Testing Beautycounter’s Flawless in Five – Is It Worth It?

Ever since I heard of Beautycounter, I’ve been intrigued. They believe that beauty should be good for you, and according to their about page, are powered by people with a collective mission to get safer products into the hands of everyone.

As a company, they advocate for stricter guidelines and regulations in the personal care industry and have something called The Never List™. This list is made up of 1,500 questionable and harmful ingredients, including 1,400 chemicals that have been banned from personal care products in the European Union. Given that our skin is our largest organ, we should probably care at least a little bit about what we’re putting on it, don’t you think? 

The company’s founder, Gregg Renfrew, is advocating for more strict regulation of the ingredients in our beauty and personal care products in Washington. You can purchase Beautycounter products through a consultant but also directly through their website. And in the past, some products have been available at Target and Goop. 

I’ve tried a couple of products from Beautycounter in the past, including the Cleansing Balm, a cleanser, a moisturizer, the sunscreen stick, and the Overnight Resurfacing Peel — which I absolutely loved. 

As a new mom I’ve been thinking a lot more about the impact of the things I use in my home. From my skincare and makeup to the cleaning products and baby products we use, I’ve been trying to be more aware of what I expose my family to. 

If you’re in a similar boat, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the quality of the Flawless in Five set from Beautycounter. I purchased the set with my own money and have been testing the products out together and independently over the past couple of weeks. My skin is combination leaning oily and I have some texture and redness. I don’t generally have sensitive skin and didn’t experience a reaction to any of these products. 

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Beautycounter Flawless in Five Set Review

The Flawless in Five set comes with:

• Tint Skin Hydrating Foundation or Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer
• Touchup Skin Concealer Pen
• Color Define Brow Pencil or Brilliant Brow Gel
• Lengthening or Volumizing Mascara
• Satin Powder Blush
• Lip Gloss

I chose the shades and options: Porcelain Tint Skin Hydrating Foundation, Fair, Medium Brow Gel, Black Lengthening Mascara, Nectar, and Peony, respectively. 

The set retails for $150 and is a $187 value if you were to buy the products separately. I think this is on par with mid-range beauty products. Though, I will say that some of the items individually are pretty pricey, like $29 for the lipgloss, for example.

But if you’re interested in all of the items, the set is a good way to test out several products for a more reasonable price point.

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Flawless in Five Product Reviews

1. Tint Skin Hydrating Foundation

This really reminds me of Urban Decay’s Naked Skin One-and-Done. It’s really lightweight and feels hydrating leaving the skin with a natural finish. I’d say the coverage is light to medium and barely buildable. It’s nice for quick evening out the skin for a few hours.

The wear time wasn’t very long for me but might be extended with powder and setting spray. I have found myself reaching for it when I’m in a hurry or just have a few errands to run.

I also found the shade Porcelain to have slight yellow undertones. It blended into the skin fine but is just something to note!

2. Touchup Skin Concealer Pen

This has click a click up packaging with a brush tip. It’s easy application. The coverage is light with a natural finish. It mimics the foundation in that it 

Here is a swatch of the foundation next to the concealer. The concealer is a bit pinker in tone:

On the face, though, there’s no real difference in my opinion. They blend into the skin well. 

3. Brilliant Brow Gel

I chose the brow gel in medium and was overall happy with it. I don’t typically do much to my brows but this gel was easy to use and gave them nice definition.

4. Lengthening Mascara

I really liked the mascara at first! I found it to be very black and pretty lengthening. It reminded me of L’Oreal’s Telescopic Mascara.

However, it got dry extremely quickly in my opinion. After a couple of uses the formula became very thick and hard to apply. I don’t know if this is typical of Beautycounter mascara’s but it wasn’t my favorite formula.

5. Satin Powder Blush

I chose the shade Nectar in the blush. It was very glowy and made my cheeks look pretty rosy and flush. I keep picking this blush up to use — both the formula and color are a winner in my book. The shade Nectar reminds me of NARS’ Orgasm or Milani Luminoso. 

6. Lip Gloss

I’m not huge into lip gloss, but when I do wear it, I like it to layer nicely with other lip products and not feel sticky. This checks both boxes for me! I’ve also been picking this gloss up quite a bit — I really enjoy it! 

Here are swatches of the blush in Nectar and the lip gloss in Peony:

Overall Thoughts on Flawless In Five

The stand out products to me were the blush, the lip gloss, the foundation, and the concealer. The brow gel was neither good nor bad in my opinion. While I liked the mascara on the first few uses, I was pretty disappointed that it got dry so quickly. I expect more from a $29 mascara. 

Overall, I think the set is a good value. Especially if you’re looking for clean beauty makeup basics that can have you feeling put together and out the door in a flash. If you’re more intrigued by a specific product, though, I would recommend going for that over the set. You can check out the options and purchase your set here.

The products I have my eye on to try in the future are the lipstick duo and the balancing facial oil.

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Beautycounter Q&A with Amanda Stewart

Lucky for us, one of GenTwenty’s contributor’s is a safer beauty advocate and consultant with Beautycounter. She’s kindly offered to answer a few questions! If you’d like to know anything else or want to try a free sample, reach out to her on Instagram here — she’s happy to help! 

GenTwenty: Why are you so passionate about safer beauty?

Amanda Stewart: I struggled with my skin for years, but most recently in my mid-late twenties. My acne was gone but I had bumps and unevenness that bothered me. Dermatologist after dermatologist would prescribe these hard steroid creams that would be so painful and nothing got better.

I started to learn more about what is in our products because I knew that what I’m putting on my skin shouldn’t be so painful. The more I learned, the more I was saddened by the lack of regulation in the skincare industry.

I am very passionate about health and wellness (I work out and try to eat well) but I had no idea how much our products can impact our health until I started digging into the research.

G20: Which chemicals should we be most concerned about in our beauty products?

AS: The word ‘fragrance’ is a good place to start.

One thing that blew my mind when I started on this #switchtosafer journey, was the fact that ‘fragrance’ and ‘parfum’ are more than just words to describe that your beauty product smells nice…they are actually considered trade secrets for companies and they are not required to list up to 3,000 unregulated ingredients that can make them up. Many of which are hormone disrupters and allergens.

When I thought about it, it made more sense why I’ve become SO sensitive to anything with artificial “fragrance”, probably because of these toxic ingredients they consist of!

There has been no regulation in the beauty industry since 1938. So even if a product specifically states that it is paraben free, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

Read your ingredient lists, and if you want to know exactly what chemicals you are exposing your body to, avoid any with ‘fragrance/parfum’ – even if it states ‘natural fragrance’ – this essentially means nothing.

The more you know.

You’ll never find “fragrance” or “parfum” listed in Beautycounter ingredients thanks to our Never List (of 1500 harmful ingredients) 🙌🏼

G20: What is your favorite thing about Beautycounter as a company in particular? 

AS: Beautycounter is forward thinking and transparent. The most recent 2019 Social Mission report showcased Beautycounter’s commitment to more sustainable packing and increased advocacy for regulations in personal care products both at the federal and state level. This company is making change that is bigger than a new lipstick.

Because beauty should be good for you.

G20: What are a few of your favorite products? 

AS: I can’t live without the Countermatch Adaptive Moisturizer for your face. It adjusts to what your skin needs so I’m never oily or dry anymore.

I also love the Cleansing Balm. I use it as a makeup remover, a mask, a cleanser, on my cracked heels, on my eczema flare ups… it’s a cure-all for everything!

G20: If you could recommend someone try just one product, which would it be? 

AS: Try the charcoal mask. You can see it working and it only takes 10 minutes. It removes impurities and toxins from your skin and pores. I try to use it once a week. I’d love to send you a sample of one if you’d like – send me a DM on Instagram @sweatytearsofjoy

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Check out Beautycounter here. 

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