Glow Sticks and Nail Polish

"break a glow stick & put in clear polish" 

With Halloween coming up I've been seeing a lot more Glow in the Dark pins then you usually see. However as we learned with our other glow stick pins, not only will this not work, it's probably not the best thing for you. Not only that, glow stick formula typically doesn't glow that long once it's exposed to air. I was going to test this out and see how long it will glow, and if it would even set up properly but alas, I'm out of glow sticks. Even if it did set up right (instead of leaving your nails a big glowing gooby mess, which is what I think would happen) the glow would only last a short time, then you're left with a funky colored bottle of nail polish.

Instead, just buy glow-in-the-dark nail polish. A quick search not only pulls up a lot of different companies and online vendors that sell it, they also use the same exact image as the Pinterest pin! But I'd also like to point out that even with retail glow in the dark nail polish, without a blacklight you will not get the effect depicted here. That's not your standard glow-in-the-dark glow. 

Any fans out there with a spare bottle of nail polish and glow sticks want to test this out for me? I'm honestly really curious if it will even set up and harden right. 

Good Idea Friday - Monistat Cream as Face Primer

Monistat as Primer : My Vanity Basics

I first heard about this many years ago on a bargain forum and couldn't believe when I found the pin it was still a thing. I mean come on - it's an anti-chafing cream for a lady's more, uh private, parts, and people are putting it on their face? Just as skeptical now as I was years ago when I heard about it, I decided to do more research on it.

Lets start by taking a look at the ingredients of Monistat gel vs Smashbox primer (here is where I warn you that when they say Monistat, they are talking about a certain anti-chafing gel, not the yeast infection medication. Please don't just grab any monistat product and start rubbing it on your face.)

Smashbox Ingredients:

Original Photo Finish
Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Dimethicone, Trisiloxane, Silica, Dimethicone/ Vinyldimethicone Crosspolymer, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Extract, Propylene Glycol, Water (Aqua, Eau), Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract, Cola Acuminata Seed Extract, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract.

Monistat Chafing Relief Gel Ingredients:

Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Silica, Tocopheryl Acetate, Trisiloxane

In fact, chances are any face primer you grab will have at least dimethicone in it. The science behind it that basically dimethicone stays on the surface of your skin, helping to minimize the appearance of wrinkles and pores and prevents your foundation or base from rubbing off. I can't say if it's really the best thing to be smearing on your face (most reports say it's pretty harmless, but some say dimethicone adds to your skin drying out and over time can cause more problems, and that its not biodegradable, so there's always the environmental factor of it.) Also most major primers have added moisturizers and SPF added to them to better aid your skin. 

So does it work? Yes, as well as the Smashbox primer does. Pretty much all cosmetic companies today have a facial primer on the market, and as much as they vary, the one thing in the common they all share is dimethicone. It's the price point that wins most people over; an ounce of Smashbox primer can cost over $40, whereas a bottle of Monistat anti-chafing gel? Around $6 a bottle from Amazon. 

Jello Lip Stain

Use Jello as a lipstain! Pour the powder mix into a bowl and moisten a Q-Tip with water. Then, being very careful not to use your fingers since the red stains stay put, dip the Q-Tip into the powder and apply it directly to your lips.

This has to be one of the more stranger pins I've found on pinterest. It's not that it wouldn't work, but it more or less confuses me. The dye in jello is the same used in food coloring. It would probably be easier to carry a small bottle of red food coloring and dab that onto your lips instead of carrying around a packet of powdered jello. If you're looking for a more natural route, you could probably keep a slice of raw red beet in a zip top bag and use that instead. 

So what do you think? Anyone wanting to trade in their favorite lipstick for a packet of jello? 

Good Idea Friday - Fix Your Broken Makeup

"A few drops of alcohol in broken make up will fix it."

 

How to Fix Broken Make up : Small Notebook

Who doesn't have a few of these laying around? You love the color of the blush or eyeshadow but one wrong drop on the bathroom floor or whacked around in your handbag has it in pieces. If you're anything like me you want to hold onto it, trying your best to use it even if it ends up spilling and flaking everywhere. 

Well there is a easy way to fix that, one we also probably have laying around - rubbing alcohol. As soon as I read about this tip it was "why didn't I think of that?" - alcohol is a liquid that evaporates rather quickly unlike water. Just a few drops mixed into the broken make up, stir with a tooth pick and flatted back out, and within 24-48 hours you'll have your make up back together again. 

I have tried this myself and it worked great, which sent me digging through my make up box trying to find anything I could try it on. I tried it on some loose mineral make up - both face powder and eye shadow - but with mix results. The alcohol did help it form together, and after it dried it looked like regular make up, but after a day of being carried around it broke back up into loose powder. My guess is that mineral powders lacks the necessary binders added to most make up to make them form together in the first place. 

The other thing is that I noticed the make up I repaired still tended to break and chip more than my other make up, so I'd suggest that the make up you repair should be kept tucked in a make up box at home, not tossed in your purse or case for a night out. But hey if it breaks again, you know how to repair it.