Smoky cat eye with ELF

Hey guys! I hope you all are having a great weekend! It's unbelievably hot here.

I hadn't used my ELF Drama in a while, and today I wanted to use it in a way I don't usually use it. Normally, I'll take the silvery color and use that as a wash all over the lid, use the gunmetal color in the crease, the black in the outer corner, and  the matte white as a highlight.

Well, here's the look I came up with. Mind you, I did take these pictures six hours after putting it on, and after being in the sweltering 90 degree heat. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Here's how to get the look:

• Do the usual foundation routine: primer (I used Monistat chafing gel), concealer (NYX Concealer in a Jar in Fair), foundation (Revlon Colorstay in Nude), powder (Palladio Rice Powder in Natural). Eventually I had to blot and set my face again using the ELF Mineral Booster in Sheer because it was so hot in my house that I kept sweating. 
• I primed my eyes with my Laura Mercier eyeshadow primer. While letting that dry, I filled in my brows with the NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder. 
• Then I took my Wetnwild Coloricon black eyeliner pencil and drew a thick line along my top lash line, with a wing out. I took the black color in the ELF quad in Drama with an angled brush and just set the eyeliner. 
• Then, with a smaller detail brush, I took the charcoal/gunmetal color in the quad and blended out the edge of the liner. 
• Then I blended the light silver color into the crease area.
• I went back and darkened the lash line first with the gunmetal color and then with the black, redrawing the winged line. 
• I took the matte white shade and blended it right under my brow bone and in the inner corner of my eye. This is a great pigmented matte white color, by the way.
• Finally, I took the black eyeliner and lined my waterline and the outer third of my bottom lash line. I set this and blended it with the black shade. I blended the gunmetal shade into that and spread it out to the middle third of my lower lash line. I put the light silver shade in-between the gunmetal shade and the matte white.
• I contoured my cheekbones with the NYC Bronzer in Sunny. Then I used my ELF Essentials blush in Blushing. 
• I actually did my mascara and lipgloss in the car. I used my Revlon Grow Luscious mascara and NYX Megashine lipgloss in Salsa. 

I hope you guys liked it! This is something a little different from what I usually do. I got a lot of compliments on it while I was out and about today, so I guess that's a good sign.

Also, while I was out and about I couldn't help but buy these:

Bath & Body Works is having one of their huge semi-annual sales. All of these lip glosses were $3 each and they're normally $8. I saved $15!!! I love these glosses, but I would say that they are definitely not worth $8... So that's why I stock up on them in June and December! 

Do you guys use these glosses? What do you think about them?

Well I hope you're having an amazing and relaxing weekend! If you're in the US, I hope you're staying out of that heat! Find me back here soon for some more posts ;)

Target mini haul + swatches!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great weekend and a great Father's Day!

Yesterday I went to Target to pick up a few things I had been needing or wanted to try out. I was disappointed, however, that they had run out of a couple things I wanted, but I did luck out.

So I grabbed some mascara, bronzer, some of my favorite eyeshadow, and liquid eyeliner that I'm running out of.

After hearing Marlena rave about this mascara, I picked it up probably 6 months ago and used a whole tube and it took me a few weeks to fall in love with it but I do really enjoy this mascara. Kim Kardashian's makeup artist (Mario whatever his last name is) likes this one as well! I've been back to using my Lashblast for a while, but I'm running out of this. I had a Loreal coupon and actually found one with another $1 off so I think I ended up getting this for $4? 

This is the ELF Contouring & Blush set. I've been wanting to try this out for probably a year now. I was hesitant because I read that some people with fairer skin (like me) thought the bronzer was a little too dark. It is rather dark, but we'll see how it works out on my skin. I haven't tried it out on my face yet. 

Also, I did read a lot of reviews on this and heard about how pretty the blush is. Well, I thought to myself back then that it couldn't be THAT pretty, but I will tell you guys that IT IS! Granted, I haven't put it on my face yet, but swatching it, I can tell you it is absolutely gorgeous.

I'll probably do a review on this soon once I get to use it enough.

As you can see, this is the NYC bronzer in the color Sunny. It is a matte bronzer, which I guess is hard to find in the drugstore. I've heard Emily Eddington of Beauty Broadcast rave about this bronzer as it is a drugstore matte bronzer so I wanted to give this a try.  I paid $2.89 for this, so it was a great bargain. 

It comes with a face sponge, which frankly I find bizarre as one usually puts bronzer on with a fluffy face brush rather than a face sponge? I will be throwing that out... 

Also I've found that it's hard to open and close sometimes. Packaging fail? 

I might be doing a review on this one as well...

And this is the Rimmel Bronzer in Sun Dance. As well as the NYC bronzer, I have read that this is one of the best drugstore bronzers out there. I'll give it a test run. It does appear as though you get a hefty amount of product (0.49 oz or 14 g as opposed to 0.33 oz/9.4 g of the NYC bronzer). 

And I paid $4.29 for this bronzer, so it actually ended up being the most expensive thing I bought.

I may being reviewing this one in the future. Who knows?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to stock up on her makeup favorites... I kinda hoard some things sometimes? Well, I like to stock up on my ELF favorites especially. Since I have a backup of my quads in Drama and Butternut, I wanted to get a backup of Day2Night. This quad makes me look like Kim Kardashian. Seriously. This quad is the best. (Review with swatches here). 

Also, I've been using liquid liner SO much lately. I guess because I get lazy and don't want to clean my eyeliner brush after using my cream liner so much? Well, anyway, my ELF liquid liner has been my favorite lately. I think I'm running out so why not buy some more? Haha.

I did want to get some NYC liquid liner to try (I haven't used it in probably 6 years), but they had run out :( 

What I also wanted to try was the ELF Clarifying Pressed Powder... OUT in my shade :(

And for some swatches...

L-R: ELF Contouring Blush, ELF Contouring Bronzer, NYC Bronzer in Sunny, Rimmel Bronzer in Sun Dance

So you can tell from the picture that the ELF bronzer is super dark and pigmented. I'm not sure how that will fare on my skin. If not, I still have that pretty blush. You can barely see the NYC bronzer... hmm... and I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the Rimmel bronzer is a little orangey and shimmery.

Again, I haven't actually used these products. I will be using these a bunch and maybe writing some reviews. After all, it is the time of the year to be using bronzers...

Have you guys used any of these products? Tell me about your experiences with them in the comment box below. 

I do think I am going to start a monthly favorites post, so be expecting one for June in a couple weeks ;)

Thank you guys for reading! Have a wonderful Monday!