There are more products reviewed, discussed, and photographed in this post than what is pictured above.
I took quite a long break from purchasing Juvia’s Place products, but they had an amazing Juneteenth sale with enough items I wanted to make it worth placing the order. Besides a few controversies, it was also the fact that the palettes with six pans and under weren’t performing as well as I was used to. Juvia’s Place and Coloured Raine used to make my favorite eyeshadows in my early blogging days, but both brands have changed things. So, just as I gave it some time before trying Coloured Raine again, I decided to give Juvia’s Place another chance in 2023 to see if it was just a string of bad luck and if I might enjoy their smaller palettes again.
I also bought the Coffee Shop palette, but it isn’t pictured with the group above because I ended up giving it to one of my friends. I wanted to mention that because I told Olive a long time ago that I bought that palette, with the implication that it would eventually be reviewed on this blog, but I forgot I gave it away. It looked so beautiful, but I purchased several neutral palettes at the same time, and with my friend visiting I hoped it would make a nice surprise gift. Anyway, I recommend checking out Olive Unicorn Beauty if you’re a fan of Juvia’s place, bright colorful eyeshadow looks, fun hair dyes, and more.
Eyeshadows
The photo above is an example of my biggest issue with Juvia’s Place shimmers from my previous review until now. This happens with slicker formula shimmers and isn’t any indication that it’s a bad shadow. It’s just unfortunate that my eyes (which produce more oils in the last few years than previously in my life) aren’t compatible with those slip-type and ‘cone’ heavy eyeshadows anymore. I can sometimes mitigate the issue by having a thick matte layer in the crease (or using setting powder) to keep those zones drier, but it doesn’t always work.
The Blushed Rose Eyeshadow Palette
This color story is so beautiful! I wanted it ever since it launched, so I could no longer resist being without it. Shade 2 called to me the most, as it looks so fiery warm and vibrant in the pan, but it’s not as unique on my actual eyes. They’re all so pretty. I’m just not sure they’re as special as I wanted.
I’m happy to say the creasing/breaking down of the shimmers wasn’t as bad with this palette. The matte quality was also better than when I decided to take a break from Juvia’s Place, but it’s still not quite as good as their older mattes. I’m at least glad they’re blendable and of similar quality to their larger “newer” palettes. The texture of the eyeshadows feel softer, which seems like a conscious decision to make them more of a buildable eyeshadow formula rather than ultra pigmented. The color is clearly still there, but it’s not as easy to layer up multiple colors to build up to the kind of depth I prefer. I think the shadows are still good for the price and with a lot of shade variety and nice finishes. I can see why people still love their eyeshadows. The switch is just not to my specific preference anymore.
The Bronzed Rustic Eyeshadow Palette
The colors in this palette look a lot more similar to each other on my eyes than I expected, so that makes it less enjoyable to me than the Blushed Rose Palette. Other than that, my praises and critiques for this palette are exactly the same. The mattes are better than I expected, but don’t give me the depth I want. They’re more buildable and thin instead of heavier and pigmented. The shimmers don’t crease as badly as I feared. The shimmers are more metallic and less sparkly.
The eye looks I created are pretty, but I was a little underwhelmed by this palette.
The Fula Palette
This palette has some really interesting shades, especially the duochromes. I was so excited when I swatched everything and I had high expectations, but wow this one was the ultimate letdown. The mattes were so hard to build. I got my color impact with Nomad and Taza, but Nomad was constantly fading away when I tried to blend it, whereas Taza had a sticking issue wanting to stay where it’s initially laid and doesn’t want to blend out. Marrakesh didn’t give me enough vibrancy of color and I struggled to blend out the edges. Then I had the issue of all the shimmers creasing horribly within hours. The bald patch photo I showed at the beginning of the post was from the first eye look shown below. Preferences are one thing, but I think this palette goes beyond a preference thing. I don’t think it’s as good of quality. Can it be made to work? Of course. I just can’t recommend it.
The Warrior Palette
Since this is one of the older palettes before I noticed a quality difference, and one of the larger ones, I had high hopes it would be great. Unfortunately, even the newer versions of older palettes seem different than I remember. The mattes were easier to blend than in the Fula palette, but still rougher than the Blush and Bronze palettes. They don’t layer as well or build as well either. The shimmers creased, but again, not as intensely as the Fula palette.
The colors in here are beautiful and the eye looks are nice, but I had to just face the facts that Juvia’s Place eyeshadows just aren’t suited for me anymore. Thankfully, the brand has branched out into so many other areas of makeup that I can continue to seek out and use their products. This doesn’t have to be the end.
Blushes
Juvia’s Place Blushed Liquid Blush in Marigold, Rosey Posey (should have been Peach Rose), Coral Rose, and Lily Love
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I bought these on June 19th, but I didn’t start working on this post until October. I took out a few products here and there prior to October, but when I initially got my order and saw that barbie pink liquid blush, I assumed I just make a mistake in what shade I chose and put it back in the box. It wasn’t until I started taking product photos and swatches that I realized it was called Rosey Posey, which I knew wasn’t one of the blush shades I was interested in. I checked my order confirmation page, and Peach Rose was the shade I actually ordered, but got Rosey Posey instead. It’s so many months later that I didn’t bother to contact Juvia’s Place customer service to try and fix it.
To give some kind of reference, I’m not the biggest liquid blush connoisseur, but my favorites are from Rare Beauty and Glossier. The ones from Glossier are a little more on the buildable natural side. The ones from Rare Beauty are much more pigmented. I need such a small amount from Rare Beauty to get the full pigment I want. The ones from Juvia’s Place though are equal in pigment or even more intense! I need practically a pinprick amount of Lily Love to cover my full cheek. That one is so unbelievably pigmented! For that reason, I prefer Coral Rose which is similar in tone to Lily Love, but less red, less intense, and a small drop won’t overdo things instantly.
These blushes dry down to a soft matte finish. They come in pretty colors. They’re long-lasting and don’t fade. They’re basically a more pigmented version of the Rare Beauty liquid blushes. That being said, I still prefer the Rare Beauty because they’re overall still easier to use and blend out. With the Juvia’s Place ones, I don’t even know if they disturb foundation underneath because they’re so opaque that anyone can cover up any bald spots or patches easily. That makes them a good thing or bad thing depending on someone’s needs.
One of the things going for these is that the Juvia’s Place liquid blushes cost $18 versus $23 from Rare Beauty, at least in the US. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but Rare Beauty blushes can be 26 Euros in Germany depending on the shade, whereas Juvia’s are 17 Euros. So, the overseas prices is where the difference can be larger. Plus, Juvia’s Place frequently has sales on their website and Ulta starting at around 30% off, so the price gap could widen even more.
I bought Marigold hoping it would be a decent substitute for Joy from Rare Beauty, but it’s not quite the same brightness and Joy also has a dewier looking finish that I prefer. So, I would like to one day repurchase that color. However, Coral Love is a decent enough substitute for my beloved Love shade.
I can recommend these, but I have to admit I still prefer the Rare Beauty ones myself.
Lip Products
Magic Lip Oil in Watermelon
I was so excited to try this lip oil because they’ve gotten so popular in the past year, but I just wasn’t impressed with this formula. It didn’t condition my lips. It felt more like a gel than an oil. It barely smelled like watermelon (like a watermelon mixed with chemicals). It doesn’t add any color to my lips, so the slight pink tinge is just for show. The shine disappears fairly quickly and it’s not long lasting in general on my lips either. With nothing good about it except how pretty it looks in the tube and the fun shape of the applicator, it made no sense to keep it. So, it’s out of my collection.
Lip Gloss in Sis!
This is a nice, functional, basic gloss. It has a bit of color and this particular shade looks slightly milky on me, but it’s still pretty, especially paired on top of a lipstick. It’s not as high shine as my favorites, but it’s also not as sticky either. I liked it enough that I bought one for my sister, and I’d consider getting another shade at some point in the future. I just have a ton of glosses that I like and am currently trying to use up that also have a conditioning effect to my lips, so it doesn’t really make sense to buy another at the moment.
Nude Velvety Matte Lipstick in Me and Toffee
I like the somewhat vanilla scent of these lipsticks. They go on the lips smoothly without tugging. They feel comfortable to wear on the lips. They’re not transfer-proof, but last a decent amount of time before touch-ups are required. The shape of the lipstick is interesting to look at, but the shape also seemed to make it easy to apply the product to my lips without going outside the lines. They’re a matte formula but have a slight creaminess to them. My preferred color of the two is Toffee because I can wear it without a darker lip liner. Toffee refused to show true-to-color on my camera unfortunately (in the lip photo but the swatch is accurate). I planned to retake photos while in Germany, but my plastic bag of lip products I intended to bring with me weighed 3 pounds (out of a 50 pound limit). These lipsticks survived the cut where I brought it down to 2 pounds, but ultimately I had to get that lip product bag even lower, so the Juvia’s Place lipsticks unfortunately had to be left behind.
If the colors were perfectly suited to my taste without lipliner, I would have found a way to bring one with me. The shade options were what did it. So, for anyone who is able to find colors they really like in Juvia’s Place’s shade offerings, I recommend giving one a try.
Miscellaneous
I Am Magic Natural Radiance Foundation in BURKINA-#310 [Dark with neutral warm undertone]
I believe this was too dark at the time I originally tried it, but just before I left the US, it was a passable shade match. The finish is quite pretty, a natural radiance just as described, but leaning more on the radiant side. It’s advertised as medium-to-full coverage. It can feel heavy if too much is applied, so the coverage I get for the amount I want to wear is high medium. The scent is extremely strong. There’s supposed to be “Acerola Cherry ferment” in here, and the cherry fragrance they added is a frequent reminder of that. I like the smell, but still wish it was excluded or at least that it was milder. It lingers on the skin for quite a while before I can’t smell it anymore. When I first tried this, it was with the Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil and that made it easy to transfer. By itself, it can actually set down without powder. It just takes a little longer than other foundations I own. I wish I could have been able to bring this with me, and I was very tempted to repurchase it during their Cyber Week sale to have it shipped to my location. However, the reason I left it is because I have so many other foundations I already love and have stood the test of time, plus in closer shade matches to me. They’re all at least double the price of this foundation, so for anyone unwilling to pay those kind of prices, this could be a less expensive option to look into.
Juvia’s Place I Am Magic Concealer in J11 [Dark with a Warm Undertone]
This looks like it should work for me, but it’s a bit too light when it’s actually on top of my dark under eye circles. I love the full coverage aspect to it, but the biggest issue is that it creases fast and too deeply for my liking. I tried it twice by itself with different powders and two other times mixed with other concealers to see if that would help, but nothing worked.
Also, regarding the shades, the next one that was still a warm undertone is J8, which looked like it would be way too deep for me based on the website photos. However, the color wouldn’t change the creasing problem I had with it.
Juvia’s Place Bronzed Cream Bronzer in Caramel
Taken from my Instagram post, since I summed it up best over there, I know I bought the incorrect shade for myself, but the biggest reason I didn’t try to exchange it for a better shade is because this bronzer has sparkles in it. It doesn’t show in swatches, and it’s too hard to see in the container, but those sparkles are way more obvious and look crazy when spread out on the face. I thought I was in the twilight zone because none of the YouTubers I watch talked about it in their initial videos (people with similar tastes to me), and it wouldn’t be until much later in a declutter video or update video that they mentioned noticing it later on and not liking it. It’s such a shame because I loved the feel of it on the skin and the way it blended was beautiful. I just can’t get on board with such a glittery look in a bronzer of all things! If they ever decide to release a version that isn’t, “crafted with shimmering pearls,” I’ll buy it in a heartbeat.
Also, $18 is mid to high end pricing if the price per grams are considered because it’s only 0.3 oz versus brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills that has a cream bronzer at $35 for 1 oz. I don’t mind a small size since it’s so hard for me to use up bronzers, blushes, and highlighters. However, it’s not as affordable of a product compared to what the brand’s prices usually are. This is the same brand whose foundation is $23 for 40ml when most brands’ foundations are only 30ml.
Those are pretty much all the products I’ve tried from Juvia’s Place in 2023. I did also buy their eye primer to compare to the one from Coloured Raine, but the primer separated in the bottle and looked really off-putting, so I didn’t even try it.
This was quite the mixture of good and mediocre performances with the products, but I still have an overall positive impression of the things they make. There’s no way to know whether something will be a hit or a miss from them, but I’m always intrigued.
That’s all for today! Thank you for reading! I wish you a Happy New Year and positive things for 2024!
Gxve Beauty by Gwen Stefani had 50% off all products for Black Friday, so it felt like the perfect time to try the makeup. This is a “first impression” style review, since my order arrived shortly before my trip, and I was only able to wear everything 1-2 times. I liked them all and planned to bring them with me to Germany, but due to baggage weight limits I had to leave everything except the highlighter behind. However, the impression left on me by these products were strong enough that I feel I can still review them.
In the photo above, I’m wearing the highlighter (all colors swirled together), the bronzer and contour, both shades in the blush compact, and the matte lipstick.
Pick It Up Cream Contour & Talc-Free Powder Bronzer Duo in Heat Wave
The cream contour blends decently into the skin and sets without remaining balmy. However, due to the shine from it being a cream product, I prefer to set it with a powder of some kind. It looks intense when it’s first placed onto the skin, but sheers out without being patchy as it’s worked onto the face. The shade I chose was still a bit too deep for me, so I had to be extra precise in the placement of it, and it was too unnatural to look nice in my jaw area.
The powder bronzer was extremely warm in color, along the lines of Pat Mcgrath’s bronzer in the shade Burnished Honey. It’s quite pigmented and doesn’t cling to more dewy spots on the face, nor did it deepen up from moisture. It has a similar looking finish and performance to PML’s bronzer as well. I tend to prefer a slight sheen in my bronzer, even more than what’s considered soft matte, but I still liked this one.
The longevity is good on both products. My bigger critique is that there isn’t a plastic flap to help prevent powder bronzer kickup from ending up in the cream contour. This issue didn’t happen to me yet, but I can see it being a problem with repeated use or if someone accidentally drops the compact and some of the powder breaks and goes everywhere.
If I’d been able to get this for half price again and have it arrive in time, I would have been tempted to get the shade Super Hot intended for tan skin tones and hoped it wouldn’t be too light. But in thinking it over, I still prefer powder contours over all the cream ones I’ve ever tried because for some reason they tend to not be matte. When creating a shadow on my face, I need that to be matte and not shiny, which powders give me. As for bronzers, I have plenty that rank higher, so this is ultimately why I decided that I’ll just continue to use this one when I eventually return to the US and make do with the color I’ve got.
Feelin’ Cheeky Clean Amplifying Talc-Free Blush Duo in Crush On You
According to the brand, “Each blush duo includes 2 shades: a Sheer Satin shade to add luminosity and dimension and a Natural Radiant shade to pump up the vibrancy.” I would have thought they’d be the other way around, but the shimmery blush is apparently the satin. It doesn’t give enough color payoff for me to wear on its own. The radiant shade, although not flat matte, is a bit darker than the satin and doesn’t pop enough for my taste, which is why I ended up putting the satin on top of the radiant one both times since they look better together on me. It becomes a combination of blendable and buildable color paired with the oomph and brightness I prefer in a blush. The satin isn’t as luminous as a true shimmer blush, so perhaps the description of it makes sense. The color lasted on my cheeks all day without fading.
I would have loved to get another duo, but the brand’s photos only show the coral shade (Lasting Love) on a model with light skin and the peachy-beige (Stars Aligned) demonstrated on a light/medium model, so I couldn’t tell if any other colors I liked would work for my skin tone. It would have been even more of a risk to blindly buy considering the radiant shade intended to “pump up the vibrancy” needed to be built up a little despite being the deepest duo.
The only reason I left this one behind is because I filled nearly an entire large Relavel case (16.5 x 5.5 x 12 inches) with blushes. I already was bringing so many with me, some which even had sentimental value, that I couldn’t justify this one. Especially since this type of color is a darker version of what I love and have too many shades of in my collection and in finishes I prefer even more. I would still like to get additional shades of these blushes one day though.
Check My Glow Multi-dimensional Illuminating Talc-Free Highlighter in Karat Country
I can’t recall if I smelled fragrance in the contour/bronzer duo, but there is definitely perfume in the blush duo and this highlighter. It smells so strongly of baby powder, but mixed with some florals. The smell doesn’t linger on the face, but it’s a little unnerving to be applying so much scented makeup, especially when using more than one Gxve Beauty product at a time. I try to limit the amount of perfumed products I use out of fear of increasing my chances of developing skin sensitization, plus scented products can often give me a headache. I’m glad the ones from Gxve haven’t done that to me, but I felt it’s important to mention.
This is the one product in this post I kept with me, which shows just how much I love it. How light or dark my skin is can fluctuate throughout the year, so the idea that I can tailor my highlighter color to suit me is a great advantage. The shimmer quality is smooth. It’s one of the least texture enhancing highlighters I’ve used in proportion to the intensity level of the shine and reflectivity. I haven’t done a highlighter ranking post yet, but this has to be in my top 10. I mentioned that I used everything in this post at least 1-2 times prior to my trip. Since arriving at my destination, I have continued to use this one every time I put on makeup. I can apply it sparingly with an airy brush for a more subtle look, but achieving medium to medium-high intensity is easy. I don’t consider this a blinding highlighter, but choosing one of the brand’s lighter shades would give me that effect if I wanted that. Medium level of radiance is the most I like, so this is very much perfect for me.
Original Me Clean High-Performance Matte Lipstick in Lovable Me
Well, this certainly takes me back! I haven’t worn a lip product associated with Gwen Stefani since the collab with Urban Decay in early 2016! It was the only item I bought from that collection, and it was more for collector purposes because I loved the packaging.
The Gxve brand packaging is quite cool, especially with the brand lettering under the twist up portion of the component that can be seen when the cap is removed. Lovable Me is a really pretty color that I can almost wear without a lip liner (liner-free demonstration is at the top of the page).
Considering it’s a matte lipstick, I was surprised that the formula had a slight creaminess to it that made it easy to glide onto the lips and was comfortable to wear. It lasted through two meals before needing to be touched up. My lips were drier than when I started at the end of the night, like pretty much every colored lip product I wear, but it’s one of the most comfortable mattes I’ve worn. It looked nice even on my semi-chapped lips. This lipstick unsurprisingly contains fragrance, but it smells more like vanilla than the other products from Gxve Beauty.
Overall, I think this brand has pretty good products. I’m certainly interested in seeing what else they will make in the future, although I don’t believe they ship outside of the US. So, unfortunately, this might be my one and only brand review unless they expand globally.
Brushes, makeup that was returned, products decluttered or given away, and a MAC highlighter are not pictured.
Welcome back to this series! I reviewed everything in separate posts from last year’s August purchases, so it made sense to skip that. As I began to work on September’s I realized I reviewed most things as well, except the unreviewed items were tied to pending posts I was currently working on. Since I at least purchased additional shades I knew I could show here, I decided to proceed with showing the September items, in addition to October’s!
Benefit Cosmetics Wanderful World Blush in Starlaa (and later PomPom and Shellie) – This specific shade was delayed for four months after the release of all of Benefit’s other blushes. However, I waited until I got my hands on it to do my brand blush review, which can be found HERE. In addition to those four (five technically if you count Terra Spark) from last year, this year I purchased PomPom and Shellie out of curiosity as to how light I could go with the blush colors. Well, I learned that Shellie is my limit. That one doesn’t work, but Pom Pom is nice and subtle.
Another photo of Shellie
I like applying Starlaa and then adding PomPom to the apples of my cheeks. As a solo color, Terra is still my favorite of them all, but I continue to be pleased with this line and overall collection of blushes.
Guerlain Quad -I reviewed this along with many other luxury palettes HERE. Since that review, I’ve used it occasionally, but not enough to justify purchasing any additional ones. Honestly, I would still consider it at a reduced price if every shade in that compact was perfect for me. Chances of that happening are low. I thought for sure I would buy the upcoming Holiday quad, but that one doesn’t contain the baked shades, so I’m skipping it.
Artist Couture Love Sprung 3 and Quickie Palette – I reviewed both of these HERE. The Quickie palette has only been used once or twice since reviewing it. On the other hand, the Love Sprung 3 palette was such a good match for me that I finally had the nerve to declutter Love Sprung 2. The pink/purple blush is pretty, but I never reached for it. The highlighter in version 3 is better for my skin tone than version 2, and the deep peach blush in Love Sprung 2 is basically duped in 3. This shade was also similar to CoverFX Warm Honey, but slightly deeper and shows up on me better, so I was able to let the CoverFX go too considering it’s so old in my collection now.
Clionadh Haul – Stained Glass Shade Expansion (Queen’s Banquet, Quest, Oriel, Reign, Auric) and the previously released single shadow (Chalice) can be found shown HERE. However, I’m still planning to make several more Clionadh posts surrounding the expansion, doing additional comparisons, and showing the shades in full eye looks. It’s just such a daunting task!
Beautylish Haul – Wayne Goss The Radiance Boosting Face Palette (Deep Copper) + Brush 13 Bundle. I actually decluttered this because it got strange bumps on it after only two uses, which I’ve seen happen to other products after at least a year of use, so never this quickly. Beautylish handled it well when I emailed and said they think it’s due to oils on the skin effecting the surface of the powder? But they refunded me. The review for Brush 13 is coming in Fude 6.
CDJapan Haul – Koyudo BP019 Blush Brush (supposed to be outlet but not listed that way), [Outlet] Koyudo Powder Brush Black Handle, [Outlet] Koyudo Blush Brush Black Flat Handle, and MS-4 Mai Sakura Eyeshadow Brush. These brushes are also coming to Fude 6 and 7.
Ulta 21 Days of Beauty Haul – Benefit Cosmetics Precisely, My Brow Pencil Waterproof Eyebrow Definer in Shade 5, NARS Afterglow Lip Balms in Laguna and Torrid, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra Rescue Moisturizing Foundation SPF 45 in 5W2, Too Faced Hangover Pillow Balm Ultra-Hydrating Lip Treatment in Watermelon and Mango (way more added in 2o23), and the Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil Priming Facial Elixir.
The Benefit brow product is a repurchase that I’ve discussed in various reviews, but isn’t exciting enough to showcase. The Estee Lauder foundation is in a new shade, but the formula has been reviewed HERE.
The Thorn oil was in a skincare post HERE. As for the lip products, those are tied to pending upcoming lip product posts. However, since I’m unsure which of these will come first, I’ll go ahead and review them here, along with the additional lip products I bought the following month as well: Too Faced Pillow Balm Pop Rich & Creamy Mini Lip Trio, Nars Afterglow Lip Shine Gloss in Deep Realm, and Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Rikugien.
The first thing I notice when putting on the Too Faced Hangover Pillow Balm is that it gives a minty-cool sensation on the lips. This contains menthol, so I’m not sure if it was added solely for cooling effect or if the brand wanted plumping action from it as well. What Too Faced touts as the lip plumping ingredient is sodium hyaluronate. Despite having more than one ingredient of this type, I don’t see any difference in the size of my lips beyond the trick of the eye that glossy products can provide. I bought the two full size lippies without even knowing they were supposed to do anything beyond conditioning the lips, so I’m fine with that. The only issue is that ingredients like menthol, cinnamon, and capsaicin irritate the skin, which can aggravate my lip issues. As far as I can tell, menthol and the flavoring and coloring agents are the only ones I spotted from the list that can dry out my lips. These are counterbalanced by the other ingredients in here that my lips love such as petrolatum and shea butter. Sunflower seed oil is another one, but instead Too Faced put “Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seedcake” which is apparently, “residue from the expression of oil,” so I’m not sure how that stacks up to the oil. Mineral oil also tends to be great, but the brand uses hydrogenated polyisobutene, a synthetic mineral oil alternative instead, which can be effective for me if paired with the right other ingredients. This also contains mango seed oil, which is a slightly above average lip conditioner for me too. What this boils down to is the fact that I love the feeling of this product on my lips. It feels moisturizing, and though my lips don’t change in size, I can see where the lines of my lips get plumped up and smoothed out from the added hydration. A protective barrier is formed on the surface to lock that hydration in place and keep it there longer, but that means having to deal with everything sticking to my lips. Too thick of an application can also lead to the dreaded “white ring” around the mouth. Also, this isn’t the kind of lip product I can ignore when eating because of its thick texture, so I purposely try to wipe it off and then reapply once I’ve finished the meal.
Regarding the colors, Watermelon gives me the tiniest pink tinge to my lips, but it’s not my favorite tone. I don’t see any shimmer in Watermelon, but Mango has micro gold shimmer. Mango and Cocoa Kiss are way too light and give a unflattering milky look to my lips, so I definitely don’t wear them in public and mostly just enjoy them for their scents. Watermelon smells like a delicious Watermelon Jolly Rancher candy, whereas Mango smells so faintly that I’m not sure I would have been able to figure it out based on the smell alone. It’s vaguely fruity with a tinge of mango. Cocoa Kiss does smell like slightly artificial hot chocolate. I still enjoy that smell though.
Vanilla Kiss looks beautiful for those who don’t mind obviously shimmery lips. It doesn’t smell like vanilla to me, just a slight sugary scent. Strawberry Kiss, which smells like strawberry bubble-gum or those old school strawberry candies in the strawberry print wrapper, is the most opaque and deepest color of the ones I own. I forgot that the milky aspect of the other shades, and only being able to wear it privately or as an overnight treatment, is why I stopped using them for quite a while. However, now that I remember how good they are, I will want to continue using them. The brand released a new mini trio for the holidays this year and I suspect that even though I don’t need it, I will be unable to resist if it goes on sale. There’s a holiday wine shade that looks like a gorgeous version of Strawberry Kiss without the shimmer.
*BONUS PHOTOS: I ended up getting a discount and buying this year’s Too Faced Warm & Spicy: Pillow Balm Lip Balm Trio Set. I plan to gift the original one away, but I have swatches of the other two.
Holiday Wine smells like a cherry and strawberry forward sangria and Spiced Cider does have that spiced cinnamon scent! Also, even though Spiced Cider looks like a different color in the tube, on the lips and in swatches it looks no different than Vanilla, which is to say that it just looks like a beautiful shimmery colorless gloss.
With the Nars Afterglow Lip Balms, they feel nice and moisturizing on the lips, but I don’t get as much hydration from them as some of my other top favorite lip products. There are emollient ingredients in there, but not the ones that my lips in particular benefit from the most. They’re just okay, like hydrogenated polyisobutene and squalane, which aren’t enough to counter the effects of the dryness I get from the coloring agents. So, I wear these balms for the subtle tinge of color to my lips that’s pretty and flattering colors for me, at least in these two shades. They feel comfortable to wear, but by the end of the day with reapplications, I know my lips will somehow end up slightly dryer than at the start. So, these aren’t something I use daily. I might use them for a few days back to back, but then I’ll have to switch to a truly nourishing lip product instead.
The lip gloss is pretty, but the color doesn’t show as well on me. I chose this shade because it looked like a wearable warm color, but mostly because it was in the clearance section on the Nars website. It’s a bit funny to me that the lip gloss contains more of the ingredients my lips like. It has the hydrogenated polyisobutene, but also shea butter replaces the squalane, and sunflower seed oil is present, though nearly at the bottom of the list. As a thick glossy product, it seals in the moisture better than the balms, but the end result in terms of moisture is the same. When the layer wears down, my lips look drier than when I first put it on. As a gloss though, without any additional expectations for it, it looks nice.
The Satin Lip pencil was reviewed in this declutter post HERE, and in that post I voiced my concern over my favorite shade being different and it appearing to be discontinued. However, I was surprised to see it eventually return to the website last year (still in the last chance section). I bought it and was happy that it was the same original formula I fell for the first time. Regarding it being discontinued or not, all I can say is that another year later, it’s still in the last chance section! Nars recently launched the Powermatte High-Intensity Lip Pencil, so I wonder if they finally will let the Satin Lip Pencils go or if they plan to reformulate and/or redesign the line.
Luxury/High-End Purchases from October ’22: Bobbi Brown Luxe Eye & Face Palette in Copper Glow and Bobbi Brown Jadestone Palette, Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals and Dior Écrin Couture Iconic Eye Makeup Palette, as well as the Pat Mcgrath Labs Celestial Nirvana Eye Shadow Palette in Bronze Bliss
I reviewed all five of those HERE. The only one I regret buying is the Bobbi Brown Face Palette just because I bought a face trio earlier this year (not to be confused with the new holiday trio that contains 2 of the 3 same shades) that I get more use out of, plus it contains the same highlighter that is in that palette. As for the others, I am still always testing new eyeshadows, so I don’t have the time to use them as much as I want.
Pat Mcgrath Spur of the Moment Purchases: Skin Fetish: Divine Glow Highlighter in Venus Nectar, Pat Mcgrath Labs X Bridgerton Skin Fetish Sublime Highlighter in Incandescent Gold, and Pat Mcgrath Labs Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Concealer in Shade MD23.
I showcased both highlighters HERE, though I didn’t show Venus Nectar on my face, so I’m including that at least in this post. As for the concealer, I reviewed the formula of shades MD22 and MD24 HERE, but I don’t think I updated with a swatch of MD23 once I got it. Essentially, I finally got my hands on that sold out shade and it was the perfect depth level, but the tone was still too olive and looked strange compared to the tone of my foundations, so I essentially gave up on using the PML concealers anymore. I don’t have MD22 or MD24 to compare next to it anymore, but I have a photo of MD23 compared to other concealers when I had intended (but changed my mind) to do an Ami Cole concealer post.
Fenty Beauty Double Cheek’d Up: Freestyle Cream Blush Duo – I reviewed it HERE and honestly haven’t picked it up a single time since reviewing. When the cream blush line was expanded this year, I picked up two new shades, but realized that even though I enjoy them for their colors, I prefer a product that sets to a fully dry touch. So, I don’t plan on reviewing anymore blushes from Fenty in the future, unless they release powder versions.
LYS Beauty Higher Standard 3-Piece Cream Blush Set – I reviewed it HERE and have only used it a few times after the review. It isn’t a matter of me losing interest. It’s still in my top 2 among traditional cream formulas. I’m just preferring to use powder blushes a lot more these days. I still very much recommend LYS blushes.
Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation in 13.5 and 14
I was initially saving this review for a foundation ranking/declutter post I started working on at the beginning of the year, but never finished. I purchased Shade 13.5 which was slightly too light, but I could pull it off as long as I used bronzer with it. I bought Shade 14 at the end of November, and that was closer to my skintone, but slightly too dark. I can get a good match by mixing the two, but I have to be careful because the color darkens once it’s dry. So, I can’t just mix to my correct shade while wet. I have to mix to get my correct dry-down color.
This foundation is thick, though not heavy. It doesn’t drip at all when squirted out of the pump. I get high-medium coverage from the foundation. When they say “soft glow” they really do mean that the glow level is low. It’s a natural finish foundation, but on my dry skin, it looks horrible for most of the day unless I either prep my skin well (with at least facial oil) or wait until my natural oils come through, which doesn’t end up happening until the late afternoon, if at all. Even when I use Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil, I don’t like how my skin looks until an hour or so later. Then, I find the finish to be quite beautiful. I like this foundation enough that I’ve been keeping it in rotation since buying it, but not quite enough that I’d repurchase it once I use it up, even if Hourglass was to make shade 13.75 or something. I have foundations I like equally (albeit a different finish) that are still expensive, but a better deal.
It sets completely and doesn’t transfer, so I don’t set it with setting powder or spray. I still use a finishing powder with it at times and in specific areas.
Hourglass Foundation Shade 13.5 with Gucci Bronzer Shade 5 (Taken with Camera)
Hourglass Foundation Shades 13.5 and 14 mixed (Taken with Cell Phone)
I posted on the home page that, unfortunately, my main camera broke and I had to switch to using my cell phone for blog photos. That has come with its own benefits and challenges. My main camera had higher megapixels, but I’ve been using additional light sources and trying to improve my light quality to compensate for my cell phone, so it’s debatable which one is better when I had different struggles with both. Anyway, I just wanted to explain why the two look so different, besides the foundation color. I still have a ton of photos taken with my former main camera, but not enough to complete the posts without needing to add additional pictures with my cell phone.
Oden’s Eye Merry Christmas and Christmas Eve Holiday Palettes – I reviewed these HERE but did not include any solo eye looks. I figured today would be a good time to share some. As I mentioned in my post, I always reach for these as companion palettes. Out of the eleven Oden’s Eye palettes I own, I would say the Merry Christmas one is my 2nd favorite. The Christmas Eve palette would be 4th place. I hope the brand decides to re-release them for those who missed out.
Smashbox Cali Contour Palette in Medium/Dark
It took the full year for me to make up my mind about this palette because there was always something I didn’t like about it when I tried to use more than one product at a time. Then it would take me a few weeks to a few months to want to try it again.
It’s very easy to overdo it with the contour (as seen below) and because it’s so pigmented, I can make it look blended, but it doesn’t sheer out enough. So, it’s best to start slowly and try and build up the color that way. Cinnamon Matte isn’t dark enough to bronze me (though I’m still not sure what purpose it’s actually supposed to serve), but I use it to tone down Warm Contour within reason.
Cocoa Rojo is a beautiful color, but for some reason I don’t like the finish of it on my skin. There’s subtle shimmer in this and I’m in my glowy cheek era, so I should like this. I’m just not sure it’s this type of shimmer that I like in a cheek product where it shows particles and the glow doesn’t come from a sheen.
These highlighters are subtle, which is also right up my alley. However, the shimmer isn’t as refined as I like. For some reason they just don’t excite me.
On paper, I should love this face palette, but I don’t. I like it enough to want to keep it, but I know I’m not going to reach for it when there are so many blushes, bronzers, and highlighters I use that actually cause an excited flutter within me when I put them on. Since I don’t have a ton of contour products, that’s the one thing from here that still has some appeal and I’m considering depotting it from the palette. However, I do have contour products that are working just fine for me, so I might not bother.
Revolution Shrek Gingy Highlighter and GOT Iron Throne Sponge Set
I bought the highlighter purely for nostalgia. I love Gingy! The Shrek series (really just 1 and 2) was my favorite series after the Mummy Series (again 1 and 2) for a very long time! I think Rush Hour 1 and 2 (okay apparently I only like the first two of trilogies) surpassed the Shrek series by now, but I still love those movies and Gingy is still my favorite. However, for review purposes I have worn it a handful of times. When I’m using my winter foundations, the highlighter is too deep of a bronze for me. In the photo above where I’m not quite at my typical summer shade but a little darker than I have been in a while, it seems to work well enough when used sparingly. In complete direct light, my camera can pick up the texture to the shimmer particles, but looks smoother at most other angles in the light. In fact, it’s smoother than I expected from a Revolution Beauty product. I’m a bit impressed! I don’t intend to use it anymore though since I want to keep it for nostalgia purposes, but it’s good enough that I could. Also, this used to have a strong gingerbread scent, but that faded in the year that I’ve had this.
How cool is this sponge and holder set! Plus, it was so inexpensive at $6 considering Beautyblender’s sponge stands/holders/cases are in the $10 range not including the sponge. The brand had a sale and I ended up buying another set to give to my friend at the even lower price of $4! As a Game of Thrones mega fan, I had to have this for the stand alone. It’s not only a functional holder, but also a nice spot to set the sponge to air dry after being cleaned. The sponge was just like any other inexpensive sponge I’ve tried. It blended my foundation in just as well while feeling a little firmer than the original Beautyblender, but not as firm as the Rephr sponge or Danessa Myricks ones. The Revolution Beauty sponge was also firmer than the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge. It would be nice if it was a little softer when wet, but it still works great, especially for the cost. There are two big drawbacks for me, which is that if the sponge sits out for even as little as a few hours, I can’t wash it fully clean with any of my soaps. There will still be foundation stains after multiple re-washings. The other downside is that for whatever reason this sponge takes exceptionally long to dry. It had me concerned about the increased risk of something growing inside considering how long it stays wet for. So, after a few uses I decided not to bother with it. I’m happy enough with the stand. I know there have been quite the issues financially with this brand and their sub-brands and co-brands, but I hope they’re able to continue making gems. I haven’t had the best luck with everything of theirs I’ve tried, but they’ve got their occasional hits.
CDJapan Chikuhodo ZE-3 Blush Brush – This review is coming to Fude 6.
Sonia G Smooth Buffer Brush – This review is coming to Fude 7.
Viseart Petit Pro Palette London Étoile – I reviewed this HERE along with several other Viseart palettes. I created some pretty looks with it, but once the “new” feeling wore off, I didn’t use it again. I love olive shadows, but I have so many other olives that have more sparkle and wow-factor to them, which is why I always remembered to use those and forgot about the one from this palette.
Lunar Beauty 2022 Advent Calendar, Love Me Strawberry Lip Oil, and Dreamy Lip Gloss – I’m going to come right out and say I’ve chosen to not review these products at this time. I have always felt conflicted about whether to review Lunar Beauty or not because I’m always going back and forth about how I feel about the brand’s owner Manny Gutierrez (Manny MUA). The personality he portrays in his videos isn’t the style I enjoy watching in reviews, but it’s his past constant involvement in drama with other problematic influencers that bothered me. I do own the first Moonspell palette (purchased discounted from a third party and never used as it’s just for packaging), a Moon Prism highlighter I bought purely for packaging (also purchased from a third party and never used) and originally planned to compare it to the controversial dupe highlighter from Makeup Revolution, the first Moon Prism blush palette that I purchased when Lunar Beauty products were sold at Sephora, and the Large Powder Brush from his website (even gifted two of them). Manny had stayed away from the drama for a few years and his Fool Coverage podcast with Laura Lee started to change my opinion of him. That’s why I purchased the Advent Calendar and lip products last year and decided that I felt comfortable enough to finally put full energy into the Lunar Beauty post I’d been working on here and there for literally years. Then, as I started with the product photos and testing in 2023, I kept hearing about more and more problematic influencers that he was starting to show his public support for again and that bad taste in my mouth returned. Unlike certain people whose products I refuse to buy or speak about on my blog any longer (JS, JC, JH, etc.), I don’t know if I’m going to give a hard ban to Lunar Beauty products in terms of never speaking about them again. I at least finished reviewing the last Jaclyn Cosmetics products I owned before stating I was done with the brand. With Lunar Beauty, if I’m wearing those products in a post, I might mention it’s what I’m using, but I don’t see myself ever working on that brand review post again, and I personally will no longer purchase anymore products from them. The last thing I bought was a year ago anyway.
Beauty Bay Dark Fantasy Palette
I showcased this in a Swatchfest post, but hadn’t actually reviewed it at the time. These colors are stunning and right up my alley. I have loved the looks I’ve created with it. Regarding the quality, this doesn’t give me that many issues when I’m using a primer. Eye primers are a staple product for most beauty lovers, but I do personally know people in my life who are makeup dabblers and don’t always use primer. So, it’s for their sake that I feel the need to express that I had such a hard time using this palette without a primer. The lighter mattes are fine, but the darker ones are so pigmented with good adherence that they just don’t want to budge unless there’s a primer underneath. I can’t stress enough that primer is important! Also, I highly recommend working from lightest to darkest when building up layers.
With primer, these mattes still weren’t as easy to blend as the majority of the eyeshadow palettes I use (also at double the cost or more), but with the staple Japanese eyeshadow brushes I’ve used hundreds of times, it was still better than I expected. It’s nice to see Beauty Bay eyeshadow quality has a positive reputation for a reason. Not necessarily as being the greatest on the market, but certainly great for the price (along the lines of BH Cosmetics, Colourpop, and ELF). It didn’t take that much longer blending as to prevent me from wanting to use this palette again. The first time was rough, but every time after was easy enough. I like how much color payoff I get from those mattes. For instance, shades like Plasma are usually treated like a pastel shade and are too thin or too white based and don’t look that great on my eyes, but this one was great! Hoax is a color that really doesn’t show on my eyes due to my skin tone and Algorithm is a slightly more golden tone version of my skin so it barely shows either, but I still like to use it as a starting shade in the crease. Atmosphere is the one that’s too thin and doesn’t show well enough on me and the other shades are too strong in pigment and overpowers it when I try to use it to blend the edges of the shadows, but it still semi works for that purpose. I just have to spend a little extra time on it. Beauty ends up looking way more purple on my eyes instead of burgundy or maroon, but it’s at least still a pretty color.
I have zero issues with the shimmers. I sometimes get a little fallout, but dampening the brush helps. The shimmers aren’t as refined as some of my more expensive eyeshadows either, but I like their sparkle level and they look pretty regardless. I want intensity and opacity from my shimmers, and that’s what these give me. I didn’t have any patchy or creasing issues either, so overall I do like this palette! I’m glad I was able to give the Beauty Bay eyeshadows a try. Because it’s not the easiest to get my hands on, I don’t know how many more I’ll get in the future. Plus, I’m usually not drawn to their color stories. However, if another one attracts my attention, I might get it.
MAC Indulgent Glow Rosé Limited-Edition face kit in Sparkling Wine – I reviewed this HERE and in comparison to other MAC highlighters I got around the same time. It’s super pretty, but I ran into that issue where I am so reluctant to actually use my makeup with cute embossing on it. I have no regrets buying it though.
Charlotte Tilbury Hypnotising Pop Shot eyeshadow in Cosmic Rocks – I reviewed it HERE along with the shade Sunlit Diamond that they sent me on accident with a different order. Just as I expected, these have become cute decor. I haven’t reached for them more than once or twice after completing the review. I just don’t use single eyeshadows if they’re in individual compacts. I only reach for the ones in my larger custom magnetic palettes.
Hourglass Unlocked Butterfly Palette – I got this from FeelUnique/Sephora UK for $46 purely to get the two blushes in that palette. I depotted two shades from my other Hourglass palettes that were unusable on my skintone, adhered them to the Butterfly palette’s now missing blush spots, and sold it as a custom palette on Mercari. Minus the fees, I made $32 back, so this was probably the best deal I got that year. I did not get so lucky on the deals this year, but that’s a story for another time. I talked about the process of depotting and showed the photos of the palette HERE.
Bioderma Sensibio H2O – This was just a repurchase. I decided to look through my purchase history and essentially since November 2015 I’ve bought 8 of the 500ml bottles, 2 of the 250ml bottles, and 2 travel size 100ml bottles. In the beginning, I was able to get heavy discounts on multi-packs, but the prices have jumped up quite a lot. So, I try to get them individually whenever I see them on sale, even if I need to accumulate backups since they will always be used up. In fact, I’m halfway through my last bottle and will need to find a new place to order it from when I go back to Germany so I won’t need to bring a big bottle over with me. This is one of those products that as long as they keep making it and don’t change the formula, I’ll be buying it for life.
Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk’R Face + Eye Bronzer & Highlighter Palette – I reviewed this HERE and though it’s still in my collection, I am considering decluttering it. I just have a ton of bronzers by now that I prefer and don’t need to resort to mixing to get the tones I like.
One/size Cheek Clapper in Phat @$$ – I reviewed it HERE. As it often happens, because my blush collection is so large, I don’t have the chance to use this as often as I would like to. It’s still one of my favorites, along with the other shade from the line called Freaky Peach. I still easily recommend this trio, even at full price.
Sephora Collection VIB Sale Items: Soft Matte Perfection Blush Duo in 01 Sweet Pea, Best Skin Ever Liquid Foundation in 44 Y, Best Skin Ever Full Coverage Multi-Use Concealer in 35N and 44Y
The blush duo in three shades (two additional I bought later on) are reviewed HERE. As for the foundation and concealers, the shade matches are why I decided not to review them. I wasn’t blown away by the finishes and just didn’t feel inspired to keep using any of them.
Sephora’s Best Skin Ever line was really hyped up, but it was just fine. I didn’t like how the concealers wore throughout the day. The finish of the foundation was fine and the color match wasn’t too terribly dark if used lightly, but all of these smelled so heavily of chemicals after owning them for a year. For the record though, I didn’t open the concealers until around three months prior to posting this and they smelled just as bad as the foundation, like spray paint or nail polish. So, even without air exposure, the shelf life isn’t great on these. I threw them out before I could take a picture including them in the big October month photo.
Rare Beauty Positive Light Liquid Luminizer Highlight in Flaunt – I reviewed this already as a sample HERE, but I bought the full size a year ago during the VIB sale. I also have swatches and comparisons to the powder version of this shade HERE.
Kayali Eden Juicy Apple – I don’t normally review my perfume purchases, but I did so in a big Kayali post HERE. I have admittedly barely used this perfume because I’m always using Yum Pistachio or Lovefest instead, but at least I just got this in a small size so it’s not quite as wasteful. Plus, I got it on sale. As nice as it is, I decided to give it to my sister because of how deep my obsession for the other scents run. This was my first Kayali purchase, but since it’s only a year old, I haven’t attached any sentimental value to it.
HUDA BEAUTY GloWish Cheeky Vegan Soft Glow Powder Blush in Sassy Saffron – I showed swatches of it HERE in comparison to the previous shades I bought. However, I don’t have any face pictures with it on because it just doesn’t show up on my cheeks. For that reason, I haven’t used this particular shade. The formula and finish wasn’t special enough either for me to prioritize it. I still like how Berry Juicy looks, and I wore it perhaps two more times in the past year.
Tom Ford Highlighter Duo in Tanlight – I reviewed it HERE. I still use it quite often and it’s one of my favorite highlighters in my collection. In fact, it’s such a great shade match for me that I don’t feel the necessity to purchase anymore highlighters from the brand unless they have another shade that’s similar to the mixture of the two colors in some form of special packaging. While I still have mixed feelings about the price and I’m not sure if I would universally recommend it to everyone, it was worth it personally to me.
Oh dear Lord, we’ve finally reached the end!
This was a monster of a post, even though so many of the products had already been reviewed elsewhere! We’re so close to completing the series but November and December 2022 had even more purchases than October! And considering what I know is coming for the rest of this year in my personal life, I think we’ll have to complete this series sometime next year!
I’m getting into a really exciting chapter of my personal life, which I will be sharing with everyone in December or January. Thank you to those who are choosing to be along for the ride!
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.
Tarte is one of those brands that I’m interested in purchasing from, but I’m almost never willing to buy their products at full-price. And, frankly, one doesn’t need to because they have quite a few sales at 30% off or more throughout the year. Between my Black Friday purchases from last year, and the “Choose 4 for 50% off” deal from April, I have enough products to do part 2 of my original dedicated Tarte post.
Sweet Tarte Cravings Eyeshadow Palette
Considering how pretty the outer packaging is and how adorable the chocolate shaped eyeshadows are on the inside, it’s amazing that I was able to hold off on getting this palette until it was discounted. It’s so cute and has some fun textures and finishes.
These perform as well as any other Tarte palette, but it’s quite interesting how foiled and wet all five shimmers are. Tarte shimmers tend to be creamy, but these are much wetter to the touch than I expected, while still clearly being a powder product and not an actual cream. As for the mattes, or at least Truffle and Drizzle, they’re the standard buttery feeling mattes I’ve come to expect from the brand. Semi-Sweet and Ganache are semi-matte considering they have dark colored micro shimmer in there that I didn’t notice until about the fifth time I used the palette. They just look matte on my eyes. The texture of those is also a little drier than I’m used to.
Raspberry Swirl and other medium toned magenta shades tend to look red on my eyes instead of purple, and Semi-Sweet just looked brown instead of plum. So, I was a bit disappointed that I’m not getting the purple shades I wanted. It’s basically entirely a warm neutral palette for me. However, it’s pretty and good quality, so I’m happy with the palette. I get a little creasing from the shimmers, particularly in the inner portion of my eyes, but it’s acceptable for all-day wear.
Maneater Catitude Eyeshadow Palette
I was interested in the Maneater After Dark palette, but it’s quite large, and I tend to pass on those nowadays. This Maneater Catitude palette has the green and some neutrals I was interested in, so I bought it hoping it could be a more curated version of Maneater After Dark.
The mattes don’t feel like the others I’ve had from Tarte. Rather than creamy, they instead have a silky-slip feel to them. They are still pigmented and buildable, but not quite as easy to blend as the Amazonian Clay matte formula. Attraction, Smitten, and Infatuation are adequate quality. Instincts has the tendency to be patchy and is more time consuming to blend than the other mattes. The shimmers Sizzle and Spicy are foiled type of eyeshadows too, and smooth, though not wet like the ones in the Sweet Tarte Cravings palette.
I’ve liked the looks I have made with this palette, and I like the sparkle level in the shimmers, but because of the nearly flaky texture, I still spray my brush when I apply them because I feel they need a little help with adhesion. Doing that does lead to noticeable, but not terrible, creasing.
This palette is pretty good for the price, and even better at a discount, but it was most useful just to satisfy my curiosity. The quality wasn’t special enough to really be worth buying when I get more enjoyment out of my Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals palette and Bobbi Brown Jadestone palette, even though those are twice the price.
Tartelette Juicy Amazonian Clay Palette
This was one of my Black Friday purchases, and getting the deal is the only way I’d have bought this palette because I have random moods when I want to rock pink eyeshadows, but they are few and far between. I really like the Amazonian Clay eyeshadow formula, as I discovered after getting the Tartiest Pro 2 Palette, so the quality didn’t disappoint. The mattes are creamy and blendable. The shimmers are shiny and smooth, though I like to help them along by applying them damp. I sometimes get issues with the shadows disappearing from the inner corner of my eyes from rubbing that spot, but otherwise, they usually have good longevity.
These are great for soft, girly, romantic looks and for neutral lovers. I knew this prior to purchasing. I just wanted more depth from Dream Chaser and Dusk. It’s the same issue as the Sweet Tarte palette’s magenta color pulling red instead. Dusk, on my eyes, isn’t the rich brown I expected. It’s more of a medium golden-bronze color. Euphoric is the only option for me to deepen up a look to the level I like. So, this isn’t perfect, but I like it. I might have regretted buying it at full price, but the 50% off made it palatable.
Maracuja Juicy Lip Balm (Travel Size) in Strawberry, Hibiscus, and Coconut
This balm comes in a plumping version as well, but I tend to avoid those types unless they’re very hyped up and described as a minty plumping product, since I like having a cooling sensation on my lips on occasion.
I think these give a decent amount of color payoff, but they do need to be applied thickly for it to show. The issue is that the formula feels almost too soft for the tube packaging. I think a doe foot applicator or some other type that could smooth out the color would have been better. The balm, when glided across the lips, comes off in thicker chunks of color. It looks terrible unless one rubs the lips together, which spreads the color evenly at the expensive of that action sheering it out.
To get the color to show in photos, I end up using my finger to spread it, add a second layer, then spread it with my finger again. Strawberry has more pigment than Coconut and Hibiscus, or at least Strawberry shows up more strongly over my natural lip color. The amount required to see my lips visibly tinted is a lot, so I started to just use them for nourishing lip purposes instead of a color product.
While it feels moisturizing and soft in the beginning of the day, eventually by the end (with retouches throughout the day since it doesn’t last after food), my lips dry out slightly. This happens to me with nearly every balm with color added to it. I just have excessively dry lips and so many things can exacerbate it. The upside and why I still use this from time to time is because a lot of other lip products dry my lips much earlier in the day. With this one from Tarte, if I just remove it by the evening time and switch to something more nourishing early in the night, I won’t have any of the negative consequences. I get to keep enjoying the slightly tinted and beautifully glossy look it gives.
To clarify, when I use the term “tinted” in this context, I mean visibly seeing a different hue on my lips instead of my natural lip color. I don’t mean tinted from a lip stain.
As I mentioned before, the texture is a bit strange to put in stick packaging since it’s such a soft melty consistency. It instantly made me think of the Makeup by Mario Plumping Lip Serums and MAC Glow Play Lip Balms. The difference is that the Tarte balm is thick, glossy, and creamy, whereas Makeup by Mario’s is thin, shiny, and oily. MAC’s is also wet and “oily” for lack of a better term. One more thing about the Tarte balm that others might not like is that it has some stickiness to it, but not enough to bother me.
Shape Tape Glow Bronzer in Deep Bronze
I bought this expecting to use it as a highlighter because Deep Bronze looks lighter and more golden in the product photos than it is in reality. I did not expect it to be so dark!
This means that I can use it as intended. Good job, Tarte! I’ve noticed the brand’s efforts to have more shade options for their products. There’s still some room to grow, after all, only two shades is still going to exclude a lot of people from being able to use them. Plus the brand still doesn’t have a traditional bronzer in a wearable shade for those with deep skin. However, I acknowledge the increased efforts as of late. That being said, I wish they’d be more transparent about what this product actually is and does, because it’s pretty much a contour.
The name Shape Tape implies that it’s a sculpting product, but the line started with concealers. Sure, technically it can lift the face if a brighter shade is used, but I believe most people are like me in viewing Shape Tape as a product to conceal unwanted things on the face, not as a highlighting and contouring product. There was a Shape Tape foundation, after all, which doesn’t fit the sculpting idea either. Although these “Glow Bronzers” are part of the Shape Tape line, they’re described on the website as, “radiant baked bronzing powders for a luminous glow.” So, I didn’t question it being anything more than a glowy bronzer. I was pleased when it turned out to be darker than I thought, but confused by how grey toned it looked in the compact. I own some products that look warmer in the light, but even in the light this has to be at a very specific angle to see a warmer tinge.
It’s only the box packaging that has writing on it stating that this product is a, “natural matte” and “cool toned powder.” Radiant and luminous, as described on the website, is definitely not the same thing as natural matte! In addition, the fact that it’s cool toned means it is very likely to have a contouring effect if it’s too many shades darker than someone’s natural skin tone, as is the case for me. There are people who specifically prefer cool toned bronzers, but the advertising gives no indication that this is what we’d be getting. Plus, most of the images of the product itself looks super shimmery, meanwhile only some of the model photos have it looking semi-matte. So, buyers please be aware that Deep Bronze is a sculpting bronzer or contour with a slight sheen. It’s not shimmery or glittery whatsoever. Below is an example of the shimmer level of the BareMinerals Blonzer (Kiss of Spice) and Kosas Sun Show Bronzer (Paradise) look like compared to the one from Tarte.
If I apply this lightly, I can see some of the red tones come through, but it always appears patchy. No matter what brush I use, or whether my base has been powder set or not, I end up needing to go back over the area with foundation, concealer, or to cover up the uneven spots with blush. If I use a normal amount of product, it looks more even, but it also creates a stronger contoured effect. So, what I tend to do more often is apply it like a contour and add a bronzer from another brand over the top of it. I’ve found a way to make it work and look pretty in my own eyes, but I don’t see myself reaching for this again. It’s just too much effort when I have a contour from Kaleidos that I like or the custom powder combination I can make from Hindash’s Beautopsy palette.
In the demonstration photos below, the sheer application looks quite grey, but grey/brown/red in the thicker layer. I didn’t realize until afterwards that my attempts to apply it, see it’s too patchy, remove it, try it again, and repeat the cycle with different brushes led to the final result looking darker/cooler. I believe it’s due to there not being enough time between my fourth or so re-application of foundation not being 100% dry before adding the sheer layer for the final time. I must have been feeling a little impatient by the fourth time since I wanted to demonstrate this product in the best possible light, knowing my words about it would be negative.
Another thing I can’t ignore is the closure of the packaging. Some genius thought it was a good idea to make the space to lift the lid practically flush with the bottom of the compact. A compact that already has holes on the bottom, making it awkward to place the fingers to grip. I have to literally stick my nail in the tiny space and hold my other nail in the side gap to pull it open. I rarely have trouble with packaging enough to need to mention it in a review, but this one is quite annoying.
These are examples of the space usually between the lid opening and bottom of the compacts. One of the easier ways to open the one from Tarte, if you have long nails, is gripping both sides of the gold portion and lifting both sides of the plastic lid with the other hand.
Expectations for a luminous bronzer aside, I recommend the evenly priced Huda Beauty GloWish Soft Radiance Bronzing Powder instead. It has a prettier sheen and blends right into the skin. Longevity isn’t an issue for either of these two produdcts. The GloWish comes in more shades, plus some of the colors are available in mini sizes too.
Blur Brush
I selected the Blur Brush because I’ve always wondered how it compares to The Buffer brush, a long time holy grail synthetic fiber foundation brush. They both have a ton of bristles packed together. I always thought The Buffer was dense, but the Blur Brush is on another level! It feels especially tighter packed because it has much shorter bristles. The Buffer brush has longer fibers, so there’s a little more room to bend and splay, so there’s more flexibility while buffing it. The Blur Brush is so dense that it takes more force to move the product across the face. The wide surface area keeps it moving quite evenly though, and the foundation remains mostly on the tips and doesn’t go far down the bristles, which means less product gets lost during the application. Because of that tightness, it’s also more intuitive to swipe the foundation as opposed to trying to buff it in.
I should also note that I’ve only used these brushes with liquid foundations. I haven’t used them with creams or powders. In theory, I think the blur brush might pick up and disperse too much powder if it’s a setting or finishing one. However, one might like it for maximizing the coverage of a powder foundation. Also, I can imagine a stiff cream product with this stiff brush might be uncomfortable. However, I don’t know for sure since I only ever intend to use this with liquids.
Because the excess foundation remains on the skin and doesn’t go further into the brush, it can look like product is sitting on top of the face if too much is accidentally pumped out. For that reason, the Buffer Brush is more helpful for me to use because it takes the excess off the face and also helps push the remaining product further into the skin for a more natural look. The Blur Brush is still quite useful, but it takes second place to The Buffer for me and my foundation needs.
Two other things I noticed is that wherever the brush touches the foundation first will leave the biggest pool of product on the brush. I can blend some of it out of the pool and onto the face, but that initial part is the only place foundation gathers, besides the tips. The other thing is that this feature of how tightly packed the fibers are makes it both harder and easier to clean. At least I don’t need to worry about opening the brush and soaping up what’s deeper, but it’s hard to get the product out of the places it did stick.
So far, I’m still pleased with my decision to give this brush a try.
That is everything for this post! Thank you for reading!
UPDATE: I hadn’t realized MAC started a “sale on sale” deal today. Use code LOVERSEXTRA20 for an additional savings off the Last Chance/Goodbyes/Sale Section on the US website. The code is non-affiliated and the link is non-affiliated as well. I just wanted to be sure to mention this in time. The sale ends June 13th, 2023 and it’s supposed to be for those who have signed up to MAC’s reward program. So, be sure to log in so the code will work.
This is technically a swatchfest bonus post, but I don’t believe I can complete this coming Monday’s official post. So, I hope this replacement will suffice. I mainly wanted to show photos, swatches, and lip looks as fast as possible since these lipsticks are selling out fast. Only a few are still available on the MAC-US website, but perhaps those in other parts of the world still have access to some of them and that this post will still be helpful.
MAC x Whitney Houston in Nippy’s Moody Nude (Cremesheen)
MAC x Black Panther Wakanda Forever in Story of Home (Amplified)
MAC New Year Shine in Lookin’ Like Wealth (Matte)
Of the three shades, the Whitney Houston one is the only one I like as-is. It’s the lip color I wish I naturally had. There’s a little bit of a brown tone to it, but it’s still a muted pink (which is my preference). The Black Panther lipstick is a little cooler toned. A little greige on me. I still like the lip color, but paired with a lip liner, as shown below. I used the Juvia’s Place Lip Liner in Brownie for the demonstration.
As for Lookin’ Like Wealth, it’s a gorgeous color, but it’s a brighter shade of rose than I would want. In order to tone it down, it pairs beautifully with Nippy’s Moody Nude applied to the center of the lips on the top and bottom. Plus, I like the added shine.
So that’s everything! For those curious, I purchased additional items from the sale. The M·A·C Stack Mascara has been one of my newest mascara obsessions since it came out. Even at the reduced price of $18 and $19, I would probably still be better off sticking to my Essence mascaras or continuing to use up the remainder of the mascaras in my makeup stash. However, I couldn’t resist getting backups in the limited edition packaging of the Lunar New Year collection and Richard Quinn collab. I considered getting more pieces from the Richard Quinn line, such as taking a chance on the highlighter even though it looks far too light or the mint color eyeliner, but I decided against it. There are also the limited edition bottles of Fix+ that I would have considered getting if I didn’t already have plenty (and in scents other than Cherry Blossom, Lavender, or Rose). Fix+ scents I loved so far have been cucumber, coconut, pineapple, and watermelon. I even prefer the unscented Fix+ over the floral ones.
The sale section is filled with limited edition products, but be careful about some of the collections that were originally launched long ago! It’s not just semi-new products in there. Still, I recommend taking a peek at what’s available!
Thank you for viewing!
-Lili ❤
DISCLOSURE: I purchased these products with my own money and am not affiliated with MAC in any way.
A few things happened between working on Part 1 and Part 2. First, I decided to keep a few extra products from the Mystery Bundles instead of giving them away. Second, the only lip pencil I received that smelled relatively normal in the beginning ended up starting to smell very off like the others (still without me ever even using it), so I’m no longer going to review it. Third, Melt had a 50% off sale the day after I posted Part 1, so I bought the few remaining things I wanted from the brand. This means I’ll be reviewing a few extra things not pictured above.
Part 1 with reviews of all the eye products in the photo can be found HERE.
The Sculpt Stack
This stack is surprisingly handy! I love that it comes with a small mirror as the “cap” for the stack. The med/dark bronzer and contour both work for my skin tone, but even the light/med bronzer I’ve been able to use as a setting powder! It’s just the light/med contour that I have little use for. I prefer my contours to have slightly more grey than this one has, so I had the idea to mix some of the light/med contour shade with it, but I was unsuccessful in making those two properly blend together to turn into the perfect contour shade for my liking. Using the Med/Dark contour on its own looked better than the combination of the two.
These blend easily enough, though it can stick in place a little bit if my face is dewy, but that just requires a dense brush to buff out and then it looks fine again. The Chikuhodo FO-2 is a beloved buffer brush up to that task, for example.
These don’t fade. They are matte, but not drying. I love a slight sheen to my bronzers, which this doesn’t give, but it’s still quite nice. Overall, my impression of the stack is that it’s a useful product. It’s not in my very top favorites, but I do enjoy this product a lot and will continue using it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be something I like even more over time.
Ultra Matte Bronzer in Malibu
Despite the “Ultra Matte” name, I don’t find this product to be drying on the skin or to look any more matte than the bronzer in the stack. The powder feels slightly silkier to the touch, but it’s actually less easy to use than the stack because of my preference for wearing slightly dewy foundations. If I’m wearing a drier foundation, the blend is at least equal to the bronzer in the stack. Overall, I prefer the stack’s color and blendability than Melt’s actual dedicated line of bronzers. Plus, whatever makes this formula different from the one in the stack also causes it to start forming a weird film on the top layer (presumably from double dipping between the compact and the moisture on my face from skincare, primer, and/or dewy foundation).
I find it interesting that the shade range seems to lean on the darker end of the spectrum. My shade is number 3 out of 4 and Malibu is even a bit darker than I tend to wear these days, though perhaps it’ll be perfect in the summertime. However, I will realistically not reach for this because I prefer the stack and plenty of other bronzers in my collection over this one. It’s not bad, but I just don’t think it’s worth full price. Even at half price, I’d choose a Mented Cosmetics bronzer, Nabla Skin Bronzing, or Covergirl Trublend So Flushed.
Cream Blushlight in Pinched and Lynx
I’ve reviewed this type of product before and it falls into the category of loving the shades and finishes, but not liking the fact that these don’t set down to a dry finish on the skin. Just like the Rose Inc blushes that I have the same issue with, I was unable to turn down the opportunity to buy something (like a mystery box) to essentially get the blushes for free. They’re so pretty! I just wish they could set without a strong powder (like a powder blush that fully removes the glow and warps the color which defeats the purpose of wearing them at all).
Pinched looks quite similar to Polished, but I wanted an option that didn’t have shimmer and was more pigmented on my cheeks and Lynx made for a gorgeous cream highlighter. I’m satisfied with these two shades, and will use them for photos, but the continued wet feeling on the cheeks is why I will never get much use out of them in public or private. For those who don’t mind a wet creamy cheek, these are beautiful. And I know there are some people who absolutely love this formula, like Amy Loves Makeup who owns them all.
Digital Dust Highlighter in Genesis
This highlighter was in the “last chance” section of the website, so it’s discontinued now, but something about pink and gold shimmery hues intrigue me. If they’re too pink, I tend to not like them, but if they are gold with a slight pink tinge, I tend to find them beautiful. Genesis is the kind I like. The shine can be built up to medium intensity in person, but it remains subtle on camera. I thought at first it just blended in very well on a day I wore my Rituel de Fille Thorn Oil (left photo), but when I made sure to take pictures again with a drier base, the shimmer particles were more obvious, but still didn’t look very reflective on camera (right photo). So, this is the type of highlighter I would wear in public, but not if I wanted my highlight to pop in pictures.
Sexfoil Liquid Highlight in Peaches & Cream
I reviewed these before and even mentioned that I think Peaches & Cream might show up more intensely on me. Ironically, it’s even more subtle than Gold Ore, but I think it’s a far better match for my skintone and even prettier. This product has a tendency to lift, depending on what other makeup I wear underneath it, but because the base color is about my skin tone, it covers up any patches while also having shimmer light enough to reflect and still work as a highlighter for my face.
Although I rarely use liquid highlighters, this might be the exception.
Gel Liner in Fortune
I have an example of this on the eyes in the Half Lashes section with the green eyeshadow look. Just like the other Melt liners, they dry quickly, don’t smudge, and last all day without the line cracking. I prefer eyeliner pens because of the convenience of not needing to use a second tool to apply it, but I find these gel ones to be great from Melt, especially in the waterproof formula that works for the waterline, though I only reach for them occasionally. If the brand ever releases felt tip eyeliner pens, I would definitely want to give one a try.
Johnny Half Lash
This was my first time ever buying Half Lashes and, just like most full strip lashes, these aren’t for me. The issue is that I have a very rounded curve to my eyes directly in the middle. This requires me to have strip lashes that are longer than usual. My eyes also have a steep downward curve at the outer edge, which I try to balance out with cat-eye wings. So, in order to have room to adjust to my eye shape, I would need a longer half lash (something like a 3/4 strip) and for the outer portion to have much longer lashes so that it can look like it’s curving upward at the ends. On my eyes, putting the half lash from the actual middle to end part looks strange because my inner lashes are super short, which doesn’t have a normal looking transition from shorter lashes to suddenly longer outer ones. This causes the outer part to look either downturned or just makes the eye look heavy. If I move the lash slightly more inwards from the top of my curve in the center to almost the end to keep it from looking downturned, it looks even more ridiculous because the lashes go from short to long to short again.
The best I could get it to look was in the purple look when I made sure to have a wing that made the outer edge appear to curve up higher than the actual lash was curving. It still looks quite heavy though, so this style of lash just isn’t for me. If I want half lashes, I think I would need to just slightly trim a full strip and ensure it has a very flared out end. But considering my sparse and shorter inner lashes, I’d just stick with House of Lashes Iconic Lites.
Amor y Mariposas Collection
Recuerdos Lipstick and Corazon Lip Pencil
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I didn’t end up wearing the lip pencil because of the smell. As for the lipstick, it’s certainly an interesting color. It still has a vanilla scent to it that is similar to the cream blushlights. The color isn’t very even and this formula is very drying and the bullet was stiff. I don’t know if this is the case with all of Melt’s lipsticks (I have heard they aren’t very comfortable) or if this is just performing this way because of how long ago the collection was released. The gold packaging is absolutely stunning though. I love the details, as well as the imprint on the lipstick bullet. I will never wear this lipstick again (and removed it after taking the photo so I have no idea how good the longevity is), but I want to save the packaging and maybe pour a homemade balm into it so I can reuse it for something because it’s so pretty, plus luxurious feeling from the metal with magnetic closure.
Mirror
I ended up with two of these when it was temporarily reduced to $5 with a purchase of an Amor y Mariposas item and then again when it was temporarily free with either a mystery box or certain spending minimum. It was never officially announced, but something I noticed in the website carts. So, I gave the spare one to my sister!
This mirror is beautiful. I love the gold writing on the back and the clear red color. It’s a thick plastic though, so it feels weighty but isn’t too heavy as to be uncomfortable for a handheld mirror. The only downside is that it’s quite small, around the size of Colourpop mirrors. The one I got from Gerard Cosmetics is the current one I use because it’s much bigger in size, which I compared in the photo below. I can be quite clumsy and have already broken five mirrors in my lifetime, so I don’t mind having backups. However, if my Gerard one breaks, I would probably repurchase it because I like how much larger of a mirror surface it has. I know I own plenty of palettes with mirrors, but those are heavier to lift up, or the lid doesn’t stay up in position, or the mirror is just too small for my liking. So, I continue to use hand mirrors and I like collecting pretty ones, even if I barely use the spare ones.
Brush Set
The brushes in the order pictured are Rubor 718, Pomulo Alto 779, Pincel Denso 23, Mini Difumadora 808, Sombra Angular 627, Sombra Plana 24, and Lapiz Fino 523.
Rubor makes for a decent sweeping blush and bronzer brush. I like the density level, but wish it was more of Pomulo’s shape. Pomulo is my kind of blush brush, but it’s not as dense as I like and makes for a sheerer blush application. If I want something this sheer, I’d just use one of my natural hair brushes, so it disappointed me a bit. Pincel is a bit large for my eyes, but I have used it as a highlighting brush. It’s okay for that purpose, but a little odd because of the pointed tip. I’ve also used it to spread out one of my more liquid eye primers and preferred it for that, though I spread the product a bit wider out than anticipated since it’s so big for my eye. Mini Difumadora I’ve also used for highlighter and do like it for that. Sombra Angular I’ve used for eye primer and liked it. Sombra Plana I’ve used as an eyeliner brush, though I would prefer if it came even thinner at the tips for even more precision. I think it’s technically a concealer brush as it’s similar in shape and size to my Smashbox concealer brush that I also don’t use for concealer. Sonia G’s Jumbo Concealer brush is much more my style in shape and thickness. Lapiz Fino is a strange one because it’s shaped like an eyeliner brush, but it’s so thick that I never want to use it for eyeliner and can’t think of any other purpose for that brush either. Maybe spot concealing, but I almost never do that.
Overall, I do think this brush set is worth the currently reduced $35 price. I got one set free in a mystery box, but I did buy another set for my sister who is always afraid to use pretty brushes for fear of messing them up. I got this set specifically for her to “mess up” as much as she wants but she still finds the gold metal outside (I’m guessing full aluminum) and lovely shade of red synthetic bristles to be too pretty.
I’ve only washed these brushes once, but I did not notice any dye seeping out. Just wanted to mention that. However, I wash my brushes with cold or lukewarm water at most.
Before we go, I should post this disclaimer…
*DISCLOSURE: Unhighlighted links in bold blue font (Example) are non-affiliate links that will not generate commission. The vast majority of links on this blog are traditional non-affiliate ones. Links marked in bold black font with a light blue background (Example) are affiliate links. Affiliate links allow me to get a commission if purchases are made directly using my links. The price of the product is not affected by these links, and anyone who uses them would be supporting this blog. Whether you click to shop through them or not, I appreciate you visiting and I hope you find the information I’ve provided helpful!
That’s everything for today. Thank you for reading!
The absolute newest release from Kaleidos is the Sound of Winter Lip Clay Collection. I purchased a custom bundle so I could buy the Willow Wisp Tin with Golden Rosin from that set, Pink Himalayan and Tundra from the Polar Placid Vault, and Terra from the original Sand Castle Vault. I nearly forgot that I purchased Mahogany from the Flora Noir Vault as well in one of the November or December orders, so I will include demonstration photos of that too. The release prior to that was of the Symphony Contour Trios. I purchased the option in Dark. There are five of them in total with one version darker than mine and three that are lighter. I’m impressed with these offerings considering how their first contour palettes weren’t very inclusive and only came in two options. Then, the third newest release was their line of Epiphany Glow Melt-On Eyeliners. I purchased the one called Night of Creation.
I bought the face trio and multichrome eyeliner during Black Friday, but I didn’t receive it until late December. The newest Lip Clays were available for purchase mid December and did not arrive until early January, so I have spent less time with these Lip Clays, but they’re no different than the ones I’ve used throughout 2022.
Photos I take in this spot tend to wash out my skin, but I’m not posting these face-foward pictures for color accuracy. I just wanted to show examples of the Lip Clays on the face without being zoomed in so closely. Also, I frequently wear two different eyeshadow looks on testing days, so please excuse that.
I now own twelve Lip Clays. My opinions of them haven’t changed, and those who wish to see my reviews of the rest can find them here and here. I’m still impressed with how long wearing yet comfortable it is on the lips. It’s transfer resistant, as long as oil from food hasn’t broken it down, and it’s easy to touch up. I love the plush velvety texture, although it’s not as completely unique as I thought. I recently learned that Colourpop’s line of Lux Velvet Liquid Lipsticks are similar enough that I would recommend those as an alternative if Colourpop happens to be more accessible to someone than Kaleidos. The lip products have similar price points, though Colourpop tends to have deeper and more frequent discounts. Kaleidos makes unique shade options though for the more daring and color-loving makeup wearers.
The only new development about the Lip Clays I’ve experienced is that Wild Apple separated a bit. Unlike all the other Lip Clays that maintained their mousse-like texture, my version of Wild Apple was giving me fully liquid swatches until I stirred it in the tube and it mixed back with the rest of the lingering thick creamy product inside that I’m used to seeing. It’s even visible in the swatch photo above with all except Wild Apple having mostly dried down in spite of me waiting a few minutes for it to dry. Wild Apple was part of my oldest custom set that I purchased a little over a year ago. The other three Lip Clays that came with it haven’t changed. The smell is slightly more chemical-like, so it might be starting to turn early considering the 18 month period after opening date.
I’ve been using the Symphony Contour Trio quite a lot since it arrived. The powders feel super soft to the touch and remind me of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting and Laura Mercier Candleglow Perfecting powders, put more heavily pigmented. The fill shade is supposed to be the illuminator that, “delivers soft, from-within radiance with buttery smooth powder that expertly blurs skin textures and naturally brightens targeted areas.” I’m a bit confused that this is considered a glow product when I am unable to see any shimmer or sheen to the powder whatsoever. The only glow I get is from my foundation. The powder imparts a natural finish at best, which is why I feel so comfortable using it to set my under eyes. Kaleidos also sells the “fill” compacts separately and I was considering getting a lighter shade since this just sets things in place and doesn’t deliver on the brightening effect (possibly due to the color depth), but I’m not sure if the Tan version would be too light for me. Had this product been less of a setting powder and more of a finishing one with shimmer or a sheen like the Guerlain meteorites, I’d have been willing to give another shade a try. But I only need it for setting and am perfectly happy to have this one for that purpose. That also being said, kudos to Kaleidos for the fact that all my comparisons to this product are high end brands because that’s the quality level of this product and for a really great price!
The packaging is surprisingly weighty metal while also being sleek and easy to hold in the hand. I’m quite impressed with the design!
When it comes to using the sculpting contour shade or the chisel brontour color, I get near airbrushed results when my base makeup is matte. When it’s on my typical slightly dewy or natural finish foundations, it can require a little more effort on my part because it may stick a tiny bit where I first lay the product down. Because the sculpt shade is a bit deep for me and I already have to use a controlled hand to have it blend into my skin, I have to be especially careful to apply a little at a time and with a brush that will disperse the product lightly while also aiding in the blend. With the chisel shade, I don’t have to worry about being as precise with it because the color match suits me better. In fact, when I use this trio, I often reach for the fill shade and chisel shade and skip trying to contour. The sculpt shade is cool-toned and deep, so it does have a sculpting effect, but I prefer to have a little more grey so I can actually create a faint shadow. So, if I’m in the mood to contour, I still reach for my Hindash Beautopsy palette instead.
Although not completely perfect, I like this a lot and foresee myself continuing to get use out it!
My review of this liner is a first and second impression, so please keep that in mind. I will update this post in the future if I discover anything that differs from what I experienced initially.
I love multichromes, so it’s only natural that I find multichrome eyeliners super appealing. However, I know how to turn eyeshadows into liners, so I’ve tried for the longest time to prevent myself from buying them for the convenience/ease of not having to scrape some off and mixing it with a liquid product (like MAC Fix+, isododecane from TKB Trading, Inglot Duraline, or Mehron Mixing Liquid) and applying carefully with a brush and then having to clean off the tools, etc. So, I ultimately skipped getting the $28 Natasha Denona Chromium Liquid Eyeshadows, the $26 Danessa Myricks Twin Flames, and JD Glow MultiChrome Gel Liners for $18.50. It was also easier to pass since those are liquid products. I was a lot more tempted when I heard Sugar Drizzle had multichrome eyeliner crayons, but I don’t think they are sold individually and I’m always wary about purchasing from small indie brands for the first time. So, when I was already making that Black Friday order from Kaleidos, the $12.80 (regularly $16) was too good to pass up on. Around the same time, I got the Danessa Myricks Beauty Infinite Chrome Pencil in my Mystery Trendmood Box, so it’s only natural to want to compare them.
I chose Night of Creation because its the type that no matter what lighting situation it’s in, the angle, or whether it shows a visible shift or not, I would love it and use it in the same way. Kaleidos describes the colors as, “Ultramarine, Violet, and Dark Plum,” and I often use deep and vibrant blues and purples on my lower lash line as a pop of color to a neutral look or as a secondary color to an otherwise monochromatic eye. The other liner color options, for example Limelight, goes on the spectrum of blue, blue-green, green, and yellow-green in a look that I might not want any yellow because the warmth could clash with an otherwise cool tone look, for example. Of course the benefit to having a multichrome is to have a shift, but not if the shifting color might look off next to the tones of other eyeshadows I would be wearing. Night of Creation has all cool tone bold colors, which means it’s most likely to all look good or not at all. That makes it simpler to know when I want to incorporate it in a look or not.
Night of Creation applies so easily to my hand, but on my eyelids with my lines and texture, I had to go over the same spot for a full minute in order to get the opacity level shown all over my eyelid in the photo above, and at least ten times to just my upper lash line. This isn’t due to a lack of creaminess. The product is soft, but it’s as if I get a coating of the black base and have to keep rubbing over and over until the sparkle part with the actual pigment comes off. For this reason, I haven’t thought to use this in my waterline and don’t plan on it either. The product tip is very thick and not easy to apply precisely. I’m someone who loves doing a wing and had to switch holding the pencil from 180 to a 90 degree angle to try and get a thinner line using its side. I still had to sharpen up the edges with concealer in the examples above. Also, I can still see patches in the full lid example, so I don’t plan on using this pencil for that in the future and will stick to keeping it on the lower and/or upper lash line.
One advantage the Danessa Myricks pencil has over the one from Kaleidos is how thin it is, which makes it so much easier for me to use precisely. I know a big complaint from customers about it is how little product one gets in the Chrome Micropencils, but as someone who normally takes six months to use up a black eyeliner, even if it was in almost every eye look for those six months, a product like this one that I’m going to use a lot less frequently should last me ages. Kaleidos has 0.20 grams compared to Danessa’s 0.15 grams, so I’m fine with that difference. Some brands give a ton of product, but among the micro pencil category, the Hourglass 1.5MM Mechanical Gel Eye Liner is 0.06 grams and the Shiseido MicroLiner Ink Eyeliner is 0.08 grams, so those have even less for around the same price and they’re not multichromes.
They’re both beautiful on the eyes. Because they’re very different colors, I don’t think it would be fair of me to compare shifting ability and shine between them (dark vs light color and contrasting shifts vs similar color depths in shifts), but Tina compared several in her video here. She actually owns Charoite, which is most comparable to Night of Creation.
These are also both waterproof. I do not recommend trying this on without a waterproof makeup remover or an oil of some kind to help break it down because these are truly waterproof, especially the one from Kaleidos. Most of the time when a product is waterproof I can still remove it from my skin with Bioderma, but neither of these budged at all when I made multiple passes over my swatches with Bioderma and my Makeup Eraser cloth. I then used regular hand soap and water, which only the tiniest bit of the Danessa Myricks came off at. I then used Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap that contains oil in it and that removed about half of the Kaleidos and most of the Danessa Myricks. Ultimately, I still pulled out my Sephora Waterproof Eye Makeup Remover which did the trick but was still not a breeze to do like I expected. So these are no joke! When I was using the Kaleidos liner on my actual lids, a piece of it broke off (during the attempt to cover the whole lid when I was rubbing the eye repeatedly and forcefully) and fell somewhere on my laminate wood floor. I couldn’t see where it was, so I assumed it rolled under the bed and I planned to deal with it later. What I did not realize was that it didn’t roll under the bed. I accidentally stepped on it when I got up, and since I was wearing socks I didn’t feel a thing. I started walking to my door and then realized I had a trail of probably fifteen spots of deep shimmery purple smudges into the laminate. I grabbed a paper towel and some water to start wiping it up, and when it wouldn’t budge I remembered in horror that it’s waterproof.
So, I had to use oil to remove the trail of liner smudges from across the floor, and then use soap and water to get the oil residue off the floor, and then dry it all up again so I wouldn’t accidentally slip and give myself a whole new set of problems.
The moral of the story is not to underestimate the waterproof power of these liners! Haha.
As for longevity on the eyes, they both live up to the claims of being smudgeproof, but because I get oily lids and I tend to rub my eyes, these had some spots that wore off by the end of the day. My upper lash line was fine, but the inner portion of both my lower lash lines had missing product. The Kaleidos held up better though than the Danessa Myricks one did. Those that get oily lids, but don’t rub their eyes, plus those that don’t have an oily-lid problem should have no trouble with longevity. And I should also mention that even though I have oily lids, removing the leftover liner was not an easy task.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2023: I ended up buying two additional Danessa Myricks liners and thought I should add swatches of them here since I will be unlikely to re-review them again.
Well, that’s everything I could think to mention! I hope you have a great week and thank you for checking out this post today!
We’ve got ourselves another MAC Cosmetics post! These are the products from MAC that I purchased during the final few months of 2022. I’ll begin with the two item types I haven’t purchased or reviewed from MAC before, but the blushes and highlighters are formulas I’m very familiar with and will probably not have much new to add. For those interested in my previous MAC posts, the list with links can be found on this index page here.
Additional MAC Items
MAC Glow Play Lip Balm in Floral Coral
This is one of a few items I redeemed as a free birthday gift from MAC’s Reward Program. It’s a sheer product in a soft formula. The top layer of the bullet instantly melts when it touches my lips. If I apply the amount of balm to my lips based on how it feels, I get almost no color. I can build it up to show a pink tinge, but the amount I need to apply for that leaves my lips feeling excessively wet in a way that isn’t quite greasy or oily, but it’s a similar enough sensation that is uncomfortable for me. After I wear it for a short time, it gives me the feeling of dripping around the edges and a strong urge to wipe it off.
For this reason, I haven’t been using this beyond the handful of times I wore it to test it out. And even though it feels moisturizing, my lips aren’t actually being conditioned. The moisture lasts a few hours before I feel like I need to reapply, even if there’s still some balm left on my lips. If I want to wear a slightly colorful balm for a short time, like in photos, this is fine. If I want a balm that’s actually lip conditioning and having color isn’t a necessity, I’d reach for plenty of other balms instead. So, I don’t really recommend this. According to a sneak peek I saw on IG, MAC might be releasing a Valentine collection of new and/or existing shades of Glow Play Lip Balms and other lipsticks. I won’t be purchasing them.
MAC Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation in NC47
This was a Black Friday purchase when MAC had 40% off complexion. The pump for this foundation is sold separately, and unfortunately was full price. I wish the package with the pump came with an extra cap that could fit over the foundation instead of the little dispenser cover piece because I always lose tiny parts to makeup and skincare (like the little spoons to scoop out products in jars).
With “fluid” in the name, I expected this foundation to be watery like the Uoma Beauty Say What Foundation or Kosas Tinted Face Oil, but it’s more viscous than those while still managing to feel lightweight on the skin. MAC describes it as being a, “buildable, medium to full coverage [foundation] in a natural matte finish.” While I agree with the buildable claim, the amount I would normally pump out and blend in with my Blendiful gives me light coverage, and I have to use quite a bit more product in order to get a solid medium. I can technically build it up to nearly full, but I have to focus on targeting my areas of discoloration specifically, and at that point it can look a little mask-like since it’s not my absolute perfect shade. So, I keep it at a nice medium and use concealer in the areas I need more coverage.
Additional photos of me wearing this foundation, under a different lighting situation (using my ring light), is in the highlighter section.
When I wore it the first time, I thought it was a pretty good color match, but upon subsequent usage and building it up to medium-full coverage, I realized it’s about a half a shade off in depth and it’s my correct undertone family but not perfect. The fact that I can wear it at all is quite surprising because I remember a time when I tried a sample of NC47 and it was too light for me, but the next shade NC50 was way too dark. I figured the hypothetical NC48 shade (if it existed) would be my perfect shade, but apparently NC47 can work for me in winter. Since I plan on wearing this at medium coverage level, it’s good enough of a match for me to keep it in rotation.
I do like the natural-matte finish of the foundation. It’s supposed to be sweat and humidity resistant, but I challenge that as well, since I managed to look sweaty on a day that was only 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside (and even colder in the house) when all I was doing was taking blog photos and rearranging my makeup drawers in the span of under two hours. It makes me wonder how this will look on me in the summertime when it’s between 85-98 degrees. After I noticed how it was looking, I powdered my face (I initially skipped that step) and that helped to take away the extra shine. The other days I wore it were not hot days and I wasn’t doing anything that would make me produce sweat, so my face remained looking matte even without powder. So, I’m not sure what to make of those results. I will say that I love the fact that this sets on me to the point of being dry to the touch without a trace of wetness/creaminess and no transfer on my fingers that I can see. I love my natural and dewy foundations, but those usually come at the price of various levels of being transferable. I’ve had to train myself to just not touch my face and to be careful when switching outfits and hugging people. It’s actually a relief to have a foundation with some coverage again that I don’t have to be so careful with. I just wish they had my full on perfect shade in depth and undertone.
This is a pretty nice foundation. I like it, but I still prefer my Rose Inc and Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra. I can also think of past Nars Foundations and the original Makeup Up For Ever HD and Ultra HD that I preferred as well when I owned them. I haven’t been using this very long, and normally I don’t review a foundation until I’ve worn it at least 10 times, so there’s still room for my opinion to change. If that happens, I will try to remember to update this post.
My Latest MAC Highlighters
I make it a point now to try and make my MAC purchases via Selfridges because of the price difference being in favor of USD, or from MAC’s website when they have a sale of 30% off or higher. However, it was only the MAC Indulgent Glow Face Kits that came to Selfridges, so I had to purchase the others elsewhere. Of course, I could have waited until a potential sale for the collaboration items, but I didn’t want to take the chance of them selling out, so I purchased the Black Panther Royal Challenge and Whitney Houston ones at launch. I did at least get 20% off on Black Panther’s Royal Vibrancy when I bought that one from Ulta. At the time I’m posting this, the Black Panther Collection is on a deeper discount on MAC’s website, along with last year’s holiday items.
For those who may be curious, in all four highlighter photos I’m wearingthe MAC foundation in NC47, The Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta (newest shade addition to the line that came out after my review), and the Pat Mcgrath Divine Rose III blush.
MAC Indulgent Glow Face Kit/Set in Sparkling Wine
These kits came in two versions: Sparkling Wine and Rosé. I was impressed by the presentation of the box in a beautiful creamy light pink color and with a raised pattern on the surface.
The bag the items come in is quite cute. I haven’t found a purpose for it yet, but it’s a nice “free” addition considering MAC Extra Dimension Highlighters have risen in price to $40 (or $44 for collaboration versions). This set being $44 normally, means the bag and brush that come with it are essentially free. I paid $35 for it from Selfridges, so the deal was even better.
I didn’t have high expectations for this brush, but it actually surprised me! The more deeply shaped and intricate the embossed pans are from MAC, the harder it will have been pressed. That makes the top layer a bit tougher to pick up product from when using softer bristle brushes. This one feels soft, but the strands themselves are strong enough to really dig into the highlighter while still dispersing the product softly across the skin. Rather than following the direction of the brush, I swirled it roughly in the pan in a circular motion to get the most product pickup with the least effort. I’ve used this brush enough times that it softened the surface of Sparkling Wine, so I can now pick up the product with my natural hair brushes. Prior to that top layer being broken into, it was extremely difficult.
I’ve also used this brush to apply blush and bronzer in a sweeping motion and it’s pretty good with those as well!
The highlighter embossing encapsulates the “Bubbles and Bows” theme MAC chose for holiday 2022. MAC Highlighters tend to be smooth to the touch, but even when I rub my finger across the smoother part of the bow, it feels slightly rough and dry. However, it has such a healthy glowy sheen with a few twinkling sparkles that are just enough for me to feel like this is a festive highlighter I would want to wear to a holiday event, and not enough to be considered glittery. This contains medium size sparkles instead of large ones, which is probably why I actually find them to be quite pretty and wearable.
Ever since Fenty’s Trophy Wife highlighter came into being, I have feared pigmented deep yellow highlighters because of how terrible they look on me. So, I was afraid this one might be too yellow because of the way it looks in the pan, but then my fear switched to worrying it might be too light after seeing the swatch. However, on the face, it looks so pretty to me! Sparkling Wine has a semi-transparent base with just a hint of a yellow tinge to it. The color that peeks through blends with the undertone of my skin while not being pigmented enough to cause a stripe with the low amount of product I apply to my face. It also balances out the pearly looking particles within the highlighter. It looks lighter than Royal Challenge in swatches because the color of the inside of my arm is lighter than my face, but on my cheeks, the fact that Royal Challenge has a more pigmented and lighter base color gives it the lighter appearance, whereas Sparkling Wine’s slightly tinted base allows my darker cheekbone color to show underneath which makes it look darker than Royal Challenge overall. I really like this! As the embossing starts to wear down, I know I’m going to struggle with that part of me that doesn’t want to ruin it versus the side that wants to make sure I get good use out of the products I own. However, this embossing is lingering quite well so far, so I guess I have a ways to go before I need to start worrying!
MAC x Whitney Houston Extra Diminision Skinfinish in Just Whitney
This is another highlighter that was hard-pressed in a way that just affected the very topmost layer and is now getting easier to use as the print is fading. And, once again, I’m reaching the point where I want to keep it intact, but want to be able to wear it. This is slightly smoother and less drying feeling than Sparkling Wine. It’s certainly closer to the kind of deep golden highlighter shades I tend to prefer to wear. Just like all my other highlighters from the brand, this lasts all day and remains shiny without losing its reflectivity as the day goes on. It’s a solid product, but because it’s the most common type of color in my collection, I instinctively compare it to everything else I own, and then it doesn’t seem quite worth the $44 price tag. If the highlighter was in standard packaging, I believe it should be within the $28-$35 range. Because of the collaboration with such a powerhouse of an icon (or at least Whitney’s Estate on her behalf), the pretty limited edition packaging, and the highlighter embossing, the special factor is there. So, I don’t mind it being the price I paid, but I’m just not sure this particular color being added to my collection would be worth it otherwise. For anyone else though, I would recommend it with the acknowledgement that it could be considered a bit overpriced.
MAC x Black Panther Extra Dimension Skinfinishes in Royal Challenge and Royal Vibrancy
I still haven’t watched the Black Panther sequel, but I loved the first one, so I felt an inward obligation to purchase at least one thing from the collection. I tried to purchase the Black Panther Cosmetic Bag, but that was an utter mess. Even though I purchased it at 2am EST (I assume it launched at midnight), my order ended up canceled due to being “sold out,” but they didn’t cancel it until three weeks later after it was sold out at other retailers too. The most irritating part is that I called them about nine days in to ask them about the fact that they priced it at $35 whereas everywhere else had it for $25 and then they later changed the price to $25, but I hadn’t been reimbursed. That call, had the bags truly been out of stock, would have been the prime moment for them to let me know there weren’t any left and to cancel my order so I could have time to buy it somewhere else. However, they didn’t do that, so I don’t believe their statement to me about the bag being out of stock since the launch day, yet it somehow took weeks until it read “sold out” on the website.
Anyway, these two shades are gorgeous, but a better combination for me is to have Royal Challenge on the bottom and a little bit of Royal Vibrancy added on top. That way, I can get some of that darker shimmer without the dark cast when I turn my head at certain angles. In photos, Royal Vibrancy looks perfect for me, but I’ve been unsuccessful in capturing the dark cast I’m referring to from it being a little too deep bronze-red for me.
The texture feels soft and smooth. It’s softer than the others, but it’s also not as hard pressed because the embossing isn’t as detailed/intricate. Also, it’s lasting me quite a while. I forgot to take a photo of Royal Vibrancy prior to being used (or at least I lost the photos of it if I took them) so the picture I included above shows it after about eight uses and it looks nearly untouched! Granted, I was swiping highlighter across the entire pan and not just zeroing in on one specific spot in order to keep it looking even.
At the same time that I purchased these two, I also bought the Tom Ford Shade Illuminate Highlighting Duo in Tanlight that reminded me of a combination of those shades. However, in swatching them together, I see that the tones are slightly different. The lighter shade in Tanlight is more flattering on me than Royal Challenge and the deeper shade is not as dark, and therefore works on its own for me better than Royal Vibrancy. Most of the time I just mix the two Tanlight shades together for a highlighter shade I love a lot and it’s in an even smoother finish than the ones from MAC. Considering I paid around the same price for Tanlight (it was slightly discounted at Nordstrom) as the two MAC highlighters combined, it’s funny that the Tom Ford one was the better purchase for me. However, I also bought these as Black Panther/Wakanda Forever merchandise, so I don’t regret it.
While I could have waited for these highlighters to go on a deeper discount, I like the franchise and didn’t want to chance missing out. So, for me, these were worth having. I think I will stop using Royal Vibrancy though, in order to keep one looking pristine, and just start using Royal Challenge mixed with a different darker highlighter, such as the R.E.M. Interstellar Highlight in Miss Mars.
My Latest MAC Blushes
I currently have 35 MAC blushes in my collection (this number fluctuates as I get rid of some and purchase others) which is by far the most blushes I own from a single brand. Despite having so many, I can’t help but remain interested in them because MAC makes some of my favorite finishes, plus they’re pigmented, and are very long wearing. These four I’m discussing today are the remaining few that hadn’t been reviewed yet on this blog.
MAC Glow Play Blushes in Just Peachy and Groovy
That’s Peachy was the other free birthday item I chose. Based on how it looks, I thought there was no way it would show up on my skin. However, I felt the same way about Peaches ‘N’ Dreams, which ended up working on me too, so I tried it on a whim and was floored! Granted, I have to build it up a ton to get a flush of peach, but it still works and I think it’s beautiful!
Groovy looks like a deep coral-orange on me, and thankfully not a pure orange. As much as I love Heat Index, which was previously my favorite shade, Groovy dethroned it after just once use. I avoided getting this color for a long time because Nikki and a few others mentioned the formula difference in Groovy compared to the other Glow Play Blushes. It’s been a few years now since the Glow Plays launched (January 2020), so I think the original disappointing batch of Groovy are no longer being sold. Or at the very least, I was lucky and got one with the same texture as the others. I was more willing to chance it because I waited for a 40% off sale on blushes.
The Glow Play line remains one of my favorites from MAC and in general because they have the softness and sheen of a cream/putty with the benefit of drying down. They’re buildable and blend right into the skin. It’s a really gorgeous product that I highly recommend trying for those who haven’t.
Because there are such subtle differences among the shades I own, I figured it would be helpful to show the ones I own all together and in swatches.
And for those who like limited edition packaging, MAC currently has the shades Heat Index and So Natural in their Lunar New Year 2023 packaging for their “New Year Shine” collection.
MAC Mineralize Blush in Hey, Coral, Hey…
I included a picture of how the blush looks on my finger, plus a swatch that isn’t fully blended, to demonstrate my issue with this particular Mineralize Blush. The deep reddish-coral pigment is gorgeous and is a tone that looks pretty and suitable for me when I pick it up, but it’s got a light base powder that when blended lightens the shade overall and turns it ashy on my skin. This is even evident looking at the surface of the blush itself between the darker and lighter patches. It’s not super ashy, but just enough on the cusp to make me not want to wear it.
I’ve had issues with most of the Mineralize Blush shades I’ve tried in the past (and said it looked too matte and dry and lighter on my skin than it looks in the compact), and now I’m starting to wonder if the base color in this particular line of blushes from MAC is the reason most don’t work for me. Love Thing and Flirting with Danger are currently the only two that I’ve liked and don’t look ashy on me because the pigment is deeper than I’d normally wear, but is more toned down and lighter when blended on my actual cheeks. It’s unfortunate that it took me buying six of them to finally realize why some shades of Mineralize Blushes work for me, yet others don’t. But, I’m happy that now I know that if MAC creates more colors in this formula, it’ll be safe for me to get them as long as they are the deepest ones (and deeper colors than I normally go for). Any of the colors that look medium-dark or lighter in the compacts just won’t work for my skin tone.
Hey, Coral, Hey… isn’t staying in my collection, but I still recommend the Mineralize Blush line overall, as long as it’s well established to be careful selecting the right colors if you have a dark/deep skin tone. The two shades that work for me are in my top favorites, not just among MAC blushes but among my blush collection as a whole.
MAC x Stranger Things Powder Blush in He Likes It Cold
This color makes me think of MAC’s Flirting with Danger and Frankly Scarlet blush shades. I’ve tried several times to capture the variations in undertone, but they barely show a difference on my skin tone. I retook the photos again, but had to do brush swatches because my older powder blushes from MAC really don’t like to be finger swatched anymore. Nikki, who I’ve mentioned several times here, did a clear comparison of those three shades that can be found here on her blog for those interested, as well as a ton of other MAC content and more. Essentially, the undertone of those shades are going to make a bigger difference if you’re lighter than me (and then perhaps on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re much deeper).
I tried my hardest to skip buying this blush because I had similar enough shades to it, but I think I ended up paying $15 for it when it went on sale, so I couldn’t resist. This release celebrates Stranger Things Season 4, but I only watched seasons 1-3, so I don’t understand the “He Likes it Cold” reference (but it sounds creepy). It’s a pretty color, applies smoothly (even smoother than MAC’s older matte powder formula), and performs as fantastically as I expect from a MAC blush, so I’m happy I bought it. I just caution using a light hand with this particular shade.
That’s everything for today! I’m on another year long low-buy, so I would love to say it will be a long time before I do another MAC post, but that feels unrealistic as it’s one of the brands I purchase from the most. It can be expected that additional new releases from MAC will be reviewed here at some point, if not at launch, then perhaps after a big sale.
Thank you for reading!
-Lili ❤
Disclaimer: Other than free birthday gift items everyone who joins MAC’s free reward program is entitled to (I can’t recall if you need to be a certain tier for it though), I purchased all the other items with my own money. I am not affiliated with the brand. There are no affiliate links in this specific post.
From 2018 until 2020, Coloured Raine used to be my number one favorite brand for non-multichrome eyeshadows. What made me take a long break from buying their palettes was them discontinuing their eyeshadows to go full vegan. I’ve had issues with some vegan formulas blending away to nothing, or being too hard to blend, and being patchy. Some of the ones that did perform decently didn’t have an acceptable preservation method (tying in with the “clean beauty” anti-parabens movement), so I’d get hardly a year before the performance of the shadows changed and/or went bad. So, I was already skeptical about whether or not Coloured Raine’s new vegan formula could measure up to their old one. When they released their Juicy Boost Collection in August 2020, the reviews I watched with the demos were terrible! That was enough for me to want to steer clear of their eyeshadows until their 2022 Memorial Day sale in May. I figured that should be enough time for the brand to fix whatever formula issues they had, so I decided to give them another chance.
The formulas, textures, and how the makeup performs turned out to be different depending on the collection. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing my observations and experiences with these products. Just keep reading to find out which items I loved and which ones I should have avoided!
Coloured Raine Cream Blushes in Spicy (Original), Stiletto Rose and Copper Rose (Botanical Collection)
The first thing to know about these blushes is that despite them all sharing the description of “cream blush,” the original four that launched, which includes Spicy, are completely different from the two blushes from the Botanical Collection. The ingredient lists are different, along with the textures and pigmentation. The container of the originals are larger than the Botanical Blushes too!
Spicy has a waxy consistency that’s so tacky it lifts up when touched. It’s thicker and more opaque. Picking up a little is still too much, so I put it on the back of my hand and warm up a small section first before applying it to my cheeks with that finger in tapping motions and then a final light sweep of the finger across the cheeks to ensure it’s fully smoothe. A little product comes off underneath, but it’s so pigmented that it will cover up the missing spot anyway. A brush will pick up way too much, but it’s still possible to use by putting it on the back of the hand or a makeup palette first (or even tapping the excess off on a towel) to get a lighter even layer across the bristles before applying it to the cheeks. I still prefer fingers because I have more control that way and can also warm up the product.
The Botanical Blushes have a higher concentration of slip agents (various silicones) that feel a little more gel-like, but still like a softer wax once the heat of a finger melts that top layer. I keep my finger on top of a spot for several seconds before I start to rub to pick up the blush onto my finger and tap it onto the cheeks. It looks like it will be just as pigmented as the original line of blushes, but when blended, it sheers out a fair amount. So, it takes a few light layers to build up to my satisfaction. This product also lifts what’s underneath, but it still looks fine to me as a veil of color. In the spots with discoloration that lifts, I put concealer back on top of the discolored spot and pack a little more blush on top, and those additional layers help it to stay. I can use a brush with these, but it doesn’t pick up as much product without warmth.
These blushes remain creamy on the face. If I’m wearing something like the Rose Inc Luminous Foundation Serum, that wetter products tend to set well on top of, and apply the Botanical blushes in a thin layer with a brush, it can mostly set down. However, for the amount of pigmentation I want that isn’t just a flush, it’s going to remain creamy feeling on the skin unless I set it with powder. Spicy will absolutely not set on its own, plus easily transfers, so I only wear it powder-set. Setting all three of them with powder only temporarily makes them feel dry but at least does take down the creaminess enough that it won’t feel sticky or tacky. Powder-setting also makes the Botanical Blushes more transfer-resistant, but when it comes to Spicy it will definitely still transfer when touched, just a little less. Setting with powder has the final benefit of toning down the intensity level of Spicy, and even Stiletto Rose if I go overboard with that color.
These blushes will last all day, even without powder, as long as they aren’t touched. However, it’s just my preference to set them with powder, especially with a powder blush on top to add some nuance to the shades.
The photos above demonstrate the blushes with different foundations and at different times of the year. The middle three with the dark blue shirt were under the lighting conditions of my ring light. The others were with indoor lighting and some natural light coming in from behind the window blinds.
Had I completed this review three months ago, I’d have said, “These blushes require a little more effort, but are nice enough that I may still reach for them from time to time.” However, I’ve been going through my cream and liquid blush collection a lot more lately, and in comparison, these rank so low on the list. They still aren’t bad products, but I have so many options that don’t pick up product underneath, don’t require warmth or having to baby the formula, or do any other extra steps. Plus, my other blushes are in far more interesting colors. I’ve realized that I don’t like standard crayola type of blush colors like a pure orange, pure red, or pure pink. I love reddish browns, terracottas, pinky-orange corals, pinkish-browns, etc. Those type of colors look more natural on me. I expected Spicy to be a reddish orange with some brown, but it’s actually a slightly yellow leaning orange that may as well just be “orange.” Copper Rose sounded like it would be a fun copper-pink, but most of its warmth just comes from being picked up and mixed with my foundation and concealer while being blended on my cheeks. It’s not a very unique pink by itself. Stiletto Rose is a very common rosy red, although it’s the prettiest to me of them all. I always wore a combination of Stiletto Rose and Copper Rose (on the apples) together anyway, which is why I initially had a better impression of those blushes. However, if I view these as individual products, they’re not something I want in my collection anymore.
Coloured Raine Lip Liners in Pine (Secret Garden), The Bee’s Knees (Queen Bee), and Decadent (Botanical)
It was very difficult to tell the differences among the selection of lip liner shades on the website. I now realize it’s because the ones I wanted are so incredibly similar! Pine was the first one from Coloured Raine I tried and later bought a backup of because it’s the first shade I ever found that I can actually cover my full lip-line with and have it look normal. I have a very thick and pronounced lip line (Vermilion border) that is way lighter than my lips and surrounding mouth color. So, when I have used lip liners on my actual lip line (and not just the edge between the lip and lip line), it always emphasized that thickness and looked like I attempted to overline my lips because it sticks out, even when it’s still within the lines. The color is described as a “spiced brown” and I consider it like a caramel-pink-brown.
The Bee’s Knees is described as a “brick” color, but it looks more like a neutral brown to me on my arm. In fact, I looked at the website photos again comparing the other shade in the Queen Bee collection and The Buzz is supposed to be the neutral brown. I almost wondered if some got swapped in the manufacturing process because my lip pencil stick doesn’t have any red in it that I can see, like the ones below, and instead looks like the brown ones near it. However, on my actual lips I think I see some red tones after building up the color? Like maybe a splash? If so, it’s certainly not as red as I expected and less red than I’d expect from a brick color. When built up, it’s also darker than Pine. It’s pretty regardless.
The third and final lip liner shade is the darkest of the three and also the creamiest, which I find interesting since it’s the one that launched first. I’m guessing the brand decided to switch formulas after this collection, which is a very plausible theory based on a comparison of the ingredient lists. The other two glide across the lips nicely and aren’t too soft or too stiff, but I do prefer the feel of Decadent. This color is described as, “neutral brown with slightly cool undertones” and I can see that in the squiggle swatch. Also, the lip liners from the Botanical collection came with sharpeners at the bottom. The newer lip liners do not. Perhaps the brand didn’t feel it was necessary because of the formula differences.
I haven’t noticed any issues or differences with the longevity among them all. They suit my needs and because they’re all so similar in color, they all work for me and give me that ability to line my lips in a way that others I’ve tried haven’t. It’s very specific to me, but it’s a huge deal. In general, objectively, I still believe these are a nice comfortable long lasting product.
Coloured Raine Paint Base Eyeshadow Base in Wheat
I first tried this primer underneath the eyeshadows from the Coloured Raine Botanical Palette and was disappointed to see the shadows creased. After all, the eyeshadow primer is expected to work the best with the brand’s own eyeshadows, so that wasn’t a good sign for anything else I planned to use with it. However, in using it with my well behaved and favorite eyeshadows, and then as an alternative primer for eyeshadows I was testing that didn’t perform as well with my MAC Paint Pot, I realized it actually wasn’t the fault of the Paint Base! I’ll get back to the Botanical Palette in the next section, but basically every palette I tried with the Paint Base performed better or at least equal to my other primers! It quickly became one of the primers I keep in rotation along with the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas and MAC Paint Pot. In fact, I bought a backup of it during the brand’s Black Friday sale.
I really like the ABH eye primer, but it is quite drying. That one helps to combat the oils that produce on my eyelids, but that’s sometimes to the detriment of buildable type of eyeshadows being able to stick properly. This Coloured Raine primer is similar to the ABH primer, but is less drying, which makes it the better of both worlds between combating the oils but still ensuring the eyeshadows can adhere properly. It’s fantastic! Because I bought the shade Wheat, it matches the color of my eyelids better and isn’t so stark against my skin, but still helps the shadows to pop. As with most primers, a little goes a long way (though not as long as the ABH and Gerard Cosmetics ones which are even more pigmented and thicker in consistency). Wheat still provides a good amount of coverage over the discoloration on my eyelids.
It’s interesting that the brand touts the squalane and sodium hyaluronate because I would have expected that to not go well with oily prone lids and would produce too much moisture for me, but it works somehow! The Paint Base sets on my lids to a natural finish. Perhaps those ingredients are what keeps it from being as drying as the ABH one.
When I’m working with an eyeshadow formula that’s not very creamy with a rougher texture, this primer can take a little longer to blend the shadows on it, but it’s a minor difference in time. That’s the extent of the negatives I’ve found in using this primer throughout the year, which made it an almost entirely positive experience.
Coloured Raine Botanical Eyeshadow Palette
I mentioned in the Eye Base review section that despite it being from the same brand, the Coloured Raine eye primer and this palette worked fine, except that it could not keep the shimmers from retreating from the deep line I have on my lid/crease. I have since used this palette with all my tried and true primers, and none of them stop this from happening. The best results I get though is if I set the primer with powder first. Then I’m much less prone to movement and creasing, but it’s not foolproof.
Cream Gerbera barely shows despite packing it on. I don’t mind, as I’d prefer a shade that light to be subtle rather than stark. Iberis and Leonidas have a decent amount of pigment and all three are decently blendable, but that’s a little bit of a letdown in itself because I remember how rich in color and buttery feeling Coloured Raine’s mattes used to be before they got rid of their single shadows. These are fine but not particularly special. The same goes for the shimmers. They are pretty and shimmery enough for my taste, but the formula is so much thinner, less smooth, way less impactful, less pigmented, and not vibrant like their single shadows once were. I mean, Coloured Raine shimmers used to be S-tier. Being “just fine” is going to be hugely disappointing by comparison. The quality of this palette reminds me of Colourpop, which is mostly good, but it’s not even like the best of Colourpop’s formulas.
These types of colors and this overall color story is a lot softer compared to what the brand used to release. I commend them going outside of their comfort zones. However, it isn’t just the color selection and lack of color saturation that makes it slightly underwhelming for me. There are so many brands that make satin shadows and have palettes with soft colors that still somehow look elegant and beautiful on the eyes. The literal texture of the eyeshadows themselves are so soft and buildable. These shadows don’t have those same qualities. They aren’t made the same way.
I also thought it was quite strange that the colors I expected based on how they looked in the pan did not look the same on my skin. Iberis was much more red than plum. Leonidas was a truer orange instead of terracotta. Rose Gold also had a stronger red tone, like a burgundy, when I was expecting a shimmering plum. The colors are still pretty, but when other eyeshadows like from Oden’s Eye and Sydney Grace give me a visceral excited reaction to using their palettes, I don’t see why I would want to reach for this one that doesn’t spark joy. It’s a new year. Being a decent, nice, workable palette isn’t enough. On the bright side, this isn’t one of Coloured Raine’s newest palettes and I believe they’ve continued to work on their formulas since the next palette is one that I actually will be keeping in my collection.
I forgot to mention in the last look that a tiny spot of Primavera is in the center of the lower lash line too.
Coloured Raine Queen Bee Palette
Unlike the Botanical Eyeshadow Palette, this one does not have “Eyeshadow” in the name, which is because it contains pressed pigments. Considering my experience with the previous palette, I was so nervous that the bump up in intensity with the mattes would mean the shadows would perform worse, but that’s not the case. Honeycomb is actually very soft and smooth feeling. I absolutely love this color of orange. Beehave and Pollen in Love are a little rougher to the touch, but they pack on the lids well and blend fairly well. I’ve had a little trouble building Bee-Witched on the other shadows at times, but it just takes a little more effort to get the definition I want without overdoing it or having it look unblended. It’s definitely not my favorite black matte, but it’s workable. Using Honeycomb and Beehave together in the same eye look can be a bit tricky because I get a lot more pigment from Beehave right off the bat and it can easily overshadow/overpower Honeycomb, so I have to be careful with its placement.
The two shimmers look like they would have the same texture, but they’re definitely not the same formula. Unbeelievable is a chunkier and flakier shimmer that gives me a lot of fallout. It’s a foil shadow, but even applying it damp doesn’t give me the smoothness I want. I don’t enjoy that shadow at all and won’t be using it again when I open this palette. It’s a shame because the color is so pretty. On the other hand, Mind Your Beesness is an almost glowing green-gold duochrome with more slip to it so that it glides easier across the lids. Because the binding solution is better, I get less fallout with this one. Honeycomb, Mind Your Beesness, and Pollen in Love are the colors that make this palette memorable and make me excited whenever I use it. This is the one that gives me hope for even better palettes in Coloured Raine’s future.
Black liner was also added to the upper lash line of the last look.
The eyeshadow primer and lip liners are absolute wins for Coloured Raine. The blushes aren’t the best and I have mixed views on the palettes. Considering what I paid, it was worth it to me to give them a chance and figure out how I feel about what the brand produced in 2022. At this point in time, I have hope for them in 2023 and I am truly rooting for them. However, the competition among indie and mainstream brands alike is the toughest it’s ever been. I recognize that they’ve lowered their price point, but I’d rather spend more for better quality. For me to continue purchasing from them, their products have to be truly special or incredibly appealing to my tastes. I look forward to seeing what they’ll release this year and I hope others will still give them a try. I heard positive reviews about their Rebellious Nudes palette, so I feel they’re on the right track. Here’s hoping!
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