Essie First Base Base Coat and To Dry For Top Coat

I picked these up at Shoppers Drug Mart recently. I've been painting my fingernails quite regularly lately and was in desperate need of both base coat and top coat since I'd been using a thickening, gloopy top coat as both for too long. I thought I'd treat myself and splurge a bit. I paid $11 (CDN$) each for these.

First Base Base Coat: 

Base coats are like the primer when you're painting a wall, a car, a door, a ceiling, a house, etc. It goes on first and acts as a smoothing agent, prepping the surface for paint and protecting the surface. In the case of dark polish colours, nails can yellow from the pigmentation. A base coat will protect your nails from this.

I love the names of both of these products and the packaging is adorable. I love that First Base matches its packaging.

Both base and top coat go on thinly and smoothly and dry quickly. 

To Dry For Polish Drying Top Coat:

The top coat goes on smoothly and does what it says - it dried my polish very quickly. But, is top coat not meant to maintain your polish - keep it from chipping? It just didn't protect the nail colour and I had chipping after a day or so. I will be using this again, perhaps applying more than one coat of top coat but I was shocked how quickly my nail colour began to chip - it was if I hadn't used a top coat at all!

So, a thumb's up for First Base base coat but thumb's down for To Dry For top coat.

C.

EOTD: Not-So-New Wave Grey Lined Eyes (plus three lipsticks)

I've been using one of my favourite MAC eyeshadows Greystone (sadly discontinued) as liquid liner quite a lot recently so I wanted to do an EOTD. This look combines a liquid "cat-eye" liner and a softer pencil liner in grey. Grey is one of my favourite make-up colours lately and it's a great colour to wear on the eyes as it's a change from blacks and browns and quite chic and contemporary. It's also a much softer look than doing a cat-eye liner with black.

Greystone is a matte medium grey eyeshadow colour I bought years and years ago. It's been discontinued but luckily I still have most of it left! For this I scraped some Greystone out of the pot (look OLLLLLD MAC packaging!) and mixed it with some mixing medium to create the "liquid" Greystone. With an angle brush, I lined my upper lashline with it, starting from the very inner corner and extending it slightly out past the outer corner. 

Along my lower lashline I smudged a Bonne Bell grey pencil eyeliner and blended it with my fingertip. 

MAC Greystone

Bonne Bell Eyeliner Pencil in Pebble

I had it in my head that the eye look I'd done was "New Wave". Yeah, it's not. It's really tame to have that description. Since it was so simple, I wanted to see what it would look like with three very different, bold lipstick shades.

With MAC Snob

With MAC Costa Chic

With MAC Girl About Town

L to R: Costa Chic, Girl About Town and Snob

The grey eye look is so soft and basic, each of these different shades works. I kept my blush subtle since the lip colours were so different. Depending on which of these lip colours I chose to wear, I'd select a blush shade that would complement it.

And there you have it, my not-so-New Wave EOTD, plus lipstick!

C.

MAC: Art Supplies Greasepaint Sticks

Being a practicing visual artist (and makeup artist) I couldn't help but be excited over the title and concept of MAC's latest collection"Art Supplies". Since I already spend obscene amounts of money buying real art supplies, I figured no one would notice if I diverted a little bit of my funds into this collection.

Back in the fall, MAC launched, in my opinion, one of the best and most creative collections we've seen in the past few years - Style Black. With Style Black came the Greasepaint Stick. Greasepaint sticks are sort of a edgier cousin of the now defunct Shade Sticks.

According to MAC, the Greasepaint Stick is designed to maintain a glossy finish. These are a kin to a very fat eyeliner pencil and they set with about 30 seconds of smudge time. Photo taken with flash, indoor lighting.

MAC Greasepaint Sticks (top to bottom): Below Ground, Greengrease and Dirty

MAC Greasepaint Sticks (left to right): Below Ground, Greengrease and Dirty

MAC Greasepaint Strick LE ($21.00 CA/17.50 US)

Below Ground - a very beautiful metallic golden taupey brown. Would make a great neutral warm smokey eye.

Greengrease - a black base with green shimmer.

Dirty - a metallic, silvery taupe, a cool neutral, very pretty.

General Comments

Most of the Greasepaint stick shades are very dark, so they are pretty much limited to creating smokey eye looks. I bought the three I did because they seemed more versatile, also because I love any green eyeshadow. The Greasepaint sticks are fairly creamy to apply, but you need to work fast at smudging them because once they set, they aren't budging. In comparison to the old Paintsticks, this formula is smoother, creamier and much improved.

Anyone use and love these?

J

L'Oreal 360 Clean Skin & Face Cleanser

L'Oreal has introduced a new line of cleansers - they're in stores now. What makes these particularly exciting and notable is that they each come with a "scrublet" - a little textured pad that's stored in the bottle that you use to lather the cleanser on your skin. Stored in the bottle you say? Like this:

The little rubbery scrublet is stored in a hole in the bottle, so you don't have to worry about losing it or where to keep it in your medicine cabinet/shower. How very clever!

 Close-up of the scrublet.

That little flatter bit is for your thumb. The instructions are to hold the "handle" of the scrublet between your index and middle finger and place your thumb on the surface. You dampen your skin and squeeze some of the cleanser onto the scrublet and scrub your face in a circular motion to lather the cleanser.

My review? The scrublet can be a bit fussy to maneuver once your hands and face are wet and soapy but it is a great little tool and makes my skin feel especially smooth. It can be used with any cleanser you like, of course, but there is that handy little hole in the bottle to store it in.

Of the choices available, I selected the Deep Facial Cleanser (deep-cleaning, high-foaming gel). There are three other variations - one for sensitive skin, a cream cleanser and an exfoliating version. The Deep Facial Cleanser Gel apparently has naranji, orange flower and mint in it but it's heavily fragranced and rather overwhelming so if you're sensitive to fragrance you might want to steer clear of this.

Overall, this is a satisfactory cleanser although without the scrublet it would be below average. What say all of you? Has anybody tried one of these new L'Oreal cleansers? Like? Dislike?

C.

C.O. Bigelow Vitamin Mentha Tinted Lip Balms and Mentha Lip Tint

Bath and Bodyworks, the well-loved American palace of scents is new to downtown Toronto (the first Toronto location opened in Yorkdale Mall in 2008) and I'm slowly becoming acquainted with their enormous selection of candles, lotions, hand sanitizers, perfumes, aromatherapy, room fragrances and skincare. When I first went inside the Eaton Centre store it was on their opening weekend and it was extremely overwhelming with products, sales and salespeople at every step. I did try one of the products I review here, but did not buy it simply because I am immediately turned off by sales pitches.

However, I did go back recently to replenish my stock of hand sanitizer and picked up three (for $15 CDN$) C.O. Bigelow lip products, including the lip gloss I'd been accosted by during my first trip inside.

I chose two of the tinted lip balms and one lip gloss. The Vitamin Mentha Tinted Lip Balms come in a few different shades and clear. All contain mint, smell like mint and feel cool and tingly on the lips. 

I chose the reddish shade called Merlot Mint because I'm a sucker for cherry-stained lips.

Merlot Mint shade

Merlot Mint swatched

Merlot Mint on my lips

As you can see, the lip balm goes on a bit streaky. It'd probably be best applied with a lip brush or dabbed on with your finger. 

I also chose the natural pink shade Poppy Pink Mint.

Poppy Pink Mint

Poppy Pink Mint swatched.

Poppy Pink Mint on my lips.

I like the colour of this lip balm, although too much can look chalky. 

Both balms are made with peppermint oil which provides your lips with a tingling sensation and coolness and the peppermint also helps freshen your breath. It is quite an intense mint scent so if you're not a fan, this is definitely not the lip product for you! They're also apparently "packed" with vitamins, minerals and antioxidant-rich goji berries. As a lip balm, these are both quite good. I can wear these for hours without feeling the need to reapply. As opposed to how I normally apply lip balm and then lipstick or gloss, these eliminate the need since they're so pigmented.

I also chose the Magenta Mint Mentha Lip Tint which is actually more of a gloss than its name implies.

Magenta Mint Mentha Lip Tint

Magenta Mint swatched

Magenta Mint on my lips.

Like the balms, the lip tint is made with peppermint oil, so it makes your lips tingle, enhance the colour ever so slightly and aids in freshening your breath. It is very minty, be warned. The colour is very faint and the tint is very glossy but it doesn't dry my lips out like so many glosses can. It's not a gloss but not to fear, your hair will stick to this just like a gloss! It'll be a great top to a lipstick colour that you want to add shine to.

To demonstrate, I've done just that below. I topped the Poppy Pink Mint lip balm with the Magenta Mint lip tint. Pretty, isn't it?

Poppy Pink Mint Mentha Tinted Lip Balm topped with Magenta Mint Mentha Lip Tint.

*Note: These products taste delicious too (if you like mint). 

C.

EOTD: Purple/Bronze Smoky Eye

I've been wanting to do an eye look using the dark purple shade from Stacked 2! that was released with MAC's recent Spring Collection Forecast and finally got around to it this weekend. The dark purple shade leapt out at me immediately when I saw the Stacked! powders and of all of them it's got the richest colour.

Of course, the colour isn't as intense in these photos as it is in person, I apologize. This look is definitely better suited for night although you could get away with a much more muted version for day. Just think sheer and pretty much any colour can work for day.

First I used:

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack and smudged it along my upper lashline with an angle brush. This is an important step when using colourful eyeshadow as it can "ground" the colour and give your look more dimension and shape.

Along my lower water line and lashline I smudged:

Bare Escentuals Sex Kitten mixed with a bit of water-based mixing medium. Mixing powder colour with  a mixing medium gives you an instant liquid colour and also gives the product staying powder. If you like, you can top the liquid colour with some of the powder for more oomph.

And now for the purple!

I smudged the colour onto my lid, blending up into and above my crease, blending out any harsh lines. I also smudged some of the purple below my eye, blending it into the Sex Kitten for a smudgy, smoky effect.

Loose pigment colour can be difficult to work with, especially dark or bright colours, so start with a small amount if you're unsure. You can always add more if you need to.

Finally I added a touch of light shimmery colour to my browbone and the inside corner of my eye and added lots of black mascara. False lashes would work very well with this look too.

Close Up of the look:

Hurrah for purple smoky eyes!

C.

Kiehl's Creme de Corps

Creme de Corps is one of Kiehl's classic, best-loved products and they can add my thumbs up to their review too. I used it for the first time this winter and have absolutely fallen in love with it!

There is one word for this body lotion from Kiehl's - luxuriant. It's meant for dry and flaky skin, so it's ideal for winter skin or anyone with dry, itchy, rough skin. It's made with beta-carotine (helps to produce Vitamin A), cocoa butter and Vitamin E and it makes your skin feel so richly moisturized and takes away any itchiness, tightness and irritation from dryness. You know the feeling of your clothes dragging against your skin when it's dry? Creme de Corps takes that right away. It's just so luxurious and soothing.

It's got a buttery, warm, creamy texture and absorbs easily despite it's richness. It's scent is just as luxurious as it's texture - not perfumed at all, just slightly carroty and creamy.

I like to save it for special occasions, it's just that luxurious. 

C.