Sephora Play!

I love subscription boxes and I've tried a few ranging from beauty products to even food. I've tried boxes that deliver healthy snacks, boxes of candy from Japan, and boxes of different hair and makeup products. They were all great, but when I heard Sephora was going to jump on the subscription box train I had to get my hands on it!

Its called Sephora Play! and because Sephora is my favorite place to test out and buy makeup and hair products, I was pretty excited about the news. I had to stand on a waitlist for a while, but I think the option to subscribe is more readily available now.

Like with most subscription boxes, when I signed up for Sephora Play! I had to fill out a quiz asking things like what type of skin I have, the texture of my hair, and my skin tone. I filled out that I have fair skin that's normal to oily and that one of my main desire from skin products was age defying and anti wrinkle creams. Then you get a box filled with Sephora goodies that are tailored to you and what you like. Getting the box in the mail was like an exciting surprise gift.

And when I opened it, it got even better! Here's what I got in my October box...

Nude Stix Intense Matte Lip+Cheek Pencil in Belle

All-In-One Egg Mellow Cream (firming moisturizer)

Smashbox Lip Gloss

Verb Leave In Mist (hair conditioning spray)

Ski Inc. Pure Revival Peel

Tom Ford Orchid Soleil Perfume

The best part of all of this is the card that comes with the box, which you can take to any Sephora store and get a free one to one tutorial on how to use each product!

This is what, in my opinion, sets this subscription box apart from other beauty boxes like Birchbox. And for $10 a month, it is practically a steal! Who wouldn't want this, honestly? And its a great gift to consider giving someone this holiday season.

I absolutely cannot wait for my November Sephora Play! box!

NYX Beauty Haul.

Growing up, I was never really taught how to do my own makeup, so I wasn't really into it and my standard go to brand was MAC. Recently, however, I've been experimenting more with my makeup and different brands and I've been watching makeup tutorial videos to learn as much as I can. One brand that has stood out to me is NYX, and it's slowly becoming one of my favorite makeup brands in the business!

Last weekend, I ventured to the Santa Anita Mall in Los Angeles where there is an NYX store. I used to only see NYX as a drugstore makeup brand, but it has been growing globally and fortunately still being sold at drugstore prices! During my visit, I stocked up on different products that I want to share with you all. All of these products have great formulas and really hold their own against department store brands like MAC and Urban Decay.

Here's what I got on my haul!

Strobe Genius Illuminating Palette: Contouring is (apparently) out and strobing is in! What is strobing? Think Jennifer Lopez's beautiful glowing and illuminated face (strobing) vs. Kim Kardashian's sculpted cheekbones and other facial features (contouring). Strobing is creating a glowing look on your face by illuminating the parts of your face that get the most light, like your cheekbones, forehead, and bridge of your nose, and this Strobe Genius palette is the perfect product to do it. I love that it comes with different shades, which can be used for different skin tones. With summer coming, skin tones change in the sun and having the different shades in the palette can keep up with your busy summer lifestyle.

Strobe of Genius Illuminating Palette, $19.00

Here I am rocking the strobe look by highlighting my cheekbones for a wedding.

Prismatic Eye Shadow in Fireball: I've been seeing this copper look everywhere on the red carpet and on celebrities so I really wanted to try it out. I think the bold color would pair well with my fair skin. It's super pigmented so the color remains bold on your face and doesn't go on lightly. It stays all night too! This look on Khloe Kardashian is what inspired me to try out this copper color.

Fireball Prismatic Shadow, $6

Soft Matte Lip Cream in Cannes and Amsterdam: With the recent craze for matte lips, possibly fueled by Kylie Jenner, these lip creams have really pretty matte colors that stay on for hours. The names of the lip creams are of different cities around the world. I like this red color cream called Amsterdam and this pinkish beige color called Cannes.

Soft Matte Lip Cream, $6

Intense Butter Gloss in Black Cherry Tart: Sometimes when I'm putting makeup on, I like to go for a gothic and rebellious look and this Black Cherry Tart color is the perfect compliment to that look. It's a deep purple color that goes on glossy and stays that way. It's more hydrating than the soft matte lip creams too.

Intense Butter Gloss, $6

All these products and more are of great quality and reasonable price. They can be found at drugstores and makeup stores like Ulta, but the most variety can be found at the NYX stores in the Santa Anita Mall and the Sherman Oaks Mall or on their website, www.nyxcosmetics.com!

Kylie Lip Kit!

When Kylie Jenner first started becoming more popular and rivaling her famous Kardashian sisters, she focused a lot on her look by accentuating her lips. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of her overly plumped lips, but after a while, she started wearing some really awesome and flattering lip colors and I became slightly obsessed with her look. I had to get those lip colors in my hands, so I was so excited when she announced her own line of matte lip colors.

They've gone on sale so many times for months now, but each time, all the kits sold out in minutes! I tried and tried and tried to get my hands on them, but with the high volume of people ordering them, the website would time out often and would quickly sell out of products. People were selling kits on Ebay for double the price because of the high demand! Desperate to get Kylie's look, I researched and bought similar shades of the matte liquid lipstick just so I could get the color, but they never came close to the colors in Kylie's kit.

But then last week, my best friend, Natalie, texted me letting me know the kits were on sale, and I got on the website ASAP.

It's a good thing she let me know, because I finally was one of the lucky ones to get a Kylie Lip Kit!! The demand was still high so I was only able to order Dolce K. I'm a big fan of brown undertones so I thought it would be the good color for me regardless.

There are a lot of pros from the product and some issues I had with it. Let's get into it...

Color: It's important to know that the colors really look different on different skin tones! I loved Dolce K, but I didn't anticipate it being so dark and as brown as it was. I'm fairly light skinned so it was a deeper color on me than it is on tanner people. I'm definitely going to try to get Candy K for a more pinkish hue.

The Liquid: The color is very pigmented. You could cover your entire lips with one swipe, which is awesome. It dries matte and stays on for a LONG time. I'm talking all day. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner with it on and only had to reapply after dinner.

Usually, matte liquid lipsticks tend to dry out your lips so I was expecting this from Kylie's lipstick too, but her formula actually dried out my lips to an extreme. My lips were super dry, even more than how dry they are when I use matte lipstick from other brands like NYX.

The smell of the liquid is really cute. It smells like the vanilla flavor Lip Smackers we all used to get in 8th grade. I can't quite decide if the smell is nostalgic or a reminder of my awkward pre-teen years. But at least the scent doesn't linger when you put the lipstick on.

The Liner: I usually don't wear lip liner when I'm putting my face together, but I was pleasantly surprised with how buttery this lip liner was. It glided on so smoothly on my lips and kept the lipstick in place. The liner, also, lasted on my lips for a very long time and I didn't have to reapply it.

Packaging: I loved the packaging of the Kylie Lip Kit! The dripping lip color on lips logo is so edgy and fun. It just screams fun and youthful and it's something I can definitely get on board with. The packaging box also had the drip decal on it...I immediately knew what that package was when I saw it in the mail. I also enjoyed the note that came with the kit, which is printed, but in Kylie's handwriting. I think it added a nice personal touch to the product.

Overall, I would recommend purchasing Kylie's Lip Kit! I give it an A- only losing points for how much it dried out my lips. But nothing that a little moisturizer can't fix. You can buy your lip kit at www.kyliecosmetics.com, but make sure you go on a few minutes before they go on sale so you won't be disappointed when it sells out in 1.2 seconds. The next time they will be on sale again is today March 28, 2016 at 4pm PST.