I referred to the Beautopsy Palette as my “Star Product of 2021” in my 2021 Favorites post. What made it so special wasn’t just the customization factor of being able to tailor the eyeshadows. I loved that it was essentially a full face palette that I could use for blush, setting powder, contouring, etc. For those looking for an in-depth review on Beautopsy, please click here.
Monochromance has big shoes to fill. Today, I will share all the different ways I’ve tried to utilize this palette to its full potential. There are other items in the full Monochromance Collection, but I just stuck with the palette. Also, I purchased mine from Beautylish as it is no longer a Hindash website exclusive.
Non-Eyeshadow Eye Use
Shade-wise, I can use a mixture of Alter plus the middle spot between Match and Made to set my under eye concealer, but the effects don’t last as long or look as nice as a more traditional setting powder. This is quite the difference considering I get an almost blurred effect when I use Beautopsy’s Tan, Feel, and Paint for that purpose. I don’t have a natural brow shade in this, which I wouldn’t expect considering I only use dark-brown or nearly black shades for my brows. As for eyeliner, Made barely gives me enough depth to deepen the outer corner of my eyes so it would make for a poor eyeliner. My realistic liner options are Petal, Throb, Dote, and Inked.
Blushes
This is the main use I have for this palette. Petal and Throb are easily my favorites. I was surprised to see that Heavy still shows on my skin and doesn’t look ashy in my eyes. Heart is quite subtle but also pretty. I was the most curious to see how I could incorporate Anti, Dote, or some combination of those two with the other shades in order to create a slightly purple blush tone and even a mauve. Sometimes I’m successful at being able to pull off using a mix with the purple, but overall, I find that Dote is not easy to blend. In my experience, pigments using Manganese violet are difficult to formulate so that it blends well and smoothly on the skin. Dote has a tendency to stick in spots and look muddy when mixed with the other shades. It’s still prone to patchiness even when used alone. It’s a bit of a shame because it can look pretty sometimes, but it’s not a deal breaker regarding versatility of blush usage since I wouldn’t rock a purple cheek regularly anyway.
Contour and Bronzer
Hindash mentioned that Beautopsy wasn’t really created with bronzer purposes in mind, though I am able to get a nice reddish-bronze shade with it. When it comes to Monochromance, the overall color story leans cool, which means it’s not intended for bronzing either. I am able to use the shade Made for subtle contouring though. The middle ground between Match and Made actually creates the perfect contour color for me, even better than Feel and Real, but Match and Made aren’t as effortless to blend. They are fine on my eyes and under the cheekbones, but it sticks a bit on my nose which is the only place besides my eyelids that can get a little oily on my face. I wouldn’t even call it oil, rather dew, on my nose. So, if I have the time and patience to be willing to blend my contour, I reach for Monochromance, but most of the time I still dip back into Beautopsy.
Eyeshadows
Using Monochromance on my face is at least decent, but it’s nice at best. It doesn’t quite have the wow-factor, but I do like it. For use on the eyes though, it was incredibly frustrating the first few weeks! I should preface that I thought eyeshadow usage with Beautopsy wasn’t particularly special, so I bought Monochromance with the full intent to use it as mainly a face palette too. However, the performance on my eyes is terrible unless I use a fully dry primer. Using the MAC foundation stick or some kind of face product as primer worked extremely well with Beautopsy. It didn’t blend as well with my tried and true MAC Paint Pot, so I was prepared for that with this new palette. However, with Monochromance, both MAC products gave me creasing issues, issues with the shadows not appearing true to the pan color, patching off, sticking in places, difficulty blending, etc. I have never had an issue of a matte shadow creasing until this palette! Disappearing, sure, but creasing?
These examples are not even the worst of them, just the worst of what was left on my camera by the time I thought to include them in this post.
After trying other primers as well, I realized that I could only get decent results if I used a primer that fully dried down with no tackiness left behind. This means using something like the Anastasia Beverly Hills primer. I can also get away with using the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas. Using a dry primer is the first step, but to get the shadows to apply pigmented on my lids and blend smoothly I have to put a layer of setting powder on top of that eye primer before applying the shadows. The downside is that my eyelids unsurprisingly do look dry, but since I would normally throw a shimmer shade on my lid, it would hide those issues.
As I mentioned before, Dote is the most difficult to work with on the eyes. Other than the lightest shades not showing up very well and my inability to get much depth from Made on my eyes, I don’t have as much of an issue creating eye looks with this palette as long as I use a drying primer that has been powder-set. While it’s true that these palettes from Hindash contain shadows that are hard pressed, it’s not an issue of being unable to get product onto my brushes. My favorite brush to use with this is the Sonia G Builder Pro, and I essentially dig into the palettes as though that brush is a chisel. I see how much product gets on the bristles; it’s just not as pigmented. The shades are softer colors overall, with the exception of Inked.
All the issues I had with Monochromance may be a “me” thing. My lids are oily, so perhaps that doesn’t mesh well with the formulation of these shades. The left halves of the pans lean pastel, which I also am prone to having issues with depending on the formula. What I can say though is that despite the website having both palettes listed as the exact same ingredients, there has to be a reason why Beautopsy still does not perform the same way as Monochromance. In that last eye photo above, I literally used Feel to cover up a bald spot left in the crease an hour after using Made there, and with Feel on top, it then remained covered for the rest of the day. Something is clearly different.
Beautopsy versus Monochromance Shade Comparisons
It’s obvious that Beautopsy has a more neutral color story and Monochromance is more colorful, but Tan Lines and Alter Ego essentially look the same on my eyes. Feel is neutral whereas Made is a more cool tone brown. The pinks in both palettes are essentially the same depth, but Beautopsy’s lean warmer than the Monochromance pinks.
I’ve been testing Monochromance for over a month, and I still can’t decide whether this palette is worth buying and/or worth the price. I like it, but if this left my collection today, I would only really miss the blushes. However, these wouldn’t even crack my top 20 favorite blushes and blush formulas, so it still wasn’t a necessary purchase other than to satisfy my curiosity on the quality and versatility this palette could provide.
If someone wants to know which one is worth getting, I would easily say Beautopsy. When it comes to recommending Monochromance though, I’m not quite sure.
Thank you for reading and I hope at the very least that my swatches, eye looks, and face application looks have been helpful.
I normally post reviews exclusively on Mondays, but this post is more of a show-and-tell. I consider it a bonus!
Clionadh Cosmetics Fruitlighter in Tropico
This highlighter, or fruitlighter as it is cutely called, is part of the collaboration Dragon Fruit Collection between Clionadh Cosmetics and Emily Violet Marie. Although I’m not following Emily on any social media, I have seen some of her videos discussing Clionadh products and I think it’s fantastic that the brand liked the concept she came up with long ago and decided to work with her. The entire collection is fun and summery, but I’m on a low-buy and a bit of a neutral phase, so I decided I would just get the two most unique items: the Fruitlighters. Unfortunately, the shade Pitaya sold out as I was checking out, but I still managed to get Tropico. I don’t think I can pull off duochrome and multichrome highlighters on my face, but I plan to use Tropico exclusively on my eyes.
I am very happy with this purchase and I know I will get some use out of it because I transferred it from the compact to my custom magnetic palette with my other Clionadh multichromes. When I was swatching Tropico, I observed the pan spin around and I figured out that it wasn’t glued in the compact, just stuck there via a magnetic bottom. So, I’m able to lift it out (gently with a thin object) and put it anywhere I want.
Tropico is in the palette on the bottom right.
In terms of longevity, I have no issues using Tropico on my eyes, nor the cheeks. It lasts all day wherever I put it. Clionadh highlighters in general are a bit glittery, which is why I prefer using them as eyeshadows, if it all. Part of why I was drawn to this shade, as can be seen in the swatch video, is that at a sharp angle you can get a partial rainbow colored shift of yellow, green, blue, and purple. I cannot recreate that effect indoors on my eyes, but it’s gorgeous all the same.
Clionadh Cosmetics Britt’s Birthday Trilogy Eyeshadow Trio Set
Leigh (aka Britt) and Maggie are the two Founders of Clionadh, and it was for Leigh’s birthday that this eyeshadow trio was created. I really wanted the green shade, and when I read that Nightmare was similar to Gum Tree (one of my favorite Clionadh shadows), I planned on purchasing the set whenever I had a bigger order to make. Somehow, I missed the part about Nightmare also having a similar vibe to BrittBritt, another shade that I also already own. So, the reason I haven’t swatched it with the others above is because I decided I won’t be keeping this shade.
The main differences between the three is that BrittBritt is a little more on the bronze and plummy side, Gum Tree is closer to a gunmetal dark-grey, and Nightmare is essentially just like Gum Tree but much darker in tone. So, I gave an example below of what Nightmare could potentially look like by combining the shadow Koala as a base, which is a dark grey-black, and putting Gum Tree on top. BrittBritt, Gum Tree, and Koala are all discontinued eyeshadows that were sold to contribute to various charities. If I did not already have all of those, I would have happily kept Nightmare. This Birthday Set is still limited edition, so it won’t be around forever!
It’s very important for me to not just keep makeup for the sake of keeping them. I really want to ensure I get more use out of my products, which is why I made the decision to just keep the Clionadh products I will actually use. I’ve barely made dents in my shadows despite how often I’ve used them because a little goes such a long way and I’ve calculated that even if I used a different shade every day, between the Stained Glass Collection and Clionadh’s standard shadows, I’d only be able to use them 5 times at most per year.
Below are the comparisons to the darkest greens and deepest reds in my collection with the new shades. One thing that really stands out with Mythology is that it has a lot more sparkle to it than the other greens. As for Bratty, it’s different enough from the others to want to keep, but between the reds and pinks I do have, it’s part of the reason I opted out of the Dragon Fruit palette. I do have a lot of those kinds of shades.
Per usual with Clionadh, these shadows remain opaque and pigmented on my eyes all day.
That’s everything! Thank you so much for reading! If you’d like to check out more of my Clionadh reviews and other indie brands, I have several of them categorized alphabetically here.
-Lili ❤
*DISCLOSURE: All products in this post were purchased by me with my own money.Non-highlighted links in bold blue font (Example) are non-affiliate links that will not generate commission. 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.There are no affiliate links in this post.
When I purchased the Nars Basic Instincts Cheek Quad II at the end of July 2021 and two single blushes on Black Friday, it was because I wanted to get a good sense of what Nars blushes could do. I wanted to experience them for the first time. As I went through my blush drawer to prepare for this post, I realized I had several more blushes from Nars that I completely forgot about (and I bought one more product after I was supposed to be finished with this review)! Despite owning their blushes as far back as 2016, I still had no sense of how I felt about them beyond the experience being positive. It was high time that I analyzed all of these further to officially decide where I rate Nars blushes within my own collection.
Nars Basic Instincts II Cheek Quad
This palette was a limited edition Ulta exclusive (now only available at the Nars website), that came in two different versions comprising of Nars’ bestselling shades. The biggest selling point for me was getting my hands on Taj Mahal, one of the beauty industry’s most famous orange blushes, and Exhibit A which I completely forgot I already owned. Ulta was offering a free 3-piece gift with $30 Nars purchase at the time, and I had a 20% off code as well, so I was able to get everything in the top left photo for just $33 (tax included). I felt this was an amazing deal, considering each pan is nearly the size of a full size blush and Nars blushes cost $30 each. I just needed to like one blush for this purchase to be worth it.
I should preface that I currently like shimmer blushes thanks to formulations from MAC which showed me that they could be done in a way that don’t look like I used a colored highlighter or shimmery eyeshadow as blush on my cheeks. They could add a beautiful luminosity to the skin without making too much of a statement. Prior to this lesson, I hated shimmer blushes. Unfortunately, some of the shades in this quad brought me right back to that feeling of remembering why I steered clear of shimmery blushes for so long.
Taj Mahal is a gorgeous color in the pan, but I don’t think it suits me. It may as well be an orange highlighter, and that was quite disappointing to discover because of how much Charlotte Holdcroft raved about how it’s supposed to look bronze-orange on the skin or “tan skin with a touch of orange.” To be fair, it did look that way on her. On me, whatever brown tones are in this are camouflaged against my skin tone and all I get is the golden orange shimmer on my cheek. It doesn’t matter what brush I use, the photo above depicts the result I get every time.
It looks slightly nicer if I carry my bronzer higher up so that it’s partly on my cheeks as well, and not just in the 3-shape on my face, but the shimmer is still too metallic and reflective when it’s in direct light. Blush has always been something that I want to look natural, like I’m actually blushing, but that type of shimmer is a dead giveaway.
This is my same issue with the shade Savage, although I really like the tones of that one. It’s like a warm brownish red or dark copper similar to Kiss of Rose from bareMinerals. It would be perfect if the shimmer wasn’t so metallic looking. It’s at least not as bad as the blush shades of Coloured Raine’s Glowlighters, but still not my preference. Even when I’ve used this as a blush topper, it’s too much like a highlighter for my taste. If I want to wear a shade like this, I’ll put on Kiss of Rose or Faux Sure from MAC.
Torrid surprised me in the best way. For starters, it’s just like MAC blushes where they look far lighter in the pan, but when they’re applied to the skin it looks deeper and actually works for me. I do have to build Torrid up in order for it to be seen, but the shimmer level in this one is far less than Savage and Taj Mahal. I love how this one looks.
As for Exhibit A, it looks a bit rough in the photo, but that’s because I forgot to reapply my foundation between wiping off the previous shade and applying this new one. It’s very pretty. Although it looks extremely intimidating in the pan, it can be sheered out to give a light flush to the skin. While it’s true that the other Exhibit A in my collection is very old, which should make having this one a good thing, I feel that I already have my go-to statement red blush out of the Hindash Beautopsy Palette. The shade Kills gives me Exhibit A vibes and is very similar, though it’s a slightly stronger red. Exhibit A leans a touch on the orange side, but considering the Love shade from Beautopsy also leans orange, I feel I have my bases covered in being able to absolutely dupe out Exhibit A. So it’s still a redundant shade for me to have in this Nars blush quad.
Had I known then what I know now, even at my great deal, I would have skipped out on getting this quad. Since I have it, I do want to continue using the shade Torrid, but I am notoriously bad at reaching for blushes that are in any form other than singles, so we will see how well that goes. Or, perhaps, I will find a new home for this quad. It’s definitely not a bad product in terms of quality, but one has to like statement blushes as well as this type of shimmer at this level of intensity.
Additionally, part of my biggest issue with the shimmer in Nars blushes is that some of them emphasize texture. Any bumps I have on my skin become a lot more noticeable. I would semi expect that from a highlighter, but I definitely don’t want that quality in my blushes.
Nars Narsissist Unfiltered I Cheek Palette in Watch Me, Me First, Takeover, Out There, Chic, and Exhibit A
This palette, along with the lighter Unfiltered II version, was released at the end of 2016, though it was intended to be a Spring 2017 launch. I recall reading online that some people were able to get the palette before launch if they went in-store and asked for it specifically. It was also around the time that Sephora used to have X amount of dollars off a $50 purchase, so I was lucky enough to have paid after tax like $38 for this (I think it was $25 off for Rouge).
The first three shades on the top row are all highlighter shades for me. At the time, Watch Me was even too light for me to use, or at least I was into more subtle highlighters closer to my skin tone. For that reason, I mostly stuck to using Takeover as a highlighter or mixing it with Watch Me if I didn’t reach for a different highlighter altogether. As for Me First, I didn’t use it more than once.
I admittedly hardly used Chic or Exhibit A. Chic was similar to Out There, which I loved, but it was cooler toned so I never reached for it over Out There. As for Exhibit A, I’m pretty sure I was searching for the right brush to give me a sheer enough application for my tastes back then (which was very much about no-makeup makeup) but I stopped using the palette altogether by the time I eventually got brushes to work with it.
By right, this palette is so old that it should be part of my retired makeup shelf, but I decided to go ahead and demonstrate what Out There looks like on my cheeks. This shade used to be what I considered my perfect and favorite blush color. I wanted to try it again for nostalgia reasons as I wholeheartedly regret that I didn’t get more use out of this palette. As much as I loved that shade, at some point I reorganized my collection and this palette became physically hard to reach, and the outer mirrored lid on top made me not want to move it around as much for fear of breaking it. It eventually got buried under other blushes and forgotten about completely. Part of me still wants to make up for lost time, but I have brand new Nars blushes to dig into, so I won’t.
Nars Blushes in Liberté, Amour, Orgasm X, and Goulue
I have Liberte and Amour in the full sizes, purchased during a $19 per blush Black Friday Deal on Nars’ website. I purchased the mini of Orgasm X in April 2021 during the VIB sale. As for Goulue, the shade was originally released in 2013, but became a Sephora exclusive shade in 2016. This particular mini was the Sephora 2016 Rouge gift, so it’s “only” between five and six years old. I decided to demonstrate this shade as well, since I always assumed it wouldn’t work for me so I didn’t do anything with it other than swatching. It does faintly show up, like the shade Plum Foolery from MAC. I wish I had given it more of a chance in the past, but at least I have a newer dupe, so this will be decluttered.
I owned at least three free gift with purchase minis of the original Orgasm blush, but I always give them away because it’s essentially a highlighter shade for my skin tone. Orgasm X doesn’t show the strongest on me either, but I can at least wear it as a blush if I want. My first few uses with this mini had a very shimmery top layer, so I did not like how it looked on my cheeks. Using it now still shows as shimmery on my cheeks, but it’s on that borderline of me liking it and having it be too much. Despite taking it on my trip with me in order to use it more and figure it out, I still haven’t decided how I feel about it. Not being able to decide is kind of a decision in itself because if it’s not a blush I can quickly say I like, then I know I won’t use it.
And unfortunately, another blush I probably won’t be using is Amour. It looked much deeper in product photos. While it does go on my skin darker than it looks inside the compact, it’s still a touch too light for me. It’s a shame because it’s one of the few matte formulas from Nars that I have, but I’d rather give my attention to Liberte.
Liberte was my saving grace for this post, prior to me buying the High Profile Cheek Palette, because it’s not too old in my collection nor too shimmery. Nars lists this as part of their “Sheer” formula, but I get a decent amount of pigment from this. I do consider it still buildable though. There are visible shimmer particles in the compact, but it does not look shimmery on the skin.
Nars High Profile Cheek Palette
Out of all the blushes that are still usable in my Nars collection, Torrid and Liberte are my favorites. My inner makeup goblin wanted me to look into the other non-shimmer Nars blushes, but as nice as they appear, I still prefer my MAC blushes over these. So, I said to myself that unless Nars releases a palette of some kind that has mostly matte blushes, I should be all set and will be able to stop buying them. Then I saw a deal on Mercari for the High Profile palette which was a limited edition release for Holiday 2021 that had only been swatched and I just couldn’t pass it up. I originally wanted that palette when it was first released, but reviews about the shades being nearly identical on the cheeks deterred me. However, I bought it for only slightly more than the price of a single blush, so I figured that was worth looking into, especially since I wasn’t satisfied with how uncertain I felt about Nars Blushes by the time I thought I had finished this review.
The blushes in this palette are gel-powder, which I was curious to try from Nars, with a satin-luminous finish. This type of sheen is more my style than the shimmer formula. The only issue is that I can’t use most of my favorite blush brushes with this because of this kind of formula which requires a more resilient bristle in order to pick up the product. So, my favorite with this particular formula is the Chikuhodo FO-2 because it fits well with the size dimensions of the pans and picks up a decent amount of product that allows me to still control in building up the color. For instance, Hit It Off is a little more sheer than the others and Showdown is quite light, so I need multiple swirls in the pan to have the opacity level I want of them on my cheeks. However, Just Lust is very pigmented and I just need 1 or 2 taps to get enough product of that per cheek with this brush. So, I can apply these quickly and smoothly enough without feeling the need to swap to a different brush for each different shade.
*DISCLAIMER: 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. The link marked in bold black font with a light blue background (Example) is an affiliate link, which means I would get a commission if purchases are made directly using that link. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read my blog. To those who choose to make a purchase on CDJapan’s website via my links, thank you for the extra support!Now, back to the review!
The batch of photos I took wearing Spin Off didn’t turn out well and that shade is too subtle for my camera anyway as it’s barely noticeable on my cheeks in person. There’s a bit too much brown in that shade for my skin tone but I’m sure it would look pretty on others.
I could have built up High Demand, Showdown, and Just Lust even more, but I liked their levels in the photo. Despite High Demand looking to be the same depth as the very pigmented Just Lust, it’s not as intense of a blush color. They look similar in swatches, but High Demand is a brown-red whereas Just Lust is more of a berry shade. Showdown is more apparent on the skin in person, but I do like to mix it (mainly on the apples) with Hit it Off (mainly towards the back) to get a little more depth from that deep pink-coral with a brighter coral pop towards the front.
Nude Revue is more sparkly than my taste in highlighter, but the tone fits me so well that I could still picture myself using it occasionally. I’m very pleased that technically all these blushes work for me! Everything I said earlier still holds true though. I prefer MAC’s blush formulas overs Nars’. From within their own brand, I prefer Nars’ mattes over their satins but I like satins more than the shimmers. I’m going to steer clear of the shimmers, but if Nars releases another blush palette of mostly mattes and/or satins, I could be tempted to buy them, especially if the packaging is pretty. However, I would like this to be where my exploration of Nars blushes and highlighters end. I will try my best to get use out of what I currently have, and everything else from Nars I’m still interested in because they usually make products that work really well on my face!
I buy products from MAC fairly often, but I like to review multiple purchases at once, rather than doing them individually. Today’s post is a review of all the latest additions to my ever growing collection of makeup from MAC Cosmetics.
MAC Extra Dimension X4: Surrounded By The Stars Skinfinish Palette
This item is part of MAC’s Magnificent Moon Collection that I purchased online from Selfridges containing an existing Extra Dimension Highlighter (Oh, Darling), two existing Extra Dimension Blushes (Hushed Tone and Hard to Get), and one new Extra Dimension Skinfinish Blush/Highlighter in the shade Surrounded By Stars, which is also the name of this face quad. This release was in celebration of Ramadan and EID, which I admittedly don’t know anything about aside from them being an important time in the Islamic religion. By this point, it seems this collection will not be released in the US. As a lover of celestial imagery and MAC’s Extra Dimension Skinfinish formulas, I couldn’t pass this up like I did with the MAC Mosaic Masterpiece Collection from 2020 that I hoped would come to the US, but it never did.
I already own Hushed Tone, but the other products are new to me. Hushed Tone was my favorite Extra Dimension Blush shade from MAC for a while, but it’s on the lighter side of medium which means it is harder to see on my skin. If I build it up too much, the shimmer particles become too apparent for my taste, which is why I usually reserve this blush for the winter time when I am at my lightest. Faux Sure replaced Hushed Tone as my favorite because it has just as pretty of a sheen but is on the medium-dark spectrum, so it shows better on me. Oh, Darling is a bit light for me and Surrounded by Stars only works for me as a highlighter, so I prefer to combine those two products. Surrounded by Stars can look a bit subtle because of the tone of it, so adding the tiniest amount of Oh Darling gives it that extra pop at the highest points of my face. As for Hard to Get, the only reason I don’t already have a single of that shade is because I knew it was darker than I like to wear for blush. It doesn’t look too dark in my photo since I applied such a sheer layer, but I can literally use it as a shimmery sculpting blush if I want. In fact, when I reach for this palette, I like to put Hard to Get just above where I would contour and have it be a deeper gradient going into Hushed Tone.
I forgot to mention that in the last photo above, Surround By Stars with Oh Darling are both on top of the Suqqu blush.
It was only around six months ago that MAC released a similar product as part of the MAC x Rosalia Aute Cuture collection. Those were more of the highlighter formula whereas these are the softer to the touch blush formula, which I prefer. I’m quite pleased with the fact that I can find a use for all these shades, though I am more lightly to reach for my single products over this full palette. This is especially because I have a difficult time using limited edition products and ruining the embossing on the pans. I am happy to have this anyway.
MAC Wild Cherry Glow Play Blush in Peaches ‘N’ Dreams
I reviewed the HD Cherry Tree Blush previously, but I used my points at Ulta to get this shade. It’s not very pigmented, so it takes a ton of building up to get it to show on my cheeks, though my camera still had a hard time picking it up. It looks quite orange in the compact, but it translates to a true peach on the cheeks. I do like this shade and just like all the other Glow Play blushes, the blend is beautiful and the blush lasts as long as I need it to on my cheeks.
I couldn’t decide which photo shows the blush better so I just put them both here. It may depend on the viewer’s device settings and screen brightness.
MAC Macstack Mascara (Mini with the Superstack Mega Brush)
I bought this with my Ulta Reward Points as well. I purchased the version with the Superstack Mega Brush which is supposed to be better suited for those with longer lashes naturally and/or for everyone to use on the upper lashes. There is also a Superstack Micro Brush for those with naturally shorter lashes or for those who just want a smaller brush to get at the lower lashes.
I applied a thick line for my eyeliner, which makes it difficult to see my eyelashes, but I do have decent length to them. It’s just not as visible without the lift that a good mascara provides. My lower lashes are quite fine though, so I typically have an issue applying mascara there (except with a select few favorites), but I still went for the mini size of the Mega brush mascara.
I cannot deny that I can achieve a false lash effect with this mascara. I don’t have issues with smudging and it’s also fairly easy to remove the mascara. However, the more layers are added the more it’s prone to clump despite being marketed as, “… a continuously buildable mascara that stacks on infinite layers of volume and length.” Even if I keep passing over the lashes repeatedly without dipping back into the tube (so still within the first coat) it will start to clump if I keep at it for too long. After using it a few times, I wondered if it was because it starts trying to dry. The formula is supposed to allow the user to build up multiple coats, even on fully dry lashes, so the dried lashes do soften back up, but then it just builds on top of the clumps rather than smoothing them out. So, the most clump-free tactic I have is to skip wiggling the applicator side to side like I usually do to build up volume with other mascaras. Instead, I try building up the first coat using straight upward strokes for about 30 seconds to a minute before dipping the wand back in the tube (even if there’s still product on the wand) just to get a fresh wet coat and continue building it up, just stopping short of it starting to get that first clump. I then use the tip end of the applicator to smooth that clump back off (since it’s easier to fix one spot rather than multiple spots in multiple sections of the lash) and then leave the mascara alone. Another method is to repeat that step of building up a layer in the first minute, stopping to let it dry, then building up a second later but only in a minimal amount of strokes (5 to 15) in order to stop before the clumping begins.
The only time I had an issue with flaking was in the beginning when I had drier layers and clumped layers. Considering how much I dislike spidery lashes or clumps because it makes my lashes look like they’re suffering from split ends, I’m a little torn on my feelings about this mascara. I love the effect it gives in the end when I get it right, but it’s a little more finicky than my tried and true favorites, so it’s not always worth the effort for how quickly I need to do my makeup sometimes. I do like it, but I will not be buying the full size at full price. I could possibly see myself buying it at half price after my mascara no-buy is over (which I technically already broke for this).
That’s everything for today! Thank you as always for taking the time to read… or if you’re new here, welcome!
I wish it was possible to have reviews for my February purchases up quicker, but two of the orders were from international brands, which took nearly a month to arrive. I then needed adequate time to test out the makeup, but I was away from home quite a lot in the month of April. So, here we are now!
Some of these items have already been reviewed by now, so in order to give the unreviewed products their time to shine and not be repetitive, I will just add links that open a new tab to the locations of the previously discussed products.
KVD Beauty Good Apple Lightweight Full-Coverage Concealer in 167
This feels like old news by now since so many reviews have been released about this super hyped up concealer, but I may as well give my take on it too. This product, in terms of performance, has surpassed the identically priced and beloved Tarte Shape Tape Concealer! I have to use it in specific ways though in order to get it to last all day.
This product is full coverage but spreads very easily within the first half minute or so. The applicator feels lovely on the skin, but the amount it picks up is too much for my entire face, even when I scrape the excess product off the tip. With the scraped off amount, if I try to blend in the same spot, it still spreads outside of the brush zone, so I have to continue blending out the edges to get it to seamlessly fuse with my foundation, which can lead to it moving too far. How I minimize this is by applying a thin layer of concealer to the areas I need coverage, but I leave a little room on the edges and try to avoid my under eye lines. Then I wait at least 45 seconds to let it start to dry. Then I start blending and tap my brush onto the wettest parts that haven’t settled yet and use that to spread and cover all the blank spots. If I’ve lost some of the coverage by then, I dot the tiniest bit of extra product to those areas and smooth it out. This technique allows me to use the least amount of product, but prior to this, I learned it’s better to apply the concealer in two light layers rather than one heavy one. It also helps that I use the Sonia G Jumbo Concealer brush which doesn’t trap the product in its bristles or pick it back up off the face.
I don’t follow the inner and outer corner concealer application spots, the concealer triangle, or other shapes beauty gurus show because my dark circles and discoloration are unique and must be applied in the way that suits my face. I was in a bit of a rush when I took this picture, but that initial application doesn’t have to be perfect. The key is to cover most, but not all, of the undereye darkness and discoloration so that even less product will be able to settle into those lines later when I blend in the rest of the concealer. This is the method I use exclusively with the KVD Good Apple Concealer.
I’ve also been content with leaving my concealer as is and not setting it with powder, though without powder, I’d need a decent amount of product in order to keep it lasting all day. Denatured Alcohol is fairly high in this concealer, as the fifth ingredient. This probably helps with the quick dry down/partial self setting aspect, but it does concern me as someone with dry skin to have a drying ingredient in it. However, I decided I will continue using this concealer, at least until I’ve used it up because I like it so much. I love that it’s so lightweight but builds up to full coverage and looks a little more hydrating under my eyes than Shape Tape, even with the alcohol. It’s also longer lasting than Shape Tape. I think it’s important to prep my under eyes, but if I use a moisturizer (I don’t use eye creams anymore) with too many oils, it will break down my concealer quicker than usual. I’ve had better success using my primers/priming moisturizers like the Bobbi Brown Face Base, Tatcha Silk Canvas, Touch in Sol Pretty Filter Glassy Skin Balm, MILK Hydro Grip Eye Primer, etc. If I use something under my concealer, that’s when I make sure to set it with powder.
Regarding the color options, I recommend paying close attention to the swatches because some of the shades are randomly darker than the swatch above and below. Several shades are also essentially the same depth, but just have different undertones. When I was trying to figure out which one to get, it was quite confusing. If KVD created something between 173 and 177, that would be my ideal color provided it’s actually darker than 167 but lighter than 177. My current shade works under my eyes, but it’s too light for the hyperpigmentation around my mouth and gives a grey look when I cover it up. And for those who don’t know, I prefer having a concealer shade that matches my face, rather than being a few shades lighter. The dollops of product depicted for each shade are also much deeper than in reality, so I recommend going by the swatches or seeing these in store to be safe. My nearest Sephora never has anything new but both malls closest to me are closing, so I know that’s not possible for everyone to do.
For those curious, here are some swatches and shade comparisons. I only have a mini of the Deep Shape Tape right now, which I suspect is lighter than the full size, so I would say take that with a grain of salt, along with the Pat Mcgrath concealers which are nearly used up and also changing in consistency and should probably be tossed out. I typically mix PML’s 22 and 24 to get a better match and Lancome’s 460 and 495 to get a better match as well.
One thing to watch out for though is that after using it for a month, the color seemed a little darker than when I first got it. I think it’s due to repeated exposure to air. I will continue to monitor what happens with this concealer as time goes on and update this post if necessary.
Nyx Marshmellow Smoothing Primer (Mini)
I was always intrigued by the idea of this primer, but I held off buying it until I tried a sample of it and loved how it gave me what I wanted out of the Touch in Sol Pretty Filter Glassy Skin Balm, but with more of a shine to my skin. The sample I got was perfectly blended and mixed, but in my $8 mini, the oil and rest of the product is partly separated so much that it leaks out of the tube every time I open it. I know this is common in some products, but it’s quite the annoyance trying to apply it evenly to my face and not get too much oil in one spot. Before every use, I rotate between shaking the tube and massaging the packaging a few times to try and get them to mix back together.
This has a light marshmallow scent to it. There are quite a few claims on Ulta’s website like, “This primer smooths, softens, extends makeup wear for 16 hours, hydrates, soothes, evens tone, minimizes texture, blurs lines, adds a soft focus finish AND keeps makeup fresh.” After several wear tests, the longest being ten hours, I can only confirm the skin softening, minuscule amount of line blurring, and keeping makeup fresh. I hoped that the initial shine I got on my skin when first applied would continue throughout the day, which it does sometimes, but at other times this primer actually partially mattifies my skin. I would not have noticed if I hadn’t done several wear tests using the NYX primer only on one side of the face. Sometimes it goes on perfectly clear and at other times it leaves a slight white cast, which at least is undetectable once foundation is on top, but still it’s quite the strange phenomenon. The only explanation I have is the separation of the formula and me being unable to consistently mix it back together in the tube. So, on those matte days, I don’t know if my skin is actually being hydrated. It at least feels hydrated, so that’s a good thing for me.
I don’t wear makeup for long enough to know if it would last 16 hours and I have no idea what a “soft focus finish” from makeup would look like in real life, so I can’t confirm or disprove those claims either. I still like this primer, but not enough to repurchase it unless I somehow start noticing the other supposed benefits like a more even tone, minimized texture, and an increase in the blurring power.
Essence Coffee to Glow Highlighter Beans
Calling this subtle wouldn’t be the right wording, but it gives more of a sheen or glow than a blinding reflect. It lasted a full eleven hours without fading during my longest wear test and with my best primer. The worst performance of it when combined with different base products left me with a very subtle sheen by the nine hour point. I’m quite shocked at how similar it actually is to the Guerlain meteorites in terms of performance, though it’s a little more toned down than those and the Guerlain is a little more friendly to texture.
It smelled like coffee when I first bought it, but a month later it smelled faintly like coffee but mostly like pencils. It’s the type of smell that is detectable when I put it on, but I can’t smell it after I finish blending it. According to Ulta and Essence’s websites though, these are somehow fragrance free. I skimmed several videos to see what others had to say about the beans, and theirs had a smell too, so I don’t know why this is the case if they aren’t supposed to be scented. Maybe it’s the foam or packaging itself that’s scented and not the makeup.
There are way less beans in the cup than I expected because there’s a foam layer that fills most of the space, as can be seen in my product photo far above. I don’t mind this since I’ve never gotten even a quarter of the way through a highlighter.
It is easier to get powder from the lid rather than trying to pick up product off the beans because I have occasionally gotten crumb size pieces between the bristles of the brush and when those fall to the floor it makes a mess. The beans stay mostly intact if I rub my brush over them, but they are not difficult to break. One shattered between my fingers when I tried to swatch each of the three colors against my arm and it got everywhere!
Considering I did not enjoy the Essence Pure Nude Highlighter Palette, I’m shocked how much better these are and how much more I like them. For those who like subtle highlighters and don’t mind scented makeup, I’d recommend trying these out if they’re still available. Also, those of a lighter skin tone can remove the darkest beans if there is a concern of this leaving a dark cast on the face. Conversely, those with a darker skin tone can remove the golden yellow beans if there is a concern of it being too stark, but I think it may be less of an issue for those on the deeper skin tone spectrum as can be seen here in this YouTuber’s video.
Essence Coffee to Glow Eyeshadow Palette
I should note that these two Essence products and the Nyx primer are all allowed in my low buy under the stipulation of “products that I intended to get last year but was prevented from doing so for one reason or another.” I tend to prefer colorful eyeshadow palettes, so the only reasons I wanted this palette were for the glossy and swirl shadows. I felt like it would somehow give me a taste of Huda Beauty’s Naughty Palette which has those types of shadows in it.
The #5 gloss shadow has a hard gel layer with all the pigment pearls at the very bottom, so I had to crush it down to the pan in order to get any color out of it. I expected it to just be a gimmick and it would certainly have been pointless wearing it on its own on my eyes if I hadn’t mixed it. It’s supposed to be a “universal eye shadow topper,” but that isn’t my makeup preference. Instead, I use this as a base primer and it greatly increases the longevity of the shimmers I apply on top, as I saw in an eleven hour wear test. I almost always get creasing on my eyes, and using the gel as a base does deepen the creases, but it also keeps my shimmers in place and prevents the transfer that I get from my lid to my crease when I use a regular eyeshadow primer.
With regular primers like the MAC Paint Pot and Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas, my eye looks using this palette are still fine past ten hours but the shimmers aren’t as intense. As for the mattes, I was impressed with the color payoff. They blend sufficiently. I just wish Essence included a deeper shade because I can’t get much depth out of shades #1 and #8 which are the two darkest colors in this palette.
I always use #3 to blend out the edges of the other mattes in the crease. For the inner corner, I use #2 or #6 but my favorite thing is to use them together for the inner corner highlight because #2 has the best reflect but it can be a bit dark depending on how much of the darker swirl is used, whereas #6 is lighter but not shinier. Those two shades don’t last as long on my eyes because I do touch my eyes frequently throughout the day and these are easily removed by touch, no matter what primer I use.
#4 is a nice metallic shade and both #4 and #6 feel like normal shimmers with some slip, but the #2 “bouncy swirl” shadow is quite creamy/wet feeling.
This palette is only $8 and is unscented. It was definitely worth me purchasing, even if it was purely for the fun of playing with some of these uncommon textures and formulas. The lightweight packaging feels like recycled cardboard and the palette is tiny and fits in the palm of my hand, but what it lacks in packaging quality, it makes up for with the eyeshadow formula.
Rephr Hydration Cream 1.0
I purchased this when rephr was offering a “set your own price” option where one could pay even as low as $0 to get it, plus the shipping cost. When I first used it, I applied way too much to my face and continued to get dewier throughout the day. In many subsequent uses, I learned that if I applied a smaller amount, it fully absorbs into my skin and is fully hydrated without leaving a trace of shine, which is fantastic for non-makeup days! I only like a little dew to my skin when I have a full face on; I don’t want to look shiny when I’m barefaced. I’m also impressed by this formulation because it meets the requirements of my dry skin as a powerful moisturizer that is also lightweight. Rich/Heavy products tend to clog my skin. It’s not the easiest to find something that lets my skin breathe while also lasting all day.
Some highlights about the benefits of this moisturizer are that it’s fragrance and essential oil free, it’s made in Korea, it’s made of recyclable lightweight aluminum packaging, and it contains:
Niacinamide (5%)
Dimethicone (3%)
Glycerin (3%)
Centella Asiatica Complex (2%)
Meadowfoam Seed Oil (1%)
Panthenol (0.5%)
Algae Complex (2.0%)
Soybean Complex (1.5%)
Other lightweight moisturizers for my face that can do the job are the Innisfree Jeju Cherry Blossom Jelly Cream ($25 for 50ml), Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing Cream ($15-36 for 80ml), Laneige Water Bank Hydro Gel ($38 for 50ml), Saturday Skin Waterfall Glacier Water Cream ($39 for 50ml), etc. So, rephr is offering quite the deal at $26 (listed price) for 100ml. The only one of those I mentioned that I like better than this one is from Round Lab, though I believe the rephr cream may be more occlusive.
I’m terrible about keeping to a consistent skincare routine, so I can’t say how this product performs on a regular daily basis, but I’ve used it enough these past few months to be able to say that it’s great and hasn’t caused me any issues.
Colourpop Pressed Powder Blush in 4ever Yours – That review is here.
This is was the first official breech of my low buy this month. I’m not supposed to buy blushes unless it’s one of the brands on the exceptions list, which this is not. Considering how similar it is to the heart shaped blush I bought from Colourpop last year, I should have stuck to my guns and not gotten it.
Colourpop Super Shock Highlighter in Champagne BB
According to the rules of my low buy, I should not have gotten this either. It’s the classic case of wanting it because I like the formula, but I don’t need anymore, especially when I have them in shades I already like. My only defense was that I at least removed the other highlighter and three blushes I had out of my shopping cart, but I just ended up buying those anyway in March. Oops!
This shade looks a bit too dark for me in swatches, but when it’s diffused onto the skin, it looks like the perfect depth and still brightens the area due to the sparkle. It lasts on my cheeks all day and I can’t even regret this purchase because it’s great! Unfortunately, this particular Super Shock has already been discontinued.
Oden’s Eye x Angelica Hela Palette – The review is Here.
This fits in line with my two eye shadow palettes per month rule. I’m doing quite well with that so far!
Kaleidos Lip Clays (plus Smokey Nostalgia Tin Box) in Skinship, Cognac, and Bare – The review is Here for both the Lip Clays and Blush listed below.
I purchased the custom bundle which requires 4 lip products, but the fourth was a gift for a friend. So, I’m not counting that last one as part of my lip no-buy and my total is currently 3 lip products out of the allowed 5.
Kaleidos Smokey Nostalgia Blush in P03 Sanguine – The review is linked above.
This is another purchase that technically goes against my low-buy. Kaleidos isn’t on the exceptions list for blushes, but I have always wanted to try one from them and couldn’t due to the shades not being suited for my skin tone.
MAKE UP FOR EVER Electric Brushes Set
This set with tax came to $36 from Nordstrom. The original price was $69 and has a retail value of $150. It includes :
106 Foundation Brush: a brush for applying and blending all kinds of foundation for an even result.
124 Powder Kabuki Brush: a brush with a short and slender handle for ensuring smooth and even application of all powders to create a lightweight, flawless result.
152 Highlighter Brush: a brush for easily and delicately highlighting your face and body with its soft fibers.
228 Precision Shader Brush: a paddle-shaped, flexible brush for applying, blending and smudging all types of eye products quickly.
Brush case
Today’s review will be about the foundation, powder, and highlighter brushes, but I’m going to give someone the shader brush. I rarely like synthetic eye brushes, so it would be a waste for me to even bother trying it. In general, I prefer natural hair brushes, but I’ve always wanted to try these, just not at full price. It was still very early in my exploration of makeup when MUFE decided to make their brushes fully synthetic. Regarding my no buy/low buy, I’m unofficially on a makeup tool low buy. However, I didn’t set any restrictions in writing.
The Foundation brush, I had seen in action during a Rouge event many years ago when a MUFE representative did my makeup and I wanted it ever since. I typically don’t like paddle style brushes, but this one works just as well as I remembered. I get zero streaks using this brush. I’m able to apply and spread foundation easily and get around edges and small corners with ease as well. I have a background with painting ceramics, and painting on canvas is an occasional hobby, so I can’t be sure if that plays into why this brush is so easy for me to use, but it is.
This brush can also apply a crisp line for cream sculpting products, though the shape of the tip isn’t the best for blending, but I can still do it with this brush. It costs $36 which ended up being the price I paid for the entire set. I personally think it’s worth $25 at most, but having this brush made the whole set worth it.
I find it so strange that this is listed as a Highlighter brush considering it’s bigger than my Smashbox Cream Cheek brush and many other blush brushes.
It applies far too much highlighter for my preference, so I consider this a blush brush instead. That being said, I’m not the biggest fan of this brush for that purpose either. There’s so much bristle for such a flimsy floppy splay that doesn’t feel like I have much control of the blend. It’s like it smears blush across the skin like a mop rather than buffing in the blush. When I use easy to blend and pigmented blushes, this brush works perfectly fine. However, with a sheerer blush or lower quality one, it takes forever since it’s lacking firmness and makes things look patchier. I figured if this is problematic with powders then maybe cream blushes will be better for this brush, but that’s not the case. It doesn’t allow me to fully work the cream products into my skin and it just sits on top of it. With even more emollient creams, it has the issue of spreading product too far out.
This retails for $37, which I don’t think it’s anywhere near worth that. If I had bought this #152 brush individually, I would have returned it. I don’t recommend this one.
The retail price for this one is $52! I can’t recall if I ever paid over $40 for a synthetic fiber brush, so it’s no surprise that I wouldn’t normally buy a brush like this. The handle on this one feels even sturdier than the others in the line.
It’s the most dense at the very center and looser packed around the edges. When I put this brush handle side up against my palm, it sinks in at like a centimeter before it forms what feels like a wall. It’s so solid that I can’t get the bristles to splay, it just stiffens. This does the same thing when I apply a powder to my face. If I grip the handle and use a normal amount of pressure to spread powder on my face, it feels incredibly firm to point that it offers very little movement and the bristles drag heavily across my skin.
The way I like to use it is holding it in a looser grip and just blending with the tips without applying pressure. This method still gives me a strong blend without feeling like I’m using the world’s densest brush or attempting to exfoliate my face. I’m not saying that these brushes are scratchy. The bristles on all of them are soft, just not the softest synthetic I’ve felt, especially when pressure is applied and it drags on the skin. These fibers actually remind me a bit of pony hair, but softer. Now that I know the trick to using this brush, I do like it and I’m happy it’s part of the set. It can’t compare to my natural hair powder brushes, but I use those for an airier and more blended finish. This brush is one that I’d use when I want to actually load on a thin solid layer, like with face powder, before blending it out.
Even though I’m not planning to use this brush, I wanted to show how it looks through the plastic. The retail price is $25.
I feel like I got an absolute steal on this brush set! Even though I don’t want to purchase anymore synthetic fiber brushes, I can’t regret buying these.
MAC Glow Play Cherry Blossom Blush in HD Cherry Tree – The review is Here.
Considering how many MAC blushes I own, this shouldn’t be on the exceptions list, but it is because I don’t have the willpower to cut off the brand that ranks number one with blushes for me. So this purchase is still allowed according to my Beauty Resolutions.
Tarte Amazonian Clay Best of Cheek Set (Holiday 2021)
This set went on sale for $22 on 2/22/22, so with tax it came to just under $24. I always wanted to try this formula of Tarte blushes because people have been raving about them since I started getting into makeup and they always said that despite the holiday items being notoriously lower quality, this formula from Tarte was always great. After trying these minis out for myself, I can understand why these are such beloved blushes! The longevity is insane. I’ve done several wear tests with the longest being eleven hours and by that point the blush still looked freshly applied!
I used the maximum amount of Exposed, a moderate to heavy application of Charmed, a heavy application of Captivating, a moderate amount of Delight, and a light to moderate amount of Fantasy on the cheeks. Charmed and Delight had more room for building up.
I bought this expecting to only be able to wear the darkest blush in the set and just test out the formula of the highlighter, so I was pleasantly surprised to see everything show up on me! Exposed is described as a “nude pink” and admittedly barely shows because the brown tones blend into my skin. The pink is what makes it visible, though it’s on that cusp of being too light for me, so I will probably find a new home for that shade. Charmed is a limited edition “bright pink” that I consider a light-medium tone that works for me if I spend a little time really blending it into my skin. The one that I’m actually shocked that I can wear because it’s even lighter than Charmed is the “bright peach” shade called Captivating. It looks crazy at first, but it warms up as I blend it in. I love the look of peach blushes, but they are usually ashy on me, which is why I go for corals as my closest equivalent of peach. It excites me to no end to have found one of the rare peach shades that I can pull off! The last blush is another limited edition shade called Delight. It’s a “deep rose” that’s a cross between Exposed and Charmed, but darker. It’s the most natural looking of the shades on my cheeks and it’s the only one I don’t have to build up for depth of tone reasons and not pigmentation reasons. All of these blushes have a good amount of pigment. As for the highlighter, the limited edition “rose gold” shade Fantasy is too light for me. Beyond the shade match, the way it reflects in the light emphasizes texture in a way that other highlighters I’ve used that are even lighter than this one don’t do. I don’t have enough experience with Tarte Highlighters to be able to say if this is indicative of their formulas, but I have an upcoming review where I tried another one that I liked much better and did not have the reflect and textural problem. That one went on smoothly, whereas this one sticks in places and takes a bit of blending in, so I think it’s just an issue with this particular highlighter.
So, in this set of five travel size products, I intend to continue using three of them. That makes the usable items worth $8 each in my eyes based on what I paid, plus the knowledge I gained in learning that I really like the Amazonian Clay blush formula! Each compact contains 1.5 grams of product, so the three I’m keeping equals 4.5 grams that I paid $24 to have. A full size blush from tarte is 5.6 grams for $29. For these reasons, it made the set worth it, but I wouldn’t have felt the same way if I paid the $39 full price. Tarte lists this as being a $75 value, but there’s a combined product weight of 7.5 grams, which means the set should actually cost $38.84.
This is why I always recommend waiting for Tarte’s holiday items to go on sale. Then it has a chance of actually being worth buying if the products are not 100% suited for someone.
We’ve now reached the end of the post! I had so many products to review, which I expected would slow down my purchases for March, but it did not! It worked in the beginning of March but halfway through the month things got a bit crazy. I would estimate that post won’t be ready until August. I hope you’ll visit my blog again soon! And if you missed January’s purchases, they can be found here.
I love discussing natural hair brushes, and I use them almost exclusively for most makeup tasks. However, 2021 was the year that I dipped my toe back into the pool of synthetic brushes. I wanted to know if some of the positive buzz I heard was well warranted, or if I was right to ignore them. These brushes are in the mid-range to high-end category. Not included today, but I will post in the future, will be a comparison between my old original Real Techniques brushes to the current version today.
Smashbox Synthetic Brushes
I’ve always been a fan of Smashbox’s original line of brushes before they revamped them to be entirely synthetic. It’s my opinion that the majority of expensive ($30+) synthetic brushes aren’t worth the price, so it took many years of waiting before the sale prices on these brushes compelled me to finally try a few. The brushes aren’t very versatile. Most of them serve one singular purpose, but I would rather have a brush that does one task superbly than to have a brush do multiple things at just an adequate level.
Smashbox Buildable Cheek Brush
This brush is very loosely packed, floppy, and the bristles aren’t luxuriously soft, so my first instinct was to write off this brush. However, after using it, I understood why it needed to be this way. Even though the brush head shape looks cool yet gimmicky at best or poorly made at worst, the combination of everything leads to getting a very sheer blush application with my overly-pigmented blushes (like the ones from Wayne Goss). It’s a somewhat large brush, but the sharp angles allow me to still get a controlled and precise application while still being soft and buildable the way it was intended. I also love the grip hold spots on the handle, which intuitively direct the user where to hold the brush in order to get the desired results. I had to put my thoughts on what makes a good brush aside, in order to appreciate the results I got. It’s a lot more thought out and functional than it appears. It does the job very well, so I do recommend it. I purchased mine when it was half off on Smashbox’s website.
Smashbox Precise Highlighting Brush
This is another brush I almost wrote off because the angled side resembles a stippling brush that is grouped together in thicker clumps. I was certain this would lead to patchy results, but I was shocked to see it worked so well to actually create a smooth application. The angle really hugs the top of my cheekbone and other areas I apply highlighter. I still wish it was a little softer, but I can’t knock the results. Because I already have amazing highlighter brushes, I personally don’t feel like this brush filled a void in my collection, but I do use it quite regularly. For someone who doesn’t have, for instance, the Wayne Goss Air Brush or Bisyodo CH-HC Brush*, I recommend giving this Smashbox brush a try when it’s on sale. The full price is still overpriced in my opinion, especially compared to the Bisyodo brush being softer, cheaper, and natural hair. The Smashbox brush has the advantage of being able to work with all mediums, like cream and liquid products, but I only use powder highlighters, so that isn’t a selling point for me. 40% off would be a fair price for this brush, but I got mine at an even better discount at 50% off. Smashbox offers that semi-regularly now, so I suggest signing up to their email notifications.
*Disclaimer: The link for the Bisyodo brush is the only affiliate link in this post. Clicking it will open a new browser tab to the product page and I would get a commission (at no extra cost to the customer) if someone makes a purchase via the link. All brushes in this post, including the Bisyodo brush, were purchased by me with my own money. If you choose to make a purchase via the link, I thank you, but also know I am just happy you chose to read this post today!
Smashbox Cream Cheek Brush
Before Sonia G released the long handle size of the Mini Base brush, I bought this one in the hopes that it would be a nice dupe for it. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I may have liked this brush more if I didn’t have the one from Sonia G. This brush isn’t as dense as I wanted and the bristles are floppy. It gets the job done, but it has a wider splay than I prefer (because it’s so floppy and flattens with too much pressure). It’s not a bad brush, but it’s made for someone who likes to apply creams lightly at first and build it up. This is because it has the quality of being able to pick product back off the face the way a damp Beautyblender can soak up excess cream and liquid off the skin. I prefer to deposit more of the cream blush onto the skin in the first go and blend it out. The Smashbox brush at full price is $32 whereas Sonia G’s mini base is $40. I highly recommend getting the Sonia G brush instead for those who don’t mind that there are still some natural hairs in that one. I do somewhat regret buying this Smashbox brush, even at the discount of 30% off. For how little I end up reaching for this brush, I wouldn’t have regretted it if it was 50% off instead.
Overall, I’m happy to be able to say Smashbox brushes as still worth checking out, even though they’re all synthetic now. I’m still using my original brushes from the brand though, so I don’t think I’ll be purchasing anything else from their current line unless they create a new shape.
Scott Barnes 65 Flawless Face Brush
I keep hearing there’s some kind of controversy about Scott Barnes, but I haven’t been able to find reputable sources explaining it. So, I’ve decided to lift the break I had on the brand and buy the last brush from his line that I’ve always wanted. I purchased it during Black Friday. Like Smashbox, the bristles of Scott Barnes brushes don’t feel particularly special (though they are at least a lot more dense and softer than Smashbox brushes), but it’s the innovative shapes that make the difference compared to other brands. This brush works quite well to apply bronzer and contour products in both cream and powder forms to my face without leaving any harsh edges and without applying too much at one time either, since all the tips don’t get coated with the first initial tap of the brush into the makeup. A section of the brush applies what was picked up while the rest of the bristles blend the product. I do wish this had a slightly thinner surface area though to make over-applying even rarer of an occurrence.
Because I do have more of a void in my collection when it comes to sculpting brushes, I’m more willing to say a synthetic brush at this price is worth it, specifically for me, though I did get it at 40% off. I’m not totally in love with this brush, but I’m strongly “in like” with it and am happy I bought it. It also says quite a bit that having this brush has suppressed my yearning for the Sonia G Lotus Base, Sonia G Niji Pro, and Patrick Ta Major Sculpt Brush.
Urban Decay Pro The Finger Brush F110
This is by far the most disappointing brush purchase I made in 2021, and that’s because I have been wanting this for years, so I am that much more upset that it did not live up to the claims of essentially giving the same results as my finger, without the mess. The only nice thing is that I got it on sale for half off, minus shipping from Nordstrom Rack. This brush is so dense that it just drags on the eye. There’s no give or flexibility. The head forms a half circle, but the tip is flat and intended to stipple on product. I’ve tried to use it with matte and shimmer eyeshadows, to spread on eye primer, and to apply my concealer. I hate it in every task. The best result I had was using it to apply a transition matte eyeshadow to the crease, but I had to clean up the edges because of how round it is. It initially worked nicely with some of my loosely packed shimmer eyeshadows, but not the kind that need more of a smoothing/spreading application like my Devinah Cosmetics metallic shadows. I do not recommend this brush and I have no intention of using it anymore. I give Urban Decay kudos for the recycled aluminum ferrules and recycled plastic fiber bristles, but if I buy a brush I won’t use, it’s still a waste of a brush anyway. I will try to find this brush a home with someone else.
This tapered candle flame shape of highlighter brush is extremely common, so I had high expectations that this brush would be well made. The shiny gold colored ferrule and handle certainly make a positive impression, though the fibers in the brush head weren’t uniformly put together and it isn’t completely symmetrical even post-wash. The head length is also much longer than I’d expect for a highlighting brush, which makes me think that it’s also meant to be used with blush along the side. When flattened against the skin, the splay is wide enough for the cheeks. This makes sense for it to be included in a blush and highlighting duo considering this feature.
My main issue is the way product is deposited on the skin. Blushes that usually take only 2 passes on my cheek to finish the look take at least double that amount because the blush just sweeps off the cheek and into the air or gets pushed further into the brush. It works fine with loosely pressed highlighters, but it has trouble with some formulas, such as the Lethal Cosmetics and Hatice Schmidt Labs highlighters, in failing to deposit all the product I pick up onto my cheekbones. This can be a good thing since I like subtle highlighting anyway, but that also sometimes leads to an uneven application that I have to smooth over repeatedly. As I mentioned in the Smashbox section, I have too many amazing highlighting brushes to want to reach for this one on a regular basis, though it is very pleasing to look at. Ironically, I have even more amazing blush brushes, but I do use this brush more often to sweep on blush rather than highlighter. I intend to keep this brush and I’m glad it came free with my Sigma blush duo. I don’t believe it’s sold individually. I’ve seen a black handle version of it though as part of another Sigma set.
Patrick Ta Monochrome Moment Blush Brush #1
This brush also goes by the name, “Complexion Brush #1” on Patrick Ta’s website. It’s described as, “a fluffy, tulip-shaped brush that applies and diffuses powder for the most natural application.” On multiple websites, it’s listed as being great for diffusing blush, bronzer, and highlighters in a loose or pressed powder formula, which is interesting considering Patrick’s most popular products are his cream and powder duos. The main reason I wanted this brush was after viewing Tara Lynn’s video when she used it with a cream blush. I assumed it could be amazing with Patrick’s own duos or at least other cream blushes. However, any cream blush that is on the stiffer side, like the one in the duo and the LYS cream blushes, are very difficult to pick up product without me having to apply a lot of pressure and wiggle the brush in the pan or even go as far as to squeeze the base of the brush hairs to make the bristles more compact in order to pick up the product. So, ironically, I don’t like using it with the Patrick Ta Blush Duos. Smoother textured blushes, like the MAC Glow Play ones, I had an easier time picking up. The overall downside to using this brush with creams is that it causes the bristles to gunk up in random spots. I definitely have to clean off my brush with a microfiber cloth after each use.
Essentially, the best way I found to use this product with a cream or liquid is to apply those to the cheek first and then blend it out with the brush. This is how I had an easier time using the Makeup by Mario Blush Stick and Glossier Cloud Paint while also keeping the bristle bunching to a minimum. However, an excess of product still gets between the bristles when it comes to creams and liquids. All the non-powder blushes I used ended up looking sheer on my cheeks every time. I essentially had to either apply a lot more product than usual or keep the blending to the minimum. I did enjoy how nice and smooth it always looked in the end. So, I wouldn’t say only use this brush with powders; just be aware that creams can be troublesome with it.
The fibers of this brush are crimped in order to mimic the product pickup of natural hair, and it even feels different than the other synthetic brushes I reviewed today. This is the only one that actually feels luxurious. Of course, synthetic hair doesn’t have cuticles like natural hair to help grab onto product, but the crimping helps. I am able to pick up a lot of product on the brush, however, it doesn’t always want to let it go and deposit it onto my face. So, the result is that this brush is best for those who like to build up blush rather than deposit a lot before buffing out the excess. I wish there were more of the bristles overall though, as this brush is not as dense as it looks. It’s not tightly packed and it is a bit floppy. With more bristles, this would have been perfect with powders (and maybe this would make it better with creams too), but considering the quality of the brush head, the weighty well made handle, and overall look, this was worth me buying at the 20% off discounted price at Sephora. It’s still a hard sell to get me to love a synthetic brush when it’s for blush, but for those who don’t like natural hair, I do recommend this one.
When it comes to using this with the other complexion products listed, highlighting is where I draw the line. No matter how tiny of a spot I try to tap into the highlighter with the brush, it deposits the product onto too wide of an area, covering up too much of my cheeks. I have a similar issue when using this brush for bronzing, but the diffused look it gives me makes me not mind it so much. It’s my preference to keep my bronzed areas on the thinner side, but if I’m randomly in the mood for a wider area of warmth to my skin, I’ll remember to use this brush. As for face powder, I was not surprised to discover this brush works quite well for that.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to know if synthetic brushes were worth buying again, especially at the higher end price tag. After really thinking it over, what I’ve concluded is that the answer is no for me personally. The current synthetic brushes I have are all that I need and even when I find ones I like, the majority are a bit overpriced. I would be more likely to purchase additional brushes from brands like Smashbox and Patrick Ta if the prices were decreased, but the fact that I can always think of a natural hair brush I prefer over the synthetic one, it doesn’t make sense for me to continue buying them. I can say that I was impressed by some of the advancements though regarding synthetics and mimicking natural hair, so perhaps in another five years after the technology gets even better, I’ll have a new opinion on the subject.
From the Smokey Nostalgia collection, I purchased two of the four new lip clays and one of the five new blushes. There’s one more lip clay I purchased, which will be discussed later.
As an absolute blush fanatic, I was the most excited to try a blush from Kaleidos. The brand’s first attempt at blushes was a very non-inclusive release of two blush duos, so I was happy to see at least one deep skin friendly option this time. I will say that the Sanguine blush I purchased is not quite as deep as it appears on the website. This is why I’m not certain if the other shades are even lighter in person as well.
This shade is also difficult to capture accurately. It looks like a straightforward dark red in the pan, but I’d say it actually goes on the skin more like a deep rose shade. I was instantly reminded of MAC’s blush called Frankly Scarlet because of that reddish pink element.
The two blushes don’t look similar in the pan, but on my cheeks I can see that Sanguine is a bit more natural and red whereas Frankly Scarlet is a little more vibrant. I’m shocked to say this, but Sanguine is actually a tiny bit better! It isn’t often that I prefer another brand’s blush over MAC’s formula. The texture of the blush feels extremely soft, like velvet, and it’s both buildable and easy to blend. I honestly did not expect such good quality. Sanguine is pigmented, but I can make it as sheer or as intense as I want. I’ve done up to a nine hour wear test twice and it lasts on my cheek that whole time without fading if I apply a normal amount of blush. If I wear a light sheer layer, I can expect noticeable fading to start at 6-7 hours, but it was still clearly there by hour 9. If I wasn’t confident that the other shades won’t work for me, I’d probably have placed another order to buy more. If additional shades are released in the future though, I could be tempted to get them.
One thing I can’t explain is that I swear there’s a faint rose-like scent, but fragrance isn’t listed on the packaging.
The quality of the Cloud Lab Lip Clays in this collection are the same as I’ve experienced in the past. I really wanted the Smokey Nostalgia tin, plus at least three lip products, so I opted for the Custom Lip Bundle and reserved the fourth lippie as a gift for a friend. A small part of me wishes I actually used that fourth spot for the Mahogany shade instead of Cognac because that’s one that I originally wanted as a mixing shade to deepen looks or make some less colorful.
Mixing these together isn’t as seamless as I expected. I kept seeing Kaleidos ads on YouTube mixing one of the pink-red shades (I think Cactus Flower) with Agave to create a gorgeous purple lip. They did something else with Mahogany, so I expected them to essentially mix like paint, but my attempts haven’t yielded results as dramatic as that. Also, some influencer videos showed Cognac as being a lot closer to brown than it is, so I figured (possibly incorrectly) that Cognac would be better than Mahogany for what I needed.
Despite so many options, and similarly toned ones at that, I still haven’t found my perfect shade in this formula, nor been able to find the best combo for myself either. I will continue to keep my eye out though because it’s the only liquid lipstick I’ve liked in a really long time. The unbelievable lasting power and water resistance without feeling like my lips are drying out are worth that effort to find.
Lastly, I just wanted to add that I’m shocked that Bare isn’t as pale as I expected. If it was the tiniest bit darker, it would have been perfect to wear on its own.
I’ve been burned a lot by drugstore makeup, so I tend to only buy the products that have been hyped up for a year or longer. I know it’s possible for drugstore makeup to be on par with, or even better than, high end products, which is why today’s post is an attempt to see which of these items are beyond just being, “good for the price.”
Milani Cheek Kiss Cream Blush in Nude Kiss
When choosing this shade, I accurately detected that the color in the pan should be a dark enough blush color for me. What I failed to take into account was the sheerness of the formula. If I treat it like other cream blushes and pick up my usual amount to somewhat build it up, it blends away to nearly nothing. No matter how much I attempted to build, it would not go on my skin opaquely. However, if I load a lot onto my brush and apply it to my cheeks all at once and then blend it out, even picking up the excess with my Blendiful (yes, I’m still using that old thing), then I am left with a gorgeously dewy looking cheek.
I didn’t have high hopes for applying this blush with my fingers, but once again, I can get a nice result if I apply a lot of product to my cheeks at a time. This is why I don’t prefer using this blush with a sponge either, since the dampness from the sponge thins the formula and I have to use an excessive amount of product to compensate.
Had I known how sheer these would be, I would have gotten Merlot Moment. I bought Nude Kiss because I wanted something natural, but it’s still a touch too light to look completely natural on me, so I could see myself mixing this shade with some of my more pigmented cream blushes.
This formula does not set in the amount I have to use packed on, but it’s at least not sticky. It remains creamy to the touch and easily transfers. It also absorbs into my dry bare skin very quickly, so I need a barrier between the blush and my skin (like a layer of foundation) to prevent that from happening. When applied on top of foundation, this still begins to fade within a few hours. To get this to last, I use setting powder on top. This step also reduces the amount of product transfer and the balmy feeling to the skin, but it still doesn’t dry down completely. With a foundation layer, packed on blush, and a setting powder layer, this blush starts to fade at eight hours. Considering the fact that I don’t like blushes that don’t set, I’m still impressed with this formula. It’s like a better version of the Tower 28 Beach Please Cream Blushes that so many people love, but I hate. I certainly recommend the Milani Blush over the one from Tower 28, but it’s possible the Tower 28 blush is longer lasting. I can only guess that because the Tower 28 blush I tried was more pigmented, but I don’t know its full wear time because I couldn’t stand the feeling of it on my skin and could not complete a wear test. I understand why the Milani Blush gets so much hype, and I like it, but I won’t be purchasing the others.
Below is a photo comparing the swatches off all the blushes we’ll discuss today.
J.CAT Beauty Blush-Mallow Soft Blusher in Thank You Berry Much!
This packaging is like an even cheaper version of MAC’s compacts. I feel like I could accidentally break the flimsy lid every time I open it. My fears for this cream blush are warranted considering my first one arrived broken in the mail, so Ulta replaced it. I bought this on a whim because the look of it in promo shots and its description as, “a marshmallow textured formula,” reminded me of the Armani Neo Nude Color Melting Cream Balm Blushes (at least Warm Coral is that way). The J.Cat blush isn’t as emollient as that one and is a little stiffer, but once I’m able to pick up enough of it, it spreads fairly easily. It’s only $4, so I wouldn’t have asked for a replacement if I didn’t like the formula but I was so impressed!
Thank You Berry Much has a good amount of pigment, but because of the tone, it’s subtle on my cheeks. Despite the “berry” in its name, it’s a terracotta shade. I like the warmth it provides to my cheeks and by the eight hour point, it is significantly faded. It’s at least solid without fading up to six hours, and past eight hours it still clings on for an hour before disappearing. This also depends on whether or not I’ve set it with a powder and how often I’ve touched my face. When first applying, the blush dries enough that it’s not sticky to the touch and I don’t feel the need to set it with a powder. There is a tiny amount of transfer if touched and a low amount if accidentally rubbed.
This is one of the few blushes I like applying with my fingers, though I still end up applying it with a brush more often. The brush just requires a lot more building up. I can really pack on color with a damp sponge, but the sponge picks product back up, leaving splotches on the cheek. It also turned the blush into an odd vibrant coral orange shade. I think it’s a reaction between the water and the dyes. Sometimes eyeshadow formulas with dyes in them have color bleed out when I’m pressing them back in the pan with isopropyl alcohol. I’m guessing the dye in the blush reacted to the small amount of water in the sponge and caused a similar situation of the dye seeping out. Because of the patchy results, I wouldn’t use this blush with a sponge again anyway. Fingers and brushes are the way to go.
As it stands, I think the one I have is the only shade I’d enjoy out of what’s available on Ulta’s site, but J.Cat has sixteen in total. The consistency is fun, the shade is pretty, and it performs fairly well on my skin, but this might be one of those things that are fantastic for the price as I can think of several cream blush formulas I prefer more.
Covergirl TruBlend So Flushed High Pigment Blush in Sweet Seduction
I like shimmery blushes, but so many that I encounter have too metallic and/or reflective of a finish or the shimmer particle size is large and takes it to the glitter level. I am so pleased to have found a great one at the drugstore, and it’s entirely thanks to Nikki posting about it on her blog. She mentioned that it can be found for as low as $7.99 at retailers like Walmart and Target. I purchased this from Ulta, which is normally $10.99, but between the sale and an additional promo code, I paid $5.30 for it. In my eyes, it’s absolutely worth getting and I’d even be willing to pay somewhere between $15-$18 for it! I have very few blushes in this exact tone, somewhere between a mauve and warm pink that adds life to the cheeks but is still grounded. It looks smooth on the cheeks, especially as it settles into the skin, and gives the right amount of shine.
“High Pigment” in the name could probably sound intimidating for some, but this blush is very blendable and therefore easy to get a subtle look or tone down. It’s also buildable, and I could get it to look even more intensely than my photo demonstrates above, which I used a medium to borderline heavy amount of blush. Nine hours is the longest I’ve worn it for, so far, and it was still going strong with no fading that I could see.
There aren’t any other blush shades in the line that interest me, but this experience makes me want to try the bronzer version and see if the Ebony shade would work for me.*
*Note: Spoiler for my March purchases post… I have tried Ebony and it does work and I do like it a lot!
Essence The Blush in Believing
Ulta bumped up the price to $3.99, but it was $2.99 originally and on sale for $1.79 at the time I bought it. It had been on my wishlist for months because I was curious as to whether or not such an inexpensive blush could actually be good, as well as wanting something I could throw in my cart to meet the free shipping requirement if needed. The only thing holding me back was the uncertainty of whether any of them would be deep enough for me. Thanks to Stef, another blogger who posted swatches of the four blushes available at Ulta, I was able to feel confident that the shade Believing would work for me. This mauve blush takes a little building up, but it does show on me and is actually quite flattering! It also lasts through a full day of wear. This is perhaps the best performing blush I’ve used at this kind of price point besides the ELF Bite Size Face Duos, which the combined weight of both the blush and highlighter (0.16 oz) is nearly the same amount of product as the one from Essence (0.17 oz). I like this, I think it’s good, and I could see myself continuing to use it, but it doesn’t quite cross into the “I love it” category. It’s equal to the quality of Colourpop blushes, which is around the $10 price point. So, for those who like Colourpop blushes and don’t mind having plain packaging, this blush is practically a steal.
Essence Pure Nude Highlighter Palette
Based on Ulta’s photos, I really thought the bottom shades in the Highlighter Palette were deeper than they ended up being. The second version called the Sunlighter Palette looked too deep for me, but I should have searched for photos from other customers and bloggers because I would have discovered it’s so much lighter.
I heard so many people say the Essence Pure Nude single compact highlighter was the perfect dupe to Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders, but I saw those in person and knew they would be too light for me. When I saw the palettes on Ulta’s site, I thought those would be deeper, but we know how that turned out. It’s possible that because the singles are baked, the formula and performance is totally different from these highlighters in the palette, since these aren’t the most refined and have a creamy slip to them that all baked products I’ve used don’t have. So, I guess I still can’t determine how good those singles are, but I can at least confirm that the highlighters in the palette don’t compare to Hourglass at all. They aren’t even the best options from the drugstore. They are too light for me, so they go on my skin bright and intense,yet they dull down so quickly and fade within hours. Even with a dewy product underneath, these highlighters don’t last on my face. They’re also a bit tough to blend and Pan #1 is flat out powdery and almost chalky. The other three weren’t as bad, but they reminded me of a slightly worse version of the Haus Labs highlighters in the Blush and Highlight Duos I’ve reviewed before. I can get the shades in this palette to work and look super pretty on the cheeks initially, but this formula just doesn’t last, which is the main reason I don’t recommend them.
I didn’t bother taking photos of highlighter #1 or #2 because they looked so terrible on me and are clearly not intended for dark skin anyway.
Maybelline Master Chrome in Molten Topaz and Molten Peach
I don’t have a lot of drugstore highlighters, but there seems to be a pattern of longevity issues with them. With this Maybelline formula, I can at least get 6-8 hours before they begin to fade. Molten Topaz is smooth, creamy feeling, and blends well into my skin. If it wasn’t for the fading, I would have mistaken it for a high end formula. Molten Peach is a stunning color, but there are noticeable large silver glitter specks throughout the pan and I am not a fan of glittery highlighters (especially silver), so this is not something I’d wear again. I wish I knew Molten Peach didn’t have the same milling of the powder as Molten Topaz, so I wouldn’t have wasted my money buying it, but it was only $5 from Amazon. I also bought Molten Topaz from Amazon for $6.
Although Molten Topaz is still not in my top favorite formulas, I think it is quite good and that the hype is well deserved. The biggest difference between this and more expensive formulas is the longevity. As for Molten Peach, that shade doesn’t give me what I want from a highlighter, so I don’t think that one is even good for the price at $10 considering I have Colourpop Super Shock highlighters at the same price that I like more and those last all day.
Revlon Skinlights Prismatic Highlighter in Gilded Dawn
Talk about a glittery cheek! In some lighting, it’s alright, but it’s really glittery up close. I despise how this looks with some brushes that pick up more of the shimmer onto the brush than the rest of the powder, but even at its best it’s still too much for me. I don’t think it looks flattering on me purely because of the visible glitter. I did attempt a full wear test and it didn’t last to the eight hour mark. It has that glassy reflect to the skin like most baked gelée products. The base color blends into my skin so well, and it feels smooth to the touch, so this really could have been a hit for me if it had finer shimmer. At the same time, I know a lot of people don’t mind glitter and some people even love it, so I still get why this is hyped up.
The Results With My Best Brush
I thought it might be interesting to compare some of my least expensive highlighters together in the picture below. I like Colourpop the most, then Maybelline, Revlon, and Essence.
L’Oreal Paris Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation in a Powder in Copper
I go through phases of wanting powder foundations, but I’ve had so much trouble finding the right shade that I’ve mostly given up. When this line came out, I was interested to see so many deeper toned options and at drugstore prices, so I thought it might be worth investigating. I watched plenty of videos to try and find my closest shade, but the overall consensus was that the foundations lean too warm for me past Hazelnut. Hazelnut in the liquid foundation was too light for me and I had to mix it with Copper, so this information made me realize I was highly unlikely to get my perfect match in the powder form and that I should skip getting it. However, in one review, someone said that this powder foundation makes for an excellent bronzer and I decided I needed to try it for that reason alone!
So, I cannot say how this product performs as a foundation. I’ve only worn it around the perimeter of my face to add warmth, but no extra depth, to my skin. It lasts all day, although it’s quite subtle because I didn’t go for a darker color. This also makes for a good balancing shade for times my foundation or concealer is too light or too cool and I need to add some warmth back.
Because I don’t use this for its intended purpose, I don’t think I’m able to judge whether it’s worth the hype or not. I can at least say I have use for it in my collection. Ironically, just a few days ago L’Oreal actually released this product as bronzers.
For the sake of science, I’m tempted to see how the two products perform similarly, but the ingredient lists are almost identical excluding two ingredients towards the end of the list. So, I think they could be considered the same product in additional shades.
Nyx Gimme Super Stars! Epic Ink Black Eyeliner (LIMITED EDITION)/Vegan Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Black
I actually bought this by mistake, as I didn’t realize this was part of Nyx’s Holiday 2021 Collection that released two weeks after the Nyx x Netflix Casa de Papel (Money Heist) Collection. I was entranced by what looked like a gorgeous coppery packaging and I ran out of liquid liners, so I clicked whichever version on the website was available that wasn’t in the standard black packaging. It turns out it didn’t matter. The one I received was a pretty gold pen and apparently the Netflix version is still gold too. Only certain promo pics gave it the coppery outer appearance.
I’ve made it known that the Stila Stay All Day liquid liners are my holy grail. This version from NYX is very comparable, but Stila is still better in a few crucial ways. For one thing, I’ve used up a NYX Epic Ink liner pen already, so I know how it performs when it’s starting to run out of product towards the end. It ends up being less pigmented, like the liquid and pigment are separating. This causes feathering sometimes in the lines of my eye. It also means I have to reline a few times to get the full opacity. With this new pen that I have, the watery aspect has already started. I’m not sure if NYX messed with the formula because I heard someone else say the same thing in a video this year. I have to add that I can sometimes get feathering from the Stila pen as well. The second way Stila is better is that the NYX pen doesn’t go over multichromes and some of my thicker shimmer eyeshadows as well as Stila. I have to make multiple passes when using those types of shadows as well, which increases the chance of me making the line too thick for my liking. When this NYX liner is good and working right, it’s just as great at the Stila one and really is waterproof, but it admittedly still has weak points.
The NYX liners are only $10 and could be even less with a coupon, so the few issues I have with them seem to be worth dealing with compared to Stila’s $23 liners. However, Ulta has Stila’s liners in their 21 Days of Beauty and other sales for $11 often enough that I would normally encourage others to skip the one from NYX and wait for a sale on Stila instead. In 2021, Ulta actually kept Stila off the sale page and the usual holiday kits with two products for $22 weren’t included that year, which is how I ended up buying another Epic Ink Liner instead. After getting the Stila liners at half price for the last six years or so, I was adamant about not paying full price for it. And sure enough, it has already been on sale for $11 in 2022. So, I recommend the NYX liner in the event that cheaper waterproof liquid pens aren’t available, but for anyone who can hold out, getting Stila on a sale is more worth the wait.
Well, that’s everything for today! To sum it all up, the Covergirl blush is the only one I can fully endorse, but all the other blushes and the Maybelline highlighter (Topaz specifically) are all great for the price and perhaps worth looking into as well.
I made a similar post to this regarding Colourpop’s eye shadow palettes, and just like that one, since 2020 I have had a growing blush and highlighter collection that remained unused and unreviewed. I can at least say my newer blushes and highlighters get some love in the Super Shock formulas, but not the powder ones, even though I keep buying them. Doing the wear tests for this post is going to help me decide once and for all where Colourpop stands among my powder blush and highlighter collections.
Colourpop Dark Blooms Pressed Powder Blush in Palatial
I wanted at least one thing from the Dark Blooms Collection, but the palettes weren’t my kind of color story and Palatial looked like the only one of the blushes that would show up on me. I’m also a sucker for a pretty imprint, so I got it in Dec 2020. Ignoring the highlighter on the top of my cheeks, this is a matte blush. It’s fairly pigmented, but I have to build it up for it to show. Because it’s a terracotta shade, it looks natural enough on me because of the brown, but it still slightly pops from the orange-red. I like it in that barely there kind of way. It’s discontinued, but I’m sure they’ll release something again that’s similar to it.
Colourpop Big Poppy Pressed Powder Blush in Outta Sight
I did try this blush once at some point when I was darker and it didn’t show up on me at all. After trying it again now, I can faintly see the coral-orange base color, but the shimmer particles are too large in this one. I really don’t like how it looks when I turn my face and it hits the lights. There isn’t enough color payoff for the amount of shimmer, so I plan on decluttering this in some way. On top of that, it’s another blush that Colourpop discontinued.
Colourpop x Hello Kitty and Friends Pressed Powder Cheek in Bundled Up
Of the two blushes in the collection, this was the only one with a chance of showing up on me. It’s faint, but once again, I don’t like the shimmer level (even prior to adding highlighter). It’s as if Colourpop only knows how to create blushes with a sheen if it’s in the Super Shock formula. The powder blushes are either all matte or matte with sparkles (like those sequin matte with shimmer/glitter eyeshadows). Colourpop never makes the kind of shimmer blushes I like. In any case, I mostly bought this for Hello Kitty collector purposes, so it will remain in my collection for now.
Colourpop x Hello Kitty Pressed Powder Blush in Aloha Honey
We finally have a product that’s still available for purchase (at least at the time I’m writing this), though I saw it in the sale section, so it’s probably on its way out! Aloha Honey is a pigmented vibrant coral that reminds me of an even brighter and slightly lighter in tone version of Pat Mcgrath’s Electric Bloom blush. Between the two, I prefer the shade of Aloha Honey better, but the Electric Bloom formula more. PML’s non-shimmer blushes are still demi-matte and that slight sheen that it gives makes it look nicer on my dry skin. However, for the $26 full price cost difference, if I had Aloha Honey in my hands first, I would have skipped buying Electric Bloom and just been satisfied with the Colourpop blush.
Colourpop Pressed Powder Blush in Luv Me Not and 4Ever Yours
Luv Me Not was part of the 2021 Valentine’s Day collection, but I didn’t get my hands on it until one of the restocks last October. Colourpop’s heart shaped blush was another product I wanted mostly for the packaging, as well as the hype since some people were saying it was Colourpop’s highest quality blush formula to date. For the 2022 Valentine’s Day collection, they released six shades with Kiss n’ Tell as the only returning shade out of the original three. This is when I purchased the shade 4Ever Yours, which looked like a deep coral orange in Colourpop’s photos but it is in actuality way more toned down and pink. If I build up 4Ever Yours, it looks incredibly similar to Luv Me Not. Between the two, I prefer 4Ever Yours just because it’s not as deep of a shade, so I don’t have to worry as much about overapplying. Then again, it is very pigmented, so those lighter than me would still have to be careful using 4Ever Yours as well.
Colourpop Wild Orchid Collection Pressed Powder Blush in Potted
I usually say I’m not into berry blushes, but there’s something about this shade that is so special. Perhaps, it’s because it’s the exact tone of my favorite color (reddish purple). It also helps that with a sheerer application, this doesn’t look too dark on me and I find darker blushes to be aging. Part of what makes picking a berry blush tricky is that I can never tell if it will flatter me or not based on the pan color. I have to actually try them out to know for sure if it’s the kind that could work for me or not, and I’ve had so much bad luck in the past, which is why I rarely take the chance anymore.
An example of the kind I like is quite the throwback, but it was formerly my holy grail blush back in 2014 or 2015 until probably 2018. The Make Up For Ever HD cream blush in Raspberry 510. I never even considered this a berry blush because it was more like a red with a splash of purple. I have this strange view in my mind of only considering plummy cooler toned type of shades to be berries when that’s not the case in nature.
Shade aside, Potted is yet another matte pigmented blush that’s now discontinued from Colourpop, so I’m glad I snagged it while I could.
SOL Body Shimmering Body Powder in Wild Orchid
This highlighter has the typical Sol Body coconut/suntan oil smell. I’m not into duochrome highlighters, but I saw Amanda’s (Makeup.Just.For.Fun) YouTube video and it looked so beautiful with the other blush in the Orchid collection that I decided to take my chance on it. This highlighter is unsurprisingly glittery, which is another thing I tend to despise about highlighters, but this is the one exception. The way it looks with Potted is so pretty to me.
When I use this product, I prefer to either apply with my fingers and blend it out with a brush or to use it with a dense brush from the start. The dense brush will pick up more of the shimmer, but at least the base goes along with it. When I’ve tried applying this highlighter with my usual favorite highlighter brushes, they only picked up the shimmer/glitter particles and it looked terrible on my cheeks. I may use this highlighter in the future but solely with blush shades like Potted and most likely for an occasion or event.
Also, I know this is a body highlighter, but I don’t use products like that. I would only use this on my face.
Colourpop Super Shock Highlighter in Lantern Fest
I snuck this one into my powder post. Please forgive me. When I bought it, I thought it was a powder highlighter. I didn’t realize it was the Super Shock formula. I had some blinders on when I bought this because I wanted it for the packaging. It was a Lunar New Year item for the year of the Ox. I have mixed feelings about this on me, but tilted toward the side of not liking it. The specks of shimmer seems to be bigger and more visible in this formula than the other Super Shock highlighters I own. The color is light for me but sometimes I like it and other times I don’t. I’m not sure if that has something to do with the mixture of the red, yellow, and pale pink and preferring when I have more or less of a certain color. This is returning to the back of my collection and is of course discontinued.
Colourpop Cheek Palette in Tea Cakes
This is the third and last item from Colourpop that is still available for purchase. It’s one of several different cheek palettes they’ve created. The highlighter is in the Super Shock formula, but the three blushes are powder products. Most Necessary is darker and more shimmery than I like to go for in a highlighter, so I don’t intend to use it again unless I’m in a time crunch and I’m already using this palette.
Pralines is like the better version of Outta Sight. Because it’s so reflective, I think it’s best on me as a highlighter. It gives a hint of color, so I could wear it on its own, but I prefer to use it as a blush topper, which is gorgeous with other warm toned blushes. This is the only shimmery powder blush from Colourpop I’ve tried that I like, but again, as just a topper.
I’ve tried Snickerdoodle and Tea Cakes once before and I didn’t like them. I’m guessing it was when I was darker because trying them again, I find them to be much prettier now. I just wish they weren’t so matte. These two shades remind me of Sigma blushes, but just slightly better. Snickerdoodle goes on the cheeks bright initially, but is toned down when blended into the skin. Yummy Bite has just enough red in it to show as a true blush shade on me, rather than a bronzer or something, which was my initial reservation about having a brown blush in this quad. Again, in my eyes this would be even better if the blushes were semi or demi mattes rather than full on mattes. I still like them though and if I could finally get to a place where I use blush palettes rather than always reaching for my single blushes, I believe I would use this again. This is one of those purchases though that I think is worth getting for the price and not necessarily for how amazing it is. It’s pretty good, but not exceptional.
That’s all for today! After testing these out thoroughly as part of my Shop My Stash for March, I’ve decided that the Colourpop powder blushes and highlighters don’t rank in my top 50% favorite formulas. I really should not get them anymore except in the less common shades, like Potted and Aloha Honey, which are my favorites out of the bunch. Getting those were worth it because they are priced affordably. It’s the everyday wearable kind of shades for me that are worth getting at the top tier level. Most Necessary and Lantern Fest also showed me that even getting the Super Shock highlighter formula doesn’t guarantee the small particle shimmer size I prefer, so I should stop getting highlighters from Colourpop altogether.
Even though the majority of these products are discontinued, I hope this has been helpful.
Lip balms were excluded in my 2021 lip product declutter post, so today is the day I’m finally sharing what is in my collection. The photo above represents all the individual ones I have*, but not the duplicate backup products I also have. I’m very basic when it comes to the lips, and although I buy quite a few lip products, balms and glosses make up 70% of what I use. In fact, the percent of time I’m bare lipped (approx. 20% of the time) is higher than the amount of times I will actually pull out a lipstick or lip liner.
*Note: Those who keep up with my blog, especially declutter or full collection posts, won’t be surprised to know I found additional balms after the review. I will briefly discuss those at the end of the post, since they will be decluttered anyway.
I have very dry, sensitive, easily chapped lips. The Sarah Happ lip products do the most to treat those issues, so I’ll be reviewing those first.
Sarah HappLipSystem
The Sara Happ Process starts with the Lip Scrub, but I often skip this step and use the lip mask overnight, wash it off, and apply a balm afterwards. In my opinion, there isn’t anything particularly special about this lip scrub besides having larger sugar granules. The finely granulated ones that most people prefer don’t have the exfoliating power to do anything much for my lips. However, I’m sure there are still companies who make larger sizes. If there aren’t, at the very least I’d be more inclined to make my own DIY lip scrub over paying for expensive ones anymore. The flavor of the Sarah Happ lip scrub I still have is Red Velvet, which seems to have been discontinued. There are currently Grapefruit, Peach, Vanilla Bean, and Brown Sugar flavors as part of their permanent line.
The Sweet Clay Lip Mask is the restoring/repairing element. It’s the single most important lip treatment in my collection. It does have a clay-like texture, a little like a paste, so it doesn’t spread easily on the lips. It comes with a tiny plastic spatula to scoop out the product. A little goes a long way, so I’m careful to only grab a little. After scooping, I spread it on my lips with my finger, though the extra product will stick to the fingers and is not easy to wipe clean without smearing some more. It looks like I went to town on a jar of frosting, so I only put it on right before bed. If you sleep next to a partner, you’ll have to skip kissing for the night!
I should mention that the official instructions say to leave this on the lips for up to ten minutes before wiping with a tissue. I prefer to use either a cloth or Viva paper towel (because it’s super strong) to remove it, but I also clearly prefer leaving it overnight. I don’t get the same results if I just keep it on for ten or even twenty minutes. The reason I can skip using a lip scrub with my method is because the mask hydrates and softens the lips, but also gets stuck to every crevice of the dead skin. By the time I’m ready to remove it, the wiping pulls away every bit of dead skin without ripping or bleeding because it has already been softened by the ingredients in the mask formula.
So, by using this mask, I can not only skip exfoliating, but I also inject so much moisture to my lips that I can go 3-4 days with nothing else on my lips before it starts to dry out again. This is a tremendous improvement to my usual needs of having to wear a balm every 1-2 days to avoid chapping. Once I forget or I wear a drying lipstick or some other drying lip color product, it’s extremely difficult to get my lips back to a healthy place. In those moments, only the Nuxe Balm, Lip Slip, and Sweet Clay can fix it. Of the three, using the Clay Mask and then following it with one of the other two balms is the ultimate fixer.
It is crucial that at least for a few hours after removing the Clay Mask, one should follow up with a lip balm. Even if it’s not a Sara Happ balm, as nourishing as the clay mask is, the lips need an occlusive to lock in the moisture that the clay mask just put in. And since it does contain clay, there’s still a small aspect of it that is going to be drying. This can be avoided by just following up the clay mask with a balm.
Sara Happ also recommends using the clay mask 3 times a week, but I’m negligent with my lips so I use it once a month or as needed to fix bad lip days. The amount I use, in the photo below, is significantly less than what is shown in website photos, but I feel I don’t need so much at once.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m allergic/sensitive to lanolin. Wearing a product that contains it will cause my lips to completely chap up and split within fifteen minutes to an hour, which takes a week to heal. During those moments, Vaseline was my best friend as it was the only thing I had that was thick enough to stay in place for most of the day. My lips respond very well to petroleum and therefore mineral oil. I mention this because I haven’t had an allergic lip reaction in many years. I know the Nuxe Balm was a fine replacement, but I haven’t had an opportunity to try my Sara Happ Products in response to an allergic reaction, so I don’t know for sure how well they would work. I imagine it would be fine because The Lip SlipOne LuxeBalm does have mineral oil high up. I think that’s why it works so amazingly for me to moisturize and hydrate my lips, in conjunction with other ingredients my lips like such as sweet almond oil, macadamia seed oil, beeswax, etc. One of the complaints I’ve seen online (I believe especially in the “clean” movement) is the fact that this balm is so expensive when it’s “mostly mineral oil,” but no other company makes this combination of ingredients. It just works! It’s also more pleasant on my lips than wearing straight petroleum or straight mineral oil, so I’m perfectly fine with paying a lot to get these results in a more enjoyable experience.
Mineral Oil alternatives like Hydrogenated Polyisobutene tend to be hit or miss as to how effectively they work for me depending on the other ingredients within the formulations.
Sara Happ does have a second lip balm option, or technically “overnight lip mask,” called TheDream Slip. I like that the Dream Slip doesn’t have shimmer particles that the Lip Slip has, but the Dream Slip isn’t as hydrating for me. There’s a higher ratio of jojoba oil and beeswax in the Dream Slip over the mineral oil in the Lip Slip. I also prefer the consistency of the Lip Slip over the Dream Slip. The Dream Slip is $6 more expensive, so I personally recommend just sticking with the Lip Slip unless jojoba oil is a star ingredient for you. Also, there is a Dream Slip No. 2 in a squeeze tube, but I’ve never tried it.
Step 1 shows my lip state beforehand. Step 2 shows my lips with the Red Velvet Scrub on. Step 3 shows the state of my lips post scrub with some chapped bits still there, particularly on the upper lip. Step 4 shows my lips with the sweet clay mask on. Step 5 shows the condition of my lips after leaving the mask on overnight and washing it off. Step 6 shows my lips with the Dream Slip on the lips.
So, that’s how I use my Sara Happ products! The most essential items for me are the Sweet Clay Mask and The Lip Slip, but technically the Lip Slip could be skipped for those who already have a favorite holy grail lip balm. I buy my Sara Happ products from Ulta, but they don’t have the newest addition to the line: The Lip Elixir lip treatment oil. As intriguing as it appears, I don’t feel it’s a necessary product for me so I won’t be buying it.
Other Lip Products
Nuxe Reve de Miel Ultra Nourishing Lip Balm – It brings me so much sadness to say the formula for this has changed. It was my holy grail lip balm for years, then disappeared off the US website for years, and I ordered so many backups since it returned. Out of the three jars I’ve opened so far, they’ve gone bad after only 4-6 months. There is a six month period after opening symbol on the jar, but the lip balms lasted me well over a year in the past. Nuxe didn’t mention anything about formula changes, but SkinStore listed the change. They increased the Shea butter, decreased the dimethicone and grapefruit peel oil, and removed Candelilla wax. I found an ingredient list online from 2018 which predates the backups I currently have. According to the list, Nuxe removed BHT, which is a preservative. When I searched the new ingredient list, I didn’t see anything on it that is supposed to be a preservative.
This could explain why my current backups aren’t lasting very long if Nuxe removed one of or possibly the only preservative. For me, the formula change makes this a tiny bit less effective than it used to be, but my biggest issue is the length of time these last once opened. Even if I could overlook all that, the texture of this new reformulated balm shown on the website looks so ridiculously grainy. Thankfully my backups don’t look like that, but I can no longer recommend this balm. I will continue to use up what I have and love them while they’re still good, but it’s such a shame because the way this locked in moisture on my lips was unrivaled.
Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask (Minis) – I use these as on-the-go balms, rather than overnight lip treatments. They do a decent job at repairing the look of my lips, but it was always a temporary fix. They feel nice and moisturizing, but not hydrating. They don’t actually condition my lips long term. I keep them in my different purses in case I’m in a pinch, having forgotten to apply balm before leaving the house.
I’ve gotten three minis so far just from gift with purchases or birthday reward gifts from retailers, so I’ve never had to pay for one and I get a new one pretty much each year. I love the smell of them and it makes me tempted to buy one of their new scents/flavors when they release them, but they don’t perform well enough for me to go through with the purchase.
The Nuxe Balm (at least the jars I have in my possession) and Sara Happ Lip Slip are leaps and bounds better than this product, but it’s still the one I compare most with other formulas since the best of other brands tend to be almost as good as this, but not quite enough.
Kaleidos Apple Glaze Softening Lip Mask – I’ve already reviewed this product here, but the short version is that this creates a cooling sensation due to the mint/menthol content, leaves a slight red tint on the skin from the red dyes, and the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask is nearly comparable to this one. Perhaps it’s the menthol that keeps it from being as hydrating as the one from Laneige. The one from Kaleidos is $8 for 7.5 grams and Laneige is $22 for 20 grams, so technically they are comparable at around 90ish cents per gram.
Something I didn’t mention in my review before that I find humorous is that Kaleidos has a note on the website clarifying that this is cranberry flavored, yet they put apple in the name. It’s quite the choice to call something apple, but give it the flavor of a different fruit entirely!
Nars Afterglow Laguna Lip Balm (Mini) – This product was one of two balms from the Sephora Favorites “Give Me Some Shine” Lip Set that I bought at the end of 2021 and didn’t start testing until February this year. It adds a warm colored orange-brown tint to the lips and the sparkles in it are so fine that I can’t see the particles on my lips, but they add a pretty shine.
I had low expectations, so I was impressed that this keeps my lips moisturized for 4-6 hours if I don’t eat and if I apply a very thick layer. However, with a thick layer, I have gotten that inner white ring that sometimes happens with balms. Like the Laneige, this is something I just wear on short notice or for the pretty effect it has from the tint and shimmer on the lips. It’s a little more hydrating than the Laneige but slightly less moisturizing. If I want something to actually repair and condition my lips, rather than a temporary fix, I reach for the Sara Happ instead. As much as I like this, I’m not certain if I’d spend $28 on the full size.
Huda Silk Balm Hydrating and Nourishing Lip Balm in Blush – This is the other balm from the set I mentioned in the Nars section above, and another product I had low expectations about, despite the hype it gets. I was very pleasantly surprised that this keeps my lips hydrated for a minimum of six hours and it can last longer without needing to be reapplied depending on the kind of food or drinks I have that day. It easily lasts on my lips when I wear it overnight. This contains Sodium Hyaluronate, which is supposed to aid in drawing in that hydration, but they go as far as to advertise this as being able to give fuller-looking lips. The shine alone could do that, so I don’t put too much stock in that statement.
This is supposed to be a universal blush pink shade, but it’s not opaque enough to give my lips any sort of tint to them. I really like how this feels, and this actually does surpass the Laneige in being able to both hydrate and keep in moisture. I have to build this one up, but that’s because such little product comes out of the tube in one go, so I have to dip back in several times to adequately coat my lips in this gloss style balm. I will continue to use this, and this product is the reason I haven’t felt the need to repurchase the Tower 28 Gloss I used up. At least not yet.
Colourpop x Mulan Lip Mask – This was part of the Fourth Ray Face Milk and Lip Mask Bundle. I really enjoyed it when I reviewed it before, but I stuck it in my skincare train case (mini case for skincare I’m trying to use up), but that case was abandoned and I forgot all about it. It’s about two years old and when I finally opened it up, I could see a clear blob where color had separated out of the lip mask. Most of the liquid was still yellow, but some sections were white as if in the process of separating too. I intend to clean out the inside and keep the container for DIY use.
Colourpop x Hello Kitty Snowkissed Lip Care Set – This set is part of the Fourth Ray Beauty sub brand of Colourpop and consists of the Peppermint Cookie Lippie Scrub and Lip Mask. This set is a little newer at just over a year. The texture of the lip mask is similar to the Mulan one. Both products used to have a delicious smell, but it has almost entirely faded by now. Because it took so long for me to try the lip scrub, I can’t say whether my experience with it was normal or not, but it was essentially like putting glue on my lips with bits of sand on it. It took 3 attempts to get all the stickiness off my face, two of which were using an oil based cleanser. I definitely would not use the scrub again. While the mask was enjoyable, I may as well stick to my top favorites and not purchase anymore lip masks from Colourpop. I am planning to save these containers for DIY purposes as well.
The Creme Shop x Hello Kitty Macaron Lip Balm in Mixed Berry and Rainbow Sherbert – I bought one of each and was gifted one as well. I purchased this purely for the packaging. They smell nice, but they do nothing for my lips.
Sun Bum Sunscreen Lip Balm SPF 30 in Watermelon – I bought this as a cheaper alternative to the Supergoop lip sunscreen balm at $3.99 vs $9.50. I typically don’t need spf for my lips except during the hottest of days in the Florida summer. And spring too, I guess. It has very little staying power on my lips and barely moisturizes. I keep the tube in my purse so I can wear it on outings, but it’s not something I’d reach for to improve the state of my lips. The smell is fantastic though.
The Forgotten Balms
I found this in a drawer. The Oribe lip treatment is quite old and I just kept it for the packaging. It didn’t do anything really for my lips the few times I used it. The Juvia’s Place Nubian Glow balms should be good still, but I wasn’t a fan of the smell of Guava. I considered keeping Mango, but since I know I’m not going to reach for it over my other lip products, I’m going to proactively declutter it too.
The Homemade Balms
During those years that I was without the Nuxe balm, I attempted to recreate the formula and also create some tinted balms as well by mixing in some of my lipsticks. The tinted balms ended up being too waxy for my liking, but I kept the two best ones and only used them once. Although I had some empty jars from Michael’s craft store and empty lipstick tubes from TKB trading, I wanted to be more environmentally friendly by reusing the packaging that I liked from other brands (like the Tony Moly lip balm and discontinued lippie from Benefit Cosmetics).
Out of 10 jars, I ended up with only one balm that came close to Nuxe and only one other balm (pictured above) that felt nice enough on my lips to keep using. The one most similar to Nuxe lasted about a year before it turned. The one pictured above has to be at least four years old and I’m shocked that it still looks fine (although I wouldn’t use it now and it has since been tossed out).
I lost all my notes on the different measurements I attempted to use in my DIY experiments, so if I wanted to create my own, I’d have to essentially start from scratch again. The key ingredients I used though were:
Beeswax Pellets Shea Butter Sweet Almond Oil Honey Sunflower Seed Oil (was lower in the ingredients but I put it higher to replace the olive oil) Dimethicone (350 because I had it on hand already, but ideally I would use 100 or 1.5 Fractionated Coconut Oil (Caprylic/Capric triglyceride) Cap-2 for oil based products (Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Hexylene Glycol) Golden Vitamin E (Tocopherols, Natural T-50 Vitamin E) Allantoin
Some of these ingredients needed to be melted, like the beeswax. Some needed to be added after it had time to cool down a bit, like dimethicone, but couldn’t be added too late or it would solidify before I could get to it and essentially ruin the texture I was trying to achieve. I used different sizes of beaker jars (10 ml to 100 ml sizes), pipettes, measuring spoons, and my Z-palette brand of Z Potter as the heating apparatus. The last five ingredients on the list I already had because I used them in my DIY eyeshadow formulas. Honey is always around for cooking purposes and I sometimes used Shea Butter for skincare, so it was just about buying the beeswax and oils. If I wanted to start making my own lip balms again, though, I would need to repurchase everything. At this point in time with me trying to use up the current lip products in my collection, I don’t know when I would attempt to make my own again. However, I’m still keeping my favorite containers from other brands just in case.
Some of the other balms I’ve used in the past were Burt’s Bees (in Mango), ChapStick, EOS, Fresh (Sugar Hydrating Lip Balm in Caramel), First Aid Beauty, etc. None of the ones from the past would make the top five on my favorites list.
That’s everything for today! Thank you for reading!
Lili's Beauty Blog 