My Foundation Routine :)

I'm one of those unfortunates of the world that has oily skin. Before I discovered and tried my current products, by the time I would get home from my day, my face would look like a nappy mess. After much research and trips to Sephora, I finally found products that would help everything stay put throughout the day. So here is my full foundation routine:

1. Wash your face of all dirt and toxins (I use the Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser-found anywhere like Walmart, Target, CVS, etc...LOVE this wash! Makes my face tingle with a cool burst that makes me feel so fresh especially in the morning!)

2. Moisturize your entire face with Murad Oil Control Mattifier with SPF 15 (I used to think MOISTURIZE was a curse word for people with oily skin but this does EXACTLY as it's name says!-featured in Allure Magazine)

3. Take a few drops of Philosophy Total Matteness Oil Free Mattifying Pore Eraser and pat this all over the face (You'll see your pores shrink and the excess oil suck right up!)

4. Take a small amount of Becca Ever-Matte Poreless Priming Perfecter and apply this to all the oily problem areas (Don't put this all over the face! It will make your face feel super tight! I usually apply this to my T-Zone: under my eyes, forehead, nose, and chin...Even if you choose to skip the first two products this is a MUST products for anyone who has oily skin! Priming the skin is KEY!)

5. With my dampened Real Techniques sponge (I reviewed previously) I apply my foundation all over my face and part of my neck to blend it all in. I use Kat Von D's Lock-It Tattoo Foundation in shade Number 62. This foundation is an almost gel like foundation which gives you full coverage that lasts all day! It's perfect for people to cover entire tattoos so a blemish?? Pish posh! It's nothing!!

6. Set all your makeup with a loose powder (I feel like a loose powder is better since I already have foundation on. A pressed powder has some sort of coverage to it and you don't want to look cheesecaked remember!).

You're all done!! It looks like a lot, but it really isn't! It's a quick routine that makes you look and feel flawless and not oily at all! For those who have oily skin like me should definitely try this routine and let me know if any of these products work for you!

Coastal Scents Secret Coupon Alert!

Hello Beauties!!

Just checking in to let y'all know there is a "secret" coupon code that WORKS on the Coastal Scents website! For those of you who don't know what Coastal Scents is check out the website: www.coastalscents.com. They are one of my FAVORITE affordable yet amazing makeup sites!

Get 25 percent off your TOTAL PURCHASE!! The coupon code is "25off" and is case sensitive so type it exactly like this in the Promo Code section when you check out. The promo code expires on February 28, 2014 so DO NOT miss out (I know I'm not)!! Also if you spend 50 dollars get free shipping...and that's 50 dollars before the 25% off your total purchase! How awesome!!

I will be reviewing A TON of Coastal Scents products in the future so always be on the look out, but I will list a few of my favorite products so you have some ideas on your purchases!

• 88 Metal Mania Palette (The perfect palette for ANY look-all metallic shades and a perfect single palette to take on vacation!...seriously you can have anything to a neutral, to color, to a smokey eye!)
• Hot Pots (single eye shadows that come depotted and they sell empty palettes too! MAC sized as well as MAC quality!)
• 28 Neutral Palette (My everyday go to palette-Matte, satin, and shimmer shades)
• 22 Piece Brush Set (The BEST bang for your buck brush set for ANY makeup artist! It's affordable and the brushes are seriously SO SOFT!-I tell the quality of a set when the bigger brushes are soft and this is it)
• 88 Ultra Shimmer Palette (A MUST for any Beauty! All the basic shadow colors to begin anyone's kit!)

If you guys have any further questions please feel free to comment below and ask! I love to help!!

Happy Shopping, 

Sara :))

OPI Take Ten

I LOVE doing my nails, doing other people's nails, and of course getting my nails done (what I do most of the time). I'm one of those people who goes to the nail polish section in a store and tries all the colors on my nails...if I don't have acrylic powder on (BAD, I know). My toes haven't been bare for almost a decade. Buying upper brand polishes such as OPI, Orly, China Glaze, Butter London, Ciate, Julep, and way more, means spending anywhere from 8-18 dollars on a bottle of nail polish.

For me, I never really finish a whole bottle of polish before it either dries out or splits into some funky weirdness.Colored polishes never run out...because let's face it, we never paint our nails the same color every time. I think that China Glaze, OPI, Ciate, and Orly have done an amazing thing by creating mini polishes. You actually either finish or get super close to actually using a whole bottle of polish FOR ONCE! And if you really LOVED the color you can go and buy a full sized polish if you like.

During the Holidays especially, these brands come out with entire sets of minis. This past Christmas I saw the Take Ten polish set by OPI in numerous places. This set is perfect for those who don't like to wear the crazy hot pinks, blues, greens, purples, and other wacky colored polishes. It's perfect for me since the craziest color I would ever wear is navy blue!

The OPI Take Ten Set (I know it looks amazing!)

Now that the holidays are long gone, I went to Ulta a couple of weeks back and with a coupon ($3.50 off $10) I bought this for around 9 dollars...wait what?! Yes guys NINE DOLLARS! It's on clearance with a whole bunch of other mini polish holiday sets. The set comes in two separate boxes: the top box has more neutral colors and the bottom is the vampy dark set (which I LOVED). Overall it is a great buy with only about 3 polishes I thought were so-so. The polishes I have below in BLUE I would buy in a full size and the polishes in GREEN I thought were so-so.

Color Break Down starting from the top left:
1. Pirouette My Whistle: a silver glitter with bigger chunky glitter (Wasn't that great. Went on patchy)
2. Alpine Snow: the perfect opaque white I use for french (Loved it!)
3. Bubble Bath: a classic nude/pink (Wish it were more opaque. Even with 3 coats it wasn't opaque enough)
4. Tickle My France-y: a deep pink taupe rosey tone (Loved it! A very different color!)
5. You Don't Know Jacques!: A deep gray taupe (I already have this in Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Polish in Commander In Chic...but I love this color and it's a perfect dupe!)
6. Cajun Shrimp: A orange red tone (Very cute for that summer look but too orange for my skin tone)
7. Big Apple Red: the perfect red nail polish every girl needs! (One of my favorites!)
8. German-icure: a brown red metallic hue polish named for the beer color (SO unique)
9. Malaga Wine: a deep bloody maroon red (perfect red wine polish-very sophisticated)
10. Lincoln Park After Dark: deep purple almost black (Super vampy and one of my favs. I used to have it)

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Hello Beauties! 

When I first heard about the Beauty Blender through the Allure magazine, I was definitely interested. It was a sponge which gave you a flawless finish to your foundation without making you look cheesecaked. The problem? The Beauty Blender retails at a whopping $19.95 (talk about an expensive Spongebob!). Apparently this thing was supposed to be sent from the Greek Gods to beauty geeks and freaks, but 20 bucks!? For those of you who don't know what a beauty blender is...BEHOLD:

Yeah it doesn't look like it's worth 20 bucks, but after looking at reviews I thought it was worth a shot trying it. I went to Sephora and had my full foundation trialed with a Beauty Blender, and let me tell you...it was like MAGIC in Disney World. I was in to purchase it THAT very same day, but of course the store was sold out. I came home and YouTubed random stuff and  stumbled upon a YouTube review by a European makeup artist. He had found a dupe for this little guy! Real Techniques is a brand created by YouTube Guru, Samantha Chapman (For those who don't have any idea what I'm talking about...She is AMAZING and of course she has that cool for school Euro accent). Of course Sam thought a 20 dollar sponge was not worth it, so she developed a sponge with the sample technology as the Beauty Blender at nearly a 1/3 of the price (yes she is a Greek Goddess herself). And well Behold of the little sucker she came up with: 

The Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge retails at (drum roll please....) $5.99! Yes...it's only 6 bucks and does the same thing a Beauty Blender does. I obviously ran to Ulta (It's only sold here and with a 20% coupon it's even cheaper!!) and picked one up. After several uses, I came to a conclusion: It isn't EXACTLY the same as the Beauty Blender, but it's SO CLOSE that you would go for this one hands down.With the Ulta coupons you can buy FOUR of these versus ONE Beauty Blender. The only thing I would say is different between the two is the actual texture of the sponge itself, but as far as application goes...you get the same flawless finish as promised!

How it works (Yes I do this too!): So you take this life altering ball of orange cuteness and get it nice and soaked in lukewarm water. Then you squeeze the living eyeballs out of it till there is no water coming out at all (I also squeeze it in a dry towel just to get ever last drop out). The reason for using this sponge damp is that it eliminates it from drinking half of your $40 dollar foundation and it also helps give that flawless finish. Spot your face with your foundation and blot and dapple with sponge all over your face, working the foundation in very well. To wash the sponge just run it through lukewarm water and some light soap. It's amazing let me tell you! I can actually tell the difference in using this versus all the other techniques! I love this sponge and would DEFINITELY recommend for all of you to invest in one of these! Try it out and let me know how your experience was! 

Check y'all later, 

Sara :))

Well Finally!!

Sooo...

I've probably been putting this off for a good sum of 5 years or so. After explaining products and such to a million people (ok so maybe like 30), I've finally made the decision to make a blog about my beauty experiences. There isn't much I haven't sampled or tried as far as products go: from nails, hair, and makeup. I'll even throw in random sale alerts and steals, and I am also huge on finding dupes because not everyone likes to spend 30+ dollars on a makeup brush. I love answering questions and enjoy trying out new products and reviewing them, so fasten your seat belt cuz this is gonna be a crazy ride (no I'm just kidding...how crazy can this really get??). So from pinterest ordeals to real life ordeals I will be going through it all! Check in for my first review (AND A DUPE! YES YES!) for the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge.

Check y'all later

Sara :))