Thursday, May 21, 2015

One Note: Colormates Blush in Blushed

This blush was purchased at the 99 Cent Store a while ago, not sure of current availability.



Of the four blushes, this one is the darkest in the pan, but when used, it gives a flushed color that is more pink in nature.  When I use this over a liquid foundation that has been set with a powder it shows as a lighter flush of color, which can be built up if desired. When used over a cream blush, normally the e.l.f. shimmering facial whip in Lilac Petal, it shows a little more strongly with less building, and more strongly of the pink. In both cases the blush applies and blends easily. This blush does show more quickly and with less products than the Tawny Peach or the Deeptone blush, so more care is needed if you have a heavy hand with the blush application; it is not uncommon for me to tap a light layer of my setting powder over the blush to tone it down slightly after application.

This is my second favorite for the four Colormates blushes I own.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Review: Milani Crystal Gloss for Lips in #23 Raspberry Icing

This was purchased for 75% off at CVS during one of their semi-annual clearance sales, not sure of availability.



This was an interesting lip gloss to try out because this was one of those cases of the first time I applied it, I thought it looked nice, but every time after that, it ended up being a pain to get to look the way I thought it was supposed to.




This is a gloss, it does impart some color effect to the lips, but it is not opaque. There are shimmer particles in the gloss, they are hard to see once on the lips, but do catch the light while on the lips. The gloss itself is moderately tacky in texture, not tacky enough to make the lips stick together, but also not tacky enough to keep the shimmer particles, which appear to be the main source of the color, in a uniform coating on the lips. What seems to happen after a period of time, that varies depending on how much you rub your lips together or talk, is that the particles all transfer to the edge of the gloss, and therefor the center of your lips, depending on what is underneath the gloss, is a different color from the outlier line of your lips. It did not travel outside of the lip line and the center did stay glossy, just not the same color as the rest of the lips.

I tried this on its own a few times on Wednesday, May 13th. The first time it applied well and I didn't think about it too much, but noticed after a couple of hours, maybe three, that the gloss looked a completely different color from what it was when it was applied. Upon further inspection, it appears all of the shimmer particles transferred out of the gloss, and what was left appeared as a very hot pink lip color. So I removed and reapplied, but could not get the same appearance has I had achieved earlier in the day. I tried a couple more times to get the gloss to go on the same way as the first time over the course of the day, with no luck.

On Saturday, May 16th, I tried this a few times with the lip balm I am currently using from Bath & Body Works in honeylicious and a Max Factor lip liner that I am trying to use up. Again, not much luck in getting the shimmer particles to stay in place. Although the balm did seem to succeed in making the lip gloss feel less sticky on the lips. I was actually a little surprised that the gloss did not seem to lift any of the color from the lip liner as I applied the gloss, which I see as a positive.

If I try this again it will be over a lip stick that is the same color as the gloss appears in the tube as I think that is the only way you will not eventually end up with two-tone lips, but I am not sure as I have not tried that yet. Testing farther is needed. But for now, this is going into the night makeup bag because of application issues and the color changing issue. I do have one of these that I have used in a cream color with no shimmer particles that I do not remember having this problem with, but it has also been a while since I used that one so my memory may not be totally reliable. 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

One Note: Colormates in Tawny Peach

This blush was purchased at the 99 Cent Store a while ago, not sure of current availability.



I should state upfront that peach blushes rarely show up on me, so my expectations for them are always low. When I use this, over liquid foundation with a setting powder only, it does show as a peach tone. When used over a cream blush, normally the e.l.f. shimmering facial whip in Lilac Petal, it shows a little more strongly. I do set all of my cream products before using the blush, so it does not require much additionally tackiness to get it to show up more strongly. With both methods of use, the blush applies well and blends to the shape I want well.

Of the four Colormates blushes, this is my 3rd favorite, though probably my most used. The reason it is my most used, is I tend to use a lot of warm eye shadows and of the four blushes, this is the only warm one.

Monday, May 11, 2015

One Note: Aziza Blush in Natural

The Aziza blush in Natural was purchased at the 99 Cent Store, so the price listed on the packaging is not the one that was paid. I used this blush on May 6th and May 9th of this year.



Wednesday

The back of the packaging suggests using the darker shade as a contour, which I did. It did not work out well, primarily because this blush comes off as a dusty rose color and that does not work well as a contour, at least one me. The lighter shade worked very well as a blush. I cannot speak to how long it lasted because I look pink in the cheeks all the time, so I can only really see blush when first applied, after that I am not sure if I am seeing the blush or the pinkness of my own skin. When I did apply it, I could see it well as a natural looking flush. It blended easily and did not take much work to get a level of color and shape that I was looking for.

Saturday

On this day I decided to try the darker shade as a blush and see how it worked. It applied on the cheeks well and gave a slightly more flushed look than the first blush, but still fairly natural. It applied easily, blended well, and did not take much effort to get the shape and color level I was after.

Thoughts on Blush

I was very happy I tried this as I have a few things from this line, but have only ever swatched them as far as I can remember. Also being that is a line regularly appearing at our 99 Cent Store and seems to have good pigmentation and blend-ability, it makes me look forward to trying out more things from the line as I get to them.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

One Note: Colormates Blush in Deeptone

This blush was purchased at the 99 Cent Store a while ago, not sure of current availability.



On my very fair skin this blush, when used alone over a liquid foundation and setting powder, shows as a very light pink flush. So far the best way I have found to get it to show more brightly is over a cream base and the one that I have specifically been using is the e.l.f. shimmering facial whip in Lilac Petal. As I still set my cream products with the setting powder before applying the blush over the top, it does not require much tackiness to get the pigments in the blush to apply more densely. With both methods of using this blush it still blends out well and shows nicely for which ever way I decide I want to use it.

Of the four Colormates blushes I have, this is ranked 4th among them for me, but I do still enjoy the blush and will continue to get use out of it on days when I want my blush to be less obvious/not the focal point of my makeup look.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

One Note: Wet n Wild No Neutral Ground

For the week of April 26th, 2015, I tried out the Wet n Wild limited edition eye shadow palette No Neutral Ground (34210) twice. I do not think this is available anywhere anymore; mine was purchased at the Dollar Tree a while ago. On What's New Wednesday I used the white middle highlight shadow, the brown middle lid shadow, and the brown left crease/definer shadow, essentially as suggested on the back of the palette. On Second Try Saturday I used the yellow right highlight shadow, the green right lid shadow, and the green right crease/definer shadow, again, essentially as suggested on the back of the palette. For the eye shadow primer I used the Wet n Wild Fergie Take On The Day Eye Shadow Primer in CA027 For My Primas. The below were the results as far as application and wear time were concerned.



Wednesday

The shimmers in the middle highlight shadow do transfer to the brow bone, though they also transfer to the face, even after tapping off any excess product from the brush. The shimmers/glitters were not so dense that they were apparent on the brow bone unless I looked for them.

The middle lid shadow was darker than I would normally use for all over the lid, but it did apply and blend well. The color appeared as in the pan and the more subtle sheen/shimmer was not obvious on the lid once applied and blended. I would use this color again, though probably as a crease shadow with another lid color from a different palette or single.

The bottle left shadow is much darker than I would normally use and was very pigmented. It was also really hard to blend. I used one dip of the tip of the brush in the pan and one tap to each outer crease and that was more than enough for both eye lids. I spent at least 10 minutes blending the crease color in and it may have been longer when I thought back to how long it took to complete just the eye portion of the makeup that day. I also used it as a shadow liner and here it was much easier to get on and look the way I wanted, though it did have a lot of fallout to the lower lash line area even though I was applying to the upper lash line, which made the eye look extra smokey looking for me. I ended up cleaning up the lower lash line as eye products in that area tend to make the skin there painful.

The wear time on this lasted all day, at least 8 hours, probably more, it still had not creased when I went to wash it off at the end of the day.

Not an eye look I would normally wear out of the house as it was much more intense than more normal eye shadow look, but if I had only used the bottom left shadow as a liner, I probably would have been more comfortable with the look and my arms might not have hurt so much.

Second Try Saturday

The right highlight shadow was a bit confusing for me to use because it was yellow and while in some places I could see the yellow, in others, I could not, so it was a little patchy in its application. A different brush may have helped this. It also had a problem with the shimmers/glitter in the pan getting everywhere on my face, even when tapping off the excess, but again, a different brush might have helped this.

The middle right lid shadow applied very easily and blended well, actually it blended a little too well as I got it much higher in the crease than I meant to just through trying to blend the line. The color, even with all the blending, remained consistent and did appear as in the pan. This was also a bit dark for my normal lid shadow choice, but that is the point of trying to push myself with trying these.

The bottom right shadow did not creat much contrast with the middle right lid color and so ended up getting lost in the crease and along the lash line. This shadow also applied and blended easily, only it would have worked better with a lighter lid color which is how I will use it next time. I did end up applying a cream brown liner over the top of the bottom right shadow that was along the lash line which helped to give more contrast and definition to the lash line. This one did not appear to have as much fallout as its brown counter-part.

Again the wear time was good, at least 8 hours, and I did not see any creasing prior to washing my face.

This was also not an eye look I would normally wear out of the house and I am not sure I ever got used to seeing myself look that way, but that was not at the fault of the shadows.

Thoughts on the palette

The highlight shadows are going to take some work to figure out how best to use them as I wasn't that happy with either of the two I used and I am not that optimistic about how the pink will work out. I am wondering if used on top of a cream shadow base on the lid, or at the very least, the inner lid, if that could be nice as they didn't really give enough color on their own to be used as a lid color normally, but too much color for my tastes to be used as a brow bone color, particularly in the case of the yellow one. The three middle shadows are ones I am looking forward to using and I have high hopes for the purple as the other two worked so well. As to the bottom two, the dark brown will most likely only be used as a liner, and the green will probably not be used again with the green lid shadow, but perhaps the brown lid shadow as it did blend well.

One of the things I appreciate about this palette is that the purple and brown shadows look like they would play nice together and the green and brown shadows look like they would play nice together when used in looks, so you do not have to just use the coordinating rows. If I can get the top highlight shadows to work for me it will increase the variety of eye shadow looks I can get from this immensely, though it will probably be a while before I try this again.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Keep In Mind: April 2015

This month's Keep in Mind is not a makeup item or tool, though it is helping me to use my makeup more. It is a schedule. Not a hard schedule that I have to do, but suggestions for each day of the week. Not every day involves application of makeup, but having some direction does seem to be helping me to actually apply makeup just about daily.



The idea for this was actually spawned by nail polish. I have a lot of nail polish, I only use a handful of the actual polishes and rarely do nail art, primarily because I have no skill in art in general. I wanted to come up with something to help me remember to just do manicures and pedicures every week and for some reason I always wanted to make them a Monday thing but always forgot to do them on Mondays so then I wouldn't do them for the rest of the week. My husband and I were already trying to remember to do facials every Friday and having a hard time with getting the day right and I was trying to figure out if there was a weekly calendar big enough that we would see it and remember it. So I thought if I was already writing in Facials on Friday I could also add manicures on Monday. But then I felt that the rest of the days of the week needed things as well to help me use my makeup more and to try and push myself to use more makeup than just what I would normally gravitate towards.

The schedule for the week: 

Mani Monday 

With a pedicure or I would forget to do them.
I made little construction paper tabs in each of the color families that I have nail polish for, which is all of them, to remind me to use a different type of color each week until I make it through the whole rotation. Polishes used are then moves into a container until I have used all of the polishes I have for that color family, then they go back to the container for that color nail polish to pull from again. Only one color counts per week, so while I used red and orange last week I only counted the red and this week I used pink and green, but only counted the pink.

Turn it Off Tuesday 

Offline for the whole day, a challenge set by my husband because even when I am having a migraine I try to spend time online. This actually wasn't that hard the first Tuesday attempted and is to help me try and find ways to occupy my time that won't aggravate my migraines. 

What's New Wednesday 

I have to try something new, either eye shadow, blush, or lip stick, or something I don't remember using because I know some of it is probably going to fall into that category.
I made a list with each makeup item on little tabs (pulling from a pile with my eyes closed) of makeup that I could not remember ever using or was still sealed. Once I use the makeup I remove the tab it is listed on and tack it to the space next to Second Try Saturday to help me remember to use it again.

Thoughts on Thursday 

Work on writing reviews to post, this way I might get something posted once a week.
I hand write my notes for reviews when I am testing things, the problem that tends to occur is that I forget to ever type them up and post them. So now I have them each individually tacked next to the day for Thursday and the goal is to get one written up each week. More would be nice, but last week's took so much out of me to just do one write up for a lip stick I am no expecting more than one.

Friday Facials 

The day of the week I exfoliate and my husband and I both do masks.
We both try to take care of our skin and it is nice to be able to do this together.

Second Try Saturday 

Reuse the thing from Wednesday, suggested by my husband because usually one use is not enough to form an opinion on something. Once something has been used twice, provided I remembered to write thoughts about it, it may get posted on the review blog, eventually. At this point I have a backlog of things to post about, but that is okay because it takes me while to review things.

Sunday Funday 

Use something bright, either eye shadow or lip product, made extra challenging because it is also chat with parents day. Whenever I chat with my parents or have a day with a good chance of leaving the house I try to do more simple makeup, not less makeup, just generally do not use bold or stronger colors. I am trying to break that tendency with this challenge for myself. I like the bolder, brighter colors, I just do not generally feel comfortable wearing them out of the house.

So far it has been working and I have managed to keep up with the schedule for the limited time I have been using it. As I said, it is not a hard schedule, if I have a day where I just cannot get out of bed, or deal with light, or move, I am not going to beat myself up over missing the day. This is more to give me ideas on what to do for each day because I am not good at coming up with ideas on my own.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Empties: May 1, 2015

This was a good month for me as far as makeup usage went and it was even more exciting because I used up two higher end samples, something that is very hard for me to do. I have a hard time with using up high end anything because replacing it is not generally an option, so being able to get myself to use something, even a sample, enough to use it up is kind of a big deal to me and will also make my husband happy because it lets him know that I might actually use some of the higher end makeup he paid for.



Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation sample in "Cheers to me" Champagne

When I was given this sample a while ago I was not sure what to do with it because it is several shades darker than I am. At first I tried using it as something of a contour around the perimeter of my face the way I saw some people on YouTube using their foundations that where darker than their current skin tone. Then I started mixing it into my foundation that was the right shade for me, just not very good at sticking around on the skin. This seemed to work better for me and allowed me to use more of it at once.

I do have a bottle of this in the correct shade, although now it seems it might be a little dark for me, but still, close enough that I think if I blend it down the neck enough no one would notice. This foundation doesn't really cover much, though when used with the matching primer it would cover a good bit more as the primer makes even the weakest of pigmented foundations look at least medium coverage, if not full coverage. But used by itself, the redness of my cheeks always shows through. One of these days I will try the foundation with the matching powder and see if that makes a difference. One other strike against this foundation for me is how quickly it sets. Because of my joint and muscle pain I am not always able to work quickly with the foundation and sometimes working with the foundation causes the joint and muscle pain and this foundation is one of those foundations that sets almost as soon as it touches the skin and so you have to work very quickly with it and in small sections of the face so that you do not end up with splotchy looking foundation.

Benefit Stay Don't Stay Sample in light/medium

I am not sure if this started not working for me because it was drying out or because my eye lids were too oily those days, but it did not hold the eye shadow as long as I expected it to the last couple times I used it as an eye shadow primer, so I end up just using it as an under eye primer for my concealer, because my concealer needs all the help it can get. As an under eye primer it did seem to help the concealer last longer and it also helped cover up some of the darkness of my under eye area.