I'm Baaacckk!! Spring Favorites

Hello lovelies!

Wow ... it has been a while since my last blog post!  A lot has been going on in my life these past  few months but I figured the best way to get back to being myself is to get back to beauty blogging! 

Since I am two months behind on monthly favorites I figured I would share some Spring Favorites and take you through the things I've been loving this season! 

This is a long one ... so grab a coffee, grab a snack and let's get started!!

1. Sephora Formula X Nail Polish

I have heard a lot of raves about this polish and being the nail junkie that I am I knew I had to try it.  This stuff is absolutely amazing and the hype is definitely worth it!  I am tempted to just sell all of my current polishes and buy every color of these (there are SO many to choose from)!  

Let me tell you something about me ... I have been searching for the perfect pink/nude/white/neutral nail color basically my entire life (first world problems, I know).  I have every Essie and OPI in that sheer pink shade just searching for the right one but am never totally satisfied.  I always find them too pink, too nude, too sheer, too opaque, etc.  With most, I need three to four coats to get the shade I want and then am stuck with nails that never dry and end up being forever tacky.  Ohhhh the hardships in life!  Well, enter Sephora Formula X in the shade "Remarkable".  In just two beautiful , easy and fast-drying coats I found myself praising the angels from above for sending this heavenly polish to find me (okay, okay, the dramatics can stop now).  Basically, I'll just end this now with .... try this polish people!! It's amazing!  I promise you won't be disappointed.         

2. Too Faced - Chocolate Bar Eye-shadow Palette

Photo Credit: Sephora.com

This is a recent favorite of mine as I only picked it up about two weeks ago but found I have been reaching for nothing else.  I love how versatile this palette is with mainly chocolate inspired browns with some pops of color mixed throughout.  I'll usually use one of the lighter brown matte shades in my crease and accent the outer corner with one of the darker shimmers. The bonus is this really does smell like chocolate since they use cocoa powder in their formula!  These colors blend SO beautifully and I have gotten many compliments on my eye looks with it that are so easy to create.  The palette also has two highlight shades (matte and pearl) that are in a larger pan.  I love this because those shades always get used the most as they typically can get put all over the lid or even used in other areas of the face for highlighting.  Check out my picture below with swatches of all the shades!  

3. Orla Kiely Garden Weekender Travel Bag (from Target)

Photo Credit: Target.com

 

This is a non-beauty favorite but is used to hold beauty products!  In the last two months I have traveled to both Florida and California and this bag was great for both trips.  As you can probably tell from this blog I like to use a lot of products so it can sometimes be hard for me to pack light - but this bag holds so much in a nice compact way.  It also has a brush holder in the middle which was great in helping me pack a smaller makeup bag.  I love the pattern and the fabric has a very nice and durable feel to it.  Since purchasing this bag I have also picked up two more in different styles that I'm loving just as much!  I recommend anything from the Orla Kiely line for Target and can definitely see myself getting more! 

Photo Credit: Target.com

4. Too Faced Perfect Lips Liner in Perfect Nude 

I find my natural lip lines kind of fade at the edges so this lip liner is great to just fill them in and create a nice natural looking line.  I have some other lip liner favorites (Stripdown from Mac is one) but I have found this one looks the most natural - it really is the "perfect nude"! Whether you have the same lip fading issue as me or you just need a new lip liner I think anyone would be very pleased with this one!  This is great with a nude lip but I use it with all of my everyday colors and it works as a perfect base.  The construction of this pencil is great too with a twist-up tip to always stay sharp and a comfort grip to help with precise lines.     

5. Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick in Fig

This is for sure a new holy grail lip color for me - the perfect neutral, rosy "your lips but better" pink.  Not only is this shade beautiful but the formula is in my top two favorites (MAC is my #1!).  One of my favorite parts of this brand is they use all food grade ingredients that are actually healthy enough to eat!  Considering we end up eating so much of our lip products this is pretty cool.  I find I'm always skeptical about "all natural" products actually working well but this is amazing ... I might even dare say they are better than MAC!  The formula is SO rich and creamy yet long wearing.  I find a lot of lipsticks can be very drying but haven't found that with Bite.  I had a chance to look at all of their shades the last time I was in Sephora and they are all beautiful!  If you are looking for the perfect nude I would check out "Retsina", and "Quinta" for another really pretty and neutral pink.  I wanted to purchase these shades but unfortunately the Sephora I was at was out of stock on many of them - a testament to this brand's popularity!

        

6. Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick

This is another great lipstick I recently tried and is wonderful for fuss-free everyday looks. The colors are very pigmented and bright but aren't too opaque so they aren't difficult to apply.  The term "butter" is so bang on as it literally feels like butter on your lips!  They have a minty feel/taste to them so they are almost a bit refreshing for summer.  I picked up the shades "Pink Peony" and "Watermelon" and my cousin purchased "Poppy" while we were out shopping.  These are all gorgeous bright summer shades and I have some swatches below.  The next one on my list is "Angelic Nude" - so pretty!  Oh ... and can we take a minute to appreciate the adorable packaging!  Too cute!! 

7. Caudalie Beauty Elixir

This is one of those products that is hard to explain.  This is a very expensive and fancy facial spray that I fell into the hype of.  I tried not to ... I tried to resist it and tell myself it was a ridiculous product that I did not need.  (Ok, maybe I didn't try that hard!)  I did pretty good and bought the travel size bottle (still, $20 for a small bottle is kind of crazy!) and, well, I fell in love.  I can't say what this has done for my skin, if anything ... but what I can say, is that when you need to freshen up your makeup halfway through the day, or if you need that extra pick-me-up for an early morning, or just that spa-like feeling after a great face mask ... this stuff is for you!  This literally smells like a spa.  Like ... if there were a perfume invented called "Spa" ... this would be it.  Last night for example, I was heading out to Target (as per usual) and felt like my face just needed to be refreshed.  I had worked a full day and was at the point where I just wanted to wash my face, but wanted to wait until I got home.  I simply sprayed some of this super sheer mist on and just felt so much better!  My makeup just looked fresh again and no longer felt so heavy.  Again, this could be all in my head but either way, I love it and it makes me feel good which is all that matters to me. :) 

8. The Balm Blush in Frat Boy

I've had this blush for a while and meant to mention it in previous favorites but then kind of forgot about it.  With the warmer months finally arriving I have been pulling this out more and find this shade really pretty for summer!  It looks great with natural skin tones or with a tan.   This finely-milled formula applies really smooth and creates a beautiful natural look.  This shade in particular is a peachy-coral matte but has a slight hint of shimmer to help give you a gorgeous glow.  The Balm  also has adorable packaging so that doesn't hurt either ;)

9.  Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

I picked this up a couple weeks ago because I needed a new body scrub and once you get one sniff of this you literally cannot leave it in the store.  I was happy to find out it actually works too so it's more than just a pretty face ... or ... pretty smelling scrub? You get the idea. :) 

The description of this from Soap and Glory is pretty great so I'll skip my attempt to describe it and just show you theirs:

Soap & Glory’s cult-classic Sugar Crush™ Body fuses freshly-squeezed sweet lime, 

sparkling lemons, sweet vanilla musk and almond oil, with sea salt, smashed brown sugar,

 glycerin and macadamia oils to leave your skin feeling smooth, supple, and sexy.

It smells amazing ... it works ... what more can I say!  If you are in the market for a new body scrub (especially with summer coming!), check this one out!  

10. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette

I had to save the best for last here.  
 
First, a little back story for you: 

I have been wanting to try the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders forever (ok, since Christmas ... so 6 months - but that feels like forever to a makeup lover!) but didn't know if I wanted the price tag that comes along with them (one powder retails for $52!).  I also could never commit on a shade so didn't want to spend that much if I wasn't sure on what shade I wanted.  Basically the ambient lighting powders are super soft and finely milled setting powders and highlighters that mimic certain shades of light on your face.  To give you an idea, the shade names are; dim light, incandescent light, radiant light, diffused light, ethereal light, mood light and luminous light.  Check out Sephora's website for a great description of each.  

Well, when the limited edition palette that came out at Christmas had an online re-release due to popular demand (you get three shades in a palette for $67!) ... and it was my birthday month ... well it was basically like the heavens aligned just for me!  It was like, "Ohhh hey Alison, no big deal but we just re-released this palette you have been kicking yourself for not getting at Christmas just for your birthday ... you're welcome!"  Eeeek! Happy birthday to me!! 

Anyways ... back to the actual product.  The palette comes with Dim Light (a soft beige powder great for setting foundation and blurring imperfections), Incandescent Light (a beautiful highlighting pearl powder that is not at all shimmery but gives the most beautiful glow) and Radiant Light (a sun kissed golden beige to add a nice warmth to the complexion).  

I have to be 100% honest and say the first time I used these I didn't notice much of a difference.  I mean I noticed a subtle glow but nothing life changing.  I did notice they felt absolutely amazing on the skin and the packaging itself felt very luxurious. I knew the result was going to be natural and subtle and I didn't think it was something anyone else would take notice in.  I was starting to doubt the hype ... until one day after finishing my makeup and giving the powder another try,  ... my husband noticed it!!  Now, don't get me wrong he is very sweet and always compliments my makeup since he knows it's my passion.  He definitely always notices bigger changes like extra eyeliner, a different eye technique, a bolder lip ... but something subtle like this I wasn't expecting him to notice.  

He didn't know anything about this powder and had no idea what the purpose of it was but when I came downstairs told me my face looked like "beauty face".  If you have used a newer Samsung phone, you know what beauty face is.  Beauty face is a photo filter that basically softens your face, evens skin tone and blurs imperfections.  Hmmm, doesn't that sound exactly like my description of what this powder is meant to do!!???  Little did my sweet husband realize that he just convinced me that I now NEED every single ambient lighting powder!!  Sorry hubby ... your fault! ;) 

So after that extremely long winded explanation of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders, I will say that I am in love with these and they are totally worth the hype! 

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That's it for my Spring favorites!!  Hope you enjoyed this extremely long post and are inspired to try out some new products too!  I promise I have a lot more fun posts planned and coming your way soon!