Sasquatch Swatch

Kenzo Flower Tag EDT

2011-09-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

Hi! It's been a while. I guess I just want to blog when I feel like it now. Hope that's cool with you guys. :)

This review, which is a bit overdue as the fragrance was released months ago (June?), is for the new-ish Kenzo Flower Tag EDT. You may already remember that I've been a huge fan of Kenzo fragrances since trying FlowerByKenzo La Cologne (which I will call FBKLC from now on). First of all, I can't figure out why this is, but Kenzo fragrances simply seem to last longer on my skin than fragrances by other brands (and I have a decent assortment of EDPs, EDTs, colognes, and body mists). Secondly, I love their packaging - the tall, thin, leaning bottles hold great aesthetic appeal for me. Thirdly, and most importantly, each of the scents I've tried so far simply melt into my skin and feel comfortable on me - they're quite different, but each feels very "me."

I've been wearing Flower Tag on and off since June when I first got it to try out, and I have to say, it feels more complex to me each time I put it on. According to Kenzo's press release, Flower Tag's notes are:

Fruity: rhubarb, blackcurrant, mandarin (mmm)
Floral: peony, lily of the valley (mmm), jasmine (mmmmm)
Sensual: tea note, vanilla (mmmmm), musk (mmm)

I guess you can see why I like it. It's got many of my favorite fragrance components in it!

Anyway. This reminds me somewhat of FBKLC, which is the first Kenzo fragrance I tried. FBKLC is still my more "comfortable" and "in my own skin" scent of the two, the one I might wear on an evening in, grilling burgers in the backyard with family, or to a casual lunch date with an old girlfriend. Flower Tag is the one I would wear with a sexy little black dress on a date night with my boyfriend. It's a little more elegant than FBKLC, but still playful, young, and flirty. I'm not well-versed in high class and couldn't tell you what the third fork or second knife in your fancy place setting is for, so I might normally feel out of place at a candlelit dinner in an upscale restaurant, but wearing Flower Tag might help me feel like I belong in one.

Kenzo graciously sent me a press sample of this fragrance to try out for my blog, but I assure you, my opinion here is true. I will wear this until it's gone... you should see how much I've used up of my FBKLC! :)

Sasquatch Sales updated again! :)

2011-03-17T01:59:00.002-04:00

Go check it out! http://sasquatchsales.blogspot.com

Thanks friends :)

Wet 'n' Wild 8-Pan Palette: Comfort Zone

2011-02-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! I picked up the three new Wet ‘n’ Wild 8-pan eyeshadow palettes for $5 each at Walgreens last night. This is part three of a series of posts for each one – enjoy! This review is for Comfort Zone (I saved the best for last!).

I have numbered the shades in each palette so I can refer to them separately, since the individual shades don't have names. You can click on any picture to view it at full size. First, here are some product pictures:

And here are the swatches (all done over Urban Decay Primer Potion)!

Finally, here are my thoughts on the individual shades:

Buttery, shimmery gold.
Shimmery light copper - almost the color of a brand-new penny.
Warm, shimmery light bronze. Reminds me of MAC Tempting.
Very dark plum (or is it brown?) with multi-colored, warm-toned shimmer.
Light, shimmery, golden taupe. Beautiful.
Bright, shimmery, olive drab green. Also beautiful.
Dark chocolate brown infused with tons of gold and bronze shimmer. This is like Dior Czarina Gold nail polish in eyeshadow form!
Shimmery rust with a strong light blue/lavender flash. I have no idea how to wear shades like this! I've heard this is a dupe of MAC Club, but I haven't seen Club in a long time, so I can't confirm or deny that. However, I can confirm that it is the same shade as the bottom left shade in the Wet 'n' Wild Night Elf palette from their Holiday 2010 collection.

Overall, I think this is a fabulous palette. The pigmentation was perfect on every single shadow - there were no disappointments. It blows my mind that this is only $5; I’d gladly pay $5 each just for the shades I labeled #s 1, 3, 5, and 6. I think I may end up getting use out of every shade in this palette! Some of the ones I'm not sure I can pull off, but I plan to give them all at least one try on my eyes. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone – it has a pleasant variety of both cool and warm shades, so everyone should be able to find something in it they like.

I hope you enjoyed my little mini-series on these palettes! :)

Wet 'n' Wild 8-Pan Palette: Petal Pusher

2011-02-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! I picked up the three new Wet ‘n’ Wild 8-pan eyeshadow palettes for $5 each at Walgreens last night. This is part two of a series of posts for each one – enjoy! This review is for Petal Pusher.

And here are the swatches (all done over Urban Decay Primer Potion)!

Finally, here are my thoughts on the individual shades:

Chalky white-pink with a fuchsia flash. Low pigmentation.
Soft neutral medium purple with gold shimmer. High pigmentation (no, that's not a typo - it's just hard to tell in the pictures). BEAUTIFUL. Pictures do NOT do this justice!!
Cool-leaning, shimmery, vivid violet. High pigmentation. Again, BEAUTIFUL.
Cool violet with silver sparkle. Medium pigmentation.
Cool, frosty, baby pink. High pigmentation. I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say this is the prettiest pink eyeshadow I have ever laid eyes on. You just can't tell how gorgeous it is in these pics! Ugh.
Neutral wine with burnished-gold (almost copper) shimmer. Low pigmentation.
Matte dark chocolate brown infused with tons of multi-colored shimmer (pink, purple, copper, and probably other colors too that I just can't see right now). High pigmentation. Stunning.
Matte black with silver shimmer. Medium pigmentation. Note that this is not the same as #8 in Blue Had Me At Hello - that one has larger sparkle particles, whereas the shimmer in Petal Pusher's #8 is more fine - you're unlikely to experience the same fallout I experienced with #8 in Blue Had Me At Hello.

Overall, I think this is a great palette. It blows my mind that this is only $5; I’d gladly pay $5 each just for the shades I labeled #s 2, 3, and 5. I don’t see myself using all these shades and I like to keep my stash minimized, so I will probably end up depotting this and keeping maybe half the shades in another palette. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone – it has a pleasant variety of both cool and warm shades, so everyone should be able to find something in it they like. I think that especially if you're not into dupe-hunting, this one is pretty special; I can honestly say "I don't have anything else like this" for almost every shade in this palette! And I think I will get a lot of use out of those pink and purple shades. :)

Wet 'n' Wild 8-Pan Palette: Blue Had Me At Hello

2011-02-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! I picked up the three new Wet ‘n’ Wild 8-pan eyeshadow palettes for $5 each at Walgreens last night. I plan to do a series of posts for each one (and will hopefully get them all done today) – enjoy! This review is for Blue Had Me At Hello.

I have numbered the shades in each palette so I can refer to them separately, since the individual shades don't have names. You can click on any picture to view it at full size. First, here are some product pictures:

Here is a close-up of the top half of the palette, since I had trouble getting those colors to show accurately in the full-size product pictures:

And here are the swatches (all done over Urban Decay Primer Potion)!

Finally, here are my thoughts on the individual shades:

Neutral shimmery highlight color – not quite silver, not quite gold, not quite white. Low pigmentation.
Cool medium silver. High pigmentation. I don’t have it in my stash anymore to do a comparison, but this reminds me a lot of MAC Electra.
Matte dark navy with subtle blue sparkle. Medium pigmentation, but notably soft/smooth for a matte-based color.
Matte black. Medium pigmentation. I don’t have it in my stash anymore to do a comparison, but I would say this is similar in color and feel to MAC Carbon.
Pale, shimmery baby blue – almost a light seafoam green, but leans slightly more blue than that. Medium pigmentation.
Bright shimmery teal. High pigmentation. While this is not an exact dupe of MAC Parrot (Parrot is bluer and a little more complex-looking), I do believe this is the closest match you’d find to Parrot that’s available in drugstores today. It’s also softer and therefore more pigmented/easier to apply than Parrot is – two points for Wet ‘n’ Wild!
Shimmery navy blue. Medium pigmentation. I’ve heard this could be a dupe for MAC Deep Truth, and I don’t have that one to do a comparison. From what I remember of it, though, I think Deep Truth is more of a cobalt blue, whereas the Wet ‘n’ Wild shade is a darker navy. Nevertheless, I’d bet this is the closest dupe to Deep Truth available in drugstores today.
Matte black with silver sparkles. Medium pigmentation. Reminds me of MAC Black Tied. Be sure to do your eye makeup before your face makeup if using this shade – you will definitely experience some fallout. I could see little silver sparkles floating their way off my arm down to the floor as I applied the shadow for this swatch!

Overall, I think this is a great palette. It blows my mind that this is only $5; I’d gladly pay $5 each just for the shades I labeled #s 2 (silver) and 6 (teal). I don’t see myself using all these shades and I like to keep my stash minimized, so I will probably end up depotting this and keeping maybe half the shades in another palette. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone – cool and neutral-toned folks could get use out of every shade, and warm-toned folks could still get use out of at least a few of the shades (#6, all the darker shades, and maybe #1 – it’s still worth it even if just for #6, though!).

P.S. Thanks for all the sweet emails encouraging me to keep blogging. I love you all, too! :) My job has been keeping me very busy, so a lot of the time I’m too tired to write when I get home, but I’m going to try to integrate blogging back into my routine again – we’ll see how it goes!

Charity Auction at BeautyBloggers.org

2010-12-13T02:03:00.001-05:00

Hi friends!

I'm sorry I haven't been updating lately. I've spent the past month or so working harder than ever to find a new job, and it finally paid off - yay! I'm working in a position now that I think I'll really love, and is a good fit for me. So I'll be even busier now, but will hopefully still have time to share some fun stuff with you on and off :)

What I want to tell you about now is a charity auction online that was started up by KarlaSugar and to which I am proud to say I have donated several items. :) Here is the official blurb about it:

BeautyBloggers.org is the collaboration of almost 50 different beauty bloggers and brands. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — knowing that the most effective donation to any charity is cash.

So we’re putting our makeup on the auction block (all items are new unless otherwise described). Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders. Bidders anywhere in the world are welcome, and shipping is “free.” That is, the full amount of your winning bid will go to charity — the bloggers have agreed to donate the cost of shipping, in addition to the items themselves.

We’re raising money for Doctors Without Borders because women are always disproportionately affected in any disaster. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. Click here to learn more about MSF.

We’ll be collecting payment through a secure page set up with Doctors Without Borders. They accept credit cards. International auction winners may have to use Paypal.

Bid now through Monday, December 20 — this year’s auction ends at 5 pm CST.

Anyway, please check it out! We would love to have your support. :) Thank you!

Sales blog updated 11/15/10!

2010-11-15T04:47:00.000-05:00

There's a little (or a lot) of everything - go check it out if you'd like: Sasquatch Sales!

Thanks! :)

Pixi Illuminating Tint & Conceal

2010-11-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

Do you go through phrases when it comes to your makeup? Last month, I went though a "foundation" phase. I was really sick with mono and as a result did almost nothing when it comes to makeup and skincare - I washed my face once a day and completely ignored it the rest of the time - and my skin was clearer than ever. Boy, did that ever make me re-think my skincare routine. Anyway, after I started to feel better, I started wanting to wear makeup again and realized I didn't really have any sheerer foundations/tinted moisturizers that seemed "just right."

After reading an abundance of glowing MUA reviews, I decided to give Pixi Illuminating Tint & Conceal a try and bought it at Target (for $30 - ouch!). It sounded pretty cool - a tinted moisturizer that covers unevenness, leaves you looking "dewy," and comes with its own built-in concealer on the end. But let's just cut to the chase: I was majorly disappointed, and am now kicking myself for buying expensive makeup at Target, where the return policy sucks.

The good: the concealer ROCKS. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I tried applying it with a brush, with my finger, and even by applying the little ball of solid concealer directly to my face and then blending it in with my finger. However I applied it, I loved the results. It didn't emphasize dry spots, sink into lines under my eyes, melt off, rub off, or anything else undesirable. It's just a good concealer. If Pixi were to sell the concealer separately in stick form, I'd definitely buy it. Additionally, the coverage on the tinted moisturizer was impressive, though I'd consider it more of a light foundation than a tinted moisturizer due to the extra coverage. The color match on shade No. 1 was good for my skin, which is impressive for a drugstore product with only three shades.

The bad: THE SPARKLES! This "Illuminating Tint" is 99% illuminator, 1% tint. And I said it had good coverage, so imagine what that means in terms of sparkle factor. At least from my perspective, the amount of shimmer in this makes it completely unwearable as anything but maybe a highlighter on cheekbones. I wore it once and will never wear it again: even in the bathroom mirror at home, I could see sparkles all over my face, as well as all over my hands after I'd used them to apply it and blend it in. I looked like a 10-year-old on sparkle steroids. I decided to let it go and give it a shot anyway, though, just for the day. I got in my car outside, looked at my reflection in sunlight in my car mirror, and actually started laughing. I really try hard to put myself in others' shoes in addition to my own when it comes to reviewing products, but I genuinely can't fathom how this could look like anything but sparkle city on anyone who wears it.

I've also tried Revlon PhotoReady foundation, which has been lambasted by many for having "Cullen-esque" shimmer, but let me tell you - on me, PhotoReady was practically matte compared to this stuff. The picture to the right is of a model from a trend show last year. See how shimmery her cheekbones look? Pretty, right? Well, now imagine her whole face looks like that - that's how I looked. For that reason, I really can't recommend the tinted moisturizer part of this Tint & Conceal duo.

The tinted moisturizer had good lasting power, too, but given how much I disliked it, I'm not even going to pretend I see that as a plus. However, I do think this makes for a great cheekbone highlighter, so if you happen to be on the market for a new concealer and highlighter, it might be worth your consideration. Maybe.

Guest post on The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself

2010-11-03T16:21:00.002-04:00

Whee! Karla of The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself, one of my favorite beauty blogs, has graciously allowed me to do a guest post on her blog featuring Extravagant Night, one of the new nail polishes from Estee Lauder's Holiday 2010 collection. Please click here to check it out!

Thanks, Karla!

Purely Cosmetics Diamond Perfect Finish & Oil Absorb Powders

2010-10-19T15:07:00.003-04:00

Hi friends! I have another product review for you today. Maybe the momentum from posting twice in one week will stick... :)

Earlier this summer, my friend Shannon asked me to do her makeup for her wedding in August. I was really excited about this and I wanted to do the best possible job, which involved hunting down the best possible product for each piece of the completed look. After chatting with Aly of The Gloss Menagerie about setting powders for a while, I was convinced I needed to try Diamond Perfect Finish (by internet-based mineral makeup company Purely Cosmetics). However, Shannon had given me a supply budget that I'd almost exhausted and I was broke, so Robyn of Purely Cosmetics very graciously agreed to send me a sample. A week or two later, I received a small package in the mail with three Purely Cosmetics samples: Diamond Perfect Finish, Oil Absorb, and Silk & Pearl Primer. (All three are loose powders that come in plastic sifter jars.) So, I'm going to tackle each of these one at a time:

Diamond Perfect Finish: This is a very nice product, no questions asked. With that said, it was a bit of a letdown for me because I was expecting miraculous results, thanks to Aly's raves and my own unrealistic expectations (I should really stop thinking that any single product could ever give me red-carpet-ready smooth, even, and radiant skin!). Don't let that deter you too much, though. It didn't make my skin look 100% even and acne-free, but then again, it didn't claim to. What it does claim to do is "reduce the visibility of imperfections," and I do see that when I use it - my skin looks a little bit like skin in a photograph that's been lightly doctored with a "soft focus" effect. You can still see some of my red spots underneath, but your eyes glide over and away from them a little more easily.

I get this same effect from silica powder (and I did ultimately end up using the silica-based e.l.f. Studio High Definition powder on Shannon's big day because it also offered light oil control), but if you like the novelty of using a powder on your face that is made from real diamonds (!!), Diamond Perfect Finish is definitely worth your consideration. It's very, very, very finely-milled and I feel like I'm indulging in something luxurious when I use it, similar to how I feel when I use my Guerlain Meteorites Voyage compact (which retails for $170!). Thankfully, the luxury of Diamond Perfect Finish is only $18.50.

Oil Absorb: Now THIS stuff was what surprised me! WOW. I would consider Oil Absorb a very "heavy duty" product - not one I would use for touch-ups here and there, but one I can trust will completely, devastatingly wipe out my oilies when I need it to. Even the ingredient list struck me as something that takes itself very seriously: Oil Absorb is made out of bentonite clay, silica, calcium carbonate, and kaolin clay. Every single one of those ingredients is used cosmetically for oil control - I've spent years seeing them on ingredient labels for everything from oil-controlling powders to oil-controlling face masks. The first time I tried it out was about 30 minutes after washing and moisturizing my face one morning; I was mildly impressed. But I hadn't seen anything yet...

The second time I tried it out was more recently, while I was in the worst phase of mono, fever and all (yeah, being sick with that has sucked bigtime). I hadn't even gotten out of bed except to use the restroom - let alone washed my face - in probably 24 hours, and my face was so covered in sweat and oil that I was wiping my forehead with the back of my hand and pulling it away shiny and wet. (Gross, I know, but I want you to know just how serious of a product test this was.) Just for kicks, I grabbed a powder brush and buffed some Oil Absorb right onto my greasy face. Guess what? It turned matte and smooth. Instantly. My jaw actually dropped open. My face didn't even look ashy, claylike, or cakey, just... normal. And it stayed like that for at least a couple of hours (I can't say for sure how much longer, because I fell asleep again for a long time after that). This stuff is like dry shampoo for your face. SQUEE! Oil Absorb is $16. Like I said, this stuff is heavy-duty - it's way more powerful at combating oily skin than, say, other powders like Urban Decay De-Slick, MAC Blot, and Maybelline Dream Matte. Honestly, I'd recommend any of those three - they all work well, and all are in conveniently pressed form - but when it comes to serious oilies, none of them can even compare to Oil Absorb.

Silk & Pearl Primer: This is the only one I can't really speak to one way or another. I don't "do" powder primers; they don't make sense to me. I almost always wear tinted moisturizer or liquid foundation, and it doesn't work well to put powder primer under either of those. If I were to use mineral powder foundation, I can see how this would work nicely, but I can't really speak to that. I do use MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural sometimes, but I prime using my Shiseido SPF 55 Sun Protection Lotion and/or Fyrinnae Velvet-Gel Silica Primer to combat my oilies - I just can't see myself adding another product layer to my face before I've even started adding color! Maybe when I do my next blog sale, I'll offer this as a free extra in exchange for a short, honest guest review, and see if I get any takers. For anyone who's interested in buying, a full size Silk & Pearl Primer is $18.50.

Anyway, I hope this post was helpful. I've had quite a bit of fun testing and playing with the Diamond Perfect Finish and Oil Absorb powders, and would definitely recommend the former to anyone (seriously) and the latter to anyone with very oily skin (like me!).

FlowerByKenzo La Cologne

2010-10-18T01:43:00.000-04:00

What? Kristina's writing about a fragrance?

Yeah, you're right. It's random. To make a long story short, I was lusting after FlowerByKenzo La Cologne after reading the lovely Joeybunny's review of it on Pink Sith a few months ago but I couldn't find it to try it out in any stores near me. I'm not exactly a fragrance whore - I only own a few of them - so I would never even consider purchasing one without trying it out first, let alone one as expensive (okay, from my amateur perspective) as the FlowerByKenzo cologne is ($72). I sent a despairing Tweet to Kenzo's representative on Twitter asking where I could find it to try it and she ended up sending me some in the mail. What a sweetheart! I think it was mostly because she and I both have girl crushes on Joeybunny. How could you not?

So - I feel I owe Kenzo this review, even though I'm probably the last person you should look to for opinions on a fragrance. I swear, you could put a scent under my nose and a gun to my head, and I still wouldn't be able to tell you what the top notes or bottom notes are to save my life. But I'm going to give this a shot (ha-ha) anyway.

According to Sephora, the notes in FlowerByKenzo La Cologne are "bitter orange leaves, bergamot, orange, mandarin, rose, orange blossom, neroli, musks, and vanilla." Though I couldn't identify them in a new fragrance, I do know that I tend to like floral-citrusy scents, as well as scents with some musk and/or vanilla, based on seeing those appear over and over in the list of notes for fragrances I already know I like, so I figured this was right up my alley.

I've been wearing FlowerByKenzo at least a few times a week since June now (I've used about 10% of the bottle in that time), and I still can't decide if I like it or love it. It's weird. I know I like it - it makes me feel sort of bright, fun, and sophisticated/classy at the same time - but I don't think I love it enough that I could ever see it becoming my signature scent. I like the way it makes me feel, yet it doesn't feel "me," it feels like "someone else."

I've made my boyfriend sniff me countless times and tell me what he thinks of it. Over the last few months, the comments I've collected from him are: he likes it; he thinks it's pleasant and floral; it grabs his attention without "assaulting his nostrils"; it makes him think of a bouquet of daisies; and it makes him want to "kiss me on the cheek" (as opposed to: "walk away," "rip off my clothes," etc.).

So... what's the roundup? It works. FlowerByKenzo La Cologne is a "comfortable" fragrance for me. I'll continue to wear it, but on my t-shirt and jeans days. When I want to feel "me," I'll reach for The Body Shop's Love Etc. When I want to feel pretty: Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly. Glamorous: Moschino Glamour (duh?). Seductive (and my all-time favorite): Cacharel Amor Amor.

Now you know every fragrance I own, LOL. Don't judge me! :)

P.S. If you actually got this far, I have a question for you. I smelled a new fragrance I really liked the scent of in a magazine sample the other day, and now I sort of want it. The problem is, it's Britney Spears' new perfume, Radiance, and that's just embarrassing. Even the bottle looks like a total eyesore. Should I still ask for it for Christmas (or something like that), or just pretend I never smelled it and move on with my life with my pride intact? Tell me what you think in the comments, please!

How to Press Mineral Eyeshadow

2010-09-18T01:57:00.004-04:00

Hi readers!

Long time no see! :) How are you all? (That's not a rhetorical question - I'd love to hear from you - please feel free to tell me how life has been treating you lately in the comments!) Some of you know this already, but I got a job in social work at a skilled nursing facility in June. That has not only kept me busy, but also been pretty energy-draining, so it's been a long time since I've felt much like blogging. I have a ton of ideas for posts that have been stewing around in my head for months, as well as a few reviews I feel I owe to a couple of company reps who graciously sent me some product samples this summer, so hopefully this current bout of motivation will last for a while! I'm also planning to do another blog sale soon and would feel like a schmuck asking you all to buy my crap without giving you any new and interesting reading material, so... I'll write some new posts, you'll read them, then I'll ask you to buy my crap. Problem solved!

Anyway, someone posted a comment on my old post How to Salvage a Broken Eyeshadow asking how to press a mineral eyeshadow, which made me realize I promised to write a post on that and then never did. Oops! So, here goes. Please note that you can click on any picture to view it full-size!

To press mineral eyeshadows, you use a similar process as what you see in the How to Salvage a Broken Eyeshadow tutorial. However, instead of mixing the powder with only alcohol, you need to mix it with a combination of alcohol and some substance that can act as a "binder." I don't know the science behind this, but I do know that unlike with MAC pigments or previously pressed (and broken) eyeshadows, mineral eyeshadows will revert back to their loose powder form as soon as the alcohol has evaporated if you don't use a binder. I've heard of a variety of things working as a binder in this process - among them are pure glycerin (available at the drugstore), Fyrinnae Powder Modifier (though I don't think they sell it anymore), Coastal Scents EZ Prez, MAC Mixing Medium, and Biosilk Silk Therapy (yes, the hair serum!). So here's what you'll want to do (credit for most of the following goes to the lovely Lorin, a.k.a. sixxmum on Makeup Alley, who taught me everything I know about pressing mineral eyeshadows):

1. To start with, you'll need the following materials:

isopropyl alcohol (91% is best, but if you can't find it, 70% will suffice)
your binder product(s) of choice (see above)
a mixing tool like a laboratory spatula (pictured) or a plastic cosmetic spatula
a quarter
some kind of clean, lint-free, absorbent cloth
dropper bottles (available at craft stores)
a mineral eyeshadow (duh)
a pan to put the shadow in when you're finished
a small mixing bowl (I usually use a shot glass or a larger empty sample jar)
measuring spoon
optional: an organza bag, an empty magnetized palette (shown is E.L.F. brand, $1), an adhesive magnet (I use these ones), sticky labels (pictured below)

Here's the shadow I was working on (Fyrinnae Maneki Neko). I use the cleaning cloths made for glasses (can be purchased at any drugstore, or most optometrists give them away for free to patients) or a clean piece of denim (such as a cutout from an old pair of jeans) and 1" round pans purchased from starsmakeuphaven.com; they're about the same price as the ones from coastalscents.com, but they have a smooth bottom instead of a ridged one, which I find more aesthetically pleasing.

2. Sanitize all materials with alcohol, then measure about one teaspoon of eyeshadow into your mixing bowl.

3. Slowly add about 7-10 drops of your binder of choice (you may need more for matte shades), "cutting" the binder ingredient(s) into the powder like you would cut butter into flour for dough, until all the powder has begun to cling and clump up a little. Just be sure it's cut evenly through. I do it this way because once you've added too much binder, you can't take it back... but you can always add more! (I like to use 4-5 drops of Fyrinnae Powder Modifier, along with 3 drops of glycerin; I have great results with this combo.) If you're not sure if you're verging on adding too much or not, err on the side of not adding enough. Worst-case scenario, your shadow is too soft/powdery (not a solid!) after it dries in the pan and you start over again (wet it with alcohol, add another 1-2 drops of binder, and re-press). The only way you can recover from adding too much is by doing the same thing, but adding more powder instead (and I often end up pressing all I have the first time, so I end up having to order more or dilute it with a different color - not so fun).

4. Add enough alcohol, 5-10 drops at a time (I usually need between 40-70 drops total) and mixing as you go, to give the mixture a wet-dough consistency.

5. Scrape all of the mixture into an eyeshadow pan and spread it out as evenly as you can while still being careful to ensure it doesn't spill out over the edges. Let your eyeshadow sit like this and begin the drying/setting process for a little while before you move onto the next step - I usually give it 15-30 minutes.

6. Lay your cloth down gently on top of the pan. Lay your quarter on top of the cloth and line it up with the pan's edges (it should fit just right). Gently press down until you see the alcohol "bleeding" out around the edges and soaking the cloth; then move to another dry spot on your cloth and repeat. You'll find that you need to gradually press harder and harder to get the cloth to soak up the alcohol. You want to keep pressing and shifting to new dry spots until the cloth is soaking up little to no alcohol at all. (For some reason this picture didn't come out; if you want to see this in action, check out the How to Salvage a Broken Eyeshadow tutorial.) Optional step: once it seems you've soaked up as much alcohol as you can, you can slide the pan inside an organza bag, then lay the cloth and quarter over it and press down as you did before. This will imprint the shadow with a finer-looking hetchmark pattern.

7. Voila! You now have a pressed eyeshadow. Now for the finishing (optional) touches: add a sticky label with the name of your shadow on it to non-sticky side of an adhesive magnet, then peel off the backing on the sticky side of the magnet and stick it to the back of your pan. (If you prefer, you can also glue your shadows into place in your palettes. I only use magnets because I like to be able to take my colors out and re-organize them in different color groups, etc.)

8. Put it in your palette. Yay! You're all done! The palette I made tonight is comprised of Fyrinnae Shrinkirou + Fyrinnae Cookie Dough + L'Oreal Shimmering Sands On-the-Loose pigment (top left), Fyrinnae Maneki Neko (top right), Fyrinnae Snow Leopard (bottom left), and Fyrinnae Beholder + Fyrinnae Broken Doll + Fyrinnae Samhain Spirits + MAC Bloodline pigment (bottom right). Can you tell I had a lot of samples I wanted to press/use up?? :)

It came out wonderfully! ... in other news, I need to buy a full-size jar of Beholder ASAP. That color is freaking GORGEOUS by itself - I wish I'd had enough to make it its own pan!

Note: this post contains an affiliate link (for the magnet dots). All other products featured in this post were either purchased by me or, in the case of the metal spatula, pilfered from my alma mater's chem lab. (Shhh!)

FOTD with Wet 'n' Wild Lust Palette

2010-05-21T22:40:00.003-04:00

Hi lovelies :) I'm getting ready to go to a party tonight. I'll see a few old friends there for whom I'd like to look presentable, but it's also a casual event, so I figured I'd do something a bit more fun than usual (here's a little secret about me: I almost always wear neutrals on my eyes when I'm not playing with colors at home by myself!). Enter the Wet 'n' Wild Lust eyeshadow palette ($5 at most drugstores).

I'd heard great things about the new Wet 'n' Wild palettes, but had no interest in any of them since none of the color combinations appealed to me. However, when I heard they were BOGOF at Rite Aid this week, I figured I'd give two of them a shot and bought Lust and Pride. I haven't played with Pride yet, but I must confess, I'm amazed by Lust. I really underestimated these palettes! The shadows are super soft and buttery, but not "crumbly" like some softer eyeshadows from the drugstore can be. They're definitely comparable to many higher end eyeshadows I've used. In my experience, it's particularly hard to find good matte eyeshadows in the drugstore - and the mattes in these aren't just "good," they're excellent (as are the shimmery shades!).

I wasn't convinced I could wear the purples in Lust without looking bruised, but I decided to experiment with them anyway, and I love the result. Unfortunately, the only lighting available to me right now is less than ideal, so I didn't bother with taking product pictures or swatches. I went ahead and took a few FOTD pictures, though. (For my newer readers - hi friends! - FOTD stands for Face of the Day.)

Here goes...

Flash:

No flash:

Close-ups:

Here's the full product breakdown:

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion on lids

Wet 'n' Wild Lust palette on eyes

Clinique Lash Power mascara

Clinique Superfine Liner for Brows in Soft Brown

Revlon Colorstay foundation in Ivory on cheeks and chin

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Light as a finishing powder

Smashbox Ecstasy blush

Chantecaille Sari Rose Lip Chic

If you'd like to see product pictures and/or another possible eye look you could create with this palette, please feel free to check out Nouveau Cheap's post on it here. Love it!

GO, GO, GO! Sasquatch Sales is up and running for less than 24 HOURS!

2010-05-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

http://sasquatchsales.blogspot.com

Orders must be placed by 3 PM EST TOMORROW (Friday, May 14). I would be eternally grateful if you would post/Tweet/yell about this so as many people find out as possible! Everything must go!

Thanks, loves!
Kristina

Fun with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

2010-05-06T18:49:00.010-04:00

In my last post, I promised you swatches... well, here they are!

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (see my last post for bottle pics) is what's known as a "flakie" polish (don't ask me why it's not "flaky"), which means that it has thin, irregular-shaped, foil-like particles suspended in a translucent, jelly-like base. Some flakies have enough color to their bases that they can be worn alone, but I wouldn't do that with Hidden Treasure; just not my style, I guess. What I do love it for is layering over other colors - and after some experimentation, I've found that I prefer it over dark or bright colors, and usually better over cremes. It doesn't show up as well over lighter shades.

But showing is better than telling, right? :) I swatched this over some random shades I like to pair with it for you (and a couple of lighter ones I don't like as much with it, just so you can see why). I didn't want to be mean and not show you what the polishes look like by themselves, too, so we'll start with those pictures.

Here we have two coats each of Anise Grape Idea! (less blue-toned than it appears in the picture), Zoya Lael, Claire's Magic, and Rimmel Rave (dark shimmery red, though it looks almost black here):

And here are the same colors with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure layered on top of each:

Here we have two coats each of American Apparel Downtown LA, Peacock, Hunter, and Office:

And here are the same colors with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure layered on top of each:

Oooo, pretty!

Hidden Treasure really shines the most over a black creme, but I've already seen about a million pictures of it like that, so I figured I'd save myself a few minutes and skip it. You can find some great pictures of it layered over black (and by itself, if that interests you) here on Scrangie's blog - she's one of my favorite nail polish bloggers!

A little more relevant babble: I love American Apparel nail polishes (!!!). You can buy these for $6 each or 3/$15 at any American Apparel store or on their website. I also love Anise nail polishes, which are (as far as I know) only available for purchase in DSW stores (yes, I'm talking about the shoe store). They're $5.50 each and pretty much always on sale for BOGO50% off. Zoya nail polishes are $7 and available online at zoya.com (and if you haven't heard about it yet, check out the Earth Day polish exchange deal on their site!). As far as I know, the Claire's and Rimmel shades are no longer available - sorry 'bout that. Any shimmery purple or red will work nicely, though! And of course, Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure retails for $7-8 and is sneakily making its way into stores all over the country - from what I've heard, mostly Walgreens, but some have also seen it at Wal-Mart and Rite Aid. I haven't seen it for sale online as of yet.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure: Hidden Treasure

Circle up, everyone, criss-cross-applesauce! It's storytime :)

2010-04-30T19:50:00.003-04:00

Today's story is the tale of the princess and the nail polish that wanted to earn its name...

One morning, the princess was groggily preparing for another day of filling out paperwork for her royal elders when she saw in her crystal ball that there was a present waiting for her in her castle's mailroom. Eagerly, she waited and worked until she knew the mail done being sorted. Later that afternoon, she skipped to the heart of the castle, handed in some of her paperwork, and then excitedly made her way to the mailroom.

She went to her mailbox right away and was perplexed to find it empty. Concerned, she approached the castle mailroom's window and explained to the peasants inside how her crystal ball had told her she would find a present in her mailbox, but there was nothing there. The peasants scratched their heads and looked around for a few minutes. Her heart sunk as she realized that her present must be lost, or that even if did turn up, it would be days before she could open it because the mailroom peasants take the day off on Saturday.

The princess sighed, thanked the peasants for their help, and turned around to leave - but just as she was about to walk away, she saw something shiny out of the corner of her eye. She turned back to the window and squinted (as regally as possible, of course), and her heart leapt as she realized that what had caught her eye was the crystal ball transmitter on a small white present hidden in the shadows.

"Dear sir," she said to the peasant in the corner, "I believe there is a present under your desk."

The peasant turned around, picked up a big, ugly present, and asked, "This one?"

"No," said the princess, pointing (as gracefully as possible, of course), "that little white one there with the shiny green transmitter, in the shadows."

The peasant got on his hands and knees, put his head to the ground, and pulled out the present. "Eureka," he cried, "it has your name on it, Princess!" He carried the small white present over to her. Gingerly, she took it from his hands and then carried it out of the castle mailroom into the sunlight.

Finally, the princess opened her present, and she was dazzled by its beauty. The nail polish glowed in her hands. It could not talk, but had it been able to do so, it would have said: "See? I told you so!"

And the princess and her very own Hidden Treasure lived happily ever after.

P.S.: Swatches coming soon! And yes, that is a picture of me at the top - me about 15 years ago, anyway!

One more important note, re: my sales blog

2010-04-27T15:45:00.003-04:00

FYI: As time permits, I’m working on a major overhaul of my sales blog. I have what feels like a metric ton of stuff I want to get rid of before I graduate and fly home in less than three weeks, and I could really use the money right now so I want to sell as much of it as I can. (That, and throwing out perfectly good products makes me cry like a baby on the inside.) So – it will be done soon, and I’ll post on here and let you know as soon as it is. Please, for the love of Bigfoot and all that is holy, get ready to buy, because I’ll have a very small window in time between when I say “Go!” and when I have to leave it all behind. It sucks, but that’s life sometimes. I promise that in exchange for rushing you, I’ll love you all forever! :)

P.S. If you want to be among the first to know about the sale when I get it up and running, please send me an email at SasquatchSwatch (at) gmail (dot) com with "Sasquatch Sales Mailing List" as the subject line and I'll add you to my list of people to email whenever I update my sales blog (probably no more than 3-4 emails a year, and I promise your email address is safe with me).

Sally Hansen (Carmindy) Forever Stay Eye Pencils

2010-04-27T15:30:00.011-04:00

I've had these swatches all labeled and ready to go for a very long time, so I figured it was about time I post them. :)

In short, these are pretty nice eyeliners. They're water-resistant, smudgeproof, etc. All five shades are completely matte, and I experience no irritation when putting them on my lash line or waterline. These liners are slightly drier and waxier in texture than most waterproof pencils I've tried so they don't glide on quite as smoothly, but they don't skip or drag on the lid, either. I have found that when I want a very bold, pigmented look, I need to go over the line a second time; after only lining once, I end up with the sort of "softer" look I'd expect from using a similar pencil and then smudging it out with a brush. The good news is that, I think due to that waxier texture, these liners last exceptionally well on my waterline. These are also paraben-free, if you're into that kind of thing; I'm not really concerned about parabens myself, but I'm going to make a special "paraben-free" label on the blog for those are. These are the regular kind of pencil you have to sharpen; as always, I recommend Urban Decay Grindhouse for this (it's very sharp and durable, so it works especially well with softer pencils like these, and it's pretty!). They retail for $8 each and are available at select CVS and Rite Aid stores, as well as on Drugstore.com.

Anyway, onto the swatches! FYI, Pure Plum is slightly more red-based in real life than it appears in the picture; it's definitely more of a "plum" color than a a true purple. Deep Jade reminds me of Stila Emerald Kajal, but is more of a true green (Stila Emerald looks more blue-based in comparison). With that said, Deep Jade might still be a good choice for someone who likes Stila Emerald but shies away from its price or smudge factor. As usual, you can click on the image below to view it at full size:

My biggest beef with these liners is actually their laughably long name (and that goes for the rest of the "Carmindy" line too): Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy Forever Stay Eye Pencil. If the eyeliners weren't as good as they are, I'd think Sally Hansen was compensating for something.

The other annoying thing about Sally Hansen in general is that the company's distribution totally sucks. All the available shades in the permanent line of their products are listed on their website, but in my experience, it's exceedingly rare to find them all in one place. Case in point: about a year ago, I spent months looking for the Carmindy blushes. There are seven shades each of the powder blushes and the cream blushes, but every store I went to only had the same six (or fewer) of both. It was only after I finally gave up and swatched the twelve I had that I found the last two. (Those swatches will be posted later on.) So, keep in mind that you may not be able to find all five shades in one store; I actually bought these five in three different states.

And just in case that isn't annoying enough, Sally Hansen also really likes to release completely awesome, limited-edition nail polish shades, send them to a couple of big-name nail polish bloggers so everyone can get all excited about them, and then make them harder to find than Isla de Muerta. Opulent Cloud and Hidden Treasure, I'm looking at YOU!

Forever Stay Eye Pencil: Deep Black, Chocolate Brown, Deep Jade, Pure Plum, Blue Indigo

O hai!

2010-04-27T15:15:00.002-04:00

Hi friends,

You know how when you stop working on a project, the longer you procrastinate on picking it up again, the harder it gets to do so at all? I guess blogging is like that, too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat on planes, trains, and buses writing and re-writing this post in my head. I actually did get it on paper at one point over a month ago – but it was a rather lengthy, apologetic, explanation-laden construction. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t know why. So, on the loving advice of a dear friend, I decided today to scrap that post, write a new one, and post it today.

I’ve felt terribly guilty about disappearing for so long, but now I realize that being busy with my senior year of college is a pretty good reason for refraining from blogging. School has always come first. If blogging were my job, I’m sure you’d have heard from me more often, but as long as it remains a hobby, spending time on my work and (precious) time with my loved ones will take priority.

The other thing that’s held me back from posting at times is my insecurity about the content of my posts. When I started this blog, I set the bar pretty high for myself in terms of swatching all the available shades of a particular product, and I just can’t afford to do that anymore when there aren’t testers available. I still have a year’s worth of swatches backlogged to catch up on, so you’ll continue to see those “mass swatching” posts periodically, but probably not for newer products. Sometimes I’ll post just a few shades; sometimes I’ll post only a review. Heck, I might even get really crazy sometimes and post things you’ve never seen from me before – I have all kinds of wild ideas rolling around in my head about tutorials, a “my favorite things” series, nail care and polish posts, you name it. As always, I’m open to requests, but I can’t always promise I’ll be able to accommodate them.

Moral of the story: from now on, I’m going to post what I want, when I want, and stop feeling bad about it, and I hope you’ll still love me despite this change. Don’t give up on me if you don’t hear from me for a while: I promise I’ll let you know first if I ever decide to abandon this ship for good. Thanks for sticking with me.

Nordstrom welcomes Chantecaille!

2009-12-15T20:14:00.014-05:00

Hi again, loves. Please don't hurt me for making yet another swatch-less post, but this news is so big, I can't contain my excitement. (I'm actually not just slacking off on blogging right now. Instead, I'm being a good student and working on my finals!)

Anyway, without further ado: I've just received official confirmation from the store manager at the Nordstrom in Bellevue, WA that the rumors quietly circulating the last few months are true...

Nordstrom is going to begin carrying Chantecaille in Spring 2010.

He says that the initial roll-out phase will include approximately 15 stores. I don't know which 15 they will be, though for those of you in the Seattle area, he did confirm that the Bellevue store will start selling Chantecaille sometime this February. I would also presume that the downtown Seattle store will, since that one is Nordstrom's flagship store. GET EXCITED, PEOPLE! :)

P.S. I know some of you limit yourselves to drugstore cosmetics, and I respect that. That's why I try to provide some balance between higher- and lower-end brands in my swatches and reviews. But I must confess... Chantecaille is definitely one of my top brands, in that it very rarely disappoints and nearly always amazes me!

P.P.S. The picture above is from Chantecaille's website and depicts three shades of Lip Chics. I chose that picture to support this post in honor of my all-time favorite lipstick formulation (... which is the Lip Chic, in case that wasn't immediately apparent). :)

Some important changes to the blog...

2009-12-02T19:07:00.001-05:00

Dear readers,

I'm sorry about all the wordy posts/lack of swatches lately, and thanks in advance for reading this one anyway despite its conformity to that trend; I promise I'll get back to the kind of posts you know and love soon. :) For now, I have some news for you:

... I transferred authorship of this blog (and ownership of all its widgets and stuff like that) over from my personal Google account to my Sasquatch Swatch email account to minimize confusion and blog-related emails to my personal email address. Everything should look the same on the blog; as far as I can tell, the only difference that may affect you is that if you subscribe to the blog by email, those emails will now be coming from the email address sasquatchswatch (at) gmail (dot) com. (If you're not a subscriber but would like to be, you can subscribe by entering your email address in the FeedBurner box in the upper right-hand corner of this page. Your email address will not be shared with anyone or spammed, I promise!)

... I can't believe I'm writing this, but I signed up for Twitter (username SasquatchSwatch). If you'd like to, you can follow me there. I am still completely baffled by Twitter, so please bear with me as I figure it out!

... I'm going to remove the "Coming Soon!" section of the sidebar unless anyone has any serious objections because it takes up too much space and can be misleading (some of that stuff has been up there for months and I still haven't posted about it). Anyone who wants to know what's in store for the future or submit requests is still more than welcome to do so, of course; just email me.

... I'm also looking into adding a small amount of advertising content to the site because, quite frankly, I'm kind of broke and could use even a little bit of extra income if I want to be able to keep swatching/keep the blog going in the future. For this reason, you may notice a couple of new links or ad boxes on the blog over the next month or two. If you have any feedback or questions for me about the changes, please feel free to contact me. I assure you they will not be obtrusive or annoying; I'd rather stop blogging entirely than allow my site to become overrun with advertising!

... Lastly, it has recently come to my attention that the Federal Trade Commission has modified its laws and guidelines for bloggers who endorse/recommend products, and in a way that actually makes me very happy. If you'd like to read the press release yourself, click here. The important part is where it says "bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service." For the world of beauty blogging, this means that anyone who gets paid to review products or receives products for free is required to disclose that information when blogging about the relevant products. This is all part of an effort to cut down on deception and misleading advertising. I don't know about you, but I definitely take the reviews written by bloggers, vloggers, etc. with a grain of salt when I can tell they're receiving products for free, getting paid, and/or skirting questions about their relationships with cosmetic companies - so I'm thrilled by this call for transparency.

As of today, I have never received payment for reviewing a product, nor have I written any posts reviewing products I received for free. I have received products from exactly two companies with the implicit or explicit understanding that I would review them. For the first, Revlon, I just have not had a chance to write my review yet (and you bet I will let you know what was given to me when I make that post). The second is Paula's Choice, which sent some products at my request for me to use as giveaway prizes (specifically, of a product I've already repurchased several times myself, knew I loved, and asked them to contribute to a giveaway) that I've already mentioned in a previous post - and likewise, I will get that started soon, but haven't gotten to it yet.

Moral of the story: if companies want to send me products to review, great. If I like what I receive, I'll review it. If I don't, I'll either not post about it at all or I'll post and tell you exactly what I dislike about it (depending on the company and situation, obviously). And if I have any concerns about the safety of a product, I will post about it no matter what, like I did with the Jane AguaMousse eyeshadows. And I guess I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure I don't have to spend my own money on something to know whether or not I would do so. Figuring that out is really as simple as asking myself, "if I'd paid $10 cash for this, would I be returning it right now and getting my $10 back?" or "if I could sell this right now for $10 (or whatever its retail price is), would I do it?" ... that's all there is to it!

Stepping off my soapbox now. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the above changes, so please feel free to leave comments.

Results of the Baroque Challenge

2009-12-01T19:10:00.000-05:00

Dear readers,

I don't have much spare time to blog these days, but I've had several people email me to ask what ended up happening with my Baroque Challenge now that the deadline has passed, so I figured I should address the issue!

In short, the challenge was both a success and a failure. I did lose six pounds (yay!), but did not meet my goal of losing ten pounds (sigh). I'll keep trying to lose weight and I'm sure I will come up with other ideas for rewarding success in the future, but for now I'm not going to worry about coming up with another "challenge" because I can't currently maintain a commitment to make a new blog post weekly.

So, what did I get from MAC Baroque Boudoir? I said I would allow myself to purchase one item from the collection if I lost some weight (but less than ten pounds), and in the end, I did want to reward my success in losing the six pounds I did lose. Thankfully, it turned out that only one item tempted me anyway: D'Nouveau lip gloss.

I hope you like it as much as I do. :) Thanks to each of you for your continued support!

Contacting L'Oreal: Discontinued Shades of Extra-Intense Eyeliners

2009-12-01T14:00:00.004-05:00

So, it turns out that L'Oreal Extra-Intense liquid pencil eyeliners in the shades Emerald, Plum, and Bronze were promotional/limited edition shades, available from May through August. (Figures that I swatched them in June and then didn't post about them until September.) Black, Brown, and Gray are permanent, but the other three colors have been withdrawn from the market. Here are my swatches, for reference:

I spoke with a L'Oreal representative and was told that requests to bring promotional or discontinued products back are forwarded to their marketing department and taken into consideration (and sometimes obliged, when they get lots of requests for the same thing). If, like me, you loved these shades, please contact L'Oreal by calling 1-800-322-2036 (9-5 EST, M-F) or through their website (Click "Contact" at the bottom, click "Other Questions of Concerns," type "email" into the question box, and then follow the link that appears in the results box) and request they bring them back.

Here's a message you can feel free to copy if you'd like:

Dear L'Oreal Marketing Team,

I loved the promotional shades of your Extra-Intense "Liquid Pencil" Eyeliner (Bronze, Emerald, and Plum) that were released last summer and would like to be able to purchase them in stores again. Please re-release these shades or make them part of the permanent line like you have with the Black, Brown, and Gray shades. Thank you!

Alternatively, you are welcome to use the following message:

Dear L'Oreal Marketing Team,

I recently saw pictures and read reviews online of the promotional shades of your Extra-Intense "Liquid Pencil" Eyeliner (Bronze, Emerald, and Plum) that were released last summer and would like to be able to purchase them in stores, but have found that they are no longer available. Please re-release these shades or make them part of the permanent line like you have with the Black, Brown, and Gray shades. Thank you!

On a separate but related note: dear readers, I apologize for mistakenly leading you to think these shades of the eyeliners were still available as of when I made my post on them!

Sort-of-Long Update (I'd say "Quick Update, but that would be a lie)

2009-11-15T18:16:00.016-05:00

Hi friends!

I know this may be a disappointing post for some of you because I don't have any new swatches to show you right now, but I just wanted to check in with you about a few things:

1) I am not dead! I've just been way busier with schoolwork this semester than I'd originally anticipated. I'm graduating college this year and have been writing my thesis this semester, which is both a fun adventure and a challenge unlike any other I've encountered in my life thus far. So that's primarily what's been keeping me from blogging regularly. I do miss it, though! :)

2) I do have new swatches and can't wait to show them to you - I'm just afraid if I start going through my pictures now, I won't get anything done all night (it's a pretty time-consuming process to sort through the pics, choose the best ones, crop them, resize them, label them, etc. - and that's not including writing the reviews!). Hopefully one day soon I'll get a chance to take care of all that. I do feel like a total schmuck for promising new swatches and not delivering (like with the last two Fantasy Makers duos - oops, now it's halfway through November and the Halloween displays have turned into Christmas displays!), but I have to make school my first priority, so sometimes that's just the way it has to be.

3) On the topic of feeling like a schmuck, I realize I've totally failed to update you regularly on the progress of my "Baroque Challenge." In short, I'm not sure if I'll succeed or not. With 10 days left until November 25th, I have 4 pounds to go (I've lost six so far). Maybe doable, maybe not. The same thing that's been keeping me from blogging (yes, Thesis, I'm talking to you) has also been limiting my time to exercise and cook healthy meals, so losing weight has not been an easy feat. With that said - while I am a little discouraged at the thought of not meeting my goal by the release of MAC's Baroque Boudoir collection, I am nevertheless proud of what I've accomplished so far. Today I went to the Gap (30% off Friends & Family/Teach for America charity sale, woot!) for a new pair of jeans, picked out what I thought was a pair from this cool new style, tried them on, immediately decided to buy them (they look HOT!), then looked at the tag and realized they must have been shelved in the wrong place: they were exactly the pair I was already wearing, but one size smaller! That was exhilarating, let me tell you. :) So maybe I'll get there, maybe I won't - but I'm starting to realize that this challenge has certainly evolved for me - I want to lose weight now because I feel better about myself these days (a little more every day, in fact), not because I want new makeup. I'm sure I'll still want something from the Baroque collection, but I'm not lusting after it anymore... now I'm lusting after going home for Christmas and seeing my family and friends look surprised at my new figure! It's funny how sometimes you make a goal and eventually the means come to mean more to you than the end... life can be weird that way.

4) Once I'm able to dive back into blogging again, I have some more exciting things to share with you in addition to the new swatches! One of my goals for the near future is to do some posts on my favorite products (i.e., favorite skin care and hair care products, favorite drugstore makeup, favorite high-end makeup [that I think is worth the money], application techniques I like to use, etc.), as well as some more giveaways. Last week I contacted Paula's Choice, a company that makes a couple of my favorite skincare products (though I am by no means a disciple of the Gospel of Paula or any other specified regimen, so fear not, there will be no glassy-eyed rambling from me). I'd never done this before, but I told them my plans and idea, and asked whether they might be willing to contribute one or two of my favorite products for me to use as prizes in a giveaway. Well, apparently they like me, because they're sending a lot more than one or two items - so there will definitely be some fantastic 'Squatch giveaways coming soon!

5) Last issue, and this is actually a question for you, readers! This is a bit embarrassing, but: there are a few things that I swatched such a long time ago and still haven't gotten around to posting that they're not as new/exciting as they used to be, or in some cases aren't available in stores anymore like the Fantasy Makers duos. Assuming these items could still be obtained in some manner (on eBay, through me, through swapping, etc.), do you still want me to post the swatches? Or would it just make you sad/mad for me to show you products that could end up being a total pain in the butt for you to acquire?

Check me out being all high-tech - I even made a poll so those of you who can't or don't want to leave comments can share your opinions! (It's a Flash poll since Blogger doesn't allow Javascript, so if you can't see it below, you may need to update your browser's Flash plug-in or temporarily disable your Flash blocker.) Thanks in advance for your input, and for your patience with me as I try not to let my schoolwork eat me alive! :)

Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliners for Winter/Spring 2009

2009-10-20T23:48:00.007-04:00

So, Urban Decay made a completely obnoxious move with their holiday collection this year: they released six new shades of 24/7 eyeliners, but each of the shades can ONLY be purchased inside sets with a bunch of the previously-existing shades (which means that most makeup junkies will end up with lots of doubles if they want the new shades). Here's the breakdown regarding the new shades:

Mildew (deep shimmery green): exclusive to Hi-Fi set, $29, which also includes Zero, Flipside, 1999, and Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner (ugh) in Distortion. The four 24/7s are mini sizes; the glitter liner is full-size.

Crash (rich eggplant with silver glitter): exclusive to Stereophonic set, $29, which also includes Zero, Underground, Gunmetal, and Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Midnight Cowboy (double ugh). Again, the four 24/7s are minis, and the glitter liner is full-size.

Corrupt (neutral brown with light copper shimmer and silver glitter), Binge (shimmery indigo), Eldorado (shimmery yellow-gold), and Oil Slick (black with silver glitter): exclusive to the 24/7 Super Stash, $36, which also includes Zero, Graffiti, Ransom, Rockstar and Stash. These aren't just mini-sized, they're, like... bite-sized... at just under 2-3/4" from tip to tip, uncapped. Even with their caps on, they're still shorter than my middle finger (I bet you can imagine what I'd like to say to Urban Decay with that finger, too). For 9 liners, they're only $4 each, but I only really like a few of the shades anyway, which makes those few feel tiny liners pretty damn expensive.

I've swatched the new liners in comparison to a few similar-ish shades from the permanent line, just for kicks. I left out some of the ones that I knew I wouldn't want to keep (like Ransom, Graffiti, and Zero, to name a few examples) out so I'd have the option of selling them in new condition. You can find my swatches and review of Flipside, Graffiti, Ransom, and Underground here, and the lovely KarlaSugar's swatches of the complete 24/7 line (minus the holiday exclusive shades) here.

Here are the close-ups of my swatches:

I was ecstatically looking forward to Binge when I heard there was finally going to be a navy 24/7, but that was the biggest letdown of the entire holiday season (in makeup terms) for me - in my opinion, Binge isn't navy at all. It's a bright indigo, and not very pigmented, either. Lame.

I love Rockstar and Stash, and rather like Eldorado on my waterline, but other than that I don't think the Super Stash is super at all. I've been told that the set-exclusive shades will be released individually this spring, so I may return my Super Stash and just wait until I can buy Eldorado on its own (I already have full sizes of Rockstar and Stash).

It was also totally pointless to buy the Stereophonic set just for Crash; I'd probably return that set too if I hadn't already sold the glitter liner on eBay. Crash is just Rockstar with silver glitter, pretty much, and I don't like glitter! Gunmetal is growing on me and Underground has been one of my favorite eyeliners since it came out in January, though, so that set isn't a total loss.

I do like Mildew very much, so the Hi-Fi set wasn't such a bad choice. Mildew has the same pigmentation problem as Binge, but I love the color so much (Mildew eyeshadow has to be one of my favorite greens ever!) that I'm willing to ignore that in this case. And, as ever, I adore Flipside, and I'd been wanting 1999 for a while anyway - don't ask me why, I know it has glitter, but for some reason I do kind of like that one.

As I mentioned in my last post, Sephora is currently having a 20% off Friends & Family sale online (code: FF2009), but Urban Decay has also hinted that they will soon be having their own Friends & Family sale. In the past, Urban Decay's F&F sales have been for 30% off, so if you want any of these sets, it might be worth waiting for Urban Decay's sale unless you have a Sephora gift card to burn or something like that.

That's all, folks!

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil: Corrupt, Underground, Baked, Eldorado, Oil Slick, Gunmetal, Mildew, Stash, Rockstar, Crash, 1999, Binge

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. II

2009-10-20T23:00:00.006-04:00

Sorry again for the deluge of posts. I'm trying to catch up a little and address some requests!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I lusted after this palette from the minute I first heard about it in April until I finally got my hands on it a few weeks ago, and then I promptly stopped lusting. I didn't even open it for over a week. (There is clearly something wrong with me.) But with that in mind, you probably won't be surprised to hear the rest of my thoughts on this palette.

I think I expected that it would be completely swoon-worthy in every way, so that's probably why it's been a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong - it's a very nice palette - but it just doesn't leave me fanning myself, if you know what I mean. With that said, I think it has more wearable colors than the original Book of Shadows did. Unfortunately, it's just as bulky! =/

AC/DC, Nylon, Mushroom, Sphynx, Jinx, Homegrown, Misdemeanor, and Perversion are all exclusive to this palette; the rest of the shades are part of the permanent line and can be purchased as singles. (Perversion is available as a single, but the single has a different finish from the one in the palette. The single is very matte; the palette version claims to be matte, but has a more satiny finish, I feel.)

One quick tip - if you have trouble with fallout from super-glittery shades like Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, try the Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (only available on Fyrinnae's website) with your eyeshadows. It provides a slightly tackier base for the glitter particles to stick to and will completely eliminate the fallout problem. It works in the same way for difficult-to-work-with loose powder eyeshadows, mineral or otherwise. (I highly recommend Fyrinnae products in general, if you like ordering from e-tailers and/or small private businesses! They have the best customer service you will ever find anywhere! ... and no, they're not paying me to say this. I just love their products and have a huge friend crush on the two guys who run the company, to boot. =p)

Anyway, back to Urban Decay. The Book of Shadows Vol. II retails for $48 and is available from Sephora, Ulta, Amazon.com, Beauty.com, UrbanDecay.com, etc. Sephora is currently having a 20% off Friends & Family sale online (code: FF2009), but Urban Decay has also hinted that they will soon be having their own Friends & Family sale. In the past, Urban Decay's F&F sales have been for 30% off, so it might be worth waiting unless you have a Sephora gift card to burn or something like that.

Here are some close-ups of the shades:

Book of Shadows Vol. II: Perversion, Gunmetal, Ecstasy, AC/DC, Nylon, Sellout, Mushroom, Sphynx, Half Baked, Twice Baked, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, YDK, Jinx, Flipside, Homegrown, Misdemeanor

Maybelline Stylish Smokes Eyeshadow Quads

2009-10-20T21:45:00.005-04:00

Yep, I'm just procrastinating with a posting binge.

Here we have the not-really-new-anymore Maybelline Stylish Smokes eyeshadow quad collection. Oddly enough, this may actually have some new information and sights for your pretty eyes, since Maybelline recently added two more Smokes quads (Plum and Sapphire) to the collection. The original release of four debuted a few months ago. (That's also why the swatch pictures for Plum and Sapphire are unlike the first four - they were taken at a totally different time and place.)

Overall I think these are quite nice, but the quality can be inconsistent. Some of the shades are chalky with poor pigmentation, others are chunky with poor pigmentation, and others still are just peachy-perfect. Annoyingly, every quad has 1-2 shades I absolutely LOVE and the rest I feel like I could do without, so I could never quite decide what to do with mine. I eventually decided against keeping them in the interest of keeping my stash minimized, but not before seriously considering depotting them all so I could keep 1/3 of the shades from all the quads...

Also, just for your information, the purple shade in the Charcoal quad is almost identical to MAC Mothbrown (LE from the Barbie collection), and the deep green in the Emerald quad is similar to MAC Humid.

These retail for $6-7 each and are available in most drugstores.

Stylish Smokes Eyeshadow Quad: Natural Smokes, Charcoal Smokes, Emerald Smokes, Amethyst Smokes, Plum Smokes, Sapphire Smokes

Revlon Matte Eye Shadows

2009-10-20T21:10:00.003-04:00

Some of you may have seen these swatches before, as I've been basically sitting on them since March (part of my backlog of swatches that need to be posted...). Hopefully that's not too big of a deal!

On the whole, I was reasonably impressed with these, just because there aren't that many good matte eyeshadows available in the drugstore, and these are definitely of decent quality. I found the first four in the swatch picture (Vintage Lace through Luscious Lime) to be a little bit chalky, but not too bad. I absolutely LOVE the other five, though. I can't see myself wearing Venetian Blue except maybe some Halloween, but the last four (Tempting Teal through Rich Sable) are just stunning and all could make great crease colors. I've heard Vintage Lace compared to MAC Blanc Type; the colors are pretty similar, but I do prefer the MAC Matte² formula in this case (Blanc Type is smoother and more pigmented than Vintage Lace). On that note, though, I'd say that the last five shades in the swatches definitely have a feel and finish similar to MAC Matte²s.

These are $5 each in most drugstores, and you can often find Revlon BOGOF. Cool, huh?

Matte Eyeshadow: Vintage Lace, Peach Sorbet, Pink Innocence, Luscious Lime, Venetian Blue, Tempting Teal, Riviera Blue, Aubergine, Rich Sable

A Potpourri of Thoughts on Clinique's Black Tie Violets Collection and Much, Much More

2009-10-20T20:15:00.005-04:00

There has been a lot of hype over Clinique's new Violet Luxe Brush-On Cream Liner (limited edition with the Winter 2009 Black Tie Violets collection) on the MUA Makeup Board, so I was extremely excited to get it when I found out my Nordstrom had it in-stock and available for sale last week. I hurried over there and picked it up after very briefly checking out the tester, as I knew it was LE, have otherwise only had good experiences with the Clinique cream liners, and could clearly see that the Violet Luxe color was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much where my excitement ended. I took it home, tried it on my eyes that night, and found - to my frustration - that it just wouldn't go on evenly. I kept trying to layer it, but consistently ended up with a sheer purple line with a super thin, darker line just above it where the product kind of clumped up... not attractive (you know, almost like what you see when someone has applied false eyelashes too far from their lash line - there's a visible gap between the lash line and the line of product).

I tried to swatch it on my arm tonight, and experienced the same problem. This eyeliner is just not very pigmented, period. I'd give it three out of five stars overall because the Violet Luxe color really is stunning, but the quality of this particular cream liner shade is majorly lacking. I decided to take a picture comparing it to the other two Clinique cream liners I have (Bronze and Egyptian, both of which are discontinued but available at many cosmetic outlet stores), and then threw in the Stila Bronze Smudge Pot for good measure since I've heard people comparing Clinique's and Stila's bronzes before. On that note, let me take this opportunity to mention that Stila's Bronze Smudge Pot is one of my all-time favorite eyeliners!

Definitely view this one close-up, too. You can really see how Violet Luxe is easily the least pigmented of the four, and that's after I layered it on as thickly as I could (seriously). Sad to say it, but I think this is going back to Nordstrom! :(

In any case, if you still want it (lol), Violet Luxe is available now on Nordstrom's website and in some Nordstrom stores, and should be available from everyone that sells Clinique over the next couple of months, I believe. It retails for $14.50.

P.S. - I did check out the other items from the Black Tie Violets collection, and while I didn't swatch them, I'll share with you my thoughts in brief: the lip products are nice, but everything else underwhelmed me. The blush was shrug-worthy, but then again, I'm not generally a fan of blushes with stripes. The eyeshadow quad was even less pigmented than the eyeliner and just plain sucked, I'm sorry to say. (But before you think I just denounce everything Clinique, I should also mention that the Totally Neutral eyeshadow trio is one of my most used products and the only palette that goes with me EVERY time I travel... and I adore the Cream Shaper pencils... so there you go.)

P.P.S. - I found a few more LOTDs hiding in an archived folder on my computer from back when I swatched the Neutrogena Lip Sheers, so go check out that post again, as it's been updated.

P.P.P.S. - While we're on the note of finding things, I recently discovered there are actually six Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers eyeshadow duos, not four. Oops. I'll swatch the other two ASAP and update that post as well once I have.

P.P.P.P.S. - Sorry for the gap in posting. I've been really busy and just didn't realize how much time had already passed since my last post! While I'm checking in, I should update you on my progress on the Baroque Challenge. I last weighed myself while at home on a break from school last week and it looked like I'd lost another two pounds, but that was a different scale than the one I normally use so who knows if it's calibrated the same or not. I'll let you know what happens when I weigh myself tomorrow on my normal scale!

Thanks for reading :) hehe...

Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Glosses

2009-10-07T15:00:00.001-04:00

Revlon Super Lustrous lip glosses have been a drugstore favorite of many for years, I suspect because of their somewhat unique texture. They have a more gel-based consistency than most lip glosses; in my experience, this means they're longer-lasting and less sticky than your average lip gloss. I've heard them compared to Chanel Glossimers before and I would agree that they're the closest thing to a Glossimer you'll find in the drugstore, but I also think it's worth mentioning that the consistency of the Super Lustrous glosses is a little thinner. The Revlon glosses offer more pigmented color options, which is nice, though a few of the more sparkly shades end up feeling gritty on the lips (you can tell by looking at the tubes which ones those are - you can see the little glitter pieces through the plastic!). Overall, I do think they're one of the nicer lip glosses available in the drugstore. Cherries in the Glow has something of a cult following; I can definitely see why, though I like a few of the other shades just as much.

These have no noticeable scent or plumping ability, as far as I can tell, and retail for $7 in most drugstores. I believe that of the ones I swatched, some of them may not be part of the permanent line - a few (Pink Pursuit, Power Walk Pink, and Racy Raspberry) were from a separate breast cancer research/awareness display, and I don't know if those colors were/are limited edition or not. I'm sorry to leave you hanging on that!

Here are a few LOTDs, for your viewing pleasure (sorry they're a little blurry/have slightly different lighting - I took these pictures back in March or something like that, and was still learning how to properly use a camera!):

P.S. - since I promised you weekly updates on the Baroque Challenge - I've lost one pound so far... *waves tiny flag*

Super Lustrous Lip Gloss: Shine City, Pink Afterglow, Nude Lustre, Coffee Gleam, Shine that Pink, Glossy Rose, Cherries in the Glow, Pearl Plum, Pink Pursuit, Life's a Peach, Pink Whisper, Foiled, Power Walk Pink, Racy Raspberry

And now for something completely different...

2009-10-06T22:30:00.002-04:00

... I just want to take a moment to wish a very Happy Birthday to the most beautiful woman I know:

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my mommy you'll be.

I love you, Mom!

Neutrogena MoistureShine Lip Sheers

2009-10-06T21:00:00.005-04:00

This is definitely going to be one of those posts where I don't have a ton to say, just because I pretty much unequivocally like the product - no complaints here!

You all know by now that I love moisturizing, sheer lip products, and Neutrogena MoistureShine Lip Sheers are just that. They have a soft peppermint scent and are of varying pigmentation (though I'd say most hover around "medium"). I absolutely adore these; as with any product I swatch, I wasn't expecting to keep most of the shades, but there were so many I didn't want to let go of. Because I couldn't justify to myself owning what seemed like a zillion products that would qualify as "sheer lipsticks," I ended up getting rid of about half of my MAC Slimshines in favor of several of these.

I wouldn't call them long-wearing, but I don't have to reapply these more often than every few hours (especially with the darker shades) unless I'm doing a lot of eating or drinking. They're SPF 20, available in virtually all drugstores and retail for approximately $9 each. Enjoy!

Last but not least, here are some LOTDs for you with my favorite shades. Ruby Bliss is easily one of the most universally wearable red lipsticks I've ever seen (and MakeupAlley product reviews confirm this, too!):

MoistureShine Lip Sheer: Sparkling Nude, Honey Breeze, Peach Sorbet, Cool Nectar, Sunny Berry, Mocha Chill, Shimmering Blush, Spring Blossom, Pink Splash, Fresh Rose, Glimmering Orchid, Frosty Mauve, Ripe Raspberry, Blackberry Ice, Plum Kiss, Ruby Bliss

My "Baroque" Challenge

2009-09-30T17:38:00.007-04:00

Hi again! :)

So, this post is going to break tradition - no swatches or reviews - but I'd love it if you'd read it anyway. The more of you who pay attention to what I have to say here, the better off I'll be, I think.

I have a genetic condition that causes me to have insanely high cholesterol levels, so when I'm not eating right, exercising as much as I should be, and/or am not at a healthy weight, I'm seriously putting myself at risk for cardiovascular disease. I am somewhat overweight right now; my BMI is right in the middle of the "overweight" range. One would think that the health risks associated with staying in my current condition would be enough to scare me into losing weight, but for whatever reason, it can be hard to find the right motivation.

I started seriously trying to lose weight a little over a year ago. Since then, I've lost 26 pounds, but unfortunately, gained 6 of those pounds back in the last couple of months from slacking off. My overall goal has always been to lose a total of 46 pounds, so now I have 26 more to go, since I've lost a net total of 20. 26 is still a lot, though! So I've been looking for good ways to motivate myself to get back on track. I've kicked around the idea of using makeup as a reward for reaching goals along the way because, hey - I like it - but I knew what I was considering (such as "I'm not allowed to purchase any cosmetic-related items until I lose ten pounds") wasn't feasible with the swatching I do, so I'd be unlikely to succeed in that.

Now that that's explained... I was drooling this morning over pictures of an upcoming MAC collection - a rare occurrence these days (not the collections part [!!], but the drooling over them part) - when I realized it comes out exactly eight weeks from today. It's called Baroque Boudoir, and while I'm not usually a total sucker for packaging, it looks mind-bogglingly pretty. (Pictures included are courtesy of Temptalia.com.) And then an idea was born for a realistic but motivating way for me to get back on track!

I'm going to try to lose 10 more pounds between now and when it comes out - that's definitely feasible over an 8-week period. If I succeed, I'm going to allow myself to purchase whichever items I want from that collection; if I fail, I have to limit myself to one item and one item ONLY. (That's to keep this feeling realistic/feasible - but in the latter case, I might actually end up not getting any at all, for fear of feeling ashamed whenever I look at it!)

In order to further motivate myself and eliminate any chance that my lack of self-discipline will screw me over, I'm going to blog about my progress. Put simply: in the event that I fail, there is no way I will be able to just give in and buy what I want anyway when 150+ people are watching me! The "Baroque Challenge" updates won't be constant or lengthy posts (except this one!), but just little mentions at least once a week to let you know where I'm at. I'll keep them unobtrusive for those of you who just want the swatches, but I'm hoping you'll look for them and cheer me on. :)

I think this is the "kick in the pants" I need to get moving and get myself back into shape. If it works, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with another goal to meet after a further ten pounds, or something like that. Lastly, anyone who wants to join me in this challenge (feel free to choose your own reward) is welcome to do so. Thank you!

L'Oreal Extra-Intense Liquid Pencil Eyeliners

2009-09-30T00:32:00.012-04:00

... and, as a continuation of sorts from my last post, these are the other set of freakin' AWESOME new eyeliners out on the market. I don't want to repeat myself too much, so I'll let you reference the Prestige post, but in short: L'Oreal Extra-Intense eyeliners work in exactly the same way that Prestige Total Intensity eyeliners do, and work just as well on me. I consider the two on an equal plane, and am just grateful to have both around so I have twelve shades to choose from instead of six (well, sort of... there are two blacks and two browns... but whatever).

The only difference that I've observed in the way they apply or wear on me is that the L'Oreal ones set a little faster - more like 30 seconds (or less?) instead of 60 - which, in my opinion, makes them absolutely excellent for tightlining. I have to be picky with regards to which products I can use for that, because if I use anything that doesn't set or dry quickly but is waterproof, it never fails to get on my contact lenses and STAY there, and then I have to throw them out and get a new pair - not so good. So if tightlining with a pencil is what I have in mind, I always reach for my L'Oreal Extra-Intense eyeliners. (I also use them on my waterline and lash line, of course - I just think they're exceptional for tightlining, so that's worth mentioning.) As far as the colors go, I've found I can't really wear Plum because it's too red-based, but those with warmer skin tones could pull it off. I love all the others!

Just in case tightlining is an unfamiliar concept to you and you're completely lost right now, here's my favorite tutorial on it (courtesy of the celebrity MUA Beau Nelson, also known and loved as Ghost on MakeupAlley):

(You can definitely use a creamy pencil in the place of a brush dipped in cream/gel liner. I do it all the time. If you prefer the idea of a cream or gel liner, my favorite for tightlining above all others is Wet 'n' Wild's cream eyeliner, which is $4.)

Anyway. These eyeliners retail for approximately $10 each and are in pretty much all drugstores by this point, from what I've seen. One last note - ignore the "liquid pencil" garbage, please. They're not liquid eyeliners; they're just like any other gel-texture eyeliner pencil, along the lines of the Urban Decay ones, Prestige ones, etc. I don't know who comes up with this crap, but he or she should really lay off the drugs.

Extra-Intense Eyeliners: Black, Bronze, Brown, Emerald, Gray, Plum

Update (12/1/09): It turns out that Bronze, Emerald, and Plum were promotional/limited edition shades that are no longer available in stores. However, Black, Brown, and Gray are now part of the permanent L'Oreal line. For more information on this and instructions on how to contact L'Oreal if you wish to do so, please click here.

Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliners

2009-09-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

So, I was just going through the questions you all asked me in my survey from earlier this summer and in your giveaway entries, and it didn't take me long to realize that what most of you want to know from me is what my favorite products are, across the board. Well, I could tell you that right now, but I'd feel like a real schmuck doing that when I haven't even posted swatches of most of them yet. How could I tease you like that?! So what I'm going to do is keep posting as often as possible to try to get as many of my favorites as I can out in the open, in my usual way. (Because of this, you may see a slight imbalance in my reviews - lots of positive ones, all back-to-back - so don't take that as a sign that I'm turning into one of those bloggers who just raves about everything!) When I'm done, I'll make a super-awesome post listing all of my favorites with links to the posts about them so you guys can see them for yourselves! :)

With that out of the way, I suppose I don't need to tell you that Prestige Total Intensity eyeliners are one of my favorites. (Just in case I'm wrong: Prestige Total Intensity eyeliners are one of my favorites.) They rock. They're the cool hipster kids in the cafeteria that Urban Decay 24/7s, Clinique Cream Shapers, and MAC Powerpoints would give their right arms to sit with. Sadly, only L'Oreal Extra-Intense eyeliners get that honor. More on those later. :)

These have deep, intense color; they are COMPLETELY waterproof and smudge-proof on me once they set, which takes about one minute; they make for a smolderingly hot smokey eye; they're just fine for use on the waterline; they're $5-6 in most drugstores, but most reliably at Rite Aid and Ulta; and they're not for the faint of heart, as they're difficult to remove, even with a good waterproof eye makeup remover (see Example A just above...). And I LOVE THEM. That is all.

Total Intensity Eyeliner: Deepest Black, Bold Brown, Daring Green, Fierce Blue, Intense Olive, Powerful Purple

Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers Eyeshadow Duos

2009-09-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't want to let the rest of you down without offering you some kind of a pick-me-up, so I have some new swatches for you :) I figured these ones were moderately time-sensitive, so I decided to bump them forward in the lineup.

As most of you have seen, every year Wet 'n' Wild releases a new set of cosmetics from its Fantasy Makers line, which is known for consistently appearing in stores 1-2 months before Halloween and disappearing shortly afterward. There are a few staples, like black lipstick, black nail polish, glow-in-the-dark nail polish, etc., but other than that, the colors and products change from year to year. I was extremely excited to find four new eyeshadow duos in my local Walgreens' Fantasy Makers display last week since, in my experience, Wet 'n' Wild eyeshadows are usually very nice. (I do have a ridiculous amount of Wet 'n' Wild eyeshadow singles/trios/palettes/etc. swatches to show you, too, but we'll get to that another day!)

I have mixed feelings about these duos, however. As far as quality goes, I was most impressed with Brazen Babe and Glam Ghoul. All four duos were a little bit "softer" than I would have liked; if you swipe a brush across the surface and apply too much pressure, you get a TON of product on the brush and little eyeshadow crumbs everywhere. If you're willing to work with them, though, you can get great results with Brazen Babe and Glam Ghoul, and Hocus Pocus as well, but to a slightly lesser extent. I'm not as enthusiastic about Snake Charmer, though, maybe because I just don't love the colors. It seemed to me like it went on a bit chalkier than the other three, though. I also noticed it had less of a metallic-shimmer look to it, so I think its problems may be more due to the difference in texture than anything. It, too, is workable, however, if you really need those colors for your Halloween costume or something. (Or for real life, but I wouldn't recommend it.)

These are in the same screw-top packaging as regular Wet 'n' Wild MegaEyes single eyeshadows, but with black plastic casing instead of that silver-painted stuff. I haven't tried to de-pot any of them yet, but I'm pretty sure that the two pans of one of these duos sitting side-by-side would be the same size as a regular 1" pan, so they'd fit nicely in a MAC/E.L.F./etc. palette if you wanted them to. Don't hold me to that, though! I'll update this later if I decide to try that and let you know what happened.

Anyway, these duos are $2-3 each and should appear as the Halloween displays continue to roll out over the next few weeks. I found mine at Walgreens, but I'd expect they'll be, you know, pretty much everywhere else before long.

Fantasy Makers Eyeshadow: Brazen Babe, Glam Ghoul, Hocus Pocus, Snake Charmer

And the winner is...

2009-09-28T22:50:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Khadija J., who won the giveaway for 11 L'Oreal HIP Blendable Blushing Crèmes!

Thanks to everyone who entered - I enjoyed reading your questions and will do my best to respond to/address them all in my next few posts! This was fun, and I'm going to try to do another giveaway sometime soon. In the meantime, I have about a billion swatches to share with you all, so hopefully I'll have some time this week to finish writing a few reviews. :)

Giveaway Reminder: L'Oreal HIP Crème Blushes

2009-09-27T22:00:00.001-04:00

Only 24 hours left to enter the first Sasquatch Swatch giveaway, if you wish to do so! Entries must be submitted by 10 PM EST on Monday. I will announce the winner in time for Tuesday's morning email, and start working on my answers to all your fun questions! Thanks :)

L'Oreal HIP Blendable Blushing Crèmes + First 'Squatch Giveaway!

2009-09-26T01:30:00.003-04:00

So, I'm hoping you all won't be too upset with me over this post. The reason I suspect you might be is this: I'm about to tempt you with a great product that has most certainly been discontinued, and quite some time ago. I myself am sad that I didn't discover these until very recently. With that said, most (if not all) of the L'Oreal HIP Blendable Blushing Crèmes appear to be available on eBay at any given time, and I will be giving one lucky reader almost one of each to love and cherish! (And for the less lucky readers, I will still have some more left over that I would be happy to sell to you if you'd like. More on that later.) Why would I swatch something that's not readily available in stores, you might ask? Well, if you like these, you can always swap for them or purchase them online. And, uh, I like them. So there. I never promised you I was always going to make sense.

Now, onto the fun stuff! The most important point I want to get across here is that while many of these shades look dark and intimidating, anyone can wear them. The word "blendable" is in the title for a reason; you can truly blend and buff these down to nothingness if you wish. In order to demonstrate this, I did these swatches such that each color is blended in on the left, then heavily applied on the right. For most of them, I was able to blend them so thoroughly that you can hardly see the color anymore. That doesn't mean they don't have good lasting power, because they do; they're just very workable. I also discovered when trying to wear a few of these myself that it's really difficult to over-apply. You'd have to try REALLY hard to make yourself look like a clown (don't ask how long it took me to get the right side of each swatch to look like that!). I found myself trying with a brush, being happy with the slight flush but wanting more color still, and finally resorting to dipping my fingers in the ones I was testing and applying repeatedly until I had the level of pigmentation I wanted. So don't be scared by these.

I suspect you should be able to tell this from the swatches, but just in case: Blushing, Electrify, Enamoured, and Thrilled are the only mattes; Cheerful, Coquette, Elated, Enticing, Notorious, Spry, and Tickled all have subtle shimmer. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't figure out whether Glorious has shimmer or not. Untouched, it appears matte; after the surface has been disturbed, I see subtle shimmer in the pan; but on the skin, it appears to have an almost satin-finish, with no discernible shimmer particles. I am confounded.

I'm sure by now you're itching to know about the giveaway. Yes, I'm having my first giveaway! I've been wanting to do this for a while, but couldn't figure out what to offer. Now I have an idea, so you win. Yay! The winner will receive eleven L'Oreal HIP Blendable Blushing Crèmes - one of each shade except Cheerful, which I'm sorry to say I don't have a spare of. Unfortunately, I don't have some benevolent L'Oreal executive backing me up here and sending them from corporate headquarters, so most of the ones you will receive have been swatched. However, all of them were brand new when I started this project and I will sanitize them before sending them, so hopefully you won't mind too much. :) If you'd still be bothered by receiving tested items, please do not enter the giveaway this time around. Thank you! Oh, and this contest is open to readers worldwide, but please remember that customs is not always "nice" in certain countries and if the head of Italian customs eats your package or something like that, I'm sorry, but it's not my fault.

Here's what you have to do to enter:

Become an email subscriber, if you haven't already. You can do this using the little box in the upper right corner of the blog.
Leave a comment in response to this post sometime before 10:00 PM EST on Monday, September 28th, containing the following:
- Your first name and last initial
- Some way for me to reach you, such as your username on MakeupAlley or your email address (though if you choose the latter, I would encourage you to write it as email [at] domain [dot] com or something like that so the spambots prowling the internet for email addresses don't pick it up)
- Some question you'd love for me to answer, if you wish (this is optional!)

One winner will be chosen at random from the entries. To take a page from KarlaSugar's book: please do not enter more than once, or I will make fun of you.

For those who are not fortunate enough to win this time - if you'd like to purchase some of these blushes from me, you can find them listed here on my sales blog. (Yes, I have a sales blog. Are you surprised?)

I'm going to stop this post now before I go on for another twelve paragraphs. Good luck to everyone who enters!

EDIT: If you'd like to enter the contest but are having technical difficulties leaving a comment for some reason, you may participate by emailing me your entry at sasquatchswatch [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "blush giveaway." Thanks!

Prestige Love & Kisses Lipsticks

2009-09-08T21:32:00.007-04:00

All I can say to this one is WOW, guys. I think I have a new favorite drugstore lipstick line! Having tried a whole lot of them by now (Wet 'n' Wild, NYC, NYX, Revlon, Rimmel, Maybelline, CoverGirl, etc.), I think that really means something, don't you?

The line to which I'm referring is the new Prestige Love & Kisses lipstick collection. Pay attention now, because at least according to the displays that hold these eight new lipsticks, they're limited edition (but don't ask me how long they'll be available, because I have no idea). These are only $5 each, and SO worth your money, I'm telling you! I'm so excited about them that I pushed back other swatches I intended to post before these; I just couldn't wait. :)

While I still love CoverGirl TruShines (click for those swatches: fair, medium, deep) for their sheer, glossy finish, Prestige Love & Kisses Lipcolor definitely takes the cake for the best pigmented, smooth, moisturizing formula in the drugstore. In terms of pigmentation and finish, they remind me of MAC Cremesheen lipsticks - but the MAC lipsticks are noticeably more drying on my lips than the Prestige ones are, and aren't as easy to apply. Interestingly enough, the Prestige lipsticks also have the same soft vanilla scent that MAC lipsticks have. The displays claim that the addition of "Ceramide III" to these lipsticks will "increase moisture levels" and make your lips softer. I don't really know what Ceramide III is or if it can do anything interesting at all, but I did notice that my lips definitely felt better after I put these on than they did beforehand.

Okay, I'm going to shut up now, because I'd rather you spend your time looking at the pretty pictures I have to show you than reading more of my babbling (and even the pictures don't really fully do these justice, honestly). Enjoy!

Love & Kisses Lipcolor: First Kiss, True Love, Passionate Kiss, My Love, Kiss Me, First Love, Love Me, Love & Kisses

ZuZu Luxe Swatches, Part 1

2009-09-07T14:12:00.007-04:00

So, thanks to all that wonderful feedback you all gave me in my survey in July, I know that most of you are not as interested in the small/boutique-y/vegan/cruelty-free/etc. cosmetic lines as you are in the big boys. However, I really want to share my swatches and thoughts on this line with you because I like them a lot, so I'm going to do so anyway, and just try to keep it all confined to one or two posts. :)

The brand in question here is ZuZu Luxe, which is the younger, more "hip" line created by Gabriel Cosmetics, whose signature lipsticks I posted swatches of back in March. Obviously, I didn't get to swatching everything they have - just some of the color products. I'm going to try to go back to that store and swatch the rest of the line at some point too, but won't be able to for at least five weeks. In the meantime, here are my abbreviated thoughts on the rest of the ZuZu Luxe line: the liquid eyeliners and powder foundation are nice; I don't recommend the mascara (it's horribly dry); I highly recommend the lipsticks; and I haven't tried the lip liners, liquid foundation, concealer, or bronzers.

Gabriel/ZuZu Luxe has a store locator on its website, but if you want to go check the products out, you'd do well to call the store you plan to go to before you leave - a lot of the stores on the list, or at least the ones here in PA, are happy to special-order the products for you but don't actually keep them on hand. The company is based in Washington state, though, so if you're in the Pacific Northwest, consider yourself lucky - most health-food stores like PCC and Whole Foods will have the line.

Now, here are my quick thoughts on the products swatched below.

Eyeliners: Skip Indigo and Ocean; they don't apply evenly, too waxy. Love the rest - Iguana is one of my new favorite eyeliners!

Eyeshadows: Angel, Casino, Dusk, Espresso, Gem, Ice Princess, and Skylar were less pigmented than the rest, so I don't like them as much. Top marks to the rest, though! Very high quality.

Lip Glosses: you know, I tried one of these on my lips but didn't buy it, and I found myself later that day wishing I had when I looked in my car mirror hours later and discovered it was still on like I'd just applied it. And the color variety is fantastic!

Blushes: these are very buildable. They start out looking subtle, but you can really work your way up to vibrant color. The shimmer in Nymph is quite pronounced, so it requires either a lighter application or some buffing after a heavier application, but it's quite lovely (and, for obvious reasons, stood out to me among the blush colors as the most unique).

Pencil eyeliner: Indigo, Iguana, Leaf, Obsidian, Ocean, Slate, South Pacific, Tobacco
Eyeshadow: Absynthe, Angel, Casino, Chameleon, Dusk, Egyptian Gold, Espresso, Eternity, Gem, Ice Princess, Odyssey, Platinum, Prism, Sahara, Skylar, Vixen
Lip gloss: Bronzite, Caliente, Cosmopolitan, Crystal, Divinity, Dolce Vita, Liquid Bliss, Luscious, Mania, Mischief, Tango, Tempest
Blush: Bella Donna, Fascination, Haze, Nymph, Samba, Sunset

L'Oreal Color of Hope Eyeshadow Quads

2009-09-06T12:02:00.009-04:00

Every September, L'Oreal releases a new Color of Hope collection - usually including eyeshadow quads, lipsticks, lip glosses, and nail polishes - to raise awareness of ovarian cancer (and money toward finding a cure - $1 from the sale of each item goes to ovarian cancer research). I wasn't able to swatch the lip and nail products this time around, but I do have the eyeshadow quads to show you today. :)

While the colors of these were super pretty, I was moderately disappointed in the quality. The pigmentation of both quads was, for lack of a better phrase, consistently inconsistent: the gold shade in both quads had a chunky texture and awful pigmentation, the darkest shade in both quads had a chalky texture and awful pigmentation, and the two mid-tone shades (taupe and teal in Bouquet of Strength; pink and red-fuchsia in Petals of Promise) were noticeably better. That red-fuchsia shade in Petals of Promise, by the way, is not a bad dupe for MAC Star Violet and Urban Decay Last Call. And, uh, the taupe shade in Bouquet of Strength is really pretty. (Are you surprised?)

This seems to me like a good time to explain to you why I sometimes say products that look absolutely fabulous to you in pictures have bad pigmentation, and things like that. When it comes to swatching, there's a sort of give-and-take: I can either do a single swipe of the product so you can see how pigmented/unpigmented a product is, or I can layer each product as much as is needed until all show approximately the same (high) level of pigmentation. In the latter situation, I'm better able to show you the color variations, textures, and finishes of products. I choose to go with the latter, because I can always tell you "caveat emptor: the pigmentation is lacking"; it's much harder for me to accurately describe a complex color when it doesn't show up well on my arm.

On a totally separate note, you guys already know that you can always click on my pictures to view them at full size, right?

Anyway, these quads retail for approximately $9 each, and should be available at most drugstores by the end of September (though many have the collection in already). Anyone else tried them out yet? What did you think?

Color of Hope: Bouquet of Strength, Petals of Promise

Maybelline SuperStay Foundation

2009-08-31T17:17:00.004-04:00

Hi darlings!

I'm sorry about the long hiatus since my last post. I just got back to school and in general have been crazy-busy lately. I wish I could commit to more regularity for you, but I'm finally realizing that's just not going to happen - sometimes you may see posts weeks apart, while other times it may be a matter of minutes if I just want to get the posting out of the way. I know it's not ideal, but since when is life ever ideal? :) Please remember that you are always welcome to subscribe by email if you don't want to have to check for new postings when they can be so inconsistent at times.

In any case, today's post is on Maybelline Superstay foundation (the newly released version). I'm sorry to tell you that I don't have much to say about this, as I haven't tried it myself; none of the shades are light enough to match my face, so I didn't bother purchasing any. (I was able to do this set of swatches using testers at a local drugstore.) I've heard mixed reviews about it - but that tends to be the case with just about every foundation, doesn't it?

This comes in is an open-mouthed glass bottle with a screw-off lid, similar to Revlon Colorstay, and retails for $10 at most drugstores.

SuperStay Foundation: Porcelain Ivory, Sand Beige, Classic Ivory, Natural Beige, Nude, Classic Beige, Pure Beige, Natural Tan, True Beige, Honey Beige, Caramel, Cocoa

The New L'Oreal H.I.P. Color Chrome Eyeliners and Metallic Eyeshadow Duos

2009-08-03T19:13:00.003-04:00

I'm sure by now many of you have seen (and perhaps even tried some of) the new L'Oreal HIP products out in your local drugstores; I've received swatch requests from many of you who have and are curious about their quality. The newest additions to the line include six pencil eyeliners, three new metallic eyeshadow duos, and six matte eyeshadow duos. I haven't been able to pick up the matte duos yet, so for now, we'll have to make do with just the eyeliners and metallic duos.

The Color Chrome Eyeliners fit right in with the latest drugstore trend: pencil eyeliners with a soft, smooth, gel-like texture that "set" to a budge-proof finish after application, in the vein of Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners (please forgive me for perpetually using these as a comparison product - I just can't help but default to them because they're so well known and loved). Other recent contenders are L'Oreal Extra-Intense and Prestige Total Intensity eyeliners, which I'll share swatches of with you soon. For the record, I prefer the Extra-Intense and Total Intensity eyeliners to the Color Chrome ones because both exhibit slightly better staying power and certainly include more wearable colors. Both of those two also seem to like being on my waterline better than the HIP ones do; I can get the HIP ones to stay on my waterline with a bit of effort, but they tend to migrate onto my lash line after a few hours (whereas the other two stay put).

With that said, the new HIP eyeliners definitely aren't bad, and if you like in-your-face-BRIGHT eyeliner, you might want to consider trying a couple. All are shimmery, though the shimmer is more pronounced in Silver Lightning, Gold Charge, and Blue Spark than in the other three. Black Shock looks like a glossy black without shimmer when initially applied, but dries to a matte black with tiny silver sparkles. Green Flash is a bit more olive-toned than it appears in the picture.

Of three new Metallic Duos, Electrified is (predictably) my favorite. It pairs a rich, eggplant-wine color with a gorgeous taupe shade which is, in my opinion, notably unique. I recently went through my entire eyeshadow stash in an effort to purge, and can definitively say that this shade was distinctly different from any of the other 40+ colors I had that could be considered taupe. The other two duos, Shocked and Charged, are equally smooth, pigmented, and blendable - just not really "my colors." Shocked is a golden-yellow paired with a quiet, drab green, and Charged is a fiery copper shade paired with a warm, deep rust shade. To the MAC lovers out there, I'd say that the left side of each of these three duos is comparable in texture to MAC's Starflash finish, and the right side of each is comparable to MAC's Veluxe Pearl finish.

While I haven't seen these available for sale online yet (with the exception of a few eBay auctions), these new additions to the L'Oreal HIP line are available in all the drugstores in my area and have been for a while. The eyeliners retail for $10 each, and the eyeshadow duos seem to pretty consistently go for $8 each. Thanks for reading! :)

HIP Color Chrome Eyeliner: Black Shock, Silver Lightning, Gold Charge, Blue Spark, Green Flash, Violet Volt
HIP Metallic Eyeshadow Duo: Shocked, Electrified, Charged

CoverGirl TruShine Lipsticks: Deep Skin Tones

2009-07-20T22:49:00.005-04:00

One of my personal favorite drugstore lip products are CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks, in part because they're smooth and moisturizing on the lips and in part because there is such a huge variety of wonderful shades to choose from - 24, to be exact. Each shade has a corresponding number (I've swatched them in numerical order); in theory, the first eight are supposed to be most complementary to fair skin tones, the second eight for medium skin tones, and the last eight for deep skin tones. I think CoverGirl should get some credit for this effort, as I did find that I liked more shades from the "fair" range on my lips than from medium or deep. With that said, I think lipstick color selection is all about personal preference, and anyone could find shades they love in all three color ranges.

In an hour of insanity, I decided to do lip swatches of every single one of these shades, so in order to not bombard you with too many pictures, I'm breaking my post on the TruShine lipsticks up into three parts: the shades intended for fair skin, medium skin, and deep skin. Remember, though, that there's no rule saying you have to stay within some prescribed color spectrum!

CoverGirl TruShines retail for $5-7 each, depending on the store, and are available at almost all drugstores (though some stores have fewer than the full 24 shades available, unfortunately). I don't notice a scent with these. The wear is about average - I have to reapply after eating, drinking, etc., but not more than once every few hours otherwise - and, as I mentioned, they are exceptionally moisturizing. I think the fact that I was able to do lip swatches of 24 of these in an hour with no irritation is a great testament to A) how gentle the TruShines are on lips, and B) how totally awesome Neutrogena Night Calming makeup remover wipes, which I use for all my swatching endeavors, are. (More on those later - I plan to make a post on all my all-time favorite products at some point, and I assure you they'll make another appearance then!)

Finally, here are your CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks for deep skin tones. My favorites are Watermelon Shine and Mauve Shine:

TruShine Lipstick: Cocoa Shine, Watermelon Shine, Mauve Shine, Cherry Shine, Cranberry Shine, Chocolate Shine, Bronzed Shine, Currant Shine

CoverGirl TruShine Lipsticks: Medium Skin Tones

2009-07-20T22:42:00.007-04:00

One of my personal favorite drugstore lip products are CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks, in part because they're smooth and moisturizing on the lips and in part because there is such a huge variety of wonderful shades to choose from - 24, to be exact. Each shade has a corresponding number (I've swatched them in numerical order); in theory, the first eight are supposed to be most complementary to fair skin tones, the second eight for medium skin tones, and the last eight for deep skin tones. I think CoverGirl should get some credit for this effort, as I did find that I liked more shades from the "fair" range on my lips than from medium or deep. With that said, I think lipstick color selection is all about personal preference, and anyone could find shades they love in all three color ranges.

In an hour of insanity, I decided to do lip swatches of every single one of these shades, so in order to not bombard you with too many pictures, I'm breaking my post on the TruShine lipsticks up into three parts: the shades intended for fair skin, medium skin, and deep skin. Remember, though, that there's no rule saying you have to stay within some prescribed color spectrum!

CoverGirl TruShines retail for $5-7 each, depending on the store, and are available at almost all drugstores (though some stores have fewer than the full 24 shades available, unfortunately). I don't notice a scent with these. The wear is about average - I have to reapply after eating, drinking, etc., but not more than once every few hours otherwise - and, as I mentioned, they are exceptionally moisturizing. I think the fact that I was able to do lip swatches of 24 of these in an hour with no irritation is a great testament to A) how gentle the TruShines are on lips, and B) how totally awesome Neutrogena Night Calming makeup remover wipes, which I use for all my swatching endeavors, are. (More on those later - I plan to make a post on all my all-time favorite products at some point, and I assure you they'll make another appearance then!)

Finally, here are your CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks for medium skin tones. On myself, I found Raspberry Shine to be the most flattering, and I felt very "Marilyn Monroe" in Valentine Shine:

TruShine Lipstick: Rosy Shine, Hot Pink Shine, Lilac Shine, Raspberry Shine, Plum Shine, Peach Shine, Nude Shine, Valentine Shine

CoverGirl TruShine Lipsticks: Fair Skin Tones

2009-07-20T21:24:00.010-04:00

One of my personal favorite drugstore lip products are CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks, in part because they're smooth and moisturizing on the lips and in part because there is such a huge variety of wonderful shades to choose from - 24, to be exact. Each shade has a corresponding number (I've swatched them in numerical order); in theory, the first eight are supposed to be most complementary to fair skin tones, the second eight for medium skin tones, and the last eight for deep skin tones. I think CoverGirl should get some credit for this effort, as I did find that I liked more shades from the "fair" range on my lips than from medium or deep. With that said, I think lipstick color selection is all about personal preference, and anyone could find shades they love in all three color ranges.

In an hour of insanity, I decided to do lip swatches of every single one of these shades, so in order to not bombard you with too many pictures, I'm breaking my post on the TruShine lipsticks up into three parts: the shades intended for fair skin, medium skin, and deep skin. Remember, though, that there's no rule saying you have to stay within some prescribed color spectrum!

CoverGirl TruShines retail for $5-7 each, depending on the store, and are available at almost all drugstores (though some stores have fewer than the full 24 shades available, unfortunately). I don't notice a scent with these. The wear is about average - I have to reapply after eating, drinking, etc., but not more than once every few hours otherwise - and, as I mentioned, they are exceptionally moisturizing. I think the fact that I was able to do lip swatches of 24 of these in an hour with no irritation is a great testament to A) how gentle the TruShines are on lips, and B) how totally awesome Neutrogena Night Calming makeup remover wipes, which I use for all my swatching endeavors, are. (More on those later - I plan to make a post on all my all-time favorite products at some point, and I assure you they'll make another appearance then!)

Finally, here are your CoverGirl TruShine lipsticks for fair skin tones. Blushberry Shine has become something of a cult favorite in makeup land, and while I do like that shade very much, I think Petal Shine is my favorite from this group:

TruShine Lipstick: Powderpink Shine, Lavender Shine, Coral Shine, Blushberry Shine, Wine Shine, Petal Shine, Fire Shine, Cinnamon Shine

Chantecaille Brilliant Glosses

2009-07-13T11:00:00.002-04:00

I know many of you think of me as primarily a "drugstore girl," but I would consider myself more of an equal-opportunity makeup lover. I'm always on the lookout for great values, but I must admit that there are several high-end products out there that completely rock my socks. In fact, they rock them so hard that I would even tell drugstore-makeup lovers that yes, they're worth the money.

Chantecaille Brilliant Glosses are one of these products.

I should say up front that I don't think they're for everyone. They come in sleek, classy-looking tubes, wear wonderfully, and have a texture to die for, but they ARE very sheer. If you're the kind of person who has pigmented lips and prefers highly pigmented/opaque glosses - the kind where the color on your lips is the exact same as the one in the tube - these may not be for you. (And to those people, I'm happy to point you toward Chantecaille's more pigmented potted glosses... although there's another group of us entirely that hates potted lip gloss... sigh.)

If you're a loyal reader, though, you probably already know that I love sheer lip products; most colors more than a few shades away from my natural lip color make me feel like a stranger in my own skin. I also care way more about being comfortable than perfect - I'd rather wear plain lip balm than a deep matte red on my lips with the iconic "little black dress" (ignoring the fact that I don't even own one), however sultry the red may be, and good luck catching me in heels more than ten days a year. For this reason, I perpetually gravitate toward glossy, sheer, moisturizing, non-sticky lip products, and Chantecaille Brilliant Glosses are just that. They look and feel absolutely luxurious on my lips - more so than any other lip product I've ever used - and yes, I really do mean that. I can also say with absolute certainty, given the current state of my lip gloss collection, that Charisma, Glee, Modern, and Sweet will collectively be the first four full-size lip glosses that I completely use up from start to finish. These lip glosses even pass the boyfriend test - he unfailingly tells me that my lips either look "juicy" or "kissable" whenever I wear one.

A few other notes: these don't seem to have a noticeable scent to me - they do smell faintly sweet, but not overly so. They're $28 each (I can just hear your wallets wincing - don't worry, mine's in the chorus too), or about $22 each if you get them in kits (a trio of three full-sized ones for $68, six half-sized ones for $65, etc.). Chantecaille is notoriously hard to find in-person, in my experience, but is available from a variety of sources online. You can see the results of a price comparison search for Chantecaille Brilliant Glosses here on Pebble.com. If you prefer to purchase "from the source," your best bet is probably Chantecaille's website, which has free shipping on all orders through August 12 (and a store locator if you'd like to try these in-person first and happen to have a counter nearby - ha!). With that said, to be honest, I wouldn't hesitate to direct you to eBay. I know not everyone's comfortable with this option, but I've gotten most of the Chantecaille products I own from there at great prices, and it's all authentic; I get the impression that Chantecaille has a small enough market that it either hasn't popped up on the radar of scammers yet or they just don't think it would be worth their time to counterfeit the products.

Last but not least, I want to mention that KarlaSugar, talented friend and blogger extraordinaire, is also posting her own swatches of Chantecaille lip glosses this week, in addition to my lip swatches. I was only able to swatch the glosses in my own collection for you today, but I believe she has all of the ones currently available from Chantecaille in her pictures. Karla, thank you for sharing this with me!

Um, I think I've babbled enough now. I guess this is what four months of college finals and then writer's block does to a person! Without futher ado, here are your pictures. Sorry about the different lighting on the picture of Charisma; I acquired that one after I took the pictures with the rest of them.

Brilliant Gloss: Allure, Charisma, Charm, Elation, Glee, Love, Mirth, Modern, Sweet

The 'Squatch is back!

2009-07-10T18:11:00.007-04:00

Hi, readers!

Boy, does this feel good - I've missed writing for you all!

Before I dive back into posting regularly again, I want to give you a couple of updates on myself and this blog, as well as ask for your feedback about what you'd like to see more or less of in future posts using a very brief (one page!) anonymous survey.

I'm sure a few of you are wondering what took me so long to get back into blogging. Well, I spent the first half of my hiatus finishing my junior year of college. Since then, I've been doing as much "smelling the roses" as possible - spending time with my family and friends, mostly. My boyfriend and I moved into the city and absolutely love living here. My family even got a new puppy - how cute is he?!

I also turned another hobby of mine into a small business - I've been keeping busy making eco-friendly, custom cosmetic organizers (lipstick holders, etc.) - with a bit of my boyfriend's help. If you're curious or interested, you can check out our website for more information!

Now onto more of the stuff you care about - while I have had a minor case of writer's block over the last few months, my arm has been doing just fine, so I've continued to swatch things whenever I felt compelled over the last few months. Consequently, I've developed a huge stockpile of pictures that I have yet to post for you. Some of the products may have been new and hard-to-find back when I swatched them, but are now old news - so hopefully you can bear with me if you see things you've already seen elsewhere. I assure you I will keep it exciting by showing you something I know you haven't seen before as often as I can!

Lastly, I have put together a ten-question, multiple-choice, anonymous survey to try to better understand what my readers like and dislike, as well as to run a few new ideas I have for the blog by you. It shouldn't take more than five minutes to complete, and I would sincerely appreciate it if you would share your input with me. Thank you!

Please click here to take the survey.

Thank you, and you'll be hearing from me again soon! :)

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

2009-03-30T02:12:00.003-04:00

Dear readers,

The quote above is by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet who was my grandpa's favorite author and whose simple words somehow never fail to reach deep into my heart in ways that even the most ornately polished proverbs cannot. When I came across these words this evening, I realized all at once what I've known but not understood for weeks: I've created so many commitments for myself that, between these constructs of my own and my academic responsibilities, I'm not leaving myself enough time to live a truly satisfying life. I want to do well in my classes - but more than that, I need to remind myself of what it feels like to run on a dirt trail, lie in wet grass, cook a good meal, take a bubble bath, and read a favorite book in bed.

This means a couple of things for you, dear readers: you're probably overwhemed by the sheer volume of swatches I've just posted all at once, as well as wondering what you can expect from here on out. Well, I want to clear out my clutter, because I know that mental and emotional peace is easier to find when I don't have to look for it under every pile of clothes, box of tissue paper, textbook, and traincase in my room, and that means, in part, getting rid of a lot of the cosmetics I've accumulated since I started blogging. Hence, I've posted everything I have left to post at the moment so I can consider myself done with these items and they can go in the "out" pile. (Oh, who am I kidding? It's an "out" mountain.) As for the other piece: no, I'm not abandoning the blog; you just might not see as much of me for a little while as I start to remove all this figurative duct tape covering the holes in my life and search for the pieces that will actually fit and ultimately fill those voids.

Thank you, and I'll see you again one day soon. :)

Wet 'n' Wild Lip Lacquers

2009-03-30T02:06:00.006-04:00

Hmm. I had heard that these were supposedly Wet 'n' Wild's answer to glossy-finish, slim-tubed lipsticks like Chantecaille Lip Chics and the like, but I think either my memory has deceived me or the person who told me that was on crack. These are not glossy at all, and are in fact remarkably matte. Some of the colors have shimmer, but even those still manage to look almost two-dimensional somehow. I wouldn't say that these are drying in and of themselves, but on the occasions when I've worn one over dry-ish lips, I felt like they accentuated the dryness - flaky spots were more visible, that kind of thing. With that said, though, these are truly rich colors, and would be a great find for anyone who likes the idea of replicating a classic fifties look with matte red lips, for example.

Fortunately, Wet 'n' Wild is particularly affordable (even as drugstore lines go), so if you're curious, there's not much harm in giving these a try. :) They retail for $3 each and are available at Rite Aid, Walgreens, drugstore.com, and so on. As far as I can tell, they have no noticeable scent (Thanks, Ghoulina!). Oh, and sorry for the messy application on these - I was tired =P

Lip Lacquer: Fling, Passionate, Enamored, Rapture, Fetish, Lustful, Flirtatious, Risque, Fierce

Rimmel Volume Booster Lip Glosses

2009-03-30T01:53:00.002-04:00

WHEE! Finally, a "plumping" lip gloss that actually seems to work on me without causing my sensitive lips excessive irritation!

I mean, okay, my lips don't scream "Angelina" when I wear these, but they definitely look a little fuller, or at least more appealing. I could be seeing things, but I did swatch these right after swatching the Shock Glosses, which I was unhappy with. With that in mind, I think it must mean something that I like the Volume Booster glosses so much - they should have been set up for failure in my eyes, right? Interesting.

These have a soft-bristle applicator, which I like, and go on very smoothly - I love the shiny, almost glassy look they give my lips. As far as the plumping action goes - I can definitely feel something happening when I put these on, but it's not painful, and I have in the past experienced severe irritation from lip-plumping products. Apparently these contain collagen instead of the standard menthol derivative, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

To my relief, these don't have any kind of contrived scent. This might sound silly, but they just smell like... lip gloss. To my nose, anyway. No aspartame cocktails or first-grade cafeteria treats here...

These retail for $6-7 WHERE RIMMEL IS SOLD. Read my other posts if you want to know more. =P

Volume Booster Lip Gloss: Dare, Attract, Provoke, Tease, Scandal, Lure, Tempt, Seduce, Clear

Rimmel Vinyl Glosses

2009-03-30T01:35:00.001-04:00

If you've heard of any Rimmel lip glosses before today, it will probably be these ones: the colors Eastend Snob and Snog are two of the brand's most popular products (and with good reason - they are lovely!).

These are smooth, pigmented, and not too sticky. They smell strongly like orange creamsicles, which some people love and some people hate. I'm one of the haters (it's not a fake/plasticky scent - I've just never liked creamsicles!), so I consider it a good thing that the scent goes away after a minute or so. These retail for about $6 each and are - you know the drill - available in most drugstores except Rite Aid, which hates Rimmel just like CVS hates Wet 'n' Wild. Go figure.

Anyway, the only shade I wouldn't recommend is Rhythm - the picture doesn't really show this, but in real life, it's one of the most ugly lip glosses I've ever seen. It has hot pink and red shimmer that clashes with the cool pink color of the gloss, making it look like some chintzy product made to be sold by checkout stands for $1.00 on Valentine's Day. Just, you know, my humble opinion. :)

Vinyl Gloss: Eastend Snob, Surreal, Smitten, Snog, Cosmic, Delirious, Rhythm, Crystal Clear

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipsticks

2009-03-30T01:20:00.001-04:00

Another simple post, but this time it's because I have no complaints about these: I find Rimmel's Lasting Finish lipsticks to be among the best lipsticks available in the drugstore. They're not moisturizing (and you all know how I love moisturizing lipsticks), but they're not drying on me either, which can be hard to come by in a long-wearing lipstick - and these do hold up to that claim, for the most part. No, they won't last through eight hours of eating, swimming, sex, etc., but they will stay put while you putter around at work, at the grocery store, on your college campus, or what have you. They have a smooth texture that I really like, and not one of the 30 (!) shades is an exception to that - they're all pretty pleasant to wear. No one person could pull off all of these colors, but in my opinion, that's what makes this line great - in all 30 shades, each significantly different from the next, anyone can find colors that will complement their skin tone, hair color, eye color, etc. Pretty sweet, right? Oh, and these are lightly scented, but I honestly don't notice it much when applying, and it fades quickly after that.

These retail for about $5 and are available at most places that sell drugstore makeup except Rite Aid. (I'm going to get tired of trying to come up with different ways to say where Rimmel is sold... hah.) Most stores do not carry all 30 colors, though - the CVS stores in my area, for example, all only carry the same 15 shades. I had to go to Walgreens and the Harmon Discount section of my Bed Bath & Beyond to find the rest of the colors. Enjoy! :)

Lasting Finish Lipstick: Airy Fairy, Alarm, Amethyst Shimmer, Balistic, Birthday Suit, Bordeaux, Brazilian, Celeb, Coffee Shimmer, Crush, Dare, Dizzy, Drop of Sherry, Frosted, Fudge Brownie, Goddess, Heather Shimmer, Heavenly, Just So, Kasbah, Metallic Marvel, Metallic Seduction, Metallic Shimmer, Paradise, Pink Champagne, Pink Shimmer, Red Hot, Stylish, Temptation, Vintage

Rimmel Shock Glosses

2009-03-30T01:08:00.002-04:00

Call this a short and not-terribly-sweet post: I was very unimpressed with these. The colors are basically clear, hot pink, and clear, and they don't "magnify" anything the way they claim to. They also have the most bizarre applicator I've ever seen - a semi-hard clear plastic spatula. WTF, Rimmel? They even advertise it on a sticker on the tube to make sure you know it's there, as if it's something to get excited about.

I would not recommend these, given the other, much better options in the drugstore, and even from Rimmel alone. They're boring. =p If you want one anyway, they generally sell for $5-7 each and are available at most CVS, Walgreens, Target, Ulta, etc. locations.

Shock Gloss: Indecent, Amp'ed, Intense

Rimmel Kiss Off! Lip Glosses

2009-03-30T01:00:00.001-04:00

And here begins a deluge of Rimmel...

In a few words, I like these glosses. The color variety is a little lacking, but the formulation is nice; the shimmery shades don't feel gritty at all, and many of the shades are subtly iridescent, which adds a lot of dimension to those colors when light hits them. I much prefer the scent of these to the Sweet Jelly glosses; again, it's far more subtle (and, in my opinion, pleasant). These also have a soft-bristle applicator, which I tend to prefer to a doe-foot applicator.

I'm not sure why these are called "Kiss Off!" glosses; I assume Rimmel was trying to be clever with a play on the phrase "piss off," but I'm not sure what would have led them to the dubious conclusion that that would sell more product. I was half-hoping the name would have something to do with the lasting power, and these glosses would work like the L'Oreal Infallible lip glosses and stay on my lips for an impressively long time, but I was certainly disappointed in that regard. As you can see in the picture at the bottom of this post, the Rimmel Kiss Off! gloss kissed right off.

Anyway - I included a natural light picture and a flash picture for this post because I feel that while the natural light best shows the color of these glosses, the flash best shows their slick, shimmery finish. I've tried to also describe the colors the best I can; hopefully that will help and not just confuse you. :) Also, to nip any potential (okay, probably) confusion in the bud: I accidentally labeled the first shade "Addiction" in the pictures, but the name of the color is actually "Addicted." My apologies.

Iridescent = contains blue/green/lavender sparkle

Addicted: sheer, iridescent peachy-beige
Fever: sheer, iridescent apricot pink
Flashback: sheer, iridescent golden berry-pink
First Time: sheer, iridescent pale white-gold
Forbidden: sheer, iridescent bubble-gum pink
The Morning After: sheer, highly iridescent pale peachy-pink
The Night Before: slightly pinked cherry red
Paint the Town: iridescent, shocking hot pink
Say it to Me: bronzed mauve
Silence: sparkle-free clear
Talk to Me: warm coppery bronze
Wild at Heart: sheer, iridescent hot pink

Kiss Off! Lip Gloss: Addicted, Fever, Flashback, First Time, Forbidden, The Morning After, The Night Before, Paint the Town, Say it to Me, Silence, Talk to Me, Wild at Heart

Rimmel Sweet Jelly Sheer Lip Glosses

2009-03-26T23:39:00.003-04:00

Hi, everyone :)

I hate to disappoint, as it's been a while since my last post, but I just don't have too much to say about these - the Rimmel Sweet Jelly sheer lip glosses. These are not bad, but they're not terribly exciting, either. Rimmel wasn't kidding when they printed "Sheer" on the front of the tube: I have relatively unpigmented lips, and almost all of the colors look the same on me (see the LOTD pictures below). Likewise, "Sweet" is an understatement... the thing that stands out most about these lip glosses, to me, is the scent/taste. These are intensely flavored - very fruity and almost sickeningly sweet - licking your lips with one of these on puts a flavor in your mouth a bit like you've been eating sugar-free gummy candies. Personally, I'm not a fan, but with that said, I read a surprising amount of reviews of these online by people who seemed to absolutely love the flavor. (I'm starting to think I'm just weird when it comes to scented lip products. I love the smell of L'Oreal Colour Juice Sticks, which I've learned some people hate; and MAC Slimshines, which are loved by many, smell like dog breath to me. So... it may be in your best interest to try these for yourself before discounting the product entirely because of my comments on the scent/flavor, since apparently I'm a freak of nature.)

These are definitely more slick than sticky, and are about average on the scale of drying to moisturizing lip products. The first four colors in the pictures (Gourmet, Moreish, Delicious, and Tasty) are completely shimmer-free, and the last six (Jelly Baby, Tutti Frutti, Sweetie, Sorbet, Sugar!, and Candy Floss) are shimmery/sparkly, though it hardly shows on the lips. The shimmery colors are slightly gritty, but not enough that it would bother me at all. They have a plastic slant-tip applicator and sell for $5-6 each (depending on where you get them) at most Ulta and drugstore locations, with the exception of Rite Aid, I believe.

On a completely unrelated note, don't you just love my quilt? I usually have my brown sheets in the background because they're less distracting and offer better contrast, but I'd just made my bed for the first time in about a month when I took these, so I was way too proud of myself to dismantle it... :)

Sweet Jelly Lip Gloss: Gourmet, Moreish, Delicious, Tasty, Jelly Baby, Tutti Frutti, Sweetie, Sorbet, Sugar!, Candy Floss

Neutrogena MoistureShine Lipsticks

2009-03-17T23:37:00.017-04:00

I have a confession to make: prior to this week, I think I've been prejudiced toward Neutrogena's makeup. Don't ask me why, because I love a lot of their skincare products and have historically had pretty good luck with a few of their foundations... and I love their eye makeup remover (liquid and in the form of wipes)... but I have always just sort of shrugged at the eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick, lip gloss, etc. I couldn't help but notice these new MoistureShine lipsticks, though, after seeing display after display in Every. Single. Drugstore. My intrigue was further piqued when I looked them up and learned that even though there are only 12 shades on this common display, there are 20 total - those other eight lonely shades are not as well-loved by Neutrogena, I suppose. I did find and swatch them, though, which I think should prove pretty well that they exist (but then again, after the bizarre situation with the Cherry and Pomegranate Estee Lauder Gloss Sticks, who knows? =p).

What makes this a "confession" is the part where I admit that I was wrong - I shouldn't have discounted Neutrogena's cosmetics so easily. These are really fabulous lipsticks (and they're SPF 20!). I should add, however, that most are not for the faint of heart or those who hate lipliners (check out the Cherry Twist LOTD picture to see why I say this) - almost every single one of these colors, especially the brightest and darkest colors, makes the cut for my "the most pigmented lipsticks I've ever seen" list. The only exceptions: Caramel Kiss, Peach-a-Boo, and (unsurprisingly) Sheer Luck are slightly more sheer than the other colors. Maybe Angel's Blush and Just Whisper as well, but I might just be leaning in that direction because they're lighter colors.

In any case: these are not the most moisturizing lipsticks I've ever worn, but they're not drying either. They do have a scent, but it's not that noticeable in my opinion, and it does fade. It's also sort of inconsistent; call me crazy, but I swear the Pomegranate one smells like... well... pomegranate. But, you know, in a lipstick-y sort of way. The only real criticism I have for these is that a few of them don't stay put very well on the inner part of my lower lip (you can see this in the Cherry Twist, Pomegranate, and Rum Raisin LOTDs). However, I think that may have been some kind of fluke that was more attributable to my lips than the shades, because I tried Rum Raisin on again tonight and did not have that problem with it this time. Anyway - these are available for $9-10 each at most drugstores. (Or, if you live in my area, ALL of them.)

I usually try to swatch in the best possible lighting so I don't have to show flash pics, non-flash pics, etc., but for some reason, the natural light pictures of these don't show the finish of the lipsticks very accurately, so I took pictures indoors as well and have included those. So, to clarify: the natural light pictures (the first two) are true-to-color; the flash pictures (the next two) are not very true-to-color but do accurately depict the finish and texture of these lipsticks. Hopefully the LOTD pictures will also help :) Sorry for the blurry ones; figured they were good enough that it was worth keeping them in the set, but I know they're not perfect.

Oh, and for anyone who's wondering, the 12 shades that are on the displays everywhere are the following: Angel's Blush, Anything Rose, Berry Burst, Coral Dream, Electric Currant, Mauve On, Pinch of Cinn, Playful Plum, Plum Paradise, Rum Raisin, Sheer Luck, and Think Pink. The more hard-to-find colors are Caramel Kiss, Cherry Twist, Just Whisper, Nude Blush, Peach-a-Boo, Pomegranate, Poppy Red, and Tickled Pink.

I do apologize for the somewhat scatterbrained nature of this post; I need to do something that doesn't involve writing for a little while, I think :) In any case, thanks for reading, and as always, comments and feedback are welcome!

MoistureShine Lipstick: Angel's Blush, Anything Rose, Berry Burst, Caramel Kiss, Cherry Twist, Coral Dream, Electric Currant, Just Whisper, Mauve On, Nude Blush, Peach-a-Boo, Pinch of Cinn, Playful Plum, Plum Paradise, Pomegranate, Poppy Red, Rum Raisin, Sheer Luck, Think Pink, Tickled Pink.

Wet 'n' Wild 3-of-a-Kind Twist-Up Sticks

2009-03-17T22:54:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if the Wet 'n' Wild 3-of-a-Kind Twist-Up Sticks (like a drugstore version of NARS Multiples) are new or not; based on MakeupAlley reviews, I think they've been around for a while, though I must admit I don't recall ever noticing them in stores before a few weeks ago. (On that note, they're available for $3 at most drugstores.)

I like the texture and finish of these - very blendable, buildable, and smooth, and they don't accentuate the discoloration in my cheeks (from acne scarring) at all. I feel like Coy is the only one that really suits me as a blush, but boy, does it ever - it's definitely earned a permanent place in that little makeup bag that follows me everywhere. The other four would definitely work better on warmer skin tones, in my opinion, and are all more versatile (I say this because they all appear to be potentially wearable on the lips, cheeks, or eyes, while I can't see Coy working so well as an eyeshadow).

When I wear Coy, I apply it by dotting some on my cheeks straight from the tube and then blending it in vigorously with my fingers. (And then repeating the process, if I want more color.) Simple and workable. And, in my opinion, there's something liberating about using products that you don't need makeup brushes to apply! :) Oh, and the names of these crack me up. "At the Hamptons" - are these supposed to make you feel ritzy? Maybe they do for some... I don't know! I mean, they're nice, but they're not... uh...

... clearly I'm clueless and uncultured: I can't even come up with a brand that would be nice enough to be worn by people who live in the Hamptons. Oh well; would you really expect anything more from someone who voluntarily calls herself "The 'Squatch"?

3-of-a-Kind Twist-Up Stick: Coy, By Sunset Strip, In South Beach, On Rodeo Drive, At the Hamptons

Gabriel Lipsticks

2009-03-11T18:38:00.003-04:00

I realize that most of you may have never heard of Gabriel Cosmetics. As a brief introduction, it is a company based in Bellevue, WA that is committed to being vegan, cruelty-free, and lead-free, and whose products are almost all produced in the United States. They also produce the slightly more well-known line, ZuZu Luxe, which I hope to also be able to swatch some of in the near future.

I found myself wanting to check Gabriel's lipsticks out after seeing a few LOTD pics by the lovely sixxmum on MakeupAlley. I had trouble tracking them down at first; there is a store locator on their website, but it includes businesses (such as Whole Foods) that are willing to special order Gabriel products but do not necessarily carry testers or the products in-store. If you'd like to look for these yourself, I'd encourage you to start with the store locator and call the stores that come up in your area to confirm that they have the products in stock. If this is not possible for you, these lipsticks can also be purchased from the Gabriel Cosmetics website (as linked earlier) or from White Rabbit Beauty, which also sells $1.00 samples of each color (very cool!). Gabriel lipsticks are currently 25% off on their website (they start at $15.25, so are now $11.44) and sell for $11.20 from White Rabbit Beauty. I was at my local PCC checking these out today, where they were normally $14 and on sale for $10 and change. It sounds like their prices aren't completely standardized, in any case.

These are very nice lipsticks - smooth, even, pretty, and a fantastic variety of colors. I think my favorite thing of all is that Gabriel Cosmetics actually states on their website which colors are cool, neutral, and warm, making color selection a total no-brainer for those of us who at least know what our own coloring is. And they appear to know what they're talking about: even on my arm, I thought Taupe would NOT look good on me, but as soon as I tried it on my lips, I relented; I may have to go back for this shade tomorrow. I keep looking at my own LOTD picture and falling more in love with it! What a pretty nude. :)

Here are their color descriptions (taken from this page):

Cool:
Clay - crème; muted brownish plum
Currant - crème; stained red wine
Dune - frost; soft pink, silver undertone
Maple Shimmer - shimmer; muted berry
Matte Cerise - crème; mauve brown
Matte Rose - matte; red chili pepper
Matte Spice - crème; brown berry
Mauve - crème; berry pink
Pomegranate - crème; pomegranate seed, deep red
Raisin - crème; burgundy wine
Rosewood - crème; peachy pink
Sheer Pink - crème; dark bubble gum pink
Sheer Rose - crème; orange pink
Taupe - crème; honey beige pink
Velour - frost; mid-tone plum
Wild Orchid - frost; pink rose with gold frost

Neutral:
Aurora - frost; bronze frost
Nude - sheer; flesh tone with iridescent pearl

Warm:
Copper Glaze - frost; sandy pink
Salmon - crème; Northwest smoked salmon
Santa Fe - crème; red/orange
Seashell - frost; dark peach with gold frost
Tea Rose - matte; orange red
Walnut - crème; red brown

One last note: forgive me for getting the colors out of order in my swatches! You may have noticed that I try to keep things in alphabetical order when I can; well, I'm a goof, and I accidentally moved the lipsticks around while swatching so Pomegranate was in the wrong place. I do know that "P" should be coming after "N" in these, not "S"... :)

Lipsticks: Aurora, Clay, Copper Glaze, Currant, Dune, Maple Shimmer, Matte Cerise, Matte Rose, Matte Spice, Mauve, Nude, Pomegranate, Raisin, Rosewood, Salmon, Santa Fe, Seashell, Sheer Pink, Sheer Rose, Taupe, Tea Rose, Velour, Walnut, Wild Orchid

L'Oreal H.I.P. Jelly Balms

2009-03-10T23:27:00.008-04:00

I never completely understood the point of a tinted, glossy lip balm - why not just use lip gloss, if that's the look you're going for? - until I tried my first MAC Tendertone. It's thoroughly moisturizing, smells incredible, and makes my lips look delicious, and now I get the craze. From what I understand, the H.I.P. Jelly Balms are similar to Tendertones, though an important point to note is that they are not as pigmented, nor do they have any shimmer at all (something the Tendertones are known for). The jelly balms come in pots; have a subtly sweet, non-chemically fruity scent; offer a variety of shades; are moderately moisturizing and sticky; are relatively sheer but still moderately pigmented if applied thickly; and retail for approximately $9 each at most drugstores where the L'Oreal H.I.P. line is sold.

HIP Jelly Balms: Delectable, Luscious, Plush, Ripe, Savory, Succulent

Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss Sticks

2009-03-09T20:56:00.010-04:00

And now, ladies and gentlemen (gentleman? My boyfriend may be the only male who reads this...), I indulge another non-drugstore request: the new Estee Lauder Gloss Sticks. These, by the way, are $18.50 each and are now available at Estee Lauder counters.

Put simply, I found these to be "okay." I personally prefer the L'Oreal Colour Juice Sticks for a glossy-finish lipstick, but if you found those to be too strongly-smelling (as I've recently learned some do), you may have better luck with Gloss Sticks.

Talking to the Estee Lauder sales associate when swatching these, I referred to them as "lipsticks" at one point and she abruptly corrected me to say they're "lip glosses, just in lipstick form, not lipsticks." After trying several on my lips, I must respectfully disagree; these are not even that glossy in the first place. If it were left up to me, I would categorize these as moisturizing lipsticks, period. But that's not to say they're not nice! They do feel very pleasant on the lips, and look nice. Most of the colors are overly warm, though - a few even straight-up orange - so it was hard for me to find colors I liked much on myself. With that said, I can understand why these were released as part of the spring/summer line. I also had trouble with some of the colors being stubbornly uneven, unfortunately - you can see in the picture with Golden Violet that it didn't seem to want to spread smoothly across my lips.

One other note - and this is still a point of confusion to me - in the pictures, you will find that there is a color called Cherry Ice, which appears to be available nowhere online, and that there is no color called Pomegranate Kiss anywhere to be found. I realized this when I got home and called the counter; the SA confirmed for me that there was indeed a tester called Cherry Ice (it was even engraved into the tube, so I don't think it was a misplaced sticker!) but no tester called Pomegranate Kiss. She then looked in her drawer (containing the items for sale) and discovered that she had a ton of the color Pomegranate Kiss and none of Cherry Ice. And when I tried calling Estee Lauder's customer service, no one seems to have ever heard of Cherry Ice. So, I can only conclude that they sent out testers for a product they eventually decided not to produce and sell at all - oops. Anyway, the SA confirmed for me that Cherry Ice and Pomegranate Kiss are definitely two different colors, so please don't get them confused. I also apologize that such a lovely-sounding color is not present in the following swatches.

Thanks for reading, and please keep the feedback (constructive criticism included) coming! :)

Pure Color Gloss Sticks: Berry Pink, Brown Sugar, Cherry Ice, Deep Lilac, Golden Violet, Honey Pink, Nude Almond, Orange Poppy, Pink Sorbet, (Pomegranate Kiss), Pop Pink, Summer Melon, Wild Plum

L'Oreal H.I.P. Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor

2009-03-05T01:59:00.005-05:00

Finally, a new post! Are you excited? :)

I suspect I may actually kill more lemmings with this post than create them... I should know by now that not everything in the makeup world is quite as it seems (first impressions are rarely accurate), but even I was surprised by these lipsticks, the L'Oreal H.I.P. Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor. They are richly pigmented and many of the shades looked stunning on my arm, but I was disappointed with the feel and finish of most of them. I've made sure to include lots of LOTD pics so you can see what I mean.

Put simply, I found these to be pretty mediocre, as lipsticks go (and I've come to expect better than that from the H.I.P. line, too)! They are definitely not "intensely moisturizing," but pretty average in that regard, though they are among the most opaque colors I've ever seen, so if you have very pigmented lips and find that most lipcolors don't show up on you, these might be worth a try. There are a few points I particularly want to stress about these:

1) Several of the shades look completely, shockingly different on the arm and lips than in the tube. There were a couple that looked to be shades of bronze or brown and came out almost fuschia and pink - I couldn't figure out whether to be irritated or fascinated. So please trust the swatches, if you will, not the colors you see in the tubes if you go to check them out in the drugstore. This is particularly true with Driven, and also with Heroic and Vivacious to a slightly lesser extent.
2) You NEED a good lipliner with these, or they will "bleed" all over your lips. I didn't want to take the time to line my lips with these because I was going through so many colors, so you can see what I mean. They're also more difficult than many other lipsticks to apply evenly because they have a straight-slant tip, rather than a tapered-all-around tip, if that makes sense. The top is slanted, but wide.
3) While a few of these were likeable (Bold is a sassy, retro color that goes on smoothly; Daring, Fervent, and Royal were also relatively good; and a few others weren't remarkable, but weren't bad, either), there are also a few colors that were total bombs for me. I was stunned, for example, by how completely awful Heroic is (see the LOTD picture) - not bad on my arm, but downright disgusting-looking on my lips. For the record, virtually all of the ones that have shimmer feel gritty and/or look very sloppy on the lips. Some of them also have a very odd finish - Driven, for example, seems to somehow both sink into the lines in my lips and sort of sit on top of them at the same time. So... tread with care, with these ones.

These do have a scent, a sort of chemically vanilla, but it wasn't strong enough for me to notice it, even on my lips (I only realized this when I went back and smelled a few just now, upon remembering advice from the lovely Sammi Read to report on scents). But then again, I think I'm less sensitive to scents than most; these don't come with a seal (another gripe), so if you think it might bother you, open one quickly in the store when no one's looking and take a whiff :)

Last note: as far as I understand, these have NOT been discontinued, though CVS did clearance them out. My Rite Aid and Walgreens still have them in stock, as does drugstore.com (and they're on a BOGO sale at drugstore.com right now, too). (Ordinarily, these are $10 each, by the way.) I tried contacting L'Oreal to confirm this, but the only phone number I could find doesn't seem to work. =/ Will email and update when I hear back!

Thanks for being patient with me through my midterms, dear readers! Hopefully no one felt too abandoned. Oh, for college life...

UPDATE 3/9/09: L'Oreal's Consumer Affairs supervisor responded today to my inquiry as to whether or not these have been discontinued: "This product is available and has not been discontinued. We offer our complete line of products to the stores, and it is the store manager's decision which products the store will carry. If your local store does not have this product in stock, please ask the store manager to order it for you."

Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor: Bold, Charming, Courageous, Daring, Decadent, Driven, Ecstatic, Effervescent, Extrovert, Fearless, Fervent, Gutsy, Heroic, Moxie, Royal, Vivacious

Prestige Soft Blend Khol Eyeliners

2009-02-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

So, are you getting sick of Prestige eyeliners yet? ;-)

These were both amusing and frustrating to swatch in that the quality varies so immensely from one shade to the next. Chamomile, Havana, Lagoon, Leaf, and Spiced are all pretty good liners with a smooth, workable texture (especially Lagoon); Jet Black and Powder aren't great, but aren't bad either (though you could easily find ten black eyeliners better than Jet Black in the drugstore, if that's what you're looking for, including the others available from Prestige); and Haze, Indigo, Jasmine, Shiraz, and Steel are downright terrible - they're hard, they tug on your lid, and it's a major pain in the ass to get them to show up (if you can at all).

For the record, these are not "real" kohls, and are perfectly eye-safe, even for the waterline (but good luck trying to get Jasmine on there, lol). This also applies to the L'Oreal H.I.P. loose kohls; the United States has stricter regulations for cosmetics than India does, so you're pretty safe to assume that if a product widely distributed in the drugstores or department stores here has "kohl" or "khol" (they're the same thing) in its title, it's not "real" kohl and is safe for you to use. But I digress.

I noticed while swatching these that a couple of the colors looked familiar to me, so I matched them up with the liners they reminded me of - and what do you know? We've got a couple of very close color dupes in this line. Lagoon is virtually indistinguishable from Urban Decay's Flipside 24/7 (original post here), and Leaf is very similar to MAC's Rosemary & Thyme eye kohl. Leaf is just slightly cooler in color, but both share a certain unique, reflective quality that I just can't put words to. I added a comparison pic so you can see for yourselves :)

Soft Blend Khol Eyeliner: Chamomile, Havana, Haze, Indigo, Jasmine, Jet Black, Lagoon, Leaf, Powder, Shiraz, Spiced, Steel

Wet 'n' Wild MegaLiners

2009-02-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

Hi again!

I finally decided that I just had to try these after hearing a friend rave about them for months on end, and I'm glad I did, because they're pretty fabulous. The only thing I really dislike about them is the applicator: it's a thin brush with bristles on the end of a wand, almost like a very precise nail polish brush. It made it difficult for me to get a really clean, thin line. With that said, I love everything else about these. One thing that stood out about them is that they're really wet - I know that sounds redundant since we're talking about liquid eyeliners here, but that's just it - even for liquid eyeliners, they're really... wet. Perhaps it's just that the liner is thinner, I'm not sure, but it makes for VERY smooth, even color application once it dries.

I was definitely surprised by these colors. The black is without a doubt the most matte black eyeliner I've ever tested, and that's saying a lot. Once it sets, there's absolutely zero shine whatsoever, and very little reflects off of it; they should have called it black hole... I don't love the blue and teal shades just because they're a little hard for me to pull off, but I'm sure there are others on whom they would look awesome. I also particularly LOVE the brown color, which isn't brown at all but a bronzey-taupe color... absolutely stunning. I wish I had discovered this one earlier!

I'm also happy and relieved to say that while these are completely smudge-proof, they DO come off with eye makeup remover, unlike their counterparts, the Wet 'n' Wild H20 Proof liquid eyeliners. As I've mentioned before, I hated those because they effectively tattooed my skin - I couldn't get the swatches off for three days. The MegaLiners, on the other hand, are just right; not smudgy, but not indelible, either. Yay!

MegaLiner: Black, Blue, Brown, Dark Brown, Plum, Turquoise

N.Y.C. Waterproof Eyeliners

2009-02-18T02:35:00.000-05:00

There isn't too much to say about these, simply because they're great and that's all there is to it. They consistently have the same smooth, creamy texture, and all of them have just the right level of pigmentation, such that they can be applied lightly for a subtle look or boldly for a dramatic look. They don't "set" after a minute and then not budge, as Urban Decay's 24/7s or Prestige's Waterproof Eyeliners do, but they also don't smudge on me unless I want them to (read: take a smudge brush to my lids). They also don't transfer onto my crease, which is a big deal for me. These retail for $4 each and are available at most drugstores.

Waterproof Eyeliner: Black, Dark Brown, Mink, Moody Blue, Sky High, Smoky Plum, Teal

L'Oreal H.I.P. Shine Struck Liquid Lipcolor

2009-02-17T10:23:00.000-05:00

And here we have yet another product from the L'Oreal H.I.P. line. Can you tell I'm somewhat enchanted? In all seriousness, though, I apologize if you're getting tired of me posting about H.I.P. products; I'm posting a lot of them right now in particular because they've been on sale lately, so I've gotten a lot of requests. On that note, the entire L'Oreal H.I.P. line is on a BOGO free sale at CVS right now, by the way...

These definitely are "liquid lipcolors," not "lip glosses," in my opinion; they tend to be highly pigmented. It's hard to apply them sheerly, even if you want to - all the tubes have stoppers with wide openings, so a lot of product comes out on the wand, and almost all the colors are exceedingly opaque, to boot. A few of these colors are very warm-toned, and a couple learn more toward the cool side. I'm relatively certain that there is no one out there on whom every single one of these colors would look outstanding, but a lot of people on whom many of the colors would look great. :) I love that there's such a wide color selection - just about anyone can find a color they'll like.

These did not stand out to me as being particularly moisturizing or drying. They aren't sticky at all, which is nice. It's something of a trade-off, though; in my experience, usually the sticker a gloss is, the longer it lasts. You will need to reapply with these, and a lip liner or reverse lip liner would probably help, too. While they don't bleed, per se, these are very creamy and won't necessarily stay in place if you rub your lips together.

I picked a few of my favorites from the swatches to try on my lips. Here are the pictures - enjoy! :)

Shine Struck Liquid Lipcolor: Arresting, Distinct, Euphoric, Harmless, Indestructible, Precarious, Pretentious, Reserved, Splendid, Tainted, Turbulent, Zealous

L'Oreal H.I.P. Color Truth Cream Eyeliners

2009-02-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

Given my raves for most of the L'Oreal H.I.P. line, it will probably not surprise anyone that I rather like these eyeliners. I will say that they're not my favorites - I prefer the texture of gel liners (such as Bobbi Brown's and Jane's) over cream liners, and as cream liners go, I prefer Clinique's - but they are definitely not bad. They're quite soft, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on personal preference; I don't like it when liners are too soft, which is probably why I tend to like gels better. With that said, cream liners are smoother and more blendable than gels for that exact reason, so they're also better-suited to be used as bases than gel liners are. I've heard of people using MAC's Blacktrack Fluidline as a base for a smoky eye look; I think the black H.I.P. liner could be used similarly.

It seems to me like the phrase "your mileage may vary" is particularly applicable to these eyeliners. In fact, the first time I tried them myself, I hated them because I couldn't get them to show up on me without applying several layers of eyeliner on top of each other; I suspect it was because that was in the summertime, when I have oilier eyelids, and it was before I was a true UDPP convert - I just used it on occasion, and may not have been using it that day. You need a primer with these, in my opinion. I've heard of them smudging all over the place on some people - I have no way of knowing if that was due to a lack of primer, or if those users were just getting crappy mileage. In any case: it's winter now, I use primer daily now, and I like them now. They stay put, and work very well for tightlining and/or waterlining. I've worn the black one to bed after being too tired to wash off my eye makeup twice before; the first time, it was fully intact when I woke up, and the second time, it was a little smudged, but more in a smoldering "I did this on purpose" way than a raccoon-eyes way. With that said, they don't put up any resistance if you attack them with eye makeup remover, which is nice. (I'm eternally petrified of eyeliners that don't come off with eye makeup remover, after my horrifying experience with the Wet 'n' Wild H20 Proof liquid eyeliners - I couldn't get the swatches off my arm for three days...)

Color Truth Cream Eyeliner: Black, Brown, Eggplant, Midnight Blue, Teal

Milani Eyeshadow Singles

2009-02-15T16:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sad to be writing this, but these eyeshadows as we knew them have been discontinued; they're still available at some drugstores as the inventory finishes selling out, and many are also available for swap on MakeupAlley, for sale on eBay, etc., but I know it's inconvenient. I found mine using the Walgreens website, which has an extremely awesome search engine that doesn't get nearly enough praise: you can search for a specific product, even in a particular color, plug in your zip code, and it will tell you which stores in your area carry that item, as well as (usually) whether or not it's currently in-stock. So, if you want and like them, don't give up hope completely!

With that said, these are pretty awesome shadows. They're frustratingly fragile, though, as you can probably see from the fact that 3 of the 12 are shattered; they're also difficult to get open, which makes for a bad combination. I am going to try to de-pot all of these shadows and re-press those three at one point soon, and will update with the results once I've done that. But, enough complaints: on the whole, I'm very impressed with these. Most are easily MAC quality, if not better. All are shimmery metallic colors, except Atlantis (matte) and Storm (sparkly). The pigmentation and staying power are great. I'm a little less thrilled with the textures of Sheer Sand and Storm, but the rest are quite smooth and blendable. I particularly like Java Bean - snatch it up if you can! :)

Eyeshadow: Atlantis, Blue Ice, Clover, Flare, Garden Mist, Golden Bronze, Illusion, Java Bean, Sheer Sand, Shock, Storm, Sun Goddess

Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge

2009-02-14T22:41:00.013-05:00

First of all, I'd like to thank FairyRebel for requesting that I swatch these, because I like them a LOT and don't even want to consider how much longer I'd have gone before discovering how amazing they are! I'm definitely going to have to replace the Stila Lillium Convertible Color in the little mesh goes-everywhere-with-me pouch that lives in my backpack with one of these; it took me less than ten seconds after applying one to my face to realize how much I prefer the texture and finish of the Bobbi Brown Pot Rouges, and it's a huge plus that it can be applied nicely with fingers. If you're the kind of person who compulsively washes your makeup brushes every day to eradicate all germs, these might not be for you. For keeping my travel bag minimized, though... a Pot Rouge beats a fragile NARS blush + full-sized skunk brush "up and down the street every day of the week and twice on Sunday," to quote one fabulous MUAer (theworldsdresser)!

Aaaanyway. After swatching these on my arm, I was very hesitant to apply them to my cheeks, plagued by visions of looking like a clown, breaking out all over instantaneously, etc. However, I remembered my earlier observation that they start out rather sheer and are very buildable, so I thought I'd give one a try, my fear of their lipstick-like texture notwithstanding. In retrospect, I think my paranoia served me well, because I started out applying the teeeeeniest amount to my cheeks - so little I didn't even think it would show up - and it ended up being just the right amount (almost too much at first, but perfect after I buffed it down slightly with two quick swipes from a kabuki brush). After months of being resigned to the thought that Stila CCs, which tend to sit on top of my cheeks and look almost greasy at times, were the best I was going to find, I was thrilled beyond belief by how the Pot Rouge just melted into my skin and gave me a gorgeous natural flush - no residue, greasiness, or noticeable anything at all except that pretty tint. This was particularly impressive because even the smoothest cream blushes (like Clinique's) tend to cling to any spots on my face that texturally differ from the rest, which just emphasizes current blemishes and post-acne discolorations. The Pot Rouge I tried on (which was Raspberry, by the way) almost seemed to help make my skin look more even overall... but that could just be me assigning impossible superpowers to it because it's so awesome, I'm not really sure.

Moving onto my lips, I figured it would be wise to start slow again. I ended up piling on more and more of it until I finally gave in, put on a thick layer, rubbed my lips together once, and called it good. For some reason, these come out exceedingly pigmented on the cheeks (I'm still stunned at how little it took to sufficiently color mine) but very sheer on the lips - or at least on mine, anyway. I like that, though; it's always easier to add more product than it is to take some away! I can't quite figure out whether these feel more like a lipstick, a lip gloss, or a lip stain, but I should add that they aren't overly moisturizing or drying; just about average in texture, as lip products go. I wouldn't get one of these for the sole purpose of wearing it on my lips, if that helps. Of course, if you find one that you love on your cheeks AND on your lips... then your face is perfectly coordinated, which is definitely a plus for the more color-challenged among us!

I'll stop babbling now, as I'm sure you get the idea... these are great, period. I genuinely wouldn't change a SINGLE thing about them. They cost $22 each and are available on Bobbi Brown's website, as well as at most department stores. Oh, one more thing - regretfully, my store didn't have a tester of Summer Tan (there are 12 Pot Rouges, not 11) - so that shade is not included in the swatches. However, having just seen these, I'd say the color swatches on BB's website are pretty accurate for the more brown-toned colors (Summer Tan is described as a "nude brown"), so you could look at it there.

Thankfully, the shades apply on the face pretty much exactly as they look on my arm. Enjoy! :)

Pot Rouge: Blushed Rose, Calypso Coral, Chocolate Cherry, Milk Chocolate, Pale Pink, Pink Raspberry, Pink Truffle, Powder Pink, Raspberry, Stonewashed Pink, Velvet Plum

Jane Aguaceuticals Aguamousse Eye Shadows

2009-02-14T00:43:00.006-05:00

Wow - well, I was going to publish some other posts on more popular products before I got to these, but now that I've tried them, I don't want to hold off at all because I feel it's important to pass on this information.

As cream/mousse shadows go, these are quite good if your skin can tolerate them. One woman mentioned on MakeupAlley that she'd had one on for ten hours without primer and experienced no creasing or fading, and I did notice that once they dried and set on my arm (after about a minute or so), they didn't smear or transfer at all. I was impressed by what I saw, and got all excited to try one or two on for an EOTD... but once I did, it was a disaster.

Jane's advertising claims that these eyeshadows have a "cooling" effect on the skin. Normally, this is a good thing - it makes me think of an tea tree oil-aloe gel my aunt used to put on me whenever I got sunburns as a kid - so, in my eyes, this makes for some pretty misleading advertising. In this case, the cooling agents in question are comfrey and lemon balm leaf extracts, which are both unregulated ingredients known to be potential skin irritants above certain concentration levels. (Of course, we have no way of knowing what their concentrations are in these shadows; I called Jane's customer service and left a voicemail, but have not heard back yet.)

The point is, these HURT my eyes. About a second after I started to apply one (Still Horizon) to my eyelid, my lid started to burn. I told myself that it was probably just the "cooling agent" and it would go away before long, so I waited. I finally gave up and removed it after about two minutes, by which point my eyes were watering so much I had tears streaming down my face. The skin on my eyelid felt painfully sensitive, but I was determined to have an EOTD for this blog post, so I thought maybe I'd have better luck with another color, and tried Barracuda on for size. Oh no, no, no - this was even worse - this time, I left it on for maybe 30 seconds before I was reaching for my eye makeup remover. Once I got it off, I could see that my eyelid was slightly swollen, even more pink than before, and blotchy in a couple of places, like I'd caused a blood vessel to burst or something. That was several hours ago, and I haven't put anything on my lid since then; it still stings.

I posted about this on the Makeup Board on MakeupAlley and received responses from several users indicating that I was not the first to have had a reaction to these shadows, so buyer beware. I wish I could encourage you to try these on a "safe" area like your arm before you try applying them to your lids to see if they bother you, but I experienced no sensitivity when I swatched them on my arm. They do feel mildly itchy when applied to the inside of my elbows, so perhaps if you tried that first, you'd better be able to tell. Just please be cautious with these, if you really want to give them a try.

For your reference, I took a picture of my eye after I removed the eyeshadow for the second time. The lighting wasn't perfect, but you should be able to see that my lid area is pink and moderately puffy, as well as the spots that look like burst blood vessels (but if not, please take my word for it)... thanks for reading.

Aguaceuticals Aguamousse Eye Shadow: Barracuda, Beachcomber, Sandstone, Seashell, Silver Dollar, Still Horizon, Washed Ashore

L'Oreal H.I.P. Metallic Eye Shadow Duos

2009-02-12T23:51:00.008-05:00

So, given that it's been... er... a long time since I swatched the "regular" H.I.P. duos, I figured I might as well give these their own post. There are also a lot of pictures, and there were a lot of pictures in the first post too, so hopefully this is less overwhelming than putting them all together.

Let me start by saying that I was only so-so on the original duos, but these Metallics are truly in a league of their own. Every single one of the colors is unique, and these shadows are definitely not lower quality than your average high-end shadow; in fact, they're better than most I've seen. The pictures aren't 100% true to color because the lighting in my room has a slightly yellowish tint, so it might be hard to see this yourself, but the two shades in Gunmetal, when blended together, look just like MAC's Greensmoke shadow. The difference is that Greensmoke goes on sheer and difficult to blend, whereas Gunmetal is much more buttery. And you get two shadows in one ;-) I really like to blend these together for a look and top it off by lining my lash line with the darker shade and/or my waterline with the lighter shade (using a sealant to increase visibility, of course).

Gilded and Platinum are easily the most dramatic of the two; the gold shade in Gilded and the silver shade in Platinum are extremely vivid, visible colors that feel and wear like a pressed MAC pigment with metallic tones (along the lines of Copper or Silver Fog). When I had them on my fingertips, they were harder to get off than the others; they almost melted into my skin and coated it like paint - it was fascinating.

In any case: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of the five to anyone. If you think the colors look appealing, it's not unlikely that they're "your colors" (we tend to gravitate toward what looks best on us, in my experience), so they're worth checking out.

Enjoy the pictures :)

Eye Shadow Duo: Sculpted, Magnetic, Gunmetal, Gilded, Platinum

L'Oreal Colour Juice Sticks

2009-02-06T00:19:00.010-05:00

Okay, ONE more post and then I'm going to bed! XD

I am actually dead tired, but you know what? I love these so, so much that I didn't want to wait to share them with you all. Seriously. I love them so much it's made me impatient to post about them.

I don't know about the production timeline on these products, but it seems to me that these Colour Juice Sticks are L'Oreal's answer to Chantecaille's Lip Chics - they are, as the box states, "sheer, light, and luscious." I feel like a fool repeating someone else's ad campaign (I should be getting paid for this, right?), but I couldn't agree more; as someone who loves sheer lipstick colors and has unbelievably dry and chapped lips this time of year, these are a dream come true for me, and I stumbled upon them completely by accident, too! They are almost all truly gorgeous shades, and each one is intensely moisturizing - my lips were peeling and almost bleeding in places when I started swatching, and you'd think that putting on and then taking off 10 different lipsticks would make that worse, no? Doing that with eyeshadow has been killing my lids lately, that's for sure... and yet, I kid you not, my lips were in far better shape upon removal of the 10th lipstick than they were when I started.

These feel like a combination lipstick-lipgloss-lip balm going on the lips - I can't even describe how luxurious it feels and how pampered my lips feel just putting one on. The matte ones (all but three - Berry Spritzer, Island Punch, and Strawberry Fields have a small amount of shimmer/sparkle) in particular... man. I am just swooning over the texture of these. If I were to somehow have all of my perfect lip colors in this line (whatever they would be), I'd swap all my other lipsticks in a heartbeat and just keep these.

The last thing I want to add about them is a little nudge in Chantecaille's direction: while I love the texture of Lip Chics as well, not a damn one of them works on me - the colors are just off somehow. I think they're all too warm for me, or something like that. And yet L'Oreal has managed to come up with a few shades that I just love, and for more like $8-10 a pop...! Go figure, huh?

Without further ado (and with more LOTDs to come as I am able to get more of them in natural light over the next couple of days - the sun set in the my swatching session today):

More soon to come! :)

Colour Juice Stick: Berry Spritzer, Chai Love You, Cherry Freeze, Island Punch, Mango Tango, Personali-Tea, Pink Lemonade, Plum Crazy, Strawberry Fields, Watermelon Ice

L'Oreal H.I.P. Cream Shadow Paints

2009-02-05T23:20:00.005-05:00

So, I might as well follow up the UD Cream Shadows with more cream shadows, no? Fear not, ye who are less enthusiastic about eye makeup... I have a bevy of lip products next on the docket ;-)

This is going to be a shorter and sweeter review because, well, I'm tired of typing. Suffice it to say that I LOVE these. They're available everywhere the L'Oreal H.I.P. products can be found, as far as I've seen/heard, and retail for $12 each (though they can often be found BOGO at some drugstore or another). Particularly in light of my disappointment with the UD cream shadows, I was especially impressed with these; they are, without exception, perfectly pigmented, slightly metallic/shimmery but in no way over-the-top, and exceptionally blendable while still staying put. You have a minute or so to do what you wish with them on and around the lid area before they start to set, and once they've set, they won't go anywhere without eye makeup remover - these are very hardy shadows! :)

Steely, the gunmetal-grey-black shade, is truly one of a kind, and within seconds of applying it, it was HG status for me - I can't understand how I've ever lived without it. Moreover, how I've ever even considered putting together a "smoky eye" look without it. It can be sheered out to just darken the lid with a wash of that sultry grey color, or can be layered to create a dark look with amazing contrast. That smoky eye down there? I did the whole thing, from shadow paint to eyeliner to mascara to lash comb, etc., in less than two minutes. And, to be honest, I love it! And these things wear like... I don't even know what to compare them to that would do them justice. Iron, I guess, but that sounds too weak. I did NOT use a primer under the cream shadow paints when I tried them out, and they were still 100% intact and looked freshly-applied the next morning (after a night of tossing and turning, no less). I am impressed with these. Have I said that enough yet?! :D

Enjoy!

Cream Shadow Paint: Commanding, Lofty, Nervy, Secretive, Steely, Witty