Hey everyone! I hope your 2013 has kicked off with an amazing start! Before we go steamrolling into everything this year has to offer, I wanted to wrap up the very last of 2012 with December's collective favorites. :)

It's finally December and that means that everyone is gearing up for the holidays. I'm so looking forward to the festive music, cozy drinks, and sparkly decorations and along with that comes beauty products that match the mood. As soon as it started getting properly chilly (mine from my November visit back home), I knew I had to bust out some of my favorite Christmassy colors again!

What can I say, sparkly polish just feels right lately and NYX Las Vegas fits the season perfectly!

Hey everyone! It's time for another round of monthly favorite beauty products. The list this month is short and sweet with a few really great standbys to transition into fall weather. I've been on a fall kick lately! How about you?

Check out the video below!

Hey everyone! I'm finally back from California and what a whirlwind it has been. Entering my apartment again felt like I was entering another dimension since I've been gone for 2 months. Needless to say, there is a lot of work to be done at home and in preparation for lots of upcoming changes in my life and also here on the blog. More reviews will be coming soon!!! :)

Because of the extensive travel, my favorites this month have truly been staples so I'm quite happy to recommend to you some products that I been loving and really stand by.

Click below for the video!

One of my very favorite makeup items in all of existence is blush. Isn't it funny that we try so hard to cover up our rosy red cheeks when we become embarrassed, but then try to mimic that flush with makeup? I think there's something quite charming and attractive about a beautifully applied blush that can't be replaced by anything else in a makeup routine. Even with no other makeup on, it brings a liveliness to the face that I really adore.

There are plenty of techniques used to give us that effervescent, lit-from-within glow that we all seek but I've found one which is easy to master while helping to slim and contour the face at the same time...

I'm so glad it's almost April! This month has marked a clear change from Winter to Spring and some of my favorites have followed accordingly. For one, my skin has gone a little crazy (for reasons I talked more about in the video) but I've also transitioned some of my favorites into brighter, Spring-appropriate shades.

One of the most thrilling things I had the opportunity to do while visiting California in June was to drop by the NYX Cosmetics headquarters. As many of you probably know, I am an old-school, die hard fan of NYX makeup and it was the first brand that I actually collected. It seems crazy to think about but in a way, NYX ignited my fire for makeup in the early days of my beauty blogging!

In other words, seeing this sign at the top of the building was a bit surreal!


I apologize ahead of time for the insane number of pics but seriously, Kassia is a wonder photographer and there was too much eye candy to share. ^_~

Here's just inside the front doors. The lights above were pretty!


Here I am sitting on the red "interview" couch with Evegail for my interview for NYX's Youtube channel.


A close-up of the wall behind us. Just looking at this makes me smile. :)


Greeting the new NYX Slide-On pencils for the first time. Oh goodness yes! I brought them all home with me and I will do swatches and yes, I love them. ;)


Finally after waiting for some important business people to do actual business in the showroom we got to take our peek in...


Aaaaand WABAM, makeup for miles! Is your jaw dropping yet? This was only one half of the room!


Swatching my FAVORITE Black Label lipsticks. :D


Here I was trying out a Grinding Blush which was so nicely milled and shimmery.


I definitely picked out a few new things that I had never thought to try before, like their HD primer which is what I was looking at here.


I am in love with this glitter palette. I actually didn't have any of NYX's infamous glitters and I was kicking myself for never playing with them before. This palette has so many colors and makes messy glitter SO EASY to use. I can't wait to bust this baby out for a sparkly tutorial. :D


Look. At. How. Happy. How happy? Stupid happy. ^_______^


This is me trying to convince Evegail to let me move in permanently. Pleeeeease?


Okay, so maybe I didn't convince her but she was still sweet enough to pose with me. We kind of match! Curled hair, striped dress, and blazers. Yesssss!


Before we left we also met Tony Ko, the founder of NYX Cosmetics! Isn't she drop dead gorgeous?


Sadly, I had to finally gather my things to leave but not without a ton of incredible memories and a few quick heart palpitations to send me on my way.


Final pic outside the front doors. I'll miss you NYX Los Angeles!


Thank you soooooooo much to Evegail and everyone at NYX for being incredibly sweet and accommodating during my visit to NYX. I am such a super-fan of the brand and it was just a dream come true to basically get to see everything, and I mean everything in the entire NYX lineup. The only thing I would change is that next time I sincerely promise to meet Sir Bruce Barkalot in person. ;)


I hope you enjoyed traveling along with me to NYX's headquarters. It's so fun to relive the memories through vlogs and photos so I hope that comes across to you too. :) If you thought the photos were amazing, please let Kassia know in the comments below and follow her blog as well!

More Cali blog posts to come...

Hey guys! I made this tutorial nearly a year ago and in the midst of switching computers around, I forgot to upload it! I've still gotten many requests for how I depot my NYX eyeshadows so here's a really quick tutorial.


Products used:
NYX Single eyeshadow in Beanie (this shade is discontinued btw)
Rubbing Alcohol + Plastic Cup
Dropper
Paper Towel
Butter Knife
Unii Palette + adhesive magnets

Here's the final result depotted into my UNII palettes which you can see my review of here.


Currently, my white palette is filled with a mixture of "everyday" neutral eyeshadows and depotted products that I can take with me while I travel. I'll have to take a nice pic of what I put in it the next time I'm going somewhere. I just love how easy it is to move around products you want when you depot things! So space-efficient. ^_^

I also bought a pressing kit and some freestyle palettes from TKB Trading but have yet to set a time to press my loose pigments. I honestly don't even buy loose shadows anymore since it's so messy to work with, so hopefully I can press some of my MAC pigments and mineral eyeshadows so I can free up some space in my drawers. If anyone has tips on good mixing mediums for pressing or tips in general to make it easier, please let me know! I'm a pressing novice!

I guess that's about it. Hopefully this tutorial was helpful for some of you out there who don't have a lot of time and have a lot of NYX shadows to depot. It's really simple! If you tried out my technique please let me know how it went for you in the comments~

Hey-ey girls and boys. Today's post is about one of my favorite new lipsticks that I only recently tried and fell in love with: NYX Black Label Lipsticks (currently retails for $7.50 at nyxcosmetics.com). If you are a regular follower of my blog you probably already know how in heart with NYX I am, and that I have a pretty sizable Round Lipstick (retails for $4) collection. I have some swatches of Rounds here but I've gotten so many more since that post. I always thought about trying out the higher-end Black Labels but were pretty happy with the Rounds that I never really checked them out.

Silly me, why had I never tried these before? XD

Here are my reviews and swatches in video form:


And here are some hand swatches so you can get a fair comparison of the shades with each other.

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your words of encouragement from last time. I will say that my sadness was from trying to lift up a friend who is really hurting right now, and she does read my blog so I know that your sweet comments have really helped her as well. :) I'm constantly bowled over at how much love and caring you generously give since I feel like, who am I to deserve all of the kindness that you freely give? I'm encouraged that I'm not hated for opening up a little bit. I feel like God has really given me this blog to help me through the tough times as well as the easy so THANK YOU. I feel like I am wrapped up in a thousand hugs. ^.^

Anyway, getting to the topic at hand, I'm really excited to share the Unii palettes with you. This review has been a long time coming but I finally had time to depot my NYX shadows that I'd been dying to consolidate. If you've been a long-time follower of my blog you know how much I love my NYX single shadows and that I have about a billion-million of them. I'd been having a lot of trouble with them because although I love them to death they really take up such a large space in my makeup drawers. In fact, most of them were in a totally different room (versus my vanity which I moved into the living room so that I have natural light) so they were going sadly unused. I really wish NYX would come up with their own palette because I'd buy them without thinking twice but until then, I think this is a really great option.

Here's my video review, as well as my comparison to MAC palettes and my thoughts on Z-Palette:


Here's a little behind-the-scenes with my depotting. I couldn't really take pics during the process because it's MESSY but I was thinking that maybe I'll make a video of my own technique soon.


And here are all the palettes I received (eggplant, twilight, lemongrass, pomegranate, snow)


Snow

Pomegranate

Eggplant

Lemongrass

Twilight

As you can see, I could fit 10 NYX shadows in each palette while keeping the thumb grip in. I also just think the shadows look pretty when they are turned diagonally, isn't that silly of me? ;D I did notice while I was depotting that some of the NYX shadow pans are shallower than others but it's not really a big deal when it's in the palette.

In the video you can see that the magnetic sheet that comes with each palette is segmented into 3 long strips. They happen to be a really nice size for just cutting into squares to attach it to the NYX shadows. Just be sure to remember to write down the name of the shadow right when you depot each one so you don't forget which is which! (This happened to me when I accidentally placed a shadow in my palette without adding the magnet to the back. I had to look at my own swatch pics to figure out what it was. lol.)

Final verdict? I absolutely was impressed by the quality and design of these palettes. It feels nice and sturdy, has details like the thumb grip which actually is useful, has a built-in mirror, comes with sticky magnets, and is great for cleaning and re-organizing what's inside. I only wish that it wouldn't smudge as much (not that I would change it, but it's something to be noted) and that it were a bit less expensive since each palette comes in at $29. As I noted in the video, Z-Palettes are $20 and I'd rather pay the $9 extra for the extra quality and durability since these are much more travel-friendly and clean.

I hope this review helped any of you who are interested in purchasing the Unii Palette! My favorite is the white one and I'm really hoping they come out with more colors in the future like *pink* because, knowing the quality, I will buy another without a second thought. :)

<3

Disclaimer: These products were sent for review consideration. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. :)