Review: EcoTools Retractable Kabuki

Name: EcoTools Retractable Kabuki

Product: 5/5

Price: $7-10

Available: Target, Walgreens, Ulta and other stores that sell EcoTools

I was lucky to find this brush at a local Walgreens a couple of months ago. I had been hearing about it for a while, and I jumped on the chance to purchase this brush, especially since this was the last one in the store. This was actually my first retractable kabuki I’ve owned, and the only kabuki brush that I actually liked. This has been toted as a very affordable alternative to Too Faced’s Bear Kabuki in terms of softness and how dense it is.

I love this brush. Plain and simple. It applies my mineral foundation like a dream and a half. It gives me good, buildable coverage without making my skin looky cakey. It buffs in the product with the full head, and there is absolutely ZERO prickli-ness that can happen with cheap and crappily made brushes. This is extremely well made, and I have been using mine for a while now, and cleaned it several times with no fall out. The fibers are synthetic, which makes it perfect for buffing in liquid foundation, which is what I do now for my foundations. It makes the application extremely fast and easy. The brush itself is housed in recycled aluminum, which makes this brush very, very eco friendly for those who are limiting their carbon foot print. I highly recommend this brush to everyone who wants an amazing kabuki brush that is extremely affordable and just plain cute!

Review: L’Oreal HIP Color Presso Lipglosses

Name: HIP Color Presso Lipgloss

Product: 3/5

Price: $12-13

Available: Anywhere L’Oreal HIP is sold

I have been wanting to try these lipglosses since they made their debut with the Loose Kohls. Since I had such a bad experience with the kohls, I became wary of purchasing these. Fortunately I was sent two Color Pressos to test and review for the blog by Total Beauty. Well, I can honestly say that I didn’t absolutely hate these glosses, but I wasn’t in love with them either.

The packaging of the gloss is very annoying. I find it extremely hard to squeeze both sides to mix the colors. The whole idea behind this product is that you can mix the colors together to get a unique color. Unless you have very strong, large hands you won’t be able to use this product as it was originally intended. The glosses themselves are very sheer, one side is a dark color and the other side is a lighter more shimmery color. Only the darker color shows up on the lips, and even then it’s very sheer. The scent of these glosses is quite strong, it’s a very vanilla cupcake / frosting scent. This may work for some people, but I personally hate almost every version of vanilla out there, MAC lipglasses excluded.

I would purchase more of these glosses if I had coupons and these were on sale BOGO Free. Other than that, I feel that these glosses are not worth the high price tag. If you had $15 to spend on a new gloss, I would highly recommend that you pass over these glosses and either pick up a MAC lipglass or buy a few NYX Mega Shine lipglosses.

You can read more reviews on this product on Total Beauty…

New Product: NYX Palette Runway Collection

NYX recently came out with three new types of eyeshadow palettes, which will join their already huge selection of eye products. The news of these palettes has already been lighting up different makeup communities, such as Makeup Alley and Makeup Talk. Two of these new palettes contains 10 shadows, while the other one has 5 different shadows.

The first new palette that is available is the Runway Collection that has ten different colors, that will create a variety of looks. Each palette costs $9.

Here are the available palettes:

Jazz Night

Strike A Pose

Catwalk

Champagne & Cavier

Super Model

Romance

Versus

Secret World

These palettes are only available on the NYX website as of right now. They can be purchased here.

Review: Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy: Your Skin Makeup

Name: Your Skin Makeup

Product: 5/5

Price: $12:99

Available: CVS, Ulta

I have recently been on a foundation binge, looking for the best one for my face.  And I believe I have found it. I bought this foundation and the loose powder from CVS a few months ago when it was BOGO Free, I picked up the color Nude Beige, which was litterally my perfect shade, My skin is between NC 20 and NC 25, with neutral undertones, so I was happy to get the right color on the first try. This foundation has been touted as the drugstore / budget version of Makeup Forever’s HD liquid foundation. This isn’t something that I agree with. I tested the MUFE foundation with a sample from Sephora, and I was very dissapointed in it’s performance and feel.

Your Skin Makeup, however was a completely different experience for me. This applies wonderfully onto my skin, it’s a very creamy liquid foundation. which applied onto my skin easily and blended extremely well. This has medium to full coverage, making it very buildable. Since I live in N. Florida, I am in definite need of a foundation that will last in this 95+ heat, and doesn’t break out my oily somewhat acne prone skin. I have been using this foundie semi regularly since I got it, and I am supremely happy with its wear and performance. It doesn’t oxidize (turn orange) on my skin, which is a problem that a lot of people have with foundations.

The title of this foundation is extremely long and winded, but it’s claim that it is “Your Skin , But Better” is right on the mark. I feel that this foundation has become my top HG for liquid foundation, knocking Maybelline Mineral Power Liquid Foundation from the top. I believe that this is a product that I will continue to buy – even if it’s not on sale. I love this product that much. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good liquid foundation.

Life

Life is short. You never know when it will be your time or the time of a loved one. Today we lost not only Farrah today, but we also lost Michael Jackson as well. Both were icons that helped define our and our parents generation.

Farrah was 62 when she passed away this morning from anal cancer. She had battled this illness for three years before leaving this world this morning. She inspired a generation of beauty and style with her infamous hair style and fashion choices.

Michael was 5o and was planning to do a concert run in the near future in London. He died from cardiac arrest this afternoon, shocking me more than Farrah’s death. I don’t need to say a word on the influence Michael made in this world.

My point in posting this tonight, is that my eyes have been opened tonight. Life is incredibly short, and the longer you put off doing something, the less time you will have to enjoy the benefits of what you want to do. We may not have tomorrow to tell someone something or to do what we could have done today.

The future is not something we have a right to – it’s a gift that we may not recieve. So the next time you want to put something off, please remember those who will never have a tomorrow, and take full advantage of today.

I know I will…

A Possible Sale? Any thoughts?

Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of products I have in my collection, and I’ve been thinking about purging a lot out of my stash to not only make room for new new stuff, but so that I can focus in on brands that I really love.

So what do you guys think? Would you be interested in a sale? I have a large number of products that have only been swatched once and forgotten. I really don’t want to toss perfectly good and usuable items into the trash, when someone else could be enjoying them.

So please give me your thoughts on this.

A Word On My Reviews

There has been a lot of talk lately on the reliabilty on beauty reviews written by bloggers such as myself. Many people, including myself feel that there are too many reviews that are being written on the internet that seem to make an item too good to be true. The reason I’m bringing this up, is that people are starting to wonder why there is an influx of reviews on a certain product at the same time.

The truth is that we, beauty bloggers are sent free products to test and review. Some big time bloggers even get paid to write postitive reviews on certain products from brands. I know that this happens, however I don’t know which ones do get paid and from which companies. I can honestly tell you guys that I DO NOT GET PAID for my reviews. There are on occasion times where I get free products, sometimes samples, other times full sized products, to test and review. Any review I write is completely honest, and I don’t say one product is absolutely wonderful when I find it to be absolute crap. Many of the free products that I have reviewed have gotten a less than positive review. In fact, most of my negitive reviews that I’ve written are on the free products that I get. When I review a product that I have purchased, I usually tend to love the product, because I tend to research and purchase on what is going to work on me. Anything that I really dislike or even hate, I tend to return it to the store and get my money back.

As you guys know, I review both higher end and lower end products. I find quality in all price ranges. I am not WOWED by a big price tag and a fancy name. Many of my all time favorite products are found in the lower price ranges and would usually be passed on by beauty junkies who equate price with quality. However, there are some high end products that I highly recommend that really don’t have any lower priced equals. The point is, is that I ALWAYS tell you guys my true thoughts on a product – no matter how I get them, and how much I pay for them.

BUT for now on, I will always inform you guys on how I get the product, either by purchasing it or getting it free. I hope that more beauty bloggers start doing this as well. I think we are all over due for complete honestly in this area, because it’s our money at stake and there are many times where we can’t return something.

A Second Look at L’Oreal HiP Loose Kohls

I have already reviewed the L’Oreal HiP Loose Kohls in Teal and Burgandy a couple of months ago. But I was recently contacted to re-try and re review these eyeliners. I received two other colors, Navy and Gold and I decided to give these a try to see if there was a difference between colors. I gave both of these eyeliners a fair test, and unfortunately I came up with the same problems that I had with the first two liners I reviewed. I find these hard to work with, and the lasting power seriously lacking.

These liners smudge too easily to wear for any length of time. I live in Northern Florida and I need products that are not effected by heat. These tend to travel from my upper, lower and waterline quickly and leave my face looking like a hot mess, which is not a good thing.  I still love the L’Oreal HiP Creme Liners and I will continue to use those. These however are just not for me.

If you are interested in more reviews on this product, head on over to Total Beauty….

Review: Chapstick True Shimmer

Name: Chapstick True Shimmer

Product: 0/5

Price: $2-3

Available: Anywhere Chapstick is sold

I was recently sent some tubes of Chapstick True Shimmer to test out and review. I was sent one each of the four types.

• Blended Fruit Sherbet (purple) This one tastes like Fruit punch
• Tropical (white) Tastes like coconut and sunscreen
• Peppermint Rush (blue) Tastes like Peppermint
• Tropical Berry – (pink) Tastes like Strawberries

I was intitially excited to try these products and I was very dissapointed in these products. I was expecting more when they marketed this as a shimmer product. Shimmer to me is made up of tiny pieces of glitter that make your lips shine and add dimension. The “shimmer” in these chapsticks looks and feels like rough silver glitter, not shimmer. These chapsticks also apply clear, with no hint of their color tint on the lips. When I first applied Peppermint Rush to my lips, all I saw was silver glitter on my lips.

When one thinks of chapstick, you automatically think of moisturizing and softening of the lips. I personally have very rough lips, so I am constantly looking for lip balms that make my lips soft and taste either really good or ones that have no taste. I also prefer lip balms that have a high SPF of at least 30. These Chapstick True Shimmers fail on both of these accounts. I actually think these dry my lips out instead of adding much needed color, and I found no mention of any SPF- not even a SPF of 4 – which can be found in just about every lip balm.

My assessment of these lip balms goes against many reviews that absolutely praise these products. I just didn’t find them worth the hype or the price. For $3, I would expect something more from a lip balm than what I recieved. I can get a two pack of lip balms with SPF of 30 for $1. To me, $3 for this product is just too much.

You can get more reviews of this product on Total Beauty….

Quick Note From The Real World

Hey everyone – I’ve been having computer problems lately – so I won’t be able to post much until I have a good running home computer again. I hope this won’t take more than a couple of days – but I wanted to let you guys know ahead of time, before you start wondering what happened to me.

Love you all!