Written Reviews

I love this collection of 9 mostly neutral-ish shadows that range in undertone from neutral to cool. Several variations of taupe/pewter and a variety of finishes from matte to glitter. I also love that this is in a metal tin, unlike most of Too Faced's 9 shadow palettes, which are housed in cardboard. Some of the shades in this palette are a bit on the sheerer/less pigmented side but that is easily remedied using a coloured base of some sort (a Paint Pot or Sephora's Jumbo Pencils, to name just 2 options I use). It's a great palette to travel with because you can do a variety of looks for different situations from daytime/sightseeing to work meetings to an exotic night out.

It's a real shame that this blush isn't permanent because it would be a huge hit and there must be loads of people who never got the chance to try it. It is almost terrifyingly bright in the pan but applied lightly and with a fluffy, soft brush, it gives the prettiest "walking in the cold" flush to the cheeks and looks unbelievably pretty against fair skin. Even though I've sort of migrated to Tarte and Bobbi Brown blushes, I am still so happy I have this beauty.

This is probably my most used pencil liner - I think I've got 4 of them on the go at any given time. This is a beautiful dark brown liner with bits of golden glitter that seem to brighten the whole effect this gives. It's long-lasting, and while it can be easily smudged with a brush when first applied, it stays put all day. Easy to sharpen too, especially if you pop it into the freezer for half an hour or so before sharpening.

Before discovering the "new" liners from Sephora, Gosh Velvet Touch liners were my "holy grail". They lasted on me better than UD's 24/7 pencils and cost significantly less. I have several on the go in the shade Metallic Brass which is a deep cool-toned brown with golden flecks and I've also got single pencils in Ink Black, Truly Brown and Golden Moss. All are terrific pencils that apply smoothly, can be smudged easily when first applied and last all day long.

Thanks to Christine showing this shadow, I got it in the recent MAC repromote and I couldn't be happier. It's a dark, smokey khaki green-grey-brown mix that is irresistible for someone like me, who loves neutral shadows and it has a lovely golden-green sheen to it. When it was discontinued a few years ago, a reviewer at MUA wondered why MAC was keeping Greensmoke (beautiful but disappointing, I have to agree) but discontinuing Fiction. Now that I have Fiction, I understand exactly what she meant. This should be permanent.

This stuff is amazing! I have a lot of other lip balms and treatments but for serious repair of chapped lips, this beats them all. The metal tube packaging does make this harder to use (a small pot would have been much better, as you could use a small spatula to get the product) but I use a metal bodkin (basically a really thick sewing needle) to get this out of the tube. If I apply this at night, it is still there in the morning and this can even be used sparingly UNDER lipstick without wrecking the wear time if your lips are in really bad shape. A little goes a long way and a small tube will last a long time.

I was colour matched to this shade by the SA at Sephora. I've tried for about a month to make this shade work but it looks dreadful. It really looks very yellow on me even when blended out on my under-eye area and makes me look sallow or jaundiced. This will probably be the first product I return to Sephora in all my years of shopping there. I've since purchased this same concealer in Vanilla and it is a much better match though I still find this product gives a dry and scaly look to my under-eye area, contrary to what you'd expect from something with "radiant" and "creamy" in the name.

I got this after a not very happy experience with Custard (great if I want to look jaundiced or like I've got the very last traces of a bruise that has now faded to yellow around my eyes). Vanilla is a much better match and is more brightening for my under-eye area but I still find this doesn't really live up to its "Radiant, Creamy" name - I do find it leaves my under-eye area looking dry and scaly, even with eye cream underneath. I think this is meant to be close to a full coverage concealer but I find that I do have to build to get good coverage for my dark circles.

So far, I have 2 of these shadows (Be on the A List and Rock the Runway) and can't say enough good things about them. They are excellent quality (better than many shadows costing twice as much) and there is a wonderful range of colours. I certainly plan on getting several more of these as they are SO good. I love that the individual pans have flat lids (for easy stacking) and that these are easy to de-pot AND that Sephora throws in empty palettes for free if you purchase multiple shadows. How great is that?

It was really hard to choose a colour from the drop down list to describe this shadow. Sephora describes it as "Taupe Violine Shimmer" (whatever the heck that means!) but this is somewhere in that strange land between grey, pewter, taupe, lavender and soft, dusty plum. It is a beautiful shade that marries well with so many other shadows in my collection and is a perfect crease defining colour because it really looks like a "shadow" rather than like "eye shadow". And, again, kudos to Sephora for making these shadows easy to de-pot and also for offering the larger palettes for "free" if you purchase 2 shadows (a free 3 pan) or 3 shadows (the larger palette). I do wish they'd make the 3-pan into a 4-pan; that would be just that little bit more practical for me. The Sephora shadows are, for the most part, really excellent and I plan to be buying a few more of these.

On the A List is a wonderful, neutral to somewhat cool leaning taupe eye shadow. At Sephora's site, it is categorized as having a "Shimmer" finish and I'd say it's similar to MAC's Veluxe Pearl or Inglot's Pearl finishes - very pretty and it imparts "light" without being too garish or full on frosty. This is a wonderful shadow. On me, this shadow alone with a very little bit of black liner and maybe even mascara and my eyes look so enhanced. The price of these shadows is amazing and the fact that Sephora put thought into the packaging and making it easy (and affordable) for users to de-pot them easily and without risk of damaging the shadows is wonderful. This is long overdue from companies like MAC!

How can I have neglected to review the single most life changing cosmetic product out there? I'm much older than most here and can well remember the time before there was any such thing as an eye shadow primer. About the only thing out there that lasted the way UDPP does was an "automatic eyeshadow" from Estee Lauder but all of those were tinted. They came in a tube with a doe foot type applicator, much like Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer or Nars Eyeshadow Base but they were coloured and frosty. I recall having a lovely purple one, a peachy one and a taupey brown one. Other than that, any powder eyeshadow I wore creased. It didn't matter what I used or what I did - after a few hours, it would all end up as a gross line in my crease. So for years, I rarely wore eyeshadow. Then, in the 90's some time (or perhaps a bit later), UDPP (the original) found its way into my life and it's been full speed ahead since then. I apply the tiniest amount of this onto my lids in the early morning and my eyeshadows are still fresh and uncreased when I remove my makeup at night. Many similar products are available to us all in the marketplace now, in all different price ranges and formulas and how lucky we are because UDPP and products like it have made wearing eyeshadow a pleasure. I also have this in Eden (great to use on its own or to mask red or bluish lids) and in Sin (ditto on wearing on its own and also to give MAC's Tempting and other Lustre shadows a bit of the boost they need.

I've got 3 types of UDPP and what I love about Sin is that it's so versatile. It can be worn along as a long-lasting eye brightening shadow and it just looks so fresh and pretty (provided you don't overdo it). Even better, using it under shadows like MAC Tempting (beautiful in the pan but less so when applied) really brings out the beauty that is usually lost when these types of shadows are applied. Great product. And I might be weird, but I like my old Genie bottle with the bent doe-foot. Seems to dry out far less quickly than in the squeeze tube.

Having had a less than happy experience with a sheer and glittery Paint Pot a few years ago (Dangerous Cuvee from ChamPale), I was more than a bit leery when I looked at this in store the other day. It looked SO pretty but swatched SO glittery. But I figured, "What the heck" and asked my beloved MAC lady for a sample (there is no irony there; the women at the MAC counter at my particular Hudson's Bay store are really lovely). Well, I totally LOVE this and I'm going back for the full size, which is probably silly given my age and lifestyle. But still, is is just so darned pretty - a darkened, grey-ish purple that looks pretty as anything applied sheerly (it's pretty sheer) on the mobile lid. The glitter sort of dances in the light but isn't over-the-top obnoxiously garish. So far (I've only had this a few days), the wear and crease resistance are good - typical of what I usually get with a Paint Pot. I'm actually thinking of maybe buying Dangerous Cuvee again....or maybe not!!!

Yes, this stuff isn't exactly cheap but it is a wonderful facial sunscreen because it isn't greasy or even creamy. If I'm using a separate sunscreen in addition to my skin care products, I don't want it to moisturize or do anything except protect my face from the sun's damaging rays and that is what I love about Clarins UV Plus - it's matte and feels almost like a mattifying primer. Has a pleasant fragrance that smells like "the beach" but the scent doesn't last. I use this over my skin care but under my makeup and even liquid foundations apply beautifully over this. Because it's not greasy, my husband and kids are good about using it too and that is important. This, Kiehl's and LaRoche Posay are 3 products they will use regularly because they don't feel "icky" or greasy, especially in hot weather.

I got this in a set with the IT Cosmetics Celebration Foundation and it is a wonderful, dense, effective brush. Even though the bristles are densely packed, the brush feels soft and not the least bit scratchy but it's the perfect tool for applying the foundation (hardly surprising since that's what it was designed for). While I've not tried this with liquid foundations, I would be willing to bet that it would work as well as any other flat topped brush for applying and blending liquid foundation. This brush is fairly pricey on its own but as I got it in a Showstopper (with 2 other brushes, the powder foundation and several other products), it was a steal!

Geez, I just wrote a long review and accidentally made it go "poof"! Anyway, I think I have this in Neutral Medium but I may have the shade Light - I'm too lazy to run upstairs to check. But this is a great concealer. I got it in a Showstopper from the Canadian Shopping Channel and at first, I was glad it hadn't cost all that much because I wasn't thrilled with it. It had a gluey, thick consistency that was hard to blend, very much like Benefit's Erase Paste. But I tried it again a few weeks later and realized that all I needed to do was warm this a bit between my fingers and it became smooth and blendable with a very nice "slip" to it. Applies and blends beautifully with fingers or a brush and doesn't look dry and scaly, nor does it settle excessively into lines and if it does, a gentle press with a finger fixes that! A great concealer (though I am always looking for a better one!)

I am really glad I have the beautyblender sponge. It really does an unbelievable job of applying liquid foundation so you get a flawless finish that seems invisible to the naked eye but results in skin that looks perfect. I had to take off a half a "mark" simply because of the price of this sponge and the fact that it is not all that long-lasting. Shell out close to $30 (CDN) for a makeup brush and it will last you a few years, at least, but the beautyblender can rip and fall to pieces in a few short months. The Avon "dupe", while not quite as wonderful, is pretty close for about 1/3 the price.

While Starlight looks quite peachy (and very much like MAC Naked Lunch and similar shades) in the pan, it truly does look like "starlight" when applied. This is what I had hoped MAC Shroom would be and it's a perfect highlighter or lid colour for times when you don't want a dramatic, smokey look and just want your eyes to look bright and fresh. Paired with Puppy in the crease, I get a quick and very pretty look that is foolproof. If I could only have one pearly/shimmery highlight shade, this would be IT!

I honestly cannot tell if this is chalky/powdery or whether it's buttery/smooth. I was really happy to find this blush, in the shade "Rose", on sale as I'd been wanting to try it for a while but this is pricey for a drugstore product and for a few dollars more, I can purchase Tarte or Mac. But on sale, this seemed a good value. While it looks lovely and bright in the pan, the pigmentation is disappointing and I have to work at getting any colour at all to show up. Not at all what I was expecting or hoping for.