Goodies from Bubbe!

Hey guys!

You know how whenever you go to your grandparents' house, they always want to give you stuff?

I was up north over my winter break visiting family and got a bunch of stuff! My bubbe (grandma) always buys a ton of expensive makeup and never ends up using it all. I mean, this woman will not buy makeup unless it is from the department store or Macy's. She spends a lot of money and then she'll decide she doesn't like something or doesn't know how to use it.

One day I had spent the night at her house and she was showing me all the makeup she uses. She always compliments me on my makeup, especially the way I do my eye makeup.

So then she pulls out a whole shoebox of Mac and Lancome makeup. She says to me in her charming little French accent, "I don't know how to use this. Jessie, you are the expert."

I guess this is like a "haul" post, except I didn't buy any of this.

Estée Lauder Matte Perfecting Primer: makes my skin feel really silky but I don't know if it prolongs wear

Estée Lauder Double Wear Light Stay-in-Place foundation: a decent foundation

Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Flawless Wear concealer: I really love this concealer! Great full coverage

Mac Eyeshadows: (L-R) Beautiful Iris, Brûlé, Haux, Mythology, Naked Lunch, Scene, Shale, Carefree (Pro Longwear eyeshadow)

Lancôme Color Design Eye Brightening All-in-One 5 Shadow & Liner Palette in Mauve Chérie

L'Oréal eyeshadow quad in Summer Dusk (these shadows are GREAT for my brown eyes!)

Brushes (L-R): Sephora Professionnel 45 mineral powder brush, Bobbi Brown blush brush, Sephora Professionnel 40 powder brush, Chanel 10 brush (angled blush brush that I've been using to contour)

Have you guys used any of these products? Love them? Hate them?

Super late SLEEK HAUL!

Hey guys!

So for my birthday, I had decided to get myself a few goodies from Sleek since they do have pretty reasonable international shipping and since I've seen these products (especially the palettes) used in endless blogs and Youtube videos. In total, I only spent about $50 which isn't horrible. That's including $10 international shipping, I'm pretty sure.

I decided my strategy with this palettes, instead of getting overwhelmed by all the gorgeous colors, would be to use one palette at a time, figuring out all the looks I could create with one before I moved on to the next one. 

Before I get to the palettes, I got the ever-so-famous blush in Rose Gold:

This blush is just so gorgeous. I know it is a dupe for Orgasm. Although I don't own Orgasm, I've seen swatches and it is pretty close. Not exact, but I don't need the real deal. 

I think this was only $6?

Oh So Special:

This was the first palette I decided to use, since I thought it would be my least favorite. I was poorly mistaken! So far, Oh So Special is my absolute favorite. I'm in love. 

You can find one look I've done here and another one here. I'm sure you'll be seeing even more looks coming with this palette.

Bad Girl:

As you can probably tell, these colors are more fit for a night out or going to parties, which is what I have primarily used it for. One night, I created a party look with the gorgeous deep greens, and another night I used the charcoal colors with the dark purple and black. 

If you like dark and pretty looks for partying or going out, this is the perfect palette! The colors are ridiculously pigmented!

Au Naturel:

This is the palette I decided I would use after the Oh So Special and I have created some gorgeous looks with this one, but I keep coming back to the Oh So Special. 

Regardless, this has some beautiful neutrals. 

Storm:

I have only used this palette once so far, so I don't have much to say besides that I love the colors and can't wait to use them once I exhaust the other ones in the other palettes.

The colors are pigmented, shimmery, blend so beautifully. 

I think Sleek is one thing that the Brits have over the Americans. For those of you willing to pay $10 for shipping, I think investing in a few of these palettes is an extremely smart thing to do. I don't ever want to look back to the days before I had these. I don't ever want to be without these.

Since there are endless reviews with swatches of these palettes out there, I'm not including swatches or a review. They're perfect, amazing, wonderful palettes. Get them. 10/10.

HOWEVER, if you do want me to post swatches, by all means, tell me!! And looks you would like for me to share? Let me know!

I hope you all are having an amazing and relaxing weekend! Vive le week-end! ;)

Quick Target haul

Hey guys!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I've been a little sick and lost my voice for a couple days, but it's slowly coming back!

I've needed to go to Target to get more moisturizer for a couple weeks now and finally got the time to go.

And, of course, you guys know how it is - you go to Target only needing to get a few specific things but leave with more than you needed. It's always the case. Fortunately, though, it made for a good little haul post.

ELF Makeup Mist & Set Spray - I've read plenty of reviews on this and I've been wanting to try a setting spray for a while now. It doesn't smell that amazing, but I'm hoping it works wonders on keeping my makeup perfect all day.

Ponds Dry Skin Cream - I actually have oily skin, but I use this moisturizer at night. I tried my mom's before I moved and when I woke up, my skin was so soft and bright and wonderful looking. I am in love with this stuff. 

Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-Cream - This is the moisturizer that I use during the day. It smells great, feels great, and is perfect for oily skin. It reminds me of the Clinique Moisture Surge gel moisturizer, but much cheaper!

Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour foundation - After hearing Emily Eddington (emilynoel83 on Youtube, or maybe better known as Beauty Broadcast) rave about this foundation, I definitely wanted to try this! Let's see how it compares to my beloved Revlon Colorstay.

Maybelline Color Tattoos (Bold Gold, Tough as Taupe, Bad to the Bronze) - Everyone and their mother has tried these, reviewed them, and raved about them. This is my first time trying them. I stopped myself from getting more than three.

If you want me to review any of these, please let me know in the comment section below! I feel like I haven't done any reviews in a long time. 

Also, have you tried any of these products? Loved/hated? Let me know!

You can always join me on Twitter and Instagram @jessiefrancaise

To all the Jews out there - L'SHANA TOVA and a very happy new year!!

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!

Recent Sephora Haul!

So I've been very very busy working hard and getting near perfect grades at school. I just finished up the first quarter of my senior year and have three out of four of my college applications submitted. For all of this, I decided I should treat myself. This is the first time I've actually bought myself from Sephora and it was a very exciting moment.I spent a little more than I should have, but I deserved it.

I had been eyeing some things from Lorac and Stila. I decided to get the Lorac Close Up: Real Life To Red Carpet Natural To Dramatic Face Tutorial, Lorac Ooh La La Lace Palette, and the Stila Travel Palette in Haute in the Hamptons. They just came in a few days ago. I've barely had the chance to use them, so once I have, I'll be writing some reviews. For right now, I just have some pictures and swatches.

In this palette you get a light off-white shade with a teeny-bit of shimmer called Sand, a shimmery gold shade called Linen, a dark gray-brown with shimmer called Route 27, and a shimmery true-blue shade called Blue Skies. There's also two blush shades. The bottom one is supposed to be a bronzer, I believe, but it's too pink to be a bronzer. The top one is just a hot pink called Hydrangea and the bottom is more of a coral, but still like a hot brightish pink with gold shimmer, called Montauk Highway. I'll do a review on this later.

The Lorac Ooh La Lace Palette :) This was the one I was most excited to get. It's got the sexiest packaging ever! I can't wait to review  this one.

Here are the shadows inside :) There's also a big mirror. Aren't these colors just so gorgeous!?!

This is the shadow trio inside the set that I got by Lorac. The color is called LORACStar.

These are just so pretty! It's the first time I'm trying out anything by Lorac and after swatching them and wearing them once, I can say they're simply amazing.

This is the blush that came in the set. It's in the color Soul. It looks kind of dull, but it's got just the right amount of sparkle and oomph to create the most beautiful glow.

Here it is again. I'm sorry for the poor picture quality :(

This is the mascara that came in the set. Lorac is really on target with their packaging. It's just so pretty!

This is the liquid liner the kit came with. I read the most amazing reviews before it came and I was so excited to try it. I'll leave the rest for my review ;)

The gloss from the kit. It's in the color Trendsetter. It's an absolutely gorgeous color.

The applicator is a brush rather than a sponge, which I LOVE.

Now time for the swatches...

The black line is the Lorac Front of the Line PRO liner. To the right of that are the colors from the Lorac shadow trio in LORACStar. And then right under the brown shadow is the Lorac blush in Soul.

This one is without flash.

Same swatches with flash

Here's the swatches from the Stila palette Haute in the Hamptons. The first two are the blushes. And then on the right side are  the four shadows.

This is with flash.

Same swatches without flash

And the lovely, sexy shadows from the Lorac Ooh La Lace palette. These are simply amazing. So smooth and pigmented. And of course these were meant to make a sexy bedroom eye look :)

This is without flash.

And with flash.

I also got samples, as is customary with any Sephora order. I got two perfume samples, some Clinique skincare samples. I got a free Buxom mascara sample with a code. And for reaching +100 Sephora points, I got a Laura Mercier mascara sample.

So here they are:

The brush looks amazing! I can't wait to try it out.

And the Laura Mercier. This is the Long Lash mascara.

I didn't read the best reviews on this, but I'll post my opinions when I try it out.

As I would expect with a lengthening mascara, the brush is very small and skinny.

So that's it from my Sephora haul. I'll be posting reviews soon.

My next post will be a look I do with the Ooh La Lace palette.

Feel free to post comments, any suggestions for looks to post, and follow me on Twitter @jessiefrancaise