Summery Coral Lip: Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Matte Sculpting Lipstick in Restless

It is no secret that I absolutely adore Kendall Jenner. So when I found out that she had collaborated with Estée Lauder and released an exclusive, limited edition lip color, I screamed “Take my money!” and purchased it immediately.

The shade is called Restless and it is described on the website as “Part poppy. Part orange crush. All matte.” It is an absolutely gorgeous matte coral color that is so pigmented and moisturizing that it has been hard for me not to wear this every day. The lipstick comes in a signature Estée Lauder case with Kendall Jenner’s signature on the lid in coral, adding to my love of this lipstick. Many of my friends have gazed at me with wide emoji eyes as I told them the amount that I paid, but I feel as though the price stamp is definitely worth it.

Swatch of Restless

This is my first Estée Lauder lipstick, and the formulation blew me away. I absolutely love matte lipstick because I am not much of a fan of gloss or shine, but some matte formulations are hard to wear. Although this lipstick is matte, it doesn’t leave my lips dry and flaking like some matte lipsticks I own. My favorite thing about this lipstick, however, is not the formula. It is the satisfaction I get from the magnetic closure of the lid. Sometimes, I just open it to feel the magnetic closure and have my spirits lifted.

Straight from the bullet with red lip liner

Being a woman of color, I know that some bright lipsticks are hard to pull off. When I first swatched this shade, I was kind of scared to wear it out because I felt it was too bright. I tried it with a red liner and applying it straight from the bullet and I loved that, but I soon discovered that my favorite way to wear this is by patting it on the lips, blending it out with my fingertips, and slowly building up the color. The staying power is amazing and the pigmentation, as I mentioned earlier, is stunning. This has been my go to shade for the past few weeks and will continue to be my go to for the rest of the summer.

Patted on the lips with my finger. This is how it stayed throughout a day of shopping.

My New Pop Of Color On The Lid

I have always been one to shy away from color on the eyes. For the longest time, the most color I would do would be a muted pink on my eyelids, but recently I had a desire to branch out and experiment with more color. This is a goal of mine for the year. I have gotten so used to my makeup routine, so I am trying to bring more life into my makeup routine and switch it up every so often.

My new favorite pop of color for the lid has to be my Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in the shade Emerald Sparkle (250). It is so gorgeous on the lids, especially if you have brown eyes and/or a darker skin tone. The turquoise shade sits beautifully on the lid and the sparkle is just enough to make you look awake without looking overdone. I love popping this on when running errands, going to work, or grabbing dinner and drinks with friends.

Swatch of Emerald Sparkle

The formulation of this eye liner is amazing. It glides on very smooth with absolutely no drag and is very pigmented on the lid. The color absolutely pops, especially when I wear my glasses. I am a lazy gal when it comes to my makeup products, so this self-sharpening eye pencil is amazing for a girl on the go. I would recommend this eye pencil for anyone who is looking to add a pop of color to their look without going overboard.

It also looks great with a pop of color on the lips as well. I have tried wearing this look with a purple lip and a coral lip (below)  and the results were grand! I can’t wait to try more liners from this Rimmel range because if they are all formulated as well as this eyeliner, I will definitely be loving them.

Top 5 Life Changing Products

I got into the makeup game pretty late because I always felt like makeup didn’t work for me. I had a hard time finding the right products that gave me the “WOW!” factor and it was pretty disappointing buying a product only to end up being very let down by it. However, these five products made me believe that there was hope for a girl like me struggling to learn about makeup and how to make it work for her.

I’ll show you how each of these products have helped me to create a great go-to makeup look. Any other products that I have used, I will mention at the end but the main focus is these life-changing five products.

Bare faced and ready to go!

bareMineral’s Original Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 15

I got this product in the sampler back in 2009. I successfully made it last for a while because a little bit goes a long way with this baby and contrary to popular belief, I don’t wear makeup every day. I loved how it made my skin look so effortless, airbrushed, and FLAWLESS. I always got compliments on my skin because it evened everything out and just added such a lift to my dull skin. I solely use bareMinerals’ foundations because they do such a wonder for my skin. It’s so lightweight that it literally looks and feels like you’re wearing nothing on your skin and it just looks like your skin but better.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz

Do I need to explain? Never have I had nice looking brows until I tried this. I tried pomades, but they made my brows look too fake and dark. This pencil adds the perfect amount of color to make my eyes look bold but natural. I have also never had my eyebrows done (waxed, threaded, plucked, etc.) so it is easy for me to fake a tamed looking brow now.

Foundation and Brows

e.l.f. Essential Shadow Lock Eyelid Primer in Sheer

Never did I know that eyeshadow could look glorious on my skintone before using this primer. I always had the problem of shadows never looking pigmented enough, but when I swipe this baby across my lid it really changed my confidence in wearing eyeshadow. Eyeshadow primer is a must, especially because I recently discovered that I have oily eyelids. You should have seen that creasing! I’m never going without my primer again.

e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Black

This product taught me how to do my winged eyeliner to the highest of fleek. Did I use that right? I don’t really care if I did or not because that’s how I feel about how my eyeliner looked. This liner has great staying power and I miss using it every day like I used to. I was never a liquid liner person so I tried this gel liner and it really helped me learn to do a feline flick. Also this liner is three dollars so how can you not try this liner to learn to do a feline flick?

Eyes primed and my gel liner on

MAC Lip Liner in Chestnut

I finally got my first MAC lipstick last year maybe and I absolutely loved it. It was in the shade Touch, but the thing that made me love it the most was the lip liner I used. I was solely using my Chestnut liner with the Touch lipstick, but then I had a brilliant idea; why not pair this liner with other lipsticks that are a little too light that you wasted money on Keyerra? Low and behold my favorite lipstick pairings were born. This lip liner has changed how I feel about nude lipsticks. It had helped me to create great lipstick looks without looking like my lips are made of ash. I always get compliments when I pair Chestnut with my Laura Mercier lipstick mentioned in this post. It is the perfect nude.

Lined the outer rim of my lips and it looks a little weird.

And this is the finished look. These products have really shaped the way I do my makeup and give me a really fresh looking face. My love for beauty has really grown because I found products that have helped me make makeup work for me and my style and that is a very important thing I feel.

Other products used:

The Body ShopAll-In-One InstaBlur Primer

bareMinerals Complexion Rescue in Chestnut

Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer in Dark

L’Oreal Paris Brow Stylist Plumper in Medium to Dark

Clinique All About Shadow Single Shadow in Black Honey (as a bronzer)

the Balm Instain Blush in Swiss Dot

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette  (Limit, Nooner, and Blackheart)

Laura Mercier Crème Smooth Lip Colour in Spiced Rose

I'm a Terrible Person

I have neglected my blog for far too long, but I am back and am taking my blog in a slightly new direction.  I felt so uninspired, but I realized that you have to make your own inspiration. I love makeup and talking about it makes me happy, so I will continue to just talk about the things that I love.

This means more posts. I am going to post every Monday and Wednesday because once a week was not enough. I got too lazy posting once a week, so I will be more motivated to post more than once. I want to grow with this blog and build my skills, not just with beauty, but with blogging, communicating, and being open. I want to share this love of mine with so many others who share the same love that I do. I'm excited to be back to this after that long month off.

Weekend Travel Makeup Bag

This weekend, I attended the SweetLife Music and Food Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Now, I know that I am very local, but I ended up staying with a relative so that my friend and I could be lazy and not have to travel as far. I decided that I needed to pack a small makeup bag so that I could quickly put my face on for this hot, sticky, sweaty day in the sun.

Packing a travel makeup bag is very difficult for me, but I took one of my favorite blogger/Youtuber’s advice and packed my bag while I did my makeup to ensure that I only packed what I needed and did not forget anything in the process.

BASE & FACE (IN ORDER OF APPLICATION):

The Body Shop InstaBlur Primer

BareMineral’s Complexion Rescue in Chestnut

BareMineral’s Stroke of Light Eye Brightener in Luminous 4

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Ebony

L’Oréal Brow Stylist Plumper in Medium/Dark

Bare Mineral’s Tinted Mineral Veil

The Balm Instain Long Wearing Blush in Swiss Dot

Elf Eyelid Primer in Sheer

NYX Glam Shadow Stick in Elegant Marble

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Stag

Tarte Gifted Amazonia Clay Smart Mascara

TOOLS:

ELF Cosmetics Complexion Brush for Mineral Veil

Real Techniques Blush Brush for Blusher

Tarte Eyelash Curlers for these lashes

Makeup Bag from Old Navy

As a backup, I brought my Naked Palette in case the gold NYX shadow did not live up to expectations, but it did so I did not need to resort to my go-to gold Half Baked. For my base and shadow, I blended it out with my fingers so that I could cut down on the number of brushes needed. I decided on something simple for the festival because it was very hot and there was a possibility of rain. My look held up for the entire day and I was very excited about that. 

My Obsession with American Eagle Outfitters

Growing up, I wanted to be like all of the other popular girls in school who wore American Eagle, Hollister, and Abercrombie & Fitch. I went to far as to have an American Eagle credit card that I used to spend on my desire to fit in. As I got older, I started developing my own sense of style and shunned all of those brands because how can you be original wearing that? Abercrombie was just too expensive for not that great of clothing and once I saw a nine year old wearing the same Hollister hoodie that I was wearing at 20, I decided to throw in the towel. However, AEO has always held a special place in my heart.

AEO is very great for building your wardrobe from the ground up. They offer such a great selection of sturdy basics. Their "Soft and Sexy" range is amazingly comfortable. I often find myself stocking up on so many tees because they are indeed very soft and I feel sexy wearing them. How can you feel sexy in a striped v-neck you may ask? Because the shirt says that it is sexy and I believe it.

I feel like AEO has changed dramatically with how it presents itself. The clothing is very well made and worth the money. I have had many of my layering tanks since high school and they are still holding up. My favorite shoes are my brown leather AEO flip flops that I have had for years, comfortably broken in and effortlessly stylish without even trying.

If you are looking for a store that can provide great building blocks for developing your own sense of style, I would definitely look into AEO. There is so much that you can do with what they provide.

And don't get me started on their underwear line Aerie. I solely wear Aerie underwear and bras because they are that great.

New Me, Nume Hair Set

Sorry for that terrible pun, but I just could not help myself.

Although I am not a mother, I treated myself to this glorious Nume Hair deal that they were running on their website for Mother’s Day. This deal included the Titan 3 Hair Wand that comes with 3 barrels (19mm, 25mm, and 32mm), the Megastar Hair Straightener, the Signature Dryer, AND their White Truffle Shampoo and Conditioner. All of this was values at $605, but with the coupon code, I was able to receive all of these goodies for $199. That’s absolutely amazing considering that the Titan 3 is $199 on its own!

I got my lovely new hair styling tools in turquoise because I wanted to try something bold. My go to would have been black, but the turquoise is so lovely. I am very excited to use these products on my new sew-in weave and cannot wait to do a full review. I can say that the curling wand gets very hot and tells the temperature in Celsius. I may or may not have burned my shoulder at 180 degrees Celsius (around 350 degrees Fahrenheit). I have used the White Truffle Shampoo and Conditioner on my hair after I took my sew-in out and it left my hair feeling very clean and nourished. The smell isn’t too bad either. I am very happy with those two products.

The deal is still running for the next few days so definitely take advantage of this great deal!