Nightingale Rose: black

Showing posts with label black. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Almay One Coat Get Up and Grow Mascara Review

This review is not sponsored in any way. All products were bought with my own funds

I finally bit the bullet and decided to try mascaras that were designed to be healthy for the lashes. You may have seen from my previous mascara review that I am addicted to having voluminous lashes. I decided, though, that health was more important than big lashes and that I could work around a weaker, more natural looking formula. So, I bought a tube of this Almay mascara. I had never bought any Almay products before, and I was pleasantly surprised by this mascara.
First off, packaging.

This mascara is not only supposed to be strengthening and moisturizing to the lashes, but also produce a lovely effect with only one coat. Side note: this is precisely why I buy volumizing mascaras. Not only can you produce a near-falsies effect, you only need one coat to look "done" on a lazy or busy morning. Back to the mascara at hand, a look through the ingredients lets you know that the moisturizing ingredients are primarily silicon oils (a red flag for some) and the strengthening ingredient is protein, which can make hair rigid. Whether your particular lashes will respond well to protein is different for everyone; but I would assume that if your head hair does not like protein-based products, your lashes won't either.

The actual tube has a nice weight to it, and feels more expensive than in actually is. The cap clicks softly when it is completely closed. Simply lovely.
The brush...

Is huge. I expected a smaller, basic brush. This one is wider at the ends than in the middle, which fits the contours of my prominent eyes surprisingly well. My first impression upon seeing it, though, was something like this:

Whoa.

So, enough chatter, let's see it in action.

Naked lashes, curled.

One coat of mascara

So, I actually like the look of one coat. It lifts the lashes and makes them wonderfully black, reasonably thick and a touch longer. But I couldn't leave it well enough alone...I needed to see two coats.

Two coats and a bit of a comb-through

Wow! This is the big, fluffy look I like. For me, this rivals Maybelline's The Falsies for crazy volume.

This is the driest mascara formula I have found in the drugstore. That may sound bad or gross, but let me explain; wet mascaras are difficult to apply. They can be clumpy, smudgy, and either difficult to build or difficult to control in terms of how much gets glopped on. This mascara feels like nothing while you're applying it, but has great visual impact.

I give this mascara a 9.5 out of 10. I haven't had it long enough to know if it makes my lashes longer or stronger, but I love how it looks. The ingredients are not for everyone; it is not organic or completely natural in origin. I have a few more mascaras to review before I make my final choice, but this may just be a repurchase for me (mascara repurchases are extremely rare for me). It costs about $7-$9 depending on which drugstore you purchase from.

Thanks for visiting, and have a fantastic day!

All opinions are my own, and I was not solicited to do this review.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Rainy Day FOTD

The rainy season has finally come to Arizona, relieving the heat wave and rejuvenating the earth. For one, I also feel relieved and refreshed when the rain comes...I probably appreciate it so much because of the dryness of my home state.
Anyway, I was inspired to do my makeup in cloudy, rain-friendly colors.

Blurry photo is blurry...ick.

My hair is in desperate need of re-dying...please look away from the bad roots and humidity frizziness. :)

Inner thoughts- "Is it focused? Is it? Is it? Oh heavens, don't blink!!!"

Eyeball closeup!

Okay, here are the materials:

Face: Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss foundation in Frisky Siamese
Brows: Black mascara. I still need to get actual brow stuff...
Eyes: Detrivore eye shadows in Apparatus (lid) and Abyss (crease and lower lash line)
I just finished it off with mascara and (slightly crooked) liquid liner.

Also, here is as much of my outfit today as I could photograph. The stripey shrug (originally Forever 21), black dress (originally a slip) and fancy short necklace were all thrifted. The rosary was originally rose scented, and came from a stall that sells Catholic and Rastafarian items in the halls of my university's dining hall.

Have a wonderful day!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Accidental Fun-Finding

I was scrolling through the most time-wasting part of the Internet (it's depressing how well it holds my interest) and found a fascinating tutorial on how to recreate Siouxsie Sioux's trademark eye makeup.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/beauty-dare-siouxsie-sioux-eyeliner
Take a look and see what you think!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Covergirl Eyeshadow Quad Review-Drama Eyes and Blossoms

The other day I was at Walgreens, searching for last-minute items to add to a gift basket I was making. Of course, I couldn't leave without visiting the makeup section, and there was a BOGO 1/2 off sale on Covergirl. So, I came home with two quads. I have been craving burgundy eyeshadow looks lately (no idea why) and the colors I already had just wouldn't go together the way I wanted them to. So, without further ado, let's get to what I tried.

This is Covergirl's Drama Eyes palette, number 222. This palette has been reviewed and used in tutorials multiple times, I think because of its accessibility and the rather unusual (for the drugstore) burgundy shade on the far right.

Here are my swatches:

The bottom row is without primer, the middle row is with Detrivore Original eye shadow primer, and the top is with Wet n Wild Fergie Take On the Day primer. The best shades in this palette are the burgundy and the silver, placed second to the right. The black ( which has slight shimmer that basically disappears after the first swipe with a brush) is extremely sheer, but blends fairly nicely. The white is sheer as well, but super frosty and would still make a formidable highlight.

This is one of Covergirl's newer palettes, 257 Blossoms. I loved the mix of bright and muted pinks and purples, and knew that they could make a fantastic "bruised" smoky eye.

Here are the swatches-the primers are in exactly the same order as the Drama eyes: nothing, Detrivore, Wet n Wild.

As you can see, there is one extremely disappointing color in the mix. The light plum second from the left is basically invisible, despite all the packing I could muster. However, it does make a nice blending shade for black, dark brown, or purple eye shadows. The dark purple is okay, but primer really brings out its shimmer and depth of color. The two pinks are just fine, though primer helps them a lot too.

Overall, I give these palettes a 3.5 out of 5-they are quite affordable and extremely easy to find, but they need some working with to really get your money's worth from them. They range in price from $5-$6 or so, and are available just about anywhere that sells makeup.

Hope that this helps-now go have a fantastic day.