Maybelline Made for All “universally flattering” lipstick reviews

A collection of reviews on youtube for the new Maybelline lipsticks which supposedly match every skin tone. Do they?

Swatching starts at 3:00.

Swatching starts at 0:35. As you can’t tell from the thumbnail, this youtuber is pale, but less so than the next one.

Swatching also starts at 3:00.

Swatching starts right away. Love a lady that is on point.

Swatching starts at 1:10.

The one we’ve been waiting for – Nyma Tang! Honestly the first thing on my mind when I saw the ad was – but will they work on Nyma? Swatching starts at 1:00.

 

I only have Mauve for Me and it looks on me like in the third video – kinda deeper nude. It’s easy to apply and it wears okay for a creamy lipstick. It doesn’t have the wear of a matte lipstick, but for a cream it wears very well. Had to reapply after every meal, but other than that it stays on. I’m kinda really tempted to get the rest…

Oh and Mauve for Me is scented so I assume they all are. And – I can’t believe I just did this but I made a smell test and while all my other Color Sensationals smell the same (kinda fruity sweet) this one smells more caramelly sweet. It’s definitely scented but different! I wonder if they all smell the same or if it matches the color, because Mauve for Me is kinda brownish and smells like caramel to me. Upon wear the scent if very noticeable for a few minutes and then it drops off but if you hate scented lipsticks this may be a no-no for you.

(Post not sponsored but I don’t know if any of the videos are sponsored and they might have affiliate links.)

being a beauty hoarder

me: I’m going on lipstick no buy because I have so many

also me: buys 15th red lipstick because it’s 50% off

I still exist and a video recommendation

Well, hello there! I mean I knew I had slacked on posting but it’s been a while, wow. How are you? Anyone still here?

I have learned a few things about myself in the absence:

• I want to set up hosting for this blog but I am lazy
• I am most likely to update a blog when I’m procrastinating
• I am currently procrastinating from the hosting thing
• a blog vacation can be lovely though – it’s not good to pressure yourself on a hobby
• at first it was freeing not to have to test things in time, I could just use whatever I wanted and not stick to a schedule
• unlike what I expected this did not lead me to purchase less new items – on the contrary since I didn’t have to stagger my usage of makeup for reviews I simply purchased ALL the things instead of what I could reasonably review
• oops

I am still not fully back. For a while I contemplated just stopping because I can’t keep up with all those polished pretty blogs. But that is not my aesthetic. I want to bring you real reviews with normal pics, not ads. And this brings me to this video I found on youtube by Jen Luvs Reviews which expresses my opinion on swatches so well:

I think she does an amazing job of explaining things.  Through the course of the video she pulls up a good, not so good and bad palette to show you how the swatches differ. Very useful.

*

And yes if you wonder what did she do with all her free time when she wasn’t blogging? Watching Youtube. I had never watched Jenna Marbles until this summer. I had a lot to catch up to. 🙂

4711 Remix Cologne Edition 2018

Well, time flies and we’re nearing the end of August. Today I want to talk about this happy orange bottle. Last year 4711 released something LE they called Remix Cologne Anniversary Edition to celebrate 225 years of their cologne. It smelled of citrus and neroli and petitgrain and I liked it very much (and wow, the review of mine is from exactly one year ago). So this year they came out with a new LE cologne, again called Remix Cologne, but with an added Edition 2018. The bottle looks more modern this time, but still the same style.

Also it smells completely different this time around. The other was still more the typical cologne style, with neroli and lavender, but less harsh than old fahsioned colognes. 2018 is totally orange fizz. No petitgrain, no lavender, absolutely nothing herbal or harsh. This is yummy orange juice with a hint of orange blossom and it softens out into a wonderful light tea note and ends in a little bit of musk. Wonderful and fresh.

This being a cologne the lasting power is around two hours. The musk might linger a bit longer, but honestly the point of a cologne is the top notes, so around two hours I tend to reapply. It’s a 100ml bottle after all.

The 2018 edition is clearly inspired by last year’s remix idea, but if I understood correctly it is supposed to kick off a new series of LE colognes, one per year, each centered around a different ingredient of the original 4711 cologne (2018 representing the orange note). Well I am intrigued and will surely try the next one as well.

Edition 2018 is limited edition (however you can still find bottles of last year’s edition as well so it should not be too hard to get for a while). The perfumer is Nicolas Beaulieu.

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MAC Retro Matte Liquid lipcolor Gemz&Roses

Now I’m sorry that I’m so behind in my posts that I’m only now reviewing this, but as far as I can tell these are not LE and still being sold. A while ago MAC came out with their matte liquid lipsticks called Retro Matte Liquid. All of those colors were non shimmery. I reviewed (1) some (2) of them (3). Later they expanded by adding shimmery colors and Gemz&Roses is one of them.

Tbh I liked basically all of the colors and had a hard time limiting myself to only one shade. Gemz&Roses is a sort of nude with warm shimmer.

Now his looks quite stark on me, but that’s just because I’m so pale. On me it pulls more rusty and dark. It looks different on others, but always looks good imho. The shimmer is fine and metallic – finally they manage a metallic finish and they didn’t even sell it as such!

The product was easy to apply. I just love the sharp edges you can get with liquid lipstick. It took me a while to hop on the trend and now that I’m finally on the train, everyone else is already getting bored and going for gloss. -_-

The formula is helped by the fine shimmer. I’ve noticed this in nailpolish too, that a flat creme is usually harder to work with than a shimmery color. In this case, the lipstick is less drying than the original non shimmery formula.The shimmer also helps with the look. You know how matte liquid lippies give you those very visible lines; you’ll still get them with this but way less visible. So if you wanted to try liquid lippies but were turned off by the wrinkly look, a shimmery one might be your thing.

Lasting power is comparable to the original one, so it will last quite well, but wear off on the inside of the lip if you eat something oily. The lipstick can only be removed by oil, normal remover did not help.

In a nutshell this is a great liquid lipstick and I hate how they released way too many colors at once because who can afford all those? I’m not getting any PR I’m on a budget here! 😦

Of course by now MAC has already released several thousand other things but I hope some of you might find this review helpful anyway. Let me know what you think and please be patient with me – I cannot yet promise to be back to regular uploads until I fix the storage issue.

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Rituals Miracle Glow Cream Highlighter

This is the Miracle Glow Cream Highlighter by Rituals. It’s one of those glibbery bouncy gel highlighter thingies. You know, those that behave like jello? It’s so satisfying to touch. It pleases my inner three year old.

Le swatch. I’d call the color rose platine. It has rosy shimmer, but certainly no gold to it, so rose gold would be wrong, but platine alone doesn’t describe the color either. The shimmer is very fine, no glitter to see. Depending on the angle you can see either the shimmer or you can see some of the base color, which is off-white. Therefore this highlighter will not work for everyone unless you are a blending goddess. Because you may be able to blend it out and diffuse the base color – but I am not. It sets pretty quickly and then does not move anymore.

You should also put on enough the first go around – if you try to pat on more it starts lifting. It is really best to just put it on fearlessly and then never touch anymore. 😐 Also not recommended for dry skin – this stuff creates more texture.

I would not recommend this to makeup beginners. Everyone else can play at their own risk.

L’Artisan Parfumeur L’Ete en Douce

Looking at my extensive collection of L’Artisan Parfumeur I noticed there are some I haven’t reviewed yet! As ususal these are the old style bottles.

This is L’Ete en Douce EdT. It drew me in because it was supposed to have a note of hey. And it does! But from the beginning:

Perfumer is Olivia Giacobetti. It was first released in 2005 and is still available. Originally it was called Extrait de Songe, but they changed the name, so if you see a perfume called that, it’s the same as this one.

L’Ete en Douce is a sort of clean perfume, no heavy and dirty notes, and lots of clean musk. But it is not just that since it truly does have the promised hay note as well as some light sweetness from linden blossom and light traces of peppermint… although it is so soft and green-white you don’t really think of it as peppermint. It’s not a mouthwash sort of smell you know.

The whole thing smells like… when Marie Antoinette was going through her pastoral phase playing sheperdess. A very cleaned up rural act with none of the dirt or stink involved. Instead fresh linen and a bed of hay.

It’s an interesting kind of offering in the ‘clean’ genre, which imho is way too big and boring (lots and lots of sharp musks). The hay note is sufficiently realistic. I like.

3 Pink nailpolishes for summer (or whenever you feel linke pink)

I’m baaack! Kinda. It’s still summer and posting will likely continue being spotty, sorry about that. I am also waffling on wether or not to go for a paid account or my own hosting as I am approaching the storage limit – this blog has been going on since 2012 after all!

Today I have three very different pink nailpolishes for you:

This is two coats of OPI Strawberry Margarita with top coat. It’s creme and a fairly standard pink, not quite neon, but it pops. Lasted the usual four days without chipping.

From my ‘old polish’ vault: Two coats of YSL in the color 27 Rose Lunaire plus top coat. This whole nail polish line (La Laque) is discontinued and got replaced by ‘La Laque Couture’. Rightfully so, because the newer polishes are much better. This one is thin and takes longer to dry and showed wear by day three. The color is quite pretty though, a mauvey pink with small silvery flakes that shimmer in different colors when the light hits just right. Or maybe it’s just big shimmer, anyway it is pretty.

And last, an absolute surprise hit: 337 Pretty Fuchsia by Mavala. This shows a single coat plus top coat. The polish is easy to apply and opaque. The color is an intense blue toned pink with silver shimmer. Not your everyday pink for sure. Kinda a eighties/nineties vibe. Lasted four days without showing wear and later had only minimal chipping.

This concludes my post. I hope to see you soon.

Catrice Spectra Light Magma Infusion

This is three coats of Catrice Spectra Light Magma Infusion, no top coat. This may have been LE I’m not sure.

The color is beautiful, a duochrome shifting from purple to greenish bronze. The quality, however… this thing drove me nuts. It would not dry, which is why I wore no top coat. I just… gave up at some point. On the first coat I bumped my hand very lightly somewhere and the polish just wiped off. It did not get better from there on. Four hours later I still got dents in the polish as if it were newly applied. I applied it in the morning. The next day I had imprints from my duvet on the polish. Then it was finaly dry and started to flake off. UUUUUGH.

Also, much less annyoing but still: the bottle claims to have “holographic and duochrome” effects. There is no holo in this one (the two Spectra Lights were indeed holo, though).

Overall, no recommendation, which is sad because the holo polishes in this line were great.

Guerlain Samsara

Guerlain Samsara EdT was first released in 1991 (two years after the EdP). My bottle is from 2016, though, one of the last batches before they changed the bottle. As far as I know, the bottle changed but the juice is the same so I have the newest formula.

Samsara is massive. You can smell the connection to the eighties where perfumes were as subtle as a fist to the face. When you’re wearing Samsara, everybody knows it. However, compared to some other huge eighties works, this one is almost ladylike. Almost. Originally I didn’t like Samsara at all. When I smelled it for the first time years ago all I got was soap. Today it’s one of my favorite perfumes and I wear it a lot. Funny how tastes change. I still get soap, but now I also get cozy vanilla, amber, sandalwood. Samsara supposedly has top notes, tbh I never noticed any other than the soapy part. With time it gets more and more ambery in a soft way (I don’t know about you, but some ambers tend to get on my nerves if they’re too strong) and of course from beginning to end there is sandalwood (synthetic, surely).

There are many sandalwood perfumes and there are many eighties orientals but nothing quite smells like Samsara. It’s probably a love it or hate it sort of thing. Luckily there won’t be a lot of people nowadays out wearing it so you’re more likely to annoy people by wearing LVEB (which I’m still smelling at every corner). At least that’s I’m telling myself while feeling fabulous in Samsara.

Catrice the Dewy Routine: the dewy drops Rose & Holographic

In which Catrice keeps misusing the word ‘holographic’, part 28378:

Catrice has a new LE out, called the Dewy Routine. It consists of only highlighters, sorted into three colors and categories: there’s a liquid highlighter, a cream stick and a powder for each color: rose, bronze and blue (called Holographic, because apparently blue is uncool). This LE is selling like lightning, especially the pink items. Luckily the distribution wasn’t even – while some drugstores were already sold out, others hadn’t even gotten their goods yet. It pays off to check smaller, less frequented places here.

I picked up two liquid highlighters, C01 Rose and C03 Holographic. C02 Bronze was wayyyyy to dark for me but may be amazing on dark skin. I decided to skip the cream sticks as I barely ever use stick highlighters. I could only barely stop myself from picking up the powders, but I didn’t for now.

Swatches, first Rose, then Holographic (which is clearly plain blue).

Rose is pink, but a very light and silvery kind of pink. The rose gold packaging and the promo pic promise something warmer, but looking at the liquid in the bottle and applied, this is clearly rose platinum rather than rose gold. Don’t go for Rose expecting something warm.

The blue one is, as expected, properly blue. Both don’t seem to have a base color when spread out, but you know my skin tone could swallow a white base so I can’t promise anything here. I didn’t see any whiteness when wearing these on my face (other than the very pale shimmer).

Both apply great. I put a drop on my hand and then apply with my finger, blending with a clean finger. One drop is more than enough to highlight the cheeks, temples, nose, upper lip and forehead. I don’t feel they need anything else on top. I mean you could layer with the other items in the collection, but they really don’t need anything to help with the glow. Lasting power was great as well, they stayed on all day, even in humid weather.

Both have a fine shimmer, with some small glitter particles. They do emphasize pores.

The blue one gives such a wonderful eerie glow, I love it. The rose one I must admit I expected it to be more … wholesome, more pink. Then I put it on and it made me look even more eerie-faerie like than the blue one. Because I expected it from the blue, but the pink is so light in color and the shimmer so intense it gives off quite a ghostly vibe. So I love both equally and would recommend both for the goth fae crowd. If the goal is more healthy look, you should rather go for something more warm in tone. In fact Catrice has similar drop bottles in their regular lineup – they sell them as primer, but they are just as shimmery, just more normal colors (light correcting serum primer in candlelight and sunlight).

 

My routine for maximum otherwordly glow:

1. Rose: after cleansing face, start with MAC Fix+ in Pinklite, followed by MAC CC Cream in Illuminate (this is lavender colored), foundation + concealer as usual, then dewy drops in Rose. Finish regular makeup and put on another layer of Fix+ Pinklite.
2. Blue: After cleansing, Essence fresh&fit awake primer, foundation + concealer as usual, colorless eye primer, dewy drops in Holographic on face and eyelids. Finish eyes with Catrice prismatic palette.

If this is all too one note in color I suggest adding in a touch of green highlighter such as Sleek Distorted Dreams or Zoeva Spring Strobe Spectrum (both of these palettes also have a blue one if you wish to intensify the blue instead for maximum ice queen look).

MAC Pearlmatte Face Powder Mother O’Pearl

So, MAC‘s summer collection is out and despite many complaints that it just isn’t as pretty as last year’s it’s still been selling like hot cakes.

This is the Pearlmatte Face Powder in Mother O’Pearl and that Mickey Mouse face gave me half a heart attack until I realized that was the shirt I wore during photographing. So, the powder comes without creepy faces, I promise. This is the only piece I intended to buy (so far) and as of today it’s still available in some places and already sold out in others.

Swatches, first each color alone and then swirled together. Overall it’s on the sheer end which is normal for a Pearlmatte Powder. The purple is quite, well, purple (I wasn’t sure if the two purples were different so I swatched both), the pink is swatched in between the purple and the bronze, even if you can’t see it and the yellow stripe is swatched underneath the last purple (before the mix swatch). So pink and yellow don’t really give off color, only sheen.

The mix gives a nice blush color. You can get it more pink or more bronze depending on where you swirl your brush. The color is somewhat buildable but never opaque. All colors have a satiny sheen but it’s the least noticeable on the purple. It’s basically blush, bronzer and highlighter in one which is quite useful for summer.

Comparison to last year’s Oh my Passion:

The colors were quite similar so I expected them to be dupes. The yellow and the bronze part are identical, they look only different due to the different embossing. Then Oh my Passion has a light purple and strong yellow toned pink, while Mother O’Pearl has the very light pink and the deep purple.

Swatches, first Mother O’Pearl, then Oh my Passion. Turns out the strong purple makes quite a difference. Mother is more like a blush, while Passion ends up much lighter and bronzier. So if you wished for a version that was darker and pinker than last year’s there you have it.

This years powder comes in a slimmer case, yet at the same time it is heavier. It’s the same amount of product though (8g/0.28oz).

So, I like this powder. The rest of the collection didn’t really wow me although it wasn’t like, bad or anything. I might have gone for the pink lipstick but it was sold out quickly. I also tried the new liquid lipstick line, I think they’re called Oh, Sweetie? They are very scented. Very. They actually feel quite good on the lips and look pretty. Lasting power of a regular lip gloss though and the shimmer migrates into lip lines. Pass.

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Essie Tart Deco, Fishnet Stockings, Rock the Runway

I have some red/coral essie nailpolish swatches for you:

This is two coats of Fishnet Stockings plus top coat. It’s a deep red that was easy to apply and lasted with only minor chipping for five days. It was on the liquid side of polishes, though, in case you prefer them thicker.

This is two coats of Tart Deco, with top coat. I used my purple Guerlain top coat and you can tell because the combination ended up on the pnk side. Without that top coat it would look more like in the bottle. Tart Deco is one of my absolute favorite colors, it applies perfectly and looks just so happy. There are several similar colors from Essie LE’s but in the end I sprang for Tart Deco too as they are never 100% identical.

This is two coats of Rock the Runway. As you can see this is one of their gel couture line. I still think the bottles are pretty, but take up too much space in storage (probably only relevant if you own wayyy too much polish). This is a classic red leaning sliiightly pink (only noticeable if you put it next to a more yellow leaning red). I have had Essie gel polishes before, but not the matching top coat. So previously I have used my regular Essie base coat (nourish me) and no top coat (that was my no top coat phase lol) and they lasted very well, but not much longer than normal Essie polish. So this time around I researched how Essie wants us to wear these and found the following information:

1. no base coat! (they claim the polish already includes a base)
2. apply color
3. use their gel couture top coat (comes in a white opaque bottle)

And so I did that. And I regret. Do NOT use without base coat! This stuff stained so hard. Also, doing it that way made it last no longer than regular nail polish. Up to two weeks of wear time? Yeah, no. Four days of wear time, then bad chipping. It might just be my nails, but base coat is a must, both to avoid stains and to help with longevity. People often ask me ‘how do you get your polish to last so long’ and I mean the obvious answer is ‘no hard labour’ but also ‘base coat’.

I will try again with base coat and the gel couture top coat and see what happens, but so far my advice is: use normal base coat if you want these to last. Top coat is optional.

Apart from that the color od Rock the Runway is very pretty and the polish applied like a dream. It has a very broad brush though, if you dislike that sort of thing. The polish alone already has more shine than regular nail polish. The gel couture top coat is also very shiny, but not more than any other high shine top coat.

MAC Prep&Prime Fix+ Pinklite

Recently MAC released some more Prep&Prime stuff, including a body lotion in Pinklite, some mattifying stuff and Fix+ in Pinklite and Goldlite. I like having some Fix+ as a backup and chose the color Pinklite.

The liquid is colorless but has pink shimmer flowing through it. If you leave it standing it will sink down but you can shake it up again. There’s a ball in the bottle to help with that. This is why my Fix+ up there looks white – I had been shaking it. To show you the beautiful shimmer in the bottle I made a detail photograph:

See the pretty swirls? All of the white and pink here is the shimmer. So clearly this is a shake well before use kind of product. But will you look like a disco ball spraying it on your face?

Fix+ in Pinklite sprayed on my arm. It’s very subtle. I mean there is pinkish shimmer, but you can totally spray this all over and nobody will notice it’s makeup. They’ll just think you are naturally ethereal. 😉

Now the name Fix+ tends to confuse people. This is NOT the sort of setting spray that makes your makeup last longer. MAC’s description says: skin refresher/finishing mist. Not setting spray! How to tell apart refreshing spray and setting spray: when you spray them on your hand the refreshing spray will feel watery while the setting spray will be sticky (that’s what helps the maekup stay on). If the spray is mostly alcohol (often in mattifying sprays) it will evaporate quickly and feel dry afterwards. Fix+ is basically water with skin care ingredients such a cucumber extract.

So how I usually use Fix+ is that when I am done washing my face I spray this over my face for a nice refresh. This moisturizes my face very well, especially when I then put primer on top. The difference for me, especially in winter is that I get less dry skin patches which helps a lot with makeup application. That’s the skin refresher part. The finishing mist, like a finishing powder, is something you can put up after you’re done with makeup, for a luminous finish. Some like to do that with Fix+ when they look too powdery. The water helps the powder to melt into the skin. Personally I prefer to use less powder. So mostly I didn’t put Fix+ on top.

Now Pinklite and Goldlite also contain shimmer particles, so spraying them on before makeup is like putting on a shimmery primer. And when you put it on top of makeup you get that very subtle luminosity. In my opinion those two shimmery ones are the only Fix+ that are also useful to use right after makeup application. When it’s hot you can also spray it on through the day for a quick refresh which is something I do with any Fix+, but not a setting spray (too sticky).

I specifically chose Pinklite because it contrasts with my yellow undertone, to make it more visible. I have also noticed that the whole thing shows up better on darker skin, so depending on your skin tone the results may vary.

I think it’s a cute gimmick, but after I use it up I’ll probably be back to the normal Fix+. Those new Prep&Prime products should be a permanent addition, but I’m not 100% sure.

All Used Up April & May 2018

Since I didn’t get around to do April’s empties I’m combining the last two months in one post:

I used up my beloved Givenchy lipstick in LIVely Pink. This was LE, but I have similar things from Givenchy, so I would not repurchase. I liked it a lot though. It’s one of those almost colorless balms that turn pink when in contact with your skin. The metal case was absolutely beautiful but got me into trouble with a metal detector once. This must have happened to several people because upon redesign they replaced the metal parts with plastic in the newer, slimmer cases.

Piz Buin Allergy SPF 30. Again. And I have one more to use up. See, I honestly like the cream, it doesn’t irritate my skin (which sadly often happens with sun care), it smells great and applies well with minmal white cast. But I seriously hate the bottle. It’s so hard to get anything out. Will not repurchase until they change bottle design, but alas, one more to finish up (I bought back ups before I got my first bottle halfway down, which is when the trouble starts).

More Balea winter stuff: Magic Winter Shampoo: I loved this. Balea shampoos are 50% hit and 50% miss, and this one was a hit, worked well and had a nice milky smell. Would repurchase if full size existed, which as this was LE, it does not.

Then the Hand & Nagelbalsam: This was just a regular hand cream.

And the shower gel with Cinnamon & Orange scent: First I thought I was smelling cinnamon & apples. Quite lovely, but I think a full size would get boring after a while. So I liked that I had a mini that I could use up reasonably fast. Right now I am using up the last of the magic winter showergels. Still have a ban on buying more shower gels as these things just multiply on their own.

Look by Bipa nail polish remover: this was my fav remover, for it was very cheap and worked quickly. The smell was absolutely awful, but the pros outweighed that. Would have repurchased in a heartbeat – but it is discontinued. 😦

essence I love Extreme volume mascara: will not repurchase. The mascara itself was quite good. It gave volume and length with only minimal smudging. But the brush drove me nuts. It was so big and the bristles were so long that I always poked my lid, had to remove the spots on my lids and then redo my eye makeup. Naturally, this one still exists while the best essence masacara on earth (forbidden volume) was discontinued.

essence express eye makeup remover: a two phase remover that worked very quickly. It left some oily residue but that didn’t bother me. It leaked a bit which made the sticker go off, as you can see in the pic, but okay. The one thing I found slightly annoying is that this is scented. Why do I need a scented eye makeup remover? My eyes do not need to smell fresh while being cleaned of makeup. Worst case scenario, you get irritation, which luckily I didn’t get. But since it removed makeup very well I miiiight repurchase in the future. Maybe. Right now I have something else.

And this concludes my list of empties for now. 🙂

L’Artisan Parfumeur Mure et Musc

This is Mûre et Musc EdT by L’Artisan Parfumeur. It was first released in 1978, the nose is Jean Laporte. Despite being a niche scent this was and is insanely popular. You’ve probably smelled it before, even if you didn’t know it. I know that when I tried it first in a sample I immediately recognized it, even though I had never consciously smelled Mure et Musc before.

What does it smell like? It’s kind of hard to describe, though. It certainly doesn’t smell like something from the end of the seventies/early eighties, at least to me (my pefume knowledge gets a bit spotty pre-nineties). It gives the promised musc, in a clean way, not too cozy. I think modern musc concoctions tend to pair it with stuff like cashmeran etc to make it clean and cozy. This one here is more laundry detergent, but in a very good way.

Nowadays when a scent promises berries, you know you get that horribly sweet stuff. The berry portion of Mure et Musc though smells a lot more real. Not candy but the actual fruit, fresh from the woods. Because of this I would hesitate to call it a fruity scent, as nowadays you’d expect something different. I really like it though.

I think there’s also a bit of lavender in it, but my nose may deceive me here. Overall, everything gets overpowered by the musc. Luckily it’s a good musc, but you have to be in the mood for it.

Try if: you want to smell like eating blackberries after folding laundry

MAC Grand Illusion Lipcolor

A while ago MAC had this display with new glossy lipcolors, the Grand Ilusion Lipcolors. To be honest I don’t know if they were LE or not, but even now that the display is gone you can still get them, so hopefully I’m not too late here.

Originally I got Broken Halo (silver with multichrome shimmer), and the red looking one here is Let’s Rock, which actually belongs to my sis. Let’s Rock is a lighter red (was hard to photograph) with green shimmer.

Then I got this one later on:

Ah, look at it! Rave Bunny, a light pink with blue shimmer.

Swatches of Let’s Rock and Broken Halo.

Swatch of Rave Bunny.

So in my books, these are glosses, even if MAC sorts them among the lipsticks on their site. Yes, the color is almost opaque, but the finish is still super glossy and does not dry down, which makes them glosses. They feel different from MAC’s other glosses, less sticky, more slick. They last fairly well for a gloss, too. I get like three hours of wear time which I think is great for a gloss.

They are supposed to have a cooling effect, which. You know the body can’t actually tell hot from cold, that’s just in your brain? This stuff gives off intense tingling, like from a strong mint. My lips interpret this as ‘chili’, so much that I got hungry for spicy food and ate some and I can confirm chili sauce on your lips feels not identical but very similar. So, tbh the cooling effect is basically a pain response, which can’t be too healthy for your skin. Luckily this tingling stops after about ten to fifteen minutes. I could have done without that effect.

But that’s the worst thing I can say about these, otherwise I loved them which is why I went back to get the pink one. After the tingling is done these are pretty moisturizing, combined with usable lasting power and beautiful shimmer. Broken Halo does pale down the lips considerably and gives off the finest pink shimmer. I have also worn it over matte lipsticks, which looks so good but is hard to touch up. Worn alone it’s pretty editorial and I like it that way.

Despite the green shimmer, Let’s Rock is the more wearable color between the two. Some may not even notice the shimmer is green, interpeting it as yellow gold. Let’s Rock is sparklier than the other two, which have the very finest shimmer.

And lastly, my absolute fave, Rave Bunny. It’s just so bubblegum pink and the blue shimmer is really intense (stronger in artificial light).

I can’t believe MAC actually made me like lip glosses!!! Those fiends! Luckily the majority of the other colors didn’t look good on me. The more normal colors were too dark on me, but will look stunning on deeper skin tones. Some of the lighter colors were not to my taste and some colors were too outlandish even for me. Yes I am willing to wear matte green lipstick, but green gloss is were I draw the line, apparently.

I greatly recommend Rave Bunny for pink with a twist and Let’s Rock for transparent red with a twist. Broken Halo is more for the androids and alien queens.

Now if MAC could do these without the ‘cooling’ they’d be perfect.

 

Catrice Lala Berlin Prismatic Palette

When I did my last haul one of the things I got was the three pan palette on the left here. It’s from a Catrice collection, so LE. It’s the Lala Berlin Collection, which had mostly iridescent stuff. This palette is called Prismatic Palette in C01 Prismatic Persian. It claims to be an eyeshadow palette but the size of the pans and the colors made me think of a highlighting palette. The two outer pans have an off white base color with blue shimmer and pink shimmer, the middle one has a gunmetal base color with silvery shimmer.

Swatches. Same order as in the pic above, first the blue one, then the grey one, last the pink one. The base colors on the blue and pink don’t really show up, the grey one does have a base color. So based on the first swatches I decided to use all of them as an eye color and the blue and pink as highlighters as well. The grey had too much base for me to dare put it on my cheeks.

So, when buffed out with a highlighter brush the white base color of blue and pink didn’t show up and the shimmer turned out to be quite intense. They lasted all day long, too. Thumbs up, those two are good highlighters.

For eyeshadow I used a dense brush and patted it on instead of buffing like the highlighter. To not end up looking like I was from the early 00s I paired it with MAC eyeshadow in Soba. The grey one looks pretty much like in the above swatch, but pulls a little purple? It was a surprisingly good look. For the other two I had to pack on quite a bit. That way the base color did show up and it looked a bit dusty. Tbh I prefer them as highlighters, even though it was possible to get an eye look out of them. I do have to say that I’ve tried putting most of my colored highlighters on my lids and the Lala Berlin ones lasted better than them. All shadows lasted all day on me without fallout or creasing when worn over primer. Real highlighters often only make it up to two hours.

Overall, a cute palette to experiment with, but not a must have. If this is already sold out and you really wanted that pink and blue highlighter I’d recommend Zoeva Spring Strobe palette as possible dupes.