NEW! Eco Tools Pure Complexion Facial Sponge - Deep Cleanse Review!

Welcome back Lovelies! Today I am reviewing a very unique skincare product by Eco Tools. It is a cleansing sponge, designed specifically for the face, that is made out of "exfoliating bamboo charcoal" and a "highly renewable root plant" called Konjac. Yes, I said plant! You can probably see why I was so curious about this product. I don't know about you guys, but I've never washed my face with a plant/sponge before! There are two versions of this product, one for sensitive skin and one for deep cleansing which is the one I purchased. I found mine for $5.99 at Ulta. 

What I like about the packaging of this product is that the box tells you a little information about the plant and how to use and take care of the sponge. I have never heard of the Konjac plant before but apparently, according to Eco Tools, it has been a dietary staple in Asia as well as being in Asian skin products for quite some time now, This sponge, which contains the plant's vegetable fiber, claims to remove old skin cells and impurities to reveal smooth, refreshed, glowing skin.

The sponge, when completely dry, is incredibly light weight and pretty brittle feeling. After getting thoroughly wet it becomes incredibly soft and squishy while still maintaining its size. I prefer to wash my face using a cleanser, so I add a small bit of my face wash to the wet sponge and gently rub it in circular motions all over my face for a good minute or two, As previously mentioned, I have the "deep cleansing" version of this product, however, this is so gentle feeling I have a hard time imagining it being too harsh for anyone. I can't even tell it's exfoliating at all which is why I'm always surprised at how soft my face feels when I'm finished! It doesn't even leave a dry/tightened feeling to my skin which is fantastic.

The only thing that concerns me about this product is how fragile it feels. Every time I use it I'm inclined to be very gentle and cautious out of fear of having it tear. However, even if this sponge does survive me without any tears, it must be placed every 1 to 3 months most likely for sanitary precautions which is kind of a pain in the butt- at least in my lazy/cheap opinion! 

In conclusion, I am pleasantly surprised with how easy this is to use and how great it makes my skin feel. I use it every single night and I recommend it to everyone of all different skin types, even you girls with dryer skin because of how gentle it is. Thank you so much for reading, leave any questions you have in the comments :)

NEW! Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Brow Mascara Review!

Hello Beautifuls! I'm so happy to be back blogging again after a few month long break, I hope you are all doing well! Today, I am bringing you a review on a new tinted brow gel by Maybelline Cosmetics! I'm so excited to see the drugstores getting some different products like this for such affordable prices. This "brow mascara" as it is called is offered in 4 different shades and I found my match "deep brown" at Target for about $6.99.

This gel is packaged in a dark brown tube that, aside from color, reminds me oh so much of the company's classic Great Lash mascara. The brush, however, deviates far from that of any other mascara/eyebrow gel I've ever seen before. It starts out as a small, standard brush but then ends with this really odd ball-shape. This is where, from what I've heard, the product gets a lot of complaints particularly relating to the size of this ball-like wand. And I have to admit, I do think this brush is way fatter than the standard person's brows and I do occasionally get some product above where i'd like it but fortunately it's pretty easy to wipe off.

According to Maybelline's website, this product is designed to "coat brows with rich color, sweeping them into a sleekly structured dramatic look." In my opinion, it does exactly that! The gel is thin and not goopey or sticky but I find that it holds my brows in place pretty well for almost the whole day. As for the color aspect of it, i think the color matches me perfectly and it does not have a warm/red undertone which I love, Application can be a little tricky though considering way too much product adheres to the tip of the brush and if you apply too much of this gel, your brows will have a very stiff, fake-looking appearance. A little goes a long way!

 After applied, I notice that my individual brow hairs are a little thicker, however, this does not, and is not marketed, to fill in your brows so don't expect that - it's simply a tinted brow gel! It will not at all replace your everyday eyebrow products such as a pencil or a powder. As you can see in the pictures below, aside from making the hairs just a tad thicker, it doesn't do much for my brows in terms of appearance. it just holds their shape well! You can build this up a bit more than I did to add a tad more volume if you'd like.

My naked brow - No products! 

My brow after one coat of Maybelline's Brow Mascara.

Overall, this is not a miracle worker. It will not instantly give you amazing brows or likely replace any other products you already use. It is often wrongfully compared to the Benefit Gimme Brow which has fibers to help actually fill in the brows so if that's what you are looking for, Benefit might be the way to go! But if you're just looking for something that will add a little bit of thickness, maybe a hint of color, and a lot of hold then this could be a good product for you.

Let me know if you've tried this in the comments! Thanks for reading :)

NEW! Softlips Cubes Review

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and are excited for a review on the brand new, adorable Softlips Cubes! I heard about these guys around a month ago and looked for them everywhere and finally managed to snag them at Walgreens. So, I suggest stopping there if you've been having trouble finding them! I picked up the scents Vanilla Bean and Fresh Mint for $3.49 plus tax.

Let me start out by saying that these lip balms are just SO cute. I love the "cubes" idea and I adore the packaging. There is no doubt that the looks of these can be easily compared to the EOS lip balms that similarly have twist off caps that reveal dome shaped lip balm. The EOS lip balms contain .25 oz of product while these Softlips only contain .23 oz. This, however, leads to the Softlips having much less bulkier packaging, being only a little over an inch tall, making them more convenient to travel with!

When first trying these lip balms, I instantly noticed how easily they applied without feeling the slightest bit greasy or waxy. The product seems to instantly absorb into your lips so you're not stuck with any gross heavy or sticky feeling. They do leave what some people would call a slight tingly feeling, especially the mint one, but it is not bothersome at all and I would actually describe it as much of just a "cool" feeling. The fact that these have an added SPF 15 in them is also wonderful!

What surprised me the most about these balms was how effectively they worked. My lips weren't left with the most moisturized feeling ever (probably due to how thin the formula is) but I noticed that my dry patches were gone and my lips felt softer. That being said, I don't think that these alone will make a massive long term improvement like a specialized night cream might. On the other hand, these are excellent for an everyday use and, in my opinion, much more comfortable and effective at smoothing over dry patches then their popular EOS competitor. I can't wait to pick up the Pomegranate Blueberry flavor and complete my collection.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions please leave them below and let me know what you think of these!

NEW! Maybelline Volum' Express Pumped Up Colossal Mascara Review

Happy weekend Lovelies! Today I'm super excited to review a brand new mascara for you guys by the Maybelline Volum' Express line! I usually have good luck with these mascaras, my favorites being The Colossal and The Rocket so I couldn't have been happier to discover that there has been a new one released!

Product info: This mascara claims to "pump" up your lashes to give you tons of volume. Its brush is fattest in the middle and tapered at the end and the formula comes in a washable and waterproof form. It retails anywhere from $5.99 to $7.99 anywhere Maybelline is sold but if you visit Ulta now through Saturday April 19th, they are having a 40% OFF sale on Maybelline cosmetics so you could get this mascara for just under $5!

My experience: The very first thing I noticed about this mascara is that it has a very wet formula that takes a few minutes to completely dry. If you're not careful, you could end up with a bit of a mess on your eyelids. Fortunately, it dries without feeling flaky or crispy but does not give me that much volume like it is advertised to do. It actually gave me quite a bit of length, however, and sort of fans out my lashes. Because this is such a wet mascara, if you apply too much it can weigh your lashes down and make them stick together so I find that using only two coats is best.

My natural lashes

After one coat of Pumped Up mascara

Two coats of Pumped Up mascara

I do really enjoy the brush on this mascara. It's not too huge in the middle and the tapered end really helps with reaching all of my lashes. I can see myself liking this mascara more and more in the future after the formula has time to dry up just a smidgen and while It's not a mascara I would reach for when I want massive dramatic lashes, I like it for an every day use. I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind wet formulas and is looking for a bit of length in their everyday mascara!

Thanks so much for reading! Have you tried this mascara? What do you think of it?

Limited Edition Wet n' Wild Walking The Red Carpet Palette Review

Welcome back Lovelies! Today I'm going to be talking to you about something I get excited for every year- the limited edition Wet n' Wild eye shadow palettes! I managed to pick up the one titled "Walking the Red Carpet" about a week or so ago at a Walgreen's. It retails for around $4.99 and can be found almost anywhere Wet n' Wild is sold.

Most of the shades in this palette have a warm tone and lean towards a bronzey look. The only two matte shades are the browbone and eyelid colors on the left side which also happen to be the least pigmented. All of the other shades range from having a slight sheen to being very glittery and have that notorious, beautiful pigmentation that Wet n' Wild shadows are known to have.

Left side of the palette

Right side of the palette 

The most interesting shade in this palette by far is the gold shade on the right. This is perhaps the truest gold shade I've ever seen in a shadow. Unfortunately, it also happens to have the most glitter and fall out. I tried to take a close up picture to show you the glitter in this shadow. It's not too chunky feeling but there is SO much fall out, I can definitely predict a huge mess if it's not used carefully and with a good primer.

Overall, this palette isn't as exciting as I thought it would be. The colors are beautiful and the quality is excellent for the price, but a lot of the shades are just too shimmery for my liking. If you prefer mattes, this probably won't be the palette for you. If you don't mind a little shimmer/glitter then I think you'd have a lot of fun experimenting with this!

Thanks so much for reading, leave any questions or comments down below! :)

My Current Favorite: Under Eye Brightener

Happy Monday everyone! Today is the second post in my "Current Favorite" series in which i tell you all about a product i'm loving at the moment and then give one away to a lucky reader! Last time I talked about an awesome mascara and today I'll be telling you about the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer.

I've been using this highlighting pen for months now and I absolutely adore it. To apply, I simply turn the knob at the bottom which causes product to be dispensed onto the brush at the top. Then I dab it under my eyes, in my inner corners, under my eyebrows, on my cheekbones, and lightly blend it out with a small brush. I don't notice it settling into any fine lines - although I don't have very many - and it stays put almost all day.

The coverage with this product is just average. It does well with my dark circles which aren't very prominent but probably won't provide maximum coverage to someone with severe dark circles. That being said, I mainly rely on this pen for brightening. After applying it to my tired looking eyes in the morning I can immediately tell a huge difference. I look so much more fresh and awake without being dewy or shimmery considering this has a matte finish.

These pens come in a decent shade range with both yellow and pink undertones. As of right now, I own one in the shade Ivory and one in Radiant. I find that Ivory has a bit more coverage but Radiant is a pinky/peachy color which does a better job at counteracting blueish under eye circles.

Now for the fun part! One of you lovely readers will receive a brand new Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in the shade of your choice! This giveaway will be open to residents of the U.K. and the U.S.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks so much for reading! Leave any questions down below and look back for more giveaways :)

Super Cheap Makeup Haul (Nothing over $3)

Hello Lovelies! A few days ago I went into the city to hang out with a few friends with no intentions of buying any makeup but guess what happened? Hey, at least it was all very affordable and I'm really happy with what I picked up! Nothing was over $3, how crazy cool is that?!

The first store I went to was Target. From there I picked up the e.l.f. Studio Lip Exfoliator for $3 which I adore! This is my second time purchasing this product and there's no doubt I will again. 

         

Next I went to Walgreens where I snagged this Wet 'n Wild single eyeshadow in Nutty for only $.69! It was originally $1 but they had some select shades on sale. As always, when referring to Wet 'n Wild, the pigmentation is gorgeous. 

I also picked up this awesome De Beaute eyeshadow palette by Profusion for only $! I got the 02 palette, already own the 03 palette, and as far as I know there is only one other palette in this line.

Here are swatches of all 12 shades:

The last product I stumbled upon at Walgreens was this e.l.f Essential Lip Balm Tint in the shade Nude. I have been looking for these everywhere and could not have been happier when I spotted them - especially being only $2!

Finally I made a trip over to the dollar store and found this pretty Milani Crystal Gloss in the shade Whisper. 

I love affordable makeup and am so excited about all of these products! Let me know your favorite cheap makeup products in the comments below! Also notify me if you'd like a full review on any of these products. Thanks for reading! :)