Here’s a quick post of another shade of Happy Skin Shut Up & Kiss Me Moisturizing Lippie. I’ve reviewed two of the lighter shades previously (Crushing on You and Summer Fling) here, so if you would like a more in-depth review on this particular range, you can read that.
Girls Night Out is a red violet shade, and is one of the two darkest shades in the range, and it’s the less-red and cooler of the two. The other one is a bit more red. Read More
Yay for a super early February box from the Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP Subscription. I kind of explain it a little and gave a 6-month recap over here, but for today, I’ll be showing you what I got for the February box, aka the Valentines one.
First up, I have a Colour Core Moisture Stain Lipstick in Riviera ($32) which is a very warm, orange-toned red, aka the worst shade you could probably give me. Next, I’ve got two Nail Lacquers in Wango Tango, a punchy coral, and Cocoa Cabana, a creamy café au lait ($18 each). Again, two colors I’m not really interested in.
Swatched, L-R: CCMS Lipstick in Riviera, Nail Lacquers in Wango Tango and Cocoa Cabana
The lacquer formula is decent, though I wish I had gotten colors that were more up my speed or just ones that went well better. Both are in a nice, creamy formula, though they still don’t trump my favorite lacquer formula, butter London’s. The bottles on these are similar, but the cap/brush of Cocoa Cabana is rather stumpy with the bristles flaring out a tiny bit. They were easy to apply.
I have had them on for a day so far, and no chipping from normal wear yet. I tend to be rough on my nails, and I didn’t put a top coat over these to really test them out. So far, so good.
Now for the lipstick. This is sadly one that I don’t know if I can wear on its own. I have to probably layer this over a balm or a nude color, or wear it under a different color or a gloss.
I actually really like it worn as a stain over Korres Lip Butter in Jasmine:
Here is what it looks like by itself, in all its opaque and carrot-y glory:
Yikes.
All in all, a good box in theory. I just got colors that I’m not sure I will get a lot of wear out of. February’s box totals $68, which is a pretty good deal.
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In this edition of 5 Things Friday—which I bumped off to make room for some reviews last week—I have my five favorite sheer lipstick formulas, plus a bonus “almost made it in” one! I love sheer lipsticks; they are my first lipstick love. They deposit just the right amount of pigment for some fun and prettiness on your lips, but do without the traditional lipstick feel that deters a lot of people from using lipstick in the first place.
They are also super low maintenance, which is always a plus.
1. Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge in RS-01
This is a Japanese drugstore brand that I’m so happy I found on my trip to Osaka last year. This is such a great balmy texture with a sweet berry color, too. As is typical of Japanese lipsticks, this has quite a bit of super fine shimmer in it that translates into a high-shine jelly finish.
2. Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy
I think this is my third Chanel lipstick, but the first encounter of their Rouge Coco Shine range. Boy is a beautiful slightly shimmer-y pinky nude that just amps up your natural lip without drawing too much attention to it. It’s low maintenance in the best way.
3. Revlon Lip Butter in Sugar Plum
I don’t have the best relationship with Revlon Lip Butters, but this is one of the first two ones I got and this remains a favorite. I find the Lip Butter texture to be inconsistent, but this is definitely the best one. It’s as easy to put on as a balm, and it looks like nothing special in the swatch but on your lips—BAM!—instant transformation.
4. Rouge Bunny Rouge Succulence of Dew Sheer Lipstick in Murmurings
This is a fairly new lipstick for me—and one sent to me by mistake—but it has grown to be a favorite shade and formula. It’s slick and lightweight, but gives the lips a lift and an absolutely juicy look. Succulence of Dew may be an unconventional name for a lipstick range, but it’s one that fits it to a ‘T’.
5. NARS Sheer Lipstick Vendanges
Vendanges was my signature color, which only means that I owned 3 lipsticks at the time and this was the one I used the most. It looks like a scary vampire color in the tube, but on the lips, it just gives the right amount of darkness to escape being called a lady of the night. (I mean ‘vampire’ and not ‘prostitute,’ okay?) It is absolutely beautiful and I’m so glad I tried it on my lips because that’s something I don’t really do but I had a hunch about this one.
BONUS: MAC Lustre Lipstick in See Sheer
I love MAC’s lustre lipsticks, but the formula is a bit inconsistent for me, too. These are my favorite MAC finishes and I have the most shades in this range. Sometimes they are the perfect texture and feel, other times they aren’t. But the shades I have that you should definitely check out are See Sheer, Plumful, and my first MAC shade, Jubilee.
There you have it—five fuss-free formulas for your busy life. What are your favorite sheer lipstick formulas?
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So I ended up with both the eyeshadow duos released with the High Seize collection for NARS’ Spring 2014 offerings. I mean, it was bound to happen. First up is the more coveted of the two—Kauai. It’s easily the more wearable of the two, with a gold lamé and dirty orchid instead of a blue and pink.
I still haven’t gotten it, since it’s extremely backordered (what up with that, Nordstrom?), but I couldn’t wait to post China Seas. Both duos are permanent additions to NARS beautiful lineup of eyeshadow duos.
I didn’t expect to pick up the other duo—China Seas—but I ended up doing so, and boy am I glad. NARS describes this duo as an “Iridescent turquoise with gold infusion” and an “Iridescent plum.” Judging from this description, I expected to be absolutely floored by the blue shade, alas I was not. It’s a pretty turquoise, but I don’t see much gold in it. The plum, on the other hand, has a smattering of cool blue/violet sparks in it. It’s so freaking pretty, I swear. Read More
I have slacked off on Le Métier de Beauté's Beauty Vault VIP posts, having stopped at the January one. Truthfully, I waited a long time before finally picking this up at the mail forwarder. I look for spoilers and when I saw what was in the January box, all desire to retrieve it left me. LOL, a tad bit dramatic, but after such a great run of products, who wouldn't find a single bottle of makeup remover disappointing?
January Box
The January box came with no information card at all, so it pretty much heightened the feeling of “Is this it?” However, I have to say that I am a fan of bi-phase makeup removers. My favorite is Laneige, but this is really excellent. There was a bit of a kerfuffle with this box, too. A user on the forum I go to (Makeup Talk) found an identical product sans the brand name on Amazon, selling for $29.99 and was on sale for $19.90. This is the response that user LisaLeah got from the LMdB CSR:
“We developed our make up remover almost a decade ago, in conjunction with a manufacturing partner. We shared the costs and in return gave them the right to sell it direct, should they want to earn back those costs. We are assuming that the listing on Amazon is them doing what is within their rights.
Meantime, this make up remover has been only used in The John Barrett Salon at Bergdorf Goodman and as a back bar item at our make up counters – never sold. We get thousands of requests a year to sell it, and do not.It's an expensive product to manufacture and features a lot of process technology to produce.
We sent it out in the January box as a test to see if our fans liked it. We do not see the VIP program as an individual product per month, but as a collection you amass over 12 months. So the items all work together.We hope you use the make up remover and value it as part of the larger program. We would love your feedback on its performance.
XOLMdB
Anyway, the bottom line is that this is a very good product and I would actually repurchase this when I run out!
Because of this weird product, I thought I'd do a six-month recap of the subscription so far. You can see that under the cut here, if you'd like.
I haven't done these in a while, basically because I don't know if people like them (do you?) but I just wanted to share some of my favorite things during the past month and talk a bit about them and why I liked them so much.
I just have a few bits here.
And I think that's it! I have a few non-beauty favorites also, up on my main blog. Here is a peek, but click here if anything in there interests you.
I hope January was good to you. Mine was pretty busy, but I'm very thankful for that because it's way better than doing nothing. I didn't have a lot of time to try out new things, but I did do a fair amount of shopping. Since I live in Manila, I've just started receiving the orders in trickles, so I think February and March will be filled with new discoveries.
Here's to an even better February!
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I posted about my NARS Spring lemmings a few weeks ago, and I ended up buying two things from the “Final Cut Collection,” or which we have come to know as the pink collection. NARS came out with 4 pink-toned blushes with matching 4 satin lip pencils, as well as a pinky highlighter. Read More
Softly Sometimes 