Faces cream matte lip gloss in "PUCE" and "PEACH LOVE" : Review and swatches

First of all, I don't like this looong name- faces cream matte lip gloss. What rubbish! Henceforth these shall be called faces lip creams. Much simpler and more effective. Capiche? Cool.

I've suddenly been obsessed with (amongst several other things) lip creams. Whats not to love? They're creamy, long lasting, pigmented and dry down to a matte finish. Sounds good in theory and many brands have jumped on this bandwagon but do all deliver? I'm in the process of researching this. How? By buying lip creams of various brands of course. Purely for research purpose you see. ;)
So the first ones that I'm reviewing is from the Canadian brand FACES cosmetics. These come in some 15 shades I think but I've never seen all of them at once, ever. Anyhoo, so I picked up 2 of these in shades 01-Puce and 05-Peach Love. The Puce I got from cosmetix.in and the other one from HealthKart. These online stores all offer varying discounts and I paid 343 for one and 391 for the other. The MRP is 399 for 4.5mL.

FACES lip creams-Peach Love and Puce

FACES lip cream applicators-Peach Love and Puce

FACES lip cream swatches- Peach Love(bottom) and Puce (top)

FACES Lip Cream 05 Peach Love

FACES Lip Cream-01 Puce

Puce is a mauvey pink with a bit of brown. I know it looks brown on my arm but on my lips it becomes more pink. It looks like a light mlbb type of shade. Very good for those no-makeup or all-natural looks.

Peach Love is a bright, almost neon peachy pink shade. I wore it and the first word that sprang to mind was Nicki Minaj! All I was missing was a fuchsia wig. This shade is light but still bright. Oh just see the swatches for reference. I still haven't worn this outside. This would need to be paired with the right eye makeup (sparkling blue liner?) and clothes to work. Definitely a night time shade, at least for me.

The pics below are clickable for a closer look.

FACES Lip Cream-05 Peach Love- in natural light, 10 mins after application

FACES Lip Cream 01 Puce - in natural light, immediately after application

FACES Lip Cream 01 Puce- in natural light, one hour after application

The good and the bad: Yay for:

• Good pigmentation. Gives full coverage.
• Decently priced
• Transparent tube allows you to see how much product is left
• Smells yummy- of Bourbon biscuits

Boo for:

• Very drying, needs a balm underneath. But this defeats the whole matte look purpose as it takes much longer to dry- about an hour
• Becomes flaky and crusty when it dries. Also turns patchy when it fades emphasizing fine lines.
• Lasts about 2 hours and then starts to fade.
• The mouth of the tube gets messy with the product coz every time you push the wand in, it makes a "glooshp" sound and some oozes out. So you really gotta be careful to not push the wand in too fast.

Overall, I'm not too happy with this product. I know it's got some good reviews on other blogs but didn't work for me. Maybe lips need to be really well exfoliated and smooth for this to work. I dunno. Or maybe I could make it work by layering a gloss on top. But defeats the whole matte effect. Sigh. Not. For. Me.

You can buy this online here and here. Also available at FACES counter at AMPA mall in Chennai, and at the Health and Glow outlet at Express Avenue mall. Not sure about other cities. :)

My rating: *

Faces magic liner in Blue: Review, EOTD

I lurve Blue eyeliners. I find that they really complement my medium brown eyes well. I've been on the lookout for the ideal blue liner- one that has a satin finish, is cobalt blue in colour, without any shimmer, just solid colour and of course ticks all the right boxes- non smudging, doesn't feather, doesn't irritate, long staying and (important for me) washable. But I haven't found it yet. :( The upside is that I have acquired many pretty blue liners in the process. The latest to feature in my collection is the Faces magic liner in "blue". It's a liquid liner that's a shimmery navy blue. Its a very pretty colour and looks great on brown eyes. I bought it from Cosmetix.in for Rs.245. The MRP is 300 though. This has 6ml of product.

Faces Magic Liner in Blue

The applicator

Swatch

Faces Magic Liner in blue-EOTD

Faces Magic Liner in Blue-EOTD

Yay for:

• Vibrant colour
• Stiff applicator, easy to control and to draw extended cat eye liner
• Minimal feathering, long lasting
• Doesnt smudge once dry, even if you rub your eyes lightly
• Nice glossy black packaging
• Washes easily with water. For me this is a plus point because I dont like waterproof liners as they are difficult to remove. This I can wear on a daily basis and not have to bother with makeup remover and tugging and pulling. All I need to do is wash my face with soap and water and its gone.
• Doesnt sting or burn

Boo for:

• Slightly thin consistency which means after drawing the line I have to keep dabbing over and over to pack the colour on.
• Takes a while to dry so if your eyelids are small or folded you need to keep them closed till it completely dries, else it'll transfer.
• Bottle is opaque so you wont know how much of product is left
• Cant use on waterline as this is not waterproof

Overall, this is a decent liner for the price and I really like the colour which is not in your face kinda bright blue. This has slight shimmer and not glitter particles which means I can easily wear this to office as well. Works well with bright or nude lips.

You can buy this online here or here. Also available in green, brown and plum shades.

Rating:***

Faces nail enamel in shade 15 "Shimmer Puce": Review, swatches, NOTD

I have ugly boy feet. Really. My feet are wide and flat. I've always admired women with pretty, dainty feet. Women who don't need a pedicure to make their feet feel pretty, unlike me. I cannot not paint my toenails. I have to keep em neat and painted colourful to make them look quirky atleast, if not pretty. Sigh. Which is why I always look out for funky, unconventional colours. But sometimes I find a pretty, girly shade that makes me go weak in the err..toes and tricks me into thinking that if I wear such shades my feet would also look delicate and pretty (gosh, I really must find a synonym for pretty. That adjective is over used and abused in this post. Dayum)

Ugly boy foot

Annywaaayyy, one such beyoootiful, delicate yet unconventional shade is the Faces "Shimmer Puce". it's a Mauvish grey shade which is shot with coppery red shimmer. The final effect is really nice. It's a little like the onion peel colour but more lavender. The photos don't really do proper justice to it. The colour is much in real life. I got this from Cosmetix.in for Rs.155. It's MRP is 199 though.

With flash

Indoors-in natural light

Indoors-in natural light

Outdoors-in bright sunlight

It comes in a square bottle and has 12ml of the nail paint. The brush is soft and applies well. The consistency of the paint itself is quite easy to work with and goes on opaque in just 2 coats. It dries pretty fast too after application. I would suggest applying the first coat very thin and then layering the next one after it has dried completely. This started chipping after 3 days on my fingers but would probably last a couple of days longer with a top coat. Also I find my paints last longer on my toes than on my fingers so it would probably last about a week to 10 days on my toes. This has a shelf life of 2 years. It looks subtle yet attractive and works with formal wear as well. Love it!

You can buy this online here. You can also check out other Faces nail polishes here and here.

Rating: ***