Mascara -LORAC - Publicity Stunt Lashes
lslouffm 7/28/2011 11:29:00 PM
I guess if your publicity stunt is trying to look like you didn't apply any makeup (and not in a good way) this would be your mascara. I bought the brown, hoping for a more natural day-to-day look. But when I put it on, it doesn't look like I put any mascara on at all -- it doesn't add anything to my natural lashes. The brush is skimpy and doesn't grab my lashes; I end up using the end to apply this stuff lash by lash. And even then, it doesn't look like I've put anything on. Yet I have these weird tubes that I can pull off my lashes at the end of the day -- it's strange that I've got these tubes of mascara on my lashes, yet it doesn't look like I've put on mascara and I get none of the benefits of mascara. Why bother? I also can't figure out the point of the comb. It's not like this stuff is clumpy in the least -- it barely goes on your lashes. Actually, a clumpy mascara would be better than this one -- those I have to apply lash-by-lash with the end of the brush, too, and at least then my lashes are better defined and look longer. This mascara doesn't help lengthen your lashes, so brushing it out doesn't help; the comb is a waste, and frankly misleading. I did better with Maybelline Great Lash in brown, and that's not a great mascara but at least it cost a fraction of what this one did.
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Mascara -Maybelline - Volum' Express One by One
lslouffm 7/28/2011 11:16:00 PM
I've been through a lot of mascara in the past few years, trying to find one that will work well. The mascara endcap at Sephora knows me well, but I found most of those clumpy, and the tubes dried out quickly. Maybelline Volume Express was recommended in a feature I read, and it was cheap enough that I thought I'd give it a whirl when my tube of Smashbox mascara dried out within about two months. For me, the brush makes this mascara. The rubber brush really does grab every lash, so it's much easier to apply and does a better job of defining. I haven't had any problems with it drying out quickly, after having it for a couple of months, either. It hasn't been clumpy, and it stays on all day without disappearing. It doesn't maintain the curl in my lashes all day, but then, I haven't yet found a mascara that will -- including all the mascaras that allegedly curl your lashes. So far, I'd say this mascara is as good -- and actually in many cases better -- than all the mascaras I've tried in the past few years. Given the price, I'm likely to stick with it.
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Lip Treatments -La Roche Posay - ceralip
lslouffm 1/19/2009 12:57:00 AM
I haven't been impressed with the staying power of Ceralip. I was using Kiehl's lip balm before, but thought I'd try Ceralip because it was easier to get it (available at my local drug store, so I didn't have to make a trip downtown and deal with the SAs at Holt's to get it). Ceralip feels fine when it goes on -- creamy and moisturizing. But 15-20 minutes later, I find that it's evaporated, with no visible benefit to my lips. If I wanted to reapply every 20 minutes, this would be a great lip balm. But what I wanted was something I could put on before bed to moisturize my dry winter lips. Ceralip doesn't work for that -- it's gone by the time I fall asleep. I'll likely go back to Kiehl's after this -- the difference in price is very small, and Kiehl's stays on my lips longer.
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Treatments -La Roche Posay - Effaclar K
lslouffm 1/19/2009 12:46:00 AM
I saw a blurb in British Vogue that Natalia Vodianova uses this to clear up her pores the day before a shoot. I should know better than to buy off the beauty recommendations in Vogue, but this was cheap enough that I thought I might as well try it -- $20 was far better than the $60+ that pore-refining treatments usually go for. Did it minimize my pores? No. It did take some of my smaller blackheads and make them into whiteheads, but my bigger pores / blackheads remain ever the same. I've been using it for over a month, and I see no measurable difference in the pores on my nose other than that a few small blackheads have turned into pimples, which doesn't generally happen. What Effaclar does do is clear up acne other than blackheads quickly (hence the 3 rating). When I used it on the deep, underskin acne on my chin, or on the whiteheads I sometimes get there, it cleared them up in a matter of a day or two. This is better than most acne treatments, but a little worse than normal toothpaste (which my chemist family members have always recommended as the best acne treatment). But I'm still on the lookout for something that will work as a pore minimizer (and no, those $60+ treatments I've tried also didn't work, which was why I thought I'd give Effaclar a spin).
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Treatments (Eye) -Mario Badescu - Ceramide Herbal Eye Cream
lslouffm 12/4/2008 11:29:00 PM
I've been really happy with this eye cream. I'd been using Kiehl's eye cream for a decade, but have been increasingly turned off since they were bought by L'Oreal and started pushing new creams with meaningless "miracle" ingredients. Those creams do nothing at all but cost 3x more than the regular stuff. For the record, I'm in my 30s and I have a few lines, and would love to seem them minimized. I went by Nordstrom and they gave me samples of five high-end eye creams, all of which claimed to eliminate lines, and none of them did anything but moisturize my eye area. Logically I knew none of this stuff ever really reverses aging, but I still held out hope that maybe it was true for the high-end stuff. Nope. One of the local shops carries Mario Badescu, and I've been really happy with the eye cream I bought. Yes, it claims like all the rest to "smooth" fine lines, and of course it doesn't really. But it moisturizes far better than the others I tried. It also costs less because they're not pushing hyped miracle ingredients. And a little goes a long way, which makes me very happy. I have combination skin, and I haven't had any trouble with breaking out using this. Yes, I can still feel it on my skin in the morning when I put it on the night before, but I see that as a plus -- I feel like my eye area has been moisturized / protected all night, because the cream didn't evaporate right away. I wear a little during the day and haven't had any trouble with it under makeup; it's not any different for me than wearing moisturizer under foundation. I thought it was well worth the money, especially compared to all the other eye creams the same shop was selling for 2 to 3 times as much money.
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Lipstick -Kevyn Aucoin - The Expert Lip Tint
lslouffm 12/4/2008 9:18:00 PM
I won't buy other lipstick anymore -- no other lipstick performs for me like these. I have ThelmaDora and Dantique; I'm almost out of Dantique and the local store in Vancouver doesn't have it, so I'm going to have to search high and low online. ThelmaDora is a fantastic light pink / beige, and Dantique is the only red I can wear, found after a long search for red lipstick (others were either too blue or too orange for my skin). Neither of these comes off on my teeth -- but every other lipstick I've ever owned has. I've found them to be long-wearing (especially the ThelmaDora, which is newer). Both are moisturizing, although they don't repair chapped lips (nor are they meant to). No other line comes close in terms of colour, texture, or durability for me. Another plus is that they age well; most other lipsticks I have, no matter how expensive (e.g., Trish McEvoy, Stila) get that waxy, grandmotherly lipstick smell and consistency after 6 months or so. Not so with these; my Dantique is 2 years old and still a joy to apply & wear.
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