Product Reviews

What DOES Rimmel Sexy Curves Waterproof Do Well?

July 19th, 2010 by Karen 35 Comments

Rimmel Sexy Curves Waterproof Mascara Review

Greetings, loved ones, from one of my favorite places in makeup-ville: the land of cheap drugstore mascara.

This time I’m here with Rimmel Sexy Curves Full Volume & Curve Waterproof Mascara ($7.50)…but we aren’t exactly best buds. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for how well Sexy Curves lasts on wet lashes, we probably wouldn’t be friends at all.

I applied some before my workout yesterday, a sweaty 30-minute run on the treadmill, and it didn’t even budge. No smudging or flaking to speak of, and my lashes stayed deep, dark and black after every mile.

Rimmel Sexy Curves Waterproof Mascara Review
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China Glaze Fight Like a Woman Collection Swatches and Thoughts

July 17th, 2010 by Karen 31 Comments

china glaze fight like a woman swatches reviews photos

Rise and shine, pal o’ mine. Got a few more nail swatches for ya. These are from the upcoming China Glaze Fight Like a Woman collection ($6 each), which sashays onto shelves this September, just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month a few days later.

A portion of each sale goes to benefit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization devoted to the science of cancer and to promoting better collaboration between international organizations working on cancer research.

Endurance is the shade that REALLY catches my eye… It’s the raspberry pink with silver micro-glitter, but let me know which color you like most in the comments.

china glaze fight like a woman empowerment
Endurance

Creamy Empowerment (the mid-tone pink) is a little thicker than I expected it to be and takes some patience to apply, but it comes out pretty if I take my time and use thin coats. The other two shades are maybe a tad easier to work with.
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China Glaze Awakening Collection: Nails to Drive the Ghouls Crazy for Fall 2010

July 16th, 2010 by Karen 29 Comments

China Glaze Awakening

What it do, ghoul-friend? I’m guessing I’m probably not alone in feeling like Halloween’s about a billion light years away right now, but if you’re one of those always-planning-early types (or maybe every day feels like All Hallows’ Eve to you?), peep the three new colors of China Glaze’s upcoming Awakening collection.

Color me a kid from the ’80s, but dayum these colors remind me of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. I was eight years old the first time I saw it and got zilch sleep for two weeks. Every time I’d close my eyes I’d see MJ’s glistening in the dark.

Zombie Zest, a dark green jelly base packed with green and gold glitter and my favorite color out of the three, looks like a nail polish version of those haunting peepers. Childhood scarring aside, I think it also looks kinda like sparkly baby poo. Both describe the color equally well.

The other two shades, Ick-a-body (a brownish green jelly base with burnt orange glitter) and Mummy May I (a purplish black jelly with purple glitter), are a lot of fun, too, especially if you like monstrous colors.

In each of these pics I’m wearing three coats.

china glaze awakening zombie zest
Zombie Zest
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Does Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer in Golden Nude Stand the Test of Time?

July 16th, 2010 by Karen 27 Comments

My eyelids and have a thing for shimmery Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer in Golden Nude ($20). Released earlier this summer with the Smasbox Naked Beauty collection, the products is supposed to act as a moisturizing base for powder and cream shadows to extend wear time and boost their vibrancy while making fine lines harder to spot.

The new color’s a riff on Smasbox’s standard issue warm beige Photo Finish Lid Primer, and the second I swatched it my heart went bumpity-bump!

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Bright Colors Are Blooming with the Dolce & Gabbana Blossom Smooth Eye Colour Duo

July 15th, 2010 by Karen 40 Comments

dolce gabbana blossom smooth eye colour duo swatches review photos

The iridescent purple and shimmery reddish copper of the Dolce & Gabbana Smooth Eye Colour Duo in Blossom are so bright that they should have come with shades! Expensive ones ($36 for two shadows, oy vey!).

dolce gabbana blossom smooth eye colour duo swatches review photos

One of 10 powder eyeshadow duos in the company’s permanent line, Blossom lights up lids like a double rainbow all the way across the sky.
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LipFusion Boudior Collection Lipgloss in Princess Is Giving Lips the Royal Treatment

July 14th, 2010 by Karen 32 Comments

lipfusion boudoir collection swatches review

Before the $29 price of LipFusion Luxe Boudoir Collection lipgloss makes you totally cranky (that’s Chanel territory, yo!), consider this: $1 of that goes to the Seven Bar Foundation, a non-profit group helping to empower underprivileged women to start small businesses through microfinanced loans.

What are microfinanced loans? They’re pretty cool. Read more about the Seven Bar Foundation’s work here.

Truth be told, I’d love to see LipFusion contribute more than $1 from every sale (while lowering or keeping the price the same), but I digress…

The limited edition line contains four shades — Vixen (a shimmery mauve), Lolita (a shimmery pinkish beige), Coquette (a shimmery pinkish coral) and Princess (a shimmery purplish hot pink). Today I tipped my hat to the one called Princess. 🙂

lipfusion boudoir collection swatches review
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Urban Decay Lip Junkie Lip Gloss: Giving Thin Mints a Run for Their Money

July 13th, 2010 by Karen 36 Comments

urban decay lip junkie review top

[SHIVER!] If I’d known the kind of havoc a cookie could wreak, I would have put down that first Girl Scout Thin Mint. Every season I gobble ’em up like they’re going out of style, and I rue the day the first one came out of the oven.

Today I can’t help but ask, “Has Urban Decay been talking to my muffin top?” I ask because I think their new Lip Junkie line of fall glosses ($19 each) smell EXACTLY like Thin Mint cookies (they also taste kinda like ’em too).

Coincidence? I think not!
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Urban Decay Urban Lash: Free Your Fringe, and the Rest Will Follow

July 12th, 2010 by Karen 59 Comments

urban decay urban lash review

FREEDOM! I will forever remember July 12, 2010 as the day my inner drag queen liberated herself from a life of frumpy fringe and entered the world of big, bad falsies.

Before Urban Decay’s Urban Lash line ($16 each; 18 to choose from), it took me FOREVER to put on a pair of fake lashes (okay, more like 20 minutes).

Thanks to the new line, which just launched for fall, falsies are officially less of my makeup Achilles’ heel.

urban decay urban lash review

Two of the three I played around with — Tease and Little Wing — took less than two minutes each to apply, while Babydoll took me about five. Maybe it’s due to the quick-drying non-latex adhesive they come with or the ultra-thin base that holds the individual lashes in place (feels so comfy on my eyes), but these sure are easy to affix.

Tease

urban decay urban lash review
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