BH Cosmetics Solar Flare - First Look

BH Cosmetics Haul

Damn you BH Cosmetics!! I really wanted the Carlie Bybel deluxe edition palette, which lead me to buy a bunch of other crap. And I swear the very next day, Ulta started carrying this palette. And then BH Cosmetics dropped the Solar Flare palette! ARGH!! I didn't like having money any way I suppose.

Here is what I got sucked into buying on this order:

First up, the very hyped up Carlie Bybel deluxe edition palette:

Holy. CRAP. No pictures or swatches will ever do this baby justice. I am in love. I have not been this excited about a palette since...probably Too Faced Peanut Butter & Jelly. It is so good. All of the shades are gorgeous and apply like a dream. They are a little softer than other BH Cosmetic shades, but nothing too crazy powdery. They also blend like a dream. The highlighter trend appears to be going strong, and I have no problem with that.

Next, I got sucked into a 48 hour haul that got me both the Foil Eyes 2 and Essential Eyes palettes, plus a fluffy blending brush all for $16.99

Foil Eyes 2 is giving me major Morphe + Jaclyn Hill vibes here.

 I also got a little 6 color shadow set and a liquid liner for free, and lippies were BOGO so I decided to try the shades Icon and Lust.

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.

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.

Office Makeup: Like an Actual Boss

Whenever I spend too much time at the gym in the morning and need to be in my office before 8 to look like I actually care...I do my makeup at my desk because I have my own office with a locking door and no windows. I have picked up a few items that help me slap on a more "natural" look with minimal effort and hauling around the least amount of crap as possible. This all starts with my Urban Decay Naked on the Run palette.

I picked this up on sale a holiday season or two ago for travel purposes. Despite its impressive size and contents, this isn't quite the ultimate solution. Essentials that I am personally missing are an eyeshadow primer (for my oily oily lids) and some kind of foundation/BB cream (for days when I sort of care). The UD Perversion mascara is already my personal favorite. I can even use the eyeshadow shade the second from the right to fill in my brows. Which brings me to the next thing I have to haul around with me.

My $7 brush roll from BH Cosmetics. Oh man is this thing cheap. Literally. While I love the roll itself, the brushes are uber synthetic cheapo quality. But I can make it work for the convenience and price. I am hoping that once their new-ness wears down a bit the fibers will actually start to pick up product instead of kicking it around the pan so much. This was the best small set I could find among BH Cosmetics' ample offerings, but I do wish it had one less shadow brush and perhaps a spoolie instead.