I've been so busy lately! School has officially picked up a regular routine, and I'm already getting to "mid-term" week. It's a bit difficult to keep up with the regular blog posts, but I am still planning them. I just need some time to take pictures for each post.

Fall color trends are always my favorite, especially dark brown-y nudes and vampy lips. Here are my nine favorite fall lipsticks from different brands at the drugstore, with labeled swatches!

If you're a fan of vampy lips, I definitely recommend trying Wet n' Wild Ravin' Raisin. It's a really unique plum color that pulls more purple than usual lipsticks--without any pink.

I just recently acquired Milani's Color Statement lipstick in Black Cherry, and I'm so in love. The Milani lipsticks are my absolute favorite out of all drugstore lipsticks, so I'm surprised I haven't tried Milani Black Cherry earlier. It's a nice, deep color that pulls a little more red on me than burgundy or wine. Wet n' Wild's Cherry Bomb is also a really nice red color that's very similar to Black Cherry, it's just thicker in texture.

All in all, I'm excited for the fall season and all the new fall makeup that comes with it! I'll be hitting the drugstore pretty regularly, so be sure to check back to see what I find.

Hey guys. So it has been quite a while. Again. I know, I know, I'm terrible at being consistent with blog updates, but my life has been pretty hectic the last few days, and because of that I haven't really had the time or energy to come up with new blog post ideas.

That being said, I couldn't miss an August monthly favorites post! Although I was mostly working this month and didn't have too much time to play around with makeup, I still have quite a few faves, as you can see.

I picked up the Kiss Flirty lashes back in May during the CVS clearance sale, but never really got around to wearing them. A mistake on my part, because THEY ARE GORGEOUS. I really hope they weren't on sale because Kiss is planning to discontinue them, because in that case I'm going to have to scramble to stock up on them. Either way, they have tapered ends and the super full, mink lashes look.

I found quite a few e.l.f. Sunkissed bronzers at my local Dollar Tree, much to my delight, and I picked up a couple. These are less of a bronzer than they are a pretty, subtle golden highlight. I'm totally obsessed with them, as well as the price! I've noticed that this shade is a little hard to find nowadays on the e.l.f. website since it's being recognized for its highlighting powers.

My fave eyeshadow palette for the month was the City Color Spice Me Up palette, which I picked up at a local shop in the mall I worked at over the summer. It's definitely a very warm-toned palette, full of spicy-looking shades, and I'm super excited to use it more, especially going into fall. The eyeshadows are pigmented without being chalky, and they blend very nicely. The palette was also only $4--how can you beat that?

My two favorite lippies of the month were the LA Girl matte liquid lipstick in Fleur (beautiful orange-brown shade), and the Milani Color Statement lipstick in Matte Naked. I've been leaning more and more towards neutral nude lipsticks lately, for some reason.

I found the Milani Liquid Eyes Aqua liner at the Dollar Tree over the summer, and I was so excited! Unfortunately, it was the last one left and it had been sneakily hidden behind a stack of LA Colors products, but I am super happy to have it, nonetheless. I love using this in my waterline for a pop of color. I can't wear black in my waterline because it closes my eye too much and creates the appearance of really small eyes, so this is a cute alternative.

And finally, my last August favorite is an eyeshadow pigment from Jesse's Girl in Kiwi Rose. Alone, this pigment isn't very opaque, but layered over a NYX jumbo pencil in Milk (or any sort of light base) it looks phenomenal. It appears white in the jar, but it really has a yellow-green shimmer/duochrome to it. I used this in my recent makeup tutorial up on my Youtube channel (shown below).




And... that's all for my August favorites! Thank you so much for reading, and for all the support I have gotten this far. Be sure to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you all. In the meantime, I will be working on putting up more content soon. I've already had some outfits styled and planned...

1. JCat Beauty Shimmer Powder Eyeshadow I got these three at a store in the mall for $2 each! The metallic eyeshadows are so pigmented. I have Earth Mango (bronze gold), Rose Sienna (pictured above in swatch, burnt orange), and a violet glitter. I'm super obsessed with them, and I have to stop myself from buying too many!

2. NYC Liquid Eyeliner It feels like I've been using N.Y.C.'s cheap drugstore products for the longest time--ever since I was 11! My holy grail eyeliner is the Wet N' Wild MegaEyes liner in black, but I think I may have found a second HG eyeliner! Honestly, I think this one is pretty much the same as my Wet N' Wild one, and both are so inexpensive! Love this, and I'm so glad I learned about it. Thanks, Youtube!

3. e.l.f. Cosmetics Creme Liner in Coffee and Kleancolor angled brow brush
I was looking for a dupe of the Anastasia Brow Pomade, and what do you know? I found a pic on Pinterest (I normally don't trust things on Pinterest… but…) comparing these two! I decided to give it a try, and now I'm hooked! There's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using gel liner as your eyebrow product, because it comes off so pigmented, but with a bit of patience, a spoolie, and this $1 Kleancolor angled brow brush (Shop Miss A), I have never been happier with my own brows. I actually purchased 2 more brow brushes as backup, just because I liked them so much!

4. Wet n' Wild Contouring Palette in Caramel Toffee Wet n' Wild is hands-down my favorite makeup brand. Their eyeshadows are amazing (try the Comfort Zone palette), and their eyeliner is so cheap and so pigmented! I've been using the Reserve Your Cabana bronzer (it's actually a beautiful, matte highlighter shade) for my everyday highlight shade. This contouring palette lacks in the pigmentation department, but it is very finely-milled.
Above, I've swatched it (you can barely see the highlighter shade because I am quite pale, sorry!) and I've placed the N.Y.C. Sunny bronzer (the bronzer I use--it's super affordable and quite common among the beauty community) next to it for comparison. As you can see, the Sunny bronzer is definitely more orange/warm in tone. The contour shade in the palette is also a warm-toned brown, but it's less orange and more muted in color, giving a much more natural contour shade. Even though the highlighter doesn't really show up on my fair skin, I do use it to subtly brighten up the under eye and set my concealer, and it is perfect for that! You're definitely going to need to build up the contour shade, but I can live with that. Did I mention that this palette is freaking huge in size?

5. Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Teddy Bare Attention, Kylie Jenner-lip color seekers!!! Haha, just kidding. This is the perfect 90s brown lip color, and it's a more brown than my regular e.l.f. $1 lipstick in the color "Fantasy." In fact, I've been wearing this lipstick almost everyday. I'm really impressed by the Milani lipsticks, and I'm hoping to try Naturally Chic the next time I make a CVS run!  You'll definitely be seeing this shade again in my next blog post *hint hint.*

6. Moonriver Beauty Brushes I have been using the small contour brush and the tapered highlighter brush everyday for my contouring and highlighting! I was also very pleasantly surprised by the flat top kabuki--it works perfectly with my mineral foundation. I had been using the e.l.f. Powder flat top kabuki before, but I actually prefer my Moonriver one! It's dense enough to buff out the product, but not too dense and too big to really pack on the powder.

7. And, finally, as a bonus--my newest addition to my makeup storage! You've probably started to notice this, as it was in my last post with the Moonriver brushes.This acrylic storage container came from Marshalls, and cost me only $17. It has three mini drawers, and a detachable lipstick/product holder on top. It looks so so cute, and I'm absolutely obsessed with it!

Sorry this post is so picture and text-heavy! I've been a little sluggish lately with the posts, but I'm working to change that. Hopefully you've also noticed the increase in the quality of my posts… hopefuly!