I can't believe it's April. Time is flying! I am very happy for Spring. As much as I love a good snowstorm, I get tired of it by March like most people. I also love it when there is no longer a question on if you should put on your wool coat or your trench.

But on to the favorites!



1. Urban Decay's Oz the Great and Powerful Glinda Palette - I had a tough time choosing between buying Glinda or Theodora, mostly because the Theodora came with a red lipstick. I'm quite happy I settled on Glinda. The palette has a nice variety of colors. I didn't take swatches since those can be seen on a number of wonderful blogs already.

I have fair skin, so many times I will just sweep a light color on the lids and a deeper color in the crease and be done with it. The shadow options for that alone in this is great. I quite like the easy purple eye of using Magic on the lid and Tornado in the crease. It isn't an overpowering purple eye, which is nice for me since I don't do bold eyes often. Illusion is also a perfect all over lid shade that works with many other neutrals in the crease or I can use it to blend out edges of other colors on my skin. Both sides of Aura are amazing highlights with beautiful iridescent sheen. I have even taken a fan brush and used it as a cheek highlight. South is so beautiful. If I am going out this is great all over my lids with a darker brown or dark grey in the crease and some eyeliner and done. Oz has a bit more glitter than I care for, but I have been using both sides of it (depending on if I'm doing a warm or cool eye) on the center of my lid to make it pop and give it depth.

These shadows are buttery (except for Oz because of the glitter), like most Urban Decay shadows, and I really like the flexibility of the palette itself since the shadows can be switched out. I also love the 24/7 Glide on Pencil in Rockstar. I have quite a few of these liners, but I didn't have this shade and I really love it. It's deep enough to almost look black, but it is softer.

The only downside is the lip shade. On the photo of Michelle Williams, who plays Glinda in the film, and online when I saw photos of the pencil, it looks much more pink. Unfortunately on me it came through very brown. I can layer it over a pink lip liner, but will I ever do that? Eh.

2. Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Dollface - This is a beautiful light blue-ish pink blush. The Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush formula is amazing too. They call it a 12-hour blush, and I have no problem with mine lasting that long. It's very soft and pigmented so you have to have a light hand with these blushes, but I find that since this color is so light, it isn't as finicky like that. When I put this on I feel like it really matches the natural flush I have in my cheek when I've been out in the cold too long. I once read that was how makeup artists used to match blush color back in the days before we got all creative with makeup, so I guess that explains that.



3. Benefit They're Real! Mascara - You know how sometimes you get a sample size mascara and they just give you a standard brush instead of the special brush they use for the full size? Well, that was what I was expecting here but I'm so glad it wasn't true.
See how the tip of the brush has bristles going out all around? I LOVE THAT. This really helps get the lashes in my inner corner and on the outer corner of my left eye that I always have trouble with. And the formula is really nice! It gives good length and makes them thicker (though you do have to be careful not to let it get too clumpy!) and I don't get any flakes with this stuff. Amazing! I will for sure be purchasing a full size of this after I get through my many other mascaras in my drawer. I think I have another one of these in there though, so I will be set!

4. Hourglass Opaque Rouge Liquid Lipstick in Icon - This stuff is pricey, yes, but wow. I am impressed with it. It dries somewhat matte and stays on for DAYS. Okay, not days exactly, but hours and hours. And even through light drinking/eating. I've been wearing this color a lot because I knew spring was coming and I wouldn't want to wear such a dark color as much. After this month I'm convinced I need to buy it in the color Raven so I can wear it all spring/summer. I'm trying to hold out for the rumored Sephora 15% off VIB coming up. Sigh.


I swatched it so you can see the variety that you can have with this shade.
The above is from the applicator straight out of the tube with one swipe.

With this one I smeared the first swatch and then took what was on my finger already and blended it into bare skin. So you can kind of do a dark-medium-light (thought it's kind of like darker-dark-light) but you see what I mean. You can play with these. They are workable at first and then they set and get more matte (not totally like Ruby Woo dry matte though) and don't budge.

5. Essie Nail Polish in Bikini So Teeny - I'm not going to lie, I totally got this nail polish because I wanted a "Jack White blue" color because I had nothing like that. I'm kind of that lame. Plus, it was a pretty spring color that I thought would look nice. And yup. It's amaze. You can kind of see in this photo that there is a subtle shimmer to this polish. I couldn't really see it when it was on my nails.

I ended up doing three coats of this on my nails. I could have got away with two, but I had a couple spots that were likely due to my ineptitude at doing my nails. I used a Sinful Colors basecoat and my Salley Hansen red bottled quick dry top coat and my nails lasted a week and a half! Now, normally I chip by then (though I usually get a good 5 or 6 days out of a manicure) but I also ALWAYS get tired of a color by that time Not this stuff. It was so frickin pretty. I did end up trying (and failing) to put little half moons at the base of my nails with Butter London's Diamond Geezer, but after that I found I wished I just had the blue nail going on again! These were seriously ridiculous pretty.

Here is an Instagram I posted with it:


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Disclaimer: This post contains my own opinion. I have not been sent these items for consideration and/or review.