Product Reviews

Desperately Seeking Persistent Polish: 7 Days With Dermelect Tribeca

September 17th, 2018 by Karen 13 Comments

As you know, I’m still nursing my slashed Freddy Krueger fingernails from The Great Gel Debacle of 2018 back to health, which is why I’m feeling Dermelect. They’re a line of polishes designed to help heavily damaged, brittle nails.

I haven’t seen or heard a lot about them… I feel like they’ve been on the down-low, .

Their formula is infused with keratin to strengthen nails, and after spending a week with , dare I say that my paws are looking the best they’ve looked in weeks? — especially the tips of my nails. They’re looking much healthier and stronger.

I usually avoid pastel creams because they chip like crazy on my nails (like, seriously, I’ll usually see big chunks missing at the base within a day). Plus — ugh — I’m not into layering the three or sometimes four coats it takes to boost creams up to full opacity. I’d rather spend those precious minutes of my life doing more important and pressing things…like watching people taking baths with their cats and rapping about it.

Tribeca only chipped a bit, and I only needed two coats!

I’m surprised how well it held up over the course of seven days. For the record, I used the same base and top coat I’ve been using throughout the 7 Days series.

It held up even better than my Smith & Cult rose gold glitter mani a few weeks ago, which had been the best performer in the series so far.

Tribeca is a “do” for me. Give it a whirl if you feel like a foggy, moody pastel.

Day 1

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Latest Drugstore Loves! —> Neutrogena Deep Clean Purifying Micellar Cleansing Water and Micellar Cleansing Towelettes

September 14th, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

If you’ve ever donned a smoky eye to go get Baked Cheetos at 10 in the morning, or if you’ve ever “needed” to bust out three tubes of mascara to simply continue living your life, you already know that whatever makeup goes on, must come off, and that’s when micellar cleansers like these two new ones from Neutrogena are handy.

For the uninitiated, micellar cleansers are a type of liquid makeup remover comprised of tiny balls of cleansing oil molecules suspended in soft water, and they’re designed to remove makeup, grit, grime — basically everything, even the hard-to-remove stuff like waterproof mascara. Also key: they work without heavy scrubbing, so they’re gentle.

($6.99) and ($11.99)

Neutrogena’s micellar cleansers work quickly and well. I can completely remove a full face of makeup with one swipe, and I’m talking about a look with all teh things — multiple layers of mascara, highlighter, bronzer, foundation, concealer — and they don’t irritate my skin or my eyes.

They’re so much better than the last drugstore micellar wipes I tried (*ahem* Garnier).

“Neutrogena Deep Clean Purifying Micellar Cleansing Towelettes effectively remove makeup while gently cleansing and purifying skin. These gentle, ultra-soft face wipes provide a deep clean by targeting 100% of impurities, leaving skin feeling soft and refreshed. The pre-moistened cleansing towelettes purify and revitalize skin. The formula is powered by Triple Micellar Technology which combines three gentle cleansers that work together to help remove even the toughest makeup, effectively cleanse, and purify skin without being harsh. Neutrogena Deep Clean Purifying Micellar Cleansing Towelettes require no rinsing and are non-comedogenic and oil- and alcohol-free.”

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Although…I’d still exercise caution if you’re thinking about removing the eyeliner on your water line with one of the wipes because IMO they’re kinda scratchy for such a delicate area. Instead, I soak a soft cotton pad (I highly recommend the ones from Shiseido) with the Micellar Water, which removes my eye makeup just as well (even waterproof mascara, liquid and gel liners, and other long-lasting stuff).

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Chanel La Base Ombre À Paupière Longwear Eyeshadow Primer Is the Ace of Base

September 12th, 2018 by Karen 7 Comments

chanel longwear eyeshadow primer — Before, and after eight hours, wearing as a base. (BTW, that’s the PYT Beauty “No BS” palette on my lids.)

Let me begin this by saying that I’ve been skipping eyeshadow primer for months.

I just haven’t been using it.

It was just another step, ya know? And I felt like I could forgo it because it was incompatible with my quest for extreme makeup minimalism (as defined by a person who carries at least five nude lipsticks in her purse at all times).

Basically, it wasn’t like I needed my eye makeup to impress anyone for hella hours anyway. It’s not like Tabs and Connor point out when my crease color is fading into oblivion (thankfully), but with the Coywolf in preschool now, I want to start doing different things with my makeup again.

Mostly, I wanna wear brown smoky eyes and red lips again. 🙂 But I refuse to subject you to patchy lids, so I’d like an eye primer, but I want one that has all the bells and whistles.

Like this one from Chanel.

This untinted eyeshadow primer swept me off my ~~feet~~ cat Vans!

Granted, it’s not like applying eye primer is difficult, but it’s definitely easier than usual with this one because of its smooth consistency.

La Base is “wetter” than primers from NARS and Urban Decay, but it lasts just as long. Using it is like applying an eye cream, and I think it’s just easier and faster for me to use than other primers from the big dawgs.

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Desperately Seeking Persistent Polish: 7 Days With OPI Chills Are Multiplying!

September 10th, 2018 by Karen 18 Comments

Desperately Seeking Persistent Polish is a series where I wear a nail polish for seven days and take before and after pics to document the condition of my paws over the course of the week!

Life lesson learned last week: the greatest threat to your manicure isn’t washing dishes, or lifting heavy weights at the gym, or pounding at the keyboard like you’ve just inhaled 12 cups of coffee. The greatest threat to your manicure — the threat that spells almost certain doom — is being distracted while waxing your upper lip at home.

From this, there is almost no going back.

A minor moment of shock

Because, friend, as I smoothed some Bliss blue wax onto the forest that is my upper lip, then stared at myself in the mirror in shock and thought, “Holy sh*t, I look exactly like my brother with a blue mustache,” I momentarily misplaced that little plastic waxing wand thingamabob you use to spread the wax on your skin and accidentally sprinkled big, hot blobs of wax onto the nails on my left hand.

WHOOPS!

Just a few chunks…

But not all was lost. After recovering from the initial shock (I’ve been waxing for years and never had this happen before. Distracted waxing is dangerous, people!), I waited for the wax to dry, massaged some of the oil that comes with the kit on my nails to loosen the wax up, and carefully peeled it off.

Unfortunately, a few chunks of my polish peeled off, too…

Frankly, I’m surprised any of the polish remained because that wax removes *everything*.

Du-ra-ble!

To make a long story even longer, all of this happened on day five of this dark blue OPI manicure. Through then, it was chugging along remarkably well. Better than average, for sure! A lot of people say that OPI lasts a really long time. Well, they aren’t joking.

Like I’ve done in my last couple of “7 Days” nail polish experiments, I used Smith & Cult’s base coat and top coat, along with two layers of polish, in this case .

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Lipglossing Like It’s 1999

September 7th, 2018 by Karen 4 Comments

It’s funny to me when all ’90s makeup gets lumped together into a single category. Like, for lips it’s the ’90s matte lip look, and trust your homegirl when she says that everyone did not wear matte lips throughout the entire decade of the ’90s.

(Well, a lot of people did, but not everyone.)

You also had different sub-eras, like the late ’90s — circa 1997-1998 — when everybody (at least everybody I knew who wore makeup) wore dark, unblended lip liner, frosty silver lipstick and clear lipgloss.

Then you had 1999, 2000 and 2001, when it was all about glossy, frosty lips, which reminds me…remember when everyone and their mother was carrying a tube

Yeah, you know what’s up. 😉

I’m getting that ’99 vibe so hard from these non-sticky , which are $21 each and hella pigmented.

mac goldieloxxed — Goldieloxxed (this shade reminds me an amped up MAC Nymphette)

Ah, they’re taking me back…especially It’s Just Candy! It reminds me of my early 20s when I rocked MAC Lychee Luxe to da club.

Da club… Oh, my gosh, I feel so ridiculous saying that. Like, when do you get to that point where you just sound silly using slang? It doesn’t happen overnight… It’s a slow burn kinda thing, ha ha ha.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen