Tower 28 – Golden Hour, Magic Hour, Happy Hour & Best Coast

Clockwise from top left: Tower 28 Golden Hour, Tower 28 Best Coast, Tower 28 Magic Hour, Tower 28 Happy Hour

As a dry skinned gal, I absolutely love cream blushes and bronzers so when I saw Tower 28’s offerings on Sephora pop up, I knew I had to get my hands on them. I purchased all three shades of their Beach Please Tinted Lip + Cheek Balms as well as their Bronzino Illuminating Bronzer in the shade Best Coast. Each compact comes with 4.5 g of product and retails for $20 apiece which is actually a good price and value in my opinion.

Blush, Bronzer and Highlighter Stash as of 6/1/2020

Blush, Bronzer and Highlighter Stash

Here’s a quick peek at my blush, bronzer and highlighter stash at the start of June, 2020. It’s actually gone through a lot of changes since then and I plan on doing another update soon.

But a quick rundown…

Honest Beauty cream blushes at the top left, Tower 28 cream blushes at the top right and the Undone Beauty blushes going down vertically at the right.

Underneath the Honest Beauty  and Tower 28 blushes are the Ilia Multi-Sticks and Kosas cream palettes.

Beneath those are the Milk, Jane Iredale, and Ere Perez blushes.

The next row down are a couple of bareMinerals loose mineral blushes, a Daniel Sandler Watercolour blush, and Nudestix cream blush sticks.

The bottom row contains the Honest Beauty Luminizing Glow Powders, an Honest Beauty cream foundation which I use as a cream bronzer, a Tower 28 bronzer, Ilia bronzer and Nudestix bronzer stick.

Ilia Illuminator Summertime & Tower 28 Bronzino Best Coast

Ilia Summertime, Tower 28 Best Coast

I love me some cream blush but summertime to me is all about bronzer, and I’ve purchased several cream bronzers lately. The newest additions to my collection are the Ilia Illuminator in Summertime and Tower 28’s Bronzino cream bronzer in the shade Best Coast.

Ilia NightLite Bronzing Powder — Drawn In

Ilia NightLite Bronzing Powder — Drawn In

So I did end up picking up the new Ilia NightLite Bronzing Powder in the lighter shade Drawn In as one of my final purchases during the Sephora VIB sale a few weeks ago. At the time I know a lot of people skipped over the Ilia bronzer launch in favor of Kosas’ powder bronzer launch but between the two I was more intrigued by the Ilia. Based on the swatches and reviews I’d seen online, the Kosas bronzer in the lightest shade appeared extremely warm and super glowy, more of a highlighter than a bronzer in my opinion. The Ilia bronzer, in contrast, was described as a matte bronzer with a subtle sheen which was much more up my alley.

More Foundation Swatches

Top, left to right: Missha Perfect Cover 21, Missha Perfect Cover 23, L’Oreal Age Perfect Radiant Serum Ivory, L’Oreal Age Perfect Radiant Serum Golden Ivory, IT Cosmetics CC Cream Fair Light, MAC Face & Body C1 Bottom, left to right: Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX05, MUFE Reboot Y218, MUFE Y225, 3CE Back to Baby

One good thing about all this downtime is that it’s given me ample time to swatch everything in my stash and declutter.

Foundation Swatches

Left to right: L’Oreal Radiant Serum Ivory, L’Oreal Radiant Serum Golden Ivory, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra Rescue 1N0 Porcelain, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra Rescue 1N2 Ecru, MUFE Reboot Y218 Porcelain, MUFE Reboot Y225 Marble

Here are some more swatches and thoughts on a few recent foundation purchases.

First, on my very dry skin type I found that both the Make Up For Ever Reboot and L’Oreal Age Perfect Radiant Serum foundations were more radiant/dewier compared to the Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra Foundation. Sure, the Hydra Rescue looks very radiant and dewy upon initial application but over the course of the day the dewiness sort of lessened whereas the MUFE and L’Oreal foundations maintained their radiance.

Second, if you’re fair skinned with warm undertones, you’ll have better luck looking into the L’Oreal and MUFE foundations but you might have to mix two shades to get a good match. The lightest shades of the Estee Lauder foundation are very neutral/cool. Too cool for me personally. At one point I was in possession of the Hydra Rescue foundation in 1W2 Sand and it was much too dark and borderline orange on me, so it wasn’t even worth keeping.

Third, in my experience the Estee Lauder emphasizes dry patches. Both the MUFE and L’Oreal were more forgiving and the MUFE was also more smoothing over pores.

Left to right: L’Oreal Radiant Serum Ivory, L’Oreal Radiant Serum Golden Ivory, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra 1N0 Porcelain, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra 1N2 Ecru, MUFE Reboot Y218 Porcelain, MUFE Reboot Y225 Marble

The MUFE and Estee Lauder foundations are both very thin and lightweight. The L’Oreal foundation is a bit creamier and heavier but still rather lightweight compared to most foundations. In my opinion the Hydra Rescue and Radiant Serum foundations are actually quite similar;  the L’Oreal feels just a touch heavier, offers a tiny bit less coverage (medium for the Estee Lauder vs light medium for the L’Oreal and MUFE) and is dewier. And they both have a strong sunscreen scent. I personally don’t mind a little less coverage and I prefer a dewier finish, so I chose to keep the L’Oreal and MUFE foundations and purged the Estee Lauder.

Concealer Swatches

Left to right: Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer SX05, Dior Skin Correct 1W, Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Cotton, Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Oat, Kosas Revealer Tone 01, Kosas Revealer Tone 2, Kosas Revealer Tone 3.5, Pat McGrath Sublime Perfection L5

Just some swatches of concealers I recently purchased/sampled and some quick thoughts. The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer isn’t new to me; I’ve used the product for years but this a fresh one that I recently bought.

W3ll People Bio Bronzer Cream Stick

W3ll People Bio Bronzer Cream Stick

OK, so I’ve just found a new favorite cream bronzer. It’s got everything I’ve been looking for in a bronzer: reddish undertones, dewy, sheer but buildable, fragrance-free, and no shimmer.

It’s the W3ll People Bio Bronzer Cream Stick.

Jane Iredale In Touch Cream Blush — Candid, Clarity & Connection

Left to right: Candid, Clarity, Connection

I decided to go back and try an old favorite from Jane Iredale: the In Touch Cream Blush. One of my favorite blush shades ever used to be Clarity, a bright pink, but I purged it along with all my cream blushes when I entered my powder blush phase. However, now I’ve fallen out of love with powder blushes and back in love with cream blushes and it seemed like a good time to revisit the brand.

Bronzer Swatches: bareMinerals, Milk Makeup, RMS, Tan-Luxe, W3ll People

Left to right: bareMinerals Faux Tan, Milk Makeup Baked, RMS Buriti, Tan-Luxe The Gloss, W3ll People Natural Tan

And now some more bronzer swatches for your viewing pleasure!