Newest Lip Color Obsession: Fergie by Wet N Wild Centerstage Lipsticks!!

OMG, is this me doing a non-nail polish post? You bet it is! You see, I haven't completely abandoned my original intentions with this blog (to rant and rave about ALL reasonably affordable cosmetics)--it's just when I am short on time and/or money, I default to my original lacquerholism and all other beauty interests fall by the wayside (so, essentially, what I morph into is a disheveled, raggedy-ass mom in sweats who just happens to have fabulous nails)...

BUT I've recently stumbled across an amazing new lip product that brought me out of my makeup slump and despite the fact that there are already many posts proclaiming the awesomeness of these babies, I couldn't resist adding my voice to the choir of praise.

Behold the new Wet N Wild Fergie Center Stage lipsticks:

(click to enlarge. scroll to bottom for swatches)

from left to right, we have: V.I.Pink; Penthouse Sweet; Fuchsianista; Saraghina; Old School Glam; Ferguson Crest Cabernet.

There are a few other shades in this line--a nude shade, a very shimmery wine colored shade and even a black shade, but I passed on those because they made me go "meh." 

These lipsticks remind me of the Megalast lipsticks Wet N Wild released in 2012. Both lines have some similar shade offerings. Both lines are also very pigmented and they wear for a nice long time. However, I found the Megalast lipsticks super-drying and difficult to apply (too much tugging) and too matte for my liking. Also the Megalast lipsticks feathered on me but the Fergie lipsticks give me none of these issues. To make a long story short, here's why they won my heart in the end:

• They are nice and creamy but not slippery or thin and they are fully opaque in one pass over the lips.
• Like I said, they DO NOT feather at all--not even after hours of wear. This is pretty much my BIGGEST reason for loving these so much. Lipcolor LOVES to feather on me and I usually need to layer a lipliner and an anti-feathering lipbase under my lipcolor to keep that from happening--but I can wear these Fergie lippies with NOTHING else under them and they stay where they are supposed to.
• They are only $3.49 a piece at my local Walgreens!
• They stay creamy and lush. Their consistency does not change to a sticky goo or a flaky mess like some cheaper lipsticks do after prolonged wear. 

The ONLY thing I don't like about these lipsticks is the bullet of lipcolor does not fully retract into the tube--which means clutzes like me are doomed to accidentally nick the exposed lipstick tips when we go to put the caps back onto them. (doh!)

Ok, enough yapping and onto some swatches.

indoors, natural light

outdoors, direct sun

From left to right, we have:

V.I.Pink:  warm creamy pink.satin finish

Penthouse Sweet: a brighter, slightly cooler, more blue-based pink. satin finish

Fuschsianista: gorgeous bright magenta with violet flash. very slight shimmer but more or less a satin

Saraghina: the perfect blue-based red. satin finish

Old School Glam: coral-leaning warm red. satin finish

Ferguson Crest Cabernet: cool blue-based plum

Fuschsianista and Ferguson Crest Cabernet are my absolute favorites. I've been wearing them alternately ever since I got them and am seriously contemplating getting back-ups! Well done once again, Wet N Wild. Thanks for hooking up cheap girls like me with such affordable fabulousness!!

Have you tried any of these yet? Which ones are your favorites?

Swatch and review: Revlon Kissable Just Bitten Balm Stains in Adore and Romantic

Hey, look who's back! I'm sorry I haven't been able to post as frequently as I had hoped. Stupid life--all gettin in the way of blogging and shizz...

Today I have 2 more swatches of 2 more Revlon Kissable Just Bitten Balm Stains (that's one hell of a long product name, isn't it?)...in Romantic and Adore.

Romantic on top, Adore on bottom...

Adore left, Romantic right

Romantic Top, Adore bottom

Romantic

Adore

For the record:  my camera insists on making Romantic and Adore look the same on my lips. In person there is definitely a difference!!

Romantic is a warm tomato red. It's very subtle. I'm not usually a fan of warm reds (I'm a blue-based red kinda girl) but I love the flush of color this gives me. My lips are fairly pigmented on their own and this shade just kicks that natural pigmentation up a few notches. 

Adore is another warm red--this one has more brown in it, though. It also has gold shimmer in it, as you can see in the tip shot above. However, that gold shimmer is not very noticeable once on the lips--you just get the slightest gold sheen. I was kinda bummed about that, but that's because I'm a glitter whore and love da shiny things. If you are less inclined to slather your face in sparkles than I am, you'll probably love the effect. 

The formula in these was the same as the other balm stains I reviewed (which you can see here and here--same awesome moisturizing properties, same lush feel on the lips, same shine, same pigmentation, same stainability, same ease of application, same minty hint....I am most definitely a HUGE fan. In fact, these babies are seriously threatening my lip butters' spot as "most favoritest lippie ever"...

So have you gotten any of these yet?

Swatch and review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Smitten

So have the new Revlon balm/stains popped up in your area yet? Have you hauled every shade yet??  I'm practicing much self-resistance; even I'm amazed that I haven't cleaned out every display I've seen yet. I only let myself buy one at a time. Then I make myself test it and wear it for a week (must break hoarding habits!!)...

The latest shade that I've allowed myself to purchase is Smitten. It's a gorgeous deep magenta shade. It looks super dark in the tube but it applies sheer. Check out the pics:

So as I said in my other Revlon balm stain review, I am in soooooo much lurve with these nifty little poser-pencils. They apply SO easy, feel like a dream, come in gorgeous shades and the packaging is awesome! I've been wearing pretty much nothing but my balm stains since I got them a few weeks ago. I love that they give you color and shine and you don't have to worry about messing with lipliners or layering products and whatnot. They're the kind of lippie you can grab, swipe on and go. As a mom of 3 crazy boys, I can definitely appreciate the  time-saving convenience factor of these! The moisturizing properties are also amazing! They keep your lips happy, they don't feather and, even when the shine wears off (which happens after a few hours of wear), the color is still there. It definitely rocks BOTH sides of its balm/stain identity. And the subtle minty scent/flavor is nice and refreshing. 

Ok, great. Now I once again feel the urge to high-tail it to my Walgreens and buy up the rest of these...damn you, Revlon!! Stop being so awesome and causing me to go broke!

Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain in Lovesick-swatch and review

I was in Walgreens earlier and stumbled upon a display for the new Just Bitten Balm Stains by Revlon--win!! And then I noticed the "30% off Revlon" sign stuck onto the display--double win!! So of course I had to snatch one up-- I went with Lovesick--the fuchsia one, of course (yea I'm a creature of habit, what can I say)...with the 30% off deal, it cost me a whopping 6.49.

First up, I love the packaging! It's this awesome plastic pencil/tube hybrid. The product twists up (the bottom silver part is the twisty part), so no sharpening--woot! I also love that Revlon decided to continue with the "make the packaging the same color as the product" theme it started with their lip butters. 

Here's a close-up of the tip. Of course, with more wear, it's gonna get more and more blunt but, honestly, that is not a problem for me. When it gets to that point, t will just be like working with a slim tube of lipstick. No biggie. 

Now onto the swatches:

Blue-based fuchsia awesomeness. There's a trace amount of silver shimmer in this, which I personally love. The formula is amazing--nicely pigmented but not totally opaque, it slicks on with a true balmy feel. It has just the right amount of slip, not even the slightest amount of stickiness and your lips really do feel and continue to feel moisturized the whole time you are wearing it. When it first goes on, it has a nice shiny finish--it's not superduper glossy or anything. After a few hours, the shine wears away and you're left with that gorgeous flush of color so it truly does live up to its 'balm stain' name. 

I should also mention there is a bit of mintyness to this lippie. Nothing ridiculous, it's just enough to give the slightest, very pleasant cooling sensation to your lips.

So, to sum it all up, I am a BIG fan. Love the color, love the formula, love the performance and love that it actually does what it is supposed to do. Revlon has really been on a roll this past year with its lip and nail products! I'm definitely adding this to my "awesome junk I need every single shade of" list!

swatch and review NYC City Duet 2 in 1 Lip Colors

Ok, I have been WAY heavy on the nail polish posts, lately (not that that's a BAD thing)... What do ya say we switch gears and do a good ol fashioned swatcn & review of some lipsticks?

Here we have NYC's new for 2012 City Duet 2 in 1 Lip Colors:

(click photos to enlarge)

They come in (I think) 10 different duos and retail for around $2.99. I found mine at Walmart and of course I went for the 2 blue-based duos: The Hot Pinks and The Cherry Blossoms.

This is the dark side of the Hot Pinks duo. (All pics are taken outside in natural but sadly sunless light--what I get for living in New England in the spring)

Here we have the light side of the Hot Pinks.

and here's the split side. It's cool looking, isn't it?

Unfortunately, my camera wants to make this shade look much warmer than it is. Swatches are from top to bottom: dark side alone, light side alone and both sides blended together. The dark side of this duo is an awesome blue-based fuchsia that  has the most amazing blue flash to it (LOVE!!!!). The lighter side has less of a blue flash but it is still subtly there; it's a fun icy baby pink. Both sides are shimmers and both sides are nicely pigmented. When blended together, what you get basically is a slightly toned-down version of the dark shade. The lighter shade seems to neutralize some of the blue flash when layered on top of the darker shade. 

This is the dark side of The Cherry Blossoms duo

The lighter side.

As split as Eve's personalities!

(top to bottom: dark shade alone, light shade alone, dark and light shades together)

Again, my camera is warming this shade up more than it is in real life, but not as badly as it did with the Hot Pinks shade. The dark shade here is a gorgeous blue based red with a satin finish. The lighter shade is a peachy pink shimmer. When layered together, they create a subdued shimmery red (yea, it's not rocket science we're dealing with, here). This one is also very nicely pigmented.

Over all, I like these lip duos. Nice pigmented formula & they feel nice and moisturizing. One thing that will definitely slap you in the face when you first get them, though, is the scent. They have that STRONG super sweet perfumy scent & flavor that all lipsticks of the 80s used to have (seriously, smelling them nearly gave me flashbacks). I can STILL smell the scent on my arm even though I wiped the swatches off long ago. I, personally am not bothered all that much by the smell (I'm not really 'sensitive' to scents in that way), though I definitely notice it. I will say though that the scent seems to fade and 10 minutes later, I don't really smell it anymore (but, like I said, I'm not very sensitive to scents--I can see how these lipsticks would drive someone who IS sensitive crazy). 

Anyway, all smellyness aside, the colors themselves are beautiful, but I admit, I would rather have them each as individual lipsticks. This is just me, though. I am ridiculously OCD a smidge anal retentive and it drives me crazy when one of the shades ends up all over the other half of the lipstick. I feel like I waste half the product just trying to clean both sides so that the color is true to what it was when I first got it. Also, when the shades are blended together, I'm kind of like "meh"...it really doesn't do much for me. I prefer wearing the shades on their own and I prefer the darker halfs of both shades--which means I'm going to end up with one skinny lipstick that I'm only going to get half as much use out of. One thing I am happy to say is it is easy to apply each shade on its own without getting it mixed up with the other shade--even straight from the tube--because the lipstick is a perfect, slightly flattened bullet shape with each shade perfectly split. 

So anyway, in the end I guess what I'm saying is I would love to see NYC come out with individual lipsticks of the darker half of both of these colors. If they do that, then I wouldn't buy these duos again. But I WOULD buy the duos again if I couldn't find those shades individually because I am that much in love with the color, formula and pigmentation. So the 'duoness' of the lipsticks really doesn't do much for me in the end. (that makes sense, right?) :::eye twitches:::

Do you have any of these lip duos? Are you a fan of combination cosmetics like this?

What I'm currently obsessed with: fuchsia lips

You know how some artists have certain spans in their career defined by color--like Picasso's blue period for example--well, I'm kinda like that with makeup. I go through certain spells when all I want to wear is one single color--it's usually either my lips or my nails that get subjected to the fixation...

Anyway, so right now--for whatever reason--I'm in the midst of a fuchsia lip obsession, so I thought I'd do a post on my 5 favorite fuchsia lippies.

First let us marvel at the wonders of Revlon lip butter in Lollipop (oh yea I have a HUGE case of Lip Butter fever--at this point, I own 15 of the 20 available shades) and Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Fuchsia Fusion.

(swatches of everything  at the bottom of this post)

Fuchsia-licious! Lollipop is amazingly pigmented and I love the way it feels on my lips--nice and smooth and it has just enough slip (I hate when lip products are dry or sticky but I also hate when they are so slippery that it feels like you just kissed an oil slick.)

Fuchsia Fusion is an awesome pearly fuscia that has a blue flash that I frickin love. (I always gravitate toward cool, blue-based pinks. I just don't think the warm stuff looks good on me.) It's no coincidence  that both of these lip products are by Revlon. I think they make the best lipsticks Cheapie-land has to offer--super pigmented, lush and you don't have to re-apply every 5 minutes.

Next up is New York Color lipstain in Forever Fuchsia. Oh how I love these lipstains! Seriously the.freakin.best. I have every single shade they offer (at $5 a pop, why not get 'em all?). The marker-like packaging and the sharp tip give such a precise application and the product flows out evenly (I should mention I store my lipstains upside down so that ensures the lipcolor is always in the tip where it needs to be). This particular shade applies a flush of medium rosy pink at first but it's buildable to a bright eye-popping pink in 2 or 3 coats.  And these stains seriously do last. I STILL have the mark on my arm from the swatches I did for this post--it has lasted through a night's sleep & my morning shower. 

                                         

When eye-popping pink is not enough for me, I reach for my beloved Milani Lip Flash pencil in Flashy. This baby is not only hot pink \--it's got bright magenta GLITTER. And despite the glitter, it doesn't feel gritty or rough on the lips. It is super-pigmented and applies like buttah. Like BUTTAH! Plus I like the pencil-ness of it (if that's even a word). It makes putting it on nice and fool-proof (I hate fussing with lip liners).

Last but not least, I have Milani 3D Glitzy Gloss in In Vogue. This is a translucent hot pink gloss with hot pink glitter in it. It can be built to full coverage with a few swipes but my favorite way to wear it is to layer it over the above NYC lipstain. Once again, love the consitency--not sticky, not too thick but not so thin that it feels like olive oil on your smacker. I also love the applicator. Check it out:

front view

side view

It's a little brush! No doe-feet and no annoying flat paddle applicators (I seriously hate those things and am so annoyed that they are showing up in more and more glosses these days). Love how this brush distributes the product and keeps it only where you want it (no accidentally smearing over the lip line--YAY!)

Anyway, I've been wearing the heck out of these 5 lippies during the past few weeks and just thought it'd be fun to give 'em some props on the ol' blog. Love their color, love their quality and, best of all, love their prices (The most expensive one was the lip butter at about $8--but I rarely pay full price because I stalk Nouveau Cheap for sales notices and coupons, plus I also have Xtra-bucks or Register rewards or whatever to spend).

Here's the swatches:

From top to bottom: Milani Lip Flash in Flashy, Revlon Lip Butter in Lollipop, Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Fuchsia Fusion, NYC Lipstain in Forever Fuchsia, Milani 3D Glitzy Gloss in In Vogue

So what do you think? Do you go through color "periods?" Thoughts on bright lippies?

This one's for my goth girls

If you follow my blog, you may remember my haul post from the other day that included a black lip gloss I found. Well, I thought I'd bust that baby out and take a closer look at it, so here goes...

This is Stay Glossy lip gloss in Black Diva by Rimmel and I picked it up for a little over $4.00 at my local CVS. I couldn't believe my eyes--a true black lip gloss and it was part of the core collection of a mainstream cosmetics company? You bet!

(Applicator from the side)

The applicator is this little wedge shaped thing. Rimmel calls it "lip sculpting." I call it "meh" since it didn't seem to "sculpt" my lips anymore than a traditional doe-foot applicator. 

(applicator from the front)

The above was taken inside with flash. This gloss contains very sparse, hard-to-see silver sparkles that you can just barely see above.

Here's the same swatch outside in natural light. See how the sparkles do a disappearing act?

Here's the gloss on my bare lips. Pretty damn opaque, huh? I gotta say, I'm impressed because I was expecting it to be thin and grey and settle into lines & give me corpse lips. If I was going for a true black lip, though, I'd layer either a black lipstick or a black liner under the gloss because it's not 100% opaque. It is super shiny, though, so it'd be great for getting a patent-leather lip effect. One thing that I don't like about a lot of black lipsticks is they can be matte and dry; layering with this gloss could be an awesome solution for that. 

Of course, if you're going for a less goth kind of look, you could use this to deepen reds. It'd probably come in handy for doing a gradient lip too. 

So do you have this gloss? If so, how do you wear it?