Chanel and Givenchy Blushes, Gucci Foundation, and Hourglass Setting Powder

These are some of my newest purchases. I wanted to include them in my previous luxury post, but I didn’t want to rush through the testing process. So, I essentially split them into smaller parts. With the holidays approaching and my interest in luxury makeup still at an all time high, I’m sure there will be more to come.

Givenchy Prisme Libre Loose Powder Blush in 6 Flanelle Rubis

In the order of the swatches clockwise: 4, 2, 3, 1

In the order of the swatches clockwise: 4, 2, 3, 1

If I didn’t have experience with the Prisme Libre Setting/Finishing powder, I would never have gotten this because I would have assumed it would be too messy, but the tape method (controlling how many holes are open) works wonders. I still don’t see the benefit of having four different shades of face powder, but it’s quite enticing to have four blush options in one with the ability to custom mix shades. Suddenly the $43 price seems like a bargain if two or more of the four colors are appealing.

I purchased the deepest option from Givenchy, but I expected the two lightest ones not to work. I was pleasantly surprised that despite being so light on my skin, the color shows through as I blend them in, perhaps becoming one with my foundation in deepening the shade. I still have to build them up a bit, and the lightest one remains subtle, but the second-lightest is easier to see after just a couple of layers. The third darkest in depth just takes one well blended layer to be seen and is my favorite out of all of them. It’s like a dark coral-peach. The darkest looks quite beautiful if applied in a sheer layer as a flush of color, but this is the only one of the four that is stubborn to use. I don’t consider the need to build up a blush to be an issue, unless it adds a significant amount of time to my makeup routine. Additionally, needing to spend more time to blend because it grips wherever it first touches the skin, like this red one, is what I consider a flaw. I can get it to look smooth if I spend enough time buffing it, but I don’t like how much effort it takes. It even hinders my ability to enjoy using this blush with all the sifter holes open because I can literally see where the red powder looks patchy on my cheek and isn’t blending as easily with the other shades. So, to avoid all the extra work, I keep that one completely blocked. So, the ways I’ve been using this blush is with the third darkest shade by itself or the three blendable colors together.
Also, none of these fade on me. They last on my cheeks all day.

It’s my preference right now to wear shimmery (but not metallic) blushes or ones with a sheen. This blush is a bit more matte than I’d like, but it’s at least not flat matte, which is why I still like it. The quality of the powder is nice, but when it comes to blushes, there are a ton that I love. A lot of brands, including ones from the drugstore, can make a fantastic blush. So, the quality isn’t a good enough reason for me to add to my collection anymore. Being a good performer is a given, but now I also require pretty packaging and colors that fill me with excitement the moment I see them on my cheeks. I think the black lid with the mirror on top and pink Givenchy logo looks very nice. The shades are complimentary to my skin tone as well, so I’m happy to have it, but my other blushes are so good that this would still fall into the middle of the pack if I had to rank my collection. The custom mixing feature is what helps keep this worth the price and not regret buying it.

Lastly, I just wanted to add that the blushes are heavily perfumed and even stronger than my face powder. I don’t know if this is just a discrepancy between the full-size face powders or the newly produced mini face powders. I also can’t confirm if all the mini powders are like that or if it just happens to be mine. Fortunately, despite how strong it is when I initially apply the blush to my cheeks, I can’t smell it once I’m finished blending it in.
Also, this blush container is the same size as the mini of the powder.

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder – Talc Free in Translucent Deep

I feel quite lucky to have gotten this for less than full price when Sephora accidentally listed this and the other new shade on the website for $36 instead of $49. I prefer Hourglass’ finishing powders, but as far as setting powders go, I am still very happy with this.

As someone with dry skin who doesn’t use the same amount of powder as I see a lot of other people use on social media, I’m not a good resource for face powder recommendations for anyone who needs oil control to be tested. What I can say is that this powder succeeds in not making my dry skin look drier. I’m able to use this under my eyes without it darkening anything, like some powders do. It’s super finely milled. It’s smooth and blends right into the skin to mattify without looking powdery. The finish just looks like skin, it’s so natural looking.

This reminds me of the Laura Mercier Powder, but even more lightweight. I preferred Laura Mercier’s Medium-Deep version over their original translucent shade, but I used it knowing it would make me look slightly darker. This shade Deep from Hourglass is exactly the kind of color I wanted from Laura Mercier, but couldn’t get. It’s got the yellow tone, like Laura Mercier’s Honey, but it’s a better depth for me.

With that in mind, I think this one from Hourglass should have been called Medium-Deep, and hopefully they will release a fourth version that’s darker. Even though these powders are “translucent” they are still capable of leaving a cast if they are too far off from the wearer’s skintone. I’m not sure how well this will work on someone with a Deep-Dark skin tone several shades darker than mine.
I’m a little more hawk-eyed when it comes to what Hourglass does, because of their past shenanigans, but I give them props for expanding even this far. Their Deep is darker than Pat Mcgrath’s Deep that I really didn’t like anywhere besides my under eyes (just as the product name suggested).

I attempted to do a flashback test, but my current cell phone camera with flash just makes everything washed out. I couldn’t see a cast when I took a picture using my old cell phone camera with flash on, so I’m going to say that it passes, but I don’t know how it’ll be with flash photography from a professional camera.

Gucci Eternite de Beaute Foundation in 410N (deluxe sample)

I have to start off stating the obvious that it’s quite strange that the shade I purchased in the original Gucci foundation has a smaller number and is listed as being in the medium category, yet the sample I got from Sephora of the new foundation is a higher number and described as medium-deep, yet it’s lighter than the original.
Selfridges had this on sale for $27 in January 2023, and I assumed the price was low because it just wasn’t selling well and was going to be discontinued to make room for the new line. However, the original arrived looking quite separated in the bottle and I can’t help but wonder if the formula went off and the color darkened considerably, and if this could be why it was marked down so low to get rid of it quickly. The first time I wore the original it transferred beyond anything I’d ever seen before. I could literally swipe it off my face and leave a completely bald spot without a drop of foundation lingering, like wiping food off one’s chin. I had no idea if mine was like this because it had turned, or if the original was supposed to perform this way. That’s why I never reviewed it, along with the fact that it was way too dark for me.

This new foundation is much nicer and is surprisingly close to my correct shade! I’d estimate it’s just one shade darker. At some point I’ll be caught in a position that I’ll forgot to reapply sunscreen, and this color will be spot on. Demonstrations of me wearing it are in the Givenchy and Chanel blush sections of this post. It’s described as, “luminous matte,” but I consider it a semi-matte or natural finish at most. I have foundations that make me look a lot more luminous, as seen in other pictures I’ve taken throughout this blog. The only time I get shiny is because of the Florida heat. Then, it just takes me dabbing away the moisture to look matte again. My natural oils coming through after many hours of wear only leads to the tiniest bit of glow, but still not to the level of my actual radiant type of foundations.
I get nearly full coverage with two pumps and it’s possible to build up to full, but it can look a little mask-like because it’s not a 100% shade match for me, so I prefer a less is more approach with this foundation. This is also not the kind of foundation I would set with powder, considering my skin type. It has a self setting quality to it anyway so that if I touch my face, I don’t see any foundation on my finger. This foundation feels a bit dry unless I wear moisturizing products with it, such as facial oil.

Overall, it looks pretty in the full-coverage and matte way. Since those aren’t my preference anymore, I can’t say for sure whether that impacts my memory of liking the Nars Soft Matte foundation way more than the one from Gucci since I wore them at different points in time. So, I guess take it with a grain of salt when I say I recommend the Nars, which is $20 lower in price, over the Gucci foundations. I just know that I won’t be buying the full size of the new one and the old one will be decluttered.

Chanel Excel Blush / Chanel Douceur D’Équinoxe Blush Harmony in 797 Beige & Corail and 798 Beige Rose & Mauve

I spent hours agonizing over which of the two blush shades to purchase. Rose et Mauve was the more unique color offering from Chanel, but I knew a shade like Beige et Corail would be used way more often by me (provided it showed up). I tried to apply the lesson I learned from my post called Blushes So Good I Needed Another…or So I Thought. When it comes to buying more than one blush, whichever shade I love most is the one I’m going to use 9 times out of 10. So, I decided to go with Beige et Corail. After watching many videos and seeing a photo of Rose et Mauve on someone with a dark skintone, I started wanting that other shade even more. Ultimately, when it came back in stock on Chanel’s website, I took my chance and bought it before it sold out again.

On the left is the blush and bronzer. On the right and below the blushes are worn on a face without bronzer in order to show them distinctly.

The Beige and Corail shade takes a lot of product to show up on me. Using my Sonia G Smooth Buffer brush, I have to swirl my brush in the compact (trying to focus pressure more on the outsides where the orange part is the most exposed) five times and apply that amount to the face in three layers in order to get the opacity I want. I can definitely see it in person, but the shade matches my foundation color too closely in photos. I’ve made so many attempts, but I cannot get any better than the two pictures I posted here. In photos, it just looks too much like a bronzer. However, how it looks in person is much more important to me, so on that front I’m happy with it. I can wear it all day with no fading. It has tiny micro shimmer that keeps it from looking flat matte. It’s just so pretty on the skin, so I’m glad I bought it. Also, considering how much swirling into the compact I need to do, I’m surprised to see how much of the leaf detail is still visible on the surface. They’re starting to wear down in some places, but I probably still have a ways to go before it’s gone, and those that don’t need to build up this blush as much will have it last even longer.

Rose and Mauve takes a single layer of three swirls into the compact to get a visible flush of color on my cheeks. I like that it’s more pigmented. It’s still a bit darker of a blush than my usual tastes, but I focus on picking up product mainly in the double C’s so that there’s more pink than plum on my cheeks. I think this is why I ended up surprisingly liking this blush. I like the look even more when I apply this lightly and add Beige Coral on top.
Essentially the combination gives a pinkier rosier flush. It’s similar to the combination I created when I mixed Fenty’s RiRi and Big Melons together, which is yet another mauve and orange-coral mashup. I tried taking a picture of them mixed, but it just looks like a slightly lighter application of Rose and Mauve in the photos.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m happy I bought them both!

That’s everything for today! Thank you for reading!

-Lili

Blushes So Good I Needed Another…or So I Thought

Today’s post is a slight twist on my series. Generally how it goes is that at one point I purchased a blush and loved it so much that I needed to get the same one in another shade! The first part can be found HERE as well as the second one HERE.
However, I’m not so sure buying the additional shades was a good idea for each of these new cases.

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna

Fenty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Blush in Big Melons and RiRi

My first time reviewing Fenty’s cream blushes was actually in Part 1 of this series.
These don’t have any extra special traits like an atypical cream texture, being transfer-proof, or being super blendable. However, I appreciate its dependable formula that’s pigmented yet buildable, and even easier to blend after it has been warmed up. It lasts all day. It doesn’t disturb my makeup underneath it. It’s not patchy. It mixes well with other cream blushes. My first two haven’t changed in texture, smell, or performance in over three years since I’ve had them even though they’re only marked to be good for 12 months after opening. Admittedly, my tendency to scrape out product instead of dipping directly into it might have played a part in minimizing exposure to things.
The other reason I loved these blushes is the shade variety, having my favorite tone of red-brown in blushes and also having a coral option, my other top favorite blush color.

My absolute favorite cream blush formulas (not counting putty or bouncy) are from LYS and One/Size. This is because I prefer having products that look creamy and skin-like but set down or have minimal transfer. The fact that these remain creamy feeling (though not sticky) on the cheeks and will leave color on my finger if I touch my cheek, is one of the drawbacks that keep me from using them on a more regular basis. Yet, for some reason, when Fenty released five new shades, I couldn’t resist getting a mauve and coral-orange to see if they would be new favorite colors as well.

In trying out the new shades, I discovered that as pretty as Big Melons looks, I still prefer Strawberry Drip a little more. I don’t always like pink corals, but I’ve realized that I tend to prefer them over orange corals. I’m still content enough to keep it. As for RiRi, I discovered that what foundation I’m wearing plays a huge role in whether or not I’ll like the color on my skin. When I wear it on top of a yellow toned foundation, such as Estee Lauder’s Hydra Futurist Foundation in 5W2, more of the purple tone stands out within this mauve color. It has an almost bruise-like look on my cheeks. When I wear it on top of a more golden/orange foundation, as is the case with the Nars Light Reflecting Foundation in 3.3 Caracas, RiRi looks like a deep pink, which I find to be a lot more flattering. Nars lists that foundation color as neutral, but their version of neutral for the medium-deep shades is more like a balance between yellow and red, hence orange.

My apologies for the first set of photos being a bit too warm/dark. One of my usual lights wasn’t on and I didn’t realize it made such a difference. When I retook the photos the next day, I didn’t realize those new ones had a slight green tinge (they look good on my cell phone screen but not on my laptop screen). So, I decided not to use those. Instead, this second batch of photos is my attempt to digitally correct the original ones.

I also noticed that when I mix RiRi and Big Melons together, it becomes a pretty pink shade. So, while I don’t think RiRi or Big Melons look as pretty on their own as Rose Latte or Strawberry Drip on their own, I’m very satisfied with the color the two turn into when combined.

I should also mention that I didn’t forget about the Fenty Double Cheek’d Up: Freestyle Cream Blush Duo, but I haven’t used it again after reviewing it. Those shades being less pigmented and more emollient made the formula just tricky enough to deter me from using it again. If I still don’t use it in the next three months, I’m going to be tempted to depot at least Peony Droppa and put Big Melons in there. That way, I’d have a reason to keep that gorgeous compact.

Glossier

Glossier Cloud Paint in Soar

In my previous review of the Cloud Paints, I included swatches and cheek photos of Dusk, Dawn, Beam, Spark, and Storm. When Soar was released, I thought about how my old Cloud Paints are getting past their time and that I should consider which ones I wanted to repurchase. I decided to get Dusk and Storm as bundle deals from Glossier’s website, along with Soar. Dusk was intended to be my replacement mixing shade, since I always felt it would have been better to mix with than Beam. As for choosing between Storm and Spark, it was a difficult decision, but it came down to me liking the deep rose color more than a straightforward red.

Soar turned out to be brighter than I expected, but just like Storm (previously the newest color before Soar and Wisp), it’s sheerer than the original launch shades. Even though it’s sheerer, I still sometimes mix Dusk into Soar to tone down the vividness, but using fully synthetic bristle brushes instead of my fusion ones or my fingers help me to not go overboard.

Soar applied as lightly as possible while still showing the color (left) and Soar applied heavier, but mixed with Dusk (right).

I used to go back and forth trying to decide which ones I liked more between the Glossier formula or Rare Beauty. I think my answer is solidly Rare Beauty because it’s more opaque in color while still being blendable. It’s far less common nowadays for me to do No-makeup makeup looks, which these are perfect for, so I don’t get much use out of the Cloud Paints compared to the Soft Pinch Liquid Blushes. Since I now know which one is my top liquid blush, I probably shouldn’t have purchased anymore Cloud Paints. However, they’re so pretty that I can’t really regret it.

Rare Beauty

Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in Virtue and Worth

I’ve been craving more natural blush tones from Rare Beauty, so I thought for certain the two new shades would be an absolute hit with me. I was in another position where Joy and Love needed to be replaced and I had to decide if it was better to repurchase my old favorites or take a chance on the new ones. I didn’t want four full-size products considering I used Joy and Love quite a lot and still couldn’t even finish them up despite being minis. I’m sure they’re nearly empty, but recently they finally showed signs of being too old. So, I don’t want to put them on my face anymore.

Virtue was a risk whether the peachy-nude would show up on my skin tone. It does, but it’s definitely subtle. It’s still a little too beige in color to really suit me, so I don’t think I’ll be reaching for this very often except to mix with other brands’ liquid blushes.
Worth was the shade I was banking on liking the most. I typically mixed Joy and Love together, and I thought Worth would look like a combination of the two, but it’s not. Worth is more neutral as opposed to the warm pink I get when mixing the others. I still think it’s a pretty shade, but it’s not as complimentary on my skin tone by comparison.
I’ve mixed Virtue and Worth together before, but I prefer using Worth by itself instead.

Both of these new shades appear to be less pigmented. I use way more product with the new shades, and it’s not because they’re lighter colors. It shows up with the usual amount, but I add more because I have to build up the opacity.

I really should have stuck to my favorites and purchased a full size of Joy and Love instead of the new ones. In addition, months later I grew curious about Juvia’s Place blushes and purchased shades similar enough in my collection to replace them. The formulas aren’t the same, but the colors are pretty enough to satisfy me. The Rare Beauty ones are very pigmented, but much easier to use than the even more super pigmented Juvia’s Place liquid blushes. But, since I have those, I really shouldn’t replace Joy and Love at this point. Plus, I’ve been experimenting with combining Virtue and Worth with JP’s blushes and it has yielded some pretty results. So, I’m making these work, but in reality the best option would have been to not purchase any JP ones at all, nor the new Rare Beauty ones, and just repurchase my favorite two.

BareMinerals

BareMinerals Gen Nude Blonzer in Kiss of Spice and Kiss of Copper

Kiss of Rose is one of my holy grail blushes, so it was only natural I grew impatient wanting for a shade extension and eventually bought Kiss of Copper. Ironically, it was shortly after that when Kiss of Spice and Kiss of Mauve were announced. I didn’t think either of the new ones would work for me until I saw customer photos of Kiss of Spice looking way darker than the website photos. And strangely enough, after a few uses, mine darkened in the compact!

Left = Official Product Photo, Middle = After One Use, Right = After Three Uses

Mine is way darker than the website photos! I’ve seen pictures online where some people’s Kiss of Spice blonzers are near enough to the brand’s depiction, while others have compacts nearly as dark as mine. So, it seems like which Kiss of Spice one gets isn’t consistent. I didn’t have that problem with the other two shades I own. This color issue isn’t due to my skin tone because it still looks darker than the brand pictures on my palm in direct light, and it’s even darker when turned away from the light.

In any case, I was actually happy it was deep enough to work as a bronzer on me. I anticipated prior to receiving it that I might have to use it as a highlighter instead, but it’s too dark for that. As a blush, it also looks too dark and unflattering. So, I just use it as a bronzer, but unfortunately it tends to look patchy when used that way.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the “patchiness” is merely another issue of the light hitting it and causing some parts to reflect lighter than other spots, hence making it look uneven in color and appear to be missing color in spots where the lighter gold is blending too well with my skin tone. Considering a person is typically in various types of lights throughout the day, it’s not good to have a product that looks unpredictably terrible in some situations, while not in others. I’ve been able to “cover up” the patchiest parts when paired with the other blushes. Perhaps it’s because they reflect differently. I’m not sure. All I know is that I’ve found a use for Kiss of Spice that I like, but I should have skipped that one. As for Kiss of Copper, it’s pretty, but I will reach for Kiss of Rose much more often since it was my favorite of the three original shades anyway. So, once I found my holy grail blush shade and formula, it didn’t make sense to try and find another given the size of my collection.

L’Oreal

L’Oreal 24H Fresh Wear Soft Matte Blush in Daring Rosewood and Fearless Coral

When I saw that L’Oreal released four Infallible blushes, I knew I instantly wanted these two shades. Fearless Coral sold out, but I did get my hands on Daring Rosewood first. I put it on and was so excited because the color looked exactly how I wanted. I looked at it initially and didn’t view myself again. When Fearless Coral became available, I put Daring Rosewood on again to make sure I liked the finish and the blend, so I felt confident ordering it. It wasn’t until I was removing my makeup at the end of the night that I wasn’t as happy with how my blush looked. It was so much darker and less pink. I thought perhaps it just reacted with something else new I was wearing, but it’s every time. Unfortunately, these blushes do darken up on my skin within ten minutes. In the case of Daring Rosewood, it goes from muted neutral pinky brown to mainly brown. With Fearless Coral, it deepens and looks more fuchsia in color. It made me think of those PH adjusting products, but the ingredients list Red Lake 28 instead of Red Lake 27. I can’t remember the other blush I owned that also was Red Lake 28 that I mistook for the PH adjusting type too. I’m not a fan of this level of brightness, but if I apply it lightly, it can look pretty.

Because Daring Rosewood is a tame color on me, I don’t have to worry about how much I apply or the fact that there’s a lot of kickup. As for Fearless Coral, even with one dip into the pan, my instinct is to panic because it looks so intense on my cheeks. I always have to remind myself to trust the process and just keep blending because it does blend out.

Longevity isn’t an issue with these. I like that they’re not the kind of mattes that make my skin look dry. My issue with them is still what happens very quickly after they sit on my skin and I only have myself to blame for not paying attention after the initial application. On the bright side, applying Daring Rosewood to my cheeks and then Fearless Coral on the apples gives me a pink that certainly shows up, but isn’t as intense overall by it being in a smaller area with a more neutral color around it. Sometimes I’m perfectly content to grab two blushes at a time to mix, but I will end up using it less often overall.

Bobbi Brown

Bobbi Brown Sculpted Glow Face Palette in Deep and Bobbi Brown Brightening Blush in Blushed Burgundy and Blushed Coral

I previewed Blushed Burgundy here, and really liked it, but I have to admit that the Sculpted Face Glow palette in Deep has a highlighter and blush in similar tones and depth to Blushed Burgundy. Plus, the highlighter is a repeat in my collection.

I don’t completely regret getting the face palette because that bronzer is so pretty on the skin, but Blushed Burgundy makes it feel nearly pointless to have. Between the two red shades, I like the slightly brighter tone on the skin that Blushed Burgundy has over the palette’s Spiced Terracotta. Plus the gold from the blush compact is shimmery without as much of the glitter specks that are in Copper Glow. Hopefully Bobbi Brown will release baked bronzers as singles so no one else has to buy a trio just to get it.

So, I’m happy with Blushed Burgundy, which I purchased first, but I’m less happy with the face trio. At least the packaging is pretty! Plus, Spiced Terracotta is still a color I don’t mind wearing, especially if I apply something brighter on the apples of the cheek with it.

I had forgotten how intense this builds, so it was my mistake overapplying the bronzer in the left photo, as well as the Blushed Burgundy demonstrations.

This final photo of Blushed Coral was added to the post on August 23rd. I managed to get a better representation of the blush (not wearing bronzer with it or the shimmery strips).

As for Blushed Coral, I bought it on sale and rightly assumed it would show up on me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t capture the true color on camera while worn on my face (just the swatch) because no matter what I tried, I could not get a clear picture without direct light, but the shimmer contained in Blushed Coral reflects strongly and does the disappearing act that happens in blushes like Nars Orgasm and plenty of other pinks with gold shimmer. The two above are the best I could get. Also, the shimmer strips in the compact are too light for me to use for highlighter purposes, but I knew that ahead of time. I only wanted to be able to use the coral color, which looks quite vivid and intense in person. I actually have to be careful not to go overboard.

So, the lesson here that I am continually trying to remember, is that if I already have a blush color I love, seeing more colors that I like, will never be able to compete. This concept, of a blush being so good I needed another, works in situations where the original was exciting and pretty, but had me wishing there were colors in the line that were even more tailored to my tastes.

That’s all for today. Have a great week!

-Lili

Valentino, RMS, Real Techniques, and Other July ’22 Purchases Reviewed

To clear up any confusion for those visiting this blog for the first time, I started a project in 2022 to review everything I bought per month in one gigantic post. It was supposed to be part of my low-buy series, but I bought too many things, so it was impossible to keep up with considering I do more in-depth reviews and not first impressions. I haven’t given up on the project though, despite it being a year late.

Tarte Maracuja Juicy Glow in Golden Glow

Tarte has had major hits with their Maracuja line in recent years. I bought this product with the highest of hopes, but this just doesn’t work for me. The base color of Golden Glow is perfect, but the shimmer particles reflect such a pale color. I don’t think buying Bronze Glow, the darkest one available, would change this issue.

The second problem I have is that this lifts up my concealers underneath, particularly the more lightweight liquid ones like KVD Good Apple. I have to do this song and dance with adding concealer or foundation back over the bald spots in layers to cover up what gets removed, and it needs to be covered because the darkness under my eyes extends to that spot and can be seen through it. I’ve tried using my fingers, brushes, a sponge, different brush bristle types, various brush head shapes, picking up product directly from the tube and not swiping it on, warming it up first, etc. Nothing works other than layering product on top, and even that doesn’t look the best.

The final straw is the fact that this product stays creamy. It “sets” but transfers easily even if powdered. It can at least stay on my cheeks for a long time if I don’t touch my face, but the shine always dulls down. As many times as I’ve tried to get it to work for me it just doesn’t. It’s an absolute fail and now that I’ve finally completed this review, it’s going out of my collection. I usually love the same highlighters as Angelica Nyqvist, but I guess our different skin tones and skin types had a huge effect in getting a different experience in this instance.

Jaclyn Cosmetics Sun Bathe Pressed Bronzer in Buns Out and Bare Babe

*Note: Several days before this was scheduled to post, I found out that apparently Jaclyn is closing her two brands. Ignoring what she claims are her reasons, whether this is actually due to avoiding legal issues between herself and the jewelry brands whose designs she was “inspired” by or the public’s knowledge that identical lounge items were pre-existing on websites like Aliexpress and Alibaba prior to her own launches is unknown. As for the fate of Jaclyn Cosmetics, that’s entirely up to the actual owners to decide). I will not be editing or altering what I originally wrote in the review portion, but I wanted to at least address the fact that I know she’s closing her brands and it changes nothing about what I’ve written below.


This is going to be the last product from Jaclyn Cosmetics that gets reviewed on my blog. I’ve discussed my feelings about Jaclyn’s mishaps from the early days already when reviewing the Bronze & Blushing Duo, and explained why I didn’t cut off the brand entirely once they got into Ulta and proved they could make decent products when they weren’t cutting corners. However, to find out through the Forma brand’s financial troubles and court documents (which are available to the public) that Jaclyn was no more than a “collaborator” with zero stakes in the company was it for me. The woman just never stops lying! After making my decision, it certainly didn’t help that Jaclyn realigned herself with problematic Influencers and refuses to own up to anything, including doubling down on the revisionist history of “lipstick-gate.” This, and Jaclyn’s remorseless indirect role in the closing shop of All Things Koze left me feeling absolutely disgusted with her. I’ve never been a Jaclyn hater, but after so much new information came to light, I’m no longer neutral towards her and will not be purchasing anything else from the brand. Conveniently, this bronzer is the last item of hers I’ve yet to review and also the last thing I bought from the brand since a year ago.

So, to those actually wondering whether these bronzers are good or not, they actually are. It made top ten of my powder formulas, specifically, in my most recent Bronzer Ranking post from a few months ago. However, if I included bronzers purchased from this year too, it would have dropped quite a few places lower, and especially if cream rankings are factored in.

What I like is that it’s a soft nearly-silky powder that I can pick up the perfect amount with my brushes and get little to no kickup. It’s pigmented. It has all-day wear. It’s matte, but leaves a skin-like finish. The reason I don’t rate it even higher is because it’s not on the level of baked gelee ones with their sheen. Among the traditional powders, I also find that Mented and Charlotte Tilbury’s bronzers are even easier to blend. Those facts don’t take away from how nicely these bronzers perform and that there are more shade options in Jaclyn’s line than either of those.

When I use one shade alone, it looks great. However, any time I try to mix both Jaclyn colors together, it doesn’t look as nice as I want because this is the type of bronzer that sticks to the skin first and then can be buffed out to a smoother more even appearance. When two different colors stick in different places, it can lead to that more uneven look unless I put a lot more blending effort into it. So, it’s better if I just end up using Buns Out (the more orange toned bronzer) by itself or Bare Babe (the neutral/red leaning one) by itself. Between the two colors, I prefer Buns Out. The new talc-free Nars bronzers are an example of a formula that I can blend two shades beautifully together. Plus, Nars now has nearly the same amount of shades as Jaclyn (9 versus 10). It’s $8 more expensive, but there are options for minis which are naturally a lower price. Ulta occasionally has Jaclyn Cosmetics items on sale for 30-50% off, so if there was ever a time to buy it, it would be during one of those sales.

The brand tries to sell the idea of their products being high end or luxury quality at more affordable prices (and by affordable they mean mid-tier range). The luxury part is subjective, so I’m not going to say anything about that. However, their $32 pricing puts it on par with brands like Fenty, Makeup by Mario, Too Faced, and Tarte. I do find the Jaclyn bronzer performance to be better than those, so kudos to them. The bottom line is that the bronzers are good, but there are plenty that are still better, though for a higher price among the powder formulas in most cases.

Two things that could make or break these bronzers for some people are the fragrance and packaging. This thing is heavily scented! I’ve heard it’s supposed to smell like “toffee,” but mine smell like coffee. It’s the type of makeup that I can actually still smell on my face for a while after putting it on. It’s not a bad smell, but I would definitely prefer if it wasn’t there because of how strong it is and me not being that much of a coffee fan.

The packaging, especially compared to the pan size, is bulky. I know there have been a ton of complaints about the raised “J” on the lid which prevents it from being stackable on top. I keep most of my single bronzers in acrylic compact organizers, so that isn’t as much of a problem for me. I just don’t like the overall size of it being wider and thicker than everything else. Then again, it has a fully wide mirror inside (one that I don’t use), which could be considered worth the bigger packaging size for some people.

I like this bronzer enough to keep Buns Out, but I’m going to declutter Bare Babe. However, I don’t know how much use I’ll even still get out of this considering how much I’m really loving my current top 10.

M·A·C X STRANGER THINGS Powder Blush in He Likes It Cold

I ended up reviewing this in a MAC round-up post HERE, but I forgot about that. So, not only did I take another photo wearing it within the past few months, I also found an older photo with it on as well (and built up). It’s limited edition and was gone from all retailers, but last month it briefly made its return to the Goodbyes/Last Chance section on MAC’s US website. Perhaps it could still be found in stores with discounted makeup, such as T.J.Maxx or CCS/CCO’s.

rms beauty “Re” Dimension Hydra Powder Blush in Sangria (and in the future Maiden’s Blush)

For some very strange reason I haven’t figured out, I did not like this blush for a long time! I tried it 4-5 times within the first five months before giving up on it. It’s only when Sephora put the blushes on sale for $22 at the end of June ’23 that I decided to give Sangria, the only shade I had at the time, one more try. And it was beautiful! I don’t know if it just took time for me to get past the top layer, or I was using different brushes, or my skin being less dry now due to the products I’m using caused an improvement in how it appears on my skin. Whatever the reason, it now looks much better on me.

It looks like it will be extra shimmery in the pan, but it’s like a combination of both shimmer and sheen to create that glow on the skin. Sangria is particularly pigmented, but I consider this a buildable formula and enjoy using my goat hair brushes to buff it into the skin. Maiden’s Blush, however, is either too brown or not pigmented enough in base color to show up on me. It’s similar to Suqqu’s Kafuu blush, but at least that one shows in person. However, the sheerness of this color works to my benefit in now having the perfect blush topper to layer over a matte blush that I want to turn into a shimmery one without effecting the color. It works amazingly for that and without a metallic looking reflect either. The radiance is softer and not texture enhancing on me. It also has good longevity as long as I don’t touch my cheeks too much.

I like that the compacts are refillable. It’s a little bulky in terms of thickness, but it’s smaller in width than most of my other blushes, plus it does include a mirror.

As much as I like this blush now, it’s not to the extreme that I hear others talk about them as though they’re the best shimmery blushes on the market. The original/discontinued Oden’s Eye, MAC Extra Dimension, BareMinerals Blonzer, and Nabla Skin Glazing blushes all top it (though it reminds me the most of Nabla’s texture and finish). I need more time to compare them, but I might like this more than the Gucci Luminous Matte blushes, which are also over-hyped. They’re good, but not “holy grail” type of good to me.

VALENTINO BEAUTY Eye2Cheek Blush & Eye Color in 05 and 07 (and in the future 112 Copper Twilight)

I’ve had the opposite experience of the Rms blushes with these from Valentino. I liked them initially, and the blushes were super creamy feeling for a powder. They were still that way by the time the limited edition shades were released around the holidays last year. But when I used 05 and 07 again between the 6-8 months time frame of having it, I noticed the texture felt a bit different. Then I started using them again more recently and confirmed it’s definitely more dry than it was in the beginning, which makes it harder to blend in an even layer with some parts wetter than others. It’s not a matter of it being dried out. It’s still soft to the touch, but it’s drier than before. I can’t even use my goat hair brushes with them anymore because the pigment gets picked up by the hair and now clings to it so strongly that I struggle getting it off the brush hair and onto my cheeks. So, I’ve switched to using synthetic bristles, but it’s still a bit of effort to work in. They look great on the cheeks and have a very natural look on the skin, but it went from being top tier performance for blendability, finish, and ease of use to being good. I’m satisfied with that, but I have to acknowledge the decline exists.

These blushes were $39 via Selfridges and $48 at US retailers, however the price has gone up now to $52 in the US and I haven’t seen them return to Selfridges after being on sale recently for $26. I don’t know if that means they’re being discontinued there or just purely out of stock. The blushes are supposed to be good for up to 24 months after being opened, but I would not be surprised if it continues to decline over time. With these being so expensive, I thought it was important to note this possibility. As it stands, I still like them, but I can’t recommend them at full price. Not when I love my Suqqu Melting Powder blushes and Armani Neo Nude Color Balms even more.

The brush that comes with the compact works surprisingly well, but because it’s so tiny to hold in my large fingers, I don’t enjoy using it. The red and gold plastic standard packaging looks pretty and lux to me, but it feels incredibly cheap when held because it’s so lightweight. The Suqqu ones are pretty light too, but they succeeded in making it look sleek and chic despite how compact in size the compact is. The Valentino pan size being small, and the rounded top being large because it has to hold the brush, makes it feel unnecessarily big. But, I guess the theme today is that compacts with mirrors are going to be thicker than I want (likely to prevent breakage). Then again, the Suqqu ones have mirrors too.
The Valentino black and gold limited edition compacts with the pointed stud looking “V” logo looks way more fancy to me, enough to forgive the light plastic. I love it! I wish the black/gold packaging was the standard one instead.

As for the Copper Twilight shade, I can only use it as a highlighter, which I don’t mind. It looks smooth and beautiful, but my skin just absorbs it. It’s always gone after several hours wearing it. The other blushes fade, but not at that rate. It might be because I pack so much on my cheeks, unlike the highlighter which I usually apply in as thin of a layer as possible. So, I only wear this in photos and not for going on long outings.

Suqqu AW22 Collection – The items I bought from this collection were reviewed HERE. My favorite one is the 132 Momijigari Pure Color Blush. Suqqu does blushes extremely well, so it’s not surprising. On the other hand, I haven’t used the eyeshadow quads enough to say those were worth me buying, but if I haven’t used them enough in a year, the answer is probably no.
It’s not a matter of quality, but eyeshadow preferences.

Colourpop Super Shock Bronzer in Dream Vacay and Paradise City – I first reviewed these bronzers in my Catching Up With Colourpop Halloween post, and I stand by my review. They are fantastic and made it into my top 3 bronzer formulas and top 10 overall in my Bronzer Ranking post. If I wasn’t concentrating on Charlotte Tilbury’s Cream Bronzer as an unofficial project pan item, I’d have probably finished Dream Vacay by now. As it stands, I hit pan on that shade, my first time ever hitting pan on a product!

However, towards the end of July, I started to have a hard time getting the product to get off my brush bristles and onto my face instead. This happens with my synthetic brushes and beloved Sonia G Mini Base. It’s like I’m picking up more of the emollient agent and less of the pigment. I’m not sure how else to describe seeing the shine, but lack of color on my skin (including the deeper shade) unless I spend quite a long time dipping back repeatedly into the container. This problem started at nearly the one year mark, which in my books is an acceptable amount of time to have a cream product work well. At only $9, this is something I can easily replace and would be willing to on a yearly basis. However, I will not do that while I still have my top cream bronzer, the one from Charlotte Tilbury, still going strong.

Good Molecules Yerba Mate Wake Up Eye Gel– I assume I bought this to reach a free shipping minimum at Ulta, combined with my curiosity for the Good Molecules brand. In the past year, I’ve used it less than a handful of times. About a month prior to completing this post, I considered starting a consistent testing period, but after using it a few more times I decided I would rather test other under-eye products instead. The Yerba Eye Gel is supposed to “fight oxidative damage.” According to symptoms listed on Google, I don’t think I have that. It’s also supposed to be soothing for puffy eyes, whereas I have the opposite issue with eye hollows. While I could certainly use the brightening and radiance effect that supposedly comes from the antioxidants and polyphenols from the yerba mate extract, I would rather try products specifically listed to target dark under eye circles, boost collagen production, or deal with my specific biggest issues for extended testing instead. So, I can’t give this one a proper review.

Real Techniques Enchanted Brushes and Sculpt Contour Brush

I’m not sure how the handle design relates to fairies or magic. My first thought upon seeing those tips specifically is that they look like the mini twist bulbs that I’ve only ever seen on ceramic Christmas Trees.

Real Techniques is capable of making sturdy, highly functional brushes, as well as some duds. Unfortunately for me, this is more of a novelty product than a high quality one. The bristles are quite plastic feeling and the only one that’s dense instead of floppy or airy is the concealer brush. This was a limited edition set, so I don’t have to worry about anyone getting this when there are better brushes available instead.

The Foundation brush isn’t flimsy, per say, but it bends deeply. I can also see visible brush strokes on my face when I use it, so I have to go back over the area a few times to smooth it out.

Instead of using it for foundation, it works better as a slanted liquid and cream blush brush, but only if I don’t care about precision due to the large splay, and the fact that it really sheers out my cheek products. I have to use almost double the amount to get my normal amount of coverage in the case of liquids.

My favorite use for this is with cream-to-powder and baked gelee blush formulas, since the bristles easily pick up so much of the powder product at once, and I can complete my task quicker than if I’d used another brush. The issues I have with it for foundation purposes aren’t a problem with these type of blushes.

The contour brush gets the job done, but it folds easily under pressure, so I have to use firm but short strokes to keep the bristles together when trying to blend cream and liquid products. This brush would have been better if the bristles were shorter and bound more tightly, to allow for stronger buffing power. As it stands, I prefer using this with powder blushes since it doesn’t come to a sharp enough angle for my taste for contouring and bronzing. As a blush brush, it’s like having a knockoff version of the Sonia G Lotus Face Detail brush as a last resort backup.

I’ve had the original setting brush, the newer (full aluminum no rubber) version, and now this one. The original has been my holy grail for setting under my eyes for so many years now, and even the new handle version, but this is one is horrendous. The splay is so much wider, looser, and haphazardly bundled which makes it visibly asymmetrical.

The setting powder applies to a wider area than I prefer, and feels pokey getting in various crevices, so this brush is more suited for me as a dusting brush to sweep away fallout. It’s useful for someone who does the baking technique, which I don’t. The best purpose I’ve found for it is as a highlighter brush, but it’s not as pleasant to use as my favorites. Essentially, it’s another last resort brush, but as a poor imitation of itself.

As seen in the photo, the ferrule got detached from the base during the very first wash. I was holding it in the spot where the ferrule meets the brush head and was squeezing the water out of the bristles and apparently squeezed and tugged too roughly. I didn’t bother to glue it back down because this entire brush set is just going to be set up in a corner looking debatably pretty in my “Cup of Alternative Brushes” reserved for the time I have no clean brushes to use, but deep down I know I will never actually get to them because I’d rather go wash my favorites than have to use the subpar ones.

Funny enough, this is actually the best brush in the set and I would actually use it if it didn’t stand out like a sore thumb by itself. I’d rather keep the set together on display than to use it. In any case, this brush is dense and spreads my Givenchy concealer very well and applies concealer and eyeshadow primer evenly. It does a nice job creating an even layer of cream shadows and decently packs on powder eyeshadows. It’s like a stiffer, but fully synthetic version of the Sonia G Jumbo Concealer brush. I don’t know if Real Techniques has a brush like this in the permanent line, but they should. It’s a good one.

I apologize to the Real Techniques fans for not sugar coating my thoughts on this set. The higher my expectations, the more disappointed I am when it doesn’t live up to it. I know the brand is capable of making better brushes, and in fact, I have plans to review the other brushes I’ve purchased since getting this set. Spoiler alert: I like some of those a lot more! That future review is where the Sculpt Contour Brush will be instead of here. However, I don’t know when exactly that will happen (weeks or months). I’m working on so many different posts all at once. So, be sure to click follow to be emailed whenever I publish something new!

Edit: I finished that Real Techniques post and the link is in blue above.

Smashbox Brush Haul: Blurring Concealer, Precise Cheek, Blurring Foundation, and Full Coverage Foundation

This is my second time reviewing the current line of Smashbox brushes. In 2021, I said I didn’t think I would purchase anymore unless they released a new style. I actually do believe I’ve gotten all the ones that appeal to me this time, and will therefore have nothing left to buy unless they release new shapes.

I’d like to address the fact that even though all four brushes were purchased at the same time from the official Smashbox website, the Precision Cheek has a brighter red handle than the rest. The only other time I’d seen a brighter red was a decade ago before Smashbox revamped the brush line to go fully synthetic. It was their brushes sold in the cheaper travel sets with plastic handles that were brighter red, though not even to this almost neon red level.

I remembered my previous customer service interaction with Smashbox in 2015 when I asked them what type of natural hair they used in their original brushes. Back then, they were transparent with me and still had the information, even though it was about discontinued items. So, I thought it was worth a try to contact their customer service again, regardless of the fact that I bought these a year ago and the bright red could have been a temporary thing. The initial rep didn’t have the information, but gave me their global Consumer Care email. After writing to them, I got a response informing me that my email was received, and less than two hours later I got the official answer. “We would like to confirm that our brush collection was being transitioned to the bright red handle, including the Precision Blush Brush. However, not all brushes were fully transitioned, therefore there is currently a mix of dark red and bright red handles.”

I wrote to them a week prior to this post, expecting it would take that long to get a reply of any kind, so I’m glad Smashbox reps could give me at least more information than I had before, and so quickly too. The “was” and “were” makes it sound as though they were in the process of switching to the bright red at least a year ago when I bought them, but for whatever reason stopped. And apparently if anyone purchases online today, it’s still unknown which color handle they’ll get.

This brush is on the lighter side of medium density, but it doesn’t splay as wide as I feared, so I can still use it precisely. The bristles are instead flexible, and supposed to create a diffused blurred look that way. To be honest, I don’t notice very much diffusing to the point of looking airbrushed like it’s supposed to do (probably due to using such full coverage concealers), but that’s a good thing for me. I prefer to use a small but concentrated amount of concealer to fully cover my areas of skin discoloration. This disperses the product evenly. It also works well for adding primer and cream eyeshadow. I recommend this brush, but only on sale purely because it’s not hard to find brushes that perform exactly like this. For instance, my old Amazon brush set (no longer available via that seller) I’ve had since 2015 came with a similarly shaped brush that ended up being worth less than $1 each. The difference being the Smashbox bristles are a little softer/plush feeling, but not as big of a softness difference as one might expect.

At the $17 price I paid for this Smashbox one, it doesn’t seem worth it by comparison. However, you never really know what quality synthetic hair you’re getting when you order generic sets online. Even the one I bought had a stronger gold tone ferrule in person and didn’t have any logos on the handles, unlike the photo. I only kept 2 or 3 of them and gave the rest away. The one I actively still use from this set, I only use with eye primer because the Sonia G Jumbo Concealer is just the best of all that I have, even if some of the other concealer brushes I own still get the job done well.
In my early beauty hunting days, I purchased several bargain brushes that ended up being unusable. So, something can be said about the security of knowing when you purchase from a long standing brand, there’s a much higher chance for the quality to be there. Even the RT Deluxe Crease Brush performs the same as the Smashbox one, but it’s much more dense and I use it for stickier products like the Smashbox x Becca Under Eye Brightener. The bottom line is this Smashbox brush is good, but there are plenty of alternatives for less. I still don’t mind having it for the half off price that I paid. And at least I haven’t had to deal with the aluminum parts detaching like I do with my generic ones and the RT ones too.

This brush has a very interesting shape that appears from the front like a normal domed head, but it comes to a flat angled point on both sides from the middle to tip. If I use this with bronzer or a sculpting blush, I can put the product on one of those edges and it will fit into the cheek hollows giving me the crisp, but not too sharp, edge that I want.

Although one doesn’t need to use this brush exclusively with cream and liquid products, my natural hair cheek brushes are my favorite type to buy out of everything in the Fude world. So, there’s no way I would choose this or any synthetic one over my natural ones. The only time I use this brush with powder blush is if the powder blush formula is firmly pressed or very sheer and I don’t want to spend time trying to build it up. There aren’t many of those types of blushes in my collection that need something stronger than goat, so that doesn’t happen very often. With cream and liquid blushes, again, I like this for the precision factor and the denseness preventing the product from being sheered out too much. However, since I also have a lot more fusion goat/synthetic mix brushes now, I don’t get much use out of this brush, but I’m glad I have it for those uncommon situations when it’s needed.

This head shape used to be a lot more unique. I have some like it among my fude, but I’m unaware of any dupes among the synthetic brush brands, so this might still be a brush worth looking into for the synthetic bristle lovers. Especially if Smashbox is running another of their promotions for 50% off brushes.

Since I’m reviewing two different foundation brushes from the same line, it makes more sense to me to compare them so someone can decide which of the two they prefer. For starters though, I have to admit my preference for synthetic brushes are the soft plush dense ones, so these are naturally the Smashbox brushes most worth the purchase in my eyes. The Blurring Foundation brush is less dense of the two, with more give under pressure, but the splay is just enough necessary to produce a diffused look. Unlike the Blurring Concealer brush, I can actually see the diffusing effect in this one. It should be noted that most of my foundations are medium buildable coverage. The perk of using the Blurring Foundation brush is that it gives me a streak-free, very natural skin-like finish at the cost of losing a small amount of coverage. I like the end result for everyday use, but not in situations where I’m taking photos and would want more coverage. This also makes a nice cream and liquid blush brush, which I mostly use this for now instead of foundation.

The Full Coverage Foundation brush does allow one to keep the maximum coverage a foundation will allow. I’ve always been impressed with the light/buildble coverage I get from the Rose Inc Tinted Serum Foundation, but now I realize it’s because I always use it with dense brushes like this one. When I used it with the Blurring Foundation brush, I got the advertised sheer/light coverage instead. This brush is better suited for when I’m taking my blogging photos. I can quickly cover my face with product in a streak-free application. However, how quickly blending goes depends on how thin or thick the foundation is. For instance, it’s a breeze with my Nars Light Reflecting Foundation and I can use 1 small pump per side of my face and it’ll look close to full coverage. On the other hand, the Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation is thicker and trying to use less product to avoid a mask-like look takes much more time to blend because it’s not as easy to spread all over the face. So how much someone enjoys this brush could partly depend on the thickness or emollience of the foundation paired with it. I have used the shorter end to apply cream bronzer and it works, but is just too large to give the precision I like. I have also used it with cream blush and it works beautifully. The short side is too densely packed to blend comfortably, but picking up product on the slanted portion allows me to pounce it on my cheeks with ease. However, I mostly just stick to using this brush with foundation.

I’m still partial to my Blendiful, Sonia G Mini Base, and Tarte the Buffer brush, but these two from Smashbox come right after those. Once again, Smashbox proves why it’s one of my go-to brands for factory-made/non-handmade brushes. I can’t speak to the longevity of the newer line, but my oldest Smashbox ones from nearly ten years ago are still going strong. No loose ferrules, no shedding, and they’ve kept their shape all this time.

For additional opinions on Smashbox brushes, I will link to Nikki’s blog, which started the ball rolling on me giving Smashbox’s “new” brushes a chance in the first place.

CDJapan Eihodo Outlet Haul – The three brushes I bought that month were reviewed in my 5th Fude Update post.

That’s all for today! There will be no August monthly purchases since I showed everything that month in separate reviews, and the same can be mostly said for September, so I’m combining September and October in what will be a massive update post! I hope I’ll be able to complete that before the end of October. It makes me happy to be heading for the completion of this series! Thank you for reading!

-Lili

Luxury Makeup Reviews

I’m a little surprised by how many luxury products have tempted me this year. Then again, brands have been expanding their ranges, so I have products available to me now that I didn’t before.

Today’s post will be centered around some of the most exciting luxury makeup items that are newly part of my collection.

Dior Rosy Glow Blush in 012 Rosewood and 020 Mahogany

Dior reformulated their Backstage blushes, if they can even still be considered part of the “Backstage” line, since they removed that part of the official product name. I’ve seen photos on Instagram showing that the older formulation of Pink and Coral are darker than the new ones. I didn’t realize the old Coral could possibly work for me until it was already removed from every website. I even clicked lists I found online that supposedly had the older ones, but the links redirected to either the main page or to the new ones instead. So, the only way I could get the original coral was via third party sources. Since it’s not from an authorized retailer, there’s no way to know if it’s authentic, but I suspect it is compared to photos I’ve seen on Temptalia’s blog, for example. However, I’m only showing swatches and what it looks like demonstrated on my cheeks instead of factoring it into my official review. Today’s focus is on Rosewood and Mahogany that I purchased from Sephora and Selfridges respectively.

Rosewood is not only my favorite shade of the 4 additions to the range, it’s one of my favorite colors in my whole collection. I love how it looks on me! It’s not glowy due to shimmer. It just has a healthy sheen to it. It’s long lasting on my cheeks. In fact, I have to scrub vigorously at the end of the night because it nearly stains my skin. This might also be due to how much I have to use because Rosewood is such a subtle shade on me. I have to build it up a lot, but because it’s so blendable, it doesn’t take long to do it. My preference is using a goat hair brush with it because the powder is firmly pressed and that hair type picks it up easier.

I watched a fair amount of videos on these blushes, and a few people said these were patchy. However, the only one I’ve visibly seen on camera look patchy on others is the same one I have the issue with: Mahogany. There’s a separation between the Red 27 dye and the deeply rich brown color. My squirrel hair brushes can’t pick up the blush well enough, nor my silver fox, but I can use my squirrel/goat mix ones with this. However, even when I do try to patiently use a squirrel brush and blend as sheer of a layer as possible while attempting to build it up, I will eventually start to get more brown than reddish-pink. The random build up of brown in places does not look good on my cheeks. The photos I selected below are the best looking ones of Mahogany on my skin. It’s a balance of showing it as sheer as possible for the color to still get captured by my camera.

There are some videos on YouTube showing how Mahogany looks applied as a normal blush, for example this one by Beauty and the Frizz, or this one by Julie P. And an example of using it with some foundation patted over the top is by The Hooded Lid.

I’ve applied this over a powder-set base, an unset base, tried brushes with different hair types and synthetic fibers, and various brush shapes, but none of the changes made a difference. It still looks patchy on me and the tone of brown just doesn’t look flattering on my cheeks, potentially due to my undertone.
The way that I can continue to use this, and really like it, is as a sculpting blush. I apply it to areas I would normally bronze, making sure to apply it lightly, before adding Rosewood to the main cheek area. I’ve really enjoyed this combination!

My love of Rosewood makes me even more tempted to try Cherry and Berry. I feel certain Berry would perform on me the way Mahogany does, plus I’m super picky about berry blushes. Cherry is gorgeous, but it reminds me of a brighter version of Rosewood from what I’ve seen on other people, and I have several vibrant shades like it in my collection such as Pat Mcgrath’s Electric Bloom, Colourpop x Hello Kitty Aloha Honey, Nars Exhibit A, MAC’s Loudspeaker or Frankly Scarlet, Patrick Ta’s She’s Vibrant, etc. Most of these I barely use, so it doesn’t make sense to buy it, even if I think the color is a beautiful one.

Based on my experience, I recommend them. However, it comes with the warning that there may be a press or formulation issue based on the inconsistencies being reported about patchiness regardless of the shade, and only for some people but not others.

Gucci Luminous Matte Blush De Beauté in 09 Intense Plum

I’ve had mixed feelings about these blushes for a while now, as I mentioned in my review of the Armani Luminous Silk Glow Blushes and my comparison of those to these. So many people rave about them, but I feel no joy when I put them on. The closest I get to liking the color is with Warm Berry, but that shade is exceptionally pigmented. I have to be really light-handed or it looks overdone fast. Intense Plum also has a lot of pigment, but I take a small amount and really work it into my cheeks to make it look a little more natural. I still prefer the tone of Warm Berry, but the depth of the shade makes it harder to look as sheer as Intense Plum can.

I went back and forth deciding if Bright Coral would show up on me and whether it was worth the risk to buy. It’s very faint, and more visible in person, but I’m never satisfied using it alone unless I mix it with one or both of the other shades. In fact, I tend to apply this on top of the others to help tone them down. I’ll need to do a declutter eventually, and I haven’t decided if I’ll be keeping this one or potentially even removing two of them from my collection.

The formula is silky to the touch and goes on the skin smoothly with a soft satin sheen. It’s super quick to blend onto the cheeks if you like a bold look, but because of the pigmentation level of the deeper shades in the range, I have to be careful how much product I pick up and I do need to blend it out a bit. So, to get it as sheer looking on my cheeks as I want, it takes a little longer in my specific case. But the formula itself is quite blendable and long lasting on the skin. For some reason though, I’m just not as impressed with the end result on my cheeks as I feel I should be considering the price. I’m far more interested in keeping that beautiful packaging, which looks much cuter in person than the online photos. I take back every bad thing I’ve said about it being a clip art star pattern. It’s more luxurious than I expected.

Guerlain Terracotta Luminizer Highlighter Powder in 01 Gold

Considering this comes in only two shades and this is labeled 01, I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t work for me, but it does! This contains, “Gemtone: Adapts to skin’s true tone for a natural finish,” according to the description on Sephora’s website. I have no idea how I could prove or disprove that claim, but I thought I’d mention it for those who aren’t anywhere near my skintone and might worry if this will be too dark or too light.
This highlighter is very subtle and only really pops when applied on a dewier surface. This should be my type of highlighter, and I really expected this to be holy grail status, but I’m just not impressed enough considering the price. I hoped this would be my replacement for the 2015 Guerlain Meteorites I was obsessed with and used periodically for 6+ years until I decided it’s too old and put it in semi-retirement. However, the finish of it being less glowy than my Charlotte Tilbury highlighters while not being any more refined in terms of sparkle or particle size either, led me to not be as excited when I use it. I feel this way especially since it is on the lighter side for me and not a perfect undertone match. It’s good, but not fantastic. Even if this did come in the perfect color for me, there’s no guarantee it would raise my opinion of the formula considering PML’s Divine Rose highlighter is not a perfect match either, but I love how that one looks on me!

The packaging is pretty, but I’m not as excited by it as I expected either. When it comes to luxury makeup, the makeup at its best quality is usually still comparable to products from other brands, but the packaging helps make it worth that higher price. Because I think it’s nice but not amazing on the makeup and packaging fronts, this wasn’t worth buying. It’s strange to say I’m the most disappointed by this product out of the bunch in this review, but it’s because I had the highest of expectations for it only to be let down that it’s not at least as pretty on me as my old meteorites. My one tangible complaint that’s less about preferences is that as subtle as it looks in the beginning, the shine dulls down as the day progresses. So, I try to over-apply hoping it’ll last longer.

I honestly would have returned this if my time limit hadn’t run out. I ordered it during the VIB sale while away overseas and by the time I could actually see it in person, it took too long for me to make up my mind about it. I can at least take comfort in having gotten it on sale. I still think it’s a good product, but for the right person.

Chantecaille Sunbeam Cheek & Eye Shade in Ray

As it currently stands, this is the only product from Chantecaille that I love. The second best is the Blur Powder, which I like, but none of the rest of the Chantecaille products I’ve owned worked out.
I was thrilled that the brand released such a deep highlighter, though they tried very hard to emphasize and market this as an eyeshadow. It looks a lot deeper on others, but when I use this on my eyes, I put it in the typical highlighter spots and not usually all over the lid, the way I have it in the photo below.

Besides the eyes, I’ve also seen those with light skin tones find use for this as a shimmery blush or even as a bronzer.

The shimmer size is small and it’s a gel-powder formula, which I tend to love. Ray is another subtle highlighter that looks more intense on dewy skin. At certain times of the year, this can be a bit dark for me because of that base color, especially if I build it up. However, I’m perfectly happy with how it looks when I use a small amount and buff it in a bit because I also have to watch out for the shimmer particles that are on the lighter side for me. That’s why the combination of both kind of balances out (the deep base with the light shimmer).

It’s a bit ironic that the Guerlain highlighter looks better on me in photos than the Chantecaille highlighter photos, but I promise it’s another story in person.

In the swatch photo, I included the golden stripe from Charlotte Tilbury’s Dream Light Pillow Talk Multi Glow Highlighter (3rd out of the 4 shades), because that’s an example of my perfect “natural” highlighting color in depth and tone. Guerlain’s is gold, whereas Charlotte’s is golden, and Chantecaille’s is reddish bronze with a yellow-champagne shimmer. The shade Ray, when sheered out, looks closer to Charlotte’s than Guerlain’s does, which is why I think the color suits me better than Guerlain’s.

Also, please don’t ask why I continue to buy highlighters if I already have a fantastic formula and my perfect shade via Charlotte Tilbury.

The packaging doesn’t exude luxury, but it’s fun! I love the bright neon green. I love that I can spot it immediately in my collection. I like the unique imprint on the powder (although it reminds me a bit of something not-so-pretty) and the small compact size is great. I had points on my account at SpaceNK, plus there was a sale, so I bought this for significantly less than the retail price. Considering all this, plus the color and performance, I’m way happier with this than the Guerlain highlighter. I have to admit though, that the full price would never have been worth it to me. Unless the packaging is plated with gold, $50 is my limit for highlighters.

Tom Ford Highlighter Collection: Shade and Illuminate Highlighting Duo in Tanlight, Soleil Sheer Highlighting Duo in Reflects Gilt, and Skin Illuminating Powder Duo in Flicker

I purchased Tanlight from Nordstrom when it came out, Reflects Gilt from Beautylish during a sale, and Flicker from Mercari because it had already been discontinued. I saw a video where someone compared the Flicker shades to Tanlight and I didn’t even know it existed prior to that. Unfortunately, Flicker fell out off the plastic mesh/grid, so I smushed the pieces back in. Then it fell back out again and I glued them in. I don’t officially consider it part of this review and only included it for color comparison purposes in case anyone was wondering whether to get Tanlight if they already have Flicker. The top highlighters in both compacts are extremely similar, but Flicker has a stronger yellow tone. I think I like it by itself more than Tanlight’s lighter shade by itself, but the color of both highlighters in the Tanlight compact mixed together creates my perfect highlighter color. The advantage to the Flicker compact is that I could technically use the deeper shade as a glowy bronzer, but it’s so deep and sculpting that I have to be careful not to overdo it when I try to use it that way. Flicker is also so deep that mixing both together forms a color too dark to highlight with.

I’ve noticed no difference in the formula between either of the three products. They’re all very smooth on the skin, all impactful and reflective, all long lasting, and all gel-powder formulas. The new Shade and Illuminate duo compacts have the “TF” initials on the lid, but that’s about the only difference I’ve noticed in the packaging as well.

I don’t know if it’s just because the sparkles are easier to see with the lighter highlighters in the duos, but I could swear the lighter ones all have more shimmer in them than the darker ones.

As I mentioned before, Tanlight mixed is the best for me, followed by Flicker’s top shade, Tanlight’s bottom shade, Tanlight’s top shade, and Reflects Gilt’s bottom shade.
Reflects Gilt is a bit too light for my preference, with the exception of the darker one which I’ve started to use exclusively when I open that compact.

The retail prices of these duos are the same as the individual highlighters from Chantecaille. This would normally never be worth full price (I did get Tanlight at a minor discount), but it’s technically two products in one. This complicates things. Unlike a blush that someone can wear in a multitude of shades and have them all look beautiful, there is only a small range of colors that I feel I can pull off when it comes to highlighters. However, it’s because Tanlight produces perfection and I can tailor how much I use of either one in the event that my face gets lighter or darker throughout the year, that’s what makes this worth it for me. As for Flicker and Reflects Gilt and only really wanting one shade within each duo, the deep discounts that I got them for makes me not have any regrets buying them, although I’m not sure if I’ll keep Reflects Gilt in my collection forever. I don’t really have a purpose for keeping it when Tanlight is just a better fit for me overall. The packaging is quite pretty though, so I almost want to keep it just for that.

Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring 24H Hydrating Radiant Correcting Creamy Concealer in N390 and W420

This is a medium/buildable coverage concealer, instead of the complete full coverage ones that I normally stick to. What drew me to it was the hydrated look and the natural finish that wasn’t too radiant for my preference and wasn’t too creamy. Creamy concealers tend to crease on me beyond what I find an acceptable amount. This grips to my skin quite well and although it’s not as long lasting as my Tarte Shape Tape or KVD Good Apple, if I pair it with the right powder and use the right amount, it can get me through a short day’s wear with me feeling satisfied with how it looks at the end. If a concealer lasts 8 or more hours on me without being significantly faded or flat out gone, it’s a winner in my books.

Because it’s not full-coverage, I can’t wear my actual skintone shade over my dark circles because it shows underneath as a deep grey tinge. So, I have to utilize the under-painting technique in using a shade that’s deep enough to keep my dark circles and areas of skin discoloration from appearing grey when I apply the concealer. Then, to get it to match the rest of my face, I use my regular concealer color around the perimeter and blend them together. Because the combination isn’t a perfect undertone match, it still looks slightly off if I’m trying to have a minimal makeup day and skip foundation, but it looks perfectly natural on days I put foundation on. There are way more neutral shades in this line than warm tones, but I was determined to find a way to make it work for me.

Also, I’ve tried mixing this concealer with my other full coverage ones and the formulas just don’t mesh well. It fades faster or creases in a more obvious way. One time I tried using the Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector with it, and that combo works well if Becca is kept away from the lines under my eyes. Lately, I’ve been enjoying using it over top of the Milk Hydro Grip Eye Primer (that I use for concealer and not eyeshadows), because it helps it last a little longer even if I don’t use the Givenchy powder with it.

Initially, one of the bigger issues I had was figuring out the right amount of product to use. This was resolved once I bought that second shade and didn’t have to try and pack on a ton of product to get the coverage I needed. The second issue was that I could not wear this concealer without setting it, and once I set it, I lost all the hydration and radiance it provided. The end result to the look of my under eyes was no different than Tarte’s Shape Tape, but with lower coverage. So, I experimented with different powders and ultimately decided I should use this concealer with the brand’s own powder. Doing this gives it a natural-matte appearance, but at least it doesn’t look as dry as other powders. I’m a lot more pleased with this combination.

As much as I like this concealer, and have gotten used to the idea of needing two shades for most of my favorites anyway, the price and the coverage is why I think I will stick to repurchasing my Tarte and KVD concealers after the Givenchy ones are finished. I can snag my holy grails for 30-50% off at certain times of the year, but with Givenchy, I can get 20% off at the most. Needing to use a special powder with this adds to the full cost of having this concealer, so it’s a good product that is just too expensive for me to continue with. I will enjoy it in the meantime while I’ve got it.

Givenchy Prisme Libre Loose Setting and Finishing Powder (Mini) in 5 Popeline Mimosa

As these swatches reveal, shade 5 turned out to be lighter than I anticipated. Givenchy has one version that’s darker, but I didn’t want the dark pink color in there and 6 Flanelle Epicée didn’t come in a mini size. Since the website model that matches me the closest was wearing Popeline Mimosa, I thought it would be a slam dunk, but perhaps 6 would be better for me to be able to use all four colors mixed. Trying all four together with this powder makes my under eyes look too stark white. In any case, I have been making do by putting tape over the holes for the lightest two and partially over most of the orange so that I can have only a slight brightening effect for my under eyes. I use this powder exclusively for the concealer areas since I don’t need to set my whole face, considering my dry skin. For the sake of science, I tried my combination of 1 part brown powder and 1/3 part orange powder all over my face. It seems to have a small blurring effect. I thought I noticed that under my eyes, but it was nice to test it on a larger area and confirm it. The brown powder is also supposed to be the radiant one, so perhaps that’s why it is mattifying, but not dry looking. By “radiant” I assume they mean a tiny colorless sheen because I don’t see any shimmer whatsoever, though it does contain Synthetic Fluorphlogopite (synthetic mica).

Since I’m only using this powder for a small area, and I have others I use with other concealers, the mini is going to last me quite a while.

I never use the puffs that come with my products, but I tried this one out. Part of the problem is that the powder comes out in clumps and when I press the puff into the powder (which I pour into the cap) and try to tap around to mix it, the colors don’t mix evenly. I can see all the spots where the lighter powders touched my face. So, I just prefer to use a brush instead. I pat, swish, and mix them in the cap with the brush before using it. Even just using the brown and orange requires proper blending of the powder together on the brush. A bit of product gets wasted this way since so much comes out from all those holes, plus mixing them up in a way that partly disperses some in the air. At least it takes a bit of time for the average person to go through a powder anyway. I still haven’t used up a single one, even in mini sizes.
I think that’s why I don’t really understand the appeal to having all these colored powders in one container. I don’t know why there isn’t a mechanism for opening and closing each of the sieves without me needing to put tape over them myself, unless this is something only in the full size jars? I don’t know why someone would need two color correcting options (Popeline Mimosa seems more like three). Shade 5 is listed as suiting those with “medium to deep skintones,” so when I use up all of the brown color, I’ll either try to give this to someone with a medium (or perhaps tan) skin tone who can use those lighter shades, or put it on Mercari. I don’t believe I’d repurchase this unless they decide to sell the brown color individually because I do like the finish of the powder and the blurring properties. However, loose powders are already a nuisance without factoring in being able to use 1/4 of the product in this container. I only really need this until I finish using the Givenchy concealers.

We’ve reached the end of this review!

Thank you for reading! I hope this has been helpful!

-Lili

Suqqu Pre-Summer and Summer ’23 Review

Summer is nearly over, at least in the beauty world. I believe Suqqu’s Fall Collection (or Pre-Fall) is coming to Selfridges on July 27th. So, I wanted to hurry and finish this post in case anyone is interested in getting the limited edition items while they still can!

Suqqu Pre-Summer 2023 Pure Color Blush in 138 HYUUGAAOI and 139 KAFUU

I watched several videos to help me decide which of the two Pre-Summer options I should get. Of course, I ended up with both, but my initial hunch was correct. 138 Hyuugaaoi is a copper-orangish red which appears as more of a blush tone on me than 139 Kafuu’s bronze-brownish pink. I do like them both though.

I was reluctant to purchase Hyuugaaoi out of fear it would be too similar to 132 Momijigari from last year’s fall collection, but they are definitely not the same. In fact, it’s a bit in reverse that Hyuugaaoi has a shimmery blush with a matte yellow strip, whereas Momijigari has a deeper, more vibrant and matte red blush with a shimmery yellow strip.

In the photo demonstrations that will come later, I used a mixture of the first and second strips as highlighters to show the way it looks on the face as intended. However, I normally ignore the highlighter parts of all the Pure Color Blushes because they’re too light for me unless I mix some of the blush shade in with it to add depth.

Above are the blush portions alone to show how similar they look.
Below are two different attempts to take pictures of these blushes, but they’re a lot harder to see on my camera due to how reflective they are. I like them both, but Hyuugaaoi is more of my style.

Also, I couldn’t help but think about the Rms blushes when taking photos of these. The ones from Suqqu are surprisingly more shimmery and have nearly as much reflection strength as my more subtle highlighters. They’re not too shimmery for my taste, but I also try not to build up the color to the maximum level, which would increase the amount of reflective particles that come along with it.

These have more in common with the BareMinerals Blonzers, which are holy grail blushes in my collection. The shade Hyuugaaoi is like if Kiss of Copper and Kiss of Rose were mixed together. The BareMinerals Blonzers are actually more reflective, but have a more pigmented base and the original three are smoother as well. So, not only do I like them even more on my skin than the ones from Suqqu, they also show up easier on camera no matter the lighting situation.

As is the case with all my Suqqu blushes, I don’t have any longevity issues. I recommend these, though I still prefer the Melting Powder Blush formula and the matte Pure Color blushes over them. The upcoming fall release has shades more along the lines of Kafuu coming up, so I don’t plan on getting any of them. I have enough brown blushes now. I don’t plan on buying anything from the Anniversary Collection coming in September either.

Suqqu Summer 2023 Pure Color Blush in 140 IROMADOI

I knew this would never work for me as a blush, but I was so excited at the prospect of this potentially being like the limited edition Melting Powder Highlighter that was released without having another shade option available. It looked peachy in the photos and videos I saw a day or two before purchasing, by people who had it in PR or took photos of them in-store in Japan, but it looks chalky beige on my finger, let alone my skin tone. It didn’t matter if I rubbed the entire surface or just into just the darkest parts of the swirls. It always came out the exact same pale color.

The texture was also nowhere near like the highlighter. It was far too light for me to use as a highlighter, so this is actually already out of my collection. However, I wanted the gorgeous iridescent packaging, so I popped the pan out and swapped it for the standard packaging instead. That’s why blush 138 and 140 are not in their correct compacts in the first photo at the top of this review. I was able to at least keep the packaging and still have the makeup inside be usable. That’s one of the things I love about Suqqu. The glue remained tacky enough to be able to do this.

Suqqu Signature Colour Eyes Eyeshadow in 125 Hikarimai

The duochrome in the bottom left of the compact is the main reason I wanted this palette. It looked different from duochromes in my collection, I also wanted the packaging, and I didn’t mind having that dark shade as well. The eye looks on everyone I saw long after the launch is what made me decide to pick it up weeks later. Unfortunately the top left topper shade does hardly anything for me. It took ages to build up that shade in the inner corner of my eye, even after wetting the brush. It’s meant more for scattered effect looks. I depotted that and swapped it for a different Suqqu shadow (as seen once again in the group product photo in the beginning). The tan brown is pretty much my eyelid color. I can use it to blend out the darker shades and set my eye primer, but that’s about it. The dark color doesn’t stick well to my eyes. When I used it solo on my lids, I kept getting a bald spot where it just refused to stay looking opaque. It’s just a bit too sheer. It’s hard to use it in the outer corner as well because it fades away when I blend too much. The green duochrome is more subtle than I’d like, but it’s pretty. It’s still the star of the show. Overall though, this color story just isn’t meant for someone of my skin tone. In at least swapping out the pale shimmer pink, I’m able to create looks I like more. And I know not to use the dark shade except in the outer corner and when I don’t mind it fading. Which means I’m likely only going to use it to take quick photos or solely reach for this quad for the green shade.

Bonus: Suqqu Treatment Wrapping Lip Gloss in 02 Caramel Beige and 05 Candy Pink

The Summer 2023 Collection has two different shades of lip wrapping glosses that were released: a pearlescent pink and pearlescent blue that were intended to mimic the look of white and black pearls. I believe those might have been too cool toned to look good on me considering the warmth of my skin’s undertone, so I skipped getting them. However, I can still give my thoughts on the formula because I have two of them from the permanent range.

I first purchased 05, and loved it! My lips feel moisturized when I use it and I love the color when it’s built up. I have the issue that if I wear this for too many days in a row, my lips will start to dry out. This is still better than some products that cause my lips to peel before the day is even over. It’s just a problem I have with the majority of lip products containing color, but this speaks to the nourishing aspect of this product that it takes a few days before I need to switch to a Sara Happ balm, Avene Lip Cream, even just basic Vaseline, etc.

I wanted shade 02, and had to wait for it to be restocked, so that I could have a neutral shade that I wouldn’t feel was necessary to build up. And, in fact, it looks a little too light and milky on my pigmented lips to wear this particular shade alone if I’m trying to build up to a visible color. It looks nearly clear if I wear it in a normal layer, which means I can wear it that way with any makeup look without it clashing. It also looks good when paired with a lip liner.

I’m a big fan of this formula now and I was really loving the Lisa Eldridge Gloss Embrace Lip Glosses until this one quickly dethroned it as a treatment, though not necessarily as a gloss. Suqqu’s shine level with these glosses isn’t Fenty or Pat Mcgrath level or anywhere as much as a lip oil, but it’s a decent amount, even if a little understated.

This, in my opinion, is somewhere right in the middle between not being thin and watery, but also not being too thick or gloopy. It has just enough sticking power necessary to grip onto the lips and form a layer that lasts fairly well and there are sometimes even remnants of it after eating. I still reapply, but I can still feel the moisture even after the glossy layer comes off.

This is a bit pricey, but I would consider repurchasing it if it came in a clear version in the future. Then again, the Ami Colé Lip Treatment Oils agree even more with my lips (I can use it repeatedly without the chapping issue), so I may just stick with that instead.

That’s all for today! Thank you for stopping by!

-Lili

Viseart Coy Palette and Blush Duo Reviews

I intend to make this a quick review of the two latest additions to my Viseart collection. I bought the blush duo during last year’s After-Christmas sale via Beautylish, but I’ve only had the mini Coy palette for two weeks.

Viseart Petites Shimmers Palette in Coy

I’ve wanted the full-size Coy since 2019, but because it consists of all shimmers and in pastel and light duochromatic shades that I wouldn’t wear often, I knew this would be a purely supplemental palette for me.
Two years ago, I purchased my favorite individual eye shadows from Coy, Murasaki and Kamakura, as a compromise for being unable to justify spending $80 for a palette I would always feel like I had to pair with another palette in order to use it.
So, I was thrilled when the brand finally released it in the Petites form!

I’ve reviewed Viseart’s shimmers in the past, and the list of their links can be found here, but these are a bit different because of how they’re thinner and more sheer. They have more pigment than toppers, but they seem to have been created for adding a veil of color over other shades. They can be built up to appear more opaque by spraying them and packing them on, which I tend to do since I’m not as into the watercolor eyeshadow look.

Viseart’s shimmers are famously intended for soft looks with their satin textures, muted colors, and low-sparkle level. So, whenever they deviate from that, my interest is piqued. These are still quite soft, with some shades tamer than others, but there’s extra glimmer to Pond (like an aqua blue mixed with seafoam green), Gin (duochrome cool silver-purple), Taiko (iridescent purple), Lotus (lavender with slight blue-purple shimmer), and Yamabuki (duochrome coral base with gold-green shimmer).

As I mentioned before, I already owned Murasaki (medium-dark purple with lighter purple shimmer) and Kamakura (medium green base with yellow/gold shimmer) as singles, but the other favorites I always wanted were Yamabuki, Midori (light yellow-green), and Lotus. Unfortunately for me, the base color on my eyes hardly shows in Yamabuki and all that can really be seen is the shimmery goldish green tinge. I wish it looked more like the color in the pan on my lids, so that was a disappointment. It’s essentially yet another highlighting type of shadow for me, as if Gin, Tokyo (light tan-beige), Taiko, and technically Midori and Lotus, weren’t enough. Midori has a stronger yellow tinge to it than green, which I wish was the reverse, but it’s still pretty. Lotus is the one that was exactly as I expected, which made me happy. However, it’s a shade I own plenty of in my collection, so I’m glad I didn’t buy it as a single. In fact, it was a good thing I didn’t buy any of the rest as singles because I think I’ll be reaching for these even less than I thought. I’m thrilled to finally have them all in a more affordable form, but if I’m being honest with myself, they don’t suit my particular eyeshadow style. That being said, I have no intentions of decluttering this palette anytime soon.

Regarding longevity, I’ve had no issues with these lasting other than the tiniest bit of creasing over MAC Paint Pot, but no issues over the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas or Coloured Raine Paint Base primers.

The quality of this palette is good, so I do recommend it, but only for those that like toned down textures of eyeshadows and lightly colored shimmers that are bright in tone but don’t really “pop.” Those that like thin watercolor effect shimmers and like that they’re on the sheer side.

I did all these eye looks very quickly and wasn’t going for precision. Also, since the Isamaya Industrial 2.0 Collection just released, it’s only natural for it to be on my mind. The palette in that collection has some shades that remind me of these. This might be a tamer and easier to use alternative for those that don’t want to spend so much on that one. They are definitely not dupes, but I get spring vibes from both of them, which is ironic since they have seemingly opposite themes. One is a mix of mythology and nature, especially water themed, with “crystalline” finishes, while the other revolves around manufacturing and is a, “softer, subtler take on heavy metal.” To be fair, metals are a natural element too.

Viseart Blush Duo in Coquelicot

I like duos because of the ability to have essentially three shades in one: the first color, second color, and the third shade that results in combining them both. I’ve used this product less times than one would expect, considering I’ve owned it for over half a year. This is because of my preferences in blush finishes, shades, and texture. Plain matte blushes, the ones with no sheen whatsoever, have been the least favored type for me for at least a year now. I like soft matte, demi or semi mattes, and satins, but purely matte is a harder sell. However, it’s certainly not impossible for me to like them. Tarte and MAC are brands that come to mind that make mattes that aren’t flat. Thankfully, this one from Viseart doesn’t look flat, but also doesn’t look flattering either until it settles and combines with the oils in my skin. Knowing this, I try to help it along by prepping my dry skin with hydrating skincare before putting on my makeup, or at least applying a facial oil to my cheek area prior to adding foundation and then blush. This was the case in the demonstration photos with me wearing the blushes.

The texture of the powder is dry to the touch, but it at least doesn’t make my skin look drier, even without the extra skin prep. This makes it more successful than the reformulated Sephora Colorful Blushes I reviewed a few weeks ago. Since we’re on the topic of duos, if you’re looking for a fantastic quality blush duo in a soft matte finish, I highly recommend the Sephora ones discussed in that post too!

The blush shades from Viseart are colorful ones with no natural skin-flush colors in the line. Coquelicot has pretty colors. I don’t think I could have chosen a duo that suited my preference better than this one out of the six choices available, but I always end up mixing both shades together. When I wear the lightest one alone, I can built it up, but it’s a little more faint than I like. I instantly pine for something with more of a pop. Ironically, when I wear the darker one alone, it’s so pigmented, vibrant, and intense that I always feel like it’s too much and that I have to mix it with something else to tone it down. I used a light hand with it in my photo example below, though. In order to pick up less product, it makes sense to switch to my squirrel hair brushes, but most of those that I own are fully round and/or much bigger than those rectangular pans. It’s a little annoying searching through my limited options fitting that criteria for a brush shape that fits nicely and coats the bristles evenly without needing to dip into the blush multiple times or getting some of the lighter shade mixed in too.

While the perfect pairing is having these two together, I lose some of the benefits of having a blush duo when a single medium toned peachy-coral shade would suffice too. This is of course a “me” problem since plenty of other people can get enjoyment out of wearing each one by itself. I am happy though that Viseart’s blushes don’t contain the white base that can make a shade like the lighter one appear ashy on those with melanin-rich skin. It’s pigmented enough that I can still use it, though I have to spend a little time building it up. The second color takes time blending and applying slowly, as to not overdo it, which I easily can.

These blend decently and last all day without fading. I’ve grown to like them a little more than when I first got them, and part of that had to do with using the skin hydration trick and always wearing them mixed. At the non-sale $30 price for two blushes, I think it’s fair. I’ve paid that price for single blushes. It’s not my favorite formula, but I like it enough that it made me interested in the concept of Viseart’s new Fleurette Face Palettes. The option of combining a quad and blush duo in one magnetic/customizable package for $40 is a pretty great deal. The one I have my eye on for the blushes though, Bisous, looks quite similar to Coquelicot. When I contacted Beautylish customer service to ask if they are the same, the rep couldn’t confirm, but acknowledged they look similar enough that they might look the same on the skin even if they were technically different shades. Perhaps I should have contacted Viseart instead, but I need all the help I can get to remember I’m supposed to be on a low-buy and this answer gives me enough reason to pass on getting it.

So that’s everything for today! Thank you for reading!

-Lili

Sephora Collection Blushes Are Hidden Gems, But Not All of Them

Sephora Collection Soft Matte Perfection Blush Duos in 01 Sweet Pea, o2 Peach Blossom, and 03 English Rose

These are the blushes from the Sephora Collection that I consider top tier. It’s unfortunate that they seem to be either discontinuing them or having difficulty with sourcing and keeping them in stock. All of the lighter shades disappear off the website for months at a time before returning, and then a different shade disappears in its place, so I don’t know how long these will continue to be around. And when I say disappear, I don’t mean listed as “out of stock.” Currently, Sweet Pea is the only one of the three I own that’s on the website, and that shade had been missing for six months prior. A few months ago, it was only English Rose of the three, and a few months before that it was only Peach Blossom. October 2022 was the last time I saw all six blushes on the website at the same time.
In addition to supply issues, it might also be the case that since so many brands are switching to being talc-free, these might get reformulated in the future.

It’s very unusual for me to wear the lightest shades in a blush range (only Mesauda comes to mind), but that’s because these are highly pigmented blushes! They also start at about a medium depth, which is the main reason these colors don’t look ashy on my cheeks.
I prefer using these with my natural hair brushes with light to medium packed bristles. That ensures that the blushes don’t look too intense on my cheeks between the pigment level and colorful right halves of the compacts, but because they also contain slightly muted colors in the left halves, I don’t need to use the sheerest or airiest of brushes to apply them with either.

In this gallery of three photos, I’m wearing the blushes in the mixtures I normally would, though I didn’t have a choice with Sweet Pea because I was wearing the re-pressed/fixed version. The photo of English Rose is almost primarily the Rose color in the compact.
In the upcoming four photos below, Sweet Pea is worn the way I would normally combine the shades. I also demonstrate the two different Peach Blossom looks, plus how English Rose looks if I use more beige to soften the rose.

Even though the duo blushes are matte, they don’t look powdery or flat. Sephora nailed the description of these having, “a creamy, buildable texture and a soft matte finish.” I love the fact that I get two different shades I can wear separately, or I can customize the blush by using a mix of both. For instance, with Peach Blossom, I can easily wear one or the other. With English Rose, I mainly use the pink portion, but I add a little of the beige half to keep it looking more muted, soft, natural, and diffused.

These blend superbly and are long-lasting on the cheeks, in addition to being quite affordable for a product at Sephora. These are in my top favorite matte powder blush formulas and I can’t recommend them enough. My first one, Sweet Pea, arrived broken and even though I did a horrible job pressing it back (and both shades turned into one), it looked so pretty on my skin that I bought the other two shades. And then, when I saw Sweet Pea finally available on the website again, I purchased it so I could have the dual color option and have the blush look in better condition. I would not have done that if it wasn’t so good!

Sephora often puts their own collection on sale for 30% off, so that would be an even better time to try them out if you’re interested. I would just be careful to check the ingredients because if it’s talc-free, that means it’s not the same formula and I can’t guarantee the performance will be the same.

Sephora Collection Colorful Blushes in 05 Sweet on You, 16 Heated, 23 Passionate, 27 Charmed, and 29 Fascinated

These were initially released first across Europe, so I was able to get three of these while I was in Germany. They only had about five available to choose from, so those first ones weren’t my first choice in shades, but I was still interested in them. I wasn’t impressed by how they looked, but I thought it might be the case of the colors making me feel that way, so I purchased two more on sale when I returned home. That didn’t end up changing anything. In fact, it just served to solidify my confusion.

The only blush of the five that’s labeled matte is Sweet on You (which I could swear sometimes I find a little shimmer in it too and it has a visible sheen on my cheeks). The other four are all listed as shimmers, but Heated is the only one that’s easily identifiable as shimmery. Charmed and Fascinated have barely visible specks in the pan, but Passionate is like playing Where’s Waldo to find any shimmer. I’ve seen maybe one or two glimmer particles as I’ve gotten past the topmost layer of the blush. There’s probably like 1% of it in the whole thing. What Sephora’s photos show versus what it looks like in the pan in person are so very different.

I wonder if others who own Passionate, Charmed, and Fascinated have much less sparkle in theirs too, or if this is evidence that the batches weren’t mixed properly and everyone is getting various shimmer levels of their shimmer blushes. It can’t be a situation of location since I ordered some from Germany and some from the US. I would have thought they were mislabeled as shimmers if the brand photos didn’t show they were clearly supposed to contain the same amount of shimmer in them as Heated. What a strange circumstance.

These blushes appear decent on camera, but in person, they look so dry unless I properly prep my skin. I was confused because they feel like the same softness to the touch as the Sephora blush duos I love so much, but they don’t look that great on my skin if I’m using a natural or matte leaning foundation. The blushes look much better after giving them enough time to settle into my foundation, and especially if I’m wearing thorn oil as primer.

The brand reformulated and/or repackaged the Sephora Collection Colorful Blushes line at least twice, so these new ones I own are the third version to my knowledge. My original one from 2014 had less pigment, but I recall it looking and feeling better than these on my skin.
It has long since been decluttered, so I can’t double-check. The only reason I have a picture of it (Orange Pop) is because it was reviewed on this blog in one of my oldest posts. I didn’t purchase any of the second line of repackaged and/or reformulated blushes.

When I checked the ingredients, I was shocked to see Kaolin listed second, since I’m used to seeing it much lower down on face powder ingredient lists. This could be why the blush looks drying on my already dry skin. It could also explain why I prefer the duos over these because their formulas are so different.

For those with oily or combination skin, these blushes may give a totally different experience.

In the demonstration photos, I paired the Nars Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation in Caracas (natural finish) with Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil.

These are long lasting with medium-to high levels of pigment and they blend in an adequate amount of time. My skin type issues aside, these blushes are fine. To me, they’re the worst of the Sephora ones I’ve tried and among the lower ranked of my blush collection, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call them bad. Most brands don’t make “bad” blushes in these modern times. Plus, I know that if I make my skin a bit dewier, the blushes will look pretty on my cheeks. It’s an easy remedy. That being said, I still can’t recommend them. If I had a smaller blush collection, I would probably keep them. However, I’m pretty sure I will declutter them by the end of this year.

Sephora Collection Spice Market Contour Powder & Blush Palette

In the swatches on the right side above, I showed what these look like with the color White Gold on top of them because Sephora describes that as a “transformer shade.” I interpreted that to mean they’d become more glowy, and technically it makes them more reflective, but it mostly makes them lighter. This could be helpful to those with lighter skin tones in being able to wear them, or for someone who just wants to tone down the vibrancy. However, I don’t recommend anyone apply White Gold on top of Mahogany. The other four could look like they formed brand new shades because these shimmer blushes need some kind of emollience to actually combine, which is why they work well together. When paired with a matte, they just lay on top instead of actually mixing. That’s why when I use Mahogany as bronzer, if I put one of the other blushes on my cheeks, the spot where the blush touches the bronzer basically covers it up instead of blending together properly.

The transforming aspect, plus having a contour, blush, and highlighter to match my skintone were the reasons I bought this palette. However, I don’t like the tone of Orange Shimmer on me when used by itself and the transformed version is too light. Copper Shimmer has a similar effect as Nars Orgasm blush with the difficulty seeing the pink color because of the gold reflecting so brightly that it looks like I’m just wearing highlighter all over my cheeks. It’s at least more flattering on me than Orgasm, but less so than Orgasm X. White Gold is too intense for my taste as a highlighter, but Golden Bronze is perfect. So, I’m just left with one usable contour/bronzer in Mahogany, one usable highlighter in Golden Bronze, and one pretty blush in Burgundy. Burgundy is a little deep, and I built it up in the photos, but it looks much better on me if I apply it in a lighter layer. Also, I do like how Burgundy and Copper Shimmer look mixed together, as well as Burgundy and Orange Shimmer. So, technically, the other blushes can still have some use.

I ended up with less choices and combinations with the face palette than I anticipated, but 4 out of 6 usable products isn’t so bad (especially if I get creative with the blush mixtures). The reason I don’t reach for this very much is because, once again, I’m not as pleased with the formula. The shimmers take longer than I feel they should to get an even application across the cheeks, so trying to combine them into one seamless color takes extra effort. The outcome is pretty, though the shimmer type is a little more metallic than I’d prefer with Copper Shimmer. The metallic nature isn’t as intense in Orange Shimmer if applied sheerly, and the shimmer in Burgundy doesn’t have a strong reflect. However, the high reflect is inescapable with White Gold and Copper Shimmer.
Mahogany as a matte is also not as smooth as I want for a bronzer or contour powder that needs to be very blendable in order to be believable as naturally shaping my face. It’s possible that powdering my foundation first before applying Mahogany could make it blend better, but I rarely powder my whole face because of my skin type. Overall, these powders don’t spread as easily, which keeps them from ranking as high. However, I find this palette more useful and like it more than the Sephora Collection Colorful Blushes because of their finishes. They’re a little more work, but I like the effect in the end. I’m keeping it at least until it’s time to move.

The only Sephora product that I recommend nearly as much as the blush duos is the Microsmooth Multi-Tasking Baked Face Palette. I reviewed the one in Captivate here before, so I don’t need to go too much in detail, but it’s a fantastic formula at an awesome price. I much prefer the bronzer in that palette over Mahogany in the Spice Market palette. The difference in quality is pretty significant as well.

Now that I know not all Sephora Collection blushes are created equal, I won’t be giving the blanket statement anymore that “Sephora blushes are great.” However, I very excitedly advocate for their baked products and the blush duos in their current formulas.

That’s all for today. Thank you for reading!

-Lili

DISCLOSURE: I purchased all these products myself. All links in this post are normal non-affiliated links.

Makeup by Mario, ABH, Colourpop, and other June 2022 Purchases Reviewed

Once again, this post is a year late! It’s no longer relevant in terms of keeping up with last year’s low-buy, but I still intend to review the products that haven’t been discussed on this blog. I’m also including updates and links to the products I already reviewed.

Makeup by Mario Soft Sculpt Perfector in Dark

In May 2022, Mario released an Enhancer and Perfector. The Enhancer is essentially a tinted bronzer balm, and since I have several bronzers that are very subtle on me, I don’t feel I need something like that. Plus, I tend to dislike true balmy face products. The Perfector was marketed as a glowy setting powder, highlighter, and bronzer in one. Because of the multipurpose nature, I could only resist it for a few weeks before I caved and ordered it.

I find that the setting powder portion is too light and powdery looking to use alone on my skin. It’s also inconvenient having to use a small brush to try and pick up what’s supposed to be an all-over-the-face setting powder without getting some of the highlighter on the brush too. That accidental shimmer is why I wouldn’t want to set my under-eye concealer with it either, though it has a sheen to it anyway, even without the highlighter particles mixed in.

I’m also not the biggest fan of the way the highlighter looks by itself, as there isn’t much of a base color, but it’s borderline glittery. I discovered that mixing the setting powder and highlighter together balances those two issues out to create a pretty highlighting shade. Sometimes I even mix all three strips to form my cheekbone highlighter that has a sheen, less sparkles, and some color to it. This combination looks decent, but “decent” would put it at nearly the bottom of a highlighter collection ranking list if I made one. I just prefer much finer shimmer particles in my face products.

The best aspect of this Perfector is the matte bronzer. I tend to use that portion in the pan by itself, or to mix it with the setting powder (avoiding the shimmer highlight center strip) so I can give my face a more natural looking bronze glow. Over the past year, I’ve probably gotten less than 15 uses out of this product. The majority of those uses were for the bronzer alone. The quality of it is honestly the equivalent of the best of drugstore. By this I mean that it works well and looks great on camera, but there aren’t any extra bells and whistles. It’s not as airbrushed as the Charlotte Tilbury bronzer, as blendable as the Hermes, as soft to the touch as Huda’s Glowish bronzer, or have a pretty sheen on its own like the original Kosas ones. Still, it’s good enough that it’s not at the back of the drawer and still gets the occasional use.

I may not be using this Perfector as fully intended, but I can use it as a tailored highlighter, bronzer with a sheen, or plain matte bronzer. That’s a unique combination for me to have in one single compact. I could have done without purchasing it, and it’s not going to survive a declutter if I need to condense my collection for moving purposes. However, I don’t regret buying it. I’ve been able to make this work, but I don’t know if I necessarily recommend it unless someone really loves a glittery highlighter. One that will look much more textured and sparkly than the last face photo in this section where I demonstrated how it looks mixed/toned down.

Photos taken one year apart.

Rose Inc Cream Bronzer in Seychelles (Returned) and Capri

I ordered Seychelles during one of my bronzer purchasing sprees, but since that shade did not work out for me and it didn’t arrive until the first week of June (which is when I ordered Capri) I thought it would be better for me to list this as a June purchase. I had already been working on a Celebrity Makeup Brand post for months prior to the purchase, so my review for these bronzers and shade comparisons ended up there. Considering how long I’ve had it, I can update by saying it dried out way quicker than the expected period after opening. I would estimate it took somewhere between 6-8 months to happen. This had the makings of being in my top ten bronzers for the fantastic blendability, skin-like finish, it wearing well all day, and being pretty much sweat-proof and non-transferring. It’s still technically usable, but such a struggle to pick up that I don’t bother with it anymore. Considering the price, I can’t recommend it anymore if it requires needing to be replaced twice a year.

Rose Inc Skin Enhance Luminous Skin Tint Serum Foundation in 110

Of course, I also added this product to the review linked above dealing with Celebrity Makeup Brands. For those who like low coverage, lightweight formulas, and products that look dewy but dries down, I highly recommend checking out this one if you can get a close enough shade match. I ended up purchasing shade 100 instead (and selling 110) when I realized the depth was nearly the same, but 100’s undertone was better for me, even though a model with far lighter skin than mine is wearing it on the Rose Inc website.

Hakuhodo S110 Brush This brush is reviewed in my Fude 5 post.

Haus Labs By Lady Gaga Bio-Radiant Gel-Powder Highlighter in Fire Opal

This review wound up in that same Celebrity Brands post. I returned the product to Sephora. The only other Haus Labs product I’ve purchased from Sephora was the blush in Pomelo Peach. It didn’t look that pretty on me, so I gave it to a friend. I just don’t think this brand is meant for me.

Pat Mcgrath Duo Blushes and Divine Glow Highlighter in Divine Rose II, Cosmic Coral, Paradise Glow, and Bronze Mirage

My review for these can be found HERE. Of the three split pan blush duos, the one I use the most is Cosmic Coral, but I use a mix of Paradise Venus and Desert Orchid from the holiday Divine Blush and Glow Cheek Palette way more frequently than Cosmic Coral (and instead of the Paradise Glow Duo). As for the highlighter, I also eventually added Venus Nectar to my collection, but I barely use that shade or even Bronze Mirage. The Ultra Glow highlighter (Divine Rose) still reigns supreme.

MOB BEAUTY Custom 4-Pan Palette: highlighter, bronzer, blush, two eyeshadows

I did not have the happiest outcome with my attempts to make custom palettes out of products from the brand, but the review can be found HERE.

Chantecaille Perfect Blur Finishing Powder in Medium/Dark

In my powder declutter post from March 2021, I mentioned that I would sell my Chantecaille powder in order to help pay for a darker version if one came out. I did sell mine, but it took until June 2022 for me to get my hands on it for two reasons.

  • I hated the Flower Power packaging that the Med/Dark shade initially launched in and the standard silver packaging version wasn’t released until three to six months later.
  • I wanted to purchase this for a deeper discount than Chantecaille’s annual 30% off sale because my Dior Powder No-Powder was already doing more than my version of the Chantecaille powder (Light/Med) ever did. I did not want to spend above Dior Backstage prices for something that might not work as well, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Thanks to a sale at SpaceNK, and a promo code on top of that, I was able to purchase this darker shade for $33! Unfortunately, the darker color didn’t improve things enough to make this a powder I use very often. I can see the blurring effect, but it’s still not as good as the Dior Powder-No Powder (at least prior to Dior’s reformulation). The one benefit is that this doesn’t deposit a lot of color, so I can wear it anywhere on my face at any time. The Dior Powder-No-Powder has enough pigment that I have to switch between 4N and 5N at different times of the year, and there are even points when I’m too light for 5N and it deepens up on my face too much, versus when I’m too dark and get a slightly ashy sheen from 4N. There are pros and cons to the levels of translucency of powders.

I went on a little rant and also divulged history between myself and Chantecaille at the end of this New Makeup Releases post, for those interested.

Chanel Blush Lumière in Brun Roussi

I purchased this blush in swatched-only condition from Mercari. As much as I love it, I still never would have paid full price for it, so I’m glad I was able to get a deal. The color is beautiful! It’s a rich reddish-brown with slight golden shimmer. It’s a baked product (I think baked gelee), so I use my goat brushes and dense natural hair shapes to pick up the product. It blends seamlessly into the skin. I really enjoy the “standard” Chanel baked blush I have, but I love this formula even more because of how smooth it looks on the cheeks. I have zero complaints about the longevity, pigmentation, etc. My only issue is the retail price difference for the same type of packaging, but it’s technically a better deal at $47 for 4g versus $70 for 14g. At least, it was $70 when it launched, which was prior to the recent price hikes and this would likely be priced at $90 today. It’s still double the price for three times the product, but I still think it’s only worth that to the luxury lovers/collectors and not for the formula. However, it was so worth it to me for the discounted price!

Photos taken January 2023 vs June 2023 with different foundations worn (I believe the Rituel d Fille thorn oil made the difference in dewy skin levels as well).

I don’t use this blush as often as I wish, purely because I have such a large collection with many other blushes I love. In fact, I’ve been wearing the BareMinerals Blonzer in Kiss of Rose the most out of my glowy blushes for several months now, and it’s quite similar to Brun Roussi. The difference is Brun Roussi is darker and a satin-shimmer versus a shimmer-metallic.

The second closest dupe I have is the shade Piazza from Vieve, but Piazza has a matte (but not flat matte) finish. I hope these swatches have been helpful since Brun Roussi was limited edition and not available anymore, including unfortunately, some of those MAC comparisons.

LH Cosmetics Spectral Palette

I think the shipping cost will always play a factor in whether or not I make a purchase. I’ve wanted to try LH Cosmetics products when they were still going by Linda Halberg Cosmetics, but their prices as a new-to-me brand combined with their high shipping fees always kept me from making purchases, even during their sales. So, the only products I own from them thus far are from Mercari. That includes this palette, plus two quads someone depotted and left behind the colors I still wanted. Because of the states of those quads, I didn’t review them on this blog, and I’ve only used them less than a handful of times in the three years I’ve owned them.

Now that I know what to expect, it’s still the shipping cost that keeps me from exploring more. I can get cheaper shipping if I buy the brand’s products via Beauty Bay, but I’ve had one horrible delivery and customer service experience with Beauty Bay out of two orders, so I’m still wary about having things shipped over to the US by them.

Regarding the Spectral palette, the “shimmer” formula feels thin, soft, and smooth like satins, and reminds me a bit of the shimmer-satin formula of some of the shades from the Melt She’s in Parties palette. Without any help, they build up to a super thin yet opaque layer. However, they easily wipe away and don’t stay on my eyes unless I dampen my brush to apply them or use a glitter glue. This seems to be intentional based on the description of this palette being meant to, “give you a soft touch of color to a natural makeup look or create vibrant eye-catching looks.” By being so thin, it allows people who don’t want a lot of pigment to create soft eye looks despite how colorful they are. These shimmers have trouble sticking to my eyes with eye primers I tried them with a year ago, but because these shadows can be used wet or dry, it’s a bit expected that those like me who want full opacity can just spray the shimmers and they work exactly how I want. The glitters stick better to the eyes, but need help to avoid fallout. Abstract is a duochrome, which helps to compliment all the shades in this palette, and I have very little trouble using it. Illusion is not my type of shade as I prefer warmer shimmers for highlighting specific sections around the eyes, and it just doesn’t look right in the inner corner of my eyes, so I use it as a topper shadow for extra sparkle. Preferences aside, this shade gave me major fallout and it’s very gritty to the touch, unlike all the other shadows in the palette. So, those are additional reasons I try to avoid using this shade and really don’t like it.

I’m a big fan of the “muted” nature of Eerie, Phantom, and Unknown because they give me a pastel affect without the ashy white cast that makes the majority of true pastel shadows look awful on my eyes. Occult, Phantom, and Unknown are easy to build up and blend easily with each other. Eerie takes more packing on than the others, but using the right primer can help. All the shadows performed well with the MAC Paint Pot, excluding Eerie (which took more effort and the final result was just okay), but I had an easier time using that shadow over my Coloured Raine Eye Base. These all perform well (minus the fallout issue with Illusion and to some degree Abstract) on my Gerard Clean Canvas eye base.

My eye looks using this palette tend to be similar even though there is a variety of colors within it, so I view this as a supplemental palette. This is the kind of whimsical color story I want to reach for during Spring, so I expect I won’t get much use out of it again until next year.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta

My original review for this is here, though I mentioned that I thought all my blending issues might be solved if I had a better shade for me. Eventually, ABH added three more to the line: Warm Tan, Terracotta, and Deep Tan. Terracotta and Deep Tan are similar depths and listed as being suited for tan to deep skin tones with the former having “warm red undertones” and the latter with “neutral” undertones. At the time, I owned a lot of deep bronzers that leaned neutral or cool and were so deep that they looked like contours on me. So, I chose Terracotta to guarantee I’d have something warm, even though red leaning bronzers aren’t my preference as much currently.

I find it quite interesting that it pulls a little olive on my skin, but the moment I pair it with blush, I think the tone looks perfect for me. I like the color and because the depth is right, I barely have to do any blending. This eliminates the issue I had with the other color in trying to build up the product slowly but it getting patchy as parts of it were setting at different times. Most of the time I use the Patrick Ta Contour Brush with it, which makes things all the faster. It even made it into my top 10 out of around 35 ranked.

Colourpop Pressed Powder Blush in Toffee Cake

I love this tone of blush, but it’s highly pigmented and I have to use the lightest hand to get a restrained flush of color to my cheeks. There’s a little bit of gold shimmer in it that I didn’t appreciate as much when I initially bought it, but I like it a bit more now.

This was a limited edition blush, but Colourpop’s new permanent range of blushes includes the color “Icing on Top,” which appears in website photos to look similar.

Longevity is rarely an issue with Colourpop. This lasts all day. It’s not the smoothest or most effortless to apply blush in my collection, but Colourpop blushes are quite good for the price. I still don’t know that I would have purchased it again if I could rewind time, but I still use it on occasion.

Pixi x Hello Kitty Glow Tonic

This is is such a classic product. I tried a sample of it once a long time ago and didn’t notice it having any effect on my skin other than making it have a slight tingle. When I saw this adorable packaging for the product, I thought it would be a good opportunity to test it for an extended period of time to see if the brightening results would be apparent this time. Worst case scenario, I could reuse this bottle. It has a stopper inside, but it’s removable.

I still haven’t seen any benefits. The hero ingredient is the glycolic acid. My skin responds quite well to AHA’s, but my favorite products pair glycolic acid with lactic acid at the very least, plus at a minimum of 7% concentration. While I admittedly haven’t used it consistently or very much over the past year, it might just be the case that it’s too weak for me at this point in my skincare journey. There’s also the issue of it smelling nice, but in addition to some natural sources like hexylene glycol, it also contains fragrance and dyes which I prefer to be absent in my skincare. There’s no alcohol in the Glow Tonic, and it doesn’t feel drying like some toners of the past that used primarily witch hazel instead of just a splash of it, in addition to Pixi adding skin conditioning ingredients (aloe leaf juice, glycerin, urea, etc.). So, I can’t attest to this product’s effectiveness, but it might be a decent starter for someone not used to AHAs who wants to get into it. Of course, one would have to be okay with having fragrance in their skincare. It’s a light herbal scent that isn’t offensive to the nose at least.
If fragrance isn’t okay, I recommend for someone to consider from The Ordinary their Glycolic Acid 7% Exfoliating Toning Solution. It has no dyes, alcohol, or fragrance and contains similar beneficial ingredients I liked in the Glow Tonic, though it’s 7% instead of 5%, so proceed with caution.

CDJapan Haul – All of these have finally been reviewed in my Fude Collection 5 update post.

That’s everything! Of course, all the previous monthly check-ins can be found HERE. Thank you for reading!

-Lili

*DISCLOSURE: To those who chose to use my affiliate link to shop from CDJapan, thank you so much! The commission from that was used to pay for a portion of one of the brushes in the Fude 5 post. Otherwise, all other products discussed today were purchased by me with my own money. Links appearing like this (Example) are standard links. Links appearing like this (Example) are affiliate links. There are no affiliate links in the body of this post.

Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Blushes, Foundation, and More

I’ll just start off by saying a review for the Luminous Silk Glow Liquid Bronzer in 110 is coming in my 2023 Bronzer review post. For those who are around my skin tone and hoping to know if shade 110 is going to work for you or not, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who wears darker than Armani’s foundation shade 10 or 11. The bronzer in 110 is the same depth as the foundation in 10 and only shows up on me because of the slightly warmer undertone compared to mine. As seen in the photo above with the bottles, it’s a warmer color rather than being darker than the foundation. This is especially important considering this product sheers out a lot when blended, so I have to essentially pack it on for it to still show by the time I’m finished applying blush and highlighter. Though I’m saving the full review for another post, I am wearing the bronzer in the blush demonstration photos. In those photos, I’m the slightest bit darker, so it’s taking on a slightly grey color from being too light.* The photo below of the bronzer was from three and a half weeks ago.

*UPDATE: July 6, 2023 – It did not continue to be grey in certain places on my skin, so I realized I might have been forgetting to shake the bottle thoroughly enough before each use. The grey might have been from the sunscreen in this.

The second purpose for the drops is supposed to be as a luminizer like the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter or those old school CoverFX drops or the Auric Glow Lust that can be added to foundation for a glowy look or even to deepen up one that might be too light. I haven’t begun testing it in those ways yet, but I will. This is the other reason I’m withholding the review because it’s incomplete at this time.

For those interested in the Neo Nude Color Melting Balms, I have reviews for them here and here.

Armani Luminous Silk Glow Blushes in 30 Offbeat, 60 Mystery, and 61 Desire

The Neo Nude Colour Melting Balm Blushes are different shades from the corresponding numbers for the Luminous Silk Glow Blushes. They are in the same color family, but there are no overlaps from what I can tell.

There seems to be no consensus regarding whether or not these blushes are special enough to warrant the price, especially in terms of price per grams. In comparison videos that I watched between these blushes and the Gucci ones when I was still debating which brand to buy, it was a 50/50 split between those who say the Gucci ones are better versus the Armani Luminous Silk Blushes. I didn’t think either one would be worth buying over the multitude of blushes I already own, but my curiosity won out, even in spite of the fact that the Armani powder blushes looked very patchy on camera in so many of the videos I watched, regardless of the fact that those reviewing them were observing a different experience in person. I know this can be the case depending on the type of shimmer included in a powder product and the way it reflects in the light, so I was willing to still buy it in the hopes that I would love using it in situations outside of being photographed. What ended up happening is that my camera captures it just fine, but perhaps the nuances between the various shades is hard to see.

I had low expectations when my blushes arrived, but I literally squealed with delight the first few times I tried these blushes because of how diffused and blurred they look on my cheeks. It’s a buildable formula, but shades 60 Mystery and 61 Desire are deep enough that I get the amount of color I want with barely any effort. Shade 30 Offbeat on me takes more time and layers to build up, but I like that the color deepens from apricot to a coral-orange hue when it gets blended and mixed into my foundation. It stays true to color, but harder to see, if I apply it on my bare skin on minimal makeup days.

The Gucci blushes swatch better and take almost no time to blend either, but I prefer the Armani because of the airier finish on the skin. The Gucci ones are silkier to the touch and go on the skin smoothly with a soft satin sheen, but they have a little more substance to them, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say they’re “heavy.” So, it’s not a difference of quality, but of preferences. The way it looks on my cheeks can be replicated by other blushes in my collection, albeit taking slightly longer to blend and not having the same texture/consistency, but they have the same look to them in the end. It’s a matter of the Gucci’s performance and experience (especially the cute and weighty packaging) being better, but the final look being dupable by MAC or Nars, for example. However, that’s not the case for me with the Armani ones. The longevity is the same for all of them though. They last all day without a bit of fading on my dry skin.

My only gripe is the lack of “glow” in the Armani Luminous Silk Glow Blushes. They all contain tiny shimmer particles, but the only one that looks radiant on the skin is shade 50 Euphoric, which is too light for me (and similar to the Nars Orgasm blush). The way that color looked on others in their videos was stunning. I would love for the brand to expand the range in creating at least one deep shimmer option. Since I don’t have access to shade 50, I can’t say how well it would perform as a blush topper layered over one of the other colors. A color like Euphoric could potentially work as a highlighter on dark skin tones, but I have enough golden-pink highlighters in top tier formulas (PML Divine Rose, Melt Genesis, etc) and am not willing to get it just for that.

One more thing I’d like to note before moving onto the next section is that I don’t think it’s necessary to purchase both shade 60 and 61. They look so similar on the cheeks with the main difference being that 61 is slightly brighter with a little more deep pink added. 60 is so pretty, but I think 61 looks more flattering on my skin tone. However, I like them both so much that I don’t have the heart to let go of 60. If it was possible to try them both prior to purchasing (61 is only available on the official Armani Beauty website in the US at the time I’m writing this, though I bought mine via Selfridges), I would have only went home with 61.

Armani Luminous Silk Foundation Customizable Set: Foundation in Shade 10, mini Luminous Silk Hydrating Primer, and mini Eyes to Kill Mascara

This is the link to the product page. It’s a normal non-affiliated link that I wanted to share since it’s easy to overlook it on the Sephora website. I wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally click the 0.6 oz mini foundation, priced at $45, and mistake it for the set for the same price that includes the 1.0 oz full size foundation plus two minis. The website incorrectly lists the foundation size as 4.45 oz in the set details, but it’s the standard one ounce/30 ml bottle).

And speaking of minis, I was able to get a deluxe foundation sample of shade 11 when I ordered the additional blush from the Armani Beauty website when they had 25% off. In swatches, it’s clear to see why shade 11 is described as deep olive versus shade 10 being deep golden, though I could have done a better job trying to shake/mix the shade 11 tube prior to taking pictures.

I get slightly more than medium coverage from the foundation with two pumps, but despite it being advertised as “medium buildable,” if I go over two pumps, the extra coverage makes it look borderline cakey. Plus, it’s not a lightweight formula. I am aware of it on my face throughout the day, especially if I didn’t prep my skin well enough. And despite the “glow” part of the name, it gives me more of a semi-matte finish, or natural at best if I prep my skin prior to makeup (like with the Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil) or use the Luminous Silk Glow Primer sample that came with this kit. Even though I have dry skin, my skin will eventually look glowy at some point in the day either from sweating in the Florida heat or my natural oils coming through. However, without heavy skin prep or primer, my face will look nearly matte for 6-8 hours. With some help, the foundation will have a natural finish from the start, but will still take at least 4 hours to go beyond that, but I never reach a “luminous” level. Adding a hydration spray or skincare mist does help it along.

I like this foundation, but it’s not one that I’ll use all the time since my preference is something with more dew or glow than this provides. I expect that the foundation would appear even more matte if I ever powdered my face while wearing it, which I have not, except to set my concealer.

Another thing to note about the hydrating primer is that I cannot see any sparkles with my naked eye. I only found out they were in there when I took a macro photo.
This primer feels nice on my skin and makes the foundation finish look slightly more hydrated, but I haven’t noticed anything else like increased wear time (not that I need more than 8-11 hours usually) and it’s not the level of luminosity that would make me purchase a full size. Maybe a travel size at best since I’m more impressed with how it feels on my skin than how it looks, but I wouldn’t get it while I have so many open primers.

The Armani Eyes to Kill mascara is one I’ve used as a sample many years ago and loved, but never bought the full size because I had always heard one of the L’Oreal (parent company of Armani Beauty) mascaras was supposed to have a nearly identical formula (I think the Telescopic one), and I told myself I should just get that one instead if I missed it enough. I think it’s a pretty mascara and doesn’t give me issues of flaking, clumping, etc. I get decent length, but I’m at the point where I like a bit more volume than I did in the past, plus a little extra length than this gives me with 2+ coats. So, I have several mascaras by now that I prefer.

That brings us to the end of this review! After purchasing so many Armani products, my interest in the brand has certainly grown. However, I don’t foresee myself getting additional older products from their current lines. I’m looking forward to discovering new releases if there’s anything else that will be a unique addition to my collection.

Thank you for you for checking out this blog post!

-Lili

Nars, Tom Ford, Alamar, and other May ’22 Purchases Reviewed

It’s officially one year since this monthly haul/low-buy series post should have been published. There are products I bought that should have been reviewed by now and are still relevant in my makeup collection. So, continuing with the series on and off as much as I can is something I wish to do. That brings us to our discussion for today! The photo above shows the products I bought this time last year that I will dive into, and add links to the reviews I did manage to post already.

Tom Ford Eyeshadow Quad in African Violet

I bought this from the Cosmetic Company Store website (Estee Lauder Brand Outlet), and the other Tom Ford quads I own were purchased from people who said they also bought it from a CCO. Of course, I have no way of verifying the validity of that, but I think they are legitimate based on how they look compared to the one I purchased last May.

I was planning to do a dedicated Tom Ford post, but scrapped the idea because I’m no longer enamored by the brand. The eyeshadow quality is nice, and in some cases extremely nice, but I would never say they’re worth full price. I remember a time when they used to be $80, but now they’re up to at least $90. I can’t even bring myself to pay the lower Selfridges price despite their quality being admittedly better than Guerlain’s and I’ve spent more on a Guerlain quad than these at under $40 each. But, it’s actually not the price that is the problem as much as the lack of shades. At least with a Pat Mcgrath product, which has formulas I like, I can pay a similar price and have many more color options with it.

The African Violet palette specifically appealed to me because it’s one of the most colorful available from Tom Ford. However, it’s not as smooth, shiny, or blendable as the Wet/Dry formula everyone raves about. The eyeshadows are long lasting, have decent color payoff, and don’t give me trouble with fallout or kickup, but there’s absolutely nothing special about them beyond their performance being good. I can name a ton of brands with well performing eyeshadows in palettes that cost less than half the price with at least double the shade options.

The other quads I own are Photosynthesex and Honeymoon (one shade in Honeymoon fell out and off the plastic grid, so I pressed it back into a spare eyeshadow pan and turned that empty well into a custom magnetic one so that I could continuously swap out any other brand’s eyeshadow that fits).

The quality of Photosynthesex is about the same as African Violet, but it contains a beautiful duochrome and I like the color story way more, so I get more use out of it. Honeymoon is the famed Wet/Dry formula which surpasses the others. It’s more special because of the shiny finish, the minimal effort needed to blend, the refined shimmer that don’t cause issues of creasing, and being flattering on textured eye areas. However, I still feel it’s worth half the retail price at the most. I understand the brand name and luxury packaging bumps up the price, but the sturdy yet basic plastic packaging doesn’t feel as special anymore considering the fun limited edition compact colors they release every so often. I believe the eyeshadows are a pricier formula than some others out there (even within the Estee Lauder owned brands), but I feel the markup is still too high. This is why I don’t foresee myself purchasing any additional Tom Ford quads unless I get it for a price that reflects what I think it’s worth and is in the preferred wet/dry finish. I’ve heard rave reviews about the newer cream formula, but I have not tried those. It’s typically the older quads that end up at the CCS/CCOs.

In addition, Tom Ford quads are incredibly repetitive in color stories and often contain similar shades that don’t look distinctly different enough on dark skin within the same quartet, let alone among the whole line. They’re also extremely neutral leaning. Give me some Wet/Dry greens and skip the brow bone shades, and they might just get another eyeshadow purchase out of me!

So, essentially what it comes down to is me thinking the eyeshadow quality from Tom Ford is good at the lowest and wonderful at best. I have no judgements to those who are fans of the quads. I get the appeal, even though I’m not their target customer. When it comes to luxury, everyone has their own ideas of what makes a product worth it to them versus something else. For me, having some Tom Ford highlighters was worth the splurge instead. I’ll have to review those at some point!

Haus Labs Casa Gaga Blush in Amarone – This was the first of the many blushes I ended up buying from the original Haus Labs collection before they rebranded away from Amazon. A review for it can be found HERE.

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Highlighter in Dream Light, Push Up Lashes mini mascara, and Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer in 3 Tan – These items, plus newer releases from Charlotte Tilbury, have been reviewed HERE.

Nars Laguna Cream Bronzer in Laguna 04

I’ve discussed this product a bit in my other cream bronzer reviews, but I’ll pretend like I haven’t. Essentially, this bronzer is quite emollient, blends nicely, has a strong but pleasant beachy scent, and has the benefit of not forming a weird top layer after repeated use. The downside for me is purely the color. I don’t mind a red toned bronzer as long as it isn’t too red. This has the misfortune of being a little more red on my face than I want, plus being a deeper shade that will probably work better in the summer, but is a bit dark for me now. For those who don’t mind the cons that I listed, I do think it’s a nice quality cream bronzer, but it’s admittedly not in my top favorites. I prefer the Charlotte Tilbury one (even though it’s more expensive) and the one from Anastasia Beverly Hills.

Nars Bronzer Powder in Punta Cana

The photo below was taken in the time frame when I was at my lightest for the year, so this bronzer looks a bit deep in the picture, but normally this is a subtle, but not too subtle bronzer match for me. The depth and undertone (mix of red leaning base color plus gold shimmer) combines to a shade I like. However, despite the shimmer particles being barely noticeable in the pan, they reflect powerfully under daylight lights to the point where all you see is shine and it doesn’t even look like I’m wearing bronzer. For the longest time, I thought this shade was too light for me because of where I normally sit when I apply it and view myself in the mirror. I kept trying it every few months and when I could suddenly see it, I assumed it was because I was in my winter shade. It wasn’t until I happened to look in a different position and angle during one of the wear tests that I figured out what was happening. Once I made this discovery and could properly see how it looked on my skin in various situations, I started to enjoy this bronzer a lot more.
It’s ironic that now that I like it, it’s no longer available!

Nars discontinued their shimmery and matte Bronzing Powder lines in favor of the new, for 2023, Laguna Talc-Free Bronzing Powder. I purchased shades 5 and 6 of the new one recently and have yet to review them on this blog. I can say from a first impression standpoint that I slightly prefer the new ones. The original that I have looks quite pretty on the skin, but it wasn’t seamless blending. It stuck to the skin in places sometimes, but just the tiniest bit. I’m really nitpicking at this point because it’s still easy to blend, just not perfect. I still consider it a good bronzer. Oddly enough, I have more building up to do with the new bronzers because they’re slightly less pigmented. However, they haven’t stuck yet, are smoother gliding across the skin, and an airbrush effect can be achieved with them. It’s not as airbrushed as the Charlotte Tilbury powder one, but enough to at least make me think of it.

For those who already own the older bronzers, I don’t feel it’s worth getting the new ones if you’re satisfied with what you have, and especially if you already have the matte version. It’s not different enough from the previous formula, unless you’re the type of person trying to avoid talc in products. Since the new line contains no shimmers from what I can see, I’m going to continue using Punta Cana when I want a glowy bronzer. It was the darkest in the shimmer range and the base color is similar to Laguna 6, but the shimmer makes it appear a little lighter. That difference makes me feel like it still has a place in my collection. For those who don’t have a shade in the older range, this new one might have an option. Nars now offers minis in 5 of the 9 colors, so that helps in terms of being able to try one without breaking the bank.

Oh, and if you’re my shade twin, I recommend going with Laguna 06. I prefer mixing 05 and 06 together for the perfect color, but I can’t use Laguna 05 by itself because it’s practically my winter skin tone.

Sigma Beauty Bronzer in Deep and Highlighter in Golden Hour

I’ve tried the bronzer so many times and I really do not like it. It’s so hard to blend, and try to fix after it goes on patchy, and it ends up looking like a contour if I blend it in too much because it goes too deep. It looks gorgeously warm when unblended, but it seems like there’s some grey in the base color. It’s still workable, but other than forcing myself to keep using it on top of various foundations (it looks better on top of matte ones) and switching to different brushes, I just don’t want to use it again. In fact, I had to rescue it from the declutter pile when I forgot I was supposed to keep it until I had time to post this review.

As for the highlighter, I was much more pleased with that one. I like the depth and tone of the gold. I like the smooth look to it on the skin. It’s shimmery, but not overly so. It looks even better on top of dewy skin. It’s not in my top favorites considering I do have others that supersede the shine level/reflectivity, smoothness, and refinement of particle size. However, I still use it from time to time and think it’s a fairly nice product. I don’t recommend paying full price for it though. I think I got mine for 25% or 30% off and that’s about the maximum I would pay.

BPerfect Polar Vortex Highlighter in 32F

I haven’t reviewed this elsewhere, but I am unable to do so here either because Beauty Bay shipped this product in a box without bubble wrap or padding of any kind. The only shipping protection was literally one piece of paper, as seen in the photo below the demolished baked highlighter (two if the invoice paper counts). Every bit of it was covered in highlighter from the single open flap of the unicarton to the outside of the compact and all inside the box, above the plastic mirror protector, etc. I tried to re-press it into a spare empty highlighter pan from my DIY days, but because I used a liquid and didn’t dry-press it, it changed the texture completely. When I tried out the broken highlighter prior to pressing it back, it was insanely glittery (which is not my preference). The pressed version still has very visible particles on my face and is texture enhancing, even when I apply it on top of dewy skin to help melt it better onto the top of my cheekbones. So, I don’t feel it would be fair to consider this a review in this altered form, and it’s not something I want to keep anyway.

Suqqu Melting Powder Highlighter in 101 Kagerou (Limited Edition) and Melting Powder Blush in 06 Yuubae.
My review for these two can be found HERE. I’ve purchased several more items from Suqqu and had I known I would enjoy them so much, the Suqqu blushes would have been on my exceptions list for last year’s low-buy. I did manage to stop myself from purchasing every blush shade I wanted, so that counts for something, haha.

Urban Decay Mini Naked Your Way Eyeshadow Palette in Foxy

Once more, my strange aversion to using long rectangular shaped eyeshadow pans is in full effect with this palette. I’ve been able to create a few beautiful looks, but I stopped reaching for it shortly after the excitement of it being new wore off. I was drawn in by the greens, but these are lighter than I typically go for and cooler toned. I prefer the mini gold from Natasha Denona, Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals, and ABH Nouveau palettes because they have some deeper options as well. Funky Town provides some depth, but I can’t get too dramatic with it on my skin tone.

The quality of these shades is a bit different for Urban Decay since adopting a vegan formula. I didn’t have issues blending the mattes, but they feel a little stiffer and are not as creamy to the touch. I guess all that really matters is how they perform, which is satisfactory enough for me. Foxy tends to disappear off my eyes though. If I want it to show up, I have to build it up a ton. Get Down is closer to a satin, whereas Hot Stuff and Disco are the true shimmers. The shimmers are impactful enough for me to use without feeling the need to wet my brush, but I get a lot of fallout under my eyes with Disco, so I tend to just dampen all of them. I sometimes even use glitter glue because I also have trouble periodically with the shimmers lasting on my eyes in the inner corner (my trouble spot because I tend to rub my eyes there). The shimmers are dryer than I recall from Urban Decay’s formula, and this probably adds to the issue with the inner corner, but it’s more important to me that the shimmers don’t crease on my eyes. So, I’m satisfied with them.

Overall, this is a nice palette. It’s not the most enjoyable experience in terms of textures, but the performance is there. It’s a small travel-friendly size, which I like. For the way I like to do makeup, I get about three different looks from this palette, which I find is a decent amount for so few shades.
I think this should really be in the $27 range, so I recommend waiting for a sale to try it out (I got mine discounted having purchased it from someone who got it in PR). Unlike all my other rectangular pan Urban Decay palettes that I declutter due to lack of use, I’m actually going to keep this one.

Viseart Haul: Viseart Grande Pro 1x, Petits Fours in Peridot, and Bijouxette ÉTENDU Palettes – These items and more from the brand have been reviewed already HERE.

Violet Voss Olive You and Wild Dahlia Palette

I purchased these two from a Boxycharm sale and did absolutely nothing with them for a full year. Since I own so many palettes in the Olive You Forever color story, I’m going to give it to my sister and not even swatch it so it can stay in new-ish condition. So, I don’t have a review for that one.

As for Wild Dahlia, so much time passed that I didn’t realize until I was doing swatches that it contained a beautiful duochrome! This palette offers quite an interesting shade selection. The mattes blend easily, are pigmented, and smooth. The shimmers are buttery, yet not the kind that causes an issue with creasing. I am so impressed! I do own one other mini Violet Voss palette that I depotted in the hopes that it would make me use the shadows more (and it had the opposite effect), so now I’m remembering how nice the quality was and I feel I’ve really been missing out on this experience!

The shimmers are decently impactful on their own, and applying them damp increases it slightly, but not enough to feel like it makes much difference. I also like that I had no issues with fallout either. I can easily recommend this one! The quality is fantastic. The shimmers are shinier in the Urban Decay Foxy palette, but I prefer the colors and tones of the shimmers in Wild Dahlia, plus the softness, blend, and color options of the mattes in this one too.

Melt Cosmetics Haul: Amor y Mariposas Pressed Pigment Palette, Monarca Blush Palette, and Gel Liners in Colibri and Estrella. My review for these items can be found HERE, and since I got such an amazing deal on it, I have no regrets! Even though I don’t use these a ton, I still very much love them.

Benefit Cosmetics Wanderful World Silky-Soft Powder Blush in Crystah, Terra, and Java
Crystah and Terra are in the shimmer formula and Java is the matte formula. I did not purchase anything in the satin formula because I was waiting for the delayed shade, Starlaa, to be released. I planned to review these blushes right away, but I had no idea it would take four months for that one to come out! In any case, I’ve been wanting mid-tone and deeper blush options from Benefit for so long that I just went overboard without thinking it through. My Beauty Resolutions were completely forgotten, or perhaps ignored, for this release. The review of them and even more shades can be found HERE.

Benefit Cosmetics Pore MINImizer Squad Primer Set

Aside from the fantastic price this was listed at via Asos, part of my motivation for buying this set was that I finished up a mini sample of the Hydrate primer and loved it enough to want another, but not a full-size, in addition to being curious about the Lite primer after Angelica Nyqvist raved about it so often, and I had no other setting sprays left in my collection.

I recall trying the original POREfessional primer many years ago, and liking the way it felt on my skin, but it left a cast that lightened the look of my foundation. I was nervous the Lite version would do the same, but it did not. The texture is very strange. It feels dry and chalky when it comes out, though it’s in a form soft enough to be rubbed in completely and smoothly. It’s less gel-like than typical silicone primers. It blurs my skin when I put it on, but with foundation on top of it, I don’t see the blurring effects anymore. Also, if rubbed into the skin excessively, it can pill up.
I don’t consider myself as having that great of an issue with the size of my pores, so I only really require that my primer help my foundation look smooth on top of it and perhaps increase the longevity. I think my makeup looks nice initially when I put it on, but I don’t think it helps past midday. Sephora lists this as being, “Best for Oily, Combo, Normal Skin,” so it’s not surprising that it’s not the best fit for me.

The Hydrate primer, as I mentioned already, is one that I loved. The color and consistency actually reminds me of the Glamglow Thirstymud Hydrating Mask. It feels soothing on my skin because of that added hydration. It’s easy to apply. I don’t know if it extends the wear of my makeup, but so far there haven’t been any foundations I’ve worn with it that I disliked. This one is actually best for, “Dry, Combo, Normal Skin,” and although I don’t notice any blurring at any point, I think it improves the finish of my foundation.

The Super Setter I’ve only used a few times. It has a nice sprayer. Most of it sprays lightly and evenly, but with every spritz I can feel some spots that are heavier, yet when I check the mirror there are never any visible droplets on my skin. This is great news because I’ve had that issue with a few setting sprays in the past. This spray doesn’t make my skin feel tight, nor cooling, or change the look of my makeup in any way. I honestly don’t notice any effect it’s having on my face, even with longevity. So, I won’t be repurchasing it.

Alamar Cosmetics

The two Disney collab products are sold out and discontinued. I strongly regret not posting this in time or in a separate review. I just could not make up my mind about them and kept forgetting the details of my wear tests when I kept trying them with several months gap between uses over the past year. The other highlighter is still available on the website.

Alamar Cosmetics x Disney Encanto Collection Blush and Highlighter in Hermosa Rosa and Flex Alert

The Encanto Blush is in the brand’s Colorete Powder Blush formula. Hermosa Rosa is a stunning shade. On bare skin it has issues with longevity. There was one instance that I applied a sheer layer and it faded within 20 minutes. I then built up the color heavily and it continued to fade, but I was left with a reasonable amount of blush on my cheeks by the end of the day. Over foundation, this isn’t as much of a problem, but I still need to put at least a medium amount of blush for it to last. Trying to keep it looking sheer doesn’t work for me. Aside from that, it’s so smooth looking on the skin and even in color and opacity. It blends well. I like this blush so much that I’ve considered purchasing more from the brand numerous times, but they’re all in palettes and I’m not drawn to the shades available. However, I continue to check the brand website a few times a year to see if they have additional shades I might like as much as this one.

The Encanto Highlighter is in the Sun Soaked Highlighter formula. This is the trickiest one for me to pinpoint how I feel about it because it depends on the time of year. When I’m at my darkest, this highlighter looks terrible on me because the color looks more stark against my skin and each individual particle is that much more apparent on my skin tone which makes it look excessively shimmery. When I’m lighter, I put my blush a bit higher on my cheekbones so the highlighter, when going on top of it, looks more natural. The pink tones with the gold shift match well over the coral color. It’s still borderline glittery looking, but it somehow just works. At least, it works on top of the Hermosa Rosa blush. I haven’t liked how it looks on top of other blushes. Color aside, it looks fairly smooth and lasts all day. And even though there is a lot of shimmer, it’s at about medium intensity because it doesn’t have the strongest reflect. I would recommend this only to someone who doesn’t mind a shimmery highlight while also not expecting it to be blinding.

Alamar Cosmetics Sun Soaked Highlighter in La Playa

I love a gold highlighter, but this one looks extra yellow next to certain blushes, so I’m not sure if this is the best color for me, even though it’s the right depth. This is one of those wet look type of highlighters and it’s less shimmery than Flex Alert, which I like. It has a semi-wet feel to it with some slip, similar to the Charlotte Tilbury Glow Glide Face Architect Highlighter formula, except that sometimes that smooth buttery texture adheres too strongly to one spot in a patch/clump. I have to go over it repeatedly to try and smooth it out when it happens. Essentially, this applies better with a more resilient bristle brush. It needs to be strong enough to move the product around evenly as it goes on the skin since it’s harder to blend out once it’s stuck. But once that initial layer is down, the highlighter can be built up stronger and more intensely. I included two photos above to show how it can be applied lightly on a natural finish foundation and a pink toned blush, or built up intensely especially on top of dewy foundation and an orange blush.

Despite how long I’ve had this highlighter, my praise of it goes up or down depending on the circumstances. On paper, this should be my ideal highlighter because of the way it looks like it melted into my skin (when having a shimmer clump isn’t an issue), it being more glowy than glittery, and it being a medium gold. However, because the formula isn’t perfect, it’s not on the list of my favorite highlighters. However, it’s still nice and I do like it…70% of the time.

Oden’s Eye Solmåne II Collection: Sunlight Love Blushers in W102 Peach Gleam, W103 Sienne Lustre and B103 Orange Sunny as well as the Gel Liner Pencils in 002 Orange and 012 Golden Brown.
The review for all of my Oden’s eye purchases can be found HERE. Liners were not allowed in my low-buy, but I was curious, did not own these colors, and wanted to hit the free shipping minimum which would have nearly cost the same amount. The blushes from Oden’s Eye are still in my top favorites, but I don’t use them as often as I anticipated because I have so many other favorite blushes that I need to spread the love among. Plus, I’m still using the original Oden’s Eye blushes, so when I want to reach for one, I split the choices between the new ones and old ones.

Colourpop x Winnie the Pooh Super Shock Cheeks in 100 Aker Wood and Mind Over Matter – They were reviewed HERE.

Sonia G Master Face Brush – This brush was reviewed in Fude 4. I saved $20 on it because of credit carried over from the Beautylish Gift Card sale. It would have been worth it despite my low-buy if I ended up loving the brush, but it was just okay.

CDJapan, Fude Japan, and Hakuhodo USA Haul: This month was the last time I could get Hakuhodo brushes before the price increase (up to 30% in most cases), so I placed Fude Japan and Hakuhodo USA orders for that. From CDJapan, I bought Eihodo outlet brushes, the Chikuhodo PS-2, and Mizuho brushes MB123 and MB125. The Mizuho brushes and Hakuhodo ones can be found in Fude 5. The rest are in Fude 4.

Coloured Raine Haul: Botanical Eyeshadow Palette, Cream Blushes in Copper Rose, Stiletto Rose, and Spicy and Eyeshadow Base in Wheat – These were reviewed HERE.

The Alamar products were the last ones that needed reviewing for the month of May from 2022! I hope this has been helpful and especially from a different perspective all this time later after hype for the products have died down. Thank you for reading!

-Lili