Beauty Product Reviews | Page 2

One Stroke Pai-er, Makeup

Look at the reference pictures, look at the reference pictures' hand model, now look at your thumb. Notice that the brush in the picture is about the width of the model's thumb? Yes, this brush is HUGE for an eye shadow brush. As in it dwarfs my concealer brushes and some of my highlighter brushes. I really should have paid attention to the pictures.

I was this close to returning it before I had one of those days when I just wanted one color.* I loaded up the GSN-7 and found the smoothest, most even stroke of color on my lid. For such a big brush it's incredibly gentle and cool to the touch. It cut down my "one color" eye makeup looks in half. Instead of fussing to get my desired color intensity with my other brushes ( 4+ strokes) this finished everything in about 2.

I would use this if you have a lot of product to lay down. Examples could be your eye shadow primer, a sheer color to finish a look, or your work day taupe.

*Yes, if it were possible I would put every eye shadow color in my collection on my lids. Then all of the eyeliner.

Great all-around liner

I tried the GSN-11 liner on a variety of applications, including:

1. Pan eye shadow for eyeliner 2. Loose eye shadow for eyeliner 3. Gel eyeliner 4. Push method eyeliner

This liner can do a little bit of everything. Thanks to the shape of the bristles you can actually get to those weird areas your detail eyeliner makes impossible to do. (For me that's the eyelid area before my tear duct. Too many instances of nearly poking myself in the eye with a pointy detail brush.) The bristles themselves are incredibly soft. My blinking didn't go off like they normally would when I have a loaded liner brush approaching. The bristles were firm when I pushed my liner around my eyelashes.

The lines I made were crisp. The makeup went down with no patches. You'll need to tap away excess makeup from your brush if you want a clean line. This brush wants to literally pick everything up. I couldn't just 'flick' my winged liner like I do with a pointy detail brush. This may be my lack of experiences with tapered flat brushes. On the other hand this does allow for better control of your desired line length.

The caveat to animal hair brushes is you may develop an allergic reaction to them. My skin is normally sensitive to animal dander and I did not have this problem. Play it safe, folks.

Overall I'm glad I made this purchase. It may not do everything perfectly but if you can only bring a few brushes in your bag/kit the GSN 11 can multitask. I could easily see myself converting this brush for pinpoint highlighting or concealing.

Back in shape

So far I put these guards through their paces: 1. Daily use on high end and drugstore brushes. 2. Different cleansers (bar soap, baby shower gel, vinegar, Parian Spirit). 3. Twisting or sliding the sleeves down to see if the bristles changed shape.

Sure enough these little tubes passed with flying colors. Some of my frayed brushes were back in line. I stick out a bit of the excess sleeve so I could stand my brushes upside down while they dried. Twisting didn't change the direction of the bristles.

If you plan on traveling with brushes, stick these on the ones that are hard to find in your kit. They're stick out simply because they have an exaggerated shape.

The guards do get dirty after a while. Wash and rinse with gentle cleanser makes them all new. The ends stretch out and fray a bit after being used on wider brushes. The damaged guards still work as well as when I bought them. Just a bit worn in now. ;)

A Defined Smoky Eye(?)

Yes, my title makes no damn sense.

Need a precise, sharp line for your winged liner? This is not the brush you're looking for. I docked a star for that because I bought it under the assumption that I could do that.

Do you need a multitasking brush for your smoky eye look? THIS is the brush you're looking for. It will lay down that thick line of color as a base. Wiggle the Twelve brush for a quickly blended, elegant smoky look.

The Twelve brush is also your answer if you also want a brow brush. You can get a lot of fill on your eyebrows or you need to blend to shades for an ombre eyebrow look.

No More Gaps

My eyebrows have a nice shape once I mastered the art of grooming. However there are multiple gaps on my brows, like they decided to clump together than grow evenly. Enter Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade to fill in those gaps and make my brows into Emilia Clarke's and Brooke Shields'.

You won't need much pomade at all for each eyebrow. Barely touch your spoolie or brow brush on the pomade. For a natural look I line the bottoms of my eyebrows, then swipe the color up in short strokes to imitate hair. You have about a minute to set the pomade down to your desired shape. If you mess up a quick swipe with a cotton pad or a clean finger will remove the excess. Once it's set I wish you good luck getting it off. Oil based cleansers or a hard scrubbing with soap will be the only things removing the pomade from your brows.

For pure color match I should have opted for Ebony. I went for Chocolate as a fast way to lighten my day looks.

Asphalt Liner

Things That Have Changed My Makeup Life:

1. Skinfood Peach Sake Serum 2. TheBalm Put a Lid on It 3. Inglot Cosmetics AMC Eyeliner Gel

For a long time I was scared off by gel eyeliner. Either the formula would burn my eyelids (seriously even liquid liner hasn't done that to me) or I would see it dried out within a month of use (after securing the lid closed for every use). Inglot AMC Eyeliner is some sort of magic. Intense pigmentation, applies smoothly (no burning!), and easy to clean if I mess up. I mainly use this for eyeliner and small drawings on my cheeks.

I bought the 78 shade because it was the exact color of dark asphalt I was seeking. It's not as intense as black during the daytime, but it certainly is enough for distinct liner. Brown eyeliner just looks weird on me some days.

One day I will buy every Inglot AMC Eyeliner Gel in every color. At the moment 78's giving me the unexpected day look I needed.

My Favorite Things

These brushes are gems! An invaluable arsenal that I can't live without when I want to put on eye shadow. The amount of product I got in one swipe of my Wayne Goss brushes put my other eye shadow brushes to shame. The hairs are soft for both swiping and patting color onto the eye area.

After years of long handled eye shadow brushes the length of the handles did get take some getting used to. I had to relearn how to put a brush to my eyes. A softer touch, shall we say. It took less work for the same results in the long run. The learning curve for this isn't very steep.

These eye shadow brushes changed my makeup life. Many of my other brushes were sent to the donation pile because they didn't hold a candle to the Wayne Goss set. Is it worth the price tag? My money said yes.

Put on a Happy Face

As a full fledged chocoholic the smell is intoxicating. I smile whenever I open this tin. It changes my mood and relaxes me enough o focus on putting on the eye shadow on my face.

The darkest matte brown (upper right hand corner, Triple Fudge) gets the most mileage for me since it's dark enough to be an eyebrow liner. But all of the textures play really nicely together. You can easily go day to night on just this palette.

I was a little put off by the bulk of the packaging. Yes and that flimsy plastic thing. Couldn't we print all of that on the tin holding the actual eye shadow? Then I realized that when I somehow finish this palette I can pop the empty eye shadow pans out and I have the perfect traveling case for my brushes.

My new combination is Strawberry Bon Bon (pink) on my eyelids, Creme Brulee (shimmery sand) on the upper eyelid, and Amaretto (glitter red-based brown) on the crease. Cherry Cordial (glitter darkened red) for an unexpected liner.

Fantastic Push Liner

This is the push liner dreams are made of. Super soft bristles that are dense enough to push gel liner or powder right where you need it. My eyelashes have random clumped areas so this extra oomph to fight my unruly lashes is a big bonus to me. I finally understand the benefits of tight lining that the Internet has raved about all these years. This brush is surprisingly easy to wash and hasn't frayed or split on me even with regular use (3-4 uses per week).

It's not the greatest cat/winged eyeliner unless your technique is to dot your eyelids to that desired wing. I like to flick or draw them down so that didn't work for me.

Caution: Wayne Goss brushes are short and dark colored. Put some tape on or mark it so it doesn't vanish in your makeup bag!

Rough spot savior

I know it looks expensive at first, but those $20 mani/pedi sets add up. For the price of two pedicures you can get a file that really works on your rough spots. At night I would shower, dry my feet a bit, run the Diamond File across the callused or rough areas, cover with lotion, and put socks on. The next day the calluses are in much better shape. I did this routine once or twice a week for about a month before I considered my feet and heels to be sandal ready. Right on time for breaking out the flip flops and sandals!

Another major bonus is how easy this is to clean. I sterilize it in hot water after a soap down with dish soap. Unlike normal sandpaper or buffers the file strength doesn't go flat after a few uses. I bought mine years ago and it's still going strong.