Lackluster Liquid Liner: Review of Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Intense Black

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
Okay, maybe "lackluster" is a little harsh, but I have a hard time resisting alliteration. The fact is that this eyeliner is fine, but since I've so often heard that it's THE BEST and since it costs $22, I was hoping for better than fine.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner is felt-tip liquid liner that works like a marker, with the "ink" wicking up through the tip. This style of liquid liner is less messy than some other formats, but the downside, in my experience, is that the tip can get clogged or not flow immediately. If you apply your eyeliner after your eyeshadow, which you need to do to get the cleanest, crispest line, then it can pick up the product below and prevent the liquid from flowing properly. I also find that, even though I store the eyeliner vertically with the cap down, if I try to draw a line on my eye immediately after uncapping it, it's usually a little weak. I have to scribble on the back of my hand a little to really get the product flowing.

The other problem I tend to have with this style of eyeliner--and this applies to all the brands I've tried--is that the tip wears down quickly and becomes sort of floppy, which prevents drawing a perfectly sharp point. You can see that in the photo below, my wing is not "pointy enough to kill a man." It was the best I could get out of it after using this pen for a few months (though only a couple of times a week). The tip of this particular eyeliner also tends to end up with long fibers clinging to the end of it, which are part of the material of the tip. I have to pick them off with my fingers, making a mess of my fingertips. And it's hard to clean up (see below). On the plus side, I've been using it for months now, and it hasn't shown any signs of drying up.

The Black shade is a very dark, opaque, inky black, which is great. It has a little sheen to it--it's not completely matte. It's easy to draw thin or thick lines by varying the pressure. If you go over a line you've already drawn, the product below doesn't get picked up, which is has been a source of frustration for me with eyeliners in the past.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner definitely lives up to its waterproof claim, though not the "stay all day" claim, at least for me. It's very difficult to remove, even with a dual-phase makeup remover. I sometimes use this pen to label swatches I make on my arm, so that when I come back to my photos later, I know what's what. Here's my arm after trying to remove the marks with oil, makeup remover, and soap, AND THEN SHOWERING. I even used a scrubby Salux cloth in the shower, and the eyeliner isn't 100% gone. Maybe I should switch to Sharpie?

So if your main problem with liquid eyeliners is that they smear when your eyes water, that's probably not going to be a problem if you use this one. Unfortunately, despite being difficult to deliberately remove with oil, my oily eyelids devour this stuff just like any other eye makeup. Even with primer. Here's the state of my eyeliner after about 6 hours. And the photo below was taken in the winter, when I wasn't even at my oiliest.

You can see that the oil in my skin has sort of eaten the eyeliner away and caused it to crumble and flake, even though my eyeshadow has survived. The liner has completely disappeared at the outer corner of my eye where my crease dips low (for a clearer image of what I'm talking about, see this post). It still looked okay with my eye open, though the edges of the line had become more jagged and the tip of the wing was no longer sharp.

Overall, it's a decent liquid eyeliner. If I'm going to spend $22, however, I want something spectacular. I can find things that perform just as well as this, if not better, at drugstore prices. My favorite felt tip eyeliner is L'Oreal Lineur Intense ($7-10) (short review here), which I will write a detailed post about once I've used up this Stila liner. I am also curious about the Physician's Formula Lash Boosting eyeliner ($8-12) that Renee at Bad Outfit, Great Lipstick recently reviewed. I've added that one to my wishlist.

What do you look for in a liquid eyeliner? Have you found one that meets all your requirements?

Zoya raises prices to $10 a bottle

Hope you bought any Zoya polishes you wanted in their last sale, because they are now $10 a bottle! Sorry, as much as I love Zoya, that's way too much for me. They've raised the price $2 in just over 2 years--that's pretty steep when you think of it in terms of percentage.

I know there are much more expensive polishes out there, but I've never been inspired to buy them. I've tried some out and read lots of reviews, and I don't see a big (or any) difference that can be correlated to price. What's your upper limit for polish?

Poof! Review of Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
I'm a big user of dry shampoo, since I have oily-yet-dry hair. If I can go a day without washing it, I will, to prevent the lengths from drying it out any more than necessary. But the roots get greasy quickly, so dry shampoo is absolutely necessary if I want to go more than 24 hours between washes. In fact, even if I wash my hair before bed, I usually need a little dry shampoo to get me through the next day without my hair going limp and stringy. In a pinch, corn starch works just fine. But sprays are usually easier and quicker to use, so I've tried (and reviewed) a lot of them in an attempt to identify my favorite one.

And I think I have found the best one! Only it's not the product I'm reviewing here. It's Batiste Dry Shampoo in Cherry, which costs about $8. The many other fragrances of Batiste presumably work just as well, but this is my favorite scent. I went through two cans last fall and winter and didn't have time to write up a proper review (just a quick one on Instagram). When I replace it, I will review it, finally.

In the meantime, I've been using Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk. Like many of the other pricier products I've reviewed here during the last year, I wouldn't have tried this if I hadn't been able to use Birchbox points to buy it. Even so, I got it in a Birchbox sale, so I didn't have to spend a full $20 worth of points on it. Klorane always pops up when people talk about their favorite dry shampoos, so I wanted to see if it was somehow better than the cheaper ones I've used. I've fallen into that trap before. It's not. But it does have some good qualities.

One of the most interesting things about this dry shampoo is the packaging. It's not an aerosol can. It's a flexible plastic bottle that you squeeze to send a poof of powder out of the nozzle. It works pretty well, although of course you can't get a continuous spray like you can with an aerosol, so you tend to end up with powder concentrated in certain spots. But non-aerosol dry shampoos seem to last a lot longer than aerosols. I just finished the Oscar Blandi powder reviewed here last week, and I've been alternating this Klorane with that since at least last December, and I think it's still about half full. (It also comes in a regular aerosol can.)

Serious Retinol: Review of Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment (with before and after photos)

Disclosure: Affiliate/referral links.

Enter here by December 21 for a chance to win this product!

Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment

When Paula's Choice initially came out with their Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment, I wasn't especially interested. I'd worked through two very generously-sized bottles of their retinol serum (reviewed here) without seeing any clear results at all. But then I read Lab Muffin's review of the new retinol treatment, and I decided to add a sample, in a 0.16 oz. pump bottle, to my next order. Cheap as I am, I was particularly interested in the value breakdown Lab Muffin provides, showing that this product is really competitively priced, at least in Australia. As I understand it, cosmetics are really fucking expensive in Australia, but her price analysis seems promising anyway. Unfortunately, I am not mathematically inclined, so I haven't calculated a similar comparison among U.S. products (but if you are, and you want to share, that would be really exciting). The price of the full-size bottle is $56, which is not exactly cheap, so it's nice to feel like I'm spending my money relatively wisely. Especially since it turns out that I really like this stuff, and I want to keep buying it. Though it's mainly marketed as anti-aging, I'd also recommend this stuff if you have problems with clogged pores and/or breakouts, like I do. (More on how to save some money on it at the end of the post.)

I do suggest trying the sample size if you think this might work for you, because I got 4-5 weeks of use out of it. Since you only use a "pea-sized" amount each time, and you have to gradually increase the frequency of use, the sample contains more than enough to decide if it's right for you. You can see the main claims Paula's Choice makes about this product's purpose on the bottle above, i.e. to improve skin's firmness, smooth wrinkles/lines, reduce dark spots, and refine pores.

One pump of Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment

During my initial testing period, I used the retinol treatment 2-4 times a week, as I adjusted to it and tried to determine what my skin could tolerate. I'm glad I read the Lab Muffin review first, because that meant I knew to expect peeling. And holy shit, the peeling. It's not painful, red peeling or anything, but I did lightly molt for the first few weeks I tested it. The peeling doesn't start immediately, at least for me - it would show up, reliably, 36-48 hours after I used the retinol. It can be controlled with lots of moisturizing, but unless your skin is super tough, do expect peeling. I recommend going slow when you start. Use only a small amount the first several times, or mix it half and half with moisturizer. That's what I did the second time around, after I got a full bottle and started the process over again, and the peeling was much less dramatic.

Another side effect that I noticed was that it seems to make my skin more sensitive to other products that I usually don't react to. Nothing major, but I sometimes notice a slight burning sensation when using my regular moisturizer or even things like liquid highlighters. Odd.

Anyway, results! I liked what was happening to my skin while I used this, but I wanted to be sure it was really the result of the retinol and not just a coincidence or something. I tend to be paranoid and to have a bad memory, which makes testing skincare products a pain in the ass. Luckily (?), the disruption of moving (twice), traveling, and housesitting in August interrupted my usual skin care routine and allowed me to sort things out. I packed up both this retinol treatment and the Paula's Choice 2% BHA liquid (also reviewed here) that I have been using for years, and I didn't have access to either of them for a couple of weeks. That, combined with stress, meant that my skin gave me a big old fuck you, and I ended up with a mess to straighten out.

I broke out really bad, I had seriously clogged pores, and my skin looked dull and just generally shitty. I started back in with just the BHA liquid for a week or two, and things improved noticeably. Definitely fewer blackhead and congestion. So, okay good, I haven't been wasting my money on that stuff all this time. Then I cracked open my new, big bottle of 1% retinol and an even greater improvement was noticeable immediately.

I don't really like using vague language like "brighter skin," or "radiant," or "luminous," or whatever, because I feel like a slippery ad man. What exactly do those adjectives really mean? They seem accurate, to some extent, for the results I get from this retinol treatment, but I'm going to try to be more specific. I think the main thing it does for my skin is keep my pores clearer than they would otherwise be, which in turn makes them appear smaller. Smaller pores make my skin, overall, look smoother, and that is the main thing that gives it a "radiant" appearance. For me, "refining pores" is the claim by Paula's Choice that I can really see when I use this.

I still get hormonal breakouts on my chin, but with this product they clear up more quickly and are less intense overall. When I stopped using it, those cystic zits came back with a vengeance and would not fuck off until I went back on the retinol. I'm not sure about overall firmness, but I don't (yet) have a lot of sag in my skin that I'm concerned about. I don't have many dark spots, but my freckles haven't really diminished, which is fine with me. I didn't think it was doing anything for lines until I looked at the following photos side by side. The first one is from May 2015, about 6 weeks before I started testing this retinol treatment, and the second is from the end of July, right as I was finishing up the sample. (I started to use it again toward the end of August.)

Before and after using Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment for a month

It's hard to replicate lighting conditions exactly when taking photos like this months apart, and so the lighting is a bit harsher (at a more oblique angle) in the before photo. But I examined several different before and after photos taken on these same dates, and the comparison here is accurate. I think it's clear that I haven't added a filter or anything to the after photo, and I'm not wearing makeup (or anything but moisturizer) in either one. You can see that I still have a bit of hormonal chin acne and any freckles I had are still there in the after photo. The overall texture of my skin, however, is smoother, and that smile line between my mouth and nose is still there, but maybe slightly diminished. These subtle improvements add up to my skin generally just looking better.

In my current regimen, I use the Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment every third day, because that allows me to combine it with BHA liquid for optimal exfoliation with minimal peeling. You are not supposed to use BHA or AHA exfoliants at the same time as this retinol. So my routine goes something like this:

Day 1: one pump of retinol treatment in the evening on my entire face, except the eye area, since you're supposed to keep it away from there. I use a separate moisturizer around my eyes. I may or may not add extra moisturizer to the retinol, but it already contains things like glycerin and emollients, so it's usually moisturizing enough on its own for my combination-oily skin.

Day 2: light moisturizer and/or hydrating serum in the morning and evening. I find that using something with hyaluronic acid works well to prevent peeling. The Paula's Choice Antioxidant Concentrate Serum (reviewed here) worked - though I ran out a week ago and have been adding Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster to my regular Moisture Gel since then (also reviewed here - yes, I seem to be a Paula's Choice fangirl, but you already knew that).

Day 3: BHA liquid in the morning or evening, whenever I remember.

Day 4: return to Day 1 (and I use the same moisturizer as Day 2 on Days 1 and 3 as well, as needed).

My skin is looking good with this routine. It's not perfect - I still get the occasional blackhead or pimple, and I still have human skin with pores. But I'm getting a lot of good things from the combination; besides the retinol, there's vitamin C and peptides in the treatment, and then there is the BHA and the antioxidants and everything else in the other products. I'm not hating my face at the moment. My skin is the best it has been in quite some time.

So. I'm recommending something that costs $55. Maybe you have health insurance that covers other retinoids, and that is a more affordable route to go for this kind of thing. I don't, and if you don't either (or you want to try something a bit gentler), here are some options for buying it. I usually get things directly from the Paula's Choice website, because they have frequent sales and free shipping deals. Right now they have 20% any one item and free shipping on $50+. Soon they will probably have a sale on all of their "Clinical" products or all of their retinol products or something, and it will probably be 15-20% off. If you don't already have a Paula's Choice account, you can also get $10 off your first $15+ order by using someone's invite link (here's mine).

Another option, if you've already used your $10-off, is to buy Paula's Choice stuff from the Nordstrom website. Here's the 1% retinol. This is a good way to go if there isn't an appealing sale on the Paula's Choice site, because Nordstrom always has free shipping and free returns. You can also collect your rewards points, if that's a thing you do. Nordstrom doesn't have the sample size, however, which you can only get here from Paula's Choice, and I really recommend trying that out first. Either way, you should also shop through Ebates and get at least 3% cash back from Nordstrom or 5% from Paula's Choice (here's my previous post about Ebates in case you're not familiar). I think that about covers it as far as saving money on this shit goes.

Have you used retinol? Does it work for you? I assumed it didn't do anything for me, but it looks like I needed a higher concentration than I had tried in the past in order to get results.

The Emperor's New Lipstick: Lipstick Queen Jean Queen Swatches, Comparison, and Review

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
Here's something that I was pretty excited to try. Since I don't typically spend $22 on a single lipstick, I used my last stash of Birchbox points to get it. I've heard all sorts of good things about the Lipstick Queen formula (moisturizing, comfortable, easy to use, etc.), and I went with Jean Queen, because I wanted something work appropriate and easy to reapply. And that it is. That it is.

The packaging is great, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm a sucker for metallic blue, personally.

Lipstick Queen Jean Queen

The lipstick itself is a sort of neutral, rosy shade. Generally fits in the MLBB (My Lips But Better) category.

Lipstick Queen Jean Queen

This lipstick, as the name suggests, is designed to be worn with denim. Which . . . what? I take that to mean it's casual and versatile, like jeans. It's also supposed to be a "gentle step up from nude" and "sheer and moisturizing."

So with the exception of one of those things (which I will get to), I have found it to be exactly as advertised - and yet I was disappointed, so I'm glad I didn't spend 22 real dollars on it. I suppose I should have expected the results I got, because I have naturally quite pigmented lips, and sheer products tend barely to show up on me at all. That's the case with Jean Queen. It's essentially a tinted lip balm in a lipstick tube.

Here's what my lips look like with just clear lip balm. You can see that they are rather pink, but don't have a clearly defined margin and they are pretty blotchy. Those are things that I don't think anyone would notice at a regular distance (or care about if they did), but you can see them in the closeup.

And here are my lips wearing Jean Queen:

There is a slight difference, yes, but it's minimal (and enhanced by better lighting in the second photo). Definitely "gentle" and "sheer" as advertised.

I guess I would be okay with this being a very expensive tinted lip balm, on par price-wise with the Fresh Sugar balms, if it wasn't for one major problem. It's the same problem I have with the Fresh balms: it's not moisturizing. Not for me. The one thing I read repeatedly about Lipstick Queen was how hydrating and comfortable their lipsticks are. I'm sure that's true for some people. For me, Jean Queen is actually slightly drying. Certainly not moisturizing. The Fresh balms, at least, are just not moisturizing in my experience - they don't actually make things worse.

I guess I also expect a sheer lipstick to be a step up in pigmentation from a tinted balm, and this really isn't. I put on Jean Queen the other day and asked my boyfriend if he could tell that I was wearing something on my lips. He responded proudly, "Yes! They are shiny! Sort of!" But when I asked if they were a different color than usual, he just sort of squinted at me and frowned.

Below is Jean Queen compared to a bunch of other lip products I have that belong in the same rosy-pink-MLBB category. As you can see, Jean Queen is about as sheer as Fresh Sugar in Rosé. On me, I'd classify the pigmentation of Rosé as "almost nothing" vs. Jean Queen's "maybe a little something?" You can see the texture difference in the swatch as well. The Fresh balm is more emollient.

From left to right: (1) Fresh Sugar Tinted Lip Treatment in Rosé, (2) Lipstick Queen Jean Queen, (3) e.l.f. Essential Lipstick in Posh (reviewed here), (4) e.l.f. Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Cherry Tart (reviewed here), (5) Essence Stay With Me Gloss in Choose Me! (reviewed here/discontinued), and (6) Revlon Balm Stain in Honey (reviewed here with indoor lighting where it looks more brownish).

The color of Jean Queen and Revlon Honey are surprisingly similar, though Honey is not an exact dupe--more pigmented and not drying for me, so I much prefer it. It's a lot more reasonably priced, too, at $7-10.

In the end, I'm not going to declare that you should absolutely not buy Jean Queen, because I know there are some people who will (and do) love it. If you don't have sensitive lips that are easily dried out by lipstick, then you may find it perfectly comfortable to wear (and even moisturizing, by many accounts). Maybe you are one of those people who swears by the Fresh balms that I hate and so your lips just respond to different things than mine do (they both have a lot of castor oil in them, if that means anything). If you don't have deeply pigmented lips, then you may find the subtle tint really pretty. It is a lovely color. I just wish there was more of it. But if you have lips like mine - dry and pigmented - you might also find this a disappointing product. For $22 and all the hype, this was a miss for me. Try Revlon Honey instead.

Do you have Jean Queen? Any strong feelings either way?

My Not-Cheap Favorites (and How to Avoid Paying Full Price for Them, If At All Possible)

See my cheap favorites here.

Okay, I confess, not every makeup/skin care product I use is super cheap. Sometimes I manage to get something fancy for a good price. Other times I haven't found a cheap option that I like as much as the pricier one. I feel like it occasionally makes financial sense to pay the extra $5-10 when you know something is just right, rather than to experiment with a bunch of cheaper options and end up spending more in the process. Your threshold and mine for what is a reasonable price to pay to avoid gambling on something new will differ. For example, I know there are other gel moisturizers that might substitute for the Paula's Choice one I've listed below. For $17 (on sale), I'll just buy the Paula's Choice version, because I love it. If it cost $20+, I would probably look around for a substitute.

I'm linking to all of these products and giving you their regular price, but honestly, I don't think I have ever bought one of them for full price. If I have tips for finding these for cheaper, I've included them below.

The Balm Stainiac in Beauty Queen, $17

This stain has an awesome gel formula, so it doesn't bleed all over the fucking place like Benefit Benetint. That means I can actually use it to outline my lips and then fill them in.  It can be used for cheeks too, but I tend not to use it that way. On my lips it leaves a nice, deep pink stain. Sometimes I wear it under another lip color so that when that inevitably wears off, I'll be left with this. It also feels somehow really soft and luxurious to apply. I know that sounds weird, but I like it. 

I got this for free using my Birchbox points, so if you have any of those saved up, this would be a good choice. At the time I'm writing this, it's $14 on Amazon, which is a little better, at least.

Shameful Behavior

If you needed more convincing to replace your Smashbox primer with Monistat Chafing Relief Gel, how about this? (Warning: gross fat-shaming behavior at the link.) The main problem, in my view, is how the company handled the issue. Apparently reaching out to her on Facebook, but then never actually contacting her? Shameful. That's the same as endorsing the behavior of that individual.

(If anyone has an update on this story, I'd be glad to hear it, but I assume that nothing more has been done.)

Temptalia's thoughts on when to spend lots of money on a product

I rarely spend more than $10 on any one makeup/skincare product. Usually not more than $5. If I want something more expensive, I wait for a good sale, or use loyalty points, etc. But not everyone is as cheap as me.

Here's Temptalia's take on how she decides if something pricey is worth laying out the cash for.