Casual Friday: The Beach is Getting Closer!

Good morning/afternoon/night to everyone, and happy Friday!!! I'm so happy that another week is about over, and I'm going to be able to sleep in for another couple of days. Yes...sleeping is my thing...and I get weird and sometimes cranky when I don't get enough of it (not to mention I look like a zombie haha). Soooo yay for the weekend!!! ^_^

One thing that has me super excited is that one week from today, my fiancé and I start our vacation!!! We are heading to NC to stay with some family and take daily trips to the beach! I'm in some serious need for some beach time...or just vacation time in general. I can't freakin' wait! I won't be blogging while on vacation so I'll be off of here for a week. I will still be posting to my Instagram and Beauty Page so don't forget to like/follow those so you can keep up with me on my trip! ^_^

I get my new office next week, too! I will officially be an HR Assistant at my job, and I'm so excited about that! ^_^ Of course, the timing was fun since as soon as I'll be moving into my new office, I'll be going on my vacation. LoL

I'm still going to try to get back on my normal blogging schedule starting after vacation, but if I find that to not be possible, then I will update everyone with a new schedule. Plus, I always post about my blog updates so you should see those, too.

As for makeup and/or beauty updates, I did get the newest three ColourPop Ultra Metallic Lipsticks last week, and I got the True Love Collection of the Lime Crime Velvetines that I did mini reviews and swatches of on my Instagram. I will be doing a blog pos

t about them soon, too. I also will be reviewing some new hair products that I have used in the past couple of months so stay tuned for that stuff! :)

This is yet another short but sweet post, but it's time for me to get to work! I will possibly have a post or two up next week, but if I don't, follow my Instagram and Beauty Page to see any updates!

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend everyone! 💋

Beauty Wednesday: Natural Beauty

Hey everyone! I know I didn't post Monday, but I didn't have the time during my day to get a post up! I'm sorry! :(  I wanted to make sure I at least got something up today...even if it's a little shorter than usual. This post isn't necessarily a review of anything. I figured, it's beauty Wednesday...so let's celebrate that by celebrating our natural beauty!

You never need makeup or special skin care or anything to look beautiful! We are all as beautiful as our personalities, in my opinion. You don't need that winged liner and blinding highlight to make anyone think you're a super model, and really, it shouldn't matter. As long as you're happy with the way you look, then that's all that matters! Be yourself! Have some fun, laugh out loud, chill at home or hang out with friends! Wear makeup or don't wear makeup...it doesn't matter. Just make sure that you're happy with your NATURAL self! :)

I hear from my fiancé a lot that I don't need to wear makeup and that I look beautiful without it all over my face. I will agree with him...I know I never need to wear makeup. I know I look just fine without it, but sometimes...a girl just wants to have a little fun and put some arts and crafts on her face! xD There's nothing wrong with that since makeup is a pretty good means of expressing yourself. You just need to make sure you never lose that confidence you had before the makeup and before the Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube followers.

Just a note...this is a post for everyone. I didn't think of it because of any specific person...I just thought of it because I realized that I've been reviewing so much makeup and beauty products, but I never really expressed (outside of some Natural Thursday posts on Instagram) how beautiful your natural self is without all that stuff. :)

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post! I know it's a short one, but my work load has been shifting since I'm still getting moved into this new position at work so I'm trying to update when I can!

Oh! I almost forgot! I do have a new Beauty Page on Facebook, which will show any updates for when I post to my blog or on Instagram. Feel free to like it if you're interested, and feel free to follow me on Instragram if you haven't already.

Have a great Wednesday everyone! 💋

Beauty Wednesday: BoxyCharm vs. Ipsy

Hey everyone! I hope your Wednesday is going well so far! I'm going to go over a comparison between both BoxyCharm and Ipsy subscriptions! They seem to be two of the most popular subscription options out there right now, and I've used both of them so I figured I would share my own input about each one and go over which one I favor more.

Subscription boxes have definitely become a huge thing in just about every category out there! On the beauty side, the biggest competitors are BoxyCharm and Ipsy. They're both really fun and filled with some good products to try out for yourself or giveaway if you don't plan to use something.

Let's start with Ipsy since that's what I subscribed to first.

First off, I love their bags! Their little glam bags are always unique, and you can use them for makeup or pens and pencils for school. The designs are really cute and change every month! These little bags include five sample or full-sized beauty products. In my experience, I only got maybe...three full-sized products in the three months I stayed with them, which isn't bad when you get an average of one full-sized item per month. However, the five products you get are randomized from about 50 (estimating) other products. There are usually two high end sample products that you are guaranteed to get one of (50/50 chance as to which you'll get) so it's nice that they guarantee you something that should absolutely be high quality, but you will pretty much want something (or multiple things) different than what you got. You can see what you're getting before the bag ships by looking on their website, and you can see everything you're not getting that were options. Some people who show what they've received may even get more full-sized products while others will get more samples sizes. I mean, for $10, you can't expect too much, and everything you get is plenty to try out to see if you like it, but there were too many things that I wanted over the stuff I got, and I felt like the odds of me getting any of the items I really wanted weren't very high due to everything you could choose from. You can review your bag and each item and let them know if the product is something you like or not, but it still comes down to how many products that are possible for you to get...so even telling them what you prefer over something else doesn't change your chances of getting things you don't want.

Now, let's talk about BoxyCharm. This box is $21/month for four to five products, so you're already looking at spending more money...BUT...this box contains nothing but full-sized products! This includes pallets, which I didn't know until I saw Kathleen Lights unbox her July box to see that there was an Ofra Z-pallet that included six Ofra eye shadows. I'm going to stop here for a second to bring something to light...

This pallet included SIX eye shadows. Ofra eye shadow pans are $10 EACH. Out of the four products that came in the box...you've already received ONE product that's worth $60! $21 spent...and you have a $60 product...plus more. I'll let you think about that for the second you'll need to see why that's an amazing. deal. ;)

Moving on...I signed up for BoxyCharm after seeing the unboxing because I've been wanting Ofra products for a while, and the other products included looked cute. I also thought about the long run... What if I get a product or two that I will never use? Easy...collect those and use them for a giveaway or donation! July's box alone contained products that totaled up to $121 retail price. Who cares if you get one or two products you don't want when they're all great quality items that you got an amazing deal on? This month's box is actually including a liquid lipstick that's a shade I would never wear, but I know that others would love it, so I'm going to hang onto it for a possible Instagram giveaway later on down the road (like maybe when I hit 1,000 followers...hint hint LoL).

By the way...BoxyCharm sends out the same products to everyone. There may be one product that's a 50/50 chance of getting over a different one, but ultimately everyone gets the same products. There's not a huge layout of products that you have a one in a million chance of getting. I actually love that because you don't have to be like "man I wish I had gotten that over this".

On both of these subscription options, you can cancel anytime. There's no cancellation fee, and you can always resubscribe. One key note about subscribing that I want to point out here, though, is that Ipsy has a waiting list. You could be waiting for months before your subscription goes through, or you can share your referral link on social media to immediately get you off the waiting list. With BoxyCharm, there is no waiting list. When you sign up, it's an immediate process. If you cancel, there's no possibility of being on a waiting list if you resubscribe, which is also something that happens with Ipsy.

With everything said, I'm sure it's obvious that I prefer BoxyCharm over Ipsy, but they both are still great options that include a variety of products. Ipsy definitely gives you a ton of products that are possible for you to get, while BoxyCharm has a set list that you're guaranteed. You have mostly samples with Ipsy vs. full-sized with BoxyCharm, which I know some people prefer samples because they don't need the clutter of having all the full-sized products they'll never use or go through to organize. Ipsy is cheaper with a waiting list while BoxyCharm is more expensive without one. They both pretty much balance each other out, and they both have their pros and cons. It's really up to personal preference, and possible budget, as to which one you would want to go with. :)

If you would like to subscribe to BoxyCharm, you can Click Here to sign up. If you want to subscribe to Ipsy, you can Click Here.

I also recommend another subscription box that was recently brought to my attention from SolTheory. They gave me a discount code to share with everyone to get 20% off their first box. They're boxes include sunglasses, and you can choose if you want anything else with them based on which option you choose. There's a jewelry option, a beauty option (which included three full-sized products), or you can get an extra pair of sunglasses. If you just want the one pair of sunglasses, you can do that, too! The price starts at $12.99/month, and my discount code for you to use is KTPARTE. Check it out! :)

That's it for this post! I will be here again Friday! Have a great Wednesday everyone! 💋

Mask Monday: Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! :) I know Monday's are usually makeup reviews, but I'm still waiting for the new stuff to come in so I can do a first impressions kind of review. Plus, what I do have that I haven't blogged about I probably just haven't used enough to blog about them. LoL So I figured today I could go over the Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask that's been spreading like wildfire throughout YouTube channels and other blogs! If you haven't heard about this yet, then get ready because this is a really fun product to use and talk about!

I first heard about this mask through Tina Yong's YouTube channel, and I heard about it again through Tati Westbrooks' YouTube channel...so of course I had to finally test this sucker out for myself! :) From their reviews, the main complaint was how messy it was and that you shouldn't apply the mask really thick like they did in order to avoid getting many more bubbles than you would want on your face. I kept this in mind when I got it and tested it out for myself. Yes...I do have pictures! ;)

When I first opened the product, I saw that it came with a little plastic spatula and that the inner lid was sealed pretty well. Actually, it was sealed so well that I thought there was some special trick to open it that I didn't know about! I ended up just having to pull up on it really hard to finally get it open. I can understand why this would need to be packaged like this since the air will make the mask bubble. The thinner the layer of this product on anything, the faster it will start to bubble.

Once I got it opened, it was exactly like I expected after seeing the reviews of this product before...it was a gray clay mask. It wasn't dense at all. It felt more like a cream, I guess you could say. Since both reviews said not to apply it thick, I made sure I only took a small amount onto the spatula to apply, and I realized quickly that you don't need a lot of this product to cover a large area. Of course, since it wasn't a thick layer being applied, it started to bubble on my skin pretty fast while I was still applying it to the rest of my face. I didn't mind this as this had happened in the reviews, as well.

Do I look pretty yet? :-P 

Once I got done with the application, I had to wait five minutes before the next step. It was so cool having this mask on because you could hear the bubbles, and you could see the mask transform right before your eyes. Basically, if you ever played with bubbles from a bubble bath by making yourself look like Santa, this pretty much resembled that. LoL The bubbles weren't as big, of course, but the look was kind of the same! ;)

After five minutes, the instructions tell you to use a little water (like...wet your fingers) and massage the bubbles into your skin for two more minutes. By the way...none of the instructions on the box are English so you'll probably need to either follow someone else's review or check for the instructions on Google. Back to where I left off, I massaged the bubbles in completely, but I wanted to see if the mask would bubble up again if I left it alone. It did a very little bit and only in a couple of spots. I'm thinking because I didn't apply such a heavy layer that the mask pretty much bubbled as much as it was going to so I went ahead and rinsed it off.

It actually took quite a bit of time to rinse the mask off my face. This had to do with the fact that it kept bubbling as you washed it off. I guess the water mixing through it made it bubble, too. LoL Once it was completely gone, my skin actually felt really good! It felt clean and refreshed, and I noticed that I did lose quite a good amount of blackheads around my nose. This mask will leave your skin feeling pretty dry, and it may make your skin a little red so I recommend moisturizing not too long after you dry your face off to help soothe your skin back to normal.

I wouldn't recommend this mask to anyone with dry and/or sensitive skin. I think the level of dryness at the end won't do any good for these skin types, and with the redness that can occur on any skin type, I'm thinking it may be worse if you have sensitive skin. Otherwise, this product is great! I can see it being great for anyone with normal to oily or combo skin. :)

I would rate this product about a 7/10. I love it, but the packaging, I think, could be made to be a little easier to open, and it won't be great for all skin types. It is really messy, as the reviews I've seen had told me, and it takes a good minute to wash it all off, but it is a really great mask. It's a fun one, too, and you really can't go too horribly wrong with fun products! ^_^

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @ktparte to see my live reviews! I did one for this mask when I tried it out so I hope you got to see it! If not, there will be plenty more occasions to catch!

I hope you enjoyed this review! Have a great Monday everyone!!! 💋

Casual Friday: Blog Posting Schedule May Change...Again

Hey everyone! It's finally Friday again!!! We've survived another week, and it's time for another break! I'm going to have quite of bit of things to test out this weekend since I got a bunch of PR sample products from Raya Spa.

I tried out the Magnetic Mud Mask that they sent me last night, so you can check out my Instagram to see how that went! I posted a couple My Story videos on there that won't expire until later tonight so feel free to see how it went! I actually really like the product, but I do not recommend it to anyone with oily skin! I actually made sure to completely cleanse my face first (since that dries out my skin) before I applied it so it didn't make my face too oily.

Anyways, as for the subject of this blog post, I haven't figured out how the schedule of my blog posting will change yet. It may be a different time of day, different days completely, or I may need to break from it for a little bit, but I am not 100% sure yet. I shouldn't have to take a break from it, but I'm getting a new position at my work office which will require a lot more of my time. If I absolutely need a break, it may only be for like...a week...just to figure out how exactly my time is being used and when I'll have the time to post. I may just have to start posting at night instead of the morning, which won't be a huge deal...it's just more convenient to get it done in the morning. :)

Also, I have an update on my wisdom teeth situation. I did decide to postpone the surgery due to financial reasons, so the surgery has been rescheduled for April of next year. Hopefully, by then, I'll be able to handle what they need me to pay out of pocket. Money is a killer sometimes...LoL

I did not get the new metallics launched my ColourPop yesterday, but I do plan to get them sometime soon if my budget allows it to happen. I hate that didn't get those babies at launch like I got the others, but some things need to come first, and makeup isn't exactly the top of the priority list. Not right now, anyways. I have so much that I still haven't done full reviews on yet! I'm also still waiting to get my August box from BoxyCharm, which will have even more goodies to play with!

I am creating a Giveaway collection for whenever I reach 1000 followers on Instagram. I'm a little over halfway to that goal, but I figure by the time I reach it, I should have something nice to give out to someone. ^_^ Keep your eyes opened for that, and feel free to follow me if you haven't already done so! :)



Anyways, I think that wraps up this post! I'll be having a girl's night out with my sister for dinner so that will be fun! Hopefully the work day flies by so we can get to hanging out! ^_^

I hope everyone has a great Friday and a wonderful weekend! 💋

Makeup Monday: ColourPop Ultra Metallics - Part 2

Hello everyone, and Happy Monday! Is it just me or did the weekend just go by super fast??? I feel like today should still be Sunday....hmmmm.

New ColourPop Ultra Metallics

Anyways, I am back with another ColourPop review! This one is to review their SECOND launch of four new Ultra Metallics Liquid Lipsticks! :) I was so excited when I found out they made found more shades that were lighter than the first set...and I recently found out that they've made three more new shades, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get my hands on those beauties. So for now, let's review the newest shades: Salt, Lights Out, Flitter, and JIC.

Salt

Salt is probably my favorite shade of all of them! It's a very bronze color compared to the rest. It reminds me of Zebra and Man Eater if you mixed them together and lightened them up. The formula is awesome, and the texture is a silky-creamy texture like the first batch. This color stays on VERY well...and I mean that as in when I swatched the colors on my arm, Salt left the most color when I removed them all with makeup remover. Salt is no joke! LoL

Lights Out

Lights out is a very rich golden color. This color I probably wouldn't wear out anywhere unless it was blended with something else under it to kind of ease up the gold. It reminded me of a color you would wear if you were dressing as Cleopatra. It's very beautiful, but just not something for me for an every day kind of look.  The formula of this one is the same as the rest and so is the texture, which means this is going to be a comfortable and long-wearing color, too. :)

Flitter

Flitter has a very pretty pinkish purple iridescence to it's golden finish. In the light, this color looks gold, but when you're looking at it straight on or at a shaded angle, it's an even more pretty color. I was worried that this was looked just like Lights Out, but it definitely has a difference to it. I love the dual colors! Again, formula and texture are the same, and it lasts a long time on your lips.

JIC

JIC is probably the one that stands out to me as the most different in the bunch. It's more of a silver-toned color, and it has more glitter in it...and I mean like...actual bigger bits of glitter. This doesn't make it uncomfortable to wear by any means, but you can definitely tell the difference in its texture when you press your lips together. It looks gorgeous on its own, but it would also make a beautiful topper on top of a color...especially a pink, purple, red, blue, or even a black color. It's versatile in the way it can be use, which is awesome, and it is also going to stay on all day!



I really can't say enough good things about these babies, and I'm honestly shocked that I was able to keep this post on the shorter side. I figured they are pretty much the same as my initial review on the darker shades, so I didn't want to repeat that whole thing all over again. This is more of my review of how the colors look, wear, and feel, and they're all amazing!  All of these shades are absolutely a 10/10 for me, and I would always recommend them!

Keep an eye out for the three new shades - Pyt, DM, and Mugshot! The release date isn't known (or at least I don't know it) at this time, but they're gorgeous! Check out @colourpop and @colourpoptrend on Instagram for swatches to see what they look like! You can also check out all of the other amazing products that ColourPop has to offer at their website!

That wraps it up for this Makeup Monday Review! As always...don't forget to follow me on Instagram @ktparte to keep up with all my latest updates and mini-reviews! I hope everyone has a wonderful day! 💋

Casual Friday: Rain, Rain, Go Away

TGIF!!! Although, it's been raining here all week and isn't going to stop for the weekend so I'm thinking I'm going to continue being sleepy until we get some sunlight again.

Ofra Eye Shadow Pallet from BoxyCharm

I'm hoping to get some looks tried out with my Ofra eye shadow pallet from last month's BoxyCharm. I also want to show off some of the ColourPop Churro highlighter! It's so pretty! I haven't gotten anything new in so I'll be focusing on those for right now. I'm expecting a few more liquid lipsticks from Jeffree Star and Dose of Colors sometime this month. I should be getting my faux fur rug sometime in the next week or so. That sucker is taking forever to get here!

New Ultra Metallics

I'm thinking I'll be putting up my ColourPop Ultra Metallic review on Monday with the four new shades they came out with. I'm in love with them! I've been posting quite a bit on my Instagram with a couple of their shades, plus all the swatches from when I first got them.

Speaking of Instagram, they just launched an update which added Instagram Stories to your feed. It's basically SnapChat within Instagram but without the fun selfie filters that SnapChat has. Regardless of the filters, I'm going to be using the story feature in Instagram from now one when I'm doing any of my new makeup or product reviews. I'm also going to do unboxings on there, too, starting with this month's BoxyCharm when it arrives. I'll put my hauls up there, too. Basically, anything to do with my beauty products and reviews will now be on Instagram. I just find it easier to have everything in one place than having to do everything twice or make everyone look in two different places for things. With that said, if you're not already following me on Instagram and would like to keep up with anything that I've mentioned above, then start following @ktparte so you can!

Forecast from my Weather app :(

Other than that, I've been thinking more and more about my wisdom teeth coming out and how it will be paid off in time. I haven't gotten the exact amount I'll be owing them, but I'm thinking of extending my appointment out to give me more time to get it paid up so I don't have to stress so much. I have a lot happening soon...my vacation is coming up and a whole lot of stuff with work is happening in the next couple of months so I'm thinking of holding this off until the stress is down and the dust clears. I'll keep you guys updated on that, too. :) Whenever that happens...I'll probably Snap about the wisdom teeth experience. I may do a story on Instagram, too...it's not beauty related so it'll depend on what I feel like doing whenever I get them out. :)

I really can't wait for my vacation, though. I need one after all this rain we've been getting. It's been so gloomy and gross outside for over a week, and it's not changing anytime soon. I think next week's forecast is calling for clouds and rain and maybe one day of sun.

Anyways, that's about it for now! I hope everyone has a great day and an even better weekend!

Catch you next week! 💋

Beauty Wednesday: Vita Liberata Rapid 'Light as Air' Tanning Mousse

Hello, and happy Wednesday! :) We've made it halfway through the week!

I've been hearing a lot of hype around Vita Liberta's tanning products so I thought I would try one out for myself. I chose a product that I hadn't seen reviewed yet through any of the YouTubers I watch, and I haven't seen Vita Liberata post a review of it on Instagram yet so I figured this was the best thing to do in order to get an unbiased opinion from me.

Vita Liberata Rapid Tinted Mousse

From the products that I have seen reviewed, they're all great! They give a beautiful dark bronze tan that looks even and natural. I love St. Tropez, but being that I only have the Classic shade, it doesn't get too dark without me layering it, which I typically don't have the time to do. I found the Vita Liberata tanning product that lets you choose how dark you want the tan to go by how long you keep it on before rinsing. It's called the Rapid 'Light as Air' Tinted Mousse. The instructions say that you apply it evenly to your skin and leave it on from 1 to 3 hours, or longer, depending on how dark you want the tan to be. 1 hour should leave you with a light tan, 2 hours should be medium, and 3 hours should be dark, and it will obviously get darker from there.

When I received this product, I couldn't wait to try it out. I said I would try it over the weekend, but I actually tried it the day after receiving it when I got home from work. The mousse applies evenly and blends easily with a tanning mitt. It had kind of a deep olive-toned color guard to it so you know where you've applied the product and you don't keep layering by accident. Once the product was applied, I noticed that it didn't have any fragrance to it, which I liked and thought was a good feature. It did get sticky, though. This product doesn't really dry to the fullest extent...especially on your arms and behind your knees.

I figured with my first try, and the fact that I've never had a "dark" self tanned look before, that I would leave the product on for 3 hours. The color guard definitely got dark, and it became a gorgeous bronze color throughout the waiting period. Of course, it's a color guard so it shows every little spot on your body so even though the color was nice, the way it made the texture of your skin look wasn't great, but that part isn't important. LoL After the three hours was up, I rinsed off the product. I saw it all wash off and down the drain. I used a body wash lightly so the scent of the tan developing would wash away (yes, you still smell funky as the tan develops, which is a good thing because that means the product is working). When I got out of the shower, I didn't look much darker than I started...and I have pretty fair skin. The most I noticed is that you couldn't see the pink/red in my skin much anymore, but other than that, nothing changed.

Before and after from when I kept it on for 5 hours
My before looks darker than the after

I figured maybe 3 hours wasn't long enough for my skin tone to hold the pigment. When I tried it out again, it was that weekend, and I posted everything on Snapchat and Instagram to show the results I got. I left the product on for 5 hours this time...and I got the same result. My before and after shots look so much the same...you just don't see the pink in my skin on the after photo. Given, I was happy with the way it turned out to be even with a bronze tone to hide the pink, but after a while of sitting and thinking about it, I became pretty disappointed in the results I got. When the product says that after 3 hours you should have a dark tan, and I waited 5 hours to wash the product off this time and the tan is still barely existent, there's something wrong to me. Plus, when I actually looked at my before and after photo, my before picture looked TANNER than my after. I figured it was because of the redness...but I'm not so sure anymore.

I could toss this up to my skin not holding pigment, but it does. I've used many other self tanners in the past, including going to tanning salons for spray tans and tanning in tanning beds, and my skin tans perfectly fine and holds all the sunless tanning pigments from every product I've used. Maybe it's just this particular product that doesn't work for me because, as I said earlier, I've heard so many good reviews on Vita Liberata's products so I can't imagine that they all wouldn't work for me.

As for this product, I'm rating it about a 4/10. It applies easily, it blends easily, and there's no fragrance to the product itself. It left a bronze tone so it does something, it just didn't do what it promised me it would. I definitely want to try their other products, though...mainly to see if they all don't work for my skin or if it's just this product. I'm definitely not letting this one bad experience keep me from trying out the rest of the brand that I've heard so much hype about. :)

Anyways, that's it for this blog! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram (@ktparte) ESPECIALLY now that they have a My Stories feature...which is basically SnapChat on Instagram. I'll be doing all my mini reviews and updates through there as opposed to SnapChat. :)

Have a great day everyone! 💋

Makeup Monday: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Pallet

Hello again everyone, and happy Makeup Monday! I hope everyone's week is starting out well...as well as a Monday can start, anyways. :)  Today's post is going to be my review on the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Pallet!

Anyone who knows the brand Too Faced is typically very familiar with their eye shadow pallets. There are so many to name, but when it comes to the ones like the Chocolate Bar pallet, they have three different kinds: the regular one, the Semi-Sweet Chocolate pallet, and the Chocolate Bon Bons pallet. This review will be on the regular one, since that one had the most neutral shades that would go best with my eye color.

Here we go!

Chocolate Bar Pallet with the look book

This line of pallets is so unique! One of the things I love about my Chocolate Bar pallet is that the shadows actually SMELL like chocolate! I'm such a chocoholic that I could literally just sit and smell this pallet all day! The whole reason that the pallets smell like chocolate is because they're made with cocoa extract as an ingredient, which provides antioxidant benefits. Of course, once you apply the shadows, you won't smell like chocolate...so that's good, too...I guess. LoL

One thing that I loved when I opened up my pallet was that it came with a little book with three different looks you can make with the shades included: Hot Cocoa, Semi-Sweet, and Milk Chocolate. There are 16 shades in this pallet, some shimmer and some matte, so you definitely have a really good assortment to play around with on your own. I, personally, don't have the creativity to come up with own stuff a lot so this book was really handy. It tells you exactly what shades to use and where to apply them. One big reason I bought some drugstore eye shadow pallets was because it would tell you exactly how and where to apply the shadow, so this pallet really started winning me over when I saw that Too Faced did the same thing with their high end pallet.

Hot Cocoa

For those who follow me on Snapchat and Instagram, you may have seen when I posted the snaps and pictures of myself applying these looks. I didn't have great lighting at all, but I feel like they came out looking pretty decent. The pigment to these shadows are amazing, and the colors are so easy to apply and blend or pack on to the lid. Every shadow has a very satin texture to them so they feel super soft during application. The snaps I took of me applying the shadows pretty much showed how the color just went on so easily without a whole lot of effort. I did all three looks from the booklet that came with the pallet, and I was pretty happy with the outcomes of all of them. I think my favorite look was Semi-Sweet because it included the cute baby pink shadow with the browns to bring out a little pop of color. I loved the looks for Hot Cocoa and Milk Chocolate, too, even though I wouldn't be able to wear Milk Chocolate normally because I have hooded eyes, but I can always improvise the look to fit me and still look great!

Semi-Sweet

Milk Chocolate

My full "chocolate" look

My rating on this pallet is definitely a 10/10! It's such a one-of-a-kind pallet, the shades are gorgeous and exactly what I was needing in a pallet, and every shadow is so easy to apply and blend that it makes doing eye makeup a dream! Also...it smells like chocolate...and the packaging looks like a chocolate bar. You can't get much better than that! ;-)

I highly recommend this pallet to anyone who is looking for a great eye shadow pallet with neutral colors...especially if you have blue or green eyes since browns make blue and green pop! If you are looking for more colors, especially for summer time, you can also look into getting their Sweet Peach pallet, which is basically the same concept but with more lighter shades as well as some neutrals. Too Faced is a high end brand so the products are pricey, but they are absolutely worth it since they will last you a long time!

I hope you guys enjoyed this review! I'll be back on here Wednesday to talk about another beauty product so I hope you guys come back to check it out! Make sure you are following me on Instagram (@ktparte) and SnapChat (partepickle) to keep up with my latest new products and swatches!

I hope you all have a wonderful day! 💋

Casual Friday: ColourPop, Wisdom Teeth, and Vacation

I'm so happy it's Friday!!! It's always a wonderful feeling knowing that I can sleep in the next morning! LoL I've had a pretty interesting week, and I have some even more interesting things happening in August. 

New Ultra Metallics by ColourPop

First off...I'm hoping that the first day of August (Monday) I will received my ColourPop Ultra Metallic lipsticks in the new shades! I'll know when I get home from work if I have them yet or not, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to start August off with some pretty swatches, plus comparisons with their four darker shades that were just restocked! I might even see how they look mixed together into some metallic ombres or mix them with some of my ultra satins to see what I can come up with. :)

Pretty much what my wisdom teeth are doing...

Now for some bigger news...towards the end of August I will finally be getting my wisdom teeth removed! I can't wait! I have been needing to get them removed for about seven years now, but I've never had the insurance to cover the procedure until now. Of course, my wisdom teeth have become even more compacted than they already were back then, so my molars have started bending around my wisdom teeth a bit...or at least that's what it looks like in my X-Rays. It's pretty crazy looking... They have started causing me occasional pain about a year ago, too. I'm going to be so happy with this is done! It's happening on a Thursday so I don't think I'll have a Friday blog post up that week, but we'll see how I'm doing. I may do SnapChat story instead...haven't decided yet, and I probably won't until that day. It won't be the end of the world either way. I should be able to chat about it the next week, though. 

The beach we will be visiting

That following week's blogs are probably going to be a little mixed up, too, because 10 days after my wisdom teeth come out, my fiancé and I are going on vacation for a week! ^_^ We leave the Friday before Labor Day weekend, and we will be in North Carolina visiting with family and going to the beach for at least four or five days before we come back home and just chill for our remaining vacation time. I can't wait for that! I need beach time! It's way overdue! Plus, I love the family we are going to be visiting so I'm excited to see them again. :) 

So yeah...the beginning of August may not be too busy, but it will definitely become a bit cluttered with plans later on. I'm excited for everything to come that I can share with you guys, and I'm so excited to be getting some stuff out of the way and for a much needed vacation!

That wraps up this Friday's post! Keep an eye out on my Instagram and Snapchat for some more updates on things or just the randomness that is my life! ;-P

IG: ktparte

SC: partepickle

I hope everyone has a great Friday and an even better weekend! 💋

Beauty Wednesday: St. Tropez Self Tanning Kit

Hello again everyone! I am back with another beauty product review! This Wednesday, I am going to talk about my experience and overall review of the St. Tropez Self Tan Starter Kit!

St. Tropez Starter Kit

I did a lot of research, mainly through YouTube, about what the best self tanning mousse is out there, and I kept seeing St. Tropez pop up. One video spoke about this starter kit, so I went to Ulta, I found it and picked it up to try it out for myself. I have had experiences with other self tanning items in the past, but most of them would make me turn orange, and I didn't want to pay $40 for a one time spray tan that would only last for two weeks before I needed another one.

When I heard about St. Tropez, I heard about it being compared to another product that I had been using already...the Jergens Natural Glow Instant Sun Mousse. I had been having issues with this product blending on my hands and feet, which I found out was a problem for everyone who's used, which is why I decided to look for something new.

This Starter Kit comes with four products:
- Body Polish
- Body Lotion
- Classic Tan Mousse
- Tanning Mitt

This product sells for $25, and I thought that was a really good price for someone who's just trying out a new tanning option. The full-sized bottles of the mousse go for about $40-$44...and that's just for the mousse! Since I was just starting to experiment with using new self tanner options, there was no way I was going to toss up over $50 for a mousse and mitt with the fear that it wouldn't work for me, so $25 for everything you need to get enough experience with the product to know whether you like it or not was a huge deal!

Let's start this off with the Body Polish, since this is the first step in your self tanning routine.

St. Tropez Body Polish

The Body Polish is an exfoliating scrub to use in the shower to get all the dead skin off your body before you tan. The directions suggest doing this, at maximum, 24 hours before you tan. I, personally, shower and tan almost immediately after my shower and after I've taken care of my hair. I also think this step is optional. When you shave, you exfoliate. I happen to shave my legs, my arms, and sometimes my stomach (if I'm going to the beach or something). That doesn't leave many areas, that I can reach anyways, left to be exfoliated. Of course, not everyone does all that so the Body Polish, or any exfoliating body scrub, would work to make sure your skin is nice and smooth before getting out of the shower and tanning.




The next step I take care of in my tanning routine is moisturizing my joints, such as my elbows, knees, and ankles. I also moisturize my hands and all over my feet because these areas tend to dry faster than the rest of your body, which can leave your tan looking patchy or uneven. This is where I'll get into the St. Tropez Prep and Maintain Body Lotion.

There isn't actually too much to say about this lotion. It's very hydrating and moisturizing, and it goes on smoothly, but any lotion will do the trick for this step. You don't absolutely HAVE to use the St. Tropez lotion to moisturize the dry areas in order to get your tan to look right. I've used my Bath and Body Works lotion before, and I got the same even results. I would have to say that the only reason I would use this over my other lotion again would be to not have a weird scent later. All self tanning products have a strange scent when they start developing, so mixing that weird scent with something fruity just doesn't make anything better. This lotion doesn't have much of a scent, and the little that it does have smells like the mousse anyways. Because of that, when the tan starts to develop, the scent just smells normal.



Now for my favorite step of this routine...applying the tanning mousse!

You definitely need to use the mitt, or some sort of glove that doesn't let moisture through, to apply a tanner. The mitt helps blend the tanning product evenly on your skin so you're not left with streaks or spots. The St. Tropez mitt does a great job with blending out the mousse and keeping things even, but I would honestly recommend a double-sided mitt overall. This mitt likes to spin around my hand while applying the tan, which can case possible scratches from the sides going through the mousse. No matter how I positioned my hand in the mitt, it would spin around while I applied my tanner.

The mousse, however, gives a wonderful color! It doesn't get patchy on your joints, hands or feet after it dries (given that it's been applied correctly)! I usually shower and tan early Saturday mornings when I have nothing to do, sit around letting it develop, and I rinse everything off about 6-8 hours later. I would suggest applying at night and letting it develop overnight...this just works best for my schedule and gives me a reason to relax on the weekend. :) I've never had a self tanner give me such a natural and bronze glow before! As I said earlier, a lot of them just turned me orange. -_-

I did use this once for my face, and I loved the way it turned out, but I wash my face twice a day and found that there wasn't a point to self tanning my face to begin with. I can just use my makeup to make everything look natural!

I haven't been able to try out the dark tanning mousse yet, but I do plan to at some point. That seems to be the most popular shade for St. Tropez even for people with skin as fair as mine. I honestly get scared to try dark tanners because I have fair skin, but we shall see how it works out at some point!

As for my rating, I would rate the Starter Kit itself a 10/10 because it comes with everything you need for when you're just starting to self tan for the first time ever, or if you're just trying out the brand's products for the the first time. It's a good price to pay for something that you may not be sure about committing to yet.

I would rank the individual products as:
- Body Polish: 10/10 - it may be optional, but it is a really good body scrub and exfoliates very well
- Body Lotion: 10/10 - also an optional lotion choice, but it does its job well
- Tanning Mousse: 10/10 - leaves a very natural and blended finish to your skin
- Tanning Mitt: 7/10 - my only product in this kit that I wasn't thrilled with because it spun around my hand a lot when applying the product

That's my review for St. Tropez! I love their brand and their tanning products, and I would highlight recommend them to anyone! Their products are sold at Ulta and Sephora so check em out if you're interested! :)

I have another self tanner that I've heard many good things about that I'm about to test this weekend, I'll be posting results on my Instagram (@ktparte) when I do so don't worry! :) Until then, make sure you follow me there so you don't miss any other exciting updates and mini-reviews on products! I just go my Boxy Charm yesterday and posted quite a bit so check it out! :)

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday! 💋

Makeup Monday: Who Is She Cosmetics Lip Composites

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

For those of you who follow my Instagram, I know I put up my TooFaced eye shadow looks, but I decided today I would finally put my review down for a product I've had for a while that is just one of a kind...that product would be the lip composite from Who Is She Cosmetics! :)

I first heard of this brand not long after I joined Instagram. Someone I followed posted these gorgeous lip swatches of the lip composites, and I just fell in love! About a month later, I was able to buy four of the composite colors, and I ended up getting a free fifth one by surprise! I've done my mini-reviews on Instagram with these little guys, but I really feel like I need to designate a blog post about them because they deserve the attention!

To start, Who is She Cosmetics is an online brand/company, and is completely Vegan and Cruelty Free! Right now, the Lip Composites are their only product, but, if you follow them on Instagram (@whoisshecosmetics), you will see their new products in the making...highlighters!!!! ^_^ I can't wait for those to launch! I'm dying to try them out, especially if they're as impressive as their lip composites!

I copied and pasted this next bit of info from their website to explain what the Lip Composites are before I start my review on the product:

What is a Lip Composite?

It's Part lipstick.

Part Lip Gloss.

Part Lip Stain and Part Magical all Mixed up in a 5g Pot of Beautiful Color!

That is what a Lip Composite is!

Ok, now onto the review!

When I received these products, I thought the packaging was so cute! The lip composites are in the little pots, and you just use a lip brush to scoop some out and apply it to your lips. A little bit goes a long way with these, too, and you can mix them up for different color looks! They are very metallic, which I love, and they're probably more glossy than they are a lipstick, but the formula feels so good on my lips! It's creamy and buildable. It's not uncomfortable sticky, but the color will transfer. Now, even though the color will transfer, you do get a stain on your lips to hold the look together so it doesn't look patchy throughout the day. When I tested out my darkest color (Sinner), I only had to reapply it once during the day, and that was after lunch. The color was still there, but the metallic/gloss wasn't so I just felt the need to reapply it to get the shine back. :) It wasn't very necessary, though. 

Of all the colors that this brand offers in Lip Composites, I got Angelic, Mystique, Sinner, Silent Rose, and my freebie was Fools Gold. I've done swatches and video applications on my Instagram to show everyone how easily these can be applied, and how gorgeous they all are from the pot to my lips. There are much better lip swatches on their website since zoomed in cell phone pictures aren't exactly the best quality. ;) These are the best swatches I was able to get pics of when I applied them, though. I'm pretty happy with the outcomes! 

All of these colors can be worn with just about any outfit or look...except Fool's Gold would be the exception on my end. My skin is fair, and I have blue eyes and dirty blonde hair so a green lip color isn't really anything I go reaching for, but this color is absolutely lovely! Given, I'll probably only be wearing it on St. Patrick's Day, but I'm willing to find other times to wear it, too, just because I can't let that beauty be wasted!

As for my rating on these little guys, I would rate them a 9/10 in my book just because they do transfer, which means they can make things a little messy. Other than that, I love them! They are all in my makeup bag that I take with me every day to work, and they are always one of my main options of lip colors that I choose for the day. I recommend these to everyone who love lip colors and especially metallic, glossy lip colors! I'm definitely going to be getting more colors sometime in the future, and once their highlighters launch, you can bet I'll be getting my hands on those, too!

Check out the Who Is She Cosmetics website to learn all there is to learn about this brand, and check out their products! If you have Instagram, follow @whoisshecosmetics to keep up with their new products and the colors/swatches of what they have now!

No, this blog was not sponsored in any way, shape, or form, I'm just a huge fan of this brand/company, and I just love their products and their service! They're very unique and friendly, and just very innovative and creative with their products. <3

That wraps up this review! I hope everyone is off to a great start of this week so far, and I hope the rest of your Monday goes well! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @ktparte if you haven't already, and you'll see all my mini-reviews that may not have made it to my blog yet! You'll also be more up to date whenever I receive new products, which I'm expecting a couple goodies to be coming soon, including my first Boxy Charm box! I'm excited! :)

Anyways, have a great day everyone, and I hope you come back next time! 💋

Casual Friday: Makeup and Games!

Hey everyone, and TGIF! 

I'm so ready to be able to sleep in this weekend! This week started off perfectly fine, but I started being tired in the morning yesterday, and it was even worse today. I'm so sleepy that even caffeine isn't helping me out. :(

Anyways, I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to try out different looks with my Chocolate Bar eye shadow pallet. The pallet came with a little booklet of three looks so I may try to recreate those, and, if I'm feeling creative or have the time, I may come up with a couple looks of my own. I don't have a creative mind when it comes to doing new looks so it'll be fun to challenge myself. 

I got my first Jeffree Star product, which is the Watermelon Soda Velour Liquid Lipstick that stocked yesterday! I'm so excited to be receiving that soon! I also have a faux sheep skin area rug coming in soon, which will make showing of new stuff 100 times nicer. I hate that all I have to show my stuff on at home are my bed sheets or a bath robe. -_- This should fix that problem! 

Chocolate Bar Pallet Looks

Aside from that, I probably won't be getting too many more new things since I got a ton of new products for my birthday. I have that pallet to review, the two Benefit brow products to review, a couple of masks (YouthMud from GlamGlow and a charcoal Boscia mask), and the Kathleen Lights ColourPop Ultra Satin liquid lipsticks. I still need to get a review up here for Who is She Cosmetics, too. That one should've been up a while ago, so I may get that review up Monday and hold off on the Chocolate Bar pallet review till the next week. 

On a non-makeup note, I've been absolutely hooked on Twilight Princess! The first time I ever played the game (back in 2006 or 2007), I got stuck somewhere so I stopped playing. I've definitely passed where I got stuck the first time, and I've made a lot of progress. I'm loving this game! Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask have been my all time favorites of the series, WindWaker used to be my least favorite, but I had never beaten that one until about a year ago when I played it on the WiiU, and I ended up loving that game. Twilight Princess I think still beats that one in my mind, mainly because of how awesome Midna is as a side character. She's not annoying at all, and she's probably been the most helpful side character of the series. I've never played Skyward Sword, but I've heard Fi is awful, and after watching some play-throughs of the game, I don't think I would disagree with that opinion. Navi and Tatl were about even on the annoyingly inconvenient stopping of the game scale, but they're tolerable. I just love how Midna doesn't ever really stop you in your tracks at all. If you try something new and you don't get it after a couple of tries, the icon for her blinks and makes a mild beeping sound to signal that she can help you out, and she really does! I've definitely been enjoying this game so far, and I can't wait to beat it for the first time! :)

Well, this kind of turned into a game review, but I can't help it when it comes to Legend of Zelda games. I forgot to mention earlier that I'm hoping to be able to get out and catch some more Pokemon this weekend on Pokemon Go (another series I'm into are the Pokemon games). I may even be able to go to a gym this time since I wasn't level 5 the last time I passed one...so yeah...hoping to make more progress there, too. LoL

I think that'll do it for this post! I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend, and I hope you'll return here Monday! :)

Don't forget to follow @ktparte on Instagram to see my little updates! 

Have a great Friday everyone! 💋

Beauty Wednesday: Clearasil Ultra Rapid Action Acne Treatment Pads

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you have had a great weeks so far and that the weekend starts to get here faster!

Today's post will be on the Clearasil Acne Treatment Pads (the full title is a mouthful!) since these are what I used when I had my bad breakouts recently. Keep in mind, my results may very from anyone else's since everyone has different skin and different reactions. :)

First off, I did use these when I was a young teenager. I would get the occasional pimples on my face, and I never really wore makeup because I didn't know what to do with most of it so I felt like everyone noticed when I broke out. They would get red, and I would usually try to pop them myself, which sometimes caused scabs to occur. Thankfully, I never got any scarring (that's noticeable anyways), but pimples still come up on my face today. It's not crazy acne...just nasty bugger here and there on my face. Blegh!

Recently, I had a bunch of pimples that came up probably because I tried on about three different foundations and primers and who knows what else while I was testing out product to review. I had a few that scabbed up really badly or just simply wouldn't pop. I decided to go get something for them so I found the Clearasil pads that I used when I was a kid. The label states that it's rapid action and will diminish redness and size of pimples within four hours so I was like "Yep...that's what I want!"

Well, I got home and immediately washed my face and used one of the pads. They definitely stung in the breakouts that had opened up and popped already, and the fumes coming off of them made my eyes sting. Well, after that, I just went to my room and chilled out for a while...played some video games and watched TV with Josh. When I went to brush my teeth and wash my face again, I noticed NOTHING had changed on my face. At this point, I figured maybe it's because it was just my first time using them. I used another pad after I washed my face again and went to bed.



Morning came...still no difference. This lasted for about a week, and I was using them three times a day, which is the recommendation on the container. Josh eventually told me that I need to just not put anything on my face, including makeup and moisturizer, and they would go away. I argued a little bit because I really didn't want to go without makeup while having these huge blemishes on my face, but after a day of him telling me this and the Clearasil pads still not working, I decided I may as well try and see what happened. I didn't have anything to lose really.



Now...I did keep using concealer over the blemishes, but I washed it off as soon as I got home from work. I didn't moisturize my face...I didn't use any other makeup on my face...all I did was cleanse it as I normally would in the morning and at night. Sure enough...after TWO DAYS of just leaving my face alone...blemishes got smaller and scabs started to fall off! I was so happy about not having to worry about my face looking crazy anymore! Given, I still have some marks left from a little remaining dead skin that still hasn't come off with exfoliant, but I have no more blemishes or scabs on my face! Who would've thought that the best thing to do was to just leave it alone? I guess that's why I have Josh in my life! ;-P  He really did give me the best advice, and I think back now and wonder why I thought it was so crazy that I should just leave my skin alone for the time being until it all just went away. I guess I figured if someone's selling a product to help the situation then that would be better, but, in this case, it didn't.

Sorry Clearasil, but this product literally did nothing for me. It gave me the sensation that it was doing something, but all it really did was dry my face out and make it super shiny...like I had some sort of really thin mask on my face.

These pads are definitely a no go for me. I would rate them about a 2/10. I gave them a little credit due to how there is definitely alcohol in the pads that will do something to your face, but the stinging and the fumes with zero results just aren't good for me. Sorry!!!

That wraps up this review! Let me know if you've ever tried these before and how it turned out for you! Also, don't forget to follow me on Instagram (ktparte) and Snapchat (partepickle)!

Have a great day everyone! 💋