Review: Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in 01 Golden Mink

I know I have mentioned this quad several times, but I just realized that I've never done an offiical review of it.  Ooops!  

I picked up the Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in 01 Golden Mink last November when I was in Vegas.  Unfortuantely, I don't have any department stores locally that carry the Tom Ford beauty line and I am just not willing to shell out this much money for a quad without trying it out first.  So while I was in Las Vegas, I made a special trip to the Neiman Marcus to look at these quads.

I wasn't disappointed, these quads are stunning!  But I am really glad that I looked before buying because I found the retailer descriptions of this quad in particular to be incredibly misleading.  If I had just looked at the pictures online I would have assumed that all four of the shades were shadows rather than half the compact being glittery pigments.

The Tom Ford shadows have four finishes, sheer sparkle, satin, shimmer and matte.  I can't find any official description of which color is which in any of the quads which is incredibly annoying.  

(I didn't swatch these in the best order.  L-R It's the two shades from the bottom first and then the two shades from the top.)

I will assume based on the name alone that the two across the top in the first picture (and swatched on the right) are the sheer sparkle finish.  They are basically a super finely milled glitter with some sort of liquid component.  They are incredibly shimmery and look just beautiful on the eye.  I don't wear them alone, but layered in strategic places over other shadows, they are stunning.

The lighter brown color in the lower left of the quad is probably a shimmer.  It's a satin eyeshadow with discernable glitter.The darker brown on the lower right of the quad is probably a satin as it contains no obvious glitter.

The two brown shadows are so incredibly creamy and pigmented.  They apply like a dream.  The two sparkly shades across the top are trickier to apply.  I've found that using one of those little sponge applicators works really well.

The packaging is the typically masculine, super sleek Tom Ford packaging.  It is also incredibly reflective.

The quad contains a total of 10g of product and retails for $75 at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue or Bergdorff Goodman.  

I will grant you that $75 is a lot for an eyeshadow compact, but you do get a lot of product.  If you look at just grams per dollar, it's actually not that bad.  Tom for works out to $7.50 per gram.  MAKE UP FOR EVER shadows work out to $8.80 per gram.  MAC shadows are $10 per gram.

This is certainly a luxury purchase, but I love it and I think it is absolutely worth the money.

Overall:  10/10

Review: Milani Baked Blush in Corallina

This is another blush that I picked up in a Make Up Alley swap.  It's the Milani Corallina baked blush.  Given my blush hoarding tendencies, I have no idea how I didn't already have one of these, but I didn't.  

The color is very on trend with the whole Pantone "Tangerine Tango" theme.  It is a stunning coral blush with gold glitter.  The glitter chunks are noticeable so if that's a deal breaker for you, you will want to skip this one.

I love this blush.  LOVE it.  

It applies so smoothly.  It has fantastic pigmentation.  I think it is just perfect for summer.  Since swapping for this blush, I've tried several other Milani blushes and while I think they are fantastic as well, this blush holds a particular place in my heart.

Like the MAC Mineralize blushes, the Milani baked blushes also contain 3.5 grams of product.  But unlike the MAC blushes which retail for $23.50, the Milani blushes retail for around $7.  And depending on where you get them, they may be coupons.

Overall:  10/10

Milani Shadow Eyez!

I've been on the lookout for the Milani Shadow Eyez for weeks and I finally found them at CVS this week.  I was so excited!

I picked up 3 colors:

• 04 Green Safari
• 02 Brown Deluxe
• 03 Champagne Toast

They also have a white, purple and blue, but I passed on those.  I already have the Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in milk, so I didn't need the white.  And like so many people, I picked up the Urban Decay 24/7 shadow pencil set so I already have a purple and blue.

I was most excited about the Shadow Eyez in Champagne Toast.  I thought it looked like a dupe for Urban Decay's 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Sin.  I love that pencil from Urban Decay.  I use it several times a week.

You can still get the 24/7 Shadow Pencils in Sin.  They are $20 for  2.8g of product.  The Milani Shadow Eyez pencils are also 2.8g of product, but they retail for $5.99 at CVS, so they are much more budget friendly.

Anyway, back to the dupe issue.  Here is the Milani pencil and the Urban Decay pencil.

Swatch with no flash:

Swatch in sunlight:

The Milani pencil is pretty much an exact dupe.  I will say that the Urban Decay pencil does wear a bit longer, but the Milani pencil is definitely great quality and it's about a quarter of the price.

Have you guys tried out the Milani Shadow Eyez pencils?  What do you think?

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Flushed

This is another of the Revlon PhotoReady Cream blushes.  I already reviewed Coral Reef and next up is Flushed.

These PhotoReady cream blushes are part of the Revlon summer Escapism collection and as far as I know, they are not part of the permanent line.  I've seen them at Walgreens and Ulta in my area, but nowhere else.

The photos are a little dark.  In the pot, the blush looks very neon hot pink.  On the skin, it's much less dramatic.

I just sort of had to glob it on to get the heavy swatch because despite how scary it looks, it is actually pretty sheer.  

Flushed, unlike Coral Reef, didn't fade into nothing after it was applied.  It actually wore really well - at least 10 hours before fading.  It's a very blue based pink, so if that's not your thing you may want to avoid this one.  But then again, it can be really sheered out so maybe it could work.

I still feel on the fence about this entire Revlon PhotoReady cream blush line.  The pigmentation from Flushed (and Pinched too, review will be up soon) was much better than the pigmentation from Coral Reef.  Wear time was good.  

Flushed and Pinched dried down a lot better than Coral Reef.  They didn't go powdery as much as the regular Revlon cream blushes, but they were much close to a cream-to-powder formula than I got from Coral Reef.

Overall:  8/10

Review: MAC Dainty Mineralize Blush

This will be the first in a series of reviews on products that I swapped for rather than purchasing.  I swap on Make Up Alley.  Some of the swaps have been great.  Others, not so much.  This swap was fantastic.

I swapped with Kristina whose MUA handle is krissyb1979.  I traded my Naked palette for her bottle of MAC Matchmaster 1.0 (which I *LOVE*) and she included the MAC Dainty Mineralize blush.

In general, I'm not a huge fan of mineralized or baked cosmetics, but you all know about my blush problem, so of course, I had to try it out.  

MAC describes the color as "light yellow pink with gold pearl".  I don't really know that it's a gold pearl.  There is gold glitter in it.  It has great pigmentation, but it's very versatile.  You can sheer it out easily or apply it more heavily for a bolder look.

The texture and pigmentation are really similar to the Milani baked blushes I've tried, though the MAC price point is nowhere near as tempting.

The MAC Mineralize Blushes are packaged in the same size pans as the non-mineralized blushes, but because they're baked, they're not as dense so they only contain 3.5 grams of product as opposed to the regular MAC blushes which contain 6 grams of product.

And despite containing less product, the Mineralize blushes are more expensive as well.  The regular MAC blushes retail for $20, while the Mineralize blushes are $23.50.

I love the color and texture of this blush.

Overall: 9/10

Review: NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Mexican Rose

I originally I saw the NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Mexican Rose in a favorite spring products YouTube video by Tanya Burr.  I had a bunch of coupons and rewards bucks at Beauty.com, so I picked it up for less than $10.  The NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils typically sell for $24.

I purchased this pencil weeks and weeks ago and it's just been sitting on my vanity.  I don't really know why I didn't wear it, but I didn't.  I finally picked it up last weekend and applied it and was incredibly unhappy.  I wasn't expecting it to be quite so bright and so I promptly took it off and put on something more sedate.  I was ready to list it on Make Up Alley for a swap when I decided I should give it more than a 5 second test run.

So a couple times this week, I wore it all day.

NARS describes the color Mexican Rose as "hot pink" which is pretty spot on.  It is a bold color, but I'm trying to wear more lip products and sometimes I just need to force myself out of my comfort zone.  And after a couple days of wearing Mexican Rose I have to say I'm kind of in love with it.

NARS describes the Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil formula as "Spectacular shine in an innovative, lightweight formula and enriched with Vitamin E plus a blend of moisture-rich hyaluronic spheres that make lips appear fuller".

The formula reminded me a lot of the Clinique Chubbystick on initial application.  It is closer to a lipstick formula than a gloss, but it really is moisturizing and it does stay glossy and moveable for quite a while.

This wore probably 6 hours on me before I felt like it faded to the point that I needed to re-apply.  A big part of that is that the formula stained my lips pretty significantly.

I haven't tried the Yves Saint Laurent ROUGE PUR COUTURE Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain, but it makes me wonder if the formulas aren't similar.  Has anyone tried both?  Thoughts?

The big downside for me to this product is that unlike the Clinique Chubbysticks, the NARS Velvet Glosses aren't twist up pencils.  You actually have to sharpen them.  UGH!  Thanks to the incredible pigmentation and wear time I haven't had to sharpen mine yet, but apparently when I do, I need to freeze the pencil first.  This is a recipe for disaster.  I guarantee you that I'm going to put the pencil in the freezer so I can sharpen it and then I'm going to find it at Christmas time when I'm trying to make room in the freezer.  There is no way I am going to remember. 

Contains .09oz of product.  Retails for $24 wherever NARS is sold.

Overall:  8/10 - love the color, love the formula, hate the sharpening.

Review: Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer

I have been longing for the Bourjois Bronzing Powder since I first saw it in Pixiwoo tutorials.  Of course, living in the U.S. it is incredibly hard to come by Bourjois products.  And even those sketchy online retailers who do carry Bourjois, as far as I could tell, none of them carried the chocolate bronzer.

So, I feared I would never get my hands on one.

And then Katie sent me a bunch of goodies from the U.K., including the Bourjois chocolate bronzer!

Behold ...

Yes, it does both look and smell like chocolate!  Could I love this stuff more?  Doubtful.

As you can see from the swatches, the bronzer has a matte finish.  It's not crazy pigmented, but it is easily buildable.  The first couple of times I used it, I did sort of have to dig with the brush to get product, but subsequent applications have been much easier.  And while it smells like chocolate in the pan, the scent doesn't linger.  I didn't feel like I was walking around all day with a chocolate smelling face.

Here is the ingredient list for reference:

I am absolutely in love with this product.  Have any of you tried it?  What do you think?  How does it compare to other Bourjois bronzers?

Overall:  10/10

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Coral Reef

I heard about the new Revlon cream blushes from Canadian beauty bloggers, so I've been on the lookout for them for weeks with no luck.  And then yesterday I stopped by Ulta to pick up some things and lo and behold, they had a couple of them (though, of course, not the one I was most interested in).

These blushes are part of Revlon's summer Escapism collection.  I have no idea if they will be part of the permanent Revlon line or not.  The blushes come in three colors:  Flushed (blue based pink), Pinched (nudey peach) and Coral Reef (neon orange-peach).  The official Revlon press says:

• Creamy blush provides buildable, beautiful flush of color

• Lightweight formula with silky soft feel on skin

• Blends evenly over cheeks for smooth application

• Photochromatic pigments bend and reflect light to provide cheeks with a beautiful glow

NEW Revlon PhotoReady™ Cream Blush was created by Global Artistic Director Gucci Westman for the Spring 2012 collection. Inspired by the glowing skin of a beach beauty, these silky cream blushes glide on smoothly provide a dewy flush of color for a healthy, gorgeous glow. 

Anyway, on to the review ...

This is the Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in #300 Coral Reef.

Though the name "Coral Reef" would imply this is a coral colored blush, it really doesn't scream coral to me.  There really isn't any pink at all.  It's a pretty full on neon orange-peach.

I have one of of the regular Revlon cream blushes (not the PhotoReady line) and the texture is really different.  The texture of the regular Revlon cream blushes is very dry for a cream product.  The texture on the PhotoReady cream blushes is much more gel like.  They apply very sheer and aren't the easiest to build up.  They go on very strong at first, but quickly (and I mean, under 2 minutes) fade so they really are a sort of watercolor wash as opposed to a full on blush.  I'm not sure how well they would work for someone with deeper skintones.

As for the "beautiful glow" the product is supposed to impart, I really think that's just the sheen from the gel consistency.  It doesn't really seem to have any glitter, shimmer or pearl finish.

They don't really dry down at all.  They're not a cream-to-powder product at all and like I said, they fade really quickly.  You could set them with a powder to get better wear.  I think that sort of defeats the purpose of the gel consistency in the first place, but that's your call.

Here it is applied fairly heavily on the cheeks.  As you can see, it's very sheer.  Because they are so sheer, I think they would work on both warm and cool skintones, but if you are much darker than me, I'm not sure they'll show up at all.


I don't know.  I'm not really blown away by this product.  I really like a blush that looks like a blush as opposed to just a tint.  I doubt this will be a staple for me, but I guess time will tell.

The blush contains 12.4 grams of product.  I picked them up at Ulta as part of the BOGO1/2Off sale.

Overall: 6/10

Review: Sephora Rollerball Collection for Her

First off, I want to apologize.  I didn't realize until I was looking up links for this post that this is no longer available online.  I debated posting this because unlike some people *cough*PinkSith*cough* I don't like to show you things you can't have.

But I'm going to.  Sorry.

I picked up the Sephora Rollerball Collection for Her during the March Sephora VIB sale.  It looks like the collection is sold out online now, but you still may be able to find it at your local Sephora. I know mine still has a few.  Amazon and Ebay also have them, but the price is definitely not as tempting.

Sephora seems to do collections like this fairly regularly, so I assume they'll probably have something comparable up soon.

This set retailed for $32 and I had a 15% VIB discount, so it was $27.20.

This collection contained 7 rollerballs.  Most of them contained about .3 oz.  Individually, most of these rollerballs retail for about $20, so if you liked only 2 of them, this set was still a deal.

I was particularly interested in the Coach, Clean and Armani rollerballs, but the entire collection contained:

• Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gioia
• Coach Poppy
• Clean Shower Fresh
• Lavanila Vanilla Grapefruit
• Paco Rabanne Lady Million
• Hanae Mori Butterfly
• Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy

Some of them have turned out to be duds.  The Lavanila is a bit sweet for me and the Paco Rabanne smells great until I let it sit on my skin for a while, but still, there were some winners.

Overall:  10/10 

Review: Boots No7 Intensive Moisture Face Mask

A couple weeks ago I was on the hunt for a good moisturizing mask, so I picked up the Boots No7 Intensive Moisture Face Mask at Target for $19.99.

Here's what Boots has to say about the product:

An intensively quenching treat for softer, smoother skin. With caring vitamins A, C and E, plus invigorating apple extract to brighten your skin. This deliciously soft, lightly whipped gel-cream will leave your skin feeling softer, plumper and looking more youthful.
Created with Care. We've created this hypo-allergenic product using only ingredients we know and trust. It has been tried and tested by guests with even the most sensitive skin, so you'll know it will be good to yours. Dermatologically tested.

How to Use
Support a good cleansing regime by applying to cleansed and toned skin once or twice a week. Massage gently onto your face and neck avoiding the eye area. Relax for 5 minutes, wipe off and rinse away. For a more intense treat, leave on for up to 10 minutes, or apply a thin layer before bedtime and wake to really refreshed and hydrated skin.

It doesn't take much product to get coverage, so this bottle would last for a good bit of time.

So like I said, I was looking for moisture from this mask.  I wasn't looking for exfoliation or deep cleansing or anything.  I wanted moisture.

Did I get moisture?

No. It burned.  A lot.

I wish I really had more to say about this product, but that is really the takeaway for me.  This irritated the crap out of my face.  I did try it 3 separate times over several weeks under different conditions to see if it was something I was doing that was causing the adverse reaction, but couldn't find any application of this product that did not just completely irritate my skin.

I do understand that some masks will be more irritating than others, but I was specifically looking for something that was just really hydrating and I did not get hydration out of this.  The irritation lasted for probably 10 hours before my skin finally calmed down again.  And then when it did calm down, no hydration.

For the record, since the bottle says that you can apply a light layer and leave it on overnight, I decided to try it on the backs of my hands and the bottoms of my feet.  It did absolutely nothing.  This product is a total fail for me.

The container has 3.33 fl. oz.

Overall:  0/10

Review: MAC Lovecloud Blush

So I just realized that I never did an official review for this product.  My bad.

MAC's Lovecloud is the last of the blushes I picked up from MAC's Tres Cheek limited edition collection released in April 2012.  It is described by MAC as a "bright mid-tone pink".  It's a Satin finish.

Unlike my experiences with Immortal Flower, the finish on Lovecloud is fantastic.  It is so smooth and applies like a dream.  

It's a very blue based pink and it looks a little intimidating in the pan, but on the skin it looks lovely.  It does have a bit more of a sheen than my other two blushes from the collection, but it's far from metallic or super frosty.  My skin does lean pinky-neutral, but I think you could make this color work on a warmer skintone just because it does sheer out really easily.

Surprisingly enough, I really don't have anything like this in my blush collection, so it is a very welcome addition.

Like other MAC blushes, this contains 6 grams of product and retailed for $20.

Overall:  8/10

Review: MAC Pink Tea Blush

MAC Pink Tea blush is limited edition. It's from the Tres Cheek collection that launched in early April 2012.    This is actually my favorite blush from the collection, but it seems to be one of the less popular.  This means if you want it, it looks like it's still available at most outlets.

It's a very subtle beige pink color with a satin finish.  I absolutely love it.  Oddly enough, I don't own many pink blushes.  I have tons of coral blushes, but not many pink.  

Pink Tea has a great finish.  It reminds me a lot of the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush in Exposed.  The color isn't really similar, but much like Exposed, it looks super boring in the pan, but on the skin it is very pretty - much less beige and much pinker.

It doesn't have a ton of pigmentation, but it shows up really well on my NW15 skintone.  If you have a darker skintone, I don't know how much payoff you're going to get out of it.

I think this was a great addition to my collection and I'm very happy with it.

The pan contains 6 grams of product and retails for $20.

Overall: 8/10

Review: NARS Illuminator in Copacabana

Next up in my highlighters series is the NARS Illuminator in Copacabana.  The NARS website describes it as:

Light the skin from within. A collection of light-reflecting liquids that glide on to refresh and enhance the complexion with shimmering incandescence. Deceptively sheer, decidedly luminous.

This is in the shade Copacabana which is "glistening pearl".   It comes in 3 other shades, Laguna (brown with gold shimmer), Orgasm (peachy pink with gold shimmer) and Super Orgasm (peachy pink with gold glitter).

The picture below is a deluxe sample size, not the full size.  I picked it up a while ago in my NARS VIB pack from Sephora.

The swatches below were taken without a flash.  It's just using my office lighting.  As you can tell, it is INCREDIBLY iridescent.  I thought the MAC Cream Colour Bases were reflective, but they don't hold a candle to the NARS Illuminator.  This stuff is so shiny.  

It does sheer out, but again, it's really iridescent.  I haven't tried any of the colors so I really can't speak to the different results you might get - especially from the one with glitter rather than shimmer.  This product is pretty thin consistency, so I would assume that you could mix a little of it with your foundation for overall illumination or just use it for spot highlighting.

I actually ended up giving my tube of this product away.  It was just so reflective that I knew I was never going to use it.  I know that some people swear by this, but it is just way too frosty/shimmery for my taste.

A full size Illuminator is 1.1oz and retails for $30.

Overall: 5/10

Review: NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer

At the end of February, I picked up a sample of the NARS Pure Radiance Tinted Moisturizer in Finland (the color, not the country) at the NARS counter of my local Nordstrom (before it was in wide release).  I did a first impressions post here.  I loved the product, but $42 for something labeled a tinted moisturizer is pretty steep in my book, so I held off ... for a while.

Mid-March I went ahead and picked up a full size tube, again in Finland, the lightest shade.  Unlike a lot of tinted moisturizer lines which offer a very limited color range, the NARS line has a whopping 9 shades.  

NARS says that Finland is "Lightest with a neutral balance of pink and yellow undertones".  You can judge for yourself from the swatch below.  I don't think it's neutral.  I think it's yellow.  But sheered out, it looks fine on my pinky skin.

I was surprised by the fact that this tinted moisturizer actually moisturizes.  I've tried several that were just runny foundations.  But this formula is very hydrating on my skin.  It contains SPF 30, which I love.  I really try to wear at least SPF 50 on my face though, so I usually go ahead and apply my regular sunscreen under the tinted moisturizer.  It isn't ideal, but it works.

So I know this is called a tinted moisturizer.  I think that name is incredibly misleading, but in a good way.  The amount of coverage that I get from this tinted product far exceeds the coverage I get from some of my foundations.

I still get a little oily in the T-zone with this product, but nothing bad and certainly no worse than I get from my regular foundations sans primer.  I don't wear this every day, probably more like every other day.  According to NARS, this product is supposed to "reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation and dark spots for a brighter natural glow."  I will say that I have noticed some of my hyperpigmentation improving.  I can't say for sure that it's because of this product, but it's possible.

I feel like I'm pussyfooting around the issue, so maybe I should just come out and say it.  THIS STUFF IS MAGIC.  Ahem.  I feel better now.  

The only downside is that it has a fairly magical pricetag as well, $42 for 1.9oz.  Compare that to NARS Sheer Glow foundation which is also $42 but for only 1oz of product and I guess it's not so bad.  The Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer is also $42, but for only 1.5oz of product.  Gah, I don't know.  I still feel like $42 for something called a tinted moisturizer is insane.  But at the end of the day, I do love this stuff.  And I do feel like even at this price point, it delivers.

Overall:  9/10