Ellis Faas Concealer Review, Swatches, Photos

Ellis Faas Concealer S202

One of the items that I purchased at The Makeup Show was this Ellis Faas concealer – my first Ellis Faas product. (I also received another Ellis Faas product courtesy of Ellis Faas and The Makeup Show, and will be reviewing that separately.)  Ellis Faas is a brand I’ve heard a lot about; most of what I’ve heard is that people adore the products, but have very mixed feelings about the applicator system – almost all products come in identical bullet-shaped pens.

The pens are certainly sleek and lovely, but I can understand why they’re controversial.  You can’t see how much product you’re getting, and you can’t see how much you have left.  It takes many, many “clicks” to get the product started, and when it starts coming out of the pen, it comes out very fast and wastes some product.  The design doesn’t seem particularly hygienic, though Ellis Faas does suggest you clean the applicators regularly.  The only distinguishing factor between them is the base of the pen, so they need to be stored upside down if you have several and want to be able to tell them apart.

On the other hand, the pens are extremely portable – great for travel or to throw in to your purse.  Ellis Faas makes gorgeous clips and holders for storage, if you have several of them. Both of the applicators I have function well (though my concealer brush is slightly splayed), and if I don’t want to use them to apply, I can either take a brush directly to the applicator or apply product to the back of my hand and then apply from there.

Ellis Faas Concealer Applicator

Ellis Faas Concealer Applicator

Moving on from the packaging to the product itself – the concealer is thin, fluid, and moisturizing.  I would categorize it as buildable medium to full coverage – which surprised me, given the thin consistency! It did a fantastic job of covering redness around my nose, and the finish was the best part – very natural, just like my skin.

Although I do not have particularly dark undereye circles, I tested this concealer under the eyes as well.  Because it is thin and moisturizing, it worked well under my eyes, and my guess is that it is pigmented enough to cover most dark circles.

Ellis Faas Concealer S202 Swatch

S202: Not blended, partially blended, completely blended

I was matched to the shade S202, which is described as “fair/light skin with neutral undertone.”  It’s a good match for me.  The concealer comes in eight shades, and does have a decent shade range (ranging from what appears to be decently light to decently dark).

Overall, I think this is a fantastic concealer – I can understand the hype!  The packaging isn’t ideal, but it’s workable (and pretty!), and the product is really great – surprisingly pigmented and with a lovely finish.

Ellis Faas concealer retails for $40 and is available to purchase on Ellisfaas.com and Sephora.com (online only).

*As noted in this review, I purchased featured concealer, but received an additional Ellis Faas product courtesy of Ellis Faas/ The Makeup Show.  This post contains an affiliate link. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

L’oreal True Match Crayon Concealer Review & Swatches

L'oreal True Match crayon concealers - N1-2-3, N4-5

L’oreal True Match crayon concealers – N1-2-3, N4-5

Today, I have yet another new 2013 drugstore product review for you – L’oreal’s new true match crayon concealers.   If you haven’t yet seen these around, they’re already available online at Drugstore.com, and should show up at other online retailers soon.

These are jumbo crayons, and packaged just like jumbo lip or eye pencils. They are twist up and do not need to be sharpened. You can twist them up and back down again.  I like this packaging for a concealer to keep in my bag – it’s very portable, just dab on, blend with fingers, and done!

The display I purchased from had six shades, and they are the same shades currently available online:

W1-2-3 (fair/ light warm)
N1-2-3 (fair / light neutral)
W4-5 (light / medium warm)
N4-5 (light / medium neutral)
W6-7-8 (medium/ deep warm)
N6-7-8 (medium/ deep neutral)

It seems odd to me that there are no cool shades, and that there are only three depths — hopefully L’oreal will eventually expand the range!  I had a feeling that I was between the light and medium shades, so I purchased both the lightest and the medium of the neutral shades.

Here are the swatches – first unblended, then blended:

L'oreal True Match Crayon Concealer N1-2-3 (fair/light neutral), N4-5 (light/medium neutral)

L’oreal True Match Crayon Concealer
N1-2-3 (fair/light neutral), N4-5 (light/medium neutral)

L'oreal True Match Crayon Concealer N1-2-3 (fair/light neutral), N4-5 (light/medium neutral)

L’oreal True Match Crayon Concealer
N1-2-3 (fair/light neutral), N4-5 (light/medium neutral)

As you can see, I am indeed between shades. The light is closer, but definitely too light, and the medium is significantly too dark.  Blended together, the two crayons are a good match.

I like the texture of the concealer crayons – they are firm enough to hold their shape as crayons, but soft enough to apply easily, without any tugging. When first applied, they are very creamy and blendable, but after about a minute, they set and don’t smudge with light pressure (they will, like any concealer, smudge if you try hard enough!).

The texture seems better suited to covering blemishes than undereyes – it’s on the thicker side, and I find that a thinner texture works better for me in the eye area (though I don’t have prominent bags and often skip undereye concealer entirely).  Wear time seems average; the concealer lasts until I remove it at the end of the day, but I haven’t tried it on a long, hot summer day.

Overall, I would recommend these if you happen to find a match – they’re a nice, ultra-portable choice for a concealer to keep with you in your bag.

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer Review & Swatches

Kevin Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer - SX 04

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer – SX 04

I am extremely impressed with Beauty.com right now – I placed my Friends & Family sale order at 9pm on a Tuesday night, selected free (standard) shipping, and received my order on Thursday! I purchased two items – Rapidlash and Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer.  Sensual Skin Enhancer, or SSE, is an extremely pigmented product that can be used as either a concealer or mixed with primer/moisturizer and used as a foundation.

Sensual Skin Enhancer is packaged in a tiny, deep red pot. I love the color!  It’s really very small, but given how intensely pigmented the product is, it will last you a VERY long time.  It’s more pigmented than Hard Candy Glamoflauge – which until now was the most pigmented concealer I had tried. Here’s a photo of me holding the pot of SSE, for scale:

Since I ordered this online, I wasn’t completely sure what shade to get.  I knew I was somewhere around SX04 – SX06.  Members of an online forum I frequent said that SX05 was neutral and SX06 was extremely yellow; since I look best in slightly yellow foundations, I decided to go with SX04.  I also found these swatches online at Beauty Professor – she’s missing 5, but has 4 and 6 swatched side by side.

Here are my swatches of SX04, unblended, blended, and blended/mixed with primer. As you can see, it’s quite yellow, and doesn’t match my arm at all:

Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX04 swatches

Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX04 – Unblended, blended, and blended & mixed with primer

I was pretty skeptical that this color would work on my face, but I gave it a try – and here are the results:

No makeup // Just SSE (mixed with primer) // added blush, brows, mascara, lips

In the first picture, I’m not wearing any makeup at all – you can see that I have residual marks from a breakout on my chin, and a lot of redness. In the second picture, I’m wearing the Sensual Skin Enhancer mixed with Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer all over my face, and extra Sensual Skin Enhancer (unmixed) on the blemishes on my chin.  It did a great job at covering the redness and marks, though they’re not 100% gone – I could have covered them completely, but didn’t want a mask-like look. I’d rather have an imperfect, more skin-like look. And,  as you can see, the color ended up working very well for me, and the finish is lovely (especially with the Hourglass primer mixed in!).  In the third photo, I’ve done my brows (with this product), added Illamasqua Rude cream blush, added mascara & tightlined, and I’m wearing Fresh Sugar Honey tinted lip balm.

I’ve worn the Sensual Skin enhancer several times now – every day since I received it, in fact, and I am really loving it.  It’s not the easiest product to use – while it can be used full strength as concealer, it absolutely needs to be mixed with something if you want to use it as foundation, so you can’t just slap it on and go.  But, if you take the time to work with it, it gives a lovely finish and lasts all day.  So, overall, I’d give it a thumbs up.

You can purchase Kevyn Aucoin products online at Nordstrom and Beauty.com. Be aware that not all Nordstrom stores carry Kevyn Aucoin products – none of the ones near me do.

Hard Candy Light and Medium Glamoflauge Concealer Review & Swatches

Hard Candy Glamoflauge - light & medium

Hard Candy Glamoflauge – light & medium

I’ve heard many times that Hard Candy Glamoflauge heavy duty concealer is one of the most opaque concealers available, which piqued my interest.  After looking at swatches online, I thought I was probably between light and medium – so for $6 a tube, I thought I would just buy both.  I just checked the website, and there is now a shade labeled “med light,” which I would guess is in between the shades I bought, but it wasn’t available a few weeks ago.

Hard Candy Glamoflauge is packaged in a small tube.  The packaging is good quality and functional – it has a nozzle opening, which is perfect for the texture and because so little is needed.  Each tube of Glamoflauge also includes a mini concealer pencil, which can be used in many ways – to spot conceal, to layer with the concealer for more coverage, as a reverse lip liner, or on the waterline to brighten the eye (I believe it is eye safe, but I’m not completely sure). Both the light and the medium shades of Glamoflauge included a pencil labeled “light / pale.”

Hard Candy Glamoflauge - light & medium
Hard Candy Glamoflauge concealer pencil

The texture of the concealer is thick and creamy, and it is indeed extremely opaque.  Only a tiny amount will completely cover a large area.   To my eye, the light shade is fairly neutral, and the medium shade is quite olive.  The light/pale concealer pencil is somewhere in between the two concealers in depth, and looks to have yellow undertones.

Hard Candy Glamoflauge swatches light/pale pencil, light concealer, medium concealer

Hard Candy Glamoflauge swatches:
light/pale pencil, light concealer, medium concealer

I own MAC Chromagraphic pencil in NC15/NW20 (I use it almost exclusively on my waterline), and I compared it to the Hard Candy concealer pencil. They’re quite similar, but the MAC pencil is a tough lighter and slightly more creamy.

Comparison swatches: Glamoflauge light/pale pencil , MAC NC15 / NW20 pencil

Glamoflauge light/pale pencil (left)
MAC NC15 / NW20 pencil (right)

In order to demonstrate the coverage of this concealer, I used a tiny amount to cover a freckle on my inner arm – this is a very thin layer! I believe I mixed both shades, but I don’t remember.  It’s not a good match for my arm, nor a particularly color accurate photo, but still shows how opaque the coverage is!

HC Glamoflauge applied

Overall, I would recommend this concealer – it’s both inexpensive and good quality.  The main downside is that, as a drugstore product, you have to guess which color would be a good match.

Hard Candy Glamoflauge is available in five shades – Ultra Light, Light, Light Medium, Medium, and Tan.  Hard Candy is exclusively available at Wal-Mart; since there is no store near me, I ordered online, and shipping was prompt and just under $2.

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer Review, Swatches, Photos

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer

Although I’m really happy with the shimmery/glowy highlighters I own, I recently decided that I would like to add a cream, non-shimmery highligher to my stash.  So, I purchased one of the lightest shades of Maybelline’s Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer to use a highlighter.  I chose the second lightest shade, 320 Ivory, rather than the lightest shade (310 Radiance), because Ivory is more yellow and Radiance is more pink, and I tend to look better in yellow-based shades — though I’m not sure it matters for a highlighter.

I swatched it next to Clinique’s Airbrush Concealer in 04 Neutral Fair, because I wondered how similar they were. They have similar packaging and very similar consistencies. However, the shades I have are quite different; the Clinique is similar to my skintone, while the Maybelline is significantly lighter than it – which makes it a bit difficult to do a meaningful comparison.

Most of my swatch photos ended up overexposed.  The first photo is more clear, but overexposed (my skin & the concealers are not actually that pale) – the second is a bit blurry, but the colors are more accurate.

Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer 320 Ivory, Clinique Airbrush Concealer 04 Neutral Fair

Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer 320 Ivory, Clinique Airbrush Concealer 04 Neutral Fair
Photo is overexposed

Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer 320 Ivory, Clinique Airbrush Concealer 04 Neutral Fair

Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer 320 Ivory, Clinique Airbrush Concealer 04 Neutral Fair

Although click-pen packaging isn’t my favorite, Maybelline’s Dream Lumi click pen is extremely functional – it only took a few clicks (maybe 30 seconds at most) to get the concealer started, and it only takes 1-2 clicks to dispense more product.  I haven’t had any trouble with too little or too much product being dispensed.

Because it’s far too light for me, I can’t really evaluate it as a concealer. It does seem to brighten a bit. It has medium coverage for a concealer – more than a foundation, but far less than opaque.

As for use as a highlighter, I really like it! I tried to take before/ after photos using it as a highlighter, but it’s just too subtle to really show up; I find that’s true of most highlighters. Overall, I would definitely recommend both a too-light concealer and this particular one as a highlighter.