Loose Powder

Previously, I reviewed the Eyeko Curvy Brush Mascara and I wasn’t super-impressed with the results. Well, I decided to give Eyeko another try and picked up a Fat Brush Mascara from Henri Bendel while I was in Manhattan in December.

The Fat Brush boats smudge free volume, so I had to give it a try on my short, fine eyelashes. Here’s a look at the packaging and the brush:

You can see the fibers on the brush in the last picture, which help in giving the lashes length and volume. I found the formula to be a good consistency – not too wet or goopy. also included is an Eyeko shield, which I still haven’t figured out how to use.

Here are some before and after photos:

As you can see from the photos, Fat Brush doesn’t add a ton of volume with the two coats I applied. It does add some length, though, and I can get a little more volume if I apply additional coats quickly before it dries. Lashes  don’t get crunchy once dry, so that was a plus.

There was no flaking during the day and the mascara looked as good at the end of the day as they did after application. Removal was easy with some warm water and light rubbing like you do with any fiber/tubing mascara.

I do like the Fat Brush mascara better than the Curly Brush mostly because of, well, the brush. I think the formulas are pretty similar. An Eyeko representative suggested that I might like the Skinny Brush mascara, so I might try that next.

Eyeko mascara is available online, at Asos, Harvey Nichols, and Henri Bendel.

I don’t know too much about the Korean brand, Lioele, but when I saw some of their products in a shop in Flushing, I had to get something! I picked this eyeshadow stick in 05 Gold, since I’ve been looking for an all over color to double as a base.

The cap shows the color of the eyeshadow and it’s true to shade. The shadow twists up and the cap snaps on securely.

The application wasn’t exactly smooth, but it blends out easily enough. It does work as a nice base for eye shadow, but I would definitely use  a primer to help  keep it from creasing and to extend wear time. The first photo below shows the eye shadow by itself. Next to it are two powders shadows on their own and then on top of the Lioele shadow.

It does work nice as a color that enhances other shadows and I can still use it on its own with an eye primer.

I believe I paid $6 for this, which was a good buy and I’ve used it several times since purchasing. If I see these again, I would probably buy more in other colors!

I was looking for a body scrub to exfoliate my skin with. Being a huge Bath and Body Works fan, I decided to give their True Blue Spa line a try since they had a by two get one free deal.

The Body Buff is a good scrub. The scent has very light fresh citrus smell that makes you smell clean and think of fresh clean linens. After using the scrub, my skin feels very soft and clean. The scrub does a great job in cleaning and exfoliating my skin as well as softening it with shea butter, which is added into the scrub.

For $20 I think the 16 fl. oz. bottle is a good size since I exfoliate once every couple of weeks, so a bottle does last me a while.

I recommend this scrub if you are looking for an exfoliate that smells nice and makes your skin feel shiny and smooth.

This definitely makes me want to try more of the True Blue Spa line stuff.

Hi, everyone! Here’s a look at my third Eco-Emi box. This month, the items were placed in a lovely navy blue reusable bag and sprinkled with large snowflakes. I’m kind of excited about the tea!

This month’s box included ten large sized samples:

• JR Watkins Lip Tint in Simply Mauve-laus
• Merry Hempsters Endangered Species Lip Balm in Polar Bear Vanilla
• Tru Roots Sprouted Organic Quinoa
• TeaGschwendner Marani Green Tea & Acerola Fruit Tea with two empty tea bags
• Kelapo Organic Fair Trade Coconut Oil
• Deep Steep Honeydew Spearmint Lotion
• Dr. Clean Green Organic Hand Purifier
• Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques Organic Eyeliner in black brown
• Biokleen Grapefruit Seed & Orange Peel Liquid Laundry Detergent

And here are some closer photos of the items:

The last photo is a swatch of the eyeliner and the JR Watkins lip tint, which is peppermint scented. I found the eyeliner to be a bit to waxy. Like I said, I’m glad to have gotten the tea and I will certainly going to give the hand sanitizer and lotion a try, but I’m not a fan of quinoa and I’ve got a tub of coconut oil already.

I think Eco-Emi is a good value for the price, but personally I don’t end up using most of the items, so I’m going to be canceling my subscription. because of the way billing works, I’ve already been charged for my February box so I will have one more to review.

If you’re interested in natural and organic food and home products, I think Eco Emi would be great. I’m more interested in beauty products at this time, so I will be staying with Birchbox and Beauty Army.

Eco-Emi is a subscription sample service that costs $15 per month. Registration is sometimes closed, so check back if you can’t sign up right away. The owner, Christine, is very nice and always answers questions via email or Eco-Emi’s Facebook page.

While visiting some family friends a couple months ago in Flushing, NY, I stopped into a small beauty supply store and found a selection of NYX palettes for $6 each! I picked up this one in Aquamarine.

The inside of the compact has a mirror and a double-ended sponge tip applicator. I never use the applicators included in palettes as they are usually cheap quality brushes or sponges.

The colors are fairly pigmented, but you should definitely use a base or a primer to prevent creasing and fading. You can see from the swatch in the third photo that without primer, the color on skin looks just as good as what’s in the palette.

Overall, I think this is a great palette and I’d love to get a couple more.

NYX Trio eye shadow palettes are available at Cherry Culture, Ulta and wherever NYX products are sold. Each palette retails for $8.

Some Like It Haute is part of China Glaze‘s Eye Candy 3D Glitters Winter collection.

This polish is a clear base with a dense mix of gun metal, black, blue, and holographic glitter! Two coats was enough to cover the nail completely.

Though there was a bit of texture on the surface, it wasn’t lumpy and a coat of top coat got it almost completely smooth. One thing I wish was that the polish was a little less blue and more gunmetal grey. Otherwise, this was a great color. Glitters always wear a bit longer, so I was able to wear this for over a week.

As an accent, I wanted a lighter glitter polish and picked Fairy Dust, which is a fine holographic glitter. It was actually more sheer than I wanted and even four coats wasn’t enough to cover the nail line. I also used a water slide decal on it.

It’s a fun look and next time I’d probably put a silver polish under the Fairy Dust.

I bought the Neutrogena Wave Sonic a while back when it was on sale at Target. I don’t remember the price I paid, but it is listing for about $14.99 right now.

The Wave Sonic is advertised to be 50x better than ordinary cleansing, which might be true since most of us have the usual routine of rubbing on foaming cleanser on our faces and patting it dry with a microfiber towel.

I’ve never used the Neutrogena Wave, but instead of vibrating, the Wave Sonic has a spinning head that has two speeds. To change speeds on the cleanser, you only have to press the second button with the swirly symbol below the power button.

In order to use the Wave Sonic you have to have the Deep Clean foaming pads which are securely gripped onto the head of the cleanser with a rough surface. There are two kinds of foaming pads: the “original” and the “gentle exfoliating pads”. I’ve only used the “original”, and I feel that the “original” pad gives a gentle enough exfoliation when used against my face. If I manage to try the exfoliating pads, I may write a comparison between the two types.

The Wave Sonic is very easy to use: put on the foam pad, rinse under water, turn on, and rub it over your face. After you’re done, you just toss the used foam pad, and rinse under water to clean off the excess foam. Note: The top attachment head can easily be popped off for cleaning, and the cleanser is battery operated and water resistant, so it can be used in the shower.

The spinning head lathers up easily and can work up a good foam, but it may take a moment for the foam to develop. Warning: make sure all strands of hair are away from your face, because some stray strands may get caught in the spinning head. Also the soap that generates from the pad stings when it sneaks into your eyes, and it doesn’t taste pretty either.

After using the Sonic Wave for a couple weeks once daily, my skin does feel smoother and cleaner. It did not get rid of all my acne or blemishes, but that wasn’t the intention of the Wave Sonic cleanser.

My main gripe with this cleanser is that if you use this daily, the foam pad cleanser can run out quite quickly since they are only one time use. You can get refill packs of 30 pads for about $5, but the cost can add up over time. You don’t really need this cleanser if you have a good face cleansing routine already, but it is fun to use once and a while.

Hey, guys! I’m still on the hunt for a mascara that I really like and next on my list is Maybelline’s Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara. I purchased this product in the non-waterproof blackest black.

The first thing you’ll notice is the teardrop shaped brush, which took some getting used to. I didn’t think it made application easier, but it did an okay job separating lashes and not sticking them together.

The formula is a bit wet, but wasn’t messy to apply. Actually, the wetness of the mascara meant that blinking got some product on my lower lashes which was convenient!

Here are some before and after photos:

While I wouldn’t say this mascara dramatically increases length or volume, this Lots of Lashes does add a nice bit of length and a little volume. It’s a good look for daytime or when I was something a bit more than my natural eyelashes.

Wear time on this was good. After 9 hours, there was no flaking nor did it leave black circles under my eyes. Once dry, my lashes did feel a bit crunchy. Removal was easy with my Philosophy Release Me makeup remover, but soap and water works just as well!

Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes mascara is available where Maybelline products are sold. I paid $4.50 for this tube at Target.

I’ve been back into glitter polishes lately and started off my latest round of glitter manis with this green/gold combo.

I used China Glaze’s It’s Alive! on my pinky, middle, and index finger and Butter London’s West End Wonderland on the ring finger and thumb.

I love, love, love this combination! The gold glitter adds a great highlight to the dark green. Both of these glitter polishes looked great after two coats, but It’s Alive! is amazing with it’s green jelly base and different sized glitter.

You can see in the close up of Butter London’s West End Wonderland that it’s not just gold glitter, but there are also silver and copper colored glitters. It’s a really pretty combination.

I used two coats of top coat to smooth out the surface, but if your top coat is thicker, one might be fine for you. This  manicure lasted 10 days before I had to take it off. I’ll be using both of these colors again for sure!

The theme for January’s Birchbox is Clarity and to help us start the year off, this box includes some lovely samples!

My box for this month included:

• Origins Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash – multi-tasking cleanser for combination skin
• Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner – in peacock
• VMV Hypoallergenics Re-Everything Face-Hand-Body Lotion
• Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy fragrance
• Extra: Larabar mini bar
• Extra: Birchbox logo magnet

I’ll be reviewing the Stila Smudge Stick in a future review once I’ve had some more time to use it.

Larabars are great snack bars to have when you’re out and about. I usually keep one of these or a Luna bar in my purse so I have something when my blood sugar gets low.

The Origins Checks & Balances cleanser has a very fresh scent and leaves my face feeling clean without drying it out.

Overall, this was another great Birchbox! Can’t wait to see what I get next month!