August 18, 2016

England // The Travel Diaries.

Hello there!


I wanted to share some photos from my travels in England! I visited friends, indulged myself in art, music, and too much food, and had an amazing time. Here are some pictures:

In Chelsea for the day. 
The Enchanted Garden Ball.
The end of the day in Paignton.
London. 
The London Eye. 
Geeking out in the Tate Modern. 
Visiting home!
Night out in London. 

If you want to see more pictures, check out my Instagram! [@annabelclairee] Where have you been this summer?

xx BB

The bh Cosmetics Carli Bybel Palette || The Perfect Palette Project

Hello there!


I am so excited to talk about this palette, because I had been on the hunt for this palette for what seemed like an eternity, and when I finally found it in an Ulta I seriously jumped for joy. The Carli Bybel palette is a palette of four highlighters and ten shadows, in a spectrum of neutral shades with matte and metallic finishes. In my search for the perfect palette I have always found palettes with a lot of neutral shades, but a few bright shades that I would honestly never wear. So when I found this palette I was so excited, because this palette is filled with beautiful neutral shades. The true test, in my opinion, was to see if the quality of shadows was creamy and pigmented, and if the highlighters were long wearing.


One of my least favorite parts of this palette was its packaging. Although I love having highlighters and shadows in one slim palette, the quality of the packaging is somewhat poor. The packaging is cardboard, so it can dent easily, and when I traveled with it the packaging did get dented, and I was a bit worried that the shadows might break. The palette survived the trip, but I think that if you want a palette that is easy to travel with, you might be a bit worried about this one. You do get a mirror, which is convenient, but the mirror cannot stand alone, so it can be a bit useless. However, I understand why the packaging was poor; this palette is so incredibly inexpensive! For fifteen dollars, this palette is a serious steal, so I can deal with the packaging. 


The ten shadows in this palette are really lovely. I loved that this palette had gold toned shades as well as some mauves and plums, which are still neutral but are always nice if you want to add some variety to your makeup. And, while the shades are all neutral, they are still unique; some of the metallic shades have a bit of a gold duo chrome, and the matte shades are really warm but still could work with cool colors. The shades don't have names, which is a tad annoying for a beauty blogger, but the first shade on the left side of the second row is one of my favorites. I was slightly underwhelmed by the matte shades because, while they are very smooth and don't kick off a lot of product, I found that they were not as intensely pigmented as the metallic shades. Another discovery I made while testing this palette was that the metallic shades were not as creamy as the highlighters, which I found to be surprising and a little weird. Nevertheless, you can get a really gorgeous natural look or a super smokey look with these shadows; I think the selection of shades is really versatile and also super easy to use. I think a makeup beginner could really benefit from a palette like this, and it would be a perfect addition to any makeup addict's collection. 


My favorite part of this palette is the highlighter section. These highlighters are seriously stunning and so richly pigmented. I love that the palette has highlighters for a range of skin tones; bright champagne highlighters don't actually look that flattering on really deep skin tones, so I thought it was a fantastic idea that they included a rich gold highlighter and a deep bronze shade as well. Although I cannot all of these shades as highlighters, the highlighters are so creamy and blendable that they look amazing on the eyes; I have been wearing the gold and bronze highlighters as shadows for a few days, and I love how incredibly shiny they look on the lids. As for the other two shades, they both look amazing on the tops of the cheekbones, but at the moment I am a tad bit more tan than normal, so I find that the second, more champagne shade is the most flattering on me at the moment, though I am sure that the light baby pink highlight will look amazing come winter. I love that these highlighters are embossed, and I wish that all the shadows were too! Overall, I think that these highlighters are seriously a hit, and if you are in need of new highlighters that are insanely pigmented, blendable, and long wearing, you need this palette. 


Although I don't love the packaging, I love the products in this palette! I think that it is such a steal for only fifteen dollars, and the shades in this palette could really work on anyone. If you have been wanting a new palette, I would highly recommend this one! It has been selling out non-stop, so if you want it you need to grab it yesterday. You don't want to miss this palette!

Have you found the perfect palette? 

xx BB


August 6, 2016

Israel // The Travel Diaries.

Hello there!


I thought that I would finally share some photos from my summer travels. I spent ten days in Israel, and it was incredible! This is a pic-heavy post, but here are some of my favorite photos from my trip:


Tzfat // Tel Aviv // Jerusalem // The Dead Sea // Mount Masada // The Negev Desert // Yad Vashem // Jaffa // The Western Wall 

Where have you been this summer? 

xx BB