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. 

You give love a bad name

My shopping diet, rather then shopping starvation in working amazingly well, this is week 4 and not only I havent strayed from the rules, I also feel like I'm indulging myself a lot more then before. The idea of having money, even a little of it, to spend solely on cheering myself up is so exciting, I find myself walking into stores, wondering around and leaving content without doing any shopping.

The first week of this was so intense I actually bought nothing. The second week, I almost didn't get anything either, but then I had 2 meetings in a row, that proved beyond a doubt that my makeup collection is lacking in one particularly area - non-black eye pencil.

One of the nicest advantages of working in fashion is that basically - there are no rules (unless you are wearing crocs) and so, usually I have no problem with heavy black liner and red lipstick for a 9:00 AM meeting. However, when I was trying to make myself presentable for a meeting with a techi and then a meeting with a TV producer, I didn't feel it was right to let loose on the drama.

And so, natural shadow and... I desperately wanted a brown or taupe liner. And so I found myself at Duane Reade again, looking through too many options, somehow leaving with 2 WNW Perfect Pair Eye Wand - a double sided pencil on one side and wider shadow stick on the other. One in bronze and taupe and one is 2 shades of blue.

Sadly, the only nice thing I can say about those is that they are 3.99 each. A nice price for 2 products that can, theoretically, create a whole eye look. However, the one I tried (bronze and Taupe are incredibly frosty (ad not in a nice way), very unimpressive pigmentation and crease after a few hours. Also, on my second use, the tip of the narrow side broke, and the shadow end just fell out!

You know how some people are real snobs when it comes to products? I think a lot of this snobbish attitude comes from trying a first product from a company, then ruling everything else out because that one experience was bad. If this would have been my first WNW buy, I'de probably avoid this company from now on.

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. 

Hit & Miss

Since Jack Black has left the building, and my lips are still dry, I had to go through my stash and find a replacement. The first thing that I found was Korres lip butter in Pomegranate. A light tinted balm in a beautiful warm pink. I got it maybe a year ago, used it can couple of times and forgot about it. It's my first lip butter so I wasn't sure what to expect.

The texture is indeed more buttery and slightly thinner than a balm, which is very nice. It has a faint sugary scent that fade after application and no flavor to speak of, which is slightly disappointing, since the whole series is named after yummy fruits. I like the moisturizing but light feel like of this on the lips.

2 things I don't really like about it. The first visit that unlike Jack Black, I have to apply this a lot more often to keep my lips from drying, like every 2 hours. The second is that though I love the color of the butter in the box and if swatched on my arm. When I apply it to my lips, it disappear without a trace.

How much? $12

Will I buy again? Probably not, there are better and cheaper lip treatment out there. I think my favorite thing about this is the stylish package design, so probably not