NARS Concealers Updated

NARS Concealer  will be re-packaged and have a broader shade range beginning September 1st. Now there will be 10 shades instead of 6  and  according to NARS "reaches a broader scope of skintones and is targeted to more  closely match NARS’ Sheer Matte & Sheer Glow Foundation shades"

Shades include (from lightest to darkest):

• Chantilly – for fairest of complexions, true ivory – NEW

• Vanilla – for fair complexions, tiny cast of pink tones

• Honey – for light to medium complexion, warm peach tones

• Custard – for light to medium complexions, yellow tones

• Ginger – for medium complexions, golden tones

• Biscuit – for medium to dark complexions, natural balance of pink and yellow tones – NEW!

• Caramel – for medium to dark complexions, yellow and golden tones – NEW

• Amande – for medium to dark complexions, golden olive tones – NEW

• Café – for dark complexions, warm red tones – NEW

• Cacao – for dark complexions, deep-gold-brown tones – NEW

Retail: $22

http://www.narscosmetics.com/ beginning September 1st

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser-Dark Circles

I have a lot of love for Maybelline's Instant Age Rewind line. I love the cream foundation from a few years back  and the Eraser and Foundation of last year were among the first drugstore foundations I ever thought stood up to the quality of high end brands. All of them were more moisturizing than I needed but the coverage, feel and look  of skin were great . 

Now we have an Instant Age Rewind Eraser for dark circles concealer  addition .   I don't have dark circles, but I do like a little under eye boost ( who doesn't right ?) and this does exactly what it says.  It's not a heavy concealer and is not overly emollient . It goes on smoothly with the foam applicator and  conceals  and brightens under the eye. I have used it both over and under foundation and it's been fine either way.

I have no issue with the foam applicator but I know not everyone loves it. I use fingers as well to further blend.

Whats nice too, is that  it comes in a  cute small bottle. Pocket sized really, meaning it's very portable for during the day touch ups. Top to bottom is just under 4 inches.

Shade shown is 120 Light

Lotus Herbals Swift Makeup Stick

Oh! How clearly I remember getting this product I had gone to the beauty store in search of a good concealer for my dark circles and ended up buying this. As soon as I entered the store I headed towards Maybelline counter in hopes of finding a concealer. I was disappointed to find that Maybelline didn’t sell any concealer in India. Just when I was turning away, a SA of the very next counter which belonged to Lotus Herbals started showing me something. I must tell that particular SA was so pushy !!

She got me to buy a lip gloss and other product which is lotus swift makeup. It is a 4 in one product which acts as foundation, concealer, compact providing matt powder finish and lastly moisturizing. She applied the product in the under eye area and it was successful in concealing them to an extent. So I finally got it and after using it for quite sometime now, here’s the review ---

PRODUCT:  Lotus Herbals Natural Blend Swift Makeup

PRICE: 249 rupees

QUANTITY: 10g

SHADE:  730 Creamy Peach

This product comes in a thick lipstick like case which has a transparent cover on the top. The top can be removed and the bottom is twisted up to use the product. It looks like an ordinary stick foundation.

I personally do not prefer stick foundations because they are too difficult to blend making the process of applying the foundation too tedious. 

I tried applying this foundation all over my face but I highly disliked the way it makes you feel.  It makes my face feel very weird. The foundation is not difficult to blend into the skin but it kind of feels very strange and abnormal to me when I apply it all over my face. It made me feel like I am wearing something thick on my face.

I dislike the oily- kind of smell that this product has. Being a huge fragrance fan – oily smell is a total turn off for me. 

 I also dislike the fact that this product stands at the risk of getting contaminated. Everytime we apply this product on the skin the bacteria can keep on lodging itself on the top of the product which may cause acne or break-outs later on. You can’t risk applying the product with your bare hands until they are absolutely clean.    

Since it is creamy and moisturizing, I have broken its stick twice. :)

 

This product is good for covering acne and blemishes on your skin. It acts as a good spot concealer but certainly not as face foundation. 

It has SPF 15 which is also good as you won’t need to apply sunscreen separately.

LOVE IT OR CHUCK IT? : This product is definitely a pass for me. I use this product to conceal blemishes. I would definitely chuck it if I were to use it as a foundation.

HAVE YOU USED THIS PRODUCT? ? 

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit and Corrector

Bobbi Brown's new Concealer Kit brings together concealer and yellow tinted powder.  It's a great concealer but it's also cute. Yes, cute in it's  small, pocket sized compact that will fit right in your bag.

The concealer is creamy with full coverage and doesn't look heavy or  overdone.  The powder is sheer  and light.

There is also a Corrector available in it's own small compact. The Corrector is great for dark circles or spots. Meant to be used before concealer , it really gets the job done.

In my image the shade is Warm Ivory. In all there are 14 Concealer shades and 12 Corrector shades.

Bobbi has made this to not only offer ease of use and coverage , but also adding  in good for your skin ingredients.
Here's a partial ingredient list and their benefits according to the brand:

Emollients- help maintain skin’s moisture evels for a smoother, virtually lineless look.

Lecithin -conditions skin.

Vitamins C & E -offer antioxidant benefits.

Silica- creates a soft-focus effect that helps soften the look of fine dry lines.

Kaolin -a natural mineral, helps formula stay in place and prevents it from settling ito lines.

 Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit $ 32.00
 Bobbi Brown Individual Concealer or Corrector  $ 22.00

Maybelline Fit Me Collection

My post back in September on Maybelline's upcoming Fit Me has been getting a lot of readers. I only had the basic info then  but now have finally tried the products and have seen several of the colorway choices.

To re-cap ,Fit Me is  all about skin tone matching shades   across all products in the line.  There are 18 shades of foundation, 6 concealers, 12 blushes and 3 bronzers. Something for everyone and every skintone. Shades numbers begin in the 100s for lightest and go to 300s for darkest.

Once  you find the shade for  you in foundation, to get the right powder and concealer, simply pull from the row that contains that number.

 Now that you know that, what are the products like ? I was able to try a pre-selected group of the line recently.

Fit Me Foundation ( $ 7.99)  is weightless and light. It's light to medium coverage, dewy  and  natural looking . There are no waxes or oils according to Maybelline, which is good. The shade shown is 110 and is a bit too pale for me , but not by much.  I can wear it but one shade up to 115 would be perfect.   I think it's best for normal to dry skin . Us oily skins can wear it now but maybe not come warmer weather.

The  blush ( $ 5.51) that suited me best of what I tried was Deep Nude. Light Nude matches my shade also but was very light on me and less than I like ( it came off as a soft wash, nice, but I like a little contour).  Deep Nude  is shown  and is not dark at all but more medium. Depending on how pale you are and how much blush you like, you can  tweak here. All the nudes are nice and none are super dark.

Fit Me Powder ( $ 7.99) is again , light and feels soft  on skin. No heavy, cakey feeling. Shown is 120  which confirmed for me that I am shade 115 as this was the tiniest bit darker than I needed. The puff is in a lower compartment in the compact for no contamination and easy storage.

Fit Me Concealer ( $ 6.49) is creamy and blendable but like all the others a light feeling product. It has good coverage and dries to a powder soft finish.  I find the shown shade 10 to actually be darker than the foundation 110 and too dark for me, so know that the concealers might run dark.

Fit Me Bronzer might be favorite of all in this line. It's not easy to find a pale girl bronzer but thats just what Light Bronze ( shown ) is. Just  nice wash of golden color  to warm you up. More gold and beige than bronze.

I also have many shades in the deeper  300 category, so they are shown here in the lower image . Not all of us are pale and this gives you an idea of what other shades there are.

I see many people wondering what shades will look good on them  and for them, this is a great idea. No guessing. Just buy all in your shade number and you have a full set of makeup. If you consider yourself makeup challenged, give it a try.

Fit Me is also a nice starting point  for those wearing makeup for the first time. Teens can get makeup that will look good, but natural and not overdone on them and not have to guess what they need and get shades 3 times too dark. We've all been there.

Full by Living Proof Haircare

Full hair  is  something most people want. No one wants flat , limp hair do they ? It can also be one of the hardest to get . More products are coming along and the  MIT people behind Living Proof and No Frizz now have Full. No Frizz has been a miracle worker for many . Now Full does  a great  job for those looking for a little oomph to their locks.

 The Thickening Cream weighed hair down a bit ( this might work better on dry hair)  so skipped that, but using the  Shampoo, Conditioner and Root Lift as  well as  the new Thickening Mousse makes for solid ,lifted volume that lasts long.

There are several products in the line besides the shampoo and conditioner, so you can make your own combo. I highly recommend the  Root Lift for flat hair as it gets right to the root area and provides  a lot of lift.

The company says the Root Lifting spray has a  "blend of resins, never before used in a root lifting spray, to meet both of these characteristics: strong enough to provide long lasting lift, yet flexible enough so the lift wouldn’t collapse
when exposed to one’s daily activities."

"The scientists also discovered that adding PolyfluoroEster helps to protect hair’s volume. This is because PolyfluoroEster reduces surface tension for an even deposition of the resin film and helps to block humidity."

The bottom line, as I said earlier- it works.


You can find the whole Full line at QVC, Sephora and http://www.livingproof.com/

Cover Fx Mint Glaze & Camouflage Concealer

New from Cover Fx is Mint Glaze and Camouflage Concealer.

Mint Glaze is a lip balm/treatment/primer. It is very minty and has SPF 15. The balm is quite thick and deeply moisturizes. There's shea butter in there as well as hyaluronic acid and peptides. So not only does it help chapping but also prevention of lines around the lip area. Because it's thick I don't see it as good for a primer. Best on it's own. It lasts long on the lips and forms a good barrier against the elements. It is shiny, but clear with no shimmer.

Camouflage Concealer is a medium thickness concealer that is hi- def ready and water resistant. The peptides pop up here again along with ceramides, bisabolol for inflammation and antioxidant vitamins. The coverage is good as you would expect from Cover Fx. They're known for that . It goes better on top of foundation rather than under and can be applied easily with fingers or brush.

This is also moisturizing with shea butter so I don't recommend it for oily skin unless it's strictly at the eye area.

There is a wide choice of shades here. The color I have is light -medium and it's more medium to me.

Mint Fx is $ 22.00

Camouflage Concealer is $ 25.00 for .5 oz

Both are currently exclusive to Sephora I believe.

Sephora.com

Clinique Acne Solutions Clearing Concealer

Clinique has a new concealer just for acne/acne prone skin. This is good news. If you've looked , you'll see there aren't too many concealers for the really oily or acne prone. We needed more.

When I heard back in Spring that Fresh was coming out with a clay based concealer, I was so excited. Clay is so good for oil absorbing. But, it turns out the product has jojoba seed oil in it. So it's not really for me. I hear great things about it from many, but there is no way I can put that on my Texas oil well of a nose.

Acne Solutions Clearing Concealer has Salicyclic acid to help treat acne and break up oil, 10-Hydroxydecanoic acid to help control the spread of acne causing agents on the skin, Laminaria Saccharina extract, a seaweed that helps reduce sebum production as well as Caffeine to reduce redness.

What all that means is that your concealer won't add to your oil problem.

This holds up well throughout the day. I 've used it under my makeup and it has helped keep the shine down. You only need very little to cover a good size area.

There are 3 shades and a green tint for extra redness.

$ 13.50 at all counters in July