A few weeks ago, I was selected to be a makeup judge for the AOL Fall Beauty Awards. I was so excited for this opportunity because I love makeup. I haven’t blogged about beauty too much in the past, but I’m starting to ramp up the beauty section of Style Tab and this was the perfect opportunity to kick things off! AOL send me a ton of a products to test out in the bronzer, eyeshadow, blush, liquid eyeliner and red lipstick product categories. I seriously have enough of each product to last me for the next 5 years. #blessed There were a few products among the nominees that have been staples in my makeup bag, but most of the brands and products were new to me so it was a lot of fun to try them out.
Below I’ve featured my absolute favorite products from each category. These photos have not been edited except for minor adjustments to the brightness. I walk through which products I used and have a shopping list at the end of the post featuring other nominees that were a runner-ups in my book.
The AOL Beauty Awards also included skincare, hair, and nail categories so you can check out the nominees and winners here and read reviews from other blogger judges in each category. If you have any questions about the products I used or tested out, feel free to ask in the comments or shoot me an email – I love talking beauty!
- Clean slate!
- I applied the Colorscience Skin Bronzing Face Primer as a base for my makeup application. I’ve used several face primers in the past, but I loved that this one not only provides a hint of color but also has SPF 20, without the SPF smell. I have very oily skin, even in the colder months, and this primer kept my makeup in place for almost 12 hours.
- Now the fun begins! I dusted on a little bit of my own Neutrogena mineral foundation to even out my skintone and then used the Smashbox ShapeMatters Palette to highlight and contour. This palette is a one-stop-shop. It not only has shades for your face, but also for your eyes and brows, too. My favorite part about the palette is that it came with instructions that you could read or scan on your phone for a video tutorial on contouring, eyes, and brows. These were so helpful because I’m definitely not the Kim K of contouring. I pretty much just followed the directions verbatim. Blended the contouring powder along the sides of my nose and the hollows of my cheeks. Next, I added the bronzing shade to the apples of my cheeks. Then I highlighted my undereye area, bridge of my nose, the area just above the middle of my eyebrows, and chin. There’s also a “glow” shade that I used in the inner corners of my eyes. I filled in my brows by first using the wax pomade to prime my brows and then used the angled brush to distrbute the brow powder. The wax made this step an absolute breeze and my brows felt completely natural after I finished the application.
- For the finishing touches I colored my lids with this beautiful taupe/neutral shade from the Smashbox palette. Next, I lined my upper lids with the Marc Jacobs Beauty Magic Marc’er Precision Pen in Cocoa-lacquer. I don’t have a ton of experience with liquid eyeliners, and this pen was so easy to use! I was pretty impressed the first time I used it and each use since has been a perfectly straight, clean line. Although mascara wasn’t part of the awards, here I used Clinique Chubby Lash (which I recently did a post about). One disclaimer I do have to mention is that I love bronzer, a lot. I use a lot more than I should sometimes, but I try to resist when I can. Although I added some bronzer in the last step, I wanted to look a little more sunkissed so I dusted the Benefit Hoola Bronzer on my forehead, nose, jawline and just a little on my cheeks. I’ve used the Hoola Bronzer for years and I absolutely love it. The packaging is small, but it actually ends up lasting for quite a while. On my cheeks I added the Vapour Organic Beauty Aura Multi-Use Blush in Scandal which blends really nicely for a natural look. For lips, I went with the Iman Luxury Moisturizing Lipstick in Iman Red. The name doesn’t lie. It’s one of the most moisturizing lipsticks I’ve ever used and the color isn’t too glossy, which I love!
I hope you found these reviews helpful. Below I’ve included a round-up of all of the featured products, as well as a few other nominees that I also really liked. Let me know what you think of this post or if you have beauty topics you would like me to cover on here!
Thanks for reading 
Thank you to the AOL Lifestyle Collective for providing me with these products to review as part of the AOL Beauty Awards. All opinions and text are my own.
