The Remnants #2 (The I-Tried-Them-So-You-Don’t-Have-To Edition)

This series has me covering a handful of products in one go. This bunch includes things that are somewhat explained about in the title itself. They’re products you will most definitely want to save your money on.

 

Note: Please do not mind the varying brightness in the following product shots. They were all photographed on different days. Heck, some even years apart.

 

 

 

Ciaté London Dewy Stix in ‘Gleam’ and ‘Lustre’.

 

Why, oh, why did I buy these? I had a lot of success with cream highlighting sticks prior to buying these. That spurred an exceedingly silly interest in looking for more of such highlighters… Which led me to these guys. To  be fair, I only wanted the original variant they came out with, called ‘Glow’, but I somehow ended up with two of the other shades instead.

 

Now, hear me out, these are rather nice. They do what they say – it gives you a dewy, fresh look. However, the colours I bought, ‘Gleam’ and ‘Lustre’, are packed with glitter particles that can be spotted from a mile away. If you’re like me and want your highlighter to mimic freshly moisturised skin and be borderline incognito, you need to stay away from these.

 

The formula on these is balmy and smooth. Almost like a lip balm but for your face. With the consistency being so balmy, these do not last long. But the glitter particles tend to stick to your skin and become the focus of the highlighted areas.

 

I suppose they are best worn during festivals and weddings, which are occasions that can accommodate glitter and sparkle into any outfit. But there’s little use for them out of such events. At least for me. You know what? You can use them as a cream eyeshadow, if you please. Be warned, though. The texture on these is such that it’ll only be good for a selfie or two before they decide to permanently settle on the creases of your eyes.

 

The reason I wanted the original shade ‘Glow’ was because it’s a completely clear balm. Since it’s always out of stock, I made the stupid decision to try the other shades. While they are very pretty, the glitter makes me wince every single time I consider using them.

 

I think this will be a very polarising review of mine as the product itself is nowhere near being bad. It’s a matter of taste, rather. I also think most people won’t actually mind the product at all, especially if they have their hearts set on a high-impact highlighter. The price-point on this, I’m sure, we can all agree on; it’s horrifyingly expensive.

 

The shade ‘Gleam’ has a gold base with golden glitter particles while the shade ‘Lustre’ is pink-based with iridescent glitter particles.

 

QUANTITY: 5 grams.

PRICE: 2200 INR (that’s approximately 30 USD)

AVAILABILITY: Amazon, Nykaa, Myntra etc.

 

 

 

Etude House Proof 10 Gel Pencil Liners in ‘1 Black’ and ‘3 Milk Chocolate’.

 

Herein I break the myth that all K-Beauty products are fantastic and fail-safe. It is so not the case. There are subpar products among all different brands, regardless of their reputation and their country of origin.

 

Buying these, despite being told specifically not to, is completely my fault. A close friend of mine told me how bad these were and that I should avoid buying them. I didn’t listen to her and had to bear her rendition of “I told you so” for months on end. I’m sorry, J. You knew better and I still didn’t listen.

 

Anyway, gel pencils tend to be amazing all across the board. These, however, completely missed the mark.

 

The pigments on them are odd and hence are patchy. They aren’t smooth and you don’t get full opacity until you layer them on a few times. What’s more, the formula is extremely drying which tends to tug as you try to drag them across your eyelids. It gets too painful to bother with, after a while. They also tend to crumble and flake off throughout the day. That, ultimately, was the last straw for me.

 

In theory, they should have been eyeliners that are easy to draw on, with a smooth consistency, that set quickly and last all day. What we get instead are patchy eyeliners that are so dry that they hurt to use and are nowhere near as long-wearing as most gel pencil liners tend to be.

 

2/10, man. The 2 points are for the nifty little sharpener that is housed on the bottom of the pencils. If only the pencils themselves weren’t crumbly cookies that broke off at the first touch of a human. I can only smile wryly, writing this. It’s painful.

 

‘1 Black’ is a colour that tries hard to be black but isn’t while ‘3 Milk Chocolate’ fares better as a light chocolate brown but is still nothing to write home about overall.

 

QUANTITY: 0.3 grams

PRICE: 580 INR

AVAILABILITY: Nykaa, YesStyle, RoseRoseShop etc.

 

 

Sugar Tipsy Lips Moisturizing Lip Balm in ‘04 L.I.I.T’ and ‘05 Irish Coffee’.

 

God, I don’t like that name. Tipsy Lips. Who thought that it was a good idea?

 

I believe these are the latest products that Sugar has launched (sometime in mid-September) and I, like most of you, am someone who enjoys Lip Balms. A bit too much for my own good, I’d like to think. I was excited for these. Cocktail-themed Lip Balms? Sign me up!

 

Oh, the disappointment when these arrived. First of all, the packaging they come in is completely unnecessary. Cute, sure, but unnecessary. I even like the units themselves and the little cocktail designs they have.

 

Look, these are your average Lip-Balms. Some are tinted while others aren’t. They’re petrolatum-based, like a majority of the Lip Balms on the market. So you can write moisturising off the list of things they do. They’re hydrating, at most, for an hour or two. They aren’t particularly long-lasting and neither are their nourishing benefits.

 

What disappointed me the most is that they’re nowhere near delivering what the brand promised – “a nourishing product that serves up yumminess too”. Oh, shut up.

 

They’re also supposed to be colourless, which I can say, for a fact, doesn’t apply all across the board.

 

The shade ‘04 L.I.I.T’ actually imparts a lovely rosy-brown hue to lips. It’s almost as if it were an MLBB shade. However, you can’t just name a shade after one of my favourite cocktails of all time and make it smell like nothing. If you trick your mind enough, you can get a faint cola scent. Delusions aside, I would’ve liked to experience even 0.2% of the ecstasy that a Long Island Iced Tea usually brings me through this mere Lip Balm. Am I asking for too much? Am I the problem? Sugar describes this product as a “Party in a tiny pack”, so, yeah, no, I don’t think I’m to blame here.

 

‘05 Irish Coffee’ actually does deliver on the scent (and the colourless claim), however. It has a very potent roasted (nearly burnt, to be frank) coffee scent. Unless you absolutely love your coffee, I just wouldn’t get why one would buy this. I’ve experienced so many better coffee-scented products that I can tell when an attempt at it is just plain horrid.

 

I’d urge you to just buy one of the many nice and affordable Lip-Balms Nivea offers instead.

 

QUANTITY: 4.5 grams

PRICE: 199 INR

AVAILABILITY: Sugar Cosmetics etc.

 

 

Sugar Time To Shine Lip Gloss in ‘10 Princess Aurora’.

 

I don’t think it’s any secret, you know, of how big a fan I am of lip products that are sheer and glossy. I wanted this Lip Gloss to be an affordable version of the Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb but it’s sadly far from being so.

 

The formula isn’t half bad. It’s packed with glitter pearls so your lips do end up looking glossy. It’s not particularly sticky either. The paddle applicator (which I forgot to take a picture of, soz) works well too. The square packaging is also rather nice and hefty.

 

The problem with this gloss is its colour. It’s too frosty a colour to be passed off as a universal lip gloss.

 

You can’t essentially wear it on its own. Unless, of course, you’re a huge fan of the late ’90s – early ’00s frosty lip gloss look. Honestly, seeing how on-trend that era currently is, I do see why people would want to purchase this. You’ll need a brown lip-liner (or a lipstick) for a proper throwback, though.

 

Perhaps I should’ve just bought one of the many peachy shades in this line. It’s not a bad product. It’s just unflattering on its own.

 

QUANTITY: 4.5 grams of product.

PRICE: 499 INR.

AVAILABILITY: Sugar Cosmetics, Nykaa, Amazon etc.