We Tested 8 of the Most-Hyped Beauty Products From March

Following is a transcript of the video.

Nico Reyes: 

There are so many new beauty releases happening all the time, so we gathered some of the most-hyped products from March to test for ourselves.

This is the KimChi Chic Beauty Teddy Kim palette in the Boyfriend color story. It’s an eye-shadow and face palette. I went in with the blush and highlighter first, and I loved them. They were really buildable and went on so smoothly. Moving on to the eye shadow, you do get a nice mix of mattes, shimmers, and glitters. I think all of these colors work together really well. I went in with a couple of mattes first, and they blended great. Then I played around with these shimmers and glitters. Again, these applied great. They’re super shiny and reflective, but I did get fallout with the glitter, so I recommend using a primer. Overall, I was very happy with this palette, and another fun thing about it is that it actually comes with stickers so you can customize your little bear. My bear definitely goes to “Euphoria” high. But, yes, I love this. I can see this being really good for travel, although maybe a little bit hard to pack.

The Rose Inc Skin Enhance luminous tinted serum is one of the weirdest products I’ve seen in a while. It’s basically a skin tint with this serum-y base that’s filled with pigment beads that give you some coverage. They say to apply this with a brush to break up and spread those pigment beads, so that’s what I did. I really went into this thinking it was just going to look like an oily mess on me, but then I noticed how good it was making my skin look. The coverage is light, but it’s just enough that it gives this my-skin-naturally-looks-like-this-with-no-effort kind of look. I typically hide any imperfections on my face with a more full-coverage foundation, but this made my skin look so smooth and dewy that I didn’t feel like I needed more. But this product really shocked me, not only in how good it looked but also in how good it made me feel.

This is the ELF Cookies ‘n Dreams lip gloss in Cookie Dreams. And, yes, it is a black lip gloss with a bunch of pretty blue and silver glitter throughout. I tried this out on my bare lips first, and I didn’t love it because you can see in the areas where the gloss tends to pool a bit more, it has this very obvious bluish-black tint that looked a little odd on me. But then I applied this over my favorite lip liner, and I immediately understood why people liked this so much. Oh, my God, it looked incredible over lip liner. It kind of gave the liner a deeper look that just worked so well. And the formula of the gloss itself is actually really nice for the $4 price point. I’m definitely hanging on to this to layer over other lip products.

I was so excited to try this Huda Beauty Easy Bake loose baking and setting powder in Cherry Blossom. I had to get this baby version because the full size was completely sold out. It’s a baby pink setting powder that’s supposed to really brighten up the under-eyes. I just applied my concealer like normal and went in with the little puff that comes with it. This puff is nice, but the shape was really annoying to use, so I did use a brush to get into the hard-to-reach spots. This powder does have a very strong floral scent that was actually giving me a headache, so I had to remove it after a few minutes. It recommends that you leave it on for five, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m sorry. I did see a slight brightening effect, but it wasn’t blowing me away. I could still see my dark circles peeking through a bit. I do, however, think that this is a nice powder formula. It’s really smoothing and super-finely milled, but they need to get rid of the scent.

Maybelline just dropped its Super Stay Vinyl Ink Longwear No-Budge Liquid Lipcolor. This is a long-wearing lipstick that’s meant to stay shiny, which really got my attention. You have to shake it for five seconds, then apply. When I first started applying, I got nervous because it looked really patchy, but I got full coverage when I added another layer, and it surprisingly felt lightweight on the lips. I kissed my hand to check for transfer, and there definitely was some. I did a test wearing my mask and saw some transfer there too. And then I took a sip of my drinkand saw minimal transfer there as well. Even though I was getting a little transfer and most of the shine was gone, the lipstick itself still looked super bright and it didn’t move anywhere, so I was happy with that.

This is the Dior Backstage Flash Perfector concealer. I think the main thing that’s special about this is that it has a brush applicator instead of a doe-foot applicator, so that’s supposed to be easier to blend in. I still had to use my sponge for blending, but I did like how easy application was with the brush, although I wouldn’t say it was any easier than a regular doe-foot applicator. The formula itself is really nice. The coverage is more on the medium side, but it covered enough. I like this concealer, but I wouldn’t tell you to go run and get it. It’s just a nice concealer with a high-end name on it.

The Beauty Blender Power Pocket Puff is basically a double-sided velour puff. So the pink side is for powder application, and the tan side is for blending the powder and makeup. It does pick up a lot of product. I tried to tap off as much as I could, but it still deposited a lot of powder. It is described as a tool you can use for baking the under-eye area, so maybe that’s why. The shape does make it easy to use, and I liked how it has this little strap on it that can be used on either side. After leaving the powder on for a bit, I used the tan side to blend it in, and it wasn’t getting rid of all the powder, so I did use a brush to dust off the excess. I noticed that my under-eye area looked really smooth, smoother than when I set the area with my normal sponge. The lines under my eyes weren’t as defined.

This is the new MAC MACStack mascara, and it’s supposed to be super volumizing, which I love. What I don’t love is a plastic mascara brush, which this has, but I was still excited to try this. When I first started applying, I immediately hated the feeling of the brush on my eye. It’s a little too spiky for someone like me with pretty sensitive eyes. I noticed an instant lift and volume with my lashes, which are naturally pretty straight. I did another coat and loved how this made my lashes look. They look long and full without looking clumpy. I don’t know if I can justify $28 for mascara, but this one is so good. I might have to splurge on it every now and then.