Eye Primer -Artdeco - Eyeshadow Base
solyacska 3/14/2008 9:50:00 AM
I can't remember how life used to be without eyeshadow base, but it must have been very unhappy. Ladies, everyone go buy eyeshadow base now, it's impossible to live without. Before I discovered Artdeco, I used a base by Manhattan and it made a huge difference to my looks already. Having run out of it, I opted for the slightly more expensive Artdeco (around 7 euros) and it's so worth it. It really does keep eyeshadow stay put for the whole day. When all the rest of the makeup on my face is sliding off by the evening, my eyeshadow is still holding up perfectly. Finally, a totally reliable makeup product... I just have one thing to add to the rave: the best way to apply it is with your fingertips. A brush will not blend it in perfectly and it will all end up cakey and greasy. I'd smooth my fingertips over the top of the container and smooth it on my eyelids. The warmth of skin makes the base melt a bit and it's so much easier to create an even surface. After you're done applying, let it dry for a minute or two, otherwise eyeshadow will go on clumpy. For more lasting power I always apply powder on top of the base - I use Artdeco's Fixing Powder (amazing thing) and the two work perfectly together. Eyeshadow base is the best investment in makeup. I'm buying cheap shadows like H&M or Manhattan and they all stay put and I'm sparing so much money and getting so much better results.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Gucci - Rush 2
solyacska 3/13/2008 8:45:00 AM
This will be quite personal, but Gucci has created the perfume that is ME. It might take you years to find your signature scent, and I'm so glad I have at the age of 19. I'm not an expert in perfume, so I won't even try to list all the notes and what not. The scent is clean and straightforward, but not easy to decipher at heart. The unique complexity - sometimes impossible to figure out - lets an insight into sweet and immeasurable depths from the surface. This fragrance oozes happines, contentment with oneself, dedication and a 'very together' personality. It's a mix of light cleanliness and intoxicating sexiness, both coming along at the same time and creating an atmosphere turning heads and drawing attention. This is the first perfume I found to be an extension of (my) personality, not an addition. There is nothing artificial about it, nothing with the desperate intention to turn an otherwise dull personality into enforced and uncomfortable sexiness. It lacks the dirty spicyness of womanliness pushed too early, and an exaggerated sweetness that shouts the desperation of trying to remain young on the exterior. It is nothing more and nothing less than you are, and still it extends you to your surroundings with astonishing honesty and thoroughness. There is no drama, no tricky seduction, no overstyled sweetness or spice to make you stand out by all means. And this is what makes you stand out. Being unique and being oneself is what this scent is communicating, in my opinion, with a hint of confident, almost playful sexiness sparkling through a balanced and solid personality. The packaging seemed hideous at first sight, and I didn't care. By now it has grown on me and it is as unique as the scent inside. I love the crisp and sexy pink and I love the feel of sleek and glassy plastic, and I love the 60's retro look. Catching a glimpse of it in my bag during the day makes me feel good, and it is such a rarity anyway that the packaging and the fragrance are in such harmony. The person I imagine wearing this perfume is professional, youthful, smart, emotionally intelligent, sharp-witted and radiates femininity and contentment with being a woman. Go smell it yourself, and if you are hooked, then it is for you. And if it is, I'd wear it regardless of the time of the day, because who doesn't want to wear their personality day and night?
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Moisturizers -St. Ives - Cucumber & Elastin Eye & Face Stress Gel ] [DISCONTINUED]
solyacska 3/13/2008 8:02:00 AM
My mom would use this several years back and I would always sneak into her bathroom and steal all her moisturizers, that got me try out this product. Then, it was a thick and opaque gel that totally mattified and tightened skin. It also made the application of anything on it impossible (I was stealing her makeup too:)) I came across Stress Gel again in a drugstore, desperately looking for a tightening moisturizer to somehow help get my face look 19 years old again and make all my studying-induced wrinkles disappear. I didn't really have high hopes, and here the product is quite expensive, but still, I was desperate (and tired). It does a pretty amazing job, actually. Right after putting it on first, it tightened my skin and made my black circles somehow less visible. I didn't experience much cooling, but my skin felt nice and tight and 'awake'. The formulation has been changed, now it is a runnier and transparent gel. It absorbs much better and gives a smoother surface (and smells nice and fresh). Really, every student should have this in the first place, it adds like 3 hours of extra sleep to your face and makes your eyes look more awake and sparkling. Another HUGE plus, and the main reason why I'll be repurchasing, is the mattifying effect. This is the first moisturizer that has kept my oilies at bay for a whole day. My makeup looks just as good at 3 pm as 7 am and is not ruined by oil breaking through. That is a reason enough to fall in love, for me. On the minus side, it doesn't add truckloads of moisture...When the tightening effect diminishes, you're left with a slightly dry and not-so-nicely tight skin. I'd recommend using another moisturizer UNDER it, by no means OVER. Anything over this (except makeup) will ball up and rub off in tiny clumps like eraser from paper. So gross. A nice light moisturizer applied under it, though, enhances the tightening effect and gives enough moisture, while the Stress Gel keeps down oil on the top. St. Ives products are generally good and give nice results - and they're cheap. They don't contain zillions of chemicals but mostly natural ingredients (in this one, cucumber is second on the list). I just feel that they're helping my skin instead of ruining it. Ooh, and St. Ives does not test on animals! Here's the list of ingredients: Water, Cucumber Extract, Hydrolyzed Elastin, Primrose Extract, Sunflower Extract, Sambucus Nigra Extract, Matricaria Extract, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Allantoin, Glyceryl Polymethacrylate, PVM/MA Copolymer, Propylene Glycol, Dimethicone Copolyol, Glycereth - 26, Sodium PCA, PPG-5 Ceteth-20, Carbomer, Benzophenone-4, Aminomethyl Propanol, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance, FD&C Blue No. 1, FD&C Yellow No. 5.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Liquid -Rimmel - Recover illuminating anti-fatigue foundation [DISCONTINUED]
solyacska 3/11/2008 1:42:00 PM
I’m really on two minds about Recover. As a foundation, it sucks pretty bad. No coverage, WAY too much glitter, dries excruciatingly slow and has a gross wet feel about it. I’ve never tried wearing it for a whole day, but lasing power cannot be anywhere close acceptable I guess. But it is exactly what I’ve been looking for as a foundation supplement/highlighter. It is amazing at adding a nice shimmer to very matte and heavy coverage foundations, it improves texture, gives better coverage due to the illumination and as Rimmel’s foundations are generally yellow toned, it neutralizes another foundation too pink or orange. TIP - Here’s how I use it: my HG is Max Factor Lasting Performance (see separate review), but it is way too matte and has a pinkish tinge to it. So, I mix like 2/3 LP and 1/3 Recover on the back of my hand and smooth on my face with a dry sponge. This totally gives the wow factor: super high coverage, lasting power, and Recover helps the matteness and flatness of any long-lasting or matte foundation. My face finally has dimensions. I’d get quite an ugly powdered down chalky look with the usualy amount of powder I use over the foundation. When I mix Recover in, no matter how much powder I put on, my skin still has a nice sheen, just like my skin under the makeup has. Oh, and Recover doesn’t seem to clog my pores, it is quite moisturizing, and improves the flakiness of any other foundation. Recover is marketed as the wrong product. It is a highlighter/illuminator, and it is doing quite a good job at it. And it’s cheap too, so why not give it a try to give that extra boost to your foundation. I’d definitely recommend it to use with any long-lasting foundation for a more natural effect.
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Stick -Max Factor - PAN - STICK
solyacska 2/23/2008 5:39:00 PM
Holy goodness of oil and wax, why, Max Factor, why? I bought Panstik because I read all the rave going on here, and I so shouldn't have. I see how it would work for someone with perfectly smooth and dry skin. But I have combo skin with quite a lot of unevenness, and this is just as bad as it ever gets with foundation. Really, how can you think that a mineral oil based foundation will work for combo/oily skin? It's like throwing a can of gasoline on your burning house. Okay, not that dramatic, but this is exactly what my skin doesn't need, more oil. I put this on in the morning, and I already noticed that it was going flaky and shiny on my forehead and nose. It also didn't seem to cover up major blemishes on my face, it just blurred them. If you apply it thickly, it does cover, but if you thin it out for less oil on your face, it has no coverage. I put powder on to set, what turned out to be, the look as close to a wax doll as I will ever get. Later, the stuff kept coming off my face everytime I touched it, it doesn't dry upon application, it's just a cream that sits on the skin. I could hear my pores suffocating and screaming for help. On me Panstik didn't have any lasting power despite the primer and fixing powder. Too bad, because the color, True Beige was exactly right. It's not that bad for an undereye concealer, but cakes up pretty terribly in the creases of the lower lid. Really, this is just colored oil pressed in a stick form. If you don't have dry and smooth skin, forget this (and anything oil-based). This foundation was sheer horror to wear and bear (if you can call anything like this sheer, lol). UPDATE: I've eventually found a way to use this. Applied to the lips with a sponge it gives the best nude lip look ever. My lips look fresh and rosy and moisturized, definitely not like concealer balling up on the nude look attemp. What is good as a lipbalm is perhaps not so good as a foundation...
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Foundations -Max Factor - MAX FACTOR LASTING PERFORMANCE
solyacska 2/19/2008 8:55:00 AM
This is as good as a foundation will ever get, I think. Everything fits about it - the consistency, the pigmentation, the lasting power, the look - except the color match. I'm not sure but it seems they are selling totally different color lines in different countries. Here in Hungary the lightest shade is 102 Pastelle, and good as it is, it practically turns red on my very pale yellow-toned skin. I think Fair might be the shade for me, but the nearest place I saw it was the UK. So, I settled for buying shade Light 1 in Germany, which might be the equivalent of Fair, god knows.... That said, all shades I've sampled are mostly pink or orange-toned, a major gripe of mine. So what I do is mix Lasting Performance with any Rimmel foundation in shade Ivory (currently Cool Matte Mousse) and there I have the perfect shade for my screwed, impossible skintone. Apart from the color thing, this is the best foundation I've ever had (and I've gone through both high and low end). The consistency is creamy and glides on skin almost effortlessly. There is hardly any need to blend, I just have the feeling that the foundation is blending itself :). I found that the best way to apply is to do it with fingers, like a moisturizer, and roughly distribute it all over your face. Then you can blend with a latex sponge to smooth it out and create an even surface. It dries relatively quickly, but still gives you plenty of time to play with it. The coverage is from mid to high, but it doesn't look plastered on by all means. I have a weird type of skin - almost every foundation looks perfect on my cheeks, but most of them appear just hideous on my nose and forehead, as if it was a different person's skin. Lasting Performance makes it all even and looks just the same on every area on my face. It hides redness and smaller unevenness almost perfectly while creating this your-skin-is-shining-through effect. If you want to get that porcelain doll look, go for this. Lasting power is similarly amazing. Applied without powder and primer it would last around 3-4 hours on the oilier parts of my face. I always use a moisturizer and a primer under it, and a transparent fixing powder on top, and that extends lasting power to 8 hours minimum. Primer is the secret to make all foundations work - if you use a good one, it extends the length of coverage, reduces cakyness and evens out skin. I'm currently using the primer side of MF Flawless Perfection foundation, and it works amazing with Lasting Performance. I apply foundation 7 am and the first time I MIGHT have to blot is around 3 pm. Never had this with any other foundation before, seriously. So, always use a primer, either under foundation or mixed with it, things are so much better with it. Lasting Performance can be a bit drying, that's true. If I leave it on all day, by the evening there is some peeling and dried out tight skin, so I try to take it off as soon as I get home. Using a good moisturizer and a primer in the morning will help this problem, though. Oh, and I have never had breakouts from this makeup, and I have very sensitive skin. Do not layer it and let your skin suffocate under foundation at home, and it won't break you out. That all said, give LP a go and you won't regret it. The colors are quite bad, but mixing with another, better colored foundation takes care of that (and you combine benefits). Everything else is just perfect, especially for the price. I have had a tube for 6 months and used it almost every day, and half of it is gone only. So, it works out fairly cheap.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Crème -Rimmel - cool matte mousse foundation [DISCONTINUED]
solyacska 1/25/2008 11:47:00 AM
I'm actually quite surprised that everyone finds this foundation so bad. IMO it's pretty good and it has become my everyday staple. Little queen of the drugstore:) A quick sum up: Pros - Rimmel is the ONLY drugstore brand that makes foundation colors for HUMANS. This means that most of their shades are yellow based (which humans tend to be), and the ones that aren't look pretty close to how I would imagine normal skin. In fact, this is why I'm mainly using Cool Matte - nothing else matches my super-pale yellow-based skintone (I have 100 Ivory). - It does last. Maybe not as well as some from the high-end, but it grabs the skin really nicely. After a few hours it doesn't settle into oily little globs and start to slip down on my combo skin. I use Artdeco Fixing Powder over it, and it lasts some 7-8 hours. - Doesn't start to oxidize and turn into orange streaks. - Provides a nice matte finish but looks natural at the same time. It is by no means one-dimensional and dull (like Dream Matte, for example), it just looks like me when I was 5 and had cute baby skin. - Packaging is cute (that's why I bought it) - little pot with black and blue label. Sweet to look at, and you can easily get out the last bits of product from the bottom too. - Coverage is around medium. Definitely not for huge pimples and such stuff, but it does turn uneven skin totally flawless. Cons - Dries super fast. I usually hurry with makeup, but not this much. - Application is ...um.... challenging. The first times I tried, I ended up with streaks and half-dried patches all over my face. With a little practice it becomes so easy though, when you and your foundation get in sync :) It's best with a makeup brush or a plastic sponge - anything that creates an even surface on the skin. I apply with a sponge and blend forcefully outwards until there are no streaks left, then gently pat my fingers over my skin to even it out some more. You can apply powder straight away, it won't turn it into a sticky mess. Oh, and I would recommend using a primer with Cool Matte, helps a lot with the application and the streaks if you can't get it right. - Absolutely cannot be layered. I tried and tried and tried and all I got was patches. Seems that the foundation takes up itself from your face leaving blank spots, while there will be small piles on the sides of the patches where you tried to blend. Not a nice look, so don't try layering. - It's not very cheap, I got it for 10 euros and one pot was enough for 5 weeks. It is not a creamy foundation, so it doesn't spread that well on the skin. You need to use more than with another foundation, so it can work out fairly expensive. So, I would definitely give Cool Matte a try or a second chance. Nice drugstore makeup, and with a little talent you can make it look real good. I'd give it a 3,5, but for the color match it gets 4 lippies.
8 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No