Top Picks | Summer 2015 Lip Options

I hear it's summer back in the States but here in London, we're in our second day of June and barely hitting 60 degrees. I'm not complaining though as the sun terrifies me and I prefer sweaters to sweating any day. While I literally wear any lip color any time of year, I do tend to pull out more pinky/nudes, oranges and a peach number during the sunnier months. I also don't stop with the borderline Goth/vampy matte lip products of dreams though so anything's fair game. Below is a lineup of lip products that have already made permanent settlements in my handbag and I hope the seersucker "Au Revoir" clutch channels some south of France summer vacay vibes for you (please excuse the state of my Bourjois Lip Crayon as it had a near-fatal accident this past weekend. It's too soon to discuss; I'm still sobbing about it).

Spring Makeup Shakeup

Hello again friends it's been so long! For this post I'm going to share some thoughts on spring-related makeup with some recently released items, as well as some older stuff. Everything mentioned here is from my gratis, which is basically a beautiful bag of free beauty products I get from companies at work. I receive these goodies to test and familiarize myself with what they do so that I can assist customers with questions and make recommendations AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

Review | Victoria, Victoria Beckham x Nails inc, VVB in Bamboo White

Obsessions | Top 5 Red Lipsticks for Valentine's Day

Here's the obligatory Valentine's Day is around the corner post and while I've never been a fan of the holiday, I like the idea of using it as an excuse to pay more attention than I normally would to my hair or makeup and pop out some pink or red lipstick (not like anything's ever stopped me before though). I've gathered a few lip options to cover all the bases if you're in the market for a red lip and as I will be doing a Galentine's Day with my girlfriends - look out for that post in one week - I thought it would be fun to choose a couple options I don't reach for often because they aren't matte or vampy.

SWATCHED! From left to right: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Cherries in the Snow, Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple, Sephora Cream Lip Stain in 01 Always Red, MAC Lipstick in Lady Danger, Tanya Burr Lip Gloss in Vampire Kiss

Review | Urban Decay Naked Basics 2

One of my first major makeup investments was the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette almost two years ago. Never having been one to successfully blend shadows together and create art on the eyelid, most palettes scared me because they offered way too many colors and I couldn't figure out which shadow would go on the lid and which belonged in the crease. This was clearly when I was still in a newbie eyeshadow phase (not like my skills are much improved tbh) so the less intimidating, the better. Naked Basics also appealed to me because of all the love surrounding the Naked Palettes online, with claims that the shadows were pigmented and easily blendable, all good things for a beginner. Urban Decay's latest release of the Naked Basics 2 also seemed right up my alley as it was more cool-toned and had hints of taupe and reddy-brown, two flattering shades for my lighter skin tone and brown eyes. I held out on buying it because I didn't need another palette and there were other ones ahead of it in line, but my extremely generous friend Amanda gifted me the palette for Christmas, so now I couldn't feel guilty about having it in my collection.

Urban Decay Naked Basics (left) and Naked Basics 2 (right)

Top Winter Lippies | 2014

This post is a little on the red/berry end of the spectrum and that's OKAY because if you can't overindulge in these lippy shades this time of year, when can you?
I love the products I've gathered here as they're all recent purchases that I just can't get over. We have a few hyped up, loved up, raved up products, so if you're ready for your millionth review on a little Kate Moss number and want to know which lippy will see you through a nice warm cuppa (or three), continue reading!

2014 Beauty Faves

2014 is still fresh in our minds, right? Right! So it's totally okay for me to post this mid-January, right? Right! I'm really excited because the blog celebrated its first birthday on Jan. 11th and because I have been blogging and "doing research" (watching beauty vlogs and buying things I can't afford), I have really branched out with my beauty regimen, application methods, looks and most importantly - the products! I've broken this post down into different categories and yeah, okay I cheated a bit and broke the lip products into six sub-categories but it was hard to choose just one and we all need options! The only thing I wish I could have found this year was a standout foundation, but as my skin has been changing a lot, I don't feel it's fair to select any one foundation at this point. I am however crossing my fingers I find a fave in 2015! Also, happy new year!!!

December Faves | 2014

Where has January gone, amirite? Blaming the blur that is winter break, screwed up sleep schedules, TV show binges/movie marathons and family visits, I completely lost track of date/time and missed my appropriate window to post December faves! I was thinking about just not writing this post and sticking to 2014 faves, but I discovered so many things in December that wouldn't be fair to include in a year's worth of favorites, but I do think they deserve their own post so here we go!

Review | Stila Eyes are the Window Shadow Palette in Spirit

I am a firm believer in rewarding yourself for good grades during midterms and finals. Each semester, I tell myself I can remove items from the Sephora wishlist I've been accumulating if I'm doing well and earning A's. This semester has been the most difficult and stressful so far, so I felt I was allowed to indulge an extra bit and rewarded myself with the Stila Eyes are the Window Shadow Palette in Spirit.

Cristina's Top 5 Summer Nail Polish Picks

From L to R: Fresh Paint in Lollipop Hammer, Essie in Bikini So Teeny, Sally Hansen Sheer Ecstasy, Fresh Pain in Guava, Sephora Caffeine Fix and OPI Follow Me on Glitter.

My personal love is nail polish! If I could own all of the nail polishes in the world my life would be complete but sadly I can't own them all...yet. With summer in full swing, I finally decided which colors were my favorite for this season. Some colors were hands down perfect for summer and others I really had to think whether or not they were good enough. After rambling on, here are my top 5 summer nail polish picks!