Random Goodness - CoverGirl WetSlicks AmazeMint Product Review

Hi ladies!

Hope my Canadian gals had a good long weekend and that all of you are enjoying the nice weather.

I'm still reeling from four glorious days off, major flirtations with crushboy, and my plan to ask him out for drinks this weekend. But I digress.

Late last night I checked my mail and found something other than the usual bills - a mysterious padded envelope addressed to me. Inside I found a little card from CoverGirl letting me know I've "been specially selected to be the first to try the new WetSlicks AmazeMint brightening lipgloss featuring Crest Peppermint Oil for a boost of breath freshness!".

I have no idea how or where they found me but hey - a free lipgloss is a free lipgloss right?

Surprisingly I had never heard of this product, but truth be told I don't love CoverGirl so I don't pay very close attention to their movements. Today's Google searches didn't really reveal much - but I did find a review on Silver Lips Beauty of the product.

It seems CoverGirl has been using some interesting tactics to spread the word about this gloss. Apparently they partnered with P.F. Chang's China Bistro to offer female diners a chance to try the gloss after dinner last week. Interesting.

Anyway. The color I received was Plum Crazy, which is looks a bit pinky-mauve in the tube but when you pull out the applicator it's actually not pink at all, more of a purpley-mauve, if that makes sense. I'm guessing it's the last tube on the right in this picture, but it's a bit hard to tell.

I wasn't wild at all about the colour. For one thing it's blue-based (of course, to help make your teeth look whiter) and I tend to veer away from cooler colours even though they're supposed to look better on dark skin tones. But after putting it on, it's prettier than I thought.

The gloss has a pretty minty-vanilla scent and the doe-foot applicator puts the gloss on smoothly. It has good shine and doesn't feel sticky or tacky. It tingles as soon as you apply and as I'm writing this, the tingling has intensified some and then starts to fade after a couple of minutes. It's very noticeable but not unpleasant, although I'm not a fan of tingly glosses.

Okay - I just licked my lips and got a kickass peppermint taste. It's not bad, just very pronounced. I guess that's the breath-freshening part, as it's supposed to basically be a lipgloss and breath mint in one. Funnily enough I just had a chocolate cookie and had a smoke so I have a nasty taste in my mouth that is in no way diminshed by the gloss, but then again short of eating it how could it eliminate that?

Sidebar: I'm going to really try to remember to take pictures when I get home and add to this post so you can see how it looks. Please remind me when I forget.

Overall this is a cute little gloss and with a price tag of $0 I really can't go wrong. I'm giving this a verdict of yes!

Product Review: Lancôme Hypnôse & Juicy Tubes Smoothie

Hello darlings!
Last week I was invited to attend the Milles Femmes event at BCE Place. Part of the Luminato Festival, Milles Femmes is a tribute to 1,000 artistic, creative and inspiring women from Toronto and their protégés, who embody the passion and heritage of the city. A few of my friends (and fellow blogger Henna of Canadian Beauty) were included in the event so I went to the launch.

Why am I writing about this you ask? A couple of reasons. First because I've been itching to mix up the beauty posts with some more personal stuff (because I belive – perhaps mistakenly – that you guys want to know what’s going on with me) and also because the gift bags included some great full size (!) Lancôme products. I haven’t had the chance to try everything, but I leapt at the Hypnôse Mascara and the Juicy Tubes Smoothie.

For some reason, I haven’t really dabbled too much in Lancôme. I have a couple of their Color Design eyeshadows (I ♥ The New Black) but that’s it. All the more reason why I couldn’t wait to try these. But I promised to cut down on the long-ass intros so I'm just going to move on to the reviews already.

Let’s go with the Hypnôse Mascara first.

According to Lancôme’s website, “With each stroke, the patented POWERFULL™ brush intensifies lashes from root to tip. Exclusive, fluid SoftSculpt ™ formula, enriched with Vitamin B5, wraps lashes one luxurious layer at a time without smearing, smudging or clumping.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. They ain’t never lied. I loves this mascara. The formula is nice and thick in a Voluminous kinda way but not clumpy. I do scrape off a fair amount of product before I apply but once I’ve done that it glides on smoothly and gives me great length and volume – even on the little skimpy lashes at the inner corners of my eyes. I always curl my lashes before applying mascara and this does seem to pull the curl out, but so does every other mascara I’ve ever used so I just curl again once it dries and I'm good to go for hours.

Sidebar: Does anyone know why mascara takes the curl out of lashes? Maybe it’s just me though because I’ve never heard anyone else mention it. It’s so annoying.

The wiwfm verdict on this is a hell’s yes!

On to the Juicy Tubes Smoothie.
I got this in Honey Violet, which is kind of a deep plummy red with gold shimmer. It’s a lot less purple than in the picture. I was a little wary when I looked at the tube, but once I put it on I really liked it.

It’s very well pigmented but still provides a sheer wash of colour, if that makes sense. What I mean is that the colour doesn’t go on as intense as it looks in the tube, but it’s not so sheer that you can’t see the colour on you. It also smells like watermelon Jolly Ranchers, which is never a bad thing.

I lent this to my sister Marsha indefinitely, only because it’s much more a Marsha colour than a Max colour. But I liked it so much I couldn’t bring myself to give it up permanently. I might “borrow:” it back from her the next time I see her.

The wiwfm verdict on this is yes as well.

Now I'm on a mission to try more Lancôme. Any recs for must-try products?

Have a great day ladies!