Rants and raves of the moment

It seems like lately, every time I make a trip to MAC or Sephora, whatever I pick up is an absolute home run. I tend to be unreal research-analyst-y? When it comes to shopping since I had my baby. When I take her shopping for anything with me I need to be ridiculously efficient. Emily is super patient and content when were out but I think that's partially due to the fact that I try my best not to push her patience.
Before I leave the house I choose all the stores I'm going to conquer and then scour their websites and basically make a mental list of everything I'm interested in. If its grocery shopping, then I make an actual list. (I know, I'm like the first person to ever think of that :P) for beauty products and big purchases I do an insane amount of research. I read reviews, blogs and always check out makeup alley. I feel like lately I've been wasting a lot less money on bologna products that take up space on my vanity. Of course, sometimes my fancy little system doesn't always work.

Rant #1
Okay so I have two space and money wasting face powders that I heard unreal good reviews about. Literally every beauty guru and their dog absolutely LOVED these. Firstly, MAC mineralize skinfinish natural. I felt like when I applied this to set my foundation my skin just looked dead and dull. Because I'm not made of money, and this isn't real cheap, I tried it again and again but now it just sits at the bottom of my powder drawer. Next, I really, really, really tried so hard to love this because it IS so cheap. Rimmel Stay Matte powder. I just found this to be very... meh. I use it on occasion but I just don't feel like its anything special. Probably even on the crappier side of meh. Definitely prefer my Make Up Forever HD setting powder.

Rant #2
Make Up Forever HD foundation. Blahhhh! This one made me mad. Heard so many good things about this foundation. "Works for every skin type" "lasts all day" blah-dee blah-dee blah. Okay, so, I only got a sample of this foundation but still. Within an hour it looked splotchy on my skin and it really accentuated dry spots. Just, yuck.

With a little bad always comes some good. Here that goes!

Rave #1
MAC cranberry eyeshadow. Omg. Wow. Freakin' love. I've been using this as a crease colour like every day. It's surprisingly neutral looking when blended out and it's just gorgeous!

Rave #2
2 foundations I am love-love-loving at the moment. Laura Mercier Silk Creme foundation and NARS sheer glow foundation. Both last me all day, cover and blend beautifully, and feel so smooth and light on my skin. I'm currently living in two different cities and its unreal how much it's affected my skin. My home city is what I'm used to and normally my skin is fairly normal except my nose which is always just a mess. It's like dry skin underneath an oil slick. It's weird. The Laura Mercier was working fantastically for me until I started going back and forth. The second city is dry as hell and has wreaked havoc on my face. NARS sheer glow has been just amazing for the dry days. My skin always looks flawless with these two products.

Rave #3
I heard about this and my next rave from watching essiebutton's videos on YouTube. I love her review and favorite videos. Since I picked this product up I reach for it almost every day. NARS lustre. It's a gorgeous neutral apricot colour. It's just so natural looking. I put this over my cheeks just above my bronzer every day and then sometimes ill add a pop of colour on the apples of my cheeks. My two favorites to layer with this blush are orgasm also by NARS and peaches by MAC. Gorg!

Rave #4
This is yet another EVERY day product. Guess what? It's also by NARS! :P
Albatross highlighter. Wow. It's like a creamy ish colour with gold shimmer. I swear, it's like the "pregnant glow" in a container. I put this EVERYWHERE. High points of my cheek bones, down my nose, Cupid's bow, inner corners of my eye and on my brow bone. Since I added this to my beauty routine even my fiancé has mentioned my skin looking healthy and beautiful. He always told me that he would never notice changes in my makeup and he never has until now. So, na-na-na-na-boo-boo. Ha

Last one I swear!
Rave#5
My new Canon t4i! Been researching a good DSLR for awhile now and had my heart set on this bad boy but my pocket book was all like "hey that little coolpix over there looks good..." But I picked this sucker up on a Boxing Day special for $250 off! Annnd it was the last one in the store so woot woot! Merry Christmas to me!

I honestly have so many more but this is a rant and rave, not a ramble. Ill save some till next time. I hope you all had a holly, jolly Christmas!