Review: Jordana Cat Eye Liner (01 Black Leather)

Picture found at Walgreens.com

$2.99/ 0.057 fl. oz (1.7 mL)

http://www.jordanacosmetics.com/p-173-cat-eye-liner.aspx

This eyeliner is described as being “Lightweight, Long Wearing, Smudge-Proof Color that Lines & Defines Eyes”, “From Novice to Pro; Easy To Use, Tapered Brush Applicator”, and having “Smooth Application”.

Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Propylene Glycol, Acrylates Copolymer, XanthanGum, Cellulose, Hectorite, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Mica.+/- May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI77499), Red 40 (CI 16035), Blue 1 (CI 42090), Carmine (CI 75470), Ultramarines(CI 77007), Black 2 (CI 77266), Chromium Oxide Greens (CI 77288), ManganeseViolet (CI 77742)..

This product is a black liquid liner with a shiny, vinyl-like finish. It is housed in a long tube with a very fine brush applicator. The applicator is slightly tapered.

I found that about half of the claims associated with the product are accurate. This is a pigmented, very black liquid liner that provides smudgeproof wear for the whole day. The brush is so fine that you can get really thin lines and really sharp points. However, it is not at all easy to use. Because it is a brush tip and not very tapered, it is really easy to make mistakes. So I would definitely NOT recommend this for novice eyeliner-wearers as the blurb suggests. Because it is a brush/inkwell type design instead of a pen, if I draw into the roots of the lashes I get my lashes coated with the product. I can work around this, I just gently run makeup remover over my lashes, but I can see this being a problem for inexperienced makeup wearers. If you are already boss at doing liquid liner and have trouble finding a product that allows you to draw fine enough lines or points, this is definitely check this out though.

Another thing is the consistency of the product. It has a very strange consistency when it dries; the product binds together. This makes it really resistant to running or smudging (I’ve taken showers with this on and have come out with my liner intact), however, if you rub it it balls up and rubs off completely without much hassle. This only happens with liner on my eyelids, not swatches on my hands, leading me to believe that water or oil breaks down bonds between the skin and the product. This makes the product really easy and not at all messy to remove when you actually want it to, which is great. Thankfully I think the gentle rubbing is key; I have quite oily lids and haven’t had this peel off of its own accord throughout the day (unless I accidentally rubbed my eyes) even without wearing primer underneath. It never rubbed off my hand without water. So if you have super oily eyelids, I would suggest putting a bit of primer under your eye makeup; for drier lids this should work fantastically.

The finish is a bit strange, being slightly shiny- if you are familiar with the L’Oreal vinyl finish liner (I don’t know the exact name), I think this is similar if memory serves correctly. I can’t exactly say for sure if this is an exact dupe because I only have used my friend’s about 4 years ago, but I think if you like that one this one could be a good replacement. It’s also significantly cheaper!

Overall, I think this is a really good product if you are really good at doing liquid liner and like the vinyl look. It has great wear, yet is easy to remove when you want it off; it is super black and can draw really fine lines. And for $2.99 you can hardly beat it! I would be interested in seeing if Jordana INCOLOR Fabuliner has the same performance as this liner in terms of formula, but with a little bit easier application.

Rating: A-

Review: NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish in 202 Grand Central Station

Walgreens: $1.99

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/nyc-in-a-ny-minute-quick-dry-nail-polish/ID=prod6155150-product

Grand Central Station (clear top coat) over OPI Bogata Blackberry

New York Color describes this clear nail polish as being a ” slick, glossy polish that goes from wet to set in less than 60 seconds”. It also claims a special “flow control brush”. Grand Central Station is completely clear, and oddly enough is not labeled as a top coat at all, rather is lumped in with the normal nail polish range.

Let me start off by saying that this is the best topcoat I have ever tried, and I honestly cannot say I see a topcoat in my future that can beat this one. Just to show how serious I’ll say it again. In bold. This topcoat is awesome. Now here’s why.

Just as NYC claims, this provides a beautiful glossy finish that actually also works to help camouflage any mistakes made when doing the previous coats. For someone like me who sucks at nails and is also impatient, this really helps.

It does dry fairly fast, which is fabulous (because of the aforementioned lack of patience), but I’m not exactly sure about under 60 seconds. It doesn’t much matter though, at this point.

I’m not sure about the “flow control brush”, it looks pretty bog standard to me, but it doesn’t pose any difficulties in application. This polish does apply great, but I think this is  more due to the formula rather than the brush. The formula is quite thick, and disperses across the nail so it is really even. However, this thickness obviously doesn’t affect dry time.

But the thing that really set this topcoat apart from the masses is the wear time. For me, nail polish normally wears about 3-5 days before it starts to chip. Tip wear for me typically occurs about 1-2 days after. This would be for brands like OPI and Essie. Better polishes, like Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, wear longer, and crappier polishes like Catrice chip sooner. This topcoat can as much as double wear time for me, I’m on the 4th day of wear of the color pictured, and I barely have tip wear. Some nails are still completely perfect. They are all as glossy as the day they were painted. I tried this with another old, really crappy polish and it lasted 5 days without chipping. For me, that is unheard of. What I find really interesting, though, is that the description says nothing about longevity. I haven’t tried any of their other polishes, but NYC might just be selling themselves a bit short!

Overall, if you don’t own this polish already you need to go out and try it. It is all of $2, and it might just change your life. For all those people that can’t get NYC where they live, I am truly, truly sorry.

Rating: A+

Be Beautiful Not Broke: My Favorites From the Drugstore #1

Yes, it is possible to look fabulous while still saving money for that pair of Choos. Here are my top picks for cheap but awesome makeup.

Product	Price	Picture	Description
ELF Blush in Blushing Rose	$3	Found on ELF website	This color is freaking amazing. It is a gorgeous plummy rose color, and I think it could look amazing on so many skin tones. The packaging feels really nice, and guess what? It’s $3. Three. Bucks. Yeah. Target’s that-a-way, ladies.
Catrice Eyeshadows	3-4€	Found on Catrice website	Great pigmentation, great shade selection, great texture- if you can’t get your hands on some Wet n Wild these would do great as well. Also some great dupes for MAC shadows!
Real Techniques Brushes	$5-9 ea/Some brushes come in sets that are like $20, though	Found on Real Techniques site	These brushes were designed by YouTube’s Samantha Chapman, and boy did she know exactly what she was doing. They are soft. They feel like they might outlive me AND my cowboy boots (that’s a big deal y’all). They apply product like nobody’s business. My absolute favorite is the buffing brush, with the contour brush a close second.
Hildegard Braukmann Honey-Lecithin Mask	2€	Found on Hildegard Braukmann website	This made my face feel like baby ass. Seriously. Plus it seriously lasts for like 4 applications. Read my full blog post here.