Consider this another edition of “bloggers made me do it”. I’ve been aware of the CliniqueCheek Pops for quite a while, but had never actually purchased one. That embossed flower design was enough to send many, many beauty addicts into a blush buying tailspin, but I held off because I’ve started to come to the conclusion that there isn’t really anything unique in terms of blush shades anymore, so why do I really need another one? Then Jen of Vibrant, Vivacious, Veracious Beauty Blog posted about Cola Pop, and I was sold. (I don’t know what it is about Jen’s posts, but she always seems to find something unique that makes me want to purchase it as well!)
Clinique Cheek Pop in Cola Pop
Clinique‘s Cheek Pop blush in Cola Pop ($27 CAD) is a dark, burnt red blush that probably looks frightening to more than half my readers, but to me, it screams amazingness. Obviously you don’t wear blush at full strength, so try not to let the pan shade frighten you.
Clinique Cheek Pop in Cola Pop
What I’m loving about Clinique‘s Cheek Pops is that the company seems to have gone from a very dated metallic plastic look (I could never get on board with Clinique because of their packaging, how terrible is that?) to a very modern thick acrylic packaging. The Cheek Pops come encased in a very solid acrylic compact that shows you the colour of the product right out of the gates.
Clinique Cheek Pop in Cola Pop
Of course, many of us beauty addicts are suckered in by the beautiful imprint on the product, but I find the imprint is actually functional since it helps my brush to pick up the product from the compact.
Clinique Cheek Pop in Cola Pop – swatch
Swatched at full strength, I felt like this blush was screaming my name. I mean, look at that dark red! It’s gorgeous! But bear with me, here’s how it looks on the cheeks when blended out appropriately:
Wearing Cola Pop
See? Way less terrifying. As we approach fall (thank god, I’m so sick of this heat – I will forever be a fall and winter woman at heart), this is the exact kind of colour I want hugging my cheeks.
Wearing Cola Pop
I love the soft red-pink flush it gives my cheeks. At the risk of sounding basic, it gives that “cold weather” flush that I always want on my cheeks, particularly since I don’t actually flush that nicely at all from the cold!
Wearing Cola Pop
As with most blushes, I don’t notice any issues with longevity, and this will definitely last the entire work day on me (which is about 10 hours including my commute before I take my makeup off). I’m impressed that Clinique came out with such a gloriously dark shade and it could definitely be built up to be more intense if you have darker skin (as per my swatch!). For once I feel that Cola Pop is a totally unique shade of blush and I’m happy to have added it to my collection!
Launching this month, ClarinsJoli Rouge lipsticks have experienced a face lift. They’ve been enhanced with a moisture-rich formula and come in brand new gold packaging. The range boast 25 shades that offer plenty of variety – from nudes and typical pinks; to vibrant reds and fiery oranges with the occasional dark vampy shade thrown in for good measure.
Clarins Joli Rouge Lipsticks
The new ClarinsJoli Rouge come in a solid gold tube with a small indent and etched C on the lid. The tube feels light, but not cheap. It’s sleek and compact, so it definitely looks and feels like high end makeup.
Clarins Joli Rouge Lipsticks in Soft Plum and Rosy Nude
The Joli Rouge formula is smooth and easy to wear. They glide on to your lips with ease and stay glossy for ages. They also have an interesting fruity, sweet scent. I would consider myself very sensitive to scents in lipsticks but these do not bother me. (For those who are familiar with essence lipsticks, they smell similar to those, but less artificial and slightly more fruity.)
Clarins Joli Rouge Lipsticks in Soft Plum and Rosy Nude – Swatches
The shades I tried out are not shades I would have picked for myself, but sometimes that’s the best part about being sent PR samples! Left to my own devices I’d only choose bright red-pinks or something of that ilk, and not gotten to experience these shades.
Clarins Joli Rouge in Soft Plum
Soft Plum is a gorgeous purple-red berry colour that one can’t help but associate with fall. I basically want to throw on a long comfy sweater and pull on some knee high boots while wearing this shade! If you’re not especially comfortable with colours like this, rest assured that the sheen in the formula helps to diffuse the colour so that it doesn’t appear quite as stark. If the formula were matte, it’d be a completely different story and a lot more in your face.
Wearing Clarins Joli Rouge in Soft Plum
In the look above, I matched Soft Plum with a golden lid shade (Makeup Geek Fortune Teller) and a deep cranberry crease shade (Makeup Geek Bitten).
Clarins Joli Rouge in Rosy Nude
Rosy Nude is the shade that took me by surprise. Even a friend of mine took one look at the bullet in the tube and was like “whoa, that’s light”. And I suppose it does look rather pale in the tube – I certainly wasn’t expecting it to look good on me in the slightest. But holy cow was I ever wrong. Rosy Nude is a *stunning* peachy-pink shade that matches every eye look I throw at it (although I apparently never caught any of them on camera, much to my displeasure). It’s currently rivaling my combination of Wet n Wild’s 903C with NYX’s Butter Gloss in Tiramisu on top for most flattering lip look on camera. Total winner.
Final Thoughts
In a beauty world where everyone has become obsessed with matte liquid lipsticks, it’s rather nice to try something new for a change. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much in love with matte lips, but it’s been really pleasurable discovering a product that doesn’t make your lips feel like the Sahara. Having never tried Clarins‘ lipsticks before, I have to say I’m impressed with the Joli Rouge lineup. They’re soft, creamy, hydrating and easy to wear. They stay shiny the entire length of time I’ve worn them (which is around three hours, then I usually end up wiping off my lips to eat or drink) and they claim to last six hours. I’ve not tried them for that length of time because it’s just not in my nature to wear lipstick for that long, but at the three hour mark they showed no signs of giving up the ghost. Since they don’t dry down at all, you need to be aware that they will transfer to anything you touch your lips to, but that’s not expected for a formula that stays shiny for so long.
Of the colours I tried, Soft Plum was the more “typical” fall shade, whereas Rosy Nude knocked it out of the park for me in terms of the colour. Both colours wore well and I experienced no difference in the formula between them.
Let me know what you’ve tried from Clarins because I’m going to need recommendations! So far they’ve knocked it out of the park with their Aquatic Treasures collection and now this Joli Rouge lipstick lineup!
Just passing through…
This post features press samples sent for consideration.
New for fall is the AnnabelleSmokey Nudes palette. And as I mentioned in my Swatch Sunday featuring this palette, the drugstore has definitely been in need of quality palettes.
Annabelle Smokey Nudes palette
This is a palette that many, MANY makeup lovers (and casual users) are sure to fawn over simply because it’s a neutral palette. And it definitely did not disappoint. There are matte shades in here amidst the usual shimmers and that makes for a far more well balanced look. My particular favourite shade is the shade labelled bronze (bottom row, middle shade). I found myself using this shade over and over and over again to deepen the crease and it added a gorgeous touch to an otherwise two-dimensional look.
My only true gripe with the Annabelle Smokey Nudes is there is no real brow bone highlighting shade (for my skin tone). The pink is far too pink, and the white is far too shimmery. Mixed together they do an okay job of highlighting the brow, but when I used either by themselves I wasn’t that pleased with the results.
Here’s five looks I came up with using this palette:
The first look I tried out. While I am a colourful eyeshadow lover, I do like using neutral palettes because it gives me a chance to play around with my lip colour. It’s a lot easier to wear bright(er) lips when you’ve got neutral shades on your lids!
Eyes
Nude all over the lid.
Copper on the outer corner with some Black mixed in.
On my lashes is Urban Decay‘s Perversion mascara.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Make Up For Ever Ultra HD liquid foundation in Y225
Bronzer: NYCFire Island Tan
Blush: Laura GellerPink Grapefruit
Highlighter: Too FacedCandlelight
Lips: NYX Fizzies
I wanted to play around with the Gold shade, but I found it didn’t come off as golden as I had expected it to. It’s more of a soft, muted yellow. It adds colour, but not a whole lot.
Eyes
Gold all over the lid.
Brown through the crease.
Bronze on the outer half of the lid.
Black on the outer corner to deepen it up.
On my lashes is essence‘s Lash Princess False Lash Effect mascara.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: elfSurf’s Up
Blush: essenceAutumn Peach
Highlighter: BeccaChampagne Pop
Lips: MACBarbecue
This is fairly easy go to look for me when I’ve got a shimmery white and a black in a palette.
Eyes
Bronze through the crease.
White on the lid.
Black on the outer half of the lid.
White and Pink shade mixed together on the brow bone.
I applied Maybelline‘s Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Eye Pencil in Sleek Onyx to my lower lash line and blended it out with the Black eyeshadow. On my lashes is Urban Decay‘s Perversion mascara.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Stick foundation in Y225
Bronzer: Make Up For Ever Pro Bronze Fusion in 25I
Blush: HourglassLuminous Flush
Highlighter: Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Duo #1 highlighter
Lips: MACBrave
Another favourite combination of mine. I took the eye shots at the end of my work day (although the face shot was before I left for work) so they look a bit shinier than usual (thanks greasy eyelids, thanks a lot).
Eyes
Bronze through the crease.
Pink all over the lid.
Copper on the outer corner.
I created the winged liner with essence‘s Jumbo Eyeliner Pen and applied Urban Decay‘s Peversion mascara to my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: RevlonBronzed & Chic
Blush: Hourglass Incandescent Electra
Highlighter: Becca Champagne Pop
Lips: MACBurmese Kiss
I have to laugh at my face in this shot – it was the one that best showed the makeup, but it looks a bit dopey with my mouth half hanging open! Out of all the looks though, this one is definitely my favourite.
Eyes
Bronze through the crease.
Taupe all over the lid.
Brown on the outer corner.
Pink and White mixed together to create the brow bone shade.
Urban DecayPerversion mascara is on my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: MACRefined Golden
Blush: Burberry Lip & Cheek Bloom in Poppy
Highlighter: MACSoft & Gentle
Lips: RevlonFire & Ice
Have you picked up the AnnabelleSmokey Nudes palette? Let me know your thoughts on it!
The Annabelle Smokey Nudes palette was sent to me for consideration.
To much fanfare (and terror, I might add), Make Up For Ever recently launched their UltraHD foundation. Designed with 4K technology in mind, the new UltraHD foundation is intended to be completely invisible under the latest, ultra-magnified resolution while looking natural on camera and in person.
Now, I said this was met with terror, and I meant it – there are a LOT of people out there that swore up and down that Make Up For Ever HD foundation was their holy grail. With the new launch of UltraHD, it’s totally wiped out their range of HD foundation. Despite wanting to try it, I had never gotten around to trying the HD foundation, so I have nothing to compare it against except other foundations in my collection.
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Invisible Cover Foundation
As is typical for a foundation, it comes with 30 ml (1 fluid ounce) of product and will cost you $50 CAD. The new liquid range comes in a whopping 40 shades! Is there another range of foundations out there that comes in that many shades? (If there is, educate me!) That seems ENORMOUS to me. Kudos to Make Up For Ever for appreciating the fact that there’s a lot more than 10 shades of skin out there!
The liquid foundation has light to medium coverage and is buildable.
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Invisible Cover Foundation
And, blissfully, it comes with a pump. <3
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Invisible Cover Stick Foundation
I wasn’t even expecting it, but the UltraHD range also comes in a cream stick formula as well. It’ll also set you back $50, but there are only 15 shades in this formula. It comes up a little short on the product side with 12.5g (0.44 ounces).
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Invisible Cover Stick Foundation
The UltraHD stick foundation provides medium to full coverage.
Make Up For Ever UltraHD – Y225 Swatched
I was colour matched to Y225 which is apparently shade 117 in the original HD formula. (For reference, I am typically colour matched to NW20 in MAC shades.) There is a very definite difference between the same colour in the two different formulas though. On the left is the stick foundation in Y225 and it is definitely leaning more pink than the Y225 in the liquid formula on the right.
Make Up For Ever UltraHD foundation
A handy thing (or so I thought) was that each bottle tells you what the current shade of the foundation is called (in this case, the real name is Y225), but it also tells you that if you were 117 in the HD foundation, then Y225 would be your shade in the new lineup. However… the shades don’t quite line up that well. Chelsea of Olive & Ivy has a comparison of the previous HD shades in her review here and the colours do not line up exactly with the previous line. So definitely make sure you get colour matched for this!
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Liquid
Anyway, on to the actual product. The liquid foundation feels incredibly lightweight. It’s one of the most comfortable foundations I’ve ever worn, which makes it an absolute pleasure to wear. It does look good on camera (as seen above) but it doesn’t cover everything on my face – my freckles are definitely still shining through after a first layer. I’d never add a second layer of foundation since I don’t like the feeling of it, but I imagine you could build it up to a thicker opacity.
Make Up For Ever UltraHD Stick
With the stick foundation, it’s definitely creamier and thicker. It evens out my skin tone, but again, my freckles are still showing through although I do feel they’re a bit better covered up with the stick.
Final Thoughts
Edit 2016/01/07: Please read after my original summary below for another take on this foundation during a different season.
I’m having a tough time writing this review because I do really like the feel of the foundation. I love how it looks on my skin in person and how it appears on camera. It’s incredibly easy to apply (in both formulas) and blends into the skin seamlessly.
BUT, and this is a giant one, it doesn’t last a whole work day on me. I’m not an especially oily person, but I find I start getting oily patches on my skin halfway through my work day (~5 hour mark) and it starts to break up the foundation. I’m not the only one experiencing this issue either – Steph of Fun Size Beauty also had problems with the foundation unless she powdered or touched up.
Overall, I think the UltraHD foundation is great for camera work (where touchups are constant and necessary), but I don’t feel that it’s a foundation that can last you through a work day without touchups. It’s a bit too high maintenance for me in that regard. That being said, if you’re a YouTuber or on camera a lot? Go for it – it looks and feels amazing!
2016/01/07 Edit:
I went back to using the Ultra HD foundation during the cooler months to see if maybe the wear had changed on my skin. And (thankfully!) I found that to be the case! During the fall (and now winter), I discovered that the foundation doesn’t break up on my skin like it did during the warmer months. This will last now last me a whole day without having to worry about it. So for me, this is more of a winter foundation than a summer one. I still love the weightless finish of it, so I’m really glad to be able to use this foundation on a regular basis now!
Both the liquid and stick formula are available for $50 each on Sephora.ca.
This post features press samples sent for consideration.
I feel like the skinny brow pencil trend started with Anastasia‘s Brow Wiz. It seems like ever since the Brow Wiz came out, we’ve seen brand after brand attempt to replicate the amazingness of that skinny brow pencil. Over the last year or so, I’ve been able to try out a few brands with similar pencils and I thought I’d compare them to the original AnastasiaBrow Wiz.
Dual ended skinny brow pencils
All of these skinny/micro brow pencils features a 1.5 mm twist up brow pencil and a spoolie. The tiny pencil point helps create natural looking brow hairs (if you’re skilled enough to create them! I’m not!) and gives you an accuracy unlike anything else I’ve tried. The spoolie is a lovely touch as it’ll help you comb out the product through your brow hairs if you happen to get a little too heavy-handed.
1.5 mm tips
Unlike with pencils that require sharpening, these pencils twist up so you actually get to use all of the product. And due to the nature of their tiny diameter, you get accurate precision every time you use them.
Spoolies for everyone!
Here’s how the three that I have stack up:
AnastasiaBrow Wiz costs $27 for 0.085 grams of product. 8 shades available.
NYXMicro Brow Pencil costs $11.99 for 0.09 grams of product. 8 shades available.
MarcelleNano Brow Pencil costs $11.95 for 0.09 grams of product. 5 shades available.
The first thing you notice is the huge price discrepancy between Anastasia and the other two pencils. NYX and Marcelle are less than HALF the price of the Anastasia one and come with slightly more product!
So what’s the difference, you’re probably asking. And aside from shade selection, there isn’t a whole lot. I have the shade Taupe in both Anastasia and NYX, and Ash Blond in Marcelle. As you can see in the paper swatches above, the Marcelle one is slightly lighter than the other two.
On the skin, the Anastasia and NYX shades perform identically. They seem to have the same pigment and wax combination. The Marcelle leans more towards pigment and less towards wax. Interestingly, the Ash Blond shade comes out a lot more grey on my skin than it did on the paper swatch.
I know I’m wearing one of the pencils mentioned in this post on my brows here, but I couldn’t even tell you which one because they all look the same!
But really, you’re asking, how do they wear? Is there a clear winner?
And the great answer is, there really ISN’T a winner! On the brows, all three products wear exactly the same. They have the same longevity (easily 12+ hours) and apply in an identical manner. When it comes down to it, it’s up to you to choose where you want to spend your money. You can either opt for the cheaper drug store option (although NYX is harder to find in Canada than Marcelle) or go for the more expensive Anastasia one if that’s more your style. I’ve been using all three brow products interchangeably and I really do not notice a difference in them at all!
The Marcelle Nano Brow Pencil was sent to me for consideration.
