Lorac GLOgetter Palette

Lorac GLOgetter Palette

Available exclusively at Ulta for $20

Packaging 

Sorry for the reflection, such a cute package. I love that the writing is mint green.

In my hand to show size comparison--I've noticed some having a question on this.

I love that it includes a mirror and as you can see the eye shadows are go sized.

Both pictures are without flash just from different angles to show the true colors.

Swatches:

No primmer--on my bare hand 

 This is my favorite by far---I admit I bought the palette for this one. It is  mint green with gold glitter. I LOVE this! I'm on a huge mint green kick this season.

 This is much lighter than it looks in palette-I like that because this is much more wearable for me than a super dark purple.

Bottom high light shadows:

Bottom Left

Bottom Right 

                                                              Bottom Left     Bottom Right

** High light shades not included on group swatches**

Out on my front porch to give another lighting perspective.  Sorry that I did them out of order, at the bottom is the far left in the palette. 

Bottom of my arm is far left in palette.

Bottom is the 5th from the left of the palette .

This is a "quick and dirty" look at the palette.  I just got it today and was so excited to play in it.  This is my first Lorac product and so far I'm very impressed.  Very good color payoff and I didn't notice any fallout from the glitter shadows.  Ill be wearing out tomorrow so I"ll report back then.

 Play around with on my eyes (UD primmer potion used) 

**Please ignore that it's a bit messy on the eyeshadow looks, as mentioned above this is  "quick and dirty" so I didn't clean up around my eyes. **

 This is my favorite shade---Its second from right in the palette.  Really pretty mint green color with gold flakes. I love it with my brown eyes.  This a little more bold then I normally do but I like the look.

Little bit of the left highlight on my brown bone.

 Eye liner I used in the look(s)

I've just recently started using eye liner so I'm still learning. I love the shade. I'll make a post later on how this wears once I have more time to play with it.

Another Eye Look (No primmer)

This the blue/teal that is 4th from left and the coral/orange that is 3rd from left with first high light above the coral/orange.  .  The same eye liner as above.  This look is a bit bold for me but I think it turned out okay.  I'm still learning how to do more elaborate looks.

Few different pics to try and capture the colors.  On my eye lashes is CoverGirl Clump Crusher but didn't use very much care in applying it-I was too busy playing with shades of shadow.

Final Thoughts

LOVE this palettes, I'm still trying to figure out why its so cheap.  The shadows are very silky and have great color pay off. Normally I will wear and try out something before posting but I didn't see any swatches when I Googled so I wanted to go ahead and get these out there.  I'll report back after I wear it more.

Thanks for reading :)

M.A.C Mineralize Moisture SPA 15 Foundation

              M.A.C Mineralize Moisture SPA 15 Foundation

About six months ago I decided to try my first M.A.C foundation, Studio Fix Plus  (see post here) , ever since I've been a fan of M.A.C. Recently I heard about the new M.A.C. foundation coming out, but wasn't sure if I would be able to wear it with my oily skin (Studio Fix Plus is for more oily skin types). I decided to stop by my local M.A.C counter last week to have them try it on me. *Funny aside: She put on moisturizer first and then applied the foundation. Well this foundation literally feels like water drops being patted on the skin so I thought she was still putting on moisturizer when she was putting on the foundation. I actually asked if she had started with foundation yet. She got a pretty good laugh out of that but did say she can see why I thought that. First impression of it really blew me away, I love the dewy finish it has and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of coverage. I was matched at NC15 and its the perfect match for me, I think this one is a bit lighter than the Studio Fix Plus, since it seems to have a touch more yellow tint to it (it still blends well).

Packaging

Pretty standard packaging, but I do like that they included a pump.

Consistency 

The consistency is unique compared to most foundations--it is runny but not sheer in color if that makes sense at all.  For example Urban Decay's naked skin (See Urban Decay Naked Skin blog here) is runny in consistency and somewhat sheer due its formula.

Rubbed in a little--it has a semi-dewy finish.  

 This is dotted on my face and then smeared a bit with my fingers.  I wanted to show the finish, even after rubbed in it has a dewy appearance.

How it wears

It feels very moist when applying it, it literally feels like I'm putting water on my face,  I absolutely love this!  The finish is dewy but not overly shinny. I was a bit worried about how it would do on my oily skin, I've also never tried foundation that wasn't matte in finish for this reason.  I went to M.A.C. counter to have them try it on my to make sure it wouldn't literally melt off of my skin (yes, I've had this happen--gotta love oily skin, not!)  I wore it roughly 8 hours after they applied it with no primmer or powder added, and to my surprise it was exactly how they put it for the most part.  I say for the most part because I'm sure some wore off in that point but there were no oily spots or areas that needed touching up. I decided to really put it to the test by applying it myself the next day with no primmer or powder.  Again it stayed in place for he most part the entire day.  I'm beyond impressed at how well it holds up because it definitely does not have a matte finish.  I've always liked the dewy finish look of foundation but up until now I haven't been able to wear it---I've had a couple of fails with this finish such as Loreal Lumi foundation. The Lumi foundation went on really nicely but didn't stay on very long.  I've played with it everyday since I've gotten it so the next day I did my regular routine (Primmer--smashbox photofinish on this day, and powder--Bare Minerals pressed mineral veil) and a touch of Bare Minerals concealer)  and was really pleased with how it came together to create pretty close to a flawless look.

I could go on and on (if you've read any of my posts you know I'm long winded) but instead i'll sum it up by saying this oily skinned girl was able to wear it.  I think it would work for most skin types but I would suggest  getting a sample first to make sure it works for you.

Before vs. After Comparisons

Sorry for the lighting difference between some of the before and after pictures.  I wanted to post several different angles/pictures to show the coverage.  M.A.C. claims the foundation has a blur effect over imperfections, I would say that's true.  Instead of blabbing on I'll let you decide from the pictures.  

 

I said I wouldn't comment on every photo bu wanted to comment here (lol) just to say that I love how it blurs out imperfections .  Even when my acne isn't acting up I have marks from it.  I love how they are hardly noticeable  when using this.

 

Full Face

Foundation only, no powder or concealer

Foundation only---no powder or concealer

Foundation only--no powder or concealer.  The lighting is a little off on this one but it shows the dewy finish somewhat so I wanted to add it.

Foundation with BM translucent powder, no concealer, and a little Tarte blush.

Final Thoughts 

I Love this foundation! I love how it wears and even more I love the radiant look it gives my skin.  I'm definitely becoming a M.A.C. fan.

If you give it a try I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions.

Thanks for reading

Em :)

                       

Too Faced Air-Buffed BB Creme Complete Coverage Makeup

Too Faced Air-Buffed BB Creme

I admit when I first heard about it I was excited (I've been on a bit of a BB kick lately and I already love Too Faced ) but I wasn't so sure after hearing others opinions on it.  I ended up going to Ulta last week to check it out, even the Ulta employee (I so wish I could remember her name so it would sound more personal but still not sure I would use it for privacy reasons) that helped me did not like it upon first impression.  She had tried it with the brush it comes with and wasn't impressed with how it applied.  She put on me with a regular foundation brush and we were both pleasantly surprised at the coverage.  

Too Faced's Claim:

The first complete coverage Beauty Balm that evens skin tone and banishes imperfections with an air-buffed second skin finish.   They claim five benefits:

* Perfects

*Mattifies

*Primes

*Moisturizes

*Protects with SPF 20

How it compares to their claim:

As you've probably gathered from my babble above despite some negative reviews  of others, I really like it.   As you'll see below my skin is pretty uneven from acne/blemish scares and it does blur out/even out these areas well.   As mentioned in most of my posts I do have very oily skin so the priming quality is very important to me.  I've been wearing this everyday since I got it last week and I have not had any trouble with oil on my skin.  Some of my days are pretty long such as on Tuesday I put on Makeup around 7 am and take it off around 10 PM, and I'm pleased to say I did not have an oily areas.  I would dare say my skin was better than when I wear a primer under my foundation instead of the BB (I do wear foundation over this).

I'm not really sure how I feel about the brush being attached to the package but I suppose it makes it easier to carry around.  

 The brush is tiny, as hopefully the photo shows.  I usually use one of my other foundation brushes to apply it.    I have taken it on the go a few times (sometimes I put on makeup at work after gym) and the brush does okay in a pinch.  If I do use the brush I use my fingers in conjunction with it to make sure I get it blended in well.

 Its about the same texture as a foundation that's been pressed (eh maybe that's not the right word) into a compact).  My shade is snow glow--Porcelain skin with pin undertones and once I can say its the perfect shade match for me.  The other BBs I have tried (I'll review them soon) have been a bit orange (they still blended okay, but honestly I think it helps when match is already accurate without a ton of blending).

 As mentioned in their claim it starts off as a liquid and turns into powder.  This finger swatch shows how light its is.  I can't even begin to say how excited I am that this does not have the typical yellow tint.

Comparisons

Left side is before/Right is after on all pics below

I took a ton of pictures because I wanted to really show off how well it works.  Note that is a BB so it was never intended to provide full coverage but I do think it accomplishes the goal of evening out skin tone while priming for foundation.

The full face comparison doesn't show as much as I would like (I still need to learn how to use lighting properly) so I have several side views to help show what I'm talking bout coverage wise.   Even though this picture isn't the best I think you can see that overall my skin is evened out and redness is much less noticeable.

As you can see I have a good amount of redness/marks from my acne.  This BB doesn't complete hid these imperfections but it definitely takes the attention from them while evening out my overall skin.

 
Extreme close up to demonstrate how it camouflages redness/acne marks

Notice the redness near my check in the before and how its not as noticable in the after pic .  Also my skin is really broken out near my chin, I feel like it takes some of the attention away from these blemishes.

 Extreme close up to show redness/acne.  This is not full coverage so I would use a foundation over it, but I do think it takes away from my imperfections.

Ignore my goofy smile, but I wanted to include a full face picture. I totally forgot my lip gloss :(.   If you take anything at all from all my babbling know that it evens out skin well while camouflaging redness.  If you do not have acne/or as serve as mine it will work for you even better.

Sorry for the lighting (I feel like I"m always having to say that :( ) but I wanted to include a full face picture.  I know its a little zoomed out (hence all my close up side shots) but I think you can see overall the improvement of my skin.  Side note my hair is getting really long.  I'm totally in love with my Chi I got for Christmas--makes straightening my hair so much easier.

 Bottom Line

This BB is my new must have for my makeup routine.  I just love how flawless (okay maybe not flawless but much improved) my skin looks using this.  To finish off my face I add foundation (usually Urban Decay Naked Skin (its my favorite) , and little bit of loose powder (Bare Minerals Mineral veil) .  I really could skip the powder but I'm used to using it to give me a bit more coverage and to finish off my overall look.  I did wear the BB only one day to test how well it combats oil and I was very impressed.  I have also gone several days with the BB and foundation, with no powder. To be honest less is more for me with makeup routine during the week (I admit I sleep to the last minute).

I'll hush now and say this in conclusion:  Go out to your local makeup counter and give this a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed (Once you figure out how you want to apply it tool wise).


Thanks for reading,

Em :)