Love It Or Leave It; Review 2.0: MAC Cosmetics Coquette, Charcoal Brown, Nanogold, Honey Lust, Ricepaper, Gorgeous Gold, Rated "R", One-Off, Jealousy Wakes, Shimmermoss, Clarity, Tilt, and Crystal Eyeshadow

Hello folksickles. As a makeup junkie and blogger you may have realized that I review a LOAD of eyeshadow palettes and I like to think of myself as being largely an eyeshadow junkie. In order to declutter a bit I've decided to pick out a palette or series of eyeshadows for the month and have that be my monthly selection for those instances where I'm not doing a tutorial for the blog. Every month I'll do a recap on the eyeshadows - how I feel about them and whether I'll be keeping them or giving them away (and why :P). 

MAC Cosmetics Coquette, Charcoal Brown,  Nanogold, Honey Lust, Ricepaper, Gorgeous Gold, Rated "R", One-Off, Jealousy Wakes, Shimmermoss, Clarity, Tilt, and Crystal

These are the looks I created this month:

So as you can see I created both colorful and neutral looks with these shadows. I personally have found that these shadows are easy to blend and the pigmentation on them is fantastic. All of them work really great in my experience. Although using Clarity on the lid was a challenge, it behaves better as a crease shade. I've had these shadows for a while and definitely had a fun time finally getting to play with them! I am passing on Coquette and Charcoal Brown because I have dupes for them in palettes and never reach for them otherwise. I have also found that, despite my hopes, both shades are too warm-toned to use as brow shades so there's no need to hold onto them. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Disclaimer: I purchased these eyeshadows myself.

Love It Or Leave It; Review 2.0: Lorac Mega Pro 3 Palette

Hello folksickles. As a makeup junkie and blogger you may have realized that I review a LOAD of eyeshadow palettes and I like to think of myself as being largely an eyeshadow junkie. In order to declutter a bit I've decided to pick out a palette or series of eyeshadows for the month and have that be my monthly selection for those instances where I'm not doing a tutorial for the blog. Every month I'll do a recap on the eyeshadows - how I feel about them and whether I'll be keeping them or giving them away (and why :P). 

 Lorac Mega Pro 3 Palette

These are the looks I created this month:

So as you can see I created all sorts of somewhat colorful, smoky, warm-toned neutral looks with these shadows. I personally have found that these shadows are a literal dream to blend (absolutely effortless!) and the pigmentation on them is fantastic. All of them work really great in my experience. As you might know, I am a sucker for warm-toned neutrals and this was a palette I did not want to put down. It's an absolute pleasure to use!

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Disclaimer: I purchased this palette myself. 

Mascara Review: Isehan KISSME Heroine Make Long UP Black Mascara Super WP #01

Alright folksickles...

Today I will be reviewing the KISSME Heroine Make Long UP Mascara Super WP #01 in Black.

Sans Mascara:

With Mascara:

Availability: This retails anywhere from about $12 - $16 and is generally available at amazon.com, kissme-usa.com, isehangroup.com, stylevana.com, and japantaste.com.

Would I buy this again?: No. 

Notes: This mascara comes in black and brown, both are waterproof.

Let's go over what the mascara's supposed to do and what it actually does. According to kissme-usa.com:

Beautiful Lash Length UP!

New Super Waterproof Mascara with super lengthening and even stronger waterproof formula.

Durability & Curl: ★★★★★

Lengthening: ★★★★★

SUPER LENGTHENING FIBER

5mm Long EX Fiber easily entangles with lashes, lengthening them with every coat and creating beautiful, separated lashes.

ALL DAY CURL-HOLD

With Curl-Locking ingredients and Memory-Shape Polymer, lashes stay curled upward for a whole day.

ULTRA STRONG WATERPROOF

It has super strong resistance against, especially, tears, sweat, water, oils, and abrasions, preventing smudging all day long.

CONTAINS 6 KINDS EYELASH SERUM INGREDIENTS

Eyelash treatment ingredients protect sensitive lashes from damage while wearing makeup. Camellia Oil, Royal Jelly Extract, Argan Oil, Wild Rose Oil, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, and Almond Oil

Honestly, I find this mascara to be alright, but there's several reasons affecting why I won't be purchasing this again. The first is, as you can see from the above photo, this doesn't really help curl my lashes - now I'm unsure whether you're meant to curl the lashes with a curler first to help the mascara "lock it in" but that's not indicated anywhere in the instructions. Generally my lashes tend to be curly as is (although the day I photographed them, they clearly weren't even curling) so I don't bother, I also generally glue falsies on. As always, this isn't giving me a dramatic effect where I'd wear it alone without wearing falsies. I know you might ask why I wear mascara under falsies and that's because I find it helps anchor the falsies to the lash-line and also keeps glue from getting in my eyes. Additionally, I don't like that there are fibers in this mascara, I feel like they get in my eyes and are irritating. Even if they don't, I'm paranoid that they will. Lastly, removing this, possibly because it's waterproof is an absolute pain! Even when I seem to have really gotten into the lashes and lash-line with both my oil-based makeup remover and my Makeup Eraser, this will leave behind residue that gives me racoon eyes the next day - so I'll wake up to an unpleasant surprise. I can understand that if you need something long-wearing, this might be a good option, but I didn't find that it worked great for me. So while I tried this because it seems to be a fairly hyped up mascara, this was a one and done situation. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I purchased this myself.

February 2025 Departures

Ok folksickles. Departure blogs will contain items that aren't empties but that are going to be given away for one reason or another. I'm working hard to curate my makeup collection and want it to include only the products that I think truly work well, that I reach for often and do what they're supposed to do.

1. MAC Coquette and Charcoal Brown Single Eyeshadows: I'm passing both of these shades on because both are a bit too warm-toned to use as brow shades, and Coquette is a bit too light and blondish. Additionally, I have plenty of transition/crease brown tones within my palette collection so I don't see a need to keep singles that I never reach for. 

Disclaimer: I purchased these eyeshadows myself.

February 2025 Arrivals

Ok folksickles! I'm back to replenishing on things that I'm running out of and buying mostly just necessities.

1. Biore UV Aqua Rich Water Essence SPF 50+ PA++++: I'm running low on my SPF currently and decided to just go back to a favorite of mine. 

2. Green Pharmacy Rose Water and Almond Oil Facial Tone: Similarly to the above, I am starting to run low on my toner so I picked up one that I enjoyed in the past. 

3.  Ardell Professional Active Lash in Speedy and Wispies The Original Feathered Lash in Demi Wispies: I ran out of lashes as well so I decided to pick these up since both types look natural but with a bit of an oomph, which is what I'm leaning toward lately. 

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Disclaimer: I purchased everything listed above. 

February 2025 Favorites

Hey folksickles,

Alright, all the goodies I've been enjoying in February :) 

1. Lorac Mega Pro 3 Palette: I feel like I am such a sucker for a good warm-toned neutral palette and this is no exception! I was genuinely sad when it was time to move on to the next palette. These shadows are beautifully pigmented, buttery smooth, blend easily, and generally play nice with one another. Truly a pleasure to use!

2. ORLY Beautifully Bizarre Nail Polish: I love this polish because while it's this safe pastel pink that looks nice with everything, the teal pearl in this gives it a little something extra in a fun way! 

3. Hourglass Blush in Sublime Flush: You can see I've made a significant dent in this blush. It's been a while since I've used it and now that I've come back to it, I once again appreciate this. It's such a lovely, brightening pink that I think would look good any time of year but right now it's really giving me spring vibes, and I'm very much looking forward to spring!  

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Disclaimer:  I purchased the products mentioned above myself.

February 2025 Empties

All my monthly trash on display for you to see. :P

The following two moisturizers have separated entirely and have a weird texture now that I don't feel comfortable using:

1. Chamos Acaci Pomegranate Anti-Wrinkle Cream: 

2. Sephora Collection Instant Moisturizer: 

3. Laura Mercier Devotion Velour Lovers Lip Color: Unfortunately, this lipstick has developed an off scent so I've decided to discard it. I used up most of it anyway so it's not that big a loss.

4. Dove deep moisture body wash: I feel like this body wash is perfect for shaving especially for this time of year. It doesn't have any kind of fancy scent to it. But as its name implies, is deeply hydrating, which leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth.

5. CVS Health Intense Dry Skin Therapy Deep Repair Lotion: I would say that the title of this product can be misleading in the sense of, if you have an area where the skin is thin but very dry, it will hydrate and exfoliate that area and leave it feeling soft and smooth. However, if you have dry, cracked soles and you're looking for something to revive your feet - this isn't the product. Let me explain - I mostly use body lotions on my legs post-shaving and on the bottom of my feet twice daily because my feet tend to dry out - they rarely crack, but they can peel occasionally. For my legs, this worked perfectly, it leaves them silky smooth; but for my feet - while it did slow the growth of calluses and kept my foot skin soft overall - I found that my skin absorbed it rather quickly and then felt like it wanted more hydration or something thicker. 

6. Dr Teal's Lavender Shea Sugar Scrub: This is very strongly scented of lavender which, I'm not mad at, but it can feel intense at times. It being a sugar scrub, it's very abrasive which I prefer because its abrasion feels invigorating.

7. berkley jensen Green Tea & Cucumber baby wipes: I like to use these wipes to wipe down surfaces, especially when I'm cleaning my makeup collection. I also like them for removing swatches from when I take blog photos. These smell really nice and refreshing, I also like adding a bit of alcohol to them to make them antibacterial. 

8. CALA Eye Adore Lashes in Wispy: These lashes are pretty and have a "natural" look wherein they give the eye oomph without being too dramatic or over-the-top. That said, they take quite a few wears to mold to the eye and have the tendency to want to pop off which can make them a pain to work with.

9. Dr Teal's Pink Himalayan Salt Scrub in Glow & Radiance: Honestly, I wasn't expecting to like this scrub because many salt scrubs irritate my skin, due to them being salt based, and then shaving after using them is an unpleasant experience. Hence you'll see me using sugar scrubs instead. But that said, this left my skin feeling silky smooth, wasn't irritating at all, and smells delicious! It has a very yummy tart-sweet citrus scent. 

10. ORLY Bonder Rubberized Basecoat: While I find this to be a reliable, basic base coat, I don't particularly find that it helps my nail polish to stick on. As in, this doesn't prevent chipping and doesn't really do much for nail health either. Because my nails have the tendency to peel, I have found more nourishing base coats keep my nail polish on longer because it sticks better onto healthy nails. 

11. Isehan Kiss Me Sunkiller Perfect Water Essence Alcohol Free SPF 50+ PA++++: This is a decent sunscreen that left my skin feeling moisturized without the need for additional moisturizer underneath. However, in comparison to my beloved Biore UV Aqua Rich Water Essence SPF 50+ PA++++, this has a heavier texture that I don't like as much.

12. TRESemme Ultra Fine Hairspray: This bottle is so gigantic that I was shocked when I ran out merely because it lasts for something close to a year - and that's using it on my head daily and also using it as an anti-static spray for some of my clothes. I love that this has a touchable hold and that it doesn't leave my hair feeling sticky or crunchy. 

13. Ivon Cuticle Pusher: I purchased a three pack of these because my cuticles were starting to look raggedy and these do a really nice job of getting rid of the dead skin but I feel like they're not as invasive as literal cuticle nippers and are easier to use.

14. Ardell Professional Active Lash in Speedy: I really like how soft and natural these lashes look, they add a little length and volume without being over the top. That said, similar to many other pairs I have issues with, they really like popping off at the inner corner and it's a bit of a fight to get them to stick on there.

15. Unnamed Powder Puff: I'm unsure where this powder puff came from but all I have to say is that its overall quality was just not good. It ripped early on in use and the internal foam came out wherein I had to discard it. 

Disclaimer: I purchased all of the products mentioned above with the exception of the Sephora Collection item which I received for testing.  All opinions are my own.