I love lip gloss and am always up for trying a new one. New brands, old brands, expensive or inexpensive I will give almost anything a go. So when I saw that Revlon had a new lip gloss I just had to try some of them out.
The official name of these glosses is the Revlon Ultra HD Lip Lacquer and can be found here at drugstore.com for about $8 Online they are described as the following, “Lip lacquer goes HD with our innovative wax-free get technology. Get true color clarity, vivid high-impact shine and a bouncy, lightweight feel.” Now, I am not sure about HD, but the rest is pretty true to form. They feature a brush as opposed to a sponge tip applicator and are a comparable in size and form factor to the NARS Larger Than Life lip glosses. The colors I got were #525 Pink Diamond, #540 Petalite, #520 Pink Saphire and #555 Amber. All were moisturizing and not sticky at all. As far as color payoff, they are all fairly opaque and provide a nice shine and pop of color. In order to get the best color payoff I prep my lips with a dab of concealer to ensure that I am getting maximum color payoff. These would also work great on top of a lipstick. All of the lip glosses I purchased offer a bit of sparkle so if you prefer a matte look or lip products without sparkle, these would not be a good option.
Drugstore products can be a bit of a guessing game since most drug stores don’t offer testers. As for these glosses I would recommend any of these colors and am glad that I purchased these as I plan on getting quite a bit of use out of all of these.
I am a YouTube junkie. I became addicted about a year ago and absolutely love all videos, but my favorites are those done by beauty guru’s. Videos covered range from what are called “hauls” (basically stuff purchased) to tutorials and everything you can imagine in between. One of my favorite types of videos is called “empties” that I am obsessed with! This is where gurus will go through products they have used up and tell you whether or not they would repurchase them in the future.
Now, I am not going to a video on my “empties”, but I do have some good ones so I thought I would share some of the recent products I have used up and let you know if I would repurchase them in the future.
NYX HD Concealer in Porcelain, $4.99: I can’t say enough great things about this concealer. It is an awesome buy at $4.99 and is perfect to give the under eye a bright, creaseless glow. It also covers like nobody’s business. I have already repurchased this item.
MAC Cremesheen Glass in Right Image, $20.00: I love this color and the formula, which is very moisturizing. While this is a pigmented gloss it is one that you need to touch up during the day. Although the price on this is a little steep at $20, I think it is worth it and have repurchased this.
MAC Liquidfast Liner in Point Black, $20.00: I hate this eyeliner . It comes with a tiny brush that is difficult to work with and the tube is super tiny so it doesn’t last long at all. Needless to say I will not be repurchasing this one.
Milani EyeTech Extreme Liquid Eyeliner in Black, $8.49: I love this eyeliner and have already repurchased. It is department store quality at a drug store price. Whether you want to do a thin line or a dramatic cat eye, the fine tip on this pigmented pen is a keeper. I will definitely be repurchasing after I work through some of my other eyeliners.
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly, $21.00: This product is awesome! I have used this item religiously as an eyeshadow base or just on its own daily for at least a year and I decided it was finally time to get a new one. This is the perfect primer providing a flawless finish on your eyelids. I purchased a new one already.
Dior Airflash Foundation in Light Beige, $62.00: I really like this foundation, however for $62 I need to LOVE a foundation and this one was just ok. Coverage was OK and it didn’t break me out so that was a plus. I will not be repurchasing this item.
Healthy Sexy Hair Tri Wheat Leave In Conditioner, $12.00: This was an amazing leave in conditioner that left my thin hair shiny and voluminous. Since my hair is so thin I am careful to not use too many products and immediately stop using anything that weighs my hair down. If you have super thick, coarse hair I don’t know that this would be moisturizing enough, but if you have thin to medium hair thickness I would give this a try. I will definitely be repurchasing this.
So….do you have any products (empties) you have used up recently? I would love to hear what they are!
I am obsessed with nude lip shades. For years I have snatched almost every nude gloss that crossed my path, however with the new matte lip look I am on the hunt for matte nude shades.
Enter the NYX Simply Nude Lip Cream…I was walking around Ulta and found these little gems on an end cap. There weren’t testers so I grabbed three to see how I liked them, knowing that with Ulta’s return policy I could return any that I absolutely hated. There are six nude shades total, but I only got three. The colors I got were Disrobed, Fairest and Peaches. See below for swatches:
Sooo, how did these work? I really, really like them and would recommend them to anyone that is looking for a good, matte, nude lip. The pros are the shades are stellar – I think they are comparable to department store colors. The packaging is good and they rotate up so you don’t have to worry about sharpening these with a pencil sharpener. The price also can’t be beat (I paid $5.99 each at Ulta) especially when there is a BOGO deal. When wearing these I would definitely recommend wearing a lip balm as a base to make sure that the formula doesn’t feather. My favorites lip balms to use are the Dior Creme de Rose Lip Balm, the Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lip Lift and Carmex. All do a great job, although I am partial to Carmex which I have been using since I was a kid.
Give these lip pencils a try and let me know what you think. Do you have any other good, matte shades you would recommend?
One of the most life changing products I have started using regularly over the past two to three years would have to be dry shampoo. Every single day (even on days I wash my hair) I use this magical spray to give my hair a little extra “oomph” or to sop up some of the oil on my head.
I have super thin, unruly hair that will not grow past my shoulders. I hate it and am so grateful to hair extensions and dry shampoo for giving me the opportunity to not have to wash my thin mane daily. Not only does this cut down on my get ready time drastically, but it also is better for the overall health of my hair in general.
I have been collecting “empties” (products that are all used up) to discuss whether or not I like them and if I would purchase them again. As you can see from the image I had quite the collections and here is my take on several of the most popular dry shampoos out there:
1. Pantene Dry Shampoo: This shampoo is pretty good. There is a pronounced scent which I really like, however if you are sensitive to scents I would pass this one up. I will definitely repurchase this item due to the price, ease of getting it and most importantly it does a really good job on my hair. The one con with this is I find that the ends of my hair seem drier with this product than with others.
2. Eva NYC Dry Shampoo: This is my favorite of all dry shampoos shown here. At $11.99 a bottle, this is a relatively good value and really does a good job of freshening up dirty hair while not weighing it down.
3. Redken Pillow Proof 2-day Extender: I actually liked this dry shampoo, however I seemed to run out of this stuff sooner than any of the other dry shampoos. In terms of quality I think it is comparable to the Eva NYC, but I will not repurchase due to how fast this ran out.
4. Batiste for Blonds: I HATED this stuff. The blond that came out was reminiscent of a lemon – not blond hair. I would not recommend this one at all.
5. Batiste: Original Formula: I thought this was pretty good although this product did seem to weigh my hair down more than the Eva NYC and the Pantene product. For that reason I will not repurchase.
6. Victoria’s Secret Fresh Body Dry Shampoo: This product has a really strong, girly scent which I loved. If you are in any way sensitive to fragrance I would not recommend this item. As for the actual dry shampoo I found this to be just OK. The bottle didn’t last long and it weighed my hair down similarly to the Batiste. This wasn’t cheap and for these reasons I will not be repurchasing.
7. PSSSSST…Dry Shampoo: So this item is not pictured, however I wanted to talk about this item as well. I found that the smell on this shampoo didn’t bother me, however more than any of the other shampoos referenced in this post this one weighed my hair down the most. Whenever using this I always was forced to wash my hair the following day. In addition the white cast that PSSSST left was the worst of all these. In a nutshell, would not repurchase.
Sooooo…do you have any dry shampoos that you like? I would love to hear your thoughts!
