beauty Archives - Page 2 of 16

Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation

November 17, 2016

I love writing foundation reviews, although I don’t get to write them as often as I would like! The main reason for that being I don’t wear foundation on a daily basis, so I don’t have a large amount to review. I also really love reading foundation reviews!
In September, I attended the Estee Lauder media preview and was exposed to many different Estee Lauder foundations. There was also a super pretty foundation bar that showcased many of their foundations!

At the end of the event, attendees were colour matched and sent a foundation of their choice to try out. It was hard for me to pick just one, but eventually I decided on the Double Wear foundation because it has great reviews and I was looking for a medium/full coverage foundation.
What it says (Taken from Sephora):

Estēe Lauder’s Double Wear Makeup delivers flawless, 15-hour staying power, and it is natural-looking for carefree coverage.
A lightweight, oil-free, and buildable formula, it doesn’t change color, leaving your makeup looking as fresh as when you first applied it.
This product is fragrance-free and non-acnegenic. It has been dermatologist tested.

I didn’t know acnegenic was a thing? But anyways, 15 hours is a pretty bold claim! Let’s see if this foundation is any good.
Application: I was a bit wary of the bottle packaging ever since trying the Covergirl Clean Foundation, which also comes in a glass jar.

For the Covergirl foundation, it was incredibly difficult to get product out. I had to continuously slam the jar very hard on my hand for product to come out. An easier way would have been to just stick a clean q-tip every time, but that’s a bit annoying.

Anyways, I was quite pleased when this foundation came out of the bottle easily, without any banging or frustration. It would be nice to have a pump though.

The foundation applied pretty easily, with a medium-full coverage. A little goes a long way, and it does make your skin look pretty natural. It also felt really lightweight and breathable. At times, I often forgot I was wearing foundation!
Wear: Throughout the day, I was expecting the foundation to smudge off. But, I was really surprised at how flawless it was even after 7-8 hours! It did not require a touch up, and my skin gets pretty oily. I removed the foundation at night after ten hours of wear, and it still looked pretty good!

Apart from wanting to let my skin breathe, one of the MAIN reasons I don’t like wearing foundation is because it always smudges on my glasses and I think that’s just disgusting.

I hate taking off my glasses and seeing nasty foundation smudges or residue on it, it just really turns me off from wearing foundation.

But with this foundation, I was pleasantly surprised that it barely left any residue on my glasses! If you’re a daily glasses wearer like me, you will understand my delight.

Long lasting
Light weight, comfortable to wear
Medium – full coverage, a little goes a long way
Does not smudge off to glasses as much as other foundations
Does not look cakey

Pours out from a glass bottle, making it harder to control the amount that comes out

Yay!

I would recommend this if you’re looking for a comfortable and long lasting medium/full coverage foundation. This retails at Sephora for $46 CAD, which is a bit pricey but worth every dollar!

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Envy Lipstick

November 5, 2016

I’ve mentioned in many of my Estee Lauder posts that I love their lipsticks, but just realized I never wrote a review just for it! So, that is what this post is going to be about. I’ve been a huge fan of Estee Lauder lipsticks, and you really can’t go wrong with them.

The formulation of the Estee Lauder lipsticks have always been consistent. Even with the new Estee Edit lipsticks, I find their formulation is the same which is a relief!

I have a few of their lipsticks, but I decided to showcase this one because I love a nice, classic red. It is the shade empowered. The lipstick is nice and creamy, but also pigmented and not sheer. It is quite buildable as well.

This is a minor thing, but the packaging just gives it that extra level and touch of luxury. All the caps are actually magnetic, so they snap nicely to the lipstick. It is very satisfying to see and hear.
Here is a photo of me wearing this shade!

One problem I have with this shade, and only this shade, is that it tends to bleed outside your lips. If you look closely, you’ll see this shade feather out which is not a good sight!

It’s not too big of a deal and barely noticeable unless you’re up close, but would probably be best if you wore this shade with a matching liner. I still love this lipstick and is one of my favourites!

Softsoap Shea & Almond Oil Body Wash

November 2, 2016

Softsoap is a pretty popular and easily recognizable brand. I remember using their hand soaps a lot throughout my life, as I’m sure many of you have as well. Since I mostly use their hand soaps, it was a bit odd for me to try their body washes as I always thought of them as primarily a hand soap company. Yes, I know soap is soap… but you know what I mean!
The Softsoap I will be reviewing today is off their body butter line, which suggests that it is a very moisturizing body wash! The scent I purchased was the shea & almond oil, because I thought they would smell wonderful together. Both are also very hydrating and moisturizing products.

Indeed, I was right and I really liked the smell of this! Although I do prefer my fruity scents, this one made me feel more elegant and luxurious.
The soap is a pearly white colour. There are also tiny microbeads inside the soap, as you can tell more in the bottle compared to my hand. Whenever I shower, I use about a quarter size amount on my loofah.

This soap does not lather up as much as other body washes I have had, but it still does a great job in cleaning. Afterwards, the scent really stays on to your skin and is noticeable! That’s one of the things I love most about this body wash, as I feel clean and refreshed, and smell like shea and almond oil!

Here is the back of the body wash, with the ingredients incase you’re interested. Cool, I didn’t know that Colgate & Softsoap were in the same corporation. But then again, most of the products out there are owned by a small handful of conglomerates. However, I won’t go all Communications student here because I could talk about corporations all day!

Overall, I would recommend the Softsoap body washes, particularly the shea and almond oil one. They do a good job in cleaning, and make you smell wonderful afterwards. The price is also very affordable and widely available everywhere!

Yay!

Kylie Matte Liquid Lip Kit

October 22, 2016

By now, I’m sure you have ALL heard of Kylie Jenner, or at the very least, the Kardashians. I’m not going to go into detail with them because I do not ‘Keep Up with the Kardashians’ (pun intended) and have never watched their ‘reality’ TV show nor do I ever plan to.

I never took an interest in Kylie’s lip products, until Maki told me she was planning on buying her products. The initial reaction of ‘Whaaatt whyyyyy’ shifted to curiosity, which is seemingly fitting for my blog’s name, Curiously Carmen :)!

Maki really enjoyed the formula of her lip kits , much to both of our surprise. Unfortunately, she did not like how one of the shades looked with her skintone, so she gave it to me. Fast forward to today, I am here to review the product!

The product I will be reviewing today is the Kylie matte liquid lipstick in the shade 22. 22 is a beautiful, attention grabbing bright orange-y red.
Whenever I wear 22, I seem to always receive compliments on the colour. People are often surprised that it is by Kylie Jenner, because they didn’t know that her products were actually pretty decent (myself included in the past).
The swatch above is just from one swipe! You can see how pigmented it is. The top corner looks a bit weird because that was the first spot I swatched, and it was still drying.

As the name suggests, it is a true matte finish. Once it dries, it does NOT budge, so it is important to apply it slowly and carefully. This is not one of those lipsticks where you can quickly grab it from your purse, and blindly swipe it on your lips without a mirror.

The few seconds that it takes to dry may feel strange if you’re not used to a matte lip product. It dries out my lip at first and I feel the need to put lip balm on. After a couple of minutes, the feeling goes away and it wears pretty comfortably.

What I love most about this product is how LONG it lasts. As I said above, this lipstick seriously does not budge. I tested it and wore it for over 9 hours, with meals/drinks/snacks in between and only the middle part faded a little. It is really impressive and so far, the longest lasting lip product I’ve tried.

It is also incredibly pigmented and very true to colour. One swipe is all you will need. Although it is extremely long lasting and highly pigmented, there is no chemical scent or taste to the lipstick and it has never smudged on my lip.
Here is a picture taken TEN hours after wear, using bright flash so you can see it better. I applied this at around 1pm, and took it off at 11pm. You can see the middle part start to fade.

During these ten hours, I drank some water, iced tea, and ate a filling sushi & udon dinner. I was positive that the slippery udon would get rid of the lipstick, but nope! Amazing!

Overall, I am really impressed with Kylie’s lip products. I never thought I would try her products, or let alone LOVE it, but I’m really glad I gave it a chance. I’m already thinking of the next shades that I want to try. Unfortunately, they are a bit pricey with the USD conversion and shipping rate seeing how I’m a jobless student right now. But I’m hoping to get some more during Christmas!

Edit: After writing this post, the Kylie Gods were on my side and they offered free international shipping! I wanted to buy them ALLLL, but I behaved and only bought one! It arrived about a week later, and is the Leo shade.

Yay!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Pencil

October 5, 2016

It is no surprise that I am a huge Urban Decay fan. I have quite a number of their products, and I absolutely love them all! They also opened up the first Urban Decay freestanding store in Vancouver, which I still have to check out. I am not a big fan of crowds so I figured I would wait a few weeks before going.

I’m currently at school, but I have a break between my classes so I thought I would write my review on this now! I just started a short term, part time job so the next couple of weeks will be dedicated to finishing that project.
This Urban Decay 24/7 glide on pencil came in one of the Sephora favourites sets two years ago. I was a bit sad to see that an eyeliner kit wasn’t offered in the Sephora favourites sets this year, but it is understandable as eyeliners aren’t as popular as other products at the moment. But, I am thinking of purchasing the highlighting kit instead!

This is the last product I have tried in that kit, but I really like it so far. I’ve been using this daily in conjunction with my Kat Von D tattoo liner. First, I’ll talk about both shades individually and then review their formula.
On one end of the pencil, is the shade ‘rockstar’. Rockstar is a really unique shade because I still have yet to figure out exactly what colour or shade this is. When I first used this, I thought it was a brown. But, it also has a slight metallic purple tint to it. I guess it depends on the angle, and which type of light you are seeing it from. I think this shade is really, really pretty.

For over seven years now, I’ve been used to using jet black liner shades. Using this shade was one of the few times where I branched away from that, and I really liked it. It gave my eyes a softer look. I’m not a big fan of lining my bottom lash line, because I think it looks too harsh on me.

But when I use a bit of this metallic brown/purple/whatever it is, it looks pretty good!
The other side is your classic, jet black liner in the shade ‘perversion’. Urban Decay also has a line with the same name, you may remember their perversion mascara. I love using this to tightline and line the middle part of my eye, to give it a consistent and thicker look (if that makes any sense, I’m bad at explaining).

Using this is a lot easier to make sure my eyes are lined proportionately, and takes less time! Then, I would use my Kat Von D tattoo liner to wing out the liner, and to clean the look up.
Here is a swatch on both colours. Rockstar looks more like a brown here, but you can kind of see the metallic finish towards the left?

What I love most about both of these is how easy they are to apply. As the name suggests, you can just gently glide this over your lid once. The result is a very pigmented and smooth colour. Rockstar has more of a softer look, while perversion is very jet black. The staying power of these are also amazing. My lids can get oily, but both shades do not smudge the whole day.

In fact, I took the swatch picture above two days ago. I can still see perversion on my hand, even though I’ve washed my hands countless times and showered twice already!

I don’t really have any complaints about the liner. I mean, if I was to be very picky, the pencils are very soft (since they glide on very easily), so perhaps take caution in not pressing that hard. I’ve also dented the liner a couple times when putting the plastic cap on because of how soft it is, but that’s because I’m a klutz.

Once again, Urban Decay has not disappointed. I am a huge fan of these liners and would recommend it for those who are looking for a long lasting, pigmented liner.

Yay!