Best of BECCA Kit - FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Okay, so this post should have been up on Friday when I first got this kit but I was slacking. This kit is, sadly, no longer available on Ulta's website, but I'm still going to post this first impressions because all of the products in this kit are permanent products, first off, and secondly, this kit might still be available in stores and if you see it, I highly suggest that you snatch it up, if blush and highlight products are your jam. BECCA is a brand that I've wanted to try since we first got it, but I just couldn't convince myself to take the plunge, since a lot of their best selling products are rather expensive.

This set is a great value; for $34.50, you get to try four best selling products from the BECCA line, all of which are well-coordinated and work well together. You also get two full size products, both of which add up to a $52 value. The two highlighting products are minis but they're so frosty and potent that I can't imagine blowing through them too fast. Combined, it's about another $16 value. For $68 you can try out four products, two of which are full size! Also, there is a free GWP right now; a deluxe sample Ever-Matte Primer with any $30 Becca purchase (offer valid 3/15/15-4/4/15 or while supplies last), which is a ten dollar value!

FTC Disclaimer: All of the products mentioned in this post were purchased by me, with my own money. I am not affiliated with BECCA and all opinions are my own, as always! I am not being sponsored nor compensated for this post.

Contouring & Highlighting - Favorite Blushes

Okay, so here is the last post in my little mini series thing on contouring and highlighting. I figured I mentioned my favorite bronzers and highlighters, so why not go the whole nine yards or whatnot and talk about ALL THE CHEEK PRODUCTS. So here it is, my favorite blushes. They run all over the place in terms of price. Some of them are harder to get a hold of, sadly, and others might be location-based only, but this isn't necessarily meant as a review, just as a "BAM! here it is" type of list.

There are a lot of blushes that are huge favorites of a lot of people that just don't work on my skin coloring and tone. (MAC's "Well Dressed", I'm lookin' at you.) So, this isn't meant as a "THESE COLORS ARE GREAT YOU WILL LOVE THEM I DEMAND YOU BUY THEM NAOOOOOOO," and more of an excuse for an easy blog post, haha. If I have reviews or whatnot on any of these, I will link below, as usual. I changed the format a bit, because I didn't want to say a lot about these blushes, to be honest. So no list, but I will still put names and prices and the like! Unfortunately, I'm lazy and didn't organize these by color theme so it is one GIGANTIC cluster, sorry!

This is picture-heavy and will still be pretty long, so let's get this show on the road!

Contouring & Highlighting 101 - Favorite Bronzers

Okay, this is the bronzer suggestion part of my contouring/highlighting blog. Originally I planned on making one big post, but it would be so fucking long that it wasn't even remotely funny, nor did it seem like a good idea even w/ page anchors because who wants to read all of that?? So instead of being one massive blog, this is going to be a four-parter - the actual contour/highlight explanation, and then three separate blogs about my favorite blushes, bronzers, and highlighters. I don't use bronzer all over my face, so none of these are overly shimmery and the shimmery bronzers I DO own are definitely not my favorites.

So this is going to be my bronzer suggestions for contouring. These are the ones I've tried. There are others that I've heard about (Tarte's "Park Avenue Princess", Too Faced's "Chocolate Soleil", etc) but I've never used them so I can't really recommend them, ya know? This list covers all price ranges and should hopefully work for a variety of skintones!

This is picture-heavy and will still be pretty long, so let's get this show on the road!

Maybelline Fit Me™ Review - PT. 2 (Blushes & Bronzer)

So, as usual, I am tardy to the party once again. This is going to be part two out of two reviews on the Maybelline Fit Me™ range. (For the review on the foundation, concealer, and pressed powder, click here!) I've decided to divide up the review because, well, there's a lot of stuff to talk about! In this particular post, I'm going to talk about the blushes and bronzer that come in this line. For reference, you could honestly use this review as a reference to any pressed powder blush or bronzer that Maybelline releases in this type of compact because they're pretty much the same thing. There are some cream blushes and some limited edition baked products that are different, but for the most part, all of the blushes that come in this type of packaging are very similar - the only difference is, obviously, the colors.

These products can be found anywhere the full Maybelline range is sold, like Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, etc. It has its own display in the Maybelline line and can still be found in some random end-caps. It will be cheaper at places like Meijer and Walmart in general but when drugstores or Ulta have BOGO sales, I recommend checking those out. These products are typically about $5.50 a pop. So they're not super expensive but they aren't the cheapest out there, as far as drugstore goes.

Stila Custom Color Blush in Coral Review

I feel like every time I do a review, I start it out w/ "So, this is going to be a review on *blank*," which is hysterical and redundant, since I always title the posts w/ "*Blank* Review". I need to come up w/ a new opening line or something. But until then...So, this is going to be a review on the Stila Custom Color Blush in "Coral". I guess the "Pink" color came out a while ago as an LE product? (Correct me if I'm wrong here!) I am not 100% sure if these are going to be permanent line, but I hope so, because this blush is pretty fantastical. Stila was always one of those brands (much like Smashbox and Lorac, TBH) that, while they had quality products, was always something I browsed and then passed over. They have very unembellished packaging and their product tends towards a more natural look. I've never owned a product from Stila that I didn't like but it just seemed too expensive to pay for basic products.

That being said, they've gotten a lot more hip lately. Plus, the quality of their products has always been really good. I will say; spending $20 on a blush was not the easiest thing to do. It just seemed like a gimmick...custom color skin matching technology always seems to feel gimmicky to me but I had tried out the sample out of skeptical curiosity and fell in love w/ the color. I tend towards peachy blushes anyway; they seem to flatter my skintone more. But what was crazy about this blush is that when I had my friend swatch it on her hand, it looked different. Now, this could be lighting or the amount of product we had each used or just sheer insanity and blindness, but that alone sold me on it.