In an astonishing turn of events, at the beginning of January I decided to only use cream products for a month. So I set out to discover the hidden gems in my collection, and maybe learn a thing or two. I found some great cream cheek and eye product tips!
I own an ungodly amount of cream products (love them on the eyes, not much love for them on the cheeks), but, truth to be told, I don’t wear them. Mostly. Usually. But then, they do dry out, and last year I had to say goodbye to the most beautiful taupe EVER created, full stop: Chanel’s Moon River, an eyeshadow pencil. A wakeup call?
Hard truths: cream products edition
I own four cream blushes, two cream highlighters and two cream bronzers (you’re starting to look at me a bit weirdly and thinking ‘that’s not so bad, what’s she going on about?!).
Also: 9 liquid eyeshadows, 14 stick eyeshadows and 11 cream eyeshadows in pots (now you see where I’m coming from, right?). Not counted into this are my beloved Armani ETK and L’Oreal Infallible shadows, because they’ve got more of a pressed pigment situation going on.
Cream cheek and eye product tips
The glow is goooooooood
For dry, aging skin using only cream/liquid cheek products can be a truly marvellous thing: When I consciously compared my face with my usual look I had to admit that it looked fresher and more dewy. In short: where I usually had to resort to all sorts of glowy powders (I still love you, Hourglass!), when I used only cream products, I – didn’t have to. Which was nice.
But…
The downside, of course, was that I had to set all this for various reasons. I not only hate when I can feel products on my skin, but there’re my glasses that have to be prevented from sliding around and leaving marks on my cheekbones. In addition to that, in wintertime, scarves and whatnot want to cling to cream products and foundation. So, there’s a downside to everything. But, I was impressed.
Cream eye products that dry out veeery fast
PSA: You might be having some of Stila’s Shimmer/Glitter & Glow products (review) stored somewhere. If so, USE them. Fast. They dry out INSANELY quick. Case in point: my least used one, Fairy Tail (review), looks about half used. It isn’t. Maybe I used it half a dozen times, but not more – and you can see that the formula seems to have evaporated. NOT GOOD.
Pigmented cream blush is pigmented
I may have mentioned a time or two that I’m rather heavy handed when it comes to applying and blending products? It may come to no surprise then that pigmented cream blushes proved quite a challenge. I had to come up with a method to tone blush down, fast, in order not to look like a demented clown – and I rose to the challenge and came up with two options.
Option 1 – ohshititstoolatewhatamigoingtodo
So you have, indeed, applied too much blush and have sheered it out as much as possible. It’s still too much. Take your foundation tool of choice (a beauty blender or cushion puff works best, but even a brush might do) and apply the foundation remaining on it over the blush. Pat (!), don’t swipe.
Option 2 – oh, that’s a rather bright blush I’m going to use today!
BEFORE applying your foundation, apply your blush, highlight, bronzer, contour – whatever combo you’ve going on. You can be a bit heavy handed as well, because magic is going to happen: as soon as you’ve applied your foundation, all you’re left with is with some kind of angelically blushed cheeks.
Don’t cling to one tool
Speaking of tools, play around with them! While a cushion puff might be a bit unwieldy from time to time, I found that a mini beauty blender works better than a puff. Especially in the nooks and crannies around my nose! Also? If you’ve nearly used up all your cushion foundation, a beauty blender might be able to get all that leftover foundation liquid out.
Coloured bases ftw: cream eye product tips
Not new, and not exactly rocket science: but this is my reminder to use more coloured bases under your eyeshadow. I had forgotten how much a coloured base (say a paintpot) can change the appearance of your favourite eyeshadow. And oh, how can an even demurely tinted coloured base make pigments or shifty shadows sing!
Yeah, still don’t like it
And here’s my admission: I hate spot concealing with a cream concealer. I usually use a mineral (loose powder) concealer for discolouration and spots, because it clings to foundation and. Will. Not. Move. (Even if you apply other products, like blush or highlighter) over it.
Shop my stash
In conclusion, here’s my depressing thought of the day: even with continuous use for one month, I didn’t even make a dent in the products I used often (with only four blushes, two highlighters and bronzers I indeed DID use those regularly).
Which was indeed a timely reminder, because I was super intrigued by MAC’s new Glow Play Blushes. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely think more than twice about buying them after this little experiment!
Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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