I can’t believe how long overdue this is. A recent Daily Candy newsletter pinged 3floz.com, a new website that only sells TSA-approved toiletries. For months now I’ve been scratching my head when I see 2- or 4-ounce bottles of “travel” shampoo at the drugstore — didn’t anyone get on this and think, gee, maybe we ought to capitalize on TSA’s restrictions?

The main thing I love about 3floz.com is that they carry higher-end stuff that can be much harder to track down in travel-friendly portions. That and the little travel-friendly quirks, like shipping your stuff internationally to have it waiting for you, or waiving the overnight fee if you prove your urgency with an itinerary. So cool!

My only complaint so far is that they ONLY carry the high end stuff — sometimes a girl just wants a (travel-friendly) stick of Secret, ya know? Hopefully they will continue to expand their offerings as they gain popularity… especially since TSA has made it clear they plan to keep the restriction on for the foreseeable future.

Waterproof Eye Shadow Palette — The colors are fairly neutral; not my total ideal as I’m into grays, but they’re mostly brown-toned. There is one matte ivory, one champagne shimmer, one medium golden brown-olive shimmer, one plummy shimmer and one dark brown matte. You have to use a really stiff brush to get the product up (and the brush that comes with this set is very tiny with stiff natural hair that is uncomfortable on my sensitive eyelids — but it does the job better than my many softer brushes). I haven’t really noticed them being significantly more long-wearing on my eyelids, but when I applied them to my hand to test they really seemed to stick. I think my eyelids are just kind of oil slicks.

O-Gloss Shimmer — I was worried that ’shimmer’ would translate to ‘waaaay too opaque/pearlized’ but it does not. It’s a lovely soft shimmer and a nice balmy texture that looks shiny when more product is worn. Doesn’t get all that pink though, but it’s very subtle and good for “no makeup” days.

Lash Detailer Mascara — the brush is great, but the formulation is a little lacking, and the tube is smaller than it seems. But I will likely wash off the brush and use it with other mascaras once this one is used up. It’s easy to wash off and doesn’t smudge too much, but is a bit dry and doesn’t go on all that easily. I could also use more volume in relation to how much it lengthens. But still, it’s a good product. I just prefer waterproof formulations.

Cheek Stain — even though this looks like a really blendable gel-stick, it’s actually just as tricky as the liquid stains in that the color gets deeply deposited right where the bulk of the product first touches your skin. So you have to be kind of crafty to get an even application; it’s not just an easy swipe. Still, I like this packaging and formulation better than other liquid or gel or cream cheek stains I’ve tried, and the color is a nice rosy flush (pretty much identical to Sephora’s Wine Lip & Cheek Stain or Stila’s Pomegranate Crush — a very cool-toned shade IMO).

Poured Photo Op — Never tried the liquid version, but I do really like the silky balm texture of this stuff. On sight it looked like it would be too dark for me, but it almost doesn’t seem to show up at all when I wear it, color-wise. It does make my under eye area look kind of greasy/shiny so I have to do a bit of powder on top sometimes. I think it’s meant for people with really dark circles/saggy-looking eyes, but it does seem to make me look more awake without the weirdness or heaviness of wearing under-eye concealer.

Brow Wax Pencil — LOVE it! Just like what I imagine Givenchy’s Mister Eyebrow is like, but cheaper. :) It’s a lovely, non-messy formulation but I imagine it’ll be gross to sharpen. Worth it though! I stroke it on both brows and then use a mascara spooly brush to shape.

But lately Wedding Mode has kicked in, which means I’ve been trying out all sorts of makeup products I’d normally never touch in order to find the best long-wearing formulations. So when I ran out of Lash Power and saw that Dior apparently had a new, awesome, better-than-ever waterproof formulation called Black Out, I opted to give it a try instead of restocking my Holy Grail of Clinique.

This Black Out mascara, however, is BULLSHIT. (Please pardon my French, but Dior friggin’ deserved it.) It is the WORST formulation I have EVER tried on. It makes lashes stick together and look super clumpy/spidery, it doesn’t really lengthen or volumize, it smears and rubs off very easily, it drips when WATER hits it, and I couldn’t get it to come off with a cocktail of FOUR different makeup removers. (And I broke a capillary in the process trying to rub it off.)

Needless to say, I went straight back to Sephora and exchanged it for a fresh tube of Lash Power (and put the $10 I saved towards a bottle of bliss lid + lash remover — maybe I can learn to love my Too Faced more for longer-wearing events if I can take it off properly without breaking out.)

In conclusion, screw you, Christian Dior! You get no stars and no more of my dollars.

Not because of the name or the stupid gimmicky time strip crap or the amazing BLU-RAY plumping power (WTF? There is absolutely nothing “blu-ray” about it), but because the Panama shade PERFECTLY matches exactly what I’ve been searching for in a gloss — just a shade darker and pinker than my lips, with no shimmer. But because my fiancé cannot stand kissing my beglossed lips, I haven’t been very spendy in the goopy lip color department. A free gift certificate, however, was just what I needed to push me over the edge and splurge.

Well, I must say I have mixed reviews. First of all, I preemptively hated the idea of the stupid time strip from the get go, and I was not wrong to judge this book by its cover. The whole idea is that it’s a ‘freshness indicator’, but here’s the thing — either this thing dips into your gloss to check its freshness, thereby breaking the seal and allowing germs IN and making it go bad even faster, or it doesn’t actually test the real product at all and is just a stupid extra hoaxy hoax hoax. Grr.

Beyond that, the packaging is just annoying… check it out! You get way less gloss than the tube size indicates, because the test tube with actual gloss is encased in an outer shell, from which it immediately became detached. And now whenever I try to open it, the test tube spins uselessly inside the casing, so I have to pull it out and look like I’m doing a science experiment on my lips.

Which I kind of am, because man, that plumping technology is WEIRD. And tastes BAD. And TINGLES. And doesn’t really plump, so is generally just kind of annoying all around.

Sigh. At least it’s minty (and at least it was free for me). One reluctant star.
*1/16/10 ETA — UGH! This stuff started to leak all out of the tube where the join is with the cap. I took it to Sephora to exchange it for a new pristine one, but 1) they’re all on clearance because I guess they’re no longer carrying Cargo products, and 2) the tube for which I was trying to swap it started leaking gloss all over too, even though the casing hadn’t come off. No wonder they’re being discontinued! Save your money.

Basically, I’m a mathematical genius, Ed Hardy sucks, my coworker who wears this perfume makes me gag when it still smells “fresh”, and at least the mirror is big. Right?

Well, it turns out this particular brush does *not exist* in synthetic hair. Everyone tells me that natural fibers simply grip the shadow pigment better, and that’s that. Well, I was miffed and determined to find the only synthetic one out there, but I have officially failed.  (And I checked every single brand and cosmetics website I could find!  Thankfully, my issues with animal-hair brushes are just a preference and not an allergy or a strong moral/political stance — but where do the vegans go for these?  Are they simply denied a full range of brushes?  What crap!)

Anyway, today I finally found an affordable-enough version by Japonesque, so I sucked it up and bought it. Guess what? These makeup artist folks weren’t kidding! This natural-haired brush does prick a bit, but boy does it grab and apply color well. Totally worth the $18 and the compromise, at least for me.

The sharp angle of the top is useful for ergonomic application, and the flat top makes it easy to apply shadow across the entire lid and into the crease. I was even able to get good coverage with my incredibly old and wussily-colored Aveda shadow, and I’m hoping it’ll help with my similarly crappy and overpriced 100% Pure eye shadow palette.

I will probably continue to hunt for a Taklon version of this shape, because a) I like to have multiples of my favorite brush shapes, and b) I really really really don’t like the feel of the natural hair.  My eyelids are even more sensitive than the rest of my skin!  But alas, at least I’ll look great in the meantime while I keep searching.  Hopefully this will help make it easier to pull off a smoky eye look for fall without seeming like I was in a bar fight.

I subscribe to Nordstrom’s marketing emails, and they recently sent out a blast about all the Nordstrom beauty exclusives they had coming up in their sale.  Being the beauty junkie that I am, I glanced and spotted this baby — the Smokey Eye Brush.

Now, what gal isn’t gonna be drawn by that title?  I mean, smokey eyes are a) hot, and b) difficult to pull off.  (Creating them, I mean — pulling them off looks-wise is just a matter of confidence and perhaps candlelight.  And, uh, context.)

I’ve always struggled with smokier shades, because the super-dark, super-pigmented shadows I use like Cargo Qatar are tricky since they show every mistake.  So I thought Trish here might be helping me out, and I sucked it up and paid the steep $52 for just one brush — after all, I needed to qualify for free shipping with another purchase.

Well guess what, ladies?  This brush is BULL.  It a) doesn’t fit the size of my eye (too short), b) doesn’t fit the shape of my eye (too symmetrical), and c) doesn’t feel all that great or retain powder properly in order to help achieve that elusively easy smokey look the ad copy boasts.

Thank goodness Nordstrom has a great return policy.

Sadly, I did not care for most of the mascaras included in their kit.  My favorites from the sampler pack were Urban Decay’s Big Fattie, and Too Faced’s Lash Injection Pinpoint.  However, I also fell for the non-sampler minis of Diorshow, the teal Fresh Firebird, and lastly a Clinique surprise stunner that became my new Holy Grail of mascaras.  My hairdresser even complimented me on how great it looked the other day, and that’s high praise indeed!

My reviews kinda broke down like this: I loved Diorshow for the initial application full of clump-free volume and length, but I didn’t love the eventual flaking and smudgery that inevitably occurred.  I loved Too Faced’s tiny Pinpoint brush, since the bases of my lashes are blonde and hard to reach with a normal brush (unless I don’t mind striping up my lids in the process).  But Too Faced a) kinda stung my sensitive eyes, and b) was a huge pain to remove, even armed with hardcore ouchy makeup remover.  (I totally didn’t realize Too Faced’s formulation was a “tube” mascara, or I would’ve stayed away!)

So I went on a quest to find another mascara with an equally tiny brush, but a kinder formulation.  Enter Clinique Lash Power Mascara.  Similar teensy brush to Too Faced, but a better formulation that didn’t flake or smudge but was easy to get off with just warm water.  It’s not quite a tube formulation (like Blinc KissMe or Imju Fiberwig, or Too Faced for that matter) but still lasts through heat and rain and sweat.  So great!  And apparently they also make it in a brownish shade that my redhead-ish friend Charli decided to try out — I’ll update if I hear or see how that goes.

Anyway, in case any other mascara nerds are insanely curious, I took notes every day I was trying out a different brand, so read on for those…

A couple caveats, though:

1) I have sensitive eyes, so this is the first time I’ve ventured into non-natural mascara formulations in quite some time.

2) I have very long lashes naturally, but they’re blonde at the base and the tips.  So I like a mascara with a brush that allows me to get in deep at the roots without smearing my entire eye up, and I also like a mascara that’s just as thickening/volumizing as it is lengthening, otherwise my lashes look like eye-wielded weapons that will impale people when I blink.

3) I used to apply just one coat of my mascara, but lately I’m into a major 60s lashy look.  I also had to apply more than one coat with all of these samples in order to get the minimum amount of coverage I liked, due to dryness.  And lastly, I wanted to see how they performed being touched up later in the day or having two coats applied from the start.  Good thing, too, because some of them took to that way better than others.

LASH STASH REVIEWS

Too Faced Lash Injection Pin Point: This stuff was the big winner for me, though I do have to give a lot of caveats.  A) Pain to remove. B) Kinda stingy. C) Can’t make ANY mistakes in initial application or you will be stuck with them.  D) This includes blinking — if you blink after doing your upper and lower lashes, they tend to stick together!  E) And no curling or second coats.  That said, when it’s done right, it looks great and stays on for THREE DAYS — but too much trouble for my taste.

Urban Decay Big Fattie: A pretty good first runner up to the Too Faced, I think, but this stuff did tend to flake off a bit.  Moderately lengthening and volumizing, but a bit more length than thickness.

CARGO Texas Lash: This stuff was one of the majorly dried-out tubes, so I wasn’t able to get as good an application at first.  It felt only moderately lengthening and volumizing, and it flaked off a bit.  Didn’t take well to being topped off later in the day.  But it did improve with regular use, and I’ll use it in a pinch if I’m in a hurry.

Smashbox Bionic Mascara: More length than thickness, so I just looked spikey-eyed.  Pluss it smudged/flaked a bit and I wasn’t wild about the brush.  On second use it was better than I remembered, but nothing special.

Sephora Atomic Volume Mascara: Ouch/ew!  Another painful brush!  Who cares about the formulation if getting the stuff on your eyes is torture in the first place!?

DuWop Lash Venom: Blah.  I’ve found DuWop’s stuff to be kinda cheap quality (which matches their website, heh) and this was no exception.

Korres Deep Colour Mascara: Kinda stingy on my sensitive eyes, especially for a natural formulation.  Nothing special, either — even the packaging was boring. :)

Tarte Lights Camera Lashes 4-in-1: This stuff had a weirdly-textured brush that really hurt my eyes when I applied it!  Because of that, I wasn’t able to comfortably get good application on the base of my lashes or on my lower lashes — it was a very strange and unpleasant sensation.  I didn’t like the formula either — all length and no volume so I just looked spindly — but the brush was a deal-breaker early on.  Plus it flaked.  Boo.

Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash: Yet another ouchy brush and lengthening-but-not-volumizing formulations!  I was not a fan of this at all, from the initial application right through the rest of the day.  Not lengthening or volumizing enough to make up for the flaking, smudging, and pain in application.

Vincent Longo The Curl: This came with one of those oh-so-modern curved brushes, which drove me crazy.  I don’t find them easier to use and they don’t tend to fit my eye shape.  Needless to say, this stuff didn’t curl my lashes noticeably (I ALWAYS considered “curling” mascaras to be full of marketing hype crap, and now I feel validated!) and it was too lengthening for the comparable lack of volume.

NON LASH STASH REVIEWS

Christian Dior Diorshow: This was nice at first, but dried out quickly.  Initial application is friendly to touchups and looks fab, but like all non-waterproof formulations, it flakes and smudges over time.  I’d love to try the waterproof version if they ever come out with a freebie mini of it!

Benefit BadGal: Better than I expected, but ultimately still a bit flakey/smudgey.  Still, it was less irritating than I expected to my sensitive eyes, and more lengthening and volumizing.  Just not the winner in the long run.

Fresh Firebird: So lovely.  This stuff is truly very fringey like they say, but it does wear off and smudge pretty easily.  Still, takes well to touch-ups and multiple applications, and it manages to lengthen in a fringey way while adding some volume but not tons.  Lovely for certain looks, and I’ll definitely consider repurchasing if they start selling this in a solo mini (instead of bundled with their other mascara mini).

Fresh Supernova:  This stuff was okay, but nothing special and way too smudgy.  Plus the oddly shaped brush annoyed me (those never do good things for my weird lashes).  It wasn’t a bad product, just not for me.