Beauty Experiment: Revlon Color Stay 12 Hour Eye Shadow

I was reading through my BHG magazine when I saw this ad for the new Revlon 12 hours eyeshadow so I HAD to try it. I got my son in the car and drove to Target, up here where I live everything is more expensive than usual but luckily they were having a sale and I ended up getting this quad for 4.99. I am not one to use "fancy" eyeshadows, I do have a couple of palettes from Estee Lauder and ONE eyeshadow from MAC but I have been able to find good alternatives to the high end eyeshadows that are just as good, I'd rather spend my money on a good foundation or eyeliner. So anyways, I was excited to try this new product...

I bought the quad in Azzure Mist, you know me, always on the look for new ways to do smokey eyes!

First thing I did was swatch the colors... they look pretty pigmented I would say.

The package comes with instruction on the back on how to apply it, I am determined to see if these shadows really work so I followed those instructions to a "t".

Here is the "before" picture.  Foundation and eyebrows are done, and my eyelids are clean and ready to be worked on.  It's been so long since I applied any eyeshadow on my lids without having any primer or shadow base underneath, I was a little nervous, but this quad promises 12 hours of stay without having to use anything under it, so let's see!

Ok, so now here is the thing:  I didn't use the little applicators that came with it, I used my own brushes.  I honestly don't think those applicators would have made a difference anyways.  Based on the swatches I did earlier I was expecting a ton of more color when I applied the shadow on my lid.  You know me and how I like my smokey eye to be dark and believe me, I tried making this look dark, I wasn't able to.  To be able to get enough color to show on my lid (under the crease) I had to apply the shadow 3 times!  Not a good sign so far.  In the crease area I applied blue first and on top of it brown, they looked so pigmented on my fingers, what happened?

Blending the colors and lines was easy, that's a plus!

I finished applying my shadows at 10:30am and this is what it looks like.  Not as dark as I would like it to be but still looks nice I think. 

Keep your fingers crossed!  I will take some photos all throughout the day and post my comments on how it looks...  check later for an update!

UPDATE: 10 hours Later (8:30pm)

Ok, here is the picture I just took, i am not sure if I will be able to post anything else tonight but I will take a picture at 10:30 and will definitely post my comments on it tomorrow morning.

It's been ten hours since I applied my eyeshadow.  I am very impressed by how long this shadow has stayed on my eyelids.  I did notice, though, that the right lid is not as dark as it was this morning, can you tell?  Besides that, everything else looks pretty much the same.  I see no creasing at all, so once again, I am impressed!

UPDATE: 10:00pm

I didn't make it all the way to 10:30, I was too tired so this is just a 11.5 hours after applying makeup on my eyes, not 12. 
I think this eyeshadows have a lot of potential. I did not apply any primer or base on my lids prior to applying my shadows and I am pleasantly surprised to see that it did not crease.  Like I mentioned on my last update, it did fade a little bit in one of my eyes but that's something that can be easily fixed.  I think the colors will look a lot more vibrant if I apply my usual base underneath, so I guess this means this quad is a keeper!

11.5 hours later.  No creasing!!

Review time: Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser

I almost didn't post anything today, it's been a long day but I owe it to my two loyal readers to try to post at least one thing a day, so here it is.
This is a review on the Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser (a makeup remover and cleanser in one for refreshingly clean skin).

Price: $4.99
Where to buy:  Any drugstore.
What is claims: Dermatologist tested cleanser effectively removes makeup and cleanses in one easy step.  Removes dirt and oil, makeup and waterproof eye makeup without stinging or irritating the sensitive eye area.
My opinion:
I don't really know much about Neutrogena, I've heard some good things about their foundations (which I personally have NOT tried yet) but that's about it.   I was looking for a drugstore cleanser that I could afford and came accross this one so I decided to give it a go.
This is a very gentle cleanser, it feels like liquid soap when you wash your face and it doesn't irritate your skin at all.  It is very easy to use. 
Here is what you really need to know:
I don't think that this product takes all of the makeup off of your skin.  When you wear liquid foundation it is very important to cleanse your face really good at the end of the day.  Also, if you wear heavy eye makeup like I do, even if it's not waterproof makeup, this cleanser won't take it off, you will need to use an eye makeup remover to get your eyes completely clean, so overall I don't think this is a very good cleanser.
One good way of checking how good your cleanser works is by cleaning your face with a cotton ball soaked with toner and seeing how clean it is.  I do this every time I cleanse my face and it usually looks dirty, I wouldn't feel like I got my face completely clean if I was to just use this cleanser.  
I wouldn't recommend you use this cleanser as your only step for washing your face.  I highly recommend you use a toner afterwords to get rid of the makeup that you will have left on your face AND have eye makeup remover on hand for when you are using heavy smokey eyes, because this cleanser won't get rid of it either.  I give this a 2 out of 5.

Update: NYC cover stick

As promised on my last post/review for the NYC cover stick, here is my first update on the product. 
I ended up going to bed last night at 1:30am (hubby and I went out to watch a movie together, probably the last one for the next 2 years, that's what having kids to do to you!) so that was 14 hours after applying my makeup.  Most of my face looked intact (kudos to my Lancome foundation for lasting so long!) except for my chin, I am not sure if it has to do with the concealer or maybe because I touch my chin a lot (I know, that's just one of my weird things!) or because I was eating extra buttered popcorn while watching the movie and maybe the butter touched my chin? I don't know yet but I will keep an eye on it definitely. My forehead and cheeks looked fresh, no signs of blemishes or acne scars showing through my foundation so I would say that so far I am still impressed with this concealer.  It is still too early to tell if my skin will "accept" this product but I sure do hope so. Another thing I noticed that I thought was different was when I was washing my face, I noticed that the first thing that came off was my foundation, my cleanser usually cleans everything at once, but this time I could actually see the green concealer all over my face on the spots I applied prior to my foundation, I thought that was kind of weird but it also tells me that it has some good sticking power.  Anyways, I will keep you all posted as I keep on testing this concealer over the next few days.

Drugstore Find/Review: N.Y.C Cover Stick in Green

I went to walmart yesterday and stopped by the cosmetics section to see if there was something that would call my name.  I am not a big fan of drugstore makeup mostly because they usually make me break out but I still wanted to try something new so I gave it a "go!". 
I bought a few things that I am going to be posting reviews of in the next week or so but I couldn't help myself to tell you about this NYC concealer I am currently trying. 

The NYC website retails this concealer for $1.99 but I am pretty sure I paid $1.39 at Walmart (I lost my receipt, so me!).  They come in a variety of colors but I just got the one in green.  I figured if it doesn't work I am not going to loose that much money.

I will be honest with you all, I was not excited at all to try it.  I guess I always think you get your money's worth when you buy something and I didn't think I would get that much out of this really inexpensive concealer... I was wrong!

If you read my very first post you know that I prefer Make Up For Ever Concealer Palettes, this palette retails for $39.00 and it comes with 5 different colors, including green to counteract redness.  That is a lot of money to spend on concealer and you still need to buy a brush to apply it with but I still bought it and liked it a lot.  I am telling you this because I will be comparing my NYC cover stick to the MUFE concealer palette, specifically the green color.
I didn't think to take a "before" picture until after I had applied foundation on half of my face.
Here are some of the things that I liked about it the most as I was applying it today, please notice I have only wore it ONCE, as far as I am concerned this concealer is still on the "testing" stage.
1.- It comes with quite a bit of product, I would dare to say that it has maybe twice as much as my green concealer on my MUFE palette.
2.- Application was extremely easy. I didn't need to use a brush.
3.- I didn't have to get my fingers dirty trying to blend it , I guess I could have if I wanted to but since I apply it before my foundation I really see no point on doing that.

Half of my face already has foundation on.  It looks just as good as if I had applied my MUFE concealer.

(On my forehead I am using my regular mufe concealer, I only bought NYC concealer in green) 

Right after I applied foundation my cheek... I think it looks pretty flawless, if you ask me.  

What do you all think?  Looks pretty good, blemish free! 

Something else I noticed:  I usually do TWO pumps of my foundation for my whole face BUT today I had all of this foundation left... could it be because I needed less coverage because of this new concealer?  Too early to tell but I was very happy to have used less foundation.

I will be posting an update of this product tomorrow morning and in three days.  I still need to see how long and how well it stay on my face AND the most important thing, if will make me break out.

As of right now I am extremely happy with this product.  I won't be buying any more colors until I test it a little longer and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will work for me.

If you would like to read the "next day update" on this concealer, click here.