Web Find! NYX Cosmetics Website!

You guys must must must check out Nyx cosmetics! I originally found Nyx through MakeupGeek and have tried a few of their products. They are very well made and relatively cheap compared to Ulta and Sephora! I made a list for you gals, of suggested products I found on the NYX site. Try them (I'm going to! Once I get these products and try them out, I will leave reviews for you guys) and let me know how they worked for you! The NYX website can be found HERE

Miko's NYX Cosmetics Suggestions for Gal Make! (PART 1)

 

1. Highlight and Contour Creams! ($17 US apiece)

I originally considered this because it would put an end to the dreaded Cake Face! Cakey makeup is often caused by using too much powdered products such as highlight powder, rice powder, and bronzer. I would suggest using a stippling brush with these to keep the contours where you want them and hopefully it reduces the amount of powder you have to use on your face! Also if you would like to avoid using powder to set your makeup, pick up a bottle of MAC Fix +, it's AMAZING and works really well!

2. Tinted Lip Spa in Silk Bubble ($5.50 US)

All gals need a lip treatment of some sort! I have been searching and searching for balms and lip conditioners and while I have not tried this, it is definitely on my list! Conditioners for lips reduce the need to exfoliate so much (though you should still exfoliate your lips, ladies!) and make them nice and soft! I know these products are good so I'm hoping that the Lip Spa will not disappoint. It is tinted, so I chose the color "Silk Bubble" because it's a nice nude color that will complement my nude lipstick and gloss!

3. Doll Eye Mascara ($9 US)

I am very, VERY hesitant to switch Mascara from my Telescopic Carbon Black, but I will definitely be giving this a try! Gyaru Make is all about artifice and accentuating the eyes, often going for big, bold lashes and the "dolly eyed" look. NYX has made doll eye mascara that comes in Volumizing, Waterproof, and Long Lash in Extreme Black! I will try this and who knows? I may like it better than my Telescopic!

4. Auto Eyebrow Pencil ($4.50 US)

This eyebrow pencil has vegetable, soybean and coconut oil in the pencil so drawing on your eyebrows or filling them in glides onto your skin effortlessly! It also comes with a built in brush that lets you blend the color into the natural shape of your brow and make them look more natural. This can also be achieved with a brow/lash pencil and a regular eyeliner, but Nyx has great colors and I will DEFINITELY be giving this a try!

5. NYX Fruit Basket LipGloss Set ($9 US)

All gals NEED kawaii accessories and things for their purse and these were just too cute to pass up! The Fruit Basket Gloss Set has four little gloss pots and comes in Apple, Orange, Peach and Pear. They may give a slight hint of color on your lips so I would use sparingly, but it will give your lips a little pop of color and flavor and keep them soft and conditioned so they don't dry out! Also a good idea for gifts, to give to your fellow gal pals, these are adorable and I love them!

I will be making a part two of this post, with even more suggestions for you ladies to try with me on my Makeup Wishlist! As you can see the prices really are pretty reasonable, and from my personal experience, the high end makeup is some of the worst I've ever used. You can get great finds in a drug store and online and even places like walmart. Remember! Pricier is not always better! I hope this helps out my fellow Makeup Crazy Gals!

xoxo

Miko

How to: Exfoliate your Lips!

Some girls use a washcloth and gently run it over their lips to exfoliate the dead skin away before applying lipstick, but I have found another super easy, time-saving way to exfoliate my lips! You should do this before you put your make on and after you take it off, at least do it twice a day. It makes your lips nice, soft, and healthy and you don't have to worry about gross flakes and patches of dry, dead skin when you do your lips! When you're brushing your teeth, just GENTLY run your toothbrush in little circles over your lips. Make sure to use a soft-bristled toothbrush, a hard or medium bristled toothbrush will hurt! Don't do it too hard, you don't want to pull off the skin underneath or make your lips raw from exfoliating too much, just lightly move the bristles over the skin to get rid of any dry, dead patches and reveal your pretty soft lips underneath!

Hair Care!

Teasing, curling, flattening, enough hairspray to withstand a hurricane, a Gal's hair really, really goes through a lot of torture! Just like healthy skin makes your make look better, healthy hair makes your hairstyle look even more great! I do a lot to keep my hair looking healthy and I thought I would share some tips and great products for other gals to use!

1. If you're going to color your hair at home, you MUST use the conditioner that comes in the box! And not the quarter of the tube and save the rest for later like they tell you on the packaging, go ahead and put the whole tube on your head. What I do is put the conditioner on my hair, put on a durable plastic shower cap like the one pictured below, and go ahead and shower. I let the conditioner sit in my hair for the entire shower. I wash my body, my face, do everything but rinse my hair until very last, that way my hair has a chance to soak up the moisture. I use Feria hair coloring, it's very gentle on my hair and doesn't leave it dry and brittle and their conditioner is very good, I highly recommend it.

If you get your hair colored at a salon, I would still use a good conditioning treatment with a conditioner that the salon sells. Biolage makes good conditioner as well as Nexxus and Tresemme.

2. When selecting an every day shampoo, you want to look for key words like "repair" and "moisturizing." Volumizing shampoo is good, but you can use volumizing products like mousse. For hair care, you need to repair, protect, and THEN style. The shampoo and conditioner I use is Dove Damage Therapy Intensive Repair (pictured below.) It gently cleans my hair, it makes it nice, shiny, healthy and soft, and doesn't dry it out or clean too harshly.

3. Hair styling tools are the worst on hair because the heat from our flat irons, curling irons, blowdryers, hot rollers, and everything else damage our hair. To keep your hair from frizzing and frying, I recommend using certain tools to lessen the damage as much as possible. I will list them all below and hopefully some of these help you out!

The first thing I use on my hair before I even touch a blowdryer or anything to my hair is spritz it all over with a good leave in conditioner. It's A 10 Leave-In Miracle Product (pictured below) is the best leave in conditioner I have ever used and it can be found in salons.

After I make sure my hair is good and conditioned, while it is still damp I comb it out. NEVER brush wet hair, use a comb instead. Brushing wet hair, especially if you're rough and pull at it, will break and split your ends. After I comb my hair, again before I even use a blowdryer or anything, I make sure to protect my hair from the heat. I use Got2B's Guardian Angel Flat Iron Balm. (pictured below) It protects hair from heat up to 425 degrees, it smells great, and it's a great product that saves my hair from a lot of damage.

After I use the flat iron balm I blowdry my hair really well and I do not use a curling iron right away, I hot roll my hair. I use a set of 20 Remington rollers that have ionic conditioning. These hot rollers are amazing, they have color coordinated plastic clips for each size roller so you don't have to use metal pins. They make your hair soft and the curls are really bouncy and cute!

After I put my hair in rollers, once I finish the last roller I use Kenra Thermal Styling Spray. The hold on this spray is seriously intense, but it doesn't make hair too sticky or crunchy. It lessens the amount of aerosol hairspray I have to use and it's heat activated!

I hope the list of products help and the advice was useful! There are of course plenty of other options in hair care, hair masks, conditioning treatments, hot oil, etc. If I try these out I will be more than happy to review them here!