Quick concealer swatches: Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer in Butter Cream and Fondant

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As a birthday present to myself last month, I renewed my Sephora Flash subscription and bought a new tube of Sephora concealer (oooh! ahh!), which came with the Sephora birthday gift and various other junk (you can see my "haul" on Instagram). I reviewed the Sephora Gel Serum concealer last year, and I continue to love the shit out of it. But the shade I had, Fondant, wasn't a perfect match. I thought I'd quickly post swatches of the new shade I picked up, Butter Cream, alongside Fondant and Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly, in case it's helpful for anyone.

Left to right: Sephora Butter Cream, Sephora Fondant, and Nars Chantilly.

I've noticed that you really can't rely on Sephora's descriptions of these shades. They describe Fondant as "light with neutral undertone," when it's clearly warm/peachy. Butter Cream is also "light with neutral undertone," though in its case, that's more accurate. It's a really perfect match for me, both under my eyes and on redness/spots elsewhere on my face.

This shade performs for me exactly the same as Fondant in every other way, so refer to my previous review for details. I just love this stuff. I've been using Fondant for almost 10 months now, and there's still plenty left (which I will finish up by covering my dark circles on days when I wear a fuller-coverage foundation). It hasn't got thick or changed in any way. A year or more of concealing by someone who uses concealer almost every day isn't bad for $14.

New Wet N Wild Primer PhotoFocus Eyeshadow Primer vs. (discontinued) Wet N Wild Fergie Eyeshadow Primer

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Wet N Wild repackaged and reformulated a few of their products recently when they discontinued their Fergie line. I compared the new and old Pearlescent Pink blushes not long ago (not the same!), and I bought a tube of the new eyeshadow primer at the same time to do a similar comparison.

The Fergie primer was my favorite for years. I compared it to a a bunch of other primers (here and here), and for the price, it really couldn't be beat. So I was horrified to hear that it had been discontinued and disappointed when I read comments from some people who said that its replacement, PhotoFocus Eyeshadow Primer, wasn't quite the same. I was curious to find out for myself, especially since the ingredients list for the Fergie primer and the new PhotoFocus primer are identical. (You can see the new ingredients here and the old ones here.) How could it be different, then? In fact, Wet N Wild says "new look" on the product page for this primer--not "new product."

But I can confirm that the new and old primers do not seem to be the same. I don't know what that means. Different suppliers for the ingredients? Different factory/manufacturing process? Who knows!

The new primer has a decidedly thicker and firmer texture and it doesn't intensify eyeshadow quite as well as the old primer. Take a look:

I used a mediocre CoverGirl eyeshadow single to test the primer. On the far left is no primer, then PhotoFocus, then Fergie, and finally Black Radiance (reviewed here) for good measure, since it's made by the same company. It was harder to build up the intensity of the eyeshadow over the PhotoFocus primer--better than no primer at all, but not nearly as effective as the other two. The new primer also seemed to be slightly different in color/opacity from the Fergie stuff, in addition to being much thicker. You can see the difference faintly at the bottom of each of the swatches above, but I swatched all three on white paper to show it more clearly.

Again, PhotoFocus on the left, Fergie in the middle, and Black Radiance on the right. It's not the easiest photo to interpret, so let me help. The Fergie primer is the most opaque of the three and also the most yellow-toned. The PhotoFocus primer is sheerer, but not as sheer as the Black Radiance primer. None of these three products is identical.

Of course, I've also used the new primer on my actual eyelids. In the test pictured here, I used PhotoFocus on one eye and Fergie on the other, under Burberry Rosewood. I find Rosewood (swatched here) to be quite powdery and sheer, so it benefits from a good primer.

PhotoFocus, immediately after application:

Fergie, immediately after application:

I didn't see much difference, other than that my right eyelid is apparently more wrinkly. (I think it's mainly the raking angle of the light.)

And then I took photos again at the end of a very sweaty day, after about 8 hours of wear. You'll have to excuse the poorer lighting, since it was night and I had to take the after photos indoors.

PhotoFocus after 8 hours:

Some definite fading, but no creasing.

Fergie after 8 hours:

No creasing here either, but it has faded less.

Conclusions? I don't know exactly what the fuck Wet N Wild is doing with these replacements for products that were formerly well-loved and highly rated, which are ostensibly the same thing, but clearly aren't really. If your primary reason for using an eyeshadow primer is to prevent creasing, you should be fine using the new PhotoFocus primer (I have extremely oily eyelids, so I've put them to a rigorous test). If, however, you mainly want to intensify the pigmentation or opacity of your eyeshadow or to prevent fading, I would opt for something else, like the Black Radiance primer. Though it looks and feels more like the PhotoFocus primer than the Fergie one, the Black Radiance primer performs better. And it's cheap, too. Or you can stock up on leftover tubes of Fergie primer while you still can.

TheBalm 40-50% off on HauteLook

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When I want something from TheBalm, I wait for it to reappear on HauteLook, as they do several times a year, rather than trying to take part in their biannual 50% off sales. (Was it the usual clusterfuck last time? I didn't pay attention.) So here you go. They even have that Meet Matte(e) Trimony eyeshadow palette that everyone has been cooing over on sale for half price. If you can wear reddish eyeshadow, go for it (I can't). TheBalm has the worst, most nonsensical puns, but they do make good makeup in my experience. Anything tempting you from this sale?

I am finally getting into the groove of my new job, so I should be able to resume blogging with some kind of regularity. (That may be a total lie. Time will tell.)

Jack of all trades? Bite Beauty Multisticks in Blondie, Macaroon, and Cocoa

Disclosure: Affiliate links. Provided free for review.

When I saw the first reviews of the Bite Multisticks, my initial thought was that they weren't for me. I've never had particularly good luck with multi-use products. When something is intended to be used on both lips and cheeks, it tends to be either too drying on the lips or too hard to blend on the cheeks. I think this is the first time I have encountered a product designed for use on lips, cheeks, and eyes, which is even a taller order.

Of course, as soon as I dismissed the product, Influenster promptly sent me three--Blondie, Cocoa, and Macaroon (yes, it is spelled that way)--to test and review. Okay. A challenge! My thought was that these Multisticks would be ideal for travel. Not only would a single product that you could use on eyes, lips, and cheeks make for some very compact packing, but also when I travel, I like to pack as few brushes as possible, so I like cream products that can be applied with fingers. What is especially nice about the Bite Multisticks is that they have study magnetic lids. You don't even have to push the cap all the way on. Just slide it part way, let go, and it snaps right in place. That would be great for ensuring that it wouldn't come open in your bag and make a mess.

Unfortunately, these sticks fit in with my general experience of multi-use makeup. They work okay for each purpose, but they aren't spectacular for any of them. While I like the idea of getting several uses out of a single item, it's pretty rare.

Bite describes these sticks as having "35 percent powder," which . . . . okay, sure. But they do have a different texture from most matte lipsticks, and describing it as more powdery seems accurate enough. Unlike some of the other Bite lipsticks, these sticks are not scented.

When I tested the Multisticks, I applied them all using just the stick itself with my fingers to blend, going along with my idea that they would be best suited to travel. Indeed, this is the best method I've found for application. Trying to apply them with a brush makes them very sheer and patchy. Unfortunately the shape of the stick makes it a bit tricky to apply to the eyelid, but it's still the best method if you want as much saturation and opacity as possible.

The colors I received are interesting, but unfortunately none of them quite works on all three of my features. Blondie is a beige with more yellow-brown than peach in it, which just doesn't work well as lipstick or blush with my coloring, though it's quite nice on my eyes. Cocoa is a dark brown that is basically a much deeper version of Blondie, i.e. more yellow than red in the brown. It's too dark for my cheeks, and while I can wear it on my lips, it's not a look I would choose. So that's limited to just eyeshadow too. Macaroon is a nice, rosy pink. It's not the perfect pink lipstick for me, but it's wearable, and it makes a nice blush. I also tried it as eyeshadow, (photos later in the post) and while it wasn't as terrible as I'd expected, I doubt that it's something I'll wear on a regular basis. I've been following Temptalia's swatches of the different shades as they appear, looking for one that I think I could truly use for all three things (lips, cheeks, eyes), and the only one that seems likely is the purple Nectar, which would make an unusual but maybe interesting blush. The rest seem either too brown for my lips or too pink/red for my eyes. For those of you who can really pull of brown lipstick or pink/red eyeshadow, however, there are a lot of options!

Swatches and photos. Let's start with Blondie. I compared it with the closest products I had, and you can see that it's really true beige, rather than being peachy like most other brown/beige/nude products I have.

Left to right above: Bite Multistick in Blondie, Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Maple Kiss, ModelCo Party Proof Lipstick in Kitty, and Milani Shadow Eyez Pencil in Almond Cream.

On my lips:

I had no real complaints about the application or wear of Blondie as a lipstick. It's easy to apply in one opaque layer, though the blunt stick isn't the easiest to use precisely. It was comfortable and not drying, despite the "35 percent powder" content. It's just the color that I don't like on me.

On my eyes:

This I liked better than I expected to. It's subtle, but pretty. It did crease after a few hours (over primer), but it's light enough that it wasn't too noticeable.

I found that of the three shades I received, Blondie is the least slippery, with means it doesn't settle into lines on lips easily and it doesn't crease as badly as the others on my eyelids. That also means, however, that it's more difficult to blend as a blush. It's actually a very good color for a bronzer on me, but I found it nearly impossible to blends smoothly enough to not look patchy. I'll stick with powder bronzers on the rare occasions that I use them.

Next up, Macaroon. One of the thing Bite advertises for the Multisticks is that you can use them to create a monochromatic look, which is cool in theory, but as I said, you have to be able to use one color all over your face. Macaroon was my best bet, so I gave it a shot.

Like I said, it wasn't as bad as I'd expected, but that's a bit too much pink for me. Macaroon has the most slip, so it blends beautifully as a blush, but the slipperiness also causes Macaroon to settle into lip lines a bit. On the other hand, it is a comfortable and quite long-wearing matte lipstick.

On the lips:

On the eyes:

Here are some comparisons with Macaroon. It's very, very close to Tom Ford Pussycat, if you've been looking for a cheaper dupe.

Left to right above: Bite Multistick in Macaroon, Maybelline Creamy Matte in Lust for Blush, Maybelline Creamy Matte in Touch of Spice, Wet N Wild Megalast Lipstick in Rose-bud, Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture, L'Oreal La Laque in Choco-laque, and Tom Ford Pussycat.

And finally, Cocoa, which only works as an eyeshadow on me. It's definitely brown! I don't have any comparable lipsticks at all.

Left to right above: Bite Multistick in Cocoa, Milani Shadow Eyez Pencil in Cafe au Lait, and Maybelline Creamy Matte in Divine Wine.

On my lips:

It applied nicely and wears well. It's just not a great color for me.

On my eyes (the photos were taken within minutes of applying it, over primer, so you can see that the creasing is pretty immediate):

Despite the creasing and patchiness, I did like how it looked when applied from the stick and blended with a finger. It reminded me that I should use a wash of dark, matte brown more often as a simple eyeshadow look.

Cocoa also works very well as a cream base to intensify powder eyeshadows. When used that way (over primer) it doesn't crease at all. But I wouldn't buy a $24 product solely to use as a base for other shadows, especially since I still have to use a primer.

Unfortunately, none of these three shades is really a triple-threat for me. I think if you can find a shade that works that way for you, then you can get a lipstick, blush/contour, and cream eyeshadow base from it. But since it needs to be topped with powder eyeshadow, it's not a perfect travel product that eliminates the need to pack additional eyeshadow and brushes. In the end, I found the Multisticks fun to experiment with and better than I'd hoped (especially as a lipstick formula), but they're certainly not going to replace dedicated eyeshadows, blushes, or lipsticks in my hoard.

I am thinking that a combination of Cocoa and Blondie could be used to make a pretty great sepia Halloween costume, though . . .

Have you ever found a multi-use product that actually excelled at multiple things? Any interest in the Bite Multisticks? Is there a color there that you could use for that cool, grungy monochromatic look?

(By the way, I got these from Influenster. Anyone can sign up--it's not a blogger thing, though you do need to use social media.)

Celebrity skin

I found this website, Celebrity Close-Up, via Tumblr today, which is just a series of photos of celebrity faces zoomed in close enough that you can see all the detail and texture of their makeup and skin. I'm not in it to make fun of anyone, but it's reassuring to be reminded that everyone, even Beyonce (gasp!), has pores and spots and/or visible foundation. And that our quest for invisible but flawless base makeup is bound to fail if even these people don't have access to such a thing.

Plus, there are some excellent sources of makeup inspiration here, and you can see how the products were applied in detail.

Be warned: there is a Trump close-up on the first page!

My Wedding Makeup

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I got married back in the spring in about the smallest wedding you can have and still invite people. It was held in a park and took about half an hour. And then there were 20 minutes of photos, which we didn't originally plan to do, but the mothers outvoted us. I did my own makeup and hair, but since the photography was limited, there are no closeups of my makeup.

I went completely matchy-matchy and coordinated all of my makeup with my dress and cardigan (it was too early in the spring for no sleeves!). I got my dress from ModCloth (this one, which is unfortunately sold out at the moment), and it was perfect. In most of my photos my bouquet is blocking the front of the dress, so enjoy this goofy pose where you can see what it actually looked liked. (FYI, tulips droop very quickly once you remove them from water. Good thing it was a short ceremony!)

I wanted to record my makeup here mainly for myself, so I can remember what I did, because I was happy with the results. This is certainly not meant to be a tutorial. Since I don't have detailed photos of my actual wedding day makeup, I've illustrated this post with the photos I took of my trial makeup runs (complete with unfortunate reflections on my glasses).Almost everything in the trial photos is the same as what I actually ended up using, except for my lipstick. In the first trial run (i.e. the first two photos), I used Urban Decay Matte Revolution lipstick in Bad Blood (swatched here). For the second trial run, the third photo, I used NYX Matte Lipstick in Perfect Red. For my actual wedding day, I picked up something more kiss-proof: Stila liquid lipstick in Fiery. Swatches later in the post!

My first trial run happened before I dyed my hair, as you can no doubt tell, and the second was after. My hair color in the photo below is L'Oreal Superior Preference in Dark Soft Mahogany Brown. The color in the two photos above is the same dye after about 4-5 months of fading/growth.

Here's a list of all the makeup I used. It felt like a ton, and there are a lot of products involved, but in photos I don't think it looks like too much. The best part is that I bought only one new product (the Stila lipstick)--everything else was stuff I already had. In fact, several of the things I used are among the oldest makeup products I own. Something old, I guess!

Face (in order of application)

• Smashbox Photo Finish Primer (sample tube--I have no idea if this actually did anything)
• NYX Concealer stick in Green around nose and over other reddness
• No7 Lift & Luminate Foundation in Cool Vanilla (swatched here) mixed with Lord & Berry Cream Foundation in White Milk
• Sephora Gel Serum Concealer in Fondant (reviewed here) under eyes and over red spots/areas
• Paula's Choice Resist Pressed Powder in Porcelain/Fair (very brief review here)
• NYX Blush in Taupe for light cheekbone contouring
• Old Quo blushes (both mixed together) from the palette in this post
• Light bronzer from the same Quo palette
• e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Elegant (discontinued) as highlighter mainly on my cheekbones, above my brows, and on my nose (too much nose highlight in the first iteration!)
• Nars Light Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder (this shit is expensive, but if you're going to be photographed, it really does what it says it will do--not so much in real life)

Eyes

On my brows I used:

• Avon Ultra Luxury Brow Liner in Blonde (reviewed here)
• Paula's Choice Eyebrow and Hair Tint in Sable

On my eyes I used:

• Wet N Wild Fergie eyeshadow primer (reviewed here)
• L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Eternal Sunshine on the mobile lid (swatched here)
• The pale gold shade in the Revlon Colorstay Quad in Copper Spice (discontinued, swatched here) under the browbone and in the inner corner
• Ulta Demi Eyeshadow in Milk Chocolate in the crease and outer V
• L'Oreal Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner in Earthen Rock Brown (Note: I didn't wing out my eyeliner. Instead I used the shape I described in this post, which is thicker in the center of my eye, to make them appear a little wider and rounder.) (Note II: OH DEAR GOD IT SEEMS LIKE THIS MOST PERFECT EYELINER MIGHT BE DISCONTINUED! NOOOO!)
• The darkest shade from the Copper Spice quad to soften the edge of the eyeliner and smudged lightly below the lower lashline
• Rimmel Scandaleyes Liner in Nude on the lower waterline
• Covergirl LashBlast Volume Waterproof mascara in Very Black (reviewed here)

The only difference between the eye detail above and what I actually used on my wedding day is that I was testing out Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly during this trial run. As you can see, it creased, so I went with my usual Sephora Gel Serum concealer on the day itself.

Lips

I really loved the look of Urban Decay Bad Blood, and my husband gamely agreed that he would wipe any lipstick smeared on his face off before we got our photos taken, but a few days before the wedding, I decided to get a more transfer-proof liquid lipstick instead. Stila Fiery turns out to be almost identical in color to Bad Blood, but it won't come off on your bride or groom's lips. I was a bit wary when I bought it, because as a rule I don't like liquid lipstick. This stuff is easy to apply--it's not runny and it only requires one coat for full opacity. It's also surprisingly comfortable. I'm pretty intolerant of lipstick formulas that are at all drying, and for me, this one isn't. It also doesn't flake off or wear away in an ugly way. It wore away a bit in the center of my mouth during our very rich wedding meal (shepherd's pie!), but it was easy to retouch. I really can't think of any criticism, which isn't something I ever thought I'd say about a liquid lipstick. I don't even regret that I paid full price for it (gasp!).

I used Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in Ravish (another oldie) to clean up the edges--I recreated my technique recently for the photo above. Ravish is a dark brick red. I really like using a darker lipliner with a red lipstick. Not only does it add dimension (kind of like contouring your lips, I guess), it also makes red lips appear less stark. It sounds strange, but if you find even the most flattering shades of red a bit intimidating or jarring when you put them on, try lining it with a slightly darker shade and see if it looks more harmonious.

Here are some swatches: (left to right) Stila Fiery, Urban Decay Bad Blood, NYX Perfect Red, and Rimmel liner in Ravish.

 Here's a detail I cropped out of a group photo from the wedding, which gives you an idea of how it ended up:

There it is! My long belated wedding makeup post. Our wedding was just what we had in mind, and I'm pleased that I've learned to do my own makeup well enough that I was able to do it myself for this occasion. To be honest, whenever I've had my makeup done by someone else for other weddings, I've never really been satisfied with it. My technique isn't flawless, but at least I got exactly what I wanted (and no false lashes!!).

New Wet N Wild Color Icon Blush in Pearlescent Pink vs. the old Pearlescent Pink

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Top: New Wet N Wild Color Icon Blush in Pearlescent Pink; bottom: the old Pearlescent Pink

So this is kind of fun: Racked recently linked to an old post of mine, where I complained that people kept calling Milani Luminoso an Orgasm dupe, when it obviously isn't, in their article about the rise of makeup dupe culture. So it seems like a good time to publish this post on another supposed-but-not-actual dupe for Orgasm: Wet N Wild Pearlescent Pink.

Wet N Wild recently reformulated their Color Icon blushes and redesigned the packaging. Some of the new blushes, including Pearlescent Pink, have the same names as the old ones, and there are also some new shades. The old Pearlescent Pink is one of my favorite blushes, but I could tell as soon as I looked at the new one on the store shelf that it wasn't the same, as I'm sure you can see in the photo above. It's weird talking about "dupes" when the two things are being presented as the same product, but this blush is not a dupe of itself. So I bought it (because why wouldn't I buy a blush that looks nothing like another blush I that really like?). Here's a comparison for you. Swatches first: (left to right) new Pearlescent Pink, old Pearlescent Pink, and Nars Orgasm.

Clearly neither of these is an Orgasm dupe, and to the overly picky eye of a makeup hoarder, the new and old Pearlescent Pinks are completely different. While the old one isn't exactly pearlescent (rather it has some gold sparkle in it), the new one is neither pearlescent nor pink. It's firmly in peach category. You can see the difference on my face, too.

Old Pearlescent Pink, which on me is a flattering shade of pink that looks like a natural flush:

New Pearlescent Pink, which isn't a bad blush color, but is so peachy it actually leans toward nude/beige on my face:

The formulas of the old and new versions are similar in some ways. They're both soft and kick up quite a bit of powder when you stick your brush in them. They both have some sparkle. The old version is more pigmented, so that I have to use a light touch, whereas I've found that I actually need to build up the new one a bit to get the look I want. How pigmented you want your blush to be is a matter of preference. It's easier to add more layers than to remove it if you go overboard, but it can also be more work to get a visible flush if a blush is too sheer. On the plus side, the new blush is a bit bigger at 0.2 oz. to the old 0.14 oz for the same price ($2.99). It's pretty rare that a makeup company redesigns packaging and actually gives you more product.

The new blush is fine, but I'm annoyed that my old favorite is gone and that they're pretending this new one is somehow the same thing. It's not fucking pink. It's a different product, so it should have a different name. I probably have a few good years left with my original Pearlescent Pink, since it's a huge pan (even in the old size) and I only need to use a very small amount at a time. If, however, you like it as much as I do and want to stock up while you still can, Amazon still has the old Pearlescent Pink available for under $5 with free shipping.

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