Category Archives: Reviews

Mary Kay Illuminating Drops (Review & Swatches)

May 1, 2019Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesMary KayChelle

Mary Kay Illuminating Drops

If you’re looking to up your glow for the coming warmer months (if you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is!), then you may want to take a peek at Mary Kay‘s new Illuminating Drops.

The Illuminating Drops come in three different shades (Silver Sands, Golden Horizon and Bronze Light) and contain 15 mls of product – which is a TON! The average foundation bottle has 30 mls of product, so you’re getting half of a full foundation!

Mary Kay Illuminating Drops come with a dropper-style applicator

The application method for the Illuminating Drops is, as you would expect with the name, dropper-style. I’m used to facial oils being in dropper-style bottles which are far less viscous than these drops, so I found it was best to push down the nozzle when you have the whole cap off the product, insert it into the bottle and then release it so that the tube can fill up. If you push the nozzle down and then release when you have the cap on, it just forces air into the bottle and you won’t actually collect any product when you release the button.

Mary Kay Illuminating Drops - swatches — Mary Kay Illuminating Drops – swatches

That being said, you don’t need the tube to scoop up much product for using on your face, because a little goes a very long way with the Illuminating Drops. There are three shades which (with my lack of MUA knowledge) will be able to suit the majority of skin tones.

Silver Sands: a pearlescent pink with a soft silver cast.
Golden Horizon: slightly golden, but not that strong in colour on my skin. Every time I look at this shade, the first thing that comes to mind is BECCA’s Champagne Pop.
Bronze Light: the one shade that won’t really work on my skin tone because of the depth. This is a gorgeous deep bronze with golden highlights.

Silver Sands has a lovely soft pink hue that tends to come across quite silvery. I opted to pair this with cooler toned eyeshadow looks as I felt it worked best with them. It can appear quite pale at times, so I think this would work best for fair to very light skintones.

Golden Horizon initially surprised me as I thought it would be too dark for my skintone. When you blend it out it loses a lot of the pigment that’s inherent in my swatch shot above. It still maintains a golden hue, but I found it more wearable that Silver Sands just because of how it paled down.

I found these both applied best when I dropped a little bit of product onto the back of my hand, tapped it out with my finger to disperse it a bit, and then tapped it on to the tops of my cheekbones with my finger tip. A brush seemed to disturb my makeup underneath, so I definitely prefer to use my finger. I’m not generally one for finger application, but this seemed to work just fine and it blended out incredibly easily without much fuss.

Final Thoughts

These are beautiful! The Mary Kay Illuminating Drops are an easy no muss, no fuss highlighter to wear during the warmer months (or any time really) when you want that lit from within glow… but with a little bit of an extra boost of shine. It’s a healthy glow – the kind that reminds me of a beach-y face that’s been wearing sunscreen for a while and has a hint of gleam from that product. Golden Horizon was definitely my favourite of the two I tried (I didn’t try Bronze Light because it’s too deep and I just wouldn’t wear it even as a bronzer to be honest).

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.

Benefit Cheekleader Palettes (Review & Swatches)

April 24, 2019Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesBenefitChelle

Benefit Cheekleaders

I’ve been long lamenting the fact that I haven’t been enjoying many face palettes in the last few years. I feel like ever since Tarte released their Off The Cuff palette (in 2013 for crying out loud!), I just haven’t been happy with anything else. And since it’s six years later now… well, I can definitely say I’ve been looking a long damn time for something fresh and new that could even come close to rivaling that Tarte palette. Well… I think I’ve found it!

And it comes to us courtesy of Benefit taking some of their existing blush shades, whacking them in a new format of palette and tossing in brand new highlighters. While I’ve always been interested in Benefit‘s blushes and bronzers, I’ve never been attracted to the box packaging. (So much so that I had a Hoola bronzer and ended up decluttering it because I just couldn’t get down with the box.) So this packaging immediately drew me in because of so many factors: no boxy packaging, no brush (honestly that weird straight cut “brush” they put in their boxes is just garbage) and it’s in cardboard packaging which is a personal favourite of mine. Heck, I even like the name Cheekleaders. How cute is that??

I was *EXCITED* to try these out!

Benefit Cheekleaders - Mini Bronze Squad — Benefit Cheekleaders – Mini Bronze Squad

The first Cheekleaders I ended up playing with is an all in one face palette. This is the Mini Bronze Squad and it comes with their traditional Hoola shade, their Gold Rush blush, and a brand new highlighter called Cookie.

Benefit - Mini Bronze Squad - Gold Rush, Cookie & Hoola - Swatched — Benefit – Mini Bronze Squad – Gold Rush, Cookie & Hoola – Swatched

I already knew I liked Hoola from having had it in the past, so that was a win. I was impressed with the reflective ability of Cookie, and then I was kind of like “well okay” to Gold Rush since it seemed like such a boring shade. I should’ve known better though…

Wearing Mini Bronze Squad - Gold Rush, Cookie & Hoola — Wearing Mini Bronze Squad – Gold Rush, Cookie & Hoola

…since some of my most loved blushes look the most boring in their pans. And sure enough, the combo of Gold Rush, Cookie and Hoola was a frigging knockout! I love how Gold Rush adds a bit of colour to my cheeks without going overboard, and then Cookie comes in with a glowing ethereal bang!

So the Mini Bronze Squad trio? Amazing. My compliments to the chef!

Benefit - Mini Pink Squad - Galifornia, Tickle & Dandelion — Benefit – Mini Pink Squad – Galifornia, Tickle & Dandelion

Although I tried the bronze squad first, I was the most intrigued by the Mini Pink Squad. Likely because Galifornia is MY kind of coral, and I’d heard that Dandelion was a lovely every day shade.

Benefit - Mini Pink Squad - Galifornia, Tickle & Dandelion - Swatched — Benefit – Mini Pink Squad – Galifornia, Tickle & Dandelion – Swatched

Sure enough, Galifornia is an absolute stunner. Although I have to say Dandelion seemed kind of dusty in a swatch. Tickle, the highlighter, while it fits the pink theme of the palette, is definitely a colour I don’t tend to reach for as much. It’s a pink/lavender shift with a slight gold reflect to it. It’s actually fairly unique, and once I got used to the concept of the shade, I ended up loving it too.

Wearing Mini Pink Squad - Dandelion & Tickle — Wearing Mini Pink Squad – Dandelion & Tickle

For this look I’ve got Dandelion on my cheeks with Tickle as a highlighter on top. I feel like Dandelion performed a lot like Gold Rush does, albeit pinker. It definitely wasn’t the dusty mess that the swatch led me to believe. It’s a soft “boring” shade, but it does wonders on the cheeks to liven them up. Tickle is definitely a softer highlighter when compared to Cookie from the previous palette, but I think it works out well with the more pink tones of the blushes in this palette.

Wearing Mini Pink Squad - Galifornia & Tickle — Wearing Mini Pink Squad – Galifornia & Tickle

And finally – my favourite shade – Galifornia. This is definitely the strongest blush I’ve used by Benefit – it’s incredibly pigmented, so be sure to go in with a light hand.

If you can believe it, the Tickle highlighter actually helped to subdue a bit of the colour of the blush which was kind of interesting. It grounded the blush a bit more than I think a super bright highlighter would’ve done.

All in all though? Another fantastic trio!

Final Thoughts

Holy crap, am I ever in love. I had initially liked the look of these Cheekleaders palettes before I even played with them, but once I got to using them on my face I was even more impressed. The colours just work together, and I didn’t feel the need to reach for different face products outside of these trios for a few weeks. I know Benefit‘s boxed powders aren’t anything new, and many people have been loving them for quite a long time, but as I said at the beginning of this post – I was so turned off by the box packaging that I just never bothered to pick any of them up outside of Hoola. Now that I have them in a mini compact form I am so, so in love with them. And what’s exciting about these is that they retail for $40 CAD each – which is the price of one of their regular size bronzers or blushes (which, unless you’re pummeling through only one blush year ’round – you will NEVER finish). So for my $40 CAD, I’m getting three powders at 2.5 grams each which I think is frankly incredible. Well done Benefit, I love these so, so much!

The Benefit Cheekleaders Trios can be purchased at sephora.ca for $40 CAD or on benefitcosmetics.com for $30 USD.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for review. Post contains affiliate links.

NYX Off Tropic Pro Liners (Review & Swatches)

April 17, 2019Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesNYXChelle

NYX Off Tropic Pro Liners

I feel like the entirety of the NYX Off Tropic collection was made for me and my love of vivid, vibrant makeup colours. Not only did I love the Off Tropic palettes (see swatches of Hasta La Vista here, and of Shifting Sand here), but I’m telling you upfront that I freaking love these Off Tropic Pro Liners.

The NYX Off Tropic Pro Liners come in a massive array of rainbow shades (not a neutral to be seen, be still my heart!), although I only have three colours to show you in this post. There are nine shades in total though, and you can bet your butt I’m going to be picking up some ore!

The pencils twist up (and thankfully down) and contain 0.28 grams of product. They come pre-sharpened, but I found that I accidentally snapped off all three tops the first time I applied them to my eyes which was a bit odd. Once they were blunt, I found they no longer broke off and were rather creamy to apply. It’s kind of like the tip got dried out and just broke off on first use. Not really an issue to me though because the product underneath was glorious to use.

NYX Off Tropic Pro Liner Swatches in Pineapple Punch, Happy Hour and Pool Boy

All three colours are incredibly vibrant and surprisingly opaque given how almost neon they seem. I did find that the yellow, Pineapple Punch, needed a few passes for full opacity, but I’m not surprised as yellow is, by nature, pale and tends to be sheer. However, it was opaque after a second layer so I was really impressed!

As you can see, Pineapple Punch is a standout yellow shade. I applied two layers on my water line to get that colour and aside from a little outer corner fading, this colour stayed put all day!

As did the vibrant hot pink! Basically, none of these colours moved on me throughout the day except for a tiny amount of product being removed at the outer corner of my eye (which is fairly normal for me). The colour stayed true all day, and I especially love how vibrant Happy Hour is!

Pool Boy was equally beautiful and vibrant!

Final Thoughts

Basically… these are all knockout shades. The NYX Off Tropic Pro Liners are so frigging good that it’s hard to describe without just saying… they truly are flawless and a true drugstore gem. They apply creamily (which is especially nice as I only wear pencil eyeliner on my lower waterline which is a hella sensitive area of the eye) and stay put all day. The colours are gorgeous and vivid, and they make me so happy! Since MAKE UP FOR EVER has discontinued all of their colourful Aqua XL Liners, this is going to be the brand I turn to when I need new, fun shades. I’m already eyeballing the bright green (Bamboo) and orange (Mimosa Orange) because I don’t have anything like that in my collection at all!

EDIT 2019/05/31: It’s been brought to my attention that the packaging on the NYX Pro Liners marks these are not eye safe (there’s an eyeball with a big X over it). I’ve reached out to NYX to find out why this is as these are definitely positioned as eyeliners. From my personal experience, I suffered no issues with these on my water line, but those with eye sensitivities may want to steer clear.

The NYX Off Tropic Pro Liners can be purchased at shoppersdrugmart.ca for $7.49 CAD each or on nyxcosmetics.com for $5 USD eachnyxcosmetics.com for $5 USD each.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Five Nude Lipsticks I’ve Been Wearing Lately

April 10, 2019Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesMaybelline, Suva Beauty, Too FacedChelle

It was by sheer accident the other day that I realized I’d suddenly become nude lipstick obsessed. I was emptying out my backpack of the five lipsticks I had worn that week to the office, when I realized they were all very, very similar in tone!

I was so amused by my discovery that I thought I’d turn it into a blog post that some people may find quite useful. I’ve started pairing nude lipsticks a lot more with my bright eyeshadow looks and it’s been working out really, really well. Seems kind of like a “no duh” moment, right? Well, I agree, but I also like wearing bright lipsticks so it’s kind of a struggle for me to convince myself that I shouldn’t be going loud with both my lipstick and eyeshadow colours! (My dear friend Sam pointed out how much a nude lipstick made my bright eyeshadows pop and I was kind of sold from that moment on!)

So here are the five shades that have been gracing my lips lately.

Too Faced Peach Kiss Lipstick in Bridezilla

When I want a comfortable to wear matte lipstick I often reach for a Too Faced Peach Kiss lipstick. The texture is so lovely and easy to wear and actually hydrating. Bridezilla is a shade I never thought I’d wear because it’s more towards the pink side of things and I’ve never found that I gravitate towards the colour pink. It’s a shade I often revolt against because I hate the notion of being “girly” and all the frilly stuff that everyone seems to associate with pink and girls. If I want to wear pink, I usually want it to be neon, you know?

But there is something definitely magical about Too Faced‘s Bridezilla lipstick. I’ve seen it morph from a more pink toned lipstick to a more peach shade depending on what I’m wearing on my eyes. Fundamentally it is a medium pink lip and not really a nude I suppose, but it does a hell of a job complimenting a bright eyeshadow look!

Suva Beauty Moisture Matte Liquid Lipstick in Awakening

Suva Beauty‘s Awakening Moisture Matte Liquid Lipstick knocked me out of the park the first time I used it. Not only is the product not one of those “dry as paint” liquid lipsticks, but it also smells like vanilla cake batter!

And on my lips, Awakening is truly my most perfect nude. It’s pale, without going overboard. It’s peachy-pink, without pulling strongly one way or the other. And it literally goes with every single bright or dark eyeshadow look I’ve thrown at it.

Hilariously… the Maybelline Matte Ink in Loyalist is basically the exact same shade as Suva‘s Awakening. They don’t look like it in the tube, but wait till you see them swatched side by side at the bottom of this post! I’ve yammered on for days on end about how much I love the Maybelline Matte Inks – they are truly, in my mind, the be all, end all of liquid lipsticks because of not only their longevity, but also their comfort. They are flawless!

Since the shade is identical to Suva‘s Awakening, it works just as perfectly as that shade does – it truly is the perfect nude for me. And it’s funny too – because I initially thought this colour was WAY too pale for me when I first saw it in the tube. I’d discarded it for months because I thought it would give me baby pink/white lips. However, that’s not the case and it really is perfection.

Sadly, the Too Faced La Creme lipsticks have kind of been shoved out of the market by all of the liquid lipsticks that seem to be taking up space. But let it be known that the La Creme formula is one of my favourites that I have ever tried, and if you still own a few of those shades then you’re a lucky person. The La Cremes are a wonderful cream lipstick with a sweet lemon scent (so unique) and I love mine dearly!

This shot is ancient because I couldn’t find a new one to use, but anyway… Topless is more of a beige nude on me. I wear it when I want a super pale lip. The glossiness of the formula helps to bring some life to the otherwise quite pale shade.

Oh man, the Too Faced mini Melted Mattes from their most recent holiday launch… so. damn. good. Sugar Cookie has definitely been the shade I’ve worn the most. I don’t LOVE the Too Faced Melted Matte formula since it’s a touch drying, BUT I can’t resist the shades and the scent (vanilla cookie batter!).

And, like all of the other shades in this post, it works really beautifully with bright eyeshadow colours. This is one of my more darker nudes, but I hadn’t really thought about it until I saw them all swatched out together:

Do you see how Suva‘s Awakening and Maybelline‘s Loyalist are identical?? I love them both, so I ain’t even mad about it!

So those are my nude lipsticks picks as of late. Do you have a favourite nude lipstick? Let me know!

All of the products featured in this post were sent to me over the course of the last four years. Post contains affiliate links.

VIDEO: ColourPop Just My Luck Palette – Review, Swatches & 5 Looks

April 9, 2019Makeup, Reviews, Swatches, Tutorials, YouTubeColourPopChelle