Makeup Monday: Hourglass Aura Lip and Cheek Stains Spring 2011

I'm still super behind on all my reviews... Who knew that two weeks off would put me so far behind? I have tons of stuff still waiting to be posted (and emails to answer, eep)... I'm guessing that the only way to catch up is to just post as much as possible, and I'm thinking that I'll try to make Monday my makeup reviews day, hence the "Makeup Monday" in the title.

So! Here's the latest creation from Hourglass Cosmetics.

There are two new stain products: a cheek stain and a lip stain.

The Aura Sheer Lip Stain comes in such a pretty box. Reflective metallic packaging always catches my eye.


The product packaging itself is gorgeous, too. A heavy, luxurious feeling dark metal tube.


When the cap is removed, you can see the color of the stain through a clear plastic section in the neck. It's a click pen style dispenser with a fuzzy plastic applicator.

If you look closely, you can see the little holes that the product comes through. Though the tip looks soft, it's actually just a fuzzy coating over solid plastic.



It takes quite a few twists/clicks, but once you get the product flowing, it comes up through the tip of the pen.


The Aura cheek stain comes in similar packaging, just on a bigger scale:


A big, chubby tube with a soft cotton domed applicator.



Like the lip stain, it looks soft and spongy but it's really just a cloth coating over plastic. The cheek stain applicator is different from the lip stain one because the cotton covering absorbs the stain to help you blend and disperse it.

Twist the base of the tube and the cheek stain comes up through the top.


Here is what they look like swatched heavily on the skin, directly from the tubes, no base. The shade is Flush in both the cheek and the lip stain. Flush cheek stain is on the left, Flush lip stain is on the right.

The lip stain has a very light texture. It's thin, but thick enough not to be runny, which I suppose could be considered a gel texture. It's not thick or sticky at all. When you apply it, it feels cold and wet with a slight menthol tingle, and within seconds it's completely dry. It leaves almost no residue on the lips, it just sinks in and disappears.

It lasts a super long time. That's the beauty of a stain. You apply it once and it just stays there. No touchups. It doesn't transfer at all. The only thing it doesn't last through is eating.

The lip stain has a subtle minty scent and a very slightly bitter flavor. It's a taste typical of every lip stain I've ever tried.

It's not moisturizing and it's not glossy. It's just a matte natural tint on the lips. Because of this, you may need to apply balm afterward, or if you want a glossy look, apply some gloss on top.

As for the cheek stain, it's extremely similar in almost every aspect. Same light, cool water-based texture. Same super fast dry time. It only lacks the minty tingle of the lip stain.

The light texture feels really nice, but being so light also has a downside. It dries so fast that it can be hard to blend. You have to work very quickly. It stays wet longer if you apply and blend straight from the applicator, but you get better color and control if you blend it with your fingers.

The cheek stain is easiest to blend over bare moisturized skin. It blends well over tinted moisturizer or over a tinted primer. It gets harder to blend over traditional liquid foundation and almost impossible to blend over a powder mineral foundation. The slicker and smoother the base, the easier it is to blend and apply.

Once it's on, it lasts all day and looks extremely natural. Because of the water-based formula, it sinks into your skin and looks like a natural flush. The shade I have- which is actually called Flush- is a pink with coral tint, and in my case, looks a little too natural: it's the exact color my face is when I get sunburned.

It's nothing like a creme blush or a Tarte cheek stain, so it took me a few tries to get the hang of applying it. It's not slick or oily, not creamy, not sticky, not powdery. It's very light and thin and wet like water, unlike any cheek stain I've used before. It dries very very very fast. It doesn't look shiny and there's no sparkle or shimmer. It's sheer and lets your skin show through, but at the same time, the color is intense.

Though, I think my favorite part has to be that gorgeous packaging. The shiny metal tube that feels cool and heavy.... It feels expensive. Because, well, it is expensive. The Aura Cheek Stain is $45 for .27oz and the Aura Lip Stain is $26 for .1 oz. Just for reference, here's the ingredient lists for both products:

Aura Sheer Cheek Stain
All shades contain:
Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Diphenylsiloxy Phenyl Trimethicone, Peg-10 Dimethicone, Dimethicone, Neopentyl Glycol Dicaprate, Neopentyl Glycol Diethylhexanoate, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Sorbitan Sesquiisostearate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Tocopherol, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Diisostearyl Malate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Mica (Ci 77019), Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Ultramarines (Ci 77007), Red 30 (Ci 73360), Barium Sulfate (Ci 77120).

Aura Sheer Lip Stain
All shades contain:
Water (Aqua), Propylene Glycol, Polysorbate 20, Triethanolamine, Carbomer, Alumina, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Alaria Esculenta Extract, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Capryl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Flavor, Tetrasodium Edta, Allantoin, Tocopheryl Acetate Mica, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Fd&C Yellow 5 (Ci 19140), Fd&C Blue 1 (Ci 142090), D&C Red 33 (Ci 17200).


I have one more Hourglass product to review and I think you'll freak when you see it. I know I did.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Stila Make Me Blush Set

This sold out really fast. I've only had it for about two weeks, and when I went back to Sephora.com looking for it, it was already completely gone from the site! So... guess I'm a little late posting this... Oops!

It's still pretty to look at, except for the hideous box it comes in:

Really, could they have picked an uglier box? I don't understand this! They need something pretty to store it in, not this generic cardboard abomination!


This is what the items look like when you free them from their brown paper prison. Make Me Blush blush, Higs lip glaze, Kisses lip glaze.


Here they are up close, Hugs on top, Kisses on bottom. Hugs is a sheer red with tiny gold shimmer, Kisses is a fleshy nude pink creme. These are both minis.

Oh man, it's so pretty. Look at that gold sparkle.

Looks shinier in natural light. The gold is sadly just overspray, but it's really really nice overspray. I touched it gently to see what it looked like and it's so bright and sparkly. The powder itself is so gorgeous, but the compact it comes in is ugly! Plain black plastic, generic looking, plain round shape and clear flip lid. I know it's just packaging, but compare it to the Happy Boosters- those have a pretty powder and a pretty compact, why can't this?

I haven't swatched this yet. To be honest, I can't. It's too pretty. I can't bear to mess it up by touching it! I bought the Physician's Formula Happy Boosters to wear, and I bought this just to look at... Maybe I'll wear it one day. But thinking about smearing all that pretty gold foil makes me sad!

I've only worn Kisses lip glaze and it's very nice. Standard lip glaze formula, nondescript sweet scent. The color is great on me, it's a slightly warm nude pink that doesn't make me have corpse lips, I'd love to buy it in a full size if they ever made one!

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Collection for 2011

Look at this, my blog has been all girly-foofy-pink-hearts all the time lately! But I assure you, I am not an impostor, the real Scrangie has not been abducted by the body snatchers and I don't have a head injury. I'm just in full-on holiday mode. And don't worry, there are only a few more pink heart-shaped things left to post... But these might be my favorite of all the heart-shaped things.

The minute I saw the first pictures of these, I HAD to have them. They're in shiny hot pink packages, they're covered in 3-d multicolored hearts, they claim to make you happy and they're SCENTED. I know... I might have been able to resist them for a little while if it wasn't for that last fact. Scented adorable shiny Valentine's themed makeup? Sold. I'll take 576.

I got four of the five or six items in the line.


Rose and natural Happy Booster Blush on top, light bronzer and translucent face powder on the bottom. The blushes are a slightly smaller size than the bronzer and face powder, but the compacts and designs look the same.

The back of the box describes all the benefits of this product. They all contain Happy Boost Blend which has something called Happy Skin and Euphoryl in it. They're supposed to mimic the effect of endorphins to give you a happy feeling... Interesting!


Now, there is one flaw with these items. It's superficial and not necessarily significant, but it is still a flaw!

You have to destroy the box to open it! I know that the boxes get thrown out right away, but if you're someone who likes to store things in their boxes, you won't really be able to easily do that with these. It's not really a big deal, but the next photo will demonstrate my annoyance:


The compacts are glued into the box! It's that sticky type of removable rubber cement, but it's strong enough to rip the labels off the back of the compact. It happened on all four of mine. Wasn't there a better way to secure the compacts in their boxes? Did they have to put the glue directly onto the label? Also, some of the glue gets stuck in the square vents on the back of the compact and you get little sticky glue squares inside the brush chamber.

I was able to peel my labels off of the glue and stick them back onto the compacts, but still, it seems like a packaging design oversight.

Luckily, there's not a thing wrong with the products themselves.


The compact is a shiny hot pink chrome. Once you open the lid, you can lift up the powder tray to reveal a mirror and a brush. It's a nice little touch. The brush is a little on the floppy and scratchy side, but I do think it applies the powder nicely for a sheer application.

And, it is rather cute. It's red and pink with a metallic pink chrome handle to match the compact. I wish it was a little stiffer and softer feeling because then it would be absolutely perfect! But it is usable for a quick wash of color, just like a fan brush.

All of the powders have the same style compact and brush.



This is the light bronzer. It's a combination of light and medium brown/tan with one light pink heart. It has both matte and shimmer hearts mixed together.


This is the Natural blush. It has light pink, peach-nude, rose, mauve and one darker pink near-red heart, also a combination of matte and shimmer.


This is the Rose blush. It has medium and dark pink, peachy pink, cocoa pink and one deep hot pink heart in matte and shimmer.


And the Translucent face powder. It has pink, peach, beige, cream and nude colors, mostly matte but with a hint of shimmer.


I tried swatching them on my arm , but they didn't really show up on camera. These are all sheer formulas. Which, for me, is good! While I do like a very pigmented blush or bronzer, you have to be really good at applying blush to use them, and I'm just not that good at it. The only thing that I can apply blush perfectly with are those flat Benefit brushes that come in the boxed powders. The brush for these is somewhat similar, but a lot more... limp?

Anyway, the sheer formula allows you to do just a light wash of color OR you can build them up for more color. It has a little shimmer to it, but you can easily buff that down if you're not into shimmery cheeks (like me). The colors were all very subtle and flattering on my pale cool skintone, so in addition to being cute they're actually useful. I have not used the translucent face powder other than swatching it, but on my arm it was just a sheer powder.

I do like everything about these, but my favorite-favorite feature might be the scent. They describe it as violet, but I smell more than violet. I can't quite pin down what it is exactly, but it smells to me like a very light, sweet candy floral. Not a sharp, perfumey, heavy, headachey floral like in some scented makeup. The scent in these is pretty and enjoyable, but it's not too strong. I don't smell it once it's on my face, but you get little hints of it while you're applying and it just sorta makes you smile :)

As for the claim that they improve your mood and make you happy? Well, scientifically, I have no idea. I have no clue if the compounds in this actually have some sort of chemical effect on my mood. But I can honestly say that they do make me happy. They make me happy just to look at. They're so pretty and shiny and colorful I can't help but smile when I use them. The scent gives me a little mood boost as well, I suppose it's a form of aromatherapy. So, I guess they do live up to their claim of boosting my happy! But then again, makeup in general makes me happy, so who knows. Either way, they do totally cheer me up.

They're a little pricey for a drugstore product, they range from $10-$13 depending on where you get them, but luckily they all have $3 off coupons on them. Even if they weren't $3 off, I'd still buy them because I just love them so much.

These might be one of my most favorite cosmetic products of all time. I love looking at them, using them, wearing them... The combination of cute, colorful 3-d heart powder with that pink chrome compact and the sweet sugared violet scent is just absolutely perfect to me. They're the happiest looking makeup items in my collection, for sure!

Cargo Voyages Collection Spring 2011: Safari

CARGO cosmetics has just announced the re-launch of their website, www.cargocosmetics.com! You can now order online direct from them, and as a thank you gift to their customers, they're offering 20% off your first order when you register for their newsletter. Along with the re-launch of their website comes their spring 2011 collection, Voyages. It's a set of travel-friendly, multi-tasking beauty essentials, and I had the opportunity to review a couple of the items.

The centerpiece of the spring collection is the Safari set. It's an adorable makeup bag filled with travel ready shades inspired by the colors of the African savanna.


It includes three full sized items and two minis, and it comes in a really nice safari-themed makeup bag.


One side has this adorable postcard theme, with appliques and stitching. It's a really nice quality; it's not a throwaway bag like a lot of travel sets have. The material feels like a soft, buttery leather and it seems sturdy and well constructed.

One of my favorite details is the zipper pull:

It's a swallow charm. I really like this little extra feature. Swallows have symbolic meaning for travellers, especially sailors. There are multiple meanings behind the swallow symbol. Swallows are known for their faithful return to San Juan Capistrano every year, flying over 6,000 miles to make it back. So, for some, swallows are a symbol of faithfulness and returning home after travel. For sailors, a swallow tattoo was somewhat of a merit badge- traditionally, each swallow tattoo they had represented 5,000 nautical miles that they had travelled. Swallows are also a symbol of returning home safely, as it's said that they appear when ships are nearing land. Whatever the swallow means to you, it's a nice touch that's especially symbolic in a collection called Voyages.

The other side of the bag has a safari theme. The safari image is printed and the flamingo is an applique.

Enough about the bag. You know how much I love packaging, so I could go on and on about it... But there's makeup inside!

A full sized eyeshadow duo in a new shade: the left half is a sparkling metallic gold and the right half is a dusty olive-khaki shimmer.



A full sized Beach Blush in Coral Beach. It's a blush-bronzer fusion; it has stripes that can be used separately or blended together. It has a light golden bronze, a medium coral, a light peachy-pink shimmer and a medium peach shimmer.



A full sized eyeliner pencil in Khaki. Khaki is a deep brown with a slight green undertone and lots of delicate gold sparkle.



A mini Triple Action Mascara. It's a curling mascara that also lengthens and thickens the lashes.


...And a mini lip gloss in Serengeti, which is a sheer pinkish peach coral with tiny, tiny gold and copper microglitter.


Here they are swatched:





Gold half of shadow duo, green half of shadow duo, Khaki liner, Coral Beach blush and Serengeti gloss. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the pretty sparkly microglitter in the gloss and the liner.


The eyeshadow duo has a very silky, velvety texture. The pigmentation is very good, but it's also buildable. You can do a more sheer wash if you apply lightly, but you can also build up both colors to make them sparkle more. I find that the gold half is easiest to apply with the fingers; it has a light, flaky texture that looks more glittery when applied with a brush, but more of a smooth metallic when applied with the fingers. It can look slightly flaky when applied with a brush, but that is easily remedied (if you don't want the sparkly look) by quickly smoothing your finger over it after applying.

The packaging on the shadow duo is also rather cute. It comes in a tiny silver tin, like a smaller version of the blush. The eyeshadow feels hefty, it really feels like you're getting a good amount of product and the pan seems really deep. The only downside to the shadow duo is that it doesn't seem to have a name.

The blush is excellent. The shade is extremely flattering on my skin tone, but I can see it working well on both fair and dark, warm and cool skin tones. At first I was afraid it would be frosty, but it really isn't. The shimmer is very minimal and can be buffed/blended away if you want to tone it down even more. When I used it, I blended all the shades together and it became a lovely warm coral. You can also pick out the individual shades with your brush; bronze for bronzer, peach or coral for blush and light pink for a highlight. The shades are all pigmented enough to double as eyeshadow, too.

They eyeliner was also excellent. It has a perfect texture. It's not too slippery/slick/mushy so it doesn't wear down really fast. It's also not dry, it doesn't tug or skip. It was smooth without being squishy. It had great pigmentation, great texture and the sparkles were actually visible (see below.)

The mascara was okay, but not my favorite. It looked really nice, but I just prefer more volume. It applies really smoothly and doesn't clump. It has one of those spiky plastic brushes so it gives tons of definition and acts as its own lash comb. It gives good length, great definition and decent volume. It's supposed to be a curling mascara, but I always curl my lashes anyway so I didn't notice the curling effect, if any. It didn't flake on me when I wore it and it was easy to remove.

The gloss is nice, too. It has a very silky, non-sticky texture. The shade is my favorite part of the gloss; it's a sheer coral that has an iridescent sheen and some super tiny gold and copper glitter to give it sparkle. The glitter doesn't feel gritty; it's too tiny to feel. The effect is subtle but still interesting. I might like to buy a full size of this color... The only flaws with the gloss are that it's really small (the tube doesn't seem filled completely to the top) and it's unscented. It doesn't have any detectable scent or flavor. I know a lot of people who prefer an unscented gloss, but that's boring to me!


Here's a look I did using these items:



This was:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Gold half of duo on lid, applied with fingers
Green half of duo in crease and on lower lashline
Khaki pencil as liner
Cargo Triple Action Mascara, three coats
Fyrinnae Cheeky and Smashbox Artificial Light Luminizing Powder as highlight

If you enlarge the pictures, you can see the gold sparkle in the eyeliner. This is a more subtle look, but I think it looks really fantastic against my eye color.

Here's a closer look at the mascara:
Three coats of the Triple Action Mascara. It did a really great job of separating and defining my lashes, so if you like a more defining, lengthening mascara, this might be a good mascara for you. I personally prefer a bigger, fatter, faker lash look from my mascara.

Overall, I think this is an excellent set. The quality of all the items is great and isn't lacking in any area. The packaging is attractive and well-made. But, what I think I like most about the Safari set is that it has everything you need. Eyeshadow, eyeliner, curling mascara, blush and gloss. The only thing I could think to add to it would be an eye primer and a tinted moisturizer or foundation, but otherwise this is perfect. After testing this out, if I had the chance, I would totally buy this again. Especially because it's a really good deal; only $34! Three full sized products for $34. The Beach Blush alone costs $28 and an eyeshadow single is $16, so yeah, super good deal. And, if you get it with the 20% off code it's around $27 so it's like you're getting a discount on the blush and the rest of the stuff is free.

This is only my second experience with Cargo eyeshadows and I have to say I'm impressed. My first experience was with the Lumieres du Monde palette and I liked that, but I love this. Now I feel like I've been missing out by not paying more attention to CARGO. I really want to play with more of their shadows and Beach blushes now.

This is available now on CargoCosmetics.com, Ulta, Sephora at JC Penney and Beauty 360.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Too Faced Cheap Thrills Kit

I saw this in the sale section on Sephora.com a couple months ago and I had to get it. It has a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to try and it was only $20, which is a pretty good deal for all this stuff.

Look at all this full sized stuff you get for $20! A full sized Lash Injection Pinpoint Mascara, Mirror Mirror gloss, Chocolate Galaxy Glam Shadows in Amber Asteroid and Magenta Moon plus mini Pink Leopard bronzer and lipstick in Free Love.

Here are the Chocolate Galaxy Glam shadows in Amber Asteriod (left) and Magenta Moon (right). I keep wanting to type Andy Asteroids. Whooaaaa nelly!

Here's where my first disappointment is: Look at my pathetic Magenta Moon! Barely any pink veining at all. What's the point? :(

The Lash Injection Pinpoint brush. In case you can't tell the scale from this picture, let me describe it: TINY. It's super super tiny. It's designed to define every single lash, but it doesn't add any volume. For me it's essentially worthless as I don't want definition, I want volume.


The mini Pink Leopard bronzer. Look how pretty that is. I love it. It's a little bit on the shimmery side when used as bronzer, but I just really love looking at it. The mini size makes it even cuter. Not the least bit disappointed with this, I adore it.

The Lip of Luxury lipstick (shade: Free Love). The color looks nice enough in the tube, but on the lips it's a frosty nightmare. It's unwearable. And the smell, oh good gravy, the smell is horrible. Super perfumed but not a nice perfume, a bad old lipstick perfume. This doesn't resemble the Too Faced Lip of Luxury formula with its subtle sweet perfume scent. It doesn't seem like a Too Faced product at all, actually. I have a full sized Lip of Luxury in Cupcake and it's nothing like this.



Here are the items swatched: Andy Amber Asteroid, Magenta Moon, Pink Leopard, Free Love. Aw, those Galazy Glam shadows look so pathetic. I love my Moon Beam shadow so much, I can't believe these aren't as good. They're not pigmented enough and there's barely any duochrome. Not like Moon Beam at all. The bronzer is a little too shimmery, and the lipstick doesn't look too bad swatched on my arm but it's awful on my lips.

I didn't swatch the gloss because it's clear. The Mirror Mirror formula is actually really nice. I have a set of the minis from a few years ago and I really enjoy them. The shade included in this kit is I Know You Want Me. It's clear and it's heavily scented with apple. The Mirror Mirror glosses are all essentially clear (some with slight tints but very sheer) and super strongly scented. They're some of the shiniest gloss I've ever used. Very thick and very glossy. Really nice for a clear gloss.

If I didn't use my Sephora money on this (you know, that $20 they sent all the Beauty Insiders a while back?) I would return it. I don't think I'll ever use those Galaxy Glam shadows, the lipstick is awful, and the mascara isn't right for my needs. I like the Leopard bronzer and the gloss, but I already have a mini size of that gloss so it was basically $20 for me to get a mini Pink Leopard bronzer.

This makes me sad. I normally love Too Faced! I'm devoted to their Shadow Insurance eye primer, their Sun Bunny bronzer is quite possibly the best bronzer ever made and I've recently fallen in love with their Enchanted Glamourland palette. Seeing that sad, nearly non-existent veining on my Magenta Moon was so disappointing. I wonder if I could do an exchange? I'd much rather have one of the Naked/Natural/Smoky/Romantic palettes.