Maybelline

You know what they say: “Woman cannot live off Chanel Mat Taupe alone!” (Someone must say that, right?)

OK, well…technically, I could, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂 Who wants to wear the same taupe liner day in, day out? Bluh. I’m always open to new alternatives to black eyeliner for tightlining because I like the softer, less aggressive look, and the older I get, the more I prefer lining with colors other than basic black.

That, my friend, brings me to the topic of a treasure I recently discovered from Maybelline called Jade Olive, which is only (drumroll, please) six bucks! (officially, $5.99) It’s a twist-up, long-wearing waterproof matte khaki pencil.

I don’t know if it’s a gel liner, because it’s soft enough to be one… It almost feels like a gel because of the way it melts and glides across the skin, but it doesn’t look as harsh and flat as some matte gel liners do.

It also doesn’t make my skin feel dry or tight like some gels have in the past, so the jury’s still out on that… Either way, it’s a creamy, smudgy, long-wearing kohl that sets like *that*.

The rich, true khaki green color is brighter and more intense than something like Chanel Mat Taupe, but it’s not as dark as MAC Coffee. It’s a nice in-between tightlining shade, and I think my brown eyes look more chocolaty when I wear it.

I wore Jade Olive the other day when I took pics for the Wander Beauty foundation review, and MBB reader Roma (what’s up, Roma?) said in the comments that she immediately noticed the wide-eyed effect, which made me so, so happy because, well…that’s exactly what I was going for when I lined my lash and water lines with this bad gal.

Just goes to show how transformative a little liner can be!

[Continue reading…]

I sincerely want to know what you’re doing with your life that could require you to have your brow product last for two days straight. Like…how? Why? I don’t even know. I can’t imagine. Two days! That’s how long these new Maybelline Tattoo Studio Waterproof Brow Gels ($9.99 are supposed to last on your brows.

They are long lasting; I’ll give ’em that. I only wore Medium Brown for a day, but I did sweat my way through life and went for a run on the treadmill, and it stayed put just fine.

Thing is…these are kind of hard to use. They come in tubes with a teeny, tiny doe foot, and the instructions on the box suggest bringing the doe foot directly to your brow, starting at the midpoint and going to the ends, then filling in the front before taking the separate spoolie (which comes with the gel), and brushing the gel through.

The look is lush and full, and the hold is super soft, so no crunchy brows (yay), but the resulting brow looks like more like a solid block of color than a brow comprised of individual brown hairs.

So the look isn’t really my style, but if you’re into that packed, full, dense high-glam brow, this might work for you.

I have a hard time applying this product… The doe foot deposits too much color, much too quickly for me, and I always end up with overly dramatic, overly dark brows. It’s way too easy to go buck wild with it, and I just can’t see myself, ya know, trying to do 10-minute makeup and successfully pulling it off with this brow product.

Also, I’m fairly certain I’m going to lose the spoolie within a couple days…

[Continue reading…]

This mascara smells like the beach.

Add that to the list of “Things I’d Never Said in 10 Years of Writing About Mascara.”

Somebody out there thought, “What the world needs right now is a mascara that smells like coconuts!”

And it smells really good, BTW. I think so. Maybelline Total Tempation Mascara smells exactly like coconut candy or a coconut-scented sunscreen at a surf shack.

Also, it comes in a pretty pink tube. 🙂

Plus and plus.

It’s the latest mascara from Maybelline. It’s $7.99 and part of their Total Temptation collection that officially arrives next month (although it’s on Amazon right now if you’re itchin’ to have a coconut-scented mascara in your life).

I think it’s A-OK… I don’t think it’s as life-changing as L’Oréal Lash Paradise, which is the current gold standard of dramatic drugstore mascaras for me because it does everything well — lengthen, separate, thicken, holds a lash curl — but Maybelline Total Temptation gets the job done.

My naturally uninspiring, fairly average lashes look bumped-up a notch or two when I wear a couple coats. They’re longer, thicker and spikier. The formula does gather groups of lashes together, and the spikes are eye-catching, especially from an arm’s length away, but I prefer the extreme separation and tighter curl I get from Lash Paradise.

If you find Total Temptation at the drugstore and pick it up, I don’t think you’ll be bummed out or anything. It’s a perfectly functional, simple, easy-to-remove drugstore mascara that boosts your lash game a little.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What do you think about a palette that smells like coconuts? Are you intrigued and totally tempted? As a “food enthusiast,” I am, but when I sniff the new $14.99 Maybelline Total Temptation Shadow + Highlight Palette, and I really get my nose up in it, the coconut isn’t nearly as strong as it is in Maybelline’s Total Temptation Mascara, which seems kind of odd to me…

I dunno why, but I just expected the powder products to smell more coco-nutty than the mascara. It’s probably from the years of opening compacts and smelling roses or violets or gardenia or vanilla, or whatever else has been the scent du jour. I’m conditioned.

Or, maybe I’m just hungry and wish these eyeshadows and highlighters smelled like coconut macaroons. 🙂

Part of the Maybelline Total Temptation product family

The list price is $14.99, so it’s a little expensive for drugstore, and it’s part of Maybelline’s new Total Temptation line, which is available on Amazon now (the Amazon price for the palette is $9.49) and coming to drugstores next month.

There are eight powder eyeshadows and two powder highlighters divided into two groups.

One side of the palette has warm browns, peaches and golds, and the other has cool mauve, violet and charcoal shades.

[Continue reading…]

As has been documented on the interwebz, I have a brow situation, but here it is again, with feeling, in case you missed it the first 1,465 times: my right brow is shorter, and my left brow has a bald spot (Raul says “WASSUP!”).

It’s an uneven situation all around, so I fill in my brows daily because big brows make me feel like superhero Karen.

I usually skip the process, though, when I work out, because I’m just going to sweat it all off anyway, but new Maybelline Total Temptation Brow Definer ($7.99) has me rethinking that world view.

GIRL. Technically, this stuff isn’t waterproof or sweat-proof, but it might as well be because it hangs on even better than pricier pencils by MAC, Urban Decay and Tom Ford.

I wore it to HIIT class Monday night, which I almost didn’t even go to because I was really dragging my feet. I came *this close* to bailing, so I needed — yes, needed! — brows to help get me through it.

Don’t ask me why, but looking semi-cute during exercise class helps me push harder. *shoulder shrugs*

Deep Brown, the shade closest to my dark blackish brown hair, stayed put on my skin and between my brow hairs to keep my fuzzy little caterpillars looking fluffy and full throughout countless burpies (burpees?) and switch lunges. Every time I caught a glimpse of my gansta face in the mirror and mumbled “Karen, you can do this!” under my breath, I felt and looked LEGIT.

[Continue reading…]