Wishlist: Best of the Giftsets

October offers many things for beauty lovers to get excited about. 

Halloween makeup (obvs) upping your skincare stash for the cold, and last but not least the advent of ALL the Holiday gift sets. 

It's early yet but there are some really beautiful things floating out there in retail land and so you don't miss out I've compiled the best bang for your buck. 

Style Inspired Autumn 2015

 I always get inspired to up my fashion efforts this time of year. Something about layering on clothes and being comfortable without needing to leave the house wearing a sleeping bag makes for a good reason to beef up your closet. 

As always my inspiration lies in rockstars of the past and the women who loved them. This time of year groupie chic is joined by witches, cool boots, sexplotation movie heroines and well dressed trannies past and present. 

Yeah this is totally the kind of inspiration you see on a normal fashion blog. 

Wardrobe Wishlist: Autumn 2015

I made a photoshop collage for you guys this week!

Fancy!

I am loving these last little tidbits of summertime but I would be lying if I said I wasn't jonsing for some cool NYC Autumn weather.

The weather and all the wonderful wardrobe choices it brings!

So today we're doing a bit of a Fall wishlist post to organize all my fashion-y hopes and dreams for the next few months. 

(Under)Cover Lover

If there is one base product that I can really get excited about it's concealer. 

For years I wasn't much of a foundation girl and since beauty blogging and YouTube have become a bigger part of my life that's changed I still always keep a wide selection of concealers, my true love, close at hand. 

While I was traveling I made sure to nab one formula I wanted to try and another that I knew I already loved. 

Catrice: First Impressions

 This is going to be an extraordinarily well timed post, especially for me.

While I was in Dublin with my family in the first few days of July I picked up a small selection of Catrice products because at the time they were only available across Europe. Since then (like in the last 2 weeks) they became available on the the Ulta website and in a few exclusive stores.

Let me tell you if you are a fan of good beauty on a budget this is GREAT news for you.

When Summer Brights Feel Right

Despite that fact that two weeks ago I was droning on about winter berry lips at the height of the Summer season I may have finally managed to find a set of "seasonal" lipsticks that are making me tick.

They are in a stellar formula that, better yet, is at the drugstore.

The Maybelline Creamy Mattes formula launched last fall and for the Spring they doubled the shade range.  As soon as I saw preliminary images of the colors I knew exactly the colors I would be aiming for.

Look Alive

 Organic and "all natural" makeup is a tricky thing. With brands constantly on the hunt to find ways of selling customers a more green angle it's hard to know what brands that claim to be organic are legit.

RMS Beauty has long been regarded as one of the forerunners in organic and green beauty products. While this isn't necessarily a huge concern for me when it comes to beauty (I'm an equal opportunity hoarder) when you hear enough about any given product it's hard not to cave and give it a try. 

So when a little coupon code incentive surfaced for DermStore last week I went ahead and finally picked up the RMS Living Luminizer. 

Makeup Bag Extras

Sometimes the things that make us feel the prettiest are not the best looking things in and of themselves.

Today (well yesterday, I'm behind this week.) I want to talk about all the not so pretty things in my makeup bag that make me feel extra good some days. 

Capsule|Extra Glow

Now I love me a good highlighter. All year long but especially lately and, despite my laziness in the mornings, I have been making time to add a touch of shine to my daily face.

Especially because the warmer weather has made me extra uh,,,social...which means I am extra dehydrated.

Don't drink and make up.

Stepford Alien

I feel like every year I share a new pair of sunglasses on the blog. Last year it was a badass pair of colorful, mirrored aviators and this year we have June Cleaver meets Judy Jetson.

Now these are "inspired" by the Tom Ford Nastasya sunglasses that I first saw on Dara's YouTube Channel.

Now I love Dara and her recommendations but Tom Ford and my wallet are just not on the same page these days.

I think the number of selfies on my Instagram may have grown by 5,000% since I got these.

I am in love.

The Best of The Drugstore Feb 2015 | TheUnanimousMolly

After my recent beauty clear out I finally started to realize that there were a lot of budget conscious beauty bits that I wasn't reaching for in favor of my other slightly pricier options.

Armed with this new information and a MUCH smaller collection I thought it would be a good time to go through the good stuff that was left and pick out all of the drugstore goodies that had earned a spot in the new lineup. 

Some of these are old, some of them are new but all of them are honestly some of the more affordable pieces that I will reach for on the regular. 

So what should you pick up the next time you're perusing the aisles of the local Rite Aid?

Check out the video and find out! 

A Limited Edition 8$ Worth Spending

There was a time when my beauty obsession was so intense that if something had a "Limited Edition" label you could guarantee I would spend my money on it. Especially if it happened to be at the drugstore. 

The thought process was something like "Well if I hate it, it's only 8$ and if I don't get it now I'll surely regret it." (Don't call me Shirley.)

The problem with that line of thinking is that you inevitably wind up with a lot of product you don't really love and a collection so out of control you don't know where to reach when doing your makeup. 

So since learning my limited edition lesson I've become much more decisive about which items I'll shell out for and which ones get to stay on the shelf for other hungry collectors.

This weekend when I spotted the new Maybelline Spring Rebel Bloom Limited Edition Color Tattoo in the shade Black Orchid I knew it was coming home with me. 

The Current Concealer Wardrobe

No product has the ability to illicit more excitement in me than concealer.
I've never been much of a full coverage girl when it comes to foundation, hell I've never been much of a foundation girl in general. When it comes to hiding imperfections and evening out my skin tone concealer has always been where it's at for me.
Targeted application is key and finding the right texture is a constant mission in my life.
As such at any given moment my collection has what seems to be an ever growing and changing selection of products.
Today we're taking a tour of what's in the lineup right now. 

Shopping My Stash #2

One of the best benefits of purging a collection is suddenly finding things that you once used all the time or were really excited about when you bought but somehow made their way to the back of a drawer instead of onto your face.

It's inevitable when you have an unnecessarily large amount of the same thing that shades and formulas get neglected. As part of my ongoing mission to use more of my stuff and part with things that don't make the cut I've pulled a selection of things to start playing with. 

The Repurchases| Nuxe Reve De Miel

It has been quite some time since I've featured a repurchased item on the blog. 

Probably because I'm a little slutty when it comes to my products and because when you do find yourself finishing things you realize that it actually takes a long time to do. 

The Nuxe Reve De Miel Ultra Nourishing Lip Balm is a prime example of this. The pot that I just finished is the one I started nearly 18 months ago. 

Balk all you want at a 19$ lip treatment but I bet you dollars to donuts you've spent twice that much on cherry Chapstick in the last year and a half. 

Capsule Wardrobe| Lipstick High and Low

I've done one capsule posts before (here and here), essentially about the basic items you should have in your collection to create the most diverse looks with the fewest products. 

I did not show the same restraint here...but, I am offering a high end and a more budget friendly lineup for you guys to choose from. This way you can fill the gaps in your collection from either lineup or mix and match as you see fit.

The formula here was simple. I picked one nude, mauve, coral, berry and, red shade from each price point. Some of the shades, the nudes in particular, are going to work better for those of you with a warmer skin tone (like mine) but the more saturated colors should be fair game for everyone. 

I omitted pinks because, as I have mentioned recently, the variation in that particular color category is a little nerve wracking for me.

The Beauty Purge 2015|#3 The Thing About Pink

As I wade through my acrylic drawers full of excess makeup (mainly lip products) I've suddenly noticed something.

I own A LOT of pink lipstick.

Do you know what I almost never wear?

Pink lipstick.

The Beauty Purge 2015|#2 Thoughts on Blush Palettes

With the holidays and all of the holiday gift sets behind us and my recent collection purge on my mind I was thinking a little bit about some of the the most popular offerings from brands at the holidays and how/when I use them throughout the year.

The first thing I thought of were the constantly reappearing blush palettes, initially brought out by NARS, I believe, in 2012 and then again every year since. Not to be outdone Tarte followed suit with collections of their much loved Amazonian Clay formula.

After three holiday seasons and two different palettes added to my collection how do I feel about this as a part of my collection and would I buy another one?

The Beauty Purge 2015| #1 An Introduction

Via Instagram

So as the dawn of the new year approached I realized it was time for me to start thinking about freeing up space in my beauty stash. 

Now being the kind of person I am, once this idea took hold I felt like I needed to go about getting it done like...now. 

Right now.

So on Sunday I spilled my entire collection all over my (very cold) bedroom floor and sorted, counted and, purged the whole damn thing.

Over the next few days you're going to see some more in depth posts about certain parts of the collection and everything that went. 

Today though, I filmed a video going over some of the highlights of the purge including some of the stuff going back to MAC, the give aways, the trow aways and the parts of my collection that took the biggest hit. (Hint: starts with lip ends with stick.)

Also there will be a full rundown of all the numbers for the last installment of the purge next week.

So watch this space!

It's Not Easy Havig a Good TIme

I have been dying to write this post for months. 

If you haven't noticed I've been dropping hints. 

Now here it is.

Fore warning. This is going to be a picture heavy post.