Beauty Product Reviews | Page 7

Blue Mosaic from the Expressionists Line

Revlon's Blue Mosaic nail enamel is a part of their new Expressionists line which is inspired by Gucci Westman. The Expressionists collection is only available this fall. There are four nail polish shades. Everyone seems to be buzzing about Flecks of Fuchsia, but I went for Blue Mosaic, since I'm not much of a purple girl. I purchased my bottle at Rite Aid for 79 cents. I had a $4 off Wellness Points coupon. Great steal y/n? First let me say that I love all of Revlon's packaging. It's so classy, but also functional. I specifically love their nail enamel bottles. The shape is so classic. Round, sturdy glass, tapering up to the black plastic cap that never seems to detach from the top of the brush. I also love the inclusion of a gold band at the bottom of the cap with the classic Revlon logo. The brush is also a classic. Long and thin with a good amount of stiffness. It takes three strokes to cover my nails. Blue Mosaic contains mostly small sky blue glitters, with a sprinkling of larger, heptagonal (seven-sided) blue and silver glitter, all suspended in a clear base, which makes it more of a layering polish. Despite being a layering polish, it can be worn opaque if you're patient enough to apply four to six coats. The small blue glitters are very evenly dispersed in the clear base, with the larger, sequin-like ones being more random. I really like the effect Blue Mosaic gives to the polish its layered over. It gives a pretty shine and adds a lot of dimension without being too flashy. As far as glitter polish goes, Blue Mosaic is quite classy. It's not gaudy, with giant chunks of glitter, nor is it overly shiny. The variety of glitter adds a lot of subtle visual interest to the nail. Its a great polish for layering over blacks, navies, and yellows, especially for evenings. Dry time is a little less than a minute per coat, say about 50 seconds. Not bad for a polish that doesn't claim fast dry. (this polish isn't part of Revlon's SpeedDry line). I can't speak much for the wear time of this polish, since it seems greatly affected by the polish it's layered over. Removal is easy for a glitter polish, but still pretty difficult. I prefer to soak my fingers in polish remover, or press on a cotton ball for a minute or so instead of scrubbing at it. I don't like nail damage. You should definitely grab Blue Mosaic if you can still find it on your drug store's shelves. I got the last one at my Rite Aid. You'll definitely use a lot of it during the holiday season and at the $4.75(ish) price tag, it's well worth it. I'm considering going back to Rite Aid to see if I can find the very popular Flecks of Fuchsia, to see what all the fuss is about. If its anything like its counterpart Blue Mosaic, the praise is well deserved.

Saved by the Blue

Wet n' Wild's FastDry Nail Color in Saved by the blue is a royal blue polish with a metallic finish. I purchased mine at Rite Aid for $1.99 for .46 fl oz. I really like the packaging for the FastDry line. The bottles are tall and cylindrical, made of sturdy feeling glass. The cap is black and made of textured plastic. So far the cap hasn't detached from the top of the brush. The brush is long and fairly stiff. It takes two strokes to cover my nail. This is a three-coat polish. This polish seems like a disaster when you apply the first coat. It's streaky, runny, and sheer. The second coat makes up for it, being much smoother and nearly opaque. I only add a third coat to even everything out. The formula of this polish is only the tiniest bit runny and tends to collect at the sides of the nails. A bigger complaint I have about this polish is the claim that its "FastDry". It's not. I find that it takes 2-3 minutes for a coat to dry, which would be ok-ish for a regular polish, but since the name is FastDry, that's a pretty big fail. I define "fast dry" as a minute or less. Because of how long this polish takes to dry, I accidentally smudge it a lot, and get my hair caught it in, which is annoying. The finish of this polish is smoother and metallic, but not a foil. It's shiny enough to not require a top coat. In fact, it wears better without a top coat. Weird, I know. I had some sort of anomaly the first time I wore this. It wore with minimal chipping for six days, but on day 2 or 3 it started doing this strange thing where it started bunching up, but wasn't peeling or chipping. I tried adding more top coat, but it was only a temporary fix, as it would start bunching again in a few hours. Please explain this to me if you can. I have never seen anything like it before. I've worn it two times since then without any bunching. Each time I've gotten a solid four to five days of wear, which by my standards, is pretty good. I get a little tip wear on the first day, but after that it wears without incident until day three or four. This polish is water resistant and didn't peel off when doing dishes or taking bathes. The color is a rich royal blue. I can't think of any polishes to compare it with. A swatch can be seen here. Combined with it's metallic finish, it's quite unique and really catches a lot of attention. I would definitely recommend this polish if you're looking for a stand-out color on your nails, or a fun color for your toes. I actually think this color would be good for winter and holiday parties. For $2 or less, this polish is excellent. The only things I can really take away from it is the weird bunching and its less than fast dry time. I think I'll get a lot of wear from this polish Recommendation: Layer Sinful Color's Hottie over it.

Avon's Perfect Wear Eyewriter is a felt tip and well style liquid eyeliner. I'm reviewing the shade Evening Black. It retails from Avon for about $8, but can frequently be found on sale. This was my first liquid liner and has been my go-to for several years. I've gone through atleast 5 of them. Packaging is very similar to the Revlon Color Stay liquid liner, which I haven't tried. I like the line of the bottle, its very sleek. This liner has a felt tip that starts out thick and tapers to a thin point, giving versatility to the width of the lines you can create. The tip doesn't fray. This liner is impressively dark. The darkest liquid liner I have tried. Pigmentation is excellent, giving a dark black line with no grayness or watery discharge. The color applies evenly from the beginning to end of the line. Application is very smooth. Unlike ELF's Liquid Liner, you don't have to re-dip this liner frequently. I can line both eyes and get an even, dark line with a single dip. My current bottle is almost empty, so I occasionally have to double dip, but it usually still holds true to it's single dip nature. Avon claims 8 hours wear and it holds true. I can get even longer, 10 hour wear. This liner is not waterproof, but it is water resistant. It lasted through my 9 hour work days, eve when I was really sweaty. The color does fade after about 6 hours of wear, from an intense black to a soft black. It also flakes off when touched after 6 or so hours. It doesn't flake off unprovoked though. Removal is easy. As I said before this liner is not waterproof. It removes with warm water, but I usually also use remover or a wipe. Because of its non-waterproof its pretty easy to fix mistakes with a Q-Tip and some remover. Something I forgot to mention was dry time. This liner doesn't dry quite as fast as I like. It takes about 30 seconds and transfers very easily before fully dry, which can lead to a mess. Be careful with this liner in the inner corners and do not use it on the waterline. It's extremely painful and burny if you get it in your eye. Despite a few flaws, this is my favorite liquid liner. It lasts long, is well pigmented, and quite affordable if you get it on sale. I recommend it highly. I plan to keep this as part of my routine for a long time.

Good for under eye circles

NYC (New York Color)'s Cover Stick is a stick style concealer. I use the shade "Light", which I purchased at WalMart for $2.65 for 0.08 oz. Packaging is a clear bullet tube similar to a lipstick tube. The cap is clear and snaps on firmly. I haven't encountered any issues with the twisting mechanism. This was the first concealer I used in a long time. I hadn't needed one. My mid teen years were relatively acne free, and the acne I got from working as a fry cook was usually covered by my uniform hat. But after moving back to the States from Australia, my skin went crazy, it was the worst it'd ever been. I figured it wouldn't stay that way so I didn't want to invest much in a concealer. This was the cheapest one I could find, so I picked it up, not expecting too much. This concealer doesn't deliver great coverage for pimples. It masks them a bit but mostly just neutralizes the redness surrounding them. Neutralizing seems to be this concealer's specialty. It covers under eye circles really well (granted mine aren't that bad, but a little noticeable). I was really impressed by it's ability to neutralize both redness and darkness, while adding a bit of brightness without any shimmer or pearlesence. However the formula is lacking in several areas, all stemming from it's very dry texture. First you need quite a lot to cover your under eye area, or any area other than just a spot or two. That's mainly because this concealer doesn't blend out well. The formula is quite dry and once applied, it wants to stay put. Which is good, I never need to reapply it during the day, but this concealer sets too fast. Only three shades, and two corrector shades were available, so there's no variety at all, other than "light" "medium" and "dark". I use light, which is, surprisingly, almost too light for me. Overall this concealer is quite good considering the price. Its mainly good for neutralizing discoloration, but not really masking blemishes. Because of that, I've moved onto a different concealer and won't be repurchasing this one, but I do recommend it as a good, budget under eye concealer.

So forgettable.

Avon Naturals Vanilla Shower Gel is a vanilla scented, creamy shower gel. It retails for $6 for 5 fl oz or $1 for a 2 fl oz travel size. Avon Naturals Vanilla scent is also available in Antibacterial Hand Soap and Gel, Body Lotion, Body Spray, and more. Packaging on the travel size is very practical. A small round bottle with flip top cap. I believe its been redesigned recently. I’m not a fan of the normal size Natural’s shower gel bottles, which are practical in their own right. Their bottles are hook shaped, meant to be hung over your shower head for easy storage. The reason I don’t like them is about two uses worth of soap gets stuck in the hook part, and is virtually impossible to get out, no matter how you lay the bottle. Naturals Vanilla is on the thicker side for a shower gel. It boarders on creamy actually. It feels silky on the skin and lathers much better than the more gel-like soaps by Naturals. I need about a half dime sized amount to wash my whole body, so a little goes a fairly long way. After rinsing my skin feels silky and a little moisturized. But this shower gel also leaves a bit of a residue or film. It could be I’m not rinsing thoroughly enough. I’m not a fan of the scent of this shower gel, or the scent or taste of vanilla in general, but this is one of my least favorite shower gel scents ever. Its just so…lackluster. Its not a sexy burnt vanilla smell, nor a warm, sweet, baked good vanilla smell, or even a cool creamy vanilla. Its just vanilla. Plain, barely there vanilla. The kind you barely notice and forget you have anything scented on. It also has absolutely not lasting power. Or is just so bland, I can’t notice it. This shower gel is, overall, just plain vanilla in both senses of the word. Vanilla is a good name for it. Its a predictable, safe choice compared to some of Avon Natural’s scents. I only recommend this if you’re looking for something without a heavy scent, or if you aren’t feeling frisky enough for a scent more bold, like Pomegranate & Mango. I recommend Blackberry & Vanilla as a happy medium between Vanilla and a bolder scent. I won’t be repurchasing this soap after I finish it, if I ever finish it. Its been hiding under my sink for quite a while, being its forgettable self.

A skin care classic

Queen Helene's Mint Julep Masque is a drugstore skincare classic. This is a clay based, mint scented and infused mask. This mask promises to "help dry up acne, pimples, rinse away blackheads, and shrink enlarged pores" This mask is vegan and cruelty free. I purchased my 8oz tube from WalMart for less than $3. Packaging is a basic white up-right squeeze tube with a green screw on cap. Standard. One problem I have with this tube is the product getting stuck at the top. I'm not sure how to deal with this yet, but I'll probably cut the top off and dig the product out and into a jar. On the subject of jars, this product is also available in a jar, but I've heard that it tends to dry out, so I'll stick to the tube. The mask is green, thick, and heavily mint scented. If you don't like mint I think it'd be best to avoid this mask all together. In my opinion though, it smells delicious when freshly applied. After a while, the mint smell fades, and you start to smell the sulfur and clay. This mask is pretty thick, you don't need much of it to cover your whole face and neck. It spreads easily and smoothly. How thick you apply it is a matter of personal preference, but try not to apply it too thick, or else it won't dry correctly. Because of the mint and sulfur in the mask, it can tingle or sting a little when first applied. After 5-8 minutes, the mask turns from green to white. It starts to look flaky and gross. All your pores look very apparent. To remove the mask, you're supposed to wash it off with warm water and a washcloth. Be warned this will stain light colored towels. Removal is slightly difficult. A little bit always seems to stay on not matter how thoroughly I rinse my face. It usually comes off with some toner though. This mask is excellent at soaking up excess oil and shrinking pores. You can see the oil it's soaked up, especially when used as a spot treatment. After removal, my skin feels a little bit tight (in a good way), and very smooth. It's also slightly red, I think from the sulfur. The redness disappears if I splash my face with cold water and apply moisturizer. Don't use this mask too often, as it can be quite drying. I use it every 4 days and spot treat as needed. I recommend this super affordable and widely available mask. Its a classic and a staple in a lot of people's skin care routine. This mask is great for oily and combination skin and as a spot treatment for any skin type. It may be too drying for dry skin, being a clay based mask. Because of the mint and sulfur it may be too strong for sensitive skin. Overall this mask is great. At first I didn't notice much of a difference, but after 3 or 4 uses, I really noticed an improvement in my skin. The value of this mask is unbeatable, at 8oz for less than $3. Try it, there's a lot to gain and very little money to lose.

LF Fire Coral Nail Polish is a bright orange-red nail polish with a semi-matte finish. I purchased mine from <a href='http://www.eyeslipsface.com/' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://www.eyeslipsface.com/</a> for $1. Packaging is a square glass bottle with a plastic, black square cap. The bottle has a weighty, sturdy feel to it. I have no problems with the black cap detaching from the top of the brush. I also like the brush. Which is long and wide enough for me to cover my whole nail in two strokes, instead of three. Dry time for this polish is pretty fast, I estimate it at about a minute or so. One coat gives a good amount of opacity, with full opacity reached with two coats. The formula of this polish is really nice. Not runny, not goopy, which is impressive considering I've had this polish for nearly a year with no consistency changes. Application is smooth and streak free. I don't have any pink staining after removal. Wear time is impressive. I get about 5 days when topped with ELF Clear Nail Polish. I experience minor tip wear, but that's expected. This polish is pretty water resistant, which is a big factor for me. It doesn't peel off or chip when I'm washing dishes, cleaning cages, taking a bath, or washing my hands frequently. I highly recommend ELF's Fire Coral nail polish. It's a classic bright but wearable red that looks good on fingers or toes. Wear time, dry time, and application are great. While this is no China Glaze, for just $2 (ELF recently raised the price on this polishes =[ ) you get a great quality nail polish. I definitely plan to include a few more ELF polishes in my next order.

Super useful palette

ELF's Sparkle Eye Edition Beauty Encyclopedia is a palette containing 12 pressed eyeshadows, two cream eyeshadows, a mini brightening eyeliner, and double ended brush. I received mine as a Christmas present. It's available from <a href='http://eyeslipsface.com' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>eyeslipsface.com</a> or Target for just $5. The palette is packaged to look like a book. On the inside cover there are some somewhat vague directions and diagrams. The first part of the palette I'll review is the pressed shadows. I'll give a brief description of each. 1. White - Shimmer finish, hard, dry texture, poor color pay off, good for a highlight though. 2. Tan - Shimmer finish, average softness, decent color pay off. 3. Pink - Blue based pink. Glitter finish, average softness, good color pay off. 4. Taupe- Metallic finish, very soft, good color pay off. 5. Another Tan - Glitter finish, very soft, good color pay off, my favorite shade in the palette. 6.Moss Green - Shimmer finish, average softness, good color pay off. 7. Blue - Leans teal, metallic finish, soft, very good color pay off. 8. Medium Brown - Matte finish, soft, good color pay off, very useful shade. 9. Burgundy - Matte finish, soft, very good color pay off. 10. Silver - Shimmer finish, very muted, hard texture, decent color pay off, good for highlighting. 11. Purple - Matte finish, very soft, very good color pay off, best shade in palette overall. 12. Black - Glitter finish, hard texture, good color pay off, another useful shade. Overall these shadows are inconsistent but good. All of the shadows, even the ones with texture problems, blend well and apply smoothly. I have not pigmentation issues with any of the shades, except the silver. Wear time on these is good, I get 8+hours of wear without fading or creasing. One problem I do have with the shadows is fallout. The glitter finish shadows leave a ton of fall out on my cheeks, but I can deal with that. I get a lot of use out of these shadows.

Next is the two cream shadows/bases. I'm not a fan of either of these for eyeshadows or bases. They crease instantly even with primer and set with powder. However, I get a lot of use of them both. I use the white cream shadow to highlight, and also as a base for swatches. I've recently hit pan on it. As for the pink cream shade, it makes a really pretty, glowy cream blush.

The palette also includes a mini size of ELF's Brightening Eyeliner in Coffee. To be honest I don't get a lot of use out of this eyeliner. It's not that its a bad eyeliner, it actually applies nicely. But its too dark to use in my brows, and I don't find myself reaching for a brown eyeliner very often. It has a nice creamy consistency and is very subtle when applied. I think I'm going to try using it more often.

Lastly the double sided brush. One side is a sponge tip applicator, the other side is a smaller version of ELF's Eyeshadow Brush. which just about everyone loves. (I have 4 including this one :3), The sponge side was good, it had a softer, less porous texture than your average sponge tip. It served the basic function of a sponge tip, and patted on shadows well. I say "was" because it recently split in half. But it had a good 9 month run. As for the brush side, I get a ton of use from this mini-brush. It's great for cutting the crease and blending, as well as applying shadows to the lid. It's about 2/3 the size of a full sized ELF Eyeshadow Brush, but has the same shape and density. I actually like the smaller size better as its very versatile.

I highly recommend this palette. For only $5 its an unbeatable value, and with only one or two exceptions, they quality is excellent. All of the shades are very useful, and you can create a range of day and night looks. It's definitely a palette you'll reach for often.

My favorite lipgloss.

Mark. Juice Gems are "squeeze on lip gloss with real fruit extract" according to the label. This is my all time favorite lip product. I first received it as a sample from my Avon lady about 6 or so years ago and have repurchased it multiple times. They retail for $6.50 and come in 8 colors, with lots of limited edition colors at holidays. I've tried about 7 colors, and always come back to Juicy Pomegranate. I have fairly pigmented lips, so instead of the bright pink it shows in the tube it gives me the perfect light pink tint. The consistency of this gloss is very think and sticky, which personally I enjoy. Because of how thick and sticky this gloss is, wear time is great, upwards of 5 hours, even through eating and drinking. The finish is extremely shiny, like patent leather and has no glitter or shimmer. Another bonus is flavor. It tastes and smells like an real pomegranate. I'm tempted to lick my lips a lot when I wear this gloss because of how much I enjoy the scent/flavor. Packaging is a clear squeeze tube with dark brown cap and slant tip applicator, which is pretty standard. Slant tip applicators are my preferred lip gloss applicator. Juice Gems' used to have a fuzzy slant tip applicator, which was weird, but they switched to plain plastic a few years ago. Like I said before this is my all time favorite lip product. This is a good value at $6.50 for .5 fl. oz, which may not seem like much, but due to how infrequently you have to reapply, its actually a ton of product. The only possible thing I could see about this gloss that some people wouldn't like is the sticky, thick texture. But if thick, sticky, super shiny gloss is your thing, this one is perfect.

Covergirl's Lash Blast Volume is a probably one of the most popular mascaras ever. I know very few girls who haven't tried it

Covergirl's Lash Blast Volume is a probably one of the most popular mascaras ever. I know very few girls who haven't tried it. I got mine as gift from my sister-in-law who said it did nothing for her lashes. This mascara retails for about $8. Due to my sister in law not liking it, I was even more curious about it. Packaging for this mascara is very eye catching, considering the tube is bright orange. The tube is thicker than average, but about the same length. The same can be said for the brush. About an inch long and twice as thick as regular brushes, it has rubber bristles that catch lashes well. This brush was probably not designed with people with almond or asian shaped eyes in mind. The tip isn't tapered at all and is quite flat on the end, so getting to not just the inner corner, but the whole inner half of my eye is difficult without getting any mascara on my lids. Another problem with the brush is sometimes it feels like the bristles are scratching my lash line, which is uncomfortable. The bristles seem much sharper than ones on other rubber brushes. Application can be a bit difficult, but its worth the results. I get a lot of lift and volume, that alone makes my lashes look much longer, but this mascara also offers a good bit of length. I don't get much separation from this mascara, though I don't get clumps either. It just adds a lot of fullness to my already full lashes, as well as adding a wearable amount of blackness. I get 8+ hours of wear with a tiny bit of flaking on my lower lashes. This mascara is another one that makes my lashes itch after several hours of wear. Removal is easy. This mascara isn't particularly water resistant.You probably don't even need makeup remover to take it off, warm water will do. Overall, this is a pretty good mascara. Perfect for daily wear. This mascara is perfect if you want volume and thickness, with some length as a bonus. This mascara has sparked my interest in other Covergirl mascaras as well. I probably won't repurchase it in favor of trying new Covergirl mascaras, but I might in the future. I recommend this mascara if you haven't tried it. But most of you probably have.