Category Archives: Makeup

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners (Review & Swatches)

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners

Buxom recently launched their Plumpline Lip Liners in a whopping 20 shades! These new lip liners promise a plumping full coverage formula with a creamy matte finish.

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners

The Plumpline shades cover the usual suspects in a lip range: nudes, to pinks, to reds and a handful of purply-vampy shades. Although they claim to be creamy, I’d argue and say they’re really not. While they do glide on the lips smoothly (which is fantastic), these are very much a drying matte formula once they’re locked in place.

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners – Lip Pencil End

Most surprising to me is that the Plumplines are an incredibly fat pencil. Most lip pencils tend to be on the skinny side for preciseness, so I wasn’t really sure how this was going to work out. Also, due to the size, I felt more like these should be used in place of lipstick.

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners – Brush End

They also come with a brush which… honestly had me scratching my head a little bit. I’ve never felt the need to use a brush with a lip pencil before. Since this also isn’t a creamy formula, you can’t really use the brush to blend anything out. I tried it, and the lip pencil really wasn’t going anywhere after I’d applied it.

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner Swatches
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner Swatches
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner Swatches
Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner Swatches

Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner Swatches

Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Stealth
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Stealth
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Incognito
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Incognito
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Undercover
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Undercover
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Restricted
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Restricted
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Covert Affair
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Covert Affair
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Code Red
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Code Red
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in InfraRed
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in InfraRed
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Stakeout
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Stakeout
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Espionage
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Espionage
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Dolly Danger
Wearing Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner in Dolly Danger

My Thoughts

As a lip liner, the Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners do their job: my lipstick stayed in place and, rather amazingly for me, I didn’t have any lip line bleedout even with the vampier shades. I also really love the colour range – of the ten I tried, there wasn’t a single shade in there that I wouldn’t wear on the regular.

But honestly… I think this is a really weird product. The fatness of the pencil makes for some awkward application and it’s far less precise because of it. I ended up sharpening the pencil quite a bit in order to keep the tip as precise as possible. I also don’t understand why there’s a brush attached to this pencil.  It’s a dry formula when it gets on your lips, so you really haven’t got a hope in hell of using the brush to blur out any edges. It also claims to be plumping, but I can’t figure out where on earth that would come from unless you’re overlining your lips. There is nothing in formula to support the look of plumper lips.

I’m sad that I don’t like how fat the pencil is because it really makes it difficult for me to get a precise line (and I’m already not that great at being precise in general!). I love the shade range and I would absolutely love to wear these under lipsticks, but the lack of preciseness absolutely ruins it for me.

The Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners are available on sephora.ca for $20 CAD each or on sephora.com for $17 USD each.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post may contain affiliate links.

What I Bought This Month – March 2017 Haul

My haul is a little bit early this month for two reasons:

  1. I don’t anticipate myself buying anything more in the month of March (and even if I do, I’ll just hold it over till April).
  2. I didn’t have a review ready for today, so I thought I’d slot this in early!

Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey

The one thing I was the most excited for was definitely the brand new limited edition Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey palette. I have fallen deeply in love with its predecessor, the Peanut Butter and Jelly palette, and I was sooo anxious to get my hands on this one!

Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey
Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey (free – gift)

It’s an Ulta exclusive, so my wonderful friend Sara in Baltimore picked it up for me as a gift and shipped it up here! Sadly… the quality is nowhere near what the PB&J palette was and although I’ve only used it twice now, I’ve been very sad with how it performed. 🙁 Ah well, you can’t love them all!

Cupcake Bath Fizzy - Birthday Cake (free - gift)
Cupcake Bath Fizzy – Birthday Cake (free – gift)

Alongside the PB & Honey palette, Sara sent along a few more gift items (we exchange Christmas gifts) and this adorable cupcake bath fizzy was one of them. I’ve always been intrigued by these kind of cake looking bath bombs, but haven’t ever used one yet!

Philosophy - The Land of Sweets (free - gift)
Philosophy – The Land of Sweets (free – gift)

And the last item Sara put in my gift was this trio of Philosophy shower gels. I’ve mentioned before that I definitely do not need anymore shower gels in my life but I had told her how much I loved the holiday Philosophy ones so she grabbed me up a sweet set! I know I’ve used the Candy Cane one before, but I’m excited to try the other two scents since they’re completely new to me!

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponges (~$8.99 USD)
Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponges (~$8.99 USD)

Since there were a few sales on at Ulta, Sara offered to grab me some items I was after. I think the Real Techniques duo pack of the sponges was around $9, but I’m not entirely sure since I paid her about four months ago for it. I always have a stockpile of these becuse they are the BEST!

Too Faced Merry Macarons ($39 USD)
Too Faced Merry Macarons ($39 USD)

Another thing I snapped up (via Sara) when they went on sale for the holiday season was the Too Faced Merry Macarons set (again, another Ulta exclusive item!).

Too Faced Merry Macarons ($39 USD)
Too Faced Merry Macarons ($39 USD)

As we’re all aware now, I’ve become a rather rabid Too Faced fan so I kind of feel like I need to own every single palette they put out. (I acknowledge that this is not only an expensive habit, but also kind of ridiculous.) It’s kind of pointless to talk about this item at this point since the holiday season is long gone, but I did buy it and just got it, so it’s worth mentioning!

And that’s it for the month! Looking back, I actually didn’t spent ANYTHING this past month – these items were all either gift products or something I paid for back in December! That’s kind of impressive actually…

Physicians Formula Highlight & Contour Palette – Shimmer Strobing (Review & Swatches)

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette - Shimmer Strobing

In December 2016, Physicians Formula launched a bunch of new products that I picked up as soon as I saw them (review on the Butter Blushes is here)! The Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette in the Shimmer Strobing version (there’s a matte one too) called to me because it looked so much like the BECCA x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Glow palette.

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette - Shimmer Strobing
Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette – Shimmer Strobing

As always, the presentation of Physicians Formula‘s products is gorgeous. While the layout is identical to that BECCA product, the embossed print is new and always welcomed in a product!

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette - Shimmer Strobing
Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette – Shimmer Strobing

However, while Physicians Formula‘s presentation is always beautiful, their bulky packaging is not. Each product I’ve tried by them tries too hard to be extra helpful and in the end is only annoying. The bottom half of the packaging opens up to reveal a mirror (not helpful on the bottom) and a long brush (which I promptly threw in the garbage). The brush, by PF standards, is actually quite nice, but I really don’t find myself ever using these built-in brushes so I find the addition of it to be just cumbersome and bulky.

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette - Shimmer Strobing - swatches
Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Palette – Shimmer Strobing – swatches

Packaging aside, the product swatches out really, really well. The colours are intensely pigmented with very little effort! I was especially impressed with the copper shade, although (as you’ll see below) it’s not a shade I can really wear on my cheeks.

Physicians Formula compared to BECCA - swatches
Physicians Formula compared to BECCA – swatches

Since I own the BECCA versions of the champagne and white versions, I pulled them out for comparison swatching. The champagne shade is incredibly similar although I detect a hint more peach in the BECCA shade. The white shade is basically a dead ringer in my eyes. Worth noting however, is that the sheen on the cheeks is not quite the same. The BECCA products translates a wetter, more “in your face” shine, whereas the Physicians Formula product is a softer, more subtle version.

Physicians Formula Bronzer Booster Highlight & Contour Shimmer Strobing Face Swatches

In these shots I’m wearing only the highlighter – there’s no blush on my cheeks.

Wearing Physicians Formula - shimmer strobing - white shade
Wearing Physicians Formula – shimmer strobing – white shade

A very strong white with a hint of grey to it.

Wearing Physicians Formula - shimmer strobing - champagne shade
Wearing Physicians Formula – shimmer strobing – champagne shade

The most natural looking shade out of all three colours – very radiant!

Wearing Physicians Formula - shimmer strobing - copper shade
Wearing Physicians Formula – shimmer strobing – copper shade

Zero chance I could wear this shade as anything other than an eyeshadow I’m afraid! Great pigmentation overall, but I found it blended out kind of weirdly.

Final Thoughts

If you’re not willing to shell out the money for a BECCA highlighter (and I understand – they’re super freaking pricey), I think the Physicians Formula Shimmer Strobing palette is a decent dupe. It is a bit more of a softer sheen than the wet-look of the BECCA products, but that’s potentially a good thing for people who aren’t looking for in-your-face highlighting.

One thing to keep in mind is that the copper shade is pretty much unwearable as a blush on my skintone. I haven’t yet tried it as an eyeshadow, but that’s pretty much the only way I’m going to get any use out of it. If you’re a deeper skin tone than me and you’ve tried a similar colour on your cheeks, please let us know in the comments how it works on you! I’d love to know!

I also think the packaging is ridiculous. It’s too bulky and unnecessary and the top hinge actually hinders you from getting at the product which is just a damn nuisance.

Man, okay, my list of complaints about this product seems quite long, but overall, I do actually like it. I think the white and champagne shades are beautiful to wear (and I’ve worn them multiple times since I bought the palette). I like that PF put out a near-dupe for the BECCA trio and I like that the pricepoint is more reasonable than the Butter Blushes (this was $21.99 CAD whereas the Butter Blushes were $18.99 CAD). So, to end this ridiculously long summary, I do recommend the product, it’s just up to you to determine if you’ll get enough use out of the shades that are included in the trio.

The Physicians Formula Bronze Booster Highlight & Contour Shimmer Strobing palette can be purchased on ulta.com for $14.99 USD.

Post contains affiliate links.

Swatch Sunday: Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey

Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey

It’s here! It’s here! The sister palette to the Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette is here! Say hello to the beauty that is the Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey palette!

Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey
Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey

This limited edition palette is currently only available at Ulta.com and TooFaced.com (my wonderful friend Sara picked it up and shipped it up to me from the US!).

Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey
Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey

Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey Swatches

Too Faced - Creamed Honey
Too Faced – Creamed Honey
Too Faced - Peanut Butter
Too Faced – Peanut Butter
Too Faced - Going Nuts
Too Faced – Going Nuts

 

Too Faced - Bee Sweet
Too Faced – Bee Sweet
Too Faced - Honey Brittle
Too Faced – Honey Brittle
Too Faced - Bee's Knees
Too Faced – Bee’s Knees
Too Faced - Queen Bee
Too Faced – Queen Bee
Too Faced - Honey Buns
Too Faced – Honey Buns
Too Faced - Feelin' Nutty
Too Faced – Feelin’ Nutty

The Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey palette retails for $36 USD and can be purchased at Ulta.com.

Post contains affiliate links.