Loose Powder

My eyelashes are pretty sparse, so I’m definitely interested in any mascara that promises lots of volume! Up next in my series of mascara reviews: Rimmel Volume Accelerator Mascara.

Okay, I admit that I was drawn in by the advertisements with Zooey Deschanel even though I know that they’re always wearing falsies in those ads. I bought it at Target and paid $8 for it, I think.

The bold yellow and black packaging claims this mascara will make my lashes look 12x fuller immediately and that the lash growth complex would make my lashes look more numerous after 30 days.

I do like the design of the tube – it’s a clear plastic vessel around a black inner chamber that holds the mascara. The brush itself is flat on one side and a half teardrop on the other. I’m still not sure if the brush designs make a huge difference for me with these spooled brushes, but it’s hard to say for sure.

Here are some before and after photos:

This is actually pretty impressive. Volume Accelerator added a lot of length and volume! You can see it very well in the second set of photos – lots of length and volume! Okay, well, the volume is partly that the mascara is sticking lashes together and then coating them, but still the result is fantastic.

I did find this mascara a little tricky to work with – it was a bit wetter than some others, but the consistency will probably thicken up after exposure to air. The runny formula made a bit of a mess that I was able to clean up with a cotton swab – you can see it in the first “after” photo though.

Because of the runny consistency of the mascara, any curl I was able to get with a normal eyelash curler disappeared quickly. Thankfully, using my new heater eyelash curler (I’ll be reviewing it soon), I was able to curl my lashes without breaking any lashes or ruining the mascara application.

Once dry, my lashes aren’t crunchy even though it adds such length and volume. The mascara has great wear with no flaking after 8 hours. Even though this isn’t a waterproof mascara, I found that I still needed to use my regular makeup remover to get it all off. It wasn’t that big of a deal, though, and I’m pretty happy with the performance overall.

I can’t speak too much on the long term lash growth effect, but from what I’ve read, growth serums that are applied to the lash itself aren’t really useful since those are just dead cells that aren’t growing. From other articles, it seems that any kind of lash growth serum should be applied where you would apply eyeliner. That makes sense since that’s closest to where the root of the hairs are.

Overall, I did like the performance of this mascara. Of the ones I’ve tried so far, Volume Accelerator has given me the best volume so far!

Ever since I finished using my last eye makeup remover, I’ve been looking for a new inexpensive brand to use. I picked up Rimmel London’s Gentle Eye Make Up Remover since it noted in bold letters of being “oil free” in addition to being able to remove waterproof makeup. The last oil free remover I tried was Benefit’s Gee! That was quick! As refreshing as that makeup remover made my face feel, it did not remove waterproof makeup as well as I would have liked.

When I first applied this makeup remover onto the cotton pad, I noticed that it felt a bit oily, but as soon as I wiped my eye makeup off my lids, I did not feel any oily residue on my lids. In fact it felt pretty clean and moist. The makeup remover had no problems cleaning off all the waterproof eye makeup I had on, and it did not have any problem removing waterproof mascara, which seems to be a problem with most waterproof eye makeup. I also tried using this remover to remove heavy smokey eye makeup, and the remover worked great!

Also the makeup remover solution is quite gentle on the eyes, which is always a plus for contact lens wearers.

For $6-$7, I think this makeup remover works great, and I highly recommend it.

First of all, I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts lately. Hopefully, we can get back to a more frequent posting schedule.

This  is a quick look at Rimmel‘s Lasting Finish Pro Lacquer in Steel Grey. It required two coats to get bottled color.

The color of this polish rages from a cool mushroom to a warm brown, but there is no red/purple tone. Honestly, I’m not sure what lighting conditions other people have photographed swatches under to get a dusty lavender shade.

I didn’t wear this color for more than 5 days, so I can’t judge the “lasting finish” of it. After 5 days, it still looked good though, with little edge wear.

This is less a review and more a post on a look I put together for my trip out to Seattle this month. I wanted something fun and funky, but easy to remove with ELF’s polish remover pads. I also wanted something that wouldn’t look awful when it chipped — meaning no bold, solid colors.

I started off with two coats of Love Letters by China Glaze:

Next, I used BundleMonster fauxnad plate BM20 with Rimmel‘s Lasting Finish Pro in Violet Metal:

And then I used BundleMonster fauxnad plate BM17 with e.l.f. polish in black for a fancy french tip and Bundlemonster BM08 for with the same black polish for an accent:

In the last picture, I’ve applied a coat of Nutra Nail High Gloss Top Coat.

My konad is a little messy in some places, but I like the look overall.  I actually can’t wait to try a full nail application of Rimmel’s Violet Metal – check out that purple flash you get when the light hits it just right!

I’m hoping this mani will last me most of the week before I have to take it off.