Sampling Vapour Beauty: Atmosphere Luminous Foundation 130

The reason I ordered this: Stick foundation, or Foundation stick!
 

Vapour Beauty Sample set

Ok, to steer away from the phallic symbolism and Freud, it was curiosity too after reading Miss DrivellerKate blogging about it (here). It almost made the order the whole stick before sampling, but reason got over stick-mania and I ordered some samples.

I'm not the greatest (foundation-)stick fan! (you might thought otherwise but I wanted a sassy introduction...hehe). My last one was a Rimmel one in the prehistoric year of 2001! I worked in a cosmetic shop which fueled my cosmetic-addiction and gave me playtime when no customers were around. I think most women (& men) working in cosmetics love their face-crayons aplenty.

So that one, and I tested Tom Ford in London when I visited Selffridges. I kinda liked it (I almost hear DrivellerKate wispering "traitor" as I told her I'm not the most Tom Ford-cosmetics fan) but the amount of cash wasn't word the splurge that it would outdo my other foundation stash.

Anyway, I ordered a set of samples from their original website, as it was the only place to try out the  Atmosphere Luminous Foundation (or the more sophisticated name for the "stick" I've been muttering out again & again in this post, teehee)

Vapour sample set: full with tips, a discount,  pictures & application methods...

Overall, I ordered a Mesmerized eye-colour in Storm, Stratus Luminous Skin Perfector, a delightful nighttime oil: Essence restorative night treatment with the sample of the stick:

But I will do a mini-review of the Atmosphere Luminous Foundation (Stick) today in colour 130:

not THE stick, but a part of it

I received the sample in the exact same container as when I ordered from naturisimo.com (see review on concealer here)

Swatches: Unblended: 1st application -above: Tanned part of arm - below- original paleness of me:

It matches the top and it totally too dark for my real light skin. 

Swatches Blended:

Similar as before: when it matches the skintone (top) , it brings out a gorgeous & luminous glow. When too dark (bottom), it looks like a bit of oompaa loompa.

Swatch: blended-close-up

Similar as before, only close up.

(personal) VERDICT:

• the colour turned out to be too dark for my face too. 120 would have been a better option
• Formula: Thick. Personally, it felt too heavy on my sensitive skin.
• Effort: I found it difficult to blend and it took me longer than normal. The stick was too thick for me 
• Finish: I loved the glow and colour-luminescence, even if it was too dark for me (it looked natural after lots of blending in the neck, etc)
• More suitable for dry and not-too-sensitive skins.
• Scent: natural but still scented.

CONCLUSION:

Blimey, I love the effect it had on my skin, natural and glowy! The feel on my skin was something I personally didn't like. Howcver, that has been the reason I stayed away from sticks for more than a decade so that's something personal and related to the type of skin I have.

Availability:
You can order 5 samples from their whole range on their website (here)

Finished Finesse

On the things I used up lately:

1. Shills Oxygen Mask:

This Korean copycat brand probably has been staring too much at Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energysing Mask because the concept is almost the same. But that was the reason I bought this one, as I like the Bliss Oxygen mask but I wasn't too fond of the price. Shills retails around $13 whereas Bliss is $54.

I have been having this mask in my beauty-cabinet since buying a lot of Shills from sasa.com. Lately I have been using it more and I like it as much as the Bliss: it's easy, its fun (when the foamy bit starts to work) and it's fast (also 3 minutes). It might be coincidence, but if I use this the night before I can see my skin being clearer and more radiant the next day.

I would repurchase: too bad it isn't on sasa anymore.
 
2.  Vapour Atmosphere Soft Focus Foundation 120.

I am quite happy with the sample of the concealor I got in 020 (here), so trying out this *raved about* foundation was the next step.

It wasn't all perfect. First, as you can see, the colour has been quite dark. I didn't expected that as the colour beneath it, 115, claimed to be for fair skin, and this one for medium. It looks more like a medium-dark to me.  I thought the 120 would match the 020 concealer number? Secondly, the shimmer is too high for the whole face. Remember Mac Strobe cream? Only this over the whole face mixed with some foundation.

I guess this foundation will work for some people, but I prefer focused dewiness over total shimmer in a foundation.

3. L'Oreal Professionel Age Densiforce Omega 6 hairmask.

Another hairmask, and another one from L'Óreal Professionel.

I like this mask a lot, only the chemical rice-based scent will keep me from repurchasing it.

The beauty of this hairmask is that it is actually as thin as the usual conditioner, but works enough to qualify as a hairmask. As it targets for ageing hair, often thinner hair, the lighter consistency means it bring in more volume than the average hairmask. My hair was somewhat bouncier and with more volume than the average mask, without compromising too much on the moisturizing/repairing factor.

Right now I prefer the L'Óreal Professional Nature Mask Omega I reviewed here, because it gives my slightly damaged hair more moisture (although this one is better in volumising), and the scent of that one is so much better.

Vapour Aura Multi Use Blush Classic in 213 Courtesan

A while ago I reviewed and swatched the Vapour Organic beauty concealer (here). I also bought a swatch of their Courtisan blush for testing and as an organic alternative for the non-organic blushes I have.

Courtesan is described as a "classic rose" on their website. Most people into blush love to go for the pinky corals that are related to the NARS orgasm family (and their many offsprings). I have a preference for rose-coloured blushes: it mimicks my natural flush the most and it looks also flattering as a colour on the lips.

The promise:

 The ingredients:

from naturisimo

Before I discuss the texture and the fact if it will work on both cheeks and lips (didn't want to use rose on my eyes) I will look at the colour first:

Colour sample: a reasonable amount:

When a cosmetic addict fan like me receives something, I often try to link it to another colour that I might have that would be similar.

Initially, I thought it would match closely to NYX doll lipstick and Sephora Nano lipliner in 15 Royal rose: according to the colours on their packaging I suggest they would be close matches

And then again, they are not similar at all: no sibling material. All three part of the rose family but all three such different roses.

I wondered if one of my other cream-cheek blush would be similar. My initial thought was the Lipstick queen (hybrid) colour in Minor Crisis:

Swatched:

(not the best swatch due to the flash)

Lipstick queen is the cooler rose of the two. Vapour Courtesan contains some red that makes it slightly warmer and more red.

Texture/Hybridity:

• it is really pigmented for a normal and even for an organic blush.
• Normally, the hybrid lip/cheek performs a bit lesser on the lips, however, this one brings out a lovely and visible stain with a reasonably creamy base. I spreads quite evenly over the lips
• for cheeks I advise good blending because it is quite pigmented 

Conclusion:

Organic cosmetics have come a long way since they were introduced and lots of brands have jumped to the occasion to go organic. Vapour is a newer and not that widely known as RMS but I think it delivers on creating a good concealer (see post) and a beautiful rosy blush/lip hybrid product. I like the fact that you can carry it around in a thin stick when buying full-size, which is also somewhat more hygienic than a pot.

Availability:

I bought my sample at naturisimo but they have been OOS for a while. Their full size is only available in Tender at the moment (here) which looks more like a highlighter to me. I think the vapourbeauty.com website is the best bet for both samples and full-size right now

Cheek/lip hybrids: the battle

When I received my Edward Bess lip/cheek in Island Rose, I tested it ofcourse and the first thing that I thought was "Darn, my Kose Addiction is still the grand no. 1 compared to this one".

But to get things really precise I dug out all of my hybrid cheek/lip products, which turned out to be a lot, and tested them based on texture and hybridity. I only tested the products that directly marketed as being a hybrid lip/cheek: there are other products that work brilliantly for both and are still marketed as only blush or only lipstick, but I won't review those.

And even though I already gave out the outcome which is my fave no. 1 (Addiction), I still discuss them all for other no. 1s on other fields.
 

sorry for the NARS multiple looking so grubby: I cleaned it a lot but, it's reality: NARS stuff really gets a yucky packaging after a while

Ok, let the battle begin:

1. Julie Hewett Cheekie:

One of my first and still a good favourite of mine
Lip performance: it brings out a medium colour on the lips that spreads easily. It has a glowy texture, which is flattering. It feels a tiny bit waxy, but quite like a MAC lipstick so not really unusually un-lipstick
Cheek performance: A glowy colour with a medium coverage. It glides easily over imperfect skin (I have a tiny scar from a laser treatment that still has to heal) and doesn't sit in the pores. It last for approximately 5 hours before it diminishes in colour. The fading is natural and non-blodgy.

2. Etude House Angel Kiss Lip and Cheek

It's a light-pink colour and really the unusual one in my collection
Lip performance: For a light pink colour that normally wouldn't look good on my or would sit in the folds of my lip, it is quite dewy and glides over the lips and makes them appear smoother. The colour pay-off is medium to high cover. It feels somewhat waxy, but not too hindering. It lasts for approximately 2 hours.
Cheek performance: It dissapeared on my cheeks after a couple of minutes and I first thought that must be the colour, however, I saw it when I applied it at first. It is dewy enough to glide over that tiny scar I mentioned before.

3.  Etude House Sugar Pink Lip & Cheek

I like Etude House, obviously, and they have lots of hybrid performers
Lip performance: it felt grainy and waxy on my lips. The colour didn't spread equally and settled in the lines so it needed high grade of blending and a pre-lip product first: not something that you want from a easy-to-carry hybrid product.
Cheek performance: that part was a lot better! It spreads quite equally over cheeks and the colour payoff is light to medium. It lasted for about 3 hours before fading.

4. Lotree

My ultimate fave Korean brand for a while, and then it suddenly was really hard to get on gmarket, darn.
Lip performance: smooth and glowy on the lips with light to medium colour-payoff.
Cheek performance: one of my favourite blushes for a while and I was glad I reviewed it for this post because I will wear it again. I love it! It glides over the skin, last for 4 hours with equal fading and has the perfect neutral colour (oh, sorry, I wouldn't discuss colour over here but it's so lovely)

5. Edward Bess lip/cheek Island Rose

The newbie in my collection of last weekends haul!
Lip performance: Quite light! I saw it on Sabrina from beautylookbook who branded this item as her ultimate date saver but it might be that her lips are lighter because I don't see as much colour payoff as the others I reviewed. The scent is lovely, a fig-type and it feels really balmy and smooth. But it's more a lipbalm on me.
Cheek performance: Also quite light. I also found it settling in that scar after a while which made that darn thing more obvious. I think this one will go up for swap on makeupalley.

6. Bobbi Brown Lip/cheek in Cabo Coral

Probably the best known one! I bought it for the colour that is a coral/tan shade and perfect on (fake) tanned skin.
Lip performance: Probably discussed endlessly on other beautyblogs and reviews but it's quite light (to light medium) and dissapears after 1 hour. The plus side is that it is so lovely for smoothing out lips and it doesn't sink in any beginning lines around the mouth.
Cheek performance: Vivid and creamy. It needs good blending but if you do that it will look lovely on. It last for 4 hours and even through a dance workout!

7. Becca creme blush in Hyacint

I'm not even sure it markets as a hybrid but its quite lovely so I put it up.
Lip performance: light to medium. It looks like a glowy lipbalm/lipstick colour and last for 2 hours tops.
Cheek performance: Hyacint is one of the sheerer colours, compared to the imfamous Turkish Rose. It still needs some blending to get it natural but it will last about 4 hours. Not my favourite for cheek colour. Turkish Rose has a medium coverage and Hyacint light-to-medium.

8. Becca Beach Tint Lip and Cheek

In contrast to the Becca above, this one is really long-lasting for both lips and cheek. Then again, it markets itself as a hybrid beach products that would suit surfer babes and swimming queens so that makes sense.
Lip performance: It is a gel-texture and feels a bit dryer when applied. However, it turns into a matte to velvet stain (I have Watermelon) that really last in a water-setting for a while. The coverage is medium but still quite natural. It smells really nice like a candied watermelon.
Cheek performance: This gel-like product spreads on light but can stills settle in a pore or scar so blending is needed. After that, it stays rather put and has a light to medium coverage without any shimmer. It looks quite natural. It market as a Beach product and they made quite the reasonable product for it.

9. Vapour Organic cheek/lip in Courtisan

Another newbie I will review in detail soon. Shortly:
Lip performance: Medium to medium/high coverage. It feels like a dryer lipstick (eg MAC or NARS) but that makes it quite longlasting. I do find, just like the other dryer lipstick types, that I need a smoother under this lipstick to make it appear more equal.
Cheek performance: high coverage and needs good blending due to the dryer texture. It stays on for about 5 hours before fading.

10. Kose Addiction in Revenge

My most expensive, but my ULTIMATE lip/cheek hybrid!
Lip performance: BRILLIANT! It is one of those velvety mattes that actually look good on me. Chanel makes a velvety matte lipstick as well, the Allure Velvet, but this one is even better in smoothing out the un-plumpness of the lips. The colour payoff is excellent: it lasted a vigourous excercise class and my lips were as corally pink afterwards.
Cheek performance: Just as amazing! The velvet texture that smooths out lips works brilliantly on cheeks as well and even without all the priming/foundation I can wear it without setting into that scar. And that is often what I like when wearing cream-cheek products, when I don't have tons of makeup on! It wears for 5 to 6 hours.

11. NARS Multiple (Beverly Hills)

The limited edition one: it's not as vibrant in colour as the other multiples but doesn't have that pesky glitter/shimmer thing going on either. I will discuss the texture of the Orgasm Multiple as well for review's sake
Lip performance: Beverly Hills is really sheer and smells somewhat alcoholy and gel-like. It dissapears in 5 minutes? Orgasm (or Copacabana) stays for about an hour or 2, but as discussed in tons of blogs: it's not a real lip-product and feels somewhat dry and doesn't plump up lips.
Cheek performance: Beverly Hills is sheerer and more gel-like than the regular Multiples, but I love the sheerness on cheeks for giving that supernatural but still visible change in colour. Similar as the gel-like texture of Becca's Beachtint, although this one glides better over the skin. The beachtint, in contrast, last longer.

Conclusion:
I already told you that the Kose Addiction in my favourite and I wish they came in tons of colours and half the price cheaper.  However, in the end I like them all for different reasons. Sometimes colour plays a great role too but I haven't discussed it today. Women like hybrid products for times we don't want to carry a lot of products a round or sometimes we want to colour-coordinate our lips to our cheeks. I don't think a hybrid lip/cheek product should be a hassle or too-much-an-effort to apply because I prefer my creamy blushers on a tinted moisturizer face or at least not too primed and powdery, otherwise I would have picked a powder blusher. So it has to have some ingredient inside that makes it easy to apply, but still longlasting and looking equal on both face an lips. That is a lot of things to demand and that's why I believe Kose Addiction did an excellent job: it's so travel-handy too.

Vapour Cosmetics Illusionist: an Organic Concealer

I have been quite into sampling lately and when the opportunity arised to try out a new concealer from Organic Brand Vapour, I was happy to jump at the opportunity.

My skin has been (again) on a sensitive spell lately. Which brought me to the dilemma of covering up and (possibly) continue the irritation but look better, or go barefaced and show the spots.

Both not the best options, so I often opt for a organic concealer to minimize the change of (further) irritation as much as possible. 

Above you see my new Vapour sample and my current favourite Organic concealer RMS Beauty. I bought RMS beauty on the recommendation from Grace at LondonMakeupGirl.

I haven't had much luck with trying out the recommendations of the models/stars/etc but I often really enjoy the precise, accurate and elaborate reviews of the beautybloggers around, the excellent swatches of DrivelaboutFrivol, WorshipofBlues, theNonBlonde, Beautylookbook, PinkSith, LondonMakeupGirl and so many others who really test out products and apply it on real people seeing real results (not that the models, etc aren't real, but let's just say they have lucky genes and most stuff will work for them).

I wanted to compare the Vapour Illusionist with the RMS Uncover in 22 as the organic counterpart, but also with my two non-organic miracle cover-ups: Hourglass Hidden in Natural and Kevin Beautymaker in Light:

So here we go:

Swatches, before blending:


Texture:

• Vapour 020 is of a dryer texture than the other 3. 
• It covers quite well. And even if it is dryer, I can use it around the eye area (although the creaminess of the others works a bit better)
• Because of the non-creamy texture: it makes a good pimple/acne concealer

 Colour:

• Vapour 020 is in the similar colour (depth) family as RMS 22, Hourglass Hidden Natural & Kevin Beautymaker light
• It has a really slight pink/cooler undertone, but not that super-noticable compared to the others.

Swatches, About 3/4 blended:

Texture:

• the two Organic concealers: Vapour 020 & RMS 22, have a similar finish on the skin. Slightly velvet.
• Hourglass Natural has the most creamy glow (somewhat concealer-like, thus better for the eye area)

Colour:

• Vapour 020 is a tad lighter than RMS 22.
• Vapour 020 is listed as a colour for Fair to medium skin, but I would say light to Medium skin colour instead (light being a tone darker than fair)
• Both Vapour & RMS have a neutral (neither warm nor cool) finish
• Hourglass Hidden looks slightly pink compared to RMS & Vapour

Feel on skin:

Before Vapour Illusionist, I have been relying on RMS uncover for both cover and sometimes I apply it thinly as a foundation. RMS Uncover sometimes feels waxy on the skin, perhaps due to the amount of natural oils in it. I cannot use Vapour Illusionist as a foundation on itself because the texture is dryer (I could mix it with a emulsion) but it feels better on the skin when using it as a concealer: not waxy.

Conclusion:

I'm quite happy I sampled the Vapour Illusionist as the non-waxy Organic alternative to RMS beauty Uncover. I think the colour would be too dark for fair skin, but is a reasonable match for light to light medium. It covers well without having that concealer-look. It suits better for covering pimples/acne/spots than to use as eye-concealer, but you can still use it well as an eye-concealer if your eye-area is not to dry.

Availability:

I sampled my sample from Naturisimo.com for £1.00 but they're OOS right now. Americans can sample from their site here. A full size is available over here for £20.00 and comes in a stick-dispenser.