Lipstick Spotlight and Giveaway

Nail Polish Winner Update! At the bottom of this post!

Rich dark magenta pink, a cute color for going out, is a little too bright for everyday use but what may seem too bright to me may be a perfect everyday color to others :) Interesting that this lipstick is by LA Colors, a known cheap brand, but still I can't resist this color...

Color #cp232

It's very unlike me to drool over nude lipcolors unless I'm wearing 2 lbs of eyeshadow that day but lately it's been all about nude lipsticks. Here is one of my faves, Pink Beige by Bobbi Brown which partake in this special Lipstick Spotlight.

What is your favorite lipstick at the moment?

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Giveaway time! Leave a comment and your email for a chance to win these 2 cute Orly polishes (must be a follower of Laliamora's blog) ends Oct. 31, 2010

Good Luck gals!

Creme finishes

L to R: Orly Wild Wisteria and Pure Petunia

Congrats to Thalia Garcia, she is the winner of the Giveaway! Thank you to all that have participated, I will have another giveaway soon!

-Erica, 'LaliAmora'

Favorites of the Month

So, who is ready for autumn? One of the reasons why I love the month of August is because it really is the transition month for fall….the weather changes a bit, school starts, stores stock up on Halloween and fall décor, and fall makeup collections come out, can’t get enough of that!

To kick off my August Favorites post, I wanted to share a bit of joy with you about a palette that I’ve been swooning over like a diabetic in a candy store ;) It’s the Traditional Palette by LA Colors. Boy, if I would have known that this palette would be my go-to for everyday simple neutral looks I would have bought a whole case! Ok, maybe not a whole case, but maybe 2 or 3 backups? And they are only $1, sweet deal!

It has almost everything you need for a nice natural look perfect for the day at the office or in my case, a day at the clinic.

Signature mineral foundation- This is my old-school mineral go-to back when I first started collecting makeup. Their samples is what started it all, but because of my ‘rekindling’ I have decided to order the full size jars. I love this foundation because it gives your skin a glow, perfect coverage and doesn’t feel cakey or dry. Honestly I prefer Signature over Everyday minerals anytime.

Bonne Bell liplites in Strawberry Parfait- I own about 5 or 6 of these and never did I think to wear the lightest one for work of fear that I’d look like I sprinkled pink powder on my lips but actually this color is really nice! While it does look like a really light pink in the tube, on my lips it becomes really neutral and pretty....

Shu Uemura lash curler- I have never really liked the lash curler for the simple fact that my lashes are super strait. Up to this point, not a single thing could curl my lashes, I’ve even thought of perming them! When I had a bad experience with a really cheap lash curler I promised to never use one ever again…. it used to pinch me after which I would call it every name in the book…..But this one I like love!

Jane Blush in Blossom 02- What happened to all the jane stuff? Alot of their blushes seemed to be pretty popular among makeup junkies but then came the day they went on clearance and were discontinued. Anywho, I found a stash of jane products at walmart while vacationing on the coast and simply put, I love this blush! The color is a cute light pink with just a hint of coral.

Kat Von D liquid eyeliner- Since becoming a self-proclaimed liquid eyeliner application pro I've pushed myself to try out other brands of liquid eyeliner. Clinique, thumbs down. ELF, thumbs down. But Kat Von D? 2 thumbs up! :) I got this in a dark brown called Immortal Love, totally digging the names and she has a variety of colors to choose from. The applicator is a brush not felt-tip.

Estee Lauder Individualist makeup- Unfortunately not sold at EL counters but the trusty CCO's happen to carry it. What I love about this makeup is that it is supposedly sheer, but actually covers flaws beautifully. Natural and light, this tube of wonder will always be a favorite of mine next to MAC SFF.

Well, there you have it, my favorites for the month of August. Now I must get back to taking out my halloween decorations stash. hahaha, I begin decorating September 1st!

Which beauty product have you been using a lot of lately?

LA Colors Mineral Eyeshadow Review

Price Range: $1 -$2 each

Where to buy: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, or anywhere LA Colors cosmetics are sold.

What the product says:

"Capture the look and feel of these naturally intense Mineral Eyeshadows. Talc free & fragrance free formula, glides on like silk. Our eyeshadows will give you soft, rich & radiant eye color that last all day and blends seamlessly.

* Long-lasting, luminous colors glides on like silk.

* Fragrance free & talc free."

Product does what it says it will?

Intensity is amazing on a few colors, the only color I have tested that is not intense in pigmentation is the 'purple' shade. The eyeshadow is long-lasting and easy to blend.

Here are the shades I have, LA Colors currently has many shades to choose from...Check their website for more info here.

My Thoughts:

Oh my, great product here. What I love about these is that they are only a dollar! I was a little skeptical I might add, but my mind was quickly changed the moment I tried on the shadows. The first time I tried the eyeshadow it was because I saw a purple duo and thought the colors were nice (I love purple!)...I tried it on and didn't like it, as with most cheap purples the pigmentation was really bad, it was then that I decided to try another color and chose Graphite, which has amazing texture and pigmentation. A few weeks ago I came across the single eyeshadows and tried out the teal and black color....

The intensity is great, the teal color is a matte color as well as the black. The Graphite color is shimmery.

Eyeshadows of this quality are important to have in a general dollar store as many people who might have continued a tight budget due to the past few years of a failing economy. Nevertheless, the beauty industry is still blooming, women will always need something whether it be a lipstick or face powder or brow pencil....the dollar stores become a haven for working adults on a budget. I don't mind spending that one dollar on a great beauty product if I learn that it is worth the money, does what it says and it gives great results. I do mind spending that dollar for a product that is horrible, after all I can't return it and turns out as a waste of money, even if it is just one dollar.

Product: 5 stars

Packaging: 4 Stars

Quality: 5 stars

Overall: 5 stars

Buy again? Yes, I hope LA Colors will make more colors :)

Is it worth the price? Of course!

pros: Long-lasting, smooth, mineral based, easy to blend, intense color, packaging is nice, great price, can be found at most general dollar stores.

cons: Those pesky purple shades are too sheer/barely any pigmentation!

rate: On a scale of 1 through 10 I rate these shadows a 9.

Last of June Haul

Where has the time went? I swear it was just the beginning of June! The month was very nice for me, went on vacation to the coast, my grandmother and son had a birthday, and both of my boys finished classes....Geeze, the time goes by fast I guess when you are having fun!

So plenty of stuff in June, plenty of polishes and some stuff I bought for backups, plus some things relatively new that I wanted to try out. The nail polishes are all from random places.

Hard Candy Mr. Wrong and Envy were from Walmart, Essie Wicked from the mall (where I also bought a brilliant Dazzleglass dupe lipgloss by Santee in 06), Confetti nail polish, a new kind at CVS, Belle of the Ball and Orly Haute Red also from CVS.

I've heard mixed reviews about Hard Candy's mascaras....You don't know how many times I've visited Walmart to get my hands on 'Ginormous mascara' only to find that it is sold out or out of stock, urh! the annoyance....So I purchased the HC Curl up and Dye mascara in lieu of the Ginormous, which I will be posting a review about shortly. The Falsies Volum' mascara I do like, I'll be reviewing that as well.

The Revlon Creme blush 'Blushing Mauve' and Revlon lipgloss in 'Power Walk Pink' was from Big Lots...

ELF lashes and powder were from the grocery store....

There was an eyeshadow quad Punk Funk in my ELF online shopping cart for quite some time but found it at the grocery store alas...I love how the colors are true on the skin as they look in the quad!

Aside from other ELF quad shadows this one has good pigmentation. These swatches are with underlying UDPP....

Just one of many looks you can create with the quad.... 

Physicians Formula mineral wear is my HG of mineral compact powders and here is why...The formula is for sensitive or breakout prone skin which I don't have, nevertheless, I still like it as it smoothes out the finish of my skin and makes the foundation look airbrushed. Another plus is the SPF factor.

Dollar Tree recently had LA Colors products that were just calling my name. The products come in these little packages called Value Kits that usually contain 2 or more items. I also took home Sally Hansen line smoothing lipgloss in Pink Sapphire and face powder by LA Colors...

About the Value Kits: Everything but the lipglosses are copacetic. The quality of the lipglosses are pretty bad. The formula is way too thick, almost impossible to wear on their own. I'll be tossing these out! On the bright side, the lipliner, lipstick and eyeshadow palette colors are right on.

The Essence XXXL shine lipglosses, a new love of mine, were looking tempting each time I would frequent my grocery store so I took home Bubble Babe and Pick Me Up. I did not bother swatching Pick me up as it is too clear with very little glitters....

From the Dollar store I found some cute creme nail polishes Touch of Taupe and Chocolate Grape, both Maybelline Express Finishes and have a matching lipcolor. The lipcolors are just ok, but not really anything I'd wear, haha!

LA Colors Eyeshadows

Using only my LA Colors eyeshadow palettes from Dollar Tree I decided to create something a little dramatic. This was an interesting experience in that I was not sure how well the shadows would work....Let me explain, I have used only 1 or 2 colors by themselves in the past but since I was incorporating a few colors for this look, I had a few doubts (like pigmentation, blending)....

My feelings were wrong, these shadows are really nice....together! I guess with a little imagination and patience (some shadows are hard to work with!) you can create something nice....

To start off, I contoured the eyes with a satiny soft light brown color found on the LA Colors 'Traditional' palette. I then covered the entire lid with a soft purple shade from the 'Chic' palette. I'm not sure why I chose this color, at the time I thought it would stand out but as you can see from the picture the color soon faded. For the crease and outer 'V' I applied a shimmery chocolate color from the 'Darling' palette....

For more depth and to increase the 'smoky' of the look, LA Colors mineral e/s in black was added to the outer 'V' and crease blending just slightly in.

For highlight, I just used the lightest white pearl color from the Traditional palette, but honestly any light color from any of the palettes will suffice as a highlight color.

For a pop of color I added a magenta maroonish color from 'Fabulous' on the lower lashline

Eyes:
UDPP
On the Lid - 2
Contour area - 1
Crease- 3 and LA Colors minerals eyeshadow 'Black'
Highlight - the 'White pearl' color from the Traditional palette
lower lashline - 4 and Sephora Eyebrow #2 pencil
Maybelline line stiletto
Loreal Voluminous mascara

Face:
Revlon Colorstay Golden Caramel
Prescriptives Camo concealer
LA Colors blush Spice

Lips:
Santee lipliner Flush Red
Nicka K lipstick 'Wicked'

My favorite product out of any of the LA Colors line from Dollar Tree happens to be the nail polishes and lipsticks... And if I could pick one more favorite it would be the 'Traditional' e/s palette. What are your favorite Dollar Tree makeup products?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Vacation Haul

The coast is where I need to be...The weather is nicer, the people are nicer, and the stores are always kept stocked with my favorite makeup things. What I like most about the coast is that everyone there is so relaxed and easy-going, the people actually CARE about you...The city is kept clean for the most part, and what I've noticed is that a majority of the people there are in good shape! How is that possible with an array of delicious restaurants flooding the small city! lol While at the coast, I'm happy and stress-free, and I don't even have to be on the beach. Here is what I think of the coast in a nutshell: When I'm here in my city I'm fed garbage, while I'm in the coast, I'm fed gourmet :)

This is a list of my haulage while I was there...Most of my findings I know I may have been able to find in my own city, but in my opinion it's always better when it's something you buy while on vacation, especially in the coast :)

- Versus perfume by Versace

- Revlon lip shimmer in Golden Nectar, Biglots find for $1

-Revlon nail lacquer in Plum Seduction, Walmart. I mostly bought this color to wear to the beach one of the days I was there, I had only brought red, pink and blue nail polish from home and thought this color would look nice.

-2 OPI nail polishes from a local grocery store, 2 for $6, Fit for a Queensland and I only drink Champagne.....This grocery store rocked because they sold Spa Ritual polishes, NYX cosmetics and an entire stock of OPI colors.

-MAC nail lacquer in Rougemarie....In. Love. With. This. Color.  Is by-far the most gorgeous bloody red I have ever seen, I may get a back-up of it! :)

-LA Colors nail lacquer in Wired....by Dollar Tree :)

-Revlon Colorstay foundie in #360....Needed due to my golden tan

-2 Sallygirl eyeshadows from Sallys, Turquoise and Purple Haze which I've never seen in Sally's before?

-2 Savvy eyeshadows from Sallys clearance table, both were $1.50....Cool Mint and Blue Moon, very nice colors

-LA Colors Mineral eyeshadows, which I was super stoked about getting....I've never really seen these in my city....I got Purple, Black, and Teal (Teal is an awesome color, before I left I picked up 2 more backups of Teal) They had other colors but I wasn't interested.

-Last but not least, a Jane blush, which I found at Walmart to my surprise still carried the collection. I would have hauled more if Walmart had marked them down. This color is Blushing Blossom and it is pure love....color payoff is great

Oh, the Escada bag in the background was a free gift for purchasing the Versus....

Have a great TGIF and a wonderful weekend! Please let me know if you want swatches of anything or if you have questions!

As per readers request, I will be doing swatches of a few nail polishes...I'll post on Saturday with that :)

and

 here is a mini-sneak peak of my next 2 FOTDs.......

:)

Dollar Store, CVS, Nail Polish haul!

Hey everyone! It may not be much but it's good enough for me. I did not get any lippies because my lippie stash is over-populated, haha. I am going to do an updated makeup collection pretty soon for those that wanted me to, I'm just getting organized the way I want it but I'll post it as soon as I can!

Last weekend I got a VS little purse I use as a makeup bag for my purse!!

Speaking of makeup bags, I'm starting to look for more smaller items that I can take along in my little makeup bag such as mini-sized mascaras, eyeliners, glosses, etc...and I found this...

Cutest eyeshadow palette ever :)

About the size of half a credit card , awww! Here it is as it compares to the size of a single eyeshadow by NARS

And it comes with 6 colors, all are really nice and really pigmented + velvet soft...

I'm keeping this in my purse makeup bag :)

I like the website Zappos.com and decided to see what makeup stuff they had and found Global Goddess eyeshadows. I actually had tried 2 colors but I returned one of the colors (Kajol) because it looked too much like MAC Beautymarked which I already have but I did keep Makabari....

These shadows are wonderful, a little on the expensive side but to me is worth it since they are very pigmented and they last, no creasing and the colors they offer are amazing.

Makabari is a Rich-browned reddish rust with pinkish or rose undertones, no frost or shimmer, velvet or satin finish not matte...simply fabulous. I'll have to do a look using this color pretty soon.

CVS treats

What a treat! I only saw a few things I liked, but nearly alot of stuff was 75% off. These I got for $1.45 each...

And they had a buy one and get the second for 50% off on Maybelline so I decided to try the Mineral Power liquid (Medium 2.5) and Instant age Rewind cream (Sandy Beige) both are good-I especially like the Mineral Power foundie.

Revlon came out with these new Satin Luxurious finish eyeshadows I thought were unique so to start off I picked up Peacock Lustre and love it! I will have to go back and collect the rest maybe if they have a sale pretty soon.

Also got Dollar Store treats :) Eyeshadow palettes by LA Colors...

Nail polish kick

I collect nail polish so once in a while if I see a color that is unique or is something I don't have yet I'll get it, but it does depend on the brand since not all brands of nail polish are all that great. I love China Glaze, OPI, NYC, Sinful Colors just to name a few. Anyways here is what I accumalated in the past few days...

The Sinful Colors polish in Social Ladder is the most unique color I've ever seen. It is this pink to nude beige creme base and tiny pink and gold pearlized particles floating around in it.

A few weeks back ELF had it's holiday 50% off studio items so I grabbed the brush holder after seeing recommendations. I love it! I can't express how great it is, the compartments are just the right size. I'm not a person that likes my stuff all over the place (lippies mixed with eyeshadows mixed with blushes in a drawer...the horror). I like to be very plain and simple when organizing so this is perfect for me. I placed all my face brushes on the first compartment, next was all eye brushes and in the last one I put in every single eye or lip pencil or any sort of makeup pencils that I own. I don't like to see my pencils lying down in a drawer as it is harder to see and choose a color that I'm looking for so this is great.

Collective Haul

Ida from youtube's Htownpnai had shown a few Icing Baked shadows in one of her haul vids and after seeing I knew I had to check them out.

I don't know if they have any more colors but I bought 4 of them and tested them and they are really great! Comparable to the MAC mineralized shadows, the Icing Baked shadows have 2 colors swirled together such as the blue which is swirled with a gun powder gray. Baked shadows tend to have a soft, super pigmented texture and that is what I found in these. Unfortunately they don't have names or numbers on each. The packaging is so similar to that of the MAC mineralized ones...

As always, let me know if you have questions or if you want swatches!