5 Tries: NYX Stay Matte Not Flat Powder Foundation

February 4, 2015February 3, 2015 / caitlinemccann / 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve done a 5 Tries post, so let me reintroduce the concept. I take an underutilized product from my makeup collection and use it for five days and if possible in five different ways. These posts allow me to use a bit of product up as well as review something that I haven’t touched on recently.

Today’s post is about NYX’s Stay Matte Not Flat Powder Foundation.

Please excuse the mess on the packaging; the powder tends to get all over the outer rim but the product itself isn’t messy or hard to apply.

This also comes with a circular makeup sponge, which I like for application but you can also use a brush or beauty blender if that’s your preference.

I’m in the shade 04 Creamy Natural. According to the description Creamy Natural is a shade for porcelain skin with peachy undertones. Personally, I think that’s a great description for my skin tone. The Stay Matte But Not Flat Powder Foundation comes in twenty different shades, so the variety with this line is a definite plus.

Here are five different photos of me using the NYX powder foundation.

As you can see from my five tries, this foundation is well and truly matte. Any shine you see I put there with highlighter. It’s a medium coverage, well milled powder that doesn’t linger in my smile lines.

I think Creamy Natural is a good shade for my skin, particularly in the cooler months. I don’t tan much, but in the realm of foundations a little bit of sun goes a long way.

I don’t find this powder to be cakey if used on your full face, unless you have acne prone skin. This product does not irritate my skin, but if I already have a few blemishes, the powder clings in a way that draws attention instead of masking the problem areas.

This would be a great compact to keep in your purse (preferably in a makeup bag since the compact is a bit messy) for touch-ups since it takes all the shine and oil out of your skin. I primarily use it as a base and enjoy a fair amount of wear time with this powder.

Price wise, this powder foundation retails for $9.50 on NYX’s website, which for a decent powder foundation is not bad at all.

Pros:

True matte powder–staying powder is decent (5-6 hours)

Can use as a base or as a touch-ups

Soft texture

Under $10

Variety of colors to suit array of skin tones

Cons:

Messy compact

Not great for blemishes–can cake up over blemishes

Personally, I do not own many powder foundations but I have found myself reaching for the Stay Matte Not Flat powder more often after this five tries post. This is a great drugstore powder foundation and I reach for it over my high-end powder from Clinique.

I give the NYX Stay Matte Not Flat Powder Foundation 3 Beauty Bubbles: Suitably Poppable.

Thanks for popping in!

Clinique Full Potential Lip Gloss

October 10, 2014 / caitlinemccann / 5 Comments

Technically, this is more like ten tries, but the goal and intent of my 5 Tries post is still alive and well here: using up and exploring neglected items in my makeup drawer for review! With that in mind, I bring you Clinique’s Full Potential Lip Glosses.

The Full Potential Lips Glosses in their mini glory!

I bought a pack of dual ended glosses at the duty-free in South Korea last October. So while these were still being sold around this time last year, they are no longer an active part of Clinique’s regular range. However if you like any of the shades here they can still easily be found on Amazon or eBay.

Each of these mini tubes has .07 oz of lip gloss, which makes them great for your purse or for travel. The tiny glosses have a doe foot applicators and you’ll likely have to dip back into the tube to get the best color effect possible. The glosses also have a very faint mint scent, but there is no tingly quality that you usually associate with lip plumpers.

The gloss formula is sticky but not tacky, which is an important distinction for gloss lovers. Personally, the slight stickiness doesn’t bother me. It feels light on the lips.

Average wear time was probably 45 minutes to an hour. Some of these glosses lasted about an hour with the shine diminishing along the way and others felt like they did not stay put on my lips for more than twenty minutes. But I’ll specify which of these is which down below. If you’re eating or drinking do not expect these glosses to stick around, so if you’re wearing them out take the tube with you.

Adding in a Bit of Honey

For the lip swatches, I decided to use NYX’s butter lipstick in Bit of Honey as a base, and I’m so glad I did this. Bit of Honey is a pale nude shade that neautralized my lips’ natural mauvey tone, which ended up being great for the swatches because the Clinique Full Potential Lip Glosses are almost all sheer with hints of color. If I hadn’t used a light nude shade as a base, I don’t think you would have been able to see some of the colors. Even with Bit of Honey some of these shades do not come through strongly. But you’ll see that in the swatches.

As you can see, my natural lips shape did not get overly enhanced by these glosses, at least in the plumping department. The ones that did do a bit of extra plumping are pretty obvious in comparison. You can also see what NYX’s Bit of Honey looks like on my lips; just a light subtle nude. I think having Bit of Honey on under these lip glosses also helped keep my lips moisturized, since the Butter Lipstick line is quite nourishing. Anywho, on to the Clinique!

For swatch descriptions, I’m going to talk about what the color looks like in the tube (which I’ll put in italics) and then describe the gloss on the lips.

Double Plum—A rich plum toned red. When I first applied this shade it appeared darker and then by the time ten minutes had elapsed and I was ready to take a photo the shade had faded out significantly. I also found this shade to be the most drying.

Mimosa Blossom—A warm rose shade.This color came out more mauve on my lips than in the photo, which is a good thing. All of these shades are extremely sheer: sometimes I like that and sometimes I don’t. So the little hint of mauve was welcome.

Cherry Bomb-–A bright fuschia. One of the brightest colors in the tube but on the lips this gloss is barely distinguishable from the pale pinks and nudes in the collection.

Play-Full Plump—A soft blue-toned pink. There was next to no color payoff with this shade.

Luscious Lilac—Barbie pink with a touch of purple. I think I wanted this shade to have just a touch more purple-y pink. This is one of the shades that did not have much color payoff.

Glamour-Full—A warm mocha tone in the tube. One of my favorite shades from the pack. It’s a warm nude-brown and has one of the best color payoffs though it is still quite sheer when you consider the color in the tube. I also think this shade did one of the better jobs at plumping.

Sooooo Pink—Rose-y toned pink. Yes, there are that many “o”s. I checked. This gloss is the truest match from tube to lip. A lovely subtle pink gloss.

Pink Aplenty—A deep mauve. This shade required a lot of reapplication. You can tell from the swatches that my lips were not as shiny and I took each of these pictures maybe 15 minutes after finishing my makeup to allow the plumping part to do its magic.

Peach Plump—Pale peach. On my lips this shade came off more nude with a hint of rose, so I’m not sure why it looks deep pink in all my photos. And of these six swatches, my lips look the fullest. I also felt that this shade left my lips feeling soft, which is not a claim the brand makes in any way, but it was different enough that I made a note about it!

Ripest Apricot— Warm tan toned gloss. Another shade that needed a lot of reapplication. But I didn’t mind as much with this shade because I enjoyed the warm tone of the gloss when combined with Bit of Honey.

I had to layer these glosses on thick for there to be any sense of color. Which if you’re not looking for strong pigmentation, then these could be for you. But I found the colors to be a disappointment. The shine on these glosses is good though, and I’d ideally recommend the Full Potential glosses to be used over a lipstick you’re looking to enhance the shine of.

After trying all ten of the Full Potential Lip Glosses my favorite shades were Glamor-Full, Peach Plump, and Ripest Apricot. As a whole, however these glosses are nothing special. I can understand how they didn’t become a long-standing part of Clinique’s line.

I’d give the Clinique Full Potential Lip Glosses 2 beauty bubbles.

Thanks for popping in!

5 Tries: Eyes on the Prize Eyeshadow Chubby

September 6, 2014September 5, 2014 / caitlinemccann / 1 Comment

After playing with my Ariel Beauty Book from e.l.f., I got it into my head that I wanted to do a regular feature where once or twice a month I take a product from my collection that is being underutilized and try to wear it for five days in five different ways. This system will 1) force me to get more creative with my makeup 2) allow me to use up or at least dent some neglected beauty products and 3) give me a solid reason to write more product reviews.

So for my inaugural 5 Tries post, I selected the Flower Eyes on the Prize Eyeshadow Chubby in Teal We Meet Again. I had not used this product since purchasing it months ago so this is the perfect example of what I’m going for with these posts. I was attracted to the teal color in the store but sitting next to be other shadow sticks in my drawer, the bright blue looked intimidating.

Flower is a cruelty free beauty brand created by Drew Barrymore. Their mission is to provide high-end quality products at drugstore cost. If you’ve never heard of Flower Beauty before that is because they don’t purchase advertisements in order to keep their costs down for consumers. Case in point, Flower is only sold at Walmart. You can’t even buy anything from the Flower website. The Eyes on the Prize Eyeshadow Chubby has five colors total and retails for $7.98

These eyeshadow chubbies are a cream stick formula, which are really trendy right now. One of the chief claims of the line is that these shadows are very buildable. As you can see by the swatch below, that’s fairly accurate.

From left to right: 3 layers, two layers, 1 layer.

The packaging led me to believe that this teal shade would lean more blue, but on my hand and lid it shows up more green. I thought that was kind of disappointing because I love a good true teal.

On to the looks I created!

Day 1: I lightly spread Teal We Meet Again in my crease. This was the first day so my first impulse was to spread the shadow with the stick itself. MISTAKE. Lightly tap this product where you want it to go and then spread with your finger. This product will blend best with your fingers. Later in the day, I noticed some fading as well.

Day 2: I put Stila’s Kitten as a base and then a wash of Teal We Meet Again over the whole lid. Meh. Not my favorite look, but easy.

Day 3: For this look, I created a nude lid and used Teal We Meet Again as a thick liner. I layered the color on for a darker shade as well. Loved the look of this when I first applied and in the picture, but this shadow is a creeper! The color didn’t want to stay put and creeped up my lid within twenty minutes. And when I went to take my makeup off at night the color stained my lid. At this point I was frustrated with this shadow. I really thought I wouldn’t make it five days and contemplated tossing this shadow.

Day 4: On day 4 I finally figured out how this shadow works best: as a base, with another color layered over it. After the staining scare, I lightly patted this shade over my whole lid and then blended out the color with my finger. Then I used an e.l.f. shadow quad in Nouveau Neutrals to cover Teal We Meet Again. I put the olive-y green over the lid then took the warm tan shade (sorry the individual shades don’t have names) and blended it into my crease. A touch of ice blue in my inner corner completes this look. The colors appeared more intense in real life than in the picture but it was strangely compelling. I felt like I had put “Captain Planet” on my eyelids and was loving it. Great for a night out.

Day 5: I was so excited to be done with this product. But learning my lesson from day 4 I used Teal We Meet Again as a base but used a lighter hand. Then I packed a nude shade over the whole lid to further dull the intensity of this green. To finish the lid off I dusted a gold shade into the crease.

What I learned about Flower’s Teal We Meet Again Eyes on the Prize Eyeshadow Chubby

It needs primer underneath and a powder shadow over top to stay put.
It does build up nicely, but it will stain your lids in the process.
Works best as a base.
Use your fingers to blend. Brushes won’t save you.

Honestly, day 4 saved this product from the trash can. I won’t reach for Teal We Meet Again often, but it is good as a base for a vibrant smokey eye.

I’d give this product 2 beauty bubbles.

Unfortunately, my first 5 Tries post was a bit of a negative review but I have some Flower eye shadows with different formulas that are lovely. So don’t let this post deter you from Flower as a brand. Just maybe steer clear of the Eyes on the Prize Eyeshadow Chubbies.

What did you guys think of the 5 Tries post? Should I do more of these?