Mary Kay | Brand Focus + First Impressions

A little while back now I was sent through a parcel full of goodies from the brand Mary Kay. I haven’t had much of an experience with the brand prior to now – it’s one of those brands like Avon where people sell from a catalogue and throw parties to showcase the products. I’ve been added to people’s Facebook groups but had never purchased so was really excited to see what the products were like!

I was sent a variety of products – from brushes to foundation, lipstick and mascara! For this review, I’m going to share with you my opinion of the products individually and then share with you some swatches as well. I’ve been testing these out for around six weeks now, and am fairly impressed with most products! Please do keep in mind that I am unsure of their retail prices so this is a review based purely on the product itself – which all product reviews should be!

Brushes*: I was really intrigued to try the brushes because I hadn’t really heard anything about their brushes. The face ones seemed a little more scratchy, but the eye brushes are really awesome! The shader brush picks up the perfect amount of product and the blender brush is honestly fantastic. If you can feel the brushes in person, I’d definitely recommend that so you can pick out your favourites!

Perfecting Concealer*: If you’re a pale girl – this is the concealer for you! I have the shade Light Ivory and it’s honestly perfect. I find it so hard to find concealers that are pale and good for highlighting – and this is so light, so perfect, I love it! It’s the perfect shade for me to highlight under my eyes, it has a decent amount of coverage and I haven’t had any problems with creasing.

True Dimension Lipstick*: I received this in the shade ‘Rose Discret’ and I’ll be honest, this shade is a little bit out of my usual comfort zone. It’s a more neutral pinky-rose, but I have worn it a few times and I don’t mind it! It is more on the glossy side, and takes a couple of layers to build up the pigmentation. It’s a really comfortable formula to wear on the lips, and I get a good 3-4 hours wear, less if I’m eating. Lipstick doesn’t really tend to last any longer than that on my lips (unless it’s a matte liquid lipstick) so I’m happy about that!

Makeup Finishing Spray*: This is probably the product I was the most excited about because it’s made by Skindinavia, who also make some amazing setting sprays/make the Urban Decay sprays which I love so dearly! For me, I found this was nearly identical to my Urban Decay ‘Chill’ Setting Spray, which sets my makeup down in place all day, but doesn’t help all that much with any oil control on my nose. Considering it’s not marketed as being an oil-control setting spray that’s not an issue for me at all – just something I thought worth a mention if you have oily skin and are looking at getting this!

Mineral Cheek Colour ‘Shy Blush’*: If you’ve been on my Instagram/Snapchat recently, you’ll know I can’t stop raving about my love for this blush! It reminds me so much of Nars Orgasm, but I prefer this formula over the Nars one – this blush is so soft and buttery, so easy to work with on the cheeks, it has a really nice amount of pigmentation but it isn’t too pigmented that you look like a clown. It’s great for adding a luminous flush of colour to the cheeks – it’s in my July Favourites and it’s probably close to being in my yearly favourites (at least, if I were to write them right now!)

Sheer Dimensions Powder Lace (Coral)*: The pattern of this blush drew me in straight away – how pretty!! This is a very gorgeous peachy-coral blush, a shimmery blush but not chunky with the glitter. I have worn this once and think it’s absolutely gorgeous, however it’s not for me unless I have a bit of a tan! When I’m my palest (aka now, thanks Winter!) coral colours, as much as I love them, tend to make me look even paler and almost garish, so this is stashed safely in my drawers to pull out when I’ve got a bit of a tan!

Ultimate Mascara*: This I wasn’t a fan of. If you’ve got long lashes, this will be great for you because it adds a bit of volume and does colour your lashes, however I have quite short, quite blonde lashes and I need a mascara that is more volumising and lengthening. It’s marketed to be a volumising anti-clump mascara but I didn’t find it to be – it could quite possibly just be me though, but it’s not something I’d repurchase or recommend.

Mineral Powder Foundation*: I received the shade Ivory 1, which I was shocked to find matched me pretty perfectly! It gives a light coverage with one layer, but can be built to a more medium coverage with a couple more layers. I didn’t try further than 3 layers, but I’m sure it could be built up further. For me, I prefer a fuller coverage due to scarring, and this didn’t quite cover the scarring or the two stray pimples I have had recently. I did have a friend try this on who had perfect skin (lucky thing) and she really liked it with two layers, so it’s definitely something that can be altered depending on what you need from your coverage. For me, it isn’t enough by itself right now, but it is a really comfortable powder to wear, and it is definitely suited to people that prefer a light-medium coverage.

Swatches Bottom – Top: Lipstick, Shy Blush, Coral Blush, Powder Foundation, Perfecting Concealer.

As you can see I wasn’t lying about the pigmentation! These products really are great for pigmentation, and it’s nice to see a brand that has a foundation and concealer suited to pale people with more golden undertones, such as myself! It really is hard to find something like that, so I’m really impressed!

There were a few hits and a couple of misses from this small collection of products, but overall my first experience with Mary Kay products was a positive one! I’ve found one of my absolute favourite cheek products of all time, and the concealer is an absolute dream to highlight with!