Week in Review | May 5th through May 11th

Happy Saturday! I always enjoy seeing what makes up the week’s top ten highest-reviewed products, so I hope you find it somewhat interesting as well! 🙂

What was your week in review like?

  • My skin tone/coloring:
  • Favorite look you wore:
  • Most used product of the week:
  • Any new beauty discoveries:

Best of the Week

24 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Seraphine Avatar

Skin Tone/Coloring: Light neutral with green eyes and dark hair

Favorite Look Worn: For this look, I didn’t wear any eyeshadow, but I used Marc Jacobs Blacquer Highliner in my upper lashline, Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara, Bare Minerals BarePro Performance Wear Liquid Foundation in 05 Sateen, Chanel Joues Contraste Blush in Pink Explosion, Smashbox Petal Metal Highlighter in Gilded Rose, and Guerlain Rouge G #21 Lipstick.

(Plus my everyday usuals: Clinique Brow Shaper in Charcoaled, ABH Brow Wiz in Granite, Tarte Shape Tape Concealer in Light Neutral, and RCMA No Color Powder.)

Most Used Products: (Aside from the usuals) Marc Jacobs Highliners in various shades, Smashbox Petal Metal Highlighter in Gilded Rose, and I’m going through a brown lipstick phase (UD 1993, MAC Persistence and Whirl).

New Beauty Discoveries: This week I discovered that I like how I look without eyeshadow—as long as I do my brows and wear mascara, blush, and, most important, a bold lipstick. I know that seems like an awfully simple thing to discover, but I hadn’t really tried pairing naked eyelids with bold lips before. It works really nicely and knocks a bunch of time off my morning routine! An alternative version is to put a barely-there sweep of MAC Kid in my crease.

zeezee Avatar

yes i agree! eyeshadow can be dispensed with so long as the other parts are done. if i really need/want some colour and definition, i swipe on the revlon creme shadow.

Mariella Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: fair, cool
Favorite look you wore: I used the ABH “Mario” palette for a look I plan to recreate: Lula as my crease/blending out colour, Marina on the inner 2/3 of the lid and NYC on the outer lid and crease; Marc Jacobs BrownOut liner on upper lid and Gosh Metallic Brass under lower lashes; Bobbi Brown “bronzer” (in the shade Maui) as a blush and Craving on my lips (seriously, every time I wear Craving, I wonder why I bother with any other shade of lipstick!)
Most used product of the week: Dior Rosy Glow blush and ABH Lula eyeshadow
Any new beauty discoveries: not beauty but fragrance – Laura Biagotti Roma

Nancy T Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: Med. w/ olive undertones MAC NC37, Lancôme Teint Idole Foundation N360, Fenty ProFilt’r Foundation 260, deep brunette, blue-green eyes w/ gold flecks.

Favorite look you worn: Yesterday, I pulled out that palette that I adored from last summer: Jouer Skinny Dip! Started with doing matte crease work that I wasn’t exactly thrilled with, using MAC Soba and Charcoal Brown. But when I applied Skinny Dip w/ dampened brush to my entire mobile lid, Tan Lines to outer lid blended inward, CP Never Never (All I See Is Magic Palette) Now And Zen to inner corners: WOW! Used UD Jawbone to softly contour, a little Nars Fetishised blush, Fenty Metal Moon Highlighter to cheeks, and Pat McGrath She’s Heaven Luxetrance Lipstick to my lips. Very golden goddess type look!

Most used product of the week: Smashbox Rosemantic Highlighter and Petal Metal Eyeshadow Palette!

Any new beauty discoveries: Only that I’m getting really tired of touching up my roots….but the alternative terrifies me for some reason. Not ready to let go and be gray, but this routine is tiresome.

Deborah S. Avatar

I was terrified of getting gray and as soon as I started seeing gray hairs come in, the first when I was in my early 20’s, I started coloring my hair. I kept to my natural strawberry blonde but just brightened it every 6 weeks. Following my breast cancer and being totally bald I really just wanted my hair to grow back and didn’t care what color! It came in as it is today which is mostly gray but a little darker in the back underneath. My brother and sister encouraged me to color it telling me that I wasn’t old enough to be gray. That was back when I was 45 . After having spent so much time reading about cancer and the chemicals we take into our bodies and put on our skin I decided not to color. I know that using some of the beauty products means putting chemicals on our skin and I cannot explain the lack of rationality associated with my decision but now it doesn’t seem to matter to me that I am gray. When I think about coloring I think, you will have to do it for the rest of your life and do you really want to start that? My answer has always been “no”. I think your hair is beautiful and it is thick and healthy looking. Regardless, you have to do what you are comfortable with and what will make you happy. If it is something you might consider then maybe try a wig in a gray shade and see if you like the look?!

Nancy T Avatar

Deborah, I LOVE the wig idea! It would give me a sense of how I may look if I let it grow in. Realistically, it would also need to be a short wig, because I’d need to go extremely short because of the contrast issues. 8 years ago, I lost half of all my hair during the 1st 6 months receiving Remicade. Had to wear a wig for almost 2 years, until my own grew back in to something close to its original thickness. Since then, no more putting highlights in, no more perms, no more harsh permanent hair dye, just a deposit only 10% developer hair color in a shade that is almost the same as my darker areas of hair.

Genevieve Avatar

Same here Nancy – I do get tired of touching up my roots too, but if I went grey it would completely devoid my face of colour as I am so fair. There is no way that I am not having my 40grams of colour per month because, like you, the alternative seriously does terrify me.

Mariella Avatar

Nancy, I’m going through the same thing regarding my hair. I’ve got a fabulous stylist/colourist but I’m seeing her more and more frequently and that’s even with the highlights and lowlights to make my root regrowth less obvious but even so, it’s getting to the point where it’s pretty much once a month for colour… I talked with her about how I could start letting the grey grow in and I think we’ll start gradually next time I’m in. I wish you could just take a pill and that would take care of the grey (take it once or twice a week and you’d have some bits of grey; take it daily and your grey would be obliterated entirely).

Erica Avatar

Skintone / coloring : light, MAC NC 15 – 20, med brown hair and eyes

Favorite look worn : ABH Modern Renaissance. Raw Sienna and Realgar in the crease/outer corner. Primavera on eyelid/inner corner. Rimmel Soft Kohl Pencil in Brown. Loreal Lash Paradise in Blackest Black. MAC Margin Blush. Fenty Lightning Dust

Most used product : Loreal Voluminous Lash Paradise Mascara. Rimmel Soft Kohl. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal. Maybelline Super Stay Better Skin Pressed Powder. Bare Minerals Matte Foundation.

New Discoveries : I need to find a brown brow mascara for quickly touching up gray hairs:(

Genevieve Avatar

My skin tone/colouring: Porcelain, with pink undertones

Favourite look you worn: I used the bareMinerals Soft and Smokey with the vanilla shade on the lid, the smokey blue on the lower lid and and the taupe in the crease with my Besame orange/red lipstick.

Most used product of the week: Clarins Everlasting foundation in Linen. I am using this bottle up before I open the Chosungah 22 in porcelain.

Any new beauty discoveries: Yes, at long last Clarins is releasing a couple of lighter shades in their current Everlasting foundation range in June this year and one of them is a porcelain with pink undertones.

Deborah S. Avatar

Skin tone: Very fair with cool undertones.

Favorite look: I used my usual base makeup, (Chosugah 22 foundation, Tarte Shape Tape concealer, Becca Hydra Mist powder, PUR 4 in 1 Blush palette shade Honesty (new this week) and Hourglass Light Bronzer. I set my face with MAC Fix +). For my eyes I used the ColourPop ILOVESARAHII palette. I put Lit mixed with Razy in the crease and then used the deepest shade from the PUR Blush palette shade Honesty to darken the outer V. I added a touch of the lightest shade from the PUR Honesty shade over the center of my mobile lid. I used the Pretty Vulgar Shimmering Swan Highlighter in Lilac Lust on the inner corners to brighten that area. For my lips I used Essence lip liner in the shade Sweetheart and over that Ulta Lip Crayon in Sparkler. I used Cover Girl Peacock Flair mascara in waterproof formula (jury is still out on whether I like it. Made my eyelashes super crunchy which isn’t a feeling I like. It did nicely flair my lashes, didn’t flake or give me raccoon eyes but I am worried that if I accidently touched my lashes they would break off!). I liked the look a lot and felt that it really highlighted my deep brown eyes. I posted the look on my IG.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BipcUxvnYNT/?taken-by=debkaysor

Most used product this week: Not counting my everyday basics I used my two most recent ColourPop palettes a lot this week. Beside the palette above I used Saucy also. I have also used the Pretty Vulgar highlighter a lot this week using it as a blush topper, inner corner highlight, over my mobile lid and also tapped on my lips over lipstick. I used the Nars lip shade Larkspur this week and used the PV highlighter on my cupid’s bow to brighten it.

New beauty discoveries: I had a lot of down time this week after surgery so spent more time on YT than normal and found a young woman who did a video about applying makeup to pull your features up and she showed putting a line of light concealer at a slight angle on each side of your lips. She then blended that out to counteract the downturn that marionette lines cause. She also stopped her lipstick before she got to the corners to keep the lips from looking down. I liked the effect.

New beauty discoveries:

MacKenzie G. Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: Fair with pink-to-neutral undertones. Medium/light brown hair with balayage. Green eyes.

Favorite look you’ve worn: I haven’t worn a lot of makeup recently, but I adored the look I wore today. A light peach shade slightly darker than my skin tone in the crease, a semi-sheer glittery peach shade on the lid. I don’t know the shade names right now though because I’ve had them in a Colour Pop quad palette for like a month. For the cheeks: Bésame x Snow White cream rouge, Glossier Haloscope in Quartz, Bite Multistick in Honeywheat to bronze, and Fenty Matchstix in Amber to contour. Glossier Generation G lipstick in Zip and Glossier lip gloss on the lips. So glowy and natural, felt like I’d finally achieved the “model off duty” look.

Most used product of the week: Like I said, I haven’t used a lot of makeup, so I’ll go with skincare. I use Glossier Super Pure serum about twice a day.

Any new beauty discoveries: Really loving my Glossier haul, so Haloscope in Quartz, Boy Brow in Blonde, Generation G in Zip, and lip gloss. They’re all such gorgeous products, can’t believe that I was hesitant about any of them!

Nikki Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: fair and cool skin (L’Oreal True Match C3 Creamy Natural, Urban Decay All Nighter 2.5, NARS Mont Blanc-the last one I learned from foundation samples), gray eyes, brown hair with red highlights and scattered blonde and blue strands.
Favorite look you worn: Probably Friday-UD Slowburn layered over KVD Malice, Louboutin Rouge Louboutin mascara, NARS Satellite of Love highlighting blush, L’Oreal Colour Riche Collection Exclusive 401 Julianne’s Red lipstick.
Most used product of the week: I can’t really think of one.
Any new beauty discoveries: My new Kat Von D 10th anniversary train case holds the majority of my makeup collection-yay! I’m keeping my NARS stuff in the shipping box my Erdem makeup came in, my Louboutin mascara in its decorative box, my base products and non-Loub designer mascaras in pouches in a Star Wars decorative box, and the rest all fits in the train case!

Kat Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: fair neutral leaning cool.
Favorite look you worn: Not an overall look, but I’ve been using Becca First Light Priming Filter under foundation and then a Bite Multistick for blush. The illuminating primer has been making the blush so nice and glowy.
Most used product of the week: Maybelline Lash Sensational. Been liking it so far.
Any new beauty discoveries: The Ecotools sponge. So nice!

Rachel R. Avatar

My skin tone/coloring: Very fair with neutral undertones; magenta/red hair; hazel/green eyes.

Favorite look you worn: EYES — UDPP in Enigma. Pat McGrath Subversive La Vie En Rose Palette: Euphoria (crease to brows); Purple Reign (lids; lower lashline); Gold Nectar (inner corner). Looxi Beauty Highlighter in Pandor (brow bone). ABH single in Love Letter (brows). Physician’s Formula Sexy Booster Va Va Voom Mascara. CHEEKS — LORAC Color Source Buildable Blush in Ultraviolet; Looxi Beauty Pandora. LIPS — MAC Lipstick in Kling It On. FACE — Nyx Angel Veil Primer; e.l.f. Flawless Finish Foundation in Light Ivory; e.l.f. HD Powder in Sheer; Sephora Tranquil (contour); City Color Cosmetics Intense Exposure Highlighting Powder; e.l.f. Original Mist & Set.

Most used product of the week: Pat McGrath Subversive La Vie En Rose & Huda Beauty Gemstone Obsessions Eyeshadow palettes

Any new beauty discoveries: I’ve found two new purples I love from the two palettes mentioned above: Purple Reign from the Pat McGrath palette and the bright purple (that you call Gemstone #5 in your review). It’s so nice to have bright purples be the best thing in a palette instead of the worst!

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!