LitttleBits on Etsy is a company devoted to making historical cosmetics and skincare according to original recipes, selecting high-quality natural ingredients (no lead or anything like that, of course) so you can well and truly look like an historical beauty - and Jamie sent me a bunch of their stuff to try for my birthday! I don’t have to say how excited I was.
She sent me two full-size liquid lip and cheek tints, one solid one, a face powder, and three samples including two more tints and a perfume.
The website recommends applying liquid tints with a sponge or a finger. I tried to use a lip brush, but my results were less pigmented than using my fingertip, so reluctantly, I did just that. I dearly wish these were packaged with a brush or as a rollerball, because application is an enormous inconvenience, especially for someone who does her makeup at 4 am on her bed. Because the sample vials come with a little probiscis thing, they’re much easier to use.
I also found that they had an unpleasant red wine or vinegar sort of smell, mostly Elizabeth, and excepting Bloom of Roses, which smells like roses and is in most ways a good dupe for Benetint, but is one of the products that contains carmine, a pigment made from a ground-up beetle, making it neither vegan nor cruelty-free. All of them lose their fragrance upon application.
It was difficult to get a good picture of how this product performed on my face, but you can tell my cheeks and lips look flushed and pink. On my cheeks I wore Jane Bennet, which showed up as a very pretty, vibrant pink in spite of being easily the lightest and least buildable color in the arm swatch; on my lips, I had a harder time getting Jane to make an appearance, and supplemented her with some Bloom of Roses.
This product takes a moment to dry down, and for a while after stays tacky, almost like a film on the cheek. Eventually, it becomes as dry and watercolor-pretty as any other liquid stain. That said, it was difficult to apply this in a way that did not make it patchy, which is more noticeable in person than in the pictures. I especially struggled to prevent it from collecting on the drier center of my bottom lip, even though I exfoliate my lips daily.
The solid rouge had the most disappointing color payoff for me, being neither pigmented nor a very flattering color, and the strongest and most lingering scent, one of cocoa butter. To many people, this would not at all be a challenge, but I don’t personally like scented products unless they smell like flowers. As a balm, however, this has the most moisturizing performance of anything I’ve ever tried, and would be excellent in the winter.
The Lily & Lilac toilet water had a very faint, green scent that was somewhat lilyish, but doesn’t last much, and I have to press my nose to my wrist to detect it. However, it is worth noting that it comes in a 4 ounce bottle for ten dollars, and at that size and price, is probably intended to be very liberally splashed on, and not dabbed in a tiny amount like I did. It is very pretty, and I am curious how it works on clothes and bedsheets, as it is advertised as also being for linens.
The powder is easily my favorite product. I applied it over RMS Uncover Up and to my surprise it didn’t go on whitish or cakey, but instantly brought my skin to a demi-matte finish. It’s not drying, doesn’t emphasize lines or anything. It has a bit of a gritty consistency, but it buffs away smoothly.
However, the packaging is awful. The lid isn’t particularly secure, and there is no sifter, so i spill some every single time I use it. It’s a generous amount of product, so that isn’t too much of a waste, but I hate that this is even a problem, and it puts a damper on my otherwise limitless enthusiasm for such a perfect face powder.
Overall thoughts: I am a little too dark complexioned for some of the lighter colors, but the darker ones are excellent - the Liquid Rouge is the kind of deep wine stain I’ve been looking for. I’ve been looking for a natural alternative to Benetint and this is the closest match I’ve come across, though it seems to lack Benetint’s staining power (not a surprise) and doesn’t last through eating, which would not be a problem if it weren’t a pain to apply. Which leads to the biggest con:
These are great products that are seriously hampered in their effectiveness by their poor packaging. I’m sure they are inexpensive in part because of that, but I would happily pay at least five dollars more per product to get jars with brushes attached to the lids or rollerballs, or like, a sifter and a screw-on lid for the powders. Something that needs to be touched up in particular needs to be easier to apply on the go, instead of already hard to apply at home.
I love the watercolor look of a stain and I am eternally complaining that liquid stains are hard to come by in colors I like; I love historical makeup recipes. I recommend this brand to anyone who shares my feelings, but I warn you ahead of time, application takes a bit of a learning curve. In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for something I can transfer product into to maximize their usefulness.