Garnier Skin Renew BB Cream for Oily Skin

              
A few weeks ago I was invited to join a BzzCampaign for Garnier's BB Cream that's geared for us oily-skinned folk.  I was stoked because it's about that time of year where I want to switch my heavier coverage foundation for a BB Cream or tinted moisturizer. I've noticed that most of the BB Creams I have tried make me very oily within a very small amount of time.  Even those creams that say they are oil free & help mattify the skin make me an oil slick.  The lighter the coverage, the more oil control & vice versa is how it usually is with products.  My skin has been acting a little funky lately so right now I'm needing more medium/full coverage & I know that BB creams don't really provide much more than light/medium.
 The first day I tried this without a primer & my fingers.  I was pleasantly surprised that it had a decent amount of coverage that hid most of my redness.  I stayed oil free for about 3 hours (not bad!) The next time I tried it with my oil free primer & a dampened BeautyBlender, coverage was pretty nice.  I decided not to top it with any powder & within 2-3 hours I was pretty oily.  Third day I used my oil-free primer & my ELF Powder Brush which is my favorite way to apply this & I topped it with my MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural.  I get about 4-5 hours tops before the sides of my nose start to really grease up.  This isn't very easy to touch up because it does separate on your skin after blotting. After about 5 hours it just starts to look very messy & splotchy.

Here's a picture of my skin before (EEEEEK!!!!)

Here's my skin with just the BB Cream on, applied with my ELF Powder brush

 & here's the finished product with the Garnier BB Cream topped with MAC Mineralize Skin Finish.

 This covers fairly well, as you can see in the first picture I have a bit of discoloration on my cheeks & dark circles under my eyes. This doesn't completely diminish the dark circles but a concealer will fix that.  All in all I really enjoy this product.  I feel that it will be perfect on days when I'm just running some errands or going to the pool (yes, I wear some sort of coverage on my face when I go swimming, don't judge).  This won't be my pick if I'm going to be at work all day long since the longevity isn't that great.  The price point is awesome for the amount of product you get, $12 for 2 ounces!

Have you tried any BB Creams lately?

Until next time,

I received this product from BzzAgent in exchange for my thoughts.  These opinions are my own. 

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Giveaway! 3-month Conscious Box Subscription

So by now you all now I love me some Conscious Box...each of my boxes have come with AMAZING products that I'm now a loyal customer of.  They've recently launched a Vegan as well as a Gluten Free box.  If you aren't familiar with what a Conscious Box is, you can check out my reviews here and here. I'm a huge fan & support this company 100%.  I'm even more excited to give one of my fabulous readers a free 3-month subscription, which means 3 jam packed boxes full of yummy & eco friendly goodies! I KNOW you'll love it as much as I do :)

Conscious Box has recently revamped their website & they now offer a points program which can be redeemed for discounts on your favorite products.  When you've finished entering head over there & take a peek around their new site.

Enter by using the Rafflecopter Widget below.  Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Palmolive Fresh Infusions First Look

Well hello again! Last week I was hit with the flu...hard. I was in bed for a week! I can't think of a time I've been that sick before.  Looking through my Twitter & FB timeline I kept seeing everyone else posting about them having the disgusting bug too.  It sure did get around! So while I was sick my sweet husband took care of everything around the house, including the dishes (SCORE!) Since these Palmolive Fresh Infusions had came right before the flu joined me, he got to use them & report to me :)

When buying dish soap, I usually always just grab the cheapest soap as long as it's anti-bacterial.  I hate the scent of the one we normally get, it just smells so...generic. Influenster sent me the 3 scents to try out.  

-Ginger White Tea
-Lime Basil
-Lemon Thyme

Right off the bat I knew that Ginger White Tea would be my favorite, and it is! They all smell wonderfully fresh without being artificial and overpowering.  I really like the fact that these are concentrated which means I don't have to use as much! 

My husband said these were great in getting the dishes clean.  He didn't have to scrub as hard as he normally would have to with our previous soaps. This excited me because that means less time at the sink cleaning. Yay!

I plan on giving a bottle to my mother, I'm looking forward to hearing what she thinks.

These are 16oz bottles & they can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $2.97, not bad considering the size AND they are concentrated. 

Have you tried this dish soap yet? Are you like me & pick up the cheapest one you can find?

This box was sent to me for review purposes.  My opinions are my own & I am not influenced in any way.

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Hard Candy Blush Crush in Bombshell (MAC MSF dupe!)

Happy Tuesday, beauties! I was strolling through Wal-Mart & decided to check out the Hard Candy section, I've looked through a few times & even purchased some items for a friend overseas but for some reason never picked up anything for myself (THE HORROR!) This product in particular stood out to me because I have a love for all MAC Mineralize Skin Finishes...even with my pro discount, MSF's aren't cheap.  I grabbed the bronziest shade I could find and happily skipped to the checkout (ok, I lied, I just walked).  

The item I picked up is Hard Candy's Blush Crush Baked Blush in Bombshell. I'm such a sucker for packaging & I must say, Hard Candy's packaging is pretty dang fabulous!  I tried to get a good picture of the front of this blush but because of the reflective silver it made it a bit difficult...the best one I could get was this:

 See, told you the packaging was pretty awesome :)

The color Bombshell that I picked up is a medium golden tan with a touch of pink swirled throughout.  I don't see this being a very versatile color for different skin tones because of how orange it could end up looking. The good news is that although it's very pigmented, it can be sheered out with a bit of blending.  It's shimmery without being over the top e.g. no chunky glitter. I'd stay away from this if you have very large pores on your cheeks or wherever else you may apply this because it will definitely accentuate them. The formula is buttery smooth & applies beautifully, just like a MAC MSF. 

These 2 swatches were taken with studio lighting, the left is very heavily swatched & the the right is blended out.

These swatches were taken with natural light outside, as above left is heavily swatched & the right is blended out.

 I got about 4-5 hours of wear before this started to fade, which isn't too bad considering how fast everything fades on me.  The Blush Crush is only $7 & is .28oz (8g) which comes to $25 an ounce whereas MAC Mineralize Skin Finish is $29 for .35oz (10g) and that's about $83 an ounce! That's a huge difference! 

There were 2 other shades available which I'm looking forward to picking up during my next shopping trip.

If you're looking for a great MAC MSF dupe, definitely check these out at Wal-Mart, you won't be disappointed. 

Until next time,

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