Parabens in Foundations

Bye Bye, Paraben-filled Foundations!

April 2015 Update: This post has been updated with new purchases.

Lately I've been reading a lot of articles about the terrible effects of parabens in beauty products. Parabens have been used for decades as very effective preservatives in moisturizers, cosmetics, sunscreens, and deodorants, but in recent years, scientific studies have shown that parabens are absorbed into the skin and contribute to abnormal estrogen levels. So I went through all my foundations (most are drugstore) and checked the ingredients, either by looking on the back label or with some expert googling. Pro tip: Drugstore.com and Paula's Choice Beautypedia list most makeup products' ingredients.

One important thing to note is the order in which ingredients are listed. Most of these foundations list either Methylparaben, Butylparaben or other parabens towards the end of the ingredient list, which means there's very little percentage of those ingredients, compared with the things listed at the beginning of the list. Still, I thought this list would be useful.

The Best Eye Makeup for Blue Eyes: Warm Browns!

I recently picked up a few MAC eyeshadows that had been on my list for awhile: Satin Taupe, Soft Brown, Swiss Chocolate, and Texture. I started playing around with them as well as my new NYX Nude Matte shadow in Dancing the Tides, and put together a great set of colors to make my blue eyes pop!

This eye look would look great with any eye color, but the warm browns really complement blue eyes especially.

Easy Sparkly Brown Smokey Eyes with the Sleek Au Naturel Palette

I ordered a couple things from Sleek MakeUP (which is an awesome, affordable UK brand if you didn't know) and finally received my package in the mail today. What's the first thing I did? Play around with the makeup, of course! I have a super quick brown sparkly smokey eye look. 

Review: Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation

 

Long time no blog — but I'm back!

I've been reading so many good things about Rimmel London's Wake Me Up foundation from British beauty gurus, yet Rimmel doesn't sell this particular product in the U.S. so I hadn't been able to try it. Lo and behold, Asos sells a bunch of Rimmel products that aren't sold here! Of course I had to get it. The only bad thing is that on Asos, it is definitely a lot more expensive than Rimmel products usually are (this cost me $15.24). I just received this in the mail, and tried it for the first time today.

Flower Beauty: Kiss Stick Velvet and High-Shine Lip Color Review

A few weeks ago, I heard that Drew Barrymore was launching a Walmart-exclusive beauty line. After serving as the face and Creative Director of Cover Girl for years, she and design and manufacturing firm Maesa Group partnered up to create color makeup products that were packaged and formulated like luxury brands, but with a drugstore price.

This past week, I was searching online for reviews to see what makeup gurus were saying. There have been a couple reviews so far on YouTube and on some blogs.  From what I gathered, early reviewers are loving the BB Cream, the lipsticks, the lip glosses, the loose powder, the liquid eyeliner and the nail polishes the most. As I live really far away from a Walmart, I was really just looking at buying online, but as I continued stalking Walmart.com's Flower Beauty Page, tons of things I wanted to get were starting to go out of stock. That got me nervous I wasn't going to have anything to try out and review, so today, I made the drive in the snow to Walmart to pick up some Flower Beauty makeup!

I have bought (and will review): 1 stick foundation, 2 lipsticks, 1 lip gloss, 3 nail polishes, 1 liquid eyeliner, 1 mascara, and 1 cream eyeshadow. I will break up my first impression reviews into chunks!

For the first review, here are the lipsticks!

L: Flower Kiss Stick Velvet Lip Color in Petal Kiss ($6.98)

& 

R: Flower Kiss Stick High-Shine Lipstick in Petunia Petals ($6.98)

My Makeup Collection in 6 Seconds

Late last week, Twitter launched Vine, an app and social network currently available for iOS devices. Think of using Vine like Twitter, just in video form. You have 6 seconds to play with.

Here's Twitter's blog post about Vine. Lots of early adopters are creating stop-motion mini works of art! Check out my first Vine post, my Makeup Collection in 6 Seconds :)

Makeup for Sick Days!

What a winter, huh? This flu season has been the worst in years, and this past week the arctic chill over the East Coast did not make things any better. I thought I had escaped unscathed until I woke up Friday morning with terrible cold symptoms. It got worse throughout the day and into Friday night, so I had to cancel my plans to join my boyfriend and his friends on a ski day trip Saturday. Yesterday, while my friends were having fun skiing, I cranked up the humidifier, turned on Bravo, and tried to get better. 

Usually when I'm sick at home, I don't have a lick of makeup on (what's the point?), but when I had to step out to Whole Foods for some lunch, I decided I would try to look the best I could. 

Here's are my top products for glowing, healthy-looking skin for even on your worst days.