Monday, December 12, 2011

MyGlam Review (December, 2011)

Alright, so for those of you who may not have heard, there is a new thing for makeup addicts and non-addicts alike! ‘Tis called MyGlam, the website being http://www.myglam.com. For $10 a month, you get four to five makeup products in a nice, little bag, mailed to you! These products range from deluxe sample size to full sized products. It appears to be founded, or at least run, by makeup artist Michelle Phan (http://www.michellephan.com/) I’ve been following her for quite a long while now, and when she posted a video on her YouTube explaining the bag, I was rather curious.

Upon coming across this, I was unsure. After all, I am a young teen with minimal income, and have to hang onto as much money as possible. No frivolous spending! (Yeah, right. XD) But it is only $10, so I thought, “Hey, why not? If it’s not worth it, I can just cancel.” My bag came this morning… And good Heavens, was it worth it!

To start off, the bag is adorable.

MyGlam_Bag Picture taken from the front page of MyGlam.com

It is rather nice quality, too! I would guesstimate that the bag alone is worth $7, or thereabouts. It seems to be quite sturdy, and has a cute little mirror inside, attached to it. The mirror on mine is black, not blue as pictured. The bag is one that I will definitely use to hold my makeup now.

Now for the products inside of this magical bag of glamorous wonders. How good were they for the $10 I paid? Let’s see.

I’ll start off with the Soft Matte Lip cream by Nyx.

Nyx_LipCream Picture from MyGlam.com

I was a bit skeptical of this, especially being the fact that I am not always a big fan of lip colors. I don’t wear bold lip colors very often, or very much lip color at all, for that matter. But I tried it nonetheless. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed! The shade that I received is Milan, and it’s a pretty pink color. Perfect for my tastes; slightly bold, but not overpowering. The cream goes on very smoothly, and as claimed, not quite like a gloss, nor like a lipstick. And the best part? It is perfectly matte! This is a wonderful product that I will most certainly be using again and again, and will be heartily recommending to my lip-color loving friends. One of them costs around $6 by itself.

Next on the list is the two products from Urban Decay.

UrbanDecay_PrimerPotion UrbanDecay_Sin Pictures from MyGlam.com

I’m sure that anyone who ventures even a bit into the world of makeup has at least heard of Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. Tons of makeup artists use it, and recommend it. After using it today, I have joined the group that recommends it. It works very well, making the eyeshadows more intense and lasting. Moving on to the eyeshadow that was included in the bag, which would be Sin by Urban Decay. There’s a good reason that it’s a best seller! It is a gorgeous champagne shade that shimmers something beautiful, and is great alone for a nice gleam on your eyes, or blended with other colors. The case is cute; it looks like a subway token, and has a lid attached. No more lost lids! Huzzah! The Primer Potion costs $19, and Sin costs $17.

Now for the blush paper and oil blotting paper from Mai Couture.

MaiCouture_BlushPaper Picture from MyGlam.com

I have a mixed review on this one. It’s the only product that came in the bag that I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with. Let’s get the bad things out of the way, shall we? The blush paper is what I had a problem with. I am not a big blush wearer anyway, but I tried this to see how it was. The color that I received was Sunset Blvd, which appeared to be close to a shade that I wear anyway, when I do wear blush. But for convenience sake, I thought the paper would be a nice alternative. The problem? I could barely see it on my skin. Maybe it was the shade, I don’t know. But I’m very pale, so I would think that peach would show up on my skin, at least somewhat. I understand that it is meant to be sheer, but I couldn’t see it at all, even when I rubbed it on the back of my hand. Maybe an ever-so-slight tint, if anything, but it was barely there. Props to you if you love it, but it just isn’t for me. But that’s my opinion, don’t murder me. XD

But what I WAS impressed with was the oil blotting paper! While I only got a small amount of blush paper, I got the full size packet of blotting paper. It’s a cute little case that is convenient to throw in my purse. It is lightly scented with lavender, which is lovely, and the product works very well! It does exactly what it claims to, that is removing excess oils from your skin without screwing with your makeup. I love it! It is something that I would buy again, and recommend to anyone looking for a good oil blotting paper. Blotting paper by itself is $13, with the wallet carrying case, $25. Blush paper by itself is $17.50, with the wallet, $29.50.

This brings us to our last product in the bag. Lights, Camera, Lashes! by Tarte.

Tarte_Lights,Camera,Lashes Picture from MyGlam.com

I make no claim to be a mascara expert by any means. I don’t wear it all the time due to the fact that I already have long, dark lashes. But for when I do, this is now one that I would definitely turn to! Most mascaras that I’ve tried feel really heavy and I cannot stand to wear them. This feels nice and light, actually, and it did make my lashes even darker and fuller as it claimed it would. According to the website, you can apply multiple coats of it without clumping, which I can’t say one way or the other. I only put on one coat, so as to whether that is true or not, I cannot say. Nonetheless, it is a really nice mascara that was wonderful to include with the Sin eyeshadow. Put together, it creates a nice daytime look without eyeliners or anything. The tube costs $19.

So all in all, MyGlam is a fantastic deal. Let’s see how much we’ve saved this month alone… $91.50 would be the price of all the makeup together, not including shipping and what not. Deduct the $10 that we paid for the Glam Bag, include my guesstimation of the price of the bag and we’ve saved an amazing $88.50!! Going with the least price on the blush and oil-blotting papers, that is. One thing is for certain; I am staying signed up for this wonderful website. I don’t know if I’ll be doing a product review every month, though I may. I felt it important to review the first bag for those curious, but we’ll have to see about the monthly reviews. (: I love this bag, and I am looking forward to many more months of membership with MyGlam.com.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

50,101

Winner_180_180_white

I crossed the finish line with 50,101 words. But my book is not yet finished! I guesstimate that I have about another 10k words of plot left, give or take a few thousand. Christmas will put a hindrance on my finishing the book, due to having a slew of Christmas presents to draw, but I do plan to finish it in early 2012. You know, before the world ends. ;D

So congratulations to anyone who is reading this and is a fellow NaNo novelist who finished a book this year. :D Here’s to a published book in the future, and to next year!