Hello my lovelies!
Last Spring I started a new series of posts in the blog about focusing on one makeup brand at the time, particularly those which call my attention or I find that deserve to be featured and shared with you.
On my first post in this series I've introduced you to a fairly new brand called Bronx Colors, but today I'm going to talk about a brand that may sound familiar to you it is Catrice Cosmetics.



About the Brand

Catrice Cosmetics was founded in 2004 by the Cosnova Beauty group, in Germany, but is currently sold in 10'000 points of sale in 30 countries. It is the younger sister of Essence Cosmetics, but with a different profile and target: here is what the brands says:

 "CATRICE IS INSPIRED BY THE TRENDS IN THE FASHION CAPITALS OF THE WORLD
CATRICE never misses a single trend, must-have or detail. The range is extremely convincing: a large choice of colours with trendy as well as classic shades for diverse looks. Products with high-quality ingredients, luxurious textures and innovative formulas. Premium packaging. An ideal price-performance-ratio to ensure a pure love of shopping. Twice a year, 25% of the CATRICE range is updated so that there is always something new to discover. Beyond that, our in-house Trend Division develops up to 14 limited make-up collections per year: the current looks of the catwalk shows provide the inspiration for our make-up collections and are re-interpreted with the beauty products by CATRICE.

 CATRICE – a pure joy of life: inspiring, contagious and multi-facetted."


My current favorite products of the brand

I shall stress these are "currently" my favourite, because the brand really updates the range very frequently. Which is a little disconcerting to say the least. But we'll get back to that in a minute. I've grouped my favourite products and you'll quickly notice I like a lot their base products.


Catrice Prime and Fine Beautifying primer


This primer is meant to give a soft focus effect, make your foundation last longer and naturally illuminate the skin. And for me it does everything it says. It is very lightweight on the skin, it actually sinks in the skin and leave my skin very soft, silky and slinghtly glowy. It works wonderfully with my Catrice and MAC foundations, really improving the aspect of my skin, making it look less dull.
This isn't the kind of primer you would use to dissimulate pores or dry patches, if those are your problems, I recommend you to use a different primer.
Not the best primer out there, but it is a very good one for a price that can't be beaten (at least in Switzerland).


Catrice Prime and Fine Eyeshadow base


This eyeshadow base is like nothing I've tried before. I am fan of Milani's eyeshadow base because it hold everything you put on the eye for hours and hours. BUT as I age, I have noticed the Milani base was making my eyelids dryer which meant eyeshadow (especially matte formulations or metallic or foiled eyeshadows) started looking cakey and my eyelids very wrinkly! I had a similar experiance with my beloved Urban Decay primer potion. So I got the UD Primer potion anti age, which improved my dry eyelid situation a lot. This Catrice one, is more light weigth than the UD anti-age one, and a tad more moisturizing. Which results in eyeshadow (especially matte) looking better on me. However, this won't help glitery shades adhering better. In those cases I need to find another option. If you have ageing and/or dry eyelids, may be you would like to give it a go! It's very affordable too.


Camouflage Cream Wake Up Effect


This color correcting concealer with a pink-peach tint claims to:

Cover dark circles under the eyes
Creamy texture with a high coverage
For a smooth, even skin tone

I have a hormonal melasma, which is not terribly dark, and it tends to yellow-brown, so I thought this pink-peach corrector could wrk fine for me. I wasn't wrong, this did a great work! It corrected my dark spots super well and was imperceptible once I applied the foundation. I apply it with my fingers and dab a very little amount on my primed skin and it looks wonderful, it looks like nothing on the skin! It blends so well on the skin, it doesn't leave a texture like other color correctors I've tried and it doesn't make my pores any more evident. I LOVE it.
There is, however, a con to stress here, this product comes only in one shade and I am not sure this would work for anyone darker than NC20/NW20. It has a part of white, which would look very ashy in warmer and deeper skin tones.


Catrice Liquid Camouflage High Coverage Concealer


I am on my second tube and already got a third as back up. It offers high coverage and is ultra-longlasting, waterproof liquid texture very lightweight and almost imperceptible. Forget cakeyness, forget creasing. This sets to a perfectly matte texture that doesn't budge. However, and this is a big however that is applicable to the product reviewed below too (foundation), the liquid Camouflage concealer range has 3 (THREE!!) shades, and I use the darkest of them. Yes, you read right, I use the shade 020 Light beige which is the darkest of the three shades available. Like I am darker than who? I am slightly darker than milk, right.
I am very happy with the product, I love it to pieces and will repurchase it (as long as they carry it) but if Catrice wants to grow, I mean really grow as a brand, it should definitely expand their color range. Like half of the population in the world is a medium with some kind of undertone, and the other half is all the colors of the skin rainbow!

Catrice HD Liquid Coverage Foundation

This is a medium/high coverage foundation with a matte silky finish and very liquid consistency. Here are the claims:


  • High but natural-looking coverage
  • Ultra-light, liquid texture
  • For a perfect complexion for up to 24 hours
  • Vegan

Except that I can't assure that is actually Vegan, I take their word for it, the rest o the claims were true for me. It looks natural on my skin, and that is saying a lot! I don't usually trust drugstore foundations as the tend to look kind of orange on my neutral complexion, but this one is just perfect for me. I am so so happy I have found a foundation under 10 USD that actually suits my skin tone and skin type, covers my melasma and looks so natural! I tell you, it is the jackpot.

I'd say I have a holy grail situation... except, it is not suitable for me in winter. I have dry skin and I'm gettin' old, this very thin foundation does not forgive my dry patches and makes them more evident (as every other mattifying foundation I've ever tried). But for the rest of the year it is my holy-freaking-affordable-grail.

Two negative things to point out. I use the lightest shade in the range which is 010 Light beige. The first problem I have is : how can I use the lightest foundation but the darkest concealer? it doesn't make sense, please Catrice, coordinate your concealers with your foundations! Another remark is that the color range is very small, only four shades available, and they all look pretty light to me, and they all seem to have a different undertone. The darkest looks like a light medium to me. But I've already ranted about this, so lets go on!



I have done a little collage so you can see how I apply the products I just talked to you about. (1) is my bare face (only moisturizer). (2) This is wearing primer and the color corrector. The primer didn't make any difference visually, so I left that picture out, but the color corrector make my melasma less evident! (you can click to enlarge and see how imperceptible on the skin this corrector is). (3) I applied the liquid concealer under my eyes and on some problem areas. (4) I applied foundation and eyeshadow base.


Here is a bigger version of the first and last pictures, so you can see the difference is quite amazing, but the final result still looks natural! Please, click to enlarge and see it is no cakey at all!



Bonus product: Prime and Fine Makeup Transformer drops Darkening

I think that Catrice has starting sknowledging the issue they have with their color range because they issued two color correcting products to add to your foundation as many other brands have done. I already own the lightening product from The Body Shop, so I thought I would pick up the darkening one to keep using my milky foundation during summer. Well, my plan didn't work out. The drops looked fine and blended perfectly with the foundation, they didn't alter the consistency or the application. BUT they have a very warm undertone, that makes my skin look orange. Remember I said I have a neutral undertone and most drugstore foundations look orange on me? well, guess what.
 I couldn't snap pictures of me wearing this in summer, when the effect wasn't that obvious, but I'm already as pale as it gets, and now it looks totally ridiculous on me. But I would recommend it to anyone with a warmer undertone for sure!



Last but not least. Catrice Matt Lip Artist 010 Bare's Nude Soul


I am in love.
I live by this lipstick. You have seen it in this blog so many times I couldn't count, and you'll see it even more because I got a back up (see what is left! even the writing on the tube are worn out! LOL). I want to buy every lipstick on this range, but then I refrain myself (don't I own enough lipstick already?) .
The claims:
Leaves a velvety feeling on the lips
Longlasting colour for up to 6 hours
Vegan

It is true, it is forgiving on dry lips, but it is matte, matte, matte! The color 010 is my perfect nude shade, there are 7 shades in total. Go and buy one, then thank me (twink).

_o0o_


Bottom Line 


There is a dozen more products I love from Catrice: their "permanent" range lipsticks are 99% perfection. The lip liners are the best among the most affordable. Their setting powders are very good as well! Their nail polish are pretty good, but their formulation is not consistent, some shades are liquid perfection, some shades are only good for the trash.

Overall, Catrice offers a super affordable range of good quality products, with some hits and misses. They are always on the move, offering the latest makeup trends, textures and formulations. As I have already pointed there are two main problems : one is the small range of colors for base products and the other is the constant renewal of their range, discontinuing products that can be your holy grail almost every year.

Have you tried anything from Catriceyet? Is this brand available where you live? Do you know any of the products I presented here? Let me know in the comments!

Love,
Nati