Beauty for a Bargain: Coconut Oil

Today's Beauty for a Bargain is not something that I would have originally called a "bargain"... I remember hearing people singing the praises of coconut oil. I went to Wal-Mart and excitedly hunted some down. When I saw how small the tub was for the price, I decided to not get it. I think it was around $6 for 4 oz. Call me cheap, but at the time that seemed like a tiny bit of product for the price.
A few weeks ago Zach got me an Amazon giftcard and I bit the bullet and purchased some. I instantly fell in love. It has SO many uses. For example, I heated some up (it comes in a solid form until you melt it down) and coated my hair with it. I threw my hair up in a bun and Zach and I watched a movie on Netflix before I shampood it out. My hair has never felt better! This is in comparison to some of my more expensive hair treatments. None of them have ever made my hair so manageable and soft. I could actually run my fingers through it, which I can NEVER do. It also seemed to help my split ends. Now, don't get me wrong, it isn't possible to fuse together hair that is split. All those products claiming to "seal" them are lying. However, coconut oil did smooth them down and I can see it preventing them from getting worse, meaning I can go longer between trims.

Next I used this on my body after getting out of the shower. Holy moses! My skin was ridiculously soft! I couldn't stop touching it. Usually I am ashy and itchy even after using baby oil and lotion. With this, I can even skip a day or two and my skin stays soft. I haven't had any reactions to it, either. I even mixed a vanilla fragrance with it, which is usually a no-no for my super sensitive skin. No issues at all. Just skin as smooth as silk.

Coconut oil is also great for chapped lips! I just rub a bit on and then once it sinks in I put my normal gloss on. It is an amazing makeup remover, too. Especially on my eyes. No burning or stinging at all. I rubbed it on my hyper-pigmentation on my cheeks and it calmed down the redness almost instantly. My acne scars seemed to fade, too! However, I tried to use this all over as a moisturizer and it was too much. I had a few cystic zits, but they healed up almost immediately. So, maybe it's not the best if you are acne prone like me. I hear that if you get the unbleached kind it is great for acne, though. Maybe one day!

Hope y'all are having a great week. Sorry for being a bit MIA. Thanks for all the kind words about Pappy. We have had a very scary week, which is part of the reason I have not been posting as much. His kidneys are functioning again, but he is very weak and has lost a lot of weight. Up until yesterday he was talking a bit out of his head. They moved him temporarily to a nursing home, which is very hard for me to see, but I know it is necessary for him to recover. He seemed more like himself when I went to visit today, though. He even drank some of a milkshake I snuck in for him. :) Let me tell ya, I adore that man.

Beauty for a Bargain: Ebay 88 Shimmer Palette

A few months ago I reviewed my Metal Mania palette, which I absolutely love. While browsing online a few weeks ago I decided to look at some other palettes to add to my collection.

Which leads me to this week's Beauty for a Bargain post!

In the past I had bought palettes from both Coastal Scents and BH Cosmetics. While I was happy with the products I received from both sites, I had heard whispers across the net that they were selling wholesale palettes from China with their names stamped on the case for a jacked up price. I decided to test this theory for myself and headed on over to eBay to look for a palette that I had been lusting after for a while, which was the 88 Shimmer Palette.

Now, I fully plan to do a post comparing all my palettes in a later post, but I do really believe they are all the same. Ebay is just way cheaper. Anyways...

I quickly found multiple sellers offering the palette I wanted. I ended up settling on this one and wound up paying around $10! Considering the same palette runs for $19.95 plus shipping (unless there is a sale), ten bucks is kind of a steal. I expected shipping to be insanely slow, but I ended up getting my package about ten days later.

I was really excited opening my package. It came in your standard brown paper package. When I opened it, my palette was taped between two thick squares of styrofoam. The palette itself was packed snugly in a ton of bubble wrap inside a black box which listed the ingredients in the eyeshadow. Not a single eyeshadow was broken, except for a tiny dent in one of the greens (which you can see in the above picture). It didn't bother me, though. The shadows were gorgeous!

The shadows come in a plastic black case. The case is not the sturdiest in the world, but considering how cheap the product is and how lovely the eyeshadows are it isn't much of a concern. There is a mirror on the inside and two disposable applicators (much like my Metal Mania Palette... hmmm... just saying.) The shadows themselves are super pigmented and go beautiful. There is a bit of powdery-ness to some of them, but I think this could be due to the fact that they were in my mailbox for days before anyone bothered to check it... gotta love the crazy holidays. I tried them out today and, with a primer, I think they are comparable in quality to some of the more expensive shadows I have tried. If you pat them on rather than swipe they powdery-ness doesn't matter at all. They blend like a dream, too! However, there were a few duds in the palette... all were still totally wearable, though. They just didn't have the same color payoff as the rest. I am sure with a good primer and a bit of patience the color can be built up! Also, there is a bit of glitter in these..., but they are a "shimmer" palette, after all.

Overall, I think these shadows are fantastic and I plan to purchase more of these to use on clients in the future. They last all day, too! For the price these absolutely can't be beat. I can't sing their praises enough. If you are a makeup collector like myself, or if you are just getting in to makeup, these are perfect!

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Beauty for a Bargain: Midnight Fever palette review.

I headed over to Walgreens a week or two ago because my friend informed me they had some e.l.f. holiday eyeshadow palettes out for pretty cheap. That is when I came across this palette and I had to do a double-take. It looked so much like the UD Naked palette that I love so much... and for $5 rather than $30.

I did not purchase it that day because I had to pick up the acne medicine my evil dermatologist prescribed me that nearly melted my face off, but I ran across it again on Saturday while shopping at Big Lots with Zach. He saw me looking at it and before I said anything he had it in his hand and was on the way to the register... I am glad that he supports my cosmetics addiction even though he hates makeup. He's a keeper! 

Anyways, here are some photos with the flash for a better idea of what the colors look like...

As you can see, the shadows are quite lovely. Perfect for anyone who wants a nice neutral look or wants to wear a smokey eye. It comes with an eyeliner that I have not used yet and an applicator that is pretty useless and broke when I tried to use it to do swatches.

Speaking of swatches!...

This is the first five shades in the palette...

And the last half which is the darker colors.

As you can see, the pigment is pretty good on these for how cheap they were. I feel like it is pretty comparable to the Naked palette. There were even some dupes!

Here we have UD's Toasted on the left and the 5th eyeshadow in the Midnight Fever palette on the right.

I believe this is UD's Gunmetal on the left and 8th Midnight Fever shadow on the right. They are pretty much identical!

And here we have third shadow in the Midnight Fever palette on the left and UD's Darkhorse on the right. I expected that particular color to be a dupe for "Buck", but it is waaaaay darker when you put it on than it appears in the pan.

Overall I found this palette to be a pretty darn good palette for the price. While the colors are not as pigmented as the UD palette, they are still really nice and would probably go on even better with a good primer. However, I did find these to be a bit crumbly and I think fallout will probably be an issue with these. I have not worn these out yet, so I can't really say how long these will stay before fading. I do think you can't beat them for the price, though!

Well, it is time to get ready for work. I get to be at work at 9pm tonight for the Black Ops 2 release. My job is a lot of fun, but sometimes I want to strangle people. I can handle a lot of things, but some idiot teenager thinking it is alright to call me "babe" or "sexy" makes me want to hand out a good Tennessee whoop assin'.

Have a great night, errybody!