Maybelline Color Whisper Photos, Swatches, & Review

First there were the Revlon Lip Butter, then Loreal Color Riche, now Maybelline Color Whisper. How could Maybelline stay out the game? Well I'm glad they joined in because they are probably my favorite drugstore brand so I always have high hopes for their products. I will let you know my thoughts on them and how they compare to Loreal and Revlon.

The packaging I love! They are the slimmest and sleekest lipstick that I own which I can highly appreciate. I hate unnecessary packing and we all know when we have a small clutch with limited space how this comes in handy. The lids correspond to the color in the tube (for some but not all). The cap is easy to take off and put back on and unlike the Loreal ones you don't have to lock it into any groove. 

Left to Right:  A Plum Prospect, Oh La Lilac, Berry Ready, Coral Ambition, Faint for Fuchsia

Dior Amber Diamond Powder Shimmer: Swatches, Photos & Review

Dior Amber Diamond is one of those cult favorite product's. It's one of those products that everyone talks so much about that many often wonder if it's worth the hype. I think most people are hesitant about purchasing this because of its high price tag. Dior Amber Diamond doesn't come cheap at $44 USD for .35 oz. You do get a lot of product which so that helps a bit. Amber Diamond has 5 separate colors that are described as Ivory, Champagne, Tan, Bronze, and Peach. Sephora describes it as, "These five micro-shimmering tones set off sparks of brilliance, highlighting your complexion. The ultra-fine, super-blendable formula virtually fuses with your skin for a sheer, radiant luminosity."

Dior Amber Diamond

Nuxe Reve de Miel Lip Balm Review & Photos

Nuxe Reve de Miel Lip Balm ($19 USD for 15 g) is described as a concentrated lip balm to help nourish, repair, soothe, and protect lips. The main ingredients in this balm are honey, plant oils, shea butter, and grapefruit essence. I picked this up after hearing so much hype about it and can't wait to share with my thoughts with you on this product. I picked mine up on the Birchbox website with my Birchbox points. 

Favorite Fall & Winter Lipsticks Swatches, Photos, & Review

To continue along with my favorite Fall & Winter makeup series I will be discussing some of my favorite lipsticks in this post. This was harder for me than the blushes because I have a ton of lipsticks and not as many Fall/Winter blushes. I also have more drugstore lipsticks than high end. I think I went through a phase of buying a lot of drugstore lipsticks. I've stopped doing that now though since its so hard to know if the color will work for you without trying it out first. I've bought too many colors that I haven't really liked. I hope you will find a color in this post that might work for you.

Top 5 Favorite Fall & Winter Blushes Swatches, Photos, & Review

I picked out for you my favorite Fall & Winter blushes. I have a lot of pink blushes but wanted to pick out for you the ones that I would reach for more in the Fall & Winter and not as much during the rest of the year.  I tend to lean toward mauve & plum colors with golden shimmer in some. I am very fair skin so with some of these I have to really use a light hand but I still love all of these colors. 

Top Row: Tarte Exposed, Estee Lauder Audacious Plum, Illamasqua Naked Rose
Bottom Row: Nars Sin, Nars Luster

Laura Mercier Foundation Primer-Radiance Swatches, Photos, & Review

Laura Mercier is well known for her primers and for many they are holy grail. In the last year or so she came out with the Radiance primer. This primer is meant to be the canvas for your foundation giving you a smooth and silky surface while adding a sheer healthy glow.

Partially Used Laura Mercier Foundation Primer in Radiance

Kiehl's Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate Review & Photos

I am a huge skincare junkie and put on some type of serum morning and night. I like to use more active serums at night and more moisturizing or hydrating ones in the morning. Kiehl's developed and formulated this with 10.5% pure vitamin C that according to their website is clinically-demonstrated to improve overall skin texture, tone, and radiance while reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles. "It is supposed to give your skin a triple boost by stimulating collagen production, providing anti-oxidant protection and exfoliating skin to reveal healthier-looking skin." 

Tarte LipSurgence Collection Swatches, Photos & Review

I've gotten quite a few requests to do a post on my Tarte LipSurgence collection. I have 7 of them and gave a few to my mother. These sell for $24 each and you get .1 oz of product. They come in three different types including lip tints, matte lip tints, and lip lusters. I counted 23 colors on Sephora's website. They always are coming out with limited edition shades though in holiday boxes or on places like QVC. There is a enough variety that I think there is a color to fit everyone's preferences.

Left to Right: Flashy, Frisky, Lucky, Adored, Dazzled, Glitzy, Perky

Lorac Pro Palette: Swatches, Photos & Review

Lorac recently came out with their Pro Palette which has gotten a ton of hype recently. This came out around the same time as the Unzipped palette. I first heard a lot about the Unzipped which I still don't have but once I heard about this palette I knew I had to add it to my wishlist. This palette comes with 16 eyeshadows, 8 of which are matte and 8 are shimmer. The 8 matte shades are: white, cream, taupe, light pink, mauve, sable, espresso, and black. This is a great mix of mattes that you could use as a highlight, all over the lid, crease color, inner corner, etc. For the 8 shimmer shades they are: nude, champagne, gold, light bronze, pewter, garnet, deep purple, and slate. These are amazing shimmery metallic colors that will work great with the mattes and none of the shimmer contain glitter. The problem with a lot of eyeshadow palettes is that they are all metallic or shimmery shades and no mattes or not enough mattes. This is a perfect mix of both as I personally don't like wearing all shimmer on my eyes.

Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay Fragrance Review

The latest release from British brand Jo Malone is called Blackberry and Bay. This is my first review of a fragrance and find fragrance reviews to be very difficult but I really liked this scent and wanted to share with you all some of my thoughts on it.  Prior to purchasing this the only other one I have ever tried from them was Nectarine Blossom & Honey. That's my all time favorite summer scent so I had to try this for fall after all of the hype that this fragrance has been getting. Jo Malone describes the fragrance as, "Inspired by childhood memories of blackberry picking. A burst of deep, tart blackberry juice, blending with the freshness of just-gathered bay and brambly woods. A scent of innocence." 

Beautiful Wrapping from Wesley  at Bloomingdales on 57th and Lex

NYX Blush in Angel: Swatches, Photos, & Review

This review is on the NYX powder blush in Angel. For some reason it seems like there is a lot of variability in what color people get. I've heard that from a few people and when I was looking at swatches online it seemed like they looked different on many blogs. For the price, these are excellent blushes. I usually get mine from either Harmon's which is located in Bed, Bath, and Beyond or online at Cherry Culture. You get .18 oz/5.2 grams of product and they retail for around $6. I try to get them when Cherry Culture is having a sale. The color is a peachy/pink color with some sheen but the sheen doesn't show up as much on the cheeks. I think this blush would work well for fair to medium skin tones. Any darker and it would be too light of a blush.

Worth the Hype? Clarins Cleansing Milk, Review & Photos

I've decided to start a new series on cult products and talk about if they are worth the hype or not. I know I always hear talk on certain products on YouTube, Beauty Blogs, Sephora, etc. of people raving about products but I'm not always sure what if they are "Worth the Hype." My first post in this series will be on the Clarins Cleansing Milk with Alpine Herbs for Normal or Dry Skin. They also have one for Combination to Oily skin but I thought this one was better suited for me. I picked this up at the Nordstorm Anniversary sale for Fall/Winter. I have normal/combination skin that gets dehydrated when the weather gets colder. I thought that this would be a good cleanser to help hydrate my skin.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain Swatches, Photos & Review

I know I'm a bit late on doing this post but I didn't start blogging until the beginning of July and so I'm just now getting to talk about some of the more popular drugstore items as of late. This post will be on probably one of the most popular drugstore items from this Summer which are the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. I have purchased six of them but ended up returning one because it was too dark. There has been a lot of talk about these being similiar to Tarte Lip Surgence and/or Clinique Chubby Sticks. In my mind they are all three different products. I'll probably doing another post comparing the three but for now lets just say that they aren't really alike in terms of staying power and pigmentation and of course price.

Left to Right: Cherish, Charm, Darling, Smitten, Honey

Nuance Salma Hayek Cucumber & Rosewater Dual Phase Makeup Remover Review

I wanted to do a review of this product since I know a lot of people are always looking for good drugstore eye-makeup removers and thought I would let you know my thoughts on this product. I picked this up at CVS on a whim and this is actually my second time buying it. I paid around $8.49 for a 4.3 oz bottle in NYC but I'm sure you can get it cheaper outside of NYC. I believe that this is only sold at CVS.

Beauty Gadget Review: Every Drop Beauty Spatula

I'm the kind of girl who likes to get every last drop out of my beauty products, especially if I paid a lot of money for them. While I have been known to cut some of my containers in half to get the product out I don't like using my finger to transfer the product into a new container. That's where the Every Drop beauty spatula comes in. It's like a spatula for beauty and not food. How fun!

Review Elizabeth Arden Pure Finish Highlighter Rose Illumination

It's finally here, the Elizabeth Arden Pure Finish Highlighter in Rose Illumination. I first heard about this through Michelle1218 on YouTube. She always has the best product recommendations so I had to try this out. I regret not buying the Laura Mercier Illuminator so just felt that I couldn't pass this up. Well it ended up being sold out at Macys Herald Square and when I checked online it wasn't available. Then I got lucky and it came back in stock so I placed an order with the 25% discount code through ShannnyBannny (another YouTuber) and also used Ebates to get a little more off. If you don't know about Ebates and would like a post on it just let me know.

July Favorites

This is a going to be a quick post letting you all some of the things that I have been loving for July. I hope that you all enjoy it. Also please check out my new facebook page at www.facebook.com/nycmakeuplover1. Now onto the favorites....

July Favorites

Illamasqua Naked Rose Blush Review

After watching people on YouTube and reading some blogs I had to add Naked Rose to my Sephora Wishlist. I would go into Sephora from time to time and none of the stores that I would go into would have this blush. Then today, Friday the 13th I somehow got lucky. I was near the 86th and Lexington store and decided to go in and look around. Can't not go into a Sephora when one is nearby. To my luck the first thing I saw when I walked in was Illamasqua, and their was the Naked Strangers Collection on display. I saw Naked Rose, swatched it and knew I had to have it. Up until purchasing this blush I only owned one other Illamasqua blush in Katie. Katie is one of my all time favorite blushes so I knew I had to have more of them eventually. I had just been waiting for the right color. This is the right color! I do think that my iPhone is making the blush appear darker than it is and not as pink as it really is but hopefully you can get the idea.