Long time no review! What have you lovely folks been trying and liking?
Cargo contour palette in Malibu (Amazon)
I keep meaning to review this, because I’ve had it for 6 months or so now. I’d read that this palette was actually light enough for pale people who don’t want obvious lines of contour, and it really is. It comes with a contour, a blush and a highlighter and all of them are really nice, although the highlighter doesn’t have a lot of payoff as far as sheen. If you’re pale and like a natural look give this a try.
Missha waterproof sun (misshaus.com)
I reviewed the pink bottle Missha sunscreen before, which is more of an everyday mostly-indoor sunscreen; this (in the yellow bottle) is supposed to be waterproof and suitable for days outside. It is thicker and fiddlier to let dry, but seems to work well and doesn’t break me out. So far so good in my Asian sunscreen trial project.
CeraVe creamy oil (Target)
I’m not really sure why I bought this - pretty sure my thinking was “ooh, new CeraVe product” rather than an actual rational decision about what I needed. It’s labeled for eczema relief and is a weird amalgam of an oily lotion and a cream. I don’t really like it alone, but mixed with a lighter cream it’s really nice for nighttime use, either on the face or hands/feet.
Pond’s cream w/ niaciniamide (Walgreens)
I was recommended this as an economical source of niacinamide, which is supposed to do all kinds of good things for your skin. I’m starting to suspect I’m allergic to it, though, because every single product with it as a star ingredient has broken me out. After one use I got those tiny whiteheads all over and redness and general irritation that took a couple weeks to fade completely. Next!
Liole water drop sleeping pack (K-Beauty store)
This is lighter than I expected from a sleeping pack; it has a watery cooling feeling for the first few minutes. It moisturizes nicely and doesn’t seem to break me out. I’m putting this aside until the weather gets warmer as I think it will work best in summer.
Berrisom lip tint (K-Beauty store)
I messed up with this one; I thought it was a regular lip tint but it’s one of those lip stains that you put on thickly and then peel off after it dries. It is tricky to apply evenly and it’s easy to overshoot and stain the skin around your lips too. After peeling it off, on me it looks like I just ate a cherry popsicle. The color tends to be uneven and not that flattering, in my opinion. I could see a place for this sort of format as a base if you wanted a lip color that stayed all day - use this and then a regular liquid lipstick on top, and you wouldn’t have to be as assiduous in touching up whenever you drank some water etc.
Tarte Amazonian clay blush in paaaarty
This and the lip color below are the makeup option for the birthday gift at Sephora this year - this is a taupey-rose color, like if you could strip out the metallic from rose gold and just have the pigment with no sparkle. It’s really lovely and goes on nicely.
Tarte tarteist matte lip paint in birthday suit
The formula and applicator for this are very nice, but it’s a brownish nude that is unnervingly like the exact color that I would have on my lips if I were a mannequin. Seriously, it’s creepy. I’ll keep this around as a base to layer other colors over, and maybe try some other shades in the future.
MUAC samples (Makeup artist’s choice)
I ordered a bunch of sample sizes of peels and such from MUAC a while ago and so far have tried the mandelic peel (very nice), mandelic/salicylic peel (nice but srs bsns, do not leave this one on for long), pre- and post-peel pH-adjusting toners (good), rosewater hydrosol (perfectly fine), and retinol oil (doesn’t irritate at all, good option if cream retinols strip your skin). I’ve still got some wash-off enzyme masks to try out but in general I’m really impressed with this company’s products. Informative website, good ingredients, decent price, overall a great resource.
