Giella Custom Blend Cosmetics – review

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Sure, there are a lot of makeup lines that slap the term “custom” on their labels, but Giella Custom Blend Cosmetics talks the talk and walks the walk. This amazing line of cosmetics custom blends products ranging from lipstick to foundation to eye shadow for one-of-a-kind items tailored to meet your needs. If you’re lucky enough to live in New York City, get thee to Henri Bendel’s to experience this in person! There, the Giella counter can create (or recreate) the make up of your dreams!

Do you have an old nub of a limited edition lipstick you can’t bear to finish? Can’t get your hands on the must-have, hot nail shade for fall? Want your eye shadow to be an exact match of your sky blue bedroom walls? Take the color sample to Giella and have them whip up the perfect match on the spot (and maybe add in some extra sparkle or go for a more matte look – anything’s possible!) The Giella reps can lead you through the process and will keep your information and special formulas on file for easy refills. You never have to worry about your favorite gloss being discontinued ever again!

So what about all of us who can’t get to NYC? Don’t worry, you can go to Giella’s website and customize products like foundation, lipstick, eye shadow and more with the click of a button. I felt like a kid playing with a science kit (yep, I’m a nerd) checking out all of the possible variations online at Giella.

Their number one seller is the Custom Blend Foundation, a lightweight liquid mineral foundation with SPF 12 and boundless possibilities. Start by choosing one of 18 shades and then mix and match from choices including Mixers (like Tea-Tree Oil or Lifting Serum), Coverage (Light, medium, etc), Garnishes (maybe a gold or bronze shimmer) and a Component (such as a glass bottle or a pump). You’ll have just as much fun deciding whether to add Vitamin E or Soy Butter to your Custom Blend Lipstick or if you want your Custom Blend Lip Gloss to smell of cinnamon or oranges (and lip glosses come with a packaging choice of tubes or wands!)

If you’re the type that freezes when faced with too many choices, Giella takes the guesswork out of it by offering their best shades and formulas in stock at all time. Our review team received two classic Giella products to review:

Lip Pencil in Cranberry – You’ll have to check the comments to read up on this slightly matte, deep mauve pencil, but I’ve heard from testers that this pencil is extra creamy and glides easily over lips (without the dryness of most lip pencils). Plus the matte shade has lots of staying power.

Giella Concealer – A lightweight concealer with lots of coverage that blends and covers imperfections from dark circles to pimples to those little bits of red around the nose. Just a dab on the end of a small brush can artfully disguise almost any blemish. A dusting of powder keeps this concealer locked in place all day long. Offered in a diverse range of 13 shades, you can find a great match for any skin tone (and don’t forget, you can customize any way you want). I’ll be re-ordering my Concealer in Shade #2 with some added Tea-tree Oil and packaged with a small applicator wand once I run out of this fantastic product.

Ready to start creating your own cosmetics? You can receive $10 off your next order at Giella.com – just enter code GM1007 at checkout.

Author

  • tyna

    Tyna is a former editor of we heart this that worries about becoming a crazy cat lady, reads at least a book a week, checks in at a Flyers fan forum every morning and is forever organizing her closets and drawers. skin tone: NW 20/25 skin type: combination favorite beauty product: eye shadows and lip balms

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10 Comments

  1. I received the concealer to try. And I must be honest, I have never used concealer before. I know what you are thinking, and I agree, I was an idiot! I love this stuff and now I am hooked! I don’t know how or why I went without before. I was lucky to be given a really good match to my skin too. It goes on super smooth and like Tyna said, a dusting of powder keeps it in place. Once you put it on, the blemishes and dark circles are practically gone. This may be extra cool to me because, like I said, this is the first time I’ve used concealer.

    The only thing I wish is that the container had a click or snap to ensure it was closed, because sometimes when I went to grab It out of my makeup bag it was open and getting on my other products. And an applicator brush would be nice, but I can order that the next time.

  2. Ok, how excited am I at the thought of a custom lip gloss? They have 10 scents, 13 types of shimmer (who even knew there were 13 types of shimmer!) and over 75 shades. The possibilities are endless. I can think of a tarte LE gloss from the Purse your Lips collection I need right now. Oh, and lipsticks! MAC Strawberry Blonde will be mine again.

    And I’m right to be excited, judging by the Cranberry lip pencil I received to test. Giella makes really nice products! I was delightfully surprised by the pencil. Not a dry liner, more of a lipstick in pencil form. Very soft and creamy, with a matte finish so it wears really well. The color wasn’t something I’d normally choose, but that surprised me as well. Because it turned out, I really liked it! A deep pink that’s very flattering and gorgeous with a gold gloss on top.

    And $10 off pretty much seals the deal that I’m placing an order.

    Giella gets 5 stars from me for the uniqueness of the custom aspect and the quality of the product.

  3. I’m usually not so much a lip pencil girl and, therefore, wasn’t really sure what I’d think when I received the Giella’s pencil in Cranberry. I have foregone lipliner since the early nineties ring-around-your lip-look. I decided to use it as I would a lipstick. Afterall, my favorite red lipcolor of all time is an Urban Decay pencil.

    To this end the Giella product worked very well; it was smooth and long-wearing. The color was, however, much closer to brown than cranberry and very matte, I thought. I gave the product 4 stars for its smoothness in application and its staying power; a fifth star could have been achieved if the color was a little more red as its namesake implies, or if it were slightly less matte.

    I have actually used this product nearly every day since receiving it, using it as a base color beneath pinky or shimmery glosses–this takes away from the matte-i-ness and keeps color on my lips longer throughout the day. I also use it to layer with some of my previously unwearable lipstick mistakes (bright coral, anyone?) where it serves to neutralize the colors a bit. Who’da guessed?

  4. Seriously, how did I not know about the customization features before? I was familiar with the Giella line before but didn’t realize all of the amazing browsing and shopping to do on their website! Another fun feature available on lipsticks and lip-glosses is labeled Nose – you can pick from scents like vanilla, eucalyptus, bubble gum and apple. And with lipsticks you can pick a coverage level as well –light, medium, heavy – just genius!

    Has anyone ever seen this in person? Or had a product/color recreated for you? I’m so curious!!

    I tested the slide out topped Concealer in shade #2 – a super nice match for my light skin. I was mighty impressed with the large choice of shades to choose from for all the face items, like foundations and concealers. Even the Bronzers had a few shades to pick from. Weren’t we just discussing that companies should offer bronzers in a variety of shades?

    Anyway – back to this concealer. Using a small concealer brush (which I say is a must with a concealer in a pot – don’t stick your fingers in there!) I was able to disguise a variety of imperfections – under eye circles and blemishes alike. It’s super creamy and doesn’t fall into fine lines around your eyes. I was able to blend all the edges right into my skin tone and with a dusting of powder was set for hours. My only complaint was the slide-out opener – which is actually smart – but I didn’t realize how it worked at first. I think pulling too hard the “normal” way (trying to flip it open) may damage the locking mechanism for the slide-out lid. Like Cori, I’ve had this package slide open when transporting. All in all a high 4 stars for the product and brilliant company, but taking a star for this specific packaging. The great thing is, I can restock on my shade #2 with another package – the one that includes a sponge tipped wand. Hooray!

  5. I also tried the concealer and had a little trouble with the packaging, but hopefully that is just a small detail that can be fixed. I really loved this product. It is a super moist concealer that glides on effortlessly and stays put. It does a fantastic job covering up blemishes and dark circles. Like Tyna, I also love that I could reorder this with tree tea oil. Their mixer idea is genius!

    What a fun company. I love the idea of custom made makeup. So wish I could go to do this in person, but their website seems very user friendly. I really want to create my own lip gloss now and maybe a nail polish or two.

  6. I received the concealer and loved it. Matched my skin tone perfectly and blended in easily. With a lot of concealers i find that sometimes their really think so its hard to blend, but this went on smoothly. The only problem i had with it, as others did too was the packaging. Everytime i used it and finally figured out how to open, i said to myself to make a mental note of it and of course the next time around i’d be sitting there struggling to open it.

  7. This lip pencil is the best! It has become my go to every day lip color!
    It stays put, goes on so smooth and is not drying at all! The color is lovely and is the perfect Matte without drying your lips out. Plus you can add a gloss over top and get a shiny version that will last all day. I had never tried GIELLA before but am now a big fan. 5 stars from me! Now I want the concealer!!! :)

  8. I received the lip pencil in Cranberry. It seems more like a lipstick in pencil form than a lip liner. I actually had an issue where instead of staying in my lip line, it traveled—maybe because it’s creamier than your average lip liner? It’s a flattering shade of nude plum on me, not really a true cranberry shade, and it’s very matte. It looks good when it’s topped with either a clear gloss or a sheer gloss with some shimmer—it needs a little extra dimension on me. The one thing I couldn’t really get past was that it had a pencilly smell/taste. This would have ranked higher if it maybe had a vanilla or similar smell to it. It just needs a little something to make it more special.
    Also, I really wish their website had a shade description underneath their swatches and that their generated swatches were of the actual product, not just a color in a box, especially in their lip products. Shade swatches vary by computer monitor and since the swatches are just color boxes instead of photos of the actual product and the initial swatches are listed by numbers, you may end up getting a completely different shade that you thought you were. At $27 a lipstick, I want to know exactly what I’m getting. I love the idea of customizing my makeup, though, and if they did offer actual photo swatches of the finished product, Giella’s website would be a new favorite shopping place.

  9. I sadly can’t report the rave reviews of the concealer that others have. The product was to moist for me. It went on nice but slid off even with powder. I thought it was a fluke because I did go stand in the sun for 4 hours at a swim meet. However when I tried to wear it again during the work day, even with powder, it seemed to wear off after a few hours. I have very oily skin and concealer generally doesn’t work for me and usually causes me to break out. This product was no differant but I may try the tea tree oil version, because tea tree calms my flair ups. I also had issue with the packaging like most others. I give the line in general 4 stars because the shades are perfect and with so many options you are bound to find something perfect for you.

  10. The concealor can be made both ways. Most people like it creamy but I need mine to stay on so just let them know and they will fix it up for you right away and make it a bit heavier or not as creamy! :)

    hope this helps!

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