New Goodies: Stila Summer

I just got two items from Stila's Summer collection - the peachy keen luminizer duo and the new/limited edition multi-effect mascara.

The mascara felt immediately different before I opened it - the tube is oversized, and I noticed there's more product (.54 oz) in this package than your average mascara, drugstore or high-end. It's also weighted, I think.

The mascara wand is long, with a thin curved brush at the end. The thinness of the brush makes it very easy to get at all those little teeny lashes on the bottom and in the corners of the lid. One coat mostly emphasized the length, but after two coats, I was very pleased with the volume and thickness it gave my lashes. The formula is fairly thin, so it didn't get clumpy. Overall, I feel that this is actually a great bargain for $20 because of the large amount of product and the great performance.

The peachy keen All-Over-Glow is $28, which includes both a sheer matte blush in peach and a separate slide-out compartment with All-Over-Shimmer. I was pleasantly surprised by this product, because the color of the blush was very complimentary but also very natural - lately I've been using blushes so pigmented they need a very light touch with a skunk brush to be wearable. This seems like it'd be a great gift for a teenager or anyone who wears minimal makeup. It's portable, and the all-over-shimmer really does add a 'glow' rather than being over the top shimmer that has been popular the past few seasons. And again, since you get 2 fullsized products in the $28 compact, it's really a decent bargain, and the cute floral packaging appeals to Stila Girls.

Another product in the summer lineup are the Aztec-inspired shadow trios. In three different color assortments of greens, browns, or purple/plums, for $32 these are the same shimmery, medium pigment shadows as the Stila singles (I totally hate it when companies make quad shadows that are lower quality than their singles). I can't really go for the purples but the neutral and green trios are super wearable. I didn't purchase one because they seem very similar to other Stila shades I currently own like Wheat, Holly Golightly, Sage, and so on. But for collectors or people with a more reasonably sized stash, they're a pretty splurge.