Review: Lorac Close Up Face Tutorial

Now is the time to review one of my favourite purchases from Atlanta! I knew I wanted to try some Lorac but I had absolutely no idea what to look at. I'd looked at so much make up during that week that I had reached some kind of saturation point where nothing new was grabbing me. During the very last day (we were literally on the way to the airport to go home and worked out we could fit in a couple of hours shopping before our flights) we stopped at a much better Ulta and I finally grabbed this off the shelves. I must have looked quite pathetic at that point, I was just wondering aimlessly around Ulta grabbing a few random things off the shelves in a kind of "omg, last day to buy this stuff" kind of haze. Four days of a convention will do that to your brain.

I eventually settled on Lorac's Close Up: Face Tutorial kit. This cost $39 and has a value of $120. I really loved these kits I kept finding at Ulta and Sephora. They're a really good value way of trying out the brand. I also bought a Bare Minerals kit which I'll be reviewing at some point. I've still got so, so much of that haul to review for you.


In this kit you get:
-Instruction booklet
-Multiplex 3D Lashes Mascara in "Black"
-Front Of The Line Pro Liquid Eyeliner "Black"
-Couture Shine Gloss "Trend Setter"
-Blush "Soul"
-Starry Eyed Baked Shadow Trio "LoracStar"

The looks are definitely on the more "smokey neutral" side.

I had a quick look through the instruction booklet and liked the easy to follow instructions. The two tutorial pages do peel off so you can stick them to your mirror. Assuming you use a larger mirror that is! Otherwise, the booklet is designed to stand up as a flip chart kind of thing. There are also some good tips at the back of the booklet.

The liquid liner did not survive the trip home. The pressure changes in the plane forced all the product out through the brush. Liquid liners that have a brush dipped into a well survived better but the pen style just exploded black liner. Nice.

The mascara is quite nice but not something I'm planning on buying again. I'll be reviewing it in more depth as a separate blog post as part of my mascara series.


Now, one of the two stars products of this kit! The Baked Trio in LoracStar has fast become one of my favourite eye products. The colours are so smooth and richly pigmented. Even without using them with a damp brush (like you tend to have to with MAC's baked shadows), you get rich, metallic awesomeness. The three shades together can create anything from a fairly toned down look (as toned down as you can get with that much metallic!) to a rich, smokey look. They're definitely metallic rather than frosted though. I use the deepest chocolate shade quite often as a crease shade if I'm stuck for one to use when I'm in a taupe mood! I'm definitely planning on buying a few more of these, just as soon as I can track some down.


The Blush in Soul is the other star product for me. If you look back in recent FOTD posts, you'll see just how much use this has been getting. It's a dusky rosy-brown-nude shade that seems to work perfectly with my skin tone. There's a very slight amount of shimmer to it, definitely more of a glow than outright shimmer though. It's pigmented enough and lasts through the day on me.

The Couture Shine Gloss in Trend Setter is not a favourite of mine. The colour is a pinkish nude that should work quite nicely on me but it's just so frosted. It just doesn't flatter me at all. It's also way more pigmented than any gloss I've ever used which should be a good thing. But combined with all that frost, it just does not work.

Overall, this has been a good introduction to Lorac for me. I've found a couple of products that I'll look into trying more of and a couple that I'm not so impressed with. If I find myself back in the US then I'll definitely be stopping at a Lorac counter.

And here's the FOTD that uses most of this kit (minus the liner and gloss).