Category: Elaine Mellencamp

Eye shadow and eye color

Cold Cream 'n' Roses2 Comments

I just sat through the debut of Eyes By Design on HSN. I spent 30 minutes listening to some woman with a grating British accent and the usual hyper-perky TV shopping network hostess, who subjected me to pitches that the eye shadow palettes were created “scientifically” (a red flag word) to enhance one’s eye color.

The presentation so totally bummed me out that I won’t be buying Eyes By Design. I’m disappointed – I expected better from BeautyBank.

The HSN and QVC websites are among the most sophisticated e-commerce sites I’ve seen, with lots of information about products. Download the tip sheets for using Eyes By Design palettes. The tip sheets are available in a printer-friendly version and can be used with other palettes .

I’m not smitten with the idea of selecting eye shadow shades based on eye color alone – refer to Makeup lessons from Di Kennedy to see what other factors should be considered.

Still, if you’re interested in eye shadow palettes based on eye color, I recommend L’Oreal’s recent Made for Me Naturals eye shadow palette collection. All the palettes are beautiful, and you don’t have to limit yourself to the palette for your eye color: I chose the palettes for brown eyes (Penelope Cruz) and dark eyes (Beyonce).

I’m also enjoying the Pop Beauty Eye Class palette in Brown Eyes (although the appliqués make the wallet look tacky). I also like the Play It Up eye shadow trio for green eyes from Almay, and while I grumbled about Almay retaining Elaine Mellencamp after it completely redid its brand, she’s picked up cachet through her husband’s recent – and deserved – induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame!

Great drugstore finds

Cold Cream 'n' Roses3 Comments

As the interview with Aunt Beep for ThisNext showed, I’m an inveterate roamer at CVS, particularly its cosmetics aisles, which not only have the usual mass-market brands, but also Lumene, a cosmetics brand from Finland exclusive to CVS and the French skin care brands Avene and LaRoche-Posay.

Here are some drugstore finds that I’d like to share with my readers:

Maybelline Dream Mousse Shadows in Rose Kiss and Black Spice from their limited edition Sugar and Spice collection for Valentine’s Day (the collection even featured nail polish with heart-shaped sparkles!) . Rose Kiss is a beatiful shade for the lid, while Black Spice is great for the outer corner of the eye for the class smoky eye look. If only Maybelline would add these shades to its regular collection!

L’Oreal has now added liquid bronzer to its popular True Match™ collection of foundations, powders, concealers, and blushes designed to flatter a wide variety of skin tones. I am very fond of True Match™ liquid makeup in N3 – see my review at ThisNext, so I picked up the liquid bronzer in N1-2-3. This liquid bronzer may be blended with your foundation or be used alone.

UPDATE: The May 2007 of Lucky has a good tip: apply liquid bronzer before foundation to even skin tones. It worked for my skin, which has a tendency towards ruddiness


Physicians Formula Mineral Wear™ Talc-Free Mineral Eye Shadow Quad

Finally, Physicians Formula has released six different talc-free Mineral Eye Shadow Quads, all in beautiful shades. My complaint is about the packaging – you have to flip the compact over to use the mirror, so it’s a clumsy way of applying the eyesahdow.

You can find Maybelline, L’Oreal, and Physicians Formula at major drugstores, mass-market retailers, supermarkets, and drugstore.com. Lumene is exclusive to CVS, and you can also find Avene and LaRoche-Posay at select CVS stores. Stores carrying Vital Radiance are now trying clear their inventory, so now is the time to snap up these products (which were good, although the line was badly marketed) at the right price – I was fond of Vital Radiance’s Smoothing Eye Primer mousse, so I bought two at half-price. Paula’s Choice may be purchased through the web site for Paula Begoun.

UPDATE: I have since found out that drugstore.com and Amazon.com carry a wide variety of Vital Radiance products.