Urban Decay Backtalk Vice Lipstick Comparisons (plus a quick review of NYX Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil in Lowkey)

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Urban Decay's Vice Lipstick in Backtalk, in their Comfort Matte finish, is one of the most popular shades in that huge line. They even made a whole eye and face palette based on it. It's in that dusty pink/mauve/MLBB (my-lips-but-better) family, which is the largest category of lip products in my hoard. Despite its popularity and my personal preference for this type of shade, there's something about Backtalk that's just a little off when I wear it. It's not that it looks bad, exactly, but it also doesn't make my face look better than it did without any lipstick.

I decided to swatch all my lipsticks that are even remotely similar to see if I can pick out any patterns and discern why Backtalk doesn't work for me. And since I was doing that, I figured I might as well post them here for you, in case you want to find/avoid dupes--or in case you can help me answer my question.

Here are the swatches, in no particular order. The first swatch in every photo is always Urban Decay Backtalk.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk

2. Bite Beauty Pepper (Luminous Creme formula)

3. Bite Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in Glacé

4. BareMinerals GEN NUDE Liquid Lipstick in Swag

5. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lovesick

6. Make Up For Ever Artist Rouge Lipstick in Rosewood

7. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Fig

So of the lipsticks in this selection, besides Backtalk, the only two I don't really like on myself are the KVD Lovesick and Bite Fig. Lovesick is a little cooler, with more pink/purple, than Backtalk, and Fig is much warmer and peachier. (Fortunately Lovesick is also a sample, because since it does that dried-up butthole thing to my lips, I wouldn't want to be stuck with a whole tube. Also, I don't buy Kat Von D products.) I'm not sure I'm seeing a pattern here yet.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk (It's interesting how Backtalk will look different depending on what other swatches you put it next to. The lighting is the same!)

2. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Rhubarb

3. Maybelline Creamy Matte Lipstick in Touch of Spice (reviewed here)

4. NYX Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil in Lowkey (which is very, very similar to Touch of Spice--more on this lipstick below!)

5. Colourpop Lux Lipstick in Angel City

6. Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Rikugien

7. Wet N Wild Megalast Lipstick in Rose-bud

Everything here is much warmer than Backtalk, and it all works well for me, so maybe that's something. Rhubarb is slightly blah on me, but I'm guessing it would look great on people who like Revlon Sultry, which is similar to Maybelline Touch of Spice but slightly less flattering on me (review/comparison here).

Side note: has anyone ever come across a dupe for Wet N Wild Rose-bud? I love the color, but the Megalast formula always dries out my lips.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk 

2. L'Oréal Colour Riche La Lacque Lip Pen in Choco-lacque (reviewed here)

3. Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture (discontinued, but available in Vice format)

4. Urban Decay Sheer Revolution Lipstick in Sheer Rapture (discontinued)

5. Revlon Balm Stain in Honey (reviewed here)

6. Tom Ford Lip Color Matte in Pussycat

Pussycat looks closest to Backtalk here, and it's also the one I like least on my face, though slightly better than Backtalk. These two lipsticks are both pretty muted (i.e. they have grey added), so that could be a clue. Rapture looks muted when you consider it alone, but next to Backtalk, it's a bit more saturated.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk 

2. Tarte Tarteist Creamy Matte Lip Paint in Birthday Suit (i.e. last year's Sephora birthday gift)

3. LA Girl Matte Lipstick in Snuggle (reviewed here)

4. Burt's Bees Lip Crayon in Sedona Sands

5. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Thistle

None of the above is particularly similar to Backtalk, so the fact that most of them work for me isn't especially informative. The exception is Birthday Suit, which is an unflattering beige--I think it's the yellow undertones that set it apart from the superficially similar Snuggle. Come to think of it, though, Thistle is both very muted and pretty cool, and I like it a lot on me. Maybe that's because it's more of a statement corpse-lip, rather than just looking accidentally blah. (I'm wearing it in this Instagram pic, though the lighting isn't great.)

You probably want to see what Backtalk actually looks like on me at this point. (Apologies for the grainy photo.)

Like I said, it's not awful, but a great lipstick will light up your face, and a good lipstick will at least be better than nothing.

I'm not sure what I've learned through this process. I need my MLBB lipsticks to be muted, but not too muted, and more brown than grey, maybe. Or more brown than pink? Thoughts? I have definitely learned that I have way too many similar lipsticks (ok, I already knew that), and that weirdly enough I have never reviewed most of these. Any you'd like to know more about?

I'll tell you more right now about one of them. I recently used Ulta points to pick up a lipstick from one of NYX's 700 or so liquid lipstick lines, a newer one called Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil. It's full color, sure, but having oil in the name is a bit of a red herring. It's not like YSL Tint-In-Oil or most other products called lip oils. It's less drying than most matte liquid lipsticks, sure, but there's nothing that looks or feels oily about it. (There are a few oils halfway down the ingredients list, but a lot of other things come before them.)

Here is Lowkey on my face:

More flattering, wouldn't you agree, than Backtalk? The rest of my makeup is the same, as is the lighting. Here's a lip swatch:

When you see it all alone, it looks like a rosy pink, but in the swatches above (second set), you can see that it definitely has some brown in it when compared to other lipsticks in the same family. The formula is really lovely. It's slightly moussey and thick enough that you can easily and neatly apply it using just the doe foot (not as thick as the Tarte liquid lipstick, though). It's opaque in one coat, but not so pigmented that it risks getting really messy. The finish is demi-matte. It dries down a bit but not completely, so it retains slip and moisture and feels pretty much like a bullet lipstick--yet it doesn't transfer easily. Wear time is about the same as a decent bullet, so you'll probably have to reapply after a meal. Best of all, it doesn't dry my lips out.

This is one of the nicest lipsticks I've tried recently, and probably the nicest liquid lipstick I've ever used. I'd recommend giving it a try if you see a color you like. That's my one complaint: while I love Lowkey (way to be hip to the new slang, kids), none of the other colors really interests me. There's variety, but something about the selection bores me. Bang Bang and Entice might be ok? I think a terracotta orange would be really great in this formula.

I kind of ordered Lowkey blind (you can never trust Ulta's photos for color accuracy), but it ended up working great. It would be nice if I could work out some kind of rules to predict which lipsticks will work best on me. Do you know what works for you when you see it, or do you have to try everything on like I do?

The duochromes always get me: Review of L'Oréal Infallible Galaxy Lumiere Holographic Eyeshadows in Crescent Moon, Full Moon, and Moon Kissed

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Two duochrome posts in a row? Is that allowed? (As usual, we ignore the word "holographic" when it's in the name of a makeup product.) I love duochromes, and they make me pay more for drugstore eyeshadows than I normally would. More for eyeshadow singles in general (though there was that time I paid full price for Urban Decay X, and I don't even really like it). These (deep breath) L'Oréal Infallible Galaxy Lumiere Holographic Eyeshadows are $13 a piece, so I suggest waiting for a sale, which will always come sooner or later for drugstore makeup. I had a B2GO Free deal from, but if I hadn't also had Ulta points from my credit card to spend, I might have balked even at that.

None of that is to say that I don't think these eyeshadows are amazing and totally worth picking up if you are a duochrome fiend like I am. They're absolutely lovely.

The formula of these eyeshadows is interesting. Though they have the "Infallible" name attached to them, they're not the same as the regular Infallible singles (reviewed here), which come with little plates on top to keep them densely packed. These Galaxy shadows have a more spongey texture--not as squishy as Colourpop Super Shock eyeshadows, but if you press your finger into the pan, you can feel it compress a bit. I dropped Full Moon on the floor and, instead of shattering, the whole shadow came loose in one piece inside the pan. I was able to press it back in place with a finger. Like the L'Oréal Infallible eyeshadows and the Colourpop Super Shock shadows, these apply best with a finger. With a brush they go on very sheer and a little patchy.

How about I let my many, many photos do the talking? My swatches were made with a brush without primer. Each one is several layers, because these shadows are sheer, and in swatch form they don't show up clearly in a single layer.

Left to right: Crescent Moon (sheer beige with green shift), Full Moon (white gold), and Moon Kissed (purple with blue shift).

An easy, affordable skincare routine for normal skin

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My sister asked me last year to suggest a skincare routine for her. Her skin isn't like mine (combination on the oily side, prone to breakouts); instead, she has that elusive "normal" skin. Not too dry, not too oily, rarely breaks out. The only issues she specifically wanted to address were wrinkle prevention, pore reduction, and occasional redness. She has this great skin in her early 30s despite never having to do much to it--usually just cleansing with water and sometimes moisturizing when she feels like she needs it. It's also useful to know that she doesn't typically wear a lot of makeup and never wears a base (foundation/tinted moisturizer, etc.).

I recently asked her how the routine was working for her, and since she reported that she's happy with it, I thought I'd share it here, in case someone out there is in a similar situation. I actually think this routine would work well as a starter for someone with oily or combination skin, and maybe even dry skin, since these products will address a variety of concerns. All of the products I've recommended are either things I've tried myself or have been recommended to me by trusted, knowledgeable friends. You don't need dozens of shiny, $50+ bottles to look after your skin! Each product is $20 or less. and most of it is closer to $10, but I've provided alternatives in case one item isn't easy for you to access, or you prefer certain qualities of one over the other. The main exception is the Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid, which holy shit, I didn't realize it had gone up to almost $30 now! I'd really like to see a graph charting the price increases of their core products vs. inflation, because that seems like a lot. Definitely buy that shit on sale--I've also provided an alternative below.

There are three products in the photo above, but it's actually a (minimum) four-product routine, split into one-to-two steps in the morning and three at night. I just don't personally own all of the things I recommended at the moment.

Here's what I suggested (I added links to previous reviews):

I'd recommend only introducing one new product at a time and using it for a few days before adding anything new. That way if your skin responds poorly to it, you'll know what caused it. 

Morning:

1. Just rinse with water. (If you feel like your skin needs more cleansing, see Night step 1.)  

2. Sunscreen. It's best to use this even on days when you'll mostly be inside, and especially when you're driving to work. You'll get lots of sun through the windows of the car and probably in your office, and sunscreen is the most effective skincare product out there to prevent "signs of aging." It's worth trying to find one that's comfortable enough to use every day. I really like the one linked below--it's light and not greasy. It's better to use SPF 15 that feels good enough to wear every day than to buy SPF 30 or 50 and only use it once or twice a month. 

$10 Simple Light Protecting Moisturizer SPF 15 (reviewed here and here)

But if you do want to go with a higher SPF, which is never a bad idea, this is my favorite:

$20 Kinesys Performance Sunscreen SPF 30 (reviewed here and here)

Night:  

1. Wipe your face with a cotton pad/ball soaked in micellar water, instead of using a cleanser. The bottle will say that it doesn't need to be rinsed, but it does contain a little cleanser, so it's better to splash some water on your face afterwards anyway. If you want to be extra eco-friendly, I use little rectangles of flannel that I cut up and folded in half instead of disposable cotton balls (more info here). I put them in a mesh lingerie bag and wash and dry them in the machine. Baby flannel is really soft and you might be able to get a small piece for cheap at the fabric store, or just cut up some old clothes you have. 

$5-10 Simple Micellar Cleansing Water; $15 Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water (pink lid) 

2. BHA exfoliant to get rid of dead skin that makes your skin look dull or clogs pores (and makes them look larger). It can also soothe redness and make your skin feel smoother. You can wipe this over your whole face (avoiding eye area) or just on places that you think need it. Leave it on for 10-20 minutes while you brush your teeth or pet the cats or do whatever else you do while you get ready for bed. 

$4 Stridex Alcohol-Free Maximum Strength Acne Pads (red box); $29 Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid

3. Moisturizer with anti-wrinkle ingredients. Apply it on top of the BHA after you've let it soak in a little. Since you don't have dry skin, use something light, and don't feel like you need to use a lot--just as much as feels comfortable. Make sure to use it around your eyes too. It will also get rid of the sticky feeling from the BHA, if you use the Paula's Choice option. The moisturizers I've listed below have vitamins and antioxidants in them so that you don't need to add extra steps like serum etc. (unless you want to!). 

 $15 CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion; $12 Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream/Moisturizer

If you wear more makeup than my sister does, you're probably going to want to go with a traditional cleanser. I think Neutrogena makes some great cleansers, especially their Ultra Gentle Daily Cleanser or Ultra Gentle Hydrating Cleanser. Obviously, you can also add as many additional products and steps into this routine as you like (for example, see my skincare tag), but this is designed for people who feel like doing something for their skin, but don't want to spend a lot of time and money on it.

I'm curious: do you have a minimal skincare routine, or are you more intense about it? Also, if you'd like to suggest alternate products in these same categories, that would be great! I know people like the CosRx BHA, but I don't know if it might be too strong for a beginner.

Review of Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Liquid Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 70

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Recently, on a trip to Canada to visit my family, I spent almost $60 on sunscreen. I'm going to need some good shit for the coming year, because at the end of this month I'll be moving to Texas for 3 months, and then from there to southern California for 9 months. It'll be an adventure, and a sunnier one than the last decade I've spent in the Midwest (my entire life in the U.S. to date!). It seems a little odd to stock up on sunscreen in Canada for travels in the hottest parts of America, but there are some formulas and ingredients that are available there and not here. More on those another day!

Before my trip, however, I had already run out of my previous sunscreen and tried a new one that I wasn't feeling (reviewed here). So I decided to buy something local, affordable, and accessible: Neutrogena. Neutrogena must be one of the best-selling sunscreen brands in North America, and they have come out with a lot of new products in the years since my go-to facial sunscreen was their Dry Touch Lotion. That's a decent product, but after some consideration, I decided to try the Ultra Sheer Liquid SPF 70, which comes highly reviewed and recommended.

It is a liquid formula, as you can see below, and the narrow dispenser works very well. It's not too runny, which makes it easy to apply without making a mess.

It's spreadable, but not super-slick. I wouldn't be able to spread the amount shown above over my entire face, for instance, which I would probably be able to do with most sunscreens. It absorbs quickly, so you will need to work in sections. I think this is actually a good thing--it ensures that you apply enough product to cover your whole face in a good layer, instead of spreading it too thin. I do find that even though it absorbs well, it leaves my face looking and feeling a bit greasy, so I like to set it with a translucent powder even if I'm not wearing any other makeup. It works well under makeup, too, and I haven't noticed any balling up/pilling like you can sometimes get with sunscreens (though that will probably depend on what other products you use under it). It's also effective--I've worn it for prolonged periods in the sun with no burning or tanning.

Overall, the Ultra Sheer Liquid is very similar to most other "chemical" sunscreens I've tried from Neutrogena. It has a strong sunscreen smell and it burns slightly, especially around my eyes, when I first apply it. Both of those things subside after a few minutes. It is somewhat prone to smear into my eyes and sting if I make the mistake of touching them, though not as easily as some other sunscreens. Its advantage over the regular Neutrogena lotions is that, as their SPF rises, the lotions tend to get greasier, heavier, and less pleasant to use. This SPF 70 sunscreen feels about as comfortable to me as an SPF 30-45 lotion. If you like those, I think you will like this one too. I didn't enjoy it as much as the Bioré Water Gel (reviewed here), though the Neutrogena has the advantage of no fragrance or alcohol and being available just about everywhere for around $10 (I got mine at Walmart). This sunscreen won't be my new staple, but it was a great stopgap option.

What's your favorite facial sunscreen? I have pretty strong preferences, but I'm always interested in what else is out there!

Do I Need This? Root touch-up hair dye

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Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinions about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

Do I need a root-touch up hair dye product? 

Short answer: No, just buy a regular box of dye that's a good match and a brush to apply it to your roots.

Here's the story: A few months ago, I dyed my hair red, which is a color I love having, but which is one of the most difficult to keep up. Most reds fade like crazy. The two biggest causes of fading hair color are sun and water. I already stay out of the sun for the most part, but for good measure I also used a UV serum from Alterna that I bought from Hollar. At the same time, I cut back washing my hair from 6-7 times a week to every second or third day (and increased my dry shampoo use accordingly). My red still faded, but less than it might otherwise have done. The downside to my success was that my naturally dirty blonde roots became increasingly noticeable as they grew in.

At first I was just going to buy a box of the dye I'd originally used, L'Oreal Superior Preference 6AB Chic Auburn Brown, which I bought from Amazon. I like coloring my own hair. It's fun. It's cheap. And normally I'm pretty good at it. You can see how it looked right after I colored it on my Instagram here. But I had a CVS coupon. Unfortunately, neither of the CVS stores near me had that specific color in stock. So instead of paying full price ($9) for another box from Amazon, I decided to use the coupon for a box of Clairol Nice n Easy Root Touch-Up, which ended up costing about $6-7. The color range is quite small, so I went with what seemed closest to the current, slightly faded color of my lengths, 6R Light Auburn/Reddish Brown.

I quickly experienced some buyer's remorse and contemplated returning it and getting the real deal. But I convinced myself to give it a shot. If it worked, I'd have saved a little money. If it didn't work, I'd get a blog post out of it, at least.

Spoiler: It didn't work, and here's my blog post.

My first mistake was believing, without confirming, that this root touch-up stuff would be something like the Just For Men dyes, where you custom mix just the amount you need, and then you can reuse what's left in the future when your roots grow in a bit more. No, of course we ladies cannot have something as practical as that. It's a single-use product. You mix the two components of the dye in a little tray, and it comes with a brush to paint the color on your roots. The instructions tell you to start with the most visible roots at the front and in your part, and then work from there. Because I was paranoid that there would be a stark difference between my roots and the rest of my hair, I used the brush to pull some of the dye down in streaks from my roots, especially at the front. It was a good idea, because if I hadn't, I think it would have looked even worst than it did.

The thing with red dye is that for the first couple of days it tends to be WAY BRIGHTER than the color it soon settles into. So when I rinsed out the dye, let my hair dry, and found that I now had pretty intense, burgundy-red hair on the top of my head (light auburn brown my ass), I tried to remain calm. Give it a couple of days, and it might fade to the promised shade. Here's how it looked on day 1:

I actually think the contrast is somewhat less noticeable in the photos than it was in person, but you can see the darker red framing my face (again, that would have stopped abruptly had I not combed the color through a bit).

Okay, three days later:

Not better. I also took photos on the fourth and fifth and sixth days, but I won't bore you with them, because they're the same. On the one hand, kudos to this hair color for staying power! Too bad it's neither light nor reddish brown.

Eventually, since I'd created this mess just before moving, I found time about a week later to completely redo my hair color. I used Clairol Nice n Easy 6.5R Natural Light Radiant Auburn--which is much more radiant than natural and was definitely clown-orange for a couple of days. But it's more realistic, and very pretty, now. (I'd asked for recommendations on Instagram for good red dyes, and then ended up not using them, because with a combination of coupons and ExtraBucks, this box of dye cost me 12 cents at CVS. But I am keeping that excellent list of suggestions for future reference.)

In the end, I can't advise buying a product like this, particularly if you are touching up your roots after using a color that has faded significantly. Possibly with a dark brown, where you can be more assured of a match, and where the old color is more likely to have stayed deep and rich despite your roots growing out, you might have better luck. But with a red dye, it's a gamble. Since the regular price of one of these kits is $8+, you'd be much better off just finding your original color on sale (or not!) and using that to touch up your roots. Hair color brushes are not difficult to come by, so there's no need to buy a root touch-up kit just to get one of those. I got my mixing bowl and brush from Sally Beauty, but here's a set for $3 and free shipping on Amazon.

I walked around for a week looking like a failed beauty experiment, but at least I did it for science the blog.

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:

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.

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.

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.)

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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:

Blended out:

Neutrogena Ultra Light Cleansing Oil

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. 

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

The three lipsticks pictured above fall into three categories: brownish nude, true brown, and warm/terracotta brown.

Beauty Blender Dupe? Review of L'Oréal Infallible Blend Artist Foundation Blender Sponge

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A few years ago, I wrote a post that discussed whether there was really a major difference between the original Beauty Blender sponge, which had just recently become the new big thing, and other pink makeup sponges that were beginning to appear on the market in imitation of the Beauty Blender for much less. At the time, I found that knock-offs didn't perform quite as well as the real deal. They worked okay, but there was a meaningful difference between Beauty Blender and the cheaper options available at the time--though I still balked at spending $20 on a single sponge. (By the way, it's 10% off from Nordstrom right now, if you are a die-hard fan. Don't pay full price!)

I happened to get two Beauty Blenders for free or very cheap over the years. The first one came in a Birchbox long ago, and the second, if I remember correctly, I got using points from my Ipsy account. Because I rarely wear foundation and I use the sponge dry to blend my concealer most of the time, those two sponges lasted a long time. You can see in the photo above that my second one (top above) is now a little worse for wear--not least because it became a cat toy one night--so I recently began to think about replacing it. I had that old, cheap pink sponge (bottom of photo above) in a drawer, and it worked fine, but I admit I'd got used to the soft bounciness of the real BB. I heard that the new makeup sponges from L'Oréal were some of the best affordable BB alternatives available, so I added their Foundation Blender sponge (middle above) to an Amazon order last month, where it's only $7. L'Oréal also has two other sponges in this line: a pointed, egg-shaped concealer blender, and a flat contour blender. I haven't tried those two, so I don't know if they perform similarly to the foundation sponge. Anyone?

The major advantage of the Beauty Blender over its cheapest knockoffs is that it's designed to be used wet in order to really blend and soften your foundation. When it's been soaked thoroughly in water and squeezed out, it increases in size significantly and becomes squishier. The water is also supposed to prevent too much foundation from being absorbed by the sponge, though you'll still end up using more product than you would applying it with your fingers or even with a brush. The cheap sponges tend to be harder and denser, and getting them wet doesn't alter their consistency much. The L'Oréal sponge, however, expands and softens just as much as the Beauty Blender when it's wet. For the photo below, I ran lukewarm water over each sponge while squeezing it out and letting it saturate again 10 times. You can see in the photo below, I think, that the BB and L'Oréal sponge have expanded more than the cheapie (though the difference is somehow less obvious in a photo than in person). It's too bad I don't have two of each sponge to show you a before and after, but the first two have grown by at least a third of their original size, and the third sponge has only expanded slightly.

My L'Oréal sponge feels a bit firmer and denser than the BB, though nothing at all like the other pink sponge. Mind you, I have been using the BB for over a year, and I can't remember if it felt denser when it was brand new.

In terms of actual use, the Beauty Blender and L'Oréal Foundation Blender perform similarly. When I use them dry, the BB seems slightly more absorbent, which helps to pick up any excess oiliness left behind by my concealer, but the L'Oréal sponge is not far behind. The main difference is the shape. The narrow tip of the BB is easier to use in the corners of my eyes and next to my nose, but if I pinch the tip of the L'Oréal sponge when I use it in those areas, the difference isn't an important one for me.

Used wet for foundation, the L'Oréal sponge (left below) blends out and sheers the product a bit more, which I like. But if you want a more opaque base without building it up, you might prefer the Beauty Blender (right below). (It's possible that this distinction is due to my BB being older and more worn. I can't be completely sure.)

Above: the same foundation applied with the wet L'Oréal Foundation Blender (left) and the wet Beauty Blender (right).

Oddly enough, the packaging for the L'Oréal blender doesn't mention using it wet, but it's clearly designed to be used that way, since it's made to expand and soften up just like a Beauty Blender. I wonder if that's some kind of trademark/patent thing.

One of the biggest benefits of the L'Oréal blender, in my opinion, it that it doesn't bleed pink dye the first half dozen times you wet it. (Yes, you can get other colors of Beauty Blenders, I know.)

I'm satisfied to fully recommend the L'Oréal Blend Artist Foundation Blender as a more affordable alternative to the Beauty Blender. To answer the question posed by my title, however, it's not a dupe due to the difference in shape and the sheerer application I got from it. But I am not a stickler for things being exact dupes. I'm curious about the other L'Oréal shapes, though I probably don't need additional sponges taking up space just for the sake of novelty.

By the way, Beauty Blender sells a special liquid cleanser for their sponges that works well. It's just castile soap, though, so instead of paying $18 for 5 oz., you can get 32 oz. of Dr. Bronner's for $16. (I haven't tried the BB bar soap, but I can't imagine it's anything miraculous either. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Any Beauty Blender devotees out there, or do you use a cheaper option? I've heard mixed things about the Real Techniques sponges, though I think they can sometimes be found for slightly less.