Product Review - Ultra Repair Cream by First Aid Beauty

I received the Ultra Repair Cream by First Aid Beauty as a sample via an order with Sephora. I have quite dry skin on my hands and, with the change of season, I was looking forward to trying something new.

I do like the product but I don't exactly love it. I like that it is lightweight and feels very hydrating: it feels like my skin is drinking it up. However, I actually prefer shea butter creams as they feel like they hydrate my hands better. I feel like I'd need to reapply the Ultra Repair Cream more frequently during the day than the shea butter creams. Also, it has sort of a weird unscented smell. I know, that's counterintuitive. But there's like a smidge of a scent and it's just something that smells a little odd to me.

They do say that you can apply this cream from head to toe and a number of reviews on the Sephora website mention using it as a facial moisturizer. Well, it is lightweight enough to be used as a moisturizer but I don't have dry enough skin on my face to vouch for how it would feel. I did put some of the cream on my elbows and knees. While it hydrated well, I don't know that it felt that much different than my normal body moisturizer, which is Curel and is much cheaper.

The price isn't bad with the 2 oz tube is $12 and the 6 oz jar is $28. I'm just not sure that I liked it enough to invest in it. It was a great sample to try, though. And I can see that some people might really enjoy this product.

Product Review - Perversion Mascara by Urban Decay

I received the Perversion mascara by Urban Decay as part of my Ipsy subscription. I was super excited about trying it out as I love Urban Decay products. The bottom line is that I hate this mascara.

The first application went okay. I actually was pretty happy with how black the lashes were readily. I thought that I'd be happy with it. I was unsure about the brush but figured that I'd wait and see. Well, first off, after I had closed the tube, I noticed that my fingers were all black and there was black all over the counter top. It turns out that the mascara itself had spilled out and there was a wide rim of black mascara around where the top closes. I wiped it off... and I have to do that every single time I close the darn tube.

While the formulation is indeed an intense black, it tends to make globs super easily so I wasn't happy with that. And the brush is useless at helping taking care of that. The brush is super soft, which feels nice on the lashes but it's rather terrible at precisely deliver the mascara on the lashes so I end up having as much under the lashes as on the lashes.

So I was overwhelmingly disappointed with this product and at $22, it's really not worth my money at all.

Product Review - Pop! Goes the Shadow by Elizabeth Mott

I received the Pop! Goes the Shadow by Elizabeth Mott as part of my Ipsy subscription. The color that it came in was as shown above, which was named champagne.

Given how pale it was, I was dubious as to what it would look like on my skin but it turns out that it's a marvelous color on me and I use it rather frequently for work to do a vintage looking makeup with just this eye shadow and some black eyeliner (usually just the top lid, though with the new haircut, I line the lower lid now as well). The eye shadow applies real easy and stays on well. It also has a nice shimmer to it. I'm very happy with it.

It retails at $12.99, which is comparable to a lot of fancier brands like MAC and Urban Decay and such. I would love to see the other colors live, especially Stars at Night. Would I be tempted to purchase this eye shadow again? Absolutely. My only issue is that it's really just available online or at some stores, none of which being in Indiana. At least it's available online as well.

The cure for (makeup) boredom

So, you've been feeling blah about makeup lately... or just simply feel like you've been doing the same thing over and over again. We can easily get in a routine and will develop go to habits because, well, when pressed for time or because you haven't had any coffee in your system, you'll need something that feels simple. But that can get boring after a while.

So here are a few ideas to shake things up.

Make use of your subscription

If you have a subscription (Ipsy, Birchbox, whatever), chances are that you may not have used everything that's in there (especially if you have had the subscription for a while as these things tend to accumulate). So you can definitely look into those samples/products and use them. Just pick one and make it work. It's not your normal shade? Make it work. That will ask you perhaps to do a little research to make it work or will at least fire up your creative juices. And if your push back is that it's a shade that totally doesn't work for you, unless you've tried it, don't dismiss it yet. Oftentimes, it's what you pair it with that makes a huge difference.

Go through your stash

Even if you're not a makeup junkie, chances are that you have some stuff that you haven't used in a while. Look at your drawer/makeup bag/wherever you store your makeup... towards the bottom... that thing... use that. ;) Now, you can use it how you used to (i.e., whatever routine you had developed with it [if any]) OR you can find another way to use it that will make it all fresh again.

Look at magazines/online photos/Pinterest

I have a board on Pinterest where I collate those pics that I stumble upon that I love the makeup in. Chances are, you may as well. When was the last time you looked at the board? There's inspiration right there. If you don't have such a board, well, you can start one... or if you don't want to be on Pinterest, there's the good old fashioned looking at magazines for inspiration or just do an online search or whatnot.

Online tutorials

I like to look at online tutorials every now and then and I have to admit that this is probably my #1 source for new inspiration. Well and, besides the fact that it will be makeup that's different than my usual go-tos, it will usually involve some different application than what I normally do so that's refreshing. Remember that, even if you don't have the exact product that they are using, if you have something that is close enough, it will work. And, sometimes, it's about trying a new technique and not so much about the color scheme.

Here are the ones that I follow:
Makeup Geek: https://www.youtube.com/user/MakeupGeekTV
Queen of Blending: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZr01YgztFcF6AWNaHp9HSA
panacea81: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUmC122H07lU5BWK7XZimhg
Hollywood Noir Makeup: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSrPeIs2bEjylHrnDK-nZvQ

On the topic of blushes...

I have thus far not really talked about blushes on this blog. The reason is simple: it's just not a product that I get gaga for. Now, don't get me wrong, I do wear blush on a daily basis but I just don't have gazillion of different colors nor do I feel the need to invest in more. 

Some staples

I have some staples that work for pretty much every makeup that I can conjure up.  Here are the colors that I do have:

• a pink toned blush;
• a red with brown undertone blush;
• a red with purple undertone blush;
• a peach colored blush.

And I find that that's pretty much what I need. I did end up getting two additional ones through the Ipsy subscription, which are baby pink and coral and I do like them. But I could have lived without them.

Investment

While, yes, the exact blush color will make a subtle difference for overall look of the makeup, I just find that it's such a small difference that it's not worth spending on different shades... I'd rather buy more eye shadows instead or lipstick. ;)

Now I would advise that, if you are going to invest in just a few shades, make sure that you do love them and consider splurging for a better brand or at least a better payload. Blush is a product that not only stays good for a long time but also a little goes a long way so the product will last you a long time.

Formulations

Blushes can come in different formulation: pressed powder, loose powder, cream, and liquid. I do like both pressed powder and loose powder formulations. The application is identical. When it comes to the cream and liquid formulation, I find that it's harder (for me) to apply. I've tried to apply the cream ones using a brush and that just didn't work well. I tried with my fingers (for both cream and liquid formulation) and it's hard to have a good application with those as well. I also don't quite like the finished look and feel of those formulations. So I just stick to the powder ones.

Application

You want to apply the blush on your cheek bone, from the tip of the bone (closer to the nose) towards the hairline.  Definitely start with soft brush strokes at first and add a little bit more as needed. Blushes tend to be very pigmented so it's super easy for it to apply much more intensely than you want. If that happens, you can use your hand to smudge it away. 

Product Review - Smoky Extravagant Mascara by Make Up For Ever

I received a sample of the Smoky Extravagant Mascara by Make Up For Ever in my birthday gift from Sephora (when you're a member of their reward thing, you receive a birthday gift).

Normally, it's hard to gauge how great a mascara will be based on a sample because they end up having a smaller version of the brush and it just doesn't do it justice (and it seems that 9/10, the brush is what makes a difference, at least for me). In this case, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the brush was big and probably about the size of what the full size version would be (based on the above pic, that seems to be true). Not only that but it has a great range from very big to very small on either end, making it extremely easy to work with. Just for that, I was almost sold.

The mascara formulation itself is pretty typical. I mean, I rarely find major differences between formulations and that may just be me. But it does a good job and is a strong black so that makes me satisfied with it.

When I said that I was "almost sold", the thing that is preventing me from saying fully sold is the price. It's not too terrible at $24 but since you need to replace your mascara every 3 months (y'all remember that, right?), I tend to be a little hesitant to pay that much for a mascara (because then that makes your total for the year at nearly $100 when you can easily do less than that). Now it IS a good enough product that it almost sways me into splurging for it. I do have a number of mascara samples left so will go through those (reviews to come) and then we'll see.

Product Review - Jesse's Girl Liquid Eyeliner

As part of the Ipsy subscription, I received a full size Liquid Eyeliner by Jesse's Girl in black. I wasn't too excited about trying it, based on my experience with their eye shadow palette (reviewed previously here). But, yanno, a liquid eyeliner can be hard to mess up.

They were touting that this product has a Japanese calligraphy-style brush and that got me intrigued enough to give a try on a day when I didn't really have anywhere to go. And, well, I was greatly surprised by how thin of a line I could easily get with this brush. The first time, it actually took me quite a few brush strokes to get the line to thicken. I've used it a few days in a row now and have gotten used to it where I can draw a thick or thin line at will.

One other advantage of this product, mainly through the brush, is that I could see using it to do tribal markings (which seem to be having a resurgence in the ATS(R), ITS, and Tribal Fusion scene) and having good control and be precise in doing them.

A disadvantage that I found is that, if you mess up, given that the formulation is waterproof, it's actually hard to correct the line as you can't just wipe it off. So if you're not used to working with a liquid eyeliner, this may not be the best product to try your hand at first (there's one by E.L.F. that is like $3 and is easier to manipulate for people new to using liquid eyeliners).

The price is also pretty good, at $6.99. As I mentioned above, there's an E.L.F. liquid eyeliner that you can find for $3 at Target so you could buy that. But I was smitten with the brush enough that I would "splurge" and get the Jesse's Girl product instead due to the precision that you can get. And, well, the waterproof formulation is a nice touch as well.