A New Series: Worth the Fame?

Hello! I think I want to try to do a series on products that have a cult following and whether or not I think they deserve to be put on a pedestal. I know that, like with all thinks makeup, everything comes down to personal opinion, but I’d like to explore why these items are beloved by so many.

In the series, I want to include as much info about the actual product as I can and compare it to similar products, maybe try to find dupes, too. I have a few ideas for products that I want to start off with, but would love to hear back from y’all. What kind of things do you hear about all the time? Is there something that you’ve been curious to try but haven’t, yet? Anything that you’d like a review on specifically?

I’m still coming up with a working title for this series, so bear with me, please. ; ) I know that this isn’t necessarily a new concept and people usually go with a “worth the hype” kind of title, so I’m trying to come up with some other options.

If y’all have watched BuzzFeeds Worth It series, I’m toying with the idea of doing something similar- drug store vs. high-end vs. luxury. I could combine this into one series with the cult favorites or I may develop it into its own series. I dunno.

Sorry this is kind of a rambling post. I’ve got lot’s of ideas floating through my head. (Not just for this blog, but for my other one, Mrs. Beauty Wise Plans. If you’re into planning, please check it out!) I felt like writing it out and, hopefully, getting some feedback would help me narrow down my list of ideas.

New Milani Review… Or,Why You Should Get This Palette.

Hello, again! I’m back with another review! Yay!!!

It’s just a small one, but these are two products that are new. Well, one is new and one is new to me. I’m talking about the Milani Most Loved Mattes palette and the Color Statement Lipstick in Pretty Natural.

Most Loved Mattes in 01 and Color Statement Lipstick in Pretty Natural #43

These lipsticks, while not super long wearing, are unbelievably creamy and so very comfortable on the lips. The color, Pretty Natural, is a beautiful nude/pink that falls a bit more on the pink side and provides a “my lip but better” kind of look. That is a look that I really go for pretty often.

A “my lips but better” color!

As you put it on, the formula glides over your lips and instantly feels moisturizing and comfortable. This is a lipstick that I don’t mind having to reapply because it just feels so good. I really love the scent, too! Instead of going with the typical vanilla or cupcake scent that most companies seem to go with, Milani has scented these lipsticks with watermelon. It’s not a heavy scent, but it’s definitely there. There isn’t really a flavor, though. Maybe a very mild hint of sweetness, but that’s all and the scent isn’t one that lingers. So, if you don’t like scented lipsticks, I think you’ll still be able to wear this one.

Just a quick swatch of Pretty Natural on me.

This color is great for a simple, natural makeup day but also goes surprisingly well with a smokey eye.

You can get Milani products at most drug stores and shops like Target, Ulta or Wal-Mart. You can also check out their official website.

 

Now, to get to the reason y’all are reading this review. Let’s talk about this palette.

This is my new Holy Grail palette!

This palette is the new Milani Most Loved Mattes 01. It. Is. AMAZING!!! There are 12 matte colors in this palette, which is more than you get in most high-end palettes unless it’s a matte specific one, which can be hard to find. And, at a third of the cost of high end palettes, this one is a steal. Why, you may ask? Because of the amazing formula!

If you spend a lot of time with makeup, you know that not all mattes are created equal. Even some of the most expensive brands can be stiff and hard to work with, but you won’t have that problem here! Not only are these colors very pigmented, but they are unbelievably smooth and easy to work with. There is a little bit of dust that kicks up, so make sure you knock the excess off your brush, but I don’t even count that as a negative. I’d rather kick up on a smooth, blendable, and pigmented product than no kick up on a stiff, overpriced, essentially unusable one.

The palette gives a great range of colors, too. You get some warm tones, some cool, and even some neutrals. Plus, with the way they are set up, you don’t have to be a pro to create a look because the colors are laid out in such a way that you can just follow a row and get a great and easy look. Here’s a look at some swatches…

I added a swatch of the lipstick, too, but here are the colors in order-

(1)- Fancy Vanilla (2)- Come Up Roses (3)- You’re A Peach (4)- My Daily Latte                       (5)- Bust A Mauve (6)- Catch A Tan (7)- Toast Of The Town (8)- No Plum Intended           (9)- Hiking In Sedona (10)- Chocolate Is Life (11)- Umber The Sun

Don’t let my lame swatch game throw you off, these colors felt so soft and velvety to the touch and I only needed to dip into the color once.

I think if you’re just building your collection, don’t have much in the way of mattes, or are just looking for a great affordable option then this is the palette for you!

Have any of you tried this one yet? Have I convinced you that you need it? ; ) Let me know! If you have used it, I’d love to see your looks! Tag me on Instagram @mrsbeautywiseplans!

Mini Mother’s Day Haul!

Hey, y’all! I hope everyone had a great weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day! While I celebrated on Sunday with my family, my Mom and I actually had a shopping trip with just the two of us on Monday.

With my husbands crazy busy work schedule and having both of my kiddos all the time, she and I don’t often have time together, just the two of us with no distractions. Since my husband had Monday off, we went to one of our favorite breakfast places and then to the mall.

My Moms gift to me was a new charm for my Pandora bracelet. We have a ton of fish as pets and my favorites are my Oranda goldfish. Even though the charm isn’t supposed to be a goldfish, it reminded me of them and that’s why I picked it. I already have hearts with both of my kids birthstones and a birthstone one for me. Next, I want to get one with my husbands birthstone, but they were out of them on that particular day.

After that, we went to Sephora, or, as I like to call it, my personal house of worship, lol. I always get an excited shiver down my spine when I walk through those glass doors and get my first whiff of a mixture of makeup and perfume. Something that you wouldn’t think would smell good, but it really does. I wish I could find an air freshener that smells like Sephora. 

As I’m aging, I find that I need better skin care. I’ve been lucky with my skin, so far. I don’t have many wrinkles and no age spots. I credit this with having good genes and shunning the sun. When you’re as fair as I am, you burn easily. Even with SPF. It sucks, but I look at my friends that spent a ton of time tanning and I see how their skin has fared and I’m grateful that I didn’t. Also, a big shout out to my Mom for ALWAYS making sure I wore sun screen, even when I didn’t want to. Thank you, Mom!

So, one of my goals was to get some new skin care items to try. My skin is an annoying combination of oily and dry. The dryness is mostly due to dehydration and that’s something I’m really working on fixing. With that in mind, I was looking more for items that wouldn’t exacerbate my oiliness, but would help with my dry areas.

I’ve been reading some reviews on Milk Makeup and their skin care. I’ve used their blur stick before and I really love it, but that’s the only item of theirs that I’ve tried. One of the items I wanted to try was their Watermelon Brightening Serum. I swirled some onto the back of my hand and it felt so good! Soothing and moisturizing without being too heavy.

As I reached for the last one that they had, I saw that they had a mini kit with four of their skin care sticks. It’s call the B.O.S.S. Skincare set and can be found here.

The set includes a really cute and easy to clean travel bag, Matcha Cleanser, Matcha Toner, Watermelon Brightening Serum, and a Cooling Water.

While the sizes are adorably small, a little goes a long way. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a couple of months out of them. Plus, I have a cute and handy pouch to keep them in, though I do keep the cleanser in my shower.

Thanks to the clear packaging, I’ll know when I need to restock and they are super easy to use. The cap on the cleanser can be a little hard to get off if your hands are wet, but that’s not a big deal and I really love how sleek and simple their packaging is. Milk Makeup definitely has a unique visual presentation. As an added bonus to awesome packaging and products, they’re a cruelty free company and that is something that I think is very important and worth contributing to.

The next item I got was the Pro Filt’r foundation in 110 from Fenty Beauty. Want to talk about sleek packaging? They’ve done a stellar job! The bottle the foundation comes in is frosted glass and has a pump. Just the weight of the bottle feels luxurious and, because it’s not covered with frills, the design comes off as elegant while still making a statement.

I’ve only used the foundation once, but I really enjoyed it! The coverage is incredible right off the bat and didn’t make me feel like I had makeup caked on my face. I feel like it did a great job with making my skin look flawless without looking fake. I hate wearing foundation that makes me feel like I have Halloween grease paint on my face and this one does not do that at all.

You can find Fenty Beauty products at Sephora and on the official site.

I’m sure many of you read blogs or watched videos about Fenty when it was first released, but I have to give a shout out to Rihanna for making sure her line was so inclusive as far as shades go. I’d rather spend my money supporting companies that want to include everyone than ones that only want to create for a few. So, if you haven’t checked out anything from Fenty, I HIGHLY recommend that you do.

After having the same concealers for an embarrassingly long time, I decided that I need to get something new. I wanted to try something from a brand that I hadn’t really used before. My staples have always been Urban Decay and NARS, but I was just in the mood for something different and I’m trying to go cruelty free and, unfortunately, NARS isn’t. With that in mind, one of the lovely ladies at Sephora directed me to Tarte and their Rainforest of the Sea Aquacealer.

I’m still making up my mind about it, but so far I think it’s a keeper! It’s an extremely light weight formula and packs a punch with its ability to cover my ridiculously dark circles. I really like the applicator, which is a large doe foot. It makes it easy to be precise with placement. Plus, this is another one with gorgeous packaging! (I’m a sucker for packaging, can you tell?)

The very last item I got was the XO Bite: Prep, Line and Color lip set from Bite Beauty. I’m a big fan of Bite lipsticks! I love their scent (which isn’t the standard vanilla scent that a lot of companies use (not knocking vanilla, it’s just nice to have something different), their different formulas, and their shade range. I really think there’s something for everyone from the nudest nude to the boldest bold and everything in between.

This set came with a beautiful pouch and a full size Agave Lip Balm, a mini lip pencil in shade 032 and three mini Amuse Bouche Liquified Lip colors in Puree, Eclaire and Chutnee.

While these all tend to be more in the neutral zone, I’ll admit that Puree isn’t my favorite color. It’s classified as a burnt orange on the Sephora website and I really agree with that. I’m just not someone who looks good in oranges, in my opinion. The other two colors, though, are beautiful and are ones that I think I might get full sizes of when I use up these minis.

The lip pencil is great. It’s a very in the middle nude. Not too brown, not too pink and not too dark or light. A “just right” kind of color that can stand on its own. You can just apply it all over the lips and cover with a balm or gloss and go. While I love the color and feel it can be used with any of the liquid lip colors that came with the kit, I’m not so amazed by the formula. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad formula by any means. It’s just not blowing my mind. Will it make the lip colors last longer? Yes. Will it define my lips? Yes. It does what it’s supposed to do, but I think there are drug store versions that do the same thing with similar shades and at a much better price point. A full size of the pencil alone is $18 on the Sephora website. For that, the formula would need to apply itself and make my lips look like Aphrodite’s and this formula just doesn’t.

Now, the Agave balm. OMG do I love this stuff!!! While it can be a bit stiff, just hold it in your hand for a minute and it’ll glide across your lips. I apply this every night before bed and on days when my lips are super dry. I suffer from chronic dry lips and have had days where they are swollen, cracked, and bleeding (sounds attractive, right?) and this balm has been a life saver!

All of their lip products are edible, though I wouldn’t recommend eating them, so I’ve felt safe using the Agave balm on my kids when they were babies and teething. They’d get chapped cheeks from all the drooling and I’d rub a little of the balm on to provide a barrier for their skin. My son gets dry lips when it’s cold out and I’ve used this on him for that too. Neither one of my kids have had a reaction and it’s helped them both a great deal.

The only downside to the balm if you get it in the solid form is that it will melt easily. I’ve put it in my pocket and taken it out to use it and it melted and left a gooey mess on my face, so I’d advise either carrying it your purse/bag/backpack or leaving it home. And don’t, under any circumstances, leave it in your car when its warm out! If you do find yourself with a melted balm, stick it in the fridge for a while. Try to get it as upright as possible. That can be hard because of the shape of the packaging, but I find a bit of foil does the trick.

That’s it! That’s my mini haul. I’ll do another review of the products in a few weeks when I’ve had a chance to really test them and form a firm opinion. At first try, though, I’m really happy. Would anyone like me to swatch the lip colors?

Have y’all tried anything new lately? Tell me about it! I’d love to hear back from you.

 

 

P.S.- I know this post is a bit late since Mother’s Day was over a week ago. I’m sorry.

Where Have I Been?!!!!

Not that I have a massive following or that anyone would notice that I haven’t done anything with this page, but I’m back.

Where was I? I got lost in the world of Mommy-hood. And I mean lost. Like, there’s no map and GPS doesn’t work kind of lost.

I have two kiddos now. My sweet and serious B, who is now 4, and my crazy and precious O, who is 2. I know tons of other moms can do the blog thing with kids. I’m not saying I couldn’t have. I’m just saying, badly, that I’ve been overwhelmed and I’m finally getting my balance. Until one of them knocks me over again. And I mean that both literally and figuratively. They are the greatest joys of my life and, often, the greatest sources of anxiety, but I wouldn’t change my life for anything else.

So, here I am. Trying to figure out where to direct my creativity now that my babies are more mobile and discovering their independence. I’ve started new hobbies, but my first love will always be makeup.

I’ll admit, I’m not super up to date with current trends and, more often than not, I go without makeup. A- because my kids couldn’t care less about how I look and B- because said children want to get into my stuff and put makeup on too. If Mommy is doing it, then why can’t we? I’ve resorted to getting them really inexpensive things to use just to get them to stay out of my expensive and/or favorite items.

This is where I’m going to invite ya’ll on my new journey of getting back into the swing of things. Getting hip with the new trends. That’s a cool way to say it, right? Is hip still being used? No? Fuck, I’m getting old.

What are ya’ll into these days? Any new trends or products you want to know about?

Unproductive-

Both my babies had check ups today. O for her 4 month, B for his 2 year. Both got shots. Neither are reacting well. Today has been spent taking turns cuddling. So, no blog work done, though I’m almost done with a post. I’m not happy with the pics I took, so I’m redoing them. I’m hoping to get it up tomorrow. Stay tuned…

Lets Get It Started!

So, I am excellent when it comes to making plans and coming up with grand schemes. I have notebooks filled with notes on successful blogging. I’ve got a folder with tons of ideas for posts. I’ve been researching techniques for writing a successful blog and how to take amazing pics.I have lists. I have lists for lists.Most importantly, I have a passion for what I want to write about. My problem doesn’t lie in the planning. Oh, no. It lies in taking action!

I’m notorious for wanting to start something- diets, journaling, jewelry making, new health regimens, going to the gym, etc. I either never do it, or I give up on it. I’m impossible to addict, though I’m sure my husband would disagree and cite my growing makeup collection and hoard of ebooks as his proof.

What do I do consistently? Nothing. I’m shit at sticking to schedules, which, let me tell you, makes parenting even harder. Things tend to happen on a whim or because my husband, the go getter of our family, pushes me to get things done and makes the plans. I think a lot of this stems from an inherited gift for procrastination. I come by it honestly, trust me. Also, I’m just a lazy person. It’s not a flattering trait to possess, but I own it. Admittance that you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? I swear, if I was an animal, I’d be a great big house cat. The kind that just sits there and watches the mouse eat my food because it’s less effort. Shameful, right?

That’s where this blog comes in. This is my way of being held accountable. I plan to blog weekly at the very least. I’m hoping to do it more frequently, but with two littles (2 years and 4 months respectively) life gets hard, especially when you’re trying ti integrate a new routine when you have no routine.

This blog is going to be about beauty, which is my happy place. As I’m a stay at home mom, I’m sure stories about my kids will make it into here as well. They are kinda the center of my world right now. This blog will be my calm in the storm. My place just for me (and anyone willing to deal with my brand of crazy). Don’t get me wrong, my babies bring immense joy into my life. They are amazing, beautiful little mixes of my hubby and me. They also drive me to want to drink some days. Or, run away and hide. Mostly, because they are such mixes of my hubby and myself.

Here’s what I promise y’all-

I will ALWAYS be honest in my reviews.

I will NEVER badmouth another blogger, youtuber, etc.

This space is meant to be fun and lighthearted. A community for people who love makeup. Somewhere to help build each other up. So, I ask that we all practice the Golden Rule: IF YOU HAVE NOTHING NICE TO SAY, THEN DON’T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL!!!

I’m always open to suggestions on how to make this blog better, things to review, tags to do, topics to talk about…