About the Brand:     

     Growing up in a poor household, it was the goal of Danessa Myrick's parents to have one of their children grow up to become the first member of their family to attend college, they hoped that not only could their children provide for themselves, but they could also help provide the family. Danessa, who was successful in her parent's mission, worked for a publishing company for 10 years until it was shut down for the owner to pursue other interests. Being a single mother, who subsequently wasn't feeling fulfilled in the job field, she had been working in, Danessa determined that the best way to support herself and two kids would be to enter into the world of makeup because she needed a job that could pay her by the end of the day. Completely new to the world of beauty, with little experience applying makeup, even to herself, Danessa studied the work of professional makeup artists Sam Fine and Kevyn Aucoin. In an attempt to grow her career in the world of beauty, Danesssa began working for various hair magazines, often volunteering her time and effort for free, which required her to work odd jobs during the day to help pay the bills. Wanting to expand further, Danessa got in contact with popular company Hype Hair Magazine and began writing beauty stories to accompany the work she was providing them.
     After years of hard work, Daessa's hard work paid off and being a makeup artist/ photographer/ columnist became a lucrative endeavor, allowing her to work on high profile clients including many celebrities, but despite all of her newly found success, Danessa still wasn't feeling fulfilled. For some time Danessa worked in the world of hair advertising under Shake-N-Go® before she discovered her true passion for education. Capitalizing on her passion, Danessa put out a string of DVD tutorials which garnered her international recognition, allowing her to travel all over the world teaching master classes. Later on, Danessa began perusing careers in product development for companies such as Kiss New York and Benefit Cosmetics helping them in the development, marketing, and the vision of their products to suit people of color. In June of 2015 Danessa took the plunge into starting her own beauty brand when she launched Elevation Lashes, a few months later in November 2015 Danessa launched Danessa Myricks Beauty which merged with Elevation Lashes and later on, began supplying her friend and professional makeup artist Roque Cozzette's brushes from his brand Cozzette. Becoming her own boss has allowed Danessa to dedicate her days towards practicing makeup artistry and photography on the various models who role through her studio as advertisement for her cosmetics line. Unlike many brands who seem to struggle creating new and exciting makeup, Danessa Myricks Beauty continues to launch innovative cosmetics designed for makeup artists and photography.
   

Description/ First Impressions:

     Functionally, I appreciate the design of these palettes because they serve to benefit working makeup artists who onset, may be required to work fast and therefore have no time to waste looking for products; the plastic lid is slightly frost, but you can still see the colors without having to open the palette, the magnets in the lid are very strong which ensures that the lid won't easily fall off, the palettes are quite durable yet light weight, and their compact design makes them travel friendly, perfect for any makeup artists kit. During my inspection of the palettes, one of the first thing I noticed was an oil residue which coated the inside of the palettes. I initially suspected that the vegetable seed oil (the first ingredient in the Waterproof Cream Palettes which indicates that it's in the highest concentration) permeated through the creams, I came to the assumption, that this occurred during transit on behalf of traveling under warmer conditions. Even after wiping the palette clean, the next time I went to use these products, I found a thin layer of oil residue covering the inside of the palette once again. Despite the thin layer of oil coating the inside of the palette, I don't find this to be so obnoxious that I would stop using these products, I do have to recommend exercising some caution when opening and grabbing these palettes or you may end up with some of this oil residue on your hands. Swirling my fingers in the creams, the product was initially dry, making it slightly difficult to run my fingers on, but as my body heat warmed the product, it became creamier and easier to work with. In my opinion the creams from the "Essentials" Palette apply darker/ grayish than what they appear in the pan and some of the creams in the "Future is Female" Palette (the purple and dark gray) have blue shimmer in them. 

Review:

  

      As I've mentioned in my previous reviews, I'm quite prone to creasing on my smile lines, but I've found that when I use these creams in my smile lines, I'm much less prone to creasing if at all. When the creams have fully dried, they're quiet budge proof. Luckily, there's quite a bit of play time before they dry down (roughly 4-5 minutes when I've timed it). For this reason, I've genuinely enjoyed using these creams on my eyes as well. I do have oily eyelids which tends to crease and lift many of the products I put on, but with these creams, the creasing is minimal, even on my eyes. Unfortunately, it'll still crease to some degree, but in my opinion, it's not the worst creasing I've ever experienced and I do feel comfortable wearing these on my eyes for extended periods of time. Most of the creasing is going to occur before the cream has fully dried, make sure to buff out any creases before the 4-5 minute mark has passed or else the creases will be set in place, alternatively, you can set the creams to help prevent creasing before they've fully dried. 
     Another reason why I love these creams so much is that they're waterproof. As someone who gets to perform on stage from time to time lip syncing, having waterproof makeup is essential for me! As you can imagine, with all the dancing I do, I'll tend to work up a storm of sweat, predominately on my forehead. While the product isn't going to stop me from sweating, it makes such a difference to have a product that won't break down on me. If I could stop performing after one song, it wouldn't matter much to me, but since I tend to perform two songs in a show and mingle with people afterwards, I want to look my best for as long as possible.
     One of the biggest drawbacks I've found when working on this review, comes from the "Future is Female" Palette. I'm not sure if any of the other waterproof cream palettes are completely matte or  shimmery, but the "Future is Female" Palette is a shimmer cream palette as opposed to the "Essentials" Palette which is fully matte. Don't get me wrong, the shimmery creams are beautiful, but because the shimmer has such a fine size, it makes removing the shimmer completely from my face very difficult. Even after rubbing my face down with a makeup remover wipe and taking a shower where I use a facial cleanser, sometimes the shimmers can hang around for two days after the initial application, but normally it's only the day after, just try your best to remove the shimmer because it'll get all over your pillow case if you don't remove it well the first time. I wish I had examined the shimmer more closely, prior to making my swatches for the "Future is Female" Palette, the shimmers ruined my sponge, I couldn't fully remove the shimmer or some of the color left behind from the darker shades and had to throw my sponge away.

Final Thoughts:

     Overall, I'm very satisfied with the performance of these two palettes. From the pigmentation, blend-ability, and wear, the "Essentials" Palette is far superior to that of my former go to contouring product Stila's Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo in medium. I loved that product because the Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo was the first cream product that I personally came across with a gray undertone which suit my skin tone. Unfortunately, months after finding my ride or die contouring foundation product, Stila decided discontinu this product requiring me to find a dupe. While the Shape and Shade Custom Contour Duo left my skin with a gorgeous finish and worked well in creating dimension on my face because the color could mimic the actual shadow of a contour for my skin tone, I had to be careful to not touch my face or I'd be in danger of lifting/ rubbing the product off. With Danessa Myricks Beauty's creams, I don't have to be as careful because their creams are much more durable since they dry down and withstand sweat with ease. While the swatches I've photographed are accurate to the products true color, only a video could do the "Future is Female" Palette any justice, despite my complaints with the fine shimmer, it's truly a beautiful product.
     If you're a working makeup artist or can find a way to use most of the colors in this palette, then this product is a must buy! Even if you'll only use two or three shades I would say that this isn't a terrible investment because this product is spectacular and you get to support the production of smaller black/ female owned company founded by a professional artist and amazing human being.

 (The Danessa Myricks Beauty Waterproof Cream "Essentials" Palette is swatched on the left and the Waterproof Cream "Future is Female" Palette is swatched on the right. A clip on ring light was used to capture the shimmered finish of the "Future is Female" Palette while the swatches pictured in the "Essentials" Palette were taken in normal daylight.)



If you've made it this far, I would just like to say thank you for reading my article! Your feedback matters a great deal to me, please feel free to message me through my email therobynvalentine@gmail.com regarding any feedback or questions you may have. Also while your here, I would greatly appreciate it, if you consider contributing to my website by making a donation to my Paypal using the email provided. Thank you again for all your continued support, it truly means the world to me.