Category: Makeup

N&K posts on makeup.

Mascara Review: Rimmel’s Wonder’lash

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Well N&Kers, it’s time for another Mascara Funday!

Our previous Rimmel review was on the Wonder’fully Real mascara🔗, which is available here🔗.

Today, Miss Nals will be reviewing Rimmell’s Wonder’lash mascara🔗.

Their website states “Do you need a solution to your clumpy mascara?
Wonder’Lash mascara with argan oil is your best secret weapon to perfectly full, smooth, zero-clump volume! …Experience beautiful volume and lash definition in one smooth, easy stroke… and left feeling conditioned”.

Click HERE🔗 for more info

Reviews on their site🔗 are favourable at 4.2 stars (307 reviews).

Makeup Alley reviews🔗 give it 3 stars (75 reviews). Comments are similar as on Rimmel’s site.

Now for our actual review

Lengthener

Yes-ish. Because it separates so well, my lashes looked a bit longer (but sparse).

Separator

yes, like a hot damn.

Volumizer

Nope, not even when paired with a volumizer.

Curl

I curl before and after applying mascara. This mascara initially holds the curl well… then they look wonky.

Thickener

Product colour is black, which you’d think would help the appearance of thickening. In fact, because the separation was so thorough, there was significantly less volume/thickening effect.

Application

This bristled beast of an applicator looked like it meant business. But I guess it was more of an empty promise that never was.

Other considerations

✓Mascara didn’t interfere with my contact lenses.

×It stuck on like a SOB. Despite triple washing, I didn’t always get all of it off. But it didn’t irritate my eyes.

✓This is a available in a waterproof version (turquoise tube).

Recommendation:
I’d skip this mascara.

Review of Maybelline’s SnapScara Mascara

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We’re giving you the lowdown of Maybelline’s SnapScara🔗 … Just in time for Fun Friday, you fabulous N&Kers!

SnapScara’s claim to fame is that it’s easy to snap on the volume and easy to snap off your lashes, with no clumps, no flakes and no fuss.

Snap to me indicates sound or motion. (Julep🔗 has a lippie with a magnetic closure. It makes a little snap when it locks with its counterpart. So, I was imagining something like that.) I read the package and tried playing around with the tube. The only snap it made was in my head when I realized “Awww snap. It’s snapless!” (That would probably be a better name.)

Left eye: Snapped on. Right eye: Unsnapped.

The actual product

… is a pitch black colour. It’s thin, which is probably why it doesn’t clump as easily. As long as you wipe off the excess product before application, you’ll be clumpless.

The brush

There’s a voluminous curved brush. Reminds me of a cat’s hissy tail.

Snap on

I wouldn’t say lashes become voluminous. SnapScara adds a bit of dimension and length. You’ll probably need to pair with another mascara to get max dual effects of volume and lengthening.

Snap off… kinda

It’s not super easy to take-off. Most of it came off with my oil-based cleanser. After rinsing, I had to go back in to remove residue.

Full face done & lashes are snapped

R e c o mmenda t i o n

Maybelline’s SnapScara Mascara🔗 is fine. I wouldn’t seek it out again. But if I needed a mascara and it was on sale… I’d probably get it again.

Maybelline’s SnapScara Mascara🔗 is great for newbies. Experienced mascara-ists will need to pair with another volumizing mascara.

Nals CoverGirl Supersizer Mascara3

Mascara Review: Covergirl’s SuperSizer (Lashblast)

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All right N&Kers, it’s time for another installment of N&K’s Mascara Funday*!

Today, Miss Nals will be reviewing Covergirl’s SuperSizer (Lashblast) 🔗. 

Their website states “The Super Sizer Mascara gives you 400% more corner-to-corner volume for full, fanned out lashes. Our amazing Lash Styler transforms even small lashes— just twirl as you apply it to your lashes for an instantly Super Sized lash look. Opthalmologically tested, suitable for those who wear contact lenses”.

Click here to read that description on their site

Reviews on their site 🔗are basically favourable at 88% (1161 reviews).  Covergirl has suggested they contact Customer Service to remedy an unfavorable situation, if a reviewer mentions it.  People might respond to this with of course they would because they don’t want bad PR. But, it takes time to read each review and respond accordingly°.

Makeup Alley reviews 🔗are also favourable in scores (218 reviews, 68%) but comments are varied°. 

Nals CoverGirl Supersizer Mascara3

Getting back to the N&K review…

Nals’s lashes are long (partially due to EnEnvy 🔗 and our reviews are here 🔗 and here🔗) but straight.

Lengthens

Yes! (And even at the corners with the stumpier baby hairs.)

Volumizer

Not so much, despite the flared bristly brush and thin product.  Reminds me of a product that contains fibers such as Rimmel’s Wonder’fully Real mascara 🔗 (N&K review is here🔗). 

Separation

Product clumps with >2 layers.

Curl

I curl before and after applying mascara**.  Mascara holds the curl well through out the day.

Thickener

Product colour is black, which helps the look of fuller lashes. But since it clumps with >2 layers, there’s not a lot of thickening effect.

Application

Due to flared brush with bristles in a spiral formation (like DNA or pineapple seeds), application is best when you follow instructions on the package.

✓Mascara didn’t interfere with my contact lenses.  ✓This particular tube had staying power and was waterproof.   
×But it stuck on like a SOB.  I  use an oil-based facial cleanser (such as Julep’s Love Your Bare Face🔗).  I tried all-sorts like soaking my lashes with Julep cleanser then gently rubbing to lift up product.  I used makeup remover before cleanser… And then tried after.  I tried to triple wash my lashes.  And there were days that I didn’t get all of it off.  I still haven’t found the best method because each time is slightly different.

  • My right eye is mascara’d
  • My right eye is mascara’d

Recommendation

This is not a good mascara for a newbie/novice due to the application instructions and difficulty of removal.

For the experienced mascara-ista… I probably would not recommend it again due to difficulty of removal and clumping properties.

Footnotes
* formerly known as Mascara Monday
° To give you guys an idea, it probably takes Kells and I a couple hours to post and publish ONE post.  Formatting, uploading pictures, viewing and re-editting take scads of time.  Add additional time to take photos, picking topics and then writing.  So, both N&K appreciate how much work goes into it. However, the varied comments on Makeup Alley give us pause. Why are comments different on the CoverGirl vs. MUA site? Hmmm…
** MUAs might balk at this double curling, as the curler could pull lashes out after mascara-ing.  But I curl when mascara is dry as a bone.  If you double curl, don’t do it wet!

Mascara Review: Rimmel Wonder’fully Real

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Mascara Monday is back, N&Kers. We know you can hardly contain your excitement! This time we’ll be reviewing Rimmel’s Wonderfully Real Mascara.

So here are our rules

  1. We bought all mascara ourselves (which means nobody is paying us).
  2. We wear each mascara for at least 1 week.
  3. All mascaras purchased were black… and the darkest black they had available.
  4. Every mascara used was put on the exact same way, with only 2 coats.
  5. This is just our 2 cents. This opinion is ours…take it or leave it. Believe it or not.

What do we want in a mascara?

In a mascara, we typically discuss the following points: Lengthen, Volumize, Separation, Curl and Thicken.

The lowdown

The Bad

Everything was initially fantastic. Long lashes for dayzzz. However after a month, I noticed that the product clumped on my lashes. And, at the end of the day, flakes fell into my eyes. I typically use several thin coats plus another mascara. For this tube, I only can do 2-3 thin coats. This product falls short on volumizing and thickening. So, I tried to pair it with another volumizing mascara. And again, I got clumped.

That brush

The brush picks up a lot of product. You must ensure that swipe off as much of the product as can before application. (That is, make sure you can see lots of the pink brush showing through.) Fair warning: this brush is a poke hazard.

The Good

The bristly brush and product lengthen & separate. As such, Rimmel Wonder’fully Real Mascara is a good lengthener and separator. It also keeps the curl. (One must use a lash curler!)

An interesting thing

I felt like sporting the au naturel look a lot with this mascara. At first I thought it was due to the emergence of the PNW summer sun. (The summer makes me feel more like a let’s-skip-work-and-soak-up-some-sun bronzed goddess than a dramatic eye queen.) Or, maybe I was too lazy to add liner? But, I finally figured out why… I noticed that the brush/product inadvertently builds colour at upper water line. Which is fantastic for an au naturel look. And fantastic that Nals was inspired to keepnit low-key.

  • Contrast: Left eye is mascara’d. Right is nekkid eye.

The Ugly

The ugly truth is that it’s really hard to get a mascara with all of these features. Which is why I typically use 2 mascaras on every application. But I got clumped when I tried to pair this mascara with a volumizer.

Additionally this mascara is hard to remove. After washing, you’ll need to get in there with a cotton-tipped wand.

Recommendation

I probably wouldn’t buy Rimmel’s Wonder’fully Real again unless I was in desperate need of a mascara… and it was on sale.

The brush would be challenging for novices.

The product itself is a bit annoying after 1 month.

Morphe Me

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Last week, we talked about taking off to Leavenworth, WA on our last Girl’s Weekend Getaway in February. We stayed at Leavenworth Village Inn (review is here).

Whispers of Morphe

On our way to Leavenworth, we stopped off for road trip snacks at Target in Bellis Fair. We kept seeing ads for the new Morphe eyeshadow palettes.

Kells & I love makeup, and are pretty well-versed on brands. But we hadn’t heard of Morphe. And we were defo intrigued. Then Nals spotted one of the cashiers sporting mesmerizing coral-pink salmon-berry eye makeup. After almost-creep-status staring, Nals complimented her. She beamed and whispered, with the confidence of a makeup seductress, “Morphe*”.

Of course we booted off to Ulta Beauty. And right up front, with a resplendant shining halo, was the Morphe display.

What’s the deal with Morphe?

Morphe is a company featuring professional-grade products at an affordable price. It came to Ulta Beauty in October 2017. (Unfortunately, Ulta is not in Canada.) But a year later, Morphe made its debut in Canada at Sephora.

Why welcome to Canadian soil, Morphe.

So did we get some?

Hells yeah we did! Kells got a deliciously rich red matte lippie.

I picked up a concealer. And, I got Boss Mood which features metallics and mattes in purps, berries and greens. Having seen our previous pictures, in case you didn’t pick up on it: I looooove colour. When not at work, I am pretty adventurous with eyeshadow application.

Cutie T is building her eye makeup collection and got a neutral nude palette plus a Morphe eyeshadow primer.

Store Atmosphere

Ulta’s atmosphere is between that of a Sephora and a drugstore, but closer to latter. Testers were available but MUAs, mirrors, tissues, applicators were in short supply. I think the concealer was not the best match for me. But it’ll do for now.

Application & Wear

The actual product was easy to apply and blend. Eyeshadow needs to be built up to get the desired effect. I find that because of my darker skin tone, most shadows/liners need to be layered on. And there’s some fallout especially with the Morphe glitters.

Recommendation

I’m glad I got the 24USD eye palette. It’s definitely worth it! Boss Mood is good for folks who are adventurous. But palette still contains some neutrals and basics, too. I was also eyeing the full Fall into Frost and a mini neon palette.

Morphe has a good selection of small, full and quad eye palettes. They’ve also got singles. They have a fairly good selection of concealers for dark and porcelain skin tones.

What are you waiting for? Go forth and explore Morphe, N&Kers!

Footnotes:
The cashier pronounced “Morphe” as more-fee (as in morphine) but we think it’s pronounced morfh (as in the caterpillar will morphe into a butterfly). Interestingly, one of the staffers at Leavenworth Village Inn pronounced the word “chic” as chick, rather than French way sheek. American adorableness!

Review of Sephora Mix & Mingle Lip Set

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N&K meant to post this review around Christmas time, but our schedules got a little crazy with work, family time, holiday stuff, New Zealand and the burlesque show. And so here we are…

Sephora‘s Mix & Mingle Lip Set Limited Edition 2018 is a lovely little minx offering lip pencils (but I’m calling them crayons) and glitter glosses. The colours range from light nude to deep browns to coral red and to a dark mythic purple. The crayons are pointed so neither a sharpener nor a liner are needed. Colours are fairly long lastingly rich. Feel is smooth. Look is that of a creamy lipstick. Translucent gloss is not gritty and doesn’t slip off easy. No colour bleeding.

Other features:

  • Slight sweet scent & flavour;
  • Crayons are great for ombre look;
  • Glosses are also lovely on their own;
  • Colours are good for Kells & my skin tones. Plus you can customize colours by layering;
  • Good for day & night looks;
  • For cleanup, you will need a good makeup remover;
  • Crayon caps are very short & tend to pop off. So place in a snack sized zippy plastic bag, to avoid colouring the inside of your Calvin Klein handbag (grr);
  • No colour names so if you like the singles, bring in the empty shell to match up to existing singletons. Or, sets are still available at Sephora Australia, Shape, Poshmark & Amazon.
Here are the colours swatched on Nals’s arm (T to B): lightest nude crayon, white gloss and then pairing matching gloss on top of matching crayon, etc. (L to R in lippie box.)

N&K Recommendation:

Other reviews are positive. And, yes we agree that it is definitely worth the buy. In fact, Kells & I have added this set to our quick go-to photoshoot bag!

N&K sportin Sephora M&M Lip set

Bad Ass Supercurls

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I was browsing some much-needed mascara, when I happened upon this purple goddess called 24 Hour Supercurler by Rimmel.

And guess what I thought? It’s Mascara Monday time for our gorgeOUs N&Kers!

Let’s re-state our review rules:

  1. We bought all mascara ourselves (which means nobody is paying us).
  2. We wear each mascara for a week.
  3. All mascaras purchased were black, and the darkest black they had available.
  4. Every mascara used was put on the exact same way, with only two coats. All eye makeup for the comparison pictures was exactly the same.

That’s it…there are no more rules.

Wait…maybe one more…the opinion is ours…take it or leave it. Believe it or not. These are just our 2¢.

What we want in a mascara

Lasting Curl

Staying Power

Colour

Separation

Volume

Length

Most reviews talk about these 6 points. The first 5 are important to me since I’ve got naturally long lashes2.

The problem is that my durn lashes ramrod straight. So, I’ve got to bust out the eyelash curler first1. Doesn’t matter if it’s a mascara dipped in gold. Without that lash curler, the mascara will not reach its full potential.
Application. So after curling and applying Rimmel London’s 24 Hour Supercurler, I found that the product applied quickly, without much fuss.
Curl power. This product didn’t curl my lashes very much. But, once I cyborg’ed it up1, the mascara worked well.
Staying power. It lasted quite a while. In fact, I found that I needed to get a Q-tip in there after cleansing to ensure all the product was out. (Lots of other people experienced this as well. See some other reviews.)
Separation. That curved brush is thick and it’s got some junk in the trunk. Angle that brush around & work it for your lashes. As the product has a thin consistency, lashes were separated beautifully with no porridge-y clumps.

Colour. Yep, the colour was “very black”. See Volume as this affects appearance of Colour.
Volume. Oh sigh. Here’s where it falls short. I got length, separation, curl power, colour… do you really need volume, too? Can all 5 equally co-exist in 1 mascara? I layer my mascaras anyways, so I’d just pair it with a volumizer.

Interesting tid bit: Rimmel London gives a dupe on fake lashes here. Did this dupe work for you?Did this dupe work for you?

Would I buy again (Yes!) & would i recommend it?

For newbies this is a good starter mascara.

For the seasoned mascara-ists, you’ll have to pair with a volumizer.

Footnotes
1 Mr Nals calls me cyborg when I’m using the curler. I’ve found that when I put curler under the hair dryer for 2-3 seconds, the curl is intense and adding a good mascara suspends it in curl-perfection.
2 My lashes have lengthened and volumized with EyEnvy eyelash conditioner! Our review is available here.

Maybe she’s born with it? Maybe it’s EyEnvy?

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As you delightful N&Kers know, I had a coworker with lashes that went on for days.  Her secret was EyEnvy.

Eyenvy is an eyelash & brow conditioner.

I searched high and low last year and could only find the mascara.  I thought it was peanuts but it actually made lashes a bit fuller.  My review is here.

 

Kells found the actual conditioner.  She reviews it here.

So in July, I finally got a bottle of conditioner.  They recommend applying once daily x3 months then go to every other day.  I noticed a difference about 2 months into the routine.  Or rather, others noticed:

 

a friend of mine said “Your lashes are so full that they’re casting a shadow on your face!”

 

Mr Nals said “They look bigger.”(Man of a few words, that one.)

 

I’m now down to the every-other-day application.  But, it was easy enough to remember to apply & let dry.  My skin & eyes are super sensitive but I didn’t find any adverse reactions.

So N&Kers, if you want to try it: do it!

A couple of N&Kers have tried it, with uber positive results.