Milani Winner: Brows Products for Fall

I was one of the lucky winners back when Milani was giving away products for fall. All I did to win this was re-tweet a picture. This is actually the second Milani haul I've won. Back in the spring, I won the Spring Nail Polish Collection. This time I won products from the brow range. I've just recently really gotten into brow products so I was really excited.

Easybrow Mechanical Pencils and Brow Fix Kits

Milani describes the Brow Fix Kits as,"A brow grooming and shaping kit that will help you create a perfect set of arches. Compact contains seven essential tools: Straight edged tweezers, slanted brow filler brush, brow bone sponge applicator, 3X magnifying mirror, brow bone highlighter and two tone-on-tone powders to fill and shape brows. Be your own brow guru, shaping your brows is as easy as 1-2-3!"

Brow Fix Kits in Light and Medium

I will do full reviews of these soon. I love the idea of these. This would make a great addition to my on the go makeup bag.

Quick Swatches of the Medium Brow Kit

The EasyBrow Mechanical Pencils also have a spoolie on one end for blending. This is super handy. I have some with my brushes but I don't want to carry around a spoolie in my purse.

This only comes in two colors.  Natural Taupe and Dark Brown.

The Easybrow Mechanical Pencils retail for $5.49 and the Brow Fix Kit retails for $6.99. Milani cosmetics are sold in most drugstores and from the Milani site

Question Wednesday: Holy Grail Products

Thanks to Nykki for Question Wednesday. Check out her blog Nykki's Mane Blog

Today's Question Wednesday comes from Aly over at Wonderland Beauty!!

Today's Topic from Aly over at Wonderland Beauty is: Holy-grail products


What is your go-to eye makeup look? What products do you use to achieve this look?
Neutral Eyes. Using my Inglot palette. #337, #341 & #353

What are your top 3 favorite lip products for summer?
EOS Lip Balm in Sweet Mint, Revlon Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie, and Guerlain Extrait de Rose

What is your favorite liquid face product?
Holika Holika Shimmering BB (the pink one)

What is your favorite eyebrow product?
MAC eyebrow pencil

Lastly, what are some of your holy grail makeup items?
My Inglot palettes, Milani Luminoso Blush, Benefit Porefessional Primer

May Favorites

This month I indulged and bought myself some more high end items for my birthday but other than that I haven't been buying many products this month. I've actually been using a lot of things from my subscription services and   from free samples with purchase.

NARS Orgasm, AmorePacific Tinted Moisturizer, Bond 9, StriVectin, e.l.f Angled Blush Brus

• NARS Blush in Orgasm  I have to admit this is very similar to the Milani Luminoso blush which was my favorite blush in February. I like the formula of the NARS a little better for some reason I can't really describe. It just has the feeling of a higher quality product.
• AmorePacific Tinted Treatment Moisturizer I got these samples with my birthday haul. Generously sized I got multiple uses out of the first little pod I tried. Fell in love with it! The lightest color works well for me. I tried out Fair today and it's just a tad too dark. Unfortunately the full size of this product is $70!  So I don't see myself buying it anytime soon. I will have to admire you from afar AmorePacific. I still have the Light-Medium and Medium samples if anyone is interested.
• Bond No.9 Nuits de Noho This came in my May Sample Society Box. It smells slightly exotic and indulgent. I absolutely love it. I don't wear it everyday because I'm trying to make this sample last. I wore it recently for one of my belly dance performances just to give myself that extra boost. 
• StriVectin SD Intensive Concentrate for Stretch Marks & Wrinkles also from May Sample Society and the QVC Test tube. I was using this for a few weeks prior to my performance. It definitely lessened the appearance of my belly stretch marks and the scars from my recent surgery. I'm a believer.
• e.l.f. Angled Blush Brush I originally bought this brush with contouring in mind but I like it for general blush application. Besides I still haven't quite figured out that whole contouring thing. The fibers are really soft and seem to pick up just the right amount of product. I just looked and didn't see these on e.l.f. Hopefully they aren't discontinued. This brush is cruelty free. 

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog. I did get sucked into Diablo3 but I also really got sucked back into belly dance. I had an amazing weekend last week at a festival. I may blog about it.  Would you guys be interested in a performance video?

What's in My Travel Bag?

I just got back from a four day/three night business trip to Burbank, CA. My makeup collection and skincare routine have changed drastically since I last traveled for business in September. I decided that I didn't want to deal with the hassle of checking my luggage so this was all in my carry on luggage. It was really difficult for me to decide what would stay and what would go and I was really trying to pack light.

Makeup Remover Wipes, 3-1-1 Liquids Bag, Cosmetics Bag

The makeup remover wipes and my cosmetic bag were in my carry on suitcase and I wasn't required to pull them out for inspection.  I was able to fit a lot of products in my one quart sized bag for liquids.  I also took a full sized bottle of contact solution which doesn't count as part of your liquids. So don't waste valuable real estate in your liquids bag on those small bottles of contact solution. In the US this is considered a medication, you have to pull it out to be scanned with the rest of your liquids but it doesn't have to be 3oz. When I left Vegas, they pulled me aside and did an additional scan on my contact solution to confirm it wasn't anything dangerous. When I went through security at Burbank, they didn't care. 

Contents of my 3-1-1 liquids bag

I got all of this in my bag of liquids and had a little bit of room to spare. Oh thank you subscription services! 

• Crest Toothpaste
• UD Lip Junkie Lip Gloss in Wallflower (free w/purchase)
• NYX Xtreme Lip Cream in Buttery Nude reviewed here
• Lorac Lip Gloss in Rich Garnet reviewed here
• Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer in Ivory
• Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara in Extreme Black (free w/purchase)
• Kerastase Elixir hair serum (Birchbox)
• UD Primer Potion in Original 
• Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in Buff 4C (free sample from Ulta)
• Harvey Prince Yogini Perfume (Birchbox)
• Inglot YSM Foundation in 41  (free w/purchase)
• Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer (free sample from Ulta)
• Regenepure DR Shampoo (My scalp is super sensitive so no using the hotel shampoo for me)
• Regenpure NT Conditioner
• Boscia Cleansing Gel (Sample Society)
• Mac Fix+
• Ahava Essential Day Moisturizer (Birchbox)
• Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner in Charcoal 

Cosmetics bag contents

• UD 24/7 Eyeliner in Whiskey
• UD 24/7 Eyeliner in Peversion
• Almay brown eyeliner (I use this to dip in my gel liner to apply to the waterline)
• My Inglot Neutral palette ( #353, 341, 337)
• My Inglot Smokey eye palette (# 324M, AMC #36, 387M, 348M, 391)
• Milani Baked Blush Luminoso
• Dermalogica Microfoliant (Sample Society)
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Light
• Cover Girl Powder Natural Ivory
• compact mirror

Travel Tools

This case is the one the e.l.f. 11 piece Studio Set comes in. I like it because it's super flat and fits easily in a suitcase.

• Estee Lauder Powder Brush
• e.l.f. Powder Brush
• e.l.f.. Blush Brush
• e.l.f Fan Brush
• e.l.f Mineral Concealer Brush (free w/purchase)
• MAC 217
• MAC 239SE
• e.l.f. Contour Brush
• MAC 219SE
• e.l.f Small Smudge Brush
• Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge

So that's pretty much what I can't leave home without for a few days. I could do a nice neutral day look or a dramatic smokey eye for evening. What can't you leave home without?

Milani Spring Nail Polishes

I was one of the lucky winners of the Milani Cosmetics MVP Giveways on Twitter.  I won six full size bottles of the Spring 2012 nail polishes. I'm a huge fan of Milani blushes but have not tried their nail polishes.

L to R: Beach Front, Sail Away, Key West, Orchidia, Deep Thoughts, & Silver Stilettos

I found the formula easy to use. It was neither too thin and watery nor too thick. A little does go a long way. So if you tend to be heavy handed with your polish like I am, you may want to be careful. It dries fairly quickly and layers nicely. I used two coats for the swatches. All of the colors except Deep Thoughts have a slightly glittery finish.

L to R: Key West,  Sail Away, and Key West

Key West is a light pastel blue. It's darker and less minty than it photographed in the bottle. Sail Away is a beautiful dark blue glittery color. Key West is a glittering emerald green.

L to R: Orchidia, Deep Thoughts, and Silver Stilettos

Orchidia is much more purple and less pink than it appears in this photo. Deep Thoughts is the only non-glittery color in the group. It is a beautiful deep grape purple. Silver Stilettos is a very shiny and metallic silver.

I normally only wear neutral colors on my fingernails but I will wear color on my toes.  However, if someone were to make a collection of nail polishes based of my belly dance costumes, it would be these six colors.  I can wear just about any of these colors for performance. I really enjoy the colors is this collection. I may just have to try out some more Milani nail polishes. Thank you Milani for a great giveaway!

Milani cosmetics are found at most drugstores or online directly at  Milani Cosmetics . Follow them on Twitter: @milanicosmetics

FOTD: March 10, 2012

So I've been spending a lot of time at the office lately. Before spending another gorgeous Saturday in the office I decided to do something to make me feel better. If I'm going to work on Saturday, I'm going to look fabulous doing it.  This is based off of Marlena at MakeUp Geek's Sexy Christmas Makeup look. It's a bit more involved than I would usually wear to the office during the week but a girl has to make herself up sometimes to feel better.

Eyes:

Primer: Palladio Eyeshadow Primer Palladio

Eyeshadows: 

MUG Mocha MUG

Inglot # 337 Inglot
MUG Shimma Shimma MUG
MAC Pigment Naked MAC

Eyeliner: 
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Peversion Urban Decay
Maybelline Eye Studio Charcoal

Mascara: Maybelline Falsies

Face:
Primer: Too Faced Primed and Poreless Too Faced
Foundation: Revlon ColorStay Foundation Ivory #110
Concealer: Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer Ivory
Powder: e.l.f  High Definition Powder e.l.f.
MAC Fix+

Cheeks:
Blush: Milani Baked Blush Luminoso Milani
Highlight: Cover Girl Powder Natural Ivory


Lips: Inglot Cream Lipstick# 121 Inglot

February Favorites

I know I'm a little late in doing this. The month of March crept up on me even with that extra day thrown in there!  I've been so busy at work that I've been neglecting my blog. boo.

February Favorites

• Ulta Nail Lacquer in Goddess Is a sheer pink/gold champagne color. It adds just the right amount of shimmer

• Maybelline DreamLumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Ivory:  This is a pretty good color match for me. Applies smoothly and blends easily.  Just the right amount of brightness under the eyes.

• Milani Minerals Blush in Luminoous A soft pink/peach color. Looks great on the apples or the backs of the cheeks. The compact comes with a built in mirror and brush. I used the brush for the first time the other day. It's very soft and picks up a good deal of product. 

• NYX Xtreme Lip Cream in Buttery Nude:  I've already rave about this in my review.  I'm still reaching for this several times a week.