May and June 2015 Favorites

So I wasn't ready to post my May favorites until mid-June, but I felt that both May and June have some interesting context to them that make them worthwhile favorites so instead of putting out a May favorites on the 15th of June I figured I would just post both months at the same time, especially since there aren't that many favorites for either as I was very selective with my choices.

May Favorites

The first half of this month was exam season, IB exam season. There was two days where I left the house at 8 in the morning, took two or three exams with only a 45 minute lunch break and then remained at school to study in the evening only to arrive home at 8 PM. After that I had senior prank, senior dessert, graduation, was working on getting the house ready for market presentation, and sent my boyfriend off to Shanghai for the summer.

Proactiv Refining Mask

Proactiv is a decent brand. I really like their Deep Cleansing Body Wash (except for the freaking mini plastic fish murdering beads, which is why it isn't actually in my favorites and why I am looking for an alternative body wash) but mostly, I love their refining mask.

Usually sulfur smells terrible, but while this has a distinct smell that does linger until you properly wash your face, it is not a bad smell and I actually kind of like it. It does a fantastic job drying out my pimples and clearing out my pores. I find its best use is as an overnight spot treatment for pimples and clogged pores, you put it on at night, sleep, wash it off in the morning and boom cleared pores and greatly smaller zits.

I have had this bottle for a very long time, probably too long, and as you can see I've gone through half of it in the years that I have owned it. Also, this is the little bottle. There is a larger bottle available.

Miss Sherlock Perfume from Deep Midnight Perfumes

Though not my usual fragrance choice, this smells fresh and green and beautiful and through the placebo effect gives me a feeling of intelligence and confidence. Bonus, it lasts forever but has a throw light enough that in a testing room as spread out as ours was you won't risk giving anyone a fragrance headache, which is really important.

Moonlight Stalker Angelic Powder from Innocent and Twisted Alchemy

I have an army of highlighters, but this month, for my graduation, meeting my boyfriend's parents, senior dessert, all of my special occasions I chose this highlighter. I don't know if it would look ashy on darker skin tones but on my fair skin its beautiful and can be built up to lovely sheen, but also works great for a soft glow.

It Cosmetics Tightline Waterproof Mascara 

I love this mascara, it makes my lashes look gorgeous and doesn't smudge. It does flake off if you rub at your eyes a lot like I do but the flakes are much easier to clean away than smudges. I managed to hold it together through most of my events so I only have one real cry session where I got to test this out but it held up well to salt water. After taking a shower with this on, I can tell you this is truly waterproof at least in non-chlorinated water, but I wouldn't tout it as an almighty mascara. If I went to the water park, I would still come back with no mascara just because of the inevitable eye rubbing that would occur. 

June Favorites

The month of June began with a week long recovery from having all four of my impacted wisdom teeth removed, followed by making massive amounts of SWAPS (Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere) for my local girl scout troop. My birthday was on the 23rd, and my boyfriend's was on the 19th. My family and I have been trying to sell our home for some time now which has been hard on me because I am trying to keep my home immaculately clean and not just liveably clean, which gives me more anxiety than is reasonable (and this is coming from someone with severe anxiety).

Skindinavia Oil Control Primer

I actually just bought this so that I could get a free 4oz finishing spray with it, I figured since they were having the promotion why not basically get the primer for free? It turns out, I love this more than the finishing spray. It makes my makeup (especially my blushes) last way longer, feels like nothing on the skin once it dries, and actually does keep my oil under control even after a full day of vigorous shopping, sweating, and eating unreasonably buttery popcorn.

Previse Face Wash

Photo Credit to Previse because
I accidentally forgot to photograph mine

I ended up buying this and the serum after watching a glossybox unboxing. I've been using this as my only face wash for probably around 7 weeks now and it keeps my skin clean while being very gentle. The pores around my nose have never looked so reasonable. I bought both the serum and the face wash and I will get around to doing a full review with more details eventually.

My only consideration would be that this is best for skin that is mostly under control already. The cleanser is so gentle that to get super skin clearing powers you have to increase your usage or use a spot treatment. BUT, I have tried all sorts of things to make my nose pores look less clogged and nothing has ever helped like this. Even on day three without showering unless I do something  (like work in a churro booth), my nose pores are just so nice looking.

Bonus, the brand has you take a quiz and decides what formula is best for you, so if you don't have my skin type you can still try it out and see if you like it.

Be a Bombshell The One Stick in Sunset

Okay, let me just preface this by saying that while I love both the color and function of this, the packaging and brand reputation are personally not good enough for 20$. Good news, they go on sale for 5$ sometimes. 

This is a gorgeous color, it goes on the cheeks beautifully, and because of the cream-to-powdery nature of this product it feels like nothing on the lips. It stays on better than a lot of my other cream and powder blushes as well.

 I did a whole review on the Be a Bombshell the One Stick here. 

Be A Bombshell: The One Stick

I've acquired three of these in different colors over the past several months, and while there is some controversy about the actual quality of BaB products, I've yet to have any worrying quality issues with them myself. I have tried a few other products from this brand, and I do honestly feel they are overpriced. If I find a nice dupe for these from an indie company, I would gladly replace them. Usually, The One Stick retails for 16$, however they do occasionally go on clearance or on sale for 5$ a piece, which I feel is a fair price.

The image for the Flustered
The One Stick from BaB's website

I love the packaging of this product, I think it is the most practically packaged all-over-face stick that I have seen (though the lids are a little loose, so be careful about that). Most of the cheek/ all-over-face sticks I have seen are very large, which makes it difficult to use them on the lips even if you wanted to. The One Stick looks like it's going to be large, but the actual opening that the product comes out of is just a little bit larger than your typical chapstick, which makes it a lot easier to use on the lips and not just on the cheeks.


The texture of the product tends to be pretty gooey and creamy, it's a little strange and requires blending especially for the cheeks and eyes. The shimmery shades are the creamiest, and the darker shades seem to have better pigmentation than the lighter shades. On the lips the product is not moisturizing, but not particularly drying either, it doesn't bleed, but it is something you will notice that you are wearing.

These are the swatches of the colors, under my fake lighting the swatches look a lot more like their description than they do in real life. Girl Crush is intended to be a shimmery pale pink, in person though it has a vaguely purple hue to it, but I actually really like the color when I want a subtle purpley blush.

Flustered was described as a bright hot pink, but in the tube and in person swatches more as a true red with gold sparkles. I checked the label on it twice and even checked the site for any other color that might have matched with this one, but it appears to genuinely be what they see as hot pink.



Sunset was another one of my favorites, it looks very orangey here but in person it is more of a muted red, with some orange tones. After this you will get the opportunity to see embarrassing face swatches of each one, having put each color on my eyes, lips, and cheeks at the same time. These are all just iPhone photos, but hey, at least you'll know what its going to look like in your selfie!

Flustered- least favorite, weird texture,
terrible on the eyelids, pretty strong on
the cheeks.

Girl Crush- unique color, personal favorite
for use on cheeks. Lacks pigmentation elsewhere

Sunset- most versatile, the one color I actually felt relatively
comfortable putting on my entire face