Review: Skin by Alison Raffaele Soft Gloss

This is almost the last of my Alison Raffaele purchase from Hautelook from a bit ago. Skin by Alison Raffaele Soft Glosses ($19.50 on alisonraffaele.com, I got mine for ~$5 on Hautelook; 0.21 oz.) are meant to be a moisturising, long-lasting, non-sticky gloss according to the Alison Raffaele website. It comes in six colors; the two shades I purchased are Demure (light pink) and Elegant (a dark rosy brown).

Packaging:

The packaging these come is is pretty standard. They are long, thin, clear plastic tubes with purple caps (the color consistant with the rest of the line). The tops of the lids have the Alison Raffaele flower motif stamped on the lid. There are no ingredients or even shade names on this packaging (it was on the exterior packaging; the box it came in), which is mildly irritating. These have a standard doe foot applicator.

Demure

Product:

These glosses were surprising to me in many ways. First of all, when I received them, I thought to myself, why in the world did I order these colors? Demure seemed to cool and bright for me, and Elegant was just so brown! They redeemed themselves upon trying, though, because while they look scary in the tube, their colors are somewhat sheer on the lips. In fact, they look rather nice! Demure cooled down my lip color to a lovely baby pink and gave a nice shine. Elegant darkened my lip color to a medium browned rose.  So — these are sheer, which is good to keep in mind! I consider this a neutral point in relation to the product because the official product website doesn’t claim any kind of coverage about them.

The formula is surprisingly as claimed! It goes on a bit thin, is completely non-sticky, and stays that way. It lasts a good few hours on me, and it is non-drying — even a bit moisturizing. It has a light vanilla scent that is almost unnoticeable, and that disappears quickly. A little bit goes a long way with these; too much product will goop up your lips. They are a bit on the extra-slip side, too, but I haven’t had a problem with them not staying put.

The gloss line itself is a bit limited. Only six shades are listed on the Alison Raffaele website. For this kind of gloss, though, I think this is acceptable — sheer glosses can look the same if they aren’t different enough from each other.

Image from alisonraffaele.com

I was very pleasantly surprised with these glosses, since I wasn’t really expecting much after the other products. These live up to their claims, and I enjoyed them besides. The price is a bit high when full-price (more than MAC tinted lipglass), but you do get a good bit of product (0.21 oz compared to MAC’s lipglass at 0.17 oz.).

Swatches:

Elegant, Demure

Elegant

Demure

Overall:

I gave them a 4/5. I wouldn’t consider them the BEST glosses I’ve ever tried, but they are pretty good, especially for a non-sticky gloss. I wear these often, and I liked them enough that I MAY purchase them at full price, if I purchase them again, though I’m glad for the price I got them for ($19.50 puts these between MAC and Chanel pricewise)!

Review: Skin by Alison Raffaele Tinted Moisturizer

This is another of the things I purchased from the Hautelook Alison Raffaele sale ages ago. I paid $8.75 for this, but it sells for $35 at beauty.com; it is 1.76 oz. It comes in three colors: light, light-medium, and medium. I purchased it in light-medium.

Packaging:

This comes in a squishy flat plastic tube in the signature shiny lilac color that the Alison Raffaele “Skin” Collection uses, and is consistent with the brand image. I don’t necessarily like the tube shape or the lid, though, because it is harder to store since the lid is rounded, and it can’t be stored on end. Though it looks sleek, the packaging actually takes up a lot of space.

The nozzle I also don’t really enjoy because it doesn’t hold the product in when it is open with the nozzle facing even a little downwards; you don’t have to squeeze the tube at all for product to come out. I’ve made a mess and gotten way too much product on the few occasions I’ve worn this!

There is a list of ingredients on the back, as well as more information on the moisturizer.

Click to enlarge

Product:

The consistency of the tinted moisturizer is quite thin, a bit more so than the average liquid foundation. It goes on smooth and feels very light and moisturizing. It is sheer in one layer, which is the way that I wore it because the color was a bit off for me, so it required a lot of blending and smoothing to look natural. The product desription says  it is meant to be medium coverage, and I would say it is somewhere between medium and sheer, depending on how it is applied and blended.

This tinted moisturizer has a rating of SPF 15, and uses physical ingredients (Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide) as opposed to chemical for the active sun blocking ingredients.

The color range is very limited, which is a negative. The color I purchased was also not right for me, and I am unsure whether any of the other colors would work either. It ended up being about the right color saturation for my skin tone, but ran way to orange on my face straight from the tube. I would be afraid that the light shade would just be a lighter version of the same color and don’t want to spend $35 on another, so haven’t purchased another color to test it out.

Swatches:

Overall:

I gave it a 3/5. While I didn’t like the packaging and the color was wrong for me, I did really like the formula of the moisturizer itself. I’m not sure if I would rate this as high if I had paid full price for it, though.

Review: Alison Raffaele Soft Shadows

I’ve had these shadows for quite some time, but hadn’t gotten around to reviewing them, yet!

I bought these from a sale on Hautelook a few months ago for $4.88 each, but they sell for $19.50 on beauty.com. These are 0.11 oz. The colors I own are Moonlight (shimmer), Warm Grey (matte), and Taupe (matte).

Packaging:

These come in cute, lightweight, lilac purple plastic round compacts with a flower design on the top. The compact itself has a moderately good clasp; it holds the shadow shut well, but can be difficult to open. There is a mirror on the inside. The back has a sticker with the shadow name and some information (no ingredients, though).

Product:

I was very surprised with this product when I received it after reading the rave reviews on Makeup Alley. With the shadows themselves, on me, the mattes were chalky and not very pigmented. Moonlight was okay formula-wise, but the color doesn’t really show up on my skin tone. Maybe I got some rejects or am missing something?

I was also surprised that being called “Soft Shadow”, the product wasn’t softer. The texture of it is silky to the touch, but is hard in the sense that I feel like I have to really swipe my brush or sponge hard to get enough product to show up.

The colors themselves aren’t bad if unoriginal (though I feel that Taupe isn’t really taupe), they just aren’t pigmented enough to warrant using them for me. They are layer-able, but why layer when I have other products that don’t require that. Moonlight is the only one I’ve used more than once or twice because it does work nicely as a highlighter. I really wanted these shadows to work as I love some of the other products in the Alison Raffaele line, but for me, they were really a miss.

Swatches (these are as dark as I could swatch these colors with sponges, brushes didn’t work; there are probably ~5 heavy layers of each shadow. Click to enlarge):

L-R: Moonlight, Warm Grey, Taupe

Overall:

I gave them a 1.5/5. The packaging is nice, and I only paid $4.88 for these. Moonlight I do somewhat like, but the matte shades I really do not. I would probably rate these less if I had paid full price as they would likely have been returned.