The GXVE by Gwen Stefani Gratis Thread!!

[niki172]

Hello BIC! This is the official thread for the brand new - exclusive to Sephora - makeup line GXVE by Gwen Stefani. This thread is a dedicated place for gratis recipients to share their feedback, unboxings, and swatches for the incoming GXVE by Gwen Stefani products.  Let's get B-A-N-A-N-A-S and dive right in!

Founded by Gwen to share her love of beauty the line is inspired by bold clean colors and elevated classics that are loved and worn by her everyday. I love the fact that everything offered in the line is Clean Beauty certified, Vegan, cruelty free, stage worn and tested before being approved by Gwen as Hella Good. 

GXVE BY GWEN STEFANI Anaheim Shine Clean High-Performance Satin Lipstick Original Recipe That red lip is everything and I can't wait to try it out! Please feel free to post your questions, swatch pics, and initial thoughts here. I hope to see a flood of pictures from our lovely Community members here in that signature red lip and I'm also really excited by the eyeliners as well GXVE BY GWEN STEFANI Line It Up Clean 24-Hr Gel Pencil Waterproof Eyeliner Bathwater .

[SportyGirly125]

@fatimamummy Beautiful pictures.

[Saradestin]

Congratulations @fatimamummy!! Beautiful pictures and beautiful swatches! I am looking forward to your looks using them 😃

[fatimamummy]

And Here are the unedited swatches photographed in natural light in front of a window. All the colours in these swatches came out true to the products.

[Mellmars1185]

@fatimamummy The swatches look beautiful on you

[lmaster]

Congratulations!! Love the swatches! @fatimamummy 

[tjffc]

I received this package of goodies on Saturday!  The colors are gorgeous.  I can't wait to try the products this week and to share my thoughts with the community. Thank you @TeamBIC 

[PrettyPaint]

Congratulations @tjffc 

[quspork]

Congrats on the gratis, @tjffc!

[Buootiful]

Congratulations🎉 @tjffc 

[itsfi]

Yayyyy! Congrats @tjffc! Excited that you received these beauties! 😍

[curlychiquita]

Congratulations, @tjffc!

[eshoe]

Congratulations, @tjffc! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on everything. Enjoy! 

[Mellmars1185]

@tjffc Congratulations on the gratis 🎊

[Sunnysmom]

Congrats to you @tjffc , know they’ll look stunning on you! 

[SportyGirly125]

@tjffc Congrats on the gratis!

[Saradestin]

That’s awesome @tjffc !! I am anxious to see how gorgeous you look on these beautiful products! 🎉🎉💄

[lmaster]

Congratulations 🎉🎉 @tjffc 

[WinglessOne]

Tonight’s test: 

I’m Still Here Longwear Matte Liquid Lipstick, shade Original Recipe 😲👍 - 2 coats over MAC Prep + Prime Lip atop my usual lip balm (Aquaphor Ointment). Once the primer set, I outlined my lips with NARS Precision Lip Liner Mariachi before adding the liquid matte. One dip in the tube got me a full even coating of red on both lips. I could’ve stopped there but dipped in again for a second coat, to see how vibrant 2 coats would look. 

Could it be? A liquid matte I can actually wear?? 😄

This lipstick smells like vanilla cake batter when I first pull out the wand. I can’t smell anything once it’s on my lips. More importantly, my lips aren’t screaming for water. When I first applied this lipstick, my lips felt a touch dry, but nothing I couldn’t handle. And that’s saying a lot since there are very few liquid mattes I can comfortably wear, even with my lip care routine. GXVE’s might be one of them: it’s been 2 hours since application and, a couple glasses of water + a slice of cake later, my lips feel fine and they’re still evenly coated in red. No color cracking into vertical lip lines, no bleeding/feathering (which should never happen with a liquid matte anyway), and no color transferred to my glass. I might wear this lipstick tomorrow under a KN95 and see how it fares all day. 

Lip liner possibilities: 

Spoiler

For this shade of red lipstick, I usually reach for NARS Mariachi. PAT McGRATH LABS Permagel Ultra Lip Pencil shade Major would also work—and that’d be a better choice, performance wise, because (for me) PMG’s gel liners are practically budge proof. I swatched a couple other liners to see how a deeper brownish shade would look with Original Recipe, as well as a pinker red. 

Additional thoughts (okay, a rant) about the Simple Kind of Life eyeshadow quad - My thumbs-down opinion hasn’t changed. But today I gave it a second test, using just the lightest and deepest shades (Faithful to Freedom and Obsessed) in my inner and outer corners—leaving the middle of my lid untouched—to see if I could at least get a very simple and subtle smokey eye out of this quad. And, well… 

Spoiler

That test failed miserably. And y’all, a smokey eye is one of my go-to looks. No photo because I was too annoyed to bother taking one. You wouldn’t have seen more than a muddy taupe mess on my lids anyway. 

I didn’t expect to succeed with this quad because the color story’s awful for my skin tone. But I have to wonder if GXVE honestly thinks this quad is “universal” for all skin tones. On the Sephora product page, the brand included a photo of a model with a beautiful deep skin tone wearing this quad. I can tell she’s barely got something on her lids, but who knows which shade(s) it is. Some folks will say “well that’s the point of this color story: it’s supposed to be very subtle and very neutral.” Um, when your skin tone’s deeper than cafe au lait, “subtle” and “neutral” are not as pale as this quad. Get outta here with that Hourglass excuse.* 

I’m not saying GXVE isn’t inclusive. This quad comes in 3 other color stories, 2 of which might work very well for folks my skin tone and deeper. I’m just confused about why the brand chose this color story to include in gratis, knowing that it won’t play nice with deeper skin tones—unless the brand really thinks it does. They’re wrong. I’m proof. 

*To be fair, it seems Hourglass finally learned the lesson: they’ve created a few deeper shades of Ambient Lighting powders and blushes. So I shouldn’t ding them so hard anymore. They’re just the first example that springs to mind whenever I think of this general topic. 

Kinda sorta on topic: this quad makes me appreciate the Hindash Beautopsy palette even more than I already did. I know some folks fear that palette because all they see is red and black. But let’s take a look at Beautopsy compared to this GXVE quad: 

L: GXVE Simple Kind of Life quad. R: Hindash Beautopsy palette.

Do you see some similarities? See how neutral and subtle Beautopsy can be? In that palette, I can easily customize any shade to my liking. I can mix 2 shades that share a pan, or with 2+ shades in different pans. Example: I can blend the shades Feel and Real to create a taupe that works for my skin tone. I can even dip into Tan or Lines to lighten my custom taupe, or Fatum to darken it. Or I can warm it up with Wet or Paint. (I realize some people don’t want to create their own shades, or they might think they’re not creative/artistic enough to do that. This palette can be intimidating, and I understand that. I’m not picking on you. I’m just using this palette for comparison.) 

Beautopsy is my kind of “subtle and neutral" palette, and it has some fun color punches, and I can use any of these shades as blush or finishing powder (or contour, if I was into that). On top of all that, Beautopsy’s matte formula is better than GXVE’s: silky and buildable with no fallout. This is perhaps an unfair palette comparison, yeah, I know. But... I’m just sayin’. 

Again: I do think one of the other GXVE quads would work better for my skin tone and anyone deeper than me. The issue’s not that GXVE has no inclusive palettes. It’s that they might actually think this "Simple Kind of Life" color story works for everyone. If that’s their belief, then they need to rethink a few things. I imagine that’s how Hourglass started down their path of “whatcha mean none of our Ambient Lighting Powders or Blushes work for deep skin tones? Many of the shades are universal!” I’d rather GXVE nip that in the bud during their infancy, so they don't make Hourglass's mistake down the road. 

[PrettyPaint]

That lipstick is so beautiful on you @WinglessOne 

[Buootiful]

Your lip line us such perfection! Thank you so much for the review. I wished the quad worked for you. I hope Gxve doesn't make the same mistake Hourglass did.🤞 @WinglessOne 

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @Buootiful !