Review : Ever Bilena Advance 3D Compact

It's the first of September! Personally excited since Christmas is just around the corner.

Anyway....

Today I shall be introducing to you Ever Bilena's Advacne 3D Compact!

I first chanced upon this product way back June 2012 but being skeptical about purchasing product without doing research about them made me stay away till I saw a review (reviews actually) on it. Feel free to read review1, review2 & review3 here. Honestly it was Celline's review that made me really go out and buy the product because I just needed to try it out for myself. *lol*

So anyway, last month I finally decided to get myself my own 3D compact from one of the Ever Bilena counters at a small local mall. There were three different shades and I got the darkest one is Dark Baked Fusion because I think it would be the one that would show up on my NC30-35 skin more.

Read on for a more in depth review of the product.

Product Packaging : ★★★☆☆

The 11g product comes in a pressed powder form and in enclosed in a white + silvery mirror-like packaging. The top cover is slightly domed which makes the compact easy to grab. The compact is made out of a hard plastic-like material which honestly comes off a bit cheap looking. I would have preferred this to be in a sleeker black packaging like their powder foundation compacts. I also had a problem with how bulky this compact is. It definitely makes my makeup traincase sad because its chunky and takes up space! *lol* What I did like about the compact is that it comes with a decent sized mirror, and it has a hard plastic "barrier" that holds the free sponge and separates it from the actual pressed powder. That means lesser chances of bacteria transferring too much from the sponge to the product. Mind you, I would have preferred a free brush to apply the product because I have never tried contouring with a sponge! But the sale representative explained that the powder can also be used for setting your liquid/cream products hence the free sponge was included. *hmmm*

Pricing : ★★★★☆

I was pretty pissed at the fact that our local Ever Bilena counters sell these at a whopping P180-P230 while other beauty bloggers have snagged this product at P150 only! Still, at P180 it beats the prices of other contour powders/products out there.

Three contour powders for the price of P180 was definitely a steal!

Scent / Effectiveness / Color Payoff / Longevity : ★★★☆☆

First off, the scent can be mildly annoying at first. It gives off this baby powder like smell that fades over time. At the moment, my compact powder actually smells slightly like the disinfecting alcohol that I spray over it. *lol*

Moving on, one should ask, is it effective as a contour powder? Now with the three shades in one compact you have a choice of which powder colors to use. I also have a separate compact for clients and for fair skinned girls I usually use the lightest & the middle powders for contour, while for more tanned clients I use the middle & the darkest powders for contour. On my myself, I give my contour brush a swirl all over the three powders to get a nice contour powder shade. It gives off a nice subtle contour that you can build up BUT don't go overboard because it can (and will) look a bit too orange sometimes and we don't want to end up looking like the Lorax!

Color payoff was good. It wasn't chalky or too powdery and was easy to blend out. As you can see on the swatches below, the lightest shade did blend into my skin almost seamlessly.

Almost perfect product right? But the lasting power of this powder was horrible on me. I have combination-oily skin and this lasted only a maximum of 3 hours on me. That was with a setting spritz! I can't imagine it lasting that long without any setting product. On my clients with normal to dry skin though this lasted up to 4 hours without setting sprays to help, which I think is pretty decent.

I also tested this out as a setting powder and I found that mixing the lightest & middle powders gave a sheer coverage on me and balanced out my "a little too light" NYX liquid foundation in #2. *yey!*

Overall : ★★★☆☆

Overall I'd give this a 3/5 stars. Minus points on its lasting power, smell & chunky-cheap packaging but  not paying much attention to those little "kinks" definitely makes me love this product a lot. It's affordable and a multi-use product which I think would be a great addition to one's personal collection and also a newbie's (like me) makeup artist's traincase. Go check it out at your nearest Ever Bilena counter!

Questions for my lovely readers...

1. Did you find this review helpful?

2. Would you go and purchase this product to try it out?

3. What's your favorite contour powder that you would recommend me to check out?

Watch out for my next post! It's a giveaway! <3