Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Kit Review

Hi friends, 

Today's post is a highly requested one. If you are subscribed to my style/beauty channel, you will know that a few weeks ago I showed this kit in a haul and I had tons of people requesting a review for it. I figured I would do one here since it's easy and quick. This kit was on sale at my local Target for for $14.99 and I have to say, I am loving it! I really didn't know I would end up loving these products so much and now I want to explore more from their mineral wear line. 

The kit comes with a mineral powder foundation, a bronzer and a blush. I purchased it in the color medium.

As you can see, the powder foundation is a bit bigger than the blush and bronzer and I think that's kind of normal in most kits.

The powder foundation is much more pigmented than I though it was going to be, I personally don't use it as a foundation, I like using it to set a lighter coverage liquid foundation. My advice would be to apply the powder using a big fluffy soft brush, staying away from dense brushes because that might cause it to have a caked on finish on the face and that's never a good look! 

The bronzer is dark enough to see a bit of definition if you use it in your normal contour and if you're fair skinned, you could definitely use this as a contour color since its not shimmery but still has a tiny bit of glow to it. But since I have a bit more color to my skin, I use this bronzer to add some color and depth to my face and I can truly say it's been my go to bronzer for that purpose. 

The blush is absolutely beautiful!! It's a basic darker pink that really can flatter several different skin tones. Use it lightly if you're fair, and build it up from there if your skin tone is a bit darker. It's not a crazy color so it can pretty much go with any look, it has a beautiful finish and blends so easily that it's a dream to put on your cheeks. 

Some pictures are a bit brighter than others because the light kept changing. These pictures are not Photoshopped and no filters were added. I want to show you the real color.

Here is what these products look like on my face, I apologize it the lighting isn't the best, It was the best picture I could snap at the time.

My overall thought on this kit is that it's beautiful and I am so glad I got it! If you have a really extensive makeup collection, this isn't necessary to add to it but I really enjoy these products and plan on using them very often!

Makeup Geek Review

Hi friends,

Here is a followup blog post to my Makeup Geek Review video I posted on VitaleStyle. The items I ordered from the MUG line are some lipsticks, eye shadow pigments and quite a few of her regular eye shadows. 

The lipsticks I purchased came in a set and I must admit, the colors and formula of these are a lot better than I was expecting. The shades that came in this set are Fearless, Captivating, Famous, Luscious and Lavish (swatched down below in that order) I love pretty much every color, I will however say that I wish a light pink/nude shade came in this set as well (or replace one of the darker colors). It would have been lovely to have an everyday very wearable color to reach for when you're going for more of a natural look. I will be checking the MUG website for more lipsticks to try because I love these and would like to try a few more!

The next items I picked up were these pigments, let me just start off by saying that these colors are absolutely gorgeous!! I love every color I ordered and I will be ordering a few more to add to my collection. The packaging is nice, nothing crazy but I'm OK with that because often times, a company will charge you an arm and a leg for a mediocre product just because of the fancy packaging. The only little issue I have with these (it's not stopping me from ordering more so you know I think they are good) is that each one is so full of product (not a bad thing) that as soon as you open them, the product does kind of go everywhere and makes a bit of a mess, I would have loved for these to have some kind of stopper or something that made it a bit easier to control the product. The specific shades I got are Enchanted, Sweet Dreams, Birthday Wish and Afterglow (swatched below in that order).

And now on with the shadows. I was really shocked at the pigmentation and formula of these shadows, I am going to be very honest and tell you that from the price, I was expecting these to have the same look and feel of shadows like BH Cosmetics or Costal Scents (I don't dislike those shadows but they aren't the best quality in my opinion) these on the other hand, had the look and feel of a mac shadow and in some cases, the pay off on some of these shadows is better than mac shadows.As you can see I have quite a few of them and I reach for them constantly (especially cocoa bear and beaches and cream) they are easy to apply, hardly any fallout (no more fallout than any other shimmery eye shadow) and how beautifully they blend. These are worth every penny and I can't wait to get more! My Z palette didn't come with my eye shadows, I purchased mine from Amazon.com.

Here are a few of the shadows swatched on my hand (I did not edit any of these pictures by the way, the pictures were taken right in front of my studio light) and as you can see, the colors are gorgeous and pigmented!  

Here is the list of colors I own

Brown Sugar

Cosmopolitan

Home Coming

Pretentious

Purely Naked

Beaches And Cream

Cupcake

Taupe Notch

Frappe

Glamorous

Moondust

Latte

Bleached Blonde

Sentious

Cocoa Bear

Creme Brulee

Unexpected

Shimma Shimma

Mocha

Peach Smoothie

Prom Night

Drama Queen

Corrupt

 Overall I have to say that I am thrilled with my purchases and aside from the packaging of the pigments, I give these products a 10! Great product at a fantastic price! 

If you haven't watched my review, here is is! 

NYX Makeup Artist Kit Review!

Hi friends, 

Today I'm sharing my thoughts with you on the NYX Makeup Artist Kit. I purchased this kit from Ulta a few months ago and have recently been playing around with it. This kit is sold only online at Ulta and the cost is $29.99.

When you open it up, the first things you see are the shadows, then slide the shadows part to the right and under that, you have some blushes, bronzers, highlight and lipsticks. I have to say that I was surprised by the pigmentation, definitely better than I thought they were going to be. What I did find however is that the formula is very powdery and can be a bit messy when applying so be careful (I did my eye makeup before I applied my face makeup so I could avoid fallout all over my cheeks).

This is the look I decided to go with, very neutral bronze look with a pop of color on the lips. I used a few of the more neutral colors to create this look, I applied them over a NYX jumbo eye pencil to give them a stickier base.

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Iced Mocha

These were the shades I used to create my eye look. One of the downsides of this kit is that none of the shadows (or anything else) are named, therefore I can't tell you exactly which colors I used. As you an see, the colors are beautiful and pigmented, you just have to be careful when applying them so you don't have tons of fallout.

Here is a picture again for reference.

I used the middle bronzer (top row middle) there are actually two colors there that I mixed together and for the blush, I used the berry colored blush (second row from the top all the way to the left) and for highlight, I used the white (top row, add the way to the left).

My thoughts on the bronzer and blush are the same, beautiful colors but can be a bit hard to blend and definitely need to be careful with fallout. I suggest setting your liqud foundation with a powder to make the blending of the blush and bronzer easier otherwise it will look blotchy and not blended. As far as the highlight, it was not very good. The highlight was a matte white that came off super powdery and there was no highlighting done whatsoever! I would rather use the white as an eyeshadow, won't put it on my cheekbones again that's for sure! 

Here are the blush, bronzer and highlighter swatched (blush to the left, bronzer in the center and highlight on the right).

And I figured I would share what's on my lips since they are pretty noticeable, L'Oreal LeMatte Lipstick in 408 "She's so matte" topped with  Revlon Just Kissable Balm Stain in "Lovesick".

This is the whole look (hope the lighting is ok) so now here are my final thoughts, 

Beautiful colors with good pigmentation and I love the range of colors in this kit, you can create tons of different looks with them, from neutral looks to smokey or even a bit more daring with some of the brighter colors. However, they are quite powdery and especially the face colors, are very hard to blend. This would be a good kit for someone just starting to explore with makeup but not something I would give to someone with an extensive makeup collection. I personally wouldn't repurchase this kit but since I do have it, I will continue to play around with it some more and keep you all posted. 

I hope you found this helpful!!

Wine for Drinking & Cooking!

Hi friends, 

Today I wanted to touch on a question I am asked over and over again on a regular basis and that is, "What Kind Of Wine Do You Cook With?! The answer is very simple, any wine that you enjoy drinking!! Years ago, I was told that if a wine isn't good enough to drink, you shouldn't use it in cooking and when you think about it, that makes total sense. When you cook with wine, it intensifies the flavor and therefore the better tasting the wine, the better the outcome of your dish will be. I am no wine expert by any means but I know what I like and I am the first to admit that walking into a liquor store and browsing over to the wine section gives me a bit of anxiety, too much to choose from and I end up just grabbing what I always do for fear that if I try something new, I won't end up liking it.

I recently came across Club W which is a monthly wine subscription that tailors to you and your palate. When I found out about Club W, I did at first question how this worked, but after filling out my personal palate profile I was pretty confident that I would end up liking what was sent to me and I am happy to report, I was! I received three bottles of wine last month, two whites and one red and the cool thing about this is that after you've tried the wine that was sent to you, you can go back on their website and rate them. If you're not a fan of one (or all) the bottles you have received, they will use your ratings on that particular bottle and work on sending you something a bit more up your alley the next time. I have truly been enjoying the wine I have received. I've cooked with them as well and the flavors have been delicious!! 

I recently made a big pot of Chicken and Dumplings and used the Pinot Grigio that came in my box this past month and loved the subtle yet bright (you can tell I'm not a wine specialist by how I describe them haha) flavor it brought to my dish. Chicken and Dumplings traditionally is pretty heavy and can be a tiny bit bland if you don't add some good ingredients, and just like in my chicken noodle soup I always add a good glass of white wine to bring a little life to the dish.

Another great recipe I made recently Is my Mini Ravioli Soup and in that video I added a good glass of the Red Wine Blend that came in the same box as the Pinot Grigio, the Red Wine Blend delivered such good depth of flavor in a relatively quick cooking soup.  I never ended up cooking with the Riesling that I received this past month because we drank the whole bottle at dinner, it was out of this world!!

Using good wine makes a big difference in the final outcome and the reason why I (and some of my friends that are subscribed to to Club W) have been so pleased and impressed by it, is that I can try new bottles of wine monthly without worrying that I'm spending an arm and a leg on a bottle of wine I might not like. Plus, It's like Christmas every month when they show up in the mail!!

Since I loved it so much and thought you would too, I asked Club W for a promo code that you can use to get a discount. If you use our promo code you will receive three bottles for the price of two. Either use this link http://www.clubw.com/vitale or promo code 'vitale' (no capital letters).

The wines I used in these recipes are:

                                   
2011 Score Red Blend             2012 Sonoro Pinot Grigio

It really depends on your palate and what you like, but I really enjoyed these! My dad loved the Red Blend (as you may have seen in my vlog!).

DIY Coconut Sugar Scrub

Hi friends, 

So today I wanted to share with you the coconut sugar scrub I use on a regular basis that not only smells incredible, but makes my skin feel amazing and because I make it myself, I get to control what ingredients go into it. I have been making this scrub for about a year now and I have even made it as gifts for my girlfriends who love it as much as I do! 

Here is the cast of characters you will need,

1/2 cup of Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (I actually found this Trader Joe's brand on Amazon since I don't have a Trader Joe's anywhere near me), Zest of 1 Lemon, (this is optional but I love adding some lemon zest to it because it truly smells amazing especially when paired with the vanilla beans) Seeds from 2 Vanilla beans (scrape the seeds out) and 3/4 of a cup of Granulated Sugar. 

Start off my adding your sugar, vanilla seeds, and lemon zest in a large bowl and set aside.

Scoop some of the coconut oil in a microwave safe cup and microwave it until the oil is just about all melted.

Add the oil in the bowl with the sugar mixture.

Mix together to combine. I wanted to point out something, when you first start stirring the mixture, it will feel and look very thin and runny but resist the urge to add any more sugar, keep in mind that as the mixture cools, the coconut oil hardens leaving you with a creamy and thick mixture you see below.

Place your mixture in a tightly sealed jar and keep it somewhere cool and slightly dark (I keep mine in the corner shelf in my bathroom)

These are my favorite scrubbing tools, the brush is just a scrubbing brush I got online but I just take out the handle and use is as a hand held brush and the foot scrub is perfect for scrubbing the heels of your feet leaving them soft and tender. This will keep for months and trust me when I tell you that It's the best scrub out there! 

Hope you enjoyed this little DIY project, it's super easy and quick to do and it truly works wonders on my skin! 

Bare Minerals Kiss and Tell Lipstick Set Review

Hi friends, I've been getting tons of questions lately on my social media networks and youtube about doing more reviews on mostly beauty products but just anything I come across. I am happy so say that you can expect quick reviews on my blog from things I try or things that are recommended to me by you! I'm starting my first official review today with the Bare Minerals Kiss and Tell Lipstick Set. These are the new Marvelous Moxie Lipsticks that Bare Minerals came out not too long ago and when I saw this little set, I immediately got them because I love trying out new products and I especially love little package deals where you get smaller sizes of each item but you get multiple items in one. So let's get on with the review..

This is what the box they come in looks like, the pink packaging totally got me, the set is sold for $29.00 and I purchased mine from Ulta. So these claim to be vibrant, pigmented and ultra hydrating and I can totally agree with those claims 100%. I am loving these lipsticks and I am so glad I saw this set for sale! I have been wanting to try these for a while but didn't really want to spend $18 on one since I hadn't heard much about these and saw no reviews. I am happy to say that these babies are everything they claim to be! 

As you can see, each one is pretty small, I placed it next to a regular tweezers and it's safe to say that the lipstick is quite a bit smaller than the tweezers. 

Here are the 5 shades that come in this set, as you can see from the picture, they are very pigmented and and feel really creamy on the lips! Love the color selection although I would have preferred a red or coral color in place of the "Break away" color, it's too dark for my lips and I really don't see this as looking flattering on very many skin tones, way too brown! 

Here are the shades from left to right, Speak Your Mind, Break Away, Get Ready, Go All Out, Be Bold.

I do really love the rest of the colors, you get a good range of shades from a neutral pinky nude, to a fushia and deep plum.

I totally took this last picture backwards so please forgive me that the colors swatched above are swatched  from right to left (the picture above the swatches is correct and and lined up with their name) I have to say that I love their silver packaging, so sleek and fancy looking! 

Overall I am really happy I purchased these, I have been wanting to try them for a while now and I'm super glad I saw this set for sale, I love that i was able to get 5 different shades to play around with! These are definitely worth every penny! If you're a makeup lover and love trying out new products, these will fit perfectly in your collection! Creamy, smooth, pigmented and very comfortable on the lips!