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Spring is coming. Here's a quick update on me, the blog and more!

Valentine's Day Beauty Gift Guide

Press Samples/Purchased by Me

Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Beauty Lovers

Flowers are fine and chocolates are delicious, but you may want to skip traditional gifts when looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gifts for the beauty lover in your life! With so many gorgeous products launching as we transition from late winter to early spring, now is the perfect time to grab some gorgeous goodies that the beauty lover in your life is not likely to have already bought for herself/himself.

Here are my top pics for Valentine's Day 2016! All of these items can be purchased online--perfect for last-minute Valentine's Day shopping.

First Look & Impressions: Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani - partial collection

Press Samples

Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking into spiderwebs, so leave a message and I'll call you back...

Just me reliving my teens over here! While I wasn't a die-hard No Doubt fan, I really loved some of their songs and Gwen Stefani was so funky and original, I definitely took note. For me, the popularity of ska bridged the gap between my peers (who primarily loved rock, punk and pop) and I (I was all about r&b, hip hop and reggae) and suddenly we were all listening to the same songs and loving it! For that reason, No Doubt will always hold a special place in my heart--not to mention the fact it was the background music for some pretty fun teenage memories.

When I first heard that Gwen Stefani and Urban Decay had partnered to create a collab collection my inner 90s teenage self got excited! My second thought was--red lipstick! Remember the cover of No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom album?  Gwen is all about that red pucker and I love it.

I recently received samples of a good portion of the collection to share with and despite the fact some recent events have made swatching a little slower than usual on my end, I've got some first shots for you to lust over in the mean time.

First Impressions

Overall, my first impressions are mostly good! I love the packaging--it's so Gwen. And I absolutely love the lip pencil and lipstick shades. I'm a bit disappointed that the brow kit is definitely geared towards blondes--much like how the shadow palette was geared more towards fairer complexions. I wish they had released 2 more sets in the UD x Gwen packaging; one for medium brow shades and one for deeper shades. I do like some of the shades in the blush palette, but again, it's definitely limited as to what complexions shades could work for. I think deep complected and even some medium complected girls and guys will find some of the shades to be a tad too light. I know Gwen is a dyed blonde, but I wish they'd tried to appeal more towards a global complexion range with the collection. That being said, the collection is pretty and I look forward to creating some gorgeous looks with it!

UD x Gwen Stefani Blush Palette

UD x Gwegn Stefani blush palette

UD x Gwen Stefani Brow Box

The box includes 2 powders and a wax in the first section.

The second section contains 2 mini brushes and a mini set of tweezers.

UD x Gwen Stefani 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencils - Wonderland, Rocksteady, Firebird, Phone Call, 714

UD x Gwen Stefani 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencils bottom to top - Wonderland, Rocksteady, Firebird, Phone Call, 714

UD x Gwen Stefani Lipstick

Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani lipstick l to r - 714, Firebird, Phone Call, Rock Steady, Spiderweb, Wonderland

Stay tuned! I'll be using these in an upcoming look or two.

What do you think? Did you grab anything from this collab?


Note: Products in this post were provided by PR/the brand. All opinions are my own based on my personal experience.