Welcome to Makeup Window Shopping, a bi-weekly column where beauty junkie Samantha gives you the run-down on all the latest makeup releases, and adds her two cents about whether or not they seem worth *your* cents. Let’s obsess about (or judge) makeup products together!
- Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb CREAM Color Drip Lip Cream
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The newest lip products from Rihanna’s brand, Fenty Beauty, are marketed as non-shimmery lip glosses with medium pigment. A follow-up to their cult-favorite Gloss Bomb lip gloss, it makes sense that Fenty would release another lip gloss, and I think it was smart to consider that not everyone likes glitter or sparkle in their lip gloss. These products fit in well with the rest of the Fenty line, but I do not know how much use people would get out of these during the era of face masks. The shade range includes a classic nude, light mauve, light orange-brown, brick red, and berry red. I’m somewhat surprised at the lack of pink or peach shades, as well as the lack of cool tones (besides the mauve). Overall, these lip products look promising and make sense for the brand, but I won’t be rushing out to buy it because I’m not wearing glosses these days.
- E.l.f Camo CC Cream
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Although E.l.f. doesn’t have the strongest brand identity (in terms of voice, packaging, or style of makeup) beyond its affordability, it’s one of the few drugstore brands that still interests me. I do enjoy medium-coverage complexion products, and I generally prefer to pay less for products that are designed to make less of an impact. The packaging is also really sleek and fun. The shade range is also relatively expansive when it comes to their deeper shades. This CC Cream is marketed as being medium to full coverage, which is a claim I don’t fully believe (because it’s a CC Cream rather than a foundation), but I wouldn’t be looking for full coverage out of this type of product anyway.
- Colourpop Big Poppy Collection
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Colourpop’s latest collection is poppy-themed, featuring orange and brown tones. While this collection includes new shades in pre existing product lines, the standout product of the collection is the Big Poppy palette. The eyeshadow palette is so unnecessary — it’s just the same shade and tone of orange, but with nine different depths. If this palette were a trio or quad, you’d be able to get the exact same looks and variety.
- Too Faced Peach Bloom Products
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Too Faced already has a “Peach” line including the Peach Perfect Foundation and the Sweet Peach Eyeshadow palette, and it looks like they are expanding their peach branding into a sub-collection, Peach Bloom. Too Faced is launching three new products: the Peach Bloom Color Blossoming Lip Balm, Peach Bloom Color Blossoming Lip and Cheek Tint, and the Killer Liner Total Control 36 Hour Eyeliner (which seems to not be a part of the Peach Bloom collection). The lip balm and lip and cheek tint suggest that the Peach Bloom collection focuses on dewy, natural makeup, but the pencil eyeliners don’t necessarily fit this makeup style. Too Faced has been a brand that’s fallen off my radar and that doesn’t quite feel like it has its finger on the pulse of beauty trends, so I’m not invested in the brand as a whole. In terms of the products themselves, the packaging looks cheap, and there are plenty of lip balms and lip and cheek products out on the market already (the lip balms actually look eerily similar to this recent launch from e.l.f.) And none of the shades in any of the Too Faced products look particularly peachy at all, except for one lip balm. I truly don’t understand why Too Faced is clinging on to the “peach” branding, and I’m honestly so over it.
- Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops
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I’ve decided: I’m buying this. I love niacinamide for its oil-controlling and blemish-preventing properties, and I love glowy, hydrating serums. This product can be used as a primer, serum, or highlight, and I love the versatility. This serum makes similar claims to Glossier’s Futuredew; based on the reviews I’ve watched, it seems like Futuredew would be too glowy that it would make my combo skin cross the line of looking sweaty or greasy. These Niacinamide Dew Drops seem like the perfect alternative.
- Colourpop Hello Kitty Collection
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It’s not a “Makeup Window Shopping” article without not one, but two Colourpop entries. Colourpop collaborated with Hello Kitty to release the Snow Much Fun collection, including an eyeshadow palette, new shades of their Lux Glosses, glitters, and pressed powder blushes. The eyeshadow palette looks chalky, and strikingly similar to Colourpop Blush Crush palette, plus a few peachier shades. While I was never a huge Hello Kitty fan, for those who are and for whom the nostalgia factor of this collection is enticing, I’d recommend buying one of the blushes or lip glosses as products you’d likely reach for often. I generally don’t love Colourpop collaborations because they collaborate with “young” brands of other intellectual properties like Frozen, so their collabs feel cheap and tend to cheapen the brand.
- Lawless Bioglitter Eyeshadow
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Lawless beauty is a clean beauty brand, and for the holidays, they released Biogliter, a pressed glitter single shadow. This eyeshadow product comes in two flattering shades, Champagne Dream and Sparkling Rosé. Priced at $14, this product is pricey for one pan of eyeshadow. While I love a punchy, sparkly, single shadow to swipe all over the lid, I don’t like pressed glitters because they could cut or irritate the eye. This product is underwhelming, and I much prefer other formulas for single shadow, like liquids, creams, or even plain shimmery powders.
Overall, the beauty industry seems to be pretty quiet, with brands slowing down some of their launches. Nothing released within the past few weeks feels super innovative or exciting to me, but at least my wallet will thank me!