Bobbi Brown Hibiscus pot rouge for lips and cheeks - swatches & review

Hello beauties,

Today I thought I would take a little break from indie product posts and do a bit of a review on a more high end product. It isn't very often that I indulge in more high end brands, but every now and then you come across one that you simply cannot resist and well; it finds a new home in your collection! This is exactly what happened when I stumbled onto the new Hibiscus pot rouge by Bobbi Brown while browsing my local Military Exchange.

I cannot deny that I drool over pretty much all of Bobbi Brown's products, I mean those shadows are AMAZING right!! Well, I was just about to walk away from the counter ( I know, I know I am so strong); when I happened to spot the prettiest cream product I have ever seen. I asked the girl working the counter if the product was just your average cream blusher, and came to know that this product doubled as both a cream blush as well as a lip product; and even better it did not leave behind that God awful sticky feeling that you get when you apply most cream products!! Needless to say I bought it and yeah... So onto the photos (YAY!!)

Photo swatches:

This is what the Hibiscus Pot rouge compact looks like. The packaging is very sleek and nice

The back labeling of the #31 Hibiscus Pot rouge for lips and cheeks

Here we have a photo taken before swatching the product, as you can see this is a gorgeous hot candy coral shade!! It might look a bit scary in the pan but don't let the vibrancy of this shade turn you off because you can absolutely build it up or sheer it out

The top swatch is a heavier swatch in order to show you how this color can be built up, especially for the lip use while the bottom swatch is a much lighter version which has been blended out with my finger. I will note that this product blended out fantastically as well as applying like butter!

 

Wear:  I tested out this product on both my lips and face while out and about yesterday here in Honolulu. For the lips I just dabbed it on with my fingers for a sheer wash of color, more of a stained look rather than a full on lipstick appearance then topped that with a bit of lip balm. I will say that this product on the lips does feel dry so while it is a gorgeous color I would suggest that you top it with a little balm before heading out the door. For the face, I applied my normal foundation first then applied this product to my cheeks using just my fingers. It blended out very easily. I then went over my whole face with just a bit of my smashbox halo finishing powder to set, and topped the look off with just a bit of MACs stereo rose which complimented the color perfectly. It was very humid outside, and even while being in the sun pretty much all day dealing with humid conditions my look was still intact by the time I came home that evening! This cream product held up very well :)

 

Final thoughts: All in all I am super happy with this purchase, I really think this product is very worth the money considering the awesome pigmentation, the ease at which it applies, and its overall longevity 



EOTD: feat Notoriously Morbid!

Hello beauties, today I thought I would do an EOTD break down since I am really feeling this look I just did! Most all of what I used came from the recent slay me collection wave 1 put out by Notoriously Morbid, which I have to say I really love! I know sometimes matte shadows get a bad rep but trust me, these are NICE! So anyhow, let me show you what I put together for you and you can be the judge ;)

Products used:

1. Nyx milk- base for lids and eye brow
2. NM-she names the stars
3. NM-teacher in tweed
4. NM-quiet storm
5. NM-boca del inferno
6. Catrice- navy liner
7. Milani- mascara
8. Tarte for True Blood- Fairy shadow

 

 

Breakdown:

This look as pretty simple to create, first you want to take your milk pencil or any white base you have and lay that down all over the lid and into your brows as well. Make sure with your brows if you have dark brows like I do you coat them fairly well and just blend it a bit with your finger (if you have a little comb even better!). Once the base is down, get a flat stiff brush out and pick up she names the stars with it. Make sure you press that color into the lid before you apply it, this will help minimize any fallout onto your face. So basically we just want to pat that color all over our lid stopping at our crease. Once you do this you can take a blending brush and softly blend out the edge so there isn't a harsh line. She names the stars when blended will go a bit blue ;) Next we will pick up teacher in tweed and take that into our crease as a transition color. Starting from our outer corner run that shade back and forth in the crease then blend just above with a fluffy brush. For our brow, and to further diffuse everything we will take quiet storm which is a faint pink shade. We will apply this just above where we blended out teacher in tweed and onto the brow. For some sparkle on the brow I used Fairy from the Tarte cosmetics True Blood palette, but you can use anything you like up there. Along the lower lash I took a mix of Boca del inferno and she names the stars on a liner brush and lined just under the waterline. I then added a navy liner to the actual waterline. The brows are also Boca del infero and She names the stars applied with a liner brush. I simply started with the one shade then began about the middle of the brow for the second shade and built up the color a bit by wetting the brush. To finish I added a coat of Milani mascara

 

I hope you enjoyed this look of the day!

 

Where to purchase: Notoriously Morbid



Candii Blossom Cosmetics Review

Halo & Purple Rain

Hello loves, I am back today with a review of another fab indie cosmetics line known as Candii Blossom cosmetics . Candii Blossom Cosmetics is a cute little Etsy shop run by owner Brenda Ortiz, who first began making her own products as a more economical way of simply enjoying make-up; because lets face it make-up is an expensive love (am I right!). Located out of Ephrata, PA,  Brenda has been gradually growing her business to ship worldwide.

Brenda was kind enough to allow me to review a few of her gorgeous shadows, and was excited to have me be her first shipment to the Hawaiian islands as well! I was able to choose four shadows from her collection to conduct my review, which she shipped to my hot little hands within about a week and a half roughly :)

My picks:

1. Halo
2. Purple Rain
3. Fairyland Green
4. Radioactive

Shipment: The package arrived in a small sealed plastic envelope with all of the clamshell samples wrapped up snuggly in bubble wrap. Brenda also included a thoughtful note for me as well :)


The contents of my review pack: 4 sample sized shadows, adorable business card and very thoughtful note (love personal touches!!)

Here we have a shadow shot prior to digging in for swatches, Top left is Purple rain, top right is fairyland green, bottom left is Halo, and bottom right is Radioactive.

Swatch of Halo applied over too faced glitter glue. I absolutely love this shade of gold, for me this is the perfect shade of gold, that tarnished color!! Agh perfection, ohh and it pairs beautifully with Purple rain ;)

This stunner is Purple Rain Aka the most beautiful purple in all the land! You see all that going on, ohh yeah ;)

Fairyland green!! This is a heavy swatch of fairyland applied over too faced glitter glue just to show how the color can be built up however you can totally layer this color over other bases to get different effects from it! It is such a unique and amazing color

Last up we have Radioactive which is so very pretty! I absolutely love duo chrome shades because you are getting so much more than one simple color. This shade goes from a golden green in one light to a reddish brown similar to Mac club in another light. It is so stunning

Affordability: Sample sizes of each shadow will run you $1 each, collections range between $10-$18 and individual full sized shadows (5gram jars) run at $4

Customer service: My experience with customer service has been great, Brenda makes a great effort in maintaining communication; and even kept track of my package as it made its way out to me :)

Product rating: of the shadows I was able to test out I give them a 10, each had great pigmentation good blend ability and they weren't fussy at all which is a huge plus in my book

Would I recommend? Yes, yes I would! This little shop is slowly growing and if what I was able to test out is any indication of its potential you are in for a very pleasant surprise because I really enjoyed these goodies

Where to buy: Candii Blossom shop
Where to like: Candii Blossom Facebook