After a little vacation last week, I am glad to be back and bringing you new reviews, with this week's focus on Sugar Cosmetics. I'm also busily testing skin care, drugstore finds, and fall cosmetics, and I still appreciate your suggestions!

Sugar Cosmetics
With all the bath products and cosmetics out now that smell like food, particularly sweet, sticky food, it makes me wonder if we are all depriving ourselves of the sweet stuff in our diets and are making up for it in the powder room. In whatever form you choose, let's live a little with some sweet indulgences :) Sugar Cosmetics is a line geared toward the youth market, but all you need is a desire for shimmer and smelling like vanilla pudding, and you can appreciate Sugar at any age.

Sugar Shine ($11.50)
This is a sticky, gooey lipgloss in a pot with a screw-top lid. You can apply with your finger or use a lipbrush. Sugar Shine comes in 8 shades; I tried sparkle, a pale coppery pink; love, a sheer medium rose; and valentine, a sheer berry red. Since they are fairly sheer, you can easily wear Sugar Shine alone or over your favorite lipstick. All shades have flecks of sparkle, a sugary vanilla scent, and are very shiny.

LipHabit ($19)
For the girl on the go, this clever duo has a lipstick on one end and a coordinating gloss on the other. You can pop one in your purse or pocket and be ready for touch-ups anywhere. LipHabit comes in 6 shades; I tried takeoff, a highly wearable "everyday" brownish pink lipstick with clear plain gloss (my personal non-sparkly favorite); princess, a very pale pink lipstick with very sparkly pink gloss; and famous, another highly wearable "everyday" mauve pink lipstick with slightly white-clear glitter gloss (my choice number two).

Sugar Lips Palette ($16.50)
If you are not only on the go, you need an entire lip color wardrobe with you, then this micro-palette is right up your alley. It's credit card sized (and just a bit thicker) and holds 10 tiny squares of gloss and a small lipbrush. The shades range from super-glittery silver to racy orange to sultry red to go-with-everything clear. This is a fun little compact to have in your bag or office drawer.

Sugar Eyes Spring Palette ($18.50)
Everything was going well with the lip products, so I moved on to the eye color palette. It firmly reminds me that I am not 16. Not even close. Who wears these colors?? This 30-something mom felt downright silly jaunting around town wearing bright blue eye shadow and raspberry eye glitter. For the fearless, you might enjoy the vibrant sky blue, copper with gold sparkle (the most wearable of the bunch), rose with pink sparkle, and pink with rose sparkle shadows that this palette offers. Pair any of those with the creamy raspberry glitter (not really a shadow, but straight smooth-on glitter) and you're ready for a night on the town, or maybe just a trip to the mall or out to lunch. How you wear your glitter is entirely up to you. As for me, I plan to steer clear and go back to my nice palette of neutrals (specifically Laura Mercier Eye Paints, in case you're wondering).

Sweet Cheeks ($15)
This is a cream blush in a large, twist-up lipstick-style tube. It's smooth and blends easily, but I'm not crazy about the colors. Brown sugar is more like a highlighter, tickle is such a bright cotton candy/bubble gum pink that it's not very flattering (unless you like the porcelain doll look), and bee sting is too red to look natural unless you are committed to very thorough blending. Of all the choices in cream blush, I would go with another brand like Stila Convertible Color or Stila Sport Color Push-Ups, Calvin Klein Cheek Color Wash, or Nars The Multiple.

Sugar Stix ($15)
Call me crazy, but it makes me nervous to have glitter near my eyes. I can stand it in shadows if it's a very fine texture, but since eye liner gets so close to the inside edge of the lid, I was afraid every time I used these pencil liners that my eyes would get irritated. Thankfully they didn't, and the kit of three neutral colors (night club: brown, navy and black) actually worked pretty well for me. Sugar Stix also come in wonder, a set of three softer shades (silver, rose and blue), all with copious amounts of glitter. They are very creamy and glide on easily, but they do also smudge easily, so be sure to set them with a touch of loose translucent powder so you don't get raccoon eyes.

Sugar Cosmetics are available online at Sephora.com and Nordstrom.com, and in retail stores like Nordstrom; check your area for stores that carry it.

I hope you enjoyed this issue of The Cosmetic Report!