Rockatuer

Lately I've been loving this blush by Benefit Cosmetics. I have very fair skin and to be honest most of the Benefit boxed blushes, when swatched, strike me as a little too bright or orange for my skin tone. Blush is one thing I'm not so experimental with. I should really step outside my comfort zone more on that one.

I love that "Rockatuer" is very natural and subtle, even on fair skin. This blush has good pigmentation and doesn't require a lot of product on application, but I have found that it is very difficult to apply too much product. Actually, I have yet to have that problem with this blush.

On my skin it shows up as a soft rosy pink with a slight coral tone. When new, the blush has a shimmery foil layer on the top that disappears with first use. The result is a subtle shimmer that shows up as more of a glow on the cheeks.

The packaging is pretty but does not feel as sturdy as most the packaging of most high-end blushes. This is my first Benefit blush and while I find the packaging to be cute, I perfer the traditional blush-in-a-pan packaging, as I feel that the box somewhat limits how much product the brush can pick up. The box contains a mirror in it, although I think its too small to be very useful and I find the packaging to be a little large to carry around for touch-ups throughout the day. As with all of the Benefit boxed blushes, "Rockatuer" is scented. While I am pretty picky about scented beauty products, I really do like the scent of this blush.

For The Twill of It: Essie

This nail polish caught my eye immediately. This was my first time using a duochrome nail polish so I was very curious to see how it would translate on the nails. 

On the nails it appears greyish purple, kind of greyish green, or a combination of the two depending on how the light hits it. I really like the added visual interest this brings.

A lot of people really like the Essie polishes but in my first experience with the brand I found the nude color Sand Tropez to be very thin, streaky, and difficult to apply. As a result I was hesitant to try other colors from Essie, but since I felt that this polish is quite unique I decided to give Essie another try. What I found is that For The Twill of It is nothing like Sand Tropez in formulation. I like how thick it goes on the nails. When applied it doesn't run as easily as thinner polishes which made application easier for me. I applied two coats with a base coat and no top coat and after 5 days have experienced no chipping with a little bit of wear showing on the tips.

This polish can be purchased at Target for $8.59 or at most drugstores.