The Gadgets Page

When I saw that Covergirl had teamed up with Crest toothpaste, my first instinct was to roll my eyes. Considering that lipgloss shouldn’t end up on your TEETH, Covergirl Amazemint Lipgloss seemed like just a stupid gimmick. Do we really need “smile-brightening” lipgloss with the power of Crest Peppermint Oil? Sounded like hogwash to me. Sure, they weren’t charging any more for Amazemint than they do for their other lipglosses, but is Crest really the way to go?

It wasn’t until I watched this review of the product from colormemakeup that I realized that it might not be all that silly:

The thought of a lipgloss could make your breath smell good is kind of silly, but the idea of flavored or smelly lipgloss has been around for a LONG time. Having a minty lipgloss to choose from after all the fruity flavors over the years sounds kind of… refreshing, actually.

The first new makeup product I’ve tried in the last few years is the L’oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes Mascara. I usually use a wax-based mascara from Cover Girl called Lash Exact. The L’oreal Double Extend Mascara, however, uses what they call “beauty tubes” to extend your lashes. There is a white base coat that is supposed to be “nourishing,” and then a second coat of color. Since I don’t usually put two coats of mascara on, this two step process is a pain in the butt. I decided to compare it to my usual mascara.

In each of these photos, the eyelashes were curled with an eyelash curler beforehand. No eyeliner was worn and the mascara was applied to the top lashes only. I applied two coats of the Covergirl Lash Exact to compare with the two step process required by the L’oreal Double Extend.

Considering how difficult it is for me to get mascara right and how similar my lashes look when they aren’t wearing any mascara at all, I decided to stop wearing mascara altogether. There have been too many times when I’ve totally screwed up with my mascara and needed to clean my entire eye off with makeup remover and start again.

One good aspect of this mascara is that it can be removed with soap and water. Unfortunately, it leaves the “beauty tubes” all over your washcloth. I found this aspect of it kind of gross and would rather just use a tissue paper and baby oil to remove the inexpensive wax-based mascara.

Here is a video review of this mascara from pursebuzz. She didn’t much care for it either:

Considering how good my lashes look before the mascara ever touched them, the true hero of my eyelashes is the eyelash curler. Here is a link to a simple Eyelash Curler from Sephora.

• Sephora Brand Eyelash Curler at Amazon.com

In the end, I’ll probably stop using mascara at all. When I can get ninety percent of the curl in my eyelashes from an eyelash curler with no mess, flaking or irritating makeup removal cremes, it really seems like the most logical option.

That is, until the next cool mascara gimmick comes along.

There have been a ton of mascaras on the market lately with vibrating wands. The last thing I want next to my eye is a vibrating brush. Really, how hard is it to wiggle a brush on your own to make sure each lash gets some mascara? It seems like they are trying to solve a problem that I don’t have. In fact, the only problem that this product solves is the question: How can we get women to pay thirty bucks for a tube of ten dollar mascara?

This review from lollipop26 for the Lancome Oscillation says everything that I worried about a vibrating mascara and MORE.

It’s not like gimmicks like this are new. In the Eighties, Revlon (among other brands) came up with curved brushes for mascara. You can see an advertisement for Revlon’s Flex Appeal Mascara here:

In the end, some makeup gadgets don’t solve any problems and merely cost more.

Sephora has posted a great video showing you how to apply your own false eyelashes:

Last Halloween, I used false eyelashes as part of my Star Trek costume.

It took me a solid thirty minutes just to apply them. If I had to do it every day, then I’m sure that I would get used to it and be able to do it in a couple of minutes just like in that video. If you’re trying it for the first time, however, make sure you give yourself at least a half hour to get the job done. Additionally. buy yourself a couple of sets just in case you massively screw up the first ones.

I can’t imagine using false eyelashes every day, but for a once in a while fun look, they are one of the best makeup gadgets around.

Hands down, my FAVORITE booth at CES this year was Mattel.

They had a new toy that’s going to be out in the Fall of 2009 that blew my socks OFF. It is called B-Nails.

It prints cool designs on your fingernails. This nice girl demonstrated it to me.

First you stick your finger into the machine. It takes a picture of your finger.

Then you choose the design that you want on your fingernail.

I chose this classic Barbie silhouette. At this point, you can resize the image so it will fit on tiny little girl fingers or big fat thumbs or anything inbetween.

After it prints on your finger, you cover the image with clear polish. I couldn’t feel it printing on my finger. There was no heat and I didn’t feel the ink squirting.

Unfortunately, I painted my image too soon, so it smeared a bit.

I had better luck the second time. I sized the image a little too small that time, but it worked perfectly.

They had this toy connected to a PC and running software to control it, so I suspect it will be like the Barbie iDesign and work on Windows only. Hopefully, they won’t make us upgrade to Windows 7 just to play with it.

I am continually impressed with Mattel and their ideas for toys for little girls. B-Nails is just another great toy to add to the list.

I have owned my Emjoi Optima Epilator for almost three years now. It still works just as well as the day I bought it. I did a review for it last year at this time:

• The Gadgets Page » Emjoi Optima Epilator

If you are thinking of a gift for the woman in your life, this might be a drastic step. It’s not like when she gives you a razor because an epilator pulls the hair out by the root. It’s VERY painful the first three or four times you use it, so if you want her to love you, you might not want to get her an epilator.

Then again, if she has been waxing regularly, she is no stranger to pain. Epilators are actually less painful than waxing because you control how many hairs come out at once by the amount of pressure that you use. Emjoi isn’t the only company that makes epilators. Here are a couple of other choices:

The Braun Silk-Epil X’elle: Includes a trimmer for cutting hair instead of pulling it out. The Amazon.com reviews say that it doesn’t come with a “cooling glove,” even though it’s listed on the included items. Good riddance. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work anyway. There’s really nothing that can dull the pain of epilation the first few times.

The Panasonic 3-in-1 Epilator: I don’t know what a “bikini comb” is but it’s supposed to work with the shaver attachment, so it must be something good. This is Panasonic’s entry in the category. If she likes purple, then this one might distract her from the pain.

The Norelco Satinelle Ice Epilator: If she tweezes hair from her face, she probably won’t want to use the same epilator on her upper lip as she does on her legs, underarms and bikini area. This Norelco looks like it would be good for facial epilation.

The Norelco Satinelle Epilator: Here is Norelco’s epilator for the rest of the body. For only thirty dollars, this one looks like it’s a great deal. It doesn’t come with a shaving head, so if you are planning on using it on the bikini line, you probably need some sort of trimmer in addition to this.

Remington Women’s Smooth & Silky Hair Removal System: For seven more dollars, you can get 24-karat-gold-plated, hypo-allergenic tweezing discs. I am severly allergic to nickel, but I have never had a reaction to any epilator. The metal just doesn’t touch your skin long enough to be an irritant. The gold-plated tweezing discs are just for show, sorry. It’s still going to hurt.

Once again, remember if the woman of your life is a regular waxer or tweezes her face, then these products will be a godsend. There is no risk of chemical burns or heated wax burns. They’re a little noisy, but they get the hair removal job done amazingly quickly. She will LOVE you for buying this for her because of all the time and pain you’ve saved her.

If, however, you are thinking of getting this for the lady in your life who loves her razor, these things will hurt like a mother****er and she will HATE you for buying this for her.

I got the Emjoi Optima Epilator about a year and a half ago and I have been happy with how it works. An epilator is a machine that pulls out hair from the root.

The first epilator that I ever used, The Epilady, was something my mom purchased when I was in high school. It had a large coil at the top of the machine that rotated and pulled out the hairs. It was painful to use at first. I remember after the first time I used it, my legs swelled and were a blotchy red. That’s how it was the first few times I used the Epilady, but my skin got used to having its hairs ripped out and I never have that swelling anymore, even if I shave instead of epilate for a couple of months.

The Emjoi Optima Epilator is much better than the Epilady that I had as a teen. Instead of a coil, it has 36 tiny tweezers that are highly effective at pulling out the hair. I can do my legs in half the time with this epilator. Of course, that means that it’s pulling out twice as many hairs at a time as other epilators, so if you’re new at this, it WILL be painful the first couple of times you use it.

It will be worth it, though. When you epilate (instead of shaving) the hair that grows back is fine and much softer than the hairs you pulled out. You only need to use the epilator once a week or so instead of shaving every day. It takes time for your body to grow back hair from scratch, which gives you more days of hair-free legs.

Depending on your tolerance for physical pain, the Optima can be used on the underarms and bikini area. Try it slowly at first, only doing a small patch at a time until you can handle epilating the entire area. Once you do it a few times, the pain is far less intense.

I’ve enjoyed the Optima and I’m glad that I bought it instead of some of the other epilators out there. It has the most tweezers of any of the other brands, so it only takes a few minutes to do my legs. Considering that I’ve had it for a year and a half with no problems, I think I made a good choice.