LIPPIES! LIPPIES ALL DAY!

Time to bust out your lippies cause today's the best time to do it! It's nice to know there's a certain day dedicated to the one product that can instantly add brightness and color to our face: lipstick! I'm certainly celebrating; I'm sporting a dark plum lippie as I type this! There are a lot of lipstick shades out there to choose from, from reds to pinks to nudes to extreme colors, as well as lipstick finishes that range from matte to frost to satin to sheer. There's everything for everybody and it's freaking fantastic.

Here's a list of posts where I featured different lip products. It's for those who'd fancy some light reading, those who are looking for a review, an inspo, swatches, and just for those who are looking for a lip product to purchase today. :)

Lipsticks:

Apparently, I don't blog much about proper lipsticks here so I only have a few (boohoo!). Anyway, let's start with reds! If you can remember, I did a Lipstick Week series where I featured 3 lippies (lol Lipstick Week but I only blogged thrice) and all are different shades of red. I've got a plummy red, L'Oreal Intense Plum, which I find myself reaching for these past few days; the red-orange lippie in my Cosmoprof palette; and Elizabeth Arden Geranium Shimmer, a red/pink/copper shade.

I also featured two essence lipsticks. First I have On the Catwalk!, a lovely semi-opaque lippie that's a cross between a pink and a red. The second lipstick is my all day, everyday lipstick, Natural Beauty, a lovely cool (violet undertoned?) orchid-ish pink that looks lovely with my skintone. I love it so much I'm currently on my second tube!

Last is a dark plum, the lipstick I'm currently wearing while typing this lol. It's Suesh's Queen of the Night. It's not the best lipstick out there but it's the kind of shade I like wearing at home haha!

Lip Liners:

For this category I have three (four, technically): a nude, a red, and two plums. I shared the lipliner that's lovely for a Kylie Jenner-esque look, the Elizabeth Arden liner in Taupe. My red's a twist-up type, Guerlain Iris Noir, a lingonberry shade. The plums are both from LA Colors. The first one is Smooth Plum, a dark berry red, and the second one's Deepest Purple, deep brown red. 

Lip Gloss:

Only have one in this department: L'Oreal Apricot Sparkle, an orange-pink with a lil bit of red shimmery gloss.

Balms:

If you're a fan of tinted lip balms, I reviewed one before: Maybelline's Baby Lips in Berry Crush, a sheer red that's perfect for red lippie newbies. For clear balms, I have a liquid type, the Cinnamint Mentha Lip Shine that feels and tastes great, and a waxy/jelly type balm, Spa Paradisa Lip Butter in Sweet Coconut, Smells awesome, good in moisturizing, and has such cute packaging.

Happy reading!

I feel like green polishes are so underrated and underused. Some people think green looks tacky and weird but I totally disagree. While I love my dark polish hues, I sometimes like to wear bright and colorful polishes, and in this case, the a green polish. My love for green polishes go way back when I was 12 or 13. I got this semi-opaque light Kelly green shade just because and whaddya know, I absolutely loved it. Now that I'm older, let me share a green polish that's right up my alley.

This post is more like a walk down memory road. I first discovered the beauty community in YouTube around 2010/early 2011. A friend of mine mentioned a seemingly popular YouTuber, and out of curiosity, I decided to watch said YouTuber's video. Little did I know that that was the start of endless watching of beauty videos and subscriptions.

The five beauty gurus in my list not only ignited my curiosity and love for makeup but they also taught me a lot of tips and tricks back when I had no knowledge about makeup. They still do actually, and they never fail to amaze me in their tutorials. They were my online teachers then and they still are now. I'm really thankful I stumbled on their channels because I learned things that I haven't learned in makeup school.

1. Michelle Phan

-The YouTuber that my friend mentioned? Yeah, that was Michelle. I remember seeing her videos and being amazed at how talented she was. She made makeup application so easy! The videos I watched back then was the ones where she filmed everything on her own. Just her + the camera. And I freaking loved it. I remember watching her Lady Gaga Poker Face tutorial, her Purple Hazy look, and her Barbie Transformation look. Such classics. Now, Michelle has her own cosmetics line, Em, has over 7 million subscribers, Ipsy, a book, and a professional set-up for her videos. And yes, I'm still subscribed to her. 

2. Makeup Geek

-I consider Marlena of MG as my primary makeup mentor. Seeing her tutorials back then was like a proper makeup lesson for me. Her eye looks were really cool and a bit complicated, looks that are worthy of the hashtag #EyeMakeupGoals. She really makes sure that her audience gets something out of her videos, whether it be techniques or inspiration. Fast forward to today, she has a makeup line of her own called Makeup Geek which sells affordable yet killer eyeshadows. I'm also happy to hear that a couple of years back, she was able to fulfill her dream of going to the Make Up For Ever Academy in Paris.

3. Promise Phan

-Last name sounds familiar? Well, that's because she's Michelle's sister-in-law. I was drawn to Promise's channel mainly because of how different she was from Michelle makeup-wise. Michelle is more sweet and conventional while Promise is more loud and out there. The first tutorial I saw was her Avatar transformation. Who knew that would be the start of everything? Promise is now more popular than ever due to her amazingggg transformations, including her Elsa transformation that has 42 million views (!!!), and her Maleficent transformation. My ever-favorite video of her, however, is the Creepy Stretched Lips Makeup which I've done in Halloween a couple years back.

4. Tanya Burr

-The first British YouTuber I subscribed to was Tanya. She's such a bubbly gal yet creates such fierce looks. She showed me how Brits (most of them, I think) do their makeup, which is quite different from how Americans do it tbh. I remember loving her Haifa Wehbe tutorial. I didn't subscribe to her right away but I found myself going to her channel every now and then so I decided to just hit the Subscribe button cause why the hell not?

5. Pixiwoo

-I found Pixiwoo's channel through Tanya's. Sam and Nic are professional makeup artists and you can see how pro they are at what they do in their tutorials. The sisters don't have the same style; Sam's more into dark, smokey, grungy looks while Nic's more light, clean, and polished. That doesn't mean they can't do each other's styles because they certainly can. My fave tutorials to watch are their wild ones, looks you can definitely see in a beauty campaign. Now, the Pixiwoo duo are known for their brushes, the ever-popular Real Techniques which was started by Sam. They also have their own e-magazine called TWO Magazine by Pixiwoo (you better download their app because the issues are so visually appealing and inspiring!) and from what I see on Twitter, they now appear on talk shows both on their native land and in the US.

xxx

And those are the women who inspired me a lot in makeup. I'm now subscribed to a lot of beauty gurus but these five all have a special place in my heart (and subscription box). Who were the first five beauty gurus you watched in YouTube?

The most popular pen-type face product in the beauty world is, no doubt, the YSL Touche Eclat. I remember seeing all the YouTube beauty gurus I follow use this product like there's no tomorrow. Although, now that I read the description of the Touche Eclat, it's really more of a highlighter than a concealer. Now, not all of us can afford such a nice but high-priced product, yeah?

Since it's raining heavily on and off today, I figured now's a good time to post before the power goes out. This weather, amirite? I went to the mall last week with my cousins where I got most of the items in this haul. Also, I didn't plan on getting more nail stuff since I still have a lot of unopened ones in my stash but what can I do? It's the hoarder in me, you guys. 

Let's discuss the nail items first, shall we? The first one that started this haul was Bench's Paint Box Nail Polish Duo in Fearless Heroine. Bench currently has a Wonder Woman collection and I am LOVING it! It really reminds me of the collection MAC released years ago. Bench's WW line consists of 3 Nail Polish Duos, lip products (5 lip glosses, 5 lipsticks; all different shades of red), 2 face powder compacts, and 1 blush compact. I almost got a red lipstick but I sorta kinda don't need one in my life right now so I decided to settle on a Nail Duo instead. Fearless Heroine has a killer color combo and the red glitter polish is giving me LIFE. Good job, Bench!

The next ones are nail stickers because I'm the kind of person who can't resist these things. :)) I got two nail sticker sets from Penshoppe, both which were on sale (from 99php to 39php! STEAL). I got a lovely leopard/cheetah print called Wild and a colorful, retro-like pattern called Floral. I'm quite excited to try these because I'm 90% sure the stickers will fit my nails perfectly. The designs are cute too!

I got this last nail item two days ago and it's OMG Nail Lacquer in White Out. I was looking at my stash a few days ago and found out I don't have a white polish! What!? So I decided to try out the new polish brand that popped up at my local department store. The OMG brand looks promising and I can't wait to try their other polishes!

The non-nail related item in this haul is a Suesh Beauty Sponge. I love Suesh's beauty sponges since they're a bit firmer than the original Beauty Blender and significantly cheaper! I decided to buy one for myself and I decided to give this new, odd-looking sponge a go. Will be reporting on this once I use it!