April Beauty Faves & Fails

I got quite a few makeup and beauty items over the last few months (all cruelty free, vegan, and Logical Harmony approved, of course), and some of them ended up becoming favorites, while others were total fails! Keep reading to find out which ones I loved and which didn’t work out.

Faves

One of my favorite things lately is my Lux Vegan Makeup Brush Set from M.O.T.D. Cosmetics that I got during their 50% off birthday sale (get 10% off M.O.T.D. anytime with code “pennysportal”!) The brushes are high quality, soft, easy to use, and gorgeous. I particularly love the eye brushes (like Blending Bestie, Miss Shady Lady, Pigment Packer, and Eye Catching Crease) as well as the Beauty and the Base, Conceal Your Secret, and Just Browsing brushes.

Another company that is wowing me lately is Styli Style. I usually prefer to buy my makeup from Sephora so I can try it out first in store, but I decided to order some Styli Style stuff online after seeing Tashina’s recommendations, and I’m glad I did. I love their Precious Metals palette–the colors are vibrant and pigmented, and it’s only $12, which is so affordable compared to other palettes! I also love the formula and color of their Peach Out gloss. I also got the Stylus liquid eyeliner and loved it at first, but it kind of dried out after a few days, so now I prefer my usual ride or die liner instead. ((Kat Von D liner is also darker.)) That could’ve been a fluke though because a lot of people love it. Still, Styli Style is killing it at drugstore priced cruelty free makeup with vegan options–I want to try their other palettes next as well as their foundation, which I’ve heard great things about.

Another brand I’m digging lately is ColourPop–I ordered three of their lippie stix recently, and they’re pretty and also really affordable at only $5 a lippie! And the satin ones (Button & Topanga) smell like caramel–yum!

I’m also loving and using my Pacifica Magical Multi-Pencil daily–it’s a nude eyeliner that I use on my waterline, and it subtly brightens my eyes.

Some other beauty things I love lately are the Lush Rosy Cheeks fresh face mask and Chocolate Lip Scrub. Since the mask is fresh, you have to keep it in the fridge, and it feels cool and soothing when applying it, and it hardens after wearing it for a few minutes, and then rinses off. It helps with redness, calms skin, and smells like roses. The chocolate lip scrub gently exfoliates and tastes amazing (it’s edible!)

I also loved the Nyx black bath bomb a friend got for me from Eris Apothecary, a local Austin artisan (and founder of the Austin Witches Circle.) The bath bomb is named after Nyx, the Goddess of Night, and it turns bath water black with charcoal–it’s so spooky and amazing!

Fails

And now for the (not so) fun part–the fails.

I got the Sonia Kashuk Satin Matte Foundation after hearing good things about it, but I absolutely hate its strong chemical smell. It’s a shame because the foundation actually does look nice and is affordable, but I can’t bring myself to wear it.

Another foundation that was a fail for me was the Hourglass Immaculate foundation. I bought it after seeing how amazing it looks on my bff Ely–seriously she looks airbrushed when she wears it. Sadly though it made my skin so dry (I have combination dry skin), especially when wearing it for extended periods of time, so I ended up returning it to Sephora. I really wish this foundation worked for me because once it dries it feels like you’re not even wearing foundation, and it looks flawless (if it’s not sticking to dry patches), but it’s too mattifying for me. If you have oily skin though (like Ely), you might love it!

Another fail (that Ely was quick to point out) was Lavanila deodorant. No joke, we were sunbathing naked at Hippie Hollow while she was vising recently, and she was like, “Dude why do you smell bad? You don’t usually smell bad.” And yea, I did smell bad, and it was the deodorant. It totally doesn’t work as far as preventing BO and actually somehow makes me smell worse. I switched to my usual (Schmidt’s in Lavender Sage) after that ordeal and was back to my pleasant smelling self (as she confirmed after smelling my sweaty armpits, we have that kind of relationship, lol.) I had heard good things about Lavanila deodorant and decided to branch out from my usual, but it was definitely a fail for me.

If I didn’t mention something that you saw in my March Makeup Haul post or on Instagram, that either means I haven’t used it enough to form an opinion yet, or it falls somewhere in the middle, and I don’t love it or hate it. (Feel free to ask me to if you’re wondering about something.)

What are some of your beauty faves and fails lately? Let me know in the comments!