The Good, the Bad and the Lucky Chick

a bad product, but a sexy nightclub packages are available. I still try the product for you and now I'm telling The Good: Packaging a lip gloss with an LED light in the wand is, I think, a splendid idea, which is what Lucky Chick has done with Gloss & Glow. I will likely as not use more often for opening the lock on my front door when the porch light is burned out as often as I use it to put on lip gloss, which i can already do blind, in the dark and probably underwater, but I just think it's a lot of gadgety, whimsical fun, and would be a way sexy night club accessory/flirtation device.

The Bad: One of the worst packaging ideas ever is the Mint Jewel Lip, a lip gloss and breath mint combo. The problem being the differential between the life expectancy of a pack of mints vs. a tube of lip gloss, i.e., you'll be carrying that empty mint module around for years if you like the gloss. Maybe it's refillable. Or repurpose-able. If this were the 80's, girls would be keeping their cocaine in this container.

L'Oreal Voluminous Naturale Natural-Looking Volume

Looking for natural-looking and finally found the mascara. I love this bag and look. I liked the look of this, which I got in a goodie bag at the Sundance Film Festival. It's not too heavy, not clumpy, and indeed natural-looking without being barely-there. However, a natural-looking mascara should not take so much eye makeup remover to come off. Underwhelmed.

That said, if you're looking for a decent mascara for less than $8, you could do a whole lot worse than this one.

BeneFit Lash Lovies

Now you've done with this talk I will describe the product.

BRUSH: None.

FORMULA: As creamy as you want it to be.

APPLICATION: Takes some extra time due to the necessity of squeezing product onto a clean wand (where did I leave that darn thing?).

LOOK: BRIGHT! Lash Lovies' raison d'être is wild, out-there colors like green, purple, red and pink. No black or brown. Thickening and lengthening are probably beside the point.

WEAR: Very very good, thankfully.

PACKAGING/PRICE: Adorable tiny squeeze tube, labeled to match the color of the mascara. If this sort of product intrigues you, I heartily recommend hunting it down on Ebay.

Fun with gun

have something to tell about this product. I've tried and liked. As mentioned previously, I am currently in the middle of moving house, aka hell on earth. As also mentioned previously, the only perk so far to all the packing has come in discovering all sorts of products I forgot I'd owned. It's like shopping, but with money I've already spent on items I've long since banished from my mind.

And if Saturday's excavation is anything to go on, I went through a very keen Bobbi Brown period in 2001, but quickly lost track of all my purchases before I got much chance to use them. In addition to the very useful Lip Palette 2001 (containing various lip colours, lip shines, and lip shimmers in: berry, sand pink, brown, shell pink, peony SPF 15, cocoa SPF 15, cassis, salmon, raisin, and crimson), I also had quite a lot left of my Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick in Sand. But my favourite rediscovery was a Bobbi Brown Eye Palette 2001, a collection of five eye shadow colours: bone, slate, sable, gunmetal shimmer wash, and raisin summer wash.

So after a long day of packing, wearing no makeup and with my hair scraped back into a ponytail, I thought I'd treat myself to some playtime with my new (old) products.

Banana Republic Fresh Nectar

I love this smell and I do not know why, but I'll try to explain it.

I love going into my local TJ Maxx (that's TK Maxx to you Brits). They always have a great selection of products - toiletries, skincare, haircare, and fragrance - marked down. So I'm sort of bummed to learn that the Banana Republic Fresh Nectar Harmonizing Body Mist I got there today (original price $18)

About this scent: I love it, and I don't know why. There is pear in it, and I'm not generally a huge fan of pear in perfume - it always seems a bit over the top to me. But this fragrance - which now resides in my fridge - is not so much a perfume as an eau de toilette, and a very diluted one at that. I wish it were much stronger. I also bought the shower gel in the same scent, though the body lotion wasn't available (if there is one, and I'm assuming there is). As the name suggests, it's just a very fresh, non-cloying smell. The fact that I came home from shopping and immediately took a shower just so I could bathe and spritz myself in Fresh Nectar should tell you something.

Alabaster by Banana Republic

To investigate this product, and we decided to try to provide information. I will now share the results with you here

Forget the controversy about this perfume. (Where there is a columnist in need of something to get agitated about, there will be controversy. One can see the beauty in blemish-free, smooth, pale skin without hating darker skin or darker people. If you can't accept that, you have more problems than a perfume can address.)

The real story here is the scent - heavy on the lotus, with some rose notes, and the most scant amount of musk. As I have said before, I am a sucker for most fragrances which manage to work some musk into a floral, as the heady mix of feminine and masculine appeals to me so much.

This also seems to make Alabaster a universal favorite: Everyone I have let sample the perfume that Banana Republic's PR team sent to me has declared it a winner. (I arrange my many fragrances in my powder room, so that visitors can try them - and so that the beautiful bottles don't get hidden away.)

Speaking of bottles, the teardrop-shaped one that Alabaster comes in is a real work of art. It has a flat bottom, and lies quite low, but would fit in the palm of your hand. Between the substance and the style, Alabaster is one of the very few scents I would feel confident giving as a gift to almost any woman.

now I'm ready for everything.

Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Sparkling Lip Gloss

This product is Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Sparkling Lip Gloss is available in the market under the name. I heard that they are quite happy using the product and I tried. Then I discovered the perfect. I was looking for something nude with a lot of sparkle, to replace a loved but lost product from Smashbox. That was a limited-edition holiday product, a lipstick rather than a gloss, and the density of sparkle was like the paint job on a lowrider Buick Riviera--layer upon layer of sparkle flake, essentially. This Victoria's Secret gloss is not what I was looking for, but it is great for daytime. It makes the nude lip more interesting to have a little shine going on.