Eye Heart Tarte Eye Essentials - FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The 21 Days of Beauty is going on at Ulta right now, and they always bring out some great kits from a lot of the prestige brands. I don't know if I plan on picking any more up, but I did get my hands on the two I had really wanted (this Tarte one being one of them!) and I wanted to get this post up ASAP! This is not an in-depth review. If you're interested in a full review on these products (the liners and mascara; this quad is only available in this kit I believe) then let me know! I've tried Tarte shadows and the Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara before, but the liners are new to me.

This kit retails for $34 through Ulta. It should also be available in stores! The total value is $71, so you save $37! Plus, through April 4th (WHILE SUPPLIES LAST AT YOUR ULTA LOCATION), there is a GWP going on with Tarte; spend $30 and receive a free deluxe Brazilliance Face Towelette and deluxe Lipsurgence Lip Gloss in Flush, which is a $20 value, which means you can potentially get $91 worth of Tarte products for $34+ tax!

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

Yves Saint Laurent Volume Effet Faux Cils Mascara - REVIEW (Influenster)

It has been a long time since I've gotten an Influenster box and BOY AM I EXCITED that it was this particular box. I've tried the YSL Faux Cils mascara before and it was a beautiful mascara...or it would have been if it didn't flake like crazy on me. That being said, this is a reformulated version and I was excited to be able to try it! Mascara is a tricky thing, and it's not my favorite product to review because it's so personal; even if you have the EXACT SAME LASH TYPE as me, you can still end up hating a mascara I absolutely love. It's actually ten times more difficult when you consider that this is a $32 mascara...and that's hella expensive. Add in the fact that I got it for testing purposes and this post is pretty challenging.

I've done many posts involving Influenster before, and I will link to them below. Basically, when you sign up, you can pick badges of interest and do activities within those badges. When Influenster has a program relating to your interests, you can receive products free of charge to test and review. It's social media based, so you will have the best luck if you have the full spectrum of social media (FB, Twitter, IG, Vine, YT, a blog, etc.) I've done a mini intro post here.

• Oral Aesthetics and College VB
• Holiday 2012 VB
• Uni VB

FTC DISCLAIMER: I received this product through the Influenster program for testing and reviewing purposes. I am not affiliated with Yves Saint Laurent and this post is unsponsored, nor am I receiving compensation, beyond the product to try. All opinions are, as always, honest and my own.

Also, before you click the jump, this post does contain wonky close-ups of my eye, so if those kinds of things make you uncomfortable, don't proceed!

Where the F#@& have I been? And a Maybelline Mascara Review

So, I know, I know. My last blog post was like...frickin' three months ago. And I am so, so sorry for that! I hope to never get this far behind again. Unfortunately I don't have regular access to a computer, so I will probably be stuck with a single blog a week, but that's better than nothing, right? Hopefully? Gosh, everyone, I feel like a huge douche. :(

First off, I DO have a tablet but I can't edit my blog photos on said tablet, so that doesn't do me much good. I have an Influenster review that I desperately need to get up ASAP but after that, nothing much. So where have I been? Well, school partly. This past semester kicked my ass.

Also, I started a new, old job. I work at Ulta Beauty and I recently transferred stores. Unfortunately, I'm still living in my old city so I have a nice hour long drive. There's a lot of stuff I could say about that, but...yeah.

Finally, hockey. Omfg, hockey. It has consumed my SOUL, guys. Now, as I've mentioned before, I was essentially born and raised in the shitty state of Michigan. So obviously, I am a huge Red Wings fan. And my team made it much further in the Stanley Cup playoffs than expected, so I've pretty much been glued to a TV. Now, as people might know, we lost in OT in game 7 to the Chicago Blackhawks, but the playoffs aren't over yet! I've been kind of obsessive with hockey this year...not quite sure why, haha.

Actually, it's probably because we have some really hot players. And, you know, I love hockey as a sport. It's the only one I can stand watching, actually. My parents are both native Detroiters, so it might have been inevitable that I would love the Red Wings! Seriously though...Michigan does hockey right.


Brendan Smith, #2 defenseman. What can I say? I want the D.
Anyway, I've been paying an insane amount of attention to the Pittsburgh - Boston series. I'm not a fan of either team...actually, I dislike both. Butttttt...I'm certainly no Blackhawks fan. Personally, I want the LA Kings to win the Cup again.

Okay, enough of that.

Urban Decay Supercurl Curling Mascara Review

This is going to be a review on the Supercurl Curling Mascara from Urban Decay. This only comes in black. I've tried several mascaras from Urban Decay before (Big Fattie, Skyscraper, and the lash growth one) and they never really did much for me. Skyscraper was so dry that it clumped w/in seconds on me. It's similar w/ MAC; MAC mascaras usually just...don't get my rocks off, ya know? I do like Opulash, but that's it. A travel size of this mascara came in the Book of Shadows Vol. 4 and, surprisingly, I like this mascara so much that I will probably repurchase when I run out. This mascara is normally $20. Which is pretty expensive for a mascara, TBH. I would normally argue that quality should matter more so than price point, at least for me, but w/ mascara I find that hard to justify. It's hard to throw $20 on a product you'll have to junk in three months, but I REALLY like this stuff!

I am of the general opinion that high-end mascaras are a bloody rip-off. I like Rimmel mascaras - in fact, my current favorite is this Rimmel mascara w/ WOW in the name (I can't remember the rest) which I found in Meijer for under $4. I like L'Oreal Carbon Black Voluminous, I like Covergirl's LashBlast Fusion, and One By One from Maybelline. Don't get me wrong - I've used some very good high end mascaras...but in the end, there are drugstore ones that work just as well - barring CARGO's TexasLash or Too Faced Lash Injection: those are fantastic and I haven't found anything that I like more. I mean, come on! Lash Injection smells like CITRUS. But now that I've gotten WAY off track, for the actual review, continue after the jump.

Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Origin Mascara Review

I am a mascara junkie. It's the one beauty product I always have on hand and, ironically, is usually the one beauty product I frequently forget to apply. That being said, it's also one of the few products that I'll wear alone. I hardly ever wear foundations and powders and sometimes I'll go w/o eyeshadow but I'll still wear mascara! I have the typical stick straight, sparse, full-o'-sadness Asian lashes. They are similar to my hair in the sense of they hate being curled. For me, a good mascara is one that holds a curl and in my lashes, that is rare.

But since my lashes are so hard to please, when I find a mascara that both lengthens and thickens, I keep it around, even if it's not so great at holding a curl because even wax-based waterproof mascaras do not prevent my lashes from pointing straight down in ten minutes.

This is going to be a review on the Physicians Formula Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Origin Mascara. This product has been out for a while and I've always been interested in trying it, but I could never convince myself to do so. This product is around $9 at drugstores.