A Bouquet for Euridice: Drugstore Haul!

I love the name of the Barielle nail polish "A Bouquet for Ava" so I'm using it as the inspiration for my drugstore haul from this weekend. Doesn't it look like a nice bouquet arranged on the platter like that?

The Rimmels are from CVS from a few weeks ago. I have never purchased anything from Rimmel, but the display looked enticing, and I love dark colors. The rest of the nail polish is from Rite Aid. I don't normally shop at Rite Aid, but I was quite enchanted by all the nail polish they had on offer!

First off, I saw two special displays of Borghese. I couldn't help but snatch up the spring colors....even the bubblegum pink. I also picked up a couple of intriguing darker Borgheses. I don't normally buy Sally Hansen, but I was so captivated by the neon metallics!! So, I grabbed a blue and a green. By the time I was through, I also picked out some Maybelline polish. I basically ended up with a lot of similar colors....the blues especially were beckoning.

Here is a parting shot taken outdoors to go with the shot indoors of my bouquet of  lovely colors. More posts to come!

New L'Oreal HIP Eyeshadow Duos: "Crystal"

Popping up recently in the special displays at the drugstores are new HIP (High Intensity Pigments) Eyeshadow Duos from L'Oreal in a "Crystal" finish. Today I have swatches from three of the five new duos.

I haven't had a chance to try the shadows, but they struck me as subtle, shimmery, and metallic, with the potential for a bright, glimmer effect perfect for a winter evening...perhaps New Year's eve? Or, at this point, another festive midwinter evening celebration.

First, I wondered, what is "Crystal" supposed to mean here? As opposed to the other categories, such as the metallic or bright. According to the L'Oreal site, the powders "contain a high pearl content, leaving the irridescent, crystalline finish that beautifully highlights eyes." So, that's the "Crystal" label, as opposed to calling them "Pearl." The finish promises to be "shimmery" and "pearlescent" and "glimmers like pure crystal."

Second, I noticed a little re-branding going on: "HIP Studio Secrets Professional Crystal Shadow Duos."

Now to the swatches, first the duos from left to right: Romantic, Charming, and Darling.


First up is Romantic, with a silvery color on the left and a pale pink-brown on the right:


The first thing I notice is the texture. Without really pressing my finger down TOO hard, the shadows really flaked up like crazy, especially the silver on the left:

Correspondingly, the shadow did not adhere very well to my arm in coherent swatches:


The middle shadow duo is "Charming" with silver on the left and a purple, almost a blurple, on the right. This duo was the one I was most interested in:

The texture was just as flaky and problematic:


And, the third duo, "Darling", in pale, pearlized beige (left) and brown (right) tones:

The now customary pic of the loose flaky mess left by the swipe of a finger:



Comparison swatches:




The shadows look great in the containers until you swipe them with your fingers. I wonder how one would apply them and make them adhere. Put an extra layer of eye shadow primer?? Coat one's lid lightly with Vaseline?? And the eyeshadow brush as well?? It seems these duos with the pearl-crystal finish were in theory a great concept, but I am not sure, based on swatching these crazy-flaking shadows, how well they will work in practice. Hmm.

I Got Rustic!

I got Rustic! No, I didn't go camping and stay in a rough-hewn cabin with no plumbing. I didn't re-do my living room with rusty pails and quilts and wooden furniture that has treebark on it. That's totally not my style!

But back on topic, I was in the CVS the other night picking up a prescription, and decided to scour the shelves on the off-chance I would find the Wet 'n' Wild Craze collection and see if they had the one color in the collection I was missing: "Rustic." I found it! About three rows over from the makeup aisle. Yay! They had a few polishes left, and I was thrilled to find "Rustic!"


I was looking at another nail blog after I had gotten this collection and realized that I was missing this color---and, ironically, I liked it even better than the rest of the colors! This metallic brown is very versatile, and I wore it this past week with my teal sweater. Love!

I never used to look at the top shelf at the drugstore where they have special displays and merchandise crammed in, but I am learning to now. That's where you'll find the special nail collections. Yay for drugstore cosmetics and for completing my Craze collection!

Holy Grail Sunscreen: From the Drugstore!!

Just because the weather is starting to get cooler (in my neck of the woods, anyway!) one shouldn't abandon the religious daily application of a good sunscreen. I have always known the importance of sunscreen, but I admit I only started using it daily this past summer.

You see, I can't stand sunscreen. Historically, my skin has been a bit on the oily side and prone to breakouts. Although I have tried sunscreens that are oil-free and all that jazz, my skin always feels like a plastic layer is encasing it, trapping in oils and perspiration. Gross! A truly yucky and unpleasant feeling, not to mention the fear of breakouts.

One's skin needs to breathe!

Thankfully, I have discovered the best freaking sunscreen ever! Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch! At a conference this past May, a colleague was using it, and she let me have a squirt. She said she loved it, and I was impressed by the way it went on and seemed almost powdery-feeling after I had rubbed it on. Well, that feel would be the "dry-touch" aspect.

I have some acne scars that are a bit reddish, and I've idly wondered if I should explore something drastic to get rid of them, e.g. dermabrasion, peels, etc. Then I read this summer that sun exposure makes acne scars redder. Well, DUH! So obvious, but it hit me like a lightning bolt. Somehow, this epiphany was the prodding I needed to start using my new discovery on a daily basis. Why on earth would I be thinking of a procedure for my skin when I'm not even doing the most basic thing to help fade the scars and protect my skin from future damage!

I wear the 45 SPF version of the sunscreen under my makeup every day (I don't use moisturizer), and it works like a dream. One very hot day, however, I slathered on an extra huge amount to go outside and do yard work (no makeup). As I toiled away at some especially recalcitrant weeds, I began to perspire, and my face became a horrible mess. It was so bad and miserable-feeling that I was literally wiping my face with my T-shirt! Yuck!!

Based on that experience, I would recommend keeping the application down to a even, liberal amount without going overboard. It's sheer---but it doesn't disappear. The Ultra-Sheer Dry-Touch sunblock comes in several SPF levels going up to 100.

I give this sunblock a 5 out 0f 5 points, aka a "Euridice YAY!" rating. And, it's available at your good, old local drugstore!

Milani Welcome Back Color Selections!

Let's continue the drugstore beauty series with another post about nail polishes, this time featuring the Milani brand.

One of the benefits of using makeup from the drugstore is trying out unusual or nontraditional looks without spending too much. A case in point is choosing neon or glitter nail polishes that one normally wouldn't wear, or will not wear very often, from cheaper brands. At least, that was my thought process.

I've recently become obsessed with glitter and have kept my eyes peeled for them when at the drugstore. So, on the same CVS visit that yielded the Wet 'n' Wild "Craze" haul, I spotted a collection of polishes from Milani that featured bright cremes and glitters: the "Welcome Back Color" collection. I didn't really want the plain cremes, but I was intrigued with the blue, yellow, and green polishes that contained tiny glitter and what looked like confetti: bar glitter.

"Gleaming Green" is a shimmery yellow green. My pictures can't come close to multi-color sparkle of the glitter in the bottle or on the fingertip. The glitter basically complements the shimmery formula and makes the finish sparkly without standing out too much.

"Gaudy Yellow" is just that, a bright, neon highlighter-colored yellow. The formula is an opaque creme, which made me wonder just how well the glitter, which sparkles like mad in the bottle, would show up once on the nail. I found this one to be the least successful, in fact. I had to put on a few coats to get it a fully opaque yellow (it didn't look good to me as a sheer, streaky polish) with good coverage, and the yellow overpowered the glitter somewhat.





"Sparkling Blue" was the standout of the three polishes. This opaque creme cobalt or dark turquoise color also had the same multi micro glitter and bar glitters, which really sparkle against the deeper color of the blue both in the bottle and on the nail. I found that just two coats worked well to get the blue color to be opaque. The coverage and formula seem to be better than the yellow, in my opinion, and the color on the nail was just gorgeous!

The effect of the glitter in blue and yellow was kind of like salt on a pretzel---the snack pretzel that comes in a package, not the soft doughy pretzel. Like salt baked on the pretzel's surface, the white glitter pieces are kind of sticking out from the surface of the painted nail. A topcoat smoothed it out nicely, though.

These polishes are really fun to have in my polish wardrobe and have inspired me to think up some different ways to wear them for some fun fall weekend or party looks. One obvious approach is to put different colors on each nail, below:



The orange is from China Glaze...a hint of another post to come featuring the China Glaze chrome and glitter collection available at Sally Beauty. It's a bright creamsicle orange glitter polish, and perfect for the fun fall weekend look idea. More later!

After I tried this, I took some acetone and removed about a third of the top of the polish and applied another color, using the color of the nail next to it, for a multi-color look. For the most part, I got the second color on in a straight line without it being higher than the other color, except for the orange I added to the green. The tops are almost like French tips.


I didn't get the orange version from this Milani collection, and I've since read that the collection also includes a coral glitter and a purple glitter. I am really happy with the selections I made. My next idea: two colors on a nail, divided diagonally!

Another Milani collection out right now is the "Black Magic Collection" for Halloween, which features dark colors with glitter. Mmm, I'll have to go hunting for that!!

Euridice Rating: *4.5 out of 5. Cheap, fun, great colors, blue excellent but yellow less successful, and formula okay but not outstanding. Almost a "Euridice Yay!"

*1 = Euridice NO! 2 = Meh! 3 = Okay 4 = Quite good! 5 = Euridice YAY!

Wet 'n' Wild "Craze" Nailpolishes

Finally, I'm starting my Drugstore Beauty Series! I can't think of a better way than to showcase a super-cute collection of nail polishes, the Wet 'n' Wild "Craze" collection. To be honest, I really hadn't thought about getting any cheap drugstore polishes, but I did read a couple of reviews on these. And, Scrangie blogged---in a review on this collection, actually---that people should not overlook the cheaper polishes; in some cases they could be better than some of the higher-priced polishes!! Well, I immediately resolved to open myself up to trying the cheap stuff.

Last weekend, as I was cruising through a CVS I don't normally go to, I happened to spot the Craze collection. The bottles are so cute! They are rather little, with a cute white-on-black paisley-ish design on the bottles. The colors are bright and seductive. And at $1.99, I began going through and scooping them up!! Who cares which colors I was most interested in, I got one of each. Unfortunately, one polish, "Rustic," was missing so I ended up with eight polishes: 2 metallic, 3 neon, 2 super dark, and one glitter. A great collection!!


Let's take a look at these, then I'll give my review. First, the metallics.


"Goldmine" is a bright, metallic gold, above and below:


"Shield" is more of an antique gold shimmery metallic:



"Lust" is a shimmery bright, hot pink:


"Inferno" is a bright, hot orange shimmer.


"Jade" is a bright, limey green shimmer.


"Morbid" is a dark, shimmery blacked teal.


"Noctural" is a dark navy blue creme. One coat worked for me, and it still showed as blue.


With a flash to show the blue color:


"Glitz" is a purple glitter. The glitter is small and fine and includes a healthy dose of shimmery silver glitter and some additional colors. Two coats made for an opaque covering, but I used three to make sure. The surface is pure glitter! Seeing whether I had total coverage was kind of hard because of the major twinkling of the glitter, which also made photographing the color of it really difficult. Removal of this glitter was also quite a challenge as well.



I didn't really know why these polishes were supposed to be anything special. I began trying them on and taking pictures for my blog (and my personal polish catalog). When I was on the third or fourth polish, I realized: they were applying really nicely! The formula was thin enough but not too sheer, easy to manipulate, and with not too much streaking. Two coats did an excellent job, even for the glitter.

I really liked the short brushes, as well. I found them very easy to manipulate. I find that China Glaze has a rather thin, runny formula sometimes, and the problem I have is with drips that run down the wand onto the brush. The Craze brushes do not have the wand, so all the polish is on the brush and no where else. All in all, these polishes are great! I would recommend them as dupes for these non-traditional shades that one may not want to shell out Essie or OPI (or higher!) prices for.

My rating: On a *5 point scale, I give this collection a Euridice YAY! 5 out of 5 points.

*1 = Euridice NO! 2 = Meh! 3 = Okay 4 = Quite good! 5 = Euridice YAY!