Month: August 2013

Drugstore Finds: Soap & Glory’s Sexy Motherpucker

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The Sexy Motherpucker is a gloss crayon by Soap & Glory. I was able to get my hands on three shades. Since the formulation is so sheer, it’s a little hard to describe the shades, so I’ll go by their names: Nudist, Fuschiaristic, and Plum Jam. These swatches aren’t very helpful either, huh? As swatches, they don’t look like they differ very much. Just random variations of the same nude gloss. On the lips, however, there is a significant difference. At least, in my mind: Each shade lends a different mood to the face. I think they’re actually arranged from most favorite to least. We’ll see, but I usually don’t like a lot of warmth in my lip color. Who knows why. These are different from your usual crayon, because it’s a gloss and not a matte lip color, or a stain or a balm. If I’m not mistaken, NARS also has a gloss lip pencil, but I haven’t tried those so I can’t compare. The Sexy Motherpucker is easy on the lips! Very comfortable …

Stash Shopping No. 1

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In line with trying to curb my appetite for shiny new things, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and “shop my stash.” Each week (or so), I’ll pick out a few items in my collection that I want to revisit and use. Here’s what I picked out for my first week: EYESHADOW — shu uemura eyeshadow in ME medium brown 885: it’s a forever staple and perhaps my favorite single neutral eyeshadow ever. — shu uemura x Karl Lagerfeld Prestigious Bordeaux Palette: great neutrals and punches of color and textures. — Make Up Store Microshadow in Monty: pretty taupe that I should use more often. OTHER EYE STUFF — Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeliners in Taupe, Black and Nude: new things that I want to test out. Watch out for a Manila-weather-based review! — Benefit Lemon Aid: eye base I’m trying to use up; part of my Project 10 Pan — Majolica Majorca Lash King Mascara: mascara I’m trying to use up! BLUSH — The Body Shop x Lily Cole Lip & Cheek Dome in Crazy …

Quickie: Addiction by Ayako Cheek Stick in Suspicious

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Ah, the last Cheek Stick I have in my possession—Suspicious. This Cheek Stick is not like the rest. It’s a little bit on the dry side and can take a bit if work to blend out. Still, it’s a gorgeous one to have if you sometimes like to have a deeper flush on the cheeks, with a but if a contour thrown in. Like most of the Cheek Sticks I own, it has no glitter or shimmer; Suspicious is just a delicious deep burgundy red. For the initiated, Cheek Sticks are multi-purpose products that you can use on your cheeks, lips, and eyes. I only like them on my cheeks, but for that purpose alone, they are amazing products. On the face, it’s not so severe-looking and you can definitely wear it out without drawing too much unwanted attention, though I find that it is also great for drama if that’s something you might be looking for. Because of the drier texture, I wouldn’t use it on my lips except over a heavy layer of …

Quickie: Make Up Store Brush Soap

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I love this stuff. I have been using a facial cleanser for the past few months, but when I ran out of that, I made it a point to give the Make Up Store Brush Soap a shot because I heard somewhere that it was good. Holy crap. This is great. It’s a bit pricey but you only need to swipe your damp brush once or twice on the soap and it works up a pleasant lather that gets rid of all of the makeup. I actually kind of really like the smell, which is sort of a generic soap smell, kind of medicinal… if that makes sense. Like part of an apothecary, but it’s not very herb-y. I don’t know what I am typing, but I like the smell. It comes in a sleek, plastic case that keeps it from melting, which results in less waste. It also rinses out fairly easily, and provides decent conditioning to my brushes. It’s going to be a while before I use the bar I have up, but …

Liquid Foundation Swatch Fest

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After I posted about the Ahava Liquid Foundation, fairytalesandcoffee asked me to do a swatch comparison with my other liquid foundations. I said OK because it’s fairly different from the other liquid foundations I have. Here are four types of foundation I own, since I have the L’Oreal Lucent Magique Liquid Foundation* in two shades, and strictly that. I didn’t include BB creams or tinted moisturizers, etc. From left to right, they are Ahava Light Foundation in Sand, Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Cheers to me Champagne, L’Oreal Lucent Magique Foundation in G4 (I also have N5), and Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum, which is technically a “gel” foundation, but I found the consistency to be similar to my other liquid foundations. Here are unblended swatches in the same order: I hope it’s evident that the Ahava foundation is thicker and creamier, whereas all the others are quite runny. Also, this goes to show you how sucky I am at shade-matching. (Although, I feel like I pick the correct shades. Agree?) Here are the swatches …

Drugstore Finds: Maybelline Color Tattoos

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I’ve been wearing a few Maybelline Color Tattoos for a while now, and I realized that I hadn’t shared them with you guys yet. I have three colors: Audacious Asphalt, Bad to the Bronze, and Tough as Taupe. It’s the kind of product that has been raved about so many times that I can’t say anything new about it anymore, really. I suppose that’s a good thing? These are essentially cream eyeshadows that you can wear on their own or as a base for other eye products. These go on very smoothly and are incredibly waterproof and crease-proof. I seriously went for a swim with Bad to the Bronze on my eyelids and it did not budge. These babies are such a great budget product, though a con I think would be that some of them dry out pretty quickly. If you can see my pot of Tough as Taupe up there, you’d see the product separating from the glass, so that’s not a good thing. It’s still a great thing to try out, though, …

Nosy Beauty Vol. 7: Ae

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This week’s Nosy Beauty features another one of my favorite local bloggers, Ae from An Artechoke. I’d been following her blog for a while before I realized that she was the mom of our dog Noah’s brother, Mochi. 🙂 “My name is Ae, I’m an architect and I’m married to a visual artist. Aside from my job, I will be co-managing a design store with my husband and some friends—we’re set to open later this year.” “I’ve always been into beauty—I grew up with two older sisters who are just as into it, and I’ve always been doing my friends’ makeup for school presentations, then later parties, dates, weddings and whatnot. I started my blog about two years ago; I wanted it to be strictly about beauty so I tried to keep everything else about me to a minimum. At that time, I was just amazed that people took to the internet to write and share what they know, and that there exists an active and thriving local community of beauty enthusiasts!” “Anyway, a huge …