Topbox November 2014

One set of exams done...that means back to blogging! I have been very happy with Topbox recently, and this month was no exception. Briefly, Topbox is a Toronto-based subscription service, you get about 4-5 products each month for $12+tax. Even if here and there pops in products I don't like or will never use, I don't mind it because usually the other products are very useful (and more than worth the $12), or it allowed me to know what to stay away from in the future. Overall, highly recommended!

I have been choosing the bag options recently as I had collected too many of those tubes.

 

 First up, uniqOne all in one hair treatment, can be used wet or dry. Honestly these "all in one" products are confusing to me. I much prefer separate for different purposes (ie. shampoo and conditioner separetely rather than 2-in-1). To me, all-in-one means not particularly good at either or...but will see, I imagine I will just use this like a hair oil.

Next is Benefit Stay Flawless primer. I've heard lots of good things about this, and it's neat being in stick form instead of liquid/cream like every other primer I've used. The instruction say not to blend it in at first and let it blend with the makeup. This will be interesting... will update this post after I've tried it out.

 

Eyeko Mascara! I have been wanting to try this brand for a long time, now's finally the chance! Happy happy happy...

 

Lastly, Elizabeth Arden Flawless Future serum. EA products have always been solid for me, so expecting this will probably be too. 

 

Here's the stash, overall looking forward to trying all these!

What did you get in your box this month? Please share links to your posts!

Real Techniques Lip Brush Review

Since the Chapman sisters from Pixiwoo came out with the real Techniques brushes, I have been head over heels in love with their larger powder and blush brush (so much so I have bought backups...). Never have I felt brushes so full and soft, with no shedding, and at around $10 each, really there is nothing bad to say about them!

I was looking a better lip brush recently, so decided to try more of this amazing lineup.

The real Techniques lip brush retails for $7.99 from FTBBeauty. It is synthetic and appears similarly mixed black and grey-white hairs as the other face brushes I have.

Just like the others, it's soft and doesn't shed. It's also a very good size for my lips, which are on the thin side.  My Annabelle concealer brush I was using as a lip brush, became for me a tad big overtime (though on someone with bigger/more luscious lips it's awesome!).

The only downside, is this cap. Obviously this was meant to be a travel brush you can cap off, however the cap is VERY loose. Very little jiggling can loosen it and it will fall off. Can you imagine...it would be very annoying if this happened inside your makeup bag (imagine smeared lipstick inside your bag, never mind possibly ruining your brush-head having it jammed against the bag, ugh).

So this thing just sits on my bathroom counter to be used at home only, which is fine with me, though I will keep looking for a good travel lip brush.

Have you tried this? Let me know what you think of it or if you recommend any good travel lip brushes!

Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Crayon #54 (Brown with shimmer) review and swatches

one swipe

I don't have a lot of high-end liners, so was excited to see this in Sephora's 100pts perks. It did not disappoint! Brown is brown, easy to use and natural, but THIS brown is special with it's shimmer.

It glides on fairly easily, with a bit of tugging but is a well-pigmented line in 1-2 swipes on my lids. It stays all day, and I only experienced a small amount of smudging on my lower lids at the end of the night. For me that is pretty good as a lot of liners smudge a lot or very quickly on me. Perhaps one day I will find a HG liner that doesn't do this... (I thought I found this with the Julep gel liner but it dried out so quickly that it was HG for only 3 uses...can't have a HG product that only lasts 3 uses...)

Here's a bare-eye swatch with only a bit of mascara. If you draw a very thin line right on the lashline, it gives the most natural yet a barely-there "lit" look due to the shimmers.

I've loving it!

Empties - October 2014

Yup it's November...and right on time it snowed in Toronto on Nov 1. It's time to say good-bye to lighter fall jackets and hello to sweaters and parkas...and also that time to for spit-fire reviews on what I used up this month, a much happier event than winter-coming!

 Bare Escentuals bareVitamins skin rev-er upper: I got this a couple of years ago when I first started using BM and found it again recently so tried to use it up. It really didn't make a difference to my skin or makeup application and I didn't care for the smell, ended up just using it as a body lotion to finish it up. 
Re-buy? Nope...

 Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Color Mascara: a very natural defining mascara. No "oomph" if you're looking for something more dramatic, cuz it's opposite of that. Doesn't smudge. Overall solid product
Rebuy? maybe...after I use up all my deluxe mascara samples (when will it end...)

 Benefit they're Real! push-up liner: I'm cheating, this isn't even empty, I just can't deal with it anymore! I've heard if one "practiced" more this will wow me, but after multiple trials, I'm done with this stiff and difficult-to-use product (which is also a nightmare to remove, dang I want waterproof not "permanent"). Goodbye and will never repurchase. See original review here.

 "Magical Eyeliner" - waterproof liquid liner: got this for $2 at Daiso. It's super shiny, and although is technically waterproof, if I scratched my eye bits would come off. All it was good for was to practice winged liner.
Re-buy: nope

Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser: this is a deluxe sample so only got a few uses out of it. From what I could tell so far, it's not a bad product but nothing special about it. It didn't make my skin worse or better and was fine for removing light makeup.
Re-buy: probably not, it's not a bad product but there's better out there.



Have you tried any of these? Let me know what you thought of them, or tell me how many deluxe mascara samples you have in your stash :)