Plenty muchos NYX haulage (part 2)

Right then, as promised - let's get busy with the swatchy.

Now I've had more chance to play with the lip liners, it's not quite as bad as it could have been. I bought three colours; Citrine, Rose, and Cabaret.

L-R: Citrine, Rose, Cabaret

Citrine is a muted rosy plum with a hint of shimmer. As is typical of the NYX lipliners I already own, the shimmer means for better slip (and therefore makes me less inclined to feel the need to tear my lips off my face in a fit of scabby, itchy, moisture-sapped rage). But you definitely pay for it in longevity - but to be honest, I'd rather have to reapply something that doesn't give me the rage, than have a lip product last for ages but be perpetually irritating.

Rose is frankly AWFUL. Not just the colour (a lightened, milky, Barbie pink), which is terrible (on me anyway), but the intense matte-ness to the finish made it actually painful to apply. This would need lashings of lipbalm underneath, which kind of defeats the object I think. 1/10, and only because it was so bloody cheap.

Cabaret is one of those potentially hit-or-miss shades which I think will actually work out ok for me - it's a slightly darker version of Deep Red (which I already own, swatched here), and is also matte and therefore quite painful to apply, but not as bad as Rose - and because of the colour I would be more willing to work a bit harder for this one. The only other problem is that the colour isn't very forgiving on application (as you can see in the lip swatches below - it's like I'm back at primary school learning how to "colour in the lines").

Bare lips, for reference

Citrine

Cabaret

Rose

Finally, the lipgloss. This is one of NYX's Megashine Lipglosses, which is my favourite gloss formulation bar none. And now, imaghine my delight to find my favourite lipgloss colour in my favourite formulation. The gods of lipgloss were smiling on me when I added this to my shopping basket entirely in error (I actually wanted a pink one, thank god that didn't happen)......... MUST BUY SEVEN BACKUPS IN CASE OF ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Megashine Lipgloss in 143 - Plum

My husband (not pictured, obvs) photobombed this picture when I took it, hence the smirk

This is a beautiful muted rosy-plum, which would actually look pretty good layered over the Citrine lipliner, now I come to think about it. The formula is completely non-sticky, has decent lasting power of around 1 hour (which is pretty damn good on me, inveterate tea-drinker that I am), but to be honest it's easy and fulfilling to reapply anyway. It also doesn’t seem to go gloopy in tube after a month (unlike MAC's infinitely more expensive Dazzleglasses, the barstewards).

Think that's all for now, folks - eyeshadows and blushers next.

In the meantime, here's the full version of the photobombed lip swatch photo........

Jen

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Plenty muchos NYX HAULAGE (part 1)

I love getting unexpected little brown parcels through the post - I really do. It invariably means I've been sleep-shopping, or someone has had a Super-Duper -Mega-Sale-Never-Shall-We-See-Its-Like-Again and the "sale mist" has descended, sending me into a frenzy of credit-card maxing and frantic website clicking until I have to recline on the sofa, exhausted. 

This time round, it was the latter - and the website in question was NYX Cosmetics.

I am a great fan of this brand, god knows. How they manage to make such fantastic quality products for so little money is frankly boggling. Don't get me wrong, they have also make some corking mistakes on occasion, but generally I find that the majority of products I try are keepers.

This time, I tried to temper myself and self-restricted to purchasing stuff I genuinely have had my eye on for a while. I work on the premise that one can never have too many eyeshadows, and I think in purchasing these four babies, I've hit the jackpot. The colours are fabulous, and also work effortlessly together (which was definitely more luck than judgement). 

The blushers are of a similarly high quality, as is the lipgloss - ah! such a fantastic formula! - so the only thing that let me down really were the lipliners.

I have bemoaned about lipliners before, but one out of the three pictured below is definitely not going to work for me, either in colour or in formula. The other two aren't bad though, so to only have one bad egg amongst the group (which to be honest is probably more the fault of my scabby lips than the product itself) is a pretty decent proportion, methinks.

More posts coming soon to go through the products in detail....... first stop, lip products!

Jen
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Make-Up Academy haul - finally!

Well, it's been a while! Such is the hectic and giddy life of someone that teaches other people how to be accountants. Anyway, I have finally managed to have a little play with the Make-Up Academy haul that arrived a couple of weeks ago....... thank you MUA, for allowing me to haul so many shiny, pretty things while only requesting the paltry sum of £18 from my bank account.

Anyway, let's have a look at what we've got.....

Firstly, the Glamour Days eyeshadow palette. Had my eye on this one for a while - after having had a brilliant experience with the buttery, shimmery goodness that was the Heaven and Earth palette, I was looking forward to trying some slightly more "outre" shades but not so much that I was stepping too far out of my comfort zone.....! The pretty purples and blues in this palette seemed ideal, and to top it off there are a couple of nice neutrals in there too. A good one for travelling, methinks.

Top row

Bottom row - there is a sixth shade on there, I promise...... it's just coincidentally the same colour as my arm!

Amongst the haul I also got some liners, a mixture both for lips and eyes. Again, wasn't expecting much from these, but the Intense Colour liners were creamy, pigmented and quite a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the Intense Glitter ones were a bit hit and miss, but for 75p each (as it worked out after the discount) one cannot really complain, can one? I also got a liquid liner, which so far seems easy to apply and has a fabulous thin brush, but the pigmentation just feels a bit lacking and can apply a little patchy unless you do a couple of coats. Workable though, definitely.

L-R: Intense Colour - Red Drama, Royal Blue; Intense Glitter - Gold Nugget, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter

Liquid Liner - shade 5

In a slightly different order in this pic, not sure why!!! L-R: Red Drama, Royal Blue, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter, Gold Nugget, Liquid Liner in Shade 5 (Black)

Next, some single eyeshadows. Unfortunately, buying sight-unseen has been a bit of a gamble in this case, but I seem to have ended up with some decent colours that will make for some fabulous smoke eye looks. The only one that seems to let them down slightly is the black one, as it is more matte than the others is has a slightly chalkier texture and a less potent finish than the others. It'll do nicely for setting the liquid liner, though!

L-R: Shades 3, 11, 12, 15, 30

Same order as above, this time!  :)

Lastly, a bit of a hodge-podge of other random bits and bobs that fell into the online basket - I have this fantastic ability to justify additional purchases if I know I will be getting a discount on the items; and in this case it really made little to no difference seeing as everything is so inexpensive anyway!!!

Top: Lovehearts lip tints; Bottom: Lipsticks in shades 5 and 6, blush in shade 4

L-R: Lipsticks - Shade 5, shade 6; Blush - Shade 4; Lip Tints - Great Lips, Sweet Kiss, Hot Lips

The surprise in this bunch was the blush. Shade 4 looked almost overwhelmingly dark in the pan (in fact, almost the same as Shade 3 which I have already dismissed as making me look too "David Dickinson"), however when swatched, as you can see, it is a lovely gentle shade of subtle coral. It reminds me enormously of NARS Gilda (if anything, the MUA shade lacks the orange intensity of the NARS which, for cack-hands such as myself, is a Very Good Thing), but for a fraction of the price.

I am ever more wowed with the MUA offerings. Although initially I may have been a bit dismissive of the whole "cheapo makeup" thing, thinking it would only appeal to (and benefit) the lowest common denominators of society (snob? Moi?), consider me suitably chastised - I am genuinely impressed with pretty much everything I have come across so far. For the prices, I don't think you can go far wrong and to be honest, even if you do, what's a pound between friends?

MUA is available in various Superdrug stores, and also on their wesbite.

Did anyone else avail themselves of the superb discount.....?

Jen
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No.7 Perfect Lips Liner

I am a huge Lisa Eldridge fan. Seriously, if you haven’t seen any of her “How To” videos, you are missing a treat. Make-up artist to the stars, she is also a very down-to-earth and honest lady who seems to be entirely humble about her amazing make-up skillz. I also love the fact that she looks like a normal human being without her face on - she has some blotches, spots, bags, dark circles (although she is still gorgeous despite that) - but then takes you through a tutorial which turns her into the epitome of natural (but glamourous) perfection.

As an avid reader of Lisa's blog (and having recreated a few of her “looks” for myself, to varying degrees of success), I do like to try out some of the products that she uses or recommends in her videos. My “want to buy” list currently averages about 100 items, and I would probably attribute at least a third of these to products that I have seen Lisa use to magnificent effect.

That brings me on nicely to my recent purchase – No.7 Perfect Lips lip-liner. Lisa uses the Nude shade frequently in her videos, but I have also recently seen her use Blush – seeing as Boots had a 3 for 2 offer on No. 7 products when I paid a visit, I thought this was the perfect time to try out both shades to no further financial detriment.

Shade 10 – Blush is a softened berry-pink shade. Lisa used it with a feather-light touch and managed to make it look like the most perfect “just-bitten” lip stain. This shade is particularly gorgeous under a light pink lip gloss such as NYX Sweetheart – the lip liner just gives it a bit of depth and oomph.

Shade 20 – Nude initially worried me – the arm swatch looked distinctly brown (which, as we know, suits me NEVER). However, undeterred and having faith in Lisa, I tried it on my lips and lo! Behold! My natural lip colour turns this into a fantastic neutral-toned base, which will literally go with every neutral lip shade I own.

L = 10 Blush, R = 20 Nude. The twist-up mechanical pencil design is one of the best I've found.

L = 10 Blush; R = 20 Nude

10 Blush - shoddy application (my bad)

20 Nude

 

Out of the two colours, Nude is the creamiest and the nicest to wear over longer periods. That’s not to say that Blush is terrible, but it does have a little more tug and pull when applying than Nude. Although I haven’t worn either of them for longer than four hours, I can envisage that I will need a decent dose of Lanolips when I remove the Blush shade, but Nude (although not actively moisturising) didn’t seem drying at all.

No.7 Perfect Lips liners are currently available from Boots for £7.50 each.

Jen

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NYX lipliner pencils - on-lip swatches

Disclaimer: I realise that the volume of recent NYX-related posts may make you think I am affiliated with them in some way. I'm not, I just own a lot of their stuff, because it's such decent quality for so little money.

Anyway. I’m not going to carry on with my rant and rave about how luvverly my lips now are. I can resist on this occasion. For once, then, let’s allow the swatches to do the talking; see if you can tell which ones suck all of the moisture out of my lips out like the face-hugger stage of the Alien in the film with the same name.

MULTI-COLOURED SWATCH-SHOP!

810 Natural - most drying lip product  I own. Look at those lip wrinkles! Yeuch.

828 Ever - the perfect foil for Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle

834 Prune - I hate this colour - don't know what possessed me to get it. Oh, I remember - it was CHEAP.

844 Deep Red - perfection personified. It makes red lipsticks pop and last all night - I use it with Revlon Really Red (matte) and MAC's Ruby Woo for extra punch

849 Beige - the shimmers are a lot less drying than the mattes - but you pay for it in longevity. Gorgeous colour though

850 Nectar - my all-time favourite. I wear it on its own for a long-lasting, natural daytime lip, then under Vitamin or Watermelon for extra staying power in the evening

858 Nude Pink - another one I'm not a fan of. This sort of light, milky pink colour does me no favours when it goes on as matte as this one - look at those lip flakes!!!!! Where's my Lanolips........

860 Peekaboo Neutral - another one to wear on it's own, MLBSD (my lips but slightly drier), but fine with a bit of lipbalm underneath or a sheer gloss on top

See any you fancy?

Jen

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NYX lipstick haul and swatches

Following my post about how stupendously “pillowy” my lips now are after having used Lanolips ointment for a few weeks (reviewed here), I went a tiny bit mad on the NYX website. In my defence, this is only because they sent me an email about half-price lippies – when this sort of thing happens, my brain sort of shuts down, my eyes glaze over, and my hands automatically reach for the laptop to place orders for many shiny pretty things. In this instance, I think I am to be excused as the promotion meant that the lipsticks were a mere £1.75 each – and at those prices it would be frankly rude not to pick up a couple. Or seven.

In my sale-induced state of semi-consciousness, I must have also put some lipliners and retractable lip-liners into the basket as well, because they were in the package when it arrived last week. Nuffin’ to do wiv me, guvnor.

Anyway, unfortunately NYX made a boo-boo and sent me “Rea” when I blatantly ordered “Frappucino” – I’ve emailed them, so hopefully they will sort it out, but I’m not holding out much hope (although for £1.75 I guess it’s a mistake I could suffer). In any case, there’s no chance I could wear Rea – it’s a satin-matte concealer-lips nude, which would make me look like a corpse. 

** UPDATE ** After only one day, NYX have responded to my email with their full apologies, and will be sending the right one out to me toute suite. Fair play to them. 

Swatch-a-mundo!

L-R: Snow White, Heredes, B52, Celebrate, Apollo, Mars, Rea

L-R: Snow White, Heredes, B52, Celebrate, Apollo, Mars, Rea

L-R: Lipliners - Nude Pink, Peekaboo Neutral, Ever; Retractable eyeliners - Black, Deep Purple

I must admit, you kind of take a leap of faith when buying NYX round lipsticks. Not only because the online swatches might as well just be pictures of someone’s Auntie Jean, for all the good they do – but also, the formula is inconsistent. Not just between finishes, but within the same finish, which is a bit weird. So some of the crèmes are fine, others are rubbish – and some of the lustres are great while others are frankly pish.

The retractable eyeliner in Black is a re-purchase – in fact, this is my third one! – and as I had great experiences with this formula, I picked up the Deep Purple, too – only to be bitterly disappointed. I haven’t tried it on the eye yet, but based on this hand-swatch it looks like it’s going to be one of those patchy and sheer jobs that take a lot of work, which I just cannot be bothered with.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with my “pick-random-colours-off-the-website” session, so the only lippie I knew I definitely wanted was Snow White, while the others were a bit of a gamble. Seems to have paid off, in the main – I know I’ll get some wear out of these (especially Mars, which seems to be the perfect pinky-nude for me), but I will even try out some of the darker ones, so all in all, GOOD HAULAGE. 

NYX products can be bought directly from NYX in the UK here.

Jen

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NYX Slim Lipliners - a reawakening

Since my recent discovery of the wonderstuff that is Lanolips 101 ointment (reviewed here), and my lips are no longer a scabby, flaky, lip product  no-man’s-land, I am now finding that I can start to dig out all of the old lip products that I thought would never again see the light of day. First on the agenda was to get out my old NYX slim lipliners.

I've had some of these for over a year – yeah, yeah, I know, germ warfare! – but there’s only me that uses them, and I gave them a good sharpening to get rid of any exposed-to-the-air manky bits that may have formed, before I used them again. I’m not made of money, yano?

Anyway, I have a very limited selection of these seeing as I couldn’t wear them before; I have a feeling they will now be top of the shopping list for future purchases because they are divine. My first purchase was frankly one of desperation – I so wanted to wear a red lip, but could never get the bloomin’ stuff to stay on because I had to wear such a ridiculous amount of lip balm underneath. I’d seen Makeup Geek use a NYX slim lipliner in Deep Red underneath Revlon’s matte lipstick in Really Red, and it looked amazing. It worked a dream on me too, although it took about two hours of preparation (not an exaggeration) and my lips did not thank me in the morning.

Flushed with relative success, I then went a bit mad and bought four more; and the problem was similar to the Deep Red one I already had - they sucked what little moisture I had from my lips, leaving them with a downright nasty texture after about five hours of wear. I knew I was fighting a losing battle, so they remained relegated to a drawer. UNTIL NOW.

Here they are – they are great to wear on their own (they make a great alternative to a lipstain when applied lightly), under lipgloss/balm for a shinier look, or under lipstick for extra drama and staying power. I bought mine from NYX Cosmetics directly, for the princely sum of £3.00 each.

MUST RESIST BUYING THEM ALL.

L-R: Nectar, Beige, Natural, Deep Red, Prune

Can anyone recommend some other cheap lipliners that might not hate my lips quite as much?

Jen 

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