Holy Grail Beautyy . . .

Storytime

In Australia we don't receive all the major drugstore brands new product releases (that are not high end) in the retail stores at the same time as the USA.  I believe this product was released maybe four months back in the USA.  Drugstore makeup is sold mainly in our supermarkets, Target and Kmart stores.chemists and beauty specific stores.  Of course, you can go online and purchase any products you like that way.  Products are available here sporadically and not all products in brand lines are always sold here anyway, so you will need to go online.

The Maybelline palette is only available in two shades and I bought the Light/Medium and there is the Medium/Dark option too.

Beauty Guru

I turned the product over and there is instructions on how to apply the three products to your face.  I found it a bit odd that the contour is referred to as a BRONZER.  There is a small angled brush included in the kit but this brush is next to useless.  You may like to use it to contour your nose or maybe placing highlight on your cupids bow.  Its a token brush really.

The swatching of the products was quite telling.  The highlight was the highlight of the trio. Its an almost neutral icy gold shade and is not glittery, it has kind of a matte look to it.

I applied the contour shade first and it is not an ideal shade to be using for contouring.  It is too warm and like the fact it is referred to as a bronzer on the reverse of the product makes sense.  I would not recommend this as a contour.

The blush was on next and the blush is pink but I feel there is nothing special about it.  There is no depth to this product, in fact it makes me look sunburnt.  I don't think this is a good shade for me personally.  I am a very pink toned very pale freckly person and this is not flattering.  Very flat product.
In this photo above I applied the three products VERY LIGHTLY you can imagine if I applied it stronger, its so orange and a harsh pink. 

The highlight is easily star of the kit.  Its a very pale icy gold, very pigmented and is worth the whole price of the entire product.

Some good things about the product:

• Highlighter is the best of the trio
• Contour is great as an eyeshadow
• Inexpensive

Some not so good things about the product:

• Contour is too bronze like
• Blush is flat, lacks depth, unflattering on me
• Lasts around two hours before it starts to fade

Ultimately, I would not recommend this contour kit, there is other products out there that are much better and give you the results you want.  Save your money for a product that is going to give you want you want.  I have seen that Wet and Wild (not available in Australia at physical stores) have great contour and highlight products that are the actual right contour shade for possibly cheaper.  This review is my opinion, everybody has one and has the right to one.  Makeup is fun to do and we can all use what we like to get the look we want.  This palette might do things you like that don't suit me and that is the great thing about makeup.

Thankyou for reading!
Not sponsored.
Photos by me.
More Maybelline 

Storytime

I recently tried the Match Perfection foundation and I was interested to see how this concealer and highlighter two in one product fared.  It is available in three shades from what I know.

Beauty Guru

I fell in love with this product immediately; as you can see on the left hand side I am wearing the product with Revlon Nearly Naked Pressed Powder in 01 Clair/Fair.  I will include a photo of my face without the powder as well.



I really love a lot about this product.  It is very easy to blend into your skin.  The tone was perfect for me.  The product is fragrance free, it covered my under eye area to my satisfaction.  I prefer it over the Match Perfection Foundation.  Its not too expensive, still under $20.00.  The only thing I don't like about it is the packaging.  Its hard to squeeze the tube to get product out of it, and if you keep pressing to push it out, it can explode out quickly and could cause a difficult mess and a large waste of product.  A doe foot applicator would be a great alternative or similar.  This tube's pressure is not right.  Do I recommend? Absolutely! One other bone to pick:  There is only three shades which is actually more than these brands like Rimmel, Maybelline etc usually proffer, there is a light medium shade and a medium I think.



The additional products on my face are the following:  L'Oreal Lumi Magique Base Pure Light Primer, Revlon Photoready BB Cream SPF 30 in 010 Pale Light and to set the concealer I used Revlon Nearly Naked pressed powder in 010 Fair/Clair.

Recapping the good bits:

• Blends seamlessly
• Fragrance free
• Inexpensive
• Three shades so a bit better than the average two shades offered 

Not so good bits:

•  Product can "POP" out of the applicator when you keep pushing for product out 
• More shades would always be a good thing for any brand to include for more options for customers
• The highlight the product is supposed to have is non existant
• It is scientifically impossible for the product to 'adapt' to my individual skin tone - pure marketing!

The photos of after 8 hours are not touched up with extra powder or any other product.  It is the full 8 hours.   It does have a matte finish and lasts about four hours before it starts to wear off.  Touch ups with powder though could prolong it.


 Because to truly test the product I refrained from touch ups, you can see the natural oils melting my makeup! My eyebrows even aren't the same after 8 hours of wear.  Things start to disintegrate around hours 4-5 for other items of make up.

To avoid too much creasing, I prep the eye area with some non silicone moisturiser as I find they become troublesome afterwards when you use other products on top of them.  After a couple of layers of moisturiser, I then apply the primer, base and now the concealer.  Then I set with a minimal amount of powder to try and avoid as much as possible creasing, fine line exaggeration and excessive dry looking texture.  It can take a little bit of experimentation for each person but this system should at least be workable.

I definitely recommend this product!
Not sponsored.
Photos by me.
More Rimmel London Australia