Spring is officially here! That means savings sales around the corner ๐ Please share your fabulous April Hauls here, and happy happy birthday to all the April babies ๐ฅณ
I'm kinda jealous of everyone getting their Sephora sale orders so quickly. My first order (made around 10:30 PM CT on April 8 ๐) won't arrive til tomorrow, sheesh... who knows when my second order will arrive.
Meanwhile, here's a compilation of my recent EM Cosmetics orders. I made 3 separate orders (had 2 promo codes to use and couldn't stack 'em) and the last one arrived today.
Photo taken before my 2nd Daydream Cushion (shade Warm Dusk) and Faded Clementine blush compact arrived.EM Cosmetics Heaven's Glow Radiant Veil Blush, shade Faded Clementine.
Daydream Cushion Tinted SPF, shades Summer Hue and Warm Dusk - Technically you could call this a hybrid (chemical + mineral) sunscreen but, as with Laura Mercier tinted SPF moisturizers, Iโll always use a different sunscreen under it. Iโd have to apply A LOT of this in one shot to get good sun protection, and thatโs too much tint. I like that each compact contains a cushion and puff, and comes with a cushion refill and an extra puff (which I assume is inside the refill pack). That seems generous for $48 USD, and I used a promo code to knock that price down a bit more.
I hate big round/egg beauty sponges, but I quite like these little pointy flat sponges. Much easier to clean, for starters.Summer Hue's great for the center of my face. Warm Dusk is better around the perimeter. I might try mixing the shades, as Warm Dusk seems to have a gold undertone that's not right for me.
Color Drops Serum Blush, shades Little Lilac and Peachy Peach - On me, Little Lilac is more of a cool-toned pink than lilac, but itโs very pretty anyway. Peachy Peach is exactly the shade I hoped for, so I tested it on my cheeks today. The oil-based formula made this shade hard to apply in a controlled manner: I kept building it up because I couldnโt quite tell how much color was really on my face. I shouldโve stopped midway to check in daylight because I wound up over-applying. ๐ I find it applies better with a finger than a brush. Iโll try it with a flat sponge puff sometime. It did last for hours on my skin, so thatโs a big positive! But I wonder if Iโll have the same application issues with Little Lilac.
Lip Cushion Tinted Lip Luminizer, shade Faded Clementine - My swatch photo doesnโt show how glossy this is. The coverage is sheer, but itโs pigmented enough to make my lips a lovely shade of burnt orange. I like it, even though it feels kinda heavy on my lips.
Divine Skies eyeshadow palette, shade Faded Clementine - I must compare this to another little palette I liked a lot:
This is what I wanted Urban Decay's Naked Petite Heat palette to be. That was a nice warm neutral travel palette for business trips, with shadows that actually blended well (instead of chalking up or dusting right off my face, like so many other UD shadows I've tried). But 2 of the shades werenโt very good for my skin tone. The EM Faded Clementine palette has no bad-for-me shades. My swatches tell me the 3 metallics will far outperform UDโs metallics, and the 3 mattes donโt feel dry or chalky at all.
If these shadows perform well, this is a palette I can keep in my travel kit for all occasions and just add 2-3 more colorful options as needed. I realize other brands have palettes with a very similar color story. But Faded Clementine is the one Iโll probably be comfy traveling with. And now I wish I still had Petite Heat, just so I could do side-by-side swatches of both palettes.
EM Cosmetics: eyeshadow palette, 2 liquid blushes, and a Lip Cushion.
Fine Liner Brow Pencil, shade Ebony - I wasn't sure I'd like this pencil. Should've listened to my intuition.
This brow pencil has an oval tip thatโs quite slim. According to EM, itโs supposed to mimic brow hairs. It doesnโt. The formulaโs too soft and creamy, so the pencil wears down very quickly and I completely lose the oval edge and shape. It reminds me of Lancome's Brow Define Pencil which is also a very creamy pencil I'm not fond of. But at least Lancome's has the usual fine tip instead of an oval. So when it wears down, it at least keeps a very small (but blunt) tip. The EM pencil wears down into weird blunt shapes depending on how I hold it during application. Each time I shift the angle, the tip changes shape within 2 seconds.
Were this pencil not so creamy soft, I could maybe wipe it on a tissue to put a temporary crisp edge on it. But nope, I canโt get this EM pencil to keep even a moderately crisp shape at all. So the only thing itโs good for is rather imprecise filling; I can't use it along the edges of my brows. Good thing itโs at least got a good-for-me shade. But because of the soft formula, it doesnโt have enough staying power for me. ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
tl;dr: I do not like this brow pencil.
Linda Halbergโs is much better than this, though it has its own issues. Neither LH nor EMโs pencil is as good (to me) as my beloved Kimiko pencil.
Pick Me Up Volume + Length Mascara - Iโm a sucker for trying tubing mascaras. They donโt all work well for me and I generally have bad luck with mascaras, so I wonโt set my hopes too high for this one. Once my eyes are out of cranky allergy mode again, Iโll test this mascara.
Heavenโs Glow Radiant Veil Blush, shade Faded Clementine - Havenโt tried it on my face yet, but Iโve swatched it. I heard a few people say itโs easy to over-apply this blush shade, which made me think it must be more boldly pigmented than it looks in product photos. But on my arm, it looks much softer than 2 of my other orangey blushes Also, its gold shift isn't nearly as noticeable in person (or my swatch photo) as, say, NARS Taj Mahalโs. So now I expect it to perform (on my face) more like a Surratt powder blush: sheer and buildable. Eh, Iโll find out soon enough.
Should've added Natasha Denona's Burnt Orange to this party.
Great swatches, @WinglessOne! I keep wanting to try the Em Cosmetics blush and Lip Cushion in Venetian Rose but haven't gotten around to it yet. Hope you enjoy everything!
@WinglessOne - The two little bottles (blush?) are super cute! Faded Clementine looks gorgeous! Thanks for all the swatches. I particularly like the last pic with Faded Clementine, Treasure Me, and Taj Mahal. Gorgeous colors and they all look great on you! ๐๐๐
Yay! ๐ Happy to see more Em Cosmetics being hauled! ๐ Ack! Sorry to hear your allergies are acting up @WinglessOne! I debated over the mascara last month; would love to get your thoughts on it when your eyes arenโt battling allergies.
Thanks @StellaBG ! Yeah, finding a good shade match is such a challenge, even in tinted moisturizers and tinted sunscreens. In the brand's product photos, Warm Dusk looks like it has a peachy bisque undertone. But in person, it's oddly gold toned on me and a bit too deep for all the areas of my face that don't have hyperpigmentation. The other shade I bought, Summer Hue, is too light for my hyperpigmented areas. Unfortunately there's no available shade between those 2, so I'll try mixing them to see if I can get something that works where I have large areas of hyperpigmentation.