Product Review: Madison Street Beauty Eyeshadows & Bronzer + SWATCHES!

Okay guys, here's what you've been waiting for... swatches of all of my beautiful Madison Street Beauty samples! Just an FYI - Madison Street Beauty is doing a freaking AMAZING sale right now -- 60% off everything in the store! Unfortunately, this sale ends tomorrow, April 1st, so jump on that soon.

Now, without further ado, the swatches!

Product Review: Claribel Nourishing Eye, Lip & Facial Oil

Howdy folks! Sorry for the lack of posts last week. It's been pretty crazy over here in my world, and now that SXSW has invaded my home city of Austin, TX, I find myself a bit too caught up in all of the excitement to do my usual posts! Psst, I'm going to a secret show tonight, so keep an eye on my Instagram for pics.

As a consolation, here's a quick little review of a lovely facial oil that I've been using:

claribel skin treatments & cosmeceuticals is a small green brand with a wide array of luxurious yet affordable products. I'm a complete Etsy junkie, so I'm constantly on the look-out for up-and-coming indie brands, which is where I originally found claribel's shop. That Etsy shop is still around, but now they have a fancy new website, too! claribel has been on my list for a while and I finally settled on their Nourishing Eye, Lip & Facial Oil.

I originally bought this oil as an eye makeup remover because my usual cleanser wasn't cutting it. Now that I have my amazing ED4OLO Vitamin B Cleansing Oil, I no longer need it for that purpose, but it's still an excellent product.

The Mask-ed Crusader aka Sadie Reviews All the Masks!

Today we're having a Very Special Episode on the blog! That's right, three product reviews for the price of one! Just three low monthly payments of zero dollars!

Anyway, in my recent FreshFaced haul, I received three separate masks, all of which are specifically targeted towards drawing out impurities, especially blackheads (my biggest problem) and blemishes (which I also occasionally get). However, beyond their end goals, the masks I got are all very different.

So, without further ado, here are the three masks I'm reviewing: Kahina Giving Beauty's Antioxidant Mask, Stark Skincare's Green Tea Detox Clay Mask, and May Lindstrom Skin's The Problem Solver!

Product Review: Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask

As mentioned before, I have quite oily skin. This means I'm usually protected from things like dryness. Alas, this cold winter weather is breaking through even my thick layer of protective juices (did I just write that line?). This, paired with the fact that I was sick for two weeks over the holidays and therefore neglected my usual skincare regimen, means that my skin has been in need of some serious assistance. Luckily, it hasn't been terribly broken out, but there's definitely something to be desired. It's been dull, congested, lacking a certain vitality, and peppered with strange flaky dry spots. Ew.

I've been wanting to try Tata Harper for a while, specifically this mask, so it was the perfect time to break out one of my FreshFaced samples! I'm trying to do this whole product trial thing right for a change, i.e., only trying out one new product at once rather than all of them at the same time like some kind of crazy junkie. This means that I took the time to try this mask twice (with several agonizingly boring days in between) before making the final call. And what is that final call? Success! But... not overwhelmingly so. Let's discuss.

Product Review + SWATCHES!: ILIA Beauty Lip Conditioner in Bang Bang

My first product review of the new year! How exciting! This review is thanks to a sample I received from FreshFaced. (Received as in I bought it and then received it in the mail, not as in received for free. For free would be much preferred. Please send me free things.)

Running the Natural Mascara Gauntlet

Oh hey look, a new post! Let's not make a big deal out of.

Mascara is one of those things that's incredibly difficult to find a clean version of, at least one that's comparable to to all of those nasty, toxic brands. It's right up there with deodorant. While there are plenty of options to try out, the vast majority of those options have problems: smudging, flaking, clumping, lack of staying power, long drying time... You get the picture.

However, a few brands have come out with some decent (some more than decent) clean mascaras. Let's take a look at the natural mascaras I've tried out so you don't have to suffer through the not-so-great ones!

Product Review: Sweet Anthem Perfume - Lucille Perfume Oil

Check out my previous post on Sweet Anthem here!

The second perfume oil I tried out from Sweet Anthem was Lucille. Here is the description from their website:

"From an old Germanic ballad: The linden-maiden rests beneath an illuminated grove / night-blooming jasmine fastened in her hair / Surrounded by the memory of ash and smoke and trove, the linden-worm takes flight / off they climb together, through the salty air...Notes: Amber, Jasmine, Linden Blossom, Rosewood, Sea Salt, Tonka Bean."

Product Review: Sweet Anthem Perfume - Rebecca Perfume Oil

 
Sweet Anthem is just one of the many gems I came across at the Austin Renegade Craft Fair. I passed up the two other perfumeries that caught my eye at the fair, Rebel + Mercury and Imaginary Authors, to try out Sweet Anthem. I even had the pleasure of speaking with perfumer Meredith Smith herself. As if the amazing scents, cruelty-free manifesto, and charming packaging hadn't won me over already, Meredith was sweet, patient, and informative. I'm quite the indecisive shopper and she didn't seem to mind a bit. She even threw together a custom sample packet for me!

My sample set included three scents: Rebecca, Lucille, and Annabelle. Perfume is one of those products that, to me, is notoriously difficult to shop for. Oh, I can oogle and drool over any number of scents online or in-person, but it's hard for me to pull the trigger on a purchase, in part because of the expense of perfume and in part because I've found that high quality perfumes really evolve once you put them on. That's were sample packages like this one come in.

Product Review: Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm

I'm kind of obsessed with lip products. Lip gloss, lip balm, lip shimmer, lip tint, lipstick... I love all of it! Which is silly, since I'm not the kind of person that spends a lot of time putting on makeup. I think that's why out of all of the lip products I stuff in my purse, my current favorite is this Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm.

 

I picked up the shade "Hibiscus," which is a lovely pink/magenta sort of color. Whatever, it looks great.

There are countless things that I love about this balm. Number one is that it's a balm. Even with natural, clean products, lipsticks and other lip color tend to leave my lips feeling a little dry. Glosses by themselves make me feel like I'm in high school again. This balm is creamy, moist, and contains just the right amount of color for everyday wear. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to make up, so I hate standing in front of a mirror and attempting to expertly apply lip color. I can slap this baby on in the car or at my desk and it always looks great. Nice and natural, but with enough shine and color to pop. All in all, it's fantastic and I highly recommend it. I may even try some of their other colors.

A word about Burt's Bees and other mainstream brands:

Product Review: Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil

I dropped by the Beauty Store Salon & Spa the other day because it's the only place you can find Jane Iredale products here in Austin (that I know of). I've heard about this brand many times before, but I always seem to confuse it with Josie Maran. Note: they are not the same thing. I learned this the hard way.

I was actually on the look out for something similar to this little do-dad that was recently featured in an awesome Beauty by Britanie video. However, per usual, I forgot what I'd come for and got distracted by eyeliner. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the natural eyeliner I've purchased before, which is sad because if I'm wearing makeup, eyeliner is a must. The liner I most recently tried out basically snapped in half and I'd been awkwardly attempting to keep using it, but was getting pretty fed up. That's when I met the Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil. Here's a picture from their website:

Pretty standard-looking pencil, am I right? But no my friends, this pencil is magical. Like I mentioned before, I've often been disappointed with eyeliners -- natural or conventional. I've tried using dark eyeshadow as a liner, but I can't get the definition I like. Even when I used conventional, chemical-filled eyeliner pencils (before I knew better), it was hard to find one I liked. I was committed to a drugstore brand called Prestige before I switched to clean products and nothing so far had lived up to that precedent... until now.

To Tone or Not to Tone?

I have a confession to make.

I am addicting to toning.

Growing up, I never really understood the purpose of toners or astringents. To be perfectly honest, I still don't completely understand their purpose. I think it has something to do balancing pH levels or the skin's acid mantle.

Once I started actually caring about the state of my skin in my teen and preteen years, I happily scrubbed, polished, cleansed, oil-free moisturized, mattefied, and Biore pore-stripped, but never, ever "toned." The only toners I knew of seemed to made primarily of Listerine and flesh-eating bacteria. They smelled like alcohol, tasted like alcohol, and -- shockingly -- were mostly alcohol. No wonder I didn't like them. What sane person would want to slather artificially colored rubbing alcohol on their face? However, sometime around the same time I started reading labels, washing my hair with a lumpy soap bar, and using apple cider vinegar for absolutely everything, I reexamined my relationship with toners.

Oh, how wrong I was. Toning is awesome! Whether they call it toner or not (synonyms include astringent, mist, hydrating spray, clarifying lotion, etc.), it's a great way to refresh your skin, improve the absorption of your moisturizer, and add some great, skin-loving ingredients to your routine.

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

When I began my green journey, one of the first things I did was switch my shampoo. I'm sure that everyone's heard of the "no poo" movement by now, so I don't feel the need to go into it in detail. Suffice to say, due in part to the modern convenience of a hot shower, most average shampoos are detergents. That's right, the same stuff that goes into your dishwasher and washing machine. It's pretty rough stuff, and not good at all to your hair.

Completely ignoring the dangerous chemicals and petroleum derivatives in most products, there is a fundamental problem with the way people wash their hair. We basically get trapped in this cycle where hard detergents strip our hair of nutrients and healthy oils, then we have to use heavy conditioners that coat our hair in silicones and other nasty stuff to calm it down, then it gets greasy from the conditioner, then we have to shampoo again... Not good at all.

I'm not cool enough to go completely no poo, so instead I switched to a safe (or "clean," as the No More Dirty Looks girls say) shampoo bar from A Wild Soap Bar. Let me just say that this stuff is awesome. Here are my reasons:

#1 - The company is local. I've even met the lovely woman who started everything at the Pecan Street Festival.
#2 - All of the ingredients are safe, effective, and natural.
#3 - It works! My hair has never felt softer, it's growing out more quickly, and when I use the recommended apple cider vinegar rinse, it's very shiny and not tangled at all.

I like to use the Yucca Root Shampoo & Body Bar. I've also used the Carrot Complexion Soap, which is very nice. I like the Yucca bar because I can use it on my hair and body and it smells very fresh and invigorating. It's also helpful if you're traveling... No worries about tiny travel bottles or liquids to declare to the TSA.

I shampoo my hair every day because I'm a crazy person. I like to condition with an apple cider rinse or Aubrey Organic's Green Tea Rinse. My hair is fairly oily, so I don't like to use heavy conditioners on a regular basis.

So that's that!