Of all the beauty products we tried this year, these were by far the best. Check out our swatches, reviews, and pics!
At the end of the year, it is always nice to go back and think about all the cool stuff you have done. That way, you know to continue doing those awesome things next year! One thing we started at Blufashion in 2023 was our Controversial Cult Fave column featuring famous, beloved, and often quite expensive products that get tons of hype, even though sometimes, they’re just not worth it. However, amongst the sparkly $30 blush and the smudgy $25 mascara, some beauty products truly deserved the title of Cult Fave. These are the ones we loved most!
1. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar
Our original Controversial Cult Fave, this set of reviews and swatches included all of the Lip Tars in OCC’s Unknown Pleasures Collection. From gold-flecked ruby red to deep dark purple to my personal fave, metallic blue, this sparked our desire to test out all sorts of products that have a cult following. I already liked Lip Tars before this, but once I tried the wild colors in this collection, I truly fell in love.
Can a $33 lip balm seriously be worth it? Answer: actually, yeah. Liz found that it made her look feel “finished,” so if you are a lip product devotee and can get over the sticker shock, you need to try this one.
3. Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation
This is one of our favorite foundations from one of our favorite brands, as we found from Gurl intern Candice Hufler’s review. Just look at how insanely perfect her skin looks. (The before and after are in the review linked above.) Seriously, this is a fantastic foundation that is well worth the $42 price tag.
4. GlamGlow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate Treatment
I remember being decidedly against this mask; it’s $69, after all, which seemed rather steep for a face mask. However, I used it for a couple of weeks after an incredibly stressful move, and guess what? My face wound up smoother, plumper, and significantly more polished!
Crushable’s editor Alexis tried this one out for us! Though she initially wasn’t blown away by how it worked on blemishes, she liked how it functioned as an under-eye concealer and noted that it lasted all day long.
At $30, the price of this liquid eyeliner is nothing to scoff at. However, it does actually wear wonderfully and is much, much better than 95% of liquid eyeliners I have tried in the past (and believe me, I have tried so many). Plus, since getting it in early October, I have used it daily–sometimes multiple times, if I want to re-intensify my look before going out–and it has yet to dry out or run out, so that’s great as well.
7. Maybelline’s SuperStay 24 Color Lipstick
This lipstick lasted Hayley 12 hours (so short of the 24 hours promised, but still a spectacularly long time) and was a gorgeous shade–all for $9. This is one of the only inexpensive products we fell totally in love with this year, and we highly recommend it.
8. Dior 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette
Our most recent edition to the bunch, this rather pricey ($60) eyeshadow palette, was reviewed by our lovely writer Kelsey who found that this–much to our surprise–was actually obsession-worthy. If you’re searching for the perfect eyeshadow to last through work and beyond, this could be your new best bet.
Want to read more reviews for popular products? Click here to see all our Controversial Cult Fave articles!