Review: bareMinerals blush in Beauty

So this product is an oldie but a goodie, the bareMinerals blush in beauty.  Bare minerals describes the color as "blushed pink".  Helpful description, huh?  SIGH.  Also, the swatch on the company website looks absolutely nothing like this color to me.

When I first got back into makeup after a very long hiatus, bareMinerals was the first line I used.  At this point, I am pretty much over bareMinerals.  I have learned through trial and error that I am not a fan of loose shadows and I rarely use pigments.  Even after trying out their new pressed eyeshadow quads, I'm really not impressed.

The one exception to this is their blush line.  I feel like it is well established at this point that I have a blush problem.  I love them.  Loose blushes, pressed blushes, cream blushes, matte blushes, shimmery blushes, I love them all.  And the bareMinerals blush in beauty is no exception.  This is the one bareMinerals item that I still use and have recently repurchased.

  

I don't really know what "blushed pink" is supposed to look like, but to me Beauty is a yellow-based pink blush.  It has a slightly dusty tinge to it, similar to MAC's Pink Tea.  (For the record, Sephora describes the color as "sweetheart rose" which I find to be a much more apt description.)

The pigmentation is good.  It applies easily and wears for a good 6 hours before it starts to fade.  It's not completely matte.  There is a bit of a sheen to it, but it's definitely not glittery or frosty.

Because of its dusty tinge, I think this is probably only going to really work on lighter skintones.  I think on medium to dark skintones it's probably going to turn ashy.

The only downside for me is that it is loose, however that's not a huge problem for me because I do really love this color.

Also, this is the only loose blush I have so I guess I'm really not familiar with how much product is standard.  This packaging contains .85grams of product and retails for $19.  Compare that with a standard MAC pressed blush that contains 6 grams of product and has a very similar price point.

Overall:  7/10

Review: Wet n' Wild Coloricon blusher in Mellow Wine

  

I picked up the Wet n' Wild blush in Mellow Wine quite a while ago and I'm just now getting around to posting a review.  Mellow Wine is a dusky pinky peach.  The color payoff is excellent.  I often use this color much like I use my Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed, as a sort of soft contour through the backs of my cheeks.  It's definitely not a bronzer, but I do think that it's deep enough of a color that it works well in that application.

Mellow Wine isn't the smoothest blush I've ever used, but it's got a nice texture and it applies well.  Mellow Wine has enough pigmentation that it shows up well even on darker skintones.  I can usually get around 6 hours of wear out of it before it fades significantly.

Wet n Wild Color Icon Blusher in Mellow Wine contains 4 grams of product and retails for the very budget friendly price of $2.99.

Overall: 8/10

June 2012 Glossybox

Here is the June 2012 US Glossybox.

A closer look at the products:

Wella Professionals Enrich Moisturizing Treatment mask for fine/normal hair.  

Deluxe sample contains 25mL.  

The full size contains 5oz and retails for $12.

First Aid Beauty Smooth Shave Cream.  

Deluxe sample contains 2 oz

Full size contains 6.8oz and retails for $16.50

Trio of face products from vBeaute

Includes:

Lite Up Intense Brightening Agent Serum

Buying Time Day Cream

Eye Never Eye Cream

The samples look like they're about 1mL each.

Full sizes retail for Lite Up 1oz $150; Buying Time 1.7oz $135; Eye Never .5oz $85.

This is the "special surprise" from this month's Glossybox.  It's from a company called A Perfume Organic (which I think is a horribly confusing name, FWIW).  The perfume itself is called Urban Organic.  The vial arrived about 1/3 full.  A full size contains .41oz and retails for $65.  The perfume is nice, but honestly, giving me a 1/3 full vial as an extra .. I wish they'd just not bothered.


And finally on to the full size item for this month's Glossybox:

Ofra Eyeshadow in Ice.
Full size.  Retails for $14.95.
I am so underwhelmed by this.  It looks like a turd in a tube.

Overall, I am much less impressed by this month's Glossybox, but I will give it another month or two before I decided to keep it or dump it.

Review: Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palette in 710 Not Just Nudes

I go through big cream shadow phases and last go round I picked up several of the Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palettes.  The palette above, in 710, Not Just Nudes, is by far my favorite of the Revlon cream palettes.

Sadly, I didn't think to photograph this palette before I used it so excuse the rather beat up looking product photos.  The different colors have significantly different textures.

The darkest color is by far the ... hmm, how to say this ... the lightest?  It has a whipped, creamy consistency.  It does have shimmer.  And phenomenal color payoff.

The second color is as close to matte as you can get with a cream product that doesn't completely dry down.    It is much denser in texture than the other shadows in the palette.

The third shadow has a lighter consistency again. It has a pearlescent finish, but no glitter.

The final shade is the most underwhelming in the palette.  The color payoff isn't fantastic and it's just a very underwhelming shade for me.

As I said earlier, I love the darkest shade and I wear it often.

This is a nice little cream shadow palette.  I'd say the quality is on par with the Urban Decay cream shadows if you're familiar with those.  If you're looking for something on par with say the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, you're going to need to keep looking.  The Revlon cream shadows never completely dried down on me and they definitely aren't waterproof.  That said, I don't really have a problem with these creasing though I do tend to layer them with powder shadows.

The palette contains 3.4 grams of product total and retails for about $6.

Overall: 7/10

Review: Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Dark

I was lucky enough to receive the Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Darks Palette from the lovely Diana when I did my swap with Tam a few weeks ago.  I had been lusting after this palette since I saw it on English blogs, but since my access to Sleek is very limited, I figured I'd never get a chance to see it in person.

First off, I love the packaging.  I'm not sure if it's new for all Sleek palettes or just for the matte palettes, but I love it.  And the shadows ... OMG, the shadows.  I think it is a well known fact that I love me some matte shadows.  Seriously, I have a matte shadow problem.  And these mattes are beautiful.  Most of them are buttery soft and have incredible pigmentation as you can see from the swatches.

There are a lovely range of colors here, enough to create a multitude of looks.  I think this is an incredibly versatile palette and I use it often.

The Sleek ultra mattes palette contains 12.1 grams of product and retails for $10.99 plus s/h at SleekMakeup.com

Overall:  10/10

Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey

A week or so ago, I picked up a couple of the Revlon Just bitten Kissable Balm Stains in Sweetheart and Rendezvous.  I absolutely loved both of those colors, but they are both really bright so I wanted to try some of the more muted colors in the range.

I decided to pick up the color Honey.  Revlon doesn't provide an official description of the color, but it looks to me like a sort of beigey rose color.

The color looks sort of purple in the bullet, but on the skin it definitely learns more rosey.

This is one of those colors that I want to love.  I am so impressed with the other two balm stains, but this color was just completely underwhelming to me.  First off, the pigmentation is almost non-existent.  I do not have heavily pigmented lips and it was not at all noticeable.  Also, whatever pigmentation there was did not last.

I could easily get 5 or 6 hours of wear time out of the colors Rendezvous and Sweetheart, but Honey, I got maybe an hour and a half.  It was just really disappointing on pretty much every front.

The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains contain 2.7 grams of product and retail for $7 - $10 depending on where you purchase.  Available wherever Revlon is sold.

Overall: 5/10

Review: Sleek blush in Pomegranate

Yet another of the awesome items I received from Katie, here is the Sleek blush in Pomegranate.

Pomegranate can look a little scary in the pan.  It definitely leans purple, but just check out the swatches on the skin:

As you can see, it is definitely wearable.  It's a blue based pink not with a bit of a sheen, but no glitter.  The pigmentation on the blush is fantastic, but it also sheers out easily.  I easily got 6 hours of wear out of this blush before it started to fade.

I don't know if you can buy the individual blushes from Sleek anymore.  Their website only lists the Blush by 3 line.

The Sleek individual blushes contain 8grams of product.

Overall:  9/10

Review: Milani Runway Eyes eyeshadow palette in 09 Trendsetter

This spring I picked up one of the Milani Runway Eyes palettes in 09 Trendsetter.  Trendsetter is a mix of yellow-green-blue shadows.  

The packaging for these palettes is definitely not my favorite.  The shadows are in raised strips, sticking up above the level of the rest of the palette.  This makes it very easily to accidentally gouge the shadows and makes any fallout practically impossible to reclaim (it's not like you can put it back in the pan, there is no pan).

The shadows are all the Milani baked eyeshadow formula so you will get significantly better color payoff if you use the shadows wet as opposed to dry.  These swatches are dry.

The wear time on these particular shadows wasn't phenomenal, especially since I didn't foil them.  They're a mineralized product and I do realize that if you want to get the full potential, you have to use them wet.  But I hate using shadows wet, so I realize I'm going to get less than stellar results.  Over a base they wore for about 4 hours before they faded significantly.

This is definitely not a go-to palette for me.  These colors are pretty far outside my comfort zone.  But I was wanting something different and this palette certainly filled the bill and was very budget friendly.

The palette contains 9 grams of product total and retails for around $8 in the US.

Overall: 7/10

Review: Milani Baked Powder Blush in Luminoso

Milani Baked Powder Blush in Luminoso is another item I picked up in a MakeUp Alley swap.  Like the other Milani blushes and bronzers I've tried, I was really impressed with this product and totally baffled as to why I never just buy any of these blushes, especially at the fantastic price point.

Luminoso is a pale peach blush with great pigmentation and staying power.  It does have a sheen but does not contain glitter.  I got a good 10 hours of wear out of the blush before it had faded significantly.

Like all of the Milani Baked Powder Blush, it contains 3.5 grams of product and retails for around $7.

Overall:  9/10

Review: Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

In April in was lucky enough to get some awesome goodies from Katie.  It's take me a while, but I'm finally getting around to swatching everything she sent.  (Holy procrastination, Batman.  I've been loving everything she sent, I just haven't been good about taking pictures.)

So first up is the Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

The labels are so reflective that it was hard to photograph, but here goes:

So as you could have guessed from the name, the shadows in the Bad Girl palette tend to be darker, vampy even and then a couple of highlight shades.  

First off, I have to say that I was so thrilled to get this palette.  I'd seen several YouTube videos from people in the UK using this palette and it just completely bums me out that it is such a pain to try and get Sleek items in the US.  I'd pretty much given up on ever getting anything from Sleek and then lo and behold, this beauty arrived.  :D

As you can tell from the pictures, some of the colors are very similar, but the textures are quite different.  Some of the shades are pearlescent and the others are matte.

And now, on to the swatches.  All colors are swatched dry with no primer.

First, is the top row of the palette, which overall had a consistency that was okay, but not fantastic, especially on the lighter shades.

The bottom row, in contrast, had phenomenal color payoff and texture.

The Bad Girl palette contains 12 shadows which contain 1.1grams each for a total of 13.1 grams.

Overall: 9/10

Review: Milani Marbelized Baked Eyeshadow

A while ago I picked up 4 of the Milani Marbelized Baked Eyeshadows at CVS in:

• 616 Must Have Fuchsia
• 607 Rich Java
• 606 Drenched in Gold
• 617 Copper Excess.

These are baked shadows so you are certainly going to get better payoff by using them wet, however I don't like to foil shadows, so the swatches are all done dry.  As you can see, the pigmentation is still very good.

swatches under daylight bulbs

swatches in sunlight

The shadows had great pigmentation and with a primer, easily wore 10 hours.  These are probably a little too bold for me on a daily work basis, but they are certainly great performers when I want a bolder look.  The colors are also fantastic for a bronzey summer look.

The shadows contain 1.5 grams each and retail for between $4 and $7 each depending on where you get them.

Overall:  9/10