Beauty Without Makeup

I wanted to take a break from the makeup reviews on this page and write about something different for this week. I clearly love makeup. If you follow me on any of my social media you will know this since I like to share new looks on a fairly regular basis. Of course, if I didn't love makeup I wouldn't have this page either. With that being said I wanted to talk about how makeup can and should be used as something you love to do, rather than something you feel you need to do to be beautiful.

I think a big misconception about makeup is that a lot of people mistake someone that loves and wears makeup as a very self conscious and not very confident person. A lot of the time make up is thought to cover up your flaws and hide them away to feel better. I know I felt like I needed to wear it back when my acne was really bad. I just wanted to hide that away from the world because I just hated the look of it. I was also a much more self conscious person back then than I am now. I do of course still get breakouts now, and sometimes if it is a particularly bad one I will cover it up just to reduce the appearance of it, but this is a rare occasion now. I think that is just a natural instinct in us really. What is important to me is to learn to love yourself with or without makeup. What is really important is learning that you do not need makeup in order to be a beautiful person.

When I do my makeup and the look I created turns out even better than I expected I know I have an extra little boost of self confidence. There is nothing wrong with that at all. Makeup is such a fun way to boost your confidence and bring out your creativity. It really is an art form in a way (especially when people do those amazing special effects looks). Even when that happens, remember that at the end of the day the makeup is wiped away. The person underneath the makeup is what really matters. Realize that you are beautiful with our without it, and if you are not such a beautiful person on the inside, realize that no amount of makeup will cover this up. The person on the inside shows your true beauty. 

I love my makeup and do it mostly every day, but I also can leave the house without it. I have no problems leaving the house to run errands or even to meet up with some of my friends for lunch without an ounce of makeup on m face. My confidence and self worth is exactly the same during both of the situations. I know so many people that simply will not leave the house without it. I am going to leave this post  a little shorter and end it with a challenge. I want to challenge anyone reading this that may feel they need their makeup when going out to leave the house without it. I am not saying show up to work or something like that (because quite frankly I hardly ever do that myself) but go to the grocery store or something without any makeup on. Challenge yourself to realize you don't need it. Challenge yourself to see the beautiful person you are with naked skin. Live a confident life with or without makeup.

Morphe Jaclyn Hill Eyeshadow Palette Review

Last weekend I finally took a trip to Ulta. It had been quite a while since I had been in there (mainly because I tend to overspend when I go there) and I really did not go in with any specific product to purchase in mind. I did leave with the Jaclyn Hill Morphe palette I have been eyeing for quite some time. I decided why not review it for my blog?

This palette came out last summer, so it is not exactly new, but it is new to me and I figured I would share my thoughts. This palette comes with 35 shades of eyeshadow that are in a pretty decent range of colors. There are plenty of neutral shades with a handful of bold colors to really incorporate into a number of different looks. The shades swatched very well, but as many people will say a swatch of an eye shadow with a finger is going to be very different from how the shade will appear and blend on the eye. I wanted to do both for my review so I did a number of swatches. The photo on the left is just a number of random shades in the palette, while the photo on the right is most of the shimmer shades in the palette:

I personally think these shadows swatch beautifully. I was especially impressed with the darker, purple like shades as those tend to be patchy and skip a lot, but not with these. The shimmer shades really came across beautifully as well. Honestly my first impression was very good for this palette, but performance is key when it comes to makeup right?

I wore this palette on my eyes all week. It started with the day I brought it home. I honestly couldn't wait to experiment with it, so right away I went right in with a bolder look. I used a lot of the brown shades, but I really wanted to use the dark blue-purple shade called "Twerk." The picture to the left of this text shows that look and, although I did need to blend some more I think the look came out fairly well. That dark blueish purple shade was not as bold as you would first think with the initial application, but it was very easy to build it up to get the amount of color you may want. For someone who usually does not do such bold colorful looks, I found it very easy to get the look I wanted when I used these shadows. This was the very first look I tried with this palette and I was very impressed.

I wanted to really use this palette and give it a good try before I reviewed it on my page, so I used this palette all week like I mentioned before. Every morning before work I did a more subtle look from this palette and wore it all day up until I either got home from work or to the gym after work. This palette made it very easy to create looks that were suitable for work. I had no issues using this palette every day. I found the shadows blended very well and I love the shade range I had to choose from. Here are just a few examples of the looks I wore during the week:

Nothing too crazy and all very subtle looks. I know they are very similar, but that is why I included the other above look on my post here. In my opinion, that is what I want in a palette. Shadows that I can create many everyday looks with but I can also create a look for a night out with as well. I personally think this palette does this. The shadows also lasted all day on me. My eyeshadow looked pretty much the same at the end of the day before I removed it. The picture below was taken at the gym at the end of my day, just before I removed my makeup before my workout. This was the same look as the middle photo above. Sure it is fading a bit and is not as fresh as when it was first applied, but considering I had been wearing it for about 10 hours at this point, I would say it held up amazingly well!

Overall I am in love with this palette. This palette will run you $38... that is just a little more than $1 per shadow. I personally find that to be very reasonable. I was very impressed with this palette and am going to continue using it most likely daily from now on. The price is not bad, the shade range is awesome to me, they are easy to work with, and the shades last fairly long and well. This is absolutely my new go-to palette.