Tarte Radiant & Rested Complexion Set

Illuminating Serum, Cheek Stain, Primer, Eye Brightener & Bronzer

Hi Ladies! Hope you are all having a great start to your weekend! I thought I would start mine off my sharing one of my latest purchases with you!

As you may know Sephora sent out coupons earlier this month for Beauty Insiders and VIB's ranging from $15-20 off when you made a $40 purchase. Seeing as I spend WAY too much money there, I am now classified as a VIB so I got the $20 coupon!

After much deliberating I decided on the Tarte Radiant & Rested Complexion set. I decided on this because I figured I would get the most use out of complexion products (as they are my weakness) as opposed to a giant set of eye shadows! This set retails for $55 CAD, so a little more than I wanted to spend but for the use I would get out of it, it was worth it! Heres what is included in the kit:

First up, and the main reason I purchased this, is the Smooth Operator Illuminating Serum. This product is not for single sale yet, but Tarte says it will be soon! This is a great, lightweight illuminating all over serum for giving you a nice glow under (or instead of) your foundation. 

Before Blending

After Blending

I hope you can see the great "glow" this gives to the skin without being sparkly or glittery! Its really gorgeous and adds just enough luminescence to the skin to make it look healthy and youthful! It also doesn't leave my skin greasy or "shiny" which is a big bonus. I've been using this almost everyday and it looks great under foundation or alone! I'm really glad I purchased this set JUST for this! I hope it becomes part of Tarte's permanent line soon!

Next is a Mini Cheek Stain in Glisten. I love stains, gel blush, cream blush anything but powder for the cheeks so I was very excited about this little guy! I actually haven't owned a Tarte Cheek Stain before this one but I've swatched them a lot in store and have always liked them!

Here is the stain applied to my hand with no blending, just a swipe back and forth! This is much more of a glow than a colour, once blended the colour is SO light that it actually doesn't like a blush at all. It does add a great healthy sheen, but I do prefer more colour in my blush. That being said, I will still be using this as it is very pretty!

Now we have a mini, travel sized ReCreate Silicone Free Primer. This primer is aimed towards more mature women stating that it has "wrinkle rewind technology". 

This primer is a light, lotion base that disappears almost instantly when worked into the skin. I must admit I haven't tried this on my face yet because it does feel a little thick and too moisturizing for my skin type. I prefer a mattifying primer. This one might go to my mom!

Next up is one of my favourite products from Tarte (which I already own) Park Avenue Princess Mineral Bronzer. I usually prefer more of a matte bronzer, but this one has forever changed my mind! This has no noticeable shimmer/glitter in it, but it does leave behind the prettiest sheen! Its also a great bronze colour that is good for us fairer skinned girls, and it doesn't contain any orange undertones!

I hope you can see the great golden sheen this has in the photo! It really is a gorgeous bronzer and I highly recommend it so I'm really happy there was a travel sized one in this kit!

This is actually the second reason I bought this kit, the EmphasEYES Inner Rim Brightener. I have been lusting over Stila's peach coloured Kajal pencil so I was super happy to see that a peach rim brightener was included in this kit! This is also not sold separately but should be available soon (hopefully!). I like to line my inner rims with a brighter colour to make me look more awake in the early mornings but white can be too much at times so a peachy/flesh tone is a great option!

It really is flesh-toned so you can't see it very well on my hand, but it is great for the inner rim! It comes in an automatic twist up pencil like Tarte's other emphasEYES pencils, but isn't quite as thin. I like that because it gives more chance that I will actually get it on the rim of my eye! I am so squeamish when it comes to anything to do with eyes that its hard for me to put a pencil on my inner rim!

I know this was a long post with a zillion photos but I wanted to get the full effect of the products across to you! I'm super happy with my purchase of this kit! Although I probably won't wear all the products together (a little too much "glow" for me) they are great to have to give your complexion a much needed boost!

Thanks for reading and bearing with all the photos! XOXO

Annabelle Smudgeliners Review

Good Evening Ladies! I hope you are all having a great night, I know I am (blogging! <3) 

Annabelle's Smudgeliners
Top: Armour (Purple/grey with shimmer)
Bottom: Oh My Goth! (Black)

I am always looing for a good eyeliner! A while back I came across a LOT of great reviews for these Annabelle Smudgeliners! I am very picky about my eyeliner as I wear it everyday and like a particular look from it. (Don't worry I will review it in all aspects!) I haven't had very good experiences with eyeliners: too smudgy, too hard, too soft, too waterproof, not waterproof enough..Always something and it makes me very skeptical when trying new liners. Because of this, I tend to put them through quite the test before I decide if I like them or not! Here are a few photos of the liners swatched:

Top: Oh My Goth! Bottom: Armour

This is the liners applied one stroke forward, one stroke back so a total of two swipes. I find them to have very concentrated colour for a very minimum amount of effort and product!

Smudged out: Top: Oh My Goth! Bottom: Armour

The Built-in Smudger

These smudge really well with the built in smudger! BUT, they don't smudge too much! I find there is always a very fine line (haha, no pun intended!) between a liner that smudges well and a liner that smudges too much. I usually prefer a dark, thick line with really concentrated colour, but these have turned me onto the smudged line! Not only do these smudge out really well, but after you smudge them out they stay where you put them! These wear extremely well (and I have oily eyelids) so its hard to me for find a stay put liner!

The colours offered are very extensive, they have a lot of great colours and come out with new ones for collections sometimes! I absolutely love Armour, it is such an amazing Purple/grey without looking too bright or flashy, great to wear everyday instead of black! (I also love the black but come on, black is black and we all need a good black liner!) haha

So heres the breakdown:

Pros

- Colour Selection

- Wearability (don't move on your lids, migrate or fade all day)

- Smudgeable/blendable (without being excessively soft or smudgy)

- Price - these have quite a range in price depending on where you buy them - I got mine for $3.99 but they can go up to $7.99

- Canadian Company (yay!)

- Packaging (love the built in smudger and the lids stay on tight)

- Very Pigmented

Cons

- Hard to create a thin line

- Need to be Sharpened (I just don't like doing it haha)

- A little Soft in texture 

- Not an "all around" pencil for me

My only problem with these is that I can't make the precise line that I like. I would like these a lot more if they could be used for a defined line look and a smudged look. I find I only use them for a smudged look and stick to my Revlon ColorStay for a defined, dark line! Overall, I would recommend buying them though! They are a fantastic pencil to have in your makeup collection and are offered in such a wide variety of colours you are bound to find one you like! Have you tried these? What do you think? Let me know! :)