Steph Stud Makeup: sephora collection

Showing posts with label sephora collection. Show all posts

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things Palette

Too Faced always has amazing packaging but I thought their Christmas collection this year was to die for. All their palettes are super cute and colorful and packed with a ton of makeup! The A Few of my Favorite Things set comes with a lovely makeup bag that's roughly the same size as the palette and the same pattern as well with the criss-crossed stripes. Inside the bag you get the beautiful palette and a couple other things. The palette itself is like a book, it's thin and it opens up to shadows on one side and blushes and bronzers on the other along with a look book. The set also comes with a mini Better Than Sex Mascara and a Lip Injection Color Bomb. I know this is about palettes, but just wanted to mention the goodies that came with it. Since the palette is thin like a book, it makes it easy to pack into your luggage with all your stuff when you're travelling.

2. Best Color Payoff

Urban Decay Naked 3

Urban Decay Naked 3

I don't even know what to answer. I love all my Too Faced palettes. I love all my Naked palettes. I'm going to say Urban Decay's Naked 3. I just got it and I've been really impressed with the pigmentation as a whole. There is one particular glitter shade that's lacking in pigmentation, but all the rest are amazing! Honestly, there are so many wonderful palettes to choose from. The Naked 3 has some wonderful shades and they're all very flattering.

3. Most Versatile

Too Faced Loves Sephora 15th Anniversary Palette

Too Faced Loves Sephora Palette

I chose this palette as most versatile because it's got a whole bunch of different colour eyeshadows. You can do a neutral look using Piano Keys and Behind the Counter, you can do a purple smokey eye using Soho and Envy, and you can even do a green eye using David & Marg. There's also a glitter shade called TF <3's The Cast, and it's the most glitteriest shade I've ever seen. You've got so many options with this palette and it also comes with two bronzers and a blush, so you've got your whole look in this palette. You can really go from day look to party look with this palette.

4. Best for Traveling

Urban Decay Naked palettes
Too Faced No Makeup Makeup
NARS Adult Content Cheek palette
NARS X Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Cheek Palette

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette

Too Faced The Secret To No Makeup Makeup Palette

NARS X Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Cheek Palette

NARS Adult Content Cheek Palette

If you're going away somewhere and you don't want to pack a ton of different face products, this palette is just for you. It has a concealer, brightener, luminizer, cream blush, powder blush, and bronzer. The only other thing you need to go along with this set is a foundation or BB cream and a setting powder. This little palette will save you so much space! It contains everything you need for a full face. I love this palette. I'm always using the brightener to highlight around my brows and to do the Kim Kardashian concealer under the eyes thing. The concealer itself is a little too dark for me, but it should be perfect for medium-toned girls. The brightener works better as a concealer for me. You could probably mix the two to get your custom shade. The pink blushes are beautiful and you have the option of cream or powder. I just really really love this palette and I love having all my face products in one place! If you don't like pink blushes, go for their Natural Face palette instead. It has peach blushes and is meant for medium skin tones whereas the No Makeup Makeup palette is meant for lighter skin tones.

For the eyes, bring your favourite Urban Decay Naked palette and you're all set! I'm going to include all three because I probably would bring them all on vacation. I like being able to choose what I want to wear in the moment and not planning my makeup a whole week in advance. Also some other great cheek palettes are the NARS Adult Content and the Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Cheek Palettes. So many different shades all in one, and it's not just blush, you have a bronzer and a luminizer in each palette! These are definitely the perfect cheek palettes to bring along on vacation.

5. Biggest Regret

Sephora Collection Smokey 2

Sephora Collection Smokey 2 Palette

If you know anything about me then you know I'm a huge sucker for smokey eyes. Which is why I really thought I would love this palette. I loved that it was exclusively a smokey eye palette and that it came in a range of different shades. But what I didn't like is the quality of the eyeshadows. I know that Sephora Collection isn't the best, but it could have been way better in my opinion. Some of the shades didn't show at all, especially the light brown trio. Some colors were just weird, like the green trio for example looked horrible on me. They could have gone with a more flattering olive green instead. The only thing I really use is the lipstick trios. I don't really use it much anymore so I regret buying. I bought into the hype because it was a smokey eye palette.

6. Best Color Names

Too Faced Boudoir Eyes
Too Faced Natural Eye
NARS

Too Faced Boudoir Eyes

Too Faced Natural Eye

Too Faced always has the best color names, hands down. With names like Sexpresso, Erotica, Cocoa Puff, Fuzzy Handcuffs, Lap Dance, Garter Belt, Smokin Hot, and since it's Christmas: Whiskers on Kittens, Tinsel, Crisp Apple Strudel, Party Time, Pure Glam, and Woolen Mittens, it's hard not to smile when you read the shade names. NARS also has some great sexual shade names, like Orgasm, Deep Throat, Desire, Amour, Sin, and Sex Appeal. And once every year or two they come out with blush palettes, so it counts as a palette. It's a little awkward when your mom asks you what shade blush you're wearing, but I'm sure you'll never forget the name of it!

There aren't any palettes in particular, but I chose a couple to show the cute names.

7. Least Used

Sephora Collection Medium Shopping Bag

Sephora Collection Medium Shopping Bag

I wanted to choose something a little more recent, but the truth is that I really do use everything I have. I bought this a couple years ago so it's not available anymore. As I described earlier, Sephora Collection's eyeshadow quality isn't the greatest. When I bought it I loved the color diversity but for some reason I never ended up using it. I don't know why that is. I'm also weird and I like things to be perfect and new so that probably adds onto why I haven't used it. At the time, I had way less makeup than I do now so it was a cheap way to add a lot of colors to my collection.

8. Most Used, Most Loved, Desert Island

Too Faced Smokey Eye palette
Too Faced Love Sweet Love Xmas 2012 palette

Too Faced Love Sweet Love Palette

Too Faced Smokey Eye Palette

You all know how much of a smokey eye freak I am. So I definitely have to say that my most used palette is Too Faced's Smokey Eye palette. I love it. The trio that is most used is the brown Day Look because brown is more school appropriate, I guess. The black Classic Look is just that... classic. It was the first type of smokey I ever did and probably the first type of eye makeup I ever did on myself as a teenager. Back then I loved dark black smokey eyes. The darker, the better. The purple Fashion Look is also beautiful, though I use it a bit less than the other two. This palette, as a whole, is my most used makeup palette by far. I really really love it and I use every single shade in this palette. I think they did a great job on it because to me, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Another palette that's actually hit pan is Too Faced's Love Sweet Love Christmas 2012 palette. It came as a set with a makeup bag and a few other goodies. I love the Night Look in this palette so so so much. I've actually hit pan on two of the shadows. I love everything about that look, the 3 shadows, the blush and the lip gloss. I find it gives a perfect soft smokey eye and the blush and lipgloss are super flattering for my skintone. Nowadays I try not to use it too often because it is limited edition and I'm starting to not have much left :( Even though I love the Night Look, I'm not that great a fan of the Day Look in that palette. It's alright, but it's not my favorite.

9. First Palette Ever

Sephora Collection 5-in-1 Color Play

Sephora Collection 5-in-1 Color Play

So I decided to add this question to the tag because I thought it was interesting to see what everyone's first ever palettes were. I got mine quite a few years ago from Sephora. This was way before we ever had a Sephora in Montreal. This was back when I was an older teenager (I think) so I didn't have that much makeup just yet. I was browsing Sephora's website and I saw this palette that I just had to have. I thought it was so versatile; it had a huge range of colors and it had 5 mini sub-palettes that you could remove and put in your purse. I thought to myself, wow I need to get this! And that was the Sephora Collection 5-in-1 Color Play Palette. It has 5 sub palettes, blacks and greys, browns, purples and pinks, blue and greens, and rainbow pastels. It had all the colors you would ever need to pull off any kind of makeup look. It also came with 5 blushes (1 for each palette) and 10 lip glosses (2 for each palette). I knew the quality wasn't the best but I still really enjoyed this palette. I still have it today though I don't reach for it often.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this type of post. I had a lot of fun doing it, but it was so hard to narrow down my choices!! I really wanted to list all my palettes because I really do try to use them all and as often as I can. It's obvious I love my Too Faced palettes and I've been really getting into the Urban Decay Naked 1,2, and 3 palettes. I also love the NARS cheek palettes I got recently. They're so much fun to use! I also really wanted to include my MAC X Antonio Lopez Face Palette in Pink but I felt like the NARS cheek palettes were more versatile.

I'd really like to see what your perfect palettes are so I'd love for you to all respond to this post in the comments so I can see what your favourite palettes are! Just copy/paste the list above and fill in what your fav palettes are. It was definitely challenging for me to cut my list down, how hard will it be for you girls to narrow it down?

Hopefully this post gave you some ideas of some good palettes to try out in 2014! You can obviously see which brands I'm a fan of!

Steph xo.

PS. My next post should be my Favorite Makeup from 2013! And I've got a bunch of good posts coming up!

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Pastel Manicure using Essie (and a little review of some Essie products)

Hello ladies!

I am long overdue for a nail post. I've discovered that Essie is, so far, my favorite nail brand. I'm not that big on nails, so I haven't tried that many brands and I'm sure you all have your own opinion as to which nail polish brand is the best, but I do love my Essie polishes. I'm going to tell you a little bit about each product I use to prep my nails and why I like it so much. I know I already spoke a bit about that but I don't feel as if I really articulated my thoughts very well so here we go again. Now that I've used them quite a few times I feel that I can give a proper review. I really do prefer Essie to other brands that I've tried, though I am open to suggestion.

I'm sorry if some pics are a bit out of focus, my camera's battery was dying so I was rushing to get all my pictures done and uploaded before it died.

Want to know what my next post is going to be about? Read down til the bottom to find out!

Prep Time

As I've said before, I prep my nails by filing them with Sephora's crystal nail file. Then I use their 4 step nail buffer. Then I apply Essie's Apricot Cuticle Oil to my cuticles and nails. I let them soak for a few minutes and then I take my cuticle pusher and push them down. Sometimes I trim my cuticles, but only if it's really bad. I also make sure to clean any gunk from underneath my nails. I find that their cuticle oil is pretty hydrating and does a good job prepping them. I'm also going to mention that after I remove nail polish from my last manicure, I like to put a ton of hand and nail cream on my nails and just let them soak up and re-hydrate. I use the Body Shop's Almond Hand and Nail Cream. I really like it as both a hand and nail cream. It does a great job keeping my hands and nails moisturized. This is the first cream that actually works on my nails. So now that I've prepped my nails and cuticles, it's Essie time.

Treatment Time

I use their Millionails treatment, which is a strengthener treatment. I find it's the best one I've tried so far. When I first started doing my nails often (and I mean once a week or every 2 weeks as opposed to never), my nails were always incredibly frail after I took the polish off and would break and chip very easily. But since I've started using Millionails, my recently depolished nails are as strong as they were before I started my nail polish binge. And this also helps them to not be so darn yellow! If you do your nails often, you know that the lack of oxygen to your nails is what yellows them. I don't know what this stuff does but my nails barely get yellow anymore. It's amazing.

Base Coat Time

I also use their First Base strengthening base coat. I do like it. I can't tell if it has been strengthening my nails, but only because I started using Millionails the same time as I started using this. But I like to think that combined, they help my nails a lot. It also does a good job of prepping the nail for color. It looks like a very opaque light pink in the bottle, but it goes on clear.

Color Time

Now for the colors I used in today's manicure. I did all my nails (except ring finger) one color and my ring finger another. Cuz I'm cool like that. The main color is Essie's Mint Candy Apple. It's a very light pastel minty color. I find it's almost like a light turquoise color in the sense that it isn't strictly green, but has some blue in it as well. The polish goes on quite nice and it takes me 2 coats to get full opacity. There's something about this shade that I just love. The only thing I don't like is the small brush. It usually takes a few strokes before I get the whole nail, and sometimes it dries fast, causing streaking. The last time I used this, it lasted for over a week without a single chip. I was pretty darn impressed. The color on my ring fingers is Essie's Muchi Muchi. It's a very light pastel pink. It takes 2-3 coats for full opacity depending on how thick they are. I used two for today's. It goes on pretty sheer looking so you definitely have to put on a few coats depending on how you want it to look. It does get a little streaky so I suggest thinner coats and minimum 3 coats for full opacity. It is a very nice color once you've reached full opacity. You might be able to use this as a french manicure color if you use one coat. Even now, if I look closely, I can tell where my nail tips are. Out of the two colors, Mint Candy Apple is definitely my favorite, both color- and quality-wise.

Top Coat Time

To seal in my manicure, I use their Good To Go fast-drying top coat. Out of what I've tried, this is by far my favorite. It dries my nails and hardens them in a couple minutes after application. I do two coats to make sure that I've sealed every inch of my manicure in. Whenever I use this, my nails never smudge. It dries them very thoroughly so you don't need to worry about not touching anything. They also never chip. My manicures usually last between 1-2 weeks before I redo them, and that's only because I get annoyed with the part of the nail that has now grown out.

Products Used:

Sephora 4 Step Nail Buffer - 7$CAD

Sephora Mini Crystal Nail File - 10$CAD, and 12$CAD for fullsize

Tweezerman Hot Pink Nail Rescue Kit - 24$CAD

Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil - 10$CAD

Essie Millionails Treatment - 10$CAD

Essie Grow Stronger Base Coat - 10$CAD

Essie Mint Candy Apple - 10$CAD

Essie Muchi Muchi - 10$CAD

Essie Good To Go Top Coat - 10$CAD

My Nails:

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed today's nail post! Usually I love wearing darker colors on my nails, like black, dark red, dark purples, anything dark really. I also have this random love for the color green. I gravitate to green makeup and nail polish. It's weird. I'm not one to wear pastels, like you wouldn't catch me dead in pastel colored clothes, but there's something cute about this nail color scheme. Mint Candy Apple is such a beautiful color, no wonder it's one of Essie's most popular shades. Her nail polishes go on super smooth and have a nice glossy finish. For my accent nail, I decided to stick with the pastels and do a light pink using Muchi Muchi. The colors complement each other very well. The only other time I've worn pastel nail polish (and I'm not counting when I was kid) was when I did my water marbling tutorial. I mean hello, most of my clothes are black, shades of white, browns, zebra and leopard print. Not typically a color girl, let alone pastel. But like I said, Mint Candy Apple just has something about it that I couldn't resist!!

So what do you think of Essie's Mint Candy Apple and Muchi Muchi nail polishes? What other shade(s) would you pair Mint Candy Apple with? What is your favorite Essie nail polish color? What do you think of her other products that I mentioned (treatment, top coat, etc)?

My next post is going to be my VERY FIRST DRUGSTORE HAUL!!!!

Steph xo.

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Saturday, January 4, 2014

Perfect Palette Tag

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Pastel Manicure using Essie (and a little review of some Essie products)

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