Makeup Alley Love

Have you heard of Makeup Alley?  No?  Well, you should have heard of it because it's awesome.  You might be familiar with the more recent (and more popular) Beautylish, which has a much better app, but that's a post for another time. 

On a side note, I have been trying to upload two pictures to Instagram, for them to sell and not pay me for, for an hour and they WILL NOT LOAD.  I am going to scream.  It's Christmas Eve Eve and I'm going to scream at Instagram.  Next time you're sad, just imagine me screaming at my iPhone in front of the Christmas tree because Instagram refuses to cooperate and you are sure to feel better.  Moving on...

Makeup Alley was the first website that I ever used to look up consumer reviews of cosmetics, bath and body, and fragrance.  I love, love, love it!!  There are thousands of products reviewed on the site, with popular products having hundreds of reviews each.  I also love that the reviewer lists their age, skin type, eye and hair color next to their reviews so the reader can take this into account when considering the review.  Do I care what a ninety-five year old woman with extra-dry skin thinks about an oil-free moisturizer that is only designed to give a bit of hydration to normal/combo skin types?  Not so much.  The reviews have been particularly helpful to me when I'm looking to purchase a bigger ticket item like a Clarisonic or my Babyliss straightener.  I'm sure as heck not going to pay $150 for a hair straightener that half of the people who own them say doesn't heat after six months!  I also love to read the reviews to compare similar-ish products.  It really helps to make an educated guess as to which one will be the best for me.  I used this most recently when deciding which luminizer to buy to mix with my matte full-coverage foundations.  If you haven't been in the market lately for luminizers, there are plenty to choose from, let me tell you.  Stila, LORAC, Smashbox....just to name a few.  I ended up choosing the Artificial Light from Smashbox and love it, by the way. 

Obviously, there are a zillion places to find consumer reviews online...but wait, there's more at Makeup Alley!  There is also a swap section where you can swap with other beauty junkies!  No selling here, just swapping.  I reach point break every so often and go on a swapping binge to get rid of the overwhelming crap-ton of stuff I have AND I get new happies to play with.  Like now for instance...I want matte lipsticks and I want some warm tone blushes (there are WAY too many pink blushes in my life right now), um, and I want some Stella by Stella McCartney (this list could get really long if I let it so I'll stop there).  I recently swapped a Benefit Bad Gal Lash I had lying around for a "Pretty Sexy" MAC lippy and hubby is taking two other mascaras and a toner sample to the PO tomorrow to swap for a MAC blush and NARS lippy.  I LOVE this idea...love, love, love it.  My only word of warning is this: PLEASE be careful of germs and clean anything you swap like it is covered in AIDS.  Just assume it is.  And don't swap for used mascaras/other things that hold onto germs/things you can't clean...that's disgusting and not worth getting pregnant and dying over (Mean Girls anyone? no?  ok). 

You can also find message boards here where you can post questions and find answers to any beauty/health/fitness question you could possibly dream of.  I like just scrolling through these.  I always get great ideas, have a few giggles, and marvel at what other people actual use their brains for.  

Makeup Alley does have an app but it only has the consumer reviews on it.  I'm pretty apathetic about it honestly.  I guess if I was shopping and an emergency came up where I had to compare products this might be helpful, but I wish the app had all of the great features that the website does.  The app gets pretty crappy reviews and I'm sure it's because it doesn't sport all of the fancy features of the website.  

So come join me on Makeup Alley, I'm "efjones".  I have a few reviews on there and my swap list and wish list.  But guess what I still don't have...INSTAGRAM PICTURES!!

Falalala la la la Retraction

The enthusiasm from my last post has waned, majorly.  I feel like I have let my readers down and must now issue a retraction, I apologize.

Boo on The POREfessional.  I applied it as I would any primer, small pea-sized amount all over my face prior to my foundation...big mistake on several fronts.  Initially it felt very similar to my other go-to primers and was consistent with my use  of it on clients so I didn't think twice.  Problem number one, within the hour I was literally wiping grease off my face.  This was not just oil, I could have fried a Twinkie with this stuff, very disgusting.  I will try this again, using maybe a half-pea size and see the results but I'm not optimistic...we'll see.  Problem number two, my pores are not noticeably large so the alternate use of this (only applying it to problem areas) really doesn't apply and/or help me much.  I wanted this to be a great mattifying primer, and it still might be, in tiny doses, like doses for babies, but should not be used as you would most other primers.

I can not for the life of me remember why I thought this was my second favorite foundation.  Maybe it's been reformulated since I last used it?  Perhaps it went all over the place because of the load of POREfessional underneath?  Whatever the reason, I just had to quit my face today and cover that hot mess up with LORAC Porefection powder foundation.  I like at least a medium coverage and this was less than light coverage.  I remember this having a gorgeous buildable powder finish, um, no.  Not buildable, not powder.  After I had this on over the POREfessional, my skin tone still looked uneven and my skin looked almost wet...not luminescent or illuminated from within...just greasy.  I'm incredibly sad, my heart hurts.  I am going to keep playing with this, I am determined to make it work.  On a side note, the sponge applicator that comes with this is pretty much equivalent to a wadded up tissue...oh, the sad.

Eeeehhh on the BAD Gal Waterproof.  I won't judge the non-waterproof off of this but, just, ehhh.  This mascara didn't give me 1950's starlet lashes like I was hoping for, it didn't even give me lashes comparable at all to They're Real or Voluminous Lashes.  My lashes were a little darker, maybe a little longer but that's about it.  I'll use this because I have it now but definitely won't buy it again.  I generally don't choose waterproof mascara anyway, but if I need it for outside work when it's boiling outside I'll stick with my Voluminous Lashes Million Lashes Waterproof.  Yes it flakes, but at least my lashes look fab while I'm sweating like a pig (it's HOT in Alabama!).

In other news, I'm growing out my bangs!!!!!

Falalala Flawless!

So, this amazing gem came home with me today.  Merry early Christmas to me!  Benefit's falalala Flawless kit!  Check it: Some-Kind-A-Gorgeous Foundation in LIGHT (that's capitalized for a reason I'll get to in a minute) $30, Bad Gal Lash Waterproof $19, POREfessional Primer $30.  You might be saying to yourself, "Erin, that's $79 you spent on makeup."  WELL, being that this is a holiday kit and is the best value EVER, I did get $79 worth of makeup for, get ready for it, $25.  Yes, twenty-five dollars, $25, twenty and five buckaroos.  There might be a few more of these for stockpiling/hoarding purposes in my future.

You might also be asking yourself why I felt it necessary to capitalize the word LIGHT in the description of this super amazing incredible kit.  Well, here's why.  I love, love, love Benefit but they apparently think everyone, and I do mean everyone, wears the foundation color MEDIUM.  Every kit they come out with is medium this and medium that.  Medium, medium, medium!  This is the first kit I can remember in months and months that actually has a color in it that won't make my white as paper skin look like I have a serious illness.  Plus, this is my second favorite foundation in the world (behind MAC Studio Skin compact, N5 BTW) so my overwhelming joy of finding this one foundation that is not usually available in my immediate area cannot be contained!

My cache of primers is insanely large but I just couldn't not buy this.  That just wouldn't make sense.  The POREfessional is already on my list of favorite primers so I'll throw this in the bag with my extra Urban Decay Pore Tightening, Smashbox, and Too Faced Primed and Poreless Pure.  One benefit (haha, see what I did there?) of the POREfessional is that it can be used throughout the day to mattify (suck up the oil) without messing up your makeup too terribly.  But personally I would rather touch up with powder...something about tapping primer on my face to absorb oil just grosses me out.  No, there is absolutely no rational reason for this and it's fantastic for some people, just not for this chick.

I have been so completely obsessed with They're Real Mascara since it came out that I honestly haven't given Bad Gal a chance, so I'm excited to try it.  Bummed that it's waterproof, but I'll live.  I'll have to update later after I've given it a test wear.  I am VERY partial to short plastic bristles on my wands like those in They're Real (also in L'oreal Voluminous Lashes Million Lashes) but I know that, in theory, big fluffy brushes give big fluffy lashes so, we'll see.  Update to follow...I know you're waiting with bated breath.