Metallic Eyes

One of the bigger trends right now is metallic eye looks. Sephora has a whole page dedicated to the "Rebel Eyes" look in their Trending at Sephora section. I pulled some of my favorite metallic eye shadows to share with you. Some are tried and true favorites and others are fairly new to me.

Here are my picks:

Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadow in Synergy. This is one of the highest color payoff eyeshadows that I have. The color is a beautiful coppery bronze and a little goes a very long way. As long as you do not use too much of the product, there is minimal fallout when blending. It is ultra long lasting and I have not had any creasing or fading issues.

Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill in 6 Khaki Pulse. This is another formula specifically created to be long lasting. It advertises 24 hour wear and a waterproof finish. I have not tested either of those claims (mostly because I do not go to bed with makeup on). I will say that I have worn this on some particularly hot and humid days and I have not had any fading or creasing.

NARS Dual Intensity in Dione. This shadow advertises 8 hour wear. Honestly, as much as I love the color and other NARS products, I do find that it creases before that. I have oily lids and always wear primer, but this product does tend to fade and crease on me prior to the 8 hour promise. I am a big fan of the color and tend to wear it on days when I know I will be out for a shorter period of time.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Suspect. This is one of my favorite metallic shades for day and I wear it to work all of the time. It is a nice neutral, but with a little edge. Urban Decay shadows are some of my favorites (the Naked Palettes, especially). This color is available on its own and is also in the Naked 2 palette if you already own that.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Eye Chrome in Beige Luster. I am a fan of the Maybelline Color Tattoo range and have a few of the shadows. The Eye Chrome is a newer formulation for the line and I purchased two of the colors recently. The formula is a cream housed in a tube with a doe-foot applicator. Beige Luster is my favorite of the two. Once it sets, this formulation really lasts. It takes a lot of waterproof makeup remover to get this off.

See swatches below. All swatches in order of first photo.

In direct sunlight:



Outdoors in shade:



Indoors (no flash):



What are some of your favorite metallic eye shades? Are there any trends you are into right now?

Rose Gold Loves

Today I thought I would share some of my rose gold favorites. Rose gold is such a nice color that, to me, goes with everything. I find that it is flattering on most skin tones and I tend to wear a lot more rose gold in the summer, as I love how it looks when I have a bit of a tan. I picked an eyeshadow palette, single powder eyeshadow, highlighter, lip gloss, single cream eyeshadow, and a nail polish to give some variety.

Below (clockwise from top): Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold, Nars Lip Gloss in Orgasm, and L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Amber Rush.



Tons of people seem to be in love with Becca's highlighting products. I got the Rose Gold shade in a sampler set and I was so excited to try it out. I do like it, but I find that it is not something I can wear to work. I feel like it gives a more extreme highlight and has a lot of shimmer. While the effect is very beautiful, I tend to be more conservative at work and stick to my Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders for highlighters during the day. That said, this is a beautiful color and the finish is very nice. The powder is easy to blend and it layers nicely with other products.

What can I say that hasn't been said about Nars and the Orgasm color in general? Just buy it, if you haven't already. The gloss is a great quality, not sticky, has decent staying power (around 3 hours), and the color is so flattering. If you have the blush and love it, get the gloss. Trust me, you will love it too.

The L'Oreal Infallible eye shadow was a total impulse buy one day in Target. It is such a pretty color and staying power is impressive. It lasts all day on me without creasing. The powder is a little chunky, but it blends well and I find that if I apply it by itself with my fingers there is less fallout.

Below is the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Color in Rose Gold:



I have the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour in 4 or 5 colors, but the Rose Gold is the one I reach for most often. I find that it is a great base color, makes powders layered over it last forever, and it also is very pretty on its own with just liner and mascara. This is definitely one of my top used products overall and I truly love it.

Swatches of the above products in direct sunlight:



The Urban Decay Naked 3 palette:



The Urban Decay Naked 3 palette is another high use item for me. I always travel with it and love that the shades look so great on their own or blended. Limit is great base colors. I love Nooner as a crease color if using lighter shades on the lid and it is also great on its own with a bit of liner
. Dust and Burnout I use as highlight colors. Trick is such a unique shade to me. It is a color chameleon and changes greatly in different lighting. It can look more rose, gold or orange/peach depending on the light. Swatches below are the shades Dust through Nooner of the Urban Decay 3 palette:



I hope you have enjoyed my picks. What are some of your rose gold favorites?

Setting and Refreshing Sprays

Setting and refreshing sprays are, for me, a huge part of my daily skincare and makeup routine. I think setting sprays help give a little life to your makeup, extend staying power, and also play a huge part in refreshing skin throughout the day. I thought I would share a few of my favorites, as well as how I use them in my routine.



By far, my favorite setting spray that extends the life of my makeup, as well as keeping skin looking fresh, is the Urban Decay Chill Makeup Setting Spray. I love the cooling feeling it imparts on skin when applied. It has definitely helped me balance my combination skin. The cooling effect lasts for a long time and it keeps my t-zone from getting oily, but does not dry out my cheeks. I love that it is not sticky at all and the mister is ultra fine, which helps spray evenly and consistently across the face. I have had to use oil absorbing sheets far less when I use this as my setting spray. Urban Decay makes several other setting sprays as well, which I have yet to try, but do look forward to.

The Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist has a lovely rose scent and is a great setting spray and refresher throughout the day. It is designed to help balance combination skin types. It does have alcohol as a main ingredient, but I find that it is not overly drying, possibly from the aloe it contains as well. It also contains marshmallow, which is an ingredient I find works well for my skin for anti-inflammatory purposes.



The Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray is something that I have repurchased several times now. This is nice because it is oil free. This spray contains aloe as well, which I love as an ingredient, as it provides moisture but does not make me break out. Despite the claims, I do not find it overly moisturizing, which works for my combination skin. If you are drier, I would recommend the Tatcha Luminous instead.

The Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist is a luxury item. I really love the packaging (everything from the Tatcha line has the most beautiful containers), as it comes in a nice glass bottle. I have this in the full size for home and the purse size (shown above) for my bag. This is great as a mist before makeup if you are feeling a bit dry and can also be used after makeup. It is very glowy and will be way too much for oily skin types. I can only spray it on my cheeks, but I love the hydration and luminosity it gives the skin. One bit of caution though - if you spray too much at once, it can get slightly tacky. If you have dry skin, I can see this being a holy grail mist for you.

I bought the L'Occitane Immortelle Precious Mist when I was looking for sprays that did not contain alcohol. I had recently started using retinol and was getting a lot of the dryness associated with that. I use another Immortelle moisturizer from L'Occitane and really like it, so I thought I would try this out. I find that this is very refreshing and has the nice Immortelle smell like the other products from the line. I love using this applied to a Beauty Blender for an afternoon touchup. It is an aerosol and I have accidentally gotten my hair with it a couple of times. That is honestly the only thing I wish was a bit better. The mist is really wide and that makes it a bit more difficult to control.



The Supergoop Defense Refresh Setting Mist with Rosemary is another recent purchase. I was looking for something with SPF that can be applied over makeup (and not ruin it). As part of adding retinol, it is also really important to protect your skin from the sun. As most sunscreens only last a few hours, it is necessary to reapply. The dilemma, of course, is when you are wearing makeup. I don't want to take all of my makeup off to reapply and most sunscreens are lotions that do not go over makeup well at all. I have tried some of the powder sunscreen formulations and did not really like adding that much powder to my skin. The Supergoop Spray has SPF 50, which is on the higher end, a really fresh rosemary scent, and adds a matte finish. Many times, I will layer this with another spray on my cheeks, as it is a bit drying. If you have oily skin, you most likely will not have to do that. So far, it is the best option I have have found for adding SPF later in the day. I did notice that Coola has made an SPF spray and am interested in trying that one to see how it compares.

I hope this roundup of sprays is helpful to you. What are some of your recommendations?

rms beauty Buriti Bronzer

rms beauty is a new-to-me brand. I only discovered it recently, even though it seems they have been around for a few years now. The Buriti Bronzer is my first purchase from the line. It is a cream bronzer that comes in a small frosted glass pot with a metal lid. I have tried to show a few angles and with different cameras, as this bronzer does change significantly in different lighting. Based on the swatches below, you can see how it wears in various lighting situations.

This is outdoors, but not direct sunlight. Here it is more difficult to see the shimmer.



The following is outside in direct sunlight. You can see all of the shimmer and gold flecks.



Below is the bronzer in indoor natural light. You can still see that there is a shimmer, but the gold flecks are not as prominent.



The bronzer has a great, creamy consistency that makes it very blendable.  I found that I needed to put a small amount of setting power over it in order to ensure it did not transfer onto anything else. Once it was set, it did not budge. If you have oily skin, I can definitely see this sliding around the face a bit, especially if you do not use powder over it. I generally have used a normal setting powder (Laura Mercier, L'Oreal, etc.) to set, but one day I used the Hourglass Radiant Light Ambient Lighting powder to set it and that gave a very nice glow to the skin.

The bronzer does contain coconut oil as a main ingredient. There is definitely some controversy over coconut oil and whether it causes/cures breakouts. Some sites say it can cause breakouts, but the rms website says the that coconut oil can help cure acne. I have combination/sensitive skin that is often prone to breakouts, but the bronzer did not make me break out. If you are worried this may be an issue, you may want do a spot test to see if you are sensitive to it. If you are aware that coconut oil affects your skin in a not so nice way or if you are allergic, you may want to avoid this one.



I paired the buriti bronzer with a nude eye and lip for a more monochromatic effect. I used the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette in shades Suspect and Snakebite and Urban Decay 24/7 glide on eye pencil in Hustle on the eyes. For lips, I wore tarte Amazonian butter lipstick in Park Avenue Princess. Swatches of all shades below.



I really like the buriti bronzer and have used it quite a few times since purchasing. The overall glow it gives to the skin is really quite beautiful and it also layers well with blush or other glowy powders. I am interested in buying more products from the rms line, especially the luminizer. The bronzer retails for $28 and is available at Beauty.com, Beautylish, and Sephora.