I love trying new mascaras (well, really any new beauty product actually...) and when I saw this Revlon mascara I had to try it. It said the magic words: grow lashes. I'm a sucker when anything claims to help your lashes grow. My lashes are naturally really nice: long, dark and thick, but a year ago I had a bunch of them fall out and they haven't grown back in the same since. So, into my shopping cart it went!
I loved this mascara instantly. It makes thick, lush lashes. Not super defined like my beloved Lash Blast, but as softer, more fringe-like lash. I like both. But I liked this one so much that I used an entire tube of Blackest Black before I could even do a review of it.
It's one of those mascaras with the gigantic brush so it helps build huge lashes really easily. It isn't quite as big as Benefit's Bad Gal brush, but it's still pretty huge. This shade is Blackest Black, by the way. Here's a picture of me wearing it:
The shadows are Urban Decay Last Call, Bordello and... I forget... a light pink frosty one. SWF? The liner is Milani Infinite liner in Infinite (the crazy awesome bright blue). Milani has great eyeliners... I rave about them so much and I always forget to post a review.... Anyway...
This isn't so much of a review as a rave and a shopping tip... so... maybe I should work on a real review (two things in one post that I need to finish reviews of!).... But I wanted to mention this while it's still available:
Walgreen's was doing a special where you can get a free Revlon shadow with your Grow Luscious mascara. The Black shade comes with this really cool looking Black Galaxy shadow:
It's a very soft black (more of a charcoal/grey really) with lots of iridescent blue/purple and subtle rainbow sparkles. It's actually rather sheer and the sparkles don't show up really well when applied, but I love looking at it in the pan.
The Blackest Black shade (which I prefer over the plain Black) comes with Lilac Shimmer:
This is a soft, dusty light lilac with some silver glitter. I have not tried wearing this yet; these colors tend not to look good on me. Maybe I'll try it this week...
These duos were around $10 at Walgreens, but just last week I saw these at Big Lots for $4. They only had Black and Blackest Black and only in the non-waterproof formula, but wow, that's an amazing price. You can get two mascaras and two full sized shadows for less than the price of one at Walgreen's. Needless to say I grabbed a couple... I'm on a budget and you can't pass up a deal like that.
I get so excited when I find a good sale...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara with Black Galaxy shadow
Monday, January 24, 2011
Speaking of LORAC (Spring 2011)...
... Look what just showed up in my inbox! This looks like the coolest spring collection ever. Duochrome eyeshadows and lustre drops plus new shades of Multiplex 3D gloss?! I may faint.
LORAC 3D Liquid Lustre. The press release describes this as a sparkling topcoat for eyeshadow. I've never seen anything like this but it has me super excited. 
Multiplex 3D Lashes. A triple-volume mascara with a curved wand.
Multiplex Lipgloss in 4-D- a new shade? It's described as bubblegum pink with 3D glitter. They said the magic word: Glitter. It's being promoted in a set with 3-D (the bronze duochrome glitter shade I love so much)
Last but not least... a 3D Multiplex EYESHADOW PALETTE. They don't look very duochrome in the picture (except for that Club-clone in the top row) but they're described as, "luminous, prismatic, holographic" so I have my fingers crossed!LORAC Ulta-Exclusive Box Office Hit Palette
This LORAC palette came out around Christmastime and it's one of those blockbuster-style value sets, though this time it's a more manageable, travel-friendly size.
The case has Lorac's signature faux-croc finish, this time in a deep glossy wine shade. This is one of my favorite palettes to look at, just for the finish. Shiny and pretty.
It opens like a book with a snap closure. It has a quarter-size mirror and the palette can stand up on its own, so this might be ideal for travel. Note the lipglosses below the mirror- they are covered with a see-through door- genius! No more powder and gloss mingling in the palette. I hate when that happens. There are eight glosses, twelve shadows, two eyeliner pencils, a blush and a bronzer.
The glosses with the door flap lifted. They range from light to medium and they're all in pink based tones. Some are creme finish, some are shimmer, and the texture is light and glossy.
Shadows on the top. A good sized eyeliner pencil in black and another in brown. See the ribbons hanging down? Those are so you can easily remove the pencils which fit quite snugly in their compartments. Another detail that I really appreciate. The blush, which looks very washed out in this picture, is a super bright pink. The bronzer is a warm terracotta.
Closeup of the shadows. Feel free to enlarge and view the shimmer in some of the shades. These shadows are all on the neutral and conservative side. Good office-appropriate shades or for a quick, subtle smoky eye. Nothing very dark or dramatic or super colorful in here.
The shadows: Top row, middle row, bottom row. See how the colors morph when applied to the skin. The pan colors are a little deceiving; they look quite different when applied.
Blush, bronzer, eyeliners. It looks too washed out in this lighting, but the pink is insanely bright and almost neon. It can be toned down by blending or applied more heavily for extreme candy color. The bronzer is too orange for my skintone, but might be better on someone warmer. Black and brown eyeliner pencils, average pencil formula, nothing noteworthy.
The glosses. They're on the sheer side and a bit lighter than they look in the pans. I feel like they should have included a lip brush in this palette because they're a little hard to apply with the fingers. They are halfway between lipstick and gloss; a little thick feeling like lipstick but lightweight, glossy and sheer like gloss.
The shadow formula seems the same as other Lorac palettes I've used in the past. They're light and sheer and very powdery and soft. They apply sheer but can be used wet for more coverage. The colors do seem to change after they are applied, I don't know if it's because of my skin chemistry or pH or just my skintone, but they don't look the same as in the pan. They blend easily but the sheer, powdery texture makes them easy to over-blend. None of the colors are super pigmented. I find that this palette is best for sheer, natural looks.
This palette might actually be a good gift for a younger teen girl because it's hard to overdo it with the sheer colors. The packaging is really luxe looking and it has a lot of different colors to experiment with. The only wild color in the bunch is that neon pink blush.
This palette is an Ulta exclusive and it costs $35. It was still available last time I checked, so I'm not sure if it is limited edition or not.
(This was sent to me for review.)
Valentine's Day-ish Eye of the Day
After seeing all the pretty pink, red and white Valentine's Day candies and decorations in the store, I felt inspired to do something similar on my eyes...
Sorry about the weird thing flash does to my skin. Everything turns orange and shiny. =/
This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
MAC Pink Opal pigment wet on lid
Aromaleigh Tainted Love in crease and on lower lashline
Fyrinnae Cheeky to highlight
The black from the Cargo Wet/Dry Eyeliner Palette, wet as liner
Cover Girl Lash Blast
It looks nicer without the flash, but it was too dark out to get a natural light photo. Pink Opal is a tricky pigment to use, but the end result is worth it. It has that flaky, chunky texture like some of MAC's pigments have, but I've found that the way to make them look even is to tap/rub them gently with your fingertip after you've applied it to smooth down the flakes. What you're left with is an ivory-white with pink duochrome. Very Valentines. The red looked candy-like so it was the perfect match for me. I love that red. No other red compares to it. I'm going to have to try Sugarpill's red to see if it's similar.
Now I'm thinking of a pastel look like those conversation hearts candies I like. The ones that are like rock-hard flavored chalk? Love 'em. I have to eat at least one box every year.
Peter Philips and the Chanel robot?
This is not something I'd normally post, but there's a little robot dude made out of eyeshadow compacts and lipstick tubes and I find it amusing.
It's a short clip featuring Peter Philips (global director of beauty for Chanel) talking about his inspiration for doing makeup, but at around 1:00 in you get to see the makeup robot. It's supposed to be part of an animated film to be released tomorrow.
Peter Philips: Beautiful Dreamer on Nowness.com.
Toward the end you get a closer look at it and there's a funny blush/brush creature too. This is Chanel??
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Cover Girl IceSlicks Anti-Freeze Layered
Now that the Rescue Beauty Lounge spring collection is posted, I can post this! I'm sure it's some sort of crime to layer an old, cheap, chemical filled drugstore glitter over an $18 polish, but that's how I roll.
This is two coats of Cover Girl IceSlicks in Anti-Freeze over one coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge Iconoclast. Feel free to enlarge those. There's this incredibly gorgeous blue glitter in there that you just have to see. Eat your heart out, Starry Starry Night! This is what a real galaxy of stars looks like.
The Cover Girl polish is a sheer blue-green base with some very fine gold-green microglitter and some larger pure blue glitter. It looks fine alone, but when you layer it over something dark, the blue glitter pops out and looks incredible.
It does have the curse of the old-formula polish, though. It doesn't get along well with new-formula (3-free) polishes or treatments and can take an extremely long time to dry fully. It took two whole days for this to dry completely. I didn't use the right topcoat. I should have used Seche Vite but I didn't have it with me. The manicure was set and hard on the top, but the bottom layer was still wet enough that I could put marks on it if I pressed hard enough. Even in spite of this, I still love my old formula polishes. They just don't make colors like this anymore. I haven't seen a polish like this come out at all in the past few years- can you not get this shade of blue glitter anymore? Does it have something to do with the formula change?
One of these days I'm going to swatch more of my old polishes. There used to be so many great colors available at the drugstore... I think we're starting to see a return to less-conservative shades in the mainstream market now, which is awesome. But still, where are my duochromes?! No one has filled the hole that the discontinuation of Nail Prisms has left in my heart...
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Illamasqua Throb Collection for Valentine's Day 2011
Oh, Illamasqua, you've done it again. Another collection that's making bloggers buzz... I have the nail portion of the collection to show you, but first, feast your eyes on this:
Gaaaah that is so awesome. I love everything about this picture. Illamasqua = artistry.
Let's get this one out of the way first. It's a creamy off-white polish that has more than one thing in common with this album cover:
*ahem* So, here it is...
Load. Yep, it's exactly what you think it is. The color is really unique, though- an off white with a strong yellow undertone. It's not a clean white by any stretch of the imagination, but it is definitely easier to wear than your standard stark white 'white-out' style white polish. I'd like to think that it looks like buttercream frosting made with real butter and regular vanilla extract (not the clear wedding cake kind). Yeah... buttercream frosting... That's it. Keep telling yourself that.
Throb. A perfect Valentine's Day red creme. Cherry red. I love these types of pin-up girl red cremes. Great formula on this, too. Complete coverage in one coat, but I think it looks nicer and bolder with two.
Scorn. Scorn is part of this collection, too, but you may already have it from when the Nail Quills came out. To recap: Matte black creme, leather-rubber semi-matte finish. Great formula.
And just for fun, I wanted to try out that heart mani from the promo pictures:
This is using Load as the base color and Wet n Wild Black as the heart portion. It's a little sloppy and not quite perfect. But hey, it's my first try, almost no one can be expected to get it perfect on their first try. I applied the black making swooping motions with the plain' old polish brush. Next time I'll use a striping polish with a long brush, but I didn't have one handy this time.
The formula is varied. Throb and Scorn are completely flawless in every way. Load is pretty streaky and needs three coats to be completely even. Drying time is good and the polishes dry to a nice glossy finish even without topcoat. Well, except Scorn, obviously.
Red creme and black matte aren't exactly groundbreaking new colors, but Load is definitely an uncommon shade. I do kinda like it for the novelty aspect... but even excluding that, it's still a really interesting color. Reminds me of antique lace. I want to do some lacy looking Konad prints over it.
(These were sent to me for review.)
Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2011 Iconic/Ironic Collection Swatches and Review
First off, here's the accompanying press release which explains the inspiration behind the collection:
The variety of moods and personas shown on this Spring//Summerʼs runways was a tribute to the fashion schizophrentic in all of us.
“Iʼve been told there are women who adopt a signature style that they stick to, season after season,” says Rescue Beauty founder Ji Baek, “frankly, Iʼve never met one.”
“Most women I know are like me—one day weʼre wearing “Mad Men”-inspired ladylike sheaths, the next weʼre channeling Patti Smith in black leather and spiky studs.
Itʼs one of the many joys of being a woman. We can be a little psychotic when we reach into our closets, especially this spring.”
Unlike previous seasons where one clear trend carried through collection after collection, this Spring, designers are all over the map. There was Betty Page starring in South Pacific at Dior, new wave meets neoclassical at Chanel, sexy Suzie Wongs at Louis Vuitton pared-down minimalism at Celine and Chloe, and a box of crayons at Prada and Jil Sander. Models appeared as 1920ʼs garden party ladies at Galliano, gauchos at Hermes and street-wise punks at the venerable houses of Balmain and Bottega Venetta.
“I love that our wardrobes can reflect our multi-faceted personalities. This season truly celebrates women—every woman—so Iʼve named my Spring polish collection Iconic/Ironic, hues to juxtaposition against every version of yourself.”
“The ʻironyʼ comes from mixing polishes in an unexpected way. Offset all those brights with a neutral cocoa or a grounding black hue. Make your punk looks more tongue-in-chic with lavender nails. Itʼs about adding that surprising detail that keeps you on your
(well-pedicured) toes.”
Decorous is a perfectly ladylike light cocoa, an unexpected neutral to offset bright tropical hues or to add a chic finish to an all-black ensemble.
Recherché is a purplish dark brown prune, an exotic accent that grounds oversize prints better than an expected summer pink or coral. Stunning with the homage to classic YSL designs shown by Stephen Pilati or the Proenza Schouler boysʼ loose-fitting ladylike tweeds and sheer tank dresses.
Insouciant is the toned-down gray lilac of a pressed corsage. Punked out rather than pastel, it is a counterpoint to Springʼs ladylike florals and Bardot-worthy uber-feminine dresses. Or wear it with Lanvinʼs muddied neutrals.
Finally, thereʼs Iconoclast. “Letʼs face it, black polish has been done to death. I had to reinvent it into something entirely new,” says Baek. This one is a richly pigmented ebony with layers of fine glitter, giving it depth and a metallic, mica-like finish.
Rescue polishes are available at www.rescuebeauty.com or Rescue Beauty Lounge on Gansevoort Street in New Yorkʼs Meatpacking District. The polishes sell for $18 a bottle.
Rescue Beauty Lounge Nail polishes are created with resin and high molecular polymers to improve flexibility, durability and high shine. They contain no harmful or drying Touluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and no animal testing."
Now let's take a look at the colors!
Decorous. This is a soft light brown with a hint of iridescent shimmer. It reminds me of suede. It has a really nice milky element to it that makes the base color look super smooth, and then when the light hits it just right you get little glimmers of silver, purple, teal and a little bit of green. The flash photo shows the base color well and it also picks up some of the different colors in the shimmer.
Iconoclast. I think this might be my favorite of the collection. It's amazing. Iconoclast is a deep black base that's brightened by fine multicolored shimmer. Please enlarge the images- look at all the different shimmer colors! The main colors I see are green and purple. It's deep, dark, dramatic but has that subtle hint of color that makes it irresistible to me. How about a little bit of insider trivia? This is pretty similar to what some of the early prototypes of Scrangie by Rescue Beauty Lounge looked like. Black based with iridescent purple and green shimmer. We were going for that iridescent beetle look. Pretty neat, huh? The color transformed quite a bit during development! But now I have the gorgeous Iconoclast shade to remind me of that fun experience.
Insouciant. The first pictures show the purple element of this polish and the flash picks up on the pastel greyed qualities in the base color. This is a new take on the pastel and greyed-purple trends for spring. Instead of being a plain creme finish, it has a flash of blue shimmer. The shimmer is fine and subtle but at the right angles it looks luminous and electric. Look at the color of it in the corners of the bottle. It's a delicate color and the shimmer makes it look so magical.
Recherche. What a surprise for spring! A deep, dark smoky violet! It's not one of those dark purples that look black. This one is a little bit greyed and faded and it looks smoky on the nail. Very dramatic and mysterious. I love the soft vintage look it gives to the nails- makes me think of Film Noir or flapper girls. Elegant but still edgy.The formula on these is the best polish formula you could ask for. It is absolutely flawless. The texture is smooth and even- not runny, not thick. It goes exactly where you want it with almost no effort. It practically applies itself. The drying time is a little longer, but they're so dense and opaque that you can get away with only one coat. Add a little quick-dry topcoat on top and you'll be good to go.
Love this set for spring. The black and the smoky purple are really the last colors that come to mind when I think of spring and I love that. But, I do usually crave light, faded cloudy type colors at this time of year and Ji satisfied my craving with Insouciant. I don't think that Decorous is the right type of brown for my skin tone, but the other three are definitely winners. Iconoclast and Recherche make me think of black orchids- I bet someone with awesome nail art skills could come up with a great black orchid inspired two-tone gradient.
The pre-order for this limited edition Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polish collection should be happening at the end of January, so make sure you're signed up for email alerts if you want to get in on the pre-order. I don't have an exact date or time, but as long as you're signed up for the newsletter you'll hear about it when it happens!
(These were sent to me for review.)
