Review: L'Oreal Paris One Sweep Eye Shadow and Double Extend Eye Illuminator Mascara

One sweep eye shadow and you have a completed look?! Hmmm . . . I'm intrigued! I received L'Oreal Pasis' One Sweep Eye Shadow in color for brown eyes which consists of a dark purple for defining, a medium taupe for all over color, and a champagne color for the highlight. This lil' package contains a unique applicator and a built-in mirror.



At first I was thinking this is going to be one hot mess because the colors will likely run in to one another and the sponge tip applicator is a little odd. You swipe one side of the applicator carefully through the colors (try not to rub it around). Then, place the skinnier tip of the applicator in the inner corner of your eye and swipe it across. Flip the sponge tip applicator around and repeat for the other eye.

I was pleasantly surprised that it actually worked! It really only took "one sweep" to get good color pigmentation and it did not muddy the colors too much. I did use the tip of the applicator to darken the defining color a little bit more. It's a little hard to know when to stop your swiping motion since it's hard to see around the applicator, so I actually ended up bringing out the colors too far and had to clean it up a little bit.

Because I have monolids, the defining color is really hard to see when I open up my eyes. This is a really creative product, but it probably wouldn't work as well for those of us with monolids or those with larger eye areas. The colors are very neutral and wearable to work and it's easy to apply and take on the go. I can see this product being good for beginner makeup users, people running late, or thrown in a gym bag. But it may not work out for all eye shapes and those who are perfectionists with their makeup and likes greater control over how much color goes where.

TheL'Oreal Paris' Double Extend Eye Illuminator Mascara I tried is meant to highlight brown eyes as well (in Black Quartz).

Step 1 is your basic black mascara - I found that it was very light to wear, lengthend my lashes nicely, and held my curl throughout the day. It comes off with warm water.

Step 2 is the "illuminator" - it's a bronze sparkling color meant to be applied to the ends of your lashes to give it that extra oomph. I found that on overcast days (which is every day in Seattle), you really can't see the illuminator effect.

 Pre-Mascara

Overall I liked the mascara (but didn't feel the "illuminator" really added to the product). It lengthened my lashes so it actually looked like I had some and did not flake or smudge throughout the day.

Prices & Availability: One Sweep Eye Shadow = $9.95, Double Extend Mascara = $10.95, drugstores

Disclosure: Product was sent to me for review purposes as part of BzzAgent. All opinions are my own and completely honest. This post is not sponsored in any way.

Review: Maybelline SuperStay 24 2-Step Color

I've been trying out Maybelline's SuperStay 24 2-Step Color this past week and have loved how I don't need to reapply color throughout the day!

The product claims to have "No Transfer" and "Up to 24 HR Wear", so I put it to the test.

Maybelline SuperStay in Timeless Rose

As the name implies, this is a 2-Step system - one side is the color, while the other is a balm.

Step 1: Apply a thin layer of color to clean lips and allow it to dry completely (about 2 minutes) - the wand is a longer, slanted doe-foot applicator and a thin layer is all you need since it is fairly opaque and has a slight oily texture to it. The scent smells like cherries which goes away pretty quickly once applied. 2 minutes is about how long it took for my application to dry, and it dries to a fairly tacky finish.

Step 2: Apply conditioning balm. Reapply as needed. To remove, use oil-based make-up remover.

I wanted to see if it lived up to the product's claim of up to 24 hour wear:

 Normal lip color sans lip product

 6am: Fresh application - love the color, it's like my lip color, but better!

5pm

 

 9pm

6am the next morning

As you can see from the images, I don't think for me it lasted the entire 24 hours since by the next morning, but lips were pretty much back to normal. However, it did at least last ~15 hours for me, which is great! By evening, the color did fade a little bit, but it was still present. I'm always eating and drinking throughout the day and find it a "waste" to apply lipstick in the morning since I'll be eating it off shortly. I really liked how despite the fact that I was eating and drinking, my lip color still stayed on. There was no transfer to my cups, save for a few flecks.

The lip balm isn't as conditioning as I would have liked. I had to reapply every hour or so for my lips not to feel dry. It may be hard to wear the color portion on its own because it can be drying. I tried using my own Santa Maria Novella lip balm and it worked well with it. I also topped the color off with Stila's Lip Glaze and I think it may have reacted with the color because my lips became really chapped really soon after. I hesitantly tried using Lancome's Juicy Tube on top of the color just to give the color a slight gloss and moisture and it was fine together.

The Timeless Rose color is beautiful - with some microshimmer and I really like how it gave the "your lips but better" look to it. It's available in 30 colors, divided into four shade families: reds, plums, pinks, and naturals and can be found in most drug stores with a suggested retail price of $9.99. Check out http://www.maybelline.com/ for more info and color selection!

Disclosure: Product was sent to me for review purposes as part of BzzAgent. All opinions are my own and completely honest. This post is not sponsored in any way.

Recipes: Preserved Egg and Pork Congee

I've had this old school rice cooker forever and we finally got a brand new Zojirushi rice cooker from Costco! It's a 10-cup baby and only $80! BUT, it's Made in China, so it's definitely not as good as the Japanese one. We actually might return it because there's no way to tell how much longer your rice will take. We've been spoiled with our old school one because it only takes 20 minutes to cook rice, but this new one takes 1 hour to 1.5 hours and you have no idea of knowing! So we keep making food and having to wait for the rice to finish! But I digress . . . so one of the perks of this new rice cooker is that it makes congee! No more stovetop congee for me! And it's super easy . . .

You'll need:
* 1 cup white rice
* Water (fill to 2 cup line on the porridge line in the rice cooker)
* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1 teaspoon soy sauce
* 4 preserved eggs, chopped
* 1/2 lb pork chop, cut in to strips

Wash the rice and place in to the rice cooker with water, chicken broth, and soy sauce. Place chopped preserved eggs and pork chop on top. Make sure it's on top of the rice. Close the rice cooker, set it on the porridge setting, hit start, and walk away!! It'll be ready in about 1.5 hours! So easy! 

 Rice with water, chicken stock, and soy sauce

 Preserved eggs, make sure it's not Made in China

 (I like how this one says it's lead-free - always a good thing!)

 Preserved eggs - left ones are peeled, right ones are shell on

 Boneless pork chop

 Congee - ready to eat! Serve with green onion and white pepper

Project: Kate Spade Beeline Cardigan

I'm a Gleek! There, I admit it! What's not to love, right? I love the singing, the story lines, and the fashion of one Miss Emma Pillsbury! I love cardigans and she just wears the cutest ones ever! So I was watching an episode of Glee when I saw Miss Emma rock a particularly cute bee cardigan . . .

ADORE! OMG . . . I had to have it! So I googled "Glee Bee Cardigan", hahaha, seriously, that's all it took and lo and behold, found the exact one that she had on!

And OF COURSE, it's Kate Spade! And of course, it's like $295!! *sigh* guess I don't HAVE to have it! So, I gave up on it! And then for some strange reason one day, I decided to look for it again and hallelujah it went on sale for $118! Much more do-able, but of course, it was all sold out by the time I found out about the sale! UGH, anyways, while I was searching Miss Kate Spade's cardigan, I came across some DIY's of the sweater and being that I'm not entirely crafty, noticed that it is pretty easy to recreate! So here I go . . .

You'll need:

* basic sewing skills
* white embroidery floss ($0.35 at Michael's)
* sequin bee applique ($1.75 on ebay)
* black cardigan
* 2 hours

I actually went out and bought a nicer black cardigan because if I was going to spend all this time on a project, I wanted the cardigan to hold up and wear forever! But you can use an old one that you already have on hand. Carefully figure out where you want the bee and iron it in place. My sequin bee had little red hearts as antennae, which I didn't care for, so I cut them off. Use Kate Spade's stock photo to carefully stitch the path of the bee's flight. There were a lot of loops on the bottom right of the cardigan - I was getting tired of stitching and actually didn't like how there were so many, so I edited some of it out - so the end result is not an absolute exact replica, but close enough! Some people used a chalk pencil and drew the path first before stitching, but I just free-handed it because I didn't have a chalk pencil and it turned out okay! The finished results . . .

I absolutely love it! Super cute and easy to do and way less than $295!

Product Testing

I've always wanted to be a product tester - I mean, the first person to be "in the know" about something and have companies want and value your opinion?! How awesome of a job would that be? Alas, my career path didn't quite get me there to be an "official product tester", so instead, I did some searching online to see if I could do something like that during my spare time! I came across SheSpeaks (http://www.shespeaks.com/), which is created by women for women to give them a forum to connect with others and to express their opinions! Pretty cool concept! I haven't had much opportunity to do any product testing from them save for a survey and now finally . . . some chips!

I received a coupon from SheSpeaks for a free bag of Tostitos Artisan Recipes. I picked up my bag (Reg: $3.99, on sale for $2.99) at my local QFC. Usually with "new products", it takes awhile before it's available in stores, so I was super happy that it was so easy to find! I picked out the Roasted Garlic and Black Bean Tortilla Chip flavor (the other being the Fire-Roasted Chipotle flavor) and brought it home to try with my husband. I decided to serve it with Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Hummus and their Edamame Hummus. The chips were super yummy - not too salty so that they can be eaten on their own and won't overpower the dip either. My husband thought they were really good too, and with each bite, kept commenting how good the chips were (he had no idea I was going to jot down notes on his reaction for this review)!