I’m a yellow-green (very green), slightly saturated olive. A lot of products that are technically olive still pull too gray, too orange, too peach, or just slightly off on me. So when someone shared that Lisa Eldridge had a whole olive edit that you can sort by depth and saturation level with a ton of her products categorized, I knew I needed to do a haul for y’all. I grabbed all of the olive skin tints, a couple lipsticks, 4 of the new blush sticks, a concealer pencil, a balm highlighter, and a few eyeshadow singles to test.
In this post, all links are affiliate links (thank you for your support!), but all opinions are my own and I bought all these products myself. Swatches are under a ring light to show true to color (photo #1) and then standard lighting to show the formula a little better (#2) for all the products.
Quick note on swatches: my arm is not the same color as my face, and I’m using arm swatches mostly to show undertone, depth, and how the shades compare to each other but rest assured these really blend into my skin if I say it’s a great match.
Lisa Eldridge Seamless Skin Enhancing Tint in T1.5, T5, and T9 – I’ve loved this formula for years. My original shade was T4, which was good but not quite right, and I still wore it constantly because the formula is exactly what I want from a skin tint. It’s lightweight, easy to rub in with just your fingers, super flattering, and weirdly durable for something that looks this natural. I remember testing this when I was pregnant, and it survived through many, many long and rough days and still looked amazing.
I originally started this time with the shade T5, because I figured T4 but olive would work the best. T5 is definitely olive, but it’s much more cool olive than Iam. It has that gray-green, desaturated quality that works for a lot of olives, but my skin is more yellow-green and saturated. I can get away with it because the formula is sheer, but it’s definitely not my perfect shade.
A lot of people suggested mixing T5 with T9 because T9 has a warmer olive undertone, and so I bought T9. T9 is so much deeper than my skin that even though the undertone is better in some ways, it can read orange on me because it’s just too dark (though the undertone is still much better than some other foundations I’ve tried).
Then other people told me to try T1.5, which is the lightest and only other olive skin tint. It’s too light and bright for me on its own, especially in the summer, but it turned out to be the key to making the others work. My best match is T1.5 mixed with T5, which gets me closest to the right balance of lightness and green without going grey or orange. You can barely see it on my face. T1.5 mixed with T9 also works surprisingly well on my face, though I’d still be tempted to add a tiny bit of blue. T5 mixed with T9 with a light blue color corrector also does work, so all of these will get used.
That all said, my favorite thing about this experiment was finding out that T1.5 fixes almost any base product. I’ve mixed it into foundations that were a little too dark, a little too orange, or both, and suddenly they looked right. I also like using it as a first layer, almost like a skin-perfecting primer, before putting another foundation on top and every shade looks great now. If Lisa wants to send me a giant bottle of the tint in 1.5, I would definitely not say no.
Lisa Eldridge Velatura Balm Dewy Lip and Cheek Stick in Cinnamon Bun, Hellebore Heaven, Rose Madder, and Meeting The Ex – I started with Cinnamon Bun and Hellebore Heaven and liked them so much that I picked up Rose Madder and Meeting The Ex too. Cinnamon Bun, Hellebore Heaven, and Rose Madder are all on the Lisa Eldridge olive page for light-medium saturated olives. Meeting The Ex isn’t but I’m formally requesting it be added. The formula is incredibly easy to use on both lips and cheeks. They’ve become one of my go to lip balms when I just want a little color but I want it to be easy and just look nice. On my cheeks, I especially like tapping these on top of powder when I want to bring some glow back. They don’t last all day, but they’re so easy and pretty that I don’t really mind.
Cinnamon Bun, Hellebore Haven, Rose Madder, and Meeting the Ex
Cinnamon Bun is one of my favorite blonzer shades. It’s warm, but not Cheeto orange, and gives me that rusty red-brown “I went outside and got a little color” flush. It’s just super easy to throw on and look put together. Hellebore Heaven is my favorite of the four. It’s a beautiful everyday berry that I know will work in winter, spring, fall, and even for a summer berry look. It gives me that olive-friendly berry flush without turning muddy or weirdly red. Rose Madder and Meeting The Ex are pretty close, and I don’t think you need both. Rose Madder is more neutral and almost warm coral pink on me. It’s nice, but it’s the one I’d give up first. Meeting The Ex is brighter, cooler, and more baby blue pink, and I actually like it better. I think warmer olives look really good in brighter cool pinks, especially when neutral pinks turn weirdly warm or flat.
Lisa Eldridge Pinpoint Concealer Micro Correcting Pencil in 5.5 – This is my favorite spot concealer product. I’ve especially been using it around the outside of my lips after seeing Lisa Eldridge show that trick as a way to naturally create a “lifted lip look”, and now I do it constantly. It just cleans everything up and makes my lips stand out more. I also reach for this if I have one tiny spot or one tiny area I want to perfect. I really like this concealer for when I need more control and just want something to seamlessly blend into my skin. I have some swatches here, but it really does blend into my skin so well.
Lisa Eldridge Luxuriously Lucent Lip Colour in Meet Me In Berlin and Rouge Experience Refillable Lipstick in Toasted – I know lips are Lisa Eldridge’s thing so you might be surprised to only find two here. I used to own a ton of her lipsticks, but most of them expired by now, and I also realized that a lot of shades I thought worked on me didn’t actually look as good as I thought they did. For this review, I bought Meet Me In Berlin and Toasted because both are recommended on the olive page, and they were the ones I was the most suspicious of. They looked like the kind of colors that could go orange on me very quickly or stay a pretty beige.
Swatched next to MAC Alone Time (old version), you can see why I was nervous. Alone Time (again, original version, I’m looking for dupes!) is more muted, gray-purple, and grungy, which is my favorite kind of lip product. Meet Me In Berlin and Toasted are both warmer and more tan, but they still have enough rosy terracotta that they don’t turn completely orange.
Meet Me In Berlin is still a product I throw on without thinking too hard, and the formula is a super comfy balmy formula that you can build up if you want. The Rouge Experience formula is easy to wear even though it’s much more of a traditional satin lipstick than the balm texture of the Luxuriously Lucent Lip. It does have a really pretty soft sheen still and wears really comfortably during the day. The packaging also makes it one of the most luxurious feeling lipsticks I own, though I have it on good authority you can make do with just the refills or one case and refills.
Lisa Eldridge Eyeshadow Singles in Chrysina, Ablaze, and Posh – I own way too much eyeshadow to justify buying more full palettes or a bunch of liquid shadows unless y’all request it (like how Makeup by Mario is launching new liquid eyeshadows and I will be picking a couple up to test). So for this review, I bought a few singles from the Lisa Eldridge palettes recommended for olives, Betty and Desert Gleam. I picked up Chrysina, Ablaze, and Posh, and all three are in the smooth, sparkly, shimmery formula I love. Honestly, if Lisa made a whole palette of this exact finish, I would probably buy it.
Chrysina is a sheer golden-green topper. It barely has a base, so I can put it over basically anything when I want the look to feel a little more at home on my olive skin. It’s pretty and useful, but because it’s sheer and toppery, it reminds me of a lot of other shades I already own. Ablaze is the most classic warm shade of the three. It’s coppery and bronzy, and I like it, but I wish it had a little more rose in it to work better with my skin. Posh is easily my favorite. It’s a mauve purple shimmery brown, and it’s exactly the kind of everyday shade I want. It has more pinky taupe to it than Ablaze, which is why it works better for me.
Lisa Eldridge Elevated Glow Balm Concentrate in Butterfly Light – I spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to photograph my swatch of Butterfly Light, and I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t do it. I tried photos, videos, indoor light, outdoor light, and it just wouldn’t show up in any kind of useful way. The best way I can describe it is: if you took my arm color, made it pinker/blushier, and added a little shine, that’s Butterfly Light. It’s pretty, and I’m not upset that I bought it. It gives a soft rosy highlight, and I like tapping it on when I want a little more glow. The packaging is also lovely. But it’s definitely just a highlighter balm. It’s sheer, shiny, and a little balmy on the skin.
Of everything I bought for this review, this is the one I’d give up first. If you’re already placing an order and want a soft rosy highlight balm, I don’t think you’d hate it, and I know a couple folks that really love it . But I wouldn’t buy it again over the highlighters I already have (and to be fair to Lisa, it’s not on the olive edit page anyway!).
Have you tried Lisa Eldridge’s olive recommendations yet?
Makeup and Skincare Reviews 