Lip Treatments -Fusion Beauty - LipFusion Lip Plumping Gloss
kitty62 6/21/2005 11:20:00 AM
OK, I got sucked in with all the other girls huddled around Sephora's "Plumping Station." Cute. Ummm .. nice grapefruity-orangey scent. Skeptical, but it doesn't hurt to try, right? And it might be just what I need to fill in those dry-looking vertical lines on my lips that lip color always settles into.
Visually, I didn't notice much of a change. A littlle numbing, but not unpleasant. Cut to the next day, when after waking, I notice that my lips were the softest and smoothest they have ever been and I didn't need to trowel on the lip balm. I was eager to repeat the test. So I did. And again, and again .. four times I woke up with soft, impeccably moisturized lips. The beauty devil on my shoulder was egging me on. I was beginning to think this might be worth the (at the time) $36. Besides, going out of my way to keep trying this was getting expensive too (that free subway transfer doesn't work when you take a little detour above ground).
So I broke down and bought it. And sadly, after a couple months of trying, I'm still not able to reproduce that ultra-moisturizing effect, though it works about as well as a decent lip balm. As a lipstick primer, it's just terrible. It does keep the product from gathering into the lines, but the colors don't go on true. Wearing it alone is not an option since its slight milkiness draws color out of my lips. (UPDATE: I purchased this in clear, before the colors became available.) Now, I have been using this when I first wake up. After breakfast and coffee and shower and tooth brushing, it's gone, but my lips are soft and ready for the day.
Bottom line: This is a nice moisturizing gloss. More tenacious than a lip balm, less drying and sticky than most glosses. Worth the money only if you have it to burn.
P.S. The packaging is horrible. The wand is too long and flimsy, the cheap-looking silver cap gets cheaper looking within days. And I've seen some testers at Sephora in which there is clearly quite a bit of product left, but it's impossible to get out, so there's bound to be some waste.
UPDATE 7/7/05: This is too much trouble for so little benefit. It's gone into the trash.
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Lip Treatments -Too Faced - Lip Injection
kitty62 6/21/2005 1:37:00 AM
I got a sample packet of this with my sephora.com order and tried it just for kicks. There was enough for four applications. The ingredient that gives Lip Injection its kick is capsaicin, the same stuff that puts the hot in chile peppers. And that explains the intense burn a lot of reviewers describe. As long as I was very careful to keep it on my lips, not allowing it to stray onto the skin around them, I didn't have a problem. I just felt a mild sting that subsided in about 15 minutes. (I used a tiny amount on pointed cotton swab for a very precise application.) I didn't notice any plumping, really, but I loved the bright rosy color .. it's exactly the shade I've been searching for! No lipstick needed! The effect lasts a couple of hours.
So will I buy it? I'm tempted, just for the color boost. But I probably won't. Judging from the in-store testers, this looks like a sticky mess to apply with the brush applicator, and the candy-sweet scent is too much to bear. It was fun to try, though!
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Lotions/ Creams -Palmers - Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula
kitty62 5/31/2004 9:55:00 AM
I picked up the "concentrated cream" in the tube on a whim at the supermarket, without realizing it has so many fans here. Has anyone else noticed that, at least from the ingredient list, there appears to be very little actual cocoa butter in it? Cocoa EXTRACT, whatever that is, is listed second only to water. But there after the petrolatum, glycerin, mineral oil, and a handful of other oils and unpronounceables, is the cocoa butter. Still, I like the texture of this. It's nice as a hand cream .. it absorbs quickly, leaves very little greasy residue, and is actually quite soothing. But it doesn't leave my feet and legs as soft as, say, the Body Shop's butters, which have a high cocoa butter content. If I buy this again, I will seek out the fragrance-free version. The smell of this reminds me of cheap Easter candy, the foil-wrapped chocolate eggs with peanut butter flavored cream inside. (And I think the company that made those was named Palmer. Hmmm ..)
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Lip Gloss -MAC - Viva Glam V Lipglass
kitty62 3/26/2004 10:54:00 AM
Nice, but not indispensable. Bonnie2842's description of the color is dead-on. It lies somewhere between Lust (which is peachier) and Lovechild (which is plummier). It's a little lighter and warmer than BB Rose Sugar. I'm not sure why I don't love it .. maybe it's a little too muddy. I tend to ignore things that need another product to make them work, and this gloss is somehow not doing it for me on its own. (For that, I prefer both Rose Sugar and Lovechild.) It does look good over Whirl liner. And I'm happy to support the Viva Glam cause.
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Lipstick -MAC - girl next door
kitty62 3/26/2004 10:29:00 AM
Anyone looking for a bright, deep coral should try layering this over Alibi. Not a look for this time of year, but maybe just the thing for June or July. Until then, I won't be getting much use out of this. By itself, it doesn't show well on my pigmented lips. And what does show up makes my face look a little ashen. I was expecting more color, based on pictures and descriptions on this site. (I'm a sucker for anything called "coral-kissed rose.") I guess it's just not for me, but I'll keep experimenting. Check this out if you liked the idea of Jest but wish it were more sheer or had less gold shimmer.
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Lipstick -Sue Devitt - Matte Lipstick Suva
kitty62 3/13/2004 11:56:00 AM
So disappointed! Chalky, draining, and just plain blah. I keep trying it on hoping that it'll work, that I'll see the lovely rose-bronze tones others have rhapsodized about, but it's just not happening. All I get is a very-slightly peachy flesh tone with a whitish cast, presumably from the bit of shimmer. The formula is a nice balance of matte and creaminess that feels comfortable on, so that earns it the second lippie. This was my second Sue Devitt purchase, and most likely my last. I'm no longer tempted by her overpriced lipsticks.
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Eye Shadow -Paula's Choice - Soft Matte Eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown [DISCONTINUED]
kitty62 3/5/2004 10:33:00 AM
What would I do without this? It replaced MAC Mystery as my take-everywhere, do everything shadow. It's not as pigmented as comparable Bobbi Brown colors (closer to Mahogany than Smoke) so where those are only usable as liners, this is more versatiIe. It's a perfect filler color for my dark, ashy brows, great as a liner (better wet than dry), an under-eye smudge, even a crease color (applied more lightly). It does look almost identical in the pan to Smoky Gray (now, more fittingly, called Chocolate Kiss), but I find that this goes on deeper, more saturated.
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Lipstick -Revlon - Moisturous - Caramel Crush
kitty62 3/1/2004 11:54:00 AM
I, too, was lured by how pretty this looked on Jamie King .. also that these were on sale at CVS for $4.99. By itself, this barely shows up on my pigmented (rosy mauve) lips, so I'm using it more over other lipsticks as a gloss. I'm also experimenting with layering it over different liners to figure out how to deepen the color. (MAC Oak is close but not quite right.) Because I like the formula (light and non-drying with a UVA/UVB sunscreen), I'll look for other shades in this line that might suit me better.
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Lipstick -Jane - Lip Huggers in Browned Down Red
kitty62 2/27/2004 11:15:00 AM
So it's not red. Not even the browned-down variety. But for this price ($1.87 on sale at Target), I'm not going to argue. On me, this is a medium-toned rose. A little mauvey, a tiny bit berryish, with a semi-sheer, softly glossy texture. A nice bridge between the YLBBs (which do nothing for me) and the full-coverage darker brown-reds and plum-browns that I often wear in fall and winter. Quality is generally on par with lipsticks costing a lot more. Staying power is OK. Slightly waxy smell is forgivable. Packaging is flimsy, but they have to cut a corner somewhere. On a trip that included wine tastings, a wildlife preserve, museums, the opera, dive bars, and hip restaurants, this was the only lipstick I brought. Classy, unfussy, and versatile.
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Polishes -Revlon - Double Truffle
kitty62 2/15/2004 12:02:00 PM
This is limited edition from the yummy Winter 2003 Chocolush collection. It's a gorgeous color, rich semi-sweet chocolate brown with copper pearl and a bit of multicolor microglitter. It's the glitter that keeps me from loving this. It's subtle .. it shows up just as a shimmer when it's on .. but makes the polish tough to remove completely. Days after, there's still glitter in tiny cracks at the tips of my nails, even though I've used a base coat. I'll probably use this a couple more times, then give it away, as I do with most of my nail polishes. Revlon's polishes are formaldehyde and toluene free, a selling point for me, and they're almost always on sale at one of the drugstore chains. I paid $3.29. BTW, this is not a match for the lipstick of the same name, which is a sheer berry brown.
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Lipstick -Bobbi Brown - Shimmer Lipstick - Rosebud
kitty62 2/8/2004 8:05:00 PM
This is my favorite lip color for a dressy look with a smoky eye. It's a rose-beige with a ton of silver shimmer .. pale, but not a wash-out. An interesting blend of warm and cool. The color is similar to Bobbi's Rose Sugar gloss, but there's more shimmer here, less shine, and of course, no stickiness. (Good for when you expect to do some smooching!) I have this in both a standalone lipstick and in the Classic Face Palette. I prefer the application from the tube; the palette version goes on more sheer. On the (slightly) down side, Bobbi's lipsticks, have a perfumy smell that I don't love. Also, her shimmery colors don't wear evenly. One night, I ended up with a hard-to-remove line of silver-gray along the top of my lower lip. So a piece of advice: When reappying, you may want to remove any lipstick that has built up before slicking on a new coat.
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Lipstick -NARS - Mongolian Red [DISCONTINUED]
kitty62 1/31/2004 11:29:00 AM
I passed this up a couple times because the testers I'd tried were very dry and draggy. But I decided to give it another look when my local Sephora put out a fresh one and I needed to replace my beloved, now discontinued, Stila Callas. It won over a half-dozen other warm brown-reds in the running. It's a bit redder where Callas was more brown, but still not too bright and with no trace of the dreaded (for me, anyway) blue-pink-fuschia. Any brighter than this and my skin tends to look too ashy, my dark circles even darker. The texture is a bit dry (though not as dry as those old testers), but probably a fair trade-off for a lipstick that lasts at least half the day. When it does wear off the slight stain it leaves is, happily, soft red, not the magenta or bright-orange of other red lipsticks I've tried. Pricey ($22!), but acceptable for a staple color, which this likely will become. (Half a lippie was deducted for dryness, another half for price.)
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Eye Shadow -Stila - Bohemian Cafe Trio 2002
kitty62 1/22/2004 11:39:00 AM
I recently bought this on eBay for $35. A fair price for this very lovely and now hard-to-find trio. These are not browns, IMO, but very muted plums without the sometimes-harsh red tones of colors like Poise and MAC Trax. The lightest color, a silvery taupe with a plum-pink undertone, is the frostiest. I don't like it as an all-over wash, so I use it for a brow-bone and inner-corner highlighting. The other two have more subtle, twinkly shimmer. With the middle color on the lid and the darkest wet to line upper lids and softly smudged on the lowers, this is a sexy, quietly dramatic look for my dark brown eyes. Nice for day or night. The colors also look great with a separate black, charcoal, or dark brown liner (like Bobbi Brown gel).
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Eyeliner -Bobbi Brown - Sepia Ink Long Wear Gel Liner
kitty62 1/17/2004 10:50:00 AM
I'm pretty spastic when it comes to eyeliner, so I've always stuck with powder shadows and a push brush, where precision is less an issue. I was so impressed with the results others got with this so I gave it a try, and .. .. .. it sat in my cabinet for months. When I finally took it out again to experiment with a couple different brushes and effects, I hit on one that worked. I put just a tiny bit on my MAC 266 brush, dab it onto a tissue or my hand, then wedge the product into my upper lash line, either from above, below (I pull the lid up), or both. That gives me an illusion of thick lashes and natural-looking definition. I also discovered a surprise: applied more lightly, it's a nice brow filler that looks a bit less flat than powder shadows. It does wear well, though it's not absolutely smudgeproof, and the color is rich and deep. I'd love to be able to paint on a more dramatic line with this, so I guess I'll just have to practice, practice, practice.
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Lip Treatments -MAC - Tinted Lip Conditioner - Plum Perfect
kitty62 1/17/2004 9:45:00 AM
Thank you, MAC! At last, a tinted lip balm that really tints and is really a balm. I'm not positive that the .97% titanium dioxide qualifies this SPF as broad spectrum, but that's .97% more than others offer. (Bobbi Brown and Kiehls come to mind.) Fans of Sheer Plum and Spice it Up will like this color, which others have already described well. It takes my lip color up a few notches and is perfect on days when I feel like going otherwise makeupless. The texture is nice: not too oily, not too waxy. Worth every cent. ($13.50 for .5 oz, and the empty is good for Back to MAC!)
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