Beauty – Page 8 – Classic Maggie

April 26, 2015

Review: Cover FX Custom Cover Drops

On Tuesday I finally received my much-anticipated online Sephora purchases, which contained the Cover FX Custom Cover Drops. There is so much hype out there about this product and almost every review I’ve read has been really positive. I was also running low on foundation and looking for something new so I thought I’d give these a try.

If you haven’t heard about these yet, basically the concept is that you can create a customized foundation. The drops can be mixed with primer, moisturizer, sunscreen, concealer, etc. and mixed to your desired level of coverage. 1 drop equals light coverage, 2 drops equals medium, 3 equals full, etc. Smart, right?

Unfortunately I’ve been trying since Tuesday to make these work for me and it’s just not happening. I believe the idea is that you can mix these with products that you currently own, use and love but not one of the moisturizers or primers that I mixed in worked. Below are the combinations I tried:

3 drops Cover FX + 1 squeeze Rimmel Stay Matte Primer
3 drops Cover FX + 1 squeeze Rimmel Stay Matte Primer + 1 squeeze Estee Lauder Illuminating Perfecting Primer
3 drops Cover FX + 1 or 2 squeeze(s) Estee Lauder Illuminating Perfecting Primer
2 or 3 drops Cover FX + 1 squeeze Rimmel Stay Matte Primer + 1 pump First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Daily Face Cream
2 or 3 drops Cover FX + 2 pumps First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Daily Face Cream
2 or 3 drops Cover FX + 1 or 2 scoops Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief moisturizer

A little background on my skin: it’s combination and my t-zone typically gets pretty oily about mid day. I find it hard to find products that keep my t-zone looking matte but not dry out the rest of my face. Recently I’ve been using Estee Lauder Double Wear Light Stay-in-Place Foundation and while I like it, I can’t say I love it. It really is long wearing but I do find it gets a little dry-looking near the end of the day.

So the first day I mixed up the first combination and omg I can’t even describe how horrible this looked on my skin by the end of the day. When applying it (I used my new Beauty Blender) I found it looked a little dry and noticed it was magnifying my pores. I managed to get it look somewhat presentable and off to work I went. Throughout the day it got drier and drier and even emphasized some dry patches on my face that I didn’t even know I had! It also started breaking up on my skin and my face was oily AND flaky. I couldn’t wait to get home and scrub my face.

The next few days I played around with the various combinations above but still couldn’t get anything to really work. When I mixed it using just moisturizer I literally had no foundation left on my face by mid-day. Saturday I thought I’d give it one more try before deciding to return it (I really wanted to like this!) and I mixed it solely with Clinique’s Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief Moisturizer. I had received a deluxe sample of this with my online Sephora order and wow, it is super, duper moisturizing (if you have really dry skin, I’d really recommend giving it a try). I figured if mixing it with a heavy duty moisturizer still made me look dry there really was no hope. So I mixed it up, applied and while it probably looked the best out of all the combinations that I tried, there was still visible dryness and pore magnification.

I admitted defeat and took it back to Sephora. Thank goodness for their fantastic return policy! While I was there I picked up a few samples of some Clinique and Lancome foundations that I wanted to try so I’ll see how those work.

The only positive that I can state about these drops was that the colour was pretty much a perfect match to my skin tone, which is rare. And actually super impressive given that I selected my shade online using the Shade Finder on the Cover FX website. Also I do think that these would last a really long time because you only use a few drops at a time. So while they are pricey, they would have some longevity (which always makes me feel better about expensive purchases).

The other reason I didn’t like these – it was a pain to have to mix up everything up each day. I feel like I already have so many steps in my morning beauty routine and the last thing I need is to add another. I personally didn’t like the idea of mixing the drops and other product(s) in the palm of my hand as they recommend (too messy and too hard to mix properly), so I mixed them in a lid of an empty container. I then had to rinse and clean that lid the next morning and along with whatever mixing tool I used. I suppose that probably sounds a little lazy; maybe I’d feel different about doing if I actually liked the product but I kind of feel like I’d really need to LOVE it in order to make those extra steps worth it.

So that’s my review. Not a product that worked for me but obviously it works for many others out there! If you’ve given these a try I’d love to hear your take on them! Meanwhile I’m still on the hunt for my perfect foundation…

Find it: Sephora online; CoverFX website

Cost: $44.00 CAD for 0.5 oz.

Until next time!

April 24, 2015

Review: Sephora Triple Action Cleansing Water

I’ve been using this makeup remover for a while now and I love it. No matter what else I try, I always go back to it and wonder why I even bothered trying something new.

Every night before I go to bed I use this to remove my eye makeup. I’m sure I should be able to remove all of my makeup with whatever cleanser I’m using but that hasn’t happened yet but I’m okay with it. I’m not sure a cleanser could actually ever get all my eye makeup off. I wear waterproof liquid eyeliner and several thick coats of (non-waterproof) mascara daily so it’s not simple to remove.

This makes it easier. I can usually get all my makeup off by using two cotton pads soaked in it. It’s really gentle and not greasy at all. I actually feel like it hydrates the skin around my eyes too.

I also use it to fix any makeup mistakes I tend to make in the morning. I wear liquid eyeliner but I’m honestly horrible at applying it so I’m always touching it up. I also always end up getting mascara on my eyelids or below my eyes. A q-tip dipped in this cleans everything up really quickly and easily.

And lastly, I love this stuff because sometimes I’m lazy and do not feel like going through a 12 step cleansing routine every night. I may be exaggerating a bit there but ugh sometimes I’m tired and I just want to go to bed but not necessarily with a full face of makeup on. #lazy So I use this and I’m in bed in 3 minutes instead of 15. I don’t like to make a habit of it but for that occasional lazy night, it works great.

Find it: Sephora (in store or online)

Cost: $25.00 CAD for 13.5 oz; $15.00 CAD for 5 oz.

Have a great weekend!

April 9, 2015April 9, 2015

Review: Batiste Dry Shampoo (Life Changing!)

I have fine hair. Super fine hair but lots of it. Years ago, my choices were: a) wake up early, wash my hair every day and walk around in a zombie-like state OR b) walk around looking like a well-rested grease ball. Some days my hair won, but most days sleep did.

Until I discovered Batiste (cue angels singing!). This stuff has literally changed my life – I can now go 2 whole days without washing my hair!

Like I said, my hair is pretty fine, but I have lots of it. It doesn’t hold any kind of style well (exception: the kink from having my hair in a ponytail seems to last for eternity #ironic ) so I do apply a style primer and volumizing mousse into my freshly washed hair, which helps a bit.

Then day 2 rolls around. I section off my hair, spray it on my roots and brush it through. Sometimes, if brushing doesn’t get the product fully distributed I’ll rub it in with fingertips. After that, viola – no more greasy roots!

I do the same on day 3…which in all honesty, could really be a lapse in judgement. I do find my hair gets a little frizzy and limp on day 3…but meh. My bed is comfy and I value the extra minutes of sleep more than having fantastic looking hair multiple times a week. I usually pull it half up or spend a little extra time curling it on days when I feel it’s not quite looking up to par.

I’ve never attempted to go past day 3 without shampooing but I can tell you with a large amount of certainty that that wouldn’t be a good thing for me. When I do wash my hair I wash it twice just to get rid of the two days of build up from the dry shampoo and other products I use. I’d have zero volume or any kind of style if I attempted to extend my hair washing to Day 4. Just not going to happen.

I know that some people find that dry shampoo adds volume to their roots but I’ve never found this to be the case with any dry shampoo I’ve tried. But this could relate back to my hair type? No clue.

The one thing I love about Batiste is that it’s in a aerosol spray. I used to use the Oscar Blandi dry shampoo that came in powder form and it was so messy! I would use a makeup brush to apply it to my roots but it always ended up getting everywhere. I find the spray much easier to direct exactly where you want it and it’s cleaner.

I’ve purchased Batiste at Homesense/Winners and Superstore for $7.99. I’ve also seen it available at Shoppers Drug Mart but I believe it was closer to $10 there. A can usually lasts me a couple of weeks so I find the price really reasonable! It comes in a variety of scents, some are better than others but overall I’d say they all smell pretty pleasant. I’m indifferent about the one pictured above, but I have tried a cherry scented one that I really liked but has proven difficult to find.

In summary:

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