Pixi Multibalm Review, Swatches, Ingredients Analysis

Pixi Beauty's Multibalms have been out for a couple of months now, and I've finally gotten around to reviewing them! The Multibalms are basically a stick of cream colour that dries down to a powder, and can be used both on lips and cheeks, for a "quick touch of colour to the face". The Multibalms also claim to be "infused with aloe vera, shea butter, and rose hip oil" as an extra perk, too.

Pixi Multibalm: A multi-tasking product for lips and cheeks

As you know, Pixi has been known for some of their great beauty products for awhile now, and the brand has gained a reputation for its affordable, but still high quality, products. In particular the Pixi Glow Tonic has been extremely popular, growing from its cult beauty status to even receiving praise from mainstream beauty press. So, I was pretty excited about the Multibalms, hoping that they would also be just as worthy of praise.


Pixi Multibalm: With 5 shades covering all the basic colour families
Of course we're going to have swatches of the Multibalms, too. But first, let's look at my favourite part of the product to analyze, the ingredients list!


Pixi Multibalm Ingredients
All the Pixi Multibalms have the same ingredients regardless of colour, which is why I just took a photo of only one label. The main ingredients in the Multibalms are emollients from various forms of waxes and oils (Ricinus Communis Seed Oil, Candelilla Cera, Cera Alba, Ozokerite, Copernicia Cerifera Cera), a variety of emollient esters (Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Isopropyl Isostearate, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2), some of which double up also as emulsifiers, some shimmer (Mica), and an absorbent (Silica). After this we hit the preservative (Phenoxyethanol), so we know that we've looked at the main ingredients.

After Phenoxyethanol, there are the ingredients present in smaller amounts, which include Vitamin E (Tocopheryl Acetate), more emollients (Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Caprylic / Capric Triglyceride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter), plant extracts (Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract), Vitamin C (Ascorbyl Palmitate), and colourants (Titanium Dioxide, D&C Red 6 Ba. Lake, D&C Red 7 Ca. Lake, Iron Oxides).


Pixi Multibalm: The base formula, heavy on emollients and waxes, is what gives the balms their creamy texture
So overall, we can see that the formula of the Pixi Multibalms is obviously highly emollient, with lots of waxes, emollients, and oils, as we might expect from a cream makeup product. For those who like plant-derived or more natural oils and waxes, there are a bunch of them in there too, including Castor Seed Oil, Candelilla Wax, Beeswax, Shea Butter and Dog Rose Fruit Oil. I liked the inclusion of Vitamins E and C, and although they are there in small amounts, I guess it's a nice side benefit to have. On the whole, I think this is a pretty nice formula for a cream stick product.


Pixi Multibalm: Each stick contains 0.23oz/6.5g of product
Now that we've looked at what's in the Pixi Multibalms, let's move on to the rest of the review! First, a little note about the Pixi Multibalms - the length of the tubes is not actually indicative of the length of the cream stick inside. The photo above shows the entirety of the product you get in the Pixi Multibalm, wound all the way up. As you can see, it's a little chubby nub. That said, you can probably expect the amount of product inside to last you awhile. The Target website lists the weight of the product inside as 0.23oz (6.5g), which is decently generous, and should last awhile.


Pixi Multibalm Swatches
Now that we've gotten that over and done with, let's move on to swatches!

Watermelon Veil is the lightest shade in the range, and the Pixi website describes it simply as "pink". It's a lovely light neutral pink, great on most fair to medium skintones.
Baby Petal is a "petal", and yes it is a light nude, that would look great as a nude blush on most skintones, too.
Wild Rose is a super-wearable rosy-brown-mauve shade, and one of those "goes with everything" shades. It would look best on cooler tones, but I think warm-toned ladies could definitely pull this off too. It's not too pale as well, so it would look great on more tanned ladies as well. The website's description of this as "mauve rose" doesn't do enough to capture how gorgeous this shade is.
Soft Strawberry is a "red berry", and this isn't really a "berry" shade in the sense that it doesn't have any purple in it and it doesn't lean cool. Instead, this is a sheer, buildable softened neutral red, very wearable on all skintones, and easy to use even if you're a bit more red-shy.
Sheer Sculpt is a "cocoa" shade, and yes, as the name implies, it's a great shade for bronzing, contouring and sculpting. The nice thing about Sheer Sculpt is that unlike some other contour shades which tend to pull orange, this one has no orange tones in it whatsoever, so you never have to worry about looking like an oompa loompa. In fact, it's slightly cool base makes it perfect for imitating shadows (because in real life shadows are black/grey/blue, but never orange), so I imagine this would be perfect for contouring.


Pixi Multibalm Swatches
I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed by the selection of shades here. Although there are very few shades (1 pink, 1 red, 1 rose, 1 nude, and 1 brown), you can really tell that a lot of thought went into getting each shade just right. The shades are almost all universally flattering and extremely wearable across a wide spectrum of skintones and undertones, and I think they would make a very great set of basic must-have shades that yet aren't boring or easily duplicated.

Additionally, I really loved the sheer but buildable pigmentation, as well as the very blendable texture, because it makes the shades so much easier to work with. In particular, potentially difficult shades like Soft Strawberry and Sheer Sculpt so much easier to work with, as you can build up the intensity of your flushed cheeks without looking like a clown, and any contouring marks you make can be easily blended out to make it look natural.

Lastly, although there is Mica in the ingredients list, the shades aren't at all shimmery. Above, you can see all the shades swatched at an angle, and none of them turn up any shimmer or glitter, which is in line with my personal preference anyway.


Pixi Multibalm FOTD
The Pixi website says that you can "try one shade on cheeks & lips to look pulled-together instantly", so I decided to do just that! Above, you can see the Multibalm in Wild Rose on both my lips and cheeks. Of course, you can use different shades on lips and cheeks too, and you could always add on Sheer Sculpt for a contour shade. When applied, the Multibalm didn't feel oily or sticky at all. It does feel a bit emollient, but it doesn't feel heavy. It does feel a bit dry on lips (as you might expect), so I found this better suited for cheeks, although it wasn't so dry as to put me off using this on my lips completely.

Below, my full FOTD (yes, just 2 products, it was a "rush out the door" kind of day):
Laneige BB Cushion Pore Control in #13 True Beige
Pixi Multibalm in Wild Rose (on both lips and cheeks)

I wore the Pixi Multibalm for half a day on a hot, humid day, and it did fade on my cheeks towards the end of the day to almost nothingness, although I wore it without any primer or setting powder/spray to test the product's staying power by itself. I imagine adding a setting powder, setting spray, or some sort of primer should improve the performance of the Multibalm, although I probably wouldn't use this on hot days where my makeup has a high probability of melting off. As far as lips go, this basically stayed on like any other creamy lipstick - it stayed on pretty well, until I started eating or drinking, where it then rubs off and transfers.


Pixi Multibalm: Surprisingly good staying power when I tried removing them from my arm
Strangely enough though, when I was trying to remove the swatches from my arm, they appeared to have a much, much better staying power! You can see above that the shades were still pretty much intact, after I tried to remove them with tissue and water. So there you go, on my arm skin the lasting power is somehow much better than on my actual face. Perhaps my face is just way more oily and sweaty than my arm!


Pixi Multibalm: Overall, a great multi-use cheek and lip product with a nice blendable texture, lovely shade range, and buildable pigmentation
So, would I recommend the Pixi Multibalms? I think, aside from the lack of staying power, I think the product has many good things to recommend it: a nice formula, great, wearable shades, a nice buildable pigmentation, blendable texture, sensible, practical packaging, its ease of use, and a decent price point at £12. If your skin isn't super sweaty or oily, or if you have good luck with the staying power of cream products, this would be a good one to try.

Recommended?	Pigmentation	Texture	Application	Colour	Lasting Power
Yes, a great multiuse product overall	7/10	8/10	8/10	8/10	5/10
The Bottom Line: Pixi Multibalms are a great multitasker, with a good formula, wearable shades, blendable texture, and buildable pigmentation, despite the limited lasting power.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)