Guest post from Savannah Scorpion: Why I'm Perfectly Okay With Nail Polish (And Other Cosmetic) Dupes

Oh snap! Two guest posts in a week?

I'm sure y'all have heard about the recent XoVain post about nail polish dupes. I'm sure y'all rolled your eyes at it, too. I will confess to being a daily peruser of XoVain, but mostly due to Alle's, Faz's, and Kelly's posts. I think it's verrrry interesting that Vain's best writers are the ones who are not based out of the New York offices, and do not contribute to Vain as their primary occupation.

Unlike Rio, I am not a tri-continental expat who lives in Paris and wrote a master's thesis about nail polish. I am a deeply indebted art school grad currently living in the Midwest with my cat. I am not any sort of cosmetics expert, but I do have a greater understanding abut how cosmetics are made and marketed than most of the XoVain staff, and when I write, I use coherent subject/verb agreement and syntax (unlike Annie).  

 [oh snap]

Here are a few things that Rio failed to mention in her post:

1. Mass and luxury cosmetics brands are frequently owned by the same company.

I am the proud owner of a YSL Beauty Touche Éclat pen. I am also the proud owner of a Maybelline Dream Lumi Touche pen. I use both of these products regularly. I have a unique use for both of these products: I keep Touche Éclat at home, and the Dream Lumi pen in my "going to see my boyfriend" bag. I'd rather have his cat play with the 6-dollar brightening concealer, instead of the 40 dollar brightening concealer*.

The best part about my buying two similar products at wildly different price points is that some oligarch at The L'Oreal Group (parent company to both Maybelline and YSL Beauty) makes even more money.

A matte lip crayon I like much better than Revlon's (Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn)

I'd say that 90% of the blog reviews of the Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm crayon that I've read have been raves. A couple have found some shades patchy, but were cool with it, but most of them are just big fans. Obviously that's not how I felt, and it kind of makes me feel like I was being unreasonable or doing something wrong.

But I recently got a matte jumbo lip crayon in my Ipsy bag that I prefer a whole fucking lot. It's the Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn. They describe it as "glossy," but it's definitely not. It's matte. It seems to have a few specks of shimmer (?) in it, but they don't show up at all on the lips. You can sort of see them in the macro shot, but they are completely invisible from a normal distance. Even in the swatch photo below, you can't really see the shimmer. (Judging from swatches, some of the other shades seem to have more shimmer.)

Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn

How it compares to the Revlon matte balm: The Be a Bombshell crayon has a thicker, stiffer texture. The Revlon feels almost buttery - actually kind of like frosting. For me, the Be a Bombshell texture works much better, because you can go back and forth over your lips to build up the color without it getting patchy. It stays in place really well, unlike the Revlon matte balm, which had a tendency to smear and wear off in an ugly way. After I put enough on my lips to make it really opaque, and then blotted, very little came off on the tissue. I tend to worry about wearing bright/opaque lip colors, because they always smear and look messy on me eventually. I think this one has solved that problem. It's going to be my go-to red. It wears very evenly and leaves a nice stain. It doesn't emphasize dryness and lines like the Revlon one does. It also doesn't have a minty scent or tingle, which was something I didn't like about the Revlon. I don't find it drying, either - no more so than not wearing anything on my lips. Basically, this is everything I was hoping the Revlon matte balm would be but wasn't.

"Stamping" mascara as eyeliner (a trick for those of us with limited eyelid real estate)

The Beauty Department is a great resource for makeup tricks. They make everything look so fucking pretty, though I've had some mixed results trying out their techniques myself. I'd say they work most of the time, but every once in a while there's a fail. Like this two-toned lip tutorial - I couldn't find any combination that didn't just look like the 90s dark lip liner thing. Even when the liner wasn't really darker than the gloss. Maybe that's why there's no full face image? And even though I do layer my skin care products like this, this post is rife with misinformation (the comments point out many of the problems).

One of the treasures I've discovered, however, is this technique of "stamping" mascara at the base of the lashes to basically do the job of eyeliner. I really don't have much eyelid to work with, so sometimes I have to choose between eyeliner and eyeshadow. With this trick, I can get the thickness and darkness of an eyeliner without taking up any extra space on my lid. Since it works so well, I thought I'd share my results.

Before and after stamping at the base of the eyelash roots with mascara.

It's not dramatic, but it definitely does make a difference. Another way to do this is to dot in between the lashes with eyeliner, but this is much faster and easier. All the instructions are at the link above, but you're not actually applying any product to your eyelid. You're just making the base of your lashes darker. You might end up with a little mascara transferring to the lower rim of your eye immediately after you do it, but that's pretty easy to just wipe away.

Here I used CoverGirl LashBlast Volume in Black-Brown for the first two coats and then Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara (reviewed here) to stamp at the base. There's no real reason why you couldn't use the same mascara for both steps. I just like the separation I get from the CG one and the thickness of the Jordana one. And then I'm left my whole eyelid (what little there is) to play with eyeshadows.

Sephora by OPI nail polish $3 each on HauteLook

Disclosure: This post contains referral links.
I'm posting this to recommend that you buy Traffic Stopper Copper and wear it over a grey creme polish. It's perfect. It looks like most of these polishes are gone from the Sephora website, so this may be your only chance.

The Fall Beauty Bag is also there for $15 now, too, if you want to make your shipping dollars count.

You need an account to browse HauteLook. You can use my invite link, if you like.

When to toss beauty products (from Paula's Choice)

I like this particular guide, because it gives you 4-6 months for mascara. That's what I tend to do anyway, especially if I have more than one tube going at the same time.

Guest post from Savannah Scorpion: Why Do Cosmetics Companies Make The Same Damn Thing? (And what you should buy instead)

[Ed. note: Savannah sent me this post on Nov. 6, and I'm only getting to it now! Oops. I was looking back through my emails thinking, "Wasn't it just a few days ago?" I have completely lost track of time this month. But better late than never, because this is a good one.]

Hello!

If you are new to the blog, I am Savannah Scorpion, a former Seller of Expensive Cosmetics Shit At A Retailer You All Know And Love. I periodically do guest posts about how your cosmetics sausage is made.

Here's a picture of me hugging a pizza:

Have any of y'all ever walked around a cosmetics aisle, and marveled at how every company seems to be making the same damn things?

You're not seeing double.

Remember, most of he cosmetics brands are owned by a few select companies. So when a prestige brand (expensive, sold at a specialty retailer, salon, or department store)  introduces a fancy new product, a mass brand (not expensive, sold at drugstores, mass-market retailers) owned by the same company will frequently release something similar--just at a different price point.

Also, cosmetics companies have a tendency to behave like a hivemind. So, when one company releases a New, Innovative, Thing evey other brand is scrambling to replicate it and repackage it, because they don't want to lose customers to the New, Innovative, Thing sold by The Other Cosmetics Brand.

What I'm going to do is go over some of the more popular trends  in cosmetics and skincare, and help you save money by pointing out the best products ("best" rarely translates to "most expensive").

1. Blotting Papers

What They Do:

They blot your shit for when your face gets shiny.   Blotting papers let you remove oily gunk from your face, which is a hell of a lot better than putting more face powder on top. And while they won't smear your makeup, blotting papers can help when you have those days when you leave your house, look in your car mirror, and say "Oh shit I totally overdid it today".

Virtually every brand has their own blotting papers--most of which are made with rice paper, and you can easily spend anywhere from 3-15 bucks. If you buy more expensive papers, you simply paying for more elaborate packaging.

The best, in my opinion, are the Sephora brand blotting papers. They aren't the cheapest or most expensive (they retail for 8 bucks), but they have 100 sheets, and amazing at blotting oily crap. I've found that cheaper brands have less papers, or smaller sheets. The great thing about the Sephora ones is that even if you use these frequently, they last 1-2 months. It really doesn't matter if you get the Vitamin C, Green Tea, Salicylic Acid, or Lavender papers, because there's really no way to get any major skincare benefits (besides oil absorption) from blotting papers.

[Ed.: e.l.f. also has some decent ones for $1, but they are definitely not going to last as long as those.]

2. BB/CC/DD/Blah Blah Blah Creams

Alphabet creams are probably here to stay. Yippee skippee. If you believe everything you read, you will be convinced that these creams are magical, can turn back the ravages of time on your face, rescue kittens from burning buildings, etc, etc, etc, etc.

None of this is true.

Here is the short list of what these creams do:

1. They provide light to medium coverage

2. They provide basic sun protection via broad-spectrum mineral sunscreen

3. Depending on the formula, they may provide basic skincare benefits

Here's the short list of what these creams DON'T do:

1. They will not eat you out.

2. They will not do your taxes

xoVain says nail polish dupes are plagiarism

I mean, I already knew that it was the worst of the beauty websites, but come on. The comments are so much more informed and insightful than the article itself.

One point that I haven't seen in the comments is the fact that a lot of cheap dupes actually existed before Chanel or whatever other bajillion-dollar beauty company decided that they were going to release and promote that shade. That's the case with the Chanel dupe I posted about, as well as the Cult Nails one. It's not ripping off Cult Nails (an indie designer), because I bought the F21 version in July, months before Cult Nails started selling theirs. It's not that the bigger/more expensive company copied the smaller one either, in most cases, as the author tries to argue in the comments. Wet N Wild was not being ripped off by Chanel. It's just fucking teal duochrome nail polish. Someone has already made it. There are limited possibilities. (I know that sometimes indie designers and sellers do get ripped off. That's really not what this is about.)

It's snobbery masquerading as ethics.

Cool, Paula's Choice now has a referral discount ($10 off $15)

I'm telling you this not just because I get $10 for a referral (because why would you give a shit about that?), but because so does the person who uses my link to sign up. This is nice, because Paula's Choice products are generally awesome, and they have great customer service, but they are a bit pricier than drugstore stuff. You can check out my Paula's Choice tag for info about what I love and what I don't. I've also used a bunch of stuff over the years that I haven't posted about (because its price doesn't always fit the theme of the blog here), so let me know if you have any questions. Generally, you can trust the customer reviews. Right now, all the cleansers and toners are 25% off.

You have to sign up for an account using this link. Then you can get $10 off a $15 order. Shipping is free over $50. It might be worth waiting until Black Friday/Cyber Monday to see what kind of special they have (free shipping, I hope).

I've also been eyeing this Vitamin C serum, but even with $10 off, it's expensive. But what if it's amazing? The problem with all the good research PC does (and includes on the product information pages) is that I can't just write off things like this as bullshit and feel smug about not wasting money on them. I know the packaging will be good, the formula will be good, it will be unscented, etc. Should I?

Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara ($3) vs. Urban Decay Big Fatty and Benefit They're Real (picture-heavy post)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara is some cheap shit, and in my opinion, it's an excellent alternative to some of the expensive "extreme" mascara options. I'll let the photos do most of the talking, but here are a few thoughts. When I first tried this stuff, I thought it did a better job of lengthening than volumizing. As is the case with many mascaras, after several days it thickened up, and then it did its volumizing thing better. This mascara makes impressive eyelashes, period. Its performance is somewhere in between Urban Decay Big Fatty and Benefit They're Real. It's more lengthening than the UD and more volumizing than the Benefit.

I always think close up photos of mascara are kind of useless when I see them on blogs. Almost everything looks clumpy and spidery and terrible in a macro shot. But I hope these will at least give you an idea of how the three mascaras compare. First, let's start with the Jordana mascara.

Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara on the left;
no mascara on the right.

Two coats of Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara on both eyes.

Makes a big difference on my short little invisible lashes, right?

LORAC Little Lace Palettes now only $8 on HauteLook

These LORAC eyeshadow palettes are down to $8 from $12 now. They're small, but from reviews I've seen, the smaller, cheaper LORAC palettes are just as great quality as their big, popular ones, like the Pro palette. Tempting.

You need an account to browse HauteLook, so here's my invite link, if you'd like to use it.

Free shipping on $21+ orders from Forever 21 today only

It's a good time to stock up on some nail polish or decent cheap jewelry. I've pinned a bunch of nice-looking shit from F21 on Pinterest. Use code SHIP21.

Quick question: What's your favorite moisturizer?

So I find myself, for really the first time in my life, dealing with dry/tight skin. I'm thinking it must be an age thing. It's dry in my apartment because the heat is on all the time now, and my face also get a little chapped from walking out in the wind everyday. But neither of these things are new. I have always lived in dry and/or cold and/or windy places. And I've always had oily/combination skin year-round. For the last month or so, it's been sliding toward the dry end of the combination spectrum.

My Paula's Choice Skin Balancing Moisture Gel, which has always served me admirably in the past if I ever felt a little dry, really isn't cutting it right now. So I thought I'd ask:

What's your favorite moisturizer? Cheap is good, of course.

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who deal with a little oiliness and some breakouts too. Real combination skin havers.

(Isn't it interesting how "skin type" can be a part of identity, especially for those of us who are really into performing/doing femininity? It seems to be correlated to gender identity. It's not, "My skin feels a little dry lately," so much as, "I am now the type of person who has dry skin." Does that make sense to anyone but me?)

Tarina Tarantino Cosmetics on HauteLook (45-53% off)

This shit gets really high ratings on the blogs and message boards. You can find a bunch of swatches from Temptalia. I had a hard time deciding between the eyeshadows, which look amazing in swatches, and the eyeliners, but I ultimately went with the blue and purple eyeliners, since I don't have anything like that.

You need an account to browse HauteLook, so go ahead and use my invite link (same as above), if you are so generously inclined.

White rice powder as a cheap dry shampoo (from The Beauty Department)

Has anyone tried this? The advantage over other dry shampoos is supposed to be that rice flour turns transparent when it absorbs oil from your scalp.

$2 dupe for Cult Nails Masquerade (Limited Edition)

Swatch of Love & Beauty in Emerald (dupe for Cult Nails Masquerade)
over Revlon Parfumerie in Wild Violets

This information will either be exciting or annoying. YOU DECIDE. Cult Nails has a new LE polish called Masquerade, which is a shimmery gold-purple-red duochrome in a fairly sheer green base. You can find photos here.

As it turns out, I already have what looks to me like an exact dupe of that polish, which I bought for $2 this summer. It's Love & Beauty (Forever 21's brand) in Emerald. It is also similar to Hard Candy Beetle (another discontinued polish), but that one didn't have a green base as far as I know, and the shimmer is a little more scattered or sparse here.

Here are two coats of it on a white swatch wheel, so you can see its green base.

Swatches of Love & Beauty in Emerald
(dupe for Cult Nails Masquerade)

40% off everything from e.l.f. (on orders of $20 or more) today and tomorrow

Use code CHEERS. Free shipping over $35 (no code needed).

Check out my e.l.f. tag if you want some ideas about what to try and what to avoid.

OMG Nail Strips Review and Photos

OMG Nail Polish Strips in Black Horizontal Stripe

Disclosure: This product was sent by the company for review.
Well, this is a momentous occasion. This marks the first time I am reviewing a product that a company sent me, free and unsolicited. They didn't even request that I do anything in particular with my review. (I've reviewed things from BzzAgent and Influenster before, but anyone can sign up for those programs and receive shit to test.) They said that if I didn't think it would affect my ability to write an honest review, I could link back to their website. I mean, I would do that anyway, because otherwise you wouldn't know where to get these things. But being unafraid of the word fuck gives this brand a couple of points, in my mind, right from the start.

If their shit is crap (or their crap is shit?), though, then that's not worth a whole lot. Spoiler alert: it's not. It's fine. The OMG Nail Polish Strips apply and perform identically in almost every way to the Sally Hansen version. So if you've used those and liked them, you should be happy with these.

How to reapply sunscreen while wearing makeup (from 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic)

If you're going to be in the sun for an hour or more, and you're using a chemical sunscreen, even in the fall/winter, you'll have to reapply if you want it to keep working properly. Here's how.

But don't use milk of magnesia as primer. Also your sunscreen-containing makeup probably isn't giving you much protection, so don't rely on that.