Flower Beauty first impressions

I had heard that Drew Barrymore was launching a cosmetics line, but I hadn't realized it was already out.  From what I can tell covers all the bases:  lips (everything from lip butters to matte lipsticks), eyes (shadow quads and cream shadow pots), face (primer, tinted moisturizer, multiple foundations, blushes, bronzers) and nails.

The line is exclusive to Wal-Mart and seems to have a price tag comparable to other drug store brands like L'Oreal, Maybelline, etc.

I picked up a few items:

I am most curious about the "Triplet" products, though, ironically, I didn't pick any of them up.  There are lip triplets, eye triplets and face triplets.

First impressions:

Pros:

• reasonably priced
• contemporary formulations:  cream to powder blushes, matte lipsticks, etc.
• very wearable colors

Mixed:

• packaging.  I do love the sort of Art Deco aesthetic.  However, the blushes have convex lids, so they won't stack, the eyshadow quad isn't a square, so it doesn't play particularly well either.  The lipstick tubes seem really unnecessarily bulky.
• Exclusive to Wal-Mart.  I'd say that most people have access to a Wal-Mart or to walmart.com, but I, personally, try not to shop at Wal-Mart, so this is mostly a miss for me.

Cons:

• labeling on the lipsticks.  If you have more than one, it's really easy to mix up the labels and the color names aren't particularly helpful in sorting them out.
• Flower Beauty website.  Doesn't have much information.  Everything links back to Wal-Mart's website which also doesn't have a whole lot of information.

The labels on the cosmetics say "We never test on animals", but I really have no idea what that means.  I read in Women's Wear Daily that Barrymore co-owns Flower Beauty with "design and manufacturing firm, Maesa Group".  I don't know who they are or what their animal testing status might be.

I will have in depth reviews on these products next week, but I just wanted to give you guys a sneak peek.

Hope you have a great weekend!

indie

First Impressions: E.L.F. 100 palette

I went to Target tonight to pick up a couple more of the Up & Up crease brushes (which are SHOCKINGLY good and less than $2 each) and one of the Sonya Kashuk Beauty Blender dupes.

While I was looking around, they had their new E.L.F. display up and I picked up the new 100 palette eyeshadow for the lovely price of $10.  It's very springy.  It's white and the shadows are pressed to look like the colors are spilling from one pan to the next.  I haven't had a chance to swatch it yet, but it looks awfully pretty

I picked up a couple other E.L.F. items, an all over color stick in Persimmon and a shimmering facial whip in lilac petal.  I'll try and get them swatched and posted tomorrow.

Cheers,

indie

First Impressions: Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 / PA++

So this isn't a review per se.  I haven't given this product enough of a test drive to be able to say for certain that I love it.  But I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it.

I hadn't planned on writing this post and then this morning when I was trying my hardest to eek the last bit of product out of the tiny sample jar I picked up at Nordstrom last weekend, I figured I should own up to it.

The evidence:

It's getting warmer and going into spring/summer, I'm going to have to find a different foundation routine.  I've been using Neutrogena Healthy Skin foundation all winter and it has been fabulous.  But I think it's going to be too emollient for warm weather.

I'd heard great things about the Nars tinted moisturizer, so last week at Nordstrom I picked up a sample of Finland (the lightest shade).  I've been burned before many times with tinted moisturizer, but I have to say that this product is phenomenal.  Unfortunately it is priced accordingly at $42.  It's in wide release now, so you can get it just about anywhere - Sephora, Beauty.com, etc.

The product comes in a whopping 9 shades, so you shouldn't have trouble finding a shade that works for you.  This is especially helpful if you, like me, have been burned before by tinted moisturizers that just don't work on your skin tone. *cough* Origins VitaZing moisturizer *cough*.

The coverage from this product is on par with a foundation.  And it has a great level of SPF and it performs well as a moisturizer.  And a little goes a long way.  The sample I had was very small and yet I got three applications out of it.

And now, look at the pretty pictures from the press release:

First Impressions: Tarte One Fine Clay Collection

I've had the Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed for months and I love it.  I probably wear it 3 times a week.  But it's been the only Tarte product I've had.

So, when I saw that Ulta had the Tarte One Fine Clay collection, I decided to pick it up.  It arrived today and I decided to post pics and my initial reactions.

Here's the entire collection

It includes:

• Purple quilted makeup bag
• Half-size Blusher in "Peaceful"
• Third-size Bronzer in "Park Avenue Princess"
• 1/5 size "Smooth Operator" illuminating serum
• Full size smolderEYEs waterproof eyeliner in brown
• Full size "gifted" smart mascara in black
• eye pencil sharpener

I don't think it's exclusive to Ulta but it's not available directly on the Tarte site.  It retails for $39.00.

bag:

It's cute.  Purple on the outside, pink on the inside with a gold pull.  I'm not a huge connoisseur of makeup bags, but it is nice.  And it's big enough to be useful.

Blush:

As I said earlier, I've had one of the Tarte blushes (I'm going to quit prefacing every item with "Amazonian Clay" since they're all Amazonian Clay) in "Exposed".  I really like it and was very excited to pick up another Tarte blush.

The blush with this set is "Peaceful".  As far as I can tell, this isn't one of the shades that's readily available.  But it does look like it is often included in sets that Tarte does.  This is a 3.4 g of product whereas a full size blush is 5.6, so it's slightly larger than half-size.  (I'm including a picture of it next to a full size for comparison and is it just me, or is the tiny blush the cutest thing you've ever seen?  Maybe it's just me.)  Also, unlike a full size blush, the half size "Peaceful" does not include a mirror in the compact.

The color is beautiful.  It's a pretty true peach, not too orange, not too pink.  It does have a tiny bit of shimmer, but nothing close to the actual shimmery blushes from this line.

Bronzer:

This is the Tarte Mineral Bronzing Powder in "Park Avenue Princess".  "Park Avenue Princess" is shimmery gold whereas the "Hotel Heiress" in the same line is described as a deep bronze.  I compared "Park Avenue Princess" side by side with my Nars "Laguna" bronzer and it looks really similar to me.  

A full size bronzer is 9g and this sample is 3.2g, so it's just over 1/3 regular size.  The packaging is super cute.

It looks like it has a good bit of shimmer, but I'm wondering if it's going to be like the Nars Laguna where the shimmer is just in the top layer and the rest is matte.

Illuminator:

This is the item I was most curious about.  I have been on the hunt for a good illuminator and I'm hoping that Smooth Operator will pan out.  

A full size Smooth Operator is 1.7oz.  This sample is .3oz, so this is less than 1/5 regular size.

I've only played with it a tiny bit so far, but it looks gorgeous.

Eyeliner:

I am really not a fan at all of kohl type eyeliners, but this stuff is gorgeous.  It is this rich bronze color.  I love it.  I suspect I won't actually use it as a liner, but I'm sure I can find a use for it.  

This is a full size product as far as I can tell.  It's got the liner on one end and a smudger sponge on the other.  There is also a sharpener included in the set.

Mascara:

Like the liner, this is full size as far as I can tell.  I like the applicator brush and I am really curious to test this product out.

So that's it for now.  I will update after I've given these products a good try.  My initial reaction is very good.  I think this set was reasonably priced and I am genuinely interested in everything in the kit.