CoverGirl’s Flamed Out Mascara is billed as an incredibly volumizing mascara that provides an instant “winged out” look. I’ve used this several times over the last week. Did it live up to its marketing? Read on to find out!!
I purchased the color Black Blaze at Target for $7.49. It came with a black eyeliner that I also have been wearing (the jury is still out). The brush on this mascara is interest---kind of a curvy, hourglass shape that is supposed to help create a “winged out” look. I don’t love large mascara brushes but this one is actually not bad. One thing it didn’t do was make the mascara “goopy” which is a good thing.
The Black Blaze color was nice but not incredibly deep. As far as being volumizing, it took about three coats on my upper lashes to get a lashy look. There are several CoverGirl formulas that do a better job at volumizing than this one so it really didn’t hit the mark on that claim. It didn’t smudge when worn only on my upper lashes but it did flake (so not great for contact lens wearers). When I wore it on my lower lashes, it was a smudgy mess so it’s a no-go for me. If you don’t have a smudging issue with mascara and a few flakes don’t bother you, then you may want to try this but really, CoverGirl has better mascaras than this in their current line.
Ages of Beauty rating: *
Recently, Revlon released its PhotoReady Kajal Intense Liner + Brightener in four colors. These looked really interesting at my local Target so I thought that I’d try one out. I purchased the duo in Blue Nile and wore it on and off for a week. Read on for my experiences with it!
Blue Nile consists of a beautiful medium blue liner and a creamy white brightener all in one pencil. Each side was creamy and did not pull on my eyelids, which is a big plus. The colors are beautiful and vibrant and so full of promise!!! I wore them a couple of different ways: blue on top and bottom lids at the lash line as well as on the lower water line and then the white on my lower water line. For about an hour, they were gorgeous! Not much longer after an hour, the blue smudged terribly (helloooo racoon eyes!!!) and then faded into nothing. The white did a great job brightening but again, faded away. I was sooo disappointed because I really wanted to love these!
Here’s the deal, though…if you need something to pop on your eyes to go out to the store or to meet friends for a short get together, this pencil is probably great. Or if you’re OK with touching up your makeup throughout the day, it’s fine. Personally, I don’t like to touch up my makeup during the day (other than lipstick and maybe some powder) so these don’t work for me.
Unfortunately, this pencil goes into my “reject” box. Have you had a different experience with this pencil? Please weigh in!!!
Ages of Beauty rating: *
L'Oreal recently introduced their new eyelid primer, which is available in most drugstores and retails for $8.99 (I got mine at CVS). As someone who has dry facial skin but somewhat oily eyelids, I wear an eyelid primer whenever I'm using a powder shadow but also sometimes when I use cream shadows.
Has L'Oreal been able to replace my favorite Urban Decay Primer Potion with their new Magic De-Crease? Jump ahead to find out!
Revlon has jumped on the BB Cream bandwagon and launched one of their own---or did they? A big pet peeve of mine is cosmetics companies that try to get in on a good thing (like the BB Cream craze) but then do it in a less than optimal way. Many of the non-Asian brands call themselves BB Creams but they are really tinted moisturizers.
So let's look at what a BB Cream is "supposed" to be about:
- light to medium coverage
- moisturizing (and sometimes oil controlling)
- Built in primer
- decent level of sun protection
- skin benefiting/anti aging ingredients
- either automatically adapts to skin tone or comes in several skin tones to match different depths of pigmentation
- Evens out skin tone
- Lightens skin/reduces discoloration (Asian brands only)
