Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Skinceuticals H.A. (Hyaluronic Acid) Intensifier Review and Ingredients Analysis

Skinceuticals recently launched their HA Intensifier, or Hyaluronic Acid Intensifier. As the name suggests, it's a serum/booster product with hyaluronic acid - but more than that, Skinceuticals also claims that the HA Intensifier will also help to boost your skin's ability to make its own hyaluronic acid, beyond just replenishing it. Application-wise, Skinceuticals recommends this go after your toner, but before your other skincare products.


Skinceuticals HA Intensifier - in case you didn't know the HA stands for Hyaluronic Acid

Skinceuticals is one of those brands that's a little niche, but has quite the following among skincare devotees, particularly for its CE Ferulic (which is sometimes considered the gold standard in Vitamin C serums). So I was pretty excited about the HA Intensifier, and was hoping that it would also live up to the brand's reputation for good skincare.

Skinceuticals HA Intensifier Hyaluronic Acid Review
Skinceuticals HA Intensifier: A key claim is that the product helps to boost skin's own hyaluronic acid production

I'm sure at this stage, you're curious about so many things - does this serum live up to Skinceuticals' brand reputation? How exactly does a serum boost your skin's own ability to make its own hyaouronic acid, and does the Skinceuticals product do so? So, let's start our review - at the ingredients list!

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Marc Jacobs Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon Swatches, Review, Ingredients Analysis

Marc Jacobs' Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon is the brand's new eyeliner product, and an extension of the existing Highliner eyeliner range. As the name suggests, the main difference is that the new Highliner Matte Crayons are, well, matte, as opposed to the original Highliner eyeliners which had a bit more of a sheen. And as with the original Highliner eyeliners, these are also advertised as being akin to having a pot gel eyeliner, but in pencil form. They're also advertised as having "15 seconds of play time" before they set, so you can smudge out, soften, or otherwise adjust your eyeliner before it sets.

Marc Jacobs Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon: 12 shades of matte eyeliner

I've never tried the original Highliners before, but they seemed to have really good reviews, so I was hoping the new Matte Highliners would be equally great. And I'm glad to say that after testing out all 12 shades - yes there are 12 shades of Matte Highliner - I think these are actually of really good quality! And as always, this review will look at what makes this product so great - the formula, the colour payoff, as well as the weartime are some of the critical factors here.

Marc Jacobs Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon
Marc Jacobs Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon: An addition to the existing non-matte Highliner eyeliner range

So, without further ado, let's begin the review. Of course I've got a lot of swatches and photos for you, but let's start off with something a little bit more mundane - the ingredients list!

Saturday, March 4, 2017

L'Oreal Super Liner V-Sculptor Swatches and First Impressions

L'Oreal's Super Liner V-Sculptor eyeshadow sticks were launched last month, and yes, I'm only just getting around to swatching them. I wanted to blog about these because they're pretty interesting as far as eyeshadows go. These are powder eyeshadows, but instead of being in a pan and coming with a brush, these are actually in a pen form, with a cushion tip, as you can see below. The idea behind the cushion tip is that it's easier to blend the eyeshadow out to get a natural-looking application. As for the eyeshadow powder, it's stored inside the cap of the pen.


L'Oreal Super Liner V-Sculptor: A powder eyeshadow with a cushion applicator for better blending

If these look a bit familiar, it's because these are basically the eyeshadow version of the L'Oreal Tint Caresse that was launched last year. Pretty much everything is the same - the pen format, the cushion tip (right down to the cushion material), the storage of the powder product in the cap. So if you've ever looked at the Tint Caresse and thought, "I'd like this in eyeshadow form", well, here we are!