Drugstore

Birthday Haul

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The last month – sheesh! A great giveaway, my birthday, Independence Day, my freaking wedding, and another giveaway! I cannot believe how busy I’ve been.

Birthday HaulBirthday Haul

Pictures/descriptions aren’t in order. Bear with me!

Sephora Birthday Haul

I had a gift card from a friend that I took for-ev-er to decide what to use it on.

Purity – I’ve tried a tiny sample of Purity cleanser by Philosophy, but I wanted to try it a little more, so I got a little duo of two 2oz bottles to try. So far, I dig it.

Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil Light – Because it is summer and I think the regular stuff might be a little heavier than I liked, I got a bottle. I was hoping I can use it for daytime – I can, but not on full-face days.

Benefit they’re Real! Push Up Liner – This is a deluxe sample and I am so dang lucky to have got it before they ran out. I have only tried it once so far, early in the morning and in a rush; but I am really excited to play with it more and share my thoughts with you guys once I have. So far, I can definitely say it is a very unique product.

Deborah Lippmann – in Boom Boom Pow (not pictured) – I didn’t have an obnoxious yellow gold glitter. This one was on clearance for $5, is 3-free, cruelty free, and all that jazz.

Beauty Insider Birthday Gift from MUFE – Unboxed already, they give you an eensy mascara and a little Aqua Rouge lipstick. I like the color, not the formula.

Ulta Birthday Haul

Lorac Pro Palette 2 – You’ve already seen it but though I gave one away, I likely would not have gotten one if not for my (then upcoming) birthday. Really though, it rocks, you basically need it, and congrats x1000 to the winner.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream – in Stockholm (not pictured again because I am a spazz) – This is my third SMLC so far, and I still love how they wear. This one is nude on me without corpsifying my face. Woot!

Real Techniques Retractable Lip Brush – I didn’t have a lip brush! I needed one for tomorrow.

Ulta Rewards Birthday Gift from Calvin Klein – Engineering? In MY mascara? I haven’t cracked this sucker open yet, but the wand has a dial that you can use to change the configuration of the applicator’s bristles. Amazing.

Bonus: Amazon

ORLY Go Deeper (not pictured) – I got this over a teal-blue polish during a recent pedicure, and it is only the second color, to date, that I have purchased due to having had it used at a salon. I. Love. It. I redid my pedicure last night with it. Cameras have a hard time picking up how complex and awesome the glitter is in this ORLY FX polish, and the other great thing is that the glitter isn’t super-gritty – it lays pretty flat, only one layer of top-coat to cover! Basically, you need it in your life if you are into any kind of glitter polish.

Disclosure: Hey! Some of the links in this Birthday Haul post are affiliate links (not all of them, of course) – this means I may get a very small percentage of the sale if you decide to buy something. I only recommend products I’ve tried and verified as awesome. Ethical blogging FTW.

June 2014 Favorites

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Beauty Skeptic - June 2014 Favorites

June 2014 Favorites
Million Dollar Tan Cabana Tan $20 / bareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara $18
Aussie 3-Minute Miracle $4 / KMS Hair Play Makeover Spray $20 / Gena Callus Off $10

 

1. Because I don’t tan in beds or outside any longer, I need to fake it (especially because I’m not trying to look washed out in an ivory gown). I’m going to have a lot of pictures taken soon, so I needed it to be convincing and not a pain to deal with, either. I bought a bottle of Million Dollar Tan’s Cabana Tan and Cabana Tan Extreme lotions a while back after some recommendations were made to me. I’m pretty happy with it and plan to have a post up soon. In addition to their lotion products, Million Dollar Tan carries spray and mousse versions, which you can find here.

2. The original bareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara is my holy grail mascara (so far, anyway). I often go without because $18 for something that you need to replace so frequently is too much for me – but I snagged two (one regular, one waterproof) when Ulta had them half off as a part of 21 Days of Beauty event this spring. It does on sale on the bareMinerals website, too, every now and then, but if you don’t care about it being on sale you can get it there, Ulta, or Sephora.

3. The original 3-Minute Miracle (“Moist Deeeeep Conditioner”) is my favorite conditioner, period. More than I loved the Tigi Moisture Maniac conditioner, and this is a hell of a lot cheaper. They have new versions of it now, too, but I haven’t tried them yet. You can get it at drugstores, mass merchants, online – pretty much anywhere, this is very accessible.

4. Got a sample-size can of this Dry Shampoo with from a Gift with Purchase bag and it is easily the best dry shampoo I have ever tried. One or two short bursts takes care of my whole scalp, it is not strongly scented at all, it feels nice, ugh. So good. Alas, with a $20 price tag, I’ll be stretching my sample and ultimately sticking with Psssst! unless I can find it on sale. (You can get the travel size for $7, however). I could only find it at Ulta.

5. Credo blades aren’t safe and daily pumice stone use only get you so far. Despite my DIY pedicure efforts, sometimes you have to break out the big guns. This is also carried at Sally Beauty as well as a similar product that is slightly cheaper (haven’t tried this brand though). Be careful not to leave it on too long, and be both grossed out and amazed by what it does to stubborn calluses.

Disclosure: Hey! Some of the links in this June 2014 Favorites post are affiliate links (not all of them, of course) – this means I may get a very small percentage of the sale if you decide to buy something. I only recommend products I’ve tried and verified as awesome, which is kind of the point of a favorites post. Ethical blogging FTW.

Surprised: Maybelline Gel Liner

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For you, I have sinned.

Okay, not really. I just wound up doing something you aren’t supposed to, beauty-wise.
And maybe it wasn’t for you, but it does end up benefiting you!

My fiance and I host a game night in our home for a small group of friends. This used to be on Saturdays, but we tried it out last Friday night. These nights routinely run until 2-3pm. My weekdays begin at 5am. I did my eye makeup (a neutral shimmery eye with Maybelline Gel Liner) at 5:45am on Friday morning, worked a full day of work, had a handful of errands to run, and then a house to hastily clean (moving it to Friday was a last-minute decision) before our company arrived. Woo, my makeup wasn’t a mess by the time we were starting, around 8:00pm.

When we wrapped things up around 2am, I promptly shambled to my bed and fell asleep. I am sad to admit that I can’t stay up like I used to, and I am amused to admit that though I am almost militant about makeup-removal-before-bed – I didn’t. In the future, I will nap before our entertaining so I am not a zombie by the time it concludes who does not neglect her routine.

Now, this is the Maybelline Gel Liner I discussed back in my Drugstore Gel Liner Comparison post last month, fully named Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner 24H. I used the shade Blackest Black.

I woke up at 10:16 after having slept a miraculous eight hours. I am normally a side/stomach sleeper, so the fact that I was not remotely raccoon-esque was a feat in itself. Somehow, not only was I not raccoon-esque, my liner was more or less intact. Yes, read that again. Twenty-eight-and-a-half hours. My reaction? Awesome. Take a picture, then remove this stuff!

My groggy self thought it would use my phone’s front-facing camera for this (which isn’t as good as the rear-facing or the other two cameras I have access to), but I think it is sufficient:

Maybelline Gel Liner - 28.5 Hours Post-ApplicationMaybelline Gel Liner 28.5 hours after application

There. Not budged, watery-pollen-allergy-eyes and all. I didn’t even use primer yesterday when I slapped this stuff on.

It.
Doesn’t.
Move.

Basically, I’m telling you that you need this in your life. I have not used any prestige gel liners like MAC Fluidline or Bobbi Brown’s gel liners, but unless you’re looking for a specific, crazy color that they carry, why bother? The Maybelline Gel Liner is opaque, applies easily, isn’t awkwardly shiny, and stays put. At only $6-8 per pot plus the fact that it is a brand that is frequently on sale at drugstores, mass merchants, grocers, and online, PLUS the fact that there’s almost always a $1 off coupon available, why would you bother with the more expensive brands? This item is available almost freaking everywhere, including Amazon. Run, don’t walk.

Disclosure: Seriously, I love this liner. This post wasn’t sponsored, and I was willing to share my beauty misdeed just to prove how awesome this product is. That said, some of the links in this post are affiliate links – this means I may get a very small percentage of the sale if you decide to buy something. I only recommend products I’ve tried and verified as awesome. And this one really is awesome.

Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil

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I overlooked it for years, but the presence of groomed brows can really do a lot for a face. There are various methods by which you can achieve this – brow pencil, brow powder, tinted gel/mousse/pomade, brow tinting (dye), or if you’re extra-extreme you could go for the whole, “permanent makeup,” bit aka tattooed on awkwardness. If you want to keep things easy, pencils or powders are the way to go. I wanted to try a pencil without shelling out for an Anastasia Brow Wiz, so enter Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil (which has a similar idea, packaging-wise, as the Brow Wiz).

 Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil - Natural Taupe and Dark BrownMilani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil – Natural Taupe and Dark Brown
The messy cap? That’s why you don’t cap things without looking at them.

Surprisingly hard to get me hands on in my area (no one seems to carry it! I had to order it), I was excited when the products arrived. The stick has two ends – one end houses the product, and the other contains a spoolie brush, both are protected with a cap. The center of the stick is printed with the product name and color but it is printed in gold (the stick, as you can see, is a light brown or taupe color) and is difficult to read. Fortunately, closer to the spoolie end there is a band with the color printed on it. I purchased Dark Brown and Natural Taupe; my brows either neither color, but I planned to use them in concert with one another and blend them to get closer to my haircolor.

The Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil was a bit surprising to me. It is both wider in diameter than I anticipated and it is SOFTER than I anticipated. Softness isn’t usually a quality we think of as negative, but when it comes to a brow pencil, you want a stiff product so you can easily produce dozens (or however many) of feather-light strokes that help define your brows. With this pencil it is entirely to easy to slip and end up with an awkward, hard line because it is so soft.

They have the consistency of a liner pencil (it glides too much!) rather than what a brow pencil should have. That isn’t to say this is a bad product, but there is a learning curve associated with it – you have to hold the product at an angle and use short, flicking strokes to achieve the right look. If you went a little too far, don’t worry – you then blend it out/together with the attached spoolie. Since the Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil is so soft, blending isn’t a very big deal…you will want to clean the spoolie off every so often, though, just as you would any other brush.

Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil swatchesMilani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil swatches – light hand above, more pressure below
From Left: Natural Taupe, Dark Brown

In all, although the products serve their purpose, I am on the fence about repurchasing. I really like brow powders and feel that I can get a more precise look with powder and wax than I can a soft pencil like this. This product, however, is very purse/makeup-bag-friendly and for those with much darker brows than myself may not be bothered by softness (rather, the ease of getting too bold a line). Someone who has more time to spend on their makeup regularly might be more satisfied than I am but ease and efficiency are both things that come into play, especially when I’m talking about a product called, “EasyBrow.” I don’t hate it, and I’m not immensely disappointed – but I was definitely hoping for greater performance from this product. If you’d like to give it a shot, the Milani EasyBrow Automatic Pencil is available from retail drugstores and drugstore.com for around $5.

Drugstore Gel Liner Comparison

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So as you may or may not know, L’Oreal has a diverse portfolio of brands under its control. They own some high end names that you would be surprised about, but also some drugstore ones aside from the eponymous L’Oreal, but also Maybelline.

When I first started playing with makeup like a child learning how to do my makeup, I decided to try a gel liner. Pencil liners always seemed odd to me, and liquids were too prescise – gel seemed like a happy medium. After a good bit of research into the gel options, I was torn between Maybelline and L’Oreal – both are well-reviewed. I happened to have a coupon for the Maybelline one and a sale was running (yes, why pay retail?) so I went with it and was content.

Later (aka recently), once I was on the verge of running out of usable product (my own error caused it to dry out prematurely), I decided to purchase both and do drugstore gel liner comparison. Here, you have the L’Oreal Infallible Gel Lacquer Liner 24 Hour on the left and the Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner.

Drugstore Gel Liner Comparison - L'Oreal Infalliable Lacquer Liner 24Hour and Mabelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel LinerDrugstore Gel Liner Comparison

This post is pretty photo-heavy, so please continue after the jump.

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