A Tale of Lost Love: TheBalm's Mary Lou-Manizer

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago... I went to Marshall's. (And by a "long, long time," I mean maybe a year and a half ago, tops.) 

As I perused the beauty section, not expecting to find anything even remotely interesting among the smashed-up boxes and grubby messes that people tend to make, I saw a makeup kit with some really, really cute art on it. And that's when I first fell in love with TheBalm. 

I used to drool over swatches online of things from the brand that I would probably never see in person, let alone own, and dream about applying them to my own face. Too weird? Not at all. (My mom will probably disagree with me, there.) After all, I didn't know of a place where I could find these products myself and see how they worked with my skin tone. So I resigned myself to a life of ogling Temptalia's swatches in different tabs on my computer while listening to sad music play in the background.

But today when I was in Kohl's, I found a whole counter of TheBalm cosmetics. (What! Since when did they sell these there?) And, obviously, the first thing I picked up to swatch was the Mary Lou Manizer, the gorgeous shimmery-champagne highlight that I've probably had several dreams about at this point:

My... precious.....

Though the packaging is cute, the first thing I noticed when I picked it up was how flimsy it actually was. I know that several bloggers have had problems with this highlighter smashing to pieces with the slightest nudge, which makes sense because of the soft, buttery consistency of the product. Maybe the inefficient packaging has something to do with it.

However, the product itself is stunning. It applied nicely and evenly, leaving a smooth wash of color. This highlight is definitely not for the faint of heart! Subtle it is not, but it does have nice lasting power.

I unfortunately didn't take this baby home with me for two reasons: a.) because my oily skin really does not need this heavy of a highlighting makeup product, and b.) I was not prepared to spend $24 dollars on something I would probably drop and break within an hour of owning it. However, it has gone back to the top of my beauty wishlist board on Pinterest (where you should totally follow me, by the way), where I can stare at it wistfully from afar. Maybe I will justify owning it one day.

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Until next time,

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