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This past weekend, I attended “Camp Gorgeous” at Houston’s Neiman Marcus in our Galleria mall. Camp Gorgeous was a 10-day beauty event featuring summer beauty products perfect for any of your warm-weather festivities. This year, it was in partnership with fellow local lifestyle/beauty blogger, Lipstick & Brunch, who was Neiman’s #ITGirl of the season!
I got to enjoy TONS of free beauty samples while hanging out with some of Houston’s finest blogger babes. Naturally, the dozens of samples weren’t enough for me considering Neiman Marcus’s beauty department was basically my idea of heaven – and I was feeling a little spendy. I think there’s something in the Neiman’s airflow that does that.
Let me share what I picked up and why I felt it was worth the splurge…
Houston bloggers from L to R: Cup of Charisma, Sincerely Stella Marie, Lipstick & Brunch, The Loop Lyfe, Beauty and the Binky, (Farah Nazar Jewelry), me // photo credit: Lipstick & Brunch
Before I even got in my car to head to this event, I made a little wish list of products and at the top of the list was the Chantecaille Mermaid Eye Color in Triton. Um. Hello. MERMAID EYE COLOR. Yes, please. I would love to have mermaid colors on my eyes immediately. I was so attracted to this taupe shade with subtle greenish, bluish, purplish, pinkish shift iridescence. In my research, I literally could not find ANYTHING else out there similar at any price point. There’s three other shades in the mermaid eye color collection, as well. I love products like this for the summer because they’re one and done eye looks. You can use this wet or dry, but one swipe on the lid with or without liner is an easy summer eye.
Estee Lauder has really stepped their game up in innovating their line lately, so if you haven’t had a chance to check out what they have to offer, I highly encourage it because so much of their stuff is amazing quality and very under-rated. Their partnership with Kendall Jenner has definitely helped make the brand a little more relevant to a younger generation, too. Anyways, I got a chance to wear Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick in Discreet (a peachy brown nude) and really loved how pigmented and creamy it was. The Pure Color Envy lipsticks are all full coverage, one-swipe sort of shades that follow suit with the other highly pigmented lippies from NARS (Audacious), BITE (Amuse Bouche), and/or YSL (Rouge Pur Couture).
The Estee Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Gloss in Intense Spice called to me because it’s a bronze metallic shimmer hue that is the perfect combination of long-wearing and JUST sticky enough. Sheer enough to top any lipstick without changing the shade, but pigmented enough to wear alone. Plus, metallics are back in a big way this season.
I also fell in love with the softness and blendability of their Pure Color Envy Sculpting Blush in Sensuous Rose (a matte warm peachy rose). First of all, the pans of these blushes are massive. Second, they come with a functional brush that you can actually use because it’s soft and made of natural hairs (instead of those plasticky/synthetic ones). This shade reminds me a lot of MAC’s Gingerly, except a little more finely milled and also extremely long-wearing. It made my skin look very soft and refined.
Lastly, the Marc Jacobs Social Butterfly eyeshadow palette. I really needed this like a hole in my head, but I couldn’t resist. It’s so sleek, the colors were so buttery and I knew I could get a lot of use out of the neutral shades. The other reason I justified its purchase was because this particular palette is exclusive to Neiman Marcus. I played with it today and I have to admit… so far, it reminds me a lot of Urban Decay Naked1 palette, but the pop of purple is going to be fun on my hazel/brown eyes. I have to play a little more to have more definitive thoughts on it.
Have you tried anything from these brands? Any goodies? Let me know what you think about my picks in the comments! 🙂
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-Steffanie
