The Makeup Monologues

Who doesn't love a good gold highlighter? Some may have tons, but I've found two that I love and have stuck to them. Those two highlighters are the Wet N Wild Fergie Collection Shimmer Palette in Hollywood Boulevard, and The Balm's Mary Lou Manizer. Though one is drugstore and one is high-end, I love them the same!  I picked up the Wet N Wild Fergie Collection Shimmer Palette in Hollywood Boulevard over in the USA, for about five US dollars (I believe the Fergie line is actually being discontinued, so get it while you can!). It's gorgeous with a buttery texture, all sheen and no glitter. It feels like a luxury powder! Don't let the pink and brown stripes fool you- this product swatches a beautiful gold. It was my first (and only) foray into true gold highlighter. I wanted to know if it would look good on me- I was afraid gold would be too dark on my fair skin tone. However, I think it looks great! I especially love to layer it with the next highlighter I'...

I went on a bit of an obsessed- er, dedicated- highlighter kick in December, snatching up any highlight I could find. My roommate and best friend, Winter, was very perceptive of this and picked me up a gorgeous highlighter for Christmas! She got me one of the OFRA Cosmetics highlighters that they did in collaboration with the girls from the dupethat instagram account! She opted to get me the pinky-silver highlight, called You Glow, Girl!  OFRA has been all the rage on instagram and youtube lately, mainly for their liquid lipsticks and collaborations with beauty mavens. I'm very excited to own something by them! The highlighter pan is about the same size as my Mary-Lou Manizer by the Balm. The packaging feels a little cheap, but the product inside is perfection. The texture is incredibly smooth and barely powdery at all. Here's a swatch from one angle, showing the pinkiness of the highlight. From here, it almost looks like I could use this as a blush topper! But ...

It's the day to talk about my favourite highlighter of the year! I waffled over this for a bit, because this really was the year I got into highlight (since it's the first year I really started applying foundation, and on me highlighter just makes my uneven skin texture stick out like a sore thumb if I'm not wearing primer and foundation. I had another one that I really loved, but I just had to go with my theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer. It's the first highlighter I ever owned and she's gorgeous. An intense golden shimmer that lights up the cheeks! This picture I took a few days ago- I actually hit pan today! This picture was supposed to demonstrate just how much of Mary I've used. Here's some swatches- the blended-out one is one the bottom. And here in the sunlight, so you can see her glow. And here's me wearing her. Ba-BAM! I think you can see why she's the highlighter I wore the most thi...

Highlighters are the talk of the makeup world in recent months, and I've got a lot on my list. I wanna up my highlight game. Here's the things I'm coveting! 1.  BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Champagne Glow Palette feat. Champagne Pop x Jaclyn Hill I want this thing more than life. I have no reason not to want it. It's perfect. I believe I detailed this in an earlier wishlist post. This palette altogether is cheaper than a single Shimmering Skin Perfector, I really want to try Blushed Copper, everyone has been hyping the hell out of Champagne Pop, and the Pearl one would actually work on my pale skin. Hell yeah. Need. 2. MAC In Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Oh, Darling! Ha, ha, you knew this was gonna be here. EVERYONE wants this. I just think it's very pretty- product-wise and packaging wise. I'd love to own it, but I'm not super crazy about finding a way to get my hands on it. I'd settle for a dupe! 3. Colourpop Super Shock Chee...

Here's a quickie post since I've been neglecting this blog as of late. Everyone loves a good highlighter, so I'm gonna swatch mine for you! Here they are, in all their gleamy glory. It's a bit much, honestly, even for me.  I divided the swatches into cool-toned and warm-toned highlighters. Here's the cool-toned ones. Top to bottom: -essence Aquatix highlighter shimmering pearls -Anna Sui Rose Cheek Colour in 100 -Stila All Over Shimmer liquid in Pink Shimmer -elf shimmering facial whip in Spotlight And the warm-toned. -theBalm Mary Lou Manizer -Buxom luminizer in Divine Goddess -elf shimmering facial whip in Lilac Petal -Illamasqua Gleam in Aurora Well, that's the post, folks! Short and sweet. Would you like to see any of these reviewed?

A little over a year ago, I ordered about a hundred dollars' worth of e.l.f. from their website. I'm still finding new/old things from that order as I dig around the nooks and crannies of my tiny bathroom. One thing I dug out recently was this Radiance Enhancer in the shade Spotlight. It's a highlighter pen that dispenses from one of those infernal click-brushes. Oh, how I hate click-brushes. They get gunky and never dispense the right amount. Anyway, you crank the bottom and then pink shimmery goo oozes out of the middle of the brush. See? Light pink, shimmery liquid. It's kind of thick, I guess, thicker than your average liquid highlighter. It has actual visible chunks of shimmer in it, though they are dispensed evenly. It's worth noting that I also own the shade called "Spotlight" in their shimmering facial whip, and that they're not the same. The facial whip Spotlight is a frosty white pearl colour. Here's the Ra...

TheBalm's Mary Lou Manizer is my HG highlighter, but that doesn't mean I didn't experiment back in the day. My previous favourite highlighter was Flower Cosmetics Glisten Up! Highlighter Chubby in Pearl Shimmer. Isn't it stunning? This is the first product I ever tried from Flower. I was intrigued by the concept of a highlighter at the drugstore, especially a cream one! I've heavily swatched it on my wrist here. It's a champagne shimmer that looks warm toned, but is surprisingly cool-neutral.  On the face, it's very sheer. You can't really see where you've applied it until your face hits the light the right way, then, whoa, shimma. You have to make sure to blend this sucker out even if it looks natural enough to you.  With a bit of trial and error, it adds a nice flattering glow to the face without sinking into pores or clinging to hairs. I feel like this is a good highlighter for people who have heard about the craze and want to try it out...

I've always shied away from bronzer because of how pale I am. When I saw this essence all-in-one "bronzing highlighter" targeted supposedly for "blondes with lighter skin", I figured I'd give it a lark. This bronzer has a highlighter shade, two blush and three bronzing shades. It's a cute design, but not particularly effective for trying to apply one at a time. Another thing to note: it smells like sweet coconut milk! I'm a total sucker for scented powders, if my affinity for Anna Sui is any hint. The highlighter and blush shades (I layered the blushes on top of each other into one swatch) are very chunky and flaky, hard to pick up with my finger. The bronzing shades are a little smoother. Here they are all smooshed together into one swatch. And here's what the powder looked like once I smooshed my finger across every shade... I'll admit, I was kinda scared to put this on my face, because it's very warm-toned. I a...

Time to review my only holy-grail makeup product- the one category that I'm not constantly searching for a replacement or the next for, because what I have is perfect for me. That product is highlighter, specifically theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer. Fun fact: I use this as my on-the-go compact mirror of choice, and every time I whip this out, I get at least three different people asking, "is that Taylor Swift?" Mary-Lou is a heavenly fine-milled powder, with a pan even bigger than your average pressed setting powder. This babe and I are gonna spend many lovely years together. The powder itself is a champagne shimmer with a breathtaking golden sheen. When applied with a fluffy brush to my cheekbones, it lights up my face with a soft glow. I always get compliments that my skin looks great ever since I've started using this product- and I have terrible skin. It looks good applied to the collarbone, but can accentuate flyaways and is a bit too dark for m...

Oh man, you guys. I'm so pumped. I've been lusting over this one piece of makeup for literally years and I FINALLY GOT IT. That makeup is the Anna Sui Rose Cheek Colour in 100. I saw it in a review when I was in the tenth grade and knew I had to have it. And now I do! Have some picture-spam of this gorgeous thing. Seriously, Anna Sui is my favourite brand ever almost solely based on their packaging. It fits my aesthetic to a T. It's a gorgeous rose-shaped powder with different shades of lavender and powder blue meant to be swirled together. And- it smells like roses. Your face smells like roses when you put this on. You feel like a fairy princess. When I stick my finger in the pan, magic happens. It took me so long to get my camera to focus for that picture but it's so worth it. The pigmentation isn't all that strong and the texture is powdery. This is more of a setting powder for your cheeks than a blush. If you're looking for the absolute sub...