Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch Island Breeze

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.



Island Breeze

 

Island Breeze is a beautiful bright teal shade with a shimmery finish. It's a few shades darker than the photo on the Coastal Scents site (I know all computers are different, but it's something to keep in mind) This shadow applies like silk and is easy to blend. CS says it's semi-opaque, but it only just barely misses the opaque mark. In fact, I wouldn't be uncomfortable with giving it a fully opaque label, myself. You can sheer it out to a softer, and slightly lighter, finish and shade, but I wouldn't mess with it too much as you will lose some of its vibrancy.
Unfortunately the swatch above doesn't really do this shadow justice. It is much more bright and lively than I could capture on a cloudy day.

This shade will look good on most skin tones and will be especially good for those who have difficultly finding vibrant colors that will actually show up on their dark skin.




Neutrogena Nourishing Longwear Makeup Review and Swatches

*As a BzzAgent I received this product free of charge.

I haven't used many of Neutrogena's foundations, so I was pretty excited to try this one out. I usually give a bit of an eye roll anytime a foundation claims to improve the look of your natural skin. And while I haven't noticed any super obvious changes in my skin tone, the texture of my skin feels slightly better.

Natural Ivory - 20

My shade is Natural Ivory which is the second to lightest shade in the 8 shade range.

inside

in sun

This foundation comes in a glass bottle with no pump. I'm not one of those people who freaks out over the absence of a pump. It makes it a little more difficult to get the product out, and this formula is a bit on the thick side, but it's not horrible and I've had no issues with messes. And although the foundation is thickish, it's still easy to blend out. I have dry skin so I like to mix a bit of moisturiser in with my foundation during application, so that probably helped the application process. However I did try it without the added moisturiser and had no problems.

Neutrogena claims that you will get 12 hours of wear with this foundation and I found this to be true. Of course it didn't look quite as fresh as it does in the morning, but it wasn't patchy or fading at all and there was no oxidizing.  The finish is a lovely satin and despite the thickness of the formula, I don't feel this on my skin at all.

Coverage is medium-light. It does a beautiful job of evening things out, but I definitely sill have to use concealer in places. I usually prefer a more natural look for every day wear, so it suited me just fine. I love that it has spf 20, since part of keeping skin looking its best is protecting it from the sun, and I make a real effort to do that.

This retails as my nearest Target for about $13, which is an average price of a drugstore foundation. You get a full fluid ounce, so it's definitely budget friendly.

Peter Thomas Roth Power K Eye Rescue Review

The short story is, this product is awful!
For a whopping $100, this product claims to minimize the look of dark circles, puffiness and fine lines and to increase skin's firmness and elasticity. If it actually did any one of those things, it might be worth the hundred  bucks, but it fails miserably. In fact, this stuff dried out the delicate skin under my eyes so much that it aged me about 20 years. It actually created crepiness and lines where none existed before! And it only gets worse ...

This is a gel, serum-like formula with little "caviar-like beads" (lol - what a crock!) it applies easily enough without tugging at the skin and a little bit goes a long way. That's the only positive thing I have to say about it. Once I apply it, it burns like crazy! Then it creates a tight, crusty film on the skin, so you absolutely cannot apply makeup on top of it. In any case, I decided to keep using it (dumb, I know) , but only at night, because I was convinced that it would start to work eventually and that maybe I just had to build up a tolerance to the product. I saw the skin under my eyes get drier and with more crepines over the course of about two weeks, starting the morning after the first application!  Eventually I gave up and I'll be returning this stuff ASAP. It's horrible on every level.
I should add that I have never experienced a bad reaction to any eye cream or treatment before. It's not like I have abnormally sensitive skin. This stuff is just harsh.

The fact that they charge so much for a product that is so terrible, really puts me off the entire Peter Thomas Roth brand. I can't see myself buying another one of their products.

Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch - Indigo Dream

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.

Indigo Dream

 

Indigo Dream is a deep blue shade - It's darker than the picture on Coastal Scents' website - and is highly pigmented. "Indigo" is a good name for it, because it darn near dyes your skin! It's not difficult to remove with makeup remover but if I get any on my hands when I'm doing my makeup I can't just wipe it off on the nearest towel. It requires soap, water and some scrubbing. Needless to say the staying power of this shadow is great. You could probably wear it for days, although I haven't tried.

As for the finish, I really thought this was a matte shade. I didn't inspect the pot up close and once applied, it certainly looks matte to me, but then I saw that CS considers it a shimmer. So, upon further inspection I did notice a few very finely milled shimmers in there. They are only visible if the light hits the pot just right and  I have to put in quite a lot of effort to see any shimmer once I've applied it. The photo on the Coastal Scents site shows a considerable amount of shimmer, but it's barely there at all in my pot. Maybe I got a dud. I don't know, but I prefer this one without all that shimmer.

This blue is quite versatile. It goes on opaque but it's really easy to blend and sheer out to a lighter shade, that's just as vibrant. If you're a lover of blue shadows this is a must-have for your collection.



Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch Miami Spice

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.

Miami Spice

Miami Spice is a sheer, medium brown shade with blue shimmers. I don't really know what to make of the blue shimmers, to be honest. They almost seem like an after thought and they're not very noticeable, once applied, unless you go looking for them. I suppose they liven up what would otherwise be just another matte brown crease shade that you probably already have.

This shadow applies smoothly and is easily blended. I haven't had any issues with creasing, but I always wear Coastal Scents Step One Eye Primer underneath it.

It's hard for me to get excited about this shade, mostly because it's kind of a blah brown, but sometimes that exactly what you need.

Ponds Luminous Finish BB+ Cream Review and Swatches

I've been wearing Pond's Luminous Finish BB+ Cream for a few days now and I'm loving it!

This formula is creamy and super easy to blend. It provides light coverage but you can build it to a solid medium without things looking cakey. It's emollient and does not accentuate dryness, even on these super dry and cold winter days. And the fact that it has an spf 15 will make it great for summer days as well. It's not greasy at all, but I'm not sure how those with oily skin will fare with this.

Pond's says the finish is matte but to me it's too skin-like to be matte. I'd say it's somewhere between matte and satin. And there is no shimmer or glitter. A lot of products these days put words like "luminous" in the name, when what they really mean is "shimmer" but that's not the case here.

 So far the longest I've worn this is 10 hours and it still looked as good as it did when first applied - And that's without a primer or setting it with powder. I found that it feels a bit heavy on my skin when I wear a primer underneath it, but I can't feel it at all if I use it alone.

Light Shade

The Light shade is perfect for my fair skin. Depending on the line of foundation, I tend to find my shade matches in the lightest or second to lightest shades that are offered.  This one is light with neutral undertones. I think it will blend seamlessly into skin tones from the light to light-medium range, but it might be a bit too dark for those with extremely fair skin.

Ponds claims that this cream will fade dark spots, but I don't really have any so I can't say whether it delivers there.

This retails around $10-$12 depending on where you make your purchase, with is a great value if you ask me.

Coastal Scents Camo Quad Light Review and Swatches

So begins another chapter in my quest for the perfect concealer

Camo Quad - Light

I really wanted to love Coastal Scents' Camo Quad. (I want to love every concealer I try!) I started out being really disappointed but then I figured out the perfect method of application and now I'm a fan.  

Coastal Scents offers these quads in 4 shades - Light, Medium, Dark and Color Corrector. I got the Light, which is a decent enough match for me but I think Medium probably would have been fine for me, since they provide a white shade in each of the three concealer quads allowing you to lighten any of the three colors to match your skin tone. I was drawn to Light due to the inclusion of the yellow toned concealer as yellows seem to really work for my ridiculously dark purple under eye circles. Also included in the Light Quad are a salmon toned shade and a more flesh toned shade. The salmon shade has actually turned out to be the best shade for me, giving me the most natural finish. The others are a bit too light.

Camo Quad Swatches - Light - in sunlight

They currently cost $7.95 which is a great value considering how much product you get. So often products I buy online end up being much smaller that expected, but this was actually bigger! And CS has frequent sales so you might be able to get it for even less.

When I first saw my quad in person, I was disappointed because the shades looked quite dull in the pan to me. However once applied, they are actually rather brightening, so no worries there. All of the shades seem to be lighter once applied than they look in the pan.

These concealers are a cream to powder finish and I personally don't think anyone over the age of 27 has any business putting anything even remotely powdery under their eyes, unless of course you have some major oil issues, which I don't. Without primer, each one of the 4 shades immediately looks cakey under my eyes and they only get worse throughout the day. With primer, things are a bit better to begin with, but they still eventually cake up, rendering this product almost unwearable. I say "almost" because I can get away with wearing them if I have a short day planned AND I'm wearing my glasses (which cover up any weirdness that may be going on in the eye make-up dept)
The key for me is to apply my regular eye cream right before applying all my makeup and to not apply any primer. This sheers out the coverage a little (it's still medium-full though) and provides a nice, smooth and natural finish.

These quads are definitely worth a try especially at this price. You might have to do some experimentation of your own to get your desired results though. I'm glad I didn't give up on this right away because I'm quite pleased with it.

Laura Geller Spackle Primer Review and Swatch - Champagne

I had super high hopes for Laura Geller's Spackle Primer in Champagne. Spackle has a fairly decent reputation and I love the idea of my primer adding a bit of glow, especially in the winter months when things are pretty dry and dull. Overall I'm quite pleased with its performance. Is it the end all be all, knock my socks off, never going to look for another primer again product? Not quite, but I've been using it every day and will probably repurchase it.

I think I should start by mentioning that this contains shimmer. A lot of it. So if you are one of the many that have a serious aversion to shimmer, this is not for you. It says that you can apply this on its own, for a more flawless look, which really excited me, but that's not happening. This primer doesn't reduce the look of pores so if you don't apply foundation on top of it you'll just be walking around with a sparkly face, which is not a good look on anyone. Having said that, most foundations cover the majority of the shimmers, leaving only a hint of them behind. I personally like the effect, but some will hate it. 

Champagne Spackle with no foundation

This primer does a really good job of perfecting the finish of my foundation, making it look more skin-like from the start. It also keeps my foundation from fading or becoming patchy almost all day. I'd say I get at least a full 10 hours wear with this primer. I've got dry skin which can sometimes make wearing even the lightest coverage foundation in the dry, winter months a total nightmare! Spackle keeps all those dry patches and weird, tiny flakes that foundation loves to cling to in check. I can't say that it's moisturising but it is a friend to my dry skin. This might mean trouble for those with oily skin. I'm not sure though.

It retails for $30. Seems a bit much at first glance, but you only need a little to cover your entire face and since it improves the finish of my foundation I think it's a fine investment.

Bath and Body Works Shea Cashmere and Silk Hand Cream

I'm really on the fence about Bath and Body Work's Shea Cashmere & Silk Hand Cream (part of their True Blue Spa line). I like the fragrance, if I don't over do it, but it's not great as a hand cream, if you ask me.

One thing I love about this product it the way it glides onto and into your skin. "Cashmere" is definitely not a misnomer here. The formula isn't greasy at all and leaves your skin feeling just like the cream's namesake. The first time I used it, I was really impressed. I don't think any other hand cream I've tried before has had this effect. Unfortunately it isn't as moisturizing as I had hoped. With "SHEA" so big on the label I expected something quite rich. My hands, especially my finger tips, get really dry and cracked in the winter time and this hand cream just doesn't cut it. It's not useless or anything. It'll do for days when light moisturization is needed, but if your hands are chapped and in need of something serious, this won't do the trick.

The fragrance of this cream is a mixture of almond, vanilla and sandalwood and it lingers on your skin for hours, even after you've washed your hands. It can become a bit too strong for my liking if I apply too much (almost perfumey), which I have done several times hoping I could get the moisturization I needed. But I usually really like the soft scent it leaves behind.