Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick in 'Fig'

After falling in love with Bite Beauty's lipstick formula from using their dual ended mini lipsticks, I decided to get my hands on one of their full-sized lipsticks!

The packaging is sleek and modern. The design is seamless using a matte, rubbery gray material with the Bite logo printed on the bottom of the tube.  The lipsticks come in 4 different styles of cap which are supposed to look like the different ways lipsticks can get worn down! The style of cap on each lipstick is dependent on color family--reds, neutrals, pinks, and berries.  The brand sets itself apart by only using edible ingredients in their lipsticks and also includes an ingredient called resveratrol, a super antioxidant. Each tube contains as much resveratrol as 5 glasses of wine!

The color I chose is 'Fig,' a gorgeous nude rose.  

Fig is a super warm pink that has peach undertones making it very wearable for my complexion. I like that the color is a bit punchy and more noticeable then a nude lip but still a neutral and professional color. 

The lipsticks are very moisturizing and last quite a while on the lips. They do transfer while eating and drinking but I find they don't smear and instead fade naturally and evenly away. 

Bite Beauty lipsticks cost $24 for 0.15oz of product. To compare with some popular brands, MAC lipsticks are $17 for 0.1oz of product, Kat Von D lipsticks are $21 for 0.1oz of product, and Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks are $22 for 0.1oz of product.

I really like the way this product feels and wears on my lips. Given that I have such a huge problem with dryness and the appearance of my lips, I will probably be repurchasing from this brand in the future. 

Check it out on Sephora's website Here!

xxSJ
Review on the duo Fig/Date
Review on the duo Musk/Lychee

Steph Reads: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

"I'm Gold, bitch. What'd you expect? Warm milk and cookies just because I'm pocket-sized?"

         Golden Son is the second book in the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown and, in my humble opinion, it succeeded in being just as much of a page-turner as the first book.  The book picks up shortly after the first book ended--our protagonist, Darrow, is continuing his quest to begin a revolution as a Red (the lowest of the classes in this futuristic society), posing as a Gold, the God-like elite on top of the social hierarchy.  This novel focuses on Darrow's journey attempting to incite revolution while trying to maintain what his late wife, Eo, would have wanted. Darrow navigates the world of the Golds, attempting to gain power while being backstabbed and threatened and simultaneously finding true friendship and love.
         I loved this book and it took just as many exciting twists and turns as the first one. I appreciate that Pierce Brown managed to keep my interest with an entirely different plot line rather than recycling too many concepts and devices from the first novel.  In this story, we get new insight into this exciting and thought-provoking world Darrow lives in as well as further development of some favorite characters from Red Rising.
        I definitely recommend this novel and this series to anyone interested in fantasy, sci-fi, or adult fiction.  I liken this series to Hunger Games, only due to its dystopian themes, however I think it is a far better written and more adult. Definitely a 10/10!

SJ

Check out my other Steph Reads posts!
The Hypnotist's Love Story by Lianne Moriarty
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
Someday Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Husband's Secret by Lianne Moriarty
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Splintered by AG Howard
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Beneath the Glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler

ColourPop Goodies! Birthday Suit, Birthday Girl, and Bill!

This post is looooooong overdue but a while back I got in an order from Colour Pop and wanted to share my thoughts on some of their products!

I got three items from Colourpop, an LA based indie brand that has exploded in the past year. One of the items I got for free with my order to celebrate the brands 1 year birthday: the 'Birthday Girl' eyeshadow which came encased in hot pink plastic with a tiny holographic cupcake on the lid! Adoooooooooorable!  All Colourpop products come in twist off plastic packaging that you have to make sure to close up tight after every use to avoid their unique product from drying up. 

The Birthday Girl eyeshadow is one of the brands' Supershock shadows with a metallic glitter finish. It is a gold color that has some bronze glitters in it. I bought the color 'Bill,' which is my first matte color I've purchased from Colourpop and is a 'muted plum-beige.' I also purchased my first cheek color in this order and chose the color 'Birthday Suit' which is a neutral pink in a satin finish.

All the colors swatch beautifully and completely opaque.  The glitter eyeshadow had the same texture I've come to be familiar with with Colourpop which is a squishy almost wet feeling. The matte eyeshadow and the cheek color were a little bit different in texture; they felt more whipped and softer.  With the glitter shadows from Colourpop I recommend applying them with your finger in order to get the most pigment out of them. With the matte eyeshadow I used a synthetic brush to buff into my crease and it worked beautifully. With the cheek color I got the best result by using my fingers to blend it directly onto my cheeks. None of the brushes I tried could pick up any product successfully but I really liked the results I got by simply blending with my fingers. 

The look above I achieved by buffing 'Bill' into my crease with a synthetic fluffy brush, pressing 'Birthday Girl' all over my lid with my finger, and by blending 'Birthday Suit' onto my cheeks. I think the look the blush gives is a fresh and dewey look which I love for my dry skin.

Colourpop eyeshadows are $5 each and the cheek colors are $8 each. I highly recommend this affordable brand particularly for beginners who may not have a lot of tools or may not want to use many products for one look. I think these shadows and blushes are user friendly and not to mention completely affordable! Colourpop gives you $5 off your first order when you sign up for their email list which will cover your cost of shipping :) Find their products at colourpop.com!

Happy Summer!
xxSJ

Light Brown: Comparing Transition Shades

A transition shade is a color you place in and a bit above the crease of your eyelid to make blending easier and the transition between all your eyeshadows smoother. The most popular transition shade is a matte light brown color. That being said, there are SO many to choose from and so many that are proclaimed 'must-have' colors by makeup gurus and companies. With so many to choose from you'd think picking one would be easy but wading through all the choices can be a tad daunting! I thought I'd share all the matte light browns I have to give you an idea of how more popular ones compare and my thoughts on some of my faves!

Let's get started from left to right! First up are the two matte browns from the Naked 1 palette, Naked and Buck. These colors are great because they layer beautifully on top of one another, meaning you can dip your brush in both of these, buff them into your crease and effortlessly add some great dimension to your eye look. MAC's Soft Brown is the next color and is a great shade if you're looking for a warmer brown that leans peach. It is really similar to Makeup Geek's Creme Brulee and Stila's Wit (from Eyes are the Window 'Mind' palette).  I like these colors if I'm going for a warmer eye look. I think they all perform comparably to one another though I prefer MAC's Soft Brown slightly because I think it is slightly less powdery and blends with other colors a bit better because of its satiny feel.  Next I have the NARS eyeshadow duo in 'Portobello.' These colors are SO amazingly buttery and soft and yet don't kick up a bunch of product when you dip your brush in or are blending them. The color on the left is unique as it has a bit of green in it and the color on the right in the duo is so rich and adds gorgeous depth to any eye look. I highly recommend this little compact if you're looking for some unique and gorgeous colors for your collection that you can get a TON of use out of. Lastly I have the matte brown color from the Dior 5-Colour palette in Grege. Unfortunately I don't think Dior sells this palette anymore which is a shame because it is gorgeous (find my review of it HERE), but if you have it, here is how the rich matte brown in it compares with some other popular browns.

I hope this post was helpful for anyone looking for comparisons of these popular colors!

xxSJ

NOTD: Formula X for Sephora 'Chaotic'

Today's nail of the day is a glittery top coat by Formula X for Sephora called 'Chaotic.' This top coat is filled with black and white hexagon and square shaped glitters of various sizes. This stuff is so cool! In the picture above I layered two thin coats of this glitter over a plain black Formula X polish and the effect looks like outer space!

This polish lasted for days chip free on my nails and attracted many compliments. As with most glitter polishes, it was tough to remove and I resorted to chipping and peeling off the layers of glitter. I think this polish looks great layered over black or white, but it would look really cool over a red or bright pink so you can see both the black and white glitters easily!

Formula X for Sephora polishes are sold exclusively at Sephora and are $10.50 for 0.4fl oz.

Would you rock this chaotic nail color??
xxSJ

Steph Reads: The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

        It's Summertime in the city and I wanted to start the Summer off by reading a fun chick-lit! The book 'The Hypnotist's Love Story' takes place in Australia at Ellen O'Ferrell's beachfront home. Ellen is a successful hypnotherapist who has found a promising bachelor to spend her life with until the day he tells her 'we need to talk.' Turns out, Ellen's perfect suitor Patrick is perfect enough that his last relationship ended with his ex stalking him.  Rather than being scared off, Ellen is intrigued that this gentleman is worthy of a stalker and, in fact, she would like to meet this stalker of his--little does Ellen know that she already has.
        This book was overall a fun read and had a slew of likable and relatable characters. Ellen is incredibly realistic as the seemingly earthly and spiritual hypnotist that has a running train of thought revealing her imperfections. The narration shifts between Ellen and Patrick's stalker which was a nice touch to be able to understand what is going through the stalker's mind during her most outrageous acts of desperation. I actually felt sympathy toward the stalker by the end of the book because I felt I achieved a certain level of understanding of her actions which was unbelievable given I had written her off as a loon at the beginning of this story.  The ending of this story wasn't necessarily unpredictable, but it was incredibly satisfying and light-hearted giving me peace when I set it down for the last time. I will say that this book got incredibly slow in the middle 150 pages or so. I felt like that whole chunk of the book could have been removed and I wouldn't have missed it all! Other than that slow area, I would recommend this book if you have enjoyed Moriarty's previous work. It's fun, realistic, a little sexy, and entertaining!

What's on your Summer reading list?
xxSJ

Check out my other Steph Reads posts!
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
Someday Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Husband's Secret by Lianne Moriarty
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Splintered by AG Howard
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Beneath the Glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler

Ipsy June 2015 Bag!

 Ipsy is a monthly subscription service that sends you 4-6 deluxe sample-sized products each month for the low cost of $10 including shipping. Ipsy is SO popular that in order to sign up for this subscription, you must first get yourself on their waitlist... I did just that weeks ago and completely forgot about it until I received an email that my June bag had shipped! It arrived a couple days ago so I thought I'd share my thoughts on these products and this service.

In this month's bag, I received 2 pairs of Altcheck Depuff Eye pads, a treStique eyeshadow pencil, a Smashbox photo finish face primer, an ItCosmetics brow pencil, and an Aurora Gel Effect nail polish. All of these goodies were housed in a black bag with 'ipsy' printed all over and bright orange zipper enclosure!

I was most excited by the ItCosmetics brow power pencil as this product claims to be a 'universal brow product.' Hmmmmm I'm hugely skeptical of that! I also thought the eyeshadow pencil was missing its cap at first but was relieved to find that the pencil-like pointed tip is really the cap housing the product inside! 

The eyeshadow color I got was 'Marimoto Pink Pearl' and it is really pretty! It is a light gold shimmery cream eyeshadow with peachy pink undertones. I wore this on my lids with a soft brown swept through the crease and it wore beautifully all day.  The brow pencil is in the color 'Universal Taupe' and it actually works pretty well for my brows. This product is meant to be lightly applied for blondes and then more heavily applied the darker your hair color. I could definitely see this color working for many people, though I recommend trying it out in store before purchasing this. The packaging is really nice as it is a weighty aluminum and there is a spoolie for eyebrow grooming on the opposite end of the pencil. 

The nail polish is a gel effect polish by the brand Aurora called '4 Alarm Fire.' I do really enjoy the color of this hot raspberry red, but I don't think the formula is all that great. I had chipping within 24 hours of application and the brush is huge making application a bit difficult on my tiny nails!

Overall I was impressed with the variety of samples in this bag. The value of each product is as follows:
Nail Polish $8
Smashbox Primer $8
Eyeshadow Stick $10
Eyebrow pencil $12
Eye pads $4

That puts the total value of this bag at $42! Not bad considering I only dropped $10 on it and these are all products I will get some use out of.

I really enjoyed my first experience with Ipsy but I don't think I will be continuing my subscription. I have a lot of makeup as is and I don't feel the need to have a ton of little samples lying around. I would definitely recommend Ipsy to people just starting to get into makeup though! It's an inexpensive monthly service that could introduce you to new makeup items and brands to expand your collection and its great for getting some travel sized products for weekend getaways ;)

Try out Ipsy for yourself Here!

xxSJ