essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Glosses

The essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Gloss is a newer addition the essence Cosmetics' line, at least here in North America. The essence BB Lip Gloss retails for $3.49 USD/ $4.49 CAD and comes in 5 shades. 

essence cosmetics BB Lip Gloss

essence describes this as a "balm lipgloss has a high shine texture and leaves behind beautiful color finish on your lips. Enriched with shea butter and vitamin E ingredients, a soft pampered pout without stickiness is now possible!"

essence BB Beauty Balm Lipgloss

I normally steer pretty clear of pigmented glosses, but I love these! Great pigmentation, shiny, moisturizing and leave your lips looking nice and plump. These don't feel sticky, but they are on the thicker side but I find that helps with wear time. They also don't leave that weird white ring around my lips. The packaging is super easy, it has a plastic tip with a squeeze tube. 

essence BB Lip Gloss Swatches

I have 4 of 5 shades. I enjoy mixing shades too, Sweet Dreams and Keep It Real is a favourite combo of mine. 

01 essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Gloss Keep It Real

essence BB Lip Gloss Keep It Real

02 essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Gloss Sweet Dreams

essence BB Lip Gloss Sweet Dreams

03 essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Gloss Flirtylicious

essence BB Lip Gloss Flirtylicious

05 essence BB Beauty Balm Lip Gloss Heartbreaker 

essence BB Lip Gloss Heartbreaker 

*These products were sent for my review.

Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight 02 Swatches + Review

Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight 2 Golden

 Make Up For Ever recently expanded their Pro Fusion line with a highlighter! It only makes sense, highlighting, strobing, "glowing to the Gods" is all the rage right now. No complaints here, there is not much more satisfying than applying a highlight and seeing that sheen. I have been waiting for this highlight to come out for a year at least. If you recall the Make Up For Ever Sculpting Duos, this is the highlight but in it's own pan, yahoo! 

Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight Gold

The Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight retails on Sephora Canada for $48.00 CAD and on Sephora USA for $39.00 USD and comes with 11g of product. The price tag may seem up there but for reference in a Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector you recieve about 8g of product for $46.00 CAD. There are 2 shades, 01 which is described as a golden pink recommended for light to medium skin tones and 02 golden which is recommended for medium to deep skin tones. 

Make Up For Ever Gold Highlight

The packaging is sleek and black, which is nice but I wish they had done something similar to the Pro Fusion Bronzer which comes in the same compact with a gorgeous bronze finish. I'm getting nit picky here but let's get real, this highlight is STUNNING. 

I was first introduced to the Make Up For Ever Pro Fusion line in January with the Pro Fusion Bronzer in 30M Natural Matte Sienna, if you watch my YouTube Channel, you'd know this is a favourite of mine. The Pro Fusion line consists of a gel-powder texture. It is hard to describe but it feels very densely packed, incredibly smooth and with a great sheen. The Pro Fusion Highlighter is also talc free. 

Make Up For Ever Pro Fusion Highlight Golden

The Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight is embossed with a wave pattern and because it is so densely packed the design does not disappear easily which I like. Depending on the amount of glow you prefer you can go in quite lightly with a fluffy brush that won't pick up much product or something more dense to really pack on the glow. It can be built up as well. It feels very smooth, with no glitter, just shine. 

If you'd like to see the highlight in action I am wearing the Make Up For Ever Pro Fusion Highlight 2 Gold in my October Favourites Video. 

Make Up For Ever Pro Light Fusion Highlight Comparisons

I pulled out some of my golden highlights to see if I could find any similarities. Pictured below are ELF Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted, Laura Gellar Baked Gelato Swirl Illuminator in Gilded Honey, Kiko Water Shadow in #208 and Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Vegas Strip.

If you haven't already gathered I absolutely love this highlight. Although the price tag is up there I think you'd have a very hard time running through it and the quality is absolutely amazing. It can be used as a highlight on the face and body and it also makes a gorgeous eyeshadow. My advice would be to pick it up during the Sephora VIB Sale.

*This was sent for my review

MAC In The Spotlight Collection: Blushing Beam Extra Dimension Skin Finish & Goldlite Strobe Cream

MAC In The Spotlight Highlight Collection

#MACInTheSpotlight launches online in North America on November 3rd and in-store November 10th. It includes extensions of their Strobe Cream ($33 USD/ $40 CAD) along with Extra Dimension Skin Finishes ($33 USD/ $38 CAD) and brushes. The best part about this collection, besides the fact that it's all about glow is that it is permanent! Thank you glow Gods! 

MAC Goldlight Strobe Cream

The iconic original Strobe Cream is now named Pinklite (pink pearls). Added to the Strobe Cream line for the MAC In The Spotlight Collection is Peachlite (peach pearls), Silverlite (silver pearls), Redlite (red pearls) and Goldlite (gold pearls). It has 1.7 fl oz of product which is almost double the size of an average foundation. Strobe cream has been around long before the strobing craze. MAC describes this as "super-powered with potent botanical, antioxidants and iridescent pearl particles" It is meant to not only create a glow but to hydrate and de-stress the skin. 

Goldlite Strobe Cream MAC Strobing Collection

MAC Goldlite Strobe Cream is STUNNING. I am a true gold lover, but I also have oily skin which has kept me away from MAC Strobe Cream in the past. I have been missing out! It has a gorgeous texture that is not at all greasy, dries down quite fast with no glitter just sheen. It can be mixed in with a foundation, used on the body or on top of the cheekbones or wherever you'd normally highlight. 

Beaming Blush Extra Dimension Skin Finish

There are 4 Extra Dimension Skin Finishes in the MAC In The Spotlight Collection. Show Gold (peach that breaks pink), Double-Gleam (beige that breaks silver), Beaming Blush (pink that breaks gold) and Soft Frost (white that breaks violet). I think that these are a super fun way to add some duo-chrome interest to your look. 

MAC Beaming Blush Swatches (heavy on bottom, blended on top)

MAC Extra Dimension Skin Finish in Beaming blush is SO PRETTY. I didn't want to touch it. It looks quite pink in the pan but you do get a good bit of gold that reflects as well. Dependant on your skin tone it can be a highlight, blush topper or eyeshadow! Again, there is no glitter just a smooth textured glow. I have to include a video clip, pictures do not do it justice! 

Also included is the MAC 127 Split Fibre Face Brush ($35 USD/ $42 CAD). It is incredibly soft and has a 50/50 split of natural and synthetic bristles. It is slightly tapered at the tip which makes it easy to place highlight and diffuse it. It would also make a great brush to place and blend contour for a softer look. 

MAC In The Spotlight MAC 127 Duo Fiber Brush

MAC Blushing Beam Extra Dimension Skin Finish on lids 

MAC Goldlite Strobe Cream as cheekbone highlight

MAC Blushing Beam Powder as highlight

*These products were sent for my review. 

Stila Stay All Day Sparkle All Night Swatches

Stila Stay All Day Sparkle All Night Set

It is that magical time of the year, holiday makeup launches! I especially love kits with deluxe size lippies, because let's be honest I rarely finish a lip product. The Stila Stay All Day Sparkle All Night Set is available on both Sephora, Ulta and Beauty Bay. It retails for $51 CAD and $39 USD. It includes 5 of Stila's Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks and the Gliteratti Lip Top Coat.

Stila Stay All Day Sparkle All Night Swatches

If you ignore the fact that it's a good deal because you'll never run through the lipsticks and you get to try 5 shades; and are curious about the true value let's break it down:

Stila Stay All Day Sparkle All Night: 8.8 mL of product at $51 CAD = $5.70 per mL.
Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick: 3 mL of product at $31 = $10/mL.

Good deal all around in my opinion!

Stila Holiday Lip Kit

Overall I was super happy with the consistency with all the shades. Nothing was patchy, they all went on smoothly and dried down matte. I don't find the formula incredibly drying, no more than any other liquid lipstick out there! I am happy to put up with a little dryness for a nice colour and matte finish.

Fresco, mid tone dusty rose.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick Fresco, with topcoat on the right.

Baci, nude pink.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick Baci, with topcoat on the right.

Patina, dusty rose.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick Patina, with topcoat on the right.

Rubino, beet red.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick Rubino, with topcoat on the right.

Bacca, raspberry.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick Bacca, with topcoat on the right.

The Stila Gliteratti Top Coat is interesting. It almost feels like it is glitter suspended in water, I thought it would be a thicker gloss formula. I guess it makes sense if it is too thick the formula may cause the liquid lipstick to break down. I had no issues with that. In the tube it looks like it is a soft red glitter but on the lips it was much more of a clear, near silver glitter. Overall I think this is cute, but I am glad it comes in a mini size because I don't think I will get a ton of use out of it. It's nice to have for when I want to try something different, perfect for the holidays! It has a bit of a perfumey taste so if you are sensitive to that, heads up.

Stila Glitter Lip Top Coat

With or without the Stila Glitterati Top Coat I think this is a great set if you have any interest in the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks. Or, if you have friends that are lipstick lovers you can buy the set and split it up amongst them.

*These products were sent for my review.