Makeup is a fun way to express yourself and feel more confident, but how durable is it? It is often hard to find high-quality, lasting makeup at a reasonable price. As active college students, we can’t afford to have faulty makeup that melts off our faces when commuting to class. So, we decided to test some products for you. We didn’t just walk around campus when testing these products, we went all in and conducted a hardcore “sweat test.” Read until the end to get our full review and product recommendations!
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Her Campus is partnered with Maybelline and we got these products for free (thanks Maybelline!). However, we are not sponsored by Maybelline and are going to provide you with a completely honest review. Additionally, we aren’t the biggest makeup girlies so our exposure to other products and makeup application wasn’t the greatest, but we wanted to share with you to the best of our ability.
For context, the following is the full gym workout we did to test the products:
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PSA: Sweat is normal!!! Sweating can be really embarrassing even though it is totally natural. We both felt self-conscious at certain points during this process because of the stigma around sweat and body odor. Everyone is different and how much or how little you sweat or smell when you work out shouldn’t prevent you from feeling strong and empowered.
Jadeyn: I am a super sweaty gal and it’s something I’ve struggled with for much of my life. I avoid certain shirts and colors because of the visibility of my sweat and I often feel gross and unclean, even though I can’t control how much I sweat. If you are a fellow sweaty lady, know you are not alone! I see you and I feel you.
Aarushi: I am super self-conscious about my personal body odor, which is something that I’ve struggled with for most of my life. I tend to worry about whether people think I smell, which is a problem that has kept me from going to the gym on a regular basis in the past. But these past couple months, I’ve made an active choice to try and go to the gym more frequently: everyone sweats when working out, and everyone has body odor. Newsflash, it's normal!
Vinyl Ink (Jadeyn): To preface, I am not the biggest fan of matte lip tints. However, this product followed through with its promise and held on for dear life. The application was really smooth and velvety and the color was gorgeous and pigmented. My lips felt super dry almost immediately after putting it on, but that is to be expected with a matte lip product. Most matte lip tints I’ve tried start to flake off after about 20 minutes, but this one did not. By the end of the workout, I had a tiny bit of “butthole lip”(the color came off on the inner circle of my lips), but again, this is to be expected with a lip product. Overall, this product did what it promised. I don’t see myself using it often, but I will definitely keep it around for fun occasions.
Lifter Gloss - Rust (Aarushi): I am a huge lip gloss girlie, so I knew that I wanted to test out a lip gloss shade at the gym. I will say that the pigment of the gloss I tested was a bit lighter than what I am usually accustomed to wearing. As a brown girl, I prefer how darker shades of lip colors look on me, typically on the purple color spectrum. The gloss shade I used was the darkest option, which was still absolutely gorgeous, but a brighter red than I am used to - the pigment looked light pink/peachy when applied to my lips. Nevertheless, the application was smooth and I didn’t need to pack the product on my lips. The gloss was not extremely pigmented in an overbearing way, but was not dull either. By the end of the workout, the gloss had rubbed off of my lips a good amount, but not all the way. Some of the pigment remained, but the gloss sheen itself had dulled down. This is expected of all lip glosses, though, to keep in mind. Overall, this product did slightly surprise me with its durability, in comparison to other lip glosses I have used in the past. I would definitely see myself using it again: the color definitely grew on me.
Overall: First of all, shout out to Marita for perfectly watching both of our shades! We have different skin types and both the concealer and powder felt great on both of us. The concealer had a spongey applicator that felt soft on the skin. However, it was a little difficult to figure out how to get the product from the bottle onto the sponge. Once we were able to, we didn’t need much to cover our dark circles/blemishes. Since it didn’t take a lot, it provided full coverage without looking/feeling cakey or heavy. The powder paired nicely with the concealer and helped set it without completely drying it out. Overall, the application was smooth and both products held up super well in the gym.
Jadeyn: I have pretty dry skin so finding a concealer that doesn’t flake and grasp onto dry patches is super difficult for me. I noticed a bit of flaking on my nose, but not as much as any other concealers I’ve tried. I tend to avoid concealer and only use it on very prominent blemishes or for special occasions. With that being said, I don’t see myself using it every day, but it is definitely my new favorite product when I do wear concealer. I don’t think I will use the powder much, only because I have dry skin and don’t enjoy a matte finish. But, the product did what it was made to do and I would recommend it to anyone with combination to oily skin.
Aarushi: I have combination-to-oily skin, so I was excited to try out the concealer and powder duo to get that matte finish. The durability of both products surprised me in the best possible way: my skin can get extremely oily, so a matte powder finish does not always maintain on my face. However, my skin did not get oily during the workout, and the concealer didn’t budge for the most part. The only issue was with my dark circles. I have extremely prominent dark circles under my eyes which I have always had issues with concealing. I will say that this concealer did the best job I’ve seen at covering them, but they still peeked through by the end of the workout.
Overall: The eyeshadow palette had three shades and we were both drawn to the same one. It was super pigmented and held up better than most other eyeshadows either of us have used. We have very different skin tones, and this shade looked great on both of us. However, the packaging was a bit tricky to open and we won’t get much use from the other two shades.
For the mascara, we both thought that the initial application was easy, mostly mess-free, and impressive. We both have hooded eyes, so it’s impossible to avoid smudging during application altogether, but it was a lot less than usual. It wasn’t marketed as waterproof, but none of it came off with sweat. It did a great job of lifting the lashes, and neither of us noticed any clumping. The product claimed to be flake-free, which wasn’t entirely true, but it flaked less than other mascaras we have tried.
Jadeyn: Apart from the mascara and eyeshadow, I also used the brow fast sculpt gel. This product worked well, but it did have a bit of a white cast and a lot more product than needed came off when applying. It held my brows in place and didn’t sweat off during the workout. The mascara felt a bit crunchy and sticky after so much sweating, but it didn’t look any different than before. I noticed some creasing with the eyeshadow, but I really enjoyed it overall.
Aarushi: Apart from the mascara and eyeshadow, I tested out the hypereasy brush tip liner in the shade pitch black. I applied a bit on my waterline in a purposefully messy/buffed out way, as that is the type of eye look I prefer the most on my face. I will say that the eyeliner held out throughout the workout: it didn’t smudge off or fade away at all. However, I did not draw wings or put on extremely heavy eyeliner, so I cannot account for that aspect.
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We were super nervous about wearing so much makeup to the gym, especially since neither of us wears a lot of makeup in our daily lives. Once we were there, we were able to really focus on the workout and didn’t think about the makeup too much. It actually made us more confident in our decisions about how to present ourselves in all sorts of contexts. Though we wouldn’t choose to wear a full face of makeup to the gym again, we had a much better experience than we anticipated. If you’re into wearing makeup at the gym or just have a super active lifestyle, we would definitely recommend investing in the Maybelline products!
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