Weekly Beauty Edit 4.05.2015

Self-tanning season has started for me. April 1 is always the day I start and usually by June 30th I'm dreading it. Last year was different, though. I started using a tanning mitt late in the summer of 2013 and fell in love with how easy it made self tanning. Used it all last season and found myself still happy about self-tanning until the end of September. I use it with every kind of self-tanning product. I don't have a favorite tanning product all I know is they all perform better and are easier to apply when I use a mitt!

Early Edition

Cover FX Custom Color Drops G40

Cover FX Custom Color Drops - Not quite ready to say this is a slam dunk winning product but must say my initial impression is very positive. This product is liquid pigment that is intended to be mixed with other products to create or adjust color. Mix it with your moisturizer to create a tinted moisturizer, adjust your foundation to match you summer color, add some to your primer, or a facial oil. I have discovered the Custom Color Drops do not play well with all products. My first attempt was using them with my moisturizer. It looked great but the color had no longevity. Foundations have ingredients to help them wear. The Custom Color Drops can increase coverage and longevity of foundations but I find this principle does not apply to skincare products. This made me think about using the drops with one of my mattifying primers. It was better but the primer I used was too silicone-y and I couldn't get the coverage I wanted. Not to be deterred, I tried it with Laura Geller's Spackle primer which is a much more liquid gel texture primer. Laura Geller has several varieties of her Spackle and I chose Ethereal. The end product of Custom Color Drops + Ethereal was breathtaking. My mature skin looked outstanding, my pores were covered, my skin looked as close to flawless as it could. Was this a fluke? I wore it again. It looked beautiful again. I used a larger than normal size dollop of Spackle and 4 drops of pigment in the palm of my hand and mixed it with a makeup spatula.

Skincare News
Freeman Charcoal and Black Sugar Scrub - let's begin with the fact that this is just plain fun to use! Spreading black goo all over your face is a unique experience, makes one feel like you're living dangerously. I couldn't find this in any of my local big box store so I landed up ordering it online. I'm sure there are more effective charcoal masks, Boscia comes to mind, but for the price this one was great.

Restorsea Eye Cream - the packaging is soothing to look at which I think is what initially took me in. After reading up a bit more, I found that its claim to fame was a natural enzyme, something about baby salmon, that provided extremely gentle exfoliation. Aside from having an extremely dry under eye area, it is also very sensitive. Most eye creams sting and then I get the uglies. The uglies are when my under eye area gets red, swollen and flaky. As the area swells, the lines become more pronounced. Halloween, here I come! It takes me over a week to recover. Natural enzymes tend to work, though, without irritating me so this eye cream had me very curious. Restorsea is fluffy, almost mousse like. Glides on but it takes surprisingly long to absorb.

Restorsea Eye Cream

Because of the fluffy  texture, I expected for it to absorb quickly but it takes a good 3 or 4 minutes. After using it both night and day for a week, it's not hydrating enough for my extremely dry under eye area. Is this worth the price tag? As an eye cream, for me, no.  I'd take Algenist Eye Balm for day and either Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Eye Balm or Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Resist 24 for Eyes over the Restorsea for the hydration I need. I'm going to use this up at night for the exfoliating feature and then top with one of my other night eye creams. If your under eye area is normal or even dry, this is a lovely eye cream. If you are extremely dry, I would pass. However, if you need an under eye exfoliant that is gentle, I strongly recommend this. This is sold at Bergdorf Goodman and I think I originally read about this in New Beauty or some other magazine.

Avene Retrinal .1

Avene Retrinal .1 - Here's a very short chemistry lesson. Retinol, an active ingredient available over the counter for anti-aging, has to go through two transformation to work on the skin. Retinol through various reactions with your skin becomes retinaldehyde and then retinaldehyde reacts further and then becomes retinoic acid. It is the final stage, retinoic acid, that is actually anti-aging. Retinoic Acid is known to most of us as prescription Retin A.  Avene Retrinal is retinaldehyde. It is gentler than Retin A but considerably more effective than retinol. I've used prescription Retin A for well over a decade, almost two decades if I think about it. I've noticed over the last year, my skin is getting fussier about Retin A. I've had to cut back to every other day. I've begun using the Avene Retrinal on my off nights from Retin A. So far, so good! Very, very cautiously and slowly, I'm going to try incorporating this into my eye routine.

Haul-A-Lulu
Revlon Ultra HD Lipstick in Rose and Magnolia - I love this lipstick! These are my first two tubes of this formula and no doubt, I'll be picking up some more. Sweeps on and deposits lots of pigment, did not feather on me, felt beautiful on the lips. It does not claim to be long wearing. If I'm not eating, it lasts about two to three hours. For those who have been reading my blog, you know that I love applying lipstick so long wearing is not important to me. Both these colors are gorgeous for Spring and Summer if you like color on you lips. If you are a natural, neutral, nude lipstick kind of person, my sympathies.

Revlon Ulta HD Lipstick in Magnolia (top) and Rose (bottom)

IT Cosmetics CC Your Way to Radiant Skin - this was a "Today's Special Value" on QVC. This kit had five components. The Vitality Disk is one of my favorite makeup products and was happy to get a second one to keep at my desk. Vitality Disk contains a matte bronzer, blush and highlighter. IT Cosmetics also launched their Illumination CC Cream which turned out to be a bit too luminous for me.  I mentioned this new CC cream in my blog post earlier this week as one of the "misses" in my March purchases. The kit also contained an almost perfect eye shadow trio and two of IT's most incredible brushes, one for face and the other for shadows.

True Beauty
I don't take too many selfies but I snapped this one spur of the moment today at Easter festivities with my Mom! She's 87 and was at my house on Friday baking up a storm!

Cheers,

Lulu

Let's connect on Instagram

Let’s connect by email at ladyluluonbeauty@gmail.com

Let's connect on Facebook
Although I haven't filmed in ages, here's my YT channel YouTube

See that box up near the top, on the right? Subscribe by email - hope you do!