For those of us that live outside of the US, and I'm sure that others would agree, we have been tempted and teased for a very, very, long time. My favourites Youtubers such as the likes of Jaclyn Hill (YAAASSS!) and Nicole Guerreiro casually fling the brand name around which can be rather frustrating. It never occurred to me that when they mention their special discount codes on their channel, that it would be applicable to international orders, so you can imagine my excitement when I found out it did *goes and cuts up credit card*.
I stumbled upon the brand Gerard Cosmetics on UK site cocktailcosmetics.com, and later on Beautybay.com (although they both don't carry the full range of products) also. Annoyingly I made my first Gerard Cosmetics order (three of their lipsticks and two of their lip glosses) on the Cocktail Cosmetics sites, and whilst the price is somewhere above budget but not quite high as high end- let's call it premium budget, accumulatively it was a sizeable order. I kicked myself when I randomly decided to follow the brand one day on Instagram only to discover that on top of offering the amazing discounts worldwide, they were also offering free international shipping without a minimum order value (half of the time the shipping ends up being between £10 and £20). You can bet your bottom dollar that I was rather swift in making my second order through the Gerard Cosmetics site. Essentially you are paying around half the price that you would pay over here when the discount code is applied. Winning!
Anyway, enough of me rambling. Here are the swatches of the Gerard Cosmetics lip glosses that I own along with my review of them.
Nude
A mid tone, warm peachy nude.
Shimmer of Hope
A light, soft and milky, peachy pink.
Butter Cream
A mid-tone, cool, baby pink and Jaclyn Hill collaboration.
Madison Avenue - Their newest addition - a darker peach shade with a hint of pink and brown - my favourite shade of the collection!
Rose Hill
A dark pinky, coral shade and another Jaclyn Hill collaboration - the pigment is crazy!
Plum Crazy
A dark, plum brown.
Coral Craze
A light, peachy coral.
As you can see from both the swatches on the lips and the arm, these lip glosses mean business. They don't mess around in the pigment department and are pretty much a liquid lipstick (that doesn't set to matte) in the sense that it's the pigment you get from a lipstick but simply in a gloss formula and a typical gloss packaging. With the Gerard Cosmetics lip glosses, you don't need to build up the product to get that level of opaqueness and glossiness, and all swatches were done with just one swipe of the gloss. They apply on evenly (no streakiness or patchiness) and really smoothly (non-gloop formulation). There is a hint of tackiness to the product which I don't mind as it doesn't feel sticky when you purse your lips together which can be rather annoying. Plus who wants to get a mouthful of hair every time there is a faint gust of wind (certainly not me).
In terms of packaging, the gloss is housed in a clear, acrylic-like, rectangular tube with a branded gold lid that makes it look more high end. Also, on one side of the tube is a clever, mirrored panel so it's really handy for touch ups meaning you don't have to carry around an extra mirror or compact (or struggle to apply it with the reverse photo feature on your iPhone), and as gimmicky as it sounds (and is), it also lights up when you take the lid off (the light is built inside the lid), which of course is handy if you are touching up in the evening when it's dark (great for when you are out clubbing).
Overall, these lip glosses are a win! These are some of the best formulations that I have tried in lip glosses and I would have said they the best until I recently discovered my new 'holy grail' lipgloss (all will be revealed on the blog soon), but nevertheless, they are brilliant and if you manage to get your hands on a discount code, they are really affordable (hint- follow them on Istagram for numerous discount codes across the range).
Have you tried the Gerard Cosmetics lipglosses? What do you think? If not, are you tempted yet? Ha ha. Next I'll be posting my review and swatches of the Gerard Cosmetics lipsticks including the Jaclyn Hill babies; Buttercup and 1995.
Ciao for now. x