New Cover Girl Eye Shadows

Hey all!
Over the weekend, I was at Rite Aid and noticed a new display of Cover Girl eye shadows. The palettes had new packaging- in black and definitely more sleek. The colors were mostly cool which to me is "meh" as I tend to gravitate toward warmer colors. I saw this palette Prima Donna Diva and thought it was pretty handy- you get warm bronzes and golds but you also get a frosted light pink and a shimmery black for a nice smokey eye. I thought it would be a handy little palette to tote around in your makeup bag because it gives you so many options.

I was also curious about whether or not the new palettes had better pigmentation so as soon as I got home, I swatched the colors:

I was honestly pretty disappointed. The payoff was less than mediocre and what you see in the picture above is at least three swipes to get it to show up enough for the swatch. The quad I reviewed last week (Coffee Shop) was MUCH better quality than this one. Plus, with other drug store brands like Wet n Wild turning out eye shadows whose pigmentation is comparable to high-end brands, this is a complete let down.

I'm not sure if the lack of pigmentation was just the palette I happen to pick up, or if its the entire new line that lacks pigmentation, but I won't be picking up any others any time soon!

Have you tried any of the new Cover Girl eye shadows? What did you think?

Cover Girl Palettes

After my Cover Girl haul yesterday, I couldn't wait to swatch the eye shadows to test their quality. I was actually pleasantly surprised. First up, the Sunset trio:

This one consists of a pinky tan color, a warm gold, and a golden vanilla color (all shimmers). Though all the colors in the palette are really beautiful, I really love the first color- its perfect for day without going over the top. The middle color would be perfect for  sunlight golden look while I could see the last color making a really beautiful highlight. The quality of the shadows themselves were average compared to the newer drugstore shadows such as Wet n Wild which are really amazing quality.
Here are some swatches (no primer):

The next palette is the quad "Coffee Shop". The colors are very similar to the Sunset trio except this one contains a matte dark brown.

These swatched incredibly. The colors were much more pigmented and creamy than the trio except for the dark brown which was just a tad chalky.

Overall, I'm glad I picked up both of these palettes as I can see them becoming go-tos for travel and/or everyday looks. Plus they're super inexpensive and if you wait for a BOGO sale, they're even more of a bargain.

Happy Thursday! We're almost to the weekend! ☺

Cover Girl Haul

I've been having a not-so-great week and decided to make it better with what else? A mini drugstore haul! ᵔᴥᵔ I realized that aside from the new collections they periodically come out with, I have kind of left Cover Girl by the wayside for the likes of brands like Revlon, Maybelline, and Almay. So today, I picked up a few products from their core collection to try out:

The products are:
1. Lipslicks Tinted Lipbalm in Demure (I got all nostalgic when I saw these- I remember them from when I was a kid!!)
2. Invisible Concealer in Honey
3. Eyeshadow Trio in Golden Sunset (EmilyNoel83 on YouTube ALWAYS recommends this! I love her videos so I finally broke down and got it...)
4. Eyeshadow quad in Coffee Shop
5. CG Smoothers Foundation in Classic Tan

Have you tried any of these products? What are your favorite Cover Girl products?

Revlon Kissable Lip Stain

I was innocently perusing my local Rite Aid the other day (no I was not looking for any new makeup collections... lol) when I happen to spot the new Revlon Kissable Lip Stains. I was pretty excited about these because they seem like a low-cost alternative to the Clinique Chubby sticks. I picked up one color to check out (Charm)- the nude of course.

Right off the bat, the texture of this product reminded me more of a lipstick than a lip stain. It has a light, pleasant minty smell which wears off after a few minutes and feels hydrating on the lips- not drying as other lip stains usually are. The wear time is average for a lip product- I'd say two hours on my lips. I will say that for me, this was not a lip stain at all. However, I did pick up the lightest color of the collection and my lips are relatively pigmented. Therefore, whatever staining qualities this product has was probably lost on the darker pigmentation of my lips. Because of this, I decided to judge this product more as a lipstick than anything else.
As a lipstick, Charm is on the sheerer side, but still pigmented enough to hide most of the natural red coloring of my lips. Also, because the color is so light and glossy, if there are any dry flakes on your lips, it WILL make them much more obvious so your best bet is to exfoliate before using this product.

Swatch of Charm on my hand.

As you can see from the swatch above, Charm almost completely blends in with my skin tone. If not for the gloss, you'd barely be able to see it.

Though from the swatch on my lips it looks like a clear balm, my lips are a very dark pinky red with nothing on them. You can see how much this tones them down.

Overall, I do like this product and feel that because its in a twist-up style package, it would be perfect for touch-ups on the go. With the lighter colors in the collection, its pencil shape makes it virtually goof-proof which means that they can be applied without a mirror. Though I don't usually like darker colors on me for every day wear, I may pick up a coral or red color to test the stain quality of this product.

Have you tried the Revlon Kissable Lip Stains yet? What do you think?

Milani Shadow Eyez

As soon as I heard about these, I couldn't wait to try them. They seemed like a cost-effective version of Urban Decay's shadow pencils. I stalked CVS until I found them and picked up these two- the neutrals of course!

Top: Champagne Toast
Bottom: Brown Deluxe

These swatched incredibly. They were soft, creamy, and incredibly pigmented. I used Brown Deluxe as bottom liner and really liked it. I will be testing these as eye bases as well. If these work well, I may go back for a few more colors.

Left: Brown Deluxe, Right: Champagne Toast

Have you tried these yet? What do you think?

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel

I was extremely excited when this product came out. It's marketed as a nail polish that has the longevity of gel nail polish. So... I stalked my local drugstores until I found a display at CVS (makes me sound like a creeper!). I picked up the pretty copper color, 140 "Fall Mood" and the top coat.  I was really puzzled because I did not find their base coat on the display but I later learned that the base coat didn't come with the original display. That's just weird and makes no sense to me. I really wasn't willing to order the base coat online, so I set it aside and waited for the base coat to come into stores.
I finally had a chance to do a mani and here is the verdict. I loved the color- a beautiful metallic copper that looks a lot like rose gold. Here's what the polish looks like (plus base and top coat):

Application was a breeze and the formula easy to work with. However, I noticed that it took FOREVER to dry. I used thin coats but even after an hour, I managed to mess up my nails pretty badly, which you can see a little bit of in my pinky in the picture above. also, the polish had a really strong, strange smell. I couldn't quite place my finger on it (no pun intended!), but I guess the closest way to describe it was a strong, plastic-y odor. Usually this wouldn't bother me but it actually continued to smell for a few days- until I removed it.
This is Fall Mood after 2 coats For some reason, the nails make the polish look much more orange. The way it looks in the bottle is dead-on though.

Revlon says that this nail polish will last up to 10 days however, I removed it after four. I was impressed at the fact that there was no chipping, but there was some noticeable tip wear. I tried to get a picture, but my camera wasn't picking up on it clearly. Overall, I did notice that this polish stayed on longer than most, but the strange smell really threw me off. I think I'm going to pick up another color to make up my mind about this line.

Have you tried the Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel? What color(s) did you try and what was your experience with it?

I'll give you something better than an orgasm...

I'll give you a dupe! Get your mind out of the gutter I don't mean that type- I mean the cult favorite Nars blush! Because its so expensive, I was on the hunt to find a drugstore dupe, especially since I recently ran out of the Nars version. That's when I saw Wet n Wild's blush for $2.99 in Pearlescent Pink.

Pearlescent Pink is the perfect blend of peach and pink with subtle gold shimmer. It imparts the most beautiful sheen to your skin and gives you that "glow from within look". I tried to take a picture of it on my face, but unfortunately the contrast was not stark enough as it is a subtle blush, but here it is on my finger:

I wish I still had the original Nars blush to compare side by side for you, but I believe that this is a pretty good dupe. The only difference in my humble opinion is that Orgasm is slightly darker, but not something the non-beauty obsessed would probably be able to pick out!
I really like the smoothness of Pearlescent Pink and was impressed with the color payoff for the price. The compact comes with a small angled blush brush, but for me its too scratchy to use. I keep it in the compact anyway though because its handy for touch-ups on the go.

Do you own Nars' Orgasm? Do you think this is a pretty good match?

Physician's Formula Youthful Wear Foundation

I've passed by this foundation at the drugstore so many times and have always resisted the temptation to pick it up. It is marketed as a "Cosmeceutical Youth-Boosting Foundation" and I have to admit, I was curious.
Here's what the package claims:

Those are pretty serious claims for a drugstore foundation, huh?
It does come with a foundation brush. I don't prefer this type of brush (kabukis and stippling brushes seem to work really well for me) but was surprised at the softness of the bristles. They are synthetic and better than average quality, perfect for a cream product.
I brought the shade medium home with me and gave it a go yesterday. Right off the bat, I was disappointed that the shade I purchased was too light for me (there are only 3 shades, I picked up the darkest). I tried it anyway as I decided I could make up for it with copious amounts of bronzer. I love Physician's Formula and find that it is on the higher end of the spectrum with quality as far as drugstore products go, but I hate the fact that their color range is so limited- they seldom market anything for darker skin tones which is extremely unfortunate. Their skin bases and powder can only really be used for the fair-light/medium tones.
Here's what the medium color looks like swatched on my hand:

Unblended on the left, blended on the right

It has a mousse-y, whipped consistency to it. I applied the product with no primer and with the brush it came with, as directed. I immediately noticed that it looked AWFUL on my skin. I don't have giant pores but that's exactly what this foundation made it seem like. It sunk into all the little crevices and pores on my face and made it seems like my face had several little dots on it- weird and gross!! Also, though the brush did a relatively good job in evenly applying the product, I noticed that the finish was very patchy looking, even when I tried to blend with my fingers before it set.
It goes without saying that I washed it off right away and intend on bringing this foundation back. Though this problem might be corrected with primer, there are many people who dislike using primer and shouldn't have to work that hard to get a basic makeup product to look good.

Has anyone else tried this foundation? What is your experience with it?