Obsession: Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm

Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm with Natural Mint and Shea Butter

I'm going to get right down to it: this is hands down the best lip balm that I had ever tried. For a long time I was loyal to EOS Smooth Sphere lip balm, but after seeing Temptalia (a.k.a. the Queen Bee of beauty bloggers) rave about Jack Black, I decided to give it a try. The price made me a little hesitant...at $7.50 per tube, it's twice the price of a Smooth Sphere. Turns out it's worth EVERY penny. The moment I put it on my chapped lips, I could feel it at work. It's non-sticky and not too thick, but lasts way longer than other lip balms, so there's no need to reapply every five minutes. After using this for a few weeks, my lips have been so much smoother. I like to use this right before I use lighter colored lipsticks that tend to emphasize fine lines or dryness. Other pluses? It's loaded with natural ingredients like avocado oil and green tea extract AND it contains an SPF of 25. Love, love, love. Seriously, I don't have anything negative to say. Pick one up at your local Sephora or Ulta.

L'Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eyeshadow

L'Oreal Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eyeshadow in 808 Smoky for Brown Eyes

From the beginning, I was a little skeptical of this product. Alright, a LOT skeptical. Freida Pinto looks beyond gorgeous in the advertisement, but I knew that it really wouldn't be as easy as one sweep of an eyeshadow brush. I decided to give it a try since something intrigued me about it.

First off, the pigmentation is not very good at all. To get those swatches I had to press the sponge applicator down really hard. And even then, the color pay-off was below average. The shadow is very uneven when applied, so one sweep didn't do the job. I had to try 2 or 3 times just to get a decent photo. The first time, it was too streaky. The second time, all of the colors muddled together and looked splotchy. I think that part of the problem is that the oddly-shaped applicator doesn't fit my eye. If you have more almond-shaped eyes, then it's a problem. Overall, it doesn't look horrible, but it's not worth the trouble. You're much better off applying shadows one at a time.The concept is nice, but the execution just wasn't there.

Maybe it just takes some getting used to, but I can't help feeling like I wasted $10 was wasted on this. Womp womp!

Obsession: Maybelline Eye Studio Master Drama Cream Pencils

Maybelline Eye Studio Master Drama Cream Pencil in Midnight Master

After 6 hours of wear

New Maybelline Eye Studio Master Drama Cream Pencils promise creamy application, intense color pay-off, and 24 hour smudge-proof and water-proof wear. Let's break down the claims one by one:

• Application: SMOOTH as buttah! It glided on without any tugging or pulling.  The texture is really great and is super creamy, just as Maybelline claims. If you want to smudge it, you can, but I recommend doing so the second you apply it. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be. The pencil comes sharpened, but as you use it the tip becomes flat and stays flat as you twist up more product. That makes it difficult (but not impossible) to make really, really thin lines.
• Pigmentation: As you can see from the swatches, the color pay-off is pretty good. It goes on jet black in one pass and only gets better if you add another layer or two.
• Wear: Decent, but not even close to 24 hours. The first time I tried it, the liner lasted about 4 hours before I experienced some minor fading on the waterline. In the picture above, I set it with a a small amount of matte black eyeshadow and after about 6 hours it wasn't bad at all. Still some fading and a bit of smudging, but not bad. My top lash line stayed put on its own for the entire day until I removed it at night. Before I washed the swatches off of my hand, I ran some water over them and vigorously rubbed them with a dry paper towel. Didn't budge!

I wasn't a huge fan of the packaging. It was VERY difficult to twist up at first. For a moment I thought I had purchased a defective pencil, but it did eventually work after a minute of playing around with it. The pencils are available in 6 colors; Midnight Master (jet black), Sapphire Strength (blue), Bold Brown (warm medium brown), Coal Commander (dark charcoal gray), Vibrant Violet (dark purple), and Made of Steel (light gray.) Even though I really liked this, I prefer Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner. It's a very similar product in different forms (pencil vs. pot). But for around $7 each, I'll definitely be going back for one or two more!

Maybelline Falsies vs. Falsies Flared Mascara: Mini Review and Demo

My first YouTube video!!!



Ingredients: Note that it has parabens!

 



More legit information on parabens.

Overall, I think the new Falsies Flared edges out the original, but take a look at the video and see for yourself! Random tip: the brush for the Falsies Flared has a gizillion bristles, so too much product comes out when you first take it out of the tube. Wipe some of it off first to avoid clump-age!

Obsession: Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick in Disco Pink, Plum Shine, and Glisten Up Pink

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick in Disco Pink, Plum Shine, and Glisten Up Pink

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick in Disco Pink

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick in Plum Shine

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lipstick in Glisten Up Pink

Hooray for new Color Sensational lipsticks! The micro-simmer is teeny tiny and creates crazy shine, just as advertised. The Pearls collection was a bit of a fail, but I think that a lot of women will love these. They glide on like buttah and provide great pigmentation. I definitely want to check out more colors!

Obsession: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop, Coral Reef, and Peach Petal

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop, Coral Reef, and Peach Petal

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Coral Reef

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Peach Petal

As a Maybelline fiend, I'm just now starting to branch out to different brands of drug store makeup. First up: Revlon. I purchased their Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Coral Reef a couple days ago and I was in LOVE. The next day I went back and purchased two more, Pink Pop and Peach Petal. I'm so impressed with the pigmentation. You don't even have to layer them over lipstick to get a bold color! They're thick, but not at all too sticky. You also get great shine, moisture, and SPF 15. For under $6 a pop, what more could you ask for?!

Obsession: Emjoi Chic Epilator

Emjoi Chic Epilator, $39.99

For those of you who don't know what an epilator is: I would describe it as a device that looks like a razor, but actually has a bunch of rotating tweezer blades that pull the hair out from the root. I did quite a lot of research before I decided on the 'Chic.' It has 21 blades, so that means that about 21 hairs are being pulled out at once. I use it on my legs and my underarms. Does it hurt? Y-E-S. Don't let anyone try to tell you that it doesn't. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, so for me it was bearable. On a pain scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the worst), I'd give it a 6. It does get less painful the more you use it. As a far as epilators go, this is one of the cheaper ones. That doesn't mean that it's not good quality , but because it has less tweezers blades than a more expensive model, be prepared to have to go over the same area 3-4 times in order to get every hair.

When you consider that the results last for weeks (and you actually save money by not having to shave or get waxes), it's definitely worth it. I've noticed that the hair also grows back much thinner. The shaver-trimmer attachment is really good, but not great. It works well with longer hairs, but tends to miss pesky stubble. It's rechargeable (so no batteries are needed-a HUGE plus), comes with a shaver-trimmer attachment and cleaning brush, has 2 different speeds, and can be used with or without the cord. Buy one at CVS or Emjoi's website.

Tips for epilating:

• Take a hot shower or bath beforehand to open your pores.
• Take an Advil 30 minutes before to reduce pain. 
• The Emjoi Chic works best when held perpendicular to the skin. Do not press too hard; you barely want it touching your skin.
• Exfoliate with a body scrub afterward to prevent in-grown hairs.

I purchased this with my own money and am not getting any type of reimbursement for this review!

Obsession: Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara, $10

Before purchasing this product, I never ever used mascara on my bottom lashes. Regular sized mascara wands seemed too big for my tiny bottom lashes, so I guess I feared the dreaded "spider lash" look. Hearing that Clinique was coming up with a specially formulated mascara intrigued me and I decided to give it try since it was only $10. The teeny weeny tube (which, according to the site, is a 90-day-supply) and brush are so cute! I imagined it would be small, but it's even smaller than I expected. I have to say that it stays on all day without and smudging or flaking, adding just enough length and definition. It's also great for catching the smaller lashes on your upper lash line. The only con is that it doesn't add any volume. All in all, it's definitely worth purchasing. Snag yours at Clinique.com or Sephora, available in black and black/brown.

Obsession: Urban Decay Naked Palette - Photos, Swatches and Review

From left to right: Virgin, Sin, Naked

From left to right Sidecar, Buck, Half-Baked

From left to right: Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

From left to right: Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted

From left to right: Zero, Whiskey

FINALLY got my hands on the Urban Decay Naked Palette ($44) as an early birthday present! Every store I went to was sold out ever since it hit stores last summer. As a huge fan of neutrals, I was dying to try it out and now I see what all the fuss is about. The highly pigmented colors (12 almost full size shadows and a double-ended liner) are beyond gorgeous and can be mixed and matched to create hundreds of looks from a dramatic golden smokey eye for a night out to a natural look for the office. It also comes with a travel sized Primer Potion. Overall, this is worth over $200, so it's no wonder it's flying off the shelves.

Urban Decay released the following statement on their Facebook page yesterday:

"We had problems getting Naked. But now we've got it handled. Here's the deal: We couldn't make 24/7 pencils fast enough to fill all the Naked Palettes our UDers wanted. We're replacing the pencil with a full-sized Good Karma Shadow Brush so we can keep getting you Naked. Yeah, it's a couple bucks more - $48 - but it's a $26 brush and really amazing."

It's unfortunate that many people won't be able to get the Zero/Whiskey pencil, but it's still a great buy. Don't be fooled by sellers on eBay or Amazon trying to pedal it for $80+. More are on the way! Check out UrbanDecay.com, Sephora, or Ulta to snag one!