No7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Water

So I was in Target the other day, looking for something completely unrelated, when I stumbled across this Boots No7 brand Beautiful Skin Cleansing Water!

I've heard of cleansing waters before, and know about their popularity in the UK (especially brands like Bioderma and Clarins), but haven't really been inclined to go in search of them--I know they are hard to find in the States, and I am too lazy to locate any of the other, more expensive versions online.  Needless to say, I was pretty pumped when I discovered this one, and in Target, no less!

It ran about $9, and comes in a pump bottle, which is pretty handy for product rationing.  

Initial Thoughts:

     I used this to remove my makeup tonight, and while it had a nice smell, removed my makeup fairly well, and left my face feeling pretty clean--it left a weird stickiness on my face after I used it!  Now, I'm going to have to text it again for morning cleansing without having to remove my makeup, because that may have had something to do with the sticky feeling.  It's slightly disappointing so far, as I was expecting it to dry nicely and leave my face mattified.  However, I'll have to try it more than once to make sure!

    If that doesn't work out, I can use this as a pre-soap cleansing to get my face super squeaky clean.  

Bumblebees and lampshades! I'm outskies.

Urban Decay Ammo Palette

Another Hautelook find!  Urban Decay was featured a few weeks back and included a few palettes, including this one and the Mariposa.  Since I'm a bigger fan of neutral colors and shy away from brights (glasses, small eyes, you get the picture), I decided to go with the Ammo.  Plus, it sounded way more badass. :P  This is the original version of the palette (Urban Decay relaunched it in January with a different package design, a brush instead of a sponge-tip applicator, and Primer Potion).  

Fancy design coming from a fuzzy pistol....woooooo

Shadows inside!

Swatches! Yeah!

Most of these colors are shimmery, some with slightly bigger glitter.  

Colors:

1. Smog--a really nice bronzey-brown shimmer--I love this color, and it has nice pigmentation.
2. Mildew--an olive green shimmer--This looks more wearable than I expected--it seems to have medium payoff, but I'm sure you can build it up.
3. Oil Slick--a glittery black
4. Last Call--a berry red shimmer
5. Chopper--an awesome shimmery copper--I LOVE this color.  It has great color payoff and it's SO pretty!
6. Maui Wowie--a shimmery golden yellow--This reminds me of pineapple!
7. Shattered--a nice light teal-blue shimmer--This is really pretty and has nice pigmentation!
8. Polyester Bride--a glittery white
9. Grifter--a shimmery light purple--this actually swatched into a beautiful color! Can be built up, but I even like the color with one swipe!
10. Sin--a shimmery champagne--oh goodness, this one is gorgeous! Good color payoff and a lovely sheen.

So far, I've only used Smog, Chopper, and Sin together in a really pretty light shimmery bronzed look--perfect for summer and the colors complement each other perfectly.  

The shimmery shadows are very smooth and creamy.  The glittery are a little more chunky feeling, but I think if you packed them on with a brush they could come out pretty well.  

I'm looking forward to using more color in my eye looks, and I think this was a perfect addition to my nude-heavy eyeshadow collection!

Grifters and Choppers, I'm outskies.  

theBalm Down Boy, aka My New Favorite Blush

Ok, so I know that literally every other post I make here is about something from theBalm, but a bunch of weeks ago, Hautelook featured theBalm and I couldn't help adding to my already pretty big collection of theBalm blushes.  Luckily for my wallet, the prices were a good 50% discount, and I limited myself to just one.

Down Boy is a matte pastel pink shade of blush/shadow.  And I easily admit that I love it.  It creates such a perfect natural flush on my skin tone, and it doesn't add any shimmer to my face, which I like a lot.  In the pan, it looks waaay more pastel than I ever thought I would like, but once it's blended, it's really really great.  Again, like most blushes from this brand, a little goes a long way.  These bad boys are pigmented! 

Swiped and blended!

So basically, there's nothing from theBalm I've tried that I haven't liked. Bam!

Boytoys and blushes, I'm outskies!

July Ipsy Bag!

Time for this month's Ipsy bag!  The theme for this month was "Beach Beauty."  Now, I live in the middle of nowhere, and there aren't really any beaches around.  However, I do tend to go for more natural looks and summery warm colors are nice.  I also checked out the Glam Bag hints on the ipsy website and based on the comments knew what to expect, and was pretty excited for my bag to get here!

What came in my bag:

• Pouty Pop Crayon by POP Beauty in Fuchsia Flirt--I was super excited for this!! I am all on the bandwagon with the chubby lip trend (my fav at this point is still the Revlon version), and the color looked so pretty in the stick...then I put it on my lips.  It seemed way lighter on my lips than in the stick...almost Nikki Minaj-pink to me! Not my cup of tea.  However, when I layered it over a brighter lip stain (Revlon Just Bitten in Passion), it looked a lot better and helped tone down the brightness of the stain, making it more wearable for the daytime.

• California Collection Eye Shadow Sample by BH Cosmetics--I was super excited for this item, having never tried BH Cosmetics.  The California Collection is a trilogy of palettes based on three cities in California--San Francisco, Hollywood, and Malibu.  The palettes contain eyeshadows, blush, bronzer, and highlighter, but this mini sample palette came with an eyeshadow from each palette! Hollywood is a cool matte purple, San Francisco a shimmery light brown, and Malibu a shimmery gold! I did my eyeshadow using all three of them today, and they were nice.  The purple doesn't go on as dark as it looks in the pan (which is good, considering purple usually makes me look sick), but it is buildable so you could make it darker if you wanted.  The other two are pretty neutral, which I love...plus, I don't have any really true gold colors in my collection, so this was perfect!

• Mineral Face SPF 20 Unscented Moisturizer by COOLA--I'm looking forward to this one.  I don't have a go-to facial sunscreen, so this will be good to try out! I've heard good things about this brand, as well as rumors that this stuff mattifies, which is always good for my oily skin.

• Weather Proof Humidity Resistant Spray by Sexy Hair--This seems to have come at the perfect time! It's been SUPER humid out the last few weeks and I've noticed that my hair has been extra frizzy.  Maybe this will come in handy?

• Salt Air Perfume Oil Roll On by Demeter--All I can say about this is, OMG.  One sniff of this brings me back to summers at the shore.  Salt, sand, and sunscreen.  I adore this. It reminds me of a wearable version of the Poolside Bath & Bodyworks candle, so awesome. 

 BH Cosmetics Eyeshadow sample!

(Can I also mention this adorbs bag everything came in this month? So cute!)

Shadow swatches

Poolside + Salt Air = #Summerlove

Awkward close-up of the POP Beauty lip crayon.  

This pic makes the color look less pastel than it does in real life.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this bag, and glad to add these products to my collection! :)

Haight and Ashbury, I'm outskies!