Summer Lip Favorites Part 1

Summer is probably my favorite season for lip products. I just love love love the bright colors bringing to mind raspberry popsicles and orange soda. I’m a big fan of sheer, jelly style colors which are easy to wear – slick and go! For evenings, some gold shimmer can kick up a look to summer goddess. Cosmetics companies this year have really raised their game in terms of corals, golds, and bright pinks for us lucky girls to play around with. I really like a shiny, summery lip with neutral eyes. Keeping the cheeks bright in the same family can be fun, or neutral with a touch of bronzer to bring out your natural glow.

I'm going to do a couple of posts about my favorite colors. This was originally one post until I realized that I'm a summer gloss junkie and have faaar too many for just 1!!!

I'm going to work from left to right here to talk about each product.

 

1. Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess – a yummy jelly, thick raspberry gloss. It has a slight blue shimmer to it as well. There’s something about it which does make me feel all goddess-like. Until I realize that I’ve spilt my ice cream down my shirt.
2. Tarte Amused Lip Stain – a jumbo pencil that moisturizes (although not quite as much as Tarte claims!!), smells deliciously pepperminty, and makes you look like you’ve spent the afternoon eating raspberry popsicles is a summer must have. If I’m running out the door and have no make-up on, this is my go-to single product. Yum yum yumminess.
3. MAC  Lipglass in Totally It - I got this as part of the Holiday 2009 lipgloss sets. I have seen these in CCOs recently actually. This color is a shout it out gorgeous bright pink, very similar in color to Tarte's Amused Lip Stain.
4. MAC Lipglass in Hush Hush Rose - a pretty, bright, coolish, pink with gold shimmer. It is actually quite pigmented for a gloss. I wear it alone for a pop of pretty shine. Unfortunately, it's a limited edition from this year's Spring Color Forecast. 
5. Stila Lip Glaze in Raspberry - this is one of my oldest products!!! I've had this for years. (Wait, I shouldn't tell you that, should I? I should have tidied everything out and all that. Ooops). It's a perfect sheer summer fuchsia. It is quite sticky, but I do love the twist packaging. 
6. Cover Girl Wet Slicks in Raspberry Splash - can you sense that I will buy ANYTHING if it has the world raspberry in the title? Really. I bought this on a total whim in Miami when all my bags were lost. It is almost clear, but it snuck in here because the packaging makes it look much more pigmented. It has a pleasant scent and a little bit of a minty kick. A cheap thrill, if you will. 
7. MAC Lip Gelee in Lush & Bright - this is not a subtle product!!! This is more over the top shiny glittery, shimmery FUN!!! It came out in the Lily Pulitzer collection, which so should have been a summer collection, but whatever. I don't wear this super often, because the glitter in it can be a bit overkill, but it is fun. Think poolside with heels, ya know? That kind of trashy but fun.

What are your favorite summer lip colors? Are you a sucker for anything raspberry or coral?

New Smoky Eye Technique

Does anyone ever learn anything from flicking through magazines? I hardly ever do, but did come across a tip that seemed interesting and worth trying out. The tip was to line your eyes with a black kohl, and then smudge that out using a cream eyeliner to create a subtle, smoky eye. I tried it out late one night this week, so these are not the best photos of it. I found it a fun technique, but a little messy and will rely some practise to get it even. It felt much harder to control than a straight up powder eyeshadow look, although I very rarely use cream eyeshadow. I did like the subtle smudginess, and there was an organic prettyness of not being perfect that I did love. One issue that I did have was that I used MAC's Feline pencil, which is very very black and very very smudgy. It smudged very heavily, and it was hard not to end up with a generally dirty, messy looking eye, rather than an artful smudgey one. I will keep working on this technique to get it working, because I do think it's got lots of pencil. Maybe in a few months I'll post again and those pictures will be lush!

Products used:

MAC Paint Pot
Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten
MAC Feline Pencil

Stila's Jewel Palette Makes a Shiny Shiny Mess

Stila's latest spring offering is the Jewel Eye Shadow Palette Quad ($32) quad of four creamy, glittery shadows. The colors are Golden Topaz, which a orange-brown with silver glitter, Amethyst which is a dark purple with gold glitter, Black Diamond which is black with silver glitter, and finally Rose Quartz which is a medium pink with silver glitter. I have to admit that I was quite surprised by the timing of this product: because of the drama and glittery feel, I felt that this would be an awesome holiday product, rather than Spring. It is not the largest palette and you can see from the comparison pictures, it is about half the size of a MAC quad.

Ooooh, I so wanted to love this. Just look at those colors!! Temptalia adored this palette, likening the colors to giving your eyes a wet look, which is an eye effect that I simply adore. And when I swatched it, I was still feeling good about it. The colors swatched sheerly as I expected, but were buildable, and I could definitely see that gorgeous, decadent, wet look feel. So far, so good.

L-R Golden Topaz, Amethyst, Black Diamond, Rose Quartz

I applied this over Elf Eye Primer which I've been keeping in rotation with my Urban Decay Primer and MAC Paint. I used Golden Topaz and Rose Quartz, and wow, they certainly packed a glitter punch! I loved the sheer orange tones and the pink was also really pretty. On the lid, the wet look wasn't quite as dynamic as it was when swatched, but was still pretty. The glitter was very striking, and that's the point of the palette, so it certainly delivers there.

 

Size comparison with MAC Quad

However, an hour later I went to the bathroom, and holy bejesus, FALL OUT!! I literally had a glitter attack all over my cheeks. It was crazy insane. I cleaned myself up, although glitter fall out is a bit of a nightmare to clean up (you can never get it all off, ever!), and then a couple of hours later, even more had migrated down my cheeks. This is most definitely not a long haul product.

This product packs a heavy duty glitter punch, and is definitely dramatic. Unfortunately it cannot be trusted to stay put, and you may end up with a glitter explosion all over your face.

This post contains an affiliate link. Affiliate links in no way influence the reviews on this site. 

Peaches and Cream and Nice Melons: A Fruity Round Up of Peach Shadows

I've been having a bit of resurgent love with Benefit, so when ULTA Beauty were having a 20% off sale a couple of weeks ago I was sure to snap some up. I'd seen a couple of rave reviews of
Velvet Eyeshadow in Nice Melons so I thought I'd give it a go.

Okay, I'll admit it, I bought it because of the name. There, I've said it, we can move on now.

My first impression was that I loved the packaging. Normally, I want to depot my eyeshadows and keep them in pans so I can see them all in one go. NARS are the only exception to this because I love that rubberized packaging. But these Benefit's are so cute, with those lovely white flowers on the case. Gorgeous!

The color is a gorgeous rich, well pigmented melon with gold shimmer. It looks like a nice dupe for MAC's Melon Pigment, but in pan form, which is no bad thing. It swatches so pretty, and is even a hint warmer than I thought it would be.

So far, so much love. And then I started to look at my collection. It looks like I might be a freak for this color....

Clockwise from left: MAC Gleam, Benefit Nice Melons, Elf Mineral Eye Shadow in Natural, Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten, MAC Arena

But they are all subtly different, I swear!!

 

From left: MAC Gleam, MAC Arena, Stila Kitten, ELF Natural, Benefit Nice Melons

MAC Gleam ($11) is a pretty peachy color. It doesn't have great color pay off and needs to be packed on. It has a lustre finish, but I haven't experience significant fall out. This is one of my favorite MAC colors

MAC Arena ($11) is a nice smooth peachy color. It runs a little darker than the rest of the colors here, and has a slight shimmery feel. I don't use this color enough. 

Stila Kitten Smudge Pot ($20) is a cult shade that people rave over. On me it comes out very shimmery and close to my natural lid shade. It is incredibly pretty on its own to brighten your eye. As this is a smudge pot, I haven't had great luck with mixing or layering other shades with it. I kind of want to love this shadow more than I actually do.

Elf Mineral Eye Shadow in Natural ($3). I reviewed this here as part of my recent Elf haul. This color is gorgeous! It's incredibly rich and smooth. I wear this to wake my eyes up on a lazy day. 

Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Nice Melons ($18) is a beautiful warm, rich, smooth peachy shade with a decent amount of shimmer. It's a keeper! 

Do you have an eyeshadow color that you just keep buying in the same color? One that keeps cropping up in your collection again and again?

This post has affiliate links. These in no way influence the opinions or reviews on this blog.

If I Had A Bunch of Money

Right now I'm kind of on a no spending kick for January in order to make up for December's excess. I am not perfect - I broke it for a nail varnish haul a couple of weeks ago, but all in all, I've been pretty good, and only a few more days to go. In the last couple of days there have been some great products launched that have really tempted me!

If I had $100 to spend, I would pick up Urban Decay's Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows ($52). If you already have a lot of Urban Decay colors, this might not be for you, as none of these are new shades, but instead repromotes with Alice names. But if you, like me, haven't got a lot of Urban Decay, this is a double bonus, with cute packaging, and fun colors to play with. But move fast - the first batch of these sold out in a day. Check Urban Decay and Sephora for more details of sale dates.

If I had $50 to spend, it would have to go on Stila's Jewel Eye Palette ($32). A quad of super glittery gorgeous colors that go on smooth and creamy and look wet. Hello, gorgeous!! I particularly like the look of the black and the amber shades. I have been disappointed with Stila products in the past, after first going through a real love affair, but this looks like it is going to win me back into the fold!

If I had $20 to spend, I would blow it on MAC Nymphette Lipgloss ($14). The perfect spring like color to cheer me up on a winter's day! A lovely peachy pink with gold gloss, and enough staying power to keep me sweet and shiny for a good few hours. 

If I had $10 for a quick hit, I'd score Essie Eternal Optimist ($8) which is a pretty dusky rose. Super sophisticated and chic, and a pleasant alternative to all those candy and baby pinks we see.  

What would you do if you had a bit of spare cash lying around in your pocket? I'd love to hear your wishlist...

Stila A Couple of Crushes Lip and Cheek Stains

I picked up these Stila Lip and Cheek Stains for $10 from Sephora a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to play with them until today. As regular readers may be aware, I have plenty of experience with cheek stains, so when I saw these babies for such a low price, I was a dead cert for adding them to cart.

My first thoughts on them is that the packaging looks gorgeous. I adore how Stila packages their products with those brushed steel and worn out courier font. They are in a twist-end brush form, exactly the same as their lip glazes. When I broke them open, it did take a lot of twisting for any product to appear, and then suddenly I had an avalance of stain to deal with. I have always had that problem with stila lip glazes, which is why I do not own a lot of them. I either did not have enough product, or far too much. Sigh.

The colors are gorgeous - a corally mango shade, and a deep pink pomegranate shade. Stila also claims that there are ingredients which react to the pH of your skin to turn the perfect tint for you. I'm going to have to take that with a pinch of salt, to be honest. They do have a hint of shimmer which is unusual for a stain, which are sheer matte.

mango, pomegranate, unblended

Pretty as the colors are though, I did not find them super easy to apply. I had thought that they might follow the same approach as Benefit's Benetint which is three dabs then blend. Stila's need a lot more product before they start to show up, and I found myself twisting the cap like crazy, and I have to admit I couldn't get mango to show up at all on my lips. Because I wasn't sure how much color to use, I found myself dabbing then blending, dabbing then blending, and my cheeks ended up red from rubbing, not blush. I took a break then, and checked back, and I do have a sweet corally tint now. The stain wasn't as liquidy as the Benefit product, and had just a tiny amount of tackiness, but nothing like the Tarte cheek stain.

mango, pomegranate, blended out

Do I love these products? No, not really. But they are fun for $10 to play around with, and if you aren't sure about cheek stains, then definitely this is a good way to find out if that style of blush is good for you.

My Ohmigod I Have Too Much Stuff This is Embarassing Post

You know, this blog isn't just about rampant consumerism. I mean, everyone knows that in these hard times, making do with what you have is where it's at. And let's face it, a lot of us have too much and no idea what to do with it, and I am definitely included in that. Looking through my closet and in my makeup drawers, I can spot more than a few things that deserve more love that I have given them in the past. But maybe, just maybe, this blog can help me reconnect with hidden treasures and introduce some new favorites into my current rotation. And you know I can always use a little help in this, so here's a quick view of some of the purchased and never used stuff I have in my makeup drawer:

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Gold

NYX Glitter Liner in Silver

NYX Glitter Liner in Blue
NYX Glitter Liner in Candy

MAC E/S in Swimming

MAC E/S in Mythology

MAC E/S in Expensive Pink

MAC E/S in Off the Page

MAC E/S in Crest the Wave

MAC L/S in Creme De Nude

MAC L/S in Myth

MAC Pigment in Cocomotion

MAC Pigment in Brash and Bold

MAC Pigment in Mutiny

MAC E/S in Samoa

MAC E/S in Shale

NYX Jumbo Glitter Pencil in Gold

NYX Jumbo Glitter Pencil in Blue

MAC E/S in Sweet Lust

MAC E/S in Copperplate

MAC E/S in Passionate

U/D Book of Shadows Vol II

MAC E/S in Twinks

MAC E/S in Freshwater

MAC E/S in Strike a Pose

MAC Eye Palette in Sorceress

MAC Eye Palette in Mystic Cool

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Lust

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Ransom

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Electric

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Binge

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Rockstar

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Stash

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Covet

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Graffiti

MAC Paint Pot in Artifact

Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten

Stila Smudge Pot in Violet

Stila Smudget Pot in Starry Night

NYX Glitter in Silver

NYX Glitter in Gold

NYX Glitter in Apple

NYX Glitter in Hot Pink

NYX Pigment in Nude Pearl

NYX Pigment in Pearl

NYX Glitter in Blue

Rimmel L/S Coral in Gold

MAC L/S Impassioned

NARS Matte Lip Velvet Pencil in Belle De Jour

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Creme Allure

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Totally Fab

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Perfectly Unordinary

Stila Lip Glaze in Apricot

Stila Lip Glaze in Starfruit

Stila Lip Glaze in Apricot

MAC Lipglass in Elle

MAC Lustreglass in Wonderstruck

MAC Lipglass in Beaute

MAC Lipglass in Totally It

MAC Lustreglass in Morning Glory

MAC Lustreglass in Pinkerat

MAC Lipglass in Silly Girl

MAC Lustreglass in Ensign

MAC Lipglass in Cruise Control

MAC E/S in Cranberry

Okay, that is officially the most embarassing list of stuff I've ever seen. I'm mortified. I cannot believe I'm going to post this. I would like to clarify that the majority of the lipglosses from MAC are from the holiday sets which are smaller in size. So are the Stila Lip Glazes and Smudge Pots. 

So, I'm going to try and make sure that I include at least a couple of these items in a look or someway in the coming months, and post about it here. I'm sure I can do the same for my wardrobe too. 


Does anyone else have this problem too? Please admit embarassing stash problems here!