Paula's Choice

I have been experimenting with products like crazy the last few months and I have soooooo many products I want to talk about!!!


When I say products I mean EVERYthing beauty related- longwear lipstick, hydrating lipstick, lip stain, lip balm, lip exfoliant, foundation, BB creams, CC creams, Tinted moisturizers, concealers, color correctors, pressed powder, loose powder, primers, highlighters, powder blush, cream blush, gel blush, bronzers, mascara, gel eyeliner, powder liner, kohl liner, liquid liner, matte shadow, metallic foil shadow, shimmer shadow, brow definer, shampoos, conditioners, hair masks, serums, leave-ins, moisturizers, facial cleansers, toners, antioxidant serums, retinol creams, exfoliants..................I have been BUSY!  This has been my #1 hobby and money pit (and I am loving every minute of it!)

Out of aaaaaall of these products I have been most impressed of all by Paula's Choice skincare products and what a difference they have made in my skin.  Without good skin all of those other products can't perform as well or help you look as pretty as you otherwise would.  Good skin is the absolute #1 most important building block to have in any beauty regimen.

I am guilty of sun-worshipping and last year I tanned like it was my job.  I love having a tan!! But when winter came and my tan faded I could see the sun damage.  Pair that with a year of being single and partying a lot, sleeping with makeup on and a lifetime of considering slapping on light moisturizer a skincare routine and I felt like I had aged 10 years overnight!

THEN I went and put a huge sunlamp in my makeup room so that I would have good lighting to do makeup with and OMG I had a full blown beauty crises!!! I could see every pore, fine line, dry spot, dark spot, blemish and wrinkle.  The horror!

I decided I needed to start an anti-aging skincare routine ASAP.  I did a little research on what ingredients do the best job at reducing signs of aging and slowing down skin's aging process.

I started my new routine with some Neutrogena retinol serum, some Indeed Labs hyaluronic acid and ceramide serum and a light oil free moisturizer.

The retinol smoothed out my skin after a few weeks, I really liked it.  But upon further research I could not find anywhere on the packaging or website what concentration of retinol was in the product.  I also learned that it is foolish to use separate creams and serums for ceramides, hyaluronic acid, etc as the best products will multi-task and contain a combination of antioxidants, ceramides, etc.

I learned this when I discovered Paula's Choice!  I ordered a bunch of samples from the website- very reasonably priced and free shipping.  I also watched a bunch of Youtube videos by her research team which were very helpful.  I started on the Resist cleanser, toner, vitamin C serum, 1% retinol, BHA exfoliant and weekly resurfacing treatment, moisturizer and also got a free matte eyeshadow palette with my order which I love!!!

I am going to list all the products I use in my next post with their full names, links to them on her site, why I chose them, what they do and maybe some reviews on the other samples I tried too.

For now I just want to say that they absolutely HAVE made a BIG difference in my skin's texture and appearance.  I have a much healthier glow to my skin and smoother texture.  I have no breakouts or blemishes at all and I have very sensitive skin so that's saying a lot.

I have also vowed to always wear sunscreen from now on- which I had thought impossible for me until I learned that I am allergic to chemical sunscreen (octinoxate, avobenzene, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate...) but I am totally okay with mineral physical blockers like Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide and of course Paula has some awesome options for mineral sunscreen and some amazing tinted moisturizer and foundation which also provide protection.

I cannot say enough about how happy I am to have discovered her skincare line and makeup and NO I am not getting paid to say any of this, I have never received free products from the company or anything like that.  I stumbled on her from doing internet research and I am so grateful I did.

I also love her Beautypedia  where her and/or her team of researchers rate practically every cosmetic and beauty product on the market from drugstore to high end and analyze the ingredients, performance and value of the products.  I love that they are unbiased enough that they will actually highly recommend products made by their competitors if they are of good quality.

They break down the marketing hype and look at the actual ingredients in products and what amount of active ingredients are in them and if they are in sufficient quantities to make a difference, based on scientific studies of those actual ingredients and what percentage of them is needed.

They also point out ingredients in products that can be potentially irritating for sensitive skin or that are not good for skin.

There is a cosmetic ingredient dictionary on her site as well!   You can look up each ingredient in your expensive high-end makeup and compare to similar drugstore products and come to the realization like I did that they are essentially made of the same damn things and many of the high end products are guilty of adding fragrance, alcohol and other potential irritants to their products as well as using miniscule amounts of gimmicky ingredients as selling points.

I completely owe all this knowledge to Paula, I love being marketing gimmick proof.  I could go to a cosmetics counter and they could try to sell me some over-priced cream of horny goat weed anti-aging goop and I could flip it over, analyze the label and be like "The horny goat weed has no scientific studies to prove it has anti-aging abilities except one small-scale biased study conducted by the company that makes this product.  In addition, the horny goat weed is listed after the fragrance which means there is hardly any of it at all in there, plus why is there fragrance in it when that is a skin irritant?"  :D Thank you Paula!!!!!!

I will be talking much more about Paula's Choice in the future.  I have gushed enough for one day :)

Mac Russian Red

So Friday night I wore my Mac Russian Red to work.

I am a bartender in a "casual fine dining" restaurant.

Saturday I wore some subtle sparkly light pink lipgloss to work.

So I'm in the kitchen Saturday night and the chef says "Hey, what happened to your lipstick?" and I'm like "huh?"

He says "I liked the red you had on last night, that's my favorite!"

Well since I had just screwed up and forgot to put a food order in and I needed the kitchen to rush my food out I went and wiped my gloss off and applied the Russian Red.  All the guys were happy, my food came out quickly, my customers were happy.

I didn't think guys noticed lipstick, but they DO notice mac Russian Red :)

Covergirl outlast!

This is a mixture of #507 Ever-Reddy and #547 Rose Pearl.  The red seemed too harsh, the pink seemed too blah.  I blended them and yay, I love!  This stuff stays on for well over 12 hours.  You can reapply the gloss as often as you want for a shiny look or you can skip it for a matte finish.

I wake up looking like I reapplied my lipstick in my sleep.  

Another tip: you can use a darker color all over the lips, then a lighter sparkly color right in the middle and blend for a 3D effect that stays put until you take it off. 

I LOVE Covergirl Outlast!!!!!!

Mac ruby woo/ loreal wet shine stain!

Ruby Woo is my favorite summer red!!!  I topped it with Loreal wet shine stain in pink rebellion so you can't see the matte finish and the color isn't true.  But I love the Loreal wet shine stain over matte lipstick!!!  I wish they made it in clear.  It's such a unique formulation, it's so long wearing and non slippery/non sticky.  I can't even describe it, it's not like a gloss or balm or anything else really.  On its own there isn't much color payoff but I adore it layered over most anything!!  I never reach for regular lip gloss anymore...

Mac russian red

Now THIS is what I consider a going out color!  Russian Red is so flattering, I love it any time of year.  The blue based red really does make teeth pop. 

I topped it off with clear sparkly lip gloss from Express in "Hawaiian Slam". I'll get a better close up picture of it soon- one of these days I'm gonna do a lipstick swatch-a-thon!  And minus the lipgloss, too because this one stands on its own just beautifully.

Mac speak louder

Another fave!  Speak Louder is a cremesheen, part of the permanent collection. I consider it a nice everyday color... I would reach for something a little more exciting if I was going out at night.

Do I look nonplussed or what?!!! I should just smile, the serious look doesn't work on me haha

MUA (makeup academy) liquid lipstick in "hot pink"

What a boring name.  They should've named this neon pink or electric pink or even better, pink shock- and this one WAS a shocker! Returned to CVS to get my $9.50 back. This is not a wearable color for me at all.

Can't tell you about wear time as I took it right off but I have a few other shades I'll do a better review on.  This has a very pleasant light mint scent and feels great going on.  Dries to a matte finish.