PARNEVU Hair Products Review!

About a month back, I was sent a few product from Parnevu, a hair care lined targeted to women of color, though anyone can use the products. Because I'm mixed (1/2 black, 1/2 white), I typically use products from both ends of the spectrum and I was thrilled to try these out! I've been using these for about a month, so that I can give you all a fair assessment of the products.

Parnevu T-Tree Spray Glosser- I love this stuff! I've used up about 3/4 of the bottle and I fully intend to purchase this when mine runs out. This spray glosser is my favorite of the three products and it's a superb replacement for hair oils. This Spray Glosser is from Parnevu's T-Tree line (featuring products infused with Australian Tea Tree Oil). Now, I have tried literally dozens of different hair oils and sprays over the years and for me, this one stands above the rest. This spray decreases frizz and also adds shine, but more than that, it's actually lightweight. I think the majority of hair types could use this, because it produces such a fine mist and is so amazingly lightweight that it doesn't leave your hair feeling greasy or stiff like most hair oils and sprays.

Parnevu Hair Mayonnaise- This "Hair Mayonnaise" is designed to treat weak and damaged hair. It is enriched with Olive Oil, Egg Protein, and African Herbs. Of the three products, this is my least favorite. You can use this as a deep conditioner or as a daily styling product and it certainly works to help soften hair and strengthen it, but it doesn't really do anything I haven't already seen from other companies. Not to discount this as a bad product, because it is good and will do what you want it to do, but I don't think it's a necessity or a miracle product. While it does work, you can find something comparable from various other companies.

Parnevu T-Tree Growth Creme- Though I am not as in love with this as I am with the Spray Glosser, I do love this and will probably purchase it again. Now, this product is intended to help strengthen hair and promote hair growth. I will say that my hair seems to have grown a little more this month than usually (my hair has never grown farther than jut below my shoulders), but I did get a trim at the begining of this month, so I can't say for sure if it's the creme or not. However, I love using this as a styling agent. It really helps to moisturize my hair and improve the softness of it, which is an added benefit I wasn't expecting. Though most creme products feel very heavy in my thin hair, this doesn't and it makes heat styling and managing my hair a lot easier, which is awesome. So if you're looking for something to stimulate hair growth, I'm not really sure if this is for you (though I will keep you all updated), but this does do an awesome job at styling hair!

Overall, I'm impressed with Parnevu (honestly... I'm not going to tell you I like something if I don't actually like it). The T-Tree line is wonderful and I look forward to purchasing more products from this line. For more information on Parnevu and their product, check out their website and twitter. Also, big thanks to Parnevu for sending me these products and being the kindest company I've ever spoken to!

Coastal Scents Go Palette | London

If you know anything about Coastal Scents, you'll know they're most famous for their 88 eyeshadow palettes. Awhile back, I saw these 12-shadow Go Palettes on their website and loved how they looked. The palettes feature shimmery and matte shades, which is always a nice for us matte fans! Each Palette is inspired by a famous city and retails for only $8.95. Today I have London to share with you.

The pigmentation, as with all Coastal Scents shadow, is great. I find the eye shadow to be a bit stiff, not buttery like Urban Decay or theBalm. The shimmery shades, as always, are a little better quality than the matte shades. All in all, I actually like this palette a lot. The mattes are gorgeous for a natural eye look and the blue & purple hues are gorgeous for a night out. You can easily do a bright, natural, or smokey look with this palette. Though I don't think these are the best eyeshadows I've ever tried, they work and the price is just stellar. Note: The shadows are swatched by rows, so the first image below is for the first row of eyeshadows, etc.

Have you tried Coastal Scents, yet? If so, is there anything from them I should try out?

CoverGirl Lip Perfection Lipsticks | Fairytale, Smitten, Darling: Review + Swatches

Before I say anything else, you need to know that I love these lipsticks. Though I haven't tried many of the CoverGirl products, I can honestly say that these are some of the best lipsticks I've ever tried, drugstore or high-end. They are crazy pigmented, super creamy, and there's a pretty sizable array of shades. Until you actually try some of these out yourself, me telling you how smooth they are won't really sink in, but trust me... they're amazing! They retail for about $6.99 to $7.99.

From left to right (in all pictures): Fairytale, Smitten, Darling

These are definitely my favorite drugstore lipsticks (even above the Revlon lip range). They're just so pigmented and smooth (which is all I can ask for in a lipstick). Note: The lipsticks are all a little brighter in person than they come up when swatched in a picture.

Have you tried any of these CoverGirl Lip Perfection Lipsticks? Which shades should I check out?

e.l.f. Studio Blushes: Review + Swatches

If any of you have head of e.l.f. before, then you probably know they're a huge sensation. From beauty gurus to your average consumer, I've heard practically everyone talk about e.l.f. Though they're a hit or miss company for me, I adore their studio blushes. For only $3 each, they won't break the bank either.

From left to right: Pink Passion, Mellow Mauve, Candid Coral, and Gotta Glow.

Though these blushes can be a tad chalky (specifically the highlight shade Gotta Glow), they're more than worth the $3 price tag. They're quite pigmented and there is a good variety of shades (from brights like Pink Passion to muted shades like Candid Coral). I also love the sleek, NARS-inspired packaging.

Have any of you tried the studio blushes? What are some of your other favorite e.l.f. products?

August 2012 Birchbox!

With Back to School right around the corner, the August Birchbox focused on creating a little Beauty School Supply Kit, filled with beauty essenials. They also partnered with Pencils of Promise, an organization that works to provide all children with quality education. Birchbox is donating 15% of all proceeds in the month of August to Pencils of Promise to help build a new school.

Birchbox is a $10-per-month subscription service that sends you 4-5 deluxe beauty samples every month. This month, my box had 5 products and also included a little Beauty School booklet, containing tips and tricks on the basics of beauty.

Schick Hydro Silk Razor- Though this wasn't a terribly exciting product, it's useful and a necessity for most of us. The Schick Hydro Silk Razor has 5 blades and is meant to help moisturize, while shaving. It also came with two Schick coupons. Full size- $10

Beauty Fixation Lipstick Touch-Up- This was one of my favorite products! These are basically cotton swabs, filled with makeup remover. Though they're intended for cleaning up the lines of a bold lipstick, they're also good to clean up any other makeup areas, especially if you're on-the-go! Full size- $5

Sumita Brow Fix- I love this little pencil! Basically, this brow base is designed to clean up the brow area and disguise any tiny hairs and discoloration around the brow. It's a concealer-like product and is a super pigmented, light flesh tone. Full size- $11
Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy La Fleur- This was a tiny sample (as nearly all perfume samples are), but it smelled wonderful. If you've smelled any of the other Juicy scents and liked them, then you'll probably like this one, as well. This is meant to be a follow-up to the original Viva la Juicy scent. It boasts mostly fruity and floral scents, so it's definitely a girly fragrance. Full size- $70, Sample size- $1.40
GLOSS Moderne High Gloss Masque- This is a hair masque designed to add a lot of gloss and shine to your hair. I haven't tried this out yet, but it looks promising. Full size- $39, Sample size $4.88

Price of box- $10, Value of box- $32.28

Though nothing in this box was really out of the ordinary, I think i'll get use out of all of the products and I love when I can use everything in a box. If you haven't already checked out Birchbox, make sure to do so! For only $10 a month, Birchbox is decidedly my favorite beauty box.

Have you all tried out Birchbox? Did you get anything different in your box? If so, link me to your post about your Birchbox, I'd love to see what you got!

TheBalm Betty-Lou Manizer: Review + Swatches

When I first heard about theBalm, I was intrigued. They have adorable names for their products and everything I've tried from them has been high-quality. The Betty-Lou Manizer (see what I mean about the adorable names?) is designed to be an all-in-one bronzer, eye shadow, and all-over shimmer.

On the left you can see it swatched straight from the powder and on the right you can see it blended. As much as I love the pigmentation and color of this, it's just not right for a bronzer. If you're a medium-dark shade, the color probably wouldn't be too dark for you, but it's way too shimmery for contouring or even all over the face. If you've got darker skin, this would be a pretty highlight (when blended properly) and it makes an absolutely gorgeous eye shadow. This retails for $24 and you get .3 oz in the compact.

Have you tried any products from theBalm? Are you as in love with the quality as I am?

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils: Review + Swatches

Most of y'all have probably heard a thing or two about these NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils. These pencils are cult favorites, specifically the shade Milk. You can find these pencils in basically any color and they are a staple for beauty addicts on a budget. For only $4.50 (and cheaper some places), they're a super value. Plus, there's a ton of product in the stick and it lasts for ages! As far as drugstore eyeshadow primers/bases go, NYX is my reigning champion.

Since I'm more of a neutral gal, I have four neutral shades to show you (including the ever popular Milk). While these can be used as cream eyeshadows or eyeliners, I prefer to use them as an eyeshadow base. These pencils really help to eliminate creasing and keep your eyeshadow in place longer. The warmth from your fingers helps to blend them out. I find that the shimmery shades are slightly smoother than the matte shades.

Milk (far left) is an opaque, pure white shade. Because you can put any color over this shade, it's hugely popular. Slapping some bold shadows on top of Milk is an essential for me, because the bright colors look even brighter over it. If you want a similar effect, but with a little bit of shimmer, Cottage Cheese (second from left) is your best bet. It's slightly sheerer than Milk. Yogurt (second from right) is one of those gorgeous pinkish, champagne colors that I personally love. This one is my favorites to wear alone or with soft neutrals. French Fries (far right) is a muted bronze that looks great with blended into the crease.

Overall, I'm a big fan of the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils. Have you guys tried the jumbo pencils?

Too Faced Smokey Eye Shadow Collection: Review + Swatches!

Too Faced... A brand after my own heart. I picked up this Too Faced Smokey Eye palette awhile back and ever since, I've been obsessed with Too Faced. Because there's really nothing better than a smokey eye, I wanted to share my opinions with you all on the palette that spawned my Too Faced obsession.

The Smokey Eye kit retails for $36 and boasts 9 eye shadows and a trio of cards to help you create the perfect smokey eye. Each row of the palette features shadows to create a specific look: Day, Classic, & Fashion. Each eye shadow has a cute little name to go along with it, as well!

So that you can get a feel of what the eye shadows will look like, I've swatched them and put them into trios with their corresponding look. First up is the Day look (Firefly, Cloves, and Up in Smoke), next is Classic (White Lie, Nice Ash, and Smokin Hot) and finally Fashion (In a Flash, Smoking Jacket, and Smolder). Smokin Hot and Smolder are matte shadows, which are essential to any good palette, in my opinion. Smoking Jacket was actually in my Top Ten Favorite Eyeshadows video I did awhile back!

As you all can probably guess, I love this palette. Too Faced has actually become my favorite comany for eye shadows, especially when it comes to their shimmery shades. They are so buttery smooth and pigmented, which is really all a girl can ask for in an eye shadow. I've used each and every one of these color combinations for various events and daily outings and I always get compliments from my makeup-savvy friends when I wear these shadows. If you haven't already picked up this palette (or any of the other Too Faced palettes), I'd absolutely recommend giving them a try.

What are some of your favorite Too Faced products? Any recommendations as to what Too Faced product I should pick up next?

Hard Candy Baked Blush: Review + Swatches!

I adore Hard Candy cosmetics. Seriously, every single time I go to Walmart (which isn't much, I admit), I pick up a few things from the Hard Candy section. They are sold exclusively at Walmart and they're pretty well-priced. These Blush Crush Baked Blushes (that's a mouthful) are some of my favorite products from the Hard Candy range of makeup and they retail for $7 each.

The blush on the left (in all pictures) is Living Doll and the blush on the right is Honeymoon. Living Doll is a nice blue-toned pink and Honeymoon is a lighter peach. Though I'm typically not a big fan of shimmer in my blush, I love the way the shimmer turns to a sheen with these blushes.. They're soft, blendable, and pigmented, but not as pigmented as a few other blushes I've seen. Actually, the only makeup product where I don't mind a little less pigmentation is with my blush, because blending out a super pigmented blush (which I often do, anyway) can be so time consuming. Both of these blushes just make your skin glow and are definitely worth the drugstore price tag.

Have you all tried any of the Hard Candy products? Are you as obsessed as I am?

SoftLips Pearl Gloss: Review!

First off, I'm not the biggest fan of lip glosses in general. They always remind me of being young and slathering on way too much sticky lip gloss at middle school dances. However, I'm a sucker for new makeup and when I saw that SoftLips had released a lip gloss (they're known for their lip balms), I snatched one up for review purposes.

When swatched, the color of this gloss is basically clear. The gloss is is SPF 10, which is always a bonus, and retails for around $4. It also features a doe-foot applicator. Now, if you're looking for a baby pink gloss, steer clear of this (not enough pigmentation), but if you're looking for a sheer/clear non-sticky gloss, I'd give this one a try. It's incredibly smooth (not even the least bit sticky) and has a pretty standard weartime. The only really annoying thing about this product is that not a lot of product comes out on the applicator, so I had to dip it back in a couple times, to achieve maximum glossiness. Overall, i was really impressed by how non-sticky this is and if you're in the market for an inexpensive gloss, look no further!

Have you all tried any of the SoftLips products, aside from the lip balms? Are there any you think I should check out?

Review: June Glossybox USA!

When I initially heard that Glossybox was coming to the US, I was ecstatic! In case you missed it, I did a video review on the May Glossybox. Now, I know it's already July and I'm a little late posting this, but I wanted to give my two cents on the program. For the record, I did receive it at the beginning of July, not in June. Glossybox is another one of those monthly beauty subscriptions. It's $21 a month, so it's more than some of the other services, like Birchbox, which is only $10 a month.

This month, my box boasted 6 products, all dedicated to summer beauty. Off the bat, I want to say that I'm not entirely pleased with Glossybox. I think that there are decent-sized products and some good products in these boxes, but spending $21 a month ($252 a year) is a little steep. 

1. Wella Professionals Enrich Moisturizing Treatment (Full Size- $12, Sample Size- $1.99)

• This smells like your typical, citrus hair cream. I love the citrusy smell this gave my hair (perfect for summer) and it definitely moisturized. This product does what it's supposed to and I really like it for that! My hair is definitely on the drier end of the spectrum, so this was an ideal product for me. I wish the sample size was a little larger, just so I could get a better feel of the product, but I think I might end up purchasing the full-size anyway!

2. Shea Terra Organics Ultimate Moisturizing Body Creme (Full Size- $18, Sample Size- $2)

• First off, I'm not a huge fan of the smell of this. It says that it's a lavender-scented shea butter and typically I'm a lavender lover, but something about this scent is a kind of off-putting, though not intolerable. Aside from the smell, I actually found this product to be oddly drying. I won't be using this.

3. First Aid Beauty Smooth Shave Cream (Full Size- $16.50, Sample Size- $4.85)

• I adore this! I would like to note that it's a larger-sized sample than the previous two products and instead of being a kind of mousse/foam texture like most shaving creams, it's an actual cream! The full size price of this product is a lot more than what I want to spend on a shaving cream, but it's great. Because it's a cream, it does't lather a lot (so it's not so irritating on skin) and leaves skin more moisturized than your typical shaving cream.

4. beautyADDICTS Show-OFF Mascara (Full Size- $20)

• This product is full-sized, which is awesome! Opening up a sample box and seeing something full-sized is always a really nice surprise. I've never heard of this brand before, but I actually really like the mascara. In general, I'm a sucker for mascaras. I've got about 25-30 of them (excessive, I know), but I always love finding new ones! I'd say this does a good job at lengthening and volumizing. It's not a holy grail product for me, but it really is great! I definitely want to look into trying out some of their other products, because I'm loving this one.

5. Kinerase Restructure Firming Cream (Full Size- $98, Sample Size $13.84)

• This is a fairly small-sized sample, but it's a hugely expensive product, so the small size is understandable. I've only used this twice and I haven't really noticed much in those two uses, but it does have a perfectly creamy, yet firm texture and it seems to moisturize nicely (though I don't think it was created to moisturize). It also kind of fills in fine lines on the face, which is nice. The smell is a little funny, but nothing too awful. I like what it did, but I'm not sure it's worth the almost $100 price tag.

BONUS: A Perfume Organic Urban Organic (Full Size- $65, Sample Size- Unknown)

• This is described as a sweet, citrus daytime scent. I thought that this actually smelled putrid and I despised the scent. Even thinking about the smell makes me cringe a little.

Monetary total of my June Glossybox: $42.68

Technically, the box was well worth the $21 price tag. However, I'm not a fan of enough of the products for me to be totally satisfied this month. Can't win 'em all, I suppose. I'm hoping for some products that I like more in July's Glossybox!

Do any of you all have any experience with Glossybox, specifically Glossybox US? I've checked out some of the other Glossyboxes (UK and Canada) and I have to say I'm a little jealous of the products they're getting.

Sleek Makeup: Review + Swatches, Part 2!

Yesterday, I did a post talking about some Sleek products that I purchased. Sleek is a UK-based company that makes affordable, high-quality makeup. For the second part of my little spotlight on Sleek Makeup, I'm going to be talking about their Face Contour Kit, blushes, and lipsticks.

First up is the Sleek Face Contour Kit. I've heard a lot about various Sleek products from different beauty gurus, but I haven't heard much about this kit. There are three shades (Light, Medium, and Dark) and I opted for Medium. The bronzer is insanely pigmented. The first time I used this, I was shocked by how dark it was on my face. Of course with proper blending, it ended up looking great, but you really have to be careful with this one and if you can't decide between two different shades, go for the lighter one. Part of the reason I also decided on Medium was because of the gorgeous golden highlight color. I like the highlight because it looks really natural, though it wasn't spectacular or anything. You can pick up the duo for $10.

Next is the Blush by 3 in 'Pink Sprint'. As the name suggests, it's a trio of blushes in one, sleek compact. They have several color options for these palettes and because I'm a sucker for any overly-bright and pigmented makeup, I chose the brightest trio. The blushes are extremely bright and pigmented, so if you're just starting out with makeup, I'd steer clear of this. If you're comfortable with brighter blushes and know how to blend them to your advantage, give this baby a try! It's $15.99 for these three full-sized blushes.

Finally, I purchased one of the True Colour Lipsticks in the shade 'Candy Cane'. For only $6, I thought it was worth a try and I am so pleased that I decided to get this lipstick. It's so pigmented and smooth and just everything you could want in a lipstick. I wasn't sure what lipstick color I wanted, but as y'all know, I'm a sucker for bright makeup, especially a bold lip. When I was looking online for swatches of some of the lipsticks, I noticed a lovely blogger, fromnatalietoyou, comparing MAC 'Party Parrot' with Sleek 'Candy Cane. When I saw her swatches of the two, I was thrilled and promptly places the lipstick in my online shopping bag.

Overall, I love Sleek!! I'm trying to cut back on my shopping, as I'm moving in the next couple of months, but I can't wait to get my hands on some more of these Sleek products. Every product that I purchased was great and worth more than the low price tag on them.

Have you ever tried any of the Sleek products? Can you recommend some that I should try out?