lipstick

Lolita II

beauty, celebrity, lipstick, look, makeup, review, trend

I warned you in my last post about my love of liquid lipsticks so here is another one for your enjoyment…

The Kat Von D makeup range has been much hyped over the last year or so and it is no wonder. One look at Kat would tell you that galdem knows how to wing that liner!! Unfortunately her makeup range isn’t readily available in the UK so it was at the top of my list when I headed over to the states last year. I picked up the coveted Lock it foundation and concealer and love both. I aimed to grab some of her liquid lipsticks but for some reason I got side tracked and ended up coming home without any. This left me feeling like I was missing out so of course I had to get online and hunt some down.

kvdLolitaIII found Lolita II on Rose’s Beauty Store. This website is a great place to look if you want American brands that aren’t stocked in England (Anastasia Beverly Hills I’m looking at you). I will just say though that the majority of popular stock tends to be sold out and I’m not sure how often it is replenished. Also my packages took a while to be delivered, arrived on different days and I was asked to change an order despite the site showing it was available. However the team were incredibly helpful and courteous when I got in touch and the matter was sorted out super quick! I originally wanted the Kat Von D liquid lipstick in Lolita but this is a well loved shade and very difficult to find in stock. I then saw Lolita II and decided to give it a go.

My thoughts? The shade is nice. A peachy/earthy tone. Nothing to scream home about. The applicator and packaging are lovely and efficient. The formula is fairly long-lasting and not particularly drying. But that’s about it. It didn’t blow me away. It’s just a nice, everyday lipstick. Do I regret buying it? Absolutely not. Has it changed my life? No.

What do you guys think? Do I need to try out any of her other shades? Perhaps there is another product in her range I need to give a go? Let me know!!

Sophie xoxo

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An American Request

beauty, haul, makeup, question

I’m going to New York in a couple of weeks and am making a list of all the makeup I need/want to get my hands on. I’m looking for both drugstore and high end products that are either cheaper out there or hard to find in the UK.

I’ve already got my eye on the Anastasia Beverley Hills liquid lipsticks as well as a number of items from the Kat Von Dee range but what else can you guys suggest?! I’d love to hear from you, what are your favourites from the drugstore? Let me know in the comments or tweet me @sophieaiken

Sophie xoxo

Metallic Lips

beauty, lipstick, makeup

It’s been a bit lipstick heavy on the blog recently, I promise this will be the last post for a while but this one really deserved a mention!

Topshop makeup is great, but sometimes I think it’s slightly overpriced in comparison to drugstore brands. I found this metallic lipstick on sale for £4 and had to have it! The lipstick is called Mescaline and it’s essentially just bronzey-gold wonderfulness in a tube! With the perfect amount of shimmer and a warm undertone this is the ideal lipstick for a summer tan. I also like the idea of applying this in the centre of the lips over a matte nude lipstick to add a subtle shimmer that will give a slight plumping effect. The bad news is that I couldn’t find this on the website but you never know there may still be some around in stores.

And that’s it really I just had to share this little treasure with you!

Sophie xoxo

You Get What You Pay For…

beauty, lipstick, makeup

A recent trip to Superdrug to stock up on ‘essentials’ turned into a makeup spree. I just can’t resist!! I recently raved about a couple of MUA and Makeup Revolution highlighters (you can read that post here) and with prices starting at £1 I found myself scouring the lipstick sections of both. On this occasion I picked up two shades. From Makeup Revolution – an autumn berry colour called Rebel with Cause and from MUA – a light nude/pink shade.

I’m not normally a dark lip kind of girl but I was drawn to Rebel with Cause, because why not? I really like it, moisturising and buildable – the perfect combination. I think I like this so much because it falls into the pink spectrum of berry shades, something I personally prefer.
And then there’s the other one… What can I say? The beautiful pale rose pink colour in the bullet fits right into my ideal shade range. That’s as far as it goes unfortunately, the formulation is awful! It’s dry, it’s too pale and it’s completely unflattering. This lipstick is going straight to the back of the draw until I can figure out a way to use it, at the moment I can only think that it will work as a good base for a zombie complexion at Halloween. I have to say both lipsticks smell utterly lovely, berries and vanilla accordingly. I would just say spend some time swatching in the shop if you can before buying. Obviously I still love Makeup Academy, I mean they blessed the world with this incredible powder!

Let me know your thoughts on these lipsticks. Would you rather invest in a more expensive brand?

Sophie xoxo

Kate Goes Nude

beauty, lipstick, makeup

I think at this point it’s just a certified fact that Rimmel and Kate Moss are a match made in heaven! At £5.49 the lipsticks are reasonably priced and the packaging is pretty nice for a drugstore brand. When I saw they were releasing a nude collection I couldn’t resist!

After a bit of swatching I settled on shade 43. It’s a sort of soft tan colour that can definitely be built up or worn lightly. My number one concern was that it would look like the dreaded foundation lips circa 2002. You know what I’m talking about right? When you were in school and it was vital that you blanked out any hint of colour on your face with a thick layer of dream matte mousse. Ahh the good ole days…

These fears were quickly alleviated as the lipstick applied with a sheer to medium coverage and enough colour to define the lips. It works perfectly as a more subtle take on the nineties makeup that Kylie Jenner has been wearing in recent months.  The collection features a range of other shades so there is a perfect ‘nude’ for everyone, what more could you ask for?!’

Have any of you got your hands on the nail polish collection? I’m so intrigued to know if they’re worth a cheeky purchase!

Sophie xoxo

Green Gimmicks?

beauty, budget, highend, lipstick, makeup

If you’ve ever found yourself at a Barry M stand you might have spotted their green lipstick – Genie. If you went one step further and swatched the Halloween green product you will have discovered it actually transpires to be a rather bright shade of pink. I bought this lipstick a few years ago, don’t ask why it was just one of those weird impulse buys with a budget friendly price tag of just £4.49. It now lives at the back of the bottom draw of my Muji storage because it is a far brighter shade of pink than I would go for (think Barbie!) 

About a month ago I got my hands on the Lipstick Queen lipstick in Frog Prince. This has the same green to pink principles as the Barry M one but with a very different result. I had been wanting to try the Lipstick Queen range for a while but my deep love of MAC lipsticks always seemed to prevent this. The verdict? I really, really like this lipstick! Providing a subtle soft pink sheen, Frog Prince is seriously moisturising without being at all sticky and leaves a soft pink stain on the lips.

The idea of Frog Prince is that it adapts itself based on your pH and skin tone (as does Barry M Genie), so in theory it should be the perfect pink for everyone. At £22 this isn’t cheap for what it is but I know I will make maximum use of this because it is such a wearable colour. I love that it is so easy to wear you don’t have to bother with a mirror. Also the shade it applies is pretty much the finished result as oppose to Genie which slowly develops from barely there to shocking pink.

On Application Left: Frog Prince Right: Genie

Left: Frog Prince Right: Genie

Have you guys ever tried any Lipstick Queen makeup and if so what do I need? Enable me, please!

Sophie xoxo

The Makeup Revolution

bargain, beauty, makeup

A while back I wrote about an amazing Naked Palette dupe which you can read here. This dupe was a Superdrug discovery that introduced me to the brand Makeup Revolution. So of course I had to go straight back and see what else they had to offer! With a bored friend in my ear telling me to “hurry up” every few minutes, I only picked up three products. I’ve had a chance to use them all and these are my thoughts…

Oil Control Fixing Spray – On the whole I’m a big fan of setting sprays. I normally use Mac Prep + Prime Fix+, which I love, but at £15.50 for 100ml there had to be a cheaper option. And there is! The Makeup Revolution Pro Fix comes in at just £5 for the same quantity. I use this before I apply my makeup and then again once it is complete. My makeup definitely lasts longer when using this, although I’m not sure it’s as long as the ’12 hours’ the bottle suggests. Most importantly it keeps shine at bay meaning I don’t have to powder as much as I usually would. This is a perfect summer night out essential and I won’t be without it any time soon!

Vivid Baked Highlighter – I love a highlight, trust me I have A LOT of them. Up until recently I was using theBalm Mary Lou Manizer Luminzer but it’s £17.50, extremely pigmented and I find it works best with pale skin. I saw this Makeup Revolution one in Pink Lights and at £3 decided it was worth a try. I worried it would be very glittery but thanks to its baked consistency the product is deceptively smooth and blends out into a soft sheen. I have used this on both pale and tanned skin and love it in both cases. It’s gone straight to the top of my collection!

Depraved Lipstick – At just £1 for a lipstick, it took all my willpower not to purchase the entire collection, but having never owned a lipstick from Makeup Revolution before I thought it best to stick with the one. I went with this bright purple lipstick as festival season is right around the corner and it’s just perfect for that. The formulation is quite glossy so it takes a couple of coats, but I like that as it means less room for error. Because of this, I was concerned about longevity so I have found that applying this over a neutral lip liner makes it last longer with less smudging. Cost is everything with this product after all who can resist a quality £1 lipstick?!

Sophie xoxo