July Favorites 2013

I know I'm a bit late but here are my favorites/not so favorites for the month of July.  I remember writing that I need to stop picking up beauty items whenever I go somewhere....but this month that didn't happen... haha

I have a lot of new products that I plan on doing reviews on :)

swatches (from left to right): Milani, YSL

Favorites:

1. Vaseline - I know this isn't really a makeup item. But I have been using this religiously during the past month.  For some reason I keep on getting really dry skin around my mouth and under my nose (even though I don't have a cold...) and all the lotions that I tried didn't improve my dry skin at all. I think I tried about 5 different brands, and finally picked this up from the travel size product section.  I'm pretty sure everyone knows what Vaseline is, but it's just 100% pure petroleum jelly.  No scent and no other weird chemicals at all.  It's just supposed to be a skin protectant.  Since this isn't really a lotion, it does give you a sticky, greasy feeling (I know that sounds kind of gross), but it moisturizes/protects my skin like no other lotion.  I usually apply it before I go to bed (so the stickiness doesn't bother me) and I wake up and my skin feels moisturized without the greasy feeling. I just love this.  Plus the little travel size tub makes it easy for me to just slip it in my purse.
   
   I think I've rambled WAY too much on Vaseline, so I'm going to stop for now but I'm definitely going to be doing a full review on this - that's how much I love it!
   
2. YSL Rouge Volupte Shine #4 - I bought this as a birthday present to myself because whenever I went to Sephora, I would always look at the YSL lipsticks but could never make myself pay 30 some dollars for a tube.  So, I decided to get it for my birthday:)  I wanted a color that was bright but wearable and picked out this one.  The texture is smooth and it smells fruity.  And of course, the packaging is gorgeous.  I probably won't be getting another one soon, but this has been one of my go-to lipsticks for this month.
   
3. Red Cherry Lashes #601 - I bought 6 of the #601's from amazon earlier this month/at the end of June and I have been loving these because they are lightweight, not too crazy looking, and have an invisible band.  They're really comfortable to wear and I would definitely recommend them!
   
4. Milani Color Statement Lipstick in 12 Flamingo Pose - Here's my other go-to lipstick for this month.  The packaging of these Milani lipsticks caught my eye and I couldn't resist picking one up.  I ended up with a pretty bright color.  Flamingo Pose is more on the pink side but still has some orange undertones in it as well.  The thing that I like about these are how well they wear for a drugstore lip product and their scent.  They smell like watermelon Jolly Ranchers (do you guys remember those? haha) and they remind me of summer.

Not so Favorites:

1. ELF blending brush - I usually don't go to Big Lots, but I ended up going there this month and saw that they had ELF brushes, in particular the $1 ELF blending brush.  The Target that I usually go to, doesn't carry the ELF blending brush for some reason so I was excited to try this brush out.  But I wasn't pleased with the result.  I know I can't really complain since this brush was $1, but I think I would rather pay a bit more to get a better quality blending brush.  The bristles are too long and thin so it really doesn't blend out the color well.  My Sonia Kashuk blending brush is much better and if you are going to get a non-high end blending brush, I recommend that one.
   
2. Palladio Eye Ink in Dk Brown - I picked this up a while ago (not in July) but I was really disappointed with this product but I forgot to include it in my last Favorites post so here it is! I bought this at Bed Bath and Beyond for less than $5 and I was hoping that I could use this to do a cat eye look.  Literally, 3 days after opening this, it stopped working.  The color was a nice rich brown color but after 3 days it was this watery-not even brown color.  It was wrapped in plastic so I know no one accidentally left the cap open in the store, so this product was a complete disappointment.  Definitely will not repurchase.
   
3. Veet - I've been interested in hair removal creams because shaving is just.... a pain. haha At first I was afraid I was going to have an allergic reaction to this since my skin is pretty sensitive, but after testing a spot I was okay so I went on to use this.  (**I've heard people having bad reactions to hair removal creams so definitely test it out before you try it the first time!!) First of all, this stuff smells BAD.  It smells like all the chemically stuff you smell when you go to a hair salon.  And the smell lingers. I originally thought it was an in the shower kind of thing where you apply and wash it off in the shower, but apparently not.  You're supposed to use it on dry skin and let it sit for about 5~10 min then wash it off.  So that was a little turn off for me and the results weren't that great either.  I don't think I have coarse/thick hair but it didn't really remove all my leg hair so I went back and had to shave the next day.  I think I'm going to stick to shaving for now. haha