The Balm Bahama Mama Bronzer

Hey loves!

You might have noticed that I've been blogging a lot about highlighters lately. I might be doing a lot of "strobing" but I still do my contour. I have a big face that needs a little help slimming down. Haha! The one I'm using lately is...

The Balm Bahama Mama Bronzer

This is actually my sister's, but she gave it to me. I use contouring and bronzing more than she does. 

It's PhP 925.00 at Beauty Bar.

So let's get to know the product first.

Below is the back of the product. You can see the ingredients list and the manufacturing details.

Here's the product description from the website:

Finally, a Caribbean getaway in a compact! This matte bronzer creates the look of beautifully tanned skin without any orange undertones for a fresh-off-the-beach glow. Bahama Mama also doubles as the perfect contour powder, neutral brow-filler and matte brown eyeshadow. Yes, this tropical beauty keeps busy!

I love the package design. It's like an illustration from the early 1900s! It's fun and sexy at the same time. I like how slim it is and that it has a mirror too. What I do not like is how easy it is to look dirty. It can easily be cleaned with cotton and makeup remover.

Just as the description stated, it doesn't have that orange or brick red undertone and it has a matte finish, which makes it a great contour powder. Yeah it says it's for bronzing but I don't like to go all bronzed with my makeup usually. 

See that swatch? It's flat matte. And it's not powdery! 

Check out how it works on my face:

Left: no product

Right: with product

My face looked like there's added depth and it slimmed down a bit. It works pretty well with my color too. It's better as contour with this shade because I find the brown too grayish brown for my color. 

Lasting power is pretty decent. It can fade after 4 to 5 hours depending on how oily my skin gets. 

So what do you think of The Balm's Bahama Mama Bronzer? 

Cheers,
DAWN

Catrice Blush Artist Shading Palette in 10 BronzÉclat

Hello dearies!

When Liz went to the Beauty Backstage Event last January, she brought home some products that we decided to divide amongst ourselves to try out and review. One of the thing I got is this product...

Catrice Blush Artist Shading Palette

The price is PhP 499.00.

If you're not yet familiar with Catrice, it's a brand first launched in Germany which promises to give us high quality products at reasonable prices. It also promises to update their collection and even give us limited-editions products to keep us makeup lovers watching out for more.

I haven't tried much of their products yet but I'm really curious to find out more, especially since I've been reading many good reviews about them. But for now, let me share my thoughts on this particular palette.

Here's the product description from the packaging (click to enlarge):

Info from the website:

For natural colour accents & highlights

Three harmonious shades

Longlasting powder texture

BALANCED TRIO

The palettes offer three harmonious shades each to set highlights and create natural colour accents. The fine powder textures are longlasting and blend softly.

INGREDIENTS:

MICA, TALC, NYLON-12, DIMETHICONE, MAGNESIUM STEARATE, OCTYLDODECANOL, BIS-DIGLYCERYL POLYACYLADIPATE-2, OCTYLDODECYL STEAROYL STEARATE, CETYL DIMETHICONE, SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS (JOJOBA) SEED OIL, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF EXTRACT, COCOS NUCIFERA (COCONUT) OIL, TRIETHOXYCAPRYLYLSILANE, ALUMINA, SILICA, TIN OXIDE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, PHENOXYETHANOL, MAY CONTAIN: CI 73360 (RED 30 LAKE), CI 75470 (CARMINE), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXIDE).

UND/AND 

MICA, TALC, NYLON-12, DIMETHICONE, MAGNESIUM STEARATE, OCTYLDODECANOL, SYNTHETIC FLUORPHLOGOPITE, BIS-DIGLYCERYL POLYACYLADIPATE-2, OCTYLDODECYL STEAROYL STEARATE, CETYL DIMETHICONE, SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS (JOJOBA) SEED OIL, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF EXTRACT, COCOS NUCIFERA (COCONUT) OIL, TRIETHOXYCAPRYLYLSILANE, ALUMINA, SILICA, TIN OXIDE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, PHENOXYETHANOL, CI 73360 (RED 30 LAKE), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXIDE).

The packaging is simple. It's transparent so you get to see the shade you're getting. I like the fonts it used so that even if the design is minimal, it gives a sleek and clean impression.

This is one of the three shades of which this palette is available. I find this the best in terms of which one flatters my skin the most. 

Check out the swatches above. There's an old rose-ish-bronze color, a peach with gold shimmers, and a frosted light pink shade. Even though they are swatched apart, I can see how great they blend together to create a gradient effect.

I use them separately. The darkest one would be placed where I usually put my contour on the cheeks. The middle one is where I usually place my blush, while the lightest one is my highlight! 

See how it works on my skin

It instantly adds an instant glow to my skin and I just love the peachy pink color that it gives. It's pigmentation is pretty decent that you can just build the color however you like. It's also non-chalky, actually it's quite smooth!

I really like it to be honest, I don't see anything negative about it because it delivers a beautiful color and highlight, it's affordable, and it didn't irritate my skin. I just make sure that I blot my oily skin so that it doesn't fade away within the day. What's good about it is I don't feel hesitant to apply and apply because it will last a long while, and if I did run out, I could just buy again because it's so within my budget. :)

And that's my short review of the Catrice Blush Artist Shading Palette! What are your thoughts on this one? Do you have any products from the brand that you can recommend? :)

Cheers,
DAWN

Becca Afterglow Palette

Hey loves!

Last year, when I visited my sister to attend her graduation, she got me gifts (and of course I got her some gifts for her special day also)! One of the items I received from her is this...

Becca Afterglow Palette

She knew that the brand doesn't have a physical store yet in the Philippines and that I would love to try out a product from Becca. I've been reading a lot of positive reviews on their highlighters even back then so I was really happy to see that I got a whole palette.

It's not all highlighters though. It's a palette consisting of five different shades. I would describe it as a group of highlighters and blushes, although one of them I use as a contour and one as a bronzer.

See below the photos of the box for some info about the product:

More info from beautylish.com

About Afterglow Palette

Choose from five fan-favorite highlighters and blushes to customize your own natural-looking glow. Designed to add light, lift, and a touch of color, this limited-edition palette includes these BECCA bestsellers:

• Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Moonstone
• Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold
• Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Topaz
• Mineral Blush in Wild Honey
• Mineral Blush in Flowerchild

Why It's Special

Accentuate your favorite features and add a luminous, natural-looking glow with the three highlighter shades Impart a soft flush of color and subtly reflect light onto the apples of the cheeks with the two mineral blushes

How to Use

Sweep the Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed shades over high points of the face, including cheekbones, brow bone, and the bridge of the nose. Blend the Mineral Blush shades from the apples of your cheeks out to your temples.

Other Details

• Paraben-free
• Size: 0.057 oz per shade

The highlighters are described from the Becca website as:

The blushes are described from the Becca website as:

The packaging is great! I love the metallic pink compact equipped with a mirror. Both the length and the with are slim, which makes it perfect for travel! The size of each pan is smaller than I'm used to, but I rarely finish a blush before it expires so I guess this is good. Do try not to use a big brush for your blush or highlight so the pigments won't get mixed.

These are the shades and below are the swatches.

They are all pigmented! None of them are chalky and they glide smoothly on skin. What I love about this palette is that I could use all of them! The first two shades, Moonstone and Rose Gold, looks great as highlighters. Topaz on the other hand, is darker than my complexion so I use it as a bronzer (a very warm one because it has a beautiful golden glow). Honey is also too dark for a blush, but it can double as a contour for me. Finally, Flowerchild looks awesome as a blush! It gives a sweet, romantic flush to my cheeks. 

This is my go-to palette when I'm in a rush because it carries all I need to put color on my face (except the lips, of course). It's also a palette that I bring when I travel. 

Honestly, I couldn't see any bad things from this palette... maybe I could hope that they could put more blush colors next? Haha! I just like this palette very much. :P

Any thoughts on the Becca Afterglow Palette?

Cheers,
DAWN

Stila Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo in Medium

Hello dears!

Here's another swatch post!

I usually contour my nose and cheeks, but I usually use powder rather than cream products as they work better with my oily skin. But my sister gave me this product so might as well blog about it...

Stila Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo in Medium

I like stila. I have some favorite products that come from the brand, so my expectations were quite high. I was actually very excited to try it out when I received it even if it's a cream type. 

The packaging looks great and I love the slim compact! It looks classy with the matte gold plastic case. I like that the mirror is big as well.

Anyway, let's get to know the product from the description from the labels and the website:

This ultra-creamy, super-soft contour and high-light duo, uniquely, in three shades, is the perfect contouring solution for all skin tones. 

This velvety duo melts into the skin and has a matte finish that blends beautifully with soft focus, line-filling properties that instantly blur imperfections, leaving skin looking so smooth and naturally sculpted you won't know it's the makeup!

Benefits:

Buildable, sheer coverage.

The three shade combinations, tested by Stila artists, offer the perfect duo of shades for three skin tone ranges - light, medium, deep. Sheer, buildable coverage delivers instant color that works on both the fairest and deepest complexions.

Matte contour shades give a natural, sculpted look that won't accentuate oily skin or fine lines. Matte highlighter is the modern way to enhance and bring light to features.

Long-wear, non-transfer, waterproof and sweat-proof.

This Contour Duo comes with an easy to follow how-to guide on sculpting and shading with tips from the Stila Pros.

STILA'S SHAPE & SHADE CUSTOM CONTOUR BRUSH is the perfect tool to complete the look.

Highlights: C12-15 ALKYL BENZOATE, CALCIUM ALUMINUM BOROSILICATE, CERESIN, ETHYLHEXYL PALMITATE, HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL, HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL HYDROXYSTEARATE, ISOHEXADECANE, ISOSTEARYL NEOPENTANOATE, OCTYLDODECANOL, PALMITOYL OLIGOPEPTIDE, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE), POLYMETHYL METHACRYLATE, PPG-15 STEARYL ETHER, PPG-25-LAURETH-25, SORBITAN ISOSTEARATE, SYNTHETIC FLUORPHLOGOPITE, TALC, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, TRIBEHENIN, TRIMETHYLSILOXYPHENYL DIMETHICONE. (+/-) Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499). Yellow 5 ( CI 19140). Contour: CASTOR OIL HYDROXYSTEARATE, ISOHEXADECANE, ISOSTEARYL NEOPENTANOATE, OCTYLDODECANOL, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE), POLYMETHYL METHACRYLATE, PPG-15 STEARYL ETHER, PPG-25-LAURETH-25, SYNTHETIC FLUORPHLOGOPITE, TALC, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, TRIMETHYLSILOXYPHENYL DIMETHICONE. (+/-) Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492), IRON OXIDES BLACK( CI 77499), RED 7 LAKE (CI 15850).

• High performance technology pigments is a patented process; each pigment is uniquely coated, guaranteeing superior wear, higher-color payoff, and a softer texture.
• For best results, use with the new Stila Shape & Shade Custom Contour Brush, designed to work specifically with these innovative contouring and highlighting formulas, delivering perfect product placement and payoff.
• This Contour Duo comes with an easy to follow how-to guide on sculpting and shading with tips from the Stila Pros.

I like wearing liquid foundations so I thought this would look great on top of my foundation, before I apply my transparent loose powder.  

I appreciate, too, that the contour doesn't have that strong red tone because that doesn't go well with my skin. Unfortunately, I encountered a problem. What was supposed to be a product to highlight wasn't lighter than my skin tone. I think it's too close, or even darker than my skin tone. I think I should use the Light shade instead of Medium.

Here are the swatches:

With just one swatch, I get this result. The pigmentation is great! A little goes a long way so be careful with the amount you apply.

When slightly blended, it looks smooth. It blended smoothly on skin and it feels very light. It's easy to blend and the finish looks soft and natural. I find that brushes work better at blending for me. A beauty blender works good too!

So below you'll see my face and where I usually apply the contour. I didn't use the highlight because it's pretty much the same color as my face. :P

And below is when it's blended...

It gives a soft finish. I don't usually apply much although I know that a darker contour is what's in, especially in Instagram. If you do like a stronger contour, the good news is this product is very buildable! 

Overall, I think it's a decent product. I do like the contour but the highlight is barely used. I'll try to use it on my friends with darker skin tone to see the effect better. Both shades have matte finish and I'd really like to see a matte highlighter in action.

Would I buy it once mine runs out? Uhhhh... maybe not. As much as I think the contour is good, I feel like powder is still better in terms of formula. I find that it's a bit expensive (according to the website) at $40, especially for something that I only use half of the product. 

And that's all for this post! Thoughts on the Stila Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo?

Cheers,

DAWN

NYX Professional Makeup: Love Contours All

Hello beauties!

I'd like to share with you my new make-up palette which my aunt gave to me.

I have to say I LOVE the HUGE mirror. It's just perfect for when you're traveling abroad and you just want to bring one palette for everything.

Being an absolute fan of nude make-up and simple contouring, this palette for me is just perfect.

The nine small circles in the middle are all eye shadows. The big circles in the side are a combination of highlighters and bronzers. Lastly the two rectangle in the bottom are brow powders. Sadly though, this palette does not come with a brush, though I doubt that it'll be a big issue.

Eye Shadow swatches

The order is from the left most side being 1 and the right most being 9 on the swatch and on the palette, the upper most right (white) is 1 then the lower most left is 9. As you can see, the palette is very pigmented and I hardly need any primer to ensure that the colors are visible. I also find that it's not that hard to blend out and build.

Colors 1, 4, 6, 8, and 9 are shimmer-free and they go on matte. They're perfect for those contour jobs for making your crease look deeper and all that. I also LOVE that they added 9 which is a deep black color. Some of the nude/natural palettes that I have don't incorporate black in them. The few that do, are more of a gray/dark gray color and is not really black. 

The rest of the 9 eye shadows (2, 3, 5, 7) have fine glitter/shimmer but don't look/come off as metallic. Even with the shimmer, the finish still passes as nude/natural.

Bronzer and Highlighter Swatch

So for the bronzer and highlighter pairs, the pair on the left (swatch) correspond to the two on the right (palette) in the picture below. While those on the right (swatch) correspond to those on the left (palette). Sorry about the confusing referencing. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of highlighters but I do prefer the gold-looking finish one. The shimmer is also very fine. I love that they have two shades of bronzers which just makes this palette perfect for when you go for a beach trip this summer. You won't have to worry that the bronzer you brought won't match your tan since you already have a palette that covers your before and after skin tone. ;)

Last but not least, are the brow powders.

Again, I am loving the two shades. I do like that they're not too pigmented so that you don't accidentally overdo your brows.

Overall, I am loving this palette and have kind of used it more in the past few days as opposed to my ever trusty UD Naked. I looked this particular product in BeautyMNL and Wastons but sadly I did not find one. But I am sure they have other similar palettes to this and if you happen to know them, do share them with us.

That's it for the night hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Cheers,

LIZ

BYS x Glamourbox: Make-up Workshop Event

Good day ladies,

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend a make-up workshop by BYS and Glamourbox at the Center for Aesthetic Studies. 

BYS celebrates its third year and they have partnered with Glamourbox to bring us three of their best selling products: Nude palette (1 and 2), Countour Trio, and Brow Defining Kit. 

These along with other products are featured in the Glamourbox special edition BYS box for September.

To fully utilize these fabulous products, BYS has called on the expertise of Katchi Mejias to educate us on the latest trends on highlighting and contouring. 

First off, she reintroduced us to the contouring technique popularized by Kim Kardashian and then she introduced us to these new terms, "strobing" and "baking".

So first, she showed us tips and tricks to achieving a dewy youthful look by using the strobing technique. So basically strobing is all about highlighting. The trick is to get that balance of dewy glow against the ugly shiny look of a very oily face. Apply highlighter on areas on your face that naturally catches the light. However, if you want to amp up the dewy-ness for an evening look (or for photos), you can get a shimmery eye shadow of the lightest shade and use a fluffy small brush to apply it on top of the highlighter. Do not worry about damaging the make-up underneath the loose powder when you brush it off, doing this also sets your make-up.

Next is "baking". After you've put on your foundation and concealer, you press a liberal amount of your loose powder with a slightly damp wedge brush over your under eye area, over the area of  your cheekbones, on your chin and your temples. Leave it on for about 10 - 15 minutes, or while you do the rest of your eye make-up, then dust it off and blend well. Do make sure to blend well to avoid those camera accidents we see on pictures of some famous Hollywood stars.

Anyway, here is the finished look. Katchi says that red lips are quite popular now also dark lips (browns, plums). 90s make-up is also becoming quite popular again.

And here are the products in the loot bag which can also be found in Glamourbox's BYS Special Edition box plus a nail polish.

I will be featuring these products in an FOTD using the techniques taught to us during the event. Do watch out for that.

Cheers,

LIZ