All Eyes On Her

I recently caught wind of the Rare Minerals acne-fighting mineral powder concealer by Bare Escentuals, and now I see that it’s been voted a Sephora best-of.

I’ve always wanted to avoid anything by BE, since they are notorious for including the chemical bismuth oxychloride in their formulations.  (Many people are quite allergic to bismuth, and it causes a rash-like reaction that takes ages to clear up.  I’m not eager to find out whether I should count myself in those ranks or not!)  And bismuth aside, this stuff definitely has some other ingredients (like dimethicone) that would aggravate my breakouts.

However, the idea of making a powder concealer that contains acne-fighting ingredients definitely intrigues me.  I’ve been trying to figure out a good BHA solution for ages and ages, and concealers that help dry up and bust blemishes definitely appeal to me.  And since my problem with salicylic acid was always figuring out how to get it to dissolve in a liquid base, the idea of being able to leave it in its powdered form is a definite bonus!

I’m going to try this out with my Everyday Minerals concealer set.  I’ll mix the shades that best match my skin for covering blemishes, and I’ll add a few drops of manuka essential oil (gentler than BE’s tea tree oil, and less stinky), and a bit of powdered salicylic acid.  I may also try adding some powdered zinc oxide, both for extra sun protection and for its soothing properties.  (I just have to make sure it doesn’t lighten the mix too much.)

If I can track some down, I might also add powdered sulphur, since that’s the acne-fighting ingredient that always shows me great results on individual blemishes.  However, sulphur’s smell really turns my stomach, so it may be worth while to leave that out of the mix.  It looks like I’ll be making up to four different batches to test this idea out, so I’ll post updates soon.  Thanks for the great idea, BE!

So it turns out the Primer Potion I so adore was voted “Best Cult Must-Have” by Sephora customers.  I’m not surprised!

A little update, though — after a particularly hot and sweaty summer, half of which I spent working in a non-air-conditioned office, I can tell you that even this stuff has its limits.  It’s great for normal levels of temperature and sweat, but my eyeshadow *did* crease in the crazy heat and moisture.

Still by far the best eye shadow base I’ve ever tried, though!  I just want people to have realistic expectations.

As promised, here come more 100% Pure cosmetics reviews… this time, the Fruit Pigmented Lip Gloss (in Sheer Pomegranate Wine and Pink Caramel). I already talked some about these glosses here, but I figured a few more details can’t hurt.

The QVC site had a lot of reviews saying these glosses had hardly any pigment to them, so I first ordered one of the darkest colors based on that. I’m glad I did — the Sheer Pomegranate Wine color was very sheer indeed, and only gave me a slight boost to my natural lip color.

Fortunately, that’s exactly what I was going for! I then ordered the Pink Caramel, which is a bit lighter and has a touch of shimmer to it. Thankfully, the shimmer doesn’t feel grainy like mineral-pigmented lip glosses sometimes can, and sometimes it seems opaque-ish and sometimes it seems invisible. Hard to say.

The consistency is, well, pretty much like any other lip gloss. I like that it’s not too sticky and that it doesn’t have any grainy feel to it (which I find usually comes from shimmer particles — so who knows how the super-duper-shimmery shades feel). It’s moisturizing and, well, glossy!

Like most natural lip glosses, it doesn’t exactly have vavoom staying power, but it’s certainly no worse than other glosses, and I like the formulation better. (I find it’s hard to find nice, natural glosses that don’t contain shimmer — since so many “natural” companies are “mineral” companies, they use shimmery minerals that just annoy me for lip wear.)

These aren’t any real miracle, but I do like them quite a bit. And since I tend to accidentally ingest an awful lot of lip product when I wear it, I like that these are quite natural and non-skeevy ingredient-wise.

I’ll probably try some of the Silk Naturals glosses that Kris recommended, when I want a more pigmented look… but for now I’m happy with these two tubes in my purse!

In the spirit of doing some more long-awaited 100% Pure reviews, here are my first impressions on their Fruit Pigmented Cheek and Lip Tints (in Sugar Plum).

Personally, I’m not much of a lipstick girl, so this didn’t do much for me in that arena. And oddly enough, the color looks totally weird on my lips — way more coral, and opaque enough to look weird but sheer enough to not quite pull off a lipstick-like look. For whatever reason, it just didn’t do it for me in that context, but I like it as a blush stick.

I only got this color for cheek use because at the time, it was the only shade on the 100% Pure website that wasn’t shimmery. (I already got hooked on Too Faced Pink Leopard Bronzer for my shimmery blush.) They sell more colors on QVC that aren’t shimmery, but they only sell them in trios, and I didn’t want to buy three. (Plus, they only had certain items on QVC and certain other ones on 100% Pure — still so frustrating! — and 100% Pure had more things I wanted, plus a free shipping minimum.)

I got lucky in the shade I picked, because it’s just like my natural flush color. I wouldn’t say it’s similar to Benetint on everyone, necessarily, but the end result looks the same for me, and this stuff is easier to apply. However, I do find that it goes on best if your skin is freshly moisturized, and I sometimes find that I like to blot with a tissue after applying it. I also don’t think it has fabulous lasting power, so a bit of loose powder on top is necessary to help set it. I also sometimes use it underneath my Too Faced blush for a look that’s both flushed and shimmery.

I’m a *tiny* bit worried that the cocoa butter in it clogs my pores or makes me a bit more prone to breaking out on my cheeks. But since I’m theoretically using both Retin-A and my Clarisonic, I should be fine — I think it’s only a problem when I’m not consistent about those two items.

All in all, I like this item — it’s the most natural-looking blush I’ve ever found, and it never has any risk of looking unnatural or dry (which are my main objections to most powder blush formulations). And after I started using Retin-A, Benetint had a weird way of sticking to my skin right where I first applied it — I think it clung to the dead skin cells that Retin-A left behind, so it would always look blotchy no matter how quickly or thoroughly I blended it. But that never seems to happen with my Sugar Plum stuff, so I’m a happy camper!

I kept promising I’d update some 100% Pure reviews here, and the drafts have been sitting around for ages. So I figured I’d finally get started and kick some of these out!

First up is the Peach Pigmented Brightening Concealer (in White Peach). Not surprisingly, this stuff isn’t even close to a good color match for me. And with only three shades, I’m not surprised! I do wish the company would make more shades for all of their products. I’d love to try out their new-ish tinted moisturizer and powder, but I suspect even the palest shade will be as dark and orangey-awful as this was… and most QVC reviews seem to confirm this.

But enough about the color! At first I liked the consistency of this concealer, just based on how it felt on my skin… but eventually I realized that it gave blotchy and weak coverage at best (especially for really red acne marks). This was a real bummer, since I’m concerned about mineral pigment concealers clogging my pores and making my acne worse. But alas, I’ll be sticking with my Everyday Minerals custom palette, since I haven’t yet found a better solution.

And as far as under-eye concealing goes, I found that this stuff clung to any dry/flaky skin patches that my Retin-A might leave behind, and that it was prone to settling into the fine lines I admit I’m developing there. So that was a no go, too.

However, I was surprised by how much I liked the brush-tip applicator. (I had always shied away from those, thinking they’d spread bacteria if I used them to conceal acne. But when I saw this one up close, I could tell it would be possible possible to wash the brush without contaminating the product, as long as I was careful to keep the brush facing down the whole time.) It’s still not my ideal, but I didn’t hate it, which is big for someone as picky as me!

I wound up just giving this away to someone on Makeup Alley. I see from QVC that they seem to have switched to a wand-tipped applicator — fair enough, but the important changes need to be the formulation, not the packaging!

Hard Candy is having a big (going out of business?) online sale — 75% off is a whole lotta off! Mind you, ya won’t catch me making the same mistake as I did with Besame, but I may splurge on an item or two if shipping costs are low enough.

After all, the eye shadow quads I’ve lusted after since I was in HIGH SCHOOL are now affordable! And I’ve tried Hard Candy stuff before, so I know what I can and can’t do from their collections. (Let the justifications continue…)

I may even try out some new items like their mini nail polish set, too, if I can wrangle the shipping to work in my favor. I am SUCH a glutton for a bargain!

I recently caught wind of a massive sale at Besame Cosmetics. I found out about it on a Friday evening, and the sale was only good through the rest of the weekend.

I had questions about ingredients since none were listed on their site, and I couldn’t get hold of their customer service over the weekend. I did find a page that described their general ingredient philosophy. It seemed fairly natural, so I took the plunge.

Bad call! Turns out, everything they make is chock full of petrochemicals, bismuth oxychloride, dimethicone, and lots of other ickies. (Even the foundation has petrolatum listed very high on the ingredient list — blech.)

In their favor, the packaging is truly lovely. But I’m not sure I’ll ever be putting their stuff on my face, assuming I can find another way to rid myself of it! Realistically, I will probably just empty out all their (thankfully magnetic) compacts and replace the contents with pans from other brands. Or just put them on display somewhere — they truly are that beautiful. Too bad the contents didn’t wow me as well.

Sigh, this is what I get for shopping without doing ALL of my homework. I have a soft spot for a) bargains and b) fabulous packaging, so I made an exception to my normally stringent ingredient-checking rule. Hopefully this will serve as a reminder to anyone else thinking of breaking a worthwhile rule!

So, dear beauty freaks, I have kept you waiting for a very long time.  Yes, I finally got around to ordering another 100% Pure product — namely, their eye shadow palette.  Since the item is often out of stock on their QVC Store, I jumped when I saw it listed at Chocolate Lotus.

I first purchased the Cocoa palette, reasoning that plummy shades don’t usually flatter my already-pink-toned skin, especially if they had a lot of red to them — and these certainly seemed to, if my Web browser’s color specs weren’t deceiving me. So I settled on cocoa, praying it wouldn’t be full of terra cotta shades.

But once the item arrived, I could tell with one glance that only one of the six shades would look non-hideous with my coloring. Thankfully, Chocolate Lotus’s Kim is AWESOME, and she let me exchange the item free of charge. So I really wanted to like this item even more!

Sadly, though, the plum palette is not my thing either. I have a slightly higher percentage of shades that work on me — I’m going to ballpark it at 2.5 of the 6 (don’t ask) — but the wonky rating is rendered moot by the shadows’ textures. Though each pan is a bit different, almost all of them are very hard, and almost gummy — no powder sticks to my brushes, and the only way I can get any pigment onto my lids is to really scrape it off with my fingers and rub it in. (Which seems like I’m further compacting/oiling up the pans, so I’m not keen on this method.)

Another minor complaint is that the packaging is blah at best. I’m glad there’s a nice big mirror, but there’s nothing to keep the wallet closed, and the well for applicators isn’t deep enough for decent tools. All in all, I think most makeup aficionadas would agree that these are just not a superior product. 100% Pure has some fabulous ideas, for sure, but they don’t always translate when it comes to usability. (Ahem, body butter and concealer…)

I’m still keen on the line, but I won’t be taking any more pricey chances on maybe items, like I did with this $30 palette. It’s a real shame that Bath and Body Works won’t be carrying 100% Pure in more of their stores, because I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to be able to try before I buy! There are so many other newish items I’m dying to sample, like the brow powder, cream eyeliner, and tinted moisturizer. But until there’s a better way to test them out, I’m afraid I’m holding off for now.

I’ve been reading cult reviews of Urban Decay’s Primer Potion for ages, and I finally broke down and impulse-bought some at Sephora a month ago.

I wanted to really give it a good run before I reviewed it, but my goodness has it earned its stripes! Or rather, lack thereof — I’ve NEVER found an eye shadow base that actually prevented that mid-lid crease line before. (They all say they will, but most don’t.) Sadly, I can’t show you amazing pics of my shadow holding up, because I don’t have a camera that really captures it well — you’ll have to trust me for now! I’ll upload a pic once we get a real camera.

I only have a couple problems incorporating this new product. First of all, if you’ve been using a product like Retin-A around your brow bone like I have*, it can highlight any flaky patches you may be going through.

Secondly, it really grips your shadow, which means you have to be much more precise about application — I find that it’s a lot harder to blend shades with a coat of Primer Potion on, so no more sloppy half-awake shadow jobs!

These aren’t big issues — I just use it up to and slightly above my crease, avoiding my brow bone. And I think it’s actually trained me in better applications techniques for my shadows!

And thankfully, I had come across buzz in the beauty blogosphere about how to remove all the excess product from the adorable but poorly-designed container. Clumps of Mascara writer Brittany has laid out a helpful how-to here, complete with pictures to guide you.

Read the rest…

I recently became interested in cream and gel eyeliner formulas, after reading some EDS raves about how long-lasting and smudge-proof MAC Fluidline is. And I wound up doing a couple of MUA swaps in which I inherited a MAC Fluidline pot and a Smashbox Cream Eyeliner, so suddenly I had a cheap and easy way to test these babies out. But I was TERRIBLE at applying them! I just couldn’t figure out how to make them go on nicely, even though I consider myself a relatively savvy makeup user.

So I did a little research. The Smashbox description of my newly-received swap item recommended using their #21 Arced Liner Brush, so I checked out that product on their site.

I’d actually never seen a bent brush like this — probably because I’ve never used cream/gel eyeliner before. I picked up a slightly cheaper (but still very high-quality and super-soft) Sephora version, their Professional Platinum Angled Eyeliner Brush #23. It also looks like you can get Bare Escentuals or Benefit versions for cheaper, but I don’t trust those brushes as much as I trust Sephora’s Professional line. (I strongly prefer dense, synthetic brushes that never shed a hair, and Too Faced and Sephora are my go-to brush companies.)

This cracks me up, because I should’ve known the right brush would make all the difference. I could never master those artfully deep-set slightly-smoky triangles you can do on your eyelid, until I got my Too Faced Angled Eye Shadow Brush. And applying mineral powder concealer to blemishes became infinitely easier with my Sephora Professional Concealer Brush #46 and my Everyday Minerals Oval Concealer brush (I alternate them so they have time to dry between applications). I may be a makeup savant, but I’m only beginning to call myself a tool savant. Once I can fully master an eyelash curler without getting that horrible crimp line, I’ll be ready for my certificate.

I’m just loving how my new eyeliners look. They create great definition, without disappearing like a normal eyeliner pencil, and without creating as sharp a line as a liquid liner. (They’re much more forgiving during the application process than liquid liners, too.) I find it a bit more awkward to do my left eye than my right, but I manage okay — the bent shaft of the brush really makes it a lot easier. Now, if only they could make ALL beauty tools so ergonomic — I might never burn myself with my straightening iron again!