Thursday, June 29, 2017

Too Precise? Review of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

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I have to say that I am really into the metallic shit we're seeing all over the place this year. I like shiny things. (Mind you, there's a lot of stuff out there labeled metallic that isn't metallic, but that's a rant for another day.)

I picked up this Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner recently in part because it's shiny, but also because the design of the packaging seemed similar to my long time favorite liquid liner, L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip. Since the latter seems to be gradually disappearing, it would be nice to have a similar option that's less expensive. (Lancôme offers the same thing, but it's obviously much more expensive.) The main appeals of this style of eyeliner are (1) felt tip, not brush tip, and (2) the lid is longer than the wand--meaning that you can grip the handle down near the tip for better control, rather than several inches higher like this. That control is vital!

Though there are several flashier colors of these metallic liners (teal! gold!), I know from experience that I rarely wear any eyeliner that isn't black or brown, and I already have a whole collection of eyeliner pencils in other colors in case I really need to go there. So I gambled on the shade Galactic Metal. Since I was ordering online, and the name isn't very descriptive, I expected a sort of dark gunmetal. That's more or less what it is, though when you look closely it's more of a black base with silvery iridescent shimmer. Look at all the colors in this macro shot:

Review of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

As for how this eyeliner performs, I'm quite happy with it. It's much better than the disastrous L'Oréal Carbon Black I tried a few months ago. "Master Precise" is a good name, in fact, both because of that long lid I mentioned that offers control, but also because the tip is super-mega-pointy.

Review of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

In fact, it was a bit too pointy for me. I had a hard time not stabbing the inner corner of my eye where I start my line, and I also like to dot liquid liner between my lashes to fill in the gaps (i.e. tightline). This tip was so sharp that trying to do that was torture.

No problem, though. I just took a pair of (clean) nail scissors and snipped about a millimeter off of the tip. Now it's perfect for me. Maybe I can't get the end of my wing down to a micron, but that's not the kind of thing that's visible outside of a close-up photo anyway.


Here are some swatches in different types of lighting that I drew on the back of my hand before trimming the tip. You can get an idea of the shimmer and of just how thin a line you can draw with this eyeliner if you are so inclined.

Swatches of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

Swatches of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal


Swatches of Maybelline Master Precise Metallic Liquid Liner in Galactic Metal

On your actual eyelid, Galactic Metal is going to read mostly as black, but with enough shimmer to make it interesting. I found it easy to apply in a smooth, opaque line. When you go back over the line, the original liner doesn't get picked up, as can happen with some products. You can keep drawing over it to get what you need.


I applied the liner above after trimming the tip, so you can see that I probably could have got a thinner line at the inner corner if I hadn't done that (but, like I said, the stabbing!). I'm sure I could have made it thinner after trimming too, if I cared to, but that's not the kind of detail that is visible in person--certainly not behind my glasses. (Any flakes you see here are from my Maybelline mascara, briefly reviewed here, not from the eyeliner.)

This is the kind of formula that dries to a sort of plasticky film that you can almost peel off at the end of the day. It comes off in big chunks when you remove it. The advantage is that I've found it to be both water and oil resistant, which is unusual--often oil easily melts a waterproof formula and vice versa.

Here it is about 7 hours later (in worse indoor lighting). Not perfect, I guess, but in pretty damned great shape. My concealer, on the other hand, did not survive as well.


All in all, I'm quite pleased with this eyeliner and have no reservations about recommending it. It gives me a fun (shiny!!) option for my everyday makeup.

I'm curious now about the colors I didn't buy. Is it possible that the gold, for instance, could be as opaque and easy to use as this one? It's not uncommon for performance to vary by shade (again I remind you of my awful L'Oréal Carbon Black experience). Has anyone tried the other colors in this line? I'm not sure they're in stores yet--you might have to get them on Amazon or Ulta, like the corresponding metallic lipsticks. (I keep stalking the Ulta website to see if the lipstick is in stock in my local stores, because I bought the wrong color online and want to exchange it, but so far no luck.)

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Reviews in Fifty Words or Less

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I got this idea from the wonderful Makeup Withdrawal, and I'm going to give it a shot. It will be a challenge for someone as wordy as I am, but I don't think I have a lot to say about these products, so here we go!

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Radiance Perfecting Pen in Luminous Ivory

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Radiance Perfecting Pen in Luminous Ivory

Sheer, slightly luminous concealer that I use on lazy days. Makes me look less dead but doesn’t cover my dark circles completely. Faint lavender fragrance. Came from a Sephora Favorites set, but I wouldn’t buy it at full price. Lots of cheap equivalents work exactly the same way.

            
Maybelline The Falsies Volum'Express Mascara

Maybelline The Falsies Volum'Express Mascara

Decent volume and length without clumping. The curved brush and length of the bristles work well.

Maybelline The Falsies Volum'Express Mascara

I've been liking this better in month two as it gets drier. Too much flaking for me to repurchase, though.

Wet N Wild Mattifying Powder

Wet N Wild Mattifying Powder

Does the job: mattifies, invisible on my skin, fine texture. The main problem is that it contains very little product. I've used it only a couple dozen times.

Wet N Wild Mattifying Powder

It looks thick because there’s a sponge in the bottom compartment, but the pan is shallow.

Wet N Wild Mattifying Powder

For less than $5 you can get more product from Essence.

Bobbie Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Golden Pink


Got this in a Sephora Play! box. Not really pink--I'd call it peachy-beige. It's a nice, all-over-the-lid eyeshadow, and it lasts better than any other cream eyeshadow I've used, even without primer. Could make a good highlighter, too.

Swatched:

Swatch of Bobbie Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Golden Pink

Blended out:

It's ok. I bought it for double cleansing, but it's a little drying, so I only use it combined with gentle micellar water. It removes most of my makeup. The generic fruity-floral scent is a bit strong--and I always end up tasting it after I've rinsed my face. Blech.

Success! Of course, if you have questions about any of these products, I'd be happy to fill in the blanks. I'm also interested to hear your experiences with them, or recommendations for alternatives, as always. 

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Little things to make your grad student or adjunct hovel feel like a home

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I thought I'd take a weekend break from beauty posts for something a little different. I'm so not a lifestyle blogger, and I really couldn't be, because there's nothing aspirational about my lifestyle. That kind of comes with the territory when you get a Ph.D., especially in the humanities, these days. It's been three years since I got my degree, and I still don't have a permanent job, which is unfortunately not an unusual position to be in. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have gone to grad school if I'd known, necessarily, but the uncertainty has been a source of intense anxiety and stress for the past few years. (Besides, I started my Ph.D. program in 2007, before things became quite so dire, so I couldn't have known.)

I'm lucky enough to make enough money for everything I need, but I don't have extra money for things like new, coordinating furniture. Most things in my apartment were either free or the cheapest items available at Target or Ikea at the time, and as a result I have a hodgepodge of colors and finishes and styles. Let's just call it eclectic. What's more, I have moved every year for the past four years, and I'll be moving again this summer, so there's never much sense trying to find furniture to fit my apartment du jour, even if I had the resources to do so. It's fine--I don't need a fancy house--but I am someone who is pretty affected by my environment, and I find it easier to relax and to get things done if the space I'm in is visually (and otherwise) pleasant. As a result, I've collected some things over the years that make my home, if nothing else, a place I don't hate to be in. None of these are earth-shatteringly unique, but I'm hoping that maybe someone else here will find something to make their lives a tiny bit more materially comfortable too.

Framed Posters, Prints, or Maps



I like to have lots of things to hang on my walls since I tend to move from apartment to apartment every year or so. Because I know I'm going to again soon, I can't be bothered to paint my walls, and so I need to cover as much of the depressing, standard-rental off-white as possible. Posters are cheap, and they always look better in a frame. One of my favorite posters is the Polish Cleopatra poster above, but I can't find it for sale anywhere at the moment, though I got it a few years ago from Movie Poster Shop. (Amazon has lots of other great Cleopatra posters, fyi.) I also have a poster for the movie Cat People, which I've never seen, but it seemed appropriate.

I've bought cheap, plain black frames both from Ikea (cheapest) and from Amazon.

Another source of art in my apartment is a book of historic maps of Rome, which you can see in the first photo in this post. The pages in these books are designed to be removed and framed, and they include both maps and other images like etchings and vintage travel posters. You can get a books for a bunch of major cities: Paris, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.

Also, obviously, hanging your art using 3M Command Strips is the easiest way to make sure you can get everything to hang straight and (usually) not damage your rental walls in the process.

Good Sheets and Towels

It's not only a good idea to have things that look nice, it also helps me to have things that feel nice. We were lucky enough to get an amazing new mattress as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law, and I think that's the thing I'll miss the most during the next year when we move into a couple of furnished places temporarily. But even when we had a shitty Ikea bed, having decent sheets made it a lot more pleasant to sleep in. My sister got me hooked on these bamboo sheets (here's another set from Amazon) that breathe really well and just get softer and softer the more you use them.

Thick, soft towels are another luxury that's surprisingly affordable. My favorites are the Ralph Lauren brand--the big bath towel is usually about $15.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Can I Wear Brown Lipstick?

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L.A. Girl Matte Lipstick in Snuggle, NudeStix Magnetic Matte in Greystone, and Maybelline ColorSensational Maple Kiss
We've been in the midst of a 90s retro revival (sometimes 70s-via-90s) in fashion and beauty for a few years now, for better or for worse. The rule I've heard a lot about wearing throwback trends is that if you wore it the first time around, you shouldn't wear it when it comes back. That rings pretty true to me, I suppose, but then that's probably because the things I wore as a teenager aren't exactly coming back as styles that suit suit my 35-year-old self. Not that I am advocating some amorphous age-appropriateness rule here. I'm just saying that the things I wore as a teenager are not things that I want to wear as an adult. If you'd like to borrow my wide-leg carpenter khakis or my gold cross chokers or my white eyeliner, they are probably still stored away somewhere in my parents' attic. I think, however, that if you follow that trend rule too strictly, you can end up stuck in a rut because you avoid updating your look at all for fear of looking ridiculous. I'm trying to find my place in the space between.

So while not long ago the thought of reviving trends from my high school years would have brought to mind this, of which I long ago cycled past acceptance and into rejection:

I just watched Buffy again earlier this year, and her makeup is usually much better than this.
I'm now used to seeing similar colors and textures made modern and fresh and appealing. (I'm also super into the shimmery and metallic lipsticks we're getting after years of matte everything--more on that another time!) I used to think that I just can't do brown lipsticks (witness my lack of success with the Bite Beauty Multisticks). Part of the problem is that brown lipsticks, perhaps more than most colors other than red, are finnicky, and you might have to try a whole bunch of options before you find the one that's right for you. When I decided to try the whole brown lipstick thing again, I remembered that I had one stuck in a reject drawer: Maybelline Maple Kiss. Hooray for hoarding! When I tried on Maple Kiss again (see below), my first thought was, "Wow, this actually looks great!" My second thought was, "Wait, am I just being brainwashed by trends?" But on further reflection, I don't think that's exactly what's happening. In 2014, you would be hard pressed to find warm brown lipsticks being presented in an updated, attractive way. In 2017, those images are everywhere.

If you've watched TV in the last six months or so, you've seen this. For example, Jess from New Girl, who typically wore reddish or rosy lipsticks in the past shifted to a more orangey-brown family in the last season.

Peach? Sienna? Terracotta? Clay? Whatever.
The more exposure we have to new things presented in aesthetically pleasing ways, the more we can come to appreciate them as beautiful. (If you are trying to work on body acceptance, it can work in a similar way. The more beautiful images of bodies of all shapes and sizes you're exposed to, the more you'll train yourself to find them attractive--or you'll suddenly realize it's happened without any effort.)

Brown has been happening for a while, but I largely avoided the corpsey greige lips of the last few years, while admiring them, because they felt like too much of a high-maintenance statement look for my preferences. I have a handful of brownish lipsticks at this point, but I'm looking at three of them here that represent different takes on the latest version of the look, which I think are both current and easily wearable. This is my personal test of whether or not I want to wear brown lipstick (spoiler: yes), and if so, what version I like best.

Swatches of L.A. Girl Matte Lipstick in Snuggle, NudeStix Magnetic Matte in Greystone, and Maybelline ColorSensational Maple Kiss
Swatches of L.A. Girl Matte Lipstick in Snuggle, NudeStix Magnetic Matte in Greystone, and Maybelline ColorSensational Maple Kiss
The three lipsticks pictured above fall into three categories: brownish nude, true brown, and warm/terracotta brown.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Sales on MAC, Paula's Choice, Bareminerals, etc.

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Hautelook is interesting in that you can find new brands popping up now and then. MAC is the latest, though just the lip pencils and Huggable lipsticks are available, marked down 48%. I've heard good things about the Huggables--can anyone confirm? (Also, it seems like MAC is suddenly appearing in a bunch of new places like Ulta and Birchbox. A sign of declining sales maybe?) Hautelook also has Butter London (YOU SHOULD GET TWO FINGERED SALUTE!), Kate Somerville, and some other brands on sale if you want to make your shipping (~$6) go further.

Paula's Choice has 20% off plus free shipping this week, which I think is about as big a sale as they offer. No code needed. (You can also get $10 off using my referral link if you're a new customer, and see my various Paula's Choice reviews here.) You can get an extra 10% cash back from Ebates, too, which is pretty great.

Today is the last day of the Bareminerals Friends & Family Sale, which also gives you 20% plus free shipping (no code needed). Also offering that extra 10% off through Ebates. The eyeshadow duo in "The Epiphany", for $12, includes the shade A-ha, which is a gorgeous shade that's similar to Maybelline Bad to the Bronze (swatched here), but in powder form.

Most of the Sephora sales I mentioned last week are still going on too.

Anything I missed?

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Sephora Play! May Review

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Sephora Play! May Review

I've had a Sephora Play! sample subscription for three months now, so I think it's time to post a quick review. I liked the selection I received in May, my most recent box, quite a lot. The first two months, however, left me with some doubts. I was convinced to keep it going for another month, and I hope this is the beginning of a positive trend. You can see my March bag here (which was just ok) and my April bag here (which I found really boring). I do like this subscription so far more than I liked Birchbox, particularly at the end of my year of that subscription. The sizes of the samples here are generous, and if you're judging by the prices of the full-size versions, you're certainly getting your $10 worth. (You can decide for yourself if you think those prices are reasonable.) No hotel toiletries!!!

The theme of May's box was The Rising Stars, which may explain why I enjoyed it so much. It contains some brands that I'd heard of, and some that I hadn't, but nothing here that I'd tried before. I haven't used every sample in this box yet, but I'll give you my thoughts on those that I have. Here's what I got:

Grande Lips Hydrating Lip Plumper: Full size $27. This seems to be a sort of lip serum that does the usual thing that lip plumpers do, i.e. irritate your lips so that they swell up a bit. I haven't tried it, and I'm not sure that I will, because products like this tend to make my lips worse in the long run. Have any of you used this one? If I try it, will I regret it?

Maison Margiela Replica Beach Walk Eau de Toilette: Full size $126. I'd been wanting to try one of the Replica fragrances. This stuff smells really interesting when I first apply it, but it dries down to a one-note coconut sunscreen scent on me, unfortunately.

Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt: Full size $53. This is a shampoo with salt in it. I've used it two or three times so far, and I have at least that many uses left, so the sample is a great size. It smells fantastic and works well to clean the build up from dry shampoo from my scalp. My hair feels a little rough when I rinse it out, just like it feels after it's been in salt water. Conditioner fixes the texture just fine. But instead of buying this scrub, I'd suggest just mixing a lot of salt into your regular shampoo.

Nudestix Magnetic Matte Lip Color in Greystone: Full size $24. Sephora calls this "greige" for some reason. You can see from the swatch below that it is in no way either grey or beige. It's a dark, neutral brown. It's not a particularly great color for me, but I applaud Sephora for including a more adventurous option than the typical red or nude. The formula is light and comfortable.

Sephora Play! May Swatches

Tréstique Highlight & Perfect Multipurpose Stick: Full size $34. I haven't used this highlighter stick on my face yet, but it feels similar in texture to Benefit Watt's Up. I swatched them together below. If Watt's Up is too warm or dark for you, you might prefer this (though there are a million cheaper ways to highlight).

Swatches of Tréstique Highlight & Perfect Multipurpose Stick and Benefit Watt's Up
Left: Tréstique. Right: Benefit.
Sunday Riley Ceramic Slip Clay Cleanser: Full size $45. I've been curious about Sunday Riley, because it gets all the hype. I would have been more excited to try something other than a cleanser, but hey. Particularly since this cleanser warns that it shouldn't be used around the eyes, and I have oily eyelids, so I need to be able to use my cleanser near my eyes. I have seen this cleanser on Instagram a lot, so it seems to be popular, but I haven't tried it yet. I tend to save cleanser minis for travel.

All in all, May was an interesting month. I should get my June bag before too long, so fingers crossed for another winner!

Monday, June 5, 2017

My Cheap Favorites: the best bath, body, and hair products for $10 and under

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It's been over a year since I wrote my last cheap favorites master post! I still stand by my choices there, and I don't think I'd change any of them now if I had to do it over. I've had in mind to write this additional post all along, but since I'm admittedly not that picky about products in this category, it hasn't felt so pressing. Still, maybe there's something here for you to discover (or something you can suggest to me!).


Tree Hut Almond and Honey Body Wash

Favorite Body Washes: I don't really take baths, so all I've got here are shower products. My criteria for a good body wash or shower gel are simple: gets me clean, doesn't dry out my skin, smells good. There are lots of affordable options that check all of those boxes. I love almond fragrance when it's done well, and Tree Hut Almond and Honey Body Wash does it well. It's also very moisturizing and has a lovely texture. Luxurious, even. I like this so much that I haven't tried any of the other scents, though I suppose I should. The Almond variety is a bit difficult to find in stores. I got this one at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $6.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Sephora Sales

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While I work on taking photos for my next post,  I thought I'd point out that Sephora has a ton of stuff on sale right now.

The Urban Decay Basquiat collection has been marked down. Maybe you felt icky about the whole thing, but you feel better buying it on sale? Because you're not encouraging that kind of behavior? (Am I talking to myself?)

All of the Esteé Edit line is there, and I'm guessing it's being discontinued, so if you actually liked something, now would be the time to grab it.

A bunch of the wonderful Formula X nail polishes are back for $2 a piece. I also like the nail cleanser, though don't believe them when they say it's "non-drying." It keeps my polish on longer, but I use it sparingly.

There's also a Bite Beauty set with a metallic gloss and two of the Multisticks on sale, if you are one of the people for whom those work well (i.e. not me).

The shimmery Tarte Make Believe in Yourself palette has been marked down to $30.

And again, the Chic It Easy kit is a great deal at $25 with a full-size YSL Touche Éclat and full-size Nars Jungle Red lipstick (though I didn't enjoy the Caudalie spray, personally).

As always, if you place more than two orders from Sephora a year, it's worthwhile to get the Flash Shipping, so you can avoid paying for shipping after that. And you can get another 4% back from Ebates.
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