Bare Escentuals Ready 2.0 Eyeshadow Duo "The Epiphany" - Review

I really like Bare Escentuals as a brand, as I've previously noted. When I heard they were going to start releasing pressed eyeshadows, I was beyond excited. I love the concept of loose shadows, but I find them more prone to fall out, and the lasting power seems to vary wildly between shades with some brands. During Sephora's Friends & Family sale last year, I decided to pick up one of the duos, called "The Epiphany."

From Bare Escentuals:

bareMinerals READYTM Eyeshadow provides exceptionally vivid, long-wearing color in an ultra smooth, silky texture for effortless application and seamless blendability with two complementary shades. Powered by our proprietary SeaNutritive MineralTM Complex along with powerful antioxidants, cold-pressed borage oil, caffeine and cucumber-ingredients known to deliver anti-aging benefits including reduced look of puffiness and antioxidant protection for a softer, smoother, revitalized eye area. It looks like a powder but feels like a cream and delivers a beautifully smooth application of vivid, long-wearing color.

I have to question how long, or how often, you would need to wear an eyeshadow for any sort of skin care benefits to be visible, but I suppose it's a nice touch - I mean, it's the thought that counts, right? That aside, these shadows are creamy to the touch, and color selection is pretty good.

For $20 (an outstanding price), you get two eyeshadows (complete with names), in a rounded square palette. The palettes are made from that same soft to the touch rubber that NARS uses. A mirror is provided in the lid, and a sponge applicator is included. Each duo contains 0.1 oz of shadow, 0.05 oz of each shade.

The Epiphany includes Foreshadow, a matte "brown truffle" shade, and A-Ha!, a shimmery "brown sugar." You could also call them a matte medium/dark brown and a shimmery taupe, if you wanted to. Both shades lean warm, and swatch beautifully.  A-Ha! applies and blends great, too, however Foreshadow doesn't apply great. It can appear chalky and less pigmented than it would appear. It's not without it's uses, though. I love using it to deepen other brown tones. It seems to apply much better over another shadow, perhaps because they give it some "slip."

The shadows last all day over my normal primer system (UDPP + color base of some kind). I have not noticed any morphing, fading or creasing on my oily lids.

Overall, I really like these. Enough that I've since bought a quad, one of the 8-pan palettes from their holiday 2011 collection, and picked up one from QVC in their Today's Special Value from several months ago. This is a particularly dependable duo, because it's a great pair of neutrals at an amazing price.

Cover Girl LashBlast 24 Hour Mascara - Review

I am not a fan of any of the LashBlast mascaras. They just don't do much for me. I've tried the original (meh), and the LashBlast Fusion formula (double meh), but I had to try a mascara that claimed to last 24 hours. Had to.

LashBlast 24 Hour comes in a fat black tube with metallic orange lettering and graphics. It comes in  a few shades of black, and I picked up Very Black (as opposed to "Black"). I almost exclusively wear black or the darkest black mascara available. Brown mascaras always look weird to me, and it's super easy for me to tell if the mascara has pigmentation issues, because my lashes are red/blonde.

Like the original LashBlast, 24 Hour has one of those massive rubber/silicone spikey wands. I hate them. I knew I hated them when I bought this mascara, and I should've known nothing would change my mind. This surely didn't. It's hard to get the inner and outer corner lashes with these things, because the cone-shaped bristles are microscopically small at the tip, making them more pointless than an icemaker on Antarctica. The pigmentation is somewhat poor, as well. I wore this over a while mascara primer (Lancome's Cils Booster XL), and it usually required 3+ coats to fully cover the primer. This subsequently caused some clumping, but it was easily brushed out with a metal lash comb. Without primer, I still needed multiple coats to fully cover my lashes.

That said, it lasted all day without flaking or smudging. Did I get "a blast of lush, volumized lashes," as Cover Girl claims? No. I got slightly volumized lashes, with a touch of extra length. Oh, and a bit of aggravation when it came time to remove this stuff. I've been using Clinique's Take of the Day Balm, and 24 Hour lasts through that, plus normal face washing. I have to use an eye makeup remover, then the balm, and then wash my face. That's a lot of steps. I don't really like to spend that much time and energy on my lashes, because I really don't want to pull them out during the process of getting them clean.

If you need a mascara that lasts forever, 24 Hour is for you. If you want a mascara that lasts all day and is easily removed, however, don't bother with this one.

Bare Escentuals Round the Clock Waterproof Eyeliner - Review

I am truly a sucker for Bare Escentuals on QVC. It's like they know I have money, and they want me to give it to them, so they bring out only stuff that I would love, like brown sparkly eyeliners. And, despite my efforts to remind myself how much brown eyeliner I have, and how infrequently I use Bare Escentuals' products, my debit card comes out and I end up buying whatever the Today's Special Value is (which reminds me - they have one coming up soon! End of March, I think).

I was drawn to this liner because it promised to rival UD's 24/7 eyeliners, which are fabulous (except the color selection is somewhat weak, in my opinion). They claim to be long wearing, waterproof, creamy, and pigmented.

The color I ended up with is called 10 PM. It's a sparkly dark brown, and looks beautiful when swatched. The pencil barrel is black, with the product information printed in a soft silver tone. The end of the pencil is color coded for the eyeliner's color, much like MAC's Powerpoint pencils. The barrel is made of the same soft-ish plastic as Powerpoints and the 24/7 liners.

The color and formula of this liner is great, sort of. When first applied, it's beautiful - a deep, rich brown with shimmer. After a regular day of wear, though, the color morphed. Badly. It became a weird, antique green on my lids. This can mean one of two things: either the liner faded, or reacted with the oil on my lids or my eyeshadow/eyeshadow base. Either way, it doesn't bode well for a long wearing liner that is supposed to last "round the clock."

I wanted to like this liner, because it's so pretty, but if it can't last all day like other brands (Maybelline, MAC, UD, etc), then what's the point? I can't recommend this liner at all, based on my experience.

Maybelline MasterShape Brow Pencil - Review

I don't really have a need for more brow products (don't judge!), but I've never used one of these waxy-crayon things before, and Maybelline's Eyestudio line is, for the most part, pretty great. So, when I found this product a month ago, and on sale, I decided to try it out.

The MasterShape brow pencil comes in several colors: Soft Brown, Deep Brown, Blonde, and Auburn. Despite my redhair, I usually use taupe/brown tones for my brows (since, my brow hair is not red, and red or auburn shades look all kinds of wrong on my brows). Without a taupe to lean on, I picked up Blonde, which suits me perfectly.

I like that the barrel of the pencil is color coded, and the included spooly is a must. Brushing this stuff through your brows really helps tame and shape them, and adds a more polished look. This product couldn't be easier to use if it tried - it glides on fairly effortlessly, and is the perfect balance of pigmented and not pigmented, so you'd have to focus on getting it wrong. The price is decent, about $5 - $7, depending on whether or not it's on sale, or if you have a coupon.

I have two problems, though:

1. I've used up a lot of this in the short time I've been using it -This sort of makes sense, coming from using brow powders (which last an eternity), that I would notice how short the pencil was getting.
2. Sharpening this thing sucks. It's coated in plastic. Not the same kind of plastic MAC uses for their Powerpoint pencils, which is fairly easy to sharpen. No, this is full-on, real, plastic. You must have a really nice sharpener, to make this work. I use UD's Grindhouse (yes, a $10 sharpener for a $5 product.

Overall, I like this brow product. I really do. But, powders seem to be a better value. Remember that Brow Tech Trio review I did? I've been using it daily for the past 8 months, and no pan in sight. I have a feeling I'll run out of Mastershape about 2 months from now. My previous brow powder, MAC's discontinued Brow Shader, is literally 5 years old, and still going strong. So, you may keep that in mind when considering this product.

Blog Sale Update!

Gah. I've been MIA, but I blame work and the holidays! Anyway, more on that stuff later. Check out the newly updated Blog Sale page!