Tweet Maybelline Mineral Concealer, How Well Do You Conceal?

Hii :) im not sure if you heard, but a while ago, calgary was said to be the second coldest place in the world! aaannd guess where lucky little me lives.. CALGARY! :( i think we hit a low of -33... and thats not even considering wind chill... scary right? haha good thing the weathers starting to get better recently :)

anyways, to get to the point, this cold cold weather makes my skin super dry! as a result, i can no longer depend on my time balm concealer because i find that it is too heavy and starts to cake a little.. which is sad because it normally doesnt happen :( so.. i went off to search for another concealer and ended up getting Maybelline's Mineral Power Concealer in Cream :)

im actually really liking the wand packaging :) more hygienic and easier to apply!

micro-minerals, pure ingredients, naturally luminous finish = count me in!

doe foot applicator = amazing!

First off, lets talk packaging!
most concealers i've used in the past, were in pan form where you had to dig your little fingers in to get the product out. Now when i first tried out the doe applicator, i was amazed! it easily allows you to dot the concealer onto your skin keeping everything nice and clean :)


Also, if you're not familiar with the different types of concealers, i did a little research and it turns out...

you want to try to stick with concealers in wands or tubes for concealing under-eye circles because they tend to be a lighter consistency meaning there are less chances for creasing.


on the other hand, you want a heavier, creamier concealer for covering up any red spots or blemishes and those usually tend to be the ones in pots.

heres a quick swatch of Cream, i didnt blend in fully in so you could see the consistency

now... time for some shots to see if this concealer works or not!


please note: i am  wearing a very sheer coat of foundation but i tried not to apply any to my under-eye areas. all pictures were taken in natural lighting with no flash.

oh.. please ignore the dry areas around my nose. i have been using my clarisonic for a tad too long on my nose and as a result, i think i over-exfoiliated it :( boo.. now i know better lol

nothing applied... i have pretty bad circles :( they're MUCH worse when i smile haha

dotted with doe applicator

blended with fourth finger.. you can still see the area slightly, but i feel that my eyes look more awake :)

just wait.. it gets better lol

take a look at these! (remember, this was just one coat!)

 my right eye is NOT concealed (left side in pic)
and my left eye is concealed (right side in picture)
im sorry haha its a tad confusing but i think you can see the difference right? :)

again, left side (right eye) is not concealed, but the right side is
... i know, my eyes are slightly crossed hahaha

i tested it out for the past few days, and found no major signs of creasing. it stayed on most of the day but do note that i apply the tiniest bit on powder on top to keep it last longer. overall, i'm pretty happy with this! with the dry weather, this concealer is definitely the better choice for my under-eye circles because its not as thick and heavy. plus, if you need a bit more coverage, its buildable! so you can add on another two or three dots and blend awayy! :)


Pros:
- lightweight formula
- doe foot applicator
- relatively inexpensive (around $6-7 CAD)
- can be layered for more coverage
- hygienic and easy application
- no major signs of creasing


Cons:
- not very many shades available..
- medium coverage, might not cover circles completely
- doesnt last ALL day (but it does pretty good for average length days)

Conclusion:
If you have major dark circles, you might need something stronger than this.. but otherwise, i think this concealer's great! especially since it is relatively inexpensive :D haha does a great job of covering without any creasing or caking.. loving it so far!

Tweet ELF Mineral Lipsticks Applied on Lips

- Vacation Note -

I am currently on vacation so the following post is an older post that i wrote up a while back. I have already scheduled a few posts to be automatically posted during the course of my vacation so dont worry, there will still be posts to read! I apologize in advance because i dont think i will be getting any internet connection and therefore will not be able to reply to comments and questions. However, please feel free to continue on commenting and emailing as i will for sure reply to all once i come home or if i ever get internet connection. thank you and enjoy!


P.S. - i am most likely going to start my next giveaway when i come back.. so bookmark Pinkbox Makeup and check back for updates of when it'll start and what you can do to win! :D Im still deciding if i should do one bigger giveaway prize or two smaller ones. let me know which one you think is better in the comments!

- and now.. onto the post! -

Remember those mineral lipsticks that i swatched a while back? Well here are the swatches of them applied on my lips. First up, is ELF's Mineral Lipstick in Nicely Nude!This is my favourite out of the 3 that i purchased. It is kind of like a MLBB (my lips but better) but has a slightly deeper pink tint plus a slight golden shimmer in it. Gorgeous :)

note - for all the below swatches, the ones in natural lighting seem to be the closest to what it actually looks like.

 

Top left - applied on bottom lip

Top right - both lips + flash

Bottom left - both lips natural light

Bottom right - lippie

next one up is runaway pink :) This one is very similar to Wet n' Wild's Think Pink in that it is a bubblegum pink shade. The difference is that this one is a slightly deeper shade (not as pale as wnw) and has more of a shine to it rather than being completely matte.

 

Top left - applied on bottom lip

Top right - both lips + flash

Bottom left - both lips natural light

Bottom right - lippie

Last but not least, here is Natural Nymph applied on my lips! This shade is a concealer type nude in that it completely wipes off any pigmentation that your lips originally had. On me, the color completely matches my skintone and blends my lips into the rest of my face. Personally, im not a huge fan of wearing these concealer nudes by themself, but it would be perfect as a base if i wanted to really bring out the color of another lipstick without having to worry about the pigmenation of my lips OR if i had extreme smoky eyes.

and here are the swatches on my hand that i posted up last time

Natural Nymph, Nicely Nude, Runaway Pink

Natural Nymph, Nicely Nude, Runaway Pink

I hope this helps some of you! I always find that lipsticks show up differently on everyone due to the different pigmentation of everyone's lips. So while some shades may be HG for some, it just might not work for others. However, im sure we all dont like to just randomly purchase a lipstick without seeing what it looks like so i do hope these swatches help out a bit :)

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Tweet ELF Mineral Lippies

Since i've been trying to find a good nude lipstick shade lately, i decided to pick up 3 nude-ish shades along with my ELF haul. The 3 colors i went with are Natural Nymph, Runaway Pink and Nicely Nude.

Natural Nymph, Runaway Pink and Nicely Nude

Natural Nymph, Runaway Pink and Nicely Nude

I actually quite like the packaging of these lippies. They're nice and sleek and seem to be of higher quality. The lipstick names are printed on the top and they also include the logo on the side. Heres a picture! Arent they prettttty :)

packaging

and now for swatches of course :)

note - i accidentally switched the order of the lippies. my bad!

Natural Nymph, Nicely Nude and Runaway Pink

Natural Nymph, Nicely Nude and Runaway Pink

Natural Nymph - a concealer type nude shade

Nicely Nude - a rosy pink nude with gold shimmer

Runaway Pink - a lighter pink nude shade

Overall

these apply quite creamy and smoothly. the colors are pigmented and last on your lips. the only thing is, i find that they sort of settle into lines after awhile as my lips are quite dry. however, this is nothing some gloss or lipbalm wont fix :) However, do note that these lippies are not as moisturizing as most others.. so if you have super dry lips, maybe pass on these..

I will be swatching these when applied on my lips as i know (at least for myself) those swatches are quite helpful.. so keep your eye out for those posts! :)

tell me, have you tried these before? if so, which ones have you tried and which are your favourites? if not, which one would you like to try?

 

  

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Tweet Take a Peek at ELF's Blushes!

Next up on the ELF reviews are the blushes :) I purchased two blushes from their studio line - Fuschia Fusion and Candid Coral - and 3 of their mineral blushes - Joy (mauve lilac), Coral (peachy coral) and Rose (bright rosy pink).

top to bottom, left to right

Fuschia Fusion, Candid Coral

Joy, Coral, Rose

top to bottom, left to right

Fuschia Fusion, Candid Coral

Joy, Coral, Rose

Fuschia Fusion and Candid Coral

Fuschia Fusion and Candid Coral - flash

Fuschia Fusion and Candid Coral - natural light

Joy, Coral, Rose - natural light + flash

Joy, Coral, Rose - natural light

Joy, Coral, Rose - flash

Fuschia Fusion - a bright shimmery light pink

Candid Coral - a gorgeous peachy coral with slight shimmer

Joy - a mauvey lilac shade with pink undertones

Coral - a light coral shade, much more skin toned when compared to Candid Coral which had heavier peach undertones

Rose - a darker reddish pink with hints of peachy orange shades.

Have you tried these blushes before? I know peachykeen and some other studio blushes are quite popular.. but since i already have NARS orgasm and the ELF blush/bronzer duo, i decided to choose some other colors that i dont have much of in my collection :)

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Tweet Major ELF Haul =D

Morning everyone :) remember when ELF had their 60% off sale not too long ago? Well i took advantage of this huge sale to pick up some ELF products i've been really craving! Here is my huge haul! All of these products i think totalled to around $30-40 CAD so it was pretty much $1 for each :D Such a good deal!

My ELF Haul :D

I will be doing separate posts for each group of items i bought so you can all see more pictures, swatches and reviews of each product :) For now, here are some sneak peeks at some of the products! (btw.. ELF ran out of their Mineral eyeshadow primer *cry*.. it was one of the main reason i made this haul in the first place.. but oh well, im happy with all my other purchases!)

ELF Studio products

ELF Mineral Products

ELF Products

My ELF Custom Compact

 

ELF Mineral Lipsticks

ELF Blushes

ELF Eyeshadows

The rest will be posted in upcoming posts! All products will be swatched, tested and reviewed :)  If there are any products you want me to post review and swatches on first, then let me know in the comments!

Did any of you pick up some ELF products during their 60% off sale? Let me know what you got!

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