Review: Benefit Dandelion Blush

Dandelion was the first Benefit product that I ever purchased. It's a pretty pale, light pink blush, on the back of the box it's described as "finely spun with delicates mauves and pinks, this exquisite brightening face powder leaves a petal like finish." It's meant to be used as all over the face brightening, but I know most people that buy this use it as a blush, and on fair skin tones it will show up as such. I think this is a really pretty subtle pink blush, good for everyday, and good for those who aren't really into blush as this does give a perk me up, natural looking flush.

ELF Haul Mineral Brushes, Neutral Eye Beauty Book and Hypershine Glosses

I got my latest order from ELF Cosmetics today. I have an initial review here of their new mineral brushes, the neutral eye beauty book and some of their hypershine glosses. I was really excited about the new mineral brushes since I am a brush junkie but, I gotta say straight up, these brushes are not great, which is a disappointment, read on for all the stuff that I got from ELF!

After getting the Smokey Eye Beauty Book earlier, I decided to pick up the Neutral Eye Edition as well since I liked it so much. I am more of a neutral eye girl anyway and I liked all the purple-toned colours that were in this one. The colours are very pigmented, however some are very soft, meaning you get a lot of product out at once, they are super smooth, but I wonder about the staying power because it's so buttery. I can do a full review later on if you guys are interested.

I've been obsessed with ELF's Hypershine glosses recently and almost have them all now, however I only recently found some nice opaque creme ones which I am happy with. The ones I mean are Flirt and Bubblegum in the picture above, as you can tell these are nicely opaque, Bubblegum especially is really really nice, I recommend this one for sure. The Frenzied Fuchsia is a new colour (notice how the packaging is slightly different) it looks great in the tube, despite the giant air bubble that was in mine, and even better on the site, it looks lilac, but swatched it's clear, huge disappointment. Fairy and Joy are too shimmery for my liking. The bottom one in the top pic is a Luscious Lipstick, slightly different than the Hypershine glosses, I will do a full review of these soon too.

And lastly, the new mineral brushes, lots of people are probably wondering about these and my initial impression is not a favourable one. I picked up 3 of the face brushes: powder, complexion and angled blush brush, they retail for $5 each. Everyone is wondering why these are so much, but all of ELF mineral line is more expensive, so the brushes are too, there is a 50% off mineral items on right now until October 12, 2010, so it's a good time to order if you want these, enter the code "50MIN" with any $20 order.

These brushes have synthetic, anti-bacterial taklon bristles. The bristles are soft, but the bristles are also quite thin and floppy. The brushes smelled like paint when I received them, and the white bristles reminded me of the Loew Cornell craft store brushes that I have. The powder brush is my biggest disappointment, it's huge and doesn't really work for anything besides setting powder because it's not dense enough, it resembles the Complexion brush from ELF's Studio Line. The complexion brush here reminds me a lot of the Ecotools blush brush, same shape and performs the same way, but I prefer the Ecotools cause it doesn't smell funky. The angled blush brush is just okay, very small and not very dense. I would not recommend these mineral brushes and will not be buying anymore, sorry ELF.

Oh and look at how much ELF paid to ship these items to me, $20! I only paid $6.95! If you are from Canada, you probably know this trick already, but in case you don't.. when you pay with paypal you only get charged $6.95 and avoid getting the extra $8 tacked on for Canadian shipping, I've been doing this for over a year now and it always works, however I gotta say I feel a tad bad after seeing how much they paid to ship it!

If you want any in-depth reviews please let me know below.

Essie Cuddle with Color Fall 2009 Revisited Swatches and Review

One of my favourite collections from Essie has gotta be last year's 2009 "Cuddle with Color", which had some very nice, very fall-like, muted polishes. There were 6 polishes in this collection and I have 3 of them to show and review for you today. The bright pink and orange did not fit in this collection at all in my opinion and the dark blue has been done again and again, nothing new. I know this collection is from last year, but I still think these three colours are just as current now as they were then. These colours are quite drab, but at the same time mature, classy and trendy looking. What do you guys think?

Mascara Monday: L'oreal Telescopic Clean Definition Mascara Review

Today's mascara is the L'oreal Telescopic Clean Definition Mascara. The L'oreal website describes this mascara as "For clump-free, perfectly defined longer lashes. L’Oréal introduces new Telescopic® Clean Definition Mascara for lashes with telescopic length, perfect definition, and a clump-free, natural end result. The patented No Clump Brush™ cleanly defines and lengthens up to 60%." This came out a long time ago, and promised more than anything, clump-free lashes. The packaging is a tall, skinny silver bottle that resembles a telescope, I find the packaging to be kind of ugly but it's not what's on the outside that counts.

Review: Clean and Clear Persa-Gel 5

This is like a miracle worker for destroying acne flareups. I have used several spot treatment products such as Clean and Clear's Advantage Acne Spot Treatment and Neutrogena's Rapid Clear Acne Eliminating Spot Gel, but this one has given me the best results. This product is described on the Clean and Clear website as "This #1 pharmacist-recommended acne treatment contains maximum strength Benzoyl Peroxide acne medication. The unique formula goes to work immediately, releasing the medicine deep into the pores where pimples start." It contains 5% Benzoyl Peroxide, which is a medication that helps fight acne-causing bacteria, and helps to eliminate and prevent acne.

I have to admit, I have had more acne in my mid-late 20's then I ever did in my teen years, and the majority of it is on my chin. I have an area on my chin where they always pop up, and it's a constantly healing while new acne forms type of disaster area. It really bothers me because I generally do not break out anywhere else and my skin is quite dry. Dry skin gets acne too though, believe it or not. And the zits on my chin are the painful, under the skin types that linger. I have read that many women in my age group experience the same problems and apparently it's caused by hormones. I am not currently on any birth control and have not been for years, so I don't know what is causing it. I have tried peppermint tea (read that helps somewhere), wash my face twice a day, exfoliate regularly, and do not wear makeup unless I need to. I think maybe the cause is how I constantly switch my products around, I should really stick to one skincare line or product and let my skin adjust. I am not dermatologist though, I am just learning on my own. If anyone here has pointers, please let me know.

Anyway, now that the nastiness is over, Clean and Clear Persa-Gel 5 for me is a wonderful product. This was about $8 at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada. It has 5% Benzoyl Peroxide and as far as I know, in Canada we don't have the 10% available over the counter. I would of tried that one instead, does the 10% work better? The Persa-Gel comes in a squeezy tube, the product itself is a white substance, I just squeeze out a tiny about and dab it on the monsters and blend it in. I have read that people use this all over their face everyday, I've only used it for spot treatment. Is it safe to use all over your face? seems like it would dry out a lot.

I got a new one of those under the chin pimples (to add to the collection) and put this on over night. In the morning, the swelling and size went down a lot, it's still there but greatly improved. The only thing is, this will dry out the area around the zit. I noticed once it dried, it left a kind of white powdery residue, which is definitely a downside to this product, but if you use it at night, this isn't a problem at all. I did find that after using it for a few days, the zit would bleed too, not sure if that is normal. If I push down on it too, I can feel fluid inside which is what is still causing the zit to be there. With repeated use, the zit will clear up altogether I think. Skincare is a very personal thing and varies person to person, but for me, this product works.

Have you tried this product? What is your favourite acne-fighting product?

Review: Sigma Makeup Flat Top Retractable Kabuki and Heart Shaped Mirror

Let's review some of Sigma Makeup's newer products, today I have the Hollywood Glamour Flat Top Retractable Kabuki and the Heart Shaped Mirror in Wild Pink. Both of these products are great for on the go, you can throw them into your makeup bag or purse and use them as needed.

Unlike the rest of Sigma's retractable kabukis, this one is a flat top. It sells for $25 on the Sigma Makeup website. It resembles the F80, a favourite of mine only in a compact, retractable version. This one comes with purple packaging and since it's in the Hollywood Glamour collection, this one has "Miss Taylor" embossed on it, for Elizabeth Taylor. I love the purple colour too. As you can tell in the picture above, you take the top off, pull the metal protector down and it reveals the brush, this keeps it clean and put together.

Compared to the F80, you can tell the brushes are pretty much the same, the bristles are soft and synthetic. I think the retractable version has a wider base and has slightly more bristles, as you can tell in the image above.  It also feels a tiny bit floppier, has more "give" than the F80, but that is probably because it doesn't have as firm of a base as the full sized brush. Of course, I am just being very critical here and these are probably things that most people would never notice. Both of these brushes are equally as dense and fabulous and are awesome at applying liquid foundation. So if you like your F80, why not get a retractable version too?

Sigma Makeup sells these super cute heart-shaped mirrors, they come in a variety of colours, Wild Pink is $27, but the one colour ones go for $25. I picked out this one because I like the pink and black, kinda leopard style going on. These come in a cute, velvety black string bag with the "Sigma" sown on. The back has Sigma written right on it, and the inside is totally mirrored and has a small compartment.

Look at how blingy and gorgeous this mirror is! Sigma says these are handmade and each rhinestone is individually placed on the mirror, wow that would take some time. You know you are getting a quality product here. However, what surprised me about this mirror is just how small it is, notice in the picture above,  I have small hands and this fits in my palm.

What do you think of these two products?