears like iron, and leaves a nice stain as it wears off. And I might love it so much that I own a backup......

Okay, if you want a cheap, bright red, this one's for you! It's the ELF Matte Lip Color in Rich Red. When I think of Christmas, this is the red I think of. It's a true red, and easily found almost anywhere, although I bought mine in Target. It's a twist up pencil design, which makes it almost mistake-proof to apply, and it has a really soft texture, especially for a matte. It's also only $3, so it's a great red to try out if you aren't sure if you like red or not!

I am a strong believer that everyone can find a red lip that suits them--it just takes a little trial and error. But once you find a good one? You'll be hooked!

XOXO, Kenzie