Beauty and Fashion Tech

All Entries Tagged With: "Stain"

Stila Cherry Crush Lip and Cheek Stain

I tend to be a big Stila fan. Their items are expensive, but the quality is usually incredible. Stila’s entry into the area of lip and cheek stain is no different. This is simply one good quality stain.

The picture below is taken in sunlight and shows the stain applied both thickly and thinly. Note that my skin is very pale, especially on my arm! So on most people the stain will not be quite that vivid:

The stain itself is a nice berry red that, like most stains, looks quite natural in appearance on the lips, especially if applied lightly. On my pale cheeks, I needed to use a very light touch, but liked the shade quite a bit.The stain did take a bit longer than some to dry when I tested it, but it then lasted well. The applicator is also wonderful. If you are familiar with Stila’s lipglazes, it is the same applicator–a built in brush that the product is twisted/clicked up into. I love that type of design, but do be careful not to overload the brush!

I count this one as another big winner from Stila!

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Revlon Pinch Me Gel Blush Cheek Stain

I really like cheek stains as long as I can blend them well enough and they are not overly dark. Revlon Pinch Me Sheer Gel Blush meets that description perfectly!

This gel cheek stain is absolutely perfect for me. I picked it up in the shade Playful Pink, which is a nice natural rose/pink shade that worked well with my ultra pale skin. I noted that there were several more shades available, so those of you with darker skin tones might want to look at the other shades like plum and cherry. Because the stain is in gel form, I found that it blended much better than a liquid stain such as Benetint. So it was a bit more forgiving of mistakes. Although I do still love Benetint as well!

I paired the Revlon cheek stain with its roller ball lip stain, Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain, in a plum shade with a little gloss. On bare skin, and with a bit of mascara on the eyes, this made for a nice, natural looking day-time makeup combination. For a further look at the lip stain, head on over to my review at Girl Gloss!

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Sonia Kashuk Cosmetics: Cheek Sheer, Shadow, and Brushes

I seem to always have mixed reactions when I try something from Sonia Kashuk cosmetics, a brand that is featured at Target stores. The packaging is almost always gorgeous and creative. The colors always look quite nice as well. But unfortunately something often falls short with the products for me.

Recently, I gave a few more products a try. The best thing that I bought was the Sonia Kashuk Lip Glossing Pencil. The pencil part was not particularly impressive, but I really love the gloss. You can read more about it at Beauty and Fashion Tech’s sister site, Girl Gloss where everything is focused on lipstick gloss, and balm.

Another fairly successful product for me was the Sonia Kashuk Cheek Sheer. This sheer cream blush comes in a handy little twist up tube, making it easy to carry in a purse. The color I chose, a peach tone, was pretty nice. It also blended well, but the problem was that it took me awhile to get enough color from the product to have anything to blend. The sheer blush seemed rather low on pigment content and I found myself putting quite a bit on to get any real color. That wasn’t so bad on my super fair skin–I don’t need a lot of pigment, but anyone with darker skin tones might be quite disappointed in this product.

I also bought a new powder blush that had a twist up brush with loose powder blush in the cap. It is so new, that I can’t find it online. The premise of it is great. Twist the cap to release some powder onto the brush, open up the tube, twist the brush up, and apply. If it worked, it would be a great way to neatly carry loose powder blush in a handbag. Unfortunately, the cap twists very easily and any little bumps cause the brush to become overloaded. Open the tube after that, and powder flies everywhere, making a rather annoying mess! The tube also seemed to leak powder a bit. I would not trust this item in my handbag. Not if I cared about the liner anyway. In the end, and rather unfortunately, this item is likely going in the trash at my place.

I had previously tried Sonia Kashuk eyeshadow and found it to be pretty average. I decided to try again though and bought a Sonia Kashuk Eyeshadow Duo. I had generally the same reaction. The colors were very nice and I didn’t really have any creasing issues, but there simply was not enough pigment in the shadow. A good shadow should be able to be built up in intensity as more is applied. With the Sonia Kashuk shadow, I kept adding, and adding, and adding, and not really getting anywhere with it. I finally decided that it was OK for those days where I want a super light wash of color, but otherwise there are much better, and some even cheaper, eye shadows sitting in my makeup case.

One area where I have generally liked Sonia Kashuk products as a good value is in the brush department. The Kashuk brushes are highly affordable and pretty serviceable. Because they are inexpensive, there are some flaws. For example, expect the brushes to loose some fibers during the first few uses, and don’t expect them to hold pigments as well as a high quality natural fiber brush. But they do the job much better than anything that is likely to come packaged with your makeup products and they are fairly attractive.

I recently bought a little fold up case with a set of small Sonia Kashuk brushes to carry in my handbag. I can’t find it online, but it is a very nice looking white case and the set is quite functional. Another good, and very inexpensive line of brushes is the Essence of Beauty line that can be found at CVS stores.

Sonia Kashuk products are available Online at Amazon.com and at Target stores.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Benetint Stain, Tinted Lip Balm, and Pocket Pal Lip Gloss Duo

A horrible thing happened a few weeks ago. The cap on my beloved Benefit benetint broke. I dropped it and now it is chipped and won’t stay shut. Since it is a staining liquid, I can’t let it spill all over. So it is now carefully sitting on a shelf in a plastic baggie just in case it tips.

If you have never tried Benetint, it is a liquid cheek and lip stain. Although the color appears as a rather intimidating dark red in the bottle, if applied lightly, it goes on as a nice light rose that gives a natural and long lasting flushed look. I adore the stuff as a cheek stain, especially on days when I want to wear just a bit of makeup or want a really natural look. I also like it for when I want a long wearing look. Use of the product takes some caution. It dries quickly, so I find that the time for blending it is limited. That means two things: (1) don’t put too much on to start, and (2) blend quickly! My trick is to dot a bit on and blend it quickly, then dot on a bit more and blend again until I have the amount of color that I want. I have pale skin, so I use very little. People with darker skin would likely want to use more to build up the color, but I recommend building it slowly. It can darken up pretty fast and it is easier to add color than it is to remove it.

Benetint also makes a great lip stain. Instead of going for a sticky long wearing product with so-so color, I prefer to put on some Benetint, let it dry, and then cover it with benetint lip balm. The tinted balm is also fairly nice by itself, providing decent moisture and a light rose/red sheer tint to the lips. As with the stain, the gloss looks darker in the jar than it really is on the lips. A downside of the tinted balm though is that the color does not last particularly long when used alone.

So what to do about my broken bottle? Well I think I have found the answer. I came across the pocket pal - benetint tint and lip gloss duo (pictured) which has the Benetint stain in one end and a clear gloss in the other. I think I will order this and then refill the stain from time to time from my carefully stored broken bottle. Yes, I could just go find some sort of new container or replace the whole bottle, but this way seems more fun!

Addicted to lip products? Check out Girl Gloss, a site devoted to all things lipstick, gloss and balm!

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Popularity: 8% [?]