January ipsy bag

I was really pleased with this month's ipsy bag. There wasn't anything in it that I actively disliked, and only one item I wasn't super excited about. I was also impressed with how many full sized items I got. There was only one trial sized item, which luckily was the one I wasn't too excited about. Hehe.
Shall we have a look then?

The items I received were:
A lovely block colored makeup bag
La Fresh Eco-Beauty - Be Good. Good Day. Day Moisturizer
Elizabeth Mott - All Over Shadow Brush
Pacifica - Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow (Ethereal)
BelláPierre - Shimmer Powder (Celebration)

All the items came in this lovely makeup bag.

The other side is white. It's a two for one color wise with a orange pull tie.

La Fresh Eco-Beauty - Be Good. Good Day. Day Moisturizer View here

This moisturizer has some pros and cons. I used it yesterday and today. It feels pretty light on your skin. I was surprised, that it did smell like real cucumbers. However it did also have another smell to it that I didn't like as much. I did like the moisturizer, but I know for sure, that I am not in a position that I would spend $40 on a full sized jar of moisturizer. Honestly, I'm not sure if I ever will be in that position. haha

So to test out the two eye shadows I received I figured I'd put down some basic makeup as a canvas. This is me without any of the ipsy items. (Except for the moisturizer I used earlier today)

Before putting on makeup I always put my hair back so it doesn't interfere.

Elizabeth Mott - All Over Shadow Brush View here

Here you can see the back of the packaging. Sorry it's not the best picture, there is some glare.

What can I say about this brush, other than I adore it! Brushes are important, but not usually something I geek out over. This brush is different, it is so very soft and easy to use. Of course the fact that it's pink doesn't hurt either, as you may know I adore pink. The back of the brush package says that the brush is ridiculously soft. Gotta say, they weren't lying! Considering this brush is only $10 i would definitely repurchase it and recommend it to anyone! I used this brush to apply the two eye shadows I received.

Pacifica - Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow (Ethereal) View here

It's a very light color.

This shadow is only for sale in palettes.

The shadow goes on very lightly. It's almost imperceptible.You can see a faint shimmer. I chose to put it on the entire lid as I was planning on putting another shadow on my lower lid. It did feel nice going on.

If you look closely you can see the shimmer under the eyebrow.

Here you can see the full lid.

It looks slightly silverish. I like it as a base lid color.

BelláPierre - Shimmer Powder (Celebration) View here

I got the color celebration which is a very vivid gold.

It's a loose powder. So the application was quite messy. But so worth it! The color is very intense. My photos barely do it justice. At $15 a pop, it's a bit more than I might normally spend on an eyeshadow, but I would definitely consider doing it for this, as  the result was quite phenomenal.

Here you can see how it looks with my eyes open, before I added any mascara.

As you can see I also applied some under my eyes. I was planing on doing that anyway, but with how loose the shadow is, some of it went there automatically, so I decided to roll with it.

On my lower lid.

The color looks even more intense in real life than in the pictures. I love the bold color!


Probelle - Into The Blue Nail Lacquer View here

I love the cheerful color. It is a lot lighter than it looked like on ipsy's website. It's not a bad nailpolish for $6. It does need multiple layers though. I put on three to get good coverage. The first one or two layers look pretty streaky.

The color really is so cheerful. A nice bright blue.

So all together this is my look. I also used my red lipstick starter kit that I received from Meyggy and wrote about on my blog in December.

I'm pretty happy with the look. You can also kind of see the eyeshadow sparkle, even when not looking close up.

Just as a disclaimer, I do not receive any free items for reviewing ipsy products on my blog. I pay the same 10 bucks per month as everyone else. However if you do sign up through this link I earn points that I can then later redeem for additional items.

Makeup Purge

So, last weekend I decided I needed to clean my bathroom. Really clean it, not just wipe off the counters, etc, but also go through all the drawers and sort through everything. I discovered I have an excessive amount of makeup. Some of it is so old I brought it over from Germany when I moved to America 6.5 years ago. So some of it must have been pretty yucky. I also discovered that I got really tan (for me) over the summer. So a lot of the powders were too light.

Ok, so I spread it all out on my counters. I mean, look at all of this stuff!

 Crazy! And now from another angle:

All those mascaras in the bottom right corner... Oh, goodness! I think only one of those was still good. I also noticed I have duplicates, see those two cucumber peel off masks? All those makeup bags? I think that's like 7 powders. On the left is all my MaryKay stuff too.

So I did a bunch of purging. Got rid of the stuff I didn't think was really still good. I also made myself a couple specific bags:
A bag to keep in my purse for work with a few necessities, lip gloss, powder, lipstick, eye shadow.
A grab bag for trips, a bit of everything I might need to do makeup on an overnight trip.
A tiny Clinique bag with powder, blush, and lipstick.
And a bag with my every day items to do makeup.

Here's what my counter looks like after organizing.

I am still using my Tom's box to keep a lot of my makeup in it. I need to find a better way to organize my makeup though, obviously! Who else keeps their makeup in a shoebox?
Not pictured is that on the side I kept my ipsy bags separate. I don't know why, but I like to keep my ipsy products in their individual bag. Maybe that's just an odd tick I have.


Anyone have any good organizing tips for makeup? I'd love to hear from you all in the comments!

#Day97

November 5th

#Day97 I got to go visit @guatymelon at work, get my skin tone matched and try a red lipstick. What do you think of the color? #lancome #macys

I got an extra break inbetween and went to go see my friend Meyggy's roommate who works for Lancome at Macy's in Salem. She checked my skin tone and matched me with a foundation. She also helped me find this fab red lipstick. I wish I had the extra funds to grab it. Maybe in December. This would also make a fabulous Christmas gift. Hint, hint. ;)