Whats In My Mailbox: Small Makeup Haul + Mini Reviews

Today was another good day in the world of Ang's Mailbox. Only, technically none of these products were IN my mailbox as much as they were on my doorstep or given to me personally by my mailman. I received some much anticipated, highly recommended, goods. I am working on their reviews already, the basics at least. I actually have to include the parts about how I actually TRIED the product and what I THINK of it, you know, the heart and soul of a review.

Coco Beau Big Fat Firm Foundation Brush! 

After watching and reading many positive reviews about this brush, I caved under pressure. The pressure I put on myself, mind you, so does that even count as being pressured? In any event, I bought it. It was around 27 Euros which was approximately in the $50's. I think I had a 15% coupon code from an online source but the bad news is there is no record of this and I could just be making it up all together since I can't find it in the first place.

This is the most mammoth foundation "paddle" style brush I have ever seen. If all goes as predicted, it should get the job done in record time. I am so excited to try it that I will probably go wash my face and reapply my foundation because I can't wait for the morning.

Overall First Impressions:
-Looks exactly how I hoped it would
-Feels exactly how I hoped it would 
-Expensive
-Took slightly less than 3 weeks to arrive
-Worth it! Can't wait to try!

http://www.cocobeau.co.uk/

UPDATE REVIEW:

I did just what I said I would! I washed off my makeup and I started all over again. Not a full-face by any means, but at least the foundation part. This brush is no joke, it is amazing! I am comparing it to my Sephora Pro-Platinum foundation brush for reference. With the Sephora, my hand usually starts cramping up because its smaller and I have to keep going and going with it and blending and blending. However, with the Coco Beau brush, its so large and heavy duty that its just easier to hold on to. Therefor you can hold it further back on the handle and let the brush do the work for you. In addition, the brush part of it doesn't bend so easily that you feel you have to grip it tighter to get more density. Overall, the large dense brush makes it easier to cover more ground with each swipe. And no shedding. Not that my Sephora brush did either, but I have some MAC brushes that do and it is a pain. Furthermore, the quality of the Coco Beau brush will be obvious once you have it in your hands. Its made very well and certainly looks like something I will have in my collection for a long time to come. Money well spent. Here is a review you may enjoy:

Lipstick Queen Lipstick in Saint: Natural

I have to admit, this shade was not at all what I expected it to be when I looked at swatches and other people's lips that were drenched in the Natural shade from the Saint line. Quickly, Lipstick Queen has Saints (sheer) and Sinners (opaque matte). I wanted a nude, of course. When don't I want a nude lipstick. Someone told me if I only tried one, try this one. I have to admit, its not what I would call "Natural". You will see this is swatches. 

The texture is Uh-may-zing. Its just great. Its smooth, hydrating, moisturizing, and every other word that is the opposite of dry. For a sheer, it deposits a lot of color, at least this shade on my lips. My lips are fairly pigmented and the more I look at them with this lipstick on, I am beginning to see that this shade is an amplified version of the natural color of my lips.

Lipliner (left) Lipstick (right)

Lipstick Queen: Lipliner, Natural

Again, not what I think of when I think "natural" but it does match well with the lipstick being that they are the same shade. First, I love the packaging of both items I got. Second, any lipliner that comes with its own sharpener is off to a good start in my makeup book. Again, Lipstick Queen has mastered the fine art of texture. This lip liner is very soft. Much softer than your typical MAC lipliner or any pencil liner, and softer than my favorite Chanel Natural lipliner. This is similar to the texture of an Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner actually. So that means, very easy to blend. And blendy enough to just fill in your lips and forget the lipstick. Don't let the softness fool you, I felt the texture of it after it was sitting for a couple of minutes on my arm and it was completely dry. I bet this means it ain't budging.

Overall First Impressions:

-Love the packaging

-Love the texture of both products, very comfortable on the lips

-Love the whole Lipstick Queen concept and product selection

-No fragrance, good or bad

-Will be trying more for sure, to get that nude I'm looking for!

Nail Product Review: OPI Chip Skip, Does It Help to Skip the Chip?!

I came across an interesting product today while perusing the OPI nail polish selection at Trade Secret. Trade Secret, in my town, seems like an undiscovered little jewel among an otherwise boring and typical shopping plaza that would inhabit a grocery store and a generic shoe store. Normally I see TS store in the mall but this one was on its own and on its own it was. An untapped resource of everything I was looking for but couldn't find at Ulta. While searching for OPI Sweetheart, I couldn't just buy ONE thing so I starting looking at the fancy nail treatments that I didn't need. I came across Chip Skip for $12.50.

The idea behind this product is to apply one coat before you apply your regular nail polish routine. This one coat will help to adhere the polish you apply afterwards to the Chip Skip and thus prevent premature chippage to your manicure. The texture is like water. I wondered, how is this going to work? The brush is teeny tiny so you do not wipe the excess off on the sides of the bottle like you would your normal polish, you simply take the wand from bottle to nail. You will notice an offensive odor that doesn't quite ever vanish. If you can get past this then the Chip Skip dries super quickly on the nail, and you can go about your manicure as planned.

Putting OPI Chip Skip to the Test!

I am doing one hand with Chip Skip followed by my new OPI Sweetheart polish (review is in the works) and the other hand sans Chip Skip but with the same polish. Both hands will be completed with the same OPI Top Coat to finish the look. I will report back if I start to notice any earth shattering results. Otherwise, about five days should be enough for me to gauge a very thorough and well-researched opinion of the product.

Cle de Peau Concealer: How Does It Measure Up?

Hourglass (L) CDP (R)

The much anticipated Cle de Peau concealer has finally arrived. And I love it. It truly is a very very good concealer. While it is creamy and easy to blend, it isn't so sticky that it would has the potential to slide right off. The directions state that it is for concealing basically anything from freckles to acne to under eye circles. So naturally, I gave it a try within about 3 minutes of its arrival. The concealer came in a very sophisticated and chic packaging, of course. The blue and gold casing looked like it held a fancy lipstick but instead it held a fancy concealer. Now, if you didn't read what I said about this product in an earlier post, this is the go-to concealer for makeup artists and celebrity clients. I looked up the concealer online and all kinds of images of different gorgeous female celebs popped up and under the picture it would say which shade of Cle de Peau concealer was used on them. Anyone from Kim Kardashian to Carmen Elektra. And everyone in between. This is THE concealer. And as I have said before, THE concealer is $70. So let's review the good points of this concealer:

CDP Beige (L) Hourglass Pearl (R) Virtually NO difference in color

The Good Points:

-Great texture
-Works to cover under eye circles as well as anything else on your face that you want to hide, making it a very multi-purpose product
-Blends super easily
-Available in 4 shades which is 1 shade more than most high-end concealers
-Not sticky, but tacky enough to stay put
-Awesome

Cle de Peau Vs. Hourglass Hidden Corrector:

 I was anxious to compare it to my Hourglass Hidden Corrector Concealer, my previous love. I swatched them both and I couldn't tell one bit of difference in the color of each of them. The CDP "Beige" and the Hourglass "Pearl" are identical. Beige is the second lights of the CDP and Pear is the lightest Hourglass shade. What I love about both of these shades is there is no yellow undertone to them. They are true flesh color with a slight pinky undertone. Very slight. And maybe I'm just making that up because I think everything has to have an undertone. The two concealers are very similar but there was one difference: CDP wasn't quite as creamy (aka sticky) as Hourglass. They both blend flawlessly but Hourglass just doesn't last that long when I cover sun spots and freckles. Concealer needs a certain amount of stiffness to it to be able to weather the storms of the day, ya know? That was the one and only difference. 


The Verdict:


If you have more than under eye circles to contend with, I highly highly recommend  Cle de Peau. On the other hand, if you have minimal imperfections and just want to brighten up the under eye area or inner corners of the eye, go for something cheaper. CDP is more of your full coverage concealer when you have more than a couple of flaws to cover up. I have 5 problem spots, not counting under eyes, so it will be a staple in my collection forever and ever. After 3 hours it is still going strong on the sun spots. With any other concealer, you would be seeing those babies surface full force.  So for the time being, I have broken up with Hourglass Hidden Corrector and found its replacement immediately. I jumped right in, yes, but it felt right. And it is true, you do get what you pay for.