Review: Nyx's Blush in 'Dusty Rose'

"Our pressed powder blush delivers sheer, silky colour that glides on, blends beautifully, and creates a natural glow. The formula is richly-pigmented and lasts for hours. Available in 24 shades." 
Source

This is the first NYX blush that I've purchased, and let me just start by saying that I'm impressed! I wasn't expecting this to have very good pigmentation, but I was entirely wrong.

Without flash.

With flash. 

Without flash. 

With flash.

This colour is a darker shade of pink (for comparison, darker than Benefit's 'Hervana', lighter than Benefit's 'Dallas') which, in my opinion, compliments fair skin better than people tend to think. It also has a very light shimmer to it, which reminds me of mineralize blushes or highlighters.

I was completely surprised by how soft the product is; whether this is good or bad I have yet to decide. After use with a brush, the product is very powdery and it gets all over the container. However, it goes onto the skin very easily because of this.

The packaging is made out of plastic, which feels slightly "cheaper" than the plastic you would get with MAC for example. But that just goes to show that you get what you pay for. It isn't bad packaging though; there are no unnecessary features to it, it opens and closes well and it's a smaller sized blush, which means it fits into a purse much better.

Overall I'm very pleased with this purchase, especially because it was so much cheaper than my usual Benefit blushes. I always feel so happy when I find good drugstore products.

Available at Ulta for $5.99. 

Important Update

Hey everyone!

My blog has been so inactive lately! I'm very sorry for this and I try to come up with interesting posts for you guys as often as I can. However, I haven't had a lot of time lately because of the end of semester work that my classes have given me. Alongside the work, I haven't had enough money to put into buying new products for reviews on my blog.

At least until the end of the semester, I'm going to be on a bit of a hiatus (we'll see how that goes; every time I say that I magically come up with a billion posts to write!).

HOWEVER. I have some exciting news! Part of the reason why I haven't done well at recording and posting videos for my followers is because I've been living in my aunt and uncle's house since I got here. It's been a temporary situation and I haven't had good filming areas or equipment. But I'll be moving into a house with my brother at the beginning of April if all goes well! This means that I can finally unpack everything (all my stuff from England will be arriving soon too!) and get a little office set up, as well as a makeup area! So I can start to take my blogging more seriously.

Also keep in mind that I run several other blogs, so I'm trying to keep up with a lot of things all at once! The main other blog that I'm trying to keep up with is my film blog (I'm a film student) and that requires a hell of a lot of work.

Bare with me! By the middle or end of April I'm hoping so have a tutorial-filming area put together and my iMac to edit on instead of my laptop. I promise to have more regular posts then :)

Random Trick: Toothpaste as Skincare

A couple of years back, I heard/read about people using toothpaste as a solution to getting rid of acne. Initially, I thought this was weird, as I think most of you would too. Because my skin had been in great condition up until moving out of Holland, I never bothered to try the toothpaste trick. However, because of getting used to a different climate for the second time in a year, my skin has gone crazy. I'm about ready to try anything at this point.

So, on Tuesday I decided to finally try it. I just grabbed the toothpaste that I happen to be using right now (make sure it's not a whitening toothpaste as these can irritate the skin) and put a layer of that all over any breakouts on my face after I washed my face that night. I left it on for the whole night since it dries pretty fast and doesn't get on pillows or anything.

The next morning I noticed a big enough difference in my skin to make this a regular acne treatment for my skin. It didn't heal anything entirely or make breakouts disappear, but it definitely helped a lot more than some of the other things I've tried. I've used it on my skin since then every night and my skin is looking a lot better than it has in the past couple of weeks.

Because toothpaste is minty, it does make your skin tingle quite a bit, but it doesn't hurt or burn. If it is burning your skin, you shouldn't leave it overnight as it may be too strong a toothpaste or your skin too sensitive. Also, as with anything you put on your skin, if your skin seems to be reacting badly, stop using it straight away. I would be more careful with the toothpaste since it isn't a product meant for your face (there's no way you'd be able to get money back either if your skin had a bad reaction since it's meant to be used on your teeth, not your face).

Anyways! It's something that I'm going to be using on my skin when I have bad breakouts from now on, so it's definitely something to try out if you've been having bad luck with skincare. Do your research though and test small patches of skin before you put it all over your face! Be careful :)

Review: Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter

You may have seen these in another post that I've done, but I've purchased some more and figured I would do another review on them now that I've had more opportunity to try them out. So, with no further ado, here are two of the other lip butters that I own!

Red Velvet

Red Velvet

This is a satin, deep red colour. I've had difficulty finding a shade of red that looks good with my skin tone and the makeup that I tend to wear, but I'm in love with this one. The reason I like it so much is because it leans a little more towards a brownish-brick red colour, and not fire-engine red, which doesn't look good on me. I'm happy to say that I've found my go-to red lipstick! Finally! :)

Brown Sugar

Brown Sugar

This is the only one of the lip butters that I own that has shimmer in it. I want to describe this colour as a caramel shade, that leans towards a more...orangey look? I'm horrible at describing colours, but that's the only way I can think of explaining what it looks like on me. I wear brown shades of lipstick the most often as they suit my complexion the best, but this is one shade that I don't have an equivalent of; it doesn't look as brown as it is in the tube when I apply it to my lips. I'll have to take a photo of it on me to explain the yellowy look it has. Maybe it's due to the gold shimmer in the product. Either way, I like the colour, although I would prefer that it didn't have shimmer.

"Buttery balm + Shiny colour. Buttery balm with beautiful shiny colour to give you baby soft, healthy glowing lips. 94% of women felt lips were softer, smoother, and instantly hydrated. 


- Hydrating mango, shea and coconut butter formula boosts lip moisture by 156%
- Pampering gel formula provide super charged hydration and glides on lips buttery smooth. 
- Sheer to medium colour with buttery shine. 
- Available in 20 luscious shades." 
Source

Packaging: I love the packaging on these lip butters. They're conveniently coloured to look the same as the shade of the lipstick itself, as well as allowing you to see the actual colour through a clear section at the top of the lid. It makes it easy to grab out of a drawer (which is where I store mine) and not have to open them all to see what colour it is (like you have to do with MAC lipsticks).

The lid closes onto the rest of the product well enough and clicks shut, although I feel like with enough use, this wouldn't be as secure as it is when you first buy it and could open in a purse. That's not something I worry about very often, but other people might so it's something to take into consideration.

The only thing I don't like about these is that the lid goes almost all the way down over the tube; it only leaves a tiny section for me to grab onto to pull the lid off. I feel like they could have made the bottom section a little bit larger to make it more convenient, but at least it closes well.

Product: As with most drugstore products, you can't swatch these in the store, which means you're more likely to buy a shade that ends up not working for you. It also means that, like me, you may end up buying something that has a different finish than you prefer, especially as these aren't labelled by the type of finish. You're pretty much going to get random colours with shimmer, and random colours without. It's a little bit of a guessing game, but I've actually been lucky with that and gotten really beautiful colours as a result.

The product last a very long time for me (I've worn it all day, eaten with it, and there's still a noticeable amount of product on my lips at the end of the day) and I haven't noticed any smearing or feathering. It, as it claims to be, is moisturizing and with that comes a nice shine (that does wear off after a while).

Again, you're going to either get one or the other with the pigmentation: it's either going to be very pigmented (like Red Velvet) or more sheer (like Brown Sugar). Although all of them show up pretty decently, some will show up more than others, and for that you'll just have to buy them to find out.

Conclusion: I really like these. They have a good amount of colours that will suit a whole array of skintones, as well as various different finishes. I think the packaging is nice and convenient, which a lot of lipsticks aren't. Finally, the product itself works wonderfully and as advertised. Of course, it helps that they aren't too expensive, which means that more people will be able to enjoy them. I've been building up my collection very slowly and so far own four that I use all the time. I'm planning on purchasing more, especially some of the colours that I don't usually go for since I've been so lucky with the ones I have! 

Review: Maybelline 24hr Colour Tattoos

Maybelline Color Tattoos in 'Tough as Taupe' and 'Pomegranate Punk'

'Tough as Taupe', Smith's, approx. $6

'Tough as Taupe' 

I actually really like these! I own two MAC Paint Pots (which cost a fortune) and I love them, but these are absolutely replacing those. The basic concept of both the Paint Pots and Color Tattoos is: cream eyeshadow that last a very, very long time, doesn't crease, and is super pigmented.

With Paint Pots, I think they live up to everything except the creasing; I've found that, if I wear the colour alone, after a few hours it will crease. Not a whole lot, but it does crease. This doesn't happen if I use them under an eyeshadow, however. This does depend on the shape of your eye though, and whether you have a very deep crease or not, etc.

With these, although I haven't worn it completely on it's own yet, I have used it as a crease colour, and so far (I've been using it every day since I got it...just sayin') it hasn't creased on me. This particular colour is more of a satin finish and doesn't have sparkle in it; it does come off a little darker than it looks though, but I like it.

'Pomegranate Punk', Smith's, approx. $6

 I really like the colour of this one! It doesn't come off quite as deep a red on your skin as it looks in the container, but if you layer it over one or two times then you can easily get there. This one, in comparison to the previous colour, is very sparkly. They aren't big chunks of glitter though, so they don't fall out (which they shouldn't in the first place because it's a cream shadow) and they doesn't feel gritty on your eyelids (again, your lids shouldn't feel gritty when wearing sparkly/glittery shadows).

'Pomegranate Punk' (out of focus, so you can see the sparkle)

'Pomegranate Punk' 

Packaging: The packaging on both of these is great. The lid of the product has the name on it, so it's easy to tell what the colour is if you've got them stored with the lid up. Otherwise, the colour is very visible through the glass container, so if you have them store with that side up, you'll have no problem seeing them. The lids also seem to screw on much better and tighter than on MAC Paint Pots, which I know people have mentioned before (the MAC lids have caused their Paint Pots to dry out). So, overall good packaging too.

Conclusion: I'm in love with these! They are absolutely something I recommend, especially if you've wanted to try out Paint Pots but haven't because of the price. These are cheap, good quality, and come in a pretty decent amount of colours too. I've been using mine a lot!

Review: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

Let's face it; you all know what this is! But just in case you don't, this is the second edition of a much-loved cult favourite, The Urban Decay Naked Palette. I'll be doing a comparison on the two this month, so stay tuned for pictures of both products and my opinion on them. Therefore, this review is going to be kept pretty short, especially because I only just got it and haven't had much chance to play with it! 

I'm not the biggest fan of the packaging on this one, mainly due to how it feels. I do love the colours used as they reflect the colours of the shadows inside it (like the previous edition), but I wish it weren't quite so bulky. It does latch closed nice and tight, so if you were ever worried about your palette opening up in a bag and causing a disaster, then this solves that problem. 

I do love the addition of a much bigger mirror! I don't often take palettes with me anywhere, and if I do I usually take my own mirror, but this is the perfect size if I were to only bring this palette. The mirror is big, and I can see all the detail I need to. 

So, first of all, let me explain why there is a chunk of eyeshadow missing in the 'Bootycall' colour. When I opened the palette, there was a little tiny fuzz on the edge of the packaging; I pulled it gently off...and it turns out it was stuck way inside the eyeshadow. So it pulled some of the product out. Lame, but not a big deal as it's still pretty tiny. Anyways! 

These are the first six colours, all of them from a warmer family of shades. 

 'Foxy' and 'Tease' are both mattes, which makes me happy since sometimes the amount of frost/shimmer in Urban Decay shadows gets on my nerves. 'Half-Baked' was featured in the first edition of the palette, but I'm glad it's still in this one because it's such a pigmented, shimmery gold. It's very pretty and I haven't found a gold colour better than it yet. 

'Snakebite' and 'Chopper' are both very pretty shades of brown, my favourite one being 'Snakebite'. I like that 'Chopper', although it's leaning towards a copper colour, isn't quite orangey. I find that some coppery shadows can look a little strange on the eye, so I'll have to see if this one manages to avoid doing that or not. 

'Bootycall' may be a replacement highlighting colours for me! I love shimmery brow highlights, and this one is nice, pigmented, shimmery, but doesn't stand out as a big white streak (I used this one today). It's nice because, rather than leaning towards white, it's leaning towards skin colour, so it blends into the skin rather nicely. 

The next six colours are very obviously cool-toned in comparison to the previous six. These are also what I'm most excited for about this palette! 

I'm not particularly excited about 'Busted', simply because it's just another shimmery brown in my opinion. The same thing goes for 'YDK'; I love this colour, but it's not very unique. 

My favourites from these six are 'Verve' and 'Pistol'. I think 'Verve' is a beautiful, silvery taupe that seems like it would be so versatile. 'Pistol' is an almost green silver shadow, which reminds me of army related uniforms. I think that's so unique and I'm planning on wearing it tomorrow :) 

Finally, 'Blackout'. I'm not a huge fan of matte blacks because I think they're so hard to use, but I do love this one. I already own another UD palette that comes with this colour in it, so I've had a chance to play around with it before. It's so black! It's very strong, but if you take the time, it's blendable and can be made to fade out slightly, or be more sheer. 

Overall, I think this palette is beautiful. I loved the first one and I use it all the time, but always felt like the colours were too warm-toned for me. I'm so excited to be using this new edition with all of the cooler-toned colours it features. 

I don't think that, if you're just looking for some nice colours to wear and aren't necessarily too fanatic about make-up, that you would need both of these palettes, but if you did get them both I don't think it's a waste. I actually think you get a far more complete neutral colour collection by having them both. However, if you're looking for more matte or satin finishes, maybe rethink buying this; all of these (okay, minus three) are super frosty. 

Available at Sephora for $50. 

Review: Herbal Essences Anti-Frizz Creme

"Herbal Essences Touchably Smooth Anti-Frizz Creme; Long-lasting smooth look. My formula is infused with special micro smoothers than work with your hair to help lock out humidity and keep your hair looking and feeling smooth. 


Use Me: Pump me out and apply to wet or dry hair. Touch me as much as you please, I'm not sticky." 


A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for a good leave-in conditioner. My hair has been quite a problem lately and I've been out of luck with all of the products I've used so far. Now, this isn't a leave-in conditioner, but "anti-frizz" anything is close enough for me. I usually wouldn't buy anything but a shampoo or conditioner from Herbal Essences because I prefer other brands for this kind of thing, but this was all I could find.

Packaging: There's not much to say about the packaging except that it works. It comes with a pump that is shaped so that the product falls perfectly onto my fingertips when I use it. It's also very easy to press down, and stays stable on the countertop if you're pressing down on it (rather than other products where they slip all over).

Product: This has a really smooth, soft texture to it, and isn't too thick. It claims to not be sticky, which in the sense of a gel, it isn't; gels are much more 'gluey' whereas this feels sort of similar to a lotion. However, I've found that it can leave a sticky residue on my hands, which I don't like, and if you're like me and play with your hair all day, that sticky feeling can transfer onto your fingers from your hair too. The smell is nice, as all Herbal Essences stuff is, and is sort of perfumey. It's very floral and girly.

I use this every morning on my hair while it's still damp. One pump on the ends of my hair, then one more for the rest of it (note: I don't combine the two pumps).

Conclusion: This is a decent anti-frizz creme, but not great. I've noticed less fly-aways in my air, but there's still a fair amount of frizz. Although I have yet to find something that completely takes away the frizz in my hair, I've used products that manage better than this does. I doubt I'll repurchase it, simply because I know I can find something better.

Available from any drugstore for under $10. 

I have an excuse. I swear.

My lovely, well-organized posting plan went down the toilet. Yes, I know, I know, I'm a failure! 


I got really, really sick last Monday. I spent the entire night puking my guts out, then not eating anything because I felt so horrible for the next three days. I spent all of Tuesday sleeping and sipping Powerade to try and get better, then the rest of the days recovering while I was in school. Which sucked. But oh well. 


I'm working on drafting my next posts for this week today and tomorrow, so hopefully you won't have to wait for so long in between posts. As for videos, I try my best to find something to film on Sunday's, but I'm not always going to be posting tutorials because I lack the inspiration (and talent lol) to film something cool every time. However, I will be doing my best this next week at keeping to some sort of schedule. 


This is what I'm thinking: 


Thursday: Review or Haul posts. 
Sunday: I film and edit my tutorial/haul/etc. 
Tuesday: Video with accompanying blog post. 


That's all I'm thinking for now. I may have some extra time this week and post all the things I promised I would post last week, but I'm not putting them on my to-do list. 


I apologise profusely! :) 

Review: Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butter

Yes, I think all beauty lovers know by now what this is! This is the newest (as far as I'm aware) lip product that Revlon has come out with. Now, usually I avoid buying Revlon products. I'm not sure why, but in the past I've never been attracted to their packaging, which may be the reason why I'm not familiar with their products. However, the packaging for this is a 10 out of 10 for me. I hate having lipsticks that are all the same colour on the outside, like the MAC Cosmetics lipsticks. It means you have to search and open them up to see what colour they are. 

With these Lip Butters, the lid is the same colour (or as close as it can get) as the product itself. So when you look at them, you know without having to open them up what colour it is. If you had several of these, then it would make grabbing the right colour very simple. 

The lid also closes onto the product quite strongly; if you carry this around in your purse, it's not going to open up very easier. However, after a couple of times opening this, I felt like it wasn't closing as well as before. So possibly, after enough use, the "closing strength" may not be as good as it was to begin with. Personally, I've never had a lipstick lose it's lid before, so this isn't a big problem for me. But to some of you, it may be :) 

The colour I bought is called 'Raspberry Pie'. It's a beautiful bright pink that reminds me more of a fuchsia pink. It's a colour that I am not accustomed to wearing (which is why I bought it) so I'm still experimenting on what colour eyeshadows go best with it. 

The only thing I don't like about this colour, is that it's very bright. When I apply it, I use it straight from the tube, but don't take the colour all the way to the edges of my lips because it would be very noticeable if I messed up. That's also the fault of the shape of the lipstick itself, but you can't win everything! 

To fix this problem, I fill in the edges of my lips with an angled brush. That way I'm able to apply it more precisely and it looks better, and it doesn't go over the edge of my lips. 

This lip butter is definitely more moisturizing than other lip products I've tried, which is so nice to have in the winter because my skin always gets so dry (especially in this climate!). I've found that it also last a super long time; I was wearing this all day and it didn't come off! Plus, I drank out of a big straw and the product didn't come off. The only thing it did lose was the pretty glossy shine that it had when I put it on. It's a very pretty shine, but it doesn't last all day like the colour itself does. But who cares! If you want to keep the glossiness, either reapply some more or put some clear gloss on over it! 

I'm very, very happy with this purchase. I went and bought another one (you'll see it in the video I'm posting this week) and I love them both! They are so affordable, long-lasting, and come in a lot of different colours. I'll be slowly adding more of them to my collection! 

Upcoming Plans

Right. So, because I've been busy lately and have been mostly neglecting my blogs (yes, plural, I have many), I decided to give the few of you who follow me a small glimpse into the posts that I have planned. There are only a couple, but at least then you'll have an idea what to look out for.


I have a very small review on the Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butter that I got recently, which will be up this afternoon (at least that's the plan).


That lipstick will also be featured in a video that I filmed today going over the things I recently bought from Ulta. I'm editing this video today, but it most likely won't be up until Tuesday (I have school tomorrow and need my laptop; if I try and upload it tomorrow, I'll never be able to do my work haha). With that video will be a post containing the swatches and photos of the products I filmed. This will go up on Wednesday.


I'm also going to try out a small series featuring my face and/or the makeup I used for my makeup that day. Whether this is going to be one of the those "Today's Face" or "Face of the Day" things, I don't know. We'll see how it goes, but generally I'm not very good as posting consistenly. However, I will try to do this as best as I can.


Finally, the last thing I'm going to try, is a weekly post that I can do on something non-beauty related. This is either going to be something on books (it's only fair since I read them all the time), or on a TV show or movie. Again, I will not guarantee that this will be perfectly consistent, but we'll see how it goes.


This will all start this coming week (Monday 23rd to Friday 27th). Hopefully this will mean you'll get a video every Tuesday, the accompanying post every Wednesday, a review or haul  on Thursday (for the occasions that I actually buy stuff), and then a little snippet or a book or movie on Friday's or the weekends.


If you have any recommendations, please, please tell me them. I'd love your opinions!