The Makeup Bag: February 19th, 2021

The Makeup Bag: used February 13th – 19th, 2021

Welcome my darlings to the weekly makeup bag. Here I go through all of the products I used throughout the week and let you know what I thought of them.

This week I will start with a Primer. You know I love a good primer. I love smoothing the canvas of my face down as much as possible before I start to apply everything else. This week I chose my small sample of the Pore Professional Pearl for my primer. I chose it for several reasons. The first was that it is the last of a whole bunch of Pore Professional sample sizes that I had. I slowly worked my way through them and whittled it down to just the one. And once I got down to the last one, I let it languish in the drawer while I use other products.

This was once my absolute favorite primer. It is still good, but I can’t remember when exactly when I picked up the primer so it is time for it to be used up. The second reason I chose to use this primer is because the Clarins primer I’ve used for the last two weeks, and fell in love with, sort of reminded me of this one and I wanted to compare them to each other. The fact is that I still really like the Pore Professional Pearl Primer. I actually prefer it to the regular Porefessional Primer to be honest. It not only fills the pores like the original but the pink tint really suits my skin tone. In the pallor of winter it brings a very slight pink tint to the skin. It is light enough that I don’t think it can actually be called a tint. Maybe a hue would be a better term.

Bare face on the left and just the primer on the right

Either way it brightens the skin and makes me look healthier, even on days when I just wear the primer and no foundation. I very much like it and as I think I have only a week’s worth of product left in the sample tube, it will be sticking around in the makeup bag another week, just so it can be used up. It is also going on my list of products to purchase in the full size very soon.

This week I used the Kristofer Buckle Triplicity Perfecting Foundation stick. I adore this stick foundation. A couple of swipes across the face and a quick blend with the Bdellium 999 Master blender and that’s it. No muss no fuss. And this shade works so well for my skin. It is light Warm in case you are wondering. The color is actually flexible enough with my skin that I can wear it year round. It also requires so little product to create a fantastic look so the Foundation stick lasts a long time.

Unlike other foundation sticks I’ve tried, this doesn’t need to be warmed up or anything before applying it. The center circle of product is actually a priming agent, I find I still like a pore filling primer underneath, but the primer in the foundation really helps with the smoothness of the application.

This is one of those foundations I always travel with because it is so quick and easy to use, and because it is as stick it doesn’t spill. It feels weightless on the skin. It is one I will continue to use and always repurchase.

just primer on the left and foundation over primer on the right

This week I also reached for another favorite. I pulled the RealHer Ultimate Glow Getter Cheek trio out of my makeup drawer. It is a blush, bronzer and highlighter combo and as you can see the bronzer is already showing the outline of the pan underneath. This is one of my favorite face palettes. All three products are buildable formulas that let you control exactly how much product you want to apply on your face.

Even though the palette is small enough to be travel sized the pans are large enough to be used with the face brushes I usually use. I don’t have to get a different smaller brush to use them. The white casing was a little unfortunate of a choice as you can see the area around the bronzer has become especially dirty. It does clean up easily, but it does accumulate fast on the white plastic.

I like that the pans can easily be popped out of the palette as I think I will probably run out of bronzer before I use up the other two pans and I love the thought of being able to replace the pans in the palette with new ones a they are used up. I think it is really smart and I really hope I can get this bronzer in a single pan to fit it inside once it is used up.

Speaking of used up, I completely used up the sample size of the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed powder this week. It was a good powder and one I wouldn’t mind using again. It wasn’t my favorite pressed powder, but it was nice to use even if I won’t be running out to immediately buy the full size.

I like the extra cap that provides space for a powder puff if you use one

My loose powder this week was the Pacifica Cherry Velvet translucent setting powder. I think this is either the second or third container of this I have had in my dressing table and when this powder is used up, I will be picking up a replacement of it. It is a great loose setting powder and pacifica is a really good vegan brand that I can easily pick up on a run to Target.

I think I have about half a container of this powder left in the container so it will take a while for me to use it up, but when I do, it will be replaced. It is finely milled enough to set my makeup without being powdery and it has no white flash back in photographs. The cherry scent can be a bit overpowering if used every day, but in a rotation of other powders it is always a nice delight to have the cherry scent around for a week.

Because I wanted to try out the Galactic Lid Gloss from Eyeko this week I added both it and the Meet Matt (e) Trimony to my makeup bag. The Balm’s shadows always work well for me and they were again fantastic this week. I live using this all matte palette in general, but it also is a great palette to use when working with layering sparkle and shimmer products over.

It was excellent with my shimmer stick shadows and it was again fabulous with the Eyeko Galactic Lid Gloss. The lid gloss itself was fun to play with and I think I will be picking up several. While you can read my full review here, the lid gloss performed well. It could be sheered out to a little shimmer and it could be packed on for a coppery, metallic foil look. It was very versatile and once dried, stayed in place all day. I am a huge fan and look forward to trying out more colors.

As the Eyeko was so dazzling, I couldn’t resist keeping the New Big Poppa mascara from Wet ‘n Wild out another week. This is one of their new products and so worth picking up. In the photos it took just one application to make my lashes stand out. It does a great job lengthening and making my lashes look a little fuller. It also didn’t flake throughout the day. I’d say it might be one of my new favorite drugstore products, but quite frankly it out performed many of my more expensive mascaras. I am very much a fan of Big Poppa. I’ll try to remember to trade him out for next week’s selection, but it will be hard to let him go.

No mascara on the left, mascara on the right

I had two lipsticks this week. I have the Dose of Colors liquid lipstick in Stone that I am trying to finish out and I had the Nars Bullet style lipstick in Karat. If applied directly the Nars is a deep purple red lipstick that I absolutely adore. It can be tamed by using a brush to apply it and thin it out a little bit, for when you don’t want to be quite as vampy. It can also be lightened with a little dose of Dose of Colors Stone on top of it. Stone is a pinky neutral shade. The tones played well with the Nars and the two colors blended well. I could go very neutral with Stone alone or super dark with Kirat. I could also hit most of the spectrum between by blending them in different ways. It was the best of all lipstick worlds. The only downside was that these formulas both tend to be a bit drying.

But that wasn’t a problem as I had Teadora Wild Superfood Lip Drops on hand. The link will take you to my full review of them. The drops may be a lip treatment, but when used with a drying lipstick formula they really keep your lips from drying out. Just let your lipstick actually dry down before you apply it so that the lipstick doesn’t smear. That is the only trick. It will make everything more glossy instead of matte but your lips won’t feel parched, dry and cracked.

My final touch was my setting spray and I have to say I opened the new bottle of the Timeless HA Spray that just came in. I finished the old bottle and couldn’t resisted ordering the exact same one again. I thought about the other scents but I really like the fresh Cucumber scent of this cucumber scented HA spray. I also like the extra dose of HA and the way it keeps my makeup in place. I will say that the Pore Professional Super Setter does better at locking things down, but the HA spray gives me those extra skin care benefits. I think at this moment those two are my top setting sprays and while I will continue to try others, those are the two I will most often reach for.

And that my darlings is the makeup bag for this week. I’ll admit, I did go for a lot of tried and true products this week. I had some of my favorites I just couldn’t help reaching for. I think the reason was mostly due to my skin. Right now I am going through a really good skin moment. I have had a really good spate of products and I really like the way my skin looks and feels. Several of those products however are running out or have run out and are being replaced.

I’ll do a skin care line up post in the near future to discuss. But the end result is that since I am getting ready to try new products I wanted to take advantage of my good skin moment by using products I knew weren’t going to cause me trouble. Hence the lineup of favorites. I’ll get over it, I just wanted to take the small window before I start tinkering with my skin care again. While I enjoy trying all new skin care products, sometimes there is a slight risk. Of course some times that risk pays off by adding new favorites to my line up. We’ll have to see as things move forward. But for now, this was my makeup bag this week.

The Makeup Bag: February 12th, 2021

The Makeup bag used February 6th – 12th, 2021

Good morning my darlings it is time once again to review all of the products I used on my face this week. As usual we will start with primer.

This week I again used the Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch primer and I have to say the photos do not do it justice. It was like magical pore eraser in a pretty red glass jar. I love this primer and A part of me really wants to keep it in the makeup bag until it is empty and then just replace it, however, I have other primers in my collection that I need to use.

So this coming week I will return it to my dressing table and take out another primer. Actually because it reminds me so much of the Pore Professional Pearl Primer, I might take my last remaining sample of that out of the dressing table and use it so that I can get a comparison.

Bare face on the left, just primer on the right.

Plus I think the sample has been in my dressing table long enough. It is unopened but I know it won’t keep forever and as I am not planning on traveling anytime soon, keeping it for travel is sort of pointless.

For Foundation this week I went with the Laura Geller Quench ‘n Tint hydrating foundation. It is hydrating and it is a really good light to medium coverage foundation that feels like a moisturizer when you apply it. You can read my full review here, but the result is that I liked wearing it now but have reservations about summer wear.

If my skin were dryer I think I could get away with year round use, but I think in the summer it would be too hydrating for my skin.

Just primer on the left, primer and foundation on the right

It was also a light enough formula that I needed to use my concealer on my cheek scar and this week’s concealer was the Trestique Conceal, cover and correct crayon. Because of it’s shape and formula it worked well on my cheeks. It is too stiff to use under my eyes though as I feel it pulls at the skin a little too much. I love it for spot correcting though as it covers blemishes well and blends in with any foundation I have tried it with.

My bronzer this week was from elf. It has been a while since I used this bronzer and I forgot how pigmented it was. The first day this week I used this my skin went from winter pale to summer bronzed as I tried to blend it out instead of having an intense bronze on. I really like the elf formula because it is very blendable, but it is necessary to remember that it is also highly pigmented and needs a light hand when applying.

My bareMinerals blush I absolutely loved this week. You can read the full review here but in short, the color was fantastic, the bendability was wonderful, the soft focus look was excellent and I really liked the feel of the product on my fingertips. This is a blush that you apply with your fingers and I have to say I really enjoyed using it and once this sample is used up I will be purchasing the full sized version. So you will see this blush a lot as I work through it.

My highlighter was a sample sized pan from Wander Beauty. It is the Wanderess Glow in After Hours and I have to say it was a beautiful highlighter. It is a sort of silvery pink and blends really well into the skin. I like that I can make it bright or subtle depending on my blending The color as good and the formula worked well for me. It is a big pan and even though it is a sample size, I suspect it will last quite a while. For me highlighters tend to last a really long time since I use so little of them. I have always preferred my highlight in small doses and to provide a subtle glow rather than a blinding light. While I could do something blinding with this, I like that I can go for a soft glow instead.

I had two powders this week one pressed and one loose. The pressed powder was the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores pressed powder. It is a sample sized. It is also beginning to show pan. While I will be keeping this powder in my makeup bag until it runs out I suspect that will be another week at best as it is very thin indeed at the moment. Once it is gone however, I will be replacing it with something else. I enjoy using it, but I will not be purchasing a full size once the pan is empty. It is a fine product, but I have others I currently prefer.

My loose powder this week was the Kristofer Buckle Translucent setting powder. It is a very finely milled powder that sits well on the skin and doesn’t cause flash back from cameras. I really like using it. The only thing you have to watch out with this powder is the fact that since it is so finely milled, when you open the inner lid, you can sometimes get a small cloud of powder. It isn’t much, just a small puff that spots your hand, but it is something to be aware of. I just run my powder brush over my hand before dipping into the powder itself and there is no waste. Just be aware so that you don’t breathe it in and you will be fine. It is a lovely setting powder and I am really glad I picked it up.

Actually it wasn’t a deliberate purchase. Kristofer Buckle has these Kits and as I adore the formula for their Cashmere slip Lipstick I wanted to try some of the other products on offer and ended up purchasing the kit so I could. It was a fantastic investment as I have used every item in the kit repeatedly, and some, like the mascara, I have already had to reorder. This powder is one of the things I will be reordering once it runs out. Currently they are having a sale on this powder (among other things on the site). Normally it is $24 but currently it is on sale for $18 and there is free shipping.

I skipped the eyeliner this week, but my brow pencil was from Il Makiage. It worked really well and has a fine enough point to it that it went exactly where I wanted it to go. I really enjoyed using it. The shade I used was in Truffles and it suited my eyebrow color perfectly. The product was soft enough so that I didn’t feel like I was scratching my brows with a pencil, but it was soft enough to leave product behind easily. It was one of the better brow pencils I’ve tried.

The simple two color eye look I wore most of the week

For my eyeshadow I reached for my trusty Ciate London. It was the nine pan The Trend Edit that I used this week. The link will take you to the full review if you are interested. This week I kept things pretty tame and went mostly with the brown shade Burnt on the lid and the shimmer baby towards the inner lid to lighten it up a bit.

I love the other colors in the palette, but quite frankly this was a simple easy look that took no thought on mornings when I was rushed. The colors don’t have a really wide range to them, but if you are looking for a good everyday palette you can wear to work and then use to brighten up the shine before heading to happy hour, this is a palette you might want to look into.

And at the moment Ciate is having a sale, The Love Sale, actually. Some of their items are up to 50% off. As I have quite the collection of Ciate London Products there are many I can recommend. They are good quality. And for those of you who love the Muppets, their Miss Piggy Collection is also on sale. There is a good possibility the Miss Piggy Mirror will soon be mine.

My mascara this week was brand new, not just to me, but in general. I had to run out to Target and as I hadn’t been out of the house in a while, I took my time. Thee on the end cap was the new Big Poppa mascara from Wet ‘n Wild. I know I have other mascaras that are waiting unopened and ready for their turn to be used, but I couldn’t resist. I think it is the fact that the mascara is wearing a crown. I couldn’t leave the crown waiting in the wings. While the crown is a nice decorative touch, I did find that the ridges of the crown actually let me grip the wand more comfortably and securely. So it is a functional design as well. The wand is straight, relatively short and bushy with an hourglass shape to it.

No mascara on the left and mascara on in the righthand photo

It made for a surprisingly effective application actually. I really liked the way my lashes looked. They were lifted and lengthened. It was quite dramatic actually. I liked that the mascara stayed on all day without flaking on me. It is actually a really good mascara. I was very impressed. I don’t know why I am so surprised because Wet ‘n Wild’s new releases lately have all been fantastic. At this point I have tried new releases of their tinted moisturizer, eyeshadow, lipstick and now the Big Poppa Mascara. All have been absolutely fantastic.

I can’t really say the same for the Jules Smith Beauty Lip gloss. It is glossy and I do like the color, but it is sticky and even after the color and shine have worn off, my lips felt strangely waxy. It was actually a strange feeling. It felt like a heavy, waxy lip balm, but when wiped off my lips felt a little dry instead of nourished. It was odd. Luckily, this is a sample size and there is very little in the sample after a week of use. I may keep it out to use up, because I really do like the tint of color, however formula trumps color and this is not a formula I will be purchasing in a full size.

I have to say the same thing about the Lise Watier Magnifix Setting Spray. I like the thought of the healthy setting spray and I like the scent, which made me initially like the spray. I also used it right after using a very paint smelling setting spray so i think it got bonus points for that. It is a very wet setting spray that often leaves spots in my powder. The more I use it, the less I actually like it. I just dislike having to touch up wet spots it leaves behind. It gets a little old. The bottle is halfway empty and I think I will use it up, but once it journeys to the empty bin it will not be repurchased.

And that my darlings was the good, the bad and the fabulous of this week’s makeup bag. Tune in next week to see what new products are lurking in the soon to be refilled bag.