Tag: lipstick

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Beauty

OFRA Liquid Lipsticks.

During my Lip Monthly subscription (I have unsubscribed a little over half a year ago) I received three OFRA liquid lipsticks. Ever since receiving Laguna Beach, I’d squeal a bit if I saw one in the bag. Here’s a little overview of the three shades I own.

Laguna Beach

My most worn out of the bunch, and probably one of the absolute favourites in my lipstick collection. It’s a nude that’s neither too brown, nor too pink. Sits well on the lips, doesn’t highlight any dry areas, applies like a dream, and wears off nicely. I would wear it day in, day out, but I like sprucing things up a bit with different colours – plus yeah, I’m ‘saving’ it. You can see me wearing it in the photo below (also my current profile pic, heh).

IMG_20160206_171817

Mina

This is a really intense dark wine colour. It’s pigmented and applies evenly, but does require a bit more work than the Laguna Beach above (duh). The thing I like about OFRA liquid lipsticks is that you can easily work with the transparency of these. I’ve worn it both as an intense dark plum, and as a bit of an evenly looking wine stain. Add gloss over, and it almost looks like natural but really intense lip pigment.

New Orleans

Simultaneously my favourite and least favourite out of the bunch. The colour is amazing, and as with the Mina above, you can either wear it as an intense purple, or tone it down a notch and use it as a stain under a gloss (and I’ve a matching gloss too – Medusa’s Make-up Shout, unavailable on their website it seems). However, the formula in my product seems faulty. It’s patchy and dry – not drying, but dry. Working with it is a bit like trying to apply poster paint evenly on your lips. Since the other two I’ve got don’t have such problems, I think that my tube of New Orleans OFRA liquid lipstick is just really old.

ofra liquid lipsticks

Top to bottom: Mina, New Orleans, Laguna Beach. As you can see in the picture, the New Orleans tube has its sticker applied the other way round, compared to Mina and Laguna Beach.

ofra liquid lipsticks swatches

Swatched: Laguna Beach, New Orleans, Mina.

ofra liquid lipsticks applicator

Doe-foot applicators of OFRA Liquid Lipsticks.

I wholeheartedly recommend this lipstick range. If you haven’t yet tried OFRA, you really should.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBcfaXXWscA

Kayla Hagey has done a great swatch video of 32 shades of OFRA Liquid Lipsticks. Damn, I want a couple more.

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Beauty

Oriflame Pure Colour Lipsticks

oriflame pure colour lipstick tubes

The lipsticks come in cheap packaging – a black bullet with a transparent cap. The upside of that is you can see the colours pretty easily. The downside is, it’s quite fragile and doesn’t look the least bit impressive. Strangely, I don’t mind the look of it, but over the time the cap weakens and tends to come loose.

The scent is, I figure, generic lipstick scent. It’s not particularly offensive, but nothing to be pleased with either.

The formula of the product is medium to light coverage creme with sheen. The lightest lipsticks in the range appear on the lips more like tinted balms than anything else. Nearly all of these have some fine shimmer in them.

oriflame pure colour lipstick swatches

Swatched, one swipe, left to right: Bright Red (26271), Soft Coral (26269), and Radiant Red (21153). It applies even on the hand, but streakier on the lips.

Although Pure Colour Oriflame lipsticks are moderately creamy, they are very drying on the lips. The application tends to be streaky, the colour clings to dry patches on the lips.

The staying power of these lipsticks is weak. They wear relatively well if you don’t eat or drink anything, but they don’t wear off prettily.

They do not feather, however, and if your lips are hydrated, then the staining is minimal. (To each their own, but I dislike it when the colour stains.)

oriflame pure colour

This line of Oriflame lipsticks comes in a rather wide colour range – or should I say, tone range. The ones I have are, left to right: Bright Red (26271), Soft Coral (26269), and Radiant Red (21153).

Pure Colour lipsticks are the least expensive lipsticks in the Oriflame make-up range. When on offer in my country, they retail for as little as $1.5 US.

I would recommend this range if you are experimenting with colours. Oriflame Pure Colour lipsticks are very affordable, and even if you find the shade unsuitable, it would not break the bank.

oriflame pure colour bright red soft coral radiant red

Since taking these pictures I have passed on the reds, and only kept the Soft Coral (26269).

(I am an Oriflame consultant in my country. Products bought with my own money.)

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Beauty

GOSH Velvet Touch Lipstick in Darling #134

I have a love/ hate relationship with this lipstick. Most of the time it looks very good on me, but sometimes it makes me look like death warmed over, and not in a good gothy way either. I think it depends on the light.

This lipstick is creamy and moisturising. It feels relatively good on the lips, but has little staying power. It also accentuates the smallest flake of skin, so it’s best to exfoliate and moisturise your lips before applying this one. However, don’t apply it over balm or chapstick. Like I said, it’s creamy, so when applied over anything other than clean lips, it acts really weird.

The internet tells me that GOSH is a drugstore brand. You’d never be able to tell that from around here. Here it is treated quite well, with its own boutique in only two select department stores, a make-up artist to help you with a make-over, large catalogues, etc., etc. The price is usually higher than the one I see mentioned on other blogs.

I love the matte black packaging of this line of GOSH lipsticks. This is the best kind of packaging for me, without all the frills and pinks and shinies.

I am not sure whether I’ll be getting this colour again (can’t always control the light, you know), but I really want to try other shades in this line. I’m interested in Burgundy and Mandarina in particular, but I don’t think I’ve seen them around here.

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Beauty

Lip Monthly June ’15.

lip monthly june 2015

This is a short post, as I have yet to use any of the products that came with the June Lip Monthly subscription bag, with the exception of the be a… bombshell lipstick.

J. Cat Beauty Flying Solo Eyeshadow in FSE 126 Ticket to Stardom

At a glance this shadow has too much red in it to be flattering on me, but I’ll use it in looks and see how it works. Maybe as a crease colour, but I doubt even that. I’m thinking of trying it as a blush, but it might not work either. We’ll see.

be a… bombshell lipstick in Hollywood

Loved the packaging of the be a… bombshell lipstick. It’s reminiscent of MAC, but even if it weren’t, I just love the no-frills matte black lipstick bullets. The colour is a retro red with a brick undertone. It’s not very me, but I think we can work around that, this lipstick and I. It’s creamy and pigmented. The coverage is good. It’s more of an autumn lipstick shade in my books, though, so a surprising choice for a June subscription bag.

be a bombshell hollywood

This is the second be a… bombshell product I’ve received through my Lip Monthly subscription. I loved the gloss I’ve been sent, and this lipstick isn’t a disappointment either. Swatched below.

be a bombshell hollywood swatch

So Susan Colour Hybrid in the shade Marsala

This product I am yet to open. It comes in a squeeze tube, designed to be used on both lips and cheeks. I can safely say that I’ll be using it on lips only. Cream products don’t fare well with my face.

jelly pong pong fig jam

Jelly Pong Pong Lip/Cheek Cream in Fig Jam

… And another product that’s designed to be used all over yer face. The colour is very bright, but I don’t know if it is sheer or has full coverage. The packaging is really hefty. It feels heavy, and I love the simple black and white design of the lid. In my experience, cream products in such packaging dry out very fast, so I’m keeping this closed until I run out of the similar shade I own.

This post isn’t very informative, now is it? I’ll be using these and writing about them in more detail eventually, I promise. For now I just want to catch up on the Lip Monthly subscription itself. Such a backlog! If you missed a post, you can find them all here.

Lip Monthly is a subscription bag with a focus on lip products. One month is $12.95 (plus shipping outside US and Canada).

(This post features affiliate links.)

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Beauty

Lip Monthly April ’15.

lip monthly april 15 (2)

I’ve got half a year of Lip Monthly subscription bags to catch up on, woo hoo. The reason I haven’t been writing about them much was because I felt disappointed in the products at first glance, and it continued for a while. But then I actually sat down and spent time with these, and found out that my first impressions were incorrect in many cases.

city color be matte lipstick in cammi

City Color Cosmetics Be Matte Lipstick in Cammi

Didn’t like this shade in the tube. No, that would be wrong. I loved the shade, but since I’m so pale, I thought it wouldn’t look good on me and came up with a list of friends with darker skin tones to whom I could pass this on. Didn’t even want to open it at first, but then curiosity kicked in, I swatched it, and what do you know: It looks great on my lips. It’s a very autumn/ winter shade. The longevity is OK. It’s a true matte, but it’s not very drying. I can see this getting a lot of use during the next couple of months.

la girl lipstick in last night

L.A. Girl Lipstick in Last Night

My first reaction was, wooooo bright bright bright. I thought I wasn’t going to keep it, but then it grew on me. The quality is decent. The formula is very creamy. One of the things I didn’t like about it was that it stains. Although the colour is intense, you can turn it down a notch if you just pat the bullet on your lips and then go in with a brush to even things out. It’s a very spring/ summer colour. I might bring it out in the dead of winter to brighten things up, though.

cargo cosmetics lip gloss in sahara

Cargo Cosmetics Essential Lip Gloss in Sahara

Can I just stop for a second and say how I love Cargo Cosmetics packaging? I’ve previously received their eye shadow, and both the box it came in and the tin the shadow is in are so pretty, I can’t even.

Haven’t yet used this gloss yet, but in the tube it looks similar to the Milani gloss I received via Lip Monthly not long ago, perhaps a bit lighter. I’m weird about lip glosses, as in I really don’t like using them for longer than a certain amount of time after opening. So I kinda want to go through at least two other glosses I’ve got going before I open another one.

Other reviewers posted about a Cargo gloss in Anguilla, and I have to be honest here, I wouldn’t have minded getting that shade instead of this one. On swatches it looks like this really pale milky kind of pink, and it’s something that I’ve been looking for for ages now. But ah well, I suppose Sahara is a more universally flattering shade.

ofra eyebrow pencil

Ofra Universal Eyebrow Pencil

Once again, I have yet to use this one, but the colour, a cool-toned medium brown, looks like a match, and I really enjoyed using all the other Ofra products I received via Lip Monthly. Their Laguna Beach is one of my favourite lipsticks.

lip monthly april 15 (7)

OFRA, City Colors, and LA Girl swatches. The City Colors lipstick looks streaky, but it really isn’t. It’s just my mad swatching skillz on display here.

Lip Monthly subscription is $12.95 + shipping (outside US & Canada – I live in Europe, and it’s $5). Each box contains 4 products, usually full-sized. The products come in a make-up bag.

(This post contains affiliate links.)