Beauty Product Battles, Throw Downs and Showdowns

[itsfi]

Ready to pit some beauty products against each other? Can't decide which of your mascaras, lipsticks, hair masks, eye creams, vanilla scents, etc. reign supreme? I don't know about you but I love hearing about how products compare with one another, and which products come out on top when going head-to-head in a dual.  Share your beauty battles here and let's see which of our product(s) come out on top! 

If you have two or more similar products you're testing out or have been wanting to compare against the other to see which performs better for you, put them to the test. So that we can all join in on the fun and learn from your experiment, let us know what product(s) you'll have face off against each other and who comes out victorious, and any other details you'd like to share. 

[itsfi]

Lol @caitbird, it’s amazing how quickly we can accumulate things, isn’t it? I was not expecting I had thiiiiis many reds (I have several more, actually 😬) As much of a challenge it has been to wear a red everyday this past week, I’m happy that it’s given me the opportunity to wear each of these more than just the one time. 

Oooouh, one on the way? I’m excited to see what you picked up. 

[caitbird]

@itsfi  I need to try to wear my red lippies more often - I don't wear them that much really, and yet I guess I am drawn to them since I seem to keep buying more 😅 they're just so pretty!

[itsfi]

They are so pretty @caitbird and if they have pretty packaging, well ... it is hard to resist. I don't reach for reds often and compared to other lip color families, I don't have as many reds in my collection. I figured with that being the case, it would be easier to do a battle of the red lipsticks first as far as lippie showdowns go, and also that maybe I would pick up some tips for doing future lip throw downs. So far, so good. 👍 Since I've been wearing more reds, I've been more diligent about lip care, which has been a good thing and something I hope to continue with after the battle of the reds comes to a close. 

I'm still in the early stages of the red lip battle but I highly recommend doing a throw down at some point, whether with just 2 lipsticks duking it out for a shorter duration or a handful of red lippies over a longer period of time. I've found it to be fun and insightful. 

[caitbird]

@itsfi  oddly I find that most of my lipsticks are actually reds, I think because if I want a more neutral lippie, I'm more likely to reach for a gloss or balm, etc. But I definitely think doing a throwdown at some point would be fun and edifying!

That's great too that you've found you are more diligent with lip care, as a kind of side effect of doing this red lip battle. That's a good side effect to have!

[PrettyPaint]

@itsfi That's exciting about the hourglass lipstick. I've never thought to purchase a red lipstick from this brand, so I'll keep this in mind!

[itsfi]

@PrettyPaint, same; it’s made me give the Hourglass holiday releases with red lipsticks a second look. 

[curlychiquita]

This is a great idea, @itsfi!  I like the color and finish of the Charlotte Tilbury Lunar New Year Matte Revolution Lipstick Blossom Red , too.

[itsfi]

Thank you @curlychiquita! The CT LNY red has really surprised me - I almost passed on it when it came out; I’m glad I didn’t. It’s long lasting and the color really is pretty in the tube and when worn.

[PDXXXX]

@itsfi I am really loving this as I have accumulated an embarrassing number of concealers and it is long past time I ditched several.

Here is what we have going on:

12 concealers: ILIA True Skin Serum Concealer with Vitamin C Arrowroot SC0.5 Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Bright Fix Eye Brightener Concealer in Rose Quartz, Golden Ivory and Seashell Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Brightening Concealer With Hyaluronic Acid Atelier L1 Fenty Beauty by Rihanna We're Even Hydrating Longwear Waterproof Concealer Light 110W Kosas Revealer Super Creamy + Brightening Concealer with Caffeine and Hyaluronic Acid #Lancome Care Glow Serum Concealer Jones Road The Face Pencil No 1 HUDA BEAUTY GLOWISH Bright Light Hydrating Sheer Concealer 03 Light Amazing Concealer in Golden Fair and Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Medium to Full Coverage Radiant Concealer with Hyaluronic Acid 1 

I have strong opinions on the pros and cons or all of these if anyone is curious about a product in this colllection. With that said, here is what I will keep:

1. Fenty Bright Eye Brightener in Rose Quartz, 2. Westman Atelier VItal Skincare Brighteniing Concear With Hyaluronic Acid and 3. Amazing Concealer and 4. Fenty We're Even.

So this got me to cut down from 12 to 4 concealers. Thank you for the motivation: it has long been needed. Now I have to not cave and try new concealers until I run out of a few of these!

[sister13]

I have a hard time resisting concealers too! Great job narrowing yours down ! @PDXXXX 

[peculiarzmakeup]

Such a beautiful photo!!! @PDXXXX I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this and am interested to see how the narrowing down process goes I find it so interesting, I think pros and cons is such a great approach. Looking forward to seeing more on this ❤️ 

[PDXXXX]

@peculiarzmakeup I think it's really down to the Westman Atelier and Fenty products. What are your favorite concealers??

[peculiarzmakeup]

Those both sound amazing my go to concealer is the Kosas Mini Revealer Super Creamy + Brightening Concealer with Caffeine and Hyaluronic Acid Tone 1.5 ...  I just got the Danessa Myricks Beauty Vision Cream Cover Adjustable Foundation & Concealer  which I really like as well! Both super smooth in texture which I always like 🙂 @PDXXXX 

[PDXXXX]

@peculiarzmakeup you're making me want to give the Kosas another go! I think my summer skin has faded quite a bit from whenever I first got it (I have a mini in the same shade). The Danessa Myricks Beauty Cover Cream looks like a really unique product. I might have to try that some time 🙂

[peculiarzmakeup]

I’m very inspired by your post there’s so many good concealers here I’ve only tried the two I mentioned been looking for a while too see for a good fit I might have to check some of these others out 🙂 @PDXXXX 

[PrettyPaint]

@PDXXXX I've heard so many good things about the WA, but I've never tried it before!

[PDXXXX]

@PrettyPaint it's very concentrated but sooo blendable. I really have nothing bad to say about it. Of the concealers I shared it is by far my favorite for a creamy, higher coverage effect w/a natural finish. I was on the fence worrying it was over hyped and priced so am very glad I got it and definitely recommend. 

[curlychiquita]

Thanks for your thorough run down, @PDXXXX! I’m excited to hear you like the Fenty and Westman Atelier concealers.

[PDXXXX]

@curlychiquita it was fun! Yeah, I've had really good luck with Fenty concealers. I'm really pleasantly surprised how much I'm loving the Westman Atelier as well, the texture and coverage is so nice!

[CynthieLu]

Oooh la la! That's an beautiful collection 🤩 @PDXXXX I'm in total awe! 

I would be very interested in hearing why you picked the ones to keep, how they performed and what gave them that edge to earn thier place to stay.  

[PDXXXX]

Let me do my best here @CynthieLu 🙂 As I break these down, it's worth noting I'm a Fair/Light Warm/Peach girl who goes from paper white in the winter to stained at least 3 shades darker in the summer and have dry skin with a lot of flushing from a syndrome I have called P.O.T.S. and red puffy eye bags so the shades here are a bit varied as needed for season and color correction. My key factors in evaluating a concealer are probably how easy they blend and play with other base products. Here is a swatch with each product:

1. The Fenty Eye Bright to me really acts as a color corrector and is great on days I need some lift. As you can see it has a bit of a luminous finish. I've been using it for at least 2 years and find it blends incredibly well with any concealer or base I have making it a product I can use alone when I need more brightening than coverage or layered under another concealer when I need the brightening and coverage. Applies great even pulled up to the outer orbital area.

2. I'm really surprised how much I've liked Fenty We're Even. It's a great color match for me, blends well, and runs more matte for times I'm not really trying to illuminate my under eye bags without being too dry. Love the shade range and a little goes a long way. The precise application with the wand is great such that if you're truly not overloading it you don't have to worry it's going to blend out beyond your targeted areas.

3. I've used Amazing Concealer for years (this swatch is the wrong color for me though). I would say it's the most concentrated, cream like, high coverage concealer I've come across. It does run a little more luminous so not so much of an option beyond under eyes. But blends out remarkably naturally for how full coverage it is. And, wow it's concentrated - I've yet to get through a bottle of this and have only tossed and replaced for expiration reasons.

4. I got the Westman Atelier in the last month and would say I'm reaching for it as much as the Fenty We're Even. I'm excited about the skin care ingredients it has and finding it runs more creamy then the Fenty but blends really well and better than the competing skin care serum concealers I've tried.

My two runner ups:

5. Huda Glowish in Fair 1. I truly love this product and wore it all summer. More of a luminous finish so great for those Summer days you want to glow. It does run a bit dark for me right now and is limited in that it doesn't have lighter shades so that's a point against it. But it's like butter and probably the easiest to blend of all the products I've listed. Their was a packaging error you might be familiar with where the white wand flakes off leaving specs of white on your skin. For me, I just got around it by wrapping a washcloth around the wand to protect from that but it's going bye bye except for their site and like I said, too dark for me for most of the year.

6. Jones Road The Pencil is really a multitasker and blends surprisingly well for being what looks like a dry crayon. It's matter but takes on the consistency of what you blend it with. Really helps with placement as well b/c it's not going to travel much once you've marked out where you use it and go to blend.

The rest of the concealers were generally too dry for me or didn't blend well with the exception of Ilia's in Arrowroot which I wore all last winter and would definitely consider for truly fair skin.

OK, that's my concealer novel, lmao. If you have any you recommend I'd love to hear about them even if I'm trying to NOT get anymore 🙂