Year: 2013

Drugstore Finds: Rimmel Apocalips in Nova & Celestial

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I’ve been wanting to get a hold of the Rimmel Apocalips for a long-ass time. When it was finally available for order on the ASOS website, so I jumped at the chance and ordered two shades, Nova and Celestial. Though both are soft shades, bordering on neutral, Nova is the brighter pink shade of the two. Nova is a pinky-brown that reminds me of a girlier version of the Guerlain Rouge L’Extrait in Avarice. The formula is pretty nice; it doesn’t really feel heavy and sticky on the lips as some of the other cream/liquid lip products that I’ve tried so far. These are pretty comparable to Guerlain and Shiseido, at least in terms of consistency, where as the Revlon Liquid Lipsticks dry down to a tacky sort of finish that is not comfortable in any universe. Celestial on the left, Nova on the right. Not much of a marked difference, though I do still prefer Celestial, as it’s an easier pink for me to wear since it has a lot more brown in it. …

Quickie: MAC Satin Lipstick in Twig

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Have you noticed that I am slowly trying to feature each MAC lipstick I have? 🙂 MAC’s Twig is a “soft muted brownish pink,” and is a satin finish. The only other MAC Satin Lipstick I own is Betty Bright from the Archie’s Girls Collection. I find this to be less creamy than that one, and it is very similar to another “everyday lipstick” I got, Mehr, which is a matte. Swatched, you can definitely see how Twig gets its description. I love this color. Really, based on the bullet and the swatch, Twig should be a favorite, but it pulls really dark and pink on me. All of the brown is lost somewhere out there. I don’t dislike the color. It’s a very nice color. 🙂 I think that the finish has a lot to do with it, for some reason. I have a feeling that’s why I use Mehr a whole lot more; it’s “true to bullet,” so to speak and it’s very what you see is what you get. Twig reacts weirdly …

Out now: Le Métier de Beauté’s Galore Palette

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I’ve been noticing a trend going on with Le Métier de Beauté Palettes. I think Galore is the third or fourth 8-pan blush/eyeshadow palette they’ve released lately. I received an email from Nyidera Edwards, an LMdB makeup artist at the Saks Fifth Avenue counter in Bala Cynwyd Pennsylvania, with some swatches. Designed by Mikey Castillo, the Director of Makeup at Le Métier de Beauté, Galore has 4 blush shades: Dusk (a classic pinky-peach), The Factory (a bright pink), Coral Reef (a golden shimmered warm coral), and Punta Cana (a satin blonde bronze). It also has 4 eyeshadow shades: Topaz (warm shimmering copper), Quartz (soft lavender), Tanzanite (deep indigo with flecks of gold), and Diamond Noir (glinting onyx). The palette is priced at $125 and is only available at Saks Fifth Avenue. You lucky ducks in the US can place an order by calling Nyidera at 610-667-1550 ext. 169. If you decide to check it out, let Nyidera know that I sent you! 🙂 This post is not sponsored. Le Métier de Beauté is cruelty-free.

Drugstore Finds: Maybelline Color Whispers

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I was going to put these Maybelline Color Whispers as an “overhyped product,” but I realized that I really liked them. I just felt guilty because these were the first non-CF items I got after I made my cruelty-free pledge. Though I didn’t commit to completely eliminated non-CF products, I still said I would try to minimize my consumption of animal tested products. So these felt like a failure. But they are good products, so I can’t, in good conscience, put them in the “overhyped products” post, out of guilt. Anyway, I got three colors: Mocha Muse, Lust for Blush, Petal Pusher. The one I really wanted but couldn’t get a hold of was Coral Ambition, I think. These were really hard to get photos of, because they were so glossy-shiny. L-R: Mocha Muse, Lust for Blush, Petal Pusher. They are also incredibly sheer and somewhat milky-looking. It’s a similar effect to some of the Korres Lip Butters, Jasmine in particular. I’m not sure if these are marketed as an alternative to those, but they …

Confessions of a Lip-Licker

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I am a lip-licker. I don’t mean to be one, it’s just a habit of mine. I think it mostly has to do with my need to get rid of any and all dry flakes on my lips when I encounter them. Lipstick formula and longevity is marginally important to me, because I tend to lick off lipstick anyway. When I started this beauty blog, I tried to stop this habit to properly test the lipstick longevity, and also because I heard that ingesting lipstick is bad because of lead content and other icky ingredients. The other problem with lipstick-licking is that my lipstick starts out immaculate and then wears off into a real stupid mess. Sometimes, there will be a lip liner ring where a slick of lipstick used to be. Other times, it’s a jungle of dry skin with lipstick koalas clung onto them. When this happens—smushy ex-dry flakes with lipstick clingers in a sticky mess on my lips—I resort to licking my lips anyway. This does little to remedy the problem. It’s …

Quickie: MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Fiery Impact

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I have here today a beautiful blush, the MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Fiery Impact. This was an impulse buy that I’ve hauled previously but never properly reviewed. Like most of my online purchases, this one was bought sight unseen, which means that I had no idea what “extra dimension blushes” are, other than the fact that they are pretty. But, because I’m resourceful, here’s what I dug up: Product Description: “A liquid-powder blush with prismatic reflections in five shimmering shades. Impact ranges from sheer crystallized light to a highly polished metallic effect. Lasts up to 6 hours.” So, that doesn’t tell me much, except for the ff: — Extra Dimension blushes come in “five shimmering shades” — color is buildable from sheer to a fuller coverage/higher pigmentation — lasts 6 hours I picked out Fiery Impact, which is a “burnt, red bronze.” The reason for this is that I wanted to try this range and I had no brick red blushes in my blush stash. I rather liked Flaming Chic as well, which is …

Quickie: NARS Trio in Ramatuelle

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Ramatuelle is a NARS trio that came out as part of their Summer 2013 collection, if I’m not mistaken. I think it was my first NARS eye product purchase, and it was the only eyeshadow I thought to bring on a month-long trip to Europe… for some reason. Anyway! It has three colors: “silver, icy peach, apricot,” and it is something that is way cooler than I would normally have chosen, if I knew then what I know now. Luckily, I bought it blindly, because I am pretty in love with it. It’s a very unassuming trio with such a soft selection of colors. The lighter two, which are a satin and a shimmer, look pretty close to each other and don’t offer a lot of contrast. However, I am so impressed by how the cool and warm tones complement each other in a way that you wouldn’t expect. It’s inspired by Ramatuelle, a city in the South of France. Eugenia from Ommorphia Beauty Bar talks more about that here. I love how François Nars …