My top picks for fall makeup

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Gone swatching: fenty beauty galaxy eyeshadow palette

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Test drive: Glossier milk jelly cleanser

Reviews, Test Drive Check it out

September favorites

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Winky lux kitten eyeshadow palette review

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Gone swatching: Charlotte tilbury hollywood lips

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Reviews

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The Bella Edit

My top picks for fall makeup

Blog, The Bella Edit October 17, 2017

Ciao!

Things I love about fall (in order):

  • Pumpkins
  • Dark matte lipstick
  • Pumpkins
  • Sweaters and boots
  • Pumpkins
  • Copper eyeshadow
  • Pumpkins

Clockwise from left: Colourpop yes please palette, Tarte matte lip paint in bestie, Julep feels like velvet duo in cinnamon and spice, Charlotte Tilbury matte revolution in very victoria, Winky Lux double matte whip liquid lipstick in shortcake.

Jokes aside, fall is probably my favorite season for makeup. All of the looks people create draw from the changing leaves and amber scenery and I find they’re much more creative in general.

This list is entirely lipstick and eyeshadow, because that’s what I think of as distinctly fall makeup. Here’s everything I’ve been loving to wear this fall!

Disclaimer: no lipsticks or eyeshadow where harmed by falling off of/into pumpkins in the making of this post. 

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Gone swatching: fenty beauty galaxy eyeshadow palette

Blog, Gone swatching October 14, 2017

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I adore Rihanna, so when Fenty beauty first launched, I was convinced I would buy everything without even knowing what it was. However once it launched and I had the opportunity to try it in store (with a mob of people around it, I should add) the hype sort of died down for me.

I believe that this collection is of amazing quality, however it’s not for me in a couple ways.

a) I have dry/combination skin, so I don’t focus on making my face look super matte. This rules out the foundation, primer, blotting paper, and the concealer match stix.

b) The highlighters felt either very glittery, or too much like other highlights I had. Trophy wife was unique, however I most definitely can not pull off a true gold highlight. I can hardly pull off BECCA champagne pop!

On the other hand, I’m excited to potentially try out the gloss bomb and the shimmer match stix or the contour match stix.

So now that I’ve introduced you to Fenty Beauty and my thoughts on their first collection, I will now give you the (literal) star of the holiday collection: the Galaxy Eyeshadow palette.

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Test drive: Glossier milk jelly cleanser

Reviews, Test Drive October 12, 2017

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Guess who’s still posting from her visit to Glossier HQ in July? This girl.

While at the Glossier HQ, I picked up a couple of things (you can read about it here) as well as a sample of their incredibly hyped milk jelly Cleanser.

Quick tip: if you order from the Glossier website, you have the option to select either the priming moisturizer (see review here) or the milk jelly cleanser. I highly recommend you use pick a sample because the worst case scenario is that you found something that doesn’t work for you and you paid nothing from it. In the Glossier HQ, you have the same option to pick between those samples but no one will tell you unless you ask. So I’m telling you. If you visit Glossier HQ, ask them what samples they have to offer, because it’s a really great way to determine if something works.

Anyways, I was really excited to test this out, mostly because of the repeated claim that this will “save my white towels from mascara.” I don’t use white towels to remove makeup (because why tempt fate?), but my only issue with my current cleanser from Julep (review here) is that the oil dissolves my makeup perfectly, but does so by spreading it around my face, so the makeup still gets on my towel.

I hoped that the Glossier milk jelly cleanser would fix this minor issue. Otherwise, I was dubious that it’d beat my love your bare face oil from Julep. Keep reading to find out my results!

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September favorites

Blog, Favorites October 8, 2017

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This September, I’ve been reaching into the depths of my makeup stash as I get back into my everyday routine. I’ve been reaching for subtler makeup that looks a little more natural. I’ve found some of my lost favorites in my collection, and I’ve been using things I haven’t reached for in a while.

This past week, I’ve experimented with only using a set amount of makeup (lipstick aside) because I rearranged my makeup area. 2/3s of the products in this post were at my desk this past week.

I’ve been also moving back into my matte liquid lipsticks. I thought I was completely over this trend in the spring, but now I’m loving them much more!

Keep reading to see what I’ve been loving!

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Winky lux kitten eyeshadow palette review

Makeup Reviews, Reviews October 3, 2017

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I’ve had this palette since late August, and aside from posting a little about it on my Instagram story, I couldn’t talk much about it!

But the palette officially launched today, so now I’m free to post on this palette. Spoiler alert: I love it. I’m a fairly picky eyeshadow user, especially drugstore eyeshadows. I was fairly skeptical of this palette before I tried it on my eyes, but now there’s no question about the quality.

Keep reading to see all of my thoughts on this!

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Gone swatching: Charlotte tilbury hollywood lips

Blog, Gone swatching September 28, 2017

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I got to check out the beautiful new lipsticks by Charlotte tilbury at a recent trip to Nordstrom. I was really interested in them, because aside from a few Instagram posts I hadn’t seen much about them.

The set of colors are fairly basic– a ton of nudes, some reds, and some deep plum shades. The packaging is beautiful (of course) and the formula seemed like a mousse, and not very drying. It reminded me a lot of the Julep It’s Whipped lipsticks and the Burberry lip velvets. However, this means it’s not going to be smear proof, transfer proof, or very long wearing. If you want a long wearing lipstick, I recommend the Too Faced melted matte lipsticks (see swatches here and here).

The real question I had was if these were going to be different then the other liquid lipsticks available for sale. The liquid lipstick market is so oversaturated, and at this point there’s a color and formula for basically everything. Are these unique in any way, or do they simply blend in?

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Julep Insta Filter Powder review

Makeup Reviews, Reviews September 18, 2017

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This powder launched in the same collection as the Cushion Complexion (review here) and the illuminating and mattifying primers way back in May/June. This was actually the first thing I received from the collection, and at first I was a little wary of it. I’ve seen many pictures of white setting powders and flash photography together (hint: it doesn’t go well).

I finally got around to testing as I went into summer and less willing to do a full face of makeup. Plus, my only other powder was loose and as I’ve learned before, traveling with loose powders is messy and a general bad idea.

So I brought this powder and the matching Julep foundation all throughout Italy, New York, and all the other places I visited this summer. I’ve been using it so much that I’ve got a pretty big dip in the pan now!

Keep reading to see my thoughts on it!

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The Body shop matcha green tea face mask review

Reviews, Skincare reviews September 17, 2017

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I love face masks. Like really, I do at least one mask a week (sometimes 2 or 3) and I’ll watch YouTube while I do it if I want to relax or sometimes I’ll just use purely for skin care and do work while I have it on. Like this morning, I wrote a blog post while wearing this mask.

Last weekend, I was disappointed to know that the Lush near me (my usual stop for face masks) had closed, so I turned around and went to the body shop. I’d seen this mask advertised by Zoella on Instagram, and it was in the window at the body shop, so I went to check it out.

The Body Shop has a whole new line of face masks including one with Himalayan Charcoal, British Rose, Ethiopian Honey, Chinese Ginseng and Rice, and Amazonian Acai. I promised myself I wouldn’t get the Charcoal mask because I have far too many masks with charcoal or mud in them. The Acai one worried me slightly because of how it promised to “energize my face” through natural caffeine, and the ginseng and rice one was more meant for nourishment. It also had sesame oil in it, which my brother is allergic to. I ruled the honey one out because it wasn’t exciting enough and narrowed it down to this mask and the British rose.

Finally I decided that exfoliating and clarifying mask was probably meant for me (and Zoella liked it so…) and I bought it. The Body Shop also recently launched a mask brush for it that was available too. I didn’t get it, but now I wish I did because I loving giving myself a facial like experience at home. I also love The Body Shop’s makeup brushes in general (and they’re cruelty free!), so I can vouch for the quality.

But did I make the right decision in getting a highly advertised, hyped up face mask?

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Gone swatching: hourglass confessional lipstick

Blog, Gone swatching September 9, 2017

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So hourglass recently launched an extremely expensive line of refillable lipsticks, something I don’t completely understand. I think the point of these is that you buy one base and multiple lipstick tubes and swap them out when you want to use them, or you can buy the whole lipstick.

I think the main thing people were confused about was how the full lipstick retails for $34 and only comes with .03 oz of product. For comparison, the Hourglass Girl Lip Stylo costs $32 and comes with .09 oz of product. For the lipsticks in the same price range, Burberry Kisses lipstick costs $34 and has .11 oz of product and the YSL volupté tint in balm costs the same price and has .11 oz of product. What I’m trying to saw here is that this is incredibly expensive for an already expensive brand.

So does it hold up to it’s high price?

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The best natural highlighters

Blog, The Bella Edit September 6, 2017

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I love highlighters a lot. However, I don’t wear bold highlighters (*cough* BECCA champagne pop *cough*) often, and especially when I’m running late or on doing my makeup in a rush, I don’t have time to blend out a super shocking highlight.

I also wear mostly natural makeup, so these are my favorite highlights I wear on a daily basis for a glowing face. None of these have glitter in them either, which is great!

Quick note: all of these are natural highlights, so they tend to look fairly similar on the face. I would recommend looking through this list and picking one (some of these are palettes if you really want more options) that suits you.

Enjoy!

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