Shyra's Journey for a New Heart in 2013

Please read Shyra's story here:  https://www.facebook.com/ShyrasJourney

Glamour Doll Eyes, a really incredible indie cosmetics company, is running a fundraiser to help Shyra by selling a color created just for this event.  100% of the proceeds, minus shipping, will be donated.

Not that anyone reads this, but if someone stumbled across it, the cause is good and the color is gorgeous.  Here's the link where you can buy your shadow jar.

Sephora Freebie Reviews

As I had mentioned when reviewing the Sephora Give Me Some Lip lip sampler, I had received quite a little freebie haul.  Here is it in all its glory!

The breakdown:

Too Faced Tinted Beauty Balm in Nude Glow, 0.17 oz.

Fresh Sugar Petal Lip Treatment, 0.07 oz.

Buxom Lash Mascara in Blackest Black, 0.2 fl. oz.

Living Proof Nourishing Styling Cream, 1 fl. oz.

Urban Decay b6 Vitamin Infused Complexion Prep Spray, 0.5 fl. oz.

Origins Plantscription SPF 25 Anti-aging Cream, 0.5 oz.

Perfume mini vials in: 1) Giulietta by Tocca, 2) Clean by Fusion, 3) Dot by Marc Jacobs

Peter Thomas Roth Oilless Oil, 0.05 fl. oz.

Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie lipstick samples (2 foil pouch, single use)

Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation and radiant touch samples (foil pouch, single use)

Kat Von D Lock-It Powder Foundation in Medium, 0.1 oz.

Dolce & Gabbana deluxe perfume sample in Desire (seriously the cutest miniature bottle), 0.16 fl. oz.

Benefit They're Real Mascara, 0.1 oz.

Benefit What's Up Highlighter, 0.08 oz.

DISCLAIMER:  I did cash in 350 of my Beauty Insider points to get the Kat Von D powder foundation and the Doce & Gabbana perfume.  I also got the Benefit mascara and highlighter set as my Beauty Insider birthday gift.  The rest were part of the BLITZ code that is currently active or one of the three tiny samples they automatically send with your order.

So, we started with a fresh face:

Since I like to get the disappointing out of the way in advance, I cannot review the Too Faced Beauty Balm (FULL DISCLOSURE:  It DID say that this came in "nude glow", but it certainly didn't sound like super dark foundation and I should have looked it up) because it was entirely too dark for my fair complexion.  I also cannot review the Kat Von D foundation powder.  I'm actually upset about this one because I spent my Beauty Insider points on it and I have double checked and the color was never disclosed.  They sent a ginger face a medium foundation.  It made my face orange.  Here's a quickie look:

Not sure if you can see it in the bottom picture, but I literally look like I have an orange beard.  The Kat Von D was a waste of points.  I'm surprised that they would send me a product in such a dark shade, given that they must have some kind of beauty profile on me, since they make suggestions specifically for my grey eyes.  I'm super disappointed in this.  The Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation also was a miss, complexion-wise, but it was just a freebie foil packet sample, so I really wasn't very invested in it.

I think it's important to stress that this isn't a bad review of these products.  In fact, this isn't a review at all.  I am disappointed that Sephora doesn't color match point-paid products at the bare minimum, but that's certainly not a fault of the product itself.

Let's move on to some better things!  :)

I am not sure if you can tell based on the clean faced photo at the top of this post, but my hair is long and extremely thick.  It, as such, gets frizzy very easily.  I tried the Living Proof Nourishing Styling Cream  which claims to fix that and, surprisingly, it does an incredible job.

It kept my hair smooth and frizz-free, which is always a wonderful thing.  That said, it's a bit out of my price range for a permanent addition to my hair care routine.  I have a 1 oz sample here, but the 4 oz bottle is $26 and the 8 oz bottle is $36.  The price, coupled with how much I need to use each application thanks to the super thick hair I have just excludes it, unfortunately.  It's a super buy though and works like a miracle.

Next up, I tried the two different mascaras that I received.

The first photo is of the Buxom Lash Mascara and the second is Benefit's They're Real coupled with their Watt's Up highlighter.  I made sure to only use two coats of each mascara I tested, to make things fair and, while I don't really notice any kind of difference with the highlighter, the Benefit mascara is, hands down, the best of these two (although I would certainly use the Buxom Lash mascara as something to carry around in my purse for a lash emergency).

Lastly, I tested the lip products.  Surprisingly, the Fresh Sugar Petal Lip Treatment was my favorite.  I really disliked the Rose color in the lip sampler, but this tint was beautiful (although, like its Rose tinted counterpart, it still would need to be reapplied more often than I would prefer).

It's really quite a sweet color.

On the other hand, I got foil samples of two colors of Marvelous Moxie Lipstick (Speak Your Mind and Never Say Never) and they were both UGLY:

The top one is actually way too pink (although the camera doesn't do such a hot job of showing that) and the second one I'm pretty sure electrocuted me.  In all seriousness, it's just way too...much.  I'm already slightly bias in that I dislike lipsticks and prefer glosses.  However, even with the bias taken into consideration, these are still just really ugly lip colors.  Luckily, it was just some foil samples that I can toss without caring too much about their loss.

Lastly, some non-picture reviews.  I received a sample of Peter Thomas Roth Oilless Oil, which softens skin or hair and proclaims to improve the look of fine lines and wrinkles.  I used it as a moisturizer and it was impressive.  The sample I received was the size of a tiny perfume sample vial and I'm currently thinking about ordering this in a full-sized product.  I really did like it and it has excellent reviews.

I received a 0.5 oz sample of Origins Plantscription SPF 25 Anti-aging Cream.  It's a morning cream and I've been using it for a few days, but I'm not sure the sample is big enough to use long enough to notice results.  Then again, the full-sized product is only 1.7 oz and $55 (eeek).  I do love the Origins brand, but probably not enough to throw caution to the wind with such an expensive product.  The reviews often mention that it feels greasy, which is true, although I'd LOVE to see the clock turn back a bit.  I'll see how this trial goes.

Lastly, I spent 250 Beauty Insider points on a super deluxe perfume sampler by Dolce & Gabbana called Desire.  It was really a gamble as I hadn't smelled it before and, if I'm being honest, was in a bottle that was reminiscent of the black and gold lacquer bedroom furniture craze of the 1980s.  The 1 oz. spray goes for $79 and the 1.6 oz goes for a whopping $93.  I wish I could take a picture of the smell of this perfume.  It's incredible.  I don't remember the last time I spent more than $40 or $50 on a bottle of perfume (and, even at that price point, it's been years), but I think this might be something that I need in my life.  We'll see if I get sick of it by the time the sample size is gone.  Regardless, it's amazing.

Seriously.

Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lip (Lip Sampler)

As of right now, Sephora is running a special where, when you spend $25 on their website (sorry, this deal is not available in stores) and enter the code BLITZ, you get what looked like a fantastic 8 piece gift.  I'll certainly review the gift tomorrow, but we're going to go through what I spent my $25 on, how much I enjoyed the product, and whether or not I would consider it a good deal, taking into account both the contents and the cost.

First, here is what the product looks like:

Sephora claims this $25 set to be a $90 value, so I thought I would break down what comes in the set and what the value truly appears to be.

Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment, 0.05 oz (full-sized product is $22.50 and is 0.15 oz)
Laura Mercier Bare Pink Lip Glace, 0.1 oz (full-sized product is $24 and is 0.15 oz)
Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Dolly, 0.07 oz (full-sized product is $19 and is 0.15 oz)
Nars Turkish Delight Lip Gloss, 0.14 oz (full-sized product is $25 and is 0.28 oz)
Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Rhubarb, 0.05 oz (full-sized product is $24 and is 0.09 oz)
Tarte LipSurgence Lip Luster in Glitzy, 0.1 oz (this is a full-sized product and retails for $24)

I am not really going to keep you in suspense here...I wasn't a huge fan of several of the products in this box for various reasons.  That said, it is ABSOLUTELY, hands-down, the best purchase I could have made on Sephora to get the free gift.  I'll break it down for you in pictures.

This is my bare pout.  It's kind of an odd-looking photo (I probably should apologize in advance because, until I want to pony up for a nicer camera, I am going to have to rely on my iPhone 4 to supply these pictures), but, as my step-father once told me when I complained about how ugly my first license photo was as a teenager, "if you take a picture of a barn, you get a picture of a barn."

I purposely listed these in the order in which they came in the box, from left to right, and will be testing them in that order as well.

This is the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment.  It looked rather bright red in the tube, but it honestly was barely a lip tint.  I left this on my lips for a half hour and, when I wiped my lips with a tissue when time was up, nothing came off.  I thought it felt good on and actually didn't mind the slightly bitten lip look compared to an unnatural lip color, but I just can't imagine reapplying this every 15-20 minutes.  I think the full-sized is a tad overpriced, but I am sure I can find some use for it, especially for the sun protection benefits (this product is SPF 15).

Besides looking slightly psychopathic in this photo, I also look exactly like I did in the Fresh Sugar, only this is the Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Bare Pink.  It felt okay on the lips, but I think I could benefit for a less downplayed color.  Personally, nothing I'd go out of my way to wear if I had other options.

The color of the Buxom gloss was super promising.  It was just deep enough to make an impact, but not so bright as to overwhelm my face.  However, it had a weird tingling thing going on (like peppermint chapstick) which I would have actually enjoyed, if it also didn't feel as though I had just applied melted caramel to my lips.  It was the stickiest of the bunch and just made my mouth feel uncomfortable.  I was disappointed at being in the bizarre position of having to choose between how much I loved the color and how much I hated the feel of it.  In the end, I washed it off after ten minutes because it was freaking me out a little bit.

This is my best try at a "look how dumb this looks" face.  I hope I nailed it.  I will start by saying that I generally LOVE NARS products.  I am pretty sure I could have loved this gloss as well if it weren't for the fact that it wasn't so much "Turkish Delight" as it was "near Ivory".  Either way, it looked ridiculous on me.  I am pretty sure this is for porn stores and/or women who hate themselves.

The Bite Beauty High Pigment in Rhubarb was a DREAM.  It didn't feel like it was stuck on like a lip stain, but was tough enough that I took this picture an hour after I applied it.  It is also, incidentally, the first red that I actually thought fit me well.  This is something I would buy in full size.  This is something I would ask for as a present.  I honestly think that I cannot live without this pencil in my life from this moment forward.  Given that this is a bit over half-sized, I'll throw a value of $12 on this pencil (half the cost of the full-sized product).

And this is the Tarte LipSurgence.  I will reiterate that this is a full-sized product.  I cannot choose between the Bite Beauty pencil and this pencil as my favorites in the box.  What I can say is that the Tarte pencil is more of an every day type of lip product, whereas the Bite pencil is a date night/weekend type of thing.  I suppose this is a good thing because the Tarte pencil is twice the size of the Bite product.  This product is worth $24 on its own and, further, on Sephora, this color (Glitzy) is currently unavailable if ordering the full-sized product alone.

Really, this box was totally worth the price tag.  I counted these all as half the value of their full-sized counterparts (with the obvious exception of the one full-sized product in the box) and came up with a value of $81.25.  I'm too lazy to do the math of what each hundredth of an ounce of product would cost to give you an exact dollar value, but look, even at $80, I paid $25 for it.  It's basically worth this much for the Tarte pencil alone and add the Bite pencil to it and it just makes it a no-brainer for me.  That said, the other four products were mostly disappointing.  I would have liked to see more variety in the color scheme instead of the box going from the lightest pink ever straight to the second lightest pink ever with one really gorgeous blush and a red thrown in for good measure.  I'm not sure if the shades were chosen for any particular reason, but they nailed it on the last two.

Tomorrow, I get the task of reviewing the bajillion free things I got with this purchase (yes, a bajillion.  It's a number now, even if spellcheck is telling me I'm a moron right now).

Anyway, there is no referral link here, just a straight link to the Sephora site for this set.  Go here if you want to buy this lip sampler and be a rock star like me.

That's right...a 35 year old rock star.  In jammies.  Taking pictures with her crappy, outdated phone.

A Beauty Blog for the Normals

I am very new to this.  I'm also very bored.  Here's the (short) story of how this first post came to be.

I started having random back pain every few weeks that was getting progressively more severe.  Eventually, I was admitted to the hospital where, after a week-long stay, I was diagnosed, via MRI, with degenerative disc disease.  As such, I have been spending less time than normal moving about and more time than usual browsing beauty junk on the internet.

I started getting really interested in the subscription boxes that I'm seeing everywhere.  I am a woman and I still love girly things.  Things that make me feel cute or pretty or even, dare I say it, sexy.  However, when researching which one(s) were worth paying for (especially since I figured I could stock up on the odd products I'm not as interested in to gift during the holidays) and I found one of two things:

1.  Subscription box bloggers who clearly either have a large readership using the author's referral links, which pay for the author's subscription boxes or where companies are supplying the boxes for free to the author.  I honestly don't mind this (and, seriously, if anyone ever actually reads this blog and wants a referral for a box I have reviewed, I would love for you to use my codes).  That said, most of these are NOT a review of the box products, but merely a listing of what is in the box.  Here's the thing, I don't care if my $30 box is worth $60 if that $40 eye pencil is in bright purple glitter and I'll never wear it.

OR

2.  Gorgeous 20-somethings who literally could wear black eye shadow and bright red lipstick, skip showers for six days, and forget to wax their eyebrows for a month and still look incredible.  I have nothing against these girls (quite the opposite, actually, I'm in awe that someone can literally be this gorgeous in real life), but I'm just not one of them.  I'm in my mid-30s.  I wear mom-appropriate makeup.  I like to feel pretty and look young, but I haven't seen the inside of a night club in ten years and I'm fairly certain my son would die of embarrassment if I chaperoned a school function wearing face glitter and false eyelashes.  That's just fact.

So, I decided to start this blog.  Clearly, there will likely not be consistently daily updates, but I promise that every product or box review will be accompanied by pictures of not only the product, but also how it wears on an average, mid-30s woman.  Hopefully this will eventually help someone either pick a subscription box, rule one out, or, at least, find a product that they will want to buy.