The Five Product Challenge

Quite a while ago, I read a post on the share bear about how she challenged herself to pare down to just the essentials. Just five things. And it stuck with me. I use a TON of products when I do my makeup. So I decided to try it, just to see if I could.
And obviously, I couldn't. I got down to six and I was like NO, there isn't anything I can cut out. Overall, I'm still happy I managed to get down to six.

It came out as a really nice, "no makeup" type of look! As a bonus, I only used one brush as well, my Real Techniques Blush brush.
Do you think you could do it? Even if you think you might only get down to six, I challenge you to give it a go!

Liebster Award!

I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Jade @ Beauty Kitten! I'm pretty excited and I really appreciate it!
The Liebster Award is given to blogs you love under 200 followers. It's a great way to discover smaller awesome blogs! The rules are fairly simple:

1. Each blogger should answer the questions the tagger has set for you.
2. Choose 11 new bloggers to pass the award onto and link them in your post.
3. Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.
4. Go back to their page and tell them about the award.
5. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.
6. No tag-backs!

Here are my answers to Jade's questions:

1. What makeup product do you have a weakness for? (Ex. blush, lipsticks, mascaras)
Definitely blush! I've got a ton on my wishlist but I've got way too many as it is.
2. What's your favorite season?
Spring! I don't like the heat of summer or the coldness of winter and I love how everything feels new and bright and full of promise in the spring.
3. What's your favorite song right now?
I couldn't pick just one! Mama's Broken Heart by Miranda Lambert and Merry Go Round by Kacey Musgraves.
4. If you had to go on a reality show, which would it be?
Maybe Big Brother? I would hate to be on a reality show!
5. What's your favorite movie genre?
Is historical a genre? I love The Young Victoria, My Week With Marilyn, and The Queen. I'm most looking forward to The Great Gatsby.
6. What's the last book you read?
The last book I finished was Lemony Snicket's Who Could That Be At This Hour?. It's definitely aimed at kids but I've been reading Lemony Snicket books since The Bad Beginning. I'm currently working on A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
7. Are you a cat person or a dog person?
I like dogs but I'm definitely a cat person.
8. What's one food that you hate?
Olives. There are a lot of things I can overlook when they are mixed in with everything else (onions, mushrooms) but I can't eat olives.
9. How did you come up with the name of your blog?
I love alliteration. So I just thought of lots of nail polish words and tried to match them up with words that felt very personal to me at the time. My son was still quite small and almost everyone mentioned his monkey toes when they saw him.
10. Do you have any pets?
Together, my boyfriend and I have three cats.
11. Do you make a lot of impulse purchases?
As far as beauty products, yes. I don't often go in with a set idea of what I'm getting but about half of what I end up with I had seen reviews/swatches of before hand.

11 Random Facts About Me:
1. I'm a twin (and that's my default answer for when someone asks for an interesting/random fact about me).
2. I wanted to go to school for pharmacy when I was in high school. I don't regret not doing it, life led me down a different path.
3. I love the scent of Tide and clean laundry. Like I want my whole house to smell like that all the time.
4. My boyfriend and I made our New Year's resolution to eat more pie. So far, so good.
5. Turtles are my favorite animal. Always have been, always will be.
6. I find it really offensive when people "joke" about gingers not having souls.
7. Sir Roger Moore is my favorite Bond but I think Ralph Fiennes will be my favorite M.
8. My sister and I did a carpet commercial in the 5th grade. It was...weird.
9. My favorite restaurant is Olive Garden.
10. I have never broken a bone.
11. I keep lists for everything. Like seriously, everything.

The people I nominate:

1. Sam @ Violently Beautiful
2. Jenn @ Fondue You Love Me?
3. Anna @ Business Lady Polish
4. Dejhana @ Waite a Little
5. Kim @ Graced By Lace
6. Astrid @ Truth About Cosmetics
7. Sarah @ SarahSee. Beauty
8. sillylilacs @ Secret Life of a Pharmacy Student
9. Ali @ Pulchritudinous Polish
10. beautybabbling @ Beauty and Babbling
11. Meg @ Meg Bolderson

Here are my 11 questions for them!

1. How did you meet your best friend?
2. What's one makeup thing you struggle with?
3. What's one place you really want to see before you die?
4. What do you splurge on?
5. Who would you pick to play you in a movie?
6. What is your absolute favorite store to shop at?
7. What is your favorite snack food?
8. If you could have a role in any TV show, what would it be?
9. You are having a dinner party. You can invite anyone, dead or alive. Who would it be?
10. What is one beauty product on your wishlist right now?
11. What is your favorite cosmetics brand?

I had a ton of fun doing this and I hope you found some new bloggers to follow!

Four or More

I saw this just a couple times on youtube but I really liked the concept so I figured I'd blog it! The idea is simple, show all the products you own four or more of.

If I haven't said it enough before, I love the NYX Mega Shine Lip Glosses. They are a perfect gloss formula and really inexpensive. The shades I have are La La, Beige, Crystal Soda and Tea Rose.

I also have four NYX Lipliner Pencils. The formula is ok. I got four because they were on sale and I didn't have any other lip liners. If you want some, this range is a great place to start because there are a lot of colors, they are pretty good quality and inexpensive. The shades I have are Rose, Peekaboo Neutral, Bloom and Hot Red

I have six of the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters! I've heard them described as the lipstick girl's alternative to lipstick and I think that's pretty accurate. They feel buttery and smooth on the lips and are not high maintenance like lipsticks tend to be. I have six shades, Pink Truffle, Candy Apple, Brown Sugar, Berry Smoothie, Raspberry Pie, and Sweet Tart.

Four ELF Essential Lipsticks! This is a great pick for those who don't know what works for them yet. The selection of colors isn't the biggest out there but at $1 it's a great jumping off point. I have Classy, Sociable, Flirtatious and Fearless.

Seven MAC shadows! MAC's eyeshadows definitely deserve at least most of the hype. The line is HUGE and while they are on the more expensive side, they are generally very good quality. I have Shroom, All That Glitters, Mulch, Motif, Jest, Woodwinked, and Copperplate.

Finally, I have the entire line or Rimmel Glam'Eyes HD eyeshadow palettes. I did win the full set in a giveaway. They are nice shadows but in poorly thought out packaging. Still, I would highly recommend them!

And that's it! I did leave out my ELF Hypershine lipglosses because I figured I bought them in a set so they don't really count. It was surprising how many products I had three of. If this had been called Three or More, this post would have been twice as long. Overall, I find that I do like to experiment with different formulas and brands so if I do collect four or more of a product, I have to really like it. If you are interested, go ahead and do this tag and post a link in the comments so I can read it!

I ♥ Drugstore!

I've been loving these videos on youtube lately so I'd give it a shot!

1. What is your favorite drugstore makeup brand?
I guess it's ELF because I own more ELF than any other brand. I've tried a pretty wide range of their products and there are so many things I love from them. Favorites are the studio blushes, essential lipsticks, studio high definition powder and makeup mist and set.

2. What are your favorite face, cheek and lip products?

Face- L'Oreal Lumi Foundation and ELF HD Powder
Cheek- ELF Studio Blushes
Lip- NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss

3. Least favorite product?
Rimmel pro primer. It just felt heavy on my face and broke me out (probably because my face was sweating from how heavy it feels). To add insult to injury, it didn't really do anything to improve how my makeup went on or it's staying power.

4. What is the best makeup bargain?
Probably the Wet N Wild Color Icon Eyeshadows. So inexpensive but the quality and pigmentation is on par with MAC and Urban Decay!

5. What is your favorite underdog product? (Something you love that often gets overlooked?)
The ELF essentials lipsticks. They're only $1, really creamy and pretty basic colors. For a beginner, it would be great to pick these up, even if all you want is some lippies to play with and experiment with what colors look best on you. Just a heads up, the packaging is definitely $1 and they are so soft they can be prone to breaking. This doesn't bother me as I don't carry lipsticks with me and I don't mind repairing a lippie.

 

6. A drugstore product that is overpriced?
Physician's Formula. I only own one Physician's Formula product, I won it from their FB page and I'm meh on it. My roommate at college only used PF products and she looked like a hot mess at the end of the day. I'm sure they have some quality products but at that price, I'm going to upgrade to higher end brands with prettier packaging and fewer added fragrances.

7. Show your best drugstore dupe(s)!!
I'm not sure if these are exact dupes because I've never bothered to check. I've heard WnW Walking on Eggshells is similar to MAC Shroom, Mulch, and All That Glitters. I'm not big on makeup dupes, I really only care about nail polish dupes.

8. Drugstore product that isn't worth the hype?
EOS lipbalms. I've spoken about these before. They are so waxy. Everyone loves the cute packaging but it is pretty impractical, at least for me.

It was very fun to try to come up with these answers! I tag Sam to try it! I'm definitely going to look for other tags that might be fun to try blogging!