Lime Crime: Mint to Be and Poisonberry!

Ever since I decided I was going to buy my first Lime Crime lipstick, Poisonberry was at the top of my list. I'm a huge fan of dark purple lipstick, so it had to be mine. Unfortunately it was out of stock everywhere when I made my first order, so I had to skip it. Until late one night, I was searching the web I happened to come across it on Princess Polly. I found a promo code to get $10 off, so I decided to buy Mint to Be as well!

Lime Crime: Geradium, My Beautiful Rocket and Airborne Unicorn!

I've had my eye on getting some Lime Crime lipsticks for a long, long time. It seems like every blogger raves about them, which doesn't help me forget about them. Thanks to Jasmine from Sweetaholic Beauty's epic Lime Crime Collection post and a little bit of time, I finally took the plunge and made an order. Choosing was not easy, there are so many beautiful, bold shades. I wanted to get Poisonberry, but it was out of stock, and ended up picking 3 equally gorgeous shades.

The tale of 3 lipsticks: 3 Rimmel formulas.

As much as I love Rimmel, they're a brand I often pass by. Sure I hopped on the wagon for some of their releases (Apocalips!) but for some reason, even though I love the products of theirs I own, I hardly buy their products. But I do own 3 of their lipsticks. One Lasting Finish by Kate Moss in 20, one Moisture Renew lipstick in 380 - Dark Night Waterl-Oops! and most recently, Lasting Finish Matte by Kate Moss in 101. Rimmel are a brand with several different formulas, and I know choosing one can be pretty tricky, so I thought I'd compare them to help choosing a little easier.

Revlon Colourburst Matte Balms in Unapologetic and Showy

These have been around for a while now, and Ive seen that most people have picked them up. They just came out in the UK before I left England and was tempted there, but didn't end up picking any up until I saw a $10 off Revlon products in Myer a few weeks ago. I was a huge fan of the Just Bitten Kissable balm stains, and couldn't pass up a matte version!

First I'll just comment on the packaging. I found the writing on the side rubbed off the old kissable balm stains super quickly, and these have been kicking around in my handbag for a good fortnight without anything coming off. I think that alone is impressive. They're wind up, which I love - nothing worse than a thick lip crayon that you have to sharpen!

They have the same minty scent as the kissable lips balms, which I love.

Unapologetic is a lovely coral colour, my favourite lip colour! Showy is a nice bright pink.

As for the formula, they're so lovely. You can see in the swatches below that they can cling to dry patches, which is pretty common in matte formulas anyway. They're so easy to apply too. They aren't entirely matte, like Mac Ruby Woo is, but they're good enough for me.
I found Unapologetic lasts a fair bit longer than Showy, and after applying a couple of times is hard to get off when you're taking your makeup off at the end of the night because it's stained your lips. Showy needs a bit more touching up, and rubs off when eating.

Unapologetic and Showy  

Unapologetic (top) and Showy (bottom) - Sunlight

Natural light

With flash.

Showy (bottom) compared to Kissable balm stain in lovesick (top). Their packaging is very similar in colour, but you can see they're quite different, something I was worried about when I bought Showy.

If I can find a deal as good as that again I'll definitely be picking up more. What are your favourite shades of the matte balms?

One Direction... makeup!

It's no secret that I am a bit of a fan of One Direction, so it's no surprise that the new One Direction range by MUA was released I had to get my hands on it, or that it managed to break my blog-drought (Sorry about that guys, now that I'm back into a little bit of a routine I can try and do some blogging in my spare time, and I have a lot of photos to share, along with the huge array of new products I can buy now I have an income!)

I haven't actually done any real research about this new collection. All I know is there's 5 lipsticks, 5 lip polishes, 5 nail polishes and 3 cheek tints. I have absolutely no idea if 1D had anything to do with it, but I don't really care because I like MUA's products and I'm a sucker for branding! Hence the 1D mug I also picked up today. Each 1D boy has a lipstick, lip polish and nail polish named after them.

I ended up picking up 4 lipsticks and 1 of the lip polishes. I hadn't intended on getting a lip polish at all, but saw a good review about it on Pretty in Pink and decided I needed it. The nail polishes didn't really tickle my fancy, and I can't wear nail polish at the moment because of my job. I may have a look at the cheek tints in the near future.

The lipsticks I got are I Want (Liam), Moments (Niall), I wish (Zayn) and Rock Me (Louis), with the lip polish in Liam Loves... Blueberry. All the lipsticks come in a bullet similar to MAC lipsticks, with a scent that also reminds me of MAC's lipsticks. The silver inside has the signature of the corresponding 1D boy on it, and the lipstick bullet has X's and O's down the side, with a 1D embossed on the top. This doesn't last very long, as you can kind of see on I Want (no matter HOW many times I checked and re-checked in Superdrug, I still managed to get a lipstick that had been tampered with. What is with makeup companies not sealing up their products?!). I've found the tubes of all of them are quite hard to push up and down. As for their formula, they seem to apply very smoothly, almost buttery. However, they do end up quite sheer (apart from I want), but still manage to cling to dry patches. You can't expect perfect quality for a £3 lipstick though.

I want, Moments, I Wish, Rock Me.

I want is a bright red with a hint of coral and a gold shimmery finish.

Moments is a lovely nude-pink with a nice gold shimmer to it which is totally work appropriate. 

I Wish is a pretty candy pink. It's not as scary on the lips as you would expect, but still not quite a nude.

Rock Me, although pretty scary looking in the bullet for those who aren't used to bold lipstick, is quite an understated pinky liliac shade. It's a little sheer, and would be perfect if you wanted to wear something different, but didn't want to stand out.

As for the lip polish, I'm pretty happy I picked it up. It's got a lovely buttery texture, a little like the Nivea lip butters, and is surprisingly pigmented! It leaves a lovely sheer colour on your lips, and smells a little like grapes.

Swatches with Flash (l-r) I Want, Moments, I Wish, Rock Me and Liam loves... Blueberries.

Swatches in natural light (same as above)

So far these have only been released in Superdrug stores, and on their website (which I had to find through a link, I couldn't find it by going through the Superdrug site). I haven't heard anything from MUA's facebook about when these will be going on their website. I have a feeling this may be because  there'll be a huge influx of traffic once they are released and they don't want another fiasco like the 50% off sale!

Mac Viva Glam Nicki 2

I just wanted to pop up a quick review about this lipstick. This was never on my (rather long) wish list of MAC lipsticks I have, unlike shades like Impassioned, Girl About Town, Candy Yum Yum, or even the first Viva Glam Nicki!  It made its way into my hands in Harrods when they didn't have the pastel purple from the Baking Beauties collection in stock, which I think was a good thing because from swatches ive seen, this lipstick is much prettier! Not only is this the first MAC Lipstick I've purchased myself, almost 100% of the price of these (minus tax) goes to the MAC AIDS fund. Win win!

Viva Glam Nicki 2 is a lovely cool toned, white based lavender lipstick. It's very light and not the most easy to wear lipstick but for some reason I really love wearing it!  Now that its summer where I am at the moment, (I use that word loosely because I've had warmer winter days when visiting Sydney) this is going to be a great lipstick to wear.

It doesn't last very long, as you'd expect from a light coloured lipstick, maybe 3 or so hours. About the same wear time I get from Angel. It does stick to dry patches on the lips and in the lines in your lips, another thing you'd expect from such a light lipstick. It is very creamy and lovely to apply though.

with flash

in sunlight

Have you tried either of the Viva Glam Nicki lipsticks? Which is your favourite?

Rave Review : Rimmel Apocalips Luna and Galaxy!

I'm just going to start off this post by doing a little dance!! They're finally mine!! I've seriously been wanting to get my hands on some of the Rimmel Apocalips since they first debuted over in the UK. Maybe it's because they looked absolutely amazeballs, but I think it was mostly because of their name, Apocalips. I have an unhealthy obsession with all things apocalyptic, so these had to be mine! I placed an order off ASOS when I found out they were back in stock after reading a review on Eliza's blog. After a debacle involving the website telling me my order wasn't placed, soon finding out 2 orders had been placed, and a few too many emails to try and get a refund, my order(s) were on their way to me. I was originally going to wait till I got to England to buy these, and they were going to be the first thing I purchased (seriously!!) but they worked out to be cheaper off ASOS than if I had bought them at Boots. That's how I'm justifying the purchase anyway. These arrived yesterday morning and I was so excited I may have forgotten to put mascara on!

Review: MUA £1 line! Eyeliner shade 3, eyeshadow shade 19 matte and lipstick in Juicy

I got all of these items in my MUA haul last month. These are all from their £1 line (around $1.46 at the moment! The exchange rate is excellent at the moment!).

The liquid eyeliner in shade 3 is a lovely gold shimmery eyeliner. It's got a long thin tip that allows you to draw a really thin line. The length is a little tricky to work with, but should be fine for anyone used to using liquid liner. The colour is quite light, so I prefer to apply this with a thick line. It dries quickly and once dry doesn't budge! Because it's such a light colour, it doesn't tend to stand out against eyeshadows, and I haven't actually tried wearing it on it's own.

The single  matte eyeshadow in 19 is a lovely dark brown shade. I was going to use this as an eyebrow shade, but when I got it I realised it was much too dark. I don't have any matte shades this dark, so I'm definitely getting use out of it anyway. Compared to other MUA matte shadows from the palettes I own, this is a lot more pigmented and way less chalky! It could be because it's darker, but a little goes a long way. Like all of MUA's shadows, this is lovely to apply, easy to blend, and doesn't feel at all like it's £1 price tag! I've actually been using it a lot lately as a crease colour and loving it! Excuse the dint in the pan, I managed to dig my fingernail in there while I was taking photos.

Lastly, their lipstick in Juicy (shade 15) is a lovely bright coraly pink, almost fluro, shade! I really wanted to try one of their lipsticks, and this was definitely my favourite shade. I'm so surprised at the quality. It's super creamy and opaque, and smells nice too. It does accentuate dry patches a lot though! I think this shade is a little weird against my skin tone, so it's found it's way into the depths of my makeup draw (The photos don't show at all how weird it is). Now we're coming into the cooler months I'm not sure how much I'll get to pull it out, especially seeing as I have a mountain of other bright lipsticks I love to wear (like MAC Vegas Volt). It is lovely though and I'll be bringing it to the UK with me so hopefully I can make it work there, and help brighten up any dreary days. I'm giving away this lipstick in my giveaway at the moment! Click here to enter.

Juicy with flash

Juicy natural light

(l-r) thin line of eyeliner, heavy line of eyeliner, eyeshadow and lipstick with flash

same as above, natural light

I'm pretty happy with the quality of all of these products, and I can't wait to try more from their £1 line when I'm in England! I've got my eye on some more of the single eyeshadows and liquid eyeliners.

Have you tried anything from the MUA £1 line? What did you think of them?

Or what would you like to try from the line?

Wish List: Obsessions

I have a problem with wanting, no... needing something as soon as I see a good review about it. I'm sure you all know exactly what I'm talking about. Even if it's a product I have never felt any need for before, I need to have it right that second! Luckily, I'm trying to save money for England so I haven't allowed myself to give into the urge to buy these things (don't ask me how, I'm not even sure how I've managed myself!), but all these products are things I've seen and needed, plus a few extra little things I'm lusting after. You may be able to tell I'm keen for winter from this too.

1. MAC Superglass in Fab Frenzy    2. Rimmel Vinyl Max in Obsession    3. Lime Crime Carrousel gloss in Kaleidoscope
4. Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder    5. MAC Rebel
6. Rimmel Lycra Pro Nail Polish Knight Flight and Trend Spotting
7. MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle

I saw the MAC Superglass in Fab Frenzy on Kat's blog Kitsch Snitch (post here) recently and fell in love. Ever since I've been a little obsessed over find the perfect purple sparkly lipgloss. The only place I found Fab Frenzy was Strawberrynet, it was cheap but I'm not too convinced about buying from there. I found Rimmel's Vinyl Max in Obsession when on a whim I checked Target for any purple sparkly lip glosses and I'm pretty impressed with how pigmented it is! I think the perfect lipgloss would be Lime Crime's Kaleidoscope Carrousel Lipgloss, but it was limited edition a while ago so I'm not having any luck finding it.

To go with my purple ligploss craze, I'd really like a good dark lipstick. Rebel is a cult favourite with beauty bloggers, and seems like the perfect autumn shade for me. It's more pink based, which means it would probably be a relatively easy to wear dark shade. I spotted this recently on Sophie from Born to Buy's instagram and thought it looked lovely.

I'm running out of my Maybelline Dream Matte powder, and this Rimmel powder seems to be one of everyone's favourites. I've started using my Maybelline powder almost every day over my liquid foundation so I think I can allow myself to at least purchase this.

I found Rimmel's Knight Flight on Dawn from See It, Love it, Swatch it's NOTD post worn under Australis' Speck-tacular top coat, and thought it looked like the perfect purple autumn nail colour. I had a quick look for more posts about it and found the shade Trend Spotting, which is a more pink toned version of Knight Flight.

MAC's Soft and Gentle, like all of their Mineralize Skin Finishes are really popular with the blogging community! If I were to to show you posts I've seen it praised in, we'd seriously be here all day! Lately I've been using my MUA shimmer kisses bronzer as a highlighter, and although it looks lovely, it doesn't blend as well as I would like. I'd love to try a high end highlighter and from all the wonderful things I've read about MAC's MSF, this seems like the perfect product (I'm hoping to pick it up, or any MSF really when I go traveling).

Have you tried any of these products? Aussie ladies: Have you started leaning towards darker shades for autumn yet?

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway!

My MAC lipsticks! Swatches and comparisons

I've been meaning to do a post about these for a while now. I was given 3 MAC lipsticks for Christmas from my lovely friends and I love each of them! I received Vegas Volt, Angel and Ruby Woo, all of which are colours that were on my wish list. FYI this is going to be a long, picture filled post :)

Summer lips

This summer I have really been digging bright lips. After my Coral Polish post, it'll be no surprise that my love for coral has eased it's way into my lipstick collection. Here are a few of the lippies that I've been wearing a lot on my lips lately. I've already posted about most of these so I wont to into too much detail.

Australis Colour Inject mineral lipstick - Honky Tonk. This is the sheerest out of these lipsticks. It was the first corally coloured lippy I got. It's a really wearable light pink coral and can be made more opaque with a heavier application. For such a cheap lipstick it has a surprisingly good wear time (contrary to what my first post on it said, I need to remember to use products more before blogging about them, haha) and will easily last through a 3 hour shift at work (yes, I do those...) and still look great.  See more here.

Sportsgirl Pout about It lipstick - Catwalk Queen - This is an almost fluro pink colour. It's so bright and out there, and is super fun to wear. See review here.

MAC - Vegas Volt. This was my first MAC lippy, and I love love love this colour. It's the perfect orangey colour when you don't want to look too outrageous. It's an amplified finish. See more here.

Innoxa - Watermelon. This is my most recent lippy and the colour is pretty much exactly what the name suggests - a bright pink watermelon colour. This is part of Innoxas summer mattes range, so it is literally made for summer.

Covergirl - Fairytale. I love covergirl lippies because they're super long lasting. This one is matte, bright pink with a hint of coral. I was lucky enough to receive this in a blog swap, and it doesn't look like it's currently available in Australia.

(l-r) Honkey Tonk, Catwalk Queen, Vegas Volt, Watermelon, Fairytale

Not shown - Revlon lip butter in Peach Parfait. I wanted to add this because I love it as a subtle peachy colour, but I seem to have misplaced it. Hopefully I can find it soon!

Sportsgirl Pout About It review

I rarely venture into Sportsgirl. Most of their clothes are a little out of my budget. It's usually only around Christmas when I'm gift shopping, to look at their jewellery and gift table. I've never thought twice about their makeup either. However, a few weeks ago I was given the Pout About It lipstick in Bombshell by a girl at work, and I love it! I ended up buying Catwalk Queen as a present - but decided to keep it instead because I loved the colour too much.

Catwalk Queen and Bombshell.

These are both matte lipsticks. Catwalk Queen is such a lovely vibrant pinky watermelon colour. These photos don't do it justice. It's the perfect out there colour for warm weather. Bombshell is a perfect shade of red.

They're both extremely pigmented, have great staying power and aren't drying at all (and I have quite dry lips). I wore bombshell over Revlon's kissable balmstain in Romantic when I went out to dinner a few weeks ago and you could tell it was still there when I got home. They don't really have a scent, other than a slight lipsticky smell which is not noticeable unless you're really trying to smell it.

I would definitely recommend trying these lipsticks, and I would love to buy Fruit Tingle (a matte coral) also. I would also consider looking at the other products in the sportsgirl beauty range, and have my eyes on the Get Cheeky cheek and eye shimmer.

Bombshell and Catwalk Queen in natural lighting

Catwalk Queen natural lighting

Catwalk Queen with flash

Bombshell natural lighting

Bombshell with flash

Have you tried any of the beauty products from Sportsgirl?