Review Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation

Welcome back to my blog gals and guys? if there are any :)

     Today I want to review a recent product that I have been absolutely loving! A few weeks ago I was introduced to the Sephora + Pantone Color IQ. Let me tell you.. It might not always work to your exact skin color but It definitely worked for me. If you wish to understand more about this machine please read the review that I posted a few weeks ago here. This foundation was one of the products that it recommended me with my foundation number 4Y07. I have yellow undertone and my skin is normal to combination. And of course as seen in the image above this is the Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation in the color Bamboo Beige for light to medium skin and also a bit of yellow undertone.

This product is thick and not runny. I like that it does not run but some people may not like that because it does not give that dewey finish. To me this foundation has a bit of Matte and dewey look to it. It does require a finishing powder because I do find that my face gets a little oily throughout the day with this foundation on. But what attracts me to this foundation the most is that it covers my acne well and it matches really well with my neck color. Usually we all have trouble finding the "right" foundation because either our face will look lighter than our neck or darker or more yellow than the neck for those who have yellow undertone.

If you want a medium to full coverage I would recommend this foundation because it is buildable. I like to use a sponge with this foundation instead of my Sigma Angled Kabuki brush because it gives the face a smoother canvas. You can try using both brush and sponge to see what you like better but I personally prefer a sponge because this foundation is not runny. Usually when I use a runny foundation I will use my kabuki brush.

The only disappointment is that it has no SPF and having SPF in your products to protect the face is very important. It would be nice to have even if its only SPF 10 or 15.

Left: Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation - Bamboo Beige
Right: Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation - Cheers to me Champaign

Above is a swatch of the Laura Mercier foundation and I used Benefits Hello Flawless Cheers to me Champaign to compare the colors. As you can see the color Bamboo Beige is more grey and the Cheers to me Champaign is a lot more yellow. Cheers to me Champaign is suppose to match me but it is too yellow for me therefore I had to return this foundation.

Overall when I got this product I thought it was a little expensive for $43 but because it matches my skin so well and it covers so well,  I thought it was worth every penny in my wallet!

I hope this was useful and has helped you! Enjoy <3 p="">

Review Sephora VIB Laura Mercier Flawless Face Set

Hi friends!
About a month ago Sephora had a exclusive beauty set from Laura Mercier. Today I wanted to share with you my thoughts on the items that were included in this kit. This set cost me 500 vib points; I usually do not like to use my vib points on small kits because I do not think it was worth it when I can get samples but I was very interested in this set so I decided to just go for it!

The items were all individually wrapped in the box, which is good so that they don't get damaged.

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (0.5fl oz.)

First I want to review this tinted moisturizer. It definitely is lightweight and moisturizes my face. I still used a primer before applying this, but this is really for people with probably just redness on their face or have minor scars from acne. It has almost very very light coverage. I am a person that have a few acne scars on my face, I used this and a concealer with helped. But overall for now I still prefer foundation because my face is not that clear. Definitely worth purchasing if you are looking for a light tinted moisturizer. I also love that it has spf 20 in it to protect your face from sun damage. That gives this product a plus. The full product is $43.00, which is a downside that it is a bit on the pricey side because it is a higher end product. The color that i got is Nude, which is a little too light for my skintone but it will fit well with those who have lighter and fairer skin.

For those who have oily skin, they also have a oil free version. I have oily combo skin, and this did not make me too oily.

Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Setting Powder (0.03 oz)

Let me first just say that this small little package is awesome for traveling! As for the the product itself it is a little hard to use because my powder brush is so big and the container is so small, but I still love using this whenever I go to stay over somewhere for 1 or 2 nights. It makes my makeup very matte looking and definitely oil absorbing. The product is $35.00 which I feel is okay because a little goes a long way. But if you are looking for an alternative, I do like Tarte Smooth Operator amazonian clay finishing powder.  I put a little more on my T-zone area and that was a no no. Do not overuse this product, or else it will make you look a little white and give you a cakey feeling!

Laura Mercier Flawless Skin Face Polish (0.4 oz)

I was very shocked when I first used this to cleanse my face because I did not know that there were micro-beads. It is one of those light exfoliating facial products that will not be too rough with your skin. Because I did not know there were beads in this product I did use my Clarisonic and it did not damage it at all. My face did feel fresh and polished. It is $30.00 for this product, I am not sure if I would buy it because I do use my Clarisonic and I feel like that already helps "polish" my face.  It is good to use this about twice a week to help your skin feeling fresh. 

Laura Mercier Lip Glace Rose (0.1 oz)

 Out of all the products, I was most disappointed in this product because I really really really do not like sticky lip gloss. This product felt sticky on my lips. I have read some reviews that said the stickyness goes away but ehh I still don't like it. It is very glossy and shiny looking which is good, also the color goes well with my lips. There is also some shimmer to the lipgloss that makes it even shinier! But like I said its a turn off to me when the lip gloss has even the slightest stickyness to it. I do like the small packaging to this product which is also why I am disappointed because I wish I did like this product enough to put it in my bag. The actual product cost $24.00 which is not too bad, if you want to try it, go to your local sephora store to swatch some colors :)

Laura Mercier Foundation Primer

This primer applied onto my face flawlessly. It was very lightweight and helped create a smooth surface on my face. My face also did not feel sticky after applying. Although it is a nice primer, I still prefer Hourglass Primer, which is also a little more pricey. This product only cost $32 for a full tube which is not bad because a little goes a long way!

Swatch: Laura Mercier Primer, Tinted Moisturizer, LipGloss

 I did a quick swatch to show you the colors of the tinted moister and lipgloss. The first swatch is the primer, which you can see how sheer and lightweight it looks.

Laura Mercier Mini Fan Brush

This cute mini brush was what attracted me waste my points on the Laura Mercier kit in the first place. Usually we all get travel kits, but they come with the most basic brushes, I thought this was awesome that I can get a mini fan brush. Its good for traveling, the bristles are soft, it does its job when I use it to get some glitter off my face.


I hope you enjoyed my review of the products, if there are questions please feel free to leave a comment below.

Enjoy the rest of your week :)

Nails For Breast Cancer Awareness Month! PINK ON!!

Hi everyone!
  As promised its Wed, and I am making another post for a manicure! This manicure is pretty simple. I hope it hasn't been done, I been looking on youtube and a lot of breast cancer nails seem almost the same to me. I wanted to do something simple and something quick so that we did not have to put too much time into it.
  I hope this was simple and quick enough for those who are not pro at doing nail art. All you need is 2 different pink polish and a white polish and some glitter polish. You can also replace the pink glitter with silver glitter if you do not carry any pink polish!
  To make the hearts and ribbon, I used a dotting tool, but you can use a tooth pick. I have a very small skinny dotting tool so that helped me a lot with the heart. I actually suggest for you all to try the toothpick. Its thin and it will really help you to create the perfect shape that you prefer! I also added 2 gems to make the nail a bit more glam and cute. All you need is to find 1 light and 1 dark shade to do this type of design, some gem and glitter, toothpick and your done!
  Products I used in this manicure:
  - Essie A Cut Above (from luxeffects collection)
  - Essie Cute As A Button (Darker Pink)
  - Essie Blanc
  - OPI Hopelessly In Love (Lighter Pink)

Enjoy and have fun with your creations!

Manicure Mondays! Blueing it!

Hi everyone!

I missed manicure monday last week because I was too busy to upload the pictures, but heres the manicure that I rocked last week! Isn't it awesome? Later this week I will upload a manicure for breast cancer awareness month!

For this manicure I used a gold nail tape that I got a long time ago from ebay. I used the colors Essie Cocktail Bling and Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto. I also used 3 gold beads to make a triangle on the dark blue nails to create more of an edgy but simple look. :) You can also do this if you do not have the gold triangle studs!

Sephora Pantone Color IQ Experience

Hi friends :)
   Last week I went to Sephora and went to try out the new Color IQ machine. If you want more information on what it is, you can click on this Link here. To simply put it, its a machine that has over 1500 color options for the skin. It takes 3 small images from your skin and matches up to the color and you get a whole list of foundation colors that should match your skintone. And the best thing about this? It is FREE. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of the machine since there were many people at Sephora and I did not want to become an annoying customer. The Sephora Beauty Expert already looked very impatient with me. The machine is medium sized, and I was told to remove my makeup. Because I am insecure with my acne, I did not want to remove all of my makeup so I only removed the area that she needed to scan. A part of my forehead, a part of my cheeks, and neck was already bare so that was fine. It did not hurt at all, you just feel it against your skin. Within seconds, after she enter the code into the universal skintone guide on the Ipad, I got a few choices of what to pick for my foundation and it can also be emailed to you. I think that is awesome! I definitely want to see my options.. even though you can tell there isn't much for my skin. lol

  I also asked the beauty consultant to explain to me the coding of the skintone number. My skintone is 4Y07. She told me:

4 tells us how deep our undertone is.. I guess 4 is pretty deep. lol
Y means Yellow undertone (kind of a given?)
07 tells you how deep the color is
(Tip: If your skin is lighter during winter, you can just change the 07 to 06 or if you get darker you can change to 08)

   Overall I think this is a pretty cool method to determine your foundation color. It is not 100% accurate because I did see from other reviews that the lighting does affect it. It is also recommended for you to not drink coffee or caffeine, exercise 30 min before receiving consultation, and doing any chemical peels 3-6 days beforehand because that can affect your skin as well. It's free and takes less than 2 minutes so why not give it a shot! Maybe you will find your perfect foundation! 

Manicure Monday: Cat Gel Nails Inspired By Japanese Magazine (Early Halloween Nails)

Meowwww

Happy Monday to all the bloggers and readers out there!

This week I was very inspired by a Japanese Magazine that I saw a few months ago. I do not remember which magazine I saw it from, its usually either Nail Up, Nail Max, or Nail Venus! I really like how white is the new color for nails. I see it everywhere whether it be toes or fingers! So of course I really wanted to do white nails with some crazy design. I was looking for inspiration online and I came across some cat nails, which allowed me to remember the crazy cat design I saw in the magazine.

For these nails I used Sally Hansen Gel "" and "". I was a little disappointed with the white because it was more of a creamy white and I was looking for a more opaque white. It also made it a little more difficult to do the white design on top of the black gel, which is why, if you choose to do this you should use white acrylic paint instead (for the design). I used a long skinny nail brush for all the designs except for the cat ears on the thumb and the cats behind on the middle finger, including tail. For the rest I used a dotting tool! They are very helpful and with practice you can make very good use with it.

This was all free handed and done by myself. It was pretty difficult using my non dominant hand but I did it. It all took about 3.5 hours which to me is average gel nail time when you do a design.

After looking at my nails for a day, I felt like these could also be early cute Halloween nails :) 

Enjoy!

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Sin and Mushroom Review

  Hi everyone :)
       Today I wanted to do a quick swatch and review of the two eyeshadows that I bought from Sephora the other day. I have used Sin for the last 2 years as my to go to shadow on days where I would like to just use one shadow on my lids. I have always received good compliments on my shadow as to what shade and brand I am using! I have been looking for another to go to color and so far I have not had any luck with that. I always go back to Sin.
        This is also the first time I bought UD eyeshadows with their new packaging. I love everything about the packaging, from the box to the product. Definitely not cheap looking and it has the edgy look, which fits UD perfectly.
        I like the idea that we can buy these shadows and create our own little palette. I feel like it is also a way to get customers to get more shadows though because it is $18 per shadow and another $10 for the palette box. If it was cheaper or there was some sort of discount I would actually buy it, but 4 shadows (The palette holds 4 shadows) would already be $72 + $10 for the box = $82. Not worth it, in my opinion!

Urban Decay 

Urban Decay

Left: Sin
Right: Mushroom

Above I swatched the two eyeshadows and as you can tell, Urban Decay, as always have awesome pigment in their eye products. Their products never smudge after the entire day (I always use a primer underneath). The shimmer is light and both these shadows can be used together to create a nice smoke effect. I like that the shimmer is not too loose because it is pretty annoying when it gets all over my face. Mushroom is a dark grey color with a nice purple tint to it in the light. It did not show up in the pictures, but if you go to the store and look at it in the light, you can see a small shade of purple in it. If I am wrong then I think I am color blind >.< lol

Overall, I think buying Urban Decay palettes are more worth it but I really like these two colors. Sin is my all time to go to shade for just a day to run errands or if you are not going anywhere fancy. Its good for light makeup. I like that the shade Mushroom is a shimmery dark grey color that will blend in perfectly with Sin for a night out! These two colors together can give a very romantic look!

Sephora Haul!!

Hi again! Recently I made two trips to Sephora and decided to purchase some makeup :) I really needed a new foundation so that was the main reason for me to go. I will be doing a review on the foundation and swatches on some of the things I bought within this week and next week. I was also able to go to Sephora and use the Pantone Color IQ test on my skin, so I will be posting up my experience on that. Also I am very excited to try my new purchase because I decided to use some of my beauty insider reward points for the Laura Mercier Flawless Color Kit that they were giving out for 500 perk points.  I am really excited to try the new makeup I purchased so this is a little preview of what I have, and what kind of posts I will be doing in the next few days!

Enjoy!

UrbanDecay, Laura Mercier, Clinique

Laura Mercier

Benefit

Manicure Mondays

Follow my blog with Bloglovin I recently started to use Bloglovin! Loving it :) 

I have always liked doing nail art, and this will also be a part of what I will update onto my blog. This week I have decided to do a simple design. I use a taupe color named "Taupe Tulips" from Sensational Nail Gel. This is the first time I am trying out this brand and overall I like the quality of the gel.  It did last me for 2 weeks. I also used Sally Hansen Step 1 Base, and their Step 3 top coat. I also used a gold stripper polish instead of gel. I topped it with a gel top coat to seal everything.

Enjoy :) 

Sensational Nail "Taupe Tulips"

Review Benefits Gimme Brow

Hello Everyone!

Recently I have been trying to search for the perfect product for my brows. I would not say my brows are very thick, but they are full. I have dark brown hair which then makes it seem close to black, so I wanted to avoid getting pencils that made my brows look brown. Jen, frmheadtotoe (I am sure most of you know who she is if you love makeup) always recommend using Lioele's Auto Eyebrow pencil. I have always wanted to try it but till this day I am still too lazy to order from prettyandcute.com. I will get to it though. My brows are similar to those of Jen, so that can give you a reference idea. If I order that brow pencil, I would be in the shade Gray Black.

Shade: Medium/Deep

Anyways onto the review, I first discovered this brow fiber gel at Bloomingdales's Benefit stand. At the time the product was still not available at Sephora yet. This product is absolutely AMAZING! I don't really need to re shape my brows, but they are a bit light. I got the shade Medium/Deep, the downside is that there are only 2 shades for this product. This has helped my brows stand out a little more but it does not exaggerate them too much. It makes my brow very natural looking, which is what I am looking for. It also dries quick once you apply it. A little goes a long way for this product, so do not let the bottle deceive you since it is quite small. I also love the size of the brush tip, it is not too big so that I can work on my brows with certain areas that I need to make darker. There is a certain floral scent to this product that I do not like.  This product is not recommended for those who have light brows and want to intensify their brows or shape them. I feel like you are better off using brow powder or brow pencils if you want to shape because you will have more control of how you want it to look. I usually just use one to three strokes to lightly brush through my brows. It does last all day and I haven't found my brows to really lose color even when I have to sweat. The product says it is waterproof and so far I found it to be okay.

Overall I would recommend this product if you have full brows and only need to darken your brows a little. It is $22, which is a tiny bit pricey but a little does go a long way. I think it is worth giving it a try if you are looking to give your brows the natural look. I also think this is more of a quick daily to go to brow gel to use.

I hope this review helps! :)

Small Makeup Haul

Hello Everyone! This is my first post on my blog. I would like to do a small review on the YSL lipsticks that I have purchased and the Makeup Forever Aqua Cream. I have always wanted to try these beautiful lipstick out. I received a small sample from Sephora of the new YSL Rogue Volupte Shine and I loved the colors that were sent to me. I knew I had to buy one for myself, but as I was looking at the colors I couldn't help it but purchase 2! :)

  Rogue Volupte Shine
 Shade: 12 Corail Incandescent

This is a beautiful red coral color, the color has a tint of red and orange in it. I have never tried YSL's Rogue Volupte so I cannot compare with it. This lipstick has good packaging, I love the gold and I prefer this over the YLS Rogue Volupte Sheer lipsticks. I did not like the silver packing too much. When I put the lipstick on the shine does last 3-4 hours, even when the shine is gone, the color is still stained to your lips. Another plus to this lipstick is that it applies on smoothly and it is pretty moisturizing! It does not dry up my lips, I love it! It has a creamy texture to help with the smooth application. This lipstick is has good pigmentation, its not too dark, but it does its job of staining your lips with the color. Sometimes I do not like my lips too pigmented so I just use use one layer of this lipstick and it gives me a tint of red to my lips without overdoing it. I almost forgot to mention that these lipstick does have a small scent to it. Its a very sweet scent to it, So if you do not like scented lipsticks, I'm not so sure how much you will like this smell :P Also I have a warmer skintone so therefore this lipstick does look a little more red on my lips.

Overall I think it is a good splurge if you are debating whether you should get it because of the price!

YSL Volupte Shine 
Shade 14: Corail In Touch

I am not sure if you can tell but I am developing a thing for coral like lipstick! lol. The formula is the same so of course you can refer back to the review above about texture and pigmentation. This is a beautiful coral lipstick, it has more of a orange feeling to it when you look at it. When I put it on my lips, its very good for a daytime wear during the spring and summer time. In order to 

give you a better idea of the colors I have provided a swatch image below with my wrist. 

Left: 12 Corail Incandescent
Right: 14 Corail In Touch

Makeup Forever Aqua Cream 

Shade 13

As you can see from the boxed image, it says that it an be use for the eyes and cheeks, I personally do not like shimmer on my cheeks so I have no tried it on my cheeks. I really like the color of this because I can use it for my lids and then use another color on the outer corner of my eyes to smoke it out a bit. It works really well with any dark colors. It can also be used as just a single color if you are looking to do something simple. It comes with quite a bit of product in the pot, so you do not have to worry about not having your moneys worth. This shadow has a very creamy and light texture to it. It does not feel heavy or thick at all when it is being put on the lids. It also dries very fast so the color just stays put, which is pretty awesome unless you make a boo boo. The color was a bit sheer when I first applied it but I am not sure if it is because this is fairly a light color. The color is buildable though.

What I did not like about this shadow though is that I have to use my fingers to apply it to my eyelids. The first time I used it, I was not quite use to using my fingers to apply shadow onto my lids. You are not just dabbing it onto your lids, you have to spread and spread it evenly as well. If you are use to this, then it should be fine. It says that you can use your brush to apply this but the texture of this is pretty creamy that I actually don't want to use my brush with it. So if you have tried it with a brush let me know! Also when I opened the pot, I immediately smelled a plastic like smell to it.. I am not too found of this smell..  I am still going to keep this product even though I am not too found of using my fingers to apply it. It has very good pigmentation and the color does last all day. I love that it has a light shimmer to it, and it is not too heavy. Its good for natural day to day makeup and easy to switch up to a night time look!

Overall I would buy this, if you can live with the plastic like smell, it lives up to the long lasting wear, no crease or run with a highly pigmented color that can be built on.

  

Thats all I have for now with my makeup haul! Enjoy and thank you for stopping by!
Take care :)