Post #4: Pretty Vulgar Bird Cage Palette Collection

I love to discover new brands, especially ones with a unique twist on vintage design. I was introduced to Pretty Vulgar several months ago and it was their collection of eyeshadow palettes designed to look like vintage bird cages that drew me to the brand. There are currently four palettes in the collection, each a color scheme featuring 12 unique, buildable, blendable shades.

Early Bird – Neutral Tones

 Early Bird sports beautiful soft pinks and lavenders as well as rich browns to make the perfect neutral palette for all skin tones. The twelve shades in this collection are Tweet (light matte pink), Wink, Chirp, Rise, Shine, Ruffled (shimmery mauve), Unruffled (matte mauve), Nest Egg, True Colors, Victory (matte chocolate brown), Conquer (shimmery chocolate brown), and Unveil.

Pretty Birdie – Colorful Shades

               


This is such a fun palette because the colors are so bright and vibrant! Just about every part of the spectrum is included in the color selection for this set, which means endless looks. I find Pretty Vulgar’s shadows to be very adequately pigmented and a little color on the brush goes a long way on the lid, especially with these bright colors! Pretty Birdie has shades Lay, Free (a shimmery highlight shade), Ego (shimmery gold), Songbird, Brilliant, Fancy, Wing It (matte dark blue), Snitch (matte brick red), Formation, Nevermore, Jealous (matte olive green), and Head Bitch.

Nightingale – Smoky Shades

Everything you need for a spectacular smoky eye is right in this little palette. Nightingale contains Nocternal, Pillow Fight, Break Free (a shimmery highlight), Darkside, Hide & Seek (matte tan), Clutch (shimmery gold), Flip Out, Eye Spy (metallic bronze), Silver Spoon (metallic silver), Swoop, After Midnight, and All Nighter (the token black shade).

Phoenix Rising – Warm Tones

 
Just released in early March this year, the Phoenix Rising palette utilizes browns, reds, and bronzes to achieve the ultimate warm-tone collection. There is even some fire to the shade names: Untamable (shimmery gold), Always Rising, Slay, Fierce Desire, Is Fire, My Ash (light matte brown), Light My Fire (matte medium brown), Seduction Reborn (metallic rust), Resurrected Sin, Devilish Darling (shimmery dark purple), Blowing Smoke (matte brick red), and Fly By Night.

Besides their own online presence, Pretty Vulgar was featured in May’s Boxycharm box and is now also available in Sephora! Their products are all cruelty-free as well as free of fragrance, parabens, gluten, phthalates, AND sulfates. So you can take confidence in a high quality product. This company is growing strong despite its infancy and I can’t wait to see all the great things they will do and all the awesome products they will come out with.

If you are unfamiliar with Boxycharm, I suggest you click the link below and check out the amazing deal you get for $21 per month. All kinds of full-sized beauty products, 4-5 each month (though this month had 6!). Anyway, check out Boxycharm – I don’t think they have a wait list right now!

Boxycharm: https://www.boxycharm.com/refer/Stephanie-XXJAYUIT

Pretty Vulgar palettes are for sale at Sephora and direct from the company at: www.prettyvulgar.com.

I am also a big fan of Instagram so follow me @myliteraryaddiction to keep up with what I’m working on for the blog! ---à https://www.instagram.com/myliteraryaddiction

Thank you for reading and stay beautiful~

Steph

Just the Highlights: A Few Highlighters Worth Mentioning

Good evening, everyone!

Tonight I want to talk about highlighters! Highlighting is one of my favorite parts of a makeup look but there are so many things to consider when selecting a good highlighter for your particular skin tone or to create the effect you are wanting to create. Just like any other cosmetics, some product forms (powder, liquid, stick) are just look better than others on different skin tones, then one must think about the different brands and colors, varying degrees of pigmentation, sparkle versus sheen. My personal collection of highlighters is quite large because I have tried SO MANY different ones in my quest to find my favorites. I did not put these in any particular order because they are all very good. I wanted to provide a wide variety of options so at least one is going to work for you.

1. tarte – Twinkle Stick Highlighter in Spotlight ($30)

I love tarte’s Twinkle Stick because it has a very creamy formula that goes on very easily. I use either my finger or a beauty blender to blend it into my cheek color and create a really beautiful shimmer. The shade Spotlight is a champagne, and it is also available in Skylight, a pearl shade. You can find Twinkle Stick highlighters at Sephora or from the tarte website here: https://tartecosmetics.com/en_US/makeup/cheeks/contour-highlight/twinkle-stick-highlighter/967.html?cgid=contour-highlight&dwvar_967_color=skylight%20%28pearl%29#start=11.

2. Too Faced – Unicorn Horn Highlighting Stick in shade Unicorn Dreams ($28)

Too Faced is the proud owner of another really creamy highlighting stick, the Unicorn Horn Highlighting Stick, launched with their Life’s a Festival collection. I personally own this highlighter in the pink shade, called Unicorn Dreams, which as you can tell from the picture above, gives my light complexion a pink tint while providing lots of shimmer.  This stick features rainbow pigmentation that makes it perfect for any look. The Unicorn Horn Highlighting Stick also comes in a blue shade called Unicorn Tears that is also worth checking out. These are available at both Ulta and Sephora as well as through Too Faced’s website at: https://www.toofaced.com/shop/face/highlighters/unicorn-horn-highlighting-stic/Unicorn+Horn+Highlighting+Stic.html?cgid=highlighters#start=1.

3. Anastasia Beverly Hills x Amrezy – Amrezy Highlighter ($28)

I can’t give this highlighter enough praise! It’s one of my absolute favorites and I’ve never seen another one like it. The Amrezy highlighter doesn’t glitter like most highlighters, it creates a soft, golden sheen. Also, a little goes a long way. ABH made this highlighter extremely pigmented and it doesn’t take much product on the brush to create a radiant glow. Unfortunately it is no longer available at Sephora or Ulta. It was still available on the Anastasia Beverly Hills website until just a few days ago; I don’t know if they will be bringing it back.

4. Lime Crime – Hi-Lite Glitter-n-Glow Mermaids highlighter palette in Pearl ($38)

I hear a lot of negative feedback about this company, but I can’t help but like them. Especially their collection of powder highlighters. Lime Crime currently has 6 Hi-Lite highlighter palettes, each featuring three unique highlight shades. This collection is called Mermaids and has a lavender (Seashell), an ivory (Pearl), and a seafoam blue-green (Mermaid). All of the shades are beautiful, but I chose to swatch the Pearl shade since it’s my current favorite. I find that I need to put on quite a bit to get the desired effect, but the end result is worth it. The formula is very pigmented and the color options are gorgeous. These highlighter palettes are available at Ulta and directly from Lime Crime here: https://www.limecrime.com/face-makeup/hi-lite-opalescent-powder-highlighter/mermaids-sparkling-lavenger-ivory-green-blue-highlighter.

5. Smashbox x Vlada – Petal Metal Highlighter in Gilded Rose ($39)

The final highlighter I want to…highlight…is a newer release that I am currently loving. I am OBSESSED with rose gold so of course I am a fan of the entire Smashbox collaboration with Vlada Haggerty. The gel-powder formula is soft and smooth and goes on beautifully. I chose to get this in the shade Gilded Rose, which is gold with pink and gold pearl, because I didn’t have another highlighter in that color. On my light neutral skin tone, it looks almost bronze (FYI for you lighter-skinned readers). Petal Metal is also available in a soft rust with gold pearl, called Rosemantic. The Petal Metal Highlighter is available at both Ulta and Sephora, as well as directly from Smashbox here: https://www.smashbox.com/product/6032/57314/face/petal-metal-highlighter?gclid=COmcsOWYyNsCFR2JxQIdVIAJZA&gclsrc=ds&dclid=CJLjv-WYyNsCFQfcwAodlzQPGg#/shade/Rosemantic.

So now you know a few of my favorite highlighters. What do you think of my selections? Do you have a killer highlighter that I am completely missing out on? Drop a comment below and let me know what you think!

Until next time, Stay Beautiful!

Steph

Product Showdown #1: Jeffree Star Velour Lip Scrub vs. tarte Pout Prep

Lip exfoliator is a must-have in my beauty bag, especially in the aftermath of a long winter when my lips are dry and rough. I have been using tarte Prep Pout several times a week for months now. It was recommended to me by an ULTA employee and I was immediately hooked. It smells fresh and minty and is a very pleasant experience. It’s a pretty solid formula so there is no mess in the application. Prep Pout gently exfoliated without scraping up my lips with overly rough particles and left them feeling soft, smooth, and refreshed.

A few weeks ago I learned that Jeffree Star has a line of Velour Lip Scrubs available in a bunch of different flavors, with more to come with the release of the summer 2018 collection. Now, I love my tarte and have never had a complaint about it, but come on, some of the flavors sound too good to pass up - Strawberry Gum, Peach Popsicle, Blue Raspberry Sucker, Root Beer, and Pancakes & Syrup are just a few. I typically lean toward minty flavors, but “Peach Popsicle” sounded extremely refreshing so I opted to get the Velour Lip Scrub in two flavors, Peach Popsicle and Candy Cane. For the sake of flavor sameness and optimum equality between the products, I chose the Candy Cane flavor for comparison.

As you can see from the side-by-side picture, whereas the tarte has the consistency of Carmex, the J* lip scrub is like wet sand. This takes nothing away from the overall effectiveness of the product, it just made for a slightly messier application as bits of the product crumbled and fell from my finger and lips while working it in. The flavor was almost identical to the mint used in the Pout Prep so it was refreshing and left a clean feeling after washing it off.

The final judgment: I think my tried-and-true tarte Prep Pout remains my favorite lip scrub ONLY on the grounds of product consistency. I didn’t like how the Velour Lip Scrub crumbled, almost like it’s too dry. Prep Pout is wax-based (both beeswax and camauba wax are among the ingredients) so it’s creamier and holds together better. I don’t know that I could choose between the two simply on the basis of Jeffree Star’s fun selection of flavors. I will say that both remain in my makeup bag and I do plan to try at least one more flavor of Jeffree Star’s before I completely make up my mind about it.

If price is a factor, tarte Prep Pout comes in a 0.6 oz. jar and retails for $16.00. J*’s Velour Lip Scrubs come in a whopping 1 oz. jar and retail for $12.00. In my opinion, I believe you are paying for superior ingredients with tarte’s exfoliator so it’s worth the higher price. I will provide links to retailers where you can find these products below.

I would like to add that I have since also tried the Peach Popsicle Velour Lip Scrub and found great disappointment. There are tons of products with artificial peach smell and taste and they smell light, refreshing, and delicious. I cannot say this for the peach Jeffree Star lip scrub, though. As much as I love all things peach (I have the Too Faced peach collection and peach Revlon Kiss balm smells in my mind for reference) this flavor was pretty terrible. I did not enjoy the smell at all, which seemed maybe too artificial and not exactly a peachy scent to me. I say this as a testament to be mindful of the flavor you choose – some are difficult to duplicate.

For now I am going to name tarte the winner in this showdown. Please feel free to share your thoughts and if you agree or disagree. Again, the product links are right below.

tarte Prep Pout at ULTA: https://www.ulta.com/pout-prep-lip-exfoliant?productId=xlsImpprod16321390&sku=2511259&_requestid=2912361

Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Lip Scrub at JSC online: https://jeffreestarcosmetics.com/collections/velour-lip-scrub

Have a Beautiful Day!

Steph

Review #1: GLAMGLOW INSTAMUD 60-Second Pore-Refining Treatment

Hey all, Steph here!

Welcome to my first review on this blog, where I will walk you all through my experience using GLAMGLOW’s INSTAMUD 60-Second Pore-Refining Treatment.

I am a big fan of GLAMGLOW’s skincare products and large pores are the bane of my existence, so when I heard about this 60-second version of the INSTAMUD treatment, I raced over to the GLAMGLOW website to order one. Much to my dismay however, I was apparently late to the party because GLAMGLOW was completely sold out! I really lucked out that Sephora carries GLAMGLOW because they still had some in stock and I was finally able to scoop up one of my own!

I’m going to start off by pointing out how awesome the packaging is! Super bright and a very modern shape makes the whole thing intriguing. The instructions state to use on dry, clean skin so I started by washing my face with MILK MAKEUP’s Matcha Cleanser, a brand that really has my attention right now.

With a clean, dry face, I applied 3-4 pumps of the INSTAMUD serum all over my face and it quickly began to bubble. The product has a very light, fresh smell. There was a slight burn as the product oxygenated but I could definitely feel it working! As I reached the 60-second mark, the product was reaching the end of it’s chemical reaction and began running down my face. No problem, it was time to rinse anyway!

My skin felt so smooth and the skin looked noticeably tighter. It did leave my skin feeling dry, but the instructions do state to complete your skincare routine after using the mask, so I ran for another new product, a sample size

Youth to the People’s Kale & Spinach Green Tea Hyaluronic Acid Age Prevention Moisture Cream (separate review to be posted later). This easily solved the problem of drying.

I really liked the end result of the GLAMGLOW INSTAMUD 60-Second Pore-Refining Treatment. My pores smaller and less noticeable and my face feels clean and fresh. I plan to use this 2-3 times a week to maintain the appearance of my pores. One use did not have a noticeable change in the amount if product in the bottle, so I think there will be a good amount of treatments in this bottle, which I am very excited about, given the price. I have more information on the product and links for it below!

GLAMGLOW INSTAMUD 60-Second Pore-Refining Treatment comes in a 1.7 oz. pump bottle, retails for $42, and is available at Sephora or on www.glamglow.com. And, lucky you, as of publishing time, GLAMGLOW does have this back in stock so run and get yours!

• GLAMGLOW: https://www.glamglow.com/product/15132/55751/shop-treatments/instamudtm-60-second-pore-refining-treatment

• Sephora: https://www.sephora.com/product/instamud-60-second-pore-refining-treatment-P432253?keyword=60-second

Stay tuned for more cosmetic and skincare reviews!

If you like my reviews, follow me on my socials:
           
       Instagram: @myliteraryaddiction
       Twitter: BookwormLuna
       Tumblr: stephjmiller88
       Poshmark: @stephjmiller88

See you all next time!

Steph