CVS Mini Haul

So I stopped by CVS today and had to pick up a few things from the beauty section to review for you guys. I only got a few things because I was kind of in a hurry so anywho, here it goes…

The first thing I picked up was the L’Oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes Mascara. This is something I’ve wanted to try for a super long time but for one reason or another I just haven’t gotten around to it so I’m pretty excited about trying that out. I got it in the shade blackest black and it was $10.99. For those of you who don’t know about this product, it’s a two step system that acts like eyelash extensions. The first step is a nourishing basecoat, kind of like eyelash moisturizer, it protects, nourishes and strengthens the lashes before you put on the “Ultra Lengthening Tube Top Coat.” The second step is the mascara part. The package says, “As the mascara sets, it envelopes your lashes in small tubes that act like lash-lengthening extensions.” It’s supposed to make your lashes look 80% longer without smudging, smearing, running or flaking. It’s also supposed to be clump-free (no spider-eyes) and long wearing. I haven’t gotten a chance to try it yet but I’m definitely looking forward to it.

The other things I wanted to check out at CVS were some makeup brushes. I’ve heard good things about the brushes from CVS’s beauty brand Essence of Beauty so I wanted to pick some up (specifically eye brushes) to give them a try. So one of the brushes that I picked up is called… well… it says on the package Dual Use Eye shadow Brush but it says on the brush Smokey-Wide, so it’s the Smokey-Wide Dual Use Eye shadow Brush, but we’ll just call him Smokey. So Smokey is a two-sided brush: one side is a pencil-shaped brush similar to the MAC 219 but with shorter bristles, it’s pretty densely packed and comes to a nice point, good for the crease or doing a smudgey-smokey look on the lash line; the other side is a big, fluffy, paddle-shaped brush, it’s really soft and it seems like it would be good for putting on a highlight or one color all over the eyelid but I have to say that this side of the brush smells absolutely horrible. I know it’s natural hair and everything but seriously it’s gross, even after deep cleaning it still smells. Even though the smell of the brush won’t affect its ability to do its job, I just have this thing where I feel like the smell is going to transfer from the brush to my eye shadow or to my face so I don’t want to use it. The pencil side doesn’t smell so I’ll still use that part, but if I can’t get the smell out of the paddle side, I’ll probably never use it. Oh, and that brush was $6.99.

The last thing I got was their brow/lid kit. It was also $6.99 but it has a bunch of stuff in it. It came with 3 different shaped brow stencils, which I’ll never use; a 2-sided brow pencil, black on one side, dark brown on the other; a little compact with 2 colors of brow powder, a taupe-ish color and a darker brown, it also came with a sponge applicator in it, which is kind of ridiculous to use on brows, but I guess you could use them on your eyes; it came with 2 brushes, an angled brow brush that’s fairly stiff, which is good for brows, and a two-sided eye brush, an angled shading brush on one side and a small smudger brush on the other side; and lastly, it came with an eye shadow trio, with really pretty neutral tones in it, a medium grey-brown and a deeper grey-brown and a really good highlighter that also works pretty well on the tops of the cheekbones to give that nice glow.

I haven’t gotten to really play with any of this stuff yet but when I do, I’ll be back to do some reviews on those things. Oh! I almost forgot. I also got the Essence of Beauty Brush Cleaner. It comes in a spray bottle and is just meant for like spot cleaning, but we’ll see how that works out too. So be on the lookout for reviews of these things and also I ordered a couple things from mark. and from e.l.f. so be on the lookout for reviews on those things too!

Love,
Jamie