This is a very hyped mascara that’s been around for quite a while now and known to be a lot of people’s HG mascara and I can see why. It’s inexpensive, its accessible and it has classy packaging. It adds volume and length better than most mascaras I’ve tried but it’s not as thickening as I’ve heard it to be. When I first used this I was pretty disappointed and I thought I might have bought a defective one because it seemed already quite dry. (However it didn’t flake so I think that I got a normal one.) The best mascara I’ve ever tried for fat lashes is Lancome Fatale, it did clump but it got me really thick lashes. This mascara reminds me a lot of Prestige’s My Blackest Lashes (reviewed here), My Blackest Lashes was wetter but got the same volume as Voluminous gives me and neither holds a curl (I have medium length, straight, stubborn black lashes). This one does curl my lashes slight when I apply it but it doesn’t last. Also a problem I’ve been having with most non-waterproof mascaras in general is that it tends to smudge onto the outer corners of my under eye. When I yawn my eyes water and some of that water accumulates into the ends of my eye, touches the lashes and viola, a black streak. This one seems to smudge more severely, maybe just because the formula’s thicker but next time I’m getting the waterproof version. Even so, I still think this mascara is perfect for volumizing the lashes without clumping for an everyday look.
stila lip glaze
Shade: Grapefruit 07
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
I’m not an avid lip-gloss wearer and this hasn’t changed me into one. These I believe are one of Stila’s most popular products, the twist dispenser and brush applicator have made it a lot of people’s favourites but don’t appeal to me. Product gets stuck in the bristles of the plastic brush and if you don’t use this very often like me (if you like to switch lip glosses day to day or don’t wear gloss daily) the old gloss stays on the brush and starts to clot. The next time you use it you’ll have to deal with the glob of thickened old product before the new gloss pushes through. This wastes product and if you can see in the first photo, there isn’t a lot of gloss to begin with.
The twist applicator pushes product out, good so that gloss doesn’t get stuck on the rims but I expect that its not going to be able to get that last bit out. With normal lip glosses you can put the tube in some hot water to melt the product off the sides so you can use it but I don’t think that method would work with this.
The gloss itself is sheer, has a hint of shimmer after application and is pretty! Its a nice lip gloss, the packaging design makes it stand out from most, but this isn’t a HG for me. If you want to try out this kind of packaging there’s also E.L.F.’s Hypershine lip glosses that are $1 at Target in the US.
cover girl eye enhancer in dynamite drama
Product Name: Cover Girl Eye Enhancers Quad
Shade: Dynamite Drama #223
These eye shadows are super affordable, I think their around $6 CAD at drugstores but out of the 4 colors they hold, only two of them actually show up.
The maroon color is the most pigmented, looks almost brown but does have that red undertone. Personally I don’t like that because red around the eyes can make the eyes look irritated and I have cool toned pale skin so it shows up too bright on me. The gold is very pretty but is very, very sheer. Its nice to use as a color to dust over another shade to add gold sparks to it because it wont change the color of the other shadow but it does not show up on its own very well.
The white is the second most pigmented color, I like using it as a highlight because it doesn’t come on too strong. If you look at the photos the white really reflected the flash, not just because of its color but it has nice shimmer too.
The green is the least pigmented in the quad, it looks like such a nice color in the quad but it doesn’t come out. I’ve tried layering it but it still just comes out as a tiny hint of color. You could try applying it wet or with primer, that might intensify the color.