Philosophy at Big Lots - Cheek Products (and a Lip Gloss)

This is the third and final post about the Philosophy cosmetics products I picked up at Big Lots recently for $3 a piece. You can see my first post about eye shadows here and my second post about combination palettes here.

Blushes

The Color of Grace blush palette has a faux leather case with three pink blush shades ringed with a white inside. In the swatch picture, I swatched each individual pink starting with the top shade on the left (I didn't think to swatch the white). The far right swatch is all of the colors swirled together. On their own, the pinks don't have a lot of pigmentation, but when they mix with the white, the pigmentation improves. It is a pretty pink, but because of the lack of pigmentation, this wouldn't work for those with deeper skin tones. This is a product that I would suggest most people skip.

This is the You Make Me Blush mineral blush duo in Hugs/Kisses. It is a pretty standard bronzer and blush combo. Both colors have a slight bit of sheen to them, but they don't have any shimmer. Hugs is light enough to work on my fair skin. It is a little lighter and warmer in tone than the bronzer in the Supernatural palette. Kisses is a nice, muted peachy-pink. Both have decent pigmentation.

Quick note on the packaging for this blush. I haven't commented much on the packaging because it is pretty basic. It isn't fancy, but it isn't super cheap looking either. I do want to note that this blush is magnatized into the packaging and has a hole in the bottom so it can be popped out. This is a nice feature for those who like to depot their products.

Look on the Bright Side cream blush

Bare Your Soul cream blush

I picked up two cream blushes: Look on the Bright Side and Bare Your Soul. There was a third blush there that I skipped on because it wasn't a color I thought I would wear. Look on the Bright Side is a bright, bubble gum pink, and Bare Your Soul is more of a nude pink. I have worn each of them once or twice. They have a smooth formula that blends in easily. I feel like they are a little tacky feeling after application (similar to the Tarte cheek stains if you have tried those), but that is easily solved with a quick dusting of powder on top. These both have decent pigmentation, but they are pretty sheer when blended out.


Swatches:

From left to right: Hugs bronzer, Kisses blush, Look on the Bright Side cream blush, Bare Your Soul cream blush.

Highlighters (and the Gloss)

I picked up three highlighters in three different forms: a powder, a cream, and a liquid.

The Amazing Grace shimmering face powder is a light pink powder with pink shimmer. If you are curious, it is the same highlighter that was included in the Color of Grace combination palette. It is similar in color to Benefits High Beam, but High Beam is lighter and doesn't have the pink shimmer.

 This is the Divine Illumination Love at First Light Ageless Skin Luminizer. The color is very beige. I haven't tried it yet because it makes me a little nervous. I don't know how it will work with my fair skin. I'm guessing that it is marketed as "ageless" because it has a sheen, not shimmer.

The last highlighter that I got was the Heavenly Light Pink Illuminator. I didn't open the box that this came in when I was in the store, so the packaging was a surprise to me. I don't like the packaging. The brush is way too big for applying highlighter, and it is really hard to control how much product comes out because you squeeze the product up into the brush. The one thing that I will say they did right with this product is that the brush top can be twisted to open and close it, so you won't get a surprise puddle of highlighter in your makeup bag. The color of this is much sheerer than Benefits High Beam.

This was the odd man out in my haul. This was the only lip gloss my Big Lots had. I don't know if there are others. The name of the color is Pretty Please. I believe this is the exact same formula that is in the combination palettes I picked up. There isn't much color to the gloss. It isn't overly sticky but isn't so slippery that it will disappear in 5 minutes. Since there isn't much color to this, I would suggest passing on this one. There's nothing about it that makes it stand out.

Swatches:

From left to right: Amazing Grace shimmering face powder, Love at First Light illuminator, Heavenly Light pink illuminator, Pretty Please lip gloss.

Final Thoughts

The cream blushes are my favorite products of the bunch. I think the blush duo is nice too. I haven't done much playing with the highlighters yet, but my favorite is probably Amazing Grace. The other two might be nice if your skin tone is different from mine or prefer a liquid formula. Pass on the lip gloss and the blush trio. 

This was a fun haul for me. I love the idea of getting a bargain and getting to try a bunch of new things, and since they were so inexpensive, I don't feel so bad about the products that weren't very good.

Have you found any good bargains lately?