L'oreal Voluminous Butterfly Sculpt Mascara Review

I am such a klutz when it comes to tightlining my eyes...for some reason I can't get them to stop watering when I get really close with an eyeliner. It's so weird, especially since I wear contacts and am totally comfortable touching my eyeballs on a daily basis! But as soon as that pencil touches my inner lash line, the tears start coming. I'll never understand... 

So when I saw the new L'oreal Voluminous Butterfly Sculpt mascara at Target that promises to create a tightline effect, I put it right into my shopping basket. I had good luck with IT Cosmetics Tightline mascara...I know the reviews are hit or miss on that one, but it actually worked well for me (see my review here). Even though the brush on this one is completely different than Tightline, I was hoping it could possibly be a dupe and maybe save me a few bucks. Let's take a closer look! 

Description: Get 3 sculpting effects in 1 for deeper, darker, fuller lashes. Exclusive Sculpting Wing Tip Brush technology: inner bristles fill in lash line for a no gap tightline effect, brush reservoir loads entire lash with maximum volume, outer bristles fan out lash corners to the extreme.

Price/Where to Buy: $8.99 at drugstores (I found mine at Target)

Quick Verdict: It's a miss for me. 

2/5


L'oreal Voluminous Butterfly Sculpt has one of the funkiest mascara wands I've ever seen. There are bristles on only one side and the other side is totally smooth. 

The section of the brush that has bristles looks kind of like a zipper to me...there are longer bristles along the sides and one row of short, stumpy bristles down the center. They start close together at the top and then open up as you go down the brush (hence the zipper effect).

When you apply this, you're supposed to put the brush up against your lash line and those tiny little bristles in the center get right up against the roots of your lashes to deposit mascara between your lashes for that tightlining effect. Then as you comb the brush up and out, the longer bristles are supposed to separate and fan out the lashes.

Those little tiny bristles actually do their job well and deposited a lot of product at the roots of my lashes...but maybe a little too much. In my before and afters below, you can see that this product definitely darkened in-between my lashes to create the effect of wearing black eyeliner, but the formula is extremely wet and the brush holds way too much product. This made my lashes clump together, and the more I tried to comb them out, the more product the brush added, making the problem worse. 

On top of that, I had raccoon eyes within a few hours of applying, which is the biggest deal-breaker for me (I didn't get the waterproof formula so maybe that fares a bit better). 

Overall, I think I'll stick with IT Cosmetics Tightline, which has a teeny tiny brush that gets into the base of your lashes without loading the rest of your lashes with too much product. While this one does create the tightline effect, it does so at the expense of depositing way too much mascara on your lashes, making them clumpy and feeling weighted down. 

Have you tried this one yet? I'd love to hear what you think!

L'oreal True Match Lumi Liquid and Powder Glow Now in Stores!

A few days ago, I posted on Instagram about some new L'oreal True Match Lumi products I spotted at Rite Aid.  A lot of you have been telling me that you've seen these at Target and CVS, but I couldn't find them in either place. Then I randomly went into Rite Aid and there they were! So if you're having trouble finding these, definitely check Rite Aid! 

I'm sorry for the delay in getting this post up on the blog, but my son and I both caught spring colds this week and I've been kind of out of commission a little bit. (For up to the minute store spottings, follow me on Instagram..I post them immediately from the store!). Also, sorry for the fuzzy picture...my hand was probably shaking from excitement, lol.

L'Oreal La Palette Nude 1 Review and Swatches

The L'oreal La Palette Nude 1 and 2 ($15.84, Walmart) are brand new for Spring 2015, and you have no idea how relieved I am that I finally found them...that means I can stop looking at the empty displays in every drugstore I go in! They've been teasing us for a few months with "coming soon" displays in CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, but I actually spotted it first on Walmart.com.  I went to the two Walmart stores nearest my house and it wasn't there, so I used the tool on their website to find out which Walmart stores were carrying this and I found a store about 35 minutes away that had both Nude 1 and Nude 2.  So exciting!! 

Anyway, I had very high hopes for this palette because L'oreal owns Urban Decay, and of course it's easy to compare these to the Naked palettes.  I'll compare this palette to the Naked 2 a little further down in this post, but first I wanted to talk about this palette on it's own.

L'Oreal Butterfly Intenza Mascara Review

I recently spotted L'Oreal's new Voluminous Butterfly Intenza Mascara at Bed, Bath and Beyond this week, and posted pictures on Facebook the other day. As a fan of the original Butterfly mascara, I definitely wanted to try this.  Actually, who am I kidding?  I want to try every new drugstore mascara that comes out, haha! 

Description/Claims:
This version claims to give your lashes an "intense fanned out look" with it's double winged brush (the original has one wing).

L'Oreal Magic BB Cream Anti-Fatigue Review and Swatches

Oompa-Loompa Doopity-Do, I have an or-ange primer for you...

...yeah, I wish I was joking.

Right off, I'm going to say that L'Oreal's new Magic BB Cream's Anti-Fatigue version wasn't a match for me. I thought the original version was OK when I reviewed it last year, although I still take issue with these being called BB Creams since they're really like a primer. But anyway, this year L'Oreal has released two color correcting versions...an Anti-Fatigue that's in an orange tube, and an Anti-Redness one that's packaged in a green tube.  I chose the Anti-Fatigue since I don't have too much redness to worry about and who doesn't want to look more awake?
The tube looks almost identical to the original Magic BB, except it's orange.

This is supposed to accomplish four things with one universal shade (that should have been my warning right there...rarely are universal shades "universal"):
1. Revive a tired complexion
2. Corrects the look of skin for a healthy looking, even complexion.
3. Hydrates for all day moisture.
4. Perfects complexion.

L'Oreal Nude Magique (Magic Nude) BB Blush Review

Last week, I posted about some new L'Oreal products that launched in the UK in the Nude Magique line (Magic Nude in the US).  I'm crossing my fingers that we get the same products this summer- usually we do but you never know.  I was on the Boots and Superdrug websites checking things out and decided I couldn't wait to try this blush.  Since neither of those stores ship to the US, I took to Ebay and found some sellers.  It arrived very quickly and I was happy I tried it.

This blush is a one size fits all shade, L'Oreal calls "Universal Rosy Blush".  I don't get why they're calling it BB Blush.  I feel like companies just throw the BB in there now because it's a "buzzword". Seems kinda silly to me.

It starts as a clear gel and warms on contact with the skin and is supposed to turn into the perfect rosy shade for you.  You can see below that by the time I took the picture, it was already starting to turn pink a little bit from the warmth of my skin.  It feels really silky and velvety, like a face primer.

This product isn't for people just starting out with makeup or who aren't used to applying gel or liquid blushes (such as Benefit's Benetint).  You need to work very quickly while blending or it will stain and look streaky in areas you didn't want it to.  The swatch below is heavily applied so that you can see the color in the photo, but in person, this looks really natural and pretty!  I start with a tiny amount and blend it in, then add more as needed.

This reminds me exactly of Smashbox's O-Glow ($28).  

Even buying it overseas I still paid much less than $28!  After conversion it was about $14.  I'm guessing that when/if it comes out here, it'll be around $8-$9.  

If you're interested in trying this out, I purchased it from This Seller on Ebay.  If they no longer carry it, you can do a search on Ebay- I've seen quite a few people selling them the past week or so but they run out fast!

I'll post this as a dupe to Smashbox's O-Glow on my Dupes Board. 

So would you try this out?  Those of you in the UK...have you bought this yet?  What did you think of it?

L'Oreal Revitalift Moisture Blur Review

I wasn't a big fan of L'Oreal's Miracle Blur that launched last year, as I found it to be too thick, pasty, and no matter what I did, it would roll off my face in little balls. So I was hesitant to try the new Moisture Blur version, but I ended trying it because the idea of a primer and moisturizer in one was pretty exciting. I'm glad I did! 

This formula does contain glycerin, which draws water to the skin from the air, salicylic acid which is an exfoliant, and retinyl palmitate, which is Vitamin A, and likely what they're calling "Pro Retinol". This form is gentler than applying retinol directly, because it turns to retinol once in the skin. This also makes it not as effective as retinol for a wrinkle treatment. This formula also contains silicones, as most primers do.

It comes in a tube just like the original, but it's white vs. red. The product is dispensed through a hole that makes it easy to control how much product you're getting. Unlike Miracle Blur, this is much easier to squeeze out.

The formula itself feels creamy, like a hybrid moisturizer and primer. It's thick, but not as much as Miracle Blur, and it spreads nicely on the skin (no rolling into little balls either!). Since my skin is dryer than dry, I use a regular moisturizer first, then use this as a moisturizing primer. So if you're super dry, this won't do on its own, but for everyone else, you can skip the moisturizer and just use this over your serum, if you use one. In the summer, I'm thinking I can probably use this on its own.

I was impressed with how this made my skin look! It gave a soft focus look, imperfections were minimized, pores filled in and it just looked so smooth!

This might be my new favorite drugstore primer! I think it does such a good job of blurring in addition to the smoothing that other primers do. I find I don't need as much makeup when I wear this. Have you tried it? Thoughts?

Disclosure: I purchased this at Target for $19.99