Friday, January 11, 2013

Beauty Balms

Since Dec 2011 I've been devoted to Origins Vita-Zing SPF15. I clearly remember the ad I saw in Cosmo... "Tired of being tired?" (or something like that). And as I replied out loud to the mag "YES" my dear fiance looked at me like I was nuts. No sweetie not nuts, just in need of a great cream. It promised to balance out my skin tone while protecting my skin from those nasty UV rays and making me look more alive. Fail, it did not. I tried it out on my second day of back to back 16 hour shifts and I was complimented on how I didn't look like I was going to fall apart at the seams (which underneath it all I absolutely was...anyone else ever do back to back double shifts?! MADNESS I tell you MADNESS!)
Anywho, as I've said before I am not one for heavy makeups. So I used this moisturizer as my daily "foundation" adding concealer as needed and even trying out the sister cream Gin-Zing for eyes. (I'm not as sold on the eye cream.) Now, I'm getting low on the bottle and as its winter I'm beginning to notice the moisturizing aspect is not up to par this year. Which is OK for now because I'm mixing it with my fave Clinique Dramatically Different sample. Problem is, I'm running low on both and neither of them seems to be in my budget. Sure I could visit the counters and ask for some more free samples (I'm not above it), but when they run out I'd be back to square one. 
Since 2011 the beauty world as been bombarded with new products: BB creams galore and more recently Olays CC cream
I've seen all the ads from the higher end retailers (Smashbox, Bosica, Clinique) but as with Origins their price tags are all in the $30-$40 dollar range. Not in the budget. 
So then I scope out the Target beauty section...I've got the choices of Covergirl, Revlon, Olay  Maybelline, and Garnier all at a fraction of the price. But will they do the same thing as my beloved VitaZing? Or will they hold up to the pricier options?
I read up on these so called miracle creams from Allure, Refinery29 (a personal fave site) and Beautylish (a fave app) and am still undecided. Every one seems to do a little something different. 
So now you tell me... what are you using? What have you heard that's a good buy? Is the quality that much different between brands? And do they really work? 
Tell me in the comments! Or message me- I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 
Before makeup:
After Makeup:
(Terrible pictures I promise to take better, but you can see the emphasis on the eyes at least....right? LOL)
And with hair and a flash:
(my lips were a lot pinker in real life....I was drinking and it must have worn off)
I chose glasses because my eyes have been acting up with contacts, so I added a little bit more liner on the bottom to make the eyes look bigger. I have a lot of trial and error left with my photography, unless someone wants to teach me!!!

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