Makeup Withdrawal

New Target Displays, Pt 2 (And Other Loose Ends)

Monday, March 22, 2010

What awful weather today! I woke up expecting another day like yesterday- sunny, cloudless, amazing but instead it's drizzling out. I thought I'd go back and finish talking about those new displays that I saw at Target. Here's Part 1 if you missed it.
If you asked me to be frank, I would have to say that Pixi is very hit or miss. That Pixi Eye Bright Kit? Loved it. The Lumi Lux eye shadow palette (that palette with 20 shadows, that looked like a clutch)? Hated it. The Bronze Bombshell Set? Liked the blush, hated everything else. But a few new things caught my eye- new eyeliner pencils, new Lumi Lux palette and a interesting looking bronzer.

First the liners- I love the new Endless Silky Eye Pens. The name is accurate, they're really smooth and long lasting. They come in interesting shades, I particularly like Black Blue and Black Tulip. They kind of give off a retro feel, interesting shades that you just don't see that often. I really wated True Teal too, because it's just so... bold! Oh, the color payoff is fantastic- vibrancy that made me want to buy them all. Here, I even swatched them all for you-
I love the consistency. They're almost too creamy- too much pressure and you get chunks that break off as you draw. The swatch on my wrist lasted all day, and I could still see it after my shower . At $14 each, I think they are a better buy than Urban Decay 24/7s but still feel like they are out of place and price range for the average Target consumer. I can't wait to splurge on a few the next time I have some extra cash.
There appeared to be a new Lumi Lux eye shadow palette, this one with warmer colors- russet, copper, warm nudes etc. I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but the pigmentation is just awful, as bad as the first one. I was really underwhelmed by how dull the colors looked when I swatched them. So not worth the $30.

Ooh! Isn't the finish on that blush case look really nice? I think the Lumi Lux Bronze palette is completely misnamed because when I swatched it on my finger tips, none of the three shades (or even swirled together) looked anything like bronzer. It was various shimmery pink shades. I think you get a lot of product, but for $25, if you're into the shimmer bombed look why not get two Hard Candy bronzers ($9 each) and a blush too ($7 each), instead? It'd be the same price.

I also saw that Pixi had a crazy amount of eyeshadow palettes out, but I'm really not a fan of the pigmentation. I also noticed that a lot of the eyeshadow shades were repeated throughout the collection.
I don't think Jemma Kidd for Target had anything new out (to be honest, my powers of observations are sometimes lacking, I may have overlooked it, sorry).
NP Set had two new big boxed palettes out, and some smaller eyeshadow sets out, but unfortunately I wasn't able to play with them.
On an unrelated note- I did finally get my hands on those two Wet'n'Wild singles I was missing- Nutty and Lagoon. Here's the finished collection of swatches: Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Singles.
Because it's so terrible outside, there's a good chance I'll be bored and posting again really soon. You know what did make my day though? I saw a pair of ducks swimming in my pool this morning! :D

The Glory of Walmart (It hurts me just to say that outloud)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I never thought I'd be planning trips of Walmart, but I yesterday I found myself with a sweet tooth (so to speak), yearning for some Hard Candy. I bought another blush to add to my collection, having already Pin Up and Living Doll. I also spotted the HD brushes that have been spotted at Walmarts around the country.

First, the blush. I've experienced good things with Hard Candy's blushes, and I thought Pin Up and Living Doll were getting lonely in my blush drawer, so I wanted to buy them a friend. I grabbed the last Honeymoon and was a bit apprehensive about it, because it looks light neon orange with lavender veins. But then, I remembered how I'd been proven wrong about Pin Up (which looks dark orange with black veins, but shows up as a lovely peachy shimmer flush) and decided to give it a go. Now, I've been reading reviews about it on MUA, and here's what irks me: people confusing the terms opaque/sheer and pigmented/nonpigmented. It seems to me that pigmentation refers to how dense the coloring of the product is (more of a term I'd use to describe the quality), and opaque/sheer describes how see-through it is. That being said, a product can be both pigmented and sheer. This would be the case with Honeymoon, it's light and shimmery, but you'll only need a little bit of it. Also, I wouldn't really call this a blush because it's so light in color (and once blended, almost exactly my skin tone) that it actually ends up being a glowy highlighter. I'm surprised that it doesn't make me look orange at all (I honestly thought I'd end up looking like a sparkly Oompa Loompa ). Hooray, another member of my Hard Candy family.

Now, the brushes. First up, we have this nice skunk for which I paid about $6 after taxes. I bought it because Target discontinued my favorite duo fibre brush (Studio Tools skunk, which is a dupe of the MAC 187, so in essence I bought a dupe of a dupe of a brush, whose price I couldn't justify). I'm feeling rather ambivalent about it. I don't think it's as nice as the ST one, the black fibers are not as stiff or hardy so the brush head is overall more malleable. It shed a couple hairs when I washed it, and under warm water some of the bristles went haywire and curled. However, it's as dense as the ST skunk, but slightly bigger so I don't mind having it in my arsenal of brushes, especially for the price I paid for it. I do wish that the handle was longer, because it's too short for my brush holder and dwarfed by my other brushes. Great for travel though, fits nicely into my makeup bag. Edit: After using this brush a few more times, it appears that it sheds quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend it.

This brush, excuse my language- is badass. It really is. I paid about $7, and it's most definitely worth every penny. It's so soft, and has the densest bristles I've ever had the pleasure to have held in my hands. It's great for powder foundation, setting powder, bronzer, mineral makeup (though with mineral makeup I feel like there's some waste) pretty much anything where you want to cover a lot of area with a soft, light hand. Hmm, you know what this reminds me of? Pictured on the left, is the Professionnel Platinum Bronzer Brush #48, which costs $35 at Sephora. Gee, $7 or $35? Thanks, Walmart. One thing to note, when washing this brush, you HAVE to dry it upside down. Why? If you don't, water will collect right under the bristles, in the metal cap where it's glued to the handle and after sitting there for a while, it'll smell awful. Learn from my mistake- I had stinky water leaking all of my hands when I tried to use it a couple hours after washing. Now, I tie a string around the handle and hang it from a clothes hanger.
Not bad for $18 total, right? I can't wait to go back there to try some other brushes.

LORAC Swatches Pt 2 (Finally!)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Let me start out by apologizing for the delay in these swatches. I had some issues with my Google account, and for some reason it wouldn't accept my password and I had to wait 24 hours to override it with the security question. While I was away, I got my other LORAC order (directly from the company). I opened it to happily find a gift with $25 purchase, the Burning Love eyeshadow trio (Ok, I wasn't surprised or anything, it was the reason I bit the bullet and finally ordered the cart of stuff). Pictured above- the single eye shadows are (L-R) Garnet, Persuasion, Olive, Reverie, Joy. The Cheek Stamp is Hibiscus and the trio is Burning Love.

But first, here's the rest of the LORAC order from Hautlook like I promised- Suede, Kiwi, Innocence, Harmony and the Snake Charmer palette:

Note: Suede is a smooth, silky warm cocoa. Kiwi is hard to describe. I wouldn't call it a silver, but rather a very handsome shimmery grey with a hint of blue to it. It's stunning. Innocence is a dirty lavender, but it does stain red when wet. Seeing as how this is the only flaw that any of my LORAC products have, I'll let it slide. However, it does look very good paired up with a dark taupe. Harmony is a pinky-peach shimmer, sheer.

Base- NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

Primer- Urban Decay Primer Potion

First I'd like to say that the bright sun really tones down the blush in that palette picture. It's brighter, much more peachy (almost a hint of coral) than that picture reflects. Also, the light shimmer shades have a hard time showing up in photos, the Enchanted Ivory is an off white pearl and the Mystical Gold is a champagne pearl. The texture of Royal Brown isn't quite up to snuff to other LORAC shadows, but I blame it on the tiny bit of glitter in the shadow, it adds a little bit of grittiness. It's an amazing palette though, superb to travel with. In fact, I brought it on my overnight stay at my future in-law's house. Each color really works well with the others, and they are all so usable. Once again, LORAC provides nothing but the best pigmentation.

Now, here's the others, that arrived on Monday-Garnet, Persuasion (not shown), Olive, Reverie, Joy.

Notes: There's a reason why I omitted swatches of Persuasion. I've tried, on three separate occasions to take good pictures of this shade. It doesn't swatch all that well, and the photos keep turning out suck-tastic. I can describe it just fine- a very light nude shimmer- almost champagne, but not quite. It's a great quality shadow though, very subtle- great for highlighting the arch in a not over the top way. Just doesn't camera shy, I guess.
Garnet is a gorgeous red copper. It's highly pigmented and just very sultry, I can't want to use it in a smokey eye. Olive is not as green as the name might suggest, but a soft, sheer shimmery gold-green, with a hint of grey. It makes a great wash of color, like a supporting actor instead of the lead. Reverie is a taupe with slight grey pearl. I think it might be my new favorite taupe, a hard task indeed. Joy is as girlie as it gets, really. It's a fantastic bright pink with hints of gold (over primer, it's very golden).

It's a perfect day out, so if you don't mind- I'll save the Burning Love Trio and Hibiscus Cheek Stamp for later- I'm going to go enjoy the weather with my dog.

<3, 'till next time then!

All products were purchased by me for my own use.

Blargh- Still Raining. Target Displays, Pt. 1

Saturday, March 13, 2010

No LORAC swatches again, the terrible weather holds. On the bright side it's supposed to clear up by this weekend, and you know what I get on Monday? More LORAC. No joke. I have five more eyeshadows and another cheek stamp coming- you know the routine- stay tuned.
Here's something to tide you over the weekend. I went to Target today and found that they reset the Boots, Sonia Kashuk, pixi, NP Set and Jemma Kidd displays. This is a good thing, because they've been around for so long that they were getting appallingly disgusting- smeared lipstick, greasy fingerprints and broken eyeshadow cakes galore. I was pleasantly pleased at the new items, I'll be honest that I wasn't expecting much. I'll be talking about my experience and what I saw in three installments.

Sonia Kashuk- the new display is finally up!
Here's the good news- I did actually see that palette, the two brush sets, the big kabuki brush, the powder brush and the foundation brush there. The bad news? The brushes in the sets don't meet my expectations.

The smaller Out-of-the-Woods 4pc set where very tiny. I estimated that they were about five inches long, no joke. The flat top brush, which I was highly anticipating, had a very tiny head. The rest of the brushes just had such small handles that I didn't really even want them. This might be great for a travel set but since that wasn't what I was looking for, I decided to skip it.

The other set, Out-of-the-Woods 6pc was also much smaller than I had hoped for. The blush brush (largest brush) was the only brush that I really wanted, it looked like it would fit the apples of the my cheeks well. However, the second largest brush (when I looked at the back of the package, it was described as a 'multipurpose' brush) puzzled me. Multipurpose for what? Much too small to be a powder brush. It has a tapered end (more tapered in real life than in photo) so I didn't think it'd be that great at blending highlighter or anything else that you want to diffuse gently. It's too large for anything relating to the eye, what the heck would I use it for? The other brushes, a crease brush, smudging brush, concealer brush and small eyeshadow brush looked nice, but since I already have about 5 of each kind, I couldn't justify $19.99 for a set in which I only appreciated one brush. I would rather buy one good Sigma or MAC brush.
The good news? The Spring Awakings palette ($16.99, top of page) looked quite nice. I wasn't able to swatch it or purchase it (yet!), but I can say that I would use all the colors, because they were very well coordinated. The kabuki ($12.99) was very nice and full, I wanted it and have mentally added it to the list of brushes I -need- to get. Same with the foundation and big powder brushes, and the bamboo handles are gorgeous and the perfect length, they'd really make a statement among my other brushes. I went in intending to buy the 3 eyeshadow brush set, but alas they were out of stock already. Now, I understand that it's limited edition, but it really shouldn't be limited quantity in stores. That's just ridiculous. In fact, there was only one or two in stock of everything that I saw there. And the display was brand spankin' new, I've been stalking Target just waiting for this collection to come out.
One last thing- blue peeps were stripped from the display! That's right, I couldn't find the blending sponge anywhere, I have a sneaky feeling I'll see it marked down on a clearance end cap soon.
All in all, it was much easier to talk myself into walking out of Target with only a Vitamin Water ( tranquilo- tamarind/pineapple flavor, it was superb and oddly complex for a flavored water drink) than I had originally anticipated.

Traffic, Traffic, Lookin' for my Chapstick

Friday, March 12, 2010

I have no idea why I used a cheesy line from Malibu's Most Wanted as a title. Anyways, I was going to do more LORAC swatches, only it's raining out and that's not really conducive to photographing good swatches (at least not for fantastic swatches, a la Karla Sugar). So I thought I'd talk about something that has been annoying me for quite some time.
I keep losing lip balm. Not a big deal, you say, just go buy another one. I do. I'll lose that one too.
At any given time, I will own about six lip balms. The whereabouts of five of them being completely unknown. In fact, I have never ever finished an entire stick, because I've always lost it first. This wouldn't be such a big issue, but I have severely dried lips (I think it's a genetic thing, my brother and sister have it worse- the derm says it's sensitivity to acidic foods and drinks). It looks disgusting, my fiance has interrupted me numerous times during conversations to inform me that part of my lip is flaking off. Actually, most of the time I'll search my pockets and beg him to loan his out to me (he uses gross old Chapstick Original).
Here's the break down: I buy about 8 to 10 lip balms a year. They average about $4-5 each. So after a decade, it ends up being a pretty good chunk of change. I could buy cheaper ones, like Chapstick, Carmex or those 3 packs of Blistex Fruit Smoothies but I'm sensitive to smell and they make me nauseous. I've been brainstorming ideas for keeping my balm close by and this is what I've come up with:
- Get a belt holder type deal, kinda like for a cell phone. Of course, anytime I bust out my lip balm in public, I will feel ridiculously foolish for essentially having a lip balm fanny pack.
- Attach a string to the stick of balm, and tie the other end to belt, coat pocket zipper, etc. It's like having a pocket watch and chain only not nearly as classy. This reminds me of when I was little and my mom tied my mittens on a string and so I wouldn't lose them.
- Have a small pouch surgically sewn into my arm so that my lip balm always has a home. I like this option the best.
This does raise a question, where do all these lost sticks of lip nourishment go? Most of them end up under my seat in the car, where the inside somehow gets covered in grime. Other forgotten ones end up in the laundry, and melt all over my clothes in the dryer (who doesn't love grease stained bras?).
Ok- spin off. Since I'm obviously obsessed with lip products, let's humor me and talk about my top five favorite ones. (Notice how I'm not using my own photos, but using public domain images? It's awfully hard to photograph stuff you've already lost. Bah.)

Number 5: Dr. Pepper flavored Bonne Bell. It's delicious. That's all there is to it. Unfortunately that means I end up eating it off my lips, so that does negate any moisturizing properties it might have. I don't care. It's got a nice natural tint to it, and someone mentioned once to me that in a pinch you can use it as a cheek tint. Cheap too.

Number 4: Aquaphor Healing Ointment. Great stuff, it's what the dermatologist recommended to me for my dry lip area. However, I find that after putting this on, it always migrates off of my lips and onto my chin. Still, it's really useful to have a tube of this around because it has so many uses- cracked heels, dry rough cuticles, etc.

Number 3: Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm. It's all pepperminty and soothing, which I like in the summer. Sometimes I like to uncap it just to sniff it. I also have a tendency to lick this off my lips. I wonder how much of this stuff I've eaten.

Number 2: Kiehl's Lip Balm #1 (Flavored). I just started using Kiehl's products a few years ago, and this is a really nice consistency. I like the flavor, it's mild enough though that I don't ingest it. I'm greatly saddened by the tube of Cranberry Kiehl's that I lost last week, because I think that flavor was discontinued. Vanilla, Mango and Coconut are currently carried by Nordstrom.

Number 1: Nivea A Kiss of Moisture Essential Lip Care. There's actually a bit of story behind this one. Years ago, my French exchange student in high school gave me a tube of Labello lip balm. I really liked it, but had never seen it in the US. It was perfect- long lasting, tasteless but with a light, pleasant lotiony smell to it so I wouldn't gobble it off my own face. And for some strange reason, the packaging really appealed to me too. I liked the long cap and smooth exterior (dirt always gets stuck in the ridged twisting end of other lip balms). It was perfect and unobtainable, until last weekend, when someone told me that Nivea = Labello. I had no idea, and immediately stopped by CVS to grab some (side note- it was buy one, get $3 CVS bucks. Good deal). Thanks to some quick Wikipedia searching, I learned that in Germany, the term 'Labello' is a proprietary eponym (new term for the day, a trademarked name that people use as a generic colloquialism, like our 'Chapstick', 'Kleenex' or 'Coke') and it's only in the US that this product is sold under brand Nivea. A few Google searches also revealed that Labello has over two dozen flavors, tints and glosses, only a handful are sold here. This is the one I'm wanting the most, Dragonfruit. And I'm not even sure what Dragonfruit actually tastes like.

Ebay it is for me! Unless I make some friends overseas. Anyhoo, thanks for bearing with my crazy long entry about my obsession with balms.
<3