Once you’ve been in the beauty world for a while, you start to get a little bit jaded. The variety of colours start to blur together, so then companies try to impress you with new packaging. When that doesn’t work, they try to emboss their products (and so far that packaging technique is working extremely well!). So when a product makes me gasp in excitement, you know it’s got something going for it.
Laura Geller Baked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blush in Guava
I mean… do I even really need to say much about this blush? The Laura GellerBaked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blush in Guava (there’s a name and a half) is just so damn beautiful to look at. The colour. The pattern. The shape. Gah. (Although Ulta’s web site did a dang good job of making this shade look seriously unimpressive. Seriously, go here and click on Guava. Like wtf is that shade??)
Laura Geller Baked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blush in Guava – swatch
And then you swatch it and it’s everything I hoped and dreamed for, and really, what more could you ask for in the most beautiful blush ever created? /swoon
Wearing Guava
No word of a lie, I get even more excited every time I put this on my cheeks. I used it in my Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons tutorial and I mentioned it again in my March Favourites. And now I’ve got this post on it. Is it overkill for a single blush? I sure as hell don’t think so!
For those of you wanting more than just an ode to a stunning blush, here are the basics: this wears all work day on me (7:30 am to 5 pm), the colour is luminescent and pigmented. It’s also easy to blend, which makes me love it all the more. My next time at Ulta, I am definitely picking up Plumberry(and again, don’t let Ulta’s web site fool you, the shade is nothing like that one either!) because I am so not over this formula any time soon!
The Laura GellerBaked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blushes can be purchased on Ulta.com for $26 USD each (and you should really, REALLY go get one!).
A lovely beauty blogging friend (see her stuff here!) decided to unload this gorgeous palette on me! It was one I had always looked at but hadn’t gotten around to buying just yet. Behold, the freaking stunning BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic 18-pan palette!
BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic
The shadows are all baked, so you can use them wet and dry!
I’m always a little thrown off when beauty brands bring hemp into the mix with their products. There’s something a little less than savory about seeing the tell-tale green leaves that usually signify a different kind of store down Yonge Street in Toronto (if you know what I mean).
“Hemp is hope, not dope”
The Body Shop went straight to the heart of that matter with their Hemp Rescue Balm as the inside of the tin packaging disclaims, quite loudly, “Hemp is hope, not dope”. Their Hemp Rescue Balm “instantly relieves rough, tight ultra-dry skin and soothes elbows, knees, knuckles and feet. [It has] a rich balm to oil texture and hemp seed oil packed full of essential fatty acids, your skin will be left feeling softer and more protected.” Once I read that, I was determined to use this on my nasty heels (which I have lamented about before).
The Body Shop Helm Rescue Balm
The balm has a bit of a tough texture on top, but once you break through that you’re left with the smooth balm underneath. It’s really a lovely texture – it’s smooth and emollient enough to sink into your skin (even my nasty ass heels), but not so slippery that it just wipes away when you walk around. And low and behold, it WORKS! This Hemp Rescue Balm has been keeping my heels in great shape and keeping the deep heel cracks at bay. I use this roughly every 2-3 nights before going to bed and I’ve been extremely happy with the results (especially since the last heel balm I used – by Dermacol – was doing NOTHING to help me out!). The scent is neither appealing nor unappealing to me, so that’s also a bonus.
So if you suffer from extremely rough patches of dry skin, or even cracked skin that needs healing (my husband’s been using it on his elbows, albeit not as regularly as me, and I have noticed a bit of a difference) you may want to give this one a shot!
Brand new products from BECCA aways fill me with excitement (currently itching to get my hands on the new blushes, but they haven’t been in a store near me yet!!) and the Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation was no different!
BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation
BECCA‘s Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation claims it is “a light, buildable, liquid foundation that imparts subtle luminosity with a weightless feel”. It comes in a beautiful frosted glass bottle with a metal lid. It’s compact and sleek – all things I love!
BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation
The foundation is dispensed by a dropper type system. When you twist the lid off the foundation, the top pops up and helps you pump out product into the dropper. When you close the bottle up, the popped top then closes down to make it flush with the rest of the cap. It’s actually a really neat system.
BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation has a dropper dispensing systemBECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation in Fair and Light
The dropper is as one would expect, although I would say that with a full bottle of foundation, I really only ever manage to get the dropper half full. I usually need about two of these to cover my full face. Side note: this is a VERY liquid foundation, make sure you shake the bottle up very well before using it!
When the Aqua Luminous Perfecting foundation first launched, there wasn’t a ton of shades, so I opted to try out Fair and Light. I thought that Fair would be a bit too pale for me, but that actually turned out to be totally incorrect. They’ve since added more shades to their range and I think Porcelain would be a better match for my winter skintone. (They’ve also added more dark shades as well!)
BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation in Fair and Light – swatches
You can see Fair and Light swatched above. They are significantly darker than I was expecting for shades with that name and they do lean quite warm. And yet… I don’t know what it is about my face… because somehow it oddly all manages to balance out:
Side by side comparison
I really wasn’t expecting Fair to be the colour match that it ended up being, but it works well on my skin! You can also see just how radiant it makes my skin too! That is some fairly ethereal glow going on there!
I do have a few thoughts on this foundation though, so bear with me.
The Bad
I find this applies a little bit strangely to my skin. I’ve mentioned in the past that my nose has problems getting foundation to adhere to it, and I found this foundation kind of balled up and stuck to dry patches around my nose. Very strange. It also sunk into the lines on my forehead.
The foundation range was really small when BECCA first launched them, but in the month or so I’ve been wearing this foundation to test it out, they’ve actually added more shades to their range. I still think the foundation range is too small (there’s about 10 shades), but they ARE working to adding more which is a bonus.
This isn’t a long wearing foundation (nor does it claim to be) and those with oily skin may struggle with the luminosity inherent in this foundation making them look a bit greasy.
The foundation looks “healthy”. I know that’s a strange description, but there’s a glowing luminosity to it that can only be described as “healthy”.
It does feel like a lightweight foundation on the skin (as they described) so I was really glad that that claim was totally accurate.
The colour match, although it looked strange in the swatch, actually worked out a lot better than I thought it would. (So if you’re nervous about colour matching, definitely get a sample from Sephora and try it out first!)
I would say this is medium to full coverage with a single application. I was impressed and surprised how much it covered up my freckles!
Final Thoughts
I think this is a foundation you’re going to have to decide for yourself if you’re going to love it based on what I said above. I was astonished with just how many people commented on the appearance of my skin while I was wearing it though! If you’ve tried this foundation, I would love to hear what you thought about it!
