Hey beauty lovers!  My apologies for delays.  I have SO many great new products to review along with my typical monthly reviews yet not nearly enough time!  Those of you who read my original post (New for 2016 Drugstore Edition) and have been waiting to hear about the products may notice I’ve added an additional product to my L’Oréal haul.  I finally spotted the La Palette Lip Palette so naturally I had to snag one!

 I was pretty impressed with L’Oréal’s latest product additions so enough with the chit chat lets get right to the reviews!

L’Oréal True Match Lumi Cushion: $15-$17.00

The price of drugstore makeup is clearly on the rise, keeping up with the trends of the higher end brands.  The prices in stores vary weekly with their current sale.  I have all 3 major Drugstores (CVS, Rite Aid & Walgreens) just up the road from me as well as an Ulta so I tend to find the Bogos and money back options, such as: CVS Extra bucks when purchasing a major haul.  It saves you a ton of cash.  The majority of these K Beauty created cushion compacts generally range from around $30-$60.00 with a few lesser expensive options found on amazon from Holika Holika and Etude House.

This L’Oréal version has their ‘lumi’ finish that imparts a subtle glow and is available in 12 different shades which is a much wider shade range than most brands offer.

If you are new to the cushion compact concept here is a little bit about the product:  The product comes in a deep compact with 2 compartments.  The top compartment contains a specialized puff applicator which seems to be pretty similar across the board.  The bottom compartment contains the foundation/bb product which is contained inside a sponge of sorts.  The makeup product itself is very thin allowing buildable coverage from light to full.

The first time I tried the K Beauty trend, cushion compact it was a mini version of the much pricier Amore Pacific brand and was brand new to US markets.  I knew nothing of this concept prior and the product seemed bizarre to me.  The product was so thin on my face and with just a swipe or two of the product I couldn’t see how it would offer any real coverage.  The applicator texture was quite different than what i was used to as well. It did not help that it was a tiny applicator designed for the much smaller version of said compact.  I cast it aside and considered it a product I’d no interest in.  A year or more later I was reintroduced to the cushion compact concept via influenster and Laneige (A K-Beauty brand available at Target) by this time the concept was much more widely known and often raved about.  I decided to give it another go.  Knowing much more about the benefits of the product and how to use it by now, it went much better for me the second time around!  The product is thin to allow buildable coverage, a light layer offers light coverage but can easily be built up to a full coverage without feeling or looking heavy like some full coverage foundations can.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way…on to the L’Oréal version:

I love it.  It is a really excellent rendition of this beauty trend.  The ‘Lumi’ concept imparts a beautiful glow to the skin and it builds easily to cover any imperfections including moderate breakouts.  Do not be afraid to keep building up to your suitable coverage.  It still feels lighter and more airy then a typical full coverage foundation.  I have combo skin so it’s very dry, even patchy dry in the winter yet can still get quite oily in my t-zone.  This product made my face look flawless and stayed that way for hours.  After about 4 hours my more oily areas were beginning to show a bit so I used a dry brush to buff it out a bit and once more toward the end of the day to banish the ‘shine’.  Because certain areas of my skin were so dry I used a smoothing primer underneath as opposed to the matte or acne control primers I often use and omitted any sort of finishing powder.  I also wanted to see how this product faired without the use of additional products.  If you have oily skin I would suggest pairing one or both of these options in conjunction with the Lumi compact if you are concerned with looking too oily mid-day.  I think this is an excellent version of the cushion compact concept and a great price for everything that it is.  If you are already a fan of this type of product or are new to it altogether I recommend giving it a try.  I think it offers a better shade range than most similar products, works as well as any I have tried in all price ranges and has the benefit of the added glow which is still a big trend in 2016. Who else has tried this product?  Thoughts?

L’Oréal Brow Stylist Definer: $8-$9.00

This is the newest installment in L’Oréal’s brow stylist series: a mechanical 0.5mm precision tip pencil designed to create a defined brow look with a gradual shading effect.  Now this is certainly not a new concept by any means, higher end brands have been using this design for years.  Anastasia has a go to version popularized by beauty fans everywhere, even NYX cosmetic has a lower cost similar version.  The differences are generally quite subtle but as most of us know it is those subtle differences that make one version our favorite; whether it’s simply a particular shade, a better texture or so on.  I myself am a user of numerous versions of this pencil as I am adamant in having ‘perfect’ brows.  They frame ‘the windows to your soul’, after all! 😉 This product is a total hit for me.  It’s as good, if not better than many of the much pricier versions available; the only downfall being a minimized shade range.  This may be the deal breaker for some but it does offer the most common of choices. (blonde, brunette & dark brunette) I know from friends in the beauty industry that despite some of the wide shade ranges available in certain brands one specific shade generally sells out the most quickly and is purchased by people with every hair color and skin tone.  I myself am blonde but chose the brunette shade as it is rare that any of the blonde pencils ever work out for me.  They tend to not deposit enough color on the very sparse areas of the brow, especially when defining the arch.  As long as you use a light hand this works well for even light blonde shades.  If you want a more natural look try using a blonde powder or brow mascara to lighten your brows prior to defining.  Sometimes you will find that a soft brown or other variations can cause your brows to have a red cast to them but this was not he case with this product and I think it will be a quite universal shade. I found that the consistency of this brow pencil was ideal for me.  It is the teensiest bit harder than some popular versions giving me the ideal medium to get the precise ‘hair like’ strokes I desire while some pencils with a slightly softer consistency blur the brow too much for those of us sparse browed people that want an authentic looking arch.  The price point is excellent for such a product.

And Voilà!  (If only you knew how extremely sparse and blonde my poor, puny brows really are.)

L’Oréal Infallible Pro-Contour and highlight palette: $11-$13.00

In the obvious quest to simplify the contouring craze for the masses; this is L’Oréal’s answer:  A simplified two shade palette with a specially designed brush to contour and highlight in one easy swipe.  This little palette has some pros and cons.  The pros being, it’s pretty simple, blends well and the shades are on par with what they should be; though better represented in my compilation photo above, (I blame the lack of sunlight this January) they are toned correctly and not simply a bronzer as with some drugstore contouring products. Cons: While the brush design is good in its shape design for positioning the contour and highlight on your face it is not the best quality and doesn’t pick up the product as well as I’d hoped for.  I ended up with some skipping and bare spots and it is not the easiest to go back over a second time to correct it.  It does take a bit of staring at the brush and how to drag it through the product to have it apply in the proper way to each different side your face. (Maybe that’s just me, haha) All in all it’s a pretty good product for the price.  It blended out well after using a blending brush and you can use additional brushes to use the two shades to contour and highlight the rest of your face if so desired.  With a bit of practice it’s good for achieving quick instantly defined cheekbones, but it’s not perfect.  I’ve no regrets in purchasing as the shades themselves (in light) are a good match for me as is the consistency and blending properties of the product.  It’s definitely the better of the drugstore contouring products around the US (not counting NYX Cosmetics)

L’Oréal La Palette Lip: $12-$15.00

I was SO excited to find this display.  I did not yet own a lip palette so I was anxious for this to finally arrive in stores.  At first glance it does not look like much.  It was hard to tell how the actual product was going to be.  The view of the product inside looked similar to that of the cheapy lip palettes you find at christmas in the drugstore gift sections.  Do not let this sway your decision.  The palette had two available shades:  A ruby version and a nude version.  I chose the nude.  I love nude lips but it is very hard to find the right shade for me.  This palette makes it so easy to find the perfect shade.  The product is super smooth and creamy, blendable, opaque and buildable.  I love the shade selection with various tones and the creamy formula itself.  It does not have the worlds greatest included brush but it works well enough.  It was a great purchase for me and I have used it a lot already.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this palette.  If you are looking for a lip color palette definitely go for it.

Swatches in the order shown in the palette above

Well…what does everyone think?  I think L’Oréal introduced some really great new products for the start of 2016.

 Below is my finished look using all of the products spotlighted in this haul plus:  New for 2016 highlight and define pencil by Wet N Wild, MUF Step 1 smoothing primer, Kat Von D tattoo liquid liner pen and a quick 1 sweep of Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara.

Again, lack of sunlight 😦 but you get the jest: glowy skin, defined brows, subtly sculpted cheek bones and nude lips.

I hope everyone found any answers you were looking for, if not; ask away! Stay tuned for more in drugstore 2016!

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Thanks for reading!

-Kelli xoxo