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Product Review: REFINE Beauty's Collection Just Landed on Our PR Desk and Here Is What We Actually Think
- Style Essentials Edit Team
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
The REFINE Beauty collection arrived at the Style Essentials PR desk, and the first thing we noticed was the packaging—egg-shaped, compact, and more considered than most makeup at this price point. The brand was launched in 2024 by co-founders Firdose Ghauri and Mahima Kotwal, and the story behind it is straightforward—two friends who looked at the Indian makeup market and felt that most of what was available was either too serious, too repetitive, or too generic for skin tones that were never really the starting point of the formulation. REFINE was built as a response to that gap, with multi-use formats, skincare-infused textures, and shade ranges developed specifically for Indian undertones.
We tried everything that came in.
The Oh-Mwah Melty Lip Balm was the first product applied, and its texture is genuinely the highlight. "Buttery" is a word that gets used a lot in beauty writing, but in this case it is the only accurate description—the formula glides onto the lips without any of the drag or waxy resistance that cheaper lip balms tend to have, and it settles into the lips rather than sitting on top of them. They have four shades that are all wearable across a range of Indian undertones, nudging toward warmth without going orange, and the flavors are present without being overwhelming. These are the kind of lip balms that disappear into your bag and become the thing you reach for without thinking about it, which, for a product at Rs 799/=, is exactly where it needs to land.
The Oh My Melty Lip and Cheek Tint is where the multi-purpose promise of the range gets tested, because a tint that genuinely works on lips, cheeks, and eyes is a harder brief to fulfill than it sounds. REFINE has made it work. The formula blends out easily with a finger on the cheeks, giving a wash of color that looks like skin rather than product, and on the lips it builds from a sheer stain to something more present depending on how many layers you apply. The five shades available cover enough ground that there is something in here for most skin tones, and the compact size makes it genuinely useful for anyone who wants to travel or move through a day with minimal products in their bag.
The Oh My Glow Blush and Highlighter stick is the most versatile product of the three and also the most fun to use. The shimmer it delivers is the fine, light-catching kind rather than the chunky glitter that can age a product very quickly, and it works across the cheekbones, the eyelids, and the inner corners of the eyes without needing any blending tools. On the body it gives a subtle warmth and glow that works for an evening look without being too much for daytime. The five shimmer shades cover rose, bronze, champagne, and cooler tones, and the pigmentation across all of them is stronger than the Rs 799 price point would lead you to expect.
What ties the range together beyond the formulations is the design approach, which REFINE has been consistent about from the beginning. The egg-shaped packaging across the lip balms, tints, and highlighters has already built a following within the brand's community, and it is easy to see why—these are products that look deliberate on a vanity rather than generic, and that quality is rare at this price. The brand is also working on upcoming launches, including tinted lip chocolates and a range of fashion-forward powders in collectible packaging, continuing the same design-led direction that has defined the debut collection.
The full REFINE Beauty collection, including the Oh-Mwah Melty Lip Balm, Oh My Melty Lip and Cheek Tint, and Oh My Glow Blush and Highlighter, is priced at Rs 799 each and is available online at refinebeauty. in and offline at Broadway.
The REFINE Beauty collection was received at the Style Essentials PR desk through AB Comm, represented by PR partner Amrita Bafna.
Reviewed by Alisha M for Style Essentials
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