Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder ($120.00 for 0.33 oz.) is a very pale, pink-tinged beige with fine golden shimmer-sheen. Catrice Champagne Campaign (P, $5.99) is darker (95% similar). Wet 'n' Wild Blossom Glow (P, $4.99) is more shimmery (95% similar). MAC Climax (LE, )(95% similar). ColourPop Dreamscape (LE, $12.00) is less shimmery (95% similar). Viseart Highlight #1 (PiP, ) is less shimmery (95% similar). ColourPop Pretty Bonnes (LE, $10.00) is less shimmery, lighter (95% similar). Cle de Peau Delicate Pink (14) (P, $55.00) is less shimmery, cooler (95% similar). LORAC Starlight (P, $23.00) is warmer (90% similar). Too Faced Rosy Glow (Right) (PiP, ) is warmer (90% similar). Anastasia Crushed Pearl (LE, ) is more shimmery (90% similar). Anastasia Crystal (P, $22.00) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Makeup Revolution Radiant Lights (P, $6.00) is more shimmery, darker (90% similar). MAC Mystery Princess (LE, $22.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). Tarte Gleam (PiP, ) is darker, cooler (90% similar). Artist Couture Coco Bling (P, $27.00) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Marc Jacobs Beauty Spotlight (P, $42.00) is cooler (90% similar). L'Oreal Rose (P, $12.99) is darker, cooler (90% similar). MAC Tutu (LE, $42.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). NARS 1977 (LE, $38.00) is less shimmery (90% similar). Urban Decay Oasis (LE, ) is less shimmery, less pigmented (90% similar). Top 20 dupes listed, see the rest. See comparison swatches / view dupes side-by-side.

I know what you’re thinking, “But Temptalia, why would you buy a $120 body powder?” And I’d have no real answer for you other than I was really curious to see if it was good, bad, or somewhere in-between. I remain curious, as well, about what might be in it that makes it inappropriate as a cheek highlighter (the box does say to avoid direct contact with eyes, but it isn’t unusual for cheek colors/highlighters to be safe for cheeks but not eyes!). It is luminous and high-shine on the skin, whether body or cheeks, but I don’t think it veers into disco ball territory where the shimmer emphasizes the skin’s natural texture. There are noticeable sparkly bits here and there, but it is the least glittery body powder I’ve come across–not that I’ve tried more than a dozen over the years! The powder is soft, smooth, and incredibly finely-milled, while it is blendable and easily diffused for sheerer or heavier shimmer coverage. The powder has a floral scent, which I didn’t notice often when wearing it, so it didn’t seem as heavy-handed as some fragranced powders can be. The powder lasted for eight hours with minor migration when I wore it on my neck/shoulders, but I didn’t notice migration when I tried it on cheeks.

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Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Cle de Peau Bal Masque Body Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder ($95.00 for 0.61 oz.) is described as a “silky halo of a golden shimmer.” It’s a fine misting of gold shimmer, just as described. Guerlain says it can be used to “illuminat[e] hair, face, shoulders, and the top of the decollete.” It is a scented powder, which the brand says is a “chypre composition based on bergamot, rose, jasmine, and patchouli.” It’s very subtle when I tried wearing it all-over arms–it’s no substitute for perfume–and I only get a hint of a scent when I have my nose to my skin. It’s warm, sweet, and slightly woody with a little earthiness.

Guerlain’s holiday Shimmer Powders are no doubt a luxury item, and it is most likely going to appeal to collectors. It adds a gorgeous sparkle–that’s finer than glitter but more noticeable than shimmer–to the skin that dances in the light as one moves. I can only imagine that one bottle has many, many uses out of it, as one “spritz” has a fair amount of sparkle (enough for both arms). It’s best applied about six to twelve inches away, and you may want to turn the nozzle, because of the wide, bow-like bottle, the way it arrives means that a lot of the sparkle settles on top of the bottle (instead of on you!). I would also recommend applying a body lotion or moisturizer first, and then spritzing the powder on just before it finishes drying.

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Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain Coque d’Or Perfumed Shimmer Powder

bareMinerals Luminous Hydrating Body Cream ($35.00 for 6.0 oz.) is a shimmering body cream that’s supposed to be “ultrarich, non-greasy.” It’s a thick body cream–somewhere between a more typical body butter and a whipped body butter, as it’s fairly solid and isn’t going to drip out of the jar, but it spreads well and doesn’t have to be scraped out by a legitimate block o’ body butter.

I’m a big fan of bareMinerals’ recent skincare range, so I was eager to try this body cream, which apparently also came out last year for the holidays–it’s limited edition again this year–but I was surprised to see it was available for $28 last year and has been bumped up to $35 for this year. SkinStore is still selling it for $28, though, if it’s something you wanted to try. I’m not a fan of limited edition skincare products (why!!!), and the significant increase in price is definitely off-putting. I do like the product; it’s a good, solid body cream. It’s not the very, very best I’ve ever tried, but it’s nice. Despite its thick, rich consistency, it absorbs within a minute or less. It spreads easily across the skin, and a little goes a long way. It leaves skin feeling softer, more hydrated but not greasy or oily.For normal-to-dry skin, I think it should provide an appropriate level of hydrating, as it was perfect for my arms, but on my desert-like legs, it didn’t fully hydrate.  It has a slightly earthy, herbal scent, but it’s not too strong, that is similar to the rest of the bareMinerals’ skincare range.  There is a fine gold shimmer that sits on the skin after application, but it will rub off at times (I sat cross-legged, and I saw the heel of my slipper was dazzling!). It’s a nice veil of shimmer–not sparkle–that would work well on decolletage and legs for the holidays.

bareMinerals Luminous Hydrating Body Cream

bareMinerals Luminous Hydrating Body Cream

bareMinerals Luminous Hydrating Body Cream

bareMinerals Luminous Hydrating Body Cream

Purr Lemonade Lip Scrub ($5.00) tastes like sweet lemonade as the sugar granules gently exfoliate away any dead skin from the lips. It works, and it smells and tastes delicious, but the consistency is on the looser side, so I find that is very, very easily spreads so that it doesn’t seem as effective exfoliating as thicker lip scrubs. The sugars just disperse and run a bit across the mouth and just outside of it. To that end, it is gentler as there are less sugar granules in motion at once.

As a quick note, I’m not entirely sure how much product my jar contains, as it doesn’t say on my jar. The listing I purchased it from said it was 1 oz., but it was also supposed to be contained in a glass jar. As far as I can tell, my jar is plastic and a white plastic cap (not a brassy metal one), and the labeling is on the top of the lid (not around the jar). The ingredients listed on my label are as follows: “sugar, hemp butter, sunflower oil, essential oil.” The listing also included olive oil, avocado oil, and beeswax, none of which are listed on my label, under materials.

Puur Pumpkin Spice Body Butter ($7.00 for 4 oz.) is an extremely thick, not-quite-solid body butter used to provide intense hydration to the skin. It’s supposed to smell like a “maple bar and brown sugar, with hints of pumpkin spice.” In the jar, there are bits of pumpkin spice and brown sugar, but there’s a very noticeable waxy/plastic-y note in it, and on, it smells like an old lipstick–I don’t get any of the sweetness or pumpkin spice after a half hour.  The consistency is just very lightly whipped but more solid (more like butter!).  It was also a little stringy (maybe

This also took forever to absorb! I would take a shower, apply this, and sit in shorts–two to three hours later, it would still feel oily and have a faint sheen. I tried using less and less as I continued to test it, and using as little as possible, it seemed to mostly absorb after an hour.  Ultimately, though it certain seems like it should be hydrating, I felt like a lot of the product was never absorbed and ended up on my bedding or clothing, so I did not feel like my skin looked or felt moisturized after using this.

Again, there was a packaging discrepancy, as it was pictured and described as being in an amber glass jar, and mine is just a glass jar. I really don’t have an issue with how either product arrived to me, but I don’t like that they aren’t as pictured. There were no ingredients listed on my jar, but the listing has these under materials: “raw ivory shea butter, olive oil, soy wax, arrowroot powder, fragrance.”

I might be the odd one out, as this is an Etsy shop with over 4,000 reviews.  If you’ve tried Puur, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Puur Lemonade Lip Scrub

Puur Lemonade Lip Scrub

Puur Lemonade Lip Scrub

Puur Pumpkin Spice Body Butter

Puur Pumpkin Spice Body Butter

Puur Pumpkin Spice Body Butter

PCApothecary Pumpkin Macchiato Body Butter ($6.50 for 4 oz.) is described as a “creamy spiced pumpkin blended with aromatic coffee and cream.” It’s a heavily-spiced moderately sweetened, creamy pumpkin with the roasted, nuttiness of coffee. The spices I get are nugmet, allspice, cinnamon, and a little clove–a lot like pumpkin spice mix if you’ve ever used it in baking. The consistency is creamy but airy, like a whipped body butter, and so it spreads easily across the skin. The body butter absorbed quickly on the skin–within a few minutes–and didn’t feel greasy or oily afterward. I’m a big fan of more whipped body butters, as you get the richness and luxurious texture of body butters without some of the heaviness on the skin. The scent lingers for six hours on me, and it tended to be less “pumpkin spice latte” and more pumpkin spice with an emphasis on cinnamon/allspice towards the end.

While I went shopping for lip scrubs on Etsy a couple of weeks ago, I also had a craving for some sort of autumnal-scented body butter. As a long-time Starbucks fan (or addict, however you’d like to label it!), fall means pumpkin spice lattes, caramel apple spices, and salted caramel hot chocolates. The calorie counts for all are hard to justify (I reduce the pumps of pumpkin spice in any latte/frappuccino I get, but a grande light frappuccino I can get away with a mere 1.5 pumps, whereas a hot drink needs at least three), a body butter version that might embody the flavors of my favorite fall drinks would be a lot easier to enjoy more often without the guilt!

You can visit their scent catalog, which has descriptions of the core collection of scents available all in one place. Pumpkin Macchiato is a seasonal scent, so it’s only available this fall/winter. If you’re interested in trying the formula but don’t know what scent (or just want a variety), they also offer samplers in mini sizes (0.5 oz.). Otherwise, you can purchase full-size (4 oz.) or mega jar (8 oz.) for $6.50 and $12.50 respectively.

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PCApothecary Pumpkin Macchiato Body Butter

PCApothecary Pumpkin Macchiato Body Butter

PCApothecary Pumpkin Macchiato Body Butter

For the holidays, Lush has plenty of offerings to tempt you. Here’s a quickie overview of some of the products I recently tried:

Melting Snowman ($5.95 for 2.1 oz.) is a bath melt, which are supposed to be used either in halves or wholes and tossed into the tub as you fill it with warm water. They’re supposed to add a hydrating element to your soak. He smells of chocolate, cinnamon, and orange. The “chocolate chip” eyes don’t fully melt and tend to float and smear on the tub (not so sexy to look at), and I did find myself needing to scrub those bits away post-bath. It’s definitely hydrating and makes the skin feel softer afterward.

Cinders ($4.95) is a bath bomb that also has “crackling vegan candies,” so you’ll actually hear it crackle and pop a bit once the majority of the bath bomb has fizzed away (about a minute). It smelled like spiced cider, not too sweet or too spicy, and it really was like splashing around in a vat of cider. You can hear the candies crackling here and there for about five to ten minutes. This was my favorite of the bath bombs I tried this season. It turned the water yellow, and I think this might have worked better if it turned the water orange or tangerine? in terms of aesthetics.

The Christmas Penguin ($7.45 for 3.5 oz.) is a bubble bar shaped like a penguin–and he’s a rather pricey bath bomb as a result! Crumble his little penguin body into a hot bath for some bubble action. When used, it will turn the bath water a light blue. It had a slightly tart, slightly sweet mix of citrus going on–a little fizzy and lemon-lime like.

Golden Wonder ($6.95 for 7.8 oz.) is a larger bath bomb that has a treat inside–if you shake it around, you’ll here something rattling inside. It’s golden and has gold glitter on the exterior, and it fizzes away in about a minute and a half. It had a very strong, somewhat synthetic, sweet orange. I didn’t love it–it didn’t give me a really fresh orange fragrance, more cloying and syrupy sweet. Spoiler alert: the portion inside is a vibrant turquoise-blue and did leave some bluish residue along my tub, so be sure to scrub and wash down accordingly.

Luxury LUSH Pud ($6.95 for 7 oz.) is supposed to be a lavender-scented bath bomb. When placed in a hot bath, it turned the water a muted, magenta pink with some foaminess. It took about two minutes for the entire bath bomb to fizzle away. It smelled like a mix of sweet vanilla and lavender.

Sandy Santa ($9.95 for 4.5 oz.) is a body buffer in the shape of Santa. It uses sand and sugar to exfoliate dead skin sells, plus it’s in solid form, so it also contains coconut oil and shea butter for softening and hydration. I wouldn’t say it hydrated all that much, and it really melts very, very quickly. I highly recommend breaking off just a small piece, going over the skin lightly, but then rubbing what you’ve melted off in with your hands, not the bar itself, as you’ll just waste most of it. It smelled primarily of orange oil with a little lemon, and for me, it read synthetic. Breaking him into pieces, I was able to get three scrubs worth of mostly legs and arms but not much else. I was surprised at the price point, given how few uses I was able to get out of him.

Let the Good Times Roll ($12.95 for 3.5 oz.) originally launched for the holidays but made it into the permanent range due to its popularity. It smells like incredibly sweet sugar cookies with a very, very subtle cinnamon spice. It contains maize flour and corn meal, so it is a gentle exofliator with fine bits that leave skin feeling soft but never raw, dry, or red. As a gentler exfoliant, I really liked it, and I’ve been feeling like there’s a void in exfoliators/scrubs in my routine lately, so this has been filling that void nicely. Of all the products I tried this holiday season, this was the only one I’d consider buying.

Celebrate ($29.95 for 7.7 oz.) smells of champagne and citrus–primarily orange–and has a slightly whipped consistency that makes it seem lighter than it is, but it is a rather rich product, because even after two hours of my legs dangling (open to the air!), my legs still felt greasy and slippery. I ended up toweling off what wasn’t absorbing so I could go to bed. I tried it again, and I used the smallest amount possible, and I still felt somewhat greasy after an hour. I would actually say it could make a nice massage lotion, since it never seems to really absorb, so there’s a lot of slip, which is great for massaging! I will also mention that my husband really didn’t like this scent–he found it overwhelming (and he can barely smell, I swear). Like his reaction is encompassed by this scenario: I take one step into his office, and then he says, “What is that smell?” with this face that says, “Please step back.” It had an almost medicinal quality to the orange/citrus in it for me.

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Lush for Holiday 2013

Melting Snowman

Melting Snowman

Cinders

Cinders

The Christmas Penguin

The Christmas Penguin

Golden Wonder

Golden Wonder

Luxury LUSH Pud

Lush Holiday 2013

Sandy Santa

Sandy Santa

Let the Good Times Roll

Let the Good Times Roll

Celebrate Hand & Body Lotion

Celebrate Hand & Body Lotion

Celebrate Hand & Body Lotion

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder ($89.00 for 0.61 oz.) is a shimmering, pale pink powder scented with a sweet cherries and creamy almond. It’s a decadent, luxurious vanity treat–by no means a must-have, but it’s a nice-to-have if you go out and dress in little black dresses. The way the shimmer dances in the light is exquisite–really–and it dances, glimmers, and sparkles all at once and looks quite lovely on the body (shoulders, decolletage, legs). The shimmer is like micro-sparkle; larger than shimmer, smaller than sparkle and glitter. On the face, I think it can be too over-the-top unless you love sparkle, but it’s a product that works really well in hair, on arms, shoulders, legs, and so on.

One spray held about six to eight inches away, and the result is a light dusting of fairy dust all over the skin.  One spray held closer to the skin (one to inches away) will yield more concentrated shimmer and color.  To get a heavier swatch of product, I sprayed twice close to the skin, so you can see the bluish-pink color base of the product, but it’s virtually translucent when applied normally.

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire So Crazy! Perfumed Shimmer Powder

Caudalie Divine Scrub ($38.00 for 5.3 oz.) is described as a “softening scrub with brown sugar and four natural plant oils, featuring [their] signature Divine fragrance.” It’s noted to “gentlye exfoliate” for “soft, delicately fragranced skin.” Caudalie recommends using it twice a week on damp skin, then rinsing.

The consistency is almost solid, and as you dig through and use the product, it gets more pliable, but it’s a product that you dig and scoop out (I did get a lot underneath my nails when doing so). I wish the consistency was looser, so it would be easier to apply and I would feel like I could get just the right amount out rather than too much or too little. It’s a sugar-based scrub, so the granules are less abrasive than a salt-based scrub. As you work the scrub against the skin, it emulsifies into a milky consistency and the granules melt in about twenty seconds.

If you like gentle exfoliation that doesn’t feel like you’re scraping skin off your body, you may like this. I, on the other hand, do like a grittier scrub, as this didn’t really feel like it was working away the dead skin cells. I think the natural oils included in the product did more than the sugar, as they did leave the skin feeling soft, smooth, and lightly hydrated. I get really dry skin on my legs, and the scrub alone wasn’t hydrating enough to keep scales at bay, but it was enough hydration for my arms and torso. The product has a sweet, woody scent with a hint of pepper and rose. Many people love the scent, and of the Divine products I’ve tried, it was the least scented and noticeable. I couldn’t smell it once I stepped out of the shower unless I put my nose to my skin, and after two hours, I couldn’t even detect it then.

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Caudalie Divine Scrub

Caudalie Divine Scrub

Caudalie Divine Scrub

Caudalie Divine Scrub