Moving! & Beauty Blender Dupe Mini Review

Hi Everyone!  I know, I know...shocking!  Another blog already!?!

So yes, as the title of the blog states, I am moving.  It's a little bittersweet because I'll be moving away from my beloved Los Angeles, but I'm moving for a good career path.  *Sigh*, the sacrifices! LOL  For safety reasons, I will be vague, but I will be moving to Phoenix!  I know Phoenix is big, but who knows...you might be able to find the one azn girl running around...hahaha.

Anyhoo, so the point is, I may have some free time in the near future to upload more videos and more posts.  I feel bad that I have quite a few new subscribers on YT, yet I haven't posted a video in over a year.  How embarrassing!!!  I will have to make a nice tutorial when I have some time to spare.  Hopefully my new place will have some bomb lighting, so I can shoot a great video. One of my issues has always been lighting for my videos and pictures. =/

Moving on to the mini-review!

So...many of you have probably seen something like this sponge at Sephora.  The Sephora version is called BeautyBlender and is pink.  It's also like $20+ !?!  So I, being the economical girl I am, decided to look for a dupe.  I know that there are some dupes at Ulta and other places, but I actually found one for $2.  Go me. Hehehe  Caveat: I had to buy 10, LOL.  So I spent $20, but I got 10...I gave a bunch away before I even tried using the product.  But then (dun dun dun...), I used it.  I didn't actually do any research on how to use it...just decided to swipe it in some powder foundation, and then put it on.  It was terrible!  It put WAAAAY too much makeup on.  I was like, "Omg, what is up with this?  Why do people rave about it?"  Seriously, wtf?  Oh yeah...Maybe I should read/watch the how-tos first?

So...what I did wrong:  I did not get the sponge damp first!  A pretty informative video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh0eyzzkViI&list=HL1363207161

My bad.  So I was kinda bored, going through random YT videos (mostly suggested ones), and one of them was a BeautyBlender v Ulta Dupe (I think by LePooke), which caught my eye...and then a light bulb clicked on.  It is super important to soak up a bunch of water into the sponge, and then wring it out.  Then pat/wring in a towel.  The pic above shows the difference between a wet sponge (left) and a dry one (right).  As you can see, the wet one is almost double the size of the dry one.  This makes the difference between too much makeup and a flawless finish.

The main reason you should soak a sponge in water first is because that way it won't absorb as much of your makeup into it.  But it also makes the pores in the sponge bigger (or something) so when you apply your makeup, it's less dense.  Does that make sense?  Ooooh, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it! Hahahah

Seriously though, I definitely recommend trying this product.  For personal reasons, I am not linking the site where I got my sponges from, but I'm sure they are easy to find.  Since I never tried out the BeautyBlender or the Ulta dupe, I have nothing to compare this to.  Sorry if this review seems all over the place...I just kinda wrote as I thought vs organizing my thoughts first and then write. =)

I don't plan to count this as my "April" post, but in case I get too busy with my move, hopefully this will tide you over.  Till next time!!

Disclaimer:
1. I bought the sponge with my own money.
2. I am not affiliated with any of the companies I mentioned nor the company I bought the sponge from.
3. No one paid me for this review.
4. These are my honest opinions.

Sephora's Cleopatra Kit

So I was at Sephora, just planning to buy a white eyeliner (who am I kiddin!), and I noticed they had these REALLY cool Halloween makeup kits.  So of course I had to buy one!  The stuff inside each kit is approximately a $65 value, but the entire kit is only $19.  Who could resist?  Here's the link if you're interested in buying it: http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P248830&categoryId=C19441&shouldPaginate=true

So basically it comes with some tint/glosses, a black eyeliner, an iridescent purple eye crayon, a peakcock-ish colored glitter eyeliner, falsies, and a Gold glitter spray (okay, seriously, I really bought the kit for the glitter liner and the glitter spray, but I feel like I got the rest of the stuff for free!  LOL).

Inside the box cover, there are instructions to create 3 different looks:  Greek Goddess, Peacock, and Cleopatra.  Since I was just messing around (not wearing this look outside!), I decided to play with Cleopatra because that was the most difficult and this would give me practice.  I think my eyes turned out pretty decent....

I have more pictures up on Facebook, but this is a better shot because I'm smiling and you can't see both eyes.  Hahahaa...yeah, I tried like 5 times and could not get my eyes even.  I'll have to plan out the lines better next time (and yes, there will be a next time!).

Overall, the instructions were pretty easy to follow, and they had pictures (although extremely tiny) of what each look is supposed to look like.  For my next try, I think I want some golden powder.  And a deeper golden lip gloss.  On my lips, I have a bright red color, but a gold gloss on top.  I wanted it to shimmer more, but it didn't turn out how I hoped.  But like I said, this is just practice.  (And....yeah, I hate to admit it, but I'm not even going to be Cleopatra for Halloween!)  Hmm..although...maybe I can convince a certain someone to dress up...and then we can go as Cleopatra and Mark Anthony!  Hahah, fat chance, but a girl can dream, right?

It didn't occur to me to put my hair down for pictures until after I had already uploaded them.  Grrr...next time!