Beauty &amp; Books

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Monday, September 14, 2015

Empties: September 2015

Welcome to my trash! Let’s take a look at products I’ve completely used up, along with my quick review of them. Some products I have full reviews on and if that’s the case, I’ll link the full review for you to read.

1.Lather Ultra Light Face Lotion (1.0 oz.)

I received this in my April 2015 ipsy glam bag and rather liked it. A little goes a long way and it absorbs into the skin nicely. I found this to be moisturizing and I would consider re-purchasing. It’s a good under makeup moisturizer.

2. Caudalíe Vinosource Moisturzing Sorbet (0.33 oz, 100 point perks from Sephora.com)

Love, love, love this moisturizer! Unfortunately, Caudalíe isn’t cruelty-free so I will no longer be getting this product. This moisturizer is really good for my sensitive skin—I felt it calmed my skin and kept it moisturized. I love the smell of Caudalíe products too—a slight grape scent. Tip: Cut the top off of squeeze-tube products so that I to get every last drop!

3. Caudalie Make-Up Remover Cleansing Water (1 oz., deluxe-sample from Sephora.com)

This micellar water was included in a Beauty Battle that you can read here. I really liked this product and it has the same nice scent that the Moisturizing Sorbet does. It is gentle on my skin and removed makeup well.

4. fresh Rose Hydrating Eye Gel Cream (foil packet sample from Sephora.com)

This eye cream is okay. I don’t find it to be particularly hydrating like the fresh black tea eye cream. I have a few more foil packets of this that I will use up, but I wouldn’t purchase it. It was moisturizing enough, but nothing spectacular.

5. Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask to Clear Pores (0.5 oz.)

I got this charcoal mask as part of a sampler set around the holidays last year. I didn’t feel that this mask did anything for me. It didn’t clear my pores, it only made my skin feel tight. I’ve never been a fan of charcoal-based products so it could just be me (although my husband didn’t like it either), so I would pass on this.

6. Benefit Roller Lash Mascara (0.1 oz, deluxe sample size)

I don’t remember where I got this from, but I know it’s a great mascara. You can read my full review on this product here. This is one of the best mascaras I have ever tried. Benefit is not a cruelty-free brand so I wouldn’t re-purchase (and I also don’t buy high-end mascaras because why spend 30-ish dollars on something that you can only use for a few months, and there are great drugstore mascaras).

6. CoverGirl Full Lash Bloom Mascara

This is a rubber bristle brush, so it’s pokey when you are applying the product. The mascara itself, however, is pretty good. It fanned my lashes out nicely and didn’t clump or flake. You can read my full review here.

7. L’Oreal Magic Lumi Highlighter Pen in 860 Fair

This liquid highlighter is a twist-up pen with a brush tip applicator. Mine is in the color fair and it has the slightest salmon color to it—this helps cancel out darkness around the eyes. I used this mainly on top of my under eye concealer, or on its own, to brighten up my under eye area. I liked this product but, alas, will not be re-purchasing because L’Oreal is not cruelty-free.

8. Make Up For Ever Step 1 Skin Equalizer Redness Correcting Primer (0.16 oz., deluxe-sample from Sephora.com)

This is a fantastic primer if you need to cover up redness on your skin. It is definitely a pricier primer (1 oz., $36), and Make Up For Ever has questionable cruelty-free status, so I won’t be purchasing. BUT, if MUFE was cruelty-free I would probably be picking this up at Sephora’s sale in November. You can read my full review of this product here.

That’s everything I’ve used up recently. What products have you used up? Any recommendations?

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Friday, September 11, 2015

Review of belif The True Cream – Aqua Bomb

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I love getting samples of skin care because products like moisturizer and eye cream can be so expensive. There was a lot of hype about this product when it first launched as Sephora. I received a deluxe size sample with a purchase from Sephora.com that is 0.34 oz (a $7.69 value). At Sephora the full-size of this moisturizer is $38 for 1.68 oz. This is a review of a product that is newer to the States—belif The True Cream – Aqua Bomb. belif is a South Korean brand that fuses traditional and modern methods to create their skin care products. It is an aqua color (hence the name, I assume) that I couldn’t get to photograph right. It’s pretty, but weird to put a blue moisturizer on your face. From what I found, belif is not a cruelty-free brand.

The Claims:

This product is paraben, sulfate and phthalate free. It claims to hydrate the skin, reduce the appearance of pores, increase skin elasticity and fight off free radicals. It is suitable for all skin types.

My Impressions:

The Aqua Bomb has a light lemongrassy/medicinal scent. The consistency of this moisturizer is gel-like, definitely thicker than a normal moisturizer so I used this at night only. A little tended to go a long way. There were a few things I did not like about this product. I did not feel that it absorb well into my skin—hence why I used it at night only. It left my skin slightly sticky well past the time a moisturizer would normally absorb into my skin. When I wash it off in the morning I can feel the product coming off my skin—like it was a mask that you wash off after 20 minutes as opposed to a moisturizer. So, I’m not sure how this would work for oily skin since my dry skin didn’t even want to absorb it. Overall, I was not impressed with the product and I wouldn’t purchase it or choose it as a sample again. It has a 4.5 star rating on Sephora.com so it’s obviously popular with a lot of people, but this product is just not for me.

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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Review of: TATCHA Pure One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil and Polished Classic Rice Enzyme Powder

I first saw the TATCHA products on QVC around a year ago when Vickie Tsai introduced her brand. Her skin was so damaged from testing cosmetics for science that she sold all her possessions and bought a book on the skin secrets of the Japanese Geisha. This book, supposedly, holds the secrets she used to fix her skin and share with the world how Geishas keep their skin perfect. It is a very expensive line and the travel size of products would sell out immediately so I could never get my hands on them to try. Then, one day I was looking around the “aisle of doom” in Sephora (all the travel size products lining the checkout line—my favorite place to look, actually) and saw the Classic Rice Enzyme Powder in a travel size and snatched it up ($15 for 0.35 oz). I immediately went home and checked Sephora.com and found the travel-size Pure One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil ($12 for 0.8 oz). The cleansing oil and rice enzyme powder are supposed to be a one-two punch for cleansing your skin, and improving it. TATCHA is a cruelty-free brand and these products are formulated without parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, mineral oil, DEA, etc.

The Pure One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil is supposed to remove your most stubborn makeup while cleansing your skin. It contains vitamins to nourish the skin, camellia oil to remove makeup and HADASEI-3 complex (a blend of ingredients to protect the skin). You pump about a quarter-size amount of the product onto dry hands and massage it onto your dry face and then rinse. To me, this didn’t do the greatest job at removing my makeup. Granted, I usually wear a full-coverage foundation, but the hype is that this will take off your waterproof, long-lasting makeup. I still had a bunch of makeup left on my face and always had to use a normal cleanser after to get the rest of my makeup off and actually cleanse my skin. It did leave my skin feeling super soft.

The Polished Classic Rice Enzyme Powder is a chemical exfoliator. That may sound scary, but I actually prefer chemical exfoliators to physical ones. Physical exfoliators have beads in them that I find to harsh for my skin, and they are bad for the environment because they do not breakdown. Chemical exfoliators don’t have the same scrubbing sensations, but use enzymes and other ingredients to exfoliate your skin. This exfoliator contains rice bran and papaya extracts to exfoliate, decrease hyperpigmentation and breakouts and even out skintone, pearl to condition the skin and HADASEI-3 complex to protect the skin. For the Rice Enzyme Powder, you pour about ½ a teaspoon of the powder into your wet hands, add water to create a foam, then massage it onto your wet face and rinse. This is a gentle exfoliator and it did not irritate my skin at all. I used this in the morning to wash and exfoliate my face. It left my skin smooth, as the cleansing oil did, but again nothing earth-shattering.

For two products that are on the skin for such a short amount of time, I wouldn’t purchase the full size of either the cleansing oil ($48 for 5.1 oz) or rice enzyme powder ($65 for 2.1 oz.). Though both left my skin feeling nice, my less expensive skincare products achieve the same results. I would be interested to try her skin care items (e.g., serum, moisturizer), but they will cost you $100 and above…

Have you tried any TATCHA products? Let me know your thoughts on TATCHA!

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Monday, September 7, 2015

Project Pan: Foil Packet Samples

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My Finish 5 By Fall Project Pan challenge features four makeup products so I wanted to start another project pan that focuses on other types of products. I have so many foil packets laying around that I want to use up so I figured a Project Pan would remind me to use them. Every time you order from Sephora you get three sample packets and if there is a special promotion going on you can get even more. Ulta also gives out sample packets with purchase, as do a lot of companies when you order from them. That being said, I didn’t pay for any of these samples. Most are one time use only, so this Project Pan should move quickly.

What’s a Project Pan, you ask? The goal of Project Pans (made popular by YouTuber Amber F) is to use up products or hit pan (read my Beauty Lingo Defined post here for a definition of hitting pan) on products. They help you use up products that you’ve had for a while or just want to finish up.

Here are the 10 samples I picked for my Foil Packet Samples Project Pan:

1. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown

Anastasia is very, very popular for their brow products so I’m excited to get to try them. The samples are on a card so it should only last me a couple uses, but enough to get a sense of whether I like it or not.

2. NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation in Deauville/Light 4

I have a feeling this color will be too dark for me, so I’ll try this on a day I’m not going out. Even if the color is off, I should be able to get a sense of whether I like this product.

3. Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Buttercream in Sweet Lime

4. Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment

An iconic product in her line.

5. fresh Black Tea Firming Overnight Mask

I have two samples of this so I will be able to try it a couple times.

6. GLAMGLOW Supermud Clearing Treatment

This is supposed to be good if your skin is acting up and breaking out.

7. Nuxe 24 Hour Soothing and Rehydrating Fresh Mask

8. Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil

I have three samples of this and have tried in the past. It is too rich for me to use as a moisturizer so I will use it as a body moisturizer, on my cuticles and in my hair.

9. Agave Healing Oil’s Oil Treatment

This is supposed to tame frizzy hair and provide nutrients for your hair.

10. Perfumes: Victoria’s Secret heavenly and CLEAN Shower Fresh.

Neither of these samples are full so I’m counting them as one sample. Heavenly has notes of sandalwood, vanilla, peony and musk. Shower Fresh smells really clean and like a shower—yup.

I'm hoping to work through these pretty quickly--I've got plenty more samples/foil packets to use up! Are you Project Panning? Let me know!

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Friday, September 4, 2015

First Impressions: Colour Pop Haul

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Colour Pop is a brand that is beyond popular on YouTube right now so I had to see what all the fuss was about. Colour Pop is a cruelty-free brand that is available only online. The items are drugstore priced so I picked up a variety of products to try.

The packaging is okay. I didn’t expect anything fancy given the price point, but it does seem a little cheap. It’s pretty bulky plastic and the lid to the lip liner I got doesn’t stay on. Like, you turn it upside down, and it just drops right off. Also, some of the lipstick gets shaved off when you twist it up because the bullet isn’t lined up right in the packaging.

My order came with some cards that describe how best to use the products. Colour Pop eyeshadows and blushes are a unique formulation—not quite powder, not quite cream so there were some suggestions on how to apply (your fingers or a stiff synthetic brush). You also have to keep the cap on tight so that the product doesn’t dry out. They also included a cute note with my order!

Here’s what I ordered, and my first impressions:

Ultra Matte Lip in Bumble

I’ll start with what’s getting the most hype now. Colour Pop’s new Ultra Matte Lip liquid lipstick sold out immediately when they were first released. The second time around I picked out the color Bumble, a nice brick red (Colour Pop’s website describes it as a “dusty warm terracotta”). I love this color and it will be great for the fall. This product is matte, highly pigmented and dries fast. It applies nicely and smoothly—especially for a matte product—but I definitely recommend exfoliating before using. It dries down very matte and doesn’t budge. When I wore lip balm over it there was some slight transfer of the product to a glass, lips, etc. It settled into the lines of my lips (with or without balm). It has good staying power, but it did wear down around the inner part of my lips when I ate. Also, when it breaks down it kind of balls up which doesn’t look too good. YouTuber KathleenLights swatches the ultra matte liquid lipsticks here.

Lippie Stix in Lumière (Matte)

This lipstick (or lippie stix, as Color Pop calls them…) was made as part of a collaboration with KathleenLights, the same YouTuber mentioned above. This color looked gorgeous to me and I felt like it would be a good every day color year round—it is a berry nude. Even though this is a matte lipstick it isn’t drying like the Ultra Matte Lip, it is creamy like the Maybelline matte lipsticks, if you’re familiar with them. I still applied lip balm over it though. The product wore off in the middle of my lips after eating so I rubbed my lips together to redistribute the product. This is going to be a great color to take from the end of summer into fall.

Lippie Stix in Safari (Sheer)

Another new product line from Colour Pop is their sheer lip colors. I love sheer lip products, they look more natural to me no matter the color. Safari is a sheer orange color; it looks like you ate a popsicle. I’ve been looking for a good sheer orange all summer and this is it! It is easy to apply and reapply which is good because it wears off pretty easily. To me, this is to be expected because it is a sheer color that is balm-like. YouTuber EmilyNoel83 has a good lipswatch video of all these colors if you would like to check that video out here.

Lippie Pencil in BFF

creamy during application but then dries down, matte finish, goes on smooth good to wear alone (neutral on the brown side—90s lip that is in), as a lipliner for most lip colors or as a base to darken a lighter color or to top with gloss. BFF comes in 3 different shades depending on your skin tone, I got the lightest one, Browny nude. The one problem is I’m not quite sure how to sharpen it. The instructions say to sharpen it, but it’s made of plastic, not wood—and it seems silly to sharpen plastic. Maybe I’m missing something here.

Super Shock Shadow in Hustle

The consistency of the super shock (eye) shadows is not quite cream and not quite powder—it’s almost spongy. I picked this color because I have been looking for a deep brick red/cranberry eyeshadow. I was disappointed when I swatched this color and it was more along the line of plum instead of cranberry. It looks a little more cranberry-ish on the eyes which is good. This color isn’t very pigmented and it takes a lot of work to build it up. I applied it with my finger (but this is hard to do in your crease), so I ended up using the Modern Minerals Duo Fiber Mini Round Brush I received in my February Boxycharm (read my review here) which worked okay. I put the bareMinerals 5 in 1 BB Advanced Performance Cream Eyeshadow all over my lid, Hustle in the outer v/crease and finished the look off with Lumière—a great look for fall.

Super Shock Shadow in So Quiche

This eyeshadow is a beautiful olive green with a gold-pink shimmer duo chrome. Beautiful! I applied this with my finger all over my lid. Given the description this color had the potential to be obnoxious, but it is really quite nice. It has good staying color and there was no glitter fallout.

Super Shock Cheek in Bonus

Colour Pop blushes have the same unique consistency of the eyeshadows. This blush is a matte orangey color that would be great for spring/summer. I used the e.l.f. small stipple brush to apply this. It is very natural looking and you can build the color up. It has really good staying power too. I was looking for a good orangey/peach blush and I finally found it!

Swatches (left to right): Bonus, So Quiche, Hustle, BFF, Safari, Lumiere and Bumble

What do you think of the Colour Pop items I reviewed? Have you tried Colour Pop? Let me know your thoughts!

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Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Favorite 5: August 2015

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Another month come and gone! I’m not amused that the last “summer month” is over… Here are the my favorite five cruelty-free products I’ve been liking lately, in no particular order:

1. Urban Decay Revolution High-Color Lipgloss in Bittersweet

I received a sample of this in my May ipsy bag (read my review here) and loved it so much I got the full-size. This gloss is a beautiful purple that isn’t too out there. It isn’t sticky at all either, sits nicely on the lips and is really pigmented. The dough foot applicator is pointed making precise application easier. There is a slight makeup smell to it (no vanilla or cookies here), but it doesn’t linger. I definitely would like another one of these, perhaps in a neutral color.

2. Whish Shave Cream in Blueberry

I received this sample in my April Birchbox (read my review here). If found this shaving cream to be moisturizing. It doesn’t foam or lather up, it is like a lotion. It is free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, DEA, petrochemicals, etc. It contains shea butter and coconut oil, along with other moisturizing ingredients. The full-size of this item (5 oz.) is $20—very expensive for a shaving cream. I may add it to my Christmas list. I really liked it, but can’t justify spending that much on shaving cream.

3. e.l.f. Flawless Concealer Brush

e.l.f. makes some great brushes and most range in price from $1-$6. This is a fluffy concealer brush that works really well to blend concealer around the eyes, especially the space between your eyes and nose. It cleans off really easily (I use baby shampoo) which is a big plus in a brush that you use to apply cream products. I would recommend this brush (and most other e.l.f. brushes)—you can find e.l.f. at Target and some CVS are starting to carry e.l.f. I’ve even found e.l.f. at The Christmas Tree Shop.

4. the Balm Nude Dude Volume 2 Mini Nude Eyeshadow in Flirty

I received this eyeshadow sample in my April 2015 ipsy bag (read my review here). What would I do without subscription boxes! This is a mid-tone purple with a hint of taupe and gold duo chrome. It is absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been using this on the outer V of my eyes because it goes really well with the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Hydrangea Hype that I’m trying to use up as part of my Finish 5 By Fall Challenge (read about my challenge here). The two purples play well off each other and my green eyes. I’m yet to be disappointed by a the Balm product.

5. Skin Perfecting Blush in SPB1 Rose Gold (Limited Edition)

I received this in my July Starlooks subscription box (read my review here). I’ve been using this as an eyeshadow crease color instead of a blush. It goes really nice when I have Hydrangea Hype on my lid and Flirty on my outer crease. This rose gold color goes really well with the purples. I originally thought this was peachy-bronze, but it is definitely more of a rose gold.

Swatches (left to right): Urban Decay's Bittersweet, the Balm's Flirty and Starlooks's Rose Gold

What products have you been loving lately? Let me know!

Disclaimer: All products are purchased by me or my lovely husband unless otherwise noted in the post. All opinions are 100% honest and my own. I do not provide positive reviews for payment. Products that work for me may not necessarily work for you. This post is not sponsored.

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