So, winter break is so close you can taste the holiday dinners, smell your Christmas tree, and hear the cheers on New Year’s. Until then, we’re stuck with finals, presentations, and all nighters in the study room. In the meantime, Her Campus Framingham was lucky enough to try out a variety of products in the latest survival kit!
Beginning with the Rimmel Scandaleyes mascara, a writer, Victoria Bailey has this to say: “I liked this mascara. It went on smoothly and didn’t clump, and once it was on it didn’t flake. It didn’t take a lot of strokes to make it noticeable, but I’m not a big makeup person so I didn’t want to load it on anyways.”
“It’s my favorite thing now! I love it so much,” Exclaimed Her Campus Framingham’s Liz Davidson, about the Scandaleyes mascara. “It gives the perfect amount of volume and body. 10/10, highly recommend!”
Editor and writer, Amanda Luciano, decided to try out the Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeliner she explained that she has “very little experience with eyeliner, but what a perfect opportunity to try it out!” She found it to be “almost like a crayon. It makes a pretty nice, bold line. I have to apply it lightly, though, so I can get a more subtle look. So far I’ve really been liking this product!” Marissa Campbell, Framingham’s HC president also applied the eyeliner. She loved it and went on to explain “it went on very easily and while it did smudge it was easy to touch up.”
Next up is the Rimmel London Natural Bronzer. This came in a few different shades. One of our writer, Kate Ebrecht used color 021 sunlight and said “I really liked this product it was really easy to apply! My contour definitely looked more natural then when I used other bronzers.”
Now onto lipsticks! Kate tried out the Rimmel London: Provocalips 16 hr, in 230 Kiss Fatal. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of this product,” she claims. “It felt gross on my lips and the glossy side wasn’t very glossy at all. I did, however, like the color, it is a bold choice and is perfect for the fall/ winter.”
Lipstick lover and writer, Serena Ouellette says that the Rimmel Provocalips Lipsticks “offered a wide variety of colors and its lock and shine return actually keeps it from smudging! I tried to blot my lips immediately after putting it on and it didn’t smudge on the tissue!”
Marissa also used one and said “I tried a muted shade of purple and while the color was beautiful and lasted all day, there were times where it felt like it was clumping.”
Rachel Haggard, another writer for HC Framingham, tried the product in 550 Play with Fire. She had this to say: “Rimmel Provocalips 16 hr in 550 Play with Fire – I wanted to love this lipstick, I really did but it didn’t live up to the 16 hours it promised. And the red wasn’t ‘Taylor Swift Cherry Red Lips’ red I was hoping for it to be. Actually it was quite bland. At least it went on quite smoothly and didn’t leave my lips feeling like sandpaper but the color just didn’t last. As a single woman who spent her day at school, giving brief smooches to her cats and drinking lots of water I can’t see how this is ‘kiss proof’. The color just faded and left behind a pinkish tone on my lips. This product would last a few hours for an event but don’t believe that the vibrant red will last 16 hours.”
Finally, Rachel Smith said about the color she tried; “I tried the Rimmel London Provocalips in the color 440 Just Teasing. I was really excited to try this because I only have one lipstick that is close to this color so I had high hopes for this one to add to my collection. When I first put it on it felt like I had done the “hundred coats” challenge. The formula was really sticky and it felt like I had way too much on. First I decided to only leave this on which was the Step 1 Intense Colour side. After this being painful for a while because my lips felt so dry, my hairdresser suggested that I do try the Step 2 Lock & Shine side so I did. After I did put this on I felt relief. That relief was short lived. It became dry again and because I did not have access to a bathroom for most parts of the day I could not reapply. As the day went on my mom kept commenting on how I was losing the color in between my lips which was noticeable whenever I smiled or opened my mouth. By the end of the day when I was able to check it, it had completely no color on the inside of my mouth and was still extremely dry. I wished I had a better experience because I really do like the color. I might try this again, but on a day when I can access a mirror more often.”
Serena also had the opportunity to use the Freemen Feeling Beautiful Avocado mask. She claims “other than it being super easy to apply and wash off later, the mask made my skin feel so clean, especially after a long night of work!”
Rachel H. decided to put on the 7 Wonders Kalahari Melon Moisturizing Mask. “This was my first time putting on a mask but I felt like I was reenacting a horror film and wearing someone else’s face. Once you get past the unsettling appearance it seems like this mask is too big and won’t sit nicely on my nose; which honestly is typically where all my black heads are. After taking the mask off and ‘patting’ my face dry it still felt sticky from the residue. The pros for this product though are that it did not leave a rash on my sensitive skin and my cat did not freak out over me wearing the mask. Other than that I do not recommend this product.”
Rachel S. had the Amazonian Acai Anti-Pollution Mask, also by 7 Wonders! She reviewed the product with the following thoughts; “I was scared at first to try this because I’m used to using masks that you spread on your face and this is already in the shape of a face. When I opened the package right away I noticed how good it smelled! The mask itself is really slippery because it is covered and soaked in a special serum. I peeled one side of the protective layer off and put that side on my face as instructed. The mask was very cold and it has a weird texture that you have to get used to. I then peeled the other side of the protective layer off that wasn’t on my face and smoothed the mask down. The mask is somewhat oversized to fit all face types which is nice! After I adjusted to the feeling of the mask being on my face the 20 minutes flew by. Once I took the mask off my face felt refreshed and clean. I only have two recommendations to make. One would be to make sure that hair is completely off of your face and pulled back. My other one is to make sure you have a towel or tissue nearby because adjusting the mask causes a lot of serum to come off and onto your fingers and hands. Overall loved the mask and would definitely try more!”
Amanda sipped on the Yogi tea samples, which included Sweet Tangerine Positive Energy and Blueberry Green Tea. She started off with the Blueberry tea and thought it was “a nice subtle flavor. Usually, I’m not a big fan of fruity teas because I find the fruit taste overpowering. However this isn’t the case and I’d definitely have this again!” When it came to the Sweet Tangerine tea she had this to say: “This tastes like a tea I’d usually have. It’s a classic citrus tea, which I like. Similar to the blueberry, it’s not an obnoxious citrus taste, it’s subtle and nice. I would recommend this to those with similar tastes.”
Another HC Framingham writer, Marissa Rousseau, tried the 5 Hour Energy, as well. She had this to say; “I have never had 5 Hour Energy before, but this one was pretty disgusting, at least in my opinion. I thought the flavor was very strong and I was unable to take more than one sip, so I guess technically I only got the equivalency to one hour of energy (haha). However, I did not notice a difference in energy.”
Victoria also sampled a 5 Hour Energy; “I’ve never had five hour energy before this. It smelled bad, like cough medicine, so I was expecting it to taste bad as well but it was surprisingly good-tasting. I only drank half of it at 7:30 am because the bottle says drink half for moderate energy. I felt the effects of it pretty soon afterword but it only last an hour or so and after that I felt tired and unenergized again. It could have been because I only drank half of the bottle though.”
Marissa R also used the provided shaving cream, Pure Silk. She found the product “effective and had a good scent. However, I noticed that when you reuse it after the first time you have to shake it first or the cream will come out of the can very watery.”
That’s that for our Finals Survival Kit! If you want, try any of the previously mentioned products out for yourself! HC Framingham wishes you the best of luck with finals and a happy winter break!