Beauty and Fashion Tech

New Tech Spinning Mascara: Spinlash

When I first heard of SpinLash Mascara I was a bit skeptical. How could a spinning brush possibly be easy to use and not create a mess? I kept envisioning little specks of mascara being flung onto the mirror, or worse, my face! I also have to say that if you browse the blogs on this one, you will see mixed reactions. Some people are not really keen on this product. But when I tried one, I loved the thing!

SpinLash is a battery operated rotating mascara brush. It comes with its own adequate mascara, but it really shines when used with your favorite brand. It doesn’t really “spin” in the sense of fast rotation. Instead, it very slowly rotates, so all those fears of flying mascara can be erased. The bristles of the brush are quite fine and rubbery, something that I think works particularly well. The result for me using SpinLash was very evenly applied mascara and lashes with great definition.

One downside is that SpinLash doesn’t appear to have a replaceable battery, so when it dies, a new purchase is required. But I suppose that unless religiously cleaned, it would be ready to be replaced by then anyway.

Spinlash retails at around $15 and can be found in various drugstores, big box retailers, and online.

By Carleenp Posted in Beauty Tech, Mascara | No Comments

Review: Lumene Blueberry Curl Mascara

I have been pretty fond of the Lumene products I have tried. Now they add a mascara to my favorites list.

Lumene Blueberry Curl Mascara contains blueberry seed oil to condition the lashes, while the brush has a flat side to help press the lashes into a curl form. The brush is on the smaller and thinner side (my preference) and it provides great definition to the lashes.

The mascara coats wonderfully and I have had no issues with clumping. Instead, I simply get long, nicely defined lashes with Lumene’s mascara. As for curling, I can get it to curl some, but honestly, I think that pre-curling with an eyelash curler is always the best option. I don’t love this mascara for its curing factor, I love it for the well defined, clump free lashes that it provides.

Bottom line: Lumene has another winner with their Blueberry Curl Mascara! Lumene products are available at CVS stores.

By Carleenp Posted in Mascara | 1 Comment

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

Comparing the New Milani Mascaras and Finding Good Quality and Value.

Milani Cosmetics is one of the drugstore brands that I think people tend to overlook as they head straight for the big name displays such as Maybelline or Revlon. Well, next time you run by that Milani display, stop and take a look. They have some great items.

Milani recently sent me a number of products to try and of most interest to me were their four brand new mascara formulations. It isn’t often that I try several mascaras from one brand at once and seeing the differences back to back was rather interesting!

Power Lash-Thickening Mascara is a volume builder with a HUGE brush. It has Vitamin E, panthenol, and bamboo extract for conditioning. I normally am not a fan of larger brushes, but this one was fine. It is a nice thickening, yet light formula, that was basically clump free when I tried it. It reminds me a bit of Maybelline Great Lash, but without the running and clumping problems (sorry, I’m not a Great Lash fan).

Great Lengths-Lengthening Mascara, is a straightforward lengthening formula. Gimmick free–something that I find quite refreshing these days–the mascara has a standard brush and comes in a standard tube, and delivers good results. I got a nice amount of length and little clumping (be sure to carefully wipe the brush first on this one though). If you want a good value basic mascara, you can’t go wrong with one.

Distinct Lash- Separating and Lengthening Mascara was my favorite in the bunch. This one is much like what I wish Maybelline Define-A-Lash (read review) would have been. It has a small brush (my preference), with fairly delicate bristles (another plus for me), and it lengthens without too much thickening so that the lashes look more delicate and are clump free. Maybelline had that too, but it had fatal flaw that the Milani version takes care of–Milani made their brush wand stable. If you love Define-A-Lash but hate that wand bending, you should definitely give Milani Distinct Lash a try.

Build-A-Lash–Fortifying and Volumizing Mascara is a two parter that reminds me a lot of Maybelline Volume Plus Length (Read Review). Step one is a white primer that thickens and lengthens. After allowing it to dry, black mascara is applied for quite long and dramatically full lashes. Seriously do not skip the part about waiting one minute with this! I got impatient and made it clump to high heaven. But when I actually waited the full minute for the primer to dry, I got wonderful results. If you have the patience for two steps, this is a really geat mascara.

All of the Milani mascaras come in black. I am crossing my fingers for a brown, and a navy at some point. They retail at around the great price of $6.50 and can be found at most mass retailers and larger drugstore chains. I tend to buy Milani at CVS, which also tends to run some great cosmetic sales.

I tried some other Milani products as well, so watch for future reviews.

By Carleenp Posted in Mascara | 4 Comments

Maybelline XXL Volume Plus Length Mascara

If you want some serious length with thickening to boot, Maybelline XXL Volume + Length Washable Mascara is a decent enough choice.

This mascara comes in two pieces, so it requires a bit of patience. One side is white and it lengthens the lashes beautifully. Despite a big brush, which doesn’t always do well for me, I had good luck with this one in terms of length with no clumps. Once the white part dries, the black side is used to tint the lashes.The key with this is to be sure all is dry first, otherwise things can clump. I had beautiful results at a decent price with this one. But I admit that I found the two steps a bit trying on my patience. I like to sweep the mascara on and run out the door!

Maybelline also recently released this in a curling version. I tried that one too, and found that it did give some curl. However, the curl was not particularly dramatic and I tend to recommend using a standard lash curler before any mascara.

Maybelline products can be purchased online and at all major drugstores.

Shop for Maybelline cosmetics

By Carleenp Posted in Mascara | No Comments

Neutrogena Healthy Volume Mascara

Neutrogena Healthy Volume Mascara surprised me a little. You see, I tend to not fare well with mascara that has a big brush, and the brush with this one is huge. But it worked quite well for me!

In general, Neutrogena Healthy Volume gives just that–volume. I found that the lengthening was fine but not spectacular, while the thickening and general overall volume was the big benefit. And it didn’t clump,– not at all– not even with a large brush.

Healthy Volume mascara also contains olive oil for conditioning, hence the “healthy” part of the name. Olive oil is wonderful stuff, so I like the addition of it in a mascara. The mascara also removed easily and I had no issues wearing it with my contact lenses in.

Shop for Neutrogena Cosmetics