Curated Picks of Holy Grail Clean Beauty Cosmetic & Makeup Products

Cosmetics: Classic & the Latest Curated Cosmetics

Clean Makeup Lipstick Options

Cosmetics for the curated makeup bag. How to apply the must-have new and classic cosmetic makeup for face, eyes, and lips.

Hourglass, Chantecallie, By Terry, Lash Star, Too Faced, BlueMercury, SpaceNK, MAC, Ulta, Sephora, Boutique Brands.

Find your go-to makeup products for everyday and special occasion events.

How to guides ranging from how to best use YSL Touche Eclat to How to Apply Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara.

How to Find a Good Mascara Fan Brush

December 15, 2015 · Leave a Comment

WHERE TO BUY A GOOD MASCARA FAN BRUSH

Here is our round up of the good and the bad when it comes to Mascara Fan Brushes. There is a wide variety of quality and prices when it comes to finding a good Mascara Fan Brush. Here are a few we have tried:

The most popular mascara fan brushes are both around $20. These are the Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush, and the Paula Dorf Perfect Mascara Fan Brush.

The Paula Dorf is one of my favorites because it is the widest and longest, the right combo of soft enough to maneuver around lashes while stiff enough to “paint” and the easiest to wield. Found mostly on eBay.
Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush
Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush. Frequently used by bridal makeup artists, the MAC 205 brush is probably 40% smaller, but has tiny soft wispy guard bristles that make it easier to remove clumps. The MAC is:
- Easier for those with the steady hands of a true makeup artist than a regular makeup fanatic like myself to use. But a little practice went a long way.
- When using the MAC 205, try to load the mascara onto the shorter fan bristles, not the longer guard bristles. Do this by bending and holding the longer guard bristles away from the shorter bristles with your finger while only coating the short bristles with mascara.
  - At eBay
  - On Amazon, third party seller
  - The Mac Cosmetics 205 Mascara Fan Brush is generally available at Mac, $20.

Other Mascara fan brushes:

SEPHORA COLLECTION: Pro Lash Fan #34, $21. Not very fan-like, but quality bristles, good shape for a beginner to load mascara onto the lash, doesn’t have the ability to create wispy lashes like the Paula Dorf, Claudio Riaz or Mac 205. But, this brush can do cream and cake mascara much easier than the other fan brushes.

Surprisingly, there was only one kind of Mascara Fan brush at Sephora at this time. That seems weird. Does anyone else think that is weird?

Claudio Riaz Lash Touch Brush, at Barneys, for $65.
- The Mercedes Benz/Rolls Royce/Jaguar of Mascara Fan Brushes.
- A bit steep, but a VERY good brush with nice heft and ease of handling, which is good for klutzes like myself. Nice width to the fan which covers about half the lash line.
- Bristles are high quality and easy to work with, easy to get fluttery, wispy lashes with this one. I could argue buying a cheaper mascara or not being loyal to any one mascara or in a mascara emergency, using a drugstore brand (gasp!) and still getting a nice high-end look with the ease of use on getting a nice, clump-free look with this brush.
Royal and Langnickel BX-145 Revolution Fan Mascara Brush
- hard to find stateside, but ships to North America
- reasonably priced
- nice gentle guide feature on the bristles
- Easier to de-clump with, harder to get wispy lashes.
Ben Nye also makes a Mascara fan brush, it is around $8, haven’t tried it yet.

So far, I have not found a drugstore/beauty chain store version of a Mascara fan brush that I like. Most are too stiff to apply mascara or to wiggle it into the root of the lash line, and it is not really a fan shape, more like an eyeliner push brush.

For this reason we cannot recommend the Bdellium Tools Makeup Cosmetic Beauty Brush Travel Line – Mascara Fan Brush 731. Most drugstore and beauty supply store fan brushes seemed a variant of this overly rigid push liner brush style, but I would be happy to find a good basic mascara fan brush if anyone knows of a good one.

What to Know About Kurious Lip Tattoo

September 2, 2015 · Leave a Comment

If you follow Style Chicks at all, you know that we love, love, love lip stains. So after reading an article about new and fantastic Korean beauty products, we were thrilled when Kurious Mall sent us their Kurious Lip Tattoo lip stains to try out.

why it is special

Kurious Lip Tattoo isn’t your standard Lip Stain. The application process feels a whole lot more like a luxurious ritual than the usual 15 second application before I head out the door of other lip stains. Instead of just applying it like a lipgloss, like most lip stains, Lip Tattoo lets you take a breath in the morning and prepare yourself for the day, while adding a gorgeous color to your lips.

The Experience

The application process is this: apply a thick layer of the product out of the tube (basically the look of a Juicy Tube). I thought this would be a huge mess and I’d have to use a cotton swab to clean up around the edges, but it goes on quite precisely, and any goofs are easily cleaned up with a dab of your finger. And when I say a thick layer, I mean a THICK LAYER. After that, sit back for five minutes and relax.

So, I hope I’ve built a decent amount of anticipation up as to what you do when five minutes is up. Get ready:

You. Peel. It. Off.

Yup, not only does Kurious Lip Tattoo give you gorgeous color all day (and I mean all day), it also serves as an exfoliating lip mask. You lips are smooth, supple, and stained.

Now the peel off process: just rub a bit at the edge of your lip and it will start peeling off easily. It won’t hurt at all, in fact you don’t feel anything – and I’ve used it when my lips are pretty raw.

After peeling off the application layer, you will need to decide if you want to add their absolutely fabulous lip gloss or go for a matte, lightly stained look. I’d recommend using the gloss, mainly because I absolutely adore the clear gloss. Despite looking incredibly glittery in the tube, it really just looks clear when applied, and has a lovely bubble gum scent. It is light and not at all sticky (and I field tested it on a very windy day to see if hair would stick to it – not a strand got stuck.) Even if you are timid on lip color, the gloss doesn’t make the look over the top, in fact, it just adds a glint to your smile.

As you will see in the 5 different colors in the slideshow below, the colors are great. Even Passion Orange seems to make teeth appear whiter, which is impressive. There appears to be a blue-base to all the colors, which is great. While picking a favorite is like picking a favorite child, I’ll say this: Foxy Red reminds me of my favorite, long discontinued Body Shop red lip stain that was basically “my lips but better.” So I’m thrilled to find a replacement. If you are looking for a daytime red, this is it.

Where to Find It

Kurious Lip Tattoos are really impressive. Find them at KuriousMall.com for $18.00 in Foxy Red, Passion Orange, Sexy Pink, Shy Pink, and Vivid Wine.

And be sure to follow them on Twitter @KuriousMall for promotions! Currently they are running a special for 50% off Lip Tattoos which makes them an absolute steal!

[slideshow_deploy id=’1925′]

Product Review: Miracle Skin Transformer Lip Rewind

July 20, 2015 · Leave a Comment

My lips have been a bit wrinkly since I was 5. In pictures from a Disney World trip when I was 3, my lips were lineless and vibrantly red. I must have pursed my lips a LOT between the ages of 3 and 5.

That’s why I love Miracle Skin Transformer Lip Rewind Advanced Peptide Lip Treatment SPF20. It smoothes my lips and makes them incredibly soft and defined. I am really impressed with how plump it made my lips without stinging like a lot of lip plumpers. Just smooth and soothing. I tried it in Pink, which is a great everyday summer color.

Where to Find It

Find Miracle Skin Transformer Lip Rewind Advanced Peptide Lip Treatment SPF20 at Nordstrom.com.

Miracle Skin Transformer Lip Rewind in Pink

Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection What You Need to Know

June 21, 2015 · Leave a Comment

REVIEW: Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection. The pros and cons

As soon as I heard about Urban Decay’s Mascara Resurrection, I was talking about it all the time. Urban Decay has developed some great lash cosmetics products. Was this one of them?

The Need for Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection

By the end of the day at work, my mascara tends to be dry and clumpy and I was really excited about a product that could, well, resurrect my mascara to it’s morning freshness.

I view this in the Apple Watch category of products: great concept, and hopefully will be improved in the future.

I picked it up as soon as it was released at Sephora and tried it out the next day after work.

While I spent the time in the morning to separate my lashes, they had clumped a bit by the end of the day. So I was pretty game to try Mascara Resurrection.

It’s a good product, but I found a couple of issues that keeps it from being a fantastic product.

What is Bad Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection

First issue is the wand. For mascara or lash treatment products, a curved wand is usually a good thing. With Mascara Resurrection, the product tends to cling to either end of the curve and does not catch in the middle of the curve.

While the product is described as a liquid, it is more of a glycerine-y gel (glycerin is the third ingredient). So instead of using the wand horizontally and catching the full lash fringe, I had to use the wand vertically. This is not very functional for the purpose, and the product ended up distributing in globs on my lashes instead of evenly.

What could make it better

When I tried it with straight disposable wand, it distributed evenly and did the job. So I hope Urban Decay includes a wand with a straight brush in the future to take advantage of the consistency of the formula.

My second issue really comes down to expectations.

I expected Mascara Resurrection to dissolve clumps with ease, but that is really the province of eye makeup remover, not a “freshen up” product.

While clumps do dissolve with some brushing. But they also get flakey if you aren’t thorough about removal. It didn’t refresh the mascara I had on. But rather it provided a clean, silky base for me to reapply mascara without having to take my eye makeup completely off.

So those are my issues with Mascara Resurrection. If you go in armed with said facts, you’ll have more appreciation for what is a good product.

Now that we’ve covered the bad, let’s move on to the good.

What is Good Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection

I like the fact that Mascara Resurrection allows me to brush out dried clumps and have a new base for mascara without disturbing my other eye makeup.

If my eyeliner and concealer are still looking good, I’d rather just freshen up my lashes without starting over.

TIP: Just make sure that you remove all the loosened mascara or else it will flake off onto your under eye.

It is also great to use to change the consistency of your mascara.

I never have been particularly fond of high-gloss mascaras. but Mascara Resurrection provides the right balance of “sparkle in your eye” shine without looking wet.

It also provides the right level of malleability to be able to safely recurl your lashes during the day, which is great.

Final Thoughts

We tend to only review products that really excite us on Style Chicks, so this might seem like a lot of negative for one of our reviews.

The thing is, though, this product still excites me since Urban Decay tends to improve their packaging etc over time.

So Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection is still a product I recommend – just make sure to get used to it before you bring it with you to a photo-op event, which as you know, is anywhere and everywhere these days.

Where to Find Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection

Find Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection at UrbanDecay.com for $16.00.

Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection