When I was in New York City in October I decided to pick up the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill Dark Magic palette when I saw that it was readily available at Ulta.
The Dark Magic palette is a much darker palette than I’m accustomed to seeing, so I definitely wanted to pick it up and give it a shot. If you’d like to see what this palette looks like on the eyes, I wore it in my monthly haul video:
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Esqido has been my preferred brand for fake lashes for quite a while now- I find them comfortable and easy to wear, and they have some of the most flattering shapes for my own eyes. So when Esqido announced they were launching eyeliners I was a little surprised, but it also makes a lot of sense, too.
Esqido has put out two colours in their brand new Gel Eyeliner collection: Black and Brown.
The Esqido Gel Eyeliners come in your traditional twist up pencil (which can thankfully be twizzled down as well). They also have a sharpener on the opposite end of the pencil which pops off for easy sharpening. This isn’t a feature I traditionally use as I feel it wastes product, but it’s there for people who are looking for a sharper edge.
The two liners swatch easily. They are mostly creamy on application, but there is a slight bit of stiffness which I believe actually increases the longevity of the liners. I’ve used some of the incredibly creamy eyeliners on the market and while they can bevery easy to apply, I feel like some of the longevity is lost in the creaminess of the product. That isn’t to say that these are rough on the eyes – they’re not! But they’re not the smoothest, creamiest ones either.
You may have seen that Esqido launched a fairly intensive social media campaign when they first announced these eyeliners. The demonstrations of people running water over eyeliner swatches and then vigorously rubbing their hand to show the longevity was wild – these looked completely impervious to the elements!
Now, I can’t say that I go about rubbing my eyes and splashing water on my face all day when I’m wearing makeup, but these eyeliners do hold up very, very well. I found this to be especially obvious on the lower water line which can be a problem area for me if the liner is bad. The two colours go on extremely pigmented and can be easily blended out with a brush to smoke out the colour. They do set though, so you need to move quickly. I found that the liners held on to my water line extremely well throughout eight or so hours. I had very minimal fading at the very outer corners of my eyes which is not unexpected for me.
So if you’re in the market for a long lasting gel eyeliner, you may want to look into the Esqido ones. They’re regularly priced at $15 USD, but they’re doing a promo right now and they’re only $12 each!
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.
It feels like the liquid lipstick bandwagon is neverending! Although I think we’ve gotten to the point where brands acknowledge that while makeup lovers like longevity in their products, there’s a lot of us out there that are flat out sick of the dried paint sensation that a longwear liquid lipstick provides. Suva Beauty decided to launch their Moisture Matte Liquid Lipsticks with kissproof longevity with the comfort of a cream lipstick.
Suva Beauty initially launched the range with six shades, but they added an additional two with their most recent Saffron collection launch.
The shade names themselves seem to be based on dreams and the inner workings of the mind. With names like “The Unconscious”, “Dreamer”, and “Awakening”, I found the names really enticing and I like that they picked a theme to use for the launch.
The Moisture Matte Liquid Lipsticks come with your traditional long doe-foot applicator which works well for application. I generally prefer a somewhat smaller wand (like in a deluxe size sample) but this is really the only type you can get in a full size product.
In swatches, the colours are opaque in a single swipe. You will notice that they take slightly longer to dry down on the skin than most regular liquid lipsticks do.
Which is especially obvious in the shot above! They do eventually dry down completely, but I’d say it takes about 5-7 minutes to go completely dry.
The Suva Beauty Moisture Matte Liquid Lipstick formula is interesting, and it is slightly different than most liquid lipsticks. While the dry down does take longer than most liquid lipsticks that are on the market right now, I think this actually helps with the comfort of the liquid lipstick. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that these feel like a cream lipstick (which is really a bit far-reaching I think for a brand to say about a dry down liquid lipstick), but they are one of the most comfortable liquid lipstick I’ve put on my lips. There is a trade off for that comfort though – while they are mostly touchproof, I don’t find them to be completely resilient to pressure and you will find some of the lipstick coming off on your coffee cup or glass. It’s not a lot, but it’s worth mentioning. The longevity is excellent however – the slight transfer you may get from eating or drinking doesn’t diminish the fact that these wear for a very long time – I get easily 5-6 hours before I inevitably take my lipstick off. They also don’t feel like dried paint on your lips either – they have a bit of bend and give to them which feels really good.
The liquid lipsticks also smell amazing – like creamy mashmallows! The taste does disappear rather quickly on the lips, but it’s a lovely scent when you pull the product out of the tube for application.
All in all, these are a good buy from Suva Beauty. I feel like the colours and product opacity are fantastic, and I like the feel of the product on my lips even if it’s not completely transferproof.
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
The NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette in Brights has been on my wishlist for a very long time, so I was really happy to pick it up at Shoppers Drug Mart’s when I was sent a gift card to try out their online shop.
Sadly, none of the shades have names!
The colour above is completely accurate by the way. The pan had a dull grey coat on top, and the shade underneath was the swatch you see on the right. Surprised the heck out of me!
The NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette in Brights is available on shoppersdrugmart.com for $21.49 CAD (currently on sale for $17.99!) and on ulta.com for $17.99 USD.
The product featured in this post was not directly sent to me from PR, but I was gifted a gift card to Shoppers Drug Mart online to promote their online shop, and I chose this palette. Post contains affiliate links.
I’m a bit late with my seasonal posting of QUO‘s fall collection, so let’s just dive right into it!
QUO does packaging extremely well. Their palettes are always compact and beautifully designed – the cases feel solid and they’ve always got enormous mirrors on the inside. The lipsticks themselves even have a bit of a new design too – these matte lipsticks actually have a snap closure at the bottom. To get at your lipstick, push the bottom of the bullet up, and the lipstick will snap back out of the packaging. I really, really like this design – I feel like it’s super secure because your lid won’t be falling off at any point if your lipstick is rattling around in your bag.
With the Fall 2018 collection, QUO has launched two new eyeshadow palettes – Lunar Rainbow (*love* that name!) and Fire Clay. For $20 CAD each, you’re getting 12 eyeshadows and a dual ended brush. I always think brushes in palettes are garbage, and I really wish brands would just stop providing them – so please QUO – stop with the brushes! As for the shadows themselves, QUO can be a bit hit or miss with their eye palettes and these two were no exception.
Visually, Fire Clay was the most appealing palette to me out of the two. This palette fits right into the warm, neutral loving era of makeup that we seem to be forever stuck in (which I’m still fully enjoying by the way!). This palette definitely focuses more on warm browns with oranges and golds. I like that they’ve provided several lighter shades as well so you’re not stuck using just one.
Fire Clay makes for a really beautiful eye look, but it’s definitely more subtle than I had expected, and sadly it’s down to the pigmentation. In a swatch, the oranges come across super strong and vibrant, but in practice I found that the shades just sort of dissolved on my eyes. I used the brightest orange shade on my lid here and it doesn’t look remotely like the swatch! Additionally, I used the darkest brown in the outer corner, and it was fine at first, but I found it faded significantly within an hour of wearing it. I don’t normally have fading issues with my eyeshadows, so when I notice it, it’s a huge warning sign for me sadly. So while the Fire Clay eye look is pretty overall, I found it to be far more subtle than what the eyeshadows lead me to believe based on the swatches.
Moving on to Lunar Rainbow. This palette really surprised me when I swatched it! QUO has a tendency to stick to flat out neutral, so I was impressed to see some vibrant teals and a golden olive shade in the mix.
And this palette definitely worked much, much better on my eyes. I loved that golden olive shade (inner third of my eye), and the darker teals were really, really pretty. I had a few blending issues around my lower lash line (which is half the shadow’s fault and half my fault for having to rush out the door to work!) but overall I was much more pleased with Lunar Rainbow in comparison to how I felt about Fire Clay. These colours are much more true to pan/swatch, and I didn’t notice any fading.
QUO Face Palettes are always excellent, and these Fall 2018 ones are no exception. There’s something about the powder quality that blends smoothly and evenly – the colours always end up being absolutely beautiful on the skin.
However, my largest complaint with their face palettes is that while they’re really good, they tend to get repetitive season over season. The “lighter” face palette (Sweet Magnolia) always has a cool-toned pink blush with a pinky-toned highlighter, and the “darker” face palette (Dragon Bite) always has a coral blush with a more golden highlighter. While both palettes work nicely on me, and I always, always love the quality, I would like to see a little bit more variety in their releases.
The bronzing shades in the Dragon Bite palette is slightly more intense than I would normally go for, so I just make sure to apply it lightly (I used the less shimmery bronzer all over my face along the perimeter, and then used the more shimmery, deeper one at the very backs of my cheekbones). As for the blush and highlighter – I mean they’re frigging stunning. I love those shades so, so much and they worked really well with the Fire Clay eyeshadow palette on my eyes.
Sweet Magnolia is one of those staple QUO palettes for me as the colouring always works on my skin tone. Despite me preferring coral blushes because I find them prettier to look at in the pan, it has to be said that pink tends to go great with every look and the highlighter matches it nicely.
To finish up the QUO Fall 2018 collection, we have the new Matte Lipsticks in three shades. I love the opening mechanism on these lipsticks (push the bottom to release the lipstick). I think they take the cake over even the magnetic closure ones for me!
Although there’s only three shades in the collection, they do a great job of providing options that suit the palettes. The pigmentation on the lipsticks is predominantly opaque – the only one that had slight translucency was Addict but that’s because it has a purple base and those shades are prone to pigmentation issues. I find that the formula glides on smoothly, but I did encounter a bit of gathering issues around the inner rim of my mouth after about an hour or so. This is easily smoothed out with your fingertip though. I would also suggest applying these with a lip brush to get a crisp line.
Seduce is a really easy colour to wear. I always forget how nice these kinds of shades look on me as I tend to go for more vibrant colours overall. I love how easily this paired with a warm eyeshadow look, but I feel like it would go equally well with a cool-toned one as well.
Date Night is *lovely*! I included it in my recent post on 5 Red(ish Lipsticks for the Colder Months because it’s a really stunning shade that suits the fall season perfectly. It’s a brick red with some burnt orange thrown into the mix.
Deep purple lipsticks have patchiness issues – we all know this, and I feel like I’ve tried out a lot of deep purples lately that continue to have really bad patchy problems on my lips. So I was really impressed when QUO‘s Addict shade went on my lips with little to no issue in comparison to the other ones I’ve tried recently. There is some translucency in certain areas, but it did apply and stay on my lips much nicer than others I’ve dabbled with in the last few months.
The QUO Face Palettes are always excellent products so I’d suggest picking one of those up if you didn’t already have one of their face palettes (due to the repeated shades). The eyeshadows palettes were a bit all over the place – for me Fire Clay is sadly a pass because the colours just didn’t come out as vibrantly as I had hoped. I love Lunar Rainbow‘s depth of tone, so I’d suggest that one over Fire Clay for sure. The Matte Lipsticks are lovely too, and I really love the shade selection they’ve put out with this launch.
QUO can be purchased in stores at Shoppers Drug Mart, or on their online retail platform too.
Products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.