Dupe battle: Eyeko Fat Balm vs Silk Naturals & Sobe Botanicals!

This is gonna be a long one! I purchased Eyeko Fat Balm in Frosting, which is a multi-purpose lip and cheek product, from a blog sale quite a while ago. I used it several times before I got around to doing a review - and while doing research for said review, discovered that the FatBalms had been discontinued. OOPS.

So instead of just reviewing a blush that nobody will be able to buy (I'm not Pink Sith, come on!) I decided to review the Fat Balm AND purchase a similar product from two indie companies to see if I could find a dupe for it!

The original product:
Eyeko Fat Balm in Frosting!
This is an extremely pigmented product, which means it's suitable for all kinds of skin tones. Yay! The large size makes it somewhat easy to use on your cheeks, but if you're using it as a lip colour you might want to apply it with your finger or a lip brush rather than straight from the tube.

The Fat Balms have a nice creamy consistency, very similar to a traditional cream blush. Easy to apply and blend, they are a bit drying as a lip product. I would definitely suggest pairing it with a lip balm or moisturising gloss. It has a satiny finish - not glossy but not quite matte either. This shimmer in this shade lends it a slightly frosty look, and it does stain the lips very nicely, so if you want a more long-lasting, less drying colour, you can definitely blot and apply a dedicated lip product over the top.

The silver shimmer accentuates ANY lip dryness.

Frosting looks shimmery in the tube, but when applied to the cheeks I find it ends up being just a plain pink. It is quite pigmented but can be sheered out if you'd like to use it as a base for a shimmery blush or apply a highlighter over the top. As a cream blush I found this surprisingly long-lasting, leaving me with a flush for up to 6 hours. After 8 it had faded significantly.

I really like the Eyeko Fat Balm, and was really sad that it had been discontinued, since I would have liked to try some other shades. I do feel that the name "balm" was a bit of a misnomer since the product wasn't moisturising at all. When they were still available they were £13 which translates to about $20AU, and they are/were 5.2g. The range consisted of 6 shades which you can see in a delightful Spanish review here.


Dupe contender #1:
Silk Naturals Creme Blush in Cherry Bomb!

Cherry Bomb has a very different texture - its noticeable immediately.  Instead of the thick, stiff texture of traditional cream blush, this is thin and almost greasy. I had to swipe it on my lips several times to get opacity. This does mean it's more buildable as a blush, though. I striped roughly where I wanted colour and used my fingertips to blend, and it was very easy to smooth the product out. Despite the tube colour it looks extremely natural after 1-2 layers. It eventually dried down on my face. The packaging makes it easy to be precise with your application.

Lopsided swatch ahoy!

After 2 hours, a snack and a drink, my lips started feeling a bit dry. A check up with a mirror confirmed that only a slight pink stain remained of my initial application. The Fat Balm would have been dry-feeling, but still very visible at this point. The colour on my cheeks had not faded at all.

After lunch (5 hour mark) my cheeks still looked lightly flushed. The colour on my lips is completely gone and my lips feel dry and tight, as if I've been wearing nothing on them all day. Blech! I re-applied, blotted to take away the greasiness and applied one of my Lanolips glosses over the top. My lips instantly felt better. It took 10 hours for the blush to fade completely.

Cherry Bomb on the left, Frosting on the right

Colour-wise, it's a good match for Frosting on the cheek, even if it is a lot sheerer. The formula is completely different, however, and it's much too sheer to be a match as a lip product, not to mention it's the odd combination of greasy AND drying on the lips! If you're looking for a cheap cream blush I'd recommend this with no hesitation - they're $4.50 each and Silk Naturals currently have 10 different shades available, including a bronzer and highlighter. Some are cream and some have shimmer. The weight isn't listed on the website or the packaging because of differing ingredients, but Karen from Silk Naturals said (via email) that they are about 3.5g each.

Sadly, I'd have to say the Silk Naturals cream blush is NOT a dupe for the Fat Balms as a lip product or as a cream blush. The formula and pigmentation levels are too different, though the colour is similar.

Dupe contender #2:
Sobe Botanicals Mineral Cheep & Lip Colour!

Prima Donna seems to be more of a lipstick that can be used as a blush than the other two, which seem to be blush first, lipstick second. This is quite evident when applied - Prima Donna has a much more "lipstick" feel. It's a bit on the waxy side to begin with, but after 5-10 minutes on my lips (it was a bloody cold morning) it had softened and felt much nicer.  I applied it on my cheeks in the same manner as the other two, dotting from the tube and using my fingers to blend. It has fairly strong pigmentation and is a lovely bright, blue-based pink - every so slightly darker and more flattering on the lips than Frosting. I would say it's a very versatile colour. It's quite a close match to Frosting, but has more depth to it. Satiny creme finish, minimal gloss and no frost or shimmer.

Please excuse my less than perfect application :/

On the cheeks it blended really easily and was able to be sheered out or blended up for a more pronounced flush. It melted in very nicely and did not look too shiny. Sadly, after 3 hours the blush was kinda... gone.  I still had colour on my lips, but it was starting to do the lipstick ring. After lunch I had a slight stain and a prominent ring left. I re-applied with a couple of layers since my lips were feeling a bit dry - not as dry as the Fat Balm makes them and nowhere near as bad as Cherry Bomb. This is definitely a product you can play with layering depending on how bright you want the colour. I didn't bother applying more on my cheeks, figuring it was an incompatibility with the BB cream that was causing it to disappear.

I decided to give the Sobe another go as a blush the next day. Using a stippling brush and applying over foundation seemed to give the blush much better vibrancy and staying power.  8 hours later and while the blush had faded significantly,  I still had a pink glow. Stippling is definitely the way to go with this one - I was doubly impressed with its lasting power the second test, as I was wearing Benefit Hello Flawless. Even my HG finishing powder could not prevent my face becoming an oil slick with this foundation. I must have powdered at least 4 times during the day before giving up and wishing I'd brought makeup wipes with me. It was awful and such a shock after how nice my skin looks and feels with the Garnier BB cream!

From left to right: Prima Donna, Cherry Bomb, Frosting

I should mention Sobe products are scented/flavored with a custom mix called French Tart - "French Vanilla with a hint of mint and a touch of rose". I quite like it, but it's something to keep in mind if you're sensitive to fragrances. It's definitely the most lip-friendly formula of the three - it doesn't stain as much as Frosting, which could be either a positive or a negative point, depending on your needs.

0.33oz - translates to 9.3g of product. I thought that seemed way too much, since it's smaller than the Fat Balm so I weighed the lipstick on the scale we use for mail at work. It came in at 7g.

The Sobe Lip and Cheek colours are currently available in 43 shades of pink, red, orange, brown, purple, blue, black, green and all sorts of finishes ranging from cream to shimmer to duochrome. They'll set you back $9.99.

I wouldn't call it an exact dupe of the Fat Balms, but if you loved them I would definitely say give these a go. The colour on the lips is darker and arguably more flattering, and the colour on the cheek is almost exactly the same. Just be wary of the fact that if you use BB cream/tinted moisturiser and apply with your hands instead of a brush, you may have to re-apply it.

I think I'm pretty set in the cream blush category, and will be for quite a while! I'm definitely keen to try the Sobe lipsticks in other colours, though.