$3 near-dupe/alternative to The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer (e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Elegant)

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I got The Balm's Mary-Lou Manizer highlighter not too long ago using some HauteLook credits (thank to whomever used my link!). I really like it. It's easy to use, and natural-looking, and effective. But if you don't buy it when it comes up on HauteLook (invite link), that shit is $24 (or $20 on Amazon)! I mean, it's a big pan, but still. That's a lot for some shimmery powder.

I've mentioned before that you can use just about any shimmery product as a highlighter, so long as it's close to your natural skin tone or a little lighter. I was playing around with my e.l.f. loose mineral eyeshadows the other day and decided to compare e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Elegant to Mary-Lou Manizer. Here are the swatches, using the same brush with two layers on the left and then blended out on the right:

Swatches of The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer (left) and
e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Elegant (right)

As you can see, the e.l.f. eyeshadow is cooler-toned and a bit more reflective. Even though The Balm's highlighter is a pressed powder and the e.l.f. shadow is loose, when applied the texture is very similar. They are both super soft and smooth. The both blend beautifully. The thing I find most annoying about highlighters is when you can actually see the product on the skin - like when it doesn't blend out seamlessly around the edges. For that reason, I'm not a huge fan of Benefit Watt's Up. It's hard to get it to blend subtly without just rubbing it off. But neither of these powders have that issue. They really just leave the impression of light reflecting off the parts of your face where you apply them, which is exactly the fucking point.

Though they look fairly different in the swatches, in actual practice, at least on my face, they look very similar. I don't have the right equipment/lighting at the moment to take useful comparison photos of highlighter on my face, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The only real advantages of The Balm's product are that, since it's pressed, it's less messy, and it wears a little bit longer. The e.l.f. eyeshadow, used as highlighter, lasts long enough, but the Mary-Lou Manizer is even more tenacious.

So if you've been considering The Balm's Mary-Lou Manizer, but don't want to spend so much, you might consider picking up this e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Elegant instead. It's normally $3, but e.l.f. shit goes on sale all the time. It's also a pretty eyeshadow, of course, if you like loose pigments.

My favorite thing to do with highlighter is to run it down the length of my nose and across the tip. I think it just gives my face a little more dimension, especially if I've used foundation or a matte powder. I also use it on my cheekbones, but since I wear glasses, I don't think it's particularly noticeable there.

(By the way, I only "got" the joke in The Balm's highlighter names a couple of weeks ago. Sigh. Luminizer. Get it?)

Remember the pretty duochrome LE Maybelline Color Tattoos from last year? They're back. (Well, two of them.)

If you missed out on the pretty Color Tattoos from last year, two of them are back and renamed - and limited edition again - this year. They're in the "Bleached Neons" display. The Dark Side of Beauty has good comparison swatches to confirm that these are definitely the same as last year's.

I do recommend Shimmering Sea, née Seashore Frosts, if you can find it. I actually went on a wild goose chase to find Seashore Frosts last year, and then Harley Quinn saved my life and sent it to me. I hope you have an easier time finding it, if you try. I tried to take a photo of Seashore Frosts on my eyelid, because it looks really pretty and ethereal in person, but unfortunately I couldn't get a decent photo. Sorry. It's subtle, but nice.

(I know this blog has been pretty defunct lately, but I've finished some things up in the real world, and I'm looking forward to getting back to it. It's fun. I have a bunch of shit lined up.)

A $4 dupe for Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar? (from Vampy Varnish)

Whoa, looks like it. I am going to have to get my hands on one of the L.A. Girl Glazed Lip Paints, I guess.

Zoya Earth Day promotion on now (50% off almost everything)

Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links.
You can get all the details here. The gist is that you order a minimum of 6 bottles and maximum of 24, and you get them for $4.50-$5 each with the code ZDAY2014. Then, because nail polish counts as a hazardous chemical and you're not supposed to just toss it in the garbage, you can mail them back as many bottles of old nail polish as you want, and they will dispose of it properly. Or you can skip that step - it's not required.

Here are a couple of swatches of Zoya polishes I have on Instagram: Neely, Evvie, and Ibiza. You can see others by clicking on my Zoya tag. If you're indecisive, I also highly, highly recommend Dream and Crystal.

Guest Post from Savannah Scorpion: Unpopular Opinions about Animal Testing

Hello!

 

It's time for anther guest post from yours truly Savannah Scorpion, America's Favorite Retail Drone (TM). This time, I'm writing about animal testing, and why I'm somewhat critical of brands that brag about being "cruelty free". This is a very sensitive issue, I will be discussing animal cruelty, which can be triggering for readers. If you get upset or overwhelmed by this post, please stop reading and take care of yourself, and look at cute pictures of animals, such as my cat.

 

[Ed. Note: Oh my god, so fucking cute.]

e.l.f. dupes/alternatives for Chanel, MUFE, etc. (from Wayne Goss)

In this short video, Wayne Goss favorably compares the e.l.f. Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow (which I posted about here - I also have the bronze one) with Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow. He also recommends the e.l.f. Lock and Seal (which I used here), pointing out that it's exactly the same as versions from Make Up Forever and other brands that cost 5-6 times as much.

Have you ever had a nail polish totally change color in the bottle?

Okay, this is fucking weird. I just pulled out this bottle of Studio M nail polish in Vintage Vamp that I've had for about a year and a half, and it's now a completely different color than when I bought it. It used to be a sort of magenta-purple, very bright, and full of blue shimmer. Look at the swatches here (scroll down).

Now it's a weird almost-salmony pink and the shimmer isn't as noticeable. The shimmer seems to have changed to a sort of neutral pearly color instead of blue.

How it looks now.

What the hell? It's still kind of a cool polish, I guess, but it's not what it was. It's been stored at room temperature in a dark drawer this whole time. I've heard of polishes changing color after many, many years, but it's never happened to me. And I haven't had it that long. Huh.

Here's a comparison with another polish - these two used to be almost exactly the same color:

Studio M Vintage Vamp on the left.

40% off Maybelline, Revlon, Almay, Physician's Formula, and Jane from ULTA

Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links.
The title pretty much says it all. Available online or in store, no code necessary. You can also use the $3.50 off $10 code on the main page to cut down on the shipping cost if you order online. You'll an extra get 8% back if you use Ebates (invite link). There's also a big beauty sample bag that you get free with a $60 purchase. Looks decent.

Quick and cheap: O'Keeffe's Foot Cream

Disclosure: This post affiliate links.
My dad gave me a tub of this foot cream for Christmas and raved about it. He wanted me to try it right away. Being the stubborn bad daughter that I am, I insisted that I needed to finish up the tube of foot lotion I had at home before I opened up something new. So I spent all of January with hard, rough, dry feet.

It's hard not to make some stupid "father knows best" joke right now.

Anyway, he was right, this stuff is the shit, and my feet would have been much happier if I had been using it all along. I don't have any before and after photos, because you probably didn't want to see the crusty bottoms of my feet, and I honestly didn't expect to post about some foot cream that my dad bought at Canadian Tire. Yeah, this stuff sold at hardware stores in addition to drugstores, but you can get it online for about $6.

It's has a weird texture. It feels kind of hard and dry initially, but when you scoop some out it's soft and buttery. It's unscented and not overly greasy (a little, though). If you use it during the day, you can walk on a hard floor after a few minutes without slipping and falling. I put it on my feet before bed a few times a week, and it definitely makes a difference. It doesn't peel off your skin and leave you with new feet, but it will soften them. The main thing I noticed is that my feet got a lot smoother. You know how really dry feet are kind of scratchy and they catch on bed sheets or socks like velcro and it's really unpleasant and blehhhhh? This stuff cures Velcro Foot Syndrome. It works better than any other cream or lotion I've tried on my feet. And I don't hate the teal and orange packaging. Matches my blog.

I guess when your dad gives you skin care advice, you should listen. Unless he recommends Windex.

Yet Another Damned Dry Shampoo Review: Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo is an interesting one. It's not powdery. Like, at all. Hence the name, I guess. That quality has its pros and cons.

An obvious benefit is that you don't end up with grey powdery-looking roots, like this. That's going to be particularly good if you have dark hair.

The downside is that it doesn't seem to absorb oil as well as more powdery formulas. The weird thing is that after using this stuff, my hair looks cleaner and has more volume. But it still feels dirty. Some dry shampoos leave my roots feeling kind of stiff and rough, but that's not what I'm talking about. It feels pretty much exactly the same as before I added the shampoo, but with some more lift. Look:

Hair not washed for 24 hours.

Hair after using Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo.

So it does make your hair look cleaner, which is the main goal, right? To not look like a mess? I also really like the scent. It has a subtle mint fragrance. FINALLY. I'm so sick of dry shampoos that make me sneeze with their over-perfumed granny smells.

Overall, I like it, but I have such an oily scalp that it bothers me a little that I don't really feel any cleaner after I've used it. It's not refreshing, you know? The trade off is a lack of white residue in your hair. I think that if you have dark hair, this is definitely worth trying. I wish I could find something affordable that combined the light fragrance of this stuff with the results of one of the good Suave dry shampoos. As I've said before, I'm a bit of a dry shampoo Goldilocks.

HauteLook Lip Beauty Bag $24: What do you think?

Disclosure: This post contains a referral link.
For $24 (plus shipping) you get a makeup bag with 10 items in it. It includes a LORAC lip gloss, a Laura Geller lipstick, a NYX lip liner, and some tools, among other things. You can check it all out here. One of the items is a Mirenesse Lip Bomb, which I once got in a Birchbox, and honestly wasn't very impressed with. It's basically a liquid lipstick, like a very very pigmented lip gloss, that's kind of messy and wears off in an ugly way.

Do you think it's worth it? Does it look exciting to you? I'm really asking. I have a couple of credits (thanks to whomever used my link!), and I wonder if this is a good way to spend them or not.

Free shipping on everything from Paula's Choice

Judging from my blog stats, people seem to be into the Paula's Choice stuff around here lately - so I thought you might like to know that they have free shipping on all orders right now. I don't know how long it will last. It could just be today, or it could go on for a while. No code necessary.

If this is your first time buying from Paula's Choice, you can sign up using my referral link and get $10 off a $15+ order as well (I get $10 too).

Quick review: e.l.f. Studio Makeup Remover Pen

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
So this is a review of a somewhat odd product that is actually quite useful if you are a clumsy person who is often in a hurry, like I am. If you have a bad habit of ending up with flecks of mascara on your face, because you stabbed yourself in the eye, because you were in a terrible rush to finish your makeup, because you were running late, because you're disorganized, because you are a human mess, this is a product you could consider.

It's a marker. It's shaped like a sharpie, with a firm, white, felt tip point (see it here). If you make a small mess, it's much more precise than a Q-tip, so you don't have to redo all of your under-eye concealer or your eyeshadow or whatever. Observe:

Before: Mascara mess.

After: Disaster averted.

I should have included a dime or something for scale, though maybe the tiny freckle above the swatch serves that purpose to some extent. The swatch was made with a typical eyeshadow brush (a little over a centimeter wide) and the black specks are from the bristles of a mascara brush. You can achieve precise removal using the e.l.f. pen, and then you only need to do a little bit of patching and blending to fix things up. I don't know of another method/tool that allows for as precise cleanup. (Suggestions?)

The pen is weird. I've had it for several months, and it's still working. But it feels light and empty. If you shake it, you don't hear any liquid inside. The tip feels quite dry to the touch. Mysterious, and yet totally functional.

After you use it to clean up a few specks of mascara or whatever, I recommend wiping off the tip on your hand or a kleenex, otherwise it will end up smearing the product around instead of removing it.

Watch for 50% off sales from e.l.f. and you can get this thing for $1.50, or you can get it for $3 from Target. It has come to my rescue after many a morning's disaster during which, 5 minutes before I was about to head out the door, my house was filled with the sounds of MOTHERFUCKER FUCKING SHIT FUCK GODDAMN IT! You know what I'm talking about.

A couple of cheap dupes for D&G and Lipstick Queen

I've got two nice dupes for you today. A Different Face has compared CoverGirl Clump Crusher with Dolce & Gabbana Passion Eyes mascara and found them to be virtually indistinguishable Clump Crusher is definitely going to be my next mascara purchase. The Lash Blasts work so fucking perfectly for me that I need to try Clump Crusher. Everything I've been using lately has been flaking all over the place (I'm looking at you, L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly - if it wasn't for the flaking, I'd be a fan).

The second dupe comes from the always brilliant Savannah Scorpion:

Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balm in Enticing is a dupe for Lipstick Queen's Medieval, down to color, pigmentation, consistency, and texture. Plus, the Lacquer Balms are easier to apply, because they are a chubby pencil.

Excellent! Thanks!