Rare Beauty Makeup Review for Accessibility

I’m not someone who ever wore a whole lot of makeup. I tend to be a “skin care, lipstick, and go” person. As an above-elbow arm amputee, keeping routines simple allows me to make it through the day with one arm efficiently and frustration-free. These factors are important to me from both practical and mental health standpoints.

So if I do decide to opt for some makeup, I always have to go with products I know I’ll be able to use without a battle. Inclusivity isn’t always a priority for beauty brands, because there’s often a misconception that delivering accessible products somehow takes away from the design for other users when, truthfully, both audiences can totally coexist!

There are a couple of features that make Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty one of those, for lack of better terms, rare “accidentally accessible” finds. The products I’ve tried have gotten me excited enough to want to stray from my usual makeup-free habit.

What I like about Rare Beauty

The packaging has a matte feel that's easy to grip

I’m a skin care monster—I’m obsessed with it. This means my hand is slick with serum, cream, or marula oil during my a.m. and p.m. routines. Those times usually happen to be when I apply makeup (if any). And since I’m incredibly light on my makeup use, I typically like to work it into my skin care.

For example, I love adding dabs of highlighter across my face and mixing it into my moisturizer for a subtle all-over glow. Using this method, it can be challenging to get into products when the packaging is slick and requires you to twist it open like a serum bottle, as is often the case with liquid highlighters.

This is where Rare Beauty’s matte packaging is beneficial, as I can get a better grip on it, even if I have a bit of skin care product in my hand. They offer matte packaging on most products, including the cruelty-free Positive Light Liquid Luminizer, Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick, Positive Light Tinted Moisturizer, Positive Light Under Eye Brightener, and more.

I got to try out the highlighter and found that the more compact shape of the bottle also helped me get a better grasp on it than if it were slimmer and taller.

Positive Light Under Eye Brightener

A lightweight liquid that instantly brightens, hydrates, and awakens your under eyes.

$24 at Sephora

Nonetheless, the matte packaging did come in handy (pun intended) for the slimmer items, such as the mascara. Mascaras are one type of makeup I often run into trouble with because often they exist in one thin, long, cylindrical form with a smooth exterior.

I’ve fought many a mascara brush and dropped twice as many, and mascara is one thing you really don’t want to fall because the cleanup can be extra tedious, especially if you already struggle with your hands in the first place. I found the all-matte packaging on the Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara very accessible when it came time to twist that bad boy open.

Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara

This all-in-one mascara pairs a weightless, easy-to-build formula with a universal eye-hugging brush to lift, lengthen, curl, and volumize every lash from every angle.

$20 at Sephora

Doe-foot applicators mean no more dripping products

I’ve come across many liquid products, such as highlighters and blushes, that come with a pipette applicator, and this always presents me with a slightly silly—but genuine—issue. I don’t have a second hand to dispense product into, so I usually go straight for the face.

Depending on how viscous a product is, it’ll drip down my face, and I have to rush to put down the applicator to get to it with my one hand. Half the time, if I’m not fast enough, the product I just dispensed runs down my cheek like a big sad makeup tear and plops down in the sink, on the floor, or my personal favorite, my clothing.

Liquid Luminizer was easy to apply and work into my morning skin care routine. The formula is exceptionally light, so I feel like I’m getting the perfect barely-there, uniform glow I’m after.

The application is so seamless that it doesn’t even feel like I’m adding a step to my makeup routine. And, it’s a customizable product that allows you to increase the amount you’re using and layer it until you see the highlighter effect you like.

As for the Soft Pinch Liquid Rare Beauty Blush, I’ve been using it similarly to the highlighter, adding small touches when I apply my moisturizer. However, to avoid spreading it all over my face, I usually dab on a little where I want it when my face cream has almost entirely absorbed and then lightly pat it in to blend and incorporate it.

Soft Pinch Liquid Blush

A weightless, long-lasting liquid blush that blends and builds beautifully for a soft, healthy flush.

$23 at Sephora

The bauble tops are easy to twist between my fingers

This is by far my favorite component of Rare Beauty's packaging designs. It brings together accessibility and finesse, which are terms not often used in conjunction with one another. I'm just calling them "bauble" tops because that's exactly what a lot of Rare Beauty's products look like—little trinkets.

Rare Beauty Lip Oil, Liquid Blush, Liquid Luminizer, Weightless Foundation (which comes in 48 shades to cover a wide spectrum of skin tones), and Brightening Concealer all feature sphere-shaped caps, which, aside from giving a modern and attractive aesthetic to the packaging, are pretty helpful when it comes to gripping the tops to unscrew them.

Liquid Touch Brightening Concealer

A lightweight, hydrating concealer that gives you buildable coverage where you need it while also brightening your skin.

$22 at Sephora

The products that have a cap with a spheroid shape can comfortably slide between two fingers like a cigarette. I'm in no way encouraging or promoting tobacco use, but I felt like that’s the best way to describe how you can hold it if you struggle with using more "traditional" grip patterns. This careful design choice is something that many across disability TikTok have caught onto and continue to praise the brand for.

Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil

An innovative lip jelly that transforms into a lightweight oil.

$20 at Sephora

Should you buy Rare Beauty makeup?

Yes! The products are high quality and easy to use

Although not explicitly made with accessibility in mind, Rare Beauty makeup products feature a universal design that has allowed more people to enjoy the product.

I always like it when a brand fuses inclusivity into its design mindset without making a commotion about it, because that’s precisely what accessibility should be—built in without being set apart, called out, or thought of as “separate.” Rare Beauty accomplishes this goal exceptionally well from both a physical design and messaging standpoint.

If you like quality makeup and easy-to-use packaging, Rare Beauty is right up your alley.

Shop Rare Beauty at Sephora