Mascara : Beauty and Fashion Tech

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.

Popularity: 79% [?]

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.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

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

Popularity: 21% [?]

M.A.C. Cosmetics Originals Collection

I have been having quite a bit of fun with the M.A.C. Originals collection. Based on past best selling shades, the collection has some fun colors, pigments, and glitter, with a bit of a retro feel.

I have a number of favorites in the collection. In the eye shadows, Frisco is a great pink shade that stands out, yet isn’t overwhelming. It might sound odd to pair pink shadow with a blue eye pencil, but I did, with a bit of gray/blue shadow in the corner crease, and I liked the look.

The excitement that the collection’s navy blue eye pencil, indigo, caused me is hard to describe. Last year, I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for a navy blue eye pencil and could not locate one–not even a cruddy cheap one. So obviously the one that appeared in the M.A.C. originals collection has been getting used a lot! It is a great shade, and the pencil is very smooth. No tugging with one. I love it!

The collection also features one heck of a good mascara. M.A.C.’s Mascara X has a funky looking football shaped brush and I was initially skeptical when I first saw it. But this mascara creates wonderfully defined lashes. This has to be one of the least clumping mascaras that I have tried in some time.

The collection also includes some great lipsticks and lipglass shades, including a couple of deeper lipglass colors, avarice and real desire, that have quickly become new favorites for me. For more on that see my post over at Girl Gloss.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

Rimmel Extreme Definition Mascara and Lash Maxxx

I tend to really like Rimmel cosmetics, unfortunately, Rimmel Extreme Definition Ultimate Lash-Separating Mascara was not all that ultimate for me. Not at all.

This mascara has a pretty strange brush. It looks like a little plastic comb, and I found it very difficult to use.

First, it difficult to wipe the excess off. Second, it is a bit hard to get it pointed at the correct angle. The result for me was a big smear by one eye, and a bunch of clumps on the other. I was quite unimpressed.

Rimmel is featuring this style of brush on their fairly new Lash Maxxx mascara as well. It really just didn’t work for me.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara

I really, really like the new Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara. This is true both in theory for what it is supposed to do and in actual use. For the theory of it, here is what the Elizabeth Arden website has to say:

Our first-ever mascara infused with Ceramide Triple Complex and Keravis™ to help lengthen, define and revitalize lashes.

Lashes are longer and fuller, giving eyes a younger, more vibrant look

Contains our exclusive Ceramide Triple Complex (Ceramides 1, 3 and 6) plus Vitamins A, C and E to help reinforce and restore lashes’ natural protective barrier

Contains Keravis™, a conditioning ingredient known to help strengthen and fortify lashes

Won’t smudge, flake or clump

Removes easily with Elizabeth Arden All Gone Eye and Lip Makeup Remover

In two shades, Black and Black Brown

Keravis™ is a trademark of Croda Inc.

For the in practice part, I haven’t used it long enough to tell if I am getting conditioning from the mascara, but I can say that I really like the stuff. The mascara has a pretty standard type and size of wand. No gimmicks with this one– which is fine with me! Although I sometimes get some clumping with regular size brushes, I have had no such problems with this one. The mascara goes on clean, provides nicely defined length, and comes in an attractive gold container.

Considering that this is a perfectly good mascara and one that I would buy based on that alone, I figure any conditioning and treatment from it is a bonus! Elizabeth Arden also makes a Lash Optimizer-Primer with Conditioner that I have not tried, but it looks interesting.

Looking for holiday gifts? You can also get the Lash Extending Mascara, Eye and Lip Makeup remover, and cotton pads in this Elizabeth Arden Mascara Holiday Set.

Elizabeth Arden cosmetics are available online, at various department stores, and at Ulta stores.

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Popularity: 6% [?]