Shakeup Your Makeup

Milani has a few new items on their permanent display at Meijer, including two lip products and a new collection of Gold Label nail polishes.  Above, the Lip Intense Liquid lip colors - there were four bright colors ranging from red to a purple.  Interestingly, right next to the liquid lip colors was a lip liner pencil in a clear shade, to help prevent feathering.  I'm kicking myself for not picking this up, as I have a couple of lipsticks that I love, except for that pesky feathering they do!  

Lastly, below are the new Gold Label polishes that are popping up on the permanent displays.  Closeups of the bottles below, these are all "sugar" themed, and remind me of Easter.  Not glitters, per say, but definitely unique top coats for the spring/summer seasons.  

Have you seen these before?  After reading the names I feel like I need to go play Candy Crush! 

Laura Geller has some of my all-time favorite blushes, so when I saw her "Colors of Love" collection being presented on QVC a few weeks ago, I had to pick this one up.  

The set consists of a baked blush/highlighter and a lip crayon.  As I have recently fallen in love with lip crayons, thanks to the likes of Revlon, I was anxious to try one of Laura's as well.  

First up, the blush.  Look at how absolutely gorgeous this is.  The color is called "Pink Valentine", and is a coral base with golden shimmer.  The heart highlighter is a shimmery champagne shade, similar (if not identical) to Portofino.  This blush is like Nars Orgasm, only brighter. 

The lip crayon, Lychee Glace, is a bright coral, without shimmer.  This goes on very pigmented, with a nice shine.  The crayon itself is adjusted from the base, like other crayons are.  A nice, thick crayon, it is hefty enough of a product to apply easily, and doesn't feather into your lines.  It is sticky enough to last a majority of the day without a need to reapply, but doesn't dry out your lips like a lot of lasting lip colors are known to do.  

Swatches side-by-side of all three shades below.  When you swirl the blush together, there is just the added depth of the highlighter, although if you have a small enough blush-brush, you can reach for it alone to highlight your cheek bones.  These are some gorgeous shades, for sure!  Definitely a nice step up from your average box of chocolates on Valentines Day....go ahead, treat yourself!

A few new Wet 'n Wild displays at CVS.  The first is of the ColorIcon Powder Play collection of pallets - these are 5 colors, some neutral, some smokey and one that really pops out (in the center) full of color.  

The other new Wet n Wild display has their MegaSlicks "Love Stain".  The Megaslicks did have a $1 off coupon on them as well, making them$2.19 each!

Lastly there is a small display of new Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polishes.  There was one glitter in the bunch called Grape Gather, which I picked up to swatch later.  

Have you seen these yet or picked any up?  

The new products keep coming!  Another new collection from L'oreal - Extraordinaire by Colour Riche is a new lip color collection boasting richer color, smoother lips and shinier finish!  I have seen the advertisements in the January catalogs, but the color selection in person is fantastic.  I had a couple in my hand and decided to wait (not sure why!).   

I can't find much about the new Maybelline nail color collection, called Straight From the Shows (the Color Show line), but it was a collection of mostly rich cremes, and maybe one or two shimmers.  There were three colors that really stood out to me - two glitters (Emerald City and Diamond in the Rough) and a shimmer called Frozen Over.  Closeups of these are below.  

(Emerald City - Left and Diamond in the Rough - Right)

Frozen Over reminds me of a Sinful Color's shade called Cinderella, although Cinderella had more blue/color to the base.  Both are pictured side by side for comparison!

So have you seen either of these collections out yet?  Did you pick anything up?  Love to hear what your thoughts were!

Mail came the other day, and in it was the next round from the QVC New Beauty Test Tube.  This one had Mally's Lip Magnifier in Punch - a combination of lipstick and gloss, this product leaves lips smooth and shiny.  Punch is a warm pink with a slight shimmer.  Nothing over bearing, but definitely an easy to use color for all year round.  

A closeup of Punch is below - feel free to click to enlarge.  You can see the shimmer a bit better. 

Swatched on the lips below, see now natural and shiny the color is?  I really like this, maybe even a bit more than the glosses that I have swatched time after time.  I find that I reach into my purse to pull this out as my go-to gloss at the moment.  

The Mally Lip Magnifier Lip Color retails for $20.00 on Mally's website, where there are several other colors available.  

Have you tried any of these lip colors?  What did you think?

I'm always on the lookout for a good lipgloss or lipstick to have in my bag to fall back on throughout the day - something that goes with everything.  Part of the New Beauty Test Tube this go-around was Mally's High Shine Liquid Lipstick in Mally's Look.  I've received several of these Liquid Lipsticks in the kits I've purchased on QVC from Mally and they do not disappoint.  These little beauties have the coverage of a lipstick with the shine of a lipgloss - a multitasking dream. 

Mally's Look is a nude-pink cream. For me, this is just a pinker version of my lips, so it's one of those "my lips but better" colors.  I really like this, especially in a pinch when I need some color and shine, but don't feel like digging around my purse for lipstick.  I actually keep this in my desk drawer at work.   

I will post a full-face picture later this week, just for a better look at how this is on. 

Do you have any Mally's High Shine Liquid Lipsticks?  What is your favorite color?

Fashionista is a slightly warm, pink creme.  This is perfect for summer, and it lasts a majority of the day!  I'm so glad I picked it up and for under $5, it's quite the deal!

It's the time of year again - little girls will be knocking door to door, while their parents hunt down their friends in the office, all for one thing...Girl Scout Cookies.  Well, if the 6 boxes you ordered from your neighbor doesn't suffice, head on over to your favorite Lip Smacker retailer, or shop online here, and pick out your favorite flavor to smack your lips with. 

I spotted the following display at Meijer.  Cute packaging, although I'm not sure I want to taste a Tagalong all day long.  I'd be willing to try out the Thin Mint or Trefoil, though.  Chocolate mint and sugar cookie sound like they might be ok.

I finally caved.  Yes, I bought two of the Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butters.  I couldn't help it - I've read so many good things about them, it was only time until I snagged one (or two): Cherry Tart and Sugar Plum.

Packaging is similar to the regular ColorBurst line of lipsticks, only the case is semi-clear - kind of like a faceted gemstone.  I think they are really pretty, personally. 

Cherry Tart is a sheer red that can easily become more intense with further application.  Because this is a butter, you don't get a true opaque coverage, ultimately allowing your tones to mold the color.  Truly, this is the neutral girl's red.  Easy to wear, and it feels great too!

Sugar Plum is, as the name suggests, a warmer plum/purple shade.  On my skin swatch below, it almost looks brown, but when applied to the lips it is a beautiful plum to berry shade. 

On the lips below, you can see there is excellent pigmentation to these.  This is two applications, so obviously it's a bit more intense than just one. 

It's official, I love these.  I love the texture - it truly feels like butter, as the name suggests. It melts into my lips, but actually lasts a while once applied.  The color selection is really nice, too.  There are those that are lighter and less pigmented (Cotton Candy and Cupcake, for instance) and those that knock it out of the park...i.e. Cherry Tart.  I will definitely be looking to get a few more of these when the time is right.  These make the perfect addition to your purse or desk drawer in the winter time, when I'm always reaching for my lip balm, but longing for a little bit more... like color!

Retail is $7.99-$8.99, depending on where you shop. 

I had very minimal exposure to Jordana Cosmetics until Walgreens revamped their set up and put an entire permenant display in their cosmetics department.  Until then there was a little rack with eyeliners and lip liners that I would pick up every once in a while.  You can see what I have purchased and reviewed here.  Actually, some of my most used items are the Glitter Rocks Retractable Eyeliners I swatched and reviewed here, and I got those on clearance for $0.62 a piece!

Now that there is a display at Walgreens, I took a look at the other offerings from Jordana and picked up one of their Easyshine Lip Colors to try out.  There are six colors on the display, and I picked up Sugar Cookie, which is a warm, reddish brown cream - no shimmer here. 

Actually, if you head on over to the Jordana website, you can see all of the different colors here.  The website also has a handy key to tell you what the finish is for each of the colors.

Not only did I mangle the top of the lip color with the lid when I opened it, but my flash totally washed out the color in the tube.  It is a much deeper shade, with more brown undertones.  This is a smaller stick of color too, similar to the size of the Carmex I reviewed earlier this week. 

Swatched on the lips, this is my lips but better.  The shine is unbelievable, and unfortunately my camera did not capture this either.  It reminds me of a the shine you get from a liquid lipgloss in a tube.  Definitely an easy color, it adds a hint of warm red shine, without being over the top.  This is a very slick, non-sticky gloss.  Lasting strength is minimal at best, especially if you have to talk alot during the day.  There is a slight fragrance, sort of a warm vanilla sugar (hence the name), and it is also sweet to the taste.   

I'm sure I've shown you pictures of my makeup stash over the past years I've been blogging - there are very few things that I don't have tons of, for sure, but the other thing besides mascara that I love is lip gloss.  When the L'oreal Colour Riche Le Gloss display came out, I was automatically drawn in by all the different colors.  After passing by several times on my grocery trips, I finally caved in and purchased the color Saucy Mauve. 

I am a Glossaholic...need proof?  Look above - that's one drawer full of lip glosses.  This isn't included the numerous glosses strewn throughout the 3-5 randomly placed purses in my house, car and office.  Yes, I am a Glossaholic and I know it. 

Saying that, it was only appropriate that I picked up two of the Hard Candy Glossaholic Sequin Saturated Shine Lip Glosses at Walmart about a week ago.  From the Hard Candy website:

These are called Sequin Saturated because of the foiled effect of the gloss.  I love this type of glitter in my nail polishes (think Sally Hansen "Hidden Treasure"), and thought it might be a neat effect in a lipgloss as well.  The pictures of the applicators below give you a good idea as to the amount of the foil in the actual product - sometimes looking at the full tube (above) can be a bit intimidating.  Don't let it fool you - these are very, very wearable.

Swatches on the skin and lips below.  The swatches on the skin are pretty generous, so you get more of a feel for the color against skintone.  On the lips it is one swipe.  You'll notice on the lips you don't get a lot of color.  Obviously, adding a little more will give you somewhat of a *pop* of color in the Fireball, but it's not over-the-top.  I was actually surprised to find that it was as sheer as it was.  To be honest, this would look nice on top of a lipstick - not only is the gloss very shiny, but I think the foils would stand out better against more of an opaque background of a lipstick, versus my actual lips.

Now, onto the little surprise.  If you remember above, the description online mentioned a "Ginormous applicator".  Yes, ginormous is a word, but we'll address that at another time.  The applicator...is...HUGE.  Look at it below compared to a "normal" sized doe-foot applicator!  Isn't that unbelievable?  This is why I was apply to apply just one coat above.  At first, this was very intimidating to me, but really it just takes a bit of getting used to.  On a side note, for those of you Avon lovers out there, the new Avon SuperSHOCK Liquid Lipshines have the same, enormous, applicator.  I need to post about the colors I picked up, but that's for a later date.

Well, what do you think?  Are you going to pick up these lip glosses?  Retail price is $5 a piece, so really not bad considering the size and amount of product.  Of course, you do have to deal with the dreaded Walmart, but sometimes you just have to, right?