late night minutes: March 2013

Honduras, Belize, Mexico {Cruise}

birthday beauty

Hi everyone, I'm back! My bf and I got back from our spring break cruise on Saturday with new tans (and some burns) and a ton of new experiences and photos to accompany them :) I'll have a separate post soon to show you guys but today I'll be showing you some beauty products I picked up at Sephora for my birthday! If you don't know yet, one of the perks of Sephora's Beauty Insider program is that every year for your birthday, they give you a sample-size beauty product(s) for free. This year I went with Benefit's They're Real! mascara and their Watt's Up? highlighter. I'm a sucker for cute packaging and catchy names which Benefit is also known for, so that was probably another reason I was really excited to use these lol

Some girls prefer mascara wands to be curved to fit their eye shape but that's never been a huge concern to me so I found this mascara to be really user-friendly. The bristles come at different lengths anyways so I didn't have a problem reaching shorter eyelashes. I've used this mascara a few times now, and the wand hasn't clumped or caked yet either which is another good thing. The only disappointment I had with it is that it didn't make my eyelashes *pop* as much as I'd hoped for (the first picture above is before applying mascara, second one is after applying). My all-time favourite mascara is L'Oreal's Voluminous in carbon black which really builds the thickness and colour of my eyelashes if anyone's looking for a good drugstore mascara alternative

Benefit's Watt's Up? highlighter gives a "champagne glow" and is meant to highlight cheek bones and brow bones. It has a cream-to-powder texture and glides on pretty smoothly. Once applied (first picture below) you're supposed to blend it in to your skin (second picture below). I know it's kind of hard to tell in the picture, especially with the lighting but there was a subtle hint of glow after I applied it and I actually really liked it. I rarely use highlighters but I liked the texture and subtlety of this highlighter so I may start to use it now!