TAG: Holy Grail Products

* Best Eyeshadow Base * Benefit Lemonaid & MAC Bare Study Paint Pot. I love lemonaid for a matte look, and bare study for shimmer. Both hold shadows with ease and don't budge or crease!

* Best Eyeshadow * Oy.. I'd have to go with MAC Mythology. I love this color! Mostly I use it in the crease with All That Glitters on the lid, or lately I've been using Mythology all over the lid with Twinks in the crease

* Best Eyeliner * I'd have to say my Urban Decay 24/7 liners. I love zero on my water line and gunmetal on my lash line.

*Best Mascara * Fresh Supernova. It's a gorgeous, light wash of color with no clumping. It's perfect!

* Best Foundation * NARS Sheer Glow in Deuxville. Whenever I wear it people compliment me on my skin, tell me that it looks porcelain and flawless! I even notice that others have a harder time telling when Im blushing while I wear this foundation, which is an added bonus! Plus, I just love the satin finish.

* Best Blush * MAC Summer Rose Beauty Powder. I think that this is the perfect color for my skin tone. Once while wearing this blush with the Nars Sheer Glow, I was told I even looked "like a china doll." I'll take it!

* Best Highlighter * MAC Shell Pearl Beauty Powder. This color is just gorgeous! It's nice and light, with subtle shimmer. To mix with my foundation I use MAC Strobe Cream. Both are amazing!

* Best Lipstick * Avon Apricot Glow, however, mine broke :( So I need to order a new one!

* Best Lipgloss * MAC Cha Cha Lipglass from the Summer Forecast collection. Beautiful!

These are my holy grail items, what are yours?

xo

Rachel

Product Review: Fekkai Series (Protein Rx)

Since I've recently purchased three shampoo+conditioner sets of Frederick Fekkai's, I decided I would do a review series so you all could see the differences between the different shampoo's and conditioners.

I am almost at the end of my Protein Rx Reparative shampoo and deep nourishing conditioner, and I have truly loved using them. The first thing I noticed when opening the shampoo bottle is the intoxicating warm vanilla scent. I'm not usually one for vanilla, but this shampoo smells absolutely delicious! The conditioner is a bit different, it smells more like an ordinary conditioner, but it still smells awfully good.

The website describes the shampoo and conditioner as "Protein Rx Reparative Shampoo and conditioner is ideal for brittle, broken hair that has been weakened from coloring, relaxing, or heat styling. An exclusive soy and milk protein complex restores and reinforces hair preventing future breakage, leaving hair stronger and more manageable." I have to say I agree, I absolutely 100% recommend this product for anyone with dry, damaged hair. Since using this duo my hair has maintained the perfect balanced of moisturized without being greasy.

As we all know you're not supposed to wash your hair every day, and those who do always start off thinking "I could never do that, my hair would get so greasy!" Well, this product fixes that. After a day of not washing my hair, my hair would be the ultimate grease-ball. There was just no escaping it. Now, I can go two, three, sometimes four days without washing it... and no one would ever know! I can even put my hair up on day, and wear it down the next and still have it looking absolutely perfect. I cannot rave anymore about this shampoo and conditioner, at the moment they are definitely my holy grail hair products. Thinking about it I'm quite sad to be moving on to the other variations, but I'm sure my hair will be in great hands with the other Fekkai products.

The next duo I'm going to try out will be the Glossing Formula. So, I'll let you know how that all goes!

While I'm at it, I recently won a contest! Thanks to lovely Miss Timeless Fashionista!

I won these wonderful lip balms!

xo

Rachel

Haul: Books + Costco Discounts

Hello again my lovelies,

I am sitting here in my school's library annex (our library is under construction) and instead of studying for my finals next week, here I am posting my haul!

First and foremost last week I finished the Time Travelers Wife. Such an amazing book. If you liked the movie I'm sure that you'll positively adore the book! I haven't read a book that good in a very long time. So, to make up for that I had to go buy some more! Luckily for me, on Tuesday Chuck Palahniuk's new book Tell All came out. I just love Chuck Palahniuk

(the genius author of Fight Club and Choke), so I am very

excited to get started on this book. As well as buying a regular copy, I pre-ordered a signed book. Once I get my compute

r home I'll take a picture of that! I also decided to pick up Closing Time and God Knows by Joseph Heller. Last summer I read Catch 22, and I loved it. Closing time is the sequel and God Knows is a tale about the Biblical King David of Israel as a young Jewish boy. I cannot wait to read all of these

books!

Now on to the next

part of my haul. I mentioned that the items we

re from Costco, which may seem a bit strange. At my local Costco (a wholesale store for those who don't have any near by) I noticed that they were selling a package of a Frederick Fekkai shampoo + conditioner for only about $20! Now, normally one bottle alone goes for about $23 so I had to grab this chance! I got two packages; one in the glossing formulation with a glossing cream, and one in the technician color treated formulation with syrum.

After that I found another great deal! I saw that they had the Juicy Couture Eau De Parfum for only $30. I absolutely love this scent! I bought it in the roller ball from Sephora a few weeks ago for $16 and I am obsessed. I wear it everyday, it just smells delightful. The top notes are said to be passion fruit, melon, marigold, apple, water hyacinth and crushed leaves. With the middle notes as wild rose, princess lily and tuberose and the base notes vanilla crème brûlée, precious wood and patchouli. Needless to say, its enchanting.

I've previously mentioned my love for Frederick Fekkai hair products, so once I've given the two new shampoos and conditioners a go I will do a review. I am so excited to try these new products out!

Have you tried any of these products?

xo

Rachel

LOTD: Formal (2)

Hello again, darlings!

The second formal I went to this weekend was called Roseball (again, cute right?) This was for the fraternity that my boyfriend is in. My dress was this cute grey and black backless dress from Wet Seal. For my hair, I twisted my bangs off to the side and pulled the rest of my hair into a side ponytail. I wore black beads from H&M, a pearl bracelet from Forever 21, and red heels from Payless.

For my face I used:

1) NARS Primer with SPF

2) NARS Sheer Glow in Deuxville

3) MAC Strobe Cream

4) Hoola Bronzer

5) MAC Summer Rose Beauty Powder

6) MAC Shell Pearl Beauty Powder

For my eyes I used:

1) MAC Bare Study Paint Pot

2) MAC All That Glitters Eyeshadow in the inner third of the eye

3) Urban Decay Last Call in the outer 2/3rds of the eye

4) Urban Decay Oil Slick in the crease

5) Urban Decay Oil Slic 24/7 Eyeliner

6) Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara

Sorry I don't have a more close up picture, by the time I got to it I was already on the dance floor, and that's not exactly pretty!

I was also bad and bought a few things yesterday, so my next post will be a haul! Talk to you all soon!

xo

Rachel

LOTD: Formal (1)

Hey lovelies!

So I just had my big weekend! Two formals and a alumni tea party. Needless to say I'm exhausted. My first look from this weekend is from my own formal (Sapphire Ball, cute right?). For my hair I had my friend curl it and after this picture was taken I pinned my bangs back.

For my face I used:

*NARS Primer with SPF

*NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in Deuxville

*Benefit Hula Bronzer

*MAC Summer Rose Beauty Powder for Blush

*MAC Shell Pearl Beauty Powder as a highlight

For my eyes I used:

*Benefit Lemonaid

*MAC Bare Study Paint Pot

*MAC All That Glitters all over the lid

*MAC Satin Toupe in the crease

*MAC Twinks in the outer V

*MAC Shroom as a highlight

*Mac Retrospeck as a highlight

*Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara

*NYX Blue Sapphire Eyeliner

And yes, the handsome guy in my picture is my lovely date, and also now my boyfriend :)

What's your favorite look for a special occasion?

xo

Rachel