The Muse Does New York Comic Con

My friend Angel, Stefan, Nick and I are headed to Comic Con this weekend!

Wahoooooooooooooooooo!

Anyone in New York headed over? If so do e-mail me maybe we can meet up and discuss geeky bits and some cosmetics too!

Some of thee most awesome people are going to be at Comic Con this year such as...drum roll please...Neil Gaiman, Guillermo Del Toro, Doc Hammer, Stan Lee, Grant Morrison, and a slew of other geeky people that the Muse will be bowing down to this weekend! Oh wait scratch that Doc Hammer isn't so special! That man whores himself at every convention!

I'm particularly excited about Neil Gaiman as he'll be doing a reading! So awesome! I've been in a funk for the past few days so this will surely cheer my gloomy self up!

For details on purchasing tickets click on over to the website and maybe join the Muse in a day of Geeky fun!

What's your weekend looking like?

Any special plans?

Sleeping Late?

Going out?

Tell the Muse all about it!

P.S. I'm a bit behind today on posts and comments! I'll do my best to catch up!

Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder Review

I was visiting with the beautiful Toya from Life of a Ladybug last week and happened upon her review of Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder. After reading her review I knew that this was something I absolutely had to try!





Away I went to Sephora to nab some for myself!

What is it?

Secret Brightening Powder is exactly that. It's a translucent powder with a tiny touch of shimmer that you use under your eyes to brighten and refresh eyes!

Mmmmm.....

It brightens.

It refreshes.

But...

It kinda sorta settles into my fine lines which I'm not loving.

It's an interesting concept but I'm not sure it works so well. The powder is pretty shimmery so the potential and danger of overdoing it is a serious reality. I overdo everything so I have to be super careful with this and just apply a tiny touch under my eyes. It does brighten up my eye area and give it a very nice light, look but it also settles into my fine lines which makes me age a few years. I don't use powder under my eyes anymore for this reason and this, is in fact, glorified finishing powder.



Fact of the matter is this might very well be a wonderful product but lately my eye area is so very dry (Sahara desert dry!) that I can't take full advantage of this without seeing some strange side effects such as the fact that it is brightening but it's also making me look older, settling into my fine lines, and drying my eye area out further.

If you boast a beautifully smooth, moist eye area free of dryness this could be a product you might want to invest $22 USD in however for me it's just a glorified finishing powder with a bit of shimmer thrown in.





It does a fine job of setting your concealer and it does brighten up the eye area as I mentioned but it's just not doing that good a job to justify me recommending it for purchase!

The cost is quite good as the jar is huge and you could get a year if not more out of it but really this doesn't do anything that your normal run of the mill loose powder does!

Sigh. I so wanted to love it!

You can safely skip it!

Already own it?

Love it?

Hate it?

Wanting to try it?

Tell the Muse!

Coastal Scents Mega Palette

The equally beautiful and cute, Elessa, from Pursebuzz recently did a review on the 88 Shadow Palette from Coastal Scents!

Holy cow this thing is MASSIVE and it's only $19.95 USD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Muse wants an 88 color palette for herself hmmmm should I or shouldn't I indulge?



This honestly wouldn't get me too excited but since Elessa gave it a rather good review I admit my curiosity has spiked!

See Elessa's video review below!

Beauty on a Budget: Mini Bourjois Paris First Impressions, Haul, and General Babbling

My mate Rows from Mostly Makeup sent me over some Mini Bourjois Paris from jolly old England! Thanks Rows the Muse loves you lots and lots and lots!



This is my first time trying out Mini and I love it! I love the regular Bourjois Paris line anyway and this is amazing quality and just as good as the full size products!

I'm shocked and delighted at how great these are. It's really nice to be able to indulge in such a cute, inexpensive cosmetic that has the quality to back itself up!

I know a few people aren't really loving Bourjois's normal baked eyeshadows. For whatever reason you might have for hating baked eyeshadows you'll be able to happily indulge in Mini as the shadows are not baked. These are just regular old eyeshadows with great pigmentation for the price!













The shadows do not come with a compact and I believe they are around $6 or so each. I'm not sure if they fit into a MAC quad as I haven't tried. You can purchase a cute little cardboard box which holds three shadows which costs $2! Not a bad deal in my opinion!







Pop it out!


and Pop It in here!


Colors 64, 60, and 58


The range carries not only eyeshadows but a ton of other mini items such as gloss, nail polish, pigments, etc...! I haven't tried everything but I do like what I see so far!

The pigments are probably my favorite of the lot. They aren't sheer by any means and you get a nice beautiful finish with them! Very pigmented for the price and just enough in the jar to last ages! I wish MAC pigments were available in this size!











Finally the lipgloss is the exact same formula as the regular size! It's just cheaper and smaller! It has a little string you can use to attach it to your iPod, Cellphone, Etc...!









All in all Mini Bourjois Paris is definately something to keep your eyes out for! I know Ulta is now selling some of the line which is awesome as it was unavailable stateside prior to that! I'm hopeful that maybe Sephora will catch up and start carrying this!

If it's inexpensive you seek without forsaking good quality this is exactly something you might try! These are excellent for traveling light as well or for those of you who are unable to finish larger size products!

Tried these?

Love 'em?

Tell the Muse!

Cynthia Rowley for Avon: Flower and Petal Fragrances

Cynthia Rowley has done two exclusive fragrances for Avon recently! One is entitled Flower and the other is called Petal.

From what I understand Flower is a Woman's Parfum while the Petal is an Eau de Toilette for younger girls. I was generally curious about these as I had such a raving review for the Cynthia Rowley for Avon Cosmetic Collection that was released in the Fall.

I ended up purchasing both on E-bay for a ridiculously, obscenely low cost. Flower retails for $30 USD on the Avon site and Petal is $15 USD. I paid about $25 USD for both on E-bay including shipping. Can't go wrong for the price. The fact that Petal is made for younger girl's did not really sway me from wanting it!

Both are floral blends which isn't something I typical like but one of the key notes in the blend is Lily of the Valley and I adore the scent of Lilies so this might be right up my alley!

I'll be reviewing these for you as soon as they arrive!

Flower by Cynthia Rowley


Petal by Cynthia Rowley




Click here to read my review on the Cynthia Rowley for Avon Cosmetic Collection if you missed it!

US Drugstore Steals and Deals

A few readers had expressed absolute delight and curiosity when I had posted a few of the sale pages from various drugstores here in the US a few weeks ago!

So I thought I'd do so again! Bit boring if you live in the US and are privy to this stuff all the time but I think it's a bit fun for folks living in Europe, Asia, Etc...!

Soooooooo enjoy!

The following are taken from various sale pamphlets from CVS, Walgreens, Etc...!





Something that might particularly interest international readers is the money back guarantee on cosmetics!

Milani Buy 1 Get 1 50% Off @ CVS Next Week

Hey There, Hi There!

Quickie post to let you know that Milani is Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off @ CVS starting Sunday!

Good time to pick up some of the Sparkling Wet/Dry Eyeshadows myself and the rest of the Blogsphere have been raving about!

Click here if you missed my review on the eyeshadows!