City Color Cosmetics at Five Below

Recently I popped into Five Below to pick up some beach gear as we are readying ourselves for vacation. I love buying cheap, fun stuff for the pool and the beach that we don't have to worry about losing or breaking or leaving behind with the kiddos. Because I am a makeupaholic I walked through the beauty aisle to see what kinds of things they have and was pleasantly surprised to find a one of my favorite products - a blush/bronzer/highlighter palette from City Color Cosmetics for only $4. Um, YESSSSS PLEASE! SOLD! I also decided to pick up one of their matte blushes ($3) and two of their matte/gloss lipsticks ($3). (I also picked up two Wet 'n Wild lipsticks ($2) that were dramatically vampy, but I did not know that... not sure if those will make an appearance in my real life or not - haha!) I apologize my swatches of everything are a bit messy - I was just so excited!!

First the palette - love it! It comes in three colors at the store (online there are four colors, but one is currently sold out), I chose the Skinkissed Trio in "Golden" as I don't have a lot of peachy type blushes in my life and clearly I needed to change that! This is $4 at Five Below and $6.99 on City Color's website - score for me! I think all three products are so pretty! The blush is a beautiful peachy tone and has a fair amount of shimmer in it, so I did need to be careful with the amount of highlight I added. Also, the bronzer also has a light shimmer so you cannot contour this product, which is no biggie for me. It is important to note since all of them are shimmery if you don't care for a glowy look this may not be for you or maybe just not an all-in-one for you. The bronzer is the quite powdery with a fair amount of fallout if you don't tap off your brush, followed by the blush and none at all with the highlighter. I think the wear is great for normal daily activities and I am likely going to go back and grab another color to try. (Notably: I love this one as much as I love my "ride or die" Naked Flushed palette from Urban Decay, the wear is definitely longer with the UD, but the colors are equally beautiful and creamy in both.)

Since the palette was all shimmer I grabbed one of the Matte Blushes, I believe there were 6 or 8 in the store, but there are 12 online. In sticking with the peachy toned theme I bought the shade "Fresh Melon". This is $3 at Five Below and $4.99 on City Color's website, on sale at the moment for $3.49. Another good deal and my zero-to-2 peach blushes in one day was a hit! I think this color is so lovely and would likely work on light to fair to medium skin tones because it is buildable. Unlike the palette above, it was not at all powdery when I used it. The swatch on the left is one swipe and the swatch on the right is few - so clearly it can be built up. They have a nice range of shades so I may grab one (or two) more, BECAUSE $3!! 

Since I was already on a roll, two lip colors were a must. A MUST! On these Matte To Gloss lippies one end is a matte lipstick and the other end is a complimentary gloss. These two shades are Mauve Dazzle and Raspberry Dazzle, there are four other shades in total and the store had all of them. These are $3 at Five Below and $5.99, currently on sale for $3.99, on City Color's website. Sadly, these were a fail for me. First they smell funny - like old lipstick. I have a super smeller and scents really bother me if I don't like them and these do not seem to settle at all. The scent lingered and lingered. Second, there is the teeniest amount of product on the lipstick end, which is the side that I would use more often. Third, the glosses felt very wet. They didn't have the right balance of wet to sticky. The transfer was immediate and almost all the product wore away within an hour once the gloss was applied. I definitely will not repurchase and I am unsure if I will wear them due to the smell. I love the Raspberry color so much that I am going to attempt to use one of my delicious smelling Lorac glosses over it to see if that will mask the smell enough for me to enjoy the color. 

While I never thought I would ever purchase make up at a Five Below I could not be more thrilled about the palette and the matte blush - enough that I want MORE! The price point is amazing for the range of options, pigmentation and good day's wear of these products. The lippies I would say are not at all worth the money unless you just want some stinky lippies to blog about :)