My Desert Island Makeup

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A tropical backdrop would be more appropriate, but slow unpackers can't be choosers.

I moved to a new apartment last week, and I still haven't found unpacked most of my makeup. I also haven't unpacked my camera, so please accept this shitty photo that I took with my phone.

In the meantime, I've been subsisting on a makeup diet limited mainly to the few things I shoved in my dufflebag to get me through the first few days. Those days have extended to over a week, and here we still are. So I guess these are my desert island makeup essentials: not the most exciting things I own, but the things I can use day after day and be totally satisfied.

I'll go through the items in the photo clockwise starting at the upper left corner. Swatches and more detail are available at the previous posts I've linked below if you're curious. I've reviewed most of them--they made it to the island for a reason!

Wet N Wild ColorIcon Blush in Pearlescent Pink (reviewed briefly here, compared to Nars Orgasm here). I have the old version of this blush, which I've heard has been reformulated in the new line and is no longer as perfect. Can anyone confirm? (This old one is still available on Amazon for under $5, but apparently only 2 left!) I can use this everyday and it's always flattering on me. Just pigmented enough that it's easy to apply without layering, but not so pigmented that I risk clown-face. The only flaw is that in direct sunlight it's a little sparklier than I'd like, but it's not too obnoxious.

Paula's Choice Endless Lash Mascara. This is a decent mascara, but overpriced. It's what I'm using now, but if I were actually headed to a desert island I'd prefer to have a tube of Covergirl LashBlast Volume with me (reviewed here).

Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer in Fondant (reviewed here). Still the best undereye concealer I've used. I recently bought a new tube in the shade Butter Cream to see if it's a better match. I'll open that when I'm getting closer to finishing this one. The yellow undertones in Fondant do a good job of canceling out the purple under my eyes, but it's not ideal elsewhere on my face.

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze (reviewed here). It's quick to smear on eyelids with my finger in the morning and it always looks pretty. I just recently hit pan on this jar that I've had for a couple of years, but I think I have at least a year to go. Amazon has it on sale for less than $4 (with coupon) right now.

TheBalm Stainiac. This is one thing that I've loved for years and never reviewed, because it photographs terribly. In a closeup shot of my lips it just looks patchy. In real life, it adds a nice pink flush--probably the slight unevenness helps it look more natural. (I can see how it might not look great on lips that are lighter than mine, though.) It's comfortable and longlasting. I can apply lip balm right over top without affecting the stain. I don't use it on my cheeks, because I find it hard to blend smoothly.

Shiseido Natural Eyebrow Pencil in Ash Blond (swatched here). I am using this sample I got from Choix, because I finished up my last Avon Ultra Luxury pencil (reviewed here). I have another one somewhere, but I haven't dug it out. I prefer the Avon pencil slightly, but in general I find pencils to be the easiest and quickest eyebrow product to use, provided they are hard enough that they don't deposit a ton of product and make a mess.

PUR Cosmetics 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Powder Foundation. I haven't completely made up my mind about this stuff. I like how it applies and how it looks on my face, but it picks up sunscreen from my brush and forms a hard film on the surface. That might be a problem worth dealing with. I really like combining base and powder into one step. Any recommendations for other pressed powder foundations? I don't really like messing around with BareMinerals loose powder, and I find it looks heavier than I like, anyway.

Black Radiance Eyeshadow Primer (reviewed here). Without this stuff, my eyeshadow would melt right off in 15 minutes in this heat. I've also found that eyeshadow primer works well to keep concealer attached to ugly chin zits, fyi.

So that's been my #FOTD for a lot of days now. Soon I will pull out all of my other shit and be more creative, but this works in a pinch.

What makeup would you want to have with you on a desert island? Basics like this or something more exciting? (Let's all pretend that we would actually wear makeup on a desert island for some reason instead of just eating leaves and crying.)

Revlon Colorburst Moisture Stain in Cannes Crush (Review)

So it occurred to me that if I could take mediocre photos with my phone and post them to Instagram, I could also take mediocre photos with my phone and post them to my blog, cutting out at least part of the process and saving some time. What a treat for you. Let's face it, though, if you are someone who demands flawless photography, you're probably not a reader of my blog anyway.

Here's a quick review of this glossy stain stuff from Revlon. On the plus side, it is a gorgeous pinkish coral color, it does feel moisturizing, and it does leave a stain. On the minus, the pretty coral glossiness wears away quite quickly, and on my lips, at least, which are fairly pigmented, the stain just ends up being slightly pink. That fucking awesome coral lasts maybe 30-40 min tops. I wouldn't be too disappointed it it were a regular gloss, but since it's supposed to stain, it's a big womp womp.

Immediately after applying, it's vibrant, glossy, and a little milky. It can look slightly patchy, but it becomes more translucent within minutes, so the patchiness goes away.

This second photo was taken about 20 min later. As you can see, most of the gloss has worn off and the color is less vibrant. The stain tends to wear away more in the middle of my lips, but that's pretty normal.

So while I don't dislike this shit, exactly, I'm kind of disappointed that this was what I decided to use my precious CVS bucks on. I already have plenty of pink lip products, including stains. I wanted coral. I'm trying not to buy any more makeup these days because I have way too fucking much, and this was sadly not an exciting way to break that no buy streak.

It's not a bad product and you might have better luck if your lips are less pigmented or if you choose a different shade. At 0.27 oz. it's bigger than most glosses. If you already own any of the recent glossy stains that pretty much every company has been putting out, including the ones in the photo below, then you basically know how it's going to feel and apply, etc. I'd say it's closest to the L'Oreal Colour Caresse Wet Shine Stain (briefly reviewed here), which also starts out a little more milky/opaque and then sets to a more translucent appearance.

(And then I finished writing this post on my phone and realized that the Blogger app doesn't let you add links so I had to do that on my computer, and it screws up the formatting, and what the fuck, why is it so terrible? I tried.)

Two drugstore stain glosses: Wet N Wild Fergie Vicious Varnish High Shine Lip Stain in Flawless and Milani Power Lip Lasting & Moisturizing Gloss Stain in Cabernet Blend

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
It's been a while. Oops. In the meantime, I managed to get a part time job, so I'm at least nominally employed. And my cat got sick again, which makes that about the 500th time in the last year. She's fine now, but I think that if she decides she needs any additional medical care, she's going to have to get a job and stop mooching off of me.

There have been other distractions, but let's just get back to the damned makeup, shall we?

I got both of these stain-gloss things a few months ago at about the same time, so it makes sense to me to review them together.

Wet N Wild Fergie Vicious Varnish High Shine Lip Stain in Flawless and Milani Power Lip Lasting & Moisturizing Gloss Stain in Cabernet Blend

Let's start with Wet N Wild Fergie Vicious Varnish High Shine Lip Stain in Flawless ($3.50). One thing both of these products have in common is long fucking names. The Wet N Wild stuff has a really interesting, slippery, and almost gelatinous texture. Sounds nice, right? Ha. Well, the closest thing I have to it is a L'Oreal Colour Caresse Wet Shine Stain (review here), which makes sense, since that's also a stain-gloss. The L'Oreal's texture is a little stickier, though. I've never used anything quite like this Wet N Wild stain. I do like how it feels, but it might take getting used to for some people. It's packaged in your typical gloss tube with a particularly long and flexible doe foot applicator.

Wet N Wild Fergie Vicious Varnish High Shine Lip Stain in Flawless

Fix Your Face: Recent ULTA brand makeup purchases (swatches and review)

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I bought a few ULTA brand products recently, so I thought I'd show you swatches, in case you're interested in your own spree. These are all good options.

From left to right in the photos below: (1) Metallic Automatic Eyeliner in Starlet; (2) Metallic Automatic Eyeliner in Golden Eyes; (3) Automatic Eyeliner in Teal Blue; (4) Smokey Eyes Automatic Eyeliner in Cobalt; (5) Automatic Lip Liner in Bloom; (6) Lip Crayon in Fashionista; and (7) Cheek Stain in Desire.

In natural light (colors of the gold and teal eyeliner and pink lipliner aren't quite right).