How to Pack Your Makeup Kit for Travel

Hello beauties!

Today's post is special and different because I am going to teach you what essential beauty products you need to bring for travel! I will also be featuring a great quality beauty case from Stilazzi. The products I'm showing are just the basic things, of course you can bring as many as you want, or as less as you want. It is up to you! I just want to give you some ideas on what to bring and what not. 

The Stilazzi beauty case is a medium-size case, lightweight, and have so much space inside! You can fit a lot of products inside. Here is the product description:

Case size: 13" x 8" x 11"

Inside compartment: 12 3/4" x 7 3/4" and 5 3/4 deep

Pullouts: 2 sides 3 trays

Color: Black Pattern with Brown Trim (it has so many different kinds of pretty colors!)

Interior Color: Black 

Now lets pack our stuffs! 

It is best to bring eyeshadow palettes. First, because it is a compact size. Second, you have so many colors to choose from! I recommend Coastal Scents 88 Color Eye Shadow Palette (for color eyeshadows) and Urban Decay Naked Palette (for neutral eyeshadows).

For face brushes, you only need two kinds. A foundation brush (Sigma F84) and a powder brush (MAC 109). You can always use your foundation brush or your ring finger to dab on your concealer. 

For eye brushes, you only need the four essential brushes, and they are:

An eye shader brush to pack the eyeshadow onto your lid (Sigma E55)

A blending brush for your eye crease (Sigma E35)

Another blending brush to blend your eyeshadow or to apply a highlight color (Sigma E40)

A pencil brush to apply eyeshadow precisely, or to smudge it (UD Blending Brush)

I use Dry 'n Shape from Sigma because not only it can save your brushes for travel, but it also can dry the brushes up faster after washing. 

Then, since the eye palettes and the brushes need bigger space, we put all of those in the lowest compartment. Can you see how much space we have left? You can even put your skincare products too! 

Don't forget your brush cleanser! Mine is from Beauty So Clean, which dry your brushes in like 10 seconds. Then put this along with the palettes and brushes.

For face products, all you need is a foundation, face powder, concealer, bronzer and a blush. Just one of each. Probably you can bring one or two blushes. I pick Benefit Sugarbomb blush because it has a settle color, which is always suitable for any different kinds of eye looks, and it gives me a settle sheen too! So pretty!

Make-up setting spray is necessary, especially when you are traveling because you want your make-up to stay all day! If you have an oily skin, UD De Slick will help you control the oil from your face, and give you a matte finish of your make-up. Bring powder puffs if you use a pressed powder, or a brush if you use a loose powder.

Eye liners are so important because it can change your look with just a line of an eyeliner. I suggested to bring a black eye liner (MAC Smolder) and a brown one (Stila Kajal in Tiger's Eye).

Mascaras are as important as eye liners. I love how the result is when these mascara (Lancome Hypnose Drama and COVERGIRL Lashblast) when they are applied together.

Revision: MAC Lipglass in Cultured, not Coutured.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of lipsticks and lipglosses, I feel a chapstick is enough for me. But, if you want to bring some, a nude and a pink colors are good to go! 

Nudes: MAC Lipstick in Creme D Nude and Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipglass

Pinks: MAC Lipstick in Lazy Day (limited edition) and MAC Lipglass in Cultured

The Stilazzi Beauty Case comes with two lock keys, so no one can steal your products! LOL.

Check out Stilazzi website to see more great beauty products!

I really like this beauty case because it is so lightweight and a really good quality case. It is really durable that I am a hundred percent sure it will last for forever! The only downside of this case is the price is quite expensive. It costs $89.95. But hey, it is a great investment, especially if you are a make-up artist. It has a quite good amount of space to pack your kits if you are doing make-up for someone else. 

I hope this post is useful for you all! Now tell me, do you want me to do more "how-to" posts? Do you like it? What do you think of the beauty case? Will you purchase it?

loVe, 

Alexandra 

Autumn Leaf (A Thanksgiving Inspired Look)

Hello beauties! 

Are you ready for thanksgiving? Have you planned what outfit you are going to wear for thanksgiving lunch/dinner? What about make-up? Do you know what look you are going to create for the holiday? Well, if you haven't, let me give you some inspirations. 

Before we jump on the tutorial, I want to apologize that I used so many limited edition colors here. But, the good news is these colors are dupable. I use a pink-brown shadow here as the lid color, if you do not have one, then use any reddish-cranberry brown, for example: MAC Cranberry and MAC Haux. Also, I use a coppery-gold shadow. If you do not have one, use any copper shadow, or gold shadow. Other than these two, you can find them anywhere, such as light brown, dark brown, nude, and purple liner. 

OK lets jump on the tutorial! 

Products Used

MAC Paintpot in Artifact 

MAC Eyeshadow Trio in Style Influencer 

MAC Eyeshadow Trio in Love to Love 

MAC Fluidline in Dark Diversion 

Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara 

Brushes: Sigma E55, Sigma E35, Sigma E40, Sigma E50, Sigma E05

Steps by Steps

                           

The Finished Look 

Face Products

Make Up For Ever HD Foundation 

Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer in Medium 

Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder 

Benefit Hoola Bronzer 

Benefit Sugarbomb Blush

loVe,

Alexandra 

MAC Glittler and Ice

Hey y'all!

Yay for finally another haul/review post! Recently I did not buy a lot of beauty products because there were none I was interested in, and I did not have time to go to the mall. The closest mall I have is 40 minutes away! 

So, I know this is a little bit too late, but if you are a MAC fan, you know that MAC just came out with a HUGE holiday collection of Glitter and Ice. When I said huge, it is really huge!! It has SO many stuffs until I could not decide which one should I get! 

Since I am on the budget, I picked two items, but each item has multiple stuffs in it. Get it? This is good if you are on the budget too. It will sound expensive, but actually you are saving money. Here let me show you:

I bought them in the MAC counter at Nordstrom. Look how cute the bag is! 

These are what I've got. The boxes are so pretty, I think. It really represents the "Ice." Probably it is even cuter if they put glitter on it, hehe. The left side is Iced Delights Eye Bag in Silver, and the right side is Ice Parade Snowglobe Eyeshadow in Warm. 

OK, first I am going to show you the Iced Delights Eye Bag in Silver ($45). It includes:

 A silver make-up bag

MAC Zoomlash Mascara full size 

Technakohl Liner in Graphblack full size

Duo-shadow compact: Silverware and Blue Spruce

Mini 275 eye brush

Left: Silverware; Right: Blue Spruce. I picked this item because I feel it is the most unique of all of them. I'll describe the colors down below. 

Silverware - it is a frosty finish. It is a mix of silver and lavender. When you swatch it onto your skin, you will see silver with a hint of lavender. Conclusion: so pretty!!

Blue Spruce - this is my favorite one! (Honestly this was the reason why I picked this item haha). I love this eyeshadow because it has a hint of blue, grey, with lavender sparkles! Here I swatch it for you:

Silverware, Blue Spruce 

Zoomlash Mascara was my favorite MAC mascara. It is really 'zooming' your eyelashes and make the look fuller and longer. The color is really dark, too. It just does the trick for you. Highly recommended. This is a permanent item, you can buy it here. 

MAC Graphblack Technakohl Eye Liner used to be my favorite. It is just a black pencil liner, but the good thing is it is retractable, so you do not need a sharpener. However, I feel it does not stay in my eyes very long. I like MAC Smolder Eye Kohl better. It is darker, and stay longer. 

MAC 275 Eye Brush is an angled eye brush. You can use it to define your eye crease, or make a cat eye look. Honestly, I rarely use an angled brush, as you can see I never use it in all of my posts because I feel regular eye brushes also can do the same thing as an angled one, probably even with a better result.

Alright, move on to Ice Parade Snowglobe Eyeshadow in Warm:

I have not peeled the plastic cover yet, hehe. 

When I first saw the packaging, I was like "OMG!!!!!" The packaging is so adorable! It is really a snowglobe guys. Shake the globe, and the glitters will "fly" beautifully inside. 

I know, I know the color looks boring. I was just attracted by the packaging :( and I did not like other two eye palettes.

So, it includes six eyeshadows and costs $38. Thirty-eight dollars for six eyeshadows with mini brush, and a pretty globe? Not a bad deal! :)

The quality of the shadows did not "wow" me. It is not bad, but not too excellent either. For example, Winterscape is a pretty highlight color, but it is not opaque. I feel it has too much glitter, and too sparkly. Patina is a permanent shadow, if you like it you can buy it separately here. It is a taupe color with a hint of gold. The downside is although it is a pretty color, unfortunately it is not that pigmented. Gold eyeshadow is really my favorite, so Gaelic Gold is my favorite in this palette! The quality is pretty good too, it is pigmented and pretty opaque color. Love it!

Magical Mist is a sparkle concrete color; pretty, but not too pigmented. Buckwheat is probably one of my favorite too - it is a reddish brown color and pretty pigmented color. Lastly, as you can see on Midnight Flurry, it looks like just a black color. But, when you swatch it, it is a really dark brown, almost black, with a matte finish. This is going to be a really good outer corner color for that smokey look. :)

So, that is all what I got from the collection. What do you think about the collection so far? Will you purchase it? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comment below! :) 

For more pictures and collections, you can go to MAC website. 

loVe, 

Alexandra