Review: Wet N Wild Fergie Centerstage Shimmer Palettes

Hi everyone! I know I've been MIA since my first two reviews, but I have honestly been trying SO many new products over the past two months so I can give you my full, honest opinion on everything I review for you guys!

Today I will be reviewing two of the Wet N Wild Fergie Centerstage Shimmer Pallets.

There are three pallets in this collection, but I will only be showing you two out of the three. 

The Shimmer Palettes retail for $6 at the drugstore, I found mine at Walgreens. They are baked highlighters, so they can be used wet or dry, depending on the look you are going for. You can use them dry for a subtle glow, and wet for a more pigmented, intense highlight. The pigmentation is hit and miss for me, but I'll talk more about that later. The lasting power on both of them are pretty good, they last all day long without needing to reapply throughout the day. 

The one on the left is called "Rose Champagne Glow". It is a pink champagne color, it's shimmery, but it doesn't have any chunky glitter in it or anything. It gives the cheeks a soft, natural glow. I use this one on days where I want a subtle highlight because the pigmentation on this is on the sheer side, but it still gives me a nice glow without being too much, which is why I like it. 

The one on the right is called "Hollywood Boulevard". It is a gorgeous rose gold color that gives the cheeks a nice, warm bronze glow. I like this for days when I'm going for more of an all over bronzed look. This one is more pigmented than "Rose Champagne Glow" and it really gives you an "in your face" highlight that I absolutely love.

As you can see, "Rose Champagne Glow" (on the left) lacks pigmentation compared to "Hollywood Boulevard" (on the right) but in my opinion, they are both worth the six dollars you pay for them. They are both great for different reasons, and I will continue to use both of them regularly!

Thanks for taking the time to read this review, and I hope you found it helpful! (:

Review: BH Cosmetics Studio Pro Beauty Sponge vs. The Original Beauty Blender

Hello again everyone!

Today's review is going to be on the new BH Cosmetics Studio Pro Beauty Sponge and a comparison with the ever so famous Beautyblender.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll quickly fill you in. Basically, these are sponges that you can use wet or dry to apply foundation or any other type of "complexion corrector". In this review I will tell you about each product individually, and then I'll show you a comparison of the two.

The Original Beautyblender

I purchased my Beautyblender from Sephora for $20

Claims: "The world’s first edge-less, non-disposable, high-definition cosmetic sponge applicator. The unique shape and exclusive material available only with beautyblender® ensures impeccable, streak-free application with minimum product waste. Use it with primers, foundations, powders, cream blushes, and any other complexion product. beautyblender® features an open cell structure that fills with small amounts of water when wet. This allows the sponge to be “full” so that the makeup product sits on top of the sponge rather than being absorbed, allowing you to use less product every time. When wet, beautyblender® doubles in size and becomes even softer, returning to its original size when it air dries.

Directions: "beautyblender® is easy to use: simply wet.squeeze.bounce. your way to makeup perfection!

• wet. beautyblender® with water
• squeeze. out the excess liquid, using a towel if available
• bounce.primer, foundation, powder, cream blush or any other complexion product across the face for flawless results."

BH Cosmetics Studio Pro Beauty Sponge

I purchased mine at on the BH cosmetics website for $4.95

Claims: "Achieve ultimate complexion perfection with the BH Studio Pro Beauty Sponge. The unique shape gives you foolproof application to cover every inch of your canvas. The pointed end works the hard-to-reach spots, like the corners of your nose and around the eyes or for covering imperfections. The large, rounded base blends the larger areas of the face for an undetectable finish. Our beauty sponge is latex free, hypoallergenic and odor free."

Directions: "Run the sponge under water and squeeze, making sure it’s fully saturated. Once fully saturated, the sponge will expand. Squeeze the sponge to remove excess water and lightly dry it with a towel. Your sponge is now ready to use. For best results, cleanse the sponge after each use."

I took the claims and directions directly off of the beautyblender website and the BH cosmetics website.

In my opinion, I believe the two are very similar in terms of how they apply foundation. I use both of them wet, I do not suggest you use them dry, you will not get a very good application that way. They both do what they claim to do, but they do have some differences! I'll list these differences below.

• The BH cosmetics sponge is MUCH bigger than the beautyblender, both when wet and when dry. 
• Because the BH cosmetic sponge is bigger, it cuts my foundation application time in half by covering a much larger portion of the face.
• The BH cosmetics sponge doesn't get as dry as the beautyblender does. I find it extremely difficult to ring all the water out of it. 
• The BH cosmetics feels much heavier than the beautyblender.
• In my opinion the  BH cosmetics sponge is much softer than the beautyblender.
• The BH sponge doesn't get quite as bouncy as the beautyblender does.

Here are the sponges dry, the pink one is the original beautyblender, the purple one is the bh cosmetics studio pro beauty sponge.

And here are the sponges after I got them wet.

And comparing the bottoms.

My conclusion: I believe purchasing the original beautyblender was the best $20 I've ever spent on a sponge. But the more and more I use the BH cosmetics sponge, the more and more I fall in love with it. I love the fact that the BH sponge is so much larger than the beautyblender, because it cuts my application time in half with the same great coverage. Also, I think BH cosmetics did a great job with their version, because trust me, I have tried a LOT of beauty sponges, and I have never found a "dupe" that's been as good as the BH cosmetics studio pro beauty sponge. I still believe the original beautyblender is the best in it's class, but dang, good job BH Cosmetics! I will definitely be buying another one for back up!

Review: Hard Candy Natural Eyes Palette

Hi everyone! Welcome to my very first blog post! Today I decided to Review the Hard Candy Natural Eyes palette.

This palette retails for $8 at my local Walmart.

Now, when I first saw this palette, I was ecstatic! I was so excited to see it in Hard Candies new line for spring. The first thing I thought was how similar the lay out of the shadows looked compared to my favorite Too Faced pallets. The tin packaging is what completely sold me. So of course, I let my inner beauty addict out and I bought it on the spot. There were three different Hard Candy pallets for me to choose from, the Natural eyes, Sassy Eyes, and Smokey eyes. I LOVE my neutral eye shadows, so of course I purchased the Natural Eyes one.

The packaging is very cute. Its a gold tin with a magnetic closure, similar to the Too Faced pallets. Inside you get nine eye shadows, a Hard Candy Eyes The Limit eye primer, a mini black eyeliner, and a double ended sponge tip applicator. This pallet also comes with a little booklet with three eye looks in it, sort of a step by step guide in case you aren't sure how to create any looks with this pallet. However, just because it shows you how to use the shadows doesn't mean that's how you HAVE to use them! Playing around with them is half the fun! I haven't used the eyeliner, but I've always been a fan of the Hard Candy eye primer, so that was a huge bonus for me.

Now, on to the important stuff!

The top row has all matte shadows. The first one is Tease, a very light creamy color, then Toying, a medium warm brown, and finally Minx, a dark chocolate brown. The quality of these are okay, but to be honest I had a little bit of a hard time getting these to stay on my eyes. They sort of seemed to disappear during the blending process, but after awhile I was able to get them to work for me.. Sort of. 

The second row is all shimmers. First is Bashful, a champagne color which is beautiful for all over the lid, second is Girlie, a shimmery light pinkish color, and then Philander, a dark chocolate brown with some chunky silver sparkles. The quality of these shadows were much better than the matte ones. I always feel like the drugstore pallets lack in quality a little bit when it comes to matte shadows, but these shimmers were perfection and I really enjoyed the application.

The third and final row has one matte shadow and two shimmers, the first is called Chatty, perfect for blending in the crease or for an all over lid color, next is an amazing metallic looking gold called Coy, and then we have a warmer brown with bigger gold sparkles in it called Frisky. Again, the matte shadow took some work, and I'm not a huge fan of chunky glitter in my eye shadows. 

At the end of the day, I have a love/hate relationship with this pallet. I absolutely love the shimmery colors, and I think their quality is fantastic. On the other hand, the matte shadows gave me a lot of trouble. I think if you have the time to work with this pallet to get the color pay off that you want, then by all means, go for it! If I could go back, I would still repurchase it specifically for the shimmery shadows and the eye primer. (: