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    Urban Decay fails to put the Rocket in my Pocket, and is thus banned from my general face area.

    October 29, 2010
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    Okay, but honestly. I have tried multiple times over the past months to write a proper review of this… but I just can’t do it.

    The reason? It smells awful. Seriously; just bloody awful. I know loads of people who love the scent (described as crème brûlée, of all things), but I absolutely cannot stand it. It smells like cereal aftertaste, to my annoying, finicky nose. Alternately, it could be described as cheap fragrance molecules masquerading as cereal aftertaste…
    Either way, it’s gross.
    swatched quite sheerly

    It’s a pity, you know; everything else about this gloss is fabulous. Max is a lovely warm medium-nude with considerable opacity and fabulous shine. It turns peachy on my lips (not too nude), and the gloss doesn’t slip to the edges immediately. It’s just so darn pretty!

    The texture is thick but still quite nice altogether, and I do like the brush applicator. Plus, it’s an honest-to-god cream finish! (Microshimmer, no glitter, no frost). Do you know how hard it is to come by one of those nowadays, especially when it comes to glosses?! IT’S HARD! Really hard!
    So, really, why did they have to scent these like cereal, of all things? I mean, I could have dealt with vanilla. Cocoa. Even something obscure, like… lord, I don’t know. Oakmoss or something. Pumpkins. Basil. But nothing — nothing — drives me crazier than cereal aftertaste. 
    (No, seriously. I can’t even eat cereal unless I know I’ll be able to brush my teeth right after. Ridiculous.)
    Oh, Max. You and I were never meant to be!

    Availability: Sephora, Ulta, Asos.

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    Tags: /Lips, Product Photos, Product Review, Product Swatches, Urban Decay
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    Annabelle insomnia collection review: Glitterama eyeliners

    October 28, 2010
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    The rest of these reviews will go up over the next week or two, as I need more time to test out the shadows before I’ll be able to properly review them! However, I’ve reviewed this eyeliner in the past, so I thought we may as well get this post out now ;)

    What they are: Annabelle Glitterama Liquid Eyeliners in Night Light and Dark Angel.
    Like all Glitterama liners, these have three main features:
    1. They take for-e-ver to dry.
    2. However, once they’re set, they stay amazingly!
    3. They can be worn on their own, but look much better over other eyeliner.

    For a full review of a Glitterama liquid eyeliner, check out our Plutonium post.

    While I do like the moody glitter of Dark Angel, what really takes my breath away is the almost-wet finish of Night Light. I can see it layering amazingly over just about any eyeliner out there!
    Top line: Night Light / bottom line: Dark Angel
    Because swatches directly on the lid really don’t show off how lovely these can be, I took a few shots with them layered over Marcelle’s 2 in 1 Retractable Eyeliner in Amythest. I mean, you definitely can wear them alone, but you do need a lot of layering to do it! The Glitterama liners are made to be glitter suspended in a clear gel, not liquid liners with glitter thrown in, and not metallic-finish  liners (like Marcelle’s LUX Metallic ones).
    I actually surprised myself with the liner combination below; I did it just for ease of swatching but found that I quite liked it! Dark Angel close to the lashline really helps to add depth, but the shine of Night Light on the top of the liner really opened up my eyes eye. It just takes an extra thirty seconds to switch liners, so I’d definitely do it again ;)
    Top half of the line: Night Light / bottom half of the line: Dark Angel
     
    The verdict? As you already know, I quite like the Glitterama line, and these are no exception! Personally, these shades are not my favourites, as I like my glitter to have more colour in it, but as far as “easy to wear” glitter goes, these are perfect. Dark Angel is a lovely almost-black blue with brighter, sea-blue reflects, and Night Life would honestly add a subtle bit of oomph (in the form of gorgeous, multicoloured reflects) to any eyeliner already in your collection. And for under $8CAD, I have no problems with the price!

    Recommended if…

    • You really like either of the shades,
    • You’d rather not wear in-your-face glitter, but you’d still like to try it out,
    • You want day-appropriate glitter (Night Life),
    • You want to be able to layer your glitter over any colour, for the most combinations possible!
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    Tags: /Annabelle, Canadian beauty, Eyes, Fall/Winter 2010, Product Photos, Product Review, Product Swatches
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    A breather

    October 26, 2010
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    As you may have noticed with the half-arsed posting over the past week or so, I’ve been quite busy with midterms &etc recently. So for today’s post, I am instead linking to a few other lovely bloggers. Hope you enjoy their posts as much as I did, and I hope to see you with a regular post (a review, perhaps, to make up for it?) tomorrow!

    Still looking for more reading? The comments of yesterday’s YOU are well worth a read, and here are some reviews you may have missed recently…

    • Bobbi Brown Heather Buff: a surprising MLBB shade {review}
    • Coral Crush, from summer to fall {review}
    • Annabelle Hush mineral blusher {review}
    • L’Artisan Parfumeur Poivre Piquant: better than the real thing {review}
    • Marcelle Power Volume mascara powers right through the workday! {review}

    xo.

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    Tags: /Link love
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    YOU: animal testing

    October 25, 2010
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    I read an article on BellaSugar a while back about how the numbers of animals involved in testing has dramatically increased in recent years due to things like Botox — each batch must be tested on our furry friends. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, so I wanted to open a thread to ask you how you feel about animal testing. Please do share your thoughts!

    Personally, my take on this is very lax. (I used to only use products not tested on animals, but not anymore… we’ll get into that in a moment). When it comes to pharmaceuticals, I am definitely in favour of animal testing — it’s selfish of me, but quite frankly, I’d rather have a family of mice suffer consequences than myself or my own family. When it comes to cosmetics and skincare, I’m a little more pro-animal…
    …but not much. From where I’m standing, there are three options: 
       (a) The company tests on animals,
       (b) The company doesn’t test on animals, but the ingredients they use have been tested on animals, or
       (c) The company doesn’t test on animals, but their formulas (or the formulas of their ingredients) have been based off of formulas previously tested on animals.
    adorable little guys via Getty Images.
    Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but it does seem like one of those things that is very hard to avoid in its entirety. If a company takes a stance against animal testing, it definitely does work in their favour for me (I’d buy a product not tested on animals if it was just as good as the one tested on animals, even with a little price increase), but I wouldn’t stop using one of my favourite products just because it was tested on animals. The way I see it — really, what hasn’t, at some point in time?
    Would I be able to test on animals, though? Doubtful. Which may pose some problems later in my schooling, but we’ll deal with that when we must!
    For more information, I encourage you to check out the PETA site, but remember to take everything with a grain of salt. Most of these articles have been written with a very strong bias, and if you really are interested in going animal-testing-free, I’d also recommend reading pro-testing articles (try googling terms like “animal testing pros” or “animal testing beneficial.”)

    Again, I do encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments! However, we do not tolerate name-calling, cheap shots, etc. Arguments for and against testing are definitely allowed, but please remember to keep them polite and academic — not rowdy and un-based ;) Remember, too, that you can include links to studies and articles in the comments with a href tags, or simply by pasting in the url!
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    Tags: /Current affairs
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    New at… Sephora

    October 24, 2010
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    Does not include Holiday collections; we’ll have a larger post on those soon! (Not all of them are online yet).

    Oh, and because this one was just too exciting to fit in a box with other products — lip butter tubes! I wonder how the formula of these compares to the original?
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    Tags: /New This Week (& etc)
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