Urban Decay Dupe: NYX Liquid Crystal Eyeliner

Admittedly, I am turning into a magpie as I age.  Anything with glitter or sparkles, my eye is immediately drawn to.  Yes, I'm 35.  Yes, I do consider this a problem.  No, I don't plan to do anything about it.

I went to Ulta today for this. Admittedly, it is marketed towards teenage girls, but its a good price, looks like fun, and they had me sold at Gold Rock Foil Eyeshadow.  Despite Ulta's helpful store locator telling me that I could purchase my 12 Days of Beauty at the location nearest my job, I searched all over and there was none to be found.  I also couldn't purchase the eyeshadow I wanted individually, so, weak sauce, Ulta.

If you follow me on Instagram then you know I am higher level obsessed with Urban Decay Liquid Moondust Eyeshadow.  I feel like a jerk about it, because if ever there was a makeup product NOT made for soccer moms approaching middle age, it is this.  And yet, I love it so.  I'm not brave enough for liquid liner, but this one is pretty idiot proof and it comes in lots of pretty colors.  Here are two of them:

This color is "Recharged"

This color is "Vega"

I absolutely love them.  I could quite easily mess around and own every last one.  I always feel like kind of a jerk about it though, because they are $22 apiece.  Do you know how much makeup you could own for $22?  I mean, the entire 12 Days of Beauty is $18!  In my experience, often times, the prestige brands don't work any better than the store brands.  Much like with any consumer product, you are paying for the name and the packaging.  And the UD's are a fabulous little Treat Yo Self, because absolutely nobody needs $22 glitter liquid eyeshadows.

Since I was already there, and in need of some sparkle, I decided to check out the NYX area, because I had heard that NYX had come out with a similar product.  I'd been scared to try it because theirs is marketed as an eyeliner, while Urban Decay's is marketed as a eye shadow.  And while liquid eyeliner makes me super nervous, I aint afraid of no eye shadow (said in my best Ghostbusters voice.) 

NYX, in fact, makes a few different products that seem like this one.  The first, and the one you want, is NYX Liquid Crystal Eyeliner. Amazing.  And, at $4.49, a much better price.  The shade I watched was Crystal Pink and it was love at first sight.  Not only was the pigment lovely and metallic, but once it dried, that swatch was not moving.  It has been on my hand all day, through several hand washings, through cooking dinner and cleaning the kitchen, and it has not budged.   I was super sad to see though, that my local Ulta had let me down again, and while they had a tester, there were no Crystal Pinks for sale.  Sad, sad me.  

Directly to the left, I noticed a product in a slightly thicker tube.  This product was NYX Roll On Shimmer.  I didn't so much pay attention to the name at the time, though I wish I had.  I just swatched some colors, and, running short on time, and still mad that the other products I wanted were not available, I decided to get a few.  Though they roll on, they feel like a powder, like a traditional eyeshadow, not a liquid, and I was impressed with how pigmented they seemed.  I ended up getting Pink and Taupe.  

See? Really pigmented, right? Both of these cost me a whopping $6.60. 

Except not.  I had initially swatched the Taupe underneath my swatch of Crystal Pink.  When I got in my car, and buckled my seatbelt, my hand must have brushed against something, because when I pulled my hand back up, there was nothing left of the roll on shimmer.  I even took a picture, and because you will never find where the swatch once existed, I circled it for you.

Its like when you stare at a pregnancy test too long. You start to see where a line "should" be.

I was further disappointed when I got back to work, and read the name of the product, and realized that I had just purchased the little sister of the body glitter popular in my youth.  This is body glitter 2.0, except its in eye shadow form.  This eyeshadow has what I hope our next president has- no staying power.  (Ba dum bum ching!  See what I did there?  Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying, folks...)

So what should we take away from this?  Get the NYX Crystal Liquid Eyeliner.  Its just like the Urban Decay, except one fourth the price.  Both lines have a great array of colors.  They are literally the exact same amount of product at .17oz.  Both have incredible staying power and a metallic finish without being too much glitter.  I love them both, but I can have five NYX for the same price as one Urban Decay.  Sometimes its quality over quantity, and sometimes its not.

Fontella Cosmetics: Blessed + Clever + Sincere

Hello Lovelies!

I originally wrote this blog back in 2016.  Since then, Fontella has undergone a re-branding and has really beautiful new packaging.  The babes at Fontella reached out and asked if I would be willing to do a new review.  I did receive these lipsticks from the company free of charge; however, the opinions below are totally my own.

Long time no blog!  Sorry about that!  Around the end of September, life in our household went haywire and we are just now finding our footing again.  Also, the dog ate the charger cord to my laptop, and due to the afore mentioned craziness, I have just not been able to get my act together enough to go get a new charger, which means, currently, my laptop is a very lovely paperweight.  I miss blogging though, and, for today anyway, we’re not going to let anything like lack of electricity to a computer get in our way!

In 2016, my friend Alison introduced me, World Wide Web style, to her friend Imogene Dent.  The lovely Mrs. Dent (seriously ya’ll, she’s gorgeous!) was doing a demo of her new line of liquid lipsticks before the launch of her website, and I was lucky enough to get to participate.  

Mrs. Dent is a makeup artist by trade and she is quite talented at what she does!  You know there are few things I love more than supporting woman owned businesses, so I was definitely interested in what I was seeing!  Currently, her line includes twenty one liquid lipsticks in a wide array of colors.  They also carry two special collections, She Reigns and Expresso.  The Expresso collection is specifically designed to suit skin tones of women of color, and the shades are absolutely stunning!

To that end, one thing that I think is cool is that Mrs. Dent uses herself and other women of color to model the swatches.  There is a huge lack of diversity in makeup e-commerce, and I know that I have several friends comment that it is frustrating to try and buy colors online, because the models are all white.  Not the case with Fontella! 

When I placed my first order in 2016, shipping was incredibly fast.  I placed my order late Friday night and it was in my mailbox on Wednesday.  I can honestly say that nothing has changed since.  This has always been a company the values customer service and I have never once encountered an issue.


Today I'm going to talk about three colors:

Blessed a cool toned blue-red

Clever a cool toned pink

Sincere the website describes this one as "natural baby pink" but to me it looks much more like a darker brownish/nude

So the first thing I noticed when I opened the box is that the packaging has undergone a big upgrade!

See that little pink bunny at the bottom? That means that this product is vegan and no animals were harmed in the making of the product.  The exterior packaging is brightly colored with the same chrome highlights that match the lids of the lipstick.  

The tubes themselves have the smoked glass look on the bottom that almost gives the product kind of a retro vibe.  They feel solid in my hand, and not like something that is going to come apart and spill all over your purse!

I had to try the Sincere color first.  I'm never sure if nudes are going to love me as much as I love them, so I decided to put it on first and sit with it while I did my makeup.  When I pulled out the applicator to apply, I was really impressed with what I found:

It has a traditional doe foot applicator, but it has a really hard slant to it.  Many of them don't and it makes it harder to get the edges and corners straight.  Especially when you are wearing an unforgiving color like red, an applicator like this helps a lot!



I really love the scent of it!  It sort of had a root beer smell or a marshmallow smell.  It’s hard to describe exactly, but it sort of reminds me of the scent of Jeffree Star liquid lips, though not quite as strong.  The formula isn't too drying or sticky, which is damn near impossible with liquid lipsticks.  Imogene Dent knows what she's doing!

It does take a minute to dry and set, and you can build the color with a second coat.  I've worn each of the colors over several hours, and they do need to be reapplied (especially the red) after long periods of time or after eating.  You can do a touch up with the lighter colors, but with Blessed or another of the darker hues, its probably best to just start over.

Each tube will run you $15.00, which is probably in the higher end of the mid-range for this type of product.  The thing that impressed me the most was the ease of application.  I think it's worth the price though.  This is a quality product from a quality company, started by a woman of quality.

This is Sincere.  At first, I wasn't sure I would like it, its a little bit darker than the nude shades I usually wear, but the longer I sat with it, the more I love it.  This color is going to look darker on lighter skin tones and lighter on darker skin tones.  I know some women of color shy away from nudes that look lighter on them, but I don't think they should.  You can find this beauty on Instagram at @b.lynnmakeup and, I mean, I can't take my eyes off her! She looks incredible.

This is Clever. The stunner on the left is the creator of Fontella Cosmetics, Imogene Dent (find her on Instagram at @imogenethemua) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why it is so cool that she displays her lipsticks on models of color on her website.  White privilege can be hard to see while you're in it, and it is much harder for women of color to judge how a makeup color will look on them because many companies and websites only display the color on white women.  It's one of hundreds of little microagressions that women of color deal with on a daily basis and I commend Mrs. Dent for creating a space where that isn't an issue.

I also have to confess that Clever is my favorite, and has been a staple color for me for the last two years.  I wear it once a week at least, and use it in various ombre looks as well as mixing it with other colors.  If you scroll around my instagram, you will see Clever over and over again!

Last but not least, we have Blessed.  If you are new to the red lip game, or wary of such a bright color, look for one that describes itself as a blue red.  Blue red looks great on everyone.  Blue red makes your teeth look whiter.  It looks great no matter your age, no matter your skin tone, no matter what else you have one.  I promise you, if you step outside your door with a blue red lip, you will look like you have things handled and are living your life on purpose! Blue red has magical powers!

This particular blue red is a good one! The applicator makes it pretty easy to apply (don't get me wrong, its still red and will take a few practice runs) but isn't bad at all.  It wears well.  It isn't drying.  Its a great formula and it smells yummy!  This is a great red to make a commitment to!

Overall, I am really pleased with this product.  I definitely recommend that you check out her website.  She carries the more traditional pinks and reds, but also colors like green, blue, and black.  I'm passionate about supporting women owned businesses.  Mrs. Dent is a Saint Louis native, so we're practically neighbors.  She's put the work in to make a product that she can be proud of.  You can feel confident that shopping with Fontella means a quality, ethically made product.

The day that I got them I was so excited that I couldn't decide and ended up wearing Clever and Sincere blended together.   That one is definitely going to be a go-to combo as well!!

Happy Holidays xo