In college, I took an art appreciation class. Our instructor told us about how the brain perceives color and how our brain stores it. Since most people have an abstract memory, as opposed to those that have a photographic memory, we do not have good color memory. Then, I attended a makeup artistry class and again, I heard that the brain doesn’t have a good color memory. Most of us don’t recall a color’s true hue very well. Example: Have you ever purchased an article of clothing thinking it would go with something you already own? Then, when you get home it doesn’t work at all because the colors clash? That’s our brain not having precise color memory.
Gosh, that has happened to me many times. I do that a lot with blues. But, once I learned about cool, warm and neutral tones in colors, I got more hits than misses. Today, I have a miss to you show.
A new store in town has an elf makeup tower display. I only pushed one person out of the way to get to it, so I was fairly proud of my restraint. I got several items and one of them was this gloss…
This is called ‘Jeweled Jem’. Glitter overload to the max. Now, I’m sitting here at my desk with said gloss in my hand. Comparing the photo to the real thing doesn’t match up. This gloss is more purply. I still love it, but the photo is deceptive.
Then, at a later date, I saw a glitter gloss by LA Colors. I knew I had the elf gloss but couldn’t remember if it was more pink, more purple??? And since it was at the Dollar Tree, I was only going to be out a buck. Now, here’s the two side by side…
The top gloss is the LA Color one and I’m not finding a name on it. Do you see how my camera adjusted the elf to be more purple? And that is a LOT closer to what it is in real life. My point is, I thought they’d probably be close in shade. Maybe not glitter amount but I thought it was going to be a close dupe.
Here’s what happened when I swatched them…
LA Color on the top; elf on the bottom. Next trick; what you see in the bottle doesn’t always translate OUT of the bottle. In this case, it’s a tube. The LA Color is almost a peachy color and boy, is it light. Before I go on to show you the individual glosses, let me say, that if you want to make a match of color(s), whether it’s clothes, makeup, polish, shoes or redecorating your house…take the things you want to match with you, physically, and don’t rely on just your memory.
Since I purchased the elf gloss ‘Jewled Jem’ first, let me show you that one…
The applicator is a soft brush. It holds the gloss really well when you put on that first stroke. But, after that, I had to fish out more product as it didn’t adhere too well onto the brush after that. I stuck it into the tube and swirled it around hoping to scoop up more. That’s what did the trick. This isn’t unique, though. The gloss wasn’t runny but rather thick. That’s a good thing as the gloss stayed on my lips better and I got very nice coverage.
This is the LA Color doe-foot applicator…
Does this even look like the same gloss from the photos at the top? This is pink and I thought it was going to be a golden red, going by the color I see in the tube. This one was even tougher to get the gloss out. I had to remember not to bend the wand too far while swirling inside the tube. I’ve broken them off doing that in the past. And this was a very sheer gloss. Almost what a little girl could use because it isn’t much there. But, I do like it over lipsticks.
I will say that I am happy I got both. For a total of $4 I got a couple of fairly cool glosses. Both shades work on me and I didn’t get two of the same shade.
But even if my color memory was really good, I still couldn’t rely on it in this case, because what’s in the tube isn’t always what comes out. Moral of the story: Open up the makeup and test it out before you buy it.
Just kidding!!! What I recommend is purchase your beauty items at a store where you know they will refund your money if you don’t like it. Walgreens, Walmart, Bed, Bath and Beyond and CVS are good with this. Happy Matching!!
