February 2015 Favorites

Being the last day of February, I am here to share my favorites from this short & sweet month!

I have decided that my favorites posts from now on will include both beauty & music.

Let’s start off with my beauty favorites:

I have 3 drugstore products and 1 high end.

This product has easily become holy grail and I have myself wondering why it’s taken me so long to discover!  Cocoa Butter Petroleum Jelly is such a universal product and everyone needs a tub of this sitting on their desk/vanity/dresser/nightstand.  I got a generic brand rather than the Vaseline because 1. it was a a bit cheaper and 2. because there really isn’t a difference.  I use this literally EVERYWHERE, especially since this winter is making my skin go crazy.  It smells good too!  I got mine from my local drugstore for $3.99.

After watching so many of Kaushal’s YouTube videos (click for videos here, blog here), I noticed that she uses a nude color eyeliner on her bottom waterline, rather than a white one to make her eyes appear bigger.  So when I went to my drugstore and saw the same Rimmel Scandal’Eyes Waterproof Kohl Eyeliner in nude that Kaush uses, I immediately picked it up.  I love this eyeliner so much.  It’s super pigmented and glides on so smooth!  The nude makes the larger eye effect look more natural than a white liner.  I got this for only $2 since there was a sale at my CVS!

Alright, I’m so mad that I didn’t pick up more of these when I first found them, because now they are impossible to find!  The new NYX Intense Butter Gloss has everyone going crazy.  Every time I go to my local Ulta, the NYX section is such a mess, especially by the lip products!  First I had a problem with getting my hands on the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams, and now these butter glosses!  I do have 3 of them though; Sorbet, Apple Crisp, & Black Cherry Tart.  They are highly pigmented and go on smoothly.  They have the same cakey smell as the soft matte lip creams, which I love.  They are about $6, and Ulta usually has the buy 1 get 1 50% off sale on NYX products.  You could also find them on the NYX website I believe.  I’m hoping to get my hands on more this week!

Last, but not least, we have my high end product.  I have been on a search for a powder foundation and the one that kept popping up while doing research was from it Cosmetics.  This is called the Celebration Foundation.  I don’t want to get too in depth because I will be doing a full review on this!  This foundation was about $35 and could be found at Ulta or it Cosmetics website.

That’s it for my beauty favorites!  Now let’s move onto music.

This month I was introduced to Ibeyi.  They are a French-Cuban musical duo consisting of twin sisters.  They sing mostly in English and incorporate some Yoruba, a Nigerian language that traveled to Cuba via slavery into their music.  These two young girls are not only talented, but they are so beautiful.  Their recent self-titled album, Ibeyi, just released and you can listen to my favorite song, River, from the album here.  Take a listen and let me hear your thoughts!

That’s it for this month guys and happy March!

Leave any of your favorites from February in the comments!

Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless Foundation

I have never used a drugstore foundation, simply because I have this thing in my head that says “don’t put cheap stuff on your face or you’ll breakout blah blah blah.”  Because of that I always have used higher end foundation, specifically Mac’s Studio Fix Fluid.  That has been the only foundation I have used for as long as I can remember, but I decided to venture out just recently.

I usually have very oily skin, but this winter weather has given me combination skin.  My T-zone is still very much oily, but I get dry patches on my cheeks.  Finding a new foundation has required lots of research and an endless amount of samples from Sephora.  I first tried the Nars Sheer Glow foundation, but that made my skin way too oily.  Then I opted for the Nars Sheer Matte and that wasn’t so bad.  I also tried the Makeup Forever HD foundation, but I was just content with it, nothing stood out.  I did not purchase a full size bottle of any of these foundations yet and I am thankful I haven’t!

I have been hearing so much about the new Maybelline Fit Me line and the Fit Me Matte and Poreless foundation.  I was hesitant at first because it is a drug store brand, but after seeing a countless amount positive feedback, I went to my local CVS and purchased the foundation as well as the Fit Me concealer.

I got the foundation in 310 Sun Beige and concealer in Medium.  I wasn’t too sure how the color match would be, so as soon as I got home I applied both to half of my face just to do a test run.

My honest opinion so far?  I don’t think I have ever found a foundation so satisfying!  Now I understand what the hype was about.  This covers my pores like nothing has ever had.  It has a great overall coverage and the color match is perfect as well.  The concealer does an awesome job for my under eye dark circles.  I didn’t buy the powder that goes along with it since I recently bought the NYX HD powder finish, so I just used that to set my makeup.  I honestly don’t even think I needed to set it, maybe just the concealer so it doesn’t crease.

If you have dry skin, this will cling to it.  There are a couple spots where I see dry flakes on my cheeks, but nothing a little extra moisturizer can’t help.

Overall, my face looks so smooth and flawless, I seriously can’t stop looking at it.  I am truly happy I decided to give a drugstore foundation a try!  For around $8 you can’t go wrong.  I highly recommend this to all oily skin girls with visible pores.

Here’s what it looks like on half of my face.  

What’s your favorite foundation?  I’d love to know 🙂