Pan Time!

Why do we get so excited about hitting pan? For me, it’s almost a proof that I was right, that it was a great product, and that I have stuck with something to the end. Weird, no? But we all feel it. Plus there’s that other element which is that it’s an excuse to go shopping, of course. I’ve been working away at a couple of products for the last couple of months that I’ve finished up (or are close to) in the last couple of months.

1.       Elf Studio Brow Kit – I’ve hit pan on the wax side, but the powder looks like it is going to be good for YEARS to come. This product can go on a little blotchy and uneven, but once you even it out with a wispy brow brush (I use an only mascara wand), then it’s actually really nice. I’ll keep using the brow powder but with some clear brow gel I have lying around.

2.       MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation – I got this in June of 2009, and I must have had a tan at the time, because it always felt a shade too dark. It also feels incredibly heavy. I got a nice finish out of it when I used it with a large, kabuki style brush spritzed with a lot of MAC Fix +, but even then I felt I was getting too much coverage. I then started mixing it with Kiehls Ultra Facial Moisturizer, which ended up being an amazing tinted moisturizer – a hint of color, a little bit of hydration while still feeling light. It did take me a whole year to finish the tube though, which drove me crazy. I have a bottle of Bobbi Brown Moisture Rich foundation which I also don’t love, so I’ll start mixing that with my Kiehls until I really need to get something with more coverage, in which case I’ll probably try NARS Sheer Glow or Bobbi Brown Skin. I don’t have perfect skin, but I don’t like my foundation to be too heavy. It just doesn’t wear well on me.

3.       MAC Paint in Bare Canvas. MAC Paints come in a tube form, and act similar to Paint Pots in that they are pigmented creams. This product was recommended to me by a MAC MUA as an eye shadow primer. I am so surprised that they are not more popular, because it works so well. Eyeshadows don’t budge at all when I use this, but colors remain blendable when they are applied. I have a hard time blending colors sometimes when I’m using Urban Decay Primer Potion. When I first got this, about a year ago, I wasted a lot of product because the tube form is not so easy to control, but once I’d used it a couple of times I got it figured out (be very gentle!), and fell in love. However, I’m not going to be replacing it any time soon, mostly because I have about 85 mini UDPPs lying around from the various Box of Shadows, so I want to use those up first. I also have an ELF Shadow Primer which is surprisingly effective, especially given the $1 price tag. Based on the number of primers I have in my dupes drawer, I won’t be buying any replacements for at least a year.

4.       NARS Orgasm Cream Blush – This is part of a duo with Laguna cream bronzer. I find the bronzer quite dark on me, but the blush is amazing, and completely lives up to its reputation. I’ve had this for about 18mths before I got to this stage, and for a good 9mths of that, it was literally the only blush I owned! Shocking, I know. Now I have about 6 or 7, including at least one other NARS one. Anyway, I still use this at least once a week, if not more, because it’s just a classic, flattering, easy color to wear. Although I’ve hit pan on this, I am sure I’ve got a good while to go yet before I’m actually all out. Then I’ll have to decide whether I want it in cream or powder form. Decisions!

At this point I feel like I should also confess that I’ve never, ever finished a lipgloss or lipstick. I’ve lost plenty over the years, but finished? None. And although I’ve been wearing a couple of shades again and again this summer (Hello Ever Hip by MAC, Perennially High Style again by MAC, and Tarte Raspberry Lip Stain), I’m months, if not years, away from finishing anything.

Have you finished up anything recently? Any products you think you might?

Elf Brow Kit

One of the products I picked up a whole ago as part of my second Elf haul was the Eyebrow Kit. If you follow the Elf logic that each of their products is a budget version of a high-end product, then this would most likely be compared to Benefit’s Brow-Zings kit. Disclaimer right now – I’ve never used the BrowZings compact, so have no grounds to compare to.

The packaging is perfectly acceptable – a matte black plastic case housing a small palette of powder and one of dark wax. Nothing to get excited about, and nothing to complain about either. I do have a complaint about the brush. It is double ended for the powder and wax, and is the most ridiculous rinky-dink thing ever. I could barely even hold it, never mind control it while using it on my eyebrows. Completely useless, really.

Nekkid brows - actually, whole nekkid eye!

waxed and powdered - the rest is still nekkid so no laughing!

I chose medium out of the three shades available. I have reasonably dark brows, and have natural mid-brown hair. However, I found that if I wore either the wax or the powder, I got a nice color, but if I used the powder to set the wax, the color came out too dark, and my brows started to overtake my whole face. Not a good look. One or the other was all good though. The wax provided a more defined finish, and the powder a softer look. I’m thinking that maybe I got the wrong color, but if I did, there is not much hope for the natural blondes out there with this product. However, if you do have dark brows, then I would definitely check this out. Plus, there's a lot of product here - I'm guessing at least a year, if not more, of product. Aside from the brush, this is a decent product, and for $3, you can't really go wrong. 

This post contains an affiliate links. Affiliate links in no way influence the outcome of reviews. 

Build My Brows Baby

If there is one thing that I really struggle with, it is my eyebrows. I have officially the world's WORST eyebrows. Bizarrely, my sister has the most amazingly perfect eyebrows ever. Anyway, mine are weirdly both sparse and caterpillar like. Urgh. I get them shaped at the Anastasia Brow Bar at Sephora, and I also need to fill them in. For the last 4 months I have been using Anastasia Tinted Brow Gel ($21) to fill them in. This works like a clear brow gel or mascara in that it coats your brow hairs with darker color. The gel comes in 5 shades: Graphite, Espresso, Brunette, Caramel, and Blonde. I use Caramel.

The first couple of times I used it I had a hard time controlling the amount of color that went on, and I ended up with crazy painted brows. I used clear brow gel afterwards to thin out the color when I went too heavy. I got the hang of it pretty quickly (light touch and repeat), and now swear by this product for not too over the top brows - Your Brows But Better if you like.

This is my brows using them:

 

Ooh look, there's still a stray one there, but it definitely cannot be blamed on the brow gel! 

Favorite Products of the Year

So, for my first post instead of looking forward to the all the great places I'm going to go with this blog, I take a look at the past year and the great and the good products that made 2009 a little better for me.


1. Benefit's Posietint ($28)
Everyone raved about Benefit's Benetint, the sweet little liquid blush that started out as nipple tint (what, you didn't know that? Yes, of course you did!). But who knew that Posietint would take the basic concept and make it prettier, more natural, more "wow, you look really healthy, happy, and glowing" than the original? This blush is the perfect natural color, with no shimmer, and super easy application (three daps from the brush, a quick rub and you're done), that it literally goes with every look you can do. It's you, but a little better.

2. The Miracle Worker ($85)
Yeah, I know what you're thinking. $85? Really? Do you think I'm made of money, that I can go dropping that kind of cash on skincare? But I swear, I can convince you. Firstly, it's good value - the whole kit is valued at $156, and you get a bunch of full sized products in the kit. Secondly, it is the best skin I've had in my life. No joke, The Miracle Worker truly lives up to it's name. The first time I used the microdelivery peel, I had the most amazingly baby soft skin I actually asked random people to feel my face because it was so smooth. And I'm a shy British person - we don't do that! The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash helps keep that skin silky smooth all week, and Hope in a Jar is a great balanced moisteriser - easily absorbed but rich enough to look after my skin even in the cold weather. I'm already considering getting a back up of this kit in case it truly is limited edition as Sephora says.

3. Kiehls Soy Milk and Honey Body Scrub ($27.50)
This product has been around for decades, I'm sure, but I only discovered this last year, hence it making my hits of the year list. It has a thick, gritty paste consistency, and smells absolutely heavenly - milk and honey. I use this once a week with Kiehls's Creme de Corps and it makes my skin feel so amazingly silky smooth. I actually look forward to "scrub day" (Saturday mornings, since you asked), when I get to rub myself all over with this yummy paste.




4. MAC's Style Black Collection
I have to admit that this MAC collection had me counting down the days until it launched, and I actually went to two different MAC stores during NY's Fashion Night Out so I could preview the products. I'm a sucker for black smokey make up anyway, with messy black eyeliner being my default night time look, and this collection took that to the next level. The Greasepaint product made a rocking black base product, but actually I like it best for a thick, messy, smokey eyeliner. For an amazing look that requires frequent checking, add some gloss (MAC have a gloss product, but I also like Elizabeth Arden's 8 Hour Cream) for a slick, rock chick eye. I picked up three out of the four shadows - Young Punk, Blue Flame, and Cinderfella which were black with purple glitter, blue glitter, and gold respectively. Yes, the mineral factor meant that they had major fallout issues, but mixed with water, oooooh, the black, the glitter, the intensity. Swoon. Angry teenager all the time. And, maybe even most surprisingly, the black lipgloss proved to be surprisingly wearable, adding a neutral darkness to your natural lipcolor. Two products let me down though - though the rest of the beauty world adored the two Volcanic Ash skin products (a thermal mask and scrub), they kind of left me cold (boom boom!)

5. Essie Chinchilly ($8)
Wow. It's not often a nail varnish really captures my attention. Until I came across Chinchilly, I had worn navy or dark red almost consistently for the last year. Chinchilly is concrete gray, and makes for a perfect edgy neutral. I know, neutrals aren't really edgy by default, but this is awesome - it demands a second glance without dominating or detracting. I can wear this confidently to the office or or a glam night out, certain that my nails are both appropriate and memorable at each.



6. Anastasia Tinted Brow Gel ($21)
Since we're new here, I guess I shouldn't give away too much about myself just yet, but let's just say that my eyebrows and my attention to brows is not my strong suite. In fact, this year was also my first visit to a brow salon. But this product has taken my terrible, patchy, weird bush brows, and made them look sleek and strong. For that, I am ever thankful.




7. Sephora Double-Ended Winged Brush ($18)
I am not talented at that gorgeous sleek cat eyes winged liner. But somehow, this brush takes over my hand and makes it happen for me. And the thick end is great for smoking out your liner, or, as I frequently use it for, drawing thick shadow liner on my upper and lower lashline.





8. MAC Limited Edition Eye Shadows in Smoke and Diamonds, Silverthorn, and Style Snob ($14 each)
I bought a lot of eye shadows this year, but I'm picking these three out as my favorite limited edition picks (Style Black aside). Smoke and Diamonds is this amazing grey taupey color which is super rich and pigmented. It can used to darken the crease on a neutral work safe eye, or to make a super glam dark eye. Such a sophisticated color. Silverthorn, from what I remember, didn't get a lot of attention when it was released as part of the Rose Romance collection, but I just adore the greeny sheen to this mid tone grey - it just makes it look a little different to your standard grey shadow. I picked it up on a random impulse the day before my wedding when I had no idea what make up to do (I know, don't ask!), and though I didn't use it on my wedding, I use it a lot with Satin Taupe (everyone needs this shadow) as a gorgeous simple but stunning eye. My last limited edition pick shadow is Style Snob, which is a light taupe from the Starflash collection. Like Smoke and Diamonds (same collection), it is super rich, super dense, and a lot of fun to play with. It is a lighter taupe than Satin Taupe, and makes a great memorable neutral eye. It has a slight pink tone to it, and so I haven't done this yet, but I'm sure it could work well with a pink eye to make something rosey and fun.

So there you have it, my top 8 of this year. I'm sure you have some favorites too, some things you've discovered which you absolutely cannot live without, and I'd love to hear about them. Add them in the comments, and I'll be sure to check them out.