Archive for the ‘Lipsticks’ Category
Red Velvet cupcakes is one of my baking specialities. Crimson red sponge topped with cream cheese frosting. Get Lippie loves them so much that she requested they be made for her wedding.
Red Velvet is also the name of Lime Crime’s liquid lipstick or to be exact, Velvetine Lip Colour. Are there other shades available? I don’t know. I bought this at UMAe last month and I think I paid £10 with the discount on offer that weekend (normally priced at £11.50).
I’ve never tried anything by Lime Crime. It’s a cult brand I’ve glossed over and to be fair, don’t really know a lot about it but I *do* know of it. One of those US brands that is difficult to get hold of here unless you buy at a trade make-up fair or online.
Vegan and cruelty-free, the Red Velvet Velvetine is a long-lasting, waterproof liquid lipstick that goes on with the ease of gloss and dries completely matte almost instantly. It is a rich, poppy red – dramatically vampish and sexy. The writing on the packaging is very Christmas-like, isn’t it? Was this originally a Christmas release? Anyone know?
I’ve tried other red matte liquid lipsticks like Sephora’s lip stain and Stila’s Stay All Day™ Liquid Lipstick in Fiery. Lime Crime’s effort comes out top. It is unbelievably weightless – you forget it’s on your lips unlike Sephora and Stila which give you that uncomfortable film coating feeling. Those two also start to flake and peel over a short period of time, which Lime Crime’s Red Velvet Velvetine does not. At all. Nope. Not even the slightest crack.
It’s an absolutely beautiful and sizzling red that I’m thrilled to have in my collection. What do you think? Proper Rocky Horror Picture Show lips!
Mamma mia! I think I’ve fallen under the spell of this. This is Icon from Hourglass. It’s a silky lip gloss but better defined as a liquid lipstick – liquid in format but sets like a velvety lipstick and aptly named, it is an iconic, sizzling shade. It’s very Dita von Teese or perhaps Gwen Stefani, don’t you think?
I find myself wearing bold lipsticks (particularly red) frequently and in the day time too. I wish I had more time to devote to wearing eyeshadows but instead I reach for a red lippy as a quick solution, and it never fails.
The Hourglass range caught my eye at a Space NK launch last year and initially I fell for the orange shade from this collection before I was hypnotised by Icon.
The packaging is exquisite, it feels beautiful to caress (yes, I meant to use that word) and it is the holy grail of red lippies I’ve been looking for.
On top of that, it applies like a dream and doesn’t feather or peel – I didn’t use a lipliner either.
Icon comes with a sponge applicator that glides on the lips, coating the crimson red colour along the way. The Vitamin E in it prevents cracking or chapping and fortunately the formulation doesn’t form an unpleasant coating on the lips like some other similar products do.
It could well be the crème-de-la-crème of glosses – it’s certainly sexy, classy and luxurious. I’m infatuated with this blood red number and am tempted to buy a back-up with my Space NK points. What do you think? Would you give Hourglass a try?
Priced at £21 (less than Chanel and Tom Ford!), Extreme Sheen(ie) is available in a variety of colours from Space NK online and in stores.
This time last year…
A year (or nearly two in my case) feels like a long time but looking back, it’s gone quickly. Those who have been reading Just Nice Things for at least a couple of years will know the obstacle I had to face in 2011, leading me to stop blogging for a while. (Here’s a little reminder of that.)
I have openly talked about the drastic loss of hair I suffered as a side effect of taking harsh medication, and the sadness and distress it caused to see pretty much half my hair fall out. However, I knew it was just a temporary glitch and I was far more concerned with fighting my illness and recovering from that.
I stopped my treatment towards the end of March last year but I still had to be monitored with regular check-ups and tests, and that it takes up to a year for the drugs to leave the body. It’s also when the healing process began.
This February I was given the all clear and discharged. On Valentine’s Day funnily enough. And I couldn’t be happier. I’m back to my usual self and it’s as if the last 18 months never happened.
But back to the point of this post. This time last year, the above picture is how my hair looked – very thin and whispy. I barely recognise myself when a year prior to this, I looked completely different – I had a huge crop of hair!
Georgia had to cut my hair much shorter to regain its strength and to allow it to grow back healthy so it was like taking a step back to go forward. I wasn’t happy when I had been wanting to grow my hair longer but I agreed with Georgia that this was the way forward.
Yesterday I popped along to The Chapel and four hours later, I left looking like this:
Cleopatra is back!
Now I’ve had a little booster with some human hair extensions by Racoon but only in the sides as that’s where my hair is the weakest. I first tried them in the new year and decided I wanted to keep them (expertly done by Billie).
There is actually a logical explanation behind this and it’s not for vanity alone. Billie advised that by having some extensions added for fullness, they would also take the stress and pressure off my real hair at the sides from when I use straighteners. Think about it – when you run straighteners through your hair, you are pulling at it. My hair at the sides always seems to be particularly weak as a result of such actions.
After two months of wearing extensions, when they were removed we noticed a difference – the hair looked stronger. I have continuously used straighteners but running them over the extensions has meant they have guarded my real hair from damage.
Some friends have told me they aren’t keen on extensions as they ruin real hair. Not if they are applied correctly. These were attached by glue about an inch from the roots, so the new hair has room to grow and become strong and the extensions are completely separate from inflicting any potential damage. I also didn’t experience any hair loss, no headaches and after a day, I forgot they were there.
Although the extensions have been matched perfectly with my real hair, the only giveaway is they are longer in length (so I’ve cheated a bit!) but could you tell if I hadn’t made the revelation?
My real hair has been growing back quickly too; the back alone is sprouting new, healthy hair which I am so chuffed about. I try to use castor oil whenever I can as that stops hair breaking and promotes growth but my use of it is now pretty sporadic. My health bouncing back is most likely the main source of it all.
The extensions are something I don’t intend to keep forever, but they are very addictive and has made managing my hair so much easier. The important thing here is they are doing something positive to my real hair so it feels like a treatment at the same time (albeit an expensive one!)
It is a welcome change to find a salon which is concerned about progressing forward with the needs you may have, and the girls at The Chapel have done exactly this for the last two years with me. They’ve already got ideas in their heads about what they’re going to do to my hair in the summer and for Christmas and do you know what? I can’t wait.
If you’re wondering what products I used here, they are: Illamasqua Skin Base in number 12, NARS blusher in Taj Mahal (face), Maybelline’s Color Tattoo in On And On Bronze, Urban Decay’s Smoked palette, Bourjois’s Eyeshadow pot in number 16, Maybelline’s Rocket Volum’ Express mascara (eyes), and MAC’s Chilli lipstick with Illamasqua’s lip gloss in Drag.
If lipsticks were edible, I’d devour this lot. Well we do consume a fair amount off our lips and Rouge Edition from Bourjois is nothing but deliciously enticing.
You may well have seen fellow bloggers’ posts on Bourjois’s new spectrum shades of lippies. Well it’s my turn to give my verdict on them.
There are 18 eye-catching colours to choose from with some wild shades for statement looks and each one is enriched with ingredients to keep lips hydrated and smooth.
The range is divided into three on trend families – Preppy, Color Block and Night Out, and I had my pick of a dozen.
Preppy is a mix of light, nude shades – a safe selection if you’re shy of drawing attention to your pout. Below are two shades from it (Rose Tweed and Brun Bohème), the latter which is a firm favourite. I love the partnership of dusky pink with brown, and it compliments my skin tone for daytime wear.
Color Block needs no introduction. Fuchsia Graffiti is a killer colour with just the right level of brightness in this depressingly dull weather we are having, and Rouge Buzz is a fiery hot red-orange. The other shades I tried were less flattering on me, and felt more like tinted lip balms. Furthermore, Orange Buzz is frosted, a finishing I am not overly keen on but may fair better on lighter skin tones.
Finally the colours I chose from Night Out are all winners. Rouge Jet Set is a true classic red with slight blue tones (I was asked if it was Chanel by someone at work – that’s how good this one looks), Pretty Prune is an elegant plum shade and Violine Strass is a slightly blackened deep plum. All three are rich in colour and look divine.
The clear winners in my books are the shades that are highly vibrant and pigmented, which equates to 8 out of the 12 lippies I tried. I’m all over the femme fatale shades: Rouge Jet Set, Rouge Buzz and Pretty Prune but I am also fond of Violine Strass, Fuchsia Graffiti, Brun Cosmopolitain and Brun Bohème.
All in all, Bourjois’s collection is rather slick, chic and exciting while delivering at affordable prices. I guess this is why I consider it to be one of my most loved brands.
*PR samples*
