2013 is a fresh start for me. I have a wonderful new dorm, decent new schedule, and a new found studious attitude. Of course no year starts off without some lessons having been learned, so today I will share some of my beauty specific lessons I’ve learned from trying some new cheaper products. The first product I tried was $0.99 eyeliner, which I would say is better left on the shelf. I also tried a $3 box of hair dye, which should also just remain in it’s place. Now, just because these products didn’t work for me doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy their cheap goodness.
The eyeliner I got was Wet n Wild’s Color Icon Eyeliner. I actually liked this eyeliner at first. It went on smoothly, sharpened easyily and was a nice dark black. That being said, it has a fatal flaw. It smudges. Not in a “Oh I’ve been wearing my make up all day so it’s worn down” kind of way. It’s more of a raccoon who’s never slept kind of smudging. Dare to touch your eye you will find it migrating all around your face. Your nose, cheeks, chin. Anywhere it can get to it will go. The only trick that can reduce or slow the process is putting some translucent powder right under the eye. The powder acts as a barrier and helps keep it in place. I use Baremineral’s mineral veil and it does a decent job.
So let’s move on to the hair dye. I purchased the Revlon ColorSilk in Chocolate Brown:
Over break I decided to save some money by dying my own hair. I ended up going to a CVS and buying a two pack of Revlon Colorsilk for $6. Not trusting myself to apply the dye, I had my mom do it for me. A few notes about my hair; It is long, thick, coarse, and curly. This may have been why I had trouble with the dye. The dye itself smelled pretty bad, but that’s to be expected from most dyes. It didn’t burn my scalp, which always happens when I go to the salon. The left side went on without much problem. The right side for some reason started clumping and would not spread evenly. After a painful process my hair was completely clumped up like dreadlocks.
I tried to hide the terror on my face when I sent this to a friend. Even while showering I couldn’t get rid of the clumpy dryness until I used the conditioner provided in the boxes. The color I picked up was chocolate brown. The color my hair came out? A few shades away from black. Correction. Most of it came out a few shades away from black. My right side had some patchiness that resembled leopard spots. Side note: Leopard spots in your hair are not awesome. I ended up going to a salon the next morning and having it fixed. So if you have thick, unruly hair, maybe play it safe and have the professionals dye your hair. If your have average or thin hair consider investing in a bit more than $3 dye.
Overall these budget finds turned out to be flops, but just because they didn’t work so well doesn’t mean I won’t keep searching for my perfect cheap products.