NEW NOVELTIES!? Maybelline NEW releases!

Hi everyone!

No ongoing intro, this one is just too exciting!

New Maybelline products!? 

These products have now launched and should be popping up in drugstores near you shortly!

Here's your look at the new Maybelline Makeup!

Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigments 24 hour Shadow:

Looks like Maybelline took their massive success with their color tattoos that they thought they'd bring out a sister product! Their new color tattoo pigments will be available in "12 explosive shades." Maybelline claims: "They create powerful color intensity and their no-mess sifter guarantees easy application. Stays put for 24 hours."

Credit: http://www.maybelline.com/Products/Eye-Makeup/Eye-Shadow/Eye-Studio-Color-Tattoo-Pure-Pigments-Loose-Powder-Shadow.aspx

Maybelline Master Smoky Long-wearing Eyeshadow-Pencil:

Seems like everyone has jumped on the band wagon creating jumbo pencils for the eyes, lips, face, who knows whats coming next! But maybe Maybelline's is something more...? Now Maybelline releases their version of the jumbo eye pencil.

Maybelline claims: "Eye liner reinvented: Smudge it. Blend it. Love it! Mastering the smoky eyes look has never been easier. Ultra saturated pigments in a rich, creamy formula for all day wear." Hhmm.. A jumbo eyeliner eyeshadow pencil in one? This has been attempted before, but none the less, Maybelline does have a way with their liners, and their ability to create long lasting products. Maybe this one will surprise us all! Fingers crossed!! Available in 5 different shades. 

Credit: http://www.maybelline.com/Products/Eye-Makeup/Eye-Liner/Eye-Studio-Master-Smoky-Longwearing-Shadow-Pencil.aspx

Not Yet Launched in the US:

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots Nail Lacquer:

Although this product has not yet been released in the US, it has been in Canada and the UK. Expecting it to arrive in the states, if/when it does, it will most likely be a limited edition range. (sad face) Is it just me or do you think Maybelline should expand their permanent line with all these amazing products they make limited edition!? That being said, I guess Maybelline is following the nail polish trends of this season as well as the makeup! Their new color show "Polka Dots" collection is the newest polish with the glitter and lacquer in one effect. 

Image credit: maybellinecan on instagram

credit: http://www.maybelline.ca/Makeup-Products/Nail-Polish/Nail-Color/Color-Show-Nail-Lacquer-Polka-Dots-Collection.aspx

Thanks for reading guys!

I will definitely review these new novelties as soon as I get my hands on them:)

xoxo,

glimmer :)

My *Holy Grail* Concealers:

Hey Guys!  :)
Today I'm going to share with you my 4, most loved, have to have, would immediately repurchase, concealers! Or in other words, my "Holy Grails" as far as concealers go.

(Not in any particular order)

No. 1: Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer Palette:

This palette contains two creamy creamy concealers, one lighter one darker, one green toned concealer, and one finely milled translucent setting powder. That's right, all of these in ONE palette. And don't worry, they didn't skimp on the quality because of the bargain. All 3 of these concealers are rich, creamy, easy to blend, and are nicely pigmented! It's easy to find a shade perfect for you by blending the 2 skin tone shades together, or maybe this could be your year around concealer palette! One shade for winter and spring when your a bit lighter, another for summer and fall when your a bit tanner! This palette is essential for blemishes, spots, and discoloration.
Available at target and target.com 

Shade 07, now packaged in a black compact.

No. 2: Laura Geller "The Real Deal" Concealer:

This product may be on the pricier side, but you get a major bang for your buck. You need the tiniest amount of product to get great coverage, the full size tube could last for more than a year. This concealer is a bit heavier, so it's best for blemishes and scaring. It covers like no body's business and lasts all day! Love it!
Available at Ulta, Ulta.com, QVC.com, and laurageller.com

Shade Medium

No. 3: E.L.F. Oil Free Maximum Coverage Concealer:

I love this product. Would I say its maximum coverage? No. It's not nearly as opaque and heavy duty as the Laura Geller Real Deal Concealer. But that's why I love it so much! It is light weight and has a natural finish, so it never looks cakey. Its blendable, creamy, and has great pigmentation. I use this under my eyes for dark circles, on my face for blemishes and discoloration, and anywhere else I need to. You can't ever tell I'm wearing concealer. It blends so seamlessly and and melts into the skin while still covering imperfections! It's amazing!

Shade Nude

No. 4: Bare Minerals Multi-Tasking Summer Bisque (SPF 20):

This is a powder concealer product. Bare Minerals really did a fantastic job at creating something blendable, decent coverage, pigmented, and not powdery looking. I love using this to set my under eye concealer. This can be used alone, but if you have dark-dark-dark under eye circles, hard to cover blemishes, or you are trying to amp up the coverage of a maybe not that great concealer, this product is amazing. Alone I'd say it is light to medium coverage, but paired with another concealer, it's amazing! And for those days you don't need a lot of coverage, and you want something quick and effortless, this is my go to!

Shade Summer Bisque  

Have a great rest of your day =)

xoxo,
Glimmer

Six Summer Makeup-Must have's (from the drugstore)

Hi Everyone :)
Today I though I would do my summer makeup must have's from the drugstore.
I love all these products, & the best part, they are all under $10!
Keep your eyes open 'cause I'll have a non-makeup must have's coming soon!

No. 1: Maybelline Full n Soft Waterproof Mascara

For those days where you want to partake in any water filled activities, but still want some product on your lashes, Maybelline Full n Soft is the best in my book. It gives my lashes Thickness & Length, while keeping their curl all day & not smudging or flaking in the water or the heat! It feels light weight n your lashes, and at the end of the day, you don't have to rip off your lashes, it's easy to remove!

Maybelline Full n Soft - Waterproof

No. 2: Milani Eyeshadow Primer

You can sum up most people's summer in one word, HOT. & in the summer, when it's so hot it feels like your makeup is melting off your face, Milani's eyeshadow primer will keep your lid's look in place, no matter what the temperature is outside! This primer will keep your shadow on longer and will make your color more vibrant!

No. 3: NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Tickled

In the summer, everyone wants that sun kissed look. That dewy glow. And no one wants a powdery look or a cakey face of makeup. That's why many people turn to cream blush when the weather gets warmer. This gorgeous shimmering peachy pink, almost... rose gold blush, with golden shimmer will make your cheeks look amazing. When the sun hits your face it gives the slightest bit of shimmer, without being too in your face. This pretty color adds a bit of warmth to the skin, perfect for summer.

NYX Rouge Cream Blush -Tickled

No. 4: Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso

Let's face it. Not everyone likes cream blush. And not everyone wants dewy skin! (Especially those of us with oilier skin) So for those of us who still want a warm glow to our skin and a nice sheen to our cheeks, Milani Baked Nlush in Luminoso is a beautiful peach color. It has a really glowy quality with gold shimmer, and gives your face a healthy, summer time look.

Milani Bake Blush - Luminoso

No. 5: Revlon Nearly Naked Pressed Powder:

The last thing you want in the summer is for your face to look like a big grease ball. So the perfect way to control your oil, without looking cakey, is a finely milled face powder, like the Revlon Nearly Naked. It keeps your face matte without making your skin look dull! And the compact has a mirror, perfect for on the go touch ups!

Revlon Nearly Naked Pressed Powder

No. 6: Maybelline Color Whisper Lipstick in Pink Possibilities

Lastly, everyone needs that pop of color on their lips for summer! And we all need that bit of hydration too! I really love the Maybelline Color Whisper lipsticks. They are really light weight, without drying out my lips, and they are build-able from a sheer wash of color to a bright bold lip! They also tint your lips, so even after the shine wears off, there is still some color left behind.

Maybelline Color Whisper - Pink Possibilities 

Swatches:

Left to Right: Maybelline Pink Possibilities, NYX Tickled,  Milani Luminoso

Hope you guys enjoyed! Talk to you tomorrow!

xoxo,
Glimmer

Review: E.L.F. Studio Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow

Hi everyone!
The week has begun and I hope everyone had an eventful Monday!

Today I'm going to review the E.L.F. Studio Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow. This products is sold for $3 at eyeslipsface.com (they are currently having some awesome summertime sales.)
So let's dive right in!

The Claims: "Soft and fluffy, these vibrant,shimmering Long Lasting Lustrous eyeshadow colors can be used as eyeshadow or bold liner. The whipped gel texture is easy to blend and lightweight for lasting comfort and wear. Perfect for highlighting the brow bone and adding extra shimmer for a truly glam look."
(eyeslipsface.com)

What I Found: 
If you couldn't tell from the description, these are cream shadows, but not. I've never had such a unique product in my collection before. (and i have quite the collection) These are definitely very soft and very fluffy shadows. I 100% agree with e.l.f. on that one. The texture is so unique. It's whipped and almost... spongy? Its the type of product you could push your finger into, and it would leave a dent. There is something "lustrous" about these shadows. It's almost luxurious feeling spreading these on your eyelids.

The vibrancy of these products surprised me. I thought they would blend out into a very sheer wash of color, because of the whipped up texture. I was wrong. Although you can blend these out to be sheerer, they are really pigmented if built up a bit. (way to go e.l.f.!) Sadly, the pigmentation doesn't last without a primer, and these do fade throughout the day. I myself do have mildly oily eye lids, nothing major, but they did fade after about 2 hours of wear. This was without primer.
I normally wear eyeshadow primer on a daily basis. For the sake of my reviews, I test products out with and without primer. With primer I found these lasted on me all day with no fading! It is harder to tell in the picture, but I do feel like primer also intensifies these already very vibrant colors. Since I wear primer weather I have to or not, I was happy with my results.

Moving on... Just so you all know, almost every eyeshadow product creases on me. Cream, powder, in between, all of them crease. (probably because I have a very pronounced natural crease in my eyelids) These did not! I was so pleasantly surprised! (again, way to go e.l.f.!) I was so happy that with and without primer, these never creased on me. Not once!

As far as being able to wear these as a bold liner goes, I strongly disagree.
These did not work for that purpose. At all. If you were looking for a 2-in-1 product here, unfortunately this isn't the one your looking for. I tried using the smokey black shade I purchased, to create a smooth line on my lid, and there were several problems. Firstly, like I said before, you build up the product to get the most pigmentation. Its difficult and not worth the time to have to go over and over your liner. A small, detailed liner brush just can't apply the product to make it look its best. Secondly, the texture simply isn't that of a gel or cream liner. It's too whipped to create that smooth, glide across the lid, effortless wing or thin line.

More Specifics:
As far as lightweight goes, for sure it is! These are really comfortable to wear.
You can create a lot of cool looks with these shadows. One thing I enjoy doing is taking the the first shade I have swatched, confetti, and applying it over a regular shadow. Because this shade is basically a white glitter, it adds dimension and sheen to your eye look!

In natural lighting, swatched WITHOUT primer

Shades Left to Rights: Confetti, Toast, Soiree, Gala, Festivity, Party

In natural lighting, swatched WITH primer. 

I strongly recommend and hope I was helpful!

xoxo,

Glimmer 

Review: NEW Ulta Beauty Smoothie Sugar Scrub

Hello Again! I hope everyone has had an awesome Saturday!

Today I'm gonna do a review on the new Ulta Beauty Smoothie Sugar Scrub in the scent Butter Cream Cupcake.
This product is also available in two other scents, "Berrylicious" and "Pina Colada" and is regularly priced at $12.

The claims:
"This detoxifying, skin softening Sugar Scrub buffs your skin to provide a spa like experience in your bath or shower. Sweet sugar crystals and mineral rich sea salts combine with moisturizing coconut oil to gently exfoliate the skin, leaving it silky smooth with a healthy glow." 
 - Ulta.com

What I Found: 
So as stated above, this scrub contains "sweet sugar crystals, mineral rich sea salts, and moisturizing coconut oil." 
The exfoliating properties of this product comes from the sugar and salt. That being said, think of crushed rock/sea salt. Now think of the sugar you put in your coffee in the morning. Blend the two together and you have the exfoliating particles of this scrub. In other words, there are both smaller and larger pieces of exfoliant. I really enjoy that because I feel like its almost two in one, it really gets the job done. When you look at the product itself, you can see the different sizes as well as the scent beads that dissolve. But because it isn't all finely milled (one size), it is a bit more abrasive.

I do sense the coconut oil, not that I can smell it, (because you can't) but I can definitely feel it. While your exfoliating your skin, the sugars and salts begin to dissolve and your left with the slippery feeling of coconut oil. After rinsing, some of the oil is left behind and I did find that it hydrated my skin, but it also felt the slightest bit greasy. 

The Scent: This is a product I use at night for two reasons. One, so the coconut oil can absorb & Two, because of the scent. When I went into Ulta knowing I wanted to try this product out, I smelled all three different flavors/scents. This was my favorite out of the bunch, but it is very sweet. I wouldn't wear this in the day because the scent does linger after the product has been rinsed off and your out of the shower. I do enjoy the scent, but it's a bit too heavy to wear during the day. I know many people dislike very sweet scents, there for I try not to wear anything too overwhelming in the day time. It does smell like a butter cream cupcake but it has a bit of an artificial tang to it. I found it subtle and don;t really mind, but if you don't like uber sweet scents, maybe go for a different flavor?

All in All:
I wouldn't recommend it if you have more sensitive skin.
If you have dry/flaky/patchy skin this would work quite well. I also discovered, if you have rough heels or dry patches on your feet, this works nicely with continuous use, where as a pumice stone you may only need to use once.
The coconut oil does give your skin a "healthy glow" but I don't find it particularly detoxifying and I don't think it feels quite as pampering as a "spa like experience." However, I do recommend this product to those with drier skin. I myself prefer the Nivea Touch of Renewal Body Scrub, as that is currently my holly grail body exfoliant. (Let me know if you want a review) But I did truly enjoy this product and would consider repurchasing!

And just a heads up, Ulta Bath & Body products are on sale now, Buy 2 get 2 Free!

~Avaliable at Ulta and Ulta.com now.

xoxo,
Glimmer

Review: Aquafresh Iso Active Toothpaste

Hi Again!

Today I'm going to do a review on the Aquafresh Iso Active Toothpaste. Random I know, But I just had to rave about this amazing product I recently discovered!

I picked this up on a whim one day (at Walmart) and decided to give it a go. Normally I'm a faithful Crest 3D White user. But I don't know, I just had a feeling I would like this. And I do. A lot.

What's unique about this toothpaste is it is packaged in a can and is more of a gel than a paste, very similar to shaving cream. Now why would I want shaving cream in my mouth!?
Well firstly, it foams up like no other. I feel like because of this, it gets into the little areas of your mouth and around your teeth, cleaning better than average toothpaste.

The Claims:

• Breakthrough gel transforms into an active foam
• iso-active® fluoride formula penetrates deep, surrounding and protecting the whole tooth against cavities front, back and in-between.
• Fights cavities — front, back and in-between
• Provides Aquafresh® Triple Protection® benefits — for healthy gums*, strong teeth, and fresh breath

(- http://www.aquafresh.com/products/isoactive)

I agree with all of these claims. That is very rare with products for me. Although I can't prove that it is fighting my cavities and protecting my teeth in the time I've used it, I feel like it has to be considering how extremely clean it makes my mouth feel. Along with that, the clean feeling lasts in my mouth for quite a while, making my breath fresher, for longer. 

This toothpaste is available in 3 different formulas, Pure Breath Action (the one I stumbled upon) and 2 whitening, Fresh Impact® and Deep Impact®  

Has a very shaving cream like consistency

I do highly recommend this product and I will definitely repurchase when I'm out, probably in one of the whitening formulas,

I hope this review encouraged you to try out this awesome product!

xoxo,
Glimmer

Review: NEW Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss

Hello everyone!

I hope your having a great Thursday evening.

I thought I would kick of my blog with a Review/Comparison of the new and improved Revlon Super Lustrous lip glosses. Depending on where you purchase these can average anywhere from $6-$9 and was released with 10 shades in the range.

That being said, the former Revlon Super Lustrous lip glosses are being discontinued, so if you see them on clearance at your local drugstore, snatch them while you can! The new formula, realsed under the same name, is their "new and improved" version!

So whats the difference ?
The new glosses are packaged in a round tube, opposed to a square one, and contain 0.13oz of product, where as in the older version you received 0.2oz.

Aside from the amount of product received, they have also changed the size of the applicator. However, the design is nearly the same except for it is slightly larger on the new ones. Because its slightly larger on the new ones I noticed it was a bit less dense than the original. (not that the originally was hard, just the new ones are a bit softer) Also, the scents are different as well. I wasn't a fan of the original's scent. Some thought it smelled of berries but all I could sense was a plastic like undertone. The new formula however has a light, pleasant fragrance. Similar to vanilla or sugar.

What about the formula?
The new formulation seems to be entirely different. It now contains things good for your lips like avocado oil, which was not in the old formulation. However, there is not any SPF in the new formula as there was in the original. Aside from ingredients, after continuous wear I did notice a difference between the two.

The original formula was thicker, not exactly sticky, but almost tacky like, so it was fairly long lasting. Also, because it was thicker, most of the colors were quite pigmented and very creamy. I really enjoyed this about the originals.
The new formula seems to lack that creamy texture and pigmentation. As you can see in my swatches, 2 out of 3 of the glosses I purchased were more on the sheer side.
However, the sheerness of the gloss did not effect the staying power for me. Both glosses seemed to wear from 2 and a half to 3 hours on me, maybe a but longer for the originals.
Lastly, there are less cream shades than there were in the original line. The new line consists mostly of shimmery or glittery shades.

Original Formula

Left to right: Coral Reef, Pink Pursuit, Pink Afterglow

New Formula

Top to Bottom: Pango Peach, Kiss Me Coral, Pinkissimo

Over all, I think some people will love and some people will hate the new glosses. Those who hate will most likely long for the old formula. I really enjoy both glosses, however I wish they had only released a new line instead of redoing the old formulation. I feel that they are so different they aren't very much like an improved version of the originals, more of an entirely new gloss.

Hope this was helpful!

xoxo,
Glimmer

Welcome!

Hi Everyone :)

Welcome to Glimmer Beauty! I am so excited to share my love of makeup and all things beauty with you. I will be doing reviews, first impressions, current favorites, and MANY more things on my site. Before I begin I just want to let you all know that I am not a certified makeup artist, however I do have a passion for cosmetics and beauty is my hobby. I test and try a variety of products from drugstore to high end. I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for what I have planned!

xoxo,
Glimmer