Maybelline : Beauty and Fashion Tech

Maybelline Mineral Power Powder Foundation

Maybelline has done an impressive job entering the mineral makeup market. Their Mineral Power liquid foundation (read review) is one of the few liquids branded as a mineral foundation in the drugstore price range. With its Mineral Power Powder Foundation, Maybelline has done a nice job of providing a good basic powder foundation in a wide variety of shades.

Maybelline advertises their mineral makeup as talc free, but they do not mention bismuth. I did not see it on my ingredient list of the one that I purchased, but I have seen others report that they saw it listed as one of the “may contain” ingredients.

The number of shades is quite nice. Women with pale skin like mine up to dark brown skin shades will find something that works for them in this line. The range really is quite impressive.

The downside to the powder seems to be for those with oily skin. For example, Makeup Moxie tried it and found that it didn’t quite cut it–she got oily not too long after applying it. I too found that it didn’t really absorb oil well when I wore it on an oily day.

However, when I used Mineral Power on my drier days, it worked quite well. I did not experience issues with it settling into lines and wrinkles and it never looked flaky.

Coverage with this one is light to medium. I found that it covers redness fine, but it didn’t really hide my areas of melasma and hyperpigmentation. So if you have pigmentation that you want to hide, this one might not be quite enough.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Maybelline Salon Expert Nail Polish

I grabbed a bottle of Maybelline Salon Expert Nail Color because I loved the bright summer pink shade (pink splash, number 822). Turns out that I also love the polish in general.

Maybelline Salon Expert covers really well. You can get away with only one coat of this stuff, but I went ahead and did two. It has a great shiny look when dry, and boy does it last! I type so much and tend to be hard on my nails, so I generally chip the heck out of polish within a day or two. I managed to make the Salon Expert lacquer last about 5 days, then I stretched it a few more by tossing another coat on top.

I was so impressed that I went and bought another bottle in a different shade. It is affordable, quality, easy to find, and has some great shades. What more can a person ask for?

Shop for Maybelline Cosmetics

Popularity: 10% [?]

Maybelline Dream Mousse Eye Shadow

I love Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation (see review). Now I am in love with the eyeshadow as well!

Mousse Eye Shadow is an extremely good creme shadow–better than many of the expensive department store brands. Like the other dream mousse products, Maybelline’s dream mousse shadow has a light whipped texture. In fact, this is one of the few cream shadows that I could apply just fine with my fingers. Not that I recommend that over a brush, but fingers really can work with this one.The shadow has a nice subtle shimmer and goes on sheer, but can be built in color with additional application. I first used the shade Ivory Illusion on my lid up to the brow bone area. That shade alone provides a nice nude shimmer look. I then applied the shade suede sensation to the lid and built the color a bit in the crease. Suede sensation is one of the prettiest brown shimmers that I have worn in some time, and it is perfect for a neutral look with a bit of shimmer. The shadows last well and I have had no issues with creasing.

At $5-7 or so at your local drugstore, these shadows are an incredible value.

Shop for Maybelline cosmetics

Popularity: 12% [?]

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

Popularity: 9% [?]

Review: Maybelline Mineral Power Liquid Foundation

Maybelline has jumped on the mineral makeup bandwagon and released a full line of mineral cosmetics. It is also so new, that it isn’t on their website yet! However, it is in at Target and other stores, but selling out fast in my area of the Chicago suburbs.

Since I have been up to my ears in powder mineral makeup lately, I decided to give the liquid foundation a try first and will test the powder in upcoming weeks. However, if you are interested in the powder before then, Makeup Moxie has a great review of it. I also did note that it doesn’t seem to list fillers such as bismuth as an ingredient, and there appears to be a fairly decent range of shades, although I couldn’t get a great look at the store because so many were sold out!

The liquid mineral makeup is pretty darn good stuff with one big caveat– You need to have the skin type for it to see the best results. The coverage of the liquid mineral power is quite nice. Something more than sheer, but less than medium. I found it to be perfect for when you really need to cover up some redness but want your real skin to show through. It was not enough coverage to hide my melasma, but it was enough to lessen the appearance of it, which is what I often prefer for daytime looks anyway. At my age, less foundation is more, and I would rather have some spots showing through than look caked with makeup! The porcelain ivory shade was also perfect for me.

Unfortunately though, I don’t think the foundation is for me at this time of year when my skin is on the dry side. First off, it goes matte pretty fast. I would love that in the summer, but right now when I am a bit dry, it didn’t work as well. It wasn’t awful–I didn’t get overly flaky or anything–but I felt a bit too much on the dry side when I was wearing it.

Now here is where things get a bit interesting. When I first wrote this post, I was going to particularly recommend the Maybelline liquid minerals for oily skin because of its matte nature and because mineral makeup tends to be pretty friendly to acne prone skin. But then I read Jazmin’s review of it at Makeup Moxie. Jazmin, who was kind enough to let me use her photo of the product (Thanks!!!), has oily skin, and found that the foundation did not remain matte. In fact, she got oily again rather fast. The upshot is that I am beginning to think that this one is good for mainly normal skin that doesn’t go too far into the either the oily or dry side. Unfortunately, that limits its use for quite a few people!

The foundation also contains SPF 18. I imagine that I will happily use up the bottle that I purchased once spring arrives and I am ready for matte makeup again, but before summer when I start to get oily. If you like matte makeup, and don’t have partcualry oily or dry skin, you might want to give this a try. In that range, it is a nice makeup with a nice price tag to match.

One final note: Powder minerals tend to be quite freindly to dry skin, so hopefully that one will have a better skin type range. Keep watching for a future review!

Shop for Maybelline cosmetics

Comparison Shop for Mineral Makeup

Popularity: 19% [?]

Review: Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation

Now that my skin is getting on the oily side, I need a new foundation for summer. Fortunately, I found a new favorite one fairly quickly! Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation is a great foundation that is suitable for oily to normal skin types. It is very affordable as well!

I was skeptical when I first bought this mousse foundation. I was worried that as a mousse, it would not cover well. But it turned out to cover just fine. Because it is a mousse, it blends wonderfully using just the fingers. It gives a light to medium coverage that can be built up some by using a sponge or brush or just my adding a little extra where needed. It becomes and stays matte pretty quickly and then it stays that way. Other than when I tried it on a spot of dry skin, I found that it did not get cakey or sink into my wrinkles and pores much, this was especially true when I used a primer under it such as DHC Velvet Skin Coat or Smashbox Photofinish. It also lasts most of the day. My only complaint is that the foundation lacks SPF and I like to add that in as many products as possible.

In terms of shades, classic ivory was about right for my pale skin. I thought it was a bit more yellow than I would like, but once blended in and with a dusting of mineral powder, it seemed to match well. Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse comes in sixteen shades, although the drugstore was sold out of a number of them when I purchased mine. The full range of shades can be seen at Maybelline’s website.

If you are looking for a foundation appropriate for oily, combination, or normal skin, I highly recommend giving Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse a try. I don’t think this one would work all the well on dry skin simply because any mattifying product is likely to cause issues with that skin type.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Drugstore Mascara: Comparing Cover Girl Lash Exact and Maybelline Define A Lash

Awhile back, Yummy 411 recommended that I try Cover Girl Lash Exact Mascara. So when I was in the market for a brown mascara, I decided to pick one up. At the same time, I also was able to try Maybelline’s Define a Lash.I’m glad I was given the recommendation, because I really like Lash Exact. It has thinner bristles in the brush, which for me is usually a necessity. Larger brushes almost always result in clumps for me no matter how carefully I remove excess product or apply it. The product went on very well, no clumps, no smears, and it stayed on all day. It also really, really, REALLY lengthened and defined the lashes. It did not thicken so much. That is what I tend to want. So I am very happy with this mascara. Heck, I find myself reaching for it on days when I would rather wear black, simply because it is the best mascara in my drawer right now. So I definitely plan to pick one up in black.

Maybelline’s Define a Lash is a bit odd. On the good side, it has the thinner bristle type brush that I like. The mascara itself also seems fine. It lengthens well, defines well, doesn’t clump etc. I would probably find it about equal to Lash Exact, but there is one real serious oddity with the brush; it is very flexible and bends around a bit when using it. The bending factor doesn’t seem to mess with the application, but it does annoy me every time I put the wand back into the tube because it doesn’t want to slide in easily. I have to cram it in there. From what I can tell, the flexible wand lends nothing positive to the application, so why Maybelline chose that design is beyond me. Their web site does not provide any insight on the matter. So in the end, I think Maybelline took what could be a really good mascara and ruined it with a poor packaging choice. At least for me, the annoyance of cramming the brush back into the tube means that I won’t be purchasing this one again.

Shop for more CoverGirl Cosmetics

Popularity: 7% [?]