Review || Sephora Summer Starter Kit

A couple weeks ago Sephora had a deal for Beauty Insiders where you could get their Summer Starter Kit, a 500 point reward, for only 250 points. It just so happened that I had 250 points, so I snatched this little guy up as quick as I could. Unfortunately, this kit is no longer available on Sephora...but I thought I would do a review of each of the individual products because I would be willing to purchase some of these full-size, and others I thought were just so-so. 

I was really excited to try out this Dr. Jart BB Cream because I had never tried a high-end BB cream before. Before this I had only tried the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream (which I actually use a lot on the weekends and every day when I'm at the beach). At first I couldn't decide if I liked the Dr. Jart version, but after a couple uses I decided that it works really well on me as a lightweight base. It looks very natural as long as you don't use too much, and it has the added bonus of SPF 25. I can't say that I have seen any skincare benefits so far though, and it's definitely not a one-shade-fits-all-skintones type of color. I'm on the lighter side of light-to-medium and I wouldn't recommend the shade of this BB cream to anyone with super-pale skin, very tan skin, or dark skin. Another con is that it kind of emphasized any dry patches on my skin. 

I've seen a lot of beauty gurus on YouTube with the Dr. Jart Water Fuse BB Cream, which (of course) makes me want to get my hands on a sample to compare with the Black Label version before I can 100% say I would purchase a full-size of the Black Label. But as it stands now, I'm leaning toward purchasing this after I finish the sample. 

In all honesty I've only tried this Shiseido sunscreen a couple of times so far. I'm planning on saving it for when I have to do more walking outside--right now I'm working in an office and my skin rarely sees the sun, so sun protection is not my #1 priority (Is that bad? That might be bad). But I can say that it didn't feel like anything special...it wasn't particularly lightweight, it wasn't particularly heavy. It just felt like a sunscreen for your face. Rather than purchase a full-size version of this sunscreen, I would rather find a cheaper version at the drugstore or use a makeup primer that contains SPF. 

In my opinion, the sample of the Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer is the star of the Summer Starter Kit show. It literally feels like I'm putting silk on my face when I use it and I only need the tiniest amount to cover my entire face. It's also a nice alternative to the Laura Mercier Radiance Primer for days when I don't want any added sheen from my primer. I will definitely be repurchasing this and I would definitely recommend trying to get your hands on a sample. Just as a side note: the largest size offered at Sephora is a pretty pricy $52, but you can also buy a smaller, $18 bottle that would probably last you a really long time. 

I don't have too much to say about the Lancome Hypnose Star mascara. It was just kind of "meh" for me. I actually used to looove Lancome mascaras and consistently repurchased them...but that was before I discovered the beauty that is Maybelline The Falsies. To be fair, this does make your lashes look nice and long. I didn't think it was very volumizing though. All in all, it wasn't a bad mascara; I just didn't think it was any better than a number of cheaper drugstore mascaras, and it definitely isn't worth the $28 price tag.

I feel like everybody raves about the Anastasia clear brow gel, and Anastasia brow products in general. I was really looking forward to seeing how this measured up to my Maybelline Great Lash in clear (literally the only brow gel I could find at the drugstore). Unfortunately, I was a little bit disappointed. The good this about this brow gel is that it really, really keeps your brows in place throughout the day. I just dislike the crispy, crunchy texture it leaves on my brow hairs. It doesn't bother me that much, but I'm also not impressed enough with this product to pay $22 for a full size.  

I don't have that much to say about the bareMinerals Multi-Wrinkle Repair treatment either. I should probably give it to my mom to see how she likes it -- or maybe I just haven't used it for a long enough period of time. The most interesting thing about this product is that it advertises an "ActiveSoil" complex, and it actually smells like dirt. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; it actually makes me believe the claim that there's some sort of special "soil" ingredient in the treatment. Overall, I don't know if this product is for me, but I would recommend trying it out if you have problems with wrinkles.

Review || Laura Mercier Radiance Foundation Primer

This Laura Mercier Primer was the first makeup primer I've ever tried. I first started wearing foundation about six months ago (before that I just used concealer), and after a few months a saleswomen at Sephora convinced me that I needed a primer to keep my foundation in place all day. I was skeptical at first because, to be honest, the saleswomen's makeup looked like she had caked it on with a spatula. I also didn't feel like my makeup was melting off that much throughout the day...I get small blemishes in my T-zone occasionally, but my skin isn't that oily. 

But of course after a few weeks I got curious, and after I watched this video by Vivianna from Vivianna Does Makeup, I had to add the Laura Mercier Radiance Primer to my beauty wish-list. I ended up buying it during my Spring break; it was around $30 but I've had it for about 4 months and it's still going strong. 

The first day that I used this primer I really noticed a difference in how my foundation looked; it still appeared fresh and my face looked a lot more "perfected" than it normally did. So as far as staying-power, the Laura Mercier Radiance Primer gets a thumbs up from me. 

Now on to the "Radiance" part. I wouldn't ever want to wear this primer alone on my face (unless I only applied it to my cheeks for a dewy glow) because it definitely adds a shine to the areas it's applied. And even though my skin is pretty normal, I still don't want shine on my forehead or chin. However, once you put your foundation or even a BB cream over the primer it looks really nice and creates a dewy finish. You can adjust the dewy-ness of the overall effect by changing up your base. I get a more dewy look to my skin when I use a tinted moisturizer or a BB cream, and a more satin finish with dewy cheeks when I use my Makeup Forever HD Foundation (which I mainly apply to the center of my face). 

Bottom Line: I would recommend the Laura Mercier Radiance Primer to anyone who loves that dewy-skin look. 

Website Favorite || Stalkthis

A couple of months ago I was watching makeup videos on YouTube (as I tend to do), and I stumbled across a video by Chloe Morello in which she gives the lowdown on a new Pinterest-like website: www.stalkthis.com. You can watch the video here; it includes a well-done tutorial on how to use the website, so I'm not going to get into that in this post. Basically, Stalkthis is similar to Pinterest in that you are tagging pictures of things and saving them to your profile, which you can look back on later.

The big difference is that Stalkthis was created for the purpose of tagging products you're looking to buy but that might cost a tad more than you're willing to pay. Stalkthis keeps track of the prices of the products you've "stalked" and sends you email alerts when they go on sale or drop in price. As you can see from the picture above, it also keeps track of the alerts on the website itself. You can even sort the items you're stalking into categories As a penny-pinching college student,  Stalkthis has already helped me save money on a couple of clothing items, which is why I like it.

But!

Stalkthis is still in beta form, meaning that its creators are still working out some kinks in the website (that's what beta means to my understanding, at least). I've definitely noticed some major glitches which make use of the site less enjoyable, so I hope those get worked out in the future. Here's a list of some of the major/most annoying ones that I've noticed:

• Stalkthis forgets what you bought. I find this to be the #1 most irritating glitch on Stalkthis. What happens is this: After you buy an item, you can edit it on the site to say "Got It" over the picture, as I've done with that awesome Hindu-inspired elephant T-shirt (see above). I like this function because then you can come back to your account later and look at all the things you bought and it just makes me happy for some reason. The problem is, after a couple of days, if you log back into Stalkthis the "Got It" banner disappears. For a while I kept re-clicking the "Purchased" button to make the banner re-appear but now I just delete the item for the most part. Disappointing. 

• Certain product pictures don't load on the site. Again, if you look at the screen shot above, you an see that I tagged something on beautybay.com...but the picture just doesn't load on Stalkthis. I'm not sure why this is, but it annoys me to no end and I have to delete those pictures too. (FYI: The product I tagged was Alpha H Liquid Gold, which you can buy here.)

• The "Category" button in the Stalk toolbar doesn't work. To be fair, this has only happened to me in Safari and only happens sometimes. But it's annoying because if you want to categorize an item, you have to log into the actual Stalkthis website and edit from there, instead of categorizing from the "Stalk" toolbar, which is more convenient.

Hopefully this blog post didn't get too too technical and nitpick-y. The bottom line is that I really like Stalkthis.com because it helps me keep track of things I want in a fun, visual way, and most importantly saves me some cash.