Pale Products and More

So after lusting over the Anastasia Beverley Hills Moonchild Glowkit until I had the funds for it, I finally purchased it! It retails for $40 on their website, free shipping- no complaints here. I had seen sooo many beautiful, pigmented swatches of this palette so I was pretty excited.

Sadly, when my palette arrived, one of the shades was cracked. But, ABH customer service to the rescue! I emailed them with my issue, and in the span of three emails a new palette was being sent my way. I seriously can't rave enough about this customer service, they replied within ten minutes of my first email, and less than 24 hours after my second email.

So like I said this product is $40 for .15 oz per pan of product. I'm no mathematician so I'm not even going to attempt to break down the cost and do price comparisons. But to my untrained eye it seems like a good deal, lmao.

I'm gonna go ahead and skip finger swatches because there's a million of those online and also its hard to get the accurate swatches on my skin tone.

Now I'm a sucker for crazy intense (blinding) highlight, so this palette was right up my alley. The other reason I was so drawn to this was the shades, obvious there are very little highlighters on the market right now in shades like these (save for Jeffrey Stars', but let's not get me started on that vile piece of trash); you typically see a gold, champagne, or peach highlighter in the mainstream beauty market. As you know I have very cool toned skin and anything golden looks like shit on me, so finding a highlighter is not always the easiest as I tend to be partial towards pure white shades (think Becca Pearl). I only have one highlighter in my collection of an ~unusual~ color (The Face Shop Pink Powder Flash Beam).

So moving on to face swatches and my thoughts on each individual shade.

Blue Ice is the most seemingly "normal" shade in this palette, described on the website as being a "diamond white with an icy blue reflect". This shade when applied is so versatile. I thought it would just be another white highlighter, but no; its got these blue and almost purple and pink reflects to it that give the most otherwordly glow.

blurry but you get the idea, I was having a hell of a time photographing this one

I was really interested in Star, which is a "moonstone fusion of mint, platinum, and silver". To me it just looks silver, not saying that that's a bad thing! Paired with a grey/silver eye and cool toned blush, this shade is killer. It reminds me of like....robots...in a good way.


Purple Horseshoe probably looks the most intimidating in the pan, like that shit. is. purple. ABH calls it a "glittering lavender with arctic blue reflect". The blue reflects definitely show more in the pan than on the face, but if you look closely and/or hit the right like you can notice them. This one paired with Urban Decay's Bittersweet Afterglow blush? Forget it. Perfection.


Pink Heart was not that exciting for me since I already have a pink highlighter, but I was surprised by how much I like it. It comes off a different pink shade than the one I have, so I know I'll be getting my use out of it. "Pearl white with a pink opal reflect" fits it perfectly; it definitely reminds me of opals.


Lucky Clover was the shade I was least excited about, described as a "shamrock infused gold with canary yellow reflects". Literally none of that sounds like it is going to flatter my skin. But when I finally tested it out, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I paired it with Benefit's Coralista and got a really nice, summery cheek. The gold didn't seem to clash with my skin tone!



I really enjoy Blue Moon. First of that's one of my favorite ice cream flavors, secondly the "frozen blue with silver reflect" just pairs so well with my cool skin. Its not overwhelmingly blue blue, you know? Its toned down enough to look wearable (obviously not natural), yet ethereal.


So overall this palette didn't disappoint in any way, and it definitely lived up to my expectations of it. I can't rave about it enough and have nothing negative to say. 10/10.

Up next on my natural deodorant list is the Geo Deo deodorant with "detox complex" whatever that means. I saw this guy while I was browsing my local health food store and did a quick google. The amazon reviews were pretty decent for a natural deodorant (3-4 stars) so I just decided to give it a shot.

You already know my background on my armpits and my sweat (weirdest sentence ever lmao), and if you don't here's a link to the post where its all explained. So no background this time, just straight to the review!

Like always I showered at night, applied this deodorant, then applied some more in the morning without reapplying throughout the day.

The scent I bought is "Island" which is a nice, fruity scent. It smells like a typical fruity deodorant. Its a solid gel- you have to wait a minute for it to dry down.

I would say that anywhere from 3-5 hours after morning application is when I could notice some stink. So this one doesn't fare as well as the Arm & Hammer did, as far as the time test. Now I was only able to test this out on two separate days, and on one of those days I was having a normal school/work day, and the other if I remember correctly I was just doing homework at home. Nonetheless I noticed the stink around the same time for both days, just a stronger smell on the work day.

The reason I could only test this product twice is due to the fact that it caused my armpits to peel. Immediately after application all was normal, and I wasn't exactly looking at my armpits throughout the day so I can't say when the reaction happened, only that it did both days. It looked like when a sunburn starts to peel, and didn't hurt or itch or anything. I have never been sensitive to any ingredients used in any body lotions, perfumes, deodorants, etc, so this was pretty confusing. I have yet to compare ingredients to other deodorants I've used in an attempt to pinpoint what ingredient aggravated my skin, but if I can figure it out I will update this post.

So this review is kind of a bust, I can't really say how well it works, but I can say that after the two days I used it, I wouldn't recommend it at all. Even when I was hardly sweating I started to notice my smell. Overall this product gets a 1/10, maybe a 2/10 if it hadn't caused my pits to peel. Even if I didn't have a reaction, I would not continue to use this product.

EDIT: upon using this product a little longer I find that it only sometimes causes my armpits to peel? Its very confusing. But I can still say this product works pretty terribly. Does not keep me from stinking at all, like I said earlier in the review. I find if I pair it with the Arm & Hammer I stay fresh smelling longer than with just the Arm & Hammer by itself, though.

Some days I do my makeup and I'm like eh okay and some days I really dig it. It feels so good when your look turns into something you didn't even plan and are happy with! That's what happened today, so I decided to do a fotd post.

Ive got hooded eyes and not only that, but one is significantly more hooded than the other; so wings almost never ever work on my eyes. But for some reason today I wanted to wear wings, so I went for it. And on the first try they actually came out okay??? Amazing.

diff lip bc I couldn't decide

its so strange how the two sides of my face look completely different

Okay that's like way too many pictures of my face but I wanted to show off both eyes, because usually I can at least get the right one to look okay, but the left (more hooded) gives me hell.

Face

• Rimmel Fix and Perfect Pro primer
• Missha Perfect Cover no.13
• Manic Panic Dreamtone
• MUFE concealer in y21
• Maybelline Mast Contour palette contour shade
• some random sample of a cream blush that I can't remember off the top of my head (I'm a terrible beauty blogger)
• ABH Moonchild Blue Moon
• Loreal setting spray

Lips

• Ulta lip primer
• Too Faced Lip Injection Color Bomb! in Bigger Berry (first pics)
• a mixture of a ton of lip products including: Nyx smlc Sydney, Too Faced Melted Metal Poeny and Macaroon all like applied then rubbed off lmao (the last two pictures)

Its been awhile since I did a skincare review, so here we are! Today I'll be reviewing my absolute favorite cleansing oil: It's Skin Green Tea Calming cleansing oil. For those of you who don't know what a cleansing oil is here's a little run down. Cleansing oil is used in the same way a makeup remover wipe would be, that is, to remove the makeup and dirt and grime BEFORE cleansing the face. They are generally very hydrating. After using one, you then go in with a cleansing foam/cream/gel to wash your face/the rest of the oil off.

Cleansing oil is the only form of makeup remover I use. Some people prefer to remove their makeup with wipes or liquid makeup remover first, but let's be honest, I'm lazy. So when it comes to a cleansing oil I'm looking for something that will get everything off.

This product retails for $9.75 on Amazon, which is not actually where I bought it. I bought it off my favorite Korean cosmetics store, Jolse.com. But as of right now, the cleansing oil is no longer listed on that website.

The scent is a very light green tea smell. It doesn't linger or perfume your skin.

Most days I wear sunscreen+a full face of makeup (including primer, foundation, concealer, contour, blush, highlight, eye primer, eye shadow, mascara, brows, and lipstick) so I've got quite a bit to take off at the end of the day. I usually squirt about half a pump to a pump out (depending on how much makeup I've got on) and apply to my face, massaging it around in circular motions. I'll take it over my eyes and rub them around, then wipe them off with toilet paper or a cotton round.

This amount takes off my face makeup entirely, and like 95% of eye makeup. If I let it sit on my eyes it takes off 100%. Then I do one of two things: rinse my face or wipe it. Sometimes if I'm lazy or its really late I'll leave it at that and go to sleep (I know, I know, its terrible), BUT that means this doesn't leave enough of a residue for me to feel it.

Overall I'd give this product a 10/10. I really love the scent and the job it does. I honestly have no complaints!

Until recently I never really used concealer. You can see from a few of my posts that I would use the Nyx HD Concealer in Lavender to highlight my undereye area as is popular these days; but I could never find a real skin tone concealer light enough. Like I said its very popular these days to highlight with concealer, so most brands are coming out with very pale concealers, as you need to highlight with one that is one to two shades lighter than you.

With that being said I now have some options when it comes to skin toned concealers. Keep in mind all my concealer reviews will be based on using them on my undereye area, NOT to cover blemishes. I'm just too lazy to conceal any acne that I have.

My first concealer review will be on the MUFE Ultra HD Concealer in the shade y21. I had always glossed over MUFE's concealers although I don't know why, considering their Ultra HD foundation is one of the closest matches to my skin to date.

It retails for $27 for .23 fl oz of product, although the packaging makes it appear you are getting less product, its actually pretty standard. It claims to "cover dark circles, unify the eye contour and hide signs of fatigue, leaving a smooth luminous flawless finish". That all sounds nice and dandy to me. The color system in MUFE's products (as far as I can tell) is when the number is preceded by an R its red or pink toned and when its a Y its yellow toned. (why a bigass brand like MUFE doesn't have neutral undertoned products is something I have yet to figure out)

It lives up to its claims! I think thats due to not over-stating anything that a concealer can't do. They left the claims very simple and sweet and easy to live up to. As far as the color...MUFE's undertones are weird on me. Their yellow toned products run lighter than their pink toned ones, so I usually opt for those, especially since their pink toned products run really orange. Basically I just disregard whatever undertone they put on their products and look for the lightest one, which happened to be y21. It honestly seems pretty neutral on my skin, maybe slightly yellow, but nothing noticeable.

concealer is applied to the right eye only

I wore this product over my MUFE HD foundation and set my face with my Wet n Wild setting spray. I don't ever set my undereye concealer with powder the way most everyone does. I find that no matter the product, a powder always makes my undereyes cakey and ages me.

this eye has concealer

this one has no concealer

Immediately after applying this concealer, it begins to crease into my lines. That's the only negative though, it definitely gives me plenty of coverage and doesn't look cakey. Like I said the shade looks good, not extremely brightening as its about the same color as my skin, but it never claimed to be brightening so I can't really complain, I guess.

Full face with both eyes concealed

after finishing the rest of my makeup

showing how it settles into my line

I think this concealer looks great. My eye folds are so that when I'm not pulling my eye taut, you can't even see the conceal caked into them. Gives plenty of coverage (I don't need much) and looks very natural.

After 6ish hours I still looked great. There was slight caking near the corner of my eye, but honestly that could be due to my inner corner highlight (you can't even see the caking in the pictures so). There's no creasing and it hasn't faded.


Overall I'd give this concealer a 9/10. I really only have the one complaint of it settling into my eye fold, but like I said that inevitable. If I wear this with a more pink toned foundation, the yellow tone of the concealer is more noticeable. So if MUFE made neutral toned products and had this in a slightly less yellow tone, I'd definitely give it 10/10.

My next natural deodorant review is on the Nubian Heritage Indian Hemp & Haitian Vetiver with Neem oil. I found it at my local The Vitamin Shoppe (along with some other brands I hadn't seen elsewhere, that I plan to purchase in the future). It seemed to get decent ratings as far as natural deodorants go so I decided to give it a shot. Its also a black owned business which am I always definitely about!

It retails for around $8.99, which is pretty standard for these kind of, less mainstream natural deodorants. I wasn't too worried about the price since I was already paying like 8 bucks for my clinical strength deodorant anyways.

The smell is nice. Its like...very hard to pinpoint? Smells similar to other hemp products I have smelled but also different. Its a fresh scent but not like the Arm & Hammer one at all.

As always I showered at night, applied this product, then applied more in the morning for entirety of the trial.

From my trial period I can say this deodorant is...not the best. It fades within 3-4 hours WITHOUT any heavy sweating. And if there was heavy sweating involved (I wore this on a day i went to school to work on a group project- aka I had some decent anxiety going on), forget it, wet pits and not a pleasent smell within the hour honestly. Not only does it not last, but it leaves your pits feeling so weird. Almost damp and sticky after you apply it and for the entire day- not pleasant. It also gave me a slight rash, for lack of a better word. It didn't itch or anything but my armpits were clearly slightly red/dark when I used this. Forget about doing any outdoor activities because this isn't going to last through even a second of that.

Even wearing this on a relaxed day with my boyfriend or just sitting at home, it faded in a few hours and left me stinky. Stinky and sticky. No thank you. I found that when applying it after my shower, by the time I was ready to sleep (about 4 hours or so) I already smelled. And all I would in between applying and sleeping was lay in bed on my computer, so that says a lot.

The only way I've been able to wear this is layered with another deodorant (usually the Arm & Hammer which I previously reviewed). Alone? This product gets a 1/10 from me, honestly. I give it one point because I do enjoy the scent.

So today I'm reviewing the Arm & Hammer Essentials Deodorant with Natural Deodorizers. In the next coming weeks/months I will be putting out a few reviews on different natural deodorants.