Loose Powder

I’m fairly new to the Ulta brand as we don’t have a local store and I’ve only been able to shop in one when I visit Liz. On my last trip in April, they were running a promotion where you could get a free 13 piece gift set when you purchased $17.50 worth of Ulta brand items. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to try a selection of their products.

There is a lot of stuff packed into that makeup bag! There are two eyeshadow quads, a blush, a volumizing mascara, two eyeliner pencils, a lipstick, a double-ended lip gloss, mini nail polish, and three travel brushes.

I didn’t take any photos of the eyeliner pencils, but they were very standard – and hard. I’m not sure I would use them to line my eyes.

The eyeshadow squads are a good travel size and there is a small mirror as well as a sponge tipped applicator. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of the eyeshadow. They have a chalky texture and aren’t very pigmented. Between the two, the neutral quad is a bit better, but I probably wouldn’t have purchased either one.

The lipstick and lip gloss were better. The lipstick is in the color “211”. The peachy gloss is Princess and the reddish gloss is Mischief. The lipstick has a nice, creamy consistency but doesn’t last very long. The glosses aren’t too sticky and both are very wearable colors. The only thing I dislike is that it’s a double-ended tube. I’ve always found them kind of annoying to carry and use, but that’s a personal preference.

The blush (in Sweet Cheeks) was very unimpressive. It was chalky and even though you see a bit of shimmer in the compact, once it’s on the skin it looks powdery and there is no shimmer. The color was also very light and definitely wouldn’t work for me as a blush.

The nail polish is called Lav-ish. It’s a dusty lavender color with gold shimmer. I haven’t actually tried it yet (mostly because I forgot about it), but I’m excited to try it out.

Finally, this is the Ulta Voluptuous Volume mascara. I’m not sure I would call this voluptuous as it adds very little volume and barely noticeable length. Although other reviews said this mascara was runny, I found it to be very dry.

I am wearing five coats of mascara in the above photos. Five coats. On the other hand, after five coats, there was not clumping and it does look quite natural. My lashes didn’t feel sticky and they stayed flexible. This also washed off easily with soap and water. I do like the way this looks, but putting on five coats of mascara takes forever and I can’t see myself spending that much time on it for such unimpressive results.

Overall, I thought the nail polish, lip gloss, and the mascara were the best items in the gift bag. As for the rest of the items, I probably wouldn’t purchase the full sizes.

I already reviewed these L’Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows in a previous post, so this is mostly just swatches of some other colors I’ve picked up. During a buy one get one 50% sale at CVS, I picked up two more colors but also picked a third one up at Walmart, where the regular price is $6.97.

The three colors I bought are Golden Sage, Perpetual Purple, and Iced Latte. These are definitely more wearable, every day colors when compared to the Maybelline Color Tattoo line.

The labels are on the bottle of the glass jars. The lid screws on securely, and there is a little plastic stopper that keeps the powder pressed inside, so don’t throw that out.

From left to right are Golden Sage, Iced Latte, and Perpetual Purple. The left stripe is made with a flat wet/dry brush and the right is done with my fingertip. A soft bristle round brush doesn’t apply these eye shadows well at all, but but a flat, stiff brush like a concealer-type brush works much better.

Even though these do stay on all day without creasing, you definitely need to use a primer. Without it, I find it doesn’t apply as nicely and will crease a bit after a few hours. I’m currently using Palladio’s Herbal eye primer, which is similar to Urban Decay’s Primer Potion.

I’ve been reaching for these more frequently when I need a quick bit of color for running around on errands. They’re easy to work with and blend pretty well as long as you don’t wait too long. I will probably pick up some of the other colors I’m missing like the navy blue.

Have you guys tried these yet?

I am a big fan of the Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows for their easy application and long wear, but I was wishing they had more neutral, every day colors. Enter L’Oreal Infallible 24 Hour Eye Shadow.

These pigmented eye shadows are like a packed powder shadow in a glass jar. Reviews I’ve read had said this is a long lasting product that applies smoothly. Using a CVS coupon, I picked up one in Continuous Cocoa for 20% off.

I chose Continuous Cocoa for my first color because I think it would work well as an all over lid color and as a contour shade.

When you open the jar, you’ll see a plastic gray plunger – keep that! It goes back in the jar before you cap it to keep the powder pressed.

L’Oreal advertises this as a 24 hour creaseless eye shadow. I don’t know about 24 hours, but with a primer, I was definitely able to wear these for 12 hours. Without a primer, this color started to fade after about 8 hours.

Below are two sets of swatches. The first shows the shadow applied with a smudge brush and with a finer brush point. The second are the first swatches after I’ve let the eye shadow set and then rubbed pretty aggressively.

You can see that there is a lot of the color still remaining (right swatch). I was impressed! It actually took more scrubbing and makeup remover to get the rest of it off.

The one thing I’m still having difficulty with here is deciding what brush applies this type of eyeshadow better. A softer brush doesn’t seem to pickup enough product and ends up just packing the shadow into the pot. A stiffer brush picks up more product, but I can’t get it to apply well – and it also seems to pack the product in the pot. So far, I’m finding the best way to apply this product is with my fingertip.

Overall, I like the L’Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow, but for me the Maybelline Color Tattoo is a bit easier to work with. I have since purchased a few more of these which I’ll review soon.

L’Oreal Infallible 24 Hour Eye Shadow retails for $9-11, depending on the store you purchase them in.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I’ve been spending the last couple weeks spring cleaning my room, a huge task that included setting up a new dressed with additional makeup organizers! I’ve still got some knick knacks to put away, but I thought perhaps I should get back to making some posts.

I recently reviewed the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadows, which I have been loving. Well, a couple months ago Rite Aid was having an insane buy one get one free sale so I picked up a bunch of new colors for myself and my mother.

In the previous review, I already talked about the long lasting formula, so this is just going to be a post with swatches of the colors I have now. First up are the two bold colors I decided on: Edgy Emerald and Tenacious Teal.

I love blue and green eye shadows, so I definitely wanted to try these two. Both of these colors have a little shimmer and they blend out to a subtle wash of color if needed. I like to pair Edgy Emerald with neutrals and browns. Tenacious Teal looks great with neutrals as well.

I also picked up the other neutral/metallic colors: Bold Gold, Bad to the Bronze, and Audacious Asphalt.

I’ve been using Bad to the Bronze a lot as an every day eye shadow. Just that color and some eyeliner and I’m set for the day. Bold Gold is also a great all over eye color or used as a base. Audacious Asphalt is kind of dark for me to use as an all over color normally, but it would make a great smoky eye. I usually use it in the outside corners to darken another color.

Overall, I’m a big fan of these cream eyeshadows and find that I’m reaching for them more than my powders or palettes.

Maybelline Color Tattoo eyeshadows are available where Maybelline products are sold. Prices vary, but each color is about $6.99 retail. Be sure to check weekly fliers for sales!

Most of my eyeshadows are loose mineral powders, but in the last couple years I’ve started adding pressed pigment palettes. Prior to trying the Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Gel Eyeshadows, I only owned two cream eye shadows and I wasn’t impressed with them. They creased horribly and didn’t stay on my lid at all.

Maybelline claims this cream gel formula will last “24HR” without creasing or fading. With all the good reviews these were getting, I decided to take advantage of a buy one get on 50% off sale and pick up two colors: Tough as Taupe and Pomegranate Punk.

The product comes in heavy glass jars with a screw on top. I’m not sure if these caps are air tight enough to keep the product from drying out, but time will tell. One thing I dislike is that the name of the color is on the lid, so you’ll have to be careful not to mix them up. Thankfully, the names and colors are pretty easy to match up so I don’t see this being a big problem.

You can apply it with a brush, but sometimes I’m lazy and use my fingers, which results in heavier application. It goes on smoothly and you can blend it out if you do it immediately before the shadow sets.

From the swatch above you can see that Tough As Taupe applies slightly more gray than how it looks in the jar. Pomegranate Punk has a slight bit of shimmer in it.

Both of these colors are easy to wear and last 8 hours easily without any fading or creasing. I’ve worn them for longer, but they do start fading and there is a little creasing, but by that point I’m ready to remove my makeup anyway.

I really like these cream eyeshadows and have already purchased more! I’ll be reviewing the other colors in a future post.

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR Cream Gel Eyeshadows retail for about $6.99, but prices vary. Check weekly sales at the drugstores for buy one get one 50% off sales!

Several months ago, I purchased three Coastal Scents Go Palettes after seeing reviews on various beauty blogs. Each travel sized palette has 12 eye shadows and are very affordable at $8.95 each!

I’ve actually never ordered anything from Coastal Scents before even though I’ve seen great reviews of their palettes and brushes. These little travel themes palettes seemed like a great introduction to the brand, though!

There are seven sets available, but I purchased three: London, Bejing, and Cairo. each palette measures 3.22″ x 3.31″ x 0.62″ and there is a small mirror on the inside lid. I love the map artwork on the box and I wish they’d included the outline of each country on the top of the palette itself.

This is going to be a longer entry since I’m going to reviewing all three palettes in this post, so let’s get going!

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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!

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.

Beauty Army is a brand new sample box subscription service that launched on January 1st. I was lucky enough to be one of the first wave of people who managed to sign up during that first hectic day of us beauty junkies crushing the web servers.

For $12 per month, Beauty Army allows you to select up to 6 samples from a slightly larger list. I think it’s great that you can pick what you want to try and also that some months you can just pick 3 or 4, which is great if you’ve already got a bunch of samples you’re not going to use.

I was surprised at the size of the box that arrived! The outside mailing box is custom printed with “Beauty Army” printed in a band around the box. The samples are packed in a hinged black box that is spot glossed with various text.

Inside, the samples are wrapped loosely in pink tissue. If there was one criticism I would give, it would be to wrap the items a bit more securely since a few of them were floating around loose in the box. The notecard on the inside is printed on a lovely canvas textured card. Nice touch!

Here are some photos of the samples I picked:

For my first box, I chose Sun FX Body Wash, Shea Terra Organics Rose Hips Black Soap Facial Cleanser, Strivectin Get Even Brightening Serum, Boo Boo Coverup, and MyFace Cosmetics Blingtone Eyeshadow in Morocco. I also had picked the Cellceuticals Neocell skin treatment, but it somehow didn’t get photographed!

The eyeshadow is a creamy metallic pressed shadow. It’s a very light and would be good for a highlight color. Here’s a swatch:

The rose hips black soap was the first thing I tried. It’s a really great gentle exfoliating soap that left my skin very smooth. I would definitely purchase a full bottle of this one the sample runs out.

The next item that I really loved was the Boo Boo Cover-up. It’s meant to be used over scratches and wounds (not open wounds) since the natural ingredients help heal the injury. I tried this on a blemish that was on my chin and worked great! Best concealer product I have right now and I will certainly be buying a full sized tube of this.

I’m also using the Strivectin Brightening Serum, but it’ll be a few weeks before I can tell if it’s made any difference evening out my complexion.

Overall, I’m very happy with Beauty Army and look forward to choosing my samples next month!

Hello again! Here’s a quick look at the Wet n Wild Comfort Zone Color Icon palette.

I’ve seen this particular set reviewed on a lot of blogs and i was interested in the definer color on the right side of the palette – it’s a close dupe to the darker color in the BareMinerals Ready2.0 The Vision palette.

The Wet N Wild palette has been difficult to locate at the usual drug stores, but I found a stack of them at Ulta! At $4.99, how could I pass it up?

The one frustrating thing is that these palettes never have names for the individual colors. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s a little annoying! Anyway, the colors apply very smoothly and have good pigmentation.

I mostly bought this palette for the color in the top right of the third picture above. It’s a dark maroon/brown with a teal/aqua shimmer. Love it! Here are some swatches in direct and indirect sunlight:

This is a nice palette, especially for the price. The colors are easily workable for day and night looks.