Love and Toast Handcream is a Little Tube of Heaven

I usually try to post a review of everything new I try out on this blog. Reading product review, of both old and new things, is probably my favorite type of post, so I try and return the favor by posting my own. Sometimes though, I’ll realize that I have been happily working through a product without having posted a word about it on my blog. Case in point? My Love & Toast Handcream ($9).

Love & Toast are a relatively small lotions and perfume company that aims to do good as well as make you smell good. A portion of proceeds from each purchase goes to the Regional Affiliates of Girls Inc. They make perfume, hand cream, and lip balm. They are sold from a variety of retailers including Amazon and Urban Outfitters. I picked up my hand cream at a spa. (Haven in SoHo, for you NYCers).

I picked up the Sugar Grapefruit version. The other scents available are Pomme Poivre (Apple Pear), Honey Coconut, Gin Blossom, Mandarin Tea, and Paper Flower. Sugar Grapefruit comes in a gorgeous bright pink tube with pretty illustrations, so it will look cute wherever you keep it. It’s a lovely, reasonably rich cream that sinks in very quickly. It’s not a super rich cream, so those of you who have very, very dry hands may wish to keep that in mind. Love and Toast’s real selling point comes from its use of fragrance. I wish my blog had some sort of scent-o-vision, because I just cannot get over how good this cream smells. It has a beautiful, sweet but not cloying, crisp, fresh citrus smell that instantly wakes you up. Plus, the scent hangs around for about an hour after you’ve put it on.

For the sheer gorgeousness of the scent I more than highly recommend Love and Toast’s handcreams. I urge you to track them down immediately and start getting that amazing burst of energy that comes from smelling something really good. Plus, you can feel good about yourself as well as some of the proceeds go to charity. Fantastic.

More Picks from Elf

A couple of weeks ago I received some Elf products in the mail to try out. In the stress of all things in-law over the last week, I haven't been near the internet or my make up stand, so these have had to wait before I got to play with them.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I have tried out some Elf products before, and some I loved, and some I hated, so I had no expectations when I played around with these products at all.

My first reaction to the package was that there is so much packaging! I didn't keep a picture, but the lipgloss came in a plastic outer pack, the lipstain in a box, the brush in a plastic wrap (that I'm fine with for sanitary reasons), and the eye shadow in a cardboard box. All of it together just seemed so unnecessary. I know that these days I really look at packaging and am conscious about how much trash I create, and given that Elf is majority mail-order company, this all seemed a little much.

I have tried the lipstain before in the color Fashionista($3), and really liked it. It's a gorgeous pinky nude, and was reasonably comfortable to wear, given it was a lipstain, which are in general a little bit drying. For this reason, I was very excited to try the Lipstain in Birthday Suit ($3). Unfortunately, this was disappointing. The color is a much more opaque, brighter pink, and really quite pretty, again in a spring way. According the Elf packaging, the lipstains can either be worn alone for a matte color, or with the attached clear moisterizing gloss. I had birthday suit on for 5 minutes before it started to dry my lips out, and was uncomfortable to wear. The reason why I liked Fashionista so much was that it could be worn without the gloss without being too drying. I don't know why Birthday suit was so different, but it was very drying on my lips. You can see it actually start to dry them out, and in the swatch you can see it's almost dry as well. This was a disappointment.

I also received a Super Glossy Lip Shine in Pink Kiss ($1). This is Elf's answer to the infamous Lancome Juicy Tube, in that it comes in a tube with the slanted opening. The color is not exactly unique, but it is very, very pretty. It's a cool sheer pink with a slight shimmer. It was nice to wear, reasonably smooth, and non-drying, and not very sticky. The only thing I did not like about this product was the scent, which was sweet and reminded me of a childhood candy, which I could not quite remember which one. Some people might like it, but not me. I'm not sure I'd buy this again, as I'm not really a lipgloss girl, but at $1, this is definitely a good steal. Thumbs up.

The Defining Eye Brush ($1) was a surprise to me. I have tried one other brush from the standard Elf line, and hated it because the bristles kept falling out. This one is so much better. It has a slanted head, and is designed for defining your crease. I have a fluffed out one which I love using, but this is good at being precise and more specific, so I can see this being a really useful addition to my kit. Another thumbs up from me.

The final thing that Elf sent me was a Mineral Eye Shadow in Caffeinated ($3). I have tried one other mineral eye shadow from Elf, Natural, and love it so much it's received two posts on JLG, so naturally I had high hopes for Caffeinated. The name made me expect a dark espresso brown, whereas I think the color is closer to a dark antique gold. Again, it's not a super original color, so check your stash before purchasing, but it is pretty and very useful. It swatched deliciously rich and smooth. The only thing I can see not loving about this shadow is that the packaging - a jar with a shaker top - does not stop a lot of shadow getting into the top area, and with a color as rich and dark as this, you might not want a whole lot on your brush. But the color itself is gorgeous, and I can see working well on summer nights with some black liquid liner and a bronze lip. Gorgeous.

 

Gloss in Pink Kiss, Stain in Birthday Suit, Mineral Shadow in Caffeinated

What's your experience with Elf been? Good, bad, indifferent? I'd love to hear in the comments.

The products in this post were provided for review purposes. Products provided for review are not guaranteed coverage, nor are they guaranteed positive reviews. This post contains affiliate links, which in no way influence the review of a product on Jolie Laide Girl.

Spring Color Forecast Haul Part 2

As I posted last week, I knew I was going to have to take MAC's Spring Color Forecast in stages as it is such an overwhelming collection. This week I headed back to my MAC counter without the puppy and came away with a few more pieces.

 

One of the products I was most excited about was the Stacked 2! Pigments ($32.50). These are a different texture from normal pigments, and closer to Solar Bits from Style Warriors last summer (the first MAC collection I got excited about, incidentally). For those who are not familiar with those, they are much lumpier feel almost wet when touched. They are incredibly rich and soft. 

As you can see, the colors are a true gold, an antique or green tinged gold, a copper tinged gold, and a more pink or melon gold. They have a very high shine quotient, so I can see these being fun to add as a base, or smudging on the crease to add some drama, but not using all over, apart from something over the top. Not that there's anything wrong with being over the top sometimes!

I am a real sucker for golds - they are probably my biggest weakness when it comes to make up. And really, anything gold - highlighter, bronzer, lip colors - anything with gold just sings to me! So this palette ($36) was always going to come home with me. The palette is in the new packaging which apparently all palettes will be in from now on. I much prefer it - it looks like an upgrade to me - a little more put together and durable. 

L-R Manila Paper, Flip, Aztec Brick, Creole Beauty

Manila Paper is a smooth light gold with a touch of shimmer

Flip is a light red or peach gold. Again it has a hint of shimmer. It reminds me of all my other peachy golds that I posted about it, so I'm bound to like it. It did swatch the worst out of the four though. 

Aztec Brick is a rich copper. This swatched super rich and will be gorgeous and versatile. 

Creole Beauty is a rich bronze color. Again, it swatched well. It really reminds me of Bronze actually. 

You might already have a bunch of these colors in your collection already, in which case you can skip this palette. If you are just getting into this color family, then you should definitely check these out. 

 

I thought I was going to get a lot more lip glosses from this collection, but when I saw them in person, I actually ended up not loving a lot of them, mainly because I thought that they were very dupable. 

I did pick up Gold Dust which is a perfect gold shimmery gloss - warm in tone, and awesome to wear alone or over another color. I am imagining this on tropical beaches in the evening - gorgeous sultriness. 

Kumquat is a great rich coral - super bright and fun. 

Hush Hush Rose is an amazingly pretty raspberry gloss with some shimmer.

L-R Gold Dust, Ember, Hush Hush Rose, Pink Burst

Prior to seeing the collection in real life, I was excited about Cha Cha, Electric Fuchsia, Almondine, and Culture Clash. Cha Cha is a milky coral that ended up making me look a little weird and dead. Electric Fuchsia is a great bright color but I was put off by the blue shimmer. However I do think it's a great and exciting color, just not for me. Culture Clash reminded me of a gazillion other similiar milky pink glosses with shimmer that MAC puts out with every collection and I am sick of accidentally buying and finding a gazillion other shades of in my collection. Almondine looks very scary in the tube, but actually sheers out very nicely, but it reminded me of Elle, which came in one of the Holiday 09 collections as a mini, and I really think a mini is enough of this shade that I need. 

One final purchase was Pink Burst Lipstick, which is oh-so aptly named. It is a gorgeous rich bright shock of pink, sheer enough to be wearable but buildable. A gorgeous spring color, or wear it now to brighten up your day!

I really loved this collection - it was bright, fun, dynamic, and exciting. I've used almost everything since purchasing in some way despite the cold weather, and even though the colors are bright, they are wearable and flexible. I know it's a big collection, and in some ways very overwhelming, but it's definitely worth taking a look at, and there is bound to be something for everyone in it.

Peaches and Cream and Nice Melons: A Fruity Round Up of Peach Shadows

I've been having a bit of resurgent love with Benefit, so when ULTA Beauty were having a 20% off sale a couple of weeks ago I was sure to snap some up. I'd seen a couple of rave reviews of
Velvet Eyeshadow in Nice Melons so I thought I'd give it a go.

Okay, I'll admit it, I bought it because of the name. There, I've said it, we can move on now.

My first impression was that I loved the packaging. Normally, I want to depot my eyeshadows and keep them in pans so I can see them all in one go. NARS are the only exception to this because I love that rubberized packaging. But these Benefit's are so cute, with those lovely white flowers on the case. Gorgeous!

The color is a gorgeous rich, well pigmented melon with gold shimmer. It looks like a nice dupe for MAC's Melon Pigment, but in pan form, which is no bad thing. It swatches so pretty, and is even a hint warmer than I thought it would be.

So far, so much love. And then I started to look at my collection. It looks like I might be a freak for this color....

Clockwise from left: MAC Gleam, Benefit Nice Melons, Elf Mineral Eye Shadow in Natural, Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten, MAC Arena

But they are all subtly different, I swear!!

 

From left: MAC Gleam, MAC Arena, Stila Kitten, ELF Natural, Benefit Nice Melons

MAC Gleam ($11) is a pretty peachy color. It doesn't have great color pay off and needs to be packed on. It has a lustre finish, but I haven't experience significant fall out. This is one of my favorite MAC colors

MAC Arena ($11) is a nice smooth peachy color. It runs a little darker than the rest of the colors here, and has a slight shimmery feel. I don't use this color enough. 

Stila Kitten Smudge Pot ($20) is a cult shade that people rave over. On me it comes out very shimmery and close to my natural lid shade. It is incredibly pretty on its own to brighten your eye. As this is a smudge pot, I haven't had great luck with mixing or layering other shades with it. I kind of want to love this shadow more than I actually do.

Elf Mineral Eye Shadow in Natural ($3). I reviewed this here as part of my recent Elf haul. This color is gorgeous! It's incredibly rich and smooth. I wear this to wake my eyes up on a lazy day. 

Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Nice Melons ($18) is a beautiful warm, rich, smooth peachy shade with a decent amount of shimmer. It's a keeper! 

Do you have an eyeshadow color that you just keep buying in the same color? One that keeps cropping up in your collection again and again?

This post has affiliate links. These in no way influence the opinions or reviews on this blog.

Elf Haul Part 2: Paying an extra $2 really makes a difference!

Last week I posted about the first part of my Elf review, where I focused on the brushes. Now I'm working through the rest of my rather extensive haul.

One of the products I picked myself was Mineral Eyeshadow in Natural ($3). Wowser! This is one of those cheap ass finds that makes all the other experimentations worth it. It's a gorgeous shimmery peachy gold, and really reminds me of Stila's cult color Kitten. The pigmentation is nice, and it's super smooth to apply. I can see this being an awesome, one sweep and you're done color. Love it.

The next thing I picked out was the Liquid Liner in Silver ($1). This was part of the 10 free products that I received with my order. The liquid liner comes with a stiff nib, rather than a brush or pen. Some people will love this, others won't. I actually do find it helps with control, although varying the width of the line is a skill beyond me. The silver dried quickly, which is a bonus. I hate liquid liners that take an age to dry (I'm looking at you MAC Liquid Last), as I have to sit with my eyes closed for that whole time. The color was a pretty bright silver with a touch of shimmer.

I also received the same liner in black. The ink came out lovely and black; blacker than my Black Stila Smudge Pot, not as black as the MAC Penultimate Liner. The nib naturally draws quite a thick, dramatic line, so it's not for the faint hearted. The nib also comes out with a lot of ink, so you have to make sure you take off the excess. It did take about 2 minutes to dry out entirely, but I didn't have any problems with the color transferring to any other part of my eye. I first wore a swatch on my hand overnight, which it endured quite well. I then used it in a teal smoky eye. I really liked how it applied. It has faded a bit after 8hrs, and some shadow had moved over it as well, but not too serious. If you don't use liquid liner very often, this is a good one to have in your collection. I can potentially see myself using this instead of MAC Penultimate.

I also received an Eyelid Primer ($1). I tested this out with the same smoky eye look. It has the same consistency as Urban Decay Primer Potion, and was very easy to apply. It has no shimmer and was exactly the same color as my lids, or went on clear. I checked back on my eyes after about 8hrs, and there was no creasing at all. Some shadows had moved around a bit and blended together, but all in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this product's performance.

Up next in the haul review is the Brightening Eye Color Quad in Drama. Although the packaging looks cheap, I loved the dinky little hidden mirror underneath the applicator. That is a pretty ingenious place to put one, and I was surprised by how much you can see in there! It is a smoky eye palette featuring a white, dark shimmery gray, an almost black with a touch of shimmer, and silver. The white came out chalky, and the two colors with a lot of shimmer felt gritty. The dark gray was the only one which swatched okay. I do believe in spending a little more on eye shadow, as the pigmentation and quality do make a difference. The little quad is testament to that. I don't ever see myself using this unfortunately.

One of the products I was most excited to try out was the Pink Lemonade Shimmering Facial Whip ($1). This was even before I saw the NARS Orgasm Illuminator. The Shimmering Facial Whip is basically a light liquid that you can use as a blush or highlight. It comes in a dinky little tube and has a subtle orange scent which I really liked. Although it is not greasy in any way, it is a little tacky and not super smooth to rub in. It is definitely not "whip" which I associate with being very light and easy on the skin. I also found I needed quite a bit of it to get some shimmer to highlight. I loved the idea of Pink Lemonade, but the pink didn't suit me as it ran cooler than my skin tone likes. All that said, I'm not sure that I wouldn't try this in another shade as I love the teeny tiny size. I'm giving this a maybe.

Another must try product for me was the All Over Color Stick ($1). I chose Spotlight, which looks to be a dupe for NARS Copacobana, which has been on my wishlist for about 5 years. I have no idea why I don't just buy it. Anyway, the elf one is pretty tiny (hey, what did you expect for a buck?!). This felt much nicer on to apply and on the skin than the Shimmering Facial Whip and felt quite smooth. Like the Shimmering Facial Whip, I had to put on a lot of product to get any shimmering highlight to show up. Instead, my skin took on a slight chalky, almost blue-gray tinge. I really wanted to love this product, but it was too heavy and not enough highlight in it to make it worthwhile for me.

 Pink Lemonade, Spotlight

One of the items I picked out for myself was the Lip Stain in Fashionista, which is a pretty rose. This is a wand product with two ends - the stain which dries matte, and a gloss which also moisturises. I adore lipstains, so trying this product was a must. Firstly, the color is amazing. It is such a pretty, soft pink on me. It went on very smoothly from the wand and it took about 2-3 minutes to dry, and for another hour I could feel that there was something on my lips. A couple of hours later, my lips did feel dry. Matte lip products do tend to dry your lips out, so to me this is just to be expected. I used the moisterising / gloss end of the wand and this did soften my lips, and more importantly for me, was not sticky. The color had faded a bit after a three hours as well, but not completely. I would definitely consider buying this is other colors as I absolutely adore matte finishes, and it felt comfortable and pretty to wear. 

The last thing I opened up was the Eye Makeup Remover Pads ($1). I only used these on my hands to clean up swatches, and I'm glad. They smelled incredibly astringent which caught at the back of my throat. They were able to reasonably clean up swatches (not a hard challenge I admit), but left the backs of my hands feeling dry. Honestly, the harsh chemical smell of these makes me not even want to use them on my eyes. I'm keeping them for wiping up swatching, but definitely not repurchasing. 

So, how to sum it all up? The more expensive products from the Studio Line like the brushes and the lipstain were worth, and the quality far exceeded their measly price tag. The Primer was cheap and remarkably good, all things considered. I've seen that there is a studio line primer; I'd be keen to see how this differs from their base product. I loved the Mineral Eye Shadow and thought that the Lip Stain was pretty good too. However, the eye make up remover, the eye quad, the highlighter and the shimmering facial whip were all big fails unfortunately. 

The fact that half of the products were poor doesn't put me off Elf entirely; it more just says that with super cheap lines like this, there are going to be some things that are amazing, and some that are, well, not. If anyone else has any great elf suggestions, I'd love to hear them in the comments.  

Stila A Couple of Crushes Lip and Cheek Stains

I picked up these Stila Lip and Cheek Stains for $10 from Sephora a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to play with them until today. As regular readers may be aware, I have plenty of experience with cheek stains, so when I saw these babies for such a low price, I was a dead cert for adding them to cart.

My first thoughts on them is that the packaging looks gorgeous. I adore how Stila packages their products with those brushed steel and worn out courier font. They are in a twist-end brush form, exactly the same as their lip glazes. When I broke them open, it did take a lot of twisting for any product to appear, and then suddenly I had an avalance of stain to deal with. I have always had that problem with stila lip glazes, which is why I do not own a lot of them. I either did not have enough product, or far too much. Sigh.

The colors are gorgeous - a corally mango shade, and a deep pink pomegranate shade. Stila also claims that there are ingredients which react to the pH of your skin to turn the perfect tint for you. I'm going to have to take that with a pinch of salt, to be honest. They do have a hint of shimmer which is unusual for a stain, which are sheer matte.

mango, pomegranate, unblended

Pretty as the colors are though, I did not find them super easy to apply. I had thought that they might follow the same approach as Benefit's Benetint which is three dabs then blend. Stila's need a lot more product before they start to show up, and I found myself twisting the cap like crazy, and I have to admit I couldn't get mango to show up at all on my lips. Because I wasn't sure how much color to use, I found myself dabbing then blending, dabbing then blending, and my cheeks ended up red from rubbing, not blush. I took a break then, and checked back, and I do have a sweet corally tint now. The stain wasn't as liquidy as the Benefit product, and had just a tiny amount of tackiness, but nothing like the Tarte cheek stain.

mango, pomegranate, blended out

Do I love these products? No, not really. But they are fun for $10 to play around with, and if you aren't sure about cheek stains, then definitely this is a good way to find out if that style of blush is good for you.

NYX Haul Part 2: Lipsticks

NYX Cosmetics are currently having a $1 bonanza sale, so now seems a good time to go through my recent NYX lipstick haul. I previously posted about my eyeshadows here.

From l-r Rose, Snow White, Louisiana, Tea Rose, Hero, Pumpkin Pie

Rose applied lovely and smoothly. However, I would definitely not call this color rose. It is closer to a fuschia pink. It is definitely a bright spark on my mouth. It took a little getting used to, but I do think I really rather like this colors.

Snow White is a dark gash or wine red. It automatically made me think of those 90s riot girl bands. Because the color is so rich and dark I made a real mess of applying it straight from the tube. This color totally did not suit me. Fail.

Louisiana is a cooler toned blue pink. Its pigmentation was not as strong as the other lipsticks. It is kind like less bright version of Rose. It is a pretty color, but a little too cool for my skin tone.

Rose, Snow White, Lousiana, Tea Rose, Hero, Pumpkin Pie

Tea Rose is a pretty nude pink. It is neutral in tone and reasonably pigmented.

Hero is a rich, dark red. It is warmer in tone than Snow White as well and not as pigmented as Snow White. The extra warmth meant that it suited my skin tone much better. I blotted this down and it became a super chic dark stain. I like it.

Pumpkin Pie is another nude pink, but this one is a lot warmer, almost with a touch of caramel. This came of almost entirely nude on my lips.

These lipsticks set me back $1.75 each, which is a good bargain for sure. NYX lipsticks feel super smooth going on and the ones I have used so far have nice pigmentation. The only thing I do have to say is woah do they taste like soap, which I do not find at all pleasant. I guess it means that I'm not likely to lick them off....

Cheeky Tarte

Tarte Cosmetics have a strong brand focus on being natural make up brand. One of their most famous products is their line of cheek stains which contains a Super Fruit Complex with soothening and softening properties. As you may be aware, cheek stains are one of my absolute favorite make up products. Posie Tint by Benefit is a must have product, and I wore a deep deep hole in my stila rouge pot. I also have two cheek and lip stains from stila still to review, bad blogger that I am! 

 

I picked up the Tarte Stain in Blissful, described as a warm peachy pink, although to me it looks closer to strawberry, a couple of months ago. They have a fairly big range of colors to pick from and I had quite a hard time picking out just one. It looks absolutely delicious. The product is exceedingly generous. It comes in a wide push up shape, and looks a bit like a giant lip balm. 

The first thing I noticed when I tried the product was its texture. It is quite sticky, and much less liquid or creamy than I imagined it would be. I did not like this at, and I felt like it made blending the color onto my cheeks difficult. To me, a cheek stain should feel like nothing at all, and be incredibly easy to blend into nothing. This was so tacky that I felt that it was sticking to my cheeks as I tried to blend it, and that I was actually rubbing off my base as I was doing it. In fact, I found it hard to guage how much to use as my cheeks were pink from trying to quickly rub the color in! Once on, it did provide a lovely sheer sheen of color, but boy did I have to work to get there. 

I think that this product is incredibly good value, and I can never ever imaging using the whole product or even 10% of it! However, the tackiness of the application really puts me off using it unfortunately, so despite the lovely range of colors and the pretty outcome, I won't be buying this again.