Loose Powder

I was strolling through Rite Aid when the new Physicians Formula display caught my eye. Because I am cursed with blemished skin, I am constantly looking for concealer and cover-ups that can help my skin look smoother and blemish free. When I saw the nifty packaging that contained a trio of colors: 1. Correct (Soft Green or Soft Yellow) 2. Cover (Natural Light) 3. Highlighter (Pink), I knew I had to try it.

Each of the .2 oz. vials can be attached or detached from each other for easy fitting into your purse or makeup bag. I really liked the idea where all the concealer colors I needed were all in one package though I could have done without the pink highlighter color. I purchased two sets. One set with the Soft Green and the other with Soft Yellow since there was a $4.00 off manufacturer coupon on the package which normally would have retailed for about $8.95. Each vial also comes with its own little applicator brush, so you can dab the concealer onto wherever it is needed.

On the back of the box, there are some instructions indicating that the Soft Green is to cover blemishes and redness.  Natural Light is to conceal and cover spots where Soft Green or Soft Yellow were first placed, and Pink is to highlight your brows and temples. For the other set, the Soft Yellow is to neutralize dark under eye circles.

I mostly wanted to try the set with the Soft Green because I was running out of my usual green correcting concealer from Neutrogena which contained salicylic acid for acne prone skin. While this concealer did not have salicylic acid, I figured it was talc-free so my skin might be fine with it. I was wrong. I tried using the concealer for a couple days, using only the Soft Green and Natural Light, but I had to stop because I could feel my skin start to breakout by the end of the day.

Each vial can snap onto each other in any order you like.

As for the Soft Yellow, I did not see much of a difference in covering dark circles after using it with and the Natural Light concealer under my eyes. Instead I just got a thick caked look under my eyes. Also I did not see much of a difference in my brows and temples after using the highlighter color. Then again I also wear glasses, so even if they did anything no one would notice.

Aside from the problem of the concealer being a bit thick, I found that the concealer gives pretty good coverage for blemishes, but may be a bit thick for under eye corrections. When I looked at the box again, I noticed it was for Medium coverage, but for some reason my brain thought medium skin tones. Also I found the Natural Light color is quite light and too light for my skin tone. Basically, I didn’t know that there were different coverage “strengths” for concealer, but now I do. But most importantly for me, I need concealer that contains salicylic acid in order to control and dry my acne.

So even though I got a good deal with the manufacturer coupon, I’m going to have to return it and try something else.

During my various trips into Rite Aid to find some cosmetic items on sale, I’d often pass by the Sinful Colors display. I never thought much of it — just another polish company with colors that look like dupes of other salon lines.

However, being a bit more money conscious these days, I decided to have a closer look at these inexpensive bottles of color. After a bit of staring, I picked up You Just Wait (pink/green duochrome) and What’s Your Name (black with subtle blue/purple glitter).

You Just Wait is pretty sheer, but two coats got the look I wanted. I decided to Konad using plate m78 with What’sYour Name to see if I could get some of the glitter.

Didn’t really work quite how I wanted, but I like the overall look. You can see the way the color changes in the light at different angles. Very cool!

I think I’ll be picking up a few more Sinful Colors polishes in the future!

Eyeliner is my main man when it comes to makeup. I can go without anything else, but I have to line my eyes and I’ve used just about everything: powder, pencil, liquid, and gel.  On my latest drugstore run, I bought L’oreal’s  High Intensity Pigment Color Rich Cream Crayon in Perfectionist (i.e. black).

Once you use it, you'll never get back the nice, sharp tip it had when it was new.

I think “eyeliner” is loosely applied here. Marketed as a versatile eyeliner and shadow product, what it really delivers on is the high intensity. The product’s thick and creamy texture make it a poor eyeliner. It’s hard to control and easy to smear, especially once the tip becomes blunt from use. It does have a conveniently-placed “sharpener” at the other end, but the crayon is so soft the tip just keeps breaking off and making a mess all over my fingers.

I wouldn’t recommend this as an eyeliner, unless you’re about to play football or single-handedly annihilate a dictator and his army for kidnapping your daughter.

It does, however, make a great eye shadow base, especially for the sparkly, bright colors in my palette that I couldn’t otherwise wear to work. So far I’ve tried the black HIP Crayon under greens and purples, with great success. I applied the black base all over the lid, then patted the desired color over most of it, starting at the outer corner, blending out the edges, and working my way in. The effects depend on the composition of the eye shadow, but the variety of the Color Rich Cream Crayon colors seems like a great way to tone down a bright shade or make a sparkly shadow pop.

Pros: Long-lasting, bold color that makes a great base.

Cons: Too sloppy to be practical as an eyeliner.

I feel like there’s a use for every kind of eye liner, but gel liners are really my favorite so far. So aside from the crayon that wished it was an eyeliner, I also bought the Maybelline EyeStudio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in blackest black.

Mac Fluidline

I’ve actually been using Mac’s Fluidline eyeliner since I first saw it a few years ago. Not every day, but it’s a very good liner. Gel is easier to control than a liquid liner, and I think it stays put a bit better. At the very least, you can layer more on and it won’t fade or flake, or dry with that weird plasticky sheen that some liquid liners unfortunately have.

Maybelline Lasting Drama

But after trying  Maybelline’s gel liner, Lasting Drama is my new daily must. It’s every bit as good as  Fluidline for half the price. It lasts all day and has passed the sweaty work-out test without smearing at all. I will definitely be buying more of this liner and trying out the other colors.   But here’s the bonus:

It comes with a brush—a  small tapered brush that comes to such a fine point, you can really control what you do. That’s not to say it’s 100% mistake-proof, but I’m getting really good at doing fine lines at the outer corners, which I could never quite pull off with the angled eyeliner brush (sold separately) I used with the Fluidline product.

Pros: Easily manipulated, waterproof, long-lasting gel liner paired with a great brush. It’s a conveniently-packaged duo of eye-defining perfection.

Cons: I haven’t found any yet, but I will keep you posted.

Fyrinnae (pronounced “fyeer-ih-nay”) is a company I am fairly new to, but I am loving their unique and vibrant eyeshadows and blush, both of which I’ll talk about in future posts. In this article I am reviewing their fabulous product, Pixie Epoxy.

Fyrinnae does not claim to be a mineral makeup company, but all their products are vegan: they don’t contain silk, carmine, pearl, or beeswax. Some of their ingredients are man-made or lab treated and thus aren’t technically “natural,” but they’re pretty much the same things you find in “mineral” make-up: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, etc. Category and product pages will list all the ingredients in an item.

As stated on the site, Pixie Epoxy is not an eye primer or a base.  It’s a unique “glue,” that is “designed to hold the sparkliest, most shimmery eye shadows in place, minimize ‘fallout’, and also to easily create a foiled look without foiling.”

Ingredients: Glycerin (vegetable derived), Purified Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Silica, Acrylamide/Ammonium acrylate copolymer, Polyisobutene, Polysorbate 20, Propylene Glycol, Carbomer, Polyaminopropyl Biguanide, Potassium Sorbate.

Personally, I use it without an eye primer because I’m usually too lazy. When I use it with a primer, though, I don’t notice any performance difference.

Prior to discovering Pixie Epoxy, I used e.l.f.’s Mineral Eye Primer. For me, it worked about as well as Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. Eyeshadow went on all right, a little bolder than without a primer but by the end of the day, it was noticeably faded. However, Pixie Epoxy sticks eyeshadow to your lids! I can go 8+ hours and my eye makeup will look almost exactly like it did before I left the house. I say almost because sometimes eyeliner or mascara will run/smudge, but that’s not Pixie Epoxy’s fault.

Now on to the demo swatches! I used several brands of eye makeup as well as both loose and pressed types. The first image below is what the Pixie Epoxy looks like when applied: it’s a bit shiny. You don’t need nearly as much as you think you do! A little dab spread over your lid is plenty and if you use too much you might get some creasing.

In the swatches below, the upper row has Pixie Epoxy, the middle is bare skin, and the lower row is with Urban Decay Primer Potion.

From left to right: Urban Decay Uzi, Urban Decay Flipside, Hard Candy Backstage Pass (gold & aqua), Orglamix Lagoon, Everyday Minerals Starry Eyed, Aromaleigh Palmetto (matte), Aromaleigh Wonderland (gothic lolita), Fyrinnae Cupcake Sprinkles, Fyrinnae We’re All Mad Here, e.l.f. e/s duo Berry Mix (mauve & plum)

As you can see from the swatches, there’s a huge difference in the shadows that were applied over Pixie Epoxy versus just bare skin. There’s also quite a difference between Pixie Epoxy and UDPP except for a couple of the colors.

Here are a couple more photos of the swatches that are a bit more in focus:

Even though Pixie Epoxy is a bit tacky (which is really helpful for glitter shadows like UD’s Uzi), I don’t find there’s any difficulty blending my colors. As I said above, I’ve been using this on my lids instead of a regular eye primer for the last couple months and haven’t had any skin problems.

At less than half the cost of UDPP, do yourself a favor and get the 10ml tube of Pixie Epoxy. While you’re there, be sure to check out their awesome eyeshadow shades!

I ordered this as part of my first Zoya purchase. The other colors I bought were Lael (really bright plum purple) and Ki (purple/greenish duochrome), so I figured I’d better get a more neutral color too. I am not a huge fan of pink, but I thought if I could find a pinkish-brown shade, that would be good to try out, especially for work (not that anyone at work cares if I wear electric purple nail polish). Here is the link to Marcella on the Zoya site: Marcella. It looks pretty brown, but compared to the other shades I was considering, I figured I’d give it a try.

It looks pinker in real life than it did on the website, but doesn’t come out quite as pink on your nails. Overall I liked it much better than I thought I would – not too light, not too dark, and a nice neutral color for work. I also had it on for about a week with very little wear or chipping. I’ll definitely keep wearing this color – I’ve really liked everything I’ve gotten from Zoya so far and will have to try other colors!

Pearl of Wisdom is one of the colors from OPI‘s Hong Kong Spring 2010 collection. It’s a very sheer pearl color with shimmer that is mostly a pink/lavender color, but in some lights looks a bit blue/teal. I had to use 3 coats to get the coverage I wanted.

For a base coat and top coat, I am trying out Qtica’s Natural Nail Growth Stimulator. After three days of wear, there is a bit of chipping on the index and middle finger of both hands, but I have also been doing an extraordinary amount of washing and cleaning in the last two days. As for stimulating growth, there’s no real conclusion yet, but I’ll keep you posted!

For this manicure, I also stamped on a Konad design using plate m24 and e.lf. polish in Plum.

This is my favorite design so far! There was a little bit of smearing, but I think it was because I didn’t wait long enough for the Konad design to dry before I put on the top coat.

I found this Flawless Complexion Kit when I was browsing at Target and searching for a mineral face powder and blush. When I came across this kit, I thought it was perfect. The kit included a Mineral Face Powder, Matte Finishing Veil, and Blush all for $19.95, and they were all Talc-Free.  Just the mineral face powder and blush alone are about $25 total, so I figured this kit would be a steal even if I ended up not liking the Matte Finishing Veil.

I’ve have only seen two complexion colors offered in this kit: Light and Medium.  The kit I have is for Medium complexion.  The Mineral Face Powder is in Beige, the Matte Finishing Veil is in Translucent, and the Mineral Blush is in Nude Glow.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Face Powder – Beige

So far I quite like Physicians Formula’s Mineral Face Powder.  The powder is very lightweight and it feels as if I have nothing on my face.  The face powder includes a mirror and brush in the compact. I have to say it now; I loathe the brushes that come with the Physicians Formula compacts.  At first I thought they were handy to have, and they are when you don’t have access to a proper brush, but I found that using a flat mini brush to powder my whole face took forever, and I was paranoid about leaving streaks of powder on my cheeks or forehead.  So I tend to use my own powder brush to apply the face powder.   Aside from the brush, I like the face powder.  It gives me the minimal coverage I look for in a foundation powder and it manages to even out my complexion after applying concealer.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Matte Finishing Veil – Translucent

This matte finishing veil is a loose powder in a container that has a brush attached to the head.  The idea of this design is for the powder to flow through the brush without having to go through the mess that comes with using a brush on loose powders.  Additionally, there is a small mirror on the cap.  I hardly use the mirror because it is very small, and I prefer using a mirror bigger than my thumb to apply my makeup.

At first I wasn’t sure if any powder was coming through the “flow through” brush, but after closer observation, I noticed that powder was coming out of the brush.  As you can see in the picture, it is lighter in the center of the brush where the powder flows through.  Eventually I could feel the powder on my face as well as I applied it over the mineral face powder. I like how it is a very light layer of powder, and it also helps to smooths out my complexion a bit more and eliminates shine.  But there have been times when I forget to apply the finishing veil or just don’t bother because the mineral face powder does a pretty good job by itself.  The matte finishing veil is nice to have, but not necessary for my makeup routine.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Blush – Nude Glow

Like the mineral face powder, I do not use the brush that comes with the blush, but aside from that, I like the color of the blush.  It is a pretty neutral color.  It’s a color that does not stand out too much, but it still gives color to my cheeks.  If you are going for the natural minimalistic look, this blush color definitely contributes to the look.

I recently started using this Flawless Complexion Kit as it was intended after I started to run out of my usual liquid foundation. Usually I used the products in this kit to complement other products that I already use.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by the final look achieved by just using these three products.  Previously, I was under the impression that with the badly blemished skin I have, I would need liquid foundation for better coverage.  But even without liquid foundation, the mineral powder and matte finishing veil managed to smooth out my complexion and give me a matte finished look. It was even able to smooth out my very blemished complexion. Please keep in mind to achieve this smoothness on my severely blemished skin; I would put concealer on my blemishes before applying the mineral powder all over my face. This combination manages to give me a final look that is very similar to as if I had used a liquid foundation, if not a more natural look because the mineral face powder is much more lightweight and does not clog my pores, and this is a plus in my book.

At the request of Cyn, I am posting before and after pictures of my test. I apologize in advance for giving anyone nightmares. First picture is me with a clean face. It’s quite horrifying. Again I apologize. Second picture is after I’ve applied concealer then applied the Flawless Complexion Kit. Last picture is after I’ve added bronzer and eye makeup.

Last Friday I went to see Emerald Dawn perform at the Irish Mist with some friends and thought it would be appropriate to wear some green nail polish!

Zoya’s Irene is a color I picked up during their last sale. It’s a really lovely mossy green with a bit of shimmer.

I’ve just taken it off, but 3 days of wear didn’t show any chipping. I used the OPI Strengthener for a base coat, 3 coats of Irene, and didn’t use a top coat.

For a viewing of the new Alice In Wonderland with friends, I decided to put on OPI’s Thanks So Muchness from their Alice In Wonderland collection. It’s a very pretty red with subtle shimmer. Great color!

I wanted to jazz it up, maybe add a bit of craziness (like the Red Queen) and decided to just randomly use some Konad patterns. I think I went a little overboard and the white on red isn’t really my favorite.

In any case, I really liked the color. I can’t say anything about the wear because I ended up taking it off to put on a green for St. Patrick’s Day, which I’ll post pictures of at some point.

Nope, the title is not a pun on “All My Bright Eyes” or something. This is actually a review on the products in Almay’s bright eyes collection that consists of a concealer, eye shadow, and eye liner that doubles as a highlighter.

The “bright eyes” collection supposedly “instantly refreshes and enhances your eyes”.

I decided to try this collection because there was a “buy one get one free” sale at CVS Pharmacy. Also since I’m a natural look kind of girl, I thought this collection would be great for me because I could use something that made me look more awake than my usual half asleep stumble into the office each morning.

For this collection, Almay suggests that certain colors should be used for specific eye colors, which I found useful since I’m horrible at figuring out what colors play up my eyes and which don’t. There are choices for the three major eye colors: blue, green, and brown.

Since I’m a brown eyed girl, I picked up the suggested base + concealer in Medium, eye shadow in Bronze, and liner/highlighter duo in Soft Black/Champagne.

Base + Concealer – Medium ($8.99)

The concealer comes in a squeezable tube. The concealer is squeezed out of the tube into a brush tip applicator, which seems like a great idea if you were planning to line your eyes with concealer. The brush tip is on the thin side and it is fine for dotting the black shadows under your eyes, but it takes a bit more work to cover your whole eyelid. I also found out that squeezing the concealer through the tube into the brush could get messy really quickly because you have to squeeze the tube pretty hard for any concealer to come out of tube and into the brush applicator. Additionally, the brush applicator did not help in giving me an even distribution of concealer. Instead I had problems where I would have a lump of concealer where I first applied the brush and run out by the time I reach the end of my eyelid. So I still ended up using my fingers or a makeup sponge to make sure the concealer evenly covered my eyelids and under my eyes.

As for concealing any puffy eyes and dark under eye circles, I don’t see much of a difference compared to other concealers. It might have lightened up the area a bit, but not enough for a significant difference. On the other hand, using this concealer as an eye base is actually not bad at all. I’ve tried it a few times and it lasted all day with no creases. But I suggest using this as a base for powder shadow because the cream shadow that Almay suggests you use with this base in this collection creased the moment I opened my eyes. To prevent creasing, I had to add another layer of powder eye shadow (Neutrogena’s Nourishing eye duo in Iced Coffee) over the cream eye shadow. The addition of the powder eye shadow worked beautifully leaving no creases.

Pros: good eye base for powder eye shadows

Cons: applicator brush not very effective and can get messy, very hard to squeeze, and not a good concealer

Cream-to-powder shadow – Bronze ($8.99)

When I first bought this, I had no idea it was a cream shadow, and I had never used cream shadows before I got this. It was serendipity because I ended up loving this cream shadow, and the color in this set is perfect for a natural day look. The eye shadow is a duo that consists of two colors light beige and brown. I have used this shadow by itself or with a layer of powder eye shadow over it, and I like the final result of both looks.

This cream eye shadow also works well as base if you happen to run out of primer, concealer or just don’t have any thing other than the cream shadow handy.

Pros: good colors, cream shadow, good eye base

Cons: none really unless you hate cream shadows

Liner/Highlighter duo – soft black & champagne ($8.99)

Like the cream shadow, the moment I used this eyeliner I was in love. The soft black color goes very well with the bronze shadow set. It was very easy to line my eyes with this pencil. The lines came out smoothly, and I didn’t even need to apply pressure on the pencil it to get a smooth line.

The champagne highlighter color is a nice iridescent off white color that I like for highlighting the corners of my eyes. Like the liner it did not need pressure to achieve a smooth line.

Pros: Liner and highlighter in one, no struggle needed to get a smooth line, good color combination

Cons: The liner is on a thicker pencil which means I need a different sharpener when the tip gets blunt.

Now that I’m done talking about each individual product, let’s see how they work together.

Instruction on the Almay Bright Eyes site suggests the following steps in applying the collection.

1. Apply the base + concealer under eyes and over eyelids.
2. Apply eyes shadow on eye lids. Darker shade on lid to crease and lighter shade from crease to brow bone.
3. Apply darker eyeliner along upper/lower lash line. Then apply highlighter to inner and outer corners of eyes and highlight brow bone below eyebrows line.

After doing my usual regimen for preparing my face with foundation, concealer and powder, I applied the bright eyes collection as directed. As noted before, the base + concealer with the eye shadow leads to immediate creasing.

Aside from the creasing, bright eyes does make my eye seem more “refreshed” since the eye shadow and liner/highlighter added definition to my eyes. Out of the three products in the bright eyes collection, I would consider purchasing the eye shadow and liner/highlighter duo again. I would definitely pass on the base + concealer and try something else.