Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics- Iceblush Lip Shine

Lip Shine from Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics is basically a shiny tinted lip balm. I've had it for months but only started to fully appreciate it when it dawned on me to actually follow the Youngblood instructions and apply it with a lip brush either over a lip pencil/liner or over a liner+lipstick that you want to both cement into place and make them shine. That was a serious lightbulb moment.

As it is, Lip Shine is a fabulously comfortable-to-wear product, full of extracts, emollients and other feel good ingredients that make it very soothing even for my very picky lips. Its stick factor is minimal and it has very nice glossy sheen. What makes it outstanding is the way it stays in place and doesn't budge. Still, I didn't reach for it as often as I should have because the color I was sent, Iceblush, is completely invisible on me. It has some pigment, as you can clearly see in the swatch, but my natural lip color is much darker. But once I've started using it as directed over other (and usually dry) lip products, Lip shine has become an easy choice. I especially like it over chubby lip crayons (Bobbi Brown, Trish or Shiseido) because they are softer and quicker to fill up the lip.

I've had a quick look at the darker shades of Lip Shine while at Henri Bendel in NYC. Crush is a dark plum and Jubilee is a red raspberry. I didn't test them on my lips but they seem to have a good amount of pigment so I can see them joining my arsenal at some point.

Bottom Line: definitely worth your time (as long as you don't mind the strong vanilla scent).

Lip Shine by Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics ($17) is available from Henri Bendel (in store only) and ybskin.com. This review is based on a free press sample sent by the company.

All photos are mine.

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics- Platinum and Storm Pressed Individual Eyeshadow

Storm:

 Platinum:

The classic dark smoky eye doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Now that everyone is in a holiday makeup mood there are even more kits and palettes promising that you won't get it wrong if you use them, which might or might not be true. But most of us know by now that the secrets for a wearable smoky eye that doesn't make one look like Taylor Momsen is a couple of good brushes, serious blending and most important- not overdoing it.

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics offers a couple of good options in the smoky eye department. Their eye shadows have a great texture- smooth but dense in pigment- that makes it easy and pleasant to work with them. They blend seamlessly and require little effort. While these kind of colors are not my favorites (I usually prefer a softer look with just a pop of color) both Platinum (silver with an almost metallic finish) and Storm (mostly matte charcoal with some shimmer particles) are very pretty and wearable. Used together they give a very rock star smoky eye that can be easily tailored and balanced. They also work well with other colors to create simpler looks and I even like using Platinum as a silver liner- it can be applied with a damp brush for some extra sheen.

Both Storm and Platinum can also be found as part of Youngblood's Starlet Eyeshadow Quad. The palette includes an almost white highlighter and a matte black which fully complete the smoky eye look.

Bottom Line: Very very good.

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics Pressed Individual Eyeshadow ($19 each) are available at Henri Bendel in NYC and from ybskin.com. I received both Storm and Platinum from the company's PR department.

All photos are mine.