Drugstore Beauty Finds

The Sonia Kashuk Beautiful Berries Lip Quad Is a Drugstore Myrrh-acle

March 23rd, 2011 by Karen 44 Comments

sonia kashuk beautiful berries lip quad

G’morning and happy Wednesday, cutie. 🙂 We’re almost over the hump! If you’re in the mood for a mid-week drugstore splurge/reward, what do ya think of Sonia Kashuk’s new Beautiful Berries Lip Quad ($12.99)? It’s one of three in SK’s new spring collection, and it looks like a perfect pick-me-up to me.

The pigmented colors and sleek packaging first caught my eye — so cute, right? — but the interesting ingredients sealed the deal. Sonia added myrrh resin extract to supposedly reduce the signs of aging and the depth of wrinkles, and antioxidant-rich pomegranate fruit sterols to moisturize and protect against environmental damage (the juice has been shown to be good for the heart, so there may actually be some real benefits to its use here).

sonia kashuk beautiful berries lip quad in hand

sonia kashuk beautiful berries lip quad
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Suave Says Their $3 Dry Shampoo Works As Well As $24 Rene Furterer

March 22nd, 2011 by Karen 69 Comments

Hair model Tabs the Cat…

I’ve been wearing my normally wavy hair straight lately and waiting a few days between washes to extend the life of my blowouts. To prevent my scalp from getting too funky with excess oil, I’ve been reaching for Rene Furterer Naturia Dry Shampoo, my fave dry shampoo, which also gives my roots a nice lift.

The problem: Naturia costs $24.

Ouch! Time to find a less expensive alternative…

And maybe I have. Suave Professional Dry Shampoo refreshes hair “as well as Rene Furterer” — at least that’s what it says on the side of the bottle. 🙂

Not even considering the fact that it only costs $3 (compared to $24?), the stuff is pretty good. Then when you DO consider the price, it’s downright amazing! First, there’s how fast it works. Some dry shampoos leave a white cast on my dark hair, particularly around the roots, and take forever to work in and brush out. Suave Pro deposits what looks like a bit of white powder on my roots when it’s applied, but after a few swipes with my brush the white powder disappears. Because it works so fast, the product has been saving me a a few minutes every time I use it instead of Naturia.

Suave says mineral clay helps the product absorb oil AND odor. Now, I wouldn’t want to wait so long between washes that I could smell my hair, but I guess it’s nice to know that Suave’s got my back.

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Spring’s Awakening with Sonia Kashuk’s Latest Limited Edition Makeup Palette

March 21st, 2011 by Karen 51 Comments

sonia kashuk spring awakenings face palette

Yesterday marked the first official day of spring here in the northern hemisphere, a fact not lost on Tabs. He was up early this morning, perched up high on his cat tower by the windows, to watch the birds outside.

On our walk around the neighborhood today, we saw that the branches of one of our favorite trees, which sits at the bottom of our hill, are now dressed in coat of beautiful pink blooms.

My spring allergies are already kicking in (thank goodness for Zyrtec!), but I wouldn’t trade this time of year for anything. Early spring is like getting a post card from a friend who’s coming to visit. You know there’s something fun right around the corner, but you’re not quite there yet. You know that if if you can be patient a little longer, the fun will start soon enough. 🙂

Sonia Kashuk’s new limited edition Spring Awakenings Palette ($19.99) feels like early spring to me. The palette of neutrals for eyes, lips and cheeks doesn’t hit you over the head with obvious spring pastels. Instead, its brown, coral and rose colors whisper promises of warmer days ahead.

sonia kashuk spring awakenings face palette in box

The four powder eyeshadows — a cool-toned mix of browns in matte, shimmer and glittery finishes — and dark chocolate powder eyeliner are the stars of this show. With the exception of the glitter shadow, which is more like a translucent base with champagne flecks, all of the items apply with dense, rich color that looks like the color you get from products considerably more expensive than typical drugstore eyeshadows.
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The Sonia Kashuk Brush Couture Limited Edition Flat Top Blush/Powder Brush Is Dressed for Success

March 18th, 2011 by Karen 26 Comments

Sonia Kashuk Brush Couture Flat Top Multipurpose Blush Powder Brush

Oh, just gazing at this brush makes me happy. 🙂 Isn’t the tile print on Sonia Kashuk’s new Sonia Kashuk Brush Couture Flat Top Multipurpose Blush/Powder Brush ($11) adorable? It’s going to look so cute sitting on my vanity.

But good looks aren’t the only thing this limited edition brush has going for it. It also flawlessly applies loose powders, bronzers, and cream and powder blushes, too, just like Sonia’s legendary Synthetic Flat Top Brush. The big difference between the two is just that these bristles are made of natural fibers (I’m not sure what kind).
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I Feel Like I’m Repeating Myself Because I Keep Saying Yes to Carrots Pampering Conditioner

March 15th, 2011 by Karen 51 Comments

Yes To Carrots Pampering Conditioner

If you’re ever looking for cheap entertainment on a Friday night, Target is THE PLACE to go. I’m only half kidding, too. I stopped by last Friday around 9:30ish to satisfy a craving for Power C Vitamin Water, and the store was hoppin’!

People buy some weird sh*t in the middle of the night, LOL! Like Vitamin Waters. I spent more time people watching than actually shopping.

But I did swing by the beauty aisles; I picked up this bottle of Yes To Carrots Pampering Conditioner for Normal to Dry Hair ($8) on a whim.

Like their Yes to Cucumbers Conditioner (SO GOOD!), this one is also free of petroleum products, SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate), paraben and silicones. At the same time, it’s cruelty-free and 99.8% natural, made with minerals, the company says, that were collected from the Dead Sea, as well as other cool stuff like carrot seed oil and honey. It’s a very diverse group of mostly natural ingredients.

Yes To Carrots Pampering Conditioner
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NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush Makes Me Want to Twist and Shout

March 10th, 2011 by Karen 40 Comments

NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush in English Rose

Ah, to be a bored teen without wheels in the Easy Bay suburbs circa 1992 again… When you live in a town where the most exciting thing to do is get an ice cream cone at Thrifty’s, you figure out ways to amuse yourself.

On Friday nights my friends and I loved to watch The Grind on MTV. Remember that dance show? We’d crank up the volume and electric slide around the living room as the show’s host, Eric Nies, who was almost always shirtless for some reason, introduced the hits.

It wasn’t the most exciting way to start the weekend, but it was either that or ice cream at Thrifty’s…

We sure could have used something like these new NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blushes ($16.50 each; available in eight shades) back then. Dang if these things wouldn’t have kept us busy.

New for spring, they have a cheese grater-like contraption similar to the one Smashbox uses with their Halo powders. By turning the rim of the jar, the grater shaves off a small amount of blush into the pan.

NYX sangria in madrid
Sangria in Madrid
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What’s the Price of Perfection? About $6.50, Thanks to Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick

March 4th, 2011 by Karen 16 Comments

Cover Girl Lip Perfection Lipstick
Covergirl Lip Perfection Lipstick in Darling on lips

This spring is shaping up to be a memorable one for drugstore lippies, with lips (and wallets) everywhere doing the dance of money-saving joy. First, the long-wearing $10 L’Oreal Infallible Le Rouge lipsticks left their mark; then, the buttery $6 NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams leaned in for a kiss.

But the newest girl in town is a moisturizing lipstick from Covergirl. It boasts a lightweight texture, bold (yet still budget-friendly) color and comes in a whopping 44 shades. Covergirl’s new $6.50 Lip Perfection Lipsticks were designed by Covergirl Global Creative Design Director (and magic makeup maven) Pat McGrath, who’s kinda like the Midas of my makeup world; everything she recommends turns into makeup gold. 🙂

covergirl lip perfection lipstick
Covergirl Lip Perfection in Darling (left) and Soulmate (right)

I like to think of these Lip Perfections as gateway lipsticks for girls who don’t usually like opaque lipsticks. Applying them feels like kissing satin or fresh spun cotton candy, and I know you’ve heard this description before, but wearing them almost feels like I’m not wearing anything at all.

They have a very faint vanilla scent and flavor, which I don’t feel very strongly about one way or the other, but if you’re not a fan of scented lipsticks, it does disappear pretty quickly.

Because lipsticks with thin textures don’t typically last long, I was surprised to get four full hours from these. Better yet, as the color fades, it does so evenly, leaving behind a really pretty stain.

Covergirl gave them something they refer to as their “Silk Therapy Complex” (along with ingredients like olive oil, shea butter and aloe) to make them moisturizing, and supposedly it also helps improve lip moisture after seven days of wear. That sounds like marketing mumbo jumbo to me, but after wearing two of the colors — Soulmate (a creamy mauve) and Darling (a bluesh pink) — off and on for about a week, I don’t detect a difference in my lips… At least they aren’t drier than they were before, which is good enough for me.

Cover Girl Lip Perfection

Cover Girl Lip Perfection
Covergirl Lip Perfection in Darling (left) and Soulmate (right)
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The Silicone Is Gone from L’Oreal EverSleek Frizz Taming Creme Serum, But What About the Flyaway Hairs?

March 4th, 2011 by Karen 22 Comments

Well herald the trumpets and release the Kraken! Do my eyes deceive me? I’ve been waiting all my life (okay, more like five years) for a silicone-free drugstore frizz tamer, and it looks like one’s finally here!

L’Oreal’s new $9 EverSleek Frizz Taming Creme Serum is one of seven products in the new L’Oreal EverSleek Sulfate-Free Smoothing System of shampoos, conditioners and stylers released this spring. The serum, which is designed to be applied to wet or dry hair, is supposed to relax rumpled tresses and tame flyaways, making hair frizz-free for up to 48 hours.

However, my hair wasn’t the first thing I thought about the first time I heard about EverSleek. My nose was, and that’s because I’ve had some bad scent-sory experiences with L’Oreal hair products in the past. Some were just too heavily perfumed for my sensitive schnoz, but as it turns out, EverSleek’s fragrance is a relatively restrained light floral and amber that I find warm and comforting. I actually like it a lot.

I also like that L’Oreal didn’t test the stuff on animals, nor does it contain any animal products, so for that it gets two paws up from Tabs.

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