Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
You know what I like more than warm brownies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side?
Not a lot. LOL! 🙂
Kidding. But seriously, I love finding new budget beauty bargains, like Palladio’s Herbal Plump ‘n’ Shine lip glosses.
There’s not a lot to ’em. They’re just your everyday comfy glosses with a brush applicator and a mirror-like shine, but they’re only $6 each, so they don’t cost an arm and a leg, and they’re packed with botanical ingredients.
Just in case you were wondering, if you wear one of the new $5 NYX Butter Glosses while eating cinnamon walnut French toast with a heaping scoop of butter, you will not — I REPEAT! — will not experience butter overload.
(As if there were such a thing.)
On my lips, each of these 12 new moisturizing, non-sticky lip glosses feel all smooth and slick like little sticks of butter…but they don’t taste or smell like butter (whew!)
Nope, more like brown sugar and vanilla, yum!
Yes, yum. 🙂
I’ve had mixed luck with NYX lip product flavors and scents in the past, know what I mean?
Not these though. As far as my nose and palate are concerned, NYX nailed these. On a sensory level, these Butter Glosses represent probably the best experience I’ve ever had from the line. Both the brown sugar and vanilla notes are faint, too, just barely there, and dissipate quickly after 1-2 minutes.
One swipe from the doe-foot applicator leaves behind a sheer layer of color and satiny shine, while a second layer ups the coverage to medium.
Either way, these don’t last all that long on my lips. Most of the time I get about an hour.
[Continue reading…]
Can I steal you away this morning for a 15-minute break?
Yes? Cool! Follow me. I’ll drive. 🙂
You and I are SO hitting up that drugstore over there…
Wait — you say you have to fill out those TPS reports first (LAME)? Okay, well, you know where to find me. I’ll be in the beauty aisle, by the Milani stuff, ogling the new Ultrafine Liquid Eye Liners.
I can’t believe they’re less than $10! How did Milani manage to make them pigmented, waterproof (long-lasting), quick drying, AND give them such a high-shine finish?
[Continue reading…]
I can hardly believe that Milani’s new line of lightweight, creamy, pigmented Color Statement Lipsticks clock in at a cool $5.49 per tube. If you dressed these up a little, maybe gave ’em a packaging makeover, no joke — they could probably pass for Tom Ford lippies!
Oh, but we might want to do something about that fruit punch fragrance… Wow! Talk about strong.
If fruity fragrances in your lip products aren’t a big issue for you, climb in, because these are like the Lamborghinis of drugstore lipsticks.
Here’s a quick peek at the pink and coral shades from the line…
[Continue reading…]
Milani’s making one heck of a statement with their new Bold Color Statement Lipsticks, and that statement reads, “Get a great deal on pigment!”
Wow, this much pigment for $5.49? Quite a deal, but I’ll kindly pass on the cloying bubblegum scent…
[Continue reading…]
Okay, okay. Sure, I haven’t painted my toenails in — well, I can’t even remember how long it’s been because I figure, why bother? This time of year, I’m always wearing boots, closed-toe shoes and/or socks.
Same goes for shaving and my legs. I think the last time was a month ago? Something like that, and now it’s like I’ve got built-in boots with the fur from my knees down.
I’m usually pretty good about my beauty routines — tweezing my brows, waxing my ‘stach, painting my nails — but come winter, many of my beauty habits fall by the wayside.
I didn’t realize how lax I’d become until about a week ago, when I had a shower revelation.
I was lathering up the pelt of fur on my calves when it occurred to me that the hairs were long enough to weave a small (yet tasteful) wall tapestry.
Yeah, that long.
As surprised (and appalled) as I was, excuses to leave well enough lone kept springing to mind, like, “It’s soooo cold. Who’s gonna see my legs anyway? People didn’t even used to shave back in the olden days…”
Thankfully this time, I ignored the excuses and decided enough was enough.
My mission: to embark upon a five-day winter beauty boot camp, of sorts, to get my beauty groove back. 🙂
Each day, I committed to doing one little thing to break myself out of my beauty rut. I thought it would be easier than trying to do it all in the same day.
First, I drafted my plan, identifying its major components and dividing them up among the days.
If you also feel like you’re stuck in a winter beauty rut, here’s a copy of my plan. Maybe you could use it as a template to draft one of yours.
There’s something so, I dunno, rejuvenating about exfoliating from head to toe in the shower. Like, “Out with the old, in with the new.”
On day one, gently buff and polish away dead skin cells from your face and neck with an exfoliating face scrub. Then, scrub your bod for smoother skin with a moisturizing oil and sugar scrub.
Nothing like a little extra hydration to help dry, winter skin.
Quench your skin’s thirst on day two in the shower with a luxuriously rich bath or shower gel like Olay Ultra Moisture Body Wash ($5.99 for a 23.6-ounce bottle). Then, after stepping out of the shower, slather up with a thick body butter.
Say it with me: “I am not a Sasquatch!”
Dedicate day three to eradicating wayward winter body hair with your favorite shave lotion and razor.
[Continue reading…]
Wait — are you kidding me?! You two haven’t met yet? Well, we need to fix that immediately.
Babe, this is Sonia Kashuk’s new Formal Affair Palette; Formal Affair, this is one of my beauty besties.
I think you two will hit it off. Formal Affair here is quite a bargain at $19.99. She may spend her days in drugstores, but at heart, she’s 100% department store-caliber makeup.
It’s as if Sonia said, “I’m going to make the perfect powder palette, and it’s going to contain two blushes, one bronzer and four eyeshadows for girls who want to look like they’re wearing NARS, Bobbi Brown and Urban Decay but don’t want to spend that much.”
Don’t the golden brown powder bronzer and shimmery, golden peachy pink blush on Formal Affair’s far right look inspired by the NARS Orgasm/Laguna duo? Except that Sonia’s bronzer is sheerer than NARS Laguna, with slightlier grittier grains of golden glitter, and the golden pearl within the blush looks less pronounced to me than NARS Orgasm (maybe they’re just kissing cousins).
Okay, although I feel kinda lame getting excited about a brown eyeshadow (with so many great flashy colors out there and all!), Formal Affair’s brown is just so chocolaty…so shimmery…and so Mmmm! — buttery smooth.
It reminds me of Snakebite from the Urban Decay Naked2 palette.
It’s just so blendable, and I love how easy it is to wear sheer or build up in layers.
The tan and black glittery shadows in Formal Affair would fit right in with Bobbi Brown’s Sparkle Eyeshadows. Like those shadows from Bobbi, they’re loaded with gobs of medium-sized glitter, but Sonia takes things a step further by using an intensely pigmented base. Patting either shade on the brown shade from Formal Affair is a quick way to dress up a look. I do have to be mindful, though, of the fallout, which is slight, but still. At least it’s easy enough to clean up, especially if I do my eyes first.
[Continue reading…]
I have a theory that if by some magical force we were all turned back into babies and allowed to go buck wild in a drugstore, I doubt that very many of us would go goo-goo, gaa-gaa over Maybelline Full ‘N Soft Waterproof Mascara based solely on its simple, unassuming tube.
I mean, just look at it. That’s some pretty basic packaging right there. No neon to speak of, vibrating brushes, fancy fonts or flashing lights.
But man! — I gotta say, this $7 workhorse is quite a wonderful drugstore gem.
My reasons for having kept a tube of it in my makeup bag for the past few years (I literally never leave home without it) reads like an awesome laundry list (or an awesome list of awesomeness from Trader Joe’s).
First and foremost, it’s only seven bucks! And it’s carried in probably 5,000 drugstores nationwide.
I think those are two pretty great reasons, but Full ‘N Soft Waterproof also does all of the things I want a mascara to do — adding length and separation to my lashes while holding a curl, so that I look wide awake (even when I’m not).
What about raccoon eyes? you might ask.
Great question, but nope. None of that. Full ‘N Soft doesn’t flake, smudge or run, and one of the things I really like about it is how well it layers.
No bumps or clumps, just smooth, evenly coated lashes, which means I get control over how my lashes look.
When I want them to look natural, like for the beach, I just apply one or two layers for that feathery, separated look. Or when I’m craving something more dramatic, I’ll do three or four.
Either way, I think my results with this mascara are consistently great.
[Continue reading…]