Covergirl Lip Lava Review

Do I recommend these?  No.

I’m just going to cut to the chase.  These are awful.  These are a sticky, globby mess.  The formula is thick and they feel thick on the lips.  You’re lips stick together as you talk.  They don’t feel nice at all.  I almost feel like my lips are suffocating.  This is exactly the reason I hate lip gloss.  I’ve heard that there are great lip glosses out there, but I’ve never found them.

Applying these can be a bit of a chore too.  The applicator is sort of brush like, it’s long and thin.  You’d think the brush-like applicator would make these easier to apply.  When I put these on, I feel like a kid who smeared my mother’s lip gloss all over my face.  A thing to remember with these is a little goes a long way and be sure to clean a little off the applicator.

I really wanted to try these because they remind me of the lip transformer type lip glosses.  The lip transformers seem so cool, and yet they look so much better in the tubes than they do on the lips.  I have two of these lip glosses.

Oh La Lava

On the website, the promo picture looks like a light, pale lilac kind of color.  In real life, this is a pink color with blue glitter (and possibly a bit of silver too).  The glitter is a lot more apparent in this shade than the other I have.

Look it’s Lava!

The promo picture is beautiful, it’s dark purple or even a maroon.  In real life, this shade isn’t as great as the other.  It looks very one-dimensional.  It’s a maroon or dark pink, I can’t decide.  The glitter is pink and there’s also some that’s either dark blue or purple.

Covergirl Lava Lip

I decided to try and do an ombre look with these glosses.  That was possibly not the best idea I’ve ever had.  The result was a bit of a mess.  I put the darker color around the edges and the lighter color in the center and tried blending them together with my finger.

Outdoor Light:  Oh La Lava and Look it's Lava! 

Indoor Light:  Oh La Lava and Look it's Lava!

Overall, I hate these.  These have really great reviews, but I’m not entirely sure why.  I wouldn’t recommend these to anymore.  I think they were a waste of my hard earned money.

Lipstick Mini-Haul (New at the Drugstore)

The other day I made a trip to Wal-Mart and treated myself to some lipsticks.  I picked up six in a mini-haul.  I haven’t worn these, but I did swatch them and already I’ve formed some opinions on these shades.

When I found out Burt’s Bees was coming out with some lipsticks, I was super excited.  I like the idea of their products being natural and the packaging is incredibly cute.  I really wanted Iced Iris and Tulip Tide.  They were unfortunately out of Tulip Tide.  I picked up Iced Iris and Fuchsia Flood.  I don’t like that these lipsticks don’t go all the way down in the tube and they don’t twist up normally.  You have to really work to twist these up.  I really think these are quite overpriced.

ICED IRIS

Brand:  Burt’s Bees

Price:  $9.00 (on their website)

Iced Iris was nothing like I expected.  With iced in the name, I really expected this to be a sparkly or shimmery shade.  It’s relatively normal in appearance with a slight shine.  The packaging and label are a beautiful shade of pink, but the actual lipstick is hardly the same color.  I always love pastel pinks, this isn’t really that much of a pastel pink.  These natural type lines never really seem to come out with good pastel pinks.  This lipstick needs a lot of building up.

FUCHSIA FLOOD

Brand:  Burt’s Bees

Price:  $9.00 (on their website)

Fuchsia Flood.  I don’t really have a lot to say about this.  It’s not as hard to build up and it seems more true to color.  I feel like this one isn’t going to get that much use from me because the color is just kind of... eh...  I bought it for review.

I also found some new lipsticks from Hard Candy.  I picked up three of the ones that come in the adorable little tins and one from their Fierce Effects line.  The tubes remind me of the Revlon matte liquid lipsticks.  The Revlon one has .2 fluid ounces and the Hard Candy ones have .23 ounces.  The Hard Candy ones feel significantly lighter, they’re as light as a feather.  The Hard Candy ones are actually matte while the Revlon ones have to dry for hours. Just remember, these are only available at Wal-Mart.

CHALKIN’ PINK

Brand:  Hard Candy (Fierce Effects)

Price:  $5.00

First impression, I love this.  The packaging is so cute and sleek.  Black with rhinestones and they even put the color on the top.  It’s a pastel pink with a bit of purple.  I’ve only swatched it but my initial opinion is that it seems to feel nice.  It doesn’t go all the way down into the tube but doesn’t stick up as much as the Burt’s Bees ones.  It has a heavy weight to it.  The color is similar to Nyx Macaron in Rose, but I like the formula better.

SWEET PEA

Brand:  Hard Candy (Velvet Mousse)

Price:  $6.00

This is a beautiful pastel pink.  I was a little worried that Iced Iris and this were going to end up being dupes for each other.  It matches the packaging to the Iced Iris but is more true to color.

HIBISCUS

Brand:  Hard Candy (Velvet Mousse)

Price:  $6.00

Looking at the packaging, I honestly thought this was going to be more pink than it is.  This shade is actually more of a coral type shade.  It’s really pretty, I just wish I’d known.  You can open the tins and see what colors these are, but I didn’t.  I just judged them based on the packaging.

WISTERIA

Brand:  Hard Candy (Velvet Mousse)

Price:  $6.00

This is a beautiful, vampy dark purple shade.  I have several purples and quite a few dark purples, but I do believe this is the darkest of them all.  This shade almost seemed black when I first swatched it.  I also think this is the most pigmented of my dark purples.  Some of my dark purples, you see the lips through the color and I didn’t really see this one doing that.

Iced Iris, Fuchsia Flood, Chalkin' Pink, Sweet Pea, Hibiscus, and Wisteria

Stay tuned for more in depth reviews of these colors.

Here I compared Chalkin' Pink to Saint Germain (bottom left) and Nyx Macaron Rose (bottom right)

Monday to Friday: My Lipstick Challenge

So last week, I proposed a challenge to myself.  I would wear lipstick everyday for a week.  Seven days of lipstick, seven different colors.  I also did seven different brands but that really wasn’t part of my challenge.  Since I work from home, I don’t always have a reason to wear makeup everyday.  I’d hate to just waste it by wearing it around the house.  But I did my challenge and I had some fun doing it.

My challenge began as a Monday to Friday kind of thing, but I ended up doing better than I could have expected.

Buxom Wicked Pink

SUNDAY

Sunday, I wore Buxom’s Wicked Pink.  A little self-gift for Valentine’s day.  This one is probably the newest to my collection and is a beautiful color.  It had me from hello, I knew I just had to get it once I saw that beautiful color.  It’s got a nice feel to the lips as well as being a beautiful color.

BH cosmetics Boom

MONDAY

Monday, I wore BH cosmetics Boom.  This is one of the lipsticks I got for Christmas.  It’s a nice neon, pastel pink.  It’s from the Artpop line and one of three colors I have from this line.  These lipsticks apply opaquely and have a really nice feel.  They are a great deal and I recommend them for any lipstick lover.

Wet N Wild 104

TUESDAY

Tuesday, I wore Wet N Wild Natural Blend in 104.  These have names that are found on the packaging and you have to remove the packaging to use the product.  I believe this one might be called Tart.  These are nice, opaque tinted lip balms.

Mac Long Legged and Fabulous

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, I wore Mac Long Legged and Fabulous.  This is a pastel pink.  This isn’t the best Mac lipstick.  It doesn’t go on as well as some of the others I own and wears patchy.

Maybelline Pink Sand

THURSDAY

Thursday, I wore Maybelline Pink Sand.  This is an old favorite of mine.  I wore this almost everyday of high school.  I love the Maybelline lipsticks and this one is especially creamy.  I recently had to replace my old one, so I am more than ready to dig into this one.

Revlon Coquette

FRIDAY

Friday, I wore Revlon’s Coquette.  This is a nice tinted lip balms.  Revlon has a lot of really nice lip balms.  This one is from the lacquer collection.  It’s a dark pink with a bit of shimmer and leaves a slight stain behind when you take it off.

YSL 19 Fuchsia in Rage

SATURDAY

Saturday, I wore YSL Fuchsia in Rage or 19.  This is another lipstick I got for Christmas.  I can now officially say I’ve tried all of my YSL lipsticks.  This lipstick is darker and more purple in the tube than it is on the lips.  I really like these YSL lipsticks but I’m not sure they’re worth the price tag.

Top, Left to right:  BH cosmetics Boom, Wet N Wild 104, Mac Long Legged and Fabulous, Maybelline Pink Sand, and Revlon Coquette
Bottom: YSL 19 Fuchsia in Rage and Buxom Wicked Pink

Bite Amuse Bouche Lipstick

I had been waiting to write this until I got a chance to try the lipstick in person, but I’ve been patiently waiting and these still haven’t appeared in my local Sephora.  I really love a lot of these colors so I can’t wait to waste my money on even more lipstick.  There are roughly 34 lipsticks at $26 each.

For those unfamiliar with Bite beauty, they are a company who use only food grade ingredients in their lipstick.  These means the lipstick is healthier than your average chemical based lipsticks.  What Bite has really been missing is a good, permanent lipstick line.  This line is varied and certainly provides a color for every shade preference.

I, of course, love Souffle.  Those pastel pinks, but you only need so many of those shades.  And I probably don’t need another.  Dragonfruit, described as a magenta violet, might be something I don’t already own.  I do have quite a few magenta type shades though and I don’t even reach for those anymore.  Decisions, decisions...

Bite Souffle

Bite Spritzer

Bite Dragonfruit

Bite Ginn Fizz

Bite Persimmon

The reviews say these are creamy, moisturizing, and well-pigmented.  The good reviews far outway the bad, so it looks like we have a pretty, solid product.

I Wore Blue Lipstick... The Results were Unexpected

I wore blue lipstick and the results were unexpected.  The blue I wore was a lighter blue, unlike the azure trend we looked at earlier this week.  I actually wore the Lime Crime lipstick No She Didn’t (I know.  I know.  The drama.), but it was what I had.  No She Didn’t is not as soft as your tradition lipstick which makes it harder to apply.  So, I paired it with Mac’s Pervette with barely affected the color but did make it creamier and easier to spread.

I put on the color and went to work.  I stopped by Walgreens and the first person who walked past me gave me a strange look, right as I had to sneeze.  I’m not sure if she got a good look at my lips, but she was the only person who seemed to react to me that outing.

I expected people to be surprised or stare.  I didn’t get any of that.  If I had thought people would act like this was Salem and I was a witch, I didn’t get that either.  I’ve worn some unexpected lip colors before, but nothing like this.  This was a pastel blue, this was strange.  Yet, the reactions were nothing.

Walgreens’ employees didn’t even seem to look my way.  Neither did my fellow customers.  Neither did the Brink’s guy.

When I got home, I ran into my sister who’s been staying with us as she tries to find another job.  Her eyesight is fairly bad without her glasses and she was giving me a strange look as she tried to figure out what exactly it was that was different about me that day.

“Are your lips blue?”

“Yes.”

“I couldn’t figure out if that was your teeth or not.”

I was actually a little embarrassed and felt really strange wearing blue lipstick.  It wasn’t that bad.  My advice, wear what you love and own it.  I don’t think anyone will judge you.  Believe me, I do strange things with makeup for a living, almost everyone has been cool.

The only bad reaction I’ve ever gotten was for wearing a blush that was completely wrong and not having time to fix it before I had to leave.  I looked terrible, the blush was terrible.  I’m not mad at the blush, I don’t blame myself.  Sometimes things don’t work out, but you never know until you try.  The great reaction I got makes me think about wearing blue again.

Smashbox Insta-Matte Lipstick Transformer Review

Smashbox Insta-Matte Lipstick Transformer

Yesterday, I got a chance to try the Smashbox Insta-Matte Lipstick Transformer.  I didn’t really expect to like this as much as I did.  Now, I feel like I need this in my life.  So, I’m going to issue a warning.  Warning:  If you don’t want to mistake makeup for magic, you might now want to get/try this product.

I had a few misconceptions about this product and I feel like we should talk about that first.  I don’t know why, but in my mind, this was going to be like a lipgloss.  I thought it was going to be sticky and goopy and have a weird feeling.  I actually thought it felt really nice.  This wasn’t sticky or weird feeling and it even seemed to be a little hydrating, which surprised me.

Application.  Apparently, people have been having trouble with application.  In true fashion, I seemed to have accidentally stumbled upon the correct application process (similarly to how I’ve been baking for years without knowing that was a thing).  The instructions seem to say to apply generously which apparently causes problems, but I put a dab on my finger and applied that way.

How did it perform?  Amazingly.  It was like magic.  I thought maybe you would apply it and it would dry down to a matte finish.  I have a matte fingernail polish and it is thick and takes forever to dry, so maybe I thought the lip product was going to be like that.  But it wasn’t.  It works instantly.  And just a little dab gets the job done.

I layered this on top of three Smashbox Be Legendary Cream Lipsticks.  I wanted to try it with lip products I actually owned, but it was a Smashbox preview so I just grabbed what was handy. I wanted to try this with Pout, those pastel pinks get me every time, but they didn’t have a Pout tester.  I tried this with one nude shade, a pink, and I grabbed a more red shade.  The red shade turned out not to be as true a red shade as I thought at first but I actually really like the color.  It was Fig and I kind of want it.

Smashbox Audition

Audition is described as a neutral rose, I thought it was a pinkish nude.

Smashbox Panorama Pink

Panorama Pink is described as a true pink, it was the only pink they had available for swatching.  I’m honestly not sure how many pinks they have in this line as I’m not familiar with it.

Smashbox Fig

Fig is described as a red grape, which I think is a good description of the color.  It was like a dark magenta kind of color.

Smashbox Panorama Pink, Audition, and Fig

The lipsticks are $21 each.  They are creamy and very glossy.  In the swatches, I tried to keep the bottom of the swatches free of the Lipstick Transformer so you could see the glossiness.  I don’t know how well that shows up on camera.  The Insta-Matte Lipstick Transformer is $24.

Overall, I think I've already established I love this stuff!!! I do however question it's usefulness for me personally. I already have so many matte lipsticks.

Covergirl TruNaked Nudes Palette Review

Covergirl Nudes Palette

I found a display for the Covergirl truNaked eyeshadow in Nudes.  This isn’t really something I would buy myself or use, I just don’t use these type of shades.  I was actually really impressed by the quality of these.  They weren’t the world’s greatest shadows, but they performed nicely.  I’m not aware if these have names so we’ll just refer to them by number, 1 being the lightest and 8 being the black shade.

Swatches of Covergirl Nudes palette

Shade 1

Shade 1 is a whittish-nude shade.  This one needed a little building up but looked beautiful once it was built up.

Shade 2

Shade 2 is more of a buff nude shade.  This one also needed a little building up but also looked beautiful.  This shade is the kind of shade that more blends into the skin, looking extremely natural.

Shade 3

Shade 3 is a rosy-gold shimmer shade.  This one was my favorite and also applied the best, with one swipe it was opaque.  This shade reminds me of Urban Decay’s Sin and Mac’s Phloof.

Shade 4

Shade 4 is light chocolatey brown.  This shade applied the worst.  It needed to be built up a lot and it was quite patchy.

Shade 5

Shade 5 is a frosty medium brown.  This shade was probably the second best.  It applied almost as well as Shade 3.  This shade reminds me of Mac’s Sable.

Shade 6

Shade 6 is a dark, more matte brown.  This shade doesn’t really stand out in my mind for being amazing or terrible, but it was alright.

Shade 7

Shade 7 is a dark, shimmery brown.  I didn’t really notice the shimmer when I was swatching these.  I don’t know if the shimmer is spray over or if the lighting concealed it, but I did really like this shade.  The only brown/nude eyeshadows I ever really wear are darker browns like this which I really like using as a crease color.  I really liked this one, but it’s nothing I don’t already own.

Shade 8

Shade 8 is a black matte color.  This shadow kind of surprised me.  I wasn’t expected a matte drugstore shadow to show up so well.  It was a little muted, it wasn’t a strong matte black.  It still showed up nicely and can definitely be used to deepen up the crease. I would also like to point out the swatch was a little difficult to get off which usually means strong staying power.

Overall, I thought this palette was nice.  This palette is somewhere around $10 to $15 depending on where you get it from.  I think that’s a fair price.  I was looking at these at Walgreens yesterday and saw an inhouse $2 off coupon for any Covergirl product.  They also finally got the Star Wars stuff in my area, I thought that stuff came out months ago.  Life where I live, sometimes you get stuff months later.  No idea why, I don’t live in the middle of nowhere...