So I took a chance and tried out the new Revlon Mascara Grow Luscious mascara. I am still bummed that the L’Oreal Lash Out has been discontinued at so many stores, but I figure if I don’t branch out more, I may never find a comparable mascara to my beloved Lash Out.

So, when I was at Target the other day searching for something totally unrelated to mascara, I saw that they were having a promotion on the new Revlon Grow Luscious mascara for $5.99, and I decided to give it a whirl. If it sucked and I hated it, I could just swallow the six bucks, so no biggie.

Revlon Grow Luscious comes in a foil like tube with blue colors on it, so it’s definitely eye catching – good job on attention grabbing packaging Revlon!  It’s a thicker tube that I’m use to, but that’s fine because I’m more concerned about the type of wand it uses for application and the mascara formula itself, since those are the two components that determine how it’s going to plump and separate the lashes, as well as lengthen them.

I like a mascara that easily lengthens my outer lashes, and plumps the inner lashes, because this is how you get the effect of bigger eyes going.  When I first applied it, my heart sank a little (ok, that may be a little dramatic for simply mascara, let’s just say I was a little disappointed) when I first dipped the brush in.

The brush wasn’t as fine as I like it, so I thought it may not separate as well, but it did a fine job of separating the lashes as it applied the mascara. The formula of the mascara is good as well, but it seems to take quite a few dips to get enough on the application wand to get some juicy thickness going.

As with most other mascaras, this one took a few coats to get the desired effect for me.  But I liked the outcome. It’s not thick or clumpy, so it does apply well.

Now, does it apply as well as my treasured L’Oreal Lash Out? Heck no! But it’s a close second, and I guess that has to be good enough for now. L’Oreal, come out with another kick butt mascara again!

So I went to an Ulta store for the first time during my recent visit to Pittsburgh PA, and boy was I blown away by the size and selection in that store!  That’s for a whole ‘nother topic of discussion, but I really liked it. It was different than what I had expected.

What I’m here to talk about today is the L’Oreal brand line of Ever Pure hair care products, which spawned this “Ever Sleek” leave in humidity defying creme that I bought at Ulta. It cost about eight bucks, which wasn’t bad, although it’s a little pricier than their products usually are.

It comes in a pump bottle, which I really like. Tubes tend to be a pain to use.  It is six ounce of product.  This cream is a very light, viscous cream, which is not what I was expecting since it is “humidity resistant”.  However, the white, milky cream has really proven to be a quite a nice hair cream and leave in conditioning agent.

I really didn’t have high hopes for the product since I have tried some of their other Ever Pure product line which boasts that it has no sulfates in it, yet still has a laundry list of other drying ingredients in it (that is just my opinion). I didn’t hate them, but they also didn’t leave my hair as silky as I thought they might.

This cream is the exception though. I like it as much as I like the Universal Styling cream by Aveda. I might even like it more, because it not only tames my hair like the Universal styling cream, but it also isn’t as thick as the styling cream is, so you don’t feel like you’lll look like a big greaseball if you put a little too much in your hair.

The Ever Sleek Humidity Defying cream says that it controls frizz for 48 hours, and I do believe that is true. Most products cannot control frizz and style for longer than that, because product does evaporate off of the hair, and the dirt that accumulates pretty much nulls out the effects of most products after this period of time.

I believe that this product is going to be a hair care staple at my house this summer. I’ll let you know how it controls frizz in the summer time. That’s the real test of a good frizz taming product!

As I talked about in my last update, I got hooked on the Revlon liquid liner, when I had been using L’Oreal’s liquid liner for a long time. I recently decided to try yet another one of L’Oreal’s facial care products, this time a day time cream called Future-e (it contains vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant for the skin) with SPF 15.

It looked like the perfect light day time lotion for me, and I was also looking for something with an SPF in it as well to protect my skin from the daytime sunlight and ward off premature aging sun rays.

It came in a very generous 4 oz. bottle size. Most creams for the face come in 1-2 ounces, so I felt I was getting a good deal on this Future-e cream for around $12. I use a TON of day time moisturizer on my skin so that my skin doesn’t dry out during the day and show wrinkles and imperfections more.

I am a firm believer that intense and constant hydration of the skin is one of the biggest ways to fight off the signs of aging like wrinkles and sun damage.  So, I knew that although this was a 4 oz. bottle, I would do some pretty good damage to it in a fairly short amount of time.

I really like the lotion. It has a pleasant, unoffenisve scent to it, and a velvety sort of texture that isn’t greasy and absorbs pretty well. When I put it on, I layer it, so I let the first layer sink in, then I apply a second and a third. My skin looks fresh and dewy when I’m done, and it creates a great surface for my foundation to adhere to.

I like the way the lotion makes my skin feel, but I have a few complaints.  I wish this product did not contain artificial scents and the preservatives that it has in it. I prefer to use natural lotions with SPF that have no parabens, pthalates, sulfates, petrolatum and other potentially toxic chemicals.

However, I was sort of a slave to the grocery store at the time since I couldn’t run to a natural food store and buy something without all the chemicals in it.  This is, however, a good product from L’Oreal, and I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t concerned about chemicals.  I will use it here and there after my chemical free stuff comes in the mail.  I do like the way it makes my skin feel and look.

Of the popular over the counter cosmetics that you can buy at any drugstore or department store, I really like L’Oreal the best, and then Revlon the second best. I like L’Oreal because they brought deep pigments to the picture in drugstore brand in their HIP line, and I’ve loved their mascara now for almost two decades.

I used L’Oreal’s liquid eyeliner for a few years, and I like it fine. I thought the felt tip on the applicator could have been a little thinner to give a more precise line if you didn’t want it too thick,  but other than that I liked the way it wore (besides a little smudging here and there), and I like the color options.

The other day, I noticed that I was running so low on the brown liquid liner that it was starting to look diluted in color and was watered down, so I decided to buy a new brown liquid liner.

This time I went with Revlon Colorstay liquid brown eyeliner. It was actually almost two bucks cheaper than the same L’Oreal liner that I had just run out of, so I thought what the heck. Even if I hated it, I wouldn’t be out that much money and if I liked it, I may have found a less expensive liquid liner to use.

So I tried it out yesterday for the first time, and I really really like it!  It has a nice color to it, a darker brown, and it came out exceptionally even and smooth looking. It wore all day long like a champ without running at all. It also gave me a very precise line because of how thin the tip was.

I believe this is a felt tip as well, not a brush, and that’s what I liked about the L’Oreal version too, except I like the Revlon one even better because it gives you more control over the thickness of the line you want to create. Typically, you only use liquid eyeliner on the top of your eyelids, not on the bottom.

I like to use the brown liquid liner for the daytime because I feel like black is a little too dramatic and harsh for the daytime.  This gave me a very nice, casual look. I only lightly line my bottom lash line with a brown pencil liner, and smudge it a bit when I use liquid on the lid, so that the top looks more dramatic and stands out more.

In comparison to the L’Oreal liquid liner, I give Revlon the better review, hands down.

I’ve definitely found my favorite new eyebrow liner.  I actually sort of found it by accident. I wasn’t even shopping for a new brow liner because I thought the one I had was ok – not the best and most perfect match, but it was ok enough to keep.

I actually was shopping with a gift card my husband had gotten me for the Macy’s where they have a newer MAC counter by where I live, specifically for me to get makeup with.  He knew I was in need of a few new things, and it was the perfect gift since he had no idea what I liked when it comes to makeup.

My plan was actually to get some new brown shades of eyeshadow – just singles, and to also pick up a new tube of the Lip Glass colored lip gloss, which is great because it lasts a long time and comes in pretty colors.  Other than that, I wasn’t really looking to try or buy anything else.

I usually will try on the colors before I buy them, so I had one of their makeup artists do a natural smudgy brown look on my eyes.  The makeup artist took out a brow liner too, to help shape my brows and complete the look since I went in there au naturelle.

The brow pencil is a push up style pencil that is very skinny at the top so that you can “draw” on your brows like you’re drawing on one hair at a time, with quick, short, upward strokes where ever your eyebrows thin out a bit naturally.  For me, this is the outer brow, more toward the sides of my face, from over zealous plucking when I was in my early twenties and micro brows were in.

It’s a very light color, almost a taupe color, but it blends PERFECTLY with my eyebrows, never looking reddish or too dark like a lot of the other eyebrow pencils and fillers I bought used to look.

The only drawback to the MAC eyebrow pencil is that it does go down quickly. Just one application wears the pencil down to the nub again, so you have to constantly be clicking it back up again each time you use it.

The girl did tell me that was an issue with the brow pencil, so she recommended I buy a backup since you can’t tell when they’re out. She was right, I love it AND I want to go buy a backup now for when it is gone!

I had never heard of the cosmetics brand name Sue Devitt when I went shopping at a Macy’s department store in their cosmetics department, far away from home.

I was looking for a good brand that could be comparable to the vivid colors I liked from MAC, but wanted to try something different. At $22 a pop for these eyeliners, which were in a thick pencil, I wanted to make sure I’d like them. They are made in Germany, by the way.

The sales counter girl said she owned one in every color. Judging from the way she had her makeup on, I decided I liked her taste (don’t tell me you’re not a snob that way:), and started to try out the colors on the back of my hand, as is customary when you’re trying multiple colors.

There are a few things that I look for when trying out new colors, whether it’s eyeshadow or eyeliner. The first is how easily applicable is the product? I don’t like the overly waxy penciles that barely get any color on your skin when you apply them.

I also don’t like something that glides on too easily every time and instantly needs to be smudged to tone down the richness of color.  Also, this tends to indicate that a product might run and smudge very easily, so I like something that’s in between.

I notice when I tried to smudge the eyeliner on my hand, it smudged nicely, but didn’t budge form actually adhering to it’s shape. That was a good sign. I loved the color array the brand offered too.

They had rich deep greens (which was one of the colors I ultimately bought), browns, sapphire blues, black, grey. purple and even some other exotic colors I hadn’t seen yet. I stuck to getting the deep forest green and another coppery brown color that I thought would go well with my skin tone, which is naturally fair except when I put self tanner on.

I had to buy a special sharpener for the pencils because they are a lot fatter than other eyeliners.  The only complaint I have is that they don’t get very sharp, so if you are looking for a very precise, thin line, you’d never want to buy these.

If, however, you like to put a thicker line on, and then smudge it, this is the ideal product because you don’t have to draw, then re-draw to get the thick, smudged look.

These eyeliners were definitely made for a more dramatic look, and that’s what I like, so they are perfect!  All in all, I did spend a lot on just two eyeliner pencils and a pencil sharpener, but I really like how it comes out, how it wears all day, and the inensity of the colors themselves, so it’s well worth it to me.

They are a lot better than almost anything you’d find at a local drug store.

I’ve always used eyebrow liner in some capacity. Some days I might make my brows a little bolder and darker, and some days I really want minimalist eyebrows. I always have to use SOMETHING though, thanks to plucking one are of my brows nearly clean when thin eyebrows were in years ago.

Now that fuller, more natural (but still groomed) brows are in, it seems every woman is looking for ways to make her brows look fuller, while still looking neat and shaped.

That’s why I purchased a product by Anastasia that is both a brow gel and shaper and tint in one. So, not only do you groom your brows into place so they don’t budge, but you also get a natural looking tint to them. Natural, closely matching colors on your brows are vital to having nice looking eyebrows.

I’ve bought way too many eyebrow liners and definers that claimed to look natural, but when you get them on they’re either too dark for your color or they are reddish looking, which stands out like a sore thumb, especially if you’re fair skinned like me.

I’m a brunette with lighter brunette hair, somewhat fair skin (unless I’m using a self tanner on my face, which I do love to do), so I wanted a shade that was right in between. Something that wasn’t too light, like for blonds, and wasn’t too dark, for people with dark hair and dark complexions.  The shade I ended up with was the Anastasia tinted brow gel in Brunette.

When I got the package in the mail (I ordered it online), I was surprised by how light and goldish the color looked in the tube. Red flags went up in my head.  It also appeared to have gold flecks in it, a sort of reflective shimmery quality to it.

The first time I applied the Anastasia brow liner, I put way too much on. I looked like Charlie Chaplin or something. I quickly figured out that with this product, a tiny bit goes a long way.  If you push too hard or over-apply, the results look phony and ridiculous.  I use the very tip only to get a very thin, definite, and light line, and I use a light touch instead of pressing too hard.

The results are pretty nice.  I wouldn’t say that the Brunette color is a 100% PERFECT match to my brows, but it’s pretty close, and I’ll buy the product again. It’s nice too, because it tints the brow hairs you have that are lighter, so it makes them look fuller more naturally than with a brow liner pencil.  Good product!  I think it ran me about $16.

One of my free sample from my recent purchase as Sephora was a Smashbox product. I actually have never tried any cosmetic products by Smashbox, so I was curious to see if I’d like this product, which certainly sounded promising by it’s name “Photo Finish Luminizing Foundation Primer”.  I like any products that are going to help bend the light and make my skin look better, or make it look smoother and healthier, so this sounded like something I would like.

I thought this was going to be a light, sort of pearlescent type of formula, but boy was I wrong. It came out of the tube like a sort of mousse I guess is the best way to describe it. And it was a lot darker of a tone than I thought it would be for being a “foundation primer”.  What I ended up doing with it was using it like a bronzer. I mixed it with my usual foundation and a little bit of Revlon Skinlights luminizer.

I’m happy to say I really liked it, but I’m not sure that it’s really a “primer” like it’s advertised. It’s defeinitely quite a dark shade to be a primer for some people with more fair skin tones, like myself.  As a bronzer though, to help warm up the makeup, it’s really great, and you don’t need much of it at all. It is supposed to act as a primer because it helps to fill in lines and large pores, acting as a sort of preparer for your foundation, so it’s supposed to be good as an anti aging and wrinkle foundation primer as well.

This products starts at $38 for a generous sized bottle now, and is available at Sephora.

While I was vacationing in South Carolina and then Virginia for a few days, I was in a lot of drug stores, snooping around, seeing if they had anything different in the way of beauty products that I don’t typically see here in Ohio. I found one that is in Ohio, but that I thought was an interesting concept in self tanning and hair removal or at least in minimizing shaving your legs that I bought. The product is by Nivea and it’s called Sun-Kissed Beautiful Legs Shave Minimizing gradual self tanning moisturizer.  Quite a mouth full!

But that describes the product in a nutshell. It is supposed to help cut back on hair growth on your legs, and also gradually self tan them with a subtle self tanner. The bottle is ten bucks, and it is almost 7 ounces. If you use it on just your legs (I used it on my whole body the first time), it will last you quite a few tans.  It’s a white cream, which I  like because even though I do like the instant tan of a tinted self tanner and the instantly dewy look it gives your skin, I don’t like those types of self tanners when I’m planning on putting it on right before bed time.

It will stain your sheets, especially if they are lighter.  Here’s the kicker about this product thought. I do think it helped my leg hair, maybe it made it softer, but I don’t think it actually inhibited it’s growth. I think their selling point may be that since your legs are tanner, the hair is less noticeable, because they don’t specifically claim that there are any hair growth inhibiting ingredients in it on the back label.

It says that with daily use, your hair will look less noticeable and you’ll have a beautiful tan. But I did notice there was some sort of starch in the ingredients list, and I did notice that it had a different feel to the cream itself when I put it on my legs, so I wonder if that was somehow supposed to soften the hair that was there. I’m too impatient to put it on several days in a row, so I would skip a day or two in between, which may have defeated the purpose of the shave minimizing part.

It does give a nice, subtle tan though in a few uses, and it doesn’t get splotchy at all, so I’d recommend it for your legs. As far as the shave minimizing part, you may need to use it every day to enjoy those benefits a bit more.

Dr. Mercola is a naturalopathic doctor who has a huge website online.  I subscribe to his newsletters, and I think, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says 100% of the time, he has some very valid points and also happens to have some excellent products that I’ve tried that are all natural.

I decided to try his natural sunscreen, an SPF 30, because I started reading the labels on store bought sunscreens with traditional labels like Coppertone, Banana Boat and other popular brands, and saw a bevy of preservatives that are known toxins to the skin and body, and other chemical names that I didn’t even recognize.

I started to think, in my quest to be healthier by shield my skin to damage UV rays, I might actually be doing more harm than good by slathering on chemicals that inevitably leach into your blood stream.  So, I bought two of his natural sun products actually. One, I bought the Mercola natural sunscreen, and two I bought the Natural Tanning oil. Both come with green tea, which I like, because green tea is a great antioxidant, and is good for the skin both internally and externally, helping to reverse and stave off free radical damage.

Both products are eco friendly and biodegradable, which is a good sign that they are also non toxic to apply to human skin.  I bought the tanning oil too, because I do occasionally like to enjoy short bouts in the sun without mega sunscreen, so I can ensure I get my daily dose of vitamin D, which is proving to be ever more important in the grand scheme of things.  I love the tanning oil. It has a ton of good for your skin ingredients.

You MUST shake it well before every use, to make sure the extract and oils all mix together so you get maximum benefit.  It’s made of sunflower oil, green tea extract, coconut oil, which is a great skin protector, almost oil, lanolin, vitamin E, eucalyptus oil, and vitamin C.  No unrecognizable chemical names – nice huh!?  I have never gotten burned using this oil, and it feels great going on. I feel like it’s also protecting my skin, and I’m not putting any toxic chemicals on, so I feel safe leaving it on all day after the sun too.

The Mercola sunscreen is great too.  This one you must shake well before each use also. It also contains green tea extract.  In addition to almost the same ingredients as the tanning oil, it contains only the natural sunscreens in it of zinc oxide, a natural compound, and titanium dioxide, another naturally occurring compound. No parabens or other potentially cancer linked chemicals – and it works great.

You do have to reapply after going in the water, but it’s totally non toxic and you don’t feel like it’s plugging every pore when you put it on.Even the smell isn’t all “chemically” like you’re used to smelling when you open a bottle of traditional sunscreen. I’m sold!