Etude House Follow Me Lip Tint in Passion Pink

I've been trying to get into Asian makeup lately just because it's so cute and fun and the quality is usually very nice! Mostly I've been getting blush and lipstick since I am not that into eyeshadow (yeah, yeah) and I feel like my collection is pretty much complete in that dept.

I wanted to get into Japanese makeup at first, however it can be rather expensive and for my budget it's sadly not worth the gamble, especially if I can't swatch it...and for the price of some of the Japanese lipsticks I could get more of my beloved Dior or Guerlain lipsticks!

So my solution? Get more Korean makeup! Etude House makes very affordable makeup that even marked up 50% on eBay is still very reasonable (I think this lipstick was maybe $5 retail, I paid about $10). Maybe in the future I will try ordering a bunch at once on gmarket, but right now this is good since I only want to get a couple things now and then!

Anyhow, on to the actual product review!

This is the Etude House Follow Me Lip Tint in Passion Pink, apparently this line is promoted by a Korean girl group...I don't know anything about that but I just thought it deserved mentioning if you like Korean music! This lip tint (I hesitate to really call it a lipstick, or even a balm) has a really pretty minty sort of blue color as a bullet, but when you put it on your skin it turns into the prettiest fuchsia! It basically does the same thing as Dior Addict Glow, but Follow Me has the added benefit of the blue to fuchsia contrast for fun, the pink is brighter, and is a lighter formula, not to mention less than half the price. Depending on how many swipes you do you can either have a subtle pink glow, or a pop of bright fuchsia! Also it has a really nice glossy look which lasts a decent amount of time considering the slip and consistency of the product. One thing I really really really love about this product though is that it STAINS your lips really well and lasts awesomely through eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth...whatever! Seriously, I put this on last night around 8pm or so, and this morning my lips were still pink!

As for the packaging, it's not the heaviest but it's simple and cute and does it's job! The bullet fits perfectly in the tube, no rattling. I heard people say it is cheap and boring but I think it's cute enough, and you can't really complain about something feeling cheap when it's from a budget brand!

This may actually end up being one of the very very few (so far, none) items that I will get a backup for just because it's so wonderful and handy for when you want a pop of color that brightens your face and requires no fuss!

Guerlain Rouge Automatique 167 Guet Apens

167 Guet Apens is the most recent Guerlain Rouge Automatique I've gotten and also the darkest. However it's a very nice reddish berry pink on my lips, even though the bullet looks pretty dark. Also the bullet appears to have some very fine shimmer, which you don't really see translated well to the lips, but I don't mind since I don't like overly sparkly/shimmery lips right now anyway.

While it's probably better suited for fall I feel like this color is still bright enough for me to pull off while it's still summer and pretty much year round. I love this color because it's so very versatile and it's not as bright as some of them can be (such as Shalimar for instance, at least if you do more than one layer).

I really think that overall Guerlain Rouge Automatique are the best lipstick for me due to the wonderful luxe creamy feel of the formula, the lasting power, the perfect midground of opacity and sheerness and of course the design of the tube although I often get some lipstick on it while applying due to the shape, I still love the nifty one-hand application with it and the neat little gimmick of the slider. I also really like the touch of it saying "Guerlain" on the plastic holding the bullet in place rather than laser etched into the bullet itself since it won't get smudged or used up.

Feeling Luxe Lately

I've really been into high end lipstick lately, I feel like you get the most luxe experience out of them compared to the other items in the lines. I just can't bring myself to pay for those things...yet...but the feeling I get from applying fancy lipstick out of a fancy tube can't be beat! And formula-wise too I think they've really spoiled me since they are just amazing!

So far this one is my favorite (and my newest) Guerlain Rouge Automatique in Shalimar (166). It goes on like a balm but provides the right amount of coverage and lasting ability as well as a slight shine (although not quite as shiny as Dior Dior Addict), it also feels nearly weightless on the lips. I love that there is no cap to have to worry about, and best of all (well ok the color and formula is best) it SMELLS LIKE ROSES. Not overly perfumed like some rose-scented cosmetics tend to be, very nice and subtle!

This lipstick is just wonderful. I love the tube too, so easy to use and I loooove that it's art deco!! Retro items are my absolute favorite. This just can't be beat. I am sure once I get a Rouge G I'll love it too, but nothing can beat the ease of use of this one. Just wonderful and luxurious just like it should be.

Next up we have probably the most normal lipstick of the bunch Chanel Rouge Allure in Insolente. I still love it but it's a more traditional "dry"/opaque lipstick. The color is just beautiful (and fun, and youthful) and of course it has a luxe, fun tube. You push in the gold bit at the end, and up pops the tube with the lipstick! I love the simplicity of the "cap" just shiny black with the white chanel at the bottom. Very classy as expected from Chanel. I just love that I can have fun with this color, but still feel classy!

Up until I got my Guerlain Rouge Automatique these Dior Dior Addict lipsticks were my favorite. They come in a close second though, and there are still more colors I want. They are moist, shiny and last for a shockingly long time with or without a primer. Very buttery (although not quite as much as the Guerlain) they slide on lips smoothly almost like a balm. But of course a balmy lipstick is 1000x better than even the best tinted lip balm, unless you are going for a very sheer look. These feel luxurious and comfy when they are on.

The packaging for these are a little more juvenile and much simpler than the Guerlain and Chanel but they are still fun and I love the opalescent sheen of color on the cap. It's a little hefty, but it doesn't take up that much more space in my bag than any other lipstick. These feel a bit more "my age" in that they aren't as sophisticated looking, but they are supposed to be the "fun" lipsticks so I am not surprised.

The first one here is Show, a Sephora exclusive color. It's a fuchia/magenta sort of color, but since it's rather sheer it's not super bright and is very wearable even for every day. I really love it because I love bright lipsticks but sometimes I don't want to go too overboard.

This next one is Diorkiss which is the one that Kate Moss wears in all promos for this line (and I think maybe other Dior-related promos). Originally I thought this was a Sephora exclusive as well since it was placed with those but now I don't think so...I saw it at Nordstrom too.

I had a hard time capturing this lipstick properly in my pictures, it is actually a very wearable muted/mauvy/rosey pink that depending on the light can look a little bright. It's my favorite "every day" color for when I don't feel like wearing bright lips. I just can't do boring lips, this is literally the most muted I will go!

The best picture I can get of how Diorkiss looks on me is this silly pic I took:

Recently Hauled Goodies (MAC, NYX and more)

Recently I've been on a lipstick kick. I know I said that before but this time I've really gotten into it. I know what colors I like and what colors I can pull off and I don't find most lipsticks too drying. I was looking for a great reddish coral which is apparently very wearable for me, so when I saw this lipstick I knew I had to get it. Luckily that day my local MAC store just got in a big shipment so I picked it up that night :). It was so very worth it, it's a surprisingly wearable color that isn't TOO red or TOO orange. Also I love the tube, at first I was leery about the collection's packaging but it does look really nice. It has a very nice weight to it and it's pretty cute.

I also got a couple of NYX round lipsticks to try, I like them quite a bit although now that I am trying to stick to high-end makeup more I am not sure how many more I will get...maybe I will just get crazy colors I won't wear much but want to have for fun from NYX or something :). Anyways I got Haute Melon and Shiva, surprisingly Haute Melon is very wearable despite it looking quite orange. But worn it truly is a cantaloupe shade on me. Pink enough that it doesn't look strange. Shiva is a blue toned fuchsia with a blue flash, very nice and also very wearable at least for me. I think if you are afraid of brights either wear it very lightly or stay away.

I'd also heard that Sinful Colors' new summer collection "Adventure Island" had a few dead-on dupes for OPI's "Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" collection. From what I saw they are the same, but personally I don't have the OPI ones to compare it to. The formula is great and the wear time is great so at $2 you really can't go wrong here unless you have a strong moral objection. However I found that I didn't really want to pay close to $9 for straight cremes and since I already got the color from OPI I wanted most, this was the best way to get the stragglers.

Star Fish is the dupe for Sparrow Me The Drama

Seaweed is the dupe for On Stranger Tides

Verbena is the dupe for Planks a Lot

Some New Goodies

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, I've been busy watching/thinking about Doctor Who pretty much every waking moment when not working! I'll try to be better, since I am finally almost caught up :).

I recently found a wonderful diptych app for my phone, which also helps me out quite a bit with pictures for my blog since I can just upload one picture with several shots in it :). Love it! Of course if I need to put separate pictures I still will, but I think this makes everything more compact and easy to see. Especially if I do comparisons (not that I really have yet though, but whatev!)

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First off we have L'Occitane Pivoine Flora in Cerise which is a very nice darker red with subtle shimmer. For some reason I can't make it smooth on my lips half the time, but the formula is very moist and glossy.

However THIS is my favorite of the two, and is much more wearable on a daily basis. L'Occitane Pivoine Flora in Fushcia. It's pretty sheer but gives a very nice color to your lips again with a subtle shimmer. It's nice and buildable too although it never gets super bright. The formula is amazingly moisturizing for a lipstick. I love it. My only complaint is that the cardboard cap is a bit loose. I don't feel like cardboard makes it cheap or anything, but it would be nice if it had something to hold it on there a bit better.

A couple weeks ago I did this really need sorta skittles (thumb and accent nail are both the same color so it's not exactly skittles) manicure with Milani Holographic polishes just because I wanted something fun and sparkly! Even though I haven't had this on in a while I thought I'd share it still, since it looked so pretty in the sunlight.

I love this stuff, it's the Hello Kitty x Sephora Apple Balm, unfortunately the container is TERRIBLE and just sucks at opening, so I had to depot it losing it's charm and Hello Kitty-ness. Good thing the balm is amazing and wonderfully pigmented otherwise I'd be disappointed.

Lipstick Mania

I never used to like lipstick, before I got into lip gloss I tried it just because I was a kid and I didn't know what else was out there. I could never get the kind of finish I wanted (high shine) and it was like it sucked the moisture right out of my lips. Well, fast forward years later and here I am just discovering the wonders of lipstick thanks to that Ulta 40% off sale that I partook in on Friday. I wouldn't have picked up Revlon Temptress otherwise because of my old dislike of lipstick. But it was cheap and it was a nice color that goes with a nail polish I already have so I decided to just give it a chance.

I'm really glad I got that particular lipstick too because from what I'd heard afterwards Revlon is pretty much the best drugstore lipstick you can get. If I'd gotten a lipstick and it had issues it would have just proved me right and I'd never get lipstick again probably. I wouldn't call the formula on these moisturizing but they certainly aren't drying which is fine by me. If my lips are too dry I just put something over it, no harm done! I really want to get more lipstick (since I just have to hoard anything I like) but I am not sure what other shades to get as I think I got a good mix already. A plum, a darkish pink and a wine red...I could always get shades in the middle I suppose.

I know that I'd like to try some other ranges of Revlon lipstick, and I'd like to see if I can find a truly moisturizing lipstick as well, that would be ideal. I think though that the next step is probably for me to get a high-end brand. Oh and it has to have cute packaging. I noticed most of the other drugstore brands have some pretty clunky looking packaging on their lipstick....

L-R: Iced Amethyst, Temptress, Wine With Everything.

Revlon Lipstick + Maybelline Mousse Blush

Here are a couple of pictures of me wearing the blush and lipstick I got at Ulta the other night. The shimmer on the blush isn't showing up too well in this picture, but it's subtler than I first thought, definitely very wearable for me since I loooove golden shimmery blush and although I have a couple that aren't like that I mostly reach for that. I used Physicians Formula Happy Booster Translucent Powder to seal it, since I'd heard that the wear isn't as good if you don't...so it's even MORE shimmery haha. Love it.

The lipstick is very nicely pigmented, the shimmer doesn't show up so much on the lips but that's ok. It's a deeper pink, the coverage is very good and it's not very drying at all! I think I might try some other Revlon lipsticks in the future, maybe a plum shade since I think that's the most flattering on me (I do love my pinks though). Maybe next time CVS has a good deal on Revlon, like buy one get one half off or something.

Ulta 40% Off Sale Haul

After hearing about the 40% off sale on a few brands (NYX, Maybelleine, Revlon, Almay) I headed off to Ulta earlier tonight!

I always use those Almay eye makeup remover pads, so I figured I might as well get the big one on sale....usually I don't get useful things when there are fancy sales, but I'm glad I did!

I'd been wanting to get Revlon Cloud for a while, it's a very very light lavender polish, I like it a lot but I definitely still want a darker one. I also got Ocean which is a shimmery teal, not too unusual but it's super shimmery! They also had a scented one called Ocean Breeze but I am so sensitive to smells sometimes I thought it'd be better to not get it...I am still curious what it's supposed to smell like though.

I don't usually care for lipstick and 99.9% of the time stick to gloss, but I have kind of been thinking lately about starting to get lipstick, but I don't have any idea what's a good one to get that isn't too drying which is in general my issue with lipstick. Anyways, I got Revlon Temptress, lipstick version since I have the matching nail polish (both from the Fire and Ice collection). I love retro so I figured I couldn't go wrong. The color seems very pretty, pink with shimmer, much like it's matching nail polish. I haven't used it on my lips yet but I have swatched it on my arm (below).

Last but not least I got Maybelline's mousse blush in Pink Frosting. From what I can tell by swatching on my arm (below) it's a very cute/barbie pink with a bunch of golden shimmer, almost glittery in a way. I think it's really cute but I think the real test is when I wear it during the day. I love pink and gold blush so I am sure I will like it, but usually the shimmer is a bit more subtle so we'll see. I think I can get away with it though since I'm 25...somebody who is a bit older may want to see if they can get a less sparkly color. For some reason I was shocked by how the consistency was actually that of a mousse, very airy! I wonder how it will go down the road, like for instance how long will this pot of product last me? If it doesn't last very long at all I probably won't repurchase, if I like it a lot I may get it in a more natural color down the line (I'd prefer on sale but I am not going back to Ulta before Saturday and I need to cool it a bit)!

Lighter swatch = blush, darker = lipstick. Click to see a bigger picture.

Clinique Color Surge Quad "Spicy" + Gift With Purchase

So I finally caved and went for the Clinique gift with purchase. The item I bought was the Color Surge Eye Shadow Quad in "Spicy". I was a doofus at first though and asked for "Pink Chocolate" when I got home I was very disappointed as there was almost no pigmentation for any of the colors but when I tried it on my arm in the shop there was plenty. That's when I FINALLY realized my stupid mistake (read the name of the quad below it...or above it, I forgot) and took it back the next day. Spicy is MUCH much better. Don't ever get Pink Chocolate guys, even though the name is super cute.

Bronze, Gold, Brown, Rose. All shimmery.

Swatched on my arm in the same order in direct sunlight, in my car because I couldn't wait to swatch it and make sure it was the right one.

I also chose the pink set of the gift with purchase, which came with small and large makeup bags, moisturizer, eye/lip makeup remover, black mascara and these 2 beauties:

Eye shadow duo + Blush.

Lipstick + Long wear lip gloss.