An Oily Girl's Dream? A Review of the Laura Mercier Flawless Fusion Foundation

As excited as I am to see a forecast full of 70 degree weather, there is one definitive downside to the sunny warmth of spring. My skin will begin its transformation from usually-kinda-shiny to uber-mega-greasefest. Yes, oily skin shows signs of aging more slowly than dry skin, so I've got that going for me. But in the meantime, the struggle to keep my makeup from literally melting off my face is real.

If you're in the same boat as I, you've probably tried what feels a million different mattifying foundations, primers, and powders in pursuit of some miracle product that doesn't make you cakey and dry as the Sahara, but that also doesn't break down and turn into a shiny mess after a few hours. While I've certainly encountered my fair share of adequate products, finding something that truly blows my mind is a rarity.

And that's what we're here to discuss today.

Spring Fling: Glossy Lip Colors to Love

*This post contains affiliate links

I am SO READY to embrace all things spring. Give me sunshine. Give me flowers. And please for the love of all things good take my winter coat and bury it in the back of the closet. For me, this time of year is all about lightening up. Lightening up my clothes, lightening up my mood, and in the case of today's post, lightening up my lipstick. While I don't think the matte liquid lip trend is going anywhere anytime soon, I personally am in desperate need of a change. From sheer glosses, to creamy lipsticks I've been embracing a more cheerful, comfortable kind of lip product as per late. So if you're also craving a little springtime inspiration, here are a few of favorite lip products for channeling those vibes!

Subscription Showdown | November 2016

Hey friends! It's time for another Subscription Showdown. For those of you not already familiar with this series on my YouTube channel, every month I sit down and unbox my Ipsy Glambag and Sephora Play box so I can show you how they stack up against one another. Each subscription is only $10 a month and contains 5 deluxe beauty samples, so I'm always curious to see whether one outshines the other. Want to see how these two beauty subs threw down this month? Keep on reading!

Fall Haul First Impressions

If you guys saw my recent fall beauty haul, then you're already well aware that I've acquired a boat load of new makeup to review. Between a trip to the new NYX store in Union Square, goodies sent from a friend in the UK, and my own inability to restrain myself, I've ended up with a whole lotta loot. Life has been a little crazy lately, which ultimately translated to the majority of my new beauty ending up in a pile waiting to be loved. This weekend finally afforded me the opportunity to get some blogging hours in, and I stared at said pile feeling a little overwhelmed with my options. Where the heck should I even begin? And then I had a brilliant idea. Why not try it all and let you in on the process? I'm all about being real with you guys and sharing my honest thoughts on beauty. So why not capture my completely unscripted, entirely unpredictable first impressions on camera? Not gonna lie, filming this video was a whole lot of fun, and I don't think the look I created in the end was too shabby. So if you're curious to see how these new goodies worked out for me, keep on reading!

The Ride or Die Makeup Tag: Holy Grail Favorite Products

So today's post is a bit of an impromptu one. I'm not normally one to get sucked into the hype of YouTube challenges and tags, but considering how much I a. love Jaclyn Hill, and b. love talking about makeup, I really couldn't resist. Her energy is so infectious, and pretty much immediately after watching her video I found myself planning to film my own take on the tag.

If you're feeling a little lost, Jaclyn posted a video last week creating a "Ride-or-Die" makeup tag, encouraging everyone out there to share their holy grail, tried-and-true, all-time favorite makeup products of life. A ton of other beauty gurus have joined in on the fun (you can see Tati's video here) and it's been really interesting to see how different (or in some cases similar) everyone's responses have been.

As a word of warning, today's video is a particularly chatty one. With so many products to talk about, and so much love to be shared, I think I got a little carried away. But, if you're still curious to find out what my ride-or-die favorites are, and don't mind hanging out with me for a little bit, keep on reading!

Best of 2015 Beauty: My Makeup Picks

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe, but 2016 is already here. It's amazing how quickly 12 months can fly by and all of a sudden its January again. While 2015 was a relatively low key year for me in my personal life, I feel like it was pretty exciting for me blog-wise. I started out my first affiliate partnerships, revamped my YouTube channel, worked with some great brands, and tried SO. MANY. PRODUCTS. I wrote 171 posts (that's more than the two previous years combined!), totally revamped my site design, and have finally started to figure out this whole social media thing. In the end, blogging is definitely a labor of love, but I couldn't be happier about investing my time and energy into creating this space that I can share with all of you. I've got so many plans and goals for the coming year, and hope that you'll all be up for joining me on that journey.

But, before we get to ahead of ourselves, I want to give 2015 a proper send off. I've spent the last few weeks rifling through my cabinets, digging through my drawers, and perusing my old blog posts to come up with an epic list of my most favorite beauty products from the past year. For a moment I considered making one short list encompassing my best-of-the-best products, only to quickly realize that it's kind of impossible to just pick one favorite makeup or skincare item from the hundreds that I've tried. So instead, I offer you this. Over the next few days I'll be sharing my best beauty discoveries of 2015, with each post focusing on a particular group of products. So let's start things right by talking about everyone's favorite beauty addiction - makeup.

August 2015 Empties

Hi everyone! Somehow it's already the end of August, and I'm struggling to figure out how exactly that happened. Fortunately there are a few weeks of summer left, because I'm so not ready to say goodbye to the warm weather. In the meantime, let's take a look back at some of the products I finally finished up in the last month. As much as its sad to reach the bottom of the jar when a product is awesome, there's also a definite sense of accomplishment around it. This time around I feel like I made some headway in the bath and body department, which is good considering how much of a stockpile I feel like I've amassed at home.

June 2015 Favorites

It's been another whirlwind of a month! I feel like June was especially crazy, as work had been particularly stressful and my time and energy for blogging was much less than usual. Fortunately I had a wonderfully relaxing week of vacation that got me back up on my feet and feeling recharged. I've got at least 12 posts in the drafting stages (including a delicious recipe for blueberry lemon cheesecake bars), so get ready for July to be full of amazing things!

Anyway, back to the real reason you're here. I've got a lovely little collection of makeup, skincare and other goodies that I've been using non stop this month to share with you.

The Laura Mercier Artist's Palette is Back! (and Looking Better Than Ever)

So, I'm bumming around the Sephora website, not looking for anything particular, and lo and behold, a miraculous sight appears before my eyes. Laura Mercier has re-released their Artist's Palette for Eyes (now called the Eye Art Artist's Palette) and it looks like it might just be part of their permanent collection! I can barely contain my excitement.

April 2015 Empties

Another month has past and it's time to sift through my trash and all the fond memories that come along with it. Here are my final thoughts on all of the products I've finished up in the month of April!

Spring 2015 Wish List - Prestige Makeup Picks

After yet another snowy morning commute to work, I am SO ready to welcome any sign of spring. Given that there are still mountain high piles of slush and ice everywhere I turn, I have a feeling it might be a while before I see any flowers budding or greenery growing. My solution? To distract myself with pretty pastels, sheer shimmers, and petal hued cosmetics that have me daydreaming of sunshine and warmer weather.

November 2014 Birchbox

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I took a little bit of a blogging break to focus on baking, crafting, and all things festive, as well as to spend time with people in person and away from my computer. I'm feeling quite refreshed and ready to write, but I also realize that I've got quite a bit of catch up to play. I got really fabulous Birchboxes in November and December, so I just can't skip over writing about them.

November's Birchbox theme was all about Giving - giving back to subscribers, to the community, and even giving yourself a little extra TLC.  With a campaign to raise money for AIDS awareness and jam packed birchboxes, I think Birchbox did an amazing job with spreading the love.

March 2014 Wish List

While logically I know the start of spring is only a few weeks away, the never-ending cold weather has started to make me feel like I'm going to be eternally stuck in wintery despair. A mountain of snow still looms in front of my condo, with no chance of melting in sub-artic temperatures. But, since getting Mother Nature to cooperate doesn't appear to be an option, I've decided to try and stay positive by focusing my attention on other things. Namely, making a wish list of all the beauty products I'm currently lusting after.

Laura Mercier Artist's Palette for Eyes

When it comes to major beauty purchases (which in my book are typically anything costing more than $20) I'm usually not one to buy on impulse. Being the blogger type I often will read lots of reviews, watch videos, and make a very well educated decision on where I'm going to invest my money.

Once in a great while, though, I'll stumble upon a potential gem, and without any prior research splurge on a whim. Sometimes my rash decision is a poor one (and those are times when I'm very thankful for return policies), but sometimes it's unintentionally brilliant.

Prime example? My latest Sephora haul.

Fall 2013 Shopping Spree

So...I may have gone a bit crazy with beauty shopping in the past couple of weeks. Between the sales and coupons and gift cards I had, it would have been silly to resist. I'm planning on writing more detailed posts reviewing all of the products I got, so be sure to check back most likely over the weekend when I have a chance to finish that project up. In the meantime, I did a quick (okay, so maybe it's not so quick) overview of my Sephora and Kohls hauls and my first impressions of the products I've tried so far.

Lazy Day Look & Free Sample Friday

I love the summer.

The heat, the sunshine, the longer days, trading in regular coffee for iced, shoes that show off my latest pedicure...everything about the summertime just makes me feel a little bit happier to be alive.

I think I'm in a little bit of shock that it's already July. The summer months always seem to fly by so quickly, despite my attempts to savor them as much as possible. As a birthday gift to myself I decided to take the 3rd-5th off from work and it has been FANTASTIC. I've already had a whole weekend's worth of time and it's still only Friday!