Reviews: The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer & Autobalm California Palette

Hello gorgeous!

I just found new lovely goodies: Mary-Lou Manizer and Autobalm California Face Palette from The Balm! The Balm is a drugstore brand, I think, which has gorgeous vintage packaging, like Benefit Cosmetic, that I really love! Enough with the review at first sight, I’m gonna get right into it!

The Mary-Lou Manizer – 590.000 VND

The Autobalm California Palette – 390.000 VND

MARY-LOU MANIZER

The Balm

Mary-Lou Manizer

Highlighter/ Shadow/ Shimmer

Firstly, let’s go over the packaging. The packaging is cute with a good-sized mirror, but doesn’t have brush in the compact, which is quite inconvenient and the quality of the compact doesn’t seem very good. It contains 0.30 oz/8.5g which is huge, I don’t think I’m going to need to find any other highlighters in quite a long time.

I love this highlighter from The Balm because the warm champagne color compliments my medium skin tone with yellow undertone very well (in shade MAC NC25). Actually I think this golden shimmery highlighter would look good on most skin tone from fair to darker, especially for warm and yellow undertone. That’s probably why there’re so many other beauty bloggers talking about it. The color is buildable and isn’t so intense, so I think it’d be great for any makeup look, from casual everyday to special event.

Speaking of the color, I’d like to bring into a quick comparison with the Cindy-Lou Manizer. In my opinion, the color of Mary-Lou is more flexible and easier to match variety of skin tone. On the other hand, the Cindy-Lou has a gorgeous shade of peachy pink hue which can also be used as blush for those who has a fair complexion. But I find it a little too dark for a highlighter and too pale for a blush. If you have a fair complexion, it is pigmented enough to use as a blush, but I think it would be too shimmery for one, especially day wear. So, after all, the Cindy-Lou is just no good for a medium complexion with yellow undertone like me.

This is a multitasker, I brush it lightly over my brow bones, inner corner of my eye, down my nose, on my cheek bones, and a little bit on the cupid bow. The result was amazing, it gives my skin a gorgeous healthy glow. If you love the luminous, dewy skin look, you need to try this out.

The formula is very easy to blend in, using finger or brush to apply, both are great. Because of the soft and buttery formula, a little goes a very long way, but you may overdo it. I’ve also read some reviews said that the powder is easy to break, but I didn’t drop it once, anyway I guess need to be careful. So I think this highlighter isn’t very travel-friendly.

AUTOBALM CALIFORNIA PALETTE

The Balm

Autobalm California Palette

If you’re looking for an all-in-one palette, there you are, this Autobalm California Palette got it all, this is just exactly what I want! The Autobalm California and Hawaii Palette are two new items for Fall 2014, which is also available on www.kohl’s.com. Surprisingly, they’re Kohl’s exclusive, so I’m not sure if these are available anywhere else. (Due to some technical problems, I can’t access to www.kohl’s.com, so I will linked above another stores in the UK. And I don’t know why those palette are nowhere to find on the official site of The Balm)

About the packaging, still the vintage style from The Balm. The packaging design is shaped like a driver license which is very fun and interesting. This palette is made of hard paper – I think – which make the palette lighter, easier to bring along and would be a good item to travel with.

This face palette has 4 shades: blush, highlighter, and 2 other shades for eyes. But actually, to be creative with makeup, you can use the blush and highlighter as eye shadow. I’d love to use the blush as eye shadow for a spring makeup look.

About the formula and texture of the powder, they’re soft and pigmented and easy blend in.

Blush

I love the bright coral pink shade of the blush, not too pink not too orange. This blush shade would be great for a natural everyday makeup look with neutral tone. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I bought this palette!

Highlighter

This highlighter has a beautiful shimmery light pink. But I think I’d still prefer the Mary-Lou Manizer, because its texture and color are more intense and pigmented. Anyway, the shade of this highlighter is more appropriate for day makeup look.

Eye shadow

It has two shades of brown: matte light brown and gold shimmer dark brown.

I tried the matte light brown on my eyebrow, it gives a very natural looking eyebrow, not too harsh like using the eyebrow pencil, but it doesn’t define your eyebrow very much. I’d also love to put it on the crease of my eyes to give it a little definition.

The darker brown would be great to use as an eyeliner. You can also take a little bit of this on the eyesocket for a smokey eyes look. But be careful not to overdo it, otherwise it would be too dramatic and overwhelmed. With the eye shape like mine – Asian eyes – the dramatic smokey eyes look just doesn’t really compliment my eye shape, so I’d prefer to use this gold shimmer dark brown as a liner.

Overall, these are two goodies from The Balm that I love so so much!

Hope my reviews could help you take a closer look of these two lovely items. I’m working the next blog post, sneak peek for you guys, it’s going to be another makeup look. So stay tuned for the next blog post, it’s gonna up real soon!

Many thanks for reading my blog!

Love yourself more and always be beautiful.

& Have fun shopping!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored blog. I only recommend products I use and I personally think are good having tried them on myself, so I can’t guarantee that all of those products I recommended will suit you. I suggest you test products out on yourself before purchasing.