Gloss Cost

Hey all! It's been awhile and I've recently acquired a few things that I want to review for you. However, I want to post this first because I find it interesting and I am kind of obsessing now. First some life updates though. I spent the last semester living in my sorority house (my first time living away from home, woo hoo!) Now I'm moved back into my house and making quite a bit more money at work (since it's summer) and can start buying product again (probably a bad thing). Also we FINALLY got a Sephora (in JC Penney but it's a Sephora) so that is super exciting. I wish they had a full selection but hey, I'll take what I can get. My local boutique has also had a really great sale table going recently too so I'm in make-up heaven. 

Now on to a quick summary of this post. If you look up at the picture above you will see a bunch of different glosses from different manufacturers and places. They just look like a pretty random assortment, but I have strategically organized them. If you would believe it, the gloss is organized left to right from smallest to largest sizes. I'm going to talk about the size and cost effectiveness of each gloss in this post. It's really not something that I've considered before. I was just thinking to myself how large the Buxom lip glosses are when I decided to compare the size to another gloss that appeared to be smaller. I was shocked that the smaller gloss was significantly larger in volume than the Buxom gloss. Thus this began and I think it will change the way I purchase gloss in the future. 

The value of the gloss will be calculated on what the price would be of 10 mL and rated from there.

The smallest gloss is this Buxom here. I included it because I generally thought that it was the same size as a MAC lipgloss (not true at all!) These smaller sizes don't retail individually, they come in value packs. The size of this gloss is 2 mL.

This next gloss is from Anastasia Beverly Hills (color Moi) and can be found from Sephora for $18. The size of this gloss is 2.2 mL. The price for 10 mL of this gloss would be $81.

This is another sample of a gloss that I included for effect. This is the TINY Naked gloss that came with my Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay. At 3.23 mL it's still bigger than the Anastasia gloss.

These next three are all the same size (seriously??) The first is from a brand called Model Co. that I received in a Birchbox. I am absolutely in love with the gloss but not so much the quantity. The 4.2 mL of product goes for $16 on the Birchbox site. For 10 mL the price would be $38.
The BareMinerals gloss to the right of it retails for $15 and would be $36 for 10 mL. This can be purchased from BareMinerals.com.
The tiny Becca Beach tint to the right of that came in a set of two from Sephora for $16 but it doesn't count because it's not full size, just there to show how big 4.2 mL REALLY is.

This is the full size of the Buxom gloss (Bunny). It's 4.45 mL and retails at Sephora for $19. 10 mL of this would cost $43. Right now thought it's on sale at Sephora for $10 so if you want a good deal on this you should snap it up!

Apparently these aren't being sold anymore? Anyways, when they were sold, this cost $22 for 4.75 mL. 10 mL would be $46.

The MAC lipglass (Russian Red) and Stila it gloss are also the same size, 4.8 mL. MAC retails for $15 and would be $31 for 10mL. The Stila gloss is no longer sold, but sold for $18 when it did which is much more expensive than the MAC ($37 for 10 mL). The MAC can be purchased at MAC stores or online.

NARS gloss (Orgasm) and Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss (Pop) are both 6 mL, but the NARS costs $25 while the Smashbox costs $19. The NARS would be $42 for 10 mL and the Smashbox would be $32. Both can be purchased at Sephora.

The Balm Plump Your Pucker (Water My Melon) retails for $15 and is 7 mL. It can be found on theBalm.com and would be $21 for 10 mL. It also smells ah-mazing.

This crazy Tokidoki lipgloss (Sandy) is unfortunately no longer made. I got it on sale for $5 on the Sephora website a couple months ago. It's 8 mL so value-wise that was a STEAL. (Side note, this gloss claims to be 8 mL but it also claims to be 0.26 fl oz which is actually smaller than the next two. They definitely rounded this one up).

These next two glosses are 7.7-8 mL (both are 0.27 fl oz). The first is LipFusion Micro Collagen Lip Plump (Coquette) and retails for $29 (this particular one is on sale on the Fusion Beauty website currently for $14!) 10 mL of this would be $37. The Urban Decay Pocket Rocket (Eric) is no longer sold on the UD website but retailed for $19. 10 mL would have been $25.

This is the gloss that originally shocked me with it's value. The NYX Pump It Up Lip Plumper (Pamela) is 8 mL and retails on the NYX website for $5.50. 10mL of this would only be $6.90. This is SO much cheaper than everything else!

What ended up being clear to me was that this next type of gloss packs the most into their tubes. And let's face it, the squeezy tubes are SO much easier to apply on the go!

Smashbox O-Gloss retails for $23 at Sephora and this tiny tube pictured contains 10 mL which makes it much more cost effective than most of the glosses pictured above. The $23 price tag makes it seem like a rip off, but if you compare it to the $32 you'd pay for the same amount of Smashbox's Lip Enhancing gloss, the O-Gloss starts to look like a bargain.

The Laura Mercier Bitten Lip Gloss (Healthy Lips) isn't sold anymore in mass retailers, but cost $18 when it did. This is a whopping 12 mL. If it was 10 mL it would be $15.

The Lancome Juicy Tubes (The name rubbed off) were the first glosses that I ever thought were overpriced. They cost $18. However I was dead wrong. The Juicy Tube packs in 15 mL. For 10 mL it would only cost $12.

In the end all of this just lead to an overwhelming sense that I've been duped. Packaging adds unnecessary mass and trickery to products. Obviously this value is solely based on price per mL, but it should be something we as consumers consider along with color, quality, and other factors when buying product. Squeezy tubes have the greatest size and the best value for high end beauty items (although they may not seem like it).

Just thought it would be an interesting post, let me know what you think! Anything you want to see on this blog? Leave it in a comment and I'll try to make it happen. Your wish is my command.

Foundation Woes

Is anyone else having difficulties with foundation lately?

As I have only recently started wearing make-up (April of last year), I haven't yet undergone the transition from summer to fall. Over the summer my skin was incredibly oily and absorbed my make-up like crazy, I even had a hard time keeping it on.

Now it seems completely different. As the weather gets colder my foundation seems to have turned on me. When I use my foundation brush to apply my MAC mineralize foundation and then dust my mineralize skin finish natural over it, my skin gets all scaly and I can see my foundation on it. It's disgusting. I've realized I definitely need to use more moisturizer and primer. Also, I have to use my beauty blender or everything looks streaky.

Please leave comments, questions, and subscribe!

My face routine.

I wash my face twice daily. In the morning I use Skinceuticals purifying facial cleanser and a scrublet to clean my face. Than I use my Neutrogena oil eliminating astringent to fend off acne. Then I put on a tinted moisturizer (in the fall/winter I will use moisturizer before putting on foundation. Then I do the rest of my makeup.

In the evening I take my eye makeup off with an oil-free eye makeup remover. Then I either use garnier makeup remover wipes or Aveeno cleansing pads to remove the rest of my make-up and clean my face. I then use the neutrogena astringent followed by my Sephora Instant Moisturizer.

I hope this helps anyone who is looking for a model for what to do! Please leave comments and subscribe!

Some advice.

Never ever ever put a powder palette into a bag that gets jostled around a lot. Those things break like there's no tomorrow. I can have a powder palette in the make-up bag in my purse and it still breaks. I'm talking about highly pigmented stuff, stuff that easily comes off on make-up brushes. It is the most frustrating thing in the world when you pull out a palette and there is powder all over the place. It's happened to me twice now.

Also, don't leave lipstick/chapstick/creme blush/creme eyeshadow in the car. Just don't do it. Take the lipstick for example, you leave it in the car than pull it out to use it and it's all over the cover of the tube. Always try to keep your make-up at or below room temperature, especially the stuff that melts.

Now here are some tips that I have learned from copious amounts of reading.

1. When a mascara dries out you can seal it and put it in a warm cup of water to resuscitate it.

2. If your eyeliner is really hard and pulls at your eyes (Wet N' Wild anyone?) hold it near a lamp to melt it (a little) and it will be much smoother.

3. A really dark lipstick can be made a tad less shocking by putting a really light pigmented lipgloss over it.

4. If all your make-up in a palette cracks because you didn't listen to my advice, you can put it into a box and use it as a loose shade. There are also supposed to be ways to re-shape the powder to the pan but I'm far too lazy to try that.

5. If you use a regular (non-baked) eyeshadow wet as a liner and such you should take from the outer edges of the color because the water can warp the shadow itself.

6. To avoid looking like Snooki while applying bronzer, apply it only to the commas of your face. The commas of your face is that area that starts at your forehead and follows your hairline down to your cheeks. If you follow this technique, you will still get color but you won't look like an oompa loompa.

7. You need to have two different shades of foundation, one for summer and one for fall, spring, and winter. (Unless you live in a place where you can be tan all year long, I do not.) Test the foundation on the edge of your jawbone to see if it blends in with your cheek and neck. If you don't trust yourself to get it right, have someone help you but make sure they know what they are doing. I've been incorrectly matched about 3 times now. Also sometimes your skin looks different under the unnatural lighting in stores. Make sure the person who helps you knows whats what before trusting them or else you will look orange. As stated in the previous, orange is bad.

8. I don't care how lazy you are, cleanse, tone, and moisturize your skin twice daily!!! This is the most important thing I can tell you! Every single step is important. It's up to you to discover what products are best for you but if you don't do all three of those things, you will never have baby soft skin like yours truly. I used to be the laziest when it came to facial maintenance but I had a bad bit of acne that changed my entire mindset and now my skin is the best it has been since infancy. Beautiful skin = beauty. You can cover up your greasy, pimply, dried out skin with all the makeup in the world but you won't look half as beautiful than if you buck up and start taking care of it the way you are supposed to! I'll do a post on what I do/use for my skin at a future time.

Thus ends my impromptu lecture. I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to comment! :)