Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in 'Double Dare' and 'Lovesick'

 The liquid lipstick trend has hit the beauty world hard and I don't think its going anywhere any time soon. I decided to hop on this trend after thorough research on what I thought the best liquid lipstick formula would be for my dry, depraved lips. I settled on trying out Kat Von D's Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks due to their reputation of having a long-lasting and very comfortable formulation.  I settled on picking two neutral colors to try this trend out.

R: Lovesick, L: Double Dare

 I picked out 'Lovesick,' a mauve pinky nude, and 'Double Dare,' a dusty rose mauve. The products come housed in a slender plastic tube with ornate black designs on it. I like the sleek packaging a lot, and the slimness may make it seem like you get less product, you actually get 0.22oz of liquid lipstick which is double what you get in an Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipstick. The applicator is a standard doefoot applicator which I found very easy to use to get a relatively perfect application.

Top: Double Dare, Bottom: Lovesick

I love this product a lot.  I am someone who LOVES lipstick to death but can't be bothered to reapply it through out the day when it fades. I also have a profession that doesn't allow me to look in mirrors often or take frequent restroom breaks for touch ups so I tend to avoid putting on lip products at risk of fading or smearing in an unflattering way. I think this product solves this issue for me as I get a full 8 hours of wear time out of this lipstick with no touch ups needed. This stuff lasts through eating and drinking and best of all, it doesn't make my lips feel uncomfortable. I definitely wouldn't say that this lipstick makes my lips feel moisturized while I wear it, but I'm certainly not bothered by it.

As an added bonus, I noticed in the morning following wearing this product my lips always looked and felt very refreshed. After some light investigating I discovered this product is infused with Vitamin E and sunflower seeds which my lips apparently respond really well to!

I'm in love with these lipsticks and will surely pick up more shades in the future. It's a beautiful product that works and costs the fair price of $20 per tube. Its not cheap, but its not going to break the bank if I hold off on my normal Starbucks purchases for the week!

Find these liquid lipsticks HERE!

xxSJ

NARS Audacious Lipstick in 'Juliette'

audacious: adjective; showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks. 

NARS recently came out with their 'Audacious' line of lipsticks-- a line promising to be a 'modern lipstick that dresses up lips with bold coverage and ultrasoft texture.' With such high claims, I had to try this lippie out for myself! The color I tried is 'Juliette,' a  pinky coral color:

The bright lippie is housed in a super modern and sleek rectangular package. The NARS logo is both printed on the outside of the container in a matte black as well as lasered into the lipstick. The cap closes with a magnetic closure. The seal is strong so you won't have to worry about the cap slipping off in your purse.  This lipstick feels super weighty in your hands which I personally love. This lipstick is $32, so at such a high price point there better be some luxurious packaging!

The lipstick is a matte formula that is quite creamy on the skin. The color doesn't skip at all or apply patchily. On my hand, Juliette swatched as a warm coral with a lot of pink in it. On my lips, however, the color is very vibrant orange: 

natural lighting

This is why we try colors on in the store, people! This color was not what I was expecting it to look like (particularly because my sister wears this shade and it looks stunning on her!). The color certainly packs a punch and I found the wear time to be solid.  The matte formula was surprisingly comfortable (not moisturizing!) and the color was as NARS promised: bold! 

I do enjoy this lipstick and would like to pick out another color. I found it to be comfortable to wear and easy to work with, not to mention the packaging is so sleek and elegant!
The NARS Audacious lipsticks are $32 for 0.14oz of product and are an Allure best of beauty winner.

Check these lippies out at Sephora here!

xxSJ

Youtube Favorite: Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl in 'Nude'

This product has been so hyped by some of my favorite beauty girls on youtube its unreal! It is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Eye Kohl in the color nude.  Now you might be wondering, 'A nude eyeliner??? What the heck are ya supposed to do with a nude eyeliner??' Well let me tell you, not much. The purpose of nude or light colored eyeliners is to make your eyes look bigger by tightlining your upper lash line or lining your lower waterline. The nude color makes your lids kind of blend in with your eyeballs and creates the illusion of bigger, brighter eyes.

The concept is awesome and I've found it really does work. When I want to create the illusion of big and bright eyes, I usually just dab some light shadow on my waterline and it does the trick.  A pencil would be so much easier than precisely tapping shadow onto my lid, so I gave this product  a shot.  

This product is inexpensive at only $4. When I swatched it and played with the color it was very creamy (important for eye products! You don't want to have to pull on your delicate eye area too much if a product is too stiff!) and had nice pigmentation.

When I applied this to my waterline, I noticed it went on smoothly and gave that brightening effect that its supposed to create.
HOWEVER. Less than an hour later, this product was completely GONE. This is not a waterproof product because the wetness of my own eyes removed this right away from my eyeline. I know that the waterline is a tough area to maintain color or products, but its doable. This product unfortunately just doesn't get the job done. It might work for photos since it gives an immediate but short effect, but for day to day wear, this won't be a staple for me.

I'm so disappointed! I always feel kind of duped when a product is recommended by multiple people and it just doesn't work for me. It feels like a terrible joke.

I'll just have to stick with using my good old fashioned light eyeshadow in the waterline trick if I'm looking to create that doe-eyed effect!
xxSJ

Revlon Colorstay 24 Hour Foundation

I am on a quest right now to find drugstore/less expensive alternatives to some of my pricier staple makeup items. I'm going to graduate school soon which means imma be poor! Why the exclamation point about being poor?? Because when staring in the face of poverty and destituteness you gotta keep a positive attitude! WOOOHOO! My favorite foundation currently is the Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation. It leaves the most gorgeous finish and is full coverage while managing to maintain the appearance and feel of a lightweight foundation. I love it buuuuuut I don't love the $45 pricetag. In comes Revlon Colorstay 24-Hour Foundation:

I have seen this foundation listed on several 'Best Foundation' lists, drugstore and overall, so I decided to give it a shot. I LOVE the fact that it comes in two formulas, a dry skin formula and a combination/oily skin formula. I noticed there was a lot of color selection with different undertones as well which is so great!
PS Whenever I say 'so great' on this blog or in person I always think of Jimmy Fallon saying 'its so GREAT' in that special voice of his...anyone else? Anyone?

Mkay back to the foundation...
I selected the color 200 Nude for myself as it seemed light enough for me (almost the lightest color they offer, ahhh yisss) and also was less yellow-toned than some of the other lighter options.
My biggest (and maybe only) issue with this product is the packaging. While the glass container feels very nice and the screw-on cap feels like it securely tightens, this jar has no pump! Which means you gotta pour this stuff out on to something before you apply it. Here is my chosen method of application:

I pour a bit of product onto the back of my hand and then using my fingers I dab it all over my face. Using a Real Techniques expert face brush, I blend and buff this stuff into my skin starting from the center of my face and T-zone and working outwards. I'm still working out exactly how much of this product I need to cover my whole face, but a dime size amount seems to do the trick. The consistency of this is pretty liquidy, though I do find this foundation to be buildable.  The coverage is medium and this foundation does a fantastic job of not caking up at all.
Let me grace all of you with a before and after pic:

I know this picture isn't going to fit between the lines of my bloggy blog but I don't care, I'm makin' it huge anyway because you need to see the details! If you look at my forehead, this foundation does NOT cover up all of my freckles. It instead diffuses the colors a bit and makes my freckles and discolored spots far more muted. You can see the muting and blending effect most pronounced on my cheeks and chin area. I like this because I actually don't like when my freckles are completely covered up...I look like a China doll when I make my freckles disappear and its a couple shades of creepy.

I've been wearing this foundation for about two weeks and it has yet to break me out so I'm thinking this is a safe foundation for me! I've been wearing the Maybelline Dream Wonder powder on top and it pairs like a dream with this foundation.  I haven't tried to push the limits and wear this foundation for a whole 24 hours, but I CAN say that it lasts for at least 12 and through a strenuous work day.
This foundation was also only about $11 at my local Bed Bath and Beyond which I find pretty reasonable for such a lovely foundation.

Overall, I really like this product and can definitely see myself repurchasing this in the future. Does it completely trump my Laura Mercier Foundation? Mmmmmm maybe not completely... the LM Foundation gives a tiny bit better coverage. I honestly don't need that much coverage from day to day, and in fact maybe I only need it for special events. This Revlon foundation is perfect for day to day wear though!

I give this foundation an A+!

xxSJ