It’s been a long time, Mary Kay!

When I was a teenager, my mom and my sister and I used Mary Kay products faithfully…I had the skin mask, toner, balancing lotion, foundation, and some very bright shades of lipstick (Hot pink? What was I thinking??*)

*fortunately, the pictures of me with hot pink lipstick aren’t scanned, so I have a good excuse not to show you.

Anyway, I have soft spot in my heart for Mary Kay, and so I was delighted to receive a box of Mary Kay products to review.

Before we get to the makeup, we’ll talk about the TimeWise® products I received. Microdermabrasion, from Mary Kay, has two products that work together. The first is a slightly gritty wash, and the second is a rub-on lotion. I’ve been using it on one side of my face but not the other to see if there’s an appreciable difference, but I think it’s too soon to tell.

Fine lines are one of the main things this product is supposed to fight, so if you’ve got problems with those, you’d probably notice a difference more promptly than me (thanks to my oily skin, I have more zits than fine lines!)

In addition to the TimeWise® products, I also got a pile of makeup. Woo!

This is a pretty sweet Mini Compact for eyeshadow and cheek color. The mineral colors are all in magnetized, metal containers that stick to the bottom of the compact.

So they can’t fall out, and you can make your own customized compact by buying just the colors you want.

Underneath the makeup is a handy-dandy little compartment for brushes.

The mineral eyeshadow is easy to apply, and it stays put very nicely.

I think my favorite thing was the Mary Kay mascara, though. The Lash Primer goes on before the mascara, and you guys, I swear this makes the mascara work better. I got mascara to stick to my very skimpy bottom lashes, and my top lashes looked way better than usual.

I got several different varieties of mascara as well, but hands-down, my favorite was the Ultimate Mascaraâ„¢.

In general, my main complaints about mascara are:

a) clumping,

b) the way it comes off over the course of a day (I know that could be fixed by using waterproof mascara, but usually I don’t want to mess with that.)

c) clumping.

I hate clumpy mascara.

I’m pleased to report that with the Ultimate Mascaraâ„¢, I’ve had little to no trouble with clumping, and once it’s on, it stays on. The combo of the Lash Primer and the Ultimate Mascaraâ„¢ makes my lashes look better than they ever have.

I also got to try out some NouriShine Plusâ„¢ Lip Gloss.

The two bright colors are a little loud for my complexion, but the Café Au Lait color in the middle is perfect. It adds just a little bit of color and shine and doesn’t scream, “I’m wearing lip product!” Love, love, love it.

Sometimes lip gloss is kind of sticky, but this is not. And it doesn’t leave a funky taste on your lips either.

The TimeWise® products are the most expensive of the bunch, but my favorite products, the mascara and the primer, are in the $15 and under range (so is the lip gloss). And honestly, they work so much better than the mascara I’ve used previously, I think they’re worth the extra money. If you’ve been having trouble with clumping or with mascara that won’t stay neatly on, you should totally give the lash primer and Ultimate Mascaraâ„¢ a try.

Speaking of that, one of you will get to try some Mary Kay products for free, courtesy of BlogHer!

To enter, just tell me your greatest beauty tip for an opportunity to win a fabulous Mary Kay gift basket.

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 19 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 11/19/12–12/31/12.

Be sure to visit the Mary Kay page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

I was provided with Mary Kay products to use and review, and was compensated for this post, however, all opinions are my own.