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Is the Fenty Beauty foundation a game changer for people of color?

The brand that shook up the beauty world! Fenty Beauty By Rihanna. I have been in the beauty game for a long time. I have been obsessed with beauty products for an even longer time. There were times that I spent all day online refreshing the comments on my favourite makeup forums waiting for the latest leaked news on upcoming collections. I don’t think I remember this much hype and this much excitement and this much anticipation for the release of a new beauty line or product. But Rihanna’s new entry into the beauty game garnered just that. Particularly amongst women of colour. Once the promo images started coming in and word came out that the initial launch will include 40 shades of Fenty Beauty foundation, myself and pretty much every medium to dark skin women of colour started saving our pennies. People with noticeable amounts of melanin still continue to struggle to find a sufficient variety of options when it comes to foundations. And I have heard all the excuses, none of them acceptable.

This a long post, and I have a lot to say. If you want to skip to different sections, use the links below:

Background information on Fenty Beauty, click here
Tips on buying the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation, click here
Fenty Beauty Foundation – Video – click here
Fenty Beauty Review – click here

Fenty Beauty launched on September 9th in the US and 17 other countries. It is available online and in some stores. There was a massive launch party at the Sephora Times Square in New York at midnight and the Bajan Princess was there! Based on the Instagram live feeds, it was pure bacchanal and chaos! I went to the Sephora a little later in the morning (about 8 am) after the initial crowds died down. Anyone that was in the store was at the Fenty Beauty display. The entire collection is gorgeous and well done. I’m just going to let you know right now that this hype is real. This is a legitimately good quality line. I was so excited and I was excited looking at other dark skin women being excited about makeup.

This is a permanent, complexion collection with the focus being on the skin and enhancing the colour and the glow. It was more recently announced that there will be a limited edition colour release for the holidays – eye shadow palette, lip glosses etc. But the core collection is going to be around.

Top: 490, Middle: 480, Bottom: 470

I picked up two samples of the Fenty Beauty By Rihanna Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation in shades #470 and 480. The darkest shade is #490. There are a lot of options for medium to deep dark skintones. The South Sudanese/Australian model Duckie is one of the faces of the brand. And the more interesting thing about the shade selection is the inclusion of the subtlities in undertones. Warm, cool, neutral, less red, more blue, less yellow, more green. This makes FB one of the more unique compared to other brands that offer that wide of a range.

HAUL: Affordable makeup brands – Colour Pop & Makeup Geek (dark skin)

September 8, 2015 / Noire Tropical Beauty / 2 Comments

Hey!!

Here’s just a small haul of two, indie brands that I have wanted to try in forever! I love that more an more companies are coming out with different products, colours and textures and filling the void that major companies don’t. Colour Pop and Makeup Geek have been two brands that have gotten the beauty world buzzing with their unique offerings.

Let me just say this one time….I am absolutely impressed with both of these brands. I can tell a lot of work and thought went into creating these pieces. Amazing quality, amazing textures and what is the best part, is the price. I have not problem paying more for products from small companies, especially if they are minority-owned or they release products that work well on dark skin, but the eyeshadows are between US$5 and $6! Hella cheap! And they are cruelty free too! Makeup Geek was founded by Marlena, who is a makeup artist and YouTuber and I have been following Marlena for years! She is one of the OG YTers when video was shot in 240p. She has grown a lot and I am happy to see her being so successful. She clearly puts in a lot of work and knowledge into her shades and products and I love that she is so aware of the needs of people of colour and has some amazing colours that work so well with my skintone. Colour Pop just celebrated their 1 year anniversary a few months ago and they have been on every one’s lips! Their Eye Shadows and Lippie Stix are almost legendary! And I love the fact they they have swatches of their products on light, medium and dark skin! There are some amazing colour selections and the packing is so cute!

Anyway, here are the things that I have bought so far. I highly recommend checking them out, and I will be purchasing quite regularly. There is also a video of me reviewing these products and will be available below once live. And I have already used some of these products in a tutorial, take a look!

Link to video here and below…

MAKEUP GEEK

I picked up 3 eye shadows, 2 mattes and 1 foiled.

Makeup Geek Cosmetics: foiled on the left, other 2 are mattes

I love a matte brown eye shadow for crease work and blending. And her mattes are divine! So buttery, smooth, not chalky and so richly pigmented! The regular eye shadows are $5.99 each and the foiled ones are $9.99 and come in pan form only and MG ships worldwide! So my Caribbean people, doh sleep!!!

Cocoa Bear

MG: Cocoa Bear

This is a matte, very warm brown colour with strong red undertones. This is gorgeous, especially and tan-to- dark skintones. This is a great transition colour especially for those cool, smokey looks.

Bitten

MG: Bitten

This is an unusual and unique colour, a matte, burgundy red. Red shades can sometimes be hard to wear, but this is another great blending/transition colour. Women with deep, dark skinniness, this is an amazing colour. Works well with brown and purple looks.

Masquerade

MG: Masquerade

This is a foiled eyeshadow. Very high shine/metallic factor. Shimmery, but not chunky, very smooth. A stunning, stunning rich red-purple colour! And it can be used both dry and wet to amp up the intensity. Ugh! This is beautiful! Very regal! I used this in one of my latest looks.

Swatches

From the top to bottom: Bitten, Cocoa Bear, Masquerade

Quite “Tickled” by this summer Zoya collection!

August 14, 2014 / Noire Tropical Beauty / 1 Comment

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I love shimmers and glitter polishes, but I appreciate a really vibrant, pigmented cream. Holding on to every bit of summer that I can, I have been loving these brights from Zoya’s Tickled Collection for summer 2014, especially as pedicure colours!

Tickled collection by Zoya

In general, I used two coats of polish for each shade. These are all very bright. I would even call them fluorescent or neon. I think they would look good on all skins tones, especially those with a deep tan or darker skin. They will really pop! The formula contains no shimmer, and it is a little thick but it’s not difficult to use. I also got good coverage on the nail for most of them. All Zoya polishes are Big 5 Free, and available for purchase at US$9 each.

Kitridge

Kitridge – a bright bubble gum pink. A light neon pink. It also was a little thicker than the others and applied a little streaky. I think one has to apply slightly thinner coats. It looks great against my skin tone but I am not a super fan of it. I think my issue is that there is pretty much a bubble gum pink in the last 3 Zoya summer collections. One may be a little brighter that the other, but pretty much the same colour. It’s nice, but eh…..

Milani Gel Powder Eyeshadow: a quick review!

July 31, 2014 / Noire Tropical Beauty / 3 Comments

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Hey! So I recently posted about the release of a new formula of eye shadow by Milani, the Gel Powder Eyeshadow. I was anxious about trying these out, so I picked up just one at my local drugstore.

This year, I have been all about that gorgeous skin and bright lips, more of a minimalistic, glowy look. I bought colour 04 Bella Caffé, which is a satin matte shade.

Milani Cosmetics Gel Powder Eyeshadow in Bella Caffé 04

The packaging is basic, sand-coloured plastic that feels quite sturdy.

The product itself is domed shaped and reminds me of baked eye shadows. There is the tiniest hint of a sheen, or shimmer, but the pieces are so small, they are barely visible. Bella Caffé is a beautiful medium taupey brown. The swatch on the Milani website is a lot darker that what it is in reality.

Swatch, Bella Caffé 04

It reminds me of a brighter, slightly lighter version of M.A.C.’s Wedge eye shadow. It is very smooth to the touch, it feels quite velvety and finely milled. This shade is pigmented but not intensely pigmented, and that might have to do with the fact that it is a lighter colour, but I did not have a problem building it up on my lid. It still did not look chalky or flaky and remained smooth. It also blended quite well. I will get a couple of the deeper and brighter shades to test how pigmented they are. Bella Caffé also got a little ‘dusty’ but not overly so. On my skin, this is just a couple of shades lighter, so it evens out the skin colour on my lids and it not shiny at all. I got about 6 hours of wear without a primer on my lids before I saw a little bit of creasing.

I have been wearing this on my eyelid as my everyday, work-appropriate, neutral barely there makeup look. Just a little matte brown shadow to define the crease, gel liner and mascara. I also sometimes pair it with a bold lip and some facial oil (more about that soon!)

This is a really nice colour, and these shadows are definitely worth checking out. Really great quality for a drugstore brand and at about US$3.99, you cyah go wrong! There is about 1.4g of product, which is pretty standard for eye shadows. Find them at CVS or online at milanicosmetics.com

Overall Grade: A-

FTC Disclosure: Products were purchased by me, Noire Tropical Beauty. All opinions expressed are 100% honest and my own. I have not been compensated for this review. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Inspired by downtown NYC music, Ardency Inn aims to go beyond! An introduction…

May 5, 2014 / Noire Tropical Beauty / 9 Comments

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A little while ago, I attended the official launch of the 2013 WWD Newcomer of the Year, makeup line Ardency Inn. Ardency Inn has its roots in downtown NYC and aims to place makeup artistry into the hands of the songstresses and every woman. By creating high quality, high performance makeup, any woman can be in control of her creativity. The founders are heavily influenced by music and love the parallels of creativity in music and makeup. They draw a lot of inspiration from local artists and they love creating amazing looks for performances. Well-known makeup artist James Vincent is the makeup expert involved with this brand, and for me, I pretty much trust his opinion.

With makeup artist James Vincent

So I was excited to scope out this collection. At this time, the product line is broken up into three collections – Americana – natural tones that are inspired by the multi-cultural heritage and free spirit of downtown New York; Modster – Bright colors inspired by the mod subculture of high fashion and all-night clubs; Punker – edgy black inspired by darkly rimmed eyes and fierce attitude of punk rockers. Pretty much you have all the colors to create whatever look you wanted.

So check out some pictures below of the event as well as swatches of some of the products.

I have already used a couple of the products in an LOTD, which was music-inspired. Check it out here. Wait until you see my next LOTD!!!! Another music-inspiration and the person is one of my favourite artists!

These products are available at select Sephora stores and at sephora.com

Enjoy!