PlantLove Cargo's Baked Illuminator

Review by MUA's Cavewoman

It may look like a PedEgg with pink decorations, but what you're looking at is part of a new collection by Cargo, called PlantLove. Eco-friendly packaging is biodegradable, and the paper boxes can be planted (I haven't tried this yet, since it's Winter here in Ohio) -- there are supposedly flower seeds embedded in the paper! This Illuminator product comes in three shades, Earth, Wind, and Fire (one of my favorite bands, by the way) and is another one of those baked products from Italy. If you ever get to the bottom of one of these baked dome products, you'll find a terracotta tile. I have only seen the tile on the bottom of my Christian Breton Brightening Powder, and that's only because its compact is clear.

The first photo is the stock photo from Sephora's website. This is the Fire shade, and I caved just because it was so pretty. I've tried so many of these types of baked marbled products, including many MAC Mineralize SkinFinishes, but I never really fell in love with those. The drugstore brands are offering dupes, and you'll find NYC Cosmetics and Physicians Formula have similar products for lots less coin. And Laura Geller has been doing baked blushes, eyeshadows, and powders for as long as she's been selling her line on QVC. Her items are also sold on Sephora's website and in their brick-and-mortar stores.

I chose Fire because of the hot pink shade in the marbling. When my package arrived from Sephora, I was delighted to see so much of the hot pink in my Fire. When I tried it out on my face, (using my MAC #188 small skunk brush) it gave my cheeks a pretty pink-beige glow, but be aware that there are chunks of glitter in this PlantLove Illuminator and I'd say it is definitely not a daytime look. Fire is perfect for cool-toned complexions, and it was a good choice for me. The beige parts of Fire are light in color and there's no warmth at all to this tone. And the white parts shimmer like glistening snow. It's beautiful! Blended all together on the brush, and applied to the skin, PlantLove Fire sparkles with glitter but also gives the prettiest flush to the cheeks. I ended up dusting it all over my face, lightly, on New Year's Eve when the Caveman and I went to dinner with some friends. I can't think of the next occasion when I'll be able to wear it, but it's beautiful on the skin, and I'm glad I have it in my makeup stash. The glitter can be reduced a bit by buffing the face with a tightly-bristled brush like a kabuki. But not by much. If you're buying this PlantLove Illuminator, you want the glitter.

In the second photo, you'll see that I bought another Fire. I was hoping to find another one that had even more of the hot pink in the marbling, but when it arrived, there was actually way less of the pink. My original is on the left. I returned the one on the right to Sephora in Cleveland, hoping to find a PlantLove display in that store, and hoping to find another Fire with lots of pink. I was surprised to see that our Beachwood Mall Sephora only stocks PlantLove lipsticks, and no other PlantLove products. I'd like to try more of them. I have my eye on two lipsticks, both of the Angie Harmon shades, and I'm intrigued by the loose mineral foundation and the eyeshadows too. I'll have to wait to find a Sephora that sells all the PlantLove items.

And I guess I'll have to wait, also, for another festive occasion to wear my Fire!

Credit: Sephora and Cavewoman