Physician's Formula Butter Palette Review

  

The medium/dark shade of the palette

     Happy Wednesday! How was everyone's three day weekend? I feel like I'm still in recovery mode from my long weekend and haven't adjusted to the work week yet. Which is nice considering we are half way through the week already! I hung out with my family and friends all weekend and we had a great time. I didn't get to go to the pool like I had planned due to the nasty weather, but I am hoping to go this weekend. Let me know how you celebrated your memorial day weekend, I would love to hear from you!

     I wanted to talk a little bit about the butter face palette that Physician's Formula recently released.It includes one of their iconic butter bronzers, a butter blush, two limited edition butter highlights, and the much requested and limited edition butter paradise fragrance. The palette comes intwo different shades: light/medium and medium/dark. As far as I know it is a limited edition palette and is available on Physician's Formula's website as well as Walmart, in stores and online. If you buy it off the PF website it will cost you $14.99 and at Walmart it is $11.99. I picked up both shades of the palette at Walmart. I noticed that the "medium/dark" shade was not very dark at all. I can use the bronzer in that palette perfectly when I am self tanned and I actually preferred the blush shade vintage rouge in that one over the light palette. The light/medium palette has their light bronzer shade in it, which I can only use during the dead of winter when I am at my palest. The blush in the light palette, natural glow, is extremely light and understated as well and really does not show up on my skin. It would be a good palette for someone that is the palest of the pale and has trouble finding bronzers and blushes that work for their skin tone, but for everyone else I would say go with the medium palette if you can. 

Light/medium bronzer and blush

Medium/dark bronzer and blush

   The highlighters that are included in both versions of the palettes are full moon and galactic, both of which are limited edition. Full moon is a beautifully creamy consistency that looks white in the pan, but when applied to the cheeks pulls an extremely strong gold undertone. I felt that it looked a little odd on my skin tone but would look absolutely gorgeous on skin darker than mine. The other highlighter, galactic, looks like a pale purple in the pan, which does translate to the face. It is beautiful but unfortunately it is very glittery as well. I think I would get use out of it for specific looks, if I am going for more of an out-there, glittery look, but for everyday wear it is a pass for me. I know some others may enjoy a highlighter with some glitter in it and I support that. It is just not my personal preference for the time being. 

Full moon on the left and galactic on the right

  Now lets talk about my favorite product included in the set and pretty much the only reason I bought them in the first place. The Butter paradise fragrance. In my mind this fragrance alone is worth the $12 I paid for the whole set and is why I went ahead and bought two of them. It says on the Physician's Formula website that this fragrance is limited edition but I sincerely hope they change that and come out with a bigger sized bottle because IT IS TO DIE FOR. The bottle is small, only  0.5ozs, which for a huge perfume wearer like myself, is barley anything. I am already more than halfway through my first bottle. The fragrance is based off the scent of the original butter bronzer (the palettes themselves don't really have the well known smell) but it has a little bit of a twist on it. They have altered the scent just slightly to make it more wearable and more perfume like than just straight up coconuts and pina coladas, which honestly wouldn't be bad either. When I smell it, I pick up that those original notes are more subtle and there are also notes of vanilla and floral mixed in. There is no other way to describe it than pure summer. So if you like the sound of smelling like heaven than I strongly recommend you pick yours up soon before they are gone! I am truly hoping that Physician's Formula will make it a permanent part of their line and sell bigger bottles as well because I would buy them all if I could. 

Butter Paradise Fragrance

     One thing that did strike me as odd about the launch was about two or three weeks after they had begun selling these butter palettes I noticed that they now have released a new butter "collection" exclusively to Ulta. This set not only includes a full sized bronzer, blush, and highlight, but also the butter fragrance (still 0.5oz sadly) and the NEW body butter that smells the same. This set is priced at $29.99 which is understandable since it includes the full sized products. So if having the body butter interests you, as well as the full sizes of these products, you may want to spring for that set instead.
     Overall I have really been enjoying my butter palettes. I have worn the fragrance almost every day since I got it and have been getting some use out of the darker shade of bronzer while I am tan. It is completely worth the $11.99 price that I paid for it and I would recommend it for anyone else out there who is thinking about purchasing!
     Let me know if you have tried either of the butter palettes or the new butter set at Ulta! I am very interested to hear peoples' thoughts on the new body butter! Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great rest of your day!

Natasha Denona Tropic Palette- review and swatches

     Welcome to my blog! I'm switching things up today. I wanted to share my thoughts on an eye shadow palette that I purchased about 2 months ago. I truly have a passion for all things makeup and I thought this would be the perfect place for sharing that passion. Thanks for stopping by today and if you like makeup and all things beauty as much as I do I hope you will decide to stick around.
     Today I will be sharing my review and swatches of the newest addition to the Natasha Denona 15 pan palettes, the Tropic Palette. If you are not familiar with the brand Natasha Denona, it is owned by Natasha Denona, who is a skilled makeup artist. It is a high end brand with pricing that I consider to be luxury makeup pricing. The fifteen pan palettes are priced at $129.00 and can be purchased on sephora.com as well as beautylish.com along with the brand's other products. I have tried one other Natasha Denona product in the past. One of her five pan eye shadow palettes. I was extremely impressed with the quality, pigmentation, and 

  blendability of the shadows. However, I did find that it was a little overpriced compared to similar eye shadow products on the market for cheaper.
     Given my love for her eye shadow formula and the color scheme of the palette, when the Tropic Palette was released I immediately purchased it. It is a very summery themed palette. I pictured myself using it during the summer, perhaps on vacation and on the hot summer days spent at the pool and the lake. Everything about it was screaming my name. I bought it off the Sephora website and used my employee discount, which brought the price of the palette down to $103.20. Less expensive than the original price,  but still very pricey. 

  As soon as I received the palette in the mail it had a hold on me. It was absolutely stunning. Everything from the color of the packaging right down to the names of each shade were perfect in my mind. I couldn't wait to start playing with it. There are five shimmer shades in the palette, the two most neutral and wearable to me were Limoncello, I very light, lemony yellow shade, and Gusti, a gorgeous pinky peach shade with micro silver glitter shimmering throughout it. Both of these shades are gorgeous in the pan but when I swatched them and applied them to my eyes they were lacking. Unlike the shadows I had tried in the past from her five pan palette, they did not pack that punch of shimmer and pigmentation that I was expecting. They are very beautiful in the sense that they are extremely glittery, but they need more base pigment. If used wet, it helps a little, but I have found the best way to use these shades is with a glitter glue applied directly on the area of the eye you wish to put the shade and then apply the shade on top. Concealer could also be used in the same way and would ultimately give the same effect of making the pigmentation of the shadow stronger and giving it that desired pop.

      The shade laguna, a beautiful sky blue shade is well placed in the palette as it compliments the other colors nicely. It is extremely pigmented when first applied but the color blends away so it must be built up and not blended too much if you want a strong blue color. I also found that when blended with the brown shades in the palette, laguna turns into a very dark turquoise color. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind when using the palette to create a look.
     Zena, the pastel purple in the palette is the one color that seems a bit out of place. It is still a beautiful shade. However, I found that shade as well was not as pigmented as I expected and desired and was disappointing.
     Two of the most stunning shades and star shadows of the palette are exotic and tiger lilly. Exotic being a deep emerald green metallic and tiger lilly a majestic royal blue metallic. In Natasha Denona's swatches and tutorials that I had seen on this palette, these shades looked so pigmented and blendable and I was thrilled that she had created such colorful and beautiful shades. However, when I began to apply exotic to the outer corner of my eye in a green-blue look I was doing, I noticed that it was not as strongly pigmented or metallic as it seemed in the pan. I also had an extremely hard time blending it out, which took me by surprise since her other shadows I have used in the five pan palette would blend seamlessly into my outer corner or anywhere I applied them. Unfortunately, tiger lilly was the same. After a few uses of these shadows, they both seemed to develop some hard pan, which is when the top of a powder product changes texture and becomes hard to pick up with a brush or finger. I tried to remedy the hard pan on exotic by taking a piece of tape to it, but the shadow is so soft that it ripped away much more product than just the hard pan and ruined the shadow a little bit, which broke my heart considering how much I paid for it.

      Mint Frost is a gorgeous, shimmery aqua shade and easily the most breathtaking shadow in the palette. Thankfully it pulled through for me. Again, I find it performs best with a glitter glue or concealer underneath it, but is stunning now matter how you apply it. This shadow was the closest to her original five pan palette shadow formula.
     As far as the rest of the mattes in the palette go, they are good quality and I like the colors. They blend well and compliment the shimmer shades nicely. They give off that summery vibe which drew me in and can give you a neutral or bold look depending on which ones you pair together. 
     I think it is safe to say that I was slightly disappointed in this palette. It still had a hold on me for some reason though (because I love pretty things and this palette is gorgeous to look at) so instead of returning it and getting my $103 back, I played with it some more and found ways to make it work. I do think that for the money I paid for it, I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to make it work. Honestly, for over $100, it should be like applying powdered gold to my eyes. But that doesn't change the fact that I do love the color scheme and if I put in the effort I really like the looks that I can create with it. Is it an every day palette that I'm reaching for in the mornings before work? No. But does it inspire me, make me feel beautiful when I wear it and help me to feel like I'm that much closer to the beach when I look at it? Yes. And really, at the end of the day, for me that's what I want out of my makeup. To make me feel like my best self. So I kept it and still reach for it occasionally on my days off. Would I recommend it to you? No. Not unless you are looking for a palette that makes you feel the ways I listed above. If you are interested in trying Natasha Denona shadows and are willing to spend the money, I recommend the five pan palettes. They are $49 each and she has a whole range of color schemes. The quality of those are superb. I have also heard that her other 15 pan palettes, the Sunset palette and the Lila palette are the same formula as the five pan palettes but I have not tried either of those ones myself.   
     I believe those were all my thoughts on the Natasha Denona Tropic palette. I hope you enjoyed and it was helpful. I would love to know your opinion on the palette if you've tried it or any other Natasha Denona products. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back again! Have a great rest of your day gorgeous!                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                     
 

How I spent my 25th birthday and why it was the best ever

The gorgeous view of Lake Erie from our window

My birthday was last week on May 10th. It was my 25th. Ever since I passed the age of 21 I've been cringing on the inside at the thought of my next birthday. But this year, the thought of turning 25 was the worst and most cringey yet. So, in order to make it more bearable, I persuaded my husband to take me to my favorite place, so far, on earth. Cedar Point.

     My love for roller coasters started when I was about 11, when my family would go to Holiday World at least once every summer and my dad took me on my very first coaster: The Legend. It is a wooden roller coaster, and it's fairly old, but it's fun. I was immediately addicted, although my heart would still pound while I waited in line to board the ride again and again, and my stomach would drop straight to the floor of the cart every time we cleared that first hill. It was the most amazing feeling. I soon branched out to the only other coaster they had at the time, The Raven, which is amazing as well, although a little more jerky than The Legend. Since then they have built two more: The Voyage, which is a breathtaking and LONG wooden coaster, and their very first steel coaster: Thunder Bird.

     Ever since I heard about Cedar Point, not long after my love for roller coasters began, I've wanted to go there with my entire heart. The coasters at Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, and King's Island just weren't cutting it for me and I knew there was more. My wish finally came true because of my amazing husband who always tries his hardest to make my dreams a reality. For our first anniversary we drove up to Sandusky, OH, stayed the night in a comfort suites, and balled out at the park from open to close the next day. It was everything I ever imagined it would be and more. Later my husband and I joked that we were ruined now and would never be able to ride another coaster the same way because the ones at Cedar Point are miles above anything else that we had experienced.

    So, for my 25th birthday, naturally I asked my husband if we could go again. It had been two years and I was longing to ride my favorite coaster: The Top Thrill Dragster. It stands at a breathtaking 420ft straight up and down, at a 90 degree angle. It launches you like a rag doll, going from 0 to 120mph in 3.8 seconds. Although it only lasts 17 seconds, it is the most thrilling 17 seconds of your life. My husband and I thought that it was not a real coaster when we first saw it. That's how insane it is. As soon as we realized that it was indeed a real ride, and people were being thrown up it as we spoke, we ran as fast as we could to get in line.

The Top Thrill Dragster, my favorite coaster and the third
fastest roller coaster in the world

     Much to my happy surprise, when we got there this year, I realized that there was a new roller

Me and Steel Vengeance

coaster that had just opened. It stood where Mean Streak had once been, and there was, in fact, part of that older wooden coaster still left and turned in to a wooden-steel hybrid coaster: Steel Vengeance. Even though we had early access to the park thanks to the hotel we stayed at (an hour earlier than when the rest of the public could enter) we still ended up waiting an hour and a half to board the new ride. It was worth the wait though. Amazingly smooth with all the charm of a wooden coaster, Steel Vengeance did not disappoint. After that, of course we had to hit all the other roller coasters as well, Raptor, Rougarou, Millennium Force, Valravn, Gatekeeper, Maverick
 and all the others. The steel coasters there are remarkably smooth and like gliding on silk. It was so enjoyable.
     The hotel we stayed at was the one basically inside the park: Hotel Breakers. It is a beautiful hotel and is situated to the left of the wicked twister and on a gorgeous lake Erie beach. They had two large hot tubs, one inside, one out. Three huge pools (agian, one inside, the other two beachfront) and a water park play area for kids. They have several bars and resturants and right outside the Starbucks in the lobby is a huge beachside patio with four beautiful firepits that were lit the entire time we were there. The beach there is gorgeous, although, because we were there in early May, the water was so cold it hurt. Needless to say, we did not do any swimming in the lake, but we did use the hot tub quite a bit.
     Our little birthday trip was a huge success and I highly recommend going to Cedar Point if you are a fan of roller coasters and staying at Hotel Breaker's when you go. The experience is one I will treasure for the rest of my life.