A face is a canvas and we are all here for it. Makeup is a form of expression and you should never cheapen your art with faulty products. You never saw Piccaso hitting up the dollar tree for his oil-based paints. Obviously, I know they didn’t have Dollar Tree back then but you catch my drift.
We wake up every morning ready to paint the Mona freakin’ Lisa on our faces so life is too short to put that much effort into an art piece with defective equipment.
Okay, before we begin, I want to preface this with the fact that I absolutely LOVE most of these brands. These brands are well known and obviously have a big following for a reason, but we all know that not all products can be bangers.
I also would like to say I might’ve tested these products while going through a skin type change phase. I used to categorize myself in the Normal-to-Oily skin group but I think more and more I am becoming a Normal-to-Dry skin type. Is that what combination skin is? I probably have that.
Either way, here are a few products I just don’t think you need to spend your money on.
L’oreal Paris Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation
I bought this off of a recommendation. I’ve never thought of my skin as “dry” until I applied this to my face. It started off normal. I wasn’t super impressed but wasn’t writing it off… yet. The packaging says this product is for normal to dry skin and has hydrating aspects to it. Nope. Not with my skin. My jawline (like right where your face meets your neck) became extremely dry and right around the bridge of my nose. Those were the severe places but my cheeks definitely looked flakey and cakey. That’s a bad combo. It is a very runny foundation and I think the consistency just isn’t for my skin. Overall, it made my face which is very normal in skin texture (not too dry and not too oily) look very dry. You could see every wrinkle, crack, and crevasse. I’m 25 and I had no idea how much of an old lady I was. YIKES!
Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer – Oil Free
I know what you’re thinking. Smashbox? How could one of their products make this hit list? Like I said before I LOVE most of these brands I’m mentioning and Smashbox is definitely one of them but I was certainly not happy with this product. I have to blame the oil-free aspect. It just dried out my face. It didn’t matter what foundation I put on my face, my pores just sucked the primer up. I tried dewy and matte foundations and I couldn’t crack the code. I’m going to stick to the oil-based primer. Good thing I only splurged for the sample size!
NYX Away We Glow Liquid Highlighter – Professional Series
So, I’m no make-up guru, and I don’t watch tutorials on these things. Everything make-up wise I know is from blogs (shout out to my written word babes) and what friends and family have taught me over time. I could 100% be using this incorrectly. If that’s the case, I still don’t like it because highlighter shouldn’t be that difficult haha. It comes in a lip gloss looking tube and (I’m assuming) you apply it to your face in the designated areas (cheekbones, nose, etc.) and then you have to blend it. Maybe blending after isn’t the right move but otherwise, it looks streaky, but it dries right away so it’s hard to blend. So then I just have lines going down my face that I can’t fix. I LOVE the color options they have but this product dries way too quickly after applying for the user to do anything with it.
Hikari Cosmetic Iris Liquid Liner
This product gave me more mixed emotions than my ex did. In full honesty, I haven’t been super impressed with Hikari Cosmetics so overall, their brand is not something I am on board with (there is always an exception to the rule). I’ve never purchased a product from them but I have received some in Ipsy bags of mine. I was highly disappointed with their iris liquid eyeliner. It dried out so fast. I had no eyeliner left over and knew I had just opened that one (even though it wasn’t my favorite) I went to use it and the brush was already dried out. Aside from that, the applicator is really wobbly so it was hard to get a straight line. Super disappointing none the less. I also could not tell if the color I had was black or purple.
There you have it, folks. These brands are all faves of mine (minus the last one, slowly growing away from them) but not all their products are going to be winners.
