L'oreal Voluminous Feline Mascara & Visible Lift Radiance Booster Primer | First Impressions

L'oreal has released two new products for Fall 2016 and I picked them up the other day, so I thought I'd share my first impressions with you! I'm guessing that there are more products on the way and these are just the first wave...often a brand will release a mascara ahead of a full collection, but I was surprised to see a primer too. I'm really hoping we see the Sexy Balms and Cushion Blushes...fingers crossed! 

I spotted the new Voluminous Feline Noir Mascara ($7.99) at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and was able to use a 20% off coupon on it, so it cost me a little over $6. I'm guessing it'll cost a little bit more at drugstores, since that's usually the case, but L'oreal regularly goes on sale, so you may be able to catch it then. It also comes in a waterproof formula (which is a green tube instead of black). 

I found the Visible Lift Radiance Booster Primer ($12.99) at Walgreens but if I hadn't gone in there specifically looking for it, I would have missed it! Several people tagged me in their photos on Instagram letting me know it was there, so I went and looked in the new makeup area. There were no L'oreal displays so I was about to leave, figuring my store hadn't put it out yet. Then I spotted a few tubes of it sitting on the checkout counter (the one in the beauty department). There was no display or anything, so I'm guessing maybe the product was sent ahead of the displays (I've been to a few other Walgreens stores since and they were the same way). 

The Visible Lift Radiance Booster Brightening Primer claims to give 24 hour hydration, instantly brighten for a radiant finish, and smooth and even out the skin. It contains a lot of hydrating ingredients like rice bran oil, apricot kernel oil, and shea butter, in addition to silicones, making it ideal for dry to mature skin types.

As someone with dry skin, I know that the struggle is real when it comes to adding a glow and combating dullness. My skin often looks flat with no natural oils to help catch the light and add radiance. I've been using (and loving) the L'oreal Magic Lumi primer (released back in 2012) to add a bit more glow under my foundation, so I was curious to see how this one differs!

Turns out, Visible Lift Radiance Booster has more of a pink pearly finish, while the Magic Lumi primer has a white, frostier finish with fine shimmer. This one isn't shimmery at all...you can see in my swatch below that it just gives a soft pearly effect with a pink shift. It's more subtle than Magic Lumi, which is nice if you're not into too much glow. On the other hand, this doesn't show through your foundation as easily. It really just makes your skin look more alive. It's also richer and thicker than Magic Lumi (which is a lighter, thinner consistency) and actually adds hydration to the skin. A lot of primers aren't super hydrating, so dry and mature skin types will really like this heading into fall and winter!

The Voluminous Feline Noir Mascara claims to give instant volume and full lash density with intense black pigments. The "quick charge brush" claims to capture each lash for instant volume and fullness, to give you that feline "cat eye" look.

The brush is the plastic bristle type and has short spiky bristles that are going in all different directions. They're not tightly packed and have some space between each one. The formula is on the wetter side, but only time will tell if it stays that way...some mascaras start out wet and get drier in only a few uses while others tend to stay wet for a while. 

Here are my before and afters...I'm not wearing any other makeup in these pics by the way, so welcome to my freckles up close, haha! 

This formula definitely gives nice volume, length and curl, but in this close-up photo, it looks a little bit clumpy, due to the bristles in the brush being spaced a bit further apart. Still, I don't mind this level of clumpiness...it's not that bad. The overall effect is big, bold-looking lashes so I'm okay with that. When you're not thisclose, you don't even notice the clumpiness. 

Even this photo which is just a little further away looks better and less clumpy. Overall, this doesn't separate your lashes as much as some formulas do, but I don't think L'oreal was going for a soft, fluttery look with this formula. I actually like it so far and bonus points that it doesn't smudge (yessss!). I wore this all day yesterday and by the time I took my makeup off at night I had no raccoon eyes going on at all. 

So far, I'm liking the new L'oreal Radiance Booster Primer and Feline Mascara! If anything changes, I'll be sure to update you guys, but my first impression so far is a good one.

Have you tried either of these products yet? Drop me a comment below! :)