Favorite Fall Lip Products

 It is no secret that Fall is my favorite season.  I feel like I wait nine months out of the year for Fall.  The first cool night and I'm ready to break out the sweaters and boots.  I love pumpkin lattes,changing leaves, Thanksgiving and football games on cool Sunday afternoons.  Another one of my favorite things about Fall is dark, vampy lip colors. There are a lot of gorgeous products out there that help to achieve this look.  These are some of my favorites.

Revlon Lip Butters
Sugar Plum: The deep mauve color of this Lip Butter is great for those who like a little darker lip but can't quite commit to a super dark color.

Fig Jam: Hands down this is one of my favorite Fall lip colors.  It is a perfect brown-red with a slightly glossy finish.  One of the reasons that I love the Revlon Lip Butters is because they are so easy to use.  I can typically apply most of them without a mirror and they feel great on the lips. 
Red Velvet: A perfect deep cranberry red.  I am seriously obsessed with these things.  

Chubby Lip Pencils
NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Palais Royal: A deep wine color with a satin finish.  The only thing I had a little trouble with is feathering.  To help prevent feathering I used my Urban Decay Ozone lip pencil underneath as a base and it stayed put. 
Urban Decay Super-Saturated High Gloss Color in Apocalypse: One of the darker colors that I own, Apocalypse is a deep plum with a glossy finish. 
Cover Girl Jumbo Gloss Balm in Jam Twist: Jam Twist is more a wash of bright cranberry color and less opaque than the NARS and Urban Decay pencils. 

MAC Lipstick 
Talk That Talk (Limited Edition): This is a perfect deep maroon color with a retro matte finish.  
Dark Side (Permanent Collection): Dark Side is almost the twin of Talk That Talk but with a creamier texture and slightly glossy finish. 
Sweet Succulence (Limited Edition): This is definitely the darkest lipstick that I own.  It is a deep maroon that has deep purple tones. It is a lustre finish so it is the glossiest finish of the four lipsticks. 
Caliente (Limited Edition): Caliente was released with the Temperature Rising collection - it is a brown - bronze color.  It has a dazzle finish with glitter throughout the lipstick.  One thing I did not love about this particular lipstick is that the glitter can feel a little gritty on the lips.  However, that is not enough to keep it out of my favorites. 

Lip Gloss
MAC Lust for Life (Limited Edition) Lip Glass: Deep berry gloss with a lustre finish.  I hate that I love these limited edition products so much because it makes me not want to use them for fear of running out! 
MAC Liquer (Limited Edition) Lip Glass: This color is so difficult to describe - it is a bronze-brown color with hints of pink.  It is truly stunning. 
MAC Soft Serenade (Limited Edition) Lip Glass: While this is not a dark color it does look beautiful over some of the more matte lip pencils and lipsticks. It is a nude lip gloss with shimmery glitter. 
Revlon Colorburst Lip Gloss in Bordeaux: This is a great dupe for MAC's Lust for Life. 

With any of these deep colors I recommend using a lip liner to help prevent feathering and to maintain the deep color.  I have been loving my Urban Decay Ozone lip liner lately. It is a clear liner that helps hold color and stop feathering.  I have also been using my MAC Talk That Talk lip liner from the RiRi Hearts MAC collection.  It is a dark plum from the Pro Longwear collection and it seriously does not budge.

What are some of your favorite Fall lip colors?

My Current Foundation Routine

As a follow up to my recent post about my current favorite foundation I thought it would be a good time to write about my current foundation routine.  This tends to change because I am always trying new powders, foundations and concealers but for the most part these are the products that I have been using for the past few months.

Before I get into the products that I use let me first tell you a little about my skin.  I was not blessed with a naturally flawless complexion. I have very sensitive, temperamental skin that ranges from normal to oily.  I tend to breakout along my jaw and when I break out it gets extremely red and inflamed.  More often than not the skin around the pimples gets very dry and flaky which can be challenging to conceal.  I also deal with hyperpigmentation from breaking out.  It seems that almost every pimple eventually turns into a little dark mark aka one more thing to try to cover up.  Now that you know a little more about my skin and its challenges on to the products :)

I always begin by priming my skin.  I find that a good primer helps to create a smooth surface for my foundation especially around those dry flaky acne spots.  They also help my foundation last longer through the day.  Right now I am trying out the L'Oreal Revitalift Miracle Blur in the oil free version.  It has a nice texture and I find that it smooths out my skin but this product really is a miss for me mostly because of the price point.  I will be posting a full review on this product shortly.

I like to let my primer sink into my skin for a few minutes before I start applying foundation.  The foundation that I have been loving lately is the Cover Girl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1.  Right now I am the color golden tan but this will change in a few months as my summer tan really starts to fade. One thing I really like about this foundation is that it comes in a bottle with a pump.  I typically use two pumps of foundation.  I pump it out on to the back of my hand and then use my ring finger to evenly dot it all over my face. I really love using my Beauty Blender with this foundation.  I use the round end of the Beauty Blender to take all of that foundation and "pounce" it into my skin until it is all blended out.

While the Cover Girl foundation covers up most of my skins imperfections I still need a separate concealer to help cover up some of the darker marks.  The concealer that I have fallen in love with is the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer.  I just discovered this over the summer and boy oh boy is this stuff amazing. I find that some concealers cling to dry skin but this one does not at all.  It really is creamy and covers up blemishes beautifully. Creamy is the perfect word to describe it.  I will just dot this on top of whatever needs to be covered up and then use my Beauty Blender to blend it out to a flawless finish.

I admit I have gotten caught up in the Kim Kardashian inspired bright under eye look.  I use a few different products to help try to achieve this.  I start with the MAC Prep + Prime highlighter in the color Radiant. Taking the highlighter pen I create a "V" underneath both of my eyes that starts right under my eyes and goes down to about the tip of my nose - the top of the "V" starts at about my tear duct and extends out to where my eye ends.  Once I have that area all filled in with the highlighter I use the other end of my Beauty Blender to lightly blend all of that out.  I don't over blend because I still want it to show up pretty light.  After all of that is blended out I take my MAC Studio Fix concealer in a shade that is about 2-3 shades too light for me (NW-20) and dot a little bit on top of where I just blended out the highlighter.  I find that this just adds to the lightening of that area.  I also blend that out with my Beauty Blender.  To set all of that concealer I use the Ben Nye Banana Powder again on my handy Beauty Blender.  I just tap some into the lid of the container and then using then pick it up using the pointy end of the BB and lightly tap it all over the concealer/highlighter underneath my eyes.

To set the rest of my face I like to use my MAC Studio fix powder.  I use a big fluffy brush and pat the Studio fix into my face.  I have to be careful with this product as it can look very cakey if applied too heavily.  To help combat against the cake face look I spray a little bit of MAC's Fix + on my face after I''m finished. I realize that this sounds like a lot of product but this is what I have found works to help me achieve a nearly flawless face that lasts throughout the day.

What do you use in your foundation routine?

Review: CoverGirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation

This review is actually a little dated since I discovered/fell in love with this product at the beginning of the summer.  I wasn't going to write a review now but felt like I would be remiss if I didn't talk about this truly awesome foundation.

I have always been a high-end foundation kind of girl. When this came out and started getting rave reviews I was curious but reluctant to try it. I have extremely sensitive skin and always believed that drugstore foundations were lesser quality and would break me out.  I had never really found a holy grail foundation.  I tried a few different MAC, Bobbi Brown, Makeup Forever and Clinique foundations but none of them wowed me. In addition to having sensitive skin I have pretty oily skin.  I need a long-wearing foundation that can stand up to my oily temperamental skin and won't slip and slide all over my face throughout the day. On a whim one day while I was at Target I decided to pick up a bottle of this foundation and see what all the hype was about.  At the time I was the shade Soft Honey and have since gotten my summer tan and switched to Golden Tan.

The CG 3-in-1 foundation claims to be a primer, foundation and concealer all in one that provides long-lasting coverage.  It is currently available in 14 different shades and can be found at any drugstore, Walmart or Target. I have seen the price range from $9.49 (Target) to $12.99 (Walgreen's). 

While it is supposed to have a built in primer I still like to use a separate primer.  When I first started using this foundation I tried applying it with a couple different brushes and tools to try to see which I liked best.  The first thing I tried was my Sigma F82 round top kabuki brush.  Using two pumps of the foundation, I dotted it all over my face then blended it out. I really liked the way it applied with the brush.  It gave a very airbrushed finish.  I was still curious to see how my Beauty Blender would perform - using the same method of dotting the foundation all over my face I then used my Beauty Blender to "pounce" the foundation into my skin.  Ladies and gentlemen, we had a winner.  It's like this foundation and the Beauty Blender are a match made in heaven.  The Beauty Blender applied and blended the foundation while covering imperfections but somehow managed to let my skin show through.  I would say that this a medium to full coverage foundation without feeling too heavy or cakey. While it covers almost all of my skin's imperfections I still find myself using a separate concealer for some of the blemishes that it doesn't cover.  I have a few dark marks on my skin from hyperpigmentation that need a little extra TLC from the help of a concealer but for the most part the foundation alone covers a majority of my dark spots/acne scars.

If I set this foundation with a mattifying powder I can get a good 8-hours of wear without having to touch-up my makeup.  I will use an oil blotting sheet throughout the day which helps prolong the wear. The real test was this past summer.  We had a scorching hot summer with some days getting up into the high 90's.  This foundation stood up to even the hottest of days without melting off of my face.  What I like most about this product is that I don't have to work too quickly with it.  When I was using my MAC Pro Longwear foundation I could only do one small section at a time because the foundation would set so quickly.  I always felt like I was in a fire drill racing to get it blended. This goes on and gives you time to blend it out and then sets.

Aside from being long-wearing another important thing I look for in makeup is compatibility with my sensitive skin.  This foundation did not break me out or clog my pores.  I am careful to remove my makeup every night before I go to bed.  I will say that I find myself having to wash my face twice to get all traces of this makeup off but that's not the worst thing in the world. 

This is the only foundation I have used for the past 6-months and I don't see an end in site.  I have since repurchased it and continue to love it.  I am going to take a break after the bottle I am currently using is finished.  I want to try a few more foundations (i.e.  the NARS Sheer Glow and YSL Youth Liberator Serum foundations) but I am sure I will come back to my old friend.

Claims: "All-in-one foundation with a long-lasting formula that fuses primer, concealer, and foundation in one easy step! The 3-in-1 formula provides a flawless look that lasts all day long"
Coverage: Medium to full with a semi-matte finish
Scent: None
Long Wearing: Yes, an average 8-hours of wear
Packaging: Glass bottle with a convenient pump
Price: $12.99 (average) for 1 oz of product - I usually buy mine at Walgreen's when CoverGirl is BOGO 50% and I can also buy my favorite CG Clump Crusher mascara.
Availability: any major retail chain, drugstore or health and beauty store that carries CG

Pros:

• Good coverage
• Long wearing
• Easy to find
• Variety of shades 

Cons:

• I find that while I like the convenience of the pump, it does not get all of the foundation at the bottom of the bottle

Overall: This has quickly become my holy grail foundation and has forever changed my view on drugstore foundation. It is a solid product that outperforms many of its high-end counterparts.

Gloss Balms

It seems like everyone and their mother is making a jumbo gloss balm and they ALL look alike LOL. I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and try some of the jumbo gloss balms myself. I bought one Cover Girl Jumbo Gloss Balm and two Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. I must say - I'm kind of loving them. The first thing I like is that they have a nice consistency and glide on nicely - I like that they are a jumbo pencil that provides a nice even application. They have great color payoff and as promised they stain your lips to leave behind a nice color even after the gloss wears off. I REALLY love that all you have to do is keep twisting them up when they get low - no sharpener required. I bought the colors Honey and Sweetheart/Valentine in the Revlon balms and Watermelon Twist in Cover Girl. I will definitely be looking into more colors.

Current Favorite Mascara

I am absolutely loving the Cover Girl Clump Crusher mascara. I have tiny sparse lashes to begin with so I am always looking for a great volumizing/lengthening mascara. I watched mixed reviews on YouTube. I was in need of new mascara so I figured why not? I had been using Benefit's They're Real and really liked the brush but $23 for a tube of mascara just doesn't seem reasonable. I picked the CG mascara up at Target for something like $7. I must tell you, BEST $7 on a mascara I've ever spent. Not only does it lengthen my lashes it separates them so they don't like like big spiders sitting on my eyes. The brush is a nice hard brush which I like - I find that the fuller softer brushes tend to make my lashes stick together.

I have actually had people tell me what long full lashes I have - ha, I won't tell if you don't ;-)