Polishes -Zoya - Katherine
slitherydee 9/25/2012 3:55:00 AM
This is my favorite Zoya polish so far because the formula is so much better than the other jelly/sheer I bought from Zoya. The other color I have is Maya, which is a hot pink jelly I picked it up for summer. I hated to apply it because it went on thick and took so long to dry. It lasted a really, really long time, but it was so sheer I ended up needing at least 4 coats to get the opacity I wanted. This meant hours and hours of my life devoted to this nonsense. Katherine is so much different. It's actually really thin, almost runny, but it is so much easier to control than the thick Maya. It's pretty sheer, but you can get the bottle color after 3 coats. I like the sheerness because I don't always want the bottle color. At 2 coats it's a really pretty medium plum color that is delicate and suitable for almost any outfit. At 3 coats you're getting a very dark, gothy plum, much more dramatic. I even like it at 1 coat, a very feminine light purple, except that it's hard to get the color even and can look a little streaky. Downside? It doesn't last as long as Maya. I have noticed some wear around the edges after only 3 days. Maya would go a week before I'd see wear. Granted, I've been very tough on my nails lately, but I still think Maya is a much harder wearing color.
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Polishes -Zoya - Professional Lacquer
slitherydee 7/19/2012 8:43:00 AM
Update April/2013: After buying another round of these polishes I've noticed the formula is much thinner than before. I don't object to this, I thought it was too thick, but I have to take my review down to 1 star. Whatever changed is making my nails flake and break again. I had to cut my nails down to the quick and grow out my entire nail-bed to get my healthy nails back. Polish free I am having no problems, so it is definitely something in the polish. Only water based polishes work with my nails. ______________ I have two of these and I'm ordering three more. Reason being, they are one of the few nail polishes that don't make my nails flake and break down. I've tried many brands but it doesn't matter how long I wear them or how thin I apply, my nails always fall apart. The only other brands that work for me are water based nail polishes, but they chip so badly! I definitely do not have that problem with Zoya, it is hands down the best I've tried as far as wear. I can go a week with only minor edge damage. I don't apply a special base coat, just straight polish on clean nails that have been roughed up with a medium grade file for better grip. It's also very good at not streaking if you give it a little time to settle (i.e. don't stick your fingers in the freezer right away.) Now the downsides... One of the colors I have is Maya, a pink jelly. This polish takes forever to dry. I have read that all jelly polishes generally take longer to dry, but it's pretty ridiculous. One coat and it'll be okay in 10 minutes. Two coats and you'll need 20 more. Three coats? Don't go to sleep, you'll wake up with the pattern of your bed spread imprinted on top (seriously, it takes HOURS.) The other color I have, Wednesday, is just a regular polish and dries much more quickly. I have found a couple of things help the drying time. Soaking them in cold water after air drying them 10 minutes (to let the polish even out) and pouring a drop of olive oil on top helps a lot. Mineral oil might work better, but I don't have it on hand. I'm going to keep trying with Zoya because the good outweighs the bad. Just avoid the jelly colors if you don't want to deal with the hassle of drying times.
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Mascara -Maybelline - Volum' Express The Colossal Waterproof
slitherydee 3/16/2012 4:20:00 AM
Pros: - Long lasting. - Separates lashes better than any mascara I've ever tried! - Coats evenly in one coat. - Doesn't flake. - Very black. - Waterproof (thank god!) - Won't make your lashes feel crunchy (but sometimes slightly tacky if you use too much.) Cons: - Hard to remove (waterproof.) - Will sometimes clump depending on how old it is and if you apply too much. So I usually hate mascara because I have really long but sparse lashes and all the mascara I've used before gave me more length but never fullness. This mascara is the first mascara I've really loved because it easily triples the amount of lashes I can see. The wand on this is unlike any other I've used before, it's very full and bristly and really grabs and separates every lash. It works even better if I curl my lashes before application rather than the other way around (which is what I used to do with other mascaras to unstick my lashes from one another.) The only downside is that it really is hard to take off unless you want to put soap on your eyes, but I find that too drying so I usually just deal with the raccoon eyes that it gives me when I sleep.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Powder -Unlisted Brand - The All Natural Face mineral foundation
slitherydee 3/15/2012 3:21:00 AM
I have used this product for maybe 4 years now. I have dry, pale and sensitive skin. Pros: - Applies quickly and easily - Variable coverage which looks good either light or if you apply more you can get almost full coverage before it looks cakey. - Lots of shades, and easy to mix your own. - Dewy finish is easy to get. - Inexpensive. - Non-irritating: one of the better mineral makeups that doesn't use bismuth for shimmer. Cons: - Settles into lines under eyes and will collect in flaky skin, bad for concealing under-eye circles. - Lasts a decently long time but it WILL migrate, especially if you sweat. - Dry. It sucks the moisture right out of other concealers and makes the pigment contract so you get a cracked or speckled effect sometimes. Conclusion: I like this makeup because it is so convenient and has the coverage I want. It applies SO fast and easy, over all of my face except for under the eyes. That's probably where 50% of my time is spent when doing my foundation because of all the blending I have to do to get it to play nice with the Dermablend I apply to cover up dark circles. I have noticed that when this foundation is wet it appears lighter and more opaque, but when dry is more translucent. That's something to watch out for because if you apply this on a wet concealer, you will get more coverage initially only to have less later when it dries. If you want a dewy finish you can put a few drops of jojoba oil on a paper towel and pat your finished face lightly with it. It looks very nice, but you will lose some longevity. Avoid oil in laugh lines and under eye area or it will move into the creases.
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Polishes -Unlisted Brand - Honeybee Gardens - Nail Polishes
slitherydee 12/13/2011 10:11:00 PM
I'm not going to bother with a pros and cons list because I wouldn't buy this product again due to the fact that it does not last. I wore it for less than a day and it had already chipped badly on almost every nail even though I followed the instructions and painted them in the evening to give time for the polish to fully harden before I did anything with my hands. In the morning, one of my nails was missing half its polish and the rest were all chipped around the edges. I bought this in the color Desire, which is a metallic red. Maybe the other colors have better longevity but I don't care to find out at this point. The upside is it doesn't smell (except very faintly of craft paint) and is VERY easy to remove.
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Lipstick -Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics - Lip Tar
slitherydee 9/27/2011 7:03:00 AM
***Reasons I love Lip Tars: 1.You can LITERALLY mix up any color you want (it's like preschool finger painting class all over again.) Think of the money you'll save. 2. They are incredibly versatile. If I want an opaque lipstick, I can use them straight out of the tube. If I want a sheer lipstick, all I have to do is add a little gloss. 3. They are very comfortable on the lips, I almost feel like I'm not wearing anything at all. There's no greasy, sticky, feeling to deal with, nor is there any unpleasant smell or taste. They smell very lightly of mint, and that lasts all but a few seconds before it fades away. 4. Decently long wearing! It's pretty much, straight out of the tube, as long wearing as your average long lasting lipstick. It wears off beautifully, too, not flaky or streaky. This is such a weird product, seriously, it has too much going for it. 5. Beautiful coverage. I can never wear nude colors, they always end up streaking on me because my lips are naturally pretty dark and wax lipsticks never cover it completely. With Lip Tars, I can finally wear a nude color lighter than my natural lip. ***Cons: 1. There's a learning curve involved in the mixing of custom shades. If you don't know any color theory (i.e. red and blue = purple) you'll have a harder time figuring out how to make custom shades. 2. Applying this product requires a lip brush. You only need a half a drop of product, if that, to completely cover your lips, and it's impossible to measure out such tiny amounts at a time using the tube it comes in. It also takes practice to learn how to apply these properly. Pro tip: Apply a small streak inside the center your lower lip and purse your lips.This spreads the color out more thinly than if you used the brush. Use the brush in the areas where you want more opaque coverage. Always work from the inside of the lip outwards for the most natural look. Avoid using the brush on the edges of the lip unless you want a very defined, opaque look. 3. The Lip Tars by themselves are very one dimensional. If you want any kind of opalescence or shimmer in your lipstick, you'll have to buy it separate, or use a gloss with shimmer in it. In my experience, not all glosses play nice with Lip Tars because they tend to thin the product out too much. I have yet to try the OCC clear Lip Tar, but I'm guessing that works better than your traditional lip gloss. Pro tip: You can get cheap, loose vegan mineral makeup eye shadows from Etsy for shimmery mixes. 4. The darker colors will stain your lips, and in general, Lip Tars can be drying by themselves. ***Conclusion: I love this product. I would say that if you have the inclination to want to mix your own, this is hands down the best thing you could ever buy. It saves me money and I have a lot of fun with it. If I see a model wearing a particular shade of lipstick, and I want to wear it right now, I can. It takes 2 minutes to mix it up, and if I hate it I won't have wasted an entire tube of lipstick. If I love it, I can mix up a bunch and keep it in a little container. If I get bored with it, I can add something else to it and make it a totally new color! It ROCKS. Right now I have Traffic (yellow), NSFW (dark red), Interlace (nude pink), and Vapid (white.) If you want to make any shade of red, coral, pink or nude lipcolor, these are the Lip Tars you need. I'm planning to get a primary blue color in the future so I can mix purples up, but since cool colors tend to wash me out, I stayed on the warm side to start.
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Eye Shadow -LORAC - Harmony
slitherydee 6/3/2010 2:23:00 AM
I'm a long time customer of LORAC because I love the quality of their eyeshadows, but this one is too powdery and lacks pigment. There was a lot of fallout during the application and it shows up sheer unless you use it wet. I have at least 10 other eyeshadows by LORAC that don't have these problems, it's just this color. Too bad I bought 2 of them at LORAC's final sale event.
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