My The Balm Haul, Part 1: Bahama Mama Bronzer Photos, Comparisons and Review

One brand I have wanted to try for the longest time is the Balm. A handful of their products have a cult-like following in the beauty world, so I really excited to order a bunch of things when they were on Hautelook last month. You will definitely see multiple the Balm posts in the coming weeks, but today I am showing you the Bahama Mama bronzer!

The Balm's Bahama Mama ($20) is a matte bronzer that the Balm also describes as a contour powder and eyeshadow. It comes in really cute, sturdy cardboard packaging with magnetic closure and nice sized mirror.

Bahama Mama is quite dark, as you can see in the pan. It is too dark as a contour powder for my NC25 skin, but I think it will be perfect for summertime. For now, I use a light - VERY LIGHT - hand to warm up my skin on the cheeks, nose and forehead, and I am very happy with the bronzer used like this.

 Bahama Mama is incredibly pigmented, soft, and a bit powdery. You are going to want to use a light hand with this, like I said before. The first time I swirled my blush brush into it, I couldn't believe the result, so I took the following photo:

 

What I love most about it is that although it is dark, it is perfectly brown, with maybe an ashy or cool undertone, but definitely no orange. To compare, I swatched it alongside all of the other bronzers in my collection. I put it next to Hoola, which is my current go-to also because it is matte without orange undertones. To me Bahama Mama looks like a deeper version of Hoola, so if you are a Hoola fan and looking for something darker for summertime, you'll probably love Bahama Mama!

My Two Cents on the Balm's Bahama Mama Bronzer

Pros:

• Cute, compact packaging that stays magnetically closed - great for traveling.
• Extremely pigmented
• Matte (if you're looking for that, which I was!)
• No orange undertones! Perfect brown color looks really natural.

Cons:

• Too dark to use a contour if you are NC20-25 range
• Can kick up a lot of powder and get messy if you aren't very gentle and careful with your brush

Overall, I definitely recommend this product and am glad I have it in my collection. It's unlike any of my other bronzers and is so pigmented that I know it will last me a very long time.

Do you have Bahama Mama or any other bronzer by the Balm??

XO
Beauty Cents

Milani Baked Bronzer in Soleil and Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso Photos, Swatches & Review!

Can you believe its already Memorial Day Weekend? I know, me neither! Does anything scream "summer" more than bronzer and blushes that give you a sun kissed glow?? Today I'm sharing two drugstore products I picked up during CVS' BOGO1/2Off sale on Milani products. 

 

Milani's Baked Bronzer ($8.99) is dubbed as "a bronzing powder that features a mélange infusion of colors baked on Italian terracota tiles. Easy to use, sensorial in texture, the nuances of color become extraordinarily luminous, enhancing the purity of the skin. This hi-tech, streak free bronzer, gives a perfect radiant look." 

The bronzer comes in three shades - Glow, Soleil, and Golden. They all are shimmery bronzers. I picked up Soleil, the middle one of the three. While Milani's site has them up for $8.99, I know my CVS was charging over $10! Anyway, here it is in the pan:

Gorgeous, right? Moving on to purchase number two:

Milani's Baked Blush ($7.99) comes in nine shades total. I picked up Luminoso, a peach with a bit of gold shimmer to it:

I tend to pick only pinks and the occasional coral for my blushers, so I was really excited to pick up a peach for once! I thought this would look great for a summer bronzey look. Here are the blush and bronzer swatched, as well as the blush on top of the bronzer: 

Soleil is rather shimmery when swatched, bordering on glittery.  This is not a bronzer for contouring (I prefer matte for that, like my Benefit Hoola), but a light sweep of this on the cheeks gives a great sun kissed glow.

Luminoso is a really gorgeous blusher! The shimmer is much more subtle than that of the bronzer. I've been wearing this alone and on top of Soleil and love it both ways.

The staying power on both of these products is really strong - it is on my face with minimal fading after eight hours. I know people complain about how bulky the packaging is, and it does annoy me that the bronzer doesn't fit with all of my other bronzers due to the shape, but it isn't going to keep me from using it.

Overall, I recommend both of these and would also pick up other blushes from the Milani Baked line that caught my eye.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

XO
Beauty Cents
PS - Follow me on BlogLovin'!