April's favorite lipstick

And it's not even a lipstick!

The saturation of YSL, the non smeariness of OCC Lip Tars, and the perfect matte with a tad shine of NYX and the best thing it's cheaper then all of them.

I really really adore the new WNW mega last liquid lip color. As a person who a) always get lipstick of my teeth, coffee cups, jeans (don't ask) and just about anything else, I live it that when it's dry, it's dry, no budging, smearing or anything. As a person who lick her lips about 40 times in a minute, I love it's magical staying power. And as a person who love bright red lips, I really like the saturation and high pigment.

It does dry the lips a bit and is a bitch to remove from a lip brush if you were lazy and didn't wash it right away, like someone I know, I won't mention names...

WnW I'm begging you! more colors please! I desperately need a bright orange, a light coralish-red, a true coral and something dark like Mac Rebel. Thank's in advance.

This is me about 20 minutes after I put it on, with any other lipstick, it would be half faded by now, due to lip licking and I'd probably have some on the colar of my shirt.

6 hours later, and after, a bottle of water, 2 cups of coffee, soup, a veggie burger and 2 little chocolates, As you can see, it faded quite a bit, but in a nice even way, and it still looks like I'm wearing lipstick. Ha! 

Spring Fever

Remember my rules for the shopping diet? I forgot to mention one rule which is sort of silly and personal, and I've been keeping it for so long I forgot to mention it.

I really don't like it when my husband smokes, for a million reasons. He stopped a few years back, but when he's stressed or when we have a big shoot, he'll ask me to go get him a pack. One of the many reason I hate this (aside of the obvious health reasons and the fact that it's stinking our home) is that it's such a tupid waste of money. So, in order to not get too annoyed I made up a rule which goes - if he spend $12.5 on a pack of cigarettes, I spend $12.5 on something silly and unnecessary.

And so, between being sick and not spending my beauty allowance and a pack of cigarettes my husband got for a shoot a couple of weeks back, I suddenly had $25 to spend.

I've been sick for almost 2 weeks now, and it sucks. Also, being that I'm mostly home in bed I didn't get to wear a lot of make up, or feel like I need anything in particular. However when E.L.F spring break sale it was just too good to pass.

So, this is what I got:
1) Mineral Foundation + brush - haven't tried this one yet, I do have one of E.L.F mineral foundation in a color that's great for summer but doesn't work for me now, and I love it.

2) 3 pieces mineral eyeshadow set - really pretty natural tones.

3) Zit Zapper & Concealer - Haven't tried this one either, I like my other E.L.F concealer and though I've never seem to have any luck with those zits products, I'll give it a shot.

4) 5 eye pencils set. Actually the main reason for the whole order, Since my failed attempt at colorful eye pencils, I've been wanting to find and inexpensive alternative. I've tried the teal and the black, and though not as vivid as I might wish for, they glide really nicely, and very easy to use.

5) BlackBook EyeShadow set - I got it, cause the packaging is really cute. Yes, I admit it, it's pretty shitty, not very pigmanted palette. As with most cheap palettes, shimmer shadows seem better then matte. It's quite usable, and the colors are pretty, but nothing special or wonderful.

6) Natural palette, Haven't tried it yet, but that shadow seem to be slightly better then the BlackBook.

The special sale was half off everything in the spring collection. E.L.F is already super affordable, and the spring collection is already a little extra cheap, and so at 50%, the prices were really ridiculous. 

Natural palette was $3, Mineral Foundation and brush were $2.5, 3 mineral eyeshadows were $2.5, BlackBook was $3, concealer and zit zapper was $1.5 and pencils were $5.

With tax and shipping I paid for this giant care package to myself $24.17

As usual with E.L.F - some products are magical and some are crappy, but when it's that cheap, it's always fun to discover new cool things. Honestly, if the only great discovery from this spree will be the color pencils, I'm totalyl satisfied. 

Special Delivery!

When I made the rules for my shopping diet I decided that I could get Julep Maven box if it's really spectacular, and it pretty much was. I love bright colors, and I picked the one I liked and was all happy about it. A couple of hours later I realized that each month I get any combo that has a teal or blue and some type of orange in it and that I have a bunch of teals and oranges I haven't even opened yet.

I canceled it, and then Coastal Scents relaunched their mystery box and I decided that since I didn't get Maven Box, I can get this one instead.

I ordered it about a week ago, and then got sick and the box got here today, just as I was trying to feel a little better, to cheer me up in my miserable snotty condition. 

And how can one's not be cheered up by getting anything in the mail that comes in a bright magenta box?!

In the box was... a smaller box, also pink, a bumper sticker and a cute little mini eyeshadow samplers, with 4 mini shadows is New Penny (bronze) Vanilla Sky (cream) Aurora (orange) and Deep Forest (dark matte brown). 

So what was inside the mystery box?!

Nice looking tissue paper 

A really nice collection of brushes

A flat shadow brush, a small pencil brush (I'm especially excited about this one), a slanted brow\liner brash, a large powder brush, very soft and lovely, a sponge applicator (I don't like those at all, and probably will not use it) and a hash comb \ brow brush.

I'm sure the 1st 4 will be used quite a bit. So as far as I'm concern - big success. 

Coastal Scents makeup remover. I've used it in the past, it's nothing fancy or extra special, but it does a decent job at removing makeup (both face and eyes) It's not the best cleanser I've ever used, but still, totally usable.

Bronzer in "Dark", I've never used bronzer before. I think I belong to the school of beauty that think that the paler the better. Plus, with my long face, shading is not something I can work to my advantage. I'm not sure what I'll do with this. The color is quite pretty, so for me this might just be the world's largest eyeshadow. 

4 Coastal Scents Hot Pots in Powder pink (which looks more white to me), Aqua (beautiful matte light teal), Petal Peach (pretty neat, but not really my kind of color) and Sterling (a nice dark silver). Non of those are colors I would choose for myself, but I really like the pink and the aqua and sure the silver will come in handy. 

2 loose eyeshadow, a little sample of am amazing dark metallic purple and a full size doe tail, I couldn't find this color of their site, which I think means it's either discontinued or had a change of name. at any rate, it's a pretty intense shimmery dusty golden rose which is perfect.  

Lip pencil in mauve, not my favorite color, but since it's not extremely pigmented, I think I can use it under any pink lipstick, which is great.

Double ended shadow pencil in Peach De Jour, which surprisingly enough, isn't peachy at all, but what looks like bronze on one side and white on the other. This might just be just what the DR. order to recover from the WNW double shadow pencil disappointment...

I know that Coastal Scents is not exactly top shelf, but overall, I like their products. The purpose of this buy was to get myself a nice fun surprise and as far as that goes, I'm very happy with all the fun stuff I got. I'm especially excited about the pencil brush, the little brown and bronze shadows, the full size aqua and the loose Doe Tail shadow. If the double edge pencil turns out good, it might be the best part about this buy.

The boxes are out of stock (again) but if and when they come back, I'm totally getting another one. 

3 (sort of) new lipsticks

My favorite makeup to buy is lipstick. 

Which is a little funny because really all I want is very red lips. Oh, and for the lipstick to not dry my lips, and that it won't get on my teeth, or fade in an ugly way, and preferably would last for many hours without me having to redo it, and Matte, that's important, but the kind of matte that doesn't make the wrinkles in my lips show, and no feathering.

Well, I guess it's not such a big surprise that I keep buying lipstick, it's not so much that I want verity  but that I'm searching for that one lipstick that will do everything. Hoping to one day stumble upon it and then never buy another lipstick again (ya, Right)

e.l.f Mineral Lipstick in Cheerful Cherry 

Here are a couple of new purchases, or sort of new, the e.l.f lipstick is actually about a year old, however, at the time I didn't like it, so I shoved it in the bottom of a make up bag and forgot all about it, until a big make up cleaning a few weeks back.

And I'm so glad I did! I can't remember why I didn't like it. What's not to like in a dark berry red semi sheer and incredibly moisturizing lipstick?! maybe the name fooled me, you would expect "Cheerful Cherry" to be a light pinkish red. I guess this is more of the black cherry kind of cherries. 

What's really amazing about this lipstick is it's build-ability. I can get a light light almost natural looking coat or, add 3-4 layers for an almost opaque cover.

Also, as all e.l.f products, the price tag alone is enough to make anyone happy. at full price this is $5, but as e.l.f are known for their special sales, I got it at a 50% off mineral makeup for $2.5. 

If you are going to buy this online, do yourself a favor and look for bloggers' swatches, the colors on the site are apparently very inaccurate. 

Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede in Cruise Collection

For obvious reasons I assumed that "ultimate suede" means super matte. I mean, if patented leather is glossy, and regular leather is regular lipstick, then suede has to be matte, right?

Wrong! When you apply this, it has quite a bit of shimmer in it. It dries really different then it looks when it's wet, sort of more opaque and more matte but with some shimmer remaining. The color does look a bit lighter on my lips then in the tube, which is a shame cause before it dries it's a perfect coral.

Ultimate Suede does have a nice staying power, however, it seem to not so much fade, as flake off in a very unattractive manner.

I used it a couple of time, and not sure why. Maybe I'm trying to like it, or maybe it's because it's just so different. I would like to dry a darker shade of this, maybe Couture Or Trendsetter but at $10.5, I think it's too much of a bet for a product I already have a pretty bad opinion about. 

Maybelline ColorSenational Vivid in Vibrant Mandarin

I love Vivid just as much as I didn't like Suede. If Suede manage to take 2 types of lipstick, regular cream and long wearing,and combine them into the worse of both, Vivid takes to type of lipstick (moisturizing stain and regular cream) and bring out the best in both.

It's as moisturizing and easy to apply as a tinted balm but with lots of beautiful neonlike pigment. The coat is half sheer, it's not a matte or opaque lipstick, but the color is so vibrant it really pops. It's not very  long wearing but when it fades there's a nice vibrant stain left. It still looked good after 3 hours and 2 cups of coffee, but after lunch it faded completely.

This is a really wonderful product, and at $7.5 I would be happy to own every single shades in this series. 

Julep Hollywood Icons February Box

This box marks my 3 month Julep membership. I joined at their Christmas special (one free box for any subscription). I got to say, this was quite a ride and I had the best of times. It's everything I like about a beauty box - fun surprise in the mail, opportunity to try new things, fun anticipation and a vibrant community without all the things I don't like - disappointment, getting stuff I don't want or use, and difficulties in skipping \ canceling a box.

It was really fun to see what surprises each box will bring, even something small like hair ties or chocolate makes the whole experience feel so much more fun. There were a few things I used a lot and a few I didn't use at all (brown Marcara, I'm talking about you) but overall, I liked everything I got, I love the polish itself and ever since I signed up, I barely used any of my other polishes. 

The one thing that's slightly difficult for me is that between special price add-ons, a secret store for members that's open for 3 days to of the month, surprise boxes and other special sales, it's just too tempting to keep ordering more and more stuff fro them. I mean - I just got an add-on polish, even though I have at least 5 that I haven't tried yet. I don't think there was even one months out of the 3 in which I just paid for the $20 box and cut it at that.

The box came packed inside in black and gold and looked really festive and glamorous, it contained 2 nail polishes, Ingrid and Julianne, The new Oxygen nail treatment and the new Freedom top coat as well as 2 chocolate hearts and a cute little lash curler. Value for money, this is a pretty amazing deal. If I go by Julep prices on their site it's 44$ worth of product, not including the lash curler for $20. I'm not sure that I would buy an Oxygen treatment if it weren't in the box, but I like having it.

Will I sign up for Julep Maven Box again? I can't make up my mind. On one end, it's so much fun and I love the wait and the excitement and that little bit of histeria around new products and special sales. On the other end, after 3 months, I have so much polishes I haven't used yet or used only once, and I think I should use some of that before putting more money in new nail polish. 

I guess I'll have to wait and see what's in the March box to decide what's next.

Over all, this is one of the coolest services I've even encountered  it's so much fun and I recommend it to anybody who like painting their nails. 

How Much: $20 per month

Buy again: Probably yes