Written Reviews

Once I found Tarte blushes, I thought I'd never be wowed or wooed by any other brand but I got the greatest little palette with my Sephora points and this blush was included. It is a beauty. It's hardly what I'd call "pale" but it's not as overpowering as it looks in the pan or on the brush and on my fair skin (NW15-20 in MAC), it seems like the perfect flush of colour. I won't hesitate to buy the full pan (though this little palette is so perfect I wish I could buy a few of them instead!)

ProLongwear shadows (the originals) have such a great formula. They apply and blend beautifully and wear extremely well. I always use a primer but MAC claims these last even without a base or primer and one day, I may just put that claim to the test. Don't be fooled by how dark this colour looks. This is one versatile and very wearable shadow - as a fantastic crease colour or for a sophisticated smokey eye. You can smudge it around your upper and lower lash lines for a softly "lined" eye. Great value too - you get a huge pan (possibly too huge!) for only a few bucks more than the standard MAC shadow.

One of my go-to/every day shades. I got this at the urging of my daughter and it has become one of my most reached-for eye shadows. Pairs well with Naked Lunch, All That Glitters and so many other shadows. Works well as a lid colour or in the crease. Versatile and reliable.

I've got 4 or 5 Sephora contour pencil liners and can't get over how good these are at such a reasonable price. I think Driving in Malaysia is probably my favourite just because it's a great every day basic shade. The bit of glitter in it (which means it isn't water-line friendly) makes it a bit special and give a bit of interest that a flat dark brown pencil wouldn't have.

I know Oh So Fair is a very loved and highly rated beauty powder so when I saw it available in the Hark the Heraldry cheek kit, I was delighted to try it. It's my first (and only) beauty powder and to be honest, I rarely use it. It doesn't show up on me as a blush at all. I guess if I really piled it on, it might work but what's the point when I have several other light pink blushes that work beautifully and easily. I can't see myself using this as an all over the face product either. It's just not really of much use to me and I guess I don't really see the point of this product.

None of the "Pigmentation" choices given really apply to this pencil. Its beauty is that it is subtle. It's a milky pink/white creamy pencil that really does make your brows and your whole eye look more lifted and open. I thought with all the light matte and satin eye shadows I have that I could get the same effect as I get with this pencil but I was wrong. There is something about the creamy formula and just the way it looks that makes this a special product. I do wish it was a twist up and didn't need sharpening but this is such a good product that I'm willing to put up with that inconvenience.

I don't know if MAC had made these flesh-toned pencils permanent yet but if they haven't, they certainly should. Using this pencil on the waterline really brighten eyes and makes them look bigger. There are times when I just don't want a dark, sultry shade on my waterline and white is just too stark and unnatural looking. This pencil is perfect. I understand it works well to cover blemishes too, though I'm past the age for breakouts. The only thing that could make this pencil better would be a twist up "pencil" rather than one you have to sharpen.

There is nothing bad I can say about Gleaming Bronze (which, in Canada, was called "Bronze Divine"). The colour is outstanding - one of those shades that works so well entirely on its own. It's a rich golden bronze that works with so many neutral or dark toned shadows in shades of brown, deep taupe or deep green. Wear is phenomenal and the price is so much less than similar (but no better) products from Armani and Chanel.

I got this brush in the Core Collection set and didn't even really want it (I bought that set for the Buffing Brush) but I LOVE this brush. I don't contour very often because it's difficult for me to get good placement and a flattering look but with the RT Contour Brush, I can actually achieve this. It is also perfect for applying highlighter because of the smaller, more compact brush head and the way it's shaped. I wish this brush were sold individually, so I could have 2 or 3 of them (it is also good if you are using a very pigmented blush - you can get it just where you want the colour and then buff it out so your blush isn't too overpowering)

I bought the Core Collection of RT Brushes specifically to get this particular brush (that's another issue - I wish all the brushes were sold individually, especially the eye brushes but some of the others as well). I had read rave reviews about how amazing this was for applying liquid foundation but for me, it doesn't work all that well and the Expert Face Brush is much better, even though they look so much alike. I do like the Buffing Brush, though, for applying powder/mineral powder foundation and also for buffing my powder blush to give it a more "from with/natural" look.

I have quite a few really great RT brushes so it would be hard for me to choose one that is my favourite but at least when it comes to applying foundation, I think the Expert Face Brush is "it". This brush does such an amazing job and is every bit as good as brushes I have that cost 3 or 4 times as much. Samantha Chapman has created some great products and shown many of us that you actually don't need to pay a lot to get a great foundation brush.

I wanted this shade very much after seeing it on Temptalia but this colour wasn't available here in Canada (though now I'm pretty sure it is, but just with a different name) so when I went to the US, I got it. It's my 3rd or 4th Infallible 24 hour shadow and while it applies and wears fine, I find it just too frosty bright for me to wear (and I am someone who absolutely loves shiny shadows!)

This is such a beautiful colour to use as a shadow on its own or as a base for powder shadows. The only problem for me is that it creases like crazy, even with Urban Decay Primer Potion (my most reliable "crease fighter") underneath. It's a real shame because the only way to get it to last is to blend it out so much that it's almost not worth applying in the first place since there are lots of other similarly coloured powder shadows or pencils from other brands that do last.

Greensmoke is a Luster finish shadow that is disappointingly lacklustre! It is a really beautiful, complex mixture of olive, gold and almost a deep blue. But, like most of MAC's Luster shadows, it isn't very pigmented and doesn't show up on the lids at all how it does in the pan. This shadow needs a coloured base to help it show its real beauty. A green, grey or brown cream shadow base will help this shadow reach its full potential. But when given a bit of help, this is such a beautiful, murky, smoky, dazzle-y shade and for my brown eyes, it's almost magic!

Of the 5 shadows in the Bonne Etoile palette, this one (top right hand corner) is the most shimmery/glittery. While the glitter is very smooth and integrated with the shadow and not the least bit gritty, because of the intense frost/glitter, it can tend to look a bit patchy when applied but for the most part, it does smooth out very well. Not light enough to be a brow highlight for me but a beautiful shade for the "mobile lid" or inner 1/3 or to press onto the middle of the lid if using a darker shade.

To my surprise, out of the 5 shadows in the Bonne Etoile palette, this turned out to be my favourite. It's just "my" kind of colour - a burnished bronzey brown that is terrifically wearable even for daytime/work situations.

This was the first MES I ever purchased. It looks so beautiful in the pan but, unfortunately, the darker shade - which looks like this lovely deep pewter in the pan - doesn't look any different from the lighter shade (both just look like very sheer, shiny silver shadows). If you put a darker base under the darker shadow - either a dark grey or a dark brown or even taupe or deep purple - you will get a lovely end result though. When I wear this, I often put it over NYX's Jumbo Pencil in French Fries and I like how it looks. I just think it shouldn't take this much work to get a product to look like it does in the pan. These can also be used wet, though even wet, the pigmentation isn't outstanding.

This is probably my most used MES of all the ones I own. I have had it for ages and mostly use the brown side and it still looks brand new. The brown is a rich, bronzey dark brown with sheen and it is so versatile. The lighter shade is light yellow with gold "chunks" and can be more than bit chunky and difficult to apply to get a smooth result. It's also a bit too garish for me to consider using it for a brow highlight - again, it's those chunks! But even if I never used the light side at all, this duo would have been worth it just to get the "Burning Ambition" side of the duo.

I meant to buy this shade when I actually bought Birthday Suit (I thought the name "Birthday Suit" referred to the shimmer nude colour that is actually RSVP and I just grabbed the jar off the shelf without looking; that turned out to be a serendipitous mistake, in the end). Anyway, I went back and got RSVP as well. It is very akin to MAC's Bare Study - a light champagne beige with shine. I find I like the texture of RSVP better - it seems creamier and smoother and it hasn't dried out as quickly as my pot of Bare Study did. The "trick" with Benefit's cream shadows - to keep them from creasing - is to apply a very thin layer first and let it set for 30 seconds or so before applying more of the product. I finally learned this after bothering to read the instructions that come with the product!

It's not often that I really like a loose eye shadow, because so many of them tend to be so very messy and can ruin the rest of your makeup. But Bare Minerals seems to have formulated loose shadows that are a lot easier to use and apply with minimal to no fallout. "Drama" is a wonderful silvery taupe/brown mix that leans a bit on the purple side and is just beautiful to use. Very pigmented, very intense and you get a lot of product. The only downside is the packaging because this is really not travel friendly at all (unless they've changed the design of the container since I bought mine). If I want to take this with me, I transfer a bit to an empty MAC sample container using a small spatula but that is a messy process. For a short time, Sephora had a pressed eye shadow that was very close in colour to Drama (Taupe Outrageous Chrome Prisma Colour - how's that for a mouthful?) but, sadly, it has been discontinued.