little white truths

I can't believe it's been a month since I brought these products into rotation - ooops! I'd meant to write an update post a lot sooner than this, but hoh well.

As part of this round of 'now playing', I'd wanted to write full reviews of those three products that hadn't been reviewed yet. I've written two of those but am still playing around with Nars Isolde, so that review will have to wait a little longer.

Anyhoo. Let's see what I've discovered about these over the last month.


ModelCo Blush Cheek Powder in 02 Peach Bellini

Full review here. I moved this one into circulation so I could work out whether or not to keep it.

As mentioned in my initial post on these products, this blush is a great colour, it's just not great quality - you can see that just from looking at how grainy it is in the above photo - and it tends to emphasise pores.

There's the colour in natural light:


And again in direct sunlight:


And on my face:





Macro Lash Fibre and Mascara Kit

Full review here. I've had this for ages but I only opened it a couple of months ago and until deciding to include it in this round of 'now playing', I'd been favouring my normal mascara because adding the fibres is an extra step and I'm time-poor (aren't we all).

Plus I wanted to review it, so including it here made me do that. What I wanted to work out during the last few weeks of testing was whether I could find a way to make the lash fibres adhere better, since I've had issues with those shedding and leaving me with fluff around my eyes that I kept having to remove throughout the day. Annoying!

There are my normal lashes:


There's the product:


As you can see, it doesn't look entirely natural but it's not too bad. I've discovered over the past month that if I use a different mascara over the top of the fibres, the shedding issue isn't as bad. Having said this, it still sheds and it's a hassle to keep removing the fluff, so I can't imagine that I'll get a lot of use from this kit as a whole.

Nevertheless, the mascara on its own is happily quite good, so I'll keep using that by itself.


Nars Duo Eyeshadow in Isolde

This is one of four Nars duos I own and it's the only one I'm yet to review. I meant to review it over the past few weeks but I'm holding off on that because I haven't used it a hell of a lot and I need to test it for longer.

The reason I haven't used it that much is because it's not something I'd normally wear during the day and we haven't been out a lot at night (too much to do with a baby and moving house!), so I'm not ready to review it yet.

There are the colours:


And again:


And oh dear, look how badly they perform on my eyes without a primer. I took this photo only twenty minutes after I'd applied the shadows:


The darker colour especially has shifted and creased, and you can barely see it. The lighter colour fared better, but that transferred within a minute of application. Not what you'd hope for from a high-end shadow!

Granted, the shadows perform better with a primer, but at this price point, I don't think you should need one.

I'll test this some more and then review it, so stay tuned : )



Ilia Lipstick in Funnel of Love

Oh dear, we had a bit of a casualty with this product. Full review here. The casualty was: this product started to sprout mould within two months of being opened.

That's right. Mould.

Here's a swatch:


I don't have a lip swatch because it grew mould by the time I was ready to take those photos, and of course I wasn't game to try it on my lips then! Happily I was able to return it, and I'd also tested it enough by then to review it.

It's a gorgeous peachy coral colour, and one I always gravitate to when it comes to lip and cheek products.

In terms of formula, it was a little drying and it tugged a bit when applied, so I had to make sure my lips were buffed and hydrated prior to use.

As for longevity, this wore reasonably well but not as well as my HG Shanghai Suzy lipsticks, for example.

Anyhoo. What I discovered over the trial period is that I'm steering clear of Ilia lip products from now on! Maybe it grew mould because it's organic, or maybe I just got a bad one. Who knows.

In sum

I'm glad I've played around with these four items and written two of the reviews I'd wanted to write. I'm also glad I was able to return the mouldy Ilia product, and that I've come to a decision on the ModelCo blush, which I'll keep for the moment because I do love the colour and I can make it look better quality by applying an Hourglass powder over the top.

Now to choose my next few products to play with...