Maybelline is one of those drugstore brands that never disappoints. Always coming up with newest and most innovated products, each one being slightly better than the next. This season they’ve released an array of new products that are pretty exciting. I wanted to share some of my top must-haves for spring 2016, hitting stores this month. Anything from a matte, yet hydrating foundation, pomade brow crayons, contour palettes, boosting setting spray, to matte liquid lipsticks, sensational mascara, tattoo eyeshadow crayons and a new eyeshadow palette.
Let’s talk face products first, and maybe my favourite out of the entire new collection? The Maybelline Dream Velvet Soft-Matte Hydrating Foundation promises to help keep skin hydrated for up to 12 hours with a smooth, matte finish. It has a soft, velvety mousse texture with an almost whipped consistency that’s incredibly lightweight and slightly cooling once applied to the skin. Its refreshing gel-like formula provides a medium coverage that never looks flat or dull. It glides onto the skin with ease, blends out beautifully and gives a sheer, incredibly natural, soft appearance to the skin. It also seems to help diminish the appearance of large pores and fine lines, by blurring any imperfections for a second-skin look that looks incredibly natural.
It’s no denying that I have extremely dry skin, so I usually stay away from matte foundations, that being said, although the Maybelline Dream Velvet Soft-Matte Hydrating Foundation provides a completely matte finish, it keeps my skin hydrated the entire day. It didn’t cling to any dry patches nor did it accentuate any flakiness I may be struggling with that day. It gives a smooth, flawless, almost airbrushed effect with the smallest amount of product. Now I know what you’re thinking, how will this affect those with oily skin? Although it’s quite moisturizing, I believe its matte finish will help absorb any excess oily to ensure your skin never looks greasy or shiny. I think both those with dry and oily skin will benefit from this truly unique foundation. It wore for a solid 8+ hours without fading or oxidizing, although it does apply a little lighter in colour than it comes out in the tube. It helps to give a slight brightness to my dull, dehydrated skin this winter. It comes in 12 shades and retails for $10.99 for 30ml.
To help set and lock your Maybelline Dream Velvet Soft-Matte Hydrating Foundation in place all day, try the new Maybelline Master Fix by FaceStudio Wear-Boosting Setting Spray. This incredibly weightless, translucent, fine mist setting spray will lock your makeup in place with an invisible layer. This helps to ensure your makeup doesn’t melt-down or fade the entire day. No need to touch-up with a powder or blotting papers thanks to its lightweight, oil-free protective shield. It will help provide a flawless, never dry, completely natural finish that lasts.
Like all setting sprays, Maybelline Master Fix by FaceStudio Wear-Boosting Setting Spray comes in a pump style bottle with a spray nozzle that’s easy to control. It provides an incredibly fine mist that’s held about 8” away from your face to ensure it doesn’t leave wet marks on your skin. Although it’s not continuous, and you may end up with a little wetness on your skin, it absorbs fairly quickly. It did a fairly decent job at keeping my foundation looking fresh and moisturized, but as far as longevity, I think it was about the same with or without? It retails for $15.99 for 100ml.
Another face product I’m pretty pumped for, the new Maybelline Master Contour Palette Face Contouring Kit. It comes with 3 coordinating shades to help sculpt, contour and highlight the face. The contour shade will help add structure and hollow out the cheekbones and jawline, the blush will help add a healthy, flushed pop of colour to the apples of the cheeks, and the highlight will help add volume to pronounced points of the face for a radiant glow.
I love that the Maybelline Master Contour Palette Face Contouring Kit comes in two shade variations, ensuring all 3 of these universally flattering shades will accommodate everyone. The trio in the Light to Medium compact is perfect for those with pale to fair skin and feature a matte bronzer for contouring, a sheer pink blush with a slight shimmer to it and a vanilla champagne highlight with a frosted finish. Medium to Deep comes with a slightly warmer brown matte bronzer, a shimmery peach blush and a peachy champagne highlight with a glittery finish. Each compact comes with a diagram on the back for easy colour placement, along with pro brush for easy application. For the most part, each shade is fairly silky and smooth, although the bronzers are a bit dense and drier in texture. It’s richly pigmented, with little to no fallout, but again the bronzers do take a little more effort to blend and buff out. Although not the longest wearing formula, it starts to slowly fade after 6ish hours, it’s still a wonderful palette, at a reasonable price for highlighting and contouring any complexion. It retails for $15.99.
Let’s talk eyes, starting with the newest member to the Nude family, the Maybelline The Rock Nudes Palette. It comes with 12 new neutrals with a shot of dangerously black tint in an array of both mattes, shimmers and glitters. It promises to deliver 13 different eye looks with a step-by-step guide on the back. It’s broken down into quads, trios and duos to help you create the ultimate smokey eye this season.
As much as I love this Maybelline The Rock Nudes Palette, I’m not sure where the name “Nude” comes into play? These 12 shades are anything but your basic neutrals. Like the other Nude Palettes they do have a slightly drier and stiffer texture that can be a bit of a challenge to work with. The fact that not all shades are as opaque as I’d like them to be, you really have to build up the colours to see any colour payoff, is just one of the reasons I haven’t really been reaching for this palette. Once you get past the denser texture, and all the colour fallout, these shades blend into the skin fairly easy if paired with a good primer. I’d say 5 of the shades are quite pale and light, whereas the rest of the colours are fairly pigmented. Because this is not your traditional, basic nude palette, it might be worth a second look? The majority of shades are blackened, giving it a dramatic, rocker and slightly edgy feel that’s quite unique, yet still wearable. It retails for $17.99.
A shadow is only as good as the primer you apply underneath and the new Maybelline Master Prime 24Hour Shadow Maximizing Base features a colour grip formula to help hold shadows in place for an entire 24 hours. It helps to create the perfect smooth canvas for pure colour impact and allows any colour you place overtop to stay crease and smudge free the entire day.
Maybelline Master Prime 24Hour Shadow Maximizing Base comes with an easy to use applicator for easy and effortless application. It instantly provides a flawless nude matte base that although looks wonderful on its own, it really comes to life when paired with your favourite eyeshadows. It helps to provide all day hold on any colour to place overtop, as well as gives it a more bold and vibrant colour payoff. The shadow will apply smoother and more evenly and it helps to prevent creasy or smudging the entire day. It retails for $10.99.
You may remember my slight obsession with the Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencils, well the collection just added its 6th member to the family. The new Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencil in Nude comes with the same great gel pencil format, but done in a pale nude that’s perfect for brightening the inner eye line or adding a neutral highlight just below the brow bone. It still provides the intensity of a gel, with the precision and ease of a pencil. You can see my entire review on this formula here. It retails for $11.99.
Maybelline Master Precise Skinny 1.8MM Gel Liner Pencil is the first of its kind and features an easy to use, automatic tip with a long wearing gel-like formula. It provides an intense, effortless glide with a smooth colour payoff.
Although I don’t think the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny 1.8MM Gel Liner Pencil would be ideal for regular liner looks, I think it’s excellent for detailed work or on both the waterline and tightline. The flat top is perfect for precise lining on both these delicate and tiny areas, as it is soft enough to not damage the skin and small enough to stay exactly where you want it. It glides on easily, is intensely pigmented and sets to a completely matte finish. It stays put on both the waterline and tightline for a solid 12 hours before smudging or fading. Pretty impressive if you ask me? I think if you did apply it to your lid, you could easily get a solid 24 hours’ worth of wear time out of it. It comes in 3 new shades, Defining Black, Sharp Brown and Refined Charcoal and retails for $11.99.
Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara came out in spring and this season it has a baby sister, Maybelline Lash Sensational Luscious Mascara. It comes with a fanned reservoir brush to help capture every lash and fan them out for perfectly luscious lashes. It comes with a saffron, rose hop and argan oil conditioning formula that offers unexpected care to your lashes.
Although the packaging and name might be the same as the original Lash Sensational Mascara, the brush is completely different. Unlike last year’s version, which had a curved brush with short bristles on one side and longer ones on the other side, this new version features a straight brush with short, spiky bristles. There’s tiny gaps in between each row, aka the reservoir, which allows the brush to hold more product, allowing more product to be applied to each lash. It has an incredibly wet formula that allows the product to fully coat each lash in a single swipe. It helps to add a ton of volume and length, and definitely gives that fanned out look that goes perfectly with a smokey eye look. It retails for $10.99.
I’m not gonna lie, I have not tried the new Maybelline Brow Drama Pomade Crayons yet, but they are supposed to perfectly fill in your brow in a simple step. The unique portable, and easy to use chubby stick provides a creamy, waterproof formula that effortlessly fills in sparse, disorganized brows in seconds. It helps to shape, fill and fix all at once and comes in 3 shades for $11.99 each.
Maybelline EyeStuido Color Tattoo 24Hour Concentrated Crayon features a chubby-stick style design that’s not only portable, but is practical. It packs a punch of colour with its tattoo-like tenacity, double coated pigmented that provides intense, opaque coverage in every swipe. It has a smooth and creamy texture that doesn’t crease, fade, or smudge the entire day.
Jumbo style crayons are some of my favourite eyeshadows to work with, cause they are easy to apply, provide a ton of colour and stay put throughout the day. I now have new shades to add to my current collection thanks to the new Maybelline EyeStuido Color Tattoo 24Hour Concentrated Crayons. I would just like to say that I wish the packaging was a little different, it comes with a sticker holding both the lid and crayon together , that you have to peel off before first use, which of course leaves behind a sticky mess on the cap. These are ultra-soft, blend effortlessly into the skin and create a dramatic look in a single stroke. It can be used as both an eyeshadow, and eyeliner or even an eyeshadow base. I’m not sure if it’s designed to have a waterproof formula, but it stays put the entire day without creasing or smudging. It comes in 10 new shades and retails for $8.99.
Below are shades Barely Beige, Lavish Lavender, Lilac Lust, Bronze Truffle, Creamy Chocolate and Charcoal Chrome
Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid is intended to take pigments to an entirely different level and designed for those days when a subtle lip colour just won’t do. It comes with a unique, long, thin applicator that you can use the flat side to apply the product and then use the tip to define and fill in the lips. It has a tremendously rich and creamy formula, with a bold, velvety, matte finish. It doesn’t look flat, it’s non-drying and it feels incredibly weightless once applied to the lips. It glides on effortlessly for an enhanced smooth and silky feel and sets within a few short minutes. As its drying, it does have a slightly glossy look and feel, but as soon as it sets, it’s completely matte. It provides high coverage with an intensely bold colour payoff in a single swipe. It lasts a solid 6+ hours before slowly starting to fade.
The Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid is perfect for all you gloss wearers that love the lightweight feel of a gloss, but looking for a more intense, daring colour payoff. It’s so incredibly pigmented that even as the colour starts to fade, it leaves behind somewhat of a beautiful stain that you can enjoy for hours to come. It’s comfortable to wear the entire day, without looking cakey, feeling heavy or making your lips feel dehydrated (like other matte lipsticks). You don’t even need to apply a lip balm underneath, it’s a one-step matte look in seconds. It comes in 10 fierce shades and retails for $12.99.
Below are shades Nude Trill, Nude Flush, Pink Charge and Electric Pink
