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I have worn so little makeup day-to-day over the last couple of years that any amount of makeup feels like a lot to me. What used to feel like no-makeup makeup to me seems like, as the kids say, a full beat. I had almost forgotten how to get a fresh, dewy, just-a-little-color look that didn't read as intense. Then I remembered that Ilia Multi-Sticks exist. And then I remembered that they just got even better.
Ilia Multi-Sticks were already an Allure editor and reader favorite, and I'm not just speaking for myself. They won a 2021 Readers' Choice Award in the clean category, and it's easily one of our favorite cream blushes — though they're called Multi-Sticks because they not just blush. It swipes onto and tints lips just as effortlessly as it does on cheeks, and the creamy avocado oil and shea butter formula is a truly perfect texture for either spot.
So when Ilia announced that it was launching four new shades of that chunky cylinder of beautifully blendable color, I was thrilled. The seven existing shades are already such fantastic flushes of color and dewiness that I couldn't even imagine what founder Sasha Plavsic felt was missing.
"A bright pop of color like Dear Ruby was a must," Plavsic tells Allure. "In the Mood is our first blend of a Multi-Stick with a hint of shimmer that is truly more of a peachy glow. Whisper is the ultimate warm neutral, and In the City is the perfect bronzing shade that can double a highlighter depending on your skin tone."
But it isn't just new shades of the Multi-Stick that Ilia just launched. Also making its debut onto the makeup stage is an entirely new format: a limited-edition Multi-Stick Face Palette, to be exact.
"We looked at it like a painter's palette and what was pleasing to the eye," Plavsic says of how she chose the array of new and well-loved shades for the compact: In The Mood, Whisper, and In The City joined by Cosmic Dancer, Tenderly, and At Last. "I do believe these six shades will be our best sellers, which always makes it exciting to offer to our customer as an amuse-bouche before committing to the full size."
I gave the new palette a try with a little reluctance if I'm being honest. I personally prefer the convenience of applying a stick directly to my cheek or lips and not needing to apply it with my fingers. But let's be real — I blend it with my fingers anyway, so the difference is negligible. Although this formula looks amazing on bare skin, I decided to apply a light-coverage foundation first to see how it interacted. For my cheeks, I went with the warmest of the pink shades, peachy newcomer Whisper.
I was pleased to find that you really can't pick up too much — the product in the pan is truly solid, not at all mushy — yet you don't need much to create an apparent wash of color. Furthermore, the formula is buildable (just in case you want it to be more apparent), and it didn't disturb or swoosh around the foundation underneath as I blended it.
Next, I used a smaller amount of classic color Cosmic Dancer, the champagne hue, to dab on my cheekbones as a highlighter. Although it has a pearliness to it, it's anything but sparkly, and instead creates a dewy sheen. And even though the formula isn't technically indicated for the eyes, I couldn't resist rebelling and using the new bronze shade, In The City, on my lids for a hint of gleamy color.
I wanted to go with my favorite of the new shades, Dear Ruby, for my lips, but it didn't make the palette cut, so I applied it the old-fashioned way. Although it's quite wide, the original stick format is still very easy to use as lipstick. I tend to blot it on versus gliding it on — though either technique works — and then I spread the tint with my finger a bit for more evenness. Dear Ruby is decidedly not as your-lips-but-better-adjacent as some of the other, more subtle shades, but its semi-sheer, non-glossy finish strikes a balance between bold and understated.
Although I personally prefer the original stick format of the Ilia Multi-Stick for its whole swipe-and-go vibe, I am most definitely going to be keeping the immensely portable palette in my bag for an easy way to have multiple options for adding a little natural-looking, no-brainer color and glowiness — the kind that actually looks low-key and not "done up" — wherever and whenever I may deem it necessary.
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