Almay Eyeshadow Singles

Now that I've gotten to play with them more and apply them to my eyes I can pass along a proper review.

For the look that I did I used lilac on the lid, vintage grape in the outer corner and crease, and creme brulee on the inner corner and as a highlight. I found the look extremely difficult! The eyeshadows just refuse to give off much color. I just had to keep rubbing at it to get anything on my brush. And maybe it's because I tried the hardest and longest with lilac but it reviled it's true nature. It's a cream shadow disguised as a powder. after a bit of messing with lilac it started to smear and move with my brush strokes. Then it started to pull away from the sides of the pan. So I used my finger and it felt slightly damp and sticky. When I gently pulled my finger up it stuck to the finger a bit and left a little 'peak' in the product where it had tried to go with my finger. The other ones don't do this, but as I said I didn't try so hard with the others. It must just be a cream to powder product, but something happened wrong in the creation because color payoff unless your using a finger just doesn't happen.

The one golden star that I have is creme brulee. I used a smaller stiffer brush with it and it got the product rather easily. But I also noticed something on this one that none of the others do. It had powder on the top after I swiped it with my brush. Usually when you dip/swipe/rub/ect. an eyeshadow theres a little powder left on the top, or sitting on the brush noticeably. But with the rest of the almay eyeshadow singles theres just nothing, it really looks like a cream. But with creme brulee theres just a slight bit of noticeable powder.

Bottom line: Would I recommend them? I would say if you like using your fingers for makeup then yes. These would work well for you. But if, like me, you don't like sticking your fingers in your products then stay far away from these! Creme brulee being the one exception.

Walgreens & Target Mini Haul

Total Haul

I went to Target first because I seen yesterday that they have the new Almay eyeshadow singles in a 2 pack for $5.99 (in my target). I waited because I seen that Almay had a $5.00 off when you buy 2 coupon on coupons.com so I printed it and went back. They had them paired with like colors or what they felt went with it well. I got the nude pair and the purple pair. There was also a green w/ brown and a blue w/ I forget. Sorry. But I wanted these two.

Almay Shadow Softies by Intense I-Color (Creme Brulee & Cashmere, Vintage Grape & Lilac)

The feeling of the shadows is weird. It says on the packaging that it's whipped, whatever that means for a powder... Its soft and almost creamy feeling and theres a little give if you press your finger in a bit.

Creme Brulee

Cashmere

Lilac

Vintage Grape

Swatches

They all have an amount of shimmer; Creme Brulee is satin finish, Cashmere is full on shimmer, Lilac and Vintage Grape are more metallic/pearl finish. There isn't flecks of glitter, but it is shiny.

Next I went to Walgreens because I had a coupon for $4.00 off any revlon or Almay product that printed last time I was in there.

Obviously I didn't just get the coupon item.

First I knew I looked over the new stuff in the front of the beauty section and picked up the last one on the stand-y of the new Rimmel Stay Matte Primer. Its 1 fl oz (standard) and has pretty much the same texture as the regular Rimmel primer. It might be just a tad thicker.

Next I found the Revlon stand-y for the new lacquer and matte jumbo pencils. I was at odds over which to get but I kind of fell in love with the one I got.

Revlon Lacquer Balm in Vivacious Exuberante (120)

Then I went to check the regular Rimmel section for an eyeliner they've been out of forever (>.<) and I picked up a lip gloss.

Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer in Apocaliptic (303)

As I was leaving I seen a hidden stand-y for the new Wet N Wild spring stuff. It was pretty much full but I wasn't impressed too much from what emilynoel83 (beauty broadcast) had said about the quality so I only got 2 things.

Wet N Wild Megaslicks Balm Stain in Red-dy or Not (125)

(Left to right) Rimmel, Revlon, Wet N Wild

My initial thoughts are; The Rimmel gloss is amazing! It's so pigmented. It is seriously full on color! It's rich and creamy and smooth. I applied it to my lips after swatching and it is so good. It does have a chemically smell, but it's pretty faint after it's on the lips.

The Revlon lacquer balm in smooth and shiny, but I haven't worn it on yet. And the Wet N Wild balm stain went on smooth. I didn't have to go over either one with extra color. I pretty much drew a few lines next to eachother to get my swatches.

I also got:

Wt N Wild Coloricon in Floral Values (393A)

My thoughts on this are mixed. Some shades are good, some are not Wet N Wild standard. 

(Left to right) Base, browbone, definer, eyelid, crease.

Base was just like what we expect from Wet N Wild, however it did take a few times of going back in to get more for the swatch to show strong for the camera. But it IS just a base, something you'd put all over the lid to help other colors blend.

Browbone is the last color I'd place on my browbone, other then that the quality wasn't on par. It was a little rough and not very pigmented. I had to go into that one more then base to get a see-able swatch. Even to it's pretty much just light purple shimmer.

Definer is not defining. It's a week color for this palette because it's not nearly as pigmented as it looks in the pan. I had to go back in and build it up a bit and it was also not very rich or smooth.

Eyelid is Wet N Wild quality. I was a it surprised after being so disappointed in the others and trying so hard to get a swatch.

Crease looks purple with pinkish shimmer in the pan but it pretty much just came off as a purplish navy color. It was a strong color though. Thats just one swipe.

All in all it's not a bad drugstore palette. But compared to other Wet N Wild eyeshadow it's nowhere near the same consistently good quality. Two out of five were great, one was good, and 2 were subpar.

However, if you take the colors at swatch value (aka expecting to see that color and not the one in the pan) it is a beautiful palette. I would buy it based on those swatches.

Expect to see a fallow up review on the Rimmel primer at a later date.

Mascara Reviews

In the past year or so I've tried several mascaras and I'm going to give you my opinions on them.

There was CoverGirl LashBlast Volume which I did not like at all. I heard so many good things about it but I just wasn't impressed by it. the wand was too big and it didn't really build or separate like I expected.

So I started layering on CoverGirl Nature Luxe which on it's own did nothing more then make my lashes black, but combined it made them voluminous and full.

After that I got the CoverGirl LashPerfection which separated  the lashes wonderfully but stopped at that. 

At which point I picked up Loreal Million Lashes, just the regular one I think. With the gold packaging. Again a huge brush but it was better then the lashblast. It added thickness and volume and what it slightly lacked in separation the lashperfection took care of.

Once those were old and ready to be replaced I picked up an old favorite of mine. Maybelline One By One. I used it once before and I loved it so much! I was a bit disappointed this time around. I guess My tastes have just evolved with trying a new mascara everytime I run out. It's still a great mascara, better then lashblast but not quite the volume of million lashes. However it has the separation that million lashes lacked.

Then I bought Maybelline Colossal, the regular one. Just after buying it I seen they had the smokey eye one and I wished I had bought that one. But I LOVE this mascara! The brush is quite big but it adds SO MUCH VOLUME! and it separates nicely too! However all good things must come to an end...

Enter Jordana Best Lash Extreme. It's cheap and works great! I've heard it could be a dupe for Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes but I've never tried it so I can't say weather or not that's true, but what I can say is that it is a great mascara. Its brush isn't overly huge so it's not eating my eyeball every time I try to apply it. It does add a great amount of volume, not as much as my colossal but a great amount.

There was also another mascara but I bought it for very different reasons. I got Loreal Telescopic Shocking Extensions WATERPROOF mascara. Now I put the caps on for that because it's the whole reason I got this mascara. I don't use waterproof daily because I just don't need it and it's just harder to take off. Also I prefer volume to length. For the holidays I had a lot of LONG days with people since I worked over the holidays (I'm a hotel housekeeper. We don't get holidays off) then spent time with my family and went to holiday parties I needed my makeup to really last so I got this to layer on top of whatever mascara I would be wearing in hopes to seal it so it would last longer. It worked as planned and helped to separate my lashes.

Now you know my general impressions I'll break it down. Nature Luxe and LashPerfection are completely useless for volume or length but do give great separation and make your lashes black. This could be good for layering, as I did, or if you wear false lashes a lot and you just need your natural lashes to be black then these two are good for that.

LashBlast Volume, Million Lashes, One By One, and Colossal all gave volume, however the first two have rubber bristles and the colossal has natural bristles. The lashblast has a large wand with tiny bristles. I found it to smudge, flake, and clump BADLY! The million lashes had a large wand but the bristles were long and easily built volume while not smudging or flaking. One By One has a slightly bigger then regular brush thats basically the shape of a football. Which works nicely for the inner corner lashes but isn't so good for the outer lashes. I find a bigger brush (or longer bristles more like) work better on my outer corner lashes. And the colossal was a curveball for me. I haven't used a natural bristle brush in a long time because I never liked them. I bought this one on a whim. It builds volume really quick and it's super buildable so you can just keep building up the volume. I have no clumps up to like 3-4 coats! The brush is a bit big but it's got the long bristles so it glides through my lashes easily.

The Best Lash Extreme is kind of a happy middle. It has a medium sized brush, medium length bristles, doesn't smudge, budge, flake, or clump. Like the colossal I can go 3-4 coats before It starts to clump on me. The one thing I will say is that it's a wetter formula than the other volume mascaras. Not as wet as Maybelline Falsies (aweful IMO).

Next on my list? Maybelline The Rocket. It has almost identical brush as the lashblast but lets hope the formula isn't as bad.