This winter has been the winter of dry cheeks for me. Nothing seems to apply smoothly and blend into my skin well. I've had these Josie Maran Argan Color Sticks for a while now and have been putting them to the test. These argan oil-infused color sticks impart a sheer wash of color over your cheeks and lips for a natural and long-lasting finish.
PACKAGED in a swivel-up tube, the rose gold exterior is luxurious and easy on the eyes. They include a plastic topper within the plastic cap to help prevent the cream product from drying out, which as I will mention, didn't do much to prevent that from happening. Nevertheless, good job on making it look very sleek and appealing, even if it didn't do its job...
FORMULA was a bit stiff but blendable at first. I've had this for over a year now, I noticed that Love is not as creamy as it was in the beginning; its actually quite draggy across the skin and barely imparts any color. It is extremely hard to pick up color and blend out, boding ominously for the minis I recently bought. PIGMENTATION is light but buildable. Even though they recommend APPLYING directly to the face, I wear foundation before I apply my cheek products so this will wipe off your foundation without any color getting on your cheek. Because it lifts my foundation, I prefer applying and blending with my fingers. Brushes aren't so good with this formula as it is quite dense and not pigmented right off the bat. SCENT was slightly unpleasant in the beginning as Josie Maran doesn't believe in synthetic fragrances. They sort of smell like old Crayons to me. Now that I've had Love for a while, the smell is quite strong in the open stick but not noticeable once on my face, thankfully. The minis currently don't have a weird scent or anything but I'm afraid that without synthetic preservatives, they will eventually go bad as well. As they are lighter, WEAR TIME for my normal to combination skin type without primer is 4 hours before I notice the color has considerably faded.
SWATCHES
The COLOR RANGE includes 5 shades but I have 3 limited edition shades + a luminizer that I wasn't able to test out in time for this review. She has several limited edition shades that are released in sets over on QVC so I'd keep a sharp on that.
Coral looks neon orange in the tube but when swatched, leans less bright and more peachy coral.
Pink also looks quite neon in the tube but looks like a strawberry pink on my skin tone.
Pink Peony is a great dusty pink shade for natural looks. It's sheerer than the others so it definitely needs building up on my skintone.
Beautiful is a plummy raspberry shade with subtle gold shimmer that isn't visible on the skin. Rather, it shows up as a slight sheen that mimics natural skin. My favorite out of the bunch!
Love is a muted pinky brown. It is quite similar in color and tone to Tarte Cheek Stain in Exposed but that's where the similarities end. If you like this color, I highly recommend Tarte's superior formula that hasn't changed on me, unlike this one did in as little as two months.
OTHER THOUGHTS
At $22usd per 0.55 oz ($40usd per oz), they are more affordable than Tarte's Cheek Stains but I much prefer Tarte's formula. Without preservatives, product goes rancid much quicker, especially creamy, oil-infused ones like this. I'm disappointed that I didn't get much use out of Love before it got all weird on me but I will be doing my best to put the others to use before their time is up. The minis contain 0.22 oz ($8.80 usd value).
BOTTOM LINE
I would skip out on these. The colors are nice and I like how she markets them as cruelty-, synthetic fragrance-, and paraben-free but I would rather have a product last longer considering the price point. This is probably the millionth time I'm mentioning Tarte, but go for Tarte if you want to try a long-lasting cream blush in stick form.
WHERE TO BUY
ARGAN COLOR STICK || Josie Maran | Sephora | QVC
ARGAN OIL + MINI STICK IN ROSEY || QVC
ARGAN OIL + MINI STICK IN LOVE, PINK PEONY, AND CHEERFUL | QVC
FULL SIZE + MINI STICK IN HAPPY | QVC
ARGAN OIL + MINI STICK IN ROSEY || QVC
ARGAN OIL + MINI STICK IN LOVE, PINK PEONY, AND CHEERFUL | QVC
FULL SIZE + MINI STICK IN HAPPY | QVC
Even though these were a bust, I still love the Josie Maran Argan Oil.
I have a mini mascara that she recently launched in the coolest packaging ever that also has argan oil in it.
What other JM products have you tried? Sound off in the comments below!
XOXO,
MWAH ♥
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