Review: Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain in Passion

This is the lipstain that I wanted to try most of all. The Maybelline ones sort of disappointed me. The only shade that I was interested in was "Passion" in this line, it's a bright pink colour. The ad above, which I found in a magazine, shows 10 different colours, I only saw 4-5 at the drugstore however, and Passion is the lightest one. I really, really wish they would of made a pale pink colour drugstore lipstain, if anyone knows of a good higher-end one or drugstore dupe, please let me know. Having pigmented lips, I am not crazy about them standing out more, and all lipstains are pretty vibrant and dramatic in my opinion. Anyway, this was on sale at Rexall/Pharma Plus (in Canada) for $9.99, regularly $12.99 at Walmart, still expensive for drugstore, but whatever, "had to" have it.

So, onto the review... Revlon's take on lipstain stands out to me because right away you notice it's double-ended, one end the stain, and the other a balm (as you can tell in the pic above). The balm is like a chapstick type thingy, although it doesn't wind up at all, so you get what you see, it is however really nice and moisturizing. You apply the stain and then the balm over it. I like how the colour of the stain does not rub off onto the balm, which I was expecting it to. Make sure that the stain has dried on your lips before you apply the balm. Maybe it was because my lips are really dry but, the balm made my lips tingle, in a not so nice way, so be warned off that.

Passion is a hot pink colour, but it doesn't really translate that way on my lips, more of a light red, which I dislike. I really wish it would come out like on Jessica Biel in the picture above. Maybe I need a lip erase before putting these products on. It is quite close to the colour on the tube, which I appreciate because that was not the case with the Maybelline lipstain. I love how it looks swatched on my hand, but on my lips not so much, I have to remember to apply just a tiny bit to get the pink look. I think with a light pink gloss over it, it would look great.

In terms of application, I feel like not as much colour comes out when you apply this to your lips, compared to the Maybelline one, which applies the colour right away. With the Revlon lipstain, I feel like you have to go over areas over and over to get the colour opaque. I have to also hold the marker sideways to apply it, applying it with the tip end would be too time consuming and tedious.

Just tip, store your lipstains in a cup standing down, that way any fluid runs down to the marker end, ensuring that your lipstains do not dry out prematurely.

Have you tried this lipstain?

Monthly Favourites: July!

July.... where did you go? Here are my faves for the month of July.

Revlon Lipstain + Balm in Passion - I picked this up near the end of the month and am liking it a lot. The colour is pretty nice and I like the balm on the other end too.

Joe Fresh Lipstain in Tangerine - Love the colour of this, an orange colour, but comes out kind of coral on my lips because they are so pigmented.

Revlon Beyond Natural Makeup in Light - In the summer, I like light-coverage foundation that does not cake up my face or look like you are wearing too much, and this is perfect.

Revlon Beyond Natural Smoothing Face Primer  - This goes well with the Beyond Natural Makeup, glides on nicely and helps your makeup from sliding off

Bath and Body Works Anti-bacterial Hand Gel in Sweet Pea - I keep this in my purse at all times, love the smell and it so small and cute. Also, it doesn't have that gross lingering alcohol smell.

NYC Translucent Powder - I use this to set my makeup, it's light and you only need a small amount, and it's super cheap!

MAC Eyeshadow in All That Glitters, Shale, Sable and Mulch - These are colours that I've been wearing most throughout the month, All That Glitters most of all, it's a staple.

Ecotools Bronzer Brush - My favourite Ecotools brush, I use this to apply powders and it's great for touch ups on the go.

Sigma Makeup F80 - I did a separate review of this brush, but I wanted to include it in here too cause it's so awesome, definitely pick up this brush if you can. Click here to check it out on Sigma Makeup's new website.

Revlon Pink Pout lipstick - Love the colour of this, it's like a blue-pink shade. Most worn lipstick for the month.

 What are your July faves?

Productrater's 100 Follower Giveaway Winners List

The giveaway response was very successful, I met a lot of lovely new readers and learned how a lot of people found me. This is an awesome community, full of honest women who love reviewing products and sharing makeup tips and tricks. I am so happy to be a part of it and happy that you guys take the time to read my blog and comment. :)

It took me some time to go through all the entries to the giveaway, making sure that everyone entered properly and followed rules. Winners were chosen by calculating all the entries (depending on whether an entry got 1 or 2 entries or whatever), putting all names into a  spreadsheet and then choosing numbers from random.org. Thank you to everyone that took part in this giveaway!

Onto the winners!!!..

Prize 1:

WINNER: susannahbean

* MAC Lipstick or Eyeshadow of your choice

* Revlon Colorburst in Soft Nude

* ELF Undereye Concealer and Highlighter

* ELF Mineral Lipstick in Runway Pink

* ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer

* Maybelline The Falsies Mascara (Very Black)

* China Glaze Nail Polish in Flyin' High

* Joe Fresh Nail Polish in Powder Blue

Prize 2: 

WINNER: WillWorkForMakeup

 * MAC Lipstick or Eyeshadow of your choice

* Maybelline Lipgloss in Lolly Pink

* Revlon Colorburst in Baby Pink

* ELF Mineral Lipstick in Natural Nymph

* ELF Lipstain in Birthday Suit

* Maybelline Colossal Volume Mascara

* Joe Fresh Polish in Powder Blue

  
Prize 3:

WINNER: Junerose

 * MAC Zoomlash Sample Size

* Milani Neon Nail Polish in Pink Rocks!

* Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Nude Lustre

* Maybelline Sensational Born with it Lipgloss

* Annabelle Smoothliner in Black

* ELF Eyelash Wand

*ELF Blending Eye Brush

Thank you again to everyone that entered and took part in this giveaway! I will or have already contacted the winners by email, if for some reason they do not respond in a week, I will be choosing replacement winners.

I wish I could give a prize to everyone, stay tuned for more giveaways in the future! 

MAC Cosmetics Venomous Villains Collection Fall 2010

Who's your favourite Disney villain? MAC's Venomous Villians Collection includes items with packaging of Cruella De Vil, Evil Queen, Maleficent and Dr.Facilier. I gotta say, the packaging on this looks really ugly and cheap, reminds me of something a kid would play around with, not a mature women who buys MAC. What are your thoughts?

Release Dates:
September 30 [US/Canada]
October 2010 [International]

Cruella De Vil

Lipstick ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Heartless (LE) (Amplified Creme)- Cherry Red
2. Innocence, Beware! (LE) (Cremesheen)- Light yellow pink

Lipglass ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Devilishly Stylish (LE)- Deep fuchsia with pink pearl
2. Wicked Ways (LE)- Light nude with gold pearl

Eyeshadow ($15.50 USD/$18.50 CDN)
1. Carbon (Permanent) (Matte)- Intense black
2. De-Vil (LE) (Veluxe Pearl)- Rich copper
3. Sweet Joy (LE, Repromote from Passions of Red) (Frost)- Creamy pale gold

Penultimate Eyeliner ($16.50 USD/$20.00 CDN)
Rapidblack (Permanent)- True black

Blush ($19.50 USD/$23.50 CDN)
Darkly My Dear (LE) (Matte)- Mid-tone brown plum

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD/$30.00 CDN)
Her Own Devices (LE)- Cool nude

Evil Queen

Lipstick ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Sinister (LE) (Lustre)- Soft brown plum
2. Toxic Tale (LE) (Satin)- Bright coral

Lipglass ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Hot House Deep (LE, Repromote from Strange Hybrid)- Rasberry with pink pearl
2. Strange Potion (LE)- Soft coral pink

Eyeshadow ($15.50 USD/$18.50 CDN)
1. Her Alter Image (LE) (Veluxe Pearl)- Light Violet
2. Vainglorious (LE) (Frost)- Bronze Burgundy
3. Vile Violet (LE) (Matte)- Deep blue purple

Penultimate Brow Universal

Blush ($19.50 USD/$23.50 CDN)
Bite of an Apple (LE) (Matte)- Soft coral pink

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD/$30.00 CDN)
Oh So Fair (LE)- Mid-tone pink with gold pearl

Maleficent

Lipstick ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Dark Deed (LE) (Amplified Creme)- Burgundy plum
2. Violetta (PRO) (Amplified Creme)- Violet purple

Lipglass ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
1. Revenge is Sweet (LE)- Light yellow purple
2. Wrong Spell (LE)- Deep plum with pink purple

Mineralize Eyeshadow ($21.00 USD/$25.00 CDN)
1. My Dark Magic (LE)- Deep pink with pink pearl/ Deep plum with purple pearl
2. She Who Dares (LE)- Deep navy with blue pearl/ Deep forest green with lime pearl

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD/$30.00 CDN)
Briar Rose (LE)- Soft violet pink with pearl

Nail Lacquer ($12.00 USD/$14.50 CDN)
1. Bad Fairy (LE)- Red with multi-changing pigments
2. Formidable! (LE)- Teal green with pink pigment
3. Mean & Green (LE)- Purple with teal pigment

Dr. Facilier

Lipgelee ($15.00 USD/$18.00 CDN)
Resort Life (LE, Repromote from Sundressing)- Off-white with pink pearl

Greasepaint Stick ($17.50 USD/$21.00 CDN)
1. French Quarter (LE)- Black green with multi-colour pearl
2. Slick Black (LE, Repromote)- True carbon black

Pigment ($19.50 USD/$23.50 CDN)
1. Brash & Bold (LE, Repromote from Makeup Art Cosmetics)- Bright magenta
2. Melon (Permanet)- Bright golden peach
3. Push the Edge (LE, Repromote from Makeup Art Cosmetics)- Deep bright purple with pearl

Magically Cool Liquid Powder ($29.50 USD/$35.50 CDN)
1. Cajun (LE)- Sheer bronze reflects gold
2. Truth and Light (LE)- Sheer shimmer reflects silver and pink

Mirror ($12.00 USD/$14.50 CDN)
I'm So Vain (LE)- Round special decoration compact mirror

Source

Does this collection interest you?

Sigma Makeup New Site: Now Selling Individual Brushes!

Looks like Sigma Makeup has launched a new site, sigmabeauty.com and has now opted to sell every single brush separately! So no need to buy a full kit to just get certain brushes, you can choose which ones you get now and build your own kit. I am glad that they finally decided to do this, the main reason why I waited so long to order from them was because a full brush kit just did not interest me and the brushes that I wanted seemed to be out of stock at times.

It's funny cause two nights ago, I was contemplating an order and decided to go with allcosmeticswholesale instead because they sell the Sigma brushes individually and I did end up placing an order with them instead! For the SS188 and the SS138. But you know what, shipping was only $6.75 with ACW and $7 per brush with Sigma to Canada, so I guess I made the right decision. But I still find it odd that they just happened to change their site around, just a few hours after I placed my order. But now I look and shipping one brush to Ontario Canada is $2.27! So yeah, next time, maybe Sigma will get my purchase instead, we shall see.

They've also changed their brush numbering, it looks like all the SS/MAC numbers are gone and replaced with Fxx. Which is a good move, but it will be confusing at first I think. And you can sort the brushes by prices, most popular and other ways. There is also a "shop by function" which splits brushes into categories like blush, highlight, contour, concealer, different eye application techniques and so on, which is helpful too.

Click here to check out Sigma's new website.

Review: L'oreal Bare Naturale Mineral Foundation

Years back, I used to primarily use mineral foundations, and this was the first drugstore mineral makeup product that I purchased. I got this ages ago, my product actually expired 2/2010, but I think that's only the SPF that it's the product, correct me if I am mistaken. I started using it again recently so that I could write this review. This is L'oreal's take on mineral makeup, they describe this foundation as "Bare Naturale re-invents makeup with carefully selected, 100% preservative- and fragrance-free minerals plus built-in professional brushes. The new skin-improving mineral formula with an SPF 19 covers flawlessly and leaves your skin soft and the tone even.". L'oreal has a complete line in this mineral type, including concealer, blush, eyeshadow, highlighter (mineral glow) and finishing powder, all these products come with their own built-in brush.

Review: L'oreal True Match Super Blendable Powder

Yesterday, I wrote a review on the L'oreal Super Blendable Liquid Foundation, today's it's the POWDER version in the same range. This is a pressed powder that comes in a plastic compact container, you can see the colour of the product right away in the packaging, underneath is a little compartment with a mirror and a sponge.

MAC Viva Glam Gaga and Cyndi Lipglass Fall 2010

Everyone loved the Viva Glam Gaga and Cyndi lipsticks that were released earlier this year, now MAC is releasing lipglasses to match the lipstick counterparts! Again, just like all Viva Glam products, all proceeds are donated to MAC Aids Fund, so you getting some awesome lip products and donating to a great cause at the same time.

MAC Cosmetics Viva Glam From our Lips
August 9 2010 [US/Canada] Nordstrom and Freestanding, September 2 2010 at all locations
September 2010 [International]

Viva Glam Lipglass ($14.00US/$16.50CDN)
Viva Glam Cyndi
Viva Glam Gaga

Viva Glam Makeup Bag (TBA)
Viva Glam Cyndi bag
Viva Glam Gaga bag

I will update this post once I get more pictures and information, just wanted to put it out there cause I was so excited. I am definitely planning on getting Gaga lipglass. And I like how their signatures are again on the tubes. Which one are you getting?

Review: L'oreal True Match Super Blendable Makeup Foundation

I had a request from alvira to review this foundation, so here goes. I purchased the L'oreal True Match Super Blendable Liquid Foundation ages ago. I think their colour selection is probably the best found in drugstores, you can easily find your match, as there are massive shades ranging from cool, warm and neutral undertones.

OPI Shrek Collection Revisited and Dupes

The OPI Shrek collection came out this past spring, but it still available in stores readily. It came with 6 colours, this collection was really unique in that it had no reds or pinks in it, which is pretty standard for OPI. The colours in this were a mix of greens, blues and purples. I thought the colours were really cute, but I also noticed that it was full of dupes, that's why I only picked up two. I compared blogger swatches a lot (as I would with any collection) before I decided which ones to get, and will share these comparisons with you.

Having said that, I think I need to go on a polish ban, or something like that because I think I seriously have a problem. The girl at Trade Secrets had to talk me out of getting Rumple's Wiggin, I was totally set on getting it and she talked me out of it, weird aren't sales people usually trying to get you to buy, not not buy? I was comparing Rumple's Wiggin to Done Out in Deco, which I already have, of course the store did not have it, since it's discontinued, but the girl told me it was the same, and that OPI often does that, puts out discontinued colours out again, just changing the name, and changing the colour slightly. Being a nail polish hog, I can spot differences in polishes, and have many polishes that look the same, but do not translate the same on the nail, in different lighting etc. And I love pastely purple colours, I think I may go back and get it bhahahaha I am terrible.

Ogre The Top Blue is in my opinion is the must-have from this collection. It is just gorgeous and has a smooth, beautiful formulation. This is two coats, but you could get away with one coat. This is a beautiful vibrant medium blue. I am sporting this one right now and loving it.

Fiercely Fiona is a soft yellow with green undertones, which you can't see this in this picture, but it is there in real life, not anything stark however. I had read that this applied well for a yellow. I found it very watery and thin, and you can tell I overdid it with the application. This is three coats I think, if you're patient you can do it in two coats.I think it's cute, but you can tell just by looking at the bottle titled, that it's watery.

Now for the dupes. All Lacquered Up's blog had awesome swatch comparisons of the polishes in this collection and she always does great ones. I have a polish to account for each of the other shades in this collection and here are my not so perfect swatches. The problem with dupes like these is that it is easier to just get the Shrek colours, as most of these are discontinued, but in case you do have these, you do not *need* to get another one that looks the same.

China Glaze Bahamian Escape is basically an exact dupe for What's Up With The Catitude? it's a light pastely blue. I would totally recommend getting this one if you can. My swatch sucks cause going back and forth between the OPI brush and the CG confused me and I picked up way too much polish. Anyway you get the idea. I have this polish and it applies really opaque in one coat only.

Sally Hansen's Lickety-Split Lime is extremely close to Who The Shrek Are You? And because this isn't a colour that I see myself wearing very often, I am content with just the SH dupe.

 (image credit All Lacquered Up)

Done Out In Deco is very close to Rumple's Wiggin, it's a light lilac purple. As you can tell in ALU's swatch above, DOID is much darker than RW... damn you Trade Secrets girl!!!! just kidding.

China Glaze Grape Pop is a dupe for Funky Dunkey from this collection. It's a pretty vibrant purple colour, resembles purple grapes. This one is a touch darker than FD, but pretty much the same.

So... do you settle for the dupes you have, or do you like getting every OPI polish that you like? Should I go back for Rumple's Wiggin?

Review: Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstain in Bitten Berry

Lipstains are definitely a trend right now, every companies has put out their version, Cover Girl, Revlon, Joe Fresh, Tarte, MAC, and many others. Maybelline recently put out some too. I love the Color Sensational lipsticks, so I thought I would like these lip stains too. I haven't tried too many lipstains, so I was curious how Maybelline's would be. The description of these is "Color Sensational Lipstain contains a brand new technology that combines water pigments with berry nectars and solvents for weightless, sheer colour payoff." They are supposed to give that "just bitten" flush, which automatically makes me think of Revlon's lipstain, as they are called "just bitten", maybe Revlon beat them to the punch with that name.

These lipstains have the marker applicator, a la sharpie, you basically colour in your lips, depending on how pigmented you want them, you can build it up or just put one coat. Judging by the ulta.com website, I couldn't find any information about these on Maybelline's website, there are 8 shades of this product. I picked this up in the colour "Bitten Berry", it cost be $8 CAD at Walmart. I've really been liking all the purple, lilac lipsticks coming out lately so I thought this would be a good colour to choose. That turned out to not be the case.

The main concerns that people have with lipstains is that they can be drying, not so good staying power, and limited color range. These Maybelline lipstains definitely fall into all three of those categories. They don't really feel drying on, but they do fall into your fine lines. Just from swatching them on your hand, you can see it seeping into the lines  (see pic above). The staying power, not great, if you eat/drink/smoke, these will come off, and you will be left with that charming line around your lips which I loathe. I have read that the Cover Girl Outlast do not last at all and these are apparently better than that, which doesn't say much.

In terms of the color selection, it's not very varied, mostly reds. I have read many bloggers say that the colour on the tube is not the colour in the product, it is much darker and I will definitely agree. There is no baby pink, which I would of loved to see in this range. These are all in my opinion too dark. Mine was soo dark, I felt like a clown wearing it. Bitten Berry is NOT purple or lilac at all, it's a berry colour, more red than purple. So yes, judging by the name, you get what you expect, but most of us look at the packaging to give us indication of what is inside too, and the tube was purple, not red or berry coloured.

These smell really great, that berry scent going on for sure that you see in many lipstains, I like it. All in all, I would not recommend these because the colour range sucks in my opinion, none of the other colours interest me and this one was too dark for me.

Have you tried these? Did you like them?

I Heart Your Blog Award

Thank you to Pinkbox Makeup for giving me this award. You are awesome and I love reading your blog! :) You guys should all check her out..

So as a receipient of this award I am to post the award on my blog, link to the person who gave it to me (done) and choose 15 lovely blogs whom I love as well, and let those 15 people know that I have.

Here are my Top 15:
1. MaquilagemMasstige
2. In Her Makeup Bag
3. The Makeup Drawer
4. Jo Make Me Blush
5. Drugstore & Bargain Lover
6. Shops2Much
7. Pretty as Peaches
8. Will Work For Makeup
9. Lora Does Makeup
10. Babbling Brooke
11. sparkly paints
12. Sparkled Beauty
13. beauty parler
14. Short n Chic
15. Makeup Savvy

Also, unrelated but, I added a ratings function under my blog posts, so if you like you can rate my posts. I think this feature is totally cool. ;)

NOTD: OPI Absolutely Alice

I was going to do one of those "OPI Revisited" entries for the OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection but, because I only got 2 of the polishes (it was a small collection), I will just do two NOTD's instead. And because...this baby is not coming off for a while, I want to keep this on for a couple of days. There were two glitters in this collection, I got them bought today. The Trade Secrets (where I get my nail polishes if I buy them in stores) near me were all out of both the glitters months and months back, but, the one in Toronto at the Eaton Centre (for those locals readers, listen up) had many of each one! I was in awe. I was in there a week ago and they only had the mini set, and I was ready to buy that, but then stopped and looked.. FULL SIZE ones...woohoo, mine mine mine! ;)

Glitters are kind of a novelty, you like looking at them cause they are so unique and pretty, but you may not wear them very often, but they are still gorgeous to have. Absolutely Alice is stunning, it's a clear base with blue and gold micro-glitters.

Applying it takes some work, my bottle was oddly very thick and so I picked up too much or too little on my brush, making for a messy application, but once you get it on.. you don't want to take it off cause it can be quite the pain, so I dealt with it. It takes 3 coats to get opacity, and still you can see some bald spots on my manicure, that's okay, I am not perfect. And you must use a topcoat with glitters, or else you get that grainy gritty texture. As everyone else says, pictures do not do this polish justice, it is stunning in real life. You can twirl the bottle and it just sparkles. I may re-do these pictures, I am not happy with them at all, sorry guys!

Left: OPI Mad as a Hatter, Right: OPI Absolutely Alice

Do you have either one of these polishes? How did you find the application and the removal?

Announcement: Last Day To Enter 100 Follower Giveaway!

Just posting to let you guys know that the giveaway will close tonight, July 21. The response has been overwhelming and insane... I am so thrilled that so many people entered and visited my blog. I went from 120 followers to now 438! That is crazy. Thank you guys so much. I have enjoyed reading all your comments, they all had to be approved by me and I checked that you all met the rules and went on many of your blogs too and thanked you for linking back to me. I still have to go through many, so it will take me some time to calculate everything. I hope to have the winners chosen as soon as possible.

If you haven't entered yet, you can here!

Thanks everyone and good luck! You are all awesome! :)

NOTD: Revlon Peachy

Have you ladies seen the new Revlon Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel collection? I only picked up one in the colour, Peachy, but there were maybe 20 there, several pastels that looked a lot like the Daydreamer collection, there was a mint green "Jaded" and a pastel purple. I have all those colours already so I passed but they look really good! There was a taupey grey too, of course!

Peach nail polishes are probably my favourite nail colour for summer, next to mint greens and blues. So I just had to pick up this new one from Revlon. It goes on a bit darker than the bottle. But does not come off orangey like China Glaze Peachykeen did, which I like. It dries fast too! The first pic is with flash, the second is without, it's not bright at all, and the perfect mix of peach I think. It was two coats, surprisingly not thin at all for Revlon.

What's your perfect peach nail polish?