All That Glitters: Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner Review

I once had a very bad experience with glitter. A speck of it somehow got lodged in my eyeball, and I could feel it! I was on my way to the emergency room when it worked its way out. (I had previously had the same experience with a grain of sand, which I ignored for a few days until it hurt to open my eye. So I didn’t want to risk it with the glitter.) Since then, I’ve hated glitter cards, glitter clothing and glitter accessories.

However, I am strangely okay with glitter makeup–specifically glitter eyeliner. I realize this makes no sense, seeing as though my glitter ordeal had to do with a rogue piece of clothing glitter that had gotten into my eye, so why would I want to purposely put glitter near my eye? Because I love makeup! That’s why. Most decisions I make have to do with the fact that I love makeup, hip hop, or soft serve, so I can’t say that logic always plays a part.

I have pencil eyeliners and mascaras with glitter in them, but hadn’t tried a liquid glitter eyeliner for a while. While browsing Sephora.com recently, the Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner by Urban Decay caught my eye–this time in a good way. After agonizing over which shade to get, I decided on Stagedive, a bright turquoise.

For some reason, I expected the liner to be turquoise with turquoise glitter, but it is in fact a clear liner with turquoise glitter. The glitter applies somewhat unevenly, as glitter usually does, which is more obvious when the product base is clear. The applicator is a thin brush, not a felt tip applicator, but I think that’s fine since you can’t really draw a precise line with glitter anyway. To build consistent glitter-ness, I had to keep going over the spots that were lacking in glitter. I don’t think this is a big deal, since many products require multiple layers to really show up.

The next time I wore it, I applied a black gel liner first (you could do this with pencil too), let it dry, and introduced the Heavy Metal liner into the game. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. Love love love love LOVE! It instantly brought some fun to the look and I got a lot of compliments on it. Giving the turquoise glitter something to contrast with really made a huge difference.

As far as removal, be prepared to work. With glitter makeup on any other part of the face, you can remove it with Scotch tape. But on the eyelids, I really wouldn’t recommend that. So eye makeup remover, as far as I know, is the only option. It can take a while, but no one ever said beauty was effortless, darling.

So this liner on its own is subtle, which some people may prefer. But if you like intensity, just layer it over a darker pencil or gel liner. That’s the way I like to wear it. Ke$ha would be proud.

Have a beautiful day 🙂

NARS News

I’m a big NARS fan. From Copacabana to Laguna to Turkish Delight and of course, Orgasm, NARS knows how to spark the “Oh my God, this is the perfect color!” reaction.

They’ve recently relaunched their website, http://www.NARScosmetics.com and it includes a new color viewer for their products. Instead of one image of a product, you can now see three: one that shows the color and the packaging, one closeup of the color, and one swatch of the product. I think the swatches are especially helpful because they allow you to see more of a product’s dimensions and texture than just one shot of the product does. What I mean by that is that you can see shimmer, frost, pearlescence (spellcheck is telling me I made that word up) or matte finished, which you often can’t see by just looking at a product.

I think this new three way viewer makes online shopping much easier. And as a person who buys most of their products online, I’m really into this. Good idea, NARS! I think it’s time for me to make a purchase…

Have a beautiful day 🙂

A Little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of That: Part 2

More beauty sample reviews:

Sample 1: Girl Meets Pearl highlighter by Benefit

I love a good highlighting product. I think it adds a little something extra to your look, and there are so many out there to choose from. There are liquids, powders, creams and highlighting products that come in stick form. Girl Meets Pearl is “liquid pearl for the face.” Now that’s not something you hear every day. (Unless you work at Benefit.)

It’s a very pretty highlighter and definitely more on the subtle side. I took a picture of myself when I had it on (by itself, with no other makeup) and it seems to be photography-friendly. I love the smell of it–I don’t know if that’s the raspberry and chamomile that they tout, or something else. It does feel heavy on bare skin and seemed to take a while to absorb. I don’t mind that too much for myself, but I don’t like to use anything that feels heavy on clients. It also has a lot of parabens listed in the ingredients and I try to stay away from them. But this may be a great product for some people. I’m not knocking it.

Sample 2: Jack Black Double-Duty Face Moisturizer SPF 20

I’ll just get right to it–I really like this moisturizer! It’s lightweight and absorbs immediately, but definitely moisturizes. It says it doesn’t contain fragrance, but I think it smells like soap with a hint of men’s shaving cream at first, then it smells more herbal once it absorbs. Jack Black is “the grooming label for guy’s guys,” but I’m not going to let that stop me. The description says it doesn’t contain parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, etc., but the ingredients label lists “methylparaben” as an ingredient. Yes, the jury is still out on the effect of parabens, but it seems weird to me that a product would claim to be paraben-free, then list one in its ingredients. Or maybe I’m missing something…

Whatever the case is, I do like this moisturizer, and I think it’s a good choice for a guy’s guy or a girl’s girl.

Sample 3: DERMAdoctor Wrinkle Revenge Rescue & Protect Eye Balm

Sounds badass, right? I don’t have any wrinkles, but I believe the key is using anti-aging products before you start visibly aging. I know it can be hard to justify purchasing products when you can’t see results, but if you don’t have wrinkles and use a product but don’t see any change in how you look, that is a result. Do you follow me?

I have an eye cream that I love, but I’m always trying new things in case there’s something better out there. I tried the Eye Balm on three different nights, and here’s what happened.

Night 1: I applied it, and it made me feel a little itchy, but I had also put on some night face cream first, so I figured I just got some of that near my eye. I applied it to one eye area, because I planned on using it all week and wanted to see if I could tell a difference between the eye cream eye and the non-eye cream eye.
Night 2: I forgot about my one eye experiment and applied to both eyes. No itchiness. It’s all good.
Night 3: Repeat of Night 2. But when I woke up in the morning, I had red marks on the corners of both of my eyes. They looked like chemical burns to me and I have gotten them from other eye creams before. It took five days for them to fade and about five seconds for me to throw the rest of the sample in the trash.

I try a lot of samples, and I very rarely have a reaction. So in a survey, I’d have to say I Strongly Dislike this eye cream.

That’s it for now. The samples never stop coming, so this will be an ongoing type of post.

Have a beautiful day 🙂

My Go-To Summer Look

Like everyone else on the planet, I’ve got no time. As much as I’d like to spend an hour on my makeup every day, I can’t. But I like to at least look polished when I leave the house. I’ve been doing this summer makeup look a lot lately, because it’s quick, easy and looks like I put more time in than I did. Here’s my makeup recipe:

1. Apply SPF moisturizer to face and neck.
2. Apply Too Faced Shadow Insurance to entire eye area, using your finger to apply and blend.
3. Using your hands or a foundation brush, apply Make Up For Ever HD foundation to entire face, blending down onto neck.
4. Under the eyes, apply a dab of moisturizer or liquid eye brightener, like the Smashbox Photo Op Under Eye Brightener and very lightly blend it in. (Optional)
5. Apply MAC Select Coverup, or the concealer you prefer and blend with a fluffy eyeshadow brush.
6. Apply several coats of Diorshow to top lashes.
7. Buff Make Up For Ever HD powder or loose powder all over the face, using a Kabuki brush.
8. Apply a matter bronzer, like Hoola bronzer by Benefit, to cheekbones, center of forehead, bridge of nose and chin, using a blush or powder brush.
9. Apply Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash to top and bottom lashes.
10. Apply a coral blush, like Benefit Coralista, to apples of cheeks.
11. Apply a sheer lipgloss.
12. If desired, apply a shimmery bronzer, like Guerlain’s Terracotta bronzer, to cheekbones.

Done! The look is a slightly bronzed face, with lots of lashes. Not doing eyeshadow and eyeliner saves tons of time, so this is a quickly and easy look.

Have a beautiful day 🙂

A Little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of That: Part 1

As a makeup artist/product junkie, I get a lot of samples. Sometimes I can tell a lot by a sample, but often I need more product to make a judgment call. So I’ll attempt to do sample blogs whenever I can to share what I’ve learned about products I’ve tried. I’ll compile a bunch of mini-reviews and we’ll go from there. Sound good?

(When I went to review all of the samples that had piled up in my house, I realized this post would be too long, so I’ll have to split it up.)

Sample 1: Ole Henricksen Truth Revealed Super Creme SPF 15

I’ve never bought a full sized Ole product, but I always love trying them. This face cream is light but moisturizing, and it doesn’t get sticky or leave a residue. It also smells strongly like Necco Wafers, which is odd…but not bad (at least in my book). It’s an anti-aging moisturizer and contains collagen boosting micro algae, wrinkle fighting tripeptide-5 and omega 3 “happiness concentrate.” So maybe it’s not Necco Wafers I smell–it’s happiness. Some might say it’s the same thing (and by “some”, I mean Necco Wafer fanatics).

It’s $65 for a 1.7 oz jar, so I think this one is a splurge for most people. But happiness (concentrate) in a jar? You can’t put a price tag on that.

Sample 2: Shiseido Refining Makeup Primer

I’m a big fan of makeup primers, especially for those with oily or seasonally oily (me, from June until October) skin. Oils from the skin are quick to break down any face makeup, but primers step up and say “Oh, no you don’t!” So if it looks like you have no face makeup on by about 2:00pm every day, you may want to try a primer.

Should you try this one? Well…I didn’t love it. The primer is pink, which I found a little strange. Pink based foundations can make the skin look mask-like or, well, pink, so the primer color concerned me. The Shiseido website said the color of the primer is flattering on every skintone but in my experience, that’s not accurate.

I applied the primer to my slightly sunkissed skin and it washed me out. It pretty much turned white and muted my tan, which I didn’t like. My skin color looked okay once I put my foundation on, but the primer did make me look a little paler than I was. The product looks like Calamine lotion, and strangely even smells like it. It feels heavy going onto the skin, which didn’t yield the smoothest application, but it does absorb fairly quickly. As far as length of wear, my makeup stayed on slightly longer than without a primer. It’s not a horrible product, but I can think of other primers I’d recommend first.

Sample 3: Benefit The POREfessional

This lightweight peachy-beige cream claims to minimize the appearance of pores, and it does. It’s an instant mattifier and it absorbs before you can say “I need some powder.” The formula is silky smooth and has the same scent that many Benefit products have. I can’t pinpoint it, but I know I would identify it in a blind beauty product scent test. (I’m sure those happen all the time.) I like this pore minimizer so much that I’m going to buy the full sized one! That’s big time.

Sample 4: DDF Advanced Firming Cream

As with many anti-aging products, this cream is probably something you’d have to use for a while to see results. The product description says you will see instant anti-aging results. So I applied it, walked out to my kitchen and then back to the mirror and nope, still looked my age.

The first thing I noticed about this cream was how “natural” it smells. I go to a homeopathic/Eastern medicine doctor and this cream smelled like his office. To me, that’s a good thing. Many people who have allergies to pollen, trees, flowers, etc. also have reactions to beauty products that contain natural ingredients, but I’m not one of them. So while products like this may not be the best for some people, I like them.

The cream felt somewhat thick but absorbed quickly. No residue, no stickiness, nothing weird. And it made my skin SO SOFT. That’s the instant effect I saw/felt. I don’t know what ingredient or mix of ingredients did it, but my skin felt like silk after.

At $130 for a 1.7 oz jar, you might look young, but your bank account might look empty. Good tradeoff, says this beauty junkie.

All of these products can be purchased at Sephora.

That’s all for now! Have a beautiful day 🙂