Skip the Brush in Warm Bronze, Pink Flamingo Creme, and Sunset Gold Shimmer by Julep

Disclaimer:  I purchased these.

Yesterday I showed you my June Julep Maven box, and today I've got some looks created using the items I received. Let's start with the Warm Bronze Skip the Brush ($24) blush, which according to Julep is:

A one stick wonder made for luminous, dewy cheeks, but versatile on eyes and lips, too. This soft-focus powder has ultrafine color pearls that go on creamy then set to a long-lasting powder finish. Easy to apply, easy to blend (no brush needed!), easy to keep in your clutch for on-the-go beauty touch-ups.

What it does:
• Ultrafine pearls provide a dewy, luminous glow
• Soft focus formula gives a silky texture and ultra-smooth application
• Crème-to-powder easily blends, then sets to powder and stays put
• Four universal shades can blush, bronze, sculpt, or highlight

I found Warm Bronze easy to work with, and even though the color looks scarily intense when first applied directly to skin, it buffs out nicely with a brush or Beauty Blender.  The cream does indeed transform to a non-tacky satin finish and I did not have issues with it unsettling my foundation.  There are tiny gold flecks in the formula that are visible up close to the naked eye, although they are extremely subtle and do not look like obvious glitter on the skin.

I used this is all the usual places you would apply bronzer to on your face and though it did a pretty good job of warming my complexion with looking super obvious.  Yes, it leans fairly strong on the orange side of the color spectrum and I was concerned about looking to oompa loompa, but it seems to work well with my complexion.

Wear time on my oily skin is about 7 hours in my hot and humid climate, although I find topping it with a powder bronzer helps extend wear another hour or too. Nothing holds up too long in Mobile's brutal summer weather.  Nothing.

The It's Balm Lip Crayon in Flamingo Pink Creme ($20) is my least favorite of the 3 items in June's box, but only because the color is too cool toned with blue undertones to work well with my skin tone.  However, I've been topping it with Le Metier de Beaute's Burnished lipstick, which turns it to a gorgeous NARS Orgasm kind of color.  So pretty.  But first, here is Flamingo Pink on it's own:

It just doesn't suit me.  But topped with Burnished and a bit of By Terry's Baume de Rose balm, I like:

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The Sunset Gold Shimmer When Pencil Met Gel eye pencil is a shade that is both unique to my collection and works with my blue eyes (orange + blue = pop), so I'm happy to have this.

The finish is slightly more textured due to the shimmer factor and it does take a few passes and blending well to avoid patchiness, but nothing too laborious.

I skipped the July maven selections as nothing really stood out to me, but that just gives me more time to continuing playing with these before something new distracts my attention!

Golden Guava Skip the Brush Creme-to-Powder Blush Stick by Julep

Golden Guava is one of four shades available in Julep's new Skip the Brush Creme-to-Powder blush sticks, and my selection for my August Maven box. After playing with it for a week, I wanted to give my impressions!

Golden Guava is a lovely coral pink with gold shimmer.  That shimmer includes actual gold glitter bits, albeit tiny gold glitter bits.  This had me a bit nervous, but I'm happy to report the effect on my face is more luminous as opposed to glittery - quite flattering actually.

The blush is easy to apply and can be smoothed out with either fingers or a brush, with my preference being a brush.  Color can be built up to a point, but in general this is a more subtle blush which provides glow with a bit of color

Below you can see Golden Guava blended out, and the glitter bits just seem to disappear.  I can see them on my cheeks when I look really close, however.

Golden Guava blended

I also liked how Golden Guava looked on my lips, although it needs a balm or gloss on top for comfortable wear.  Again, I get more luminosity then color.  Here I'm wearing it with By Terry's clear Baume de Rose, which seems to make everything look a bit better.

Wear time is about 7-8 hours on my oily skin, and I can't see any of the blush left at the end of my day. So, I wouldn't call it long wearing, but I guess it's in the perfect form to carry with you to reapply if desired.  I'm a one an done makeup applier myself, with the exception of lip products.  I don't even carry powder with me.

The Skip the Brush blush sticks are $24 each ($19.20 for Mavens), which makes getting mine along with the rest of the August Bombshell box products quite the steal.  I like.

Coral Candy Bouncy Blush by Maybelline

 Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

I came across Coral Candy in the marked down bin at Rite Aid a while back, which motivated me to finally try out this blush formula.  I've read reviews on them that indicated they were not that long wearing, but given the discounted price ($3.79) I decided it was time to put it to the test.

Candy Coral is a lovely soft peach and the kind of blush color I'm drawn to over and over.  The firm but malleable mousse-like formula works best when applied with fingers, but I've got a small, dense brush that I like using to smooth out the color.  There is something about this type of formula that likes to settle in my pores, so I need to work a bit more to get smooth color.

I think of the Bouncy Blush formula as the precursor to Colour Pop's cream to powder products, except that Colour Pop seems to have perfected the formula.  Whereas Candy Coral lasts maybe 4-5 hours on me, everything I've seen about the Colour Pop blushes indicates more color impact and lasting power.  I've only tried their eyeshadows to date, but I think a blush and highlighter are in my future as well.

But wait, this review is about Candy Coral, isn't it?  And that's kind of the problem, as I can't keep from comparing it to, well, you know.  I do love Candy Coral's color, but the shorter wear time is a definite minus.