Since Urban Decay’s Friends & Family sale ends at midnight tonight, I’m offering up my top picks from the brand! If you haven’t decided about hauling, perhaps something here will catch your eye. ;) Just as a reminder, the code is FFHOLIDAY13 for 20% off everything at Urban Decay!
The Best Products For Prepping Your Lips
I see a lot of talk about the very best ways to prep your eyes or prep your face for makeup, but not a whole lot about prep for lips. So LET’S TALK ABOUT IT MKAY! [Read more…]
Make Up For Ever Lip Line Perfector
Tarte Amazonian Clay Illuminating Serum
New Stila on the Horizon
I’m getting little tidbits about upcoming products from Stila!
At the end of this month, they will expand their lip & cheek stain line to include an Acai flavor/shade.
Next spring, a new eye primer called Prime Pot debuts. It will be in multiple shades. I spied this included in the face chart from the Whitney Eve show at New York Fashion Week!
Are you excited about the new Stila goodies?
Cover FX Primers – Say No To Unitaskers!
Are any of you Alton Brown fans? Mr. Menagerie and my stepdad both love him. As far as cooking shows go, Good Eats is pretty entertaining. Basically Alton Brown is the biggest cooking geek ever. He explains all the science behind what he cooks, which is pretty cool. One thing Alton Brown hates is unitaskers, or tools that only do one thing. He’s always saying to banish unitaskers from your kitchen.
In some scenarios, this is a great philosophy to apply to your skin care, too. Cosmetics technology leaped ahead with the invention of the foundation primer, but now brands are taking it a few steps further. There are many primers out there that also provide sun protection. However, that’s kind of…not that creative? Think outside the box here, people! First of all, many moisturizers and foundations also include SPF. The problem being that unfortunately more is not always better with sun protection. Depending on the ingredients in all of the various sun products you’re using, you might be doing more harm than good. Sometimes layering SPFs with different ingredients causes them to actually cancel each other out.
So what then? Cover FX has developed a line of primers that are also skin care. What? Well, it makes sense. Primers are applied directly to your skin after your moisturizer, so why not do some good while they’re there.
The first Cover FX primer I tried was their Skinprep FX. This primer not only hydrates and smooths your skin (which blurs imperfections and makes foundation glide on, blend easier, and wear longer), it is an anti-aging love fest of nutrition for your skin. It’s chock-full of antioxidants such as Coenzyme Q10, omega 3 fatty acids, and peptides that promote skin health. A little of this primer/serum goes a long way when applying it. It’s light, melds into the skin beautifully, and does everything it promises to do for my foundation-wearing experience. I do not experience any breakouts with it. There is a slight fragrance which to me smells like my childhood backyard honeysuckle flowers. Not a fake honeysuckle scent contrived in a lab somewhere, but like the actual scent of the hundreds of honeysuckles in my backyard. This primer can be used by any skin type but is especially good for normal to dry skin. I don’t find it makes me any more oily when I use it, though. I have combo skin.
After my very positive experience with Skinprep FX, I was delighted when Cover FX contacted me to see if I wanted to review their Clearprep FX primer/anti-acne serum. This primer can be used by anyone, even men. It’s an anti-shine serum that minimizes fine lines and pores as well as helps to prevent and heal blemishes. Clearprep FX is mattifying on contact with instantly noticeable results! Silica and naturally occurring beta and alpha hydroxy acids work together to promote healing of acne and prevention of new breakouts. I don’t feel tightness or dryness from using this, and it really helps keep my t-zone matte and my foundation last longer in oily circumstances such as hot weather. It really helps to dry out the little mini breakouts I occasionally have around my eyebrows after I pluck my brows, and to prevent new breakouts in my main problem area– my chin.
Even if you don’t wear makeup these products can be beneficial to you because of all of the great ingredients! There are 2 other products in Cover FX’s primer line that I haven’t tried, Briteprep FX (brightening primer with UV-inhibiting ingredients) and Mintglaze FX, a lip primer and balm. After trying and coming to love both of the primers I mentioned above, I really can’t wait to try the others sometime!
Check out Cover FX‘s website for more info and videos about their products.
Available: Cover FX | Sephora | Naimies
Urban Decay Fall 09 – New Products


Stuff I Love
My current list of most-loved/used products in no particular order…
Makeup
- Urban Decay Primer Potion
- Makeup Forever High Definition Foundation in shade 110
- MaxFactor 2000 Calorie Extreme Lash Plumper in Extreme Black
- Ulta Professional Lash Primer
- MAC Warm Soul mineralized blush
- MAC New Vegas mineralized skin finish
- Chapstick Lip Butter
- Avon Dew Kiss
- Prestige pencil eyeliners in general (all of them are fantastic!)
- Maybelline XXL Extensions mascara in whatever their blackity black black shade is
- Shu Uemura hard brow pencil in Seal Brown
- Anastasia of Beverly Hills brow gel (no, I did not go fork out full price for a fancy clear gel…and I wouldn’t, but I do admit this is pretty nice.)
- PureLuxe Silica Powder (this stuff is a godsend to oily skin and/or large pores!)
Beauty Tools
- Sonia Kashuk blending sponge (it’s magical, very similar to the BeautyBlender but blue!)
- Sonia Kashuk highlighting brush (very comparable to the MAC 187, but it’s $12.99!)
- EcoTools retractable kabuki brush
- Stila #7 eye brush (short-handled)
- Stila #9 eye brush (short-handled)
- My super cheap cute brush set from Hong Kong via ebay (seller is henlisy) – quality is surprisingly nice. I love these so much.