Maybelline

Budget Beauty for $10 or Less: Maybelline Tattoo Studio Gel Pencil Liners

April 3rd, 2019 by Karen 9 Comments

maybelline tattoo studio eyeliner pencil — Long-lasting liners

Hooray for budget beauty! In this new series, we talk about sweet finds you can get for $10 or less.

Maybelline is famous for their potted Tattoo Studio Gel liners, and I’m happy to say that their gel pencils are just as good — AND at $7.99 each, they’re crazy affordable.

I used to wear gel pencils all the time because of the epic wear time (Bobbi Brown Jet was my jam back in the day), but I quit a few years ago when my skin became drier than all earthly deserts combined! Gel pencils just got to be too uncomfortable as they sucked the moisture outta my skin, so I switched to regular old kohl liners instead.

The Maybelline gel pencils are different, though. They’re on the moisturizing side (for gel liners). They’re creamy and easy to feather for perfectly smudgy, soft lines.

One big caveat? Their quality varies based on the color. Like, the brown and gray shades, which I wear all the time, are bulletproof; however, other shades like the blues are softer and have more “give.” Both the navy and the teal tips broke the very first time I used them.

Grrr… After I sharpened the tips, the pencils stayed solid and didn’t crumble, but still, it’s always annoying to waste product right off the bat. Keep your receipt just in case you get a wonky one.

I’m still a Chanel twist-up liner girl all the way, but it’s nice to have affordable options. If you can’t decide which colors to get, I say go for the gray or the bangin’ brown. Both last all day without even a touchup.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Maybelline Age Instant Age Rewind Concealer

March 11th, 2019 by Karen 22 Comments

maybelline instant age rewind concealer review — A steal of a deal at just $10

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

Dear beauty industry people…just stop, collaborate and listen. Enough with the attached sponge applicators already! The sponges get all thick and nasty, and then when I press them against my skin, there’s a weird sucking sound, like “thhhmeeeeeeee,” which is the makeup equivalent of someone saying the word “moist” repeatedly.

MOIST, MOIST, MOIST.

It’s super, super gross.

The attached sponge applicator is the only thing I don’t like about the otherwise awesome Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer. I would prefer one of ye olde standard-issue doe-foot applicators, buuuuuut since this concealer is only $10, and it’s available in a nice shade range, and it’s practically a drugstore dupe for the much pricier Charlotte Tilbury under-eye concealer, which I’ve used to the very last drop, I put up with it, because seriously, WHATCHAGONNADO? You can’t spend all your time and energy fighting city hall. *shrugs*

Anyway, this concealer is fantastic for women (and dudes… More on this in a second.) who have fine under-eye experience lines, and who also like a decent amount of coverage but don’t feel the need to go full-tilt, so FYI, Tarte Shape Tape, MAC Pro Longwear and Sephora Bright Future Gel Concealer it is not; however, if you like light-to-medium coverage (a la Hourglass Veil Retouching Fluid, which I’ve grown to love, or Tatcha Softlight), it’s magic in a click pen, because the concealer never appears caked-on or thick when applied to mature skin with lines.

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Ravenous for Red Lipstick: Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink in Dancer

January 29th, 2019 by Karen 31 Comments

maybelline dancer — I may or may have just busted out my six-step before taking this picture

Valentine’s Day 💖 is right around the corner, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

This warm red matte liquid lippie is called Dancer.

Yes, its name is one of the reasons I like it.

I also like it because it’s smooth and very pigmented, and there are NO vertical lip lines in sight whenever I wear it, which I typically do without a lip liner, because ya really don’t need one (it’s pretty easy to freehand).

I identify with the name because, once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, a.k.a “my single life in San Francisco,” I would BOOK IT the second the clock struck quitting time and head directly to one of the many dance studios in the city to take a dance class, and I did this three or four times a week for a while.

I was addicted to dance, but can you blame me? There’s nothing quite as therapeutic as shaking your @ss for 45 minutes, except maybe Calgon…

Nowadays, I do most of my dancing in my living room with Tabs and Connor (we have MANY impromptu dance parties). On the plus side: no cover charge. Also on the plus side: hip-hop battles with cats and toddlers are HILARIOUS.

Dancer is one of Maybelline’s Super Stay Matte Ink liquid lipsticks with the thick, “grippy,” mousse-like formula. It’s easy to place it where you want it to go, and you can feel it latching on to your lips as it dries.

For me, it’s a very present lipstick, so it’s not one of those lighter-than-air situations. I like how warm and intense it is as a red (looks great with khaki liner and golden brown eyeshadow, BTW), too. Keeping with the dance metaphors, it really POPs.
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Product Spotlight: The $6 Maybelline Lasting Drama Matte Eyeliner in Jade Olive

December 20th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

maybelline jade olive — Your lashlines will thank ya (and so will your wallet)

You know what they say: “Woman cannot live off Chanel Mat Taupe alone!” (Someone must say that, right?)

OK, well…technically, I could, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂 Who wants to wear the same taupe liner day in, day out? Bluh. I’m always open to new alternatives to black eyeliner for tightlining because I like the softer, less aggressive look, and the older I get, the more I prefer lining with colors other than basic black.

That, my friend, brings me to the topic of a treasure I recently discovered from Maybelline called Jade Olive, which is only (drumroll, please) six bucks! (officially, $5.99) It’s a twist-up, long-wearing waterproof matte khaki pencil.

I don’t know if it’s a gel liner, because it’s soft enough to be one… It almost feels like a gel because of the way it melts and glides across the skin, but it doesn’t look as harsh and flat as some matte gel liners do.

It also doesn’t make my skin feel dry or tight like some gels have in the past, so the jury’s still out on that… Either way, it’s a creamy, smudgy, long-wearing kohl that sets like *that*.

The rich, true khaki green color is brighter and more intense than something like Chanel Mat Taupe, but it’s not as dark as MAC Coffee. It’s a nice in-between tightlining shade, and I think my brown eyes look more chocolaty when I wear it.

maybelline jade olive 2 — Could I look any more like a judge-y piano teacher? Wearing Wander Beauty Nude Illusion Foundation in Tan and Honest Beauty Raspberry Lip Crayon, BTW.

I wore Jade Olive the other day when I took pics for the Wander Beauty foundation review, and MBB reader Roma (what’s up, Roma?) said in the comments that she immediately noticed the wide-eyed effect, which made me so, so happy because, well…that’s exactly what I was going for when I lined my lash and water lines with this bad gal.

Just goes to show how transformative a little liner can be!

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The New $12 Maybelline Super Stay Multi-Use Foundation Sticks (and Connor’s First Day of School!)

August 23rd, 2018 by Karen 30 Comments

maybelline super stay stick foundation review — A new foundation by Maybelline

You know Hourglass Vanish Stick Foundation? Well, I’d hoped that Maybelline’s new cream-to-powder foundation stick would be a drugstore dupe for it because it’s only $11.99…which is a lot less than $46.

Both feel velvety and satiny smooth, but one costs A LOT less than the other.

Maybelline Super Stay Multi-Use Foundation Stick ($11.99, 16 shades)

Just like you do with Vanish, you swipe the stick wherever you want coverage, then blend it out with your fingers. Or, you can use the attached sponge, but I think it’s kind of dumb, since you can’t remove it from the tube to clean it…

From the Ulta website:

“Whether you’re looking for a cream foundation or a contour foundation, this multi-tasking Super Stay Multi-Use Foundation Stick is a must-have essential that conceals, contours, highlights, and covers. Maybelline’s 1st all-in-one foundation stick features a cream-to-matte foundation and a precision pointed blender sponge that is perfect for applying cream foundation at home or touching up your look on-the-go.”

Benefits:

Maybelline New York’s first multi-use foundation stick

All-in-one foundation stick for up to 24HR wear

Cover, Conceal, and touch-up anywhere, anytime

Features a precision pointed tip blender sponge

Unlike Vanish, which you can easily push to full coverage, Superstay lives in the sheer-to-medium coverage lane, and to keep it fully locked down, you’ll reeeallly need to dust a fair amount of setting powder on top; otherwise, it’ll stay creamy and keep moving around.

This step is non-negotiable, unfortunately, and if you skip it, most of the product will have disappeared by midday.

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