January 2016 Favorites

The first favorites video of the year is finally here! January was such an exciting and productive month for myself. I found myself in a good posting schedule and extremely motivated to create new content. This past month I also introduced the Beauty Bite videos which have become a very fun way for me to quickly review products and share them with you. I did go a little crazy with the reviews, but there were so many drugstore launches in January that I wanted to review as many items as possible before any of you headed out to the stores. Some of the new products were very disappointing *cough Maybelline cough* but I was able to discover two products which became staples this past month.

Radiant Makeup Tutorial

As much as I go on and on about keeping things matte, sometimes even someone like myself can appreciate a nice and healthy glow. In today's tutorial I'm going to show you how easy it is to achieve a radiant makeup look without looking like a greasy mess. I actually wore this makeup look in my L'Oréal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation review and I got so many requests to recreate this particular look. As simple as this look may be, I didn't have anything like this in my channel which surprised me quite a bit considering my makeup style. Plus this would make for such a pretty Valentine's Day look since that's right around the corner!

Review | Affordable Brush Set from Born Pretty Store

By now you all know that I'm all for affordable brushes and products when they're perform well. When it comes to brushes (even cheap ones) I want them to be soft, perform well, and also have a nice shape. When I came across this affordable set of brushes on Born Pretty Store, I have to admit that I was very excited to test them out. The shapes of the brushes looked perfect for foundation, contour, blending out concealer, and blending out eyeshadows. I had an elaborate idea of creating a review/tutorial so I could demonstrate how each brush works, but unfortunately things didn't go as planned. Let's just say that there's only so much I can do with these brushes and they're definitely not as great as I was hoping they would be.

Review | NYC Lovatics by Demi Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay has unleashed the beast otherwise known as the Naked palette dupes. It seems like every brand from L'Oréal to Covergirl has jumped on the bandwagon and have released their own version of the beloved neutral palette. NYC is the latest brand to release a neutral palette and they enlisted their spokeswoman, Demi Lovato, for the release. The new Lovatics by Demi Eyeshadow Palette contains 12 eyeshadows with a variety of undertones and finishes. You have a little bit of everything in this palette, which is an amazing thing considering Lovato's diverse fanbase.

Top 15 of 2015

Last year was an amazing year for both myself and the beauty world! 2015 was the year of highlight on fleek, contouring the crap out of your face, matte lipsticks, and messy hair. I tried out and purchased many products throughout 2015, but in today's post you're going to hear about the best of the best (well, according to me). These are the products that I would reach for the most, and some which I repurchased several times. All of these products have been mentioned in previous monthly favorites, but they're so good that they deserve yet another shoutout.

Review | L'Oréal Colour Riche Eyeshadow

When it comes to drugstore eyeshadow, L'Oréal is absolutely killing it! I've been a huge fan of the Infallible eyeshadows for over 4 years now and recently they released the Colour Riche Eyeshadows in the United States. If you're from the UK or follow a lot of UK based bloggers like I do, then you've seen these eyeshadows plenty of times already. My friend Sofia sent me two shades about two Christmases ago and it took the U.S. over a year to get these little pigmented beauties. The new Colour Riche Eyeshadows are a gel infused pressed pigment that have a beautiful sheen. In this review I will be showing you swatches, as well comparing these to the Infallible eyeshadows and their UK counterparts.

Shop Miss A Haul

Everything you see in this picture was $1. Yes, everything! I can't be the only one that feels so much satisfaction when hauling dollar items, so when I first heard about Shop Miss A I knew it was going to be a website I would enjoy a lot. Shop Miss A is a Texas based online store that offers makeup, accessories, jewelry, and hair items for just $1. They offer brands like E.l.f., Kleancolor, Beauty Trends, L.A. Colors, and Starry. What I loved the most was the attention to detail, everything on the site has really clear pictures and many of the makeup items are swatched (some with on different skintones). This is surely going to be the first of many Shop Miss A hauls since I was so pleased with the products and the whole shopping experience.

Two Maybelline Failures

January was the month that we received a plethora of new launches at the drugstore. To be completely honest, even I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of new products that hit the shelves. Among the new releases, I was particularly excited to see what Maybelline would launch since it's one of my all-time favorite drugstore brands. Two items that really caught my eye were Vivid Matte Liquid and the Master Prime Long-Lasting Eyeshadow Base in Prime + Matte. As excited as I was to try these products out, the excitement quickly turned into disappointment once I saw how both of these wore throughout the day.

Review | L'Oréal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation

I'm finally getting around to posting the highly requested review on the new L'Oréal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation. This is L'Oréal's version of the highly popular Korean cushion foundation trend and the drugstore counterpart of the Lancôme Miracle Cushion Liquid Cushion Compact Foundation. If you're not familiar with the cushion foundations, they're meant to be breathable foundations that allow the person to control the amount of coverage that they want. Cushion foundations resemble BB and CC creams in a way since most will have a hydrating formula and sun protection. Another thing that characterizes a cushion foundation is the thin powder puff that's used to tap the foundation on your face. Cushion foundations are making a big wave in the western beauty world and L'Oréal is the first big drugstore company to take the plunge.

Outfit of the Day | The Southern Californian Coat

Do you know how hard it is to find the perfect coat for a Southern Californian winter? Most coats are way too thick for our temperate winters, but this past Christmas I was gifted the most perfect coat. The wool coat from Zara isn't too thick but it's more than enough to keep me warm when it's a bit chilly outside. It can be dressed up to look more chic, or dressed down with a pair of sneakers. And it's the best coat for layering! I was definitely missing a classic coat like this one in my capsule wardrobe, but thankfully my goddaughter knows about my very plain style very well.

Birchbox January 2016

New year, new subscription service! This year I'll be opening Birchbox boxes with you on my channel and blog. I've heard lots of great things about the Birchbox service, as well as their rewards program so that's why I went ahead and subscribed to this. Plus a lot of the brands I love like Avène, theBalm, and Living Proof are sold on Birchbox! I was so pleased with my December box (which I unboxed on Snapchat), so let's check out what products I received in my January box.

Makeup for Sick Days

It's flu/cold season and I know that sometimes you're forced to go outside, whether it's for school or work. While you may feel like crap, there are some simple steps you can take so you look your best. I wasn't even planning on filming something like this until I caught a cold myself. When I woke up this past Tuesday I felt like just staying in bed the whole day, but instead of doing that I decided to make the best of it and record an impromptu tutorial. I mainly focused on evening out my face and lifting certain areas with light diffusing products so I wouldn't look as sick as I felt. The end result is a natural look that doesn't feel heavy on the skin whatsoever. Hopefully these quick and simple steps will help you show the cold who's boss!

My Introduction to Nails Inc

Nails Inc polishes has been on my wish list for such a long time thanks to Vivianna Does Makeup and in December I finally got the chance to try them out. As a nail polish addict, I always get excited to try out a new nail polish range especially one as hyped as Nails Inc. I managed to find some bottles on sale recently because all of the bottles will be getting a little chic makeover so they can have the same luxe look as the Nail Kale range. The formula has to be one of the best I've encountered, and the brush makes it incredibly easy to get even coats of color. I currently own three nail colors and one glitter, but you already know that I'm thinking of more colors to pick up. I think it's safe to say that Nails Inc has completely stolen my heart.

Review | CoverGirl Plumpify Blast Pro Mascara

The new CoverGirl mascara has arrived and this one has the most interesting brush I've ever seen. The Plumpify Blast Pro Mascara has a rubber brush with three different kinds of bristles to plump and lift the lashes. CoverGirl claims that the Plumpify Blast Pro Mascara will give you 50x more volume and separation. I personally wasn't the biggest fan of the CoverGirl The Super Sizer Mascara so I was a bit hesitant to try another new CoverGirl mascara, but ultimately the strange brush got the best of me and I had to purchase it. In today's review you're going to be able to watch my first impression, as well as get to read about what I currently think about the mascara.

Top 15 Memories of 2015 and Goals for 2016

Happy New Year, everyone! As my first video and blog post of the year, I decided to make a chatty video about my favorite memories of 2015. I thought it would be so much fun to share the moments that meant a lot to me and those that I was really proud of. You'll also be hearing some of my personal and YouTube/blogging goals for 2016 in this video. If you're one of the people who wants to see a room tour or makeup collection video, I'm making it a goal of mine to get around to posting both of those videos in 2016. To hear more about my memories and goals, just click below to watch the video.