Anyways, I have skin that really tends to react with a lot of different things. It is really a pain for me to find cleansers, moisturizers, foundations…. well anything really that has direct prolonged contact with my skin.  Silicones?  Oh heck no.  Mineral oil?  I know it isn’t supposed to clog pores, but my skin does not like it.  Glycerin?  Found out the hard way that my skin doesn’t even much care for that (and that is gonna come into play here shortly but for now…).

The Sensitive Skin Cleanser was really the big hit for me. It might just be the best sensitive skin based cleanser I have ever used. Period. That’s pretty amazing. It is free of fragrances and dyes, comes in a squeeze tube which I like b/c it is easy to dispense the product and none goes to waste, it is not foaming or lathering so it doesn’t strip skin of moisture and yet it manages to remove makeup and oil very well without leaving skin feeling dry or stripped. Heck, if I hadn’t tried it and was reading what I’m writing here I wouldn’t even believe it myself lol

Ingredients: aqua (water, eau), helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, cera alba (beeswax, cire d’abeille), sucrose stearate, cetearyl alcohol, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, gossypium herbaceum (cotton) flower extract, oryza sativa (rice) extract, beta vulgaris (beet, extrait de racine de betterave) root extract, quillaja saponaria bark extract, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, yucca schidigera leaf/root/stem extract, artemisia umbelliformis extract, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, yucca schidigera leaf/root/stem extract, artemisia umbelliformis extract, euphrasia officinalis extract, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) water, saccharum officinarum (sugar cane, extrait de canne à sucre) extract, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, silica, sucrose, fructose, glucose, coco-glucoside, inositol, maltodextrin, citric acid, benzoic acid, trehalose, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, CI 77947 (zinc oxide), alcohol denat., phenoxyethanol

I even gave it a little test. I generally use a mixture of sugar and olive oil as a facial scrub. Well in the shower one morning I used a bit more olive oil than I do and was left with a film of it on my face, which is good for moisturizing but is a bit more than I wanted. I thought that this would be a good time to really put the cleanser to the test. Sure enough the cleanser removed a good part of the excess olive oil and did it without feeling harsh and stripping. Absolutely fabulous stuff!

Now for the moisturizer. I was a bit leery going into using this because it does contain natural oils and I wondered if it would be too much for my skin. It also contains glycerin pretty high up on the ingredient list… something I again would usually attempt to avoid but for the sake of trying the product, I went through with it.   The pump type container was nice but left me wondering how much product would go to waste when the pump decided the product was empty. I would puch prefer a squeeze tube or something.

The moisturizers texture was nice. It was thick and moisturizing but not heavy or greasy feeling. It was also free of dyes or fragrance. I used this moisturizers for a couple weeks but didn’t really feel like I was seeing any difference in my skin. Then it started to happen that I noticed my skin was looking greasier and I was starting to get more clogged pores and pimples when I hadn’t changed anything else. I went back to my old moisturizer and my skin started to clear up, leaving me to deduce that this was more than likely the culprit. A shame really because I was excited at the prospect of finding a new natural based moisturizer.

Ingredients:

 aqua (water, eau), helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, CI 77947 (zinc oxide), zea mays (corn) starch, gossypium herbaceum (cotton) flower extract, oryza sativa (rice) extract, beta vulgaris (beet, extrait de racine de betterave) root extract, artemisia umbelliformis extract, euphrasia officinalis extract, butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, saccharum officinarum (sugar cane, extrait de canne a sucre) extract, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, jojoba esters, hydrolyzed jojoba esters, kaolin, lecithin, sucrose, fructose, glucose, inositol, citric acid, benzoic acid, trehalose, xanthan gum, glyceryl laurate, potassium sorbate, sucrose stearate, sucrose polystearate, sodium benzoate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium PCA, alcohol denat., phenoxyethanol

Investigating the price of this product is a bit of a turn off as well for me.  $15.  Now I guess had I had a fabulous experience with this moisturizer as I did the cleanser, $15 wouldn’t feel bad at all to pay for a moisturizer that made my skin look crazy good.

Overall I would say definitely check out the cleanser if you have sensitive skin… and if you are open to trying to the moisturizer, give it a go. If your skin tolerates it, I do think it is a really nice natural based moisturizer for every day.  This line really does manage to be very gentle to sensitive skin, it’s available pretty much everywhere, and it is still affordable when you consider what department stores are charging for skin care.  The line also includes a Sensitive Eye Cream and a Sensitive Night Cream.

Check out Burt’s Bees here for a $2 off coupon on the Sensitive Skin Care Line

I received these products free to try as a BzzAgent.

Brash Lip Stains

And then $5… Payless.com

What?  They sell makeup at Payless!  Like these cute little lip stains?  I definitely need to stop by and see what this is all about!

I used the pumpkin multi-glitter polish on my tips and dragged bits of it down to the center of my nails.  I then used Wet N Wild’s Fast Dry Party of Five Glitters and dragged it up from the base of my nails.  I was initially not happy with the way it looked and then figured out why… I needed to drag more of the large glitter into the small glitter to make it all look cohesive.  I ended up really liking it then.

My only issue is the pumpkin polish has a yellow/gold cast to it and I feel it makes my tips looks like they are stained underneath in certain lighting.  I feel like you can really see that yellowish cast in the photos.

Behold.

We're Blasting Off

We’re Blasting Off, as you can see I’ve given some considerable use to the last shade there.

We're Blasting Off swatches

It’s kind hard to tell seeing I took all but one of these pictures during good old Golden Hour… but the first shade swatched is the one I have used the most and it is slightly purplish…dare I say…mauvey.  It is my favorite of the trio though.  The middle shade is a shimmery brown plum.  The top shade is a complete disappointment, a chalky bubble gum pink with little color payoff.

Dancing in the Clouds

Dancing in the Clouds is another one that has a favorite shade in there… the top one I’ve given a lot of use.

Dancing in the Clouds swatches

The bottom bronze shade of this trio is pretty but a little too warm for me so I have to be careful how I apply it.  The middle purple is another complete let down.  So little color pay off and chalky.  The top shade is a nice light taupe shimmery neutral that is very user friendly.

Fly Me to the Moon

Fly Me to the Moon swatches

Fly Me to the Moon isn’t a collection of shades I’d typically wear, but having them all grouped together drew me in I guess.  I liked how the bright blue looked with the shimmery white and black.  The white is a bit more flakey in texture than I had hoped, and the blue a little less ‘electric’.

Bright Idea

Bright Idea swatches

Another one that just looked fun to play around with, and yet upon swatching Bright Idea I was disappointed to see the colors come off less bright than they look in their pans.  These are all softer and more ‘candy-ish’ than I hoped they would be.  It isn’t that the pigment is bad on these… they are just softer shades than they look.

Enter a New Realm

Enter a New Realm swatches

I didn’t really need Enter a New Realm since I already have the Night Elf palette, but it was just too pretty not to have.  I’m a sucker for anything ‘different’, especially at the drugstore so if it contains red eyeshadow… I’m probably gonna buy it.  All the shades are nicely pigmented.  I like that the red isn’t orange based.  I always find myself wondering though…hmmm what else does one pair with red beside black and silver type shades.  Suggestions for great looks incorporating red eyeshadow, feel free to share!

To sum it up, these trios are nice but I still don’t think they compare with the older Wet N Wild trios.  Every since they started stamping “browbone, crease and eyelid” on the shadows themselves I have felt like the formulas are a little different.  Not as silky, sometimes not as pigmented.  I feel like most of these trios had just one standout shade, but that is also how it tends to go for me and trios anyways so buying them in bulk might not always be the wisest decision.  On the plus side, with all these colors I can certainly combine them to create different than looks.

Orly’s Mineral Fx collection is ahhh-mazing.  As much as I wish I could have bought them all, I had to go with the one that for now, stood out to me the most and that was definitely Stone Cold.  There is something about really bright,  strong bold glitters that stand out to me and Orly did it again with Stone Cold.

I love that the particles in this aren’t so much glitter… but almost flakes.  It makes for a different finish than your regular old glitter polish.

This color is crazy sparkly and probably the happiest blue I have ever seen.

Revlon Starry Pink from Revlon's Impressionists Collection Fall '11

Upon seeing Starry Pink I had decided that it could go one of two ways… either wonderfully right or horribly wrong.  I couldn’t see it being one of those “ehh I like it okay” colors.  Walgreens has Revlon 40% off this week (so you should go and get your Revlon on) so I thought for like $2 I could see what happens with it.

So I changed my polish last night and put this one on… the verdict is in…..

I freaking love it.

I might actually like Starry Pink better than Facets of Fuchsia, if only because Starry Pink really looks good with everything since it isn’t as bold as Facets of Fuchsia.  It’s understated…and yet it is not because it is so interesting!

My concern with this color was how milky the pink looked in the bottle.  I really didn’t think that was going to translate well on nails with all the silver glitter.  Goes to show what I know!   The truth is it translate extremely well and how it looks in the bottle does not justice to how it actually looks on nails.  I did 3 coats, and despite being a pale Revlon shade, had no issues with dry time or chaulkiness.  It’s kind of a milky jelly… not completely opaque at 3 coats and not really meant to be opaque it seems.  The pink reminds me of pale strawberry milk.  The glitter is lovely, tons of silver glitter and then of course the silver hexagon glitter.  It sandwiches in with the color becoming part of the color.

Revlon did a really great job with these Deborah Lippmann-esque glitters.  I keep hoping beyond hope that Revlon or another affordable line will do a Candy Shop-ish knock off.  Facets of Fuchsia and Starry Pink made me love glitter again.  It’s like a new way of discovering glitter, by giving them different colored bases rather than clear.

Look at this fine bottle right here, just look at that bad boy.  It is so pretty… fuchsia glitter and hexagons floating around in a deep jelly-ish black.  How sexy and fun!

I put this on over a deep eggplant shade.  I didn’t try it without a base color on, so I can’t attest to how much coverage it has by itself.  I loved the way it looked.  Revlon managed to get that whole depth thing right with this… it doesn’t look like a glitter topcoat, the glitter is actually part of the color.  Yay!

I’ve had various problems with Revlon’s polishes in the past… either they end up streaky on me, or they don’t want to dry.  It’s usually the pale colors that give me this problem.  Thankfully I experienced no issues with this shade.  It went on very easily and dried in a normal time frame. I didn’t get around to swatching this one either right away, so a little tip wear but combined with the base color the wear on this was pretty good.

Just look at that gorgeous glitter all layered in there. Love it Revlon!

]]> http://lipsticksblushesandmascaraohmy.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/revlon-facets-of-fuchsia/feed/ 0 Raychela Revlon Facets of Fuchsia nail polish Revlon Facets of Fuchsia swatch Revlon Facet of Fuchsia swatch http://lipsticksblushesandmascaraohmy.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/out-with-the-old/ http://lipsticksblushesandmascaraohmy.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/out-with-the-old/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:40:49 +0000 Raychela http://lipsticksblushesandmascaraohmy.wordpress.com/?p=297 ]]> This past Spring I did something major.  I cleaned out my stash.  And I’m not talking about a small clean out.  It was massive.  I gave away what I could and had to say bye bye to the rest.

My only regret is the fact that I didn’t get to swatch all the lip products I ended up giving away or getting rid of before I actually did so.  There were quite a few that I had to let go before I got a chance to swatch  but that also means that they were old and extremely unflattering on me.  For example, for a while I had a terrible habit of buying colors that would never look good on me in a million years hoping that I would somehow magically find the perfect deep wine shade or some other color that I really just don’t wear.

I still have more makeup than anyone could use in a lifetime.  I’ve already moved on to doing Round 2 of the clean out… although it is on a much smaller scale.  It’s finally dawned on me after many many years that if I’m just not going to use it, it is either time to pass it on or put it to rest.

One of the best things that I’ve learned by cleaning out my stash is the way my tastes have changed over time.  There’s some things that I used to love that I’ve grown out of and then there are discoveries where it is like, why don’t I have more of stuff like this?!  And then there is always rediscovering that product that you forgot you had that is just amazing.  I just love how regardless of if I’m trying to clean out things, I’m still thinking of things I wanna try next haha