Summer Lip Favorites Part 4

The final installment!!! And really, my absolute favorites - my glossy gold and corals. These colors lift up anyone's face and really make for the most perfect summer look.

From right to left: Liberated, Silly Girl, Gold Dust, Flurry of Fun Kumquat, Perennial High Style

1. Liberated came out in last summer's Style Warriors. It's a sheer yellow. It might look a little scary in the tube, but it acts more like a neutral on pigmented lips, providing a gorgeous, bright glow.

2. Silly Girl came as part of the Holiday 2009 sets. It's a classic bright coral with shimmer. It's quite sheer, so can either be worn alone or layered with other colors.

3. Gold Dust is from Spring Color Forecast. TRACK THIS COLOR DOWN!! Oh, I love it! It is a gorgeous rich gold, making my lips so golden and rich. Luscious.

4. Flurry of Fun is from To The Beach. It's a similar color to Silly Girl, but the glitter is much bigger, brighter, sparklier, and also a contrasting blue/purple in tone. A fun summer color. Not one for the board room.

5. Kumquat is a rich, pigmented bright coral gloss. It has some shimmer, but it's main feature is packing a coral punch. Bright and gorgeous.

6. Perennial High Style is really more pink than coral. It's an amazingly flattering shade, and so simple to wear. This is a simple, no fail look. It's a color that I never need to think about when I put it on - it just works, ya know?

So, there we have. 21 glosses and lipsticks later, my entire summer lips collection. I'm sure I left one of your favorites out! Hit me up in the comments and let me know what you think.

Summer Lip Favorites Part 3

I know - quite the saga, this whole summer lip favorites series! I hope you guys had an excellent July 4th weekend (I went to Cape Cod, and this is actually written before and post-dated). Anyway, onto the shiny shiny lip colors!!!

This post is actually all about my favorite lipsticks that evoke that hot, summer sun feeling.

From l-r we have Beachbound, Ever Hip, Fresh Salmon, Sandy B, and Victorian. All MAC

As you can see, I'm a major sucker for the recent limited edition lipsticks!!!

1. Beachbound Glaze came out in the recent MAC To The Beach collection. It's an incredibly sheer, shimmery gold-bronze-melon color. It adds a touch of golden shimmer to your lips without much color. It's an effect that needs some getting used to, and is not super over the top. 
2. Ever Hip is a fabulous pink-coral that came out in the Liberty of London collection. Amazing on it's own, but so not overwhelming you can't wear other make up as well. 
3. Fresh Salmon came out with Spring Color Forecast. It's pretty similar to Ever Hip, I must admit. A sweet, pinky coral that brightens up your face no end!
4. Sandy B - the only permanent color I've included here. It's a shimmer, sheer, bronze that is easy to wear to the beach or cocktails. I don't think that this color gets enough love, to be honest. 
5. Victorian - maybe my favorite color that MAC has brought out this year! It's pink, with gold shimmer and orange undertones, giving an almost duochrome effect. The epitome of fun and flirty. Delicious. 

Any pinks I've missed? 

Summer Lip Favorites Part 2

Yesterday I showed you some of my favorite bright lip colors. Now I'm showcasing my softer pinks. I get that these pinks might usually be more associated with Spring, but sometimes I just want something light and sheer and pretty in summer, and these are my go-to grabs for those days.

So, from left to right we have Elf Lip Shine in Pink Kiss, MAC Dazzleglass in Perfectly Unordinary, and MAC Lip Glass in Virgin Kiss.

1. Elf Lip Shine in Pink Kiss - this lipgloss feels slightly tacky and has a sweet scent. It's a sheer, slightly milky pink with silver shimmer. At only a buck, I think that this gloss is a great deal, as it's the sort of color everyone needs at least one of.

2. MAC Dazzleglass in Perfectly Unordinary - gorgeously pretty pink, gold sparkly shimmer - what is there not to love? Apart from MAC do come out with this shade ALL THE TIME!!! It does have a slightly gritty feel to it which isn't wonderful, but it's worth it for the pretty pretty shine.

3. MAC Lip Glass in Virgin Kiss - this came out in the Rose Romance collection last summer. Confession - I wore this at my wedding, so it will always have a special place in my heart. Apart from that, I think it's a gorgeous, cool, shimmery, baby pink. Again, a classic that's always going to make you feel pretty.

Any simple, pretty pinks I've left out or should try?

My Favorite Summer Highlighters and One That's Totally Lame-o

Summer is all about the highlighting. It’s time to take advantage of that gorgeous sun and make our skin literally glow! Highlighters are up there in my favorite products ever, so I wanted to share some of my collection with you guys and hear about which highlighters you really love. Highlighters can be used in a variety of ways. Traditionally, I wear them on my cheekbones, temples, down my nose and above my top lip on my cupid’s bow to give my skin a shimmery glow.

MAC Strobe Cream is one of my most versatile highlighting products. For a start – you get so much of it! I could literally be using this for years and not run out. It has quite a runny consistency, so a little goes a long way.  I break highlighters down into warm and cool for the most part, and this is definitely a cooler toned highlighter, throwing off a cool, pink-toned shimmer when the light hits it. It feels lovely and light to wear, and blends very quickly and easily. I have added MAC Strobe Cream to tinted highlighters, moisturizers, used it on my shoulders and my legs, basically everything, and it works like a dream. The running consistency does take a little getting used to, but I consider this to be one of those must-have MAC products.

NARS Albatross is frequently recognized as one of the best all time highlighters. I have to admit, I totally agree. It’s a simple, sheer powder with gold-toned iridescent shimmer. The gold shimmer works particularly well with my skin tone, and I love how flattering it is. I find powder highlighters slightly less flexible to work with than cream ones, but this product more than makes up for that with its beautiful, not too sparkly shimmer than instantly wakes up your face. I find that this looks particularly amazing at night, when you might be going for a stronger, more done look. It really does scream glamour!

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Miami Strip are a recent discovery, and I’ll admit that the first time I wore them, I was a little overwhelmed. As you can see, it's one of the more shimmery ones I have swatched here. However, I’ve learnt that with a light touch, they can be an amazing, hard-working, multi-tasking super product, ready to give a natural, my face but better glow all over. They come in lots of different shades, so I’m sure there’s the perfect color out there for you, and at a price that’s hard to beat.

NARS Orgasm Illuminator came out last winter to much fanfare as an update to the ever popular Orgasm line. As a huge fan of the original blush in cream format, I was very eager to try it out. I’m not going to lie, at first I was disappointed and confused. The consistency is incredibly thin and sheer, so it can feel quite difficult to control. The color is gorgeous rose blushing pink with gold shimmer in the tube, but again, is so sheer on your skin. However, it’s gorgeous as a subtle glow from within look, and I love, love wearing it during the day as part of a natural, sheer look. 

All four highlighters compared

L-R MAC Strobe, NARS Albatross, Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips, NARS Orgasm Illuminator

I also feel obliged to post about one product which really didn’t hit the mark for me: Elf’s All Over Highlighter stick. This stick is modeled and marketed as a cheaper alternative to NARS’s Multiple, especially the incredibly popular Copacabana shade. There are Elf products that I love. This is not one of them. Even if you had had zero experience of NARS Multiples (I have, but not Copacabana), you would find this product horrible to work with. It is a sheer white cream based stick with shimmer through it. I have 2 HUGE problems with this highlighter. The first is the feel of the product – it is sticky!! It’s like putting lipgloss on your face! But less liquidy than lipgloss. Maybe more like glue? So that is very unpleasant. Secondly, the color is simply not sheer enough, and gives you a white cast wherever you use it. Again, maybe as if you’ve applied glue to your face? Either way, even though it is a dollar, it is most definitely a wasted dollar. 

So there you have it – a couple of awesome highlighting products, and one definite dud. What products did I miss, or do I need to try?

Review: Physicians Formula Strips

Shimmer Strips Custom Bronzer, Blush & Eye Shadow ($12) are widely thought to be the best drugstore dupe for the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick. I have to admit right now that I've never tried the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick so cannot attest to the dupe factor. Instead, I'll have to review the PF Shimmer Strips in their own right.

Shimmer Strips are a palette of 5 similarly toned shimmery powders that can either be worn alone or swirled together as a blush or bronzer. I chose the shade Miami Glow, which ranges from pink to bronze. The powders felt reasonably smooth, and were all quite sheer. All 5 of the colors were very shimmery. I really liked them as individual colors, although I think that most people would have a similar range of neutrals in their eye-shadow collection. For the photo I took here, I actually used the colors on my eyes as well to do a super quick eye brightening look.

When swirled together, the colors take on more of a golden bronze look. This is where the Shimmer Strips lived up to their name: they are very shimmery! I hardly ever wear anything with shimmer in it, so the first time I put it on, I absolutely hated it. I thought it was garish and shiny, even though it is called a shimmer strip. I've now been wearing it for a couple of hours, and I have to admit, I do like the "glowing" effect, but I do think that it's a little much for just during the day. The shade is also quite light, so even for me there is no bronzing here, and I'm very pale. Instead, I can see this working well as a "lit from within" highlighter for wearing in the evening.

So, daytime eyes, nighttime glow - what a little hard worker this little palette is. I am pleasantly surprised by this product, especially in the quality of the shadows on their own. Miami Glow is a little on the light side for most girls, but I'm sure that there is a great color out there for you.

MAC To The Beach FOTD

This is an easy sunset eyes that I put together to try out some of the recently launched MAC To The Beach collection. I didn't officially review the collection because I felt that there were so many reviews out there already that I was not really adding anything to the mix. I've had a chance to play around with some of the products for the last week or so, and I really love the cream bronzer consistency and texture. I know a lot of people gave Beachbound Glaze Lipstick a hard time because it is so sheer, but I love it. I think it gives that gorgeous bronzey, beach goddess look so well.

All products MAC unless otherwise stated:
Eyes
Base: MAC Paint in Bare Canvas
Inner Lid: Goldmine
Outerlid and Crease: Amber Lights
Highlight: Shroom
Line: Nehru
Mascara: Maybelline Full and Soft
Brows: Elf Brow Kit in Medium

Face
Base: Tinted Moisturizer Mix
Bronze: Cream Bronzer in To The Beach
Blush: NARS Orgasm (Cream)

Lips:
Beachbound

Estee Lauder Doesn't Make Me A Goddess

This was the first time I tried out Estee Lauder's Bronze Goddess Liquid Eyeshadow in Teal. It's a gorgeous, lush, rich, teal color, with plenty of pigmentation. However, I really had a hard time working with it. I used it with Elf
Eyelid Primer, (a surprisingly good product) and had a really hard time blending it out. I think that it makes the most amazing liner and thick shadow line, or smudged close to the lashes. However, I wanted to try and build a gradually richer wash, and failed completely miserably. These pictures demonstrate that! It comes with a doe foot applicator that I pretty much had no idea what to do with either.

This product was limited edition. I wish I could recommend it more (maybe in more skillful hands?), because the color is beautiful. I had the worst time actually making something pretty with it though.

Urban Decay Gets in a Slick

On a New York summer day, you can start out looking chic, sophisticated, and in control, and by 11am look shiny, harassed, and frazzled. Urban Decay is promising to keep our shininess under control while we worry about getting on with the rest of our lives.

Urban Decay’s De-Slick Oil Control Make Up Setting Spray ($29) is to control excess shine, particularly in the heat. It is a spray bottle that you apply once before make up and once after. Can I just say that this is the ugliest packaging I’ve pretty much ever seen? I’m sorry, Urban Decay, normally I love your kooky approach to packaging, but this just looks cheap. It really looks like a bad drugstore product that got discontinued and is now found in the bargain bucket bin. This gets chucked in the cupboard rather than displayed proudly on my shelves.

But you know, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Does this product actually work? I gave it quite the challenge. First I applied sunscreen and let it settle for about 30 minutes. Then I gave my face a quick spritz and put on my tinted moisturizer. I used a cream blusher (MUFE HD), did my eyes, and then gave my face a final spritz. At this point, I used no powder, but had no shine.

I then went out in the New York sun for a couple of hours, and ran a couple of hours. It was 90 out there. And sweaty. When I came back to the apartment 3hrs later, I was pleased. My make up was in place, and I wasn’t shiny at all, given the first tough test I gave it. Urban Decay promise it can do so much more than that, so I kept working it. This time I took it shopping and then sitting in the shade on a warm day for another couple of hours. Another 3hrs later, and I was shining. All that non-shine power had been broken down by the city heat and humidity.

 
I admit that I gave it a pretty tough test, but to be honest, those are real, New York summer conditions. I was really impressed after the first couple of hours. It was doing so much better than I thought, so it is an improvement over doing nothing, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t have the staying power to go a full day in the heat. Think of it as reinforcements rather than full on defense against shine on a hot day.

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Lip Gloss

The last week in NYC has seen highs in the 90s and lows in the 50s - schizophrenic weather much? Still, there's nothing like a bit of summer gloss to put me in a better mood, and Estee Lauder's Bronze Goddess lip gloss in Wild Orchid is just the thing. It's a bright fushcia, but sheer enough to be pretty, not wild. It is slightly sticky, but not enough to be tacky, and has a sweet flavor. I love it.