[Swatch & Review] Artclass by Rodin Blusher & Shading


I've been very slow to AB makeup beyond mascara and eyeliner mostly because a lot of brands seem to think their customer base falls within two very light and pale shades and me being ~NW25 is somehow a deeper shade than they think people worth their time (and money) exist.

Ignoring foundation and concealer because that's even more specific, I usually need to see the colors on me in different lighting because I frankly don't have an eye for my tone and imagining how colors will look on me, and because brands often adjust/filter their shades on promo pics anyways.

But after using some sort of brown as contour for...however many years I've been dabbling at makeup and finally realizing that it does tend to lean too warm on me, especially on my skin during non-summer months, I decided I needed something more grey-leaning and Too Cool For School's Shading was the first one I noticed that had a shade that I thought may work for me. Peripera also has their Ink V Shading but I've always had a soft spot for TCFS and I much prefer their packaging to Peripera's.

Side note: TCFS was big on the sub early on, mostly for the Pumpkin Sleep Mask Pack and while I never enjoyed it because it was too heavy for me, I liked and used their Egg Mellow Cream for a while. They also used to a have a store in SoHo that I loved wandering around. While the design aesthetics of TonyMoly at the time felt too high school for me, TCFS felt more college/early 20s. I enjoy the kitschiness of the name, and love the look of the Dinoplatz line and would often recommend it to people looking to get something cute for a teen they were shopping for. I just enjoy the packaging of TCFS products and the marketing never felt too over the top or attention-whorey. The fact that this is called Artclass and it feels a little more functional artsy and mature, I love it.

For shading I debated between #1.5 Neutral or #2 Modern but finally went with Neutral because I am more neutral most of the year and just lean more warm in summer. I also have various brown eyeshadows, so if I ever needed to warm anything up, I have the means to do so. Apparently I ordered the version that comes with a brush which I was annoyed at myself for because I have so many brushes, but it did come in handy on a recent trip.

What the Blusher (#3 de Rosee) and Shading (#1.5 Neutral) look like.
I really enjoy the logo of the Artclass line and love that it's on the plastic cover.
 
And well...since I was looking at the contour so much, the Blusher started catching my eye. I've been getting by on an old, old Glossier Cloud Paint that I don't love or some pinks and orange-reds from my giant (and old) ColourPop palette, so why not. I was choosing between #2 de Ginger or #3 de Rosee and same thing as the Shading choice, orange tends to work better for me in summer months, so I went with something that maybe would work better for me during other times of the year. I was honestly less sure of this choice than the Shading, especially since I'm kind of averse to anything called "rose" as a color for me, but I took the plunge.

And I enjoy them both! I've used both a handful of times at this point and they both work very lovely on me and together. The Blusher is near perfect in terms of color and ease of application from color pay off. The Shading requires more passes to build the color up, which is kind of annoying, but better safe than sorry, especially since I've still been playing with my optimal shading placement (I think I've figured it out!). They also blend very beautifully into each other so it does well for a more natural look. I just bump it up a bit with a few colors from my eyeshadow palette if I ever want to go more glam. I'm normal to dry skin and even on days where I only use concealer on certain spots, the formula of the powders don't overly dry my skin or highlight any pores or lines. The brush is nothing to write home about.

So here are the swatches on the inside of my left arm. Keep in mind that while my face hovers around 25NW, the inside of my arm is lighter and cooler than my face, so it's not true to what it looks like on my face.

Swatches of the Blusher (#3) on top and Shading (#1.5) on the inside of my arm.
The lighter shades may be harder to see, but they're there.

Maybe when I get my blush and contour placement perfect and remember to take a picture one day, I'll do a FOTD. But I am notoriously terrible about remembering to take pictures.

Comments

  1. That's very cool, thanks for sharing!

    I enjoy the names and the colour palettes on these but especially the names! I think they were smart choices, looking at the times of the swatches :)

    Blush and contour are so hard to get right because it is *so* obvious when it's wrong.

    I never got blush myself because, being grunge -> Goth -> scene meant that I just never did it. I used to use Too Faced pink glitter dust that I think was a post-90's body glitter thing 😂

    But those colours you have look super workable!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment