Showing posts with label Drugstore Finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drugstore Finds. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wet n Wild Willow Lip Liner Pencil Review + a Few Comparisons!

wet n wild willow lip liner

Wet n Wild Willow Lip Liner

Wet n Wild Color Icon Lip Liner comes in a small variety of everyday, wearable shades. There are six (6) shades in total, and my favorite of the six is #712 Willow.

Willow is a caramel nude shade that is suitable for a wide range of lip colors. It's a bit warmer than my natural lip color and works exceptionally well paired with warm nudes, peaches and pinks.

When it comes to lip liner, I prefer a dry formula opposed to a creamy formula, because the drier consistency pencils tend to hold up better through meals, beverages and average wear throughout the day. This particular pencil has a great formula. In comparison to MAC Lip Pencils, it's quite similar in texture, but a little less creamy. It doesn't glide as well as MAC, but it's not so dry where it tugs my lips and crumbles up. Overall, a fantastic deal for the price (99 cents).

wet n wild willow lip liner

Swatches:
Wet n Wild Willow Lip Pencil, MAC Hover Lip Pencil, MAC Subculture Lip Pencil and Sephora Nano #2 Lip Pencil.

Willow is actually very similar to all of the shades swatched, but it has the warmest tone of the four.

Wet n Wild Willow Lip Pencil, MAC Peachstock Lipstick and MAC Clear Lip glass.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Review: Clairol Nice & Easy Perfect 10 Permanent Hair Color in Medium Brown!

Clairol Nice & Easy Perfect 10 Permanent Hair Color
(#5 Medium Brown)
The kits contents.
Makeupalley rating of 3.3/5 based on 287 reviews, with a 56% re-purchase rate. (view here)

As you may already know, I dye my hair every month (sometimes I skip a month or two) with Clairol's Natural Instincts Brass Free Brunettes Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Medium Brown. Prior to that, I was using whatever was on sale and from the looks of the box, wouldn't turn my hair orange or black. It was usually a hit or miss - the majority of the time was a miss. I would use Dark Brown dyes, with the anxiety of possibly leaving it in too long or not leaving it in long enough. (I've ended up with jet black hair twice by leaving it in too long.) Other dyes would leave my hair color a brassy brown that would fade to a medium auburn after a couple of months. Medium brown is all I ask for!! Anyway, I loved that Clairol Natural Instincts Brass Free Brunettes didn't cause my hair to go too dark or have any terrible orange tones. Even though the color was spot on, it didn't do a good job covering my white hairs. My hair would be an awesome, rich medium brown and I'd have my platinum white hairs shining though my bangs like nobody's business. So, I thought I'd look elsewhere in the world of drugstore hair dye.

Clairol Perfect 10 sounded like what I needed - 10 minutes to develop, with 100% gray coverage. 

It's your standard box dye - it comes with the application tube that contains the color activator & the color creme, an instruction booklet with plastic gloves and a deep conditioner. It also has a snazzy comb applicator that you can screw on the tube. I like that you don't have to use the comb if you don't want to. You can just toss it and use the squeeze tip like a standard hair dye. I actually like the comb, but for precision root application, I think the traditional way works best - Run the product down your roots and blend with your fingertips or a fine tooth comb.

Since I don't have that many white hairs (yes, they are white. snow white. they aren't gray) just a small family of them in one area, I used the comb applicator and ran the dye through the top of my head and worked it with my fingers down the strands to blend the color in with my hair, then placed my hair in a bun.


I waited 10-12 minutes and washed and conditioned my hair. I then used my NuMe flat iron the following morning to curl my hair.

My hair color didn't change all that much from before, but it does appear a bit warmer. It appears to have a slight mahogany tone in the light. My hair looks shiny and healthy and doesn't feel dried out.

100% gray coverage? No. 96% to be exact, as I still can see about 4-5 hairs that aren't white anymore, but are a light golden. I was a little upset about that, because they are the most visible ones as they are at top of my bangs. Maybe they are what you call "stubborn grays" and need around 20 minutes. Oh well. I do like the outcome anyway, and I probably will purchase this dye again because of the ease of use.

After I dyed my hair using #5 Medium Brown.

**Before tossing the box, rip the top of the box off to remember the brand and shade in case you like the final outcome!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Drugstore Haul! Hair Dye, Lipstick, Lipgloss, Glitter + Crackle Nail Polish!

This post jumps around a little bit, but I didn't want to break it into separate posts. Hope you don't mind! Anyway, he's my haul from a couple of days ago. Everything was purchased from Walgreens. I purchased the Rimmel at 50% off and the Wet n Wild at 50% off with their current sale.

Clairol Nice n' Easy Perfect 10 Hair Color #5 Medium Brown
Pure Ice Crackle Nail Polish in Jetsetter
Sinful Colors Glitter Nail Polish in Nail Junkie 927
Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Pink Blush 006
Wet n Wild Mega Matte Lipstick in Think Pink 901B
Wet n Wild Lipstick in Nouveau Pink 511B
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lip gloss in Pink Remedy 110

Clairol Nice n' Easy Perfect 10 Hair Color #5 Medium Brown. I've read pretty good reviews for this box dye, so I thought I'd give it a try instead of my regular Clairol Natural Instincts Brass Free Brunettes. I love my previous dye, but it just didn't cover the grays well enough. (Yes, I do have grays) I'm hoping that this dye will work better for that. I should be using it in the next few days.

[Outdoors, No Flash] Left to Right: Wet n Wild 901B Think Pink, Wet n Wild 511B Nouveau Pink, Rimmel Lasting Finish Pink Blush 006
[Outdoors, Flash] Left to Right: Wet n Wild 901B Think Pink, Wet n Wild 511B Nouveau Pink, Rimmel Lasting Finish Pink Blush 006
Wet n Wild 901B Think Pink is a warm, bubblegum pink. I rarely come across pinks that I really like because cool toned pinks don't suit my skintone, and it's difficult to find a warm pink that's light enough, opaque and has no shimmer. I actually already own this shade, but I purchased another as a backup because it was on sale for 50% off at Walgreens.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Pink Blush 006 is also a bubblegum pink, but it's a bit cooler in tone compared to Think Pink. It's often compared to MAC Viva Glam Gaga (the first one).

Wet n Wild Lipstick in Nouveau Pink 511B is a bright, magenta-pink. Ever since I saw it on Jo, I had to have it. The formula is surprisingly nice for a 99 cents lipstick. It's creamy and applies evenly and has great color payoff. See it on Jomakemeblush by clicking here.

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lip gloss in Pink Remedy 110
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lip Gloss in Pink Remedy 110 is a medium toned pink gloss filled with very fine shimmer and the slightest bit of frost. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the color - pretty in the tube but does not show up on my lips and the color can't be easily built. I do like the fact that it contains an SPF (15) and has a large, flattened applicator. 
Wet n Wild Nouveau Pink Lipstick
Sinful Colors Glitter Nail Polish in Nail Junkie 927 has a teal-blue very sheer base, combined with chunky blue glitter, multicolored glitter and fine green glitter. I purchased this because it reminded me a little bit of a Butter London polish I really want called Henley Regatta.

Pure Ice Crackle Nail Polish in Jetsetter is a royal blue with a pearl finish. Honestly, I never really liked crackle polishes, and I never thought I'd purchase one. But when I saw a large display of Pure Ice Crackle Polishes at my Walgreens for $3.99 each, I thought I ought to purchase my first one to review. There were several colors to pick from, but I ended up picking blue. I thought it would look really cool over a green or lighter blue polish.. and possible over the glitter polish I had just purchased.

A photo I took with my cell phone at Walgreen's of the Pure ICE Crackle Polishes
I find it a little difficult to work with. I've never used any other crackle nail polish, so I can't compare, but it dries very quickly and starts crackling right away. I find that you have to coat your nail extremely quick, and if you go over the polish, it won't crackle as well. It crackles the best when the coat of polish is very thin.

Left to Right: A Generic bright, seafoam green polish with one coat of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie on top, China Glaze For Audrey with Pure Ice Crackle Jetsetter on top, A Generic bright, seafoam green polish (same as index finger) with Pure Ice Crackle Jetsetter on top, Three Coats of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie. All  nails have one coat of Seche Vite Top Coat, except for my pinky.

I actually liked how each nail tuned out. I think the glitter polish looks really pretty over the bright green, and I think it would look really pretty over a blue polish as well!

Do you own any of these products? Do you have any drugstore favorites you can recommend? Let me know in the comments! ☺

Monday, May 23, 2011

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation Review!

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup

Product Description: Neutrogena Healthy Skin® liquid makeup takes over where your skin care leaves off. Silky-light coverage glides on for a perfectly natural look, while the exclusive blend plus SPF 20 work together to visibly improve skin's luminosity, tone, and texture.
  • Flawless coverage, lightweight, silky formula
  • Exclusive blend of antioxidants and SPF 20
  • Maintains skin's young and healthy look
  • Available in 12 new shades 
Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup is available in twelve (12) shades: Classic Ivory, Natural Ivory, Buff, Nude, Soft Beige, Natural Beige, Fresh Beige, Medium Beige, Warm Beige, Natural Tan, Honey Beige and Tan. 

My color match is Natural Beige. It seemed to have the best yellow tone of the bunch in my range and swatched next to MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC30, they are almost identical, except MAC is slightly more yellow. (see swatches below) 


I think the problem with drugstore foundations is that they often lack a variety of undertones. Many drugstore foundations are too neutral for my skin, and few offer a good yellow undertone. With that said, I was very pleased to find a close match. I also have this foundation in the lightest shade, and I use it often to lighten other foundations of mine. It works fantastic for that.


Sunday, May 15, 2011

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Airy Fairy!

Rimmel Airy Fairy Lipstick


Airy Fairy is a lipstick you probably all know about. The particular shade is the most popular of Rimmel's shade selection, as it's a great every day color that is flattering on several skin tones. The color is a pink-mauve with a golden sheen. The actual color is quite "cool" (purple/blue toned) but because of the golden sheen, it's a bit more wearable on my warm skin tone. I stay away from lipsticks with any traces of purple to them, as they do nothing for me - but because of the popularity of this color, I thought I'd take the opportunity to try it out in a recent swap. I'm not too crazy about it alone, but it looks really pretty under a pink lip gloss. The formula is smooth, applies evenly and feels moisturizing on the lips. It is fairly opaque and builds well for full opacity.

Airy Fairy swatched on my hand..
Top: Swatched heavily,  Bottom: Swatched once
Left: Airy Fairy on my Bare Lips, Right: Airy Fairy with NYX Sheer Gloss in the shade Vintage applied over top.
Airy Fairy is rated 4/5, with a 72% re-purchase rate based on makeupalley.com reviews. 
(Click here to be re-directed)

Jo, from Jomakemeblush has mentioned this lipstick several times, and it looks gorgeous on her NC40 skintone! Check out her posts where she mentions it, by clicking here.

Do you own this lipstick? Is it a yay or nay for you?