Because I'm such a huge fan of the NYX Lid Lingerie Shadow Palette, which I definitely think is a drugstore must have, the NYX Cosmic Metals Shadow Palette has been on my shopping list for a while. And has, of course, been consistently sold out every time I've looked for it in store locally. I finally managed to get my hands on it recently and I was super excited to try it out.

Keep reading for more!

Now that September has hit and the nights are distinctly getting cooler, I've felt my fall makeup trigger happen. For me, that definitely leads into more burnt tones, smokier eyes, and bolder lips in comparison to my fresher, bronzier summer makeup. It also means that I'm much more likely to reach for matte products, since I love to kind of leave the glow behind for the moment and embrace the sort of warm, velvety look of matte products. Recently, I finally saw the NYX Lid Lingerie Shadow Palette at my local London Drugs and it seemed like the perfect time to try it out, so I just had to buy it. 

For my review, swatches, and a couple of eye looks keep reading!

I realize that I'm pretty late to the game with this review, but I have to admit that I didn't pick this up before now because I wasn't really sure how many of the shades were going to work for me and I didn't want to buy a palette that I wasn't sure I'd use. I was actually lucky enough to win the NYX Strobe Of Genius Illuminating Palette in a blog giveaway recently and I was really excited to finally get to try it out. I'd heard mixed reviews about the palette and was eager to form my own opinion - especially since I've finally jumped on the highlighter bangwagon only recently. I know this palette has been out for over a year - but I still wanted to review it from my perspective since I'm sure there are a lot of people who, like me, aren't quite sure if it's worth it for them. 

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I don't get out to London Drugs very often because the only location in Winnipeg isn't really convenient for me most of the time. However, I do make a point of it every now and then because their beauty department is pretty good - particularly the NYX section. On my last visit, I discovered that the NYX section had actually doubled in size and they had a lot of things on display that I previously couldn't find locally, so I went only a little bit mad with power. I feel like for a long time there was a long wait between when products were released in the US from NYX and when we were actually able to get them in Canada, but I feel like that's changing. Which. Is. Awesome.

One product that I wanted ever since they were released was the NYX Ombre Blush, so I snapped up the most "me" shade of the bunch as soon as I tried them, so I could see how the formula works for me. Keep reading to find out what I think of the shade Mauve Me!

So I have to admit that I've actually had the NYX Tame & Frame Brow Pomade in the shade Brunette for a long time, but I didn't review it because I was never reaching for it enough to give a full review of it until now. For the past several weeks, I've been reaching for this with a consistency that surprised me and I'm definitely ready to let you guys know what I think. When this was released, it was a really hyped product, but it was also a little difficult for those of us in Canada to get our hands on. As soon as I saw it at my local London Drugs, I grabbed it up. Though I'm not reviewing it as such, this has been claimed to be a dupe for the ever popular Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade. I've actually never tried that product, because I wasn't really willing to spend the money when I wasn't sure it was the type of product that I'd reach for in my collection. Anyway, onto the review!

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So clearly, when I first heard about NYX releasing these liquid lipsticks in a range of nude and neutral shades, I was over the moon with excitement. I mean, wasn't everyone? Matte, nude lips have been going strong for the past year and it was a pretty brilliant move on NYX's part to do a whole collection of them with a nude lip for everyone. That really is the great thing about this collection, because there's a wide range of shades in varying depths with varying undertones. I've seen some reviews that have compared them to the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks, which excited me as well since that's one of my favorite formulas! I decided to restrain myself and pick up 2 shades. I chose Push Up because it seemed like it would be a good, true nude shade for my skintone, and I went with Embellishment because... well, how can I be expected to resist a mauve lip shade?

Anyway, keep reading to take a closer look at the shades I chose and find out what I think about them!

To say I've been dying to try these would be... Well, clearly it would be an exaggeration, but the sentiment is strong. I've been eyeing up both of these shades on social media and the NYX Canada website for ages, but Soft Spoken was the one I wanted the most and it was always sold out. When these NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipsticks were literally the first NYX product to pop up in my local Shoppers Drug Mart, I pretty much grabbed them and ran to the cash register. Seriously, I was a monster who just wanted to pay and get out to my car so I could slap it on my lips. Sometimes it's those products that you've been lusting after for ages, however, that are the most disappointing... So how did it turn out?

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I've been wanting to try cream contouring for quite some time, but it was always a very intimidating thing to me. One of my biggest pet peeves is really badly done contour, and I figured that I could end up walking around looking like a dirt smeared insane person if I tried. (Yes, this is indeed how my mind works...) However, I decided to just bite the bullet and give it a try with the NYX Wonder Stick - a product I'd heard really good things about. I chose the Light/Medium shade, because it seemed like it was the safest bet for my skin tone. I've actually been using this really, really consistently for the past couple of weeks and I'm ready to tell you what I think!

Keep reading for more!

Here we go with Part 2 of the most epic Favorites series I've ever done. This was actually one of the hardest as well, because I wanted to have a good selection of different products and it was hard to narrow down. I love eye makeup. It was absolutely the first type of product that I started collecting and I had to admit that my collection is kind of ridiculous. Shadows alone take up 2 drawers. But I digress. I decided to try and get as wide a selection of types of products as I could for this post and still keep it to a Top 5, so I hope you enjoy!

If you want to take a closer look at my favorite eye products, keep reading!

So, I have to admit that I wasn't overly interested in trying out the NYX Angel Veil Skin perfecting Primer until I heard somewhere that it was a dupe for the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer, which is my absolute ride or die holy grail primer. Since the Hourglass costs approximately one arm and a half a leg, I tend to use it only for special occasions when I really need to makeup to be flawless and last basically til death (or cleansing oil) do us part, so the idea that I could get the same effect from a drugstore primer was pretty exciting. I've been using this pretty consistently for about a month now and I'm ready to give you my thoughts - and also to let you know whether or not I think this really is a dupe for the distinctly luxury Hourglass primer!

Keep reading for a closer more!

Have I been sneaky about how much I've been loving mauve lipsticks in 2015? I feel like they're really on trend right now, but they're also incredibly wearable - which definitely isn't always true for trend items. For me, when it comes to lip products I really feel like there's no need to break the bank because there are amazing options at the drugstore. However, when it comes to BITE Beauty lippies, I tend to feel like they are more than worth the high end splurge and tend to be one of my favorite makeup indulgences. So how do two of my favorites from the drugstore stack up against my favorite brand for high end lippies. Like my other SPLURGE vs. SAVE posts, this isn't really about dupes as much as it is about products that perform the same function and how they measure up quality wise.

The three products that I'll be comparing today are as follows. First, on the high end side of the scale we have the BITE Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in the shade Glacé. The two lower price options I have here are the Sonia Kashuk Velvety Matte Lip Pencil in Mulberry Nude and the NYX High Voltage Lipstick in the shade Flutter Kiss.

Keep reading for the comparison & swatches! Also, if you're interested in my full reviews of all three of these products, there will be links at the bottom of the post!

Anyone who reads this blog with any kind of frequency knows that I LOVE NYX lip products. As far as I'm concerned, they're pretty much the best the drugstore has to offer. Of course, this means that (along with SO MANY other people), I get really excited when NYX releases new lip products. As a lot of you know, the High Voltage Lipsticks were released earlier this year and got a lot of attention online, but I hadn't seen them in my local drugstore until recently and I instantly knew that I  had to pick this one up and try it out. I had every hope that it would live up to my pretty much sky high expectations when it comes to NYX... but you'll have to keep reading to find out if it did!

Brows are the thing right now, right? I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty much obsessed with my brows lately and have a collection of brow products that I should probably be ashamed of. However, I've been waiting to get my hands on this product since I first saw it circulating on Youtube when every Youtuber and their dog got gigantic bags of NYX swag at IMATS. Just to look at it, everyone can see that it's looking a lot like a dupe for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz - which is my HG brow product in spite of its price tag - but looks aren't the reason that the ABH Brow Wiz is amazing, so the proof is really in the pudding on this product. I've been trying this out every day and I'm definitely ready to give my thoughts!

So... keep reading!

This has been a weird month for my perception of Ipsy. First, the spoilers felt like they came out of nowhere, even though they were pretty on point for where they have been normally. I chalk that up to the placement of the weekend, which kinda messed with my whole body timing. And then I completely forgot it was coming, which I chalk up to the fact that I've had so many packages arriving recently that my monthly subscription service got a little lost in the shuffle. Either way, I wasn't waiting for this one with bated breath the way I usually am. Anyway, it arrived and it's time to take a look at the contents!

Keep reading if you're interested in what I got and a few of my thoughts on each item...

Some months my favorites are a little harder to choose than others, but this month was an absolute no brainer for me and I hardly even had to think about it. This month was definitely the latter. In fact, this really required no thought at all. For me, fall beauty comes much more easily than any other season and I end up feeling a bit like it's a no brainer. This month my favorites consist of a few products that are new finds combined with some old favorites that just jump out at me for fall looks. Also, I have a couple of non-beauty favorites that I'm just over the moon excited about.

Keep reading to take a closer look!

I know, I know... This baby is not new anymore, but I've been lusting after it for ages and haven't been able to get it locally until now. I probably could have ordered it much sooner, but I always seem to talk myself out of online orders that have higher shipping charges and give myself permission for another Memebox. My brain, this is how it works. So last week I went into the new Target location here in Winnipeg, which is much larger and schmancier than any of the other locations, and low and behold they had the entire NYX collection all displayed and shiny, so I was able to pick up a few things that I had been lusting after.

When I was a teenager in the late 90s, I fancied myself a bit goth adjacent. I wasn't anywhere near being actual goth, but I sort of danced along the edges of the subculture. As such, a deep, vampy lip was one of my first real makeup statements and it's been one of those things that I've carried through loving into adulthood. Obviously now you can see why this lipstick had to come home with me.

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I think every woman, even those of us with near shamefully large make-up collections, has days where there's just no energy or time or even desire to put on a full face of make-up before heading out to start the day. Sometimes all you need is a few products that give you a confidence boost that your skin looks smooth and even and all it takes is a couple of minutes between the brushing of the teeth and the running out the door.

Lately, I've been giving in to the call of the Snooze Bar and finding myself without much time to get myself ready before I have to head to work, so I've been defaulting to my go-to no make-up look. For me, this look only requires 6 products and 1 tool to get me out the door. 

To be fair, I do usually end up doing some kind of basic eye look at some point later in the day (at my desk or on my lunch break generally) but that's generally unnecessary for me. This is also a look that I quite frequently do on the weekend when Saturday is all about breakfast with friends and errands in the afternoon. It's easy and quick and just polishes me up without looking "done up."

Keeping reading for more...

At some point I'm going to have to stop being surprised, but every time I switch purses I always find myself shocked at the sheer number of lip products that inevitably end up just living in the bottom of my purse. This morning all I had time to do was wash my face and throw on a little moisturizer before running out the door, so I was rooting around looking for something to liven up my lips and I decided to share a rundown of what's in my purse right now - from new things that I'm trying to the everyday staples that migrate from bag to bag no matter what.

The sad thing, I have to admit, is that this is actually a lot less lip products than I normally have in my bag. 

Also, I'm sure it's glaringly obvious that I don't have any other makeup in my bag. The reason for this is that I actually keep an old Ipsy bag of my staples in my desk at work so that I'm not constantly lugging around eyes and face the way that I lug around lips. Well, that and the fact that I have a travel bag full of cosmetics that comes with me in my gym bag when I spend nights at my boyfriend's place. That's actually probably the real reason and maybe eventually we'll delve into the treasures that are in that bag.

For now, though, let's stay on track, shall we?

Without further adieu...

I recently went on a tear of Spring Cleaning. The way I see it, if I can't have the spring weather then I can at least have the spring cleaning. My collection of makeup and nail polish has had the fat trimmed and, while a few things that were either useless, horrible or old went into the garbage, I managed to give most of the stuff that's still good and just not for for away to friends and family. I've tried to resolve not to be a hoarder, but let's be honest...