December faves!!!

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!! I can't believe its 2013! Seems like 2012 went so fast, but yet it brought some great things and some not so good things. Anyways, I'll get more into that on my other blog Life In General :) But for now, lets get into the December Favorites. So grab some coffee or some kind of drink and get comfortable because this is going to be a little long, I apologize in advance!



So first lets start with the face product favorites:

 And let me just say that I tried A LOT of beauty products this year and I have found some that I really enjoy! The first product that I have grown to love is my Lo'real true match lumi liquid foundation in W3 Nude beige. By the way, I noticed that I forgot to include this in the picture, sorry :(

This is a great foundation for me in the fall/winter months, because I have oily skin and in the winter it is more dry so this works out very well. It is buildable, but I only need one pump for it be medium coverage on my face. I have really been enjoying this! :)



The next product I love is a long time favorite of mine. It is the Sei Bella tinted moisturizer in fawn #8877.

This has appeared in many tutorials and favorites posts before. The reason I love it so much is because it is a great light coverage foundation for anytime of the year, whether it be winter or summer. I order this online at www.melaleuca.com and it costs $27.00. Now you might be thinking "wow, thats a lot of money to spend on a tinted moisturizer." But for the price, it lasts you a good year or longer. I bought my second tube last year and it still has plenty in it. It doesn't turn liquidy or anything, which is great! :)

The next favorite is the Too faced primed and poreless face primer. I got this in a Too Faced Favorites kit a couple months ago and I LOVE this primer! It gives my face a "flawless" look to it and I just can't say enough good things about it. But one thing that is kind of hard to swallow for me, is the price for the full size primer. The full size costs $30.00 and I just can't see myself spending thirty dollars on a face primer, so that for me is only downfall to this product.



The next product that made it in to my December favorites is ELF translucent matifying powder. I bought this at Target a few months ago and I have hit pan on it, so you know I love it! It costs $3.00 and I think it is a great finishing powder to apply after you've done all your makeup. I will be purchasing another one for sure soon! :)

The next favorite is a blush that is from Tarte. It is the Tarte Natural Cheek Stain in Natural. I got this in a Sephora Favorites kit. And I really love this blush! It looks a little scary in the package because looking at it, its a bright red/berry color, but once you apply it to your cheeks it just creates this "flushed" look to them.

The next favorite is another blush and this one is from Stila. Its called Stila Convertible color in Peony. This is a great color because its a light peachy pink shade, and its pretty much my natural cheek color but better :) I got this as a sample in the same Sephora Favorites kit that the Tarte blush came in.

Ok, that is it for the face product favorites, now onto the eye makeup favorites!


The first favorite in this category is the too faced shadow insurance. I LOVE this eyeshadow primer! It makes my shadow pop more, it doesn't crease, and best of all it is not an oily based primer! I bought this 2 years ago and I still have a little bit left, but it has recently gotten liquidy on me :( so I think I'm going to have to break down and purchase a new one. This primer is a little pricey in my opinion, it costs $18.00 but having said that I think it is absolutely worth the money!

The next product is yet another eye primer from Lorac. It is the Lorac Behind the scenes eye primer. And this primer comes with the Lorac Pro eyeshadow palette, which is another of my favorites from last month and I will go into more detail on that in a few minutes. But this eye primer is great! It makes the shadows pop and it also doesn't crease which is another awesome thing! The full size of this costs $21.00, personally I probably would go for the too faced shadow insurance and pay the $18 for that one rather than the Lorac primer, but all in all I really love this primer as well.

Next, is the palette that goes along with the above eye primer. And this palette is called Lorac Pro eyeshadow palette. I love this palette because the top half of the shadows are matte and the other half is shimmer. I was contemplating getting one of the Naked palettes, but this one was recommended to me because of how versatile it is. The amount of different looks you can do with this palette is limitless! But the only thing that you have to pay attention to, is the shadows are very pigmented and if you don't tap the excess off your brush, you will end up with some fall out. But other than that, these are great shadows! This palette costs $42.00 and its worth every penny! :)

The next product is the wet n wild color icon eyeshadow palette in Sweet As Candy #381B. This is a wonderful palette for a nice, natural yet put together look. I wear this usually to church and other casual occasions/events. I just love how versatile it is, you could put some black liner on your upper lash line if you wanted to dress it up a little or you could just leave it as a natural look. But either way you do it, it still looks great! The wet n wild brand is pretty cheap and the quality is awesome! The shadows are so pigmented and rich, these palettes are my holy grail products so far! I have almost every color of the trios and I have one of the 6 color palettes. The trios run about $2.99 and the 6 color palettes run about $5.99. They also have 8 color palettes, which I have one of those and they run about $7.99. 

The next product is yet another wet n wild eyeshadow, actually two of them. These are the wet n wild shadow singles. I have them in Nutty and Brulee, I've seen people compare Brulee to MAC's brulee and they always say that the wet n wild shadow is better. And I agree with them! Brulee is so pigmented and rich, it is amazing for the price! Also, Brulee is matte. While the shade called Nutty is a shimmery brown taupe color. This shade is absolutely gorgeous in the crease or as a all over lid color. I just can't say enough good things about them! The singles cost around $1.99 each.

 this one is Nutty 

this one is Brulee 

So, the next product that is a favorite is the Milani Baked eyeshadow in Fusion. This shade is gorgeous on the lid!! It is a purple color with flecks of golden shimmer in it and it is just amazing!! 

 

The next favorite is the Maybelline color tattoo cream eyeshadow in Pomegranate Punk. This shade is really gorgeous on the lid! It has a little shimmer, but not much I would probably call this more of a satin finish than shimmer. But nevertheless, it is gorgeous! 

The next category is lips. And the first favorite I have is Lo'real Colour Riche lipcolor in Tender Pink #114. This shade is gorgeous, its more on the deeper side and I think if you look really close at it this color has red undertones in it. I just love it! 

The next lipstick is the Revlon lip butter in sugarplum. This shade is a great fall color! It is another one of those deeper berry shades that it is just awesome! :) 

Well, thats it for my December Favorites!!! :) I hope you enjoyed this and there will be a video up as well on these favorites with swatches for you guys :) here's the link: www.youtube.com/mariahsierra94 

Also I will be doing another blog post and possibly a video for my Best in Beauty Awards, so watch out for that coming soon! :) Have a great night everyone! :) 

Christmas Eve makeup tutorial!

Hey everyone!! Merry Christmas Eve! I hope y'all are having a wonderful Monday morning! I just wanted to share with you my Christmas Eve makeup look inspired by my amazing friend Emily Eddington (aka emilynoel83) and her video she posted this morning "last minute holiday look" on youtube. I have re-created this look with the products I have, so lets get started! Here's Emily's youtube link: www.youtube.com/emilynoel83 and her blog link: www.beautybroadcast.net

Here are all the products I used:


FACE:

• Too Faced primed and poreless face primer
• Sei Bella tinted moisturizer in fawn #8877
• Tarte Natural cheek flush in natural
• ELF translucent matifying powder

EYES:

• Too faced shadow insurance
• Physician's formula nude eyes palette
• Wet n Wild color icon eyeshadow trio in cool as a cucumber
• L.A. girl fine line liquid eyeliner in black
• Revlon shadow stick in smolder
• Almay get up and grow mascara

LIPS:

• Lo'real colour riche lipcolor in fairest nude

So the first thing I used on my eyes is too faced shadow insurance, after that dried for 10 seconds I applied the pearly white shade in the physician's formula nude eyes palette to my entire lid and my browbone. Next, I applied the satin green shade from the wet n wild trio in cool as a cucumber to the outer part of my lid. Next, I applied my L.A. girl fine line liquid eyeliner in black to my upper lashline. Then, I applied my revlon shadow stick in smolder and I used the shimmery green side and applied that over the black liner. Finally, I curled my lashes using elf eyelash curler and then I applied my almay get up and grow mascara in black to my upper and lower lashes. To complete my entire look, I applied the lo'real colour riche lipstick in fairest nude to my lips.


Well, thats it for my last minute holiday look! I hope y'all enjoyed this and I'll be blogging again soon! :)

Holiday Nails!! :)

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are doing well on this cold Monday morning! Merry Christmas Eve! :) I just wanted to share with you what I did on my nails for Christmas Eve and Christmas day :) Lets get started:

So the first polish I used was the Wet n Wild wild shine clear nail protector #401A. And that polish was used as my base, then I applied two coats of OPI nail polish in my very first knockworst. After those two coats dried, I applied L.A. colors color craze with hardners nail polish #571 to the tips of my nails. Finally, I re-applied the wet n wild wild shine clear nail protector for the top coat.


And thats it!! I hope you enjoyed this very simple and easy nail tutorial! I hope y'all have a great day and I'll be blogging again soon! :)

Christmas Holiday Tag!!

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are having a great Thursday afternoon! I was tagged by Theresa (aka beautyforeveryday) to do this Christmas Holiday tag. Thanks Theresa for tagging me! Here's her link: www.youtube.com/beautyforeveryday


Lets get started!



1. Do you start Christmas Shopping on Black Friday or wait until the last minute? In past years my family has waited until the last minute, but this year we got all our Christmas shopping done early! We started shopping on Black Friday and continued until the beginning/middle of December :)


2. Which do you like better Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Well, we have Christmas Eve services at my church for the evening of the 24th, so I enjoy Christmas day because we get to celebrate Christ's birth!


3. When do you put up the Christmas tree & who decorates it? We put up the Christmas tree early this year, I think we put it up at the end of November. My mom decorated it this year, she loves to decorate the house with Christmas things. (FYI, if you want to see what decorations are in my house for Christmas head over to my other blog Life in General and check out the post called "Christmas Decor/house tour! here's the link: http://www.lifeingeneral-mariah.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-decorhouse-tour.html)


4. White or colored lights? My dad puts up white lights on the house, and then we have colored lights on the Christmas tree :)


5. Tell us your Christmas Eve tradition? My family's Christmas Eve tradition is going to the candle-light Christmas Eve services at my church.


6. What tops your tree? A Silver star.

7. Do you send Christmas/Holiday cards? We haven't in the past, but my mom wanted to this year so we wrote a Christmas letter and sent it to our friends, family and extended family.
8. Do you attend any Holiday parties?
 We haven't in the past, but I just graduated from high school and so my friends from college have Christmas parties, so this year I am going to my first college Christmas party tomorrow night!

9. Do you decorate the outside of your house or just the inside? We decorate both the inisde and outside


10. Do you have a Christmas/Holiday tradition? We usually on Christmas morning have hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, and then we read the Christmas story from The Bible. And this year, we've added a new tradition. We've decided as a family that we won't open gifts until after the 1st of the year because on Christmas day, its Christ's birthday not yours. No one else opens gifts on your birthday, so we thought we'd do the same for Jesus :)


11. Which Holiday do you celebrate? Christmas :)



12. What are your plans for the Holiday's this year? Our plans
for the Christmas holiday is to just be together as a family and celebrate the fact that I am not in the hospital! Last year I spent Christmas and New Years in the hospital, so we are thanking God that its not the case this year :)
13. Candy Cane or Gingerbread Men? I'm not a big fan of just straight cinnamon, so I like candy canes


14. What is your favorite Christmas song? My favorite Christmas song would have to be "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant
15. What is at the top of your wish list this Christmas? I actually wouldn't mind not getting anything for Christmas. I have what I need the most which is a good bill of a health, an awesome family, great friends, and most of all Jesus Christ :) Now, I did buy my parents and my sister gifts for Christmas, but that doesn't mean that I have to get a gift in return :)
16. Hot Cocoa or Apple Cider? For sure Hot cocoa! :)


17. Snowboarding or Skiing? I don't know how to do either, but if I had to choose I would say snowboarding ;)
18. Have you ever gone ice skating? No, I have roller bladed in the past :)
19. Does it snow where you are? I live in California, so if it does snow particularily where I am, its very rare and we don't get a lot if it does snow.
20. Favorite Christmas/ Holiday movie? My favorite Christmas movie would have to be between "Its a Wonderful Life" and my mom's favorite "White Christmas"


Well, I think thats it for this Christmas Holiday Tag! I hope y'all enjoyed this and I'll be blogging again soon! Have a great day everyone! :)

I tag my awesome friend Emily Eddington (aka emilynoel83) and CiCi Dawn (aka thatssociciyo) to do these questions :) Can't wait to see your responses to the questions ladies! :)

CVS Coupon Haul!!!

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are having a great Tuesday afternoon! I just wanted to share with you a CVS haul from yesterday and the best part is I saved $20.76 by using coupons! So lets get started:



 So this is what I ended up getting at CVS yesterday! I was so excited that I saved over $20 using my coupons :) Here's the first product:

The first product I purchased is this Lo'real infallible eyeshadow in Bronzed Taupe. I LOVE this shadow, its so gorgeous and I am so excited to use it! Here's a swatch:

 The next product I got was this Covergirl Clump Crusher mascara in black. I'm interested to use this because I love my almay get up and grow mascara and I am curious to see if this comes close to that mascara.

 The next product I picked up was this Maybelline color tattoo in pomegranate punk. This is SO gorgeous! Nice rich dark purple/plum :) Here's a picture and swatch:

The next product I got was another Lo'real infallible eyeshadow in smoldering plum. This is a great shadow! After I swatched both of these shadows, I could tell that these are very pigmented which makes me compare them to my favorite brand Wet n Wild :) Here's a picture and a swatch:

The next product I got was this Revlon lip butter in sugarplum. This is a great winter shade! It has some red undertones in it when hits the light and its just all around gorgeous! Here's a picture and swatch:

The next product I got is another Revlon lip butter in Creme Brulee. This shade is a great nude shade with a little shine, so that when you put it on your lips don't look washed out. Here's a picture and swatches of creme brulee and sugarplum next to each other:

 

(Creme brulee is on the left and Sugarplum is on the right)

 

 

 

 

The last product I got was FREE! The reason I got this free was because I had a coupon that said "buy any Covergirl lashblast mascara and get a covergirl nail polish FREE." So because I bought the Covergirl clump crusher mascara,  I got this nail polish:

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

I have never heard of these polishes before so I am curious to see how they do. But anyways, I got the color "smokey taupe." And here's what the color looks like on my nails:

 

 

This color is very interesting because in the shade it looks beige, but in the sunlight it looks like a light purple shade. So I am very excited to try this out!

 



 

Ok, so now onto the coupons I used:

 

 

For the Covergirl products I had a coupon that was $3.00 off 2 products. Next, for the Lo'real products I had two $1.00 off coupons. For the Revlon products, there was a buy 1 get 1 50% off sale, so I was able to get one of the lip butters for $4.15.  

 

So all in all I paid out of pocket with the coupons, sales and tax I paid $39.00 for 8 products.

 

 

Well, thats it for this CVS coupon haul! I hope you enjoyed this and I'll be blogging again soon with reviews and tutorials on these products! Have a great day everyone! :)

 

 

                                             



Sweet Holiday makeup tutorial...

Hey everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday afternoon! I wanted to share with you my take on a berry holiday look that my amazing friend Emily Eddington (aka emilynoel83 www.youtube.com/emilynoel83 and www.beautybroadcast.net) had done. So lets get started:

Here's all the products that I used:


FACE:

• Too Faced Primed and poreless face primer
• Sei Bella tinted moisturizer in fawn #8877
• Benefit hervana blush
• ELF matifying face powder

EYES:

• Too faced shadow insurance
• Milani baked eyeshadow in Fusion
• Wet n wild eyeshadow single in Nutty
• Wet n wild eyeshadow single in Brulee
• Almay get up and grow mascara

LIPS:

• Revlon just bitten kissable balm stain in Honey

So the first thing I did was I primed my eyes with too faced shadow insurance, let that dry for 10 seconds then I went to my milani baked eyeshadow in fusion and taking sigma's E55 eye shading brush I applied that all over my lids. Then going to my wet n wild shadow single in nutty and taking sigma's E25 blending brush I applied this shade to my crease and I blended that out. Finally, to complete my eyeshadow look I applied my wet n wild shadow single in brulee to my browbone using sigma's E40 tapered blending brush. Then I applied my almay get up and grow mascara to my upper and lower lashes. To finish off my makeup, I applied my revlon just bitten kissable balm stain in honey to my lips.


Well, thats it! I know its not that festive, but I think its very natural. For holiday parties and such, I'll be doing another tutorial soon :) I hope you enjoyed this and I'll be blogging again soon! Have a great day everyone! :)

Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc tutorial!

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are having a great Saturday evening! I wanted to share with you a makeup look that I created this morning using a sample size of the Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc. Now this is supposed to be used for all over your face, but you can use it for eyeshadow if you choose to not use it all over your face. I used this for eyeshdow because I don't like shimmer any where else. So lets get started:

Here are the products I used for my whole entire face makeup:


FACE:

• Too faced primed and poreless face primer
• Lo'real true match lumi liquid foundation in W3 nude beige
• Tarte Natural cheek stain in Flush
• ELF translucent matifying powder
• Benefit High Beam

EYES:

• Too Faced shadow insurance
• Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc quad
• Almay get up and grow mascara

LIPS:

• Lo'real Colour Riche lipstick in Tender Pink #114

So the first thing I did was I primed my eyes with too faced shadow insurance and I let that dry for 10 seconds. Then I went to my laura mercier shimmer bloc quad and taking my sigma E55 eye shading brush I applied the bronzy brown shade to my lids. Then I went to the darker brown shade and applied that to my crease using a sigma E25 blending brush. Finally I applied the light shade to my browbone using a sigma E40 tapered blending brush. Next, I applied my almay get up and grow mascara to my upper and lower lashes. Then to complete my look, I applied lo'real colour riche lipstick in tender pink #114 to my lips.


And thats it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope y'all have a great night! I'll be blogging again soon! :)