Cleansers -Erno Laszlo - Sea Mud Two-In-One Cleanser
beccasmom 5/23/2009 7:54:00 PM
I've never met a Laszlo product I didn't like...until this one. I ordered it through the mail, which meant I didn't get to feel the product in my hands. So therefore, I was surprised to learn when I first used it that it is not simply a tube version of the sea mud soap and phelityl oil used with it. It is a gritty cleanser that does not foam up into a lather like the sea mud soap does. It feels like I'm splashing my face with wet black sand. Try to get a free sample of this if you want to try it before committing a current US $39 for a 3.3oz tube of it. One positive feature of this product is the fact that it is in a convenient tube, which is great in a gym bag or for travelling. And, yes, another plus is that after using the product as instructed, with the 20 sea mud water splashes, and then the clear 10 splashes, my skin feels fabulous, clean as glass. But that doesn't mean I'll buy the product again. Maybe I will try the dual phase pump version of this, if it continues to be sold by Laszlo. To be fair, to give you the other postiive viewpoint of this product, this is what the Laszlo site says for a description of this product: For normal / combination to oily skin; This new antioxidant cleanser for those on-the-go features concentrated sea mud minerals to deep-clean pores and slough off dull surface layers without stripping the skin's own natural protection.
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Makeup Brushes -Chanel - Foundation Brush (Synthetic Fibers)
beccasmom 5/23/2009 8:42:00 AM
This is the best foundation brush I've ever used. It produces a much more even finish and I like the bristles better than the Bobbi Brown and Prescriptives ones I've used in the past. This brush produces an almost air-brushed look to my foundation. I didn't think the price was too bad, either, for a CHANEL product; it was $30.00.
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Mascara -Chanel - Inimitable Mascara Multi-Dimensionnel
beccasmom 4/4/2009 7:50:00 PM
This is one of the worst mascaras I've ever used. I bought it on 3/27 and returned it today. I couldn't make it work for me; it was very clumpy; didn't curl well; didn't allow for easy seperation of lashes; and smudged like crazy. With the exception of maybe one or two drugstore mascaras I've bought in a pinch, this is the worst. And the price is outrageous, US $30.00!
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Brows -Laura Mercier - brow powder duo
beccasmom 5/2/2008 1:05:00 PM
I bought this recently from Sephora online sight unseen, and it is a great product used in conjunction with the LM dual-ended eye brow brush for giving yourself a very defined polished eye brow look. I own it in Soft Blonde. The two colors in this small palette are taupey beige and brown taupe per the website. I don't think the actual product has the names of the colors on the bottom of it. If these colors come in singles as eye shadows, you could just buy 2, but having them together this way is a very convenient and "fun" product to own. To help you decide if this Soft Blonde shade is for you, my skintone is fair to ever slightly medium yellow based. I wear the Laura Mercier nude tinted moisturizer, and her beige ivory silk creme foundation. My hair and eyebrows are very light brown almost dark blonde, and my eyebrows are just starting to have a few gray hairs in them, and they are also developing holes and bare spots particularly near my nose, not at the ends, and they need major help being filled in, and this is where this soft blonde brow duo is worth its weight in gold, and does miracles, although the brush is great for this too. I only gave it a 4 in packaging because I do think it's on the small side, and could have used a mini eye brow brush with it. I will add more as I have more to say from using it a bit more.
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Makeup Brushes -MAC - 180 Small Buffer Brush ] [DISCONTINUED]
beccasmom 5/2/2008 12:50:00 PM
This is the little short chunky buffer brush that looks like your Dad's old shaving cream brush, for those of you old enough to remember those days. I just got this in a swap recently and it's a great brush for applying my foundation powder. It's very easy to hold, feels good on the face, applies just the right amount of product, and produces a nice finished look to your skin. Wish I had 3 of them now, one for home, one for gym bag, and one for handbag. It might possibly be the only face brush some of us would have to own, but I'm not really sure how well it would be or is in applying loose powder, though. The only minor negative is that it does seem to lose at least 2 bristles every time I use it.
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Makeup Brushes -Bobbi Brown - Foundation Brush - short handle
beccasmom 4/16/2008 12:42:00 PM
I own 2 of these, the regular length one and the mini that's about 4 inches long, and love them both for applying foundation as well as concealer. The bristles don't fall out, the bristles are soft on the face, and easy to clean. I have heard about a "short handle" version and have never been able to get anyone to tell me the length of such a version. Maybe BB doesn't make it anymore.
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Makeup Brushes -Laura Mercier - Double Ended Eye Brow Brush - Pull Apart
beccasmom 4/16/2008 11:31:00 AM
After owning this for just shy of a week, I know that I have found my perfect eyebrow brush. It has two different sizes of very stiff slanted bristles, one at each end of the handle. I love that the bristles are not very thick at the end that touches your brows, which allows for very precise definitions of my overall brow shapes, compared to other brow brushes thicker bristles that I have found to fight me on staying "in the lines". I have always been a big fan of defining one's brows for giving a nice finished polished overall look, and I am so glad to have purchased this brush. I should have purchased at least 2, it's that good. The only reason I gave the packaging a 4 and not a 5 is that the brush comes with just one black opaque cover to put on one end, like that you'd see on a lip or eye pencil. I think it should come with two. With just one, I think the "other" end might get smushed in a bag and you'd run the risk of the bristle splaying out and getting wrecked. It also came with a see-through clear plastic "sleeve"-type open ended cover for the smaller end, but it's not easily removed and replaced, and I don't think it's intended to be used long-term..
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Mascara -Bobbi Brown - Everything Mascara
beccasmom 1/12/2008 8:01:00 PM
[Added on 01/19/09: Strange, but for the first time in owning this mascara, I am not happy with my current tube of this. It's very goopy and doesn't go on well. Very disappointed, enough to change my original 5 rating down to a 3. Will check out the No Smudge one next time.] Funny how this gets such bad reviews. It is one of my favorite mascaras, if not my all time favorite. I like the natural look it gives me, the shape of the bristles, and the feel of the wand in my hand, as well as the ease in removing it. I've tried recently to use other brands and have been disappointed. Back to BB I go.
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Mascara -Laura Mercier - Waterproof
beccasmom 1/12/2008 7:58:00 PM
I've been using this for a week, hoping to like it more each time I put it on, but I am very disappointed in this mascara, for a number of reasons. One, I dislike the end-to-end shape of the head's bristles. It is curved and thicker in the middle than it is at the end, and I prefer straight uniform in size "teeth". Number two, I don't like the appearance of this on my lashes, a little too thick and made up for my liking, not natural enough. Three, I don't like having to wipe the wand with facial tissue before putting on the mascara, it seems there's too much product on the wand when I pull it out of the base. I much prefer the Bobbi Brown ones I've used, except for that line's glamour lengthening one, which was awful. And lastly, I found this LM waterproof mascara is very hard to remove, VERY hard compared to other lines' mascaras, which I can do without an eyemakeup remover. Big disappointment for USA$20.00 through a recent Sephora order.
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Mascara -Sephora - Lash Plumper
beccasmom 1/10/2008 1:38:00 PM
I've tried this .1oz little tube for a week, and it's headed to the waste basket. I got it in the Sephora silver metalic clutch of samples last week. It is awful, probably the worst mascara I've ever tried, with the exception of the MAC ones I've tried. It is clumpy, goopy, feels and looks cheap, and doesn't work for me.
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Makeup Brushes -MAC - 134 Large Powder Brush
beccasmom 9/17/2007 3:18:00 PM
The 2 main things I love about this brush are, number one, it is less than 7 inches long, and number two, the bristles are very very soft. What I don't like is that the shape of the bristles is wide and somewhat flat like a paddle; I wish they were fuller in thickness and maybe not quite as wide across. If you look at the bristles head on from the end, they make an oval shape, and I would prefer a more rounder thicker shape. Other than that, this is one of the best brushes I have ever owned. And it should be for what I spent for it, right? I don't use it that much at all, though, preferring my Shu 20B all-time fav powder brush, which I don't think is even made anymore.
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Fragrances -Hanae Mori - hanae mori eau de toilette
beccasmom 7/16/2007 9:15:00 AM
I hesitated to write a review on this because whether a person likes a particular fragrance is so subjective and personal, but this is my new signature scent, and I've really only had 2 or 3 fragrances besides this one that I would put in that category. I am basically not a perfume lover, and for me to have found one I like, this must be special. It is a little different, not your usual Mall cosmetic counter smell. I have no idea how long this scent has been made, but I wish I'd discovered it sooner. This is how it has been described on one website: a fruity bouquet of blackberry, black currant, bilberry, and wild strawberry, blooming floral notes of Bulgarian rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and peony; woodsy notes of rosewood, sandalwood, almond, and praline. I have used it in just several little pump sample tubes up until this summer, but now have a beautiful glass bottle of it, and I absolutely love it, and so does my entire family, which is a big plus. It's very hard to like a scent and wear it if your family can't stand the smell of it. It is very different. I think I even like it better than the only other fragrance I currently own, and that is the Jil Sander PURE. I will update this review if and when I can find words to describe exactly how it smells.
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Stick -Bobbi Brown - Foundation Stick
beccasmom 7/16/2007 9:06:00 AM
The key to the success of this product, for me, was finding the right shade, which is Warm Sand. I believe this is the reason it hadn't work for me in the past, when I owned it in the next 2 lighter shades, which made me look chalky and pasty. This stick is currently the only foundation I own, and it's the only one I NEED to own, in my opinion, because it can be applied lightly almost like a concealer on days that's all I need, or with more of a heavy hand when I perhaps need more coverage. One way of applying it that's working for me is that I spread it over my 3 middle finger tips and lightly pat it over my skin and by doing it this way, the "yellow-based-ness" of the product tones down any redness/rudiness my skin has, then lightly dust a powder over it with a big fluffy powder brush, and I have the perfect understated look I think Bobbi Brown wants us to have. I have slightly dry skin, and most of the time, I do not wear a powder over this, but I do lightly pat the surface of it with a facial tissue sometimes. The container it comes in is like a very thick oversized mascara tube, with a lipstick-like turning mechanism, if this makes sense.
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Skincare - Face -Erno Laszlo - Antioxidant Moisture Complex SPF 15
beccasmom 6/22/2007 12:43:00 PM
I recently got a dozen little sample tubes of this from the company website when I needed to order a soap dish, and I cannot explain how much I love this oil-free moisturizer for my normal, to slightly dry in the winter, skin. I will use it for all but the coldest winter months. In the past, I hesitated to use this product at all because the website has conflicting wording in 2 places as to which skintypes this product is appropriate for, yet, when I asked a Laszlo person to clarify the site's wording, they said it can be used by all skin types, yet, I think, though, that this would probably not be enough of a moisturizer for a very dry skin type in the coldest of winter weather. One place says it's for the slightly oily skin types, while in another nearby location on the site, it says it's for all skin types. It is a slightly runny watery white liquid packaged in the typical bland Laszlo boxy see-through plastic bottle container with a narrow neck and black screw-off top, and I like the fact that the product has antioxidants and sunscreen in it, is non-breakable, and is recycle-able.. Other than the somewhat unattractive bottle, I cannot think of a negative to mention about this product, seriously. I have recently had the good luck to find a bottle of this for a swap in MUA, and I couldn't wait to own a real bottle, and not just a sample tube, of it.
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Masks -Erno Laszlo - sea mud mask
beccasmom 6/22/2007 12:27:00 PM
This stuff really works to clean my pores, yet it is not drying or stripping at all, and I have slightly dry skin some times of the year, which, when I do, I don't use this often. As it is, for my normal to slightly dry skin, I don't think I have to use this more than once a week to keep my pores in good shape. I honestly cannot remember the last time I got a new tube, as I do not use this on my entire face, just the middle third of it - forehead, nose and sides of nose, and chin. It is a mess to use, yet I think it's kind of fun at the same time, and I just wash it off with a very wet warm washcloth over and over until my skin is clear of the black mud goop.
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