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.

New items from Pixi Beauty for 2011

These items showed up on my doorstep the other day to announce the re-launch of the Pixi Beauty website. I had almost forgotten about Pixi! I used to love to look at Pixi when it was at Sephora- it may have been the picture of the hot Swedish chicks they had- the blonde, brunette and redhead sisters? In fact, I think that picture is still up here... And Target has carried Pixi for the past few years, too, now that I'm thinking about it... Anyway, their new website is here and they're currently running a 20% off sale with code TWENTYOFF.

Here's what I got to review:

Succulent Lip Twin in Nude Lily, Lumi Lux Radiance Powder and Endless Silky Eye Pen in Black Blue.

Look how pretty the pencil is!

It's a very deep blue black shade. It says eye pen but it's definitely a pencil. It has an extremely silky, smooth, soft texture and it's very smudge-able. I tried to swatch it alone, but the tip snapped off; I think getting frozen in the negative temperature weather messed with it a little.

Succulent Lip Twin in Nude Lily. It took me a minute to figure out what this was. The tip looked like a spongy applicator and I accidentally scratched it because I didn't realize it was a solid lip/cheek stain. The clear cap opens the stain end, but the entire green cap unscrews to open the balm. The stain has a very balmy texture and it applies much lighter than it appears. The balm has a very loose, melty texture and applies about the same shade as in the tube. It's a little too nude/foundationy/warm for my skin tone. The scent is really strong and rosy, it reminds me of old Avon lipstick samples.

Lumi Lux Radiance Powder. This is so pretty! It looks really dark in the pan- almost like bronzer and blush together, but it applies really sheer. It's a perfect highlighter-brightener shade and it really warms up my face without looking obvious or blush-like. It's not very shimmery on the skin, either, which is a major plus for me.


Here I am wearing the Black Blue Endless Silky Eye Pen smudged on my lashline and on my waterline. Very sultry. See how subtle the blue tone is? Really brings out my brown eyes. I'm also wearing the Revlon Lilac Shimmer eyeshadow that came with my Grow Luscious mascara (which I'm also wearing), and let me describe it in three short words: MASSIVE GLITTER FALLOUT. But the liner is nice. Really nice. I'd buy it again if I had the choice.


I like the liner and the Radiance powder the best. I like how subtle, brightening and non-shimmery the powder is and I love the smooth formula and blueness of the liner. The balm/stain duo was just okay- it was the wrong color for me, a little too perfumey and not as moisturizing as I'd hoped it would be with a name like Succulent Lip Twin. Cute packaging on all the items. I'm curious about the rest of their line now. They have nail polish and perfume that I might have to check out!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Hard Candy First Flush and Glamazon Glow Kits

Here's some more of the new Hard Candy line I picked up from Wal-Mart. I know that Wal-Mart has changed their logo to remove the hyphen, but I think "Walmart" looks even more grating... Anyway. These were another matching set- a pink and a gold version of each.




First Flush is the name of this kit. It comes with a Blush Crush Baked Blush in Living Doll, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in pink (shade might be 'Doll Face' but I'm not certain), a Plumping Serum Volumizing Lipgloss in Uptown Girl and a Sheer Envy Face Primer. All are mini sized.

Up close.



Living Doll, Luminizer and Uptown Girl.


This is the Glamazon Glow set. It contains a So Baked Bronzer in Tropics, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in gold (Glamazon Bronze?), a Plexi Gloss Glossy Lip Shine in Genie and a Sheer Envy face primer. All minis.

Look inside...


Tropics, Luminizer (Glamazon Glow?) and Genie.

I like these items a lot more than the Naturally Naughty and Bad Girl Next Door kits. The Sheer Envy face primer is the item I'm especially surprised by- it's great! It's a thick silicone-based primer- think Smashbox Photo Finish. It feels and looks and performs just like all of my $30+ price range primers. Very impressed. They give you a really good size in these kits, too - almost half an ounce!

I also love the glosses. The plumping gloss doesn't seem to do anything plump-wise, but it does have a subtle cooling effect. The color is a light milky pink with shimmer. The Plexi Gloss is a clear with gold flecks in it. They both have the same strong vanilla-cupcake-frosting-marshmallow smell to them and I love that. It's not quite the same as the old Hard Candy gloss scent, but it's similar enough. They're quite strongly scented and a little bit sweet, so they're winners in my book. Sticky texture, though. But still... cupcake scented. Can't complain.


The luminizers are neat but... I'm not really sure what to do with them? They're so opaque and frosty that I can't imagine using them on my face. I can see using them to highlight my collarbone or maybe as sheer eyeshadows or maybe even as body bronzer with the gold one... Or I could go all Goldfinger and cover my whole body in it.

The blush and bronzer are they only fail for me. They're SO FROSTY. Think MAC Mineralize Skinfinish and then amplify the frosty shimmer by ten. I don't want that much shiny frosty frost on my cheeks. It highlights every imperfection in your skin- tiny hairs, scars, bumps, everything. And I don't want reflective cheeks, so.... Yeah. These would probably make decent eyeshadows, though.

After trying the items in these kits I kinda want to go back for some full sized lipglosses and maybe a full sized tube of this primer.