What’s up, Beautiful Blossoms? My chronic depression did not win today so here I am with a blog entry! And it’s been a while since I posted a product disappointment to me, so I figured I’d post one – and it’s about a hyped product to boot!

And yep, another new series: What Went Wrong. I swear, I just don[‘t come up with these on the fly. I thought about putting this entry under the “My Neglected Makeup” category, but I realized that I barely even touched the damn thing to consider it as neglected. To me, a neglected makeup means that I use it more than one time but it’s not something I consistently turn to when I do my makeup.

Plus, there are so many rave reviews about Reserve Your Cabana being a sent-from-the-makeup-heavens product. So what was I doing wrong? And that’s when it hit me: the product isn’t necessarily bad – it just didn’t work out for me. I’m sure it works wonders for other people, though, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Plus, it does challenge me to really assess the product from a more objective view than the simple “it just didn’t work out!” or “I just didn’t like it!”

The title says it all: Wet n Wild’s Reserve Your Cabana did not work for me, despite being hyped up on the beauty community as a cheap highlighter (the price tag is $3.99 but if you’re in NYC, expect to pay a dollar or two more). People kept raving about it as an alternative for the consistently sold out MegaGlo highlighters and because I figured I need to be more open to what the online beauty community suggests, I figured why the hell not.

Plus, it’s cheap. So if it didn’t work out, the financial loss wouldn’t hurt my wallet. Which turned out to be a good thing.

So what went wrong?

At first glance, the Reserve Your Cabana didn’t even look like what Wet n Wild says it’s supposed to be: a bronzer.

You can do a quick Google Image search for the product shade.

Either Wet n Wild realized their mistake after the finalization was completed. Or they just didn’t give a shit.

Here is mine. All I did was put it in the shopping cart. The fucker never arrived to my car in one piece. And if it weren’t for the shopping bag I placed it in, it would have left its mark everywhere. But that was the warning sign that the shade was not gonna work as a highlighter.

Who would have thought? At first glance, I initially thought that it was possible: it was too light to be used as a bronzer on medium to dark skin but light enough to be a highlighter. So when I finally decided to give the broken stuff a go (why I never bothered repressing it with alcohol, I have no clue. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s so damn cheap), I was surprised.

And not in a good way. Instead of giving that shiny look that my ColourPop Lunch Money does, Reserve Your Cabana just disappeared into my skin. Ironic, to say the least – the shade and I didn’t even look like a match at first glance.

Did you try building up the product?

But no matter how much product I applied, I never saw that visible-from-space glow. I had more sheen visible with two finger applications from Lunch Money than I could ever get from Reserve Your Cabana. What was I doing wrong?

Meanwhile, people post selfies listing RYC as their highlighter. Was I supposed to use it alone? Was I supposed to add another highlighter on top? The latter was redundant to me: if RYC was such a good highlighter, why do I need to top it off with another product to get that shine rollin’?

Now, I’m left with a broken Reserve Your Cabana and a perfectly preserved backup, which I bought BEFORE I even gave the broken version a test run. What the hell possessed me to do it?

Look at ABH’s Glow Kit. That shit is no longer available anywhere except Anastasia’s website. And I LIKE that Glow Kit. It’s going to be discontinued soon and I want to get a backup but it’s not in my budget. And I haven’t even wasted the one I already own.

So what now?

Well, the RYCs are just gonna collect dust in my stash. I don’t see the possibility of selling them because they are so damn cheap and doing a giveaway for them is out of the question. In fact, the following is the primary reason why I cannot be convinced to do a makeup giveaway, no matter how many times I entertain the idea:

LIABILITY.

I refuse to be the reason someone gets an allergic reaction from a makeup product I sent them. I don’t have the money to hire legal muscle (even though I can afford to buy all the makeup that I want. Have you seen how much you need to retain a lawyer?) in the event that someone turns out to be allergic to an ingredient in a makeup product.

If you think I’m paranoid, just take a look at how many people in Russia pretend to be run over by drivers. And I live in a city where people will scam if it leads to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

My mom’s boss once got rear ended because his license plates state that he’s a doctor. And the assholes that rear ended him claimed that he was at fault and called the cops. The irony? Said assholes didn’t have car insurance.

Until the next entry, Beautiful Blossoms.