I was so impressed with the performance of Tenacious Teal that I picked up four more shades! Keep reading for my review and swatches of them!

I am a sucker. I have to try everything, even if I expect it to be horrible, I just have to try it. This season the drugstore brands are all coming out with supposed long lasting cream eyeshadows. Now, I don't know about you but I have never found a cream eyeshadow from the drugstore that wasn't complete and total crap. They always end up a sloppy mess in my crease 5 minutes after applying, primer or no primer. Even high end cream shadows usually turn out to be horrible. So when Maybelline came out with supposed 24 hour cream eyeshadow you know I was allll over that.

I picked up the color Tenacious Teal, it just looked so awesome on the model. Here is one swipe and two swipes swatched on my wrist...














Maybelline Color Tattoo comes in a little glass jar similar to MAC Paint Pots and almost exactly like Benefit's Creaseless Cream (which are totally not creaseless). On first swipe it feels similar to a Paint Pot, silky and not greasy. Color payoff is pretty good although I did need more than one swipe to get the look I desired. I will say it is not as pretty as the advertising makes it, but how often is it?

The first application I only wore a couple of hours, but the next time I wore it was for a nine hour work shift. I was surprised to find that it held up perfectly all day! Not even a hint of creasing and the color was still vivid.


My one complaint is about creams in general, I find them a little difficult to blend with regular eyeshadow which limits the use. I find them much easier to use as an all over lid color but I did wear it blended with MAC Bright Fuchsia pigment. This photo is after about 5 hours of wear...


Based on this color I will most likely be trying a couple others! They have a gorgeous purple and a rich gold I may have to pick up. They sell for $6.99 and can be found at most drugstores including Walgreens & CVS.

Forgive me, I forgot to take pictures for this post!

I've recently been trying to take better care of my skin. It is my belief that the better you take care of our skin today, the better it will be years from now. One of the products I recently decided to try was the Neutrogena Microdermabrasion kit. When I was going through Cosmetology Microdermabrasion was a big new spa treatment where crystals basically took off  layers of dead skin, if felt like a cats tongue and it was applied by a little tube being slowly run over your face. I was a wee bit hesitant to try it but when I came across a $3 coupon I decided to give it a go.

The kit includes 12 "rejuvenating" puffs, 2 AA batteries, attachment head and of course the applicator. Mine came with a bonus refill pack of puffs. The applicator is a little handheld, very similar to the Olay Pro-X. It's just a white little handle that fits well in your hand with a "pad" at the top and a switch on the back. It has a waterproofed battery compartment (that is quite difficult to open) despite a warning on the box saying not to even hold it under running water. It has 2 speeds which vary only slightly. The attachment head clips on to the top "pad" of the thing and has this weird almost velcro like texture to it which is meant for the puffs to cling to which works better than I expected. The puffs are kind of like cotton rounds and one side is coated with rough little blue "crystals". They also have a floral scent to them which I could do without (scent = unneccassery chance of irritation in my opinion).

Now, I had thought the thing was going to spin or something but what it does is just vibrates, quite hard. The instructions on the box are quite vague: "Massage 1 to 2 minutes per facial area. Rinse and discard puff." No, there are no other instructions in the box. Okay Neutrogena, game on. First off, what exactly is the definition of a "facial area"? Second, am I supposed to massage slow or fast? Soft or hard? In circles or strokes? Not even a warning about the eye area either? For a product designed to be kind of rough on the skin they really don't go into great enough detail in my opinion.

You know what is on the box though? Claims, and lots of them:
Today: pre-dosed puffs deliver the perfect degree of gentle exfoliation with ultra-fine crystals and mild purifiers.
Tomorrow: Massaging micro-vibrations boose surface cell turnover for firmer, younger- looking skin.
Instantly: 91% had smoother, more luminous skin.
1 week: 88% had visible improvement in the look of fine lines.
4 weeks: 88% had siginificantly reduced appearance of wrinkles or age spots.
8 weeks: 72% had substantally firmer- looking skin.

In purchasing this product I was looking to minimize my pores, exfoliate my horribly dry skin and get rid of the dead skin cells giving my skin it's dull and uneven appearance. They do mention it being used for pores elsewhere on the box but not in the claims on the back.

So here are my thoughts on how it worked...A pulsing and vibrating disc pressed against my skull does not feel good or gentle. The crystals are rough on the skin, especially if used 1 to 2 minutes per "facial area", yet somehow it didn't manage to exfoliate my dead skin away anywhere near as well as a standard scrub does. The puffs do produce a nice lathery foam that I did like. I used it for 1 week and saw no improvement in my skin at all. After the first use my skin certainly did not feel smoother, if anything it felt more dry than it began. I suggest skipping the Neutrogena Microdermabrasion Kit, $21.99 and opting for a standard facial scrub and leaving the microdermabrasion to the professionals.

I always love trying new foundations and my newest is Maybelline Fit Me.

As I have less than a week left before I leave for Puerto Rico I decided I may want to look for a backup waterproof liner as I intend to spend as much time as possible at the beach. The one I use is from L'oreal and while I'm happy with it, I couldn't find it at Rite Aid! I have heard a lot of good things about Wet N Wild's H20 Proof liners but have never tried them myself. Since I like their other liquid liners I figured I would give it a try.

Tucked in the new Cover Girl display next to the fantastic Liquiline additions were these Smokey Shadow Blast. A new product to me and I'm always looking for something quick and easy and the color matches on these were great.

On one end it has a lip balm which really sets it apart from most others that I've tried. The lip balm is really nice and soft too, when I'm really in need of a balm and don't have anything else on hand I'll use it. On the other end there is obviously the pen like lipstain. The other few that I have tried have applied kind of streaky and if my lips are dry it clings to the dry skin and looks disgusting.