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?

Loreal Infallible 24 Hour Eyeshadow

When Loreal came out with a their 24 hour line of eyeshadows, there was tons of hype in the blogosphere about them. When I checked them out in person though, nothing really stood out to me, they all seemed like colors I already had in my collection. However, awhile back, I was perusing the aisles of the drugstore feeling sorry for myself after a particularly harsh day. This usually leads to the inevitable decision of  rewarding myself with a little pick-me-up. So I picked up one of the 24 hour shadows for $7.95- #892 Amber Rush.
I was hesitant about these because the packaging is typical of a pigment and I just tend to not reach for pigments as much.

This is the front of the product- a screw-top jar:

The back of the jar is flat and allows you to clearly see the shadow

When I unscrewed the jar, I was surprised to find that the shadow is not a loose pigment as I thought it was. Here's a close-up so you can see what the texture and color are like. You can see that I've swatched from the left side of the jar and the right is untouched. The pigment is extremely smooth and creamy. Love this.

It does come with a pigment press which it tells you not to discard (you should replace the press back onto the shadow after each use)

I was really impressed with the first swatch. The 24 hour seems to be a pressed pigment that has AMAZING color payoff. I barely touched my finger into the product and had rich, metallic color:

And here's a swatch on my hand:

I barely applied any pressure and used only the product on my finger to swatch this. Amer Rush is a medium, warm bronzy color that looks like rose gold. It looks like I've foiled (applied pigment wet) for the swatch, but I haven't. Its just great color payoff!

This is a great product, and others have compared it to the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill. I haven't used any of those eyeshadows, so I wouldn't be able to directly compare but what I can without any hesitation say is that for a drugstore product, the 24 hour eyeshadows are truly outstanding. In all honesty, this shadow blows many other department store products out of the water. This is definitely something you should check out! I'm currently on a no-buy ban but I can't wait to check more of these out!

Mini Elf Haul

Hey all!
I wanted to kick off the week with a mini Elf Haul from my visit to Target over the weekend. Here are the goodies:

First up is the eyeshadow quad in Drama- perfect for smokey eyes.

Drama is imo a well rounded quad- it has a matte white, a shimmery charcoal, a shimmery black, and a shimmery silver. I couldn't wait to see what the pigmentation was like, so I opened it up and swatched right away:

The eye shadows were SUPER pigmented and the texture was amazing- soft and creamy. For $1, you can't beat this deal with a stick! (lol...)

Next is the 2-in-1 Conditioning Gloss in Golden. The Conditioning Glosses are part of their studio line, so these were a bit more expensive at $3. Still, for the quality of these products, you are still getting a great bargain!

It seems like a color that would be really pretty over any lipstick, or just on its own.

Last is the 2-in-1 Conditioning Gloss in Supermodel

Supermodel is a punchy coral color which will be great as the weather gets warmer, I feel like this one will be a summer staple!

The applicators for the glosses were different than what I am used to. They were spongy doefoot applicators with a hole in the model for the gloss to come through when you squeeze the tube.

I don't know how I feel about this yet but I would have been happy with the regular plastic doefoot applicator that usually comes with these types of glosses.

All of these products can be purchased at select Targets (I don't think all Targets carry Elf) or on their website: http://www.eyeslipsface.com/

Have you ever tried elf? Any hits? Misses?