A color comparison: Maybelline Color Tattoo Teal with others

  I recently purchased the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tenacious Teal while on a random trip to Target. They retail at target for $5.99 and it was the only place in my area I've seen the Color Tattoos yet. The only colors left in this particular stand was this teal color and the brunt orange looking color.

It's a little silly to admit, but I have a lot of blue cream eyeshadow, and I don't wear it all that often. Of course my definition of 'a lot' differs from everyone else's. It's a lot to me because I don't feel that my blues don't get pulled out as often as I might like. My current favorite cream blue shadow is a trade off between 'Teal Party,' a studio cream shadow by ELF and 'Tidal Rave,' a creaseless cream by Benefit. I actually like Teal Party a little bit better because it has a lot of pigmentation. With a primer and some translucent powder on top, both last about the same amount of time on my lids. Without either, the ELF will crease first, but the Benefit will crease eventually, and after 13+ hours at school, it definitely does.

I started out to compare the two, and then ended up swatching almost all my other blue creams along with them.

After the first swatch of Tenacious Teal next to Teal Party, I could see that the color profile of the two were actually really different. Teal party is much more metallic, with no shimmer; and leans more towards the indigo end of the spectrum. Tenacious Teal is extremely bright, more of what I think of as teal, with a slightly metallic base and shimmer. For those two, each had one swatch, and then were blended in a line across the arm. All were swatched without primer. 

The ELF shadow is much more mousse like. If you have tried the Maybelline mousse products (foundation, blush, etc.) It's like that texture, but more dense and dry. They are nevertheless quite easy to manipulate. They crease on my oily lids without primer, but on the arm or with primer they do not crease or smudge. This retails for $3 on eyeslipsface.com and has a plastic case.

The Color Tattoo, by comparison is much creamier, denser product. They are also slick feeling, making them easy to blend, but a drier and thicker formulation than my Benefit Creaseless Cream. The one swatch is quite pigmented, more than I expected, but you can sheer the color out on the lids quite easily. I was afraid at first that they might be hard to sheer out. This is packaged in a glass jar with a plastic lid. 

Once I swatched the Color Tattoo, I felt 'hmmm, that's not the same, but I've seen that blue before...'. I keep all my makeup pencils on my desk, and the NYX one was easy to find. Admittedly though, my NYX pencils have been getting neglected of late. The product was drier to swatch, and the one in the photo is two times across, then sheered out for even pigmentation. The glitter in the Electric Blue pencil is much larger, while compared to the one in Tenacious Teal which is a shimmer. The base colors are quite similar, and while a little bit different in the swatches, I think one would be hard pressed to tell them apart on the eyes. 

For the heck of it I then swatched the Rimmel Eyeful pencil in 'Talk to Me' which is closer to the ELF than the Color Tattoo in color, but is more of a satin finish leaning on metallic, with no shimmer or glitter, then the long discontinued Maybelline Metallic FX in aqua which leans even more purple and has large shimmer particles. Not pictured is the Creaseless Cream in Tidal Rave, which swatched sheer, but the color is mostly made of multicolored blue shimmer with a light blue base, and when layered is quite close to the Rimmel color, although not quite as purple. The Rimmel and NYX are packaged as jumbo pencils and are encased in wood. The Metallic FX is also a jumbo pencil but is packaged in clear plastic (yeah, I have no idea how to sharpen that, maybe I'll end up depoting it....). 

The Benefit is packaged in a glass jar and plastic lid, like the Color Tattoo packaging. In fact they run almost exactly the same in diameter. However the glass bottom for the Maybelline is thicker, almost 2mm worth. While I feel this may end up helping with keeping the product from drying out, the result is that the Color Tattoo is heavier than the Creaseless cream. You get 0.16oz, or 4.5g for $19 in the Benefit from online, at a counter, or Sephora. And the MSRP for the Color Tattoo from the Maybelline website is $6.99 for 0.14oz, or 4g; prices will vary by location. 

After a few minutes, a rub test showed that the ELF and the Color Tattoo and the Benefit did not smear at ALL after a few seconds of rubbing, while the other three did. Those three also quickly dried down to a smooth dry feeling whereas as I'm typing this up, the other swatches are still a little bit tacky. 

Final thoughts on the Color Tattoo: Do I like it? Yes, I suppose I do, but I think it's a little too bright for wearing on it's own everyday, like I can do with the Benefit or the ELF ones. However the Tattoo doesn't need to be set with anything and dries quickly, which is awesome. Technically the Benefit doesn't need to be set, but it doesn't have as fast of a dry time, especially when layered for more opacity. 

If you're planning on using the Color Tattoo ONLY as a base compared to a wash of color, then I suggest instead the NYX pencil in Electric Blue, it's cheaper and in a more compact and travel friendly form. You also get more: .18oz or 5g for ~$3, depending on your retailer. (I also firmly believe that wood pencils keep creams longer than jars, there's less product exposed to evaporation.) The colors are similar enough and won't make that much of a difference if you're planning to layer shadow over it anyways. I always recommend the NYX jumbo eye pencils over a primer though, in a very sheer wash, other wise it might crease. If you set it with translucent powder the effect could be very similar, I haven't tried that yet for comparison. 

Note: Color Tattoo's drying time may actually be too fast to layer with though. Even blending must be done as you put the shadow on, you can't wait on it. Which is good or bad depending on how you put your eyeshadow on. It's a great convenience for me because as a student, sometimes I need to just put it on and run out the door, and usually I do! It seems to have a problem with some primers, or so I've heard; but I use it without primer on it's own and it works fine. I doesn't last the whole school day, I go to college from about 9.30am-5pm or later, but that's ok; I don't overly mind, although some people will. Maybe over primer or a setting powder it will last even longer! But I'm lazy... I'll try it eventually, but I'm content for now.

Overall I like this, and I plan on getting more colors eventually. Meanwhile, the ELF studio ones tend to be my 'go-to' for other cream shadows. 

(I am not affiliated with any of these companies and I paid for all of these products with my own money.)

Haul: Japanese fake eyelashes

While in Japantown shopping for some EXTREMELY late Christmas shopping, I wandered into Ichiban-kan and Daiso. Daiso is kind of like the dollar store, except everything is imported and Japanese, and the price point is $1.50, unless otherwise labeled. Most of the things in the store are made for the company and are Daiso branded. Ichiban-kan is kind of like Daiso in what they carry, except the price points are a little higher at times and there's a wider variety of home supplies. I also find that the quality seems to be a little bit better. In Japantown, San Francisco Ichiban-kan is a smaller store, but they've been in the building for much longer than Daiso has. Daiso moved into Japantown in the last few years and recently expanded their store when the store space next to them, formerly a furniture store, opened up. Both stores offer a lot in the way of Japanese snacks and also kitchen supplies, with some area dedicated to beauty and school supplies.

What I brought today might be called frivolous spending, because I've never really used false eyelashes before. I vaguely remember buying some ELF falsies at one point, but I don't recall what happened to them. Either one of my sisters took them, or they've disappeared into the abyss of stuff in my school apartment. I am interested though, and at this price point, they really weren't too bad. 

From Ichiban-kan, among other things, I got three duos of eyelashes and an eyelash case.

At Daiso, I got one duo of eyelashes and eyelash glue. Also some plant soap. I'm always searching for the perfect soap for face, but if this ends up too harsh, I can always use it as body soap or hand soap.

All products featured in this post were brought for $1.50 (+TAX) each.

I'm excited. Hopefully sooner or later I'll post some photos with the falsies on! :)

WnW Megashield lip color SPF15

I stopped by the Walgreens in Union Square after a movie a few day before New Year's. I just happened to find a WnW endcap with a bunch of things that are new for 2012. These lipsticks had 'instant coupon' peelies. The stand said that they retail for $2.99, but they rung up for $1.99, as you can see. The cashier also helped me take off the peelies: meaning more savings!

I grabbed two colors: "Pink Champagne", and "Ring Around the Rosy"(the darker color). I originally had grabbed two different ones, but I found the Rosy one tossed in a different stand and I liked it better.

The actual lipstick product is pretty skinny and about the length from the silver ring to where it ends in the cap. It doesn't retract all the way into the plastic, which is mildly annoying because it means you have to be careful when you take off the cap, lest you nick the product. The packaging seems a little in excess because the whole bottom black part is empty, but without it, I think the package might be a little too short to easily grab in your bag. Overall it is a little longer than your typical square or round packaged lipsticks, but smaller in diameter.

As you can see, I've already used the Rosy one before this photo, but it helps show the bits of glitter in the product. Both colors have some micro-glitter in them, but they aren't really large enough to be seen on the lips. They just impart a pretty shine. The only time you see them is in photos like this, and when you've rubbed the swatch on your hand. 

These swatches are not completely color accurate because I didn't get a chance to photograph them under natural light, but I'll replace this photo once I do. "Ring around the Rosy" is not really that dark, but it is a wonderful rose color. A nice 'my lips but better' color for me, will also probably work well as a creme blush on those days when I'm feeling particularly lazy. Then again, it might be too shimmery on the cheeks. The "Pink Champagne" color imparts a lovely sheen when worn as a stain, and can probably work as a nice highlight on the cheeks. These are not particularly pigmented when rubbed out.

The formula is smooth and very moisturizing. I haven't yet tried the Revlon Lip Butters but I can't imagine these are too far off. However they are dry enough to stay on your lips. I've had some lipsticks that are just TOO smooth, like some from NYX, that leave me thinking that it's too slick that they'll just slide off my lips without a pencil. 

Just a note: these things are wrapped pretty securely, which is a good thing because then people can't randomly swatch instore and contaminate the product. However it makes for lots of sticker residue once you try to get them actually off. The ingredients peelie was on the base. It was a peelie, but who really wants the clear plastic sticker that those leave behind? (Which also, incidentally, serves to further secure the cap to the base). I'm going to try to find some Goo Gone next time I'm in a store. 

You get .10oz of lipstick in one of these, which isn't a lot, but is pretty nice for the price point and the formulation, in my opinion. Compared to 0.13oz in a Revlon Colorbrust lipstick, it seems almost average. It just looks particularly small compared to the packaging. The added sunscreen element makes lip balm underneath really optional.

Random thing: The title of the product is imprinted in silver type on the cap, however in the french title SPF15 is typed "FPS15". I've taken french, but I've never seen this before. Can anyone explain this to me?

Value for Price: Good!
Recommend to a friend?: Yes!
Rebuy?: Yes.