Beauty Snapshot: the important stuff

It’s Friday, so I thought I would lighten things up a bit by starting a Beauty Snapshot. The Beauty Snapshot will be a review of some makeup, skincare or similar beauty item that I’ve tried and love, or hate, or that worked fine but was nothing spectacular so I returned and used the money to buy gum. (I have a chewing gum fetish. I haven’t yet been told what pathology that suggests.)

Forget the politics and sex for now. We’re getting serious, folks. We’re talking makeup.

Recent drugstore favourite:
Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express $7.47/£6

My highest performing mascara to date has been Yves Saint Laurent’s Faux Cils. But since mascara tends to dry out pretty quickly and needs to be changed often, and since I’m not yet a woman of independent wealth, I can’t keep that up. Drugstore options, especially for mascara, tend to be worthy and sometimes better substitutes for their department store counterparts.

Maybelline’s The Colossal Volum' Express (what do you suppose that errant ‘e’ is up to?) is my favourite drugstore mascara so far. The brush is made of several tiny teeth that make it more like a comb. This design means that there are no clumps, it’s easy to wiggle the product along the lash line, and it combs through and lengthens the lashes beautifully with just one coat. The effect is dramatic, drag queen lashes. (This is not a stab. Let’s face it, we sometimes need drag queen lashes.)

We’ll see how it compares to my previous drugstore favourite Cover Girl Lashblast in terms of staying moist in the tube; but so far, it has it beat on durability and effect.

Recent department store favourite:
Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte Lipstick in #10 Provocative Pink $34/£19

I wanted a crazy pink lipstick to wear with a smoky eye. But some brighter shades tend to just sit on top of dark lips, and look like you filled in your lips with pink liquid paper. YSL’s Rouge Volupte eliminates that problem. It is highly pigmented and so creamy that it almost appears semi-solid, allowing it to sink fully into the lip and stain it for the most magnified colour effect. Be careful, though. It is quite thick and not extremely glossy, so without proper application, you’ll end up looking like you’re wearing your grandmother’s Wet n’ Wild.

For optimum results, line and fill with a nude or matching liner, apply the lipstick with a lip brush, and then top with a favourite gloss. MAC’s Pink Poodle works well for the #10 shade. At $34/£19, it gouges a healthy chunk out of your beauty budget, but with lip brush application, it is sure to last long. Their other shades are also lovely, but I’m afraid the price means I’ll be trying one every Ice Age or so.



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