Things I've Hated This Month: August

I'm sorry. We're already 1/3 into September, and I'm posting something that dates back to August. I know, I'm terrible. But honestly, I only decided that I disliked one of these products in the last week. I realized I wasn't using it at all, tried it once more this week, then decided that it needs to get returned to Sephora this week when I go home to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Thus begins the things I've hated this month!

This is the Shiseido Lacquer Rouge in RD305 (Nymph). This literally sat in my "loves" on sephora.com for weeks and weeks. I read reviews on it, I loved it, I was convinced that when I actually bought it that it would become a holy grail product for me.

Then I did buy it, and I just simply didn't fall in love at all.

I think part of it had to do with me already owning a couple of lipsticks that are really similar in color to this one (MAC Plumful and MAC Craving). And I didn't anticipate that it wouldn't dry down to a matte finish. Instead, it stays glossy. I'm not a huge fan of glosses in general, so the gloss-like aspects of this lip lacquer just didn't do it for me. And there's just no way that I'm going to keep a product that doesn't wow me when I spent $25 on it. So, I returned it a couple of weeks after I bought it. Of course, I ended up buying REN's Get Radiant, Glowing Skin in Just 10 Minutes! Kit when I returned this lip lacquer.

Then there's this Clinique Lash Building Primer. I initially bought it hoping that the white color of it would make colored mascara pop. I ended up returning the colored mascara that I had bought to use with this, but I figured that I can always use a mascara primer.

Then this week, I really got to thinking about this primer. I took it out of my mascara/eyeliner drawer for the first time in weeks.

This time around, it struck me how much product gets stuck to the brush. And after using it, when you're putting the applicator back into the tube, that excess product doesn't just go back in. Instead it clumps up around the base of the tube, and it just sort of looks gross. But I decided that if I used this primer and it make a difference with the volume/length of my eyelashes, then I would keep this primer.

Forgive the bad lighting in the second photo, I was stupid and in a hurry to get to work, so I took the photo in my bathroom. 

But you can tell, that there isn't much of a difference between my eyelashes in these photos. The top photo is without primer, the bottom photo is with the primer. I used the same mascara both days. This product just isn't worth the $15 I spent on it. I'm going to return it this weekend and buy something that I'll (hopefully) love, instead.

And one more thing about this primer: it made using certain mascaras difficult. I found that if the mascara had a traditional mascara brush (LORAC's Pro Mascara, Benefit's BadGal Lash, etc.), this primer worked fine. But if you tried using a synthetic, plastic brush with it, it was next to impossible. I just could not use my Benefit They're Real! after using this primer. It was rough going.

Moral of the story: sometimes you buy products. And sometimes they just don't blow your mind. Then they sit in the back of a drawer somewhere, but you should return them. And buy more makeup! 

Review: Clinique Liquid Facial Soap Dry Combination

In either February or March of this year, I finally got off of my lazy butt and picked up a skincare regimen. Before my life-changing trip to Sephora, I was using a drugstore cleanser in the shower and just removed my makeup (sometimes) at night with a makeup removing wipe.

After that fateful trip to Sephora, I came back to my dorm with a Clinique skincare set and a Clarisonic. While I rarely use the toner I got in the set, the moisturizer and cleanser became regulars in my life.

If you read my post about how I have a serious skincare obsession, you'll already know, but I actually have two bottles of this cleanser. Back in the day when I was in a traditional dorm, one bottle hung out by the sink in my room (so I could wash my face at night) and one hung out in my shower caddy. That way, I didn't have to carry one bottle back and forth to the shower with me. But now that I have my own bathroom in what is basically a studio apartment, having two bottles just seems silly.

This is a clear cleanser that foams when I use it in conjunction with my Clarisonic. Personally, when I'm using my Clarisonic, I love it when a face wash foams a bit. Otherwise, I just feel like the Clarisonic bristles are digging into my skin all awkwardly. So this face was is optimal for my purposes. In the last few months I've found foaming cleansers that I like more than this one, but all of them have some sort of a secondary use (other than just removing makeup). I have anti-acne cleansers, anti-aging ones, etc. But this is a great basic cleanser, one that I use with particular frequency when I'm planning on doing a mask or some sort of complicated serum/moisturizer process at night. When I'm afraid that an agent in one of my other cleansers will interact poorly with my mask/moisturizer, I always find myself reaching for this Clinique Liquid Facial Soap.

And coming in at $16.50 for 6.7 oz, it's definitely one of the most price-concious cleansers you can find inside a Sephora. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a basic, foaming cleanser.