Creme Puff blush by Max Factor

This was another buy from Boots when I went to London. I bought only one colour to test it as I heard that it resembles to Ambient lighting blushes by Hourglass. While I don’t have any blush from this brand I have one of their regular Ambient lighting powders and I love it due to its finely mild consistency and soft texture. Let’s see if this blush by Max Factor stands up to the hype.

Creme Puff blush in colour 15 Seductive pink by Max Factor

Price: 8,99£ in Boots (UK), currently they have a sale, 3 for price of 2. The blush is definitely not cheap but there are pricier blushes in the drugstore and not necessarily better ones.

Colours: Boots offers 6 colours, I bought 15 Seductive pink. It is light neutral pink that can be built up to medium intensity, therefore suitable for light to medium skin tones.

Creme Puff blush in colour 15 Seductive pink by Max Factor

Texture and application: the powder in the blush is very finely mild. Soft to the touch, it blends like a dream. You see the colour on the cheeks but not powder. The blush looks great on my skin, the cheeks seems to be smoother than usually.

Longevity: the blush lasted on my cheeks all day, I tried it with different foundation and it did well with all of them.

Creme Puff blush in colour 15 Seductive pink by Max Factor

Final verdict: I can definitely see the resemblance with Ambient Lighting blush by Hourglass. It has an expensive product quality for the drugstore price. I’m actually obsessed with this blush and haven’t been able to switch to another one. I’m so getting all the colours!

Fail makeup products volume 2 – eye makeup products

From time to time I buy a product that is so bad that I just can’t use it. I think it is important to mention it even though the post is really negative. This time we are talking about makeup products for eyes.

NUDE MAKE UP KIT BY B.PRETTY

The palette wasn’t expensive, only 3,99€ (but now it seems like a fortune). The eyeshadows are chalky and powdery. The pigmentation as you can see on the picture is in some case nonexistent, in case of other eyeshadows you have to reapply it few times to see it on the eyes. When you blend the eyeshadows part of the pigmentation disappears so the eyelook you get is just a wash of colours.

What a shame, it looked like a dupe for Naked palettes by Urban Decay but it doesn’t have any quality.

MADE TO STAY HIGHLIGHTER PEN BY CATRICE

I usually like Made to Stay line from Catrice but this was a disappointment. Not because of bad pigmentation, in fact it has amazing intense light reflecting pigmentation. It is the application that makes the star fall…

When you apply it in the corner of the eyes it sets so quickly that you cannot blend. You cannot blend at all. When you try it with force (not very gentle for your eyes) you move everything and only pink irritated skin stays behind. I also tried to use it on the eyes as a cream eyeshadow, but it was even worse as it didn’t deliver consistent colour over the whole lid.

It is such a pity that the pencil is not little bit more creamer. If it allowed easier blending it would be one of the nicest inner corner highlighters.

EYE COLOR PENCIL FROM COLOR RICHE LINE BY L’OREAL

When I swatch them they are nice and pigmented. Using them on the lid is a different story. Unless you really press hard (which hurts) nothing transfers to the lid, here and there you can get little bit of colour mixed together with lot of wax. The worse is 08 Baby pink, than slightly better is 22 Lovely lilas. 03 Smoky taupe is usable under lower lash line where you can press the pencil little bit more.

It is such a disappointment, they swatch nicely but they don’t transfer on the eyes. They are not creamy enough; you can see chunks of wax “wondering around” on the lids. OMG!

Let me know what fail makeup products have you recently bought!

Maybelline Color drama intense velvet lip pencils (more colours)

I already wrote a review in March how much I like these pencils - they are soft and creamy, easy to apply and last on lips quite well. I went to London in May and found out that Boots was having a deal 3 for the price of 2. I took advantage of it and got 3 colours for 9,98£.

Color drama intense velvet lip pencil by Maybelline in colours 150 Fuchsia desire, 130 Love my pink, 510 Red essential and 310 Berry much

Color drama intense velvet lip pencil by Maybelline in colours 150 Fuchsia desire, 130 Love my pink, 510 Red essential and 310 Berry much

Altogether Boots offers 8 colours, some of them were sold out, some of them opened so I only bought 130 Love my pink (classic medium cool tone pink), 510 Red essential (darker neutral red) and 310 Berry much (darker berry colour). Love my pink and Fuchsia desire (that I bought previously) will be well used during this summer while Red essential and Berry much will be perfect for autumn and winter.

Eyeartist Colorwaves eyeshadow by Astor vs. 3D duo eyeshadows by Essence

These two eyeshadows looked similar in texture and function at first glance, so I decided to pick them up. They are not really expensive; they come from the drugstore so why not trying them, right?

Price: 6,29€ for Astor eyeshadow and 2,95€ for Essence duo eyeshadow (in Austria) or 2,99€ in Slovak drugstore.

Colours:

Astor: on the Astor website there are 24 shades available, I’ve seen in Bipa (Austria) only few. I bought shade 810 Treasure Gold which is shimmery light tan colour.

Essence: there are 9 duos on offer so technically 18 shades. I bought duo 03 Irresistible choco cupcake which is combination of shimmery beige and slightly shimmery warm brown.

Texture:

Astor: the brand claims on its website that the eyeshadows have super soft texture. I don’t agree at all. I had to really dig the brush into the product to get something on my brush. The eyeshadow was hard and dry to the touch.

Essence: the eyeshadows are not super soft but softer than the Astor’s one. They are not extremely powdery and apply easily.

Duo eyeshadows 03 Irresistible choco cupcake by Essence used dry (left) and wet (right)

Pigmentation:

When used dry:

Astor: it says on the website that the eyeshadows are highly pigmented. Well, the one I have doesn’t have much of the pigmentation. I had to reapply it few times to get some colour on my lid.

Essence: the eyeshadows have quite a good pigmentation considering that they are from a drugstore. They looked good on the eyes even when used dry.

Eyeshadow 810 Treasure Gold by Astor used wet (left) and dry (right) 

When used wet (I used fix spray not water): 

Astor: while the eyeshadow has poor pigmentation when dry once you use it with a wet brush the pigmentation becomes a lot more intensive and the eyeshadow actually looks very nice on the eyes.

Essence: since the eyeshadows are quite pigmented when dry I haven’t noticed any significant difference in pigmentation when using them wet.

Eyeshadow duo in 03 Irresistible choco cupcake by Essence (used dry)

Longevity: with good primer both eyeshadows lasted all day. BUT I also noticed that applying wet eyeshadow (in both cases) on cream eyeshadows doesn’t work at all. You will get a strange mixture that doesn’t want to set, therefore use them either wet alone or dry with cream eyeshadows.

Eyeshadow 810 Treasure Gold by Astor (used wet)

Final verdict: I prefer Essence duo eyeshadows since the pigmentation is better in dry conditions. I don’t always have time to wet the brush so pigmented eyeshadow without extra work is important to me. Moreover the price for duo eyeshadow by Essence is far better deal than price for single eyeshadow by Astor.