Revlon New Complexion One Step Compact Make Up in 01 Ivory Beige

I'd been curious about the Revlon New Complexion One Step Compact Makeup since I saw it in some videos by Australian beauty gurus.  It seems like they get new products several months earlier than they hit the states, so I'd been on the lookout for a good month or two before I finally stumbled across it at Wal-Mart.

I've tried a few cream compact foundations in the last year, including the Cover FX and NARS, both of which were absolute disasters for me.  But hope springs eternal and a drugstore price point didn't hurt either.

As it turned out, this was the goldilocks cream compact foundation for me.  It was neither too dry and stiff (like the CoverFX), nor was it to sheer and oily (like the NARS).  It had nice pigmentation and applied well.  I tried applying it with both a brush and a sponge and both yielded good results.  It did set rather than remaining tacky (I'm looking at you again, NARS).

The only downside to this foundation for me, and you can probably tell from the swatches, is that the lightest shade, 01 Ivory Beige, is a good two shades too dark for me.  BOO HOO!  Because aside from that, it's a lovely foundation.  It wore well - most foundations do wear well on me.  It didn't separate and turn into an oily mess and it didn't break down and pool in my pores.

The shade range does seem to be pretty limited.  I think there are 6 shades total and per usual, the online swatches are absolutely useless.  Looking at them in store, I picked up what appeared to be the lightest shade and like I said, it is way, way too dark for me.  However, looking at online swatches, it looks like shade 2, Tender Peach, might actually be lighter.  I'm going to have to hunt it down because if I can find a shade match (or at least something close enough that I don't have to wear a scarf and/or turtleneck with it), I will be a very happy camper.

I haven't really noticed anybody talking about this foundation.  Has anyone tried it?  If so, I'd love to know what you thought.  The Revlon New Complexion One-Step Compact Make Up contains 9.9 grams of product and retails for $11 - $14 wherever Revlon is sold.  I picked mine up at Wal-Mart.

Overall:  6/10

Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Stick in 201 Torch

I love cream shadows, but I really love cream shadows for summer.  They're just super quick and easy to throw on and you can apply and/or blend with fingers so you don't need to dirty up any extra brushes.  

I love the Urban Decay shadow pencils and the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, but I'm always looking for something more budget friendly (other than the Milani ShadowEyez which are fantastic).  So, I picked up the Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Stick in #201, Torch.

This is a dual ended cream shadow pencil.  The lighter color has a rounded end and is a really light, iridescent champagne pink color.  It doesn't pack a big color punch, but it definitely brightens things up.

The darker end is pointed, I guess for more precision application.  It's really not pointed enough to use as a liner.  The darker color swatches fantastically well.  It is a gorgeous dark bronzy chocolate color.  I have to say that on the eye once blended out, it's considerably less impressive.  You just get a generic dark smudgy brown.

The first time I tried these shadows, I applied them directly on the lid and I ended up with creasing.  They didn't crease immediately, but it did happen.  The second time, I applied them over Too Faced Shadow Insurance and they didn't budge at all.

The Revlon ColorStay Smoky Shadow Sticks contain .07oz of product and retail for between $7 and $10 wherever Revlon is sold.  I got mine at Target.

Overall: 5/10

Review: Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palette in 710 Not Just Nudes

I go through big cream shadow phases and last go round I picked up several of the Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palettes.  The palette above, in 710, Not Just Nudes, is by far my favorite of the Revlon cream palettes.

Sadly, I didn't think to photograph this palette before I used it so excuse the rather beat up looking product photos.  The different colors have significantly different textures.

The darkest color is by far the ... hmm, how to say this ... the lightest?  It has a whipped, creamy consistency.  It does have shimmer.  And phenomenal color payoff.

The second color is as close to matte as you can get with a cream product that doesn't completely dry down.    It is much denser in texture than the other shadows in the palette.

The third shadow has a lighter consistency again. It has a pearlescent finish, but no glitter.

The final shade is the most underwhelming in the palette.  The color payoff isn't fantastic and it's just a very underwhelming shade for me.

As I said earlier, I love the darkest shade and I wear it often.

This is a nice little cream shadow palette.  I'd say the quality is on par with the Urban Decay cream shadows if you're familiar with those.  If you're looking for something on par with say the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, you're going to need to keep looking.  The Revlon cream shadows never completely dried down on me and they definitely aren't waterproof.  That said, I don't really have a problem with these creasing though I do tend to layer them with powder shadows.

The palette contains 3.4 grams of product total and retails for about $6.

Overall: 7/10

Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey

A week or so ago, I picked up a couple of the Revlon Just bitten Kissable Balm Stains in Sweetheart and Rendezvous.  I absolutely loved both of those colors, but they are both really bright so I wanted to try some of the more muted colors in the range.

I decided to pick up the color Honey.  Revlon doesn't provide an official description of the color, but it looks to me like a sort of beigey rose color.

The color looks sort of purple in the bullet, but on the skin it definitely learns more rosey.

This is one of those colors that I want to love.  I am so impressed with the other two balm stains, but this color was just completely underwhelming to me.  First off, the pigmentation is almost non-existent.  I do not have heavily pigmented lips and it was not at all noticeable.  Also, whatever pigmentation there was did not last.

I could easily get 5 or 6 hours of wear time out of the colors Rendezvous and Sweetheart, but Honey, I got maybe an hour and a half.  It was just really disappointing on pretty much every front.

The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains contain 2.7 grams of product and retail for $7 - $10 depending on where you purchase.  Available wherever Revlon is sold.

Overall: 5/10

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Pinched

So here is my very belated review of the Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Pinched.  I already reviewed the two other cream blushes in this collection, Coral Reef and Flushed.  It took me a while to find Pinched and I understand why.  It is easily the most wearable of the group.

Like the other PhotoReady Cream Blushes, Pinched is part of the Revlon summer Escapism collection.  It is limited edition and as far as I can tell, will not be part of the permanent line.

Pinched is a nudey peach with a good deal of pigmentation despite how tame it looks in the pot.  It wore for a good 9 hours before fading significantly.  Like the other PhotoReady cream blushes, it has a very gel like consistency and goes on very smoothly.  It does sheer out nicely, but can also be built up.

So despite how boring this blush looks in the pan, on the skin I think it looks really nice.  I'm not sure how much of an impact you would get on medium or darker skintones.  If you've tried it, let me know how it worked.

  

I was fairly unimpressed with this formula at first, but after some extended testing I am really loving it and reach for it often.

Overall: 9/10

Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains

So I know the beauty blogosphere has been overrun with posts about the new Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains and so here I am to add my own $0.02.

(borrowed from Revlon)

I have to say that I have used the Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stains that came out last year and I despised them.  It seemed like no matter what color I tried, they all went extremely purple - despite the fact that my lips aren't very pigmented - and made me look like a corpse.  I actually ended up just pitching a couple of them.

Now Revlon is Back with the Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains.  On first glance, the product reminds me a lot of my NARS Matte Velvet Gloss Pencil.  I don't think the NARS pencils are supposed to be stains, but in my experience that is exactly what they did.

I picked up two of these balm stains in Sweetheart - bright blue-based pink, and Rendezvous - bright coral. 

In my experience it wore well for a good three hours - looking pristine.  It did wear for six hours, but by that time the color had darkened considerably.  It did stain evenly and I wasn't left with streaky lips, which is absolutely key for me with any product that markets itself as a stain.  If it stains unevenly, it's not worth anything to me.

Overall, I am in love with these balm stains.  Like I said, they seem to work as well as the NARS gloss pencils, but at a fraction of the price.  These are quick and easy, they have great pigmentation and phenomenal staying power.

Overall: 10/10

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Flushed

This is another of the Revlon PhotoReady Cream blushes.  I already reviewed Coral Reef and next up is Flushed.

These PhotoReady cream blushes are part of the Revlon summer Escapism collection and as far as I know, they are not part of the permanent line.  I've seen them at Walgreens and Ulta in my area, but nowhere else.

The photos are a little dark.  In the pot, the blush looks very neon hot pink.  On the skin, it's much less dramatic.

I just sort of had to glob it on to get the heavy swatch because despite how scary it looks, it is actually pretty sheer.  

Flushed, unlike Coral Reef, didn't fade into nothing after it was applied.  It actually wore really well - at least 10 hours before fading.  It's a very blue based pink, so if that's not your thing you may want to avoid this one.  But then again, it can be really sheered out so maybe it could work.

I still feel on the fence about this entire Revlon PhotoReady cream blush line.  The pigmentation from Flushed (and Pinched too, review will be up soon) was much better than the pigmentation from Coral Reef.  Wear time was good.  

Flushed and Pinched dried down a lot better than Coral Reef.  They didn't go powdery as much as the regular Revlon cream blushes, but they were much close to a cream-to-powder formula than I got from Coral Reef.

Overall:  8/10

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Coral Reef

I heard about the new Revlon cream blushes from Canadian beauty bloggers, so I've been on the lookout for them for weeks with no luck.  And then yesterday I stopped by Ulta to pick up some things and lo and behold, they had a couple of them (though, of course, not the one I was most interested in).

These blushes are part of Revlon's summer Escapism collection.  I have no idea if they will be part of the permanent Revlon line or not.  The blushes come in three colors:  Flushed (blue based pink), Pinched (nudey peach) and Coral Reef (neon orange-peach).  The official Revlon press says:

• Creamy blush provides buildable, beautiful flush of color

• Lightweight formula with silky soft feel on skin

• Blends evenly over cheeks for smooth application

• Photochromatic pigments bend and reflect light to provide cheeks with a beautiful glow

NEW Revlon PhotoReady™ Cream Blush was created by Global Artistic Director Gucci Westman for the Spring 2012 collection. Inspired by the glowing skin of a beach beauty, these silky cream blushes glide on smoothly provide a dewy flush of color for a healthy, gorgeous glow. 

Anyway, on to the review ...

This is the Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in #300 Coral Reef.

Though the name "Coral Reef" would imply this is a coral colored blush, it really doesn't scream coral to me.  There really isn't any pink at all.  It's a pretty full on neon orange-peach.

I have one of of the regular Revlon cream blushes (not the PhotoReady line) and the texture is really different.  The texture of the regular Revlon cream blushes is very dry for a cream product.  The texture on the PhotoReady cream blushes is much more gel like.  They apply very sheer and aren't the easiest to build up.  They go on very strong at first, but quickly (and I mean, under 2 minutes) fade so they really are a sort of watercolor wash as opposed to a full on blush.  I'm not sure how well they would work for someone with deeper skintones.

As for the "beautiful glow" the product is supposed to impart, I really think that's just the sheen from the gel consistency.  It doesn't really seem to have any glitter, shimmer or pearl finish.

They don't really dry down at all.  They're not a cream-to-powder product at all and like I said, they fade really quickly.  You could set them with a powder to get better wear.  I think that sort of defeats the purpose of the gel consistency in the first place, but that's your call.

Here it is applied fairly heavily on the cheeks.  As you can see, it's very sheer.  Because they are so sheer, I think they would work on both warm and cool skintones, but if you are much darker than me, I'm not sure they'll show up at all.


I don't know.  I'm not really blown away by this product.  I really like a blush that looks like a blush as opposed to just a tint.  I doubt this will be a staple for me, but I guess time will tell.

The blush contains 12.4 grams of product.  I picked them up at Ulta as part of the BOGO1/2Off sale.

Overall: 6/10