Bye Bye Beauty: The Body Shop Aloe Soothing Moisture Lotion SPF 15 (1.69 oz.)

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I am running out of day time moisturizer/SPF so I’m looking around for a new one. The Body Shop is a Leaping Bunny approved cruelty-free brand so I figured I would try one of their moisturizers. What’s Leaping Bunny? You can read my post about changing to cruelty-free makeup here.

Most of The Body Shop moisturizers only have an SPF of 15, which is not very high. There is one moisturizer (Vitamin C line) with SPF 30 but ingredients in it could potentially irritate my sensitive skin. So because my skin is sensitive, I went with the Aloe Soothing line which is geared toward sensitive skin.

The moisturizer is light and a little goes a long way. I don’t recall it having much of a smell. It took 10-15 minutes to dry down so I would put on all my eye makeup while the moisturizer absorbed into my skin. It did not irritate my skin at all and I thought all was well. At this time I was also trying out the Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup (read my post here) and my skin was very oily. I thought it was the foundation since the moisturizer had absorbed into my skin and the foundation is supposed to be dewy. I returned the Urban Decay foundation and went back to the L’Oreal True Match foundation as part of my Finish 5 By Fall Challenge. A couple hours into the day my face was so oily it looked like I had poured olive oil all over my face (thank goodness for blotting papers ;)). That’s when it dawned on me that this moisturizer was making me oily, not the Urban Decay foundation. *sigh*

Needless to say, I returned this moisturizer. Very disappointing. I usually have dry to normal skin—it’s very hard for something to make me oily. I would not recommend this moisturizer because of how oily it made me—my makeup was shifting on my face! This product was returned and now I wish I still had the Urban Decay foundation…

Have you tried any moisturizers from The Body Shop? Let me know if they worked for you!

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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Bye Bye Beauty: Laura Geller Spackle Hydrating Moisturizing Under Make-Up Primer

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Welcome to the third installment of face primer week! First of all, I love the Laura Geller blush and highlighter I have. Geller is known as being the inventor of face primer so I’ve wanted to try her Spackle (what she calls face primer) for a long time. I purchased the hydrating spackle from Ulta.com ($15 for 1 oz., inexpensive as far as higher end primers go). This primer is supposed to hydrate and provide nutrition for your skin so I wanted to try it out since I’ve had so much success with her other products. This is a water-based primer that feels like a moisturizer.

The packaging is nice. It is a squeeze tube which, as I mentioned in my post on MUFE’s Step 1Redness Correcting Primer, I like because you can control the amount of product you get. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing I liked about this face primer.

I was beyond disappointed with this primer. I have heard this primer raved about so many times and since Geller is the “inventor” of face primer I expected a lot more. The formula is thick and sticky. Even though the primer came out of the tube feeling like a moisturizer, it was hard to blend into the skin because it was so tacky. It felt like something just sitting on my skin. Even after letting it dry for a while it still felt tacky. But, I figured, it is probably tacky so that it holds onto your base better. Nope, this primer completely broke my foundation down. It didn’t even take a few hours for my foundation to come off in patches. If I touched my face the foundation there came right off. Even in places that I didn’t touch, the foundation just looked weird. I tried this primer a number of times with different foundations to no avail. I don’t know if it’s something with the hydrating formula or the spackle in general, but this primer did not work for me.

Needless to say, I returned this product and would not recommend it.

Have your tried Laura Geller spackle before? If so, let me know your experience!

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.

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Bye Bye Beauty: Soap & Glory Make Yourself Youthful 6 in 1 Super-Serum

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The Bye Bye Beauty series will feature products I felt did not live up to advertised claims, had a bad formula or otherwise did not meet my expectations.

I’m not exactly sure what the 6 in the “6 in 1”in the title are, I couldn’t find a list anywhere. This serum contains “Lineguard365” (not sure what this is, I assume it fights wrinkles), “Super-Youth Biopeptides” (anti-aging peptides) and Energinseng (ginseng, caffeine, etc.). It claims to be anti-aging, for all skin types, rejuvenating and moisturizing. There are a TON of claims online at various websites that sell the product.

This serum was definitely not for me. It has a citrusy moisturizer smell—nothing offensive. It has the normal consistency of a serum (a thinner moisturizer), but it never quite dried down. It didn’t leave my face feeling hydrated; instead, my face actually felt sticky. I just felt like this serum did nothing for me. I used it several times with the same result--sticky feeling skin. That can make it very hard to apply makeup. Sometimes your skin just needs a few days to adjust to a new product, but it still made me break out. I think because the serum just sat on my skin instead of absorbing, my skin couldn’t breathe and it clogged my pores. I received a bunch of free samples with some purchases I made at Sephora.com so I’m glad that I did not spend my money on this serum

I’ve tried a few Soap & Glory products and haven’t been too impressed (the lotions smell horrible to me). Soap & Glory is moving out of Sephora (all of their products are on sale at Sephora right now) and back into the drugstore (rumors galore as to where S&G will end up). I have yet to try any of their makeup products and may still give them a shot, but I think I will stay clear of skin/body care products.

Have you tried any Soap & Glory products? Let me know your experience!

Want more Bye Bye Beauty? You can see all my Bye Bye Beauty posts here.

Disclaimer: This item was a free sample with a qualifying purchase at Sephora.com. Aall opinions are 100% honest and my own. I do not provide positive reviews for payment. Products that work for me (or don’t) may not (or may) work for you.

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Bye Bye Beauty: Tarte Clean Slate Timeless Smoothing Primer

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The Bye Bye Beauty series will feature a product I felt did not live up to advertised claims, had a bad formula or otherwise did not meet my expectations.

I love Tarte blushes. I love the Tarte powder foundation I have. Therefore, I was very excited when this Tarte primer was a free deluxe sample with purchase at Sephora.com. I could not wait to get it home and try it. I’ve been into trying out different primers lately and have been trying something to find something to rival my Holy Grail Bare Minerals Prime Time in Original. I thought Tarte may be able to do it. I was very wrong…

The Claims:

• Create smooth base for makeup application
• Reduce appearance of pores, fine line and wrinkles
• Increase makeup wear time
• Firming
• Lightweight texture

 First, the packaging looks very nice. The bottom of the jar is a frosted glass and the lid is the iconic Tarte purple with their name. However, I don’t like having to dig my fingers into the jar to get product. This is how the packaging for the full-size product is as well. Not the most hygienic way to package a primer.

It is very thick, but I find that my Tarte powder foundation needs a few minutes to “melt” into my skin and look nice. This was very thick, like I said, so it was hard to blend on my face and it also had a sticky feeling. I figured, after a few minutes it would be okay.

After waiting a little bit, I put on my liquid foundation. Yeah, it was not pretty. It made my foundation look patchy and actually accentuated my pores and made them look bigger. But, I thought, let it melt for a few minutes.

After a few minutes it still looked horrible. It looked like I hadn't put any primer on and my makeup didn’t even adhere to the part of my face with pores. My foundation looked horrible. I’m glad I was trying this out on the weekend and that I didn’t actually have to go out or I would have had to quickly wash my face and reapply a different primer and foundation.

I tried it a couple of times to give it a fair shot. The results were still bad. And then the icing on the cake—it made me breakout. Bye Bye Tarte primer! For me, it definitely did not live up to its claims.

Disclaimer: This item was a free deluxe sample I received with a qualifying purchase at Sephora.com. 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 (and products that don’t work for me may work for you!).

Bye Bye Beauty: Maybelline Lash Sensational Full Fan Effect Volume Mascara in 00 Blackest Black

This mascara is new at the drugstore and I usually like Maybelline’s mascaras, but this one was just not good. My first impression of the mascara was that it had the potential to be my new favorite. My favorite mascara is Maybelline’s Great Lash (the one in the iconic hot pink and lime green tube). But, as the day went on, it became apparent that this mascara was a miss.

The mascara is a wetter formula, which I prefer to a drier formula. The brush is slightly curved and one side has long bristles and the other has short bristles. The short bristles are supposed to get right up to your lash line (they did) and the long bristles are supposed to fan your lashes out (they did). After I applied this it looked like I had false eyelashes on (in a good way). There was great volume and lengthening—I was loving this mascara.

The top bristles are shorter to get close to the lash line, the bottom bristles are longer to fan our your lashes.

But then…

I arrived at Flake City. And I wanted to leave. Fast. So much of the product ended up on my cheeks. I had to keep checking in a mirror to make sure I didn’t have mascara on my face. Then it started to travel under my eyes, and I don’t put mascara on my lower lashes. I tried this a few times and the result was the same.

And then it came time to take my makeup off. This is not a waterproof mascara, but it did not want to budge. I ended up peeling it off my eyelashes (I’m not kidding); kind of like when you get glue on your hand and peel it off. It had encapsulated my lashes and did not want to leave. And I would wake up with it smudged under my eyes and flaking even after I had peeled it off!

And it gets better! It made my eyelashes really dry and a bunch fell out. So, I would definitely not recommend this mascara. I was surprised because Maybelline Great Lash is such a staple in my makeup bag. I’ve heard this sentiment echoed in other places, so I know I’m not alone.

Luckily, I picked this up as part of my Saving Series so I didn’t spend much on it.

Disclaimer: This item was purchased with my own money and 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 (and products that don’t work for me may work for you!).

Bye Bye Beauty: Physicians Formula Plump Potion

The Bye Bye Beauty series will feature a product I felt did not live up to advertised claims, had a bad formula or otherwise did not meet my expectations.

The first product that is featured is the Physicians Formula Plump Potion in 2214 Pink Crystal Potion. I bought this during a Saving Series haul because I was curious as to whether it would actually plump my lips.

The Claims:

• Instant plumping effect
• Instant hydrating and smoothing
• Younger, smoother & fuller looking lips with continued use
• Instant results in 60 seconds
• Non-irritating
• Long-lasting shine

The Result:

I was not impressed. The formula smells horrible—like plastic-y mint and you can basically taste the smell (if that makes sense) because it is so strong. It tingles when you put it on, so I guess that’s it working?…

Now believe it or not, I got scientific and put these claims to the test. I actually measured my lips before, 60 seconds after and 5 minutes after putting on the Plump Potion. I repeated this on different days. There was no difference in the width of my lips and the lines on my lips were not smoothed out. They did not feel more hydrated either. The gloss was very sticky. It was not irritating, besides the tingling and slight redness around my lips. This did not last after I took the gloss off, however.

The gloss itself looks very nice on the lips and I think the glitter in the gloss could give the appearance of plumper lips on some. If it didn’t smell so bad, I would use it as an everyday gloss. This product just did not do it for me, luckily I got it basically for free with coupons. 

Disclaimer: This item was purchased with my own money and 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.