sula

You know that light flush that sometimes reddens your cheeks after a quick sprint, an embarrassing introduction or, um, a particularly bootylicious make-out session with a certain strapping viking vampire stricken with amnesia? That’s how my cheeks and lips look when I’m wearing Sula Beauty’s Lip & Cheek Tint in It’s Not Me, It’s You ($8).

I’ve been waiting for a reason to upgrade my opinion of the cruelty free Sula Beauty line, and these chubby cheek and lip creams just might be it. I thought that the last couple of products I tried from the line skirted the border between hit/miss, but with their adorable packaging and natural ingredients, they were products I really wanted to like.

The four Sula Beauty Lip & Cheek Tints ($8) up the ante, doubling as both cream blushes and lipsticks. I’ve been wearing coral It’s Not Me, It’s You (great name!) since Tuesday, and so far I’m impressed! 🙂

Worn as a blush on my cheeks, it stays put from dawn till dusk (or, for the undead/night owls among us, the other way around), and it lasts about three hours when I wear it as a lip tint.

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The first thing I thought when I saw the new Sula Beauty Eye Crayon in Never Say Never ($8, one of five shades) was, “Did they collaborate with Crayola?”

This is coming from someone who still draws with crayons, so I mean that in the best possible way. This multitasking makeup implement claims to do a bit of everything. It’s supposed to work as a shadow, a liner, and even as a base for powder eyeshadows — a similar idea to the NYX Jumbo Pencils we played with a couple months ago.

Never Say Never’s pigmented shimmery bronze and soft, creamy texture impressed me from the first moment it touched my eyes, but I think it has a few small issues with performance.

As a liner, I find it just okay. It lasts on my lash line for a solid six hours, but it gives up along my water line after about one.

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I had grand plans last Saturday afternoon to just bum around the house and paint my nails, but that all changed when El Hub asked if I wanted to catch Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

You know how much I movies, right? So I couldn’t refuse. We decided to try and make a 3 p.m. show, which meant I’d have to get ready in a flash.

Now, El Hub and I have been together for years, so homeboy knows that when I say, “I’ll be ready in 10 minutes,” it’s actually code for, “sometime today.”

This time, that wasn’t gonna fly. My mild mannered husband desperately needed his movie fix, and from the other end of the house I heard him yell, “10 minutes really means 10 minutes this time, babe!” with a tinge of desperation in his voice.

I had to hustle.

Sitting on the table right in front of me was Sula’s shimmery yellow-gold Creaseless Creme Eye Shadow in Hard to Get ($8), one of eight cream shadows in Sula’s new makeup line.

Like creamy versions of powder eyeshadows that come in tubes or pots, these are supposed to be a busy gal’s BFF, and they’re designed to be worn by themselves, or to give depth to some of your other favorite products, beneath powder eyeshadows or atop an eyeshadow primer (I love this untinted one from NARS).

Like I often do with cream shadows, which I generally love, especially when I’m in a hurry, I applied and blended Hard to Get on my lids with my fingers.

Tabs is always on me to try more cruelty-free products, so he was stoked to see me using this one from Sula. The line doesn’t test on animals and for that gets a big paws up from Tabs. They also take a more natural approach to ingredients than many brands do, leaving out the parabens, phthalates and petroleum by-products.

With the clock mercilessly ticking, I used my favorite NARS primer on my left eyelid but kept the right one bare, and then patted and blended Hard to Get on top.

Immediately, I noticed how dense and dry it felt — even drier than a MAC Paint Pot!

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And I thought those stiff, stubby little hairs that popped up on my chin were fast (I swear, it takes less than a second for me to go from hairless to full Santa beard!).

When I saw the new Sula Beauty Blush in Forget Me Not ($8), one of four new powder blushes from the brand, then read that it’s free of parabens, phthalates and petroleum by-products, AND wasn’t tested on animals, I snatched it up even quicker than my wayward chin hairs grow.

It’s a matte peachy pink with the faintest whisper of golden shimmer. I have a feeling that someone at Sula had NARS Orgasm blush in mind when this Forget Me Not came to be, but they chose to button it up, and make it a little less flashy.

Yes, Sula, you’re speakin’ my language. 🙂 I couldn’t wait to get this cutie on my cheeks.

Ingredients: Mica, Zinc Stearate, Magnesium Carbonate, Ester Isopropyl Isostearate, Kaolin, Benzoic Acid. (+/-) Iron Oxide (CI77491, CI77492, CI77499, CI77891), Titanium Dioxide (CI77891), Carmine (CI75470), Ultramarines (CI77007 ), Bismuth Oxychloride (CI77163 ), Chromium Oxide Green (CI77288), Chromium Hydroxide Green (CI77289), Ferric Ferrocyanide (CI77510), Manganese Violet (CI77742), Silica, Yellow 5 Lake (CI19140 ), Blue 1 Lake (CI42090)

Right away, I liked the look of the swatch on the back of my hand, and then how sheer and natural the blush looked on my cheeks. Why yes, I am the girl next door, thank you very much.

The powder contains kaolin clay, a frequent flyer in a lot of beauty products today, where it’s added to help products absorb oil. Perfect, because when my combination skin kicks into oily overdrive, some blushes slide right off.

Not Forget Me Not. It stays put all day long, which means no touchups (a HUGE plus).
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