Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream

At long last!  Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Creams have made their way to my Sephora and I am so happy to have swatched them.

These little potted wonders are highly pigmented creams for eyes, lips, face, body — anywhere.  They were designed for “extreme conditions” (think synchronized swimmers and those ladies who do the underwater mermaid shows) — once they set, they are waterproof, transfer-proof, and creaseproof.  Basically, they’re going to stay on ’til you use an oil cleanser to remove them.

There are 21 shades (because there is no number 19. EDIT: Shade 19 isn’t available in the U.S., but a guest swatcher from Spain very graciously sent in a photo). Some are designated “lips and cheeks” (5 – 10); the rest are designated “eyes and cheeks.”  The shades are surprisingly sparkly/shimmery (which may affect how you feel about them as lip colors). They can be applied individually, mixed together, or used under powder (or lipgloss). They are $22 each.

I do feel I did these swatches “wrong.”  I tried to do blended out swatches plus “full volume” swatches.  But spreading them over a large surface area with your finger is not a good idea. The thinner you spread the cream, the faster it dries, and it’s hard to get a light-but-uniform swatch. Tapping on and spreading worked a little better, but brushes would have been best.

For me (not performing in an underwater circus anytime soon), the “right” way to apply to my lids is to tap a fluffy brush (my all-purpose Sonia Kashuk Large Crease Brush) on the cream, then buff over my lid, adding more until I reach the desired intensity. For cheeks, I’d do the same thing with my regular domed blush brush — tap it on the product, then apply to cheeks. Using brushes might have given a more accurate representation of how these will look in action, but that just wasn’t an option.

First the cheek/lip colors:


5 is a lovely color (peached pink) but it has a LOT of gold sparkle. 6 is cool pink (with a sheen rather than sparkle). 7 is fuchsia with gold sparkle. 8 is hot tomato red with a strong sheen. 9 is guava pink with gold sparkle. 10 is vibrant orange with orange and gold sparkle (this translates to an almost metallic sheen at full volume).


The eye/cheek colors are all quite sparkly.  1 is charcoal black with sparkles (smoky eye, here I come!). 2 is pewter — warm grey “dirtied” with gold.  I wore this one as a wash all over my lid yesterday and got a TON of compliments.  Despite the insane heat and humidity, and all the time I spent outside, it lasted all day without creasing or moving.  I’m sold. 3 is a bright, cool, sparkly silver. 4 is bright white, and I think at low intensity it would make a neat highlight (if you’re not afraid of accidentally going too far and looking sort of futuristic). 12 is sparkly copper.


13 is beige; in the light swatch it’s just a little more neutral/beige/less pink than 16. 13 and 16 are also really shimmery. 14, 15, and 17 are comparatively less shimmery (but still shimmery). 14 is warm (reddish) brown; 15 is warm (yellow) brown; 17 is red-purple — and it’s closer to brown the lighter you swatch it.


11 is sparkly dirty (almost greened) yellow-gold. 18 is sparkly lavender. 20 is sparkly cerulean. 21 is sparkly aqua (with gold sparkles!). 22 is sparkly grass green.

Aqua Creams are $23 each, available at Sephora.com.