L'Oreal Studio Secrets Face Primer

I am pretty bad about not wearing foundation.  Which is not such an awful thing when I'm, say, cleaning houses, but when I'm in the public eye for the OTHER 20 hours of my week, perhaps I want to look a bit brighter than the maid.

One thing I am a fan of is tinted moisturizer.  I've recently run out of my staple -- Smashbox Tinted Moisturizer in Luminous -- and so I've been trying to fill a void .. and hopefully, do it in a much cheaper fashion.

(Although, honestly, the Smashbox lasts A LONG TIME.)

So I saw that L'Oreal had released a new line called Studio Secrets, and it kind of perked my ears up.  But I saw NO ONE talking about it.  I'll be the brave one, then.

I started with L'Oreal Studio Secrets Face Primer, which they refer to as Step 1 in their series. 



It's a small little glass jar, and I thought it might be one of those things that you use fairly quickly .. and that's a turn-off for penny-pinching moi.  But I was really pleased to find the cream is thick, but spreads thinly .. meaning you really use next-to-nothing to cover your entire face.

Like most primers, you use this before you apply your foundation to even out skin tone and minimize wrinkles.  I, however, don't use a foundation.  So I wondered how this would work for me.

I applied it .. and like I mentioned, it's very silky on the skin so it's pleasant and easy to apply .. and looked at my face in the mirror.  Really, I thought, this might be enough for me.

I went on about my day and had three (THREE!) people stop me to tell me how great I looked.  "Rested", "glowy", and "happy" were some of the words used to describe my face.  And I was, officially, none of those things.

On days when I need some extra oomph, I've been known to apply some tinted foundation over this, but be cautioned: if the primer isn't 110% dry, it will cake in the moisturizer.  And you'll look like a leper.  And nobody wants that. (It's easy enough to fix; wet your hands and smooth over your face.  It will even it all out.)

All in all, since I got this at a discounted rate, I think it's a great investment.  I have notoriously sensitive skin and this didn't bother my skin AT ALL.  It's a great thing for days when you don't want to go full-face makeup but still want to be a little glowy.

Is too a word.

L'Oreal has not supplied me with product or payment in exchange for this review.  All opinions are my own and I assure you I paid for this stuff out of my own pocket.  The links provided in this review are through my Amazon Affiliate account, which means little to nothing.

What Every Woman Should Posess: A Kaboodle

I don't remember how it came up, but I was talking to someone on Twitter the other day and they mentioned finding something cute online and wondered how to drop the hint to their husband.

I said, add it to your Kaboodle!

They said, What in the name of Dixie are you talking about?

(I don't think they said that.)(Exactly.)

Anyway, YES.  If you are the online sort (and you clearly are) and you have good taste (um, you're here, so you clearly do), then you need to have a Kaboodle!  Not one of those plastic make-up holders that we all coveted when we were younger (and yes, they still make them, if you were wondering); a Kaboodle List is an online wish-list.

by sarahlena

I started one a couple of years ago when I realized that my Amazon wish list was kind of limited.  Not everything I wanted to buy was on Amazon, after all.  Cue Kaboodle!  Add a button to your browser's toolbar, and all you need to do is click the Add to Kaboodle button when you are on the web page of an item you covet.  Bizzam! (Which is not a word, but should be!) It's on your Kaboodle list!

You can display your Kaboodle list in a million different ways; I like to use mine on the sidebar of my blogs so people can see what I've been scoping out lately.  The code is INCREDIBLY user friendly; it's one of the first widgets that I actually installed myself, and had little to no issue with it.

Not only that, but you can have different Kaboodle lists for different reasons!  I have a list for each of my boys, plus a random WTF?! list that is just weird stuff I find online. (I find WEIRD stuff online.) My default list is the one you see in the sidebar; it's really just stuff that I covet and almost never buy.

Unless I have a birthday coming up.  And it just happens to be a big one.  Like 3-0 big.  IN A MONTH.  AHEM, HUSBAND.

So, yeah.  If you don't have a Kaboodle list, now's the time!  Go ahead and get one stocked up for Christmas and then send your husband the link!  It doesn't take all the surprise away, because if you stock your list really well.. chances are you've forgotten stuff you added months ago. (Hi, that's me!)