One Infallible, One Not

A few things I bought on Sunday, determined to go out despite the dreary weather. I'm trying to be more selective about my beauty purchases because I already have too much. I'm determined not to purchase any more lipstick for a while (as much as Maybelline ColorSensational Fuchsia Fever and cheap, discounted Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptints were calling out to me), but I haven't been so stringent with my two other big weaknesses, eyeshadow and nail polish. I ended up taking home a new night cream, two eyeshadows and one complimentary eyeshadow brush. And two wool hats in forest green and chocolate from Dotti that were $7 each, even though I have enough hats to run a costume shop.

Target was having 50% off all Nivea products so I figured I might as well take advantage of such a large discount. The shelves were practically cleared by the time I got to them, but there were a few scattered items here and there, including a couple of remaining boxes of Nivea Visage Daily Essentials Rich Regenerating Night Cream. I've been alternating between Nivea Soft and Elizabeth Arden Perpetual Moisture 24 Cream for my face at night, and was looking for something more specifically labelled as a night cream. Though this is said to be for dry and sensitive skin, I found it odd it's scented with that familiar Nivea Creme fragrance. In fact, I'm not entirely sure it's all that different to Nivea Creme. It feels on the light side, yet it's also somewhat greasy (if that makes any sense). It does seem to get soaked up by the skin to leave it feeling softer and more moisturised. I'm not a big fan of the scent though, and I don't sense any particular difference between this "night cream" and the ordinary moisturisers I've been using.

Also at Target, there was 40% off L'Oréal, and I couldn't resist one of the new Color Infallible eyeshadows in Metallic Lilac (037) from the L'Or Electric Collection for Cannes Film Festival 2012. There were two other new shades available, Cosmic Black (which seemed too similar to Bronze Goddess, but with more gold glitter and less shimmery olive gold pigment) and Magnetic Coral (a really pretty orangey coral, but totally unwearable). I now have 6 of these Infallible eyeshadows, and I remain seriously impressed by just how intensely pigmented and shimmery they are. I just wish they were a little easier to manage, as I often find that brushes don't pick up pigment as well as fingers, and unscrewing the lid and removing the conserver just to get to the pigment can be quite fiddly. Metallic Lilac is a blueish, silvery grey with cool lilac tones. It's similar to Flashback Silver, which is lighter, more silver and less blue/purple. The eyeshadow came with a free flat eyeshadow brush that seems purpose-built for these little pots. I haven't tried it yet, but I have high hopes.

I also picked up this Revlon ColorStay Mineral Eyeshadow in Midnight Garnet (03) from Kmart for $6.05. I hate to say bad things about Revlon, as I have something of a love affair with their products usually, but I'm going to go on a little rant about this eyeshadow. This thing sucks. Sucks. It could be the worst eyeshadow I've come across. I had to literally scratch a chunk of the eyeshadow out just to swatch them on my hand. Even then, it was powdery and chalky, like I had put a bit of condensed flour on my hand and was desperately trying to rub some colour from it. I'm not sure what possessed me to buy it, because even if the pigmentation and texture were excellent, I already have countless similar shades. But I remember reading ages ago someone raving about the brown in this trio being particularly gorgeous, so I was hoping to be impressed. Maybe it's the mineral nature of these shadows, but they're very sheer and flat in dimension. The two lighter shades barely show up, and I even went to the effort of trying them wet, something that I almost never do with my eyeshadows. To top it off, the glue that seals the mound to the base has dried up, so it's completely loose in its mold. I could potentially make the dark brown work if I really tried or wanted to go for a barely-there look, but the colour itself is nothing extraordinary and I have plenty of superior eyeshadows that don't require as much effort. This one's going to be buried somewhere alongside all my other abandoned eyeshadows that I've bought and barely touched again.