So Much to Write and No Time!

Hi guys! It feels like forever since my last post and there are so many different posts I want to make, I'm just not sure what you'd prefer. Here are my planned upcoming posts, and you guys can comment which one you want to read first.

• Why do I love makeup?
• What does sex mean to me?
• Loreal Infallible Pro-Matte Review
• Bourjois Healthy Skin Serum Review
• Biore Perfect Milk Sunscreen Review
• Trolls Movie Review
• Delirium book review

Driving Meltdown

     If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a teenager and still learning some basic life skills: like driving. Driving has been quite difficult and stressful for me. See, I'm old enough to have my license but due to laziness I've had to wait an additional seven months to take the test. In my brain I thought that I'd be a pro, but in reality my driving is more likely to give you psychological damage than to get you to your destination. Two days ago my dad decided to take me on a practice drive to pick up my siblings from school. It sounded easy enough, so I hopped in the car with excitement that someone was finally letting me drive. Before we went to my sibling's school, we had to fill up on some gas. This is where I made my first mistake, panicked, and demanded that my dad should take over the wheel. Turning into the station requires a left turn and then a u-turn. It sounds easy, but was nerve racking with four cars waiting behind me and being told last minute. I ended up panicking and asking my dad which way to turn, even when I could see the gas station and knew what I should of done, cue the cars behind me honking and me demanding my dad to switch seats with me and repeating that I didn't want to drive.
      No such luck for me, my dad said he wasn't moving and that I should get back in the driving seat. Sighing, I hopped in and continued on the way to my brother's school. This is where I didn't see a left turning lane and still turned, almost hit a car in front of me, missed a left turn due to a lack of time to turn into a lane, and had turned before a motorcycle at a 4 way intersection who had the right of way and was forced to slowly trail behind me for at least five minutes. Needless to say, I was rightfully feeling like a shitty driver. I allowed the tears to stream down my face after having repressed them since the gas station. My dad could tell that I was stressed and promised to switch with me as soon as we stopped at target. This wasn't before I hit a curb while turning right and lost my mind over parking.
     There is no moral of this story, except maybe I need to calm the fuck down when driving and practice a lot more. If I actually do get my license, I'll make sure to update you all.
 

What I’m Not Going to Buy (AKA Anti-Haul)

We all love makeup and it’s easy to get sucked into the hype and pretty packaging, so this is where I tell you to step away from the register and that you don’t need it. Fight the consumerism! This post is inspired by Kimberly Clark.

1. Lorac Mega Pro 3 ($59): I’m not going to lie; this palette is absolutely beautiful and really tempted me. The most appealing part is the shade selection and amount of product until you break this palette down. There are multiple browns, light peachy shades, and pretty shimmers. Except, you most likely have most of these colors and don’t really need this whole palette. If you own more than one eyeshadow palette you probably have close enough dupes for Pink Cream, Walnut, Crepe, Toffee, Bark, Jet Black, Snow, Cava, Cider, Pink Bronze, and Brown Sugar. That’s around a third of the palette, shall we continue? The shades pomegranate and Licorice are pretty out there, if you’re into neutrals, how often will you use them? This palette is bulky and will take up a lot of your vanity space, do you have the space for it? Which shades are calling you, because it probably isn’t the 6 different varying shades of brown or the warm pinks that have been done to death already (Naked 3, Lorac Unzipped, and Covergirl true Roses come to mind). So how much is left that you really want and think will flatter your skin tone? I recommend picking up the singles for the shades that you think are truly unique and that you’ll know that you’ll use up.  So what if this is your first palette and you don’t have and really want each shade? This is a lot of eyeshadow, more eyeshadow than you’ll likely use up. This is a palette that’ll take you a long time to finish and most likely you’ll get bored of it and want to try something new long before you finish it. The packaging is also going to get dirty very fast, so if the packaging is part of the appeal, think again. You should also consider if you like the formula, and aren’t just buying it because of the hype and the limited edition status. 

2. Anastasia Glow Kit ($40): Highlighters are all the rage and have been for some time now. But you need to take a step back and wonder if you need a highlighter kit. Sure there is a lot of product, and you’re getting your money’s worth, but are you really? In each kit there are two shades, and at least two of them are going to clash with your skin tone as a highlighter.  This means that you’re really only getting half of the value of the product and will be stuck with the other part of the palette unused. Instead of picking up this palette where there are two highlighters that may or may not work perfectly for your skin tone, pick up one that looks amazing and that you’ll get the most usage out of. Side point, highlighter takes much longer to use up than you think.

3. Kat Von D Everlasting Mini Liquid Lipstick Set ($49): Let’s start with the assumption that you love the formula on these lipsticks and plan to use them every single day until they run out. There are a lot of out there colors in this set: Backstage Bambi (hot pink), L.U.V. (violet), Roxy (purple), and Echo Satin (a navy blue), this is excluding Santa Sangre (an intense red). Unless you love wearing bright lipsticks and out there colors, you’re most likely not going to get your money’s worth here since that’s half of the set. So you say that these shades are to fill holes in your collection for when you want an intense lip color or Halloween, wouldn’t it just be easier to pick up the exact shade you’re looking for in a cheaper formula since it isn’t going to be an everyday shade? There are still four more wearable shades left, where all four most likely won’t look good on you. Also, are these the shades that you’re dying to have, or are you buying them because it’s conveniently priced? Because, we’ve effectively split the value to $24.50, and working off the assumption that at least one of the three won’t be flattering, it’s at $16.17 for three mini lipsticks that might not be exactly what you’re looking for. At this point, it’s more worth it to pick up a full size from her line that you’ve hand selected and love.

4. Too Faced Christmas in New York Collection Chocolate Shop ($58):  If I had to pick one product from this list that’s easiest to not purchase, it would be this one. This is because Too Faced makes the same palette every year for holiday, and the quality is always subpar. The collection has the eyeshadow palette (includes bronzer, highlighter, and blush), Better than Sex mascara, and Melted Chocolate Liquified Long Wear Lipstick in Milkshake. The palette is filled with boring browns and shimmers that you already have, as well as a blue silver and purple for a pop of color. The purple is bound to suck since Too Faced has never formulated a well performing purple. This palette also looks very very similar to the Nikkie Tutorials Power of Makeup palette, so if you own that this should be an easy pass. Also, most of the reviews ripped the Power of Makeup palette to shreds, which would make me question the quality of this one. The extras sound good though, right? Wrong. The better than sex mascara deluxe sample has been a Sephora 100-point perk multiple times and has been in multiple Sephora and Too Faced kits before. Do you need an eye primer? Most likely not. And do you need this eye primer? Most definitely not. Next, is the lipstick a formula and shade that you’ll actually wear and enjoy? These are the kind of questions that you should definitely be asking.

Sunblock Showddown

The three  contestants are: Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion Broad Spectrum SPF 50+ WetForce for Sensitive Skin & Children (what a wordy name), Josie Maran Argan Daily Moisturizer SPF 47 Protect + Perfect, and Paula’s Choice RESIST Youth-Extending Daily Hydrating Fluid SPF 50. All of these products have extremely long names, so I’m just going to refer to them by brand name.

Before we get into the details, you should know a little bit about my skin and what I expect in a sunscreen. I have extreme combination skin, an oil slick on my t-zone which extends to the area around my nostrils, and normal to flakey skin on my cheeks and parts of chin. This definitely makes finding the holy grail in any category a challenge.

The sunscreen shouldn’t feel greasy, should sink into my skin nicely, not make my face have an obvious white cast, pill up under my makeup, last on my skin, and shouldn’t exacerbate my acne. I think that these are some pretty fair expectations. Let’s see how the sunscreens have held up to my expectations.

            Shouldn’t feel greasy:
            Shiseido spreads easily and dries to a soft powder finish. It’s the exact opposite of what I’d label as greasy. Josie Maran has a moisturizing feel to it, but not what I’d call greasy. The moisturizing effect does backfire, because I feel like I can’t apply too much without feeling like I stuck on too much moisturizer. Paula’s Choice is capitol of greasy town, after applying I look like I’ve stuck my face in a vat of grease.

            Sink into my skin:

            Shiseido feels invisible once I’ve applied it to my skin. It’s perfect in that regard, but acts horrible when I try to place makeup on top of it. It doesn’t allow any of the products to actually stick onto my face, which makes my makeup look way cakier than normal. Josie Maran does not sink into my skin, at all. If I apply it, I need to make sure that I have at least an hour extra to start my base makeup. I think this is because of how moisturizing it is, I can feel it even after my usual fifteen-minute wait time. Paula’s Choice doesn’t sink into the skin, but it isn’t as noticeable as Josie Maran. I still need to wait a little bit more than 15 minutes to sink in, but not an hour. Although, the grease factor doesn’t go away after it sinks in.

            White cast:

            There is only one offender to this, and its Shiseido. If I apply the correct amount of sunscreen, I look ghostly. This isn’t a passable white tint; I look like I’ve applied white paint all over my face. This makes the sunscreen basically unwearable.

            Pill up on my face:

             Shiseido and Josie Maran don’t pill up under my makeup at all, Paula’s Choice on the other hand…. Paula’s Choice doesn’t pill up usually, but it has had its days where it does badly. My friends will ask me if I’m shedding, and then I have to blame it on my sunscreen. The odd thing is that I don’t change my skincare routine, so I have no clue why it occasionally pills.

            Last on my skin:

            Shiseido lasts the longest on my skin, but I can only say that because I can still see the white cast on my skin when removing. It is also a real pain to remove, which makes me happy because I know that it’s going to be doing its job (even though I reapply every two hours anyway). Josie Maran is hard to tell when it fades, so I assume that it lasts as well as an average sunscreen. The Paula’s Choice fades the fastest, and I say this because when I start to get oily I can feel it sliding around my face.

Exacerbate my acne:

            From all of my testing, I’m surprised to say that none of these break me out. This is a huge surprise to me, because when I was using other sunscreens, they all broke me out. Those offenders were the sunscreens in the Neutrogena line.

            And the winner is: I’m not really sure. This must be the ultimate cop out, but the one that I think is the most suited for me (Shiseido), has the unforgivable flaw. So I guess it goes to Josie Maran by default (Paula’s Choice has way too many problems), but I wouldn’t actually repurchase it. It has definitely sparked an interest in Asian sunscreens though, so I’ll be reviewing the Kao Biore UV PERFECT Milk SPF50+ PA++++ when it comes in the mail next.

For those of you curious on the ingredients and COSDNA ratings on the sunscreen:

Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion Broad Spectrum SPF 50+ WetForce for Sensitive Skin & Children	Josie Maran Argan Daily Moisturizer SPF 47 Protect + Perfect	Paula’s Choice RESIST Youth-Extending Daily Hydrating Fluid SPF 50:
Active Ingredients: Octinoxate 7.4%, Octocrylene 3%, Titanium Dioxide 1.4%, and Zinc Oxide 16.4%. Inactive Ingredients: Water, Dimethicone, Butylene Glycol, Isopropyl Myristate, Isohexadecane, SD Alcohol 40-B, Isododecane, Methyl Methacrylate Crosspolymer, PEG-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Polybutylene Glycol/PPG-9/1 Copolymer, Xylitol, Glycerin, Methyl Gluceth-10, PEG/PPG-14/7 Dimethyl Ether, Saxifraga Sarmentosa Extract, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Ectoin, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Hydrogen Dimethicone, Isostearic Acid, Dextrin Palmitate, Aluminum Hydroxide, Stearic Acid, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Silica, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Talc, Alcohol, Trisodium EDTA, BHT, Syzygium Jambos Leaf Extract, Tocopherol, Fragrance.	Zinc Oxide 9.4% and Titanium Dioxide 5.9% Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Titanium Dioxide, Cyclopentasiloxane, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate, Mica, Nylon-12, Glycerin, Polyhydroxystearic Acid, Polyglyceryl-2 Isostearate, Methicone, Alumina, Phenoxyethanol, Isononyl Isononanoate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Tocopheryl Acetate, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Polysilicone-11, Sodium Chloride, Iron Oxide (CI 77492), Magnesium Stearate, Isopropyl Myristate, Fragrance, Bisabolol, Iron Oxides (CI 77491), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Isopropyl Titanium Triisostearate, Iron Oxides (CI 77499), Stearalkonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Laureth-12, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Ethylhexylglycerin, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate.	Active Ingredients: Avobenzone 2.0%, Octinoxate 7.50%, Octisalate 5.0%, Octocrylene 2.0%. Other Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Silica, Dimethicone, Tocopherol ,Chamomilla Recutita Flower Extract, Vitis Vinifera Seed Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Peucedanum Graveolens Extract, Sambucus Nigra Fruit Extract, Avena Sativa Bran Extract, Punica Granatum Extract, Lycium Barbarum Fruit Extract, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Titanium Dioxide,  Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Diethylhexyl Syringylidenemalonate, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Carbomer, Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Phenoxyethanol.

Shiseido 

Josie Maran

Paula's Choice