Hey Beauties!
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The Balm is a very well-known brand that has produced some cult beauty products. Their Mary-Lou Manizer is very popular highlighter and actually my all-time favorite. They’re also very known for their Bahama Mama bronzer, all of their eyeshadow palettes (Mateja reviewed Nude’tude) and many of their pretty blushes. They really have a lot of popular and loved products. And now they're finally in Slovenia (mislim, da so zaenkrat na voljo v Müller Celje in Rudnik Ljubljana). You can imagine, I was more than excited, when they asked me if I wanted to review some of their products.
The beauty of The Balm products is that they like to emphasize how multi-purpose their products are. You’ll see they write multiple uses for each of their products. Betty-Lou Manizer can be used as bronzer as well as eyeshadow. I have to admit, that I first thought all of their Manizers were highlighters, when in fact Betty is more of a bronzer, at least on fair to medium skin tones. It can be used as a subtle highlighter on dark skin tones.
It comes in their cute retro packaging. I can see why they wanted to brand these as wanted, because once you see them, you’ll want them all. The pretty design features tanned Betty girl, who’s apparently wanted and it’s called The Bronzing Bandit. The packaging is plastic silver and well made. You get 8.5 grams of product and the price in Slovenia is around 24€, which is comparable to the prices in other online shops like Feelunique.
The ingredients list.
You also get a good sized mirror, so you can touch up your sun glow on the go.
The shade is very yellow/gold based warm brown. It has a very obvious yellow almost orange undertone, which might not be for everyone. I feel like there’s so much being said about bronzer and how they should be more cool toned and the fact that you don’t want that orange undertone, when in fact that undertone can look really nice on warm skin tones. Grey based and pink based bronzers are better for cooler skin tones, while warm skin tones will benefit more from a warmer, more gold toned bronzer, because it will look more natural with their skin tone. Saying that the orange undertone in Betty is very obvious, so keep that in mind.
It also gives you a bit of sheen, which is not at all like shimmer or as shiny as Mary-Lou Manizer, but I just needed to point it out for all of those that want matte bronzers. Matte bronzers provide you with more depth to your face and you can use them to contour, while those with a bit of sheen make you look very healthy glowy. Betty is just that. It gives you that bronzed sun glow. The shade seems quite strong and dark, but is actually perfect for fair skins. If you put it on sheer, it gives you just a bit of warm color. You can obviously build it up to a more intense color, but it all depends on your preference and how dark your skin is.
The texture is on the dry side. It’s very pigmented, but you can slowly build up the intensity. It’s also very easy to blend.
Here I have on foundation, concealer and powder.
And this is how it looks like, when I add Betty-Lou Manizer. As you can see it just gives me a bit of warmth and definition. I hope you can also see how fair this can look on my already very light skin tone. It gives me a bit of sheen, which is comparable to a more dewy foundation and not at all shimmer or highlighter.
I also compared it with some of my other bronzers to give you a bit of comparison. Betty-Lou Manizer is the most shiny of them all and it has the most obvious yellow gold undertone. Elf's Contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder in St, Lucia also has shiny bronzer, but the sheen is less obvious. The shade is darker and more on the brown side. My favorite matte bronzer is from Makeup Revolution Ultra Sculpt and Contour Kit in Ultra Fair C01. This bronzer is again warm toned, but a very fair shade. It's comparable to Betty, but the shade is a bit less yellow toned. Catrice Sun Matt Bronzing Powder in 030 Medium Bronze has that orange undertone and it's also fairly light.
I also compared Betty-Lou Manizer to Mary-Lou Manizer. As you can see both are shiny, but I still have a feeling that Betty is less shiny - it might be because of the darker shade. None of them have any visible shimmer in it, which is what makes them so pretty. It's just the sheen that gives you that popular glow.
The combination of two gives you a very shiny cheeks with a bit of depth, warmth and a lot of shiny highlight. Ever since I got Betty, I've been wearing it with every makeup look.
Betty-Lou Manizer has easily become my favorite shiny bronzer. It has a very yellow warm undertone, which warms up my yellow toned complexion. I love the fact that despite being very pigmented, it can be sheered out or built up. I like the glowy sheen that it gives to my skin, especially in these dull cold days. I just really like it. But I feel like a lot of people with cooler skin tones might totally disagree with me. I can't say that for a fact, so maybe test it before you buy it.
These two Manizer sisters really impressed me. As you know they also have Cindy-Lou Manizer, which is more of a pink toned highlight aka blush. I secretly want it, even though I know it's not exactly my color. I just want the whole gang at one place. For those of you with pinkish undertones it would be perfect. The Balm also came out with theManizers Sisters a palette where you can find all of those amazing shiny goodness in one palette.
Products that also cut my eye are their Meet Matt(e) Hughes Long-Lasting Liquid Lipsticks. I especially like Loyal, a deep red and Charming, pretty mauve shade. Their wittily named eyeshadow palettes are all gorgeous and I love how they sometimes make palettes with multiple products like In theBalm of Your Hand Holiday Face Palette, where you get all of their best face products at one place.
I still have a review of one of their products for you and it's their concealer. Stay tuned for that ;).