May 2012 Favorites!

Hey everyone!

Make sure you all go enter my giveaway!  It ends June 4, which is coming up SO soon!! You can win lots of goodies from Bath and Body Works, NYX and Maybelline!  

Can you believe it's the end of May already?! It's officially June, which means it is time for a May favorites post!  I don't usually do 'favorites' posts, but this month I've discovered a ton of new products that I love, so I have to share! :)

My first favorite for the month is my new Conair You Curl XL Wand.  If you all have read my Conair Hot Rollers Review, you know that the wand was never really my thing.  But now that I've broken down and bought one, I love it.  It takes a little longer than hot rollers or a regular curling iron, but I really like the way it makes my hair look.  I got mine at ULTA for about $27.

Next is all of my makeup favorites.  I will have reviews of most of these coming soon--so I'm just going to go over them quickly!  

First is Benefit's Erase PasteConcealer.  I'm obsessed with this, it works so well under my eyes.  It's extremely creamy and blends so well with my skin!  Mine is in the color Medium.

Next is Covergirl's Lashblast 24 Hour Mascara in the color Very Black.  I'm not usually a huge Covergirl fan, but when it comes to their mascaras, I'm obsessed.  This literally does stay on for 24 hours but it still comes off with a normal makeup remover (you don't have to use waterproof makeup remover).

As you all know, I love NYX cosmetics and neutral eyes, so when I ran out of my NYX Trio Eyeshadow with Aloha, Mink Brown and Deep Bronze (which I'm giving away one of HERE!!),  I ran to ULTA and picked up this one in the color set "Dune".  It's the perfect shimmery neutral palette for summertime and I'm loving it SO much!

Now the Maybelline blush is actually something I've had for about a year now.  I just found it when I was cleaning out my makeup and started using it, falling back in love with it!  It's in the color "Pinch o' Pink".  It's such a cute pink color for a little rosiness on your cheeks for summer nights, with a little shimmer in it as well!

The only nail polish I've been using lately is essie's 790 A Crewed Interest from their A Spring to Invest In collection.  It's such a pretty, light peach color that looks good on all skin tones!

Finally, I couldn't forget to mention the Maybelline Baby Lips products!  The one pictured is the clear one, Quenched, but I also love Pink Punch and Peach Kiss.  If you enter my giveaway, I'm also giving one of these away! :)  They're super moisturizing and perfect for the summer months.  They also have SPF in them, so they protect and moisturize at the same time!

I only have one favorite left, and it's my favorite of all favorites!  It's my Lemon Mint Leaf candle from Bath and Body Works.  If you follow me on twitter then you know I've been tweeting about it nonstop since I bought it!  It literally makes your room smell like a sweet yummy lemonade stand!  The mint isn't super noticeable, but it helps to even out the super sweet lemon smell!  I'm seriously obsessed, I need to stock up on them!

I hope you all enjoyed!

What are your favorite products lately?

Comment and let me know!

**DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! :)

xo Sarah

Review: NYX Stay Matte but Not Flat Powder Foundation

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all having an amazing week so far!  I've started my summer job again (as a lifeguard), and I'm loving it! :) I've been really busy though, which is why my posts have been lacking a little! I'll try to get better! :)

Remember, there's less than a week left to enter my giveaway! You can enter it here!  It's full of Bath and Body Works Candles, NYX lip gloss and more!

Anyway, as you all probably know, NYX is one of my favorite 'drugstore' brands, but the only store I could actually find their products at was ULTA.  Well, recently, they started carrying a larger selection of NYX products, so of course I had to try some out!  I had never tried their foundations before, so that was the first thing I went for.  I grabbed a bunch of products, but I was most excited to try NYX Stay Matte But Not Flat Powder Foundation!  

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So, as you can see, I've hit pan on this product.  The reason I bought this in the first place was because summer was coming, and even those like me with super dry skin can tend to get oily in the summertime (especially if you're always outside in the sun!).  I wanted something that could keep me from getting shiny.  

Although some say that during the summer it's not good to wear powdery face makeup (because if you sweat it can look cakey), I've found that wearing powder is a LOT less heavy on my skin, making it more wearable in the summer.  I've always been a fan of the Bare Minerals Matte Foundation, I wanted to try something a little less expensive and see if it works.

Price: I believe this was around $8 or $9 at ULTA, but you can also purchase it on the NYX website for $9.50.  It's pretty standardly priced for a good drugstore brand face product, I think.  

Quality:  Honestly, I think it was a little too cakey on my face during the winter and early spring, mainly because I tend to have extremely dry skin.  It has decent coverage at first application, but it is easy to build.  As summer has started and I've been in the sun & sweating more, my skin is more hydrated so the product seems to cover my skin better than when it was cakey and dry.

Alternatives: Like I mentioned earlier, the Bare Minerals Matte Foundationis my holy grail product for the summer if I'm looking for a very light, daytime matte coverage.  It is pricey though.  NYX also makes a liquid version of their Stay Matte Not Flat foundations, but I have yet to try it out!  Let me know if you do!

Overall:  This product was exceptional, but not great.  When I was primarily using the product, though, I did not have the ideal skin type (aka dry) for using a matte foundation.  Now that my skin is hydrated though, I'm enjoying the product more.  If I run out, I may repurchase for the summer just to see if I really do like it better on my non-dry skin!  Overall, I would definitely recommend this for people with shiny or oily skin, because it seems to soak up all the extra moisture on my skin!  If you have dry skin, I wouldn't recommend this for you, just because it didn't absorb the right way into my dry skin.  But, feel free to try it and let me know if it works better for you! :)

What's your favorite matte summer foundation??

Comment and let me know!

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!! <3

xo Sarah

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