Okie Dokie!  So, for the past couple of years I’ve received comments, and even emails from readers of the blog, and friends and relatives, such as my sister-in-law, Linda extolling the praise for Boom Sticks.

I’ve always shied away simply because I wrote to the company asking if they had mini-sized products to try but never received a reply.  I get funny when I don’t receive a reply.

Yeah. I got all like this.  All I wanted was a reply….

Anyway, during that past couple of years, my skin has changed. Be that as it may, it seems that as we proage or skin can sometimes speed that process up.  My skin is now blotchy. It is more wrinkled and my features are seemingly disappearing.

3/4 of the hair is gone and I’m left with “little” hair. The neck–I can’t even.  The skin has changed so quickly. Blech! It’s blotchy AND wrinkly. I need help!

Sadly, I cannot iron the wrinkles out of my face the way I do with clothing.  And my funds do not allow me to enter into the hallowed operating rooms of New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery to have some special nips and tucks into my face.

Trust me. If I had the funding, I would do this. Sadly, I’m a Paupered Princess so I cannot do this!

 Instead, I rely on makeup to assist in my endless endeavor of pulchritude.

Whoda thunk?  Just a bit of makeup can make me look presentable. Read on my loverly friends…

And with the plethora of Instagram ads for Boom, I finally bit the bullet and made the purchase.

Every day. All over the internet. I was boomed with these boomsticks. I caved. Yes. I did. I caved in and made the purchase!

I was curious to see if these three little sticks would, in fact, be all that is needed for a fresh, proaging face and I wanted to see how they worked.

Boom’s founder, Cindy Joseph was a makeup artist come model—and a later-in-life model.  Quite honestly, she was a very beautiful woman. And it’s sad that she passed. After watching a few of her videos demonstrating the products, she came across as such a genuinely nice woman.  She was very charismatic.

Cindy Joseph, Boom founder, was such a beautiful woman. I don’t think she needed much makeup.  But her pro-age ideology is right up my alley.  

Besides, how could I not be drawn to her and her brand which pontificates the importance of proaging?  Seriously, she was a huge proponent of the proage movement and her brand still carries through on that ideology.  And that is a wonderful thing itself.  The website is also ridiculously refreshing to see because all of the women showcasing the products are of the mature demographic.  I think Boom just may be the only cosmetics company to do this and it is well-needed and well-appreciated.

The three products, the Boom Sticks, are housed in a cotton pouch.  They aren’t oversized and yet, are not miniscule in size. They are a decent size for every day use. The sticks, in the pouch, will slide right into your purse or travel case. And that’s a good thing.

This handy-dandy pouch houses the products but now that I thnk about it, this would make a good mask….

The products are Boomstick Glo, a yellow moisturizing stick.  Boomstick Color, a deep mauve stick that can be multi tasked all over your face.  Boomstick Glimmer, which is a radiant highlighter of sorts. It’s a lighter mauve with a nice satin finish.

From Left to Right. Boomstick Glimmer; Boomstick Glo; Boomstick Color.

Can the products truly work for everyone as the brand states?  I’ll let you know further in the post.

Since these sticks arrived, they’ve been used every day. Every. Single. Day.  However, and this is big—I don’t use them on their own. And this is what kind of goes against the belief of Boom because the brand gives the vibe that all you need are the three sticks for a beautiful face.

I swatched the best I could in natural lighting. The bottom is the Color Stick–it’s very pigmented.  On top of that is the Glimmer Stick, a very subtle hint of highlight giving a dewy and shimmery glow, and on top of that the Glo Stick it’s pretty-much invisible and is great as a face-balm if you will or..as I use it as primer!

So, let’s get on with how I Boom and what I think of the products.

I’ve got a comparison of sorts here. I applied the products on my naked face. Then re-applied on my face after applying foundation and a few other items.

First is the Glo stick.

I mean. this face is scary naked!  I’m using the glow stick which I’ve applied on my lips (it’s a great balm) and all over my face.

This is very moisturizing.  It is an opaque stick that has, as do all the sticks, a slight tackiness to it.  Trust me, the slightly tacky texture isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, I like it because the products stay in place!

And, although this is a moisturizer, I use it more as a primer. Using this as a primer gives me more hydration after I’ve applied my regular moisturizer.  In addition, I use this as a lip balm before applying lip color.  It has no scent at all and a little bit of this goes a long way.

Next, we have the Color Stick.

The Color Stick.  I dunno about using this on my naked face. I’ve got a lot going on here.  My face is ruddy and blotchy.  Granted it does give a nice flush of color but I’m being very honest and realistic here. I may be a pro-ager but I do need a product to even out my skin tone.

This is both the most intriguing and confusing of the three products.  Again, it is an opaque stick with a bit of tackiness.  Whereas in the little room where I apply my makeup in the morning, the lighting gives this a very deep mauve appearance. I’m now in my dining room writing this and the late afternoon lighting is giving this more of a brick-reddish brown appearance.

You can use for an all-over sun-kissed look.  Some use it as a bronzer and this can also be applied to the eye lid or as a shadow of sorts.  In addition, it is a cheek and lip color. Now—here’s the thing.  I watched Cindy Joseph apply this to her bare face.  Let me tell you something, she had beautiful skin. Like really great skin.  No blotchiness. Her skin tone looked very even.  She didn’t appear to have any redness either.

I, on the other hand, have freckles, age spots (and they aren’t proage spots either-these are age spots), redness on my nose and chin. I also have scarring from various incidents of clumsiness and acne on my chin.  My skin is textured and now rather wrinkled.   The Color stick does not work on my naked skin.My pasty Irish coloring doesn’t lend itself well to using this stick as an all-over product.

However, this is great as a blush.  The shade is very natural and very pigmented.  Not too pink. Not red. It’s just a nice flush of natural blush. But the really incredible thing is this stick as a lip color. I was freaking blown away! First of all, there’s a lot of natural pigmentation in my lips. And surprisingly, it can be an issue with lipstick. Most lipsticks, unless they are pink, oxidize on me due to the natural pigmentation.  Most lip color ends up darker on my lips so I was skeptical.  And I couldn’t wrap my head around the thought process that as we pro age, our lip color should match the color of our gums (that was in one of Cindy’s videos). I was questioning that.

Until I put it on my lips. It definitely works on the naked lips as well as lips with a touch of foundation on them. I was blown away by this stick as lip color. Honestly, it’s pretty remarkable.

Last is the Boomstick Glimmer:  It’s very subtle. The stick is a lighter mauve shade with a glimmery sheen. It is quite loverly (as Eliza Doolittle would say). Applied to my bare face, you couldn’t really appreciate the luster of this stick. Applied over the Color stick on the lips it gives the prettiest satin finish. It doesn’t come off as frosted—just as a nice satin finish.

Here’s the glimmer stick. It really is great but just..on my freaking bare skin just doesn’t give the product justic. But take a look at the lips. I put some over the color stick and I LOVE IT!

With a bit of eyebrow pencil, mascara and liner, thngs look a hella lot better–especially with the bare naked face! Trust me there is something to be said about eye makeup–even if you are cross-eyed as I am!

Now here’s the about these sticks on the naked face—while they don’t work for me now, during the summer, they might work wonderfully when I’m tanned (after lots of SPF that is). I’m thinking these are probably gorgeous when your skin has that evened out tan.

The only decent no-makeup pic of me. I was tanned. It was for Oona’s wedding and I can just imagine how great these sticks will look when I’m well-tanned and fake-tanned!

So, I applied some foundation and eye products and then re-applied all three sticks. The difference was astounding.  I’m big on cream makeup these days and I applied Seint cream foundation on my face. I used Trestique Brow Pencil, Monoprix mascara, Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Cobblestone and Thrive eyeliner.

So after I decided to add a bit more makeup, I used the Seint cream makeup (I know, I hit pan put I have backups)

The other products I used were Trestique’s brow pencil (which I love), Thrive eye liner pencil and Monoprix mascara that I purchased over two years ago in Paris. (I know. I’m disgusting as all get-out for using two-year old mascara *French Shrug*) I also used my beloved Subtl Beauty concealer! 

I used the Glo as a primer and applied extra to my perpetually chapped lips.  Then I went in with the foundation.  Over the foundation I applied the Color stick on my cheeks and lips and went to town with the Glimmer stick.

Yeah. NOW we’re talking! And just enough of a light touch with foundation and concealer and the Boom Sticks work wonderfully!

All three work beautifully with other cosmetics.

And yes. For me, they don’t work on a bare face but with a bit of cream foundation and concealer, they are pretty darn worth every cent!

And I want to say something about that.  We’re all different. We all have different cosmetic needs.  Some have gorgeous skin and can bypass the foundation, concealer and brighteners. Others—well, we need a bit more assistance. If a product doesn’t work for you the way it is meant to, it doesn’t mean it won’t work.  Just because the products don’t work on my bare face, they are not wasted. They work exceptionally well on my face that has been primed and foundationed. (Is that even a word? It is now.)

Cindy Joseph was so beautiful that I could stress eat over her perfect skin.  I’ll be she’swearing abit of face makeup here.  If you get the chance head to YouTube to watch some of her videos. Her voice is so soothing. She really seemed like a very kind woman!

I think these Boomsticks work well for women who are not into makeup because they can enhance cheekbones and other areas of the face. And they are easily applied.  They also work well for those of us who are makeup addicts because we can incorporate them into our routines with additional products!

Overall, how would I rate these sticks?  They are honestly between an A and an A+. The only thing keeping them from a full-on A + is that they don’t work for a naked skin tone that needs to be evened out but with other products, work beautifully.

What I would love to see (hint, hint if anyone from Boom ends up reading this) is the brand develop a foundation stick. That would be the icing on the cake. A super-hydrating stick with a bit of tackiness to keep it in place and coverage where we need it would be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Boom-dee-ada! These nuggets are keepers!

If you use Boom how does it work on your bare face—I’m really interested to know!