Review: Essence XXXL Lipgloss

I’ve been getting back onto the lipgloss bandwagon lately and I’m all for finding great drugstore lip products. I don’t own or buy a lot of high-end lip products because I would rather spend that money on my base products. I love the drugstore lip products and most of the ones I’ve tried as just as good, if not better than high-end stuff. Essence is a fantastic low-cost brand that I have loved for ages. I have nearly all the lip pencils from them and I think they are some of the best lip pencils I’ve ever owned, so when I decided to try out a couple of lipglosses I went straight for the Essence stand in Priceline.

I picked up two of the XXXL Shine lipgloss in the shades Cute Pink and Pure Chic. They were super inexpensive and seemed like a decent quality in the store. They are quite thick, but not in a bad way. They spread easily enough across the lips and I think the thick consistency helps you to not use as much product. The Cute Pink one is not my favourite. It’s quite glittery and unfortunately the glitter feels chunky on the lips. In the bottle/tube thingy it is shiny, but doesn’t seem chunky, but as soon as you press your lips together you can feel the glitter coating your lips. The Pure Chic one is far better. It’s a clear gloss with not glitter in it at all. It sits nicely over lipsticks and I’ve even just worn it over a tinted balm and it just made my lips look healthy and pouty.

The wand applicators on these glosses are really cool. They’re the flat ones that are flexible at the top so it curves over your lips nicely.

Overall these are worth the $4 or whatever they cost. I don’t like the glittery one, but I would absolutely pick up the other ones without the glitter. They’re smooth and last well enough as far as glosses go. For such a low price, who cares, as long as they look nice! I’m so glad I added these to my collection!

Review: L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Blush

I love blush. Aside from foundation, it’s my favourite base makeup product. I would reach for blush before I would reach for a bronzer/contour or highlighter. Personally, I feel that on my skin if I can only do one or the other, I think I benefit more from blush than I do bronzer. I used to only really like powder blushes because I had quite oily skin and liked a really matte face when I did makeup. Now however, I have more dry-to-sometimes-combo skin and prefer a more luminous, fresh and natural finish. This change in skin type has led me to discover the wonder of cream and liquid type blushes as well as the cheek and lip stain products. I’ve tried the E.L.F. cream blush stick, the Benefit cheek tints like Posietint and Chachatint (Benetint is on my list of things to try), the Australis cheek and lip stains which are like a cream/stain hybrid. I love all of those things, they all have beautiful finishes. The L’Oreal Nude Magique BB Blush seemed like the perfect thing to try next, so last time I got a points voucher in the mail from the Priceline Sister Club I decided to put it to the test.

I’ll get the negatives out of the way first. The first thing is that there only seems to be one shade. I looked around my local Priceline a bit to see if they had more, but I think there’s only the one. I think it might be one of those products that claim to match any skin tone. The shade is called Universal Rosy Blush. It’s a very bright pink. It seems fairly neutral in tone, but it is bright! The other main negative with it is that it can be difficult to work with. It’s sort of an odd formula. It comes out mostly transparent and as you work with it is turns into its true colour. The problem is that you have to work really fast. It dries fast and acts the same way a stain like Benetint does. I found that I can’t just dot it on and then blend it out like you would with other products, I have to blend it immediately after it touches my skin. It’s also extremely easy to use way too much. The first time I used it I made it so bright and pigmented that I end up having to go in with more foundation to tone it down. I looked absolutely nuts.

Now on to the positives of this blush. Once you figure out how much to use and the best way to apply it, the blush looks so pretty on the skin. It’s almost a gel consistency which makes it quite thin compared to a cream. Because of this it sits nicely on top of foundation. Once I got the hang of it I was able to achieve a beautiful fresh finish with it. It’s not sparkly at all, but because it’s a gel-like formula it really glowy on the skin. It would be absolutely wonderful in spring and summer when you don’t want to wear too many powder products. I personally like luminous products all year round so I will wear this all the time!

After all that do I like it? The straight answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but I could definitely have survived without it in my collection. I’m glad that I finally bit the bullet and tried it out, but it’s not something I will repurchase or even miss when it’s gone. For me it was just a little too much effort in the beginning. I know there’s a learning curve with any ‘stain’ type product because they can be quite sensitive and tricky but this was a little too much. It took me at least four uses to get any kind of confidence with it. Honestly, after my first use I put it at the back of my drawer and almost forgot I had it. The time between my first and second use was at least two weeks. I like easy products. I don’t want to have to fight with a product, I just want it to bend to my will. This is a nice product that’s good in theory but there are heaps of similar products out there that I fell are far easier to use. If you don’t want to fork out the cash for the Benetint products (which would be understandable because they’re not cheap!), I think the Australis Lip and Cheek combos are great. I’m fairly certain you can only get Australis in Australia and maybe New Zealand, but if you can get your hands on them, I would recommend them over this L’Oreal one. 

Review: Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation (Shade 0.5)

A couple of weeks ago I uploaded a post covering the opening of Urban Decay at Mecca Maxima here in Australia. Until then I had only tried one product from the brand, and now I’ve managed to get my hands on a few things that I’ll be reviewing over the next few posts. I’m also planning a new series of one-brand focus posts and UD will be included in the brands I’ve got planned so far. The first review, as the title of this post says is for the Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup. A big name, I know.

As I’ve mentioned time and time again, I have a really hard time finding foundations that sit nicely on my skin that also match my skin tone properly. The best one I’ve found so far is the NARS Sheer Glow in Siberia. The first experience I had with the Naked Skin was during a free 45 minute makeup application from Mecca Maxima that I received for my birthday as part of their Beauty Loop membership. The girl did a beautiful job of my makeup, but the foundation end up being a little dark. She used shade 2 on me and by the time I got home I could see how dark it was. Luckily I had got my hands on a sample of the lightest shade, 0.5, a couple of days before so I could try it. Now, I will say that it is not a perfect match for me. I think it might be a smidge dark, but mostly I think it’s just a bit too pink. Usually I wouldn’t even entertain a shade I wasn’t completely satisfied with, but it’s manageable and as you read further down you’ll see why I don’t mind.

My holy grail foundation has been my Sheer Glow for a while now. It’s the perfect match for me because even though it’s really yellow, it helps to counteract the intense redness I can sometimes get. It has great coverage and works for me pretty much year round. The only thing that’s been bugging me about it lately is that it doesn’t seem to be sitting as nicely around my nose, upper lip area and chin. It goes a little patchy after a couple of hours.

Enter the Naked Skin foundation. This stuff just melts into my skin. It sits beautifully on my skin nearly all day. I swear, if I could have the shade of Siberia from Sheer Glow mixed into one bottle with the finish of the Naked Skin I would have my 100% HG foundation and I would never want to try another foundation ever again. Barring that wish coming true I’m happy to mix them. I can wear the Naked Skin by itself, and actually have done for the last couple of days with no real problem, but I really love the way it looks with the Sheer Glow. Because it’s so pink in its undertone the Naked Skin can start looking a bit dark as it starts to show a bit of wear. Once I re-powder it looks fine again, but sometimes there just isn’t time for a retouch. When I pair it with the Sheer Glow the colour becomes nice and balanced and seems brightened.

Now let’s talk about the consistency and finish. It’s very runny (and smelly, but it goes away as soon as you apply it). I definitely recommend giving it a good shake before you use it. Despite it being so runny you honestly don’t need that much to cover your face. Granted, I don’t have particularly problematic skin. I mainly just have redness and a couple of scars to cover. I usually do two pumps to get a medium or one pump if I’m feeling lazy and just want light coverage. When I pair it with the Sheer Glow I’ll do a pump of each. Sometimes I use a pump and a half of the Sheer Glow to really brighten the Naked Skin.

The finish of this stuff, both by itself and with the Sheer Glow is beautiful. It is by far the nicest finish I have ever been able to get on my skin with a foundation. It just looks so natural. It evens my skintone (despite being a little on the pink side) and has great pigmentation.

The positives of this foundation on my skin far outweigh the couple of negatives, such as the bad smell (it’s kind of like paint) and the slightly off colour. I’m just so impressed by this stuff. Honestly, I was pretty sure that I’d never find a foundation I liked as much as I like my Sheer Glow. I also love how well they pair together. If there’s something I’ve learnt in my search for the ‘perfect’ foundation it’s that there’s no such thing (so far), but there’s also nothing wrong with combining two different ones to create the perfect product. 

Review: Hourglass Modernist Eyeshadow Palette in Monochrome

Hourglass is one of those brands that are so luxury that I feel financially guilty every time I even dare to think about purchasing a product, but at the same time everything is just so damn gorgeous that I can’t stay away from the stand each time I go to Mecca Maxima. This Modernist eye shadow palette in Monochrome was no exception. Currently I only own three Hourglass products, but I know I want so many more. They have beautiful packaging and everything is such amazing quality it almost makes you forget the price tag… almost!

When I bought the Modernist palette I actually had intended to pick up the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, but as soon as I saw the Monochrome one on display I knew it was going to come home with me. Let’s be real, the Chocolate Bar palette would have been the more logical choice. It’s $65 for 16 shadows whereas the Modernist palette was $76 for five shadows. Excessive, I know but I just could help myself. The shades are beautiful pink and purple tones and are so creamy and pigmented! The way they are packaged is amazing too. They’re not in individual pans like normal palettes. As you can see from the photo, they sit all together with a lovely wavy pattern across them. Just divine!

This palette has shades unlike any other that I own, which was my main justification for spending that ridiculous amount of money. My other justification was that it would travel well because it’s so compact.

I literally have nothing bad to say about this palette. I mean, I could sit here and complain about the high price tag, but obviously I think it was worth it because I bought it and here I sit, gushing about it. Yes, Hourglass is expensive, but I’m yet to test out a product that sucks. It’s so easy to see how much time and effort goes into making these luxury item as luxurious as possible. I probably won’t go out and buy all the other palettes because I’m not made of money and Monochrome was the only one I knew was unique for my collection and would get used enough, but if you’ve got a spare $76AUD to spend on a new palette I would highly recommend these palettes. It is one of the best palettes I have ever bought.