OCC Creme Colour Concentrate Review and Swatches

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics is a brand I've grown very fond of lately.  Their most well known product is, of course, their lip tars, which are mixable, opaque liquid lip colors that come in unique colors.  Now, OCC has an intense cream product that's suitable for use on eyes, lips, and cheeks.  I bought two of them, Cthulu, a pea green, and Terra Firma, an orangy brown, and fell so desperately in love, I purchased three more, Miriam, John Doe, and Grandma.

The texture of these products is similar to a dense, matte lipstick, and bear resemblance to the Illamasqua cream pigments.  One of the benefits of these is that they are safe for eyes and lips, and they don't crease as badly as the Illamasqua product when used on the eyes (and please note, I am very prone to creasing), though, being cream products, they are prone to creasing.  Topping with a powder shadow or a loose powder will ameliorate that problem.  On cheeks, they're slightly dry, but blendable.  They'd do best either blended onto an emollient base or tapped lightly.  On lips, they are a satin-matte finish, and are quite comfortable to wear. 

What I love most about these are the nuanced and unusual colors, something anyone who's used a Lip Tar has come to expect from OCC.

Cthulu is described as a dirty, pale olive.  It is a light pea green shade, with subtle gray and brown undertones.  It's reminiscent of a 70's avocado colored refrigerator, only lighter.

Terra Firma is described as burnt sienna brown.  It's a russet orange-brown shade that would work well on eyes, lips, cheeks, and, while an unusual color, I still think a lot of people would be comfortable wearing it.

John Doe is described as pale, ash-toned taupe.  It's a very light beige-taupe with strong gray undertones and a hint of yellow.  It's very cool and light, and makes for an excellent cream contour problem on fair skins.  Compared to Illamasqua Hollow, it is cooler and very slightly lighter.

Miriam is described as a subdued, whitened plum.  It is a grayed light purple, leaning mauve, with a bit of pinky warmth.  It's an unusual, but not necessarily unflattering, lip and cheek color.

Grandma is described as a clean, classic coral.  It's very similar to the lip tar of the same name, and is a very bright coral with a good balance of bright pink and orange undertones.  To my eye, it leans slightly toward orange, though that would change depending on skin tone and natural lip color.

 

Cthulu

Terra Firma

Swatches of Terra Firma (l) and Cthulu (r)

John Doe

Miriam

Grandma

Swatches of (from top to bottom) John Doe, Miriam, and Grandma.  Grandma appears slightly redder than in real life.

Comparison of Illamasqua Hollow Cream Pigment and John Doe

Swatches of John Doe (left) and Illamasqua Hollow (right).  Sorry I switched them.

As you can see, Hollow is warmer than the ashier John Doe.

 

OCC Creme Colour Concentrates can be purchased form Sephora online or from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics.  They retail for $20, which is what I paid for all these suckers.

A Guide to Brushes: Stippling/Duo-Fibre Brushes

Stippling/Duo-Fibre Brushes

Duo-Fibre brushes are a mixture of two types of fibre, usually goat and synthetic, though two types of synthetic can also be mixed, like in the case of the Real Techniques Stippling Brush.  This mix of fibres allows for the bounce and resiliency of natural fibres with the softness of synthetic.  This mixture makes them good for stippling, as the bounce the goat gives heft to what would otherwise be a synthetic brush (which sometimes has the tendency to splay and flop).  Therefore, they are popular for foundations but are also good for cream and powder blushes, mineral products, bronzer, and anywhere you'd like to make a pigmented product go on more softly.  Because of the similarity of these brushes, I'm mostly going to talk about size differences (flashbacks to the very first brush post on flat-shader brushes....).

 

Large Duo-Fibre Brush

Here we have MAC's 187 brush.  I apologize that it is stained pink, but it won't come clean no matter how many times I use cleansing oil on it.  At least the staining indicates for what I use this brush most, which is blush.  It's great for a large blush application of a very dense blush.  I think this staining might be Illamasqua Panic.  It's also a popular one for foundation, though I don't quite get the stippling of foundation.  As I am theatre trained, for me, stippling is used to add natural veining effects, or to tone down shading, or add more red tones to old age makeup, places where the goal is to retain or create a texture, exactly the opposite of what you want in your foundation.  Then again, though I've heard of people claiming to stipple their foundation with these things, I've only seen people use these to buff, which in my opinion is better done with a denser brush. 

With powder or cream color cosmetics the stippling can create a translucent blush effect, so these brushes are great for that. They also work well for a very light dusting of bronzer or contour. They are often marketed with mineralized makeup, like MAC's Mineralized Skin Finishes, since those type of products can deposit too much product on denser brushes.  The large duo-fibre brush creates a diffused application over a large area.

 

Medium Stippling Brush 

The Real Techniques Stippling Brush is much denser than the 187, it also has a shorter distance between the black fibres and the white fibres, both of which are synthetic.  This makes it work more like a flat top buffing brush than a stippling brush.  This works very well for foundation, as well as cream blush application, but, unless you want a very dense application, I wouldn't use it for powder blush.

 

 Small Stippling Brush

 

This brush, MAC 188, is a thinner version of the 187 above.  It has a farther distance between the two types of hair than the RT brush, so it is a bit floppier as well as thinner.  A lot of people also use this brush for liquid foundation.  I prefer it for blush, and often apply with this and blend out with the 187 for a bit more control than the 187 offers.  It's also great for highlighting cheekbones.

 

Short Stippling Brush

The MAC 130 is probably my favorite of all of these stippling brushes.  It's wider than the 188, but very short and denser.  It has fewer hairs I'd say than the RT, but since they are shorter, they are a bit stiffer nonetheless.  I imagine it would be great for cream foundation, as MAC often markets it for, and I absolutely love it with cream and liquid/gel blushes.  If I'm wearing a cream blush or a MUFE HD blush, I've likely applied it with this one.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros:     These brushes are versatile and useful.  The less dense, longer white bristled brushes are great for applying powder products sheerly, while the denser, shorter brushes are great for liquid and cream foundations and cream blushes.

Cons:     I don't think the aforementioned less dense brushes are good for liquid foundations.  The largest can be unwieldy to use for blush, unless you have a larger face or like blush over a large area--like I do. 

 

The Brushes featured in this post are the MAC 187 Duo Fibre Brush, Real Techniques Stippling Brush, MAC 188 Small Duo Fibre Face Brush, MAC 130 Short Duo Fibre Brush.  All were purchased by me and I am not compensated for featuring them.

Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection Review and Swatches

Since I am a bit of a Mad Men nut, and a vintage makeup nut, I needed this collection: a cream blush in "Evening Rose" and a lipstick in "Cherry" in gorgeous, special edition vintage Estee Lauder inspired packaging.

The lipstick is tiny, but exquisitely elegant in old-fashioned metal packaging. The color is a reddish-pink, with a shiny, slightly sheer texture (somewhat similar to a MAC Lustre finish I'd say) and the staying power was about to expected from such a texture; in other words, not great. It wore away in the center, leaving an outline around the rest of my lips. I used no lipliner because that would do no one any good.

The blush is better, I'd say. It's housed in what looks like a small vintage compact; the clasp is a lovely blue jewel. The texture is very soft, lighter than a Stila Convertible Color, for instance. I had great color payoff, for both the swatch and on my cheeks. The color is a warm rose-pink. I'd say there's the tiniest touch of coral, but the overall color is a rosy-pink. It was pretty buildable color, but blended well into the skin. I genuinely loved it, but I'm a sucker for blush, and it has pretty much everything I like in a blush.

Other products used: Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick in Porcelain, Benefit Eye Bright under the eyes, Maybelline Color Tattoo in "Bad to the Bronze" layered with both shades from NARS Kalahari duo, MAC Fluidline in Avenue, Smashbox Lash DNA Mascara, MAC Lingering Eye Brows and Brow Set in Beguile, and Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder. It was a quick and dirty look, so I apologize for my hair. Not that it's all that worse than usual.

Oh, and I guess if I'm going to post reviews, I should probably give the disclaimer that all products were purchased (or were a BI Perk from Sephora, like the mascara). I have received nothing from PR.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Review

The Shade and Illuminate palette by Tom Ford contains a gorgeous highlighter and contouring cream. The textures are soft and luminous and perfect for creating that Tom Ford sculpted look, or just to subtly enhance your bone structure. Intensity One is the lighter of the two available and it contains a warm brown cream and a glimmering white highlighter. The texture is soft and blends out perfectly, retaining its intensity even as it dissolves into the skin.


The contour is quite warm, I was worried once I swatched it that it would have the same orangy tone on my super pink fair skin that most "contour" products have, but it blends into the skin so well that it doesn't appear that way on my face. But you can see the warmth in the swatch on my super, super pale inner arm (seriously, I couldn't give you a foundation match for it because there isn't one in most lines; my Bobbi Brown foundation stick in Porcelain is orange against it).


The highlighter is more glimmer than color payoff; paired with the contour it's enough to softly highlight the cheeks, but I think most people would be disappointed by it without the additional contour.


The packaging is, of course, stunning and luxe, hefty in the hand, but not overly bulky. It's the ideal for high end packaging, if you ask me.


The brush (not included) is the like a larger, but proportionally shorter MAC 239 eyeshadow brush. It's soft and dense, but an unusual shape for a contouring brush.


I hope to do a look with this in the next few days, so I'll post a full face picture. In the meantime, however, enjoy these photos.