OMG THIS IS MY 100TH POST! :) time flies....

Hey beautifuls! Just got back from having dinner with some friends in Manhattan. Funny story, I left the bar at 10:30pm because I wanted to be safe. But to my surprise, the trains and subway stations were full of families, students, white collar workers, tourists, and tons of alone young females like myself. Granted I was riding the subway from the upper west side to midtown and then to Little Neck, which are all relatively safe areas but I literally thought I would be the only lone female on the trains that late at night. Guess it really is the city that never sleeps!

So today, I wanted to share my November favorites with you guys. I've been wearing a lot more makeup this month and have a few goodies to rave about. A lot of the products I have been using this month have been oldies but goodies that I've raved about tons of times in previous posts. So to avoid repeating myself, I'm just going to feature products that are new to me that have stood out this month.

Makeup Revolution Iconic 1 Redemption Eyeshadow Palette
I went home to Pittsburgh for two weeks in early November and this was the only palette I took with me. While I'm not a huge fan of all the shadows in this palette, I love love love the golden and bronze shades (6th and 7th shades from the left).  Many people compare this palette to the UD Naked 1 palette and it is a pretty good dupe palette, but not all of the shadows are exact dupes. For example, the color that correlates to the Toasted shade from the Naked palette is much more purpley in the Makeup Revolution palette, and the shade corresponding to Hustle is more olive-green in this palette. However, I'm so so so happy that my two favorites from the Naked palette, Half Baked and Smog, are exact dupes of the 6th and 7th shades in this palette. The quality of all the shadows in this palette is excellent and they blend easily. In a nutshell, if you are looking for something similar to the UD Naked 1 palette but aren't willing to shell out $54 for the original, try this palette but be aware that not all of the shades are exact dupes.

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Fanciful
This blush was part of Sephora's Fanciful Favorites set for Black Friday in 2015. I rediscovered it in my stash this month and haven't been able to put it down. It's a gorgeous medium rose pink shade that looks beautiful on medium-deep skin tones.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Radiant Light
How gorgeous does this face powder look? I have to say this is probably one of my most exciting discoveries this month. I purchased this a month or so ago, but this has quickly climbed to holy grail status for me. I love the subtle highlight and warm, bronzed glow this gives my cheeks which makes my skin look radiant. Another must have for those with medium-deep tones!

Wet & Wild Powder Brush
A beautiful, soft, affordable powder brush that I've been using this month as a backup for my Real Techniques Powder Brush to apply my setting powder. I'm so amazed at the quality of this brush despite the super cheap price tag! These are only $2.99 and you can often find a deal on top of that at drug stores. Definitely going to be picking up a few of their other brushes in this collection!

The Body Shop Hand Cream in Shea
I've definitely mentioned this in previous favorites, but I had to mention it again! I've tried so many hand creams recently, but I keep coming back to this sucker. It hydrates my hands without leaving a greasy runny residue and smells divine. I love that it has a mild fragrance that's not overpowering. I also find that a lot of hand lotions have a floral scent that I can't stand, so I'm very happy that his one just smells like a simple, clean buttery vanilla.

Bolthouse Farms Greek Yogurt Dressing in Peppercorn Ranch
Such a silly thing to put in my favorites, but I had to share my love for this dressing! I love using ranch for vegetable dip and salad dressings, but most ranch dressings are full of fat, salt, and sugar. I saw this at the grocery store recently and purchased it and oh my gosh I'm in love. This tastes just like full-fat ranch but it's only 40 calories and only a few grams of fat. Hopefully this encourages to eat more salads this month ;)

#healthyholidays Day 2 -- ate four servings of veggies today!

Massive Winter Haul: High-End Beauty

Hello, hello everyone. Well that hiatus was short-lived, huh? Luckily the situation got sorted out fairly fast and I'm feeling tons better now. With the grace of God, no patient harm came out of the situation. I'm finally getting around to cleaning out my makeup drawer and unpacking my huge beauty haul from this past November/December. Yes, I realize it's three months later...time flies! As you can tell from the flood of personal posts lately, I've been in a really bad mood ever since coming back from vacation. I've been on this constant go-mode since November and I'm just exhausted at this point. And the whole issue with the HIPAA violation just got me really really upset. I've been mustering as much energy as I can, and I hope things will be different now that match day and graduation are approaching. 

Anyhows, enough of my personal bantering, on to the makeup! I split this haul up into two parts -- high end and drugstore. There's just SO much stuff and I would be incredibly overwhelmed if I went through both parts in one post, so hence the splitting. Interestingly enough, the high-end side is much larger than the drugstore side this time. Usually it's the opposite!

So let me go through each product one by one. I haven't used any of the products yet, but I swatched most of them so I can offer my first impressions at least. In no particular order, here goes. The ones without links were limited edition holiday products that are no longer available.

bareMinerals Tutorials: Neutral Eyes -- Let me be honest, the main reason I bought this kit was because I had a 20% off coupon at Ulta including prestige brands, and this set caught my eye as I was about to checkout at Ulta. It's actually a pretty handy. It comes with a (full-size?) eyeshadow duo, a mini size of their 5-in-1 BB cream shadow, a eyeliner, and mini eye brush. Plus, it comes cased in a  gorgeous reusable metal tin. I really like this set, but I am a bit disappointed with the eyeshadow duo. I expected it to be more warm-toned based on the picture on the back, but it's in fact a bronzey-taupey mix. I'm hoping it's still wearable on my super-warm skin tone, and I'm definitely looking forward to using the other products in the set. Neat little gift idea and it would make a good starter makeup set.

Clinique Whole Lotta Chubby Set -- I saw this cute little holiday gift set as I was online shopping for a cream blush stick. I was about to buy the full size of the Amp'd Up Apple, but I stumbled upon this set and decided to buy it! For $25 you get deluxe sizes of five products from their "Chubby" line -- a cream blush stick, an eyeshadow stick, one regular chubby lipstick, one baby tint, and one intense chubby lipstick. The shades are Amp'd Up Apple (blush), Bountiful Beige (eyeshadow), Curvy Candy, Mightiest Maraschino (intense), and Poppin' Poppy (baby tint). Overall, I'm very glad I bought this set since I'm a huge fan of their Chubby range. I never finish a blush, and this set allows me to try a bunch of other shades and products from the line. Also, the sizes in the set are quite generous!

Clinique Even Better Makeup Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I've been wanting to get a heavy-duty foundation from a makeup line that emphasizes "good ingredients" and sensitive skin. I'm not a huge fan of the bareMinerals or Tarte foundations, so I thought I would try a Clinique foundation. It's an old formulation, but it got excellent reviews on multiple sites. I'm going to have to experiment with it a bit more before making a final verdict, but so far so good! I put it on my face using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it applied well, blended seamlessly, and was lightweight. Going to have to use it a bit more to determine if it's a good color match and if it's heavy duty enough.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Powder in Stay Honey -- To match my new foundation, I picked up this powder from Clinique. Not much to say about this one. I didn't swatch or test this, but I imagine it functioning like any other old pressed powder. We shall see!

Too Faced Love Flush Blush in Love Hangover -- I've wanted to try a blush from this collection for sooooooo long! Yes, the packaging is definitely what sucked me in. I didn't fall in love with any of the shades in the collection, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with Love Hangover which is a dusky rose shade with a slightest bit of sheen. It's a gorgeous everyday, natural sort of blush. This shade is perfect for the spring and summer!

Burberry Wet & Dry Silk Shadow in Pale Barley -- This product was a total splurge! I love dabbling around with luxury makeup, but I don't have the funds to purchase them on a regular basis. So every time I feel like it's a particularly challenging time of year for me, I splurge on a makeup item and remind myself that I've worked incredibly hard to get where I am and I should be treating myself, not being down in the dumps. This time, it was application and interviewing season that had me feeling really nervous and frantic, and I decided to splurge on one of these shadows. It's one of those products that just makes you feel extra fancy everytime you bust it out of your makeup drawer. The shade isn't particularly unique, but the formula is really silky soft as the name suggests. This color leans more cool than I initially thought, but it's not as ultra-cool as other taupes I've played around with. Definitely not a product you need to rush out and purchase, but definitely check these out if you need a little pick-me-up ;)

Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Pepper/Fig -- Recently, Bite Beauty started making mini size duos of their lipsticks at only $12 a pop. I bought the Fig/Date duo last year, but the colors unfortunately didn't suit my skin tone. This Christmas, they came out with new duo combinations and one of them happened to have Pepper, which I've wanted for a long time! It's a beautiful dusky pinkish-red shade and the perfect MLBB shade. It has the signature creamy Bite Beauty formula and I love the way these duos feel on my lips. Unfortunately, the duo came with Fig, which is in the other duo I have, but luckily Fig looks gorgeous when topped with a pinky gloss!

Fresh Sugar Rose Ritual -- During holiday shopping season, I'm always excited to see Fresh's holiday gift sets. Since a full size of their lip balms are quite pricey at $22, getting a bunch of different colors and types of Fresh lip products in mini sizes is my favorite way to try Fresh. This year, they had quite a few awesome holiday sets to pick from. I ended up picking up one that had both a lip treatment and a lip balm, and was reasonably priced -- the Rose Ritual set was perfect. I love the wash of sheer red the lip balm gives me, and am super pumped to try out the Rose lip treatment counterpart, which is just a glossy version of their lip balm.

Tarte Fanciful Favorites Deluxe Discovery Set -- I bought this at the Sephora black friday sale. I'm a sucker for Tarte's Amazonian clay blushes and so I always pick up a set during the holidays to try out some new shades. The Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes blend so beautifully, are packaged well, and last all day on my cheeks. This one is a nice everyday matte (I believe) medium pinky rose shade that has the awesome Amazonian clay blush quality. The set also contains a sample of the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara that I have been dying to try and a small bottle of their Maracuja Oil.

Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask -- I believe this was a deluxe freebie Sephora was offering around the time I put in my online order. I decided to include this because it's one of the best face masks I have ever used and does an excellent job at cleansing my pores. Granted this is the only high end face mask I have tried, but honestly it's quite affordable for how well of a job it does. The deluxe sample I got was 1oz, which is very generous for a sample considering that the 1.7oz tube is $17! Hands down my favorite mask and I would encourage anyone, especially those with oilier skin, to try this awesome charcoal mask!

Lorac Pro Metal Palette -- I saved the best for last! Out of all the stuff I bought over the holidays, I'm most excited to try this palette. This is a permanent item, but it was discounted at 50% on Ulta over Black Friday I believe. Or it might have been after Christmas, I'm not entirely sure. I was skeptical on getting this palette at first because I've been buying way too many eyeshadows recently, but after I read some reviews on this palette, I knew I had to get it. I absolutely love metallic pressed shadows and this palette featured a lot of my favorite colors. I could definitely see myself wearing more than half of these shades on a regular basis. It has a rose gold, olive-gold, buttery golden, and a copper which are all amongst my favorite neutrals. I'm also excited to try out the grayish taupe shade and cobalt shade even though they are slightly more cool-toned! The quality on these shadows is AMAZING. Super buttery and richly pigmented, and very very metallic for all of us metal lovers out there. I loved the palette so much that I took a close-up of it below. Isn't it gorgeous? So excited to play with this baby in the next few weeks.

My Travel Beauty & Hair Essentials

Whew, talk about massive heat wave this week! It was our "spring break/summer weekcation" and oh my goodness the temperatures have been up to the 90s! Summer is my least favorite season, so I'm not loving the heat that much.  This week has truly been a stay-cation. I started it off with a bang at Niagara Falls, but the rest of the week was spent running errands and finishing up my research data collection. But I did want to take the time out to talk a little bit about the beauty supplies I brought with me to Niagara. This is what I usually pack for a weekend vacation. 

This is the makeup bag I take with me while I'm traveling: 

It's a beautiful Tarte travel makeup bag that I got in a Christmas gift back in 2013. I'm not sure if Tarte sells much of these anymore, but you can find similar bags in other brands at Target, Walmart, etc. These bags are super handy for storing my beauty stuff while traveling -- it holds all of my makeup, some skincare stuff, travel-sized items, hair stuff, etc. I remember before I had this, I used to pack like 5 separate bags for my beauty stuff, or I had them rolling around in my bag, which was a huge mess. This bag has honestly made packing my beauty stuff SO much easier and more convenient. Even when I'm staying overnight at my parent's house, I store my beauty stuff in here. I really like that it's separated into 3 compartments of different sizes, so you can store delicate stuff in the small bag without having to worry about your bigger-sized items crushing it. And it provides ample space for most of my beauty stuff, especially for shorter trips or overnight stays. It has a loop on the top, so you can hang it off of any hook. Usually hotel rooms have a hook on the bathroom door, so it's perfect. Below I've shown what I store in each compartment.

The smallest compartment -- I like using this for more fragile, smaller items. Oftentimes, I'll store jewelry in this compartment, although I didn't take any pieces with me on this particular vacation. The other thing I really like using this small pouch for is for my hair accessories like scrunchies, bobby pins, etc. They don't get lost as easily in small pouches like this. This pouch is also a great size for smaller sized makeup products. For this trip, I packed my under eye concealer, dark spot concealer, eyeshadow primer, a travel-sized Pixi eyeshadow palette, and a mini NARS blush pan. I also put some fragrance samples I got from Sephora for both me and my mom. And then of course I stuffed some scrunchies in there as well. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this pouch is detachable, so you can carry it in your handbag or store it elsewhere if you wish.

Medium-sized compartment -- I use this section to store bulkier makeup products, such as face products. I also like to keep all of my lip products in this compartment, so they're all in one location rather than spread out everywhere. As you see, I fit a large-size bottle of foundation, my bulky face powder, a large mascara tube, and 3 full-sized lip products. I usually take a gloss, a lip balm, and a lipstick with me while traveling so I can wear whatever I'm in the mood for. This time, I just stuck to one color, but if I"m going on a longer vacation I'll pack a few more lip products in various textures and colors. I chose peachy-pink colors for Niagara since they're neutral, brighten my lips, and are perfect for the spring season.

Largest compartment -- I personally like using this compartment for miscellaneous products such as skincare items, body care, makeup brushes, cleansing pads, etc. I've even managed to store some palettes in here before!  I stored a travel-size conditioner, toothpaste, and face scrub. I also threw in a small pack of makeup removing towelettes so I didn't have to drag my large pack of Simple cleansing wipes. I also put my eyebrow and eyeshadow brushes in this compartment, but I usually put my face brushes in a separate brush holder so they don't get super dirty. I could have also fit my travel sized body wash and lotion in here, but those were very last minute additions to my suitcase so they didn't quite make it into the bag! :(

These are the other products I took with me that were larger and didn't fit in the Tarte bag. I try to buy travel-sized products for vacations as much as I can because they take up much less space in my suitcase, and I don't have to worry about carrying around heavy, large, bulky, dripping wet bottles. If I'm going on longer vacations, I usually just buy a bottle of shampoo/conditioner at my destination because it's honestly a lot easier than lugging around a bottle of shampoo from home in my suitcase. Plus, once you're done, you don't have to worry about carrying wet, already opened bottles of liquid back home. I don't know...maybe it's just me, but I hate always worrying about if my shower products are going to drip in my suitcase! Bath & Body Works sells a wide array of travel-sized body washes and body lotions, which I always take with me on vacation (as you see here). I usually take deodorant and hair products from home (except for shampoo/conditioner) because they don't make smaller sized versions of those, and my deodorant is small enough. And as always, my Wet brush goes with me everywhere because that is one of my holy grail hair products.

So that is what I pack for a weekend getaway. Of course the makeup products may change, but overall the types of things I take stay the same. I didn't mention any specific products in this post, but they've definitely all been mentioned in previous beauty posts on my blog, so check those out if you're curious! :)

March Beauty Favorites ♥

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