Celebrity Wig Master Terrence Davidson Releases Fall Hair Campaign Featuring Transgender Models

Saw this press release come across my inbox; Terrence Davidson has transgender models in his fall campaign!  I dunno so much about the tagline (of course the model looks real, she's a real human, not a mannequin...??), but I'm certainly stoked to see these ladies in a major brand's ad campaign.

                                                                                             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

                                                                                                            September 17, 2013

Celebrity Wig Master Terrence Davidson Releases Fall Hair Campaign Featuring Transgender Models

Sparks fly with the fall campaign for the all-new ‘Just My Color’ extension line  ‘Realness: Hair that looks as real as the model!’

LOS ANGELES – Television style expert and celebrity hairstylist Terrence Davidson releases the fall campaign ad for the Just My Color hair extension line featuring transgender models celebrating the unique diversity of the hair collection.  The Just My Color hair collection website launch is set for September 17.

“Just My Color is a unique hair line that offers a complete transformation for all women.” Notes Founder Terrence Davidson.  “Whether you want to wear it long, shoulder length and or a crop cut, Just My Color offers the texture and real human-hair quality that all women will embrace.”

The new hairline exclusively features virgin Indian Remy hair with a Eurasian blend, a blend of European and Asian hair that fits all ethnicities and hair textures.  With proper maintenance, the 100 percent human-hair last up to 2-3 years compared to other competitive brands with a 2-3 month life cycle.  As a virgin hair product, this means the hair has never been dyed, permed and or treated with any chemicals, offering a unique ability to blend into natural hair after a salon quality hair dye treatment.

Terrence Davidson is most known as the former wig creator and chief hairstylist for popstar Nicki Minaj.  Throughout his long hair career, Davidson has styled for stars like Jennifer Hudson, Patti Labelle, Tyra Banks and Mary J. Blige. Terrence Davidson has appeared on numerous style segments and talk-shows like E! News, the Ricki Lake Show and Access Hollywood.

For more information on Terrence Davidson, log onto www.Terrenceldavidson.com  and for more information on Just My Color, log into www.justmycolor.com

Little bit of everything

Here's some of the stuff I'm into this month:

 Green Eyeliner

Brown eyes and green just go together. This one is Milani Shadow Eyez in Green Safari.  The name "Shadow Eyez" still makes me cringe, but the product itself is really good.  And yes, you can get a precise line with it despite how thick the pencil is. 

Textured Polish

I've been wearing the heck out of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes (I have Honey Ryder on right now), but the Softouch Effect polishes from Layla are also really nice.  This color is 01(sent for review) and it's a silver sparkle with a velvety, semi-matte finish.  It's not lumpy like the Liquid Sand finish, and it's not a smooth surface like other matte polishes. 

Neon-colored Anything 

I've accumulated an embarrassing amount of neon things.  Neon tights (Target's are awesome and dirt cheap), neon tank tops, neon jackets, a neon dress, neon eyeshadow and nail polish, and, most importantly, neon hair.  I've been using Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink for the better part of a year, but I switched to Special Effects Atomic Pink this week.  It's essentially the same color as Hot Hot Pink, but extra strong.

This is not even an accurate picture of it.  My camera makes it glow like it does with neon polish pictures and it washes out the color, and when I uploaded the picture it lost another layer of vibrancy.  This picture is after three washes and it's still a little too dark for my tastes, but the color is intense and vivid.  There's actually a stripe of Napalm (bright orange) in there, but I can't tell where it starts and ends because of the Atomic Pink.  I'm hoping it'll lighten more as I wash it, but so far it's resisting fading way more than my usual.

Beyond The Zone Color Jamz Pro Formula Hair Color in Bubble Head Pink

I know you all want to see nail stuff and not the side of my head, but I just finished my last bottle of this yesterday and it reminded me to write a review.  More of a warning than a review, really.

This product gets a special award from me because it's the worst hair color I've ever used.  I have pretty realistic expectations when it comes to beauty products, so it's rare that disappointed in anything as much as I was with this. 

I bought it because it was on sale and already cheap (around $5).  I'm really happy with my usual color, but I could get two bottles of this for the same price as one jar of Manic Panic, and the color looked similar in the bottle, so I figured why not?

I have two good things to say about this.  One, the squeezy bottle packaging is convenient (except the texture of the color really thick and hard to squeeze out).  Two, it's a pretty color right out of the bottle.  Oh... And I guess it smells okay.  Maybe that's three.

Other than that it has no redeeming qualities for me.  Why?

• It stains everything... except my hair.
• Really, even leaving it on for five hours didn't make it stick to my hair.  
• It bleeds more than any color I've ever used.  Even when my hair is dry.  It gets on everything.
• It dries my hair out really bad and makes it feel gross. 
• It only lasts one wash before any noticeable color it deposited on my hair fades drastically or disappears altogether.

I had already used one full bottle a few months ago and the second one I bought was just sitting in my cabinet taking up space, so I used the whole bottle to touch up my just-starting-to-fade ends. 

Beyond the Zone Bubble Head Pink over Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink (Manic Panic Lie-Locks on bangs)

Really not much of a difference in color than before I applied it except that the parts that were starting to turn light pink are a little darker now.  The only real difference is that now my hair feels dry and my neck and back are stained hot pink.

I purchased mine from Sally Beauty. 

All better!

Still sick, but at least I fixed it!

Manic Panic Amplified Hot Hot Pink mixed with one tiny, dime-sized dab of Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise

Oops

I know, it's obnoxious, I keep complaining about it, but... I've been sick for almost an entire month. It's getting on my nerves.  I missed the flowers blooming on my pear tree because I've been doing nothing but sleeping and coughing!  I've been waiting for that all year!

The sickness started out as an innocent-enough itchy throat during the last week of March and then mutated into some flu-like monster that put me on my ass for two weeks straight.  Then I felt better for about a week and BLAMMO! Back with a vengeance.  So it seems I have bronchitis (nobody got time for that, et cetera, et cetera) and I'm feeling very lethargic because of it. 


Lethargy and sickness = gettin' lazy with my normally enjoyable beauty routine.  No polish.  Cuticles a mess. Clarisonic battery dead.  Every time I've put makeup on this week, my eyes just water until it all runs down my face.  And... my hair.  Yikes.

Lately I have on Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink with some combination of Atomic Turquoise or Ultra Violet in the front or sides, but I've been letting it fade out because I wanted to try a different color (Manic Panic Pretty Flamingo, anyone tried it?).  The (extremely porous) ends had already faded to a nice pastel pink, but the roots were still super bright and it looked weird.

I didn't feel like bleaching my roots (even though they need it) and I didn't feel like touching up with mega-super-staining hot pink while I'm this sick, so for some reason I decided to just cover everything with Electric Amethyst. 

 Freshly washed Electric Amethyst over Hot Hot Pink (still damp)

So... black roots.  Then a stripe of dark fuchsia, then a stripe of purple, and then... Grey in the front, blue on the sides and pink around the back. Oops.

After three washes with Shimmer Lights shampoo and blow-dried

Right now it's turned into a nice faded lavender/mauve type color, similar to all those grey-purple-taupe-putty polish colors that were popular a couple years ago. It's a lot bluer than I thought it would be, but I'm going to fix it as soon as I'm not hacking up my internal organs.  I like the pastel/faded/antique look on other people but I need bright.

Just thought I'd share this so you can laugh with me while I'm recovering.  I mean, don't laugh too much, but... yeah.  I'm going to go make some tea and pass out in front of Adventure Time reruns now.

Beauty.com $25 Beauty Favorites Set from Walgreens

I was at Walgreens over the weekend looking for Halloween stuff and stumbled across this little pink box of awesome at the beauty counter:

 

 Beauty.com Beauty Favorites

An exclusive collection of prestige beauty essentials

$130 value + free $10 promotional card

$25

The set includes:

• Borghese Linea Precisa Eyeliner in Black (0.015 fl oz) - full size!
• Mally Volumizing Mascara in Black (0.39 fl oz) - full size!
• LORAC Lips with Benefits in Mark (0.19 fl oz) - full size!
• Laura Geller Blush-n-Brighten in Pink Grapefruit (0.176 oz)
• Bliss Lemon + Sage Body Butter (1.7 fl oz)
• Carol's Daughter Monoi Repairing Hair Mask (2.0 oz)
• Perricone MD High Potency Amine Face Lift with DMAE and Vitamin C Ester (0.5 fl oz)
• Murad Age Reform 3 Hydrate + Protect Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture (0.25 fl oz)
• $10 Beauty.com Gift Card

 

 LORAC Lips with Benefits in Mark

(I really like these- I've previously reviewed them here)

Laura Geller Blush-n-Brighten in Pink Grapefruit

(After watching Laura Geller talk about these on QVC for years, I've really been wanting to try one!)

I haven't used most the items in the set yet, but so far I'm loving the Bliss body butter (using it as hand cream at the moment, it smells lovely and feels even nicer!) and the Borghese eyeliner (it's a marker-style liner but it's nice and wet so it makes a smooth line). 

I thought this set was an absolute steal for only $25.  There's three full-size products in here, and the travel-sized items are also rather large.  Plus there's also a $10 beauty.com gift card, so that's just icing on the cake.  I'm really not crazy about beauty.com's shoddy customer service or the way they pack their shipments, but, hey, $10 is $10!

If you like try-me kits and getting a really good deal on them, you'll probably want to keep your eye out for this one next time you're at Walgreens!

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara Swatches and Review

Remember hair mascara? I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. That, and that horrible, powdery, spray-on hair color that always ended up getting all over everything and making a giant mess. I bought so many cans of that spray color every year even though it was messy, smelled horrible and never even looked good. If it was cheap, brightly colored, and temporary, I had to have it. Ah, memories.

Now there's a new, more grown-up version of hair mascara: Sultra Hair Palette. What it is is a brightly colored temporary hair color that has the texture of mascara. You apply directly onto your hair with a mascara wand and the color only stays in until you wash your hair. It currently comes in four colors:

Ultra Pink (70024), Lapis Blue (70025), Capri Coral (70027). and Royal Violet (70028).

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara in 70024 Ultra Pink

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara in 70025 Lapis Blue

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara in 70027 Capri Coral

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara in 70028 Royal Violet

Sultra Royal Violet with flash to show the shimmery finish

Ultra Pink and Capri Coral are matte colors, but Lapis Blue and Royal Violet have a bit of shimmer to them. They're not so shimmery that they look sparkly and glittery, but under the right light, they do glimmer a little.

Here's how I apply these:

• Start with clean, dry hair. Make sure you style your hair first, but wait to apply hairspray until after you've applied your color.
• Using the mascara wand applicator, apply to desired areas by combing the wand through the hair. You will need to go over each area several times, on both the front and back of the hair sections if you want fuller, more opaque coverage instead of a sheer wash.
  
• Allow the hair mascara to dry. This takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on how much you've applied. I used a hairdryer on cool to help it dry faster.
• Brush through the hair to remove the matted/separated look and smooth out the color. Brushing is necessary. It helps the color blend into the hair and not look so chunky and stringy.

What I liked:

• The colors actually show up on my dark hair. They look bright and surprisingly opaque (though not 100% full coverage). I'm sure they'd look brighter and better on light hair, but I'm just impressed that they even showed up at all.
  
• The wand is large and covers a good amount of area at once.
  
• The tubes are large- 0.62 oz.
• The colors are bright and pretty.
  
• They are temporary. Good for someone who wants fun colored hair on the weekends but wants it gone by Monday.
• For some reason, Capri Coral smells really, really good. Like freshly baked bread or something. Strange, yes, but you won't see me complaining.
  

What I didn't like:

• The formula takes forever to dry and it's really heavy and sticky.
• Even after the mascara has dried, it still transfers onto your hands, face and hairbrush. Would probably be best not to apply this on any part of your hair that touches your face, and be careful about your hair touching clothes and furniture.
• It runs if it gets wet.
  
• It's overpriced- $24 for a 0.62 ounce tube. For comparison, Sultra's clip-in extensions are only $18 and you can use them forever and ever. Streekers temporary colors are only $12, and this brand from Claire's is only $3.50.
• While it does add a lot of bright color to your hair, it's not convincing. Up close, you can see that it's made of little chalky particles and it looks like hair mascara, not like hair that is actually colored.

I thought they worked well and looked good and I especially liked that these show up well on dark hair. People with lighter hair will not need to use as much product to get the color to show up, and I'm sure they'll also have a brighter-looking result. They do take a long time to dry, but other than that, I was happy with the way they turned out on my hair.

One of the hair trends I've been seeing lately (and one that Sultra recommends) is people coloring only the very ends of the hair with a bright color, like a dip-dye. You can definitely achieve that look with these, but I'd be very careful about what your hair touches if it's longer than shoulder length. Don't wear a white shirt and you should be fine.

Sultra Hair Palette Color Hair Mascara is available at Sephora, $24 each.

(This was sent for review.)

Manic Panic Semi-Permanent Hair Color Cream in Electric Lizard Pictures and Review

Isn't this a cool-looking color? It really caught my eye when I was at Sally buying hair color. I couldn't resist, I had to take it home with me and try it out. So... I did. And it was awesome.

Manic Panic Electric Lizard
This is a semi-permanent hair color creme. It has the texture of a conditioner and has nearly no smell, scent or odor to it. Interesting tidbit listed on the label: this color glows under blacklight.

Here's how it looks on my hair:

Manic Panic Electric Lizard (dim natural light and flash)
The second picture (the one with flash) brings out the bright neon glow this color has. It's really a sight to behold. This is on hair that was bleached to just a little darker than pale yellow. It will not show up on dark hair that hasn't been lightened, but it may leave a green tint.

Here's how I did it:

• First, I lightened my hair from dark brown (about a level 2 or 3) to a light yellow blonde (probably about an 8 or 9).
• I washed my hair with a clarifying shampoo and blow dried it (the more porous and dry the hair is, the better it will absorb a brightly colored dye.)
• I applied Manic Panic Electric Lizard (while wearing disposable gloves), combed it through and covered it with a shower cap. I left the color on for somewhere around 2 hours. You can process it with heat for an even better result, but I like to just leave it in and forget about it while I'm doing things around the house.
  
• Once it was time to rinse, I used cool water and rinsed until the water ran clear and then I applied conditioner and rinsed again.

What I liked:

• It's a gorgeous color. It looks super insane in certain lighting conditions, too (you should see it at dusk!).
• The formula of the color cream is very conditioning and leaves my hair feeling soft and smooth.
• No ammonia or peroxide or anything sting-y, burn-y or smelly in this dye.
• This particular color doesn't stain my skin or my shower too badly.
  
• Cheap! This is $9 at Sally Beauty if you have a card, $10 if you don't.
• It is actually, legitimately neon.
  
• It glows under blacklight!

What I didn't like:

• This color fades very quickly (within 1-3 washes) to a lemon yellow. I could prolong the life of the color by not washing my hair every day, but my hair is way too thin and flat to do that. Washing with cool or cold water and using a sulfate-free or other shampoo designed for color treated hair helps, though.
• Bleaching your hair this light is not good for it. Just a caveat.
  

I didn't think I had lightened my hair enough to get a good result, but it turned out awesome. It would look even better if I went all the way to pale yellow or near-white with my hair, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. The only downside is that this is a very high-maintenance color- it fades significantly with every wash. I don't know how long it takes to wash out completely (and it may not wash out completely on porous, bleached hair), but after 20-ish washes, almost all the green disappears and it looks like candy banana yellow.

Sparkle Hair!

My Sultra flat iron post reminded me that I took this picture of my hair! Remember the other day when I said on Twitter that I mixed Jesse's Girl Secret Weapon loose eyeshadow in with my foundation, hair serum and body lotion? Here's what it looked like:

Isn't that cool looking? I just mixed a dropperful of Ojon Damage Reverse Instant Restorative Hair Serum and three good sprinkles of Jesse's Girl Secret Weapon eyeshadow in the palm of my hand and then applied it to damp hair before blow drying. It stayed in my hair through blow drying and flat ironing and lasted all day without falling out all over and making a big sparkle mess on my shirt.

It gave my hair subtle blue/green duochrome sheen that you could only see up close. When sunlight hit it, it glistened with little blue, green and purple sparkles. I thought it looked awesome. It made my hair feel a little chalky (probably from talc in the eyeshadow), but it was worth it.

I'm going to try it again with other loose eyeshadows and see how they go with my hair color. I've used gold glitter before (Make Up For Ever Diamond Powder, my favorite) and I've used a serum that claimed to have mica sparkles (it was lame), but this is my best result so far. It's not as sparkly as the Frederic Fekkai Spray-On Hair Crystals (I love that stuff, I have it in copper and silver), but it is a lot less messy.

Duochrome sparkly hair FTW!

Sultra Limited Edition The Wicked Gold Decadence 1" Iron Holiday 2011 Review

Looking for good gift ideas for the beauty addict in your life? Or even gift ideas for yourself... that's fine too. Behold the Sultra Limited Edition Wicked Gold Decadence iron. Now this is something that would make an amazing gift. If I had someone to give it to, I'd love to give this as a gift myself. No one I know uses a flat iron, otherwise I'd be seriously considering putting this little gold gem under the tree. It seems so glam and luxurious!

It's a Sultra The Wicked iron, but it's special because it's all shiny and golden.

The shiny gold bag included with the Wicked Gold Decadence is a heat-resistant iron clutch.



The thing that makes the Wicked different from other irons I've used is that it has no settings. Just an on/off switch. It heats to 375º, so all you need to do is turn it on.


When you flip the switch, a red light indicates that the power is on, but what's cool about this is that you'll also hear a little tone to alert you as well. As the iron reaches full temperature, the indicator light blinks and you hear another tone that lets you know it's ready to use. The sound it makes sounds like one of those Tamagotchi digi pets I had in the 90s. Highly amusing.

The Wicked Gold Decadence features "Kyocera® Ceramic Technology (provides 375°F heat), infrared rays that repair the hair while you style, rapid heat-up satisfies your need for immediate gratification, single pass technology" and the Sultra Standards:

• rapid heat up
• auto shut off safety feature
• durable, heat resistant, lightweight body
• 9 ft, no tangle swivel cord
• complimentary iron pad
• two year warranty

My hair is fine and thin and has an annoying half-wavy texture. Some parts are very wavy, some are completely straight, and it's not even all the way around. My hair is not difficult to straighten, but it does have a tendency to get very, very flat if I over-iron it.

This is my natural texture at the waviest part of my hair.


This is how it looks with one pass of the Wicked iron.

I've been using a Wicked iron (the pink one) for a few months, and the Gold Decadence seems to be exactly the same except for the color. So, after a good, thorough testing, here's what I think about the Sultra Wicked:

What I liked:

• It looks great on my bathroom counter.
• It straightens my hair in one pass.
• It doesn't pinch, snag, pull, burn or otherwise hurt my hair.
• Heats very quickly, lets you know it's ready with visual and audible indicators and retains heat well.
• Leaves my hair shiny, not fried or dry.
• It's less than half the price of my previous iron, the Hana Elite. It's also slightly less expensive than a comparable iron like the ghd 1" Classic, and about the same price as a T3 1" iron or a Chi 1" iron.
  
• Can be used as a curling iron, so it's a multi-tasker.
• It's smooth and easy to clean.

What I didn't like:

• Occasionally the iron would glitch out after powering on and continuously beep and not fully heat. Not sure what caused this, but turning it off, unplugging it and plugging it back in fixed the problem.
• It could be a little more gold. I'm serious! If it looked more foil-like and glossy like the bag that comes with it, it would be amazing.
  
• People with very thick hair may need a higher temperature than 375º to be able to straighten in one pass.
• It's not a solid gold telephone.
  
• Really having a hard time finding any flaws with this iron; it works extremely well for me and there's not actually anything I dislike about it.
  

Honestly, I think this iron is practically perfect. It straightens my hair in one pass. It only over-flattens my hair if I overdo it on styling product. 375º seems to be the perfect temperature for my hair because it straightens it quickly but doesn't sizzle or make my hair feel fried or dry or rough. It doesn't have any bells or whistles like the other irons I've used, but the price is right and it works. I would definitely pay $165 for one of these. I'm not crazy about the pink one, but if I had the choice, I'd buy the gold or the black without hesitation.

The Limited Edition Sultra Wicked Gold Decadence 1" Iron is available from Nordstrom or directly from Sultra.

(This was sent for review.)

The Sophisticate Power Dryer by Sultra

The Sophisticate is quite an attractive looking hair dryer. That sounds like such a weird thing to say, doesn't it? Most hair dryers are very utilitarian looking and some are downright ugly. But this one actually looks pretty.

Looks aren't everything, though. If a product doesn't perform, not even its charming good looks can redeem it. So... does the Sultra Sophisticate deliver?

Oh yes. It does.



The Sophisticate by Sultra is a an ionic dryer (1600 watt) with ceramic infrared heating technology that's supposed to dry the hair quickly without damaging it. It has heat settings for fine, normal and thick hair and two speed settings, as well as a cool button for air without heat.
It also features a 9-foot no-tangle cord and a removable nozzle.

I've used this for a few months now and I can honestly say that I've never used a nicer dryer. For the longest time I used a Solia Thermal Ionic Dryer and I loved it, but this I like even more.

I have very thin, fine hair that goes flat very quickly. For this reason, I dry my hair upside-down to give my roots a little lift, even if it only lasts a few hours. When I used my old dryer, my hair would look like a rat's nest after I flipped my head back up. With the Sophisticate, that doesn't happen!

It dries my hair very quickly (I use it on the thick hair setting because it's faster and I use it without the nozzle) but it never makes it feel dry, fried or tangled. And as much as I loved my old Solia, that's something I couldn't say about it.

A quick note:

I've been extra careful about reviewing hair tools since my experience with the Hana Elite, and I'm glad I took a few extra weeks to test this one because the same thing happened. After using this for about a month and a half, it just quit working. No warning signs, no evidence that anything was wrong... Just dead. Kaput. I plugged it in, flipped the on switch and nothing! I tried every thing I could think of to get it working again and it just wouldn't turn on.

I never abuse my hair tools. I turn them off, unplug them and put them in a safe place the minute I'm done using them. I don't drop them or get them wet, I don't bang them around and I don't leave them plugged in so I have no idea why this keeps happening to me! I think I'm the grim reaper of hair tools.

Luckily, I was able to get a replacement and reassurance that Sultra takes the quality of their product very seriously. Not only do they have a two year warranty, but the reported rate of defect is less than 1%. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

I'm happy to report that the replacement dryer is still going strong and hasn't showed any signs of stopping.

With that out of the way, here are my observations about the dryer after a thorough testing.

What I liked:

• Gorgeous sleek black styling with subtle floral accents. A dryer worthy of display.
• Dries hair quickly without making it feel dry or fried.
  
• Gives a very smooth, shiny finish to the hair without making it flat.
• Does not damage my hair.
  
• Multiple heat and speed settings independent from each other. You can have low speed and high heat, high speed and medium heat, and so on.
• Long cord is very handy.
• No frizz with this dryer!
• The two air speeds are perfect; just enough force but without the hair-tangling tornado.
  

What I didn't like:

• This dryer is extremely loud. It sounds like a jet taking off and I'm slightly worried about holding it so close to my ear.
• The dryer is on the heavy side, but not uncomfortably so.
• It dries my hair quickly, but not as quickly as my Solia did.
• Like I mentioned above, mine suddenly stopped functioning without warning. However, it does come with a two year warranty.
• The price. $245. It's around the same price as a comparable dryer like a T3, but that's a lot of cash either way.
• It's pretty big so it may be awkward to travel with it.
  

Overall, I had a really positive experience with this. I'm completely satisfied with the performance of it, and maybe even a little impressed. It is fast and effective, makes my hair shiny and prevents frizz and just works really well in general. Plus, the thing is gorgeous to look at. I've never used a nicer hair dryer and now I think I'm hooked. The only things I really dislike about it are the noise and the price.

Would I buy this again? Well... I like it enough to buy it again and I'd do it in a heartbeat if it was just a bit less expensive.

The Sultra Sophisticate Power Dryer is available at Sephora. And hey... it ships for free!

(This was sent to me for review.)

Milani July 2011 Limited Edition Collection

This is a collection of Milani makeup and nail polish that's only available for the month of July. It includes the neon Paint eyeshadow palette, four shades of Haute Flash lipgloss and eight shades of one-coat, fast dry nail polish. I was sent some Color Streaks hair mascara and I assumed it was part of the July limited edition items, but I don't see it listed on the website, so I don't know if they are or not!

These are only supposed to be available in July, and July is almost over, but I still haven't seen any of this collection at the stores near me, so... Either we didn't get it here yet, or this was only released in certain areas. Anyway, onto the review...

Milani High Speed Fast Dry Nail Lacquer

Fast Fuchsia. My picture makes this look almost neon, and it is bright, but it's not quite neon. For a pink, it's pretty nice. Great coverage and a nice solid looking creme finish.

Racy Green. This is a blue-green shimmer. The shimmer particles are big, giving it a near glass-fleck finish, but it's not as shimmery or duochrome as a true glass fleck finish.


Violet Dash. Light violet creme. AWESOME color, scary formula. It is extremely thick. Sure, it's opaque in one coat, but it's like trying to paint my nails with wallpaper paste. However, after a little Seche Restore, it was perfect. Love the color of this so much.

The formula on the three shades I tried was so-so. They were all very thick, but the thickness caused them to be opaque in one coat. I did two coats anyway, but they only needed one. The thickness causes some bubbling, so I'd really recommend some thinner for these. Dry time wasn't as fast as I had hoped, probably due to the thickness.

Milani Paint Neon Eyeshadow Palette

The Milani Paint eyeshadow palette is awesome to look at. It's six bright, near-neon matte colors plus a matte white all mixed together like an artist's palette with little dabs of paint. Really cute design.

Unfortunately, the colors are sorta chalky and sheer. The pink and orange have the best pigmentation, the purple and blue have the worst. I haven't tried using these on my eyes or over a base yet, but the matte formula doesn't seem like it will be easy to work with. Still, cute palette... And the pink seems usable.

Milani Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipgloss

The Haute Flash is billed as a full-coverage lipgloss and it really is. It's very dense. It comes in four shades: Hot Flash, Flashy, In A Flash and Star Flash. The colors are similar in shade and texture to their Lip Flash pencil counterparts.


Haute Flash has a doe foot wand applicator and a very long, skinny tube.



Left to right: Star Flash, In A Flash, Flashy, Hot Flash. Star Flash is a pale pink with blue duochrome shimmer. In A Flash is a dark purple with violet, blue and red duochrome shimmer. Flashy is a hot pink/magenta with blue-violet and light pink duochrome shimmer. Hot Flash is a bright, flaming red with red, orange and pink duochrome shimmer.

The formula is super thick. It's hard to get much product onto the wand, but once you do, it has great coverage. These have extremely dense, opaque shimmer-heavy color. They're like a foil nail polish for your lips. Each shade has lots of duochrome flash and shimmer and they last forever. I can easily wear this for 6 hours without having to reapply. Longer if I don't eat or drink anything, though it does last just fine through drinking. Once it does wear off, it stains, so there's still some color left on your lips.

I know what you're thinking... these look familiar. Uh huh. They do. See?


They look just like MAC's Dare To Wear Lipglass from last year!


Milani Hot Flash looks like MAC Bold and Brash. Milani In A Flash looks like MAC Ban This!. Milani Star Flash looks like MAC Dare To Dare. I don't have it to compare, but Flashy looks like is could be MAC Gimme That!

Left to right: MAC Dare to Dare, Milani Star Flash, MAC Ban This!, Milani In A Flash, MAC Bold and Brash, Milani Hot Flash.

There are slight differences between the colors, but honestly, they're so close I'd never be able to tell them apart. Everything about this is practically identical, from the formula, the tube, the color and texture, right down to the beloved MAC vanilla scent. They look the same, wear the same, feel the same and smell the same.

That makes me happy, because they're half the price of the MAC- $6.99. I only wish they came in more shades... The formula is great and I never got all of the MAC shades, but I'd be happy with half-price, equal quality Milani dupes!

Milani Color Streaks Hair Mascara

The Color Streaks hair mascara comes in five shades: Fun In Red, Solid in Gold, Cool In Blue, Awesome in Purple and Dramatic Shimmer.

Just like the colored hair mascaras of old, the new Milani Color Streaks come in an oversized mascara tube. All the colors are shimmer-heavy and look very sparkly on the hair. Once they dry, you can brush through them to make them smooth and they won't flake off. Unfortunately, the colors didn't really show up against my dark hair, but they did leave hints of brightly colored metallic shimmer here and there. It looked like subtle, sparkly brocade threads running through my hair, which was pretty, but it wasn't the brightly colored dramatic look I was hoping for based on my experiences with the old 90's hair mascaras.

This was kinda neat, though:
I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, you might need to enlarge it to see... But Dramatic Shimmer is a black base with large, I'm talking gigantor huge, pieces of multicolored glitter. Squares, diamonds, circles, hex... All kinds of glitter in here. I've not seen a hair mascara like this before! It didn't show up on my hair and the glitter was hard to get out of the tube, but man, it looks killer in the tube.

This would probably be awesome if you have light hair. The color are very vibrant and shimmery.


I like the Haute Flash lipglosses the best! They rock. I want them to make more shades of Haute Flash. I need an orange one!


(This was sent to me for review.)