Sunday, December 30, 2012

Review: C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Tint in Pink Mint

These lipglosses are sold at Bath & Body Works. They smell and taste minty and feel slightly cooling. This has practically replaced my lip balms.


I have always known that lip balms tend to dry out my lips and forces me to constantly reapply. I don't like that fact and I have recently discovered that lipgloss is a great solution.

This Mentha line of lip gloss is very low maintenance - I can put it on without a mirror because it is rather sheer. It also doesn't feather and it's not streaky. It's very comfortable to wear since it isn't sticky.

Longevity: The trade-off for the non-stickiness is that it only has moderate staying power. The thicker a layer you apply, the longer it will last. On a good day, it will stay 2 or 3 hours. On a normal day, I talk, drink water, eat, et cetera, and so all of these elements shorten the staying power of the lip gloss. This may sound weird, but sometimes the lip gloss seeps down so that I can taste the mint. It is not at all unpleasant, because the mint flavor is fine and doesn't taste plastic-y or bitter. However, this probably contributes to the short lasting power.


Review: L'Occitane Hand Cream in Fleur Cherie

Recently, I've been hearing a lot of good things about the L'Occitane Hand Creams.

I found a free coupon the other day. I'll tell you more about that at the bottom of this review!


My coupon was for the Shea Butter Hand Cream, but they ran out at my local L'Occitane store. The nice lady at the register let me choose any of the other hand creams so I sampled/smelled all of the different scents. They were all quite lovely. I remember that the Rose and the Lavender scents were very true to what you might expect of those flowers. The scents were strong enough to be distinctive, but not so strong as to be overpowering or to burn your nose. To me, this is indicative of high-quality products.

I chose the Fleur Cherie, which is a unique soft scent. The English language is rather deficient in the description of scents, so all I can say is that I like it and I don't think I will get tired of it.

Review: Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Nude

I have tried many many undereye concealers because I have always had dark circles. The one thing I've learned is that your undereye concealer and your spot concealer has to be different - one product can't do both jobs. For the undereye, the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer is the best that I've tried.



Packaging: As you can see, the pretty lettering has all rubbed off just with regular usage. As for dispensing the product, I have always been averse to twist-up packaging and built-in brush. I've had bad experiences with unresponsive twisting that sometimes doesn't dispense anything and sometimes dispenses way too much. For this particular product, I can live with the packaging - usually two clicks dispenses the proper amount of product for one use, and I don't have to wait too long for the product to come up. (Note that you have to twist quite a few times when you use the product for the first time.)

Below is what you get with four twists:



Saturday, December 29, 2012

Review: Be Fine Exfoliating Cleanser


I first learned about this scrub from Ingrid also known as missglamorazzi on Youtube. I like this face cleanser so much I am already on my second bottle.


Consistency: This is an exfoliator that I use on my face. Most of the granules are brown sugar, so as you gently massage it onto your face, the scrub melts into a lather. It's gentle enough to use daily. If you don't want as much of the exfoliation, you can rub it between your fingers for a few seconds so some of the crystals melt down before applying it to your face.


Effectiveness: The granules are large enough to exfoliate a little bit, but I find that in the winter, when I have drier skin with patchy areas, this isn't the greatest scrub. It works best if you take a half-pea-sized amount and apply it onto a section of your face in circular motions. I would do this two or three times on the same section if I want to make sure that I've gotten all the dry skin off.

Once the scrub becomes a creamy lather, it cleans extremely well. I usually only wear eyeliner on my eyes, so I don't use eye makeup remover (I know that's still bad...). But this stuff cleans off my eyeliner (and foundation!) better than any other face wash I've used. When I'm done washing my face with this, it feels completely clean, residue-free, and not tight-feeling.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Review: Smashbox Jet Set Gel Eyeliner in Vamp

Ever since I got the Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black Ink last summer, I have been using gel liner almost every day. I recently made an online purchase from Sephora to buy Secret Santa gifts, and thought I would give Smashbox's gel eyeliner a try. This particular shade was only $10.



I think it is now out of stock, but you can get other shades at Sephora or at the Smashbox website. The colors from the permanent line retail for $22. You likely can still find the shade Vamp on Amazon.

When I first received the pot of gel liner in the mail, I was surprised by how small it is. I thought it was a mini size, which would explain the discounted price. But this one actually contains a little more product compared to the Bobbi Brown gel liner. Smashbox contains .12oz/3.4g while Bobbi Brown contains .1oz/3g.