Exciting announcement! Allure has decided to give 4 of my followers the July Allure Beauty Box. The giveaway is up now on my Instagram which I will link here. Rules are: you have to follow me and follow Allure and leave a comment on the Instagram post about what product you'd like to try! Super easy, super fun.

Inside the box you get:

• Feel Brilliant Charcoal Sheet Mask. You know I love a good sheet mask and charcoal is good for detoxing the skin of impurities.
• Cargo Cosmetics Water Resistant blush in Bali. This holds up great in the heat and humidity it's really nice universal pink shade with a satin finish. You can't go over board with it, and it doesn't oxidize. 
• Wander Beauty Wander Out Dual Lipstick in Barely There. This is my favorite item in the box. I wear it all the time. It's the perfect neutral mauve and the formula is fantastic as well as the pigmentation.
• Briogeo Blow Dry and Heat Protectant Creme. Two dime size amounts in your hand, work it from the root to the tips and blow dry your hair without the worry of heat damage. 
• Redken Fashion Waves 07 Sea Salt Spray. SMELLS AMAZING. Very light weight and can be used in damp or dry hair.
• Beauty For Real lip scrub. The softest lip scrub I've used and the grittiest. Meaning it's not hard to get the product out, it does great at exfoliating the lips, and leaves your lips very moisturized and hydrated. 
• Burts Bees Complete Nourishing Facial Oil with Rosehip Seed Extract. I love facial oils I think we all know that. This is a good one to have around. 

So there's the run down. You also get a booklet with tips from Allures Beauty Experts, promo codes exclusive to Allure, and where you can buy these products. The promo codes are awesome. If you want to sign up for a monthly beauty box from Allure you can go here: www.allure.com/thebeautybox 

Go to Instagram enter the giveaway and win one of the July boxes! Goodluck!

​I've not been posting as regular on here as I like, I have plenty of good excuses but excuses are just that....excuses. So why you bore you with them, right? I have been making notes...per usual, of things I want to talk about. If you're ever wondering what my thoughts are on products and such then I suggest you follow my Snapchat (loveandmascara. I give LENGTHY snap stories and talk about various products. It's usually all content related 80% of the time with the other 20% being a little bit of life outside of business. 

One thing I wanted to discuss was a few brands that impress me immensely but I find they're extremely underrated. I was actually working on this before hand as just a list of brands that were impressing me and my friend Rhea said I should do a post on underrated brands....so here we are. Thanks Rhea.

For about the 4 years that I've been reviewing and working in the beauty community I've heard about When Masks but I've never had the pleasure of trying them. My friend Rheannon has told me about them several times. I'm happy to say though that nowwww they are available online at Sephora. Well done guys! Sephora is stepping it up lately and getting so many new skincare brands and I have never been so happy. 

So When was so kind and sent me 5 masks. I'll insert what they are and the description.

"All When masks contain hyaluronic acid and ginseng extracts to help keep skin moisturized and healthy.

*10:00 PM - Anti-Aging
Contains watermelon extract and collagen to protect skin and help improve skin conditions

*Glamour Base - Primer (previously called Makeup Base)
Contains adenosine, collagen and peptides to help improve skin elasticity

*Snow Magic - Brightening
Contains niacinamide (vitamin B3) and aloe vera leaf extract for brighter, glowing skin

*The Last Choice- Hydrating
Contains sodium hyaluronate and saccharide isomerate to help keep skin moisturized

*Travel Mate - Rejuvenating 
Contains chamomile flower water and Swiss Alpine herb extracts to gently hydrate and soothe skin"

I must say the names are intriguing enough lol. I am working my way through them and so far my favorite is Travelmate closely followed by 10 PM which is formulated to help boost the skins regeneration process that naturally occurs between 10 pm and 2 am. I love and appreciate sheet masks that are specifically soothing and calming to the skin or very nourishing and beneficial. I don't know if you've met me but I love to do treatments and am no stranger to Retinols, AHA/BHA, and high strength Vitamin C (not all at once, calm down). 

You use these for 30 minutes (I may or may not have left mine on a bit longer cause I enjoyed it), they're made in Korea and the ingredient deck isn't super long and nothing in there that alarms me. No it's not "green" but it's still a very good product. It's one of the best made masks I've ever used as far as the sheet. It fits much better than most and it's a lovely material. It's an all natural sheet mask that is their "When Skin to Skin" Bio-Cellulose Sheet. It's gentle enough to treat burn patients actually which is amazing, it's made from coconuts, eco friendly and bio-degradeable. The sheet will hold "100 times it's dry weight and 10 times more than fabric or paper sheet masks". It adheres to the skin like a dream, not really any tugging, sliding, adjusting, etc that you need to do. By far the best fitting sheet mask I've ever used. All of them have the "Bio Craft Serum" but each mask has a different version of that but each of them contain Sodium Hyaluronate, which is the salt version of the skins natural Hyaluronic Acid and also considered more effective to some than pure HA, and Ginseng Extract I see. Those ingredients along with other ingredients depending on which one you use obviously gives you the Bio Craft Serum they are known for. I do think they are a great choice for sheet masks, I definitely feel like my skin has benefited from using them. So in my opinion, they're aces. 

As always I'm going to insert a bit about the company:

When® was created by Jin Han Lee, a healthcare specialist. Mr Lee used the latest skincare innovation and research to create this breakthrough bio-cellulose skincare range that addresses the visible signs of aging, skin firmness, tone, texture and radiance.
​
Launched in Korea, When aims at using advanced bio-cellulose technology to create innovative face masks with superior adhesion and hydrating effect. The all-natural bio-cellulose sheet that When uses is made from coconuts, which is gentle enough to treat burn patients. Despite its light weight, the bio-cellulose sheet can hold essence 100 times its weight, that is 10 times more than fabric or paper mask sheets. As much essence as it holds, the bio-cellulose sheet delivers essence to skin with minimum wastage by maintaining exceptional dermal contact.

Natural, hydration, adhesion - the elements you demand in a mask, When has them all at their best. 

As I said earlier you can find this on Sephora now, http://seph.me/2poOkfS
you can learn more about them here at: http://whenmask.com/

** This post was Powered by Brand Backer**

I thought I'd do a round up of some makeup products I've been loving lately. Just kinda random. I won't be talking a lot about products I've mentioned before, and not all these are exactly "new". I've really been into trying some newly discovered favorites that aren't "new makeup" or new launches they're just new to me. Also, re-visiting some long time favorites and "go to's" that I haven't ever discussed that much and have "re-discovered".

​Anastasia Beverly Hills added a new product to their makeup line....blushes! I am always so excited when ABH extends to other areas of makeup because they do such a good job everytime. To be clear these are blush trios.  Which I love. They have 5 different color schemes available, from peachy, to pink, to deep, two others that offer a bit of everything. I really love them. I think they've done an excellent job. You get .11 ounces per pan and there are 3 pans in each compact so that's a total of .33 ounces which is 3 g total for $30. Which a NARS blush is .16 for $30 just to give you something to go off of.  I've had these for a couple months and just now getting around to talking about them. So sorry. 

The two I got were Berry Adore and Pool Party. I like them both but I'm seriously thinking about getting Cocktail Party as well. Berry Adore is quite dark but if you know me, you know I love berry shades and deep corals in the summer. I think it's so pretty on the skin. This trio is good but the darkest shade being Velvet is going to swatch a bit dry if you're in store and doing the "finger swatch". All I'm going to say is, I don't apply blush with my fingers so I don't judge these off of that. Pool Party is my favorite of the two. First, because it has a bit of a contour shade, then a medium pink, and then a peach shade. Which brings me to the second thing I love which is that while these do have pigment they aren't pigmented as the eye shadows are or SUPER INTENSE, which means that they're layered very easy. So you can build up the intensity how you want it without over doing or it being patchy on the skin. Obviously with the darker one, you don't have to do that if you're skin is in the fair to light category right now. It will also depend on the density of your brush as well. If you use a tightly packed dense brush you're going to pick up more product obviously, if you use a fluffy brush you'll pick up less. So just a reminder to keep that in the back of your head. The reason I want Cocktail Party is because it's like the more intense or "night time" version of Pool Party. So you have 3 separate colors again, that are a little more intense instead of 3 shades in the same color family. 

Bottom line, yes I think they're worth it. Especially if you are a MUA. I also think it's worth it if you're not and just wanting some choices with blush colors in your collection or especially to travel with. Where you could spend close to or more than $30 for one shade at least you have 3 options here. So I do not disagree with the price point at all. 

I'm gonna drop in some looks wear I've used them. The only brushes I ever use for blush is the Morphe E4 brush and the Real Techniques Blush Brush from the chrome line ( think that's what the line is called). Both of those are pretty dense but that's how I prefer my blush brushes because it gives me more control. 

 The first shot starting at the left is Pool Party. Just a mixture really of the colors the bronzer shade being my actual bronzer.
Second shot or middle is also Pool Party, the pink and coral shades mixed.
Last shot, right side is Berry Adore trio, the first shade in the pan. I find that Berry Adore works beautifully with contour and bronzer. I also love deep shades in the summer specifically for an evening look.