It’s that time of year again… <3

What shall I do with the nails for Valentines…Not too sure. But here are a few colours that I wanted to share.

First Up is American Apparel Nail Polish in Lipstick


I added a NOPI glitter on the accent nail. Anyway, this is a gorgeous red nail polish. Definitely something to look in to, though it does stain the skin when removing.

Second, we have a pink glitter gradient.




Sally Hansen HD Byte
China Glaze Innocence
Sally Hansen Xtreme Strobe Light
Wet n Wild Sparked
China Glaze Fairy Dust

I applied Byte a little messily about a 1/3 of the nail. Then I applied Innocence over, which helped smooth out the rough edges of Byte, and give it a more gradient look. I applied Strobe Light to half of the nail, then applied Sparked to the tip. I finished it off by applying a coat of Fairy Dust to the entire nail.

Finally…Revlon Ruby Ribbon

This is a matte polish, but I applied a top coat…


This was a Christmas LE colour, but I found it at a Revlon sale that was held at the International Centre in Mississauga. Applies quite decently, though not a full matte. More of a shiner matte polish. It has subtle shimmer in it that doesn’t really show up until you apply a top coat. It isn’t a deep red, but a nice colour to wear as well.

Next…

Just a few colours I scrounged up. If I were to go all pretty lipped, I’d pick one of these. Seeing as I am just in classes the whole day, I think I probably won’t. I might contemplate the stained lip though.

Vasanti Denmark
Revlon Colorburst Ruby
NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil Deep Red
The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain

If you want something kiss proof, you wanna go for stains, or at least a good lip sealer. Also might want to dab a bit of UDPP on the lips before the application of the colour to make it last longer.

Is there a particular colour you will be wearing this Valentines Day? Or an anti-Valentines Day colour? Let me know :)

Skinfood Fresh Fruit Lip & Cheek…

I wrote about my first one HERE, but since I recently got another I thought I would tackle the task of swatching the ones I currently.

So, I loved Berry sooooo much, that I got a few more when I was in Korea, and when a friend of mine went to Korea.

Apricot is my newest acquisition.

I had completely forgotten that I had it, so…only started using it this past summer.

Just to show you how it looks without the lid. I start with small sections, and work my way across. Then if I need to I can also scrape it out.

I’m trying out a new way to apply creamy products for swatches, so they are applied rather thickly here.

These were taken indoors…
I blended out the bottom of them to show you how it sheers out a bit.

These were taken natural light on the cool side…dang winters.

Berry looks a little deceiving here. It isn’t as vivid as this, but enough colour for me to notice that it covers enough. This was the first colour I had originally tried from the line…and got hooked by. It opened the doors to…

Pomegranate. This one is a beauty. I love the look of it. Not too overpowering on my lips, but not subtle either.

I didn’t capture Apricot well enough. It actually is lighter than the picture on me. I find that it was too light and made me look a little awkward, like a nude lip that didn’t suit me at all. Which is why this stays pretty neglected.

I prefer to use these guys as lip products, however, I tote them around in the summer as they do double duty. I apply a bit to the cheeks, and also to the lips. A little tin that can be toted around for double duty is a way to decrease the weight in the makeup bag.

The negative is that it is a tin, and so if you leave it in the car…well…you just might want to avoid that. It was one of the reasons I lost my poor first tin.

I do find that they are slightly drying on the lips. You can kind of tell that my swatches get messier by the time I got to Apricot. I would balm up before application, but that also means that you are giving it more slip, and make the product sheerer. Otherwise wipe it off and then apply the product.

On my cheeks, I find it a little too oily. That isn’t to say that it is oily, but rather looks oily. So when I do use it, I blot it down, then apply a power to set it. Generally I try and avoid using it on the cheeks, just cause I don’t want to layer too much on the face.

In general…
I want more. Luckily my friend is going to Korea in the Spring, and I can bug her to haul the life out of a bunch of stores for me. They are 6000won in Korea, and that is roughly less than $6CAN (actually not sure of the rate right now…). They contain 6g of product, and like I said, a bit fun to use, even if they are in tins.

If you would like to see more pictures, I suggest this link HERE. It is in Korean, but pictures are wordless, and I think she did a great job capturing the colouring for blush as well.

Stila tried to Serenade me….

I cannot tell you how much it sucks to have too many lip products.

First they can be a pain to store, as they are all different shapes/sizes…
Second you forget what you have! (more so if you have horrible memory like I do…)

I was reminded that I have Stila’s Serenade when I saw JilloJello’s Birthday Haul Post (check it out HERE), where she picked up a lovely pink.

Funny how I was thinking…”oooh I like…I wonder how it is…”
Then having that remind me that…”oooh…crap…I have one of the other shades somewhere…”

Well this is Serenade…

0.04oz of product doesn’t seem like much, but for those who are Canadian the size of the Annabelle TwistUps are 0.05oz. So really it is more than enough.

This is actually quite a lovely colour, but my main con to it is that I personally find it too frosty for my full liking. I think the more I wear lipstick, the more I lean towards favouring those that are cream or mattes. The wear of it wasn’t too bad though, and seeing as I love lip crayons, this fit me quite well.

So in terms of price, and the fact that it is frosty, I would say that the Annabelle TwistUps are what I would purchase instead. They aren’t completely on the same level in terms of the actual product, as the Stila is more of a lipstick. However the pigmentation of the TwistUps are quite decent (at least from my use of Royale), which is why I would favour it.

 

Sephora Canada $26 – Murale $26 – Stila Website $20US

Gotta love mini’s: Stila’s Peony

I love mini’s of products. Actually I just like mini anything. Well…except dogs. I feel that they are too delicate, so I can’t play with them :(

But I will stick to the point right now…

I currently have my eye on the Tarte Fantastic Foursome 4-Piece Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush Enthusiast Set. You can check out JilloJello’s Tarte Mini set HERE. They are just too cute!

Not sure if I will get it, but I did try to satisfy the craving for more mini’s by looking into my stash.

And guess what?

I found stuff I should have used a while back >_<

So here is Stila's Convertible Color in Peony.
You can find them on the Stila Website, or at Sephora

Though I like using Fuschia on the cheeks, Peony wasnt all that lovely. On me, it looked a tad too greasy for my liking. So I kind of ignored it for a bit. However when I went back to look at it, I thought it might look nice as a lip colour.

(Upper lip bare, Peony on the lower lip)

Sure enough, it is a slightly more pinky version of my lips. Slightly brightens the lower part of my face. Not too shabby. Only problem is that I found that it accentuated my dry lips a little too much. So make sure you exfoliate, and prep before application.

As I was looking for additional swatches, I came across this tip! Basically take a blotting paper (unpowdered) and dab it on to the product. Whatever you lift off, you can use on your cheeks. Thought it was a great idea~ Check it out HERE