New in & mini review- Becca, Smashbox, Aveda & Jo Malone

Let’s state the obvious here… This is a really Becca and Smashbox heavy post. If you love these brands grab a nice hot drink, lean back on your sofa and enjoy!

Let’s start with Becca. There’s a bit of skincare and loads and loads of makeup. Loads of makeup…

Becca only has one skincare product, their skin love glow elixir, which is essentially a hydrating serum. You have to apply it every morning before your moisturizer and this baby will help keep your skin well nourished. I am really excited about this, it smells so good! It reminds me of my childhood a lot, it smells like a watermelon candy I used to have as a schoolkid. I heard a lot of people saying this reminds them of the smell of cucumber, so let me know if you have this what this smells like to you.  I’ll let you know if it actually helps with hydration. But, for now, I love this extra step in the mornings just alone for the fresh smell.

The next item from Becca is their first light priming filter in the travel size. This primer is supposed to hydrate and brighten dull skin. I’ve used a sample size before and I really like it. It is a purple liquid with lavenders in it to combat tired looking dull skin. I have an oily t-zone, but everywhere else I am fairly dry and I like to use this product on those areas. It also has a nice citrus smell.

I also got their aqua luminous perfecting foundation. This is a really light coverage foundation with a lovely luminous finish, hence the name. Are we sensing a theme here? I already own and love the concealer in this range. 99% of the time I don’t like something really high coverage. I prefer to use a light coverage foundation and pinpoint conceal in the problem areas to using a full coverage foundation all over, so this is perfect for the everydays. I also own their Skin Love foundation, which is my absolute favorite. It’s a medium coverage foundation with a really lightweight feel on the skin. But more about that another time.

The next item here is the under eye brightening corrector in light to medium, as I am quite fair. This is Becca’s oh so famous under eye color corrector. Most of the time I can get away using just a concealer, but on the days I need a bit more help this definitely delivers. It is quite a thick formula, so I would go in with a light hand, but I find it easier to handle than the Bobbi Brown color correctors. These are just slightly more creamy and they glide on the skin easily.

Another product I am super excited about is the Champagne pop shimmering skin perfector liquid highlighter. I find the colors of the liquids are just a tad different from the powder highlighters. I definitely can’t use the pressed Champagne pop unless I rock a tan, whereas the liquid version is completely fine. I also find these to be slightly more natural. You can use these on top of the foundation, but my favorite way to use it is to add a pump of it to my foundation. It just leaves me with a natural all over glow. If you love dewy skin you definitely need these in your makeup bag. I would love to add Pearl to my collection as well.

Another highlighter I own now is the Royal glow shimmering skin perfector. This is a limited edition pressed highlighter that has been on the market for a while now and I don’t know why no one talks about this. It is a beautiful warm glow, quite similar to Opal though I have to say. At this point, I own almost every shade Becca ever made for light-medium skin tones and the formula is beautiful on all of them. Really buttery and they apply beautifully on the skin.

Second to the last item is the beach tint in the shade raspberry. I love the formula of these! So easy to use. They are a liquid blush formula that you can use on your lips as well. They will leave you with just a slight tint, but you can build them up for a more intense finish. My absolute favorite shade is Watermelon, I might have to pick it up. Once they set they won’t budge as they are waterproof making them perfect for the summertime. Usually, when I wear it on my lips I can eat and drink in this without disturbing the color. Amazing. They can feel a bit drying on the lips though, that is the only thing I can hold against them.

The last thing I got from Becca is the limited edition lipstick from the Khloè and Malika collab hot tamale. I love Becca lipsticks. They are really creamy and long lasting, super comfortable to wear. I own another two lipsticks from their regular line. The Becca x Khloe and Malika range is exclusive to Cult Beauty for some reason in the UK. The shade hot tamale is a beautiful orangey-red shade, really similar to Mac lady danger. It is also similar to Flame from Becca’s main line. Another really similar shade is the old Kendall Jenner collab with Estèe Lauder years ago. The clearly like these shades in the Kardashian family and so do I.

Swiftly moving on to Smashbox. I don’t own anything from Smashbox, so I was really excited to get my hands on this Holidaze Photo Finish primer set, as I’ve heard so many good things about the Smashbox primers. The set contains three travel size items, the oh so famous primer water, the smooth and blur primer, and the primerizer. The product I was most excited about was the primer water and ironically the only product of the set I haven’t tried yet. The smooth and blur primer I like a lot. It is really similar to other blurring primers. It has a silicone feel to it and just easily glides over the skin. Unlike the Benefit porefessional, this has no tint to it, it is a clear gel, but the results are the same. It fills up my pores nicely and doesn’t disturb my foundation. The last item in the kit was the primerizer. This is supposed to be a primer and moisturizer at one. I am not too sure how I feel about this yet. Do I still have to use it after my moisturizer or can I skip it? I might just use it on the mornings I have to get ready in a hurry to save a minute or so.

The next thing on my list is still a primer, I clearly got slightly over-excited. It is the photo finish iconic primer stick. It hooked me with the sentence 12-hour oil control. Sadly, it does nothing for me in that matter. I do find it really easy to use and it blurred my pores, but if you are really oily I doubt this will be your best bud. I like the handy stick formula though and I will continue using this for smoothing over my pores.

The last Smashbox purchase was the photo finish hydrating under eye primer. I’ve only tried this once, so I can’t give you a full review on this. I have slightly dehydrated under eyes and I struggle with some fine lines in the area, so anything that promises to help me with that concern sucks me in. I do use an undereye cream, but if there is a hybrid product out there that helps I am in. This primer has a slight tint to it, but I would say it goes away as soon as you rub it in. It also has an interesting applicator that I thought might help you to apply the product, but it tugs a bit on the skin so I think it’s easier to just apply on your fingers and then pat it in. The first time I used it I noticed no difference really, but I will need to give it a proper test to see.

We arrived to the last two miscellaneous products. A perfume and a hand cream.

The perfume is the Jo Malone Peony & Blush suede cologne in the 30ml bottle. Jo Malone is so expensive. I love this smell though. It is sophisticated yet a strong scent in my opinion. I love flowery and fruity scents so this is right up my street. You don’t need more than two little sprays and it does last the whole day, so I guess the price is justified. I only realized afterward that sadly Jo Malone is not cruelty-free. I will finish this bottle but won’t be repurchasing again, even though I love this scent.

Aaaaand the last item is the Aveda travel size hand relief creme. I was running out of my hand creme and I like to have one in my bag at all times. I hate having dry hands and having that itchy, tight skin feel. Since I went cruelty-free I haven’t settled with one hand cream, but this might be the one. It is really rich but still sinks in my skin really quickly. It leaves no weird residue behind just the feel of well-nourished hands. The only thing I dislike is the scent, but it is nothing too overpowering.

Phew, this was a rather long post. I really hope you had a nice drink to sip on while reading through this.

Do you own any of these products? Have you purchased anything exciting lately? I would love to hear about it.

Have a lovely day!