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    When fake… is a good thing

    What it is: Revlon‘s Fantasy Lenghts false lashes, which from here on in will be called the “FL lashes,” because I am a lazy arse. They come in both self-adhesive and glue-on styles, so I’ll be discussing both!

    These are false lashes.
    They were not ripped from the lids
    Of a human being.


    The self-adhesives:
    I personally don’t like these (as I’ve now found out) because if you don’t get the right position the first time, there’s a greater chance that the lash will fall off partially and throw you into lash-flap city. (It’s an ugly place to be.) And, as a perfectionist, I neeeed my lashes to be EXACTLY where I want them to be.

    Intensifying self-adhesives, seen here.

    For those of you that do like self-adhesives, though, these are good ones — they’re sticky enough to stay on well, but not so sticky they pull your natural lashes out. Another thing to note if you have monolids is that, for those of us (like me!) whose lash lines touch their lids in some places, the adhesive strip is… well, it’s adhesive. Which means that it’ll try to adhere to your fold, too! (So remember to set with powder, as strange as that may sound.) The adhesive strip is black and thick, so you’ll have to line with black (preferably liquid or gel for the opacity) to make these look natural.

    The self-adhesives come with lashes, an extra pair of self-adhesive glue strips, an applicator, and even instructions!


    The glue-on lashes: Ahh, now this is what I’m used to! There really isn’t much to say specifically for these ones; they’re pretty standard as far as lashes go. What I did notice, though (through the whole FL line, not just the glue-on lashes) was that each lash was very thin and tapered — this may sound like nothing, but trust me: when it comes to falsies, the thinner the better. Thin lashes are more costly for the manufacturer, as they have to make more lashes per strip, but they look much more natural than falsies whose individual lashes are flat and thick. The wispies that many of these lashes taper down to are perfect for blending into your normal lashes, because that’s what our lashes actually look like! (Thin and lonely, boo.)

    Flirty glue-ons


    The verdict? I love ’em so much I could dance. Actually, you know what? I will dance.

    —dancing break—


    Aaand now, back to work. I really like the design of the FL lashes (they’re all very delicate and classy) and the quality is superb! They seem very sturdy, despite the thinness of each lash, so you’ll likely get three to five wears per set. (The self-adhesives come with an extra self-adhesive strip and an applicator, but you can always peel off the self-adhesive strip and use them as glue-on lashes.)

    Defining self-adhesives

    Two other nice, surprising things? The self-adhesives are latex-free, which is great for gals (or guys) with allergies! And a pair of lashes, according to Amazon.com, is regular $5.49 (but on sale for $3.84 right now.) I have to say it: major steal alert! The quality of these is above Ardell’s (and yes, that’s coming from an avid Ardell lover) and actually comparable to the pairs of falsies you’d pick up for $15-30 at Sephora… so pick some up, especially if they’re on sale! Drugstore lashes are a great way to start if you’re a false-lashe newbie, and these would be perfect — you get the quality of a more expensive lash, but without the high price.

    Minx glue-on lashes


    Note: the Revlon site page kind of sucks (sorry, Revlon!) so I’m directing you towards Madame Madeline‘s if you want to see some product photos. It looks like they have the whole collection, with a slew of glue-on, self-adhesive, AND individual lashes!

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    I love you, NARS

    It’s nice to see that not all makeup companies have lost their sense of humour! Honestly, I think one of the main problems with those promo images may have been simply that companies have been taking themselves too seriously — when what they should have been taking was a lesson from NARS! It’s okay to laugh at yourself sometimes :P In fact, it’s healthy!

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    Creating the perfect canvas

    The product: Vincent Longo‘s Water Canvas Primer.
    The ingredients:

    Water Dimethicone Dipropylene Glycol Peg-8 Dimethicone Copolyol Crosspolymer SD Alchohol 39-C Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer Phenyl Trimethicone Sodium PCA Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate Pyridoxine HCI Polygonum Bistorta Root Extract Butylene Glycol Sodium Citrate Methyl Paraben Methylcellulose Tocopherol

    The basics: I like how this dries to a smooth, scent-free finish, though it smells a little chemicaly when you first apply it. The consistency is thinner than many other primers (for instance, Tarte Clean Slate) and its finish mirrors that — with a thick, jello-like (mmm, jello!) primer you often get more of a slippery finish, but with something that’s more of a liquid-gel the final result feels quite different. Your skin soaks it right up, and it’s as if you can feel your pores tighten. Not in a bad way, though — it definitely doesn’t seep moisture from your skin, and though it feels more taught it by no means feels dry.

    The wear: Once this dries, the finish is smooth and (fine) lines are blurred. No, it’s not the holy grail of anti-ageing, but any good primer helps blur fine lines. I find that my skin stays oil-free for longer when I wear this, and my colour stays on longer as well. I can’t pick it out from the ingredients, but the product description mentions silica — and the silica’s very prevelant in this! You can feel it in the finish, and I’m willing to bet my favourite eyshadow that it’s the silica that keeps the oilies away.

    Random photo of my hand.
    Just kidding. Primed skin.


    The difference:
    Like any good primer, this makes colour “stick” to your skin and enhances wear. In the photo below, the blush above the line is on bare skin and below the line, it’s on primed skin.

    (Lancome Aplum, if I’m not mistaken.)

    The verdict? If you like a slippery, silicone-y finish, this is not for you. However, if you have oilier skin, you like a weightless finish, and you can afford it (this one’s not cheap at $44 a pop) it’s definitely worth checking out. I really like this, especially in my t-zone, but primers are a very personal choice!

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    2010 Spring collections gone wrong

    Here are three Spring 2010 collections with god-awful promo images. I mean, they all had very good (and very visible) intentions, but they were just… very poorly executed, if you ask me.

    Dior, Clarins, and YSL respectively. Opinions?

    And, finally, Shu Uemura’s Egerie collection. I can’t decide if I totally love or totally hate this — for now, it just confuses me. Are you fierce (the shadow, hair, shirt, nails,) whimsical (the colours, glistening bits,) or girly (pastel shadows, light colours)?

    I mean, I definitely liked that they’re being risky and mixing all of the above. I just can’t decide if they suceeded, or if they mixed and failed miserably!

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    The prettiest packaging of 2009

    5. You’re all going to hate me for the amount of Guerlain on this list, but I personally think their Orchidée Impériale treatment set is quite pretty.4. Givenchy and Cle de Peau have to share this spot for their brilliant logo-in-packaging design, in their Gloss Poetique and Intensifying Cream Eyeliner (mentioned here) respecitvely. 3. I’m in love with this Narciso Rodriguez Musc for Her bottle, mentioned earlier here.2. After reading this, you all probably knew that Guerlain‘s Holiday Sublime Radiant Powder had to be at least in the top three of this list. And it’s not something you can argue — this is some nice packaging.1. Three words that no one can dispute: Alice. In. Wonderland. Perhaps not the prettiest, and perhaps not technically packing from 2009, but it is the most awesome packaging that we’ve seen photos of all year! Mentioned earlier here.
    Do any of you have anything to add to this list? I’ve only just grazed the tip of the iceberg, mentioning only items that we’ve discussed previously or items that we *will* discuss once the posts work their way up and out of the backlogs, so give me the heads-up on your favourite packaging of the year in the comments! Be it something you found this year, something that was released this year, or even something that you heard rumors about this year that hasn’t been released yet — I’d love to know!

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    Touch of Class ’09 eye

    So I showed you the outfit about a week ago — here’s the eye look! I needed something really simple; something that I could do in under ten minutes and something that wouldn’t need to be touched up during the day.

    As usual, sorry for the quality! It was so dark by the time I got home :( I brightened them to the best of my ability, but the colours just weren’t retained by the camera!

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    FOTD: Christmas never ends

    Happy boxing day, folks! I get all jazzed up each year around the holidays, as you know, and go crazy with gold eyes and red lips — I can’t stop myself! So, here’s the last bronze-gold eye/red lip combination of the year. I’ll be reviewing these false lashes soon (hint: I really like them!) so keep your eyes peeled for that. Enjoy!!

    A confession before you see these photos — if I’m doing a FOTD just for theNotice, I don’t blend my lashes into the false ones. I hate having to remove mascara from falsies!How-to

    This one’s actually super-easy: just create a neutral smoky eye, to whatever intensity you desire, then pat gold shadow in the middle of your lid and blend outwards to cover your entire lid. With a small brush, intensify this gold on your inner V (around your tear duct.) Hilight the brow bone and ta-da! You’re done the shadows.
    Using a creamy black liner, line both upper and lower waterlines. Take an angled liner brush to “pull” this off your waterlines at the corners, creating a small wing. Crimp lashes and finish with lots of mascara — or falsies, as I’ve used!
    Finish with whatever lips and cheeks you want, but I picked a light pink cheek (contoured, obvi. You know me!) and a stained red lip.

    Aaand, because it’s been pointed out recently that I basically never smile, here are three smile-shots for you! Consider it your day-late Christmas gift :P Man, do I ever feel like a camera-whore today! But it’s all good, because this lighting is definitely working in our favour.

    Plus I have Photoshop to hide my third eye.

    Used:

    Lancome Crème Lustré shadow
    Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero
    Fyrinnae Polar Bear loose pigment
    Annabelle Creme Caramel shadow trio
    Marcelle Minerals Graphite shadow
    Revlon Intensifying false lashes


    Lancome Aplum
    Smashbox Smoke


    Paula Dorf Tapestry lip liner
    Sephora Bronzed Beauty lip gloss

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    I’M GETTING AN XSi!!!!

    *dances wildly*Just finished ordering it off the Future Shop website and I could not be more excited!! It should be getting here on the 31st — can’t wait!!

    And let this stand as a heads-up, Canucks: for Boxing Day, Future Shop has them on special at $599.99, which includes a (kinda unfortunate) bag, the camera body and IS kit lens, and a 58mm UV lens filter. Basically, everything in the image below.
    Merry Christmas! xoxo

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    Merry Christmas!

    Here are some face charts I sent to a friend as part of her Christmas gift. And, because it’s finally Christmas day, I can finally post them for you ladies! (She sometimes checks in on theNotice and I didn’t want her to see them early.) If you have a last-minute party that you don’t have a look for, or even if you’re not sure what to wear (on your face, obvi) for your holiday photos, perhaps these can help.

    The colours weren’t retained all that well when they went from paper to digital, but you get the gist. Feel free to enlarge by clicking on them! I remember most of the products that I used, so let me know if there’s a specific colour that intrigues you.

    Tess, if you’re reading this, I miss you! Happy Christmas hon <3

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