Active Cosmetics Pimp Post

Posted by on Friday, January 07, 2011

Why is it called a Pimp Post? Because they're a brand that don't seem to be very well covered in the beauty blogging world. So I guess you could say I'm "pimping" out their better products to you, lol.
Questionable terminology aside, moving on...

 All of the products of theirs that I could locate. There are most likely more, but they're not mentioned in this review.
Active Cosmetics are a brand I’d used before I even got into cosmetic blogging. As far as I’m aware, you can sometimes find their products at other stores or on the web, but I usually just purchase mine from TJ Hughes as it’s easier and more convenient. It’d probably be very hard for international girls to find. They make products under two names. The core line is just called “Active Cosmetics” but they have a sort of summer specific range called “Sun-Kissed” and this seems to sell better and have more products than the core line, which is weird. Meh.
When I dug it all out to go and photograph it, I was actually pretty surprised by how much I owned! I tend not to buy by brand. I’m fickle and will buy from whoever has the cheapest and most effective product, lol. Before my mum got into routinely buying high end cosmetics (that weren’t Elizabeth Arden) like Urban Decay (recent convert thanks to yours truly) she bought some of these for herself and I. It’s mostly medium to dark skinned women friendly and the quality is alright. The price is even better, though. Haha.
The Lip Glosses

I’m not a big fan of lip glosses to begin with and the moment you pull the wand out of these you get this huge whiff of chemically induced faux fruity sweetness. That was a huge /do not want/ for me and I’m not even particularly sensitive to scented lip products. Even after you’ve applied the product, you can still smell it. Gross. They leave your lips quite dry as well. The colour of the darker gloss was quite nice but I felt the lighter one (which was a sort of 80s frosty pearl colour) was pretty unflattering. I’m not sure if you can buy these separately. I think these came in the Sunkissed set. I definitely wouldn’t buy these on their own.

 The lightest shade, followed by the darker one, and then the lip liner and the eyeliner at the bottom.
 The dark brown is actually a mascara.
The darker one on my lips :P
The Ten Colour Palette

Yes, this palette has four colours missing. I think I used the white shade on the right hand corner in a tutorial for making nail polish out of eyeshadow. I don’t know what’s happened to the other three…
It’s a decently pigmented palette. It did have one of those overly useless applicators which naturally went straight in the bin. Underneath the applicator holder is a mirror which I again appreciated even though it wasn’t of much help being the tiny size that it was. I like the nice champagne shade (at the top, the very first eyeshadow). Actually, saying that, it’s a very wearable palette. If I was into neutrals, I’d get a great deal of use out of this. As it stands now, this is mostly a palette of highlights for me. Still, I would purchase this on it’s own.

All the colours are really smooth, nice and pigmented.
 Can you see that teeny weeny palette in the background? It doesn't seem to have a name so I'm just calling it the "Six Colour Palette".

The Mini Six Colour Palette

This is tiny! It’s actually quite cute. I personally can’t really see myself using any of the colours in it, but they’re pigmented enough.
The Lip Liner & Eye Liner

The eyeliner is brown. It’s pretty unremarkable to be honest. Sharpens badly, which is my pet peeve when it comes to pencils. You end up with half of the product all over the sharpener blades. Not cool.
I use the lip liner a lot more. It’s a subtle colour which I wear to school sheered out over some balm. It sharpens quite terribly as well, though.

The Mascara

It was a dark brown colour, which was quite cool. The wand was standard, if a bit smaller than normal. I personally didn’t rate the formula, it was too dry and thick for me. Having said that I have had it for a while, so perhaps that was the problem.

 This is the product, sheered out. Look at that sparkle!
The Bronzer/Face Powder

On the back of the container for the Bronzer/Face Powder hybrid, it calls it a face powder and I mentally went “Hell nah”. Seriously, this is sparkle city. I would look in the eyes and laugh in the face of anyone who actually applied this all over their face. Actually, I’m laughing now at the mental image.
It’s gorgeous, though, with plenty of product. I personally like using this as a highlighter, as an eyeshadow, or on my legs if I’m wearing shorts. The brush included is pretty useless but aren’t they all? It comes with a handy mirror, too, which I appreciated.
The product with just one swipe of the finger. Impressive...

 These duo eyeshadows are so adorable, if a tad useless.
The Duo Shadows

Three of these came in a little Sunkissed set. I think they’re adorable, functionality aside. I have a thing for cute little eyeshadows in pots, lol.
The colours compliment each other and I like the pattern stamped on the surface. I find that they’re not as pigmented as their paletted cousins, however.
Swatches of the products, above and below. You can see that they're quite weak, pigmentation wise.
Just one more product! It's a big one, though.

The Lip & Eye Palette

I love this. It actually came with a mirror but I’ve discarded that as it was too much of a hassle. The lip colours last for a reasonably long time and are quite opaque. I love that you get so much choice within one palette, lip wise. As you can see, I’ve used the last shade a lot! It doesn’t come with a lip brush but the pans are wide enough that you can easily use your fingers if caught without one. The eye colours are great as well. There’s a bit of fallout but nothing unbearable, and there’s a wide range of well pigmented colours. I actually want to get a back up of this, so next time I’m in TJ Hughes I’ll keep a lookout for it! A lot of the colours don’t show up that well as they’re quite close to my skin tone, but I assure you that they are pigmented.
 It's cute how the palette seems to be split into warmer toned colours and cooler toned ones. Only one colour isn't all that pigmented (I'm not entirely sure if you can even see it in the photo...it's the closest to my elbow).
 Some of the eyeshadows.
 Some more eyeshadows!
 I use the gold ones the most, out of all the colours here. All the colours in this palette are shimmery, by the way. No mattes :P
 So smooth!
 I would generally dislike lip colours in a palette simply because it's usually so impractical to take them around with you, but this palette is an exception. Nice and compact and it shuts very securely so there's no chance of it coming open in a bag.
Some of the (lighter) lipsticks have a frost finish, but it's not all that noticeable or dated looking.

I actually quite like this brand, though availability is limited and the product range is quite narrow. They do good products for a really cheap price. If you live in the UK and have access to the brand at TJ Hughes, perhaps you should check it out. Or if you already have, what do you think about it?

2 Comments

  1. You have gorgeous lips! I love the sparkly bronzer

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you very much Scandalous *blushes*

    I love it too, but not for school lol

    ReplyDelete

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