Posts Tagged ‘lipstick’
Review: Ofra Lipstick #205
Posted on: November 7, 2014
- In: Reviews | Swatches
- 4 Comments
One of my recent makeup kit mainstays is Ofra Lipstick #205. This is the other option to receive from the Beauty SOS Glamourbox last year. I got my #202 (red) from that, and this #205 I bought from Shayne.
It is what I would describe as orchid pink, although it leans a lot more violet on the tube. There is a small window on the bottom that lets you see the shade.
As I said, on the tube it looks a lot like purplish pink.
Here is the arm swatch. See what I mean about orchid pink? It’s actually quite dainty and lighter than what the color in the tube looks like.
One of the things I really like about this lipstick is that it looks different depending on whether you blotted the lipstick or not. Check out the lip swatches here.
Here’s a face shot with the non-blotted version. You can really see the sheen of the lipstick here.
And here is another shot, this time blotted. The sheen is now much more muted, and it looks almost matte.
I really like that I can choose to go either matte or shiny with this lipstick. It also smells like vanilla, which I really like. It lasts relatively long, about 4 hours, without drinking or eating. Unfortunately it has a tendency to transfer, so be careful about that. This looks like a standard 4g or 3.5g lipstick, and costs Php650.
Ofra is cruelty-free.
Pros: beautiful orchid pink shade; relatively long lasting; cruelty-free
Cons: price; transfers
Ofra Lipstick #205 is available through the Glamourbox Boutique, as well as selected Snoe outlets and Glamourbox stalls.
Review: Happy Skin Shut Up and Kiss Me Moisturizing Lippie in The Morning After
Posted on: September 30, 2014
- In: Reviews | Swatches
- 6 Comments
Things have been rather hectic at work for me recently and I’ve not been able to find the time to take photos for reviews. Thankfully I’m able to squeeze this review in. I got this Happy Skin Shut Up and Kiss Me Moisturizing Lippie from the birthday haul from my MIL last month. I chose the shade The Morning After because 1) I wanted to explore more nude shades 2) It seemed pretty popular with bloggers (bad reason to buy!) and 3) It was limited edition (even worse reason to buy!). If I recall correctly, this costs Php549 and I got it from the Beauty Bar branch at Eastwood.
First of all I would like to comment that I really like the look of this tube. It is of course of the twist-up crayon type but I am quite attracted to the pink-and-silver theme. It’s slightly longer than most lipstick tubes though, so it’s a little less portable because of that. The cap also has a slight feel of it-might-come-off-in-your-bag, although I never had that actually happen.
Let’s talk about the shade. The Morning After is described as pink-mauve with a hint of beige, mauvey-rose, and mauvey-brown by three of my favorite bloggers. It basically points to an MLBB (my lips but better) shade, and my at-the-counter-swatch showed that it would suit me. Check out my arm swatch below.
As you can see, it comes out as pretty reddish on my arm. I think this is because my arm is a lot fairer (and yellower, I think) than my face, and pulls out a lot of red. This is two swipes of The Morning After. It’s pretty pigmented and the finish looks satiny.
On my lips it’s a different matter. It really comes out as being pretty much pinkish mauve, and the finish leans more matte. It does accentuate some of my dry patches (upper lip).
Other items on face: Catrice Matt Mousse Make Up in Light Beige, In2It Eyebrow Powder, Ellana Minerals Mesmer-Eyes Eyeshadow Quad, Pixy Waterproof Mascara, Canmake Cheek&Cheek in 07 Orange Bouquet
The formula itself is pretty good. According to the write up on their website, SUaKM Lippies have shea butter and collagen to keep lips well hydrated. Even if it is practically matte on me, I find that it doesn’t dry out my lips or exacerbate my dry patches. It lasts pretty much until you have to drink (and definitely eat), after which you will probably need to reapply.
Pros: great MLBB shade; easily available
Neutral: price
Cons: not very long-lasting; limited edition
Happy Skin is available in Beauty Bar, Plains & Prints, and Rustan’s The Beauty Source, and at their website. I have no information on Happy Skin’s stance on animal testing.
- In: Swatches
- 14 Comments
Quite an almost-alliteration! Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Laguna Beach is unabashedly my favorite in the Flawless Beauty Glamourbox that was recently released. I love Ofra lipsticks and have always lemmed for the liquid lipsticks available at Glamourbox Boutique. You won’t believe just how excited I was when I saw this inside the subbie box (there was some squealing involved)!
The lipstick came in a black box with a little window to show you the shade, and the actual tube is a transparent one with a black cap. The shade name is clearly written on the tube.
The wand itself is just a doe foot applicator. It’s adequate enough to apply the lipstick onto the lips, but is not a very good one for defining the cupid’s bow. For better application, I would recommend using a lip brush. [Pardon this shot. For some reason the macro setting focused on the tube instead of the wand.]
Here again is the arm swatch. From this and the product color on the wand we can see that Laguna Beach is some sort of peachy pink/plum sort of shade.
Let’s move on to the lip swatches! Here is a comparison of bare lips and one with Laguna Beach.
It looks a lot muted here than what the arm swatch suggests. Here’s a closer look at the lips.
Upon closer inspection, Laguna Beach is actually a pretty pale pink. As it is a liquid lipstick, there needs to be a little bit of wait time for the lipstick to dry and settle. It dries matte, but unfortunately has a tendency to emphasize the lip lines. To test the longevity of it, I took another photo after four hours and a meal (Brightest Bulb in a Box‘s lipstick longevity test).
It’s still somewhat there but a little faded, and is a lot more evident on the outer edges of my lips. I would say that this is fairly long lasting, as long as you don’t eat or drink so much. It is still a pretty interesting lipstick for me (my second liquid one, but my most used so far!). Did I mention it smells so good? It has a very appealing vanilla pastry scent that makes me want to buy cupcakes. This costs a pretty steep Php950, but it has 8 grams of product (usual lipstick tubes contain 3.5-4 grams). Ofra Cosmetics is a cruelty-free company.
Disclaimer: I buy Glamourboxes with my own money. I am not required to write this post.
Three Pixy Lipstick Swatches
Posted on: August 31, 2014
- In: Swatches | Unboxing
- 2 Comments
One (well, three) of the things I received during the Pixy launch is a set of three lipsticks, one each of their three lipstick lines. Today I’m here to show you the products and the swatches.
This is going to be very image-heavy, so be warned. Read on for the swatches!
Maleficent in my Stash
Posted on: June 12, 2014
- In: Swatches
- 8 Comments
Have you watched Maleficent and fell in love with Angelina Jolie? No? I respectfully suggest you go now and do so. You will not regret it.
Image credit: http://www.mouseonthemind.com/
But this post isn’t really about the movie (which is great ofc!), but about the Maleficent makeup. Isn’t it just divine? I still can’t get over that razor-sharp contouring, and that stunningly red lip. In fact, I’m so taken by that red lip that I decided to go and see if I have anything similar in my stash. Here’s what I found, my reds collection.
From left to right: Pixi Shea Butter Lip Balm in Ripe Raspberry, Avon Vitaluscious Lipstick in Reviving Red, Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in Bellissima, Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Standout (top of tub), Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in Queen Bee (bottom of tub), Ever Bilena Lipstick in Flaring Cranberry, and Ofra Lipstick #202.
I wore each of them to check how Maleficent-ish they are. I also just wanted to swatch some lipsticks. Ahem. For reference, above is my lipstick-less state. Let’s start with Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in Bellissima.
As you can see, Bellissima leans somewhat pinkish, and comes out pretty glossy. The red is also quite a lot lighter compared to Maleficent’s. I’ll rate this as 75% Maleficent (according to Pat’s Totally Arbitrary Scale of Lipstick Comparison).
Let’s move on to Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in Queen Bee.
Ignoring some twinges of pain when looking at that tub, I’m glad to see that Queen Bee comes out as a deeper red compared to Bellissima. It’s also still a bit glossy, so I’d put this at a slightly higher 82% Maleficent.
Let’s move on to Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Standout (in another of those tubs).
Oooh well look at that! This one came out pretty matte (well it should!) which brings it closer to Maleficent in terms of texture. It’s still quite bright though, while we are actually looking for something rather brickish. I’ll say this is 88% Maleficent.
Next we have Avon Vitaluscious Lipstick in Reviving Red.
This one seems closer now in terms of shade, rather than texture. It seems to lean more brick compared to the first few ones, but it’s quite glossy. I’ll place it the same with Revlon, 88% Maleficent.
Now we come to Ofra Lipstick #202.
I really like how strikingly bold this is. It does feel like Maleficent, but unfortunately it doesn’t look quite like Maleficent. It is quite matte, but it’s too bright to be called brick red. I’ll go with 85% Maleficent, because it feels closer to the target compared to Queen Bee, but less so than Standout or Reviving Red.
Next we have Ever Bilena Lipstick in Flaring Cranberry.
I know this would turn out quite on the pink side, but I wanted to see how it looked compared to the others. It’s quite bold, yes, but it’s totally not the right color. I’ll rate it 50% Maleficent.
Last but not the least, Pixi Shea Butter Lip Balm in Ripe Raspberry.
It’s definitely not a lipstick, but I thought it is red enough to be included here. Unfortunately, while it is quite pigmented as a lip balm, it is not of course as pigmented as the lipsticks. Compared to them it really is quite sheer, although the red is pretty evident. Since this is red and not pink, I can put this at 60% Maleficent.
In conclusion, I didn’t really come that close to Maleficent-level of lipstick. The closest I got is Revlon Matte Balm in Standout and Avon Vitaluscious Lipstick in Reviving Red, both at 88%. It made me realize that I barely have any dark or brick reds, and I have too many bright reds of the same “level”.
The Melting Horror
Posted on: April 10, 2014
- In: Musings
- 27 Comments
No, you didn’t accidentally stumble on a book blog or an internet horror novel. But let me tell you what happened to me recently. As a back story, I have a very small pouch in my normal everyday bag that holds my touch-up items (face powder, lipsticks/balms, perfume). If I didn’t have enough time to do my makeup in the morning, I’d throw what I wanted to use for the day in a separate makeup bag so I can do the rest of my face when I get to the office. In an unrelated note, I have very poor memory and have learned to use different cues to help me remember things.
One day, I did the routine as usual, but I forgot to bring out my makeup bag with me from the car. Now I usually have underground parking in the office so it would not be a big deal to forget my makeup in the car. That day, however, I parked above ground in a place with no shade. You can imagine what happened, in this heat we’re having recently. I had three of my favorite lipsticks in that bag, and they all came out of the bag badly damaged.
I almost cried when I saw this! My first firsthand experience with melted lipsticks, and it was horrible! I hid them in a box at home for a couple of days because I couldn’t bear to see them like that. The next day, I squared my shoulders and examined the extent of the damage. As I expected, they are all quite melted and reformed half in the original tube and half in the cap. These lipsticks are: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Standout (review), Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in Queen Bee (review), and Avon Ultra Color Lipstick in Hibiscus (review).
Bea advised to immediately depot these lipsticks to salvage them. I found a four-level screw-top plastic pots from Daiso Japan (formerly Saizen) and used three levels. It was a very sad and distressing task that I did not do prior research. I just basically scraped out the lipstick from the tube and the cap with a plastic spatula and shoved it into the plastic tubs. Here is how it turned out.
It’s not as horrible as I imagined, but it’s also not elegant. I just realized that maybe I need to re-melt them so they will go down to the bottom of the tubs and not perched on the side like evil bloody pupae. Unfortunately I do not have a hair dryer, nor am I willing to take a lighter or anything flame near this thing, so it’ll have to do. I did do a test run using a lip brush, and applied the Avon lipstick the next day. It seemed to apply as normal; the melting didn’t seem to affect the actual product. I hope the same is true for the other two.
Has anything happened like this to you? I’d love to hear your product mishaps/accidents and how you dealt with it!
- In: Reviews
- 7 Comments
One of my new lipsticks I acquired recently is Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipstick in the shade Queen Bee. This is one of four lipsticks I own from that line (the other three being Naked Peach, Bellissima, and Headturner, swatched here). The lipstick came in a slender box, with the shade name printed on the side. Ingredients and other information are on the other sides of the box.
This is Headturner’s box actually. Queen Bee’s box is the same except the shade name.
The lipstick tube itself is a sleek black plastic tube with a transparent viewing window in the middle. The brand name is printed in classy gold on the side. The shade name and product line is at the bottom. It also shows that this tube contains only 2.4 grams of product, which is much less than your standard lipstick tubes of 4 grams.
Even so, there’s quite a lot of product in there!
Another thing that I liked about the tube is that the product clicks on a locked position when withdrawing the product into the tube. No mess in your bag here!
Here is the arm swatch I have of all four of my Ultimate Wear Lipsticks. Queen Bee is on the far right.
As you can see, Queen Bee is a pretty bright red even from just the arm swatch. It translates to just as bright a red on the lips, which goes on glossy at first, and fades eventually into matte. You can also hurry up the transformation into matte by blotting. Here are a couple of lip swatches.
And here are some looks I made using Queen Bee.
I even tested the longevity and here it is after a few hours (maybe 4?) and a meal. Most of it has melted off, but it leaves a lovely stain that’s pretty even and doesn’t look patchy.
I really like how bold and bright this shade is. It lets me be quite the Queen Bee when I have it on, and gives me confidence to face any challenges at work and outside it. It suits my personality quite well, but at the same time pushes me to break my personal boundaries.
Ultimate Wear Lipsticks costs Php350 each. Colour Collection cosmetics can be bought from direct sellers. Some samples are available at Sampleroom. I have no information on Colour Collection’s animal testing policies.
Pros: beautiful deep red shade; affordable
Cons: available only from direct sellers; transfers
- In: Swatches
- 8 Comments
I’m very happy to finally be able to do a proper swatch post for my Colour Collection Ultimate Wear Lipsticks. I currently have four: Naked Peach, Bellissima, Headturner, and Queen Bee. Naked Peach and Queen Bee were ordered from Sampleroom directly, while I won Bellissima and Headturner from Maica of Pinay Beauty in a Budget (thanks again Maica!). Before I move on to the swatches, let me just show you how the box of Headturner looks like. All the boxes look like this, differing only in the shade name.
Here are all four unboxed and side by side.
Naked Peach (my oldest) is a very light soft peach. Bellissima is a dark rose shade. Headturner is bright candy pink. Queen Bee is a dark red.
Here are the swatches on my arm. As you can see, Naked Peach is pretty sheer and is probably an MLBB shade on many people. Bellissima appears to lean on the peach side on my arm as well but it has more pigmentation to it. Headturner, as expected, is quite a bright pink shade, while Queen Bee is the dark red that is very pigmented. All four of them appear glossy here.
Here are the swatches on my lips. First let me show you my (quite dry) bare lips. No balm was applied before the swatches.
First up is Naked Peach. On the lips it applied quite patchily. I expect this might have something to do with both the sheerness of the lipstick as well as the dryness of my lips.
Next we have Bellissima, my second favorite of the four. It appears quite a juicy red on my lips and is such a fun shade of red. It is quite pigmented, and fortunately it didn’t apply quite as patchily as Naked Peach. This is a great everyday red shade.
Headturner here looks less of a loud pink than the arm swatch seemed to indicate. This is much more wearable even for the office. The patchiness is a little bit more apparent here, but I expect that a moisturized lip might solve this issue.
Finally we have Queen Bee. This is my favorite among the bunch! It is a bright red that really turns heads (like the Queen Bee it’s emulating), and it turns relatively matte too!
Here are all four lip swatches again.
There you have it! You can get these lipsticks from Sampleroom (except for Naked Peach), or from a Tupperware Brands dealer in your area. It costs Php350.
- In: Swatches
- 6 Comments
As soon as I’ve heard from Monika of Mom Gone Vain, I knew I wanted to try these out for myself. These are newly released lipsticks from Ever Bilena, the ubiquitous Filipino drugstore cosmetics brand. They don’t seem to have a proper name right now, so I’m going to follow Monika’s lead and call them Shade Lipsticks (you’ll see why later). There are a lot of shades of this, and here you see I’ve swatched about ten of them. I ended up choosing two: Red Vixen and Flaring Cranberry.
Both of these have a moisturizing center, very reminiscent of the Avon Shine Attract Lipsticks but reversed. Red Vixen has a white center while Flaring Cranberry has a dark one. I could still not tell the difference between those centers beyond the colors. Red Vixen also has the “Shade Lipstick” marking on its tube, while Flaring Cranberry only has a plain white tube. Red Vixen has 3.9 grams of product, while Flaring Cranberry has 3.7 grams. Here is the amazing part: both are Php95 each!
Red Vixen is a semi-matte bright red shade. Flaring Cranberry is a very dark pink, almost red, with some shimmer. It leans more on the shiny side compared to Red Vixen. Here is the swatch on my arm.
Here is Red Vixen on my lips. It’s a very red shade, and looks really matte up close. It has a tendency to settle into the lines. It also smells much like every other EB lipstick – that synthetic lipstick scent.
Here is Flaring Cranberry on my lips. It appears almost red, but it’s actually a really deep pink. The shimmers are quite apparent, especially in person. Surprisingly, it doesn’t have that traditional lipstick scent. It smells very fruity, and reminds me strongly of those “Kiss” scent beads when we were kids (90s kids in the house! fistbump!).
What do you think? Not a bad set of lipsticks! Never mind the really cheap packaging, this is really a worthwhile buy for Php95. I’m thinking of collecting the rest of the collection!
I don’t have information on Ever Bilena’s animal testing policies. You can learn more about their products here.
- In: Reviews | Swatches
- 5 Comments
This will be a quick one. I recently bought this Ellefar Princess Nudy Lip in Peach from Saizen Trinoma (Php88).
And here is the initial swatch on my arm.
Very pretty and solid, isn’t it? Unfortunately it failed when applied on the lips. It seemed at once both waxy and liquidy, which translated to a very patchy application. Check it out:
Bare lips
With Ellefar Nudy Lip
Another shot with Ellefar Nudy Lip
At first I really thought I didn’t apply it properly, so I started over and tried again. Nope, the exact same thing came out. I am heartbroken.
Becoming Sleek 