Before I begin my review today I think it deserves a mention that I have a serious love affair with Physicians Formula cosmetics. I’ve been using the line since I was a wee teenager and have always felt they have released many products that pack a mighty fine bang for your buck! One of my favorite powders by Physicians Formula made it into my Year End Review for 2007. The line contains some seriously superior products with a really great price tag and it’s probably one of the very few drugstore brands that I trust with my money!

On to the review……

Physicians Formula has been very busy lately releasing all sorts of interesting products such as mineral wear and an organic range of cosmetics. I’ve neglected the line for a bit as I have a few staples that I normally stock up on and as I run low I always have a back up so it’s rare I need to venture into a drugstore to purchase any of the line.

Imagine my delight when I came across a big old display of Physicians Formula at the Walmart empire while shopping with my sister!

One of the first items that caught my eye was the Mineral Wear Cream Foundation. Why did that catch my eye first? It had a free gift attached. The Muse likey free gifts.

I’ve been searching for a new foundation for a while now. I use Morgen Schick Hide and Highlight palette as my main foundation but for some reason I haven’t been able to achieve the flawlessness that the palette normally gives me. My search has taken me on an endless stream of trying and ditching products rapidly as of late.

When I noticed this foundation I figured it was worth trying out for the price plus…did I mention..it came with a free gift!

This foundation is awesome. Oh my god the Muse loves it. It MAY be a tiny bit drying to some but I found it pure perfection. Silky, smooth, easy to blend, amazing coverage and takes my skin from dull to flawless in a snap! Plus did I mention it came with a free gift and it’s cheap as a day chips too? Are you in love with it yet?

One of the main things to love about this foundation is the uber awesome packaging. It comes in a squeeze style tube that has an attached sponge applicator. Squeeze a little bit of product on to the sponge and begin application by running the sponge across your face. I found that the sponge worked great at applying the product evenly and I didn’t have to touch my face a single time to blend! Coverage is amazingly good and my dull skin takes on a very nice smooth, radiant appearance in preparation for my blush. You can apply a very sheer amount if you desire or build up coverage as you see fit. The sponge applicator makes the coverage you seek easy to apply and blend.

The formula is very creamy but does feel somewhat dry once applied this could be because it dries matte but this didn’t sway my good opinion. The product is Talc-Free and claims to be fantastic for extra sensitive skin that are prone to break-outs.

Coverage lasted all day and I had no oily eruptions in the humid weather. The foundation felt weightless and breathable in the warm weather plus I looked put together and gorgeous all day!

The shade I tried was Creamy Natural which is a nice fair shade that will compliment medium fair skin tones. I stupidly didn’t pay close attention to the other colors available so I can’t say for sure if any shades are available for yellow skin tones or darker skin tones. The entire collection always appeared to cater to the fairer skin tone but maybe I haven’t paid enough attention when making my color selections.

The prepackaged foundation had a free gift as I mentioned earlier on which was a concealer click pen. I’ve tried Physicians Formula concealers prior to this and loved them but I’ve never tried this particular concealer. Turns out it’s a very good concealer. My favorite packaging for concealer is a click pen so of course I’m all on board when it comes to that style packaging! The concealer comes in a small pen, click a few times to get the product following, swipe on, pat into place and you’re dark circles are covered up and you appear awake and well rested once again! The formula is creamy and moisturizing plus it blends beautifully so minimal tugging is involved during application. All in all a very nice little concealer for the price!

The entire package cost me $9.48 USD and that’s probably the least amount I’ve ever paid for foundation and concealer in my life. I normally spend close to $30 USD for concealer alone and an additional $40-$50 for foundation. Imagine my surprise and delight that I got both a great foundation and concealer packaged together at least 80% lower to what I’m normally shelling out for product.

In all seriousness if you’re currently on a budget or you’re just looking for a cheaper solution for foundation and concealer this little package can’t be beat! I’m unsure how long they will package the two items together but even purchased separately you’re still saving yourself some serious cash!

I’ve a big supporter and believer in purchasing high end concealers and foundations. I truly support designer brands when it comes to both considering that I get better results, longer wear, and excellent coverage from counter brands! However, Physicians Formula gets a big Muse Approval for purchase as it sports all of the following bang for your buck:

• Long-Wearing
• Creamy, Moisturizing Formula
• Ridiculously Cheap Price Tag
• Excellent Packaging (Sponge Applicator, Click style pen)
• Perfect Matte Finish for Summer when skin tends to become oily

All in all I’m very happy I picked this up and I recommend trying it out for yourself! You can’t break the bank by at the very least testing it out for yourself!

The Muse is all over Mineral Wear Cream Foundation and Concealer from Physicians Formula! We have a winner here!

Use this already?

Love it?

Love Physicians Formula?

Want to try it?

Tell the Muse!

Click here to join in on the discussion of what your Beauty on a Budget finds are!

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Since the world as we know it has taken a nose dive and gas prices have risen up to $4.95 USD per a gallon and the future of the presidential election is the biggest mystery since Elvis appearing on a slice of whole wheat toast I’ve decided that we must have a Beauty on a Budget Week!

Yes kids, now is the time to take responsibility for our money and hope for the best.

And everyone from England who’s groaning about the ridiculously low cost of gas should know we yanks are spoiled and $4.95 USD is damn expensive!

The moral of the story is today my sister brought me to Walmart (I should say a few days ago as this was written a bit ago! Sorry ’bout that peeps!) as I kicked, screamed, and pleaded with her to PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ME TO WALMART FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THINGS GOOD AND HOLY!

I hate Walmart.

With a passion.

I really do.

Sorry if you love it.

I simply hate it.

It’s a giant space filled with really cheap stuff…I mean seriously cheap….I mean tacky cheap….I mean….ok I’m being a bit dramatic…you get the point. Aside from that I won’t get into what an evil empire it is!

Anyway. She’s going on holiday shortly and needed a few bits and bobs so somehow that translated into “Let’s go to Walmart!”

And it turned into a day trip with her, my best friend Jai, and myself. Praise Jebus that Jai came along for the ride! I mean seriously who else could I trade catty remarks with while browsing the aisles of really cheap crap laying around Walmart.

I’ve no idea how we got invovled in this road trip but obviously we had nothing better to do with our fabulous selves aside from following my sister around while she loaded her cart with enough stuff to cloth, feed, cleanse, and make up an entire country.

Since Jai and I drew the line at following her into the clothing department (our eyes were burning enough already imagine if we were presented with racks and racks of cheap clothes???) we wandered into the cosmetic aisles and amused ourselves with really cheap drugstore cosmetics.

And as we browsed we decided that we’d spend some bucks on really cheap drugstore finds and do an article on all the cool or maybe not so cool stuff we found!

So since inspiration struck in the middle of the cosmetic aisle at Walmart I’ve decided to bring you a week in review of really cheap, Beauty on a Budget finds!

You’ll see a new Beauty on a Budget review each day for the next week (or until I run out of crap to review).

In all seriousness, catty comments aside, I think it’s a great way for me to broaden my horizons and see what else is available that can’t be found at Neimans, Saks, Sephora, Nordies, or the inside of Japanese, Korean, and Singaporean drugstores.

It’ll be a real learning experience for me!

It’s a great essential guide for you as well since these may be a few items you might have wanted to try but like me have been burned one too many times by drugstore brands and have passed them by chalking them up as money well NOT spent.

I’ll be featuring many items I’ve passed up MANY times that I’ve wanted to try but have been highly skeptical of!

I hope you’re excited to learn more about these items and hey maybe I’ll find something in this pile that I actually really do LOVE!

What are your Beauty on a Budget favs?

Share ’em with the Muse!

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My Mum always said never judge a book by it’s cover but I imagine she didn’t have MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator in mind when she sprouted those words of wisdom.

Have you seen this stuff? It’s disgusting. This stuff is absolutely rank. It’s a gooey mess of black sludge that will bring to mind the very worst budget horror films to the forefront of your feeble little brain.

But, as with all things, it appears my Mum was somehow right when she gave me that Mr. Roger’s mentality speech about how something might look bad but that didn’t necessarily mean it was bad.

Go Mum!

Even though MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator looks like it was scraped from the bottom of a rotting pile of garbage that does not account for it’s awesomeness. And boy oh boy is it awesome.

So this here blends volcanic ash with sugar crystals and Bob’s your Uncle you have a face and body scrub! How’s that for cool? Now you can run around and tell your friends how your skincare sports volcanic ash in it! If that does not make you the coolest kid on the block all hope is lost people!

It’s black, it’s gross, but turns out it smells heavenly. Go figure. The contradiction is too much to wrap my little mind around! I really love the smell! I can’t describe it too well but it’s half floral, half herbal, a bit foody and all good!

The consistency is a cocktail of slippery and oily fun. It contains a healthy dose of sugar crystals to scrub the dead skin cells off your face, elbows, knees, and just about anywhere else you’re seeking smooth, gorgeous skin!

I’ve only tried it on my face for the better part of the week and promptly made it my business to grab a second jar of it before it’s gone from the shelf for good.

Dear MAC, many of us would appreciate it if this was added to the permanent catalog! Thanks so much!

-the Muse and friends.

I can’t stop touching my face after I’ve used this. It feels so smooth and lovely! I’ve used this three times last week and I’ve noticed a vast improvement of the pesky blackheads that take up residence on the tip of my nose.

A little goes a long way so the generous size jar should last you a few months especially considering you won’t be using it daily. $19 USD gets you a big old 4.5 oz/133 ml bucket of this stuff and I’m sad to report it’s completely sold out at MAC’s website but do check around other sites or head on in to your local store to nab it while the going is good.

After three uses I noticed a vast improvement in my dry, oily weird-o combo skin I sport in the Summer. My skin is now beautifully smooth minus my dry, patchy cheeks and oily forehead! Thanks MAC!

I happened to notice after use that my latest obsession, Urban Decay’s Surreal Skin Mineral Makeup, is applying way better than ever before! Good news for the mineral foundation users this will make a perfect prep scrub in the shower!

This is easy enough to use and no prior brain surgery training is required. Wet your face, take a small amount of product and begin rubbing it on with gentle circular motions. As you rub you’ll notice the crystals begin to disappear and the scrub slowly foams up some. I keep scrubbing for about a minute or two and rinse with cold water. That’s it! Done! Beautiful skin all prepped and ready for your moisturizer and makeup!

MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator is a winner for the Muse! I have two jars stocked in my washroom closet and I’m thinking I may need a few more if this won’t be making a reappearance anytime soon!

This one gets a hearty Muse Approval for purchase!

Go get it girls!

Love it?

Tried it?

Want to?

Tell the Muse!

Update:

It took me a few but I finally firgured out what was niggling at the back of my head about MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator!

It quite reminds me of Lush Coal Face!

It smells similar and does pretty much the same thing coal face does aside from the fact it’s a liquid scrub and coal face is a solid form!

So the good news is if you fail to find MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator at your local counter or freestanding you can head on over to Lush and grab yourself a chunk of coal face to comfort yourself with!

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Meet my Summer Must Have lipglass from MAC:

Pink Grapefruit.

Ahhh just the name makes shivers run down my back.

It’s simply thee most gorgeous shade of yum I’ve come across in a long, long time.

Have you picked this up yet? Stop reading this and get to MAC before it’s gone!

Hurry! Now damn you now!

Oh, Pink Grapefruit how I love thee, let me count the ways!

You’re a cocktail of shimmery orange, pink, red goodness that screams Summer hotness!

You’re gorgeous neon orange packaging is both hip and glow in the dark awesome.

You’re sticky and tacky but you last and last and last all day long!

You’re flattering too all my coral, peach, and orange blush shades!

You rock the socks off my shimmering gold, peach, orange, and copper eyeshadow collection!

Even thought I wasn’t feeling the MAC Summer trio of color stories over much I do so admit that Pink Grapefruit totally has my love for the moment and is most definately my latest obsession for Summer gorgeous!

Truly it’s a unique shade that I haven’t yet run across from MAC! The site calls it a combo of orange with gold pearl but it just seems like a mix of pink, red, orange, and copper! It’s a really complex color that is simply stunning on!

MAC Lipglass in Pink Grapefruit is a Summer Must Have for the Muse and gets a big, hearty Muse Approved for purchase!

If you’re purchased nothing else from MAC’s latest color stories you MUST at least get this!

How about you?

Own it?

Love it?

Tell the Muse!

Want more gloss? Check below for some great posts!

Click here to find out why I’m not loving Stila’s Kitten Silk Shimmer Gloss!

Click here to find out how much I’m loving MAC Dazzleglass with my raving review!

Click here to read about the Dior Addict Ultra Gloss Reflects I hauled from the Summer 2008 Collection!

Click here to read my obsession with a certain shade of tangerine gloss!

Click here to read what glosses made it onto My Current Beauty Addiction List!

Click here to read my obsession with Bubblegum Pink glosses!

Click here to read about the Ettusias Glitter Princess Collection and the glosses that came out with the release!

18 Comments

Lately I’ve been daring enough to try out various cream eyeshadows. I’m normally not a big fan of cream shadows but I’ve run across some really good ones and this has turned my Nay into a Yay when it comes to them.

I recently blogged about Vincent Longo’s Beautiful Dreamer Summer Collection and one of the main items released with it were some new liquid shadows. Of course, I had to go out and buy them for myself so I could review them here!

I was pretty excited about these as they appeared to be a shimmering liquid shadow plus the colors looked very Summer friendly. I do so admit that product gets sold to me very quickly when the promo images of the model sporting the makeup looks posh, put together, and simply gorgeous. This may stem from some unconscious need to look that flawless, that gorgeous, or it could be I’m hoping to attempt the same eye, lip, or cheek look. Who knows really but I do automatically hunt out a product if I’m liking the way it appears on a model pimping the collection out. The model was looking simply stunning in this particular advert.

The collection, aside from the liquid shadow, wasn’t anything to get too excited about so I ended up purchasing just two colors of the shadow and leaving the rest. The liquid shadow only comes in four shades which is both good news and bad. Bad, if I ended up loving the product and not being able to get my hands on more colors of a great product. Good, because I actually didn’t end up loving Vincent Longo Liquid Shadow as much as I had hoped I would.

I was expecting a shimmering cream shadow but sadly that’s not the case. The lack of shimmer in these lead to the downward spiral that will slowly become my poor review on the product.

Did I miss the trendy boat that said metallics are so in this season? I never got the memo. This goes to show you how much of a non-trendy person I am. I tend to march to a different drum then the rest of the cosmetic society because I had no idea that metallics were so huge this Summer. I guess I should have gotten a hint when Bobbi Brown released it’s Metallic Single Eyeshadows or when Bourjois Paris came out with it’s Shimmer Shine Liquid Eye Shadow.

Which brings me to the fact that these do in fact dry down to a high metallic sheen. Although I don’t mind metallics, I just don’t find I reach for them first thing. These have some good key factors so it’s not all bad. They dry down very slowly giving you plenty of time to build up color and blend as much or as little as you like. I think this is key with liquid shadows and I really appreciate this type of formula when I buy a cream shadow! One of the main reasons I avoid cream shadow is the incredibly quick dry down time which makes blending such a bitch. The fact that these dry down so slowly and give plenty of time for both blending and adding additional product to build up the color is a big plus. They are also very long wearing and have pretty good pigmentation but you do have to slather color on to see a good pop of color. One brush stroke will definately not create a dramatic eye so be prepared to saturate your eye area with cream shadow.

The colors I got were Supple Rose which is a warm pink and Liquid Desire which is a golden peach. Guess what? They look exactly the same on my eye. I couldn’t really tell too much of a difference between the colors once they were on. Swatches appeared really gorgeous and shimmering and you can distinctively tell a difference in color. However, once applied the color melded on and both looked identical. I was particularly taken with the look of Liquid Desire when I swatched it but it ended up just being blah when it was on my eye!

Supple Rose

Liquid Kiss

As you can see from my FOTD’s it looks like I’m wearing the same exact shade of shadow in both photos.

Aside from the drama of color I just didn’t get the wow factor at all. The payoff in the end is very natural, neutral, and dare I say boring? Although you can’t see it in my pictures the effect is that of a high sheen of metallic. The shadow dries down but it still appears somewhat shiny and wet. You’d think this alone would give some sort of dramatic effect. Nope. Not really. Yawn.

I really can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that I’m disliking about these. I’m not thrilled about the price either. $24 USD per shadow isn’t exactly cheap chips and it seems even more expensive when I am not loving the product! Have no fear I imagine I’d be a real sport about the $24 bucks if I was loving these!

When it’s all is said and done I think you can safely skip these. Nice to play with, nice to try, but don’t be fooled by the swatches you might do while in Sephora. As pretty and shimmering as they look on your hand you just won’t get the same effect once the product is on your eyes.

Although the formula is excellent in regards to blending and pigmentation in the end it fails at creating any wow or excitement.

The Muse no likey.

Skip it and buy something else.

Own ’em already?

Love ’em?

Did you want to try ’em?

Tell the Muse!

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