Manolo for the Beauty

Yes, it’s time again for a

COSMETICS…Cosmetics…cosmetics..

CAGE..Cage…cage…

MAAAAAAAATTTTCCCCHHHH!

Because I don’t trust you guys, (kidding) I decided to do my own frou-frou brand versus a cheapie drugstore brand in the form of eyeshadows.

This is probably because even though I really like eyeshadow, I don’t wear it as often as I wear other types of makeup.  It’s the last thing I put on, if I have time.  And often, I don’t.

I used Too Faced shades Heaven and Push Up (a matte beige and light bronze shimmer, respectively) against e.l.f.’s Eye Brightening quad Ethereal, which had two extremely similar colors.  Identical, almost, except the e.l.f. beige had a bit of shimmer.

I applied the e.l.f. shades to my right eyelid, dusted all of it off the brushes, then applied the Too Faced shades to my left eyelid. 

I’m using the following criteria- 1) ease of application 2) “trueness” of color, and 3) how long the shades lasted, and 4) price.  I applied no primer to either lid, and my face was freshly washed.

EASE OF APPLICATION

The e.l.f. shade came off nicely onto the brush, but I noticed a lot of product that (in very scientific terms) poofed off the  base and remained on the surrounding plastic.  It blended fairly easily, but I noticed the same “poofing” of product below my eye.  Noticeable mostly due to the shimmery aspect of the shadow.

The Too Faced also came off nicely, with little-to-no poofing.  It went on smoothly.  Not a lot of product went anywhere other than my eyelid.

Winner of Round 1: Too Faced

TRUENESS OF COLOR

E.l.f.’s shade of beige did take more than one application to become the color on my eyelid that I wanted it to be.  I have dark-ish eyelids, so I usually have to apply very light shades at least twice to get what I want.  It took three applications, and looked fine.  The bronze shimmer was only applied once, and was a light bronze.  I didn’t find that particular bronze to be very intense.

Too-Faced beige took two applications, and looked pretty much the same as the e.l.f.  In fact, I could not tell the difference.  The bronze, with one application, was more intense and shimmery than the e.l.f., but no so much so that I gasped at the difference.

Winner of Round 2: Too Faced, although it was a SQUEAK.

LONG LASTING?

After two hours, both sets of shadows looked exactly the same.

After four hours, both beige shadows had worn slightly, bronzes looked good.

After six hours, both beige shadows were pretty much toast, the e.l.f. bronze was very faint, and the Too Faced bronze was hanging in there pretty good.

Winner of Round 3: Too Faced, again by a VERY slight margin.

Price

E.l.f. $3.00 for a quad.

Too Faced $36.00 for a complete kit.

Winner of Round 4: e.l.f. because how can you not love a quad for three bucks?

So, according to my criteria, Too Faced won this cage match, but came out pretty bruised and in desperate need of a massage and an ice pack.

I must say, that when faced with suge a huge price difference, there is not much in the way of being able to say that Too Faced was a completely superior product.  It wasn’t.  Granted, you get more colors with the Too-Faced, and your base colors are larger, so there is that. 

However, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the e.l.f. shadows, and the next time I find myself considering some pricey eye shadows, I will definitely keep this experience in mind.

Wow, OK, y’all had some very opinionated views on your most un-favorite makeup color.  Good to see the heat hasn’t zapped the spirit out of anyone.  Believe me when I say I mean that in the most loving way possible.  I’m all about the love here at Manolo Beauty. 

The winner of the most-dreaded makeup color was orange/coral at 29%, the runner-up being yellow at 25%.  12% are afraid of blue, 9% of red, and 8% of green. 

Absolutely no one is afraid of gold. 

Many of you also expressed particular hatred of pink eyeshadow, and I must say, I ROCK me some pink eyeshadow.  I think it has to do mostly with your skin tone, as the paler girls seem to be the one with the pink eyeshadow beef.  Maybe I will do a how-to.

Today’s question is:

Simply put, if you need/want an eyelash curler, don’t waste your money on anything else.

I’ve found that as I’ve aged, my eyelashes have started growing straighter than they used to.  Don’t know if that is common, but for me, a pain in the butt because lashes that stick straight out instead of curving up do not look all that great with mascara.  So, to the eyelash curler I went.  A simple squeeze, no pain, no pinching, and voila!  Beautifully curved eyelashes begging for some mascara. 

There isn’t an eyelash curler that even comes close to Shu Uemura’s, and many have tried.  I don’t know exactly what voodoo they use in the making of this thing, but it is almost magical.  I have NEVER hurt my eyelashes using this product, and as long as you are careful about placement, you won’t either.

Remember, always curl before applying mascara.  Otherwise, you’ll get nasty bits of mascara all over your curler.  Not pretty.

As I stated on my other Manolosphere blog, August is a month I would usually rather skip.  I’m not made for hot weather, and the next month or two are the hottest of the year ’round these parts.

Besides, my boss gave me permission to be a bit lazy, so I’m taking it.

But, I’m not abandoning you guys completely.

Do you have a beauty question you’d like to ask?  I’ll even take non-beauty related questions, as long as they aren’t mathematical word problems.  Girlfriend has a degree in English Literature.  I’ve hated math ever since my 1st grade nun made us recite the addition and subtraction tables out loud until we knew them by heart.   

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on here? Less of? Do you hate it when I post magazine pictures? Want more fashion-y type stuff?

Let me know!

I’ll try to be posting some light, fun things, and maybe some things not quite beauty-related.

You know, because I can.

Just help me to get through August and I’m forever in your debt.

ETA: All right, it looks as though I was trying to fish for compliments, and I SWEAR that wasn’t what I was doing.  Seriously, people, ask me a damn question! 😉

Vogue + Yves Saint Laurent makeup+ Natasha Poly and Jourdan Dunn= beauty eye candy galore.

Well, we had quite the discussion going on in the comments regarding the whole “you get what you pay for” theory when it comes to beauty products.  Thanks to aurumgirl for a very well thought-out comment to get things rolling.  52% of you said that it depends, and yes and no responses were evenly split at 23% each.

Last week, the lovely and talented Gaia over at The Non-Blonde had a post in which she stated she was intimidated by purple eye makeup.  That got me to wondering if there was any particular color that has you reaching for the other side of the shelf.