Rare Beauty Makeup Review

If you missed my other post on the best sensitive skin makeup, you’ll want to check that out too. It’s basically another Rare Beauty makeup review with lots of positive things to say.

Rare Beauty Blushes in Happy, Joy, and Bliss

I love the names. I love the names of all the products and I love what the whole line represents and the impact it’s trying to make. The mental health support is why I wanted to test this brand in the first place and thought it would be a good line to review here.

All the blushes have names like this, but I chose the ones I thought stood a chance at working on my skin tone. I prefer a dewy finish and if Bliss were available in that instead of matte, I probably would’ve stopped at that one.

All of them are intense. And I mean inteeense. Just the tiniest amount will do both cheeks, the tip of my nose, and I’ll still have some left on my hand (I put a little there first and then pick a little up at a time with my fingertip to blend out on my cheeks). I wouldn’t consider either of them easy to work with, but they’re all beautiful once they’re blended out.

They aren’t perfect, though. Besides being intense, sometimes I need to add a light layer of foundation on top (I only felt like I had to do this once feel self-conscious all day, though). Sometimes I can’t get the edges to blend out so I have obvious lines on the apples of my cheeks and/or below my eyes.

Overall, I do really like the formula and it doesn’t make me itch or break out, so I’ll give this a 7/10. Maybe an 8. I wish there were more shades to choose from, especially in the dewy finish. The matte one looks a little dry to me, even though the color is the prettiest and easiest for me to work with on my skin tone.

Other Rare Beauty Products: Quick review

Since this is, at its core, a post about sensitive skin makeup, I don’t want to spend too much time on the other products. However, because everything here is Rare Beauty and I didn’t see a lot of Rare Beauty reviews in the blog world (plenty on YouTube, but sometimes you just want to scroll), I want to add an extra section here to give my quick thoughts and ratings on the other products:

Liquid eyeliner

This Rare Beauty liquid eyeliner is a 10/10 love for me. It’s dark black, matte, waterproof, doesn’t smudge unless I’m reapplying concealer and smear it up into the wing, and it’s easy to control. It can be challenging to get a very thin line with it when you first start, but it’s possible.

It’s easy to hold, too. Not too thin or too thick. The finish on the handle makes it easy to grip.

Dual-ended brow pencil and gel

This brow pencil/gel is a love-or-hate product, from what I can tell. I love it. I just wish it came with its own convenient spoolie to brush through your brows with after you apply the (creamy and intense!) pencil. It’s easy to go overboard with the color here and have your brows take over your face, whether you use the pencil, gel, or both.

I like to just barely touch my brows with it to fill in any gaps, brush through, then use the (tiny!) brush with gel to brush the hairs up and lock them into place. I almost feel like a clear gel would’ve been better because there’s so much color on the other end, but it works well once you know what to expect and just how light of a hand you need to use.

I rate this an 8/10, but there’s definitely a learning curve.

Lip balm

The lip balm’s another product most people don’t go ga-ga for, and I kind of went that way too, at first. I got the rose-colored Embrace and thought I’d be returning it after the first use, but then I felt like I wanted to try it again and then I was hooked.

There is a lot more color than you’d probably expect from a product like this. It’s like full-on lipstick, not balm, but it’s not as intense and opaque as the lip mousses. It’s as moisturizing as a balm and feels glorious on the lips, like a high-end lip balm or mask.

Some people reported a funny taste and smell, but I didn’t detect anything. I even went out of my way to lick my lips and didn’t notice anything. It may have been a little waxy, but that’s it.

It’s nice, but nothing incredibly special, so I’ll give this a 7/10.

Lip souffle

The lip souffles are the shining stars of the whole dang line. The colors are opaque and they give a velvety, almost-blurred effect to the lips. They’re matte but you’d never know it by the way they feel on your lips. The doe-foot applicator glides across your lips to spread the color and the tip of it makes it easy to stay within the edges of your lips and get a crisp line. I even skipped the lip liner.

I wish there was a nude, everyday shade that was a little pinker. I got Courage and it’s slightly too brown for me (though I still love it and feel comfortable wearing it). Brave skews more toward the warm tones than what I need for an everyday lip shade, personally, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who prefers cool-toned neutrals to feel her best.

I just wish I could find the words to describe how it feels on your lips. It’s powdery, as in not sticky. But it also kind of feels creamy and spongey (in a good way), like a million microscopic marshmallows are dancing in place on your lips. Sadly, it doesn’t taste like a million microscopic marshmallows. I didn’t notice a taste at all.

It’s not a long-wearing formula, necessarily, but the colors I tried lasted for hours. There was a little left on my water glasses and coffee cups, but nothing major.

Thoughts on each shade:

• Inspire: Suprisingly flattering, with good coverage. I didn’t expect to like this one so much. I think it’ll look great on almost all skin tones.
• Transform: Beautiful red color that I liked for a dramatic lip shade against my skin tone, deeper and maybe slightly cooler than Inspire, but the coverage was patchy no matter what. I didn’t even wear this one long enough to take a picture.
• Brave: Gorgeous shade but very warm-toned and not the best choice for me, personally. The coverage is great, though, and it could make a good everyday shade (especially in the fall) for someone with a warmer complexion.
• Courage: A good everyday shade with great coverage for those with cool-toned skin (or neutral). It’s just a tad bit too brown to be what I’d call perfect, but I can work with it.
• Heroic: Very pink, darker than I expected it to be but still beautiful. Perfect for fall and winter if you have cool-toned skin and can’t wear the tawny shades. Even though this one’s about the same depth as Transform, the coverage is good.

I’ll give this one a 9/10. I’d give 10/10 if there was a perfect everyday shade for me. Can’t wait to see more added to the line. I never knew enough about Selena Gomez to consider myself a fan, but I am one now!