Essence BB Cream "Universal"

I bought a couple of Essence things, and when I saw they had BB cream, of course I wanted to give it a try.

My excitement quickly faded to disappointment, and then downright anger.  Another orange product!!!! 

Comparisons: 

First of all, they make two shades of this, but this one is 01.  02 is called Natural, and from what I've seen that one would definitely suit me more.  So the saleslady thought (understandably) that 01 was lighter, and just put it in my bag without me even looking too much at it.  Then they staple the bag right away so I have no recourse once I walk out the store.  But why do I have to be stuck with this!!!!  It doesn't blend in, it just stays orange the whole time.  

Other than that, it has a really creamy texture, and it isn't completely matte, but it doesn't do much for coverage.  It has a really bad smell, but it didn't linger too long.   I don't know if I'll try the other one but it'll have to be when I calm down from this one.  I am part of the universe, and this isn't suitable for me, so please don't call it universal!!! 

Correction: Essence has three shades, 03 is medium.

Rimmel Stay Glossy Lip Gloss

I got this in shade 430, All Night Long.

The color is absolutely perfect for me, I am very happy with it.  

It does have some shimmer to it, but not glittery. 

I like it- it's glossy, shiny, smooth and not sticky.  But it claims to last six hours, which isn't the case at all.  But it's easy enough to apply, so not that big of a deal to me.  

New Nail Tools

I have just been using the wooden cuticle sticks, and occasionally a rubber tipped one. The rubber one doesn't work very well for me, and the wooden ones break and collect a lot of debris.  I didn't know they made metal ones until a recent visit to Konad.  I really love it- it works gently, and I can clean it easily.

The hand balm is kind of pharmaceutical but seems to be working well, it isn't a balm so much, more like a really absorbent lotion.  It reminds me of another hand cream I used before, Lubriderm or Neutrogena maybe???

Essence Remover for Waterproof Makeup

Since the normal makeup one didn't work for me, I decided to give this a try.

I absolutely hate this and wouldn't recommend it. Technically, it does remove makeup, if you call smearing it and having to swipe like 20 times removing. But the main problems are it burns the hell out of my eyes plus it leaves oil behind. A lot of oil. I wiped my eye with a tissue afterwards but I ended up having to actually wash the area gently due to both the burning and the residue. I don't have particularly sensitive eyes most of the time so I really think they need to reformulate this.

Rimmel Apocalips Lipsticks Celestial, Nova

I really liked these liquid lipsticks, but I wanted a more wearable shade.  These two certainly work for that.

CELESTIAL 

NOVA

They actually aren't as similar as they look on my lips.  My lip swatches aren't that great, now that I see this, but Nova is a lot more of a brighter pink on me, and celestial is a fleshy-rosey-mauve. I had some feathering with Nova, especially on my lower lip, so I'd probably go with a lip liner with these.  

Hmm...Dior Jelly Lip Pen

This looks sooo interesting. But also so much like the Clinique and Revlon ones!

Pond's Pure White Facial Foam

I've been using (and loving!) a generic almond scrub for my daily wash- even though the main ingredient is walnut shells, not almonds.  But I also like to use a thinner cleanser occasionally for around my eyes and I do like a deep cleaning as well.  I spotted this while looking for something else and decided to give it a try.

The first thing I noticed was, it's silver-grey.  It foams white though.  It says it has charcoal powder in it.  

It reminds me a lot of the Clinique foam I used to use, but that was much milder to me. This feels just like a shaving foam, very thick, so it's best best to use just a small amount. I really felt it penetrating my skin and when I rinsed it off, it literally has the squeaky clean feeling.  For me having dry skin, I was worried this would exacerbate the dryness, but it didn't. I didnt even try using it two days in a row though, because I know it would be too drying. I think it would be great for those with oilier skin since it does seem to really lift residue out of your face. I really like it a lot, but for me it's too much to use on a daily basis, but twice or three times a week is great.  

Another thing I used it for was when my nails were stained badly from blue nail polish. I had a feeling it would work, and it did!

Short Nail Beds?

I've been looking at nails online for a really long time and one thing I noticed is that everybody has longer nail beds than me.  The only thing I've read that short nail beds are caused by biting or picking, which I never did.  I keep my cuticles in order and otherwise I think my nails are healthy, but if they get too long it's curtains because the nail bed is too small to support them.  What's even more stupid is that it seems to be only on two nails of each hand- pointer and middle.

I've heard it can take a year to grow them, and I've heard that its genetic and may be impossible to do. I'm about to just get some acrylics and call it a day.

Any nail professionals or enthusiasts have any advice for me?

LOTD and a Photo Edit

Besides cropping, I don't edit my photos.  I don't have any program, I don't know how, and I think most of the time, people can totally tell when photos have been heavily edited.  But my new camera has this really cool feature where it edits photos when it's still in the camera.  I was having a hard time deciding between that model and another one with a front screen, but the guy told me the front screen had a lower resolution, and I thought the editing one was so cool anyway.  It's just for fun, not like I am trying to trick anyone lol!!!

It has things like slender face, reduce puffy eyes, cheek lift, eye enlarge (!!!), even change eye color, whiten teeth, add sparkle, and can add every type of makeup- lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, blush.... there is nothing it can't do haha!!!  I am going to play around with it (a lot!) but here is an example.  This is my LOTD using L'Oreal "Metallic Lilac" as the main lid shade.  The lipstick is actually different, and I just used the auto edit.

It's weird, right!! It elongated my face totally, and it looks too smooth.  So while it's really cool to play around with, I still think the natural photos look better.  But this camera still takes much better pics than my old one, so I'm quite happy with it.  

And here is a better idea of the Metallic Lilac color, it's pretty. 

LOTD: Strawberry

I used L'Oreal Infallible "Naughty Strawberry" for the main lid colour.  Using it wet I get a lot better payout but I really had to use a ton of it.

Wanting to Try: Rimmel Mascaras

Believe it or not, there are a few I haven't tried.... namely these:

New Released Konad Plates

Sorry about all the plate posts, its a slow makeup week, but I've got some things on the way I hope to have in a few days.

It has been a while since I've seen new Konad plates.  They have 5 coming out, but not in a shop near me until next month.  I've been trying to find them online but no luck yet with international shipping.

I for sure will get 91 and 92 but only those.

New QA Series Plates Pt. 2

Here are the rest of the plates I got, the newest one that I am aware of is QA64, but I got only up to 62. I also hadn't seen 57 until just yesterday. I did order a bunch of new supplies, so I hope to post some nail art photos very soon, granted I can do something worth posting.

And here is a photo of 57:

Maybelline BB Cream in Light

I decided to go ahead and buy this in a shade that matched me to see how it fares.

It is a good match for my skin tone, and not orange: 

Unfortunately, I still don't like it.  It is really watery, and coverage is almost non-existent.  It still has that pickle smell, and I'm sorry but I don't have any other makeup that smells like that, and I bought it from a different store so it seems to me that that's just the way it smells for some reason.  

I got a new camera (again)... can you tell???  :D

I've also lost a ton of weight, but I'm sure some of that is due to being sick. I was subscribed to MakeupGeek and very interested about weight at that time, after I had my son. But you can really tell in my face its more slim, although I look older (cause I am, lol!), but since I had to delete all those posts, I looked at the older photos and I looked a lot different.

Anyway, this BB cream doesn't last all day on me, and I really don't classify it as creamy either.  Sadly it just doesn't work for me. I didn't care for the Rimmel one, but I think I'd still choose that over this.

Out With the Old....

I had a big issue with my blogger account so I've had to delete almost a hundred posts, thankfully they were a couple of years old!

And these old products I'm retiring:

Another Kat von D palette- I'm just really having a bad taste about this brand at the moment. Plus- blues, silver, and a crappy black, I think I can live without.  

Revlon Colorstay foundation- never liked it and I'm so over foundation right now.  

Urban Decay Primer Potions- loved 'em but I am tired of them and scouring the earth trying to find them and paying a jacked up price, so Essence and paint pots are ok with me.  

Dior lipstick, Nars powder and lip gloss- who knows how long those have been with me???  

Yellow concealer stick- don't really need it.  

Covergirl lipstick- I'm too slowly phasing those out.

Sonia Kashuk palette- I'm way beyond my glitter days lol....

Fiber Transplanting Mascara

I bought this from Born Pretty Store just to try it out.  I haven't tried anything like it before.  It is two tubes of product, one is actual fibers and the other is like a typical mascara.

The instructions aren't in English anywhere on the box, and I didn't remember exactly how to use it, so I referred back to the store website.  It said to first apply the black one, then fibers, then the black one again, and repeat as needed.  I did like that only one time, because I was a bit agitated with the fibers and was afraid they'd get into my actual eye.  Thankfully they didn't.  

Here are my results: 

Not that great I'm afraid, but it was an interesting product to try!  

LOTD: "Peachy"

I really think these colours suit me better.  I love this Lorac wet eyeshadow, I think it's a keeper.

For US Readers: Regarding Nail Polish??

At the risk of sounding idiotic, I was just wondering if the USPS restricts nail polish from being mailed internationally?  The UK Royal Mail does the last I checked, but other couriers are ok.  And I have received polish from China before.  The question for me is, there are a lot of US-based e-tailers that still offer international shipping options.  I ordered several months ago and received my orders, but then the next time I ordered, nothing.  And most US-based contests I see that involve nail polish as the prize are also not open internationally, but I didn't know if that was because of costs, or restrictions.  So if anybody knows definitively, I'd like to know as well.  Thanks!

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Celebrate May: Giveaway!!

I wish a lovely Spring for everyone!  The giveaway prize is a set of Hello Kitty image plates (KD1, KD18, and KD19).  It is open to all followers and ends May 31st; the prize will be mailed out mid-June.

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