Minimalistic

I absolutely adore highlighting creams. They are magical little weapons :)

My current favorite is the Smashbox highlighting quad.

I've gone through a few of these within the past few years and have been consistently loyal to this brand. I really like the colors in the quad, especially the pearly white color for the brow bone. There's some gold specs in there as well, added for extra shimmer. At first, I was really iffy because I am not a fan of ultra high shimmer, but I've grown to like how it lightens up your frame and brings you to life at your dullest moments. This stays on ALL day unlike my blushes where they fade fast into the afternoon. Mostly, I use it by itself. Sometimes I'd layer it on top of the blush to get a more prominent color, but most of the time, applied by itself works like magic.

Any favorite brands, anyone? :)

Milani HD Advanced Concealer - I really like this concealer. I bought it a few months back but haven't really been using it much, but I recently started using it a lot and I haven't stopped since. I normally use my MAC ones, but I find this formula to be ultra hydrating (more so than MAC - I use studio finish concealer), and light. The formula has a sheer texture and doesn't cover heavily by any means, but it's a nice lightweight concealer for the nose area or the mouth area where you don't need to cover as much. I got the shade in 01 Light and gives a nice, soft finish at the end. The concealed area looks brighter and much more supple. I highly recommend it!

=P

 Kat Von D Beethoven palette - Love this to pieces! :) Highly pigmented, wearable smokey shades. Has a mixture of matte and shimmery shades.

Products I used!

Milani HD Advanced Concealer

Smashbox Highlighter Quad

Kat Von D shadow in Tequilla

Translucent powder

Loreal Telescopic Mascara

 Pretty minimal, yes?

Hope you are all having a fun week!

Sephora, CVS

Hi everyone! =)

I finally got around to posting this. I went to Sephora a few days ago because I got the 15% coupon in my email. At first, I didn't really want to go because there isn't really anything from there that I needed. But, i went anyway to see if anything was worth purchasing =P

I ended up buying this!

It's the Sephora Color Play palette. Check out the reviews here. I was never a big fan of Sephora branded eyeshadows, especially the Blockbuster ones because the quality of the shadows are not that pigmented. But, this palette has a new formula! The shadows are much more pigmented and not as hard. The glosses are balmy and goes on very smooth without having to "warm it up". I mean, it's like a lip gloss! They are actually wearable. But that's not even the best thing. What I found unique about this palette is that you can pop each color column out and place it in a to-go pan so you don't have to bring the entire collection when traveling. Isn't that just so awesome?! All the colors are coordinated together (neutrals, brights, darks) so that makes it extremely convenient to pick the palette you want to use without much effort. I'm sure no one wants to lug around a huge palette of shadows, glosses and blushes when they know they're not going to be using them all right? But this one is very cool. I'm not completely sold on ALL the colors, but most of them are pretty dense and have a lot color power to them. The brighter colors are less pigmented but you can layer other colors to make it work. Overall, I really enjoy playing around with the different colors =D I totally recommend this to anyone who wants to experiment with colors you normally wouldn't wear because it comes with everything!

I also went to CVS and picked up a few goodies!

This is the Milani HD concealer in Light. Doesn't this look somewhat familiar?

Yeah, that's what I thought too! It looks VERY similar to YSL's

TOUCHE ÉCLAT concealer. The YSL one is around $40! Yikes. I'd rather invest in a Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer for the same price. It's funny that Milani decided to make a dupe out of the YSL one. I would've expected Loreal or Maybelline. 

The Milani concealer is actually pretty nice. For around $7.99 ($6.99 on Cherry Culture) at CVS, it covers pretty well. It's quite sheer but my eyes instantly looked brighter when I applied it on. It's also a bit more watery than compared to MAC and Lancome concealers that I normally use.The only thing about this is that you have to click it a million times in the beginning to get the product to come out. I liked it a lot but I'm not sure that I'd repurchase this simply because I'm not too fond of clicking concealers =P I'm really used to them being in a tube or jar form. But this is cool. I like the gold plated pen and the fact that the most different from all the concealers I own. Have you guys tried this? What are your go-to concealers? I heard Bobbi Brown concealers are awesome! But I have yet to buy any.

 24.7 Minerals Blush in Rose.

Has anyone ever tried this? I realize that I don't have a lot of blushes and went to look for some. I found this on clearance for 50% off, so it was around $7.99 (original price is $15.99 or something). I thought it was worth a try because I remember liking the Bare Minerals blush very much. This is a very warm rose shade and I found that it's such a pretty color. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the color comes off very easily! Unlike the pressed blushers, mineral ones are usually made from starch so once it sucks up all your skin's oils, the color completely disappears. I prepared a swatch of the color on my skin but by the time I got around to taking pictures, the color completely faded from my wrist :( Sucks. It's a very nice color... it's just too bad that the lasting power lacks. I think I'm going to do a NYX haul soon =P Well, later since I recently made a lot of purchases. Bad me o_o

My childhood friend Flora recently bought the Stila tinted moisturizer and loved it. It made her skin look really luminous and bright. I was considering getting a tinted moisturizer as well but seeing how I bought Revlon and Clinique foundations, I might just have to wait on it =p Do you guys use tinted moisturizers? When I lived in LA, Stila used to have warehouse sales of all their products for 80% off retail. People would wait in line for hrs just to get the stuff. I really miss all of LA's warehouse sales! BCBG, Paul Frank, Stila, Charles David, and much MUCH more.

I used the Sephora palette on my eyes. The non-existent blush and Maybelline falsies mascara. I also used the VS gloss stick in melon. Love the smell of the lipstick! It also gives a nice sheen to my lips. Very hydrating too! On my face, I used Smashbox hybrid primer and the HD foundation in light. I think if you use a primer on your lids, the Sephora shadows will come out even more dramatically! 

Anyway, I hope everyone is having an awesome spectacular weekend! The weekend flies by so fast! Enjoy it!