A Review: Mark. Glowdacious and Mark. Keep It Going

Before I get into the reviews, I wanted to tell you all a little bit about mark., since it’s not actually a drugstore brand. Mark. is a sister company to Avon with a focus on a younger, trendier style. They use eco-friendly, customizable packaging and they never use any animal testing. They have good quality makeup at drugstore comparable prices. You can buy mark. products from any mark. representative or any Avon representative or online at www.mymarkstore.com/jgriesinger. Every four weeks mark. debuts a new magalog (mix of magazine and catalog) which contains new products in makeup, skincare, fashion, and accessories along with some of their brand staples. So today I got new makeup from the current magalog and a new item debuting in the upcoming magalog that goes live this Tuesday, April 27.

Mark. Keep It Going:

So the first thing I have to review is mark.’s Keep It Going long wear eye liner and shadow. These are gel-based duos that can be used as either eye liner or eye shadow. They are said to be smudge-proof and waterproof with buildable colors that last all day. They come in five different shades but I only got three of them. The first one I got is called “Entourage” which is a matte black and shimmery silver duo. Both colors are fairly sheer. The silver is practically invisible with only one layer, 2-3 layers are needed to get a definite silver. The black is good when used as eyeliner with a thin eyeliner brush. If you want to use the black as shadow and you really want a true black, you’ll need at least 2 layers. The next shade I got is called “Iconic” which is a shimmery green and gold duo. The colors are good. The gold is a shimmery yellow-gold. It’s pretty sheer like the silver in Entourage, but with a few layers, it’s a really pretty gold. The green is like an olive-ish green and it’s a little more opaque than the gold; you can get pretty good coverage with just one layer. It has a gold shimmer to it that makes it a perfect pair with the gold it comes with. The last shade I got “Exposure.” It’s a shimmery tan and matte chocolate brown duo. These colors are both opaque enough. Only one layer needed for these. The tan is nice and the chocolate is good as an eyeliner. This duo is great for a natural look.

All of the colors are really creamy and smooth going on. They work better when warmed up by the skin a little rather than straight out of the container so I would suggest applying them with your ring finger or if you prefer using a brush then take some product out of the container with a brush and rub it on the back of your hand to warm it up. It goes on smoother and doesn’t dry as fast when warmed up. If you use them with a brush straight out of the container, they dry incredibly fast making any kind of blending nearly impossible. As for their staying power, they really do last all day long without fading, creasing or smudging. These would also be good as an eye primer; the tan from Exposure or the gold from Iconic would be good any color eye shadow or you could use the green from Iconic, the purple from another shade Industria (which also comes with charcoal grey), or the blue from another shade Surreal (which also comes with bronze) as a base for eye shadow looks of those colors. These cost $10 each and again, you can get them through your mark. rep, Avon rep, or online.

Mark. Glowdacious:

The other item I got is the mark. Glowdacious illuminating powder. This item will debut when Magalog 5 goes live on April 27^th. It’s a compact that has three rings of colors that combine a bronzer and a highlighter. It’s a shimmery “illuminating powder” that brightens skin tone and enhances a tan. It is $12 and comes in three shades: Prettied Up, which is good for light skin tones; Shimmied Up which is best for medium skin tones; and Amped Up which is better for darker skin tones. I am super pale so, of course, I got prettied up. Let me just start by saying, this is the first bronzer I have ever used that hasn’t made me look dirty or orange. I swirled my brush through all three colors to use as a bronzer then I took a smaller brush in just the lightest shade to use for a highlighter on the tops of my cheekbones, right under my eyebrows and down the bridge of my nose. This one compact really worked great as both a bronzer and a highlighter and it really made my skin look glowing (in a good way). I also decided to try this compact out as eye shadow because I love makeup that multi-tasks (money savers!) and it looked really good. I used the medium shade as an all over lid shade, the darkest shade in the crease and the lightest shade as a highlight under the brow and in the inner corners of my eyes with just a thin, smudgy, black liner, the result: a gorgeous, beachy, summer eye look. I absolutely love it and (over my Victoria’s Secret Eye Primer) it has lasted 12 hours so far and still going strong. I can’t wait to wear this look out to the beach in the summertime.

Overall I am very impressed with both of these new mark. products and I highly suggest you check them out. If you don’t already have a mark. or Avon representative, you can order online at www.mymarkstore.com/jgriesinger.

Love and lipgloss,

Jamie

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

Getting to Know You...(Or At Least This Blog..)

Hey everyone,

I'm starting this blog to give some reviews of different makeup/skincare products to help let you all (and me!) know what's out there, what products do what they say they will, which products are best avoided, and what colors are like from different companies/products/etc. Basically I'm doing the hard part of picking out new makeup products for you. A lot of the process of finding the perfect makeup for you is trial and error and rather than have to go back and forth to the drugstores or makeup counters trying to find what you want, I'm hoping that this blog will help you have a more educated approach to picking out the best product for what you need the first time.

So a little about me.. I am a self-proclaimed makeup artist :). I haven't had any formal training but what I lack in training I make up for in experience. I have been doing makeup on myself and my friends for years and years. I've had a couple classes in stage/theater makeup and have been a makeup artist on a few shows. I absolutely love theater (musicals are my favorite!) and I love doing makeup for the theater (Beauty and the Beast this fall hopefully!). I love playing with makeup, trying out new looks, finding new techniques and testing out new products. I started selling mark. about a year ago just so I can get a discount on the makeup ;). Basically, I'm just your everyday beauty junkie.

So I know there's a million review blogs about MAC products or other higher end makeup but, while I really love those companies and they do have great products, I really wanted to focus this blog on the more affordable drugstore/Target kinds of brands. I know there's a LOT of people out there that can't afford to be spending so much money on everyday makeup (me included!). And, despite what some people may say, you can get good quality products without spending a fortune.

I hope that you guys find this blog helpful. My first review should be coming soon. I think it's going to be about foundations. So if anyone has any suggestions on foundations I should try or if there's anything at all (makeup or skincare) that you would like to see me review just leave a comment and let me know and I will try to get that out to you soon.

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Jamie