Wednesday, April 20, 2011

3 beauty product reviews

Thanks to being a member of bzzagent, I was given the chance to try out a few new-er makeup products on the market.  I got to try out L'Oreal Studio Secrets One Sweep Eye Shadow, L'Oreal Double Extend Eye Illuminator Mascara, and Maybelline SuperStay 2 step lip color.

First, I'll Start with the L'Oreal One Sweep Shadow. I had seen the L'oreal One Sweep, and though the premise was interesting, but thought it could never work due to various eye shapes and getting to layer properly in the right places.  But, since I got a free sample to try for free, I had nothing to lose! Here's the one I got to try out:

The instructions tell you to use the special included applicator to sweep in a certain direction across the shadows for each eye. Then, using the tip, you blend it to your desired look.  I did have to sweep it about 3 times on each lid to get the desired darkness of the shadow, but it did seem to go into the areas it was supposed to pretty well.  I did do a little blending with the tip using the lightest color in the package to assist, but it would've looked fine without blending.  I didn't use any primer, so by the end of a few hours, it did crease, but the color did last. Here's some pictures of the process. 1st, the before picture -- please excuse the messy brows, I'm overdue for a tweezing ;)
Here's with the shadow applied - no other makeup - eyes open and closed.




After I did the shadow, I decided to give the L'Oreal Double Extend Eye Illuminator Mascara a try.  There was two ends - one with the color, and one with the illuminating sparkled color.  I had black with black, but there is black with bronze, and brown with bronze and such also available.


The instructions say to do the plain, long wanded color only end first, and I really liked how long it made my lashes before I even applied the illuminating side. You can see the difference between the eye on the left with mascara and the one on the right without.



The second step  was to apply the short wanded side with the illumination sparkles on top of the regular color.  It was suggested on the package to do it as quickly as possible after applying the first side. But, this  made it all clumpy - I had to spend some time separating the lashes and removing the clumps.  It said to just do the tips for a little sparkle, or the whole lash for dramatic illumination, but I didn't notice much of a difference either way.  And you can't really see the "illumination" unless you're up really close. Not sure why the sparkle isn't just in with the black mascara in the first place anyway. Why do we really need the second step in a whole separate wand?  Maybe it makes more of a difference with the other color combos.  So, I liked the mascara itself, but found the illumination wand and step to be a bit of a fail.  Here's how it looked on both eyes, finished application.



Finally, I got to try the Maybelline SuperStay 24hr lip color.  I chose the rose color since it was very close to my natural lip shade, since I wasn't sure how deep the other color samples I got would be, and I didn't want to have to wash it off and start over if it was overly dark.



Application was simple.  You apply the color with the wand with the sponge tipped applicator, and give it a few minutes to dry before applying the clear gloss end stick over it. I loved that it didn't feel overly dry or sticky.  You can see how it looks applied to just my lower lip, compared to my bare upper lip:


  It had a pretty good lasting power.  I went out to dinner and ate and drank without any re-applying, and when I got back, it was still there, albeit a little faded towards the inside part of lip.Here it is after I applied it to both lips, and how it looked at the end of the night after I wiped of the left half with a makeup removing cloth.


I did like the SuperStay color because it felt non-drying and non-sticky, and had decent staying power, though, obviously it did fade after eating and drinking.

Have you tried out any of these products yet?  Any opinions to add about them?

You should be able to find these products at most mass retailers like Target if interested in picking them up.

Thanks for reading!

3 comments:

Sarah said...

That's cool that you get to write about your product opinions. I don't do the whole makeup bit, so I think most of that information was lost on me. (: I'm gonna check it out again, though. Maybe I'll figure out how it works, anyway.

Find me at Just Take a Bow.

Amber said...

Thanks for the comment, Sarah :) Makeup is definitely a thing that takes some practice to get it to look just how you want it to. But, I find even just a simple touch of mascara and a little sheer colored gloss can make a difference (especially for photos when features sometimes look faded out) and its quick and pretty easy. So, it would be a good place to start if you wanted to give makeup a try again.

Adiel | Rose Gold Lining said...

So fun to get free makeup!