A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

A makeup artist once told me that straight men don’t like bold lips. They can feel intimidated by a statement colour and don’t consider these women as “kissable” as their smoky-eyed/nude-lipped counterparts.

Just as well I don’t give a shit then, isn’t it?

Here are five of my most retina-searingly, beautiful pink lipsticks and you’ll be delighted (or at least, you should be, I engineered it this way!) to hear that they’re all under £20.  As much as I do love my Tom Ford Pure Pink, you can get some raging pigment for much, much less moneh.

01: Boots Seventeen Lasting Fix Lipstick in Pink Power

This is my latest pink acquisition and I’ve been reliably informed that it’s a dupe for MAC’s legendary Girl About town.  I won’t “review” it because I’m posting a FOTD with it later… suffice to say, for under a fiver… it’s a bit of a bargain bright! (£4.29, boots.com)

02: Wet n’ Wild Mega Last Lipstick in Don’t Blink Pink

An eBay purchase from last year, this staggeringly intense pink is almost neon and definitely leans a little warmer than the rest, making it quite an unusual shade.  Most of these bright pinks can often be mistaken for fuchsia, so it’s nice to see one that’s a little bit different.  You can see it in a FOTD, here. (£2.80 not inc. shipping, ebay.co.uk)

03: BarryM Lip Paint in #145 Punky Pink

This is another apparent Girl About Town dupe (what is it with that shade!) though I think it’s a wee bit more cherry-toned, slightly deeper than the MAC offering.  A hair more expensive than the Seventeen lipstick but still under a fiver, you can’t go wrong! (£4.49, barrym.com)

04: BarryM Lip Paint in #146 Dolly Pink

Now, I have to admit… I don’t wear this one a huge amount, mostly because it’s one of those lipsticks that like to wear you.  Dolly Pink is a candy-fest that just about has enough depth to keep it a little more classy (haters gonna hate) than the Nicki Minaj, Gaga, shitty pinks that look like you’ve ground a piece of chalk into your lips.  This is as blue-pink as I can go without looking like a revolting caricature of myself.  I’ve even binned MAC Snob. (£4.49, barrym.com)

05. Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense #36 Satin Fuchsia

The most expensive of the bunch but a truly pretty fuchsia that lasts and lasts.  This MUFE offering is part of a huge range that of lipsticks that make me wish I lived closer to a stockist for some serious swatching.  It’s a very clean, bright pink that whitens the teeth and makes the eyes sparkle.  Not a bad makeover for less than twenty quid. (£16.95, gurumakeupemporium.com)

What do you think of my “do not adjust your set” selection of pink lipsticks?  Am I missing any of your favourites?  Let me know in the comments!

The world is awash with lip crayons! Perhaps we’re all reverting back to our childhoods as an alternative to a rather gloomy reality but what is it with wanting to make our cosmetics look like crayola?

Well, whatever it is, I’m loving it.

Seventeen, the brand from Boots… one of the most accessible in the UK market, have firmly jumped aboard the lip crayon bandwagon and released their own version.  I had no idea what to expect.  Would they be sheer and balmy a la the original Clinique formula?  Would they be drying like the Revlon Just Bitten Stains?  Or perhaps they’ll be uber-glossy like the new No7 Lip Crayons?

Well, they actually strike a rather good balance… but with the added bonus of some proper pigment.  Hear that?  It’s a choir of colour-loving lips singing in celebration.

The two shades that I’m swatching today are Bold (orange) and Knockout (plum pink).  The packaging is functional and practical with a winder mechanism to wind the crayon up and down.  It’s bright… chunky and you’d be hard-pushed to lose it in your handbag.

The texture of these lip crayons are both very similar, so although I’ve only tried two from the five shades available, I’m expecting a consistent formula from a brand as well-established as Seventeen are.

Talking of the texture, I found it to be quite light considering the amount of pigment it provided.  You can see in the lip swatches below that there is no thick layer of product over my lips.  The furrows and creases are still fairly well-defined and not filled in with goop!  Despite this light layer of product, it punches well above its weight when it comes to coverage.  That is some pretty strong colour from a quick slick of crayon.

bare lips

Seventeen Lip Crayon in shade: Bold

Seventeen Lip Crayon in shade: Knockout

I didn’t notice any horrible smell during application (I’m looking at you Revlon), and the colour glided on with little effort.  I’d say that these aren’t quite as moisturising as the original Clinique formula but slightly more moisturising than their newer, intense formula.  Considering that we’re looking at nearly the same level of pigmentation, render me suitable impressed.

I wouldn’t describe the finish as a high-gloss one, it’s fairly low-key (which I personally prefer) and the colour lasts nicely for about 4-5 hours (less if you’re eating/drinking).  It doesn’t leave a stain behind but it does fade pretty evenly.

All in all, at only £4.99 a-piece (also currently on buy-one-get-2nd-half-price), the new Seventeen Lip Crayons* are a bleedin’ steal.  Have you tried any of the shades yet?

* press sample

So, Rimmel… and their “apocaliptic” hybrid gloss/lipstick.  Available in eight shades of lip-smacking colour from vampy plum through to pale nude, has been setting the blogging world alight from day one.  Except, I can’t for the life of me work out why.

First things first, they smell bad.  I’m not the kind of blogger that harps on about scented products being the root of all evil, I couldn’t normally give a chuff about scented/flavoured products but these are so horribly synthetic, I find them almost offensive.  Smell and taste are so closely linked, that if something smells bad… it often tastes bad too and I just don’t want this genetically-modified Jolly Rancher crap on my lips with it’s faux fruit salad gooeyness mere centimeters from my nostrils.

When it comes to application, the wand – complete with product dip/well – doesn’t work properly.  There’s no real give to the sponge, the product contained within the well is staying there.  For all eternity.  It’s not coating your lips, you’re just double dipping it back into the container each time you use it.  Give it up.

When I headed down to Boots, finally giving into the hype I was reading everywhere, I umm’ed and ahh’ed over the shades… in the end, I settled for Celestial, and the colour is indeed very, very, pretty.  That neutral kind of pink that goes with everything… looking good on practically every skin-tone.  But my love for the shade just cannot overcome.  Let me tell you what else I hate about this product.

It feels heavy on the lips.  Like tar.  Like a new kind of tar that has been created from lead.  Spread over my lips and left to bake in the sun.  It’s 2013, lip products don’t feel like this anymore.  I crave lightweight textures that deliver strong pigment without making me feel like my lips have been glued together with eye bogies.  And because the product just kinda sits there… it travels.  Within the hour, I experienced the kind of feathering you’d expect from a siren-red lipstick that had been applied with a trowel.

At least you’d think with that kind of “creamy” coverage, your lips would stay well-nourished underneath?  No.  I found the formula drying and unforgiving to my “not even very dry” lips.  The product settled in the furrows and felt less and less comfortable with every passing minute.

And so, for its parting demonstration… did it stay on for long?  No… it lasted no more than a couple of hours before wearing away without leaving even a hint of a stain to see me through the afternoon.

I have basically been violated by a lipstick.  And that my friends, is a hugely disappointing sensation.

Rimmel Apocalips are priced at £4.49 each and are available to buy instore or online from boots.com, superdrug.com, and asos.com

Wotcha, I just thought I’d post a little update to apologise for my lack of… err… updates.  You see, to put it plainly, I’ve lost my blogging mojo in a big way.  So majorly infact, that I didn’t really want to voice it aloud out of fear of cementing it in my psyche as a “thing”.  In 4+ years of beauty blogging, I’ve only ever lost my blogging motivation in the most superficial of ways but this time it feels more emotional and backed with the full force of a little resentment.  I’ve always been a great believer in not forcing things and sometimes you just need to take a step back for a while, I can’t even remember the number of times I’ve said that to other bloggers who have found themselves drifting aimlessly and posting for the sake of it.

The problem is, I’m actually a bit too scared to take my own advice.  It’s not as if I have a thrilling social life once Leila has gone to bed, sure I’m kinda tempted to get back into the CSI franchise that made my pregnancy 100x more enjoyable (“Oh, I think the morning sickness is back, leave me alone with Greg Sanders K?”) and I haven’t watched an uninterrupted episode of Eastenders since 2011!  But where will all those unwritten posts go?  Not the reviews as such, but the random observations that creep into my head at 2am when I should be sleeping.  Has a lapsed-blogger ever exploded from not having somewhere to put these things?

Anyway, while I work through my “ishoos”, I’ll share yesterday’s FOTD.  You might be a little surprised to know that I’ve rediscovered a bit of love for nude lips.  I often look to the queen of nude lips (a.k.a Holly) for inspiration and remember my first nude lip love which was an old YSL Rouge Pur Transparent (we’re talking 10+ years ago).

This isn’t my old old favourite but it is still a YSL, and one of my favourites, Rouge Volupte #1 Nude Beige.  I bought this a few years ago when the Volupte’s were causing major pants wetting across the blogosphere and unlike my dabble into #7 Lingerie Pink, this one has remained a staple for whenever I need to glam up a smoky eye.

Whilst I prefer my bold shades to be richly pigmented… for me, there’s nothing worse than a white-based nude.  Anything remotely chalky can go straight into room 101 and this one is about as opaque as I can go before I start to feel like a wannabe ganguro.  I’m excited by YSL’s latest launch of Volupte Sheer Candy lipsticks (obv. not the should-be-bloody-bold-and-nothing-else shades) and hope that I may find another nude friend (please with sparkle?) among its collection.

The rest of the FOTD was a touch warmed up by the setting sun but it involved rediscovering my MUFE Face and Body Liquid Foundation in #36 (what lovely, natural coverage), a bargainous Wet n’ Wild palette in Comfort Zone, and some eyeliner (which could have done with a lot more smudging) courtesy of Clarin’s Kohl Kajal, which was a limited edition release from last Summer.

I hate to be such a giant cliche when it comes to changing my lipstick according to the seasons but when something feels right, well… you’ve just got to go with it haven’t you?

What colours are you wearing on your lips at the moment?

GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH

GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH

GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH GUSH

Dying from pigmented, juicy lipstick love.  I wanna squeeze it’s chubbiness until it spews a slash of hot pink glory all over my lips.

Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Plushest Punch*, priced at £16.00 and available on counter and online from www.clinique.co.uk. 

We gonna need moar than eight shades please Clinique.

* PR sample (thank god I’m not a gusher)

It’s been a while since I’ve pulled MAC Speed Dial out from the lipstick drawer but there’s something so damn irresistible about pink lipsticks and Spring-time.  Looking back through my archives, I notice that I always start wearing the pinks at this time of year, and I tend to go more “nude” (har har) in the Summer-time.  I’m such a sheep for trends.

One of my favourite things about MAC Speed Dial is that it’s a beautifully clean-looking pink.  Bright without being in your face… a little cool-toned without being blue.  As is typical of most MAC lipsticks, I don’t find this to be the best formula in the world.  The cremesheen finish is slightly claggy on the lips if you build it up, feeling quite thick and heavy from the first application… staying power is good for around 2hrs, without eating.  I’m just not a massive MAC lipstick fan I guess.

Grumbles aside, the colour just makes me happy.  It brightens up an otherwise boring FOTD and goes nicely with a simple eyeliner flick and tidy brows.

What’s your favourite spring-time pink lipstick?

MAC Speed Dial is priced at £14.00 and available to buy on counter or online at www.maccosmetics.co.uk

I live in a little town on the South coast which is currently being inundated with politicians and media types thanks to a certain hotly-contended by-election taking place next week.  It’s become a bit of a silly hoo-haa and supplies are running rather low as I daren’t visit the supermarket out of genuine fear that Dave Cameron or Boris Johnson might pop up over the meat counter to canvass my opinion.  A frightening thought.

Infact, my sister-in-law was enjoying a quiet lunch in a local-to-her-school pub the other day when half of the BBC descended en-masse.  I’m just pleased that I elected to conduct my vote via the postal system and can barricade myself indoors until the circus has left town.

Which brings me rather nicely to today’s review of an intriguing product from Lipstick Queen…

Honest Politician is a shade from the brand’s Oxymoron Matte Gloss range.  Matte?  Gloss?  How can it be…  Well, the clue is in the title.  An oxymoron, it most definitely is.  Housed in a cheap-looking acrylic compact, Honest Politician is a neutral-based stain that can be applied to both the lips and the cheeks.  To all intents and purposes, it feels like a gloss during application yet dries to a (somewhat) matte finish once on the skin.

The formula is quite dry and since I’ve been recovering from being quite poorly over the last 10 days, neither my skin nor my lips are in the best condition to do it justice.  Both lips and skin need to be flake-free and my lips are in a state thanks to my complete disregard of doing anything to prevent dehydration.

As such, the FOTD below shows me wearing Honest Politician over a slathering of Lanolips.  You’ll have to Google Image search for a lip swatch of the product on bare lips, it does have a slightly less glossy finish than my FOTD would suggest.

Shade-wise, I’d describe Honest Politician as being a pinky mauve-brown, rendering it thoroughly useful in an arsenal of office-appropriate tones.  It’s not the most exciting product in the world and I can’t bring myself to raise my heart-rate much beyond that of a brisk walk over it… but if I were in the market for a work-horse lip/cheek combo that I could hit pan on again and again, Honest Politician should not be ignored.

Worn on the cheeks, I found it a little difficult to blend without reaching for my foundation brush (which still had a little product on it).  I tried with my fingers and it was hard work.  Frustrating but testament to the fact that it isn’t going anywhere once you’ve got it applied.  Again, a work-horse.  Worn below on the lips and cheeks.

Lipstick Queen Honest Politician is available to buy online and instore from SpaceNK, priced at £20

* press sample

I picked up Kevyn Aucoin’s lustful Blood Roses on L’s recommendation early last year, almost a full 12-months ago and I’m ashamed to admit that I’m only just blogging about it now.  This happens more than I’d like, often to the point where I just throw my hands up and declare “well, there’s no point blogging about it now!”

Still, in this case, it really is better late than never… thanks to SpaceNK – you can now find Kevyn Aucoin products in the UK with much less stress than the first time I tried to get hold of this lipstick.

Kevyn Aucoin’s Blood Roses falls into that once-upon-a-time unlikely genre of an incredibly creamy vamp. Haven’t lipstick formulas improved 100-fold over the past five years? It’s nothing short of miraculous. That being said, you need a steady hand or a lip brush to achieve precision with this one.

Alternatively, you could own a pair of full lips and give the bullet a gentle smoosh around for a post-modern, ironic take on how to wear the perfect lipstick, imperfectly.  Sadly, that kind of irony is wasted on my face, it just makes me look like a bit of an unfotunate.  For this one, I’ll stick to the tried-and-tested lipstick and liner look.

With a lipstick this full-bodied, it’s probably worth mentioning that any excrutiatingly pale chicks out there will look even more wan with a layer of Blood Roses.  Not necessarily a bad thing you understand, but you may want to consider a little contour, bronzing, or all of the above if you prefer to avoid the consumptive look.  Me?  Well, I quite like it.

For such depth of colour, the formula feels light and does a stellar job at resisting the bleed without the addition of a liner.  I usually wear this in a casual setting, I don’t mind the odd touch-up or grabbing a tissue part way through the afternoon to replace my lip colour.  If I were considering this shade for an evening out, I’d probably make more of an effort to bullet-proof it for longlasting wear.

This is a lovely video about the relaunch of Blood Roses, which incidentally, was Kevyn’s favourite shade.  Is there any better reason to treat yourself to this lipstick?  I think not.

Kevyn Aucoin’s The Expert Lip Color in Blood Roses is available to buy instore at SpaceNK, and online at SpaceNK and miseBeauty.com priced from £27.00

Not another wine lipstick I hear you say!

Well sorry chaps, my infatuation is far from over.  Not only that but today brings another Clarins offering, similar but (at the same time) quite, quite different from the Clarins Rouge Prodige that I showed you last week.

Unlike the Rouge Prodige, the colour of this one when applied is as you would expect from looking at the bullet, there are no shade surprises here.  The new range of Rouge Eclat lipsticks offer what Clarins claim to be their first age-defying formula that boosts collagen and protects against dehydration.

From reading the blurb, you’d expect to find a super-glossy lipstick with a slippery formula and incredibly light texture, not so.  I found this Rouge Eclat to offer more substance, a firm texture and a pigmented finish.  There’s enough slip to keep it feeling comfortable but no more than is strictly necessary.  Something which affords the lipstick greater longevity, in other words… you’re not sacrificing a long-lasting lipstick for greater hydration.

The packaging is frankly, a bit of a disappointment. It reminds me of Bourjois Sweet Kiss in terms of styling but without the nifty opening mechanism.  Basically, it’s not up to Clarins’ usual luxe standards, too much acrylic and not enough gold.  When you do something so well Clarins, keep doing it!

The scent is the same across the line of lippies, quite pronounced… fruity, I’ve always called it fig… Clarins call it blackberry & liquorice(!) so never trust a fragrance review from me ever again.

#107 Red Wine* leans to the cooler side of the spectrum with a distinctly mauve edge, it’s quite a vampy choice for Spring but looks beautiful when patted onto the lips more lightly than in the swatch above.

Overall, the Rouge Eclat lineup fills a niche within the brand’s current range but I was less impressed with the packaging and I wasn’t entirely sold on this shade.  Emma from Escentual has done some great arm swatches of the range and I have to say, #05 Pink Berry and #08 Coral Pink look like cracking shades for Spring.

Clarins Rouge Eclat #107 Red Wine is available to buy on counter, priced at £18.50 and online from escentual.com, priced at £14.80

* press sample

Wine is totally the new red. Or has it always been red?  Either way, in terms of the shade that’s been taking over my collection this winter, I’m definitely leaning more toward the merlot than the pillar-box.

Rimmel’s Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in #107 has been a blogger favourite for a couple of months now, the colour is fabulous… the formula not quite so amazing but acceptable for the price I guess.  I think that you can always tell a slightly draggy lipstick by looking at the tip of a used bullet.  You can usually see lip streaks and a little bit of graininess in the wax, see below…

I’m not sure that I’d repurchase any more from the range, they’re just a little bit too much like hard work on the lips.  The best way I can describe the formula is thus: you paint on a swipe across the bottom lip, smush your lips together and the line doesn’t budge… there’s just no glide at all.  You have to paint the whole lip, from the bullet… being extra careful around the lip-line.  This also means that it sticks pretty well but when it does fade, it does so unflatteringly, leaving a very prominent outer ring.

I know that there are a heap of raves all over the web… but I honestly feel that Rimmel could do better on the formula, it’s very “5 years ago”.  Mmattes don’t need to feel like mattes anymore, that’s one thing that 2012 has taught me.

Shame it didn’t teach me to stop buying lipsticks.

Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick #107 is priced at £5.49 and available to buy instore and online from Boots.com

If you’re looking for some mega bright lipsticks to blow away those wintery cobwebs without too much in the way of spends (let’s face it, it’s a miserable skinty mcskinty January), look no further than Miss Sporty.  Oh yay, brand of inexpensive-but-beautiful duochromes!  Infact, it was buying the duochromes that led me back to my local stand in Boots (or is it Superdrug? or both?!) for another look at what was on offer.

I skimmed over the foundations, for I am a foundation snob.  I meh’ed over the mascaras… contemplated a new liquid liner but eventually settled on the Perfect Colour Lipsticks.  Of course.  Not that this wasn’t the most completely predictable route that I would take.  God, I love lipstick.

I went for the brights, just because… you know… I could.  I mean, they’re £2.59 each… not an ounce of guilt was felt.

I Love and Malaga, the most obnoxious shades I could find.  Lovely.

They pack the kind of pigment you’d expect from some of MACs hallowed shades without saying “Here, have great colour in exchange for a shitty shitty texture”.  That’s not to say the texture is mind-blowingly awesome but it’s not draggy like the bright BarryM lipsticks can be and it’s not moisture-sucking.

My only issue with these lipsticks is that they smell a bit like a rancid Jolly Rancher.  Obviously disguising something that must smell even more revolting.  It’s a good thing I can’t sniff my lips.

Neither of these shades are the most flattering on me but they’re flippin’ fun are they not?  Malaga is a really great casual red that looks lovely (much nicer than the lip swatch) when pressed onto the lips and then smooshed around, paying no attention to things like a sharp lip-line.

What do you think?  Will you be checking them out the next time you’re in town?

Miss Sporty Perfect Colour Lipsticks in Malaga and I Love are priced at £2.59 each and available instore and online from Boots.com and Superdrug.com

I can’t remember on whose blog it was that I first saw Dark Cherry from the Clarins Rouge Prodige lineup of lipsticks but it spoke to me.  It’s one of those lipsticks that hits the perfect balance between a number of shades to create “the ultimate” lust-have.  I actually don’t think it’s a very “cherry” shade despite Clarins telling me that it so is.  It seems to contain the magic amount of brown to create a neutral vampy lip that leans neither to cool nor too warm.

I’m aware that I’m not making much sense… but to be honest, I bought this lipstick based on shade alone and I am genuinely struggling to put into words just why I felt that I had to own it.  All I can say is, I’m pleased that I do.

Yeah, I nicked the bullet.  BIG SOB.  *applies lipstick*.  Over it already.

Said it before, say it again – Clarins do yum-yum packaging that’s kinda old-lady without being remotely old-lady.  Still not making sense.  The thing is, it’s all weighty and shiny… the gold is straight out of Nana’s handbag and yet, let’s face it… Nana’s wouldn’t have all those bevelled edges and tasty angles.  The formula is consistent with the other Rouge Prodige lipsticks I own, a tiny bit draggy until it warms up (which it does quickly), intensely scented (fig I believe?), and lasts very nicely thanks to a grippy-grippy formula.

You can see that it applies lighter on the lips than it looks in the tube, and really suits (if I do say so myself) my cool-toned colouring.

Clarins Rouge Prodige Dark Cherry Lipstick is available to buy online from www.escentual.com, priced at £14.00 (bargain!)