May 11, 2015

My Thoughts on Circa Beauty


This post will be about my thoughts on Circa Beauty by Eva Mendes, exclusively sold at Walgreens stores and Drugstore.com. If you want to read about the products I purchased and what Circa Beauty is about, please read my first post here: Walgreen's: Circa Beauty


I just love the Art Deco style black and gold packaging of this collection. It doesn't feel cheap at all. The quality of the packaging for it's price is worth it. Each product is plastic sealed, as-in you need a blade or a scissors to take it off. The displays have testers so always look for the sealed product.

So here again are the swatches for: Color Absolute Velvet Luxe Lipstick, Color Saturated Eye Crayon and  Color Focus Eye Shadow Palette
The shades I chose are such wearable for an everyday look from a daytime look to a night time, smokey eye look. Starting off with...

12 Ella
Ella is the deepest shade in the collection. It's a deep berry shade that can be worn like a stain or build it up for a bolder look. It is a very pigmented, moisturizing lipstick with a bit of shine. 
 So I returned this product after wearing it a few days, because of the strong perfume-y taste to it. If this doesn't bother you though, the formula is great! It didn't dry out my lips and it was very easy to apply. 

02 Rose Quartz
This shade is very beautiful! This is a very shimmery shade though, the glitter gets all over so blend carefully. I haven't use it as a base but the creamy formula of it will not give you any problem layering your shadow on top of it. This did not crease on my lids at all. I usually don't use an eye makeup remover but because of the heavy shimmer on this product I have to use one to get all the glitter off my lids. It's a so-so product for me.

05 Provocateur
I wore this without an eye primer and this did not crease on me. The shimmery light gold shadow is my favorite! The shimmer is pretty fine so it's not too shimmery for daytime.  You may have some fall out with this shadow so tap off the excess from your brush before applying it.

Here's a look I did using the eye shadow palette and lipstick.
I did use a different shade on my crease but for my outer "V" and on the lids, I used the shades from the 05-Provocateur eye shadow palette.


Magic Hour Illuminating Concealer
02 Light/ Medium
I love using this under my eyes! It's very creamy and blends well. It definitely brightened my under eye area and I have no problem blending this with my concealer (L.A Girl Pro Concealer). My under eye fine lines are still there but it's not as bad as before but I think that's because of the eye creams I am using lately. I have been using this to highlight the bridge of my nose and center of my forehead as well. There's no shimmer to it at all but you can see that part of your face brighten up.

Here's an up close picture of my eyes wearing the 
01 Extreme Black
I am not a big fan of this mascara, this was returned as well.  I was really excited about the glittery top coat, but the formula of the volumizing mascara was a dud. As you can see my lashes were still flat and no added volume at all. And yes even with another layer of it, it just weighed my lashes down. I still wore it all day for testing purposes and this did not flake on me so no glitter went into my eyes. If you're a contact lens wearer, try it with caution.
The top coat does not always have a glitter on it so I had to do it a few times to get that "sparkle" on my lashes. If the top coat was sold separately, I may purchase it. I've never seen a mascara that adds that visible sparkle on the lashes, and maybe used with a lash primer it may go on the lashes better. 


I exchanged the mascara and lipstick for the these two products:
02 La Spieza
This pink-y coral cream blush goes on smooth, blends easily and pretty pigmented. I use a small ELF Stipple brush to apply it. It has no shimmer at all. This is the first cream blush that I am really loving! This is encased in a glass jar, not plastic-glass but real glass. Like I mentioned before these products have high quality packaging to them.

04 Satin Blush
Again the packaging on this is just beautiful! You can see the color of the product through the plastic-glass packaging. This has tiny gold shimmer to it that when applied on the lips it gives that high shine effect. This has the same perfume-y scent to it as the lipstick but not as strong so I can tolerate the scent on this one. If you don't like any scent on your lip products at all, skip this as well. 
It has a sheer color so this can be applied on top of any lipstick you like or you can wear it alone. It goes on smooth, no sticky feel to it and it kept my lips moisturized.

Here's a makeup look using the Color Saturated Eye Crayon, Ultrasuede Blush and Lustrous Shine Lip Polish. 


Overall, I would repurchase the Magic Hour Illuminating Concealer and try out other shades of the Ultrasuede Cream Blush and the eye shadow palettes. The collection has many other products and I seriously want to try each one! I have tried makeup by celebrities before and have been disappointed so my expectations for this collection was pretty high.
Circa Beauty is competing with drugstore brands that have been selling best sellers for decades and for sure this did not disappoint. I do hope they improve their mascara formula and remove the scents on their lipsticks and lip glosses.



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