Kids Corner Review: My Makeup

[cjvitek]

My Makeup, by AppsNMinded
$1.99, Four stars

Pros:

• Fun for girls to apply makeup
• Different types of faces

Cons:

• Odd British accent for all girls
• No hair styles
• No way to save images
• Sometimes very "picky" or buggy

I remember when my sister was growing up, she had some sort of "Barbie Makeup Head" or something like that - it was a bust of Barbie (minds out of the gutter - it was the head!) and you could put makeup on it.

Well, in 2009, that concept has come to the iPhone. I was perusing apps the other day, and my daughter was looking over my shoulder, saw this one, and insisted I buy it. Okay, we will give it a shot.

The concept is simple - you get to apply makeup on various heads to make them look pretty. You start off by choosing one of four heads (each has a name) as your template. You then start choosing the various makeup options to include.

Makeup options include lipstick, eye shadow, eye lash stuff, blush, nail polish, and even earrings and tattoos on the cheeks. Each "type" of makeup has a variety of colors, patterns, or designs to choose from. You also have a tissue to wipe of makeup if you want.

Each head has a name (as I said) and you can double tap the screen when applying makeup to make the girl say something like "Wow, I look great" or "Fabulous!". For some reason, each girl has a British accent - maybe that sounds more sophisticated?

Applying the makeup can be somewhat frustrating. Rather than use a paintbrush style approach, you simply have to bring the makeup application tool to the area the makeup is suppose to go. For example, just slide the lipstick applicator over the lips to turn them the correct shade. In practice, however, I found a few times when the application didn't work - I had to choose another makeup type, then go back and reapply the one that didn't take the first time. There were also a few bugs in the program where the makeup applicator remained on the screen even after I applied the makeup.

In addition, for things like eyes and cheeks, you need to do each one individually. You can't simply take the eye shadow and do both eyes - you need to choose the eye shadow, do one eye, choose the color again, and then do the second eye. You can't use the same color on both eyes without re-choosing it.

Lastly, there is no way to save or email the faces you create. In my opinion, this is the biggest mistake. My daughter was working on applying the makeup, finished, but there was no way to save the face to the camera roll (other than taking a screen capture). This is something that the application SORELY needs - my daughter wanted to email her face to her grandmother, but there was no built in method to do that.

It would be nice to have different personalities and voices, and maybe add hair styles as well.

All in all, my daughter had fun with the app, overlooking the problems I noted below (kids are like that). From her perspective, the app was a solid five star app. But from a review perspective, I have to give it fewer stars because of the issues listed above. Because my daughter liked it so much, I give it four stars, but it really needs to fix some of the issues listed above (IMO) to earn that rating. Four out of five stars.

Rating scale:

* = No redeeming qualities or features, probably not worth it even if it is free
** = Few redeeming qualities, or is simply isn't worth the price
*** = Some good features but also some clear flaws.
**** = A solid app, worth the money if interested, a few flaws or problems or slightly overpriced
***** = Top of the line app, no problems or drawbacks.

Price is factored into the ratings. Ratings are lowered if I feel the price of the app outweighs the benefits/enjoyment/features it provides. Likewise, an app that is a good value for the money will have a higher rating.