beautybalerie – Ms. Mimsy Reviews

Good afternoon my darlings. Today feels just a little strange. Every time I look out the window there is a different weather pattern going on. It was raining , then it was sleeting, then it was snowing and then it was raining again. At the moment we are getting a rain sleet mix where the droplets his as they make impact with the glass of the window but melt to rain right away as though the ice was just kidding.

It is like the weather just can’t make up it’s mind today.

I did make a choice today though. No a big one, it was my IPSY Glam Bag X choice. At the moment I am doing the IPSY Beauty Boost. For $15 per month you get one extra full sized item. I think it is supposed to be worth $40-50+. I’ll have to look at the exact details. This is the third month for the boost. December was first and IPSY chose the Kate Somerville Retinol that is currently in my skincare line up. It was actually a really good choice for me. Last moth they chose the Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk R palette. I wasn’t really enthused with it as I am usually on the fence about most Fenty products. They are never bad actually they are usually just okay and pretty forgettable. I am however liking the palette much more than I thought i would and will probably get a lot of use out of it. And it was certainly something I would not have picked up on my own. I also liked that they were switching between skincare and makeup. And yes I know two times wasn’t enough to tell, so I was really curious as to what they picked.

Interestingly they did something different this month. They chose an item but then they had a section in choice where if I didn’t like what they selected then I could trade it out for one of the other items. The Item they chose for me was the Drunk Elephant F-Balm Electrolite Waterfacial which seems to be an over night mask. Since I have only tried one sample from Drunk Elephant and know nothing of most of their products (other than that everyone was raving about them a few years ago) I kept the selection they made. However I really like that they are allowing you to swap out items now as that was the one thing I wasn’t crazy about.

I actually didn’t mean to talk about IPSY so much, but I felt it was worth mentioning. I also liked the rest of the bag this month as well and I am more excited for this month’s IPSY than I have been for a while. I know it is an X month so those are always a bit over the top, but last month’s box was really good as well so thus far they are really hitting 2023 strong.

This is the year I am really reevaluating all of my subscription boxes to see what I really want to keep. I am even trying a few new ones out to see what combination of products I like and what I am willing to let go. I actually signed up for the Cohorted Subscription box. February will be my first one. It will be interesting to see if it is worth it. and since it is a new subscription I’ll probably go ahead and do a full post here instead of just posting the box on IG. Anyway, enough with the subscriptions, lets move on to what I used today…

Today’s Look:

Primer: Tatcha Liquid Silk Canvas Primer

Foundation: KVD Vegan Beauty Good Apple Balm Foundation

Bronzer: Milk Makeup Bronzing Stick (from the use up box)

Blush: Cotton Candy Champagne Blushlighter palette from Beauty Bakerie

Currently Beauty Bakerie is having a massive sale up to 40% off for the next two days. the product links will take you to the site.

Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Naked Honey Palette

Mascara: Benefit Cosmetics They’re real magnetic Mascara

Lips: Beauty Bakerie Liquid Lip Whip and Illamasqua Lip Liner

Today I started with the Tatcha Liquid primer. I really enjoy it. It is one of my top primers. I still love the balm formula of Tatcha just a little bit more, but then I just really love Balm style primers. This is a really good primer and on the skin it feels a lot like the balm version a you put it on. I wanted a primer that I know and love when I started playing with the KVD foundation so that is why i chose it.

This Good Apple foundation is interesting. It has been a while since I used a foundation that oxidizes. This one does. It looks a little light on me when I apply it, but after a little while (an hour or so) it oxidizes and then looks like it is the right shade for me. It isn’t a perfect shade match, but it does okay. I think I notice it more because I have gotten really lucky with shade matches recently. It makes the not quite shade stand out more to me. while this foundation looks good on most of my face after a little while I really start to notice it settling into fine lines. I had a phone conversation about an hour after I applied the makeup. the conversation lasted about 20 minutes. When I was done I had to use the restroom and I looked in the mirror and I could really see it settling around my mouth and emphasizing the lines. it is something I am going to have to watch.

The Milk Makeup Bronzer is from my use up box. It is a sample and I want to purchase the full size but won’t until I use up the sample. I am trying to use one item from the box each day so this was my choice today. it is an easy choice since I really like it.

I also really like the Beauty Bakerie blush in the Blushlighter palette. Oddly it has enough shimmer for me that I don’t really want to reach for the highlighters. i like the highlighters, and i will use them with other blushes, but just the blush from this palette was good for me. I also couldn’t resist the Beauty Bakerie Lip Whip. If you are looking for liquid lips that dry down enough not to leave lip prints everywhere but not so much as to dry out your lips then i would suggest checking out the line. I did use the Illamasqua lip liner to smooth out the edges but that was mostly because I noticed a not so smooth bit after the lippie dried. It was just easier to correct with lip liner and I really like the Illamasqua formula. I also like that the color blended well.

My shadow was from the Naked Honey palette. I love this palette. it applies well, blends well and looks good. I think the trick with Urban Decay is to find whichever palette they offer that suits you and go with that. I loved their original Naked palettes but a lot of their others just don’t have a color story that appeals to me. Admittedly I may still pick up their Prince palette. On the other hand I have a friend who adores their Cyber palette and doesn’t like anything else. I think once you find the palette from them you like, it is a great palette to use. Mine happens to be the Naked Honey. I can wear the brown tones every day and I have a weakness for the bronze shimmers.

And so i used the palette today.

and that my darlings is me today. Over all it is a quiet one. Phone calls and e-mails but mostly just me and the computer at my desk. There is a whole lot of editing going on. nd now, I must get back to it. Have a great afternoon.

Good afternoon my darlings. Today is a chilly one. I have had fun with the computer for most of the day. The first issue is more fun.

At the bottom of my computer screen there is a section of the menu bar that tells me the temp and the basic weather conditions. It is basically the degree and a one word descriptor. The descriptor is sometimes a little less than helpful. From about May onwards it just says ‘Humid’ Occasionally Humid is replaced with Raining and then it goes back to humid. I have more of a descriptor selection from October through April, although Humid does still crop up. Today it tells me it is cloudy. The fun part is that every time I have glanced down at the menu bar the degree has dropped by one. We started out this morning at 34 and we are now at 22.

And no I don’t think that my looking at it cause it to drop, i just think it is funny that every time I look it has lost one degree.

The second computer issue has been a little less amusing.

I am starting to set up to record audio books. Prior to this I’ve worked with other people’s set ups and recorded other people’s books. No I want my own set up not only for other people’s books but for my own. Today, I wanted to test the system and the room, so someone loaned me a cheap microphone so I could test out everything to make sure it worked properly (noise canceling, recording all that stuff). That way I can adjust what I need to pick up when I order my microphone. This mic came with a USB connector and it took me far to long to realize that the reason I wasn’t getting anything to record is that my computer wanted me to use the mic jack instead of the USB port. which made the ‘I can do a quick test in five minutes’ plan go out the window. It disturbs me to know just how long it took me to realize that it was definitely an operator error.

I really don’t like when my technical failures produce head slapping moments from things I should have realized a lot quicker than I actually did. It does mean that I know what I need to check before ordering, but it it took up a larger chunk of my day than I planned to give. And I have no one to blame. It would be nice to have someone else to blame, but alas it is not to be. And now the mic and any additional necessities will be ordered separately. Because I need the microphone to test out what necessities I may need. I was hoping to get them all in one shot. But that to is not to be.

Today’s Look

Primer: AOA Studios Blurfection Face Primer

Foundation: Yensa BC Skin on Skin Foundation

Bronzer: Viseart Bronze Noix

Blush/Highlight: Beauty Bakerie Cotton Candy Champagne Blushlighter Palette

Setting Powder: Kim Chi Chic Beauty Puff Puff Pass Set and Bake Powder

Eyeshadow: Ciate London The Velvet Palette

Mascara: Milk Makeup Kush Mascara

Brows: Benefit Cosmetics Precisely My Brow

Lips: Laura Mercier Rouge Essentials Beige in Time (70)

I know I have been testing out the HIDE foundation. I planned to continue with it but this morning I noticed the expiration date on the bottom was January 8, 2023.And while I haven’t had a problem with it on my skin, I always get really timid with expired foundations. I’m actually quite annoyed with this as it was a really good foundation and I just got it in This month’s BoxyCharm Premium. It actually arrived after the 8th so it was expired when i received it which doesn’t make me happy at all. I think I wore it enough to form a review of it, but I don’t think I will be wearing it again. At least not this bottle.

So I fell back to one of my favorite foundations instead, the Yensa BC Foundation. I have no problems reaching for it. And actually since I wanted to test out a primer it was good that I was using a foundation I know and love. Today I wanted to try out the AOA priming Balm. It is a balm formula It is about the size of a single eyeshadow and like most things on the Shop Miss A site it was only $1. I figured it would be good to travel with, providing it was worth using.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well it has performed thus far. It is not as creamy as other balm primers. It is a little crumply, but it warms up and is less crumbly once on the skin. I think if I held it in my hand and warmed it up in the pan it might not be crumbly at all. As soon as it touched the skin that wasn’t an issue. It just needs a little warmth. It blended beautifully and the white faded to nothing. It smoothed my face down and helped fill in some of my fine lines. I was very impressed with it’s first use.

I went for the Viseart Bronzer today. It always performs beautifully. In general every product I have tried from Viseart performs beautifully.

I also reached for the Beauty Bakerie Blushlighter palette today. This always amuses me. I look at it and every time i think, wow that is a bright pink blush. Then I apply it and it is bright when I first apply it, then I blend and it just blends beautifully. I gives me a nice soft blush. I could build it brighter if I wanted (or had a darker skin tone, which for me would be mid summer so I an use this year round) but it just blends so beautifully for a soft glow. I really need to stop thinking of the bright pink and use this more.

Today I also went for the Kim Chi setting powder. While I would use this just because of the powder puff, it is also great setting powder. So it is sort of a win win. Very little is actually needed so the container will last a really long time.

I did go a little crazy with the shimmer from The Velvet Palette today. I accidentally grabbed the wrong brush. It was fluffier than I expected and so there was more shimmer than planned. But I still really like these shadows. Ciate shadow formulas can be a bit hit or miss for me, but this one is beautiful

I think this may be the last of the Milk Makeup Mascara. It is as sample tube and I think the sample is now ended. Which is sad, because it was a beautiful mascara. It is definately one I will purchase again.

And I went back for my OG brow fave today. The precisely my brow. This was once the only brow product I used and while I have expanded, I really liked going back for it today and will be using it more often.

And finally the lips. This is a bullet style lipstick so it never dries down and does leave lip prints on coffee mugs. It is a super creamy and comfortable formula though and I really enjoy wearing it. Plus the magnetic lid means I can put it in my purse with no worries of it coming open. And as this is a lipstick that will need a touch up, that is a very good thing.

And so my darlings that is me today. I rather like how things looked today and quite honestly it was really nice to have one thing turn out well today when I spent far to long babbling incoherently at a microphone that wouldn’t work. I know, having your makeup come out well is a small thing, but today it is a consolation prize. And now it is back to work for me. Have a great rest of the day.