e.l.f. Studio 11 Piece Brush Collections

• Sleek, Water-Resistant Case
• Eyeshadow "C" Brush
• Complexion Brush
• Small Angled Brush
• Small Smudge Brush
• Fan Brush
• Powder Brush
• Angled Foundation Brush
• Concealer Brush
• Small Precision Brush
• Blush Brush
• Contouring Brush

$30.00 + shipping

http://www.eyeslipsface.com/studio/tools/brush-sets/11_piece_brush_collection

To see my complete review of e.l.f.'s Studio line brushes, please visit my Brush Review entry.

I just placed an order with e.l.f. last week and came home to a wonderful wonderful package sitting on my front porch, which I could only assume had to be my order. I wasted no time in opening everything and was thrilled to begin examining the newest additions to my ever-growing make up bag. Among my new goodies was this brush kit.

I know not a whole lot of people use brushes for every day make up application, but I've started to notice that the number of those who do is really starting to boom. If you are ready to make the plunge into makeup application brushes, I suggest checking out this collection.

The Studio 11 Piece Brush Collection comes with 11 brushes plus a water resistant case. You can easily fit more than 11 brushes in the case, which is very convenient. You get one of every type of brush you truly could ever need for day-to-day make up application. My favorite of these is the “C” Brush. I have 3 of these brushes now and use them for literally everything. The bristles of these brushes are shockingly soft – they are so gentle on your face. Although the bristles are luxuriously silky, they aren’t those annoying floppy, shapeless kind that are difficult to use. E.l.f. also makes an antibacterial brush cleaner soap for lengthening the life of these already great quality brushes.

There is currently a promotion going on at e.l.f. to where you can get this already great value collection for the alarmingly low price of $5.00 with any $25.00 purchase by using the code 11FOR5. This offer is only good up to 9/26, so get to ordering and enjoy! Let me know what you think!

St. Ives Mineral Therapy Moisturizing Body Wash

13.5 oz. - $2.99 at Walgreens

• For radiant, replenished skin
• Skin feels soft, smooth, revitalized
• Dermatologist tested
• Delivers maximum moisture
• Made with natural ingredients
• Formulated without parabens and phthalates
• Not tested on animals and does not contain animal ingredients

How the heck are you supposed to choose a body wash? I mean really. There are bars of soap, there are liquid soaps, there are scrubs and there are foams. For me, it's usually whatever is on sale or cheap and also doesn't look sketchy. How did I stumble upon this product, you may ask? On sale for $1.99.
Although it is normally cheap, this product really delivers. I love St. Ive's products to begin with - I use their facial moisturizer and have used their body lotions and absolutely cannot complain.
This product is a great addition to that list. The body wash comes out thick and creamy, and lathers almost effortlessly when used with a pouf. You really don't need to use more than a nickel-sized amount to get a great, luxuriously thick lather, unlike a lot of body washes out there. I am a bit of a lather freak...I love bubbles, what can I say? The smell is hard to describe...it kind of reminds me of an Biolage shampoo mixed with some relaxing aromatherapy scents from Bath and Body Works. In case you got lost along that scent trail, it smells deliciously feminine and is quite a pleasant aroma to help you awaken and prepare yourself to take on the day.
Typically, I need to put on body lotion the minute I get out of the shower or else my skin feels tight and dried out, but with St. Ive's Moisturizing Body Wash, I can do a whole face of makeup before starting to feel a bit itchy. The rich lather seems to engulf your skin in a sea of moisture and actually help lock the nutrients and moisture deep into your skin.
If you are looking for a new body wash, give this guy a try. It is dermatologist tested and it did not irritate my relatively sensitive skin. You won't be disappointed!



Nexxus Pro Mend Split End Binding Targeted Leave-In Treatment

Transform split ends to healthy hair

Daily repair for split end problems

Binds split ends back together

Transform split ends into healthy looking hair. This product line focuses on true split end repair, binds split ends back together in one use. This creme provides daily repair for split end problem areas, use after every shower to bind 92% of split ends back together before styling.

$9.99 @ Walgreens

I am not easy on my hair and that is putting it nicely. I blow dry and straighten every day. I tease at least three (if not more) times a week. I use way too much hair spray. But I still do it all in the name of my secret lover, Fashion.
Unfortunately, part of having "in style" hair, means taking the beating for it. Well, your hair taking the beating, that is. Split ends are close to unavoidable nowadays with all of the tempting different options of damaging your hair. Heat tools, such as blow dryers, straighteners and curling irons. Colors - box and salon. Bleach - box and salon. Add teasing and overuse of products to this luring list and be assured in your result of dry, frizzy, crunchy, damaged hair.
So how do you fix it? How do you reverse the damage? Unfortunately, as I found out the hard way, you quickly reach the point of no return where, despite how wonderful of products you may use and how great you begin taking care of your hair, the damage has already been done. There is only one thing left to do: the dreaded chop. :(
My hair was down to about three or four inches past my armpit when I finally gave up all hope of repairing my disgustingly damaged locks. My hair not only looked and felt fried, but it looked unhealthily thinned and dull. I had reached my last option and decided to cut off a good 3 inches.
The chop was my turning point. Since then, I have been using deep conditioners every, yes I repeat every day. On top of that, I have been using a leave-in conditioner spray as well as Nexxus Split End Binding Treatment. I can not begin to express how fabulous this product is. If ever a cure to damaged hair existed, this product would be it, no doubt in my mind.
The use is simple: you apply it to your ends after you get out of the shower and style as normal. Do this daily for best results (of course this is the case with just about anything). The treatment itself comes in a fairly small container which is operated by a pump. The pump conveniently turns to lock for traveling purposes (so that you aren't losing all of the product without knowing). The serum itself is a white and feels kind of like lotion or conditioner. The smell is wonderful. My only complaint is that it does make your hands a bit sticky. The amount of product you get for your money does seem a bit minimal, but let me assure that it is far worth it. This stuff may as well be called a miracle in a conveniently pumpable bottle. It is really that great, guys.
I cut my hair about two and a half months ago and have used this product every morning since. I have very few to no split ends and my hair still looks freshly cut. It is unbelievably shiny and soft and it feels extremely healthy and strong (something my hair has never been due to my love of heat styling tools and dying). I have no need to hesitate in saying that this is a 5 star product. A bit pricey, but very very worth it. Walgreens occasionally has sales where you can buy one Nexxus product and get the second ½ off - this is when I stock up! I literally buy the shelves clean :) I highly recommend this for anyone who feels they have damaged hair. Let me warn you though that this will not mend already hopelessly damaged hair! It is more of a preventative step in avoiding split ends and damage...the little guy can only do so much for your crunchy ends - it’s up to you to commit to all-around healthier treatment of your hair to prevent damage from occurring. Let me know what you think of this product if you have already tried it, or if you are a newbie, tell me if you think it lives up to my rave about it :) Thanks for reading!

e.l.f. Essential Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

$1.00 + shipping if ordering online.
http://www.eyeslipsface.com/elf/eyes/eyeliner/waterproof_eyeliner_pen

So I'm going to keep this very short and simple, but let me first begin by saying I am the biggest eyeliner junkie you will ever meet; I have tried them all. No, but really.
e.l.f. Essential Waterproof Eyeliner Pen claims to provide you with a no smudge with no-budge eyeliner, which creates a fabulous and fresh look of precision that lasts for hours. The smooth pen applicator easily glides on color for very fine to bold lines for effortless beauty.
It really did nothing for me. I picked one up at Target and was pumped to try it (as I always am to try new products, especially when they could potentially save me a significant amount of money in the future), but was thoroughly disappointed. I first tested the product on the back of one of my hands (as I usually do with just about any new product I am trying) and was initially quite impressed. The liner glided on, as stated in the description, easily and had a great, bold pigmentation. I tried smudge the liner with my finger and it (surprisingly) didn't budge. I then proceeded to use some hand sanitizer in attempts to move it and even then the liner was still somewhat visible. This looked promising.
Unfortunately the great results were only the case on my bare, makeup less hand. When I try to apply this liner on top of any sort of make up (concealer, foundation, mineral foundation, powdered or cream eyeshadow) it simply does not show up, which I found kind of frustrating. Replacing the lid doesn’t help to re-wet the applicator tip with more product, and shaking it certainly didn’t get the liner flowing either. Maybe if you are planning on having a naked eye with just liquid liner this would be a great product, but in correlation with any other types of makeup, this liner is close to useless.
Good thing it was only a dollar :)

Check out my other e.l.f. products reviews:
e.l.f. Studio Line Brushes, e.l.f. Studio High Definition Powder

e.l.f. Cosmetics

I know I gave a short intro to this company in my e.l.f. Studio Line Brushes review, but I felt I needed to expand upon it just a tad more.
So hopefully you have all heard at least something about this fabulous company, and if not, let me introduce you to your next obsession: e.l.f. Cosmetics. "e.l.f." stands for eyes, lips, and face, and as I'm sure you have been able to guess by now, their main claim to fame is their almost scandalously affordable cosmetics line.
Affordable? you may ask. Well what exactly is affordable these days? But yes, trust me in the fact that e.l.f. may be starting an affordable beauty revolution. I remember the first time I heard about e.l.f.; I could hardly believe it - in fact, I didn’t. Everything a dollar? For makeup!? Either someone somewhere had misunderstood and passed along some rather exaggerated facts, or there had to be something sketchy going on here. There is no way you can buy decent beauty products for that cheap. No. Way.
After doing some research, I discovered that what I heard was actually the truth. e.l.f. Cosmetics has a complete line of beauty products all for ONE DOLLAR. Yes, I did type that correctly: one, uno, un, a single, ONLY ONE! Ludicrous? Maybe. Am I loving it? Definitely. e.l.f.’s Essentials line, which has products ranging from brushes to eye shadows to mascaras and eyeliners, provides you with beauty products all for the price of $1.00. e.l.f. has other lines (sort of like subdivisions of their general cosmetics production) such as Studio, which are a tad more pricey ($3.00 products), but there are also pallets and kits that range from $5.00 to $150.00 (the more expensive set comes with 150 pieces, mind you).
So what about quality? In my experience with e.l.f., I’ve found that products can be sort of a hit or miss. You either love them or hate them. They are either beyond fantastic or a prime example of you get what you pay for. My recommendation: check out the site before ordering; Most customers leave reviews, or there are at least enough reviews on each product to where you can determine whether it is worth the hassle or not. If you can’t conclude whether or not the product is what you are looking for, I always go with try it out (especially if it is one of those $1 products). You never truly know until you try it for yourself. It does seem to be a bit of a hassle at times to go through the shipping process (considering you can usually only order e.l.f. products from their website), but they are usually very good about offering free shipping on orders of $20 or more, and almost always have an additional promotion going on (although you can no longer combine coupons... :-/). I have noticed that the Target store in my city has started to carry a few things from e.l.f. (hurray!), which makes the testing process a lot easier - you aren’t having to pay shipping or wait a week until you get your products and have, in the mean time, already forgotten what you’ve ordered. Most of the products I saw at Target from e.l.f. were from the Essentials line, although I did see that they had a few Studio brushes, as well as products. Gordmans also sells some e.l.f. products, although it is very minimal and they are usually palates or kits. The thing about Gordmans is that their beauty products stock is never consistent...they may have e.l.f. products all of January and then not have them for the next two or three months. It’s sheer luck as to whether you catch them with the products or not.
So I think that is enough talk for now. All in all I'd highly recommend giving e.l.f. a chance. Their products are made with quality ingredients, so don't let the worry of putting some mystery matter on your face keep you from investigating. If you have any other questions regarding e.l.f. Cosmetics, please comment. I will post the link to their website below - check it out and let me know what you think!
http://www.eyeslipsface.com/

Check out my e.l.f. product reviews:
e.l.f. Studio Line Brushes, e.l.f. Essential Waterproof Eyeliner Pen, e.l.f. Studio High Definition Powder

Garnier Fructis Fortifying Shampoo Moisture Works

Walgreens: $5.49

• Moisturizes and adds shine
• With reinforced active fruit concentrate
  • Vitamin B + B6
  • Fructose + glucose
• Acts deep within and on the surface of your hair
• Strengthens and smoothes each strand

As I've mentioned before, I'm forever looking for new hair care products to help prevent (or even rejuvinate) damaged hair, in specific: split ends. I saw the commercial on TV for Garnier Fortifying Shampoo and decided to give it a try, along with it's conditioner counter part. I really did like the smell of it, but unfortunately I think that may have been the only thing I liked.
Rather than "fortifying" my hair and helping to strengthen it, I found that it made my hair feel very stiff and crunchy. It also didn't help with my split ends whatsoever. If you are looking for a product to help with damaged hair, I would suggest looking else where. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and I definitely will not be purchasing it again.

Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express Mascara in Waterproof

Walgreens: $7.49 for .30 oz.

I'm not sure if this picture of the wand truly does it justice, but let me introduce you to my best friend of the drugstore make up world: Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express (in waterproof, of course).
The mascara itself is a little heavier than the one described in the Urban Decay Big Fatty Mascara review (not really very noticeable, though), but if that mascara had a little sister, this would be it.
I found that this mascara really darkened and lengthened my lashes. Used in combination with a lash curler, a few coats of this stuff will very much play up your eyes.
The only negative about this product is that I've found that almost too much product comes out on the wand. I usually find myself having to either wipe some off in a tissue, or scrape it off of the wand back in to the tube. Other than that, though, it is a great product for the price. By far one of my top drugstore mascara choices (and let me tell you, I am picky when it comes to my mascara!) Give it a try!