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.