Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
The three semi-transparent Lip Glosses in Sigma Beauty’s new Enlight Collection fit with the collection’s neutral vibe.
Violet Hint, rosy Tint and plummy Tranquil hit the “your lips but better” bullseye, and because they’re very sheer, your natural lip color shines through, with just a hint of added tint.
Loading ...If you answered “F. All of the above,” DING-DING-DING-DING-DING! — you are correct. 🙂 There is such a thing as a perfect red lip.
Just ask Jouer.
Of course, said perfect red lips aren’t necessarily easy to find (it took me years!), but indie brand Jouer thinks they have some good leads, and they’ve put them in their new Perfect Red Collection.
I really like Jouer… They’re a small-ish brand out of SoCal, and I’ve been following them for a few years. If you like Kate Spade’s vibe — chic, sweet, feminine and fun, but not overtly frilly or afraid to wear color — I think you’ll like ’em, too.
Perfect Red’s premise is that you’ll be able to find your perfect red amongst the five lipsticks and two glosses in the collection. There are reds for cool skin tones, warm skin tones and a neutral shade that should suit most everyone. If you like pounds of pigment, go for one of the lipsticks, but if you like sheer shades on your lips, grab a gloss. Jouer even created a convenient flowchart to help you decide.
I have warm coloring, but I’ve tried all seven of these shades, and I have to say, I really don’t think you can go wrong with any of any of them. Yeah, the guidelines help, but I think the seven pieces are flexible and flattering enough to work with most skin tones.
Here are some general guidelines (but definitely not strict rules).
It took me a while to place it, but I think I figured out what the fragrant glosses in the new $39 Napoleon Perdis Merci Lip Gloss Collection remind me of, and when it hit me, I was like YES! Thank goodness for my basset hound-like sense of smell.
I may not be able see worth a damned (my eyesight’s crap, man), but at least I can pinpoint exactly what stuff smells like, which I’m sure will NOT come in handy when Z-Day goes down, but whatevs… At least it’s useful for figuring out fragrances, and these smell (and taste) exactly like fresh lychee, I kid you not.
I think the only reason I could place the scent is because I had them (lychee) last summer on Kauai. I bought a small bag at a farmers’ market to snack on at the beach.
There’s just something so…glorious about letting your muffin top hang out and eating fresh lychees at the beach. It’s right up there with the best of life’s most underrated pleasures.
But enough about fruit. I should probably get to the glosses… 🙂
These could almost pass for dupes of MAC Cremesheen Glasses, and that’s probably why I’ve been crushing on ’em.
I want to hang out with Edward Bess…
I mean, have you seen this man’s mane? It looks like it should be moving in slo-mo in a shampoo commercial with, like, birds singing in the background and sh*t.
We could hang out, talk hair, and chat about the $75 Edward’s Best 8-Color Lipstick Palette and how it’s creamy lipstick heaven in a pan. Eventually, I’d segue into my master plan to become the world’s first lipstick nomad/cat lady.
We’d be at Starbucks. I’d reach across the small table, take his hands in mine and say, “Edward, I think it would be really cool to travel the world with a whole cadre of lipsticks, like 100 of them, and take pics of myself wearing a different shade in every new location.”
He would respond, “That’s a wonderful idea, Karen. Let me help you…”
The pigmented lippies in this 8-pan palette could get me through at least one country — perhaps one with a dry, cold climate, since all of these are crazy moisturizing, and wearing them soothes my lips like ahhhhh.
“Edward,” I’d ask, taking a sip of my pumpkin spice latte, “may I french braid your hair?”
“Of course,” he’d reply. “You may.”
Shhh… I won’t tell if you don’t. Cross my heart and pinky swear. It happens to the best of us at least once this time of year.
You pick up a holiday set, like the $28 Stila Color Me Glossy Lip Glaze kit, and think, “Woo-hoo! What a great deal.”
You contemplate the set’s three trios and conclude that you could give two of them away and keep one for yourself.
Nothing wrong with that. 🙂 It’s totally cool.
That’s because this limited edition Stila set is designed for all kinds of gift-giving, even gifting to yourself. It comes with three separate trios with three Lip Glazes each.
Each trio even has a tag on which to write the recipient’s name, like “TO: Me, FROM: Santa.” How cute is that?!
Considering that one full-sized 0.08-ounce Lip Glaze regularly costs $22, the nine slightly smaller ones (0.05 ounces each) you get for $28 here seem like a steal (cue the endorphin rush)!
But beware the slippery slope of bargains like these…
It usually starts while you’re futzing with the separate sets, which in this case contain coordinating gloss colors.
You spot a color you like from one pack and a second color from another. Next thing you know, you’ve cherry picked the ones you want to keep for yourself!
Pretty soon half (or more) of them are sitting in your pile “to keep.”
At this point, feel free to blame it on the holiday makeup elves. That’s what I usually do. 😉
When it comes to lip products, “I’m not a player, I just crush a lot,” she said, quoting Big Pun as she poured her 40 on the ground (RIP).
This does not, however, apply to other aspects of my life, although it briefly did when I was in my early 20s. That’s when I had my YOLO moment and tried being a player. The results were…disastrous. (This was around the time I dated that boy I met dancing in the cage. Oh, gawd!)
I quickly learned that I’m built for long-term monogamy when it comes to real relationships, but I’m kind of a ho as it pertains to lip products. 🙂 I’ve been known to have a new crush every day!
Enter the cheeky new $45 NARS Guy Bourdin Promiscuous Lip Pencil set, which kisses lips this holiday season with five NARS Lip Pencil mini faves (all existing colors).
And the minis come in their very own black zippered makeup pouch, complete with shiny blue lips.
Um…weird! They look like my lips do after I have a blue raspberry Icee (I was craving one today).
I kind of wish the lips were red, though, like the box in the Fling set, but maybe that seemed too matchy-matchy to the peeps at NARS.
Whatevs, I think the set’s still more fun than Fling. It has more intense brights, like Cruella and Never Say Never.
The bulk of the set is comprised of colors from the Velvet Matte collection and ooh! — I love the textures. The pencils feel smooth on my lips, not heavy at all, and they aren’t the least bit drying. We’re talking very comfy mattes, and they last from 4-5 hours.
The Velvet Lip Gloss in the set, New Lover, has a shorter wear time of 2-3 hours, but I’m cool with that because I really like how it looks. It sure is shiny, and it’s nowhere near as thick or heavy as some glosses. It’s one of those great neutrals you can just throw on when you have to get up early for work but didn’t sleep well the night before.
But here’s a brief warning from one cat lady to another: if you’re wearing this, kitty fur will definitely cling to your lips. Yes, it’s kind of sticky.
I really like this set and can see myself wearing these glosses down to nubs, but since there are no new colors here, you may already have some of these shades in your kit.
I recommend it more for NARS newbies who want a grand tour of some of the brand’s greatest Lip Pencil hits. All in all, it’s full of win, even with the weird blue lips.
PRICE: $45
AVAILABILITY: Coming November 1 exclusively to Sephora and sephora.com
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A-
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
MMMWWAH!
I dunno… Do you think it’s too much to walk around with these red lips from the NARS Guy Bourdin Fling holiday gift set like this?
Too much?
It might be the closest I ever come to looking like one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (go team Vanderpump!).
The set’s called Fling, but I suspect a great many girls will want to go steady with it.
It features four lippies — pastel pink Roman Holiday Lipstick, dusty rose Dolce Vita Velvet Matte Lip Pencil, sheer grape Damage Lipstick and raspberry Baroque Velvet Gloss Pencil — in transitional colors that sort of skirt the line between traditional winter and spring shades (or perhaps summer and fall).
Never you mind that I’m 3,678 degrees of separation away from royalty. Even in glasses, my tow-up jeans with the hole in the left butt cheek, and my over-sized cat lady leopard sweater (yo, I’m stylin’ and profilin’ every day of my life!), I feel hella regal wearing Dior’s new $36 Diorific Lipstick in Royale. 🙂
Royale, a member of the House of Dior’s new Golden Winter holiday collection, pulls up to Dior counters in its royal carriage next month. A creamy neutral pink with little bits of golden glitter (visible to anyone who gets up in your grill, but not so much from an arm’s length away), it shimmers with secret lipstick sparkle.
Somebody hand me my scepter, and CHOP-CHOP! — make it snappy. I don’t remember where I left it, but it looks like this lipstick’s limited edition packaging. I know it’s around here somewhere… Like the lipstick, it’s gold, curvy and aristocratic.
By proclamation, as the ruler of the Empire of Messyofficia, I name Royale the Official Pink Lipstick of the Royal Court for the following three reasons…
