May Hits and Misses 2012

Hello there my lovely Troopers!
It's officially the last day of May! I am grateful too, since I want school to be over already. But last day means that it is time for this month's favorites and hates. I didn't notice this until I wrote the post, but I have a lot of MAC favorites this month O_o" So weird.

HITS

TOOLS

These are the brushes I've been loving this month~

MAC 109: I've had this for ages and it has served many purposes: foundation, blush, highlight, powder.  But now, I mainly use it for contouring. It works really awesomely for that.
Tokidoki Blending Brush: This brush is terrible for precise blending of the crease. But, it is amazing for when you really want to blend something out. I love using it for when I do a neutral eyeshadow all over the lid and I want to blend it out really well.
MAC217: This is my favorite brush from MAC. I used to use it for my crease, but I started to use it for concealer recently. It works amazing! I can't believe I had never used it for concealer before!

 FACE

MAC 'Eversun' Blush: This is an oldie. This was one of my first blushes from MAC and although its not a color I love, it just works really well for me. Apparently I like it more than I think because I use it ALL the time. Its a satin beauty powder blush in a soft terracotta color that works well as a contour or bronzer for me. I go rather light with this shade though. I don't want to look like an Oompa Looma xD
MAC Studio Finish Concealer: I don't love this,  but it works alright. It's very long lasting. I really just want to use it up so I can find a better concealer. Any suggestions?  I need something for acne scarring. This just doesn't really do the job.

EYES

Urban Decay 24/7 Liner 'Perversion': You probably have seen this in most of my looks recently. I really love this liner. It is so dark and smooth. It's long lasting and it doesn't smudge much on my eyes. I don't love the price, but it is well worth it. No other pencil works as well as this one for me.
MAC E/S 'Woodwinked' and 'Nylon': This month, I have gone back to using some of my neglected MAC shadows. I particularly am loving Nylon as a inner corner highlight and Woodwinked all over the lid with some heavy black liner and mascara. I will probably do a quick tutorial for that soon :)

LIPS

Jack Black Lip Balm 'Natural Mint': I love JB lip balm! It is my HG lip balm, especially right now that my lips have been insanely dry and peeling. I in particular love the mint flavor one. It leaves my lips feeling really refreshed and tingly! I always carry this in my purse.
MAC Viva Glam Cyndi Lipstick: This lipstick is seriously phenomenal. It is a gorgeous sheer cherry red with some coral undertones. I am so sad that this is no longer available :( MAC should bring it back!My tube is almost gone T_T

SWATCHES

MISSES

Here are two products I just...well...I just don't like them. 

 John Frieda 3-Day Straight Styling Spray
This is one of those spray you put in your hair before drying and straitening in order to keep your hair straight for up to 3 days. I have no idea if it actually works because it makes my hair feel so gross. Bleh! I can't even stand to have it in my hair for one day, imagine 3! Yep, not happening. I'll try it again, and we shall see what happens.For for now, I hate it.

Rite Aid Renewal Makeup Removing Wipes

So these are "gentle"? Yeah, I don't think so. These stung my eyes so badly, and I didn't even place the wipe super close to my eyes. How does that happen???? They are okay at removing makeup but not worth it if they sting my eyes so much. For now I am just using them to remove the makeup on my hands when I swatch makeup for my blog. Better than throwing them away at least xD

What are your Hits and Misses? Have you tried any of the products on this post?

Thank you for reading =3 See you next time!

Review: Tokidoki Blush Brush

Good Morning..err..or whatever time of the day it is when I post this. ;)
This is part two review of Tokidoki brushes. This particular brush came out not too long ago, maybe like a month ago or so? Anyways, Tokidoki has released a number of new products recently and I bought a couple of them, one of them being this brush. I bought it when it barely came out, and it was not available in stores yet so I had to buy it online. This means that I had no idea how the brush felt or really what the quality of the brush was. I just went for it and bought it. The brush is $25 and you can purchase it at any Sephora store that sells Tokidoki or at
http://sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P279612&shouldPaginate=true&categoryId=5971

This is an angled brush that can be used for blush, bronzer, contouring, powder, or whatever you want to use it for. Personally, I only use it for blush, I think it is too big for contouring and I have a different brush for powder.

My overall thoughts on this brush:

PROS:
~Can you say "freaking cute?!" (But I guess this is merely my own opinion...)
~Like the other Tokidoki brushes, very good quality
~Fairly affordable at $25 (Similar to MAC's 168 which is $32)
~The tips of the bristles are pink, so if you use it for blush you wont really be able to tell that you used it
~Reeeeally soft, not scratchy at all!
~Easy to build the amount of brush you apply
~You can use the brush itself to blend out the blush you applied
~Dense bristles
~The brush has weight to it, which I prefer over a lighter brush since it works better for really working in a product onto your cheeks. 

CONS:
~If you are applying a really light colored blush, you might have to pick up a lot of product since the brush has a tendency to pick up less product that other blush brushes would. You might also have to apply it more than once to get a better color payoff.
~Would not recommend for creme or gel products (So creme blushes are a no go)
~The bristles are to bulky to be used for contouring (But perfect size for blush or bronzer, maybe even powder if you want)

It comes in a plastic box with really cute pictures.

 The top of the brush with the head of the character.

 The tips of the bristles are dyed pink.

Pretty dense bristles, perfect for blush application.

Hope this review helped any of you who perhaps want to purchase this brush. As with their eye brushes, I really recommend them.




~Yami <3

Review: Tokidoki Eye Brushes

Hello Everyone, today I am going to be reviewing some amazing, and of course uber cute, brushes!
I am a huge fan of many Japanese products, and Tokidoki is of course a line that is inspired by Japan. "Tokidoki" (時々) means "sometimes" in Japanese, its weird  for a brand name but its fun to say! Ever since my first Tokidoki purchase, which was actually two of their colored mascaras, I have been so in love with this brand. When I purchased the mascaras from their cosmetic line at Sephora, I honestly thought they were going to be cheap mascaras. I bought them because I thought they were really cute, but had low expectations of the product. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the product, though.They are really pigmented and high quality mascaras. So although the packaging is cute and a little reminiscent of young girl's makeup, the product itself is department store quality.

When Tokidoki released an eye brush set, I was floored. The brushes were so freaking, unbelievably cute. At the time, I already owned some MAC eye brushes, but I gave in and purchased the Tokidoki set while visiting the Sephora at Market Street in San Francisco. At $35 for the three most basic eye brushes, its actually a really good deal. The look of the brushes is just an added bonus ^_^
The set includes:
~Mozzarella eyeshadow brush  (medium sized shader brush), Blue
~Adios Amigos crease brush (blending brush), Green
~Donutella Angled eyeliner brush, Pink

 

They come in a plastic three sided, pyramid shaped box, which you could use to store the brushes in, if you wanted to.

 

I just kept the box because its really adorable, and you could put other things inside.

 

After using these brushes for about half a year, I must say I really like them. They are good quality, super soft, and, I must emphasize this, extremely adorable!

Here are my thoughts on these:

PROS:
~Fairly affordable (Its roughly $11.66 for each brush compared to MAC's $30 for one brush)
~Really soft bristles
~Each brush has a distinct design and character and different color dye on the tips of the brushes
~Easy to clean
~White bristles ( I prefer white over black since you can see how much product you are using)



CONS:
~My MAC 217 and 239 work slightly better, in my opinion.
~Depending on your preference, these might be hard to use, since they are bigger that most eye brushes
~Can be hard to store (The tops have the face of the character)
~Bristles might get stained since they are white.

 Here are the brushes. Sorry that they are dirty, I used them this morning and didn't have time to clean them. You won't be able to see that the tips are supposed to be colored the same color as the metal part before the bristles.

Here you can  see all the pictures on the handle of the brushes.

Here is a close up on the tops of the brushes. As you can see, they have the face of one of the Tokidoki characters and the handles also have tons of cute drawings related to the character on the top of the brush.

 Here are bristles of the brush.

 Mozzarella.

 Its a cute character in a cow costume who usually is holding a gun, I think its a Tommy guns usually conected with the Italian mobsters. It makes sense since its name is Mozzarella (Reference to Italy as well as a dairy product :D LOL)

 Adios. A skull, grim reaper looking character. His name is Spanish for "Good bye."

 Donutella. One of my favorite Tokidoki characters. She has donuts for ears.

 The donuts even have sprinkles on them.

 Im not sure if you can tell, but the blending brush (the middle one) is longer than most blending brushes I have seen. It makes it useful for light blending, or for applying a light wash of color all over the lid or on the crease. I have also used this to blend out concealers. It worked alright for that.

The liner brush is thin, so it works really good for applying eyeshadow on the upper or lower lash line. Its thin enough that you can get a precise line, and you can control how thick or thin you make the line.


Overall, I think these brushes are great. They will be good for people who are beginners in makeup, someone who doesn't own many brushes, someone who does not want to spend too much money on brushes, or of course huge Tokidoki fans. I still think MAC brushes are better, but since MAC brushes can be really pricey, these are a more cost affective and cuter alternative.

You can see the difference in size of the eye brushes compared to the Blush Brush.


~Yami<3