My good friend and fellow blogger, Stella Louise has provided me with this review of some products she has tested out. Stella and I have been friends for long time and we have tested out so many different cosmetic, skincare, hair and fashion trends together.
I’ve mostly given up on wearing eyeliner as part of my “daily face.” Partly due to laziness and partly due to finding one that’s 1. Easy to apply and 2. Long-wearing. So I was excited to try the Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen which, according to the Target website:
“Gives the concentrated colour of a liquid liner in a silky, easy to apply gel pencil. Stays looking flawless all day.”
I got a slate grey color to test, which is a nice, wearable shade. Not too harsh, just enough drama. There is a bit of glitter in this color. Indeed, it appears all the colors in this line contain some sort of shimmer.
This eyeliner is very easy to apply in that there’s no drag or pulling. It deposits color, which is quite pigmented, with little effort—but make no mistake: this is not a substitute for liquid liner or even pen eyeliners. You will not get a clean cat-eye or sharp wings with this pencil. It is great for lining upper lids and smoky eyes, but even the most adept will not be able to achieve a crisp, tight line.
Another con is that this eyeliner will require sharpening. The aforementioned glitter doesn’t help matters when it comes to creating clean lines, either.
The Pixi eye pencil is long-wearing. I applied and used a rubber-tipped smudge brush to blend. The line lasted all day and even a water aerobics class only faded it slightly. That’s on my upper lids, though. Lining under my lower lashes resulted in racoon-eyed pigment migration that’s made me avoid wearing eyeliner—especially on my lower lids.
Still, all in all, it’s a nice eyeliner for $12. A little pricier than most drugstore brands but more budget-friendly than similar products sold at Sephora. I like the fact that it requires very little effort to deposit a decent line on my upper eyelids and that it wears well.
Available at Pixibeauty.com and Target.com
Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Wipeout Color-Correcting Palette
I’m a sucker for palettes, even though I tend to gravitate towards two or three shades out of the many options available. Still there’s something appealing about the convenience of having “[a]n all-in-one palette to correct discolorations, contour, and brighten up skin.”
The Tarte color-correcting palette features six shades: Orange to counteract darkness; Green to neutralize redness; Warmth (brown) to sculpt, contour and define; Peach 1 to camouflage light to medium skin tones; Peach 2 to camouflage medium to deep skin tones; and Yellow to highlight and brighten.”
Although Tarte dubs these shades as “universal,” there is no way this palette is a one size fits all solution. In all honesty, the peach concealers will only work for a limited range of skin tones: mainly light to medium. Super fair and darker skins won’t find a match with the concealers, however, both of which are suitable for my light skin.
The other downfall to this palette is that the creams are very sheer. This makes them super blendable but if you’re looking to camouflage seriously spots or discoloration, I doubt this palette will work for you. For minor discoloration, I found it to be fairly effective.
I have the dreaded dark undereye circles. The orange corrector is meant to counteract that, but it just made me look like someone punched me in the eyes—even after blending the peach concealer over top. The yellow was far more effective in brightening that area and it looked better even without the peach concealer. The green is good for offsetting redness that can show up around one’s nose and mouth. I doubt it would be too effective in covering blemishes due to its sheerness.
I don’t contour so the warmth has been left untouched.
Tarte recommends the use of special brushes, but I found my fingers worked well enough for applying and blending. While it’s too sheer for heavy duty coverage, I did like how easy it was to blend. It never looked cakey nor did it settle into my pores or fine lines under my eyes.
If your skintone is light to medium and your correction needs are fairly minimal, it might be worth checking out this cruelty-free product formulated without parabens, mineral oil, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate, triclosan, and synthetic fragrances. Usually $45, the TARTE Wipeout Color-Correcting Palette from the Rainforest of the Sea™ Collection is currently available on Ebay.com. It seems the product is no longer available through Tarte or through Sephora. It is still available via Amazon!
Sample pack of FOU Water
I use a rose water mist on my face In the morning. A spritz before I apply a serum mixed with highlighting primer gets my skin prepped for makeup. So it wasn’t a big change in routine to substitute FOÜ Skin Toner in place of my usual mist. FOÜ stands for “Fountain of Üth (youth) and purports to “hydrate…skin, improve skin tone, reduce fine lines and wrinkles.”
That a pretty tall order for H2O, but FOÜ is no ordinary water:
FOÜ Skin Toner begins its journey straight out of a mountain spring and into our facility where it is cycled over 40,000 times through a 45 step, proprietary process. Through each step, the water is purified and softened, removing any chemicals or toxins. This ultra-pure water is then infused with activated oxygen and precious ions of Gold, Silver, Copper and Zinc.
These ions, along with our unique process, tremendously soften the water, giving it the power to hold an unprecedented concentration of oxygen, the body’s fuel. This process is repeated over 40,000 times, conditioning and enriching the water through each cycle. Our process is a refined version of the natural conditioning of water when it passes through many thousands of feet of earth.
The FOÜ website has even more hyperbole on the benefits of its product, but how did it perform in real life? According to the instructions, FOÜ should be applied twice a day (as opposed to my morning only ritual) and rubbed vigorously into one’s skin. I suspect the rubbing helps with circulation more than penetration, but I did as directed for a week.
Were years of abuse, aging and sun damage reversed? Um, no. At least not in 7 days. My skin did feel smoother and after applying and rubbing vigorously, my skin had a matte finish perfect for applying makeup. The FOÜ water sprays a nice even mist—which is immediately negated by their recommendation to rub vigorously. I would personally recommend applying the mist and then applying a moisturizer or serum and rubbing that in with the mist rather than just the mist alone. You’ll get more slip and less drag on your skin while still increasing circulation and penetration.
FOÜ water retails for $14.99 for 4.5 oz. My rosewater mist retails for under $7 for 8 oz., so FOÜ is a pretty pricey alternative. I will continue to use it to see if there are additional benefits, but most likely I will stick with my rosewater spray when I run out of FOÜ.
According to BAEBODY.com, their eye gel is:
“…specifically formulated to address every eye area concern. Dark Circles, Fine Lines, Wrinkles, Sagging, Puffing, Firmness, Tone and Resilience… this delicate and light gel targets them all. Smoothes the appearance of wrinkles with Matrixyl 3000, a powerful ingredient that nearly doubles collagen production and protects skin against wrinkle-causing free radicals. From Plant Stem Cells to Multiple Complex Peptide blends… from botanically derived Hyaluronic Acid to cellular rebuilding Amino Acids. Collagen boosting, skin firming, and wrinkle repairing ingredients are fully loaded into this brilliant eye therapy.”
Not bad for a product that retails under $24!
While my experience with this eye gel was less than spectacular, it does have some pretty impressive pros:
1. Price
2. Size – 1.7 oz. That’s a lot of product!
3. Dispenser – comes in a jar, but dispenses by gently pressing on top of container to allow product to squeeze out of hole in the center. Very hygienic plus allows more control and less waste of product.
4. Does help with puffiness a bit. I felt a warming sensation as I massaged into my undereye area and it did seem to “tighten” things up a bit—at least immediately following application.
5. Multipurpose? The gel instructions indicate it can be used on one’s face as well as just the undereye area.
For me, there was a slight reduction in puffiness and general tightening of the undereye area after application. I did not note any reduction of my dark circles (thank goodness for concealer!) or wrinkles. In fact, the gel is not exceptionally hydrating so unlike many eye creams which “plump up” the undereye area and soften the appearance of wrinkles, the tightening which helped with the “de-puffing” only seemed to accentuate crinkles under my eyes.
This might be a good product to use in conjunction with another more hydrating eye cream. You certainly can’t beat the price and the amount of product you get. But if you’re looking for a product that truly can alleviate dark circles, fine lines, wrinkles, sagging, puffiness and loss of firmness, tone and resilience—well, that miracle probably does not exist.
BAEBODY Eye Gel is available at BAEBODY.com and Amazon.com.
Thanks to Stella Louise for her insightful reviews. You can find all these products via the links within the article.
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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