Girlie Review

Sugarpill Burning Heart Palette

2013-05-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I am in no way Sugarpill's target customer base. I wear a dramatic range of shadows from light beige to dark brown on a daily basis. However, just look at this palette. I mean ... just ... look. This thing is gorgeous.

(Clockwise from top left: Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, Poison Plum, Love +)

The Burning Heart palette from Sugarpill contains a whopping 16 grams of product. Each shade contains 4 grams each.

Flamepoint - Bright, burnt orange with a matte finish.
Buttercupcake - Bright primary yellow with a matte finish.
Poison Plum -Vibrant purple with blue microglitter. This was the only shade that stained.
Love + - Dark red with a matte finish.

All of the shades were on the drier, stiffer side, but the color payoff was excellent, especially considering these are matte shadows. I was blown away with the quality of both the shadows and the packaging.

Sugarpill eyeshadow palettes generally retail for $34. I purchased mine direct from Sugarpill when they were running their 20% off birthday special. You can also get them from MakeupGeek, Beautylish and several other online retailers.

Overall: 10/10

MAC Extra Dimension MSF in Double Definition

2013-05-20T08:25:00.005-05:00

I am a total sucker for the MAC Extra Dimension Mineralize Skin Finishes, so when this year's collection came out, I picked up all three of them. The first I'm reviewing is the Extra Dimension MSF in Double Definition.

(natural light)

Unlike last year's Extra Dimension MSF collection, this year, the MSFs are split into two separate colors. I absolutely love this. While I really, really like last year's inaugural collection of Extra Dimension MSFs, I just think that having two colors per pan makes them so much more versatile.

(day bulbs)

The top half of the Double Definition MSF compact is a very metallic frosty warm gold color which I think is exactly the same color as last year's Whisper of Gilt (there are side by side swatches below). The bottom half of the Double Definition MSF compact is a much darker, bronzy color. The texture is quite different from the top half. While the bottom half isn't matte, it is certainly not frosty either. It does have a lovely metallic sheen, but much more muted than the top half.

When you mix the top half and the bottom half, you get a more metallic, frosty finish, but the color is still very bronzy.

The lighting isn't great here, but I assure you that the top half of Double Definition is the same color as Whisper of Gilt. Below are swatches of the top half of Double Definition next to Whisper of Gilt in both natural light and under day bulbs. They are the same color.

MAC Extra Dimension Mineralize Skinfinish in Double Definition contains 9 grams of product and retails for $30. MAC online is sold out, but some counters still have product available as do some online retailers. Nordstrom still has some of the MSFs.

On the whole, I love this product, but it is a bit of a niche product. As highlighters, the Extra Dimension MSFs are certainly not subtle. You can sheer them out, but even then these pack a punch. But they are gorgeous. Personally, I get more mileage out of them as eyeshadows.

Overall: 10/10

Botanics Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm

2013-05-16T08:14:00.000-05:00

I have been really diving into skincare lately and I've been really curious about cleansing balms. I love cleansing oils, but it seems like cleansing balms simply by their texture would force you to take more time, to be more diligent with facial massage. Anyway, I was curious.

Not a lot of brand carry cleansing balms. The ones who do tend to be really pricey. Clinique has one, but even at that, it's close to $30. So, when I was at Target last week and I saw the Botanics Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm, I thought why not.

The cleansing balm is solid at room temperature and really rather stiff. I really had to work this between my hands a lot to get it soft enough to be able to work it into the skin.

With the consistency being so stiff, even after I warmed it up in my hands, it was so stiff that I felt like I really had to tug in order to move it around and massage it into the skin - not exactly something you want to do with your face. Especially if you're using this to remove eye makeup, it can be super hard on your eye area.

It came with a little cloth that you're supposed to wet with warm water and "use as a compress to draw out impurities". I just ... are you kidding me? How exactly could that possibly work? You want to give this a try at home? Take some olive oil, slather it over your face and then press a warm, damp washcloth over it. Now, do you feel the impurities being drawn out? No? Of course not. Because it's completely ridiculous.

SIGH. More than likely, you'll use the coarse cloth to try and scrap the product off your face (which has to be fabulous for your skin, right? Wrong.). Mostly, you will fail in your attempt to remove the product. Because this cleansing balm is nearly impossible to remove, even using warm-bordering-on-hot water and a washcloth.

It took me forever to get this stuff off my skin. And I ended up having to use a foaming cleanser to get rid of it, which completely defeats the purpose of using the cleansing balm as far as I'm concerned.

Ingredients:

Olea europaea (Olive) fruit oil, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba) seed oil, Cera alba (Beeswax), Butyrospermum parkii (Shea) butter, Prunus amygdalus dulcis (Sweet almond) oil, Cetearyl alcohol, Rosa canina seed oil, Limonene, Citronellol, Pelargonium graveolens flower oil, Citrus aurantium dulcis peel extract, Linalool, Citrus aurantium bergamia (Bergamot) fruit oil, Citrus medica limonum (Lemon) peel oil, Geraniol, Parfum (Fragrance), Citral

All in all, this was a total fail. After two uses, I just chucked it in the trash.

The Botanics Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm contains 350mL and retails for $8.49 in the US.

Overall: 0/10

Embryolisse Protective Repair Stick

2013-05-15T07:54:00.001-05:00

So I am, perhaps, a little obsessed with lip care. This actually has very little to do with vanity or with enjoyment of lip products. It's because my lips are so dry all the time and it's really painful.

For years I've used Chapstick and Blistex, but that really isn't cutting it anymore. Last year I picked up a couple tubes of the Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm and I like it fairly well. I know tons of people love it. I don't love it. But it's okay. It does seem to moisturize better than the waxy, petroleum based lip products.

So in my search for something that will actually fix my lip problems, I've been looking far and wide. The aforementioned Jack Black Lip Balm is okay. I tried the Sugar Lip Treatment from Fresh. Again, it's okay, but it doesn't wow me (and the packaging irritates me). I've tried the Clarins Lip and Contour Balm (review to come) and I like it fairly well.

So a couple of weeks ago when Embryolisse was on HauteLook, I picked up a couple tubes of the Lait Cream Concentre, but I also picked up a tube of the Protective Repair Stick for lips. I know that just about every skincare line has something similar.

As for how it works ... it's okay. I like the packaging. I'm not crazy about the shape of the product in the tube, but I can live with it and it annoys me less than the Fresh lip balms.

The product is very oily on the lips. I don't mind this, but if you do, buyer beware.

It does a good job of moisturizing my lips. I can't say that I feel like I've experienced great results from it, but it's not bad.

Here is the ingredient list:

Paraffinum Liquidum. Hydrogenated Coconut Oil. Petrolatum Album. Ozokerite. Cera Alba. Triticum Vulgare Germ Oil. Ethyl Hexyl Methoxycinnamate. Titanium Dioxide. Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane. Tocopheryl Acetate. Allantoin. Alumina. Dimethicone. Bha. Mica. Bht.

The Embryolisse Lip Repair Stick is paraben free and contains 4 grams of product. It retails for $12 and you can get it at www.EmbryolisseUSA.com.

Overall: 8/10

Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Stick in 201 Torch

2013-05-14T08:11:00.001-05:00

I love cream shadows, but I really love cream shadows for summer. They're just super quick and easy to throw on and you can apply and/or blend with fingers so you don't need to dirty up any extra brushes.

I love the Urban Decay shadow pencils and the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, but I'm always looking for something more budget friendly (other than the Milani ShadowEyez which are fantastic). So, I picked up the Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Stick in #201, Torch.

This is a dual ended cream shadow pencil. The lighter color has a rounded end and is a really light, iridescent champagne pink color. It doesn't pack a big color punch, but it definitely brightens things up.

The darker end is pointed, I guess for more precision application. It's really not pointed enough to use as a liner. The darker color swatches fantastically well. It is a gorgeous dark bronzy chocolate color. I have to say that on the eye once blended out, it's considerably less impressive. You just get a generic dark smudgy brown.

The first time I tried these shadows, I applied them directly on the lid and I ended up with creasing. They didn't crease immediately, but it did happen. The second time, I applied them over Too Faced Shadow Insurance and they didn't budge at all.

The Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Sticks contain .07oz of product and retail for between $7 and $10 wherever Revlon is sold. I got mine at Target.

Overall: 5/10

Rimmel Wake Me Up Instant Radiance Shimmer Touch

2013-05-13T08:38:00.003-05:00

I don't know if it's just in my area, or everywhere in the US, but up until last week, I hadn't seen any of the Rimmel Wake Me Up line at all. Then last week, I saw the Instant Radiance Shimmer Touches and some of the Wake Me Up concealer colors.

I went ahead and picked up the Instant Radiance Shimmer Touch in the colors 001 Flush of Pearl, 002 Radiant Rose and 003 Peach Glow.

(L-R: Flush of Pearl, Radiant Rose, Peach Glow)

001 Flush of Pearl: champagne beige
002 Radiant Rose: warm rosy pink
003 Peach Glow: peachy shimmer

All of the colors contain quite a bit of glitter. The swatches above are very heavy swatches and as with a lot of drugstore highlighters, if you sheer it out, you lose almost all of the color and are left with nothing but glitter.

If you sheer it out, it does dry down fairly quickly without being sticky. But again, glitter.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Instant Radiance Shimmer touch contains 14mL of product and retails for around $5.

Overall: 5/10

Sleek Blush By 3 in Lace #367

2013-05-09T08:18:00.000-05:00

Sleek is one of those brands that I think always looks fantastic (like Bourjois). I'm sure that my curiosity is driven mostly by the fact that Sleek isn't readily available in the US. I've been lucky enough to have a couple of swaps with lovely ladies from the UK, so I do have several Sleek eyeshadow palettes (which I LOVE) and a pressed powder (also LOVE).

I hesitate to say that I have a problem with blush. Because I feel like that implies that I do think it's actually a problem (it's not!) or that I plan to stop or cut back or restrain myself in some way (I do NOT). I love blush. I love everything about blush. I love cream blush and powder blush and liquid blush.

I. Love. Blush.

So when I saw the Sleek Blush By 3s in several YouTube tutorials from my favorite UK beauty gurus, I was green with envy. They looked awesome and affordable.

I finally sucked it up and decided to place an online order with Sleek. I picked up several things, but the first of which was the Sleek Blush By 3 in #367, Lace.

(L-R Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly)

Crochet is a light orange with a matte finish. It was very soft and blendable with excellent color payoff.

Guipure is a neutral pink satin base with gold glitter. Sheered out, you lose most of the pink and end up with mostly glitter. It's not peachy enough to be a dupe for NARS Orgasm, but it's very much in that vein.

Chantilly is an orange/red with a matte finish. Like Crochet, it was very soft and blendable with excellent color payoff. I don't have NARS Taj Mahal, but the online swatches look pretty similar.

The Sleek Blush By 3 palette contains a whopping 20 grams of product and retails for $12.49 from Sleek.com

Overall: 10/10

Cover FX Total Cover Cream Foundation in N10 and Cream Foundation Brush

2013-05-08T10:23:00.002-05:00

I watch Lisasz09's YouTube channel a lot. I love how thorough her reviews are and I love the broad range of items and price points she reviews.

Lately, Lisa has been raving about the CoverFX Total Cover Cream Foundation.

I will admit that I'm not very familiar with the CoverFX line. I do like their philosophy, that makeup should actually improve your skin over time. Their cosmetics are free of many irritants commonly found in cosmetics and they are supposed to be great for people with sensitive skin.

Now, I don't have particularly sensitive skin, but I like the philosophy behind the brand.

As for the Total Cover Cream Foundation specifically, Cover FX describes the product as a rich emollient based cream foundation with SPF 30 offering flexible coverage. For All Skin types.

A couple of weeks ago someone started a YouTube tag about foundations that people use. The idea behind the tag is that if you, as a consumer, can find someone on YouTube with your specific skin shade, then you'd have a better idea of how certain products would look on you. I LOVE the idea behind this. And I'd like to add another component to it, skin type.

I have dry skin. Really, I cannot stress enough just how dry my skin is. It is always tight and often flaky, especially around my nose. I wear the most emollient night creams that I can find - usually over the top of straight up argan oil and rosehip oil. I use hydrating masks regularly. I drink lots of water every day. None of it makes any difference. My skin is dry. Dry, dry, dry.

I promise you, that wasn't a total digression. Back to the foundation. I already know that Lisa and I do not have the same skin shade and I know that she tends to have combination/oily skin. But, she was so impressed with the product and I trust her integrity, so I wanted to check it out.

I went to the counter and got shade matched to N10. As a reference point, I am usually a MAC NW15ish. MAC Face and Body in N1 is too dark for me. I am almost always the lightest shade in a foundation range, unless the lightest shade leans too yellow (NARS, Bourjois), in which case, I usually just can't wear that line at all. Let it be known that CoverFX's N10 is not the lightest shade in the range. They have N0 (boggles).

As it turns out, N10 is too light for me (this never happens). It was a great match for my neck. But since my face is probably 2 shades darker than my neck, I usually try to split the difference. The N10 made me look like Casper the friendly ghost - well, moreso than usual.

Now, I certainly could have gone back and picked up a better shade match, but I didn't. And I'll tell you why.

This foundation sat terribly on my skin. It was awful. Like I said, I know that Lisa's skin is a lot oilier than mine, but since the PR materials specifically used the word "emollient" and it says its suitable for all skin types - and when I tested it in store, it didn't feel drying - I thought it would be okay.

It wasn't okay.

This stuff just clung to my skin. It would not move. And it just went on so unevenly. It would be really sheer in places and then pool in my pores and grab onto patches of dry skin. It looked terrible. (In addition to being the wrong color).

Now, I know that I probably could have improved things if I'd worn a primer under the foundation. But I generally don't wear primers because my skin is so dry. And really, at this price point, I am not willing to go out of my way and add extra products into my routine to make something work.

For $42, you work or you go back.

So ... it went back.

When I bought the foundation I also picked up CoverFX's Cream Foundation Brush ($38) since Lisa and several other reviews I read said that this brush really did a fantastic job of applying the product.

The brush is okay. I kept it. Mostly because I have a brush problem.

It is really, really similar to one of the brushes in the Sephora Advanced Airbrush set, which I already have and which retails for $65 for 5 brushes. Both the CoverFX and Sephora brushes are synthetic brushes.

(And fwiw, I'm pretty sure this set from Crown Brush is the same thing as the Sephora set and it's only $30. Moral of this story is if you're really curious about the CoverFX brush, you could pick up one just like it from Crown for $8 cheaper and then get 6 more brushes to boot).

The CoverFX Total Cover Cream Foundation contains 10g of product and retails for $42 wherever CoverFX is sold. The Cream Foundation Brush retails for $38.

I picked up both of my products at Sephora at JC Penney.
Foundation: 0/10

Brush: 7/10

Flower Beauty Petite Fleurs Pocket Triplets PF4 and PF7

2013-05-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

The Petite Fleurs Pocket Triplets by Flower Beauty are something I have been curious about since the line launched. My local Wal-Mart has been sold out of them for weeks, but the last time I checked, they had restocked so I picked up two of the lip triplets (there are triplets for eyes as well).

Did it seem gimmicky when I picked it up? Yes.

Are they gimmicky? Yes.

OMG, YES.

These things are truly awful. Really, I cannot state enough how truly awful they are.

I think that all of the pocket triplet shades are shades from the full Flower Beauty line, but I could be wrong because I don't think that there is a dark brown lipstick in their regular line. Yes, you read that right, dark brown. Not nude, not a shade that caters to women of color, just an ugly dark brown lipstick.

The texture on these lipstick are horrible. Drying, patchy.

The packaging just baffles me. It's like they tried to design the worst packaging possible. It's flimsy, cheap looking, holds a minuscule amount of product, the way the little bullets fit together it is almost impossible to not gouge the hell out of the product while trying to use it.

As with the rest of the Flower Beauty line, all of the descriptive information is on the plastic wrap around the product, so once you open it, you have no idea what it is, how much product it contains, what colors it contains ... nothing.

I got so fed up in trying to swatch these that I just stopped and tossed them in my daughter's dress up drawer. Maybe she'll get some use out of them.

Overall: 0/10

Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals

2013-05-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

These aren't new products but I have a big backlog of reviews, so I figured better late than never. This review is on the Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals. As far as I can tell, the Metals line launched for Spring 2013 with 5 shades. The one shade that I did not pick up was Electric Blue because I know I would never wear it.

So, on to the shades I did pick up ...

55 Inked In Pink - Warm, rosy pink. The formula was very creamy and smooth.
60 Silver Strike - There didn't seem to be a whole lot of pigmentation to the base. It mostly seems like silver glitter. It has an okay texture and applied fairly evenly.
65 Gold Rush - Very orangy yellow gold. This had the worst texture of the bunch. It was incredibly patchy and uneven.
70 Barely Branded - Warm champagne beige. Fantastic texture, creamiest of the bunch. It stuck me as very similar to the Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream #13. (swatched below for comparison)

So if the regular Color Tattoo line is the MAC Paint Pot knockoff, the Tattoo Metals line is definitely the Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream knockoff.

The Maybelline Color Tattoos have a fantastic price point. I had great wear times with all these shades and no creasing (though I will admit that it is rare for me to have creasing with a cream eye product).

I am a little baffled by both Silver Strike and Gold Rush. A metallic silver and a metallic gold should have been automatic home runs. Just about every makeup line out there has some variation on these kinds of cream shadows or liners and yet, these two were just duds for me. They were uneven, the gold was a brassy, brash unflattering gold.

I do think that Inked In Pink and Barely Branded are fantastic shades and really can go toe to toe with the MUFE Aqua Creams in terms of color payoff and wear time at about a quarter of the cost.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals contain 4 grams of product and retail for around $6.

Stila In The Light Eyeshadow Palette

2013-05-03T07:51:00.000-05:00

I am absolutely a sucker for neutral eyeshadow palettes. Do I need another one? Of course not. Did I pick up another one, you betcha.

This time it is the Stila In The Light eyeshadow palette. It features 10 shadows in a variety of neutral colors and finishes.

Top row L-R Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone

Bare - Light, yellowy beige with a matte finish. It was dry, but not awful
Kitten - Shimmery Champagne color with a metallic finish. Absolutely fantastic. (As a side note, I have Kitten from another Stila palette and it is pink in the pan. Swatched, it looks identical to the swatch here, but in the pan, it's pink.)
Bliss - Light pinky brown with a matte finish. It was dry with underwhelming color payoff.
Sunset - Mid tone pinky copper with a metallic finish. Fantastic shade.
Sandstone - Warm dark brown with a matte finish. It was dry, but better than the other mattes in the palette. Had good color payoff.

Bottom row L-R Bubbly, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony

Bubbly - Metallic warm gold, darker than Kitten. Fantastic.
Gilded Gold - Warm dark brown with a satin base and gold glitter. Color payoff was good, but I had a lot of glitter fallout.
Luster - I have another Stila palette with Luster and I swear, it is not this shade. Different in the pan and different swatched. This Luster is a cool dark brown with some gold glitter. Texture was a bit dry, color payoff wasn't fantastic.
Night Sky - Dark gray blue with a satin base and blue glitter. It had a good texture, but I did have problems with glitter fallout from this shade as well.
Ebony - Matte black. Okay texture. Okay payoff.

Also included is a Stila Smudge Stick waterproof eyeliner in damsel which is a dark matte brown.

I think this is a really nice palette. I won't be trading in my Lorac UNzipped palette for it any time soon though.

The metallic shades are fantastic, but I think it's probably pretty easy to make a fantastic metallic eyeshadow. Everything else is very middle of the road, which is disappointing. Most of the mattes were terrible. And all of the glitter shades had big problems with fallout.

Stila's In The Light palette contains 14 grams of product and retails for $39 wherever Stila is sold. I got mine at Sephora.

Overall: 7/10

Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls in Sunkissed

2013-05-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

I know, just about every beauty line out there now have their very own ripoff of the Guerlain Meteorites. I lust after the Guerlain Meteorites. But I do not need another finishing powder, no matter how beautiful. So I've saved myself the $58. However, this does not preclude me from trying the cheap knockoffs.

I've seen several YouTubers using the Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls. I'm pretty sure they came out with Avon's summer 2012 collection. They're no longer available from Avon and I have to tell you, if you missed them, you're not missing much.

I'm not exactly sure what complexion this particular shade could bronze. You see the swatch above? The one where you can barely see where the product is swiped. Yeah. There's virtually no pigmentation to this product. I picked up Sunkissed. I'm sure it came in at least one other, darker, shade.

It's a highlighter. It does have a decent amount of shimmer. Not the most finely milled or flattering shimmer, but it's there. I know that a lot of people love the scent of this product. As previously mentioned, my sense of smell is pretty non-existent, so that's not exactly a plus for me.

Overall, this product feels gimmicky. It's a chunky, gimmicky highlighter and it sits largely unloved in the back of my makeup drawer. If I was in desperate need of a highlighter, I suppose this would work, but I have other highlighters that I love far more and that are far less messy and cumbersome to use.

Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls in B01 Sunkissed contain a whopping 22 grams of product. I picked mine up on sale from Avon.com for $6.99.

Overall: 4/10

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dandelion

2013-05-01T08:40:00.001-05:00

Benefit Box O' Powders are nothing new, and they're blushes, so how exactly I've gone this long without owning one properly, I'm not sure. I did pick up a mini of Benefit's Bella Bamba as a Sephora 100 point perk, but it's not the same as owning a full size and somehow the mini packaging manages to be even more annoying than the full size packaging.

Benefit's Box O' Powder blush in Dandelion is something that has been on my wishlist forever. It's a blush. It's a yellow based pink blush. I mean, how had I not picked this up?

Well, after finally biting the bullet and picking it up when I had a Sephora discount, I know how I hadn't picked it up. It's fine. The blush, itself, is fine. It's a very subtle (even on my super pale skin) yellow based pink blush. It's smooth without being powdery. It blends well and it has decent staying power - I got 6 hours out of it before it faded noticeably. It has a satin finish.

The packaging is terrible. The stupid cardboard flip top lid thing is nothing but an irritation. The brush, surprisingly, wasn't awful, though I wouldn't use it to apply blush. I think it would be fine for a contour brush. There's a stupid little plastic insert thing that sits over the powder and if you're not careful (which, of course, I learned the hard way) it's very easy to gouge the product.

This is a product that I wanted to love, but the packaging was sufficiently annoying that I not only don't love it. I have it sitting in my makeup storage in the other room. And while I expected the color to be subtle, I don't know that I expected it to be quite this subtle. MAC's Pink Tea looks similar in the pan, but has way more oomph on the skin.

Sigh. At this price point, I should love it and I don't.

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dandelion contains 7 grams of product and retails for $28 wherever Benefit is sold. I got mine at Sephora.

Overall: 6/10

Givenchy Le Prisme Blush in Orange In Vogue

2013-04-30T08:20:00.000-05:00

I've been very lax about getting around to reviewing the Givenchy products I picked up a few weeks ago. That's because for the most part, I was really disappointed. Of the four products I purchased from the Givenchy line (bronzer, eyeshadow quad, blush and lipstick), two of them went back (bronzer, which wasn't, post is here and lipstick, post coming soon).

I still haven't swatched the eye quad because I'm not sure if I'm going to take it back or not.

But the one item that I knew I was keeping is the blush. Officially it is the Givenchy Le Prisme Blush in Orange in Vogue.

It is a beautiful blusher. The texture of the powders are fantastic. Each individual shade was buttery soft with good payoff and swirled together it has a lovely bronzy apricot glow.

(clockwise from top left)

(swirled together)

The only downside of this blush is the size. I apologize for not taking a picture of me holding the blush, but it is tiny. The packaging is a cute little square with a drawer for the (mostly useless) blush brush. But again, it's tiny.

The amount of actual product contained in the packaging is fairly standard - 6.8 oz. But the way it's packaged, it looks absolutely minuscule And it's good that the colors swirled together work because despite seeming like you could use the shades individually, they're too small to really try that.

Of all the Givenchy items I picked up, this blush is definitely my favorite. But I do feel like my reaction to it is colored by how disappointed I was overall with the Givenchy line.

The Givenchy Le Prisme powder blushes contain 6.8 oz of product and retail for $44 exclusively at Sephora.

Overall: 8/10

Zoya Nail Polish in Kimber

2013-04-29T08:19:00.001-05:00

This review is long overdue. I received my first Zoya nail polish in last year's inaugural Glossybox. The polish is Kimber and it is a bright watermelon pink with gold shimmer.

I love this polish. It applies smoothly and is mostly opaque in one coat. I applied two coats just to amp up the color a bit. I think the color is perfect for spring and summer.

The polish wore really well on me, which of course means we're grading on a curve. After two days I had significant wear on the tips, but no actual chipping until the third day.

Zoya polishes contain .5 oz and retail for $9.

Overall: 9/10

Maybelline Limited Edition Blush in Golden Fuse

2013-04-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

I already mentioned the Maybelline blush in Golden Fuse when I did my review of MAC's Warm Soul blush. Golden Fuse is a Limited Edition blush with Maybelline's Summer 2013 collection, So Electric.

This baked blush is a warm golden bronzy pink with lots of gold shimmer. I don't think it swatches anywhere near as orange as it looks in the pan. It has a surprising amount of pink.

This blush is a solid performer. It had a nice texture and blended out easily. It had good staying power - 6 hours before it started to fade, 8 hours before it faded significantly. It's a beautiful warm color, perfect for summer. It does have a lot of shimmer, so if you don't like that, you may want to steer clear.

This blush is not an exact dupe for MAC's Warm Soul, but I think it's probably as close as you're going to get at the drugstore in terms of both color and texture.

Maybelline's Golden Fuse blush contains 2.5 grams of product and retails for around $5 wherever Maybelline is sold.

Overall: 10/10

Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal in Nude and Taupe

2013-04-25T08:08:00.002-05:00

In the last couple of months due to a whole host of random and annoying vision problems, my eye doctor switched me out of hard contacts - rigid gas permeable lenses to be exact. (I know, you didn't even know they made hard contacts anymore, did you?)

So, several takeaways for me from now wearing soft contact lenses are:

Wow, these aren't excruciatingly painful.
I can actually see now that random particles aren't constantly attaching themselves to my lenses.
I could really consider wearing something in my waterline - this was NOT an option for me with hard contacts. It led to nothing other than extremely painful watery eyes.

Not wanting to plunk down a lot of money in this new stuff-on-the-waterline experiment, I decided to check out the ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal (say that three times fast) liners from Rimmel. I picked up two colors, Taupe and Nude.

As you can see from the swatches, they both lean rather orange, which I'm not crazy about, especially on the waterline, but for less than $10 for 2 pencils, you sort of get what you get.

005 Nude is a very warm orange leaning beige. I'm not exactly sure who this would be nude for, especially on the waterline. I really wish this product would have been much cooler toned and blue/pink leaning.

004 Taupe is a warm gray brown. Again, it leans a bit orange.

The pencils are extremely creamy and they are opaque in one swipe. They stay sticky, not ever really drying down. This means that they do have pretty good staying power on the waterline.

I think that overall staying power is probably going to be dictated by things other than the product. Namely, how dry was your waterline when you applied and how watery overall are your eyes.

The quality of the product is impressive, especially at this price point. But my complaint is that for a product designed to be used so close to the eyes, they're too warm/orange. I think they're going to make your eyes look more red and tired. Especially for the nude, I would have liked to see a color that would brighten and this one doesn't.

The Rummel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal pencils contain 1.2 grams of product and retail for around $4.49 wherever Rimmel is sold.

Overall: 7/10.

Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnish in Scarce

2013-04-24T08:04:00.003-05:00

Several weeks ago, I picked up the Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnish in Freckle and I absolutely loved it. That was my first Illamasqua polish and I thought the formula was fantastic. So, I really wanted to try more in the line. Unfortunately, the Speckled line was sold out at Sephora online.

Boo.

Luckily, in store at my local Sephora, they did have the line in stock and I went ahead and picked up another one, this time with a pink base called Scarce.

Like Freckle, Scarce was nearly opaque in one coat but fully opaque in two coats. The glitter was distributed well without having to fuss with it.

What really impresses me about this polish is its wear time. As a point of reference, nail polish chips on me. It always chips on me. Every manufacturer, every finish. Metallic polishes chip on me, glitter polishes chip on me. I'm lucky to make it through an hour or two with a cream finish.

My nails are not very strong. They flex a lot, so, like I said, everything chips on me.

This polish didn't chip on me. I wore it for a week and I did have some wear on the tips, though not bad, but it did not chip at all. I am in love. Freckle wore really well for me as well, though I did swap it out more quickly than I did Scarce (though not because it was chipped - because I needed to swatch another polish).

I don't know if this quality is limited to the Speckled line or if all Illamasqua polishes are this awesome, but I will find out. I can't wait to check out more.

Overall: 10/10

MAC Warm Soul Mineralize Blush

2013-04-23T08:24:00.000-05:00

Warm Soul is one of those blushes that everyone seems to love. I have been hearing people rave about it forever. I do love me some blush and despite being rather cool toned, I am not crazy about wearing cool toned blushes. So, obviously, I needed to pick up Warm Soul.

Look at it. It's beautiful. This is one of those cases of the hype being true. This is a gorgeous warm coppery pink color with gold shimmer. It could be used as a blush or a bronzer. I am in LOVE with this blush. It is fantastic and it is an absolute staple for me.

It's a Mineralize baked blush with great payoff and a lovely texture. I found it blended out easily, but it also has great staying power. I got a solid 9 hours out of it before it started to fade noticeably.

The MAC Mineralize blushes all contain 3.5 grams of product and retail (currently) for $25.

Overall: 10/10

Oh, and for what it's worth, I also happened to pick up a Maybelline LE baked blush the same week that is pretty similar (review forthcoming).

The Maybelline blush is called Golden Fuse and it's part of their Summer 2013 So Electric collection. It's a tad bit more golden and shimmery, but it's really pretty close and it's 2.5 grams of product for around $5.

Avon True Color Eyeshadow Quad in Mocha Latte

2013-04-22T08:05:00.002-05:00

Here is another Avon item I picked up recently. I picked up the True Color Eyeshadow Quad in Mocha Latte.

(swatches clockwise from lower left)

The colors and textures in the quad are as follows:

light peach - Satin finish with underwhelming payoff. It tended to be powdery. True to pan.
Medium dark brown - Matte finish. Super soft and buttery. Great payoff. Cool medium brown. True to pan.
Dark Brown - Matte. Super soft and buttery. Great payoff. Cool dark brown. True to pan.
Taupe - Metallic finish. Coppery pinky brown, not at all taupe. Not true to pan.

I picked the quad up on sale for $5.99, which is cheaper than a lot of drugstore palettes. Avon's distribution is a bit of a pain in this day and age. I don't have an "Avon Lady". I used their website and ended up having to pay shipping, which I hate.

For the price, this is a really nice palette. The shadows aren't fantastic, but they're good. And the packaging is sturdy, especially at this price point.

Overall: 8/10

Guerlain Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette

2013-04-19T08:43:00.000-05:00

Guerlain's Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette launched with their holiday 2012 Liu collection. As soon as I saw the promo pics for this palette, it went on my wish list. Just look at it. It's gorgeous. I was even more excited when Temptalia did a review of the palette and gave it an A+ rating. In fact, every review I have ever seen for this palette gave it a top rating. It seems like everyone loves this palette.

This palette has it all, beautiful, luxurious packaging, rich holiday colors and phenomenal quality. At at Guerlain's price point, it definitely should. The Calligraphy palette had a price tag of $79.

I COULD NOT WAIT to get my hands on it.

Lucky me, I did receive this as a Christmas present last year. I was thrilled!

Look at those shadows, they are gorgeous!

At least in the pan.

...

Well, only in the pan, as it turns out.

This palette is hands down the biggest disappointment of 2012 for me. Possibly my biggest beauty disappointment ever. As I said, it is gorgeous. This palette definitely is a thing of beauty - to look at, not to use.

But the quality? The shadows were described as buttery soft with great payoff. Um ... I have no idea what to think of this. All of the shadows are stiff and dry with very lackluster pigmentation. I had to fight with the shadows to get any color at all.

The lipsticks are definitely the standouts of the palette in that they go on fantastically well and have great pigmentation. They look really similar in the pans, one orange red and one primary red.

The primary red looking shade actually goes on a very bright raspberry pink. The orangey looking red actually swatched much more of a true red.

Overall, looking at this palette just makes me want to cry. I had such high expectations for it and it totally failed to live up to them. If someone just handed me this palette on the street, I would probably think it was okay. The shadows are disappointing, but not the worst you could find. But given the expectations I had for the palette combined with the price point, it just breaks my heart.

Overall: 0/10

Hourglass Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo in Sunset

2013-04-18T08:01:00.001-05:00

Hourglass cosmetics describes their new Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo as:

A multi-purpose crème-to-powder duo featuring a bronzer paired with a blush or highlighter. The bronze shade imparts a natural golden glow, subtly defining and contouring the face. Accent colors of sheer rose (Sunset duo) or champagne beige (Bronze Light duo) warm and illuminate the complexion. Illume’s luxurious vitamin-enriched formula blends seamlessly onto skin without blotching or streaking.

So, the bronzer duo comes in two shades, Sunset, which I have, is a duo of bronzer and a warm pink blush. The Bronze Light duo contains the bronzer (same shade as the Sunset duo) and a champagne beige highlighter.

Originally I picked up the Bronze Light duo because those were the product reviews (and raves) I'd seen. I glanced at the Sunset duo, but I mistakenly thought it was just a deeper version of the Bronze Light. When I got home and realized that the Sunset duo actually contained a blush as opposed to the Bronze Light's highlighter, I immediately exchanged Bronze Light for Sunset.

Let's face it, I'm going to get way more use out of a blush than a highlighter. Sunset is it. ;)

I will admit up front that my expectations for this product were high. I had seen several YouTube gurus whose opinions I respect and generally agree with, rave about this product. (Though both of them did review the Bronze Light duo. You can see GossMakeupArtist's review here and Josh Collier's review here.)

I also felt like I had a good handle on how this product should perform. I already have the Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel gel bronzer, which I love. Like the Hourglass creme-to-powder bronzer, the Chanel bronzer isn't great for contouring. I think it leans too orange on my skintone for that. But for that summer, sun-kissed glow without the sun damage, it's great, even on my pasty pale skin.

(sunlight)

(daybulb)

As for the cream blush, I feel like I've seen a hundred different cream blush formulations and I was curious to see Hourglass's take. I really like the formula a lot. It is incredibly pigmented and while it goes on smooth and creamy, it dries down to a powder finish very quickly and has fantastic staying time. I got a solid 8 hours out of it before it started to fade at all.

(sunlight)

(daybulb)

Overall, I really, really like this product. As usual, the hourglass packaging is so sleek and luxurious feeling. There is a lot of product. The product performs fantastically well and it's paraben and cruelty free. It's a total win, even at this price point.

Hourglass also touts the following benefits for the Illume line:

• Shades illuminate the skin while delivering year-round bronze color
• Stays fresh on skin all day without blotching or streaking
• Vitamins A and E provide moisturizing and antioxidant benefits
• Compact features a mirror that swivels 360°
• Free of oil, wax, parabens, phthalates, sulfates and fragrance

The Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo contains 11 grams of product and retails for $40 wherever Hourglass Cosmetics are sold. (I got mine at Sephora).

Overall: 10/10

Avon Ideal Luminous Blush in Earthen Rose

2013-04-17T08:11:00.001-05:00

Avon is one of those brands that my mom used when I was little (still does, actually). I have very fond memories as a child of the "Avon Lady" ringing the doorbell, coming inside and setting out her basket of goodies.

But Avon was also one of those brands that I outgrew once I realized there were better alternatives on the market. However, it seems in the last 5- 10 years, Avon has really stepped up their cosmetics game. I think they always had a pretty strong skincare line, but their cosmetics were very sad for quite a while.

Avon has also made an effort at going international and seem to have gained quite a bit of ground, particularly in the UK. For quite a while, I believe Avon sponsored Pixiwoo, which is how I became reacquainted with their cosmetics line.

One of the Avon Ideal Luminous Blushes in Earthen Rose, in particular, was mentioned fairly regularly in Pixiwoo videos, which is why I decided to check it out.

E04 Earthen Rose is a soft, warm beige with a satin finish. The blush has a soft, buttery texture and decent pigmentation. On fair skins like mine it can be used for a bit of a contour as it doesn't have any shimmer. I could definitely use it as a bronzer as well.

It has a decent wear time. I got a good 6 hours out of it before it started to fade.

Avon Ideal Luminous blushes contain 6.23 grams of product and are available at Avon.com (or through your local Avon rep - I don't have one) for $8.

Overall: 7/10

Illamasqua Cream Blusher in Dixie

2013-04-16T13:30:00.000-05:00

(day bulbs)

Illamasqua is yet another of those brands that I have been curious about forever. No one local to me carries the line, so I ended up ordering site unseen from Sephora. From the descriptions, this isn't necessarily the first blush I would have picked out, but unfortunately Sephora seems to often be sold out of a number of the Illamasqua cream blushes. So of the colors they had in stock, I chose Dixie, which is described on the Sephora site as "warm coral pink".

(sunlight)

As you can probably tell from the swatches, I had a hard time trying to really capture the color of this blush. In the pan, I think the description definitley holds true. It is a warm coral. However, once applied to the skin it goes on shockingly sheer and considerably pinker.

The cream blush formula does set quickly, though not to a powder finish. But it's not sticky and that's the important thing for me. As I said earlier, it does go on surprisingly sheer, but it's fairly easy to build it up. I applied the blush and easily got 9 hours of wear out of it before it faded noticeably.

Illamasqua cream blushes contian 4 grams of product and retail for $26. I got mine at Sephora.

Overall: 8/10

Sleek Pout Polish in Powder Pink and Peach Perfection

2013-04-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I placed a big order on the Sleek MakeUp site. Sleek is one of those brands that I've been lucky enough to receive in swaps with UK friends, but it's not available readily in the US.

As a side note here, the prices are great and the shipping was super cheap - like $8 cheap for international shipping! (Though it did take about two weeks to arrive.)

Anyway, I've been lucky enough to try a lot of the Sleek powder products, but I've never tried any of their lip products. So ... I picked up two of the Sleek Pout Polishes in Powder Pink and Peach Perfection. The Pout Polishes are basically like tinted lip balms. They come in 9 colors.

They are very sheer. You get just a hint of color. They aren't the most fantastic lip balms ever, but they're decent. The texture was okay. I didn't find them to be sticky and I didn't find the scent to be particularly noteworthy (good or bad), but I'm not particularly sensitive to either of those.

You do get a ton of product, but since they come in jars, you have to apply them with your fingers. This isn't a deal breaker for me, but I know it would be for a lot of people.

The packaging is cute. They come in a range of colors (most of which will offer only the barest hint of color on the lips). They are pretty much a take it or leave it product for me. They're okay, but I don't think I would purchase them again, even at this (very good!) price point.

Sleek Pout Polish contains 10 grams of product and retails for $5.99 each.

Overall: 6/10