the Balm Meet Matt(e) Hughes Liquid Lipstick + bonus Matt(e) Trimony Eye Palette

Who has heard of the Balm before?

I am sad to say that I didn't know about them until today.  I had seen something on Instagram about the Nude Dudes palette, and I remember liking the packaging, not because of the guys, but really because of the sort of vintage feel of the packaging.  I love vintage and vintage inspired makeup.  I happened to be out shopping today, and saw more of that vintage style packaging in the form of this sign on the wall:

Liquid Lipstick? Vintage packaging? Clearly, we had to get to know each other better. 

the Balm is a Los Angeles based company that was started, essentially, in 2004 by Marissa Shipman.  You can learn more about here team here.  I made a commitment a few months ago to only buy cruelty free makeup going forward, and beyond that, I prefer to support women owned businesses, and American businesses, so this one hit all three.

I also decided to try out one of the eye palettes, because the packaging suckered me in with how cute it was:

The Matt(e) Trimony palette will run you $42 for nine colors and though I think they are very, very pretty and velvety, for me, that feels like too much.  You can get a Morphe palette with a gang more colors for about half the price, so I am not sure I'd splurge here, unless you are just dying to have this palette.  I have the colors on in these pictures, so check them out, and do what you will.

Having said that, the real super star is the liquid lip.  Oh. My. Gosh. Love.

First off, look at this color selection:

I would have loved to have taken them all home, but that was more than my watch and my pocketbook would allow, so I narrowed it down to three in the shades Adoring, Charming, and Trustworthy.

The top swatches are wet and the bottom are dry. The mauvy color on the left is Charming, the brownish color in the middle is Trustworthy, and the berry color on the right is Adoring.  I love them all.  I don't know that I feel like lipstick is the right word though.  To me, they feel more like a stain, especially Charming and Adoring, which I put on several layers of.

Having said that, I really enjoy the formula.  It smells amazing!  It has this fantastic sort of mint chocolate chip smell, and the smell really lasted.  I kept wanting to smell my lips, and I left the swatches on my hand, because they just smelled so good for the rest of the day.  Even after washing my hands several times, I could still smell the lipstick.  It faded over the day, and eventually smelled just like MAC Russian Red, which I don't wear anymore, since MAC isn't cruelty free, but I do still love the smell of. 

So, this is Charming, and it is!  I really love it!  It took some layering to build the color, and to keep it from streaking, I had to massage it into my lips, as Jeffree Star says, but once it was on, oh man, I absolutely loed the color.  Its sort of mauve and pink and awesome all at once.  I seriously wanted to wear all three of the colors all day.

I think Trustworthy might actually be my favorite, because look at this brown goodness!  I never look good in brown lipstick, but I actually really loved the way this one looked.  It had just enough pink it in it that I didn't look asinine, but I think it would be incredible on a variety of skin tones.  It was really hard to pick which pictures I wanted to use for this color.  I took a million, and even though I looked goofy in several, I just loved the lip color.  Amazing.  Brown on me.  Who knew?

When I picked Adoring, I really thought it was going to be a traditional bright red, but it actually turned out to be more of a berry color.  It is really, really thin compared to the other two, and it took many, many layers to build up the color.  Once I did, I actually loved it.  I don't often wear this sort of dusty rose color, but it was really fun.  Pink might be the new red for me, and I feel like thise color is a great place to start.

None of the colors felt overly drying, in fact, they had a good bit of moisture in them.  And they were just so pretty.  Those packaging designers at the Balm are killing it, I tell ya.

There are 12 total colors in the line, and if the first three are any indication, I want to own the other nine as well.  They are so divine, and so much fun to wear.  If you feel like trying something fun and new and different, this would be a great lippie to try out!

Arbonne "Its A Long Story" Mascara

I don't talk much about eyelashes, but I'm pretty obsessed with them.  My real ones are short and blond.  My kids, lucky for them, have their dad's mile-long lashes, but it was not a gift I was given.  When I was a kid my dad always told me that wearing mascara would make my eyelashes fall out so I wasn't sure what to do.

I wrote awhile ago about getting my eyelashes lifted vs. my favorite mascara. It was actually one of my most popular posts, because a lot of people were interested in the lash lift.  I really felt like Benefit's They're Real was as good as the mascara game would ever get, and that the time was coming for me to just transition to false lashes.  I was wrong about They're Real though, its not the best one out there, Arbonne is.

You can see everything Arbonne has to offer here and the incredible Its A Long Story Mascara here.   I was lucky enough to be sent a variety of Arbonne products to try, and I am sure I will have more to say about Arbonne later, but I want to talk about this mascara right now because it is my FAVORITE.

Check out this creepy up close picture of my eyes:

You guys. 

I was amazed by this product!!  First off, it has he rubber applicator, which I love so much.  Everyone has their own thing, but I feel like the natural fiber brushes really tend to clump, and you can grab the little eyelashes better with rubber applicators. 

Probably though, my real favorite thing about this mascara is the way it feels.  Most mascara, but especially the They're Real mascara is super plastic-fantastic, and it feels like I'm wearing plastic lashes, they feel sticky and really unpleasant.  This mascara, on the other hand, feels almost soft. I don't know if its because Arbonne is vegan, so it just has less stuff in it, but it feels really good on.  It doesn't bother me or irritate my eyes at all during the day.  It also doesn't flake at all.

The only real downside is the price.  At $38, this mascara is pretty pricey.  Honestly though, you get what you pay for, and there is a reason this is the best mascara I have worn.  I was talking to my friend Angie tonight, and our sons' football practice and she commented that my eyelashes looked full but not heavy.  I think its an excellent way to describe this mascara.  It gives my lashes a really full look without looking like I have a bunch of stuff gooped on your eyes.  Also, you get quite a bit of product.  They're Real is .3oz and Its A Long Story is .42oz, so that's really generous amount. 

This was me first thing in he morning.  My face looks insane, but I was trying to really show the length that this product gave me.  Even better though, here it is eight hours later:

As you can see, its still in place, as strong as it was in the morning.  It didn't budge all day.  Yesterday was an emotional day with lots of laughter and tears both, and this mascara hung in like a champ.  And yet, and the end of the day when I was ready to remove it, it came right off.

You know me.  Cheap, frugal, thrifty, call it what you want.  I hate spending money.  I don't want to big money on makeup unless its going to be life changing.  This is life changing.  Its isn't a lash lift, and it isn't falsies, but in terms of eyelashes that come out of a tube, it really doesn't get better than this!!

Beauty Bakerie Lip Whip in Mon Cheri

I have been excited to try Beauty Bakerie since the day I found them on Instagram.  The colors are so bright and cheerful, and everything I have read online says that this is a product that lasts. I was gearing up to really, really like this right from the start. When I went on the Beauty Bakerie Blog, the very first post was about their commitment to cruelty free beauty, so it really seemed like a match made in heaven.

When I read more about the company, and the owner, Cashmere Nicole, I fell even more in love.  Lovelies, this lady is the real deal.  A single mom, a cancer survivor, and someone who built her own company.  To the point that Beyoncé took notice.  The Beyoncé. Queen of my heart Beyoncé.  Frankly, anything that is good enough for The Queen is good enough for me.  You can read more about Beyoncé's admiration for Ms. Nicole here.  Not only is Cashmere Nicole stop traffic gorgeous, she built her company from nothing and really made it successful, and she did it all while battling breast cancer and raising her daughter solo.  She's so much cooler than I will ever be.

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I hate buying products I cannot try on first.  Especially when they are on the pricier end like this one is.  I just don't know if I am going to like a color or a formula.  The fact is though, I am running out of colors and brands to try at Ulta and Sephora.  I've worn damn near all of them, ya'll, which means I'm forced to branch out.  When I try  new product, I tend to go for a bright red, because I know that I like the way I look in those, so its the safest bet.  And then I can branch out from there.

Beauty Bakerie has undergone a packaging re-design since its inception, and I really think it has turned the cuteness factor up to 11.  The old packaging was plain and black, and didn't really fit with the idea of baked treats, but the new packaging is totally cute:

So, A+ to the packaging designers.  In search through the website, it didn't take me long to pick out Mon Cheri as the color I wanted to try.  The website describes it as a "classic red" and I would agree, though on me, I think it has the tiniest hint of pink.

For the $20 plus $5 shipping you will pay, you get 5mL of product.  To me, if feels like a decent amount of product.  Its about the same size as my Creeper, and I feel that they are some of the bigger tubes of liquid lipstick I have. 

So, the question becomes, can Beauty Bakerie live up to its hype?  If you google the reviews, everyone raves about Beauty Bakerie, about how its smudge proof, kiss proof, and lasts all day without re-application.  And then they go on and one about how you cant take it off at all without heavy duty makeup remover.  So what did I think?

I was surprised by the texture.  With a name like Lip Whip, I was expecting a more mousse like texture.  That's probably my fault, because I don't know how you could get a matte mousse.  The texture is actually really watery and thin.  It isn't Colourpop watery, where you have to be careful not to tip the tube sideways, because it will spill, but its thin.  I was actually really surprised by how opaque the color was, given the watery nature of the product.  I was not able to do my full lips with one swipe, it took really three to get everything covered. 

I was also really surprised by how tacky it was.  None of the reviews mentioned the formula being sticky, but I found it to be both sticky and drying, which seemed like a really weird combo.  I can safely say I don't enjoy the feel of it on my lips. 

I am okay suffering for beauty though, so I decided to go ahead and do the full eight hours of wear to see how it held up.  The first thing I noticed when I got to work (I'd had the lipstick on for about 20 minutes) is that there was a slight transfer from my lips to my smoothie straw.  It wasn't a lot, I'm being really nit picky, but it was there.

I also swatched the product on my hand, along with Creeper, since the colors look so similar to me, to see how they wore during the day with me wearing lotion, washing my hands, etc.  So, here is that little spoiler alert, Creeper on the left and Mon Cheri on the right.

On the left is first thing in the morning, eight hours later is on the right.

So I wore the lipstick all day and never touched it up or did anything to it.  I did notice that the tackiness almost totally went away by the afternoon, but it was still very drying.  I would really want to put a moisturizer on under it, but the Beauty Bakerie website says if you do that, their product wont work right.  So what's a girl to do??

Here we are at the end of the day, about eight and a half hours after I first put the product on.

As you can see, the product is completely worn from the interior of my lips.  I'm pretty sad, actually, with how poorly it held up.  Also, because I was busy working all day and never really looked in a mirror, so my co-workers got the treat of me looking like I had a bad ombre job.  Also, it supposedly doesn't come off without big bad makeup remover, but when I wiped my hand across my mouth (albeit with pressure) it looked like this:

So... I mean... parts of it didn't come off.  While I would rate the staying power as pretty good (as long as you remember to touch up the middle) for me, it didn't live up to the hype.  I really didn't like the formula, and I didn't think the staying power was all that much greater than other brands.

So, I don't know.  I really want to like this company, I think the owner is amazing.  I think the product is adorable, and all of the other reviews online seem to rave about how amazing it is.  So maybe I just got a bad batch? I don't know.  Part of me wants to try again, but $25 is a lot to pay for one tube, of a product I'm not really sure I like.  So, we'll see.  Maybe one day, but sadly, probably not soon.

Pretty color though.

Birthday Treats: Urban Decay + Marc Jacobs

Some people get excited about getting resteraunt freebies for their birthdays.  This girl? Free makeup, thanks!  Both Ulta and Sephora offer free makeup to people on their mailing lists, which I think is awesome. 

Ulta gifted me with an Urban Decay eyeshadow in the shade Urban Cowboy, and Sephora, who, in all honesty I have bought very few things from this year, gave me Marc Jacobs Le Marc Crème Lipstick in the shade Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Crayon eyeliner in Blaquer.

 I'm pretty sure my birthday gift from them cost more than what I have spent there this year.  Which makes it all the cooler that they would still send me the coupon to redeem.  At any rate, I was super excited to get them all.

So, first, the eyeshadow.  It is a really, really pale color, as you can see, its not really all that different in base color than my own skin.  No matter how many layers I applied, I really couldn't see the color at all, other than the glitter.  I ended up blending it with a darker brown color I have in another palette, and even then, it was still difficult to see.  Urban Decay colors have a reputation for being really pigmented, but that isn't my experience with this color.  Even on a deeper skin tone, I think this would be a sheer color.

The only really visible part is the glitter.  It is really big and obvious.  If glitter is your deal, you will LOVE this.  I look like I got in a fight with Tinkerbell and I lost.

It is actually so much more glitter than my little iPhone camera can see, but believe me when I tell you, it was a lot.  I'm 35 now.  Its a lot of glitter for a work environment.

As you can see in these pictures though, the eyeliner is really doing its job.  I will say, this stuff applied like a dream.  It slides right one.  If you are going to splurge on something, eyeliner is a great choice.  You don't need to spend a lot of money to have a great lip.  There are thousands of inexpensive lipsticks that are stunning.  Eyeliner though? You can tell the difference between a budget brand and a prestige brand.  This glides on so easily, and even moreso than my other higher end eyeliners, it easily gets up in my waterline. 

Colorwise, its almost too black if there is such a thing.  It really went on strong, and here we are 12+ hours later, when all my other makeup has waved the white flag, this eyeliner is holding strong.  If you are looking for a super black, super easy to apply liner, this is an excellent choice, but if you are fairer skinned like I am, it might be a little much.

I do love the color of the lipstick.  It is sort of a mauvy-rose pink, and I think it would  be flattering on most anyone.  I'm not super in love with the formula though.  Its  a little bit dated and cakey.  It looked heavy on my lips, like stage makeup, and while I really liked how opaque the color is, the buildup against my lips was not my favorite.

These items all together run about $75.  Its so awesome and generous of these two companies to give them out for free as birthday gifts, and free makeup will always brighten my day.  Unfortunately, for me, all three products left something to be desired, and for that much money, I could probably find a lot of different products people would like more.