bareMinerals Endless Summer Pressed Matte Powder Bronzer – Faux Tan

bareMinerals Invisible Bronzer (Fair to Light), Endless Summer Bronzer (Faux Tan), Faux Tan

I decided to get the bareMinerals Endless Summer bronzer that everyone seems to be raving about despite having reservations. As you probably know, I’ve really grown to love bareMinerals as a brand over the past few years and I look forward to their new releases each year but this bronzer just didn’t hook me.

Side note: I generally prefer bronzers with a hint of red/orange. But based on photos and swatches I’d seen online, this new one looked decidedly cooler/more neutral than what I like. On top of that, the Faux Tan shade name of the new Endless Summer bronzer really threw me. I’m a big fan of bareMinerals’ original Faux Tan loose mineral bronzer and I wondered if the two shades were a match in person despite looking so different based on stock photos online.

$32 dollars later ($29 + tax) I have my answer.

Swatches of Current Foundations & Concealers In My Stash

Top: Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX03, bareMinerals Complexion Rescue (Birch), L’Oreal Pro Glow #202, IT Cosmetics CC Cream (Fair Light), IT Cosmetics CC Illumination Cream (Light), Missha Perfect Cover #21
Bottom: IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Redness (Light Beige), IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Illumiantion (Medium), NYX Gotcha Covered (Light), Amazing Cosmetics Hydrate (Light Golden), The Face Shop Dual Veil #109 

I’m doing some Spring cleaning of my makeup stash. I hauled quite a bit over the past couple of months but I’m still trying to keep my collection quite small. As such, I thought a bit of swatching would be helpful to me (and to you all) in determining which items get to stay and which need to go.

Ugg Boots Haul

I went on a bit of an Ugg shopping spree which, for anyone who knows me, is totally unexpected. I’ve said for years that Uggs are ugly but my feet were feeling especially cold this year and I needed some warm shoes. For all the flak Uggs get, they’re undeniably cozy and comfortable. So, I ended up buying one pair when they were on clearance after the holidays…then another pair…then another pair…and I have yet another pair coming in the mail. That’s four pairs in the span of a couple of months!

I guess my view on Uggs has changed slightly. I still think they’re fugly but in a so-ugly-they’re-cute kind of a way, like sphinx cats or Mexican hairless dogs. It’s a fond sort of ugly.

The first pair of boots I ordered were the Bailey Bow Short Ruffle boots in Chestnut.

Ugg Bailey Bow Short Ruffle in Chestnut

Cover FX Power Play & First Aid Beauty Hello FAB Bendy Avocado Concealers

Top: NYX Gotcha Covered (Light)
Bottom (l-r): Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer Hydrate (Light Golden), Cover FX Power Play (N Light 2), First Aid Beauty Hello FAB Bendy Avocado (Light), IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealing Pot (Medium)

As you can see from the photo above, my tube of NYX Gotcha Covered concealer was on its last legs and rather than pick up another tube at the drugstore (which, let me tell you, is getting kind of hard because no one seems to stock this particular concealer anymore) I decided it was time to try something new.  So in my most recent concealer haul I decided to get:

• Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer Hydrate in Light Golden. This is something I’ve wanted to try for years. I wasn’t impressed with the regular Amazing Cosmetics liquid concealer in the squeeze tube that in my experience had very little coverage but I’d heard good things about the stick concealer which is supposedly more emollient.
• Cover FX Power Play Concealer in N Light 2. A lot of reviewers online seemed to be blown away by the coverage and compared it to Tarte’s Shape Tape. I actually didn’t care for Shape Tape which I found extremely dry and cakey looking on me although the coverage was indeed impressive. However, I’ve tried a handful of Cover FX products, namely their highlighter and concealer in the squeeze tube, and liked them well enough to want to give the brand another go.
• First Aid Beauty Hello FAB Bendy Avocado Concealer in Light. I’m a bit familiar with their skincare line but I believe this is the first actual makeup product I’ve ever purchased from the brand. I tried their much hyped Ultra Repair Cream in the past and really couldn’t see how it was any more moisturizing or better than the CeraVe and Vanicream moisturizers I’d been using from the drugstore. It definitely didn’t work well enough to justify the price tag in my opinion. Needless to say my expectations for their concealer were quite low.
• IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealing Pot in Medium. Now don’t get confused. This isn’t the regular IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer or Bye Bye Under Eye Illumination Concealers in the black, pink or silver squeeze tubes. It’s also not the same as the Bye Bye Under Eye Corrector in the small blue pot. This one is their new under eye concealer that comes in a small black pot. I’ve had amazing luck with almost all of the IT Cosmetics products I’ve ever tried so my hopes were high for this concealer.

Collective Makeup Haul

Makeup Haul

These are the handful of makeup and beauty products that I purchased this past winter, and I only splurged because I was starting to run low on my NYX Gotcha Covered Concealer. I’ve been using the same concealer for such a long time, I wanted to see if there was anything better on the market.

For those not in the know, my all time favorite under eye concealers for dark circles and dry skin are Tarte’s Maracuja Creaseless Concealer and IT Cosmetics’ Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer in the squeeze tubes. They’re both really emollient with a satin/dewy finish. I believe I read somewhere that Tarte recently repackaged the Maracuja concealer in a tube with a doe foot applicator. I haven’t tried the new version yet so I have no idea if it’s been reformulated as well as repackaged but I really enjoyed the old version. Anyway, for the past year I’ve been using and loving NYX’s Gotcha Covered concealer which in my opinion is a true drugstore dupe. It has microscopically less coverage than the IT and Tarte concealers but the consistency and finish are the same and it has the added benefit of being very cheap.

As for what I hauled, I bought the Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer Hydrate in the shade Light Golden, Cover FX Power Play Concealer in N Light 2, First Aid Beauty Hello FAB Bendy Avocado Concealer in Light, and IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealing Pot in Medium. And just out of curiosity, I also decided to give Tatcha’s The Silk Canvas a try.

I’ll go into more depth about the concealers including swatches in a future blog post but some spoilers for now: I did not care for the IT Cosmetics, Cover FX and First Aid Beauty concealers. Those all found new homes with friends. But I did keep the Amazing Cosmetics concealer.