Category Archives: Swatches

Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact (Review, Swatches & Look)

Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact

I’m fairly new to Mary Kay makeup. My only lasting impressions of the brand was that it was always an Avon-type brand. You know the kind… where older women in your neighbourhood would have makeup parties and they’d all go through the catalogue together and pick out items they wanted to wear. They’d then place their order via their representative and wait for their products to get delivered. Since my recollections of this were from an eight year old perspective as I watched my mom take part in these things, the brand kind of became branded with a “that’s for old ladies” perspective. And while I think some of those memories still linger for me, I’m quite happy to try out a brand for the first time and see what *I* think about it, and not what my 8 year old self’s impressions are of it.

Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact
Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact

Well that was an intro and a half. Let’s get into this. As part of their spring collection, Mary Kay has released their Into The Garden collection (available now) and this Color Compact is part of that release. Florals for spring is hardly a new theme, but I know there’s a lot of women out there who appreciate the softness of pastels and gentle colours when it’s finally time for us to exit winter.

Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact
Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact

The Into The Garden Color Compact comes with four eyeshadows that all have a shimmery finish. The three lip colours are more of a gloss, but they do have some colour in them so they’ll help augment the colour of your lips.

Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact - Swatches
Mary Kay Into The Garden Color Compact – Swatches

The eyeshadows impressed me: they may all have the same finish, but they’re soft, easy to blend and the pigmentation is definitely there. There’s no chalky-ness to them and all four colours are highly complementary.

The coloured glosses stood out a bit more to me in this palette as they’re not shades I would expect to see paired with these eyeshadows. They also have a bit of glitter in them.

Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden
Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden

Here’s the look I put together using the Into The Garden Color Compact.

Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden
Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden

I used all four eyeshadows and the more coral-red lip shade.

Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden - close up
Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden – close up
Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden - close up
Wearing Mary Kay Into The Garden – close up

I applied the taupe shade all over the lid, the deep, dark purple on the outer corner and through the crease. I lined my lower lash line with the vibrant purple and applied the soft pink shade to the inner corner. The look came out quite pretty, and yet dramatic enough for my tastes.

Let me know what YOU think of Mary Kay products! I was pretty impressed with the eyeshadows in this palette and would love to hear more about what you recommend from the brand.

The product featured in this post was provided to me for consideration.

Joe Fresh Illuminating Primers in Pure Glow & Champagne (Review + Swatches)

Joe Fresh Illuminating Primers

With the news that Joe Fresh cosmetics are now being carried at Shoppers Drug Mart locations, I’m seeing a lot of new products popping up! I don’t know if I’ve just been out of the loop regarding Joe Fresh Beauty, but I’m seeing some fairly new and interesting things from them!

Like these Illuminating Primers that retail for $16 apiece. They come encased in beautiful translucent containers with a white top and…

With pump!
With pump!

A FREAKING PUMP! Cream/liquid products without a pump are the absolute bane of my makeup existence, so it’s really, REALLY nice to see a brand release one with a pump without a second thought. The packaging is solid, well built and feels more expensive than the $16 price point would indicate.

The Illuminating Primer is a light, reflecting primer that can be used all over your body (mix it into body lotion for extra glow!). Joe Fresh claims that these illuminating primers create a radiant canvas, hide imperfections and provide longer-lasting makeup.

Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Pure Glow
Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Pure Glow

The white shade is called Pure Glow and it has a small hint of pinky-blue duochrome to it. Don’t be frightened though, it’s very, very subtle and you won’t look like a disco ball.

Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Champagne
Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Champagne

The more golden toned shade is Champagne. It’s a gold-caramel shade that seems to reflect a tiny bit of silver (odd to say, but I do see that in there). I was a little apprehensive that this shade would make me look like C-3PO, but thankfully that was not the case!

Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer swatches - Pure Glow & Champagne
Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer swatches – Pure Glow & Champagne

Both primers pack a colour punch when you apply them as a heavy swatch, but when you blend them in they create a dewy cast to the skin. It can look a bit TOO dewy, so I would not recommend wearing them alone – instead, stick to wearing it under your foundation or with a moisturizer as it was intended. For reference, since it’s the winter right now, I’m on the dry side of things skin-wise.

Wearing Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Champagne
Wearing Joe Fresh Illuminating Primer in Champagne

In the shot above I’m wearing Champagne – I find it adds a subtle hint of radiance without going totally overboard.

Final Thoughts

When used as a face primer under foundation, this is a very subtle highlight. As I mentioned above, I wouldn’t recommend wearing this alone on your face as I found it may look a touch greasy but it really does look excellent under foundation. It helps even out the texture of my skin and adds some luminosity to any matte foundations I own (which is especially nice during the winter). I wasn’t truly expecting this to increase the longevity of my makeup because I never really notice that with a face primer… but I’m quite happy to report that on the days that I wore these primers, I did notice my makeup looking particularly fresh by the time I got home from work.

You don’t normally find these kind of products at the drugstore, so I’m really happy that Joe Fresh is delivering something fresh and exciting and a much better price point than high end brands. Let me know if these illuminating primers are something you’re interested in!

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

Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color (Review + Swatches of the Full Collection)

Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Colors

Let me start off by saying this product actually confuses me a bit. I believe the Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Colors launched as part of the Fergie Wet n Wild line in the USA (and were branded with her logo on it), but I got these here in Canada at a Wet n Wild launch party a few weeks ago. They’re missing the Fergie logo, and they seem to have totally different names when I compare them to the Fergie linup. I wonder if the rights to her line were only for the USS? I’m fairly confident that despite the shade names being different, they are in fact the same shades!

Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Colors
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Colors

Regardless of their names, this is an entirely new set of products to me. Being the matte lip lover that I am, I was more than happy to try these out! The Velvet Matte Lip Colors come encased in a soft rubberized tube (similar to NARS packaging) and twist up from the bottom and can, thankfully, can be twisted back down. Although five of the nine shades look to be near identical in colour, I found that the colour of the packaging was SERIOUSLY misleading. If you can believe it, there’s actually a pinky-purple and a straight up magenta in there!

These have a soft matte feeling which is starting to become pretty standard for matte lip products. I did feel like some of the shades required a bit more pressure to be applied (almost as if I had to break through some kind of sheer coating to get through to the colour), but once I got there, the colour was fairly solid. Some of the shades were a bit more sheer (namely Lie Lack and Turnt Orange) and you’ll definitely be able to see that in the arm swatches. Overall, I’m impressed with the consistency of these especially given that the price point is around $3-4 USD/CAD.

Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color Swatches

Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A360 Nude Streak
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A360 Nude Streak
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A360 Nude Streak
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A360 Nude Streak
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A361 Toffee Frappe
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A361 Toffee Frappe
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A361 Toffee Frappe
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A361 Toffee Frappe
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A362 Looking For Truffle
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A362 Looking For Truffle
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A362 Looking For Truffle
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A362 Looking For Truffle
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A363 Hickory Smoked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A363 Hickory Smoked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A363 Hickory Smoked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A363 Hickory Smoked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A364 Charred Cherry
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A364 Charred Cherry
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A364 Charred Cherry
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A364 Charred Cherry
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A365 Lie Lack
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A365 Lie Lack
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A365 Lie Lack
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A365 Lie Lack
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A366 Berry Tales
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A366 Berry Tales
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A366 Berry Tales
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A366 Berry Tales
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A367 Shelly Shocked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A367 Shelly Shocked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A367 Shelly Shocked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A367 Shelly Shocked
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A368 Turnt Orange
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A368 Turnt Orange
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A368 Turnt Orange
Wet n Wild Velvet Matte Lip Color in A368 Turnt Orange

Final Thoughts

You cannot go wrong with this kind of price point, especially if you want to try out a new lip colour! The texture is wonderful and if you like any of the colours above, I’d recommend checking them out! My personal favourite shades are Hickory Smoked, Turnt Orange (although it looks drastically different on my lips compared to the swatch) and Toffee Frappe.

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