Loose Powder

I’m a sucker for cute packaging, so when I spotted the bunny ears and smiley faces of the Tony Moly Petite Bunny Gloss Bar, I just couldn’t resist. Since the Tony Moly brand is from South Korea, you have to look for websites that sell Korean cosmetics. I ended up buying mine from eBay, mainly because the price was more reasonable (re: affordable). As a note: counterfeit cosmetics do exist, particularly those that are highly popular and sought after. I did my due diligence to scope out the seller–established sales, customer reviews, total number and variety of items on the shop, etc.–before purchase.

My eBay purchase included the two Bunny Gloss Bars (number 03 Juicy Apple and 09 Neon Red), along with some other things that I hope to review at a later time. I got the goods delivered promptly (a little over a week) and everything was packaged very tidy in a small box. The individual gloss bar measures 4.5 in / 11.43 cm, which fits into the palm of my hand easily and the bunny ears gives my thumbs a gripping point when carrying. Both gloss bars had a label affixed on it that had a bunch of tiny Korean text which I could only make out the bar code and 03 or 09 numbers. I’ve read that Korean cosmetics have manufacture dates on the product, but I found imprinted on the bottom of the tube “EJN 20150912” followed by Korean text. I’m guessing that’s the use by date?

When uncapped, I noticed the scent of the gloss bar. I didn’t so much smell the 03 Juicy Apple, but for some reason 09 Neon Red had that sweet cherry-strawberry flavor reminiscent of children’s lip balms or cough medicine. The actual gloss bar is a creamy column that extends to about one inch via twisting the bottom tube, which I suppose is an average amount of gloss when compared to other lip products. I had some difficulty getting the 09 Neon Red bar to retract and ended up having to use my finger to gently press it back inside the plastic tube.

As far as the color: it’s actually rather sheer; you have to add a couple of layers before the color becomes really noticeable. The samples I swatched on my arm had a good 4-5 applications for the color to appear. And when I look at the 2 colors side by side, they do look rather similar, though this could be due to the lighting as I took the pictures rather quickly in the car during my lunch break. I found the actual application on my lips a bit on the greasy side for the 09 Neon Red. The texture is buttery soft and applies smoothly, but I didn’t find it to be moisturizing or very long lasting.

Overall, the Petite Bunny Gloss Bar is a combination between gloss (goes on in a shimmery-sheer fashion, but not exactly moist), and colored lip balm (bar that applies smooth and gives a touch of color). The product lists for $8.00-15.00 depending on which website you visit, but I paid $5.75 per shade from eBay. This was definitely a splurge purchase, based purely on the cute factor of the product packaging. There are a total of 9 shades but I’m not sure I would buy the remaining 7 shades.

I’ve become quite a fan of NYX glosses after trying a few of them out. They’re not too sticky, have a pleasant scent, and they’re great colors.

Gold Pink is a slightly milky pink gloss with subtle gold shimmer. You can’t really see the shimmer, but under bright light, there’s a bit of sparkle. It’s a great every day sort of color.

The applicator is a standard doe foot, which works fine for this product. You can see from the swatch that is has a thick consistency. The shimmer looks silver in the photos, but it does look gold in other lighting.

Above are lip swatches in direct and indirect light. It’s definitely a very shiny gloss! It’s good for a few hours before I need to reapply and while I don’t think it moisturizes, it doesn’t dry out my lips at all.

This is one of my favorite glosses and I’m glad I picked it up.

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.

As part of my first batch of NYX products, I picked up two NYX Round Lip Glosses. Their formulation is a little different than the Mega Shine Lip Glosses, and they’re also a little less expensive. The two colors I chose were Apricot and Queen of Africa.

Apricot is a sheer apricot color, while Queen of Africa is a sheer bright purple with blue toned glitter. Even though this is a less expensive product ($3.00 vs $5.50), I like the packaging of this NYX Round Gloss better. They feel much sturdier and I like the way the thick outer plastic looks.

The applicator is a bent doe foot, which I like for getting the most product out of the container. These glosses apply smoothly without being too sticky. They have a strong lemon-scent that kind of reminds me of lemon cleaners, but it disappears quickly and thankfully doesn’t also taste the same. If you’re sensitive to scents, keep that in mind.

Apricot doesn’t add much color to my lips, but gives them a pinker tone (direct and indirect sun):

I was afraid Queen of Africa might be too much for me to wear out, but I actually love this color quite a bit:

I love this one a lot! On me, it’s a very wearable fuchsia shade and a great spring color.

NYX round glosses are definitely a new favorite product and I will definitely be ordering more shades of these in the future!

I’m still a little new to NYX Cosmetics and only just started purchasing more lip glosses and lip sticks from this company. After reading reviews and looking at swatches, I decided to place an order at Cherry Culture. Part of my order was for two Mega Shine lip glosses in Perfect and Natural.

Perfect is a very sheer pink with a slight sparkle. Natural is a pigmented pinky brown that makes a good neutral colors gloss. Both have a fruity scent and a slightly fruity taste; both apply smoothly and neither is very sticky.

You can see the applicator wand is a slightly angled doe foot, which works fine for applying this gloss. Here are some swatches of both colors on my lips in both direct and indirect sunlight.

NYX Mega Shine Gloss in Perfect

NYX Mega Shine Gloss in Natural

Both of these had typical wear for a gloss and didn’t leave my lips feeling dry once they had faded. I’m a fan of these glosses and would purchase more in the future.

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss retails for $5.50, but prices may vary from store to store. Be sure to check Cherry Culture for sales.

Because I had some decent results with Philosophy’s Divine Luxurious lip color, I thought I would try a drug store version. Maybelline’s SuperStay 24 Color advertises a lip color that last 24 hours and won’t crumble, cake, fade, or transfer. That’s a lot to live up to!

One end has the lip color with a doe foot applicator and the other side has a lip balm to help keep your lips moisturized through the day. You’ll need it!

I purchased So Pearly Pink, a shimmery pinky-mauve color. It’s rather sheer and it’s much frostier than I expected. Here are swatches on both the back of my hand and my lips in direct & indirect sunlight:

I’m not a fan of this color or this formula. There was no way I could apply this color without it looking like I had flaky, dry lips. Believe me, I tried. I can’t put a lip balm under it, otherwise the color won’t set & stay. I can’t put any lip glosses over it once it’s dry because the oils in it will cause the lip color to rub off. If I didn’t use the lip balm provided, my lips felt extremely dry.

On the other hand, the color doesn’t transfer and it did require make-up remover to get it off at the end of the day. Unfortunately it just looked worse and worse as the minutes wore on and it looked like I had the worst chapped lips.

I may try another color again if I find it at deep discount, but I’m not every confident in this product working for me.

Prior to trying the Philosophy Divine Luxurious Long Wear Lip Color, the only long wearing lip colors I have used were lip stains. I’d seen commercials and reviews for long wearing lip colors that basically create a dried layer on your lips but they weren’t that appealing.

My mother had purchased a set of these from QVC and gave me the one in Beige Begonia color.

One end has the lip color with a doe foot applicator and the other end has a gloss with a brush applicator. The directions say that you should apply the lip color and wait 10 to 15 seconds before applying the lip gloss.

You can see in the swatch above that the color dries matte, but the gloss is super shiny. It is very drying on its own, so you definitely have to use the gloss. I waited longer than the suggested time – about one minute – to make sure the color was dry before adding the gloss. There was not color transfer on to the brush, actually, which was a good sign.

Here are some photos with me wearing the lip color:

This was a nice neutral, every day color for me. It was fairly long lasting as long as I kept using the gloss – I was able to get 6 hours with some eating and drinking. There was no color transfer. Once it started fading, it did look a bit patchy as the color kind of peeled off in areas. If I don’t reapply the gloss once it fades, my lips feel really dry and the fact that there’s a thick layer of color stuck to my lips is very obvious.

I thought this product was okay, but I probably wouldn’t purchase it. I don’t like the feeling of a layer stuck to my lips and I’m not keen on the sticky gloss. Using any other gloss seems to cause the color  to come of faster.

Philosophy Divine Luxurious Long-Wear Lip Color is available exclusively at QVC for $18.50.

Hi, guys. My February 2012 Eco-Emi box actually arrived a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t had the chance to write up a post about it until now.

This is my finale Eco-Emi box. Like I said last month, after a few boxes, I decided that while the service does give you some great products for $15 a month, there weren’t enough that were interesting to me. That said, I thought the items in this box were actually great!

Lots of goodies in this packed anniversary box that almost make me regret canceling my subscription. Here’s a list of the items:

• Revolution Organics Freedom Lip Gloss in Innocent
• Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques Body Butter
• Eco Lips Dagoba Organic Lip Balm
• Oluv Skin OluvSuds Soap
• Dr. Robins All Natural Chemical Free Sunblock
• Greener Living Organic Soap Nuts
• Crystal Essence Lavender & White Tea Deodorant Towelettes
• Greenbody Greenplanet Organic Energy Shampoo & Conditioner
• Mighty Leaf Tea Herbal Chocolate Mint Truffle Tea

And some more photos of the samples in the box and a swatch of the gloss:

I haven’t used the soap nuts, deodorant, sunscreen, shampoo, or conditioner yet.  The lip balm has been added to a stash of balms I have yet to get to. The Mighty Leaf Tea I drank immediately after opening the box. It’s a Rooibos tea with cocoa and spearmint that I added a little cane sugar to for a tasty cup of tea. The chocolate flavor wasn’t very strong, but I have yet to find a chocolate flavored tea that is. They’re quite expensive though – $9.95 for 15 sachets – which means I’m probably not going to buying any too soon.

The thought the Freedom Lip Gloss was nice, slick gloss. It’s a sheer baby pink with a bit of shimmer from the minerals. Revolution Cosmetics says this gloss is made with all natural ingredients and doesn’t contain chemicals, mineral oil, petroleum, or parabens.

I’m actually very interested in trying out the shampoo & conditioner as my hair is much longer now and I’m having some difficulty getting clean hair with the Lush solid soaps. The soap nuts I’ll probably try to use in ways other than laundry since I wash clothes with cold water and soap nuts are best used with hot water.

This was definitely the nicest of the Eco-Emi boxes I have gotten. I may resubscribe in the future, but for now, this will be my last box.

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.

My December Birchbox arrived last week, but I’ve only just had the chance to take photos of the contents. This month’s theme is the holidays, of course, and the usually pink outer box had festive white snowflakes! Inside the box, the plum tissue paper was replaced with one that is white with very fine pearlescent glitter. Very pretty!

So very pretty! Definitely saving the tissue to reuse for gifting. Inside the box were five items that should all be fun to try out:

• Benefit Cosmetics, The POREfessional
• Harvey Prince Ageless (Perfume)
• Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink
• Orofluido Beauty Elixir hair treatment
• Extra: Showstoppers Designer Fashion Tape
• Extra: EBoost Orange Natural Energy Booster

I haven’t used these products yet, but the Jouer samples I’ve gotten in my Birchboxes have all been great. The fashion tape could come in handy… if I ever wear a fancy dress that would need them, of course!

The Harvey Prince perfume is a light, fruity scent with notes of pink grapefruit, pomegranate, mango, and jasmine. I also love that these luxe perfume samples are now tiny sprayers instead of the traditional stopper tops which could get everywhere when you try to open them.

I don’t usually drink any of those energy boosting solutions, but perhaps I should give this a try as I’ve been feeling kind of run down lately.

Not super-wowed by this month’s box, but I’m still loving the monthly box of treats so I’m keeping my Birchbox subscription!

I hadn’t heard of Jordana Cosmetics until I was scouring KMart for inexpensive lip glosses. I was, of course, rather skeptical of them – what else could I think about a $1.99 lip gloss? When I was at the KMart, though, they were buy one get one free, so why not give them a try?

Lip Out Loud Super Shiny Glosses come in 15 colors in several finishes, all named with texting shorthand. The first two I picked were TTYL and ASAP.

The glosses I picked both have visible duochrome glitter and are both rather sheer. These glosses also have a fruity flavor and smell that reminds me of a watermelon Jolly Rancher. At first, I wasn’t at all liking that, but having used these glosses for a while, I don’t mind anymore.

The applicator is an extended doe foot soft applicator. In the swatches, ASAP is on top and TTYL is on the bottom.

These glosses are great! They last a few hours and aren’t very sticky.  The price is also good and the packaging is decent quality thick plastic tube.

Jordana Cosmetics are available online at their website, KMart, and grocery stores.