Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Makeup Remover Wipes: Let’s Talk Korres
Korres Pomegranate Cleansing & Make Up Removing Wipes
($12.00 for 25 wipes) are a rosy-floral scented makeup wipe that will remove makeup decently but doesn’t get off every trace of it.
These wipes don’t get the job done when it comes to long-wearing, water-resistant, or otherwise “stubborn” makeup like mascara and eyeliner. I also found that my pack seemed a little dry, so I put a little water in it and turned it upside down (my trick for keeping wipes moist!). The best part about the Korres’ wipes is that it’s a non-greasy, non-oily makeup remover, so it won’t leave you feeling greasy nor do you need to rinse after you use one.
I actually like these more for a post-workout wipe down than removing my makeup (just because I do often wear more long-wearing products). They’re extremely refreshing, and since they’re not at all oily, it takes care of your skin without adding anything to it. Really gives me a clean feeling without the tightness.
Price-wise, the Korres’ wipes work out to be just under $0.50 each, so they’re a little pricier than I’d like. At the end of the day, though, say you used this nearly once per day, it works out to about $12 a month as a cost–not necessarily make-or-break, you know? Less than a MAC Lipglass! I wish they’d have a better closure device on the Korres’ wipes, but it’s just a peel-back sticker/closure that you press close (which just isn’t as secure as something with a “click”).
My favorite wipes for makeup removing are MAC Wipes (available for $26 for 100, works out to be $0.26 each), because they’re effective without being drying. However, they’re not designed to be used around the eyes (no, seriously), and I know that I can’t use them for eye makeup removal, because they’ll burn/sting around the eyes. Korres’ wipes don’t burn around the eyes, so that is a huge difference between the two for me.
MAC Wipes, though, are one of my beauty blogging staples (along with an awesome camera!), because it’s so easy to remove even stubborn eyeliner that’s been stuck on your arm for hours. I tried Korres for this task, but it just couldn’t get everything off as cleanly or smoothly as MAC Wipes.
Korres’ Wipes are decent, but they’re not superb. They work well if you wear more minimal makeup or stick with less long-wearing makeup. One sheet will remove the majority of my tinted moisturizer. They smell lovely, too, with that rose-ish scent (I know, it’s supposed to smell like pomegranate, but I get a lot of floral when I sniff it!) and didn’t irritate my skin (always a plus!).
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ! 
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 3/5
Recommendation: If you need something to help refresh you after a workout at the gym or you only wear a little makeup, these are nice to have in your arsenal.
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
Holiday Palettes Revealed: Too Faced Glamour Revolution Palette
Too Faced Glamour Revolution Palette
($39.50) is a new, limited edition holiday palette available exclusively at Sephora. Too Faced calls it a “makeup book,” actually. It contains nine eyeshadows, three lipglosses, a bronzer, blush, and Shadow Insurance (eyeshadow base).
Face
- La Vie En Rose Brightening Blush is a bright pop of petal pink with gold flecks of shimmer. It’s not a neutral nor warm-toned pink, but it’s not too cool to make it difficult to wear for warmer skin tones. It’s actually a very pretty shade. It has a soft texture and is quite pigmented. The shimmer could be more subtle/integrated, but it works well.
- Chocolate Soleil Bronzer is a surprisingly cool-toned chocolate brown. It’s not too pigmented, and I don’t think it’d be my favorite bronzer on my skin tone (which is warmer). It is shimmer-less, but it does have a soft sheen.
Lips
There are three nameless lip glosses in this palette, and I can see why they didn’t bother to name them — they’re unremarkable. They are all incredibly sheer, with the first one looking like a nude-pink in the pot and coming out slightly pink-tinged gloss if I look hard enough. The second is a deeper-nude in the pan, but the actual color in a swatch is just sheer glossiness. The most pigmented is the third, which looks like a medium deep pink in the pan, but it’s just a soft pink gloss. I think Too Faced could have omitted these lip glosses (even if I liked lip glosses in pan-form, these are pretty poor performing) and gone with maybe a highlighter to round out the blush and bronzer.
Eyeshadow
Naturally, the eyeshadow portion of the palette is the highlight of the product, and the eyeshadows are smooth, pigmented, and the texture, overall, is good. The shade range is interesting – a few neutrals, but there are also some pops of color. The palette of eyeshadows does seem to run more cool-toned, though.
- Milk Chocolate is a tauped-up chocolate brown with a matte finish. It feels pretty smooth and doesn’t look chalky.
- George & Weezie is a green-tinged gold with a frosty finish. It has almost a green-gray cast.
- Boy Toy is a frosty cool-toned blue-based pink with silverish sheen.
- Label Whore is a reddish brown with a green-teal shimmer/sheen. I thought this shade was really fun and different — it reminded me of a tealer, more pigmented version of MAC’s Club eyeshadow. This shade is also available as a single.
- London Calling is a soft white-gold with a slightly frosty finish.
- Glamazon is a soft taupe with a pink undertone. It has almost a metallic finish. This shade is also available as a single.
- Dirt Bag is a brown with a touch of burgundy. It has more of a satiny finish than frost, too. This shade is also available as a single.
- Party Girl is a medium purple with a sheen and deeper purple shimmer.
- Neptune is a bright green-based teal with a soft sheen (less frost, more sheen!). This shade is also available as a single.
Bottom Line: It’s a fun, cute palette. It’s not my favorite holiday palette, but it’s a solid one. Everything in the palette seems to run on the cooler side, so it may be a better palette for cooler skin tones. Even though there’s a good assortment of eyeshadows, I felt like they had a few too many frosts and no standout highlighter shade–if this is a palette to get me ready from face to lips to eyes, that’s something I’d look for. Some might find the packaging cute, others may find it cumbersome, because it is a bigger palette and could have easily been made smaller (and thus more portable).
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!
- Product: 25/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 3/5
Recommendation: If you’re a fan of Too Faced eyeshadows, this is a great way to get several for less!
Availability: Sephora
Friday, November 27th, 2009
Lancome Holiday 2009: Lancome Sparkling Cherub Illuminating Powder
Lancome Sparkling Cherub Sheer Warming Illuminating Powder ($40.00 for 0.35 oz.) is very true to its name: it’s a subtle powder that warms up the complexion.
To me, it feels and looks very much like a bronzer. Although it initially looks sparkly, it’s just a gold overspray, so after that top layer disappears, you’re left with a mostly matte combination of colors. The outer right is kind of a beige-y fleshy-tone, while the inner ring is a deeper bronzy shade. I’m not really a fan of overspray, just because all they do is make it look pretty, sparkly, and different than what it really is. I’d rather just see it in its semi-matte to matte form.
It’s not really practical to use each section alone, so together, they mix and create a very lightly warmed-up bronze-orange powdery shade. I could see some maybe using the inner portion alone, but the outer ring is a little thin to make it easy to use by itself.
The design of the cherub is cute, and you’ll see it linger in your compact for several uses (until you flatten him out, LOL), which is nice. I could see myself using this as a light blusher on cheeks or maybe a dusting on my forehead, nose, and chin to add extra warmth during the winter season. I don’t, personally, think I’ll reach for this too often, but if you’re looking for a way to warm up your complexion, this might be it.
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: For a cutely designed, subtle bronzer, Sparkling Cherub might have you covered.
Availability: Nordstrom
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Bobbi Brown Chrome Palette ($75.00) is the stunning eye and lip palette include with Bobbi Brown’s Chrome Collection, and it is also limited edition (of course!). The palette includes ten shades of eyeshadow and four shades of lip glosses.
For Eyes
- White Eyeshadow is just that, a matte snowy white. It’s slightly cool, but it isn’t frosty or cold.
- Polar Ice Eyeshadow is a soft, light gray with a blue tinge and silver shimmer. It goes on a bit sheer, but it can be layered for a slightly more solid look.
- Storm Cloud Eyeshadow is a sparkly medium dark brown. It doesn’t really have anything special about it to make it unique, but it still looks pretty (you just may already have something similar in your stash).
- Iron Eyeshadow is a matte slate gray. It didn’t go on as smoothly as the White eyeshadow, and it felt a little more dusty.
- Thunder Eyeshadow is a glittery dark gray with a touch of black and silver shimmer. This reminded me of MAC’s Knight Divine, though not quite as glittery or gritty.
- Moonlight Eyeshadow is a glittery soft pink with a little champagne tone. Bobbi Brown describes it as a cool purple sparkle, which is clearly not. The back of my palette shows that this is where Moonlight is supposed to be, but I really feel like this and Foil were misplaced/mislabeled.
- Cyber Grey Eyeshadow is a slightly purple tinged smoky silver shimmer shade.
- Foil Eyeshadow is a glittery soft purple-gray — very similar to Cyber Grey, but it has more of a glittery texture. As I mentioned earlier, I think this is really Moonlight and Foil is the other one… as Bobbi Brown describes Foil as “a pale bronze.” Again, I’m just going off the back of my palette (and Bobbi Brown’s website).
- Chrome Eyeshadow is a silver with a little brown thrown in – kind of reminds me of Pewter Chrome Eyeshadow, but not nearly as pretty. (Sorry, I *love* that eyeshadow, so not much can compare.)
- Charcoal Haze Eyeshadow is a matte medium gray-black. This one had the same texture as Iron, but it did seem a little smoother.
For Lips
- Pink Mist Lip Gloss is a medium yellow-pink with multi-colored sparkle. It’s pretty sheer, but I found I could actually see some color when I swatched it on my skin (which I barely could with the Earth Metal palette).
- Winter Bronze Lip Gloss is a copper sparkled bronze shade. On lips, it looks a bit burnished, but it’s not ultra pigmented so it’s more wearable than it looks.
- Berry Lip Gloss is a muted plum-berry with soft sparkle. I liked this shade the most, as it seemed opaque enough to add color to lips, but still soft as I’d expect from Bobbi Brown.
- Chrome Pink Lip Gloss is beige-rose with gold sparkle. It’s pretty, and it’s a shade I could see people loving for everyday.
You know me — I don’t like lip palettes. I don’t like them alone, and I don’t like them when attached to eyeshadow palettes, either. They’re just a no-go for me. I will say that the gloss in these are more pigmented than in Bobbi Brown’s Earth Metal Eye & Lip Palette, which is a plus. I’m not going to drop points on this product because of that personal bias, so I’m judging on the product included itself, which is better than a lot of lip palettes I’ve tried.
In the palette, you get 10 eyeshadows, each weighing 0.02 oz. (total weight of 0.20 oz.), and you also get four lipglosses, each weighing 0.03 oz. (total weight of 0.12 oz.). A single Bobbi Brown eyeshadow retails for $22 for 0.10 oz. and a single lip gloss retails for $20 for 0.14 oz. The reason for all these conversions is to see exactly how much you’re paying for what and whether it’s worth buying a palette if you like a few shades or if you should look towards Bobbi Brown’s permanent line-up instead. The eyeshadows (by weight) would yield about $44 in value, while the lip glosses yield about $17 — which gives you a total “value” of $61. The palette is priced at $75, so I do think it’s a bit steep, even when you consider the fact that you’re getting a variety of shades all housed in a pretty chrome palette.
I also don’t think there’s quite enough variety between the ten shades of eyeshadows — a few are quite similar (like Cyber Grey and Foil). This is definitely a cool smoky eye palette with a little purple kick. I like that they included three different matte shades in the palette, because I think mattes are often missed in palettes. I do wish they had included a highlighter shade, as I think the White eyeshadow will be too garish on bolder skin tones to work well as a highlighter. In a palette of this size, I’d expect a really obvious highlighter shade.
For me, this palette is just okay. It’s not the best value, and I think Bobbi Brown has better shades (or the equivalent) available in her permanent range. In fact, I definitely recommend her Chrome Eyeshadows (and duh, my #1 recommendation would be for Pewter!) if you’re not liking the majority of the shades in this palette. The eyeshadows are soft, have a smooth texture, and they’re all pigmented. There is nothing wrong with them, but I’m just not loving the color combination overall. Nice but not amazing, you know?
Bottom Line: for those who DO love the majority of the shades in the palette and don’t mind lipgloss in pan form, I think you may like this. It’s housed in chromed-out package (which does hold fingerprints, FYI!), offers plenty of smoky eyeshadow combinations, and is appropriate for the upcoming holiday season. I also think Bobbi Brown fans may enjoy this more than I did, and I think it’s worth at least a peek next time you’re near a Bobbi Brown counter to see for yourself.
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation:
Availability: Bobbi Brown, Nordstrom
See more photos and swatches… Continue reading →
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Bobbi Brown Earth Metal Lip & Eye Palette ($60.00) is a new, limited edition holiday palette from Bobbi Brown’s Holiday Collection, which also features a Velvet Plum Eye Palette, Glitter Lip Balm Palette, and Chrome Eyeshadows (I mentioned those last week–love them!!).
For Eyes
- Autumn Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow is a slightly green-tinged golden brown with shimmer.
- Earth Metal Metallic Eyeshadow is a plummy brown with shimmer.
- Zinc Metallic Eyeshadow is a light taupe brown with kind of a silver sheen. This shade wasn’t quite as pigmented as the others (it was just so-so).
- Black Spruce Metallic Eyeshadow is a dark forest green with metallic shimmer.
- Sunset Gold Metallic Eyeshadow is a pale, light melon-y gold with light shimmer. Like Zinc, it wasn’t as pigmented the majority of the eyeshadows.
- Antique Gold Metallic Eyeshadow is a coppery bronze with a metallic sheen. (It doesn’t look like antique gold to me!)
For Lips
- Paisely Rose Creamy Lip Color is a pale, peachy pink.
- Rose Garden Creamy Lip Color is a light medium yellow pink.
- Rose Bud Creamy Lip Color is a plummy-pink.
- Barefoot Shimmer Creamy Lip Color is a shimmery peach-brown.
First, as some of you know, I’m not of a fan of lip palettes. As such, I probably wouldn’t purchase this palette, just because I don’t extract any value out of the lip palette portion. I don’t think the eyeshadows are so stunning as to warrant the price tag ($60) by themselves, either. (I’d rather splurge on the Chrome Eyeshadows instead!) The lip colors, as in most lip palettes, are very sheer and don’t do much on my lips. They all kind of look the same, so this isn’t a lip palette designed to change my mind on how I feel about lip palettes in general.
I like the eyeshadows, because they’re definitely my kind of colors – earthy, metallic, and lots of gold thrown in. All of the eyeshadows felt very smooth and had a metallic look to them, and I only found pigmentation problems in two (Zinc and Sunset Gold), but the problems were minor – they just weren’t as pigmented as the majority of the palette, but there was still plenty of color pay off. I think this palette is actually a really good mix of shades that go together easily, and there’s just not much fuss when you use these.
Bottom Line: If you like the lip palette portion, I think this is a great buy. If you’re more like me and have no use for lip palettes, this is more of a skip item. I just can’t get with a palette knowing I’m not going to use half of it and still paying the full price for it, you know? I really wish they made these shades available separately or split the palette in half!
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: I would rather just be able to purchase the eyeshadow portion of the palette as a set over the lip and eye combination. If you like both sides, I definitely think it’s a good buy in that instance!
Availability: Bobbi Brown, Nordstrom
See more photos and swatches… Continue reading →
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Chanel Aqualumiere Gloss: Canari, Colibri, Hirondelle
Chanel Aqualumiere Gloss ($27.00) will see an addition of three new, limited edition shades as part of Chanel’s Holiday Collection. The shades include Canari, which is a peachy-melon with golden-peach shimmer; Colibri, which is a shimmery champagne with iridescent shimmer; and Hirondelle, which is a medium pink with pink and gold shimmer.
All three Aqualumiere Glosses appearing with the holiday collection are very sheer shades. They pack pretty shimmer, but they don’t add much in the way of color. Canari goes on as a golden shimmer, which is pretty and definitely holiday-esque–I’d probably layer it over a red for a little extra glitz. Colibri makes my lips appear cooler and paler with iridescent silvery white shimmer. It actually reminds me a bit of MAC’s She-Zam Dazzleglass, but with a little more of a pinkish tone to it. Surprisingly, Hirondelle adds the most color to lips, and it appears as a soft, slightly milky pink with pink shimmer.
Aqualumiere Glosses are sheer, ultra glossy, and non-sticky. It comes with a brush-tipped applicator which makes for fairly easy application. I’m easygoing when it comes to gloss applicators – doe foot or brush, it’s all good! They’re not the most long-lasting lipgloss (I certainly wouldn’t dub them long-wearing) – I get about three hours of wear when I layer one on by itself. Over a lipstick, I do get better results (four to five hours overall for the average pairing). I still prefer some of the earlier released shades of Aqualumiere Glosses–I remember being really jazzed over them initially–but these new shades for holiday are a little too sheer for my liking. I’d suggest checking out permanent shades like Candy Glow and Ginger Shimmer instead.
Bottom Line: Aqualumiere Glosses are, by their nature, sheer, so I’m not going to knock a bunch of points off on that account. These shades just aren’t to my particular taste, but if you like non-sticky, ultra glossy lipgloss, then Aqualumiere Glosses are always a good bet–just as long as you’re in the market for something on the sheerer side.
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: If you’re a fan of the feel and texture of Chanel’s Aqualumiere Glosses, you might want to peep the new shades. They’re very much on the sheer side, though!
Availability: October 2009 at CHANEL counters
See lip swatches… Continue reading →
