Beauty Product Reviews

This is my HG for at-home, perfect manicures. I swear, this makes my nails shine better than when I go get manicures at a salon. And how can you beat the fact that your nails are dry 5-10 minutes after applying this top coat? I've never had any problems with peeling due to interactions between the chemicals in my base & polish (I use Orly Bonder Base Coat & Big 3 Free Polishes only such as Essie and OPI). Really, really exceptional product that I've never found a comparable dupe for.

I did, however, remove half a star because this top coat gets dry in the bottle very quickly. I do my manicures about once a week and usually one bottle lasts me around 2 months before it becomes too thick for me to use without any hassle.

Smooths skin, but formula can cause cakiness.

I have a love/hate relationship with this.

Pros Covers pores Fills in any acne scars/dents

Cons Can be heavy Doesn't cooperate well with most foundations It's in a jar- making it hard to get to unsanitary at times

My main gripe is with the fact that this product seems to be too heavy to use with most foundations. It causes my foundation to cake and become very streaky and just hard to work with. It also seems to leave a film on whatever brush/sponge I use on my face afterwards. I know I don't use too much- I use a very small amount over my entire face- so it's really disappointing because when I actually fuss enough with my foundation, this base seems to cover my pores amazingly. I usually don't have the time to bother so much trying out even out my face and don't like getting cakey residue on my sponges and brushes so I try to leave this for special occasions only.

Lots of colors & great pigmentation for the price point.

I have several of these and so far, I am really thrilled about all of them. The color payoff for the price is amazing, but then again, it's a lipstick and I don't really know if lipsticks can be "bad". My reason for the 3 1/2 stars though is because the formulas of the lipsticks seem to be very wet/runny/oily? Basically, they don't seem to stay on my lips any longer than 3 hours. By the end of those 3 hours, if there is any color left, it looks dry and flaky and just ugly on my lips. Definitely not very moisturizing, so please use a good lip balm underneath and throughout the day when wearing one of these lipsticks.

<3!!

These are awesome. They were my first at-home-minx type product I've tried and I am in love with them. They are fairly easy to apply once you get the hang of it, and they last forever- especially when topped off with a good top coat such as Seche Vite. I haven't tried any of the solid colors or glitters yet, only the prints. One thing though, some of the prints are kinda.......... ugly? cheap looking? I mean, these are only $10 so I guess it makes sense, but I do wish/hope that they expand their print selection soon!

Great Color Selection

I have mixed feeling about this foundation. On one hand, the color selection that MAC offers is always amazing. The foundation itself is a medium coverage that that stays on the skin fairly well, and I haven't seen very much oxidizing on the skin unless I really have a LOT of this stuff on. My gripe with it is that the formula doesn't seem "stick" to the skin at times. I have to be very careful about the type of primer/moisturizer/sunscreen I use underneath this foundation. If I use the wrong one, it tends to go on kind of blotchy and streaky, and getting even coverage becomes a task.

Great colorless dry shampoo.

This product has saved me in my morning rush so many times. It's the only dry shampoo I've tried, but I really don't think that I need to try any others because I can't see how it could get better than this.

I tend to have a very oily scalp, and that combined with my fine baby thin hair can mean things tend to get ugly really fast. In an ideal world of no consequences I would wash my hair 2x a day, but in reality my extra long hair requires me to hold off on the shampoo for days at a time. This is where this product saves me.

Usually, the 2nd day is put-my-hair-in-a-bun day, but with this powder, I can leave it down without feeling self conscious. It soaks up all the oil and deodorizes with a yummy lemon verbena scent (love this because nobody really wants their hair to smell like baby powder, right?). The application is easy too, I just section through my hair in 2 inch slices and shake some powder on to my roots. I do this all throughout my hair, then rub my fingers through and massage the powder in. I finish my brushing and doing a light blowdry to revive some volume into it as well.

My only complaint for this product would be the slight powdery residue it leaves. It's invisible, but if I scratch my head with my fingers I'll see some of the powder gunk under my nail. Understandable though, because where else is that powder going to go, right?

WORST SHAMPOO EVER MADE.

I wish I could not give this shampoo any stars. I actually hate this shampoo so much, I specifically requested the product to beautylish so that I could write this slam review of it. Petty, maybe, but if you've tried this shampoo you should know why.

I don't know why hydration is mentioned twice in the name of the product. This shampoo is anything but hydrating. Dish soap would make my hair feel better than with this. It strips hair of any and all moisture leaving your hair feeling brittle as soon as you wash the suds out, and causes the scalp to become over dried and thus overcompensate by producing more oil.

I've tried using the same line's coordinating conditioner but it still doesn't help. This shampoo left my hair as dry as hay, and with more fly aways than ever- and this was after around 5 washings, every 2 days, on my normally oily hair.

In an attempt to find this shampoo's saving grace (I stupidly bought the large salon size), I tried using this shampoo as a bi-monthly deep cleanser. I think that if I only washed my hair 2x a month it would work, but since I'm not a savage who rolls in dirt and oil for weeks at a time, even this proved to be too much. *sigh* :(

NOT smoothing.

I know this is called "Smoothing Compact Foundation" but for me, it was anything but. It made my oily/combo skin look dry and patchy!! I'm still not sure what went wrong, I've used and had great results with other Shiseido Powder Foundations in the past, but this one did not sit on my skin very well. It became blotchy and streaky very fast and, again, created what looked like patches on my skin.

I would suggest that only people with flawless, pore-less, already amazing skin texture use this, because if you have any bumps or uneven texture this product will enhance it.

Amazing Foundation/Powder!!

This powder foundation is one of the best I've ever tried. It's so finely milled that coverage is easily controllable depending on what it's used to apply with. I love that when I use this product, I don't need separate concealer, setting powder, ect. I just use the sponge or a dampened foundation brush to apply all over face, set by using a fluffy powder brush with this product , then I pack it in my makeup bag for the day with the velour puff to use as a touch up that never cakes! Def. tops MAC Studio Fix!!

Great multi use bronzer with natural color!

This bronzer is one of my favorite bronzers for my NC20-NC30 skin. It's a cream type bronzer that dries to a nice finish on the skin & I love that I can apply to bare skin before foundation to create a more natural bronzed look if I'm feeling especially fair. I've found I get the best results when I use a large, dense kabuki brush with a short handle for more control. I also end up applying a light dusting of loose powder to "set" my bronzer after I apply (if I put it on over my foundation), then use a highlight or blush or both on top of that in order to really make the color last all day.

As with most Chanel products it's a splurge, but totally worth it.