Loose Powder

On the first day I started school in the United States, my kindergarten teacher completely fascinated me. The story goes that upon seeing her vivid green eyes, either my twin sister or I whispered to my parents: “Teacher looks like a cat.” I’ve been drawn to the color green since then and so when the GEO Magic Color Lens (3-tone green) went on sale at Yes Style in September, I quickly snapped some up. I think I sought out the 3-tone lens specifically because the lens could be purchased to fit my contact lens prescription.

A bit of background according to Wiki: Circle contact lenses originated in South Korea and they are a cosmetic contact lens that makes the eye’s iris appear larger. Instead of like traditional contact lens, circle lenses have areas that are tinted so they can modify the look of the eye, whether that’s making the iris appear bigger (doll like / anime), or to have a crazy shape (cat eye or stars or spider webs), or to change the color AND making the iris appear larger (gray, yellow, red). Now, it’s a VERY good idea to have your eyes checked out by a professional before you stick a piece of plastic into your eye that will suck out oxygen from your cornea. Particularly if you enjoy this thing called vision and seeing as I do but take so much for granted!

Onto the review!

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November’s Thanksgiving Birchbox was about giving. The items were staff favorites and were packed in a gifting envelope rather than tissue paper.

In the box were four items for me and one to give away:

• Lulu Organics Lavender + Clary Sage Hair Powder
• ModelCo Fibre Lashxtend Lengthening Mascara
• Mox Botanicals Pomegranate & Fig Lip Butter
• One Love Organics Aromatic Body Serum
• Extra: John Varvatos Artisan Cologne

I don’t particularly like body oils as despite claims otherwise, I don’t feel they absorb quickly enough into my skin and I feel like there’s a layer of oil on my skin. The One Love body serum is no exception, which makes me pass on this product.

While I try to purchase only naturally derived lip balms, most of them actually end up drying my lips. I’m not sure what moisturizing ingredient causes this, but the Mox Botanicals lip butter dried out my lips after  two days of use. I do like th texture and scent of this lip balm, though, so I’m a bit sad about not being able to use it.

I was very impressed by the ModelCo Lashxtend mascara! With only two coats, it added a nice amount of length to my lashes and darkened them a lot! Sorry I didn’t get a before photo, but here are a couple of photos with the mascara applied.

In the last photo above, you can see the attached mirror on the mascara tube. I found it a little difficult to use when applying the product, but it’s a neat idea.

The Lulu Organics Hair Powder has a nice herbal scent, which I found doesn’t transfer much into the hair. I’ve used it couple of times and didn’t find it to do much in terms of lifting roots or absorbing oil from second day hair, so I probably wouldn’t purchase it.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service. For $10 a month, you’ll receive a box of four to five deluxe sized samples in the mail.

October’s Birchbox was a special edition curated by goop.com, featuring their must-try items.

I actually missed the opt-in e-mail, so I wasn’t sure if I would be getting this box. When I asked about it via Twitter, I was told that it was possible that I could still get on, so when my October box arrived in the special goop outer sleeve, I was quite excited!

Well… this box wasn’t nearly as exciting as I was expecting, but there were still a couple items I was interested in trying.

• Chantecaille Faux Cils Mascara
• DDF Wrinkle Resist Plus Pore Minimizer
• EVE LOM Cleanser and Muslin Cloth
• per-fekt Beauty Lip Perfection Gel
• Extra: Lemon Zest Luna Bar

First of all, I always keep a Luna bar in my purse because I get a little difficult to deal with when my blood sugar is low. My friends and I say that I am getting “stabby.” Lemon Zest is one of the few flavors I like, though sometimes it’s a little sweet – I’m currently liking the almond ones a bit more.

My face is currently recovering from a terrible reaction to a foundation I was trying, so I haven’t yet used the DDF Pore Minimzer or the EVE LOM cleanser, though both look good. I also like the little muslin cloth the EVE LOM cleanser comes with as I find those work better for me as an exfoliator than the usual scrubs which was a bit too gritty.

The item that kind of baffles me is the per-fekt Beauty Lip Perfection Gel. It’s in a very strange sample package and I have yet to open it to try it.

I’m not sure this month’s box was really worth it, but I’m continuing my subscription.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service. For $10 a month, you’ll receive a box of four to five deluxe sized samples in the mail.

Hey, everyone! Sorry about the massive delay in these box reviews. I’ve been a little preoccupied getting myself ready for DragonCon. Anyway, here’s a look inside my August Birchbox Man!

The theme for this month’s box was fine-tuning your lifestyle.

Inside was a nice assortment of products:

• Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm
• Kiehl’s Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream – White Eagle
• Marvis Classic Mint Toothpaste
• Barking Irons Brando Cut T-Shirt

The Barking Irons shirt was a great surprise. A men’s small is always a little baggy on me, but I like the cut of this shirt and have worn it a few times and washed it already! The cost of one of these shirts is more than the price of the Birchbox, so it was a great value this month.

Honestly, the smell of the Kiehl’s Brushless Shave Cream has kept me from trying it. It has camphor and menthol in it and you can definitely smell those! I might actually pass this off to a male friend as this sort of cream would probably work best someone using a safety razor on facial hair.

I’d seen the Marvis Classic Mint toothpaste before at Bath & Body Works, but never thought to try it. It’s a good toothpaste with a mint flavor that isn’t too chemically sweet, but I didn’t find it kept my breath fresher any longer than commercial toothpastes. If it were on sale, I might get some, but at full price, it’s a bit too expensive for me.

The product I haven’t touched yet is the Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm. I have a line of eye serums waiting to be test and haven’t been able to get to this one. However, I do like Algenist products, so I look forward to testing it out.

Once again, Birchbox Man was a good deal for $20, so I’m keeping my subscription. Can’t wait to see what I get next month.

This month’s Birchbox is a special Glamour curated box with the Senses as its theme.

Inside this fun summer box were six great items:

• Color Club Blue-Ming
• Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner in black
• Harvey Prince Eau Flirt
• Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum
• Lifestyle Extra: Tea Forte Minteas in Ginger Pear
• Lifestyle Extra: Birchbox Exclusive earbuds

I keep getting Harvey Prince fragrances, but they haven’t impressed me. Most commercial perfumes smell the same to me and Eau Flirt is more of the same. I can smell a bit of the  jasmine and amber, but there’s still the basic floral chemical perfume smell.

The Supergoop! City suncreen I haven’t had a chance to use yet. The Tea Forte Minteas are okay, but they have a bit of a medicinal/vitamin taste. I appreciate the ear phones, but I have several pairs already – never hurts to have a backup, though!

I love the Color Club Blue-Ming polish, but it looks similar to China Glaze’s For Audrey or Wet ‘n’ Wild’s I Need A Refresh-Mint. It’s a great color that’s going in my stash, though.

I’ve used the old Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner pens and I’ve been excited to try the new Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liners. This draws a great, sharp line and once set doesn’t smudge. Mostly. This eyeliner is not water resistant and moisture will cause it to smudge a little.

The tip on the Eyeko liner is very sharp and stiff. I’ve found the best way to apply it is to press the tip at an angle against my eyelid and make a line that way rather than just drawing straight across.

So, I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been a Birchbox subscriber, but the company sent me a special thank you gift separately in the mail. It was a lovely leather keychain!

It’s designed to hold a small sample or maybe a small lip product. It was a fun surprise and I appreciate the company sending out a little gift to customers.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service. For $10 a month, you’ll receive a box of four to five deluxe sized samples in the mail.

I’m always looking for a great eyeliner that isn’t going to smudge or migrate during the day. I previously reviewed the Stila Smudge Stick eyeliners in Koi & Silver Dollar and found they stayed all day with no problem! Ulta had a promotion this Spring during their Week of Beauty and I was able to pick up Lionfish and Stingray at a great discount.

Lionfish is a dark brown with a gold metallic shimmer and Stingray is a dark black with a tiny bit of silver shimmer. Not to worry, there are no glitter particles to irritate your eyes. This liner applies smoothly and you can smudge it immediately after application, but it sets quickly.

This is a twist up pencil, so no sharpening is required. Good thing because there’s only 0.01 oz of product in the pencil and considering these retail for $20 each, I wouldn’t want to waste any in a sharpener.

As usual, I can’t get these eyeliners to stay on my waterline, but they will stay just fine on my lower lash line.

Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eyeliner retails for $20 and is available at Stila’s website, Sephora, and UIta.

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 had previously reviewed the Curvy Brush and Fat Brush mascaras by Eyeko and wanted to complete the trio by trying out the Skinny Brush mascara.

I love the packaging of these mascaras. The silver tube is great to make sure you get all the product out and, as always, it includes an Eyeko eye shield. I actually haven’t had too much luck with using the eye shields, but I do keep trying.

The Skinny Brush is supposed to lengthen and define lashes. As far as I can tell, the formulas for the mascaras are the same, they just have different brushes, which is fine with me because I think this is a great mascara formula. It applies smoothly without clumps and doesn’t smudge or flake.

Sephora recently started carrying Eyeko mascaras and I was able to pick this up for 20% off with my VIB discount.

Here are some before and after photos (showing two coats of mascara). I didn’t curl my lashes prior to applying the mascara.

Application was a little messier than usual, but I think I’m still trying to get used to the brush. As you can see, two coats gives a lot of length and volume. I didn’t even need to curl my lashes to get a little bit of curl, which is awesome as I can skip a step when applying my makeup. My lashes stay flexible, not stiff or crunchy feeling, which is always a plus.

Three coats gives a bolder, separated look:

Between the three brush types, I think the Fat Brush is still my favorite, but I like the Skinny Brush as well and would probably buy it again.

One thing to note – if you use a heated eyelash curler, do not use it after applying this mascara! The heat will melt the mascara and you ‘ll be left with a mess.

Eyeko mascaras retail for $19 and are available at Sephora, Henri Bendel, and at the Eyeko website.

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?

Part of my fabulous Christmas package from my friend, Annie, included tubes of Tarte‘s MultiplEYE Lash Enhancing Primer and Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara.

I’ve tried the mascara before, but I’ve actually never used any kind of eyelash primer before, so I was excited to try the MultiplEYE.

I love Tarte mascaras (and products) because they’re made without parabens, mineral oil, petroleum, sodium lauryl sulfate, or phthalates. The packaging is always fun, as well! The MultiplEYE primer comes in a square tube and the mascara comes in a leather-like sleeve.

I’ll start with the MultiplEYE Primer.

This white colored primer has very tiny fibers that are meant to add length and volume. I applied a single coat of this to my lashes and let it dry before applying mascara. Lashes stay soft and don’t get crunchy with this primer on. I did feel that the mascara adds a bit more spidery with the primer, but that could just be me. Here are photos of my bare lashes, the MultiplEYE applied, and then also with mascara.

I would definitely say the primer makes a difference in the length and volume of my lashes. Application probably needs some work though, as you can see that the ends are a a little spidery.

Next, here’s a look at the Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara:

This dark black mascara adds quite a bit of length and volume on its own without the primer. It was able to give my lashes a little bit of a curl even though I didn’t use a curler. With two coats, my lashes got a little clumpy, but the lashes did stay soft and there was no flaking or raccoon eyes after 12 hours of wear.

Here are photos of my bare lashes (left), one coat of mascara (center), and two coats (right):

As you can see, one coat adds some volume, but not too much length. Two coats adds length and volume, but starts to look spidery.

I like both products together for a dramatic look. It does take a bit more time because of the extra step the primer adds, but I think it’s worth it. I would definitely buy these both again when I run out. Thanks so much to Annie for gifting them to me!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara retails for $19 and MultiplEYE Lash Primer retails for $22. Both products are available at Sephora and Ulta.