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?

Detox, VIcky Vox and Willam!: LOTD with OCC Black Metal Dahlia

What does one wear on one’s face when they’re off to see their favourite drag queens? The same shit that they hawk themselves, naturally – a little OCC!

 

 

My hair was setting, I didn’t go out like this!

Eyes: Illamasqua Neutrals Palette and Scribe Liner, MAC Reflects Gold Glitter, Kiko Precision Brow Pencil in Shade 03
Lips: MAC Vino lipliner, OCC Black Metal Dahlia
Cheeks: Sleek Contour Kit in Light, Sleek Suede blush

Black Metal Dahlia is super gorgeous, but it takes a little work so putting it over a deep lip liner is my favourite way to wear it. This is easily one of my favourite looks I’ve done all year.

 

And here are the lovely ladies we spent all our rent money on going to see!



DUCK FACE WITH DETOX. It was so hot in the little venue we were in my hair dropped right out, boo! I am 100% ridiculously in love with her. I was always rooting for Detox on RDPR but having met her and seen her perform I can’t even. She is just a perfect being and I want to be her slave or some shit. Absolutely beautiful.

 

SO QUICHE. I’m sad that this is the photo we got because I am standing at a way dodgy angle which makes me look like a brick. I mean, bricks are fine and all, but I don’t want to look like a brick next to Willam. The boy people in the photo are my cousin and his boyf. Anyway, they were flawless, it was flawless, too fucking flawless. If you get the chance to see them, go. They got it down pat, and they sing and rap pretty damn well!

#byefelicia

Lip Tar Love: Nylon and Black Metal Dahlia

Let’s face it , OCC Lip Tars can be a bit of a bugger. I’ve always said if you’re not in love with the shade, they’re sometimes not worth the learning curve. Recently my friend Rachael sent me a decant of two shades which I think really are worth the fuss!

 

 

Nylon

If you like pink, this is pretty fucking pink. I have nothing bad to say about it – the opacity, the blue-based but notmilky colour…. it’s just darling! For a comparison, here’s Candy Yum Yum by MAC:

Yeah. I’ve seen comparison shots where the two look very similar, but in my opinion CYY is a little bluer, a little cooler than Nylon. In the same family, but at the moment, the shade of Nylon is edging it for me.

Black Metal Dahlia

Hnnnngggg! Unfffffff! Raaaaawr! Other noises! Praise the baby J, this is a gorgeous, gorgeous, sexy vampy colour! This was a bit of a bugger to get on – unlike Nylon it’s got lots of glitter in it which I didn’t want to all pool in one place, and if you’re used to Lip Tars you know you want to avoid over-applying, yet this one didn’t seem to go as far as other shades I have, meaning I used a little more and it took a long time to apply. However… it’s just totally lust-worthy and well worth the faff.


Do you use OCC Lip Tars? What are your favourite shades?

MAC Retro Matte lipsticks in Relentlessly Red and All Fired Up

 

Inspired by the classic shade Ruby Woo’s ‘one-of-a-kind texture’, toward the end of last year MAC released a series of Retro Matte colours. To anyone familiar with MAC lipsticks, this could be seen to be the biggest dick move MAC have made for a while, as Ruby Woo is widely known for being dry as hell. However, being a fan of mattes and spying some shades I’d not seen before on a recent trip to my local MAC stand, I picked up two shades.

 

All Fired Up on the top, Relentlessly Red on the bottom.

 

Relentlessly Red, All Fired Up.

 

 

MAC All Fired Up.’‘Bright Fuchsia matte.’ Err, if you say so. Not fuchsia to me at all, though it’s certainly a pink-leaning red.

 

 

MAC Relentlessly Red. ‘Bright Pinkish Coral matte.’ Why on *earth* they named this shade Relentlessly Red is totally beyond me – in the words of Willam, “Girl, it’s fucking pink!”

 

 

Wearing ‘All Fired up’ with a deeper red liner on the lip line.

While I don’t hate these, I can’t say I’m in love with them. I don’t really know what I was expecting from this formula, there’s something about it that bothers me. I find them rather flat and feel they need a cgood couple of swipes to get to full payoff – I know you can’t always expect eye-popping vibrancy from mattes but there is something rather dull about these in real life. Well, my boyfriend complimented me when I wore them, so what do I know? They look good, I think I just wanted more from them.I  wouldn’t rush out to buy them just because of the formula, but if you happen to like the colours, I don’t actually find them that drying - which I was expecting considering they're based on Ruby Woo – certainly no more than MAC’s regular mattes.

Retro Mattes cost £15 from MAC.

MAC Viva Glam Rihanna Lipstick and Lipglass

Happy Monday everyone, let’s do some lipstick swatches! Hurrah! I have both items from Viva Glam Rihanna, a lipstick and a tinted lipglass.



Oooh, innit gorgeous? These two have the same sort of soft touch rubbery-velvety packaging as the Temperature rising collection from summer 2013 and they are just lovely. Viva Glam lipsticks normally have a little red band on them, so I like that they kept a red colour to the packaging. Riri fans will like the addition of her signature on the bottle of the lipglass and the twist-up part of the lipstick.



Viva Glam Rihanna Tinted Lipglass. What a gorgeous finish on this one!

Viva Glam Rihanna lipstick. This is a Frost finish and has a gorgeous strawberry tone to it.



Both products layered together.



Unnecessary hand swatch.



Both products layered.

Aren’t they lovely? I think I may actually prefer the lipglass slightly out of the two, but they’re both so pretty and girly. I’m glad MAC is finishing up their run of products with Rihanna with a Viva Glam collection. I’m a huge fan of Viva Glam, and I’m glad to see them bringing back some colours that are more likely to suit a huge range of skintones (*cough all the VG Nicki  and VG Gagas*), which the permanent line of VG colours are supposed to. It’s  worth noting that in the promo pictures, Rihanna is wearing Brick lipliner blended into the lipstuck, so the look in the promos is a little different – there’s a face chart and instructions  on the MAC site. I’ll have to try the look soon as it’s gorgeous

The lipstick costs £15 and the tinted lipglass costs £14, with all proceeds going to help men, women and children living with HIV and AIDs. Yes, these are dupeable colours, but as it’s for charity you’ll get no suggestions from me! It is a limited edition collection, but I believe it’s sticking around for the year, so you’ve plenty of time to go and get it!

Have you picked this up?What’s your favourite Viva Glam Lipstick?

Illamasqua Intense Lipglosses

Illamasqua are well known for their bold campaigns and fearless colour choices in their products and in my opinion, nothing embodies that view of the brand more than their Intense Lipglosses. I own eight of these beauties and I thought I would share just how gorgeous they are!

L-R: Boost, Touch, Shoot, Wanderlust, Violate, Galactic.

 

 

 

This is Shoot – isn’t she gorgeous? This is a newer addition to my little collection and I bought her for shoots, so I haven’t really worn her yet. She’s almost totally opaque, but due to the unusual colour I would recommend wearing a green eyeliner on the lips so if the colour moves around, you won’t see any pink underneath from your natural lip (which can really ruin the look of a green shade!)

 

This is Touch, from the 2014 I’m The One collection for Valentines Day. Not as unique as some of the Intense Lipglosses but certainly gorgeous! This has a lovely shimmer to it.

 

This is Boost – applied alone, and over a deep brown liner. Don’t you just love a duochrome? People went nuts for Boost when it was released and for good reason – it’s beautiful! This is fairly sheer for an Intense Lipgloss which tend to be thicker, but I suppose the effect is quite intense! I love the versatility of this shade.

 

 

 

Next up is Violate, one of my favourite Illamasqua products ever. I think this shade is really glamorous, and layered over a red is actually beautifully wearable. This isn’t fully opaque but you can get away with wearing it on your own.

 

 

From the Creator collection, this is Wanderlust. I LOVE this shade – if you like the brown shades of the 90’s revival that’s been going on in the makeup world, this is a really nice, different addition to that sort of trend. I can’t wait to use this shade on a model with deeper skin. And on a model with pale, pale skin. I just love it!

 

 

This is Galactic – very cool, but very strange! It doesn’t seem to have a base colour and seems to be made up of silver particles - if you click to see a bigger picture, you can see what I mean. This means it's hard to get a crisp line, but it's worth the work.

 

 

This is, Absorb. Alone, it’s.. well, on me it’s quite frankly nasty and a little um, biological, but it’s a great mixing shade, so I’ve kept it hanging around! Again, pigmented and glossy.

I *think* this may be Frenzy, but the label has worn off of this one so I’m not too sure. Sorry! However, I wanted to include it to show you again how lovely and pigmented these glosses are.

So there you are, thems my babies! The Intense Lipglosses do vary – some are sheerer than others, some have more of a creme finish for example – but on they whole they tend to be very pigmented, slightly thicker lipglosses that are nonetheless comfortable to wear and with fairly decent staying power. Out of these, Boost is probably the one I have to reapply most often. At £14.50, they’re certainly not the cheapest lipglosses on the market but if you want an unusual colour, I really don’t think you’ll find better quality. The only negative thing about these is that since they changed the packaging, sometimes the brushes in them are splayed which is very frustrating. However, because of the pigmentation of these glosses, you may wish to apply them with your favourite lip brush anyway.

Facade, Gender, Stranger and Absorb are next on my list. Do you have any of this range?

My first Lipstick Queen: ‘Dancing Queen’ trio

I’m quite excited to share my first foray into the brand Lipstick Queen with you – I literally had no experience with the brand at all before these dropped onto my doormat, not even a swatch in the shop! Lipstick Queen lipsticks start at £20 and go up to £25 for the ‘Velvet Rope’ line, which is part of the reason why I’ve not tried them before, but this set was on sale at SpaceNK for a measly £7, so I just had to try! I believe this was their offering for Christmas 2013.

Lipstick Queen is the brainchild of Poppy King, who I feel I should know who she is, but I don’t. But she made this line because she couldn’t find the perfect lipstick, blah blah. The line is said to be ‘wearable’ and has ‘classic formulations with a modern twist.’ Many reviews of the line that I’ve read say the lipsticks all have beautiful, comfortable formulas, which I am more than down with.

This is special packaging for this set and the tubes are a gorgeous brushed aluminium type look in a gorgeous pink shade. No complaints packaging wise – the box is fun and lipsticks still look classy while being funky. A+ on that front.

This “soft, moisturizing lipstick range by Lipstick Queen is a truly unique take on fashions hottest trends, iridescence.”  Alrighty, shiny moisturized lips seem to be the order of the day here.





’Electric Slide’

This one looks red on the tube, but comes off as sheer, light red, almost stain-like look with red iridescence. Not my favourite alone, but this looks amazing over a red lipliner:


Very layering! Much red!

‘The Hustle’

This one is surprisingly my favourite! I’m not a huge one for nudes or light pinks, but this one again has the red shimmer in it and it just looks beautiful. Love this one, worth getting the set for this one alone.




”Cha Cha”

This one is my least favourite of the bunch – I feel the sparkles are very close to the base colour and that the finish isn’t as nice on the lips because of this.

Overall, I like these – The Hustle has joined my mini wardrobe of work-safe lipsticks. They’re light, moisturizing and pretty and feel lovely on the lips. The gorgeous packaging makes me feel like I’m wearing something special at work, and the colours are safe enough to wear at work where I’m only allowed to wear neutral colours. While I do find them lovely and emollient, the shimmer in the lipsticks is left on the lips a little. It’s not a chunky glitter so doesn’t make your lips look bad, but I know that would be a concern for some and I would prefer them to wear a little more evenly.  I’m still not sure, however, if I would try something else from the range. I’m not sure if this finish is present elsewhere in the line, so I’m not really sure if this is an indication of the quality of the line as a whole. I do know that the line has a lot of devotees, so who knows! I may pick up something else from Lipstick Queen in future.

If you’re keen to pick up this set, you can still find it on QVC for £22.40.

Quickie Review: Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lipgloss in Black Ruby

I’ve done gone all fancy! After falling in love with a Chanel Glossimer I received as a Christmas gift, I had a hankering to try some more brands of high-end gloss and this little number from Bobbi Brown caught my eye.

 

 

The packaging for the Bobbi Brown glosses is really nothing to write home about. It’s sleek enough I suppose, but there’s something about it that considering it’s price point is a little disappointing. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

 

Here’s a very thin layer of the gloss…

 

 

…and a thicker layer. Bobbi Brown describes this as ‘“crimson with gold pearl’'” which I think is pretty much spot on. The gold sparkles aren’t hugely apparent but they really add to the shine of the product and make it look much more luxurious on the lip.  I would have thought ‘Black Ruby’ would have been a little deeper but I guess this could be described as a slightly blackened red. It’s a beautiful shade and one that'll go well with a simple taupe eye and a slick of eyeliner.



In my opinion, if a gloss doesn’t look better layered you’ve pissed your money away, and I found a perfect pairing for Black Ruby with a 99p liner from LA Colours, of all things! It’s a slightly metallic red-plum shade (the name’s worn off) and this is how I’ve been wearing Black Ruby. This combination got a lot of face time over Christmas!

This is a gorgeous colour and I’m pleased I bought it, but something about this one doesn’t make me want to rush down the to Bobbi Brown counter for more. The shimmer is gorgeous but the sheen of the gloss itself could be more shiny for me. I'd expect something more reflective for a 'high shimmer' gloss. It’s not gritty but I do notice that after wearing it, some glitter/shimmer is left on my lips which quite frankly is annoying.  The gloss is non-sticky, buildable and has a really pleasant mint scent. It’s a pretty darn nice product, but for the price I’d rather spend an extra £3 and get another Chanel Glossimer instead.


Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lipglosses cost £18.00 and I got mine from House of Fraser.

Quickie Review and LOTDs: Illamasqua Fatale Palette

Initially I wasn’t drawn to this palette at all, until I saw Karla Powell use it in a look on a models lips and had to have it! I’ve never tried a pressed eyeshadow from Illamasqua that wasn’t matte so didn’t really know what to expect. My experiences with the matte shades they make have varied from ‘meh’ to ‘pretty damn good,’ so I was interested to check out the shimmery shades and see what the payoff was like in real life – the moving swatch on the website made them look like the pigmentation was great!

L-R, swatched on bare skin:

Bronx : bronzed gold
Ensnare: sultry berry shimmer
Mystify: chestnut brown
Charm: seductive violet shimmer

The shade names are from the Illamasqua website. Apart from Ensnare, which in my opinion is much too cool to be called chestnut, these are pretty accurate descriptions. I’m happy to report that these indeed are pretty damn good. I’d venture to say excellent, actually. They feel very smooth and lightweight, and with the possible exception of Charm, which is a *little* sheerer than the others, they all give you really rich colour in one stroke. They’re not unique colours by any means, but the quality is certainly there. While I do prefer a mix of matte and shimmery shades in my palette, these aren’t so shimmery they make you look like a glitter ball and Mystify is dark enough to help give some definition even with the sheen it has.

Let’s see it on the old mug, shall we?

Bitchface ahoy

Eyes: Illamasqua Ensnare, Mystify and Charm, with Illamasqua loose pigment in Beguile in corner of lids.
Cheeks: Etude House Minnie Touch Highlight, MUA Blush in shade 2 (I think, label worn off), Too Faced chocolate bronzer
Lips: MAC Magenta, Illamasqua Boost

Ensnare and Charm actually work really well together – I’d never really have though to pair a cranberry and a light violet colour together but I think it’s a pretty combination. You can see on the lower lashline that the grey-taupe of Mystify is nice with Charm as well. I’ll have to play with those two together again soon.

When I ordered this palette, I also got Boost lipgloss to go with it. It’s pretty sheer and the applicator is sadly terrible, but my gosh, it looks beautiful over hot pinks and magentas!

Eyes: Illamasqua Bronx and Mystify
Cheeks: MAC Margin
Lips: e.l.f Studio matte lipstick in Coral, Illamasqua Sheer Lipgloss in Provoke

A simpler combination, but one that I really like with my colouring. I don’t normally care about wearing colours that make my eyes ‘pop’ or not, but I do really like this pairing with my blue eyes

Pretty colours, no?  I think this palette would suit a decent range of skintones and that they all actually work very nicely together as well as. The warm tones are something I’ve seen on lots of celebrities at the moment and work well as part of a Christmas collection.

I thought this palette was pretty pricey – you get 6 grams for £34. It seems a lot, but compared to something like one of the little baked Chanel quads which is around £37 for 1.2g, it’s actually not that bad for something on the higher end of the scale. Even so, I probably wouldn’t have purchased this palette without my Illamasqua pro discount due to the price. I’m really glad I went for it though - the formula is lovely, the colours are on-trend and I just think it’s a beautiful little palette. A perfect treat for a beauty lover this Christmas!

If you’re up for putting this lovely bit of stuff on your face, you can get it at www.Illamasqua.com.