Browsing Tag

Lipstick

Review: Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick ‘Ayesha’

I’ve often talked about my undying love for all things Kat Von D Beauty, but Kat really outdid herself with these new liquid lipstick colors for summer 2015!  The new additions are a permanent expansion of the line, so I was in no rush to pick up the entire collection. However, I happened upon ‘Ayesha’ in Sephora last week and knew immediately that it had to be mine! Catch more pics below!

As you can see by the swatches above, I have NOTHING like Ayesha! I think I was so drawn to it in the store because I knew I didn’t have anything like it. So often, I try to convince myself to not buy something because I might have something like it at home. But standing in front of the Kat Von D display, I couldn’t think of a single product (lipstick or otherwise) that I owned in this color.

So I had to buy it, DUH!

The product itself is consistent with other liquid lipsticks from the brand. I love the formula and the texture of the product. It doesn’t sink into lines in the lips and it stays put through an afternoon of eating and drinking (which is what I did yesterday while wearing ‘Ayesha’). The liquid lipsticks from Kat Von D are my second favorite formula (first being Lime Crime) so my greatest hope when I purchased this was that it would be consistent with the other items I have from KVD and this met my expectations.

If you know and like the Kat Von D brand, you won’t be disappointed with this purchase. If you are worried that it might be a little too pale on brown skin, it can easily be darkened with a liner. I used ‘Nightangale’ by MAC yesterday. ‘Ayesha’, along with a bunch of other new Kat Von D products, can be purchased at Sephora.

First Impression: ColourPop Cosmetics Ultra Matte Lip Haul + Swatches!

A few weeks ago, mega hot brand ColourPop Cosmetics released their Ultra Matte Lip Liquid Lipsticks to the masses … and the masses showed up. In fact, so many people showed up to buy these goodies that the site crashed and stayed down for hours! I was able to snag 12 of the 25 new colors and I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you! Keep reading for more!

You guys, ColourPop is really taking over the world! Not only are their products super affordable, but equally as amazing! I am a big fan of their shadows and support their expansion into highlighters, blushes, and bronzers.

Their “lippie stix’ and lip pencils have become a staple in my daily makeup routine and I was excited to hear of the launch of their new liquid lipsticks. Twenty-five shades have been released initially and I’m sure more colors will pop up as new collections are announced. I got 12 on launch day to test out before I grabbed any more!

So if you didn’t pay attention to the name of these products, you should take another look: Ultra Matte Lip. And when ColourPop says ‘Ultra Matte’ they MEAN ‘Ultra Matte’. I’d say these are the driest liquid lipsticks that I own. After you apply them, you can feel the formula drying on your lips. It almost reminds me of how a mud mask would dry on my face. It’s not going anywhere until you take it off! 

I only used one coat for most of the swatch photos. I found that two coats of product became gunky (for lack of a better word) and started to flake off on my lips. Most of the colors only needed one coat for full coverage, but a few lacked the pigmentation to get away with a single coat. These culprits were mostly the pinks and corals I purchased: Mars, Ouiji, Highball, and Succulent. Of these four, Ouiji was the most streaky and could have befitted from another coat had it not been so flaky. Mars was patchy and didn’t evenly cover my lips so a lot of my natural lip color peaked through, especially on my top lip.

My absolute favorite color is Limbo. Another favorite is Tulle, but I like Limbo a teeny bit more. I think both of these colors should be a staple in the makeup bag of any beauty lover of color! Both these colors, along with LAX, Lychee, Zipper, Bumble, Solow, and Trap, applied flawlessly. No streaking or patchiness. I only used one coat and I didn’t feel like I needed to add another one.

I was very surprised by the lighter colors and how well they performed! Usually lighter colored liquid lipsticks aren’t pigmented enough to cover my natural lip color, especially in only one coat. I thought Trap did especially well and I’m happy to add it to my ever growing greige lip color collection.

If you are looking to place an order for these liquid lipsticks, I’d definitely steer you towards Limbo and Tulle! Also, any of the other six (LAX, Lychee, Zipper, Bumble, Solow, and Trap) that applied perfectly are great options.

All of these lip colors are permanent additions to the ColourPop line and they will be back in stock on the ColourPop website by the middle of August 2015. Let me know which colors are on your wishlist in the comment below!

Review: Glitter Elixirs Cosmetics Lip Elixirs ‘Home’, ‘Touchstone’, ‘Extreme Possibility’, ‘Paranormal Activity’

I’m very excited to bring you this review some new products from my favorite small cosmetics company, Glitter Elixirs! I purchased several of the reformulated Lip Elixirs and, let me tell you, these are BOMB. Don’t want to pay $18 for an OCC Lip Tar? Glitter Elixirs has the answer!

It’s no secret that I love Glitter Elixirs! I have written reviews on several of their liquid lipsticks and some of their glitters before. I’m a huge fan of Kennedy, owner of Glitter Elixirs, and we have become fast friends in the past few months. She runs the company with professionalism and always presents a quality product. I’ve never had any issues with shipping and no issues during checkout via her Etsy page. She’s very active on social media (especially Instagram) and often offers flash sales or discounts. Taking advantage of discount codes allows you to try more products from her shop, for a lower price!

Glitter Elixirs has just released a new collection of ultra creamy liquid lipsticks, called Lip Elixirs. Think OCC Lip Tars ($18), but for half the price. Glitter Elixirs offers two sizes of their Lip Elixirs, Travel Size ($8) and Full Size ($11). Both sizes come in bottles with doe foot applicators to erase the need for a lip brush and allow for easy on-the-go touch ups. I love applicator wands and hate lip brushes so this was a plus for me! The only thing that bothered me with the packaging was that the travel size containers leaked when placed any way but up. I didn’t find this problem with the full size containers.

This new collection is based on the X-Files which is totally awesome and the available shades are definitely kind of ‘other-wordly’. I picked up three shades a week ago and Kennedy was generous enough to throw in another travel size shade because we are tight like that (just kidding, she adds samples to every order LOL).

My favorite shade is ‘Paranormal Activity’. You guys, I LOVE this shade. Like, my heart started beating faster when I put on the first layer. It was super dramatic! But the shade demands a reaction like this because it is absolutely beautiful. This color is very opaque and has a metallic sheen to it. One coat on top and two on my bottom lip, and I was ready to walk out the door!

Another favorite is ‘Extreme Possibility’. This shade is the color of rust, but the lip swatch is making it look a little more red than it really is. In person, it looks like rust so it must be my camera messing with the color. This shade has a creamy satin finish. I know I will be wearing this color more in the fall as an alternative to my usual nude, winter lip.

‘Home’ is a repromote of a previous Glitter Elixirs shade that is no longer available, ‘Re-Education’. ‘Home’ stayed put on my lips, but it had an intense metallic glitter reflection that made it hard to tell what color it really is. In some angles it’s brown, and in others, it looks different making it truly hard to photograph.

It also makes it more difficult to wear because I got glitter all over my face when trying to remove it at the end of the day. Not cute. I’ll probably use this more as a gloss instead of an all over lip color to reduce the amount I put on. It’s a very transformative shade that can be placed over a ton of different lipsticks.

Lastly, I received ‘Touchstone’ as my freebie shade and it really surprised me. When I first saw it in the tube, it brought back memories of ’90’s baby girls with the slicked back baby hairs, big ole’ hoop earrings, and tons of bubblegum poppin’. They always seemed to have on a frosted pink lip! That’s not really the look I’m going for so I was hesitant to put it on.

However, I’m happy to say that I don’t think I looked half bad! It’s not a color I would pick up on my own, but it is truly different. But I still don’t have the courage to wear it out in public. I feel like everyone else around me will begin having ’90’s baby girl flashbacks too.

Have any questions about these new Lip Elixirs? Or want to tell me about your best (worst) ’90’s fashion statement? Hit me in the comments below!

These products were purchased by me with my own money. None have been sent to me for my consideration.

Review: MAC Cosmetics The Matte Lip Collection – Stone, Whirl, Men Love Mystery

This was probably the most popular non-special packaging collection MAC released this year because you can’t get enough of a good matte lip! Interested in how these babies perform? I’ve got the rundown of three of the most hotly anticipated shades below!

Last week, MAC released a ton of new matte lipstick shades! There were 22 shades in The Matte Lip Collection with a mix of re-promoted shades from their existing permanent line, limited edition colors making a comeback, and a handful of brand new colors. All these colors will now be added to the permanent line so there isn’t too much of a rush to buy any right away (unless you are a makeup junkie like me).

Since the announcement of this collection, all eyes went immediately to two shades: Whirl and Stone. Both shades were initially sold as lip liners and were sold out everywhere largely in part to Kylie Jenner’s love of the overlined, 90’s brown lip color trend. Upon hearing these colors were now being made into a lipstick, lipstick lovers shrieked with delight!

Another shade that stirred up some talk was Men Love Mystery, a gorgeous lavender violet color. After the success of Dodgy Girl and Lavender Jade, two limited edition lavenders released in 2014 and 2015 respectively, MAC was long overdue for a lavender permanent addition to complement Heroine and Up The Amp in this color range.

The big question is, how do these perform? So far, I’m a fan!

I also have the accompanying lip pencils for Whirl and Stone and was very impressed at how close the lipstick colors match the pencil. Sometimes, I don’t want the dry feeling of the pencil all over my lips, but I still want the color. I will now have a creamy matte lipstick option on those days. The lipstick formula doesn’t seem any different than the pre-exisiting permanent colors. The standard vanilla lipstick scent is there, the bullet is there, I’m a happy camper.

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Men Love Mystery, Stone, Whirl
(NC50 Skin)

First Impression: MAC Huggable Lip Color ‘Dramatical’

For my first foray into MAC’s well loved ‘Huggable’ lip color formula, I picked up the orange-y red of the bunch, ‘Dramatical’. After the success of the first limited edition Huggable collection last year, MAC released this follow up collection in late April 2015 in the USA. Wondering why this formula makes MAC die-hards drool? Keep reading!  

I don’t know what voodoo magic MAC is putting in this formula, but I literally feel NOTHING on my lips when this is on! It is the most lightweight lipstick I have purchased from MAC ever. But the crazy part is, the color is actually very opaque for the product to be so lightweight! The tip glided right over my fairly opaque lips and within 2-3 swipes, I had full coverage color and I was ready to go. The finish is closer to an ‘Amplified’ finish that MAC assigns to its traditional lipstick colors. Very glossy, yet still delivers lots of pigment.

This product truly ‘hugs’ your lips and this can be good or bad depending on the way you like your lipstick. Within two swipes, the color had already clung to my lips and was making its way into my lip lines. By the third swipe, it was all up in my lip lines! It did feather a bit around the edges of my lips with three coats, but I noticed that the feathering wasn’t excessive and was easily cleaned up with some concealer. This product will definitely accentuate the natural lines of your lips so if you aren’t too comfortable with the natural look, then you will want to be careful when applying around the corners of your mouth.

Regarding product packaging, the Huggable colors are packaged differently from regular MAC bullets. They come in sleek, glossy gunmetal packaging that looks similar to the design of the pro longwear lipsticks. The actual lipstick tip is completely circular and mimics the outer packaging. It is cut on an angle, but the blunt cut makes it harder (in my opinion) to apply the product directly to the lips. I found that trying to apply closer to the inner corners of my mouth, I had to issues accidentally getting some color outside the natural borders of lips. If you aren’t going for the over-lined look, this is problematic.  Overall, I would say this wasn’t so much of an issue after I got used to applying to my lips directly with this style tube.

I would suggest going to the stores to test out the Huggable colors. There is just something about that will make you either love or hate them. Before you spend your good $20 online, make a quick stop to check out the formula. If you swatch in store, check out how easily it settles into the creases on the back of your hand. That will give you some idea of how it will perform on your lips. You can see how it settles into my hand with three swipes in the swatch below:

Review: Dupe? GiveMeGlow “Deja Vu” vs. Lime Crime “Cashmere”

With all the allegations against Lime Crime, a lot of people are boycotting the company and trying to find dupes of popular products elsewhere. But can some of Lime Crimes out-of-this-world colors actually be duped?

The answer to the question I posed above is “Ehhh … maybeeeee”. Lime Crime, for all their faults, really does have some unique colors. Now I won’t get into all the politics of the scandal here (you can do your own research online), I will say that I will not be recommending Lime Crime anymore on this blog. I’m not actively looking for dupes, but if I do run across any, I will share them with you all. That will be the only time you will see Lime Crime run across my blog anymore.

Back to the fun, happy things! I came across a company called Give Me Glow Cosmetics a few weeks ago which runs an Etsy store with custom lipstick colors. At the time, the owner had recently recreated a lipstick similar to the matte liquid lipstick shade ‘Cashmere’ by Lime Crime. She posted a picture of the dupe online and holy moly every beauty lover on Instagram was in awe of its beauty! Since then, she has recreated several more Lime Crime color dupes as well as dupes from Anastasia Beverly Hills and Kat Von D liquid lipsticks and offers the lip product in both a tube and a pot.

I’m reviewing LC’s Cashmere and GiveMeGlow’s Deja Vu because I actually have Cashmere. Some of her other products are dupes for items I don’t have and I didn’t think it would be fair to do a review for you all without the original product. However, if you guys want me to give my thoughts on another one of her items (purely off performance), I would happily oblige. 

Here are my thoughts on Deja Vu’s performance against Cashmere:

  • darker, rosier
  • more difficult to apply from tub with lip brush
  • brush makes for a streaky application
  • less opaque
  • doesn’t dry matte, leaves a satin finish
  • not long wearing

Now it may seem like there are a lot of “not” and “doesn’t” in the list above, but it is all about preference. If you don’t like a suck-your-lips-to-death liquid lipstick, then you might want to try for a satin finish. Or if Cashmere is a bit too light for you, Deju Vu gives you the option to go darker. Got any more questions about the products? Let me know in the comments!

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L-R: Deja Vu, Cashmere

HAUL! $1 Beauty Supply Haul + NEW Ruby Kissed Matte Lip Lacquers

So I went absolutely INSANE at my local beauty supply store yesterday! I was in the mood to buy some funky lip colors at an affordable price. After being disappointed by the NYX selection at Ulta, I lucked out by finding the holy grail of unusual lip colors at the beauty supply. And the best part was they were only $1 each!

I have seen so many people talk about these Ruby Kisses Matte Lip Lacquers all over Instagram! I had never heard of the brand, but by the time I saw them on my way out of the beauty supply, I didn’t have time to think about it, I just grabbed a bunch! These colors are $3.99 each and they come in a pretty large tube. Each one comes with 0.3 oz. of product, which is a ton of product (compare that to Anastasia Liquid Lipsticks at  0.11 oz. and the Rimmel Lip Velvets at 0.169 oz.). These don’t really dry matte on your lips, the consistency is more like the Rimmel Lip Velvets. They end up being a creamy satin and I wouldn’t advise eating with these on as these do slide around. The area around your lips might look like a child’s finger painting when you are done eating!

I picked up the colors ‘Narcissism’ (Coral), ‘Wonderland’ (Pale Purple), ‘Bellagio’ (Deep Blue), ‘Fiesta’ (Fuchsia), ‘Pool Party’ (Sky Blue), and ‘Glace’ (Yellow). Some of the colors have a subtle iridescence (like ‘Bellagio’) to them that doesn’t really bother me. It isn’t shimmery or anything, it just reflects more than a true matte lip shade would. Overall, I don’t love them, but I like them enough and I can see myself using them in the spring!

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L-R: Fiesta, Narcissism, Bellagio, Pool Party, Glace, Wonderland

Now on to the main show! I went to the beauty supply with the intention of getting several bold lipsticks in colors that you normally don’t see at the drugstore. I ended up finding the most amazing display of Nicka K Cosmetics with more than enough bold lip colors to choose from. The best part is that these products are each $1. So i just went crazy and bought 20! I got a combination of lip & eye pencils and a ton of actual lipsticks.

This haul was so much fun I think I’m going back for more soon! I want to try these colors out for the spring and summer and also use them to do more non-traditional (read: not everyday, natural tones) makeup looks. If you get just as excited as me about any of these colors, let me know and I can list the names so you can go on your own adventure to the beauty supply!

Get The Look: Glitter Lips feat. Raving Beauty Cosmetics & Nicka K

Just take a moment to digest these babies! Done? K, keep reading!

I can feel a glitter kick coming on! I finally bought Too Faced Glitter Glue so I could use glitter in my eye looks! I know there are probably other alternatives to this $21 product for applying glitter, but since I’m not a pro at it, I wanted to get the very best to make sure the glitter really stuck down to my eyelids. The last thing I need is glitter flowing down my cheeks!

While I was out buying the glitter glue, I realized that it would be super fun to put glitter on my lips as well! Novel idea, I know! So I hit up my local beauty supply hoping to find some really funky lipsticks I could use as a base. If you are interested in learning about that beauty supply adventure, click here to read more.

My first foray into glitter lips is Raving Beauty Cosmetics ‘Love Song’ glitter paired with Nicka K Cosmetics ‘Smalt’ & ‘Black’ lipsticks mixed. This lipstick is the perfect consistency to be able to hold on to all that glitter. It is super creamy and the entire look wasn’t heavy on my lips. When I spoke, I felt like I was talking funny at first, but that sensation quickly went away as I grew used to the product.

I know this look isn’t wearable, but it sure was fun to create! I am perfectly fine just rocking this around the house while doing dishes and vacuuming the carpets. I can promise you there will be more lips like these to come!

First Impression: Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks feat. ‘Celebrity Skin’, ‘Redrum’, & ‘Unicorn Blood’

On February 12, 2015, I waited up patiently until 3am EST to make sure I could grab this bundle. There was no playing around with this launch! The entire bundle was up on the site around 2:40am and it was sold out within an hour. Like is this a MAC Limited Edition product or something?! Sorry to all the people who weren’t able to grab these, but keep reading so you know what to put on your wishlist when all three colors restock in April!

I had no idea people were going to go INSANE for these liquid lipsticks. I mean Celebrity Skin and Unicorn Blood sold out in less than an hour and the bundle was gone by 4am EST. Absolutely INSANE!

I know a lot of people were complaining that Jefree Star did not advertise a release time, but he did! He clearly listed on his Instagram at least 6-7 hours earlier that all three colors would be on the website at 12am PST! So it seems like only half of the beauty junkie community got the message and the other half woke up to some seriously slim pickings!

I just had a chance to dive into these colors today (they were delivered yesterday). I obviously ordered these on the 12th, and then there was President’s Day (USPS holiday) and then it snowed. So considering those things, the package got here in a reasonable amount of time.

The bundle comprised of all three restocked colors: Redrum, Celebrity Skin, and Unicorn Blood. Here are some swatches of all three on the back of my hand.

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L-R: Celebrity Skin, Redrum, Unicorn Blood

The formula reminded me a lot of the Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipsticks. It is creamy, not liquid-y. It also takes much longer to dry than, say, a Lime Crime Velvetine or a Dose of Colors liquid lipstick.

I found that Celebrity Skin needed at least two coats on me to create an opaque look. It was the sheerest of the three and it just didn’t want to build up! The swatch above is just with one swipe across my hand and you can see the streakiness left over from the doe foot applicator.

Redrum and Unicorn Blood had great coverage with just one swipe and didn’t look streaky.

I also wanted to compare these colors with some colors already in my liquid lipstick collection.

Here is Lime Crime Cashmere next to Celebrity Skin.

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L-R: Celebrity Skin, Cashmere

The picture above is two coats of each color just so you can really see the slight difference in color. I’ve seen these two look far different from each other on other skin tones, however, on me, I couldn’t really see much of a difference. Celebrity Skin is slightly warmer.

Here is also a comparison of all the deep red liquid lipsticks in my collection. As you can tell by the number of swatches in similar colors, this is my favorite fall/winter color!

Overall as a first impression, this product didn’t blow me away or anything! I felt like the creamy formula was a nice difference because it gives the user more time to spread the color and it also gives you more time to clean up/cover mistakes before completely drying. However, the colors are dupeable and the price is around the same as other alternatives so I felt that Jeffree Star didn’t give consumers much of a differentiating factor in this launch.

I felt that the colors in the first launch (Redrum, Prom Night, and I’m Royalty) had more appeal because they were colors that weren’t so similar to other liquid lipsticks. Jeffree Star has already announced a third round of colors to release in March and those colors also look more unique.

If you were able to get your hands on any of these colors, how do you feel about them? Let me know in the comments!

First Impression: NYX Cosmetics High Voltage Lipstick & Intense Butter Gloss New for Spring 2015

As I have said many times before, I am completely obsessed with NYX Cosmetics. Their products are comparable to most mid-high end brands in terms of quality and their eye & lip color selection is unparalleled. In my eyes, this drugstore brand can do no wrong and their NEW High Voltage Lipsticks and Intense Butter Glosses are no exception. And I’ve got some pretty awesome swatches below to prove it!

I wasn’t expecting anything less than amazing when made my most recent NYX Cosmetics purchase from Ulta last week. However, I only got four shades in each product just to be safe and test everything out before I just went crazy and bought every color. If you are considering either of these for your next beauty purchase, be realistic with yourself about how many you need. If you want to rock all these colors, buy everything! Go for the gold! But if you would regularly only wear one color, don’t let the inexpensive price guilt you into buying the whole lot. These shades are permanent so you have plenty of time to test things out and make sure they are perfect for you before splurging.

I am tremendously pleased with the selection I got from Ulta last week! The lipsticks reminded me a lot of the look of ColourPop Lippie Stix with the flat top twist out tube. The colors went on satin and had so much pigmentation it made me squeal with delight! I was not expecting to swipe once and be done. That luxury is normally reserved for my $16 MAC tubes. They did not streak and glided on without a single tug. These colors do bleed and I found this especially true with the bright red, ‘Hollywood’, which bled almost immediately when I tried it on my lips (I did not use lip liner for my initial test).

The only similarity I found with the Intense Butter Glosses and the regular Butter Glosses was in the naming series. These still have cute names that make you feel like you are picking out goodies from a bakery instead of from your makeup stash. The newest additions were thick and very pigmented in comparison to the light, sheer wash of color the original provides. The applicator wand, which is long and flat, was a little difficult for me. It almost looks like a spatula that you would use to remove cream makeup products, except it is covered with the fabric-like fibers to help the color stick to your lips. The applicator was so long is spanned the length of my bottom lip so I had to be more careful than I normally am when applying this gloss. Most times, I just like to sort of throw it on really fast before I go run errands. I feel like I would need more focus for these. 

But enough blabbering, you all want pictures! So, without any further ado, I present to you my first eight (four of each) NYX Spring 2015 Lip Product Swatches!  If you have any favorites already, be sure to share them with me in the comments so I have an excuse to go get more. =) I hope you enjoy!

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Single Swipe High Voltage Lipstick Swatches
T-B: Hollywood, Rock Star, Wine & Dine, Feline
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Single Swipe Intense Butter Gloss Swatches
T-B: Black Cherry Tart, Orangesicle, Apple Crisp, Spice Cake