I was supposed to be in CVS to repurchase a skincare staple (Olay Complete SPF 30 Sensitive; sometimes in the winter I go for the spf 15 since the lotion is lighter) but I ended up buying a BB cream and lip balm instead. Yea, I don't know either.
The lipbalm smells SO GOOD. So so so good! Like a real grapefruit! It's magical, it really is. I've gone through a few tubes of the Burt's Bees Replenishing Lipbalm with Pomegranate Oil so I decided to switch things up. I was also hoping the grapefruit would also be lightly tinted like the pomegranate one but unfortunately that's not the case as you can tell.
I've got nothing bad to say about Burt's Bees lip balms and I always have a tube somewhere. Retails for $2.99 which is great (the cheapo in me cringes though) since I feel the quality and packaging is on par or even better than higher end/luxury lip balm. Moisturizes well, travels great, not prone to melting at the slightest hint of heat and feels good on the lips.
So*knockonwood* I'm getting my skin under control and since the only base product I have is Make Up For Ever's Mat Velvet + Foundation (in 30) I wanted something for everyday that wasn't so heavy duty. And my foundation is about 2 years old now. Yea, maybe it's a little gross but I don't share my makeup and I wear full coverage so rarely...I'm not about to throw this thing out if it's still performing just fine.
My skin still isn't anywhere near perfect but all things considered it's better enough that I want to consider lighter wear makeup. Some days I just want to put something on for a daytime date with the bf but I don't want to look too heavily made up. And it would be great if I could find something now that's reliable for when I start my first real job (in August...lol).
I got the BB cream in light after comparing the two color dots on the box in CVS against my face. From the back of the box you can see that there's a recommended 'age of use' at the bottom. Seeing as how I'm in the earlier years of my 20s I guess this product isn't really marketed towards consumers my age but hey that's not going to stop anyone from trying something. I've been eyeing a few other US made BB creams for a while now but I always decided against buying them because they always include denatured alcohol. No thanks, my skin just doesn't like that stuff all up on my face for a good 10+ hrs a day.
So when I saw that Lumene had a BB cream without the alcohol I was pretty excited. Except for the price. $15.79 is such a weird price right? The other brands were lower than $15 but I said screw it and so, I bought it. The Lumene line of products has been on US shelves for a few years now but I've never tried anything from the brand. Not because I don't think their products are good, I just never really had a reason to try anything until I saw their BB cream display.
It's not full coverage and maybe medium coverage if you build it up (using thin layers) so it's good for days where you just want to tone down unevenness and not look too made up. The last time I had an Asian BB Cream was in high school, about 5 years ago and it was the BRTC Water Jasmine BB Cream. I didn't like it. Too grey and PINK. It was awful and just didn't perform well. However, that was just my experience and it seems that many others have found it to be suitable for their needs. And maybe I got one from a bad batch, who knows. Seeing how it was so long ago and my experience wasn't great I can't compare this to Asian BB Creams.
The consistency is slightly thicker than lotion and I really like how it feels on my face. Even though I love MUFE's Mat Velvet sometimes I can just feel it. I also really like the citrus fragrance which dissipates a little bit after you smooth it out on your face. As you can see from the blended portion on my hand, there's shimmer (silica, on the ingredients list). On my face it wasn't as disco ball and I actually didn't even realize it until I went back to look at this picture of my hand for this post. So it's subtle and I like how my face looked...alive and bright while wearing this. I personally think it did a great job of lessening the redness around my nostrils and even provided suitable coverage of my red post-zit marks.
As far as color selection, Lumene stays true to BB creams by providing a very limited selection of just two shades. Initially, when I had it on my face I thought the color matching was fine but looking at that swatch on my hand made me wonder if it was maybe too pink. And if you're any paler than shade 01 Light or darker than 02 medium you're outta luck. Having worn it about three times now I can now say that this most definitely leans pink toned. When I wore it this morning and looked into the mirror I could see just how much the pink color contrasted with my YELLOW neck. Maybe 02 medium is the right tone?...but the shade would be too dark. Oh well, close but no cigar. Return!
No comments:
Post a Comment