Archive for the ‘Cosmetics’ Category:
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.
The holidays are almost here, and I’m starting to see the signs of it all around me when I visit malls, shopping centers, and even department stores like Wal-mart and Target. There’s no shortage of candy displays, perfume displays, and even clothes that are set up to appeal to the holiday shopper as great gifts for friends and loved ones. One thing you’ll start to see now too, at cosmetics counters, are holiday themed colors and gift sets.
Cosmetics companies are big fans of this time of year. Not only because they know that people will buy things like perfume sets and even makeup sets for the women in their lives, but women who are out and about shopping, and who happen to love makeup, will be tempted to buy these unique colors and great deals while they’re out shopping. I’ve been one of these holiday shoppers they aim for many times.
I love the more sparkly, vibrant colors that are called “holiday colors”, and have often loaded up on some of the excellent deals as well. I’ve found some of my favorite colors and favorite eyeshadow and nail polish colors in sets that were meant for the holidays over the years. And on top of that, I got a killer deal on them since they tend to dramatically mark down the per-product price in these types of promotional gift sets.
Stores like Sephora and Ulta are jam packed with shoppers during this time. Most of the shoppers are women shopping for themselves. A lot of women don’t really make their way to these types of stores very often – they’re more of a “special trip” sort of shopping, so when they find themselves near one when shopping for the holidays, they tend to wander in and grab the products that they can only buy there, and not at their local Wal-mart or grocery store.
You should also be on the lookout for fabulous coupons and other promotional savings on cosmetics and beauty products in your email. I’m signed up for quite a few email lists for my favorite stores and brands, and I notice a boatload of exceptional deals coming through my email this time of year, because they want to get in on the holiday spending frenzy.
I’ve gotten fantastic deals on high end products around this time, and usually they last me until the next year, when it’s deal time again. If you can strategically buy your more expensive beauty items only when they’re on sale, it really saves you a lot of money in the long run, and you get to look great in the meantime! 
I’ve started to get interested again in trying to make my own cosmetics. I was really interested in this subject about five (maybe a little more) years ago, but then life sidetracked me and I never really got to experiment with the different ingredients and techniques like I wanted to. I thought if I could make my own naturally derived cosmetics, that would possibly be more cost effective for me in the future since I was just starting to get into putting natural products on my skin instead of chemical-laced products.
I’ve been reading a lot on how to make various cosmetic and beauty products, ranging from soaps and lotions, to lip balms and talcum based products like powders. Beyond that, I’m afraid it gets a bit too complicated for me, and I’ll stick to buying my eyeshadows, eyeliners and foundation at the store, thank you!
But beyond the more complicated cosmetic and beauty items to make, there are some great natural recipes for making your own soaps, lotions, and lip balms. Not only is it fun to experiment, but you can even give away your finished products as gifts. There are numerous websites on the topic which can tell you which suppliers sell the best and most cost effective cosmetics containers, the least expensive and highest quality ingredients that are necessary to make certain products, and complete instructions on how to go about your first foray into cosmetic product making.
Some of the ingredients you can use just an example, as a great skin moisturizer are jojoba oil, which is a natural and relatively inexpensive oil which is easily and quickly absorbed into your skin. It also happens to be a great addition to any conditioner or topical hair and scalp treatment. Another awesome skin moisturizer, which I use myself, is plain old virgin coconut oil.
Coconut oil is hard at room temperature, but it instantly dissolves into an oily substance when rubbed between your fingers, and it does absorb quickly in to the skin, although you do need to make sure you rub it in well.
Glycerin is a great way to make a vegetable based soap, and it doesn’t dry the skin out like a lot of other ingredients that go into soap. There are a number of other totally natural ingredients that can be used in cosmetic and beauty products, which actually have relatively long shelf lives without preservatives.
I recently ordered a few things from Sephora online, and if you’ve ever ordered anything from their website, then you know that you get to choose 3 free samples to go with it. They give you an option to choose three our of like ten or something, and it’s pretty fun I have to admit.
I even got my free birthday gift, which you get every year if you sign up for their Beauty Insider program, so it’s pretty cool. This time the free gift was mascara by Sephora, which I wasn’t impressed with at all, a blue grey eyeliner, and a cool shimmery white eyeshadow.
But one of the free samples I chose was a pearl glow primer by Tarina Tarantino. This stuff is AWESOME. It is a creamy, pearlescent white cream that you can either use as a foundation base under your makeup, or that you can use after you moisturize your face. What I do is I mix it with a teeny bit of my foundation (I’m using the Revlon Color Stay foundation right now).
It’s great because it creates a dewy, pearly glow. It has not clogged my pores or caused any breakouts, and it makes my skin look luminous, which I really need because it can tend to look dull now that I’m getting older. What’s even more awesome is that the little pack I got as a free sample has already lasted me four days! Imagine how long the stuff lasts when you actually buy a tube or bottle of it!
This would be the perfect product for the minimalist who likes to have great looking skin, but wants to use minimal foundation or makeup, because it reflects light and really helps take the attention off of any imperfections that can ruin the complexion. It also imparts an incredibly luminous look to the skin, while still feeling light and breathable. I looked up the price for a full size bottle of this stuff and it’s $32 for a one ounce bottle.
Considering that fractions of that amount lasted me 4 days so far, I bet this bottle would go a long ways, so it would totally be worth it for great looking skin. After all, your skin is the pallet with which you work to create your overall look every day!
L’Oreal has some of the best mascaras you can buy out there at a drugstore, and at drugstore prices, more importantly. Mascara isn’t something that you have to spend a ton of money on to get good results, as I’ve learned through my years of experimentation with expensive department store brands. They can give your lashes exactly the same look.
Well, as I wrote a few weeks back, I was in the store looking for one of my staple favorite mascaras, L’Oreal Lash Out, and discovered that it looked like they had discontinued it. I wasn’t sure if they just repackaged and renamed it, so I bought the Voluminous mascara, the regular stuff, not the Naturale that I’m reviewing now. I didn’t like it. I felt like it gave me “tarantula lashes” and it really didn’t lengthen them or separate them the way I like.
I figured I’d try the other type of Voluminous mascara they make, because it may give me a better look, something softer, more natural, and more separated. So I grabbed the Voluminous Naturale formula. I really liked it. I had doubts at first because the lash brush is fairly small, and I’m used to larger, bolder brushes, but that proved to be a big part of why it goes on so natural and doesn’t allow you to over do it or clump it too much.
It gives a nice, natural, fuller look, and of course colors your lashes black so they stand out more, and it doesn’t look fake or over done, so this is the perfect mascara for women who have some natural length and fullness in their lashes, and really are just looking to bring their eyes out more. You won’t get a bold, “done” look with this, so if that’s what you’re looking for you may want to try one of their more extreme plumping and lengthening formulas.
Well, it’s official. Almost every product that I am truly a die hard loyal customer of has been discontinued at some point. Now it looks like I’m going to have to add L’Oreal’s Lash Out mascara to that list. I looked for the mascara, which I’ve been using for over a decade now or better, at Wal-mart, K-mart and Target, and it is nowhere to be found.
I wondered if it had been discontinued, or perhaps even re-labeled, since it looks like L’Oreal has a lot more choices in their mascara section, so I did a little research.
I bought Voluminous mascara by L’Oreal, and tried it. I liked it, but it just didn’t work on my lashes as well as the Lash Out. I then tried the Voluminous in a natural formula, thinking maybe it would clump less, which is what I didn’t like about the regular Voluminous, and it still clumped up more than I liked, and it came with this sort of puny, skimpy lash brush that didn’t really comb through my lashes very well and separate them as well as my precious Lash Out did.
So, getting desperate, I sought Lash Out online. I found it! And I didn’t find any conclusive answer that it had been discontinued, so I wondered, did a lot of stores just suddenly stop carrying it at the same time or around the same time? It seems like it must be such a great seller because it works so well that I thought it was odd that a bunch of stores would carry their inferior mascaras but not this awesome one!
I can’t find the absolute answer to this question, so if anyone reading this happens to know what the deal is with Lash Out, please let us all know. By the way, I saw some negative reviews on Lash Out online, they MUST have gotten an old tube – that does happen sometimes.
The older any mascara gets, the more gummy it gets. That’s why you probably want to buy your mascara from a store that has a large cosmetic department and probably has a lot of turnover of merchandise, like a Wal-mart or Target for example, or maybe a Walgreens. If you guy it from a store and see dust on the makeup packages, don’t buy it there, it’s probably old! Likewise with buying it online, you’re chancing it being old.
Want to be looked upon always and everywhere? Want to attract everyone’s attention? Want to look amazing?
If you’re following fashion trends and looking good is an indisputable fact that you pay attention on, do not forget the makeup because it affects the overall effect. If your image is not completed with make-up you may get attention, but comments will be not so great.
Although some say that make-up on a daily basis is detrimental to the skin, yet no modern woman would abandon her daily routine. Today there are bunches of products and the brand is not always a guarantee of quality. If cheap powder does wonders of your face, feel free to use it?
Women are addicted of daily make up. The reason for this is that with the powder, the self-confidence of women is increased and she feels good while facing working challenges, when she shows up on a date or goes shopping. Here comes the question: What should I use for different occasions? Do not use too heavy make up, leave the stone powder for the evening? What should I do?
Enjoy. Be careful not to select too dark colour. For daytime make up the long lashes play the crucial role. You can pass without a shadow. Long lashes, prominent blinks, a little blush, lip gloss and get the perfect look. A trick used by professional makeup artists and hair dressers does not have to be necessarily complicated for successful cover of the specific shortcomings. To gain the maximum of your look you need a little change of routine and the usual way of using makeup.
In the summer, it will be a good thing to use as little make up as possible because the sun can make you look awful. You will sweat all time and there won’t be left anything of your powder. You can only use a lip gloss and leave the summer to solve your problems.
For an oily skin the dry makeup can be perfect even in the summer and avoid using the stone powder during the day but not exclude it from the nights when wearing a nice elegant dress. There will never be enough advices to explain to one woman what she has to do to look better. It is simply unnecessary because, women look great, with or without make-up.
Ok, so I thought that I couldn’t possibly love any mascara more than I love my treasured, used for years, L’Oreal Lash Out Mascara. Now I think I’ve found one that actually beats that one. It’s actually by L’Oreal as well, which makes me think they have probably the best drugstore brand mascaras on the market – at least they are the best I’ve ever tried.
I bought the Voluminous mascara by L’Oreal about two weeks ago, figuring I’d give it a try since I’d been using Lash Out for so many weeks now. I also happened to have a coupon for $1.00 off any L’Oreal eye product, so that was a bonus, and I figured if I didn’t like it well then I’d spent a buck less on it and wouldn’t be as mad.
I bought the mascara in the #380 version, called “Blackest Black” or Noir Profond in French – remember, they are a French company
The mascara advertises as being able to build lash volume, lash by lash, for a defining effect. It showed a picture of the soft brush on the packaging, and that sold me too because I only like the wands that are very fine and separated. The wands actually make a lot of the difference in how the mascara is applied, how well it separates the lashes, and how well it makes the mascara itself adhere to each individual lash.
It’s been my experience that only these fine, many-bristled soft applicators really get the job done best. So when I saw that, and knowing that it was by L’Oreal, who makes several of my other lower cost eye makeup products, I was sold. It cost about $6 with the coupon, which wasn’t bad at all.
So, I threw away my old, dried up Lash Out which had gotten goopy on me because I’d gone longer than the 2 months to get rid of it and replace it, and applied this mascara for the first time before going to work.
WOW, it really is excellent. It is a great formula first of all, not too thick, so it doesn’t clump easily, but also it’s not too thin to where you feel like you have to apply five coats to even see a difference in the thickness of your lashes. It separates, defines and lengthens all at the same time, and in record time too, with minimal reapplication. I’m sold, and I’ll be buying this stuff again. It wore well too, all day long without smudging or running or flaking.
One of my favorite aquired tricks when I apply my foundation in the morning is to wet the foundation sponge a little bit with cold water. It seems like something you wouldn’t want to do, after all, why would you want to keep wetting something that you store every day, possibly encouraging mildew growth? Well, I make sure that I dry it out by squeezing it in the dry hand towel that sits right by my medicine cabinet after I’m done using it.
This just helps to ensure that you won’t get mildew growth on the sponge if you decide you really like this makeup application technique. Of course, you also want to regularly wash your sponges as well, I like to hand wash them with some soap and let them air dry, this also help discourage bacteria and mold growth, and ensure that you are rubbing a safe sponge on your face every day.
So, what does wetting your foundation sponge do for you? Well, it makes you foundation look much more sheer, instead of cakey, and it tends to give a more natural, dewy look to your skin. Why? Because 1.) It helps to ensure that you are not putting too much foundation on your face by diluting it. The water soaks up the sponge a bit, so the sponge is not as porous and cannot over-absorb the foundation, so you end up with less spackle on your face and 2.) The water dilutes the foundation and imparts a more natural, sheer look instead of the opaque or matte look that is really out today. Today, makeup is all about sheer, natural, dewy and fresh looking, not procelain and matted looking, which was in back in the eighties and nineties.
If you use this technique for applying your foundation with a sponge, then you really are going to make it look the most sheer, natural and becoming color and tone that you can. I tend to like foundations that are anti aging and anti wrinkle in nature, and they can tend to look a bit heavy if they are not diluted. Not only that, your face won’t feel bogged down by too much foundation, and you will find that it blends much more readily, reducing the likelihood of the splotched or smeared look if it dries too quickly and doesn’t go on evenly.
I’ve seen this on my own face when I forgot to use the water, and it’s hard to re-blend it correctly so it looks natural again. The water is a great, cheap way to get your foundation on, looking the best it can.
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