BH Cosmetics Highlighter Palettes

In my recent BH Cosmetics haul, I picked up both the new Spotlight and Blacklight highlighter palettes. Here are some seatches and my first impressions. Photos taken in natural light from my sliding glass doors. Swatches done on bare skin with my large Sigma 3DHD kabuki brush.

Spotlight Highlight:

Very nice looking in the pan. The color range should work for a wide variety of skin tones.

Swatched top row left to right, then bottom row left to right:

Wow it is hard to photograph highlighters. I was swatching pretty hard to get these to show up, which quickly revealed and issue with some of these shades. Especially "Vivid".

I had some pretty large flakes pull out of the pan, which pilled up and flaked off of my skin.

Now I would never apply highlighter to this extreme on my face, but this is something I will watch out for with this shade.

Otherwise, these are all gorgeous. I especially like Dream, Glow, and Allure.

Blacklight Highlight

These are some more unusual highlighter colors (especially Kween) that makes me think this palette was made to compete with the ABH Moonchild palette or Kat Von D Alchemist palette.

Swatched top row left to right, then bottom row left to right:

These had way less issues than the Spotlight colors. Just Electra was a little flaky. Laser was the most subtle, which is likely a good thing considering it swatched green. I really like On Point. It's gorgeous and swatched the nicest.

Overall, the palettes are a great value. You get some huge pans with unique shades that are worth a little extra care in application. These retail for $12.99 each, but I don't recommend paying full price. If you are patient, BH Cosmetics has frequent sales.

Travel Beauty - Malta 2017

I like to travel. A lot. When I am driving somewhere, I will just basically empty my working makeup drawer and toss everything in my car. When I fly somewhere, things get trickier. I do not like to check my luggage because switching flights internationally does not always mean you will get you bag at your final destination (looking at you, Air Malta). So besides the limited space in my carry on, I have to follow the 3 oz or less rule to get through security. Not that this is too much of an issue with my sample hoarder lifestyle.

After taking so many trips over the last few years, I have learned a lot. Here are some things I would recommend based on my personal experience.

Save those small samples and foil packets;

Yes, even perfume cards from magazines. They take up virtually no space. Foil packets are also space savers. I have a "travel basket" in my bathroom closet where I immediately dump these samples into when I receive them. Then, when I comes time to pack, I raid this basket. I don't pay much attention to what I put in the basket at the time, so it is usually pretty fun to dig around.

Have a very simple routine:

The lighting in most European hotel bathrooms is crap. I stick with a base that is easy and mostly good proof. Sunscreen, BB cream, and a little powder foundation. I'm currently in love with this Maybelline BB cream I got on clearance at Dollar General. BH Costmetics ties with NYX for my favorite powder foundation. Both are very affordable.

Have something on your person for sweat/oil control:

My skin sucks. It's extra oily and freaks out over just about anything. Changes in temperature and humidity especially. I keep translucent or mattifying powder in all of my bags so I can blot away or touch up on the go. I usually just travel wth cheap makeup, but this Too Faced powder got to go on this trip because there's not a lot left. The Cover Girl was a Dollar General clearance find.

Too Faced stayed in my backpack while Cover Girl I kept in my purse. I really like the "poof" applicator.

Bring multitaskers:

I bring this Urban Decay Naked Flushed trio everywhere. It's three products in one and has a nice big mirror.

I am also in love with this NYX brow pencil. The product twists up and is super fine, so it's easy to draw on and get a more natural look. The other end is a spoolie to comb everything out.

Limit yourself to a look or two:

I brought this cheapo cardboard Ulta palette with me. It limited my choices and made my routine quicker. Plus, I wouldn't cry if something happened to it. I actually ended up falling in love with this little guy. I'm not a blue eyeshadow fan at all, but the Seaside color was a surprisingly nice duo chrome.

Make your hair routine easy:

I cut six inches off of my hair in preparation for this trip. European hotels do not typically have blow dryers, and my styling tools are not compatible with the electrical situation outside of the US. I brought this air dry cream so I could just let my hair do its thing in the Mediterranean breeze every day. It actually worked out very well.

If there's an expensive product I can't live without, see if there is a travel size available:

For me this is my HG brow gel from Anastasia Beverly Hills. All other brow gels fail super hard compared to this one.

Lessons will be learned:

On this trip, I learned that any and all eyeliner can and will betray you while traveling. Liquid pens will start skipping. Pencils will break and you won't have a sharpener. I thought I was being safe by bringing some twist ups. One broke and the other decided it was too dry to work any longer. Next time I am going to have to try a pot and a brush I guess.

Travel Empties - Malta Edition

I just got back from Malta where I mostly managed to look ~okay~ despite the fact that every hotel I stayed at had the worst lighting ever and it was hot as shit outside. Not that any of that stopped me from attempting to wear makeup or black clothes every day.

I also cut six inches off of my hair before this trip because I did not want to deal with that shit every day. Or any day really.

Anyway, here are a few things I went through:

You know those paper perfume samples that fall out of you Ulta catalog? Don't toss those! I brought my stash along and it was nice to not only have a new scent every day, and to save some space while packing!

I was very disappointed with this Tarte Guard sunscreen sample. I got two small pumps out of it before it died.

The Ulta warming charcoal cleanser was weird. I don't know how or why, but it legitimately got HOT as I squeezed it out of the package and rubbed it on my face. I also got two uses out of this package, and it was warm both times. So that doesn't mean whatever voodoo is in here dies off as soon as it's opened. Strange, but I like charcoal products for my icky oily skin and this was nice to have on hand.

More perfume cards, and a Tarte bronzer/blush card. I got two uses out of the bronzer on this card, and four out of the blush. It doesn't look empty because the card is printed the same colors are the products. I liked the bronzer, and I already own this color of Tarte's blush, Glisten.

The other foil packet was some Elizabeth Arden face serum that was awesome. I slapped on the entire packet before bed one night and woke up with super hydrated skin.

I will be doing another post later on more details of my travel beauty routine and tips.

Ipsy - May 2017

I have gone back and forth with $10 makeup subscriptions. I was doing Sephora Play for almost a year, but last month I had enough with the repetition and switched back to Ipsy. Here's what I got for May:

The bag is really cute! Perfect for summer.

Inside I got an Urban Decay highlighter, a Pacifica eyeshadow palette, a tiny blush in a tin, a lip crayon, and a brush. Great variety! I will use absolutely everything.

Look how freaking tiny this blush is! It's supposed to be cream-to-powder, metallic, AND matte. We'll see about that.

Here it is with the Pacifica eyeshadow. I love these colors and have never tried their formula.

I like the color of this lip crayon, but Trestique's is so dumb.

I am very pleased with Ipsy this month and glad I switched back!

Tarte Custom Beauty Kit Haul

I love Tarte, and when I heard they were going to be offering their custom beauty kits again, I was all in! Even though they did raise the price from $59 to $63...I still bought two :)  Here is all of my loot:

First bag:

My husband says that every new makeup bag is my favorite makeup bag ever, but this is probably my favorite makeup bag ever. It's called "unicorn skin" and the photo does not do it justice. I'm obsessed.

In this bag I got:

Here are some of the colored items opened:

I love the minty smell of the Lipsurgence crayons, and I love all Tarte blushes. I have not opened the clay pot eyeliner yet, because I don't want it to dry out before I am ready to play with it. It looks super shimmery through the bottom of the glass though!

My next kit was in this gorgeous gold lined purple bag:

And the contents:

Some colored items:

I can't believe they had some of the Make Believe in Yourseld collection available! I am very excited to try this lip paint. I am pretty sure the CC stick is way too dark for me, even though it was the lightest shade they offered. The bronzer blush looks too pretty to use!

Including the bag in these 7 price kits, they break down to $9 an item. This is an insane deal for Tarte products. I am very excited to play with the sparkly liner and lip paint in particular.

BH Cosmetics Palette Haul

I love me some BH Cosmetics. They make some fun products with great price points. I think that their Galaxy Chic palette is what kicked off my eyeshadow addiction. I also own their Wild Child, Wild at Heart, Wild & Free, and the Wild & Alluring palettes. My biggest complaint about BH Cosmetics is that they take their sweet ass time shipping your order and they drag things out even longer by using Fedex Dumb Post.

Today I had my husband rescue my order from the post office because I had already waited 15 days for it and I was not willing to wait one more. Behold!

I couldn't resist both of their new highlighter palettes, and I have been wanting the Blushed Neutrals palette for a while.

Here is the much raved about Blacklight Highlight palette:

First of all, these suckers are HUGE. The powder isn't pressed very evenly into a few of the pans - if you look closely you can see lumps. I'm not complaining because the pans are so big and this is basically a hella cheap dupe for the ABH moon child palette.

Next is the Spotlight Highlight palette:

These are so gorgeous! The picture does not do them justice. I will post swatches in a separate post later because I am feeling lazy and there is a cat on my lap at the moment. These pans were pressed a lot more evenly.

Lastly, the Blushed Neutrals palette:

I can tell I am going to love this. I am not a fan of smokey themed palettes or most neutral palettes. Give me some warm tones! Also give me some weird blushes, like the ones on the bottom row. This palette is a very nice mix of mattes, shimmers, and satins. I can't wait to play with it! My only complaint here is the packaging. If you aren't going to give me a mirror, at least give me a clear lid! Also, the quality makes Makeup Revolution palette packaging seem high end in comparison. It's what's inside that counts though.