Naturalla Beauty

In the process of weeding through and decluttering my makeup, I realized I've accumulated a fair few eyeliner pencils these last couple of years and - aside from a few brief mentions - I've never written about them.  I rarely used to wear eyeliner, but these days, it's pretty standard for days that I wear makeup.  Pencil is by far the quickest and easiest liner for me to use and it's what I reach for most often.  

Here's my opinions - good and bad - on the eight brands currently in my collection.  I've included some swatches at the end too, for anyone that might be interested in seeing how some of these colors stack up against one another.



The Top Picks

Pacifica Natural Eye Pencils
If I had to pick a number one favorite, this would be it.  The formula glides on effortlessly, both on the lid and in the waterline, and the three colors I've tried all have great color payoff.  Despite the marketing, I wouldn't consider these to be waterproof, but they do last all day on the lashline.  They also don't smear or bleed out of the waterline, although I usually only get 3-4 hours wear there before they start to fade.  Currently there are four neutral shades available, but I'm hoping for more fun colors in the future!  

Honeybee Gardens JobaColors Eye Liner
The JobaColor liners fall in the middle in terms of creamyness, but their gorgeous shades bump them up to my top two.  My two favorites are Blue Jeans, a bright teal blue and Smoking Gun, a beautiful silvered brown/shimmery taupe.  The one exception to the awesomeness of these pencils is Jet Set - the black - which I'm not crazy about.  I definitely think there are better black eyeliners, but I'd recommend the rest of the colors wholeheartedly. 

Middle of the Road

Benecos Natural Kajal Eyeliner
The formula on these is excellent.  They're creamy and apply very smoothly, but the actual colors - at least the two I have - tend to leave me feeling a bit let down.  Brown is a really warm brown with some almost orange tones, and Night Blue - which swatches as an amazing metallic navy - always ends up as more of a muddy grey/charcoal on my eyes.  There are a couple more colors I'm cautiously curious about, so I'll be sure to update this if/when I try more.

Earthlab Vegan Mineral Pencils
If you're looking for a liner that's easy to smudge out, Earthlab is a good choice.  I don't find Black to be the best true, deep black for lining the eyes, but it's excellent for smoking out as it still hangs onto a good amount of colour once blended.  

Gabriel Color
I only have one liner from Gabriel Color, in Black, which is another that I find to be more of a grey/charcoal than a true black.  The actual pencil is a little on the firmer side, but as long as you warm it up on your hand, it's fine to work with.  

Failed to Impress

ELF Mineral Eye Liner
As a retractable pencil sold for a mere $3, I was really excited to give the Mineral Eye Liners a try.  Unfortunately, the pencil is just way too hard and needs a lot of pressure to get any color payoff.  Metallic Purple was disappointing color-wise as well.  It's a plummy brown shade with a purple sheen, but the purple wears off super quickly, leaving you with just a rather ordinary brown.  

Beauty Without Cruelty Eye Defining Pencil*
I love how cool-toned Soft Brown is, but, again, the formula is just way too hard and leaves me feeling as though I'm scraping my eyelid raw whenever I use it. I will say, swatching this again today, the ashy tones and firmer texture reminded me more of a brow pencil than a liner, so if the color happens to be a match for you, it might work great for that purpose.

LUVU Beauty Eye Liner Pencils
The same qualities that I love so much about LUVU's lip pencils make their eye pencils some of my least favorites.  They're very solid and almost waxy, which results in very little color payoff on the eye, unless you're using a good amount of pressure.  I do like the shimmery White for highlighting the inner corner, but it's basically useless for lining the waterline or as a regular eyeliner.  

Blacks: (L to R) Luvu Beauty Black, Gabriel Color Black, Earthlab Black, Honeybee Gardens Jet Set, Pacifica Jet

Neutrals: (L to R) LUVU Beauty White, Pacifica Bare, Honeybee Gardens Brown Sugar, Benecos Brown, Honeybee Gardens Belgian Chocolate, Beauty Without Cruelty Soft Brown, Honeybee Gardens Smoking Gun

The Colors: (L to R) Honeybee Gardens Blue Jeans, Benecos Night Blue, ELF Metallic Purple

Have you used any of these?  What are your favorite eye liners?

I've seen a bunch of these posts pop up on different blogs over the last few weeks, and I figured I'd join in and share my top lip picks for spring and summer.  In the warmer months, I'm more drawn to brighter lip colors, but at the same time, I prefer lighter products that are a little bit sheer.  I've narrowed it down to these six favorites.

Eye shadow was definitely my first makeup love, but 2012 is really the year when I've gotten more into lip products.  My collection has really grown this year!  In honour of that, I've picked out my top 10 lip products.  Rather than sorting them further, I've just chosen the best of the best - lip balms, lip glosses and lipsticks - and I'm including them here, all together in one post.

(L to R) LUVU Beauty Classic Red, LUVU Beauty Blush, Honeybee Gardens Karma, Honeybee Gardens Soft Kiss, Bare Minerals Bavarian Cream, Silk Naturals Figment, Vapour Organic Beauty Enigma, My Beauty Addiction Buff, My Beauty Addiction Party Girl, Revolution Organics Freedom, Cheeky Cosmetics Siren, Cheeky Cosmetics Pink Champagne, Shiro Cosmetics Binary Love, Shiro Cosmetics Longcat

LUVU Beauty Lip Liners 
I love supporting Canadian companies and LUVU Beauty is another great one.  In particular, I love their lip liners, which are both pigmented and long lasting.  Classic Red is, as the name suggests, a bright, classic, pinup red.  Blush is a natural rosey shade that works well under a variety of lip colours.  More swatches can be found here.

(L to R) LUVU Beauty Classic Red and Blush, Honeybee Gardens Karma and Soft Kiss

Honeybee Gardens Truly Natural Lipstick
Honeybee Gardens has quickly become one of my favourite makeup brands.  They sell consistently great products at very affordable prices.  You can also find many of their products discounted on sites like iherb and Vitacost.  The lipsticks are creamy and available in a fantastic range of colours.  Karma is a wearable peachy nude and Soft Kiss is a beautiful baby pink.  I have more swatches of these lipsticks here and here.

Bare Minerals 100% Natural Lip Color
I haven't tried many products from Bare Minerals, but their lipsticks are definitely a hit!  Bavarian Cream is a fabulous pinky mauve that almost matches my natural lip colour.  It's the colour I grab when I want to look polished without putting a lot of emphasis on the lips.

Silk Naturals Vegan Kisser Slickers
If you've been reading for long, you already know how much I love Silk Naturals' different lip products.  The Vegan Kisser Slickers are my new favourites, since unlike the regular Kisser Slickers, they don't contain beeswax and they're that much softer and meltier on your lips as a result.  Unfortunately Figment is no longer available, but there are a bunch of other colours.  I even like using the clear one in place of lip balm!

Bare Minerals Bavarian Cream, Silk Naturals Figment, Vapour Organic Beauty Enigma, My Beauty Addiction Buff and Party Girl

Vapour Organic Beauty Elixir Lip Gloss
Even though Vapour Beauty is one of the better known healthy makeup brands, the elixir glosses are a pretty new discovery for me.  They're hydrating, super glossy, not at all sticky, and they smell delicious too!  Enigma is a gorgeous, slightly shimmery plum/mauve that makes a perfect everyday lip colour.  

My Beauty Addiction Pretty Lil' Puckers
My Beauty Addiction is a fantastic indie brand.  They have a big range of products, including these thick, creamy lip glosses.  Pigmentation varies: some colours are very pigmented, while others are more on the sheer side.  Party Girl is a bright pink and fairly opaque.  Buff is a sheer, shimmery nude.  More colour swatches can be found here.

Revolution Organics Freedom Lip Gloss
Revolution Organics' glosses are a little pricier than some, but they're worth the splurge.  Freedom is described as a true strawberry red.  It leans slightly pink, which makes it easier to pull off, even if, like me, you find red lips a little intimidating.  I also have Innocent, which is a sheer baby pink.

(L to R) Revolution Organics Freedom, Cheeky Cosmetics Siren and Pink Champagne, Silk Naturals Binary Love and Longcat

Cheeky Cosmetics Organic Lip Gloss
Another Canadian pick!  These glosses are vegan and on the thinner side, but they still do a great job keeping your lips hydrated.  They also smell delightfully pepperminty.  Siren is a striking deep berry and Pink Champagne is a shimmery nude.

Shiro Cosmetics Intertubes 
Intertubes are Shiro's version of tinted lip balms.  From what I've seen, many of the coloured ones rival a lipstick in terms of pigmentation, but several of them do contain FD&C dyes, so bear that in mind.  The two I have are both dye free and give your lips a sheer wash of shimmer.  Binary Love is gold and Longcat is silvery/white.  I also have the plain, untinted version, which is a phenomenal lip balm.

Young Living Lip Balm 
For a basic, no frills lip balm, Young Living is still my top choice.  The lavender, in particular, is my favourite.  I wouldn't even venture to guess how how many tubes I've used up over the years!  It's incredibly moisturizing and it's also a great, relaxing scent to use right before bed.


Have you tried any of these?  What were your favourite lip products this year?

I know this post is almost two weeks late, so first off, I want to appologize for letting the blog lag for so long!  I started a new job right before the holidays and I've been working 6 out of 7 days, which hasn't left much time for blogging...or anything else for that matter!  It's been hectic, but things are settling down now, so I hope to be able to keep more on track with blogging again.

2011 was a big year for me in terms of trying new products.  After not using much makeup for the several years previous, I got a lot more into makeup towards the end of 2010 and have discovered a lot of great companies and products since then.  A lot of these I've reviewed before in more detail, in which case I'll link the original review in case you'd like more information.  Now, without further delay, onto my top 11 makeup picks of 2011:






1) Lucy Minerals Lucy Light Foundation in Light - I only discovered this towards the end of the year, but I've been wearing it pretty much every day since then.  It gives a really natural, flawless coverage and hasn't irritated my skin at all.  You can find my more detailed review here.


2) Silk Naturals Sleep in a Jar Under Eye Concealer in Light Peach - This does a great job of hiding dark circles and also generally brightens the whole eye area.  I reviewed it here.

3) Detrivore Cosmetics Eye Shadow Primer - After a lot of searching for a natural eye shadow primer, I found Detrivore Cosmetics.  This primer does a great job of holding onto loose eye shadows.  It also decreases creasing and intensifies colors.  Detrivore has since released new primers in black and white that I'm interested in trying, but as of now, I've only used the original.  Full review is here.

4) Jade Esthetics Soothing (Jing) Eye Drops - I'm not sure if Jade Esthetics is still around.  I got these years ago from a naturopath I was seeing and recently rediscovered them.  I don't really use eye drops in the traditional sense, but after hearing about people using Visine as a foiling medium for mineral shadows, I decided to give this a try.  These are water based eye drops that contain only distilled water, aloe vera, eye bright, cineraria, and vitamin C, but I find they do a better job than straight water.  I tend to only foil eye shadows when I use them as eye liner and this makes them less likely to move or smudge throughout the day.

5) Zuzu Luxe The Mascara in Onyx - I tried a couple other mascaras in 2011, but this, which has been my go to mascara for the last several years, is still my favourite.  It's buildable and can create more dramatic lashes than other natural mascaras I've tried.  It also doesn't smudge, run or flake.  More details are here.

6) The Chequered Lily Apothecary Eye Shadow in #15 Neverwhere - You'll notice this is the only eye shadow that made it onto this list.  I'm a bit of an eye shadow junky and since I have far too many to choose from, I really like to vary what I use day to day.  In spite of that, I immediately fell in love with Neverwhere when I bought some samples from The Chequered Lily Apothecary during their Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale.  It's described as a "warm, dirty pinked-grey with pink and gold reflect," but to me it looks more like a medium golden brown with pink sparkles.  I mostly only buy eye shadow samples and I rarely even get through those, but I managed to use up Neverwhere already and was quick to buy a full size.  Review and swatches of The Chequered Lily will be coming up soon.


7) Young Living Lavender Lip Balm - I've tried a lot of lip balms recently and have actually been writing up a big lip balm comparison post that'll go up sometime in the next week or two, but I guess this will spoil the results early by revealing my top pick!  This is a really creamy lip balm with that perfect texture somewhere between overly thick and waxy and too thin or oily.  It does a great job keeping my lips hydrated, even in these dry winter months.

8) Revolution Organics Freedom Lip Gloss in Innocent - I won this a while back in a giveaway from The Healthy Beauty Project and I'm so glad I did!  It retails for $26, which is more than I'd be likely to spend on a lipgloss, so I doubt I would have tried it otherwise.  Ironically, at first I wasn't a huge fan of this gloss because of how sheer it is, but at some point I did a complete 180, because now I love it!  In fact, I just noticed I'm having to scrape the sides of the tube to get anything out and I'm so sad to see it run out!

9) LUVU Beauty Lip Liners in Classic Red, Blush and Candy - I really like using lip liners when I need my lip color to be long lasting.  I use these to fill in the whole lip and then top with a balm or gloss and I know my lip color will still be there hours later.  Blush is the most natural of these three, a mauvy-pink that's great for everyday.  Classic Red is, as the name implies, a classic, bright, pinup red shade.  More than any other lip colour, reds make me nervous, so I especially appreciate that this one won't smear or go anywhere.  Candy is a super bright fuschia.  Review and swatches are here.

10) Honeybee Gardens Truly Natural Lipstick in Soft Kiss - This is another product that stood out in 2011, even though I haven't had it for very long.  It's a beautiful baby pink color that is perfect with a smokey eye.  Soft Kiss is also creamier in texture than the other color I have in this lipstick, Karma.  Review and swatches of both colours are here.

11) Silk Naturals Lip Products - Saving the best for last, these are probably my favourite discovery of 2011.  I decided not to even try and pick specific colours.  Some colours get more use, but I actually use and genuinely like every single colour I have.  Silk Naturals has tons of colors to choose from and several formulas of lip products - kisser slickers, butter creams, vegan lipsticks, and liquid lip gloss to name a few - and I've liked all the formulas I've tried.  I went through a few of the different formulas in more detail here.  If you're in the market for new lip products, I definitely recommend giving Silk Naturals a try!

Phew!  That ended up being longer than I anticipated.  Looking back on these, I just realized almost half of these were lip products.  Oh well!

And because late is better than never - I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and wish you all the best for the new year :)

(L to R) Classic Red Lip Liner, Peppy Lip Gloss.  Both colours are a bit brighter than they appear here (I guess that's what I get for trying to take swatch photos at night!)

In terms of formula, these are pretty solid.  They don't glide exceptionally well right off the bat, but once you get them warmed up, they go on fine.    Some of them are a little waxy and go on slightly of clumpy, like you can see in the swatch of Candy.  That said, this very texture helps keep them long lasting on your lips.  On their own, they can be slightly drying, but as long as you apply something more moisturizing on top, they're very workable.