Favorite Makeup Brushes

1. Sigma Small Angled E65: Perfect for faux wings, you can see it in action HERE 
2. Morphe M433: I use this to put color on my lid or for more precision within the crease. 
3. Morphe M441: My go-to crease brush! Blends everything out perfectly and applies just the right amount of pigment. 
4. Sigma pencil E30: My absolute favorite brush for applying shadow to the lower lash line. 
5. Real Techniques pixel-point eyeliner brush: Amazing for smoking out faux wings for a more subtle, un-done, smokey effect.
6. Real Techniques accent brush: The best for applying highlight to my inner corners. 
7. Real Techniques detailer brush: Whenever I mess up my liquid eyeliner I use this with a tiny bit of makeup remover and swipe upward towards the end of my eyebrow to define and cut out my wing, works like a charm.
8. Elf small tapered brush: Whenever I don't use my damp beauty blender to set my concealer I use this little brush, it is the best and so affordable!
9. Sonia Kashuk No.29 : One of my favorites for applying blush
10. Morphe M527: THE BEST bronzer brush ever, it picks up the product much better than all of my other bronzer brushes.
11. Real Techniques buffing brush: My favorite brush for buffing out liquid foundation. 
12. Nars Ita brush: The only contour brush I use. 
13. Sigma tapered highlighting brush F35: The only highlighting brush I use, it packs the highlight onto my face perfectly. 
14. Morphe G2: AMAZING for under-eye concealer application, blends everything out perfectly. 
15. Sedona lace 217: Same as above, absolutely love this brush for blending out concealer underneath my eyes. it really gets into every crevasse. 
16. Sigma Large angled contour F40: I use this for blush and it does such a great job at blending out my blush, it applies just the right amount of pigment. 

Just wanted to give a special mention to my beauty blender. It is not a brush, which is why I did not include it in this post, but that little sponge is the real MVP. 

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5 Fall Beauty Trends I'm Loving

Eyeshadow Faux Wings

Here are five of my current favorite Fall makeup trends.

To be honest I wear most of these throughout the entire year but for the most part they are very fall appropriate. 

The first Trend that I'm loving is a more unique twist to the traditional wing. While I do still love a good ol' liquid liner wing, I've found myself doing nothing but smokey wings lately. It's so much easier and forgiving than liquid liner... not to mention less stressful. 

Using different colored cream eyeliners or eyeshadows to make a wing also gives the most beautiful effect.

Camel or Warm-Toned Very Blown-out Smokey Eye

My favorite kind of smokey looks are the extremely blow-out ones. I think there is something so beautiful in an effortless look.. the kind where you don't look like you spent 2 hours on your makeup... when you probably did. 

I think camel is my favorite color eyeshadow so of course I had to pick a camel colored look but any warm toned look looks so beautiful during the fall season. 

Mauve or Berry-Toned blush

I think my favorite part of fall is digging into my makeup drawers and pulling out all of my mauve or berry-toned blushes. 

My current favorite is mood exposure by Hourglass and pink chocolate by amazing cosmetics. 

Extremely highlighted Inner-corners.

I never use to highlight my inner corners & I always wondered why my eye makeup never popped. Now I know! This is a must in order to make your eyeshadow look more put together. 

Aside from a subtle highlight however, Ive been enjoying going slightly overboard and making more of a statement with my inner corner highlight. This is perfect for when you put on minimal eyeshadow but really want your eyes to pop. 

Simple/Minimal Eye + Bold Lip

Fall is not Fall until you pull out all of your bold lipsticks!

I've really been loving bold lips with minimal eye makeup, specially stain-like bold lips. 

+++ All photos were found on pinterest. 

Beauty favorites of 2015

I tried REALLY hard to make it only 15 products, I failed. So here are some of my faves for the year 2015.

1. Bobbi brown bronzing powder (shade golden light)- I despise bronzers that you have to be careful with, I obviously look for good payoff but something that goes on smoothly and doesn't leave blotches. THIS ONE does just that & it does so beautifully. I also want to give an honorable mention to the makeup forever pro bronzer ( I didn't include it because I got it recently but it's amazing)
2. Laura Mercier matte radiance powder (shade 01)- If you want to look like you've been kissed by an angel you should get this stuff. It is perfect for day to day but you can also really pack it on to make it more dramatic. I use the heck out of it and it barely has a dent so you do get your money's worth.
3. Origins VitaZing moisturizer- I don't wear foundation everyday and I really enjoy products that cut your get-ready time. I've been using this since I was about 17 and it remains a favorite. It is a moisturizer with spf and a slight tint, it gives you a little glow and makes you slightly bronzed. Great for everyday.
4. Laura Mercier secret brightening powder- Concealer and under-eye powder are kind of my thing. My favorite makeup to buy is anything that has to do with the under-eye because I seriously think that if you do not look like you're well rested nothing else will look good on your face... plus I've got some pretty gnarly hereditary dark circles -.- this powder is one of the, if not THE BEST, under-eye setting powder that I have ever tried and trust me when I tell you I have tried a lot.
5. MAC mineralized skin finish natural- I'm pretty sure I mention this every time I post a makeup favorites blog post or instagram picture but it's because this stuff is amazing, end of story.
6. Rimmel scandaleyes waterproof khol kajal- I've been more into nude eyeliners as opposed to black lately and I've really been enjoying this one by Rimmel I also have the one by Tarte and they are both awesome.
7. Eve by Eve's liquid liner- For some reason, my eyelids get oily... nothing else on my face is oily besides my freaking eyelids and it drives me crazy. The fact that my eyelids are slightly hooded doesn't help either. Everything transfers to my lid. When I rave about a mascara or an eyeliner it is because they will not budge and if they do not budge on me I guarantee they will not budge on you because my eyelids are most likely oilier that yours. With that said, I recently discovered this eyeliner and the description mentioned that it was waterproof, smudge-proof, EVERYTHING-proof,  a little more and they would've said bullet proof, so of course I had to try it. They weren't kidding. This eyeliner along with the Kat von D tattoo liner, nyx matte liner and Loreal lineur intense ARE THE ONLY liquid eyeliners that work for me and don't transfer to my upper lid, the reason I chose to include this one was because it is a matte finish and this tip is much easier to work with than the nyx liner.
8. Elf studio tapered brush- This brush is like 8 bucks and it is the only thing I use to set my under-eye & I don't think I can ever live without it. Another brush that I discovered this year is this morphe brush which I didn't include in the picture because it was extremely dirty since I use it every day. But it is the best concealer brush ever, it blends everything out like a beauty blender except you don't have to wet it so if you're lazy when it comes to damping that little glorious sponge I recommend you try the morphe brush.
9. Stila soul pallete- Really used the heck out of this palette, every single color is beautiful and super pigmented.
10. Nyx lip pencil in nude truffle- I love and own almost all of the nyx lip pencils, they are the best for the price in my opinion but I'm not sure what it is about this particular color that is so flattering. I can put this underneath any lip color and it makes it look amazing. I REALLY love how it looks under nudes.
11. Nars audacious lipstick (shade raquel)- Best formula I have ever tried in a lipstick. I use this color ontop of Nyx nude truffle.
12. Nars blush (shade madly)- My first blush ever and it will probably remain a favorite till my skin is too wrinkled for blush.
13.Lancome Hypnose star mascara- Really love this mascara, doesn't flake or transfer to my lid and gives a ton of volume. I also want to mention my Clinque lash power and Giogio Armani eyes to kill mascaras because those will forever be faves as well.
14. Tarte maracuja creaseless concealer (shade light sand)- Love. this. concealer. It works the best when blended out with your finger and then set with a matte finish powder like the Laura mercer one. AMAZING and super moisturizing.
15.Nars Radiant creamy concealer (shade vanilla)- I only use this concealer for outings because it is super high coverage so it looks best with a full face of makeup in my opinion but it is beautiful and it replaced my old time favorite mac pro longwear concealer.
16. Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua (shade 20 beige)- Long time favorite for a good reason. Best natural looking foundation, it seriously gives the most beautiful dewy finish.
17. Buxom lipgloss (shade White Russian)- Whenever I don't wear lipstick I wear this and it gives such a pretty color to the lips and plumps them as well.

Let's Get Organized

I like to keep things as simple, minimal, organized and as controlled as I possibly can.. With makeup however, my collection is far from minimal so the only thing one can really do once minimalism is out of the equation, and you've cleaned out everything that is expired/unusable, is organize and TRY to control yourself by omitting from buying things you don't need.. ( I couldn't be more of a hypocrite for saying that but maybe putting it into words & re-reading this shit will help me take my own advice & convince me once & for all that I DO NOT need another nude lipstick or neutral eyeshadow.)

 I am not the most organized OCD person on this planet (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I just truthfully function 100% better when things are structured in some way. Recently, I needed to move all of my makeup into my room and out of my bathroom and decided to buy the very popular Ikea Alex drawer unit (last picture shows the inside of the drawers divided w/ containers from the Container store) in order to organize all of it within my closet. I don't consider my collection to be huge compared to other people's but I do think it is a lot more than anyone would ever need & I admit it may be getting a little out of hand & I am fully aware that I may have a bit of a problem... but I'm okay with it, it isn't hurting anyone and it isn't a heroin addiction... so yes, I'm okay with it. Anywho, after organizing everything within my closet I was keeping my day-to-day makeup inside of my makeup bag to prevent from having to pull things out of each drawer within my closet daily.

I found that not a lot of my makeup was being used this way and I needed to come up with a new strategy in order to facilitate the rotation of the things that I use ( & organize even more -.-). Since I get ready on my desk, I decided to re-locate the stationary from my top drawer and replace it with my daily makeup or things that I want to use. This helps me see everything and reach for things more. I bought containers from muji and organized everything by category and in the order that I apply. I make it a point to switch out as much of the makeup from these containers as I can on a weekly basis and It really has helped me go through a lot more of it and re-discover things that I already had. I also cleaned the wax out of a burned out Diptyque candle that I loved and a bath and body works candle and used them both as brush holders along with a mason jar, the acrylic container above my desk is from the Container store & I use it to display some of my fave/ prettiest products. 

Ikea Drawers | Muji Containers