Friday, August 31, 2012

YBF Lipsticks, College Again, and Where Did August Go?

Hello, dear readers,

I somehow managed to skip an entire month of blogging, and it's made me realize how much I miss it. Of course, now that I'm ready to get back in the swing of things, I've been bombarded with reading assignments from just the first two days of class. If you aren't already aware, I am a transfer student coming in as a junior to my new college. I'll go ahead and be honest and admit that so far I don't love it here. 

The academics seem great, but it's such a small school that it's hard to break into cliques. Yes, cliques exist on a campus of 1500 or so students [my high school had somewhere between 2000 and 2500!]. Granted, they're bigger than in high school and without any actual drama among groups, but that doesn't make it any easier to come in as an upperclassman and feel right at home. It seems like I'm the only one who feels that way, though. Maybe it's because I just came from a campus of over 40,000 students. I'm used to enjoying a certain anonymity among the masses and a social life among my own friends.

Complaining aside, I do look forward to joining some activities and hopefully getting my life together in a way that allows me to blog more often than I have been. That doesn't mean that I won't ever get lazy and skip weeks, but I'd rather not skip months anymore! I will be posting an updated skincare routine at some point, but I have yet to take the pictures. I don't really have a set foundation routine right now; it varies by day/time of day/the condition of my skin. I can, however, do a post about some of the products that make regular appearances in my makeup routine. There are some new additions to my face makeup family, so I'll eventually be sharing those.

Now onto current news: I'll wager that most of you have heard of HauteLook , but I'll explain it anyway for those of you who haven't. It's a flash sale site for beauty, clothing, and home goods brands for men, women, and children. It will have a sale on, say, Stila Cosmetics starting at 8 a.m. EST on a Wednesday, and ending Friday at 8 a.m. Right now, there are sales on brands ranging from Sibu Beauty to Minnetonka; Lucky Brand Men to Skechers Backpacks for kids.

A little over a week ago, HauteLook had a sale on a relatively new beauty line called ybf cosmetics, which stands for your best friend. There was a set of six lipsticks for $12.50, and I thought that was a pretty good deal. The shipping was not the greatest, because it tacked on an extra $6.00 or so, but my mom was kind enough to order it for me as a back to college [here goes nothingl "surprise." [Side note: I realize the term "college" is like high school for some countries outside of the U.S., but I mean it in terms of university. You've probably guessed that by now.]

Apologies for not taking my own pictures, but here is what I received:

Source
Source
Rather than take all the pictures from other websites, I'm going to direct you to this wonderful post that pretty much nails everything there is to say about these lipsticks. I can add that they are paraben free; if that's a concern of yours, you may be interested. They really are very versatile shades, and you can layer them any way you please. You can layer any lipstick, actually, but these happen to come in a cute and convenient set. I love the heart-shaped packaging and the fact that there are essentially four variations of red. I would say that there's a cool-toned red, an orangey red, and a cherry red.

The other three colors are a sheer, shimmery nude meant to top the other lipsticks, a deep wine color, and a brownish burgundy. The only discrepancy between my post and the one I've linked above is the color of the shade "Scandalous." Mine are exactly as pictured above in the company's photo, and I'm  not sure why. If you'd like to see a review with my own photos and swatches, I can do that, too.

That's all I've got for you today. Congratulations to those of you who made it through this post, and thank you to my readers for sticking with me while I sort out my life!

I hope your August was marvelous and your September is even better!

xEsther