Jelly Pong Pong Lavish Gift Bag: Jelly Flush and Lip Frosting

Jelly Pong Pong has got to be one of the cutest brands I've ever seen in my entire life. Everything about this brand is nothing short of adorable - from the packaging to the way the products smell. What's more, the brand has recently released not one, but two gift bags, called the Lavish Gift Bags.

The two gift bags are called Gift Bag A and Gift Bag B respectively, and each of them are £15 each. (PS. for my Asian girls, there is a Malaysian Jelly Pong Pong site that ships closer to home!) Gift Bag A consists of their Brazilian Sun Bronzer as well as a Lip Frosting, while Gift Bag B consists of their cheek tint Jelly Flush, and a Wide Awake Palette (consisting of various highlighters and an eyebrow powder). I'm just going to start the review with my favourite products from each set.

You know I'm a lip and cheek product junkie, so of course I'd fall for the Jelly Flush cheek stain (from set B) and Lip Frosting lipgloss (from set A)! Just look at the packaging of those items!



Now I'm not normally a packaging kinda girl, but they have the cutest-looking tubes and containers. And they both smell really sweet and yummy! Both items are actually quite sizable. I don't think I'd finish either product in my lifetime (but then again, I do have a lot of makeup lying around).



The Lip Frosting is a rather large, stubby tube of lipgloss. I don't think it's completely full of glos, though. It's just the way the product is packaged. You get 14g, which is about the size of a Lancome Juicy Tube. So yes, you do get a good amount of product, but not as much as the fat tube suggests.

It smells very sugary and sweet, and just generally very edible. The Lip Frostings come in various scents and colours, and the one in the set is Irish Cream Pavlova, and is a sheer hot pink with slight glitter.



The Lip Frostings come in a squeeze tube, which then probably has to be transferred to fingers before application on the lip. I do find that you have to be careful with these, sometimes I get quite a bit of gloss gushing out all at once. Otherwise, I don't have any issues with the packaging.

Colour-wise, I love this colour. It's a wearable hot pink, very perfect for Spring/Summer. There are glitter bits inside, but they aren't very big or plentiful, so this is still within my glitter-phobic limits. It's the colour anyone could wear if they wanted a pop of colour on their lips.



The Jelly Pong Pong Jelly Flush cheek stain is also one of the brand's better selling products, and boy, this baby is absolutely adorable. It comes in the cutest little tube with a twist-off cap and a pop-up base.

I do have an issue with the base, though. It seems like you can push up the product, but you can't retract it, except by manually pushing the product down to the base again. I guess with this product, you wouldn't want to push it out unnecessarily.



That said, I'm in love with this product. It smells divine and just edible - this one smells like candies and sweets, and the sheer rosy red colour is perfect for anyone to wear. After all, who couldn't use a sheer red cheek colour?

The texture of this is also a selling point - it gives a wash of a sheer stain of colour, similar to Benetint, but it is in solid form, making it infinitely easier to carry around and use. I'd call this product a solid gel. It isn't all wiggly and squishy like a jelly, but at the same time it isn't very hard, and if you rub it against your skin, the product comes off in a wet, liquid-ish form, which is goood for blending in.



But enough of my ravings and rantings on the products. Here are swatches!



L-R: Jelly Flush lightly applied, Jelly Flush heavily applied, Lip Frosting

As you can see, the Jelly Flush is very, very sheer. On the first couple of swipes, the product barely shows up at all, and you have to do 3-4 swipes to get a medium application. I had to really build up the heavy swatch you see in the photo above. So if you are unsure about trying out a cheek stain, this one is perfect for beginners - it's in solid form, it's easy to use, and it's very sheer and buildable, so you wont' have to worry about making mistakes.

I also think the Jelly Flush, with it's sheer red stain, would be gorgeous as a lip colour as well. I used it as a lip colour to good effect, although I felt it was a bit dry on its own, so if you were to use it as a lip stain, I'd recommend using a balm or gloss on top.

The Lip Frosting is hot pink, to be sure, but it's also quite sheer. So no worries about the bright colour looking out of place! It's also very shiny, which would appeal to those who love their glosses with shine and glitter.

And because these are my favourite products, here's a Face of the Day (FOTD) I did with these two products. The Jelly Flush is used on my cheeks, and the Lip Frosting is on my lips:



As you can tell, I really love these products, and if these are colours and products that interest you, they are worth a look. In particular, I think the Jelly Flush cheek stain is pretty nifty for people looking for a non-liquid alternative to stains like Benefit's Benetint or TheBalm's Stainiac, since it gives a similar effect. These are wearable and pretty products, and very suitable as cute-looking gifts as well.

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

Summer Cheek Stains: Bloom Bronze and Rose

Today's swatches are another summer staple - cheek stains! These are from Bloom, an Australian brand that's carried in Australia and other countries. They're most famous for their nail polish among other items, but other than their polish, they seem to be pretty underrated. Anyway, like Benefit, they also have cheek stains.

The interesting about the Bloom stains is that not only do they have a Rose (or Rosie according to the website - I'm not sure which is the correct name) tint that every brand has, they also have more uniquely, a bronze tint, that functions as a bronzer! This is pretty unique, especially at the drugstore beauty level, because most bronzers I've seen to date have been in powder or cream form. This is pretty much the first gel bronzer I've seen, especially in a drugstore context.

Anyway, here are swatches:



Rose or Rosie (whatever the correct name is), is a deep cool-toned rose shade, while bronze is a muddy brown that probably needs to be tried on before you buy it - I'm not sure how this shade would translate onto most skintones. It seems like a really odd shade of brown to have, and honestly, it kind of looks like something you'd find in the bathroom...

Anyway, the texture of these cheek stains was in a gel form, so they weren't too liquid, and unlike previous stains I've swatched, these come in a tube with a brush dispenser. This makes it a little more convenient for travel than other stains which come in an oversized-nail-polish-like bottle, although I'm wary of the brush dispenser because it just looks like a breeding ground for germs. I personally like the Rose (or is it Rosie?) shade a lot, but the Bronze shade is a bit more dubious to me.

I wonder if anyone has tried the Bronze shade? How did it turn out on you?

Summer Cheek Stains: Mememe Poppy and Pussy Cat Tints Swatches

Legend has it that Benetint, the first rose-coloured stain on the market, was created by the founders of Benefit at the request of a female entertainer to stain a specific part of her body a nice rosy pink (sorry I can't be more direct guys, this blog is rated G, LOL). Since then, lookalike products have blossomed, and Benetint isn't unique anymore. Nevertheless, regardless of brand, stains seem to be more favoured in summer, presumably because they stay on after all other makeup has melted off.

One of the rumoured dupes of Benefit's Benetint and Posietint are the Mememe Pussy Cat Tint, and the Mememe Poppy Tint respectively. Now I wasn't able to swatch Benetint and Posietint beside Pussy Cat and Poppy, so I can't confirm any of the assertions, but they do look to be pretty close. The packaging is also very similar - they come in those oversized glass bottles with a nail polish-like brush, just like Benefit and Posietint. I'd personally prefer a packaging change to a squeeze tube or a pump bottle, so that it would be easier to handle. But hey,I guess if you're trying to copy the product, why not copy the packaging?



Poppy Tint is a sweet pastel magenta pink, while Pussy Cat Tint is a deep but clear rose red.

I personally like both colours, and I swatched them sheered out to show how they might look when actually worn, and also when built up, so you can get a clearer glimpse of texture. The Poppy Tint has a little more of a gel like texture than the Pussy Cat Tint - as you can see, the dollop of Poppy Tint stays where it is, but the dollop of Pussy Cat Tint is spreading out even as I took the photo. But I guess given that the Pussy Cat Tint is a clear transparent liquid, while the Poppy Tint was an opaque liquid, there would be some difference in texture. Both were easily layered for greater colour intensity, and they seemed to do fine in terms of being blendable while swatching.

I walked around with these for awhile to let them "set", and then I tried to remove them with rubbing and water, and I'm pleased to say they both held up relatively well. They held up better to rubbing than to water, but that's perhaps to be expected. I like that they are pretty much rub-proof once you let them absorb, so they won't come off onto clothes. These are probably good alternatives to anyone who wants a Benetint or Posietint dupe - they are similar, but much cheaper.

TheBalm Stainaic Swatches: Beauty Queen and Homecoming Queen

Today I am providing swatches with Thebalm's Stainaic in two colours, out of three. Unfortunately I'm only able to swatch two out of the three colours, as this is all that was available. :(

The Stainaics are gel stains, and they are much like Benefit's Benetint and Posietint, only better, because they are less runny, and the gel-like texture makes it easier to control, as well as easier to blend. I think their gel texture also gives them a bit more time before they dry and set, which makes them much better than Benefit's competitor products, as these tend to dry really quickly, in my opinion.

The Stainaics are packaged in a wand with an applicator, much like lipgloss. I think this packaging is a little unsanitary - I'd much prefer that they be in a squeeze tube - but at least in this form of packaging, there's no chance of spilling any product, unless the entire tube breaks.




L - R: Beauty Queen, Homecoming Queen

Beauty Queen is a colour very similar to Benefit's Benetint, and all its imitators. It's a rosy red colour with a berry tint, and very pretty. It's a deep red that can be sheered out or built up for colour. It would probably look better on cool-toned than on warm-toned girls, but I imagine this would look good on most people.

Homecoming queen is a very orangey peach. In fact, I think it's probably 90% orange and 10% peach - it reminds me of the colour of marmalade or orange jam. I think this would probably look good only on warm-toned girls, given how orange it is.