Makeup Monday : Product Review - College Girl Budget
Hey Everyone! My name is Victoria and I am Verde Beauty's Studio Manager! I, along with my best friend Alyssa (who is also a part of the Verde team), will be doing weekly reviews of different makeup products and trends! We are so excited for this new adventure, and we hope you are too!
This week, we are doing a "College Girl Budget" review, meaning we will be using name-brand vs dupe products to see if the savings are worth the result! We tried the NYX Studio Perfect Primer : Green (color corrects red tones) to see how it matched up to Smashbox's Photo Finish Color Correcting Foundation Primer, and we compared the Aesthetica contour series : creme to the Anastasia Beverly Hills creme contour kit (although there is no difference in price, just brand popularity).
This is right after we put the primer on!
First, a few quick details about our skin: Alyssa has normal skin while I have combination (I am oily in my T-zone, but normal elsewhere). Alyssa has very little areas of redness, just on her cheeks and in between her eyebrows. I have areas of redness under my eyes, on my nose, and a small spot on my chin. We both have light skin...my skin is EXTREMELY sensitive.
Alyssa used the name-brand products, while I used the dupe products for a more honest comparison...here are our results!
We put on our foundation and then came the fun part : CONTOURING (Be on the look out for a contouring tutorial by one of our Verde Artists very soon!!)
I own the Anastasia creme contour kit, and I found that the Aesthetica contour series : creme was a little trickier to blend in with my skin. Alyssa found the Anastasia Beverly Hills much easier to blend, but thought that the light palette had a contour color that was too dark. At the end, we both looked equally contoured and ready to go!
THE FINISHED PRODUCT!
Clearly, Alyssa went a little further and added eyeliner and false eyelashes...I, on the hand, chose to be more simplistic, which speaks volumes to our individual personalities ;) We chose to do this later at night rather than the daytime, which would have provided better lighting...now we know!
I tend to stick to a bold lip (wine colors, dark reds, bright reds, purples, etc.)...Alyssa loves to rock a more neutral lip with a bit of shimmer!
Our Final Thoughts:
I ended up leaving Alyssa's house and going out for drinks with some friends. I danced like nobody was watching, which meant I was getting overheated and had to dab my face from time-to-time...my contour stayed and my redness was not visible for the remainder of the night!
As far as the contour kit, equal effectiveness plus the fact that they both cost $40 means that it is a matter of opinion on which to buy. Aesthetica is considered a "dupe" because it is a replica of a more popular and well-known brand. In our opinion, the dupe primer worked just as well as the Smashbox primer! With the NYX Studio Perfect Primer : Green (color corrects red tones) costing $13 and the Smashbox Photo Finish Color Correcting Foundation Primer - $39...sometimes, it is okay to save your money and buy dupe, and sometimes, buying name-brand won't break the bank!