Loose Powder

Up until recently, I’d been using either a St. Ives body wash or Neutrogena’s Body Clear body wash, since once in a while I get little breakouts on my back & shoulders The St. Ives I was using was their Oatmeal & Shea body wash, and I wasn’t super impressed with it. Always on the lookout for different and more natural options for skin & body care, I decided about a month ago to try a Burt’s Bees body wash. I had some reservations – I recently tried sample sizes of some of their shampoo & conditioner, and was sad to discover I hated it in every possible way. It smelled awful, didn’t lather in my hair well, and didn’t rinse out of my hair clean, so I didn’t feel like it had been washed. But I took the plunge and bought a bottle of their Naturally Nourishing Milk & Shea Butter body wash.

One of the things that drew me to this was a) I didn’t hate the smell, and b) the ingredient list looked short and uncomplicated as compared to most other body washes you look at. It doesn’t smell wonderful, but it doesn’t smell bad – it smells natural, if that makes any sense. It’s kind of sweet, but also smells like powdered milk, which is an ingredient. It’s much nicer smelling than the Grapefruit & Sugar Beet shampoo and conditioner I tried, which for some reason I really, really hated. Regarding the content, the only ingredients of any real concern toxics-wise is the ‘fragrance’ (according to Skin Deep), which is of concern because the actual contents of the ‘fragrance’ are not declared, so some can be eye or other irritants to some people. Skin Deep rates this product as a 4 on a scale from 1-10, making it only a ‘moderate hazard’. It looks good to me – better than what I’ve been using.

On to the actual performance of the body wash. When I tried it for the first time, I didn’t like how thin it is. It has about the consistency of a beaten egg and isn’t viscous or gel-like at all. I felt like I had to put a lot on my wash cloth to make it lather up. That said, when I did get an appropriate amount on my wash cloth & added a little water, it lathered up decently. I was also worried that it wouldn’t rinse off cleanly – I like that “squeaky” feeling of rinsing off soap & knowing I’m clean. This rinses off very cleanly! After washing with it my skin feels pretty moisturized, and not dry or tight at all. During the summer with humidity my skin doesn’t really get dry at all, so I’ll have to see how this performs in the cooler weather when my skin gets wicked dry, but I’m really liking this body wash for now!

I’d definitely recommend checking this out. It’s probably good for sensitive skin because of the lack of toxic crap ingredients, and it didn’t dry out my usually dry skin, and it doesn’t smell terrible. The bottle is lasting longer than I thought it would, even though I use a little extra to get the amount of lather that I like. Overall a great product from Burt’s!

Stila is a brand that I’ve always looked at in Sephora, but never purchased any products from. I found the price a bit high, I guess. However, there are a few products on the Stila site that are very affordable! One of these is their Charmed Eye Shadow Palette.

Description from the site: Adorned with authentic Indian bindis, this palette features four highly-pigmented new shadow shades all infused with genuine 24kt gold. Long revered for its skin revitalizing properties, this luxurious metal helps minimize the appearance of fine lines and creates a rich, shimmering effect.

There are four colors in this palette: coppery gold, warm gold, teal, and black/burgundy, all with a gold shimmer.

The palette itself is constructed of paper, but it seems rather sturdy.

I find the shadows very smooth and easily picked up with a brush. Here are some swatches:

From left: teal, black/burgundy, copper, warm gold.

The colors were easy to work with and blend, but they weren’t as pigmented as I was hoping. It might have been the e.l.f. mineral eye primer, though. I will have to try it again with Pixie Epoxie to see.

I used the warm gold all over my eyelids and above the crease first, then added the teal on my eye lid and blended it in. I used the black/burgundy on the outer corner to darken it a bit. Then I used a black gel eyeliner to finish my eyes.

To finish this look, I am wearing Fyrinnae Glow Blush in Enchant, Stainiac Lip Stain in Beauty Queen, and Korres gloss in Fuchsia.

It’s a great little palette and the four colors you get are good for every day wear or going out. Overall, I think this was a good purchase for the price.

This was one of the polishes I got from Zoya during their Polish Exchange. I only just got to try it and it might be one of my favorite Zoya polishes!

Charla is a pretty aqua blue with a silvery/teal shimmer in sunlight and a green with gold shimmer in incandescent light. It took two coats to get bottle color.

The polish looks like it’s a glitter, but it’s all shimmer and very smooth. I love it as a summer color! Now I want to get the other polishes in the Sparkle Collection, especially Mimi, Ivanka, and Nidhi.

After about a week, there is little tip wear, but I have been adding top coat about every two or three days. I think that is helping to extend the life of my manicures.

Zoya polishes are free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and are vegan friendly.

Slate blue polish is amazingly difficult to find. Thankfully, Sally Hansen has one for an affordable price: Gray By Gray.

This polish had the same separation/mixing problem that I had with Fairy Teal, but thankfully it didn’t have the staining problem. I was able to get bottle color in two coats and just some edge wear after five days.

The Konad design is BundleMonster plate B21 with e.l.f. polish in black.

Here are some bonus Konad looks I did for friends:

The first is from Konad plate m24. Jessie had already painted her nails that hot pink and applied a clear top coat. Bardi Party wanted the fish bones from BundleMonster plate bm04 on her middle fingers only. They were applied on a clean nail with a top coat over it after stamping.

This is a brown and teal eye look I threw on before heading out one Saturday.

Before starting, I’ve applied my primer (tarte Clean Slate) and BareMinerals matte foundation, then applied Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxie on my eyelids.

I used Fyrinnae‘s Cookie Dough on the inner corners and as a highlight and Species 8472 on my eyelid. For the outer corner and crease I used Aromaleigh‘s Rocks! Sonic shadow in moonagedaydream. I finished off the look with black gel eyeliner from The All Natural Face.

For blush, I’m using Fyrinnae’s Glow Blush in Enrapture and their lip lustre in Romantique.

Speaking of Aromaleigh… I’m sure the news has spread by now that Aromaleigh will be closing. I have no idea what the circumstances are of this, but you can read Kristen’s announcement here. They are discounted all remaining stock and you can use the coupon code ADIEU35 to get 35% off any products through August 10, 2010.

While searching for a slate blue, I came across Sally Hansen‘s Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal. This polish is a lovely teal cream and I just had to try it!

Love. This. Color. Applied two coats for bottle color and it dried pretty quickly.

Unfortunately… these polishes don’t have the metal ball bearings inside to help mix the polish, and boy could this use it. All three colors I bought (Fairy Teal, Gray by Gray, and Plum’s the Word) had a bit of separating and it was a pain to get them mixed back together without the balls.

Another huge negative of this particular color is that it stains like crazy. Even using Zoya’s Remove+ polish remover, taking this polish off left stains on my nails and on my fingers. It was a mess! That fact alone will probably have me thinking twice before I apply it again; very disappointing.

After four days with no noticeable chipping (just some edge wear), I decided I wanted to keep the polish on, but kick it up a bit with a top coat. I went to Sinful Colors‘ Nail Junkie.

I think Nail Junkie adds a fun bit of aqua & holo sparkle and was able to extend this manicure another three days with little effort.

When I purchased Parlez-Vous OPI, I also ordered a bottle of OPI’s Do You Lilac It? which looked like a similar but more saturated purple.

This color is a very pretty, bright, pastel purple. It took two coats to get the coverage I wanted. With a top coat, there was minimal chipping after 5 days of wear.

For this manicure, I used e.l.f. polish in black to stamp on some stars from the Bundle Monster fauxnad plates.

Do You Lilac It? is a fun color for summer, but between the two, Parlez-Vous OPI is my favorite.

I meant to post this review the day I got this manicure, because, just WOW, this is an amazing color! Last month I took mother dearest to get her first (yes, very first, and she’s 55 years old) manicure for her birthday. She was super psyched and I was excited because my nails were in decent shape for it. For mom, I brought a polish for her – my Zoya Marcella. I pegged it as a good color for her skin tone (pale/ruddyish, freckles, red hair, blue eyes) and it ended up looking great on her. I was afraid she’d pick some garish pink or bright red, which, NO. She needs pinky-browns, like Marcella. Anyway, I decided to choose a fun color they had at the salon, and settled on OPI’s Glamour, part of their DS (designer series) series. Unfortunately I can’t find it anywhere online anymore to link to This has to be one of the prettiest nail polishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing – here are a few pictures:

The first picture is in full sunlight with the holo all a-glitter (click on it to see the full-sized picture and the full effect!), and the second picture is in less direct light without the full rainbow effect. When not looking at the polish in full sunlight, it’s a nice cornflower-to-royal blue with some silver sparkle, and when you look at it in full sun, it explodes into this gorgeous rainbow glitter. I just LOVE it.  The manicurist put two coats on plus a top coat, and it lasted a good few days without any major chipping.

My huge regret is that I didn’t purchase a bottle when I found it online back then… I just checked the site Cyn found it on and it’s gone now It was a Fall 2009 color so I probably won’t be able to find it anywhere, but I will keep looking. Probably the best blue polish I’ve ever had, and I needs to have me a bottle!

I’ve been wary of mineral eyeshadows ever since my disenchantment with Garden Botanika products when I was in high school.  The appeal of the “natural” is understandable; if you’re going to spackle layers of gunk on your eyes, why not choose products that are made with harmless minerals instead of fish scales, rust, or crushed insects?  Non-comedogenic is the magic word here. But I was always disappointed with how the colors looked different when applied, or how the color would get sucked into my skin and disappear. But that was years ago! It was a different brand. They have shadow primers now. I decided I was ready to give mineral products another go.

Aromaleigh has gorgeous eyeshadow palettes that make me want to buy all of them. Lucky for my wallet, they have free samples when your friendsyou buy something. I tried Chantal and Colette. I apologize for not putting up pictures of the samples. My camera is MIA and you can’t really appreciate the colors in the tiny ziplock bags anyhow. If you wish, they can be seen here. Chantal is a gorgeous, lustrous brown. Colette is a dark, glittery blue (though not disco-ball glittery).

It sounds like a contradiction, since the simplest solution would be to not wear any makeup, but always being short on time requires me to be very practical with my makeup. Control, durability, and efficiency are really important factors when choosing an eyeshadow.

And just to make sure I wasn’t being biased (call it my “control group”), instead of using concealer I applied Aromaleigh’s eyeshadows over Too Faced eyeshadow primer, and over a Benefit cream eyeshadow base, and then over both. I’ve seen people use mineral eyeshadows with success. I’m not one of them. I really, really wanted to love this product. But I don’t.

First I used Colette in combination with a neutral base color. The color just didn’t look quite as sparkly, no matter how many times I dabbed at my eye. I was hoping the blue would pop a bit more. I know that a blue cream base would take care of that, but then it would lose its subtlety. It’s always disappointing when a color doesn’t look the way you expect it to, but sometimes you can learn to like it the way it is.

Lack of staying power, however, is a deal breaker. I don’t believe in reapplying makeup. Carrying a little bag around with all your essentials is the opposite of practical, and with all the primers and tints and cream bases there are today, makeup can last a long, long time. Chantal is a very pretty color, but it faded in a few hours.  Colette ended up all over my eye, even though I only applied it to half. I don’t apply eyeshadow with so much care so two hours later it can look like I’m wearing one color, uniformly applied — or like I’m wearing a touch of an indistinct color. Eyeshadow needs to blend when I want it to and stay where I put it.

Also, fallout. It’s not just a a really cool video game, it’s a serious problem with these eyeshadows. Once upon a time, I wasted a lot of product and time wiping my cheeks clean and reapplying foundation. I’m disappointed with the dusting of powder left on my cheekbone, where I didn’t put it. It makes me feel like an awkward teenager again.

I came to a conclusion, inspired by a night at the opera with AthenaKTT: Mineral eyeshadows are my cosmetic Rheingold; they’re beautiful and shiny when all I do is admire them, but as soon as I get hold of them, the consequences are ruinous.

So back to my question: If I’m going to plaster my face with product, why not choose some that will cause the least amount of damage to my skin? Answer: because it’s ineffective and inefficient. It doesn’t matter if  Aromaleigh is cheaper and better for my skin. I use 4–5 different colors in one application. I don’t want to buy an eyeshadow if I have to spend a full five minutes playing with just one color on one eye because it’s not showing up, after which I have to clean my face again. The pigmentation doesn’t hold up in the substantial company of colorful, vibrant lineups from Mac, Urban Decay, Make Up Forever, etc.  The benefit of a high pigment eyeshadow is that you can use less of it, and there’s less fallout, which also means you’ll be done faster. I think that’s worth paying for.

I’m not giving up on the Aromaleigh brand altogether. They have some other products I really want to try and I believe they’re in the middle of improving their formulas. I just don’t think their eyeshadows are right for me.

If you’re a minimalist with sensitive skin, and use just a bit of color here and there, Aromaleigh might be just thing for you. Just get yourself a good primer and apply carefully.

“Leaf Him at the Altar” is the last color in the “Modern Flowers” Spring Mini Collection by Sephora. This is first green color nail polish I have ever tried, and I love it. I pretty much love this whole “Modern Flowers” Mini Collection.

This green nail polish is similar to the pink “Handpicked for Me” because it has a satiny finish. The green color is not a dark green, but it more like a light greenish yellow with more emphasis on the green.  I only note the slight yellow hue because in the pictures the polish looks like a dark green, when in fact it is much lighter. Also sorry about the bad manicure, I was in a rush and hadn’t bothered to clean the edges of my nails before taking the pictures. Generally, the polish looks like a pretty green. Great for spring and St. Patrick’s Day or any day you feel like wearing green.

I only needed two coats of the polish to get good coverage and color. There was no streaking, the polish evened out while it dried. With a clear protective topcoat, the polish lasted almost a week before any noticeable chipping around the edges occurred.