Beauty LUST List & Quick First Impressions (Becca Cosmetics, Giorgio Armani)

This past Saturday I went on a makeup odyssey searching for a few, well more than a few products to test out.  I went into the city for afternoon tea (more on that later), and since I was close to Union Square, a major shopping area in downtown SF, I thought I'd pop into a few stores to check out items I've had my eye on.  I have to warn you though, what I thought would be a quick and short post became a pretty detailed account about which products I've been lusting after, and which left more than a quick first impression.

I recently discovered (and fell hard for) Becca's beach tints late last year.  Since then I've been curious about their other products.  I'm not one to buy makeup sight unseen.  I like to test, swatch, feel, and smell beauty products before investing in them.  The Sephora in near Union Square is the only store in the bay area (that I know of) that carries Becca Cosmetics and once I stepped in, I immediately made a beeline for Becca.

1. Becca Perfect Skin Mineral Powder Foundation: It's no wonder Becca claims a "shade match guarantee."  I tried three different shades in the medium range and to be honest, I could have gotten away with all three.  The mineral powders seemed to melt into my skin.  Nude, a light-medium beige swatched as a chalky yellow color on my medium-tan skin, but once blended, I couldn't even tell it was on except for the fact that my skin looked better.  Noisette (neutral medium beige) and Tan (golden medium) were better matches for my skin.  I could wear Noisette now, but since I'll be going on a trip in a couple of weeks where it's much warmer than here, I'll probably invest in Tan.  You know a product is a keeper when you catch your reflection post swatchfest and think, wow, my skin looks amazing.  Yup, it's that great.  

2. Becca Eye Tints: I instantly loved these!  I tried Vicuna, Gilt and Paracus.  These sheer shadows were so easy to blend and left me with a sheer veil of luminous color.  

- Vicuna is a lovely sheer nude with fine gold shimmers that would make a great base on my skin or serve as a subtle highlighter.  This is random, but I'm also drawn to this shade because it reminds me of Peru.  The vicuna is actually its national animal.

- Gilt was a warm bronze with gold shimmers.  I thought this was lovely as well, but too similar to other eye products that I own (Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze, MAC Paint Pot in Constructivist).

- Paracus was a sheer taupe with a satin, luminous finish.  I love taupes so it was a no-brainer for me to go home with this.

3. Becca Mineral Blushes: True to mineral form, I found these blushes to be shimmery or satiny.  The colors that caught my eye were Sweet Pea (dusty nude rose with a satin finish) and Songbird (shimmery peach).  These are definitely are my need-to-own list.

I stopped by Bloomingdale's to peruse the counters there when I remembered that I wanted to check out a few Giorgio Armani products.  I've been on a concealer kick, wanting to find products that easily make me more awake because my schedule has been so crazy.  My schedule frequently changes from days to nights.  I've also been traveling a lot (and will travel more this year) and my undereyes just can't handle it all.  

4. Giorgio Armani Maestro Eraser Concealer:  When I applied this to the back of my hand, the first thing I noticed was how watery it is.  I don't like my undereye products to be too thick because it's harder for me to blend, and I hate having product cake up in any creases.  I also noticed a shimmery pink undertone to the product which is important to any undereye concealer or highlighter because pink brightens and distracts from dark shadows.

5. Giorgio Armani Blushing Fabric Limited Edition shades (High-Density Orange & Fuschia): I first heard about this through Best Things in Beauty and I was intrigued.  I read from BTiB's post that you only need a small amount, so I applied a small drop to the back of my hand and when I attempted to blend it out, I noticed two things.  First of all, the color is deceiving.  Out of the tube the product is bright (neon) but once blended, it's quite natural-looking.  Second, the product feels so smooth.  It has a silicone-type of feel which makes it easy to blend.  The texture reminded me of Smashbox's O-Glow blush.  I will definitely invest in these later on.

The very last store I wanted to hit up was Lush.  This is another store that takes effort to get to, and since it was convenient during my city trip, I decided to test out their lip scrub.  I've been looking for a good lip scrub to deal with my peeling lips during the dry, winter weather.  

6. Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub: This version smelled the yummiest to me.  In the tub, this lip scrub is bright pink and smells like its name.  If I didn't know better, I would've thought it was candy.  It's a little pricey for a lip scrub but it was really fun to use.  I put a small amount on my finger and gently rubbed my lips.  When I was done, I wiped it off and my lips felt smoother and tasted sweet.  I need to go back and buy this.  

I didn't realize how long this post would be, but there were a lot of products that I've had my eye on and wanted to try out.  Though this was a list of my quick first impressions, you can see why this was a makeup odyssey for me.  What's on your lust list??