Get Ready With Me & #SauceBoxCosmetics, #CoverFX, and #ZozaeBrush

Zozae brushes, Cover FX Illuminating Primer, and CoverGirl mascara are Press Samples. All others purchased by me, or sample with purchase.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

I was fixin' to go to Target, and wanted to try out some of my new pretties, and some new tools.  If you'd like to see what I used, and how I liked it, come 'Get ready with me!'

If you can't stand the suspense, and I know you can't, here's what my final look is.  My t-shirt is from a campus PRIDE event and says, "Think before you speak."  Good advice.  Wish I could follow it all the time.

Sauce Box had a sale recently, where they discounted bundles on some of their palettes.  I'd wanted to try them for a while, so I picked up a few, including their metallic/neutral palette, "Creme de la Creme."

I wish these were a little more 'foil-y' metallic, but they are really nice shadows.  Soft, buttery, blendable.  The palette itself has adorable artwork, and the names of the shadows are on the back.  Wish they were on the front, but these palettes are designed to be mixed and matched if you like.  All of the shadows pop out of their holders and can be swapped with their other colors.

I don't use a lot of silver shadows, on the whole, but I believe I used all the others for this look.  Black Widow wasn't as dark as I wanted for my eyeliner, so I covered it with liquid liner.

The brushes I used are ones I've been testing out for a few weeks, from a new-to-me company, Zozae.  The kit comes with 3 face brushes, 4 eye brushes, and one lip brush, and a nice faux-leather carrying case with plastic sleeves for the two biggest brushes, and a flap to protect all the brush heads.

I have a small hoard of brushes, of all kinds - everything from Crown and Morphe to Tarte and Nars and Hakuhodo.  I love trying new brushes, and these did not disappoint.  They are nice and soft, with synthetic, dual-tipped heads.  I like the white tips because it makes it easier to see how much product you have on the brush, and what color you dipped it in last!

Even though I may not always use a brush for its "intended' use, I really like that they put the function on the handle.  When I was really new to makeup, I wanted all my brushes to have that on there.  So far, my faves are the angled brush - great for highlighter and blush, especially in the face palettes I love so much that always seem to have smaller pans for those.  Also, the eye shadow brushes are great - one for packing on color, one for smudging, and one for blending. 

I've washed them several times with water and Dr. Bronner's, and none of them have shed one bit, either.  I'm a fan!

These brushes retail on Amazon for $89.87, but are currently on sale for $39.87.

One of the new products from Cover FX that's been getting tons of buzz is their Custom Cover Drops.  I decided to get a sample with purchase from Sephora, but they didn't have my usual color (P30) and so I had to get N50.  It's got a neutral undertone, and looks way more golden than I thought I could ever pull off!  I decided that I'd mix it with my fave primer of all time, Cover FX Illuminating primer, and see what the fuss was all about.

Boy, howdy, does it look scary dark on my hand!  It sheered out really nicely on my face, and gave me a little tan.  Because the primer is so thin, the color didn't look unnatural in Real Life - just like I'd gotten a little sun. 

In the pix below, I have it only on the half of my face turned towards the camera.  You can see it didn't cover any blemishes, but did even out my skin tone.  I have a foundation that is a little too light on me, and next I think I'll mix it with that to bring the color more in line with my natural color, plus get a bit more coverage.

And, finally, the finished look.  I lightened my face color a tiny bit with my new fave finishing powder from It Cosmetics, and applied Colour Pop Zipper, a vampy burgundy. 

If you love really matte liquid lipstick, you have to try Colour Pop Ultra Mattes.  At first, they dry down HARD and tight - I recommend keeping your lips taut, like you're smiling, while they're drying down for those first few seconds.  After that, it felt so lightweight, I forgot I was wearing anything.  Zipper passed the kiss test several times, too - Mr. LFW is used to wiping the lipstick off his lips after kissing me, but there was nothing to wipe!  Zipper stayed on during the shopping, kissing, and drinking of a bottle of tea.

Here's everything I used:  Sauce Box Cosmetics Creme de la Creme palette, Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer in light, It Cosmetics Brow Power in Universal Taupe, It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed in Translucent,  Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Champagne Pop, Colour Pop Ultra Matte Lip in Zipper, Ulta Lip & Cheek Color Stick in Peachy, Cover Girl The Super Sizer mascara, Physicians' Formula Eye Booster liquid liner in Ultra Black, ELF eye primer, Cover FX Illuminating primer, Cover FX Custom Cover Drops in N50.

I've been seeing these reviews for something called the Magic Makeup Eraser, but haven't seen one in person yet.  So, I was shopping on Sephora online, and they have their own version, but it was half the price, and instead of one, long, pink cloth, this was two small black squares, which seemed better to me.  I wanted to be able to clean one while using the other.  You can't see where the makeup is on the black.. but then again, you can't see the stains the makeup leaves, either.

Color me, well, un-colored!  I wet the cloth in cool tap water, and it removed EVERYTHING - even the matte lippie.  It took a little scrubbing, but nothing that hurt or irritated my eyes.  Right afterwards, I washed it in a little tupperware with some Dr. Bronners, and it turned the water taupe.. I guess the mix of my tan foundation and purple lips!  Pretty cool.

So many pictures, and such a long day, but I did some nail art inspired by my new Zozae brushes and their dual-tipped brush head.  The base is Revlon Sequin, and then I dipped a fan brush into Revlon Black Magic, and painted the middle of the nails, and did the same thing to the tips with Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Whew! If you got this far, thanks for getting ready, and well, un-ready with me, too!  What have you tried recently that you are loving?