Product Reviews

Loving on MAC Love Connection Mineralize Eye Shadow Duo

July 22nd, 2008 by Karen 42 Comments

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MAC’s Love Connection Mineralize Eye Shadow Duo ($14) makes me nostalgic for the olden days (um, like, 2003), when one pan of eye shadow, a primer, eyeliner (if I was feeling adventurous) and some mascara gave my eye makeup itch all the scratch it needed. Ahh, take me back!

One of nine eye shadow duos from MAC’s recent Electro Flash release, Love Connection’s shades — a peachy bronze and a pink-beige — may not instantly dazzle like some of MAC’s flashier duos (Fresh Green Mix and Odd Couple come to mind), but I’m glad I took a chance with this Love Connection because the neutral, pastel colors work wonders.

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One side of the pan of Love Connection glows like the inside of an abalone shell, with a luminescent, peach-beige with hints of blue. The other side shines like a new penny. Like all of MAC’s Mineralize Eye Shadow Duos, this one is all about big shimmer. You’ll either love or hate it (those in the “hate it” camp may find it too chunky or flashy). I love it because the shimmer reflects a lot of light, making it a great brightener. Just a quick swipe on my lids makes me me look as though I’ve slept for hours. Trust me, girl — this is no small feat. I’ve slept a maximum of 10 hours over the course of two days, and it takes a minor miracle to make me look wide awake.

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MAC Mineralize Eye Shadow in Love Connection

Price: $14
Use: A shimmery pastel shadow for easy looks
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+

Although Love Connection contains lots of big shimmer, the pastels keep it subtle enough to wear to work or on low-maintenance makeup days when all you need is a little oomph. I’ve worn it to work, on dates with El Hub and on the weekends when I’m running errands. It’s a low key look, but it’s still very pretty (oh, and when worn on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer, the shadow lasts for hours).

A Super Easy Pastel Eye

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Here’s the look I’ve been wearing for the past few days. I applied Love Connection on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance, layering the peach shade on top of the bronze on the lid area and just slightly into the crease. I added a little definition with Lancome Le Stylo Waterproof Eyeliner on the upper water line and smudged into the lower lash line, and finished the look with two coats of MAC Mascara X.

Here I am just before I ran out the door for work yesterday! I had about 10 minutes, total, to get ready. And, yup, I wear glasses when I don’t have time to put in my contacts.

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Ten More Looks with Love Connection

Don’t think you’re limited because you only have two shades to work with. There are so many different ways to wear this duo! Try applying the…

Bronze shade on the lid area and just into the crease
Beige shade on the lid area and just into the crease
Bronze shade on the outer lid, beige shade on inner lid and inner corners
Bronze shade as a light wash all over the entire eye
Beige shade as a light wash all over the entire eye

To get even more lovin’ from Love Connection, you can also try these five looks using a wet brush head to get even more intense color payoff and shimmer. That’s ten looks with just one duo, baby!

Brushes to use with the MAC Mineralize Eye Duos

The texture of Love Connection and all of the Mineralize Eye Duos differs from that of MAC’s other shadows. These don’t apply as densely as MAC’s regular pan shadows do, and working with them reminds me of working with loose eye shadows like the MAC Pigments. Don’t be surprised if you find shadow flyin’ all over the place.

To create the looks above, I relied on just a few brushes. To cover large sections of the eye I like really flat, stiff brushes like the MAC 252, and for detail work I like flat brushes with smaller heads like the MAC 239. Even though Love Connection’s pastel colors don’t create harsh lines of color like bold blue, purple or green shades would, I still like to keep a blending brush with a soft head like the MAC 217 handy to create the effect of the shadow going from intense to desaturated colors.
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Splurge or Steal: Moisturize in a Flash with ModelCo Skin Drink Airbrush Moisturizer or CVS Soft Skin Spray

July 19th, 2008 by Karen 19 Comments

Are you always pressed for time? Do you squeeze in quickie gym workouts on your lunch hour? If you’re one of those gals who could use a few extra minutes in your day, then *toot* *toot*, climb aboard the spray moisturizer train. Much quicker to apply and faster absorbing than traditional body lotions and creams, spray aerosol or pump moisturizers definitely save time.

They shave minutes off my morning routine, freeing up time for important things like feeding the neighbor’s tabby cat (he’s such a user!) or having a second cup of java.

Here are two spray-on moisturizers I like. The first will set you back a pretty penny; the second will save you a few bucks.

Splurge: ModelCo’s Skin Drink Airbrush Moisturizer

At $30, ModelCo’s Skin Drink Airbrush Moisturizer costs an arm and a leg, but this green tea-scented aerosol works like a dream. It requires virtually no effort to moisturize your entire body with this bad boy (lazy people, raise ya’ hands up!). You don’t even have to massage it in. I like to wait about 30 seconds after spraying it on to let it dry before putting on clothes. This is the fastest moisturizer I’ve ever used, hands down, and gives me more time to pursue my various attempts at world domination.

The 230-ml can is about the same size as a large can of hairspray, but it still fits comfortably in one hand. The nozzle creates a large radius of mist, which covers lots of skin surface area, and the spray even works when you hold the can upside down (to get hard-to-reach places like your back, thighs and bum… that might be TMI).

When I first used it I was tempted to over-spray because it’s just so fun and easy to do, but a little spray goes a long way.

Vitamins and natural extracts like ginkgo, papaya, green tea and bamboo make ModelCo Skin Drink Airbrush very skin friendly. As a moisturizer, I found it about as effective as Lubriderm Sensitive Skin Lotion, but not quite as moisturizing as Aveeno. Its biggest drawback is price. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

Steal: CVS Soft Skin Spray

Not one to be outdone, CVS carries a great spray-on moisturizer of their own. Soft Skin Spray is a drugstore option patterned after Avon’s Skin So Soft, a famous liquid moisturizer spray (which, incidentally, works well as a bug repellent, even though it wasn’t intended to).

Unlike ModelCo’s Skin Drink, CVS Soft Skin Spray is a liquid spray, not an aerosol. CVS carries a small 2-oz travel bottle for $3. That’s a pretty good deal, perfect for a gym bag or shower caddy.

Because of its liquid spray pump, expect to spend a little bit more time and effort using Soft Skin Spray than you would with Skin Drink. I also have to physically rub the product into my skin for it to absorb, and that takes a minute or two.
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Suave Daily Exfoliating Body Wash: Clean More, Spend Less

July 16th, 2008 by Karen 31 Comments

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At $3, Suave Daily Exfoliating Body Wash is cheap, but it’s not cheap in a polyester pants kinda way. It’s the other kind of cheap, the good cheap. You get three products rolled into one gigantic 12-ounce bottle — an exfoliating, cleansing, moisturizing beast!

I like gentle exfoliating products, not products that feel like sand paper against my skin, and Daily Exfoliating Body Wash’s teeny bits of crushed apricot seed buff away dirt and excess skin without being abrasive. Matter of fact, it’s so non-abrasive that I can use it on delicate body parts like the pits and the girls.

It lathers into a soft, cushy foam that smells like a coconut and pineapple pina colada. Not only do I think it smells great, but it cleans like the dickens, removing every ounce of dirt, sweat and crusty sunblock.

After rinsing, my skin feels soft and clean but not quite as soft as it feels after using MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator. Not a problem considering the cost differential between the two products. On an ounce-per-ounce basis, MAC’s exfoliator costs almost 20 times as much, WOWZA!

I may never fully rid myself of these impure thoughts about C. Bale, but at least I can get my dirty birdy bod clean for three bucks.

I almost want to get filthy just so I can wash with this and think about all the money I’m saving by using it.

Almost.
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Mally City Chick Smokey Eye Kit in Nolita Navy: Makes Blue Eyes Easy

July 15th, 2008 by Karen 41 Comments

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A few of my early efforts with blue eye shadow left me gun shy for years. There was a time when blue eye looks terrified me worse than MJ’s Thriller video scared me as a kid. Nature’s rarest color isn’t always easy to work with, and even the simplest of blue eye looks can quickly devolve into hot blue messes if you don’t know which products to use and where to put them.

Enter Mally Beauty’s Nolita Navy smokey eye kit (pictured up top), a palette of blue and peach shadows with a handy black pencil liner.

It eases the process of creating simple blue eye shadow looks done with very little blending or effort. Created by celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal (she’s Filipino like me, haaay!), you may have seen the kit sold alongside Mally’s makeup line on QVC.

Each $39.50 kit comes with one cream eye shadow base, three powder eye shadows and one black pencil liner. The pans are about the same size as MAC’s eye shadow pans, and the pencil closely resembled MAC’s Technakohl liner. Value-wise, the cost breaks down to $8 for each of the five products in the kit. If you were to purchase comparable products separately from MAC, you’d pay almost twice as much.

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What you get

Peach cream-to-powder eye shadow base – This peachy beige base instantly brightened my lids. It glides on and gives the shadows a surface to adhere to for all-day staying power.

Peach matte eye shadow – This peach complements the cream-to-powder base well. Wearing it along with the base creates a perfect canvas for the blue shadows and black liner. For a fresh and casual “no-makeup” look, I wear peach eye shadow over the base, line the upper and lower water lines with the black pencil and add two coats of mascara.

Royal blue shimmer eye shadow – This shimmery, mid-tone blue looks great when applied wet or dry. I wear it on the lid or as a liner.

Navy shimmer eye shadow – A very dark, highly pigmented blue with lots of fine shimmer. I like wearing it as a liner. You can also wear it in the crease, but I wouldn’t advise it if you’re a total beginner because the shade applies very dark. Used incorrectly, it can leave you looking like you just tussled with the local street toughs.

The texture of these shadows reminds me of Tarte and Lola shadows — not as fine or as buttery as Shu Uemura or Lancome, but a definite step up from most drugstore brands.

From left to right: base, peach shadow, royal blue shadow, navy shadow
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Black pencil liner – The liner has medium staying power when used on the lashes and water line. I would have preferred it to be a bit more emollient than it is. For me it wasn’t easy to blend shadows on top of it, but it’s not a bad pencil liner at all.

Black pencil liner swatch
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Each kit also comes with a clear snakeskin pouch and detailed illustrations on different looks.

A few eyes

I get more value out of this palette when I stick to very simple looks that don’t require a lot of blending. The few times I attempted bold, blue smokey eyes with it, my success rate dropped. I’m sure more practice would help, but I had a hard time creating dramatic blue looks with this kit.

But the kit makes simple blue looks a breeze.

Simple day or evening smokey blue eye
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Get the look: Smooth cream base on the lids with fingertips. To cover entire eye lid, use a flat shader brush like the MAC 252 to apply the peach matte shade. Use the same brush to apply the royal blue shade onto the lid and then blend out any stark edges with a blending blush like the MAC 217. Use a flat, angled brush like Sonia Kashuk’s angled eyeshadow brush to apply the navy shade to the upper and lower lash lines. Line the upper water line with the black pencil liner.
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Pureology Dandruff Scalp Cure Shampoo and Conditioner: Safe for Color Treated Hair

July 12th, 2008 by Karen 21 Comments

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Last month I tried my very first Pureology product ever — Colourmax Spray hair color protectant — and came away impressed. I decided to keep an eye on the brand.

Pureology Dandruff Scalp Cure Shampoo and Conditioner ($35 each, wow!) are the latest additions to the Pureology product family. The company caters to people with deep pockets and color treated hair, but are they charging too much?

While generally effective at treating dandruff, most over-the-counter dandruff shampoos tend to strip away hair color. Pureology sought to develop a product that could treat dandruff without ruining a dye job.

As with Head & Shoulders and most other dandruff shampoos, the active ingredient in Pureology’s dandruff products is pyrithione zinc, an antifungal/ antibacterial agent commonly used to treat scalp scaling, itching and flaking, but while most dandruff products limit the amount of pyrithione zinc in their products to 1%, Pureology uses 2%.

To save hair color, Pureology products use a blend of UVA and UVB protectants the company calls “Anti-Fade Complex.”

I will get dandruff from time to time, particularly when the seasons change. To treat it, I’ve always just reached for Head & Shoulders Shampoo ($8) and a conditioner like Bumble & Bumble Super Rich, but, even limiting my use of Head & Shoulders to no more than once a week (and then only on my roots), my hair felt dry and my color would fade faster than usual.

After using both Pureology dandruff products once a week for a month, not only did my dandruff go away, but my hair color didn’t.

Pureology Dandruff Scalp Cure Shampoo

Price: $35 for a 10.1-oz bottle
Use: To treat dandruff without stripping away hair color
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+

The shampoo has a lovely vanilla scent with a touch of musk and builds into a nice lather. It’s not as drying as Head & Shoulders is, and while I could probably have used it safely on my full head of hair, I stuck to only using it on my roots. I figure that way the 10-oz. bottle should last upwards of a year, which breaks down to about $3 per month.
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Philosophy Amazing Grace Body Care Products: So Fresh, So Clean

July 10th, 2008 by Karen 29 Comments

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Philosophy’s Amazing Grace fragrance always makes me feel girly, clean and fresh. It’s a light, soft floral scent with a touch of musk, and many of the Amazing Grace products are among Philosophy’s bestsellers companywide.

Over the years, Philosophy has introduced a host of different body care products in Amazing Grace. I’m a girl who loves her showers (no camping unless there’s running water, yo!), and I’ve tried several of the Amazing Grace scented bath gels, lotions and scrubs. Here are just a few of my favorites!

Don’t be fooled by Perfumed Buffing Wash’s (shown above) girly packaging because it’s no joke. The bottle claims it’s a gentle wash, but I’ve used this stuff to buff the heck out of the roughest parts of the skin on my elbows and feet. Fine exfoliating grains make it a highly effective deep cleanser. $26 for a 16-oz. bottle. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
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Be a Bronze Bombshell with Clarins Sun Blush

July 7th, 2008 by Karen 17 Comments

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The beauty world’s buzzing about new fall makeup collections, but we can’t forget about summer. Please pass the iced tea, and let’s see what Clarins has been up to.

The Clarins Summer Fever line continues to impress me. Sun Blush ($27.50), a shimmery loose powder, perfectly complements the vibrant teal, purple, pink and orange eye and lip product colors from their Waterproof Eye Pencils, Wonder Mint Mascara and Sun Lip Balms.

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Sun Blush is a warm, terra cotta brown with lots of bronzy shimmer. It has a fine, loose powder texture that reminds me of wonderful Shu Uemura blushes like M Brown 73 (a warm, peachy brown matte) and P Gold 93 D (a shimmery golden pearl).

Applying it to my cheeks for the first time was, um, interesting. The product comes packaged in a cute travel pot that includes a mirror and puff. The puff is great in theory but takes a little practice to use correctly. It tends to pick up and deposit too much product unless you tap away some of the loose powder onto a tissue or the back of your hand. I forgot to do that when I first went to use the puff and wound up looking like one of those crazy ladies who can’t lay off the rouge. As a matter of fact, I would probably skip the puff entirely and, whenever I have one handy, apply Sun Blush with a blush brush like the MAC 116.
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Clean and Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment: Declare Your Independence from Acne

July 4th, 2008 by Karen 33 Comments

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Clean & Clear makes a pretty bold statement on each and every $7 tube of Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment…

“100% of people showed clearer skin in just one day.”

Even though I have to disagree with them, because for me it took a little longer than one day to see results, I gotta give credit where it’s due. Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment works, and it works without benzoyl peroxide. This stuff’s got some serious anti-acne game.

The active ingredient is salicylic acid, 2%. The instructions suggest applying the milky, non-stick formula up to three times per day. Because it dries quickly and completely vanishes once massaged into the skin, it can be used as an on-the-go spot treatment when time’s of the essence.

I’ve been using it for about a month now, once in the morning before applying sunscreen, and then once again at night before moisturizing. An amount the size of a pea covers all of my acne hot zones — forehead, cheeks, nose and chin. With daily use, a single tube should last between one and two months.

Pimples just hate this stuff. Usually, right after (*ahem*) “Aunt Flo” pays a visit, tiny pimples erupt on my forehead and remain there for about two weeks. This time around, my forehead still broke out, but it was much clearer within four days of using the spot treatment; by the end of a week, my forehead was smooth and zit-free.

My face is an equal opportunity pimple factory and has been since my late teens… Whenever I’m feeling stressed out or don’t get enough sleep I get painful red pimples, especially around my nose. Most of the time, they’ll take at least a week to go away, but Clean & Clear has cut that down to three days. I just hope it continues to work as well as it has.

Other Anti-acne Stars

MD Skincare All Over Blemish Solution

Clean and Clear Invisible Acne Patch

Ironically, I’ve gotten mixed results from products containing salicylic acid. That’s why I was so surprised by this one. Up until I hit my 30s, I was strictly a benzoyl peroxide user.

Patience
If Acne Spot Treatment doesn’t work for you, don’t get discouraged. Every acne sufferer I’ve ever known has had to try a BIG number of different products to find ones that work for them. Acne can feel like a weight on your shoulders (I know from experience), but if you feel you’re looking for answers (also try acne.org) yet haven’t made much progress on your own, consult a dermatologist if you can. They may be able to offer suggestions you haven’t considered before.
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