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.

Makeup Revolution Blushes: what even are they??

I discovered Makeup Revolution when I was in London last year. I brought home a small haul and instantly fell in love with everything. Then I discovered that Ulta sells a lot of their products. Dangerous!

One of the products I picked up in London at a Boots was the Sugar and Spice blush palette. This kicked off my blush addiction. I have since picked up three more of their blush palettes through Ulta, but they seem to just get weirder and weirder. Not that I am complaining, they just beg the question: are they even blushes at this point??

First of all, the only downfall of Makeup Revolution palettes I have found is the packaging. Super, super cheap shitty black plastic. That scratches very easily.

Sometimes with a nice big mirror, sometimes with a clear lid. I prefer the clear lid, since I don't really use palette mirrors and a clear lid makes things easier to find in my sea of generic black plastic palettes.

Here is what lies inside all of these:

Clockwise from top left: Sugar & Spice, Blush Queen, Blush Goddess, and Rose Gold 2.

All swatches are done with my finger, and all pictures were taken with my phone. Most are with natural light on an overcast day.

The palette I originally picked up in the UK is Sugar and Spice:

This palette is a fun mix. The second from the left on the top could be used as a bronzer. The top right is definitely more of a highlighter.

Swatched left to right, top row then bottom row:

Very pretty mix, with the highlighter shade definitely standing out as an outlier. These shades are all very pigmented. The redder shade especially so, which makes it a little tricky to use. You need a very light hand or you may end up looking like a clown!

The next palette is Rose Gold 2. I'm not sure if they still sell the first Rose Gold palette.

Calling some of these shades blushes is definitely a reach. There are some shades that lean more towards a highlighter. There are some that lean more towards a bronzer. Some barely show up on my pale skin.

Swatched left to right, top row then bottom row:

These didn't show up too well in the natural overcast light by my glass sliding doors, so I did another shot in my artificially lit bathroom:

These are all very warm and very much match the rose gold theme. While I would not classify most of these as blushes, they do layer well over true blushes and also work as highlighters and/or shimmery bronzers.

Next up, the Blush Queen palette:

These are all "merged powders" that look a lot different swatched than they do in the pan:

They actually all look like blushes! They all have at least a little shimmer, with the one at the end being the least shimmery. Lots of pretty colors here that look great against my pale skin.

And lastly and most confusingly, the Blush Goddess palette:

I'm not sure why they included the top four shades on a blush palette. The outer two barely show up on my pale skin. The inner two are definitely highlighters.

The bottom four are true blushes, and some very nice shades they are. I think the paler shades from the top row I may try as all-over illuminating face powders since they match my skin so well.

Overall, I love these palettes, be they blush or not. Makeup Revolution puts out some great products for great prices. All of these palettes are $10 each, and Ulta regularly has BOGO deals for this brand. They are a worthy investment if you like to hoard blushes or are trying to experiment with the weirder since of blushes. I am personally happy I own all of these.

Travel Empties

I just finished up a massive round of business trips! Here is more of my stash that I burned through in February and March. Not everything was captured. I decided to skip shampoo and conditioner sample reviews. I have super soft water at my home. Nothing like the garbage hotel shower water. I can't really do an accurate comparison to my regular shampoo routine, which involves Derm Organic products.

Packets (hits):

To make this short and sweet, I like everything Vichy and I have totally been falling in love with Bare Minerals skin care lately. The Wella hair balm was lovely as well.

Tubes (misses):

While I typically love Pacifica, and this  face wash was nice and gentle, I HATED the smell! It smelled hardcore like bug spray. The makeup remover was freaking awful as well, but I powered through it. I just can't handle adding more oil to my already oily skin. Yuck.

Empties - BONUS Travel Edition

I've been holed up in boring software classes and my hotel in DC all week. At least I got through some of the packets in my travel basket. Here is a quick review:

The shampoo and conditioner was fine.

The makeup wipe did its job.

I really liked the Tarte cleansing gel, and I got four uses out of this packet.

The Ahava serum barely had anything in the packet, but was okay I guess.

The Dermadoctor Vitamin C peel pad was a pad, did not peeling, and burned like hell.

The Shiseido eye cream was da bomb. I use eye treatments because I feel like I have to. I seldom notice a difference. After just a week, I actually noticed a big different in hydration and inflammation reduction of my under eye area. I am guessing this stuff is expensive.

The Nuxe moisturizer was nice. My skin drank it right up.

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.