Love It Or Leave It: Beautyblender

This one is definitely a love it! In the past, I could never get myself to purchase the beautyblender because here in Canada it retails for approximately $30. I'd constantly pick it up on my trips to Sephora and by the time I checked out I'd put it back because common who want to pay $30 for a sponge?! I had read reviews on "knock offs" of the beautyblender and have heard they don't live up to the beautyblender itself. I haven't ever used any other brand so I can't say that is true or false.

Soooooo...finally I gave in when my friend went on a trip to the US. They retail for only $21 and best part?! No tax! Much better! I have to say if I ever had the chance to try the beautyblender then I would 100% pay the $30 plus tax and purchase it in Canada any day.

Physically...
It's a small sponge shaped like a very pointy egg. To use the beautyblender you have to soak it in water and squeeze the excess like a regular kitchen sponge. It will double in size! This is great because it makes it even fast to apply your foundation because it covers more surface area than a brush. It should not be dripping of water at this point but it should feel damp to the touch. I just squeeze a little bit of my foundation on the back of my hand and use the beautyblender to apply it on to my face. I've used the beautyblender with a tinted moisturizer and a full coverage foundation and they both looked phenomenal on my skin.

Foundation Brush vs. Beautyblender
With a brush you can apply too much foundation and look cakey. I had this issue which is the main reason why I would rarely wear liquid foundation. It was a little too much for me to just go to work or to wear everyday but powder foundation didn't really do much for me but I settled for it. With the beautyblender I am able to get an even coat of the foundation on my face. I've noticed it lasts a lot longer without my darker spots on my face peaking through a few hours into my day. My foundation feels light on my face even when I'm wearing my heavier, full coverage foundation like my MAC Studio Fix. The beautyblender is great on days where I'm in a rush because two layers of my foundation under my eyes can double up as a concealer.

I recommend the beautyblender to anyone who was skeptical like me. It is worth it and no, it's not just a sponge. Ironically enough, on the packaging it says "Modernize the Way you Make Up". It's very fitting for the product because it has changed the way I see foundation and now I can have natural looking flawless skin.

I hope you guys give this one a try. If you use the beautyblender let me know if you think it's worth the investment!

IPSY July 2013 Glam Bag: Beach Beauty

I was as excited as ever receiving this glam bag because it was my first one. This post will be my first impressions of the products.

I opened up my bright pink packaging and found the following inside:

The bag itself is very cute. It fits well with the beach theme. I think it would make a great makeup bag that would be easy to wipe clean.

Inside the bag were the following:

Coola Mineral Sunscreen Tinted Moisturizer
Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Crayon
BH Cosmetics California Collection Eyeshadows
Benefit Benetint
Big Sexy Hair Humidity Resistant Spray

I received the Coola Mineral Sunscreen Tinted Moisturizer with rose essence and spf 20. It is an organic sun care line. I used this for about two days and it's a light weight tinted moisturizer. I have a few dark spots on my face and it covers those up well and evens out my skin tone. I don't see my face getting too oily during the day but I do top it off with my MAC Studio Fix powder. I don't like wearing liquid foundation every day I think it's a little bit too much so I think I will invest in the full size version of this product.

My Pop Beauty Crayon unfortunately was squished and the top chunk of it came off. I just threw it away because there was no way I would have been able to salvage it. This was a bit disappointing because it is a really great colour. I absolutely adore rose lip colours. I was able to save half of it so I'm still satisfied. I have done a swatch of it on my hand which you can find at the end of this post. The colour of the tube and of the crayon itself is deceiving because it is much more pink on the skin. I haven't gotten a chance to try this one out yet because I've been so obsessed with the Benefit benetint.

The next product was the BH Cosmetics California Eyeshadow Collection. This was a big miss on my end when I swatched the shadows. Malibu is a very over powering gold colour but it's not a flattering gold. Malibu is more of a fake yellow gold. I might try and put this one to use with a gold and black smokey eye and see how it goes. San Francisco is an average shimmery brown. It would be okay to use for layering when I create smokey eyes so I may be able to get some use out of that. The one colour I was the most excited about was Hollywood because I love wearing purple liners and eyeshadows because they compliment my dark brown eyes so well. However, it turned out to be extremely unpigmented. It barely shows up when i swatched it using my finger. It still didn't show up as well as I would have liked it to when I used a brush. I only swatched it on my hand about half an hour ago and it's already fading away on my hand.

This is probably the most exciting part of this months glam bag. This was the first teaser I received in an email and it got me really excited. I do enjoy these lip and cheek tints by Benefit. I own the other two colours and they're perfect for blush that lasts a long time and make okay lip tints. I say okay because they kind of dry out my lips. A difference I noticed was the pink and the coral one I have is opaque liquid product and this one is more clear. This was the only one I hadn't tried so I was excited to give it a go because like I mentioned above I really enjoy rose coloured lip products. I used this for about two days and it doesn't dry out my lips at all. Now I wish I had bought the full size a long time ago. I haven't tried it as a cheek tint yet but I'm sure it's just as great at the other ones.

This was the last product in my glam bag. It's the Big Sexy Hair Weather Proof Humidity Resistant Spray. My hair often gets a little frizzy if I straighten it and it's humid outside. I used this for two days as well but I wasn't able to get a feel for the product yet. I will try it on my dried hair without straightening or curling it and give you guys an update!

Here are the swatches of some of the products above: