Beautifully Disney Lipgloss Swatches (Maleficent, Merida, Ariel, Belle, Snow White and The Wicked Queen)

This week I came back from my wedding/honeymoon in Florida, which naturally for me was largely Disney-based! I’ve always been a huge, huge Disney fan and it was a wonderful trip in every way. I’ll be sharing my wedding makeup soon.

Disney have their own range of makeup available in the parks called 'Beautifully Disney,' and naturally I was all over it! It's available at several locations in Walt Disney World, with the largest range available in the Co-Op Market in Downtown Disney, where the products are (loosely) themed into collections - there was a Villains collection, an Alice collection, and two displays of princesses and Disney heroines - and the range includes blushes, eyeshadow palettes, lipglosses, mini lipstick sets, polishes and polish set, brush kits, nail wraps, a gel liner set, a few false lashes and some sundries like sponges and mirrors. Tiana, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Aurora, Mulan, Alice and Cruella are featured, and I also went on a Disney cruise and noticed some glosses featuring characters that I didn't see in the parks, such as Minnie Mouse and the Blue Fairy, (no male characters, however). Some of the range occasionally pops up in UK Disney Stores, and they are also sometimes available in some of the outlets in the I-Drive area in Orlando as well.

 

Aaaanyway. Due to luggage constraints and not wanting to smash any powder products, I picked up six of the lipglosses! I honestly would have bought them all, and I’m planning to collect more in the future. Each gloss is named for a character, with that character displayed on the tube, and a sticker on the top of the tube and box displays a symbol matching the character as well - a rose for Belle, an apple for Snow White, etc. Generally speaking the shade of the gloss matches the characters personality or the themes for that film - for instance, the Maleficent gloss is purple, Ariel’s is a coral shade, the Rapunzel shade matched the pink of her dress. A+ for packaging and theme here, there are a lot of nice touches for Disney fans and I prefer this packaging, even though it’s just stickers, to both the MAV Villains and Maleficent collection packaging. I feel more thought has gone into it.

Let’s have a close look at each one!

Mistress of Darkness (Maleficent)

A bright purple in the tube, this translates to a sheerer lilac on the lips. Your natural tone will show through, which makes this look pinker. The gloss has very small reddish gold sparkles in which don’t translate very well in photos.

Change Your Fate (Merida)

A decently pigmented orange-red gloss, I predict lots of wear out of this one!

Love’s First Kiss (Snow White)

A dusky pink. I love this shade, it’s very feminine and pretty. If you’re surprised Snow White’s shade isn’t red, it’s probably because Disney gave a red gloss to Cruella.

Mysterious Mermaid (Ariel)

A pale pinky-coral with gold sparkles. Again, one I can see myself getting a lot of wear out of.

A Rose Is A Rose (Belle)

A mauvey pink. I think this is the sort of shade Belle might actually wear. I really, really love this one!

Heartless (Wicked Queen)

A vampy blackened red. How great is this? Glad to see there is at least one shade in the range that will suit darker skin tones or bolder looks!

 

And just for comparisons sake:

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting too much of these glosses at all, I fell in love with packaging and wanted to add them to my makeup collection. The Maleficent colour is much sheerer than purple lovers would hope, and I expected the rest of the glosses to follow suit. While most of the ones I’ve got are on the sheerer side, these are actually nice quality, with some pretty sophisticated shades! I love the dusky tone of ‘Love’s First Kiss’ and it’s hard to find anything negative to say about the stunning vampy qualities of Heartless – neither of which are shades I would have expected to find in a cartoon themed line, even if it is obviously geared at adults. As glosses, you’re not going to get stunning wear time out of these, but none of them stain or feather, and they are all lightweight and non-sticky which is great.

At $14.95 plus tax, these aren’t the cheapest of glosses (although some places in the parks they are on Buy Two, Get One Free) but as a beautiful Disney souvenir it was a price I was more than willing to pay and I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely these are.

Would you buy Disney makeup?

Coloured Mascara: Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash in Purple and Green

 

Coloured mascaras are a right bugger. We want them to be awesome, they so frequently are the opposite!If the colour is right, the formula isn’t and more often than not, getting the colour to actually show up is nigh on impossible. With fancy-pants brands like Chanel and Diorpopping them out left, right and centre, it made me wonder if perhaps formulas are a little better of late?  Having been pleasantly surprised by a Miss Sporty mascara I purchased recently, I was keen to try out their coloured offerings and at £2.99 each it almost seemed rude not to!

This looks actually… promising!

This is ‘ Extreme Purple.’ And purple it certainly is. If you want to try a coloured mascara without wanting to worry about looking too out there, go for navy, purple or plum, as this will still give you a little of the depth of colour your normal black or brown mascara one. Pleased with this one, at any rate.

Now this is where I got my thee quids worth, boys and girls! ‘Extreme Green’ is a bit of a corker.


Okay, okay. The formula on these is not going to give you long, luscious, thick lashes, but neither is it too dry or too clumpy which other cheap coloured mascaras are often guilty of. You’re not wearing these for that reason anyway – they’re for fun. On the lower lashline with a matching waterline they can look great, or if you’re feeling daring, coloured mascara against a deep black smokey eye looks awesome!

Now, Miss Sporty… may I pretty please ask for a pink?!

New MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Aflush and Halcyon

Everyone still loves a velvet lip product, don’t they? I for one am still a big fan so I was very keen to try out some of the additions to MUA’s line up of velvet lip lacquers, which were introduced earlier this year. Most velvet products seem to be brighter or reds, hot pinks and funky colours such as blues, purples and blacks, so I was really keen to test out a nude shade and a girlier shade! MUA released two more shades; Serene, a very light, blue based pink and Tranquility, a brownish nude. I’ve seen Serene in stores but skipped it as I know it will look awful on me, but I’ve yet to find Tranquility which I am desperate to try!

These wear and perform exactly the same as the existing shades, which you can read my thoughts on here, should you be so inclined! (NB, get Criminal, it’s better than the Lime Crime hot pink.)

The TL;DR Instagram photo!

much presentation very luxe wow

‘Halcyon’

This is my favourite out of the two! A peachy brown, this is surprisingly pretty and has a hint of retro creamsicle (a phrase only a beauty blogger or makeup artist could use and mean it, no?) to it that I just think is delightful. I’m on a big nuetral kick at the moment so this will be getting a lot of wear this summer, along with the largest sunglasses I can find! This applies like a dream in one coat.

MUA ‘Aflush’

I’m not entirely sure I can pull this colour off without a beehive and ten layers of lashes, but it’s certainly a pretty colour. A light, blue based pink that leans toward the neon in real life, I can see this one being teamed with a flower crown at a sunny festival! Not quite for me personally but you can bet it’s flying off the shelves! This one is a little bit of a bugger to apply –it can get slightly patchy, so I’d advise waiting for the first layer to dry before topping up.

A friend in the know told me all the stock has gone to Superdrug stores, but that you can expect to see them online soon.  If you can find them, you can take them home for the bargain price of £3!

Will you be looking out for these?

MAC x Maleficent “True Love’s Kiss” Lipstick: Swatches and Comparisons

“…gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red, red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose.”

Who is hella excited for this movie? Hint: me. Like most Disney loving beauty bloggers, I was super excited to hear of this collaboration between Disney and MAC, and like most Disney loving beauty bloggers, I was pretty damn disappointed. The colours were pretty boring, and most items are available permanently anyway. To add insult to injury, MAC have repeated the lazy packaging ethos they rolled out for the Venomous Villains collection. However…. I got the lipstick anyway. What can I say? I love a red lip and I love Disney.

This is not special packaging really, is it? I find the high shine on it actually makes it look cheaper than the regular MAC casing in my opinion. Bear in mind this costs £16.50 compared to the regular £15 for a lipstick. I mean… the Maleficent logo is pretty cool and all, but they could have done SO much more with this. So much. Le sigh.

Anyway. On to the colour itself. Not as deep or blue-based as many of us might have guessed this to be, MAC describes this as a ‘clean, bright red,’ which is spot on. One would guess this is meant to pay homage to Aurora, rather than Maleficent. It has light shimmer throughout and is an amplified formula, giving it a slightly glossy look. Gorgeous.

L-R: True Love’s Kiss, Russian Red, MAC Viva Glam Rihanna, MAC Viva Glam I.

Just a quick swatch of a couple of reds from MAC for comparisons sake. VG Rihanna is indeed pretty similar in terms of base shade, although the VG is a frost finish and has a lot more shimmer, giving it a much more vibrant look on the lips.


So…should you get this? In all honesty, probably not. Even though this is one of the limited edition items in the collection and not a re-promote or a permanent item, it’s not all that super special. While perfectly lovely, the packaging is a bit lazy and it’s similar enough in my eyes to the MAC Viva Glam Rihanna that if you wanted a MAC lipstick specifically, I’d send your money in the direction of charity and save yourself £1.50 in the process. If you’re absolutely bonkers for Disney like I am, it’s a nice little addition to a red lipstick collection.

What’s your favourite MAC – or any! – red?

Quickie Review: Rimmel ‘Kate’ Waterproof Gel Eyeliner in Emerald

Rimmel have added some new items to their Kate Moss line this time we’re being treated to some eye makeup. The gel liner in ‘Emerald’ immediately caught my eye – I’ve always loved green liner and in my early twenties, green glitter eyeliner was a staple look of mine. The outer packaging looks very similar to the Maybelline gel liners too, so I was interested to see how they compare.



Very similar to the Maybelline, no?

Like the Maybelline one, this also comes with a brush. Sadly, the brush isn’t as nice as the Maybelline one at all, though it looks very similar. It’s hard to achieve a fine line with the Maybelline one but it is possible and I actually quite rate them, especially for lipstick and spot concealing. I really struggled with the Rimmel one, as you’ll see below.

The liner itself is the main event though. Unlike a lot of other high end and ever drugstore gel liners, the Rimmel comes in a cheaper looking plastic pot, with Kate’s signature on the top. I don’t really care about the packaging of an eyeliner looks wise, but in my experience products like this that are in glass jars simply last longer and don’t dry out as fast. It’s a shame considering that other liners at the same price point do have glass jars.

‘Emerald’ is a slightly misleading colour – this is a blackened green. I was expecting from the picture on the packaging for it to be a green matte, and this has a good amount of shimmer. Expectations aside, this is still a bloody gorgeous colour and very wearable! I’m excited to have a pretty liner I can pull off at work. The downside is, as with a lot of more shimmery gel liners, that you do sacrifice full opacity and you may have to go over areas once or twice to prevent patchiness – this is pretty opaque but not 100%.



A very quick application with the brush – the brush is just not great, folks. However, the liner applied smoothly, gliding across the lid really nicely, and it sets fast – this isn’t going anywhere anytime soon! I have to touch up a few tiny places where it looked less opaque, but


While this isn’t a totally perfect liner, it’s very pretty and not a purchase I regret one bit! ’Emerald’ costs £6.99 and is available from Boots and Superdrug.

Who makes your favourite gel eyeliners?

MAC Alluring Aquatics Swatches: Goddess Of The Sea and Seduced By The Sea

Alluring Aquatics came out last week, seemingly hitting the UK shelves before the US, yadda yadda yadda. I’m going to give you the TL;DR version straight up – average MAC products, AMAZING PACKAGING. I could leave it there but that’s the general gist.

LOOK AT THIS SHIT. Each item in this collection is a shiny blue metallic packing, covered in 3d fake water droplets. FAKE WATER DROPLETS. I didn’t realise this until I opened it – I thought they were embossed somehow and when I opened the packaging I was like IS THIS REAL LIFE? If you’re a makeup collector you need at least one piece from this collection, man. It’s really, really cool. Like every woman my age who is pissed off that we actually have to be adults now and give a shit about things, I want to be a mermaid and this collection I feel helps a little with that. Is it cool enough to warrant the extremely cheeky price raise to £16.50 on the lipstick? If this collection wasn’t released on payday I may have had a different answer to that question, but I think yes.

 

L-R: Extra Dimension Blush in Seduced At Sea, Cremesheen lipstick in Goddess Of The Sea. More water droplet action, and the MAC logo is inlaid in some fancy blue pearlescent writing.

L-R: Blush in Seduced At Sea, cremesheen lipstick in Goddess Of The Sea

Goddess Of The Sea. I totally am the Goddess Of The Sea but I’d probably pick Illamasqua’s Apocalips for my official duties. Described as a ‘dark vibrant violet,’ I was expecting this to be a little less wearable and quite frankly darker. Not what I was expecting but lovely nonetheless. I do like the cremesheen formula so I expect I’ll get a good bit of wear out of this one.

Here I am wearing Seduced At Sea on the cheeks. Described as a ‘mid tone neutral plum’ which is quite frankly absolute bollocks. This more like a light, burnt orange to me. I wished when it arrived that I’d ordered the coral, but applied this is actually rather lovely. I’d apply with a light hand to avoid looking like an Oompa Loompa. A nice colour for medium skins or tanned lighter skins.

The products themselves are very nice – I love the extra dimension blushes and wish they were a permanent fixture because I would sop them up with a biscuit. They’re just lovely. And a cremesheen lipstick is always a winner. While I only got two items, I don’t think there is one overall standout from this collection. Everything is nice, wearable, something you’ll get use out of. That’s fine, but this collection in my opinion is outshined by the absolutely banging packaging.


Almost everything seems to be sold out at the moment, but will you be picking up anything from this collection?

Makeup Revolution Scandalous Lipsticks in Felony, Immoral and Depraved

Makeup Revolution are the newest budget beauty brand on the UK scene and they have tons and tons of makeup with a tiny price tag. I jumped at the Scandalous lip collection, which featured a sky blue, yellow, purple, bright pink and orange shades. A blue lipstick for £1?! How could any self-respecting product junkie not try that?

I’m up to my neck in orange and purple shades from all price points, so wanted to see how these more unusual shades fared.

The packaging here is very similar to MUA, except the colour part on the end is in the lid, not the body of the lipstick. I like this style of packaging as it’s easy to see find what you’re looking for in a sea of black cases. The product has a fairly light but pretty synthetic smell typical of cheap lippies. A TL;DR summary: The packaging is light and you’re getting what you pay for in that respect. The formula for all of these has a *lot* of slip, and the wear time on them all is pretty short as well– I would check up on the state of your lips at least once an hour, especially as more unusual shades have a tendency to look worse as they wear down compared to more natural shades like red or pink. As you’ll see, these colours aren’t perfect, but there are virtually no other comparable shades at this price point.

Felony

Okay, let’s start with the worst of the bunch. There’s no two way about it – this lipstick is a travesty and should not have been made, regardless of the fact it’s only a quid. The formula isn’t very pigmented and it’s super emollient and slippery, making it a bugger to apply alongside evenly, alongside it not being overly flattering. Your lip colour will always show and seems to emphasis imperfection on the lip. Boo. I may use this to adjust other colours but I can’t see myself ever reaching for it to be honest.

It works a little better over a white base, creating a cute pastel shade, but be careful to choose as dry a white base as your lips can stand as the consistency for the lipstick itself, has a lot of slip which will cause it to mix with your base if it’s creamy. I don’t have a yellow liner to try this over which is a shame, but once you’ve put a dry liner on your lips, you may as well use eyeshadow to create your crazy colours to be honest! The only other yellow lipsticks I can think of are Lime Crime New Yolk City
which has mixed reviews, from other brands I know are the same private label like Ka’Oir/Secret Kisses, and from the Inglot Freedom line. If anyone else can think of any, please let me know.

Immoral

Next up is Immoral. This one is far from perfect, but much better than Felony! Again, there is way too much slip for my liking – it’s hard to get an even coat of this and to have no lip colour showing through, but it’s much more pigmented. I would wear this over a sky blue eyeliner, which luckily is more easy to find than yellow! So… not my favourite, but to find a half decent blue lip colour for a pound? I’ll work with it.

Blues like this can again be picked up from Lime Crime and other companies who use the same private label, Inglot Freedom system and, if you can still find them online, regular Inglot lipsticks as well, although these were limited edition. Pretty Zombie Cosmetics also has a matte blue lip cream, and there are plenty of eyeliners in a similar shade which you could also use – in the UK, the Sleek Eau La La liners are nice for the lips and they have a similar blue shade.

Depraved

This is my favourite of the bunch. Again, the slippy formula, but it works much, much better with this shade and the colour is lovely. If you were tempted by any of them, I’d go for this one. No complaints.

Purple shades are easier to find – MAC, Ilamasqua, Inglot and many, many indie companies make purple lipsticks.

I have to pause here and say that regardless of what I think of these products (I have some more reviews coming, they have some lovely stuff!) I think is brand is a bit bloody cheeky. My friend Rachael bought one of their palettes and it is exactly the same, down to layout, as a Sleek palette. I can see this repeated in a couple of their palettes, and several of their items look exactly the same and are at exactly the same price point as everyone’s favourite cheap-and-cheerful high street brand, MUA. I wondered if they’re the same company, but a little Googling says they’re not. Very odd that a brand would copy another budget brand in my opinion!


Will you be trying these lipsticks? What’s your favourite brand for odd colours?