Reviews

This started as a beauty blog and although it is much more than that now to me, I still want to stay true to my "roots". I have been having a stressful week to say the least. I am not in a very good mood, I am extremely tired but I have wanted to review these products forever because I like them a lot.

L'oreal True Match foundation spf 17 oil free
Color: Classic Ivory (N2)
Price: $13.00

 
I tried the liquid make-up for this brand, not the roller or the compact. I don't use anything but liquid foundations. I didn't have high hopes for this one because a) it's cheap and b) I had to guess about the match in store because there are no testers. However, I was very happy with what I picked. It was given good reviews in Allure and I firmly believe it's the best drug store make-up I have ever used. I would say the finish is semi-matte, not completely matte. The coverage is medium and it really is very blendable. I got lucky and the color I picked worked very well with my skintone. I chose the "neutral" color because one was too pink and the other was too yellow. I would definitely suggest that people stay in the N family unless they know for sure they are either pink or yellow. It covers my blemishes very well for being only a medium coverage. I think it wears rather well also. I noticed I got very shiny at the end of the day but that's probably just my super oily skin acting up. I have been breaking out like crazy lately for no apparent reason :(

Over-all: I would definitely recommend this make-up to someone who is looking for a better price but doesn't want to sacrifice the quality for their foundation. There is also a pretty wide range of skin tones and colors. There is something for the palest of the pale, which is hard to find, let me tell you.

Lorac Visual Effects Mascara
Color:  Jet Black
Price: $20.00
 

This is a very different mascara from what I've tried. First of all, I want to start out by saying that this mascara is NOT for the people who have trouble putting mascara on normally. This product will only make your life more difficult. However, if you're like me and are pretty good at make-up application, give it a try. This mascara has the 4-sided combing wand that really separates. The hard part about it is that when the mascara is new there is too much of the formula deposited on the brush and if you don't learn to scrape it off you are going to have a clumpy, smudgey mess. What I do before using it is take the wand out of the tube and scrape off excess mascara on the sides of the tube opening. That gives you the best amount to work with. When you get a hang of the wand, it really gives you dark, separated, thicker looking lashes that stay long and curled. It doesn't get as hard as some of the curling mascaras do but it gets a little stiff. It's a 3-in-one mascara for those of us that need all the help we can get.

Here is an example of my eye make up with it on:

Over-all: I would definitely recommend this mascara to anyone who has been around the block with other brands and formulations but haven't found something that really "does it all".

Urban Decay Naked Palette (Limited Edition)
Color: a variety of nudes, creams, golds, browns, grey and black eyeshadows
Price: $42 (now sells on amazon and ebay for over $100) 

  I was waiting for this palette since I learned about it at my old job in the beginning of the summer. I have a lot of praise to give this palette but I do have some critiques after having used it so much. First of all, the packaging and everything was excellent. I love the case and I love the way the eye shadows are set up in a row. The mini UDPP and the eyepencils that come with it were a nice bonus but if they wanted to charge us less for the set without them in it, I would have been down for that. I didn't really need a 24/7 liner, I have a bunch already. The colors included in the set are (from left to right): virgin, sin, naked, sidecar, buck, half baked, smog, darkhorse, toasted, hustle, creep, gunmetal. I like that it had a nice range of different shades and that no two were very similar. Creep is the darkest shadow, it's a black with small sparkles in it. Some of these colors are in their permanent line and I believe some are new. I loved the way the colors blended, the way they wore and the shade range. I didn't, however, like the fact that there is really only two matte colors. Naked and Buck are the two mattes and I was expecting for there to be a darker matte for blending. I don't really like blending shimmery shades into my crease. However, it's not a big deal and to me that didn't take away from the whole palette. So most of the shades have at least a little shimmer to them, while some like Sin, Sidecar and Half Baked are very, very shimmery. I think if you have at least 5 of the shadows in this palette you could have easily passed on it and not be missing a thing. The fact that it's being sold online for $136 really makes me laugh.

Over-all: I like this palette a lot for the colors but I believe it was pretty over-priced and that I would have taken it without the pencils and mini UDPP for a reduced priced and been a little happier. However, if you got the palette - you got a nice buy. If not, don't worry, something new and interesting will be on it's way out before we know it.