Welcome back to Tried, Loved, and Illustrated
Issue No. 02, and this one is entirely Marc Jacobs Beauty. Let me be upfront about something: I bought these for the packaging.
Not mostly for the packaging. For the packaging. Practical? No. Extremely cute to look at? Yes.
What I did not anticipate was sitting down to write this post and realizing I'd have to type these shade names out loud. Papa Don't Peach. Booty Call. Shady Business. Clapback. On Brand. Somewhere there is a naming meeting I would have paid money to attend.
Ranked below, favorite first, after a few weeks of actually using them.
1. Marc Jacobs Beauty: Joystick Buildable Cream Blush Stick
♡ Tried it & liked it
The upset winner. I genuinely did not expect the blush to be my favorite.
It's a vibrant coral (shade Papa Don't Peach), which is a color I somehow did not own a single version of, and I think that's exactly why it works. It's not another dusty pink doing the same job as four other things on my vanity. It blends out easily, it builds if you want more, and it genuinely lasts all day. That's the whole checklist.
I'm already eyeing Shady Business for next time, which tells you everything about how this one went.
2. Marc Jacobs Beauty: Heart On Long-Lasting Soft Shine Lipstick
♡ Tried it & liked it
A lovely neutral (shade Booty Call), and (this is the part I did not expect) it smells like candy? I don't know what's happening in there. I'm not mad about it.
The problem is the cap. I had it in my purse, reached for it, and the cap was completely off. Just loose in the bag, lipstick fully exposed. The closure is not strong enough to survive being carried around, which is a real shame for a product priced like this one.
So it's been reassigned: vanity product, not everyday-bag product. Which is a slightly sad fate for a lipstick, but here we are.
On the 11-hour wear claim: not in my experience. Though in fairness, I'm mostly putting this on before dinner and drinks, so it's going up against a meal and a couple of glasses, which is a rough test for any lipstick. What I'll say is that it disappears quietly. I don't notice it fading; I just look up at some point and it's gone.
3. Marc Jacobs Beauty: Born Star Cream-to-Powder Long-Wear Eyeshadow
○ Not for me
Honestly? I think I just made a bad pick here.
Most of the colors I actually wanted were sold out, so I defaulted to a matte nude (On Brand), and it's so light that I can barely tell I'm wearing it. That's a me problem more than a formula problem, to be fair.
Which also makes it a useless test of the 14-hour wear claim. Does it stay on all day? Sure, as far as I can tell. But there's so little to notice in the first place that there's nothing to notice going missing. A glitter or metallic shade would actually put the formula through something. A matte nude this soft is basically wearing invisibility and calling it longevity.
Here's what actually stops me from buying another: every shade comes in the same green case. If I owned three of these, I'd be opening all of them every morning to figure out which was which. For a brand this focused on how things look, that feels like an odd miss.
If I ever do go back, I want Clapback and Zero Chill.
The end.
Buy the blush. Buy the lipstick if it's going to live on your vanity and not in your bag. Skip the eyeshadow unless you've got a shade you actually want in stock. And even then, know you're signing up for the identical-case guessing game.
Would I buy from this line again? Yes, and we both know it's going to be because of how it looks on the shelf.
If you want to see these illustrated, the full carousel is over on my Instagram @samxlopez. Tell me what to review next. My cart is always dangerously full.
See you in Issue No. 03. 🧡
– @samxlopez
