Beauty and Fashion Tech

Callas Light Up Makeup Base

Callas Cosmetics is a French Company that has cosmetics designed in Japan and France, but made in Korea. I gave a bunch of their products a try and was quite impressed.

Callas Light Up Makeup Base is a rather interesting item because it can work both as a foundation or as a primer. The Callas base provides moisture and UV skin protection and is available in a couple of color correcting shades, plus in the shade Milk, which is a light natural tint. The base feels great and when used as a primer, works quite well as a base for further makeup.

But the milk shade of the base also gives decent light coverage–similar to a sheer tinted moisturizer. So while it can be worn as a primer, I found that it also was perfect alone for some moisturizing, sheer coverage. My favorite use has been as a foundation on my upper face, and as a base for mineral makeup on my lower face where I have some redness and pigmentation.

I linked to the order page from Amazon.com, but I actually ordered mine from Yesstyle, which is my favorite Japanese and Korean fashion, beauty, and accessories site. You can also view Callas items at Callas.com.

For more on Callas Cosmetics and YesStyle see my previous Callas eye shadow post.

By Carleenp Posted in Face Products, Makeup, Makeup Primer | 2 Comments

Review: New Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Inspired by Carmindy

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty has released a wonderful full line of cosmetics “inspired by” Carmindy from TLC’s show What Not to Wear. I am a big Carmindy fan and I liked her book, The Five Minute Face (Read Review). I also have been pretty impressed with Sally Hansen as of late. The new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line focuses on natural ingredients and is paraben free.

When I saw the line at CVS, I bought a number of items to try. I was left highly impressed and am willing to bet that several items from this line will make my year end best of 2008 list (Read the 2007 list)!

The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line includes foundation and powder, but I have so many unfinished items of those, I didn’t buy any. Instead, I got the primer, eye shadow base, an eye shadow trio, cream blush, lipstick, and a mascara. The look I created with the products and each item is covered below. All items are worn in the photo below. I am also wearing Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation (Read Review), Laura Mercier translucent powder, and M.A.C. dual edged eye pencil in a blue/gray shade from the Heatherette collection.

The Natural Beauty Luminizing Face Primer is a really nice silicon based primer. It has a lighter feel than the cult classic Smashbox Photofinsh (Read Review), yet worked just as well. I found that it primed my skin quite well in preparation for foundation by leaving it smooth and silky. The luminizing properties are also a welcome addition. At around $10, this primer is an incredible value, and I am not aware of any other comparably priced primers of this quality. Revlon has a decent primer, but it does not provide the perfectly nice skin surface that the Sally Hansen product does.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Fast Fix Eyeshadow Base is another great value product. There are not a lot of drugstore shadow bases out there and this one is quite lovely. It has a light, easy to spread cream texture, that feels like it must have a touch of silicon in it. I found that it made my shadow look smooth and crease free all evening. This will become a staple product for me.

The cream blush is another great item in Salley Hansen’s new line. It is silky smooth, and Bloom, the shade that I purchased, has a nice rosy color. It is pretty well pigmented and builds pretty well, so those with darker skin can likely wear it just fine. At the same time, it also blends well, so I could wear it well with my pale skin as long as I applied with with a light and well blended touch.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Carmindy

The Natural Beauty Instant Definition Eye Shadow Palette comes in basic and fairly neutral color sets. I decided to go for the Ocean Eye Palette, a gray/navy combo, because I seem to have acquired way too much brown shadow. The shadow is decently pigmented, blended fine, and lasted well. I did not have any creasing issues. It seemed like a standard decent quality shadow to me with nothing really outstanding, but nothing wrong with it either.

The Natural Beauty Lift & Define Mascara was nothing special for me. The brush is small (I tend to like that), but has rather wide spaces between the bristles, which I think can make things clump easier. It went on OK, and looked OK. I don’t think it would be my first choice in mascara, but it wasn’t bad either.

Finally, I loved the Color Comfort Lip Color! Perfect Pink, Rose Parfait, turned out to be perhaps one of the best pink shades I have found in some time. For a full review of it, head on over to my post at Girl Gloss!

The bottom line: The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics line is a welcome addition to the available drugstore makeup choices. I particularly recommend the primer and shadow base. These items are comparable to, or perhaps even better than, other much more expensive products. The rest of the line is quite nice as well. Well done Sally Hansen!

Look for the new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty at drugstore and at ULTA Beauty.

By Carleenp Posted in Blush, Celebrity Looks, Collection Looks, Concealer, Eyeshadow, Face Products, Lip Products, Makeup Primer, Mascara, Palettes and Collections | 21 Comments

Timelapse Wand Wrinkle Treatment

The Timelapse Wand is a pretty neat little product that I was sent to try. Advertised as part line filler, part relaxer, part treatment product, it is rather utilitarian.

I have been playing with one for a couple of weeks now and find that it is best as a filler. The wand contains ingredients that do a pretty good job of filling in lines, and with the wand applicator it is very easy to target the right spots. I have loved it on the days when I don’t want to wear a silicon primer on my entire face, yet still want a bit of line filler under my makeup.

The wand also has some wrinkle relaxing and firming ingredients, so it tingles slightly, and has ingredients to promote skin health. I can’t really tell if it does much there, but the firming sensation is kind of nice.

Overall, it is a fun little product. Price is $25 through the link above.

By Carleenp Posted in Beauty Tech, Makeup Primer, Skin Care | No Comments

Chanel Foundations: Vitalumieries and Double Perfection Makeup

I know a number of women who swear by Chanel Vitalumi eries Foundation. I recently got a few samples of this foundation and had mixed results.

I love Chanel cosmetics, so I had high hopes for this rather expensive product. For my first try, which did not fare so well, I used the foundation over plain sunscreen and moisturizer. It went on fine and look fine, but I just plain did not see anything special about it to justify the price tag.

However, when I used the foundation over a silicon primer, I found that it really stood out. The product has some luminizing properties that for whatever reason did not really work well until used over a primer. At that point I loved it and prefer it over my less expensive foundations because my skin looked nearly perfect with it on. So the upshot is that Chanel Vitalumieres is one that I would happily wear when going all out, but would not likely choose for day to day use when I just want to put on moisturizer and a bit of foundation.

I also tried samples of Chanel Double Perfection Foundation. This one is quite nice, but it wasn’t right for my skin, which was particularly dry when I tried it. The foundation goes on wonderfully smooth and dries quickly to a matte finish. It then lasts quite well. For anyone without dry skin, Chanel Double Perfection is a wonderful foundation and comes recommended by many. But on dry skin, a mattifying foundation just doesn’t work for me. I’m hoping to try this one again in the summer, when I will appreciate the silky matte finish.

Comparison shop for Chanel cosmetics

By Carleenp Posted in Face Products, Makeup, Makeup Primer | No Comments

Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation Primer

As part of my ongoing quest to find the perfect foundation, I recently tried some Laura Mercier products. In the process, I decided to pick up some of the oil free primer, which tends to get very good reviews.

The Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation Primer is a bit different from other primers that I have used. Instead of being silicone based like Smashbox Photofinish, or DHC Velvet Skin Coat, the primer feels like a light moisturizer. Because of that I found pros and cons to it.

On the good side, the primer feels wonderful. It goes on silky smooth and gives a light moisture, yet it is oil free. I had no issues with breakouts when using it. It also contains some particularly good illuminators, so it gives the skin a wonderful radiant glow. I have found that I like to wear the primer best when I am not wearing foundation, solely for the illuminating effect.

On the downside, I don’t know that it primes for foundation all that much better than a regular moisturizer. Silicon primers tend to really smooth out the skin and fill in fine lines to make foundation look great and last longer. The Laura Mercier product does not fill in lines and smooth the skin the way a silicon based product does. Nor did I notice it make my foundation last longer. I would say that it stayed on about the same as if I had simply used a light moisturizer first.

The cons, however, do not make this a bad product. It is a product that I highly recommend as long as the expectations are correct. I love it for its ability to act as an illuminating oil free moisturizer. In fact, I think it is one of the absolute best of those out there and I will keep using it as such. But I don’t find it to be a foundation primer in the way I have tended to define the term.

I also tried several of the Laura Mercier Foundations and Concealer. Watch for reviews of those soon!

Shop for Laura Mercier Cosmetics

By Carleenp Posted in Makeup Primer, Misc., Skin Care | No Comments

Pur Minerals Under Control Mattifying Gel

I was pretty impressed with the Pur Minerals Mattifying Gel for Oily Skin. I had a sample of this product sitting around for some time, and go figure that I was fairly oily during that time and forgot to give it a try! But as things turned out, on a day when I was a bit oilier than I would like, I found the sample.

The cream/gel has a light tint in the tube, but basically goes on clear. It blends in quickly, and it does a pretty good job as a mattifier. I often find that mineral makeup doesn’t quite absorb oil the way I would like, so I tried it underneath some mineral powder makeup and it did indeed make the difference. Where the powder alone would not have cut it, using Pur Mineral’s Under Control kept the oil from coming through.

The air will be keeping me dry soon, but until then, I am going happily use my tube up on the oily days.

Shop for Pur Minerals cosmetics