January BoxyCharm Unboxing

Hi everyone!!

Omg, it's been a crazy month. I feel like this whole month has been me being sick and then trying to not get sick again.

It's been extra cold too so obviously there's been lots of binge watching shows.

I'm really into Dexter right now, I'm on season 7 and I don't want it to end *cries *.

Also almost finished with Jane the Virgin.

What shows are you guys watching right now?

Everyone seems to be recommending Gilmore Girls but I cant stand that show.

Leave me some suggestions in the comments below for some good shows on Netflix or Hulu.

So anyways here we are in January and I finally received my BoxyCharm so of course it's BoxyCharm time, let's just jump right in.

1) Pur Chateau Cheek Stain ($26)

I received the shade Cabernet which is a deep wine color.

The packaging is the same color as the product inside with dual ends and silver caps.

On one end we have the actual cheek stain which seems to be more of a balm type formula rather than a cream and comes off quite sheer in the swatch, which would make it easier to use being its a deep color. It did seem easy to blend out fine but also dries down and stains rather quick so you gotta work fast. When I opened mine to swatch it the whole stick of cheek stain actually fell out and honestly there wasn't much product in there but being that a little seems to go a long way I guess this would still last a while

On the other end is a brush for blending out the cheek stain. I don't really like the brush and could not see myself using it, it seems poorly made, mine was unevenly cut, and just seemed too small and stiff for it's purpose. I could see myself using this for a lip stain more than for my face.

2) Vintage by Jessica Liebeskind Illuminating Face Highlighter Set ($35)

In the shades Rose Quartz & Chocolate Diamond

The packaging was a simple antique white color with gold text and a large lid sized mirror on the inside and the highlighter pans were actually quite large which makes getting your brush in there quite easy.

I actually really like the way these swatched, they were very pigmented and they had a lot of shine, I was actually shocked at the colors themselves because in the pan they seemed quite dark like they would not work for pale and light skin tones but they definitely did not come off that way once on the skin and to be honest I wasn't expecting to like these as much as I do and I think these shades would work for all skin tones.

3) Deluxe Soft Fan Brush (SS017) byCrown Brushes ($12.99)

This is your typical fan brush which was a good addition to this month's box since they included a highlighter palette in here too. I really like getting brushes in my BoxyCharm because you can never have too many and if you wear makeup daily like I do then you know it's always good to have backups when you forget to wash a brush or when you're just being lazy.

4) Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo Spray ($23)

I haven't used this yet so not really much to say. I have black hair so the true test will be if it leaves a white residue.

5) Adesse Ultra Suede Matte Top Coat ($18)

I am a simple girl when it comes to my nails. I usually just trim,file, and paint my own nails. I don't go crazy and do all the cuticle oils and stuff (even though I know I probably should) so I was really excited that this was a topcoat rather than some type of nail treatment. I will definitely be using this.

So that's everything I got in my January BoxyCharm.

Let me know what you got in your box below in the comments or hit me up on social media.

https://alletseaesthetic.blogspot.com/p/contact.html


Products Mentioned (clickable):

Pur Chateau Cheek Stain

Vintage by Jessica Liebeskind Illuminating Face Highlighter Set

Deluxe Soft Fan Brush (SS017) by Crown Brushes

Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo Spray

Adesse Ultra Suede Matte Top Coat

IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+

Hey everyone!!

I have a pretty gnarly cold right now (thanks to my husband) and since I haven't been wearing as much makeup this week, I figured it was a great time to try out the IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+ ($38).

When I'm sick I usually just wear BB or CC cream, mascara, and a shit ton of lip balm.

I also like to wear BB and CC creams around the house, on “no makeup” makeup days, & when I'm sick because I like the added benefits that come from these creams.

They're full of vitamins, anti-oxidants, hydrating ingredients*, anti aging ingredients*, SPF, and if it's a CC cream then it also brightens and color corrects.

So even if this one might be out of your budget I do highly recommend them in general.

My favorite drugstore version at the moment is the Garnier SkinActive Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream ($12.99) and I use the Oily/Combo version, it dries down to more of a natural matte and is not overly drying at all.

The Garnier BB is a whopping 2 ounces btw (good ass deal).

(*exact ingredients vary by brand that's why I didn't name them)

Some might think it's a little unnecessary to wear makeup when you're sick and that's fine but it just makes me feel better when I already feel so crappy and it really only takes like 5 minutes so you can be back to moping around the house in no time.

The IT Cosmetics Your Skin But BetterCC Cream with SPF 50+ doesn't have the greatest shade selection as there are only five shades but that's pretty typical for BB and CC creams

(honestly I've seen a bunch of brands with even less shades usually 3 (lame af)).

I chose the shade light.

It comes in a 1.08 oz squeeze tube with a fine tip which I like because CC creams can tend to be a little more runny and it gives you more control.

When I squeezed it out for application it was more emollient and sticky and was slightly thicker than I expected, which instantly told me that this might be a bit too hydrating (aka greasy mofo) for my skin type. Easy fix though, I just put some mattifying primer on my t zone and continued on.

I thought the color (at first sight) was going to be a little too warm for me but because it's more of a light/medium coverage it sheered out beautifully and I could see this being more forgiving on shade matching.

It blended out super easy, smooth, and quick with a beauty blender and I instantly loved how it made my skin look and feel. It was super lightweight, my skin felt hydrated, had a natural finish, and it ending up matching me perfectly. It definitely needed to be set with a light dusting of powder (I have combo dry/oily t zone) but who am I kidding I freaking set everything anyway.

After my face was completed (super quick sicky makeup) I inspected my face in the mirror because that's what everyone does right?

It's definitely light to medium coverage which I expected because it's a CC cream so it won't fully cover any pigmentation marks or breakouts you might have but that is part of the reason I love this so much.

It gave me enough coverage to make my skin beautiful and glowing but my pigmentation spots and flaws just barely peeked through which gave the appearance of having naturally beautiful skin.

I have a couple small dark spots from dry skin and some new red marks from a recent skin care product fail (read about that here)

(below: IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+ in shade Light)

The IT Cosmetics Your Skin But BetterCC Cream with SPF 50+ held up really well throughout the day, my skin still looked naturally beautiful and none of my redness was visible, I mean there was a little patchiness around my nose but that's because I'm sick and tissues are my best friend right now, probably wouldn't have been patchy otherwise because the rest of my face was still going strong even after a couple short naps.
(as you can see in the pics below some pigmentation marks are slightly visible through the CC cream but I feel like that what makes it appear as though you have naturally beautiful skin)

By the end of the night when I went to wash my face I gotta say it still looked pretty good, obviously my nose looked like crap (lol) and there was a little bit of shine on my forehead but not a lot at all, nothing a little powder couldn't handle but I imagine it would have been a lot worse if I hadn't put that mattifying primer on last minute.
(FYI* I'm sick so I'm allowed to post gross selfies of myself lol)

Overall I absolutely loved the IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+, I was afraid it was going to be too dewy for my skin type but it worked out so much better than expected and I didn't do any touch ups whatsoever mostly because I'm sick but it turned out to be a good test and it passed. If you have combo or oily skin just be sure to use a mattifying primer and set that shit, and although this works great in the winter I'm not sure that it'll hold up to oily skin in the summer especially here in the desert.

I was a little skeptical at first that I was going to love this as much as I did but I even shocked myself with this product and I can't imagine not having this in my collection,

I definitely think it's worth the money.

Let me know your favorite BB or CC cream below in the comments or on my social media.

https://alletseaesthetic.blogspot.com/p/contact.html


Products Mentioned (clickable):

IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream with SPF 50+

Garnier SkinActive Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream

L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Noir

Happy New Year everyone!!

What did you guys do for New Years?
Any New Year resolutions?

Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on twitter (@alletse).

Let's talk shit *laughs *.

I stayed in wrapped up like a burrito in the blankies and binge watched the LMN channel,

ugh I love Lifetime movies.

I'm actually watching one right now while I blog (The Perfect Stalker).

I'm obsessed with LMN and the ID channel I find it super interesting especially the true stories and *bonus * I'm already a naturally paranoid person so these don't make me anymore paranoid than I already am (hahaha).

I was reading a post the other day and someone was saying that they can't watch Lifetime movies because they get too paranoid, a bunch of other people agreed. Made me wonder.

Do you like LMN movies? Do they make you paranoid?

Today we're talking about the L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette Noir ($19.99)

This drugstore eyeshadow palette launched early 2016 (if I remember correctly) and was the third palette in the L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette Collection.

I already had the L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette Nude 1 ($19.99) and the

L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette Nude 2 ($19.99) which I actually really liked.

The price does seem kinda high for a drugstore eyeshadow palette but L'Oreal has always been on the higher end of that scale but seems to have actually gotten even pricier in the past 2 years or so

(I guess most drugstore makeup has though).

You can usually find L'Oreal BOGO 50% off at Ulta which would make these palettes around $15 each.

The packaging is really good quality, quite heavy shiny black plastic with a clear window to see the shades inside and gold text details.

There is a mirror inside although it's a little on the narrow side, I personally don't like the mirror in this palette I would rather have no peek a boo window and a bigger mirror.

It also comes with a double ended brush inside, on one end there's a cute little eyeshadow brush which I actually kept and use only for my inner corner highlight. I can't see many other uses for that brush end because it's far too small and flat to really do anything besides detailing.

The other end is a your classic nightmare sponge tip applicator aka shit.

Just rip that bitch off and pretend it never existed.

This packaging is identical to the two previous L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette's.

When I saw this palette I was initially a little hesitant because although I really like the previous two palettes from this collection, I usually avoid an all cool toned palette.

Just a personal preference as I don't tend to reach for the colors in this palette as often and I already have high end neutral palettes that include a cool pop of black, white, silver, or whatever (you get it).

I kept seeing this when I would browse at Target and part of me just wanted to complete my collection I guess, and well as you can see I had no self control.

(swatched in same order as palette shown above, these required 2 swipes for semi decent swatches)

The shades in this L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette Noir Palette are a blend of cool toned whites, silvers, blues, grays, and black.

After opening and swatching the shadows I found it strange that the only mattes in this palette are darker shades and there are only 2, which means that you would have to use this palette in addition to another palette for the basics.

The shadows themselves are very poorly pigmented and powdery, the first three lightest shimmer shades have the most pigmentation of all the shades in this palette yet they still weren't very impressive.

When I finally got around to putting these on my lid I noticed immediately that when you try to blend it, it actually takes the color right off your lid and leaves you with a patchy mess.

I tried to build up these shadows to get more color payoff and to fix the patchiness but that was a fucking disaster and just made the patchiness worse.

Another thing I noticed was that because the color blends into almost nothing that all the medium - darker shades end up looking the same at the end and it was not a good look.

It kind of looked like I had slept in my makeup then woke up and rubbed the shit out of my eyes, I started questioning my own blending skills because I could not make this work.

Okay, okay *sigh * maybe I could make it work if I absolutely had to (like if I was on a deserted island and I found this bitch on the beach hahaha) but that would take far too much work for pigmentation that wouldn't even last, so I don't see the point.

I actually wiped off one eye and recreated the look with some Lorac eyeshadows on only that one eye just to compare and make myself feel better. 

Wish I would have been able to get some pictures, especially of the comparison but they were coming out horrible because I did this really late (or early?) it was 4am and the lighting and everything was just working against me. Plus I had no other makeup on and I looked like a troll but I tried.

My final thoughts?

Stay the fuck away from this palette, this is clearly not the same formula as the other palettes in this collection.

Normally I would say something with lower pigmentation is good for beginners as it hides mess ups and can be easier to blend out and build up but not in this case, this eyeshadow palette is a pass and requires too much work for a shitty outcome.

If you still feel the need to purchase this palette, take a $20 bill out of your purse and rip it to shreds as it's pretty much the same thing.

However I absolutely do recommend the L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Nude 1 & Nude 2 palettes,

they have good pigmentation, blendable formula, and a good range of finishes for a complete eye look in beautiful everyday shades.

Have you tried the L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Noir?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on my social media.

https://alletseaesthetic.blogspot.com/p/contact.html


Products Mentioned (clickable):

L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Noir

L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Nude 1

L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Nude 2