Showing posts with label dark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark. Show all posts

June 4, 2015

Colourpop Lippie Pencil: Ellarie, Lumière, Tootsi




Ellarie: Deep cool-toned berry
Ellarie
Lumière: Nudey-Rose
Lumiere

Tootsi: Cool-toned greyish pinky beige
Tootsi
Just for comparison, top: Lumiere bottom: Tootsi

PIGMENTATION: Excellent! One swipe provides full coverage.

PRODUCT: Creamy, but not waxy. I broke the tip of Lumière by pressing too hard! Lumière and Ellarie left a slight stain behind. 

PACKAGING: The product is housed in white plastic. I used my Nars sharpener on Lumiere and didn't have any issues.

PRICE: $5 for 1 oz (each!!!)

All in all, I am digging the Colourpop Lippie Pencils. They glide on SO easily! 

As always, you don't have to take my word for it. Colourpop Lippie Pencils are available now at colourpop.com.




June 15, 2014

Blinc Brow Mousse- Dark Brunette

To whom it may concern, I have tiny eyebrows that make me self conscious when not made up.  Ok, maybe tiny is not the proper description, but they are naturally thin with sparse tails. Pencils are my eyebrows' best friends, but I love using a colored brow gel to go the extra step towards Elizabeth Taylor brows.
Liz Taylor, queen of eyebrows. (image from: idealbeautyacademy.net)
(tangent warning: scroll down for the review) My holy grail brow gel was limited edition and therefore discontinued, so I have been on the hunt for a replacement. It seems that every cruelty free eyebrow gel had shimmer in it- no bueno. Dear every company that makes eyebrow gels, what the hell is the purpose of putting shimmer in your product? Who has shimmery eyebrows in real life? I NEED TO KNOW! /endrant

After learning about the existence of Blinc's eyebrow mousse, I decided to try it.


COLOR/PIGMENTATION: "Dark Brunette" is a ash-toned dark brown. The product is very pigmented, and I could probably get away with using this alone to fill my brows in if i wasn't having a full-face makeup day (which, let's face it, is most days).

Blinc Eyebrow Mousse in action! I'm not wearing anything else on my brows.
PRODUCT: I wasn't sure what to expect with a name like "brow mousse" since I'm only familiar with gels and waxes, but "mousse" is not a misnomer. The product is opaque, and a thick texture (in comparison with a gel), so a little goes a long way. Despite it being thick, the application isn't difficult to master, nor do my brows look caked with product. It most definitely lives up to Blinc's claims of being fade-, water-, sweat-, and smudge-proof. 

PACKAGING: The packaging, when comparing it to a mascara tube, is a bit shorter in length, and a bit smaller in diameter. I like that the color is printed technically three times on the package (on the length of the package, and the cap has both the color name and the actual color on it)-- this will make for easy re-ordering! A problem I had with the other eyebrow products i was testing out was the brush-- usually it was too big for precise application or a strange shape that wasn't conducive to contributing excellent eyebrows. Blinc's brow mousse brush is slim, with a slightly tapered tip at the end of a short wand, which allows for a lot of control during application. However, for the sparse tails of my brows, I think I prefer to use a pencil to draw in hairs for a super precise result.

PRICE: $24

 Blinc's  Brow Mousse is definitely a winning, welcome addition to my makeup arsenal.  As a fair-complected person who dyes her hair black, Dark Brunette significantly darkens my brows without making them look harsh, and could even work when my color fades/roots start to grow in. Since the mousse is thick, it will be extremely noticeable (and probably won't look good) if you don't get the right color for your skin tone/hair color.

As always, you and your brows don't have to take my word for it, Blinc Brow Mousse is available in eight other shades (and clear) here with free shipping to boot!


July 24, 2012

Review: Sephora Collection Retractable Brow Pencil- Waterproof

As someone with brows that naturally light and unfortunately sparse, I find it's really important to fill them in, lest I look something like this:


Usually my hair is dyed jet black, and I'd fill in my eyebrows to match, using the following:
  • Kat Von D's eyeshadow in Lucifer
  • Kat Von D's angled eyebrow brush
  • Anastasia clear brow wax
However, I've let my hair go a little lighter, and those black brows are now WAY too harsh. Enter Sephora's Retractable Brow Pencil.


COLOR: I bought this in 04 Midnight Brown, which is the darkest available. It's a little lighter than my dyed hair color, but not so light that it looks blonde.  I think it works a little better for my "lighter" looks, as I find myself adding some darker color to my brow when I'm doing something super bright or dark on my eye.



PACKAGING: As the title implies, this is a retractable pencil.  I have had no problems with the twist-up mechanism.  At the opposite end, there is a little brow comb, which I controls product distribution better than a mascara spoolie brush.  The overall pencil is a great size for my makeup bag-- not so tiny that it will get lost, but not so huge that it won't fit.  The downside to the smaller size is that it only contains 0.003oz of product.

Comb end 
"Pencil" end


PRODUCT: The product itself is slightly creamy, so it glides on really well without having to do 1000 strokes over the same area for something to show up.  It's also very skinny, so I can get super defined eyebrows without going overboard (which sometimes happened with the shadow + KvD brush).  I haven't done any waterproofing tests with it, but it has been lasting on my sweaty face during this stupid hot summer.

OVERALL: At a $12 pricetag, this is definitely a worthy buy.  I do wish it came in one shade darker for when my hair is darker, because I can't see myself going back to eyeshadow for my brows after this!
My sad, natural eyebrow.

Filled in!
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO ANASTASIA'S BROW WIZ?
When I bought Sephora's retractable eyebrow pencil, it was in the running against Anastasia's very similar Brow Wiz product.  The differences in Brow Wiz are: it contains more product (0.08 oz), has a much drier formula, has a spoolie brush on the end, and costs $20.  I figure the price increase has something to do with the fact that it has more product, but the dry formula was the deal breaker.  Granted, I only did comparison swatches with testers, so there's a chance that Anastasia's tester had dried out from everyone using it.  Regardless, I didn't mind saving $8!