Review: Milani HD Advanced Concealer

This is a product that rivals the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat, a favourite among many in the beauty community, but also unaffordable for many as well, it sells for around $50 CAD. Milani recently came out with their HD Advanced concealer which has an obvious resemblance to the YSL, however this one sells for around $10 CAD in drugstores. It makes sense that companies are trying to dupe the YSL since it is one of the most favourite beauty products of all time. Being in Canada, I had a hard time locating this and had to purchase it online from Cherry Culture recently, then I noticed that Well.ca sells it as well, a Canadian online pharmacy, a good option if you are in Canada and can't locate it.

Milani's HD advanced concealer promises to "cover imperfections and dark circles, with a weightless, good-for-your-skin liquid formula that leaves a natural finish as it brightens with a soft focus for flawless skin." It only comes in 4 shades (just like the YSL) including Light, Medium, Medium Beige and Medium Honey. I got the lightest colour, "light" and it works just fine for me. I wish they made more colours available. It's advertised that it can be all-purpose, used on the eyes and on the face to conceal and brighten. I bought it primarily to use for under the eyes.

The first thing that struck me about this product was the beautiful packaging, it's a luxurious gold click pen brush applicator, just like the YSL. The packaging definitely looks more expensive than it costs. I do not or have ever used the YSL so unfortunately I cannot compare the performance of the two here. When I first got this I had to click it a ton of times to get the product to start coming out. And even now one click is more than enough to cover both my eyes, so you have to be careful with how much dispenses because of the nature of the applicator.

Why is this called HD? I have no idea, it seems like the beauty community has jumped on calling everything and anything HD, people definitely fall for this. However, this concealer has some key ingriendents in it that make it sounds pretty fancy schmansy:
• Rona Coated Pigments that disguise dark shadows
• Invisaskin moisture base which keep the eye area hydrated,soften expressions lines and wrinkles
• Grant X Gamma Amino-Butyric Acid that plumps out creases, lines and imperfections
• Granactive RD 101 to help brighten and gently resurface the most delicate skin

I would say the coverage is light-medium (apparently better than the YSL). I have read that the YSL is better for highlighting, while this one is better at concealing. Now, I want to point out that you aren't getting crazy high coverage with this product, which is disappointing some people, this is meant as an illuminating concealer, meaning it is supposed to light up areas of your face. So under the eyes, it would brighten up areas that may have shadows or darkness. For me personally, having dry skin, I found that this doesn't sit too nicely on my skin, it did cover up my redness, discolouration and bit, neutralized the area, but it did separate into my fine lines. I think this would work better for those with oily skin. I moisturized well under the eyes prior to applying in the picture above too. This isn't something that others can notice unless they are really close to my face, but it makes the performance of this product for me poor, this is without setting it or anything too, which would make it worse.

The formulation is really nice, not thin, runny or on the thick side, it's right in the middle. I would say the consistency is similar to Revlon's Age Defying Spa concealing, and not as runny as Maybelline Mineral Power concealer. The colour "Light" is quite yellow too. It blended nicely into my hand above, however didn't provide any coverage really..but under the eyes, the performance is just not great for me.

I wanted to love this product and I still think it's okay, but it doesn't work very well for my skin. My skin is dry, my under eye area is dry and I need something less cakey under there. I think this could have potential to work well for others though.

Have you tried the Milani HD advanced concealer? What are your thoughts?

Monthly Faves: September 2010

October is here and I haven't done last month's favourites yet.... so here goes. I've had a difficult month personally and it's still going on, so makeup hasn't been all that important this month, I've had other things on my mind, but I like doing these posts so here is what I liked and loved for the month of September.

Sigma F50 - I use this to apply the MAC Pro Longwear foundation, and alternate this between the MAC 187 and I can't tell much of a difference, so when one is dirty, the one is clean and I use them one after the other basically, I don't like using dirty brushes, it's kinda ewwy to me.

MAC Pro Longwear Foundation - This is a new product this month, and it's fabulous! I love the finish and coverage this gives and the colour match of NC15 is perfect for me. Definitely my most used foundation this month.

Clean and Clear Persa Gel 5 - I am still experiencing breakouts on my chin area and it's getting me down, and this product is the only thing that helps, so it's been in heavy rotation this month. Stress = zits for me, and women in general.

Milani HD Advance Concealer - I will do a full review of this soon, but this is definitely one of my favourite concealers, it is light and doesn't give huge coverage, but I am a big fan of the packaging, it feels glamorous and expensive.

MAC Select Cover up - It's been a heavy concealing month so here is another concealer that I've been loving, this one provides great coverage and it's very sanitary to use since it comes in a squeezy tube with a precise applicator tip on it. I use this for under the eyes.

MAC Fun and Games Blush - I actually bought this blush recently from allcosmeticswholesale.com, it was a limited edition item during the Hello Kitty collection. I wasn't even into MAC when that came out. I love this blush, it's my favourite blush colour..peach! and I can never have enough peach blushes. This does have some shimmer in it.

Garnier Skin Renew Radiance Moisture Cream - I prefer creams over lotions as a daily moisturizer for my face, I love this one because it has that cooling effect, is light and absorbs quickly. There is actually a new version of this out, the Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel Cream, which I am planning on getting next.

What were your faves of this month?

Cherry Culture Haul

I received my items from Cherry Culture recently. I ordered during their 20% off Labor Day sale. It took me two weeks to get my items, I am all the way in Canada, so it always takes me longer to get stuff in the mail. I have a variety of items and am pretty happy with everything.

NYX Round Lipglosses in Real Nude, Whipped, Peach and Apricot.

Real Nude is not a nude at all, which I knew based on some reviews, it's actually a purple colour. Whipped is a really nice colour that can go over nude lipsticks. Peach has lots of shimmer, not as much on the lips though and Apricot is a bit darker than Peach. I normally buy the Mega Shine glosses, but I thought I would try these out.

My first Milani blush Luminous, which is a golden pink that looks very similar to MAC's Springsheen. This applies very smoothly. I can't find Milani blushes around here in drugstores, so I have to order them online.

Milani Mai tai is a corally red blush. I was disappointed in how dark this was in person, based on reviews I thought this was a corally pink, I don't know if I can pull this off. 

NYX Peach is a matte, pale pink blush. Looks similar to Well Dressed by MAC. I don't think this looks peachy at all however, it looks slightly peach in the pan, but once swatched, more of a hot pink colour, which is pretty, but not what I was looking for. Damn you NYX!

NYX Concealer Jar in Light. I previously bought this in Porcelain and it was  very light, and despite being quite pale, I need a concealer that is a colour more like this one.

Milani HD Advance HD concealer in Light. This is the product that I was most excited to receive, it's packaging is really pretty a shiny heavy gold metal and the applicator is nice too. The colour is a good match for me, thank goodness as this only comes in 4 colours. 

And here is everything that I bought. You can tell that the NYX Concealer Jar is much more pink tone than the Milani HD Concealer.

Have you used any of these products? If you'd like full reviews on anything, please let me know! :)

Haul from Chicago Trip

So I came back from Chicago yesterday and I thought I would show all the goodies that I got. The trip was made a lot more bearable by my cousin taking us around Chicago. We walked a lot, so much that I got blisters on my feet. But it's all good cause it was a good time. Maybe I'll post some photos of the scenery that I took, Chicago is really nice.

Onto the makeup.. we went to Walgreens, CVS, Ulta, Target, Marshalls.. didn't hit up a CCO unfortunately, but it was fine cause I spend too much money on everything anyway.

Left to Right: Revlon Foundation Brush, Sonia Kashuk Powder, Blush and Mineral Flat Top Brush, Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge, Revlon Colorburst Lipsticks in Soft Nude and Baby Pink, Neutrogena Healthy Skin Makeup, Revlon Lipgloss in Lilac Pastelle, Revlon Spa Concealer, Revlon Colorstay Mousse Foundation, American Apparel Nail Polishes (Peacock, Mount Royal, Dynasty and Office), Cover Girl Lash Blast Fusion and Urban Decay Primer Potion XL in Sin.

I had to go to two Targets to get the Sonia Kashuk stuff, their brushes seem really popular, they are pricey for a drugstore brand though. And the blending sponge is cool, I've never seen those here, except Sephora and I don't have one near me, hence why I bought the Urban Decay Primer Potion XL as well.

The Lash Blast Fusion was really neat to see, only one Walgreens had it (we went to a couple), and we definitely don't have it in Canada yet, so that was cool. I think Walgreens is like Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada because it's on like every corner. Same with the Revlon brush and Revlon Colorburst lipsticks, and mousse foundation, we don't carry those.  And I was pleased to see one Lilac Pastelle lipgloss (from the Daydream collection) which was tucked in with the regular lipglosses, I snapped that up pretty fast! :D

We went to an Ulta too, it's kind of like Sephora or the beauty boutique section in Shoppers Drug Mart, there is a section for every brand and sales people standing around ready to help you. The one we went to had an upstairs too and that had drugstore brands and I got the Neutrogena healthy skin there, which I am excited to try out. We don't carry any Neutrogena makeup in Canada.

We have American Apparel in Canada, but not near me, so I picked up some polishes, they were 3 for $15. I got 4 cause I had trouble deciding which ones. I had Metro Chic on and wanted to get the Factory Grey colour and my sister was like... that one looks just like the polish you are wearing and Peacock looks like Suzy Says Feng Shui, if only she knew how many similar colours and dupes I had in my collection! And no, they are not the exact same.

All in all, I am happy with the items I got, I didn't see the L'oreal North Fork dupes anywhere! So I couldn't get them and didn't see the EOS lipglosses either. I will be reviewing these products as I use them. I will swatch the polishes next...

Oh, I also got one Milani nail polish in Pink Rocks, it's a neon colour and hated it so much, it has this weird gradient effect purple by the cuticles and more vibrant pink as it goes along to the nail line... eww and it wasn't cheap either. I should of opted for the Sinful Colors neons, they were only $1.99 at Walgreens...  And I saw a lot of girls wearing neon colours in Chicago, I guess it's "in".