Review: Pacifica Color Quench Natural Moisture Lip Tint in Guava Berry

I'm a huge and longtime Pacifica fan (their Tunisian Jasmine is the prettiest jasmine fragrance I've ever sniffed outside of a real jasmine flower). So when I posted on the blog a while back that Pacifica was entering into the world of tinted lip balms, I knew it was only a matter of time before I purchased one. Back in December I treated myself to the Color Quench Natural Moisture Lip Tint in Guava Berry as a birthday gift to myself. I picked it up at Sephora and now that I've been using it off and on for about a month, I'd love to share my thoughts with you.

The Pacifica Color Quench Natural Moisture Lip Tints are 100% vegan (no beeswax), not tested on animals, and they contain no parabens, GMOs or petrochemicals. The packaging is 100% recyclable and they retail for $9 each. They come in five shades and can be purchased on the Pacifica website and also at Sephora.

Pacifica Color Quench Natural Moisture Lip Tint in Guava Berry

(retail: $9, 0.25 oz) 

The Wednesday Question

What do you think was the most over-hyped drugstore product of 2011?

Since I showed you my favorites of 2011 and also asked you for yours (see the Readers' Choice category) I thought it would be interesting to hear what product you thought was over-hyped and just flat out let you down last year. Please try to limit your response to drugstore products that were released in 2011. I'm really interested to see your responses! Oh, and if you're curious about what my choice would be, I'd have to say the Revlon Age Defying Cream Makeup with DNA Advantage. I loved the spiral packaging and how this product looked and felt on my hand when I swatched it in-store, but I just couldn't get over the abundance of sparkle present when applied to my face. "Age Defying" + sparkle just doesn't seem right--it actually called attention to my fine lines. Plus, it went from full coverage to sheer in a matter of a few hours on my skin. Such a bummer, because I really loved that texture and the pump applicator.

Review: Black Radiance Eye Appeal 8-pan Eyeshadow Palette in Downtown Browns

Remember right after Christmas when reader Marsha spotted the new Black Radiance 8-pans at Walgreens? For those who missed that post, it's no coincidence that these look just like the Wet n Wild 8-pans since both Black Radiance and Wet n Wild are owned my Markwins.

Not long after my initial post, I went searching for these palettes in my area but when I couldn't locate them, I asked my contact at Markwins if it would be possible to get one for review. I'm happy to tell you that I was able to get Downtown Browns (the one I was most intrigued by) and today I'd like to show it to you. I'm also going to compare it to my Wet n Wild 8-pans and other shadows from Wet n Wild, so that I can (hopefully) help you to determine whether or not this one's worth the hunt. 

To find out exactly where Black Radiance products are sold in your area, click here.

To see how the shades in Downtown Browns look on a deeper skintone, check out the lovely Amber's review here.

New from Jordana: Glitters Specialty Nail Polish Collection (24 shades)

UPDATE: to see swatches of all 18 shades that are currently available, click here, here and here.

Very exciting news, glitter lovers! Jordana just released a new collection of 24 glitter polishes and I've got all the details for you:

(click to enlarge)

Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polish

(retail: $2.99 each)

This new 2012 launch is now available on the Jordana website, however the colors above with a dot next to them are "coming soon". If you're interested in knowing more about these shades, I encourage you to click here and then let your cursor hover over each swatch because a description will pop up that will let you know which ones have holo glitter, etc. I LOVE that most of these polishes contain both FINE and CHUNKY glitter.

TWELVE OF THE 24 SHADES IN THIS COLLECTION WILL LAUNCH AT KMART THIS FEBRUARY. The 12 shades that will be available at Kmart are: 01 Magenta Magic, 02 Celebration, 06 Fairy Dust, 08 Sequins, 10 Gemstones, 11 Cosmic, 12 Celestial, 14 LA City Nights, 15 Blue Bash, 17 Copper Blaze, 21 Funky Gold Town, and 23 Rhinestones.

Looking at the descriptions on the Jordana website (again, hover over each swatch for a better description), there seem to be some unique color combinations here with a nice mix of fine and chunky glitter. Exciting!

Glitter gals: are you excited to see some of these polishes in person when they hit Kmart next month? Thoughts? I'm super excited to try Gemstones. Outer Space, Bronze Beast and My Superstar look fun as well.

A closer look at the new Spoiled Nail Color line from Wet n Wild (72 shades!)

About a month ago  I showed you pics of the Spoiled display that's been popping up at CVS (note: this display does not feature all of the shades in this range). Today I have official info with pics and names of all 72 shades in this collection and I'm excited to share it with you. Hopefully your CVS will have all 72 colors soon!

From Wet n Wild:

Spotted: new products (pic heavy)

PLEASE READ: As many of you know, I'm extremely behind on my blog due to recent family emergencies. If you have sent me photos/info about new products that I have NOT yet covered on this blog, please know that I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you sent info/pics about products I have already covered on this blog, I might not get back to you because I have received many emails/tweets/comments in the past few weeks about things I have already blogged about at length and I'm having a hard time keeping up at this time. Please know that I'm grateful for everything you take the time to send my way, but I'm only one person and I'm doing my best as time permits.

That said, I have accumulated many pics of my own over the past few weeks, which I'd like to share with you today (with more reader-submitted photos to come of other new products!). Some of you may have already seen these products in your local drugstores, but I'm posting them anyway because some readers live in remote areas and don't get things as quickly as others, and I just want EVERYONE to get an idea of what's out there.

So let's get started! All of the following products were spotted at Rite Aid:

Almay Clear Complexion Makeup, Concealer + Treatment Gel and Smart Shade Perfect & Correct Primer:

The Lipstick League – week of 1.2.12

Lipstick League Question of the Week: 

What’s your favorite eyeshadow primer?

G's Answer: I tend to switch out my primer quite frequently. I've been on an Urban Decay Primer Potion kick lately (I really like the shade Eden), but I also love the Jesse's Girl primer, the Palladio primer, the CoverGirl Intense Shadow Blast eyeshadow/primer, a few NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils used as primer, and the list goes on.

Links of the Week:

Krasey Beauty – So, how did you ring in 2012? Krasey Beauty shows you what she wore to ring in the new year.

Pink Sith – Looking for a new job? The Pink Sith has some Interview tips to make sure you make a good first impression, talks about an app that will enhance your career networking and offers a giveaway to boot!

Phyrra – shows a little skin with Tarina Tarantino Sparklicity Pure Nude & Pure Opal sparkle powders.

Prime Beauty – has a new obsession with Tarte’s Puttin’ On The Glitz Clutch and Palette. The selection, the quality, the price! One lucky reader can also benefit from her shopping addiction by winning their very own Puttin’ On The Glitz Palette!

we heart this – check out Stef’s top ten favorite products of 2011. It’s got it all – high-end, drugstore, names you know and names you should!

Beauty Junkies Unite – Take a peek at all 10 new Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blushes, and then run to the store to pick your favorite one(s) up! These have already sold out at two of my local drugstores!

Clumps of Mascara – had many reasons to love 2011. From The Hunger Games to goat cheese, 2011 rocked.

Gouldylox Reviews – Looking for a beauty fix that won’t break the bank, post holidays? Score one of these and feel you found a sweet treasure!

What's your favorite eyeshadow primer?

Bioré 2012 redesign

Just a heads-up in case you haven't seen the new packaging pop up in your area yet: Bioré got a makeover! Gone is the pastel green packaging, and in its place is new white packaging with blue lettering:

image source: biore.com

Also of note, some products you know and love might have new names (like the cleanser above). And there are also a few products that have gone bye-bye. You can click here to see which exisiting products have new names and which products have been discontinued.

Bioré fans: do you like the new packaging? I must admit, I love pastel green so I'm a bit sad to see the old style go away.

Weekly Beauty Sales at Ulta, Target and Kmart (1/8 - 1/14)

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up--after everything that happened last week, I seem to have caught myself a nasty cold (typical after high-stress situations) and I've been in bed sniffling and sneezing for the past day. Ugh.

As always, this post is not a complete list of everything that's on sale this week, but more of a "best of". For the complete listing of sales from each retailer, consult your local weekly ads.

New Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion™ Collection

A little while back, I showed you the new Suave Keratin Infusion™ Dry Shampoo that's been popping up at Walgreens. Well I'm delighted to tell you that I received this new dry shampoo for review, so after I'm done testing it I'll share my thoughts with you.

In the meantime, I've got all of the details regarding the new Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion™ Collection, thanks to Suave:

SUAVE PROFESSIONALS KERATIN INFUSION™ COLLECTION

Say “goodbye” to frizzy, unmanageable hair with the NEW Suave Professionals® Keratin Infusion™ line. Discover the transformational power of this brand new salon-inspired range of products formulated to transform hair into sleek, smooth perfection. Formulated with unique Keralock™ Technology, these breakthrough products condition hair and make it easier to style. Suave Professionals® Keratin Infusion™ is proven to work as well as top salon brands, so now you can get all the benefits of keratin at home!


NEW! Suave Professionals®  Keratin Infusion™  30 Day Smoothing Kit

The Weekly Drugstore Makeup Sales (1/8 - 1/14)

For a listing of this week's beauty sales at Ulta, Target and Kmart, click here.

Apologies for not posting the weekly drugstore makeup sales last week--as you know it was a rough week for me and I'm grateful that things are now stable with my family and I can continue again with my usual routine. I hope you all were able to get some great deals last week. Let's take a look at what's on tap this week: 

CVS shoppers: Now is the time to pick up a Revlon Lip Butter, 3D Mascara or one of the new ColorStay eyeshadow quads! This week all three of these products are on sale for $5.99 each with $3 back in Extra Bucks. WOW! But choose carefully because the limit is 1 for the Extra Bucks deal. Also, have you heard about the CVS Cash Card promotion? Spend $30 on participating items and you'll receive a Cash Card worth $10 to spend as you like at CVS. I will clearly mark the participating beauty-related items (below). There's also a new Neutrogena rebate: spend $30 and receive $10 back (click here for details).

Rite Aid shoppers: If you're not already signed up for the Video Values program, you are REALLY missing out. This month there are some fab Revlon coupons ($2 off a Lip Butter!) and Revlon cosmetics are BOGO1/2OFF THIS WEEK! Click here for more info. Also, Rite Aid has a new promotion called Resolution Rewards: now through Jan 28, spend $100 on qualifying products and you'll receive $20 in +UP Rewards. You do NOT have to spend $100 all at once--your qualifying purchases will accrue throughout the month. I will clearly mark the eligible products below. Oh! And Neutrogena cosmetics AND skincare are BOGO1/2OFF (which qualifies for the Resolution Rewards) plus there's a $10 rebate here when you spend $30.

Walgreens shoppers: The January Coupon Booklet is now in stores! Click here for a listing of all the coupons you will find in this month's booklet and for the details on a good Neutrogena lip or eye cosmetics deal. Also, there's a Neutrogena rebate available here for $10 off a $30 purchase which pairs nicely with the fact that all Neutrogena cosmetics are BOGO1/2OFF and all skincare is 25% off this week. Also, for you eos fans, there's a great deal you should know about: something called a "6-pack lotion" (I have never seen this in person) and also the shave cream are both on sale this week for 2/$6 with $4 back in Register Rewards. So that's basically like getting each product for $1!

  

Walgreens January Coupon Booklet

The January Coupon Booklet is now in stores (usually available near the entrance next to the weekly circulars). Here's the list of beauty-related coupons you will find in this month's booklet:

(thanks to Wild For Wags for the following info)

$3/1 L’Oreal Couleur Experte or Frost & Design Hair Color
$1/1 L’Oreal Paris Nail Enamel
$1/1 L’Oreal Paris Eye Makeup
$1/1 L’Oreal Paris Lipcolour
$2/1 L’Oreal Paris Face Makeup
$5/2 L’Oreal Preference Hair Color
$2/1 L’Oreal vive pro Shampoo or Conditioner 13 oz. or Studio Styling Products 1.7 to 8.5 oz.
$5/1 L’Oreal Youth Code Kit
$2/1 L’Oreal Youth Code, Age Perfect, or Advanced Revitalift
$1/1 Neutrogena Facial Skin Care
$2/1 Neutrogena Lip and Eye Cosmetics Excludes Makeup Removers
$3/1 RoC Multi Correxion Skin Care .5 to 1.7 oz.
$10/1 Rogaine 3 pack 2% for Women or 5% for Men
$1/1 Studio 35 Polish Remover 8 to 16 oz. or 10 pack pads 

To view the full list of coupons in this month's Walgreen Coupon Booklet, click here.

If your Walgreens has the new L'Oreal nail colors, the $1 off coupon would be nice to use if you'd like to try one of those new shades. PLUS, you can stack the Walgreens coupons with a manufacturer's coupon if you have it, for even more savings. 

NEUTROGENA FANS: This week all Neutrogena cosmetics will be BOGO1/2OFF. And if you get the SmartSource coupon insert in  your Jan 8th Sunday newspaper, there will be $1 off Neutrogena lip or eye makeup coupon that you can stack with the $2 off Walgreens coupon. Here's a scenario:

Let's say you buy 2 Neutrogena lip colors for $8 each. With the BOGO1/2OFF sale your total goes down from $16 to $12. With the Walgreens coupon your total goes down to $10, and with the Smartsource coupon your final total will be $9. So that's basically like a BOGOFREE.

Beauty-related Rite Aid Video Values coupons and SCRs for January

I'm a little behind on posting the new monthly Video Value coupons and rebates from Rite Aid, so in case you haven't had a chance to check them out yet, there are LOTS of fantastic beauty coupons this month! Revlon lovers are going to be VERY happy (Lip Butter coupon alert!) and if you've been wanting to try any of the new 2012 products from L'Oreal (including the new EverStyle or EverCreme products, there's a coupon for those too!

As always, unless otherwise specified, Video Values coupons can be stacked with manufacturer's coupons if you have them, which means even MORE savings!

January Beauty-Related Video Values list

$5.00 off any L'Oreal Youth Code Item

$3.00 off when you by one L'Oreal Colour Riche Lip Item and one Colour Rich Nail item together

$3.00 Off Revlon PhotoReady Airbrush™ Mousse Makeup

$2.00 Off Revlon Colorstay 16 Hour Eye Shadow Quad

$2.00 Off Revlon ColorBurst™ Lip Butter

$2.00 off L'Oreal Magic Lumi Concealer or Primer
$2.00 off any Roc Item

$2.00 Off Any Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush Quad shadow,  or Eye Studio Color Pearls Duo shadow

$2.00 off any L'Oreal True Match Item

$1.00 off Two Garnier Nutrisse Hair Color

$1.00 off Two Garnier HerbaShine Hair Color

$1.00 off Two Garnier Fructis Anti Dandruff Shampoo

$1.00 off Scunci Bendini or Upzing

$1.00 off L'Oreal Sublime Mousse Hair Color

$1.00 off L'Oreal Studio Styling Products

$1.00 off L'Oreal Preference Hair Color

$1.00 off L'Oreal Healthy Look Crème Hair Color

$1.00 off L'Oreal False Fiber Mascara

$1.00 off L'Oreal Elnett Hair Spray

$1.00 off Garnier Dark Spot Corrector

$1.00 off any L'Oreal Eversleek, Everstrong, Everpure, Ever Crème, or EverStyle Hair Care Item

$1.00 off any Clean & Clear Item

$1 Off Almay Intense I-Color

FOR THE COMPLETE LIST OF VIDEO VALUES COUPONS FOR JANUARY CLICK HERE.

Beauty-Related Products featured in Rite Aid's Single Check Rebate guide for January

Almay:  Eye Cosmetic (Includes only Mascara, Liners & Shadows)

Burt's Bees:  Acne Facial Scrub, 4 oz., Acne Gel Cleanser, 5 oz.  Only items pictured/listed will qualify towards rebate.

Burt's Bees:  Sensitive Facial Cleanser, 6 oz., Deep Cleansing Cram, 6 oz., Deep Pore Scrub, 4 oz. Only items pictured/listed will qualify towards rebate.

Dickinson' Witch Hazel:  Cleansing Astringent, 16 oz.

Gold Bond Body Wash:  Healing, 12.5 oz., Exfoliating, 12.5 oz., Softening, 12.5 oz. May not be available in all stores.

Revlon Beauty Tools:  All Revlon Beauty Tools

Sally Hansen: Sally Hansen Cosmetics or Beauty Tool

T.N. Dickinson's:   Witch Hazel Skin Toner, 16 oz. 

FOR THE COMPLETE LIST OF SCRs FOR JANUARY CLICK HERE.

The 2011 Cheapie Award Winners

It's that time again, dear readers! For the past month, I've been going through my archives and my own personal stash to create my official list of the best new drugstore products to hit store shelves in 2011. This is by no means a scientific list--it's just my personal opinion based on a variety of factors. Since I test MANY, MANY drugstore products each year, and I've tried probably well over 100 new releases in 2011 alone, I hope that this "best of the best" list can help you determine what might be worth a purchase the next time you're at the drugstore.

Criteria: Absolutely no mid- or high-end products were eligible for consideration. With one excepction, everything on this list has a retail price of UNDER $10 and can be found at drugstores, grocery stores, big box stores, dollar stores or beauty supplies. If a collection or product hit stores at the end of 2010 but was considered by the manufacturer to be a 2011 release, it was eligible for consideration.

Factors: the main factor I considered for each product was how many times I personally reached for the product over the course of the year, and whether or not I felt compelled to repurchase it. If I found myself reaching for a particular eyeliner again and again, despite the fact that I own 100 other eyeliners, it probably made this list. If I repurchased a product more than three times over the course of the year, it definitely made this list. Of course I also took into consideration the quality of the product, value, ease of use and other similar factors.

NOTE: All of the products below are core collection products that were released in 2011 (limited edition products have their own category). If a category is "missing" in the list below, that means that I did not use anything in 2011 that knocked my socks off in that particular category.

Without further ado, let's get to the winners!

Two Free Zoya Nail Polishes (all you pay is shipping!)

A huge thanks to readers sabrinaj99 and Charlotte for the heads-up on this one!

Now is the time to pick up those two Zoya shades you've been drooling over:

(from the Zoya blog)

In 2012 we want everyone to try Zoya and add some new color to their world.

So from now through 1/9/2012 11:59 PM ET we are going to let you try any* 2 bottles of Zoya Nail Polish for FREE on ZOYA.COM. All you pay is the standard shipping charges. 

As a bonus, you can purchase an additional $25 or more of Zoya or Qtica products and get FREE Shipping Too!..Bonus!

Use Code:  ZOYA2012

*Promotion Excludes True & Fleck Effect Collection Colors

Instructions

1. Add the 2 Zoya Nail Polishes that you want to try to your cart (as well as any additional merchandise that you would like)

2.  Enter the code into the the coupon/promo field in the shopping cart and press the "Apply Code" button.

3. Complete Check-Out Process & Submit Order

Terms & Conditions
This promotion is valid online only at www.zoya.com, www.qtica.com & www.artofbeauty.com in the United States only. Void where prohibited.  Limit one promotion per account and household. We are not responsible for incorrect addresses and credit card entry errors.  Please allow up to 4 weeks for shipping if volume warrants it.  Not valid with any other coupons, codes or promotions.



Just in case you've never ordered from Zoya before, two polishes shipped within the US is $6.95, so this is an awesome deal. So let's hear it, lovelies: what two shades are YOU planning to order? Need ideas? A few of my longtime faves are Yasmeen, Happi and Ivanka.