If you haven’t heard of Paula’s Choice you are missing out. I discovered her last winter when I read her bestselling book, Don’t Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me. It sounds hokey, but it’s a huge beauty dictionary basically, and it goes through all the major makeup brands, tells what their strengths and weaknesses are as a brand, and details and rates what the quality of their products are. It is super helpful to makeup newbies and professionals as well. If you don’t have a copy, I highly recommend picking one up, or at least downloading the iphone app.
Anyways, Paula Begoun has earned herself the nickname “Cosmetics Cop” for her ability to rate, recommend, and warn against products. She has created her own cosmetics line, and albeit small, we were impressed with what she had to offer.
I tried the Shine Stopper Instant Matte Finish with Microsponge Technology. I’m not particularly oily, but I do sometimes have a little bit of glow going at the end of the day, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Plus, I’m a sucker for anything that comes with a “recommended by” sticker, and Good Housekeeping Magazine has a soft spot for it so I knew it must be good.
I dig that you can use it as the last step of your skincare routine OR you can put it over foundation. I opted to use it over foundation at the end of my day when I was feeling a little greasy and I could feel my makeup starting to slide. I put a pea sized amount on my fingers and spread it over my face. I was very pleased with the way it quickly slipped onto my skin and stopped the grease in its tracks.
It promises to keep skin matte for at least 6 hours, which I did feel that it lived up to. I felt that my skin looked more refined when my layer of shine was mattified and felt I could use this in place of touching up with pressed powder, which is a major plus! Because it’s kind of nasty to blot pressed powder on your greasy face to soak up the oil. And then you’re getting all of your icky end of the day sweaty greasiness all over the cotton round in your compact, and…yuck! No wonder so many of us suffer from acne. I love the idea of just patting a little of this on to my shiny spots and having my skin go back to looking like I just applied makeup!
Perhaps the best part of Paula’s Choice products is how affordable they are. I didn’t see one product on her website that seemed overpriced. In fact, everything I looked at was available in a sample size as well as a full size, and at the time I was checking her website, everything was eligible for a 15% off discount applied at checkout. Furthermore, when reading reviews of her products on her site, I noticed they were overwhelmingly positive. The few negative reviews were followed up with a comment by a customer service representative explaining how the situation would be fixed- I saw that some were credited money back to their account and recommended different products to try next time. It seems that they don’t let their customers go unhappy, which is something I really like to see in a company. In a world where money is tight and people don’t have a lot of extra funds to spend, it is refreshing when customer service takes the next step to ensure that you are as happy as possible with your products.
Have you ever tried Paula’s Choice? Which product did you try and what did you think?
Yours in Beauty,
Justina
This product was sent to me for review, but I was not compensated, and the opinions represented here are my own.
Oh wow, this sounds like a dream product! And it’s great that the customer service is so positive as well. I think I may have to look into this. Thanks so much for the review!
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