Bare Minerals - Bring on the Night Kit - Holiday 2013 - Photos and Swatches

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Back to my continuation of the Bare Minerals Holiday Kits that I picked up. Another is the Bring on the Night Kit that is selling at Ulta.

The kit comes in a hexagonal shaped box and features the following 8 items:

• Ready 2.0 duo in The Late Show - Includes Guest Star (Bronze) and Uncensored (A really interesting purple/blue/grey shade.
• Full Size Queen Phyllis Matte Eyeshadow - An ivory sheen
• Full Size Ready Luminizer in The Daydream
• Full Size Bare Minerals Loose Blush in Beauty
• Full Size Original Mineral Veil
• Full Size Moxie Gloss in Glamourista (A pink berry with golden sheen)
• Full Size Lash Domination Mascara in Black
• Mini Full Flawless Application Brush

First up, the eyeshadows of course:

Ready 2.0 in The Late Show

Queen Phyllis Matte

Swatches:

Left to Right - Queen Phyllis Matte, Guest Star and Uncensored

Uncensored is such an interesting shade. In the pan it looks like a Denim Grey shade, but when you swatch it, you find out that it's actually a purple. Below is a pic at another angle so you can see.

Uncensored - It really swatches more as a purple

Now on to the face products:

 

Ready Luminizer in The Daydream

     

Loose Blush in Beauty and Original Mineral Veil

Moxie Gloss in Glamourista 

Swatches:

From Left to Right - Beauty Blush, The Daydream Luminizer, Glamourista Moxie Gloss

The kit also comes with the Lash Domination Mascara and a smaller compact size of the Full Flawless Application Brush.This is a nice dense brush and I like the smaller compact size for travel.

 

The suggested look for the kit:

So all in all, another winner of a kit from Bare Minerals. I feel you get a nice variety of products in this kit. The Ready 2.0 duo is just stunning. I thought it was going to be much darker than it actually is. I'm very happy with that way that it swatches and that Uncensored shade is just gorgeous. The Luminizer and Moxie Gloss are also really pretty. 

Let me know your thoughts on this kit - have you or will you be picking this one up? 

Bare Minerals Glamour Now QVC TSV - November 2013 - Pictures and Swatches

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

I was able to pick up the upcoming Bare Minerals Glamour Now TSV that is going to be on QVC this upcoming Monday, November 25th early.

This kit comes in a pretty metallic box and features the following items:

• Bare Minerals Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow Palette in The Main Event - Contains Ready Eyeshadows in Celebrate, Ball Gown, Cheers, and Stiletto
• Bare Minerals Ready Luminizer in The Magic Moment
• Bare Minerals Brightening Pearl Perfect Light Mineral Veil
• Bare Minerals Loose Mineral Blush in Glamour
• Lash Domination Volumizing Mascara in Intense Black
• Bare Minerals Smoke and Define Liner Duo in Smoke (Deep Brown) and Define (Black)
• Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lip Gloss in Dazzler
• Two Brushes - Contour Blush and Tapered Shadow

First Up - The Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow Palette

 

This is a great neutral quad. It features Celebrate which is a satin ivory shade, Ball Gown which is a metallic champagne, Cheers which is a metallic silverish grey, and Stiletto which is a medium chocolate shade with purple shimmer. All shades have great pigmentation and Stiletto is really the standout in the quad. The purple shimmers are really stunning. 

 

Swatches from left to right - Celebrate, Ball Gown, Stiletto, and Cheers

Next up, on to the face:

 

The Ready Luminizer is another stunning item. It gives a peachy rose gold sheen and would be great for a highlight on top of the cheeks. This is a smaller size than the past luminizers that Bare Minerals Ready has come out with. I still think you are getting a good amount of product given that it's to be used as a highlighter. Everything else in the kit is full size. 

 

Glamour blush is a warm medium pink shade with a goldish pink shimmer. I think it would work great for light - medium skin tones. The Brightening Pearl Perfect Light Mineral Veil is a new formula. It basically marries the Brightening Pearl Mineral Veil with the Perfect Light Mineral Veil that was in last years TSV. It's a finishing poweder and has a whisper soft formula that gives the slightest sheen to the face. Definitely subtle. 

Swatches from top to bottom - Magic Moment Luminizer, Glamour Blush, Brightening Pearl Perfect Light Mineral Veil

Moving on to finishing touches:

There is a new eyeliner in this kit called the Smoke & Define liner. It's a dual ended liner. One side is an automatic pencil type liner in deep brown and the other side is an ultra fine felt tip liner in black. I wish the deep brown side was a little creamier on application. This reminded me more of the formula of the Big & Bright Eyeliners that Bare Minerals used to do. I found it dragged a little on swatching. The black define end is much smoother due to the felt tip application.

 

The kit includes the Lash Domination Volumizing Mascara in a Black Tube. I have not used this mascara yet. I'm not one to typically like mascaras that have the rubber bristles but this one has an interesting curved shape to the distribution of the bristles so we will see. 

A new shade of the Marvelous Moxie Gloss in Stunner comes in the kit. This is a sheer peach with pink shimmers. It's not going to give great pigmentation, but would look nice topped over a lipstick. 

Swatches top to bottom - Stunner Moxie Lip Gloss, Smoke Side of Liner Duo in Deep Brown, Define Side of Liner Duo in Black

The two brushes that come in the kit are very soft. The contour blush is a nice brush for applying color to the apples of the cheek. It has a somewhat oval shape which could make it useful for applying contour as well. The tapered shadow is great for packing on color on the lid. It has a nice flat shape to it and is smaller than the full tapered shadow which makes it easier to focus the color just where you want it. 

Below is the suggested look that comes with this kit:

All in all, I think this is a great kit. Probably one of my favorites that Bare Minerals is offering this holiday season. My favorite items from the kit are easily the two Ready products. The eyeshadow quad is just gorgeous as usual and the luminizer is a beautiful shade. 

Again, this kit will be on QVC as the TSV on Monday, November 25th. Be sure to check out the auto-delivery option to get the three additional kits with new shades in 2014. Let me know your thoughts on this TSV below. Will you be or have you already picked it up? 

Bare Minerals - Ready 4.0 in The Bronze Age - Photos and Swatches

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

I recently picked up a new(ish?) quad from the Bare Minerals Ready line called The Bronze Age.

This quad is just gorgeous and it's currently exclusive to QVC. I picked it up when I ordered their upcoming TSV (which I will be posting about tomorrow - stay tuned). This palette has four shades: Empress, Bragging Rights, Ritzy, and Dynasty.

Below are swatches of the shadows (Left to Right - Empress, Bragging Rights, Ritzy and Dynasty).

Empress is a nice matte yellow shade

Bragging Rights is a gorgeous peachy gold metallic shade

Ritzy is a nice bronzy gold metallic shade

Dynasty is a deep brown with a silverish slightly green sheen

All of the shades have excellent pigmentation as is usual for the Ready Palettes. I don't have one bad thing to say about these. No fallout issues that I can see. I think the name of the palette is fitting for the colors as this will give you a warm bronze look. I'm really happy I got this one. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I will post pics and swatches of the upcoming Bare Minerals TSV called Glamour Now. It's equally gorgeous and might be one of my favorite Bare Minerals TSV's ever. 

Bare Minerals - City Lights Kit - Holiday 2013 - Pictures and Swatches

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

So, this will be the first of several posts on the holiday kits that I've bought from Bare Minerals. I've found myself on a Bare Minerals kick lately that came virtually out of nowhere. I used to be a huge devotee of the brand, but there hasn't been much newness since last holiday season that has interested me outside of the power neutrals palette. There are a slew of new kits out now for the holidays though. I've already picked up a couple and have my eye on another two or three to come possibly.

Today, I wanted to highlight the City Lights kit.

This is a really nice kit. You get a full size Ready Blush in The Grand Entrance, a full size of the new Lash Domination mascara in intense black, a new moxie in City Slicker, a full size jar of clear radiance, three loose eyeshadows (Pebble, Uptown(New), and Lightscape(New)), a mini jar of liner shadow in After Hours, and a double ended lid/line/crease brush.

The kit comes in a nice reusable box hot pink box with a silver lid. I like to reuse the boxes in my storage unit drawers to organize other products.

This kit gives a really soft neutral/natural look and while I really didn't need another jar of clear radiance, I don't mind having another jar of pebble since it's one of those really versatile crease transition colors. Those were the only two repeats for me in the kit.

Now on to some swatches:

Grand Entrance on left (soft muted rose) and Clear Radiance on right (light shimmery pink)

Left to Right: Pebble (soft brown), Uptown (Shimmery Golden Brown), Lightscape (Ivory with Gold Sheen), and After Hours (Graphite Grey)

Moxie Gloss in City Slicker (Golden Raspberry - true to the description)

My favorites from the kit are City Slicker Gloss, Lightscape eyecolor (makes a great inner corner highlight or you could add it as a wash on top of another color to add some golden sheen), and the Ready Blush (while it looks light, it does give a nice natural flush to the face).

This is the suggested look that comes with the kit:

Are you into Bare Minerals? Have you bought any of the new holiday kits they've come out with? Let me know your thoughts on them in the comments below.

Weight Loss Journey - 10 lbs gone!

** All views expressed are based on my own experience. I'm not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned.**

Just wanted to post a quick weight loss update. I weighed in tonight at Weight Watchers and to my surprise I was down 2.6 lbs and hit my 10 lb total loss milestone. I also hit my 5% weight loss milestone as well. Very exciting!

Even more exciting because I had a really bad week. I went way over on my weekly points during the week last week (leftover Halloween candy attack) and just was nowhere near as active as I was the previous week. Now, the previous week I actually showed a gain at the scale. I did everything right, so I was a bit bummed about that. I think things just spiraled out of control a little after that happened. However, I was actually really good this past weekend and basically stuck to my daily points and actually showed a loss tonight.

So that just goes to show, when you are in doubt about whether to weigh in or not, you should. You could be pleasantly surprised and even if you do have a gain, at least if you get back on track, you can actually see the loss the following week.

My goals for this week are to get back on track with Activity. I use the Weight Watchers Active Link and I really like it. It's an activity monitor, kind of similar to the idea behind the FitBit, but it works with the Weight Watchers program to compute your Activity Points. It really takes the guesswork out of things and I like that it looks at how active you are over the course of the whole day rather than just computing points when working out. This way, if you have a really lazy day where the only activity you really got was your workout, you might not get activity points. Then on days where you are at work and running around like crazy but don't workout, you could actually earn activity points. I think it's a more honest way of tracking activity points and I'm glad I'm making the investment so far. At the least, it provides awareness of how active or inactive I am being.

Back to the goals - my goals for this week are to hit 100% of my Active Link challenge for 5 days this week. Doesn't have to be consecutive. I think I'm also going to try to get up and workout in the morning on two weekdays this week. The time change has been a struggle for me since it's been getting dark so early. Wondering if I can make it out of bed slightly earlier and just get the workout done in the morning. I'll report back on my progress next week.

Too Faced Be Merry and Bright Set - Photos and Swatches

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

So, I've been trying to be better about working within a budget lately, and I wanted to share with you some of the palettes and kits that I've picked up from the holiday collections that are out. The first kit that I picked up is the Too Faced Be Merry and Bright Set from Ulta. This is an Ulta exclusive set and it retails for $45.00.

The kit comes with 2 palettes divided into warmer (Merry) and a cooler (Bright) colors. The palettes are very slim and sleek which make them great for any travel that you might be doing. The kit also comes with a full size Lash Injection mascara which I have not yet tried. All of the products come inside a zippered pouch that has one side clear and the other side the pink/gold chevron print that Too Faced is doing in a lot of their holiday sets.

Below are pictures of the Merry palette. This is easily my favorite of the two palettes because the colors are just so wearable. The shadows are all creamy and have great pigmentation. I also like that this palette includes a bronzer. The other palette includes a highlight and a blush. I always include a bronzer in my face routine and only sometimes will reach for a highlighter so I'm glad the kit was set up this way.

A close-up of the palette shades.

Swatches of the shades:

• Top Row - Spice Bronzer, Egg Nog (a creamy white satin shade), Very Merry (awesome metallic goldish green) and Buttered Rum (a metallic light bronze gold)
• Bottom Row - Peachy Keen blush, Bubbly (peach with gold), Brown Sugar (metallic medium bronzey brown), and Chocolate Moon (might as well be black with gold sparkle)

Below are pictures of the Bright palette. This palette does have some really nice shades in it as well. The pink and teal shades are super pigmented. Truthfully, I have no idea what to do with that pink shadow. It kind of scares me a little. But the other colors in the palette are gorgeous.

A close-up of the palette shades.

Swatches of the shades:

• Top Row - Inner Light Highlighter, Wish (a cooler sand metallic), Bright Eyes (crazy bright cool pink) and Sequin (Bright metallic teal)
• Bottom Row - Lollipop blush, Marshmallow (a light metallic pink), Mauvelous (a champagne metallic), and Starry Night (black with silver sparkles)

All in all, I really like this set. I think I've decided to pass on the Sephora exclusive All of my Favorite Things palette even though it is loaded with neutrals which are my favorite as I get the most use out of them. I'm really happy Too Faced is dialing back the packaging somewhat on the kits this season. In previous years, the palettes always came in giant boxes and tins which I know I would never reach for and were definitely not travel friendly. I like that this kit breaks apart into two normal sized palettes that can easily fit into a makeup bag if you are travelling. I also feel like you are getting a nice mix of products with the 12 shadows, 2 blushes, bronzer, highlight, and mascara. 

Have you tried any of the Too Faced Holiday sets or palettes? Let me know what you got and your thoughts on them in the comments.