Flower Beauty Petite Fleurs Pocket Triplets PF4 and PF7

The Petite Fleurs Pocket Triplets by Flower Beauty are something I have been curious about since the line launched.  My local Wal-Mart has been sold out of them for weeks, but the last time I checked, they had restocked so I picked up two of the lip triplets (there are triplets for eyes as well).

Did it seem gimmicky when I picked it up?  Yes.

Are they gimmicky?  Yes.

OMG, YES.

These things are truly awful.  Really, I cannot state enough how truly awful they are.

I think that all of the pocket triplet shades are shades from the full Flower Beauty line, but I could be wrong because I don't think that there is a dark brown lipstick in their regular line.  Yes, you read that right, dark brown.  Not nude, not a shade that caters to women of color, just an ugly dark brown lipstick.

The texture on these lipstick are horrible.  Drying, patchy.

The packaging just baffles me.  It's like they tried to design the worst packaging possible.  It's flimsy, cheap looking, holds a minuscule amount of product, the way the little bullets fit together it is almost impossible to not gouge the hell out of the product while trying to use it.

As with the rest of the Flower Beauty line, all of the descriptive information is on the plastic wrap around the product, so once you open it, you have no idea what it is, how much product it contains, what colors it contains ... nothing.

I got so fed up in trying to swatch these that I just stopped and tossed them in my daughter's dress up drawer.  Maybe she'll get some use out of them.

Overall:  0/10

Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals

These aren't new products but I have a big backlog of reviews, so I figured better late than never.  This review is on the Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals.  As far as I can tell, the Metals line launched for Spring 2013 with 5 shades.  The one shade that I did not pick up was Electric Blue because I know I would never wear it.  

So, on to the shades I did pick up ...

• 55 Inked In Pink - Warm, rosy pink.  The formula was very creamy and smooth.
• 60 Silver Strike - There didn't seem to be a whole lot of pigmentation to the base.  It mostly seems like silver glitter.  It has an okay texture and applied fairly evenly.
• 65 Gold Rush - Very orangy yellow gold.  This had the worst texture of the bunch.  It was incredibly patchy and uneven.
• 70 Barely Branded - Warm champagne beige.  Fantastic texture, creamiest of the bunch.  It stuck me as very similar to the Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream #13. (swatched below for comparison)

So if the regular Color Tattoo line is the MAC Paint Pot knockoff, the Tattoo Metals line is definitely the Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream knockoff.  

The Maybelline Color Tattoos have a fantastic price point.  I had great wear times with all these shades and no creasing (though I will admit that it is rare for me to have creasing with a cream eye product).

I am a little baffled by both Silver Strike and Gold Rush.  A metallic silver and a metallic gold should have been automatic home runs.  Just about every makeup line out there has some variation on these kinds of cream shadows or liners and yet, these two were just duds for me.  They were uneven, the gold was a brassy, brash unflattering gold.

I do think that Inked In Pink and Barely Branded are fantastic shades and really can go toe to toe with the MUFE Aqua Creams in terms of color payoff and wear time at about a quarter of the cost.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Metals contain 4 grams of product and retail for around $6.

Stila In The Light Eyeshadow Palette

I am absolutely a sucker for neutral eyeshadow palettes.  Do I need another one?  Of course not.  Did I pick up another one, you betcha.

This time it is the Stila In The Light eyeshadow palette.  It features 10 shadows in a variety of neutral colors and finishes.

Top row L-R Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone

• Bare - Light, yellowy beige with a matte finish.  It was dry, but not awful
• Kitten - Shimmery Champagne color with a metallic finish.  Absolutely fantastic.  (As a side note, I have Kitten from another Stila palette and it is pink in the pan.  Swatched, it looks identical to the swatch here, but in the pan, it's pink.)
• Bliss - Light pinky brown with a matte finish.  It was dry with underwhelming color payoff.
• Sunset - Mid tone pinky copper with a metallic finish.  Fantastic shade.
• Sandstone - Warm dark brown with a matte finish.  It was dry, but better than the other mattes in the palette.  Had good color payoff.

Bottom row L-R Bubbly, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony

• Bubbly - Metallic warm gold, darker than Kitten.  Fantastic.
• Gilded Gold - Warm dark brown with a satin base and gold glitter. Color payoff was good, but I had a lot of glitter fallout.
• Luster - I have another Stila palette with Luster and I swear, it is not this shade.  Different in the pan and different swatched.  This Luster is a cool dark brown with some gold glitter.  Texture was a bit dry, color payoff wasn't fantastic.
• Night Sky - Dark gray blue with a satin base and blue glitter.  It had a good texture, but I did have problems with glitter fallout from this shade as well.
• Ebony - Matte black.  Okay texture.  Okay payoff.

Also included is a Stila Smudge Stick waterproof eyeliner in damsel which is a dark matte brown.

I think this is a really nice palette.  I won't be trading in my Lorac UNzipped palette for it any time soon though.

The metallic shades are fantastic, but I think it's probably pretty easy to make a fantastic metallic eyeshadow.  Everything else is very middle of the road, which is disappointing.  Most of the mattes were terrible.  And all of the glitter shades had big problems with fallout.

Stila's In The Light palette contains 14 grams of product and retails for $39 wherever Stila is sold.  I got mine at Sephora.

Overall: 7/10

Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls in Sunkissed

I know, just about every beauty line out there now have their very own ripoff of the Guerlain Meteorites.  I lust after the Guerlain Meteorites.  But I do not need another finishing powder, no matter how beautiful.  So I've saved myself the $58.  However, this does not preclude me from trying the cheap knockoffs.

I've seen several YouTubers using the Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls.  I'm pretty sure they came out with Avon's summer 2012 collection.  They're no longer available from Avon and I have to tell you, if you missed them, you're not missing much.

I'm not exactly sure what complexion this particular shade could bronze.  You see the swatch above?  The one where you can barely see where the product is swiped.  Yeah.  There's virtually no pigmentation to this product.  I picked up Sunkissed.  I'm sure it came in at least one other, darker, shade.  

It's a highlighter.  It does have a decent amount of shimmer.  Not the most finely milled or flattering shimmer, but it's there.  I know that a lot of people love the scent of this product.  As previously mentioned, my sense of smell is pretty non-existent, so that's not exactly a plus for me.

Overall, this product feels gimmicky.  It's a chunky, gimmicky highlighter and it sits largely unloved in the back of my makeup drawer.  If I was in desperate need of a highlighter, I suppose this would work, but I have other highlighters that I love far more and that are far less messy and cumbersome to use.

Avon Glow Bronzing Pearls in B01 Sunkissed contain a whopping 22 grams of product.  I picked mine up on sale from Avon.com for $6.99.

Overall:  4/10

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dandelion

Benefit Box O' Powders are nothing new, and they're blushes, so how exactly I've gone this long without owning one properly, I'm not sure.  I did pick up a mini of Benefit's Bella Bamba as a Sephora 100 point perk, but it's not the same as owning a full size and somehow the mini packaging manages to be even more annoying than the full size packaging.

Benefit's Box O' Powder blush in Dandelion is something that has been on my wishlist forever.  It's a blush.  It's a yellow based pink blush.  I mean, how had I not picked this up?

Well, after finally biting the bullet and picking it up when I had a Sephora discount, I know how I hadn't picked it up.  It's fine.  The blush, itself, is fine.  It's a very subtle (even on my super pale skin) yellow based pink blush.  It's smooth without being powdery.  It blends well and it has decent staying power - I got 6 hours out of it before it faded noticeably.  It has a satin finish.

The packaging is terrible.  The stupid cardboard flip top lid thing is nothing but an irritation.  The brush, surprisingly, wasn't awful, though I wouldn't use it to apply blush.  I think it would be fine for a contour brush.   There's a stupid little plastic insert thing that sits over the powder and if you're not careful (which, of course, I learned the hard way) it's very easy to gouge the product.

This is a product that I wanted to love, but the packaging was sufficiently annoying that I not only don't love it.  I have it sitting in my makeup storage in the other room.  And while I expected the color to be subtle, I don't know that I expected it to be quite this subtle.  MAC's Pink Tea looks similar in the pan, but has way more oomph on the skin.  

Sigh.  At this price point, I should love it and I don't.

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dandelion contains 7 grams of product and retails for $28 wherever Benefit is sold.  I got mine at Sephora.

Overall:  6/10

Givenchy Le Prisme Blush in Orange In Vogue

I've been very lax about getting around to reviewing the Givenchy products I picked up a few weeks ago.  That's because for the most part, I was really disappointed.  Of the four products I purchased from the Givenchy line (bronzer, eyeshadow quad, blush and lipstick), two of them went back (bronzer, which wasn't, post is here and lipstick, post coming soon).

I still haven't swatched the eye quad because I'm not sure if I'm going to take it back or not.

But the one item that I knew I was keeping is the blush.  Officially it is the Givenchy Le Prisme Blush in Orange in Vogue.

It is a beautiful blusher.  The texture of the powders are fantastic.  Each individual shade was buttery soft with good payoff and swirled together it has a lovely bronzy apricot glow.

(clockwise from top left)

(swirled together)

The only downside of this blush is the size.  I apologize for not taking a picture of me holding the blush, but it is tiny.  The packaging is a cute little square with a drawer for the (mostly useless) blush brush.  But again, it's tiny.

The amount of actual product contained in the packaging is fairly standard - 6.8 oz.  But the way it's packaged, it looks absolutely minuscule   And it's good that the colors swirled together work because despite seeming like you could use the shades individually, they're too small to really try that.

Of all the Givenchy items I picked up, this blush is definitely my favorite.  But I do feel like my reaction to it is colored by how disappointed I was overall with the Givenchy line.

The Givenchy Le Prisme powder blushes contain 6.8 oz of product and retail for $44 exclusively at Sephora.

Overall:  8/10

Maybelline Limited Edition Blush in Golden Fuse

I already mentioned the Maybelline blush in Golden Fuse when I did my review of MAC's Warm Soul blush.  Golden Fuse is a Limited Edition blush with Maybelline's Summer 2013 collection, So Electric.

This baked blush is a warm golden bronzy pink with lots of gold shimmer.  I don't think it swatches anywhere near as orange as it looks in the pan.  It has a surprising amount of pink.

This blush is a solid performer.  It had a nice texture and blended out easily.  It had good staying power - 6 hours before it started to fade, 8 hours before it faded significantly.  It's a beautiful warm color, perfect for summer.  It does have a lot of shimmer, so if you don't like that, you may want to steer clear.

This blush is not an exact dupe for MAC's Warm Soul, but I think it's probably as close as you're going to get at the drugstore in terms of both color and texture.

Maybelline's Golden Fuse blush contains 2.5 grams of product and retails for around $5 wherever Maybelline is sold.

Overall:  10/10

Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal in Nude and Taupe

In the last couple of months due to a whole host of random and annoying vision problems, my eye doctor switched me out of hard contacts - rigid gas permeable lenses to be exact.  (I know, you didn't even know they made hard contacts anymore, did you?)

So, several takeaways for me from now wearing soft contact lenses are:

• Wow, these aren't excruciatingly painful.
• I can actually see now that random particles aren't constantly attaching themselves to my lenses.
• I could really consider wearing something in my waterline - this was NOT an option for me with hard contacts.  It led to nothing other than extremely painful watery eyes.

Not wanting to plunk down a lot of money in this new stuff-on-the-waterline experiment, I decided to check out the ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal (say that three times fast) liners from Rimmel.  I picked up two colors, Taupe and Nude.

As you can see from the swatches, they both lean rather orange, which I'm not crazy about, especially on the waterline, but for less than $10 for 2 pencils, you sort of get what you get.

005 Nude is a very warm orange leaning beige.  I'm not exactly sure who this would be nude for, especially on the waterline.  I really wish this product would have been much cooler toned and blue/pink leaning.

004 Taupe is a warm gray brown.  Again, it leans a bit orange.

The pencils are extremely creamy and they are opaque in one swipe.  They stay sticky, not ever really drying down.  This means that they do have pretty good staying power on the waterline.  

I think that overall staying power is probably going to be dictated by things other than the product.  Namely, how dry was your waterline when you applied and how watery overall are your eyes.

The quality of the product is impressive, especially at this price point.  But my complaint is that for a product designed to be used so close to the eyes, they're too warm/orange.  I think they're going to make your eyes look more red and tired.  Especially for the nude, I would have liked to see a color that would brighten and this one doesn't.

The Rummel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal pencils contain 1.2 grams of product and retail for around $4.49 wherever Rimmel is sold.

Overall:  7/10.

MAC Warm Soul Mineralize Blush

Warm Soul is one of those blushes that everyone seems to love.  I have been hearing people rave about it forever.  I do love me some blush and despite being rather cool toned, I am not crazy about wearing cool toned blushes.  So, obviously, I needed to pick up Warm Soul.

Look at it.  It's beautiful.  This is one of those cases of the hype being true.  This is a gorgeous warm coppery pink color with gold shimmer.  It could be used as a blush or a bronzer.  I am in LOVE with this blush.  It is fantastic and it is an absolute staple for me.

It's a Mineralize baked blush with great payoff and a lovely texture.  I found it blended out easily, but it also has great staying power.  I got a solid 9 hours out of it before it started to fade noticeably.

The MAC Mineralize blushes all contain 3.5 grams of product and retail (currently) for $25.

Overall:  10/10

Oh, and for what it's worth, I also happened to pick up a Maybelline LE baked blush the same week that is pretty similar (review forthcoming).  

The Maybelline blush is called Golden Fuse and it's part of their Summer 2013 So Electric collection.  It's a tad bit more golden and shimmery, but it's really pretty close and it's 2.5 grams of product for around $5.

Avon True Color Eyeshadow Quad in Mocha Latte

Here is another Avon item I picked up recently.   I picked up the True Color Eyeshadow Quad in Mocha Latte.

(swatches clockwise from lower left)

The colors and textures in the quad are as follows:

• light peach - Satin finish with underwhelming payoff.  It tended to be powdery.  True to pan.
• Medium dark brown - Matte finish.  Super soft and buttery.  Great payoff.  Cool medium brown.  True to pan.
• Dark Brown - Matte.  Super soft and buttery.  Great payoff.  Cool dark brown.  True to pan.
• Taupe - Metallic finish.  Coppery pinky brown, not at all taupe.  Not true to pan.

I picked the quad up on sale for $5.99, which is cheaper than a lot of drugstore palettes.  Avon's distribution is a bit of a pain in this day and age.  I don't have an "Avon Lady".  I used their website and ended up having to pay shipping, which I hate.  

For the price, this is a really nice palette.  The shadows aren't fantastic, but they're good.  And the packaging is sturdy, especially at this price point.

Overall:  8/10

Guerlain Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette

Guerlain's Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette launched with their holiday 2012 Liu collection.  As soon as I saw the promo pics for this palette, it went on my wish list.  Just look at it.  It's gorgeous.  I was even more excited when Temptalia did a review of the palette and gave it an A+ rating.  In fact, every review I have ever seen for this palette gave it a top rating.  It seems like everyone loves this palette.

This palette has it all, beautiful, luxurious packaging, rich holiday colors and phenomenal quality.  At at Guerlain's price point, it definitely should.  The Calligraphy palette had a price tag of $79.

I COULD NOT WAIT to get my hands on it.  

Lucky me, I did receive this as a Christmas present last year.  I was thrilled!

Look at those shadows, they are gorgeous!

At least in the pan.

...

Well, only in the pan, as it turns out.

This palette is hands down the biggest disappointment of 2012 for me.  Possibly my biggest beauty disappointment ever.  As I said, it is gorgeous.  This palette definitely is a thing of beauty - to look at, not to use.  

But the quality?  The shadows were described as buttery soft with great payoff.  Um ... I have no idea what to think of this.   All of the shadows are stiff and dry with very lackluster pigmentation.  I had to fight with the shadows to get any color at all.

The lipsticks are definitely the standouts of the palette in that they go on fantastically well and have great pigmentation.  They look really similar in the pans, one orange red and one primary red.

The primary red looking shade actually goes on a very bright raspberry pink.  The orangey looking red actually swatched much more of a true red.

Overall, looking at this palette just makes me want to cry.  I had such high expectations for it and it totally failed to live up to them.  If someone just handed me this palette on the street, I would probably think it was okay.  The shadows are disappointing, but not the worst you could find.  But given the expectations I had for the palette combined with the price point, it just breaks my heart.

Overall:  0/10