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! :)