Saturday 19 May 2012

Bold Lips: Raspberry Popsicle!

Another bold lip post. I know, I know.
I just really enjoy these, I have a lot of lipsticks I really really love hopefully those who read my blog can find something they enjoy too!
So there's a story behind this lipstick. A friend of mine (Meghan) got tickets to go to a tradeshow for America's Next Top Model Live and invited me and another one of our friends (Sarah) to go with her. We had so much freakin' fun and they gave out tons of samples and free products. Excitedly, one of the booths was giving out free full-sized Benefit lipsticks and we all got one! So this post is about the lipstick I got there which is called "Sassy-frass."
Side note: There was a photobooth at Biore and they had props, we got some fun pictures there. I will add a few at the end of this post.


This is obviously a lipstick with some serious shine. I tend to stray away from lipsticks that are shimmery, they just aren't my taste. However there are no shimmers in this lipstick. It is very smooth and moisturizing and gives your lips that "just finished eating a cherry popsicle" look. Juicy, I guess is the best way to describe it, but that sounds weird. 


Funny thing about this lipstick is that it's somewhat like MAC's "Rebel" lipstick, which I own and love dearly. Like "Rebel" this lipstick is a very dark, almost black-purple in the tube but it comes across as much brighter on the lips. It looks like a raspberry pink when worn. So, it goes to show you- don't fear bright or dark lipsticks. Always try them on. You never know what you may end up loving. 


I should mention here that I love that with each Benefit lipstick, they include a little card that has a makeup saying or idea on it. The one that came with this lipstick said "All's fair in love and lipstick." I love them! Personally, I use them as bookmarks. 


You can see here with a sheer coat the lipstick actually looks like a medium pink. I like that this lipstick can be layered for a darker colour or worn sheerly for daytime. 


And that's it for this lip look. Here are just some of the photobooth pictures of the many photobooth pictures we took while we were there:


That's Meghan with me on the left and Sarah on the right.  


Hope you enjoyed this post. Remember, be fearless with your makeup because all's fair in love and lipstick.
Thanks for reading.
-Tash <3

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Bold lips (for a good cause): Neon Pink!

I sure am productive at blogging when there's nothing else to do. I envy people who do this for a living, makeup blogging is awesome. If working at a magazine is half as fun as this, maybe I won't hate being a journalist despite the 5837429 lists that rank it as a terrible job.
Oh well, least I'll have a BJ after graduation and that's something (my degree is called a "Bachelor of Journalism" or a "BJ"- that's just beautiful isn't it?)

Anyway, on to the makeup!
I have another bold lip post for you today and this one is close to my heart for two reasons. 
The first being that I used the Viva Glam Nicki lipstick and I love Nicki Minaj so very much. 
Why? She's bold, independent, outspoken, confident and she's also making a name for herself in an extremely male dominated industry. Not to mention she rocks the most gorgeous, outrageous makeup I've seen on a celeb in a long time, and she makes it look damn good.
The second reason is that her lipstick is part of the Viva Glam program at MAC, which if you don't know is a really great charity that benefits men, women and children directly affected by HIV/AIDS. What I especially love about the program is that every cent of the purchase price of a Viva Glam lipstick or lip gloss goes straight to helping someone affected with HIV/AIDS. That means every cent of the price you pay goes towards helping someone, not just the profits from your purchase. I really love this campaign and I think it's one of the great things about MAC. 
If you'd like to learn more about the MAC Viva Glam program or buy something you can go the MAC AIDS fund website

When I heard Nicki Minaj was coming out with a Viva Glam colour (Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga are just two of the other celebs who've done MAC Viva Glam collaborations) I knew it was going to be AWESOME and I was first in line (literally) to get it. 

Is it sad that I'm super excited to have something she kind-of signed but not really? 




I promise you the picture does not do this justice. This is absolutely the brightest, neon pink lipstick I own or have even seen. It's SO  pretty and very on trend because neon is very popular for this summer, or so I hear. Fashion escapes me a lot, mostly because I'm too busy looking at lipsticks... 



I can't lie, this would be hard to wear. It's very bright and it's somewhat matte as well, so if your lips aren't in the best condition it will definitely show. But I find it you tap it on your lips and blend it in instead of swiping it on, you can get a much softer colour that's easier to work with. Also a lip liner will help to stop the colour from smudging, bleeding outside the lip line or making your lips look too dry. And hey, even if you never wear it, don't forget the money goes to a good cause! 



Just a Few Things...
  • I haven't done one of these in a while so I thought I'd add it in!
  • Writing this post makes me realize I should actually wear this lipstick sometime soon. I quite enjoy it.
  • Two more posts are already photographed. Another lip look and a skin care review. I'm quite excited about both!
  • I have some makeup coming to me from TheBalm, maybe I'll review it. It's supposed to be very good stuff. It's on sale on Hautelook right now (which is a flash sale site where you can get stuff 50-80% off) here's a link in case you're interested:  http://www.hautelook.com/short/3Ee0i
  • Jon (the boyfriend) is in California. Don't expect this level of blogging when he gets back.
  • I miss my friends from J-school desperately. Especially the ones who went far away. 


Hope you guys enjoyed this post and as always thanks for reading!
-Tash<3 

Monday 14 May 2012

"Picture Perfect" - Lilac Nails

I need to admit something. Can this be a safe space? Yeah, let's make this a safe space.
I have an embarrassingly large nail polish collection. Enormous. Gigantic. Hulk-sized if you will.
It's so bad. Not to mention, at any given moment I have about 8-10 unopened bottles I haven't even had the time to try yet. Sad, I know. Life of a makeup addict- don't be surprised if you see me on that show Hoarders someday. 
So I decided to shop my own collection and  break out some new ones to see what I thought. 


Essie's "She's Picture Perfect" is a creamy lilac purple shade with a somewhat strange duo-chrome of pink. It's easy to see when you look at the bottle but it's much more subtle when applied. 


I used China Glaze "Prism" for an accent nail. I got this polish in a Luxebox and it's a really great glitter nail polish. It's mostly fine and medium sized, multi-coloured glitter in a lilac base, so it was perfect over the Essie colour. It applies so smoothly, it's one of easiest glitter nail polishes I've ever tried. 


As this is my first time using both, I have to say I'm impressed. The Essie polish is a nice creamy colour with a pink twist but still not overwhelmingly special. I don't especially love how lilac looks next to my darker skin tone so maybe that's making it hard for me to love this polish. It's not terrible though and I'll probably keep it on for at least a couple of days. The "Prism" colour, however is really beautiful and  a new favourite for glitter polishes, I really love it!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading,
-Tash <3 

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Review: Physician's Formula Nude Palette

Hello again makeup junkies,
I recently picked up a few palettes both drugstore and high-end and I noticed that recently there's a huge trend among most brands to release "nude" or "natural" palettes that contain a lot of browns, taupes, and champagne colours. People love palettes like that because they're easy to use, portable (travel-friendly) and convenient. Urban Decay has both the Naked and the Naked2 palettes, both of which I own and are fantastic and totally worth the money. However I recently saw a nude eyes palette from Physician's Formula and wanted to see if it was a comparable drugstore dupe.


I have to say the packaging alone is gorgeous! Light pink with a black lace overlay and bows, obviously I was in love. 


Colours range from light champagnes and pinks to medium browns and taupes with some darker browns and a black at the bottom. This is a perfect set-up for a nude palette because it give you enough options that you could also make a darker, smokey eye with it. It comes with an angled sponge-tip which you could use for some liner if you wanted. I think the palette costs about $10.


Bottom line
This looks strikingly similar to some of the high-end nude eye palettes I own so I had high hopes for it. Sadly, I can't say I love it. It could work for people with lighter skin than me maybe. But for my darker skin, the entire top half of the palette is not pigmented enough to even show up. The bottom half is alriiight I guess but I still had to pack it on. What I really didn't like is that these shadows were somewhat hard and I didn't like the consistency which made them harder to blend. It is probably also important to mention that all these shades are very shimmery and there are no matte shades in the whole palette which makes it harder to use on its own.
I have used mine twice at the most. I would use my Naked palettes any day over this. While I'm aware they are more expensive ($60) the quality is absolutely worth it. The shadows are creamy, almost like butter and blend beautifully. Not to mention, these palettes contain 12 shadows which makes each shadow only $5 a pop, not bad for Urban Decay. And hey, if you still can't bring yourself to spend $60 on makeup, I totally get it. Try an 8-pan palette from Wet'n'Wild (my absolute favourite drugstore brand for eyeshadow) called "Comfort Zone." Creamy shadows and great pigmentation and I'm pretty sure it only costs $4.99! So in the end, I would say MAYBE if you had really fair skin this could work for you. But if you have darker skin, don't bother. This will just sit in your makeup drawer. 
(It's occurring to me now just how many nude palettes I own. Maybe I'll do a post on all of my favourites, both high-end and drugstore).

Anyway, thanks for reading!
-Tash <3