Benefit Stay Don't Stray

That's right, I'm back with some more Benefit products. Somehow, I cannot resist the adorable packaging. And they always have mini sets for great values. Today, I want to share my thoughts on Benefit's Stay Don't Stray, an eye shadow primer. I have the mini version.

This is the first eyeshadow primer I've tried, which is surprising, considering I do have oily skin and eyelids. However, I've never really wanted to invest in primers before, whether for face or eyes. But this has definitely made a difference.

The color is a light peachy, pink and just wearing the primer on it's own instantly brightens up my eyelids. Then when I wear shadow on top, it makes the colors pop and be more vibrant. And yes, it does make the shadows last longer. Eyeshadows that are usually completely gone within 8 hours, last for the whole 8 hours before starting to fade.

I'm not sure if this is the best product out there, but it definitely makes me want to try out more primers, but still, only if its a mini size in a value pack.

Clinique Stay Matte Foundation

The Clinique counter at the Macy's store in my mall happened to be giving away free samples of this foundation. At the time, they were only giving away one shade; if you wanted to be color matched, they could do that for you but it would take some time. We were just walking by, but me being the beauty junkie that I am, I couldn't resist picking it up, even though it was a little to light for me.

This foundation has a very wide selection of colors, with 20 shades. I picked this up during the summer, so this shade was actually 7-8 shades lighter than what I would wear. Now however, it is much closer to my skin color, but still a little too light. I've only been wearing this recently because of the color issue, but I can say that it lasts for a good 8 hours. Since it is the drier months, I don't get as oily and I don't neccessarily need a finishing powder. I definitely did not need one with this.

It has a very thick, creamy texture and it is very hydrating. I've been using my e.l.f Powder brush to apply, and it goes on quite well. One thing I learned the hard way is that with this foundation, a little goes a long way. Unlike some other foundations that I've tried, you only need a tiny dab to spread out over your entire face. I think that's due to the fact that it is so thick. With that being said, even this tiny sample size will probably last me well over a month, maybe two or dare I say 3? And that is wearing it everyday, which I don't do...

So if you're in the market for a new foundation and you have oily skin, you may want to try out this foundation. I recommend going to a counter and getting color-matched and getting a sample for free. I'm sure the sample will last a while so that you can really test this out with your skin and see if it works. Even people with drier skin can try this out in the summertime when we all tend to get shinier than usual.

This foundation can be found at any Clinique counter or online at Clinique.com. A full size is $23, which is a bit expensive so again, I strongly suggest going to get a sample first.

e.l.f. Powder Brush

Today, I'm going to talk about a makeup brush by e.l.f. I've heard a lot of good things from the e.l.f. studio line in general and I decided to start off with a brush because I've been wanting a buffing type brush for a while now.

It's not like a typical stippling brush since it's not duo fiber, but it is very dense and the bristles are very soft. I also love the finish that this brush gives. When using this brush to apply foundation, I find that my foundation applies smoothly and gives a soft focus finish. Ever since I've gotten this brush, I've been using it instead of a makeup sponge like I usually do.

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I've much preferred the Revlon Colorstay over the Covergirl Clean foundation, but when using this brush, even the Covergirl foundation makes my skin look amazing.

This brush line is sold at Target for $3.

Victoria Secret Beauty Rush Lip gloss

Victoria Secret's makeup line often goes unmentioned in the virtual beauty community, but that's what the "Angels" use they look good don't they?

I decided to try out some lip glosses from their Beauty Rush line. I got two colors:

Passion Fruit Pop - a rosy-nude shade with shimmer
Cherry Bomb - bright red with sparkles

The formula is slightly sticky, but it is not too bad. The pigmentation is not that great, though it is buildable. The one thing I personally couldn't stand from these lip glosses was the smell. The Cherry Bomb one had an artifical cherry scent that reminded me of Children's Liquid Tylenol. Passion Fruit Pop also has some artificial fruit smell, but it smells somewhat like punch and that smell isn't tied to any bad childhood memories, so it is bearable.

Victoria Secret usually has some testers out, so if you can, smell these before you buy them because you may be in for a bad surprise...

These are available in Victoria Secret stores or the online VS store for about $9. Sometimes, all the Beauty Rush makeup is on sale, mix and match, either 2 for $15 or 4 for $20.

Lancome Lipsticks

I recieved these Lancome lipsticks as gift with purchase. They aren't sold separately, but I thought I'd still review them, in case you are going to pick up something else by Lancome a free gift option was this type of lipstick.

I have two shades, Vintage Rose and The New Pink.

Vintage Rose (top swatch) is a rosey-nude that matches my natural lip color. It is mostly mate, but does give a bit of a sheen when applied to the lips.

The New Pink (bottom swatch) on the other hand is a berry pink with small specks of shimmer in it. It is much more pigmented on my lips, but it isn't too daring that I couldn't wear it for a normal day out.

Swatched on the skin they look very similar, except for shimmer...

However, swatched on white paper, you can see the difference better. Obviously, no one's lips are going to be as pale as paper, but depending on how pigmented your lips are, you can decide which colors you like/will actually show up. And Vintage Rose looks quite nude/brown.

The formulation on these lipsticks is quite good; they are definitely not drying, but not particularly moisturizing either. They do leave the lips with a slight sheen, so you don't necessarily need a balm underneath or a gloss on top.

Revlon Colorstay Foundation

Long time, no blog! I did my two posts for the month early in September and then October has a been a whirlwind of craziness, both good and bad.

Anyways, today I've have my review on the famous Revlon Colorstay foundation which has received rave reviews across bloggers and vloggers across the internet. I've got to say, I'm in to join the crowd.

This foundation comes in two formulas, one for dry skin, and one for Combination/Oily skin, which is what I have. I have to stay it actually keeps my skin matte for up to 6 hours. And with a powder, it'll stay matte for up to 8 hours. I have to say that this foundation really stays put on your throughout the day. On good days, when my skin is behaving nicely, I'll say I can get a full 12 hours wear without having to touch up too much. But normally I'll get about 8 - 10 hours.

Not only does this foundation stay on your face for a long time, it gives full coverage, but doesn't look cakey on the skin. I've heard some people say that you need to work with it quickly, because it dries fast, but I personally have not had that problem. I usually pour a bit onto my fingers, and rub it into my skin, and I find it works great and is quite buildable. But you don't need to use too much product because it really does give great coverage.

If you can tell from the picture below the consistency is quite liquidy, making the foundation very buildable.

Revlon Colorstay foundation is sold for aroun $9 - $11 wherever Revlon cosmetics are sold.

ULTA Eyeliner

I picked up this glitter eyeliner from Ulta during holiday season last year. I thought it would be nice to change up my eyeliner from my regular black and it has a little bit of glitter for some extra oomph.

 

The glitter is actually quite chunky. But my main problem with this product is that when I swatched it on my hand, it creates a nice line and is fairly creamy, but when trying to apply to the eyes, it is harder and tugs at the skin. This makes it hard to build up, and this eyeliner is not very pigmented with one swipe.

 

Now I did get this eyeliner in a 5 for $5 sale that Ulta generally runs around Black Friday/Christmas shopping season. So for the price, I guess I really shouldn't complain. But in my opinion, there are much better eyeliners for a slightly higher price. And if you are going for the 5 for $5 sale, I'd recommend getting some of those face masks or the mini botles of CHI silk infusion.

Maybelline Pulse Perfection Mascara

While Maybelline mascaras are quite popular, I haven't heard too much in the virtual beauty world about this one: Maybelline's Pulse Perfection Waterproof Mascara.

 

The tube is classy: black with gold lines across it. The brush is a fiber brush with small bristles and is slightly thinner in the middle than its ends. And the interesting thing about this wand....it rotates! That's right, there is a little button at the end of the wand, so the brush can automatically rotate while you sweep it across your lashes. Interesting, but honestly I thought it was gimmicky.

I found this mascara to give A LOT of length. Seriously I was amazed and my lashes looked ridiculously long with just one coat. It also gives quite a bit of definition as well. Unfortunetly for me, it doesn't give much volume which is what I mainly look for in a mascara because my lashes are already a decent length.

I found this mascara on clearance at Rite-Aid for $2, but regularly this product retails for about $10 wherever Maybelline cosmetics are sold.

Hard Candy Glamoflauge Concealer

Can I just start off with how cute the packaging is? Hard Candy, like Benefit has amazing packaging for their products.

Now, onto the review. Hard Candy Glamoflauge Heavy Duty concealer comes in a squeezy-tube which I like since it makes it easier to use up more of the product. It is available in 3 shades: light, medium, and dark. I really wanted to try this out for a long time so when I went to Walmart, I just picked up the only shade that was there: light. The shade actually works great for my under-eye area. A little bit of this product goes a long way and it really brightens up the area, so I'm glad I got this shade. However, it is too light to use for covering up dark spots on my face, so I'm going to have to keep checking my Walmart to see if they ever come in stock with a medium. I also find this product to be a bit dry and thick in consistency.

And look! Hard Candy doesn't test on animals. Always a plus.

This product also comes with a small pencil concealer, which in my opinion is much creamier and goes on more smoothly. Due to the consistency, or the possibility that the pencil comes in a slightly darker shade, I can use this to cover up my dark spots which it does extremely well.

Overall, I'm really impressed with this product and the fact that you use such little product every time makes this really worth the money, even though it isn't that expensive.

Hard Candy products are sold exclusively at Walmart and you can pick up this concealer for $6.00. 

Covergirl Clean Makeup

I decided to try the Covergirl clean liquid foundation and pressed powder. I bought them in the shade 545 warm beige.

The consistency of the foundation is fairly thick and goes onto the skin smoothly. I found it worked best when applied with a makeup sponge or with fingers and then buffing it out with a brush. When I tried applying it from the back of my hand straight to my face with a brush it went on uneven and was harder to blend out.

As far as controlling oil, the foundation lasted for about 4 hours with powder during the summer. (Keep in mind I live in a hot, humid place.) However I during the colder months it lasted about 7-8 hours with minimal shine. Almost double the wear time! My skin just changes quite a bit in the seasons. I think if you have combo-oily skin then this will work for you well, but if you have vey oily skin you may want to skip this one. However, it's not that expensive: it averages from $5 - $6 wherever Covergirl cosmetics are found.

The powder costs about the same and comes in a blue compact for the oily skin range. As you can see from the pics I have almost used it up. I found that again, like the foundation, this powder seemed to last on me longer in the winter than in the summer. My skin is more on the extreme side, but if you have normal or combo/oily then it should work.



I also tried the Covergirl Invisible concealer in the shade Honey, although I don't have pictures of that since I finished it up and threw away the packaging about a month ago! The concealer works great for under-eye circles, but it does not do a good job of covering up dark spots on the face. It comes in a tube with a sponge tip applicator and is sold for around $5.00.

Battle of the Balms

I know it's summer, but I still use lip balm every single day. It's just a habit. Of course, since it's warmer and my lips don't get super dry and chapped I just use lip balm once in the morning and once right before bed.


The first one I want to talk about is a favorite of many beauty bloggers/vloggers. That's right, EOS, that famous colorful egg-shaped balm. I must say, I'm a big fan of the packaging. It's so cute and small and different!

The first one I bought was Honeydew, which smells amazing, and it's not overpowering. More recently, I got Summerfruit though the smell of this is really weird. I don't know what it is, but a fruity smell does not come to mind. The formula is slightly waxy and there is no taste. It feels like you're putting a layer of something to lock in the moisture already on your lips, but I don't feel like it adds extra moisture. I think this is a great balm to apply before applying a lipstick or other lip product, but for me it's not strong enough on it's own, especially during the winter.

EOS lip balms retail for around $3.29 at Ulta or Walmart.


Next up: Burt's Bees! This brand is well known across the country. I got a 4-pack tin during the holiday season that came with: the original, mango butter, pomegranate oil, and the one with açaí berry extracts.

 

Burt's Bees formula is more moisturizing so I like it better for all day wear in the winter or nighttime wear for the summer. No taste again, but the original smells minty and the others smell like the special ingredient they have. Oh, and they tingle! One thing about this balm is that if I wear under brightly colored lipsticks, I feel like it makes the lip color tamer, which is a good or bad thing depending on how you feel.

Burt's Bees lip balms retail from $2.99 - $3.99 in most drugstores, Walmart and Ulta.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the fresh SUGAR lip treatment. I have small sample sizes of the original and the rose tinted one. Although it says lip treatment, it doesn't feel super heavy on the lips, nor does it tingle. It is very moisturizing and feels very luxurious to put on but the hefty $22.50 price tag for a full size is not so pretty. However, they are one of the few lip products I know that have SPF 15 in them, so that's a plus. These can be found at Sephora.

Another lip balm I'd like to mention as my all time favorite so far is the Aquafina lip balms. I don't have any pictures because I don't own any of these right now since I'm trying out other ones, but I LOVE them. They are so moisturizing that I'd just have to apply once in the morning and once in the night, even during the dead of winter. Not kidding, these helped my lips stay perfectly smooth throughout last fall and winter. I definitely noticed a difference when I ran out of these and started using EOS.

Here's a link of the pack that I got, though I bought mine at Walmart. However, I don't think Walmart sells these online.

http://www.dollargeneral.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11896049&CAWELAID=1198527849

Benefit's Some Kind of Gorgeous Foundation

As with most Benefit products, this one has cute packaging as well. It's supposed to be an old timey record. I got a mini size of this with my Benefit Tan About Town set. It also came with a mini Badgal Lash which I reviewed in my last post and the Hoola bronzer.

Starting off with the positive: along with the nice packaging, this foundation feels really light on the skin but gives great coverage. I find it worked best when applied with my fingers. I tried using a brush and a sponge didn't really like the outcome.

I'm sad to say the good stops there. This product is a cream-to-powder foundation which I personally don't like because you have to blend it in really quickly or it leaves dry, uneven patches. It makes the product really hard to apply. Even when using fingers, it starts to dry out as soon as it touches the skin so when you apply it turns out to be more of a powder.

And the biggest issue I had with this foundation was that it made me break out very intensely. I didn't realize at the time that this was the cause of my breakout, because I was changing up my skincare routine. However, I stopped using this foundation for 2 months and then randomly decided to put it on again one day and my skin immediately starting breaking out.

If you have oily, acne-prone skin be cautious when trying out this product.

Benefit's BADgal Lash Mascara

I am a total sucker for cute packaging and that's probably the main reason why I want to try so many of Benefit's products. Benefit's BadGal Lash comes in a black tube with sparkles and pink letters.

Benefit emphasizes that this is a volume-building mascara, which I completely agree on. The brush is big and thick with bristles helping to add volume to your lashes. The formula is very light and doesn't clump at all.

My only issue with this mascara is the price tag. It's $19.00 for a full size which is a bit expensive considering that you can get great mascaras for under $10.00. I honestly think this mascara gives a very similar effect to Maybelline's The Falsies mascara, which is much cheaper.

Lancome's Hypnose Drama Mascara

I managed to get a sample size of Lancome's Hynose Drama mascara and I love it! Let's start out with Lancome's claims for this mascara, directly from their website:

Benefits

• Unique, oversized brush provides full contact with lashes for ultimate volume
• Delivers maximum lash coating with immediate load gives lashes instant volume
• Fluid, creamy gliding formula evenly coats lashes from root to tip for buildable volume
• Promises intense, deep color
• Fragrance-Free. Ophthalmologist Tested. Allergy Tested. Safe for contact lens wearers.

Technology

• New oversized S-shaped curve full contact Convex Brush
• Texturizing Complex formula with highly saturated waxes
• Triple Coating System enriched with Pro Vitamin B5
• Deep Carbon Black Pigments

The fact that the brush is curvy and has really large bristles helps to volumize your lashes, literally with just one coat. The formula is on the heavy side, but that might be because of the amazing vitamins that are in it! If you put on too many layers of this, it does start to get clumpy, but honestly you really only need 1 or 2.

As for color payoff, my lashes are already black, but I can still see a difference in the intensity of the color.

Now, the frangrance-free claim has me raising my eyebrows a bit. I do smell a plastic-y scent, but it isn't that strong and it only comes from the tube not the wand.

Overall, it's probably my favorite mascara that I've tried. I just wish it was cheaper. But like all department store brands, it comes with sleek packaging and a hefty price tag: $26.00.

Maybelline's The Falsies Mascara

I bought this mascara in a Maybelline kit for $5 at Walmart during the after Christmas sale. It came with this mascara, a full size Line Express Eyeliner in Black and a quad in Charcoal Smokes. It was such a great deal!

The claims from the Maybelline website:

- Patented Spoon Brush fans out lashes from corner-to-corner, while the Pro-Keratin formula instantly builds volume without clumping
- Unique flexible wand helps to lift and separate lashes to provide the look of 300% more visible, fuller lashes, no gaps from any angle

Onto the review part...this mascara is amazing! One swipe and you get intense volume and a little bit of length. The formulation is a bit on the wet side but it's not heavy on your lashes at all. Also, I never curl my lashes but I feel like using this mascara helps add a little bit of curl to mine.

The wand, like mentioned in Maybelline's claims, is like a flattened brush on one side with a curved shape which helps you get really close to the roots of your lashes.

Regularly, this mascara costs about $5-$7 at drugstores so it's a great deal for a great mascara.

Rimmel Volume Accelerator Mascara

Happy April Fool's Day! Funny, how I decide to embark upon this blog journey on the day that pranks, jokes, and lies run wild. But I plan to take this seriously. Or as seriously as my budget allows. So I decided to start off with product reviews. Not just any products, though. Mascaras.

Mascaras are a beauty product that I didn't take seriously until about November of last year, when I bought my first one. Thankfully, I've been blessed with naturally long lashes that are decently voluminous, though I do like the look that mascara gives. But I prefer mascaras with voluminizing formulas because too much extra length makes my lashes look kinda creepy.

Now for my first ever mascara I bought: Rimmel Volume Accelerator.

At that point in time, I was obsessed with Rimmel products and so, after doing a bit of research and confirming that this mascara did get quite a lot of good reviews, I decided to go for it. It costs about $9 at my local CVS.

The packaging is sleek and pretty, but it is prone to fingerprinting, especially on the cap. It also comes with Rimmel's signature crown on the top.

This mascara claims to make your lashes 10x fuller. I don't know about 10x but while it does voluminize your lashes well, it takes 3-4 coats to get there. It also lengthens my lashes a decent amount as well.

The brush is flat on one side and then curves on the other. The bristles gradually get larger on the curving side. This helps makes your outer lashes thicker and longer which gives the appearance of wider, larger eyes.

It's halfway between a wet and dry mascara. The formulation is great, but the fact that you have to put on so many coats makes it feel heavy on my lashes. And when I wear it, you can definitely tell I'm wearing mascara. No natural looking lashes there.

Overall, Rimmel's Volume Acclerator is a decent mascara that does give volume and length. It may be more suitable for those of you with short, light colored lashes.