Review: Brazen Fierce + Flawless & lip gloss swatches

My Brazen order arrived just yesterday, and I haven't had time to review the perfumes yet. The order came with a few samples though, including the Grown-Ass woman lip gloss that's currently part of the Out Loud collection that's 50% off. Thought I should give swatches to help anyone making up their minds.

Samples of Fierce + Flawless: Primrose Glow, and lip glosses in Grown-Ass Woman and Two Faced

Here are the swatches of Fierce + Flawless: Primrose Glow, and the lip glosses in Grown-Ass Woman and Two Faced. Left is under artificial light to show the shift, right is under natural light. Fierce + Flawless: Primrose Glow is swatched over bare skin on the left half, and Make Up Store's Face Serum primer on the right.

Left: Artificial light to show shift
Right: Natural light
In real life, I can't really see Primrose Glow either, so you're not imagining it

It's kinda hard to really see how pretty these colours are on arm swatches, so here are lip swatches. First, bare lips for comparison:

 Grown-Ass Woman

Apt name for the gloss..I really feel grown-ass in this killer colour

I loooovee this colour! It's a purple-toned berry colour with a blue shift! This is a pretty opaque colour on me, but maybe because it stains my lips. This colour is so pretty, it might be worth getting the collection just for this!

Two Faced

I want to try this over black lipstick.

This is a sheer opacity gloss with a pink & blue shift. Great colour to layer over any lipstick to turn it duochrome. 

Lip Gloss Review

They're pretty sticky so that's one thing to take note. But the consistency is very smooth & the pigmentation's great. They also taste delicious. They're sweetened & slightly vanilla tasting. 

Fierce + Flawless: Primrose Glow Review

I'm not a fan of this. As you can see from the swatch, it doesn't adhere that well to my skin. The glitter they use is also relatively large flecks, so it gives your face the disco ball effect. Very 1990s. 

I actually used it on my cheeks for the full face photos and I honestly can't see the difference even in real life, except for a few glitter flecks on my cheeks. 

Products used:

Face:

• Dior Hydralife BB Cream (Luminous Beige)
• Make Up Store Cover All
• Make Up Store Face Serum
• Biore Perfect Face Milk
• Brazen Fierce + Flawless (Primrose Glow)

Eyes: 

On lids: Notoriously Morbid (The Grand Empress)
Inner corner & lower lashline: Hello Waffle (Tchaikovsky)

Eye close up. That gorgeous smudged blue colour? That's actually The Grand Empress blended out!

• Darling Girl Glitter Glue
• Notoriously Morbid (The Grand Empress) (swatch still pending, sorry /u/thatspookygirl!)
• Hello Waffle (Tchaikovsky)
• Cheap eyelashes from China

Review: Brazen Cosmetics' Solid Perfume

Recently I purchased Brazen's solid perfumes, which are still on clearance right now for $4.49 each. I got the scents in Cranberry Cocktail & Pumpkin Mocha.

It's finally here!

Pumpkin Mocha & Cranberry Cocktail Solid Perfumes

In case you guys are wondering, no they don't include any goodies like free samples or candies.

Turnaround Time

Ordered: May 14
Shipped: May 15
Received: May 26

12 days TAT is pretty awesome for international shipping! Their delivery's on crack! Still, I noticed they charged me  $7.50 for First Class Shipping, while normal shipping usually only takes me 13 days. Not sure if the 2 day improvement is worth the extra $3-4 for shipping since.

Packaging

I way prefer solid perfumes that come in tubes since they're easier to apply and I don't get my fingers dirty. I have a nail chewing & eye rubbing habit, so perfume on my fingers is never good. These come in tins and I'm ok with this since it's the typical packaging for solid perfumes. The deal breaker part is that unfortunately, they have lids that slip off easily. I'm talking about so easily that they slip off if I lift them up too fast or shake them.

See what I mean?

I'm definitely worried about carrying this around since I'll easily get a bag full of smushed perfume. Slightly disappointed with this since the reason I buy solid perfumes is that they're more convenient to carry around.

Solid Perfume Review

Out of all the solid perfumes I've tried so far (L'Occitane, Midsummer Dreams Apothecary, Fragonard, a gift I got ages ago from a brand I can't remember), this is by far my favourite texture. It the texture of a solid lip balm and feels great gliding against my skin. It doesn't go too oily and doesn't leave that dry/sticky finish either.

Strength-wise, you have to get close to the skin to smell anything, even when it's freshly applied. I actually get a better scent pay off from most body lotions, so I'm disappointed. Longevity-wise, I still smell faint traces after 3-4h later, but I definitely have to be looking out for it and the scent's completely different since only 1-2 notes linger.

Scent Reviews

Now the site doesn't seem to work properly for me, and I can't get the scent descriptions at all. When I picked these scents, I picked them purely based on their names, betting on the fact that I typically love gourmand scents.

Pumpkin Mocha

This mostly just smells like a spiced pumpkin pie, full of cinnamon & cloves. I smell the mocha for only about the first few seconds before it disappears under the stronger pumpkin pie scent. The weird thing is, my skin seems to bring out an actual pumpkin smell underneath it all. Not pumpkin after it's been drowned in brown sugary goodness, but the actual wet fruit. Eventually, there's a wintery spearmint smell that emerges that hides the wet pumpkin smell. Now it smells like eating pumpkin pie after brushing your teeth. I still find it a delicious gourmand scent, but it's totally unexpected.

Cranberry Cocktail

I smell some cranberries, mingled with a minty apple smell. The minty smell eventually became the strongest smell there is, and the fruit smells went way into the background. I actually can't smell any of the cranberries 5-10 minutes in and it mostly smells of minty apple blossoms in the rain. Again, it's awesome but completely unexpected.

Overall Review

I want to like this so much since I love the scents and the texture of the perfume, but I really don't see the point of buying a perfume that's less scented than a body lotion. Sure, it's cheap right now, but it's not that cheap. I'm definitely not going to buy any more solid perfumes from them unless they reformulate to make the scents stronger.