L.A. Colors: Love Them Lips High Shine Lipgloss

Apparently, I'm still feeling nostalgic, because after trying out a set of Wet n Wild glosses, I found myself the proud owner of a similar set of L.A. Colors glosses. 

From left to right (excluding the clear gloss) the colors are Bare Beauty, I Heart Pink, Turn Up The Pink, Red Bombshell and Victorian Mauve.  It was the Red Bombshell (obvs) and the Turn Up The Pink that I liked the most when first seeing it.

I thought maybe Turn Up The Pink might be kind of a glossy version of  NYX's Pink Lust, which I am totally obsessed with.  That was probably too much to hope for, but it is still a pretty color.

I came home and immediately wanted to try them all on, but I had to take a brief station identification break to put the rest of my makeup on first.  I feel like my makeup style in general is pretty natural, but it takes a fair amount of makeup to make it look like you don't have any makeup on:

Clearly.

As always, I swatched the colors on my hands first, to try and get a baseline for the colors.

I strongly prefer matte, and saturated, opaque colors.  Obviously, this isn't that.  But you cant just keep wearing the same things over and over, and as I have said before, there isn't really a better time to experiment than summer.  In summer, you can wear brighter colors and more sheer textures and it looks normal.  Some colors can be too heavy in the summer, so its the perfect time to try out glosses.

You may have noticed, and I certainly noticed, that both of those pink colors look exactly the same.  The more I stared at them, the more I started to wonder if two of the same color had accidentally been packaged together.  I had to hold the right next to each other and look at it for a minute to see that there is a slight color difference:

I Heart Pink is on the left, and Turn Up The Pink is on the right.

Even though it drives me nuts to show the swatches out of order, since we're already talking about the pinks, I will show those first.

This is I Heart Pink.  Its just  very basic light pink gloss.  I am surprised by how sticky these colors are *not* considering they are glosses.  It doesn't smell like much of anything, and this color in particular feels very light on.  The glosses are .18 fl oz, so they aren't super big, but they seem to go on easily in just a swipe or two, so I didn't have to use a lot of product.

Turn Up The Pink really doesn't look much different.  What's odd, is that the formula is really different.  This color is a sheer gloss too, but it has a mousse like texture that reminds me a lot of the way Kat Von D liquid lipsticks feel like going on, except this color stays slick like that, instead of drying matte.  Of all of the colors, this is the one that felt best on, with that sort of thick feeling.  But really, the colors are almost identical.  I can't really figure it out, and I would be curious what the differences are in the formula.

To start back at the beginning of the set, here is Bare Beauty:

I was hoping this one would be a little bit more opaque, because I am obsessed with the color in the tube.  I feel like one of my next reviews is going to have to be about NYX's Lip Lingerie because I am going to need the opaque version of this.  This is sort of a my-lips-but-better color, and like all the others it feels good on, and remarkably unsticky for a gloss.  It would probably also be really pretty over some of my matte nudes.  It isn't clear on, but its close, so it would be good over a lot of different colors I'd guess.

I feel like Red Bombshell really lived up to its name.  If I hated all of the other colors, this color alone would have been worth the purchase price.  It was much more pigmented than the other shades (even the "mauve") and it wasn't streaky at all.  This is the color I am going to wear out tonight, and probably several nights afterward.  I'm going to have to get more of this color.

The last color is Victorian Mauve, which really just looked purple to me in the tube.  I guess because it is so sheer, it does look mauve-adjacent on me.

This was the only color that sort of smelled funny, and was streaky when I applied it.  It took a few coats and a bit of massaging with the applicator (your basic doefoot) to get the color to even out.  It is probably my least favorite of all of the colors, just because it was the most difficult to put on.  Since I swatched it last, I still have it on now while I am writing this, and it feels good on.  Sometimes glosses in the budget pricepoint feel like glue on, but I am really impressed with the texture of these. 

This was my first time wearing this brand's lip products.  For some reason, I thought they were not cruelty free, but I have found out that this was incorrect, and they are certified cruelty free by both PETA and The Leaping Bunny.  If all of the products will pleasantly surprise me as much as these glosses, I will definitely be trying more!

Bare Escentuals Gen-Nude Lip Colors

I have been wanting to try Tarte's  Matte Lip Paint for  little while now.  Its been a crazy week at work, and so I decided to treat myself to an afternoon trip to Ulta.  I started out the day wearing Dragon's Fire, but by lunch time, despite the fact, that I drank my breakfast through a straw, there was really nothing left of it:

I went to a different one than the ones I usually frequent, and I decided I don't like this one as much.  This particular Ulta has a large Clinique Counter, which the others do not have.  Since Clinique is not cruelty free, this isn't really a draw for me, and it takes up a lot of real estate, so they don't have the selection that the other Ulta's do.  So no lip paint for me :(

Still, far be it from me to be in a store full of lipstick and not find something to love.  Right up front as I was walking out was an array of nude lip products, just calling my name.  Bare Escentuals is sub group of the Bare Minerals brand.  Though people have raved about that brand to me over the years, its not one that I have ever been particularly drawn to.  I know the people who love it, really love it, but I've just never gotten around to trying any of it.  No time like the present, I guess.

They have four different lip products, a traditional lipstick, a liquid matte lip, a lip gloss, and a lip pencil.  I decided to try everything but the pencil.

The first color I tried on was the traditional lipstick in a shade called Notorious.  I picked it out because our Pastor was quoting Biggie Smalls the other night so its been on my mind ever since.  Also, my husband loves that song, so I picked it as an homage to him as well.

Trying to decide if I like the color

If there's one thing I love, its a mauvy nude.  I'm a sucker for them, drawn like a moth to a flame.  It turned out that I really did like the color.  I was not too crazy about the formula.  It is sort of thick and has a very chemical smell that I didn't like at all. 

As you can see, the tube is thick, and the color speads really evenly.  It is a satin finish and felt very moisturizing.  It was an easy color to wear, I just couldn't get over the smell. 

I tried the butter cream gloss next in a shade called Heartbreaker.  I liked the color of this product too.  Its a little bit on the pinky side, but it wasn't terribly sticky and didn't seem to have the same chemical smell that the lipstick itself had. 

The only problem that I have with this color and product is that this gloss will run you $18, which, to me, feels like a lot to pay for a lipgloss that is basically the color that my lips are already.  I can get a clear gloss or a pinky toned gloss at a much lower price point.  Ulta's Butter Balm can offer the same exact thing, for $10 less.  And even the Butter Balm is more than I would really want to pay for a gloss that's what my lips are basically on their own.  So, what I will say for this color is that its  perfectly nice lip gloss, but I probably wouldn't spend the money on it.

I saved the liquid lip for last because I assumed, and rightly so, that I would like it the best.  It was the darkest color of the three, the shade is called Friendship.  Its the one that I ended up wearing out, which I kind of knew I would because its the formula that I am most attracted to. 

For a matte liquid, I found it to be thin and yet opaque at the same time.  It went on really easily and didn't seem to have much of a smell at all.  I loved the color basically as soon as I put it on.

I didn't realize until later, but I think I loved the color so much because it reminded me of another color that I fell in love with as soon as I put it on. Essence has an amazing line of nude lip colors, and my favorite, Barely There.  If you compare the pictures of me in Barely There, with the photos of this color,  they are basically the same.  The big difference is that Friendship will run you $18, and Barely There is $2.99.  So, there's that.

I did love the matte formula though, (Barely There is a tiiiiiny bit more satin) and even outside in the natural light, I thought it was a great color.

The whole Bare Escentuals line is in the nude family.  The exciting thing is, since each of the products has between 15-20 shades, there is bound to be at least one that is going to look good.  Probably more.  All the colors are going to be super easy to wear, so if you are wanting to look pulled together, without the maintenance that red lip requires, these are great options. Some of them are too close to one's actual lip color to be worth the price, but other shades will definitely provide a pretty contrast.

They don't smell the best, but other than the lipstick itself, none of the smells actually bother me.    I think there is something in this line for everyone.

Top right- Heartbreaker, bottom left- Notorious, bottom right- Friendship

Who Is She Cosmetics in Dragon's Fire

Back in the spring I found Who Is She Cosmetics on Instagram.  I was immediately intrigued because I'd never seen anything like it before.  The website describes it as part lip gloss, part lipstick, part lipstain.  Even though I tend to prefer mattes to shiny colors, I have been really interested in this company from the get go.

Unluckily for me, a lot of the companies that I want to try out are only available online.  Because I have such a funny skin tone, so pale, with so much pink, it can be hard to gauge how a  color is going to read on me.  Because of this, I really prefer to try colors on before I buy them.  You cant do that with online companies.  I also really hate paying shipping.  That's just my own weird thing.  Because of these reasons, I tend to drag my feet with online shopping, which sucks for me, because thanks to my delicious Instagram, there are a literal metric ton of companies that I want to try out.

Right now, Who Is She is having an amazing sale. 50% off. FIFTY.  That's a huge discount!  If you order from them, make sure to use the code SUMMER2016 to get your discount. Its too awesome a discount to pass up!

I couldn't decide what color to get, so I just decided to get the first one which ever caught my eye, which was Dragon's Fire.

When I first opened the pot, I was totally blown away by how pretty it was!  It just looked really rich and thick and shiny and fabulous.  The pot was smaller than I expected it to be, which is my fault, because it does say on the front page of their website that the pot is 5g.  I almost didn't want to even mess with the gloss because it just looked so pretty in the pot it was in.

I did find it difficult to put on properly.  It had to be finessed into my lips.  I think a lot of that has to do with my lip brush, which I don't think is the best, rather than with the product itself.  I would definitely recommend using a smaller and more sturdy lip brush when applying this product.  It took me some time to get it right.  I was trying to get a really good picture of how shiny it was and the deep, orangey red color, and while I was taking pictures, I captured this gem:

So, okay, yes, my face looks insane, and I look hung over, but look how pretty the color is! Wearing the color, I didn't really get a lipstick or a lipstain feel from it.  It feels like lip gloss.  It wears like lip gloss.  It is sticky, but no more so (or less so) than any other lipgloss you might come across.  Once the color was really fully on to my liking (which, again, I think it took so long because I didn't have the right lip brush) I was really loving the color.  I wouldn't try to put in on with a finger or with anything other than a great lip brush.  It would be a mess trying to do it otherwise.  I can tell I need to get a smaller one because you really need something precise to put this on properly.  It looks beautiful once its done though.

My sweet husband watched the kiddos tonight so I could go to girls night.  I definitely wore this color out and loved it.  I didn't look at it or touch it up all night.  I ate and drank and talked and laughed and had a great time with my friends.  When I got home, it looked like this:

You can kind of see that there is an outline around my lips, but that is all that's left. I don't know that I even feel like a stain of color was left.  So, it didn't wear super well, or totally evenly, but I didn't expect it to.  Its a lipgloss.  A really pretty lipgloss, but its a lipgloss. If you have lipgloss expectations, you'll be pleased.  If you expect that its going to wear like a lipstick and have that staying power, you will be disappointed. 

This company does also make a line of, not really matte, but matte adjacent colors called Lip Leathers.  My favorite of those colors is Coral Me Bad.  I think that will probably be my next purchase from this company.  I will definitely order again, and I will take advantage of the summer sale that's still going on!

Jeffree Star Liquid Liptstick in "Unicorn Blood" + Madly Matte Lipgloss in "True Love"

Yay!! I have been wanting to try Jeffree Star since the day before forever!  I have been lusting after the shade Unicorn Blood since the first time I ever saw Nikkie Tutorials wear it in one of her videos.   When UB was re-stocked, my sweet husband got it for me for my birthday!  It arrived today and I absolutely couldnt wait to try it out.

As luck would have it, I actually got two colors today.  A few weeks ago, I saw an add for a buy/sell group on line called Mercari.  I had never heard of them, but they offered me a $10 credit for signing up.  I didnt super love the app, I noticed that a lot of the  makeup that was for sale was at quite a markup from what it is sold for on the "real" websites.  Its mostly shades that are out of stock that people are re-selling for a profit.  A lot of Kylie lip-kits for insane amounts of money.

As a side note, if you are looking for a Kylie review here, I am sorry to tell you that you will not find one.  I just can't with her.  As usual though, I have digressed.

There were tons of lip sticks on that site for a company that I have never heard of, Madly Matte.  Several people were selling the shades for $5 each and free shipping.  So, I got one, and a beauty blender.  Thanks for the free stuff, Mercari!

I wasnt even sure what shade I had picked exactly, but it is called True Love.  I did check before I "purchased" it (again, thanks for the $10 Mercari!) and it is cruelty free.  Thats probably the only thing that this little no-name company and Jeffree Star, who's name is synonomous with liquid lipstick have in common.  Let's see how they turned out:

The swatches on the left are wet, and on the right they are (mostly) dry.  True Love is on the left and Unicorn Blood is on the right.  I wanted to save the Jeffree Star, which I have been wanting, literally for ages, for last, so I tried the True Love first.

Its a traditional doe foot applicator, and though I had been warned that the forumla was really sticky, I didnt find that to be the case any more than any other liquid lipstick.

For a color that costs about $2, I was really pleased with how it turned out! Once it dried, which took really no time at all, it was totally matte (why they call it a "lip gloss" I couldn't say, there is nothing glossy about this at all) and I was really amazed with the staying power.  Like, really amazed.  I ate and drank and still had to put in some elbow grease with the makeup remover to get it off.  The only  real downside is the smell, which is sort of plastic-y and chemical smelling.  Its not great.  You really cant have everything though.  And for the price and the color payoff, I can live with it.

Up next after that I was SO excited to try the Jeffree Star.  Once I got into makeup, his was one of the first names I learned.  He is basically THE liquid lipstick guy.  I can think of about 10 shades of his that I would love to own right now, but Unicorn blood has always been the one I wanted to try first.  I just fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  Its a dark sort of rusty brick red, which, as we move into pre-fall, is a color that stays on my mind.

The first thing that I noticed is that Jeffree Star is really similar to Colourpop, in that it puts the liquid in liquid lipstick.  It applies with a watery consistency, which I have ever only seen in Colorpop colors.  It also has an applicator that is different from a traditional doe foot:

Jeffree is on the right, and the applicator is shorter, and wider and fuzzier, for lack of a better word.  It also curves out more than a regular applicator.  I actually found it a little bit more difficult to apply, with the larger applicator and the super liquid consistency  of the product.  I had to do a few layers, because the application was a bit streaky.

Once it dried though, it was heaven.

I didn't really pick up any of the red tones when I swatched it on my hand, but once I applied it, I felt like I could see the red (as opposed to brown) very easily.  It also has sort of a fun root beer smell, which I enjoy.  Not all of his lip colors has a scent, and I wasn't thinking this was one of the ones that did, but I guess I was wrong.  I was really impressed by how the color dried.  I do find it a tiny bit sticky, but nothing horrible.  The Madly Matte is a little bit on the drying side, but I didn't find the Unicorn Blood drying at all.

I think its really funny that I would get both of these on the same day, because, as brands, they are totally dissimilar.  I really enjoy them both though, and will definitely be ordering more colors from both companies!

This is pretty cool

I didn't write any of this, obviously, but I think its fascinating.  Here is the article, and here is the actual archive.  Enjoy!

Wet n Wild Megaslicks Lip Gloss

Having the limp plumping lip gloss on made me remember my 20's, so I was thinking about taking it even further back to when I was a kid.  As any child of the 80's and 90's would remember, that means Wet n Wild.

Its on the lower end of the drug store price point, and it is a company that is very proudly cruelty free.  Because of these two things, I decided I wanted to show them some love and try out some of their glosses.  I happed to be at Walgreens this morning, getting stuff for our 4th of July BBQ, and my daughter grabbed one off of the shelf.  She loves makeup like her mama, and so I grabbed some more so we could do some swatching this morning.

As a side note, if there is anyone else out there with a young daughter who loves makeup, but would make a mess if she got ahold of any of the real stuff, let me highly recommend this project!  Halo's baby sitter has been amazing over the course of the last week and has made Halo one compact or another basically every day.  She loves them and I have to say, the foam really does feel real.  Here is my girl with one of her makeup compacts (the eyeshadow sections are foam, and the big triangles are dried nailpolish- it really does look like lipgloss!)

But I digress.

I ended up getting four of the Wet n Wild colors, with Halo's help picking them out.  I got Cherish, Great Coral-ation, Bronze Berry, and Red Sensation. 

As you can see, all of the colors are pretty sheer.  All of the colors except Great Coral-ation have shimmer to them, where the coral is just shiny, if that makes sense.  The only one that really has any deep color is the red and when I swatched it, the first thing I thought of was Kat Von D's Adora. 

After swatching all four, I didn't think I would like the pink (Cherish) and the coral, because they just didn't seem to have any color payoff, but on, they may be the ones I like the most.

Cherish

Great Coral-ation

This one really doesn't have any color.  Its basically clear gloss with maybe a hint of tint.

Bronze Berry

Red Sensation

The red one is definitely more opaque than the others but I am not sure it is quite as pigmented as it looks in these pictures.  I did find all of the colors to be a little unwieldy and they didn't apply super evenly, still, for less than $2, it is hard to complain.  Other than the red, I think the others could be really pretty over other lipsticks which is how I plan to wear them.  They are a bit on the sticky side, but do feel moisturizing.  I got them on sale, for $1.50 each, and for that kind of investment, I think they're not too bad.

Buxom Full On Lip Polish in Dolly

I think I've been at Ulta something like five out of the last seven days.  I'm a sucker for a deal and a coupon and Ulta's been putting out a lot of both of them recently.  I got one the other day that said members can receive a free Buxom lip gloss with any purchase.  That deal is going on until July 9th, by the way.

Buxom isn't a brand that I have ever tried before.  Its one I've looked at a lot, but never gotten around to trying.  It is cruelty free though, so I was going to get around to it eventually.  And far be it from me to ever say no to a free lip product. 

Here's how Buxom describes Dolly:

Plumping lip glosses were super popular about 10 years ago.  They used cinnamon oil or menthol to create  an irritation of the lips or a vasodilation effect— a widening of the blood vessels. Vasodilation occurs when the smooth muscle cells within the blood vessel walls relax and expand. Plumpers that work via vasodilation, “increase the blood circulation in lips, and make them look fuller with the appearance of being plumper.”  So, the first thing I thought of when I tried this out, was how much it reminded me of those lip glosses from the early 2000's.

The formula smells like coffee, which is interesting, there aren't too many glosses that smell like that.  Its usually vanilla or some type of fruit. The coffee flavor is strong, but not overpowering. I didn't dislike it.  I definitely started to feel the tingle right away, though I don't know that I feel like it made any big changes to my lip shape.  It does sting a little, but not enough to make me want to take it off, and there have definitely been some over the years that have been too strong for me to wear.

When I put the gloss on, I was already wearing Solow and Colourpop colors are hard to get off.  Though Buxom describes Dolly as mauve in color, it look pretty sheer to me once I pulled the applicator out of the tube.  I figured I would just apply it over the Solow because they seemed like they'd go well together:

As much as I hate any kind of shine (most of the time) with reds, I kind of love it with nudes.  Especially in the summer time, when I try to wear some warmer tones, the glossy nudes look fresh in the warm weather.  I actually really liked the way this looked.

The formula is thick and sticky.  It doesn't feel so great, and its definitely the type of formula that if the wind blows, your hair is going to get caught in it.  I have yet to really find a lip gloss where that isn't the case though. 

I got the gloss on Friday, and we ended up going out Friday night as well.  Most of the time I try to keep my makeup pretty low-key when its hot and I'm going to be outside because it is really unpleasant feeling like my face is going to melt off.  Its also so humid in Kansas that my skin feels damp almost as soon as I step outside the door, so it isn't really the type of weather for a full beat.  I did decide to wear the lip gloss on its own, with nothing underneath and see if I liked it on its own.

I feel like on its own, at least on me, it reads really pink and not mauve at all.  It looks mauve in the tube, but its really so sheer I wasn't expecting any color at all.  I still feel like it gave off a good amount of shine, and its sheer enough that it could really be worn over anything.  Here is another one of it on its own though:

Buxom's Full-On Lip Polishes retail for $20 and come in over 100 shades.  They actually have one called Hailey, which is my name, though it isn't spelled the same.  Pretty color though.  I probably would not pay $20 for this product.  I own probably 75 lipsticks and probably 15 of them cost more than $20.  There are just too many good products that are more reasonably priced. $20 is a lot for such a sheer color.  If you are an Ulta Rewards member, you can get it free for the next week, and that I would definitely take adavantage of.