L.A. Girl Velvet Contour Sticks Review & Swatches

L.A. Girl Velvet Contour Sticks ($5 each at Lagirlcosmetics.com) are a brand new product designed to make contouring easy with twist-up stick packaging and a velvety cream formula that comes in highlight, blush and bronzer shades. I've come to expect great things from L.A. Girl so I didn't hesitate to grab 8 out of the 16 shades to try. Funny enough, despite these being called "contour sticks" I didn't pick up any of the bronze shades because I'm not all that into contouring (gasp!). But I did grab all three highlights (because I love me some highlighters) and five shades of blush. So let's take a look! 

L.A. Girl Velvet Contour Sticks Now Available + Swatches

I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the L.A. Girl Velvet Contour Sticks ($5 each at LaGirlCosmetics.com) and they finally launched today! I love cream blushes and highlighters in stick form because they're so easy to use and tend to blend beautifully and look natural. I also love L.A. Girl...they're one of my favorite affordable brands and I've liked just about everything I've tried from them, from the Beauty Bricks to Pro Conceal HD Concealer to the Glazed Lip Paints (check out my L.A. Girl Reviews here). Let's take a closer look! 

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick Blush Review and Swatches

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick Blush Collection ($9 each at L.A. Girl) is brand new for Spring 2015 and I had been planning to order them from the L.A. Girl website for a few weeks now.  But lucky me, I spotted them in Burlington Coat Factory, of all places! Not only that, but they were only $4.99 each...a total steal. There are four different blush palettes online (Glam, Glow, Spice and Pinky), and I would have purchased all four but Burlington only had two of the shades left, Glow and Glam. Let's take a look...

LA Splash and LA Girl Spotted at Burlington Coat Factory

I was at Burlington Coat Factory today and spotted two brands that have mainly been online-only brands...L.A. Splash and L.A. Girl.
I have seen a few L.A.Girl products here and there like the Glazed Lip Paints at Harmon, Rite Aid, and Kmart and I've also seen the Beauty Brick eyeshadow palettes at Harmon, but today I saw the brand new Blush/Bronzer/Highlighter Beauty Bricks at Burlington. These just came out this Spring and I was planning an online order at L.A Girl since I hadn't seen them anywhere. Now I don't have to!
At my store, they only had Glow and Glam but there are two others online...Pinky and Spice. I'm not sure if they're just sold out at my location or if Burlington's not planning to stock those two.
They also had the eyeshadow Beauty Bricks!

Next, I spotted some L.A. Splash products, which I've never seen anywhere but online. They have a huge following on Social Media...everyone's talking about their lip products. Sadly, there were no lip products here, but there were glitter mascaras and cream eyeshadows. I'm definitely going to check here more often in case lip products start to show up!

So the moral of the story is, don't overlook Burlington Coat Factory for great beauty finds! I always forget to look there but I'm going to start remembering more often.

Have you spotted any great finds out and about? Any hard-to-find stuff?

L.A Girl Pro Conceal HD Concealer Review

Recently, one of my readers asked me what I thought of the L.A. Girl Pro Conceal HD Concealer ($5) and I realized that I hadn't reviewed it yet, which is crazy because it's one of my favorite concealers, drugstore or high end.  Let's take a look! 

I've been using Pro Conceal since this past summer and I originally bought it because I had seen tons of YouTube videos and other bloggers saying that this was the best concealer ever.  For me, it truly is...at least for everyday use.  If I'm going out or have a big event to go to, I'll use a full coverage concealer like It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye (or the new Wet N Wild Fergie Come Correct), but this is my daily concealer.  It's medium coverage, totally buildable, and so creamy and smooth.

L.A. Girl Glazed Lip Paint Review and Swatches

L.A. Girl has been impressing the heck out of me lately...first there were the Beauty Bricks with their amazingly soft, pigmented formula, then their Pro Conceal HD concealer (which I've been testing for a few weeks and will review soon), and now with their Glazed Lip Paints.

 Glazed Lip Paint comes in 18 shades and are $4 each on the L.A. Girl website. I picked up some shades at Harmons and a few more at Rite Aid for $3.49 each, so it appears to be a little cheaper in the drugstores.

A lot of you have been wondering if these are Too Faced Melted dupes because the packaging looks very similar and they're both liquid lipsticks. I'll compare them a little further down in this post but first, I'll talk about the Glazed Lip Paint on its own.

L.A. Girl Glazed Lip Paints Now at Rite Aid!

L.A. Girl's Glazed Lip Paints have gotten famous this past year, partly because the formula is awesome, and partly because they look like Too Faced Melted dupes. I have yet to post a review on them...I've been swamped with new products coming out left and right, but a few months ago I had ordered them online because no stores near me carried them. Then last month I spotted them at Harmons, and now they're in Rite Aid! So far there are only the 6 original shades (they've since added 12 more) but it's a start! Plus, they're .51 cheaper at Rite Aid than on the L.A. Girl website.

Babydoll, Hot Mess, Blushing

Bombshell, Spice-Up, Coy

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick Ultra Swatches and Review

Last week, I posted a review and swatches of the new L.A. Girl Beauty Brick in Nudes (see that here). I had also purchased the Ultra palette, so I wanted to share the swatches with you guys. They're $9 at the L.A. Girl website and at some Harmon drugstore locations. 

The packaging is very similar to the Nudes Beauty Brick except this one has purple writing. 

Inside is a beautiful range of colors from pinks to gray-blue and purple, to brown and black. There's really a lot of variety in this one!

Like the Nudes palette, these are all soft, but I found some of them to be a little sheerer and not as pigmented. They're still amazing for the price, but I'm not sure why there was a bit of a difference between the two. Maybe it's just me?

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick Nudes Review and Swatches

Ever since the L.A. Girl Beauty Bricks ($9 each) debuted in October, I've been dying to get my hands on a few. I finally bit the bullet on Cyber Monday when everything was on sale, and I picked up the Nudes and the Ultra palettes.  Today I'm going to just review the Nudes palette and show you some swatches! 

The Beauty Brick comes in a lightweight cardboard case and contains 12 eyeshadows, mirror, and double ended eyeshadow applicator (brush on one side, sponge tip on the other).  As soon as I opened this palette, I immediately thought of the Urban Decay Naked 3 because these are all beautiful rose-toned neutrals. I'll compare the two a little further down in this post, so keep reading for comparison swatches and to find out if this is a Naked 3 dupe!

The New L.A. Girl Beauty Bricks are here!

Last week, L.A. Girl put out a teaser on their Instagram page about some new palettes they're releasing called Beauty Bricks, and guess what? They're finally available on their site!

They're $9 each and there are four versions, Smoky, Ultra, Nudes, and Neons. They're saying that these have Major Pigment, so I definitely have to try these! The Nudes looks similar to the Naked 3 palette, so that would be great if it was a dupe!

Smoky (above) and Neons (below)

If you check out LA Girl's Instagram page, you can see swatches of all four palettes as well as a video that another blogger (@glam_trash_makeup has posted. They look so beautful, pigmented and buttery!  I plan on buying the Nudes and Smoky palettes so stay tuned for a review!

To purchase, please visit the L.A. Girl Website.

L.A. Girl's New Glazed Lip Paint- Too Faced Melted Lipstick Dupe?

I just spotted L.A. Girl's new Glazed Lip Paints and the packaging reminded me of Too Faced's Melted Liquified Longwear Lipsticks.  Upon reading the description, it sounds similar too!

L.A. Girl- Glazed Lip Paints give the intensely pigmented appearance of a lipstick, with the ease and glossy finish of a gloss.

Too Faced- The shine of a gloss, lasting power of a stain, and pigment-packed color of a lipstick, all in one high-impact formula. 

I've only tried the Too Faced one, but it sounds like they're both highly pigmented liquid lipsticks with a glossy finish.  

Here are the shades- from the tubes a lot of the colors seem similar- they both have a pink, nude, fuchsia, purple, orange and red shade, but it's hard to say how close the actual product is by looking at the packaging.

I know these are brand new, but has anyone tried them yet?  I'd love to find out how similar these two really are!

Click here to find out more or to purchase.

L.A. Girl Nail Polish Review

This week, I had the opportunity to try some L.A. Girl Products for the first time.  This is a brand I wasn't too familiar with, but I'm so happy to have found them, because they have some really cool products!  
This post will be in a few different parts over the next week or two because I have a lot of different products to try.  
For those of you who don't know where to get L.A. Girl cosmetics, the products are sold on their website as well as at Rite Aid (however my local Rite Aid does not carry it, so yours might not either).  
Today, I want to focus on some of their nail polish lines- Magnetic, Brites, and Fruity.  

The Brites line are neon shades that make your nails pop with color- $5 each. Neons are my favorite in the summertime because they look great when you have a tan. I tried one in Electrocute, which is a neon orange sherbet color.  It actually comes out a bit brighter than my camera could capture in the photo below.
This went on easily and covered well with 2 coats.  As with most neon shades, no matter what the brand, you will need a topcoat because they don't tend to dry with a lot of shine.  I'll definitely be wearing this when the weather gets warm soon, especially on my toes.  To check out the rest of the Brites shades, click here. 

Next up is the Fruity scented line- $5 each.  These shades smell like fruit after the polish dries on your nails.  The scent actually lasts a long time- even the next day after my shower, I would catch a quick whiff of Raspberry whenever my hands came near my face.  It's not strong or overpowering, and it's nice for those who hate the smell of regular nail polish, which can linger long after your nails dry.  

The shade I tried was Razzy Raspberry, which is a sheer, shimmery lavender.  It looks really pretty as is, or if you prefer more color, you can easily paint this over an opaque shade to add some shimmer.

To check out the other scents/shades, click here. 

Last but not least is the Magnetic line- $6 each.  These have different patterns depending on what color you choose, and the magnet is actually contained in the top of the cap- just pop it out!

The shade I used, Polar Opposite, is a shimmery gunmetal gray and the pattern it makes is 3 lines.  Depending on which way you hold the magnet, you can make vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines for all sorts of possible looks.  I did a combination of looks so you can see the different ways- my pointer and ring finger have vertical lines, I did a diagonal on my middle finger, and horizontal on my pinky.

To see the rest of the shades/patterns, click here.

Have you tried LA Girl products yet?  If so, what's your favorite product?

Stay tuned for part 2!  I'm not sure what I'll review next, but there are some really cool nail design kits (ombre and polka dots) as well as eye and lip products.  In the meantime, you can check out their products at www.LAGirlUSA.com

***Disclosure-The products featured in this review included products sent for consideration by a company or PR agency. This in no way influenced my experience with the product- all opinions are my own, and I was not paid to write this review. ***