Ella + Mia Soy Polish Remover: Review

My nails have been a struggle since as far back as middle school. I can remember walking home and noticing that my nails were peeling in layers, and flash forward to 10+ years later, not much has changed. However, back then I also had constant peeling skin around my nails as well, whereas now I experience very little of that problem.

One of my biggest loves and appreciations in life is a beautiful manicure, and when I do my nails my dream is for them to last for about a week before they go to hell. In reality it's about 3 days before small chips start showing up, but that has been a major improvement from even a year ago. The difference? The steps I take to ensure proper care of my hands and nails. 

Rome wasn't built in a day, so I don't expect my hands and nails to be magically cured after my entire life of not taking better care, but now that I have figured out a few things the least I can do would be to talk about what has helped my hand and nail health:

1.) I wear rubber gloves when I hand wash any dishes. I feel like a house wife from the 50's, but it makes a HUGE difference.

2.) I've begun using a vitamin-enriched base coat under my nail polish color and I now use 2 layers of my top coat to ensure a harder, long-lasting manicure.

3.) Instead of regular nail-polish remover, I use a soy polish remover from Ella + Mia. This is quite honestly one of the biggest improvements in my nail life, ever.

Ella + Mia Soy Polish Remover 4oz: $11.50

First and foremost, the whole aesthetic and packaging of Ella + Mia is absolutely adorable and was what drew me in to explore the brand. Elephants are my favorite animal, I've been obsessed with them since high school. The bottle itself of the nail polish remover has a soft velvet-y feeling, like a high-end product.

However, no matter how cute the packaging is, the most important question to ask with any product is: does this product work? The answer is: yes, this nail polish remover takes off my nail polish and nourishes my skin and nails in the process. With normal acetone nail polish my nails and skin feel very dry after removing my nail polish, and I've often wondered if me using an acetone nail polish was causing my top layer of my nail bed to dry out, thus causing it to peel. 

One of the biggest perks about this product? It doesn't smell bad! With acetone remover I have to close the lid immediately after wetting my cotton ball because the smell is vile to me. With the Soy Remover, I can leave the lid off and not a single smell emits from the bottle. It's lovely to remove my nail polish and not feel like I'm getting high.

Despite the wonderful way this product makes my skin and nails feel, there are some draw backs. With acetone nail polish remover, I only need to use one, maybe two cotton balls and in a few minutes I've removed the nail polish from all of my fingernails and some of my toe nails. With this Soy Polish Remover, there's no acetone, so it takes way more cotton balls and waaaaay more time to remove my nail polish. It takes me on average of 15+ minutes and 6-10 cotton balls for my fingernails and toenails with this remover. Glitter/shimmer nail polish takes even longer, and I usually have to go in with an acetone remover to clean up the leftover glitter residue. 

While it's not a 100% perfect product, I love this product due to how much stronger my nails feel after each time I use it. While I won't be ditching my glitter nail polish any time soon and for that I will keep my acetone remover around, this is best for every other nail polish I use. 

Score: 9/10 elephants approve. 

Physicians Formula Eye Booster 24 Hour wear 2-In-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner: Review

Black eyeliner - almost everyone you know uses it. It's everywhere, no matter what the trends are, most people love their black eyeliner. No matter how pale or tan they are, most people feel more confidence with that little black line that is the bane of our existence most mornings, but always makes us feel great when we get it right. 

I confess, I own a black eyeliner. However, I almost never use it. The last time I reached for it was....2 months ago? I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but hear me out - I prefer brown over black. I am very pale, so much so that black eyeliner honestly looks a bit harsh against my skin tone. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes I want to be fierce and do a graphic black eyeliner like I see the models wear (It always looks better on them) so I try it, but like a favorite song, I always go back to brown eyeliner when I want to feel my best.

Enter 2 months ago when my brown liquid eyeliner had run out, and I found out that the drugstore offers many more vegan and cruelty-free makeup options than I ever thought possible. I found a list of vegan products from Physicians Formula ( a cruelty-free brand), the first makeup I ever used, and I knew I had to try something from them. It had been years and years since I had used them, but I had very fond memories of walking into a CVS and asking a sweet girl if they had any organic makeup. She showed me Physicians Formula, and I asked what I should buy, picking up every single product she pointed at saying that that was what she used. 

This time around I took a different route, researching each product on the vegan list before deciding to try their new liner. The promises of it helping my lashes grow and looking great was too much to resist, plus at the price point of only $10, I knew I had to try it.

Physicians Formula Eye Booster 24 Hour Wear 2-In-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner

$10.99

Simply put, it worked great for the first 2 days but after that it stopped going on evenly and opaque. I would do one eye and have to go back over it 6 times to get it to be a solid brown line. Then the second eye I would only have to go over it 3 times to get the same opacity. The next day the first eye might be 3 times and the 2nd eye 5 times. There was no consistency with this product. When I only have a certain amount of time to do my makeup, I don't have time to go over a line 6 times. It's just unrealistic.

The felt tip was slim and made it easy to draw on the line, except the liquid product itself just wasn't reliable at any point.

Furthermore the claims that it would help my eyelashes grow were false. I used this eyeliner every day for a month and a half, and nothing grew except my frustration. There was absolutely no improvement in the length or strength of my eyelashes.

When swatched next to Kat Von D liquid eyeliner, while they look similar, the Physicians Formula I had to go over 4 times to get that line, whereas the Kat Von D I only had to draw once.

As much as I wanted to love this product, it was so bad it made me go out and buy an eyeliner twice it's price because I knew the quality would be better and consistent with each use. Maybe the next product I try from them will be a hit.

Tarte Lipsaver Treatment Primer

I have a confession to make - I'm a sucker for free deluxe-sized samples when I order something. Sometimes my motivation for buying an item that I haven't purchased yet is to get the bag of deluxe-sized goodies that whichever website is offering if I buy right then and there. Yes, I am THAT sucker customer. The only upside to this is that I get to try products for free without having to commit to buying a full-size version. Booya.

One such item I received a few months ago was a product from a Tarte purchase. I was offered a deluxe-size lip primer and I caved because, to be honest, I've never tried one before. I prime my eyes, I prime my face, so why not prime my lips? My lip products always wear off after a few hours, no matter how long-wearing they promise to be, so this product intrigued me. Also. I trust Tarte - it's the slightly more expensive cruelty-free best friend that has never let me down before.

Tarte Lipsaver Treatment Primer: $19 $13

 This product has a very thick, silky consistency, very similar to pore-blurring primers for the face. It's an off-white, almost clear color and it comes with a very handy-dandy applicator that allows for a fast and easy application. There's no weird smell, and the packaging is oh-so-damn adorable.Once on the lips it dries down in about 5-10 seconds so you don't have to wait too long to apply your desired lippie for the day.

 

Now on to the good stuff: let me first start off by stating the positives about this item:

1.) Not very expensive and a little goes a LONG way - this will last you many, many, MANY moons.

2.) This product actually works. Whatever lip product you put on top of this primer will last ALL. DAY. LONG. It will stay until you use a makeup remover at the end of the night. 

3.) It looks fabulous all day long.

With all the positives though, there comes one MAJOR problem that I did not expect. In every other review on the Tarte website, everyone stated that it was hydrating and very comfortable. For me, that was not the case. This lip primer made my lips feel like the Sahara desert. It did not matter how much lip balm, oil, or hydrating lip product I put on my pucker before using this, my lips would feel like the mummy when it's first awoken by Brendan Fraiser. 

I would pat on a hydrating lip balm on top of whatever lip product I was using that day after it had dried down, and within 30 minutes I was right back to square one. It was so bad one day when I decided to wear a matte liquid lipstick that I had to use my emergency stash of makeup remover wipes to take it off and apply lip balm obsessively for about 20 minutes before my lips felt somewhat alive again.

I can honestly say this product works. Whatever you put on top of it is locked in and loaded for all day wear. You WILL look fabulous, but I had to remove this lip primer from my routine for the shear fact that I don't want to be uncomfortable all day every day just to have a fabulous pout. 

 

Update: Tarte and I quickly got over this little spat and still hang out every day.

LA Splash Liquid Lipstick Review

I have a confession to make - while on the outside I look like a more conservative work type with slight hippie tendencies, on the inside I am obsessed with makeup. Ok, for anyone reading this blog that's probably not a surprise, but I'm especially obsessed with makeup looks I see on models and makeup artists online. I secretly strive for that look that a lot of the models on the Dolls Kill (a favorite) website wear. The models on that particular website have inspired many makeup looks in the last year. Since my body type can't work for a lot of the clothing that they wear, I instead stalk the shoes, accessories and makeup on the site often, patiently waiting for a sale.

In the last month and a half I was granted two, and so I bought a slew of different products, two of which were L.A. Splash liquid lipsticks. They looked like beautiful, easily wearable colors and the prices were too good to pass up.

LA Splash Lip Couture in Rose Garden: $14

This is the most worn shade out of the two, and this one was the first one I used. I must say, these are the most comfortable liquid lipsticks I have ever used. They're not drying and they don't feel weird at all. True to form, they don't transfer, however, I noticed when I drank and ate the inner part of my bottom lip had some of the lipstick come off. It wasn't very much though, and the rest of it remained on there with the color staying strong.

 Reapplying the product was quite easy and it layered nicely, however, because with my job I talk all day, I noticed flaking. Excessive flaking towards the end of the day was kind of a problem. OH GOD THE FLAKING. The interesting thing is that when it flaked off, it didn't leave behind any patchiness, so I think the flaking happened from the second layer I applied, but it took a long time for that to happen. 

The ONLY way I was able to remove the flaking was by removing all the product from my lips and starting over again. The only thing that works well with these lipsticks are oil makeup removers, so that is something to keep in mind.

LA Splash Lip Couture in Lollipop: $4.20

This shade is so bright lovely, and just like Rose Garden it's unbelievably comfortable on the lips. The same flaking problem happened with this shade too. However, this shade didn't flake quite as much as Rose Garden. Once again though, the only way to get the flaking off my lips was to remove the all of the product completely and start over. Both of the shades seem to be pretty much identical in formulation with how they wear and layer, as well as their intense opaque pigmentation.

Extra Pros

Long wearing - I wore all of my liquid lipsticks to bed on the back of my hand. When I woke up the next morning, the only shades that were still going strong were the LA Splash liquid lipsticks.

Vegan & Cruelty-Free: I emailed the company asking them about their animal testing policy and their ingredients for their liquid lipsticks. This was the response I received from their customer service:

"Dear Ashley,

 

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

 

Our Liquid Lipsticks do not contain any animal by-products, beeswax nor carmine colorants; which, are the ingredients of concern among the Cruelty Free and Vegan communities.

 

The ingredients for our liquid lipstick are listed below for your reference:

 

C10-12 Alcane/Cycloalkane, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Dimethicone, Silica Dimethyl Silyate, Quaternium-18 Bentonite, Propylparaben

 

We do not test any of our products on animals.

 

Our ingredients are FDA approved and cruelty free as well."

 

Verdict

I LOVE these liquid lipsticks, however, if you are wearing them throughout the day and you will be talking a lot, it would be smart to bring a tiny bottle of oil or oil makeup remover and a cotton wipe or two for the flaking issue that happens later on in the day. Aside from that, these are totally worth every penny.

Product Review: Chanel Precision Lip Definer

Last year when I moved back to California my mother gave me a slew of products that she didn't want anymore. As I was told, there was nothing wrong with them, she just used her favorites more and found several items collecting dust.

Enter one eager makeup-loving daughter who was especially surprised that one of those products was a Chanel lipliner. Yes, Chanel, that luxury brand that buying one piece of clothing might mean going without food for a year. This gift was one that I was initially very excited to test out and give a full run-down review on, and I have used this product many times since being gifted it.  I'm not a brand junkie by any means though, I am someone who will be brutally honest if the $400 product is worse than the $4 product, no matter their name. 

***As a disclaimer before I get into the product, I found out about 2 months ago that Chanel cosmetics are NOT cruelty-free. I stopped using this product immediately after finding out and set it aside for this review. If this not being cruelty-free doesn't bother you, then keep reading***

Chanel Precision Lip Definer 

 

Chanel Precision Lip Liner: $31

The first thing to note is that this doesn't have a weird smell, or any smell at all, which is one positive for this item. To be honest though, I've never encountered a lip pencil with a smell, ever, of course there could always be a first. An immediate downside before even testing this item though is that if you run out and need to replace it, it's $31, and this particular color is no longer being made. This means you'll have to wait for it to show up on Ebay, Amazon and other resale sites, which could mean you'd get if for less, but it could also mean it might cost more than $31. That's pretty darn pricey for a lip liner. Just sayin'. Price aside though, this is the hardest lip pencil I've ever used in my life. Swatching on the back of the hand felt stiff but I was willing to look past that since it had nice, even pigmentation. On the back of the hand that is.

Trying to use this product on the lips was the worst lip experience of my life. To get color payoff I had to press down hard and it was painful, catching my lips and leaving uneven product in the wake of it's application. I tried so many times (before finding out it wasn't cruelty-free) and it each time I was left feeling frustrated with awful-looking lip liner. Even if this was cruelty-free, this wouldn't be worth $3.10, let alone $31. One slight positive is that the other side of this lip liner has a smudge brush to smudge out any lip product you might put on top of it. That's one nice touch, but it doesn't make the price worth it.

(Can you see that uneven patchiness around the edges on the bottom lip? I didn't wear it on my top lip so you could see the difference. Uneven towards the top of my bottom lip too, I can see my natural color showing through. Ugh)

Final Verdict: Nope. The color was pretty, but the pencil was terrible and cleaning that little brush is such a nightmare since the bristles are so densely packed. Getting any gloss or lipstick out of those bristles is a pain. On top of that, my lips hurt every.single.time I used this pencil. On top of that, it's not cruelty-free, which means this bad boy is going in the trash.

 Go use Colourpop, go use Wet & Wild, go use Urban Decay, go use Too Faced, use anything other than this one.

2 Spray-On Makeup Brush Cleaners, One Review

With a new-found steam to the detoxify my beauty/skincare products, I've found myself wanting to make sure every aspect of my life is at least cruelty-free while working towards all of my beauty/skincare being vegan too over time. This led me to realize that my MAC makeup brush cleaner is something that needs to go since MAC isn't truly cruelty-free, not while they're selling through mainland China that requires animal testing.  

As someone who's tried numerous different kinds of brush cleaner before, I was excited to branch out and see what high-end AND drugstore had to offer since I'm lucky to have access to both on a daily basis. 

My first top was Target, and there I picked up the only labeled brush cleaner in the entire store that the Target employee knew of, which happened to be cruelty-free & vegan: ELF cosmetics brush cleaner.

ELF Studio Daily Brush Cleaner: $3

At first glance this seemed like a 100% winner due to the fact that you get 2.02 fl oz for only $3. My wallet was rejoicing. However, my immediate reaction when I first sprayed this was "oh dear god what I done". The scent of this brush cleaner alone is enough to make me dry heave. This cleaner smells sickeningly sweet and not in the good way, almost like decaying fruit rotting in mid-summer Louisiana humidity. Aside from the scent though, it worked on my powder brushes quite nicely. Both real and synthetic haired powder brushes were sprayed, gently massaged to work the cleaner through the bristles, and then wiped on a clean paper towel until the leftover product was gone. The end result was a set of powder brushes that were clean but unfortunately had an awful lingering scent that made me cringe the next morning when I went to use them. For my liquid foundation brush though, this did nothing. It knew nothing therefore did nothing...Jon Snow. 

I used 1/4 of the bottle trying to clean my liquid foundation brush to no avail. Spray cleaners seem to work best for powder brushes. While this worked nicely for most of my brushes, I can't continue to use it. Smelling that scent every time I clean my brushes will send me to an early grave.

When the ELF version didn't work I inspected every cosmetic counter at Macy's until I found another spray brush cleaner, this time from the company Origins. I thought that Origins was cruelty-free until I accidentally stumbled across an article stating that they sell through mainland China. 

Whoops.

Origins Brush Cleaner: $14.50

For this brush cleaner you get 3.4 fl oz for $14.50, which is more expensive than the MAC cleaner. I was a little disappointed, hoping that I would get more for the cost, but I was still hopeful that it would blow me away. My immediate reaction when I first sprayed this was "Thank god it doesn't smell like the ELF one". This cleaner has the slightest organic scent that is on the verge of heavenly. Using this one on my powder brushes though wielded very different results. Instead of becoming squeaky clean, they remained the same color they were from my powder products, except they just stopped depositing color on the clean paper towel once sprayed. Following the same process: Spray, massage, wipe, repeat until clean....well, there never was a truly "clean" state.

To be honest, this cleaner didn't really do much appearance-wise for my brushes. They felt softer, conditioned and sanitized, but they still looked very dirty, which leads me to believe this didn't get a lot of product out. It might've just sanitized the product that was left in there.

Final Verdict

NO. DOUBLE NO.

I am still on the hunt for an effective cruelty-free and hopefully vegan brush cleaner that is less messy and time-consuming than shampoo & water. 

I won't rest until I find it, I just might stop to take snack breaks in-between. And maybe a nap or two.

Z Palette Tips, Tricks + Review

If any of you lovelies out there are thinking about investing in z palettes to organize your life, check out my video below with tips, tricks and a mini-review!