Eyeliner -Stila - Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Rock Candy
leah2412 8/5/2011 1:34:00 PM
This is a gorgeous medium warm brown with strong golden almost olive shimmer that resebles glitter without the grit. It applies smoothly and the color is unique - out of my 30 or so liquid liners none of them compare. The downfalls are that this liner is somewhat watery in texture, takes a bit to dry, and doesn't deliver an opaque line in one stroke. You have to keep going over it several times to get a compley opaque brown line. I really dont like that but love the color so I would buy again.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Tarte - True Blood LipSurgence Lip Stain
leah2412 7/14/2011 10:01:00 PM
I am a true blood fan so I got sucked in by this but the product, while will work for some, isn't unique enough to warrant a 4 or 5 star rating, especially considering the price. In the tube, it's a shimmery almost iridescent red. On lips, it transfers to a one dimensional ever so slightly shimmery medium red that's wearable by all of us that are scared by red or can't wear it well. It only lasts a few hours and dries into an almost matte finish, which I do not like. You would think with a matte finish you would get more wear time but that's not the case. It's a beautiful color on lips, but I can find this exact same color in the drugstore, but without the pretty packaging. Also, I can imagine sharpening this would be a nightmare since you would have to clean all the gunk out of your sharpener and you will have to buy a sharpener for it since it's so large, which is an extra cost. I give it a 2 for lack of unique-ness, difficulty to sharpen, having to buy a sharpener specifically for this, short wear time, and matte finish.
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Blush -Tarte - True Blood Cheek Stain
leah2412 7/14/2011 9:54:00 PM
I was looking for reviews for this product on here but since there were none I took the plunge. Tarte cheek stains are a gel like consistency that you lightly dab or sweep on cheeks and rub in. A little bit goes a loooong way with these and you get a lot of product in the tube. Honestly, it's more than you will ever use before it expires, which to me is a tragic waste. I would describe this as a sheer red flush with flecks of MEGA gold glitter. Not shimmer, but glitter. This stain would be absolute perfection if there was gold shimmer instead of glitter, but that's not the case here because there is no shimmer at all. This is gorgeous in the tube but the glitter does translate to cheeks. I think this would be great for a night out if you're going for that shimmery look, but for everyday use it's too much. Nobody wants gold glitter on their cheeks for everyday wear, and quite a bit more won't want glitter on their cheeks at all. With that being said you have to ask yourself if it's worth it to get a product only when you're going out and end up throwing away half of it because you can't use it all before it goes bad. For me the answer is no.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -MAC - Hocus Pocus
leah2412 6/29/2011 3:17:00 PM
Another "Meh" from the Blogger's Obsession collection. I purchased this, Jealousy Wakes, and Evolution Revolution and out of the three this one was the best but it my no means knocks my socks off. This is a deep shimmery charcoal grey with gold and a hint of olive green shimmer. I will admit this is more unique than most but I had a lot of trouble blending it. It went on very streaky on me - like the shimmer and the dark base don't mesh well together and they separate. This is only 1 of 2 MAC shadows I own since I much prefer the complexity of mineral makeup. I have a shade that dupes this and isn't streaky in the least so I will be returning it.
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -MAC - Bloggers Obsession Jealousy Wakes
leah2412 6/29/2011 3:11:00 PM
First of all I want to say that I love Temptalia and wanted to support her buy purchasing this eyeshadow, which looks fabulous on her blog and in her look of the day photos. In her photos and swatches it looks to be a complex deep emerald green with gold and blue shimmer, but in real life it's a flat teal with minimal gold shimmer. When I first opened Jealousy Wakes, I was thinking wow this looks a lot more teal than anticipated. When swatched on skin it's a sheer kind of blotchy teal - not smooth and blendable all all. As others mentioned, it will take a heck of a lot of packing to get this shadow to look like it's supposed to and it's not emerald green at all. I would defintiely say it falls into the teal category. Pretty much an epic fail on everything I tried from the Blogger's Obsession collection and I definitely expected more.
14 out of 17 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Evolution Revolution
leah2412 6/29/2011 3:05:00 PM
In the tube this is a milky peachy color with gold shimmer and ultra fine flecks of glitter in gold and blue. From that description, this sounds like a home run but the beauty is somehow lost in translation from tube to lips. On my medium pigmented lips this translates to a uber sheer slightly milky peach with minimal gold shimmer - and that's really giving it too much credit making it sound more complex than it is. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most opaque and 1 being clear, I give this a 1.5. I do not want to have to layer Evolution Revolution with lipstick, dazzleglass, lipliner, another lipglass or any of the other zillion produts MAC has out just to get it to show up on me. I love all the beauty blogs responsible for creating these products, but all of them have major issues from streaking to minimal pigmentation. This is all that these gurus could come up with? Total bust for me.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Budding Beauty Lipgelee (Fashion Flower)
leah2412 5/5/2011 2:56:00 PM
I am usually a huge fan of the newer lipgelees that MAC has put out but this was a HUGE miss. In the tube this looks to be a light milky peachy coral with gold sparkles. To lips, it translates as a very, very sheer hint of peach with minimal gold sparkle. This pretty much looked like clear gloss with some shimmer. Huge disappointment.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Misc Beauty Tools -Unlisted Brand - Zeno
leah2412 4/1/2011 7:20:00 PM
This product is best for deep, painful cystic pimples that never come to a head which I don't get very many of. My pimples are mostly around my chin area when it's that time of the month and they are generally pretty small and end up coming to a head. I have gotten a few cystic pimples lately and zeno has done absolutely nothing to speed up the healing process although it did work wonders on those deep ones at first. Now it doesn't work at all! Since this very expensive device only cleared maybe 4 pimples I don't think it's worth it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Unlisted Brand - Sobe Botanicals - Blush
leah2412 2/1/2011 1:17:00 PM
I got the entire set of duochrome blushes after reading Phyrra's high recommendation of them, but I was really disappointed. About half of my collection is high end blushes and the other half is MMU blush, so I am really familiar with how a MMU blush should apply and how it should look on cheeks. All but one of these colors looked almost chalky with shimmer over the top and I didn't think most of them blended very well either. The effect reminds me of a matte shadow with a interference pigment blended in...they really don't go that well together IMO. Also. two of the shades weren't even pigmented enough to show up as a blush (fortune & icing on the cake) on my cheeks. They would look better as a highlighter but the chalkiness of the shades just made me look ashy. Samples were $1 for about 1/4 tsp of the product so they are an excellent deal if you still want to try them out. Shipping was pretty quick and the packaging was good. My only small complaint with the packaging is that the names of the product were written on instead of typed. I think that if you have a business that you should invest in some professional looking labels!! Overall, I really didn't like these blushes and I won't be going back to order again. Product - 2/5 - chalky pigmentation, hard to blend Value - 4/5 excellent value for the money Packaging - 3/5 - would have preferred these in jars and with a typed label instead of handwritten and in a baggie. Blush in baggies is quite difficult to get out!!
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Treatments -Ojon - Restorative Hair Treatment
leah2412 12/31/2010 11:59:00 AM
This stuff smells horrible - like cigar smoke, rancid peanut butter, and leather. Ugh! If you can get past that the product does work well, but definitely not for the price. If you have longer hair like I do, you might be lucky to get 15 uses out of the 4.6 oz tub. The directions are somewhat confusing and say to use about half a teaspoon then go on to say coat hair liberally. Well which one is it? There is no way that 1/2 tsp is going to coat my waist length hair even sparsely so I ended up using about a tablespoon or 1 1/2 tablespoons, avoiding the roots. I left it on overnight to get the best result. After washing the treatment out and starting to dry my hair (product free to fully evaluate the result of the treatment only) it had a waxy texture and was very tangly. I thought I was going to end up with mop of grease when I was done drying, but surprisingly when my hair was all the way dry it is surprisingly soft and shiny. It is flatter than usual and I imagine it will be oily by tonight since it already feels weighed down. I am left to wonder why this is so expensive since the only ingredients are african palm oil, fragrance, and a few vitamins. If you still want something natural, try just plain african palm oil or coconut oil from Tropical Traditions.
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Lip Gloss -MAC - Bubble Lounge (Cham-pale Collection)
leah2412 12/28/2010 12:06:00 PM
As the reviewer below said, this is EXACTLY the same as resort life on lips and is a total waste of money if you already have RL. I put RL on one half of my mouth and BL on the other and couldnt tell one bit of difference.Love the smooth formula, the amount of product you get, and the glitter but this is too easily dupeable.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Straight to the Head (Cham-pale Collection)
leah2412 12/27/2010 10:47:00 PM
In the tube I would describe this as a slightly rosy mid tone coco with lots of sparkle and it translates to lips that way only slightly more sheer. I really wanted to love this, but it's just way to brown for me! It's not as pigmented on lips as it is in the tube but definitely still shows brown. If you are light or ivory skinned I doubt this will work on you, but I definitely think it will look nice on the darker complected ladies!
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Eye Shadow -Unlisted Brand - Persephone minerals
leah2412 12/9/2010 1:31:00 PM
I stumbled across this little shop on Phyrra's blog and am SO happy I did. These colors are amazing! Very pigmented, easy to apply, great customer service, super fast shipping, and free samples with each order. The colors are truly unique and complex and if you like duochromes then this is the place for you. Everything about this company I love. Here are some favorites bicurious falling angel thigh highs smoke VIP withering roses floyd pink dont date the dj stage lights far out vixxxen Don't hesistate to try this company out. You will not be disappointed by the colors, the value, or the great CS.
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Blush -Unlisted Brand - Hi-Fi Cosmetics - Gel Blush
leah2412 12/9/2010 12:33:00 PM
These colors are so pigmented! I have amore, get it on, and amber energy (a bronzer) and a little bit really goes a long way. The colors are fabulous and can be easily layered, whether you're looking for a sheer wash of color or a bright flush. All of her shades do have shimmer in them and they do stain your fingers so you will have to wash your hands after application. The only downside to these is the container - I've had mine for less than 6 months and the product has dried up significantly. It's lost almost half it's original volume in that time. The product is still totally usable now, but I figure it won't be in about 6 more months. There is just no way to use all the product (or even half since so little goes so far) before it dries out. I think that she is in the process of changing the packaging though.
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Eye Shadow -Unlisted Brand - Hi-Fi Cosmetics - Eye Shadows
leah2412 12/9/2010 12:23:00 PM
*Update* - Customer service seems to have gone off the deep end with this company. She is one woman trying to run Hi Fi and I would say she's definitely in over her head. My emails take at least 3 days to a week to get a response if I even get a response at all. Most of my emails fall into the latter category. She even promised to do two custom colors for me about 6 weeks ago. She said she had done them and promised me swatches that evening but that was two weeks ago and still nada. She no longer responds to my emails either. She's going on my do not order list. Not much will piss me off more than supporting a business repeatedly and then being ignored. I have been buying Hi Fi shadows since she opened a little over a year ago and have over 50 colors now. Veronica has a very wide variety of colors, mostly with lots of glitter and shimmer. The sample sizes are very reasonably priced and there is a little over 1/4 tsp of product in the baggies, which is a great deal! The customer service is amazing and the owner is very friendly - always quick to sort out a problem or put up a color that's sold out. Now for the reason this company gets a three instead of a five - to me, the colors just aren't that unique. Most of them are just a straight up shimmery base with a ton of glitter mixed in. A select few do have light changing effects and those are my favorite.If you are looking for a straight up shimmery color with a lot of glitter HI FI is your place, but if you are looking for something more complex (think arcane magic by fyrinnae), you probably should just try out a few colors first. I will say that they do have some of the brightest colors I have ever seen from any mineral makeup company! I will probably continue to buy even though all these colors do is sit in my drawer unused in hopes that I will find some great colors someday. Some colors I recommend are: All of the Labyrinth Colors (most complex collection to date) Live Large (Hi Fi is the only place that has a color like this!) Time For Cheer Adeste Fidelus butterfly wings Tastes Like Valentines
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No