Product Review: Anastasia Beverly Hills Concealer
In my opinion, one of the most surprising (if not meteoric) upswings in the beauty industry was that of Anastasia Beverly Hills - a brand known years ago merely for expert brow products. Now, every celebrity beauty Youtuber from Jaclyn Hill to KathleenLights rants and raves about not only their eyeshadow shades but also their outstanding liquid lipstick formula. ABH is a Sephora darling and undeniable bestseller.
ABH's sampling is fantastic. I received generous 4-pack samples of both concealer and brow pomade on several occasions. Four generous wells of product means more to play with, more to experiment with, and more to fall in love with.
Or so I thought.
I do love ABH's liquid lipstick formula and went nuts on them during the Macy's beauty sale. And the concealer color range is unprecedented. The shade that matches my skintone (2.5) is so highly accurate that it's hard to believe. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Prescriptives' advertising in the 90's about "color printing".
Do you remember these ads: "have you been color printed"?
For the first time, with the Prescriptives ads from the 90's (above), almost everybody felt that they could find a good-skin tone match by hitting the mall and getting "color printed". I also remember the L'Oreal Paris True Match collection finally doing something similar at a lower price point a few years later. Prescriptives was shuttered by its parent company in 2009 but quietly re-imagined in 2011, when many cosmetics companies had already started to get color-matching right: most high-end foundation lines have been more accurate to real life skintones for quite some time now.
But still, I cannot describe how "on the nose" (both literally and figuratively) that the Anastasia Beverly Hills concealer in 2.5 is for me. But boy does the love affair end there.
The texture is creamy which lends itself to melting and therefore wearing off. If constant reapplication is the price I pay for good coloration, it's a bad trade. Concealer is supposed to protect you from revealing flaws; it is supposed to be armor. It can't be armor if the chain-mail disappears without your notice.
Photos: Anastasia Beverly Hills
Regardless, if I wanted to take a good close-up photo like *rightnow*, this is what I'd reach for. A half hour later, I'd probably switch to anything but.
Xx, Mom in Mascara
