Smashbox L.A. Lights in Culver City Coral (Review, Swatches & Look)
If there’s one colour in blush that makes me swoon harder than anything else… it would have to be coral. So when Smashbox threw together a blush and highlight compact centered around coral… well… 
Available as of April 2016, Smashbox has released the L.A. Lights Blush & Highlight palette in three different shades: Pacific Coast Pink and Culver City Coral (available at Sephora and Beauty Boutique) and Malibu Berry (available at Beauty Boutique). These palettes feature two blushes alongsidea perfectly matched highlighter centered around the palette’s colour theme (pink, coral and berry).
The pans are encased in an incredibly slim and sleek compact with a mirror that encompasses the entire lid (thank you! So appreciated!). Each individual pan nets you 2.9 grams of product.
The pans are appropriately sized so that I can get even my largest blush brush in there, so you needn’t worry about these being small! There is no dust kick up even when I rub my brush into the pan which is a really nice since I hate when blush powder goes flying everywhere. That being said, these aren’t hardpacked blushes either (you know, when you have to practically scrape at the product to get colour payoff?). The consistency is what I want in ALL of my blushes – no dust kick up, excellent pigmentation and not hardpacked.
Each palette features a “Rich”, “True” and “Highlight” shade. Pigmentation was incredible across the board on all shades, although I will point out that the Highlight shade works more on me as a blush since it does have a decent amount of pigmentation and isn’t just a sheer wash highlighter.
Here’s how the shades look on my face:
Wearing True Coral
Rich Coral is definitely the darkest shade in the palette, but it’s the one I had the most fun with. You can go for a super pigmented look like I’ve gone for, or tone it down my applying a little bit less. (I’m not wearing any highlighter in these shots.)
From the side, of Rich Coral looks a bit less pigmented in my eyes, but still as stunning as ever. You can see it in action as I’m wearing it in my April Favourites video (and pssst, there’s a giveaway in that video!).
Wearing True Coral & Highlight Coral
In these shots I’m wearing True Coral on my cheeks and Highlight Coral on my cheekbones.
Highlight Coral is very low in sheen compared to some of the other highlighters I have, but still beautiful.
Final Thoughts
I can’t say enough good things about this Smashbox Culver City Coral trio! Seriously. This compact is incredible! The blush shades are *exactly* what I’m looking for: pigmentation and colour are second to none! The highlight isn’t exactly what I personally go for since I look for a bit more reflective qualities but that’s my personal take on it. In general, it’s an excellent soft focus highlighter that complements the blush shades very well. I know tons of people are going to appreciate the fact that the guesswork is taken out matching your blush and highlighter because this palette does it for you. The pigment on all of the shades were holding strong after a full workday for me and never looked patchy or faded. If you couldn’t already tell… I *LOVE* this product!
The Smashbox L.A. Lights Blush & Highlight palettes can be purchased on sephora.ca for $40 CAD and on sephora.com for $35 USD.
The product featured in this post was sent to me for review.
VIDEO: April 2016 Beauty Favourites + Giveaway
As I mentioned in the video, I decided to pick up an extra Too Faced Peanut Butter & Jelly palette to giveaway! (And I’ll chuck in a full size Better Than Sex mascara too!)
Giveaway Rules
- This giveaway is open internationally!
- This giveaway starts on May 3, 2016 and runs for three weeks.
- Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.
- One winner will win a Too Faced Peanut Butter & Jelly palette and a Better Than Sex mascara (full size).
- The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail. If they fail to respond within that time frame, I will pick another prize winner. (And so on.)
- “Giveaway accounts” will not be considered for this prize. (If you want to know what I mean by that, please click here.)
Real Techniques: Bold Metals, Sponge Duo and Cleansing Gel
Being a long time viewer of Pixiwoo on YouTube, the Real Techniques brand holds a very special place in my heart. Created by Sam Chapman (and her sister Nicola was later added on), this brand has easily taken over my makeup brush collection as I, without a doubt, have more Real Techniques than any other brush brand combined.
Suffice to say… when new stuff gets released by RT, I get excited. I’ve got a few items that have been released (relatively) recently and wanted to cover them all in a roundup post.
Sadly, no matter how much I love a brand, there’s always going to be a dud or two, so let’s get that one out of the way immediately. The Deep Cleansing Gel is a makeup brush cleanser that is intended to “remove makeup, oils and impurities from your bristles for a flawless result”. You’re instructed to wet your brush, squeeze a drop of the gel onto the bristles, rub between your fingers and then rinse.
Sorry, but no. This doesn’t work. It barely works on brushes that were only dipped into powder products (even then still leaving coloured residue on your brush) , but it definitely does not work on anything that had been dipped into a liquid or cream formula. Although the gel smells LOVELY (seriously, if they could bottle it as a perfume, I’d absolutely wear it), it does next to nothing on my brushes. It’s hard to squeeze out of the tube and no matter how much I used – from a drop to almost a handful – I could not get the bristles of my brush clean. I’m so sad to say, but this is a total pass for me. Save yourselves the money and go buy some baby shampoo. 🙁
Alright, on to the AWESOME stuff! This is my first foray into the Bold Metals lineup and I’m already smitten. A while back, the Pixiwoo sisters made a video introducing the Bold Metals line making sure to point out that while they were happy with their base Real Techniques brush line, that was the best they could do at that price point (which is incredibly low given the quality of the brushes in my opinion). So, they opted to create a new sub line called Bold Metals that would have higher quality brushes, but at the cost of a higher price point.
The bristles feel softer to me than the original RT lineup and feature a weight balanced handle that is triangularly shaped so that you brushes don’t run off on you when you put them down on your desk. They also have brand new shapes, so you’re not seeing a duplication of the original brush lineup. Very smart.
The two brushes I have are the 300 Tapered Blush and the 200 Oval Shadow.
The 300 Tapered Blush is fast becoming a new best friend to me. I brought the brush with me to Iceland and forced myself to use it instead of my usual MAC 130 with my Tarte blushes. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? It was AWESOME. It applied my blush beautifully and precisely, which is exactly what I wanted. Since this is a smaller blush brush, you will find the application is more pointed, however, the cut of the brush makes it easy to blend out the edges giving you that beautiful glowing look – and not like you just whacked your cheeks with a dollop of blush. Two massive thumbs up for this brush!
The 200 Oval Shadow was an interesting one to me. It’s far larger than any other blending brush I own and I wasn’t sure how it was going to fit into the contours of my eye. End result? It doesn’t QUITE fit, but it is pretty damn epic when you want to blend out all your crease and outer corner shades (specifically if you’d made a damn mess and need to blend till the cows come home. Don’t lie – you know it’s happened to you!). The press info I have for this brush indicates you can use it for undereye concealer (although I don’t wear that stuff) which I can still see it fitting in that area very, very well.
Both brushes cleaned very easily (with baby shampoo) and did not retain any pigment which is always a concern for me with white bristles. They retained their shape and are still as soft as ever. Two massive thumbs up for the Bold Metals lineup!
One of the best parts of the newly launched items is this double up of the Miracle Complexion Sponge! This is *the* tool I reach for whenever I want to apply foundation. It creates a seamlessly blended foundation without any rough patches and I really could not ask for anything more in a sponge. This is the product that turned me off applying foundation with a brush – it’s THAT good! So when RT decided to release it in a doubled up package, I could not have been happier. It saves me money when buying a product that I will eventually need to replace, so what’s not to love? For reference, I use a Miracle Complexion Sponge for about 9-12 months before I replace it. If you clean it regularly, then you can get away with using this little guy for a very long time!
If you’re looking for more specific brush usage and where to use them on your face, may I recommend checking out my brush video on YouTube? It (accidentally) focused on a lot of Real Techniques brushes:
If you’re Canadian (like me!) and want to know where you can actually pick up Real Techniques, please check out the following roundup via Farley Co for a full breakdown (you can also buy them on their site too!). For other countries, off the top of my head… I’ve seen RT at Walmart and Harmons in the USA and in Iceland I saw them freaking EVERYWHERE (seriously, pharmacies, random makeup stores and even a massive selection at the airport!).
And there we have it! That’s new from Real Techniques and whether or not I’m loving it. 🙂
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.
Swatch Sunday: Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Gleam
Ohhh boy. Because I need another FOUR highlighters in my life, right?
When the Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kits got released a very short time ago I was like “meh, I don’t need a new highlighter, I have TONS!”. But then the hype set in. And people kept talking about just how much they wanted to wear all four shades at once and look like a disco ball going down the street. SO AM I TO RESIST?
Without a doubt, the names suckered me in. It’s so very easy to fall in love with a product when you love all of the names of the products isn’t it? I went for the Gleam quad because it just appealed to me more than the other one did. (But yeah… I kind of want both anyway…)
Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Gleam Swatches
Things to note: these are very, very heavy swatches in an attempt to show their true pan colour. Unless you’re wearing it as a blush or an eyeshadow, I doubt you’d wear it this strong on your cheekbones. Also, there’s no mirror in the lid of the palette. 😐
^ This one has a crazy duochrome that was really hard to photograph!
