So this may seem a bit late to you, after all wouldn't a leg shaving post be better at the start of summer? No. No it wouldn't. Because honestly it isn't until the late summer, early autumn that I really start paying attention to that. Which is bad but meh. I suppose it's left over from my public school days. I'm a lot more worried about the opinions of kids my age I have to live with all year then I am strangers in a shopping mall. So here it is. The best (and quickest) shaving experience you may ever have.
I don't but high end mascara, I just don't do it. Essentially you're paying 20+ dollars for a fancy brush. And there are plenty of amazing mascara brushes in the drugstore range. The hype surrounding the Benefit Roller Lash was enough to make me consider buying it. However, my current budget was not about that life.
Enter the next most hyped up mascara of late, Maybelline Lash Sensational. I picked it up and put it on my lashes and I swear to god the angels sang from the heavens. My lashes were full, curled slightly, long, and beautiful.
Low and behold the wand for the Maybelline product just looks like a larger version of the Roller Lash mascara. Which is funny considering they both came out around the same time (I believe the Maybelline came before).
If you're looking for a great mascara and an alternative to Benefit's Roller Lash, pick up Maybelline Lash Sensational for about 1/3 of the price.
I know I've talked about this before with my post about not buying makeup from the dollar store, but due to a recent post I saw on social media I felt the need to bring up this subject again, with a little more clarity.
I was pretty shocked when I found out that people sold counterfeit makeup. I was even more shocked when I saw that people seriously bought it for use. An easy search online will turn up countless Chinese "dupes" for anything from Naked palettes to MAC lipsticks, for sometimes 1/10 of the price of the real product.
A lot of the logic I've seen people use to explain away why these choose to buy these items are extremely flawed. "It's the same product just directly from the factory" or "Maybe they just chose not to inflate the price after they bought it wholesale."
no
No
NO
This isn't the same as buying a Michael Kors bag from some street stall on vacation. This is a product you will be putting on your skin. Your skin has this nasty habit of absorbing what you put on it. These counterfeit products are made cheaply and illegally. They are not put through the same required tests as the real products. There can be all sorts of bad for you chemicals and bacteria in these products. The video below has a little more information on this. It also has some graphic-ish photos of skin issues and eyes so if you have issues with those be warned.
While this video mostly deals with in person kiosks at market, it should be noted that every brand contacted said very certainly they do not discount their products. The only way you are going to find these products on sale is directly through the retailers or a place like Sephora or Ulta. Even then those sales will be few and far between, never more than 20% (except on occasion when an items is being discontinued and they need to make room for more items).
Now we've covered the health risks, let's discuss the moral issues. Buying these makeup products can mean supporting animal testing/cruelty, human labour/trafficking, and potentially even terrorism. Your money directly goes to those organizations. It's really not good.
This is a guide to figure out whether you're buying fake MAC lipstick or not, but the principles can be applied to most makeup products.
At the end of the day, don't buy on sites like eBay, Alliexpress, or any other kind of wholesale warehouse. If you're looking for an LE product, or a product cheaper than you can get it in store, I suggest checking out Glambot. Glambot verify's their makeup before selling it, and it's coming from other's like you (completely sanitized of course).
Here are a few more articles about fake makeup products.
Normally I don't do this but Please, PLEASE share this everywhere you can. It's important to me that people aren't risking their healthy because they're misinformed.
Oh my god. I know I've talked about it before but I absolutely hate the Urban Decay Naked obsession. Now the Naked Smokey has come out and I'm (metaphorically) slamming my head into my vanity.
Seriously??? SERIOUSLY?!?! Another Naked palette. Does anyone else remember when Urban Decay was a makeup company that provided makeup to a more alternative clientele. I understand the need to branch out, really, I do. But in that they seem to have left their old customers behind.
Despite still using the tagline "beauty with an edge", there's such an obvious lack of "edge" in the new line of products. Almost everything in the past year or so sporting the name "Naked".
With the launch of the Revolution High-Colour lipgloss and Afterglow 8 Hour Powder Blush I thought that the company was starting to (re)broaden their horizons. I was let down of course when the Naked Smokey launched.
Please can we go back to the Urban Decay of the past, when palette's like the Deluxe shadow box, Fun palette, and Bamboo palette existed. To those of you insisting that you need to own four different palettes with muted nudes, great, you have it.
I can even appreciate the variety of nudes. It's a type of all inclusive collection that a lot of brands lack. What I don't appreciate is the complete focus on this line.
Urban Decay, please take a minute to look at a different business model. Too Faced cosmetics has become pretty much known for the Cocoa collection. And they do frequently release new products to that line. But at the same time, Too Faced is still releasing some very exciting Limited Edition products (Color Pop palette), new innovative products to their permanent line (Born This Way foundation), and spins on their old products (Metallic Melted Lipstick). As much as I used to ADORE Urban Decay, I've found myself drifting to other lines like Kat Von D, Too Faced, and even drugstore brands like Maybelline and Covergirl to get the kind of variety in makeup I've been looking for.
What are you thoughts? Are you getting fed up with the Naked obsession like me? Or are you a faithful lover of the endless neutral trend.
When I started with makeup, I was really obsessed with foundations that had a medium-full coverage that would give me a perfect blank canvas of a face. However, that turned out to be a terrible idea. I had no idea how to wear that amount of makeup. I ended up with this really odd texture that was one part my dry skin and one part what I was putting on top of that dry skin. I set out to find a BB cream to wear in the summer of 2015 that would get rid of the mass amount of redness in my face, but wouldn't look like I was wearing an inch of makeup. Too Faced, Urban Decay, and Benefit all were big let downs. Because I'm one of a handful of individuals that avoids tanning in the summer at all costs. So I did something I hadn't done in the year since I started my makeup obsession, I asked a Sephora sales associate for help.
My spot on match was the Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream with the tear inducing price tag of $39. Needless to say I did not purchase it that day. Maybe it's just me but I find it hard to justify spending more than $25 on a foundation when it is going to be used up in about 2 months if used daily.
I did get lucky and find someone willing to sell me a unused bottle that they bought on accident for $18 dollars. But I was right, it lasted about 2 months, even with 4 day a week usage. Meaning it lasted me one month of consistent usage.
I ran out, I wanted to cry a bit, and I was back to using a foundation that was one shade too dark for me.
That is, until a couple days ago when I headed into Sally's Beauty Supply. It was there that I found the Femme Couture Cosmetics CC Tinted Moisturizer. I bought it because it looked my color and was a tinted moisturizer. But when I got home and applied it I realized that it was basically a dupe for my oh so expensive Holy Grail BB cream.
Buying the CC Cream from Sally's has a few pros and cons.
Pros:
$9.99 for almost twice the amount of product of the Smashbox BB Cream
Moisturizing but not too dewey
They actually make a shade for pale skin that offers some coverage and isn't glorified lotion
Cons:
There are only 4 shades available
No SPF
Not much known about the company
So go ahead and try it. Ten dollars may get you a new favorite face product!
