Rut-Busting with Revlon

This post brought to you by Revlon. All opinions are 100% mine.

When Revlon asked me to be part of their Revlon Expression Experiment, I was all-in. You guys know that I'm a complete sucker for makeup, but I'll be the first to admit that I totally get stuck in a rut every so often. You know the drill; there's a kid hanging off of your pantleg, you're late for swimming lessons, you just finished a workout, and then you have like 3.2 seconds to grab your mascara and go. That's why I've always tended to stick with the same stuff: I know it works, and I use it. End of story.

But Revlon sent me a ton of new products to try, and it totally forced me out of my comfort zone and out of my year-old makeup rut and I'm super excited about it!

Because I'm timid like that, I hit the nail polish first. Nail polish I can handle. Especially when it goes on my toes. I slicked it on for an afternoon on the boat and caught myself staring at my toes for roughly 60 percent of the time. Therefore, I officially declared it the new nail polish color of summer: ColorStay Longwear Nail Enamel in Marmalade = Love!

When I got my Expression kit, I saw the eyeshadow palettes and immediately went into "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis" mode. The first one I grabbed was a collection called "Inspired" and it features turquoise, chartreuse, beige, and navy. YEAH. I couldn't remember the last time I rocked the blue eyeshadow.

But now, I'm kind of obsessed. I always thought that I shouldn't wear blues because y eyes are blue and it washed them out, but it ended up being the perfect bright eye for summer. Observe, my friends!

Yup, I'm a fan.

Here's the thing. I did an ombre look, which would normally be torturous on me because I have super-deep eyelid creases and all eyeshadow ends up hanging out there like its the watercooler or something. Luckily, Revlon also sent me this life-changing PhotoReady Eye Brightener+Primer.

I bow down! Notice how bright and non-tired my eyes are, despite the fact that I spent the weekend sleeping outside? I'm in love.

Want a quick tutorial?

OK. so I primed first, and then I dabbed more into the corner of my eyes to banish darkness and make me look 10X more well-rested than I really was. I used the green color over my tear ducts, the beige on my brow bone, the turquoise in the middle, and then I used a smoky brush to add navy to the outer corners. The entire thing took like, a minute. Then, I skipped the eyeliner completely and went straight for a coat of mascara.

Take that, makeup rut! This look is totally in my new rotation and it's replacing my usual smoky eye for the summer months.

Another way that I spiced up my routine was with a red lip. Now, I usually reserve the red lip for major occasions, because it can be a little high maintenance what with the lining and the reapplying. Which is why I was overjoyed to see that I'd also received ColorBurst Lip Butter in Cheryr Tart, which might be the most perfect red ever known to man.

Drooooool. It's like this lipstick lip balm hybrid that I've reviewed before. I love it because it's really low key and has a little bit of sheerness to it.

It's like, girl next door red instead of like, drag queen Miss Piggy red. It's so easy to just wear while running errands and it finishes a face super fast. You could also totally use it to amp up a brighter red lip. I also slicked it over my red lipstick and it made it shinier and easy to wear because it wasn't all dried out and icky. Win!

So yeah, I'm totally all over this Experiment. It gave me a chance to play with colors that I probably wouldn't have picked up by myself. And yeah, I totally went to the grocery store all dolled up in my effort to bust a rut. And it was the foxiest trip to the grocery store EVER.

Seriously, it doesn't take any extra time and it might just shift your outlook a tad.

So what do you say? Are you a tried, tested, and true kinda gal or do you love to switch up your look?

I mean really... turquoise eyeshadow? Who knew?