Entries for Friday May 25
Happy holiday weekend!: late May musings
Happy Memorial Day weekend, USians! (And to the rest of the world: Happy Weekend in May!!) Spring for the northern hemisphere, fall for the southern, hopefully it’s a nice bit of weather wherever you are.) I’m going to spend half the weekend porting content over on the blog, and the other half lying about and relaxing. I start a travel-writing gig next month, and a new contract after that, so things are going to be busy-busy-busy. I’m really glad, now, that I have a backlog of photos ready to go! I also have several new items to photograph and write up…and the rate I go, it’ll probably be August (and time for GeekGirlCon!) before I get to post the Aromaleigh and Love Hues stuff I’ve recently received. And that’s if I go in reverse order! The backlog of products to be written up is truly immense. I’ve got three Aromaleigh v2 collections to profile, Shiro’s Tributes collection colors to write up, nearly a dozen colors from Love Hues, more amazing eyeshadows from My Pretty Zombie and Silk Naturals, some Fyrinnae colors - eye, lip, and cheek - and of course the nail polishes. It would almost be terrifying, except that I’m a cataloging-and-tallying junkie. I don’t know if there are any jobs for a professional taxonomist, but if there are, that thing is so MINE.
Meow Cosmetics has re-released one of its summer-seasonal collections, Caribbean Escape. No additions this year to this collection, but they’re holding a Memorial Day weekend sale. Register for their mailing list to get in on all of their sale information. They have a new collection coming out June 1 (in a week) that looks interesting! I think that this year I may just get samples of everything, and then buy the full sizes that I want next year when it makes its seasonal reappearance.
Zoya wants people to re-pin their choices for a mini-trio, from among the summer Beach and Surf collections. The colors pinned the most will be put into the trio, and two thousand of these trios will be given away…provided they reach 20,000 repins total. They’ve already topped out 12,000! You’ve got to hand it to the companies who find more and more excellent ways to get their fanbase energized to providing them bursts of free advertising like this. (And yes, I kind of envy them. How to do that with my business…? Actually, I don’t know that the tool can be used that way. Web hosting isn’t colorful or sexy or sparkly. When it’s working well, it should just work and otherwise be invisible.)
Nouveau Cheap has a great roundup of drugstore weekend sales - including the Revlon 40% off sale starting at Rite Aid this Sunday. I plan to check out a few local Walgreen’s, the Rite Aid, and possibly trip through Sephora just to see what’s what. I’ve got the huge backlog of products to review, and I just bought Thierry Mugler’s Womanity perfume (I love it!!) so I don’t have any purchases planned. I don’t even have any current lemmings, or things I really want to pick up. (Let’s hope that attitude carries through IMATS LA next month or I’ll have to check a 2nd bag to get home!)
IMATS LA is in four weeks! Who’s going? I’ll be there, passing out discount cards to celebrate my tenth year as a web host. I’m looking forward to seeing several beauty bloggers! I tried to make it to IMATS LA last year, but wasn’t able to attend. This time around, I’m all set! I’m taking a few days off of work, flying down, got a hotel room, and plan on seeing some friends who live in the LA area. I’m not a beauty or makeup professional, but I’m looking forward to seeing different techniques and learning things, getting a look at some products that I don’t otherwise catch until it’s already plastered all over the beauty-blogosphere. (If you’ve been thinking about getting off of Blogspot and onto a self-hosted WordPress site [or some other CMS, I only mention WordPress because that software is free] see if you can find me and score yourself up to six free months of shared web hosting, plus $25 bounties for every client you refer to me.
Tarte’s Lipsurgence in Fiery
- Manufacturer: Tarte Cosmetics
- Availability: part of the Lipsurgence collection
- Color Range: medium-bright red creme
- Staying Power: 3.5 out of 4
- Cost/Amount: USD$24 for 2.6 ml / .08 fl oz each
- Would you purchase again: yes
I had a sneaking suspicion that Fiery, a red matte, might be just a bit too much for me. I was right. It’s a nearly fire-engine red, but when applied it loses some of the color depth and becomes a little too bright for my preferences. It’s still a bright red with a decent color payoff, but it’s almost garish. It’s not quite a neon hot-pink, nor is it really a vivid red. It’s kind of between the two. This is a matte color, so the color payoff and adhesion is fairly good compared to the Lip Tints or Shimmers; but the resulting color…I don’t know. In some ways it reminds me of kiddie lipsticks in American drugstores: the color’s just that bright and garish. I can use this under pink or tan Buxom lip polishes to soften the red and add some color to the lip polish, and then the color isn’t a (for me) total loss.
BareMinerals’ buxom Olivia
- Vendor: Bare Escentuals
- Availability: released in the Party Central kit; part of the Buxom Lip Polish collection
- Color Range: sheer berry red sparkle
- Staying Power: 3 out of 4
- Cost/Amount: USD$18 for .15 ounces
- Would you purchase again: yes
A gorgeous cool fuchsia-red sparkle finish. There isn’t quite as much sparkle as in the various Diamond Buxoms (Sarina, April, Clair, Starr, Dominique) - the sparkle is a little sparser (though barely so.) I like the sparkle as much as I like both the shade and color payoff. I like my semisheer Buxoms, but the ones with a bit more oomph are more appreciated! Sadly, this entire collection was a limited edition; and I haven’t noticed too many new Buxom Lip Polishes being added to the regular line. (Come to think of it…here it is nearly summer already, and no Buxom mini kit for spring! The past several years there’s been a mini set introduced every six months or so, either four mini lip polishes or a mixture of lip polishes and lip sticks. Maybe that’s indicative of Shiseido/BE’s new general corporate direction, or perhaps they’re just concentrating on the Ready line, the lip tarnishes, and everything else that ShiBE seems to be throwing at the wall to see if it will stick. Not that I have strong feelings on the matter.)
Aherm.