Category Archives: Bronzers

Sugar Cosmetics Contour De Force Palettes/Minis Review, Swatches + Giveaway

Sugar Cosmetics Contour De Force Palettes/Minis Review, Swatches + Giveaway

Blush, Bronzers, Highlighters, Makeup, New Launches, Reviews, Sugar Cosmetics, Swatches, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sugar Cosmetics Contour De Force Palettes/Minis Review, Swatches + Giveaway

Hi guys,

Sugar Cosmetics is back with yet another launch, this time they have launched face palettes. It’s called Contour De Force Palette and has a bronzer, blush and a highlighter.

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Palette 01 is called Subtle Summit and Palette 02 is called Vivid Victory, each of the shades in these palettes are sold individually too as minis i.e. mini bronzer/mini blush and mini highlight. (Buy HERE)

The quantity is the same i.e. 4g in both, palettes cost Rs.799/- and minis cost Rs.299/-. So palettes are more economical, also more travel friendly.

They have a cardboard packaging and it’s not super sturdy but won’t bend or break that easily too. The palettes come with a mirror. 

The palette 01 has Blush 01 Peach Pink, Bronzer 01 Taupe Topper and highlighter 01 Champagne Champion.

01 Subtle Summit

Peach pink is a soft, peachy pink blush, Taupe Topper is a cool toned bronzer with gray undertone and the highlighter Champagne Champion is a muted champagne gold.

01 Subtle Summit

The Taupe Topper bronzer is more of a contouring powder than a bronzer and works really well. I loved it. The blush is very muted and would need layering to show up, more suitable for fair skin tones. The highlight is also very subtle and muted, it gives a soft glow suitable for day time, but it’s not like one of those blinding highlights. I personally prefer a stronger highlight though.

02 Vivid Victory

The palette 02 has Blush 02 Pink Pinnacle, Bronzer 02 Woody Wonder and highlighter 02 Gold Glory.

Pink Pinnacle is a deep rose shade, Woody Wonder is a warm brown bronzer (this is more of a bronzer) and Gold Glory is a muted golden bronze.

02 Vivid Victory

The blush is very pretty and would work for all skin tones, bronzer is quite light and would only show up on fair skin tones and the highlight is again subtle and muted, would work for all especially deeper skin tones.

I feel they should have interchanged the bronzer in both the palettes and then palette 01 would be perfect for fair skin tones and 02 for deeper skin tones.

I like the bronzer 01, blush 02 and highlighters both, but 02 more. The texture is really smooth and the powders are very finely milled. These palettes are perfect for day time use and travel, both the highlighters are very subtle and muted, if that’s what you prefer in highlighters.

I do like and recommend the new Sugar Cosmetics face palette, the combination is again an off for me, just like I mentioned in the eye shadow quads HERE.

I am giving away the minis on my Youtube channel, the video embedded below, join 🙂

What do you think about the new Sugar Palettes? Have you tried them?

Faces Ultime Pro Face Palette Fresh, Glow Review & Swatches

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Faces Ultime Pro Face Palette Fresh, Glow Review & Swatches

Hi guys,

Faces launched their new Ultime Pro Face Palettes recently. They are available in two variants, Fresh and Glow. I have both of them and have been using them since quite a few weeks and here are my thoughts..

Claims: With the bronzer, illuminator and blush all in one travel friendly pack, just add this one palette to your work bag or vanity and you are ready to go! The light shimmering color of the blush gives your cheeks a natural looking glow. Its silky smooth texture blends perfectly on your skin and feels super light, besides lasting all day long. The bronzer is the perfect blend of iridescent micronized pigments that dresses your skin in a radiant tan and a healthy looking complexion. Exalt your complexion with the Illuminator, as it sculpts adding radiance and homogeneity to the skin. With two shades to choose from, namely ‘Fresh’ and ‘Glow’, FACES Ultime Pro Face Palette complements all skin tones and flatters your skin like never before.

FACES Ultime Pro Face Palette is a light weight formulation which doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable or heavy all day long, but is rather fabulous on your skin. Not only that, it is easily blendable and gives you the most glamorous look for the day. With excellent shading properties, FACES Ultime Pro Face Palette will impart just the right dose of pretty to your look. Besides its extremely safe on the skin as it is paraben free.

MRP: Rs.899/-

Faces has already launched a bronzer and highlighter, and they have included the same two in this palette along with a blush. I absolutely loved this concept, the trio makes it very handy to carry around and travel with.

I love blush/bronzer/highlighter trios as you don’t need separate products and can do all three on the go.

It has a basic black packaging with a see through clear top. It doesn’t come with a brush or mirror. Though the palette is quite handy, I feel it has to be handled carefully or the outer cover would break, if dropped.

The bronzer and highlighter is the same in both the variants, only the centre blush is different. Fresh one has a day wear matte mauve blush, while the Glow one has a burnt orange blush with gold shimmer, appropriate for night time/heavier look.

Fresh
Glow

The palette and even the powders individually have a sandalwood scent. I personally love the scent but many don’t like any kind of scent in their makeup.

Fresh
Glow

The powders have medium pigmentation but are buildable. The bronzer is not very warm toned, so I use it as a contour too and I didn’t think the colour would show up as a contour on my skin as it’s quite light. But on building up, it did contour and define really well. Unfortunately the bronzer shade won’t show up on deep skin tones. However, the blush and highlighter would work, especially the Glow blush would look pretty on deeper skin tones.

I love using the Fresh one, as it’s very natural and gives a nice pink flush to the cheeks. The highlighter though has to be my favourite out of all three. It’s a gorgeous warm toned gold highlight and works very well with our Indian skin.

Here’s how Fresh looks on me, have used all three..

FOTD with Fresh

I absolutely loved the highlighter, it’s not OTT and neither very light/unnoticeable. It’s very pretty and again buildable if you like a blinding highlight.

This stays on for 6-7 hours in summers currently.

For fair to medium skin tones, both the palettes would work. For deeper skin tones, the bronzer won’t show up but the rest two blush and highlight would work.

At 899, getting all three products is really amazing. As individually the bronzer and highlighter are sold at 650 each, you get three products here and this is total value for money!

I absolutely love it and recommend it.

Lakme Sun Kissed Bronzer, Moon Lit Highlighter, Illuminating Shimmer Brick Review, Swatches

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Lakme Sun Kissed Bronzer, Moon Lit Highlighter, Illuminating Shimmer Brick Review, Swatches

Hi guys,

So as you all already know, Lakme launched these new products in their ‘Illuminate and Shine‘ collection during the last fashion week. This is a Limited Edition range brought in collaboration with Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

This range also has Illuminating Foundation and Shine Line liquid eye liners which I guess are permanent, only the bronzers and highlighters are LE.

There is one bronzer, one highlighter and two shades in the Illuminating Shimmer Brick i.e. Pink and Coral.

Lakme had this bronzer and highlighter earlier too and it was LE at that time too, so those two are like a relaunch. But I love the new addition of the Shimmer Brick.

All three come in same packaging, a flat round pan with a clear plastic cap. There is no brush, no mirror, no other compartment. The product is stand alone.

Sun kissed Bronzer

Claims: 

  • Limited edition makeup bronzer designed by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee
  • Contains luxurious micro fine pearls
  • Blends effortlessly for a natural sun kissed glow
  • Dermatologically tested

MRP: Rs.725/- for 9g (Buy for 600 HERE)

The bronzer is half and half with one part being lighter and one darker. It is very smooth in texture and though shimmery, the shimmers are not gritty or chunky. I found it slightly orange though, I wish it was a little more brown based. Also if one part could have been matte, that would make it ideal for contouring + bronzing

Moon Lit Highlighter

Claims:

  • A limited edition highlighter designed by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee
  • Ideal for strobing
  • Reflective shimmer finish
  • Contains fine velvet pearls to give your skin a stunning glow

MRP: Rs.725/- for 9g (Buy HERE)

Coming to the Moon Lit Highlighter, one part is a white based lighter highlighter and one is a dark brown based highlighter for deeper skin tones, which is exactly the same shade as the bronzer. So this is actually be a bronzer-highlighter duo.

Bronzer part feels exactly the same as in the Sun Kissed Bronzer, I love the lighter highlight part. It gives the most stunning soft, natural highlight. You can use this on an everyday basis and no one would know that you have highlighted! But if you prefer stronger highlights like me, layer this twice over a creamy highlighter and this will stay in place whole day, giving the most blinding highlight ever 😀 See it in action in my video HERE

Illuminating Shimmer Brick

Claims: 

  • A limited edition blush palette designed by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee
  • Comes with a hint of shimmer
  • Luminous silky formula makes your cheek glow
  • Blends effortlessly

MRP: Rs.725/- for 10g (Buy HERE)

My most favourite out of the three is the Illuminating Shimmer Brick. I have the shade Coral. Both the shades Coral and Pink are beautiful! Both would work for all skin tones, but if I have to suggest one, I would say Pink for fair and medium skin tones and Coral for deeper skin tones.

It has 5 strips of color, with the top ones being more highlighter like and the bottom ones being more blush like. So you can either use them individually or just swirl the brush all over and use on both blush and highlight part for an all over glow! The peachy coral tones work really well the gold based highlight colors and together combined, they give the most amazing peachy gold glow. This product is perfect for brides too!

All blended together

The best part about all three is that they double up as eye shadows and look really good on the eyes. As the colors are bronzer and warm toned, they make nice lid colors and highlight for inner corner and brow bone or just a wash all over the eyes.

Overall, in my honest opinion, I would say go for the illuminating shimmer brick and the moon lit highlighter. You can skip the bronzer as the darker part in the moon lit highlighter is exactly the same. But if you are deeper skin tone and prefer deep highlighters only, go for the bronzer and skip the highlighter 🙂

I hope you liked the review, do let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder Review, Swatches

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Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder Review, Swatches

By Linda

Hi all you lovely ladies out there,

This review is of a bronzer that I got from a drug store it’s called Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder. So let’s go ahead and find out how this product worked for me

Product description as per the Maybelline website:

For instant natural looking, sun kissed perfection. Three multi-tonal bronzing shades create your unique sun kissed look, all year-round. For Best results: Use a brush, sweep over where the sun normally hits your face. This bronzer is available in 2 shades Blonde 1, Brunette 2.

Price: 2.5 Kuwaiti Dinars (approx 8 dollars) for 16 g

Shelf life: 24 months after opening

Ingredients:

My experience with Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder:

I was looking for a product that could give me a natural glow and at the same time could also serve the purpose of a contour and highlight to the face. While at work I always prefer looking fresh and natural, so in that case I stick to matte products and avoid products that have glitter and shimmer. As I came across Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzer Powder, I instantly realized this would serve the purpose I’m looking for. I have a fair-medium skintone hence shade Brunette 2 was a perfect match.

The packaging is so sleek and convenient, that it can easily slip into your mini purse/pouch or bag. The container is plastic with a lid that is detachable (Be careful not to lose the lid).Only drawback is it doesn’t have an applicator and a mirror built in.

The best thing about this product is, it has 3 shades in one container. You can either combine all the shades using the brush by swiping it around the sides of your face [i.e. from ends of your forehead to the check bones and then to the jaw line], or you can use a single shade as per your requirement for a contour and highlight. If you are in a hurry, you can easily apply this product with your fingers, since it blends effortlessly. If you need an intense color, you can apply it with a damp beauty blender. During the day time I use it dry and trustme it looks so natural that you can even go without a blush. While using this product ,I realized it’s not a 100% matte bronzer, it does have tiny amount of shimmer but good enough to give you that sun kissed look as its claimed in the product description. I always do a retouch after 4-5 hours of application, due to my oily skin.

Below are the swatches of 3 shades. I had to do multiple swatches for the shade to reflect on the pictures.

Pros

  • Easily bendable.
  • Can be used both wet and dry.
  • Travel friendly (sleek packaging)
  • Quantity lasts for a long time.
  • Can be used for contouring and highlighting.
  • Affordable.
  • Good pigmentation (can be used as an eye shadow too).

Cons

  • Availability
  • No provision of an applicator and a mirror
  • Needs a retouch for sure.

Rating: 4/5 (availability may be an issue)

Would I recommend Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder? Yes definitely I would recommend especially for someone looking for a product that is affordable and multipurpose.

Editor’s Note: I absolutely love this, I wish it was available in India! Nice review Linda and welcome to team NLM 🙂

Have you tried the Maybelline Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder? Is it available in your country?