WOW. This was a palette and a half to swatch and edit! There’s 32 freaking colours in the LORAC Mega Pro 2! I got this palette in December as a gift from my mother-in-law (via Ulta since we were in Wisconsin at the time) and I’ve been playing around with it ever since. Enjoy the swatches!
Admittedly, this post is actually a year out of date, but I still wanted to post it.
Allow me to explain. My boss at work wears funky socks. Last January (2015) I was inspired by his pink and green socks to wear the same colour eyeshadows the next day. I had this idea in my head to take photographs of his socks for five days in a row and try to do makeup inspired by them. Of course, the doofus then wore RIDICULOUS socks with like… 10 colours in each of them (obviously to annoy me since he knew I was going to do this) and that kind of killed my motivation.
BUT! I did create two looks based on his socks and I figured I’d share it even if it is a year out of date. In the end, I never managed to do all five looks, which is what put me off posting this in the last 13 months, but hey, let’s not waste the fact that I did find inspiration somewhere unique!
The sock that inspired it all. These pink and green socks inspired the following look:
I didn’t really care if the colours were bang on, I just liked the way the two colours worked together to create a striking contrast.
The next pair were a relatively straightforward inspiration:
I think mine looks naval, or something. The white from the socks didn’t translate as much onto my eyes (I tried for white eyeshadow but it got kind of lost.
I encourage you to find inspiration in a weird place and use it to your advantage!
Also, I’ve finally caved and am no longer just stalking YouTubers on Snapchat. Find me here:
Doesn’t the packaging and colours of the new Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquids take your breath away? I kind of see this launch as an extension of the Vivid lipstick launch (what was that… four years ago? Eek!) and I LOVED that launch so, so much.
So the new Vivid Matte Liquids are essentially a lipstick with a “creamy liquid base that creates a soft, cushiony feel that glides on smooth to a matte finish”. But… they’re not actually matte. And they don’t dry matte. The only way to get them to turn matte is to actually blot them down with a tissue.
This isn’t going to be a terribly positive review, so please let me start out with what I DO love about the Vivid Mattes before I get into all of my negatives. Number one is the applicator. This thing is pure gold for applying lip colour. It’s long and slanted and because of its length, it does a phenomenal job of creating straight lines as you apply colour (drag the edges across your lips in one smooth motion). I’m fairly terrible at applying lip colour without causing skipping and this completely stopped that from happening. Love!
The other aspect I’m in love with is the colour range. They have some neutrals, but I was drawn to the bold, vibrant shades. The colours above are just BEAUTIFUL!.
Rebel Red is a lot of fun and this one applied the most consistently.
Berry Boost was the best shade to blot down to create a matte texture.
Vivid Violet was fairly patchy, but there’s no denying that colour impact.
However… like I said… this isn’t going to be a positive review. So let’s dissect why:
Thoughts on how you can possibly make these work:
I’m so sorry to say that I really can’t with this product. It smells bad, it numbs my lips (like what??? No Maybelline product has ever done that to me!) and it won’t stay put without leaking out the sides of my lips. I know this is a very strong “NO” review, but it’s not like it’s fun to come down so harshly on products – and I really, REALLY wanted to love these. I love Maybelline as a brand, and I still love and use many of their products (like seriously, go look at the epic-ness of their new eye primer) but this was just a total miss for me. 🙁
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.
I had some Sephora Collection eyeshadows to play around with (there’s a video at the end of this post!), and I wanted to swatch them out and let you see how pretty they are! I find I often ignore Sephora’s house brand and I have REALLY got to stop doing that. They make wonderful products at a typically cheaper price point than some of the more common brand names that we’re familiar with.
My Boyfriend’s Jeans: Shimmery royal blue.
Girl Talk: Peach with a lotttt of sparkle.
Friend’s Selfie: Shimmery pale lavender.
French Riviera: Pale yellow-gold.
Sweet Dreams: Shimmery baby blue.
Purple Stilettos: Mid-tone matte purple.
Picnic in the Park: Shimmery shamrock green.
And here’s the look I came up with using several of those shades:
If you’re looking for a full tutorial, look no further than my most recently posted YouTube video. This is a talk-through tutorial as I play around with the colours.
And by the way, how freaking cute is the makeup bag in the first shot? Sephora has brand new Breakups to Makeups bags that you may be interested in! Also, their adorable holiday ones are also on sale now too!
Items mentioned in this post were sent to me for consideration.
Sometimes you try a new lip product and you wonder how the heck you were missing out on something so amazing all along. This is one of those times.
Smashbox recently added new shades to their Be Legendary lipstick line. They come in two types of formula:
Since this is my first time experiencing Smashbox Be Legendary lipsticks, I was pleased to see how solid the packaging and bullet felt. The sleek rectangular case for the lipstick is hefty and expensive looking. The bullet of the lipstick itself is wonderfully firm – this is something I always look for since I have a nasty habit of snapping lipsticks in half.
But don’t let a firm bullet mistake you… these lipsticks are easy to apply and they really do glide on smoothly.
Matte shades are generally my preference for lipsticks, and Infrared Matte did not disappoint. It glides on seamlessly and is excessively comfortable to wear, especially since it’s a matte. I wore it for about five hours and noticed no difference between when I applied it and when I took it off five hours later. That’s impressive!
Although I love my mattes, the Famous (cream) shade equally impressed me. It’s a soft, creamy lipstick with a sheen. What impressed me the most about this lipstick is that there’s a bit of tacky-ness to the formula that actually helped the lipstick adhere to my lips. I know that sounds… not pleasant, but work with me on this one. Usually when I wear a nude cream lipstick, it disappears in about two hours. This one did not! Famous stayed on my lips for over four hours (I took it off at that point cuz I was removing my makeup) and still looked just as good as ever. I really, really appreciated the consistency of the lipstick because it worked for me.
Infrared Matte has quickly become one of my favourite reds… and it may actually bump MAC’s Russian Red out of first place. /gasp
Famous is a nude-pink cream that looks a bit more peach in the tube. Super impressive formula on this one.
Well Smashbox, you’ve done it again. First you impressed me with your Insta-Matte a few weeks ago, now you’ve taken my breath away with your lipsticks. Pigmentation is incredible, wear time is excellent and they feel fantastic on the lips. I wish I’d paid more attention to Smashbox lip products before because the Be Legendary lipsticks have blown me out of the water. If you’re looking for a comfortable lipstick to wear on the daily, I’d put this near the top of my recommended formulas.
The Smashbox Be Legendary lipsticks can be purchased on sephora.ca for $23 CAD and on sephora.com for $21 USD.
The products featured in this review were sent to me for consideration.