Product Reviews

I think it's safe to say that I am a product junkie. Seriously.  And I'm not too picky.  I love both drugstore brands and designer... though admittedly I have much more of the drugstore variety because my pocketbook... she does not like the prices of the designer brands.

I also adore ... ADORE makeup and Hair blogs.  Tutorials and reviews and the like. Some of the ones I frequent most are Scrangie, Pinch of Pretty, Makeup Geek, A brilliant brunette, My yellow sandbox, and The Small Things.  To name a few. I'm seriously a beauty nerd, I will watch eye shadow and hair tutorials on you tube all day long if you let me.

Anyhoo, since I like to use lots of different products, and I'm constantly trying new ones I thought every now and then I'd post a review.  I like reading what real people have to say about products.  I think pinterest got me started on all of this.  That's how I found the majority of those blogs.

So, here we go (and yes, I purchased all of these products myself.)

First up, NYX white eyeshadow base.  I have to use eyeshadow base or within an hour or two, my eyeshadow sort of melts into the crease and looks like crap.  I usually use a different brand, but I wanted to try this kind... and in white because I read that it really helps the colors stand out.  I paid 5 bucks at Bartell's for this.



 

I applied it a bit thick over my lids, in my experience, the product works much better for me if I'm generous in the application.

 

I then applied eyeshadow as I normally would, and tried out two other new products:

Maybelline's lasting drama gel eyeliner


 

and Revlon photo ready 3d mascara

   

The gel eyeliner is kind of amazing.  As you can see it comes in a little jar and brush... I was a bit nervous about trying it at first, but it went on very smooth.  I've actually been wearing it every day for the past week and I am converted.  There's no flaking or smudging, and even when my eyes were tearing I had minimal issues with smearing. Impressive! I paid about 8 bucks at Target for this.

I like the mascara as well.  I've yet to find a mascara that I can't live without... I have about 10 different kinds in my makeup collection.  All drugstore brands because I am cheap as hell.  This stuff was 9 bucks at Target and overall I'm happy with it.  Minimal flaking, no smudging... the mascara itself is kind of a wetter formula than I'm used to, and I was concerned about that but it went on very nicely.

Witness the end result:








 

I was very pleased with the eye shadow base, after about 8 hours it looked almost the same as when I had first applied it.  It was after 10 hours where it started looking kind of gross.  Not too shabby for a $5 buy!

Lastly, have you heard of Birchbox? Basically they send you a box full of beauty samples once a month. Sometimes the samples are truly sample size, and sometimes they stick a full size item in. You never know. It costs $10 per month.  If you are a product junkie like me this is a pretty cool deal.

So far, I've gotten 2 boxes from my friends at Birchbox.  I didn't take pictures of the first one, but I did take pics of my April box.







As you can see the focus this month was on natural products for the most part. I have not (and will not) be trying the lip balm as it smells heavily of fennel.  Me no likey.  I do like the Pomegranate cream and the eye cream.  Overall not too bad of a haul for April!  (Ps. No likey the Taylor Swift sample either. bleccch.)