Oh man… the first time I saw the inside of the Melt Cosmetics Vida palette… well… I was stunned at just how gorgeous it is.
Melt Cosmetics – Vida
The combination of greens, oranges and reds mixed in with a few neutrals was jawdroppingly gorgeous. I’m so, SO excited by this colour combination and cannot wait to start playing with it. A full video review will be forthcoming on my YouTube channel, but please enjoy the swatches in the meantime.
Benefit definitely knows how to do the holidays, and their holiday 2019 Brow Superstars definitely doesn’t disappoint! I mean just look at this thing! It’s a tophat! And it’s filled with full size products!
Benefit Brow Superstars Set in Shade 2
The Brow Superstars Set comes in three different shades (2, 3 & 4) and contains six full size products at a seriously reduced price tag. The retail value of the whole set is $192 CAD if you were to buy them individually, but the set altogether is going for $79 CAD which is absolutely wild.
Benefit Brow Superstars Set in Shade 2
If you’re a fan of Benefit‘s brow products and use even only about three of these on the regular, then this becomes an amazing deal. It also gives you the opportunity to try out additional products in the same colour range
Benefit Brow Set in Shade 2
Swatched out you can see the difference between all six products. The only one that looks slightly off to me is Gimme Brow which looks a touch warmer, and Browtones which looks a bit cooler than all the rest of them. Excluding, of course, the Brow Setter which is just a clear brow gel.
Wearing Precisely, My Brow and 3D Browtones
I’m very familiar with Precisely, My Brow, so I already know that I like the product a lot. What was interesting was trying out 3D Browtones which is what I layered on top of Precise, My Brow. It’s pegged as a product to add highlights and dimension, which is why it’s a little bit more reflective than the other products (in the swatches above). Don’t worry though, it doesn’t make your brows look reflective! I found it added a touch of dimension to my brows, but overall it’s Precisely, My Brow that definitely did all of the heavy lifting.
Benefit Ka-Brow
Ka-Brow was a new to me product that I was curious to try. Unfortunately, I found the application of the product to be a bit stiff because the product itself seemed a bit dried out in the bottle. I like the overall effect, but I think next time I’d add a bit of INGLOT Duraline to soften up the formula.
Wearing Gimme Brow
Okay WOW. Gimme Brow was the one that impressed me the most. I used it over top of some of my regular brow products and I LOVED the effect of it. It add a bit of oomph to my brows and helped me to brush them upwards (and held them in place) which really helped to add more volume to my brows. LOVE this one!
Wearing Goof Proof
Goof Proof is intended for easy, fast filling of your brows. It has a diamond shape, and I definitely need to learn to play with the angles a bit better (my tail is a shambles here!), but it was definitely lightning quick to get my eyebrows filled in!
Final Thoughts
At the price point that Benefit is offering this set, it’s a hell of a good package. Especially if you’re someone (or you know someone) who really likes to change up how they do their brows day to day. I also like that it gives someone the opportunity to try something new out too. Although I was familiar with Precisely, My Brow – I didn’t have a lot of experience with the other products, but now I’ve found a new favourite in that Gimme Brow! The only item I won’t really get use out of is the clear brow gel just because I need the bulk that Gimme Brow adds, and the clear brow gel would only set my (non existent) brow hairs in place. The only slightly irksome thing about this collection is that they’ve only released it in three colours. And while I’m sure the shades they chose are their most popular brow colours, it would’ve been nice to see their full range available. That being said… shade 2 definitely worked for me and I was happy to play around with the set and I know I’m going to be using the bulk of these products up!
Do you remember a point in time when drugstore pencil eyeliners absolutely sucked? We’re talking hard as rock liners that basically scratched your lid when you tried to draw them on your eye? Ones that were so bloody hard you had to hold it up to a lightbulb in order to heat up the product enough so that you could actually have a hope in hell of drawing it on your eye without gouging out your eyeball? I sure do! And boy, oh boy – pencil eyeliners have come a LONG way since then!
Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners
And these RevlonSo Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners are some of the best I have used. We’ve come a long way, baby – and it feels good!
The RevlonSo Fierce! liners have a gel-like consistency. They glide on the eyes with ease, and I promise you that you won’t have to tug on your eye to get the colour on there! The liners do have a vinyl-like shine to them (as their name would suggest), but I don’t find it INCREDIBLY shiny. We’re not talking like… super shiny here. There’s only a hint of a shine.
Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners – swatches
The colours are opaque right off the bat too! So not only are you getting an easy colour deposit, but you’re also getting a TON of colour to go with it. I found that I was able to smudge these out if I moved very, very quickly after applying it. They will set relatively quickly, so you need to move fast! The upside to that being that once you get them in place, they’re not going to transfer anywhere. And since I’v egot hooded lids, I was super appreciative of that. I will often find that a pencil liner will transfer to my upper lid – which is one of the reasons I’ve avoided wearing pencil liner on my upper lash line. With these? No issue! They stayed put!
Wearing Force of SteelWearing Mighty MochaWearing Powerful PlumWearing Righteous Rum
Final Thoughts
Wow! I wasn’t expecting the Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners to be THIS good. I’d kind of given up on using pencil liners a long while ago because they just transferred far too much to my upper crease area. I’ve been opting to wear most pencils on my water line instead… until now! These glide on and stay put, and that’s exactly what I need in a pencil liner for my upper lash line.
I’m impressed with the colour selection too – you’re not just getting your basic black and brown, but also a wonderful grey, a deep maroon and even some fun blues in the mix. (There is a brighter blue in the collection too, but I didn’t receive that particular shade.)
Wow! You know what’s exciting? When you get to see a YouTuber that you watch actually collaborate with a brand and release an eyeshadow palette! And even more exciting – the creator asked if she could send me the palette too!
Ami Hearts Beauty x Amy Loves Makeup – Alma
So say hello to the Alma palette! Amy Loves Makeup (see her YouTube channel here) teamed up with indie makeup brand Ami Hearts Beauty to release this 15 pan palette… that I was going to say is currently available, but the original launch has sold out, so it’s currently up for pre-order of the second batch!
Ami Hearts Beauty x Amy Loves Makeup – Alma
I will be doing a full video review with five looks, but in the meantime, please enjoy the swatches.
Ami Hearts Beauty x Amy Loves Makeup – Alma Swatches
