Anne Curtis on blk Cosmetics makeup essentials

blk Cosmetics just unloaded a full, yet pared down, collection of makeup essentials at very affordable prices.

With Anne Curtis as both the face and creative director of the brand, it’s sure to be an instant hit to her millions of fans, but does the quality measure up to what the brand promises as “uncomplicated beauty?” Well, BusinessWorld was given much of the line to test out and while there are some products that are quite amazing, there are others that have alternatives at almost the same price points.

Okay, so let’s start with the good stuff: the lipsticks. Honestly, for the P249-and-up price tag, the lip products are worth the buy. This writer was given three shades of each formulation — matte, the velvet cream and liquid matte — and each shade is well-curated and looks really pretty on my fair, neutral-toned skin.

But my current favorites are Elegant (a brick-shade nude from the “All-day Intense Matte” line) and Simple (a “my-lips-but-better” nude shade) from the “Long-lasting Liquid Matte” line.

While I have reservations about the liquid matte line, mostly because it takes a little bit longer to dry than say, Happy Skin liquid mattes, it is not as drying as ColourPop liquid mattes are but neither are they moisturizing. It does glide on the lips quite well and is reasonably opaque, though it does feather on the outside a bit but the straight doe-foot applicator makes it easy to line the lips before filling it in.

As for the wear time, well, it’s not as long-lasting as I would like as after eating a meal two hours in to application, it completely faded from the inside of the lip which isn’t cute and prompted an immediate retouch. (Oh and the packaging greatly reminds me of the NARS Velvet Lip Glide line of liquid lips because of the clear and black packaging combo.)

Honestly, Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream is still hard to beat when it comes to affordable liquid lips, for this writer.

The Intense Matte line also applies quite well and surprisingly has more staying power than the liquid matte, also Elegant is such a wearable shade.

I’m a bit on the fence with the Velvet lip cream though as while I was pleasantly surprised about the almost room-temperature butter-like glide of the lipstick (I was afraid it was melting, it was that soft), I can’t find it in my heart to wear it every day. I’m a fan of velvet lips — Burt’s Bees is a personal favorite — but blk’s does not last as long as I want it to be though Flirty, the pink shade, does leave a nice tint.

Moving on from the lip products, the powder foundation, which comes in only two shades — a light and natural beige — is a bit of a letdown when you think about the array of shades Filipinos come in: not all of them are fair or a little tan like Ms. Curtis.

I was given natural beige to review and it seemed to be the darker of the two so I looked a bit more tan than I usually am — I am really fair — so it might work for those with slightly tanned skin but I don’t think it will work with deeper skin tones.

It also caked on my face, a few hours in, and though it didn’t enlarge my pores, it’s not something I will reach for every day. My Maybelline Fit Me pressed powder is still my go-to.

The Brow Sculpting Duo which has an angled shading stick on one end and a spoolie on the other is a nice touch because not a lot of brow products offer a spoolie right off the bat. The angled shading stick does make it easier to fill in the brows so it’s a good product overall.

The eyeliner though, I got the brown shade, isn’t as pigmented as I liked though it does stay on forever but it is a bit patchy.

Finally, the contour palettes, again, with only two palettes to choose from there’s not much wiggle room for those with deeper skin tones as the only difference between the two palettes are the blush shades (which are shimmer shades, by the way) as the pale brown bronzer and champagne highlighter is present in both.

I’ve used the pink “Flushed” palette and while I’m not a fan of shimmer blushes, the pink blush is very pigmented so a little goes a long way. The bronzer is okay but the highlighter is popping — I really liked the champagne shade and it stays on quite well even during humid days.

While there are some products on the blk line that deserves a second look — mostly the lip products — a lot of them are not really wowing me a lot to make them an everyday staple, though the affordable price range might make it worth somebody’s while.