Showing posts with label Physician's Formula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Physician's Formula. Show all posts

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Collection for 2011


Look at this, my blog has been all girly-foofy-pink-hearts all the time lately! But I assure you, I am not an impostor, the real Scrangie has not been abducted by the body snatchers and I don't have a head injury. I'm just in full-on holiday mode. And don't worry, there are only a few more pink heart-shaped things left to post... But these might be my favorite of all the heart-shaped things.

The minute I saw the first pictures of these, I HAD to have them. They're in shiny hot pink packages, they're covered in 3-d multicolored hearts, they claim to make you happy and they're SCENTED. I know... I might have been able to resist them for a little while if it wasn't for that last fact. Scented adorable shiny Valentine's themed makeup? Sold. I'll take 576.

I got four of the five or six items in the line.


Rose and natural Happy Booster Blush on top, light bronzer and translucent face powder on the bottom. The blushes are a slightly smaller size than the bronzer and face powder, but the compacts and designs look the same.

The back of the box describes all the benefits of this product. They all contain Happy Boost Blend which has something called Happy Skin and Euphoryl in it. They're supposed to mimic the effect of endorphins to give you a happy feeling... Interesting!


Now, there is one flaw with these items. It's superficial and not necessarily significant, but it is still a flaw!

You have to destroy the box to open it! I know that the boxes get thrown out right away, but if you're someone who likes to store things in their boxes, you won't really be able to easily do that with these. It's not really a big deal, but the next photo will demonstrate my annoyance:


The compacts are glued into the box! It's that sticky type of removable rubber cement, but it's strong enough to rip the labels off the back of the compact. It happened on all four of mine. Wasn't there a better way to secure the compacts in their boxes? Did they have to put the glue directly onto the label? Also, some of the glue gets stuck in the square vents on the back of the compact and you get little sticky glue squares inside the brush chamber.

I was able to peel my labels off of the glue and stick them back onto the compacts, but still, it seems like a packaging design oversight.

Luckily, there's not a thing wrong with the products themselves.


The compact is a shiny hot pink chrome. Once you open the lid, you can lift up the powder tray to reveal a mirror and a brush. It's a nice little touch. The brush is a little on the floppy and scratchy side, but I do think it applies the powder nicely for a sheer application.

And, it is rather cute. It's red and pink with a metallic pink chrome handle to match the compact. I wish it was a little stiffer and softer feeling because then it would be absolutely perfect! But it is usable for a quick wash of color, just like a fan brush.

All of the powders have the same style compact and brush.



This is the light bronzer. It's a combination of light and medium brown/tan with one light pink heart. It has both matte and shimmer hearts mixed together.


This is the Natural blush. It has light pink, peach-nude, rose, mauve and one darker pink near-red heart, also a combination of matte and shimmer.


This is the Rose blush. It has medium and dark pink, peachy pink, cocoa pink and one deep hot pink heart in matte and shimmer.


And the Translucent face powder. It has pink, peach, beige, cream and nude colors, mostly matte but with a hint of shimmer.


I tried swatching them on my arm , but they didn't really show up on camera. These are all sheer formulas. Which, for me, is good! While I do like a very pigmented blush or bronzer, you have to be really good at applying blush to use them, and I'm just not that good at it. The only thing that I can apply blush perfectly with are those flat Benefit brushes that come in the boxed powders. The brush for these is somewhat similar, but a lot more... limp?

Anyway, the sheer formula allows you to do just a light wash of color OR you can build them up for more color. It has a little shimmer to it, but you can easily buff that down if you're not into shimmery cheeks (like me). The colors were all very subtle and flattering on my pale cool skintone, so in addition to being cute they're actually useful. I have not used the translucent face powder other than swatching it, but on my arm it was just a sheer powder.

I do like everything about these, but my favorite-favorite feature might be the scent. They describe it as violet, but I smell more than violet. I can't quite pin down what it is exactly, but it smells to me like a very light, sweet candy floral. Not a sharp, perfumey, heavy, headachey floral like in some scented makeup. The scent in these is pretty and enjoyable, but it's not too strong. I don't smell it once it's on my face, but you get little hints of it while you're applying and it just sorta makes you smile :)

As for the claim that they improve your mood and make you happy? Well, scientifically, I have no idea. I have no clue if the compounds in this actually have some sort of chemical effect on my mood. But I can honestly say that they do make me happy. They make me happy just to look at. They're so pretty and shiny and colorful I can't help but smile when I use them. The scent gives me a little mood boost as well, I suppose it's a form of aromatherapy. So, I guess they do live up to their claim of boosting my happy! But then again, makeup in general makes me happy, so who knows. Either way, they do totally cheer me up.

They're a little pricey for a drugstore product, they range from $10-$13 depending on where you get them, but luckily they all have $3 off coupons on them. Even if they weren't $3 off, I'd still buy them because I just love them so much.

These might be one of my most favorite cosmetic products of all time. I love looking at them, using them, wearing them... The combination of cute, colorful 3-d heart powder with that pink chrome compact and the sweet sugared violet scent is just absolutely perfect to me. They're the happiest looking makeup items in my collection, for sure!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Valentine's Day Beauty Wishlist


You all know how much I love holidays... So whenever I see something holiday-themed, I immediately want it. I've been putting together my Valentine's Day beauty wishlist over the past couple weeks and I thought I'd share my favorites with you. Since I started putting together this list, I've actually bought some of the things, so you can expect full reviews soon!


Urban Decay's flavored body powders. I actually have all of these scents in the old-style packaging, but the new style packaging is even better! I am a total sucker for packaging, I know. I'd get them again just to have the gorgeous boxes. I really do like these, they're sweet scented (Cocoa is amazing, I wish it had a matching perfume) and they also taste sweet. The have a little bit of a tinted shimmer. I used to wear them on my chest/collarbone/décolletage when I was wearing lower-cut shirts. Oddly enough, whenever I wore these, this guy I worked with always told me how pretty I looked.




Physician's Formula Happy Booster blush, bronzer and powder. I don't think I've lusted after any beauty product quite like I did with these. The minute I saw them I just couldn't stop thinking about them. I did end up finding these last week and I love them so much. I'll do a review on them shortly, but let me mention that these currently have $3 off coupons attached to them, so if you're thinking about getting one, make sure to get one with a coupon on it!



Stila Make Me Blush. I feel the same way about this that I do about the Physician's Formula Happy Booster powders. I know that logically, it's just a blush. But when I see it I go crazy. It makes me giddy to look at. Of course, I caved and ordered the set that comes with the Hugs and Kisses lip glazes. It's actually a pretty inexpensive indulgence- the set is only $20.


Philosophy Sweet on You set. One of my readers told me about this! It's supposed to smell like those candy hearts that I love. I have the sweetest readers :) Anyway, I'm a huge Philosophy fan so this is extremely appealing to me. I really really want this!


Bath and Body Works Valentine's Day PocketBacs! They're 5 for $5 right now. These are so cute. I'm a bit of a germophobe so I always have hand sanitizer in my purse, but I wish I had these instead of my plain unscented Purell! Here's what the scents are:
  • I Love You (aww ♥) in Sweet Pea
  • I Love Shoes (lets get ‘em!) in Stylish Strawberry
  • I Love Cake (maybe just a mini cupcake so that I can fit into my LBD tonight) in Buttercream
  • I Love Boys (#bieberfever) in Berry Crush
  • I Love Bling (who doesn’t) in Rock Candy
Buttercream and rock candy scented hand sanitizer! Must have these!


YBF Pucker Up lipstick set. They're in heart-shaped tubes! I remember that Models Prefer used to have a set just like this, and I remember always wanting it. I'd probably only be able to pull off that pink color in the middle, but like I said, I'm a complete sucker for packaging.


Kiss Catwalk Nail Decals. Actually, this isn't so much a wishlist item as a recommendation. I just got these and they're perfect for Valentine's Day. Just wanted to make sure I mentioned it!


Sephora Collection Flower Kabuki brush set. Gah. I can't handle how cute these are. I'm not sure how well they would even work for applying powder, but I need them. Anyone have these? Are they good? I love looking at them.


Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb gift set from Nordstrom.com. It comes in a heart-shaped box, just like a Valentine's Day box of chocolates! I'd rather have perfume than chocolate. Well, maybe. Perfume lasts longer. Can I get perfume and chocolate? I've been meaning to get a full sized bottle of Flowerbomb...




Kat Von D Adora fragrance
and Painted Love Lipstick in Adora. Adora doesn't even sound like a fragrance I'd like based on the list of notes (Lychee, Boysenberry, Thyme, Cassis, Hyacinth, Jasmine, Mango Flesh, Patchouli, Sheer Musk, Amber Wood.) but I love love love the bottle. It looks so heavy. And the lipstick? I don't think I really wear red well, but the color of it is so bright and sparkly and look at that romantic looking tube! The red flowers on the black satin background! The little clear base that shows the color!


I'm having cute makeup overload.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Yesterday's Drugstore Haul: HIP and Physician's Formula



Since I was pretty bummed out about missing out on Stereo Rose again, I decided to check out what sort of cheap thrills may await me in the health and beauty department while out grocery shopping.... And came home with a couple things for less than the price of the damn MAC frosty blush that I know I would probably never wear but for some reason can't stop thinking about! Ugh!

Here's what I got:

HIP by L'Oreal eyeshadow duo in Electrified. It's my first HiP item, actually. I was never really interested in the line until Eve gave me a massive lemming for this yesterday afternoon... Lucky for me it was under $7 unlike most of my lemmings.


Here it is swatched on the back of my hand indoors (indirect/ambient light) and outside in full sunlight. The left half is a very shimmery/metallic champagne gold with a touch of taupe and the right half is a shimmery deep smoky red-toned plum purple. I'm actually rather impressed with the texture and pigmentation of these. Maybe I should try something else from this line to see if everything is the same quality.

And here's a super fast look I did with it, just playing around and trying it out. Flash and indoor/ambient light. I used MAC Painterly as a base, both the shadows, a little black eyeliner and some mascara, no other products. I am really rather impressed with the gold color. It's very luminous... I've been looking for metallic/shiny looking shadows lately... I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for, but this one is really nice and totally worth the cost of admission.

The other thing I picked up was this Physician's Formula shimmer palette. I wanted to get a ton of their stuff, but I hesitated... I remember how much I used to dislike their eyeshadows about ten or so years ago... I remember them being really frosty and chalky. I did used to love their Virtual Eyes duochrome eyeliners, wish I could still find those somewhere. But yeah, I was wary so I only got this... but now that I've used it I might have to try out the rest of the stuff I was drooling over. There was this set of gel eyeliners that Phyrra reviewed and I *almost* got them... A green, a purple and a black. Anyway... what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, the palette. This is supposed to enhance Hazel eyes, which I do not have, I have boring dark brown-black eyes.... but it still seems to enhance them anyway...


Here's the goofy package it comes in. It's a box with a wing/flap/extra side... so it forms a corner shape... very unusual... Interesting, but so much extra cardboard!


The palette itself. They all seem to be part of one long eyeshadow, the lines in between the shadows are really shallow and don't seem to really separate the colors all too well. Reminds me of a Shimmerbrick.


Swatched on my arm indoors and outside in full sunlight. They're a little frosty and the pigmentation isn't that great, but it's nowhere near as bad as I remember.

And another quick look, just testing them out:


I used Painterly as a base, the fifth and sixth shadows (from top to bottom with the silver on the top) and a little of the silver on the inner corner, black eyeliner and mascara. Very subdued but still pretty.

The thing about these types of palettes and colors is that they're really quick to use. You don't have to think about them at all, just slap it on and go. Both of these looks took me less than five minutes to do. And I mean an actual five minutes, not the "five minutes" that someone says to get you to wait for them while they're getting ready but always turns out to be like, half an hour...

I have a bunch of makeup stuff I want to post but I never feel like my makeup pictures/swatches turn out very good... Maybe Karla can teach a makeup swatching class for the swatch-challenged people like me!

Cause, yeah.... I love makeup... a whole lot... Which is why I started blogging in the first place... I'm obsessed...
 

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