EM Cosmetics: Michelle Phan's new cosmetic line.
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I've never been able to trust her reviews after looking at her blog swatches of the EM Life Pallete shadows/blushes/glosses. You could tell she had swiped multiple times and used a lot of pressure to get such even, clean edged swatches. I have used EM's eyeshadows (I have tried three separate palletes and a sampler, and applied with my fingers and various brushes, so I have a pretty good idea of their quality) and there is NO WAY you could get the kind of payoff she showed unless you dug into the shades or applied them wet. You should always make it clear to your audience the methods you used to swatch: how many swipes, the pressure used, wet or dry, finger or brush, over a primer or bare skin. After all, I don't apply eyeshadow to my delicate and smooth eyelids with the same pressure and technique that I would to the back of my rougher-skinned hand. Remember the last time you heavily dragged your finger across the lid to deposit shadow? Yeah, neither do I.
My big issue with the quality of EM's eyeshadows, however, is not their pigmentation. The pigmentation is fine. Nothing to write home about, but fine. It is the texture on the eyes. Be the shade shimmery, matte or sparkle, they all look POWDERY and DRY on the eye, not like a smooth velvet layer of color. Does the fact that your lilac eyeshadow has perfect opacity matter so much when it looks like you rubbed baby powder on your eyelid? This is why the colors all appear so similar on the eye, or appear flat; you cannot get dimension when the shadows all have the same texture without deliberately using the stronger contrasting shades. For me, the hallmark of a high quality, let alone "luxurious" eyeshadow as compared to a drugstore brand is that I should be able to take three similar shades and be able to make a gorgeous eye-look that has its darks, lights and midtones.
My big issue with the quality of EM's eyeshadows, however, is not their pigmentation. The pigmentation is fine. Nothing to write home about, but fine. It is the texture on the eyes. Be the shade shimmery, matte or sparkle, they all look POWDERY and DRY on the eye, not like a smooth velvet layer of color. Does the fact that your lilac eyeshadow has perfect opacity matter so much when it looks like you rubbed baby powder on your eyelid? This is why the colors all appear so similar on the eye, or appear flat; you cannot get dimension when the shadows all have the same texture without deliberately using the stronger contrasting shades. For me, the hallmark of a high quality, let alone "luxurious" eyeshadow as compared to a drugstore brand is that I should be able to take three similar shades and be able to make a gorgeous eye-look that has its darks, lights and midtones.
Quote: Originally Posted by katelynbby /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I've never been able to trust her reviews after looking at her blog swatches of the EM Life Pallete shadows/blushes/glosses. You could tell she had swiped multiple times and used a lot of pressure to get such even, clean edged swatches. I have used EM's eyeshadows (I have tried three separate palletes and a sampler, and applied with my fingers and various brushes, so I have a pretty good idea of their quality) and there is NO WAY you could get the kind of payoff she showed unless you dug into the shades or applied them wet. You should always make it clear to your audience the methods you used to swatch: how many swipes, the pressure used, wet or dry, finger or brush, over a primer or bare skin. After all, I don't apply eyeshadow to my delicate and smooth eyelids with the same pressure and technique that I would to the back of my rougher-skinned hand. Remember the last time you heavily dragged your finger across the lid to deposit shadow? Yeah, neither do I.
My big issue with the quality of EM's eyeshadows, however, is not their pigmentation. The pigmentation is fine. Nothing to write home about, but fine. It is the texture on the eyes. Be the shade shimmery, matte or sparkle, they all look POWDERY and DRY on the eye, not like a smooth velvet layer of color. Does the fact that your lilac eyeshadow has perfect opacity matter so much when it looks like you rubbed baby powder on your eyelid? This is why the colors all appear so similar on the eye, or appear flat; you cannot get dimension when the shadows all have the same texture without deliberately using the stronger contrasting shades. For me, the hallmark of a high quality, let alone "luxurious" eyeshadow as compared to a drugstore brand is that I should be able to take three similar shades and be able to make a gorgeous eye-look that has its darks, lights and midtones.
I never thought of pressure though I try to say if I had a light hand or heavy hand when I remember.
I've never been able to trust her reviews after looking at her blog swatches of the EM Life Pallete shadows/blushes/glosses. You could tell she had swiped multiple times and used a lot of pressure to get such even, clean edged swatches. I have used EM's eyeshadows (I have tried three separate palletes and a sampler, and applied with my fingers and various brushes, so I have a pretty good idea of their quality) and there is NO WAY you could get the kind of payoff she showed unless you dug into the shades or applied them wet. You should always make it clear to your audience the methods you used to swatch: how many swipes, the pressure used, wet or dry, finger or brush, over a primer or bare skin. After all, I don't apply eyeshadow to my delicate and smooth eyelids with the same pressure and technique that I would to the back of my rougher-skinned hand. Remember the last time you heavily dragged your finger across the lid to deposit shadow? Yeah, neither do I.
My big issue with the quality of EM's eyeshadows, however, is not their pigmentation. The pigmentation is fine. Nothing to write home about, but fine. It is the texture on the eyes. Be the shade shimmery, matte or sparkle, they all look POWDERY and DRY on the eye, not like a smooth velvet layer of color. Does the fact that your lilac eyeshadow has perfect opacity matter so much when it looks like you rubbed baby powder on your eyelid? This is why the colors all appear so similar on the eye, or appear flat; you cannot get dimension when the shadows all have the same texture without deliberately using the stronger contrasting shades. For me, the hallmark of a high quality, let alone "luxurious" eyeshadow as compared to a drugstore brand is that I should be able to take three similar shades and be able to make a gorgeous eye-look that has its darks, lights and midtones.
I never thought of pressure though I try to say if I had a light hand or heavy hand when I remember.
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So, the L'Oreal company store finally has em cosmetics (woohoo!!) and I picked some stuff up at a discount - $40 for the life palette and $16 for the shade play concealer palette. Which is kind of funny because I feel like that's about what the palettes should be priced at anyway. I have been interested in Michelle's line but wasn't about to pay full price for it, so I'm only just now researching which products I want to try out.
It sounds like a ton of you have had a good experience with the lipsticks. What other products would you recommend? Price is not a factor, since I'm assuming the discount will bring most products into the range of reasonableness. I am more interested in quality.
Also, do you guys want to see reviews of the products I got, or at this point is it all been there done that?
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
It sounds like a ton of you have had a good experience with the lipsticks. What other products would you recommend? Price is not a factor, since I'm assuming the discount will bring most products into the range of reasonableness. I am more interested in quality.
Also, do you guys want to see reviews of the products I got, or at this point is it all been there done that?
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
slinka
The Supreme
Quote: Originally Posted by lauradiniwilk /img/forum/go_quote.gif
So, the L'Oreal company store finally has em cosmetics (woohoo!!) and I picked some stuff up at a discount - $40 for the life palette and $16 for the shade play concealer palette. Which is kind of funny because I feel like that's about what the palettes should be priced at anyway. I have been interested in Michelle's line but wasn't about to pay full price for it, so I'm only just now researching which products I want to try out.
It sounds like a ton of you have had a good experience with the lipsticks. What other products would you recommend? Price is not a factor, since I'm assuming the discount will bring most products into the range of reasonableness. I am more interested in quality.
Also, do you guys want to see reviews of the products I got, or at this point is it all been there done that? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
The only thing I own and use is the chiaroscuro stick (fair), and I like it a lot! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
So, the L'Oreal company store finally has em cosmetics (woohoo!!) and I picked some stuff up at a discount - $40 for the life palette and $16 for the shade play concealer palette. Which is kind of funny because I feel like that's about what the palettes should be priced at anyway. I have been interested in Michelle's line but wasn't about to pay full price for it, so I'm only just now researching which products I want to try out.
It sounds like a ton of you have had a good experience with the lipsticks. What other products would you recommend? Price is not a factor, since I'm assuming the discount will bring most products into the range of reasonableness. I am more interested in quality.
Also, do you guys want to see reviews of the products I got, or at this point is it all been there done that?
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />The only thing I own and use is the chiaroscuro stick (fair), and I like it a lot!
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
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I would love to see more reviews, especially actual reports/pics of how the products look on the face, eyes and lips and not swatched on arms as well as how they wear.
I also got the chiapet stick in fair (they never did restock Light) and I like the contour far more than the Medium. It actually has a matte taupe color to it, not brown, so it's an actual, true contour shade. It blends out to nearly nothing, so if heavy contouring is your thing you may want to stick to using a bronzer, but I prefer the sheerness. It looks more like a genuine shadow on the face than a color, can be built, is more forgiving and can be blended with the fingers if you are in a rush. The only big downside I can think of is that if you build it a lot because you always want that much darker shading, you'll go through the product faster. Would much rather see these sticks with just the contour, but twice as much of it, than the dual-ended highlighter and contour (especially since only the INSIDE of the tubes is labeled, so I keep opening the wrong side).
I also got the chiapet stick in fair (they never did restock Light) and I like the contour far more than the Medium. It actually has a matte taupe color to it, not brown, so it's an actual, true contour shade. It blends out to nearly nothing, so if heavy contouring is your thing you may want to stick to using a bronzer, but I prefer the sheerness. It looks more like a genuine shadow on the face than a color, can be built, is more forgiving and can be blended with the fingers if you are in a rush. The only big downside I can think of is that if you build it a lot because you always want that much darker shading, you'll go through the product faster. Would much rather see these sticks with just the contour, but twice as much of it, than the dual-ended highlighter and contour (especially since only the INSIDE of the tubes is labeled, so I keep opening the wrong side).
Quote: Originally Posted by katelynbby /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would love to see more reviews, especially actual reports/pics of how the products look on the face, eyes and lips and not swatched on arms as well as how they wear.
I also got the chiapet stick in fair (they never did restock Light) and I like the contour far more than the Medium. It actually has a matte taupe color to it, not brown, so it's an actual, true contour shade. It blends out to nearly nothing, so if heavy contouring is your thing you may want to stick to using a bronzer, but I prefer the sheerness. It looks more like a genuine shadow on the face than a color, can be built, is more forgiving and can be blended with the fingers if you are in a rush. The only big downside I can think of is that if you build it a lot because you always want that much darker shading, you'll go through the product faster. Would much rather see these sticks with just the contour, but twice as much of it, than the dual-ended highlighter and contour (especially since only the INSIDE of the tubes is labeled, so I keep opening the wrong side).
A bunch of YouTube gurus have done "Get Ready With Me" video tutorials with the palette... I think one of them is melmphs and another one is samschuerman - I think the colors are ooookay but I don't remember being impressed by any product other than the dual ended contouring stick. The shadows are definitely not something I would spend any money on.
I would love to see more reviews, especially actual reports/pics of how the products look on the face, eyes and lips and not swatched on arms as well as how they wear.
I also got the chiapet stick in fair (they never did restock Light) and I like the contour far more than the Medium. It actually has a matte taupe color to it, not brown, so it's an actual, true contour shade. It blends out to nearly nothing, so if heavy contouring is your thing you may want to stick to using a bronzer, but I prefer the sheerness. It looks more like a genuine shadow on the face than a color, can be built, is more forgiving and can be blended with the fingers if you are in a rush. The only big downside I can think of is that if you build it a lot because you always want that much darker shading, you'll go through the product faster. Would much rather see these sticks with just the contour, but twice as much of it, than the dual-ended highlighter and contour (especially since only the INSIDE of the tubes is labeled, so I keep opening the wrong side).
A bunch of YouTube gurus have done "Get Ready With Me" video tutorials with the palette... I think one of them is melmphs and another one is samschuerman - I think the colors are ooookay but I don't remember being impressed by any product other than the dual ended contouring stick. The shadows are definitely not something I would spend any money on.
slinka
The Supreme
Yeah, the eyeshadows never called to me, neither did the ridiculously priced lip balm. (hehe...I also think EOS/Burts Bees is pricey, you can imagine the look of horror on my face when I saw EMs price =p). I haven't tried the little lipstick samples I got with my order...but I hear they're good if you actually get the color you thought you'd get lol. And if EM is around the next time they run a poorly-planned BOGO sale, I'll definitely repurchase the chiapet stick. I typically use a powder bronzer over it too, but on more natural days it's perfect on its own.
And I agree with @katelynbby - why it's labeled only on the inside gets me every time too lol.
And I agree with @katelynbby - why it's labeled only on the inside gets me every time too lol.
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[@]slinka[/@] So we're for definite calling it a chiapet stick for sure now? Lol
slinka
The Supreme
@prtylitlesyko Oh definitely lol
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[@]Spazkatt[/@] I guess they figure since they lowered their prices they don't need to give out all those freebies?
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I bought a couple of the life palettes and the highlighters when they were on sale. I think the palettes were worth the buy one get one, but the highlighters were to shimmery/glittery for my taste. I have heard good things about the lipsticks, but won't get them til there is another big sale. I find the regular prices way to high for this brand.
I finished one eyebrow pencil D; the other one is used half way up already.. I would rather buy a brow powder box - lasts so much longer.
slinka
The Supreme
I'm almost out of the contour side of my chiaroscuro stick. I do like it, for sure, but it sure didn't last long (compared to my powders and such, which I usually layer on top of it anyways). The highlight side is worn down, but not as much as the contour. I like it, but I found that it does NOT play well with certain products, like my foundation...causes it to sort of get clumpy/slide around, which is really not cute, strange and unique (in my experience) to this product. But it does ok with my bb cream, so that alright.
Quote: Originally Posted by slinka /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm almost out of the contour side of my chiaroscuro stick. I do like it, for sure, but it sure didn't last long (compared to my powders and such, which I usually layer on top of it anyways). The highlight side is worn down, but not as much as the contour. I like it, but I found that it does NOT play well with certain products, like my foundation...causes it to sort of get clumpy/slide around, which is really not cute, strange and unique (in my experience) to this product. But it does ok with my bb cream, so that alright.
dude i totally forgot that i had a chiaroscuro stick too... time to find it haha
I'm almost out of the contour side of my chiaroscuro stick. I do like it, for sure, but it sure didn't last long (compared to my powders and such, which I usually layer on top of it anyways). The highlight side is worn down, but not as much as the contour. I like it, but I found that it does NOT play well with certain products, like my foundation...causes it to sort of get clumpy/slide around, which is really not cute, strange and unique (in my experience) to this product. But it does ok with my bb cream, so that alright.
dude i totally forgot that i had a chiaroscuro stick too...
time to find it hahaI am a bit upset, I went to use my sunshine yellow waterliner and the whole thing fell out of the tube! I've just kept it in my little white rubbermaid drawer, so it's not like it was being tossed around in a makeup bag or purse :-/. Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
slinka
The Supreme
Quote: Originally Posted by Spazkatt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I am a bit upset, I went to use my sunshine yellow waterliner and the whole thing fell out of the tube! I've just kept it in my little white rubbermaid drawer, so it's not like it was being tossed around in a makeup bag or purse :-/.
Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
You aren't the first person I've read that very same complaint from! Maybe contact their customer service and see if a replacement can be sent? The worst thing they can say is "No." It's too darn expensive to be falling out of the tube!
I am a bit upset, I went to use my sunshine yellow waterliner and the whole thing fell out of the tube! I've just kept it in my little white rubbermaid drawer, so it's not like it was being tossed around in a makeup bag or purse :-/.
Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
You aren't the first person I've read that very same complaint from! Maybe contact their customer service and see if a replacement can be sent? The worst thing they can say is "No." It's too darn expensive to be falling out of the tube!
Quote: Originally Posted by slinka /img/forum/go_quote.gif
You aren't the first person I've read that very same complaint from! Maybe contact their customer service and see if a replacement can be sent? The worst thing they can say is "No." It's too darn expensive to be falling out of the tube!
Exactly! I just went to the EM website, and there is review upon review with the same issue. I got it on sale during Black Friday, even so it's still too expensive for that to be happening so frequently.
You aren't the first person I've read that very same complaint from! Maybe contact their customer service and see if a replacement can be sent? The worst thing they can say is "No." It's too darn expensive to be falling out of the tube!
Exactly! I just went to the EM website, and there is review upon review with the same issue. I got it on sale during Black Friday, even so it's still too expensive for that to be happening so frequently.
Quote: Originally Posted by Spazkatt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I am a bit upset, I went to use my sunshine yellow waterliner and the whole thing fell out of the tube! I've just kept it in my little white rubbermaid drawer, so it's not like it was being tossed around in a makeup bag or purse :-/.
Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
I had a brand new Tarte eyeliner and that happened to it. It was a LE color part of a set, so annoyed that happened!
I am a bit upset, I went to use my sunshine yellow waterliner and the whole thing fell out of the tube! I've just kept it in my little white rubbermaid drawer, so it's not like it was being tossed around in a makeup bag or purse :-/.
Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
I had a brand new Tarte eyeliner and that happened to it. It was a LE color part of a set, so annoyed that happened!
