Makeup Withdrawal

Showing posts with label Smashbox. Show all posts

50 Words or Less, Vol. VIII: More Fall Empties

Monday, November 21, 2016

Recently I was talking to my pal Kate about this series; where I talk about products that I was either lukewarm about or just did not find super interesting, and it tickled me to find that these that I find really hard to write are well received.

Smashbox Photo Matte Anti-Shine

Saturday, November 16, 2013

For years now, I've relied on Urban Decay De-Slick In A Tube as the oil absorbing primer for my greasy t-zone. The crazy thing is that I bought my tube around two years ago and just finally ran out, even though I used it every day. It was an absolute staple product for me and I was pretty bummed out to discover that it had been discontinued.

I had heard that Smashbox Anti-Shine Anti-Brilliance was a similar product with very similar ingredients, so I figured I'd give that a shot. I picked up Smashbox Photo Matte Anti-Shine thinking that it was the one I was looking for (as it turns out, Anti-Shine Anti-Brilliance had also been discontinued). You can see how I made that mistake, yes? The product names are incredibly similar and I actually didn't figure out that I had a completely different product until after I had used it.

Photo Matte is a beige colored gel/cream that comes in . It blends into my skin but I noted that on the Smashbox website, a fair redhead had mentioned in the reviews that it definitely showed up on her skin. I'm guessing that darker beauties would see a light cast if they wore it by itself. The formula definitely has a very slick silicone feeling to it. Here's the ingredients:

Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Silica, Isononyl Isononanoate, Isododecane, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Vinyl Dimethicone/Methicone Silsesquioxane Crosspolymer, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Lauroyl Lysine, Tocopheryl Acetate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phytosteryl/Octyldodecyl Lauroyl Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Methicone, Stearyl Glycyrrhetinate, Water\Aqua\Eau, Coconut Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Mica, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

As you can see, silicones are high up on the list. Silica, the wonderful oil absorbing and blurring ingredient that was the star of Urban Decay De-Slick In A Tube, but I felt like any benefits it may have had were completely negated by all those slick 'cones.

After the very first application, I knew that it wasn't the right product for my t-zone. Though it made my skin look matte for an hour (silicones tend to look a bit cloudy and matte), it felt absolutely greasy. After three hours, I was shinier than ever, even worse than if I hadn't applied a primer at all. On the drier parts of my face, it was quite nice. It held my foundation in place nicely and my skin looked very smooth.

In short, as an anti-shine product (as the name would suggest), I found it to be unsuitable for oily skin along with the rest of the Smashbox Photo Finish line of silicone rich products. I would only recommend it as a primer if you had normal to dry skin and don't mind the slick sensation. For the amount of product that is in each tube, it is rather expensive ($25 for 0.50 fl oz) and I think there are better primers out there (such as Black Radiance Complexion Perfection).

I'm currently testing two other mattifying products. Are you currently using any oil control products?

Swatches (MAC Prepped for Glamour + Smashbox Sets)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Hullo! Just like I had hoped, the weather cleared up today and I was able to take swatch pics under the beautiful cloudless sky. First, the brand spankin' new MAC eyeshadow from the Prepped for Colour Collection: Prepped for Glamour.

Notes: Prepped for Glamour is a Frost formula, a chocolately taupe.
MMmm, taupe. Does this remind you of anything else? It does? Satin Taupe?! Yes, this shade is very close to Satin Taupe, though a true taupe connoisseur such as myself can see the subtle differences (read: I can rationalize owning both). Alas, since the time that I tripped and broke my MAC palette and some of the shadows inside, I currently do not have Satin Taupe (I'm not sure how I'm living with myself, I'll get it back soon) so I can't do a side by side comparison- though KarlaSugar can! I did play with them side by side at the MAC counter and I can tell you that ST is darker and much more frosty whereas PfG is more chocolate and less grey- and is more satiny than it's brother.
Next we have the Smashbox Green Room set I picked up for $16.

I was a little wary of this set, because it was all about bronzing and I don't really do that very well. I have yet to meet a bronzer who didn't make me look orange. However, the two bronzers/contour colors in this set were quite nice. Golden Glow was a little orange, so I'm going to wear it like a peachy blush instead of an all over color. Deep Bronze (which I accidentally labeled as Deepest Bronze) is quite dark in the pan and there's no orange at all. It makes for a fantastic contour color on my skin! What a great find, because I've been looking around for a subtle, blendable shade just like that. Both of the bronzers are very soft, matte with a little shimmer. The Hybrid 2 in 1 Color & Shine Gloss in Marigold is a dual tube of clear gloss and gold sparkle. Though the glitter is by no means chunky, it's still a bit too much for me. This collection came out in 2008.

Last but not least, may I present to you the Smashbox Muse Masterpiece Set for $24.

This was a great value, I thought initially, but it might turn out to be just 'meh'. The Lip Paints are both are a little sticky though but they are really nice and glassy like glaze on the lips- a little bit of color each, very subtle. The Hybrid Luminzing/Primer (whoops, another typo!) is a little strange. The packaging is a little weird, so that it's hard to get equal amounts of each product to dispense. I eventually figured out to plug each little hole one at a time to get an even amount. It's not a very good primer, to be honest. It's basically just golden sparkle sauce. I'll be using it as a highlighter. The blush I'm also a little iffy about. Mainly because I've been hearing such good things about Smashbox blush- the smoothness, how pigmented it is, etc. To be honest, I've found drugstore blush that's better quality than this (to be exact- the Jane blushes). Perhaps I got a bad egg. It is really blendable though. Both the liners are really creamy- Imperial is a dark violet (the exact same shade as Wet'n'Wild MegaChrome Eyeliner in Antique Amethyst, only the texture is different) but it's so dark that indoors, you can't appreciate the color. Antique Gold liner is simply amazing, it's a really complex shimmery dirty gold/bronze/olive that looks different from different angles and under different lighting- easily my favorite item of the whole set. This was the Spring 2009 Collection.

So, until next post, I bid thee 'adieu'! Thanks for reading!

<3
All items shown were purchased by me for my own use.

MAC Prepped for Glamour & Smashbox Haul

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Last Sunday, I dragged poor Mr. MakeupWithdrawal to the closest Nordstrom Rack, hoping to score some R&R makeup which was recently dropped by Nordstrom. No such luck- I had really wanted some of the blushes too! However, I did get some older Smashbox collections-Muse Masterpiece and Green Room. I paid about $40 total for both these sets, pretty awesome deal!

One another note, I'm proud of myself for resisting the allure of new MAC collections- I've only purchased a total of three things from MAC this year- Prepped for Glamour eyeshadow being the most recent. This shadow came out a week ago as a part of the Prepped for Colour mini collection- the two other shadows were Hey (Warm mid-tone beige (Veluxe Pearl) ) and Sorcery (Reddish mid-tone brown (Satin)). I'll do swatches of it tomorrow when hopefully the sun comes out again.

All products featured were purchased by me, for my own use.

ACW Order

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I love AllCosmeticsWholesale.com to death. I really do. It's a great site that sells middle end and high end cosmetics (some discounted or from previous seasons). It's absolutely terrible for my wallet though, because I'm always browsing their inventory (which gets updated all the time) and finding things I really want and can't resist because they're so cheap. I placed an order last Saturday, and this morning I got up early because I was so excited for it to get here (my desperation is indeed deplorable. Also, the mail man doesn't actually get here until 1pm, so I watched Weeds for five hours, with occasional peeks out the window.)
This time, I ordered a 12 slot SMH magnetic palette, a SMH single, Smashbox quads in Ambient and Electric and an Urban Decay single in Secret Service.
First, the palette. The 12 slot palettes made by Stars Makeup Haven are actually a little different than the ones from Coastal Scents. The divider (the part with holes that the pans fit into) from the Coastal Scents ones are made from neoprene, so it's more cushiony. I feel like it absorbs shock better (I drop things a lot, can you tell?) The divider in the SMH palette is molded plastic and the little hole on the side of each well isn't as deep as the CS version. This makes it a bit harder for my clumsy fingers to pry the pans out. Even with a bobby pin, it's still hard to get out. The differences are minute, and they're about the same price, so no biggie. (Coastal Scents version is $7.95 and the SMH version is $8.85)

I've had my eye on the Stars Makeup Haven singles for a long time, ever since I saw them swatched on KarlaSguar's blog. They looked really good and well pigmented. But they're only $4.95 each so I knew that if I wasn't careful, I'd probably go overboard. I only let myself buy one to start out with, to see what the quality was like. I'm very pleased! This particular shade, Carnal Knowledge is silky and smooth and the perfect light champagne shimmer. As an added perk, I also really like how there's a label on the back that tells you what shade it is, pretty convenient that I don't have to bust out my label maker.

My other single is Urban Decay's Secret Service. I only recently started getting into Urban Decay eye shadows, because I was frightened of the glitter I hear a lot about. So I decided to ease into the process with a matte shade. I got this for $7.99 (amazing price for UD shadows) and I'm glad I did, because it's discontinued. I have a confession to make, once I started to use LORAC matte eyeshadows, I never thought I'd be impressed by the texture of another brand again. Luckily, I was proven wrong. This single is the most finely milled eyeshadow I think I've ever touched. I'm not sure about the blendability or the staying powder yet, but I'm loving the taupe color. I like that it has a touch of dark grey, which makes it look very grown up. My family of taupe eyeshadow gladly flings open their arms to welcome such a nice shade.

The two items I was most excited about were the Smashbox quads. However, they did turn out to be much smaller than I had expected (I'm not sure why this matters to me, because as of today I have never ever finished an eyeshadow, so worrying about running out is a rather irrational fear). They're still lovely, nonetheless. Ambient contains rather generic earthy shades (all shimmers)- a creamy white, a orange tinged gold, a dusky olive and your very basic warm brown. The color I like the best in this quad is the olive. It's rather green in the pan, but on the skin it becomes wonderfully complex. It's one of those rare warm olives with soft hints of sienna.

The other quad was Electric and I have to start out by marveling at the pigmentation, especially in the dark teal. There's two shimmers in this quad and two mattes. There's a bright sunny shimmer yellow, a dark matte teal with silver glitter (for the first time in my life, I'm not repulsed by it), a matte chocolate brown and a dusky orange-peach shimmer. I suppose the two matte colors could be a little smoother but that's something that extremely hard to do with deeply pigmented mattes. Oh yeah, both these quads were $7.99, oh hell yeah.

I'm going to have to excuse myself so that I can play with my new toys. So, like what you see?

Monistat Soothing Care Chafing Relief Powder Gel- Must

Thursday, November 12, 2009

What, you may ask, is a woman's health product doing on a beauty blog? Simple. It makes one incredible facial primer. Should I be carted of to a crazy hospital for even trying this? Probably.I've tried crazier in the name of beauty, but we'll get to that.

I know what you're thinking. Monistat? As in, over the counter yeast infection medication? Actually, though it's made by the same makes, it's for external use only, such as chafing caused by a swim suit or riding a bike. But let's discuss the wonderful alternative use. Facial Primer! I first read about in passing on a beauty forum. I was pretty skeptical at first but I'm cheap and the thought of spending only six dollars for facial primer made it too good to pass up.

I bought it at Target and immediately tried it out. I applied a thin layer over clean and moisturized skin, using a little extra on areas where I had unevenness such as a zit or large pores. I wasn't as miserly with the amount I used, at 1/6th the price of Smashbox Photo Finish (and one and a half times the size!) I could definitely afford to not skimp. The product is a gel that feels silky smooth- the way finely milled powdered feels. It didn't smell medicinal, just faintly of baby powder.
As you can see, it's invisible when applied.

In short, it delivered everything a pricey primer promises. It created a light layer between my skin and makeup, I could tell instantly when I applied my concealer to my problem areas that it helped the concealer sit evenly. It also made my makeup last all day, kept it soft and there was no irritation whatsoever, as well as oil control! I'm never shelling out 30+ dollars for expensive brand name primer ever again.

Cost: 1.5oz. Around $6 at Target, CVS, Walgreens and other drugstores.

Similar: Smashbox Photo Finish($36 for 1oz), Prep+Prime Skin ($25 for 1oz), Laura Mercier Foundation Primer ($30 for 1.75oz)