What I've been loving: Becca Mineral Blush in 'Flowerchild'

I am utterly drawn to BECCA's line of powder products. From their highlighters to their blushes, I think they KILL it with their powder game. During these warm summer months I've been wearing nothing but my blushes in Snapdragon and Tigerlily, and though those are both beautiful, they are both decently bright colors. I decided to snatch up an additional blush from BECCA in a slightly more muted tone.

BECCA's mineral blush in 'Flowerchild' is a pale pink color that is described as a 'peachy pink with golden highlights.' Peaches are my kryptonite so it is no wonder this bad boy made its way into my collection.

One of my favorite thing about BECCA is their packaging. The packaging is sturdy and looks like a petite UFO. Brown rubber makes up most of the compact with a sturdy metallic top. A tiny mirror is inside for application on the go.

The blush is soft to the touch almost to a fault- a simple tap of your brush will give you the perfect amount of color to sweep on your cheeks. These blushes blend beautifully as well with a powder blush or beauty blender.

bottom L: Flowerchild, Center top: Tigerlily, Bottom Right: Snapdragon

 Here is this Mineral Blush compared to my luminous flush mineral blushes from Becca.

L to R: Flowerchild, Tigerlily, Snapdragon

This blush is actually quite similar to Snapdragon--a tad less bright with a bit more peach to it rather than coral. I don't think owning both is necessary and I think I will be reaching toward Flowerchild more than I will reach for Snapdragon. Tigerlily reigns supreme as my favorite of the bunch, though.

You can purchase this product from Sephora HERE!
$32 for 5.6g of product.

xxSJ

Check out my reviews of other Becca products:
BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Luminous Blush in Tigerlily and Snapdragon
BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in 'Rose Gold'

Cover FX Custom Enhancer Drops in 'Moonlight'

What's the best way to test out strange products? By doing it for free of course. I've seen many a Youtuber and Insta-rammer-jammer rave about these Enhancer Drops by Cover FX but whenever I see/hear/witness influencers going on and on about a product, you have to wonder--is this a great product for the purpose of camera ready makeup (which I certainly don't need), or is this a great product because it makes you look great in person? Ionno.
When I saw that these drops in the most talked about shade 'Moonlight' were on Sephora's Rewards Bazaar for a whopping 100pts, I snatched em up right quick.

For a 100 point perk I am pleasantly surprised that this packaging is a mini version of the full size product complete with a cute little dropper top. The dropper pipette is glass so mind yourself when handling this little guy.

Just one drop of this is super intense. The product description of this color describes it as imparting a 'soft silver glow.'

I wouldn't necessarily call the glow from this soft, at least not when swatched as intensely as I have it on my hand! This stuff is discoball level highlight if you applied it directly to your skin.

Above is the product applied gently mixed in with my foundation as well as spot applied to my nose, cheekbones, cupids bow, and collarbone. It provides an elegant glow when applied gently that I actually really enjoy. Beware though, the following day after applying this to just my collarbone I had sparkle ALL over my chest. I was glittering like one of those damn Twilight vampires. Its fine...just being a majestic unicorn over here.

This product is a whopping $42 for 0.5 oz of product....to break it down for you that means that the tiny bottle I got as a 100pt perk from Sephora was worth $7.98 for 0.095oz of product. This is expensive!

I think I'll definitely finish this little bottle but I don't think I would shell out the cash for a full size. I can achieve the same effect with my powder highlighters I already own.

xxSJ

You can purchase this product from Sephora HERE!

Physician's Formula Butter Bronzer

 "If you like pina coladas.....and gettin' caught in the rain." This bronzer by Physician's Formula has completely made my summer. Not only is it light enough for my snow white skin and is fool proof to apply, but it smells like summer--kind of a savory coconut flavored sunscreen. I personally love it but it for sure has a decidedly smelly smell.

 The bronzer is housed in this cute colorful compact with a wave pattern sculpted into the powder. The powder is super soft to the touch and the perfect amount lands on your brush with a simple swirl.

 There is a powder brush (which I personally have not used and can not attest to!) housed underneath along with a simple mirror. I have never opened this in the months that I have used this product.

Bonus points for the orange croc in the bottom of this picture

The color is...not what I expected swatched. On my face it looks like a really nice neutral brown a la Benefit Hoola but a bit lighter. Obviously on my inner wrist the color is quite sandy but it really does look lovely on my skin.

This bronzer supposedly 'softens and moisturizes the skin' because of its ingredients. I don't know about that but it certainly gives a lovely lit from within glow. It can be found at Ulta, most drugstores, and even on Amazon for about $10 depending on the day!

This bronzer is really lovely and I will probably repurchase it. It does not double as a contour shade, however!

xxSJ

Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette: Swatches and Review

Urban Decay has released yet another palette in their now infamous 'Naked' line of products. This palette, titled 'Naked Heat' boasts flaming oranges, burnt reds, and ashy purples to fall in line with the warm toned trend.

 The packaging mimics its predecessor: the Naked Smoky palette--a nice hard and practical plastic which is easy to clean with a magnetic closure for a satisfying 'snap!' upon closing.
This palette comes housed in a cardboard which slides out to emulate a match box with an image inside revealing an inspiration for the palette's color theory:

 And then we get to the palette itself. The name Naked Heat is stamped on the plastic in a shiny gold. This scratches off easily, but otherwise the pretty plastic is easy to wipe clean and is sturdy for travel. There is really nice plastic detailing housed under the lettering along with warm colors mirroring the shadows housed inside. All in all, a very aesthetically pleasing palette!

 And now for the colors! Like the burning match series of images inside the packaging, the colors get darker in shade as your eye goes from left to right. There are a nice mix of satins, mattes, and shimmers with enough hues for a complete eye look.

 The shadows are all quite smooth with little powdery kick up. The only color I had to work slightly hard to swatch is 'Lumbre,' but after I've used and worked with the color a bit and gotten the first layer of hard compacted pigment out of the way, the color is easier to work with.

 The matte red and purple with deep warm browns were really what drew me into this palette. Orangey tones are complementary to blue eyes so I knew this palette would really compliment me without leaning tooooo red or pink giving me the appearance of illness or a bad case of conjunctivitis.

And here we are all swatched. Something I will say about this palette is it is very easy to go VERY orange with your eye look the second you pop any of the shimmers onto your lid. While this makes a very pretty look (Lumbre spread all over the lid and buffed out and blown out into the crease is the perfect one stop shop eye look) I'd caution someone looking for a nice nude look to steer away from this palette. The darker mattes are very pigmented and buildable and blendable. While not creamy smooth like how some prefer, I think this makes them easier to blend without getting too muddy. Caution with the mattes: overblending can cause them to not be easily distinguishable from one another so take care. The lightest shade Ounce is a brilliantly pigmented wash of satin and I think a real standout in this palette. The lighter mattes (He Devil, Chaser, Sauced, and Low Blow) are warm toned and I think a nice addition to anyone without a hugely substantial warm eyeshadow collection. I've really enjoyed this palette thus far.

If you are okay with experimenting and trying something a little different than your typical neutral brown look, this is one step away from a plain neutral eye while still remaining in the realm of work place appropriate.
Stay to the far left and right for your more neutral eye looks and then dip into the middle area to spice it up (or should I say, HEAT things up?....someone please stop me.).

This palette can be found on Sephora's web site, direct from Urban Decay, and from Ulta!
The palette is sold for $54 for 12 shades at 0.6oz of product total.

Let me know your thoughts on this nice addition to the Naked line!

xxSJ

Naked 3 Review

Budget and Waistline Friendly Freezable Breakfast Sandwiches

 I feel like I'm always short on time in the morning by about 10 minutes. I rarely have time to cook breakfast so have recently been resorting to pre-packaged, microwavable breakfast sandwiches. These sandwiches have kept me full and focused during my busy work day and have pretty great macros now that I'm calorie counting again, but I can't help but think I can make a similar sandwich with better macros and perhaps for a cheaper price.

 Here are the sandwiches I speak of. They are usually about $5.29 all the way up to $5.99 for a box of 4 depending on if you have a coupon or not. That breaks down to $1.32 per sandwich at the cheapest or $1.49 at their highest. I calculated the cost of all the ingredients I used to make my sandwiches and mine are $1.49 each with no coupons used. So these sandwiches are similarly priced, so how bout those macros?

 Above are the nutrition labels for the Special K and the Jimmy Dean sandwiches. The biggest items I wanted to improve upon were protein, fat, and sodium levels. Below is the macronutrient breakdown for my homemade sandwiches:

My made from scratch sandwich is similar calorie-wise but packs in an additional whopping 10g of protein per sandwich! My sandwich also decreased the fat content by a smidgen as well as sugar. The carbs for my sandwich are reasonable. Unfortunately the sodium level is still quite high. I suppose that comes with the territory of a breakfast sandwich!

Here's how I made mine!

Ingredients:
-6 large eggs
-1 and 1/2 C eggwhite
-8 strips Turkey bacon
-8 english muffins
-8 slices of low fat cheese of your choice (I used low fat swiss!)
-seasonings to taste (I used a dash of garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper)

-Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
-Microwave or pan fry your bacon according to the package instructions
-slice/tear bacon up into bite size pieces
-in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, seasoning, and bacon
-pour your mixture in a heavily greased or pammed baking dish and bake for ~20 minutes. The edges of the egg should start to brown and lift away from the edges. A knife or fork piercing the center should come out clean.

-toast your english muffins
-when egg mixture has cooled to just above room temp, slice it into the amount of pieces you'd like to use per sandwich (I initially divided my eggs up into 8 pieces like in the photo below but immediately realized that was going to be way too big. I ended up cutting each section in half again).

-Assemble your creations! I ended up putting down a square of egg, a 1/2 slice of cheese and repeat to make a little egg and cheese tower. It looks more voluminous and more filling!

-let your sandwiches cool to room temperature before wrapping them in foil or sealing them in ziploc bags to put in the freezer. Make sure to date them. They should keep for about a month in the freezer. 

To reheat:
wrap your frozen sandwich in a paper towel and heat at 30% for 90 seconds. Flip the sandwich over and heat again at 100% power for 1 minute.


These sandwiches are very delicious and hit the spot during a busy morning!

Try them yourself and let me know how they taste!

xxSJ

NARS 'Sex Machine' Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

I frequently get inspired by rummaging through other people's makeup stashes. When I tried this lip product after digging through my sister's purse, I knew I had to get my hands on it! NARS' velvet matte lip pencils are ultra easy to apply with their pencil like application and their smooth finish makes them easy to glide on. 

The matte finish of these pencils are incredibly comfortable to wear and lost for about 6 hours before they start fading away. 

'Sex Machine' is described by NARS as a 'pink mauve' which is spot on. There is a bit of shimmer in this product that you can see in the pencil but not so much on the lips or when swatched. The name of this color is certainly cheeky, but I don't mind it! 

Here you can see one of the benefits of this lip product! It smooths imperfections and actually moisturizes while you wear it. The wear time is fantastic and it wears off to a natural blush of color rather than with the thick, dark line around the outside of your lips. 

This lip pencil is $27 for 2.4g of product. You do have to sharpen this pencil as the product runs low, but I don't see that as a major downside. This perfectly portable lippie is perfect for an everyday makeup kit. I love the wear time of this product because in my profession, I don't have time to stop and check my makeup every few hours. 

You can check out this product from Sephora HERE!

Check out my post about NARS Dragon Girl lip pencil HERE! (Taylor Swift's favorite red!)

xxSJ

'The Pretty Palette' by Ciate London

I have one of the sweetest boyfriends in the world! I found this little palette under our Christmas tree  and found out that he scoured my blog and makeup vanity to pick out something that I don't already have and that he'd think I would like. After watching more Youtube beauty reviews than he'd like to admit (love ya, sweetiepie! ;) ), he settled on the Ciate London 'Pretty Palette.' I was so excited to dig into this because I've yet to try anything from this brand and mostly know of them from their nail polish line.

The packaging of this is pretty cool. The petite palette has a holographic cover where the eyes are open or shut depending on your angle of viewing.

Inside are 9 colors, 4 shimmers and 5 mattes. The center color is a great, beige, all over base color with the brand's little logo, a petite bow, stamped into the shadow. I love how simplistic the inside of this palette is and how little space is wasted. There is a full size mirror on the inside lid.

The colors are very neutral and when looking at this palette, I can easily think of multiple looks.

The shadows are all buttery soft with very minimal powdery kick up (which is great considering how close the shadows live to one another in the packaging). I was pleasantly surprised by the gold color (bottom left in the palette, 2nd color from the top in the swatches). It looks like its more of a yellow-green gold in the container so I was happy to find its a wearable, neutral gold. The purples are beautifully pigmented and the burnt sienna color is awesomely pigmented and easy to blend on the lid. The one complaint I have is that there are two very similar colors in the palette. You can see in the swatches that one of the champagne colors is more peachy while the other is more neutral, but I wish they were exaggerated in finish because they are incredibly similar on the lid. It's not the worst color to have a near duplicate of, however! 

 The above eye look was achieved using every color from this palette with the charcoal black color smudged into my lash line as eyeliner.

Overall, I'm so pleased with this palette and think that it's great as an everyday, no thought needed makeup look. I also think this palette would be great for travel. You might have to pair it with additional transition colors or deeper hues if you crave variety, but I think this little palette would totally suffice.

This palette is $35.00 for 0.52oz of product and is available from Sephora HERE!

xxSJ

NARS Audacious Lipstick 'Apoline'

Everybody: gird your loins for the most perfect neutral lipstick in all of creation.

 NARS recently came out with some new additions to their incredible Audacious lipstick line. The color 'Apoline' was calling to me as the most perfect neutral lip color. I couldn't justify the steep $34 price tag for myself, so I bought this pretty lippie for my sister first (does anyone else do this???). She looks incredible in it, so I did the only other thing I could think of to get my hands on this gorgeous product--I asked Santa.
Lo and behold, I was graced by this little guy on Christmas morning. The NARS Audacious line is stunning--housed in a black, soft touch finish case with a magnetic closure, this lipstick with the NARS logo engraved on the side will certainly make you feel luxurious every time you use it.

 This satin finish lipstick is ultra pigmented while being super lightweight on the lips giving you long wear coverage and a super comfortable feel. Apoline is a warm dusty pink that is super flattering on my skin and works well with almost any makeup look.

This lipstick wears for about 4 hours through eating and drinking and softens up my cracked, winterized lips leaving a touchable, bouncy finish behind. This is definitely my favorite lipstick and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to add some luxury to their makeup kit!

Check out my other Audacious lipstick reviews!
Grace and Natalie
Juliette
Claudia and Brigitte

Check out the NARS Audacious lipstick line at Sephora by clicking HERE!

xxSJ

BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Luminous Blush: Tigerlily and Snapdragon

I am a woman OBSESSED with BECCA cosmetics. I have problem skin and ever since discovering BECCA's highlighting products I feel like my skin has had life breathed into it! Recently while browsing around Sephora and touching ALL THE THINGS, I was drawn to my favorite little spaceships over at BECCA cosmetics and I saw the most gorgeous blushes ever.

L: Tigerlily, R: Snapdragon

I picked up the colors Tigerlily, a bright orange tangerine color, and Snapdragon, a vivid coral. Both blushes are part of the 'luminous blush' line with shimmering flecks running through out the blushes.

The blushes are a bit smaller than BECCA's famous highlighers, but these puppies are so pigmented that I feel they are a fair size for a blush. They come housed in the familiar UFO shaped containers with brown rubberized plastic and a silver brushed metal top. They have high quality mirrors on the inside perfect for application on the go. 

L: Tigerlily, R: Snapdragon

These colors are rich with pigment and yet are easy to blend. You need the tiniest boop of your blush brush into the little compact to pick up enough color to complete your makeup look.
Tigerlily is a vivid orange that blends seamlessly with my complexion and gives me the perfect sunkissed look. I don't think I will be able to pull this blush off in the Winter time, but I've been using it nearly everyday this Summer. Snapdragon is the perfect coral that I think is the perfect year round blush for the my skin tone. Both of these blushes leave a perfectly radiant finish that makes me look healthy and happy!

I've seen comparisons between Snapdragon and NARS' infamous 'Orgasm,' so I swatched those below:

L: Snapdragon, R: Orgasm

Similar, but not quite the same. I think Snapdragon is richer with a radiant sheen where as Orgasm is more shimmery and light in color.

These blushes are not cheap at $34 a pop, but oh my goodness they have made me a happy camper! I think its worth checking them out the next time you're in store and perhaps treating yourself if you see a color that speaks to you!

Check them out HERE!

xxSJ