I saw the Physicians Formula Diamond Metallic Liquid Eyeshadows on a display a while back and initially skipped over them because liquid eyeshadows are a pain to use. But there are only 4 shades and they are supposed to be somewhat multichrome so I decided to give them a try.

The multichrome effect is more obvious in the tube than it is on the eye but I still find them to have a good amount of dimension.

Color payoff is decent but it’s not very opaque in one swipe. I have to build them up to get something resembling what I see in the tube. I tried using a fluffy brush, a flat brush, and my finger to apply these. Applying a thin, blended-out layer first with my finger and then building the color up slowly with a flat concealer brush worked out best for me. Some of these blend out more easily than others but none of them blend as well as I’d like around the edges to be able to use them by themselves. In every look, I used some powder shadows along with them in the crease and as transition shades.

I have about a minute to blend them out before they fully dry. For all the looks I did below, I applied these first and then used powder shadows afterward. This resulted in some flaking where the brush would sweep over parts that had dried. This happened most with the shade Precious Purple. They look slightly dry/crinkly/texturizing on the lid but not terrible. It becomes more pronounced the thicker I layer these on.

These so far are not the worst liquid eyeshadows I’ve tried. I like Bronze Brilliance and Golden Emerald best out of the 4. Beam of Blue is the most patchy and hardest to blend out. It can be layered to make it look more even but it was the most difficult to use. If you’ve tried liquid eyeshadows in the past and haven’t like them, these aren’t going to be all that different in the way they apply and sit on the lid. I still think powder shadows are much easier to control.

Bronze Brilliance

Bronze Brilliance has a strong rosy purple sheen with a very subtle light green shift. The larger swatch above is what it mostly looks like on the eye even turning my head and looking at it from different angles. The green shift seen in the smaller swatch is very hard to see on the eye.

Precious Purple

Precious Purple isn’t super different from Bronze Brilliance. Both have lots of purple in them but this one is more blue toned. This one has a orangey-gold shift. I didn’t notice this at all on the eye when I used it on the lower lashine.

Beam of Blue

Beam of Blue has a deep brownish grey base with a strong blue sheen and a dark purple shift. Just as with the shade above, the larger swatch is more true to how this appears to me in real life and applied on the eyes. I see a hint of the deep purple on the outside edges of my lid but it is faint.

Golden Emerald

Golden Emerald has a blue-green base color and a strong golden sheen. On the eye this looks lighter than it does in this swatch and I didn’t notice the gold sheen shift to a deep green like it did in the smaller swatch.

Looks

For this look, I used Bronze Brilliance on the top lid and Precious Purple on the lower lashline and used some powder shadows in the crease/transition area for a smoother looking blend. These two shades kind of look similar in the tube so I wanted to wear them together to see how different they are. Bronze Brilliance has a lot of purple in it but it is warmer and slightly rosier than Precious Purple. I got some flaking from this on my top lid… like it peeled and flaked off in small patches and left behind bare lid. This only happened with this eye and this look. The other times I wore it, I did not have this problem. Maybe I did something wrong with the application here. During wear, I had some flaking and fallout but it wasn’t too bad. This hung on really well all day. It just started to crease after 10 hours with no primer.

Here I used Beam of Blue on the lid and two neutral brown powder shadows to help disguise the patchy blend in the crease. This was the hardest of the four shades to use. It went on way less evenly so I layered quite a bit to build it up. It ended up looking pretty textured on my lids.

On the center of the upper lid, I am wearing Golden Emerald along with some of the green shades in my Urban Decay Wild Greens Palette (links to my review). This one has a blueish tone to it with lots of gold sparkle. It went on more evenly and blended out more smoothly than Precious Purple. The last two slides show how this looks when I was midway through applying my eyeshadow. I tried to show it from the side so you could see how it sits on the lid. In general, these don’t lay evenly on the lid but this shade was one of the better ones.

And one last look to show Precious Purple applied as the main shade all over the lid. By the time I got to this fourth look, I felt I had a bit better of a grasp on how to apply these but ran into more of an issue with using powder shadows in the crease afterward. If you scroll through the photos, I have one that shows more clearly how these can flake off the lid if you touch them too much after they’ve dried down. Flaking seems to only happen during application. Once I’m wearing the product all day, it seems to hold on just fine without any further flaking or peeling and it resists creasing super well. I could maybe be more gentle with a brush to minimize this issue.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

Physicians Formula The Healthy Eyeshadow Quads come in 5 variations and retail for about $8 each. All of the quads are very neutral and most contain a mixture of matte and shimmer finishes. The Canyon Classic quad is a set of all matte neutral shades. They are available to purchase from Ulta and Physicians Formula.

The compact is slightly difficult to open. I have to use my nails or wedge something in the gap between the lid and base. There is no mirror but the metallic finish on the front carries into the inside of the lid and is so reflective that it could potentially be used as a makeshift mirror. There is no smell or fragrance that I can detect.

I found these were very powdery when I tried to pick up color with a brush. There isn’t a ton of color payoff but it’s enough and they blend out easily. The lightest shade is a bit sheerer than I’d prefer for a matte highlight but it works to set my eyeshadow primer. The 2 mid-tone brown shades had the best color payoff. The grey shade didn’t adhere well to the lid and sheered out too easily with blending.

In the swatches below, you can see that these aren’t a totally flat/dry matte. There is the tiniest bit of shimmer mixed into the shades but once these are applied on the eye, they read as matte.

In this look, I applied the lightest shade all over the lid to set my primer. The second lightest shade (top left shade) is used as a transition in and above the crease area. The third lightest shade (bottom right) is applied lower in the crease to add more dimension. The darkest shade is applied to the outer half of the lid and blended into the crease. For mascara, I applied NYX Worth The Hype and for brows I used Mac Shape + Shade Brow Tint in Taupe. I wore this look for 8 hours. The eye I primed with Nars Pro Prime still looked fresh at the end of the day. The unprimed eye was slightly creased and the color was a bit faded.

Physicians Formula The Healthy Foundation is a light to medium coverage foundation with SPF 20. It comes in 16 shades and retails for about $15. Physicians Formula describes this as “a long-wearing, buildable, and breathable foundation that provides lightweight, medium coverage with a healthy, satin finish.” I agree with this for the most part. The long-wearing part depends on your skin type and the skincare products you apply underneath it. The website says this is fragrance free but it does have a very light scent. I don’t notice it during normal use unless I am actively looking for a scent.

I have combo skin that is more on the dry side as I write this review. For moisturizer I primarily use squalane oil, which is very lightweight for an oil and absorbs well into the skin. On a typical day when I just use the squalane, this foundation wears on me all day without much fading or breaking up. If I use a more emollient SPF as well, like Dior One Essential City Defense, the foundation won’t last as long and I’ll have to touch up with powder during the day.

The bottle is made of glass and there is a large doe-foot applicator attached to the lid. I find myself having to dip back into the bottle a couple times to apply enough product to cover my whole face. One thing to be careful about is dipping the applicator into the bottle too quickly. If I do that, sometimes little droplets will fly out all over my desk and makeup mirror. As long as I’m careful and slow down, it’s not really an issue. It is one of the few foundations I’ve found that works well with a brush. It applies even better with a damp sponge.

The consistency is on the thinner side it feels very light and hydrating. It spreads easily and blends quickly over my face. Once applied, it looks like natural skin, just more evened out and with a healthy glow. I always set this foundation with powder because it leaves behind a very slight tacky feel. Applying it over just moisturizer (no SPF), and setting it with powder, is enough to get me through the day without needing to touch up. It doesn’t do much to smooth the look of texture and large pores but it doesn’t emphasize them either.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

Product Description

What it is: Physicians Formula InstaReady Concealer is a full coverage liquid concealer that is supposed to be long-wearing, have a weightless feel, “mattify, blur, and visibly retexturize skin”, and protect against UVA/UVB rays with SPF 30 physical sunscreen. The packaging also says that it is hypoallergenic, fragrance-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, cruelty-free, dermatologist tested and clinically tested. It is only available in three shades.

Price/Quantity: $10.99 for 0.37oz / 10.5g

Availability: Physicians Formula, Ulta

Packaging: This container is made of glass and has a pump. A small sponge was included. The shade name is indicated on a sticker on the bottom of the bottle.

Smell/Fragrance: Fragrance-free and does not smell like anything to me.

Performance

This is a liquid formula but the product is somewhat thick, not runny at all. It didn’t feel dry, wasn’t difficult to blend, and didn’t feel heavy once applied. I didn’t notice it catching on dry patches or emphasizing texture in any way. It was very full coverage, about as full coverage as Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer, but the texture was more forgiving. It was fairly easy to blend out with fingers and the included sponge also worked fine for blending. I thought it did a better job at covering dark circles than for covering blemishes and dark spots. I would still use it for those things but I would add a cream concealer on top for added coverage since those things are more tricky to cover. It settled into fine lines before I set it with a powder but seemed to hold up just fine after that.

The included sponge resembles the BeautyBlender Micro Mini but it is slightly larger and has a small flat edge. The flat edge was nice for applying concealer to blemishes. When I dampened the sponge, it didn’t soften up or increase in size. It’s a little firmer than the BeautyBlender but it still works well for blending.

Since this concealer works better for use under the eyes, the limited shade range could still work for those with medium to possibly medium-dark skin. Still, though, I really wish Physicians Formula would do a better job expanding their shade range across most of their products to encompass more skin tones because they do have a lot of high quality products.

Pros:

• Excellent for dark circles.
• Blurs skin texture.
• Really smooth skin-like finish that looks natural even up close.
• Can be layered without getting cake-y.
• Physical sunscreen.

Cons:

• Only available in 3 shades.
• I didn’t see this actually mattify where I applied it as was claimed.

Worth Buying?

Yes. Among all the concealers in my collection, this is one of the few that is both very high in coverage yet doesn’t exaggerate texture on the skin.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

Product Description

Physicians Formula Cushion Foundation is talc-free, has SPF 50 broad spectrum sunscreen in the form of 8.4% titanium dioxide, and 3.95% zinc oxide. It doesn’t smell like anything to me. It comes in 3 shades, contains 0.47 fl oz / 14 mL, which is about half of what you get in a typical bottle of foundation and retails for about $16.

Available at: Physicians Formula, Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer, Ulta, Walgreens, and Amazon.com.

Performance

This is my first cushion foundation so I don’t have any others to compare it to but the experience has been interesting. I have had this product for close to 3 months now. I haven’t worn it on a daily basis but I’ve gotten enough use out of it that I am noticing I’ve used it up about half way. Over the course of that time, my combination skin has gone through periods of being more oily and more dry so I feel ready to describe how it performs in both situations.

First I want to talk about the application process. I’ve found it takes me more time to use the included applicator than using a brush (the Sigma F82 Round Kabuki is my go-to brush) and I don’t feel I get much different of a result by doing so. When I first opened it, the sponge was much more saturated and I only needed to press lightly into it to pick up enough product to work on half of my face. Now, I need to press quite firmly and more toward the edges which has been a messy experience. At this point, it is easier (and cleaner) for me to go in with a brush to avoid getting the product all over the inside of the compact, under my fingernails, on the top side of the applicator, etc. I like the actual product inside but find the cushion idea itself to be unnecessary. I would prefer this in a bottle with a full range of shades to accommodate many skintones.

The actual foundation itself is fantastic on days when my skin is normal-to-dry. I was able to wear this all day with maybe one blot to tone down the dewiness. It felt super lightweight and comfortable. On oilier days, I was a greaseball by noon and as the day went on, I become more and more aware of it on my face. By about mid afternoon, I was longing to take a makeup remover wipe to my face. In both situations, I found the product did a great job of blurring the look of pores and toning down the look of redness. For having such a thin, lightweight consistency, it has surprisingly good coverage as you can see in the before and after photos below. The coverage is definitely buildable in that you can apply a couple of layers without it looking “cakey” or like you are obviously wearing makeup.

My favorite thing about this is the way it photographs. It looks very natural but at the same time it hides what I want it to hide very well.

Worth Buying?

This is a tricky one. I like it enough that I will likely repurchase it when I’m out to use on days when my skin is more dry and also to use for photography. I can’t say I’d recommend it 100% to someone with combination skin unless you are okay with having a few different foundations for different purposes. I personally don’t mind having a few different products to work with depending on my skin’s “mood”.

Pros:

• Beautiful, skin-like finish
• Blurs pores well
• Tones down redness well
• Good, medium coverage
• SPF 50 physical sunscreen
• Doesn’t smell like anything
• Photographs well when freshly applied

Cons:

• It doesn’t last all day on me
• Not good for oily skin
• Very small shade range
• Pricy considering how often I’d have to repurchase if using daily