July 2017 Favorites -- Beauty And Bath

Most of these are not really from the month of July; but, I did not include them in June's favorites.

1.  Urban Decay JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Gold Griot Palette:  I went back and fourth with whether or not I was going to buy anything from the collection.  It seemed to be getting mixed reviews on YouTube.  I ultimately decided I wanted to get the eyeshadow palletes, at least because I was enamoured with the packaging, and YouTubers like Phyrra Nyx and grav3yardgirl liked their palettes.  Some YouTubers complained about the pigmentation and blendability.  When I got mine, I didn't have any problems with either.  The Gold Griot Palette is a really nice basic neutral palette that leans a little more on the warm side and has a few shimmers.

2.  Urban Decay JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Gallery Blush Palette:  I almost wasn't going to get this palette -- like I needed more blush (well, like I need more eyeshadow!  LOL).  I popped into Ulta one day and saw that the blush palette was on sale.  Perfect!!!  So I got it, and a backup for the bright green eyeliner.  It is a good palette!  I have a lot of warmer blushes so it's nice to have a cooler option.  Plus Urban Decay's highlighters have improved immensely.  The complaint used to be that they were dry and glittery.  They are now much smoother and glitter free.

3.  NYX PERFECT FILTER SHADOW PALETTE in Rustic Antique:  This was the first of the three Nyx palettes on this Favorites post that I bought.  Yes, how many uber warm palettes do I need?  I think, the idea behind this was to have something with a limited amount of shadow choices, but that can complete an eye look, when I'm low on time.  When you have ADHD, a big palette can end up being a time waster as it's very easy to get sidetracked by all the choice you have.  The shadows are all nicely pigmented, they blend well and you can achieve several complete looks with this palette.

4.  Urban Decay JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Post Punk:  I had been searching for a chartreuse eyeliner -- and a few weeks later, Urban Decay came out with one for their Basquiat collection!!!  

5.  Urban Decay JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Tenant Palette: Not only do I love chartreuse eyeliner, I love chartreuse eyeshadow!  The tenant palette has some really fun colors to work with when I'm not in the mood for my usual warm look.  (See #1 for more.)

6.  NYX DUO CHROMATIC ILLUMINATING POWDER in Crushed Bloom:  I bought this to use as a blush.  It gives a gorgeous glow and a light wash of color.

7.  NYX CONTOUR INTUITIVE PALETTE in Warm Zone: Ironically, for a palette called Contour Intuitive, there is no contour powder in this palette.  LOL  But I didn't buy it for that.  I really bought this for traveling.  It's perfect to go with my Naked Skin Shapeshifter palette. (See June 2017 Favorites: Beauty and Bath.)  I've since tweaked my Shapeshifter palette to meet my needs more when travelling and the Contour Intuitive palette just makes a perfect companion with it's blush, highlighter and just enough of all of my eyeshadow shade staples.  Everything blends well and the shadows are nicely pigmented.

8.  NYX LIQUID SUEDE METALLIC MATTE (Liquid Lipstick) in ACME:   Even though the definition of Acme is: the point at which someone or something is best, perfect, or most successful, I cannot see the word acme and not think of  Looney Toons cartoons.  This color reminds me of a color Lancome had over 20 years ago in their lipstick line.  It was a shimmery full coverage lipstick called Fraise (strawberry in French).  Nyx describes Acme as a metallic strawberry red.  I love it!

9.  Nubian Heritage PATCHOULI and BURITI HAND and BODY SCRUB:  This smells SO good!  I love the body wash; but, I can detect some almond scented oil in here, maybe some musk as well as a hint of patchouli. The sugar gives it some fragrance, as well.  I've used it all up; but, was thinking of experimenting with making candles and wanted to see if I could dupe this fragrance.

10. NYX LIP LINGERIE (Matte Liquid Lipstick) in Cabaret Show:  This is one of four Lip Lingerie Lipsticks that I got in March 2017.  The other colors I got were French Maid, Cashmere Silk and Seduction.  I'd say Cabaret show is the one I like most, followed by French Maid.

11. NYX LID LINGERIE SHADOW PALETTE:  This, to me, is Nyx's answer to Urban Decay's Naked Basic's palette.  There are six shadows.  Some lean towards the warm side.  I think this a great palette when you want some neutral shades to complement a colorful palette, or if you have a palette that seems to be lacking a light neutral shade and a dark neutral crease shade.  

12. Brow Rehab Brow Cream Ash Brown and Brow Brush:  I've been using this since before the new year started.  I use it almost every time I do my makeup.  It's a small container; but, I've still got plenty of product left and it has never dried out on me.  Every other brow gel or paste I've ever gotten has dried out on me way before its time.  I love the brush from Brow Rehab, as well.  It's a wider brow brush than most and it really makes for having an easier time drawing and filling my brows in (my brows on on the sparser side -- I can't just lightly fill them in).  One of these days, maybe next year, I will invest in some microblading for the brows.

13. Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Foaming Milk and Body Wash:  I forgot I had this in my bathroom cupboards until I started doing a declutter.  I started using it when I ran out of whatever I had been using in the shower at the time.  I wondered why I forgot all about it.  I quite liked it!  It's softly scented and feels luxurious.  I even took it on vacation with me to San Luis Obispo!  When my body wash stash starts getting low, I will definitely be replenishing it with some of this.

14. Kat Von D Shade + Light Glimmer Eye Contour Palette:  Honestly, I really got this because I love acquiring Kat Von D palettes!  It's a very good palette.  I will say, I wish the lighter shimmery shades weren't quite so sheer.  Other than that, it's a great basic nude shimmery palette.  I use it with the matte one.

15. Kat Von D Shade + Light Face Contour Refillable Palette:  I love this palette.  I finally got mine when she came out with a refillable one.  I mostly use Sombre (the cooler shade on the left) and Shadowplay (which is a slightly warm contour shade that still works very well).  I mostly use the highlight shades as a lighter eyeshadow or to blend out eyeshadow.  I will use the darker shade as eyeshadow as well.  I don't see myself needing to replace the darker shade or the highlight shades any time soon.

16. My Mix Powder And Blush:  

Powder

This started when I had two Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders (One in Diffused light -- pale yellow.  One in Luminous light.).  I sort of liked them both on their own; but, not enough to use them all the time.  They had been in my makeup collection for almost three years.  About a year ago, I decided I was going to scrape the powders out of the compacts, mix them together and put them back into one compact.  I loved the result.  I could powder my face and not look powdery or cakey!  After that, I started mixing my own face powders adding lower shimmer highlighter to matte powders.  It has definitely cut down on makeup clutter; and, I just love the result.  (The nude and very light pink tins.)  Milani has since come out with something similar.  I have it; but, am still deciding if I like it better than the powder I mix. 

Blush

I had a lot of blush.  I still have a lot of blush; but, not as much as I used to.  I was trying to cut down on some clutter so I gathered up all of the blush that I knew I wasn't really using, scraped them all out of their containers, mixed them together and put them in two tins.  One of the tins is warmer and one is cooler.  It comes in handy as something to reach for.

The Kat Von D Lolita Eyeshadow/Blush Quest

You Tube Made Me Buy It -- Contours and Bronzers. Plus My Favorite Contour Brushes!!!

I love contouring.  I'm so glad this made it into mainstream makeup.  Here are the contours that You Tube made me buy.  Descriptions at the bottom of the pictorial.  Also, pictures of my favorite contour brushes and description below.

1.  e.l.f. Contour Palette (pressed powder) -- I've hit pan on the actual contour color and the matte highlight color but I'm not crazy about the matte highlight.  The bronzer is nice.  I've only started incorporating bronzers into my routine in the last month by using it around my hairline and above my jaw.  The shimmery highlight is not that shimmery and comes off a bit dry looking for me.  I'm such a sucker for these quads from e.l.f. though.  I'm not sure why I fall for them so badly!  LOL

2.  e.l.f. Cream Contour Palette - I've only used this once, so far.  I'm not used to applying cream contour and highlight; so, I have to get used to this.  If I recall, the contour is quite pigmented, so, I have to be careful not to pick up too much when I use it.

3.  Too Faced Bonjour Soleil Bronzing Wardrobe Palette -- I got this, originally, for the packaging.  It was so cute!!!  But this is really a great palette!  Plus it smells really good everytime I open the palette up (like cocoa).  The Chocolate Soleil bronzer makes a really nice contour.  The Sun Bunny Bronzer is a shimmery two toned bronzer that I like to use on my hair line area.  And the Snow Bunny Bronzer is a really pretty highlight.  Plus, whenever I'm done with the makeup in there, I can use the box to house makeup pencils.

4.  Morphe Brushes 9BZ - THAT GLOW BRONZER PALETTE -- This is a beautiful bronzer palette with different tones of bronzer and some that have a bit of glow to them.  I love the glowy ones for near the hairline.

5.  e.l.f. Bronzer Palette -- I think this is a nice bronzer palette.  A lot of people complained that it wasn't nearly dark enough for them.  I can see why.  e.l.f. heard the complaints and has since come out with a darker palette.  This again is a nice basic palette for around the hairline and above the jaw for me.

6.  Morphe Brushes 9C - 9 COLOR HIGHLIGHT/CONTOUR PALETTE -- I love this palette.  The contour shades are beautiful, there are a couple of matte highlight shades in there (one with a yellow tone, one with a peach tone), there is a shimmery gold highlight shade in there that goes on beautifully, plus some bronzing colors.  Just a wonderful palette overall.

7.  e.l.f. Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder - St. Lucia -- The Contouring part of this palette works great.  The blush has almost no pigmentation.  I have a feeling the pigmentation can vary from batch to batch.  I've seen some people on YouTube say that theirs has great pigmentation.  I'm not willing to gamble on buying another palette to find out if that's true or not. Just a waste if it isn't.  

8.  It Cosmetics Vitality Brightening Anti-Aging Face Disk -- I bought this when I saw how big this was.  I also bought this before I started liking shimmery highlights.  But, once I started getting into shimmery highlights, I hit pan on the highlighter, using it both on my cheek bones and on the inner corner of my eyelids.  The bronzer is VERY warm; so, this does not make a good contour unless you have VERY warm skin. But for those that like to bronze all over, this would be good. This wasn't my favorite palette.  I accidentally dropped it one day & what I had left of all the powders broke.  (I was actually kind of glad because I was tired of using it.  LOL)  But, for someone who likes to buy one thing stick to it, this would be great!

9.  Nyx GO-TO PALETTE - Wanderlust -- I am always looking for travel friendly palettes-- things for weekend getaways and things for a week or two.  This is actually a really nice basic palette.  Everything is nicely pigmented, and the highlight is gorgeous and very shimmery, no glitter or sparkles just wonderful shimmer!  The contour color is a little warmer than their HD Blush in Taupe; but, still works as a contour for me.

10. Wet n Wild Color Icon Contouring Palette 749A Dulce De Leche -- I love the contour on this.  It's subtle and a good color for my skin.  I've used most of it up, actually.  However, I don't like the highlight.  It's too dry & dusty looking for my skin.  If they made this big compact in just the contour, I'd be all over it!!

11. Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Refill - Fawn -- I bought this to put in my custom travel palette, which I am in the process of creating.  I heard great things about the Anastasia contours.  I had to do some research to see which one would fit me best.  Fawn turned out to be a great option!

12. Nyx-HIGH DEFINITION BLUSH - Taupe -- Before Nyx came out w/HD blush, this shade in their regular blush was a YouTuber favorite.  I've not tried the other version but I love this.  It tends to have a bit of fallout but I still like it.  From what I've seen on YouTube, the colors between the two, vary slightly but not enough to make it too noticably different.  If they still make the older one, after I'm done with my HD versions, I may try the original.

13. e.l.f. Bronzer - Cool -- This is a very versatile "palette".  This can be used as contour, matte highlight, bronzer, blush and eyeshadow for a quick, natural, inexpensive take it with you palette that won't overcrowd the handbag.

My Favorite Contour Brushes

I have a round face.  My face does not benefit from densely packed straight edged contour brushes. I do, however, like densely packed, tapered top, oval shaped brushes for the job.  I've found some contour brushes that I really love!  Most of my favorites are priced so that even someone on a tight budget can afford them!

e.l.f. Selfie-Ready Powder Brush -- This is currently my FAVORITE contour brush!!!.  It's like the e.l.f. Blending Brush but not as wide.  I only have one of these and want to get backups as soon as they restock this on e.l.f.'s website.  You can get this for only $6!!!

Morphe Brushes E47 Small Flat Angled Contour Brush -- I love this brush for contouring my nose and under my inner brow.  It works so well! $8.99 on Morphe Brushes site.

e.l.f. Blending Brush -- Before the e.l.f. Selfie-Ready Powder Brush came out, this was my favorite contour brush.  It works really well without having to call in a second brush for additional blending.

Sedona Lace 316 Synthetic Flat Contour -- Before the e.l.f. Blending Brush came out, this was my favorite contour brush.  It's a flat contour brush but it is neither densely packed nor stiff so it allows for blending while it contours.  I would say more angular faces would really like this brush as well.

Ta Ta For Now!