First Impressions

I've been trying out a pile of new products the past few days, so I thought I'd jump on here and give some first impressions.

First up, Eyes:

False Lashes from Forever 21 (with Duolash glue) - On Saturday, while the kiddo and I were shopping, I wound up picking up some individual false lashes at Forever 21 since I had been wanting to try some out. Since this was the first time I ever used false lashes, I grabbed some glue at CVS while using a coupon. I tried them out for the first time yesterday, with mixed results. Since they were individual lashes, I did wind up ruining a few before I got the hang of them. But once I figured out how to get them out of the package easier, the end result was pretty decent. The kiddo thought they looked fairly natural, but the hubby said they looked obviously fake. It was kind of rough removing them at the end of the night, so I'll probably save them for special occasions.  I don't see the exact lashes on their website now, but they do have full lashes available.

H&M Liquid Eyeliner in Bronze and Gold - Also while we were shopping, I found gold and bronze liquid eyeliner at H&M on sale. I had been looking for gold eyeliner to try, but didn't want to spend a huge amount since I didn't know how it would look, and especially since I'm not a huge fan of liquid eyeliner. These were OK, but I don’t know how much I’ll be using them. They have a very fine tip, so it took several passes to get my desired effect. Also, as the bronze was drying, my eyes were feeling really odd, sort of burning but sort of just tight. I may try it one more time to see if it happens again, but if it does, they’re gone!  I couldn't find the makeup on the website, but you might be able to find it in the clearance section at your local store.

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara – People seem to love this mascara, but I just don’t get the hype. This did absolutely nothing for my lashes, and I actually wound up going back to my previous mascara for extra oomph to get even a slight appearance of mascara. I’ll give this one more shot, but since this was a deluxe sample I picked up in a set on Black Friday, if it still doesn’t do anything for me, I’m tossing it.

L’Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara in Black – This is another product that I have seen almost nothing but raves for. I will say, this was much better than the Tarte mascara. This has a fairly dry formula and a plastic brush, neither of which I’m a huge fan of. But after using it for two days, I think I’ll be able to work with this.

Tarte Beauty and the Box Amazonian Clay Eyeshadow Quad in Evoke the Smoke – I decided to use the pink and purple shades from this quad on top of a silver cream shadow base for my eye look the other day. The look came out OK, but the quad was a little difficult to work with. There was quite a bit of fallout with these shadows. Also, because there are no dividers between the colors, it was a little difficult to make sure I was only picking up the one color. But those are relatively minor and can be worked around.  (Looks like this was limited edition.  I picked it up from Macy's on Black Friday, and now I can't find online at Macy's, Ulta, or Sephora.)

How about you?  Have you tried any new eye products lately?

Stay tuned for more first impressions to come soon!