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Review – Avon Mirror Shine Spray


Today I’m going to talk about a hair product for once! I have just tried out Avon Mirror Shine Spray. It advertises “93% more shine”. A 3.4 oz bottle is only $5 so I thought sure, why not.

I really like this product. I did what the directions say…I washed and dried my hair like normal, then held the bottle 8 to 10 inches away from my hair and sprayed it lightly throughout. I combed it through, and voila! Shiny hair. My hair is kind of deceiving. I have tons of it, so sometimes people think I have thick hair. On the contrary, I just have a whole lot of fine hair. So products tend to weigh it down and make it look greasy. Ew. Not good. However, I don’t notice any of that with this shine spray at all. Just sleek, glossy hair.

The only thing I don’t like about the product is the smell. It smells very…generic hair product-like. Which is kinda gross and chemically. I guess I’m kinda spoiled because I use Biolage and their products all smell amazing. I also think even my hair spray (bumble & bumble) smells good. This stuff…doesn’t.

However, a little body spray spritzed and wafted onto my hair solves that problem. ;) I will definitely continue to use this, as it’s a lot cheaper than my other fave gloss product– Fekkai Glossing Creme. A little of either product goes a long way, but this costs half as much as the Fekkai travel size tube of glossing creme, and I don’t get my hands greasy with the spray.

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Review – mark. Shine Fighter Oil Control Mask

I am trying out mark’s latest addition to its skincare family, shine fighter oil-control mask. Here’s what mark. has to say about this product and what it does for you:

“This oil-absorbing clay-based mask delivers skin-balancing and pore-cleansing benefits for a super complexion. Naturally exfoliating sugar cane enhances skintone and texture while apricot serves up a dose of vitamin A and C. It’s the best way to keep shine in check.”

Sounds magical right? Well it pretty much is. It feels fantastic on when first applied. The first thing I noticed was the very soothing cooling effect it has on the skin. And the abundance of cucumber aroma, lol. I’m guessing cucumber is just a very strong scent because I kind of would have expected it to smell sweet like sugar or apricot. There is no fragrance added, so this is just how it smells.

Don’t mistake it containing apricot for it containing scrubby granules, as that is not the case. It’s very smooth and creamy going on. The exfoliation going on in this mask is more at the cellular level, not physical exfoliation from grainy texture. These natural chemical exfoliants are great for brightening skin, lightening scars, and helping with blackheads.

mark. recommends wearing this mask for up to 5 minutes. I always stretch that, I think I wore this for about 10. It rinsed off fairly easily with my little facial scrubbie pad and warm water. I always go over my face with a baby wipe after rinsing a mask, too. Gotta be sure to get all of it off! Just be careful not to get it in your eyes.

After using, my face feels free from oil without feeling tight or dried out. It also feels very soft! I will continue to use this because I sort of like it better than my other clay masks. It dries up the oil while feeling very soothing. Sometimes after using a drying clay mask I feel the need to follow up with a moisturizing mask, but I do not feel like I need to with this one.

mark. shine fighter oil control mask is 3.4 oz (100 mL) and $7. If you are interested in ordering, check out my mark boutique. :) Shipping is free with a $35+ order with the code MARKFS35.

Ingredients: Water, Hydrated Silica, Kaolin (Clay), SD Alcohol 40-B, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Sorbitan Laurate, Glycerin, Silica, Cellulose Gum, Polysorbate 20, Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Fruit Extract, Spiraea Ulmaria Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber Fruit) Extract, Punica Granatum Fruit Juice, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Titanium Dioxide/Cl 77891, Blue 1/Cl 42090.

Made in the USA.

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Upcoming mark. Goodness

Here’s what’s coming from mark. at the end of March…

Shine Tube hook-up gloss (super shiny) – clear only – $5.50

Sparkletubes lipgloss hook-ups $5.50 each

Get Bright liquid highlighter hookup – $6
Good Riddance creamy concealer hook-up stick (note that they mislabeled the shades in the promo pic) – $6 each

ALSO! TSA guideline-compliant Travel kits of skincare and self sanctuary body products! FINALLY!

Bath & Body kits consist of:

  • .5 oz scent mist
  • 2 oz body butter
  • 1.5 oz shower wash

Scents available are: Lemon Sugar, Honey Jasmine, and Chocolate Orchid. Price is $15 per kit

The Shine Fighter Skincare Kit consists of:

  • 1 oz That’s Deep gel cleanser
  • 1 oz Mist Opportunity refresher spray
  • .5 oz Matte Chance moisturizer
  • .05 oz Berry Grand exfoliating beads
  • clear pink pouch

The Brighten Every Day Skincare Kit consists of:

  • 1 oz Calming Effect comforting milk cleanser
  • 1 oz Mist Opportunity refresher spray
  • .5 oz See Things Clearly moisturizer
  • .05 oz Go With The Grain exfoliating beads
  • clear pink pouch

Skincare kits cost $20 each. I’m looking forward to the brighten every day set; I can use every single product in it!

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Free Shipping from mark.

Free shipping on your $20+ order from my mark store with the code MFS20. The code was sent out via email. My store’s website says $35+ with code MARKFS35, but this is a special code for my customers. :)

What’s good to check out there?

The new Earth fragrance, for one! It smells heavenly! It reminds me of running around in the grass. But not in that “ew you just rolled in dirt” kind of way, haha.

Also, mark now has a product similar to MAC Mineralize Skin Finish. They’re available in 3 colors, and are nearly $20 cheaper than MAC.

And finally…skincare bundles! 3 products and a cute little bag!

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Lip Swatches!

MAC Jampacked lipglass Limited Edition from the Cult of Cherry collection. This is applied sheerly and can be worn much darker and vampier if desired. The color is gorgeous though. This one’s already sold out online so try your local MAC counter or store to find it.

MAC lipglass in “Style Minx” Limited Edition from the Heatherette collection. This is applied sheerly; the gloss is actually one of the most pigmented and brightest hot pinks I’ve ever seen.


NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in “Hera”. These things are almost lip stains. They stay on for hours! Only $3.99.

Looking for a red lipgloss? Consider mark. Glow Baby Glow hook-up lipgloss in “Hot”! $5

Avon Glazewear lipstick in “Royal Fuschia”. Sadly discontinued, but I bet you could find it on ebay. This color is a bit more pink in real life.


Avon Glazewear lipstick in “Punch”. Also discontinued, but try ebay!
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mark. earth fall fragrance

I received some samples of mark.‘s new fragrance for fall, earth. It’s really nice, guys! Like, really nice. I have it on my wrist and the more I smell it, the more I like it. mark. describes this fragrance as “a lush, beautiful blend of dewy green notes, fresh cut flowers, and warm tender woods”. Doesn’t that sound pleasant? :)

earth launches on september 16th in an edt and a body butter, with a gift with purchase! Every earth edt sold will also receive an “oh-so-opulent” ring! The edt is 1.6 fl oz and will be $22. The body butter is 6.7 oz and will be $12.

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My Stash – Palettes

Unfortunately I’m still having camera-related technical difficulties and don’t have photos for this entry. :( But I am going to do a sort of “feature” on different parts of my stash. This time it’s palettes!

It’s funny, I love pre-made palettes but I’m not wild about the home-made ones. I hardly touch ’em. I’m strange.

My most recent palette acquisition is the L’Oreal Showstopping Taupes Quad. This quad is gorgeous. The shades are a silvered medium taupe, a paler lavender-cream taupe, pale creamy ivory, and delicate rose. This quad was limited edition and is very hard to find with the exception of swapping and Ebay. I got mine from a sweet swapper on MUA. The shades are satiny, not matte but not glittery either. The packaging is simple, yet sturdy. I haven’t seen L’Oreal come out with a nicer looking quad. I’m glad I have it in my collection. Great for work looks.

I have a small selection of MAC palettes that I cherish. The two quads I have are the Sweetie Cakes quad and the Perverted Pearl quad. Both are discontinued. The Sweetie Cakes quad is not too hard to get ahold of and pretty easy to get a good deal on, too. The Perverted Pearl quad, however, is extremely difficult to get ahold of. I lucked out and bought it off of a Canadian MUAer. The palette itself is cracked but still totally functional and worth it to get such a hard to find item. The Perverted Pearl quad contains Print and Seedy Pearl, two of my favorite MAC eyeshadows. The other two MAC palettes I have are from the Royal Assets collection (Holiday ’07). I have both the smokey eye palette and the warm eyes palette. I did not think the warm eyes palette was at all warm really. It’s pretty darn neutral in fact. I’m cool-toned but I thought the cool palette looked too garish as it contained brighter colors. No thanks!

What would a mark. rep’s stash be without some mark. Flip For It palettes? I have 3 of these: London Spring, Sydney Spring, and New York Fall. These are handy little palettes that have 2 eyeshadows, a blush, and 4 lipcolors. To be honest I never use the lipcolors, but the shadows and blushes are so pretty that I don’t mind, haha. I kind of wish you could de-pot these so I could put the blushes and shadows into face cases, but that has proven to be darn near impossible without breaking things. The pans in the flip for it palettes are not nearly as sturdy as the regular pan products and bend when you try to pry them out even just a little. Thus, the product crumbles. So sad. Lame design flaw.

A brand getting a lot of buzz right now is NYX Cosmetics (that is pronounced like “nicks”, but I still hear a lot of people spelling it out. it’s confusing that they capitalize it, imo). I have one trio from the brand, and one on the way (sounds like I’m pregnant with an e/s trio lol). The one I have is Lake Moss. If there are must-have NYX trios, Lake Moss is one. The colors are all blackened– blackened purple, blackened blue, and blackened green. The purple is like MAC Fertile only with better texture and more pigmentation. It’s a teensy bit darker, but very very pretty. The time I wore the purple shadow to work in a bold smokey eye, I got stopped in the hallway and quizzed about what I was wearing. The trio I have on the way is Ceramic, which is 3 shades of grey. I know, doesn’t sound too terribly exciting, but I love grey/silver.

I’m skipping over my Stila palettes because that’s a feature coming soon. ;)

One palette I really really love is my Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box. The deluxe shadows are so amazing. I hate glitter, so I was thrilled to know that Urban had created some beautiful brights without the insane amounts of glitter. They’re not matte (that’s a different totally awesome UD collection, haha) but they aren’t glittery. Just kind of satiny. You get 9 shadows in one palette and the colors are so beautiful and vibrant. And these just simply do not fade, either. Of course I do use the primer potion beforehand, but even 12 hours later these don’t fade one single bit. Awesome. I believe this palette retails for in the neighborhood of $36 but I got mine at a discount ($28 shipped) from a seller pixelbit on Livejournal. She’s great and I recommend her.

And finally, my little stash of Wet ‘N Wild eyeshadow palettes. Seriously? Worst brand name. Ever. Epic fail. Wet ‘N Wild? What the heck does that even mean guys? With relation to cosmetics? Who knows. But what I do know is their 8-color eyeshadow palettes are gorgeous! I have 4 of them: Glamorous Gems (discontinued), Silver Bells (discontinued), Paradise Cove, and Sand Castle. All of the shades are great to work with, blend well, and are vibrant. The Sand Castle is one of the better neutral palettes I’ve worked with. It’s a go-to item for travel.

There you have it. That’s my palette stash (minus Stila). What’s your favorite palette?

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Reviewing Mark’s Latest New Stuff

mark. released a bunch of stuff recently that I was very excited about. I posted about it in this entry.

Well, I got my haul! Sorry to take so long but I had camera issues. Here’s what I got, and my thoughts.

mark launched 4 new shadows in matte shades. In the photo above going clockwise from the top right, they are Espresso, Latte, Whisper, and Wink Wink. It turns out Whisper isn’t really matte. It’s kind of a satin or pearl. But it’s my favorite. It looks like a boring beige, but it’s kind of a pearled ivory, and for me it makes a great “wake up the eyes” look. Latte is just okay. It looks orangey brown on my pink skin. On warmer skin it would probably look great. Espresso also looks too warm for me. Wink Wink is fine, but not a ton of color payoff.

There are some eyeshadow swatches (Espresso, Wink Wink, Latte, Whisper). Amusingly, you can barely see Whisper in the photo. But it’s the best, I swear. The lighting is just awful. See how orange Latte looks on me? God I’m pink.


4 new juice gems came out with this group. Juice gems are kind of like Lancome Juicy Tubes. They’re very sticky, and sheer. However, Berrylicious (right) actually has a lot of pigment. Raspberry (left) has a decent amount as well. Pineapple (the gold one, duh) is just shimmer. And Mango Tango (the only one left lol) just has minimal pigment. The biggest plus is they all smell FABULOUS!!

Right row: Berrylicious, Pineapple, Mango Tango. Raspberry is the bottom swatch on the left. The top 2 swatches on the left are from this baby:

On the left we have Glow Baby Glow Luxe in Lucky Luxe, which is kind of an orangey red with LOADS of shimmer. On the right is Glow Baby Glow in Blow Kisses, which is a bluey red with no shimmer at all. *Gorgeous* glosses and tons of pigment. Buy them. Love them. Yum.

I don’t have swatches of the 2 liquid highlighters but I can tell you that Glow Xpert in Rose Glow looks just like BeneFit High Beam. For $8. NICE! Here are pictures in the jars:


I apologize for the crappy lighting in these photos. It’s the best I can do at night in my apartment!

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Latest Purchases

Hey all…sorry for the lack of updates! I have a few things to talk about in this one, so it’ll be filled with goodies.

First of all, Vincent Longo is having their Friends & Family event at their website, www.vincentlongo.com! Receive 30% off your order with the code “vlfamily” for the month of June. I highly recommend investigating VL’s lip products. This brand is usually pricey, so take advantage!

Secondly, Bath & Body Works is having their semi-annual sale this month. Hooray! I picked up some Enchanted Orchid creamy body wash, and I really love it. The subtle floral scent stayed on my skin for quite a while after the shower, and my skin felt very soft as well as clean. I am a huge fan of multi-tasking products, so a body wash that moisturizes and cleans is going to be a winner for me if it works as well as it says it will. Even if you aren’t into bath products, check out bathandbodyworks.com to see if you are located near a flagship store. All of their cosmetics are being clearanced at large discounts. Brands include Vincent Longo, Awake, and 100% Pure. I would love to get my paws on some 100% Pure stuff, but I’m trying not to spend any money right now. Oh well!

I recently received a small order of mark. goodies! I bought the new flower ring (not available to the public until 6/24). Guys, this ring is gorgeous. I’m not a jewelry person really, but I have been wanting to get into jewelry because I think it can really tie an outfit together. Because I’m not a huge jewelry enthusiast, I’m pretty picky about what I will wear. This ring is really awesome!! Here’s mine:
I have pretty small hands, so this ring may look ginormous to you. It’s about a 1″ diameter. The ring is adjustable, but doesn’t feel like cheapo metal that will break when you adjust it. I believe I’m a size 8 ring and it adjusted to fit me fine. I got one of these for my cousin’s birthday, too. I hope she likes it. :) If you are in to fun feminine pieces, you will be too!

I also got a socialite wallet. I love this thing. Not only does it match my Frame of Mind tote, but it’s incredibly versatile and holds all of my wallet junk with plenty of room for more. It’s so pretty, too…pewter with a leopard print lining!! There is a loop to hold a mark. hook-up in the middle of it as well. The socialite wallet is on sale for $14.99, and the FOM tote is on sale for $24. For some reason, my e-boutique is showing different items than the main site, so if you decide to order and want me to get the commission remember to put my rep # in the orderform at checkout (rep # is 7146862673). Thanks! :)

If you are into minty lipgloss, scoot on over to the drugstore and check out Amazemint glosses by Cover Girl! They have peppermint oil in them (some sort of collaboration with Crest) to freshen breath. They also claim to make your teeth appear whiter. All I know is they are lovely yummy minty goodness. The formula is very moisturizing, too. One of the few glosses where I do not feel it is necessary to wear balm underneath. I picked up Tickled Pink and Un-Wined, and I like Tickled Pink best.

Products I’m currently testing out…

– TimeBalm concealer
– Stridex power pads (benzoyl peroxide 2.5%)
– Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash (second try)

Coming in the mail..!

– Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion
– LUSH Ultrabland cleanser
– 1″ Sedu flat iron
– Stila Scarlet palette
– Stila Lime shadow mousse pot

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Coming Next Week – More mark. Summer

Hey everyone…mark magalog 6 will be launching on may 27th (that is next Tuesday). In it are some exciting goodies including baked eyeshadow trios, sunglasses, and a new dress that you can wear 3 different ways. I love the jewelry coming up in this mag as well. Here is the link for your sneak previewing pleasure:

http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2008/12/en/p900.html?ba=null

Definitely go check it out! The dress is getting rave reviews on the representative forums. :)

Remember to order, check out my e-boutique: http://aben-yehuda.mymarkstore.com

This mag launches 5/27/08 at 12 noon EST (so that’s 9 am my time in Cali). Shipping from my e-boutique will be free with a purchase of $20 or more. Code is MARKFS20.

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