Bronzers from Pat McGrath have finally arrived! As excited as I was for this release, it felt like I waited forever to get my order. I try to mention the long shipping times when ordering directly from the Pat McGrath website when I post about the brand. I ordered about 15 minutes after launch, and I didn’t get my order until 8 business days later. Keep in mind that some people may still be waiting for their orders, so I’m just giving context for my personal experience. The brand’s website states that processing takes 1-2 business days and shipping takes 5-7 business days. So, I received my package within the stated timeframe. I still feel like it took a long time, but for my order, they delivered according to their terms.
So anyway, on to the actual product. I bought the shade Bronze Divinity, thinking that Desert Glow would be too light for me (it probably isn’t). Luckily, this formula is buildable, so I was able to apply it without trouble. The shade bronze divinity turned out to be more orange than I was expecting, but I do think that my olive undertone has a lot to do with that. In the brand’s defense, the shade is described as a terracotta bronze. While this does have a touch of red, it definitely has the burnt orange tone of terracotta.
Click continue reading to see a swatch of bronze divinity and see it compared to NARS Punta Cana.
The Pat McGrath SatinAllure Lipsticks made their first appearance as part of the Bridgerton 2 collection in March 2022. When the collection was released, I ordered Negligee and Veiled Rose but unfortunately, Veiled Rose was too cool-toned for my preferences so I returned that one. Today I’ll show you Negligee and give you the rundown on the formula in case you are interested in this line of lipsticks.
As always credit for this overall concept goes to Emily Noel on Youtube. She has some older videos about What’s OLD at the Drugstore and I’ve always loved the idea. I’ve done this Sephora VIB Sale version two other times, so if you’d like to see more products you can check those out here and here.
So anyway, while neither of these concealers is the newest thing to the market, I’m taking this time to highlight them because I think they still hold their own against new releases. The sale dates are 14 April 2023 – 24 April 2023 depending on your membership tier. All of the dates and discount levels are listed at the bottom of this post. Keep in mind that you can also shop the sale at Kohl’s locations that have Sephora sections and Kohl’s online. Often things sell out at Sephora and they are still available at Kohl’s.
NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer
NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer, $32.00
This was released in January 2017 and I still see a lot of people using this which says a lot considering how fast new releases tend to dominate people’s routines. This is a standout concealer in both form and function. I think we can all agree that there aren’t as many pot concealers as there are liquid doe foot style concealers. Also, it just seems like most people don’t even want to try a pot concealer. I think that is because they are seen as being heavy. Although this NARS Concealer is definitely full coverage, you can apply it lightly to minimize the amount of product sitting on your skin but still get the coverage you need. The texture is almost a mousse and it has a lot of slip due to dimethicone being the 1st ingredient, so it blends easily. This sets down to a matte finish as promised and I personally don’t have to set it with powder (which I love). It stays in place all day and doesn’t crease very much.
For shade reference, you can see me wearing NARS Natural Radiant Longwear in Tahoe by clicking here and Estee Lauder Double Wear in 4W4 by clicking here.
If you haven’t yet heard, the L’oreal True Match Super Blendable Foundation has been reformulated and repackaged for 2023. I do have a history with the original formula, and although it’s been a while since I used it, my experience with the new formula is the same. I think this is a beautiful foundation, but for my 40-year-old, dry, sensitive skin, this is not my favorite foundation to wear. I felt the same way about the original formula. I’m not saying this won’t work for others with dry skin because I think it actually works great. It just feels less comfortable throughout wear than I’d like. I recently moved, and I do wonder if my skin just hasn’t fully embraced the climate change yet, but only time will tell.
Keep reading to hear about my experience with it, see what it looks like on me, and see some comparison swatches.
I placed my order for two of the new MAC Skinfinish Sunstruck Bronzers when they were live on the MAC website a few days ago and they arrived today. I wanted to go ahead and share swatches of the two shades that I purchased. I’m not sure why they have disappeared from the website, but I’m sure they will return because some shades are already available at Belk and QVC.
UPDATE March 28, 2023: MAC’s Consumer Care Team has responded to me letting me know that the bronzer launch was delayed. I also contacted MAC again to ask specifically about the safety of using these products after a reader mentioned to me that she heard this product was being discontinued due to its smell. MAC has responded that these products are safe for use (see below for their exact wording).
UPDATE March 21, 2023: I talked to MAC’s online customer service and they informed me that these bronzers were released ahead of schedule. They did also say that I could contact the consumer care team to confirm, so I did send them an email. The bronzers are no longer at Belk or QVC when I checked, so I’m not sure how so many retailers could have launched something ahead of schedule all at the same time. If the information changes when I hear back from MAC Consumer care I’ll be sure to post an update.
The brush that was released with the collection is listed on the MAC website, so there is clearly something going on with this release. Some of the affiliate links below will only take you to the MAC homepage until the brand reposts the items. I know this may be slightly annoying, but it saves me from having to update the links later when they reappear. The QVC links at the bottom do take you to the product pages and you can purchase these items from QVC as of the time I am posting this.
If you are a MAC lover like me, then you may have noticed that Mac’s bronzer formula has been in their clearance section. Well today we know why, they have just released a line of Skinfinish Sunstruck Bronzers.
UPDATE March 28, 2023: MAC’s Consumer Care Team has responded to me letting me know that the bronzer launch was delayed. I also contacted MAC again to ask specifically about the safety of using these products after a reader mentioned to me that she heard this product was being discontinued due to its smell. MAC has responded that these products are safe for use (see below for their exact wording).
UPDATE March 21, 2023: I talked to MAC’s online customer service and they informed me that these bronzers were released ahead of schedule. They did also say that I could contact the consumer care team to confirm, so I did send them an email. The bronzers are no longer at Belk or QVC when I checked, so I’m not sure how so many retailers could have launched something ahead of schedule all at the same time. If the information changes when I hear back from MAC Consumer care I’ll be sure to post an update.
UPDATE March 19, 2023: I placed my order for two of the new MAC Skinfinish Sunstruck Bronzers when they were live on the MAC website a few days ago and they arrived today. I wanted to go ahead and share swatches of the two shades that I purchased. I’m not sure why they have disappeared from the website, but I’m sure they will return because some shades are already available at Belk and QVC. If you want to see these shades compared to the NARS Bronzing Powders in Casino and Punta Cana, click here.
MAC Skinfinish Sunstruck Matte Bronzer, $35, 10 Shades
MAC Skinfinish Sunstruck Radiant Bronzer, $35, 5 Shades
MAC 143S Bronzer Fan Brush, $45
The 143S brush was also released back in 2020 for their Summer Bronzer collection but that version had black bristles, so I do wonder how this might differ in function. This also has me wondering if the new matte bronzer formula will be the same, but there are no ingredients listed on the website to give any idea of what the formula will be like.
Left to Right: MAC 127S, 143SES, 140SES
What do you think about this release?
I’m excited to see this from MAC and even more excited to see if there will be some new blushes to follow!
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UPDATE May 30, 2023: I’m excited to finally be writing this update for the **Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Concealer ($39) after realizing that it was not the cause of my under-eye irritation. I say finally because my first post about it was back in March, and while I wanted to post this update sooner, I wanted to be absolutely certain it wasn’t a problem. Initially, I was convinced that this concealer was causing a feeling of soreness under my eyes. However, after I stopped using it for a while, the issue didn’t go away. Turns out the skin irritation was because of a skincare product. I’ve had a consistent skincare routine that was working for years, but my recent move to the Northeast pushed me to try some different moisturizers.
I want to reiterate that I did make sure to rule the Givenchy Prisme Libre Concealer out as the issue before using it again. I am by no means encouraging anyone to ignore skin irritation for the sake of using a certain product. It’s also important to keep in mind that one person having a problem with a product does not mean it will be a problem for everyone. So anyway, I’m glad that this concealer was not to blame for any discomfort because it’s a good one.
The main thing I want to share today are swatches of 2 additional shades of the Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Concealer (W310 and N345). This is a solid medium coverage, radiant finish concealer that works well for my dry skin. I do think there is a potential for building this for higher coverage, but on me, that causes creasing that looks bad. All things crease to some degree. To me, it’s bad when you can see lines created by the creasing from a distance. If you don’t tend to have issues with creasing, or if using a setting powder typically takes care of any creasing, you may be able to get more coverage out of this. For a point of reference, this isn’t as radiant on me as the Armani Luminous Silk Concealer, but it does have more coverage than the Armani. If you are looking for more details on this concealer, please check out my initial post by clicking here.
Start of Original Post: Fragrance added to makeup is pretty standard with a luxury brand like Givenchy. So, imagine my surprise when I looked at the ingredients for the new **Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Concealer ($39) and there was no fragrance listed. That made me excited to give this concealer a try because I have sensitive skin so I avoid fragrance in my products as much as possible. I’ve only used this a few times but I wanted to go ahead and share a swatch of the shade N385 and my thoughts.
To cut to the chase, this is a great formula if you are looking for a medium coverage concealer (which is what the Sephora website states) with a radiant finish. The actual box packaging claims that it is medium to high buildable coverage. While I do think that it is buildable, on me, building it up causes it to crease in an unflattering way. I’ve mentioned this before, but I should probably repeat it whenever I’m talking about creasing. Everything will settle into lines to some extent, that’s just what happens. But when the p<b>**</b>roduct collects in my lines so much that from a distance it looks like stripes, that’s what I call creasing in an unflattering way. If you don’t have a lot of issues with creasing, you might be able to build this to full high-medium coverage.
Without setting this with powder, it didn’t crease until after about 4 hours of wear, and that is impressive to me. When I did set it with powder, it creased in about 2 hours. It still looked nice and not dry, but since it doesn’t crease much when unset, to me, there is no need to set it. If you are new here, I have dry skin, so your mileage will likely vary with the setting powder needs. The brand claims that this is hydrating, and I don’t know that I’d call it hydrating. It does look hydrated, but I just don’t get the feeling of extra hydration being added to my skin. Again, keep in mind, I am dry. This isn’t as radiant as something like the Armani Luminous Silk Concealer, but it is radiant enough to be less perfecting (smoothing/blurring) than a more matte formula would be. That isn’t a bad thing, and a lot of people like a radiant finish; it’s just something to keep in mind.
Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Concealer in N345 at Nordstrom
So getting back to the fragrance that I mentioned earlier. While the brand did omit an added “parfum,” there is actually a synthetic fragrance in this formula (ethylene brassylate).
I know there are a lot of complaints about Sephora these days but I still love shopping there. One of the biggest loves for me is getting to sample products I’m not sure of buying. Several months ago I got a trio of Westman Atelier products to sample and was shocked at how much I enjoyed them. The trio was Baby Cheeks Blush Stick in Petal, Face Trace Contour Stick in Biscuit, and Lit Up Glow Highlighter Stick in Lit. The biggest reason I was excited to try these as a sample is that I always prefer powder products over cream. So I certainly didn’t want to spend Westman Atelier-level money on cream products. Before I get into the shopping part, let’s start off with swatches of the Westman Atelier Samples.
Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick, $48, 3 shades
Westman Atelier Lit Up Glow Highlighter Stick, $48, 4 shades
Long story short, I ended up enjoying 2 of the 3 items. The highlighter doesn’t dry down and I just felt it was too sticky for my taste. Surprisingly, the biscuit contour did show up on me, but it is very subtle and took building. This is definitely a product that could use a shade expansion. It shocked me how much I liked the blush. It was easy to apply, didn’t disturb my foundation (remove coverage), and the color worked for me. So then I found myself on the verge of buying the blush stick during the Sephora VIB sale back in November. I talked myself out of it, but I continued to not only think about it but also try to find a cheaper alternative. Since I was already doing the research, I thought it would be fun to take you guys through similar products I discovered.
Important note: I have not tried any of the other products featured on my face. My thoughts on color and consistency are based on swatching them in store. So keep in mind that I don’t have enough context to claim anything here is an actual dupe, they are all just cream blushes in the stick format.
Nikki From HR 