Empties and Near-Empties, Spring 2015
(I typed "Spring 2013" at first, then spent a few seconds wondering why that didn't look right.)
Not quite five months since my last empties post, I've accumulated another small collection of used-up products:
Herewith, some mini-reviews, in no particular order:
CoverGirl LashBlast Length Mascara
There's a reason why I never write posts about mascara: I find it really boring. I don't understand the obsession that some people have with attaining super-thick or super-long lashes. I like my mascara to look as natural and non-clumpy as possible, and I've been using LashBlast Length ever since Eva Chen recommended it on her tumblr, which must have been three years ago. The formula is on the thin side, and it coats my lashes evenly and doesn't smear or flake.
Until I find an affordable cruelty-free mascara that produces the same effect, I'll keep buying this one--and occasionally forgetting to put it on, because I truly could not be less interested in mascara.
Milani Brow Shaping Clear Gel
I really did mean to review this, but I used it up before I got a chance to write anything about it! This is the only dedicated brow product I've tried so far. I bought it in November, after reflecting that my brows could use some taming but were thick and dark enough not to need a colored gel. Milani's clear gel cost about $4.50, and it delivered pretty much what I'd expect from a product at that price point. The bristles of the applicator were too far apart, so they applied too much gel to each brow and were useless for actually combing the hairs. After blobbing on the gel, I had to go back in with a spoolie from a Revlon brow kit to remove the excess product. And because the applicator pulled out so much gel each time, I went through the tube in about five months. But the gel itself was satisfactory, holding the hairs in place without getting crunchy. Since I have that Revlon applicator, I'll probably repurchase this product.
NARS Sheer Lipstick in Dolce Vita
Yes, a lipstick! It took me two years, but I used up a lipstick! Of course, this would be more exciting if I hadn't mentioned using it up back in July. What happened was, I used up most of the lipstick, repurchased it, and then opened the new tube. Sometime during the winter, I remembered that I still had a nubbin of the old tube left, so I put some effort into using that up. It's now at the point that I'd have to dig out the product with a lip brush if I wanted to keep using it, but all things considered, I'd rather not.
(Nail polish is Sephora Formula X Enigma, by the way. Review to come!)
Sephora Honey and Pomegranate Masks
My love for Sephora's rose-scented sheet mask is well documented, and on a February visit to Sephora I decided to branch out into other flavors. Unfortunately, I used these so long ago that I remember almost nothing about them, except that the "energizing" pomegranate mask had a cooling effect that might have been refreshing if it hadn't been -10° F outside when I used it. All sheet masks feel cool and clammy when you first put them on, but most adjust eventually to your skin temperature. Some witchery, however, ensured that the pomegranate mask felt as chilly 15 minutes after application as it had when I first stuck it to my face. I'll keep this one in mind for the summer.
Skinfood Green Tea and Broccoli Masks
While visiting my parents in San Francisco during winter vacation, I discovered that the Korean beauty brand Skinfood had opened a store in the mall down the street from my old high school. I bought these two masks there, and...sorry, I got nothing. They were entirely unremarkable. As I recall, they moisturized my face successfully, but did little else. I need to start making notes on the sheet masks I use, or I'll keep embarrassing myself like this.
(That picture of the green tea looks a bit suggestive, doesn't it? Skinfood seems to have taken a leaf, or petal, from Georgia O'Keeffe's book.)
DevaCurl Styling Cream
This lemon-lime-scented styling gel lasted for a year and a half. I find haircare almost as boring as mascara, so when I asked a stylist at my favorite hair salon what she'd recommend for fine, wavy/curly hair and she handed me this bottle, I felt like Molly Bloom considering Leopold's proposal of marriage: "I thought well as well him as another." And, indeed, this was a fine product. I used it on damp hair, scrunching a tiny bit into my curls for subtle definition. After using it up, I found another DevaCurl product I preferred: B'Leave-In, a lighter, runnier gel that works better with my hair texture but, alas, doesn't smell as good. That's right, I pulled a Molly Bloom and cheated on the Styling Cream with the haircare equivalent of Blazes Boylan. Let me note that I've just had a gin and tonic and I haven't read Ulysses since college. I should stop.
Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm, and Carmex Lip Balm
I grouped these into one photo because they all provided moisture during our long winter. This is probably the third tin of Burt's Bees cuticle cream that I've owned, but the first that I've come close to finishing--I lost the others, of course. I was a Carmex devotee before I discovered Palmer's, which is the one product that actually seems to make a lasting difference for my perma-dry lips. I used up this comically large tube (peeling off the label at some point in the process), and now I'm using a tiny and far less satisfying Palmer's tube. I need to find another gargantuan one.
And a request for advice:
I finally tried on Bite Beauty's Cava lipstick in Sephora two days ago, and it was indeed the gray-lavender-nude I'd hoped it would be--the lipstick equivalent of NARS Lhasa, let's say. The problem is, I'm not sure a gray-lavender-nude is right for my complexion. Here's how it looks on:
I mean, this is an awkward Sephora selfie with less-than-ideal lighting, and I'm wearing less eye makeup than I normally would with a nude lipstick, but what do you think? Is it my perfect skin-matching nude, or does it make me look dead, or does a perfect skin-matching nude make one look dead by definition? Tough questions, all.
Not quite five months since my last empties post, I've accumulated another small collection of used-up products:
Herewith, some mini-reviews, in no particular order:
CoverGirl LashBlast Length Mascara
There's a reason why I never write posts about mascara: I find it really boring. I don't understand the obsession that some people have with attaining super-thick or super-long lashes. I like my mascara to look as natural and non-clumpy as possible, and I've been using LashBlast Length ever since Eva Chen recommended it on her tumblr, which must have been three years ago. The formula is on the thin side, and it coats my lashes evenly and doesn't smear or flake.
Until I find an affordable cruelty-free mascara that produces the same effect, I'll keep buying this one--and occasionally forgetting to put it on, because I truly could not be less interested in mascara.
Milani Brow Shaping Clear Gel
I really did mean to review this, but I used it up before I got a chance to write anything about it! This is the only dedicated brow product I've tried so far. I bought it in November, after reflecting that my brows could use some taming but were thick and dark enough not to need a colored gel. Milani's clear gel cost about $4.50, and it delivered pretty much what I'd expect from a product at that price point. The bristles of the applicator were too far apart, so they applied too much gel to each brow and were useless for actually combing the hairs. After blobbing on the gel, I had to go back in with a spoolie from a Revlon brow kit to remove the excess product. And because the applicator pulled out so much gel each time, I went through the tube in about five months. But the gel itself was satisfactory, holding the hairs in place without getting crunchy. Since I have that Revlon applicator, I'll probably repurchase this product.
NARS Sheer Lipstick in Dolce Vita
Yes, a lipstick! It took me two years, but I used up a lipstick! Of course, this would be more exciting if I hadn't mentioned using it up back in July. What happened was, I used up most of the lipstick, repurchased it, and then opened the new tube. Sometime during the winter, I remembered that I still had a nubbin of the old tube left, so I put some effort into using that up. It's now at the point that I'd have to dig out the product with a lip brush if I wanted to keep using it, but all things considered, I'd rather not.
(Nail polish is Sephora Formula X Enigma, by the way. Review to come!)
Sephora Honey and Pomegranate Masks
My love for Sephora's rose-scented sheet mask is well documented, and on a February visit to Sephora I decided to branch out into other flavors. Unfortunately, I used these so long ago that I remember almost nothing about them, except that the "energizing" pomegranate mask had a cooling effect that might have been refreshing if it hadn't been -10° F outside when I used it. All sheet masks feel cool and clammy when you first put them on, but most adjust eventually to your skin temperature. Some witchery, however, ensured that the pomegranate mask felt as chilly 15 minutes after application as it had when I first stuck it to my face. I'll keep this one in mind for the summer.
Skinfood Green Tea and Broccoli Masks
While visiting my parents in San Francisco during winter vacation, I discovered that the Korean beauty brand Skinfood had opened a store in the mall down the street from my old high school. I bought these two masks there, and...sorry, I got nothing. They were entirely unremarkable. As I recall, they moisturized my face successfully, but did little else. I need to start making notes on the sheet masks I use, or I'll keep embarrassing myself like this.
(That picture of the green tea looks a bit suggestive, doesn't it? Skinfood seems to have taken a leaf, or petal, from Georgia O'Keeffe's book.)
DevaCurl Styling Cream
This lemon-lime-scented styling gel lasted for a year and a half. I find haircare almost as boring as mascara, so when I asked a stylist at my favorite hair salon what she'd recommend for fine, wavy/curly hair and she handed me this bottle, I felt like Molly Bloom considering Leopold's proposal of marriage: "I thought well as well him as another." And, indeed, this was a fine product. I used it on damp hair, scrunching a tiny bit into my curls for subtle definition. After using it up, I found another DevaCurl product I preferred: B'Leave-In, a lighter, runnier gel that works better with my hair texture but, alas, doesn't smell as good. That's right, I pulled a Molly Bloom and cheated on the Styling Cream with the haircare equivalent of Blazes Boylan. Let me note that I've just had a gin and tonic and I haven't read Ulysses since college. I should stop.
Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm, and Carmex Lip Balm
I grouped these into one photo because they all provided moisture during our long winter. This is probably the third tin of Burt's Bees cuticle cream that I've owned, but the first that I've come close to finishing--I lost the others, of course. I was a Carmex devotee before I discovered Palmer's, which is the one product that actually seems to make a lasting difference for my perma-dry lips. I used up this comically large tube (peeling off the label at some point in the process), and now I'm using a tiny and far less satisfying Palmer's tube. I need to find another gargantuan one.
And a request for advice:
I finally tried on Bite Beauty's Cava lipstick in Sephora two days ago, and it was indeed the gray-lavender-nude I'd hoped it would be--the lipstick equivalent of NARS Lhasa, let's say. The problem is, I'm not sure a gray-lavender-nude is right for my complexion. Here's how it looks on:
I mean, this is an awkward Sephora selfie with less-than-ideal lighting, and I'm wearing less eye makeup than I normally would with a nude lipstick, but what do you think? Is it my perfect skin-matching nude, or does it make me look dead, or does a perfect skin-matching nude make one look dead by definition? Tough questions, all.
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