Holy Grail Beautyy . . .

Mecca Cosmetica's second line of in-house cosmetics, Mecca Max, have produced a series of  "duos" of complimentary colours for your eyes with a powder shadow that is matte and a shimmer cream topcoat.  I bought two, one being Tuscan Sun  red powder and orange shimmer and a muted pale green with green/gold shimmer called Armed Forces.

Beauty Guru

Tuscan Sun is a strawberry red shadow and amber orange top coat.  I applied the product in the usual manner with primer and powder base.  The powder has pretty good pigmentation.  The cream I applied with a brush or finger both work just as well.  Immediately you see a great effect.  But within half an hour the cream started wearing off and became so patchy and also started to remove the shadow underneath!

The first time I tried the duo I did with bare lids and same result.  I have to say the cream element is a hard fail.  I need to wear the powder without the cream top and see how that wears.  These duos are $16 each.  It is such a shame as otherwise these could have been brilliant as they have some great combos.


The powder in Tuscan Sun is a beautiful strawberry but on closer inspection in this photo you can see that the pigment is not fully opaque.  Same with the topcoat.






As you can see above the product initially looks good, but after half an hour with no eye primer applied the product starts to break up and slide everywhere leaving patches of no colour!

With the second colour, Armed Forces, I used eyeshadow primer and cream powder to seal it.  I then applied the powder first.

Then the top coat.
This was the result after half an hour again.
Swatches of the powder and topcoat with fingers and cream brush swatches.


These duos are not drugstore prices at approx $16 AUD each.  I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Thank-you for reading.
Not sponsored.
Images by me of me.
Mecca Max

• 45 mls
• Contains sillicone
• Vegan NO
• Expensive at $38 AUD
• Fragrance Free NO
• Cruelty Free 
• Pump YES

This primer is part of the Face Series and their eponymous beauty line created by high end and luxury cosmetic and skincare boutique company Mecca Cosmetica in 2003.

Beauty Guru

The Mecca Cosmetica Face Series Lit From Within Illuminating primer is a 'radiant' or 'illuminating' primer so as the name suggests, it will brighten your complexion.  The product suggestion says you can wear it by itself or as a traditional primer.  It comes in a opaque pump bottle which has a lovely look of matte beige bottle and black matte cap and typeface.  The product itself is a radiant looking peach colour and is easily smoothed onto the skin for a lovely look indeed.  I used this primer under a new matte foundation I won as a prize by a new skincare company by the name of  a new Australian skincare and cosmetic mineral based products brand ASAP Skin Products.  It really lifts the appearance of the matte foundations texture giving the face that extra something.  In this case both products played well together.  Nothing worse when doing your makeup and then find that the new products you are using are incompatible and cause pilling or other issues.

One gripe I have with this product is the amount of fragrance that is in it.  It smells lovely, if it were a perfume, but it's not, it's a facial primer.  It's immediately apparent, especially if you tend to use a lot of non perfumed products on the face.  I don't see how fragrance is necessary when it does not benefit the consumer.

There is another version of this radiant type primer but it is in a little tub like a lip balm.  I remember trying it a long time ago in store and it was lovely. It has a different ingredient line up due to it's formulation.   This primer does contain antioxidants with the grape seed oil, green tea, vitamin e and pomegranate extracts, with skin moisture giving glycerin and sodium hylauronate for a lovely plump skin base.

I have worn my makeup all day and went to an hour long Pilates/yoga class and the primer didn't affect the longevity of my foundation adversely the foundation wore away first on my chin which is pretty normal for me.  This is an illuminating primer primarily so longevity would be a welcome aspect of the primer but it is not what the primer is for necessarily in this case.

 I am trying to find out if the brand is cruelty free and apparently it is vegan with some products but not this one because it contains Carmine which is from a red beetle species.  Will update this post when I know definitively.

I definitely recommend this product, if fragrance doesn't bother you. The ingredients  in bold are ones that have a higher risk of irritation/allergy and are the fragrance chemicals and the vitamin e or tocopherol.  If you click on the links you can read about the ingredients and do research.

Ingredients

Water, Glycerin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Cyclopentasiloxane, Polyacrylamide, Dimethicone, Mica, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Phenoxyethanol, Laureth-7, Fragrance (Parfum), Potassium Sorbate, Benzyl Alcohol, Citric Acid, Allantoin, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract Sodium Hyaluronate, Punica Grantum Fruit Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Carmine (CI 75470), Iron Oxides (CI 77489, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).

Thank-you for reading.
Image by me.
Not Sponsored.  This was actually a rewards loyalty program by Mecca Cosmetica for my birthday as a set with the setting spray in the same product line.
Mecca Cosmetica