Review and swatch mix. Lippies!

If you've read my blog before, you'll know I live in Holland. Living in Holland has it's cons and pros. One of those cons, as a beauty-addict, is that our drugstores are pretty slow in catching up with the American and British ones, product-wise. And some brands are very hard to get or just not available at all. So when I heard that my friend Sheila was going to the States for her honeymoon, I very kindly asked her if she would bring me home some products. Beauty products are generally also cheaper in the States, and since she is AMAZING she said yes! Thank you so much!

I had made her a list of things, since she's not as much "in to" makeup as I am, trying to explain how everything looked and listing colours. Of the things I had asked her to get, she could find these three, which were the ones I was the most excited about! The others were two NYX blushes and a NYX Lipgloss.

The three beautiful products she brought me was a Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in the colour 020 Lovesick and two Maybelline ColorSensational Vivids, in the colours: 870 Shocking Coral and 875 Vivid Rose. Revlon as a brand is very hard to get in Holland AND the Balm Stains are not available here yet, maybe next year. The Vivids line from Maybelline is not available in Holland either, but I did see a sale on Maybelline lipsticks last time I was at the drugstore so they might be introducing them.

Let's kick off this post with the product I was lusting after the most... The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain. These have been raved about on beautyblogs and in beautyvideos on Youtube for a long time now, and I was so sad when I learned they wouldn't be coming to Holland (at least in 2013). So when I heard Sheila was going to the US, I put this baby on the top of my list!

The Balm Stain comes in a packaging we've been seeing a lot lately. It's sort of a twist-up jumbo pencil, which makes for very easy application and no waste of product on sharpening the pencil. The Balm Stains are loved for their pigmentation and their longevity on the lips, is there truth to the tales? 

L-R: Built up coverage and a single layer.

When I first applied the Balm Stain it was very sheer, but you can build up coverage very easy with this. It has a very minty smell and feel on the lips. It tingles a little, but not a bad or scary way. When first applied it feels very moisturizing and is shiny as you see in the photo above. After about an hour or so, the shine goes away and you are just left with the stain on your lips. The stain lasts for hours without re-application and feels comfortable throughout the entire day. I wore this to a BBQ and it survived drinking, eating fairly fatty foods and a lot of chatting. Many stains can feel drying once they settle in to the lips and can bleed into fine lines as well, but not the Balm Stain! This is a very comfortable wear and it even moisturizes as well!

Here I am wearing the Balm Stain, combined with the Urban Decay Naked (1) palette. The colour Lovesick is a beautiful fucshia and goes very well with most skintones, from very pale to very dark! If you can get your hands on these, (they come in an array of colours) get one! They are great for work or special occasions! It was $9.99 at Walgreens, but I know for a fact that they are cheaper in other American stores and that there are often coupons or offers on these.

The first of the Maybelline Vivids I'll show you, is Vivid Rose. The Maybelline Vivids have gained a very good reputation, in a very short amount of time. They are bright, pigmented, comfortable to wear and makeup addicts all over the globe are loving these. Do they live up to their reputation? 

Both of the Vivids lipsticks were VERY hard to photograph, thanks to their bright colour. Vivid Rose is a deep, vibrant fuschia. The colour is just summer in a tube, it's so beautiful! The depth of the colour makes it look very chique, without being too serious. I really love it! The formula is very creamy, needs two thin layers for full opacity and wears extremely comfortably. As it is a creme finish, it does not last SUPER long. It will survive a light meal and maybe a drink, but that is it. 

The creme formula is shiny when applied and dries into a sort of satin finish. It feels like a lightweight lipbalm, it is even a little moisturizing as well!

Me, looking slightly derpy, wearing Vivid Rose combined with the Sleek Storm palette.

  

The Maybelline Vivid in Shocking Coral is the exact same formula and finish as Vivid Rose, so I won't go into detail about that. Let's just focus on the gorgeousness that is the colour!

It does not translate very well from the tube. Obviously it's called Shocking Coral and in the tube it does look a LITTLE coral, but mostly pink. It's very bright which is what makes it so hard to photograph.

This swatch is probably the photo that is the most true to the actual colour. It's BEAUTIFUL and goes very well with my pale skin. I wouldn't call it a straight up coral, but more of a warm pink.

Me wearing Shocking Coral, combined with neutrals from the Sleek Storm palette. 

The Maybelline Vivids were also $9.99 a piece, but again, I know for a fact that you can get them from $6.00 at other stores than Walgreens.

My naked lips! Excuse the disaster on my lower lip, these pictures were taken shortly after my trip to Paris and the smog there completely effed up my skin. So excuse the horrible skin!

Close up of the Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in 020 Lovesick. This is about as opaque as it gets.

Closeup of the Maybelline Vivid in Vivid Rose. Here you can properly see the depth of the colour!

 And lastly Shocking Coral. This is a pretty true-to-colour picture. It's a warm pink, more than a coral (To me at least!).


As you might have guessed, I LOVE ME SOME BRIGHT LIPS! Do you wear bright lipsticks? If not, howcome? Have you tried any of these colours(formulas? Let me know down below!


Thank you for reading and until next time!

XXX

Review and swatches: Kiko things!

Yesterday my husband and I arrived home after a 3 day trip to Paris. We saw all the typical tourist things and above all we walked a lot. Just ask my very sore and blisterfilled feet. When going to Paris there's a few things you have to do. See touristy things, eat macarons and shop! The latter bit wasn't done in abundance but I did manage to talk my husband into visiting a Kiko shop. Kiko is an Italian brand of affordable, high quality make-up which is slowly spreading to the rest of Europe. Knowing there was a shop in Forum les Halles which was fairly close to our hotel, I had to go and have a snoop and ended up with two new products which I am now going to share with you all!

The first I will share is the Kiko Sugar Mat Nail Laquer in 640 Poppy Red. The bottle only has the number on it, but I looked it up on the site.

The colour AND texture is a dead ringer for OPI Liquid Sand in Jinx, read cult nail-blogger Scrangies review of the OPI polish here. In the store I hadn't seen the "Sugar Mat" on the front, so I picked it up expecting a bright orange/gold glitter as you see in the pictures above.  Upon further inspection, once we had arrived home, I saw the "Sugar Mat" on the front and knew what kind of texture it would be. The whole Liquid Sand / Textured, matte glitter is very in right now, and I haven't really been feeling it.

The polish when applied looks like shiny glitter, but dries to a matte, very textured finish with very little shiny. The glitter does still sparkle in direct light, but not in the manner I'd have hoped. The colour is gorgeous, a very bright orangey/coral red with gold glitter throughout.

I tried making the polish shiny with two layers of topcoat ( I use INM Out The Door, it's a quick drying topcoat), but as it dries up the polish just swallows up any shine that might be added. I think that with enough layers of a highshine topcoat you could possibly get some result, but honestly I didn't feel like wasting product on it.

Still not sold on the formula and the product wasn't what I'd expected, but I'll manage to use it all the same, I think. If you like the look of the OPI Liquid Sands, but don't have the bank for the brand, try this out.

Kiko Nail Laquers are €2.50 and are available at Kiko stores or online at www.kikocosmetics.com.

The second product I managed to conquer was an eyeshadow palette from their limited Colours in the World collection in "Peach Lake".

The palette comes in a beautiful pink box, covered in what looks like painsplatter in all types of pink and peachy tones. It sucked me right in! Everything about the packaging speaks to me, the colours, the design, the fact that it reads the name of the palette on the side... I just love it!

The paintsplatter theme continues on to the mirrored palette inside. It looks very pretty, but the whole idea of the entire lid being mirrored bugs me. This will catch any bit of dirt or grime or oil that comes near it. Think fingers, stray makeup, you name it. It will never stay clean and that bothers me, I have to say. I am a sucker for packaging, and this is very pretty, but it won't remain that way.

The inside lid of the palette is also a fairly large mirror, which is a good thing. This makes it an easy travelling palette, for taking on trips or for fixing your make-up while on the road. The inside of the palette is also mirrored and again, while it looks pretty, I won't remain like that for very long. It comes with a double-ended sponge applicator.

The palette contains six shades, mostly mattes. The packaging says these shadows can be used dry, or wet for higher colour intensity. While this is pretty much always true for eyeshadows, you can't make the actual shadow wet, or you won't be able to use it dry anymore. So I'll just treat these as normal eyeshadows.

Time for the important bit; the swatches! I'm starting from left to right!

The first shade is a light golden-peach colour. It's a satin-type formula with a decent amount of shine and some sporadic glitter. The glitter really doesn't stick to the skin, and will most likely just fall off the brush or result in fall out under your eye. When using this shade, I'll make sure to tap my brush off before applying, and generally only use this as a tearduct highlight, it's too shimmery (for my taste) for the browbone.

The second shade is a bright, matte peachy colour. Right up my alley, this! As it can be hard to find well pigmented matte shadows, I didn't have too high hopes I must admit. And while this is a beautiful shade, I believe it could be more pigmented. You can layer it for opacity, and can achieve a good colour payoff with it.

The third shade is a BRIGHT, matte pink colour. Pigmentation on this is slightly better than the coral and blends a little smoother. While I don't see myself using this in an everyday eyeshadow look, it is definately a pretty shade and can also double up as blush!

Onto my very favourite shades in this palette...

The fourth shadow is a reddish, burnt brown. It's a beautiful soft shade, perfect for crease-work or even for a matte lid colour. It blends like a dream and compliments both green and blue eyes very well, due to the warm undertones.

The fifth shade is a very interesting metallic shade. It's almost a bronzey colour, with a purple duochrome. The picture doesn't do the duochrome in it justice, it's gorgeous!

The sixth and last shade is a deep, matte cool-toned brown. Well suited for crease-work, a soft liner or a dark smokey eye. It's a little harder to blend than any of the other matte shadows in the palette and is less unique than the other colours, but compliments the palette nonetheless. I'll do a tutorial with the palette soon!

While I am very happy with my palette, I feel like it -is- a bit pricey for what it is. For the money you spend on this you might as well get a Sleek Palette and Blush and get more colours AND a blush for the same money. Kiko is an overall cheap brand, but since the palette was limited edition, it was a bit more expensive than their normal products.

The palette was €16.90 and is available at Kiko stores or at www.kikocosmetics.com for as long as they carry the collection.

If you get a chance, definitely check out their products. I checked out some of their single eyeshadows as well, and the pigmentation was great on most of them. They have an immense nail polish collection, and many other make-up related things and accessories.

Do you have any experience with the brand? Any recommendations? Let me know in the comments below! 

Thank you for reading and until next time! 

XXX

Review: Essence I Love Extreme Crazy Volume Mascara!

Time for another review, don't you think? The most re-accuring thing in my tutorials has been my Maybelline mascara and it was time for a new mascara, so I figured I'd review the new one I got. I decided to go for something a little cheaper, seeing as Maybelline is fairly expensive here in Holland ( around €15). This is a mascara that's been talked about a lot lately in beautyland. Both in Europe and in America, so decided to give it a go!

The packaging is very girly and very "plastic-y". I'm not the biggest fan, it looks a little cheap, but I do like the colour and the and fat writing. It's very light and doesn't feel too sturdy, but at least it's about the product inside!

The wand is very large, as is the brush. It's made of rubber bristles, and a lot of them, which help seperate and cover my lashes very well.

The tip of the brush also has tiny hairs on it, which helps you get the lashes in the very corners of your eyes. The tip does carry a lot of product out of the tube, but nothing you can't wipe off on the tube very quickly.

As is showcased here above, the bristles are longer on one side than on the other, which I personally find very handy. The shorter bristles are perfect for building volume at the root of the last and for doing your lower lashes.

Here are my eyes, completely naked (excuse the state of my skin, it's still recovering from me being sick!) ! Not wearing any type of makeup, as I wanted to test the full longevity of the mascara, without powder being involved.

And here are my eyes with one layer of the Essence I Love Extreme Crazy Volume Mascara. I curled my lashes before applying the mascara.

Promises on the packaging:

"Mascara for extreme and crazy volume, ultra black, ophthalmologically tested."

I'll agree that it's indeed a good volume and lengthening mascara and indeed very black!

Under my eyes is my biggest problem area when it comes to mascara. It gets very oily and can therefore make mascaras smudge and run very easily. This is why I normally wear waterproof formulas. When I wore this all day (10-12 hours) without powder under my eyes, there was some smudging under my eyes, but not a lot. There's was also a teeny tiny bit of a flaking, but again not enough for it to be a problem for me.

The day after I wore it with a full face of makeup and it wore so much better. As long as I powder under my eyes, this baby doesn't move on me. I rode my bike to the supermarket and got a lot of strong wind in my eyes, which makes me tear up a lot, and it didn't run. Nor did it smudge. Towards the end of the day there was -some- flaking, but nothing to worry about, I feel.

On the left I am wearing one coat and right I am wearing 2 coats. It's a very rich mascara and needs to be applied with moderation. It gets clumpy very easily, but with a good amount of moderation and a good lash comb this can be avoided.

Essence is avilable at Kruidvat in Holland and the I Love Extreme Crazy Volume Mascara costs €2.89. (BUDGETPROOF!)


Pros:

• Pricepoint. €2.89 is nothing for a good mascara.
• It lasts very well in combination with my oily skin without being waterproof with only a little bit of powder.
• Availability. All cities have at least one Kruidvat store here in Holland and they all carry this brand.

Cons:

• The slight flaking can be annoying, especially if you have sensitive eyes or wear lenses. Careful about rubbing those eyes!
• It's not waterproof. I like knowing for a fact that my mascara doesn't move and this does make me feel like I have to check my eyemakeup during the day.

Conclusion: The mascara is very much worth trying out, especially for that price. It's not holy grail material, but it's definitely worth it, if you're on a budget (like I am currently) and on the lookout for a good mascara. Untill I'm in a place where I don't have to watch my budget, I will definitely re-purchase this.

What's your favourite budgetproof mascara? Have you tried this one out? What's YOUR favourite mascara? Let me know below!


Thank you for reading!

XXX