I haven’t purchased any make up in almost two weeks- so what’s a reasonable adult do? go buy some out of spite.
A few beauty influencers I watch mentioned the above lip gloss by Maybelline in the color “Tease”. Honestly I’m not a huge fan of gloss but it had such rave reviews I succumbed to peer pressure and grabbed it. On that whim I also got the repacked E.L.F. Flawless finish foundation in “alabaster” and the Wet N Wild loose powder highlight in “moon tears.”
First up: The Gloss Maybelline Vivid Hot Lacqour
The gloss is lighter in color than I expected and not transparent. But I’ve been using it for three or four days and honestly I really enjoy it as a topper for my nude or light lips. And it has pretty great staying powder for a gloss. So for 8.99$ I am absolutely not mad at it. It does not stay shiny all day day but it definitely holds some color for longer hours.
So far I’ve only paired it with MAC Velvet Teddy, Maybelline Dreamer and Seductress. And they all looked really nice.
Second Up: ELF Flawless Finish Foundation
First off: Fuck frosted glass bottles.
They are completely useless- it makes for pretty packaging but I hate it- the color always looks darker. Being said aside from my complaints it feels really good and it’s really nice packaging for a 6.99$ drug store foundation.
Secondly- why color swatch why?
I was obviously very surprised at the extremely pale yellow on the swatch. I *almost* didn’t use it, was going to just take it right back. I opted to try it because my face is about 2-3 shades lighter than my chest and it causes me grief a lot when shade matching.
But behold- it worked:
As the young kids say these days: I was shook. It has a slightly tacky but lovely finisg. I’d say barely matte satin finish, website lists it as oil free semi matte, which makes sense to me.
I did noticed one side remained more tacky to the touch for quite some time, even with powder. I’d like to play with it powder/no powder and primers etc. The color selection is honestly crap (11 shades?) with a bizarre set of undertones- there were only 4 or 5 shades when I stopped at CVS. I may pick up a more neutral undertone to try and be more comfortable with it. Also- because of the shade match issue- I did NOT try to even bother with full coverage- it was definitely thick- and buildable- but I just didn’t try- I was to afraid of getting ghostly with that color. So I used a beauty blender and went for a medium coverage.
I only grabbed one picture at the end of the day in similar evening light (below left) this is 7 PM- so almost 12 hours later- and I’d been outside in the dust almost all day. I didn’t notice any appreciable spotting or fading- but the right side of my face stayed a little more tacky almost all day- it was very bizarre. Picture on the right was the following day- outside early morning. For that look, I minimized setting powder and got some product patching on my chin and around my nose- unsure from fussing/phones/work/touching- or the lack of setting spray. I usually see oil/spotting on my nose and forehead and I didn’t so I was pleased about that.
All in all I like it and I’m going to keep it and keep using it- see how it holds up over all- it’s a great purchase for the price point thus far.
Third up: Wet N Wild Moon Tears Highlighter
Funny story : I picked this up on the way to the gym, and proceeded to throw it at one who would be willing to wear it. Including some of my big huge gym buddies with all their majestic muscle. My gym was literally glowing everywhere. It was magic. next time- I swear I’ll get pictures.
This is loose, fine milled powder. It appears very gold when swatched and in the container but applied heavily turns lighter and more wearable than straight yellow gold, being said a little a long way for sure, and be careful with the application.
Generally I go prefer pressed powder highlight at this point but I’m impressed with the quality of this product. It’s extremely affordable and very wearable across a range of skin tones. I practically attacked my dance mates at rehearsal and did some application by hand. We found “dabbing” (ah jokes!) worked best opposed to trying to rub it on. Rubbing it in produced much more of a hot mess then the finger dabbing.
I’ve also been using it mixed with lotion as a a skin glow enhancer which has worked really well- better than some of the drop products- It’s absolutely lovely. I’m exceedingly pleased with the product thus far.
Here’s the look I did with all three products, I used Physicians formula butter bronzer and butter blush for the cheeks and Anastasia Beverly Hills subculture palette for the eyes. I have Tease on bare lips, I’m not incredibly crazy about it like this, but for me if I need a really actually nude lip, this is absolutely it.
All in all I really am pleased with these purchases- but the moon tears REALLY stand out as a win for me- if I had to recommend ONE of these to purchase TODAY- that would be it.
That’s all for today fearless readers- I hope you enjoyed and let me know what products you’ve tried or used and are loving- or if you grab any of these and what you think of them!
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