Brand Spotlight: Stellar – A New Makeup Line for the Ladies in the Middle

When it comes to foundations colors for medium skin tones, Stellar is a star. ⭐⭐⭐

Have you heard about this line? It’s kind of earth shattering if you’re in, like, the mid-range for foundation and are always and forever mixing two colors (hello, welcome to my life). I got really excited when it launched at Sephora not long ago because they have 22 — TWENTY TWO! — shades of their foundation just for the girls in the middle. They’re like the Baskin-Robbins ? of undertones. There’s peach, dark peach, yellow, butterscotch, caramel undertones… They’ve got all the flavors!

A “Stellar” (haha) new Canadian makeup line for the gals in the middle

Everything in the line is vegan, cruelty free and fragrance free. The founder, Monika Deol, is a famous news anchor, television show host and former music veejay in Canada.

She’s also Indian and, being an on-air personality, she spends a lot of time getting her makeup done for work. She noticed that makeup artists were always mixing different products to get her exact foundation and concealer shades. After talking to her friends and family, she found out that they were all doing the same thing — cocktail-ing different face products to custom blend shades for their skin tone.

Hey, I’m one of those girls, too! I’m always mixing two colors because it’s rare for me to find a foundation that GETS MY UNDERTONES, man.

Monika’s line is for ladies like me (and you, if you’re in the same boat) — the gals smack dab in the center of the shade range with undertones that aren’t always represented in the makeup world.

I’ve tried a few things from the line, like the foundation, of course, a concealer, one of the blushes and a few of the lipsticks. I haven’t seen their loose powder or mascara in person yet, but I want to.

Stellar Limitless Foundation ($38)

I couldn’t wait to paint my face with Limitless Foundation. It’s a liquid foundation in a plastic bottle with a pump, and for some reason — I dunno why — the colors look lighter in the bottles than they do in real life, so avoid eyeballing the bottle as your guideline for what would work for your skin.

The formula is oil free, available in 22 shades, and it’s supposed to work for all skin types.

You know NARS Sheer Glow? This feels similar. It’s on the runnier side, but it isn’t as runny as a thin serum foundation.

Straight out of the gate, the coverage is medium, so it’ll hide a few freckles and smooth your uneven spots. But if you want more of a flawless, opaque, Instagram-BAM! finish, you can build it up to full coverage. It layers well. I’d be careful when doing this, though, because it can go cake-face like THAT if you layer too much.

The finish is luminous and borderline dewy — not as dewy as NARS Pure Radiant, but closer to something like L’Oreal’s True Match Lumi, and and as far as pore blurring goes (which is my priority these days), it doesn’t really do that.

I’ve tried three of the colors — S09, a medium with yellow undertones, which is Stellar’s equivalent of MAC NC42; S05, a light-medium with yellow undertones; and S14, a wheat with yellow undertones. Honestly, all three of work pretty well with my skin because the yellow undertones are so on point. I wore all three on different parts of my face and ended up liking the lightest shade, S05, the most because all of them oxidize (get darker) by about half a step on my skin.

If oxidation is an issue for you, too, go with the lightest option you can get away with.

It’s a beautiful foundation for real life things, like going to work, parties, that kind of thing, because it looks very natural, but I’d take it for a test drive first if you’re hoping to use it for a big event like a prom or wedding — basically, anything where there’s lots of pics. The dewy finish, at least on me, looks borderline oily in pics, and because Limitless doesn’t really blur pores as well as other liquid foundations (MAC Next to Nothing comes to mind), my pores are front and center.

Ingredients: Stellar Limitless Foundation Shade S11
Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Phenyl Trimethicone, Dimethicone, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Isododecane, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Butylene Glycol, Sodium Chloride, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Polysilicone-11, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Tribehenin, Propylene Carbonate, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Disodium EDTA. May Contain: Iron Oxides (CI 71491, CI 71492, CI 71499), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891)

Stellar Limitless Concealer ($27)

I feel like Limitless Concealer ($27) blurs my pores better than the foundation! It’s really pretty. The satin finish is a lot like MAC Select Moisturecover, my go-to from back in the day, and like the foundation, it’s medium coverage.

I think it’s better for cheeks, nose, mouth and chin — basically any place where you can set it with a healthy dose of face powder, because it needs something to lock it down. I wore it once as an undereye concealer — which is the place on my face where I use the least amount of powder because I don’t like it to look heavy— and that concealer was like, “Bye, Felicia!” by lunch.

Ingredients: Stellar Limitless Concealer in S03
Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Hydrogenated Polydecene , Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Butylene Glycol, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Glycerin, Isododecane, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Sodium Chloride, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Phenoxyethanol, Polysilicone-11, Tribehenin, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Propylene Carbonate, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Trisodium EDTA. May Contain: Iron Oxides (CI 71491, CI 71492, CI 71499), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891)

Some quick thoughts on the powder blush and lipstick

The Cosmic Blush in Eclipse ($24) has high pigment and a soft texture, but it feels…dusty, and when it’s on my cheeks, my skin looks dry.

As for the Lipsticks ($22 each, unflavored and unscented), they’re on the thicker side, so they aren’t slippery. They’re also kinda drying based on the three shades I’ve tried.

Ingredients: Stellar Cosmic Blush in Beam
Mica, Talc, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Dimethicone, Silica, Nylon-12, Magnesium Stearate, Isostearyl Alcohol, Boron Nitride, Mineral Oil, Ethylhexylglycerin, Caprylyl Glycol, Microcrystalline Wax, Paraffin, Phenoxyethanol , Sodium Dehydroacetate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Sorbitan Isostearate, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Tin Oxide.[+/- (May Contain): Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), D&C Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Ultramarines (CI 77007)]

Ingredients: Stellar Infinite Lipstick in Dark Matter 01
Hydrogenated Styrene/Methyl Styrene/Indene Copolymer, Polyethylene, Octyldodecanol, Trimethylsiloxyphenyl Dimethicone, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Isohexadecane, VP/ Eicosene Copolymer, VP/ Hexadecene Copolymer, Isododecane, Ozokerite, Phenoxyethanol, Mica, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate , Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Silica, Tin Oxide]. [+/- (May Contain): Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Red 6 (CI 15850), Red 28 Lake (CI 45410), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 19140), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090), Carmine (CI 75470)]

Even though the blush and lipstick don’t really blow my mind, I think Stellar has stellar potential (haha! I know…), and I love the idea of the brand. Can’t wait to see what they come up with in the future, especially for base products!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen