Archive for July, 2008
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
I finally found the Jane Be Pure Mineral Foundation in Walgreens yesterday - it was in a separate display for free after rebate stuff, and not in their Jane display.
I was so disappointed when I got there and didn’t see any liquid foundation at all, but I went about the task of choosing the right formula, and color, which was kind of hard since they didn’t have the sale price marked on the Jane display, and they didn’t say which ones are free after rebate, so I didn’t know which ones I could choose from :-).
I finally decided on the Be Pure Sheer Mineral Powder in Light, which does not look anywhere near as yellow as it does on Jane’s web site.
Of course after finding the foundation I had to decide on a color all over again - I’m pale enough that some foundations don’t have a color that is light enough for me, and if I find a foundation that works, I’m ususally the lightest shade in that foundation.
Of course right now I have a hint of summer sun, so I wavered between the fair and ivory shades because there was no tester.
After carrying the ivory foundation around for a while, I finally decided I better get the fair instead.
I’m glad I did - the fair blends perfectly into my skin - I don’t have any pictures of it for you, because after I put it on my hand I couldn’t find it anymore :-).
I felt silly putting a swatch up that looks just like the back of my hand, so I didn’t.
Forgive me :-).
I always apply liquid foundations with a nonlatex sponge, but I did test the Jane Be Pure Mineral foundation with my fingers.
The foundation applied smoothly, and disappears into my skin.
It provides a hint of coverage, but I don’t think it’s going to be able to cover up the circles under my eyes or the tiny broken capillaries on my nose - of course that’s what concealor is for.
Over all I’m happy with the foundation and at $4.99 or free after rebate I think it’s a great deal for someone who is looking for a liquid foundation with light coverage.
Stay tuned for an update after I’ve used this for a couple of weeks.
If you’ve tried this I’d love to know what you think!
Just click on “leave a comment” and let me know!
You can read my final review at Jane Be Pure Mineral Liquid Foundation Review
Posted in Beauty, Reviews | No Comments »
Monday, July 28th, 2008
I’ve used Walgreens rebates several times in the past, and I’ve always been pleased with them, so I was happy to see Jane Be Pure Mineral Liquid Mineral Foundation, Crushed Powder, Sheer Powder and Mineral Powder Brush for $4.99 with a $4.99 rebate this week.
I’m going to Walgreens to check out the minerals today. I’m planning on gettting the Be Pure Mineral Liquid Mineral Foundation, since it seems like I haven’t used a liquid foundation in years - and since I haven’t found any reviews on it yet :-).
I have light skin, and it’s hard to tell from the color swatches if I think the liquid foundation will work for me, so if it doesn’t look light enough for me I’ll probably get the Crushed Powder.
I did a Jane Cosmetics Kabuki Brush Review several months ago, and I wasn’t impressed with the kabuki brush, so the powder brush doesn’t tempt me at all.
If you’ve tried Jane’s mineral foundation I’d love to know what you think about it - if you haven’t I’d love to know which one you’re planning on getting, or why you won’t be getting it - just click on “leave a comment” and let me know.
I also found a couple of Jane Be Pure Mineral reviews for you to check out if you’re considering getting this while it’s on sale but you’re not sure yet.
Review: Jane Be Pure Minerals, a Good Value Mineral Makeup
I <3 Jane
From what I’ve seen the powders have mixed reviews, and the colorless really is colorless - which some people aren’t too happy about.
Oh - by the way if you’re going to Walgreens anyway, Neutrogena Cosmetics, Almay Face and Eye Cosmetics, and Loreal Cosmetics are buy one get one 50% off.
Maybelline Foundation Powder, Concealor or blush is buy 1 get 1 free.
I’ll definitely be checking them out, and I’ll try to be back with swatches of whatever I buy for tomorrow.
If you’d like to see what I got, and what I think about it, and how the swatches turned out please read:
Jane Be Pure Mineral Natural Foundation - First Thoughts
Jane Be Pure Mineral Liquid Foundation Review
Posted in Beauty | 4 Comments »
Monday, July 28th, 2008
I’ve installed the CommentLuv plugin from wordpress, so when you get leave a comment on posts that were made since I enabled the plugin you will see a checkbox and a message stating:
“Enable CommentLuv which will try and parse your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you.”
If you have a blog this will pull the last post from your blog tand display it under your comment.
I think this will be a fun way to get to know you a little bit better.
I’ll leave a comment from another one of my blogs here so you can see how it works, and you can test it for yourself.
Also we just bought 16×16 ceramic tile for our upstairs living room and one of the bedrooms.
The house came with ugly orangish carpet - it you watch Bewitched you can see it on Samantha and Darin’s stairs 
so it’s a little old.
I can’t wait to get new flooring upstairs.
Any recomendations that you have about laying tile or grout size would be appreciated :-).
Hope you have a great week!
Posted in Life | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
The code is FF08 at Tarte Cosmetics.
Enjoy!
I’m working, so I don’t have time to buy now, but I’d love to hear what you’re getting, or what you recommend!
Posted in Beauty | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
I mentioned the About Face Cosmetics Powdered Diamond Dusts (scroll down) in a previous review which appears to have been lost when I had wordpress trouble last month.
The diamond dusts in the sample bags that I got were not as shimmery as I thought they’d be, and after Heather read the review she offered to send me full size jars so that I could compare the two, and said that these were some of her most popular products.
Of course I agreed, and Heather generously sent me two jars, even though I said that one would be more than enough.
The color from the full sized jars definitely seemed to have a lot more shimmer than the sample baggies do after they’re applied.
Of course I’ve noticed that if I mess with the minerals too much the shimmer seems to disappear.
You can see in the pictures that the fingers I used to apply the swatches with are much more shimmery than the actual swatches - and both swatches were shimmery, but the camera angle was bad for the Lucky Charm Swatches.
These are fun shadows because they can look completely different based on how you apply them - so make sure you have some time set aside to play shortly after you get them.
If you have these shadows I’d love to see how you wear them, so leave a comment and let me know!
These really are beautiful colors, and I really appreciate Heather sending me full sizes so that I could see the difference.
Posted in Beauty, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 21st, 2008
I have to admit that I was interested in Alice Cosmetics Buff Palette, $22.95, as soon as I saw it.
I thought I was doing fine, swirling my mineral makeup in the lids, and dipping eyeshadow brushes into sample baggies to apply my makeup.
Boy was I wrong!
First I have to say that I was surpised at how big the buff palette was!
As you can see in the photo I have one full sized foundation jar in my buff palette, and 5 sample jars. Of course since each palette is handthrown there is a slight variation in the size of individual palettes.
At first it was a little odd for me to be putting my foundation in the palette, and it seemed like I was using more foundation than ususal, because my Cat Cosmetics Kabuki brush picks up all of the foundation that I put in the palette.
After I determined how much foundation to put in the palette I was fine.
The buff palette is also great for using up sample baggies of minerals.
I’ve found that sometimes the color of the minerals looks different when I get it out of the bag than it looks inside the bag, so it’s nice to be able to pour some out and get a good look at the color before I apply it.
I’ve also used a few samples of blush that I’ve only used once or twice before, because it’s so much easier to get the right amount of blush on the brush in the buff palette than it is to try to get the blush out of a bag.
If you do get too many minerals in the buff palette it has a lip on it so that you can brush any excess minerals back into their container.
After I do that I usually wipe out any excess color, and get it ready for the next color.
I’ve also used the buff palette to wash out my makeup brushes - I just add a little soap, swish them around, rinse them off, and I’m good to go.
Since you are supposed to lay the brushes flat to dry with the brush head hanging off the counter so that they don’t get misshapen, and since I’m always scared that the dogs will pull them off the counter, I even let my brushes dry across the top of the buff palette.
Another thing I like is that the palette is that I can put two or three diferent colors on the palette, see how they look together before I apply them, and then just put them on without having to worry that I’ll knock the color on the floor, or that it won’t look right after I put it on.
I think the buff palette would also be great for mixing different colors.
I use my buff palette every day, and I really can’t imagine being without it.
Here’s a picture of it without the jars, so you can get a better idea of the design.
If you’ve tried the buff palette leave a comment and tell me what you think about it.
Posted in Beauty, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 14th, 2008
I’ve been a wearing Alice Cosmetics Foundation, oil control base, and blush for a little over three weeks now, and they work great.
I’ve been wearing their eyeshadow and eyeliner for most of that time too, but since I only got two shadows and one liner I ran out of different looks fast and since I like variety I had to sneak a few other shadows in the mix.
Of course Alice Cosmetics has more than two shadows and one liner for you to choose from, so you won’t have that problem.
I tried Alice Cosmetics Foundation in Light #2 (6.5 grams for $17.00 or 10g for $22).
The foundation applied smoothly, and looked natural, although I did notice it balling up in one or two places on my forehead on a couple of hot humid days.
Foundation tends to do this to me, and all I have to do is smooth it out and it looks perfect again, so it’s not that much of a problem to me.
I did not experience any breakouts or irritation when I was using this foundation.
I used the oil control base (3g for $11) on my entire face under my foundation.
Although the oil control base does look pale in the jar, and in the swatch, it blended in to my skin perfectly, and when I wore it under my foundation the foundation did not seem to ball up on my forehead as much.
I tried the blush (3g for $11) in Cherry Soda mainly because I love the name!
Isn’t that how everyone picks their makeup?
The blush is described as a “Gorgeous medium to cool cherry.”
It applied well without streaking and it isn’t as sparkly as it looks in the swatches, although I’m sure if you were going for the sparkly blush look you could get it too look that sparkly.
I tried the eyeliner (1.8g for $7.50) in darkberry, which is a “A blackish purple with a shimmer.” The color is beautiful, and it applied wet and dry without looking harsh or garish.
When I used the color as a liner it looked like a dark purplish black with a little shimmer, but when I took just a dab of it and used it it was a beautiful dark purple with lots of shimmer.
It also had great staying power.
Oh, I had a time trying to decide which of the eyeshadows (1.5g for $7.50) to get but I finally chose Sky Blue Pink, because I love the name, and I don’t have any other shadows that are similar too it.
Sky Blue Pink is described as “A cherry-orange-tan with a blue iridescent undertone. Exotic.” but it was more of a cherryish color on me.
This is definitely one shadow that requires liner if you’re as pale as I am - without it I looked like I had red eyes, but with the darkberry liner everything looked perfect.
The second shadow that I chose was Pearl Beige, because I thought it would look good with the Sky Blue Pink, and because I wanted to try it layered over darker shadows, since I hadn’t thought about doing that before.
When I opened the jar I was worried that it would be a little too gold for me, but it was a beautiful neutral color on my lids.
It also is great to use for toning down a darker shadow - you can apply a little so you get a hit of twinkle from the pearl beige, or apply more so that you see mostly pearl beige with a hint of the darker shadow underneath.
I really enjoyed trying Alice Cosmetics, and I love the minerals, and the colors I chose.
All of them applied smoothly, and they were colorful so I didn’t have to keep applying more to get the intensity I wanted.
In the photo swatch of the colors I just dipped a clean finger in and swiped the shadows on my arms, so I did not blend them in.
The colors were a little less intense when I wore them because I did apply them with brushes, but of course you could get the same intensity as is in the swatches, depending on your application.
Alice Cosmetics Packaging Review
I really liked the Alice Cosmetics Packaging.
The shadows, blush and eyeliner were all sample sizes, but they still came in a nice square jar with a sifter and three holes.
Instead of having a piece of plastic that you have to work to get off of the sifter their was a cling wrap type piece of plastic covering the holes.
It was nice that it was so easy to remove, but I couldn’t just poke a few holes in the plastic to control the amount of minerals coming out like I normally do.
This wasn’t a problem for the sample sizes, but the 6.5 g foundation had over 20 holes, so there’s a lot of foundation in the top of the sifter.
Of course most people open all the holes anyway, so I don’t think that will bother too many people.
The packaging all has a beautiful green “Alice Cosmetics Logo” sticker and the green color makes the jars easy to spot in the dark recesses of my makeup case :-).
The foundation has the color of the foundation, the ingredients, weight, alicecosmetics.com and “made in the USA” on the label.
The sample sizes have alicecosmetics.com (It’s always great to know where to reorder, don’t you agree?) the name of the color,type of product, and made in the USA on the label.
Everything’s easy to read, and the only hard part is figuring out which color you’re looking for.
If you’ve tried Alice Cosmetics leave a comment and let me know what you think about them!
And stayed tuned for a review of the Buff Palette and the Eye Shadow Guard.
Posted in Beauty, Reviews | No Comments »
