Tag Archives: chantecaille perfect blur powder

Powder Collection Update and Declutter

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I haven’t done one of these face powder declutters since 2021. Some of the powders I said I would declutter, I ended up keeping around. Most, however, are fairly new.

Exiting the Collection: Laura Mercier (mini), Makeup by Mario, Nars, GloWish, and Sephora

Since my last review, Laura Mercier has released a few new shades of their original Translucent Loose Setting Powder and other versions of setting and finishing powders such as the Light Catcher ones and Ultra Blur. I bought Light Catcher in Honey Star, but it was so shimmery that I decided I should keep it around to use purely as a loose highlighter. I said I was going to try and press it into an empty tin pan, but never got around to it, never reviewed it, and decided to just declutter it. Ultra Blur, unless I’m told otherwise, sounds like it’s just a talc-free version of the original. So, I didn’t bother purchasing that. I stopped using the original, and even samples, because I just couldn’t get a good enough shade from the brand. Medium Deep was too dark, the original shade left a cast, and Honey only worked for my under eyes. I found other powders that looked more flattering on me, so I decided to finally even let go of the samples too. It was certainly worth the hype back in the day, but I don’t think it’s as special on the market now. It still has a strong cult following though, so not everyone will agree with me on that.

I really liked the Makeup by Mario Master Eye Prep & Set, but the powder became so hard to get product onto my brush and the primers got stiff and dry. I can’t see any hard-pan, so I’m not sure why it became difficult to use. It’s like, once the initial surface print rubbed off, the smoother texture underneath was too compacted and hard-pressed. It didn’t matter what bristle type the brush had. Everything required that I rub super vigorously to get anything out. So, I eventually gave up using it. It’s such a shame that this happened because I actually intended to make this a project-pan item and was using it enough that I purchased a cute sticker for the top of the packaging to try and make it even more special. I considered buying a new one, but one of the benefits of powders is they can usually last longer than the expected period after opening. With the amount of powders I still have, and are still good, I just couldn’t justify getting a new one. Plus, my goal for setting powders specifically is to keep the ones that set my face and eyes, but the powder in the compact is too dry for my face.

The Nars Light Reflecting Pressed Powder was something I intended to declutter a while ago because I kept reaching for other powders instead that were more flattering than my Sunstone shade. I basically kept it around for nostalgia and the fact that it was one of my most used powders in my collection and I kept hoping I’d be able to make a significant dip into the surface, but that hard-pan look to it eventually got too off-putting.
The reason I liked it in the first place was because it left a slight sheen to the skin and was slightly blurring, but other products do a better job of keeping my makeup in place while imparting an even nicer finish with more blurring properties. So, even without the hard-pan issue, it truly was time to move on from it.

The Huda Beauty GloWish Luminous Pressed Powder was more of a highlighter in my book because of the frosty cast it left on the skin. Just like the Laura Mercier Light Catcher powder, I kept it around for the intent to use it on the high points of my face, but it just wasn’t worth keeping any longer. It wasn’t flattering enough on my skin and it didn’t make sense using something mediocre as a highlighter when I have so many I actually love. So, it’s out of my collection because I’ve finally given up on trying to find a use for it.

The Sephora Multi-Tasking Microsmooth Baked Powder is one I forgot to include in the first photo because I kept it in my “need to review” pile, and just never got around to it before I had to pack things up for the move. The shade I bought was a little light, it was a little drier than my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, and even though I tend to like Sephora’s baked products, I had limited space on what I could bring. I would rather stick with the products I am familiar with and trust to work instead of taking a gamble on something new. Since the shade was a little off and I hadn’t used it enough to form an attachment, it was easy to decide to just declutter it. My aim is to condense my powder collection so I don’t get so hung up on which powder to use out of all the options every time I’m doing my makeup. Some of my concealers work better with specific powders, yet I’m constantly forgetting which ones it is because I don’t have it written down and there are too many to remember. So, that’s why I didn’t give this one a chance.

Surviving the Next Round: One Size, Nars, and ColourPop

In one of my posts from last year, I showed the process of me combining two different sample shades of the One/Size Ultimate Blurring Setting powders into an old (but cleaned out) Besame powder container. I consider it part of my unofficial project pan, but there are so many other powders that take priority over this one that I’m not sure when I’ll get back to using it. Two sample sizes worth shouldn’t be too hard to use up in theory, but I use so little powder on my face that it might actually take a while. It survived this round of declutters, but I’m hoping to have used it before I do the next one once it’s actually back in my possession again.

The one Nars powder that’s still in my collection is another unreviewed product, the Soft Matte Advanced Perfecting Powder. Deciding on a shade was quite tough because Seafront looked too dark based on website photos, but Offshore was listed as being for cool undertones, and High Tide for warm undertones. So, I opted for High Tide, but it looks neutral-pink on my skin. I try to balance it out by pairing it with some of my extra warm (borderline orange) concealers, but it still looks a bit off sometimes. I’ve had a few concealers (unfortunately I can’t confirm which ones yet) that increased in the time without creasing and fading under my eyes when I used them with this powder. So, I definitely want to explore that further, especially with it being so recent to my collection. This is why it survives the declutter, but ultimately the undertone of the powder will make me want to declutter it at some point.

I remember liking the Colourpop Pretty Fresh Pressed Powder, but since there were other powders I was obsessed with, I thought it would be easy to let this one go. I decided to use it again for old time’s sake, but that only served to remind me why I liked it in the first place. My skin looks smoother when I apply it on top, and all without looking too dry. I found myself being unable to get rid of it! However, I still didn’t have room to bring it with me, so it’s currently in my drawer in the US. I’m hoping it’ll still be good by the time I return there for a visit so I can bring it back with me. It would make me happy to be able to get more use out of it, so I won’t feel like I wasted it. If it’s not in good condition by then, I don’t intend to repurchase it just because I’m still trying to downsize my collection and admittedly others are still better for both setting my under eyes and using all over my face.

Powder Likes: Chantecaille, MAC, Laura Mercier, Hourglass Setting and Finishing Powders, and Charlotte Tilbury

I’ve discussed the Chantecaille Perfect Blur Powder several times on this blog, including the fact that I sold the original one to pay for the slightly darker version. However, my Medium-Deep powder looks practically untouched because I always reach for my Dior powder instead. The Dior one does everything the Chantecaille one does, but better. Because the Powder-No-Powder is being discontinued or reformulated, I brought this along to be my replacement. Even if I never end up fully using this powder, considering all the trouble I went through to get it, I don’t intend to declutter it until or unless the powder goes bad.

As I mentioned in the Sephora discussion, I kept this MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural because it’s better. It’s a hair off in color (depending on the time of year), but I like that I can both set my face and get a decent boost to my concealers’ longevity. It’s a bit powdery, so the kickup gets messy at times, but I like that it has a good balance of eliminating shine without looking flat matte. It was so tough to leave this behind, but it’s definitely coming with me in the second wave of products I plan to return with to Germany.

The Laura Mercier Candleglow Powders and Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders are in the same boat of beautiful finishing baked powders that I don’t have in the perfect shades. I consider the Laura Mercier one close enough by mixing shades 5 and 6 together, but I didn’t have the space to bring two bulky compacts that fulfilled one singular purpose. So, as much as it bugged me because I did want to get more use out of them, I left them behind. I recommend anyone looking for a beautiful smoothing finishing powder to consider looking into the Candleglow ones, provided that the Dior Powder-No-Powder doesn’t work out.
As for the Hourglass ones, I was already bringing two Ambient Lighting Edit palettes, so I didn’t have room for anything else. I had to leave the Volume III trio, pictured above, behind. The lighter finishing powder in there contains random specks of shimmer which makes me not want to use it, even though it looks gorgeous on the skin if not for that. The Radiant Light shade that I have within the edit palette works to set my face, but doesn’t give me as pretty of a finish because it’s on the lighter side. The whole allure of the Hourglass powders is specifically the finish, so if I’m unable to get that from this particular shade, I don’t really expect to use it up. If they make a deeper color one day without visible shimmer, I’d consider buying it. For now though, I’m just hoping I’ll have space to bring the Laura Mercier ones instead in the future sometime while they’re still good.

The Hourglass Veil Translucent Loose Setting Powder is still fairly new to my collection. I brought it with me because I like it, but I mainly like it for setting purposes on my face and not as often for under my eyes because the darkest shade is a touch dark while I’m at my lightest. It also depends on which shade of foundation I use, but that still means it’s often a bit too dark for my under eyes unless I’m using a brightening concealer. I intend to continue trying it out though, but perhaps during a time of the year when I’m a little darker.

My relationship with my Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Matte Powders is a weird one. For starters, I used the heck out of the tiny deluxe sample for a year and a half, but still never hit pan. Part of the issue was the fact that it was so small that I could only fit an under eye setting brush in it, so it was impossible go through the product for just that purpose. I got overly excited when I finally made a noticeable dip in the surface, so I thought that was a sign it was alright to get the travel size mini. However, I bought the shade Deep which ended up being too dark for my face and certainly much too dark for my under eye area (the main purpose for getting this powder). I considered buying the Tan version as a travel size, but I refused to do it until I finished the sample. I eventually grew tired of trying to use it up, kept misplacing the tiny compact, and felt it was more worth my time to test and use other powders instead. I’d basically given up on the powder until the brand released a limited edition compact for Lunar New Year and I was able to get it on sale. That’s how I ended up with the full-size in the correct shade.
The mini is so old though that I’m just keeping it around for travel. I’m going to find a new home for the actual travel size powder since it’s the wrong shade for me. Currently, the full-size is getting quite a bit of use because I discovered the KVD Good Apple Concealer gives me the best results with this powder, which I planned to wear for the wedding, so I continued to use it while practicing makeup looks.

I have heard some people say this powder darkens over dewy products. I never noticed that before because I used to give the KVD concealer a little time to set before applying powder on top to lock it in place, but upon further testing, I realized it does actually do that when setting the concealer with powder immediately. Perhaps this is why the shade Tan works for me (and Deep doesn’t) despite how light it looks in the pan. Tan becomes my skin tone shade. I prefer not to have an overly brightened under eye area and just match my skin tone, but the wedding is an exception. So, I ended up buying a travel size of the medium color as well for extra brightening.

Powders Used Regularly: Givenchy, Huda Beauty, Kaleidos, and Dior

It wasn’t all that long ago that I reviewed the Givenchy Prisme Libre Loose Powder, so it’s staying in my collection purely for newness. I still haven’t tried it with all my foundations nor all my concealers, and I won’t be satisfied until I’ve basically used up the one shade out of four that I really like.

I planned to eventually declutter the Huda Beauty sample of the Easy Bake Loose Baking & Setting Powder, but that’s because it was in the shade Banana Bread, which isn’t intended for my skin tone. When I came to Germany, I purchased a travel size of Kunafa and have been experimenting with that shade. I like it, but it has the same issue of looking better with some concealers and not all of them. Kunafa is also so yellow that it can alter the look of my concealers the way the Nars Soft Matte Powder does (but in pink), so I have mixed feelings about that. I have a yellow-golden undertone, but something being so strong of a yellow can still look off. I wonder if Cinnamon Bun might be better. It’s possible it could be too dark, but there’s no way for me to know unless I see it in person. Ultimately, for wedding makeup testing purposes, I ended up buying the shade Blondie as a mini with the intent to mix it with Kunafa or use solo for brightening.

Another powder that can sometimes alter my concealer color, but only if I overapply it, is the Kaleidos Symphony Face Illuminator that I have in the Symphony Face Trio. The compact is very heavy. I like the powder enough that I would have considered buying a single, but it wasn’t necessary since I like the other powders in the trio too. It was worth just bringing the whole thing.
Based on the name, I assumed this would be a highlighter, but this has no shimmer. The finish on the skin looks natural, including under my eyes.
Even though I have used this quite a bit, I still don’t know it like the back of my hand, so I’m using this time to get to know this product a lot better.

Lastly is the powder I’ve been a broken record about: The Dior Backstage Face & Body Powder-No-Powder. Shade 5 is the first powder I’ve ever hit pan on! I’ve obviously used this the most out of everything in my collection. This powder is the reason I don’t get as much use out of the others. It erases my mistakes because of the blurring properties and leaves a beautiful sheen on the skin. In fact, it’s the most blurring of any powder I’ve ever tried.
I’ve still gotten a fair amount of use out of Shade 4, but I’m rarely light enough to wear it on its own. Sometimes I mix 4 and 5 together, but I typically use Shade 5 around the darker areas of my face and Shade 4 around the parts that I want to soften if I overapplied something or if whatever shade I used of blush or bronzer is too intense or vibrant. Rather than taking both shades, I decided to leave Shade 4 behind and if I really need to, I can use the Chantecaille powder in its place. They’re close to the same color.

It’s still unknown, since no website has had all 9 shades listed as being stocked in over a year, whether the range is being discontinued or just prepped to return in a reformulated version. Since I hit pan on Shade 5, I naturally started to worry about being without this powder that I’ve been obsessed with for quite a while now. I knew the Chantecaille product could be a replacement, but I would never repurchase that one at full price. My hope was that an identical product would hit the market or Dior would bring it back, but there’s no way to know if the reformulated version would perform the same way. I couldn’t find Shade 5 anywhere to buy a backup, until I checked Dior’s non-US site (delivery within the EU ships from France). I was not about to overthink this…it’s my ultimate powder for my face. So, I went ahead and purchased a backup, plus it was complimentary to get the compact engraved! The hardest part was deciding whether to use my name or nickname instead!

I still want to narrow down my collection further, but for now, this is the best I could do.

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

-Lili ❤

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

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

Makeup by Mario Soft Sculpt Perfector in Dark

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

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

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

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

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

Photos taken one year apart.

Rose Inc Cream Bronzer in Seychelles (Returned) and Capri

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

Rose Inc Skin Enhance Luminous Skin Tint Serum Foundation in 110

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chantecaille Perfect Blur Finishing Powder in Medium/Dark

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

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

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

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

Chanel Blush Lumière in Brun Roussi

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

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

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

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

LH Cosmetics Spectral Palette

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

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

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

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

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

Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta

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

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

Colourpop Pressed Powder Blush in Toffee Cake

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

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

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

Pixi x Hello Kitty Glow Tonic

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

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

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

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

-Lili ❤

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