Review: L’Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara

Name: L’oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara

Price: $7-9

Product: 0/5

Available: Anywhere L’Oreal is sold

This has to be one of the worst mascaras I’ve ever had the displeasure of using. Many people like this mascara and I’m trying to figure out how some people can actually like this piece of crap mascara. I recieved this mascara through Total Beauty to test and review, and was turned off by it as soon as I saw the brush. I have never had good experiences with mascara wands that have the big fluffy bristled brushes. They are extremely hard for me to work, and it doesn’t work well with my eye lashes. The Maybelline Collagen mascara was like  that for me.

This mascara is supposed to be a a volumizing mascara, but when I applied it carefully to my lashes, I just got spider lashes and clumps, which is something I usually never have to deal with. Then again I use Lash Blast and the Max Factor counterpart. After I applied this onto one eye, and saw the clumps, I grabbed my eyelash comb and tried to comb through the clumpy mess to make it workable for my lashes. In the few seconds that it took me to get the comb, the mascara had already hardened on my lashes, making it impossible to work with my lashes.

I quickly used some of my makeup remover and took off the mascara on that one eye. I didn’t even bother putting it on the other eye. I wasn’t going to walk around in public with clumpy, nasty eye lashes. I am not surprised that this mascara did not work for me. So far it seems that only two brands have worked for me so far;  Cover Girl / Max Factor and NYX. I combined Cover Girl amd Max Factor, because they are basically the same company. I don’t recommend this mascara at all. There are many better mascaras out there that give off great volume without being a clumpy mess.

You can get more reviews on this mascaras and others from Total Beauty.com

My Face Products (foundations, concealers, powders, hilighters)

Here is all my foundations, concealers and powders. I actually rotate what I use, so everything does get some love. I wish I could say the same about my other makeup! Ha!

Mineral Foundations:

Aubrey Nicole in Medium Light Natural (Full Coverage)

Femme Couture Mineral Effects in Champagne

Wet N Wild Ultimate Foundation in Stage Light (This from when WnW first released their mineral foundation a few summers ago)

Traditional Foundations:

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy: Your Skin Foundation in Nude Beige (PERFECT MATCH)

Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in Nude

Maybelline Mineral Power Liquid Foundation in Nude

Concealer:

MAC Studio Finish in NC20

The BodyShop Concealer Pencil in 03

NYX Concealer in a Jar in Light, Yellow and Green

Sephora Concealer Palette w/ green, lavender and flesh toned colors.

Pressed Powders:

Femme Couture Flawless Touch Pressed Powder in Light

Maybelline Dream Matte Powder in 4-5 Creamy

Maybelline Mineral Power Finishing Veil Powder in Light

Sephora Compact Foundation in D20 Warm Nude

Physician’s Formula Powder Palette Multi-Colored Corrector in Green

Loose Powder:

NYC Smooth Skin Translucent Powder

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired By Carmindy Truly Translucent Powder in Light / Medium

Aromaleigh Ultra – Resolution Finish Powder in Clear

Hilighters:

Femme Couture Flawless Touch Brightening Corrective Pen

Femme Couture Mineral Effects Illuminator

L”Oreal Glam Bronze in Illuminator

MAC Pearlizer Sheer Pigment in Good As Gold

Physician’s Formula Virtual Face Powder in Translucent Pearl

Jane Shimmering Blush in Wisteria

Revlon Bare It All Lustrious Powder in Peachy Tease, Buff Love, Goldi-Looks, and Pink A Boo

Wet n Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow

Wet n Wild Silk Finish Blush in All Over Shimmer

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…

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….

CVS Memorial Weekend Haul

Here is my CVS haul from Memorial Day weekend. This haul is all about L’Oreal and Milani products.  I ended up buying a backup of one of the L’Oreal eyeshadows – Baby Spice. It is a gorgeous sheer taupe color that is going to be a fave!!!

The entire haul:

Milani Lipsticks:

Glamorous: (Coral), Delicious (Pink)

Swatches:

Milani Quad: Wild Violets

Milani Crystal Gloss: Innocent (Clear Shimmer), Plush Baby (Mauve Shimmer)

L’Oreal Colour Juice Stick: Strawberry Fields, Plum Crazy, Watermelon Ice, Chai Love You (2x)

(Forgot to take a solo picture of these)

These are my favorite lipsticks. The scent is amazing and they are extremely glossy. These are backups for my favorite colors.

L’Oreal Bare Naturale Eyeshadow: Bare Gold, Bare Lavendar, Baby Spice (2x), Bare Olive

This whole haul came in around $23. I was super excited!!

High End / Low End Comparables: Eyeshadows

This is somewhat of a continuation of my previous post on products that I’ve loved that I haven’t found a comparable lower priced item to. This post is all about the products that have a cult following, that actually HAVE lower end comparables, that I have personally used and loved. I haven’t used all of the higher end products, but I have tested them on several occasions that I feel I have a good idea of how well they work for me, anyway.

Eyeshadows – This is a biggie. I am torn on this one, because I’m in love with MAC’s Mineralized Eyeshadows, but I feel that there are many eyeshadows out there that are just as good, or even better than MAC and other Higher End shadows for a lower price:

• Ben Nye Eyeshadows – These range from about $6-10, and are available from costume shops, and speciality online stores.  These are almost twice as big as MAC and Urban Decay shadows, and are pigmented like no one’s business. I use my Ben Nye shadows more than my more expensive ones.
• Wet N Wild Ultimate Expressions Palettes. These palettes have 8 huge colors, and are extremely pigmented. I own 6 of these palettes, both permanent and limited edition. The eyeshadows are soft and extremely blendable. These palettes have mostly neutral colors that are wonderful!
• NYX Shadows – NYX has many different types of shadows, and the vast majority of them are wonderful, they are pigmented, and dirt cheap. The price of these range from $1-6, depending on what you pick up. I’ve tried them all, and I have loved almost all of them.
• L’Oreal HiP Eyeshadows Duos – These are simply some of the best drugstore eyeshadows that you will easily find in the drugstore. Each duo has two cordinating colors that are simply amazing, and some can be considered as dupes to higher end colors. These often go on sale BOGO Free, so it’s well worth your time to pick some up. You can easily get four huge, pigmented colors for the same price as one MAC shadow during a BOGO Free sale.
• L’Oreal Wear Infinite Singles – I recently tried my first eyeshadow from L’Oreal – apart from the HiP line, and I was flabbergasted when I used it. It is extremely soft and pigmented, and it blended like dream on my skin. I am looking forward to trying more in the future. I haven’t tried the quads though. So those maybe different.
• Milani – Milani makes some amazing eyeshadows. The ones that are very comparable to MAC and other brands were their little regular singles. These were amazing smooth and more pigmented than you can imagine. Unfortunatley Milani decided to get rid of these, but they are still available in some places. I’ve seen them in select Walgreens. These cost around $3-4 and were totally worth the money. Another good choice from Milani are the quads, they for about $6-7 and have four huge colors with tons of pigment and are really soft. These are available everywhere.
• TKB Trading Pigments – These are pure pigments of color, that you buy from TKB Trading for $1.50 per sample. Samples are a full table spoon of pigment – this is about the same amount of product that you get in a full sized MAC jar filled. These are definitely worth your time to check out for cheap, but not cheap quality pigments.

So far, these are the shadows I’ve used that are comparable to higher end products. These may not be as smooth as higher end shadows, or they may be slightly more sheer, but the money that you save is worth it. I feel that the price difference and more than decent quality makes these shadows the better choice than the higher end ones.

Imcomparables….

I’m all about using products that are just as good or even BETTER than the more expensive higher end products. I just love the feeling of knowing I can make a product that is only $6 look like it’s $30+. However, sometimes there is just no comparision when it comes to certain products, and I’ll happy shell out the $20 or so for the product in question.

Fortunately for me, this is a rare occurance, and I don’t feel quilty at all when I splurge on the more expensive products. Especially when I can get them as some sort of discount.

Urban Decay’s Primer Potion – This product has been talked about forever and a day now in the beauty world, and there is a good reason why. I have already reviewed this item a long time ago, when I first started this blog, and my love for it has not diminished yet. I have yet to find an eye primer that works as well for me as this one. There are some drugstore items that people have used as eye primers, and some of them have worked, others not so much. I personally have used L’Oreal HiP Paints, HiP Color Rich Cream Crayon, and Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy Fast Fix Eyeshadow Base, and all of these products, except for one, have wrecked havoc on my eyeshadows. I haven’t tried L’Oreal Decrease, but I don’t have very high hopes for it. I haven’t tried any of the higher end eye primers, because I’m happy with UDPP and the point of this post is focused on products that have the drugstore price point.

MAC Paint Pots – Here is another item that has no lower priced comparable. There are cream eyeshadows available in drustore form, but none in a pot with the color range and long wearing ability as the Paint Pots. There are of course creaseless pot cream eyeshadows available from more expensive brands. However all of those are more expensive than the Paint Pots, which clock in at $16.50. These work amazingly well on my hard to please eye lids. This is one of the few products that do not crease on me. The only somewhat comparable item to the paint pots are the Indelible Creme Eye Shadows, that are available from MadMinerals.Org for $8.99. I have yet to try these because I am waiting for a good sale from Mad Minerals to happen. These cream shadows are not available from physical stores unforunately.

As of right now, these are the only two products that I haven’t found a worthy adversary in a lower price point. This is just my opinion and I’m sure everyone feels differently about these products. Many people love the Too Faced Shadow Insurance , a recent contender to the UDPP. I haven’t tried this product, because I’m happy with what I have now. However, this doesn’t stop me from finding something cheaper that works .

Review: L’Oreal HiP Kohl Eyeliners

Name: L’Oreal HiP Kohl Eyeliner

Product: 0/5

Price: $11.99

Available: Anywhere L’Oreal HiP is sold

I bought these from Walgreens during a BOGO Free sale on all L’Oreal products. I was hoping for something truly amazing – because the reviews I had read on this product had been had been glowing. I purchased two of them, Burgandy (black with red pearl) and Teal (blue), because those were the only two that hadn’t been tampered with. One of the first problems I had with this product, was that none of the items were wrapped. This made it very difficult to pick up a product that hadn’t been opened and tested by others. I try not to purchase items that had been opened before me, if I can help it.

I tested these two liners over a few days and I was very disappointed in both of them. These are suposed to be long lasting on the waterline, and both colors disappeared off of my waterline shortly after applying it. I also tried these liners on my upper lash line and both had migrated to my crease when I blinked my eyes. I’ve had this problem before with eyeliners, and honestly that is a deal breaker for me with it comes to liners. Neither color stayed on my upper or inner rim. The main reasons for why I purchased these items. I ended up returning them to Walgreens, got my money back. I don’t recommend these at all.

Review: L’Oreal Beauty Tubes Mascara

Name: L’Oreal Double Extension Beauty Tubes Mascara

Product: 3/5

Available: Anywhere L’Oreal is sold

Now, I don’t HATE this mascara, but I also don’t love or even like it. Don’t get me wrong, the mascara does what it is suposed to do – it does make your eyelashes look really, really, long but no more so than another lengthening mascara.  It also doesn’t clump, which is also a very nice aspect of this mascara as well. These positives are what gives this product the rating it does.  My problems with this mascara has more to do with how it’s applied and the removal of the product.

This mascara takes 2 steps to apply it, you use the white primer first and then use the mascara part afterwards. I personally feel that this is just too much for an everyday mascara. When I apply everyday mascara, I personally prefer just being able to throw on one quick coat of a mascara an head out the door. With this mascara, I have to apply the primer, and then let it dry and then apply the other aspect. So I just don’t see myself using this every day, possibly every once in a great while.

The other aspect of is mascara that turns me off is how it’s removed. You have use warm water and a wash cloth to remove this mascara. I found this to be annoying, especially since I don’t wash my face every night and usuallyt rely on makeup remover and baby wipes to take of my makeup. So this is just another annoyance. If you are someone who doesn’t mind the extra work to get the lengthening from this mascara, then by all means give it a go! I personally will continue to wear this, but I honestly perfer other mascaras that are easier to deal with.

To get more reviews on this mascara, head on over to Total Beauty…

Review: L’Oreal EverPure Moisture Shampoo & Conditioner

When I heard that L’Oreal was coming out with their own line of Sulfate-Free haircare, that was specially designed for color-treated hair, both me and my aunt were ecstatic. As cronic hair-dyers we were constantly looking for a way to keep our color going without having to spend tons of money on higher end salon products.

After using this product for the past few weeks, I have not seen any real difference in my hair color, or in the health of my hair. In fact, this duo seems to leave my hair drier than other duo’s that I have used in the past.  Which is interesting, because Sulfate in hair products are commonly believed to dry hair out, so to have the sulfate free products dry my locks out even more than the products that do have that ingredient. However,  my aunt who has also tried this product out with me, feels that this duo adds moisture to her hair. This is probably because her hair is more mature and drier than my normal to oily hair.

Even though this duo doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped it would for my hair, doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t recommend it for others to use. One of the things I really, really like about this duo, is the Rosemary Mint scent calms me down, when I am stressed out. It even lingers in my hair long after my washing. So, if you are wanting to try sulfate free hair care products, without having to go to a health food store or spend a ton of money on products, I highly suggest you pick this duo up at any drugstore, chain store, or grocery store.

Product: 3.5/ 5

Price: $5.99-6.99 each

Available: Anywhere L’Oreal Haircare is available.

You can check out more reviews for these products at Total Beauty, here and here.