Review: Molly Cosmetics SiliSponge

So I gave into the hype and ordered a SiliSponge from Molly Cosmetics.  

These retail for $9.90 on sale, when you can get them.  I feel like they are always sold out right now.  It also comes from Hong Kong so it took like a month to get here.  I don't remember shipping being that much, I also don't remember exactly what it was, maybe $5.  

I watched a bunch of review videos before I bought this and they ranged from thinking this was the bomb to thinking it was crap.  I found it to be a little difficult to work with.  There is definitely a learning curve.  

Here's me with just my primer on, I used Smashbox Photo Finish Pore Minimizing primer.  The foundation I'm going to be using is the Urban Decay All Nighter, I wear color 1.5.  I'm going to be doing half my face with the silisponge and half with my beautyblender.  

Here's half my face done.  You can see it's a little heavy in place and it didn't blend in the corner of my eye very well.  I contribute most of this to user error. I think I used too much product.  You definitely use way less product with this. I ended up just taking my fingers and kind of wiping the extra off then going over it again with the silisponge and patting it out.  I did exactly as it instructs on the Molly Cosmetics site.  I put the foundation on my face, spread it around til everything was covered, then patted it out.  

This is all that was left on the silisponge when I was done.  It was kind of just a thin residue.  I put a little hand soap on it and it washed right off.  

Here's me with my full face of foundation.  In photo you can't really tell.  In person, I could pick out some subtle differences.  

It is super hard to tell here but I used cream blush (I don't have cream contour currently) and used the silisponge to blend one side and the beautyblender to do the other.  I really like how it blended out the blush a lot.  You used a very, very little bit.  

Over all I really liked the silisponge.  It saves so much product.  It is something you have to learn to work with.  I didn't see that it was patchy or streaky the way some people found it.  It's probably something I will reach for again.  

Anyone else have one of these coming?  

And for those of you who are curious, here's the final look.

    

 

Review: Sephora Collection Face Mask Pearl

When I was in Sephora I picked up a few sheet masks from the Sephora Collection.  They are $6 a piece and come in eight different solutions.  The one I tried out was the Pearl.  

Pearl is a single use mask that claims: "Perfects and brightens with natural-origin pearl to create high luminosity and visibly minimize irregularities." 

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Here is me with freshly washed face.  I used First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser With Red Clay.  Aside from looking dead tired you can see I have some dark spots.  

This is your typical sheet mask.  You pull it out of the package, line it up on your face and remove the pink backing.  

It was really thin.  I mean super, see thru, thin.  I couldn't get the backing off once it was on my face so I had to pull it off, remove the backing, and then smooth it back on my face.  

As you can see mine was missing the little nose flap.  I didn't feel like the eye holes were big enough either.  This solution didn't make my eyes water, however.  You leave this on for 15 minutes and then message the excess solution into the skin.  

This was really wet and really cold.  It's winter here in the North so I did not find that refreshing but maybe in the summer it would be nice.  Pearl did dry considerably in 15 minutes not all the way but a lot.  After the time was up I pealed off the mask and patted the extra into the places where I had the most darkness.  It soaked in mostly.  I could still feel it on my skin when a went to bed.  It wasn't as tacky as the boscia one but I could still feel it.  

And here is the morning after.  There is nothing on my face beside the solution. 

I honestly saw and felt zero difference.  The website says 21 women who tested this out for 42 days saw 100% results.  What?  Who does a mask for 42 days?  You'd be better off trying a dark spot corrector like Sunday Riley Tidal Brightening Enzyme Water Cream or Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution.  Neither one is cheap but both would last longer then 42 days and probably work better.  

What kinds of things have you tried to brighten your skin?  Anything you'd like to see me try?  

January Favorites

It's that time of the month when we talk about some of our favorite products.  

I bought this foundation at the beginning of the month and I love it.  It's the Urban Decay All Nighter Liquid Foundation.  

This a a full coverage, matte, waterproof foundation.  It comes in 24 shades which is really nice.  Most them still run on the light side but there are still some deeper shades.  I wear shade 2.5 fair with subtle pink undertones.  I often have problems with my foundation breaking up between my eyes on my forehead.  With this I don't have that.  I do find it lasts all day even without a setting spray.  

My second favorite product is one I've had in my collection for awhile but hadn't really used.  

This is the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in the shade Champagne Pop.  I bought this not long after it came out and it stayed pretty much unused until I found it a couple weeks ago.  At first I thought it would be too gold for my fair skin but I found that it really looks glowing,  It gives my complexion a nice pick me up for winter.  

It's no secret I love Lush products and this is one of my all time favs.  Charity Pot Body Lotion.  This stuff is amazing.

It's scented with ylang ylang and rosewood oils in a cocoa butter base.  It is so hydrating and creamy.  The best thing is that 100% of the proceeds go to small grassroots organizations working in the areas of environmental conservation, animal welfare and human rights.  Each pot has a little sticker on the top with what charity that pot goes to.  

The last thing I have for this month is a brush cleaner.  Beautyblender blendercleanser solid is great not just for your beautyblender but for your makeup brushes too.  

It's a solid piece of soap that you get wet and rub your beautyblender or brush on it, rinse, and you're all clean.  It's super convenient and easy to do all your brushes.  

So what have you been loving this month?    

Ipsy January Unbagging

Ipsy is a monthly subscription box, well a bag, you take a quiz, pay $10 a month and they give you a pretty nice bag full of full sized products and deluxe sized samples.  I've been doing it for about three years now and I really enjoy it.

This month's bag is kind of a steel blue.  The texture makes it really fun.  Ipsy bags aren't very big.  Just big enough to hold a few products to stash in your purse or carry on.

The first product I got was a full sized product.  It's from Pacifica, one of their Blushious Coconut & Rose Infused Cheek Colors in WildRose.  

Pacifica is a drug store brand you can get at places like Ulta.  It's also vegan and cruelty free.  These blushes retail for $12.  They aren't very big, .10 ounces, about the size of a single eyeshadow.  

It's a really pretty color, a dusty rose with a slight shimmer.  The formula is really very smooth.  The only thing I didn't love was that there wasn't much color pay off.  

My next product was a sample of Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream in the color Light.  

It's a big enough sample you could use it a couple times.  Full sized product is one ounce, so typical for a foundation, and is $39.  That might be a lot for how I feel about this.  It does have a lot of coverage for a bb cream.  

The color range could be better.  Only eight colors.  They sent be the color Light which still isn't light enough for my pale skin.  The lightest color is Fair so maybe I'll get a sample from Sephora a try it out.

The third product was another full sized product from Rimmel London.  

This is part of their by Kate (Moss) collection.  It's the Lip Conditioning Lip Balm.  It's a triple action lip balm that is supposed to keep lips hydrated for up to eight hours.  

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It was, an okay lip balm.  I like a thicker consistency in a lip balm but if you're looking for a light gloss this would be good.  

Up next is Bahama Mama for theBalm.  Full sized is .25 ounces and is $20.

Bahama Mama is a bronzer/contour powder.  I was really excited to try this out.  

It's got good pigmentation with a silky texture.  It's nice and matte.  I think it would make a beautiful bronzer but it may be a bit orange for me to contour with.  

The last thing I got was a set of sheet masks from Sally's Box.  

Sally's Box is a Korean beauty brand that believes everything starts with moisturizing.  They do have an english website you can order from.  The first mask we got was the AcaiBerry and the second is Aloe.  Both contain hyaluronic acid. Reading the website doesn't really give you an idea of what the difference between masks are.  I assume the aloe is a soothing mask.  I wish they gave more info.  

So that was my January Ipsy.  These are based on a quiz so everyone's bag is different.  What did you get in your bag?  Have another subscription box you love and want me to try out?    

   

  

Review: Boscia Charcoal Pore-Minimizing Hydrogel Mask

Sheet masks are all the rage.  Go into any beauty store and you'll be presented with a literal wall of them.  A sheet mask is essentially a piece of cotton shaped to the face, with eyes, nose, and mouth holes cut in, soaked in a beneficial cocktail of ingredients.  A long time Asian beauty staple these masks have made there way to the west.  

While I was at Sephora last week I picked up a few to try.  The first one I tried out was the boscia Charcoal Pore-Minimizing Hydrogel Mask.  This is a single use mask and retails for $8.  It's also a Sephora exclusive.  

Unlike a traditional sheet mask this is a hydrogel mask.  What does that mean?  Hydrogel is a thin, gelatinous material that traps moister even better then cotton.  The claims to this mask? "This hydrogel mask cleanses the skin—reducing the appearance of pores as it removes blackheads and whiteheads—giving the complexion a renewed look."  I don't really have any blackheads but I have been noticing some pores on my cheeks around my nose.  

You can't really see them in photo but you can tell there's a little texture there.  This is my face freshly washed with my Fresh Soy Face Cleanser. 

How this mask works is it comes in two chunks.  One that goes on the top half of your face and one for the bottom half.

You unfold the pieces, they are wrapped with a clear plastic on one side and a white backing on the other.  You remove the clear plastic and line the mask up on your face so the holes match up, push it down on the contours of your face, then remove the white backing.  

In theory this works.  Mine had slipped around in the package so it was kind of a tangled, wet, mess.  I got it straightened out and smoothed to my face.  To cover where my pores were visible I had to  position this closer to my eyes then I would have liked.  It definitely made them water.  This is very cool and very damp.  I wasn't sure this was going to stay on all 20 minutes without sliding off but it did.  This does dry a bit but certainly not dry dry.  After the 20 minutes are up you remove the mask and pat the left over product into your skin.  No rinsing.  

The product never really did absorb into my skin.  It dried but it left my skin feeling slightly tacky.  Like I had used a very thick cream.  I didn't finish up with my night time routine.  I just let it sit and went to bed.  The results? 

I can still see pores but they do seem to be minimized.  I also feel like there is less texture in that area. I could still feel the product on my face when I got up so I wasn't a fan of that.  This is my face, washed again with the Fresh cleanser and the facial products I use (Clinique Pep-Start Eye Cream, Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Vitamin C Anti-Aging Collagen Booster, and Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion).  

Would I repurchase?  It was fun but I'm  not sure I saw enough difference with one useage.  I do think this does what it claims to do.  My face was definitely clean and uncongested.  I just feel like for that purpose you could reach for the boscia Detoxifying Black Cleanser.  They do also have a sake brightening hydrogel mask that I'm interested in that may be a better fit for my skin needs.  

Have you hopped on the sheet mask train?  What's your favorite?  I  picked up a few more so let me know if you'd like to see more mask reviews.   

  

   

January #IWantThat

What?!  A new post?  Yes, it's been two years.  I moved, and job, and life.  But I've been asked to revive this so new year new blogging.  I'm going to try to do this once a week or so.  We'll do unboxings, reviews, favorites, hauls.  If you have other ideas you'd like to see leave a comment here or hit me up on social media.  

Anyway, let's hop right into this post.  I'll try do these once a month of things I'm looking to buy.  They may or may not be new.  It will just be products I have my eye on.  

The first product is a new discovery, although, not a new product. 

This is the Dose of Colors Eyedeal Duo.  These are a pairing of loose pigment and primer.  So you're getting two products in each compact.  The top is a colored, creme, base and the bottom is a sparkly, metallic, pigment.  You can use them together or separate.  Like all pigments you can use this one wet to intensify the color.  It comes in 12 colors and the one I am lusting after is called Stellar (shown in the picture).  They are $25 a piece so they aren't cheap and you can only buy two at a time.

This summer I bought a liquid lipstick kind of on a whim from a company called Ofra Cosmetics.  I saw it as an ad on Facebook and it was this beautiful, metallic, fuchsia color and it was only $20 so I was like, 'Why not give it a try?'.  

These have an amazing formula.  Their everyday collection has a matte finish but doesn't dry.  So it is transferable.  This will come off if you eat or drink.  But even so it has great staying power.  I've worn this out and had it last all night even thru drinking.  It doesn't bleed or feather.  It's wonderful.  If you have this why is it a #IWantThat?  Because I want more!  They have an incredible 52 colors in their permanent collection.

This is the color Laguna Beach.  It's much more day time then the color I own (called Santorini which, although, limited edition you can still buy as part of a collection).  

Another lip product I am after is a Vice lipstick in the color Jilted.

It's a cream finish described as: deep fuchsia shimmer with blue shift. In real life it's a blue tone, bright pink. When I was looking for it online I kept trying to pick the color Anarchy. I got a little sample of this in the summer when these launched. It's almost out. I really just need to buy this. These are $17 and you can get them at Sephora, Ulta, and the Urban Decay website.




Urban Decay puts out products and I just throw money at them. I have more than a half dozen pallets by them.

I give you the Full Spectrum pallet.  I have nothing more to say.  I need this in my life and Sephora has it on sale for $39 down from the original $55.  I'm going there on Friday, this is coming home with me.  If you want swatches let me know.  

The last product I'm looking to try is a foundation.  I'm always looking for that holy grail foundation that has amazing coverage, lasts all night, and won't break up between my eyes.  I saw this one on a YouTube video.  

It looked like it was a very long wearing, full coverage formula.  It's between $16-20 depending on where you look.  Downside is as far as I can tell they don't sell this in store.  Also the color I most likely am is often sold out.  You can buy this on Amazon which is probably the safest bet.

So those are my January #IWantThat.  It's a new year, what are your new year/new you wants?