ColourPop Ultra Matte Lips (Review & Swatches)

October 12, 2015Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesColourPopChelle

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The liquid lipstick obsession that has taken us over shows no signs of letting up any time soon! ColourPop (relatively) recently threw their brand into the mix, offering up their Ultra Matte Lips. I’m already a huge fan of matte lips, so I was excited to try these out and see how they compared to stuff I already owned. It was rough choosing colours, but I managed to talk myself into only getting five. (And that was down from 11!)

The Ultra Matte Lips come in a clear acrylic tube with a silver top. They have a doefoot applicator that picks up a decent amount of product. I found I needed three dips into the tube to get a fully covered lip.

ColourPop Ultra Mattes in Trap, Donut, Bumble, Tulle and Mars (swatches)

The colours go on fully opaque in one swipe, but they are not forgiving in the least. If you make a mistake while tracing your lip line, you will need to completely wipe off your lip product and start again. (Which I had to do three times in the Mars swatch below.)

Once these dry, they set completely and are transfer proof. You can see in the shot above just how much it sinks into my skin – it definitely emphasizes your skin’s texture. Because these are totally transfer proof, these suckers are the very definition of a dry formula in my opinion. Your lips will feel a little bit constrained and you may find the inner rim of your lip starts to feel a little crispy/rough where the line between your lip colour and your inner lip starts.

Lip Swatches

I picked up Trap because it’s unlike anything I own. To me it looks like a mauvey-grey, and it’s oddly wearable!

Donut is a warm pink with a brightness to it. I think a lot of people would have an easy time wearing this one.

Bumble is… man, how do I describe this? It’s like an orangey-red brick colour with… something else to it. Another totally unique colour to my collection.

Tulle is a darker version of Bumble but I would never call them the colour since the tonalities are a bit different. Fantastic shade for fall.

Mars is the shade that feels the most “me” when I saw it in swatches. It’s odd though – the shot above is such a red-pink, but I think it looks more fuchsia in person.

Final Thoughts

The ColourPop Ultra Matte Lips retail for $6 USD each and I think the price point is incredible for what you get. These lip products are budge proof and have incredible longevity (they’ll stay put for hours on end so long as you aren’t eating anything overly greasy). The colours are incredibly imaginative and I experienced intense colour without any patchy-ness.

However, I’ve never had anything so drying on my lips before. I actually really enjoy dry mattes (i.e., MAC’s Retro Matte formula), but this formula has absolutely no give to it. For me, I was never able to forget that I was wearing these when I had them on, as I was always hyper aware of just how dry my lips felt. (And you definitely cannot just wipe these off when you want to remove them – you need an oil based makeup remover to get them off.) But maybe that’s a toss up! You have great staying power and longevity without having to worry about it, but you have to give up the comfort on your lips. I do appreciate that I never had to worry about the product while wearing them though. They won’t feather or bleed and I’m EXCEPTIONALLY prone to that.

At the end of the day though, I think I’ve got the colours I want and I won’t be picking up any others. It’s hard for me to get past the absolute dryness of the product not matter how much I love the colours.

Have you tried these before? What are your thoughts?

Swatch Sunday: Urban Decay – Urban Spectrum

October 11, 2015Makeup, SwatchesUrban DecayChelle

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In keeping with the recent onslaught of holiday palettes that makeup brands have unleashed upon the world, here’s the Urban Decay Urban Spectrum palette. This is a limited edition palette, so once it’s gone… it’s GONE.

Urban Decay Urban Spectrum palette (box)

Originally listed as an Urbandecay.com exclusive palette, the Urban Sepctrum palette suddenly showed up on Sephora’s web site for VIB and VIB Rouge customers only. As I’m typing up this post (Thursday October 8th), it’s still available at Sephora but still marked as VIB/VIB Rouge only. I get the feeling they’re not going to open it up to everyone.

The Urban Spectrum palette retails for $65 CAD and has a removable lid with a mirror inside which is identical in design to the 15th Anniversary palette by Urban Decay. When you’re done with the shadows, they can be pulled out and the entire box can be used to store whatever you like. The inside of the box (underneath the shadows) is lined with velvet.

I’m just finishing up a Challenge Week using this palette and ~~it’ll be up on Wednesday!~~ here it is!

Swatches

Urban Decay - Protest — Urban Decay – Protest

Urban Decay - Junkie — Urban Decay – Junkie

Urban Decay - Deep End — Urban Decay – Deep End

Urban Decay - Madness — Urban Decay – Madness

Urban Decay - Evidence — Urban Decay – Evidence

Urban Decay - Prank — Urban Decay – Prank

Urban Decay - Flashback — Urban Decay – Flashback

Urban Decay - Voodoo — Urban Decay – Voodoo

Urban Decay - Flatline — Urban Decay – Flatline

Urban Decay - Bordello — Urban Decay – Bordello

Urban Decay - Backlash — Urban Decay – Backlash

Urban Decay - Daybreak — Urban Decay – Daybreak

Fitness Friday: Toronto 10 Miler 5K

October 9, 2015Fitness, RunningRacing, RunningChelle

Standing in front of the Start/Finish Toronto 10 Miler

I often try to coerce my friends into running races with me. It’s just so much more fun to wait at the starting point of a race with a friend. You’re both nervous, you’re both excited and it’s definitely a bonding experience for me. And yet, I’m not usually all that successful in getting people to go to races with me!

So imagine my surprise when Zoe of Writing Whimsy not only planned to come out to Toronto for IMATS, but *also* agreed to run a 5K with me the next day. I’d suggested it as a joke – I didn’t actually think she’d take me up on it! But we managed to hype it up to each other and somehow we found ourselves signed up for the Toronto 10 Miler 5K race!

These were the absolute best race conditions I have ever experienced. The race was around 9 am and the temperature was cool but not cold. There was no wind and the skies were clear. The race started and finished at Cherry Beach in Toronto and it was just gorgeous down there. The sun was rising and reflecting beautifully off the lake. And there were only about 200 people signed up for the 5K making it a relatively small group.

It was a 5K so I don’t have a ton to say about the race since it really only lasts about thirty minutes or so. It was easily the flattest course I have ever run (I’ll definitely be back next year!). There were a few bumps in the pavement, but absolutely NO HILLS which was such a blessing.

I’m in the midst of training distances for the Scotiabank Waterfront Half Marathon so I haven’t been focusing on speed runs. And, as I’ve been lamenting THIS ENTIRE YEAR, I’m still an infuriating ten pounds heavier than I was last year, so it’s not like I was expecting to be spontaneously fast.

I did push it for this run though! My first kilometer came in under a 5 minute per k pace but, as per usual, I couldn’t keep that up and my pace slowed over the next few kilometers. I ended up completing the race with a 26:32 finish time, which will make this the third race this year where I finished between 26:29 and 26:32 which is just crazy! I felt good at the end though. I was spent, but I didn’t feel like I was going to fall over and I didn’t get that awful lightheadedness I’ve experienced with some races before. The only thing I did differently this race was carry water with me. I stopped at one water station to drink, but at the other I just ran on through and drank from my tiny bottle at random intervals.

Zoe came in a little bit after me and I was able to capture her finishing with my phone! What a champ, she wanted under 35 minutes and she easily cleared that with a 31 minute finish! I was so insanely proud of her since this was her first race. And I’m fairly confident that she’s been bitten by the racing bug because she’s already talking about doing 7 and 8k races. 😀

This is my last 5K race for the year, and I definitely came nowhere near achieving a 5K in under 25 minutes like I had planned to do at the start of the year. I’m sad I wasn’t able to get there, but I am happy that I at least stayed consistent. I had a pretty awesome 26:10 personal best time during the Achilles St. Patrick’s Day race back in March and after that I stayed solid around the 26:30 mark. It’s not an improvement, but it’s not a horrific decline either! Yay for being stagnant? Haha! 😉

Race Summary

Finish Time: 26:32
Pace: 5:18 per kilometer
Overall placement: 41/208
Gender placement (F): 18/146
Category placement (F30-39): 7/40

Introducing H&M’s Beauty Department

October 7, 2015Hauls, Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesH&MChelle

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A few weeks ago I got an e-mail out of nowhere saying that H&M was revamping their Beauty Department and they were re-launching with 700 products at the Toronto Eaton Centre that very week!

H&M has launched their Beauty Department!

700 products is no freaking joke either. They’ve got all the bases covered too. There are eyeshadow palettes ($12.99 CAD), single eyeshadows in every single colour of the rainbow ($7.99 CAD), lipsticks, lip primers, liquid lipsticks, foundation, eye liners, liquid liners, concealer… The list goes on and on.

Eyeshadows in every single colour of the rainbow!

I mean just look at that colour range!

There's a LOT of variety! — There’s a LOT of variety!

Nail polishes as far as the eye can see! Lipsticks out the wazoo!

I have a few of the products to review, so here’s a look at what I’ve been applying to my face lately.

H&M has a few nine pan palettes to choose from, although they are more in the “safe” zone for colours. (Green was the wildest shade in any of the palettes.) The palettes are priced at $12.99 CAD which is fairly amazing given that most drugstores are now selling palettes in the $20 range.

The Smoky Nudes palettes is a neutral lover’s paradise. It has your typical brown transition shades, your lighter highlight shades, a few midtone shimmery shades (although that middle shade is a total glitter bomb) and a darker colours to deepen everything up. They swatch well and so far wear well, but they can be a bit powdery at first touch, so be sure to tap off that brush!

H&M Pure Radiance Powder Blusher in Apricot

You’ll notice right off the bat that the packaging on these products is pretty freaking sleek. Given how luxurious they look, you may be taken aback by just how light they are. Keep in mind that although they’re gorgeous to look at, the products are priced in the drugstore range, so you won’t get the added weight that comes with a high end product. (This is neither here nor there, but it’s worth mentioning because when I picked up my first product I was taken aback how light it felt!)

The Pure Radiance Powder Blusher in Apricot is a very, VERY pale peach. On my skin tone it just doesn’t show up enough. However, I did swatch some of the other blushes while at H&M and they are definitely pigmented, this just wasn’t the right shade for me as it’s too close to my own skin colour.

H&M True Matte Finishing Powder in Warm Beige

The True Matte Finishing Powder is very, VERY mattifying. I wouldn’t recommend it too much for dry skin, but oily folks – you’ll love this one.

H&M True Matte Finishing Powder in Warm Beige and Pure Radiance Powder Blusher in Apricot (swatches)

As you can see, the Warm Beige True Matte Finishing Powder blends right into my skintone (good match!) and the Apricot blush almost does as well. Both look rather chalky in the swatch, but I don’t feel they applied that way on my face.

H&M Lip Fixation Primer and lipstick in Candy Apple

I’m running low on my MAC Prep + Prime for lips, so I wanted to give H&M‘s Lip Fixation Primer a try. This isn’t as slippy as the MAC version – it definitely has a lot more grip. AND THE SMELL IS INCREDIBLE. It’s vanilla, but even moreso than the way MAC lip products smell. Loving the primer so far!

The lipstick I have is Candy Apple. It’s a creamy, easy to apply red shade that wears well with the primer. It has some slip to it so it won’t wear as long as a matte, but I had no issues when I wore this for several hours at work. The lipstick far less scented compared to the primer – almost nothing at all really.

Very, very vibrant and exceptionally good colour payoff with very little pressure.

H&M Colour Essence Eye Pencil - Into the Blue — H&M Colour Essence Eye Pencil – Into the Blue

A bit of a random grab – this is the Colour Essence Eye Pencil in Into The Blue. I wanted to grab an eyeliner for variety, but I haven’t tried this one out yet. I can tell you that this swatched easily without tugging on my skin though. Two thumbs up for that!

Their nail polish selection is nothing to scoff at either. At first glance, they’ve got about 50-60 shades! The one pictured about is December Dawn (LOVE THE NAME) and it’s an iridescent white pearl with pink/gold reflects. Gorgeous.

H&M High Impact Eye Colour - In The Red — H&M High Impact Eye Colour – In The Red

And finally, the piece de resistance: a red eyeshadow. H&M‘s lineup of single shadows is immense. We’re talking every single colour of the rainbow! And it’s not like it’s an easy thing to find a red eyeshadow (a personal favourite eyeshadow colour of mine, if you’re unaware), especially at a reasonable price and NOT limited edition.

H&M High Impact Eye Colour - In The Red (swatch) — H&M High Impact Eye Colour – In The Red (swatch)

HNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGG. Just look at that! Solid, stunning, matte RED!

Using a few of the products from their recent launch, here’s what I came up with:

Wearing the new H&M Beauty Department products

On this day I didn’t apply any foundation, but I have the Apricot blush on my cheeks (really not that visible against my skin).

Wearing In The Red shadow and several colours from the Smoky Nudes palette.

For the eyes, I used the In The Red single shadow as my lid colour, and then built up the outer corner and crease with dark and medium browns from the Smoky Nudes palette.

Final Thoughts

The one thing I really want to point out with the H&M Beauty Department is that while there are certainly “wearable, natural, neutral” looks to be created amongst their products, there are also a ton of products in fun, exciting, colourful shades. Their single shadows impressed me and if you’re looking for a particular shade to try out, their range might be the best way to do it. The single shadows are reasonably priced at $7.99 CAD and the variety in colour is unheard of. The eyeshadow quality is also top notch as I experience little to no fading throughout the day on my eyelids.

Overall, I’m impressed that H&M launched with such an immense range of products and colours. I think there’s something for everyone in this line and what I’ve experienced of the quality so far is quite good.

Let me know if you’ve tried any of the new stuff? Or even the old stuff? How does it compare?

This post features press samples sent for consideration.

Kiss Limited Edition Halloween 2015

October 5, 2015MiscellaneousHalloween, Kiss, NailsChelle

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So you may have noticed that I don’t post anything related to nails on my blog. I’m just not hugely into nail polish so it’s not really a “thing” for me. I am, however, HUGELY into Halloween, so that’s why I’m introducing you to the limited edition fake nails by Kiss (aka Broadway Nails).

With a six different options, it’s hard not to not fall in love with at least one of the designs, especially if you’re a rabid fan of Halloween like I am!

These “RIP” nails were the first ones to draw my attention. I’m going as Harley Quinn for Halloween this year (huge Batman-themed six person group costume) and these are PERFECT for it! Hell yes to a red and black ombre with glitter on top! I cannot wait to wear these with my costume.

Ghostly – A black to silver ombre with silver glitter on top.

Cauldron – Adorable jack-o-lanterns with spiders and webs.

Fright Night – Trick or Treat! With glitter and spiders.

Haunting – Ahhhh candy corn! Easily the best Halloween candy!

Broomstick – And lastly, glittery spiders and their webs.

Wearing "Broomstick" — Wearing “Broomstick”

Having never tried fake nails before, I really didn’t know what to expect. All of the limited edition Halloween themed nails are marked as “medium” length but holy crap did they ever feel long to me. I saw on someone else’s blog that you can actually file down the tip to make a shape (and length!) you want, so I may be doing that the next time I put a pair of these on. The length on these is definitely not something I’m used to at all, so there’s a bit of an adjustment factor on that.

Staying power? Man, let me tell you about the staying power… these bad boys did NOT want to come off! I was fairly impressed that the glue that’s built into the nail (it’s under a peel off tab) is so impressively strong. You do NOT have to worry about losing a nail while wearing these at all.

Each packet comes with 24 nails for your digits, so you’ll find a wide variety of sizes to pick from for each finger. I love that they have so many Halloween themed options to get us into the mood and I’m really happy I found something that’s a perfect fit for my planned Halloween costume. Woohoo!

This post features press samples sent for consideration.