Lipstick -Prestige - Monaco
CraxFactor 9/1/2008 9:14:00 AM
I hate the glitters, but this cheap lipstick became my HG red. Now I can't find it anywhere to buy. Good luck locating a non-ugly Prestige lipstick twice. Every place I go the selection is different and more hideous. Damn you, Rite Aid, and all your false promises.
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Cleansers -Aveeno - Ultra-Calming Foaming Cleanser
CraxFactor 9/1/2008 9:07:00 AM
I am back in skincare freefall again after a bad sunscreen reaction this summer. My chin started festering like crazy and everything was oily and dry from RetinA. Usually I irradiate myself with oil control products, but I picked this up instead and went back to Differin for a while. It's gentle enough, and when followed by a light moisturizer nothing feels tight. Not overtly moisturizing itself, this is just a non-harsh cleanser. It brought my skin out of reactive mode before the end of wedding season, that's what counts. My boyfriend's gigantic extended family has annoyingly good skin; at every wedding reception I could just see them worrying about me polluting the grandchildren with my bad genes, unhealthy lifestyle and impure thoughts. At least that will keep the marriage pressure off of US for a while.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Highlighters -MAC - Hullaballoo
CraxFactor 7/2/2008 12:56:00 PM
CCS discount impulse buy based on my friend saying it looked good. In reality it doesn't look like anything. Damn you, peer pressure! The surface of this is a satiny shimmery peach with the Balloonacy imprint, but it’s a sprayed-on coating – underneath it’s kind of a dusty baby-peach with a brownish cast. There’s certainly lots of it, but it’s not ghetto fabulous or anything. Too pale and dusty for my taste, a little drugstore-grade honestly. I need blush that makes me look less peaked – this is more like something you would give a child to play “dress up” and smear all over herself when you didn’t want her to look like she had makeup on.
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Cleansers -Neutrogena - Oil-Free Acne Wash
CraxFactor 5/28/2008 8:48:00 PM
This was too drying in my teens, it makes your skin squeaky clean and I was still oily as hell. However now I use it twice a day. Which is beyond disgusting because really this stuff is very, very harsh. I've been on retinoids and although I know it's a terrible idea to chemically blast my face like this, it seems to work. Oh but I did learn to wash first and rinse, then use a washcloth to ex-foliate. Otherwise your skin dries like crazy; this peels the loose stuff off, for the most part. However if you scrub WITH the soap, you will be able to see the blood pulsing through your translucent skin, and that's no good. Rinse then scrub. I use the Walgreens brand.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Mascara -Revlon - Lash Fantasy Mascara
CraxFactor 5/28/2008 8:39:00 PM
This primer looked like frosting on my eyelashes. Then of course the mascara clumped like crazy and gave me dirtface. Never once was able to put it on without clumping and smearing. Brush didn't help. Maybe I'm using this wrong. Tossed the f*cker..
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Mascara -Maybelline - Define A Lash Waterproof
CraxFactor 5/28/2008 8:32:00 PM
This is my long-sought Zaubermascara!!!! It's very light, never clumps, and totally non-mascara-y looking. Stays put, and I'm a colossal greaseball. No problem to take it off with salicylic acid-based face soap, for me. This is so natural-looking I've even been experimenting with doing my lower lashes, although my wonder-woman idolizing child welfare boss once told me that's a big no-no. Right now I'm feeling guardedly optimistic that I can pull it off as a "personal style," rather than "eccentric," "tacky" or just "poor and tasteless." I think it looks very Zooey Deschanel. For reference I already have good, full lashes but also out of control oily skin. The kind that will give me zits until I die, but never wrinkles. An appreciative Crax-y golf clap to Maybelline.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Cover Girl - Instant Cheekbones Contouring Blush - Peach Perfection
CraxFactor 4/22/2008 3:05:00 PM
Love the makeup trend towards warm scarlet peach. This is my new favorite blush, released just in time now that I cannot afford to consider those gorgeous $25 NARS compacts. I reject the notion that this could replicate cheek bones - two of the colors are deep enough that I would only ever put them on the apples of my cheeks anyway. But I can't complain, because it's like three blushes in one, and cheap as Hell! Cons: It wears off almost immediately, but I just re-apply continuously in the bathroom. Why do all the Cheekers smell like cloying cinnamon talcum powder? Useless brush.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Prestige - Lipstick (new packaging/formula)
CraxFactor 2/13/2008 8:34:00 AM
These Lippenstifte are more like lip stains. They are great for color and look relatively natural because they're pigmented but not thick - like a stain. I usually wear chapstick over them so they're not drying. And between my coffee, prescriptions and smoking I am the QUEEN of cracking, peeled-grape lips. I started buying Prestige because Rite-Aid was having two-for-one sales, and also it's very easy to get them in and out of the shrink wrap without 'opening' it. Which is gross I know, but between me getting ripped off by not knowing what color I'm buying from the plastic on the bottom of the tube, and the drug store having unusable stock returned, I go for myself every time. I've wasted so much money on make-up (and especially lipstick), I am guilt-proof. I wish there were more orange-based reds in the spectrum, but this is my complaint with every line. And like most lipsticks, some of the blue-reds fade to a uniform fuschia, no matter what color they go on as. My mother used to call this color 'menopause pink,' because it was so popular among ladies her age in the '80s. My usual gripes notwithstanding, this is a great cheapo drugstore brand if you're looking to add some color to your makeup wardrobe.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Treatments -Burt's Bees - Honey Lip Balm
CraxFactor 12/29/2007 12:33:00 PM
How does this make the entire world smell like baby powder? Ugh, it could make a dead horse puke. Intolerable. Product screw-ups of this magnitude can only be explained by nepotism. Burt must have given his nephew a job in R&D. EDIT: I keep this in my travel cosmetics to use if I sneak a smoke at my in-laws' house or use a bathroom with very little privacy. I just rub some of it on my arm, or even on a kleenex I drop in a waste basket. It covers up any smell, anywhere. Unbelievable.
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -MAC - Vex
CraxFactor 12/29/2007 11:48:00 AM
'Frosted death' is not inaccurate. I use this in tiny doses as a highlighter right above the iris, blended up my lid in a stripe [with other shadows - not alone]. It draws attention to your eye color like a magnet, and opens up the eyes by making them bigger and 'rounder' looking from the reflective flash on the round part of the lid. Don't ask, it just works for me. I don't get any green out of it, just opalescent putty/pink frost, but it does draw attention to the green in my eyes. Any more than a little bit and yes you will look like Undead Closing-Time Barbie. You don't have to go back to the grave, but you can't stay here!
14 out of 15 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Palettes -MAC - Velvet 6 Smoked Eyes Holiday 2006 Palette
CraxFactor 12/28/2007 4:27:00 PM
This palette is nice for travel, but considering that I only ever use Satin Taupe and Vex, not a great investment. No special must-haves. *Vex itself is kind of a strange highlighter, because it's so frosty. I wear it right above my iris, so it brings out the green in my eyes. Also good in the inner corners. But unwearable for me on the brow bone, because of all the fine lines. *Malt is not light enough for covering up hangover eye, and not pink enough to bring out any color in my irises. It's kind of dusty calamine-lotion colored. *The glittery gray and black shadows. . . I'm not into sparkly smokey eyes. *Club is a nice parlor trick, but as a 2-in-1 I tend to think of it as a mediocre muddy brown AND an unwearable frosty alien sea-foam green. Like my old futon that was an uncomfortable couch AND an uncomfortable bed. *And if you love Satin Taupe, you probably already know it and own it. Overall: cute, compact, good mirror and brush, and lots of colors to choose from. This is a very fun palette to play with. But not a can't-live-without. Try the colors from the permanent line separately; don't freak out over it on eBay.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Neutrogena - MoistureShine Soothing Lipsheers [DISCONTINUED]
CraxFactor 12/28/2007 12:51:00 PM
This is the only lipstick I own that does not dry my lips out. Although it's weirdly minty which I dislike. Why is menthol considered 'soothing,' or 'medicated' in so many products? Downside is that I go through it faster than lipstick OR chapstick OR lipgloss; and it's $8 a pop. I am waiting for a drugstore sale. Ruby Bliss reminds me of the much-vaunted Black Honey (also in consistency and using-up time, but not quite as plummy or as good). I wish they would come out with more dark colors, especially an orange-based red. Sparkling Nude is inoffensively peach on the coral side.
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Concealers -BeneFit Cosmetics - Lemon Aid
CraxFactor 12/28/2007 12:37:00 PM
If you enjoy things like 'light as a feather, stiff as a board,' big-girl wrinkles all around your eye area, and putting pretty jars of once-used products in a dusty shoe box under your bathroom sink, then this might be for you. Consider finding a mean older sister like me who will correctly make fun of you when you spend money to look bad.
17 out of 33 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eyeliner -BeneFit Cosmetics - Mr. Frosty [DISCONTINUED]
CraxFactor 12/28/2007 12:22:00 PM
You may get your money refunded. But you will not get gas and mileage expensed for your double round trip to Sephora. Another bottle of snake oil in the Benefit faux-'50s-slumber-party-makeover line is no surprise. I've run out of creative invective for this rip-off of a brand. But beyond goosing consumers, this line's carbon footprint for product returns is inexcusable. If you must purchase it, please take mass transit and don't use a plastic bag.
16 out of 21 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Liners -BeneFit Cosmetics - Cupid's Bow [DISCONTINUED]
CraxFactor 12/28/2007 12:02:00 PM
I feel like venting my spleen of what one ex called my "daily venom" today - and this product is the perfect victim! Only Benefit would have the audacity to charge money for this. Please invest your allowance money more securely in lottery tickets. And when you figure out that the "smartness pills" are actually rat turds, congratulations! You're getting smarter!!!!
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