Category Archives: Makeup Reviews

blinc Mascara Amplified, Eyebrow Mousse, Eye Shadow Primer & Eyeliner Pencil Quick Look

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blinc eye cosmetics makeup

I ate my blinc mascara! 

(Hehe, don’t worry – it was a designer cookie created by Hello Baked. I haven’t gone completely bonkers. Just a little bit…)

Are you a beauty enthusiast? If so, blink once. Love eye-makeup products? If so, then ‘blinc’ twice!

Designed to enhance your beauty and play up the windows to your soul, blinc eye makeup promises to offer long-lasting wear, yet ease of removal. Create beautiful eye looks in a ‘blinc!’

You’ve probably seen blinc cosmetics praised in many major beauty publications including print magazines like Allure, Marie Claire, and Oprah.

Founded in 1999 by Lewis Farsedakis, blinc has continuously ranked as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies on the Inc. 5000 list. Its headquarters are in Florida, and the brand focuses solely on innovating eye products. (They created the world’s first tube-forming mascara and eyebrow mousse.)

blinc cosmetics has a fresh take on eye makeup. Instead of allowing you to make a mutually exclusive choice between long-lasting wear or easy removal, their products offer the best of both worlds!

You can find blinc cosmetics at blincinc.com, Sephora stores, and Sephora.com.

These four products in the blinc Discovery Collection landed at Swatch And Learn headquarters recently:

  • blinc Mascara Amplified (Black)
  • blinc Eyebrow Mousse (Light Brunette)
  • blinc Eye Shadow Primer (Light Tone)
  • blinc Eyeliner Pencil (Black)

After I test-drive all of them substantially, I’ll prepare an in-depth review. In the meantime, I want to share this post that contains a quick look at each product, swatches (at the very bottom of the page), and more information.

blinc Mascara Eyeshadow Primer

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Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Gel Liner Pencil (Defining Black) Review

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Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Gel Liner Pencil Black

One of the newest gel liners to hit the drugstore is the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Gel Liner Pencil, shown here in the Defining Black shade.

With its 1.8mm micro tip and automatic-pencil construction, it promises to be always sharp and to deliver a smooth gel intensity to help you define the windows to your soul.

I’ve been playing around with the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny eyeliner since late December (ahead of the January launch in Canada), thanks to PR. (I also have the other shades that it comes in: Sharp Brown and Defining Charcoal, but I decided to do the in-depth review on Defining Black, since black is what I wear most often.)

See the rest of this post for additional photos, as well as my detailed observations on this new drugstore eyeliner.

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Maybelline Creamy Mattes Lipstick Swatches, Quick Review & Press Release (NEW Limited Edition Shades for 2015)

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Maybelline Creamy Mattes Lipsticks Review

Like nail polish, lipstick is a quick and easy way to change up your look, coordinate with an outfit, or make a statement that ends with more exclamation marks than a campy episode of Batman featuring Adam West punching villains in the nose. ZOWIE! BAM! ZAP!

I’m a fan of the Maybelline ColorSensational The Creamy Mattes that I’ve tried before (Touch of Spice is one of my favourites), so you can imagine how thrilled I was to try their 8 new limited-edition shades.

The United States already had them for a while, but they’re officially set to launch in Canada starting October 27, 2015. Circle your calendars, and get ready for the drugstore dash!

This post contains a quick look at the new Maybelline lipstick shades: Clay Crush, Nude Nuance, Blushing Pout, Rich Ruby, Electric Pink, Pink N Chic, Vibrant Violet, and Burgundy Blush.

I’ve swatched them on my arm and on my lips, so you can see the formula in action.

This is the first time that I’ve swatched 8 lipsticks in a single photo session. (I did it while listening to Justin Trudeau give his victory speech on Monday night on TV.) After applying and removing each lipstick, I was expecting my lips to feel raw by the end, but surprisingly, they didn’t! To me, that speaks volumes about its great formulation.

My bare lips were on the dry side to begin with, but I resisted the urge to reach for a lip balm because I wanted to show you what the formula looks like when you don’t exfoliate, prep your lips, and do a belly dance to appease the lip gods.

(Clearly, I’m not afraid of showing unedited, larger-than-life photos where you can see the natural lines. I’m not afraid of showing my true colours and stripes, so why hesitate with lip lines?)

I was so impressed with how creamy and lightweight they felt, and I will be wearing all of the colours again, except for the bright pinks. (There’s nothing wrong with those, but they don’t suit my personal taste nowadays.)

I may do a review on some shades on the blog or Instagram, so I can go into detail about the wear time after I’ve tested each out individually for longer.

Also, in case you were wondering, the lipsticks have the same frosted red-toned brown lid that the original Maybelline Creamy Mattes have. (The photos in this post are all of the lipsticks going topless. Oh, how scandalous!) 😉

Vibrant Violet, Rich Ruby, and Burgundy Blush are my favourite colours out of the bunch. (You have to carefully apply Vibrant Violet and Burgundy Blush to get an even application, but those shades are worth it.)

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Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencil Lip Swatches & Review

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Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencil Swatches Review

In early June, I got to wear all 10 of the new Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencils that were released this August in Canada, thanks to PR sending me these and other Maybelline goodies!

In the above collage, I show 9 of them, but in this post, I’ll show you all 10 and let you know my thoughts on the general formula and packaging, as well as each shade.

If you follow me on social media, you already saw these lip swatches, but since I realize that not all my readers use social media, I decided to post them here. 🙂

Which one do you like the most? My favourite is funnily enough the first one I ever wore – Berry Misbehaved!

As you know, I don’t post too many photos of myself (excluding my nails, of course), so this was a lot of selfies that I snapped with my phone.

I wore one colour each day I went to work, so that’s why the lighting is different. Sometimes I faced the window, other times I relied on office lighting, and some days were really sunny or dim. I didn’t swatch them. Each of them I wore for the entire work day and into the night until I washed up and went to bed.

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Maybelline Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencil Swatches & Quick Look

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Maybelline Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Eye PencilsEyeliner is a staple for me, and I wear it on a daily basis. It defines your eyes, bringing the focus to the ‘windows of the soul,’ as they say.

Ever since grade 10, I’ve been sporting eyeliner. That’s probably why I could give up all my other makeup if I was forced to, but eyeliner would be the one product I’d cling onto.

I love the ease of using a pencil, but I’ve also enjoyed the drama and lasting power of gel liner in a pot form. But with the latter, you need to use a brush, which isn’t exactly travel-friendly or I-need-to-rush-and-get-ready-for-work-but-I-have-to-clean-my-brush-first-friendly. 😉

So when PR provided me with several shades of the new Maybelline Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencil that hits Canadian stores in July, I was thrilled!

My standards for a pencil eyeliner are very high because I’m set on what I like and what I don’t like. And I’ve had many years to see what works for me and what doesn’t.

(Black eyeliner is a staple for me, but I love adding a pop of colour along my lower lash line. The black and the blue gel pencils work very nicely together!)

I’ve already worn all of these Maybelline gel eyeliners several times, so you can expect an in-depth review of at least one of these.

For now, I’ve done a Quick Look post to show you swatches of all five colours, and I have the official press release, should you require further information.

P.S. Today is the LAST DAY to enter my China Glaze Baby Beats Micro Mini Set worldwide giveaway! (Ends tonight at 11:59 pm EDT)

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Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencil Swatches & Quick Look

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Maybelline Color Blur Matte PencilAs a fan of bold, matte lipsticks, I was incredibly excited to receive a surprise package from PR featuring the new Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencils by Lip Studio!

The Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencils hit stores across Canada in August, but I am too excited to wait until then to share photos and quick swatches, so I’m showing you now!

What appeals to me is that the Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencil is a slender stick that’s narrower than a traditional lipstick, but it’s not as thin as a lip liner. This makes it easier to have more control during application, which is very important, especially when using bright or vampy shades that aren’t as forgiving as nudes.

Right off the bat, I like the packaging because it has that modern-and-clean look, and the tube is a nice size that can easily fit into your purse without being overly chunky.

It’s retractable. By twisting the bottom of the tube (near the smudger), it pushes more product up. This is great because you won’t have to bother with a pencil sharpener.

There are lids on either end. One covers the lip colour, and the other houses the smudger. The smudger feels rubbery and soft, much like an eraser. (P.S. When I was little, I used to collect novelty erasers of ones that were shaped like grapes, houses, butterflies, soccer balls, basketballs, rainbows, etc.)

The smudger can be used to blur the lip colour, and you can create an ombre effect. (Later in this post, I tested it out by combining two colours in a swatch.)

P.S. In case you missed it, I’m having a worldwide giveaway until June 19th, 2015! Enter for your chance to win the China Glaze Baby Beats Micro Mini Set!

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Maybelline New York Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary

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Maybelline 100th AnniversaryGuess what? Maybelline New York Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary!

To commemorate this milestone, they’re releasing limited-edition Maybelline makeup and a nail polish with special packaging.

The Maybelline 100 Anniversary Collection will be available on May 12th in drugstores and mass market retailers across Canada.

PR kindly provided me with a thoughtful gift bag full of goodies on Friday. 🙂 Needless to say, it was a fun way to usher in the weekend!

They also provided four postcards featuring vintage Maybelline ads, which I find especially interesting. Over the years, marketing campaigns for makeup have changed, and you can learn more about a society by studying them.

In this post, I show you a closer look at the makeup plus nail polish, and I swatch the lipstick, eye shadow, and nail polish.

Edit (Sunday May 3 at 11:15 am): I wanted to share the official press release provided to me about Maybelline’s history, what it stands for, and their inspirational journey in the makeup world. You can find it at the very bottom of this post.

It’s lengthy, but I’m sure that you’ll learn something new about the brand that you didn’t already know, which is worth the effort.

So far, out of all the press releases that have been provided to me for blogging purposes, this was my favourite to read because it went into depth about the brand’s history through a social lens and how Maybelline built up its empire to amplify its message that women are smart, strong, and beautiful.

Yes, the press release at the bottom is long (my fingers know all too well as I was typing it up to share with you! Thank goodness my typing speed is 95-100 words per minute), but I think you’ll find Maybelline’s story to be impressive and inspiring!

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