Three Up, Three Down: How I Feel Now About Some Products I’ve Used

I try to give the cosmetics that I review a decent test period before I write about them.

Press Sample - Affiliate Links I Bought This - Affiliate links

For facial skincare, I try to use products for 4 weeks. But for makeup and body care products, not quite as long. Nevertheless, after weeks or months of use, I sometimes change my mind a bit. Sometimes I end up loving a product even more, and sometimes something reveals itself about a product or packaging that makes me like it less than I did initially.

Here are three products that I like even more, and three that I like a little less.

Movin’ On Up

Let’s start with the positives.

• SimySkin Intensive Ultra Serum for Neck & Decolletage Phase II for Age 45+: I received this serum along with several other products from this French brand almost two years ago! Yikes. I remember that I gave the products a positive review, but then I put them aside to try other skincare products. A few weeks ago, I came upon SimySkin Intensive Ultra Serum for Neck & Decolletage and I picked it up and started using it again. I love this stuff! It’s a medium weight amber-colored gel that really made my neck feel so hydrated. Plus, with the pump and gel formula, it was so fast and easy to apply. You know that I’m usually loyal to my favorite StriVectin TL Advanced Neck Cream, but I actually put it aside and used SimySkin Serum instead. Although it is not inexpensive at $58, it’s in the same price range per ounce as the StriVectin. Check it out on the SimySkin website.

• Farmhouse Fresh Steeped Milk Lotion Nourishing Therapy for Dry Skin: I received two scents of FHF Steeped Milk Lotion last summer, Honey Chai and Buttermilk Lavender. I liked them right from the start, and I gave them a positive review. Over the past several months, I’ve really fallen in love with the Steeped Milk Lotion formula and the two scents even more. I’ve tried several different FHF hand creams, and they’re all good, but the Steeped Milk Lotion is creamy, hydrating and lightweight all at the same time. I have used this hand cream right through the winter, and it has been perfectly hydrating without being too sticky or heavy. Plus there is something so relaxing and calming about both the Honey Chai and Buttermilk Lavender fragrances – they are actually milky, and they smell like babies! The Steeped Milk line has become my favorite among the FHF hand creams. $15 for 2.4 oz.

• Tarte Colored Clay CC Undereye Concealer: I like cream concealer, and I bought the Tarte CC Undereye Concealer over a year ago on a whim. It definitely looks used at this point! It comes in only two shades unfortunately: Light-Medium (the shade below is actually darker than this looks) and Medium-Tan. They really need to add a lighter shade and a darker shade so that it would suit more people. I bought Light-Medium that is a little dark for me. However, rather than being a perfect match color-wise for me, it is more of a color corrector. Plus, it is heavy like spackle but in a good way, if you can imagine that. This stuff covers everything, and it stays put and doesn’t fade. Although it’s billed as Undereye Concealer, it’s a little too heavy for me to wear under my dry eyes unless I put on a fair amount of eye cream. Because of that, I put it away for a while, and I’ve been using Judith August Concealer that is a bit lighter weight. When I misplaced my Judith August Concealer, I picked up the Tarte CC Undereye Concealer again. As you can see below, I’ve hit pan so I must like it. It does the best job hiding my dark spots. I tend to apply it before foundation so it can both color correct and conceal. Good, hardworking stuff that contains two different clays and mica to cover and add brightness and HA and squalene for hydration. $25 for 0.08 oz. but it’s lasting me forever.

Slidin’ Down A Bit

• AmorePacific Future Response Age Defense Dual Eye Creme: I was thrilled when I received this daytime and nighttime eye cream duo from AmorePacific, a prestige Korean brand. I thought the single container for day and night eye cremes was so handy and so innovative. I ended up absolutely adoring the creamy, hydrating, gentle night eye creme, and I have used it up. But over time and continued use, the daytime eye creme began to bug me. In spite of the fact that AmorePacific uses what Paula’s Choice’s Ingredient Dictionary rates as the “Best Ingredients” for SPF, the day cream leaves a very noticeable white cast. As much as I want and need to use an eye cream with SPF to prevent further sun damage and this one has highly rated ingredients, I think I’m giving up on it. I need to find one that won’t leave white rings around my eyes or demand that I spend ages rubbing it in to get rid of the white. Boo. As much as I love the luxe and effective AmorePacific skincare, I think I am going to give up on the daytime eye cream. The duo container is priced at $150, so I’m leaving a lot of greenbacks on the table by not finishing the daytime cream. 🙁

• Farmhouse Fresh Whoopie Cream Shea Butter for Body: I adore the Farmhouse Fresh Whoopie Cream scent. It smells like a bakery! So delicious. I got this glass pump bottle filled with Whoopie Cream Shea Butter for Body in a Valentine’s Day set last year, and I have used it a lot. But over time, a couple of things began to bug me about it. First, most likely due to the natural shea butter, the rich cream which is white on my skin takes forever to work in. If I’m in a hurry, I can’t choose this body cream coz it takes too long even though it is so nourishing and hydrating. Second, as I used up most of the cream, the pump no longer picks up the remaining cream, so I had to devise other ways to get it out. And because it’s in a glass rather than a pliable plastic bottle, it is a bear to get out of the bottle. I suppose I could throw away what’s left, but I hate to throw anything from FHF away even if it requires a lot of working in to my skin. So I turn the bottle upside down and allow the cream to collect near the narrow neck, unscrew the pump and use the straw to scoop the cream out. I LOVE Farmhouse Fresh body cream, but this one shouldn’t be this hard to use! Instead I’ve been using the fabulous new FHF Moon Drop Body Mousse that comes in a jar with a scoop and disappears into my skin on contact!

• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil: I still love the colors that Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils come in. In fact, I bought a full size pencil in a gorgeous green-gold shade, Stash, several months ago. But I just don’t reach for it or my other UD 24/7 pencils as often as I used to because I don’t feel that they “glide-on” at all. In fact, they’re stiff and harder to apply than my MUFE, Smashbox or Estee Lauder pencils. Come on, Urban Decay, reformulate the pencils to make them a bit more buttery, please!!

Oh, and here’s an extra on the plus side! A few weeks ago, I wrote about my first Beautylish Lucky Bag. By and large, I’ve been happy with what I’ve gotten, though some of the products are more useful than others. One item, Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Lips Matte Contour Liquid Lipstick demands more than the passing comment I gave it when I first got the Lucky Bag.

Although the shade I received, Dolly Bird, a pale pink that for some reason looks darker/better in photos is not a great shade for me. Unfortunately, I don’t like to wear colors that are lighter than my own lips, and strangely enough, Dolly Bird in person looks nothing like the bright pink shade on the model on the website or the swatch that I took in the photo above.

Too bad because this liquid matte lipstick formula is by far the best I have found for my super dry lips. The lipstick feels creamy rather than liquidy going on. It does dry down, but it is completely weightless on my lips. And the dry down is not uncomfortable at all. The website says that its formula contains beeswax to protect lips from drying out, and it actually delivers! I wish the Nordstrom near me carried the Charlotte Tilbury line in the store instead of just online because I would actually spend the $34 to buy one of these in a more flattering color.

Today's Author

Allison Cohen

 | Website

• Real Life in the Makeup Aisle
• Appearex: Biotin 2.5mg Supplement -- Nail Care
• Salma Hayek Nuance Renewed Radiance SPF 30 Moisturizing Day Cream
• Cleo Shower Cream Review