Sparkled Beauty

I am excited to discover boxx cosmetics, a Canadian brand that was launched in August 2011 with the quote "compact.luxury.beautiful". I have for you today a cream corrector that was kindly sent to me for review.

The first look confirms the "compact" concept.

The rectangular pan is housed inside a plastic sleeve (which is about 4 times as big as the pan itself) with the brand name printed on the front, and the product and shade names on the top edge. The pan only stays put when the sleeve is closed.

This is practical if you want to travel with it, or store it in a freedom palette you already have, with other products. I am keeping it in its own packaging for now. No traditional/ fancy packaging here, so it will not be a fancy item that you pull out of your purse to show it off :)

This is the pan inside in the shade Amber. The product is oil-free, and is meant to camouflage dark circles, broken capillaries, sun damage, blemishes, redness and any other skin imperfection.

"Luxury" is more about how the product feels than how it looks. It is very easy to apply - I use a synthetic brush concealer brush, smooth and creamy but not greasy. The shade Amber matches my skin perfectly, so a swatch won't show. But I'll show you the before and after pics.

These are my bare eyes, after moisturizer. You can see dark circles and bags. There are old acne scars and dark spots on my cheeks too, which needs quite a bit of camouflaging, but I'll save you the horror in the pic.

A few minutes later, with liquid foundation on. A little better with the dark circles, isn't it?

The dark spots are harder to conceal with just foundation, so I certainly need more.

And finally, after applying the cream corrector (and eye makeup). I'm pretty happy with the coverage and feel "beautiful" (their slogan applies, doesn't it?). It stays this way for a good 7 hours, minimal fading/ sliding, with the assistance of MAC Fix +. FOTD post to follow.

As Amber is a skin tone colour, I think it is more of a concealer than a corrector. boxx cosmetics does have an olive green shade (Zeleny) to correct redness, where the name corrector suits better.

Key ingredients: A blend of ceramides, peptides and a botanical extract, with light diffusing pigments and micro-sponges to help ensure a natural finish. Free of parabens, formeldehyde donors, phtalates, gluten, animal derived ingredients and oils.

The cream corrector can also work as a foundation when mixed with a moisturizer, or as a face and eye primer - a multi-purposed product that would work well during travel.

The cream correctors retail for $26 a piece, available on the website with international shipping. However, note that the only option is UPS and it is very costly ($35 to my address or $25 to the bf's for this one product). Those of you who live near BeautyMark (Vancouver, BC) or Saltridges (Burlington, ON) could check them out in stores.