Make up Review
So, I decided to go ahead and review my new make up. Because it's fun, and I enjoy myself.
For Christmas this year, Youssef got me the Estee Lauder Color Spectacular. It's an amazing deal, only $55 with a fragrance purchase.
It contains:
* Deluxe Eyeshadow Compact with 15 coordinating shades (Sugar Cube, Ivory Box, Honey Drop, Lavender, Chocolate, Tea Biscuit, Copper Penny, Petal, Mulberry, Pale Moon, Cinnamon, Apricot and Mocha Cup in Pure Color EyeShadow, plus Sage Duo in Estée Lauder Signature Eyeshadow)
* Deluxe Face Compact (Estée Lauder Signature Silky Powder Blush in Rosewood and Nude Rose, and Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer)
* 4 Pure Color Long Lasting Lipsticks (full-size, in Candy, Rose Tea, Fig and Tiger Eye)
* 3 Artist's Eye Pencils (great for smoky eyes, in SoftSmudge Black, SoftSmudge Brown and Slate Writer)
* Projectionist High Definition Volume Mascara (10-day supply, in Black)
* Lash Primer Plus (10-day supply)
* Gentle Eye Makeup Remover (full-size 3.4 oz.)
* 4 Deluxe Makeup Brushes (Powder, Blush, Lip and Eye)
* Look Book with tips on creating 4 fabulous looks
* Golden Stand-Up Mirror
* Cosmetic Traveler Case
* Companion Makeup Case
Note that they SAY some of that stuff isn't full-sized, but it's pretty damn close. The eyeshadows are close enough, and the blush is probably about half-sized, but with two blushes and a bronzer in the compact, who's going to seriously need to buy another compact within a year? I'm pretty light-handed with my make-up, but even so. I've used the blushes from last year every time I wear make-up (at least twice a week), and I've used so little that the Estee Lauder stamp on them is still visible. The only difference in the eyeliner and full eyeliner that I can tell is that the full eyeliner has a smudger at the end - blah. For that price, I'll just use a q-tip.
The "look book" comes with four looks you can try: Classic, Romantic, Natural, Dramatic. Tonight I went with the Classic Look.
First of all, I wear BareMinerals in fair and fairly light (depending on the time of the year) as a base. I wear New York Color concealer in fair, which I highly recommend because it's the only concealer I've ever found that works and costs about $1.50 at Wal Mart. I use Merle Norman's eyebrow brush in brown, it's been a staple of mine for years. Lasts forever (I've been wearing the one I have now for four years, it's not nearly gone.)
On to the fun stuff!
1. Silky Eyeshadow duo in Sage. The lid color is a light, shimmery sage green, the crease color is a darker sage.
Dang it! The colors in the picture didn't show up. Oh well.
The sage looked nice. I actually decided to experiment with it first thing because it was green and I was curious. I don't remember when, if ever, I have worn green eyeshadow. But it's not *too* green, so that helped. I actually bought Stila's Barbie Collection in Classic this past summer, which includes a blue shadow thinking it would look good - it didn't. It was *okay*, but I have so much green in my blue eyes that it was a little much. I was afraid green would do the same thing, and it really seems to enhance the green rather than clash with the blue. At any rate, I love Estee Lauder's eyeshadow. Years ago I got some cheap shadow because Estee Lauder's is so expensive, and uh, I was not impressed. It flaked all over my skin. Estee Lauder's is the best about not doing that. So it's a win.
2. Artist's Eye Pencil in Softsmudge Brown
a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/holly_go_noor/pic/00016eqp/">
I'm usually weird about brown liner and shadow, as well. I guess black does so much for my eyes I never want to deviate, and even if I have on brown shadow I feel like black makes my eyes pop a little more. However, with the green eyeshadow it looked really terrific! I think this is the only time brown shadow has really worked for me (well, worked as well as black). It goes on smoothly so I don't have to tug at my skin, and stays on all day. It gets a little smudged if it's hot outside, but that's to be expected.
3. Lash XL in Black
Um, fail. Horrible, horrible fail. I actually got this as a deluxe sample, so I'm glad I didn't pay extra for it.* I read another review of it and it got panned, but I thought maybe the reviewer got a bad bottle or something.
First of all, lengthening mascara isn't good for your lashes. Unless they are incredibly short, skip it. It's usually really hard on them and makes them brittle and sometimes breaks off. Still - it *was* a free sample, and I didn't need any more perfume since I was already getting a huge bottle*.
Okay, so the review I read was spot-on. It took forever to dry, and that wasn't even the worst of it. When I pulled it out the first time, there was a bunch of it gunked around the bottom of the brush. But that's normal to an extent (though it did look excessive), so I pumped it a few times to see if I could get the gunk off. No such luck. I used it anyways, because I was wondering if the gunk would ever get off (maybe after a few uses? We shall see.) It got too much on the lashes towards the outside corner of my eye. Ew. I will probably use it a few more times just to see (and because I'm too cheap to buy mascara - seriously, I pay for it once every two years or something and use deluxe samples other than that. They give mascara away with everything!)
*They say deluxe samples are only a 10-day supply. Not true. A tube of mascara should be replaced every 3 months, and I find that when I am wearing it occasionally a deluxe sample will easily last that long. If I wear it every day, a deluxe sample lasts about six weeks.
3. Estee Lauder Signature Silky Blush in rosewood.
I love their blush. To be honest, I never really wore blush until I started buying the Color Spectacular a few years ago. I'm very fair-skinned and I know entirely too many people who overdo it. (I once knew a girl who'd go through a full-sized compact in 4 months. Ew.) Anyways, I'm not sure why I never wore it aside from that. I guess it was a holdover from my high school days when I wanted to look dead. Also, I'm very proud of my skin because it's very fair and very pretty, and I guess I was afraid the blush would take away from it. Nope! The blush actually enhances it and makes it look even nicer! Which I guess is the point.
The rosewood is a very pretty, dark petal-pink color. It would probably look good on any skin tone, but I think it looks especially good with my peaches and cream skin. It doesn't fade and it's pretty hard to mess up as far as blushes go, so long as you buy the correct brush.
4. Pure Color Long Lasting Lip Stick in Fig
It's a purplish-pink color. Very pretty, especially on fair skin (I can't speak for other skin tones).
Again, I love their lipsticks. Fig is a pretty, dark pink color (the colors this year were awesome!) It's a matte lipstick. I love the matte look, but it tends to be a little dry (most mattes are), so I would recommend using a little lip gloss on top of it or lip balm underneath. I recommend the Sephora brand lip gloss, as Estee Lauder's tends to be a little sticky. Their lipsticks - matte and shimmer - tend to last a long time, too. Sometimes it will fade just a bit when I eat or drink, but a lot of times all I have to do is put on some gloss or balm to moisten my lips a bit and the color comes right back.
(DANG IT!!! WHY AREN'T THE COLORS SHOWING UP?!)
And here was the final result. The lighting isn't very good, normally that wouldn't matter but since I'm posting for academic make-up purposes, it did. OH WELL. I'm not a make-up artist at a studio. Sue me. (No, my hair was not styled. And ignore the shiny forehead. And the pimple.)
For Christmas this year, Youssef got me the Estee Lauder Color Spectacular. It's an amazing deal, only $55 with a fragrance purchase.
It contains:
* Deluxe Eyeshadow Compact with 15 coordinating shades (Sugar Cube, Ivory Box, Honey Drop, Lavender, Chocolate, Tea Biscuit, Copper Penny, Petal, Mulberry, Pale Moon, Cinnamon, Apricot and Mocha Cup in Pure Color EyeShadow, plus Sage Duo in Estée Lauder Signature Eyeshadow)
* Deluxe Face Compact (Estée Lauder Signature Silky Powder Blush in Rosewood and Nude Rose, and Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer)
* 4 Pure Color Long Lasting Lipsticks (full-size, in Candy, Rose Tea, Fig and Tiger Eye)
* 3 Artist's Eye Pencils (great for smoky eyes, in SoftSmudge Black, SoftSmudge Brown and Slate Writer)
* Projectionist High Definition Volume Mascara (10-day supply, in Black)
* Lash Primer Plus (10-day supply)
* Gentle Eye Makeup Remover (full-size 3.4 oz.)
* 4 Deluxe Makeup Brushes (Powder, Blush, Lip and Eye)
* Look Book with tips on creating 4 fabulous looks
* Golden Stand-Up Mirror
* Cosmetic Traveler Case
* Companion Makeup Case
Note that they SAY some of that stuff isn't full-sized, but it's pretty damn close. The eyeshadows are close enough, and the blush is probably about half-sized, but with two blushes and a bronzer in the compact, who's going to seriously need to buy another compact within a year? I'm pretty light-handed with my make-up, but even so. I've used the blushes from last year every time I wear make-up (at least twice a week), and I've used so little that the Estee Lauder stamp on them is still visible. The only difference in the eyeliner and full eyeliner that I can tell is that the full eyeliner has a smudger at the end - blah. For that price, I'll just use a q-tip.
The "look book" comes with four looks you can try: Classic, Romantic, Natural, Dramatic. Tonight I went with the Classic Look.
First of all, I wear BareMinerals in fair and fairly light (depending on the time of the year) as a base. I wear New York Color concealer in fair, which I highly recommend because it's the only concealer I've ever found that works and costs about $1.50 at Wal Mart. I use Merle Norman's eyebrow brush in brown, it's been a staple of mine for years. Lasts forever (I've been wearing the one I have now for four years, it's not nearly gone.)
On to the fun stuff!
1. Silky Eyeshadow duo in Sage. The lid color is a light, shimmery sage green, the crease color is a darker sage.
Dang it! The colors in the picture didn't show up. Oh well.
The sage looked nice. I actually decided to experiment with it first thing because it was green and I was curious. I don't remember when, if ever, I have worn green eyeshadow. But it's not *too* green, so that helped. I actually bought Stila's Barbie Collection in Classic this past summer, which includes a blue shadow thinking it would look good - it didn't. It was *okay*, but I have so much green in my blue eyes that it was a little much. I was afraid green would do the same thing, and it really seems to enhance the green rather than clash with the blue. At any rate, I love Estee Lauder's eyeshadow. Years ago I got some cheap shadow because Estee Lauder's is so expensive, and uh, I was not impressed. It flaked all over my skin. Estee Lauder's is the best about not doing that. So it's a win.
2. Artist's Eye Pencil in Softsmudge Brown
a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/holly_go_noor/pic/00016eqp/">
I'm usually weird about brown liner and shadow, as well. I guess black does so much for my eyes I never want to deviate, and even if I have on brown shadow I feel like black makes my eyes pop a little more. However, with the green eyeshadow it looked really terrific! I think this is the only time brown shadow has really worked for me (well, worked as well as black). It goes on smoothly so I don't have to tug at my skin, and stays on all day. It gets a little smudged if it's hot outside, but that's to be expected.
3. Lash XL in Black
Um, fail. Horrible, horrible fail. I actually got this as a deluxe sample, so I'm glad I didn't pay extra for it.* I read another review of it and it got panned, but I thought maybe the reviewer got a bad bottle or something.
First of all, lengthening mascara isn't good for your lashes. Unless they are incredibly short, skip it. It's usually really hard on them and makes them brittle and sometimes breaks off. Still - it *was* a free sample, and I didn't need any more perfume since I was already getting a huge bottle*.
Okay, so the review I read was spot-on. It took forever to dry, and that wasn't even the worst of it. When I pulled it out the first time, there was a bunch of it gunked around the bottom of the brush. But that's normal to an extent (though it did look excessive), so I pumped it a few times to see if I could get the gunk off. No such luck. I used it anyways, because I was wondering if the gunk would ever get off (maybe after a few uses? We shall see.) It got too much on the lashes towards the outside corner of my eye. Ew. I will probably use it a few more times just to see (and because I'm too cheap to buy mascara - seriously, I pay for it once every two years or something and use deluxe samples other than that. They give mascara away with everything!)
*They say deluxe samples are only a 10-day supply. Not true. A tube of mascara should be replaced every 3 months, and I find that when I am wearing it occasionally a deluxe sample will easily last that long. If I wear it every day, a deluxe sample lasts about six weeks.
3. Estee Lauder Signature Silky Blush in rosewood.
I love their blush. To be honest, I never really wore blush until I started buying the Color Spectacular a few years ago. I'm very fair-skinned and I know entirely too many people who overdo it. (I once knew a girl who'd go through a full-sized compact in 4 months. Ew.) Anyways, I'm not sure why I never wore it aside from that. I guess it was a holdover from my high school days when I wanted to look dead. Also, I'm very proud of my skin because it's very fair and very pretty, and I guess I was afraid the blush would take away from it. Nope! The blush actually enhances it and makes it look even nicer! Which I guess is the point.
The rosewood is a very pretty, dark petal-pink color. It would probably look good on any skin tone, but I think it looks especially good with my peaches and cream skin. It doesn't fade and it's pretty hard to mess up as far as blushes go, so long as you buy the correct brush.
4. Pure Color Long Lasting Lip Stick in Fig
It's a purplish-pink color. Very pretty, especially on fair skin (I can't speak for other skin tones).
Again, I love their lipsticks. Fig is a pretty, dark pink color (the colors this year were awesome!) It's a matte lipstick. I love the matte look, but it tends to be a little dry (most mattes are), so I would recommend using a little lip gloss on top of it or lip balm underneath. I recommend the Sephora brand lip gloss, as Estee Lauder's tends to be a little sticky. Their lipsticks - matte and shimmer - tend to last a long time, too. Sometimes it will fade just a bit when I eat or drink, but a lot of times all I have to do is put on some gloss or balm to moisten my lips a bit and the color comes right back.
(DANG IT!!! WHY AREN'T THE COLORS SHOWING UP?!)
And here was the final result. The lighting isn't very good, normally that wouldn't matter but since I'm posting for academic make-up purposes, it did. OH WELL. I'm not a make-up artist at a studio. Sue me. (No, my hair was not styled. And ignore the shiny forehead. And the pimple.)