Physician's Formula Nude Palette: Swatches & Dupes!

Hey! I found out from Nouveau Cheap that CVS was having 40% off Physician's Formula. Naturally I got into my car and drove to the nearest one. Since my CVS is relocating they had all kinds of stuff marked down. I got my Revlon Colorstay foundation for under $2 (yes!) That meant I could spend more on Physician's Formula! One of the things I purchased was this Nude palette. I have been in love with it ever since.

I personally love PF eye shadows! I think they are the best drug store eye shadows. I have even mentioned that they are as good as Urban Decay shadows. It wasn't until I swatched them side by side for the dupes in this blog post that I realized Urban Decay is a little bit better. Stila is even better than Urban Decay. But that is a whole 'nother blog post! What ever the order, PF is still the best drug store eye shadow in my opinion.

Here's this whole palette swatched with no base or primer. Obviously any eye shadow comes to a whole different life over a primer and looking back I should have primed my arm but then again, this is the real deal. Like all of you know, use an eye primer to make your shadow last longer (or at all for that matter) ! I tried to pick a favorite but I honestly couldn't! Sorry for the blurryness. As you all know, it is hard taking a picture with one hand and keeping it steady!

 I actually like the sponge applicator it comes with. It looks like an angled eye liner brush and it does that job perfectly. It will be perfect to throw in my bag. It has eye shadow and eye liner already taken care of!

 So the first dupe I found was the obvious one. There really isn't much that is different about Sidecar from Urban Decay and the color highlighted from PF Nude. I am seeing from this photo that Sidecar may have more of a brown undertone but honestly, when your looking at them in person, you don't see this distinction. Sidecar is also a little more pigmented. No primer's were used.

The next one I found was another obvious one. I am sure there is a dupe from every single cosmetic company but what-ev's. I was surprised to find out that PF's sprakley black was more pigmented then UD's sparkly black is, Creep. It seems that the glitters in Creep are much bigger than the ones in PF.  No primer's were used.

Got one more for yah! I don't think any company can beat Stila when it comes to pigmentation, but these 2 shadows are dead on when it comes to color.  Kitten looks a bit more shiny but I think that has to do with pigment. Again, no primer's used.

Weather or not this palette has a couple dupes, the Nude palette is awesome in it's own right! It has some unique colors that I didn't find dupes for! Definitely worth the $6 I paid. I would have paid $10!

Have you guys tried the Physician's Formula Nude palette? What do you think? If not, are you going to?

What is your favorite drug store eye shadow?

Till Next Time

Stay Beautiful,

Love Always,

Erica

Heads Up On A Giveaway!!

Link            Good Luck!!

FOTD: Colorful Smokey Eye

Hey-You-Guys! The colorful smokey eye is one of the season's trends according to The Makeup Geek. I actually am not one for an extremely colorful eye. I like my neutrals: brown/bronze colors, and my absolute favorite ones to use are taupe's with any base color (ex: Urban Decay's Toasted, which I would call a pinky purple taupe) Usually if I am going to use colors, I will go for olive colors, purple colors, pink colors, and on occasions blue which I only use one of those colors for a look and the rest are neutrals. But when I seen this picture of Marlena with this colorful smokey eye look, I have never seen anything better. Check out her tutorial here

Needless to say, I had to re-create it. I really love her choice of colors but I didn't have a few of them so I decided to do a spin off using a deep purple, medium purple, hot pink & a lighter blue. As for the face, I obviously tried to keep it light and simple. I used a cream medium coverage foundation. I am not too fond of medium coverage but I had no other choice. I was out of my foundation! I originally went with a medium pink lip color because I hate the rule that if your doing a colorful/vibrant eye, you should stick to lighter colors on cheeks and lips. Once I started taking pictures of my face, I realized why that is a rule. It just didn't look right. Maybe that's due to the fact that I am just a sucker for Nyx's Matte Lip in Tokyo which is a pale pink. You be the judge.

Face:

Foundation: Avon's Healthy Makeup Mousse Foundation (similar to Maybelline's Dream Mousse Foundation)

Blush: Mark Good Glowing Blush in After Glow- a really pretty Shimmery Coral
Contour: Laura Gellar Baked Blush N Brighten in Honey Dip
Finishing Powder: ELF HD Powder

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion  

Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (on lid, stopping at crease)
YBF Beauty Brow Pencil (Universal Taupe)
Revlon Growlucious Mascara
ELF's Eyeshadow Quad in Drama (Matte Black Color) as Eye Liner for the Top Lash Line
Revlon Colorstay Eye Liner in Black (waterline)

GlamifEye Eye Shadow Palette (pictured below)

1. Outer corner and slightly above crease

2. Outer Crease

3. Balls of Eyes. Right smack in the middle!

4. Inner Corner 

 

Lips:

Nyx Matte Lip Cream in Tokyo (surprise, surprise)

Revlon Lipstick in Prim Rose

Whenever I take pictures for any FOTD, I feel like I can never get a good shot! After 2 outfit changes, 3 lipstick changes, Using my ELF HD Powder a million times, and 500 thousand different poses, angles, and faces, I was happy to get a few shots. Here's a couple more: 1 with my favorite shirt I got at Kohls and another with.....well, I am not sure wtf I am doing there!

I actually did the colorful smokey eye once before this, following the tutorial using a blue, a green, & a purple which I actually liked better than this. I didn't take pictures of it though so if you are interested in seeing my original colorful smokey eye, I would be happy to re-create it and do another FOTD. Let me know!

Thanx For Reading! 

Stay Beautiful!

xoxo

Erica

Giving My Makeup Station a Make-Over

 This blog is formerly Meet Makeup

Hey! Remember my haul from last November? I bought purple spray paint and a paint primer from Wal-Mart to re-do an old 80's looking desk I had. The problem is that I am always having to do my makeup in the bathroom. Which means I was storing it in there. When you store makeup in the bathroom, it goes bad quicker due to the moisture the shower makes. Not a good deal. Luckily I had this old desk to give it a face lift!

Disclaimer: I would be lying if I said I did most of the desk myself. Fact is, my boyfriend did most of the desk. He did most of the sanding and I did all of the painting. We didn't sand the whole thing though. And the side I didn't sand actually looks exactly the same as the side's we he did sand. If your thinking about DIYing something, skip sanding people! If your working with for mica, which is what the desk is.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I had to go back to the store and purchase another can of spray paint. The desk isn't too big so if your going to spray paint a piece of furniture, you will probably need 2 cans. The paint I used is called Gumdrop and it is by Krylon. It was only around $5

Now that the desk is all done, I store my makeup in/on it. However, I still need to do my makeup in the bathroom due to the lighting. I really need to get some good lighting once and for all. I also need to up-grade my storage too as I ran outta room. So, once everything is fully done, I will update the blog about it.


All and all, I am extremely happy with my results. For one thing, nobody (as far as I know) has this exact same desk as I do. For another thing, I spent $15 in all! ($5 each for the Gumdrop paint, $5 for the primer, & we had the sand paper on hand!) How cool is that?

 So that is that!  I can't wait until the whole station is actually done so I can show it to everyone!

QOTD: Have you guys ever re-did a piece of furniture? 

Do You Guys Like The New Blog URL? How About The Blog Facelift?

Till Next Time,

Stay Beautiful!

xoxo

Erica J

Meet Makeup is.....

Mind Body Beauty! The new blog URL is live!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats all I wanted to let you know- be sure to check out my new header and layout- I like it, I hope you guys do too (:

Till Next Time

xoxo

Erica J

NOTW: Zebra Stickers

Back in November, I came across these nail stickers that were $10 each. In order to put them on your nails, you needed the top coat, base coat and some other tools. It would have ran me $60 for everything. I knew back then it was wayy too much $$. But these stickers were so pretty! They had a million little gems on them and were so detailed. The other day I was walking through Dollar General and noticed the exact same sticker designs for $3. You didn't have to buy any special tools or anything. Just the stickers. Cheap things come to those who wait.

I tried the nail stickers before but they didn't last. They came off within 3 hours.Thats probably because I didn't use a top coat. The packaging never mentioned anything about a top coat. What-ever, if your going to try these out a top coat is crucial.

As far as actually applying them, the first one takes a little practice. My first nail is a little bubbly but I am the only one that notices. Once you have the stickers on, your supposed to file the excess off. I found that it was much easier to cut most of the excess off, then file them so the nail and sticker are even. I have pretty short nails, just an fyi.

Since they have been on, they haven't budged. I have had them on for 5 days now. No chipping. Yay! The day after I applied them, one of the stickers looked like it was peeling off so I pressed it on extra hard and surprisingly it stayed on.

These nail stickers are gems. I know I will probably be trying them all.

 On a side note, I also did Stella's nails the other night with the new nail polish I got in my Birchbox. I had to do them while she was sleeping. She can't stay still for anything. Including this picture. Nonetheless,  they are cute and a bit messy.

Have you guys tried these out yet? Have you ever tried to paint your puppies nails?

thanx so much for reading too! 

till next time

xoxo

Erica J

Hey!

Hey people! You guys probably don't realize that I have been gone for a while. But I have been. I was in the hospital!!! yuck, it was awful. So yeah I had an asthma attack and went to the hospital and I have been taking so many breathing treatments and steroids that I am so up and down and just really....chemically. They told me I should have stayed until today, but I of course begged my dr. to work with me to let me leave yesterday. Ok but that isn't the point of this at all.

I just wanted to let you guys know that I am recovering and also wanted to let you guys know that I have been a smoker for 9 years now. since I was 17. yikes, 9 years? yeah! So I haven't smoked a cigarette since last week and I am really hoping I can do this (stop smoking) because I really want to be able to run and not be out of breath. wish me luck, ok? Honestly, when i was admitted, I really didn't wanna quit smoking, but since it has been a week, and I have been wearing a patch I am wondering why I don't want to quit, yah no? I need to! I need to be healthy! For anybody wanting to quit smoking all I can say is to tell you family to smoke outside and get yourself a patch as soon as possible! It has been working for me pretty good....I hope it stays that way.

I didn't even think I could do such a hard thing. Quit smoking? How? While I was contemplating if I should quit (yes, I had to contemplate, it is my crutch and happy place I go when I am stressed. Smoker can agree) my nurse walked in and informed me that she quit smoking 6 years ago! She gave me some tips and says know she can't stand the smell of smoke....I hope I can get there.  Has anybody stopped smoking? Help??!!?

Also, my blog URL change is still going to be on but I am still getting kinks worked out, hoping it would have been done by now but life happens. So yeah, in a couple days, I will have some blog post's up, and when ever I am all done with my HTML and URL stuff I will change the name.

Sorry for the no pictures blog post. The most boring post you have ever seen on this blog and the most boring, uncreative post you will ever see. Just thought I should check in and tell you guys what's up with yours truly!

I am so glad you guys liked my last post, the healthy fruit dips! 

I will talk to you guys sooner then later, take care, and as always, 

thanx so much for reading too!

ohoh one more thing! I am also in the process of my spring trends series!! To see last fall's check here.

xoxo

Erica