More Bang For Your Buck

BYS is a cheap Australian brand that, until recently, I never paid much attention to. A while ago I bought one of their nail polishes in Shadow Puppets which I thought would be the perfect light grey, but it took way too many coats to become opaque, bubbled terribly and smelt awful. I haven't used it since. I decided to take a chance on their other products after reading a few positive reviews about their lipsticks and blushes. Gloss stocks the most extensive range of BYS cosmetics, so after a few unfruitful attempts to find the specific products I wanted at Kmart and two dollar shops, I headed to the QVB store to have a look. I picked up two lipsticks (Flamingo Pink and Champagne Rain) and a blush in Coral.

l-r: Flamingo Pink, Coral, Champagne Rain

At $3.95 for each lipstick and blush, you can afford to take home whatever catches your fancy from the wide range on offer. On the downside, the packaging is quite flimsy (the plastic cap of one of the lipsticks has already cracked) and I find the blush has an unpleasant chemical smell, similar to what turned me off the Shadow Puppets nail polish, but not as strong. Having said that, the lipsticks are quite creamy and well pigmented. Flamingo Pink is a fun, bright fuchsia and Champagne Rain is a flattering pinkish nude. The blush is a very pigmented, so you only need the tiniest amount to add a shimmery coral wash to your cheeks. Application with such a strong colour can get a little tricky because you don't want to end up looking like a clown or crustacean. With blush, I find it's better to err on the side of caution and have a little less on than too much. I like how Lisa Eldridge applies a coppery cream blush in her Navy Smokey Eye tutorial (at 6:30) to the model's face with just the smallest amount. The colour looks barely there, but it's enough to add noticeable warmth to the complexion and perfectly complement the cool, dark blue tones of the eyes.