Love it, hate it, review and rate it!

Starting today, this will be a new weekly feature here! I'll be reviewing products and rating them thumbs up (painted, of course) or down (chipped!)

Our first two products: Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara and Maybelline lipstick in Nude Embrace, both available at the drugstore.

In my recent bout with eye issues I had to dump all of my mascaras, SOB, so I've been trying out a new drugstore kind. My eyelashes are horrible. They are about the size of ant legs, and they're blonde at the tip, so mascara is a must-use. When I don't have it on my children ask me if I'm very tired.

These are my lashes normally. I have about seven, and they are short, skimpy, blonde, and straight. This is an actual picture of my actual eye. 

But help is nigh! Meet my new mascara:

Maybelline Big Eyes mascara: it's double ended, baby

The wand for the upper lashes. Please note my awesomely painted thumb nail! It stayed that way for point two seconds, and then it chipped. 
(not pictured: the wand for the lower lashes, because I'm lazy.) 

This mascara is good. It's not clumpy, can be built up pretty well, and I like that it includes both a wand for your lower lashes and upper lashes. It's not overly wet (so it doesn't give me the dreaded four lashes). I don't love the packaging, because I keep on opening it at the wrong end, and I suspect that you get less product since there are two wands, but overall it's a good mascara and I was even asked what mascara I was wearing on a recent trip to Sephora. So, I'd have to give this mascara (duh duh DUH)

a nicely painted thumbs up! 

Now for my second product--Maybelline's new lipstick, Nude Embrace. (Hey Maybelline, FYI. That name, Nude Embrace, is pretty racy. Is Maybelline suddenly getting all NARS on us? Yikes.) 

Anyway, CAPITAL UGH. I had some high hopes for this color. A nudey mauve? A smidge dusty? Maybelline's formulas, which I generally love? Yes! Yes please! I thought this color would work so well on my compexion (pink tones, fair, blue veins). I thought it would embrace my lips with its nudey wonder. Here it is: 

Looks good, no??? Inviting, appealing, embrace worthy. 

Here it is swatched:

It's a little more purplish gray-mauve then it's showing up here. See how pasty it looks, also? 

When I put this on, it instantly makes me look like my lips are made of dirty silly putty. They take on that same plasticky look, the same color, the same rubbery-yet-not texture. I do not want to be embraced by this lipstick, or by anyone wearing this lipstick, for that matter. Look:

Not a good nude. It creates insta-sad face. And look how every dry patch is emphasized. YUCK. 

Even in softer lighting the color just washes me out. I love a good nude, but this veers towards a gray nude--the pictures don't show just how gray this actually is. I don't know many people this would work on. So unfortunately this one is a dumperooni for me and I have to give it a (wait for it!) 

big ole chipped sad thumbs down.

I hope this was helpful the next time you venture out to the drugstore and are looking for a new mascara or lippie. Stay tuned for more product reviews weekly!