Link Round Up, Maybelline Edition!

In blogger speak, a "link round up" is like a party of sorts, where everyone can bring the newest thing they've written or talked about, it's all collected in to one single place, and then the reader can come and be pointed at all the different articles, in one neat spot.

Rather than inviting multiple bloggers, I figured I'd just make my own tiny link round up! This one features all my posts where I've talked about Maybelline makeup!

Oh, There Will Be Shenanigans! (original post date: July 8, 2015) Where I talked about Maybelline Great Lash Real Impact! mascara. And had it proven to me, once again, that eyelashes are weird things to take pictures of. :)

Swatchery Version 2.0 (original post date: May 18, 2015) Featuring a swatch of "Cherry Me" from the Baby Lips line.

Swatchery! (original post date: May 5, 2015) Featuring a swatch of "Melon Mania" from the Baby Lips line, which was brought back for Christmas 2014 as part of their "Customer Favorites" selection.

Doctor To The Rescue! (original post date: March 13, 2015) Featuring some pictures of displays from the Spring 2015 selection of Baby Lips, as well as swatches from some of the Baby Lips: Doctor Rescue line.

Battle Of The BB Creams, Round Two! (original post date: January 14, 2015) Talking BB Cream, and my opinions on the Maybelline version.

Go, Go Electro! (original post date: January 6, 2015) Swatches from the Baby Lips: Electro line, which at the time looked to be getting closed out - and it feels like it's been a while since I've seen them in the store - but are still listed on Maybelline.com.

Makeup Primer, And How To Make It Work For You (original post date: December 24, 2014) Where I actually try my hand at a video demonstration of makeup primer, and why it's important, featuring Maybelline's Baby Skin primer.

I'm obviously a big fan of the Baby Lips line. I don't even know what happened! I had one, next thing I knew, I had 12! They just come out of nowhere!

When I'm not writing long form reviews like these, I can usually be found on Instagram writing short form reviews! Let's be friends there too!

Oh, There Will Be Shenanigans!

Picture with me if you will...

5:30. 5:45 maybe. I get a text from my husband that says that I'm going to drive him to meet a coworker up town for drinks, while I'm gone to swimming with our 8 year old.

Never mind the fact that I didn't get invited to go out for drinks, I got bigger problems. I gotta look "meet the husbands coworkers" level presentable ...in about a half hour.

Oh boy. What's a girl to do?!

Throw on a little Queen Helene Mint Julep mask, and run out and clean up the car, for starters!

If you've got skin on the oily side, and you want to clean up that oil, pronto, Queen Helene is your girl. That stuff is old school, and it's made it so long for a reason! It's great!

Next, prime, perfect and good eyebrows. Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water, Aveeno CC Cream and It Cosmetics brow pencil do the job nicely. Were I that pressed for time, I could have stopped here. But clocks still ticking, I gotta keep going!

An easy eye - champagne across the lid, a dark brown in the corner, and a little mascara. I read someone once compare Maybelline to the "training bra" of mascaras. Which sounds weird when you initially hear it, but then you go "You know what? Maybe..." it doesn't do anything exceptionally. Like, you can see from my before in this collage (the top one) - I was OK for length, and good enough for color. I mostly need volumizing help. I didn't especially get it, I didn't especially get a great enhancement in length or color either. I just got a nice, for sure better defined than before, lash. They do a little bit of everything with Great Lash, and probably better than anybody out there. If you need a just solid, working mascara, Great Lash will always be a great choice. But if you're looking for a little more Oomph, this probably isn't your gig. Or, to see that bra metaphor through to the end...if you're looking for a push up bra, it's not for you. :)

Eyeliner (I used treStique shadow crayon in "Kona Coffee", which is so long lasting, you'll practically have to beg it to come off), and lips, and I'm ready to go, with two minutes to spare! Woo!

And can we talk about those lips?! Cause holy lips, batman! That lipcolor is Wet N Wild Natural Blend lip shimmer in color 108 (Wet N Wild isn't much for naming their lip colors), and it packed 10 times the punch I expected. Went on smooth and even, a little bit of a glossy finish. A little bit of minty to it, even, which isn't enough to be irritating, just enough to feel kind of cooling and refreshing.

This is a long lasting color - I made it to dinner a couple of hours later, and when I wiped my mouth with my napkin, I was wiping off lip color. I often say that when Wet N Wild hits their mark, they hit it hard, and with this, they NAILED it. This stuff is fantastic. Where I didn't overwhelmingly, enthusiastically recommend Great Lash, I will overwhelmingly, enthusiastically recommend this lip shimmer. It's absolutely worth every cent.

As a bonus, if that's your thing, the lip shimmer also bears the seal of approval from the Natural Products Association, meaning it's been certified as a all-natural cosmetic product! This color is really good for you - it just keeps getting better!

I made it with two minutes to spare! I played swim class mom (actually, I got lost in my cell phone, which I kind of even hate myself when I do that. That's so awful...), and then met up with the coworker for dinner, and was so glad I took the time to get my face in order! 

30 minute face - it can be done! See you later, beautiful!

Since I got so super pumped for the Wet N Wild product, if you like them as much as I do, you'll be intrigued to see that I talk about them all the time!

Swatchery Version 2.0!

Baby Lips! Here we go again!

I've been challenging myself to wear red lips this week, so I thought I'd go back to "Cherry Me", a color from the Baby Lips standing line.

Now, my husband and son have both said this was clearly red. I offered my son some once when he said his lips were dry, and he turned me down, because he didn't want red lips. I don't think it's all that. Check it out:

...that's not clearly, obviously red, right? Am I crazy?! I mean, it's redder then my natural lip, but not by a lot.

I've been known to recommend this particular color to people who wanted to learn to wear red lip color though. Red, without being RED, right? If you're a cherry chapstick sort, this is a nice way to ease in the direction of red.

I'm a bit of a packaging junkie, but I also appreciate that this is a bright, colorful package - orange with red letters - so it will stand out, wherever you are.

It doesn't break the proverbial mold as far as formula, or longevity is concerned, so just to give you the short strokes on that - nice formula, terrible longevity. Sometimes these come a little scented, this one wasn't. The scents are never overbearing. They're almost kind of fun - I routinely make the comparison that these are like lip smackers for adults, so they take you back a little bit. :)

Stay beautiful, everybody!

I literally can not stop purchasing Baby Lips. It's a real problem! But at least you get to see them on someone before you buy, right? Everybody wins!

Swatchery...

I've talked at pretty good length about Maybelline Baby Lips. If you're new, here's the short strokes: I'm a big fan. They're generally a nice little pop of glossy color. Low fuss, low maintenance. Which is great, cause sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for.

Rather than give you the schpeil again about my opinions, here's a quick swatch!

This shade is "Melon Mania", which was brought back at Christmas as part of their "customer favorites" display.

Where some of the Baby Lips colors also have a bit of flavor, this one doesn't really. You'll also notice, it's mostly gloss, there isn't a lot of color to speak of with this one. Maybe a bit of pink, that's about it.

Baby Lips aren't terribly long lasting. And mileage varies on how long lasting they actually are. But like I've said before, I buy them for the little low maintenance pop of color, which unfortunately, this one doesn't deliver on that anyway, it's too similar to the color of my own lips.

So I like the formulation in general, but not this color in particular.

There's my two second opinion! What say you, beautiful?

Two seconds not enough? I can talk about Baby Lips for a long time! No really, a long time!

Doctor to the rescue!

You guys...I have a problem.

I went to the dentist this week - that's not the problem, I quite like my dentist. But, on the way to the dentist, I pass a CVS. That CVS is one of those stores any self-respecting drugstore diva hopes for - they're wall to wall with all the newest displays of everything, and staff employees that are very candid about what's coming in, if your stuff is so new that they haven't gotten it yet. Yes, they're that awesome. They're quite out of my way as a general rule, but since I was going to the dentist and all, right?

So I'm perusing, and I find this:

Yes, those are new, Spring 2015 collection Maybelline Baby Lips. The pink one and the purple one are anyway. The blue is "Quenched", which you can get any ol' time. That's in the standing line.

I'm a fan of Baby Lips generally - it's not terribly long lasting, but a little low maintenance color - cause sometimes you want a little something, without having to sweat it that hard, amirite?, some gloss, a little flavor, and all for around $4 US? Yep, bring it on. Let's do this. I've made the comparison before that they're like an adult Lip Smacker. I stand by it, I think it's very valid. 

So I already mentioned that the blue one is "Quenched", which is part of their regular collection. The purple tube with red writing is "Oh! Orchid!" a light lavender color (which is super chic this spring, this color would be a great way to stay on trend, without feeling like you're rocking some fierce popsicle lips!), and the pink with the aqua writing is "Petel Rebel", an equally bright and cheerful pink.

I posted this same picture to my Instagram, with the prediction that I was going to have to do some destashing, because it wouldn't be long before those would be mine.

...and I was right. Maybe 4 hours passed, and I was in my car like this:

I own them both, like I predicted. I have not had a chance to swatch them yet, look for that soon though!

And this is where that problem I mentioned comes in to play. I get home, and start to figuring out how many Baby Lips I actually own now.

ELEVEN.

That's too much! That's madness! I have to cut it down! How many more sentences can I write that include exclamation points! Alright, that was probably one too many.

So, since someone had to get sacrificed to the destashery, let's take a moment to remember them before they go.

These colors are both from the "Dr. Rescue" off set of the main line. These have a slight mentholated quality to them, where the others did. The promotion was that they would be a great benefit to chapped lips. Which I don't have a ton of trouble with myself, thankfully, but I have a hard time imagining that would be the case. you taste that slight menthol flavor for a few minutes, and then once that wears away, they look and perform exactly as the other colors.

First up!

"Just Peachy", a nice nude gloss. I don't have any other makeup on, so these swatches were done on the inside of my arm:

A nice nude shimmer. You'll get a little color from it, you won't have to sweat it that hard. "Just Peachy" is also produced without the menthol, as part of the main color line, if you like the color but hate the cough drop flavor.

And another, "Soothing Sorbet":

This one is pretty red. I tend to recommend this one to people who think they might like a red lip, but it seems kind of scary or intimidating. 

Red. But not shockingly so. So if you might like a red lip, but want to ease in to it, this is a good place to start. This color doesn't reappear in the line, but the main line of colors does feature a red. Because of course it does. 

In January, I swatched a couple of colors from the Electro! collection for you. That collection, for what it's worth, is quickly getting closed out. Which is a shame, those are great summer colors. If I had to pick between Dr. Rescue and Electro, I honestly think I'd take the Electro. The Dr. Rescue colors are more universally wearable (not everyone digs a hot pink lip...), but you also take the trade of everything tasting like a cough drop for 10 minutes. I'm not sure I dig it.

I brought two new lip glosses in, I'm sending two new lip glosses out. Very de-clutter-y of me, yes? 

See you next time, beautiful!

Battle of the BB Creams, Round Two!

(If you missed Round One!)

Today, we're talking Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream!

The beauty shot, as it were:

I don't have a lot to complain about with this one, actually. The colors are nice (they run a little pink, so if you're of the pink toned persuasion, you'll get along nicely with these), no overbearing scents - which is a problem I grumble about semi-frequently. Nice wear time, everything is very good.

My biggest problem?

Maybelline made a light/medium coverage foundation, and called it a BB Cream. I mean...I'm not in their marketing department, they can do whatever they want. But it even says balm right in the title. When you think of a balm, what do you think of? A nice, rich, emollient cream, right? You're not getting that here. You're getting a liquid foundation. 

At any rate - despite the fact that I don't think this is a BB cream at all, it's not terrible. When I actually had this on, I had about three minutes to finish my makeup, get some decent snaps, and get myself and my son out of the house, so I look like a crazy, crazy, crazed woman in all the pictures. So I swatched this one on the back of my hand instead. Please to enjoy;

Bare handed. Similarly to my face (which I've shown you before), little ruddiness, that red you see in the center is a scar from a surgery a couple of summers ago, otherwise, nothing major to cover up.

Covered. Nice, right?

To be clear - I don't think this is a bad product at all. I really don't. Nice coverage, wears well, good color match, no offensive odors. It's everything you'd want in a bb cream light coverage foundation. So I guess my only dispute is in truth in advertising. Make a foundation. That's fine. Chances are good I'll end up buying it eventually regardless. Just, in your chase to be first to the US market with a BB cream, don't make a foundation, and then tell me you made a BB cream. No, you didn't! You made a foundation!

So, while I generally like this BB Cream a lot, and have been pretty specifically grumpy about the fact that I don't think it's a BB Cream at all, in the spirit of the "Battle of the BB Creams", between Wet N Wild and Maybelline, I'd have to tell you to pick Maybelline. This is good for those days where your skin is pretty good, you just need a little extra oomph. :)

Tomorrow, round three!

Until then!

Battle of the BB Creams!

This week, I'm testing out not one, not two, but FOUR BB creams! My, that's a lot of BB Cream!

But I find a lot of people asking "What is a BB Cream, and do I need one?"

Our good friends at webmd.com say that BB Creams were first invented by a doctor in Germany, who wanted a cream to be able to give his patients that would both protect skin, and offer coverage after laser treatments.

The cream eventually caught on in South Korea, then catching fire in Asia. There, the main benefit was the streamlining opportunity it offered to a woman's beauty routine. Rather than using 7 or 8 different products, if your BB cream is well formulated, you could use just the one, and achieve the same results!

But, as they often do, by the time BB creams made it to the American markets, it had been...well, Americanized, and wasn't quite the wonder cream it'd been when it initially began gaining ground overseas. Now, many consider BB cream to be an equivalent to tinted moisturizer, or more like a lightweight foundation.

Maybelline (who we'll hear from their BB Cream entry later this week), promises that their BB cream performs 8 functions - "Blurs imperfections, Brightens, Evens skin tone, Smooths, hydrates, enhances, Protects with SPF 30, and 0% oils and heavy ingredients."

Now, never mind that many other products on the market do that exact same thing. And, never mind that many of those listed things are simply euphemisms for each other. That's a handy thing, if I can get all that in one shot, mama want!

Do you need BB Cream in your life? It kind of depends. If you're like me, and you've got pretty good skin generally, maybe just a little ruddiness to cover over, or a little dullness you're hoping to brighten up, then yes, BB cream is a good product for you. You'd probably also be satisfied with it's sister, CC cream. If you're not one with just a little ruddiness to cover over, you've got real skin problems of some sort - acne, etc., then you're going to simply want more coverage than a BB Cream will offer.

If you opt to use BB Cream, then it goes on in your beauty routine in place of foundation. Or, for the boost I guess, it goes on under your foundation - if you want the extra coverage.

I've got FOUR different kinds of BB Cream I'll be trying out this week, for your singing and dancing pleasure. See you back here tomorrow!

Go, go, Electro!

(From left: Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, Oh! Orange!)

Maybelline Baby Lips and I have a weird relationship. Like, I don't want to admit that I like them...but I also own like 10 of them. So we've apparently got a better than average relationship with each other.

A friend noticed me carrying in my pocket, and asked what they were like, and if she could swatch it on her hand. I said she could, and I made a comparison that was probably more apt than I realized at the time, even. Without thinking, I went "They're like Lip Smackers, for grown ups!"

Think about it - I'm right! Tinted, but not overly so. Flavored, but not overly so. Mostly just a nice, low maintenance gloss, that looks flashy coming out of your pocket, and has completely worn off in about an hour.

Now to be fair, that makes it sounds like I don't like these at all. And I do. Gives a quick, easy, glossy lip. Little color - the color varies a little. Like, in this electro set, the pink and orange have more pigment to them than the green color does. Which might not be what everyone is after, some people would happily rock a neon green gloss all day long. It's not my scene though. :D

I wore this pink a lot over the summer. Bright and kicky, looked nice with a tan.

If you're looking for a low maintence, glossy little kick, that's easy to carry in any pocket or bag that you've got, you'll like these. The biggest critique I see of these is that they're not long lasting - if you're looking for long lasting...keep looking, you haven't found it.

A few swatches;

On the inside of my arm:

Each color, of course, is next to it's respective swatch on my arm, of course. Little bit of pigment - some, not a lot.

Swatches of me in each respective balm. In a moment of girlish insecurity, I had planned to crop these pictures - apparently, new face wash, new primer, new foundation and new makeup brushes make your makeup get weird. Who knew, amirite? But turns out, crops...magnify things. And far away bad things are less awful than close up bad things, as a general rule. See what I mean? Learning new things about blogging every week!

A collage, so I'm not boring you with piles of pictures I've already confessed to not liking. And I'm sure they're just fine, we all know full well we're our own worst critics, but just the same.

At any rate, that's me, from left to right, in Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, and Oh! Orange! Each tinted, glossy, nice. Wears well, but not for a long time - which most of their critics are quick to point out. You know what I think I might like most about these? Coming it at an average price point of $3, they're great for when you need that "new makeup" fix, or your look needs a little pick me up, but don't have a lot of money to spend. Maybe that's part of the friendship we've developed. 

Some stores are closing out their Electro colors, so if you're intrigued enough to try any of these for yourself, you might want to act fast!

The eyeshadow, by the by, is from the Wet N Wild "Comfort Zone" 8 pan shadow kit, which is so awesome, it practically deserves a blog of it's very own.

Like Maybelline? Me too! I talk about it all the time!

I'm back, baby!

Sometimes, I'm a little optimistic. Last Monday, I had surgery, and told myself that while I was laid up, I'd be able to update every. day. I didn't count on that it was going to take me four days to feel like anything resembling a normal human being again, though!

At any rate, I'm here! AND, I decided to be adventurous this afternoon, and I tried my hand at recording a Youtube worthy video. I'll share it here, because otherwise how would you all know about it, but also, I realized afterward that there were a few things I wanted to speak to in the video, and didn't, so sharing it again here gives me a chance to address those things.

One of the things I wanted to address, that I didn't remember to:

When to use it. I've heard some people say that they apply foundation, and THEN apply primer, because they like the pore blurring effect of it. In my own personal experience, applying foundation and then primer over the top, number one - won't get you the nice, even surface, and two - it's only tended to draw attention to my pores. Like the silicone or whatever is in the primer, kind of broken up my foundation a little. The coverage wasn't as good or as smooth afterward, and the powder cosmetics I applied over the top, tended to grab really hard.

In my own personal experience, not all primers are created equal. I've got several primers in my bag right now (and my eye on a few more that may be joining us with some Christmas money after the holidays!!), and they're not the same. But Maybelline Baby Skin is a goodie. Goes on nice and silky smooth, evens out skin - without creating any sort of mask like feel, doesn't settle in to any fine lines or wrinkles, and that little bit you get in that container goes a long way! For $9 US, you'll get a lot of milage out of that little green container! I'm not shy about telling you guys if I wouldn't buy something again, but in this case, I totally would. If you want to talk about really getting some bang for the buck in the drug store, this guy fits the bill!

There is a second version of Baby Skin, which is supposed to give a more luminous finish, but I don't believe that version is for sale in the US just yet.