I could pretend that this wasn't last Thursday and I'm not a week late posting, but...meh.
It's June already, somehow, and that means the Philly area is gonna be a humid armpit in a few weeks. It gets awful here. We can have whole weeks where the humidity doesn't go below 95% and it's 85 even at night. In that weather 'normal' makeup melts and feels heavy and gluey and just isn't worth wearing if you'll be outside for more than a sprint to the car.
I *could* just skip it, but A) I'm trying to wear makeup more often and B) rosacea. Mine isn't that bad really, most of the time. It gets worse in the summer, but at least then I don't have people asking me why I'm sunburned. My rosacea stuns people for some reason. The (sometimes sudden) appearance of two upside-down red triangles under my eyes has caused real, sincere double takes. The best is when I have to explain it. I just pawn it off as "an Irish thing" most of the time. Thanks, grandma.
So here's me, without makeup. I look like crap, I know. Puffy,
tired, hair misbehaving and needing a trim, and with bushy monster eyebrows...when better to put your face on the interwebs, right? This isn't me at my worst, just 'not my best'. Meh. The rosacea isn't too bad. The triangles are pink instead of red.
I don't hate how I look, but I know that with a tiny bit of effort I can look at least a little better. Sometimes a mood will hit me and I'll make a big fuss doing serious makeup just to go to Target. Then there are days like this when I was gonna be out in hot weather, driving, carrying a small Ikea flatpack....and feeling like crap in general. (Ikea trip details in the next post.) It's weird, but sometimes if I'm gonna feel sick I'd rather be out in public keeping busy than sitting at home and grumping. Call it "retail therapy" if you want, but shopping is a cheap -ish, healthy-ish buzz...and I've needed it badly lately.
If I had to pick a single favorite makeup brand it would probably be e.l.f. They're a perfect mix of low-price, ethical (if you're furry, not if you're human), and good. There's cheaper makeup, but it's generally garbage or for kids. There's better makeup, but it can cost more per item than I spend on a whole
e.l.f. order. I'd rather 'spoil myself' with ten of their products than just two from a high-end brand. On top of that, they don't test on animals and they're one of the few independent companies left, so you don't have the whole 'parent company' worries. They get a bit of a zonk for having their products made in China (boo hiss)....but it still leaves them ahead of several of the drugstore brands where your conscience is concerned.
My last order from them was a bunch of summer stuff to cope with the four months of nasty weather coming up. All of the makeup in this post is from that order.
Somewhere in the semi-unpacked chaos that is my new house there's my CoverGirl tinted moisturizer, but I can't find the damn thing. I'd never tried any of
e.l.f. 's face stuff before, so instead of shelling out $3 for their Studio tinted moisturizer I bought the $1 Essentials one.
Well..I still look tired and bloated, but it's moisturizer, not magic. It's an improvement. It smells fresh and citrusy and goes on smooth. It fades my triangles away a bit and takes a little of the purple out from under my eyes and I didn't have to use much. This is Ivory, the lightest of their six shades. SIX! So many tinted moisturizers only come in three or four shades.
The only vague downside I can see is that this tube is tinytinytiny. I ordered a bunch of their Shimmering Facial Whips too and I thought the moisturizer was missing...until I realized it was right there with the Whips. It looks a lot like them, but it's bigger. That's a relative term. It's 0.42oz. Tinytinytinytiny! Still, for $1 it's way cheaper than the CG stuff, which goes for $6.50-8.50 everywhere I've seen it. The CG stuff is smoother, but smells weird, costs more, and doesn't really cover much better. I would probably buy this again and I might try the Studio one in a future order.
Oh god...fuzz. Nichole, you're right...the buzz thing requires vigilance. I failed. Still, I like this gloss. It's e.l.f. Essentials Super Glossy Lip Gloss in Malt Shake, one of several I ordered because lip gloss is perfect for summer. Its also only $1 for a 0.35oz tube...and it doesn't feel like paste or smell like baby medicine or old ladies! It is a little sticky, but not horrible and goes on smoother than most $1 glosses. The smell is sweet, but not cloying. The color is sheer and flattering and stays for a while. It came off when I had lunch...gloss does that. The tube looks *nothing* like it does on the site, which is irritatingly common for them, but it goes on like it was the color the site suggests. Weird. Maybe it's a lighting thing. I've never figured this out, as many times as it's happened to me.
I didn't take a photo of my eye with the Primer Eyeshadow or my cheeks with the Shimmering Facial Whip. I'm not sure if I thought they were too subtle for their own photos or if I derped. I used the Sultry Satin shade of Primer Eyeshadow and Toasted Shimmering Facial Whip. Sultry Satin is an awful name, but it's a shimmery light peachy gold that I really like. It's also just sticky enough to stay put without feeling awful on my lids. It was $2 for 0.2oz, but it's smooth and full of pigment, so I only needed a tiny bit to do both lids. I'm looking forward to trying this as a primer, but I like it as a shadow on its own. I'd absolutely buy this again. I already had one Shimmer Facial Whip and I love it, so I bought a few more of them too. They come in eight colors and I think I have five of them. For $1 each, why not? They're also lipgloss-size at 0.34oz, but again...you don't need much and they're so inexpensive. Toasted is a light cool brown with a silvery iridescence that isn't excessive, especially once you blend it. It blends VERY well. I love versatile products like this. On my cheeks it's a good pale lady substitute for bronzer. On my lids it's a good contour color for the Sultry Satin. On my lips (not in these photos) it's a smooth, silky taupe frost. It's got a citrusy scent too. I'll use it year round, but it's whispering "summer" in so many ways.
See? Just a little effort and I look about as good as I was gonna look. I applied all of these products with my fingers or their applicators, so they'd be good for after the beach or pool. Best of all? Four products, $5! Can't begin to beat that, can you?
...figures that the best lighting was...there. Notice my upturned ottoman with the folded sheets on it? My curtains that don't fit the window that well? A hint of my unmade bed? My bedroom is a project I really need to tackle already, so to get things started I headed off to Ikea...
