little white truths

Soon enough I'll be focusing on my yearly favourites, and I wanted to kick off my 2017 Best in Beauty series with a post on brands that have impressed me (or unimpressed me, as the case may be). 

I haven't done a post like this before, although I have mentioned my favourite skincare and makeup brands in the past: if you're interested, my 2017 list is here and my 2016 list is here.

This list will be a little different: it's more about brands that have surprised me, wowed me, or that I feel need a slap on the wrists. Do note that while the awards I've listed below are my own, the inspiration for this post came from a few Youtube channels - being Beauty News, Jen Luvs Reviews and Livloveshermakeup - so thank you ladies for the idea : )

Drum roll please...

* Image courtesy of getthegloss.com

The stop hurting my wallet award: Marc Jacobs Beauty

I've become such an Hourglass junkie that I never, ever thought I would find any other brand to compete with it. But this year I did, and it's Marc Jacobs Beauty.

I bought one of the Marc Jacobs Airblushes a while back, and as soon as I tried it, I put two more on my wishlist and bought them as soon as I could. Not only does the formula equal the Hourglass one in the sense that it blends and diffuses beautifully (and it has an airbrushing effect, so it makes me look younger), but the highlighter portion of those blushes is amazeballs: it's subtle and it doesn't emphasise texture. Love love love.

I also have a Marc Jacobs mini lipstick and one of the fabled Highliners (love the formula of both - thanks GWP ; )), and I've since bought two of the hyped glosses and also the Egitorial septet from the reformulated Eye-conic eyeshadow range. Love again. As Ariel The Little Mermaid said, 'I want more.'

Gosh I bought the coconut primer too (must open soon)... What's wrong with me?!

I never, ever thought that any brand would make me buy more stuff than Hourglass has over the years. But in 2017, my Marc Jacobs purchases blew my Hourglass ones out of the park. For good reason.

* Image courtesy of urbanretreat.co.uk

The brand that changed me award: Hourglass 

Ok, so we're mentioning Hourglass now. What a surprise. But you'll see why...

As you may know, I'm not a high-end lipstick person. Yes it's nice to have lipsticks that feel and look special, but so many great lipsticks are available from the chemist/drugstore and I just don't 'value' fancy lipsticks because really, I can't tell the difference when they're on my lips. I would rather save my pennies for high-end powders and foundations, which generally do look better on my dry, 37yo skin than their budget counterparts.

However. As soon as I saw the images for the Hourglass Confession Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipsticks and also heard the rave reviews coming out of the US, I knew that one would be mine. And I bought one as soon as the Mecca email came in.

Oh. My. God. These lipsticks look like a cross between an elegant, feline cigar and some kind of weapon. Whenever I hold this thing, I feel like a 1940s film star who's also a spy. And since I've always wanted to be a spy, this lipstick was DEFINITELY made with me in mind (yes, at Hourglass HQ they said: 'Why don't we design a lipstick just for Jane?').

And yes, the formula is amazing but it's how the product makes me feel when I use it that has changed my view on high-end lipsticks - but only this specific one! 

'I want more...'

I want to be an elegant, feline, cigar-smoking spy all day long. I mean, who doesn't?!

* Image courtesy of luxecohair.com

Biggest blooper (read: clusterfuck) award: Anastasia Beverly Hills

Ok, so I respect ABH as a brand and although I haven't tried a lot from the range, the two things I do own - the Modern Renaissance and the Master Palette by Mario - are absolutely brilliant. 

I also believe that ABH genuinely cares about creating good makeup (ie, not just churning things out and cutting corners to make a profit: here's looking at you, Too Faced), which is why I'm calling the whole Subculture saga a blooper and not an underhand maneuver. Quite the opposite: those in the know say that the Subculture palette would have been quite expensive to make because it's so heavy on pigment and not overloaded with cheap fillers.

So yes, I don't think ABH was trading on our love of the Modern Renaissance and tossing a cheaply made product onto the market because they knew we'd buy it. With Subculture, ABH made a mistake. Not because they decided to produce a new formula (I'm all for brands being progressive/innovative), but because THEY TOLD US IT WAS THE SISTER PALETTE TO THE MODERN RENAISSANCE AND THAT IT WAS THE SAME FORMULA SO WE ALL WANTED IT BECAUSE WE LOVED THE MODERN RENAISSANCE.

Ahem. Forgive the caps lock but I reckon it's SO warranted here. I'm not going to bang-on about the problems with the Subculture palette because I'm sure you're sick of hearing about those, but suffice to say I didn't buy it. I didn't want a palette that was harder to work with than it should be, and I was also annoyed about the way ABH marketed the palette - they should have told us that the formula was different. They didn't.

ABH, I forgive you. Just this once ; )

Most distasteful/controversial marketing award: Benefit Cosmetics

This one went viral and people had so many issues with it. Understandably. Many called it 'slut shaming' (a term I'd never heard of before because I'm too old and uncool), while others weren't impressed by the '@daddyissues' tag at the bottom of the post and in the top left. I'm not even going to go there.

Instead I want to focus on one particular aspect of the above post, and I think that's the part I noticed most because there's been a huge campaign in Australia recently about domestic violence - so that's why it struck me more than the other things people were upset about.

Look at the image. When I saw the post on the Not Beauty News Facebook page, I immediately thought it was about violence against women. The guy looks like he's shouting at her and the woman's face doesn't read 'whoops, why did I sleep with this guy?' to me. To me, her face looks pained - like he's just yelled something cruel.

Then I read the text above the image and realised that Benefit was trying to be... Funny? Is that what Benefit was aiming for? Am I missing something because I'm too old and uncool?

I mean geez. Go sit in the corner, Benefit. Someone hand them a dunce hat. 

* Image courtesy of skincarestore.com

Most consistent brand award: Becca Cosmetics

I have a few brands I could mention for consistency, but I've picked Becca as the winner in this category for the simple reason that I've tried products from them across the board (lipsticks, powders, correctors, primers, foundations - the whole works), and I've been using their stuff for years. 

In my experience, Becca stuff has always been good. And it has stayed good: they never seem to drop the ball. Sure, there's been stuff that hasn't worked for me but you can't expect to love everything that any brand creates because not all of it will work for your skin.

I love their primers, bronzers, blushes and eyeshadows in particular. Are they my top picks in every category? No. I like my Hourglass bronzer a little more than my Becca one, and my ABH and Kevyn Aucoin eyeshadows a little more than my Becca ones. But Becca is always in my top three. Points for that.

Also, I feel like Becca is a brand that really stays 'true' to itself. If you look at its marketing images - the same marketing/branding that Becca has always used - it's all natural skin and beachy looks. The products deliver on that. Two thumbs up.

* Image courtesy of zimbio.com

The leave me alone award: Too Faced

Ok. The reason why I'm giving Too Faced the 'leave me alone' award is because I'm so over the mountains of products and collections they keep spewing out (many of those being 'limited edition' and then magically being permanent not long after). 

Enough.

One of the reasons why I'm not a MAC buyer and never have been is because I don't 'value' their releases: there are too many of them, so they don't feel 'special'. Too Faced has crossed into that territory so I've started undervaluing the brand - which is sad in a way because they do have some really good products.

Also, lots of people have complained about the quality of Too Faced's seasonal releases - apparently the brand cuts corners and churns out crap that's not of the same standard as its permanent line - and while I can't speak to that because I've never bought eg one of their Christmas collections, enough people have mentioned this issue so I'm prepared to believe it.

Too Faced, reign yourself in. Release less, make your releases as good as we know they can be, and stop wasting our time with your spray-gun approach to makeup.

Rant over.

In sum

That's all from me!

Do let me know in the comments which brands you'd be awarding for what: I'd love to hear : )

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x