Beauty

My best friends mom used to work for Merle Norman and ended up giving me a sample of Luxiva Lasting Makeup. I absolutely love it.

I have to admit I have been pretty lucky. I have had relatively clear skin my entire life. So, when I got laid off recently switching to a less expensive (read: drugstore) foundation didn't seem like a big deal to me.

I was so wrong. Cheap foundation mixed with the Texas summer heat and walking around campus all day had given me the worst case of acne I have had in my 22 years of life. My friends all told me that I had finally reached puberty....

Okay. These are all popular products that can be used as eyeshadow primers. I own all three, so I decided to pit them against each other and see which one gives me the most bang for my buck.

I used approximately the same eyeshadow application with the same tools, except that I applied Paint with a brush and De-Crease and UDPP with their wands and my fingers. Paint doesn't have a wand and it goes on thicker, so, brush.

For your reference, I have normal/combination skin and I prep all of my eye makeup with La Roche-Posay Active C for Eyes.

De-Crease
Ease of...

Years before I went "Web", I was a cosmetologist. (Fancy name for hairdresser). The hair thing was ok, but I really did like doing nails even more. The nice thing about being 'pro', is the the fact that we get our products for 1/2 of what you would get them for if you walk in and buy them in the salon.

I tried every fancy named 'salon' only product for my nails, primarily because I had soft, peely nails that never grew very long. I'd like to say it was just because my hands were in water a lot, but to be honest, I just have bad nails.

A few years ago one of the moms at my...

I've now had a chance to try out every mascara in The Lash Stash I got last week. Each day, these are the notes I took on what I liked and didn't like.

Benefit A Little Bit BADgal - I didn't love the brush. It clumped up my lashes so I had to put my Tweezerman lash comb to use. Once I combed it out and applied a few layers, it looked satisfactory to me. Late into the night, I noticed a bit of smudging under my eyes. This is something I've gotten used to not having when using the Imju Fiberwig mascara.

Blinc Kiss Me Mascara - It went on fairly easily with little combing...

So, I've got the oily eyelid curse.  If I just put eyeshadow on my bare lids, within half an hour I'll have that lovely creasing action.  You know, when all the shadow sort of travels into the natural fold of the eyelid.  It's super-attractive, let me tell you.  All the talk of using a layer of foundation or whatever underneath the shadow to help it stick...  Nuh-uh.  Not working.  This, however, this is amazing.  Urban Decay's Primer Potion is the one makeup item if they ever discontinued it, I might actually cry.  I can put this stuff on under my eyeshadow and the shadow will not budge.  If...

I'm a huge sucker for mascara. My lashes are my favorite thing to make up on my face. I'm always looking for better mascara. I find a lot of brands that I like, but nothing that I fall in long term love.

It got me thinking, maybe its not the mascara, maybe its my lashes.

My hair stylist was telling me about a mutual friend of ours that tried Revitalash, a conditioner for eye lashes. The way he told it, our friend had to stop using Revitalash because his lashes grew too much. He was getting people asking if he was wearing mascara. As a male in the military, he wasn't loving...