The Best Scrub Ever?!? M-61 Vitablast C Scrub and Mask Review

I've had this product for a week now and I'm so incredibly impressed after two uses that I have to share this with you right away!!! 

After going to visit the amazing offices at Alison Brod Marketing and Communication, they sent me home with a couple of M-61 products. I personally have never heard of this brand - so I was interested in trying it. This brand was created by Bluemercury Co-Founder and CEO Marla Malcolm Beck. If you don't know Bluemercury, it's an awesome beauty store and spa with great highend brands. 

Here's what the website says about M-61

M-61 Powerful Skincare combines dermatologist-loved ingredients with power-packed naturals and is 100% free from harmful parabens, sulfates, and phthalates. Marla took Bluemercury’s 13 years of experience performing over one million treatments and blended it with input from more than 300 Bluemercury makeup artists and estheticians. The result is a technical skincare line that provides maximum results with minimal time.

So this product is a 1-minute face exfoliant mask. It has vitamin C, papaya, gallic acid and natural amber powder to soften the skin, clear off dead skin and promote a bright complexion. It also has add products like natural passionflower to add some soothing and calming benefits! 

When I first tried this product, I was thinking "eh, it'll be like any other scrub" --however I was so incredibly impressed, I've never felt a product like this before! 

During the process: It was definitely a scrub, however the scrubbies were so incredibly fine that it felt as if it was really cleaning off my skin. It gave a slight tingle, which made my skin feel really refreshed. I tried my best to get you a very close up photo of how tiny the scrubbulars are - so hopefully you can see just how fine the scrubs are! 

After the process: After I washed it, it felt amazingly smooth and soft. My skin definitely looked more radiant and bright. Usually more abrasive scrubs cause my skin to redden with blochiness, but my skin was not blochy at all. I was able to then use my regular skincare regimen and it definitely felt like the products were going deep in my skin since it did end up looking more plump than usual! 

I would definitely recommend using this 1-2x a week as it is quite a strong product. I definitely did feel my skin feeling renewed.. however I think once tolerance is built, you can definitely use it daily! .

Super excited to have this product for a longer period of time to see the benefits on my skin especially since I see a difference already in a week! 

This product is $44 and your can purchase it at a bluemercury store or at bluemercury.com

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Hourglass Ambient Powder Blush in Radiant Magenta

Hi dollfaces! So I ordered the Hourglass Ambient Lighting blush in Radiant Magenta when Sephora was doing an exclusive VIB sale. I debated getting the other ones, but I decided this one caught my eye the most.

Here is my pretty little blush in Radiant Magenta. The site described this color as a 'golden fuchsia' and its a gorgeous medium pink that leans warm (although it shows on my face as more of a cool pink). Although it has that beautiful golden veining, the shimmer is not overpowering… in fact it looks almost more like a satin finish blush rather than one that is very glittery.

These are very reminiscent of the Hourglass' Ambient Lighting Powders as they feel so soft and silky. They have very finely milled powders that go on effortlessly, blends easily and are very buildable.

To the left is the hourglass blush. I LOVE the packaging and everything about it! (although the font is eh!). To the right is the ambient powder just for comparison purposes :) Their blushes are .15oz and the powder is .35oz

The right side is just a slight wash of color and the left is the color built up. As you can see, you can make the color very natural or very pigmented depending on the look you are going for!

Overall, this blush is lovely. Although not entirely unique (as I have many blush colors in a similar shade!), the blendability and the way it performs is what makes this product worth checking out :)

You can purchase these blushes for $35 online at the hourglass website or at sephora on 2/21.
Will you be picking any up!??!

xoxo

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Nars Adult Content Cheek Palette

Ok, did the name not make you giggle with embarrassment? Nars has some of the funniest, raunchiest, inappropriate, yet giggle worthy names.. and this one doesn't disappoint either.

Here is the palette in my hand for size reference :)

Not only was I drawn in by the name, but I was also drawn in by the fact that three of my favorite Nars blushes were placed in one palette. This palette is the same size as the 'foreplay' palette which was a cheek palette that was the 'deconstruction of orgasm. You can see my review and swatches here.

In this palette are:
Deep Throat - a natural peach with shimmer
Zen - described as a 'neutral beige' - but it is more of a soft brown color on my skin
Desire - cotton candy pink
Miss Liberty - peach beige highlighter color with shimmer

Man, I can't get over how much I love this palette because Deep Throat, Zen and Desire are three of my absolute favorite blushes from Nars. The color of Deep throat gives the perfect sheen of color on your face for an every day look, Desire is perfect for a night out, with a fun, cute pink -- to an intense hawwwwt pink, and Zen has always been my go to lazy 'contour and blush' color in one. Miss Liberty is just an extra goodie that you get as a fun highlighter that has some shimmer and glitter.

Below are the colors and swatches. In the palette going clockwise from top left: Zen, Miss Liberty, Deep Throat and Desire.

I adore this palette!!!!

I purchased mine from Nordstrom here for $49. :) 

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Asia Haul & GIVEAWAY!

As you guys know, I went to Asia. Of course I NEVER come back from anywhere empty handed. LOL :P And its no question - I definitely brought you back some goodies! Hope you will all enter this giveaway as a thanks for being awesome viewers are readers! I'm using rafflecopter to handle this giveaway to give you all more ways to enter!

PS. Don't forget to check out the haul down below (will be there once the video is live)!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Garnier BB Cream Review

I've been a big BB Cream fan since it hit the markets in Asia a couple years ago. It's finally began to catch on the US band wagon - first beginning with some higher end companies like Dior, Bobbi Brown, Too Faced, Smashbox,... but now... Garnier! I had high expectations for the higher brands, and certainly have not been disappointed with the ones I have, which are the Diorsnow BB Cream and the Bobbi Brown BB Cream (which hasn't hit US stores yet)! Garnier is one of the first more inexpensive BB Creams at around $12.99 I believe (this was given to me as a gift from my lovely friend Erin).

If you don't know what a BB Cream is, feel free to click here and read about it on wikipedia. LOL... I'm feeling kinda lazy. :P but for those of you that do not know, BB Creams should feel lightweight, but should also provide some good coverage. Generally when I first apply BB Creams, it sort of sits on top of the skin before sinking in, which is why for many BB Creams, its much more beneficial to pat the product into your skin.

I am a huge fan of BB Creams because I am lazy as hell when it comes to my foundation routine. I would rather just pat on a little BB Cream and get along with my day than putting on a million layers of who knows what. I've tried probably over 15 different kinds of BB Cream ranging from Skin 79, BRTC, Skinfood, Dior, etc.

This BB Cream comes in two shades: Light/Medium and Medium/Dark and claims to even out, tone, boost glow, blur imperfections, smooth fine lines, provide 24 hour hydration, and provide SPF 15. All in which sounds nice, but if you were to tell me those were the properties, I would think you are selling me a radiance glow tinted moisturizer, not a BB Cream (which often has more healing and long term beneficial properties). 

At first squeeze, it looked to be very similar to a BB Cream. It was very thick... and look! I could even hold my hand upside down without the product moving! :P

Anyways here is my breakdown: 

Texture: It is a very lightweight product that feels almost 'wet' when applying despite its thick looking consistency. It smooths out quite easily as it is very liquidy once you apply it.

Pigmentation/Coverage: I would say this is light - medium coverage, leaning toward light. Pigmentation is not amazing, but it does the job. I would say this coverage is as good as any other tinted moisturizer.

Smell: This has the "Garnier" smell - kind of floral and citrus-y. Although I do not mind the scent, it is quite strong for a BB Cream.

Moisturization: So unlike most BB Creams, this product sunk right into my skin making me skeptic... but it proves to be an extremely hydrating product for the skin. Not sure about the 24 hour claim, but hydrated for a good while. I was quite impressed with this. I thought it did a great job sinking right into the skin and moisturizing the face.

Lasting Ability: The lasting ability was a couple of hours. I would not recommend this for oily skin because it will definitely make you a shining star and you will be needing to blot your face a lot. My skin began to get a bit shiny, thus making the product easier to come off.

As you can see, it leaves a nice satin-y finish and provides nice light coverage:)

Overall: The product itself is not bad, but I would not call this a BB Cream. In fact, if they called this Garnier Tinted Moisturizer, I would really RAVE this product, besides the fact that it has that strong garnier scent, but since they called themselves a BB Cream, I find that it falls short of the BB Cream name.

I would say if you are looking for a true BB Cream, I would tell you to look elsewhere - but if you are looking for something to just even out skin tone, provide minimal coverage and give nice hydration at a low price... this is definitely something worth checking out.

FYI: The fifth ingredient is alcohol, which is actually something that quite worried me, as I don't like to put alcohol products on my face... and gosh, I really don't know what the rest of those things are. LOL.

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