Category Archives: L’oreal

L’oreal Cosmic Black Infallible Eyeshadow Review & Swatches

L’oreal Cosmic Black Infallible Eyeshadow

I admit that featuring limited edition products from Australia may not be the kindest thing to do on an US-based beauty blog – but hey, I bought mine on Ebay, if you love it – there are more available! Shipping is expensive, but the seller combines shipping, and you can also buy Bronze Goddess, which is an exact dupe for Gleaming Bronze, which was a US limited edition, and is one of my all-time favorite eyeshadows (I bought a Bronze Goddess as a backup, and can confirm that it is identical).

I’m actually not completely sure where Cosmic Black was initially released – this amazing chart of all the Infallible eyeshadows has it in the UK / Other section – but I’ve only ever seen it on Ebay from an Australian seller. If you have more information, I will update the post.

There are so many reviews of the Infallible eyeshadows around at this point that I’m not going to talk about the packaging or consistency; I’m going to move straight to the color. Cosmic Black is a blackened olive green with some sparkle – it’s similar to Gleaming Bronze, but darker and sparklier. Below, I’ve swatched Gleaming Bronze and Cosmic Black side by side in three different lighting conditions.

Gleaming Bronze Cosmic Black Infallible swatches comparison

Gleaming Bronze on the left, Cosmic Black on the right in each photo
1. Natural light — 2. Flash — 3. Blurred with flash (to show sparkle)

Similar – but for me, a lover of olives and bronzes, different enough that I’m very glad to own both!

And, I’m never sure how much you all want to read about non-beauty-related things, but my fiancée and I adopted two kittens! Res (the black one, male) loves to snuggle, and Essie (the tortiseshell one, female) is still a bit shy, but gradually getting more comfortable.

L’oreal The Bigger The Better & The Queen’s Ambition Nail Polish Review, Swatches, Comparison

I was surprised when I noticed that L’oreal had what appeared to be two different limited-edition nail polishes that looked almost identical. In the bottle, The Bigger The Better from the new Diamond Collection looks black with lots of fine silver glitter and some slightly larger silver glitter pieces, and The Queen’s Ambition from the fall Project Runway collection looks black with lots of fine silver glitte. So, I bought both of them to compare.

L’oreal The Bigger The Better / The Queen’s Ambition – looking almost identical

I was totally surprised when I swatched them for the first time – The Bigger The Better isn’t black at all; it’s actually a clear base with black and silver glitter. The Queen’s Ambition is, as expected, black with fine silver glitter (and a dupe of Illamasqua’s newly-relased Creator nail polish – swatched here at Vampy Varnish).

This is one fairly thick coat of The Bigger The Better – it’s very dense. One coat looks good over other colors, but it takes four coats to be opaque or almost opaque. This is two coats of The Queen’s Ambition – it’s almost opaque in one, but I prefer two. As you can see, The Queen’s Ambition has a slightly rough finish and really needs topcoat to look best.

L'oreal The Bigger The Better / The Queen's Ambition - comparison swatches

L’oreal The Bigger The Better / The Queen’s Ambition – no topcoat

L'oreal The Bigger The Better / The Queen's Ambition - comparison

L’oreal The Bigger The Better / The Queen’s Ambition – with topcoat

I did actually swatch these on my hands, but my nails and cuticles are such a mess right now that the swatches look terrible, so I’m going to stick with the swatch stick photos.

Both of these are good quality polishes – despite the glitter, they aren’t too thick or goopy (though they definitely aren’t thin either). I’m happy I ended up buying both!

If you haven’t been able to find these in stores, The Queen’s Ambition is available here on drugstore.com – they don’t currently have The Bigger The Better, but perhaps it will show up at some point.

L’oreal Blinged & Brilliant Infallible Eyeshadow Review & Swatches

New L’oreal Infallible – Blinged & Brilliant

Today at CVS I spotted a new L’oreal collection, the Diamond Collection. One display had lots of new products – lipgloss, nail polish, and nail strips – and the other had some mascaras and three new Infallible eyeshadow shades. The eyeshadow shades are Primped & Precious, a silver; Blinged & Brilliant, a neutral, and Gold Imperial, a gold (which I believe may be permanent in other countries).

I was most interested in Blinged & Brilliant, so that’s the one I bought. Like all the Infallible eyeshadows I’ve tried, it is smooth and pigmented. I generally get all-day wear with Infallibles (they last until I remove them), though I’ve heard that isn’t the case for everyone.

L’oreal Amber Rush, L’oreal Blinged & Brilliant

At first, I thought the color might be similar to the shade Amber Rush (which I don’t own), but I compared them in-store, and Amber rush is darker.

However, when I got home, I realized that I do own an almost – dupe; Armani Eyes To Kill Intense in 9 Rock Sand (reviewed here). They have a virtually identical texture, and look the same in the pot:

almost dupes: L’oreal Blinged & Brilliant, Armani Rock Sand

However, there are very slight differences when swatched. Below, I’ve swatched each eyeshadow with a fingertip on bare skin (I find that fingertip swatches work better than brushes or sponge-tipped applicators for this texture of eyeshadow). You can see that the L’oreal, on the left, is more pigmented
than the Armani, but the color and finish are the same.

L'oreal Blinged & Brilliant, Armani Rock Sand - comparison

Blinged & Brilliant, Rock Sand – natural light

Blinged & Brilliant, Rock Sand - swatches

Blinged & Brilliant, Rock Sand – flash

This is a very pretty, wearable color for all skintones – it just brightens up the whole eye area. And, I love the L’oreal Infallible eyeshadow. So, I would definitely recommend keeping an eye out for this shade.

L’oreal The Muse’s Shine Le Gloss Review & Swatches for Project Runway Fall 2012

L’oreal The Muse’s Shine

So, I found the limited edition L’oreal Project Runway collection for Fall 2012 at Rite Aide – and I was very pleased that they were having a BOGO-half-off sale. Since I wanted five of the nail polishes, I also wanted to get a sixth item. I was intrigued by this super-sparkly gloss and decided to make it my final item!

This gloss, The Muse’s Shine, is from the Colour Riche Le Gloss line. This is the first Le Gloss I’ve tried. The packaging is fine – a clear squeeze tube with a slant – tip applicator. I like clear packaging because it’s so helpful if you buy multiple items from the same line. I don’t love slant-tip applicators because I find it difficult to get a precise application with them, but they’re workable.

The texture of the gloss is thin, smooth, and non-sticky. It’s very comfortable to wear, and I didn’t have any problems with the glitter migrating to other parts of my face.

The Muse’s Shine – swatched, natural light

The Muse’s Shine is a very fine/small gold glitter in a clear base. I tried to take a blurred photo to show the sparkle – it’s very sparkly and pretty – but I couldn’t manage to turn the autofocus off my camera.

Because of the clear base, I think this shade is best as a layering shade, so I have lip swatches both alone and over NYC Retro Red. I found that this gloss was more subtle than I expected when worn, though you could of course wear a thicker layer for more bling!

The Muse’s Shine – alone

The Muse’s Shine – over NYC Retro Red

Overall, this is a very nice quality gloss. If you’re looking for a gloss with fine gold glitter / gold shimmer, this is a great, affordable option. I rarely want shimmer or glitter on my lips, and thus I think I don’t have any shimmery lipsticks or glosses aside from this one. So, for me, a gloss that layers really well, like this one, is nice to have for the rare occasions I do want to add some sparkle.

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L’Oreal Project Runway Nail Polish for Fall 2012 Swatches & Review

the queen’s might; the mystic’s fortune; the mystic’s future; the temptress’ power; the muse’s attitude

Today at Rite Aide I came across a full display of the new limited edition L’oreal Project Runway collection for Fall 2012. There are four color stories – each has a lipstick, a gloss, an eyeshadow quad, a blush, two nail polishes, and nail stickers. The color stories are named the Enchanted Queen, the Wise Mystic, the Seductive Temptress, and the Artsy Muse. You can see press images of everything but the nail stickers here. I decided to buy five of the eight nail polishes and one lip gloss (which will be reviewed separately) – it helps that L’oreal was on sale!

For completeness, here are the three nail polishes I didn’t buy, along with “the mystic’s future” which I did buy (I wasn’t going to, but changed my mind).

l’oreal the muse’s inspiration; the temptress’s touch; the mystic’s fortune; the queen’s ambition

Note: In the promo photos the two temptress nail polishes (temptress’s touch and temptress’s power) are switched from what I found in-store.

I also have photos of the nail stickers since they aren’t online with the other images. Click to enlarge.

As for the five polishes I purchased, the quality was uniformly good – all five were thin and flowed smoothly, but the opacity varied significantly. I’ve noted how many coats each required. I did not use topcoat for any of the swatches so you can see the actual finish. Any lumpiness is due to the fact that I was swatching quickly and the fact that my nails are not particularly smooth at the moment, not the polishes.

the queen’s might; shade with flash

the queen’s might – full sun

The Queen’s Might is a pink-based red. I did two coats, but it probably requires three to be fully opaque. I would describe it as a shimmery jelly.

the mystic’s fortune, shade

the mystic’s fortune, full sun

The Mystic’s Fortune is definitely my favorite of the set. As soon as I painted one nail I knew it would be difficult to photograph – it’s in that space in between blue and purple – blurple – and photographs don’t show the complexity and beauty of the color. It is gorgeous, unique in the 200 or so polishes I own, and if you buy just one polish from this collection – this is the one to get. This was almost opaque in one coat, but I did two.

the mystic’s future, shade

the mystic’s future, full sun

I almost didn’t buy this one, but I’m so glad I did. It’s a shimmery, lit-from-within red-based violet. It looks like a duochrome in some photos, but I couldn’t really see much, if any, duochrome in person. This is two coats and fully opaque.

the temptress’ power, shade

the temptress’ power, shade with flash

the temptress’ power, full sun

The Temptress’ [sic] Power is a really interesting shade – I haven’t seen anything like it. It is a very sheer, sparkling gold with a strong pale green duochrome. It’s nothing like the numerous Peridot dupes, because the gold is more orange based and the green is more blue-based and much lighter. It’s a little closer to Maybelline Boho Gold, but the tones are really quite different. This is a sheer polish; I did three coats and have visible nail line.

the muse’s attitude, shade

the muse’s attitude, full sun

The Muse’s Attitude is really lovely dark green polish that leans teal. The first coat was VERY patchy – totally unwearable. The second coat looked good – wearable, but I did a third coat for the photos. I don’t know why the first coat was so patchy, but it’s not a problem since it evens out so well. This color reminds me of A-England St. George without the holo shimmer.

Overall, these are fantastic polishes. The formula is great, and I love all five of the colors I picked out. The other three colors are lovely too, just not right for me – I skipped the orange and black with sparkles since I have multiple similar polishes and the lime green is not something I see myself wearing.

L’oreal New York Nudes Park Ave Luncheon, Broadway Boogie Review, Swatches, Photos

L’Oreal New York Nudes: Park Ave Lunchon, Broadway Boogie

L’Oreal has a new collection of skintone nail polishes out, ranging from a pale cream to a deep brown. I saw them in Walgreens, and since they are buy-one-get-one-half-off this week, I decided to buy the lightest two: Park Ave Luncheon and Broadway Boogie.

I actually didn’t own any L’oreal polishes before these, so I had no idea what to expect. I opened the bottle and was pleasantly surprised by the brush; it seems like a lot of companies are using a wider brush lately, but I prefer a smaller brush like this one.

L’oreal nail polish brush

The polishes are both thin and flow easily. However, both were extremely streaky. One coat was totally unwearable; I personally would not consider two coats wearable, but if you don’t mind some streakiness, you could stop there – two coats is opaque, it’s just streaky.

For the swatches below, I have three coats. I still don’t think the finish is very good – they look sort of lumpy and just not quite smooth enough to me. But, you can judge for yourself. Click to enlarge the photos.

Park Ave Luncheon – sunlight

Park Ave Luncheon – shade

Broadway Boogie – Sunlight

Broadway Boogie – shade

As for the colors, they’re nice – but not my favorite nude nail polish shades. They just aren’t as flattering on my skintone as other shades are (though they may be flattering on you, of course).

Here’s a comparison with the other nude nail polishes I own. Everything is two coats except Wet n Wild 2% milk, which is three coats.

Nude nail polish comparison swatches - Forever 21 Taupe, Wet n Wild 2% Milk, L'Oreal Park Ave Luncheon, L'Oreal Broadway Boogie, Zoya Shay, Sally Hansen Nude Now, LA Girl Adore

Nude nail polish comparison, left to right:
Forever 21 Taupe, Wet n Wild 2% Milk, L’Oreal Park Ave Luncheon,
L’Oreal Broadway Boogie, Zoya Shay, Sally Hansen Nude Now, LA Girl Adore

My two favorites out of these are Wet n Wild 2% Milk (which I bought very recently), and LA Girl Adore, which I bought for $1 a while back when some random mall store was going out of business. 2% Milk it’s sheer, but so even that it can be worn even as one coat, if you don’t mind visible nail line. It gives a very clean look to the nail since it’s so light, and I like it best at three coats. LA Girl Adore is probably the most opaque out of the bunch, so it’s very easy to wear – two coats is perfectly opaque and streak free – plus it matches the skin on my hands quite well for the “mannequin hands” look if that’s what I’m going for.

So, overall I suppose that I would not recommend these two polishes, at least for someone with my skintone – they are too streaky, and there are more flattering nudes out there. What are your favorite nude-for-your-skintone polishes?

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