Benefit they're real mascara review

The latest mascara I'm using is Benefit 'they're real'. Anything that even hints at creating a fake lash look is always a must try!

I have developed a love and hate relationship with 'they're real'. It has some very good points, but some irritating ones as well.

The brush, well I couldn't get a good close up shot; but I will try and describe it.
It's got fine plastic bristles all over but at the top of the wand it sort of fans out into a spiky circle.
At first I thought this was odd and unnecessary, but wow, it helps to catch every single lash!
I don't think any mascara I've ever used has really grabbed every lash in just a couple swipes.

The brush:

The formula, is very unique. It is sticky, and it doesn't really completely dry. I find if I use a lot of layers my top and bottom lashes will get stuck together. I hate that!
It's also not the easiest to build up, you can only really do 2-3 coats before it just starts to get so thick and sticky it looks like your lashes are all one big fat eyelash. Well not quite but you get the idea!

Wearing 2 coats of Benefit they're real:

Do my lashes look fake? nah I don't think so.

They're real gives longer slightly thicker lashes with decent separation. Nothing too amazing. It holds curl ok, but it doesn't 'lift' them up as claimed.
The wear of this mascara is really good. It doesn't flake, smear or smudge at all!
That's because it's waterproof. Gimmicky that they don't advertise it, but it is absolutely a waterproof mascara. It is so hard to get off my lashes I always wake up with left over black panda eyes the next day. I hate that so much.

I love the fact that I can put this on and 8 hours later my lashes still look great, and I don't have to worry about it flaking down my face at work.
I hate the fact that they put so much hype on it when it's performance is actually quite average, my lashes don't look anywhere near fake, doesn't lift lashes, and they don't mention that it's waterproof.

Overall, I will use it up, but I don't think I'm going to be trying things from Benefit anymore.
I find I am almost always disappointed in their products for the price, and they are just too gimmicky.
For $30 I would much rather grab myself a tube of diorshow black out, thank you.
I think if you are curious and don't mind waterproof mascara or a hefty price tag go ahead and try it. Otherwise, I'd say pass! It's really not that impressive.

repurchase? no

rating: 3/5

price: $29 CAD (OUCH!!!)

NOTD: OPI I lily love you over suzi skis the pyrenees

Above: 2 coats OPI suzi skis the Pyrenees - deep smokey blackened teal

I got OPI I lily love you when it first came out with the nice stems collection for summer. This color is insane. The clear base is completely loaded with all different shapes and sizes of glitter and big flakies.

This is 2 coats of I lily love you layered over 2 coats of Suzi skis the Pyrenees:

Glitter overdose!

My camera sucks so the colors don't show up well, but within the glitters you can see practically every color of the rainbow. predominately blue, green, pink, yellow and orange.





I think that one coat of I lily love you would have been better than two, because all the glitter chunks started merging and getting slightly gnarled up. It looked very cosmic, in fact I named it 'cosmic insanity'.

I lily love you looks cool over other colors too. I first tried it over mermaids tear's (sea foam green/teal) and it turned a neat purple because of the pink jelly base. It's definitely a versatile polish, I'd love to do a matte look with it too.

This is a must have polish for glitter fans. It's the craziest glitter I've ever seen!

Help save the sharks! LUSH shark fin soap

I stopped in at Lush the other day to find a table with shark fin soaps and a public petition to stop the slaughter of sharks for their fins.
I immediately signed the petition, and was about to walk out when the sales lady mentioned that 100% of the proceeds from shark fin soaps go to shark savers!
I don't like bar soap much, but I want to support sharks any way I can, so I brought home this little baby, and I'm so glad I did!


In case you didn't know, sharks are my favorite animals. In particular, the great white shark.
I don't cry very often, but when I see footage of shark finning, or any shark killing at all, I burst into tears. They are my soul animal.

Shark fin soap is actually really neat! The top portion looks like the oceans surface, with a shark fin swimming through it.

The bottom of the soap is bejeweled with sea salt and sea weed. Very oceanic, and exfoliating!

This soap smells like the sea, comforting, fresh invigorating and natural. I actually love it. It's great for exfoliating any dry patches or rough parts.

Even if you don't plan on buying this soap, please just stop in to your nearest LUSH and sign the petition to ban shark finning.
These inhumane beasts catch sharks, cut thier fins off and throw them back into the ocean to die. It's the saddest thing in the world.
Together, we can help these beautiful sharks from going extinct! <3

UPDATE: you can sign the online petition to help sharks! choose which petition is from your country, and help save the sharks right now :) click here for more information.

NARS rebecca duo photos, swatches and EOTD

Rebecca, an interesting duo from NARS I recently acquired is described as Kiwi / Amber with shimmer.
Looks quite intriguing doesn't it?

More than anything these shadows seem frosted with shimmer. Frosty pale iced green and frosty light reddened brown. The shadows are pigmented, but they are very sheer and fine.

Swatched heavily:

My EOTD using Rebecca:

I used my usual gosh primer, and layered the colors quite a few times but they went on very sheer. They are more or less a 'wash' as opposed to being intense and rich. I figure to get them to show up more vividly you can use them wet.

Personally I don't like this duo. The coloring is just wrong on me! The 'amber' made my eyes look red and sore, and the 'kiwi' just didn't show up enough. I just think it makes me look ill.

Maybe darker skin tones can pull these colors off, but I'm not sure it would be flattering on anyone.

trash review: MAC pro eye makeup remover

I recently finished off my huge bottle of MAC pro eye makeup remover.
It lasted me a really long time! I had one that was in older white and black packaging, it now comes in a clear purple hued bottle (shown above).

pro eye makeup remover old packaging:

The new one only comes with 3.4 oz (100 ml) of product, but the older version comes with a whopping 5 oz (150 ml)!!!

Let me tell you, I have a hard time finding eye makeup removers that work for me. They almost always sting, burn and irritate my sensitive eyes.
I usually go for lotions that don't irritate, but then I'm left with blurry eyes from oils that are hard to wash off.

MAC's is so gentle, that it feels like I'm taking off my makeup with water. No irritation at all.
The formula is fragrance free, and the ingredients list is basic, excellent for someone with sensitive eyes.

Ingredients:
Water, PEG-32, Butylene Glycol, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, PEG-6, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Trisodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol

I must mention that I do not use waterproof mascara (I lose too many lashes) so I'm not sure if this would work for that.
I found it to quickly and easily remove regular mascara, waterproof eyeliner and eyeshadow. I didn't have to pull on my eyes at all. When wearing very heavy liner and lots of primer/shadow I did have to go over it twice. But it did take it off.

I will be honest and say that you can probably find something similar to this for a lot cheaper. However, if something works well for me I don't mind spending a bit more money instead of buying cheap stuff that has so much added irritants/fragrance it ends up in the garbage anyways.
MAC also sells the travel size of this (1 oz) for $12 CAD, not too bad if you want to try it out.
If you can find the older packaging at CCO's, definitely get it because it's a great deal-- or grab one for me ;)

repurchase? Absolutely

rating: 4.5/5

price: $23 CAD

Estee Lauder sumptuous mascara review

Another Estee Lauder mascara, to be honest I really like some of their products lately! I loathe the gold/blue packaging but hey - it's what's inside that matters most.

Sumptuous is Lauder's 'bold volume lifting mascara'. I wouldn't say it's 'lifting' in any way but as for volume it works wonders.

The brush is a little bit big, but still easy enough to use. It grabs lashes and coats them nicely.

The brush up close:

Wearing sumptuous:

I found that with two coats I got pretty good volume and length from this mascara.
My lashes aren't as defined/separated as I'd like wearing this, but they did look nice and lush/full.
I didn't find it lifting at all, but it held curl through the day which is a big plus.
No smudging, flaking or smearing at all. Easy to remove.
Overall, a pretty good mascara. If you like volume you will love this.

repurchase? No, I like more defined lashes.

rating: 4/5

price: $21 USD