REVIEW: Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Foundation

This foundation retails for a good $42.00.
This is a Matte finish, *full coverage* foundation that is recommended for all skin types.

My shade is Bisque 5

This is a very long lasting foundation. Lancome claims that it will last 14 hours, I can't really say that it does because I don't wear my makeup that long, but for the 8-10 hours I usually wear it, it does stay on.

*I wouldn't say it's "full" coverage, I would say it's more of a "heavy medium/buildable" coverage. It goes on really nice, you have to work on one area of the face at a time, rather than applying it all over the face and then blending. It dries quick, which brings me to my next point, it dries to a powder!

Application can be a little bit tricky, I think it takes a little bit to learn how to use it and make it look nice on you, but if you are willing to spend $42.00 on one product, I think you should be willing to take the time to work with it before deciding you don't like it.
When applying this product you MUST have a completely clean and smooth face. This is the kind of foundation that forces me to exoliate and moisturize daily. If you have any, and I mean ANY flakes, once the foundation dries you will be able to see them.

I have tried many different brushes but I have found that the MAC 130 is the best one for it. That is the amount I use for one third of my face. Which at the end of the day comes down to a pump and a half. Keep in mind thou, I like more coverage than your average Jane!
On the left photo I am wearing no makeup at all. Right photo, after having applied foundation. No concealer or anything else on. And this is what it looks like after doing all of my face.

REVIEW: MAC fluidline Gel liners

These gel liners retail for $15.00 each. They come in a variety of colors, I own the black and the brown ones. They come in a really cute jar and the net weight of the product itself is 0.10 oz. Sounds very little, doesn't it? I really like the packaging on these liners. The jars are made of glass and are small enough that you can take it with you when you go out and need retouches (you probably won't need to retouch!).


It's consistency is very creamy, very gel-like. Although it seems like you get so little product for $15.00 just a tiny bit goes a very long way.
I originally bought this product to use on my water line. If you know me well enough you know I am in love with everything smokey, when it comes to makeup. I had tried very many different eyeliners but you know that when it comes applying it to such a moist area, you really need a good one. I came accross the fluidlines on one of the youtube videos I watched a long time ago, this girl put it on her waterline and raved about it so I thought why not try it.
I am absolutely in love with this line of eyeliners. It's staying power is remarkable. It is really creamy and it has a window of time to smudge it, if that's what you are going for. It truly creates the perfect smokeyness.

Top = applied with an angled brush. Bottom= smudged with a MAC 219.

(I have two kids and I am constantly changing diapers and washing my hands, at the end of the day I still had to use makeup remover to wash it off!)

There is one down side to gel liners, not just this one, and that's the fact that in order to apply it you are going to need a brush. Nowadays you can find a decent eyeliner brush just about anywhere, I have seen some youtube gurus who buy them at Michaels Craft stores and claim them to be as good as any.
At the end of the day I would say that investing a little extra money on a gel liner like this is completely worth it, even if you have to buy a brush to go with it, I have been using mine for about 3 years and this is only my second jar. Keep in mind that when I do wear makeup I use a TON of liner, which your normal makeup wearer probably doesn't, and I have been able to make them last such a long time, so for a normal person who is not as obssesed as me these liners would last much longer.

REVIEW: Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy Kit

This Set retails for $34.20 on the Too Faced website. It comes with 6 full size eye shadows and one full size Shadow Insurance Primer.
I didn't pay full price for mine. Too faced came to Hautelook for the first time a few weeks ago and I snatched a couple of products while they were at a discount, I am not positive but I think I paid about $17.00 for this palette.
Too Faced Cosmetics is a high end brand and when you look at almost $35.00 on one palette it DOES look like a lot. The way to look at things like this (and how I personally justify it) is to break down the costs. Each Too Faced eyeshadow retails for $18.00 and the Eye Shadow Insurance, which happens to be one of the best in the market, retails for $18.00, so in reality you are getting $126.00 worth of products for $34.20.

My first impression on this palette was not a good one. I was very unpleasantly surprised at the size of the whole package, I guess I got too used to Urban Decay's palettes, but at the end of the day it makes sense. It is a very compacted little thing, it does hold 6 full size shadows and it comes with a little primer holder on the side, so you can easily grab it and take with you on vacation and not have it take a lot of room.
As far as the color selection, I loved all of them except for Boy Toy, but that's nothing against the actual shadow, I just don't care for pink shades that much. My absolute favorite was Full Frontal. It's such a pretty bronze shade and it's so stinking pigmented! Actually, all of them but Skinny Dip are really pigmented.

Swatches

On the left I applied primer prior to testing the eye shadows. On the right, I have nothing underneath.

Shadow Insurance
Like I mention above, this set comes with a full size primer. I would say is just as good as a Urban Decay Primer Potion. It's consistency is a little thicker but it blends the same.

(Below top = Too Faced Shadow Insurance - Bottom= UDPP)

I own one of the older pretty bottles from Urban Decay's primer potion, so I will say that I LOVE the packaging of the Too Faced one. Having said that, I know UD now has changed their packaging so it would be really hard to choose. Based on the two products I do own, I will say that Too Faced Shadow insurance is a lot easier to apply, but the quality is the same as the UDPP.

Here's a comparison of the two. You can see why Urban Decay HAD to change their packaging. How in the heck would you get the product stuck on the sides of that bottle, without cutting the thing into pieces? That's where Too Faced got it right!

Also, Too Faced comes with more product!

All in all, I do like this set. Would I ever pay full price for it? NO. I am too cheap for that. I believe I've only paid full price for a 3 Urban Decay palettes and one Christmas Sephora one (the last one I regret).

Review: Laura Geller "Spackle Tinted Under Make-Up Primer"

I don't know how long it's been since I posted something, I was about to delete this blog when I saw that I had a bunch of comments waiting for me to reply. It made my day. I guess some people DO read what I have to say.
I don't have time to do makeup tutorials anymore, I have two kids now and they are so active its just impossible to do anything, and I also have a business. Anyways, I decided to dedicate this blog to reviews and reviews only. I will tell you my honest opinion on every single product I review. So here is the first one:
Laura Geller Spackle tinted under eye primer in Bronze...
I received this primer in one of my birchboxes. I was really excited to get it when I first saw it, I mean, you can never have too many primers, right?
I lost the card that came with the birchbox that explained that this specific color works on every skin tone... I thought that was really interesting being that it's a dark primer.

I am hispanic and if you've seen my photos on this blog, you know my skin tone. I am dark and this primer goes really nice on me, I just can't imagine it working on a white person. It's consistency its sort of like a runny lotion, I don't know how else to explain it. It's not thick but is not thin-watery either.

It's got sheen to it but its very hard to see. I applied this primer to my face with nothing else to see if it made any kind of difference and it didnt. Right after applying it I got this tight feeling, very strange. It was nothing like a Smashbox primer. If you've tried the smashbox primer, you know how your skin feels very silky afterwards. You feel it filling in your pores and just love it. This Laura Geller product feels nothing like it! After the tightness is gone it feels like you have nothing on (not in a good way).
All of that aside, does it work? I tested this primer for about a week, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary that would make love it, BUT i did see something that made me not want to use it anymore. I broke out with pimples like I was a 14 year old! It was freaking crazy! It was so bad I had to poke at them with a needle to be able to get the stuff out and begin healing (do not try this at home!), excuse the gross details... I am trying to make a point. I have never had any product do that to me. Even when I wear drugstore foundations I've never broke out this bad.
So here's the bottom line. It does work as a primer, but it breaks me out. When a product causes me to get pimples, it just doesn't matter how expensive, or fancy or cheap it is. It goes out the window. I think I am going to be sticking to my smashbox and Mac primers.

Find me on Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/prettiedup26

Daytime look

This look would be perfect to wear during the day.

I didn't apply false lashes to make it more "natural".

What I used:
Urban decay Yerba (skin tone shadow)
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Mascara
Mac Shroom
Mac Rubenesque Paint Pot
Stila's Shadow Trio in Champagne Glow
Lancome Eye liner in Noir

Prime your lids.

Apply a thin layer of rubenesque from the crease down. You can barely see it, I know.

Apply the gray-ish color from the Stila trio on top of rubenesque. With a clean brush blend the harsh lines on your crease by going back and forth on it.

With a pencil brush, or any smaller type of brush, apply the brown from the Stila trio shadows on the outer corner of the eye, making a "V" sideways, like so:

With a clean blending brush go on top of the brown and with circular motions blend it out a bit. Then apply some more of the brown shadow with the pencil brush the same way you did before and blend it again. You can do this as many times as you'd like, until you achieve the look you are after.

This are 3 steps in one photo.
1st. Apply a skin tone shadow on your crease. Smooth it really well.

2nd. Highlight your brow bone with a shimmery shadow.

3rd. Apply some color under your lower lashes. Going with the gray color on your inner half and brown on your outer half.

For eyeliner I used a pencil. Drew a kind of thicker line and the smudged it with a pencil brush, to get a softer look.

And applied a couple of coats of mascara.

And Voila!

Golden Christmas Look

This is another look I came up with for this Christmas season. I hope you all like it.

I used some drugstore products I recently found at walmart and I am sure if you look a lot closer than I did, you can find alternatives to all of the high end brands I used.

And finished the look with a very defined liner and dramatic lashes.

I don't know why my computer uploaded this photo and the next one sideways!

This is my BH cosmetics 28 Neutral colors palette. I used the colors in the circles.

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Mac's "Rubenesque" Paint Pot

Mac Eyeliner in "Gilded White"

Bare Escentuals eyeshadow in "Gold Gossamer"

Hard Candy Glitteratzi Gel eye glitter gel in "Goldfinger"

Hard Candy Liquid Walk the Line Eyeliner in "Dream Girl"

N.Y.C. Sparkle Eye Dust in "Opal Sparkle"

Stila Illuminating Finishing Powder in "Rose Gold"

Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Mascara

As always, start with an eye primer, apply it all over your lid.

Apply a very tiny amount of Rubenesque paint pot from the crease down.

On top of rubenesque apply Hard Candy's glitter gel. A tiny amount goes a long ways.

On top of the glitter gel apply a very generous amount of Gold Gossamer. I know, a lot of layering!

On your inner cornes (top and bottom) apply your sparkle eye dust, being very generous also.

Now we are going to add dimension to this look. With a blending/crease brush apply a shadow that's a little bit darker than your skin tone (shadow 1 from BH cosmetics palette) all over your crease, going back and forth until it's all well blended and no harsh lines are showing.

On top of the skin toned shadow you just applied on your crease we are going to apply a shadow that's a little bit lighter than your skin tone. I used the shadow number 2 in my BH palette. Blend it really good.

Apply a highlighter on your brow bone. I used Stila's Gold Rose illuminating finishing powder.

Go ahead and line your eyes. Go dramatic.

Apply a gold glittery eyeliner under your lower lashes and line your waterline with any white eyeliner.

And this is the finished look after applying mascara and false lashes. If you are wondering what kind of lashes I use, I only use Model 21 Eyelashes.

I know my face doesn't match my neck very good, that's because I was testing Revlon's Photo Ready foundation and the shade I bought doesn't match my skintone. I will post a review on that soon.

Face: revlon's photo ready foundation, laura mercier secret camouflage undereye concealer, clinique's finishing powder, nars laguna bronzer, nars deep throat blush, stila illuminating finishing powder in gold rose.

Lips: Estee Lauder Pure Color lipstick in Candy

Stila Lip Gloss in Wild Pink.

Beautyticket.com haul

This is my first time buying from this site. I've had my eye on it for a while but didn't get anything until now. Their prices are pretty good compared to retail but I always found that I could get the same products from All Cosmetics Wholesale for a better price.
You can have access to "private sales" if you sign up to receive emails and offers from them. Their private sales come every now and then and have pretty good prices, sometimes they give you a coupon to use on top of the sale. Last week I received an email for a 50% off of everything Stila coupon, their prices are already discounted and added this coupon I practically bought my Stila cosmetics for dirt cheap.
Their selection of products is not very big but they add items constantly.
Anyways, here is what I got:
Stila Eye Shadow Trio in "Champagne Glow"

This product retails for a good $28 dollars. I paid $6.49.
Here are the swatches for the colors. I absolutely LOVE this shadows, they are so pigmented.

Stila Lip Envy Silk Shimmer Lip Gloss Trio #6

This lipglosses retail for $60.00. I paid 7.49.

Swatches.

Stila Convertible Eye Color in "Lapis" (top); and

Rock and Republic Noir Eye Liner in "Ultra Black".

Stila's liner retails for $22.00. I paid 4.49.

Rock and Republic liner retails for $28.00. I paid $12.99.

Swatches.

"Mystery 5 Piece Bag" for medium complexion.

When you buy this you don't know what you get until you actually receive your product in the mail. I was so excited to open this bag.

This is what came in it:

I was impressed with how fast the products got to me. It took 4 days from the time I placed my order, that's pretty fast. Shipping is reasonable ($6.95) and the prices are pretty good. I would definitely buy from this site again. To check out this site click here.