We Aim To Slay

Welcome to the Makeup Round-Up! This is a monthly series where I’ll be sharing new makeup products, and the looks I’ve created throughout this month that weren’t highlighted in their own articles.

The Products

Unlike last month, April’s focus shifted from makeup looks to makeup products and application techniques. In the last few weeks I was finally “influenced” to apply my makeup in a new process, one I’m still fine-tuning but is yielding better results!

New-To-Me Products

Over the last few years we’ve seen so many makeup products flood the market, make a big splash, and disappear without a trace. During one of those periods, my mom bought the TIRTIR Mask Fit Red Cushion foundation, realized it wasn’t for her, and passed it off to me. I happen to love it – it’s the perfect shade match (33N Macchiato), and has a beautiful finish, but I’m not a fan of the applicator. The silicone puff is an odd size, making it difficult to use, so I’ve been applying it with a standard foundation brush. Would I rush to buy this again? No. But it’s a nice back up for when I run out of my preferred foundations.

Similarly, my mom shared her Aesthetica Cream Contour palette, and I’ve been loving it as a contour product! The shade I’ve been using is a very close color match to the Fenty Match Stix contour (shade Truffle) that I love!

And as I mentioned above I’ve once again updated my base makeup routine – starting with the eyebrows and eye look before applying your base, with concealer as one of the final products used. It’s made a huge difference in brightening and reduce the look of my under eye bags, so keep an eye out for that tutorial!

New Products

Earlier this month I shopped T.J. Maxx’s spring selections – you’ve likely seen the clothing haul unbox & try on videos by now! – and ended up grabbing two new makeup items (and a lot of skin care but that’s coming soon!): a new liquid eyeliner and an eye shadow palette.

The eyeliner, by Secrets of Pharaoh, is standard felt tip liquid eyeliner in black: functional, effective, nothing to write home about. The Morphe eyeshadow palette – 9B Matte Essentials – is unassuming, but created the most beautiful mango-inspired eye look!

Sadly, because I wanted to use this palette to test a new content idea, it spent most of the month sitting off to the side and has only been used once! So I’ll definitely be incorporating these shades into more looks in May!

ColourPop x Disney’s The Little Mermaid

My mom bought this entire collection and even waited for me to film an unboxing video before opening it! But, after three attempted eye looks and a chaotic emotional breakdown, I had to admit defeat and face the facts: not all makeup is made for all skin tones, and that’s okay!

These colors are incredibly flattering on my hazel-eyed and red-haired mother, not as much on my olive toned skin! I used the pink eyeshadow shade, the Flounder “highlighter”, and the lip oil in my Earth Day makeup look, and used the neutrals shades + the sparkly blue to create this look to attend the 2026 Vintage Market Days of Connecticut event.

I’m wearing the Ursula lip kit with the lip oil in these photos, which I do like but it’s brighter than I’d usually go; and honestly I wasn’t a fan of the highlighters, they functioned more like a pressed glitter than a true highlighter.

ColourPop Mystery Box

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I impulse bought a ColourPop Mystery Box and I ended up loving it! (Not pictured is the mystery gift I received during their spring sale: the Fourth Ray Beauty Matcha Face Milk, which I’m really enjoying!).

This box included three lip products: the HydraPop Glossy Lip Stain in shade Fruit Punch; the Fresh Kiss Glossy Lip Balm in Sorbet; and the Cloud Whip Blurring Liquid Lipstick in shade Candy Floss. I have literally worn this lip balm everyday since opening it (it really smells like a mango sorbet!), and I’ve worn the lip stain nearly as much! I’ve only worn the liquid lipstick twice; once to try it on and realize it’s a concealer shade lipstick on me, and once to create a soft pink and nude lip for my Zenni Optical unboxing video!

Is it crazy to admit that this was my first time trying a liquid blush?! This is the Weightless Liquid Blush in shade Wildest Dreams, and I’ll admit, I’m a bit conflicted about it! One the one hand, I’m enjoying how the liquid blush applies and the fact that a little product goes a long way; on the other hand, this shade of blush is hot pink – a far cry from my usual coral hues – but it’s growing on me!

In the center is the Lite Stix Highlighter in shade Sunlight, and it’s pretty, but it’s not as vibrant as my preferred highlighter (Benefit’s Cookie) so I think I’ll use this as a cream eyeshadow instead. And lastly, the BFF Liquid Liner in shade Try Me, which I still haven’t tried but I enjoy a red liner so I think it’ll still be used!

The box included the Blue Moon eyeshadow palette – filled to the brim with blues and sparkly silvers! This is quickly becoming the palette I reach for the most, but I’m biased, as I’ve been wearing blue makeup since I was 12-years-old (that’s how old I was when I was first allowed to wear makeup, and black and grey were strictly prohibited!).

The Looks

While I didn’t create as many looks this month, the looks I did create embraced my whimsy-maxxing approach for happy living!

Easter Egg Hunt!

We started off strong with a holiday makeup look! This year for Easter I embraced the spirit of a dyed egg, creating this purple-pink-and-green tie dye effect!

I’m obsessed with how this look came out – and can we talk about the ears?! I’m so glad I bought those for Easter last year, because they totally brought this year’s glam together! And, you can watch the tutorial below!

Earth Day look

Even though there’s an entire article dedicated to this look, I had to include a few of the Earth Day photos here as well!

You can see all of the final photos and the behind the scenes vlog, here!

Festival Season!

Similarly, the Festival Series looks can be found in their own article, and the fourth installment of the YouTube tutorials will be live tomorrow!

Back to Basics

As I said above, this month I started making adjustments to my application process, and for me, there’s no safer way to test run something new than creating my most tried & true look – pageant makeup! For this look I did a hybrid variation, using the general shape of my pageant eye, with the color palette from the BoHo Goddess look!

The Blues Have It!

As if the gods themselves were watching out for me, I was blessed with an entirely blue eyeshadow palette in my ColourPop mystery box! The first look with the palette was a bit excessive, but I wanted to try as many of the shades as possible.

The second attempt with this palette was so unbelievably beautiful that honestly, this may become my signature makeup look! Sadly, I didn’t record this look, but comment below if I should share a tutorial – and maybe this is a look I’ll recreate on a live stream!

Cheshire Cat-Core

This month I was very excited to be accepted into the Zenni Optical ambassador program! I’ve been ordering my prescription glasses from Zenni since 2020, when my glasses literally broke and fell off my face and due to the pandemic, I wasn’t able to get an appointment for replacement frames!

To unbox my newest pair – a chic pair of translucent purple cat eye frames – I created this purple variation of the Virgo inspired makeup look!

Mango Madness

And rounding out the month, I finally used the T.J. Maxx Morphe palette to create this mango-inspired eye look, and don’t worry, there’s a tutorial coming!

What Do You Think?

Is there a makeup look you’d like to see me try, or a product you’d like me to test in the next Makeup Round-Up? Let me know in the comments below! I’ll be back next month with another Monthly Round-Up, until then…

Have a great rest of your month, and remember to SLAY!