Category Archives: Makeup
QUO Summer 2016 (Review, Swatches & Look)
Nautical *anything* isn’t really my jam… but there’s something that really speaks to me in the packaging design for the new QUO Cosmetics Summer 2016 launch! There’s something about the glossy packaging with a foiled overlay of anchors and chains on the layer beneath that is just insanely gorgeous on these products. They are eyecatching and definitely make you take a closer look!
Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the products from the collection:
The first thing that caught my eye was this ENORMOUS bronzer disc. And when I say enormous, I do mean it! The Sunny Days bronzer is about the size of my outstretched palm, fingers included!
Inside the compact you’ll find a three-stripe bronzer that is embossed to emulate a wave pattern.
The top stripe is satin warm shade, the middle is a shimmery cream highlight and the bottom is a shimmery bronzer. You can use each strip individually to get a more customized look… but if you’re like me, you’re just going to take your brush and swirl it amongst all the shades for an all over glowing effect.
And thankfully, the end results of all three colours swirled together delivers a gorgeous shimmery bronzer that’s just beautiful (although very obviously targeted towards us fair folk). The powder feels smooth and was easy to blend onto my skin. Because of the pale tone of it, it is EXCEPTIONALLY easy to apply on fair skin – no fear of looking like an oompa loompa here!
Like the bronzer disc, the eyeshadow palettes also have the gorgeous anchor and chains print.
The Sea Sun Sand eyeshadow palette contains eight neutral shades that come in a variety of finishes – a few shimmery, a few satin and a few matte.
Sadly, while the eyeshadows do swatch nicely, they are incredibly powdery and very subtle. You’ll need to pack on some of the lighter shades to really get some impact. However, the upside is that if you’re someone who doesn’t need a ton of pigmentation to your shadows, these could very well work for you.
The last two products are the Lip Oil in 40 Knots and the Precision Liquid Eye Liner in In The Navy.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the Lip Oil in 40 Knots as I’d never used one before. It’s primarily a very slippery, soft gloss with a liquid texture. It doesn’t feel oily (more slippery than anything else) and it imparts no colour on the lips. It felt hydrating and comfortable, although it did require constant reapplication.
The Precision Liquid Eye liner in In the Navy is not an unexpected colour for the summer, but it’s a welcome addition to help us get away from the constant black or brown liner. The liner is pigmented, applies well and I love that it has a faint hint of metallic blue sheen to it. Makes it stand out from every other flat navy liner out there!
QUO Summer 2016 Look
This is the look I ended up putting together with the products. I skipped the foundation, letting the Sunny Days bronzer do its job on the perimeter of my face.
I’m also wearing the lip oil on (you guessed it) my lips. It’s an easy to wear product that adds a ton of shine.
For my lids, I opted for the pink shade in the upper crease, the taupey-silver on the lid and one of the deeper browns in the crease. I highlighted my brow with the lightest shade… which pretty much matched my skin tone. I also create a beautiful wing with the In The Navy liner. I really love a thick wing with softer makeup like this.
So that’s my roundup of QUO‘s latest summer collecton. Do you think you’ll be picking anything up?
QUO is a Canadian brand and can be purchased at Shopper Drug Mart.
The products featured in this review were sent to me for consideration.
Swatch Sunday: Wet n Wild – Art in the Streets
A few years back now (I wanted to say months, but it has DEFINITELY been longer than that), Wet n Wild switches up their six pan palettes to this current five pan configuration. I’ve got the Art in the Streets quint for swatching!
(Sidenote, this swatched decently – except for the purple – but this REALLY benefits from a solid white base on your eyes. Keep that in mind if you’re picking this one up.)
Wet n Wild Art in the Streets Swatches
Too Faced Born This Way Foundation + Concealer (Review & Swatches)
As a rabid lover of all things Too Faced, I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to trying the Born This Way foundation. But hey, I’m trying it now! This review is going to cover the existing Born This Way foundation, as well as the brand new Born This Way concealer which I picked up at Gen Beauty!
The Born This Way foundation has an “undetectable medium-to-full coverage foundation” and contains your standard 30 ml/1 fluid ounce of product. There are 18 shades in the range: from Snow to Mahogany.
As per the packaging, Born This Way is infused with:
- Coconut Water to delicately replenish skin’s moisture levels
- Alpine Rose to brighten skin’s appearance and promote elasticity
- Hyaluronic Acid for a smoother, more youthful appearance
It blissfully comes with a pump that dispenses an appropriate amount of product. I use roughly two pumps to cover my entire face, but I could probably get away with only a pump and a half. The shade I have (which I think matches me PERFECTLY) is Porcelain and it’s intended to be for “fair with neutral-to-pink undertones”. (Sidenote: Natalie of Ivory Avenue passed on this shade to me because it didn’t suit her. Thank you!!) I would argue and say I’m more warm than cool toned, and I do feel like this foundation shade veers more towards the yellow side of things. I’m definitely not complaining though because it’s a perfect match for me, but it is something to be aware of if you’re trying to match your undertone. The foundation has a luminous finish that works well on my dry to normal skin.
Like the foundation, the Born This Way Naturally Radiant Concealer also contains coconut water, alpine rose and hyaluronic acid. It comes in 10 shades ranging from Very Fair to Deep.
The tube is slick and emulates the foundation packaging. It comes with your standard doefoot applicator to evenly distribute product onto your face. I would say it’s neither too thin, nor too thick in consistency. It’s somewhere right in the middle.
As you can see from the swatches above, the Light shade of the concealer matches quite well with the Porcelain foundation. I feel the concealer is a hint more pink, but once it’s all blended out onto the skin the two shades meld perfectly together.
On the left is my non-foundation face and on the right I’m wearing the Porcelain foundation with some of the Light concealer underneath my eyes.
There is ZERO editing done to this shot. You can see a hint of my freckles coming through the foundation, but if you compare it to the shot above without any foundation on, you’ll see that it covered up a heck of a lot of them. (By the way, I do love my freckles, I’m just trying to indicate how well this foundation can cover up “discolourations”.)
Because of the luminous finish of the foundation, I really do feel like this ACTUALLY looks like my skin in person. It doesn’t look cakey, or makeupy – it just looks like my face. And that’s not something I can usually say about foundation because generally there is SOME aspect of visibility of the product in your skin. This product seems to melt into my skin while not settling into fine lines. I have no idea how they’ve done it, but it’s wonderful!
Here’s a closer look at my eye where I’ve applied the concealer. You can see I’ve got some fine lines, but the product hasn’t sunk into them. I am exceptionally prone to “crepey” looking undereyes if I apply anything under them. I see a faint hint of that towards my inner tearduct, but nowhere near as much as I usually see. The concealer has also covered my broken blood vessel (the slightly darker spot in the center) which is incredible since that thing is RED (to the point where people actually tell me I somehow got lipstick under my eye!).
Final Thoughts
Born This Way foundation: Guys… I mean… I’d heard the hype.. but until you EXPERIENCE this foundation… you just don’t know. YOU DON’T KNOW. The Born This Way foundation is INCREDIBLE. It gives my skin a gorgeous luminous finish and it covered ever aspect of my face evenly and effectively. This foundation is actually starting to rival my Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation for most loved and I truly didn’t think that was ever going to be possible. This was one of those products that I put on my face and I was just KNEW it was a match made in heaven. There is no aspect of this product that I don’t love: the bottle is beautiful to look at and solid to hold. The pump is perfection. It even applies spectacularly to my face – especially on my nose which has always been a problem area for me! I am in *love* with this foundation!
Born This Way concealer: Much like the foundation, the concealer is also a winner which is something I didn’t expect to say either since I’ve had a LOT of problems with concealers over the years. Although concealer is not a product I use daily, it’s good to know that this sucker can cover up things if need be. I used it primarily on my undereye area and I experienced very, very minimal creasing after 6+ hours (without setting it so I could fully test it out). Please note that the Born This Way concealer is launching on June 15, 2016 – I just got an early sample via Gen Beauty.
The Too Faced Born This Way foundation can be purchased on sephora.ca for $49 CAD or on sephora.com for $39 USD.
The Too Faced Born This Way concealer can be purchased on sephora.ca for $32 CAD or on sephora.com for $28 USD.