Benefit It Stick (and Quo sharpener)

I know, I know. They don't make these any more. But for comparison's sake I thought I would review it anyways. 

Once I started using this, I found I didn't have a sharpener to fit it. I looked in a couple of places and finally found one at Shopper's Drug Mart from their brand Quo. The sharpener has a normal small size and a medium size that fits the Benefit It Stick. 

I find I'll use this if I'm in a rush and am just putting on a bit of concealer. It blends in pretty well, and it stands up fairly well to the liquid concealers I own. It covers about the same, but I find it doesn't last as long as a liquid concealer. It isn't as great to use around the eyes either, because it pulls a tiny bit on the skin. 

All in all, not bad. It's good for doubling up concealer. I'll use this first and then cover it with a liquid concealer and it's helpful for really tough spots and acting as a base for the other concealer.

Maybelline Superstay Better Skin Concealer

I've been avoiding this review. I keep using this product hoping that something miraculous will happen and it just doesn't. It's just a concealer.

 

I find it to be exactly the same as the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer. Great for the under eye,  passable for the spots. It is very slightly more matte than the Rimmel WMU.

It lasts a couple of hours for the spots before you need to reapply. Its main claim to fame is as an excellent under eye colour corrector. Which it is. But again, I feel like Rimmel already had it covered (no pun intended!).

I'm having such a good time with the Superstay Better Skin foundation that I ended up having higher hopes than I maybe should have. But I guess that shouldn't detract from the fact that the Rimmel concealer is my go to concealer because it does the job best. And if this is doing the same thing then that means it's also near the top of my go to list of concealers.  Oh logic.

Swatch of Maybelline Superstay Better Skin
foundation in Light/Medium

Blended in

Products Post: GOSH BB Skin Perfecting Kit

I can't give very good pictures of the inside of this because it's mostly used up! (I had to dig some product out of the creases with a tool for the swatches) A friend gave it to me because it wan't working for her (she got it in 01 Light) but it worked okay for me.

But I can say that it was really good as an eye primer, under eye concealer, and highlighter. Unfortunately I have yet to find something that works wonders on my spots! And at first I really didn't like the lightest colour in the palette as a highlighter (which is what it is supposed to be) using instead the lighter skin tone as under eye concealer and highlighter. But it somehow grew on me and it gets used as a good dewey highlighter on its own or as a primer for a powder highlighter.

I really like the fact that there's two skin tones together in this kit. It's perfect for blending together and just being able to use a different tone depending on the place you're putting it or how your skin looks that day. The texture is really smooth and it blends in well. It does crease at first, but if I wipe off the excess it won't again.

Swatches of GOSH BB Skin Perfecting Kit in 01 Light
From L to R: Light concealer, skin tone concealer, highlighter

Products Post: Rimmel Foundation and Concealer

I use my Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation every day and I like it a lot. I have mixed type skin and it just seems to go on nicely everywhere. It's good on its own but a lot of the time I find my self mixing in a bit of my Rimmel Clean Finish Matte foundation to give it a bit more coverage. I use about a 2:1 ratio of WMU to CFM.

I find it hard to use the Clean Finish Matte on its own. Even with primer my pores show up under it and it's just a bit too much on the cakey side. As you can see in the pictures, it's hard to blend in nicely. Again, mixing a bit of this in with the Wake Me Up is perfect!

I have the WMU in 103 True Ivory and the CFM in 240 Soft Beige.

Sometimes I'll use the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer (in 230 Very fair/light) over top to cover spots. I find this concealer's real strength is in being an under eye concealer instead of a spot concealer. It takes me quite a few coats to cover major spots, though minor ones are just fine. It blends really nicely, and of course it works better if I leave a dab of it on the spot before I blend it in.

Swatches left to right: Wake Me Up foundation,
Clean Finish Matte foundation, Wake Me Up Concealer

Swatches blended into skin