drugstore beauty revival

 

I'm trying my very best to save a little money in the beauty department so instead of going on a zombie-like shopping spree at Ulta or Sephora I'm hitting the tiny selections at the grocery store. 

First, Orly's polish bond is so legit; I've been using it for a while now and I find that it's extremely compatible with Essie polishes (more so than Essie's own base coat). It does such an excellent job of keeping the polish from receding and cracking (along with Essie's new couture gel top coat).

Physician's Formula products have always had a decent drugstore reputation and I remember hitting pan on their shimmer strips when I used them years ago. I have to say I do think Mac's mineralize skin finish is better, but I'm trying to save and these strips give me a pretty nice glow when I swirl my brush in them for an all over the face bronze. The only drawback is that the powder composition tends to absorb oil quicker leading me to scrap off the top layer every now and then so I can still pick up the product. Other than that, it's a decent value and lasts all day long. (color: "vegas strip")

The powder palette blush is new PF product and a new product altogether as I have never tried blush before (I'm more of a highlighter gal). I'm still trying to decide if I like the product at all, so far I can say that the pink I chose shows up very subtle on my dark skin, which I wanted, but I also wanted a pink shimmer which I think is more of a presentation thing as the shimmer particles seem to disappear as I use the product more. I'll keep using it and playing around with mixing it with my highlighter before I make a final judgment. Definitely still on the hunt for a legit pink highlighter however. (color: "rose pearl").

The final product is another pink hue for my face from Nyx's liquid suede line. "Pink lust" is the perfect popping pink against darker skin tones and has a waxy, comfortable formula consistent with the rest of the line.

beauty things...new in and in review...

 

Estee is my bitch okay, these eye shadows are so legit, like the white lady who helped me out at the counter today kind of fucked up (she legit tried to sell me caucasian make up like....? It was so bizarre, but what else should I expect), but it's cool because their product speaks for itself as far as I'm concerned. After enjoying the lilac shimmer shadow I picked up a little while ago I decided to pick up a couple more in the Pure Color Envy line in "silver edge" and "emerald envy". The formulation is so perfect; blends perfectly, no fall out and wonderful staying power.

For my lips I found another Nyx Lingerie color in "lace detail" (sadly the only color available) and I picked up another color in the bougiest lipstick I've ever tried, "private party" from the Lipstick Queen Velvet Rope collection. The formulation on these lipsticks is superb; so moisturizing with a wonderful opacity even with more understated colors (I also have "star system").

Finally, I decided to check out Bare Minerals' attempt at the matte lipstick trend and an unfamiliar Fiona Stiles. With Bare Minerals, I got the color "weekend", which is my usual mauvey pink shade and after my brush with Stila's "amalfi" (still upset this color didn't work out for me), I decided to get "crosby" a peachy magenta from Fiona Stiles matte lip line. I'll be testing both this weekend and updating on my next beauty post.

a note on liquid suede

sandstorm, life's a beach, tea & cookies

I'm kind of loving the Nyx Liquid Suede cream lipsticks--actually they're a strong second place in the competition for best drugstore lippies according to me. 

• the formula is pretty legit as far as opacity/color payoff.
• the wearablity is only slightly questionable because the reapplication isn't the best; it does curdle up after just a few hours (wearing a chapstick base helps a bit), but after eating and drinking the color is still visible and renewing layers can be applied smoothly.
• idk about the packaging because the L'Oreal matte ones are a smaller tube, but have more product...? That annoys me.
• it doesn't transfer nearly as much as the L'Oreal matte glosses after the layer(s) dry.

Despite the cons I would still repurchase at least sandstorm and recommend them to those wanting to save a little money.

What is this shit? | Scratchy eye pencils, stinky armpit gel...

...and other products I regret buying. I think posts like these are so important to warn people of the danger of wasting money and time on products that are basically crap.

Here's the first batch in this new series on the blog (yes, I am calling it, "What is this shit?"):

This sleeping cap is so annoying. The black dye gets on everything and it was absolutely horrifying the first time I saw it; I thought I was more than just drooling over-night or something. The best type of slumber caps are the gold ones you can get at Sally's, they don't have any weird color transfer.

Although I love Revlon and glitter polish, these were a fail. It's way too difficult to get the actual glitter pieces to stick to the nail and when you finally do, they peel off almost immediately. The third polish is by Fergie and just proves she should stick to her day job.

I just started getting into Nyx products and one of the first ones I tried was this glitter eye pencil. It sucks, the little glitter pieces in it basically scrape my eye and barely any color comes off the pencil...

...here's another Nyx product that I found confusing. I've been using Urban Decay's heavy metal glitter eye liners and unfortunately Ulta had sold out in the pink glitter so I turned to Nyx as I was informed that Urban Decay is the same company behind Nyx--but what exactly is THIS shit?

...how is it supposed to explicitly say EYELINER and then say it's not intended for the EYE AREA??? Moreover, it totally sucked as an eyeliner as it peeled off throughout the day. I still wanted to give it a chance and I thought I could re-purpose it on my nails...

...that was a fail as it basically wiped off in the shower. Another thing to note about these glitter liners is that if you put them too close to your waterline, they burn...that also made me wonder what the ingredients were...

...the hard-to-read printing on the side of this Urban Decay box sort of proves we are not intended to know what exactly is in these little tubes.  

Moving on...

This MAC 150 brush sheds way too much for the cost. I do still use it as a spare brush when I'm too lazy to wash my main ones.

This L'Oreal mascara is overrated and over-priced...

...despite the comb style brush, the product does not cling to the lashes as well as it should and it flakes like crazy.

I think everyone went out and bought this Kat Von D Star Studded palette especially considering it was on sale during Black Friday at Sephora--still kind of a waste of money. Of the 24 shades only about nine or 10 actually work for me. They are so chalky and poorly pigmented most of them are practically useless.

I tried it. It failed. I get why these natural deodorants are created, but the sticky gel-like formula was uncomfortable, it only worked for three days and most of all, aluminum keeps the BO away.

I'm not saying this product didn't do its job, but I felt like I had to use way too much of it; this is what is left after one washing of all my brushes. I think I'm better off just using mild soap and water.

Finally, for those people who like to use hot tools to style their synthetic hair I wanted to include my last attempt at finding a proper curling iron for my synthetic wigs. Again, it's not that the T3 Body Waver didn't work, it just didn't work for the purpose I needed it for.

Okay, that's it. Avoid these things or use at your own risk. Bye.