New Yves Saint Laurent Touche Brilliance

June 30, 2008

YSL has a beautiful looking now gloss, Touche Brilliance, Sparking Touch for Lips.

From the website:

Touche Eclat’s concept is now applied to lips, thanks to a new generation of mother-of-pearl that promotes unparalleled radiance: the lips are dressed up with an irresistible iridescent brilliance.

It looks fabulous, and I love that it has a built in brush applicator. Fifteen shades are available. This one is definitely going on my want to try list!

Shop for Yves Saint Laurent Cosmetics

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Cool Packaging, Gloss

Hanna Montana Lip Balm Via Avon

June 24, 2008

Are you a Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana fan? I sheepishly admit to it! Or perhaps you have a child who is a fan.

If so, the new Hanan Montana line at Avon may be of interest. It even has a vanilla flavored balm for .99 cents!

By the way, Avon tends for make pretty good and quite tasty light balms.

The Hannah Montana Bath & Body Collection is available through Avon Representatives nationwide. To find a Representative, call 1-800-FOR-AVON, or visit www.avon.com.

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Balm, Misc., Music, Unique

Murad Energizing Pomegranate Lip Protector, It Just Might Be The Best Gloss Ever!

June 6, 2008

Warning: This is what happens when I write about a product that will easily make my year’s best products list immediately after trying it. Actually, make that my best products ever list!

Important, wonderful, product link: Murad Energizing Pomegranate Lip Therapy SPF 15

Important Commentary: Wow! Wow, wow, wow! Looooooove it! If you buy only one flavored gloss this year, make it this one! BEST GlOSS EVER! Yummy, pretty, glossy, SPF protection!

Whew! OK, I got the main points out of my system, now let’s discuss this product. Murad has managed to create everything I want in a lip gloss. EVERYTHING! OK, so I’m still raving a bit…..

The Murad Energizing Pomegranate Lip Protector is a tube gloss with a delicate light pink tint. It gives a perfect glossy shine, with absolutely no stickiness; it tastes and smells incredible; it moisturizes as well as any other conditioning gloss or balm that I have tried, and; most importantly, it includes SPF 15.

In case you missed it, concerns were recently raised that lip gloss use increases your skin cancer risk, because a gloss sheen might intensify the sun’s effects. Thus, SPF in or under your gloss becomes even more important. I would still rave about this wonderful gloss even if didn’t have SPF, but that addition puts it over the top into my category of best ever products.
From the product literature:

As seen in InStyle April 2008.Revitalize and protect dry, dehydrated lips, improving texture, restoring suppleness and fighting free radicals. Pomegranate extract and UVA/UVB sunscreens provide powerful antioxidant protection. Salicylic acid gently exfoliates to reveal supple lips. Shea butter and jojoba esters condition and intensely hydrate.

So this one, conditions, exfoliates (I love the addition of salicylic acid), protects, and manages to look and taste great all in one. It is genius. The only downside is the cost. This one is a bit pricey, although not horribly high based on comparable higher end products.

I bought my Murad gloss at an ULTA Beauty store, but it can also be found online at the link above or you can comparison shop for Murad lip products at Shopzilla. There are some mini special edition keychain versions out there at decent prices.

Seriously: The best gloss of the year, or maybe the decade. Possibly even all time.

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Condition, Gloss, Unique

Sonia Kashuk Sheer Lip Color and Plumping Glossy Tint.

May 23, 2008

I have a couple of new favorite lipstick shade, and best of all they each come with an attached gloss! My new love is Sonia Kashuk Sheer Lip Color and Plumping Glossy Tint in the shade Passion Fruit and the same item in the shade Paradise 01. See swatches below.

First off, the dual lipstick and gloss is a nice touch. It also, like most Sonia Kashuk items, comes in pretty packaging. I’m kinds of a sucker for that stuff.

The lipstick, as the name says, is sheer. Passion Fruit has a wonderful rose/berry tone to it, while Paradise 01 is more of a berry red. Both are nice to look at and are generally good quality for the price.

The gloss is also pretty good. It has nice shine, good tint, and is not sticky in any manner. It comes with a brush applicator, when I would rather have a sponge, but that is just a personal preference for me. The gloss is unscented and unflavored as far as I can tell. It says it is plumping in the name, but I did not notice any plumping indicators, not even the tingle that most give off. I view it as simply a decent matching gloss and that is good enough for me.

But the best part of this set is the color. I adore the shades. Below is a swatch of Passion Fruit. Also shown is a Sonia Kashuk Velvety Matte Lip Crayon in Blossomy Nude that I quite like. It will have is own post in the near future.

Sonia Kashuk Lipstick and Gloss Passion Fruit

Here is a swatch of Paradise 01. It looks more red in the tube than it does on the skin. On my lips, I found that it provided a nice sheer berry with a bit of red hue that was quite wearable for either day or evening. Often berry red is a bit overpowering for my pale skin, but not this one. I liked the sheer effect of it.

Sonia Kashuk Lipstick and gloss Paradise 01

Sonia Kashuk products are available at Amazon.com (linked above) or at Target stores. The swatches were taken in full sunlight.

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Color, Cool Packaging, Gloss, Lip Pencil, Lipstick

Go Smile Smileceuticals Balm

May 19, 2008

“Smileceutical.” That is quite the word!

Equally interesting is the GO SMILE Smileceuticals Balm from the company that puts out specialty teeth whiting and tooth care products. This conditioning balm with retinol for long term treatment has a pretty good fan base. The cool tone to it also should make the teeth appear whiter. Or so some say….

Personally, I kind of like the packaging, but $18, I haven’t quite wanted to try it yet.

Shop for Go Smile Products

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Balm, Condition, Cool Packaging, Unique

New Belgium Brewing Company Lip Balm

April 29, 2008

How I missed this I’ll never know! First, a bit of back story:

I love beer. Seriously, I LOVE BEER! I am a member of the beer of the month club (thanks Mom!). I also help manage the Waymarking.com Brewpub Category (I initially created it in the beta days). I would homebrew, except I worry that all the beer consumption would make me fat. I even have a domain registered for a beer blog, but haven’t found the time to get it rolling. Then there is the fact that my husband and I have personal Mmm Beer Bottle Opener Geocoins. You get the picture…

It also really love Ft Collin’s Colorado, which is the home of the New Belgium Brewing Company and my favorite (on tap, I don’t care for it much in the bottle) American Wheat Beer, Sunshine Wheat. I have been on multiple camping trips, traveling from Nebraska (I am now in Illinois) to North Park Colorado, where I detoured and stopped in Ft Collins just to pick up growlers for the trip.

So imagine my surprise….. No, actually imagine my shock, when I learned that the New Belgium Brewing Company makes a lip balm! My two addictions have come together! It sounds decent enough as well. Here are the ingredients:

SPF 15 - Active Ingredients: Octinoxate (7.5%). Oxybenzone (3%). Other Ingredients: Organic Soybean Oil, Candelilla Wax, Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Hemp Seed Oil, Vitamin E, Rosemary Extract, Comfrey, Calendula, St. John’s Wort

OK, so there isn’t beer in it (the addition of St John’s Wort is a bit interesting though), and as far as I know it isn’t beer flavored (I haven’t tried it yet). I also admit that if it did taste like beer that would likely be a bit (OK a lot) weird.

I kind wish they would make it taste like beer anyway…… Which leads to this:

Stay tuned for more on beer lip balms next week!

Written by Carleenp · Filed Under Balm, Unique