{Day 12} and an Announcement.

what I would find in your bag

I know I've talked about it before, but I'm addicted to Lip gloss. I just counted and I have 22 various lip products in my purse. Ridiculous I know. 

Now... Big Announcement Ladies

I am welcoming a contributing writer. She is a good friend of mine who has wanted to get into blogging for a while now. She's going to be stopping by every now and again to update you on life inside the beltway. She's going to do restaurant and cocktail reviews like crazy--- so all you DMV gals, get excited. I'll let her introduce herself in a bit, but just wanted to get y'all excited!!

I, of course, am not going anywhere, and will still be bringing you beauty and fashion fabulousness in our nations capital. 

xo.

Red Red Wine

Lately I've been obsessing over red lips. I've been rocking them the past few days and I'm loving the look. It can be tricky to find the right makeup look for the office. You need to balance looking put together, while not looking overly made up. I am definitely guilty of overdoing it on the eye makeup every now and again, and I often pair a bright or super shiny lip with heavy eyes. Seems great at the time, but it's probably better suited for a Friday night... not 10 am on a tuesday. I've been playing with lighter makeup looks lately (mostly because I hadn't been getting enough sleep because of that stupid test who shall not be named), and I've been loving how a bright lip can pull together a look without requiring a ton of other effort.

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I know red lips are a little scary for some of us, especially if you're not accustomed to wearing lip color, but I've discovered that it's actually easier to pull off a darker lip than a bright one. So if you're wanting to be on trend for fall, but a little afraid of the whole red lip thing... why not try a wine lip 

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{Beauty Tuesday} Mascara and Lipgloss Swap Reveal!

I've been wanting to do a swap for a while now, and when I saw Tara, Meg and Holly's plan for a Mascara and Gloss swap I knew I'd found one to break the ice! I was paired with the wonderful Jennifer of Dexter Morgan's Mama and OMG y'all did she spoil me.

Can y'all even believe her? I looked at most of the other swaps, and I have to say, I have pretty much the best partner EVER! 

For the actual makeup she sent me: Almay One Coat Thickening  Mascara,  a Maybelline Volum'express Mega Plush, a beautiful Almay trio for blue eyes, a gorgeous Revlon Colorburst gloss in Sizzle Canicule, and EOS balm in summer fruit, a Almay purple eyeliner, some gorgeous coral nail polish from Maybelline in Orange Fix. I mean seriously. Stop it. Made my week.

THEN she threw in a perfect little two pouch makeup bag from Sonia Kashuk, pink tubler, some gum! An adorable little red notebook that says "She makes the day brighter. She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes." How cute is that? Plus a few hair ties (you can never have enough), an adorable little light up compact in leopard print, the latest issue of people, and a fun bath bomb. 

I mean really. I don't know what to do with myself. I love all of this! Thank you again Jennifer!

{Beauty Tuesday} What's in Alissa's Makeup Bag?

For this installation of {Beauty Tuesday} I have the fabulous Alissa of Feeling Good taking us on a tour of what's in her makeup bag. If you're not familiar with Alissa, she's a DC area fashion blogger, who is clearly destined for big things. She has great style. She's one of those fashion bloggers who takes risks, but never seems to look bad. After reading her posts I'm often left thinking I would have never thought of that, but it looks so good! Anyways, you need to go visit her. Please show her some love.

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Hi fashionable friends! First of all let me just start this post by saying thank you to Emily for asking me to guest post today. I’m glad to help while she gets her study on. (Big props for that, girl!)

When I told Em I’d write about anything, she suggested showing what’s in my makeup bag. I loved the idea because that’s not something my readers get to see on my blog. It’s fresh (as they say in the news biz) and I dig it. I know y’all are itching to see what’s in my bag, baby – so here it is!

Full disclosure: I definitely cleaned out my Vera Bradley makeup bag before taking any pictures. It had some makeup remnants and needed to be pretty for its debut. In the aerial view, you can see I don’t have that much makeup, and I don’t use much of it either. I’m usually an eye shadow, mascara and lip-gloss kind of girl all year (but with this heat, I haven’t been wearing any). So let’s break it all down!

I do own foundation and it comes in handy when I’m doing work in front of the camera. This CoverGirl Trublend Whipped Foundation is the best kind that works for my skin. It’s the perfect color for my pale complexion and I like the silky whipped texture. Set in place with light NYCpowder, which I’ve had for a long time, obviously... but it never lets me down! Another favorite: Maybelline DreamMousse Blush aka the best blush ever in my humble opinion. Also light and a peachy-pink color that gives my cheeks a glow.

One item I do have a ridiculous amount of: eye shadow. I love the purple Rimmel London to accent my brown eyes. Underneath that sits my three Arbonne eye shadow compacts – which holds about 12 eye shadow colors each. (In my defense, my Grandma, Mom and Aunt used to sell Arbonne so I have quite the array of products.)

Sticking with the eyes, one item that doesn’t usually stay the same for me is mascara. The crazy-coupon-clipping person in me buys whatever tube of mascara I have a coupon for. (There are always coupons in the Sunday newspaper for mascara). This month, it’s Covergirl Lash Blast Volume inblack, which I like. However, I have found my go-to eyeliners: Arbonne in “Hepburn” and the classic black in Almay.

Finally, to pull the whole look together: lipstick!! I have a whole bag of lipsticks and glosses, so I pulled my favorites: Sephora Sugar, NARS Schiap, RevlonCoralberry, Mac Dazzleglass inSugarrimmed and Revlon Just Bittenin Passion. I keep these five in heavy rotation, especially throughout the summer. From lip tint (Sephora) to gloss (Mac) and bold colors (NARS, Revlon) my lips are covered!

I hope you enjoyed discovering what’s in my makeup bag! If you’d like to see what’s in my closet, hop on over to my blog, where it’s all about Feeling Good! :) And thanks a bunch to Emily again for having me today on BDB!

{Beauty Tuesday} Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain

Okay, at this point I have a well  documented love of lip gloss. Here, here and here are some of my favorites. Well after a major haul at Ulta a few weeks ago I have a new favorite lip product (okay I actually have a few, but I'm only sharing one with y'all today)

Thanks to Birchbox, a few months ago I fell in love with the Tarte Lip Stains (again here), but I found a dupe, and I'm OBSESSED. 

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

It's a jumbo pencil, that glides on. Tons of shine, moisturizing and super pigmented. What else could you want. 

I picked it up in this bright pink color... and let me tell you it's bright (in a great way)

Revlon Just Bitten in Sweet Heart

I'm a huge fan of a statement lip. I really think it balances your face, and allows you to go a little lighter on the eyes (which is nice for the office). 

Honestly, this lasts through multiple cups of coffee, and even lunch. 

It really is a stain, and in this color especially, it darkens as you leave it on.

My one complaint about the product (well all jumbo lip pencils really) is there is no way to sharpen it. Once you use up the initial half an inch or so  it's much wider, and doesn't allow for quite as much precision. 

But over all, I adore this product, and plan on picking up quite a few more shades. 

Have y'all tried it? Or any other lip products? I'd love to know!!!

{Beauty Tuesday} Fourth of July Edition

Tomorrow is July 4th! Woohoo! Yay for no work! oh... and our independence. 

Since tomorrow will be a chilling by the pool, grilling out, beer drinking kind of a day here are some easy beauty recommendations (coincidentally this is exactly what I will be using). I hope y'all all have a great day off tomorrow! I will have some exciting stuff coming up here on Blue Dog Belle.... come back tomorrow for a NEON themed giveaway (I know, I'm kind of obsessed with giving y'all stuff!)

covergirl TruBlend loose powder | laura mercier tinted moisturizer | e.l.f. blush and bronzer duo| Revlon Lip Butter in cherry tart | L'Oreal Paris Voluminous Waterproof mascara

Have a great day off tomorrow!

Beauty Tuesday: NYX

Between my birthday drama, work, and just living my life I feel like I've gotten off track with this little blog. When I created blue dog belle a few months ago I wanted to focus on the two things I love most: Makeup and Politics. I haven't talked about either in weeks... woops.

Getting back to basics I want to introduce you to NYX Cosmetics. Call me dumb, but I whenever I saw a review of these products I thought they were part of the New York Color (NYC) brand. I haven't had a great experience with many of those products, and even though they are cheap I love me some ELF. 

Well all that has changed now, thanks to my IRL BFF LoRay. For my birthday she sent me a BUNCH of NYX products, and honestly I'm in love with all of them. Let me show you what I got. 

So this is the 10 Color Eye Shadow Palette in Versus, I can not tell you how wonderful it is for me. This is the first thing that has made me put down my naked palette. and that is saying a lot y'all. The shadows are buttery soft, have great pigment and blend well. I've been using it with my elf eye primer and it stays put for hours. It's a great combo. I love the purples! and at $10 how could you not pick this up at ulta? I mean really, you need this.

Next, Mega Shine Lip Gloss. This product really lives up to its name. It smells great, but don't try to eat it as it tastes gross. *I may or may not have licked it off my lips to test it for y'all. I'll let you decide if I did or not. Anyways, I have Chandelier, which is a sparkly medium pink color. It goes on sheer, which I love, and it layers beautifully over lipstick.

This next product is my new favorite. I've gotten SO many compliments on this lip color I'm debating which one to pick up next. As you know I have a love affair with lip products, and this is a new one for the list. The mineral based Round Lip Stick is great for every day. Lauren knows me so well, and gifted me a color I probably would never buy myself, but now I can't put it down.

NYX Round Lipstick 

This is Peach Bellini, or as my roommate BW says, Barbie Pink. It's a VERY BRIGHT orangy pink, that glides on smooth. I will say, make sure you moisturize your lips when using this product or at least exfoliate. It can get slightly cakey if your lips aren't super smooth.  

Peach Bellini

The NYX Slide on Pencil is AWESOME. It rivals my Stila smudge stick, like really. Lauren had brilliant foresight to get me black shimmer, because I had just run out of my black pencil liner, so now I'm set! Thanks LoRay.

If this wasn't enough motivation for you, I don't know what is. NYX has great products, at even better prices. I really love my high end products, but do not  have the budget to spend all my money towards my birchbox finds. Now I'm scouring the website, trying to decide what to get next. Have you discovered NYX yet? Do you have any product recommendations?

Beauty Tuesday: Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter

So, last week I talked about my new favorite lip product: Tarte's LipStain. But I'm all about mixing high end products with drug store ones, because lets be honest who can afford to buy EVERYTHING that you need at Sephora? Not this gal.

If you are in the market for something less expensive, that gives a good pop of color, lots of shine (but not sticky) and makes your lips feel super soft you need to check out Revlon's Lip Butter product.

I was first introduced to this a few months ago by my favorite YouTube Beauty Guru: Emily of Beauty Broadcast. *Side note, if you haven't discovered beauty guru's on YouTube get on it asap, it will become addicting, promise. Emily just RAVED about these and how wonderful all the colors are and how awesome they make your lips feels, so I knew for $5 it was something I needed to try.

One day I was at Target checking out and sitting in the bottom of my cart was a tube of peach parfait Lip Butter. I swear it was fate. I searched the aisles of the beauty department and couldn't find Lip Butters ANYWHERE, but some how this perfect color ended up in my cart. It's been true love ever since.

I've tried several colors now, because as you know I have an obsession with lipstick, but my favorite is Cherry Tart.

Its the perfect red for every day. It's definitely a statement, but as someone who is a little afraid of BRIGHT lip colors this is great.

I'm always on the hunt for new products, do you have any suggestions of things I can try?

Birchbox Find: Tarte Lip Stain Pencil

I have another confession. I'm in a long term love affair with several lip glosses. I am constantly buying them because I'm constantly "losing them" aka they end up at my desk at work and then I forget about them... For example.

Yah. I know. I have more at work than I do at home though.

They also live in my purse, where they seem to multiply.

and my car.

and my vanity (where they're supposed to live).

But I have new love who I want to introduce you to. 

This is the Tarte Lip Stain Pencil with LipSurgence. This baby came to me via my march Birchbox. If you've never heard of Birchbox you need to get on it ASAP. My bff LoPro aka the Lawfully Wedded Wife  gave me a subscription last year for my birthday and it's one of the best presents I've ever gotten (that wasn't jewelry or a car). I've been on it for almost a year now, and my Teen Vogue box this March was quite possibly the best one to date. I got a full size Essie sparkly pink polish, a set of oil blotting papers (LOVE), some fun hair ties by, a perfume sample and a full size Tarte Lip Stain Pencil with LipSurgence in joy.

I was a little hesitant about the color, because it looks VERY corally orange. I'm not a huge fan of orange lips, but it goes on beautifully and is a perfect bright pinky-coral. The texture is amazing, so soft and smooth and it smells good too :)

It goes on shiny, so you don't need any gloss. But I think the best part is it is actually a Lip stain so the color stays on for hours once the shine disappears.

It does need to be re applied after a meal, but what lip color doesn't? The color definitely makes it through a cup of coffee though, and that's a HUGE deal to me. Its a tad on the pricey side, but I promise I really think its worth it.

Have you tried the Tarte LipStain line yet? What do you think?