Makeup Review: Philosophy, Buxom, Wet n Wild, and L'Oreal

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog! This is my very first post so I thought I would start it off with a quadruple product review that helped me get this look!

This weekend, I had to go grocery shopping, which is never JUST for groceries, and I picked up a few new things. At Ulta, I picked up some Philosophy products as well as a Buxom lip gloss. Philosophy has a special for a free gift so of course I had to get that deal! When I left Ulta, I ended up with:
- Philosophy Take a Deep Breath face moisturizer and eye cream
- Philosophy Hope in a Jar A to Z cream in Medium
- Philosophy Hope in a Jar eye cream
(plus the gift which was a makeup bag and 4 samples of the products below)
- Philosophy Hope in a Jar face cream
- Philosophy Purity Made Simple 3-in-1 facial cleanser
- Philosophy Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash
- Philosophy Amazing Grace Firming Body Emulsion
- Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Sugar

Whew! That's a lot of stuff!

I did try almost every one of those products, but I will the reviews on all the skin care in a different entry so this one isn't too overwhelming. ;)

Once Ulta was done, I went to Walmart and picked up the Wet n Wild Au Naturel eye shadow pallet in Nude Awakening. I got this because it looked like a possible good dupe to the Naked 3 pallet by Urban Decay. I also picked up the L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Effect waterproof mascara to replace my old mascara which just smudges more than I would like.

Now onto my review!

I will start with the Philosophy Hope in a Jar A to Z cream in Medium.
I self tan with St. Tropez Self Tanning Mousse in classic, which means matching a foundation to my tan may be rough. I've tried a couple different foundations, but none matched as well as this! Now, this more of a BB cream than a foundation, so the coverage is light to medium, but it's very lightweight and creamy that I just love how my face feels with it on. It does not get cakey, and you can build on the color if you want it to be thicker or deeper, but just one layer of this stuff blended in with a Beauty Blender is all I needed to be happy with my look. It looks even on my skin, and after setting it with a setting powder, I'm pretty much in love! I don't think my skin has ever looked so perfect yet feel so "airy" at the same time! Plus (and this is a HUGE bonus), it doesn't wipe off after being set! I've had too many foundations and CC creams go wrong in that department so I'm ecstatic that this really does stay put!

Along with how great this stuff feels on your skin, I feel like I should fill you in on how great it is for your skin, too. I've never had a BB cream, CC cream, or foundation do this much for your skin so I'm just going to list off the benefits!
- This cream acts as a moisturizer, primer, foundation, treatment and sun protection (contains SPF 20)
- Refines skin for that healthy and subtle glow
- Oil-free, fragrance-free, and ideal for all skin types

So yeah...I'm sure you can see why I pulled this sucker off the shelf. I would absolutely rate this product a 10/10 for what I need. ;)

Moving on to the Wet n Wild Au Naturel pallet.

First off, this sucker is perfectly pigmented and blends beautifully! I've used other drugstore eye shadows, but most have seemed to fall short on the pigment scale and/or the blendable scale so I'm extremely happy with the quality of this pallet (especially for $5)! I have blue eyes, so I pretty much focus on using neutral nude colors. This pallet contains brown nudes, pink nudes, and a couple mauves. Some of these shades are matte, but most are shimmery. I'm wearing a mix of the pink and mauve now, and the look of those colors blended to together is just gorgeous! They're silky smooth when being applied, and they haven't set into any creases (which they should since I used an eye primer).

Overall, this eye shadow is pretty much my new go-to pallet. I could use more matte shades since my eyes are hooded, but other than that, I'd say this would be a good 9/10 for what I need, which is pretty darn good compared to what I would rank some of my other shadows. ;)

As for my mascara, I used to use an E.l.f. brand mascara (I don't have it on me and can't think of the name right now) that I loves, but its biggest downfall was not being water proof and smudging a lot when I would apply it. I used it a lot until I couldn't handle the amount of times I had to try and remove the smudge from my eye lids, and so I decided to get a new mascara.

I had heard some good reviews on some of the L'Oreal mascaras so I thought I would give the Butterfly mascara a try. The packaging was very nice, and I love the bristle structure! When I tried it on, oh my goodness! I couldn't believe how great this stuff looked with just one coat! I applied a second coat to give it a little extra volume, but it doesn't clump, smudge, and I didn't get any fall out until I woke up this morning after sleeping with it on like I shouldn't do. Haha  It's amazing how much this mascara lifted my eyelashes and lengthened them. I'm super impressed!

Now, the only trouble I actually had with this mascara was trying to remove it with my makeup cleanser and eye makeup remover. It took a minute or so for me to get it all off, and the fallout was kind of all over my face. I can't knock off too much for that since I was trying to get it off to clean my face anyways, but the easiest removal, the better.

Therefore, my rating on this mascara would be about an 8/10. It's still going to be my go to for a while! ;)

Finally, we've reached probably my FAVORITE product out of all of these...the Buxom Full-On Lip Polish! I was very skeptical about paying $20 for a lip gloss. That is just way pricey for what I'm usually willing to spend on any product if it's not skincare. I haven't had a lip plumping lip gloss in a long time, though, and the shade Sugar was seriously to die for so I went ahead and bought it (my bank account probably hated me after this whole trip)!

I will say...this product was absolutely worth the money! It does what it's supposed to do, and that's PLUMP and GLOSS! The color is so natural, the gloss isn't sticky, there's actually NOT a lot of transfer (my biggest and most impressive surprise), and it makes my lips feel and look so full that I'm just in awe of this product! If I had the money, I would seriously buy so many more shades or even just duplicates of this one considering how it can literally go with EVERYTHING! Oh my goodness, this product is just that fantastic. I can't say enough good things about this gloss!

Obviously, this product is totally a 10/10 in my books! ;)

Well everyone, there you have it! I will have another post tomorrow on the rest of the Philosophy skin care products I got! I hope you come check that out, too!

Feel free to leave me any comments or feedback! I'm still a newbie to blogging so please be nice! :)

Thanks for stopping by! *kisses*



Links to the reviewed products:
- Buxom Full-On Lip Polish: http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod13631035&_requestid=266124#

- Philosophy Hope in a Jar A to Z Cream in Medium: http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod5370017

- Wet n Wild Au Naturel in Nude Awakening: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Wet-n-Wild-Au-Naturel-Eye-Shadow-754A-Nude-Awakening-0.29-oz/49932612

- L'Oreal Voluminous butterfly Waterproof Mascara: http://www.walmart.com/ip/L-Oreal-Paris-Voluminous-Butterfly-Waterproof-Mascara-871-Blackest-Black-0.21-fl-oz/34208890