Make Up For Ever H312 Artist Face Color (Highlighter) Review, Photos, Swatches
H312
Make Up For Ever H312 Artist Face Color ($23.00 for 0.17 oz.) is a deep copper with warm, brown undertones and a sparkling, metallic sheen. The consistency was rather dense, and it was even denser than many other shades in the range. I felt like I really had to use a heavy hand to get an even amount of product on my brush, but then it was difficult to apply as it seemed like a little too product all at once. The powder skipped around on my skin and appeared patchy, where some of the shimmer seemed to thicken in places and a lot of the color disappeared.
It seemed to have good pigmentation but something with how the size of the shimmer played with the underlying base powder did not adhere or work well on my skin. I was surprised it didn’t appear more metallic on the skin, but a lot of the product vanished before I finished applying, so that might have been part of it. The highlighter lasted for eight and a half hours on my skin before looking even patchier than it did initially (despite buffing and blending for minutes, the color never looked evenly applied).
Overview of the Formula
The formula is supposed to have “intense color payoff” with a “long-lasting finish.” The range is split into three types–Highlighters, Sculpting Powders, and Blushes–that is easy to determine by the first letter of the shade name (H for Highlighter, S for Sculpting, and B for Blush). There are three finishes–matte, shimmer, and pearl but was less obvious. In fact, the majority of the “matte” shades were more like semi-matte or natural matte where there were no distinctive shimmer particles but they seemed to take on the natural finish of the skin, which gave the “mattes” a particularly seamless finish on the skin but might be dewier on oilier skin types than desired. None of the 34 shades available were frosted or metallic except three of the highlighters (H100, H106, H312).
The pigmentation ranged from medium to opaque, depending largely on the shade, though they were always buildable if they were not opaque in a single layer. Some of the deeper, more matte shades were less forgiving and took more effort to diffuse and blend, even when I used a lighter hand or a more feathery brush. The texture was smooth, velvety, and moderately dense without any powderiness or dustiness in the pan. The formula has lasted between eight and ten hours on me.
You can view swatches of all of the blushes, all of the highlighters, and all of the sculpting powders in the Swatch Gallery.
FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).
Top Dupes
- Coloured Raine Watch Me Werk (P, $25.00) is warmer (95% similar).
- BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe Edition #20 (LE, ) is lighter, warmer (90% similar).
- Charlotte Tilbury Nudegasm (Multi-Glow) (PiP, ) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- ColourPop Happy Camper (DC, $12.00) is lighter, more muted (90% similar).
- Anastasia Rose Gold (LE, $25.00) is lighter, cooler (90% similar).
- Tom Ford Beauty Reflects Gilt (Bottom) (LE, ) is less shimmery, lighter, cooler (90% similar).
- MAC Perfectly Lit (LE, $34.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- Makeup Geek Firework (P, $20.00) is darker, more muted, cooler (90% similar).
- Salt New York Rust (P, $16.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- ColourPop Happy Accident (LE, $10.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
Formula Overview
$23.00/0.17 oz. - $135.29 Per Ounce
The formula is supposed to have "intense color payoff" with a "long-lasting finish." The range is split into three types--Highlighters, Sculpting Powders, and Blushes--that is easy to determine by the first letter of the shade name (H for Highlighter, S for Sculpting, and B for Blush). There are three finishes--matte, shimmer, and pearl but was less obvious. In fact, the majority of the "matte" shades were more like semi-matte or natural matte where there were no distinctive shimmer particles but they seemed to take on the natural finish of the skin, which gave the "mattes" a particularly seamless finish on the skin but might be dewier on oilier skin types than desired. None of the 34 shades available were frosted or metallic except three of the highlighters (H100, H106, H312).
The pigmentation ranged from medium to opaque, depending largely on the shade, though they were always buildable if they were not opaque in a single layer. Some of the deeper, more matte shades were less forgiving and took more effort to diffuse and blend, even when I used a lighter hand or a more feathery brush. The texture was smooth, velvety, and moderately dense without any powderiness or dustiness in the pan. The formula has lasted between eight and ten hours on me.
You can view swatches of all of the blushes, all of the highlighters, and all of the sculpting powders in the Swatch Gallery.
Browse all of our Make Up For Ever Artist Face Color - Highlighter swatches.
Ingredients
Very surprised this was so bad! Has anyone else tried it yet, to see if this is a QC/batch issue? Kind of wanted it as a blush, but think it over and forget it!
I wasn’t quite expecting it from MUFE initially but the texture definitely made me pause from the get-go.
Unfortunate about this one, it looks like a gorgeous color. I hope the others fare better in this range, or MUFE redoes this shade to perform better.
Here’s hoping!
Oh my! Was not expecting those marks for this! I didn’t find myself too excited about these anyway. Strange bc MUFE is one of my favorite brands (if not my favorite).
Maybe you are all full on blush?
Keeping a close eye on these individual reviews. With a range containing so many colours/finishes, I was guessing the scores could be all over the spectrum.
I try to make sure initial reviews will show some of the good and bad – I haven’t tried them all yet but they’re more good than bad, so the quality of this one is definitely not the norm.
Good to hear this isn’t the norm. But, D+ on a huge new release like this? No one caught this at MUFE in the testing or QC phase? I want to say — no excuses. From what you wrote, it sounds like a defective formula. 🙁
What a shame that MUFE totally missed the mark on this shade! It would have otherwise made for a lovely highlighter for deeper skintones and a great bronzing blush for those of us in the medium through tan tones. When I enlarged your face pic on my screen, I could definitely see its unevenness. Again, what a shame on their part.
I was bummed, Nancy! I expected better texture from MUFE.
Oh wow, I thought this was one of the better looking highlighter swatches. The others looked kind of meh or weak. Think their blush swatches looked better, curious how this line fares
Something about the texture of the shimmer/sparkle, I think, doesn’t work for blending/application!
I like how it looks too bad 🙁
🙁
Ouch. What a surprise!
I hear ya!
I tried B302 today. It blended out beautifully, was pigmented, but not overly so. You could build it up. I leave the house at 6 a.m. and get back home around 5 p.m. It still looked as nice as it did this morning. I have normal to dry skin. I will say that is a good color for lighter skin tones. I’m not sure if you could easily wear it if you’re much deeper than medium to medium-tan. I’m MAC NW10 in winter and NW13-15 at my darkest.
So glad you’re enjoying B302! 🙂
Wow – that’s a very big miss!