Japonesque: Velvet Touch Concealer (Shades 1 & 2)

Hi everyone,

Today's review is of Japonesque's Velvet Touch Concealer. This concealer retails for $20 for 0.052 oz of product from Ulta. Japonesque describes this concealer as, "Instant blemish perfector. This classic cream concealer provides superb matte coverage. It's flexible texture provides a fuller coverage for skin blemishes, discoloration and imperfections, and gives an elegant soft-focus finish."

This concealer is available in five different colors, labeled as Shades 1 through 5, with 1 being the lightest and 5 being the darkest. I purchased this concealer in Shades 1 and 2. Shade 1 is the perfect shade for covering my under eye circles and brightening my under eyes at the same time, while Shade 2 is the perfect shade to match my skin tone and cover blemishes and imperfections. I will say, I was surprised at how dark the lightest shade is, so if you have a very light skin tone I think shade one might be too dark for you. On the other end of the spectrum, Shade 5 isn't the deepest color so I'm not sure how well it would work for people with darker skin tones. Overall, I highly recommend testing out the colors in the store prior to buying since the color range is very narrow. I also did find that these concealers lean to a more yellow undertone, and since that's my skin's undertone, I found this concealer color to be very flattering for me.

The packaging of this concealer is so cute! I love the watercolor inspired case with different bright colors. The inside features a mirror which is great for touch ups and to use when traveling. The clasp of the concealer is very secure so it won't accidentally open in your bag. While the amount of concealer you get may seem like very little, a little bit truly goes a long way, especially since it's so creamy and easy to blend!

Shade 1 on the left and Shade 2 on the right

Japonesque recommends to "Apply with a concealer brush for fuller coverage over blemishes, discoloration and imperfections." I tend to just use my fingers to apply this concealer. The formula of the concealer is very creamy so I find that using my fingers warms up this product nicely and allows for an easy time applying it.

Swatch on the left: Shade 1, Swatch on the right: Shade 2

The formula is very creamy but at the same time provides great coverage. I did find that my Shade 2 concealer was a bit more creamy and smooth than Shade 1, not sure if that was just true for my concealers or if it is true for this entire line. Overall though, this product is everything I look for in a concealer! It is super easy to apply, goes on smoothly, blends well into your makeup to provide a flawless look, and covers over blemishes impeccably. I'm always amazed at how well it minimizes the redness in my skin and covers my purple under eye circles. This concealer truly stays all day looking flawless without needing touch ups. I didn't find this concealer to settle into my under eye creases or to clump at all. The formula isn't greasy or too matte, and I find that I don't need to set it with a powder.

Final Verdict:
All in all, I think this is a fantastic concealer and is definitely one of my all time favorites! I love how creamy and smooth it is while applying flawlessly and covering all my blemishes and red spots. For only $20, I think this product is a great high end concealer without being ridiculously expensive. I love this concealer and I have already purchased another of both shades because they are so great! I highly recommend giving this concealer a shot!

Have you tried any products from the brand Japonesque? What concealers are your all time faves? Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!
-Meg

Maybelline: Define-A-Lash Mascara

Hi everyone,

Happy Mascara Monday and hope your week is off to a great start! Today's review is of Maybelline's Define-A-Lash Mascara. This mascara retails for $7.99 at Ulta and $6.19 at Target. This mascara does come in two different formulas, waterproof and washable. I will be reviewing the washable formula mascara, not the waterproof version.

Photo Courtesy of Target

Maybelline describes this mascara as, "This Maybelline New York Define-A-Lash Lengthening Mascara creates stunning length with clean definition and zero clumps. Patented shaped-to-the-lash flexible brush. Ophthalmologist tested, contact lens safe." Maybelline recommends to "Sweep mascara from your outer lash to inner lash, sweeping brush slowly from root to tip. Do not let dry between coats. Removes easily with soap and water or Eye Makeup Remover."

Overall, I think this is an awesome mascara that is very overlooked and underrated. I really love the fun green packaging of this mascara. The tube is rather slim which is great for traveling and bringing it with you for touch ups. The shade of this mascara is "very black" and it is just that - a very dark black mascara. I think the color of this mascara is perfect for everyday wear or special events. It's your perfect classic black mascara.

When I first saw the mascara wand I was really unsure if I would like it, but turns out I absolutely love it! The want is the perfect shape for getting at your inner and outer lashes. The wand itself isn't flexible but the bristle end is flexible. The rubber bristles of the brush do a great job of applying the product to your lashes. This mascara is especially wonderful for people (like me!) who have fine, thin, short lashes and who are trying to make them appear longer and thicker. I love that in addition to lengthening and volumizing my lashes, this mascara does a great job of separating my lashes too.

The formula of the mascara is more of a wet formula which I really enjoy. I did find that it applied a bit clumpy, since it provided lots of volume and makes lashes look dense and full I was willing to overlook it. I do think since I've had it for a while now, that the formula is clumping a bit more than it did originally - at the very beginning I don't remember this mascara clumping at all. Overall, I've been very impressed with how long this mascara lasts without drying out. I've had mine for 6+ months now (I don't use it everyday) and the formula is still very wet and perfect to use.

Maybelline Define-A-Lash Mascara applied without curling lashes

The one negative I have of this mascara is that there was a slight smell to it, a kind of rubbery, traditional mascara smell, but I didn't find it to be unbearable and I couldn't smell it after applying it. It's definitely not displeasing enough to not use this mascara.

Final Verdict
The two things I always look for my mascara to do is to lengthen and volumize my lashes. This mascara does just that and I absolutely LOVE it! I love the overall look this mascara gives my lashes! I don't think this mascara gets enough hype so I've really been wanting to do a review of it so people know how great it is. I will definitely repurchase this mascara and I highly recommend giving it a try!

Have you tried this Maybelline mascara? Which other Maybelline mascaras do you love? Please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!
-Meg

Lush: Mint Julips Lip Scrub

Hi everyone,

Today's review is of the Mint Julips Lip Scrub by Lush. This product retails for $9.95 through the Lush website and contains 0.9oz of product. Lush describes this product as, "Just like the scrumptious cocktail served in hot southern summers, Mint Julips is packed full of fresh peppermint and sweet castor sugar. Peppermint is responsible for that ‘tingly feeling’ you get after brushing your teeth or using lip balm, so we thought it would make a perfect addition to our lip scrub! Plus, it makes Mint Julips tastes like a big, creamy bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream."

This is a sugar scrub and Lush uses Fair Trade sugar as the base of their lip scrubs which makes for an effective exfoliant. Lush recommends how to use this product as "Scrub your lips with our sugary Lip Scrubs to make them smooth and tempting. Take a pea-sized amount and scrub your lips soft, then lick off the excess!"

I've long been a fan of the ELF Studio Lip Exfoliator (retails for $3 full-price for 0.16 oz of product) and decided to try this Lush product to see how it would compare. While I like that the ELF product comes in a lipstick-style tube for convenience, I find that the actual scrub of the Lush product is much better. It's a finely milled sugar scrub that doesn't hurt when applied to even the most sensitive of lips.  I find that once you get to the bottom of the ELF Lip Exfoliator the product becomes quite hard and is painful to apply onto your lips. With the Lush scrub, when you move your lips back and forth the product scrubs your lips but it doesn't hurt at all. I actually find that I have to stop myself after about 30 seconds so that I don't overexfoliate my lips because you can't tell until after you wipe off the product if you've over exfoliated since it's doesn't ever hurt your lips. After using the scrub, I highly recommend applying your favorite lip balm to help renourish your lips. Personally, I love using the EOS Visibly Soft lip balms - see my review here. Additionally, I also like that Lush uses natural ingredients in their products so I don't have to worry about accidentally swallowing the product. In fact, Lush even recommend licking off the excess product on your lips. I find the flavor of this scrub to be very pleasant as it's minty fresh with some notes of cocoa. It truly tastes like a mint julip!

The price of this product might seem a little pricey, but truly, a little bit goes a LONG way. I've had mine for several months and I still have more than half of it left. I tend to use it about once a week so as to not over exfoliate my lips.

Final Verdict:

I really like this lip scrub! I think Lush did a great job of making a product that works for people with very sensitive lips and the flavor of this scrub is very minty fresh with hints of chocolate. I think for the price, this is a great item to try, especially with the winter months coming up which means lots of chapped, dry lips. If you like the ELF lip exfoliator definitely give this product a try, I highly recommend trying it!

What are your favorite Lush products? Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!

-Meg

NARS: Sheer Matte Foundation

Happy Foundation Friday everyone!

Today's review is of the NARS Sheer Matte Foundation. I had been wanting to try this foundation for forever because I absolutely LOVE matte foundations. I purchased this foundation from Sephora for $45 for 1 oz of product, which is quite pricey for a foundation in my opinion!

I purchased the color Ceylan which Sephora describes as a light-medium shade with yellow undertones. Colorwise, I found that this shade matched my skin pretty perfectly, which is great since I just guessed as I bought it online. On the Sephora website, this product is available in 17 different shades, ranging from very fair to very dark with everything from pink to yellow undertones, so there's bound to be one that's a pretty perfect match to your skin. If you can, I do recommend going to Sephora and swatching the colors before purchasing just to ensure that you buy the right shade as this is a pricey item and you don't want to get a shade that is a poor match.

NARS describes this product as "This Sheer Matte Foundation enhances, without masking, your overall natural complexion. The weightless formula absorbs oil and keeps skin shine free all day long. The complexion brightening properties improve skin brightness, radiance, and texture, leaving the complexion with a luminous, fresh finish."

In terms of packaging, this lives up to the beautiful packaging that NARS is known for. I like the frosted glass bottle, it looks absolutely gorgeous! The only downside in my opinion is that it doesn't come with a pump. The foundation is very runny so pouring it out on your hand is an absolute MESS. You can buy a pump separately for $6 from the NARS website, but when I'm already paying almost $50 for a foundation, I want it to have a pump and I don't want to pay even more for one.

The formula of this product is VERY sheer, it actually surprised me how sheer it was. I know the word "sheer" is in the name of the product, but this product really didn't cover up my red spots or blemishes very well. I think this is a good product if you don't have many skin imperfections and aren't trying to hide anything. Honestly though, I don't have too much to hide, but I felt like this foundation just helped to even my skin tone a tiny bit but really didn't have much to offer in terms of coverage. If I'm going to put a liquid foundation on, I want to see medium to full coverage, otherwise I tend to use more powder foundations for light to medium coverage days because I think that helps my skin breathe more.

Top Row: Light Swatch, Heavier Swatch
Bottom Row: Blended out Swatch

Applying this foundation was very interesting to apply. It was okay at blending out, but not the best. Also, a long time after applying this foundation my skin looked dewy which I thought was very strange. Eventually, maybe 20 minutes later, it would mattify, it was just strange to put it on and immediately look dewy. I did apply a setting powder with this product to help mattify it faster and add a little more coverage. I don't think you have to apply a finishing powder but I generally prefer to no matter what foundation I'm using.

This product is for normal to oily skin so it probably wasn't the best product for me since I tend to have normal to dry skin and I definitely did notice it sticking to my dry patches. If you do have oily and super oily skin and don't need much coverage I would highly recommend checking out this foundation - I think it would be perfect for you! This foundation does say that it's buildable to get a little more coverage, but I find when I did that I looked very cakey and it didn't look very natural.

My problem areas show through!

Final Verdict:
All in all, this just wasn't a good foundation for me so I did return it back to Sephora. I wanted to love it so badly, but it just wasn't right for me. Having normal to dry skin just didn't mesh well with this foundation as it enhanced my dry patches and it also offered such little coverage that it wasn't worth the expensive price tag for me. I do think this is a great product for someone who doesn't need much coverage and doesn't really have any skin imperfections that they're trying to hide. If you don't like a matte foundation, NARS also has a Sheer Glow Foundation which I believe is a pretty similar formula except gives you a glowy, dewy look.

Have you tried any Nars Foundations? What do you think, are they worth the hype? Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!

Maybelline: Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks

Hi everyone,

Today's post is on Maybelline's Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks. These lipsticks retail for $7.99 at Ulta, $8.29 at CVS, $7.29 at Walgreens, and $5.49 at Target, and each contains 0.15 oz of product. Maybelline describes this product as "The Creamy Mattes by Color Sensational deliver a burst of bold lip color and a surge of creamy texture in make-a-statement shades, for mattes your lips will love to wear!"

There are currently 10 shades in the line and I own and will be reviewing four of them:
          - Daringly Nude (#655)
          - Lust for Blush (#665)
          - Touch of Spice (#660)
          - Mesmerizing Magenta (#680)

The packaging of these lipsticks is very simple and sleek for a drugstore lipstick. I really like the silver packaging with the semi-transparent purple casing. The packaging is sturdy enough that you can through the lipstick in your purse and not worry about it getting crushed or anything.

Overall, I absolutely love these lipsticks!! They are a long-lasting, very comfortable to wear matte lipstick that's so affordable! I was really surprised when applying these lipsticks by how creamy they are for a matte lipstick. They do seem to dry down to a little after a couple of minutes to application, but they are still very comfortable to wear and they do last for hours. These lipsticks are also very opaque and pigmented, especially for a drugstore lipstick.

Now here are some additional photos and swatches of each of the shades!

Daringly Nude

Lust for Blush

Touch of Spice

Mesmerizing Magenta

Final Verdict:
This is a matte lipstick that you have to have!! I absolutely adore the shade Daringly Nude and highly recommend it to nude lipstick lovers. These lipsticks are so affordable and they are so comfortable to wear while looking gorgeous! I'm definitely tempted to buy some more shades in the line!

Which shades of the Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks are your favorite? Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!
-Meg

Too Faced: Lashgasm Mascara

Happy Monday everyone, hope you're all having a great day! Sorry for the delay in posting, the holidays have been crazy and I haven't been able to write any posts. I will try to post more often!

Today's Mascara Monday review is on Too Faced's Lashgasm Mascara. This mascara contains 0.4 oz of product and retails for $21 at Sephora, Ulta, and Too Faced's website.

Too Faced describes this mascara as, "A voluptuous, fluffing mascara that conditions as it thickens to create dramatically long lashes with intense color." Additionally, "Lashgasm's multiple rows of flexible-but-firm, molded bristles are designed with micro-hooks that grab each and every lash for a clump-free application. The vitamin-rich, creamy formula penetrates for high-color absorbency and exaggerated depth. Meadowfoam seed oil forms a protective barrier to lock in soothing emollients that promote long-term wear without drying or harming lashes. A moisturizing combination of panthenol, vitamins A & E, and jojoba seed oil hydrates and soothes lashes to keep them soft, light, and flexible."

All in all, this is just an okay mascara in my opinion and I probably wouldn't purchase it again. On the positive side, I really liked the wand of this mascara, it has rubber bristles which brush nicely through your lashes. The wand itself is also very flexible and provides a nice slight curl upwards to your lashes without even using a lash curler.

On the negative side, this mascara has a really bad smell to it, that's quite unbearable in my opinion. This is a black mascara, but I found that it wasn't an overly, dark black in color. This mascara didn't seem to really lengthen or volumize my lashes like it claimed to do. Also, while this mascara is not clumpy with one coat, I found that the more of it that you apply it, it gets increasingly clumpier. I think in the first photo above the mascara doesn't look too clumpy, but in the second photo it does look clumpy.

Final Verdict

According to Too Faced, "It IS the size of your lashes that matter!," but unfortunately I didn't think this mascara really held up that claim. This is an okay mascara, I like that it gives your lashes some curl, but unfortunately I didn't like that it didn't add much length or volume to my lashes. Also, the smell of this mascara is horrible and pretty much unbearable in my opinion. I don't think I'd repurchase the mascara, but I do like the overall final look that it provided to my lashes.

Have you tried any of the Too Faced mascaras? What mascara are you loving at the moment? Please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!
-Meg